When instructor in Financial Accounting II told us at the very first session that we would not have a class on Wednesday before Thanksgiving, and we would have to learn material for that week on our own, I felt a bit dissappointed. First, because for me personally the face time in the classroom is very important to have. Second, because the material in this particular MBA course is quite challenging for me, and I would prefer to have it explained in the class first and then to study additionally with the textbook and exercises.
Only on Wednesday afternoon I realized what a blessing in disguise was that class cancellation. At my work we received a three hour earlier release because of the eve of Thanksgiving. This allowed me to do some important errands that I had been postponing for a while. By the time I got home I realized that going to school would be a real drag. I just enjoyed my night at home thoroughly.
I also took my family to the movies that night. By the way, Fantastic Mr. Fox is absolutely hilarious. You would not think that a puppet animated movie can possibly be something really good, but it is absolutely fantastic (you are actually hinted to this in the title). We do not have a very big collection of DVD’s in our family, but this is the movie I will definitely get on DVD when it is out.
Thursday I spent almost like a typical American: lots of food, drinks, sleep, minus football, as I am not really a sports fan.
Friday, I undertook a major upgrade to my home desktop computer. I already mentioned how much I liked Windows 7 on my new laptop. That’s why I wanted to install it on my desktop too. Which I did. But the result was not as appealing as I expected.
Since my computer is quite old, the video adapter is not capable to support the cool visual Aero effects. And the manufacturer would not have updated drivers, as that video adapter is obsolete and long retired. Moreover, I was not able even to use native resolution 1680×1050 for my display.
Next to go was my scanner as there are no drivers for it either. My Norton Ghost 10.0 which I installed to recover my backed up files would also have some minor errors at installation, but at least it worked.
In general Windows 7 did work, but the cool visual effects were gone and along with them I would have to sacrifice even some basics I got used to. After some emotional struggle I decided that the marginal benefits of partially handicapped Windows 7 were not really worth the sacrifice of the basics I already had with XP. So I reverted back to Windows XP.
Frankly, I had been considering a clean re-install of my XP even before Windows 7 became available, as my system had been running since summer 2005 and had a lot of clutter that slowed it down quite a bit.
Anyways, this is a recap of my Thanksgiving recess. As much as I love to spend time studying for my MBA classes, I really needed a little break, just to slack back and relax for a couple of days. On weekend, however, I will have to get back into my study mode, to tone my brain for the final two weeks of classes and after that – the final exams.
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