Brittany got two awards at the Awards presentation held on the last day of school(see pic above). I'm so proud of her. It's hard to believe she will be in 5th grade this fall.

Forty and Finals aren't fatal

Just finished up Finals this week for the Spring Semester. Semester grades should be posted by the end of next week. I did well on all the finals and didn't stress myself out surprisingly. I'm taking the summer off and will go back in the Fall semester.

I turned 40 almost two weeks ago. I had thought that would be a rough birthday but I took it pretty well. It's not fatal after all.

We've got rain so "Day in the Park" which I believe was supposed to be today probably won't be happening for us.

Brittany's Spring Haircut

We went to the beautyshop yesterday. Brittany picked out how she wanted her hair cut & styled. I think the cut looks sooo cute on her.

Seasons 1-3 of Battlestar Galactica in 8 min 17 seconds

Covers of Rihanna's "Umbrella"

I finally had the opportunity to hear Mandy Moore's version of the Rihanna hit "Umbrella" after hearing Marie Digby's version on a Coverville podcast. I really love both of them better than the original.

Cover Song Combo

I've been meaning to post about this for awhile now. Anyone that knows me well, knows how much I like odd covers of songs. Naturally I'm a big fan of Coverville--a podcast by Brian Ibbott which is like candy to me. Today I decided to catch up on some of the podcasts that I missed. Coverville 296 The Nirvana Cover Story was one that I missed. On that podcast there is a cover that Brian plays that is in a warped way a cover of two songs. Well it's Nirvana's "Smells like Teen Spirit" sung to the music of Poison's "Talk Dirty to Me" by Beau Hall. You can listen to the cover at the Coverville site and below is a link to Beau Hall's site.

Picking a new hairstyle

I've been trying to decide how to get my hair cut for the warmer weather. I've finally decided on a style which is about 2 inches shorter than what I have now and is a bob haircut. Also I need to get my hair colored and will be going for more blonde with a few lowlights. It should look something like the pic below with more blonde and my face

Laptop, School, etc

My new laptop arrived today. I absolutely love it!!! Will make it so much easier to get notes both genealogy and CS at library. I've installed OpenOffice on it and will see how I like that. It took about 5 min. to set up the Laptop and connect it to my network. Downloaded AVG software and installed and got all the updates. School is going pretty well. I am really enjoying the computer science program. More later

Picture of my Degree

Well I am so proud that I finally finished my Business Mgmt Degree this past month. Had to take a picture of it. I'm now working on my Computer Science Networking Degree.

Spring Semester Begins- Computer Science Network Technology Degree

I finished my A.A.S. Business Mgt Entrepreneurship degree this past fall semester and am starting another degree in Computer Science Networking Technology. I began my two online classes yesterday and am pretty excited about things. The two online classes are Intro to Operating Systems and Intro to the Internet. I'd not really done much in DOS or seen how a MAC works but we are covering that in the first sections. I've finished the assignments for the first 4 chapters which will be covered on the first test and am waiting for the test to open. DOS & MAC OS X were covered in Chapters 2 & 3 respectively. Chapter 4 was Windows XP(my current system) so there were few surprises there. Ch 5 is Windows 2000 Pro which I had prior to purchasing my new desktop so that should be a bit of a review as well. I've never used Windows NT Workstation, Novell Client or Linux which will be the next chapter sections. I believe the last Section of Chapters covers Network Operating Systems-MAC OS X Server, Windows XP Server, Windows 2000 Server, Windows NT Server, Novel Netware 6 and Red Hat Linux 8.0 Tomorrow I have orientation for my M & W classes--Intro to Computer Logic & Intro to HTML, XHTML & DHTML. Should be exciting....at least from my point of view ;-)

2007 in review

It's been a busy year and is hard to believe that 2007 is almost over. I got married, moved to a new apartment, had surgery and finished my business management degree. Brittany has changed so much over this year. She is growing up so fast. When I decided to get my hair highlighted I asked her what color she thought would be good. Initially she said orange(her favorite color). Then to my relief she said...if you really want to ...blonde streaks will look good. :-) I went with blonde and am very pleased.

Thanksgiving is almost here

Wow..what a busy month. Between my classes, Brittany's schooling and regular household chores I've barely had time to catch my breath. I'm loving my new desktop. Finally something that doesn't move at turtle speed. Brittany loves it too since she gets my old desktop minus the programs that slowed it down. We ordered a new sound card for Jim's but are returning it for another since the tech that recommended it told us it would work in Jim's Dell Dimension. It doesn't. It's PCI Express and won't fit in the PCI slots. At any rate when I install the new one we will get to hear the full effect of the new surround sound speakers I got him. Can't wait to see the family on Thanksgiving.

Happy Halloween

Have been studying nonstop. Four test between Monday & Tuesday of next week. Brittany dressed up as a black cat for Halloween. She is so cute. Less than 2 months and I'll have my degree. :-)

WorldCat

I just love the WorldCat site. I spent most of the morning adding my book list

Town Politics

Have been extremely busy with school and life in general. My weekends are spent trying to catch up on housework, study for upcoming tests, watching a little football and if there is any time left over...I relax. The deadline for filing for graduation this semester is Oct 5(got to take care of that). I'm trying to decide whether to go back and work towards a 2nd associate degree or try for a certification in genealogy. Hanceville has been in the news alot lately. Our Mayor and Fire Dept. are having issues. My opinion is that there is too much politics and not enough people who have the town's best interest in mind doing their job to make it a better place. That has been the case long before this latest incident. Personally I'd like to see a revival of the downtown area here in Hanceville. Renovating the buildings and drawing businesses into the area would be a step in the right direction and perhaps a small farmers market.

First week of on-campus classes

I finished reading Nights in Rodanthe by Nicholas Sparks last night. What a wonderful book. If you haven't read this book, please do. Make sure you have a box of tissue nearby. After finishing the Nicholas Sparks book I started reading the first few pages of Sophie Kinsella's Can You Keep A Secret? Truly, a good book is a great way to relax.

The first week of my Fall semester is behind me. Things are going well. I enjoy my on-campus classes and feel I have an understanding of the text we are studying. That, of course is subject to change. I also enjoy my three online classes but I need to get a routine going for those classes. I hate checking every few hours each day to see if there are assignments. I think I need to make myself a schedule of when to check and stick to that.

Brittany is doing pretty well in school. She seems to be enjoying it more this year. Several of her textbooks have materials available online and we have been taking advantage of that. She is such a great artist. She seemed really excited about the books I got her yesterday while I was out. It was a nice variety of books, Arthur, Scooby-Doo, Larry Boy, Magic School Bus and of course a Joke book.

Jim seems to be doing better but these extreme temperatures have us all drained.

Tinkering with C++

I have been reading a bit(no pun intended) about programming and found the following links useful. I will add more as I go...

• The Dev-C++ Resource Site
• C Programming.com
• C++ Language Tutorial
• Teach Yourself C++ in 21 Days
• How to think like a Computer Scientist

My Summer Semester Ends, Brittany's School yr begins...

We have really been busy. Now that it's too hot to do much I can catch up on blogging. I got my grades back for my summer semester classes. I made A's in both of the classes(Advertising & Sales Promotion, Office Graphics & Presentation). I got my books for the fall semester and won't have anything to be done before classes begin on Aug 17th. Brittany's classes start tomorrow. I went to her open house last night and met her teachers. She will be changing classes so she has about 4 different teachers. She also has a locker this year so I wrote a check for that and got that taken care of. They will assign them tomorrow. Her bus will be the same as last year at least the same route and driver however they got a new bus and bus #. She seems pretty excited about school. Also one of the girls who was in her Kindergarten class is in her room this year. I've been working with my resume and looking at jobs so I should have that down pretty good by the time I graduate in December.

Fall Semester Registration

I registered for the fall semester at WSCC last night shortly after midnight. $1350 worth of credit hrs.(15) I have just enough left over for my books for each of the classes. I priced the books at the bookstore and should be able to get them with the $800 remaining. Four of them total $600 so unless the 5th book is $200 I should be ok.

Classes---------Course Name-----Instructor

• BUS 263I--------Legal/Socal Env-MCGRIFF-WALDROP
• BUS 271---------Bus. Stats------CROW
• BUS 275I--------Prin. Mgt-------MCGRIFF-WALDROP
• CIS 196E--------MS Excel--------MANNING
• ECO 231---------Prin. Macro-----PERSALL

Fall Semester Registration

Working on my schedule for the Fall Semester. Not sure if I am exempt from Orientation requirement or not. I've been attending since '95 and this is my last semester before graduation so I don't see the logic.

Business Management and Supervision
Associate in Applied Science Degree
GENERAL REQUIRED COURSES

• ORI 101 Orient to College------------1 ?
• ENG 101 English Composition I-----3 x
• SPH 106 Speech-----------------------3 x
• HUM 101 Humanities or Arts---------3 x
• MTH 100 Inter. College Algebra-----3 x
• CIS 146 Microcomputer Applics-----3 x
• CIS 196 Computer science Excel---3 fall semester
• PSY 200 Soc/Behav Science--------3 x
• ECO 231 Princ of Macroecon-------3 fall semester
• Section Sub Total --------------------25

MAJOR REQUIRED COURSES

• BUS 100 Intro to Business-----------3 x
• BUS 241 Principles of Accting I ----3 x
• BUS 275 Principles of Mgmt---------3 fall semester
• BUS 285 Principles of Mkting-------3 x
• ECO 232 Principles of Microecon--3 x
• Section Sub Total --------------------15

OPTION IV - Entrepreneurship
Specialized Courses

• BUS 178 Purchasing------------------3 x
• BUS 242 Princ of Accting II-----------3 x
• BUS 263 Legal/Social of Bus--------3 fall semester
• BUS 271 Bus Stats I-------------------3 fall semester
• BUS 277 Mgmt Seminar--------------3 x
• BUS 279 Sm Bus Mgmt---------------3 x
• MKT 220 Ad & Sales Promo---------3 x(currently enrolled)
• BUS 215 Bus Commun---------------3 x
• OAD 246 Office Graphics------------3 x(currently enrolled)
• Section Sub Total--------------------27
• TOTAL HOURS ----------------------67