Information Technology - Blog Posts

Looking Forward to Grace Hopper 2015

Unsure of whether to call it the Grace Hopper Conference or Celebration I’m going to postulate that it is both. Grace Hopper Celebration of  Women in Computing (GHC) is a collection of conferences where computer scientists can learn about the latest technology, participate in tech workshops, network and build soft skills. The Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology and the Association for Computing Machinery initiated GHC named after the computer scientist Grace Hopper. Hopper coined the term debugging, after picking bugs out of her computer and invented the first compiler, allowing programming languages to be more human-like.

Aspiring or seasoned computer scientist GHC sounds like the place to be, described by my peers in NCWIT (National Center for Women and Information Technology). In high school I became one of NCWIT’s MN State Affiliate Aspiration in Computing Award winners and since then have heard of networking stories, tales of learning experience and good times from GHC goers.

As a current Co-Op at NASA’s Johnson Space Center I have been sent on a mission to learn as much as I can and share with my department how these acquired skills will help them. As an NCWITer I will be able to connect with other like-minded women and attend their networking events. I have been browsing through the conference schedule and crafted a comprehensive itinerary filled with keynote presentations, professional development, and hands on tech projects.

Sessions on my itinerary I am most excited for include “Communicating for Impact and Influence”, “Design and Development Considerations in Serious Games”, “Bank of America Technical Women Luncheon”, “Speed Mentoring Breakfast with Microsoft”, and “Data Science: NASA”.

WAYS TO GET INVOLVED

I will be live tweeting and live blogging the event

Check out this year’s sessions and think about joining in next year

Watch keynotes from past events

MILITARY POLICE RESOURCES INFORMATION LIFE EXTENSION DEFENSES TECHNOLOGY ADVERTISING

RESOURCE GRUBBING ALIEN OR EXTRATERRESTRIAL MILITARIES OFTEN FROM OUTSIDE THIS CLUSTER OF GALAXIES MANIPULATING CRIMINALS HOPING TO TRACE THINGS

LLAMA LLM MICROSOFT BING COPILOT GOOGLE GEMINI GOOGLE SEARCH MICROSOFT BING COPILOT YAHOO SEARCH YANDEX SEARCH BAIDU SEARCH DONALD FAGGOT TRUMP

ATTEMPTS TO ATTACK IN VARIOUS WAYS ALONG THE LINES OF ARRANGING INVOLUNTARY PSYCHIATRIC COMMITMENT? FUCK. YOU.

MICROSOFT STORE

5.24- Saturday

Took a small break from school for the past three days and jumped back in this morning with some readings on argument credibility and fallacies. I’m really enjoying this critical thinking class. It’s a very nice break from discrete math.

Listening to: krisgaldr by heilung

Reading: financial feminist by Tori Dunlap

5.13.25 - rant and exam update

i'm currently going insane. i failed my discrete math assessment by this much 👌🏻 last week and i'm knee deep in prep to retake it this week. the problem is i need my apartment to be completely free of any humans besides me and my boyfriend is coming over thursday night because we're flying out super early friday morning to go to a wedding.

basically, i have today to get all of my retake requirements done so i can attempt to take the exam tomorrow or kick the boyfriend out thursday night for a couple hours so i can get a proctor slot. my course end date is saturday and i've extended this end date three times since the start of the semester and i just want to be done with this classsssss. self-studying a subject you are not naturally good at is another type of hell.

on a good note, went to the gym consistently this weekend and went on a very nice walk by the river (pictured above).

will update on monday if i'm still alive or not on a pysch hold from stress :)

4.21.25

Today went a little bit better than it has been lately. I managed to lock in over the weekend and finish quite a bit of problem sets for discrete math. Final exam this week 🤌

Somehow April has managed to go so slowly and fast at the same time. Time to lock in for finals.

4.12.2025

We are slumped :)) a little Saturday morning discrete math session

🎵: missionary feelings

~January 2025 Goals~

Finish project for network analytics and troubleshooting class

Read 3 books (2/3 complete)

Restart on applied algebra class

~Thursday, September 12th, 2024~

It’s very hoa-hoa today and I’m enjoying it. I’m hoping it’ll motivate me to do some studying tonight. I only have 15 more days left to finish my statistics class and I’m struggling hardcore. Math is not a strong subject for me at all. Send me some good vibes

📖: Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson

To Do

Finish reviewing module 2

Review 1/3 of module 3

Watch module 7 lecture videos and review slides

~Saturday, September 7th~

The college student starter pack - tynelol, adhd meds, and coffee at 4 pm. We’re back on a windows computer because my Mac’s screen decided to brick itself :)

Finally passed my web development exam! Onto statistics.

a bit of a rant but why in the hell are technical information technology (not management) degrees in the business college at most four year unis in the US? as someone who is in the field and is getting a B.S in an IT related field, business classes & accounting are absolutely useless for troubleshooting infrastructure issues. the actual IT classes are so out of date that the technologies you learned about in school are end of life and obsolete once you're actually working. let's actually have relevant degrees for IT professionals that prepare them to support an ever expanding digital world. side note: i absolutely love my uni for having relevant degrees. it's helping so much with my career <3

~Sunday, August 4th 2024~

This weekend was exhausting. Manifesting a good start to the week. Otherwise, I did a bit of CSS yesterday and I only have two more chapters left on the course material.

Wed, July 31st, 2024

It's been a bit but a lot has happened recently. I passed the Network+ certification about two weeks ago. Since then, I've picked up my web development class again aiming to finish before I start a new job in a couple of weeks. I rediscovered? a cute coffee shop near my house to study at and I spent about two hours there today. The coffee was a 7/10. I nearly finished the 5th chapter of my online textbook. I'm ready to be done with this class.

it's exam day for Network+! I have been studying 2+ hours daily for this stupid cert for weeks on end.

Affirmations for the day

I will pass this test because I am knowledgeable of all areas of the content.

I have the problem solving skills necessary to figure out the answers to the questions.

I prepared adequately for this and I will pass.

~Friday June 28th 2024~

Studying at home tonight and finally!! Finished Network+ study videos. Tomorrow is PBQ and labs day and hopefully Sunday is test day. I haven’t posted many pictures using my PC setup so I figured I’d do that since it looks halfway decent today.

Productive for: 3 hrs

Night studies are just the coziest 💤🌙

Almost done with the video part of studying for Network+. After this, it’s onto the vendor material.

*Somewhat* productive day

Spanning tree protocol and IEEE standards all day long :) I passed my last class (not web dev, that one is in break jail). Working on the Network+ certification now

~ 100 days of productivity challenge 2/100~

Skipped yesterday because I didn't feel like a human and didn't do much today because I had work and workout class afterwards.

Done

30 minutes of Network+ exam videos

Did the dishes

Went to taekwondo class

Workwise: three meetings and a metric ton of emails

To Do

Sweep the floors

Do the dishes again

Review study guide for Network+

~1/100 days of productivity~

attempting the 100 days of productivity challenge to hold myself accountable for school :)

accomplished

meal prepped for lunches this week

studied network+ certification material for 2.5 hours

did dishes and reorganized bakeware cabinet

started laundry

to do tomorrow

finish 2 more exam objective videos

fix squeaky bed 💀

read three chapters of latest read

clean altar

Semester/End of Term Update

Hi internet people! Tomorrow is my final exam for my last class of the term so I figured I'd do a bit of a recap.

Classes Taken: 5

Credit hours: 19

Certifications gained: 3/10

I started my first term with WGU in October of 2023 and in that time completed 19 credit hours and five classes; two of which were certifications. WGU is a self paced online university which lets me go through classes much faster than I would at a brick & mortar. Being able to do one class at a time has been such a huge lifesaver with my ADHD. I can only focus on one thing at a time. It did kind of kick me in the ass with Linux though, because I couldn't make myself concentrate on it for my life.

I'm tentatively scheduled for 26 credits next term and I'm not 100% sure if I will end up meeting that goal. I hope so though! My next certifications are Network+ and Security+ which should help me get a government sector job and up my pay a little bit.

On another note: I finally finished the Crescent City series from Sarah J Maas last night and woweee is it a rollercoaster. Next reads are the Atlas Complex and a nonfiction duology on Germanic paganism and folk magic.

~ Intro Post ~

Hi! I’m V (pronouns: she/they). I’m a network engineering and security major, expecting to graduate with my bachelor's in 2026. I also work full time as an IT consultant for my day job. I currently go to school online. I would love to connect with more friends in the IT/cybersecurity/comp sci space.

DNI -minors