The piping plover is one of the endangered species we learned about in this week's environmental science class. They are especially unique because they blend in with their surroundings and oftentimes are in danger from natural predators and everyday activities from humans (building on land where their habitat is, which causes a disruption in their pattern of living; or jogging in the sand, where the tiny birds are often not seen, because they blend in so well). So for the few 'inconveniences' we complain about in regards to the plovers, we should be concerned about what our activities are doing to cause their demise or near extinction.

As for this week's Access project, I really am getting the hang of the queries. And I knew I had seen it in action at my job; our systems analyst uses it to pull up the records of the people who have monthly charges for the programs at our facility for either themselves or their children (for adults, it would be Total Facility; for kids, it would be Kids' Club or Afterschool). Access is a really useful program for record keeping; it's similar to Excel in some ways, but I think it's a little easier to use than Excel in that all you have to do is plug in the criteria that you're searching for and the information appears in record form on the screen. In Excel, you'd have to go a little further, especially for such things like the Currency setup.

This week's math case study is proving to be a challenging one; I've never actually done a financial statement before. But it'll help me in my field later in life when I'm working in a corporate environment and won't have anyone to hold my hand and guide me. I'll have to be able to rise to the challenge and show that I can do the work. And Professor Luing encourages us to show her the work before we submit it in the assignment manager so that she can show us where our mistakes are and encourage us where we're doing good.

As for this week's Word project, I'm really fumbling. But I think it's because I'm trying to rush through it instead of taking my time to take the project in. I'll probably be more relaxed when I get to the Berkeley library this Friday and make my corrections there. It'll be nice to be in a quiet environment with little to no distraction while I work steadily on my assignments. I just can't wait to see what the outcome is for all my hard work this semester.