IT 235: Database Design

Let’s start off with the good news: I completed this course with an A. My GPA is steady at 4.0 at SNHU. I am hoping to keep it that way for as long as possible. This course was a reading/book heavy course with long chapters. There were almost weekly discussion posts, which I find EXTREMELY easy to write. You also had to post 2 responses to 2 different peers, which isn’t that hard as well. There were two assignment activities, which again, were easy As for me and only took 30 minutes to an hour to complete. Then, there were the 3 parts to my big Final project. The first part was drafting out my database design in words like the goals, objectives, and restrictions of the database. The second part of the assignment was designing the database: deciding the important entities and attributes, outlining the important pairings, and designing the actual database using the normalization process. The last part of the paper was designing the final database (based on the feedback from the other two parts of the paper) and commenting on whether you achieved your design goals that you had outlined at the beginning of the paper. Overall, this class was very easy to me. The most time consuming part was reading the chapters and taking notes.

The next class that I am taking starts May 6th and it is DAD 220: Introduction to SQL.

With Love,

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A Long Break

First, I just want to say thank you to the 622 people who follow my blog! Your support means so much to me and I love each and everyone of you. After much consideration, I have decided to cut down on my blogging schedule. I will only be blogging one day a week (more if I feel so inclined) for the foreseeable future. I just have a lot going on in my life right now and my blog is one thing I will have to set aside with how much time is put into it. Another thing that I will be going up is going to SNHU. I really enjoyed my three terms there (still enjoying it since my term doesn’t end until 12/23). I know. This is my second time dropping out of college, but I just have so much going on that I won’t be able to dedicate enough time to it.

This will only be a temporary thing until I move out of my own with my son, Dean. I plan to resume classes with one at a time, so I know that I can put 110% into it. I am so lucky to have a really great job that I worked really hard for and my life is just beginning with this move. I’ve been unhappy and depressed for so long that I’ve forgotten how to be happy and I’ve lost myself along the way. I need time to find myself again and the person that I used to be. I’ve lost her and I miss her. I miss being myself with all of my imperfections and insecurities.

Almost every guy I have ever known has tried to build me into the image of me that they wanted me to be. They didn’t like who I was and instead of just saying it, they manipulated me to be what they wanted. And now that I am finally awake from this personality coma that I’ve been in my whole life, I don’t want to go back. I can’t go back to the way things were before. I want to go out on dates, I want to hang out with my friends, I want to answer only to myself. I want my freedom back, I want my life back. I want my sanity back. I want me back.

And so, I have to take a break from doing things that I love, because it doesn’t give me any joy anymore. I have my eyes set on a prize and I can’t afford to be distracted. I’ll blog when I feel the joy and the happiness it always brought me. And I’ll be here every week. I just currently have zero motivation or energy to even finish my semester out.

Thank you for all of your love and support. If it wasn’t for this blog, I think I would be in a darker hole than I currently find myself in. Its a little piece of sanity in a shaky world.

With Love,

September Semester RESULTS

Another semester has come and gone. This time my wrap up is coming to you rather late. I got caught up in the new semester and haven’t had the time to sit down and write this one. This was my 2nd term at SNHU and I thoroughly enjoyed my time at this college. This term was less stressful, but more rewarding. The 1st term was just so much pressure. The 2nd term went by a lot smoother with less stressing by me. I think the only time that I panicked was the second to last week when I needed to write all of my body paragraphs, because I couldn’t stop at just three. I ended up going one page over on my History 200 class. All of my IT papers I was able to keep at the maximum of 2 pages.

HIS 200: Applied History

I was able to achieve a perfect score in this class. 1,000/1,000 point. I got a perfect A and I am so excited about it! There is nothing like maintaining a 4.0 in college. It feels even better than getting pretty close to it in high school. I had two big projects for this class. One was a writing plan and the other was the actual essay. I wish we spent more time on writing the essay rather than the plan. I feel like I could have benefited from one more week crafting the essay and one less week on the writing plan. I really enjoyed this class a lot and the only annoying part was having discussions twice a week instead of once. It was really hard to keep up with.

IT 140: Introduction to Scripting

I got 1,000/1,000 in this class as well. So, I ended the term with a 4.0. At Pine Manor College, I ended my time there with a 3.97. Now, I have a child and working full time AND I am doing even better?! It doesn’t make sense! I am super proud of myself. There were 4 reflection papers and honestly, I wrote most of them on the fly on Saturday. The most challenging aspect of this class were the challenge questions every week. Even the project were MUCH easier than the challenges. The challenges were horrible! Some of them, I really had to research online to see how I would attempt to answer them. I found a really helpful Youtube channel that were run by IT teachers at SNHU and they broke down the project and challenges and answered them. It was a gold mine.

Here’s to the next semester being just as great!

With Love,

A HUGE Favor

I need to get at least 30 responses to my survey for my Data Analytics class. If you could take the 3 minutes to answer my survey, I would greatly appreciate it. I’m posting this everywhere I can in the hopes of getting 30 responses by Wed, so I can analyze it for the midnight deadline on Thursday. Thank you so much! I love you guys!

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/KBFQW2L (NOT AN AFFLIATED LINK)

With Love,

October Semester

Okay, my October term started on 10/29 and I really started it the day before with looking at what was to come. I am so nervous about one class this semester and I am glad that I basically have a good part of December off due to my dad’s surgery for it. I also have just discovered that I have a good part of November off as well. I will even be able to work from home in January, so I am very happy about my little vacation from work this year. I am writing this on November 1st and I am currently suffering from a Crohn’s medical complication. I am on antibiotics and steroids. I am doing well but as you can imagine, I am very uncomfortable. Working on my blog and school work gives me something to focus on during my day off.

MAT 140 – Precalculus

Yep, the class that I fear is this one. I am so nervous about this class, but so far it is going great. The first week hasn’t been as hard as I thought. I just have to make sure that I work on my weekly problems early on in the week. I am sure that explaining my thought process to solve a problem will be difficult for me to write or challenging, but I am confident that I will be able to keep up with this course to be successful. I have already earned 100/1000 points for completing a quiz and the initial assessment. I get 75 points every week that I do the problem set for the week. The final test is worth 155 points and the project is worth 100. Doing the problem sets every week is critical for success since it is weighted for 75% of the course. I have complete confidence that I will pass this course and I might even get an A. We shall see.

DAT 210 – Foundation to Data Analytics

AKA a business proposal course. This doesn’t really touch much on Data Analytics. It is more of a project management class on how to construct a business proposal for a business question that you want to answer to resolve a business issue. How it relates to data analytics is you have to gather data and analyze the results of that data. It is a lot of little papers, I think there are 5 little papers that break down the big project. Then, you put them all together for the final. Along the way, there are chapter readings each week and discussions that you need to post and respond to. I don’t think that this will be a difficult class as long as I keep up with it. I am very good at writing and forming plans. It will give me good real world experience.

I think this will be an easy term overall for me. Yes, Precal is going to be very challenging but I can handle it. It is funny how the Freshman class is going to be harder than the Sophomore class. As long as I give myself plenty of time to do the problem sets in math, I think that I will have an easy term. I might even be able to work ahead this term, because the assignments are less than previous classes. There is only a chapter read once a week for the data class, but no reading for math. It is built into the problem sets which makes it very convenient. I am looking forward to another great term!

With Love,

July 2nd Semester Classes

This semester, I am taking a math placement course (no credits for free class) to see if I can get 3 free credits to place out of Pre-calculus and I can start right into Calculus. Well, you have to score a 76 or higher in the placement test for that. I get three attempts. My first attempt to start the course (I already took it), I earned a 34 on the test. The great thing is that now, I have a tailored to me class to study up on the areas I scored poorly in. It let me know that I at least need to earn 42 more points to place out of Pre-Cal and that I know 70 topics in that class. I need to brush up on 149 more topic though. I have my work cut out for me. I plan on brushing up on the areas that I know well and ones that I hardly know at all. I will do this for 4 weeks before taking my 2nd attempt. From there I will have another 3 to 4 weeks before taking the final attempt. Here’s to hoping that I score enough on the second attempt!

I am taking HIS-100 Perspectives in History and SCS-200 Applied Social Sciences both for three credits. Both of these courses have four themes planned out for eight weeks. My history class has three projects and my science class has two projects. Both are nothing major. For History, I have a worksheet, paper outline and first paragraph, and a slideshow presentation. For Social Science, I have a 3 to 5 page research paper and a slideshow presentation. I will have to brush up on my slideshow skills to be honest. It is an easy application, but I tend to cram info on slides. lol. I will have to add in speaker notes to state what I would say on each slide.

As I am writing this, I have not begun my classes, but this will go up once I have started. I am looking forward to this new start in my life and I know that I will be busy. I won’t have time to do a midterm update, but I will be posts a wrap up with what I was able to achieve this semester. I want to do this for each semester that I start and end with. I think it will be fun and a great way to reflect and start fresh. I want to document this journey in my life and share it with all of you. Oh! I only had to buy one “book” this semester for my Science class, which is actually just access to an interactive platform that has the reading, quizzes, and sources for the class. Basically, you pay for the class and then pay for access to your materials for that class. It’s hard to explain, but apparently it’s like an access key. I paid $57 dollars for my textbooks this semester. Not too bad and plus, my work will reimburse me.

I am really loving this new format and how I am posting my content. Let me know if you enjoy this as well. My new routine gives me time for other things and keeps me on point for my blog. I tend to lose focus when writing my posts, so having a clock timing me (you have 1 hour to blog) really motivates me and I find that I actually get more done this way. I am almost half way done with writing posts for July. I am just full of ideas that I think are unique and not the same old stuff being rehashed. Although, I do enjoy my empty and review posts.

With Love,

College Essentials Haul

AHHHHHHH!!!!!! I am so excited to have started online college at SNHU! It has been a hot minute since I have gone to college or to school for that matter. I thought that I would share with you my essentials for going back to college, specifically for online college. It really applies to any sort of school or if you are just looking for fun paper supplies. This is personal to me, so it may not suit you. These are the things that I know that I need to start the semester out right. I am interested to see how many of these things I don’t actually used. I think that I will use everything though. You never know. Sometimes, I just buy things because I think I will use them, but then never actually touch them. Until years later and I’m like Why do I have that?

These are my paper supplies. I have my favorite kind of pens: gel. Also, my favorite brand: PaperMate Ink Joy. I have never tried these pens, but my two favorite things? I think this might be my new favorite pens! I love to color code my notes, so I love having a rainbow supply. I have seen packs of just blue and black, so if I need a refill on the basics, I can get them. Note cards are a must for me. I need them to memorize formulas and key terms. Washi tape for when I have books, so I don’t mark up the pages. Not sure I will use them this semester, but you never know. Flags and sticky notes are basic necessities to page mark notes and quickly jot down information. I don’t have any physical books this semester, which limits my flag usage. I bought these two planner kits at Walmart and they are so cute! The flags, I know I will use and I hope that I find use for the other little stickies as well. My planner and notebooks will be so cute! Speaking of which…

These are my two Kate Spade (May she rest in peace) notebooks for my two official classes: Perspectives in History and Applied Social Science. These are super cute to tote around. Notice a theme here with all of the cute? The rose gold notebook goes with my office theme (Rose Gold) and my baby blue books goes with my room theme (Tiffany Blue and Silver). I am loving this style of notebook and that it is hard cover to survive in my bag. I feel so cool taking these out at work. They are my aesthetic through and through. I need to be on the lookout for an office meeting themed one. Kate Spade is my spirit animal and always will be.

A planner is a must for managing my busy life. I need to juggle my work from home days, college work, and home life in one planner. I considered getting one to separate school, but what would be the point? I need to balance out my whole life and see it in all together in order to manage it best. A phone to keep in touch. My Kindle Fire to do my work on when I am at work. I know I could use the computer, but some text books can only be downloaded to one device. I would chose my Kindle, so I can have it with me on the go to do my college work. I need to invest in a case for it though. I am pretty sure that this Kindle will be dying soon. My extended warranty is expiring in August and they usually don’t last much longer after that. I would get it in the same 7inch screen size. I really like it. Maybe with more room though. 8GB isn’t a ton.

Last but not least, because it is expensive. You need a good laptop. I have a HP here in Rose Gold that I paid $500 dollars on Amazon for and it is worth $1500. I love the rose design on the keyboard and yes, this was a limited edition. It seems to be selling for $700 now for the refurbished model, which is the one that I bought. I take care of my electronics, so I know that this will last me years like my 8 year old Dell. I love the backlit keyboard and the touchscreen screen. It has all the bells and whistles at a third of the price. I would keep an eye out on Amazon, because the prices are always influx. This is a beautiful laptop and worth every penny. They keyboard is a full size standard. I have a lot of comfortable wrist space and the 17 inch screen is perfection.

These are what I believe are online colleges essentials for me. I am looking forward to learning in all of my classes and chatting with my classmates. Not sure that I will do a whole lot of connecting on our school’s community (it’s like a private Facebook platform but not Facebook). I have a life and real friends to keep up with. Great if you are going to online school instead of traditional college and want to connect with other students. I’m just more of an in-person person instead of a virtual person.

With Love,

Online Orientation & Intro to BrightSpace

I thought that I would share a quick post about my online orientation at SNHU. BrightSpace is the online platform, where my courses are taking place. To introduce you to the platform and to how your classes will be at SNHU, they give you a First Year Orientation course that introduces you to the college, resources, expectations, etc. It was mean to be taking over 5 weeks, but I finished it in 2 weeks. This reminded me that I really miss school and I spend too much of my time watching Netflix. LOL. I highly recommend that you take your introductory course, because I feel very confident on the platform because of it.

I also had to take two FYE (First Year Experience) webinars: one for Brightspace and the other for the resources that the college offers. These were also helpful, but more so the resources one than the Brighspace one. I feel like if you explored the FYE “class” on Brightspace that it prepares you better than the 30 minute webinar.

I am not nervous about starting college at all. I only have two more years left to earn my first BS. I think I will go for my Masters from there, but I also want to use the other half of the credits from going to college previously towards a second degree. I am debating between English and the Environmental Science degree that I originally wanted. I think I might go with the ES. It might open more opportunities. When I am making big money, I can easily fund my own education. I don’t think I will ever stop learning and SNHU makes the process so easy. With a Masters, I could easily be making upwards of 200K with experience.

I figured out that by the time I earn my BS, I will have worked at MAPFRE for almost 6 years. I am not sure which analyst position I will go for at MAPFRE, but I want to get a level 60 position and earn some experience. With the time I’ve spent at the company and my reputation, I don’t think it will be hard once I secure the degree to go from a level 54 to 60. I was once told by HR that it is impossible to do, but I don’t think it is. I’m not going to sell myself short. I am worth it.

With Love,

BS Data Analytics Program Evaluation

So, continuing with my college talk. I am thinking after this post that I will next share my supplies like a little haul of essentials that one needs for online college. For now, let’s get on to the details on my degree and life. I said it before, but I will say it again. I went to college for 3 years, so I had 101 credits from my time there. You can only transfer up to 90 for each BA/ BS degree. My degree is a BS in Data Analytics. I want to be a data analysts and eventually, a statistician. I was always good at math, but high school math kinda ruined kit for me. Our teach assigned 50 problems a night. It was a nightmare. I recently took a Data Analytics course from The Institutes and I found that I really liked the math. It wasn’t all problem solving, but building algorithms and fault trees. It was exciting and now, it is something that I am very interested in pursuing as a career. Big data is the future, you know.

For a BA/BS, you need 120 credits. My anticipated graduation date is 7/02/2022, but that is based off of zero credits in a four year program. I will be done by Spring of 2020. I was able to transfer 59 credits into my program, leaving me 69 to earn. Every class is a three credit class, so that is 23 classes. You can have 2 classes every semester and there are six semesters in a year. So, I will earn the degree in roughly 2 years, but I am starting July 2nd with my first two classes.

I am going to tell you the areas that I have already completing for my degree, which is mainly all of my general courses. For the general courses, I completed: English (2 courses), Math (1 course), Fine Arts and Humanities (3 Courses), SNHU (I got to substitute a free elective here), IDS-100 (another free elective), a free elective class, and the 8 class free electives section.

The 23 classes that I need to take to get my degree are as follows: Applied Social Sciences, Precalculus, Applied Statistics for STEM, Perspectives in History, Applied History, Introduction to Scripting, Calc I: Single-Variable Calculus, Applied Stats II: Reg Analysis, Management Science through Spreadsheets, Into to Data and Info Management, Foundation of Data Analytics, Database Design, Fundamentals of Data Mining, Data Analytics I, Project Management in Information Technology, Data Analytics II, Decision Support Presentation, Capstone in Data Analytics, 4 Data Analytics Elective courses TBD, and a Senior Thesis Class (a term paper in order to graduate).

I like the sound of all of these courses, although some of them I won’t know what they are until that time when I am given a few options of what is available. You only know what is available two terms ahead. I am already booked for the two terms in July and September. So, once September is around the corner, my adviser will give me options for October and January. I will be taking 3 terms this year. I was slotted for the May term, but I was only notified in April and it was too hurried for me. I didn’t have my shit together for the May term. I was still getting used to the idea.

So, I changed my mind. I think my next college post will be about the classes that I am taking for the next two terms THEN the haulish post. I think about that I will share my thoughts on BrightSpace (the online college platform) and my Orientation class. I have a webinar for that class coming up in June. I can do a whole separate post on that experience. I am happy to be sharing my journey with all of you. My blog is my happy, positive space and I love writing and reading all of your blogs. If you are new to my blog, leave a comment so I can check yours out. I love to binge read on a lazy morning, afternoon, evening, middle of the night, you get the drill.

With Love,

The End Of My 5 Year Hiatus

I am going to University. I can finally say it, even though it is a British thing. I am going to Southern New Hampshire University. Well….not going per say, but attending the COCE online university. But I am getting ahead of myself here. Let’s start at the beginning. I attended three years at Pine Manor College in Boston, MA. I was a double major in English and Biology and had tons of grants and scholarships. I was a straight A student for most classes (DAMN YOU ORGANIC CHEMISTRY! My only B+) and had a fun time in my classes getting to know my professors. I was building confidence. About a month into the summer, I knew that I was never going back. My childhood home was foreclosed on. I needed to get a job to move into an apartment with my dad. I started at Kmart in September and moved out in January.

We lived in that shit hole apartment for three years. After a year, I got a job at my current insurance company MAPFRE in the Remittance department as a rep I. On my 23rd birthday, I found out that I was pregnant and my fiance left me. We were doing the long distance thing, since I left college. He lived in Boston. My high school sweetheart and all. That December, I got a promotion to Senior Rep and had a baby boy.

I came back from Maternity Leave and decided that I needed to get my shit together, so I worked for about a year and got my associate degree in Information Technology from The Institutes which is an Insurance based accelerated college program supported by my work. Still have yet to hang up the degree yet. Anyways, in Feb of 2017, I left Remittance for my current job as Senior Rep in the paper processing claims unit. I am really doing great at my current job, learning new stuff, working part of the time from home, and being a SME (Subject Matter Expert) again.

Last September though, I decided that I needed to get my degree to become someone and get a better living wage to support my autistic son and his needs. So, I heard the radio and tv talk about SNHU. I decided to go on the website and send in my inquiry. Jessica got in touch with me quickly and soon enough, I was filling out a FASA and waiting for my transcripts to arrive. I was originally going for a BA in Environmental Science, but my work would not support that degree. They reimburse through Edcore up to $5,250 a year and going through Edcore gives you a 10% discount on Tuition at qualifying institutions. Mine is one of them.

So, I switched to a BS in Data Analytics, since my end goal is to be a Statistician. I will probably pursue a Masters for it, once I am getting a good salary to pay for it. In the mean time, I got my Degree Audit and had to fight a bit to get one of my college composition courses recognized for what it was. That was all settled in February, when SNHU was finally satisfied with the original syllabus from 2012.

SNHU made it a breeze to apply and start college again. The financial aid team is great and I am signed up for 5 semesters (I was one semester late for the 2018-2019 school year). Generally, there are 6 online semesters. They are 8 weeks long each and you can take up to two classes. I am very happy with my financial aid package and between that and work, I am looking at contributing about $200 a year myself. Mainly interest and fees for the student loans. Not too shabby if I do say so myself.

There is so much more to say, but I am ending this blog post here. I will talk about my adviser and orientation and everything in the next blog post. If you have any specific questions or requests, please comment them down below and I will answer them. I am very happy that I chose SNHU. They call me often to see how I am doing. They are invested in me as a person and not just a paycheck. It is really refreshing. Oh, and in case you where wondering, I will be finishing in the Spring of 2020.

With Love,