I just lost all the %$#%*! work I did in lab tonight. I only made it to pg158 in the tutorial--"classifying data." It's gone. I didn't save like I should have. Shit. The only thing I have to show is my snow routes map.

I can't believe I did that.

Comments for class (If you read this, Pete):

I liked having more time for lab last week. Our guest instructor gave us plenty of time to explore and familiarize ourselves with tools and such. Also, it gave us (me) time to fix mistakes or backtrack. It would be nice to limit lecture since we have access to powerpoints and it follows the text so closely. Otherwise, I feel Ok about my progress. Except for losing my file this time. And I would have liked a review for the test. I'll have to come in on my own time to make up for what I lost. Shit.

GIS class #3

That was pretty cool--finding where I live on the city map--adding layers and highlighting plots and such. But knowing how easily that information can be accessed is kind of scary. Now if I can only remember how to export images.

There we go.

The work in chapter nine is the kind of stuff I can get caught up in--colors and fonts and borders and patterns. Maybe deep down I'm really a graphic artist. For example, I think the schoolchildren photo we added to the Rapid City map is pretty lame. And it needs a border to balance with the other data fields. And I don't know whatever happened to my "Rapid City" label, but it's not on the map. Looks like I still need work on labeling so I'll go back to chapter 2 and review. Sure wish I could play around with this stuff at home.

I feel like I'm just so slow navigating through all this. I'm not too computer savy and it seems to take me forever to complete the lab assignments. Doesn't help this is a night class. I feel my brain is much by this time of day. Plus, I get caught up in playing arround with all the different options and ways to manipulate the image, which is good, I suppose, because I'm learning how to use the tools, but it also adds to the time it takes to follow steps in the book. I really wish I could work on this at home to familiarize myself more with tools and icons. And I've only just switched from PC to Mac about 6 months ago and now I'm trying to get used to the PC ms layout again. Is everyone else just zooming through the exercises?

First GIS class experience

I've finally been initiated into the world of weblogs. Imagine that. Not sure who I'm ready to admit that to.

I'm glad the lectures and powerpoints are available on line. And I'm glad the lecture material seems to follow the text pretty closely. But I wish I could play around with the GIS programs at home.