Officially Enrolled in an Online Course

Hello Hive!

Here's a filler post. The problem with creating a decent post is that it takes time. You have to factor in the inspiration to create something, the availability of good raw photos, and the time to format that post to complete the package. So, creating a blog post with that wow factor would really take days, at least for me. If I'm super inspired, I can create a post in just three hours. Sadly, I'm not inspired most of the time. I just wanted to sleep the whole day. The problem stems from being a perfectionist instead of considering everything as a process of self improvement. I'll have to reconsider everything now that I have become a full-time Hiver, at least for a few months.

I envy those who can churn out amazing content daily. I think I need to work that productivity part of me. It takes a lot of discipline to work hard to attain at least half of the goal for the day. When I'm given too much freedom, I tend to abuse it. I have given myself at least a week to acclimatize to the new schedule (or the lack thereof) and after that, I'll definitely work on what I should do in life.

It's the third day of being unemployed and I am still trying to adapt to this freedom. If I won't be productive, there's no one to blame but me. To be at least productive in my unemployment days, I decided to take an online course. This is to at least gain some basic knowledge on topics I'm interested in but not related to my field of specialization as an engineer. I could have learned those topics without taking an online course, but because of my attitude towards things, I need some pressure like a deadline to motivate me to work. I also wanted to have proof that I learn those things and a certificate of completion would also be a great motivator.

I'm always amazed by how the universe works. It seems to fulfill your need even before you can realize you have that need. The other day, my friend from college messaged me about a free online course through coursera.org that's sponsored by DOST (Department of Science and Technology) CARAGA Region. Slots are limited and the deadline of registration is on October 31. I immediately grabbed the offer.

Now I'm officially enrolled to two courses: Data Science and Photography Basics and Beyond. I might add other courses in the coming days. For now, I'll focus on those two.

My background in chemical engineering allowed me to have some grasp of complex analyses of actual phenomena with the use of concepts and theories in math and science. My work allowed me to dig deeper into statistics and data analysis to understand the nature of my process. I was immersed in DOE (Design of Experiments) which helped set the foundation of my knowledge in silver plating process. I know it's difficult to wrap around your head, but just bear with me. I'm just reminiscing the job I once had.

In recent years, Data Scientists seemed to be in demand with a very lucrative paygrade. I wanted to venture into that field not because of the paygrade, but because I wanted to further my knowledge of data analysis. Well, I lied about the paygrade, but I also wanted to learn the systems to extract meaningful information out of any data. In this day and age, it just made sense that this field is becoming more popular. Those who were able to extract information on data can leverage that information to their advantage.

With the rapid development of software and tools that could be used in data analysis, it became so easy to obtain information, but the interpretation of those pieces of information still relies on human knowledge and intuition.

A little bit of background on why I got interested in this interdisciplinary field, aside from the chemical engineering background, is because I stumbled something on YouTube about big data and how it was used by companies to predict something like oil prices and set themselves in an advantageous position. Big data is a different field but completely related to data science. In that YouTube video, I was amazed that they were able to correlate oil prices based on the satellite images of refineries and oil storage facilities all around the world.

It was a mind-blown moment for me. Like they were able to determine the oil flow in and out of storage facilities based on the shadow of the storage tank covers alone. If you know how oil and other petroleum products were stored, this made total sense! As to how they're related to the oil prices, they were able to develop an algorithm that can predict the oil price based on the oil flow in and out of the refineries and storage facilities together with other contributing factors.

Sorry. I got a little bit sidetracked in there, but I hope you got my point. I hope I'll be able to finish this course before the year ends. The course is offered by John Hopkins University in Coursera.

The reason why I wanted to take this course is that I sometimes felt my photography is a hit-and-miss affair. Sometimes I felt that my photos are superb, but most of the time I felt they're crap and I have a lot of difficulties during the post-editing process. Yes, I got compliments in my photos, but I'm still insecure in my photography skills. I can feel that I'm just pretending most of the time. That's why I always say that I'm not a photographer.

I wanted to get serious in this. I wanted to learn everything there is to learn. I have learned the "basics" by watching YouTube videos, but I realized that the learning curve is very steep. I need to have a proper venue to learn or else I'll just slack off.

I felt that my strongest suit is Landscape Photography, but I wanted to learn more about the other types of Photography. I think I'm always that theory kind of guy. I wanted to enrich my understanding of the theory of photography before I can fully appreciate its application. For some, photography is just a hobby, but for others, one photograph can alter the course of the world. I wanted to experience both.

Speaking of Landscape Photography, you can check out my posts in Photography Lovers community. I'll be sharing more in the future as I apply what I learned in this course.

Photography specialization is offered by Michigan State University in Coursera.

I guess I just wanted to formalize everything. It's a self-investment anyway. Other courses I'm considering are Financial Accounting, Learning How to Learn, and Global Environmental Management. These are the courses that I think are either beneficial to me or relevant foundations to my choices in the future.

For those who are in the Philippines and are interested, you can check out this link: http://bit.ly/ApplyDOSTCoursera

I guess that's all for this post. See you in my next posts! Thank you very much for your continued support! "Never stop learning and investing in yourself."

Kim Ybañez

_{Welcome to Kim's small corner in Hive. He is a chemical engineer by profession, but a blogger by passion. He is a wanderlust and an adventure seeker. Join his quests as he visits secluded destinations, climbs mountains, tries new and exotic dishes, and explores his country (The Philippines) and the rest of the world even if he's still a poor corporate slave with tons of bills to pay and two siblings to support in college.}

_{If you like his content, don't forget to upvote and leave a comment to show some love. You can also reblog if you want to. Also, don't forget to follow him to be updated with his latest posts.}