1 + 1 = 3

As of next week I will be finished with my second grad school course - Management Information Systems or MIS. I like to refer to it as Meaningless Informational Shite. MIS is my first 8 week course. The majority of my courses will be 6 weeks long but a few will be 8 weeks. This course was especially boring, not unlike reading stereo instructions. I practically killed myself the first couple of weeks to get ahead in the syllabus as I knew I would be changing jobs and was unsure of how I was going to be able to manage my time. My professor is a rat bastard - the most dis-engaged professor of all time. In the beginning he made a very snarky comment that if we only did what was on the syllabus we would get a "B". In order to get an "A" in a "master's level" course, we had to go above and beyond. WTF?! So, I bust my ass. Only to find that he could really care less. I am thrilled to be carrying 699 out of 700 points possible at the moment, but I'm starting to wonder if he's even reading my work. THEN! last week he decides that we don't need to complete our online threaded discussions for the last two modules! So for those of us that have actually done the work, we get full credit - AND those who have done half-assed work also get full credit!!! I'm so ticked off.

My next course is Accounting. I'm SO not excited. My brother, R, is the finance guy. He got all the grey cells in that department - not me! I don't even balance my checkbook - although I guess that's a bit irrelevant these days as I bank online and rarely write checks. I didn't do well in my undergrad accounting class and I'm quite nervous about this one.

I think my issue with math in general started in 7th grade. We lived in Japan again at that time and the school on base was grades 7 - 12. I know, weird. Well, I wanted to be with my best friend and all the cool upper class men in "B" lunch period, so I got talked into taking Advanced Algebra. It was a packed class with a professor who could have cared less. I never got the concept that semester and while I had a great time in "B" lunch, I never could tell you what "X" equalled. Math was all downhill from there. Seriously, Geometry? You're going to tell me the lines on my paper never end? Yeah right! I went to Undergrad to study Fashion Merchandising (yes, clearly a degree I'm currently using - very smart decision) and was initially quite happy as I only had one math course...little did I know that I would be stuck for the next 4 years struggling through 5 chemistry classes.

I always think of Forrest Gump, "I may not be a smart man..." I'm not book smart. I can study my ass off and make "C's". My professors in undergrad would get so angry with me as they knew I could do the work, I just couldn't take a test to save my life. So hopefully Accounting will be more than just debits and credits and income statements...but I doubt it. Regardless, I'm determined to pull a 4.0 through grad school. My new company pays 100% (well, up to a capped amount) if you get an "A", then 75% for a "B" and so on. I can do that kind of math.