Meine Stadt

I'm in the midst of one of those evenings of physical and mental obstruction. I sit on my bed, having unsuccessfully tried to watch two German language movies. My roommate decorates the house for tonight's "Red" party. I hide in here, frightened of the chaotic preparation. Camping is on my mind, but I have not other outlets. I've tired of trains, language, and playing music isn't even in the running for a potential occupation. How many times can you play the same twenty pop songs poorly anyway? I truly desire nothing more than floating on a lake, and even that is of limited appeal. It must be time to pick up another Tom Robbins book, or some other friendly primary-language novel. I have Saison Dans La Vie D'Emmanuel on my table, an odd Quebecois novel that takes little more than an occasional dictionary lookup. It's sad to waste a little quiet time with so little motivation. The laptop is burning my lap.

back on the computer

I've reverted to the computer lab rat life this semester, taking a GIS class (mapping stuff) and a green urban design course that's pushing me to learn sketchup. I got stuck on some software and programming problems, which reminded me how taxing computer work is.

I was frustrated today because I got little in real work done from my efforts, but I liked the idea of having to work real hard to piece a solution together. It forced some ancillary learning and gave me a new idea.

Learning can be hard--creative software--or it can be easy, such as learning German. You may shudder to hear me say that German is easier than making a map on a computer, but it's true. To learn German I follow a pretty routine formula that I have crafted over the years to learn languages, but I have little precedent for the computer work I'm trying to do other than a wealth of learning experiences on the computer. That reminds me to write in my urbanism and language blogs! Stay tuned, no actually find something else...I'll be a while.