well, that's that. form faxed and posted, with student card enclosed. I still have to return my library books and fee receipt, and hope I get most of my $1800 back.
I am having small regrets, but I think they're more for what the course should have been for me than what it was.
on my list of pros: an outside work/home interest, career development, intrinsic interest (?), work paying for the course.
on my list of cons: is my career really going that way (and will this do what I want it to anyway), not having enough time, boring lectures with things I already know, a student group ranging too widely - some good, some frankly annoying and banal - too much uni over the past 7 years, the other things I could be doing, does it really fit with my academic direction anyway?

it's certainly not the end of this blog or my vague interest in blog culture/online identity. but in the end I couldn't overlook that signal:noise ratio.

I need something that focusses in just on what I'm interested in. I never have liked getting bits of paper for their own sake.

sigh. now I have no excuse to leave work early on a Monday night. but I will tonight anyway, just one last time.

i don't know if I've lost some posts, or if I wrote fewer notes on the course options last year than I thought.
wanted to go back and see what my Melbourne options were re: getting straight into masters/phd without honors. but I can'd find them.
Monday is D-day, continuing-wise.

another long night. I'm afraid the signal: noise ratio in the lecture wasn't very good. maybe I'm too familiar with the territory. I also minded very much a 20-minute lecture on how to write essays, sparked by a question from a student last week who nicked off after the break this week, so didn't have to endure it.
sigh. it's not that it's not interesting and all. it's just that it's not as interesting as I'd like, and maybe the lecturer's style just doesn't suit me.
also I am in the middle of renovating, buying a place in the country I'll have to renovate and some other personal issues that tend to take up a lot of time.
next Monday is the last day to withdraw.
I need to go back and look at what Melbourne had to offer and see if I can still get in on the cheaper HECS. and would my employer still pay for that if I drop out of this?
it just feels like too much of a slog, not enough learning. and I don't do these things for the bit of paper.

finally doing some reading.
things that stick out: mitch kapor saying the price we pay for signal is noise in a 1993 Wired article . juxtaposing that with a comment in the Feb 03 Wired article about how we're storing everything these days. so how do we find stuff that's useful? is this why we adore Google so much? the feeling of control it gives us? when will google betray us?

still prevaricating about continuing. Trevor Barr isn't giving any more lectures. I'm very busy. and I've "done" some of this stuff before. still, there are possibilities in there, in the areas of the fx of the Web on third world development, privacy and identity (which I never seem to get tired of)...etc. I could probably squeak by by recycling some stuff on telco/net regulation in Australia. or even my piece for the book coming out later this year on the history of .au. but it would all be too much like work.

blackboard for this subject.

second lecture; good background stuff about telecommunications policy. nothing I haven't heard, just well arranged. but Trevor has a very soft voice and it had been a long day and I nearly fell asleep.

fellow students; some from last year, most of whom I get on well with, one I find tres annoying. plus some marketing students who seem to think the point of a lecture is for them to interject. best part of the night: getting home in time for Sex and the City

gawd. the first class ran the whole three hours. It had been a long day and I ended up slumped over the desk wanting to escape; shocking, shocking headache.

luckily Trevor Barr is still teaching the subject; with all due respect to the co-teacher who was there as well, it's Trevor's mind I'm after in this subject.

no in fact I don't have to do all the reading, it seems. focus on one aspect, get an overview, etc.

minor essay = 30 %, presentation = 20% and main essay = 50%.

things are really busy with me right now and I'm still reserving the right to drop out before the end of March. yes it's relevant to work; in this subject maybe a little too relevant. a bit too much like work.

anyway, I'll do more reading and see how I go.

uni starts tomorrow. only up to page 75 of castells. too much to read.

thoughts on network complexity: traffic lights cf onboard computers. intelligence in the network.