Idle Musings

2 weeks since I last posted, due to various problems. We had yet another new lecturer last week, drafted in at the last minute. Clearly hadn’t had much time to prepare for the session as the teaching was quite confusing in parts even though I pretty much know the stuff we’re doing, especially the bits we’d done the week before. And an amazing development this evening - we actually had the same lecturer as last week. Finally some consistency! Unfortunately, the lecturer in question is still very confusing when explaining the subject, which doesn’t help when we’re already behind schedule. To add to the fun this evening, the smart board didn’t work when we started and then, when it had been brought on line, there was a power surge in the building which knocked it out again!
It’s half term next week and we’re still messing about with basic arithmetic concepts - indices and fractions tonight. We need to start moving ahead or it’s going to bite us later in the course. I’m going to have to invest in the course textbook and do some extra work at weekends, especially now that we have finally been told what the course textbook actually is!

I’m reading The Histories by Herodotus at the moment, about the Persian invasion of Greece around 480BCE, with a lot of incidental information about the world in general at that era. Or the part of the world which was known to the Greeks, at least. It’s a fascinating read if you can keep track of where Herodotus is up to, as he does jump around a lot from the main thread of the story to side stories on the background or just related anecdotes. I’m impressed by Herodotus himself in the way he presents information, clearly differentiating between what he knows from personal experience and what he has only heard about at second or third hand.
And I didn’t realise that the Phoenicians had circumnavigated Africa in about 600BCE, going from the Red Sea round South Africa and West Africa to the Mediterranean and finally to Egypt.

There are only 10 kinds of people in the world - those who understand binary and those who don’t.

Third evening at college today and I finally feel we’re getting somewhere. Still on the basic arithmetic stuff, but at least we have a lecturer who is likely to stay with us for a while until the scheduled guy gets back. He was off sick last week (and this) so we’ve had three different lecturers in three weeks. Still, I suppose we'll get to see him one day. The stand-in lecturer we had last week did very well under the circumstances, and we finished early, so that was a bonus. Had to work the full stint tonight though (Shame! Mutinous murmurings among the hoi-polloi! LOL) but I did manage to impress tonight's lecturer by answering "infinity" to one question! Amazing that more people don't know the "lazy eight".
Not as many of us there this time, so we might have the 2 classes merged next week. I’m getting to know the others in the class and we seem to be gelling as a group. It’s nice to be back in a “communal” environment after years of working essentially as a one-man band in my day job.
I'm feeling pretty relaxed about this course at present, but we haven't got into Statistics or Algebra yet. I struggled with those at school years ago but I'm hoping the passing years have helped, and a friend of mine has offered to help with the Stats stuff if (more likely when!) I need it. Geometry is also waiting for us somewhere down the road but that shouldn’t be too difficult. I just have to remember it’s plane not spherical geometry.
A friend of mine has just started to post some of his photos on a site called www.treklens.com so we're sharing our novice experiences over a pint in the pub. Some of the stuff he’s posted is pretty good and he’s been getting some nice feedback. And I’ve mentioned to another friend that I’ve started this blog, since he was one of the main voices saying I should get my ideas on paper (or should that be on screen?). I await his comments with interest.
There have been a couple of interesting articles in “New Scientist” in the last couple of weeks. Of course, there are always interesting articles in “New Scientist”, but some pique my curiosity more than others. I have a training course in work all day tomorrow, however, so there isn’t really time for a long comment this evening.

I don't really know why I've started this blog, but some of my friends think I have some good / strange / weird ideas which could / should be shared. Or maybe they just want to get me off their backs by keeping me busy on my computer! Whatever! Anyway, I've just started back at college (evening class only - 1 night, 3 hours per week)after a good many years out of formal education so mixing with a new and younger set of people seemed like a good time to start these ramblings. For the record, I'm doing GCSE Maths (even though I keep calling it "O Level"!) not for my work but for my own personal purposes. It was a little daunting last Tuesday walking in for the first time, not knowing who else would be there, or how many or how old. In the event, it was quite painless. There are about 15 of us in the class, and even though I'm easily the oldest (including the lecturer!) there are some others who have been out of school for a while. Got talking to one of the others after the lesson and she seems a very nice and very interesting girl. Next session is due on Tuesday, so I'll probably not post again until after then. I've no idea where this blog will go in the days / weeks to come, but it will be an interesting experience for me if nothing else.