It’s 3 weeks into the term and I feel like I may finally have my feet under me with my online courses.

I went all-online this term because my former employer told me that I would have to do some overseas travel for them and as a result I couldn’t take conventional courses.  Then they laid me off the Friday before the new term started, but I’ve stuck with the online courses anyway – trying to get into anything useful at the last minute would have been impossible, and online courses don’t interfere with my job hunt.

So – English Literature 104 and Technical Writing 227.  It’s a good thing that English Lit is pretty easy, because Technical Writing is a bear – the material is mostly stuff that I’ve picked up over the years anyway, but now I’m learning that there are names for things and that most of the techniques I’ve learned on-the-fly are techniques that have been known for absolutely ages… so I’m getting decent grades thus far, but I have trouble thinking in “correct language”  – I want to say “tricking the boss into thinking that the decision you wanted is one he’s making on his own” and my textbook wants to call that “Reader-oriented persuasion.”

As for literature class, I think that my classmates should be banned from using adjectives, particularly “beautiful”, “moving”, “touching” and anything of the ilk.  From reading the classroom discussion, some of these prats would burst into tears from reading the side of a cereal box.  I’m getting good marks in this course as well, so I think I’m successfully masking my natural cynicism.

This morning’s weight, 192.4, and my 36 waist jeans are comfortable enough that I think I could try on some 34s without too much risk.  I won’t go buying any right now, since it’s not like the 36s are falling off me or anything, but considering I started out at a 44 waist it’s a hell of a nice thing to be thinking.