A Short, Dramatic Story...

Daughter with Algebra homework:

Mom, I need help with my math.(imagine a female whining)

Me:

Okay. Bring it here.

Background: Mother graduated from high school in 1976.

(Mother looks at the problem, refreshes memory from ~several~ examples, tries a few and checks her work for accuracy (*cough*), and begins to explain how to solve it.)


Daughter:

Mom... What are you doing? That's not how Ms. ____ did it. I don't understand this. I can't do it. I guess I'll just get a zero (Add *pitiful* whine and tearing eyes.)

Me:

You can do it. You just have to take it step by step.

Mother starts back at the beginning and continues to explain the processes wondering how in the world these teachers explain something by using their "modern" shortcuts.

Daughter is now in full-blown "feeling sorry for herself" mode.

A reference is made by the daughter that the mother doesn't know what she is doing. Mother assures daughter that she does know what she is doing. *cough*


Daughter:

I can't do it. I don't know why I need to know this stuff anyway. I'll never use Algebra.

Me:

You need Algebra to get into college.

Daughter:

Then I guess I won't be going to college then.(add "teenage tone" here>

Me:

You'll be surprised at all the things you'll use from school when you get older.

Daughter:

Well I won't be using Algebra.

Me:

Yes you will.

Daughter:

No I won't, 'cause I'm not going to college.

Me:

You'll still need Algebra, because some day you'll be trying to help one of your kids with their math homework.

Daughter:

Then I'm not having any kids.

Me, pondering:

hmmm... algebra=birth control?, birth control=algebra?... Go figure.

End Note:

The daughter ended up understanding the algebraic equations. And yes, the little family duo was able to complete the homework assignment ~without tears~.

The Latest News...

Linda in Norman e-mailed me the other day to tell me that it has been quite some time since I have posted anything on my blog.

When I looked at the date of my last post, I found it hard to believe that it has been 13 days!

Two weeks without a post?

How unlike me.


*sigh*


Needless to say, I have been inundated with an enormous amount of school work. If I told you guys how many hours I have spent in research and writing for my class assignments alone...

Well, let's just say that I am certain that you would understand why I haven't posted.


For example, in one class alone I have typed 18,772 words. Of course, this is a word count for the finished product as recorded by my Word documents.

Another neat thing about the statistics that Word records on your documents is the amount of time that is spent on editing the document. I think that the amount of time that is spent on projects tells a much clearer story.

In this same class I spent 5478 minutes editing those 18,772 words. This calculates into 91.3 hours of my life that was used to to type these papers up. Of course, this does not include how much time was spent on reading and researching the topics that I was writing about. However, I did not keep a manual record of these efforts.


Albeit, I spent an enormous amount of time on these assignments, I am happy to announce that I did earn an "A" for the class. My professor e-mailed me this afternoon to let me know what my grade was before she was required to post it officially.

She also gave me quite a compliment.

So... In the end, it was all worth it because I achieved my goal!


In other news...

I know that I had a lot of people worrying about me and my ONG bill and the overcharge from my account via the automatic payment plan.

I have been so busy that I haven't been monitoring my bills like I should. I was yanked into reality when they *dinged* my account for an EXTRA $75. Of course, this caused me to pull all my old bills out, go out and read my meter myself, and make a phone call that put me in that endless on hold loop for over 30 minutes.

I won't go into all of the *gory* details of my telephone conversation with the customer service rep when I called about my bill.

Let's just say that I became very frustrated with her because she WOULD NOT SHUT UP and listen to my reasoning and logic. While I didn't have all the facts in front of me "like she did", I had a pretty good idea of what had happened to my account. She kept telling me that I OWED Oklahoma Natural Gas money!! She refused to listen to me. I know that she thought I was crazy...

And stupid as well.

BTW... if you really want to make me mad, just ~act~ like you think I'm stupid.

I tried my best to get to a supervisor, but you know how that first line of defense works. They won't let you get past them.

The next day I finally got through to a supervisor. While she didn't quite understand my logic or reasoning, she could tell that something "just wasn't right" with my account. She promised that she would send it over to the "Accounting Department".

Long story short...

ONG ended up crediting my account $318.23.


Oh yeah... uh huh...


That customer service rep was wrong, and I was right.


You know that I really didn't have the time to deal with those people, but for $300 I figure that it's worth it.


HOWEVER... I think I still need to write a letter to ONG because they don't REFUND you the money. They only credit your account.

Which, in my opinion, is wrong, wrong, wrong.


There's a lot of things that I need to share with you guys, but I'll only share a few more things.


One is a new phishing scam. The last couple of weeks I have been getting hit with spam that presents itself as an e-card. It says things like, "Your family member has sent you an e-card!" or "Your friend has sent you a card!". There's one that uses Hallmark's name on it too.

You get the idea.

They're FAKE e-mail greeting cards.

I knew that these cards were probably worse than the annoying spam that we all usually get. But I never took the time to research it. This evening I took a few minutes and I was able to confirm my suspicions.

Anyway, in the body of the e-mail is a link that you click on and it takes you to a website. This website downloads malicious spyware, etc., on your computer when you land on it. With this "mal-ware" the people on the other end can gather your credit card numbers, passwords, or anything else that you type on your computer or online.

So I thought that this was something important for you guys to know. You can read this short article about it.


Let's see...

What else.


Oh yeah...


Do you guys remember me mentioning that I had been summoned as a petit juror to the Federal Court?

Well, I had to show up yesterday morning at 7:30 am. We had orientation, swearing in, and all that stuff. They told us that we had to be available through August 10th. They also said that most trials usually only last about two to three days.


I ended up being selected as a juror for a criminal trial...

And the judge told us that it was certain to last for FIVE days at the very least. Maybe into the following week?


Can you believe this?


So...


What have you guys been up to?


Hopefully, I be back here sooner than...


later...

My Food Pyramid...

Yes...

I'm under a lot of stress here.

Big papers...

Lots of homework...

Lots of material to read.


Then last night my bank account was drafted by ONG (Oklahoma Natural Gas).

It wasn't unexpected since I am on the "automatic bill pay" plan.

But the amount was...


My account was OVERCHARGED!!


Oh yeah...

I'm HOT.

I'm UPSET.


I'm...




Headed for the fridge.


later...

Just Plain Busy...

I've been too busy to blog.

Too busy to visit any of your blogs.

Too busy to scratch my ...


Anyway, I just thought I would let all of you guys know what I've been up to.


This evening I have read an assignment.

Took a test.

And worked on a project.


I have just given myself a "self-reward".

A nice tall glass of ice cold milk and a couple of pieces of chocolate out of my Godiva Box that my oldest daughter, Calais, had given me.

mmm...


I think I deserved it.


And yes.

I'm stressed out.


I feel like I am snowed under right now with class assignments, projects, and papers.


I wasn't able to get as much accomplished this week-end as I had hoped. This has given me the feeling of being even farther behind in my schoolwork.


No TV.

No phone conversations.

No nothing.


Just schoolwork.


Tomorrow my neighbor Sue and I will be working on Part II for my Human Lifespan Development class.


Then I have to get the paper written up and turned in on Friday.

This is certainly not how I like to do my papers. I like to have a lot more time to work on them than just a couple of days. That's basically about all the time I'll have since I have class on Thursday evening.


And so far, my Thursday night classes have been running from 5:30pm up to almost 10pm. We also have a group project and we are required to meet after class.

So then I come straight home and type up my field notes from our group meeting.

Just so that I won't forget anything.


*sigh*


Linda in Norman did give me a call last night.

She thought that I might have died or something.


No, I'm not dead.

But I'm beginning to wonder if this is what it feels like just before you do die.


later...

Grades...

I was only to get one chapter of my homework assignments read this evening.

The kids were also working on their photograph entries for convention.

I find it difficult to read, answer questions, watch, talk on the phone, and make suggestions all at the same time.

Either way, at least I did get the chapter completed.

Whether any of it ~stuck in my head~ or not is yet to be seen.


My grades have been posted for the last classes that I took.

I just thought I would thank all of you again for your contributions towards my grade.

I was taking a really big risk (at least in my mind I was) by incorporating "casual blog-based" poll results into a researched final paper.

I don't have my paper back, so I don't know if there were any comments written on it. How many points were taken for grammatical errors and all of that stuff.

I don't even know what my grade on the individual paper is.

All I know is that it was worth 25% of my final grade.


So...

I just thought I would share my grade with everyone.

Especially since it is partly your grade as well...

And announce that all of you earned an **A** for the class!


later...

Just Saying "Hey"...

I thought that I would stick my head out of my self-imposed solitude and say "hey" to everyone.

Just to let you guys know that I'm doing okay.

I have just completed all of my assignments from this past week.

I have completed reading all of my assigned chapters (8 of them).

And I have typed up all of my assignments as well.

I have almost completed my "at home" work assignments as well which was writing some journalistic updates for our hospital website, including some of the doctor's biographies.


I received an e-mail from one of our doctors who was asking ~me~ about my "hobbies". It made me laugh, since currently, my only hobby is homework.


However, it really makes me feel good that I can start the week without anything left "undone".


I was truly exhausted from working this past Friday. What began as a solitary echocardiogram at 7pm, ended up being eight exams which involved both echocardiograms and abdominal studies.

So I didn't make it back home until after 2am on Saturday morning.


I did get some sleep in on Saturday morning and didn't wake up until Mom called. She always calls on Saturday mornings. She tries to make it later in the mornings since she never knows at what time I have made it to bed the night before.

Dad is doing okay, but his WBC's (white blood cell count) have crashed. So the doctors have DC'd (discontinued) his chemo treatments for the time being. They're currently watching his blood counts very closely and are doing CBC's (complete blood counts) about every three days now.


Saturday was a beautiful day, although I wasn't able to enjoy it much.

We received some much needed rain today. It has been cloudy and cool all day and that certainly helped to keep me inside of the house and focused on my tasks.

I will be in class tomorrow night so I don't know if I will make it back here or not.

Maybe I'll be able to visit all of you guys instead.


I pray that all of you had a wonderful week-end and that your upcoming week is blessed.

later...

Homework...

I've been working on my homework.

I wasn't able to work on it at all last night, but this evening I feel that I have gotten quite a bit accomplished.


We're still ~frozen~ in this part of the country.

And there are still a lot of people without electricity as well.


The forecasters are predicting another winter storm for this week-end.


Looks like I might get a lot of schoolwork completed this weekend.


Here's something that I think you guys should watch.

Give yourself about 20 minutes or so to watch it...

And let it sink in.




later...


Hat Tip: Michelle Malkin