Ending Winter 2013

As finals are approaching this semester, I realised how fast time goes. I have greatly enjoyed my first semester attending BYU-Idaho in this little town of Rexburg, even with all the snow.

I have enjoyed my New Testament class. Religion classes are part of the unique curriculum here at Brigham Young University. I learned so much and am excited for family foundations next semester.

I tried out for the BYU-I Cheer Team and have enjoyed all of my experiences with that. I had never been involved with cheer team before so I have learned alot and plan on joining again next semester. I had a couple of injuries... A split lip and nose injury. Two separate occasions but only a week between them. Luckily I didn't break my nose, I just ended up with a deviated septum (which will be taken care of with a surgery at a time when I'm off school and can have plenty of recovery time at home). I have been a back spot in all of the stunts performed, but at our last practice my coach had me try being a flyer and I really enjoyed it. We'll see what I do for next semester.

The cold winter has become but a memory... Spring has arrived! As a southern Californian, it is a bit odd that it feels so warm at a high of 57.

I will be spending a week in Las Vegas, NV with my roommate, Mariah. She grew up there and we are both excited for the warmth of the sun (a predicted 90 degrees) and the opportunity for me to be more acquainted with her family and friends. We have become very close over the semester - she's become like a sister.

I changed my field of study!! I went from being an accounting major to elementary education. I am so excited for my new set of classes and my future in being a teacher. My degree will allow me to teach Kindergarten-8th grade.

I will try my best to update this on a regular basis with pictures included. I appreciate you all for being part of my life. I love you all! If you do have any questions about things, I will try to answer them. Some things just slip my mind.

Excel Extended

This week for CIS I was required to complete 4 parts to a Microsoft Excel project. I learned different ways to show data in charts and organize information in excel sheets. Color-coding was part of the project as well as resizing rows and columns and formatting. I used formulas in most parts of the project, but I have learned to create them through my duration of working in data entry at the payroll firm I am currently employed at. One thing I learned this week that I thought was really interesting is the data bars feature. It uses less space than a chart but gives similar results. I will definitely be keeping that tool in mind for future data sets in excel sheets.

Excel in CIS

This week for my CIS class I had part 1 of a Microsoft Excel project. In the process of completing this assignment I learned new ways to make an excel sheet more attractive and fancy.  Most of what was taught I already knew from experience I have had with using excel for school assignments in my accounting classes and at work.  In fact, most of the shortcuts, etc. I learned from my manager at work, but other than that my knowledge is from just playing around with the program to figure stuff out.  So long for now...

Learning about the Web

This week I learned about the Web.  It is more secure now and has different visuals to figure out if a website is secure.  First, secure websites have "https" in the web address. The s stands for secure, "http" is usually part of any web address.  Second, many websites that are secure have the name of their business on the web address bar and a color on the left part with the name of the business.  Lastly, there are locks on the address bar or bottom of the window if the website is secure.  Web security is important because hackers are unable to retrieve personal information, such as credit card numbers, when websites are not secure.  Also, when websites are not secure it becomes easier for viruses and spy ware to get onto a computer.

Learning to Blog

For my CIS class I am learning about blogging. This is my first assignment, to create an account and post what I have learned so far. Well, so far I learned that creating a blog is much simpler than I imagined. The toughest part will probably be keeping it updated. Blogs are used by individuals to post about their lives, groups, and businesses. Blog comes from web log and was shortened to blog. Many people use blogs as somewhat of an online public journal. I will be using it for my computer class for the next 7 weeks and then attempt to keep it updated for my family and friends.