The Sparks Lady

I'm starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. I am now only 2 weeks from completion, at least for this level of school. While there is a part of me that is itching to get back to work, a part of me is going to miss the bubble. The one that seperates school from the rest of your life. There have been some funny, good times, and while there was an inherent trust in this group of people from day 1, we've reached the point that is more than just comraderie from circumstance.  I looked around the class one day this week at the 60 or so of us. Out of the group, I've had conversations or interactions with at least half of them. While there are social 'groups' within our numbers, there wasn't ever the sense of division. Maybe some people feel that way, but that's not the way I've experienced it.  Part of me wonders if those that I've talked to have ever had the experience of working with a woman on the jobsite before. I wonder if their contact with...

Another week bites the dust. I know at one point, I said electronics was going to be my downfall. I'm feeling like that's not the case anymore. I did a couple of the online quizzes and got 90% with little to no references to my notes. Granted I still feel that electronics is Greek compared to the other classes, it's starting to come together for me. This week we had the Monday off for Family day. Only a little reading needed to be done to make up for the lost classes. It certainly made the week move faster. Tuesday's Monitoring & Communications class had use wiring up Nurse call stations. As my Mum is a nurse, this was an interesting topic for me. I know she was certainly excited that I get to learn about components she used when she worked in the hospital setting. There were bedside push buttons for the patients, emergency pull stations, patient room controllers, nurse lounge room controllers, indicating lights and telephones at each station. I had a study ...

It's amazing to me how little the average person knows about how the trades system works. And how could they know? In my experience, our educational culture pushes university and college as post-secondary school options. The stigma I've witnessed surrounding the trades is that you only do it because you are not smart enough for college or university. This misconception frustrates me. I've had people say to me, "you're so smart, why did you get into the trades instead of going to university?" You have to be smart to understand the theory, be it university, college or trades school. Typically, when you attend trades school you have 8-10 weeks at a time to consume a lot of information. You have to stay on top of the assignments, and tests. There is no slacking your way through.  You either know it or you don't. I believe our society needs to get more on board with the trades being a viable career path. Just because I'm working towards being an ele...

I'm over the hump! I've got more school behind me than in front, and I'm feeling pretty good about that. Also, and more to the point, I feel like I am actually retaining the information I am receiving. There are times in class when I've done a calculation, look at my answer, and forget what process I used to get there. Simply because it's becoming second nature and I don't have to overthink it anymore. This is good. Curious to see how long that lasts when I'm out of school, but for now good. Or at least until I pass the rest of my tests. In the last 6 weeks, I have received 2 E.I. payments. One 3 weeks in and 1 this past week. I was warned that my first payment would be less as the paid out vacation pay at the end of 2015 affected what I received. Thankfully the second payment I received was about double the first one. It could be worse: s ome people who had already been on E.I. from not working prior to school are going to run out of funds before school e...

Now we're getting into the good stuff. And the tests just keep on coming. I had one in Electronics yesterday, a midterm actually. (This week has a couple of those). I studied on the weekend until my brain melted. Quite literally. I had to change the toilet paper in the bathroom, and instead of putting the holder through the new toilet roll, I tried putting the now spent roll through. No wonder it didn't fit! I managed an 81% on that test. Not bad you might think, but as I told my teacher, I've never had to fight so hard for an 80. I had to laugh at myself on Tuesday as well. My first class starts at 11. I had such a hard time getting up for it. What am I going to do when I have to be at work for 6 or 7am?  We had a midterm test in Monitoring & Communications. Another in Instrumentation and a Friday Quiz in Theory. Yay! At least my grades are still rolling in the 80's and 90's (and even a couple 100's).  I'm officially halfway through school now, 5 week...