Sizing the task

I didn't expect any of this Grad School business to be easy, but I didn't expect the shift to regular study to be quite so problematic. I'm glad I'm working through this now rather than when I'm already in classes.

It's not that I haven't taught myself things in the last 25 years. Most of it has been very ad hoc; looking up specific things as I need them. But, some has been more comprehensive. I've read books, learned new programming languages and systems. But, it's always been on an "as convenient" basis rather than rigorous, date-driven work.

Part of the answer is simply bumping this stuff up closer to the top of the list. Because I'm not in class yet, I've been pretty quick to put down the study when it conflicts with something else I care about. It's time to change that so that by fall it's a habit.

First Official Act

So, as my act as an UMSL student, I ran the Mirth Week 5K (not quite sure what Mirth Week is, but it seems to be some sort of Spring Fling for UMSL). Anyway, as most of the field was students and there's not much upside to being old at this distance, I was never in contention for the win. Did manage a decent time (18:28) and fourth overall, so it was a good outing. To get the free student entry, you had to indicate what student organization you were representing. I selected the math club, because I was pretty sure there weren't any math club members in attendance to call me on it.