As usual, I am taking two classes. One is database design, the other covers a variety of productivity software applications.

The former class was opened up well before the first day of classes, meaning that we could log in and view course [...]]]> (Which is really only a partial  week, since the semester didn’t start until Wednesday. But whatever.)

As usual, I am taking two classes. One is database design, the other covers a variety of productivity software applications.

The former class was opened up well before the first day of classes, meaning that we could log in and view course documents, lectures, etc., and participate on the discussion board. The professor is the type that encourages early submissions, mostly because the subject matter will be intense and the bigger jump on things we get, the better off we’ll be.

The latter class did not open up until the first day of the semester. I’d been checking and rechecking to see if a textbook order had been placed. None had. The day before the semester started, I noticed that the instructor had been changed. This distressed me because I had really been looking forward to taking a class with the original instructor.

The following day, an email came out that the original instructor had resigned from the university. She explained that it was related to family issues. I can understand that. But then an email came out from the department, stating that along with that instructor, one of my instructors for my first semester had also left. Already knowing that my adviser is on sabbatical this semester, this means that the four-person full time team for my specialization is down to one person, who happens to be my professor for database design. The website for my specialization? Gone. I’m extremely grateful that I managed to get my plan of work submitted when I did, because I can only imagine what might have happened if I’d waited any longer.

As I mentioned, the database design class will be intense. We had our first lecture on Wednesday night and it was a live session online. My only complaint is that I would really like to get into a study group and I would have preferred a face to face one. There is one person in my hometown in the class, but I’ve received no replies to my initial post on the discussion board. I will probably end up in a group with others online, which is fine.

The jury is definitely still out on my second class. I am annoyed both at and for the instructor. Mostly for. I’m certain that there was a scramble to find a replacement instructor. For that, I am fine with being a little patient. A syllabus was posted along with the statement that the first lecture would be uploaded on Thursday or earlier. It’s Friday night, and there is still no lecture.

Again, patience… the instructor posted an announcement stating that changes needed to be made to the syllabus, but that the readings for week one remained the same. Ok, great! Off I ran to see what those readings were. One of them was available through my library’s electronic databases. I printed it off and discovered I’ve read it before. No problem. It was a good article and it certainly won’t hurt me to read it again. The other reading, though, only had a title. No author and certainly no citation.

Thinking that perhaps the instructor meant to include it in course documents, I again opted for patience. Today, I see that article I’ve already read is in the course documents file, but not the mystery reading. Which, according to the professor, is still a required reading for week one. So, this morning, I sent an email. Still haven’t received a response.

However, there was an additional announcement posted for the class… and this is where the balance of my annoyance begins to shift. The things that aren’t happening on the part of the professor is totally excusable due to a last minute change in instructors. But it seems some of my fellow students have a bit of difficulty comprehending what they read.

It was clearly spelled out in the syllabus that we will have to become MCAS certified in Microsoft Word and ONE OTHER APPLICATION. But apparently the prof felt the need to clarify it further. Clearly, he’s been getting emails.

That kind of stuff does irritate me. Why? Because these are future information professionals. If they can’t read and comprehend, how in the hell do they expect to be able to help others find information they require? Furthermore, requiring the professor to take time out to address something so clearly stated is taking him away from the time required to update the syllabus, respond to my email (I know… selfish much?) and get the mystery reading posted.

So… yeah. That’s week one.

In other news, I am positively thriving at work right now. I never hate my current job, which is such a blessing, because hoo boy, I’ve hated some in the past. I get annoyed with some of the people who “work” near me. I use that word loosely. Very loosely. But man… I love what I’m doing and the thing is… I feel so in my element. I can’t explain it. Coincidentally (or not), I started dressing up for work again on the first day of classes where I work. I did so purposely. If I am going to be a professional someday, I need to start looking like one. Maybe it’s that one small thing that’s been giving me this extra boost of confidence lately. Maybe I should be dressed up when I do homework!

Nah.

It took me a while, but I finally started to get excited about my classes. I am trying to remember what I thought at the start of last semester.

*hits pause button to go see*

Interesting. I commented on my surprise that a [...]]]> Fall semester starts for me tomorrow. It’s been underway for almost two weeks where I work.

It took me a while, but I finally started to get excited about my classes. I am trying to remember what I thought at the start of last semester.

*hits pause button to go see*

Interesting. I commented on my surprise that a “pre-lecture” the professor posted was an hour long. I followed that up with a comment that was trying to be positive, but pretty much anyone I talked to during that semester knows that I ended up hating that class. Not the other class. Just that one.

Contrast that with this semester (thus far) and the first lecture that’s been posted by a different professor. It’s 29 minutes long. Do I think that there will be less educational value to it? No. I think that she will use less words to accomplish the task. In fact, I think I will end up getting more out of it. And that’s not me trying to be positive. It’s just a gut feeling. The textbook for this class is intimidating. But I’m not afraid of it.

I am a little nervous about my other class, not so much because of the topic, but because I think I’ll be required to do a live demonstration of a software program. But I knew that going in. I’m aware that this will not be a comfortable thing for me. As I’ve said before, however, I have to get out of that zone in order to grow.

There is one thing I would really like to try to do this semester, though, and that’s blog more often. Taking a cue from Frectis, who is in nursing school and has briefly summarized the first two weeks in separate posts, I think I’d like to try something similar. But, as the title of this post suggests (and with apologies to The Scorpions), I’m not going to swear it’ll happen.

I can only hope for the best.

You all have Chuck to thank for commenting, because he’s the one who prompted me to post updated photos of the garden. I tried to match the old shots, but in a couple of cases, it just couldn’t be done. And I also added two new ones of stuff that wasn’t there last time. [...]]]> Oh, hi there!

You all have Chuck to thank for commenting, because he’s the one who prompted me to post updated photos of the garden. I tried to match the old shots, but in a couple of cases, it just couldn’t be done. And I also added two new ones of stuff that wasn’t there last time. So, without further delay…

First up, the four boxes then:

The four boxes on July 5th:

That huge tomato plant on the left is called Juliet. Do NOT mess with her.

Trellises and long box then:

Trellises on July 5th: (I know that it looks like the sugar snap peas are the same height. This is our second crop of them. Note that we had to add extra fencing up at the top because the damn things are so tall. Not that I’m complaining. Some gardening, however, is clearly not meant for short people.)

And this is the long box: (Cauliflower, zucchini and cucumbers)

Our zucchini can beat up your zucchini. Maybe.

The patio trellises then:

And the patio trellises on July 5th: (That shrub to the left of the boxes is Cosmos. I’m shocked that it grew like it did, but I like it. One more natural barrier!)

No blooms yet for the Morning Glorys or Moonflowers

Last but not least, the start of our watermelon:

Someone really needs to weed...

And finally, the annuals I planted:

Because every girl (and garden) needs some pretty.

So, that’s the latest. We have a ton of grape tomatoes on Juliet. Unfortunately, today we also discovered a couple of Tomato Hornworms. If you’ve never seen one, I double dog–nay, I TRIPLE DOG DARE YOU to look it up on The Google. You have to pull them off (and yes, they fight it) and squish them. Even The Boyfriend squealed like a girly girl. (That part was actually pretty fucking funny.)

Maybe sometime this year, I’ll post vacation photos for Mel!

Eventually, those boards turned into these:

The cool things were that the wood was free and the paint was only $5 in the “Oops” section of Home Depot. We’re all about the budget here.

I have a small, postage stamp sized yard, surrounded on three sides [...]]]> So, it started with some godawful Smurf blue boards that we painted red:

Eventually, those boards turned into these:

The cool things were that the wood was free and the paint was only $5 in the “Oops” section of Home Depot. We’re all about the budget here.

I have a small, postage stamp sized yard, surrounded on three sides by two garages and a privacy fence that you don’t want to get me started on. Where the neighbor’s garage ends begins my view of the rest of the backyards on my block, including two in-ground pools. BONUS: One of them is in the backyard of house that has been foreclosed and abandoned.

I can’t really afford a privacy fence of my own right now. The Boyfriend is a little hesitant to even consider one, since we’re not sure how it would affect our sunlight in that area of our veggie garden. Our solution? Trellises with pole beans and sugar snap peas:

Note the homemade one on the extreme right. The Boyfriend made that out of branches of a junk tree I cut down. Also note in the foreground my triangular cages. I’m hoping to trellis up cucumber and zucchini plants. I’m pretty sure those aren’t going to be tall enough, but I can add to it later. I basically wanted something in place to see how it would work with the boxes.

On the other side of the yard is my driveway and garage. We’ve re-purposed the area in front of the garage as our patio, since we never pull the cars in that far anyway. This presented another problem because the house next door is on a corner lot and I’m a little uncomfortable with how much of my yard can be seen from the street. The neighbor in the corner house does have strategically planted shrubs, but there are a few gaps. And let’s face it; I don’t particularly like the shrubs they have.

Our solution:

The boxes contain Morning Glory and Moon Flower seeds that are just now sprouting. In between the boxes is a clematis that will hopefully help fill in the ugly chain link. I am still debating on what to do with the area around the boxes. But I have lots of annuals left to plant, so let’s just say I have options.

There is still work to be done. I haven’t figured out where I’m placing all of my other containers just yet. We have lights to string up and while I’ve obtained the hooks for two of my hanging planters, I still have at least one basket to find an elevated home for. I’ll take more photos this weekend when the weather is FINALLY supposed to be sunny AND warm.

I‘ve been was up at 6:30 [...]]]> In honor of the semester from HELL finally ending (I submitted my final exam in cataloging yesterday), I am going to make an effort to blog every day in the month of May. Of course, I started this post yesterday (hence the title), so clearly that’s going well so far, eh?

I‘ve been was up at 6:30 this yesterday morning when we had a thunderstorm move into the area with some pretty spectacular lightning. We are in the midst of getting our veggie garden started and we’ve been putting our plants outside (they’re currently in pots) when the weather is nice enough to give them more sunlight. But The Boyfriend was putting our strawberry plants in the same spot on the porch, a spot that gets a ton of run off rain, and the strawberries have nearly drowned twice. The last time they were FLOATING in their pot.

Actually, though, they don’t seem to mind. There is the beginnings of at least one strawberry on one of the plants, so I think they’re going to be just fine.

I actually ended up planting them yesterday afternoon, along with our buttercrunch lettuce plants that we bought a while back. Turns out they’re a cool weather crop, so they’d have been perfectly happy living outside. I sorta feel bad for the little guys now. We also planted our blueberry shrub. I doubt we’ll have fruit off of it this year, but maybe we’ll be pleasantly surprised.

I haven’t been outside yet this morning. I’m hoping we weren’t visited by rabbits overnight. Although I left The Zola Cat outside, so perhaps she was walking the perimeter.

Last night, I discovered that while May 15 is the “last average frost date” out by the airport, here in the city it’s May 1st. Guess who will be planting more stuff today? I soaked Morning Glory and Moonflower seeds last night for planting in boxes to climb up trellises by our patio area. They’re going in today. We bought garbanzo beans on a whim last night. I’m planting some of those as well. I hear they can be difficult as far as yields go, but the plant itself is supposed to be pretty. And if it produces, we learn to make our own hommous. If anyone has a good recipe for us to try, please pass it along!

Other than finally being a full time participant in the gardening (The Boyfriend had started all of our seedlings and has been nurturing them lovingly for weeks), I’ve been doing genealogy stuff, such as attending the OGS conference. I’ll talk about that in another post. I think I’m going to re-create a genealogy blog, since in addition to my mom’s side of the family, I decided to at least to build on the research done by my aunt on my dad’s side. Annnnd, I’m working on The Boyfriend’s family as well.

The calendar hasn’t caught up yet, but for me, summer is here. And it’s going to be full!

So, being me, I had to find out. And as it turns out, someone from our town is scheduled to be executed soon for a crime committed several years ago. And some of this [...]]]> I wasn’t sure what she was talking about when I saw a Facebook friend chastise some people for gloating over someone else’s death.

So, being me, I had to find out. And as it turns out, someone from our town is scheduled to be executed soon for a crime committed several years ago. And some of this person’s former classmates are pretty happy about it.

Now, let me just start off by saying that I am anti-death penalty anyway, for a few reasons. First, I don’t believe in hell, so I think executing someone is not really a punishment. I think that spending the rest of his life locked in a small cell would have been far more of a punishment for Saddam Hussain, for example, especially since he was living the high life at the expense of so many for so long.

Second, when someone gets sent away for something they didn’t do (and it happens), you can’t release them if you’ve already killed them. On a local forum I frequent, there is constant chatter about the ridiculous amount of laws that are starting to infiltrate our society, supposedly to protect us. Red light camera tickets not paid? We’ll boot your car. Don’t break the law and you’ll be fine. Until the day the computer has a glitch and records my license plate instead of the guy with 15 tickets, and I walk out of work one evening to find I can’t get home.

It’s not the same as the death penalty, I realize. But if you’re mentally saying that, you’re missing my point, which is that mistakes get made. Not all mistakes can be corrected. Once I submit my paper with four typos to my professor, it’s a done deal. In my heart, however, I believe that executing people is one area where we shouldn’t mess around. Salem witches, anyone? Trial by ordeal?

And then there’s the old “two wrongs don’t make a right.” The death penalty doesn’t only punish the convicted. It punishes anyone who ever loved the convicted. And this is where a lot of people (frequently mothers) like to point out that the criminal took the life of someone they loved, so why shouldn’t the criminal’s mother lose her child?

Because the criminal’s mother didn’t commit the crime. No matter how much you may want to blame her.

The crime is a terrible thing. The crime has irrevocably changed the lives of every person related to both the victim and the criminal. The victim’s family has lost the family member that they loved. The criminal’s family has lost who the family member that they knew. I’m not saying that one is harder than the other. I’m saying they’re different. But the bottom line is that the criminal’s family should not have to pay for what the criminal did.

But they do. The sibling of this particular criminal is a classmate. Not someone I was close to by any means, but just an acquaintance. The sibling is on Facebook as well. The people making the comments are mutual friends of the sibling’s friends. The person who originally alerted all of FB about the latest development actually claims to be an old friend of the sibling. I’m glad I don’t have friends like that.

I may not be a praying woman, but I definitely wish for strength for all of the people whose lives have been affected this. I’d wish for some sensitivity on the part of the people shooting their mouths off, but I realize that’s asking a bit much.

(I know that my word choices here are pretty annoying, but I’m trying to be as gender neutral as possible because it is not my intention to add to this former classmate’s grief.)