In Which The Author Returns To His Stated Purpose

And, I suppose, in which he continues, perhaps initiating a tradition – which will remain to be seen – the time and energy which might at one point have been devoted to creating a long-term plan for this blog has been usurped by the time and energy that has gone into planning out my rather unusual course schedule so as to ensure that my study abroad plans do not prolong my presence here at UP for longer than the average number of years(to clarify (but not to say it outright – what would be the fun in that?), I don't want to spend more time in college than I did in high school (no, I didn't get held back or skip a grade) – a statement which, in case you (a pronoun which may be singular or plural depending on how many people end up mentally processing this test – luckily the support in the English language for generics is more akin to that of Java (which I realize I've previously compared to Esperanto – the transitive property is not intended to hold for my similes. Although there are many who wish for English to become the universal language of planet Earth, an intention which I believe the creators of Esperanto shared) than of c++ - a simile which raises the question of which action in natural language is akin to compilation of a computer program. I would say that compilation is analogous to interpreting the meaning of a sentence. The parsing of the source code would be analogous to the mental OCR of the source text and the subsequent division into sentences and the components thereof (an action which for many is subconscious, the exception being those occasions when a grade-school or high-school teacher forces them to perform that rather-pointless-in-my-opinion task known as sentence diagramming. (and perhaps when attempting to make sense of the deeply-nested parentheses typically found here (a location which is intended to refer to this website, and which is discussed in depth in an earlier post) – but I digress) For those readers who are fortunate enough to have been spared this ordeal, it's a similar process to the conversion of mathematical statements into RPN, the difference being that RPN is actually useful for programmatically handling order of operations.) - if only compilers ability had sentences incomplete understand humans like have. Or, on second thought, perhaps I should be grateful that my compiler will always ask for clarification rather than attempting to make assumptions regarding what I wish to do – see Internet Explorer if you still believe it wise to provide computers with the human ability to make assumptions when the meaning of a statement is unclear.) are wondering (since I clearly lack the psychic ability to foresee whether such a question will arise in the mind of any of my readers) is intended to express not a dislike for life here on the Bluff (here, “here” performs its more natural function of referencing a physical location – although I am writing this not from the Bluff but from several miles above sea level en route from San Diego to Portland. Fortunately, The Bluff is an equally ambiguous term, referring either to a spot on campus, then entire campus, or the University and the neighborhood surrounding it) but rather a lack of funding for longer than the traditional four (Zut! I was doing so well and then I had to go and say outright that number which I had been so subtly hinting at. If only life had an undo button.) years. Not even my individual posts are planned in most cases. This post was one of the few exceptions, as the title indicates. In addition to continuing to spoof literary naming conventions, I intend to return to the mandate contained in the assignment which provided the impetus for the formation of this blog: to document my experiences as an engineering student at the University of Portland, specifically my experience last summer as I took Data Structures I through National University's online education program. Yet due to my prior tangents I fear I lack the space (in the attention span of some of my readers) for an in depth description of all that I experienced. I would have to describe how, contrary to my belief that online education would offer a flexible schedule, the professor desired the entire class to sign on for a two hour period several times each week, and my need to make do with the recordings of the class sessions due to the impracticality of maintaining such a schedule while traveling back to Portland. Or how the class sessions consisted mostly of the professor reading Powerpoint slides, without any elaboration on the bullet points which appeared, over a low quality audio link, which due to its emphasis on mid-high frequencies quickly became painful to listen to. And then there was the final exam, which, like the class sessions, was scheduled for a specific three hour period, with notification of this time provided only a couple of days beforehand. I had to request an extension of that time period, being gone that entire day at an event which had been planned for months. Lest it be thought that I am simply being unreasonably negative, I will say that I do feel like I learned the material – but I basically paid a large sum of money to teach myself the course. Additionally, the faculty were willing to allow me to work around my schedule constraints, but I feel that for a program which frequently touts its flexibility, I should not have needed to go to the lengths I did to achieve this flexibility – I should not have been sending frantic emails a day before the final requesting a different time. Many of the other students had full-time jobs – these generally require more notice than was given. But as I lack the space to do so, I am grateful that I can summarize my experience quite briefly. If you are considering taking a course online, and you are not desperate for an opportunity to take that course (as I was), my advice to you is simple: Don't!