well, here we go
Sep. 11th, 2023 08:11 amClasses start today. Well, technically my first class isn't til tomorrow. And that one opened up last week so I could see what was going on, so my first new information is Wednesday. But whatever. Per BCIT today is the first day of classes. I have laid in a Great Deal of breakfast food: apparently I have decided to minimize my load in the mornings so I can get straight into whatever I need to be doing.
I'm taking five classes, all intro-level, all online. For the Intro To ArcGIS course, each week there's a prerecorded lecture, some homework ("lab") to do for "i did it" credit, most weeks different homework ("project") for "is it right" credit, and a couple tests. This one course has an estimated 4-6 hours of work a week, so, six courses would have been pushing it significantly. Makes sense. I also feel better about frontloading courses for when I'm not trying to hold down an actual fulltime job.
Last week I went out and bought a Windows laptop, partly to run ArcGIS and partly just so I'd have a second screen and a way to annotate PDFs. So far I like it better than any of the laptops I've had to use for work but that's not really saying a whole lot. It came with Windows 10 preinstalled so I was able to avoid having to create a Windows Online account, which I appreciate. I've since upgrade to Windows 11, about which I have no opinion yet other than "dammit it's not WinXP." Since this has been my opinion of every interation of Windows since 2006 it is not what you'd call well-formed.
In fairness I appreciate the addition of a Spotlight-like system-wide search bar. (Quarter-century-old joke: "Why is Windows 98 so much like Win95? Because Apple hasn't done anything worth copying in the last three years.") To the left I do NOT appreciate the reverse scrolling that both macOS and Windows have implemented. THE SETTING IS EVEN CALLED “DOWN MOTION SCROLLS UP” WHO WOULD WANT THAT TURNED ON IT MAKES NO SENSE.
This morning I have had pancakes for breakfast, and I have half a pot of tea remaining. I don't technically have to do anything today but it seems wise to get moving as much as possible. So: go through the first lecture, attempt to install ArcGIS (it may be locked until tomorrow), if successful work through the first week's problem set.
ALRIGHT CHUMS, LET'S DO THIS.
I'm taking five classes, all intro-level, all online. For the Intro To ArcGIS course, each week there's a prerecorded lecture, some homework ("lab") to do for "i did it" credit, most weeks different homework ("project") for "is it right" credit, and a couple tests. This one course has an estimated 4-6 hours of work a week, so, six courses would have been pushing it significantly. Makes sense. I also feel better about frontloading courses for when I'm not trying to hold down an actual fulltime job.
Last week I went out and bought a Windows laptop, partly to run ArcGIS and partly just so I'd have a second screen and a way to annotate PDFs. So far I like it better than any of the laptops I've had to use for work but that's not really saying a whole lot. It came with Windows 10 preinstalled so I was able to avoid having to create a Windows Online account, which I appreciate. I've since upgrade to Windows 11, about which I have no opinion yet other than "dammit it's not WinXP." Since this has been my opinion of every interation of Windows since 2006 it is not what you'd call well-formed.
In fairness I appreciate the addition of a Spotlight-like system-wide search bar. (Quarter-century-old joke: "Why is Windows 98 so much like Win95? Because Apple hasn't done anything worth copying in the last three years.") To the left I do NOT appreciate the reverse scrolling that both macOS and Windows have implemented. THE SETTING IS EVEN CALLED “DOWN MOTION SCROLLS UP” WHO WOULD WANT THAT TURNED ON IT MAKES NO SENSE.
This morning I have had pancakes for breakfast, and I have half a pot of tea remaining. I don't technically have to do anything today but it seems wise to get moving as much as possible. So: go through the first lecture, attempt to install ArcGIS (it may be locked until tomorrow), if successful work through the first week's problem set.
ALRIGHT CHUMS, LET'S DO THIS.