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Today is a good day for me - I finally received my Computer Studies Certifcate from the University of Maryland. I have to admit that I’m feeling pretty good about myself at the moment! My next goal is an Associate’s Degree in Computer Studies from UMUC. I am making progress, and I’m learning a lot while doing it! After the Associate’s, I hope to acquire a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer and Information Science from UMUC. It’s amazing learning all this stuff after living almost a half century. I have something that the younger students don’t - EXPERIENCE! I’ve been there and done that! Another thing that amazes me is how I can make good grades in college level courses after doing drugs and alcohol all those years. It’s just an example of God’s renewing of the mind. I give HIM ALL the PRAISE!

View my certificate

PSYC100 is the class I’m taking this term. I am half-way through the course as of this week. It is pretty interesting. I’m learning about how the human mind works, how we sense our environment, and what causes specific behavior. Right now we are studying classical conditioning which is a type of learning in which an organism comes to associate stimuli. Ivan Pavlov (1849 - 1936) stumbled upon this behavior while studying the digestive system. His experiement with a dog that would salivate when subjected to conditioned stimuli (an audio tone given just before food, food = unconditioned stimulus, audio tone = conditioned stimulus) is a classic that most Psychology students study to this day (including me!). Next term I’m going full-time with the studies when I’ll take on German and Expository/Research Writing. I’ve decided to turn it up a notch! Hopefully I will be able to maintain a high GPA (presently 3.86). But the bottom line is this: all I need is a C to get credit! So, things are going to get rather hectic at the Altizer household in the Netherlands!