To study is to cut some grass or knock out a set of pushups – accumulative progression that relies on consistent effort in pursuit of a goal. As a younger man (look at that, I just sounded like Morgan Freeman) I either didn’t understand or didn’t appreciate this concept. Different story now, as the textbook I receive in the mail is basically the begining of a long chug at slow speeds, sometimes (with a dry subject) it’s like traveling through Kansas at five miles an hour, sometimes (with certain math concepts) it’s like driving from one end of Boston to the other during rush hour…imagine two 10 month olds and a cat who likes attention mixed with a shot of “x=4?!?! That’s BULLSHIT!”
It’s interesting around here now. A sense of something new. Colorado Technical University Online is the school I’m attending, and Software Engineering is my major. Networking Concepts and College Algebra are the first two courses to come down the chute, and in 6 weeks the next two will come right behind. Add in about 8 CLEP tests I need to pass by 8/8 to be a junior (key thing here is saving time and tuition)…NBA playoffs, Papplebon, Cheney…I hardly knew ye.
I was all ready to reply to this last night. Then my mom called, and i had to help her fix her computer. Then I went to bed.
One thing to remember – don’t necssarily have to read the entire chapter. Also, depending on how the first test is, you can BS. Some tests are all hard facts, and others are all about the critical thinking.
And also, it pays to brown nose. No joke.
A professor told me that it’s not necessarily the education that is so valuable, but the people you meet while you’re getting an education. That may not be so true if you’re outside of the ivy league, but something to consider.
Do you currently do any programming?
Only on my remote control and the stove timer…but the material is interesting to me, and making sense so far. I’ll never even meet anyone from this college I don’t think, but then again…
I’ll tell you what was invaluable to me.
About 5 years ago I started a graduate program in business with an emphasis on telecom (finished a couple of years ago). At the same exact time I got involved with the local Linux users group up here in Anchorage (I had no Linux experience). I learned so much by working with the Linux operating system. If you have an old computer sitting around or can get your hands on an old pentium 400 MHz + then I would recommend downloading an ISO of some popular distribution (I use Mandrake), install it, and just start playing around. You’ll get a real good handle on system processes, network protocols, maybe even some basic shell scripting or other scripting.
And one of the user group volunteer projects (setting up a VPN between 1 clinic and another) ended up with me getting a nice little side contract which is still on-going. There are Linux user groups all over the place if you look. Usually a bunch of geeks that play around with cutting edge computing technologies who are usually wildly enthusiastic about teaching others. And the nice thing about Linux (and most open source software) is that it is usually free, so you can experiment and play to your hearts content.
Anyway, just an idea. The equivalent training would have cost me tens of thousands of $$$. The formal education paid off too.
Good luck man, sounds like you’re in for a wild ride.
I know I should let this go but I think it describes paul who used to post here.
From Pandagon.net:
The critical mythology of neo-conservatives is that they were once idealistic leftists and totally cool and could so get laid and knew where to buy the best weed but the tawdry stupidity of liberal beliefs ran them off. The seedy reality is that the only known human being to actually make the legitimate case that this is his life story is P.J. O’Rourke. The rest of them were just Marxists who ran off to be right wingers when they realized the American left wasn’t ever going to embrace Stalinist authoritarianism. All attempts to claim the mantle of pseudo-cool rebellion must be viewed in this light.
On Paul – that description may suffice – I’ve been in touch over the years with plenty of people who say the same thing…’used to be a liberal, then blah blah blah’…I think that’s a crock of shit, as the ‘values’ associated with the political belief haven’t changed all that much over the years.
Cmenace – I’m learning a lot from the books, and a lot more from you and Right Thinker (stuff he writes over email)
I’m going to try what you proposed above.
Sorry everyone about not getting back as soon as I once used to – – – –
People that “used to be a liberal blah blah”…always involves $$. They feel like liberals take their $$ and conservatives help them save it in order to buy lavish things.
Republicans have become the compensator party, sort of like the guy driving the big truck. Whenever Bill Kristol talks about leftist girly men it is hard not to laugh at him, but becuase he is a big tough conservative I guess we are supposed to believe he is a macho cowboy just like the prez.
Very true Karl.
More thread shift:
The $69 billion tax cut bill that President Bush signed last week triples tax rates for teenagers with college savings funds, despite Bush’s 1999 pledge to veto any tax increase.
Under the new law, teenagers age 14 to 17 with investment income will now be taxed at the same rate as their parents, not at their own rates. Long-term capital gains and dividends that had been taxed at 5 percent will be taxed at 15 percent. Interest that had been taxed at 10 percent will be taxed at as much as 35 percent.
The increases, which are retroactive to the first day of the year, are expected to generate nearly $2.2 billion over 10 years, according to the Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation, which issues the official estimates.
So are studies kicking your butt yet?
I don’t envy you, especially with the kiddos and school at same time. Aggghhhh!
As for the liberal/conservative stuff, I’m not even sure what it means to be a liberal or conservative anymore. I used to think I was liberal, but I definitely am more conservative when it comes to money issues these days. Social policy is a mix, foreign policy is a mix too.
There are liberals that I like, and conservatives that I like (altough most of the conservatives are bloggers, don’t know many in person that I like.)
Have a good one guys, I’m headed to sleepy land.
Not so much just yet, but I will say that the amount of time it takes to submit an algebra assignment using MSWord is troubling to me…an assignment I took about 20 minutes to write up on paper must have taken me 45 minutes to type out.
Also, with this program, a lot of what you’re graded on involves commenting on the submitted assignments of others…so when I’m feeling blocked (doesn’t happen very often), it’s tough figuring out what to write.
I should be getting my first two grades by the end of this week on the assignments I’ve submitted. I’ll post a few assignments on the board so everyone can see what a technology degree entails…pretty interesting stuff, especially the networking class I’m in now.
A great project would be to come up with a service plan for a network in Iraq (assuming only 12 hours of electricity per day)…
I’m currently looking for night jobs, and once I’m down with one, we’ll see how it goes then. Security is an obvious choice, but will it pay enough to support the family for 2 years? Probably not.
Third shift operations management is what I’m seeking…Yankee Candle has something I think, going to call them up today.