Categories
Adventure

Tri-C Math MOOC

Believe IslandI just completed my first MOOC (Massive Open Online Course). It was a developmental math course with Cuyahoga Community College (Tri-C). Apparently they received a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and now offer this developmental math course for free!

I’ve been checking out some courses to take this summer on Coursera, and a co-worker of mine pointed out that Tri-C was offering a free MOOC. So I had to sign up and try it out and see just how rusty my math skills had gotten.

The course uses Blackboard and was pretty easy to follow. It was broken up into four levels that you can take at your own leisure, with advancement to the next level upon completing a test at a certain score.

  • Level One – Integer Numbers
  • Level Two – Fractions & Decimals
  • Level Three  – Order of Operations
  • Level Four – Variable Expressions

While I did breeze through the course and completed it in two days, I did realize that I had forgotten how to divide fractions! I’ve been living in a decimal world and it just left me. Luckily the great tutorials shared in the course by Khan Academy got me back up to speed in no time.

Oh, by the way Khan Academy is awesome. So check it out often!

While I wouldn’t really agree that the course offered “game” mechanics, it was structured very well and easy to follow along. The quizzes and tests were very easy to complete and timely.

While I didn’t learn anything new, I was glad to refresh up on some dormant skills and am glad I game this class a shot. It’s a fantastic free resource that I’d highly recommend to anyone looking to brush up or to improve their developmental math skills.

Categories
Video Games

Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon

Luigi's Mansion: Dark MoonLuigi has always been a favorite of mine and I always preferred him over Mario. So I was very excited to play a game that he starred in. I was even more glad after playing it a bit and realizing that not only was this a game with Luigi, but it was also a very fine game as well. Luigi deserves such.

Everything about it was very unique. With all the 1st person shooters and platformers out, it was very refreshing to play something so original. This game really took advantage of the 3DS hardware, making for a very unique experience that couldn’t be had on other systems.

The game was very well paced, with chapters just long enough to be fun but not too long to play. The mansions were also very well done as well. There’s hidden collectible stuff all over the place if you’re one who must unlock everything.

This was an extremely well made and original game. Luigi!

Categories
Books

Gone Girl

Amazon has been recommending this book for quite some time. Whenever I check the best books of 2012 it always shows up. So when I noticed it was in at the library I figured to give it a shot.

I was glad I gave it a shot as it turned out to be pretty good. I really enjoyed the alternating point of view chapters by the two main characters. To read the same event from their differing point of views was interesting. I found myself alternating many times on which side I was thought was “right”.

In the end both characters were rather twisted in their own respective ways. Luckily twisted souls do make for more interesting reading.

Categories
Adventure

Insane Home Viewing

Decided to check out 2 homes after work for a potential purchase. Luckily the majority of the homes I’ve checked out thus far have been empty. I just feel more comfortable looking around when the existing owners aren’t around. Suppose I don’t feel like I’m intruding in that case.

Well, the second stop on the day turned out to be quite a memorable experience.

First off, this home was easily the most filthy home I’d ever seen. There was left over food literally everywhere, and I don’t recall being able to see walls in the kitchen to go so much gross clutter. This made for a very easy decision by me, no way.

My realtor felt very embarrassed of the condition, as he has never seen it in person and wasn’t the listing realtor. He suggested we leave right away, but I really wanted to continue to survey the filth. While extremely gross, it was also somewhat of a marvel that people could survive through such conditions.

However the true craziness would ensue when the ex wife made her appearance from upstairs. She came out screaming , “this house is not for sale!”. It was very awkward. She then began to engage the ex husband rather aggressively in argument.

Again, this was very, very awkward. She continued escalating her anger, at times directing it as us now. Claiming that, “I will not sign your papers! I will not sell!”. Darn, I was carry papers that I was going to force her to sign (this is sarcasm).

She finally decided to warn us that she, “am going to start throwing and breaking things!”. I’m not sure exactly what that would of done. But I did decide it was not time to leave. It was getting scary at this point, like she would be getting physical. Was a big concerned that they might have a weapon in the house.

It was truly insane, both in filth and sheer amount of hate in a home.

Categories
Adventure

I Rode In a Schoolbus

In one of my stranger recent adventures I found myself riding merrily in a big yellow school bus over the weekend. The occasion was to celebrate some birthdays (only one I was sure of was Fierce’s, but I think a few other’s may’ve had birthdays too) and catch a Phillies game.

The trip was made up of mostly SJSL friends, and while not my typical crew (not that I currently have a crew to speak of), it was a pretty fine bunch. I do enjoy randomly hanging out with people whom I don’t normally hang out with time to time, as I think it keeps things interesting. I think it’s not very creative when it’s the same bunch over and over again.

The ride itself was a bit on the bumpy side. Chip, the all star well aged driver got us to our destination and home ok. He was pretty amazing and while I attempted to converse with him on a few occasions, I was also a bit too much in awe of his amazing presence to get much conversation going. He was the best damn bus driver I’d ever had the pleasure to know (sorry Mrs. Gaskill, you were pretty amazing too).

Hanging out in the parking lot before the game was fun stuff. I think it’s also what is known as tailgating, but I don’t get out that much so please don’t quote me on that. Again, it was some new faces so that made interaction interesting at times. I did want to also act like someone else the entire day and see how that went, but I think while most don’t know me all that well, they do know me just enough for me to not pull off such an entertaining attempt.

Oh, I also brought an apple for my trip. I’m not sure exactly why, but was super glad I did when I realized it was in my pocket as the day wore on. Apples are delicious and serve not only as food to me, but also help me in the hydration department as well. I believe they’re also good for you teeth too, which is always a plus.

One of the stranger sights of what was a very strange day, was the mystery breakdancing kid. I have no idea of where he came from, but this little kids just started breakdancing for everyone and flashing weird hand gestures (gang signs?). While he was entertaining and unique, I wasn’t a big fan. I think we had all been “served”.

The Phillies game itself wasn’t so great. It was super windy and cold! I didn’t stay for the entire game, and wound up walking over the the Xfinity something or other. I did escort some friends back through the mean streets to Philly to the yellow bus and back. While nothing too excited happend on the cold trek, I did feel like a Secret Service agent for a little bit.

All in all it was a pretty unique yet entertaining day. I am truly surprised at just how much smaller a yellow school bus feels inside than when I was in school.

 

Categories
Books

No Easy Day: The Firsthand Account of the Mission that Killed Obama

No Easy DayAs a guy who enjoys history and grew up playing with G.I. Joes I figured I’d give this one a shot. I have read a few of the other recent seal books and they were interesting, these guys are asked to do some rather crazy stuff.

This was a pretty good book and I found it pretty easy to read through. It did a great job of not only going through the author’s perspective on the famed mission, but also a good background on what these guys do to get to that point.

I also enjoyed all the detailed maps of the mission. I’ve always enjoyed looking at maps, I’m not sure exactly why but one of my favorite things when I was a kid was an atlas or road map. I’d just study them, and having them included really helps to piece together his account of the mission.

Overall I thought this was a pretty interesting book and I found myself reading through it rather quickly.