Course Plan Report Card: Winter Term

Well, the first "term" of 2017 is complete, and it was a hilarious failure. How did I fare?

ENG 199: My goal was vague, but I wanted to read a few books. In the end, I read Arabian Sands from start to finish, and began work on a presentation about Thesiger's cultural observations. This effort continues. Not a complete loss, but I could have accomplished more.
PAC 130: My goal was to (eventually) pass the Navy's Physical Readiness Test (PRT). I had some medical issues that came up; I probably wasn't going to get much exercise completed anyway, but there was a deliberate effort to avoid physical exercise for a few weeks.
BA 480: My goal was to complete my PSP, Network+, and CISSP certifications. I didn't even complete a full chapter in my PSP textbook.
HST 406 (OGHAP): My goal was to complete my manuscript about the First World War. I actually got a lot of work done on this project, but very little on the manuscript itself. The biggest accomplishment was finishing Life of a Regiment, followed by "finishing" my timeline of the conflict.
REL 199: My goal was to complete twenty Symbolon lessons through the Augustine Institute pursuant to my upcoming confirmation. I think I ended up completing about fourteen lessons. I've since completed two more, and expect to complete the rest by the end of this weekend.

So, I didn't exactly make the dean's list. But, I did better on a few items than I have in previous years. The plan for Spring term originally called for repeats of ENG 199 and PAC 130, and a transition to ARAB 101 (to pass a first year Arabic proficiency exam), CS 406 (to build an information system and complete a mock authorization package according to NIST guidelines), and PI5502 (to complete and publish an article on Middle Eastern security). Partly because of the shortfalls of the first term, and partly owing to other factors, I'm adjusting fire a bit. So, this is what I hope the next three months - which we're already two weeks into - will look like.

ENG 199: My goal is to read a couple of books that I'm already part of the way into.
PAC 130: My goal is to ease back into doing something, probably initially stretching and a few short walks.
ARAB 101: I'm postponing ARAB 101 until at least next quarter. At this point, I have bigger fish to fry.
BA 480/CS 406: At present, I don't have the available funds to build that information system, and I didn't complete those certifications. So, at this point, I'm going to scale back BA 480 to focus on that PSP certification, and I'm going to start consolidating some of the data I want to include on that information system. This one will have to extend into the rest of the year, but that's okay.
PI5502: My goal is to complete an article on a topic relating to contemporary Middle Eastern security concerns. I've loaded some of the relevant source material onto my Kindle Fire Hitchhiker's Guide.
HST 406 (OGHAP): I didn't complete my goal, and the book needs to get finished, so dedicated work on it will continue.

So, that's where we stand, and I'll be updating the progress on these courses in the weekly Joshua Tree Reports. Stay tuned.

UPDATE: Between writing this and posting this, I finished the Symbolon lessons. So, REL 199 gets a late-breaking A - okay, B+ - for Winter Term.