Math, Python & GTK+ 3

Today has been, either entirely unproductive or very productive depending on your point of view. My house is still a mess & we certainly didn’t eat ‘well’ today by any stretch of the imagination, so in that respect at least, it was most unproductive. However, I feel like I have been productive today, if only in my head.

This morning I started out reviewing math in anticipation of my 2nd test tomorrow, and figuring out my fancy new TI-83Plus graphing calculator. I’ve never had a graphing calculator before, and thus spent a good couple hours googling & paging through the manual figuring out how to graph stuff, set up tables, find zeros, etc. I still haven’t figured out how to do everything by any stretch of the imagination, but I do feel like I have a decent grasp on the basics at this point which is nice. And, at least tomorrow I won’t be the only one sitting there doing long division & multiplication without a calculator!!

Most of the rest of the day, starting shortly after lunch has involved learning Python. Seif Lotfy got me started a couple days ago reading the Python GTK+ 3 Tutorial and I’ve been messing around with the examples from there without really having any clue what I was doing. Today he sent me over to ‘Learn Python the Hard Way‘ by Zed A. Shaw and I spent most of the afternoon & evening reading & working my way through the first 20 examples (and pestering Seif with questions). At this point, I’m feeling like I have at least some clue of how python actually works, and am trying to decide whether I should finish ‘learn python the hard way’ first or go back and start re-reading the tutorial on GTK+ 3, to see if it makes more sense.

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Am I really starting to like *math*?!

Coming up on 2 months of school, and I’m becoming increasingly concerned about myself – I’m actually starting to enjoy math again! Its slightly strange, but its hard & challenging which makes it interesting and fun in its own way. Might just manage to pass this class afterall… I hope. :p

Leaning more and more away from spanish too, which is slighlty sad. But the classes here are just not on the same level of instruction at all as those in Spain, and I’m just not sure its worth it. Maybe I’ll take french or arabic or japanese or something in the fall – a 3rd language has always kinda been on the to-do-list. Not that my spanish is perfect, but short of living where I use it, I doubt its gonna get much better. What else will I be taking? No freaking clue. Any suggestions? Whats interesting? I love to read 🙂

GNOME & Computer Science at KSU

Today was the start of my 3rd week back at school for the first time in, well, 5.5 yrs. Its been a while, and is proving to be slightly more stressful than I remember… Anyhow, I’m currently majoring in Spanish Translation at Kent State University, and have been trying to decide what I want to minor in (most likely computer science). I’ve always wanted to learn to program, and have simply never been very successful in teaching myself (basically, I know just enough to break stuff:). When I was in college previously, I was simply never willing to take the required math classes to be able to get into the computer classes that I actually wanted to take. Oh, and I refused to use windows. Which, for some reason was required by both of the colleges at which I’ve previously inquired. All of which added up to me simply not taking computer classes in the past.

Today though, I finally went and hunted down a computer science adviser, and as I was talking to him about classes, system requirements, etc, realized that he was actually running GNOME! GNOME 2.x granted, but still, GNOME! I was (am!) elated!  As you may suspect, I was assured that no, I will not have to use windows in any of their computer science classes, which is of course exactly what I was hoping for.

All of this adds up to me looking forward to taking a computer science class or two in the coming semesters. Assuming I can pass Algebra for Calculus. Which, at this point, is quite the assumption, since its been a solid, oh, I don’t know, 10 years since I’ve done *ANY* math besides basic addition, subtraction, multiplication and they very occasional division?? Yeah. Its not looking so hot right now.