A surprise for me!

I got a surprise in my email last night.  I have been invited to apply for honors classes at Crafton Hills College!!  I just stared at the email, reread it, printed it and showed it to my husband, who confirmed it really said what I thought it did.  I never expected or even thought about this, but I am very excited about it and now will  do some investigating and make a decision before even applying.  My investigation will be to find out if there is a time limit to finish my degree when taking honors classes because I don't think I want to take more than one class per semester, as I have been doing.  Another issue is that, right now, I don't plan to transfer to a four year college.  I suppose that could change, but, if there is a limit to the number of students taking honors classes, I don't want to take a place away from someone who does intend to continue on.  Wow!  My mind is still trying to wrap itself around this.  I know that many students also received this email, but to me it's another example of never being too old to go to school, learn and explore the new worlds that open up for you.

Success

I made it through another semester with my brains intact but my nerves just a little more frayed.  It was an enjoyable subject (Dreamweaver) and I created a pretty good website featuring a consortium of fictictious business, all relating to something my family actually does.  Right now, it's only available on the college server and, after I make a few changes, I'll post that web address.  I ran out of time (don't you love being around a procrastinator?), so didn't get all the pieces put in that I wanted to.  My "grand plan" should be complete after Christmas and I will post it online for everyone to see and read and comment on. 

Next semester, I'm taking another programming class with another expensive book but, hopefully, no program to buy.  The cost of taking classes, even at the community college level was one of my bigger surprises.  I understand that taking computer courses, with the required specialized programs, is a reason my costs are so high, but even so, it's a surprising amount of money. 

One interesting thing I recently learned about the financial troubles that colleges face is the way the state government uses colleges for funding.  The number of total students enrolled in classes for a given school in 1999 is used as the base for the number of total students that will be "funded" for that school for the current school year.  "Funded" meaning the tuition from the base number of students can be kept by the school itself.  Any income from students over that base goes into the state general fund.  Therefore, there  is no incentive for colleges to increase their enrollment or offer more classes.  Once the magic number is reached, it does not benefit the school in any way.  I'm not sure if that includes the increased income from student body fees, health fees, etc.   It very frustrating for  students who need just one more class - specific to their major - to graduate which may not be offered for several semesters.  So far, I haven't run into that problem, but several times, computer students needing a particular class were recruiting anyone and everyone to join so there would be enough students enrolled to prevent the class from being cancelled.  In most of my classes there  less than 10 students by the end of the semester,  but we got the class we needed.

By the way - I got an "A" this semester!  YAY TEAM!!

End of semester woes.

Today was the last class of the semester - yes it was a short term class.  All my procrastination has caught up with me, plus learning something new 10 days ago that we are supposed to use for part of our final project.  That just confused me about the things I had planned to do, so my project will be late by a few days, but will be turned in before the absolute deadline.  In the meantime, several late nights have reminded me my body really is  definitely not the spring chicken it used to be, no matter what my mind says.  Thank goodness for short naps that do a good job of reviving me for another stint at the computer.  I do like this class, but am definitely going to have to work on the tendency to procrastinate before next semester.  I'm not sure I to go through another end of semester like this one.  Very wearing on the mind and body.  I will get it done in time and keep repeating "I will enjoy this" and "I will learn lots from this" since it's a big part of my emphasis in Webmaster.  I'm starting to feel a little like one and am more confident that I can be one anyway.  Back to the heavy duty stuff. No more procrastination!!!

Panic Time!!!

A hint:  clicking on the Year or dates on the right side of the blog will take you to other posts I have done.

This is such a rotten time of year to have  deadlines.  I have a big project due next Wednesday afternoon and would prefer to be Christmas shopping and decorating the house and tree.  Guess which I'm going to do first?  Yep! The final project for my class.  It is worth 500 points, a major part of my grade.  Thankfully, every part is all planned out and just involves getting some pictures and other "stuff" together to include in this wonderful, exciting web site I am creating for a family of fictitious businesses.  I think you will all enjoy it once it is done and posted to the web.  This is the kind of project I like to do because it is creative in many ways.  It's good that there's a deadline though, otherwise, I'd probably finish it by Valentine's Day - or something like that.

So far, I'm not too panicked and feel like everything is under control.  We'll see if it works out that way.  It's always exciting to be a procrastinator - at least for me.  Not so much for Dale.  For him, it's just an ache in his stomach.