Monday, March 1, 2010

01/03/10 Start of SP1

Today it all began at 7.30 with my first official day as a university student, and it was not a big deal, considering I have been studying harder in the 4 weeks leading up to it than most do during their studies.
I completed the LITE unit that Murdoch include in the SSK12 assessment, and I acheived 80% or 20 out of 25.Not a great result, but I didn't take the time to go through the first 4 modules again before I did the assessment.The ones which were fres I got 5/5, lesson learned, as I just cost myself points.
I had still not received my login details from UNI SA anmd when I rang, they were really good and got me started, although I was lost until one lady called me later and helped me find my way around my area.Microeconomnics is going to be a lot of work, and they reccomend SSK10 before you start if you are new to uni, I hope SSK12 will help me as I go along, as well as my support network.time will tell.

Sunday, February 28, 2010

28/02/2010

one more sleep until it all begins, except for a noticable absence of login details for ECO11, I realise that South Australia is the "bong state", but I hope to god they are emailing me something out at midnight or at least by 7am tomorrow.
A productive Sunday with the completion of my SASk12 quickskills module in the afternoon, and no I did not rush it, I have just done it before and thoroughly scrutinised it during the quickskills modules 3 weeks ago.It is due in week 2, so i will wait a few days to upload it, at least then, it is gone.at 5% of the total, it is not of huge importance, but I would like to get 5% up my sleeve, only 40% to go then, of course a high distincion is the goal.
More microeconomics text reading this afternoon, and just finished the section on elasticity, with a reasonable comprehension of the concepts, terminology and mathamatical equations.
With the questions at the end of the chapter, I was initially able to answer (In my head) approximately 1 in 10 confidently, and now at the end of chapters I would say 7 or 8 out of 10 would receive a suitable response.I believe my undestanding of the disipline of economics and ability to understand what I am reading is improving dramatically.the words and terms are no less foreign, but my comprehension of the explainations and applications is way above where it was a week ago.I need to buy another text, and i will do it in a week or so, although the chap I bought the one I have from, never aquired it and said he didn't need it.i will seek any advantage presented however.Approximately 4.5 hours studying today.

27/02/10

Saturday,traditionally a day of rest and relaxation, I had look through the SSK12 unit outline, and checked in with with the facebook groups.I continued with the LITE unit and completed another 2 modules. Facebook was a hive of activity with people discussing logins, lecturers, lecture groups and course content.great to see that the stress of waiting has been lifted, now the stress of study will set them all off again.It was great to see that the assignment outline I found on facebook and have almost completed is in the current unit structure, so I am far enough ahead for me to feel comfortable.I don't like to wait and follow the normal patern when I can create a buffer, and I am about 3 weeks ahead as it stands, having read the entire reader, and unit text, as well as having a very near complete assignment in my files.
It was nice to spend a couple of hours in the morning on the microeconomics text and I am a third of the way through it and understanding it.The math is making a lot more sense the farther I read through, and the logic of such ideas as demand and supply and elasticity in general are not just sinking in, but fascinating.I don't know if I could go down the economics path, but I can see how people change degrees and majors as they gain interests in new fields.
I spent maybe 2.5 hours in total today on my work, and that is not bad for a Saturday.

26/02/10

Micro economics was the focus this morning, but with shopping and other distractions, i found only a couple of hours to read.Price elasticity is starting to make sense and the math side of it is less scarey now.
My 'tutor' was over at 8.30 and we spent until midnight adressing a few areas of concern, they were:
1) the dewey decimal system used to file books, this was part of the SSK12 lITE section.I was stuck because some had .848 and .997 and one example had no numbers at all, of course I now realise that the absence of a number equates to zero, and that's less than .9.
2)Algebra equations had me stuck, and it was mainly working out what the symbols are asking me to do and dividing negatives means you multiply them? how would I have worked that one out.
3) fine tuning Assignment 1 SKK12, granted it is due in week five, and it's not day 1 yet, but I have it almost in it's final draft.I will fine tune it once more and present it in week 2 or 3.
3.5 hours well spent, and I am haining confidence daily.No login details have arrived for ECO11, so I may need to ring them on monday.

Thursday, February 25, 2010

23/02/10

Well,I planned to read my microeconomics text today, and that's all I did.
Pages 51-92 continued with chapter 2 "the economising problem and it seems to be a brief run through of random systems, terminologies, a few statistics and an overview of the different economic systems,ie,Laissez faire Capitalism,Command(Communist and mixed systems, like ours.I see what they mean about our capitalist leanings, and as much as I am repelled by the Command system, I fear the selling of public assests is steering us more into a Monopolistic Laissez Fair,capitalist, economy ruled by goliath, multi-national companies disguised as true blue locals.In turn they endevour to push the market prices up to the point where their own workers can't afford the basics with the meager wages they are paid, largely due to the fact that they can pay according to a state or federal award system as suits them.Although coles is owned by west farmers, I wonder what percentage is owned by Australians,True, the foriegn investment dollars boost our exchange rate, but the heartless, mechanical,bulldozer nature of groups like Coles including,(K mart,First Choice, Liquorland, Target,Vintage Cellars,Shell),and Woolworths group, (BWS, Dan Murphies, Woolworths plus)tends to close down our small businesses where the genuine service is and employ robots to train in their methods,"Would you like fries with that?", "Do you want a bag?","Can I interest you in 3 for the price of 2?", where is the personality.
the zombies who serve at the supermarket chains don't care if you have a nice day, they just want their pittance to cover the next bill.retail is a seathing cesspool of broken dreams, disenchanted teens and mature age employees who are roped in by the hype the Snake oil salespeople, or "Human Resource managers" create with promises of advancement, appreciation and stability.
The only one you get is stability as it is virtually impossible to get fired with the Unfair dismissal laws being so strict, and every opportunistic deadbeat trying to sue for unfair dismissal etc.we brought this on ourselves by supporting franklins in the 80's anmd Kmart even earlier.how many butchers are left now compared to 10 years ago, and look at the water injected 3rd rate mince we can now pick up at exorbitant prices and feed to our unsuspecting families.

Monday, February 22, 2010

22/02/10

A reasonably productive day, with 7.30 to 11.00 spend reading A Guide to independant Learning Pages180-213, yes I am a slow reader, and granted there was the odd distraction, but I do take my time, as I find increasing my pace even just a little removes all comprehension of what I am reading,Know your limits and do not exceed them, however, where boundaries don't exist, do not create them.
the discussion section was worth a read, but I may have little chance to apply the techniques, although i got some good ideas for the facebook groups.The "Developing your writing", section made a lot of points which confirm things I do and a few I shall begin to use.I'm also enjoying "Writing Essays", i think my biggest hurdle is that I think i can write accademically, therefore if I am wrong, I can't perceive how.
I did a bit of chapter 4 exercise 1,2 and 3 about my reading style and preferences before realising that I have done most of it before and clearly did not save it, It is just one of those rudimentary,"Think about how you wipe your ass, explain why", activities.
I read pages 29-51 of microeconomics and battled cintinued the previous days battle with the equation y=a+bx, finally got it from calculating the slope, realising the verticle intercept does not halve when found between variable mumerals and applying the brackets where applicable,ie [50+(0.5x300)
I can't believe that 2 days of deductive thinking and critical analysis have taught me more than 10 years of school.This builds a strong case for developing critical thinkers, not just walking encyclopedias.
Graphs are not scaring me so much, and although hesitant, I believe math will slow me down, but when it falls into place, I shall enjoy it and a new understanding of the world at large,I would love to read stephen Hawkings books and understand them, or rather, I shall.
very glad to be off the graphs and into more explanation of terminology, although i could not recount much of what I have read, I am starting to understand the terms in context when the pop up, and will certainly comprehend much of the microeconomics vernacular by the start of SP1.
That's all I ask, and I feel as though I am well on track for success.
As a swot analysis, just for fun, my Strenghts, weaknesses, oportunities and threats are:
strenghts-My reading skills, curiosity, Aannalytical skills, tanacity,
weaknesses- impatience, math skills, anger, distracted(although generally uni related)
opportunities-time, family support, feedback from teacher friend, motivated
threats- noisy household,relationship breakdown(not likely,but possible) motivation, defeatest attitude,
Judging by how things are going, 5 days before the start date, I am confident, becoming fluent in the language, focussed, determined and have the competative edge.

Sunday, February 21, 2010

21/02/10

Not much today, Sunday is a day of rest and that's what i dida look at Microeconomics 8 and battled to understand the equation C=a+bY for a couple of hours.Clearly my brain is not trained to think in this way, one of Donald Rumsfeld's "Known Unknowns", a am fully aware the idea exists, I just don't know how it works yet.I have had 2 big breakthoughs so far and will persevere.After all, I still have7 days of study before it starts and I have to actually learn this stuff,hopefully some will just be reitterated as I will get a bit of it, that will be enough of a headstart for me.
Microeconomics scares the shit out of me and not because of the concepts and ideas, they strangely compliment my way of thinking perfectly, but the math and graoh side may cause me to swallow my pride early and ask for help.
I will do more SSk stuff early tomorrow, then spend a few hours on economics math problems.ironically, not working the equation, but rather working out how to work out the equation.
Facebook is going ok, the Brisbane group continues to dissapoint me, with no input from 80 percent, and little productive input from the rest.I may start kicking people out if they have not contributed after the first 2 or 3 weeks.fuck them, I can't stand moochers.