Why are we always multiplying numbers by one to solve an equation?  For example, I'm currently working with exponents and integers.  That extra step gives us the same damn thing.  Just leave it alone, it isn't hurting anybody.  Simplicity, Math Gods, simplicity.

     I go to a different place when I do math.  I can feel it.  I'm quite sure it's associated with a specific place in my brain - within the left hemisphere to be exact.  I'm starting to recognize it and - hold the presses! - feel more comfortable there.      It's so interesting to compare the energy of that math place to the energy of my shaman place - a very intuitive, right brain arena where I have felt comfortable for a long, long time.  This shamanic place has always been a natural one for me - the constant default.  But I have also done quite a bit of study there.  I'm not just kicking back in the eithers with an umbrella drink.  I have literally been constantly working, studying and practicing these skills for the past 25 years.  Remember, the definition of a shaman is someone who can navigate those realms at will .  That takes training.  I am comfortable there because I am educated there.  ...

Multiplication When we multiply, we add a number to itself a certain number of times.   We write multiplication with a times sign,  x. × 4 2  means to add  4  copies of  2 . = × 4 2 = + 2 + 2 + 2 2 8      Holy Moly!  How is it that I didn't know this?  Well, yea, it makes sense  now .  I just never thought of it like that.  These enlighten moments are making me paranoid.  Just how many, many simple truths have I been dancing around my entire life?  It's a wonder I can function at all.

     Honestly Susan, do I really need to spell this out for you?  Apparently so.  I'll chalk up the oversight to lack of sleep...  Nerves perhaps, due to the big interview today.  But still.  Susan!      I just interviewed Dr. Robert Kustra, president of Boise State University for a project in my Leadership 325 class.  The assignment is to interview a leader that is doing something similar to what we want to do after graduation.  Now, I can state with a clear conscious that I have never once wanted to run a University.  The thought has simply never occurred to me.  But I want to lead on a large scale, and I'd say he fits the bill.  But with that said, I don't think I would have thought of President Kustra except for one thing,  Readers Corner .        I stumbled upon  Readers Corner three or four months ago.  It is a radio program where Dr. Kustra intervie...

I was eating lunch in the SUB today and looking out the window at this beautiful campus when all of a sudden this feeling came soaking into me.  In words, the saturation went something like this, "you belong here".  It is just occurring to me now that I am no longer the interloper, the pretender, the fake. 

     I can't help it, but I make this grimace - minus the cool facial tattoos - when I get a correct answer in math.  Maybe it's because I feel like I've done battle, and won!  All my math is done on a computer program called ALEKS so after I input my answer to a question, I hit enter and wait.  Then it will either say, "Very good!  Practice again.  If you answer correctly without help one more time, I will add this problem to your pie" (the graphic that shows what I have completed and still need to complete).  Corny, but it's what I long to see.  Or, if I get it wrong I get the dreaded, " Your answer is incorrect.  Try to answer again " - in red font no less.      While waiting for ALEKS to compute, which can take even longer if the internet is running slow, I've noticed I sort of wrinkle my nose, and tense up, and sometimes I even forget to breath.  I don't mean to do this, it just sort of happens. ...

My actual, current math problem: Today, 5 friends went out for lunch.  Their total bill was $24.55, including tax and gratuity.  They decided to split the bill equally and each paid with a $10 bill.  How much money will each person get back? It's so distracting.  Honestly, who can do this kind of math?  I'm hung up on trying to figure out where in the world five people can eat on $24.55.  That bit of lunacy needs to be cleared up right now before I can go any further.  

Yes, even scarier than math!        One of the most amazing things about my major is that I get to create my own curriculum.  Honestly, I feel like a kid in a candy store.  How long has it been since I've wanted to learn something - anything!  I haven't done so before because...(read my entire blog to know the answer to that story).  I figure I'll be here at Boise State for the next 15 years just taking all the classes I want to take.  What freedom to not be stuck in one major of predetermined classes.  I wonder if my sugar daddy, Uncle Sam, will mind funding 15 more years of undergraduate work.      Given that I already, clearly know the answer to that last question, I must choose wisely and well.  Oh the pressure!  And given the fact that I am insanely considering a double minor of leadership and business Spanish (quick - this girl needs a reality check assessment - NOW), I may not have the room to choos...

I love fall.  Mostly because I get to break out the scarves and tea.  I'm not a big hot tea fan in the summer.  Pleasant little discovery this morning, tea is also useful in sweetening the math homework just a bit.  

So, if you go back 30 years, my grade point average (GPA) is 4.0 - and very proud of it!  BUT, if you go back 35 years (which includes the last time I went to college), my GPA - and alas, my official GPA - is 2.769.  That is fucked up.

This is what I just posted on the Discussion Board for my Multidisciplinary  Studies 300 class  due  today by 11:59 PM.  Just in case you are wondering,  it's 10:51 PM.  And wouldn't  you  know it,  I'm writing about time management. Your College Experience, Strategies for Success Chapter 2 - Susan Fullmer COLLAPSE In my Foundations of Leadership 325 class we are talking about what we value and how that dictates what we do in life both personally and professionally.  So, I found it interesting when I read in chapter two, "How you manage time reflects what you value - what is most important to you and what consequences you are willing to accept when you make certain choices."  I had not thought of values in regards to time management, but it makes perfect sense.  I don't think anyone would argue the point that success in school depends, in large part, on time management.  You simply can't acc...

     I almost crashed into a pole today.  Honestly, how long has it been since I rode a bike?  Not a motorcycle which I rode two days ago.  I'm talking about a bicycle which I last rode....well it's been years.  I recently discovered Boise Greenbike.  You pay an annual fee - $46 for students - and you get to ride their bikes free for one hour a day.  Or you can ride more for a minimal hourly rate.  There are bike hubs all over town.  This is so perfect for me!  I've been wanting to start exercising again, besides the occasional yoga that I do.  Something on the cardio side, but with my job as a floor nurse, (which means I'm on my feet all night), my chronic feet pain has been worse.  Walking across campus is about all I can handle right now.        I used to ride a bicycle, but at this point in my life I don't want to buy one or maintain it.  Plus I don't want to ride or haul it to camp...

     We are talking about authenticity in my Foundations of Leadership 325 class this week.  Honestly, I am still surprised that this good, deeply meaningful, important-to-life stuff is being addressed.  But I'm going to stop harping on this surprise and move on.  I thought it was a fluke at first, but that just seems to be how this class roles.  It is finally dawning on me that my prior idea of leadership was more about management (and bad management).      It never ceases to amaze me, when I follow my intuition things always seem to turn out right.  For example, minoring in leadership.  Cognitively that didn't make much sense, because I have no interest in being a bad manager.  I'm not saying that I thought BSU is teaching students to manage poorly.  I'm saying that I thought the approach and desired outcome would be more "robotic", "how to get the troups to conform", and don't forget about the all important, "how...

     Because I literally enrolled the week before spring semester last January, I missed new student orientation.  Instead, I've had to hunt and peck, scratch and bleed, for every scrap of information I have needed to be a successful student.  (OK, a bit dramatic, but it's my blog - I can go there)  But honestly, I feel there is so much in orientation that would have been and still could be very helpful to me.  I figure my knowledge is Swiss cheesy.  Meaning, there are holes.      They don't have orientation for summer semester so my goal was to catch it fall of 2015.  Well, no such luck.  They gave me a big fat NO when I tried to get information on signing up for it.  They sited something about there being a cost that was included in freshman fees.  I call foul!  Don't I pay the same thousands of dollars that everyone else pays?  Why should I be penalized just because I'm not a freshman? ...

     Arrggg, where did they all come from?  Just like swarming ants.  I can't even get across an intersection - on foot - trying to get across foot traffic.  It must be fall semester.  I do love the kinetic energy I can feel in the air.  So exciting and new.  It's fun and endearing watching the dew eyed newbies with that look on their face, a cross somewhere between, "Where am I going?", and "Shit, what have I done?".  And for once and finally, it doesn't describe me.  But when I can't get to where I want to go on campus in a timely fashion, I start missing the quiet and serenity of summer semester.

For my Leadership 325 class we get 2 extra points for reposting our blog assignment (where the class can see) to an outside source (where the world can see).  Existing blogs count - so here it is, for all the world to see and savor! What Leaders Really Do Good question, what do leaders really do?  From my vantage point of having many, many leaders/supervisor/bosses over the years, it seems to me that they do a whole lot of organizing, staffing, planning, budgeting and dealing with all the inevitable problems that come along.  According to the article, "What Leaders Really Do" by John P. Kotter, that definition would fit a manager .  But not a leader .  I had no idea there was a difference. As it turns out, there is quite a difference.  One is not more important than the other and a person could have both skill sets but not necessarily, and not usually. I have to say that this article has given me great hope.  I am drawn to the leadershi...