It’s not that I’ve been too busy (although I’ve been busier the last two weeks than I’ve been in a long time). And it’s not that I’ve been cleaning my house, either, which my kid is sure to start a brand new blog about soon, if I don’t do something around here in short order.
There really isn’t anything to blog about other than school, and I didn’t want to bore you all, because really, unless you’re into it, HTML and CSS are boring as… well, insert some expletive that you feel comfortable with.
But I did finally get some marks back, so I thought I’d post the urls that I had to turn in for assignments.
HTML Lesson 1: Grade: 100% HTML Lesson 2: Grade: 85% probably because, although the layout works fine in IE, it goes to hell in Firefox. HTML Lesson 3: Grade: 95%
My overall average when quiz results are thrown in is 93.3%. I’m writing the exam (which terrifies me) on Monday.
My overall average is 95%, and I’m currently swearing over Lesson 3, which is the beginning of building the site I profiled and mapped in Lesson 1.
The Business Correspondence course is pissing me off, because I’m done 3/4 of it, and I just now realized that they ordered up Level 1, instead of Level 2, which is the course that was paid for, and I’m sure would not bore me to tears the way this one does… Now I have to bring that up to the director on Monday, and I’m not sure if it can be fixed easily.
As an aside, the “duplicate” javascript listing in my course list was supposed to be CSS, which I’m trying to get live once I put the HTML Basics course to bed.
But, I’m enjoying school anyway, and I have a job waiting for me when I’m done, with Louie, my old Day Job Boss. Isn’t it amazing how the wheel turns?
I’m not enrolled in French, so I don’t care if that title is correct or not… but I got through Day Two in better fashion than yesterday. Once I left the school yesterday, the assistant to the Director called me at home to tell me everything got set up, so I logged in from my laptop to see how off I was on the web pages I was supposed to build for Lessons 1 and 2. And they were way off.
Lesson 1 called for me to build an online menu for an Italian restaurant. Lesson 1 doesn’t teach enough HTML to make a decent online restaurant menu if you just use what was taught in the lesson, so I cheated and made it with tables, which aren’t taught until Lesson 2, but I mean, Gawd! I can’t turn in crap, can I? I will let you all know if my teacher wanted crap once he marks it….
Lesson 2 is also complete and sent in. I had to “revamp” a clothing store’s entry page to one of its departments. I chose Mens’ clothing, because I live with a Serious Clothes-Horse and know more about mens’ clothing than women’s clothing. Hell, I wear more mens’ clothing than women’s clothing!
The Clothes-Horse made me shut School off before I could finish Lesson 3, which is FOUR different pages within the same Imaginary Travel Agency’s site. This is the final lesson before whatever freaky-deaky exam they have for such a short course (I really don’t consider this little blip in my week to be a whole course.), so I had been aiming at finishing and uploading the files tonight, and do the exam tomorrow, but then I was reminded that there are no more courses for me until the orders go through for them, so this way, I’ll have something to do tomorrow.
I checked the course deadline out today – they expect me to finish this by January. Ahem.
It was to be my first day of school, and I was up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed to be ready to make my appearance at 9:30. My “normal” school day will be from 9 am to 2 pm or so, but today I was slated for “Orientation”, which entailed signing the final contract, having my courses activated online, and learning how to log-in to the system.
I was there early, having had a nice “short” walk to somewhere for a change. Unfortunately, the director of the school was not there, my contract could not be found, and my courses could not be activated. I can’t log-in and do assignments, either, but I wasn’t expecting to be doing any actual work today, anyway.
I stayed for just under two hours before Jeff, the IT Guy, decided I might just as well go home and wait for a phone call. I did manage to get the outline for my first course, which is HTML Basics, and it’s about as basic as a course can get, I think. Three “lessons”, practical lectures, and web pages to create for each lesson’s assignment. I’ve gone through all the lessons, and done the practical lessons and web pages for Lesson 1. I can’t finish it, because there is an online quiz to do once I log-in.
I still have yet to receive a call from the director, but will go to school for 9 am tomorrow, whether I hear from her or not. I must say, this is the first time I showed up for school and a teacher was off playing hookey…
So I’ve decided to be what my peers in high school would have called a “Browner” (short for “Brown-Noser”; ewwww.) and work ahead in all the practicals and web page assignments, and see what happens from there. I’d say wish me luck, but this first course is embarrassingly “basic”, so I just want to get through it and go on to something interesting.
My course outline until August 31, 2007, when I will have all my certifications, is:
HTML Basics
Fundamentals of JavaScript
Dreamweaver Lvl 1
Dreamweaver Lvl 2
Flash Basics
Flash Experience
Adobe Illustrator
Fundamentals of JavaScript (yes, I know this is here twice, and I don’t know why either,
but they are two different course lengths) Web Design Lvl 1
Project Management Fundamentals
Marketing and Sales
Business Economics
Business Correspondence Lvl 2
Business Essentials
Business in the Electronic Age
Business Financial Management
Business Planning
Human Resource Management
This made-to-order conglomeration that we put together is called the Web/Graphics/Communication Mediums course. I’m not certain what we’ll call me when all is said and done, but I’m happy with the curriculum.
I’m really looking forward to the business and marketing courses, which are waiting for textbooks to ship, apparently, so it may be a few weeks before I can get to any of those.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go play with code…
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Well, some of it, anyway. I had my interview with the Biggest Wig in the complicated trail of paper to apply to get these courses I want. It was a long and freaky-deaky time for me, waiting to find out if they would allow me to do this, because I wanted two different sets of courses, and I had to convince them that there was a correlation between the two that would make me a better candidate for entry level positions in the new career choice I’ve made.
My concern, and my advisor shared this with me, as did the registrar of the school I was vying for, was not that I would be flat-out turned down, but informed that I would have to choose one set or the other. And I couldn’t for the life of me decide which way to go. I wanted them both. And it was a loooooong wait for that phone call that would schedule the final interview.
I spent my time watching my kid play.
Space: The Latest Frontier
Kyla fell into her imagination again. It’s very cool when this happens. She drew the screen of a spacecraft on her chalkboard, and set up a control center with an old computer keyboard, bike parts, and a pilfered mic stand.
Check out the actually “shiftable” gear shift…
She went to some pretty neato places.
I got the chance to spend some decent time hanging out with her, too. We managed a few Walk-Abouts around town, and trips to visit Gramma and Grampa.
A “Back Lane” Walk About…
We decided to take my old familiar path to work, and got some nice views of the fall foliage.
My old “Day Job” route…
A favourite spot.
I have a winter picture of this exact spot somewhere. I shall have to do something creative with the two when I find the time to find it…
Ky and I also had a Walk-About down Queen Street, to kick through the leaves.
Surprise!!
We both grew down a little bit for an hour or so…
I LOVE this photo! It was blind dumb luck that I got it at all, and I was NOT impressed that those rude people in the background did not have the sense to stay out of my frame.
So I disappeared them.
There are still blooming things in October…
Purple Flowers
I don’t know what they are, but they are still blooming, in spite of our decidedly Autumnal weather conditions…
I want a whole yard full of these some day…
I also spent much quality time getting to know the newest member of the family…
Meet “Scamp”.
He’s a brown rat. I call him “Fatso Ratso”, which Ky doesn’t like, but I notice she sometimes calls him that, too.
Hide & Seek
He likes to hang out at, on and in the couch. I allow this, because he has begun to bring up long lost treasures, like camera cables, and debit cards, although, I do have to fight him for them.
And then I got my call. The final step. Nice lady on the phone gives me the date and time for my interview. Another week away.
Arrggghhhh!
So, to make a long story a little shorter, I did all of the above all over again, with a couple of feeble attempts at doing laundry, dishes and general housework, and couple of “sickly” days thrown in to spice up the week…
And I start school Monday.
I win, I win, I win, I win, I win!!
I have such a cool list of courses, too, which I will elaborate on in the next few posts… But, right now, I’m going to sit down and gloat, and smile a lot.
