G’s Place

I know I haven’t posted here in a while, so I thought I’d do a keep-alive post today. I’m still busy with grad school, hopefully just this semester and next and I’ll be done.

We’ll be at the AANE art show on October 3rd - Brianna has three pictures in the show. One of them is called Tweeting and is complete with a fail whale! It is my favorite, so of course it is not hers.  The art show is part of AANE’s Asperger Syndrome Connections conference. But the art show is free to the public, so come by if you are in Boston that day.

AANE also has a new blog and a new Facebook page (search FB for Asperger’s Association of New England), so if you have Asperger’s or live with someone who does, you may want to check those out too.

its here.

I may start blogging about work there too. My portfolio for school is definitely going there.

This semester is over in two weeks, so I have two huge papers looming. I think I can write on close to the same subject, so hopefully that will help.

My big pre-GA project at work is almost over - my last deliverables are next week. Then the fun of turning it into steady-state training happens. Since I have been managing the project from the start, I have tried to make the learning objects as reusable as I could. It’s a little difficult since the pre-GA training is only differences training, and of course some things in pre-GA may get resolved. I think the assets I created for each learning module (there are 2) are pretty reusable…so hopefully the development effort won’t be too painful. Also, there may be a trip to ATL which means I’ll get to see my bigmama.

This summer I am taking a class called “Designing Content for Online Collaborative Learning”. I am really excited for that !! In the fall I am taking the last of my core classes: “Intro to  Distance Learning” and “Intro to Systematic Instructional Design”. I actually think I have  one more intro class - an Inquiry and Measurement course. At any rate, I need 12 classes, and after this semester I will have 3 done. Turtle’s pace, but I’m getting there!

Brianna got a letter that she’s graduating with honors in May. YES!!! Now she needs to find a job. If you are in Boston and looking for a quiet, smart, hardworking research assistant, I have a great candidate for you.

Kenny is in a frat. Still not sure what I think about that. But he has to keep a 3.0 to stay in, and they make him perform community service. I like that. The two guys I met that are his “brothers” seemed very nice. It’s just weird to me.

We had our first Parents of teens and young adults with Asperger’s Syndrome meeting - didn’t get a huge turnout but we’ll keep trying.

I read a good post about how to blog, and that post recommended asking questions. So here goes - is anyone else out there in a very demanding job and in grad school at the same time? Do you feel like you are insane at the end of the semester? Do you just break down and clean because you have to let things go in order to get your work and school work done?

from this blog 

Found it via a post on Asperger’s social skills therapy. Adding it to Newsgator….I hope he links to some academic articles I can use for my paper.

The blog belongs to Simon Bignell, who is a Psychology Professor at the University of Derby (in the UK).   Here’s the focus of his research:

I am currently running a funded project that is evaluating teaching and research in Second Life. The research element is investigating the effectiveness of the platform to enhance the real-life social/communication skills of people diagnosed with high-functioning Autism and Asperger’s Syndrome.

HMMM maybe I can get my doctorate in the UK?

I like my life to be going along in circles. I can have lots going at the same time, as long as it all flows, like a circle.

Both kids are back in school. All 3 tuitions are paid (theirs and mine), everyone has books. I know what I am supposed to be doing at work (well, sort of. But I have enough info to have a circle with dotted lines).

Everything is great EXCEPT I need to clean my house and I can’t find my friggin cell phone. If I don’t find it when I clean (tomorrow?), then I will have to get a new one before I go to TX.

sigh. feeling better already.

FSU has to cut $30M from someplace…so they are cutting 218 jobs, and possibly raising out-of-state tuition again.

Holy crap my tuition is already sky-high! I could be going to one of the top private schools for what I pay for FSU. Although my company pays a good chunk of it..

After this semester I have 9 classes to go. I will have to try and get 3 classes in at least in the summer, I would guess the changes would start next year.

ugh.

The kids go back to school this weekend, so things should start getting back on track. I’ve  neglected some emails, it’s just because the kids are home, I started back to classes when they were home, and now I am swamped at work.

But the kids being back in school fixes one circle.

I promise if I need to get back to you, you should see something in the next couple of weeks.

There is something wrong with my BlackBoard account at FSU. There is a known issue with a handful of grad students that were undergrads at FSU and who also worked at the University while they were undergrads. The issue is BlackBoard unenrolls us from the class.

Oh yeah, my program is completely online. On BlackBoard.

I am going to start documenting what is going on.

Tonight I was on Blackboard, participating in a class discussion. What that means is I was reading posts, and responding to them. As I was trying to read a post, I got a message that I needed to log in. I logged in, and *poof* my classes are gone.

I’ve sent an email to support. What are the chances that someone is reading emails tonight? Oh yeah, I need to do the same thing (read and respond to posts) tomorrow night.

This is frustrating. I’m getting to the point that I may start looking at other programs - I am not sure the hassle is worth it.

huzzah! I don’t know how people travel every single week. To me, it’s exhausting. I met alot of great people, and really was able to get good information I needed for a project I have been assigned to, but jeez I am worn out.

I don’t think it helped that I also started classes last week. I am taking two this semester. So far, two classes seems to be five times as hard as one class was. And my account is still all messed up. So I keep losing access to Blackboard. It makes it hard to plan when I will get the work done, because when I go to log in my access is all messed up.

At a minimum, I am set for two more trips this quarter. I have a feeling that number may increase.

Maybe I will get better at the whole traveling thing.