September is often the month we think of as “Back To School.” I’ve always wondered why because I grew up in the Midwest and we started during the last week of August with a three-day weekend (Labor Day) to take the initial sting off. I’m guessing it’s an East Coast bias thing and the West tends to follow suit (they “colonized” it with their patterns, for example, prime time TV starts at 8 PM, not the more logical 7 PM).
My online class in Geography officially starts Monday but I decided to get a jump on the reading. If there’s one thing I learned from earning my first degree it’s that reading is about half the battle and as you can probably deduce, I did a poor job on this in the Eighties, especially if I found it dull. Hard to believe what counted as distractions then compared to all the Internet access, better game consoles, easier to find porn (hey, I was 18 then and not too wise in this department) and the diversified music/TV we have today. I think if I were 18 now, surrounded by all this temptation, the odds of me flunking out would increase to 1:1 (even). Thirty-one years ago, it was 4:1 against flunking out since I had seen the horrors up close of people who peaked in high school courtesy of Beulah, ND. Plus, I would do whatever it took to be away from my overbearing parents.
The past is done though. The present looks good. I finished Chapter Zero, sat through the Blackboard tutorial which I plan to do again tomorrow night since my Beats don’t work with it for audio. I have a newfound respect for Geography. Holy crap it is loaded with technical terms. I’m also trying to fathom the professor’s syllabus on how participation works in a virtual classroom. I only have eight weeks to get it right. My employer will reimburse me if I get a B- or better; $960 is a solid incentive for an A.
Anyone else starting out, getting back in or doing what I’m doing, expanding? Let’s hear from you. I think in the end, education is one of humanity’s greatest inventions.
I read my earlier post about getting accepted to SNHU and realized I never explained why I’m pursuing math.
- I think my family has a genetic disposition for it. My old man has a Masters’s or something in it. My brother can clarify.
- When I was in sixth grade, I scored a 99 in Math for the Iowa Basics. It blew my mind then. I knew I was pretty good but not that good. Mom and Dad discussed finding a way to hone this skill. Sadly our efforts ran out of gas and the parochial school I attended sucked, so this talent weakened. Then Dad wondered why by I had no interest in STEM stuff. I also blamed his CS career on our instability, aka moving every year in high school.
- My interest has been re-awakened somewhat by Simon Singh’s book, The Simpsons and Their Mathematical Secrets. Show running Al Jean has a Math degree from Harvard too. Ken Keeler from Futurama has a PhD in this.
- Math will continue to be useful in the near and far future. AI, robots, encryption and computers are “made” of Math. My friends Elizabeth and Yuri can back me up on this part; in Judaism, numbers are considered one of the three building blocks of the Universe. I learned this trivia from an old issue of Suicide Squad, the Eighties version, not the crap film. An Israelian superhero who was also a rabbi was able to convince an AI to stop its attack on Dome of the Rock by explaining it (a computer) was constructed from numbers which are divine, thus the AI cannot make the error of destroying a holy shrine and start a war.
- I love going to Las Vegas! The city built on Math! My craps game is already solid, ask Ethan. Maybe sabre metrics will be a class to help me with my sports betting.
- Lastly, when I worked at GDW, I was able to apply my Statistics class (which I had to take twice) with the outcomes of dice rolls. I doubt Les, Frank, Dave and Loren were ignorant of such things yet I don’t recall it concerning them. I probably have a slight form of ADD though since I remain obsessed over randomness in which I have a love/hate thing for.