I'm a horrible blogger, but maybe a great student?
I have been HORRIBLE at keeping up with everyone else's blogs, a fact I hope to rectify this weekend. You guys have been so amazing and supportive for me, and I have totally sucked at checking back with you guys to see what's going on with you (and Linda, you have been in my thoughts).
Despite being on "vacation" this week, I've still managed to clock about five hours per day at work. I've also been on campus more than I will typically be, doing various side things that needed to be done (more on that in a minute). And, as much as I hate to admit it, the OCD force is still strong in this poor creature, to the point that I'm doing homework while movies of various Twilight/Fifty versions are running in the background. I think part of me knew that the OCD would not stop once school started, but I was hopeful.
On the school front, I'm a bit confused about the programming class. Day 1 was a "hi, here is the syllabus, bye", kind of day. Day 2, a supposed first day of real programming, was two assignments. Assignment one was opening notepad, typing your name, major, and programming history you have, and then uploading the doc into a program...oooh hard. Assignment two was a group project (something the disability office ASSURED me I wouldn't have to deal with), but it was a good thing because it was a frickin GEOMETRY problem (something I haven't done in 30 years), and then typing the info into notepad, emailing to each team member, and uploading the doc. Again, except for the geometry...oooh hard. I'm not sure when the actual programming comes into play, but this piddling is making me a bit nervous and worried. This is a very first grader-type class and it worries me because a) I don't like being talked to like a first grader; b) I want to actually learn something; and c) I'm paying to learn something, not just rehash something I forgot 30 years ago.
Another thing that worries me about the programming class is that it's full...of guys. There is only one other girl in the entire class. I had two guys in my group for the project, both of which were under the age of 20. One did the math, the other just sat there. I managed to figure out about 1/10 of the geometry and did the typing, although I couldn't understand guy #2's first name because he apparently can't speak louder than a mouse or in full sentences, so I had it wrong at first. When I corrected the document, I only changed it at the top and not throughout the entire thing, so I ended up having to email the instructor and explain to her that I screwed up and asked her to just dock my grade. She told me not to worry about it, so I'm not sure if that means we still got docked or what. That class is very confusing.
My meeting with my advisor didn't help much on the whole boy/girl front. He told me (after spending and exhaustive amount of time trying to talk me out of the BS for my major), that only one girl graduated in my major last year. I told him that I thought that was weird in this day and age and his response was that "girls don't like to get their hands dirty in the engineering course" and "they tend to get bored and move to different departments". I assured him I had no issue with getting my hands dirty, especially since computer hardware is what I'm best at anyway and I didn't answer the boredom question (I'm a bit worried about that myself). He just changed the subject back to software and how he just did a data mining project that helped find star distances and when I explained that was EXACTLY the kind of work I WANTED to do in the future, only with planets, I think he FINALLY understood what I was trying to accomplish. He still thinks I can graduate in three years, and he didn't like it when I laughed in his face, but oh well. He also said he had no adult students under him, so maybe he just doesn't understand full-time jobs, bills, mental illness, and trying to fit class in the middle of all that?
English Comp II, on the other hand, seems to being great (although my first paper hasn't been graded yet, so I may be jumping the gun there). I met with the Professor yesterday and I absolutely ADORE her! She is AH-MAZ-ING! I think I'm really going to learn a lot from her and hopefully it will improve my blog writing as a side-effect. I wish I would have taken her class on campus instead of online. I think I would have enjoyed her in the classroom setting. I don't like having to do discussion boards for the class though and I know I'm going to bad at that. I'm too afraid to speak my mind (because you guys know how that will get me into trouble), but it's also still graded work, so I'm also afraid not to give my honest opinion (which also gets me into trouble). Papers and reading I was expecting, but discussion boards? Ugh.
Oh well, back to work and then check in on the homework front and then back to OCD mode. Tomorrow, I'm hoping we can FINALLY program something, anything! Just don't make me work with smelly boys who can't enunciate their own names any more please!
Despite being on "vacation" this week, I've still managed to clock about five hours per day at work. I've also been on campus more than I will typically be, doing various side things that needed to be done (more on that in a minute). And, as much as I hate to admit it, the OCD force is still strong in this poor creature, to the point that I'm doing homework while movies of various Twilight/Fifty versions are running in the background. I think part of me knew that the OCD would not stop once school started, but I was hopeful.
On the school front, I'm a bit confused about the programming class. Day 1 was a "hi, here is the syllabus, bye", kind of day. Day 2, a supposed first day of real programming, was two assignments. Assignment one was opening notepad, typing your name, major, and programming history you have, and then uploading the doc into a program...oooh hard. Assignment two was a group project (something the disability office ASSURED me I wouldn't have to deal with), but it was a good thing because it was a frickin GEOMETRY problem (something I haven't done in 30 years), and then typing the info into notepad, emailing to each team member, and uploading the doc. Again, except for the geometry...oooh hard. I'm not sure when the actual programming comes into play, but this piddling is making me a bit nervous and worried. This is a very first grader-type class and it worries me because a) I don't like being talked to like a first grader; b) I want to actually learn something; and c) I'm paying to learn something, not just rehash something I forgot 30 years ago.
Another thing that worries me about the programming class is that it's full...of guys. There is only one other girl in the entire class. I had two guys in my group for the project, both of which were under the age of 20. One did the math, the other just sat there. I managed to figure out about 1/10 of the geometry and did the typing, although I couldn't understand guy #2's first name because he apparently can't speak louder than a mouse or in full sentences, so I had it wrong at first. When I corrected the document, I only changed it at the top and not throughout the entire thing, so I ended up having to email the instructor and explain to her that I screwed up and asked her to just dock my grade. She told me not to worry about it, so I'm not sure if that means we still got docked or what. That class is very confusing.
My meeting with my advisor didn't help much on the whole boy/girl front. He told me (after spending and exhaustive amount of time trying to talk me out of the BS for my major), that only one girl graduated in my major last year. I told him that I thought that was weird in this day and age and his response was that "girls don't like to get their hands dirty in the engineering course" and "they tend to get bored and move to different departments". I assured him I had no issue with getting my hands dirty, especially since computer hardware is what I'm best at anyway and I didn't answer the boredom question (I'm a bit worried about that myself). He just changed the subject back to software and how he just did a data mining project that helped find star distances and when I explained that was EXACTLY the kind of work I WANTED to do in the future, only with planets, I think he FINALLY understood what I was trying to accomplish. He still thinks I can graduate in three years, and he didn't like it when I laughed in his face, but oh well. He also said he had no adult students under him, so maybe he just doesn't understand full-time jobs, bills, mental illness, and trying to fit class in the middle of all that?
English Comp II, on the other hand, seems to being great (although my first paper hasn't been graded yet, so I may be jumping the gun there). I met with the Professor yesterday and I absolutely ADORE her! She is AH-MAZ-ING! I think I'm really going to learn a lot from her and hopefully it will improve my blog writing as a side-effect. I wish I would have taken her class on campus instead of online. I think I would have enjoyed her in the classroom setting. I don't like having to do discussion boards for the class though and I know I'm going to bad at that. I'm too afraid to speak my mind (because you guys know how that will get me into trouble), but it's also still graded work, so I'm also afraid not to give my honest opinion (which also gets me into trouble). Papers and reading I was expecting, but discussion boards? Ugh.
Oh well, back to work and then check in on the homework front and then back to OCD mode. Tomorrow, I'm hoping we can FINALLY program something, anything! Just don't make me work with smelly boys who can't enunciate their own names any more please!
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Linda