iP3K » School

MS Office 2007

PhoenixP3K — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 11:28:53 +0000

Itâ€™s the first time I take some time to talk about this product but Iâ€™ve had access to it since last summer. I got the beta of Microsoft Office 2007 around the same time I got my Vista Beta 2. I had installed in on that system but wasnâ€™t using it as a mainstream application. When I got an email from Microsoft saying that my beta key would expire at the end of March I said to myself I had to give it more credit and put OpenOffice aside for a few weeks. So I did it, Iâ€™ve been using Word, Outlook, Excel and PowerPoint 2007 for a few weeks and found it quite pleasent. People feared the new Ribbon interface was going away from the classic toolbar view. At first, it was very confusing but I quickly learned to appreciate the new ease of use it provided me. Iâ€™m running the Beta 2 Technical Refresh and itâ€™s actually 95% functional, the only problem Iâ€™m still running into is that I canâ€™t correct the misspelled instances, it does point them out with red or green underlining but when I select the correction from the contextual menu it does not change it to my selection. So for now I have to manually correct my mistakes. This has clearly been fixed in the final version.

Microsoft is setting the score straight just like itâ€™s doing with Vista by bringing us new features and look by keeping what made their products work in the first place. You get a good balance between the ease of use and the in-depth options you can access with their applications. Iâ€™m a student, a free version is always welcome and they provide a lower cost edition for these type of situations.

Overloading!

PhoenixP3K — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 02:02:30 +0000

Every semester I reach the point where I know I’ve been slacking and I got a pile of work. I usually realize it during the last weeks of school and have to rush for my papers and tests. This year I realized it only two weeks after starting school! Is it good, is it bad; not sure because this means I’m already late in my work. On the other hand now that I know it so early in the semester I can speed up and focus on my homework. Now there is my blog taking about 10 minutes of my life per day (lets say one hour per week). Then there is school with 12 hours of classes (you need to add 2 study hours for every in-class time) and on top of that I have to work 20 hours a week.

As much as I feel competent to do all this, succeed every where and still find time to have fun my obligations are not easy on me. I have to start thinking about working out, since my teenage hood seems over I must compensate. So yes I’m overloading this weekend but after a good night sleep I believe I can plan my week and catch up. Hopefully still be alive this Friday!

The Last Mile

PhoenixP3K — Sat, 22 Apr 2006 18:50:42 +0000

This semester has been a really bumpy ride. Overloaded by the amount of work is required to succeed. My greatest mistake is as always my over confidence in my abilities. As usual I study on last minute and get to sleep few hours before my final tests. I just don’t get how come I haven’t educated myself to prepare my stuff in advance… well I did work in advance, but somehow it wasn’t enough. I still got three final tests that bottleneck on Monday and Thursday. I’m stuck with transcripting my paper notes on the computer so I can study them. I kind of works both ways, be retyping them I recall most of what I typed. But I would of saved so many hours if I had a laptop. This way, most of my things would be typed up and I’d have more time on my hands to actually read all those books they have for us.
If I survive this semester I really have to get myself a laptop, even if it’s a cheap one. If it can boost my productivity I’m a go. Keep thinking positive for me, ’cause even if I can type 60 words a minute it still takes time to type 3 hours of a teacher saying every single details that crosses her mind.
Have a good summer everyone, if you find a job opening in the Montreal area I’d gladly apply.

Reading week

PhoenixP3K — Fri, 24 Feb 2006 18:58:47 +0000

Nope, I haven’t tripped and fell on my head. Starting Monday is my “Spring Break”! But somehow my teacher don’t seem to understand the focus of taking a week off because they all refer to it as a reading week. I good guess would be that in University you can never really have a break. Lots of work, all the time! I have papers to write videos to make, websites to design… never the less I intend to recharge my batteries and catch up with all the work I’m late in. Hope you like the new look of the blog as much as I do!

So much to do, and so little time

PhoenixP3K — Wed, 18 Jan 2006 08:16:27 +0000

This has been my motto for some time. You could consider it as complaining but I’ve been wishing for someone to make a business of selling time. You could see it as myself not being organized enough and leaving my work to do at the last minute. I’ll agree I usually let the work add up, but I’ve decided to make a change. This year, I’ve finally started University like I’m in Quebec the system is a bit different but it’s like if it’s my third year if I was in the states, or other provinces. Point is when I was in college (after high-school, before university, lasts 2 years) I had high grades without doing much but now I feel I have to be a lot more competitive if I wish to make it to master degree.

To close my case, I have around 200+ pages to read each week and a lot of studying for my classes, I hope it will be enough and I’ll be glad if I’m doing too much, high scores can only help one to achieve success. So bottom line, you should wish me luck, pray for me and understand me if my studies take all my time. You’re all a great bunch, I’ll leave you to it, it’s around 3AM (sleep disorder?) I’m going to bed, an other class starts at 8:30 AM!

Special thanks to SpellCheck.net that I’ve been using regularly to correct misspelled words on my blog.

A New Day Has Come

PhoenixP3K — Mon, 09 Jan 2006 02:16:19 +0000

Forget about Celine Dion and her albums, please I’m trying to be serious here! A friend of mine introduced me to the wonderful World of Warcraft. I can say I’ve spent over ten hours in that MMORPG (~ Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game). But the real important thing is that I’m starting University tomorrow morning, I don’t really know what to expect but I’ll be sure to keep you posted. I’m still on antibiotics from a bad cold I caught over the holidays.

From angry snowman to Brokeback Mountain

PhoenixP3K — Sat, 17 Dec 2005 00:16:50 +0000

My snowy day!
Let’s say I haven’t started my day on the right foot! We had our first snow storm, and it wasn’t pretty. Obviously I arrived 35 minutes late for my test even if I left home 20 minutes earlier. Trust me it was just sad to see that my first bus was stuck in snow and we had to take another one. Then, the second bus was stuck into traffic a few stops before school, nightmare… But good thing was that because of the snow they delay the test of 30 minutes so I ended up being 5 minutes late only. The reason that I’m angry is that they closed the school at noon, thus canceling my second test that was in the afternoon. I had to battle wind and snow to get to school while others can site home, warm and comfy. All of that because a few idiots started a rumor saying the school was closed, how can you believe that when it’s a final test! No they’ll be delayed up to the 23rd, which will make the Christmas vacations even smaller. But I guess that I’ll get over it real quick, even considering when 3 people called me during my test to tell me there’s no school today *how typical*, wasn’t ready for the second test anyway :irked:

Brokeback Mountain Movie Review
With the free afternoon I decided to go to the movies. Brokeback Mountain is a very special movie, it’s for mature audience; not because of some male and female body parts we see, but also because if you’re immature you’ll be shocked by it or you’ll snooze the hole 2 hours.
This story has love written all over it, but you also feel the pain and the sadness of being together and separated. You need to remain open-minded and be sure not to let yourself overwhelmed by the love affair of those two cowboys. So the story is really about an impossible love, and the regrets you can have afterwards. Some critics say it’s the film of the year, but as for many Oscar worthy movies the average person won’t be too impressed. But! The performance of Michelle Williams, the wife of one of the cowboys blew me out, after discovering her husbands secret she was in a trauma like state and was beautifully portrayed in that picture. I have to mention that all the actors made a stunning performance to bring their characters to life. Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger were perfect in every sense of the word, they are real cowboys, ruff rugged by the work and still managed to show their love towards each other (sometimes in a shocking way) in a very compassionate way that gave you shivers of realism. Bottom line, you might be sad at the end but will be content of the message that went through and how beautifully Ang Lee brought this picture to life.
I’ll give it 8/10, it was a great movie, and you shouldn’t miss it!

Last March

PhoenixP3K — Thu, 18 Aug 2005 14:25:45 +0000

Just a few days before school, still can’t change my school schedule, no spots available for that Biology class. Oh well “Just Too Bad”! On a nice tone, after 7 years living at the stone age of PC gaming I finally got myself a decent video/graphic card. To test my new found powers I bought Half-Life 2 and Unreal Tournament 2004, just enought to survive the school year

That time of the year

PhoenixP3K — Tue, 16 Aug 2005 21:29:03 +0000

Nope it’s not Christmas yet, it’s Back to School. Got my schedule yesterday and it just does add up to my work schedule I might have to quit but I’ll try to make adjustements on both sides. Funny thing happened today big system problem so the computers were down for some time, and the clients were pissed as always. I survived, for my first week of part-time I’m surprised to be asked so many times for overtime, considering they still owe me five hours… Anyways for the new school year we might see an update of the blog design a new features added to make it more appealing and interesting. (Trust me, I’m starting back the daily issue as of today!)

Algebra = success!

PhoenixP3K — Thu, 09 Jun 2005 14:58:45 +0000

You know that algebra class… The one with vectors, matrix and simplex theory… we’ll it’s over! I passed the class! I’d like to thank the Lord, everyone who helped me out through this and gave me special encouraging, Jibi, Mom and the others. Thank you, super thanks to my teacher that was kind enough to grant me the passing grade. I only hope all that I learned with so much trouble will help me someday. From Calculus 1 & 2 had problems… I am relived that all those classes are over. If you have classes that are hard, keep on tight, you’ll live through it and be satisfied of your job. Even if it’s not perfect sometimes you have to do stuff hard to do… you can’t always have it easy and run off from those problems. I had the choice to do my math class or not, I didn’t really need it. They offered it to me as an option, I knew I had problems in math but accepted the challenge anyway! Math is a great class, embrace it and you’ll love it Not trying to be ironic no worries…

*UPDATE*
Found a website about the Ministerial French test, going to check it out. So should you? Yes, If you always have 0/20 for spelling. http://pages.infinit.net/berric/EUF/

Kill or be killed

PhoenixP3K — Sat, 04 Jun 2005 14:28:32 +0000

Just been submitted to the worse pain ever. Your life and future in the balance a single test. And it’s not the first time! This happened last semester and I didn’t succeed. Lets hope that this time fate will be on my side.

Something weird happened to me, I’m getting a lesson I should of learned years ago. I borrowed a book to classmate so she could copy what she missed when she was absent. I postponed the time I would lend her my book by accident but in the end I gave it to her on the last class of the semester (being past Thursday). Here is the painful part. I told her to put it in my locker as soon as she is done with it. I gave her to code of my locker so she could put it in safely. Of cours my locker was empty as it’s the end of the semester. She didn’t steel the lock. She couldn’t open it! Tell me what kind of person can’t open a locker with actually having the code. Well it might not be my most important class but it’s frustrating. She told me she brought it to the Lost & Found department. So I went with the gardian in the Lost and Found objects to try and find it. But the lazy guy reponsable of that department is a mess. The book was no where in clear sight and we couldn’t start lifting every single thing in that office. Let’s hope I can get my book back monday morning.

Crashing down

PhoenixP3K — Thu, 02 Jun 2005 20:36:01 +0000

Got home, took a shower and fell asleep by accident… never happened to you? It’s quite simple, it’s really hot out there (+28 Â°C) then you take a relaxing shower, you just lye for 10 seconds and you should loose 2 hours of important work. Nevermind let’s get back to it; all those end of semester paper and tests to prepare. One piece of advice our society is sick because we lack in our sleep hours, the advice being; during the summer stay in bed as long as possible!