Stay on Target

CS 371 is starting to look up : )

   Today has been quite a long and interesting study day. After staying up until 12:30 last night, finalizing a project due in the morning, I crashed for the night and got up for a test in that same class at 8 AM. My HCI (Human Computer Interaction) course has been quite the struggle so far. The first test was graded very strictly and I only scored 9% on that test. It was devastating, honestly, when I saw that score pop up on my I-Learn (See the snapshot to get an idea of what I-Learn is). This morning, I ran out of time to complete the exam but I was writing fairly steadily so I hoped for at least a C and possibly a B-range grade. Feeling somewhat confident with the exam, I crossed my fingers and said another prayer that my project grade would be decent as well. Long story short, I received my grade on the exam already and you can see it above. "Test 2: Analysis" ... "96%"!!!! What a relief that was. Furthermore, my grade in the class went from an F just a couple weeks back, to a B- currently.

   I am still struggling to get on track with all 4 of my classes at once but I am getting close to having 3 classes with grades where I want them and enough time in my studies to work on my Mobile Application Development class. Though I have spent 15-20 hours studying for this course so far, I wanted to do a lot more and much of that had to be spent learning the basics of HTML 5 so that I could add the specific skills that our instructor is requiring of us. Honestly, I think I would like to spend most of my time studying for that course but it doesn't have a deadline structure like the others so I am just trying to reach a steady pace with my other classes that allows me additional time to pick up and run with my 4th class before it is too late to do anything about it. If you are curious what I have been and will be learning in Brother Barney's class (it took a while to get used to Brother / Sister over Mr. here) the summary is on his blog here:

https://barneyhybrid.wordpress.com/course-information/topics-and-resources/

So far I have learned basics of HTML 5 and focused more heavily on images and drawing with Canvas. Next I will be focusing on Javascript functions but I think I want to expand my knowledge of Canvas a bit more. So far I have learned how to create a small space in a webpage for drawing (a canvas) and how to draw shapes such as rectangles, circles, lines, and text boxes in that space. I have also learned how to add text and how to break the code that draws those things. Basically, I am tinkering around so that I can learn what it all does and how to fix / not break it as I use HTML & Canvas to program in the future. I am also learning to use an online collaboration tool for programming called GitHub. I am still learning the basics of how to use it but most of the code that I build from here on out will be uploaded there. I am not positive how to link the content but here's a stab at linking the first HTML file that I've uploaded:

https://github.com/JohnOkleberry/HTML-Canvas.git

Something else that I thought the family might appreciate is this video that we watched in my HCI class. We were having a discussion about Mission Statements and Executive Summaries and how to make them effective and concise. This is, in essence, what not to do... I'll also add that several people in our class responded that they felt they were listening to a speech from a politician at parts.

http://youtu.be/9LIAI2tEApc

I am spending much more time on my C++ class than I had anticipated these past couple of weeks but am still hoping to press on and start knocking more items off my Mobile Application Development. Today I am feeling more in control of my classes than I have in a while and only have one assignment due on Thursday so that should help with my game plan. I have also set a pretty tight schedule in my Google Calendar that allows for 9 hours of study each weekday and lets me end by 11:00 so that I have some time to wind down, to go to bed early, or to catch up if something interrupted my studies during the day. Yesterday some things came up and I only made it to 8:45 but today something else shifted and I ended up with 10 hours of study between class time and studying outside of class. Let's hope I can keep this up! ... at least until Saturday. I had more to say but I'll leave this post here for now and get back to that sleep I was talking about...

One Last Note:

That thing that I mentioned falling through today (that gave me extra time to study) well... it didn't exactly fall through. In my haste to schedule in adequate study time and balance other things in my schedule I accidentally put the end time of a meeting as the start time. I was rushing in to the meeting and saw one of my cohorts walking out. When she reminded me of the time I felt so clumsy about the whole thing but thankfully it wasn't a big issue. I just had to laugh it off, fix my calendar, and be grateful for the fresh air I got during my short break from the books.