Amazing. I’ve so long not had access to my own web site from work, I’d given up posting anything at all. When I get home in the evenings, updating my on-line journal is among my lowest priorities.

Of course, for the last 11 weeks, I’ve not had a spare brain cell to devote to recreational writing anyway. I took two classes (on-line, naturally) and have been pretty occupied. The first one was a 100-level course in business that’s required for a minor in business management. Like all 100-level classes, I breezed through this one, and only read the textbook when I had to take a test. Usually, during said test. The final exam for that one was all essays. Though I haven’t received my grade yet, I went into the exam with a 98.4% average; I’m not concerned.

The second class, descriptive statistics, damn near killed me. In my degree program, there are options for certain classes. Many of those options have alternatives to math, which appeals to me, because I haven’t been so comfortable with math since I left high school. I apparently took some sort of math class at NVCC, because it transferred in as “MAT105 - Intro to College Math”. Instead of MAT200 (Pre-calculus), I could take Logic. I chose the logic course - which I actually enjoyed. Instead of MAT310 (Calculus I), I could take “History and Methods of Science.” Please. Seeing as how I failed Calculus at least two or three times, I chose the humanities class. Instead of MAT300 (Descriptive Statistics), I could take… nothing. Crap. I was stuck having to take a 300-level math course after not having done real math for over a decade. Of course, given my curriculum, I was wholly unprepared for any such thing.

My quiz average in the class went from a 90% high to a 16.7% low (it doesn’t matter that I ran out of time on that one, I didn’t know the material anyway). Trying to take a math class on-line is ridiculous. It’s only after I contacted an old teacher of mine, and spent a lot of time being tutored that I was able to salvage anything of my grade. My final exam last week took me almost five-and-a-half hours and I got an immediate score of 58.8%. After my instructor reviewed the test and adjusted it for partial credits on various problems, I would up with a 77.9%. I’m not arguing. That effort pushed me just over the edge to getting a “B” in the class, and though it’s my lowest grade at this school ever, I’ll gladly take it.
So this week I get a little break. I need to work on my yearly career plan for my company, and perhaps I’ll even get some work done on a life experience portfolio I need to do to get some college credit. I should be able to fit in some motorcycle riding time. Aside from commuting, of course.

Next week beings political science.