Day 2: In which Andy makes some friends

For those of you who saw the picture from the corner of the room on Facebook, the title may come as a bit of a surprise. I don't know how it happened. One minute I was in social hell and the next I found my newbie tribe (and some very nice second year students, too). Lucky thing, too, because the bulk of the day was spent learning three different forms of internet record keeping/communication systems which, if you know me at all, requires exactly three times more technological ability than I have. Without a cohort of equally frustrated friends I might have had to resort to flailing around on the floor in hopes that someone would rush me from the room into a warm vat of chocolate. As it was, it was only a half of an "Expresso Escape"bar(60% cacao) and I managed to register for exactly one of the five classes I hope to be taking. Maybe tomorrow I can figure out how to register for the other four.

Somebody told me the registrar would automatically sign me up for the research classes (Introduction to PhD Research 1005 and Library Research). The automatic registration is a bit worrisome. Obviously not one of those voluntary courses with a waiting list. The one course I did manage to almost enroll in is called Humanistic Foundations of Organizational Systems. I'm sure I'll be writing about that more as I begin to understand what the title actually means. It does require at least three big textbooks so it may take me more than the next three days of "residential conference" for me to be able to fool you that I have solved the mystery. (Yes, I do feel like Scarecrow in Oz.) There's this other thing too-- Colloquium. It's new and it's on line. The nice people in IT spent the better part of an hour trying to show us how to use it but couldn't get an internet connection to last long enough. It's required of all new students. (Lucky me) Some of the old students made it clear they weren't going to play. (Really lucky them.) I have no idea what the purpose is, but I am always a little wary of things that are required "for my own good."

Enough about all of that. Tomorrow I have a class in transformational learning which may even transform me into a better blogger. For tonight I have a sixteen year old granddaughter out driving herself to a movie to meet with her friends so I'm very distracted. If I'm not smarter tomorrow, I hope to be at least relieved.

Oh, and if you are worried you are going to get over exposed, I think once the RC is over, you'll see a little less blogging and a lot more slogging. (I saw the syllabus for the one class and it reminded me of Kilimanjaro...step, breathe, step, breathe.)