As we left off before, I was all set to embark on the wonderful world of Java at Home Office. I was going to get a mini-vacation from my everyday work existence, hobnobbing with the city-folk again at The Mothership, visiting the city birds on the walkway, while FINALLY getting some much needed Java training.
And then the Bubonic Plague hit.
I don’t mean to make light of the very serious ordeal we’ve all been living through. In fact, I learned that a friend of ours in Florida has been extremely ill with most of the symptoms of COVID-19, but the hospital wouldn’t test her because her symptoms didn’t exactly fit the profile. She’s been sick for about a week now, and we’re all praying for her recovery.
In light of our global emergency, my company has sent most of us home to do our work—this would be another subject for a whole other blog post (or, “why do all my retired friends now think I’m available all day, every day, to drop everything to look at cute Facebook videos???”). I was mentally prepared for my class to be canceled. I’ve been yet again struggling with the bloody GUnit testing, and figured I was destined for now to continuously hunt and peck through the scant resources I have for answers, while attempting to work through more user stories–all while driving my coworkers nuts with all my questions.
But no…they’ve decided to make the whole four week 8:00 – 3:00 class VIRTUAL.
I’m relieved that I’ll be able to get the (much, much, MUCH needed) training, but I’m a tad nervous about doing this via remote control, so to speak. What if my connection crashes? What if I can’t hear what’s being said? What if coworkers break through with IMs in the middle of my training? I have indicated to people that I’m not going to have availability during class time, but you never know what may happen. What if our lawn guy picks NOW to come do the spring cleanup, causing the kind of cacophanic DIN that’s capable of waking mummified remains?
I did elicit the advice of my librarian friend, who earned her master’s degree online. “Don’t procrastinate!” She advised. She told me online learning definitely takes more self-discipline than face-to-face. Also, she recommended getting up and walking around during any lectures, to stay awake.
So…the adventure begins tomorrow!
