I found someone who could help me!

One of my complaints about National University was the difficulty of getting ahold of a human on the phone and then having them be able to solve my problem. It was really a hit and miss on getting anything accomplished.

I'm sure I"m not the only one as National instituted a 'Student Concierge Service' where it is one phone call and the person that answers the phone deals with any problem in any department. I have them use email after the first contact and the very nice girl emailed me daily with updates.

She not only answered the questions I had she got things accomplished that benefited me that I didn't even specifically ask for. I am very impressed, especially as before it would take a week of phone calls to get anything answered, now it took one phone call to 'get the ball rolling'.

Popular Culture ftw

One of my discussion questions for this week...

Discuss how to best “grok” Design patterns.


So damn cool

Applied for a job, kind of

I got an email from my department head the other day talking about a Sun Ambassadorship Job. With only a few details I decided to send in my resume and they guy from Sun called me back today. We're currently playing phone tag.

http://www.sun.com/corp_emp/search.cgi?funcs=D&loc=40&keyword=national&x=0&y=0

The Sun Academic Developer Program is all about sharing and participation. That's why Sun is recruiting for a student intern to ensure that Academic Developers at National University are able to take advantage of the latest innovative and Open technologies such as Java, Open Solaris, Open SPARC and NetBeans. We invite you to join the global community of Sun Campus Ambassadors.The Sun Campus Ambassador will build communities around Sun's free and open source platforms (OpenSolaris, Open SPARC and Java) and developer tools among Academic Developers (students, faculty and researchers) at National University.The Sun Campus Ambassador is expected to become proficient on Sun's open technologies, including OpenSolaris, Java, Netbeans, and Sun Studio. Sun will provide extensive training on each of these technologies. Sun is looking for graduate or senior level students with a strong background in software development/programming to work part time to:

* Lead the Sun open source developer community on your campus
* Run Sun Technology demo sessions on your campus
* Promote Sun training events on your campus
* Promote Sun's platforms and development tools to professors and researchers


It pays well, I make my own hours and they teach me to learn their stuff. I also get to make contacts at Sun which is beyond useful when it comes time to get a 'real' job. It looks like I just make presentations on their stuff to people at the University, which isn't a big deal, and they keep talking about training. It would be cool to get certifications from them for discounted or even FREE!!

Not sure I want to be a 'Java person' but I can't pass up an opportunity like this. If they pay as much as they claim and I can put in 10 to 20 hours a week I can forgo the expensive student loan and only get the government ones. That would save a TON of money in the long run.

I still need to actually interview and see if I want the job, but it seems tailored to students which makes things much more possible. We'll see.

Recycling is supposed to be a good thing!

It shouldn't be this difficult to find out why my homeowners association doesn't have recycling pick up and then to get that changed. I've been on the phone for half an hour being shuffled from one business to another trying to figure out who to even make the request of, no one seems to know.

Especially in California this shouldn't be a hard thing to get arranged! Aren't we the tree huggers?? I left a message with someone that will hopefully be useful. I just want a big blue container that I put all of my cardboard and plastics in and they pick it up once a week. Yard waste pick up would be nice too but with most of the yards in this complex being concrete I don't see it being economical.

Anyway one more week of Advanced C++ and then Sept is an 'easy' month with a 200 level GE writing class.

Other parts of life

I realized my original intent towards this blog was to talk about the thing that go along with going back to school, well, in my 30's, and I really haven't talked about anything but the actual classes. Well not often really.

There are other challenges to going back to school, though I don't have many of them. I don't have children or a husband to pay attention to, I'm not working so I don't have that stress of working and then trying to get homework done.

I do have the different perspective and determination that comes from being an older student. This isn't me 'finding myself' or going to school because I'm supposed to, this is me training for a specific career mostly because I want to be able to make more money. Completely economically driven, and I'm proud of that. =)

There are unique challenges however, I mentioned the work being done on my house, the fact I own a house is something a typical college student isn't concerned with. And while there are evenings out with friends, I'm not partying at a frat house every weekend, which limits the hung over class attendance, which I see as a good thing.

I do live with roommates though, and the dogs are sort of like really small self sufficent children, if you stretch the definition a bit. Oh and the dog is recovering well, he still had scary demon eyes but so far so good.

Then again there are more and more people in very similar situations, single, no kids, pets going 'back to school' or other things in their lives, while in their 30's.

And on that note I'm off to finish my homework for the week.

Easier a bit

This months seems easier than last month. I"m still doing really simple stuff but maybe I'm just getting it, or I'm really not getting it and I'll be surprised!


As far as everything else, house is still, almost done, but should be done next week. Mutt's eyes are going well, it's a slow recovery and they look demonish being all red but so far so good. No goopy infection stuff so that is encouraging.

The garden and back yard are going well. This is a huge difference from when I went to college the first time, in a dorm and small apartment you don't have to worry about snails eating the beans or if I should replace the carpets with laminate. Things were a lot more simple then, and I was told I'd look back and realize it someday, well here I am!

It's that whole 'being an adult' thing that most of us wish we didn't have to do. I'm just grateful I'm not trying to hold down a full time job, that would make things even more complicated. Or kids, there is no way I could do this with kids.

The dogs are stress enough.

Midterm Grade

Got an 86.5 on the midterm. I'm fine with most of it but I got a question worth 5 points wrong that I had the right answer to and second guessed myself. That is annoying =(

It's more of the same, learning new stuff, writing programs and doing homework. Next month is easy so it will be nice to have a break.

Back yard is done, house is soooooo close to being done! I also almost have my office back!

Midterm done

I can't promise I completely aced it but I feel good about it, wasn't nearly as in depth and complicated as last month's tests.

Now another home work assignment and next week should be much more difficult. It's got to really ramp up eventually!

Half way through the class, have a few things to wrap up but hopefully the midterm grades will be in soon (tm) so I know where I stand. That is the other fatal flaw with these one month classes, it's hard to know where I am grade wise when it's not a simple grading system.

I got an A!!!

Grades for last month are finally in! 95%, got an 82/90 on the final! Rock on I feel better about all of this =)

This month is another 'must be an A' to fulfill my goals but last month was vital, one hurdle down.


Makes a not very good day so much better!

Messing with the lay out again

I've been playing with Google stuff and making changes to the page, mostly to amuse myself. It is nice to see that my grandmother is the most frequent visitor (HI!!) it's nice to see at least someone is reading this!

Anyway added the search engine, I'll use it if nothing else =)

First week

Almost done, so far so good. I am honestly much more interested in playing in my newly accessible garden, but school is getting done too!

Today was the fruit tree planting spree with a 'garden citrus' tree with three kinds of oranges, limes and lemons all grafted into the same plant! Strawberries go up later today and I got some token beans so it's not all fruit.

Impaitents for the hanging baskets and my long desired Jade plant. Next week, around everything else, I need to get the irrigation system functional, but so far its' working.

Mid term next week so I need to keep up with the studying etc. I've said this many times but I can't imagine doing this while working.

CSC 300

The final in the three C++ classes, Advanced C++ or Object Oriented Programming.

Course Description
An introduction to the object-oriented programming (OOP) paradigm and advanced techniques of the C++ language. Provides an overview of object-oriented problem solving as well as OOP concepts such as abstract data types and classes, type hierarchies (subclasses), inheritance and polymorphism.

Usually in programming classes your grade is very reliant on the homework, but in this one it isn't so much. A full 30% of my grade is showing up for a lecture once a week and answering discussion questions on the class message board. Puts less of an emphasis on the homework which I'm not sure I agree with but lets me pad my grade a bit so hey.

Unfortunately my midterm and final are each worth 25% of the grade and that is worrying. I don't test well in these things, I do the homework well. Different approach this month and huge midterm and final stress, but part of this school thing is adapting and learning to do this differently.

Done!

Final is in, last assignment is in and for better or for worse I am finished!

New class starts on Monday, which is going to be a day where I"m not going to be doing much studying, but between now and then I'm a 'free woman'.

Go me

Final!

Working on the final now, I feel like I have a relatively good grasp on what I'm doing, which bodes well.

After this I have to finish up one more assignment, and then it's off to baby cousin's 21st birthday!!

Advanced C++ begins on Monday, I may not actually begin it till Tuesday but that is the beauty of online classes!!

It finally got harder

Lots of studying to do between now and Saturday, but my prof gave me examples etc and I have a full 24 hours to do the final. Putting off going to Davis till Sunday but hopefully I can get my A.

I do get this, it's just applying what I understand is more difficult than advertised. It's part of the learning process and just something I have to do :)

Car is almost done, should have it back before I leave, house is coming along, mostly waiting on the stainer for the cabinets.

August is going to be much more difficult as it's stuff I haven't really seen before. This is why I'm not doing anything but school!

now to study data structures and sorting and searching