Itty Bitty Hooves

The Full Classroom Experience Right In Your Own Home

Online education has taken off in incredible ways in the last few years. In the beginning it roused some skepticism regarding the legitimacy of degrees obtained online but as more and more reputable Universities and colleges discovered the benefits of allowing students to study from home on their own schedules the idea of online schooling is now universally accepted as a viable alternative to classroom education. Complete study programs such as MS Instruction at St. Xavier University gives students a chance to particiapate in a nursing program for their master’s degree while holding down current hospital positions which used to be very difficult. Not only can they still work the hectic and often rotating hours at their jobs but family obligations do not have to be put off either.

That is the biggest advantage to online education. Another is the fact that there is no longer a need to move away from home to attend your favorite University. You can study at St. Xavier whether you live in the Chicago area, or Alaska. It doesn’t matter because the commute to school is as close as your computer via an Internet connection. There is no cost for gas because travel isn’t an issue thus further releasing your dependancy on foreign oil. More and more schools and businesses are realizing the benefits of telecommunity. Even with studying online there is the ability to communicate with other St. Xavier students online via forums, chats, and video classes. It is a full college experience right from your own home.

IntoThe Future

Well, to be exact, I’ve come up to the present. I finally got an updated phone! It isn’t really because I haven’t had the options before to do it. It is because I’ve been stubborn. I never saw the need for a more complicated phone. Silly me. I just got my new texting phone and boy do I love it. Here’s a picture of my new Samsung Propel full Qwerty keyboard phone.

I also have been using Google Chrome as a browser and for the most part I really like it. However I’ve found a few difficulties when it comes to posting on my blogs with it so I still have to revert to IE to post on here and on my other blogs. I’m thinking about loading up FireFox even though I haven’t liked it much in the past. It’s been a few years since I last tried it. Actually I would have never left IE except for (of all things) it doesn’t work well on Vista. You’d THINK a microsoft program would work with a microsoft program–wouldn’t you? Yeah, well some things about technology defy explanation.

Never dull

After taking a few diet pills and aspirin this morning I still find myself trudging along with a headache, and not exactly without food cravings. I am going to have to investigate the diet pills I use. It’s one of the great things about the Internet. You can do a lot of research right online. You just have to remember to do it. That’s my trouble. I think about doing something and then get caught up in working or playing and forget all about it. Right now though, I have to feed thei birds and figure out why one of my fish tank lights is only half lit. The work never ends, even when it is a hobby. It’s never dull here though. I can say that much.

Get it Moving

Word Press is moving a lot faster for me now that I removed some old useless code from the template. It helps to be spurred to action by a client I should have done it a long time ago. It still stalls a little compared to other blogs I have but it is much less frustrating. If your blog is moving slow to administer, update, or moderate do a little house cleaning and you might be surprised at how much faster it moves along.

Planned Projects

I want to add wood flooring to my list of desired home improvements but I’m not looking forward to it really. It means moving a lot of heavy (really heavy) furniture in the living room. I am definitely going to be doing it once I get the idea in my head that I can live without the entertainment center. I am almost finished with my bathroom. Before I do any of the floors (including the bathroom and kitchen) I want to refinish my kitchen cabinets, and tile the counter tops (old Formica on there now yuk). It should be interesting around here this summer. Even though winter is a better choice of times to do big home improvement indoor projects I prefer doing refinishing/painting/and stuff when I can open windows and get a lot of ventilation. So that means if I do that stuff in the summer I should be able to do floors next winter for a long-term winter project. Hopefully by 2010 I’ll have a ‘whole new house’!

My Office

This is my office–You know that my ‘other business’ (the one that actually pays) is as a writer, although this video was shot a few years back when I was an editor for an erotica publisher it still gives a fair impression of daily workstyle. Now though I use a laptop more than my office desk, if I were to shoot my daily routine now it would center around my living room couch and a laptop while I have the TV droning in the background lol. I still have my office though and occassionally retreat to it to get my ‘head on straight’.

I used to have really cool music with it but it was ‘censored’ lol so now it’s free file music. You can turn the sound down to watch, lol.

Body Cleanse

I’ve been eating like crazy lately. Can’t seem to control it. I think I may need an Orovo detox just to cleanse my system. I’ve been drinking tons of water in an effort to combat my sudden urges. I have to do something to try and control this. My mind KNOWS better but my body refuses to listen. I have tried analysing what is upsetting me but not really coming up with anything that would be above and beyond the ordinary. I know it has to be something with anxiety, stress, or depression but I’m not sure what it is. I don’t FEEL stressed out, over-anxious, or depressed. I have to be though. If not all, at least one of those. It is not a good thing. I am closing in on gaining almost half of the weight back that I lost in 07. That in itself is depressing. You have to wonder if some of those reports about bodies having a ’set weight’ that you can’t truly do anything long term about are true. I hope not. I don’t like my ’set weight’ if they are.

The STING

Met this dude on Twitter. His Twitname is MrSting and he’s a Private Investigator in Oklahoma. He’s pretty interesting to follow and here is a Youtube vid of his office–VERY COOL.

all Trees are not Alike

We are loaded with Oak trees here which can be problematic for livestock. I wish the people that had planted the area here had put in Elm trees. They make great shade like the Oaks but without the tannins. We also have black walnut which is unusually pretty it is also poisonous to livestock–great huh? It is important to pick and choose the types of plant life you set when you have animals. Many of those plants and trees can be harmful to small animals like dogs and cats too although those animals rarely eat the grasses or leaves from them in any quantity like livestock will. I need to plant some trees out front though mostly for shade. We don’t even keep livestock out there but it is like a desert there with the sun and it beats down on the house and isn’t much fun to be in the yard in the summer either. I am going to go with Oak for big sturdy trees that provide a lot of beauty, shade, and are not toxic to the animals just in case.

Enjoying it While it Lasts

The winter was brutal but today was like spring and the horses were really feeling it. Sparky and Mirri were running around like newborn foals acting like fools all day today. Several of the goats were sunning themselves on the dirt mountain in the back pasture and all of the cats were spread out in the sun in various spots. Everyone was taking as much advantage of the sun as they could while it lasts. Winter is not over, and I’m pretty sure they know that too. Would be nice if this super nice weather held out all the way until May or so, but it’s not at all likely. February can be brutal as can March. April is usually pretty nice overall with occassional nasty weather. So I guess they better enjoy this weekend while it lasts.