All Things Must Come....

All things must come to an end. IS101-3003 is no different. My husband asked me what I have gotten out of the course. I didn't have to think much or long. This is it. I learned that computers and applications aren't as scary as I thought, and I learned that the correct answer isn't always the best answer. I also learned to slow down, read the question at hand and not assume what the question is asking of me. I also learned there are still professors out there that want you to achieve, do your best and will come along side of you if you show you are willing. Those kinds of teachers are rare, few and far between. We should cherish these teachers when we come across them.

This course has been a pain in my backside but a pain I didn't know I needed; I had the pleasure to learn from a variety of people. I witnessed drive, passion, wonder and determination. All the things I have felt in my youth and have long left me. But to witness it has sparked something inside of me and for that I am grateful. 

To my classmates and Professor Wu, thank you and I wish you all joyful travels in this life.

Sun, the garden needs you but....

The sun and heat here in Las Vegas can be brutal. The sunshine is what I like about Las Vegas but also can be the bane of my existence. Coupled with the water shortage and restrictions, having a garden can be challenging. The amount of direct sun can be brutal for the plants and soil. It sucks moisture, burns the leaves and fruit, and can kill a plant real quick. The heat is a real stressor, not only for the garden but also for the gardener as well. 

So what have I done that allows me to have a thriving garden so far? Besides putting in a drip system, I also manually water my garden once to twice daily. I also put up gardening shade fabric to protect the plants. Now when I say I did, really it was my husband who put it up, he also installed the drip system. Those three things have allowed my garden, "Becky" to survive. Yes, I named it. Surprise!!

What's going on?

I was at the orthodontist and I noticed that almost everyone in the office were wearing Jordans. Can someone tell me what the fascination /borderline obsession with these shoes are? The staff and well as a patient were discussing the types and colors they had, how many they have and if they have the protection thingies for the shoes, blah blah blah.  I'm sure as you can tell I am not a sneaker head  however I AM a lover of shoes. But these Jordans, I just can't wrap my head around it. I just cannot unsee how many people I come across that have a pair.

In my mind I wonder why in a world where people claim they want to be individuals, clever and unique we really don't want to.  This is evident with the Jordans, the Louis Vuitton's, Stanley cups, lip fillers, BBLs, the removal of buccal fat from the face and the list goes on. Don't get me wrong , I too am not immune. But I have two vintage Louis bags that I won't wear because EVERYONE has one, real or otherwise. Quietly I'm a bit vexed about it.

I guess these are the "it" shoes and bags. Symbolizing, in my opinion we are more like sheep than we want to admit.

Bugs!

So now that spring has sprung, so have the insects . The dreaded ants, aphids and other creepy crawlers that can ruin a garden. Honestly, I have no issue with using chemicals to kills these suckers however, my mother-in-law who helps with my garden does....in a BIG way. She is the all natural, holistic gardener. She is like this her life in general. To get her to take any medications is a chore and she has to be on deaths door and have tired all the natural remedies before she'll even take an ibuprofen.  And to her credit, for being 70 years old, she looks fantastic and gardens professionally. 

So I'll be out with my diatomaceous earth and my concoction of Bonners soap mixed with water and alcohol to save my garden from the free loaders when the pop up.

Ants

Aphids

Quietly though, I did purchase some liquid ant traps and Sevin insect killer on stand by just in case 🕱

It's almost over.

 The class is almost over and I sit here wondering if I can power through the next two to three weeks. It has been a long time since I was in school and I am definitely older. My drive is different and my energy level is WAY different. I used to love going to school an learning different things. I never loved being tested on the subjects I was learning nor the feeling of competing with other students. I just wanted hear and learn about the different topics. I see other students in my class who are aiming to go beyond what is required and I think, that used to be me. What has changed? Is my age or has it been my life experiences. I don't know. All I can think about now is, it's almost over, thank God. 

Soon, I'll be on to the next subjects that are required for my certification and I'm sure I be just like I am now towards the end... Thank God it is almost over.

PowerPoint...I have avoided you all these years. And For What? Media Formatting.

Back in the day, I had to present a topic using PowerPoint. This intimidated me beyond anything I had to do in school. I guess the combination of speaking in front of my peers coupled with using a program I had never used before sent my anxiety into high gear. When need be, in my younger days, I had the uncanny ability to get someone (usually of the male persuasion) to maybe to do things for me. Now let me be clear, I did the research and the paper, I just didn't come up with the slides and arrange them. I felt at the time it was too challenging for me.

Let us fast forward some years and my dad asked me to help him with PowerPoint for his presentation he had to do for a class. I was no help to him because I just had people do it for me. So, he just sat down with the program and figured it out himself. He, like my husband, is ambitious and curious that way, unlike me.

The coolest portion during this process of learning and what I had always wondered about, was how people inserted videos, pictures, audio, and recordings. Media formatting located in the Insert tab on the ribbon. If I had bothered all those years ago to explore PowerPoint instead of giving up (because I was not confident in my ability to learn it) I would have noticed this section. Maybe then, my curiosity would have gotten the best of me, and I might have explored PowerPoint. Microsoft really has made this software program user friendly.  If I hadn't let myself get in the way I could have known and used this program for years. Don't get me wrong, I would rather not speak or present but at least I can, for the most part, do the slide presentation portion on my own or with little to no help.

Where to Put the Garden?

Taking a pause from IS101 and thinking about a garden, the question is, "Where to put it?" It is kind of like the "IF" function. If you are looking for a certain outcome (True), then this, if not (False), then that.

For fruits and vegetables, you want to pick a spot that receives at least eight to ten hours of sunlight. Apparently, gardens that face south tend to get more sunlight than the north counterpart. Also to consider, is the morning sunlight. That means east facing gardens. Now my backyard faces north-west ( I used a compass) so I picked an area that aesthetically looked good. I also spent a day from morning to end of day observing which area got the most sunlight and for how long. I truly thought one could pick a spot and go garden. I guess one could, but for all the effort I believe it takes to garden, especially ones first year doing it, a little research might be a smart idea.

So If you want a a successful garden (it does take more that just sunlight) make sure you pick an area that receives the most sunlight.

Things I need to commit to memory and practice....that's you IF function.

Some of Excel functions have me messed up in so many ways. Messed up is not the word I wanted to use but this is a PG blog. Okay, really it is the IF function. Before I get into it, the most commonly used functions in Excel are the SUM, SUMIF, COUNT, COUNTA, COUNTBLANK, MAX, MIN, AVERAGE,IF, and LEN.  There are definitely more and I am sure there are people out there that would disagree about my top 10.

That IF function is simple to understand and in theory to implement, but for me, my brain has a hard time. During the LabSim reviews and projects, when the IF function came up I always had to pause and think about what I was doing. It did not come naturally. Usually I got it wrong. It is one of those things that I need to commit to memory and just do. If I think about it I mess myself up. Also, SUMIF is the a close second. Really it is the  IF that throws me off to be honest.

Seems Simple Enough?

PivotTables. They seem simple enough and in fact appear quite useful in evaluating large amounts of data and information. The mastery of creating them seems to allude me at the moment. I understand its concept and the ease to extract different bits of information from the data without going through the entire spreadsheet. One can pick and choose what to look at in a given time and create charts based on the information. It isn't hard, and suspect with practice it will become easier. I think it is the way my brain works. It has always been hard for me to visualize where things should go. It is not a skill I have and it tends to make things difficult or longer to grasp.

With this in mind and with my notes, I do have a project on the horizon. That is to account for where all my money is going. I do believe PivotTables will be of great help.

Photographs

Spring Break. I actually haven't had a spring break since 1999! And even then I was studying for my boards. So during this break I'll be working as usual, catching up on additional schoolwork but I am going to carve out some time to take photographs of my garden. I want to print them on metal and hang them on a particular wall in my home. 

This a picture of my butter lettuce with oregano and mint lettuce in the background. If one squints, you can also see cumin growing as well.

Here we have the beginnings of collard greens. I can't wait to see the end results.

I also have strawberries planted in a seed started and well as tomatoes. When they start to sprout, I'll add them to my collection of pictures and see if they make the cut to print and hang.

Skip it and move on to the next

I have always been a terrible test taker. Being timed increases my anxiety from a cool 3 to a 10 on the rate your pain scale from 1-10, 10 being the worst. I tend to get hyper focused and when I don't know the answer I will try a figure out the problem. There in lies the problem. Trying to figure it out on a timed test is not the way to go. Then I get panicky, I start hearing my heartbeat in my ear and I have convinced myself I'm doomed and I'm going to fail the test. 

My advice is to skip and move on to the rest. Breathe and don't listen to that internal dialogue that tries to convince you to give up or not do your best. If you have prepared for the MOS, one should be fine. The other tidbit is to read carefully. Good Luck to any one that needs to still take the first of three and the other two that are coming up. Hopefully I can take my own advice.

Who doesn't like a template?

Who doesn't like a good template? For me I love them. I am not a creative soul and when I try to be, it takes me hours to come up with something and execute it. And if I am being honest, I would say the final product is mediocre at best. So templates are good for me. I love that Microsoft Word has these templates. There are so many, brochures, cover letters, resumes, business, educational and so on. Within these templates you can be creative if you like or not.  You can use these templates as a guide or to give you some ideas. Honestly, before this class I didn't even know this existed. If I had I could have saved myself hours in the past. Thank you Microsoft for doing the hard work for me🙌.

Saving paper, I am now

Printing seems easy enough, and in actuality it is. After you are finished with said document, save and print. This is what I have done for years. I never bothered to look at all the other options. But in participating in an information systems class (entry level) I have since seen the error in my ways. I can save paper y'all! I can print more than one page per sheet, scale to fit the paper size, and print on both sides of the paper. Full disclosure, I come from an era that after printing on one side I would then have to take out said page and then figure out how to orient the page so it would one, print on the back side and two not upside down. But now I realized my printer will do that for me. I can adjust margins even look at the printer properties and do a little something something if I need to. Before, I'd call on my husband to figure things out. Mind I still do, but at least I can say I tried x,y, and z. There is so much more to printing than I realized and what I am writing about. Funny, never thought I'd get bit excited about the different options you have to print a document but I am definitely excited about saving paper.

Fine Distinctions, Computer Programming

I didn't know there were different subsets in the career of computer programming. I thought if you were a programmer, one did everything involved in that chosen career. Application developer verses web developer or QA engineer verses database programmer, the discipline seems the same but yet the nuances, that is were the difference is. This makes sense if I really thought about it. The world of programming is vast and how can one do it all and do it effectively. 

If I compare it to the world of veterinary medicine or even human medicine, you have the general practitioner who knows the information and techniques on a general level. A litter bit of this and a little bit of that. However, there are specialized disciplines like dermatology, oncology and ophthalmology. They too are veterinarians and human doctors but the difference is in the details.

The Importance of History

Some people have no interest in knowing the history of how things or entities come to be. One could say I fall into such a category, especially in the world of computers. I did however, find the computing history facts to be fascinating and enjoyable to read. Interestingly enough, I even retained a few facts. Though it was a broad overview, reading the progression from a tabulating machine to help speed up the counting process of the census to essentially having a personal computer in the palm of ones hand is amazing. It has fascinated me to know end the minds of certain people. How an idea turns into a reality which changes the way people view and behave in the world. How people can piggyback off other ideas and either improve it or even create something new. I know my limitations and I certainly do not have a mind for such things but I can appreciate and acknowledge others who do have gifts and talents that change the world. Now whether it has all been for the betterment of mankind, that is a debate for another time.

What are biometrics?

Biometrics uses biology and its characteristics to identify individuals. Examples include fingerprints, facial mapping, voice and iris scans.  Research on the topic of biometrics came in three forms scholarly, primary and secondary. Scholarly evaluations contain an abstract, introduction, review and conclusion on the specific topic. The primary source discussed the mechanics of biometrics and related platforms to use certain aspects of biometrics in your daily life. The secondary source or nonacademic source discussed how biometric technology enhanced the effectiveness of their company.

https://newtotse.com/oldtotse/en/privacy/biofun1.html

https://www.miteksystems.com/blog/advantages-and-disadvantages-of-biometrics

https://www.tsa.gov/biometrics-technology

The Beginning

My mother in law is a gardener in Las Vegas, Nevada and is very interested in holistic medicine. She believes in growing main staples of foods and herbs. Watching her garden and produce food peaked an interest in attempting the craft myself.

I live in Las Vegas and the weather is less than optimal for growing herbs, vegetables, and fruits outdoors. Can we say the blistering sun and lack of sufficient amount water available in the valley💀💀? So here I am wanting to make a bounty from ashes and this is my journey.