Just took an interesting test on the BBC website. It's all about your Sex ID, which is basically boils down to: is your brain more male, or more female? Some pretty interesting questions and stuff, although I saw through some of it pretty fast. One section asks you to pick which of two faces you prefer looking at. Before you start picking faces though, you're asked if you like women or men. Then you're shown two very similar faces. Or rather, you're shown one face that has had some photoshoping done to it. For example, all my photos were pictures of women. In each photo, it was fairly easy to tell that they were just taking each photo, and making one more masculine, and one more feminine. Maybe that's just my geeky side coming out and seeing right through the test. Which is probably why I got 12 out of 12 on the test where you have to match an object to it's two rotated matches. This is kind of hard to explain if you haven't taken the test, but basically, they show you a shape and then ask you to pick the two images that match the object shown, only after it's been rotated. Of course, it's a 3d image, so it gets a little tricky.

Anyways.

Got a new chair at work today. Got to put it together myself and everything. This one seems to be more comfortable than the last one I was using. This one also has THREE little knobs on the bottom to play with, compared to the two of my last chair. I'm moving up in the world, it seems.

Good news on the 'own-my-own-internet-cafe' front. I went and talked to my old manager from Pizza Hut about government grants, because he knows more about that sort of thing than I do. And the information I got from him was very nice to hear. Basically, it boils down to this: if my buddy and I can write out a good enough business plan, we can get what is pretty much a small business loan from the government. Except since it's a grant, I don't think we have to pay it back. Or something like that. I'm probably wrong about the 'not having to pay it back' part, but that's because I don't know much about business. Which is why my buddy and I are going to hire someone else to do all that money related stuff - so we don't go crazy trying to.

I went in to Douglas College yesterday to apply for whatever computer related courses or programs they might have. Douglas College is also known as Dougy Day Care, due to the fact that practically the only entrance requirement is that you've graduated high school. Which is why I'm applying, because most of my grades ( asides from my computer ones ) were never really all that good in high school. Anyways, I go to apply after I leave work, meaning I drove out of the parking lot around four-ish. I get to Douglas College, only to find out that the registrars office is only open till four on Mondays and Tuesdays. Sweet. Which means I'm going to have to go back there tomorrow and do all my asking and interrogating then. I could always look up everything I need to know online, but being able to talk to someone about the courses always helps. I'm easily confused when I have to deal with stuff that isn't computer related, like signing up for university/college.

Ugh. I just took a look at the courses offered by Douglas College for their Computer Information Systems program. When I go in to the registrar, I'm hoping they'll help me figure out how to get straight into their "C/C++ and Structured Programming" course, because I don't want to get anywhere near "VisualBasic I". I've already taken one class where I had to deal with that. No more, thank you very much. See, I have several problems with VisualBasic. First, it's an ugly language, based on a programming language meant to teach university students how to program in the 1980's. Secondly, VisualStudio is a very fascist programming IDE. After you type anything, it automatically gets formated to the "Microsoft VisualStudio" way. I hate that, because it takes any individuality out of anything I write. Thirdly, VisualBasic is so buggy and full of holes, it not only gives you the gun to shoot yourself in the foot with, it gives you the bullets, shows you how to load the gun, and pulls the trigger for you. Ergh.

They do seem to have a few courses that I'd like to take. Let's see:

• CISY 1270 C/C++ and Structured Programming
• CISY 1275 C++ Programming
• CISY 1280 Multimedia Web Development
• CISY 2200 Information Systems
• CISY 2310 Operating Systems
• CISY 2470 C++ and Object Oriented Programming
• CISY 3480 Programming With Java
• CISY 3540 Client/Server Systems
• CISY 3610 Operating System II
• CISY 3690 Computer Graphics and Animation

Ouch. That's about a third to a half of the courses they offer. They've got a few courses on network stuff, and the rest are all for proprietary Microsoft languages, mostly just VisualBasic and VisualC++. I mean, come ON. A course on "Advanced VisualBasic"? How advanced can it be? VisualBasic lets you drag and drop buttons to create a program. It's like using Photoshop to design a program. I would think that all of the stuff that makes this course "Advanced" should be covered in a different course. If you're going to be talking about how to solve problems and create algorithms, it should be done in a general computer studies class. Apparently, "Advanced VisualBasic" goes over ActiveX stuff, also known as THE LARGEST SECURITY HOLE KNOWN TO MANKIND. Sometimes the stuff that gets passed off as 'advanced' ( not just in terms of software or programming ) scares me.

But for all my bitching and moaning, I understand why there are so many Windows courses. Part of it is the Microsoft business strategy. If all students take VisualBasic and VisualC++ courses when they are in school, what are they going to want to work with when they get hired by a big corporation? Also, by offering so many Microsoft courses, Douglas College probably is allowed to offer free copies of Windows XP ( or at least much much cheaper than you can find in store ).

I do have one thing to say about the labs at Douglas College. If what you see in the picture on the page for the lab is what you really get, then I'm probably not going to enjoy using the labs. Why? Because I like having my monitor, keyboard and mouse in a certain position. It lets me work faster and more efficiently, allowing me to focus on what I'm coding/problem-solving, not where the hell the mouse is. Also, it kind of sucks that none of the Computer Information Systems courses are available online. Ah well.

You're probably wondering why I am even bothering to go to school and do the whole degree thing. The truth is even I learn the occasional thing or two from programming classes. Like last year in my "Intro to Programming Using Java" course at UCFV. I'd say about 95% of the stuff that was taught in class was old hat. But the %5 new stuff was some pretty new, important, and funky stuff to learn. Like how 'protected' variables work inside classes, and how to use 'static' methods. Always fun learning new things. Which is why I'm going back to school, despite my 'open-an-internet-cafe' plan. I'm only going to be taking courses on weekday nights, so I'll still have plenty of time to help run the place. I'd just like to someday end up with some sort of Computer Science degree ( preferably from SFU ) so that I can have another mostly-meaning less piece of paper to dazzle potential employers with. Dazzle helps. Trust me. Also, most of the third and fourth year courses at SFU look really cool, like this one on computer graphics, and this one on compiler design. I feel like I'm missing out with all that cool stuff to learn.

Anyways. It's almost lunch time, and I have work to do.

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