Getting Noticed

A bit of interesting news about my bog. My post Confessions of a closet environmentalist is listed on Technorati.com. According to them, my blog is among "some of the best blogs on the Web" It is only one person's opinion that my post belongs on Technorati, but it is gratifying nevertheless.

The Latest News

A couple of things happened today that I am happy about. I went to the first meeting of a club that a friend and I joined. We introduced ourselves and talked about our expectations and then I had to leave. Maybe next time I will be able to stay for the after meeting socialization.

The other big event of the day was the first CPP (pension) deposit into my bank account. It is not much, just a few hundred dollars a month but it marks a milestone for me. I am now, officially a senior citizen but, as I said in my introduction at the club meeting, I don't feel like one and I certainly don't intend to act like one.

My New Laptop

My return to university has prompted me to buy a new laptop. Although I have owned one or more computers since the early eighties, it is my first new computer in more than a decade. I don't play games or do very much that needs the newest or latest computer software. The most demanding program I use is Gimp for photo editing. I use Linux on my desktop and find that it does everything that I need it to do, and it does it quite well.

I bought a Dell with Vista as the operating system. It has a dual core Centrino running at 1.67 Ghz and two gigs of ram. It uses one gig without any user programs running. I had heard about Vista and its needing a fast processor with lots of ram. I have not had any real problems with it yet, other than having to reboot it about a dozen times since I got it after installing new software and updating the system software. That is something that my Linux system does not need to do.

My new computer does run Google Earth a lot faster than my Linux desktop does. I like that feature. Oh, by the way, my desktop is a Compaq Pentium 3 running at 0.867 Ghz , with 512 megs of ram that I bought, for less than a tenth of the price of my new Dell, at a yard sale a couple of years ago.

Comments

I have found out that there is a problem with comments. I am not getting them. I am trying to get this problem fixed.

Why I Am Writing This Blog

When I decided to return to university as a mature student, I thought that writing about my experiences would be worthwhile in several ways. First of all, it is a chronicle of my experiences that I can share with others, secondly, it is a way for me to keep my family members up to date, third, it forces me to think about and process my experiences at university, and finally, it gives me a reason to write regularly.

I find it gratifying that I already have some readers who check out this blog every day. It is even more gratifying that they are not all family members. One of my daughters will be very surprised that she is not number one on the list of visitors. You know who you are.

There are readers from British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario, Virginia, Spain, South Africa, India, Australia and several other countries. My goal is to provide all of my readers with something that will keep them interested enough to keep coming back for more. I welcome your input, so please feel free to comment on any of the posts on this blog.

Car vs bus revisited

Ones actions often have effects that are not those that were intended. I was talking to someone about not driving and taking the bus as part of my contribution to help reduce pollution and global warming. I found that talking about my conscious decision, to take the bus, made the other student think about not driving. The more people who take the bus, the more normal it will become and the less normal driving will be.

Cold bus rides

I've been taking the bus to school almost every day. If it is cooler outside the buses are quite comfortable, but if it is a hot day, the buses are cold from the air conditioning. I could use a jacket, in fact quite a few people do wear jackets on the buses on those days. Stores, too, are kept colder than they need to be for comfort. Is it just me, or is there something wrong with our expectations?

A very long week

It has been a very long week. I am still dealing with the fallout from my personal crisis. I have no regrets about dropping the course. It allows me to focus on what I need to do.

Wednesday was a very bad day for me, I felt the full, emotional impact of the events of the week before. I decided to contact others and let them know just how hard it had been for me. That made a huge difference. Wednesday could have been the day when things got worse, instead it was the day when things turned around.

I am continuing to meet interesting people. An excellent example is a woman who has spent time in the Middle East and is in university to gain knowledge and skills that will enable her to return to the country that she spent time in and work with the people there. She is learning the local language so that she will be more effective when she returns.

I was invited to go for a beer by a fellow student on Friday. Although, we decided not to go for the beer then, we did go to check out the campus clubs and joined a couple of them. The age difference between the other students and me does not seem to be any hindrance to my meeting people and socializing with them. They are curious about why I am in university now and some of the more goal oriented want to know what I am going to do with my degree when I graduate.

I am keeping up with the work, despite all of the turmoil in my life. I have written three short tests and have gotten very high marks in two of them and a very respectable mark in the third. At least, I think so, it has not been marked yet but I know I did not find it difficult

I am behind in some of my reading and will have to concentrate on that this weekend. Along with the household chores, which are always there, I will also have to spend some time dealing with my personal crisis. That makes for a busy weekend but I am taking some time to relax on Sunday. I've been invited out for dinner and I will definitely be there.

Fitting in

I am beginning to feel as if I belong here. One of my concerns about returning to university was the large age difference between the other students and me. It was an unfounded concern. Most people, here, are very accepting and encouraging. The students that I talk to are really interested in why I am at university at this stage of my life.

I had some apprehension about attending a large institution. So far, other than the walking around campus, it is easier than I thought that it would be.

I am enjoying the challenges that come from attending university. I have read quite a lot over the years, but now I have to read material at a deeper level and understand it, even if I am not particularly interested in some of the material. When I read before, I would skip over parts that were of less interest to me.

Expectations

I started attending classes, almost a week ago, with certain expectations. I had an idea that some courses were going to be hard and others easier. I was also sure which courses would be most interesting and which classes would go by very slowly. Not surprisingly, my expectations are all wrong. Well, not quite, but pretty much. Certain profs bring enthusiasm for their subject matter and a love of teaching that makes, even the less fascinating, topics interesting.

I have some larger classes that I was apprehensive about because I know that I learn better when there are fewer students in a class. Maybe I have a more positive attitude than I have had in the past, because I find the larger classes are almost as conducive to learning as the smaller ones are. Perhaps I would be more engaged and learning even better if those classes were smaller.