Where the hell have YOU been?!
Well, I'll tell you...
My Very Excellent Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas, or -if you're better at remembering things as they are-, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. And all their associated moons. The wonderful world(s) of Earth Science 125 - The Solar System. As an independent learning class. Normally you'd think that'd be a cakewalk... until events beyond my control turned about 8 of those 12 weeks into a complete disaster, taking my head out of the realm of school and sticking it in the vice of RL. To make a long story short, that ES125 class was LAST quarter at CoD, took an incomplete on it (and its associated ES130 - Stars&Galaxies class) that stretched into THIS quarter.
Those of you still in school that might read this will laugh at the course-load; just two classes each quarter. Bear in mind I'm a little out of it when it comes to the scholastic grind at the age of 32 - just chipping away at gen-ed credits at a community college in an effort to stay busy while not currently employed and still living with the folks. Yeah, I've turned into "that guy". Or maybe just remained "that guy", hell, I dunno. Depressing in and of itself. Trying not to think about it, cause I'm not just sitting on my ass... school's school, whether it sucks or not, its still forward progress.
This quarter? Psychology 100 and Geography 100. The Psych course is about as you'd expect - noob-level psychology intro stuff. The Geography course though... holy shit. This isn't your father's "This is Kenya. This is the capitol of Kenya. This is Kenya on a map. Next slide please..." geography. Far from it. This is more about economic globalization and what its doing to the world. Financial boundaries, as opposed to political ones. On one hand, I have to say this is the class I've learned the most in throughout my career at CoD. On the other, its taught by quite possibly the most scatter-brained professor I've ever had. The amount of reading for this one is better suited to something worth 15 credit hours, not the 5 its listed for. Oh, and the best part? We won't even be tested on any of it until the second to last week of the quarter (an open-book/note test), followed the week after by the final. Yeah, can't wait for THAT shit.
So add to that the unfinished work from last quarter's astronomy classes (I actually finished up the Solar System stuff last week, just need to plow through the Stars and Galaxies bit now) and you've got my life lately. Oh, and the typical Dungeon winter bathroom issues (ice-dam leaks through the ceiling, fucked up bathroom drainage, sump-pump weirdness, the usual), flying solo while the folks split town (single and in pairs) on their usual late-winter trips, and the ever-present diabetes issues... and its a world of suck lately.
Far from a 'woe is me' post, I just looked through my post history and realized I hadn't really said much of anything in my own journal in ages, figured I oughta drop some update knowledge on you all. :) I've been trying to keep up, as a resurgence in LJ comments may prove. Lord knows I can't just sit here and study straight through for three months, I'd go insane... though my mid-term grades might make that appear otherwise. So far so good, lets say. Too good maybe. Ungh.. I want my life back, as lame as it was. Can't seem to string 30 minutes for myself together lately, there's always SOMEthing left to read for class, some test or quiz to study for, some unfinished shit from last fall to get out of the way. Some flood to worry about. A bird to feed. Shit, did I remember to bring the paper in this morning? Why the fuck am I doing article database searches on the Financial Times again? The New York Times from 1975? Chicago Trib from December 1989? Freedom Of Information Act requests on CIA records from 1950? Psychological research on children of the 80's? The Hertzprung-Russel diagram? Apollo and Amor asteroids? Oort Cloud and Kupier Belt objects? Which planets rotate backwards again? Which moons have atmospheres? Brightness ratios? The World Bank, NAFTA, World Trade Organization, G8, and the International Monetary Fund? Columbian cocaine? Andean oil? Chiquita, Tropicana, Coca-Cola, and Occidental Petroleum? Arbenz, Uribe, Noriega, Suharto, Ford, Kissenger, Carter, Monroe, Moynihan, British Petroleum, Food for Peace, agricultural subsidies, East Timor, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Turkey, Iraq, and the Kurds? Developmental psychology, Skinner, James, Aristotle, Plato, Descartes, Darwin, Wundt, Pavlov, Rogers, Titchener, Freud, naturalistic observation, mean, mode, median, correlation, and the motherfuckin' APA. Synaptic gaps, myelin sheaths, pre- and post-conventional operation in morality, parenting, standardization, reliability, aptitude, achievement, Binet, Simon, and Wechsler...
Yeah, my head hurts. How's yours? :P At least the Bulls didn't utterly suck for a little while there...
My Very Excellent Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas, or -if you're better at remembering things as they are-, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. And all their associated moons. The wonderful world(s) of Earth Science 125 - The Solar System. As an independent learning class. Normally you'd think that'd be a cakewalk... until events beyond my control turned about 8 of those 12 weeks into a complete disaster, taking my head out of the realm of school and sticking it in the vice of RL. To make a long story short, that ES125 class was LAST quarter at CoD, took an incomplete on it (and its associated ES130 - Stars&Galaxies class) that stretched into THIS quarter.
Those of you still in school that might read this will laugh at the course-load; just two classes each quarter. Bear in mind I'm a little out of it when it comes to the scholastic grind at the age of 32 - just chipping away at gen-ed credits at a community college in an effort to stay busy while not currently employed and still living with the folks. Yeah, I've turned into "that guy". Or maybe just remained "that guy", hell, I dunno. Depressing in and of itself. Trying not to think about it, cause I'm not just sitting on my ass... school's school, whether it sucks or not, its still forward progress.
This quarter? Psychology 100 and Geography 100. The Psych course is about as you'd expect - noob-level psychology intro stuff. The Geography course though... holy shit. This isn't your father's "This is Kenya. This is the capitol of Kenya. This is Kenya on a map. Next slide please..." geography. Far from it. This is more about economic globalization and what its doing to the world. Financial boundaries, as opposed to political ones. On one hand, I have to say this is the class I've learned the most in throughout my career at CoD. On the other, its taught by quite possibly the most scatter-brained professor I've ever had. The amount of reading for this one is better suited to something worth 15 credit hours, not the 5 its listed for. Oh, and the best part? We won't even be tested on any of it until the second to last week of the quarter (an open-book/note test), followed the week after by the final. Yeah, can't wait for THAT shit.
So add to that the unfinished work from last quarter's astronomy classes (I actually finished up the Solar System stuff last week, just need to plow through the Stars and Galaxies bit now) and you've got my life lately. Oh, and the typical Dungeon winter bathroom issues (ice-dam leaks through the ceiling, fucked up bathroom drainage, sump-pump weirdness, the usual), flying solo while the folks split town (single and in pairs) on their usual late-winter trips, and the ever-present diabetes issues... and its a world of suck lately.
Far from a 'woe is me' post, I just looked through my post history and realized I hadn't really said much of anything in my own journal in ages, figured I oughta drop some update knowledge on you all. :) I've been trying to keep up, as a resurgence in LJ comments may prove. Lord knows I can't just sit here and study straight through for three months, I'd go insane... though my mid-term grades might make that appear otherwise. So far so good, lets say. Too good maybe. Ungh.. I want my life back, as lame as it was. Can't seem to string 30 minutes for myself together lately, there's always SOMEthing left to read for class, some test or quiz to study for, some unfinished shit from last fall to get out of the way. Some flood to worry about. A bird to feed. Shit, did I remember to bring the paper in this morning? Why the fuck am I doing article database searches on the Financial Times again? The New York Times from 1975? Chicago Trib from December 1989? Freedom Of Information Act requests on CIA records from 1950? Psychological research on children of the 80's? The Hertzprung-Russel diagram? Apollo and Amor asteroids? Oort Cloud and Kupier Belt objects? Which planets rotate backwards again? Which moons have atmospheres? Brightness ratios? The World Bank, NAFTA, World Trade Organization, G8, and the International Monetary Fund? Columbian cocaine? Andean oil? Chiquita, Tropicana, Coca-Cola, and Occidental Petroleum? Arbenz, Uribe, Noriega, Suharto, Ford, Kissenger, Carter, Monroe, Moynihan, British Petroleum, Food for Peace, agricultural subsidies, East Timor, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Turkey, Iraq, and the Kurds? Developmental psychology, Skinner, James, Aristotle, Plato, Descartes, Darwin, Wundt, Pavlov, Rogers, Titchener, Freud, naturalistic observation, mean, mode, median, correlation, and the motherfuckin' APA. Synaptic gaps, myelin sheaths, pre- and post-conventional operation in morality, parenting, standardization, reliability, aptitude, achievement, Binet, Simon, and Wechsler...
Yeah, my head hurts. How's yours? :P At least the Bulls didn't utterly suck for a little while there...