pagsz's Journal: First Day of Class

Well, today I had my first classes of the Fall 2002 semester. ENL 221: Existential Fiction at 9:00 (like morning is the best time for existentialism) followed by CIS 360: Algorithms & Data Structures at 10:00. Right now, I'm in the middle of a three-hour gap. Next class, CIS 370: Design of Operating Systems, starts at 2:00, followed by MTH 331: Probability at 3:00.

Yes, all of my classes are on a M - W - F basis (except MTH 331, which is M - W). It's weird having all my classes in one day like that, but it gives me two days off (well, almost, anyway, the CIS 370 Lab is Tuesday at 1:00).

Anyway, today is just the standard "first day of class" stuff anyway. Get the syllabus, go over the basics of the course, and that's it. The only other thing going on is people adding and dropping courses, shuffling around their schedules. I'm happy with what I've got, so I don't think I'm gonna need that Add/Drop slip. Two more quick course introductions, and then I can go home for the day.
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Some random thoughts on Day 1 of F02:

1. Lunch Lines: Getting lunch today was such a pain. I forgot how many people get crammed into that little space. It took about twenty minutes to get my food (two slices of pizza, chicken tenders, and a soda). Plus the guy behind in line me kept sticking his tray in my back. Kind of annoying.
2. Back on a Mac: For the first time since May, I am using a Macintosh computer. It's also my first exposure to Mac OS X (10.1.S). I toyed around with it for a couple of minutes before logging on to Slashdot. It's a nice interface; I like it. Maybe my next machine will be a Mac. I'd miss the taskbar, but I'd learn to live without it. The tabbed browsing feature in Mozilla would make that a whole lot easier.

   Speaking of Mozilla, it's too bad that the campus computers don't have it installed. I'm gonna miss it. Right now, I'm using Netscape Communicator 4.79. I know some of the Windows machines have Netscape 6.2 installed, but I doubt I'll find Mozilla anywhere (or, for that matter, the newly-released Netscape 7).

   One thing I'd forgotten about Macs: It's not Control-C copy and Control-V to paste, it's Apple-C and Apple-V. Gotta remember that.

3. Reading: Now that the new semester has started, I can resume reading the magazines I'm to cheap to subscribe to. It's a good way to kill those three hours between classes (that is, when I don't have any work to catch up on.
4. People: A few of the people I work with at Wal-Mart in Fall River are also attending here at UMass Dartmouth. Saw one girl today, just after my first class.
5. Time Off: With the fall semester starting up, I'm going to have fewer days that I can do absolutely nothing (which is my absolute favorite thing to do. Between classes and work, I'm probably going to have to do something every day of the week. Tomorrow is one exception: I have no classes and no work. I think I shall enjoy it.

Update: 08:00 PM -- Wednesday September 04 2002

Linux: Seems that through my CIS 370 course, I will get my first introduction to Linux. The computers for that Lab (mentioned above somewhere) are running it. Cool.