I miss my Creative Zen!

Everybody says they are OK with change, right? Me too. Then my wonderful, wonderful, beloved Creative Zen V Plus plopped into the water while I was getting a pedicure. Now it's a wonderful, wonderful hunk of inert plastic. Dead plastic. I am sad.

I even have multiple backups -- my Droid phone serves the purpose, as does my big honking Zune (I AM ***NOT*** AN APPLE PERSON. NO IPOD, NO IPAD, STEVE JOBS CAN STICK IT.).

But I miss my Zen.

Now I'm bidding to replace it on eBay. These things have held their value!

Online college degrees -- expensive racket!

When I was 18, I was an orphan and on my own in the world. I didn't have enough cash to pay for college, and nobody to help me understand that I could have probably won grants, scholarships, etc -- broke, no mom and dad, and a high school top honors student with scorching hot SAT scores and a high GPA. But nobody told me, and I was too green/dumb/naive to figure it out on my own.

So I went to work.

Then I fell in love, started working with my soon-to-be-husband, who 25 years later is still far better geared to be a lone wolf entrepreneur than a robot employee.

And college... well, I sort of skipped that part.

I got busy! I got busy with life -- with running a business that did well and supported us beyond what we imagined, I got busy having two beautiful daughters and being their mom. Then I got busy rolling with the economy, going through a bunch of life changes, still being mom, still married.

I dabbled, twice, with working toward a degree. I'd add a few classes, bootstrap my way through the costs... never a student loan... and then couldn't afford it and stopped.

NOW, I'm serious about wanting to finish the damn bachelor's and move right into a master's. Because I know myself, and I think I'd be a really great instructor at some point. Plus in my field, a degree is pretty much expected -- it's the baseline you need to get in the door.

So, I signed up for a local university that only recently started an online program. I figured, I love start-ups, this should fit me. I thought, this should be challenging but good.

Now I'm six classes into it, and I am frustrated. My grades have been all A's with a couple of A-'s. The work is not hard. And I've realized that it all hangs on the instructor: if the instructor sucks, the class will be borderline unbearable. I thought that could only apply in a classroom setting, but not so!

My last class was taught by a guy who GETS IT for online education -- he rocked. He challenged. He joked. He prodded. He was thought-provoking and encouraging. I loved that class.

The class before it blew chunks. The current class, ditto. The content is LAME. By the end of the first day of class, I had completed every quiz for the entire course (100%). I'm currently running 3 weeks ahead of schedule on the work; I just won't turn it in until then. One of the two Big Assignments for the class had me read a 55-word "case study" and write 750 words. (I can write 750 words in my sleep, duh.)

The only thing that keeps going through my head is, "THIS is costing me $89&?!?!?!?!"

Because that's the per-class tuition -- $897. There are 13 students in my class (at least, per the Introductions that were posted as the first Discussion assignment) -- that's $11,661. For 8 weeks "work" how much does the instructor get -- maybe $750 per week? (I am totally guessing) that would be $6000 for 8 weeks. So, does he put in 10 hours of work per week @ $75 per hour? Or is he supposed to put in 20 hours per week @$37.50 per hour? Or, does he get paid more? Does he get a percentage of the class enrollment -- 30%? 40%? an even split?

So far, I've seen the instructor post two Announcements (about 1 - 2 paragraphs each) plus very short (1 - 3 brief sentences) comments to a select number of students. No grades posted yet -- though our deadline for the first wave was now two business days ago.

So... I keep coming back to... what the hell am *I* getting for $897? Simple -- I am getting the promise that I can hang a shiny degree attribution on my resume. That's it. The questions for the class have been lame -- the assignment for the next two weeks is to write a 200-word discussion posting on: "describe your company's drug testing policy."

$897. It is a racket.

(But hell, I should talk? I work for a MONEY LENDER. Hah!)

Honesty and Bravery

There's a woman on Facebook that I just utterly admire. Her name is Annie Hamilton and she has over 4200 friends on Facebook. She is brave. She speaks out about what she believes in, and her passion jumps from the page.

I am not that brave.

I wish I was.

I am afraid to be honest about controversial things that I think. I work in marketing and public relations, and my political filters always kick on.I wish it wasn't so, but it is. I admire people who have the courage to be honest.