DataStructures.NoCoffee = True

For the last five weeks, I was in the habit of sleeping in until noon everyday.  What seems like a blessing at the end of a semester quickly becomes severely annoying, especially when a scheduled lecture is at 8:30am in a computer lab that STRICTLY forbids coffee.

Now lets be honest here.  Computer science is interesting, but it is not the most thrilling experience in the world.  Enter Data Structures.  This will be the fourth C++ programming class that we are required to follow in CompSci at John Abbott College.

There are two sections for my class this semester, yet the college has decided to combine the two sections for this one class.  The idea is to have the same teacher, and therefore more consistency, for both groups.  Unfortunately there only thirty-two workstations in the lab, and thirty-four students.

On top of that possible inconvenience, the class runs three hours, from 8:30am to 11:30am, twice a week.  It starts with a lecture portion then moves onto a lab section.  8:30 in the morning is too early to be thinking about abstract data types and linked lists without caffeine entering the blood stream.

The first day was basic, a review of data types, functions, and other basic programming concepts.  The good news, the text (Starting Out with C++: From Control Structures through Objects (6th Edition)) from my first programming class is still valid, that will be a $70 book that was used in four classes.

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Formerly Sleeping 'Till Noon

After a long Christmas break, the first day back at school is always the touhgest, plus it was made annoying by a unrelated things.  My last exam was on December 14, 2009, and today (January 18, 2010), after a five week break, I'm back at school.

John Abbott College, like other C.E.G.E.P.'s, have a ridiculously long Christmas break; five weeks long.  Just long enough that when classes start up again, waking up at noon has already become the norm.

To make a my return to a normal school routine a little more annoying, I found out that, because I only taking three classes, I had go meet with an academic counsellor.  The issue was that I was not taking enough courses to qualify as a full time student.  John Abbott's policy is that a minimum of 12 hours a week marks full time status, yet they also insist on four classes.   I had to meet with the counsellor to explain my case.  Since I also have bills to pay, I also need to work at least 30 hours a week, especially now after Christmas.  The annoying part is that there is no consistency for qualifying as full time; 12 hours or four classes, it depends who you talk to.  This lead to me signing a special contract to make the exception for me to take three classes, which add up to more than 12 hours a week, which full time anyway.

My first, only class, today, was Databases 2.  We have moved on from MS Access, and beginning with Oracle Databases.  Our main development software will be Oracle's SQL Developer, which luckily, also comes with a Mac version.

 Now that school is back in, there will be less time doing this:



(p.s.  That's not me, it's just a great shot of my home hill:  Jay Peak, Jay Peak's Flickr Page)

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