Very little. No surprise.

I mowed the back yard today. I'm till sore from weed pulling. Still. I planted some really old basil seeds. Who knows if any of them will sprout. I finally put my .22 back together. That's about it. Another lazy day.

GIS Minor - link

For your viewing and informational pleasure. Will open in a new window.

http://www.pdx.edu/geography/sites/www.pdx.edu.geography/files/MinorinGIS.pdf

Summer classes start soon

Already! Only one week between finals week and the start of the first of my summer term classes at PSU. It lasts eight weeks (three weeks shorter than a normal term) and is completely online, including all texts/articles. There is an extra small fee for it being online (that has never made any sense to me. It's cheaper too do an online class by far. Why do we pay more?) but textbooks can be expensive so I'm OK with it.

The class is GEOG 311U Climatology. There is a prerequisite of GEOG 201, which I don't have but was able to register for the class anyway, with permission from an Extended Services administrator (I'd rather not even explain what that means). This class has nothing to do with the geography minor I'm trying to get, but it does fulfill the last of the three cluster classes that I needed for my bachelor's degree. I was originally intending to go with the Sustainability cluster, but the two classes I already finished (Environmental Ethics and Environment & History) also applied to two other clusters. The other clusters were Freedom, Privacy, and Technology AND Global Environmental Change, the latter being the cluster I have settled on. Having three clusters to choose from left me a lot more freedom to choose the last class I needed (your cluster can be changed at any time). I looked at the classes available online over the summer and decided this one sounded the most interesting to me. Several others were hard to pass up. The first month will be easy. The last month will be much harder because my second class starts then.

Here is the decidedly vague description of the class from the catalog - A study fo the physical processes which comprise the climatic system, from the global scale to the local scale. Particular attention is given to the nature of climatic variability, its causes, and its implications for human activity.

Class starts on Friday morning at 9am.

Sore

I did very little today. I obviously overdid it yesterday pulling weeds. My legs were sore all day today. What a drag. I did manage to get to my appointment with the geography department at PSU. It was probably a waste of time and I didn't really learn anything new. None the less, my irrationality allows me to feel a little better about going for the minor. I also made a coffee appointment for Friday morning with my friend Karen who I haven't seen for a long time. I watched more Game of Thrones and Deadwood episodes.

Spring term grades

Final grades were posted late today. I'm a little surprised.

• EC350 (Economics of Developing Countries) - I got an A. This was the only class that I was pretty sure I would get an A. I think the professor used a grade curve too. If this is the case then a lot of people probably did a lot worse on the final than I did. Or maybe there were a lot of A's. I liked this class mostly and did managed to learn a lot about the subject. I'm glad I took this class instead of the heterodox economics class.
• EC430 (Resource and Environmental Economics) - I'm flabbergasted that I got an A in this class. How did that happen? I did not have fun in this class.  
• HST339U (Environment & History) - I did not do well on the final. I'm not really a fan of essay style exam questions and that's mostly what both the midterm and the final exams were. I have a hard time producing quality writing when I'm under a short time constraint. But I didn't think I would get a B- . That's a bee minus. Almost a C. My worst grade yet. 

My PSU GPA now stands at 3.55 while my cumulative for both PCC and PSU is 3.72, but really who cares? 

I'm just glad the term is over. I wasn't feeling motivated at all. I'm kind of excited now that I'm going to be taking a couple of summer classes. Kind of weird.

Weeds

I slept in again today. No surprise there. I pulled weeds in the back yard for three hours. I got about half of what was still there. There are at least 5 kinds of invasive species back there and they grow like crazy. That's the only thing productive I did today. I watched three episodes of Game of Thrones and one Deadwood episode. Both of these shows are brutal but have really good actors and story lines. My housemates have Netflix and I often benefit from it. My ankle is a bit sore so I didn't ride at all today.

Today

I went to the PSU campus this morning. There was hardly anyone there. I found out that I have to take at least 6 credits to get any financial aid. The three times I went by the information desk no one was there. I still haven't found out where the Geography office is, but I do have an appointment for next Monday morning to talk to someone. I decided to eat lunch at the food carts near Pioneer Square. I got Korean Curry Rice with potatoes, carrots, chicken, and onions. Cheap and filling. It's a mix of rainy and sunny today. Mostly rainy though, so I only rode my bicycle for a couple of miles at the most. I watched a couple of episodes of Time Team America (the Britsh version is better).

Cha-cha-cha-changes

Why do I always seem to do this to myself. After finding out that I only qualify for financial aid for the summer term if I take 6 or more credits, I decided to take two classes over the summer. I already mentioned EC312, which I am now registered for. I also am trying to get registered for GEOG311U (Climatology) which is an online class that starts Monday and last for two months (all online summer classes are two months). I have to get approved for an exception to be able to register. I sent off an email to the Geology Dept. asking for approval but haven't heard anything yet. I hope I hear something soon. If I can't get in, I may have to ask approval for an exception for either G351U (Oceanography) or G430U (Life of the Past). I think they want to make sure only upperclassmen are registering for these classes and the online registration process can't accommodate this. At least I hope that's all it is. I hate stressing out about classes right before they are supposed to start.

This plan for the summer is very different than what I was originally thinking about. It should help with either not having to take an extra term next fall or maybe even not having to take a summer class next year. It remains to be seen and my meeting next week with a Geology department advisor will hopefully shed a little more light on this.

I went ahead and changed my fall classes also. So much for the "perfect" schedule I had in store for myself. I dropped EC312, since I'm taking it over the summer. I'm a little disappointed because I wanted to take it from the professor who teaches it in the fall. I also dropped my senior capstone. I still have plenty of time to get this done and I may change my mind about the area of study if I like the GIS stuff. I am still interested in grant-writing though. We'll see. I'm keeping EC417U (Women and the Economy), mostly because it fits in with the two new classes I registered for. Plus the professor is supposed to be good.

I registered for GEOG230 (Environment and Society: Global Perspectives) and GEOG380U (Maps and Geographic Information) and the lab that goes with it. I'm not very happy about the 8am start time. Or the hour and a half break between first and second classes on Monday and Wednesday. The early start time is definitely worse though. At least it's only twice a week. And since the one class is only a 200-level class, I'm expecting it to be relatively easy.

My possible summer schedule:

• GEOG311U: online, 6/25-8/17
• EC312: MTWTh, 9:15-11:35, 7/23-8/19

My possible fall schedule

• GEOG380U: MW, 8:00-9:50
• GEOG380U lab; T only, 3:55-5:25
• GEOG230: MWF, 11:30-12:35
• EC417U: MWF, 12:45-1:50

Dear Diary...

I'm going to try to post something every day about what I did that day. This is more of an experiment for me than anything else. Who knows how long this will last.

• I woke up early and then went back to bed for a couple more hours. I generally don't do this. Once I'm up that's usually it.
• I talked to Katrina for a few minutes. 
• I did my laundry (one medium load this week). 
• I went for a ride on my bike. The short version - only 6.5 miles.
• I've watched at least three documentaries including The Vice Guide to Liberia (Vice does some really intriguing "travel guides". This is one of them), In God We Trust? (interesting, sad, doesn't solve anything), and Bulgarian Dirty Bombs (another Vice piece but very short). I'm about halfway through What's the problem with nudity? which is a very interesting BBC video about being naked and the human naked (furless/hairless) condition.
• I washed dishes. Twice. This is how boring my day was. I'm telling you about stuff like this.
• I made my own syrup. It wasn't that great, but I was craving pancakes and needed something. 

So I count this as a day spent doing next to nothing. Hopefully tomorrow will be a little more...something else. 

Possible future school schedule

I still haven't talked to anyone in the Geography department about this yet. I've been waiting for finals week to get over. I will try to get this done early next week. Anyway, I'm trying to see what my schedule might be if I decide to get the minor in Geology: Geographic Information Systems (GIS). There is a total of 29 credits for the minor, with 4 required classes and 3 electives from a list of 12 choices. The required classes are GEOG 210 Physical Geography or GEOG 230 Environment and Society (I'll be taking this one);GEOG 380 Maps and Geographic Information; GEOG 488 GIS I - Introduction; and GEOG 492 GIS II - Advanced. There are 4 of the electives that I'm interested in, but I only need 3 of them. I'm pretty sure I'll take GEOG 485 Map Design and Production and GEOG 495 Maps, Models, and GIS. I'm not sure which of these last two I should take - either GEOG 484 Cartographic Applications of GIS or GEOG 489 Building a GIS Database with GPS.

If I decide to go forward with this I will may have to take classes over both this summer and next. And I may have to take one final class in the fall of 2013. I'm pretty sure I'm going to take EC 312 Macroeconomics over this summer no matter what I decide. The class is only 4 weeks long (July 23 - August 19) but meets 4 times a week (MTWTh) from 9:15 - 11:35. That's a pretty compact schedule, but it's only one class. And that still gives me a month off before and 3 weeks after to be lazy and enjoy the summer.

So, the next 18 months might look something like this:

• Summer 2012 - EC 312
• Fall 2012 - GEOG 230, GEOG 380, EC 460
• Winter 2013 - GEOG 485, GEOG 488, 400-level EC (may not need this?) or cluster class (lots of choices)
• Spring 2013 - GEOG 484 or 489; GEOG 492, GEOG 495
• Summer 2013 - Senior capstone
• Fall 2013 - if earlier 400-level EC is required (see Winter 2013), then I will take the cluster class here

I should graduate with either 182 or 186 credits (180 min. required) with a major in economics and a minor in GIS.

Lazy gardener

I finally bought some more fish fertilizer and have used it a couple of times. It's been so wet that I don't really want to add more moisture.

I planted Sweet Basil this year again. I put in about twice as much as I did last year. I'm looking forward to homemade pesto again. I also planted some more bunching onions. I might get one or two heads of broccoli if I'm lucky. I decided to stick with two tomato plants instead of three. I was basically too lazy to find the kind I wanted and don't really have the room for 3 with the other stuff I'm growing. The tomato plants I do have are doing pretty well. I took the cloches off about a week ago. I probably should have left them on longer, but I was getting impatient. They are near 3 feet tall now, but the Georgia Streak is about 6 inches taller and much fuller than the Black Seaman. As soon as we start to get more consistent sun they should really take off. We've already passed our normal yearly average of rain. The weather has been noticeably wetter the past few years. The cilantro is yummy and is starting to grow up instead of out. I have a lot fewer spinach plants this year and they are doing great. I had way too many for just me last year.

A minor?

I should have considered this a lot earlier. I'm not sure why I didn't.

I think I might go for a minor in Geography as well as majoring in economics. The minor will specifically focus on Geospatial Information Systems (GIS). This is some really cool mapping technology and techniques that may help me get a job after I graduate. I love maps and have for a long time. I think I may really like this program. I need to talk to an advisor in the Geography department, but I wouldn't even take my first class towards it until the winter term. I would have to take one extra term in the fall to get the minor, so that's not very exciting. But it should (hopefully) be worth the extra time and money (technically debt).

This minor consists of 29 credits (7 classes), none of which are classes that I've already taken.

So close

I'm nearly done with the term. I took two of my finals yesterday (Monday). One was at 10:15am and the other wasn't until 5:30pm so I had to make two trips to campus. The classes were Econ of Developing Countries and Environment & History. I think I'll end up with B's in both of these classes.

My final for Environmental and Natural Resource Econ is a take-home test. Less pressure, but pretty long. It is due tomorrow (Wed.) at 4pm. One last trip to drop it off at the Econ Dept office. I have one last multiple part question to answer, but I don't really understand what we are supposed to do. I've emailed the professor and am waiting for an answer. I already pointed out 4 questions that were messed up and the quiz was changed. As I've pointed out before, I'm not very impressed with his teaching abilities. I'll probably end up with a B in this class as well. I haven't felt very motivated this term. I need to work on that next year.

I changed my mind. Again.

I'm not taking EC460 this fall. I'll probably take it the following term. Instead, I decided to register for a senior capstone project. I went for one that should teach me how to write grant proposals for non-profits. I want to get my capstone done earlier rather than later. I suppose I probably still have time to change my mind again. I hope not, but who knows.