Write a few brief words in your blog this week about what you have learned, what you have done, and what thoughts you had about it.

COMP3421 seems like it’ll be a very interesting course. I’ve already learned enough about using primitives of OpenGL, and where the notion of computer graphics fits into the world that I’m really excited to continue with this course. The hard maths, I gather, is next lecture, so I guess it’s time to start brushing up.

MATH1081 has been, thus far, pretty dull. I’ve really, really got to put more effort in for this course, mainly to stay awake through the not-great lectures. Good to have company for these lectures, though; Curtis, Jo, and Kat all show up, so I don’t have to heckle the whole time.

MATH1231 has also been pretty bad. The two lecturers: our protagonist, here played by one Daniel Mansfield, the young, charming hero — reminiscent of Chris Tisdell, actually — who apparently took his uppers before teaching the algebra strand, and an antagonist, played by Bruce Henry, the head of the School of Mathematics and Statistics, who spent an hour being vague, boring, repetitive, and unengaging. I’m not necessarily sure that spending the first ten minutes highlighting the STEM equality problem and emphasising the need for respect is a great way to kick off.

I’m also not sure how online tutorials can possibly be a good idea. I’m almost definite they won’t work in my baroque set-up for whatever crazy reason, and they’ll blame me for their broken platform and tools. If they want to use an LMS, they should go and use an LMS, or, better, hire teaching staff. Roll on the teaching strand of the 2020 Vision.

And COMP1927 has been fun, except I’m still writing, typing, and saying ‘1917’ automatically; also, I keep running into jas, and getting recognised. Aside from that, my Monday class was an order of magnitude more boring than my Wednesday class, so I might put some more effort in. I suspect I needed to get my eye back in; perhaps I’ll wear the Lucky Tweed Jacket next time.

So, from this week, I need to put more effort into more closely following my time plan, and following through with doing stuff on time. I’ve got a selection of lecture notes that still need review, expansion, and digitisation, as well as a stack of exercises to power through and an “online tutorial”.