School » Lady Jess

Entering the New Year

Dec 292011

I almost felt guilty for spending the last couple weeks in my PJ’s, playing Star Wars: The Old Republic. Almost. Then I realized, with the new years comes my new semester, in which I’m taking 6 classes. My last semester ended on December 12. I was finally able to take a break from the self discipline and structure I have to put on myself for school, and I should take full advantage of that break.

Many people mistakenly think taking your classes online means it’s easier than going to school physically. However, that is incorrect. If you can’t maintain strict self discipline, time management, and your own structure, you can’t succeed. You have the same responsibilities as you would in a classroom. There are still weekly due dates, papers, tests, quizzes, midterms, finals, lectures and discussions. While in some formats, you might work at your own pace, mine is not one of them. Essentially, you not only have homework due, you still have classwork due. Where in a classroom you’d have your lecture, discussion, and teaching, this is all lumped together when learning at home.

By my second semester, I developed a good strategy.

1. Get up early, get dressed as if I am actually going to class. This puts me in the mindset that I have something to get done that day. I add having my coffee, and checking in on my favorite social sites and blogs to this part of my day.

2. Set an end of the school day for yourself. I found that if I worked all day and into the evening, I felt like I was never getting finished. So I started following my kids’ school schedule. From 8am to 4pm I am in class. I break for lunch, and take a few shorter breaks in that time but mainly I focus on my work. This leaves me time in the day for things I enjoy, like playing games, watching TV, or just browsing Tumblr and Twitter if I want.

3. Pacing myself. No more than 2 classes a day, or I’ll burn myself out quickly, and start feeling overwhelmed. I try for Monday through Wednesday, but sometimes that doesn’t work for me, and I might do Mon, Wed, Fri, or some other variation depending on when my due dates are.

4. I refuse to obsess about my GPA. I give my absolute best, in every class. But sometimes, that ends in a C+. It happens, I’m not going to excel at everything, and I have to accept that. Even if that is a greater challenge than I’d like.

5. On days I have no classes to work on, I run errands on preferably only one day. The rest, I don’t worry much about getting dressed, I don’t look at my school website, I relax, and sit in my PJ’s if I want to. These are my days off, and I need to enjoy them as much as possible.

6. Ask for help around the house! My husband is usually in a training cycle when my semesters are in full swing. He can’t help out mych, nor do I expect him to. Not when he works from 4am to sometimes 10pm 6 days a week for 14 weeks at a time. But my daughters do help tremendously, from taking over household chores (mainly keeping the counters in the kitchen clean, and vacuuming the floors), to cooking dinner.

Without these in place, I stress out, and become useless. So while I may feel like a sloth demon for being generally lazy the last few weeks, I know I have earned it. And I know I better enjoy it as long as it lasts because from January 9 to Sometime in March or April, I’ll be back in the school saddle again. And this one’s going to be a rough ride. But I look forward to it, and to the New Year.

I Am Doomed

School, Silly, SW:ToR No Responses »

Dec 012011

I’m trying so hard to focus on my schoolwork even with TOR anticipation running rampant. And now the universe has aligned in such away that my schoolwork is distracting me from itself! Cultural Anthropology ftw.

Whooo Are You? Doot Doot. Doot Doot.

School, The SIMS3 1 Response »

Apr 112011

I mentioned I was taking an Intro to Forensic Science class right? well here we are in the last month of spring semester, and workingon my final project. That project is to create a crime scene. It must include all the types of evidence we learned about, all the techniques we learned, it must have a victim, witnesses, and suspects. I also must detail the investigation and the outcome. Oh and citations. Ugh.

Anyhow. I have spent the last few months just wishing I had time to play video games. I mean I bough Dragon Age 2 on LAUNCH NIGHT! I haven’t gotten to really play it Sad smile . I just rushed through it on spring break. I have a lovely female Hawke started. But she’s stuck in Act two. Why? SCHOOL! and absent husband again. Oh and for the first week he was gone I was sick. Never change coffee again Jess.

Anyhow, I found at least one game I can play and still do my classwork. In fact, I can even say it IS my class work. The SIMS 3!

Of course I also had to spend an obnoxious amount of time creating my Grey Warden Kasha (Human Noble that married Alistair) and Alistair as SIMS. But that’s not the point.

Since The SIMS lets you create characters, homes, neighborhoods and such, AND provides you with neighbors, that makes the creation of characters much easier for my project.

So far I have created my victim, his wife, his secretary and his mistress. Neighbors come to visit randomly, so they because interviews 1-3 so far. I still need to create our awesome detective. ME!

My only problem so far is using Microsoft Word. It lags horribly any time I’m working with an image in the project. I can’t do PDF unless I buy acrobat. And that’s pretty expensive. Scrivener isn’t working for me either. But I’ll figure it out. My rough draft is “due” but not mandatory to be turned in, tomorrow. Of course I still have three other classes to deal with, but at least one project lets me play.

And no, it isn’t easy. But it’s at least fun.

Getting Ready

Games, School No Responses »

Jan 042011

First of all, belated Happy New Year and Merry Christmas! I never got around to posting before they happened. With the kids out of school and the Hubby off work, and hours of playing WoW I just slacked right off.

In WoW news both my druid and hunter have reached level 85. I’m trying not to worry about gearing them up, and just playing the game to play it. Dungeons would be nice, but as my guildie Kae over at Shades of Kae pointed out they are now quite time consuming. And where I could sneak one in between things I needed to do in Wrath of the Lich King, that’s not quite as easy now. Between not living in the same time zone as the majority of my guild (I’m west coast, server is central, and most guildies are central and eastern), making dinner for the family, keeping up with the house and dogs, and now starting classes, I have a bit of a time crunch. I’ve been basically leveling, questing and searching for rare hunter pets. I tamed Sambas within a couple hours of hitting 85. I named my ferocious lion with his amazing mane Polamalu.

I’m happy to say however, that my daughters are pretty darned good at chipping in. No longer am I the sole maid. For several years now they’ve been doing their own laundry. That was my first victory back in 2005 when Hubby was in Iraq. They were 12 and 13 at the time, and I finally decided that if they could dirty the clothes they could wash them. I also do not clean their rooms, that became their responsibility when they were old enough to understand the words “clean your room”. Of course their rooms are never clean, but hey, I don’t have to sleep in them, and I’m not the one wanting to have friends over, so not my problem. They’re also responsible for their bathroom. Outside of those however, they do, with a little prodding help with the main house. Kitchen counters, emptying the dishwasher, and vacuuming. I must have done something right over the years.

This is good, because in six days my classes start. I’ve chosen to take four classes this semester for 12 credits.

Introduction to Drawing
Introduction to Creative Writing
Introduction to Forensics
Introduction to Criminal Justice

I have all my textbooks, I got my Bag of Holding, and I’ve made my dining room table ready to be my study area. Of course I’ll probably do my reading on the couch. I only need one more thing. My laptop. Why? Because I know me. Two things are very likely to happen if I use Isabella for school.

A: I’ll get distracted or frustrated on an assignment and think “just a few minutes of Dragon Age or WoW until I can think straight”. At which point I’ll look at the clock, realize it’s been 6 hours and I’ve blown all my study time for the day.

B: After hours of schoolwork at this desk, it will finally be time to relax. At which point I’ll be tired of sitting here and looking at this PC.

So my solution is to get a nice smaller laptop, to be used for school and writing only. This way, I eliminate the distraction on this PC, while saving it for my downtime almost as a reward for my hard work. This also has the advantage, since I’m studying at home, of allowing me to “leave the classroom”. I can put my books and computer in the bag and walk away. I had been considering a macbook, but I’ll probably stick with Windows after all to avoid conflicts, as some class materials in future courses are PC only. Better safe than sorry.

I’m more than ready to get started. And hopefully I’ll find some time to finish my canon Dragon Age character’s playthrough before Dragon Age 2 releases in March, and some time to play WoW, and hopefully the girls keep up their assistance.

Last Year Reality Wrote Me a Check

School No Responses »

Dec 072010

I mentioned I’m starting college next month. What I haven’t mentioned is why. On October 27, 2009 I experienced the most terrifying day of my life. My husband was in Afghanistan. We had no communication yet. Our rear detachment commander was amazing at getting out information when a soldier was killed. Which unfortunately was happening a lot at the time. As soon as that soldier’s family had been officially notified, the rest of us would get an email telling us that a soldier had been killed or injured, families had been notified and if we hadn’t been, it wasn’t our husband. This was great for keeping me sane.

On October 27 however, the media got the story before the families were notified. You see, they don’t HAVE to wait. That day, seven soldiers from my husband’s company were killed in an IED blast. It was all over the news. The media was at both main gates. Our Rear D commander couldn’t tell us anything until those seven families had been notified, I knew that. I sent my kids out to their friends houses, because I was a wreck and quickly losing my ability to keep it under control around them. I waited, dreading every car in the driveway. Hell every car passing in the street really.

That’s when I realized something. For 16 years, I’ve been content to be the wife and mom. I still am. I haven’t needed to work in the prior eight years, because I have this amazing husband supporting us. But what on earth would I do if anything happened to him? I have no real qualifications outside retail experience. I have no education beyond High School. It was a wake up call I’d rather have not gotten. But I got it none the less.

So this year, late October the idea of college struck again. I didn’t think about the timing then. I just got the idea to check it out. Before I knew it I was requesting transcripts and applying to Penn State’s World Campus. I applied for an associate’s degree in Letters, Arts, and Sciences. That then grew to moving on to a bachelor’s in the future. To my surprise I was accepted.

I was considering Law & Society the last I posted. But that has since changed to continuing into a BA in Letters, Arts, and Sciences with a paralegal certificate on the side. To top it off, thanks to changes to the GI Bill, I won’t be in debt to student loans. So, I’ve cashed my reality check. In roughly four years, I will travel back to PA and walk across the stage in my cap and gown, with My Mom and family there. And maybe along the way my kids will realize what I didn’t. Homework DOES matter, grades DO matter, and education IS important.