A couple of weeks ago, in my Tech Math class, we were asked to find the areas of various triangles. No problem, any student worth their salt in geometry skills knows that the area of a triangle is one half times the length of the base times the height.

For one of the problems given, we had a scalene triangle with only the length of the sides of the triangle listed on the page. After much confusion by the whole class, Mr. Nichols told us in the next session that we needed a formula that we were not given before, Heron’s Formula. An excellent white paper exists to explain this, but I will try to condense that after I understand it myself. I just do not have time to read it at the moment.

Today’s classes went great! Of course, most people wouldn’t say that about math, but I do…. My Database Logic class is actually only a Flex course, lasting only 5 weeks. That will be a wild ride, but I am enjoying it. Mr. Kranch is not nearly as bad as I have heard in the past. He is quite humorous and easy to listen to in lecture, not the monotonous, verbose personality that he
was described to me.

Tomorrow, I have PC Upgrade & Repair. We’ll see how that goes, with three books. Of course, that was the worst part of the whole day. Just 4 books for two classes, and the total was almost $200.00! Quite a shock to the checkbook! I just hope to sell this math book back when this quarter is over. Maybe I can find a poor soul who needs the book for Tech Math II or III….

I have also planned out my entire schedule for the next year or so, leading up to an Associate’s degree and at least three certificates, the PC Repair, Microsoft Networking, and Novell Networking. If I stay at North Central for just another quarter or two, I can also get a Microsoft User Applications certificate, even though I so dislike Mircosoft, as a business.

At this point, I am rambling, so I will leave more stuff to another post later on. Maybe I can
actually use this blog more often than once a month…

I am thoroughly enjoying my classes this quarter, but I am so not used to having homework.

For my Unix class, I do not have any actual homework, but I have some reading I can do, as well as planning out my second Linux installation at school. For the first one, Mr. Matney wants us to simply have two partitions on the drive, root and swap.

In my second install, I want to tweak out the system. I am going to have Linux installed, leaving Windows alone, but I am going to split up the Linux install into proper partitions. Also, I ju
st created a bootable BeOS cd last night and plan to install it and QNX alongside the other two operating systems. And all this for only another 9 weeks or so.

In Science, Art, and Literature, I have a lot of reading to do, including finishing up “The Two Cultures,” one of the most disjointed books I have read. There are some interesting points, but C. P. Snow, the author, tends to wander off into odd tangents. To make it even more difficult, the book is a transcription of a lecture he gave on the subject at Cambridge University in the
UK.

Oh well, so is life. Full of homework…. Work is coming up too soon today, but it is Lottery, so it won’t be too bad. Maybe I can do some reading…..

Finally, I am enrolled and ready to get going at NC State! I am excited that I got my Credit by Examination back as having been passed, although I would be curious as to the exact details of the test and how well I did. Starting Monday, I have Science, Art, & Literature and on Tuesday is the beginning of my Unix Operating Systems class.

I picked up my books at the bookstore, and the price wasn’t too bad. I came away with a bill under $70.00, including taxes. The Unix/Linux book looks to be pretty straightforward and there are three short novels for the philosophy class.