Day 89 of 1000
When it rains it pours. Between Kelly and Christian, there are five research papers that need to be written between now and November 30. That means most of Thanksgiving break will be spent at the computer typing. In addition to that, there is math and physics quiz, test, and lab preparation. Now, when I was in college (I cannot believe I said that), we did all of our studying out of books. The kids still have their books, but they rarely even use their math or physics books as reference. They do their homework at online services like WebAssign. If they get stuck, they visit places like PatrickJMT and Khan Academy for tutoring and examples (they like PatrickJMT best).
So, earlier this week, Christian tells me his computer power cable is broken. Again. He plans to order a very nice computer between now and the end of the year and asks if he should just wait until then. I say NO, NO, NO!!! We are in the middle of the hardest part of a very hard semester and we cannot survive without one computer per person–Christian, Kelly, and Lorena for school and me for work. In the meantime, Kelly’s cheapo Dell computer starts manifesting a line through the middle of her screen. The computer is an absolute work of art but wildly not robust. Christian takes it apart to fix it and now we need to buy another computer for Kelly now instead of in time for next semester.
Christian and I put our heads together and decided to buy something a little more robust than the cheapo (but very colorful) Dell girly computers. We got here a factory refurbished Lenovo ThinkPad E520 for $384.01 — a smokin’ hot deal. It will be here before Thanksgiving. Kelly will HATE the color (black), but it is a WAY sturdier computer and has that cool ThinkPad logo embedded in the rubberized top of the computer that gives immediate seriousness cred–much better the foo-fooness cred that derived from her previous pink computer. Christian’s cable should be here any day now. In the meantime, we have to survive the weekend with a need for four computers and only two on hand.
We have used Khan Academy and my dad swears by it. We will have to check out
PatrickJMT. I am going to include a link that my Dad (electrical enginner) sent to me. I think you and your family will get a kick out of it.
What happens when engineers own dogs:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTEMRo-IcGk
I LOVE that video. Makes me want to go out and buy a dog, too!
Troy
Great post, Ken!
Thanks Troy. Fix or buy/Computer choice/When to buy are all very challenging decisions for us, but it is so fun to have new stuff!
We have used Khan as well. We will have to check PatrickJMT.
Is PatrickJMT harder math? Better explanation?
Thanks
The kids say the explanations are better at PatrickJMT. He has a lot of math content that is probably not as broad, but significantly deeper and more accessible to a normal user.
PatrickJMT is the best : thoughtful and concise! You can really tell that he has a math background and has experience teaching. Khan’s stuff is good, but you can just tell that math is Patrick’s area, he sticks to it, and does it well.