Back to School for GrownUps

So …I started a new page, did you notice? Nontraditional student resources - it’s one of the tabs up there. 

I’ve only added a few links so far - things I came across in my wanderings yesterday, mostly. 

I already had some links here in my blogroll - but those tend to be links to helpful blogs or other sites - main pages, you know….    

The blogroll thing would get pretty unmanagable pretty quickly if I were to do what I wanted to do there - which is highlight some specific articles within blogs or other sites that are especially well done or relevant to nontraditional students. 

So …. I decided to go with a page - or pages - instead - I will keep adding to it  and hopefully build a useful directory that my visitors will find helpful enough to bookmark.

And why am I telling y’all about it? Well duh…. I’m hoping you will contribute to it, of course :) 

If you come across a specific article, blog or resource that you think might be useful to nontraditional students, please do let me know  so that I can include it.

You can, of course, leave links in the comment section, either here or on the Resources for Nontraditional Students page - or you can email me if you prefer. 

Well, as I mentioned on Flitting on Fiction , I was mucking around with my Blackberry last night, and downloaded the new beta software that fictionwise (who have recently been bought by Barnes & Noble ) now offers for it.

eReader eBooks now work on BlackBerry Handhelds, along with Apple iPhones plus other mobile devices using Palm, Windows Mobile Pocket PC and Smartphone and Symbian Operating Systems (as well as PCs and Mac). You can download free eReader software at Fictionwise .

So of course, even though it was bedtime by the time I got there, I had to download a couple of books and try it. 

One of the good things about doing a degree in English Lit is that a lot of the books we talk about are classics - and a lot of classic literature shows up in the Free Downloads section. I downloaded Emma, by Jane Austen, and Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott for starters - haven’t read Little Women in decades, but it was a favourite when I was a young ‘un. There are other, more current eBooks as well, in the free section. 

What there aren’t - and what will cause me to  not spend my blogging money on book titles for the Blackberry Curve, but rather continue letting it build up in my paypal until I figure out which digital reader to buy - are very many books by Canadian authors other than Robert J. Sawyer - and much as I enjoy his books, he has yet to turn up on any of my syllabi and I don’t expect that he will anytime soon. 

Since the Kindle is not yet available in Canada, I’m guessing that I’m likely to be disappointed there as well…. have to check out the Sony eReader selection and see what they’ve got for me - but since I happen to know that Penguin gave its employees eReaders, I’m hopeful that many they’ll have a better selection …. although still not, I would guess, the textbook sort of stuff that I would so love to have available on a handheld device. 

Sure wish eBrary had a purchase option …. there are SO many books I want to read sitting on my eBrary bookshelf, but they are not mobile enough to suit me - I want to be able to download what I want and read it offline.

Anyway, enough pouting…I think I was meaning to talk about reading on the Blackberry! It is not nearly as bad as I thought it might be…. the only issue I have with it is that when you scroll down, using the pearl, of course, you pop entirely to the next section of text…. it is not a gradual scrolling action at all. I find that a bit irritating, especially as a couple of times, I apparently scrolled too much so the sentence I left off on carried on into a new sentence that had nothing to do with anything….  it was only because it didn’t make sense that I knew there was a problem.

I would prefer, I think, to have the last line of the previous bit show at the top of the next just to maintain some continuity. I suspect, though, that it is something one gets used to eventually.

Well… we got the word re: Today.com and Entrecard and while not at all surprised, I’m still bummed….

No solutions …so within the next two weeks, all Today.com blogs will have to remove their Entrecard widgets from their blogs. 

That really sucks….not so much because of the loss in terms of traffic, although that will hurt…but because I will miss the connections I’ve made with many Entrecard bloggers. I will likely continue to visit your sites…. I’ll keep my flitting.org widget…. but I know that many people won’t remember to stop by and visit my Today.com blogs if I’m not showing up in their dropboxes.

I have ads purchased on both of my today.com blogs - this one, and flitting on fiction …. so I shall leave them for a bit… but they will be gone by the end of March, so if you are a reader - as opposed to a dropper - you might want to add me to your bookmarks before then. 

Really am going to have to get busy and find some other ways to encourage traffic! I LIKE the $$ I make through blogging on Today.com … not about to give it up without at least trying to maintain my pay per post status. 

Well, unless Entrecard changes something major in the next week or so, it seems likely that we today.com bloggers won’t be able to use it any more, since they are going to start carrying ads for things other than blogs on them, which goes against the Today.com terms & conditions. Depressing…. I like Entrecard , and I appreciate the traffic it generates and the community of great bloggers that I have enjoyed being a part of…    *sigh* 

LinkReferral was another option, but it is not working for me at all any more…. even when it did, I never brought more than 30 visitors a day and those were extremely unlikely to stick around or come back anyway … but the last couple of times I bothered to do the 30/5/1/1 thing (for those who don’t know, you are encouraged to visit 30 blogs, write 5 reviews, set 1 as a favourite and make 1 comment in the forum) I got 2/3 visits back …and this Friday, I made a point of doing the full set and got not ONE visitor from there. 

So it seems that blogexplosion is about the only option left at this point… fortunately, they are back in business, and working to clear the spammers out of the forums and to get the backlog of blogs and banner approvals caught up. I volunteered to help with the blog backup…  we’re finally into the 2009 blog submissions now, so we’re getting there! If you have a blog waiting for approval, it should come soon… and if you have one to submit, you might want to hop on that sooner rather than later to get your place in the queue. 

A couple of weeks ago , Ross bought me a really nice laptop bag at the Bentley’s at our local mall. Soft leather, it is big enough for my laptop, power cord and maybe one book - although it won’t hold my binder, or mouse & keyboard,  which is a bit of a pain. 

Darn thing didn’t even last 2 weeks, really … I only use it when I’m at school …. and I don’t take my laptop to all of my classes, even! 

The other day, as I was leaving my CanLit class, I packed it up and went to put the shoulder strap over my shoulder …and the whole thing gave way, sending my laptop flying across the room! 

 And of course, me being me, I have no idea where the receipt for it could be. I DID keep it…I remember putting it someplace ~safe~.

Which bites, as without the receipt they wouldn’t allow us to exchange it for something else. So now I have another one that will likely up with the same darn problem. I suppose I could use it only for days when I DON’T take my laptop to class…but that seems rather silly, don’t you think? 

Oh well…. at least my laptop survived its flight :) 

Both my sister, and Stephanie , my virtual sister, got Sony eReaders for Christmas. Well, Andrea’s wasn’t actually a Christmas present, I don’t think …. she was given hers by her employer… which is rather interesting in itself, but anyway ….  I’ve seen Andrea’s …and Steph wrote a review of hers for my other blog today. She also wrote an article about the Kindle 2’s new audio technology , and some people’s response to that.

I don’t need audio - or wireless - but sure would like an eReader!!!

It wold be very cool to be able to load up all of the books I need to read - and all of the academic articles which are most often in pdf format - and not have to lug around my big toolbox of textbooks. Not that I actually do - that’s something hubby does these days, since he has to chauffeur me around anyway, but still….

And it would be SO much easier to take on the plane when I go to Victoria in June too, don’t you think?

I’m thinking that a Sony eReader would be the perfect YAY ME for getting into a Phd program …. ‘course, first I need to get to that confirmed YAY ME… but that should happen this week (knocking on wood, crossing fingers and other assorted body parts) …. and then it would be awfully nice if they would come down just a bit in price.

For that much money, maybe I would be better off to get one of those little wee laptops - hmmm…. that might be something to consider first.  Can you get software to read eBooks on those? I shall have to do some research on that…. but first, I’d best get the paper I need to present tomorrow done!

Have been such a slacker today … it’s almost midnight and paper isn’t done, clothes and books aren’t packed…. basically, got everything started and nothing done! Back to work.

Entrecard seriously needs to do something better re: Top Dropper stats… it irks me that it only shows ten Top Droppers on the stats page….  not only because it sometimes makes it hard for me to know who my top droppers really are, but also because sometimes people don’t KNOW that and they only post the Top Ten droppers…

So… since that doesn’t work for me, I asked around in the Entrecard forums and someone helpfully pointed out the rss button beside the stats thing, which gives me the top 25 droppers (but no numbers).

Thanks so much for dropping by…I very much appreciate your visits (although I do wish some of you would comment a bit more often - I like comments! ) 

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One of the best reasons I know to keep going back to school - especially after your kids are all growed up like mine are - is because it gives you an excuse to keep buying cool ~stuff~ that you need for school.

I like school supplies…. stickers and pens and notebooks and books and ….and… and…

I am particularly fond of my electronic toys…  of course I must have a laptop…. and a bag to put it in. I was, until recently, using a Penguin book bag as purse/laptop bag…  but it’s about worn out, in spite of the reinforcing sewing a friend of mine did awhile ago.

So this week, while hubby & I were out and about, we bought me a new laptop bag - not exactly like the one in the picture, but close enough.  I also got a new - and very nice - leather wallet. And today I looked at new cases for my Blackberry Curve, too, but they were stinking-stupid priced at our local WallyMart…. I’m glad I waited, as there are lots of them available online for much better prices - even with shipping.

I’m thinking the next big purchase will have to be a Sony eReader … or a Kindle … or…. maybe for Christmas… unless getting into a PhD program is worth a new toy… hmmmm….

So…I have been busy on this blog today; did you notice?

I cleaned up a bunch of widgets (thanks to dreadpiraterose @ ConventionFans for the motivation ) …. dumped them over onto a page of their own … it’s called Networking , if anyone should happen to be interested. 

Still got a couple of little things to do widget-wise… I am still undecided about the widgetbox … it doesn’t work on the page, so might yet put it back in my sidebars to give it a decent trial (till the end of the week… and then if it’s still not generating traffic, I will just disappear entirely). And I do intend to put a link to my twitter account ’round here somewhere :) 

But it does look a lot less cluttered, I think.

While I was mucking about with pages I got rather ambitious too, and put up a couple of new ones. 

I hadn’t realized that I never did do my About Page for this blog… so I’ve gone and done that. 

And I also set up another page for the Back to Schoolers 101 series , which I will continue to add to as time goes on.

For now though, I think perhaps I should make use of my nice quiet house (hubby’s gone to do stuff in the basement of our other house … have a potential tenant, so he’s got a lot of DVDs and stuff to pack up and move out of the store) and get some of the things that ARE on my to do list for this week done.

Or maybe I’ll just get back to reading The Beast Within :) 

So … not really a Back to School for Grownups’ topic… but promoting my blogs - and especially this one - is one of the tasks that I am hoping to work on over my Reading Week …. in between getting other stuff done, of course .

I did do the 17 page Ethical Research form last night, and worked on my seminar about Canadian Crusoes today… almost done reading the book, and have decided to focus on issues of gender - which also includes more about the portrayal of natives, the topic I presented on last week.

I also managed to find time to fix my brother-in-law’s new computer, and to read almost half of my friend Steph ’s newest novel - it’s great… needs a publisher so that y’all can read it too

But, like I said, I’ve also been mucking about with blog promotion tools:

Entrecard is a no brainer…. well worth the time I spend on it, mostly because I don’t actually spend that much time on it. When I use the toolbar, I load 20 or 30 pages at a time, go do other things, and then after they’ve had time to load fully, go back and click through, reading those that interest me as I go.  I usually drop 300/day in each account, and generally  get about 200 return visits (more if I also buy ads - but I don’t earn enough EC to buy ads all the time, and I’m not inclined to cough up real money to buy more).

My next most consistent source of traffic seems to be becoming BlogExplosion .  I signed up for it several months ago, but it seemed pretty much dead back then…the forums were overrun with spam, and no one was approving new blogs. But just recently, I got an email that my blogs had finally been approved, so I decided to go back and try it. I still find their surf process a ~tad~ control-freakish ….  you have to click on the number you’re told, and stay on the page for 30 seconds for it to count…. and if you fail to claim the randomly generated free credits you win, you get kicked right out… bad blog surfer!!!   But it’s another one of those things you can just do in the background…click when you think of it… and I am getting a pretty good return on my clicks (60 unique views so far today, for example).

BlogExplosion has been taken over by new owners who don’t seem too interested in doing anything with it, which means that there are still issues … the forums are still more than a little spammy, although there’s a move to keep popping the non-spam threads up by commenting on them regularly. Would be SO much more efficient if they would just give a few people admin rights, but no such luck so far. And because it has been so badly (as in not) managed, not as many people are using it…. so there is a tendency for it to run out of new blogs to show at times… but its got potential… and even given its many issues right now, it’s working for me.

Linkreferral seems to bring about 30 uvs a day if I can be bothered to log in and do the stuff you’re supposed to do (30 clicks, 5 reviews, 1 forum post & 1 favourite)…. I just find most of the blogs I wind up at there soooooooo boring…. Entrecard and BlogExplosion blogs make for much better reading on the whole, I find.  The link referral reviews are lame - people don’t really want feedback, and if you bother to give them any, they’ll low rate you in return, send you whiny emails, or both.

I tried SpicyPage -  a site that allows you to make friends/connections, and submit links to each new post… not even worth the time it takes to submit them, y’ask me. I did try to get involved in the today.com group over there, but months later am still not approved and can’t post to their forum.

Twitter doesn’t bring me much traffic -  1/2 visitors/tweet … but it doesn’t suck back much time, so I usually do that when I post anyway.

Haven’t seen much benefit to Technorati , although I see (just now) that my authority numbers are starting to climb a bit.  I don’t think I’ve EVER had anyone find me through it, though. I do get an occasional visitor from BlogCatalog … but those are relatively few and far between…. probably my fault though, as I haven’t really found much to DO there and rarely think to log in. Same goes for Reddit … although there is an Education channel over there, the resulting traffic is so minimal I rarely bother with it. It does seem to have some residual benefit… but 1/2 visitors a week just doesn’t seem worth the trouble. I do stop by there to read, occasionally, but that’s about it.

I signed up for Widgetbox today; nothing from there yet, but suppose it doesn’t hurt to leave it for awhile. Oh, and I signed up for BlogUpp yesterday … a whopping 2 uvs from there so far.

What works for you? Got any ideas that I’m missing? 

It is 1:35 a.m and I’m to give a seminar in CanLit tomorrow morning… okay, well later this morning, not tomorrow.

it’s as done as it’s going to get… would, if I was here by myself, set up my printer and get it printed too, but since ross is sleeping….

it will have to wait till morning.

No good reason for being cranky really … mostly feeling better than I have been lately - and although I did manage to faint a time or two, at least neither of those were during classes or my speech or anything…could have been worse.

I am frustrated with my wrists though… still hurtin’ ….

and with my craptastic motel Internet. Talking about me staying (sans Ross & van for a couple of extra days this week - cabbing back and forth for school stuff… wouldn’t mind so much if I could count on Internet. Maybe it IS time to look for a new motel - there are a few in town - would cost more, but less on cabs… and if they had reliable Internet…)

And I am not quite tired enough to sleep…would like to read in bed but can’t since that would bother Ross too.

Oh well…guess I shall try the sleep thing anyway.

I am not very impressed with Dell right now.

If I go to the US site, I can put in my service tag and bring up the parts I need to order - but I can’t save them to the cart, or ORDER them because I live in Canada.

So fine - I trot off to the Canadian version of the site and guess what?

Dell.ca - although they are the ones that sold me my computer - cannot recognize my service tag. Nor are they able to find any information about my computer (funny, the US version had no problem). Nor are they at all inclined to sell me SFA for my computer. Because it doesn’t exist, you see.

I am to go to the last column on the ~support~ (HA!) page and use that to search for what I need - only there is no search bar there. Just the title.

If I lived in the US I could have a new monitor for $299 and a new keyboard for $53 (refurbished, but heck of a lot better than what I have right now - which is an essentially USELESS computer that is less than 6 months old). I would be happy to pay that - plus shipping plus taxes plus the exchange rate even. Well, okay, not so happy about the taxes or the exchange rate. But I would pay it. I want my Dell to work. Properly. NOW!!!!

But I am Canadian.

I am, apparently, not worthy.

It is not like they don’t have the technology - that works, even!   So why do Canadians not have access to it?

I will be sure to ask tomorrow when I call and try to order what I need. *sigh*

I hate calling them. They have, to date, not been helpful. Or even polite, except for once. *sigh*

Toshiba is far better for customer service in my experience. If only they would quit messing around with keyboard layouts I would go back to them and probably never venture elsewhere again. Pretty and purple is not nearly as fun when it DOESN’T WORK and I can’t get what I need to fix it.

Well - since the 10 bloggers in my Entrecard list all show 31 days - I have no way to know which of my other top droppers might also have dropped that consistently.

So - will have to post all 25 Top Droppers showing in my feed, I s’pose….  thank you to all of you… and to all of my other visitors from Entrecard, linkreferral, or whatever else brings you here.

Would love to hear from y’all …why not stop & drop a comment or two sometime?  Even if you’re not a Back-to-Schooler, I am always happy to hear from visitors… and if you are, were, or wanna-be a Back-to-Schooler … let me know and I will happily add you to the Back-to-Schooler blogroll over there —–>

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So …I am supposed to be writing a new Statement of Interest/Plan of Study at the moment…and I have actually made some progress on that…but in the back of my mind, I have also been coming up with potential topics for blog posts for this blog.

I’m thinking that I might get a few posts drafted in advance so that on those days when I just can’t get to coming up with new articles, I will have a store of ready-to-go posts to draw on. Far more proactive than I usually am - are you impressed? 

Anyway …I have come up with a few, including:

• Why people go back to school (going back to the article where I asked you for your input on that topic and writing it up, as I meant to do)
• Deciding between online and in-person courses
• Choosing a program
• Test-taking strategies (especially for people who suck at a particular type of tests - in my case, that would be multiple choice)
• Taking a break (giving oneself permission to take time OFF occasionally; something Ross thinks I also suck at - and he is probably right)
• Learning styles
• Reviews and links of/to other Back to Schoolers blogs

So … there is a fair bit of scope there…. but I am also very interested in hearing about what visitors to this blog would like me to write about, too. Are there topics that you think I should spend more time on? Less? Anything in particular that I should address? Resource links that I should be adding?

What would you like to see here? Your thoughts are very much valued & appreciated!

Here are my responses to the interview questions Patricia, from Subjective Soup (and Communication Exchange) sent me.  Wanna play? If you would like to participate in an interview as well, let me know and I shall come up with a set of 5 questions just for you.  

1.  I do not see a photograph of you on any of your blogs.  Please describe what you look like.

Would it be cheating to just post a photo instead? I hope not :)  I like my new student ID photo better than the graduation photo I have posted here, cuz I like my new glasses better than the ones I had here, but just too lazy to get off my butt and go scan if for you, so this will have to do.

2.  You attend school in Canada and I attended school and taught school in the U. S.  What similarities and differences are there between the educational systems of the two countries?

Honestly, not having attended/taught in the US I am not entirely sure. I do know that it seems to me that here in Canada, colleges and universities tend to offer very different programs - although more and more now, college programs seem to be creating ties to university programs so that one can finish with a university degree - but that was not common until very recently.

The other difference, according to my psychology text, is that US colleges have a 50% drop out rate - and that many of those students who do manage to complete their programs often take significantly longer than the program is designed to take - taking 6 years to complete a 4 year program, for example. While not all Canadian students are successful in completing their post-secondary education, I think that our statistics are somewhat more encouraging … I was shocked when I read that section of the textbook and actually went and checked.

3.  I know you are in graduate school.  What exactly is your major?  What courses have you taken and what courses do you have left to complete?

This is - depending on how you count them - my fourth post secondary school program. I did a college diploma in Child and Youth Work (with Deaf Option) right out of high school, then, almost 20 years later, I went back and took a diploma in Computer Programmer Analyst.

Because I do well in school and had decent marks, I got bunches of transfer credits, and was able to complete a 4 year Honours degree in English through Laurentian University in just 2 years. During my Honours year, I was able to do an Honours essay instead of the 4th year seminar course I would otherwise have had to take. My topic was “Margaret Laurence: The Self as Writer and the Writing Self”, and I won the university’s English essay competition with it.

Right now, I am doing a Masters in English, Public Texts at Trent University in Peterborough Ontario. I am doing the Major Research Project (MRP) option, which is a one year plan. I started in September ‘08, and should finish in August of ‘09. My coursework right now includes a required course in Public Texts and a colloquium that meets every couple of weeks or so.  On top of those I have 4 electives to do - last semester I did Fiction/Nonfiction and Textual Transmissions, and this semester I am doing The Making of Early Canadian Books and Viral Contagion.

I am also just finishing up an extra online course in Adolescent Psychology, which doesn’t apply towards my degree but which I took as an additional course to provide me with a wee bit more credibility re: my interest in working on issues related to the function of fiction for adolescents and emerging adults.

My MRP - which is a 50+ page paper that I will write over the summer semester - is related to publishing and emerging adults. And my hope is that I will be accepted to go on into a PhD program, where my research will result in a textbook and other resources to promote the use of fiction in therapeutic recreation programming for adolescents with behavioural and emotional challenges, specifically within residential treatment programs.

4.  You write your blog for Today.com.  Just how does that work?

When I signed up for Today.com, the deal was that they would pay $1/day for the first (approved) 100+ word article you posted each day, plus $2 for every 1000 unique viewers. That rate was guaranteed for the first month - after that, they rate your blog regularly and can adjust up or down as they deem fit.

Recently, they have changed their program so that now, new bloggers start out with only the $2/1000 page views - but their blogs too are subject to regular review and can be adjusted up or down.

Today pays when you reach a $50 payout level - which, with 2 blogs, I’ve been able to earn consistently since the first full month of blogging. Plus, even though they are a Canadian company, they pay in US funds, so that works for me too …with the exchange rate, I come out a bit ahead.

While the amount I earn doesn’t sound like much, it is sure a heck of a lot more than I will ever manage to earn on my personal blog, flitting.org. Last time I checked there, I had a whopping .02c earned from Google Adsense!

Given that my time for blogging and promoting is somewhat limited by the fact that I am pretty busy with the school thing (and I also teach 3 sections of relational database at the college I used to go to), Today.com works very well for me…. I especially like the community aspect. I  participate in the forum, along with a bunch of other Today.com bloggers and, most impressively, the staff, who are FAR and away more involved and responsive to our input than are the management of any other site I have been involved with.

5.  I believe you said you have children.  Can you tell us about them?

I have two kids, both girls. They are only 14 months apart; Tamara is 24 and Jessa is 23 now. Both are college graduates now. Tamara studied PR and is looking for a job in her field, and Jess studied Early Childhood Education and is working in a day care.

The two of them share an apartment in Oshawa, which is about an hour away from where I go to school - I don’t see them as often as I would like now that I can’t drive though :(  Did manage a trip this week though, since it was my birthday (Monday).

I linked their names up there to their blogs on Today.com, although they are nowhere near as active as the mommy is. Oh, and my mom just got her new blog up and running today, too.

Plus, Ross & I also have 2 beautiful grandbabies (his daughter’s boys)

And can’t forget my dog - this is Ross & Scrooge, our walker hound.

One of the good things about being in grad school is that - at least for this year - I don’t need to do exams much anymore.

I mark them …but I don’t WRITE any o’ my own.

I rather like that.

But with the course I have been taking online in Adolescent Psychology through Athabasca U… no such luck. I was supposed to write the exam during the last week of November last year … which those of you who read regularly may remember, was the same week I wrecked my car and my wrists. Athabasca kindly allowed me an extension …so tomorrow is the day.

I am SO not ready! I did read the entire textbook, write the paper (although still haven’t done the Works Cited page and emailed it to the prof - will do that this weekend for sure), and do the quizzes … but that was MONTHS ago. As I have been rereading the text and my notes this week everything is totally familiar…but I have little confidence in my ability to pull what I need when I need it. My brain just doesn’t work that way when I want it to anymore.

(That’s a worry, too - will have to write a couple of comprehensive exams for my PhD - if I get in - that scares the bejeebers out o’ me…. but anyway…)

To add to my stress, I did not, apparently, register for my exam the “RIGHT” way. Silly me …. I thought that given that I was not asking for any accomodation aside from the fact that I had asked to be allowed to provide my own keyboard to plug into one of their computers ….should mean that I would not have to jump through the hoops required of those who are requesting accomodations based on special needs.

Yes I did do the forms …. right after the acccident … so that, if I did need accomodations by the time I wrote the exam, I could use them …but….

I  am tired of being slapped for not doing things the right way. I have received an email telling me that I had done the wrong form - I used the one that is for the ‘regular’ exam rather than for the special approved for accomodations due to disability form and I should be sure not to do that again or I won’t be allowed any of the accomodations - you know, those accomodations I DON’T WANT… yeah, those ones.

In response to that, I emailed saying that I was not requesting…blah blah blah … to which I received an actual phone call to clarify …

And just to make me REALLY REALLY GLAD that I EVER filled out their *^&(%^&%#! paperwork IN CASE I NEEDED IT, today I was copied on an email about my accomodations  … and about making SURE that students who are in need of accomodations give enough notice and I know it is not your fault that students sometimes fail to ….

I really, REALLY wanted to respond to the email. I mean *^&(%^&%#! really!

But I was a good girl and resisted the temptation.

I shall finish this course and - hopefully- be done with the whole thing…. honestly, at this point, their ~helpfullness~ has aggravated me to the point that I am SO not inclined to sign up for another course with Athabasca any time soon.

I know they are trying to be helpful - but treating me like an idiot is not helpful. Nor are the repeated ~bad girl~ messages. Seriously.

Here are the top 10 Entrecard droppers for December 2008.

Small Town Mommy chronicles her day-to-day life. She shares her thoughts with her readers, hopefully make someone laugh, and ask for advice. Stop by and get to know her and her family and friends, here in our small town.

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She says:I’m an engineer by accident. Since my field of choice tends to be science fiction and fantasy, I’m also interested in psychic power, dragons and faeries, magic, tarot, well, everything.

So…. while I’m still hoping for more responses to my questions about reasons for (or against) going back to school as an adult …. it is Christmas Eve and time for fun and family and food and festivities, right?Well, hopefully, for all of you, anyway!

For me, it’s a mad rush to get my fiction/nonfiction paper done, and presents wrapped - I should be wrapping Ross’ now, while he’s out returning the rental car since we now have our new van. They are the only ones I have to wrap - he’s offered to do everything else for me, since my hands, neck & back are still messed up from the car accident.

Other than those, mostly I just need to stuporvise and get this darned paper done. Tomorrow we’ll go do the family thing - his for brunch, mine for dinner.  Much driving, but oh well - tis the price you pay for living up here on the lake

On Boxing Day his sister (the only 1 of 3 that still speaks to us)  and her husband will come for dinner - I’m doing a roast with yorkshire puddings, since we’ll all have had turkey on Christmas (and my brother in law loves my yorkshire pudding) … roast beef dinner, for me, isn’t complete unless there are mashed potatoes - don’t know how Ross feels about peeling potatoes, but since I have never known him to do it, I’m guessing I might have to make do.

And hopefully - at least the plan is - by the time they get here for dinner, the fiction paper will be DONE and then I can move onto all the (much) smaller bits & pieces of school stuff I need to get done before the end of the year.

Anyway …. Merry Christmas - or whatever else you celebrate. And best wishes for safe & happy holidays to your and yours.

These are some of the reasons that I love doing the back to school for grownups thing. Because I am in school, I can justify my toys.

In August of this year, we bought me a very pretty purple laptop from Dell.

And then last week when I crashed my car, and my laptop in the process, we went out and brought home a very nice new Toshiba Satellite. I isn’t purple - but it has new toys, like the built in microphone and webcam, and more hard drive space and so on - so it will do.

We students must have working laptops, don’t you know Even if the insurance doesn’t cover it

This semester, I also graduated from a boring cell phone and Palm LifeDrive to a Blackberry Curve.

While I liked my LifeDrive, till I broke it (yes, I am hard on my toys), the Blackberry is ever so much cooler. It works great as a phone, and camera - and also as a datebook, email client - for all 4 of my active email accounts, if I want. And of course, there are games.

It also allows me to open attachments with my emails, which is very helpful when my students are submitting their essays and so on.

Oh! And the GPS works well for me, also. It is not quite as good as my husband’s TomTom - I am too cheap to pay an extra $10/month for turn by turn voice GPS - but it has helped me a whole lot more than once. Guess I don’t really need it anymore, since I’m no longer allowed to drive … but I am hoping that will be a temporary situation.

My only complaint about my Blackberry is that right after I got it I started to see ads for the Blackberry Bold. NO FAIR! *POUT*

I have a little wee house guest this evening… and our dog is SO not happy.

He just wants to play with him - but he has been doing this headbutting thing that kitty really does not much care for… so even though kitty is used to having a dog around, and was willing to be friends, he’s changed his mind and decided that he would rather stay in the cat carrier out of Scrooge’s reach, thank you very much.

In the morning, I will be delivering the kitten to my kids’ place in Oshawa… have to get it done in time to turn around and go to my class at 9 - which means leaving here by 5 a.m.

And since I did not get everything done that I needed to do - in part cuz the friend that brought the kitten stayed for a visit … hard to do when homework when you’ve got company.

Should give the one paper another go right now …but it’s hard to concentrate when you’re tired and cranky. And besides, the car is already all loaded up, which means the textbook is out in the car in the garage.

I have been working on a powerpoint about the Art of the Book show I went to last week - link leads to my other blog where I posted pictures about that. But that one is far less important than the author to public paper that I need to upload for the class tomorrow

Oh well… cat, class, then settled in the motel by noon. Hopefully the little bit of the paper that’s left to finish up won’t take too long. It better not - there are 2 others to tackle after it. *sigh*