Holy Macro Batman

After taking a couple of months off, I have once again dived back into the world of academia. I had come to the realization that my former educational route may not be the best one for my long-term needs, although I was enjoying my classes. The main reason for my return to school was to make a career change, and I needed more certainty that I could accomplish that with the degree I would obtain. I was also wearing down physically and had spent a good part of the summer fighting asthma symptoms and the fatigue that seems to accompany it. I needed a break and to rethink how I was going about things. That is why I made the jump to an online school and a different degree choice.

Switching to a college I loved to a school where I”d never sit beside other students was not a decision made lightly. I thought about it for several months, weighing the options and the possible outcome. In the meantime, I’ve had continued issues with my back, (it hurts all the time) and my asthma. My days as a hairdresser are numbered, and I need to make a change sooner then later. Online school offered me the chance to get a degree faster, and these days degrees make one more marketable; especially if one is no longer 24.

Depending on what transfers, and of course not everything will, I should complete a degree in about the same time frame as originally intended, maybe less. Time is a big factor for me, and trying to get something completed sooner rather than later is important.  Also I switched majors from a Creative Writing to a business major. That doesn’t mean that I will stop writing creatively. In fact I have been submitting some work for possible publication and currently have two short story ideas rattling around in my head and in snippets written down on paper. More on that at another time.

What is giving me pause is the realization that I wasn’t as up to speed on technology as I thought I was. For instance, I have a BlackBerry, and I have learned how to synch its calendar to my Google calendar. But here is the tricky part. This morning I wanted to put in all my lecture times for a class. I entered the information and told the Google calendar to repeat the information for a month. I have two lectures to view a week for the next four weeks.

So what does Google do? It puts down my Sunday lecture and my Thursday lecture down one time each. I’ve played with different ways of entering and STILL it’s what it gives me; a single entry on a Sunday, and then a single entry on a Thursday on a different week. AAAAGGH!

I’ll figure it out eventually, but not until much cursing and gnashing of teeth occur.

I also have a shiny new copy of Office 2010 thanks to the hefty tuition I am paying for this school. (thank you student loans and tiny Pell grant) I downloaded it easily enough and opened Word to write something. My first thought was “Holy Macro Batman!” It was so different from earlier versions of Word that I had used that I barely recognized it. Ok, I’ll admit it. My last version is 8 years old.

I’ve been using Open Office for several years. Its basic, it works and it doesn’t have 30,000 features. It was also quite free, which on my tiny budget is most welcome. It also closely resembled the Microsoft Office 2003 that I was used to. I have a lot to learn on the new version. I fear that there will be plenty of cursing and gnashing of teeth as I get up to speed with the new software.

If nothing else happens, at least the FFA will learn to meow like sailors, as I work to master all the new technology upgrades, try and fail repeatedly to organize my desk, and drink way too much coffee as I do homework.