Happy Birthday, Jesus

I really think I am addicted to this computer (Her name is Charlotte). Sometimes I will wake up thinking of checking my email. I have learned to just do it or else I don't get back to sleep. My typical process: Open laptop if it isn't already. It never really shuts down. At home, the screen saver is on but the laptop doesn't shut down. Otherwise, I have it set to go on stand by when I close the lid. Okay, so boot laptop. Click Outlook icon (you do that first because it takes longer to load). Click Firefox icon (Home page: Yahoo). Click Firefox icon again (because I am impatient). BTW, both icons are on my main taskbar. Check Yahoo mail. Check Outlook mail (you don't want to know how many email addresses I have). Check out Yahoo groups. Check the new daily quote on my blog. Check StatCounter for who has visited my blog. Click on Kim's blog to see what she has written. Click on MySpace link from my blog. See if I have new messages, comments, friend requests, etc. Check to see if friends have posted new blog entries. Check UNCC webmail. Check Ameritrade portfolio. Check bank account. Check any eBay pending items. See if anyone interesting is on Yahoo IM. See if there is any other means of interacting with the world. Write a new blog entry.

Woot was selling a bag of crap as their deal of the day. Alas, all the crap is already sold out.

Merry Christmas!

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind. And love your neighbor as yourself. Amen!

Agape,
Pam

I hate Sprint

My phone keeps dropping calls. Argh.

Five Golden Rings

Well, it is 3 days until Christmas. I hope everyone has a great day. It is the time of year to remember to love God and love each other, to spend time with family and friends. I feel guilty that Ra and Scuro are going to be home alone for Christmas.

I just cleaned out Thanksgiving dinner from the refrigerator. Don't ask. In a few days, it would have walked out by itself. Now I have to figure out how to take out the garbage. I vaguely remember the mention of a garbage shoot, but to be safe, I will probably just take it down to the garage.

I had horrible nightmares again last night. I wish for once I would have a good dream instead of a nightmare. I guess my mind just focuses on the things that bother me when I am asleep. I remember it did that ever since I was a little kid. I would sleep on top of my mom and tell her to not let me fall asleep. I hated nightmares. I would wake up mad at her for letting me fall asleep. I was a weird kid.

I am signed in to work . . . the marvels of technology. I have a research article I need to work on this week. It isn't very easy to get stuff done in unfamiliar surroundings. As it is, I have a box on the floor under the desk because my feet would otherwise dangle.

I bought an international version of my textbook for financial management on-line. Hopefully it will not be that different than the US version. I need to revise my syllabus and lecture slides for the upcoming semester. It is good that I am teaching the same class so I don't have to put together all new materials.

I need to go shoe shopping soon. Now that we are in the new building at work, we have to come into the office more often and can't dress casual anymore. I don't have any proper work shoes. I only have open-toed shoes so I look I am going dancing instead of to work. I have lots of things to catch up on as I bring in the new year.

Headache

I took a nap because I had a headache, but I just woke up and still have a headache! I am kinda groggy now. I am sitting on Mark's couch, and he will be home in a few minutes. I talked to Mrs. Burroughs, Lisa, and Ryan today. Ryan really liked his Christmas gift. Kim and I chipped in to get him a membership to some on-line game called Runescape.

Reviewing 2006

March - Hung out with friends for St. Patty's Day

April - Cookout with friends

May - Chimney Rock Park with Gene

May - Melting Pot with the Girls

June - Camping at Lake James

July 4th - with Mom and Watson

July - Tom Jones in LA

July - My first poker game

August - Aquarium in Atlanta with Mark

August - STARS Conference in Atlanta (notice the geeky shirt)

October - Universal Studios

October - Halloween party at Kirk's

November - Catching up with friends at Olive Garden

November - Getting a massage in LA

2006 Resolutions

I happened to look back at my 2006 New Year's resolutions:

• Save $3,000 toward retirement - $2,100 so far. I have until March for this year's contributions.
  
• Get back down to 125 pounds - NOPE
  
• Get cholesterol under 200 - I don't know.
  
• Attend church at least once a month - Mostly good
  
• Attend at least one women’s retreat or Christian-based workshop - NOPE
  
• Donate at least 20 hours of service toward volunteer activities - DONE
  
• Compliment someone every day - Sometimes
  
• Apply for at least 2 scholarships - NOPE
  
• Take lessons for a new hobby - NOPE
  
• Get eyes examined - DONE
  
• Go camping in the mountains - DONE
  
• Take a weekend trip/fly out of town -DONE, too often!
  
• Have deck painted/stained - DONE
  
• Go to the gym at least 4 times a month - NOPE
  
• Paint the rest of the house - Some done

Okay, I didn't do that badly. I have to start thinking of what my resolutions will be this coming year.

Dear Santa

Here is my Amazon Wish List . . . I have been a good girl this year.

The Reindeer are Coming!!

I was just thinking yesterday how I never saw any deer in my back yard by the pond. I just saw 4 deer run by!!! That was so cool!!

Rambling

I miss my close friends. I miss Kenny and Ann. I miss my friends from high school. I miss the people who always have time for me that I don't always make the time for them. Joel owes me a hike to some waterfalls. Maybe I should take him up on that soon.

I went to the Melting Pot and to see The Pursuit of Happyness with my friend David from work last night. I thought it was a good movie. And I always love the Melting Pot. I was going to go to a chocolate dipping party with Matt and Amy, but Matt and I never seem to coordinate well. I have pound cake in the fridge now. Maybe I will just make some chocolate fondue at home. Need strawberries.

Unlike most people who fear change, I guess I am the opposite in some ways. I fear stagnation. I fear things remaining the same. I fear this being as good as it gets.

On My Own

Today was pretty stressful. I got tons of bills. I have to pay $300 for vaccinations and $600 (already paid $300) for the colinoscopy I got a few months ago. I recently wasted over $1000 on unused plane tickets. Christmas is always an expensive time of the year. The upside is that I am almost done with my Christmas shopping.

Mom sent me a bunch of pictures from when I was a kid. It was really neat. I didn't know she had so many pictures. A lot of them are duplicates. It is kinda weird because if you judged my life just based on pictures from the past, you would think I had an awesome Childhood where every other day was Christmas. I guess people don't take pictures of the sad times they don't want to remember.

Anyway, Jim came over and fixed my drains today. Hopefully my carpet will dry out and there will be no further signs of the leak. I can't afford to spend a lot to fix a major plumbing problem right now.

A Girl and Her Cats

Click on the Image to Enlarge

A Calico by My Side

I worked from home this morning because I thought I was getting sick; however, I think it turned out to just be allergies. So I went into work just in time to get a free lunch in the War Room. I worked late for me as we are working on launching a new program. I enjoy the people I work with and what I do. I enjoy it more when I am not split between work and school. I know my PhD is the priority, but I still enjoy solving business problems at work. I like that I know what I am doing most of the time. When you are working on your PhD, you are always learning something you don't know. You don't do anything you have perfected and can repeat. It is always about making a new contribution instead of just doing something you have learned well. I don't know if that really makes sense to you guys or not.

I like teaching. I like showing people at work how something is designed. I like going to class and interacting with my students. I think that is when I am least stressed out because I feel like I am ultimately helping someone . . . maybe not everyone, but some at least.

It is funny how we are all so worried about IT Business Value in our area, but sometimes I feel like we are missing the real impact . . . life impacts, helping people, making the world a better place instead of businesses more profitable. For instance, I think IS researchers should make it a priority to use their expertise to find solutions to child pornography or sexual predators on-line. We have the knowledge of the technology mechanisms that might be able to help solve the problems that other disciplines may not have.

Okay, that was me on my soap box.

I am still behind on my Christmas shopping. I have gotten Kim, Tony, Mom, and Watson their gifts. I still have to shop for Lisa's family and some others. Argh. Maybe I will get that done tomorrow evening. I need to get the laundry out of the dryer now before I forget. I washed some sheets, so there are probably wet, balled up clothes folded in them. I am not the best laundry-doer in the world.

Sing Song

I am a sleepy head, sleepy head, sleepy sleepy. If I were a Scuro, I would be napping. La, la, la. I wish I weren't a sleepy head, but I could be in bed. Da, da, datata.

More Studying

Devaraj and Kohli 2003

Studied a DSS in use at hospitals. Findings:

Report Usage is positively associated with Patient Revenue/Day & Admission
Report Usage is negatively associated with Mortality
Disk I/O is positively associated with Patient Revenue/Day & Admission
Disk I/O is negatively associated with Mortality
CPU Time is positively associated with Patient Revenue/Day & Admission
CPU Time is NOT negatively associated with Mortality

Wixom and Watson 2001

Net Benefits
-Data Quality
-System Quality
--Organizational Implementation Success
---Top Management Support
---Resources
---User Participation
--Project Implementation Sucess
---User Participation
---Team Skills

Technical Implementation Success (not associated with data or system quality)
--Source System
--Development Technology

Oh Bother

Okay, my coffee house study idea didn't work too well. I did get my caramel apple cider and lemon poppyseed for free since their credit card machine wasn't working, however. The problem was that people kept coming into the coffee shop to TALK instead of study. It was soo freaking loud. So, anyway, I am back at home studying where I know the wi-fi is free and the only talking I hear is an occassional cat's meow. Home sweet home.

I am already tired of studying. This is what I have learned so far:

Melville 2004
Model of IT Business Value

FOCAL FIRM
IT Resources
Technology Resources
Human Resources
Complementary Organizational Resources
=====>
Business Processes
=====>
Business Process Improvement
=====>
Organizational Performance

Subject to:
COMPETITIVE FORCES
Industry Characteristics
Trading partners
MACRO ENVIRONMENT
Country Characteristics

DeLone and McLean 1992
There are too many DV's in IS Research

IS SUCCESS MODEL
1) System Quality
2) Information Quality
=====>
3) System Use
4) User Satisfaction
=====>
5) Individual Impacts
6) Organizational Impacts

Kohli and Devaraj 2003
Factors Affecting IT Payoff
1) Industry
2) Data source - primary or secondary
3) Data analysis - regression or correlation (not supported)
4) Time frame - longitudinal or cross sectional (not supported)
5) Sample size
6) Mediating Variables
IT Investments => IT Assets => IT Impacts => IT Payoffs
7) Dependent variables - productivity or financial based

Next, I am on to Devaraj and Kohli 2003 and am going to see how IT Usage is the missing link between IT investments and IT Payoff. Fun, fun.

Good Things about My Boyfriend

1) He doesn't mind that I like making lists.
2) He is handsome. Everyone always thinks he looks like a movie star.
3) He is emotional and loving.
4) He is difficult which makes me seem less difficult.
5) I like when he sings and plays his guitar for me.
6) He is good at ordering out food.
7) He has a good vocabulary.
8) We can act silly together.
9) He likes to take naps with me.
10) He lets me sleep on the right side of the bed.
11) He is smart.
12) He worries about me.
13) He likes animals.
14) He will do new things with me like go volunteering.
15) He doesn't mind PDA in public.

I love you Mark!

Information Overload

My blog is contributing to the wonderful world of information overload for which I am currently reviewing literature. Hopefully my department likes this paper. I like it the best out of all the stuff I have done here so far, so here's hoping we might have a dissertation topic. Oh yeah, I am back from Milwaukee.

My mom said that it went down to 15 degrees here in Charlotte while I was gone. That's pretty crazy. It was lower than that in Milwaukee, and there was snow on the ground. But this is Charlotte; it shouldn't be that cold.

They gave me a pen with a USB drive and a laser pointer at the conference. I like getting free stuff.

Limited Internet Time

My Internet is going to be shut off in about an hour by the hotel. I am done with the conference. I met some really nice people. My presentation went okay - not great, but good enough. I felt younger than most people there. Overall, it was interesting - my first conference as a PhD student. I really need to finish some papers and get something published.

Regency Hyatt Milwaukee

The airports were crazy today. I almost didn't make it here. There was snow on the ground in both Cleveland and Milwaukee. How do people live like this? I have to work on my presentation and get some sleep. I have to wake up at 6:30 AM.

In an Hour

I am flying out in an hour. Here is a picture of me in case my plane crashes. I have printed out everything I think I need. I have a headache. I feel tired, but at this point it is probably due to too much sleep. I hope they have a cheap restaurant in the hotel because I will be hungry by the tme I get there. I have a lay over in Cleveland, Ohio. On Sunday, I leave Milkwaukee at 12:30 PM and get back around 6 PM. I am going to leave Pearl at the airport since it is going to be a relatively short trip. Chris is going to watch the cats.

Milwaukee

I have to pack for Milwaukee today. I leave around 6 PM. I haven't checked the weather yet, but I am thinking it is going to be cold. Hopefully there won't be any flight problems. The cats and I are still in bed. Sleep still consumes the majority of my life. I did have my doctor check my thyroid to see if that might be contributing to my lethargy. I am probably just depressed. I forgot to ask her to check my blood sugar while she was at it. My mom and most of her brothers and sisters became Diabetic with age. Kim and Lisa are still okay, but we all check occassionally to make sure.

So list for today:

-Get out of bed
-Take a shower
-Pest control is coming
-Do laundry
-Pack for Milwaukee
-Prepare for presentation
-Study for finals

Blind Leading the Kettle

I found a pie chart of what a healthy work-life balance should look like, and I compared it to my approximation of last week, and I am not doing very well. Even with the skewed leisure for spending Saturday in Greensboro, I still need a lot of help.

In general, I like spending quality time with people. However, a lot of times people like doing things I don't really enjoy. I would rather be writing a paper than going to a smoky bar to watch everyone else drink. I enjoy getting things accomplished, but I don't enjoy working in and of itself. Specifically, I want to spend more time helping people. I want to spend more time focused on my relationship, friends, family, and spirituality. I definitely want to add more fitness and less sleep into my life.

Cancelled

I am presenting at my first conference on Saturday in Milwaukee. I am nervous, but I am hoping it will be a good experience. The semester is almost over. I have one more semester of course work to go. Here is my Spring schedule:

Monday: Class 6:30 PM – 9:30 PM
Tuesday: Work 9 AM – 5:30 PM
Wednesday: Office Hours 11 AM – 3 PM, Class 3:30 PM – 5:45 PM, Teach 6:30 PM – 9:30 PM
Thursday: Work 9 AM – 5:30 PM
Friday: Work 9 AM – 1 PM, Class 2 PM – 4 PM

Overall, it shouldn't be as bad as this semester because it isn't my first time teaching my class. However, the pressure to publish papers is getting higher. Who needs a PhD? Really, I just want to have babies. Don't tell my professors.

Competitive Advantage

Cats have one sustainable compeitive advantage over dogs. They purr. I woke up around 4 AM, and I had two passed out cats on my bed. I cuddled with the orange one, and I began to hear what sounded like a sputtering engine trying to start on a cold morning. Then I cuddled with the calico, and I hear a warm, rich melodic purr. I nuzzled my face into their furr and just thanked God for such wonderful cats. I don't know if there are any cats that get as many kisses as these two.

I just found this funny site: http://www.mycathatesyou.com/

Job

This is my teddy bear Job. He is an awesome teddy bear, and the cats and I sleep with him most nights. Notice he has a club right foot. I believe, I bought him at Albertsons. When he isn't cuddling with me, I often use him as a mashing shield to ward of advances from Scuro when I am trying to sleep. You are never too old for a good teddy bear.

December

Charlotte has taught me a lot about myself. I thought moving away and being completely on my own was going to be hard. I think it would have been harder if I had stayed in Florida. I still have weaknesses and things I need to overcome, but I have been able to get to a healthy place not to beat myself up over it. I have also learned more about other people and their weaknesses. I have been truest to myself in the past two years.

The semester is wrapping up. I have one more huge paper to write before it is all over. I am going to tackle the majority of that tomorrow.

On a side note, I was really happy to see my friend Muhammed resurface recently. He was one of my closest friends in Charlotte for a while, but life dragged us in our respective ways. I always welcome those who disappear back into my life. There is no use in getting mad at them for their absence. Just love them when they come back. We all sometimes fall of the radar, and it is hard if that means we can never go back.

Sniffle

I think I am getting sick. In the scheme of things, this is a horrible time for me to get sick. However, it has been quite a few months since I have had a cold or anything, so I guess maybe I am due. I am stressed about papers that need to get graded, others that need to get written, work that has to be done, and conferences that must be prepared for. I have two weeks to make or break this semester.

My mom's boyfriend Watson bought me a Gators santa hat. She sent it in the mail, and I opened it today. It is pretty funny really since I am not into Santa or the Gators very much. I thought it was a sweet gesture though. I am glad my mom found someone who loves her and isn't bad to her.

I need to give my sister Lisa a call back. I have been busy this weekend, and I know she called. Maybe I will give her a call after work tomorrow. Since we are launching this new application at work, I need to be in the office the next two days. Randy and Jay called me with some questions about installs this weekend. I feel badly because I don't have enough time to devote to work as I feel is required to do my best job. However, they have been great at understanding my limitations.

I only accomplished 1 1/2 of the things I listed on my weekend to do list. I emailed one professor that I will turn in my critical review tomorrow night. He said we should turn it in by Monday. I am trying to pamper myself today in hopes of getting better instead of sicker. I have half of the group projects graded for my class. I need to get the rest graded so I can post the grades to motivate my students to study for their finals. The research paper that is due this semester will be my most pressing issue. I just need the time to read and synthesize the research I have done and get something on paper. I am done with my stats class, but grades haven't been posted yet.

I guess the overall tone of this post is stressed. However, I am really thankful right now. I have the opportunity to obtain my PhD. I have a great job. I have two cats who cuddle with me even when I am sick. I have great friends. I have an awesome roommate. I love teaching. I was accepted to present at this conference. I have friends who want to spend time with me. I have more opportunities then most people. Charlotte has been good to me. Thank you God!

Alone on Friday Night

Well, not completely. Scuro just jumped up on the couch with me. I don't watch too much TV, but According to Jim is on. There are too many shows like King of Queens, Everybody Loves Raymond, etc. where there are bad husbands and wives who put up with them. And it is supposed to be comical. I think it is sad really. Television sucks. It is annoying really . . . are people really that stupid?

I am tired. I just want to sleep and just sleep and sleep.

Here is my to do list this weekend:
-Research paper
-Critical review paper
-Grade group projects
-Make conference presentation

Selfish?

You Are 37% Selfish

In general, you are a very giving person who treats others very well. But at times, you insist on getting your way - when it matters most to you.

How Selfish Are You?