David Oakes Learning Journal

Another bi-weekly post. Or at least, it is by official declaration. The final eighth week of each class in the program is only half length. Which is somewhat confusing to say at least. By my count, this is covering the 21st and 22nd weeks, which is making me think I've missed a post or two somewhere in the program. In any case, despite how well things have gone for me thus far in the program, I find myself having lengthy moments of what I can only describe as "overextension of perception of the surrounding world." At one point I would've been able to write them off as mere anomalies. Unusual spates of activity from my, frankly, overactive imagination. Little nightmares, more often impossible, of futures bearing fruitlessness or failure. I know that this sort of thing isn't healthy. That expecting the worst means expecting to not be disappointed. But that's why I find it often helps. After a certain point, one learns that its way more fun to be surprised than i...

 So, here we are with another bi-weekly post. I did have that quick message with the instructor about maybe branching out in regards to topics here on the learning journal. And, to be frank, I'm still not sure what I was expecting out of it, if anything. According to the instructor, it was designed around the learning science. He did recommend that I at least try to maintain weekly posts, even if it did amount to short recollections of the mundanity of the learning process.  Still, the seeming mundanity of the course as it is, isn't all bad. I'm finding even mildly novel experiences to be rather exciting. It might not seem like much but this weeks Python code work had a novelty in one of the test files. I'm so used to seeing near instantaneous responses out of these, the fact it took nearly a minute and a half to complete had me thinking I'd somehow managed to deadlock it. Another novelty, The answer being simple and straightforward. I'm so used to answers needi...

 In all honesty, I would've posted something last week, but I just didn't very much to post about. The most interesting thing that's happened, school-wise, is the fact I had my first proctored exam on the 31st. Don't get me wrong, I'm confident in how it turned out, and it was a pleasing twist on the usual online/Canvas test taking. The issues is that that's really the only thing that I have to write about that's related to school. This is why I don't see myself as a blogging sort of person, I always run out of things to say. Yes, there are other things going on in life and the world but I'm not sure if any of it fits the limitations here. These supposed-to-be-weekly writings are meant to be a learning journal throughout the program I'm in, and some of what I have to talk about is much more likely to come across as me ranting about something unrelated to my learning experiences. So, as much as I wish I could pen more about how things are going he...