BA 131

Oh my, I cannot believe I forgot to blog yesterday. I have never submitted a late assignment before, it feels like I have been robbed!! Anyway, in all the chaos of my week I somehow lost my GM game project!Now I have to go and re-do that on top of all the other work for the week. SO, that is another late one there too!. How embarrassing. I am pretty ashamed of this. Oh well, my life has been so hectic this week, it is unbelievable.
My youngest, which is now almost 5 months, was born with a very rare birth defect of the skull called craniosynostosis. He had the premature fusion of the Sagittal suture which runs down the middle of the head, from front to back. He had to undergo major reconstructive surgery at 7 weeks of age. It was very hard to go through. Now he has to wear a cranial remodeling protective helmet for 3-4 months. Poor little guy hates it. He is required to wear it 23 hours a day with a 1 hour break daily. It has been very difficult getting this little guy used to his helmet.
To make matters worse, I pulled a muscle in my back last week. It is awful, I can't even extend my back in to the full upright position. I am nursing it though, taking it as easy as I can.
OK, now I am off to get some work done.

Wow, the weeks keep flying by. I cannot believe there are only 2 weeks of school left.
Work this week was pretty easy. I did, however, forget to do the Skills Review for PowerPoint D. I totally spaced it. OH well, all is well right!
This week the work was very easy. I really enjoyed learning all about the PowerPoint presentation. It was also the chapter I learned about in my BA214 class, so that was nice.
I am going to begin work on my week 9 folder ASAP so I can have a lot of time to study for the Final. I am a little nervous about my Access skills, that program is something else. I was very intimidated by Access. I am so glad I have to take a class on Access for my degree.

I am looking forward to my summer break. Lots of mini vacation plans.

This week was full of tons of work. I had an exam for my BA214 class. Hubby had an exam too. I also had what seemed like 900 appointments this week.
Class is going well. I must say that this weeks work only took me about 3 hours to complete. No complaints here. I actually just sat down and got it done today. Shame on me, I know, it is so out of character for me not to have my work done the first few days of the week.
I have been surfing Facebook more and more lately. I was totally excited when I found a bunch of old school buddies from junior high.
Hubby just planted some veggies, so I am going out to buy a few more. Hope everyone enjoys this warm weather. Looks like it is here to stay!

Already week 6...well almost week 7!!
Time is flying by this Quarter. I went and registered for my classes on Tuesday. I got the classes I wanted so the trip to campus was worth it.
This week has been very busy.
I finally sat down and tackled the tasks at hand. I found that once I started Access it was very easy to complete. I did have a few hiccups here and there, but I got it done. My homework this week only took 4-5 hours to complete.
Well, I am off to eat some BBQ chicken wings. Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend, and Happy Mothers Day to all the mommys.

Week 5 already! Time just seems to fly by. This week was very busy again. My husband and I actually planned on working in our vegetable garden, getting it ready for all the plants, but the weather just didn’t permit. It was cold and rainy most of the time.

Class work this week was very time consuming. I spent a lot of time on the work this week. I estimate a good 15 hours. I really enjoyed the digital video we had to watch this week. I found it to be very informative and interesting.

Technology

I found a great article in the New York Times on the effects of Social Networking on children. According to the article, children have very drastically changed the way they communicate. These days’ kids send text messages, post to Facebook or another type of social network and many other things. The problem is kids these days are lacking those close knit relationships that really build character and trust.

As a child, I never knew what a computer was. I played outside for countless hours with my friends. I never even used the phone until I was a teen. My father purchased our first computer when I was 18. I had never been on the internet before that. It was exciting, but never replaced the face to face contact that I had with my friends. I never really did more than IM or chat.

The article I read had a really good point that I thought I would quote here:

“One of the concerns is that, unlike their parents—many of whom recall having intense childhood relationships with a bosom buddy with whom they would spend all their time and tell all their secrets. Today’s youth may be missing out on experiences that help them develop empathy, understand emotional nuances and read social cues like facial expressions and body language. With children’s technical obsessions starting at ever younger ages–even kindergartners will play side by side on laptops during play dates – their brains may eventually be wired and those skills will fade further, some researchers believe”.

After reading this I decided that I am really going to limit my children’s time and usage with all these new technical devices. My daughter has a limit on her Nintendo DS, she only gets to use it 2-3 times a week. Luckily she does not text or use the internet, yet.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/02/fashion/02BEST.html?ref=technology

Where do I begin? This week was horrible for me. I finally got the new laptop I ordered from Dell only to be very disappointed. I was really let down. The machine was nothing as I expected it to be. It looked very cheaply put together and the custom cover was horrible looking. We returned it and had to pay a $95 dollar fee. I will never make a major purchase online again. Lesson learned.

So I decided to purchase a laptop from Best Buy. I ended up getting another Dell just a better one with the I5 processor I talked about in last week’s post. I absolutely loved the computer. Then, this morning, I found out one of the keys were broken. I couldn’t believe it. Just my luck. I had to pack it up and go back to Best Buy. No way was I getting the same laptop. We ended up getting an HP Pavilion dV6. It has an I3 processor in it. After unpacking it and trying it out I absolutely hated it. I gave it to hubby and decided to stick to my Dell 1750. I just love this laptop. I learned how to type on it, we have been through a lot together.

On to homework

Due to all of the computer mishap, I ended up with a pile of work to do in very little time. I think I really messed up on the formulas in my Excel chart. I know I did. Excel is pretty tough to learn. I really like Excel, but just wish we went more in depth in the program.

My favorite this week was the webpage. I love to learn all about web design. Maybe I should be pursuing a degree in that field!

The work load for this class is the most I have ever had while attending college. It is a little overwhelming at times, but the work is doable. This week’s task list took me a good 12 hours to get done.

Technology

Even though I absolutely hated the HP laptop, there was one thing I loved about it.
Light Scribe Technology

“LightScribe is an optical disc recording technology that uses specially coated recordable CD and DVD media to produce laser-etched labels with text or graphics, as opposed to stick-on labels and printable discs.”

“The LightScribe method uses the laser in a way similar to when plain data is written to the disc; a greyscale image of the label is etched onto the upper side of the disc. In the beginning, the discs were available only in a sepia color but today are available in many colors”.

“The purpose of LightScribe is to allow users to create direct-to-disc labels (as opposed to stick-on labels), using their optical disc writer. Special discs and a compatible disc writer are required. Before or after burning data to the read-side of the disc, the user turns the disc over and inserts it with the label side down. The drive's laser then etches into the label side in such a way that an image is produced”.

I cannot believe this is even possible. I am amazed at what things they have came out with lately. This new light Scribe technology is astounding. This really eliminates the label machine for me. Now I can label all my discs with what they are instead of having to write it all out with a black sharpie.

The only real downside to Light Scribing your discs seems to be the special care instructions you need to follow in order to sustain the image on the disc. I can see how this would be a downside to using this method.

I really wish this technology would be made available to all computer manufacturers. This really changes the face of disc making. Dell needs to come out with something like this or I may just have to switch my computer manufacturers.

All information was taken from Wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LightScribe

Home

I am so glad this week is finally over. My 3 month old has been a little sick with the germs that his older sisters brought home from school. Poor little guy. It is always so hard when a baby gets sick. They don’t have the ability to tell us what is wrong, so we just have to play the guessing game. Thankfully we already had previous meds and dosing instructions from his Neurosurgeon, so we have been able to give him medicine.

School

This week’s work load was fairly light. All the work was really easy. We just had to do a lot of research this week. My homework took all week to complete. I only worked on it about 2 hours a day, so I would guesstimate about 10 hours.

I have one huge complaint. It is a requirement of ours to respond to another person’s blog posts and certain discussion board topics. This is a hard task when most people do not follow the instructions and write the 300+ words required. It is really hard to comment on three sentences. Or even when the topic is totally off. One can only add so much to a conversation like that. It is just not really fair that we are graded on this when the other person is not following directions.

Technology

So I did some research on the Intel Processors for 2010.

These processors are unbelievable. I am in awe with the way technology has just blown up this past decade. I still have a fond memory of my first laptop. I saved up so much and finally had enough to purchase my first computer. It had a Pentium 4 processor in it. This was the best of the best on the market at the time. Now when someone talks about a Pentium 4, it’s like talking about dinosaurs.

Now, Intel has come up with the all new Intel Core 2010 Processors. These processors are the smartest ever. Some even come with a turbo boost capability in them, so they know when to give your computer a boost of power to really make it fly. Then, when it is not needed, it focuses of energy efficiency.

The one that really caught my eye was the Intel Core I7 Extreme Edition. This is the smartest and fastest processor in the world today. This processor comes equipped with Hyper-threading technology. This means that each core can work on two tasks at one time. One can run as many as 12 programs and still have super fast lightning speed. This line of processors is also equipped with up to 12 MB of cache. This is amazing. You could actually play some high tech, high performance game, run several other programs and not even have your computer so much as blink an eye. Amazing.

Now, even if you were to choose a lower level of processor from Intel’s fabulous line up, you will not be disappointed. Even the I3, which is an entry level Core 10 model comes equipped standard with Intel’s new threading capabilities. Also standard is 3 MB of cache. This means even those of us with a tight budget can enjoy the powers of Intel’s new processors.

I wonder what they will have 5 years from now, what do you think.