Dave the Autodidact

Forgive my absence, please.  I was having a very tough month.  Since the end of the regular semester and final exams, I've been catching up in Audacity's CS253.  It's a seven-week course, of which I'd covered just one, leaving me almost four weeks behind. 
Just now I finished Unit 3, which covers databases and introduces the user to Google's Datastore.  It's been gratifying to finally put some of what I learned in UH's data storage & retrieval class into practice.  The class definitely has piqued my interest in learning Python:  I've had to give myself a crash course, as it's one of the languages of the Google App Engine, along with Java.  Python will have to wait, though.  If I double-time it for the next two weeks, I'll finish the all the lessons.  Then I can see about getting deeper into Python.

Besides computer stuff, I've begun to review the Japanese taught in last summer's 8-credit, super intense third-year language classes at UH.  I'm mostly self taught, and had never taken a class in that language before testing into those classes, which were torture at the accelerated twelve-week pace, especially for someone who was weak at handwriting.  Still, they helped me progress considerably with the language...  That is, until I forgot most of everything over the school-year.  Fortunately, I've kept my (painstakingly created) Anki decks, which are a tremendous aid in reviewing languages or any fact-heavy study.  I've also been lucky to have Kazuyo Watabe, a nihonjin friend, meet with me weekly for practice.  What was forgotten is coming back quickly, I'm happy to say.

Finally, I have a few small musical projects to attend to.  A couple promotions, a cover of a David Bowie song, a couple mixed compilations.  I guess that's kind of a lot on my plate.  On top of that, my summer class in software engineering begins tomorrow.  Well, it looks like I'm a "lifelong learner."  Good thing not getting stupider turns out to be fun.  Keeps me busy, too.

じゃ、また今度。＾−＾／