On the upswing here; don’t have to read that essay I moaned about, e-academy got right back to me on the MINI TAB software download for Statistics, and it’s already in place. This alone–being able to do the Statistics homework at hours other than computer-lab availability–will help tremendously with the workload. The program itself comes at a cost of $900 (no, of course I wouldn’t pay that!) but the 5-month rental at $25.99 is well worth it to me.
The New Media course isn’t all fun and games, but there’s a good dose of both even in learning the technical end of creativity. Myst, The SIMS, Syberia, Rollercoaster Tycoon ( I do have Zoo Tycoon, but you don’t want to know how I fared with it. Let’s just say that it is in a regressed state of jungle, gone back to nature so to speak, and all the people who visited the zoo one day have mysteriously vanished), are just some of the materials that will be studied in the course. It made me dig out a virtual 3-D puzzle game I bought years ago called Bavarian Castle where you construct a castle then go through it to “explore the rooms and discover the secrets of the castle.” There’s also a hypertext novel by Michael Joyce, “Afternoon, A Story” that just sent me over the wall with Amazon.com. Yes; I pressed that “BUY NOW!” button. All I can say is that I qualified for free shipping.
Normally, the only games I play are Tai Pei, Slide Tiles, Scrabble, Freecell and Solitaire because they’re really used as relaxers between the bookkeeping, writing, and research which are the bulk of my computer use. Oh yes, and weblog-reading–but I consider that under the “research” category. For well over a year I “played with” an architectural program (okay, several) that I used to design an addition on our house. It was as much fun to me as any game; measuring, adding doors and windows, flying around the rooms from the top view to see where to add furniture and built-in cabinets, etc. Quite honestly though, the simplest, original program I started with was much more fun to use than the ones that included landscaping, bushes, and full color images.
New Media will be a fun excuse to spend some quality time on the computer. However, with the demands of this new workload, I may need to close my frameshop. Also, order more takeout dinners. All in the name of education, of course.
The Lost Children: A Charity Anthology