Tuesday, April 20, 2004
I'm going to type this up while I'm watching my masters class.
For those of you I haven't told already. I'm slowly chipping away at my masters degree. Mostly, because Raytheon pays for it. And if I don't start working on it now, I never will. Plus it's a good thing to have. Gets me money. And money gets me happiness, don't let anyone tell you different. Well, it's the first step, at least. Or one of the steps. This is a philosophical discussion for another time, moving on!
I'm doing The USC Den program.
Reasons it is good:
USC is a pretty respectable Engineering school.
Raytheon is paying for it.
The masters program involves only 9 semester-classes. No thesis, no comprehensive exam. (Not unless you want to get a doctorate too, and I don't.)
The DEN program (Distance Education Network) allows you to watch lectures over the internet, from the comfort of your own home, at whatever time is best for you.
People with masters degrees make more money than people with bachelors degrees at Raython. Explicitly so.
I'm learning stuff that is *immediately* helpfull at work. We've been working with Single Value Decompositions (SVDs). What are SVD's? I didn't know either until we learned about it in class...two lectures ago. (What, you actually want to know what it is? I'm not going to tell you. Get your *own* masters degree!)
Reason it is suck
It's pretty pricy (cancelled by Raytheon paying for it.)
Watching lectures is *Lame*! It's a good 4 or 5 or so hours out of my week that I'd much rather be spending doing...anything else. Running. Skipping stones. Other wholesome, young-adult activies. (No strippers!)
So, you can tell by the lists, I'm still for it. But sometimes I wish I were less responsible. I'd get more immediate satisfaction out of my weekdays. But like I said, I'm a sucker for money. I want it in bucketfulls!
I've been trying to loose weight by cutting down on junk food, but it's not working. I don't think I've ever taken so many people up on their offer to go out for burgers in my *life*. I think this may be fate trying to keep me at my current weight. I do more exercise, and burgers start showing up in *droves*. It's like that Alfred Hichcock Movie, 'The birds', except it's 'The burgers'. And where birds are scary, Burgers are delicious.
Kevin mentioned that he read about him being my hero in my blog. I went nearly giddy. Actually, Kevin was even my hero back at Calpoly. He's still the best teacher I've ever had for TKD, in my book. And I didn't pay him a *quarter* what I'm paying for TKD now. That makes him the man. The fact that he broke his ankle and then joked about it makes him the hotness.
Ugh...now the professor is doing a long, extended example on a subject I already understand. So instead of watching it...fast forward! Go DEN! Course, I'm sure more traditional professers rarely have buffering problems.
I want to be bilingual when I grow up. Japanese, perhaps. Or perhaps Croatian, cause that's what Mary speaks. I tell her (jokingly, people) that I'll learn Croatian if I mary her. Yes it's a joke, but you never know...
I'm just writing down thoughts at random. I hope you're keeping up.
I've started playing around with nunchaku. I started when I saw a movie of someone doing glowchucks. Like nunchaku, but with glowsticks (long ones) instead. Looked so awesome. I've gotten some pretty neat movies down, but I have yet to find glowsticks of the appropriate length.
The Croatian Cultural Center of Greater Los Angeles. Mary volunteers here. Give the link to Zrinka, parents. She'd be delighted, I'm sure.
Break time, I'm going to go exercise. Later!
-N
For those of you I haven't told already. I'm slowly chipping away at my masters degree. Mostly, because Raytheon pays for it. And if I don't start working on it now, I never will. Plus it's a good thing to have. Gets me money. And money gets me happiness, don't let anyone tell you different. Well, it's the first step, at least. Or one of the steps. This is a philosophical discussion for another time, moving on!
I'm doing The USC Den program.
Reasons it is good:
USC is a pretty respectable Engineering school.
Raytheon is paying for it.
The masters program involves only 9 semester-classes. No thesis, no comprehensive exam. (Not unless you want to get a doctorate too, and I don't.)
The DEN program (Distance Education Network) allows you to watch lectures over the internet, from the comfort of your own home, at whatever time is best for you.
People with masters degrees make more money than people with bachelors degrees at Raython. Explicitly so.
I'm learning stuff that is *immediately* helpfull at work. We've been working with Single Value Decompositions (SVDs). What are SVD's? I didn't know either until we learned about it in class...two lectures ago. (What, you actually want to know what it is? I'm not going to tell you. Get your *own* masters degree!)
Reason it is suck
It's pretty pricy (cancelled by Raytheon paying for it.)
Watching lectures is *Lame*! It's a good 4 or 5 or so hours out of my week that I'd much rather be spending doing...anything else. Running. Skipping stones. Other wholesome, young-adult activies. (No strippers!)
So, you can tell by the lists, I'm still for it. But sometimes I wish I were less responsible. I'd get more immediate satisfaction out of my weekdays. But like I said, I'm a sucker for money. I want it in bucketfulls!
I've been trying to loose weight by cutting down on junk food, but it's not working. I don't think I've ever taken so many people up on their offer to go out for burgers in my *life*. I think this may be fate trying to keep me at my current weight. I do more exercise, and burgers start showing up in *droves*. It's like that Alfred Hichcock Movie, 'The birds', except it's 'The burgers'. And where birds are scary, Burgers are delicious.
Kevin mentioned that he read about him being my hero in my blog. I went nearly giddy. Actually, Kevin was even my hero back at Calpoly. He's still the best teacher I've ever had for TKD, in my book. And I didn't pay him a *quarter* what I'm paying for TKD now. That makes him the man. The fact that he broke his ankle and then joked about it makes him the hotness.
Ugh...now the professor is doing a long, extended example on a subject I already understand. So instead of watching it...fast forward! Go DEN! Course, I'm sure more traditional professers rarely have buffering problems.
I want to be bilingual when I grow up. Japanese, perhaps. Or perhaps Croatian, cause that's what Mary speaks. I tell her (jokingly, people) that I'll learn Croatian if I mary her. Yes it's a joke, but you never know...
I'm just writing down thoughts at random. I hope you're keeping up.
I've started playing around with nunchaku. I started when I saw a movie of someone doing glowchucks. Like nunchaku, but with glowsticks (long ones) instead. Looked so awesome. I've gotten some pretty neat movies down, but I have yet to find glowsticks of the appropriate length.
The Croatian Cultural Center of Greater Los Angeles. Mary volunteers here. Give the link to Zrinka, parents. She'd be delighted, I'm sure.
Break time, I'm going to go exercise. Later!
-N
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