Hi, and welcome to the October university update. I promised I would only update on my personal university journey once a month. Here it is.
Class has been in session for 7 weeks now and we are about halfway through the semester. That must mean it is time for midterms. And the third class that is an online paper class began yesterday, 10/7/22.
As a recap this semester I am taking a statistics applications class, a philosophy knowledge development in nursing class (the Ph in PhD), and the class I just picked up is Financial Longevity. Let me break them down one by one.
This is my third statistics course, and while I am not struggling per se, it is not my favorite class. Yesterday, yes, only yesterday, it dawned on me that I hardwired my brain against statistics when I naively took economics and statistics in the same 6-week session during my BSN.
Dude, don’t ever do that. I have counseled against taking them together ever since. Did I pass? Yes. Were there tears? Oh yes.
Ever since my brain has rebelled against statistics. Well, this is statistical applications, which is different you say. Yes. And I have to learn an entirely new program, in addition to learning an entirely new email system, class platform, and new job as a graduate assistant. Don’t do that. It’s been a bit chaotic.
The midterm dropped this morning and I have to do the problems and turn it in NEXT Sunday. Who wants to use the cattle prod on my sense of urgency? I’m trying, I really am, I work on readings and practice problems almost every day.
Thank goodness I took the call job when I did and got my brain used to THAT before introducing this new chaos level madness. I’ll get by, I always do.
The philosophy course is similar to the one I had to take at Creighton. Except there is a presentation next Friday that I am working on my PowerPoint for now. I really enjoy this class; the teacher is awesome and fosters intellectual stimulation among myself and the cohort.
There are two papers due in this class. One about the Ways of Knowing, a 5-page exploration of the different ways there are to know things due in November. And a 20-page behemoth on Concept Application. What concept? And how do I apply it? I think that was discussed in the first class, which I missed because I was over the Atlantic Ocean on a plane returning home. i have emailed the instructor seeking guidance.
The new class on Financial Longevity may seem out of place. I chose it specifically. It had to a graduate level class, and maybe applicable to the thesis. I chose it because I am interested in the topic. Everyone should be, really. It behooves us to prepare for the future, even if retirement is not our scene (is it mine? probably not). This is the only class that I am taking that is online only, back to discussion posts and weekly papers. All right, something I am familiar with. Did you know that they call this asynchronous, where you don’t meet regularly for actual classes, doing all the work by yourself. Finally, a class that gets me.
Since this is a quarter class, not a semester, I anticipate the work will be truncated into the 7 weeks. Again, something I am familiar with. I’ve already done the task for yesterday, which was an introduction of who I am and why I am taking the class. I explained that my first hospital seemed to always be on the verge of closing. And since this was the only hospital in a “retirement” town it was important to be mindful of costs. This is a lesson I took to heart.
Outfitting the “office”, AKA enriching the office supply websites and stores.
1) Because I was spending entirely too much time in a chair, I bought a standing desk. The desk sits on top of the dining room table, and I can move it up and down at will. Yesterday was my first day of all day classes where I used it. I am already a fan.
2) A laptop stand. I do the bulk of my schoolwork in the dining room, because the husband was complaining about me being in the office when he was and I had a laptop, why was I using the desktop too? Short answer, because I can. But this way I can work and move to minimize distractions of him on the computer or watching television.
3) As I have been spending more time on the laptop in meetings and such, I was wanting more light. But not from the fixture in the room, although that is on a rheostat. And I anticipate having to do short videos for school. And maybe YouTube. IDK. Jokes on me, the glare from the ring light that I bought works great for brightness but makes a terrible glare on my glasses. On the positive side, the glare obliterates my fear of people seeing what websites I am on.
4) Shelving unit for the dining room. Future purchase as I am still deciding. In the dining room there are EIGHT chairs! Eight! And we are a house of 2 people, although I sometimes have family over for dinner and holidays. Right now, the extra chairs are horizontal places for school things. This will help that.
I have to get going, I have a midterm to continue to study for and a computer program to use for the midterm that I am still not proficient at.
Dispatches from the Evening Shift 