I've put together a list of classes I'm interested in taking at El Camino this spring. http://www.elcamino.edu/ Actually, some are prerequisites that I have no interest in taking. This is based on the Fall 2004 schedule, since the Spring 2005 schedule is not yet available. Some of the classes I want, I don't see in the catalog. They are in the online classes booklet that I have... Perhaps online is the only way for some classes - at El Camino, anyway.
(See the end of the post for the class list -
First, I must ramble on at great length as if my situation was important and dramatic)
I was thinking that I could take 4 or 5 classes at a time - that's "full time student" right?
Mebbe take 1 art, 1 math, 1 programming, 1 physical education and/or 1 foreign language course at the same time.
Crazy talk? Mebbe. I have no idea how much work that is.
And of course, I have to work somewhere, and partake in the ongoing funtime ritual known as "paying the bills".
4 Classes is probably too much. I don't know. I also don't want to work 4 or 5 years for a 2 year education.
Me <---Almost 40.
I have not taken any class of any kind for at least 10 years...and I didn't do well in those classes. I'd like to think I'm smarter now, but I'm also older.
Michelle has said - ((more in support of her staying with B. Dalton and bookselling retail management than what I will choose to do as a career)) - that a person should stick with their job and their company, (or at least their industry) as it's what you know, and moving up is easier with seniority. I can't argue with the logic of this thinking, but I'm fed up with the video game industry.
I have this (prossibly misguided) impression that other industries are smarter, more logical, more reasonable, and less immature than the video game industry.
(I meant to say prossibly - it is not a typo. Prossibly = probably+possibly)
You remember when you got your first job? Your first job ever, not working for family. The workplace was disorganized, a barely functional system choked with chaos and inefficiency. You did your best to streamline and organize the process (as much as you were allowed) of getting the work done. While at this first job, you thought "Damn, these people have their heads in their butts." Then you went to your next job, and the next. (I've had almost 20 different jobs now, and I'm only 33. In the old days, people would get out of high school, get a job at 'The Plant' and work there for 37 years until getting caught in a piece of industrial machinery.)
You came to realize that every job is a state of disorganized chaos, just efficient enough to stay afloat. It's not that those people at the first job were that bad, it's that every job is that bad. The process is always in a state of growth, with new technology replacing the old, and so the process is always in flux.
The workers are always in a state of "make do" without stopping and re-inventing the process in the most efficient way. It's only when a catastrophe happens that the time is taken to create a new process. If the process fails when a virus knocks out all your PCs and you have to start over. Or a corporate takeover. Or a fire. Or a war. Like Japan after WW2. They rebuilt their factories after the war, and built them will all new technology and processes. This allowed them to kick America's ass in manufacturing.
So anyway - my point is that I expect that a different industry to have its shit together, mostly because I'm dissatisfied with this one. Will another industry make me a happy camper? Probably not. The only way I'll be a satisfied worker is to work for myself. Otherwise I'll always be looking at the desk next to me, complaining in my mind about how my neighbor does half the work I do, but got the raise I wanted. Blahgen.
The alternative is to stay in the industry I'm in. This would mean moving up into management, because being a QA Tester is a job for 17 year olds. I could do this.
There are minuses to this, however. While the industry is growing, it's still largely a California Career. There aren't a lot of video game companies in other states.
Another minus is my age. At 33, I'm old for the industry, especially to still be in an entry level position. I might be able to get a Lead position, especially at Universal - if I really try. I was kind of dismayed in June when I applied at 6 different video game companies, and none of them called me. I have 4 years of experience. It might be that 4 years is too long to still be entry level, and they shied away from me. Still kinda worrisome.
College.
I'm interested in web design - art, layout, and programming. This really interests me because it's interactive. It has layers, complexity. It can be simple, or it can be complicated. It has art and a function. The cute duck art is also a button. The button takes you someplace else. It's like a book and a video game. The web is all about words, it's writing and art and function. I like to think I'm a writer. A decent one anyway. While I'm not an artist, I enjoy playing with pictures using photoshop.
In the class list I just put together, the web programming classes I want to take have prerequisites for math - lots of it. Trigonometry. Damn.
Math is a big reason I have not gone to college up to this point. And now it's Trig time. :::long exhalation:::
I'm also interested in electronics. Gadgets and gizmos. I have lots of ideas for little electronic doo dadds, but I have no knowledge to build one. I'd probably need to be an electrical engineer to build one. Can you say "trigonometry" kids? I knew you could.
Math is a taunting bully
waving to me with my left shoe.
The ground all muddy between us,
my socks are white white new.
It's a poem, but it aint haiku.
Here are the classes I mentioned.
Art 39ab - 3 units
Advertising Design1
Art 40abcd - 3 units
Advertising Design2
Art 41ab - 3 units
Lettering and Typography
Art 42abcd - 3 units
Lettering 2
Art 29ab - 3 units
Fundamentals of Color
Art 37ab - 3 units
Two-Dimensional Design 1
Art 141abcd - 3 units
Computer Art 1 - Photoshop for PC
Art 143abcd - 3 units
Digital Design and Publishing
Art 146abcd - 3 units
Designing for the World Wide Web
Business 14 - 3 units
Marketing
Computer Information Systems 30 - 3 units
Introduction to E-Commerce
Computer Information Systems 133 - 3 units
Web Programming Concepts
Computer Information Systems 134 - 3 units
Web Programming 1
Computer Science 1 - 4 units
Problem Solving and Program Design Using C++
Computer Science 2 - 5 units
Introduction to Data Structures
Computer Science 3 - 4 units
Computer Programming in Java
Computer Science 23 - 4 units
Advanced Computer Programming in Java
Electronics and Computer Technology 11 - 3 units
Introduction to electronics
Electronics and Computer Hardware Technology 22 - 3 units
Basic Electronic Fabrication
Spanish 1 - 4 units
Elementary Spanish 1
Spanish 2 - 4 units
Elementary Spanish 2
Spanish 3 - 4 units
Intermediate Spanish 1
Spanish 5 - 3 units
Advanced Spanish 1
Physical Education 251abcd - 1 unit
Tennis
Academic Strategies 40ab - 2 units
Mathematics Anxiety Workshop
Mathematics 23
or test out to Algebra
Mathematics 40 - 4 units
Elementary Algebra
Mathematics 60 - 4 units
Elementary Geometry
Mathematics 170 - 3 units
Trigonometry
Mathematics 190 (recommended but not required)
Single Variable Calculus and Analytic Geometry 1
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