Database concepts class

I've been taking a class at Pima West campus since January. It's scheduled for every Tuesday from 5:40 - 9:20. I don't like this class. Let me tell you why. First of all the instructor seems to have "short-timers" syndrome. I don't think we have had a class yet where he hasn't mentioned retiring soon. Because of this he doesn't really seem to want to teach the class. We have yet to go past 7:30 on any night. While I would have been thrilled at this prospect any other time in my life, at this point I am taking this class because I actually want to learn something. And an hour and a half drive to and from class isn't worth an average of 45 minutes of kind of learning something. I'm serious when I say "kind of learn". I don't think I know anything more than when I started this class. I actually feel dumber on some nights when I leave there. And unfortunately I know I am not alone. There have been two quizzes so far. Pretty much the whole class has bombed both of them. And when your entire grade is based on four quizzes where the lowest grade is dropped, bombing two of the four is no bueno. Now I am not an unintelligent person, and computers is my specialty. I know if I don't get it there is something wrong. I have gotten all As for the last few semesters, it seems this is going to be the first class where I'm not. It would be different if there were a textbook that I could review on my own, but there isn't. He isn't teaching from a textbook. Oh, there is a required text listed, but on the first day the instructor told us it was basically worthless because he doesn't teach out of it. Although interestingly tonight the powerpoint (yeah, that's how he teaches, he reads slides) said Chapter 4. I'm sorry? This is the tenth week and we are only on chapter FOUR??!? The guy who sits next to me is a database administrator for Raytheon and even he is lost with a lot of this shit. Methinks the instructor is leaving out a bunch of stuff. There have been terms that I've had to google because he just throws them out there and doesn't define or explain them. And then when we get the quiz those words are on there and we have to define them. No short answer, no multiple guess and no open notes. It's hard to retain information you've never been given, ya know?

So I went today and asked an advisor what I could do and they said at this point I can just withdraw and get nothing refunded. However when I explained what was going on with the instructor they said to email the department head and they might allow me to do an administrative drop and take it in the fall. Online. With a textbook.

Trying something new

So I've decided to try something new. I'm tired of MySpace since all I really ever do on it is blog anyways. Now I can just blog and use my MySpace for... uh... whatever other stuff I do on there. I dunno.