End of Fall Semester 2012

Zoom! Zoom! Zoom!! This semester just flew by! I am amazed at how fast it has gone. It was the first day of school, then mid-term, and now it's over!!

I don't know my number grades yet, but I do know I made As.

I can't decide which class this semester was my favorite, as I enjoyed all four of them. English was mostly grammar review and essay writing, which I enjoy, so that class was great. I took it DLC (Distance Learning) with the teacher on a different campus and that was hard. Music was fun and interesting, and I learned so much. Dr. Turner's love for music was absolutely contagious! Mrs. Mastin's psychology class was eye-opening and interesting. I really enjoyed it and gained much.

However, the most helpful class was my very last Web class. This was the class where we put everything we've learned in all of the Web classes together into one huge, final project. I really learned a lot. Each person in the class had to create a ficticious business, come up with a company mission statement, determine the target audience, design a business logo, create a banner (heading) for the Web page and another for a newsletter, and then create the actual Web pages and newsletter. After everything was complete, we were required to pass three validators: the accessability validator, the CSS validator, and the HTML markup validator. There was also a lot of reading and short one- to two-paragraph papers to write.

I created a business that sells custom designed, indoor and outdoor swimming pools called Beautiful Pools, LTD. I enjoyed every step of the assignment.

Another part of the Web assignment was to use the created business logo and create a watermark and place it on one of the Web pages. I used Adobe Photoshop to create the watermark. I love Photoshop!! Here is the watermark I created for Beautiful Pools.

All in all, Fall Semester 2012 was a great semester and, in a way, I am sorry to see it end. I will miss many of my Web Design peers that are graduating in January. On the otherhand, I only have one semester left before I graduate, so I am looking forward to finishing up.

Algebra and English II, here I come!! (I am VERY glad I get a four week break before I tackle Algebra!!)

Here is hoping everyone has a wonderful and Merry Christmas filled with love, peace, and joy, and a happy, safe, and healthy New Year!!

Heading towards the finish line...

November 13 - WOW!! This semester is almost over!

It's hard to believe - and it has gone so fast.

This semester I am taking my LAST Web Design class - boo-hoo! - along with English 1101, Psychology, and Music Appreciation. But, next semester I will be helping in two Web Design classes: HTML5 and Photoshop - ya-hoo! 

After this semester, I will only have two classes left (English 1102 and College Algebra) in order to graduate in May!

Will I miss school?? YES! And that is why I plan to come back and get a degree in Accounting!!

I have been learning, and working with, HTML5 for several semesters - though I have not actually had a class (when I took programming I learned XHTML.)

Do I LIKE HTML5? Sometimes!! Most of the time. There are times when it is exasperating!! But I guess that happens with any programming or markup language.

I had a set-back this semester: my body fought respiratory junk for weeks and then finally succumbed - I missed a week of school before I finally was able to rise above it!! Fortunately, my teachers have been very understanding. I will be able to make up any work/tests I missed.

The greatest challenge right now is finishing my big project for my Web Design class. One of the problems is that I keep finding ways to improve what I have - !! But, you know me - I want it to be perfect! LOL

Well, thank you again for your time and interest in my Web Design progress. I am sure I will write one more time before I graduate  and again afterwards!!

I appreciate everyone's continued emotional support, prayers, encouragement, and so forth. Thank you.

June 17, 2012 - Happy Father's Day to all you dads!!

Greetings, Lab Rats!! ("Lab rats" borrowed from A Good Year, starring Russell Crowe)

My summer semester goes well. I only have 2 classes: Advanced Photoshop (Web Graphics II), and myPHP & MySQL class. I am also "auditing" a third class that I have already taken just to reinforce it: my original PHP class.

As usual, I love all my classes. Mr. Long and Mrs. Black are great!!

In PHP and MySQL, I created a Web Blog - not this one as this one is created from someone else's template - but my very own. I need to publish it onto the Web!! It still has one minor problem: my pages do not automatically refresh when a user adds a comment or when I add an entry. I think it has to do with session id or something of that nature.

I am required to chose 4 out of the 8 or 9 possible projects for this class. The Web Blog was my first choice. Now I am creating a shopping site. It's pretty amazing - and fun!! I am not sure what my third project will be, as there are 4 more I would LIKE to do. We'll see how much time I have...

Advanced Photoshop is incredible. We are editing pixels: hue and saturation, filters, and masks. I love it! It is so amazing what you can do with an image.

The PHP class is great, too. I am really grasping what we're doing now. I GET it!! I felt lost through most of the semester when I originally took it - though I made an A in the class. (Not only am I getting much needed reinforcement, but I am helping the students in the class, as well - which is like double reinforcement!)

So, I guess you could say I am taking three classes this summer.

This is my last semester at the diploma level, but not my last semester at NGTC.

Beginning in the fall, I will be in the Web Design Degree program. I will have only the fall and spring semseters and then I will GRADUATE!!

So, what's the best thing about this semester's coding? - !!

Well, I really enjoyed creating (building) that Web Blog (and now the shopping Web site with the shopping cart), but I guess the coolest thing is meshing the database and the Web site - and using Php and MySQL to do it. Oh, and I am also self-teaching HTML5 and I love it! It's so easy and so - er - pardon the pun: dynamic!!

And so... life continues on its winding journey...

Everyday brings me a little closer to graduation and to my big decision: WHAT am I going to do after I graduate? My original plan was to graduate and go into business for myself (and I do have three clients already.) But with an A in every single class (so far), and enjoying helping (teaching?) in all my classes, perhaps I should pursue a higher education and become an instructor at NGTC. I am just undecided. I love to teach - I am a natural at it just like my mother, father, grandmother, and so many others in my family... it would make sense to go that direction. I guess I will wait until closer to graduation before I decide.

In the mean time, I am involved in three clubs at school, plus committies, and I am an active member of the local Square Dance club: Habersham Squares. Truly I am living and learning in the mountains - and lovin' it!!

 

National Technical Honors Society

This was a very proud moment in my life, being inducted into the National Technical Honors Society (NTHS) on March 20, 2012. All the glory goes to my God and King.

Dr. King, Sue Blair, Ruth King 

Presenting the awards were Dr. Mike King (Vice President of Student Affairs) and Mrs. Ruth King (ABT Instructor/Department Chair).

A hearty thank you to my family and friends, and to the teachers and staff at NGTC: your prayers, support, and understanding have encouraged and strengthened me.

I have this semester plus two more classes and I will have completed the CIST Internet Specialist Web Design Diploma program. I hope to get those two classes this summer, after which I will change to the Degree level. That will be like starting all over again - at least with my core classes.

My goal is to maintain my standing with an A in every class at the Degree level as well. I will be taking College Algebra, English Composition and Rhetoric, English Literature and Composition, Introduction to Psychology, and Music Appreciation. I will also have one (or is it two?) more Web classes - specific to the degree level.

Summer will find me assisting in Mrs. Black's PHP class - which I really want to get cemented in, and figure helping in the class will do that for me. (Just as helping in Mr. Long's XHTML class has been good for me this semester.)

Again - I could not have done this with out YOU: thank you.

SQL Excitement (So what in the world is SQL?!)

Tables, columns, rows
Single-table queries, multiple-table queries
Queries, queries, queries

So what is  a query, anyway?!
Glad you asked!

A query is a question represented in a way that a Database Management System (DBMS) can understand. ¹A Guide to SQL, 8e; page 98.

What this really means is that you can ask (pull) specific information that you want or need from a database table or collection of related tables without showing all the information. For instance, in an address database you might want all the people who live in GA, or all the people within a certain Zip code area, or all the people in GA that live in a certain Zip code. If your fields (columns) were detailed enough, you could ask for all the married couples, or all the single people, or perhaps all the people that have an email address that are married. You specify the criteria or conditions to be met, sort by the field you chose, and pull up the exact information you desire.

But how would you use  this - what is the purpose of a query?

This is when it starts getting fun!

Suppose you had an address database with over 2,000 names, address, phone, emails, etc., and you wanted to mail out Christmas cards to everyone who did NOT have an email address AND who lived within the United States. Also, you wanted a list of everyone who had an email address so you could send a Christmas letter to them via email.

Yes, you could query the specific criteria (conditions) and get exactly what you wanted!

Ah, and those are simple  queries...

Suppose you were a business with over 18,000 items in your inventory... this is when queries really  get fun!

You could find out how many items you had on hand, in which warehouse, sorted in alphabetical, price, or number-on-hand order - your choice - how many times an item was purchased per month/year, etc. You could determine the average sales per month, the item that sold the most per month, the store who sold the most inventory, which sales clerk had the most sales or earned the most commission. You could query to find all the customers whose balance was over their credit limit, or who owed you a late fee... You can do so much with queries!

To put it all in a nutshell: a query is used to pull information from a database table, or set of tables, in order to find or calculate results in a specific order, for a specific use or purpose.

Does that make sense? If not, I an highly recommend my course textbook!! LOL

My conclusion? I love SQL!!!

   
¹ Last, Mary Z.. Pratt. Philip J.. A Guide to SQL, 8e. Boston: Course Technology, 2009.