Registered for class

Or did I?

Apparently I have to register online, since I can't register in person. I don't like this, since I'm way old school. Anyway, I did manage to register online, I think. Why? The online registration area blew up on me. I couldn't check back to verify. No e-mail confirmation. Nothing. Grumble.

I guess this is my love-hate relationship with the internet. At least I think I'm registered for classes. I'm sure when I bring payment, it will be very obvious. I hope I can pay in person! Hahaha. We'll see. I'm headed in to campus next Tuesday for a variety of reasons. First installment of tuition is what I hope to take care of. Maybe a nice college shirt or sweatshirt.

Class begins 9 January 2012.

Motivations for going back to school

It may seem odd to someone stumbling across this: why is a man in his late 30s with two small children and a decent part-time teaching gig going to grad school? Aren't I busy enough?

Well, I suppose I might as well get it out: my mother was diagnosed with a serious illness this fall. I had been toying with going back to school for many years but never really got serious. I had written to the linguistics faculty at NEIU over the summer, but I can't say I was in any big rush to hear back from them. Time seemed abundant.

Then came the cancer diagnosis. My mother is not old.  Not yet 61. Suddenly time seemed short. I now had a big rush. Here we are now. I writing. You reading. I hope that the development of this blog as I go through school is of value to you.

School e-mail

It looks like the school runs a webmail server. This is good, since I don't know how else I'd have access to my sparkly .edu-style address. It also has Blackboard: keeping class discussions behind closed doors. But I can't imagine who would be interested in the bulk of that. There's also a page to navigate all of the library resources. It's also pretty customizable. Sounds cool right?

Wrong. It's fully off line at least six hours every day. Twelve on the weekends. Um, ah, er, on the internet?

********* / ********* system normal hours of operation:

	Monday - Friday	6:00 AM to Midnight
	Saturday/Sunday	9:00 AM to 9:00 PM

Initial Paperwork

I'm starting to get all of the form letters and paperwork from the school. So I guess it is all real.

While I know that I'm perfectly qualified, part of me thinks that I've managed to pull the wool over several peoples' eyes. Sadly, my wife is not one of them.

We had a small bet the other day: which word was the older word? Fall or autumn.

I'll drop the big hint: neither is the original English word for the season. The original Anglo-Saxon word is still in use: harvest. It now describes something that happens during the season as opposed to the season itself.

Highlight for the answer: According to the OED, Autumn is older by a few centuries. Fall, as a name for the season, is a much more recent thing.


I lost.

Beginnings

I just got accepted into the Masters program in linguistics at Northeastern Illinois University. And I love dead languages. Hence the blog name, get it? Get it?

I think Latin is cool. I think Ancient Greek is cool. I speak one, however hesitatingly. I read the other, however slowly. I think you should give 'em a try if you haven't. If you have, I hope that some of what I post is of value.

I think linguistics is pretty cool. What's the fuss? It's only the study of a tool we all use every day. A lot of what I post will be musings about what I'll be learning in the program. I hope some of that will be of value.

If I'm lucky I'll manage to make them both happen in the same post.

And other times, I'll write about other things. I'm not at all sure, since this is a work in progress. In the mean time, have a vicarious trip to grad school on me.