I wonder if I'll have to do 3 entries every week. If I do then I'm going to be hard pressed to come up with that many topics. There are 10 weeks in the class, so that'd be 30 entries. I'm pretty sure I can't come up with that many topics, although I suppose if I have to I will. Maybe I'll go for a lighter topic this time.
It never ceases to amaze me how much crap there is on television these days. As part of a family that pays a great deal of money for cable television you would think that we would always be able to find something to watch. Apparently that isn't the case, as there is almost never anything that we want to watch on the weekend. Presumably somebody wants to watch the shows that are on, or they would never have been produced in the first place, but it certainly isn't me, and with 50 movie channels and 100 broadcast and specialty channels you would think that I could find something at any time of day, and yet the entire weekend can go by with nothing worth watching.
There are several problems with programming, and they aren't exactly new. For starters, the people who decide what to keep and what to stop showing make decisions in a very brief period of time. There are many examples of shows that start of slowly but have potential to become really good, but never get the chance because the first time they are shown they don't get good enough ratings. It isn't even their fault, frequently it takes a long time to build up a following, unless you spend a great deal of money on advertising leading up to the show, or have some very strong cast member that will draw an audience. Marketing can make or break a show before it even starts.
Another problem is nobody's fault really, but I don't think I have the same tastes in programming as the "average" person. I like quirky shows that aren't necessarily enjoyed by a mainstream audience. At the same time, I like a lot of the same things as everyone else, so at least there is some common ground for finding shows to watch. I've always enjoyed sitcoms, but recently the ones that are shown are not to my liking at all. It's all too Mary Tyler Moore for me, I like things to be a little more interesting. I also am a big science fiction fan, and it's practically unheard of, outside of Star Trek, to have a science fiction series. There have been a couple others, but even those were Gene Roddenberry creations for the most part, so they might as well have been Star Trek. I'm not old enough to really remember when there were other shows, like Buck Rogers or Lost in Space. How come there aren't more shows like that now? The last great science fiction show that I remember is Babylon 5, which was a very good show for the 5 seasons it was on. It was just hard to find because it was buried in syndication.
Movies aren't especially different. There are frequently good movies on, but it is much like going to the theater. There will be times when there are several good movies to see, and then big dry spells where I couldn't find anything I would watch for free, let alone pay for. And when they finally do come to cable they are played so much that you never want to see them again. A good example of that right now is the Lord of the Rings movies. They were certainly good movies, but there wasn't a second this entire weekend when there wasn't one on TV. The other stations know how popular certain movies are and don't even try to compete with the stronger shows, so there aren't any good alternatives for people who don't want to watch what the mainstream audience is watching. Usually you can find something mediocre to watch, but it seems wrong to not have a wider variety of programming at any given time.
I don't see things changing any time soon, which is too bad because I do enjoy watching TV, and there are plenty of things I would like to see, they just aren't ever on when I want to watch them. Some day when I am rich and can afford all the DVDs I would like to have I could watch whatever I want. Video on demand is a good start too, but there still isn't enough choice to be able to always find something new to watch. When you can get everything that Netflix offers on demand, I'll be a little more content. Of course, then it'll be so hard to find anything because of the sheer volume of choices it won't be a whole lot better. Then I'll just have something else to complain about instead.
One down 2 to go. I really should have done my entries spread out over the week, but I just couldn't bring myself to do it earlier in the week. My first entry was about work. What should the second entry be about? School is a good choice, since that's what takes up most my time outside of work.
I'm now in my third quarter at Strayer University, and can come to a few conclusions about how things are going to progress, based on how things have gone so far.
Overall I'm pleased with my experience with Strayer and online education in general. The classes have generally been interesting, and the professors are reasonably knowledgeable and helpful. There have been a few minor difficulties communicating with the school itself, but that tends to be the case at any academic institution, and when you are so far away from your "campus" it can be difficult to really interact with the staff. I do still have a few general concerns and remain undecided about how I will pursue the rest of my education.
On the good side of things, I definitely like the flexibility that comes with taking classes online. There is a great deal of flexibility in when I do my assignments, as long as they are completed at the end of the week and keep up with the reading. It can be difficult for many people to budget their time appropriately so that they get everything done on time, but I don't really have that problem. I can dedicate myself well to any task that I want as long as I decide that I want to accomplish something. I've been able to take classes that are interesting so far, and the classes themselves have been good.
On the down side, there are some requirements that seem somewhat overly strict and there is no flexibility in the coursework taken towards a degree. Yes, there are electives, but the requirements are strictly required. In my case, I got transfer credit for a couple of the advanced courses, but not the prerequisites, and so I have to take basic math even though I got credit for calculus. Where's the sense in that? Obviously if I can do calculus I can do college math as well, and shouldn't have to spend the time and money to take it when I could spend it taking more electives that are of interest to me. I'm also somewhat unsure how well received the degree will be in the business world. The school is fully accredited, and it should be a perfectly good degree but I think I could also attend a school with a strong reputation and have a more name-brand degree when I finish. The first year or two are good enough, but I may decide to transfer to another school later. I also may not, I like taking the classes online for the reasons already stated, and don't want to loose the flexibility I have, or spend the money involved in an expensive school. I think the degree from Strayer will certainly prepare me for a career in IT, either in programming or working with databases, which are what I am looking for. There isn't the range of electives that I may like, but instead I can get dual degrees in CIS and Database Technology, with a minor in business, and that should serve me well.
By the end of this year I should have a good handle on whether I want to continue studying with Strayer, and next year if I decide I would like to transfer I can start looking into that as well. I don't think it is very likely, but it is an option that I am keeping in mind. It will partly depend on things elsewhere in my life. If I am still at my current job and living here I probably won't make changes in school. I would like to change jobs at some point to align my work with my interests and education, and that may change what I do with school. I'm not looking for anything else at the moment, but may by next year.
It's difficult to pick topics to write about in a journal, especially when you are doing it on command. It seems like writing journal entries should be something you do because you feel the need to express yourself. I'll try to come up with something in any case.
Last fall I took a business class, and in it we learned a lot about how businesses try to increase efficiency, motivate employees, and try to follow good business practices. All through the course I couldn't help but notice how many ways my current employer follows poor business practices. In many ways it is the nature of the business, but ever since I began working there I felt that there were better ways to do things, and better ways to handle the employees.
Part of the problem is that there is a big division between the "classes" of people that work there. There are 3 groups, and they do not communicate very well, or try to help each other perform better. Everyone is very much focused on their own little piece of the job and don't try to integrate with the rest of the company to make improvements. At the top level is management, which has its own business focus, trying to make the bottom line look good, and making decisions that affect everyone beneath them. In the middle are the account managers, who interface between the clients and the production area. At the bottom are the people that create the end product and send it out. Everyone has fairly distinct duties, but they do not have a good understanding of what anyone else does or how it is done. The lack of communication makes change difficult, even when it is clear that things could be better. In many instances the people at the bottom have ideas of what would be sensible changes, but cannot communicate with the management that could implement suggestions.
Another significant problem is that a large number of employees are temps. On one hand, because the workload changes almost daily, with large swings up and down, it is essentially impossible to have everyone work full time, so temps are a necessity. On the other hand, having such a large number of temps makes training difficult, and there is no sense of loyalty or commitment on the part of the people doing the work. If they do not maintain high standards, there is no consequence to the worker, even though it reflects poorly on the rest of the company. There is no incentive for good performance since they do not actually work for the company.
At the very least a number of current temps should be full time employees. There also needs to be a better compensation scheme based on performance. It is unfair for people who do excellent work to be compensated the same as people who do poor work. There is no incentive to perform well if the compensation and job security are the same regardless of the quality of work. There also needs to be better communication between the levels of employees. The people who make decisions needs to understand the needs, abilities, and concerns of the people who work for them, rather than making decisions based on what sounds like a good idea and is theoretically sound. The two rarely coincide with each other, and nobody reports back the true results because of the poor communication and apparent indifference from management.
Having taken a class on business it is especially clear how many things could be done better. Not only could the quality of work be improved, and be done in a more efficient manner, but the employees could be much more content with their job and feel like they truly belong to the company, rather than having no stake in what is being done.
The first assignment for the humanities class I am taking was to write three paragraphs explaining:
This was harder than I would have thought, mostly because it is difficult to come up with what I was bringing to the class. It's also hard to expand on the questions for more than a sentence or two. I've never been particularly verbose, so it's hard to fill out a paragraph on simple ideas.
In any case, it's the first assignment to turn in, so hopefully there will be some reasonable feedback for future assignments. It's difficult to know what the professor expects ahead of time, which is part of why the assignment was made to begin with. The professor wanted to evaluate everyone's writing, and give some feedback.
Understanding past cultures and how they expressed themselves through art encourages an understanding of your own culture and its historical context. Without this context it is difficult to be truly creative and innovative because you have not been exposed to what has already been done. It doesn’t matter if your profession is directly related to the arts or to sciences, an appreciation for other cultures other than your own, past and present, will help you better understand the people around you and what makes them unique. This understanding can only make you a better person and increase your ability to live and work in a diverse environment.
As the son of a professional artist I have some background knowledge of art throughout the ages, but most of it is from a more recent time period. I have been exposed to art mostly from the time period beginning in the 16th century or so and geographically from Europe and America rather than Africa and Asia. I’ve studied a little bit of art history vicariously through my mother while she took classes in the subject, and visited various museums, but otherwise have no formal exposure to the art of the world.
I’m looking forward to learning more about ancient and foreign cultures. There are many incredible works of art that have lasted for hundreds or thousands of years that rival anything that has been done by contemporary artists. Understanding how they were made, and why they were important to the cultures that created them, provides an insight into the people living in that time and place that is difficult to otherwise discern. History can be a dry subject to people that are not otherwise interested in it, but it can be brought to life by the art of the people being studied.
Well it's time for another quarter end at Moore, and another quarter beginning at Strayer. I'm not running a shift this time at Moore, instead I'm going to be at my usual job and also entering information about how much quarterly stuff has been completed so that it can be reported to one of the clients. They want daily updates on how much has been sent so they know it has all gone on time. A couple people at Moore developed a database to track it all, rather than doing it on paper as they had been in the past, so that will make things much easier. It's almost too bad that I'm doing doing the quarterly shift this time, since it is good money, but at the same time I don't feel like spending the time involved to do it. With another quarter starting for school I have enough to do without working 80 hours/week on top of it, 40 is plenty.
School is going well, I got all A's again last quarter. I wasn't sure if I would do well on the final for the programming class, the questions weren't really like what we had done in class. It wasn't programming, but planning, and we hadn't really done much with it. I apparently did fine though, I got 35/35 on the final, and an A in the class. Overall the classes were good. Accounting was harder than I would have thought it would be. There were a couple concepts that I didn't really completely understand, which hurt my exam grades, but I still did fine, I think I averaged 95 or so in the class. The other class was psychology, which was ok. I didn't especially like the text, but the information was generally interesting. I did learn a few things, which is always good. There was a lot of biology information in it, focusing on that aspect of why people behave as they do. I thought the book focused too much on the biology, but that's ok.
This quarter I'm taking the last C++ class, learning about the more advanced aspects of object oriented programming. I'm looking forward to it for the most part, it's stuff I've wanted to know about for a long time. I'm not sure that the book is going to explain it especially clearly, but we'll see. I'm also taking the first english and humanities classes that I have to take. The english class is going to be pretty boring, learning about sentence structure and stuff like that. There' s a whole chapter on the comma. Exciting stuff. The humanities class will be a little more interesting, and probably the one I'll have to focus on the most. There's a lot of discussion involved, and it will be hard to find the time to do it in a timely manner. I usually do everything on the weekends, but the way we have to do the discussion means I have to post much earlier so that I can get responses to what I have said, so I can't wait until I have time on the weekened to do it. As long as I do the reading early I'll be ok I think, but it's hard to be interested in working on it when I get home late from work. The class covers a long period of time and all over the world, talking mostly about the art of each period.
The english class also requires writing journal entries, so I think I'll post them on here. It'll give me something to put up, and I can work on it from anywhere if they are on here. This week we're supposed to do 3, and I assume that will be true every week. I should have done them much earlier, now I have to do 3 today, which probably isn't really the point, but that's ok, I haven't had time until now to do it. I still don't know what I'm going to write about, but I'm sure I'll come up with something. I still have to do a short thing (3 paragraphs) about "why the humanities" for, surprisingly enough, the humanities class, which I'll also post on here.
I don't think there's much else new here. Work is basically the same, with a few additional duties than I had last time I wrote. I can pretty much fill 40 hours/week now, rather than splitting the time between the office and fulfillment, so that's good. Supposedly they may try to reduce the number of temps and hire some of them in-house, so that would be good, as long as I'm one of the ones kept. :) I'm sure I would be, they can't eliminate my position unless something else changes, so my job is safe. We went to Maine a couple times since I wrote last, but Sabrina talked about that on her blog.
I guess I'll try to work on my school stuff.