Dutch
I've been learning Dutch on and off for a couple of years, but not getting very far. Last month I came across a program memrise linked to by someone on Google+. I started using it at the beginning of September and since then I've learn about 500 words. I enjoy it and find it a fun way to learn the vocabulary without getting stressed or frustrated. Learning spellings in any language has always been something I'm quite bad at so this progress is quite significant for me.This month I want to continue to work on those words, and further increase my vocabulary by at least 200 words.
Stanford Free Courses
I think I'm somewhat crazy to have signed up to all three of the Stanford free online courses for this autumn. They officially run from 10th October to 12 th December. The courses are- http://www.db-class.org/ Introduction to Databases
- http://www.ml-class.org/ Machine Learning
- http://www.ai-class.com/ Artificial Intelligence
I've signed up for the basic track for AI and ML, but will be doing the full DB course. So far I've complete the first week of lectures and exercises for DB. It feels so good to be studying again in a structured way. I hope I will be able to allocate sufficient time to all of this as each is supposed to require approximately 10 hours per week. I'm not actually sure I have that much time but I will give it my best shot and I will know more than I would have if I had not attempted this.
Putting Together Ideas for 2012
A few years ago a friend of a friend decided to do 12 things, one per month over the course of the year. I tried it in a sort of messy, disorganised way and I accomplished some things but I didn't really have clear goals or really know what I wanted to do. It has been a positive experience, even though I didn't manage everything because it meant that I could look back over the year and say, "Yes, I did do something this year."A couple of days ago, Christine Cantow Smith on Google+ posted a picture of a collage she is working on. When I saw it, I misread the word collage as college. Her collage contains lots of words and I thought, "Words, things to do at college, learning" and something clicked connecting it to the 12 things in a year.
What I'm going to do this month is collect together pictures and words connected to things I want to do and make a visual representation of what I want to do. I'm not sure whether it will turn out to be 12 things over the year, or some things spread out over a longer period. I'm swinging back and forth over that and over Yanik Falardeau's 30 changes in 30 days experiment which she carried out in August.
Exercise
I want to work exercise into my daily routine. I have EA sport active 2 which I set up today, so that is what I will be using, at least in part. I have leaves to clear in the garden and so I will use activities like that as well.Craft
I would like to get at least two weeks ahead in my craft class preparation so that if I find I have too much to do with the courses, I have some flexibility.Quests
I will continue to do the leaving the house quests. I am going to go to Cafe Scientifique on Tuesday for the first time. This time I will not have a preliminary test run to check I know where it is before hand, like I did with Skeptics in the Pub. I'm going to just find my way there somehow from looking at Google maps.(*Added following section on 2011-10-02)
