Justin Lloyd's Thinkering

Somebody needs to think about this stuff...

Studying

This is a listing of the subjects I've studied either in college/university, Open University, random classes at various businesses and also online classes through websites such as Lynda.com, Udacity and the Gnomon graphics school.

Sometimes there is a reason to the subject I am studying, e.g. marketing or project management, and other times I just take a class in because the subject intrigues me.

Thanks to the wonders of the modern web, MOOCs and other online course ware I am able to indulge myself as much as I choose too. I prefer self-paced classes where the subject matter, tests and course work is not gated in any particular way.

I also tend to self-paced study because I am not too smart and get frustrated when the rest of the students in the class have raced ahead of me and done their assignments and I am still struggling to understand a fundamental concept or cannot do all the required reading in a timely manner. It is not fair to other people that I slow the class down or hold them back.

Over the years, since I first started to actively track and understand what I was doing, I've taken close to 400 different classes, and taken a stab at a few degrees and diplomas along the way. Some I've passed. Some I've failed.

The thing is, no matter how much I study I'm never going to be smart and I'm never going to be as educated or as literate as everyone else.

I'm always going to be below average in intelligence and education and I'm always going to be slower than everyone else in class.

It doesn't make me stop trying though.

Studying – Latin

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This month I am studying “Latin”

The 6th month of a 6 month part-time course.

Final month of the Latin class. It’s been interesting. I think I might try another language next month.

Studying – Latin

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This month I am studying “Latin”

This is the 4th month of a 6 months part-time course.

Update: Yep, caught up just fine. Already blew through all of the assigned reading material. Now it’s just a matter of sitting in class and working through the exercises and having the teacher point out where I am going wrong.

Studying – Latin

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This month I am studying “Latin”

This is a 6 months part-time course. Which has already started…

Latin is a language that I’ve always been interested in learning.

The local college has a class in it so I just enrolled.

Not exactly a skill I am going to use very much, but it will be fun to study.

The course started two months ago but I have been able to persuade the teacher to let me “catch up” and I frankly don’t think I am going to have much trouble.

Update: Completed the 1st, 2nd, 3rd month of reading material.

Studying – Managing your time

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This month I am studying “Managing your time”

Going to take a refresher course in time management because I think I have fallen off the time-management wagon a few times over the years.

This is a three day on-site workshop.

Update: Eighteen hours of class time (eight hours a day classes, but you cannot really count lunch and coffee breaks as “learning time”), and three more hours of practice and further reading.

Studying – Linux command-line tools essential training

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This month I am studying “Linux command-line tools essential training”

A month-long (two nights a week) class in how to use Awk, Sed, Grep, and a bunch of other Linux command-line tools. Each class is three hours long and concentrates on one or two specific command line tools each class. I am already pretty good with UNIX and Linux, I think. But I hope to learn stuff that will fill in obvious gaps in my knowledge.

Studying – Drawing with confidence

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This month I am studying “Drawing with confidence”

I have never drawn anything with confidence and I doubt that by the end of this two week course I will still be able to draw anything with confidence. But I am willing to try.

The two week course is four nights a week, two hours a night.

Update: Logged 16 hours between class (which is about 13 hours by the time you take out short coffee breaks) and an extra three hours of practice.

P.S. Still not confident.

Studying – Comic book illustration

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This month I am studying “Comic book illustration – Developing ideas and design concepts”

The last month of learning how to create comic book. This month I will be studying the 21st, 22nd, 23rd and 24th months of material. One month of material per week. Figures crossed I can keep up this pace.

This has been a 24 month on-line course on drawing and illustrating comic books that I have been able to cram in to seven months of study so far.

Update: That was a two year college course I crammed in to a little over six months. Also did a bunch of extra coursework and exercises and I am pretty happy with my progress.

Studying – Comic book illustration

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This month I am studying “Comic book illustration – Fundamentals of sequential art storytelling”

This is the 6th month of study. This month I intend to do the coursework for the 17th, 18th, 19th and 20th months. One month of study and practice and assignments per week.

Update: Looks like I am going to overrun my stated goal by about a month. Life is intruding with a move from Washington to California that wasn’t exactly planned for.

Studying – Comic book illustration

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This month I am studying “Comic book illustration – How to make a comic book”

24 months part-time. Studying the 3rd, 4th and 5th month of material and practice exercises and “home work.”

Studying – Comic book illustration

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This month I am studying “Comic book illustration – Drawing comics”

I’ve always wanted to create my own comic book.

Or at least, I’ve always wanted to know *HOW* to create my own comic book.

This is going to be a great introduction to that.

It’s a two year course that I’m going to wrap up in about six months.

Studying – Foundations of figure drawing

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This month I am studying “Foundations of figure drawing”

Two nights a week, one month course offered at the local art school in San Diego I just enrolled for. It’s sort of a follow-on course to last months offering.

Update #1: I am bad at anatomy. But I am getting really good at drawing stick figures and stick figures that look like sausages.

Update #2: I won’t be attending the final week as I am moving from Carlsbad, CA to just North of Seattle at the end of September.

Update #3: Between the 18 hours of class (rather than 24 because I had to skip the last week due to moving house) and some extra practice sessions to make up for the fact I skipped two classes I managed to log 28 hours of practice and study.

Studying – Typography from A to Z

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This month I am studying “Typography from A to Z”

Seems like a basic introductory class on typography. Should be an interesting area of study.

In-person class. Two nights a week, three hours a night for four weeks.

Update: I really liked this class. Instructor was super interesting and had a lot of examples to demonstrate feel and tone just by changing a font or the size of a font.

Also… whitespace. It’s super-important.

Logged 31 hours of classwork and homework and extra studies.

Studying – Basics of colour theory

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This month I am studying “Basics of colour theory”

Short, in-person course offered at the local art school in San Diego. One night a week for one month. Should be super-easy.

Update: Between the 12 hours of scheduled class time and the homework and extra reading I covered, I logged 31 hours of study in colour theory. There are interesting splits between age and gender demographics on preferences for certain colours. And oddly, I fall out of the usual demographic range for age and gender. I prefer yellows. Deep, rich yellows.

Studying – Photographing landscapes

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This month I am studying “Photographing landscapes”

Taking pictures of things that don’t move. I like this class. Though there is more hiking involved.

It is again, a 3-month course, but a different teacher. I spoke with her and she needs the money and I want the experience and knowledge. Going to be compressing it all down in to just a single month of one-on-one instruction instead of mucking about for three-months, one morning a week, part-time.

Update: We did urban environments too! I wasn’t expecting that.

Update #2: Four separate photography courses completed! Managed to compress a year’s worth of photography study in to a pleasant four months.

Studying – Advanced portrait photography

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This month I am studying “Advanced portrait photography”

More portraits. Same teacher. I don’t think I will ever make a full-time living at doing portraits, but it is making me a better photographer overall. Hired teacher to teach me as a near full-time student. He gets $100/hr, I get a crash-course in studio and portrait photography.

Studying – Foundations of portrait photography

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This month I am studying “Foundations of portrait photography”

The one thing I’ve never done is actually learn how to take a good portrait photograph of a person. Same teacher as last time, made the same deal, teach me your three month course in a month full-time.

It is a 3-month, part-time in-person class, four hours a week, about 50 hours of instruction, give or take, in a group setting.

Update: Very enjoyable. Feel much more comfortable in the studio now.

Managed to log about 75 hours in the studio over the month.

Studying – Foundations of photography

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This month I am studying “Foundations of photography”

Three month refresher course in photography because I haven’t done any serious photography since 1990. Just bought a new digital camera since they have started to rival film in some aspects.

I’ve got a Konica point-and-shoot with only a few controls on it. Doesn’t do a half-decent job for snapshots.

I’ve also picked up a traditional Canon EOS 30 because I am just more comfortable with film. I suspect Canon will eventually release a digital version once the sensors get good enough.

Update: After the first class I just hired the teacher privately to take me through the full three months of study one-on-one. Much more fun.

Update #2: Lots of fieldwork. I am liking this.

Studying – Developing websites with PHP

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This month I am studying “Developing websites with PHP”

It’s an online class. Coursework looks stupid easy. I cannot imagine it will take me three months to get through this.

Update: Yep, done inside of two weeks. Handed in my final course week at end of week three. Teacher seemed surprised.

This is why I love self-paced, on-line classes where you just have to interact with the teacher if you get stuck, or need a clarification.

Studying – Design concepts for designers

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This month I am studying “Design concepts for designers”

This is a short in-person class.

I am far from considering myself a designer, but I figure it wouldn’t hurt to understand the entirety of a design concept for various media.

Update: Between the 12 hours of class time and 7 hours of “homework” that I gave myself I logged 19 hours of study and practice.

Studying – Art of caricature

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This month I am studying “Art of caricature”

Eight four-hour hands-on workshops

Update: I am “face blind.” I’ve always had trouble recognising faces but never had a word to go with it. I am apparently good at caricatures though.

Studying – Foundations of drawing

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This month I am studying “Foundations of drawing”

Local art school off Pacific, just a block from the Osiris Studios office, has a couple of workshops. Two hours a week, twice a week for eight weeks. I spoke to the instructor and they will let me double-up with the other class they run (had to pay twice) so I get four nights a week and complete the class in four weeks.

Update: Logged 82 hours total between the classes and take home exercises.

Update #2: I do not wish to see naked people of a certain age ever again… can certainly put you off your dinner.

Studying – Masters of Business Administration

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This month I am studying “Masters of Business Administration”

24 months part-time. 8th month

Update: These people have never had to fire anyone in their entire life!So many HR violations during the role-play session of letting someone go from the company.

Update #2: Yeah, I’m done. I cannot stand these people anymore. I cannot put up with another year of this bullshit. Last week I was chided for “reading too many books” by one of the two teachers I dislike.

Studying – Masters of Business Administration

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This month I am studying “Masters of Business Administration”

Month 7.

I am thinking about quitting.

This entire experience has been a nightmare of idiocy and repeated (broken) business dogma by people who have never run a business in their life.

The class is frustratingly slow.

I’m forbidden from reading ahead. The teachers are unanimous in that “you will be told which books or chapters to read when the time comes.”

Knowledge is not for some arbitrary gatekeeper to spoon out slowly in small doses when they think you might be ready for it, or they deem you worthy.

Knowledge is for gathering.

It’s for everyone.

Stop hoarding it!

Studying – Masters of Business Administration

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This month I am studying “Masters of Business Administration”

My studies continue in month five.

I am getting very frustrated with most of the students in my class and two of the teachers.

Update: It is confirmed, nobody in the class has ever owned or managed a business.

And neither have the two teachers I am frustrated with.

I know, because I asked.

There are two teachers that have their own business. There is one teacher who is retired from his own business.

Then there are two dozen students and two teachers who have never lead a team or a department or directly managed people or run their own business.

And it makes me want to scream every time they open their mouth and pontificate on a subject they have never experienced in real life.

“But the book says this!”

Argh!

Think for yourself for once!

Studying – Masters of Business Administration

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This month I am studying “Masters of Business Administration”

Update #1: “We will go around the class and offer our opinions on this. Remember, there are no wrong opinions. Justin, you start, what’s your opinion on this?”

I state my opinion.

“Your opinion is wrong because that is not what the book says.”

WTF!?!?

Update #2: Third month, the slow pace it is beginning to chafe.

Studying – Masters of Business Administration

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This month I am studying “Masters of Business Administration”

This is the 2nd month of a 24 month part-time on-line course.

Update: “Don’t ask questions” seems to be the mantra of every one of these classes. Apparently I am supposed to accept the doctrine as it is written, even if the doctrine is wrong.

Studying – Masters of Business Administration

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This month I am studying “Masters of Business Administration”

Decided to enroll in a formal college course for business studies. Going to specialise in either entrepreneurship or in HR (because HR is always done badly).

This is the first month of a 24 month course. Unfortunately the course is gated by the online school and the instructors are adamant they don’t want to just hand over the course material and reading list so it is really going to take me 24 months to complete.

Studying – International project management

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This month I am studying “International project management”

8th, 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th months. The course load is designed for people who are too busy with other aspects of their lives. I am the least smartest person in the room (I really am as dumb as a box of rocks). My only advantage is persistence and time.

Studying – International project management

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This month I am studying “International project management”

My second month of the international project management course. I’ve done four months of work so far. I am hoping I can get another 4 months of class work done in this month.

Update #1: Time zones, communications methods, and apparently the professor has never heard of email, IRC or instant messaging.

Update #2: Two multi-choice tests, two (exceptionally short) essays, the first about a personnel issue with a remote team of someone not doing their assigned work, the second on language communications barriers.

Update #3: By my estimate I only managed three months of class work. I didn’t get most of the chapters read I was supposed to due to work commitments. I am making excuses I know, but I just didn’t have the time.

Studying – International project management

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This month I am studying “International project management”

Outsourcing and off-shoring are going to be huge in the future.

Figured I should know how to work with remote, international teams.

This is a one year project management course. And a year seems like an awful long time to gather such a small amount of knowledge.

Update #1: Talked to the professor and he has agreed I can do all the course work and reading ahead of time. I just need to be present for a few class discussions.

Yay! Go team compressed learning!

Update #2: So far basic project management theory. Completed the 1st through 4th months of reading, took two multi-choice tests (stupid easy), wrote four short essays on various aspects of project management.

Studying – Classic art and its influence on culture

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This month I am studying “Classic art and its influence on culture”

Nothing wrong with studying some of the classic works of art. Also I get to hang out in museums and look thoughtful.

It’s a short,part-time, in-person workshop-y thing.

Update: Interpretation of art changes with the social fabric of the time. Whodathunkit?!?

Got 30 hours of time logged between the in-person class, required reading and the actual studying of, you know, actual works of art.

Also, classic art is full of naked boobies.

Studying – German

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This month I am studying “German”

Final month of the six months course

Update: Spreichen sie Deutsch? Nicht gut.

Thank God that’s over with.

More German than any (non-German) man should endure.

Studying – German

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This month I am studying “German”

6 months part-time local college non-credit course. 5th month

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