UW-Milwaukee Sophomore Honors.

I got a strange package in the mail from University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee yesterday. When I opened it, I had no clue what it was.

Seems to be I've been recognized for Sophomore Honors as I have carried a 3.5 or higher the whole time I have been at the school.

I'm kind of floored. From what I remember, I didn't do that well in school.

...I didn't fail this semester.

Well, another semester has gone by. The bad: I ended up having to take less than an A for the first time in my college corsework. The good: I didn't fail. This was a bitch of a semester. See that first class there. The one with the B+. I worked harder on that class than anything else I've worked on before and I still managed to squeak out a good grade. I dealt with the following: group work, group members not showing up, getting everyone together, figuring out we needed to use Google docs to collaborate, times and schedules for everyone, work, home, life in general. All of that in a class that decided there was weekly group work and a term group project.

But, I conquered the class. I won. That B+ is nothing to sneeze at. There were other groups that I am sure did not do as well.

...I'm done with that class.

I had a hell of a time this semester with my Information Architecture II class. It's one of the classes that is for the major I am in currently and it is something that I do for a living. So, I thought it should be a snap. Did I ever think wrong. Information Architecture I was all about HTML, so I figured II would be much of the same. I was wrong. It was all about Systems Analysis and Design. Otherwise known in the IT and Business worlds as SDLC. I put the book we used for the class over to the left. I am not selling it back either. It's actually got quite a bit of useful information in it that I can transfer over to the current job.

The worst part about this class was that it was all group work. Weekly group assignments, and a term group project. Getting five people with five different schedules together is not the easiest thing to do. One of our group members missed so many classes he was dropped from the class. He didn't do a whole lot anyway, so it wasn't anything all that major. But it just pissed us off that we were doing all the work at the time while he was just riding along. I will say this, thank god for Google Docs. Without it we would have been dead in the water on all of our assignments. We were able to work miles away from each other and all be editing and collaborating on the documents in real time. The class wanted us to use Visio, we used Google's Draw. There was a learning curve, but in the end it worked out well. We even noticed a couple other groups starting to use Google Docs after we told them that we never actually "meet" up. We just did everything over the internet and that it was working out well for us.

But, today was better because I turned in our final group project for L&I Sci 340... and because I'm done with that class.

...I'm finally in my last week of school.

That's right kids, I'm nearing the end of this semester of higher education. That brings me smack dab in the middle of my second year of classes. It's been a silly ride so far, and one that I know I would have not done so well on if it were not for the fact that I have experience in this field.

Work has really prepared me for these classes in ways I can not explain. But, with that being the case, I feel bad for businesses in the future. There are some people who are taking these classes that have no idea what they are in for. No clue what corporate culture is like. Most of them have either only worked at a fast food or retail environment... or they have never had to work at all. That's probably the scariest part to me. I've worked for the last 21 years now, raised kids, played in bands, and worked my way up the corporate ladder. Most of these kids have just ... gone to school. No leadership skills, no customer service qualities. No putting in the extra effort and not caring if they get rewarded for it because it's something they love to do.

But, today was better because I'm finally in my last week of school for the semester... and that means I won't have to deal with it until Labor Day again.

...I think I finally understand my classes.

I think I finally get both of my classes. It took me all the way until midterm to figure them out, but I am on the brink of pulling back out of my rut for them. On an even more awesome point, another one of my classmates said he'd lend us a hand/another eye just in case we need someone to go over some stuff. That was very nice of him. I'm glad we have someone else on our side to help bounce things off of. It's going to help down the line I am sure. For the other class,  I just finished my midterm. It was a lot easier than I thought it was going to be. Four questions? Easy sauce. Now, thank god it was an open book/take home exam as well or I would have not done so well. But, this is a nice professor and this class is really more like my Microsoft classes that I took a while back. It's all about how you might be able to do things one way, but it could be done another, it's really all how you look at it and is it right for that person/organization.

All in all, good day of school.

...my group didn't get called on to present in class today.

We are a little bit behind as far as some things go with our class. It's been a real pain this semester to say the least. But, at least we didn't have to present today and it will help us be ready for Monday.