Off and running

I have begun my first on-line course through the University of Phoenix, and so far mixed results.

• I excelled at my first assignment. What was it you ask? Post a hello message introducing yourself to your classmates. Using my voy-board savvy, I navigated my way to successfully fulfilling this requirement. That's right, I'm going to have a masters degree at the end of this.
• Major negative when Comcast cut my cable lines resulting in a 36 hour blackout of all things cable TV and cable Internet. While I enjoy listening to the radio and CDs, I kind of sort of need to be on-line for the next couple of years so as to not flush tuition dollars down the drain in an unattended Internet class.
• My second assignment went well enough, though not without road bumps. My initial "Welcome to University of Phoenix" e-mail mentioned that we should write an autobiography as a means to introduce yourself to the class. There was no suggested length and as such went to work. I felt I did a nice tidy job that was coherent and somewhat witty. Without breaking a sweat I wrapped up 750 words. A few days later, I downloaded the syllabus which suggested a snappy 300 words. I adapted by throwing in more sentences explaining my plight and also suggesting I was incredibly narcissistic. Perhaps I will be forgiven for my overachieving.
• Reading other classmates' posts and responding to them in an on-going conversation is a large part of the class, which I occasionally (frequently) have a difficult time with. People have a variety of schedules which leads to some odd progressions as someone is very active in the chat only to disappear for a couple of days and then pick up where they leave off. Additionally, people's writing talents and abilities are all over the board. Some are far easier to read than others. So it goes.