RazCat

Life, art, and complaints of Cat Razim

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Florida Day 5 – The End of This Chapter

The only reason I had an alarm set was to make sure I didn’t sleep through check-out. Trust me, I would have.

I was exhausted but I had to drag myself out of bed. Had to pack since I opted to sleep once I had returned to the hotel the night before. Drag everything back down to the car. pack that. Double check I didn’t leave anything. I left the burrs, though. Those fucking burrs.

It was only at this point did I realize I should have stayed one more night. I could explore Florida a bit more. There was the nature preserve near the KSC. Alas… didn’t think, didn’t plan.  And I had already picked these little bastards off my shoes…

Sharp prickly Sand Burrs

Sharp prickly Sand Burrs

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posted by Cathy Razim at 3:22 am  

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Florida Day 4 – Day Two/Launch Day

Needless to say- I couldn’t sleep.

It was more like a nap by the time my mind took a break from its marathon of thoughts and the butterflies in my stomach settled from hours of anticipation. Or was it indigestion from the really bad Chinese food I had the night before? No. Anticipation. I was like a kid who wasn’t allowed to leave the dinner table until I ate enough of my veggies. Three hours of sleep enough? good.

Up and in the car well before the sun, drinking really awful hotel coffee, I drove back to the Kennedy Space Center for what ended up being the last time. We had been waiting for this day for weeks. Others had been waiting  for months, years! This was Launch Day!

We had to arrive by 6am. Again, most of us arrived early. Few slept at all. I was excited, but it didn’t hit me until I saw the clock on and counting down. Weather permitting, this was happening.

Launch Day - the countdown clock

Launch Day - The Countdown Clock.

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posted by Cathy Razim at 2:53 am  

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Florida Day 3 – First Day of NASATweetUp

What. a. day.

Still feeling a bit overwhelmed from all that happened today.

This morning we had to arrive in time for the 9am start of events. A well structured full-day of awesome. I arrived a bit early, much like everyone else, to explore the area where we’ll be spending the majority of that day and next. The VIP site was well inside the property of NASA. And yes. I almost got lost even with all the signs posted. I’m just that special.

Oh.. you know that clock? The iconic countdown clock? THE clock… yeah. I can already tell you’re jealous.

The infamous countdown clock!

The famous count-down cock! It's HUGE!

Just to warn you.. this post is just as huge as the clock. I won’t feel bad if you skip the reading parts and just scrolled to see the pictures.

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posted by Cathy Razim at 12:33 am  

Thursday, November 24, 2011

Florida Day 1 – prep!

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Sorry. Residual stress from DRIVING TO FLORIDA FROM NEW YORK  WHATTHEHELLISWRONGWITHME!? It was fun. Seriously. No. Yes, I am crazy. I don’t think I was ever sane.

In case you haven’t heard me rant excitedly like a school girl for the last month- I’m here in the sunshine state for the #NASATweetUp of the Mars Space Laboratory dubbed “Curiosity”. I’m going to see and experience SO MUCH that I decided to blog about it.

First off. What is a NASATweetUp? Well, I suppose I should break it down even further to “What is a TweetUp”… A TweetUp is a gathering of people, specifically with at least one thing in common – they use twitter. The only way to enter is to use twitter. And if you win, the organization assumes you will tweet about it, and then tweet some more when you are at the gathering. In a way, it’s like unofficial publicity. NASA has seen this power of publicizing through twitter and figured out how to use it. NASATweetUps- using social media to gather people, with another thing in common (SPACE) and plan something amazing and fun that they’ll share with their friends and followers to help “spread the word”. Awesome for them. Awesome for us!

Now, about this Mars Space Laboratory… We are sending a new rover to Mars. The planet. No, I don’t think it is made of candy (no M&Ms on Mars… Cheese on the moon, however, is still debatable.) This SUV sized robot of awesome is going to to drive around the Gale Crater and “investigate the area’s past and present environments”(MSL press release. Seriously. Everyone should read this.) Basically, it’s going to observe and analyze what’s on the surface and below the surface (up to 6cm, I believe, with a laser!) and run other tests because it is a mobile laboratory on freaking MARS. (Well.. not there yet…)

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posted by Cathy Razim at 12:15 am  

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Artists and technology…

What is it about technology that makes some people utterly useless?

I had a class last quarter (because RIT still has trimesters and it’s better, damnit!) that the professor used a stand-alone projector/speaker system. Not one class with him went by where he didn’t make a snide comment about technology. “It’s the projector, it screws up the colour.” “The speakers don’t work.” “The projector doesn’t project the entire screen. School of technology, heh.” “The copier must’ve screwed this page up.”

Really?

It’s not like he’s new to all this. Some of his work is digital…

But it isn’t just him. Many artists in my school are fearful of technology. Someone openly admitted to me once that she has her boyfriend check her email because she doesn’t know how to turn on the computer.

Granted, I might be spoiled in my knowledge of how a computer works because my boyfriend and I built our own computers a few years back. Back in high school I taught myself the basics of the computer and programming websites. I feel, however, that if you gave it the time of day most of what you need to know is common sense. Even with a new computer, fresh out of the box, you knew where to plug in the monitor and the keyboard because the plugs fit in perfectly-

So why is it like trying to fit a cube into the opening shaped like a circle for these people!? really!? We had presentations for our finals and some of us brought our own laptops. One person had an older Mac and was trying to force the VGA, or the new mac proprietary video plugs into places it didn’t fit. I had to say something at this point. I grabbed the laptop, noticed it was a DVI connection and grabbed a DVI to VGA adapter from my bag to save the day.

Because I’m the only loser I know who carries around a DVI to VGA…

Oh dear readers… when it was my time to present my final, I indirectly handed it to my professor… I gave a quick rant that it isn’t Technology’s fault… the problems existed between chair and keyboard. (One person actually got it. Thank you friend in the back.) I also said that it hurt some people’s feelings when technology got the blame when it wasn’t at fault. No one takes care of it!

I got a small applause for that. My Professor didn’t say a word.

But it isn’t hard to learn! Why are artists fearful? Is it this hatred that it’ll make crappy art to replace hand made art? No… It’ll be crap art because PEOPLE will make crap art on the computer. The computer is a tool, just learn to use it, and it can do really amazing things…

posted by Cathy Razim at 8:32 pm  

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