Social Media

Life has been busy since the start of "real life" aka life after the holidays.  Although my Monday night class has yet to start due to snow and MLK day, I can already tell that taking 4 classes will be quite time consuming but doable. 

One of the classes I am taking is a social media class.  On our first day of class, we watched the below youtube video which I thought was really interesting.  A lot of people I have told I am taking a social media class have somewhat laughed and thought it was a joke of a class that really wouldn't be relevant to business.  After just three classes, I have already seen that those are false beliefs.  It will be incredibly interesting to see even 5 years from now what businesses are doing with social media. 

If you think about it, 5 years is a long time when it comes to technology.  5 years ago I was a 20 year old sophomore in college who didn't have wireless internet, didn't know what facebook was (I think it came to Samord my junior year), and would not have known what the phrase "there's an app for that" even meant because well apps didn't exist.

5 years from now will we be driving flying cars? Likely not, but there will definitely be things that are completely normal then that are not now!

So with that, remember when this was high tech?

Lately- in terms of Net Present Value

Long time no post! My life has been spent hanging out with this guy:

Monday through Thursday I leave straight to work for an Advanced Corporate Finance class.  I usually get home around 7:45ish.  The good thing about this is the class goes by really fast. It is only during the month of July, so I'm half way done.  I took the first Finance class in the spring, and it met once a week.  It seemed to drag on forever!

JP has been very good to me during this busy time.  He has been completely in charge of dinner and has also completely cleaned up the kitchen every night as well. 

Two weeks of this class left and then a two week break followed by 2 fall classes. After the fall, I will only have 4 classes left!

Basic Photography Class Photos: Week 4

I'm a little behind on posting but our assignment for last week's class was Still Life. Unfortunately, my MBA classes were particularly busy that week i.e. a Finance test, and I totally procrastinated and did my shots probably 30 minutes before class which is why I only have 4 instead of 5. JP had my computer at Whole Foods studying so I tried to upload my pics to his baby computer, and it didn't work. So, I rushed to Samford and uploaded them in the computer lab. I was only 3 minutes late for class.

Basic Photography Class Photos: Week 3

This week our assignment was to submit 5 photos showing that we knew how to use aperture to enhance the appearance of the photo.

For those of you who know nothing about photography, aperture is directly related to the amount of light that enters the camera. The larger the number the smaller the opening.

Additionally, the smaller the number/the bigger the opening, the less the photo is in focus. Therefore, the blur the background of a photo, use a smaller aperture.

Overall my teacher was had positive things to say about my photos. The only negative things was the lighting on the cupcake photo (which I knew before I even submitted it). He did comment on the DVD picture stating that this was quite the collection! I informed him this was taken at a friend's house, but he was definitely amused by the number of DVD's in the photo. Personally, the number of DVD's seemed quite normal to me.

I will say the DVD photo is my favorite! Which one is yours?

Basic Photography Class Photos: Week 2

This week our assignment was to submit pictures that follow the "rule of thirds". The "rule of thirds" states that the main subject of the photo falls on one of the four main power points which are formed at the intersection of the lines that divide the photo both horizontally and vertically.

I was super busy, and it was SO cold this week that it was hard to get out and take pictures! I did go to Samford and take some pictures Sunday afternoon; however, I didn't get my final photos until about 45 minutes before class. Our teacher uses a Yahoo group for us to all upload our pictures. Because I uploaded at the last minute, I did not have a chance to double check my folder. I know I uploaded 5 but when my teacher pulled up my folder only three were there.

My teacher was pleased with all the three of the photos that uploaded stating that they were excellent or cool shots.

These are the two pictures that for some reason did not upload so I was unable to get my teacher's response.

Classes

My family always jokes that my job should be being a full time student. Honestly, I wouldn't mind that at all as I've always enjoyed learning. I suppose the next best thing to being paid to be a full time student is having someone pay for you to go to school part time. One of the awesome benefits to my job at UAB is the fact that they will pay for me to take 18 hours a year. Not only that, but unlike many places require you to pay and then reimburse you, UAB pays upfront so the only money I have to fork out is for books and a few fees. As long as they are writing the check in the thousands, and I'm writing one for a few hundred, I'm happy. Oh, and I forgot to add another sweet part of this... they will my for JP to take 18 hours a year too! This is going to come in handy because once he passes the CPA exam he will have to take two grad classes and will possibly get his masters in accountancy.

Currently, I am working on getting my MBA. I started last spring, and I should finish in the spring or summer of next year. Once I get my MBA, depending on what career opportunities I have, I may get my masters in Health Administration which is a two year program.

This semester I am taking three classes:
Corporate Finance: Finance and accounting classes are definitely my favorite. This class meets on Monday nights from 7:15-9:45pm. Hopefully I don't fall asleep!

Managerial Behaviors: This is an online class that involves a lot of reading and posting on discussion boards. According to the syallabus you are supposed to draw a lot on relationships and circumstances you have experienced in your career.

Management Information Systems: This class meets one Saturday a month from 8:30-4:30. It really wasn't too bad! We spend the entire class discussing current events that involve technology and business.

In addition to these MBA classes, I am taking a photography class at Samford. It is part of their Samford After Sundown program and will meet Tuesday for 2 hours for 6 weeks. I have a friend at work who just got a digital SLR camera, and if you recall from this post, I got a digital SLR for my birthday. We both really want to learn how to take awesome pictures so we are taking the class together. I am very excited!