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Some uses and features for Excel
Below, you will find some helpful links to aid you in Excel’s uses and features.
To create a pictograph: http://spreadsheets.about.com/od/excelcharts/ss/pictograph.htm
To create a timeline: http://spreadsheets.about.com/od/exceltools/ss/timeline.htm
The “sort” feature: http://video.about.com/spreadsheets/Sorting.htm
Excel is a registered trademark of the Microsoft Corporation.
Computer Class
Last week in class, many students asked, “what are some uses for Microsoft Excel?”
Here is an interesting article about the uses of Excel.
http://www.mrexcel.com/pressquest.shtml
Computer classes start again at HHBC
Ron is teaching Excel class at HHBC. Look for updates soon.
Downsizing Christmas
Never have I downsized Christmas like I did this year. I simply have not had time to react irrationally by putting up decorations the day after Thanksgiving, shop Walmart at 1am, or rearrange my furniture for a tree. This year, I decided it was nothing to get excited about. It would come and it would go. The less I stressed over it, the better I would be when it was over.
As a result, I have bought myself more presents than I bought any one person; yet, I thoroughly enjoyed shopping for other people. It was fun to find my brother and sister-in-law the perfect gift. (And yes, I got them the perfect gift.) Finding just the right items for my daughter was more fun. And the kids? Well, what can I say? My family will be pleased…
There is talk in my family about not giving gifts to adults next year. I’ve thought about that and decided I will protest. If we are burdened by giving one another gifts, then we are not approaching gift giving in the way that we should. We don’t have to buy gifts, just give them-there’s a difference. I discovered it when I downsized Christmas this year.
Against my oldest son’s wishes, I did not buy a live tree this year. Instead, I used last year’s tiny artificial one and adorned it with ALL the ornaments. I did not add more lights. The “pre-lighted” white ones looked fine to me. With 30 year’s worth of ornaments, who needs more lights?
Digging in the closet lead me to 5 boxes of Christmas stuff…snowmen, Santas, sleighs, bells, mittens, more bells, more Santas, stockings, lights, tinsel, garland, more snowmen…you get the point. You probably have it all, too. I saw an idea online to glue it all to an empty wreath. All the things you can’t throw away, but no longer want to give space to. I did. I emptied a box or two and glued all the little Christmas stuff to an empty wreath. The wreath came alive and is hanging over my couch. When Christmas is over, I won’t pack up two boxes. I’ll just pack up the wreath. Christmas. Downsized.
As a further result of downsizing Christmas, I have made Christmas candy. Mind you, it wasn’t pretty, but I think I would like to take it up as sort of a temporary hobby, and get more practice in the next couple of weeks. It had a calming effect. Like I was creating, building, painting. Art.
Today, I enjoyed Christmas worship services without the added stress of Christmas. Oddly enough, I was able to concentrate on Christmas. The real version.
Not the downsized one.
The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel, which means, “God with us”. Matthew 1: 23 NIV
A Clean Slate (Continued)
I lost my jumpdrive; the small memory plugin I carried with me whenever I did business and sometimes, when I didn’t . This one was fairly new, but contained two years worth of business information, school papers, research pdfs, CreateFaith curriculum and evaluations, Excel spreadsheets, and much, much, more. Most that come to mind each day, as I realize, “Wow, I need that. I wish it were here.”
What is most interesting, however, is the feeling I had when I realized I lost it. I was almost asleep that Saturday night, when I shot up in bed and exclaim, “Oh no. I left my jumpdrive in the library computer at school today.” That was at 1pm. This was 1am. I knew it was gone, but I held out hope. Hope that I would return to the library on Sunday and it would still be there. Plugged into the same computer, ready for me to snatch it out and head home with it. Just as if nothing ever happened.
Not so. Days of searching the library’s lost and found have encountered ipods, credit cards, and a drawer full of jumpdrives, literally hundreds. Just none of them mine.
My thoughts Sunday were odd for someone who had just lost two years worth of valuable information stored neatly into folders and files so easily accessible. A burden was lifted off my shoulders. A liberated feeling permeated my soul. I felt as if I had let go of a handful of balloons and they had drifted off to heaven never to be seen again. It wasn’t frightening, it was freeing. Like I had cleaned out a closet, or a junk drawer, or my purse.
I was given the opportunity for a clean slate. So I thought.
Turns out, I have lost that feeling of liberation that I was encountered when I realized I had lost my jumpdrive. With each day that goes by, I think of something I wish I had access to; something I need.
Hours, days, months, and years can be like that also. How many days have we wasted, lost, or thrown away that could have been spend doing something kind for someone. Loving others is not something to be left in a box. It can be used everyday and should be.
Maybe I only imagined my clean slate. Maybe the loss of my jumpdrive is not as liberating as I once thought. Just like loving others, it is something I can and will use everyday. I now feel lost without it. I don’t know where to save my stuff. I have decided a need a new one.
I have also decided its time to love others. To really love those whom God has given me to love takes time, effort, patience, and practice. I don’t think I’ll ever store my treasures on my jumpdrive again. Instead, I will store my treasures in heaven, as I place my importance on people and loving them the way God intends.
Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Matthew 6: 20-21 NKJ
A Clean Slate
Welcome all to the official blogsite of CreateFaith. The site will house the ramblings and official observations of life in our world. Research is a fascinating thing, but can be quite boring when documented in ho-hum reports, gray and white graphs, and “official” publications. Here is the haven that will house all of the measurable and observable data in a more creative format. This spot will preserve the life before it is transformed into the formal documents that bring funding and resources-all necessary items in our world.
Our Microsoft Word class looks like this…
The students
Everyone loves class, arrives on time, and assists with setup and breakdown.
Everyone hates pre and post testing and quitting time.
Until later…
Apply your heart to instruction and your ears to words of knowledge. Proverbs 23: 12
