Today's the day

Today's The Big Day. My online classes have officially started, and my first assignment is due this Friday (should I consider it an omen - good or bad - that my very first assignment is due Friday the 13th?) Needless to say, I've got a few butterflies rolling around in my tummy, but that's to be expected, really, with such a brand-new situaton; I've never taken online classes, and as of this minute and hour, what I know of marketing consists of only the little bit I learned in my high school economics class (which was only half a year long, the other half of the year being taken up by my government class.)

High school was a ling time ago. Seven whole years ago (gods, I feel old). And though I did outstanding in that econ. class, I know that what I'm about to learn will be a hell of a lot more complicated, and economics is only part of it.

I know I'll do fine, though. I'm smart and a fast learner, and I have my boss to watch for warning signs. He's taking classes at the same college, only in managemnet instead of marketing, and the first half of all our classes are the same. He started his classes during the last semester, so he's one step ahead of me, giving me the opportunity to sort of look ahead. And, although he is by his own admission a slacker when it comes to school stuff, he got all or mostly A's (I honsetly can't remember) last semester, so I see it this way: if he can do so very well by just doing the minimum amount of work, I know I can make the Dean's List, because I don't want to just get the degree for my resume; I want to actually know this stuff, and know it damn well.

So, fluttery tummy aside, I'm excited.

I'm a bit irked as well, though — we have to write everything in APA Style, which is just fine with me as far as the in-text citations go. But the references page at the end? Good gods, man, who are the sado-masochistic asses who came up with all that?!? Why not simply have one style for references, and then differentiate the types of publications used by grouping them? For instance, first you'd have this nice little header that says Books, and then a list of all the books used. Then you'd havea header that says Journals, with a list of journals listed in the same style as Books. Then Websites, Television Shows, Book Reviews, what have you - all followed by lists of those materials, but all in the same style as Books.

Why do we silly humans insist on complicating the holy hell out of things that have no legitimate reason whatsoever to be complicated?

Sigh.

So, I'll stick to books and websites, so that I only have to bother with two styles, instead of the literally 40+ possible styles for the 40+ different sources of information that one could possibly use. There - that will be my "slacking off." And if any one of my professors bitches about it, I'll personally hop on the next bus or plane to Colorado and shove the APA Style Handbook somewhere where it probably won't fit easily or comfortably ...

Otherwise - Dean's List, here I come, butterflies and brains and all.

NOTE: This means, of course, that my posts here will be fewer, but I will strive for at the very least two posts a week, hopefully more. We'll see.