Shut the fuck up already.

Ever since I started my summer college class, I realized just how noisy some places can be. That is; I realized how noisy some places are supposed to be that are supposed to be quiet. So I can concentrate, I would go to the Urbana Free Library. Much to my dismay, and annoyance, that library is loud.

I can concentrate with normal noises and normal noise levels; I learned to cope when I was in the Marine Corps. If I don't feel like leaving the house, I'll study while Kevin is working on a house project. It is no big deal. However, the level of distraction in a library is astounding. Hmm...there are ringing cell phones, screaming children, coffee grinders grinding, ringing cell phones, screaming children, homeless people eating loudly and having conversations with themselves, ringing cell phones, screaming children, adults with no volume control, screaming children, ringing cell phones, cell phones vibrating noisily on tables, screaming children, and ringing cell phones!

When did public libraries become the repositories of socially-inept, bored, obnoxious people? When did libraries stop being places of quiet and study, and start being places of free entertainment? This library, and I would assume others as well, have slowly become, basically, free movie rental establishments and internet cafés. With that evolution, along came with it people who normally wouldn't be seen in a library - the very people who don't know how to act in these places. Oh look, another mother allowing her little toddler to constantly scream at the top of her lungs. Oh look, another asshole having a loud conversation on his cell phone. Oh look, another teenager taking up space using a public terminal for Farmville. *groan*

If I need to study, and I need to leave the house, I won't go to a library. I'll instead go to...a coffee shop! They are quieter! Automatically, there aren't any screaming kids. That is probably because most of the parents with obnoxious children are at the library browsing the free DVDs. Automatically, most cell phones are turned to vibrate, or even off. This is probably because the people who patron these establishments know the "etiquette" of coffee shops. Automatically, the environment is quieter because most of the clientele are *gasp* college students who are studying, just like me! I never would have thought coffee shops could quieter than public libraries. I must be living in some kind of Bizarro World.

Of course it doesn't have to be this way. I remember when I was little and I was going out in public with my family, my parents and relatives used to look me square in the eye and say, "You will behave yourself - or else." And I did!

Today I was in the library, and it wasn't as bad as it could have been. But there were times I wanted to yell at the lazy parents (who were allowing their kids to yell), cell phone abusers (who forgot to disable the ring of the phone), and loud people (who have no volume control) and tell them to be quiet because they are in a fucking library.

Be quiet. I'm trying to study.

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Problems with Problems Again.

July 11, 2010

Problems With Problems Again

As my college summer course has been progressing, I've been steadily increasing my confidence in my meager mathematic abilities. Yes, I was still dreading my second test almost as much as my first test, but some of the new concepts that were introduced to me began to "click," so I was pensively optimistic. During the Independence Day "extended" weekend, I studied for two of those days. I was fairly confident with almost all of the concepts, but there were two things I didn't know. One of those concepts was the equation of a parabola, which isn't terribly difficult. The other concept was functions of functions.

Much to my dismay, I completely forgot to do that chapter that dealt with the parabola functions. Much to my annoyance, I couldn't even do the chapter that dealt with functions of functions. So, I decided to study what I knew and "make my money" off of what I knew. Test day, which was July 6^th, came and went, and right away there were three problems I couldn't even do. As I planned, I went on to the problems I knew I could do. Out of the seventeen problems on the test, I answered fourteen of them fully and with minimal mistakes.

I get the test back, and lo-and-behold, I got a 72% on it! What is the chance I would get the exact score on two different tests? I was really, really sad, and disappointed in myself. I had no idea that those three blank problems would do me in that way.

After class, I went up to my instructor and asked him if I should even consider staying with the class during the summer or just wait until the new semester begins. He told me that even though I've been scoring "C's" on my tests, I'm still in the top half of the class [!] so I shouldn't worry too much. Then he showed my aggregate score compared to the rest of the students in the class, and sure enough I was ranked right up in the top half of the class.

Still, I have my worries. Right now it is a close to my bed time, but I still feel that I should be doing more studying. (Of course I could!) I do the homework problems for each respective chapter, and much to my surprise, I can (now) do a surprising amount of the easy and moderately challenging problems. Right now a new chapter is dealing a little bit with functions of functions - the very thing I abhorred not too long ago - and little by little the pieces are falling into place. I'm also worried that I'll put all this effort into this class, and I'll still perform . . . insufficiently to continue the math portion of my required education. I factored into my college schedule me completely screwing up this class, so I could take it again if I needed to. My goal is for me to get a "B".

Like I've said before, my biggest fear is that I put all this effort into this class and I totally screw the pooch at the end of the class, like I did with the previous statistics class I took a year ago. In that class I had a "B" average, but I lowered the average down to a "C" because of the final.

I would feel so burned if I did put all this effort into this class and I couldn't even go with Kevin to Ely, Minnesota.

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Word Perfect X5

Not too long ago, I realized I needed (or rather, wanted) some sort of “official” word-processing application. I used to have OpenOffice, but for some reason, that program would completely crash the old Dell computer I once owned. I didn’t like Microsoft Office because that program changed the look of documents to what it thought I wanted, not what I wanted it to do. I’ll never forget the anger and frustration of trying to make a simple outline – a hierarchical list consisting of coordinating points as roman numerals, with subordinating points as capital letters. For some inexplicable reason, Office 2007 would insert a bulleted list inside the outline. I never figured out why it kept doing that.

Maybe that sale was a bit of serendipity, but WordPerfect went on sale on Amazon last week for $60, so I bought it right away.

Immediately, I was happy when the Amazon box arrived. Unlike the Microsoft Office 2007 bundle, I could actually open this box. It was regular cardboard that was sealed with a simple sticker. The MSO bundle came in some sort of anti-theft plastic box that was literally impossible to open. The only way I could extract the install DVD out of the case was by literally smashing it open! Of course I couldn’t throw away that plastic case because the security key is adhered with an anti-theft anti-removal sticker. Great.

Anyway, the great thing about this program is that it has the compatibility of MS (which I’ll need for writing documents on public computers) without the headaches of having that program constantly trying to change things I didn’t want changed. In other words: it is just significantly more user-friendly.

As a side-note, perhaps this is my chance to start that sci-fi story that has been kicking around inside my head for the past few years.

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