A really short post :-(

So this module - Decision Making Methods & Tools is not as interesting as it sounds. Or maybe it is, but all this probability issues is just getting at me. I have read the entire reading material, only to discover I do not understand the first page! :-(

I'm running behind schedule. Assignment 1 is due in a couple of days and I still not do understand the module enough to attempt the first question. Coupled with the fact that I have got a busy week ahead, work-wise.

Children of God, pray for me o! I cannot/must not/will not/should not/  fail.

Till next week Sunday, God willing...may I testify that I have submitted assignment 1.

Decision Making Methods & Tools

I didn't have to wait too long for this module to open up for registration...thank God. :-)

So, I'm on to the next module now, Decision Making Methods & Tools. The objective of this course is to introduce the students to decision making methods and tools, as they are applied in business and management. The course is divided in three parts, the first part introduces students to inferential statistics as they are applied in business and management decision making. The second part introduces students to the principles of regression and forecasting methods as applied in business and management,and the third part introduces students to the principles of optimization and decision theory.
I think I'm going to enjoy this module...not really excited about the inferential statistics though. Did a bit of statistics during the foundation course for this programme...probability, mean, median, mode. It was a bit of a struggle then...cramming (I know I shouldn't, but that was my only option at the time) definitions and all. :-(
Lord, help me with this one.

Still trying to get a grip on the module when the email below dropped in my personal email:

'Dear,   (No name? The sender must have sent this same email to multiple recipients)

Hope my emails finds you well, (This line always makes me chuckle when I see it in an official email)

I am student in this University preparing my Business Economics module, 

I would like to have help and get your support, kindly share with me you assignment report so i can use it as reference for my study, thanks in advance, 

Best Regards'.


Huh???

Business Economics is the last module I just concluded with 77% score. This guy/girl (can't tell from the name of the sender) wants me to share my assignment with him/her???
Ehen? So he/she can score 99.9% on top my sweat? I don't gerrit o! Why should I share my assignment? Is the e-book and google not accessible from ya end? My people, what do you think?

Besides, an email from a student I don't know in my personal (not University) mail box??? The email wasn't from the sender's University email account either. From a gmail account. This is one kain o!

Till next week Sunday, God willing...

Waiting...

I tried...I really tried o! Can't believe I'm posting this on a Monday morning. Yes, I'm still up at 3am...sending official emails. :-) But sticking to Sunday posts, we shall. :-) I'll try harder next week.

Ok, so Business Economics module is done and dusted. Yayyyyyy!!!!!!!!!!! Now the wait begins again for another module to open up for registration. There is no set time for the wait. If my memory serves me correctly, I think I have waited for 6 weeks after completing one module for another to open up for registration. This kain wait is somehow o! Little wonder the programme is about 24 months long. Without this long waits, I'm sure the MBA programme would have been for 12 months. You know that kind of long wait that you totally forget that you're studying online. When the module registration notification drops in your email, you'll be wondering which year it is. Mtchewwwwww!

I hope this wait won't be that long though.

Meanwhile, there's this really nice Kenyan lady in my online class...an agreeable person with no sharp angles sticking out. We have had a couple of chats to rub minds on some topics. Lately she asked me if I was on BBM and requested for my pin. Instantly, I remembered an ex-colleague who asked for my BBM pin and another told him that wasn't wise, as I'll get to know his every move. Oh, like telling me you're off sick and your display picture shows you're somewhere turning up?
Back then, years ago, I was of the opinion that BBM was for friends and family and Whatsapp for gbogbo ero? Well, not anymore, as I am rarely on both platforms for obvious reasons and it is open to all.
A quick question though, do you think it's proper/ok to have your lecturer/boss on your BBM chat list? Back then, that other colleague didn't think it was, and discouraged the other from requesting for it.

What do you think?

Till next week Sunday, God willing...to my young, single blog readers...

:-)

And the results are in!

I'm sooooo sorry this is coming in on a Tuesday. *covers face*
Sunday was super hectic! I couldn't get around to blog. With the way my Sundays are going, should I just shift the call time to every Monday/Tuesday instead?

Anyway...the results for the Business Economics module are in!!!!!!!!!!!

What's my score? Take a guess.

*drums roll*
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz


77%

I talk am say I go make una proud *shines teeth*
That is my highest grade so far. I'm super happyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

THANK YOU JESUS!

I pray it never gets below 77% :-)

Next module loading...

Till next week Sunday (are we still set on Sunday or should I move this to Monday/Tuesday?), God willing...

SIN Tax

That moment when you think you're the only one in the world thinking in a particular pattern? Nahhhh. Chill, for we are plenty.

So my homeboy in my previous blog post didn't quite stop there(I wish he did o). Another discussion topic about SIN tax on goods was posted on the forum and he dived right in. 

Oh, before I go into that, let me explain what SIN tax is. This is an excise tax placed on specific goods that have been considered harmful to the society. Some examples of these types of goods are cigarettes, alcohol etc. The tax placed is deliberate. It's purpose is to increase the price of the good, which in turn will reduce it's consumption. 

My homeboy just started off (no intro on the topic o) on how super expensive coca cola and biscuits are now because of the sin tax in place.

Ha! 

I think developed Countries are thinking of extending sin tax to certain soft drinks and snacks in a bid to curb obesity and diabetes. I don't think that has really taken off in Nigeria na...abi? While I was still ruminating on my 2 cents, contemplating on if I should finish reading his post, Oga Boss (another Nigerian in my online class) just jumped into the discussion thread. He started off with a build up from his previous post, in an attempt to point out all the inaccuracies.

Well he did. 

He highlighted Alaska, fuel scarcity (well, I think that has started again o...couldn't get fuel to buy over the weekend :-( ) in red while pointing them out. He ended by saying that it's no wonder fellow Nigerians 'commended' the post as my homeboy was clearly confusing the economy in Niger to Nigeria. 

Chai! No chill.

I just jejely respected my school fees by going through the comments I have dropped on previous posts, before Oga Boss will look my way.

Till next week Sunday, (so sorry this is coming on a Monday) God willing...
Be kind, people are going through tough situations you know nothing about.

Have a Fabulous February!

Discussion Forum.

As part of the final grading, we (online students) are encouraged...'forced' to participate in discussion forums. The discussion topics could range from assignment deadlines to any topic related to the module. Creating discussion forum post, posting a comment under an existing post, are all regarded as participation. Sometimes (Ok, actually most times), I don't even have the patience to read through the post. I sha do oju aiye (eye-service) and respond to a post with generic sentences like:

'Many thanks for the post. It was very enlightening'
'Very educative...thank you'
'Thanks for shedding light on this'

Just to show that I'm participating :-)
Some of my classmates will go as far as over 2,000 words on a discussion forum; like it's a full blown assignment. Guys, calm down! Stop making the rest of us (I just might be the only one) look lazy.

On a particular discussion forum, the Tutor asked us to briefly (keyword here is BRIEFLY, as we get to do it on a bigger scale via an assignment) compare the business environments in two countries. One of the two, should be our home country. As expected, most of my classmates didn't get the memo, as the posts were so lengthy, and yours truly did her usual generic sentences to form activity. :-)

A post from my fellow homeboy ( a Nigerian) caught my attention. In his post, he compared Nigeria and Alaska. Yes, you read right. Alaska.
Dude, seriously???

For a second, I thought I was seeing things, as I didn't have a good night sleep prior to reading that post. I know my geography isn't great, but one thing I do know is that Alaska is not a country. Then again, it must be a typographical error (or sense error? As some people still think Africa is a country?) ...you know, in the heat of the moment, to prove to the Tutor that he was the first person to respond to the discussion forum post, he must have typed Alaska instead of America? But why go as far as Alaska though? Whatever happened to Ghana, Cameroon, The Gambia?

Well, my homeboy didn't just stop there. He went on to explain how the current (but this is not happening anymore na? Abi is there still fuel scarcity in your area?) fuel crisis can cripple a budding business with the official pump price being N210.00 and the parallel market being N99.00?
 
Huh???

I think the most amusing part, is that some of my fellow Nigerian classmates did post a comment under his post, commending the lengthy inaccurate write-up.
Could it be that they didn't read the entire post? Do you think I should correct all the inaccuracies in the comment section of his post? Let it not look like I'm trying to show myself o?

Or I should just stick to my generic sentences? Or post nothing at all? Siddon look style? What do you think?

Till next week Sunday, God willing...lots of love from my heart and home to YOURS.

Business Economics

Hello!!!
How are you doing? I hope you had a great week and looking forward to another?
Chai, this month is so sloowwwwwww. Sinceeeeeeeee, it's just mid January. If it was December, it would have been the end of the month already!

Anyway, I have progressed to the Business Economics module like I mentioned in last week's blog post. The module basically examines economic and strategic managerial decisions under various economic and market conditions. It is very interesting as I get to compare business environments of countries, including Nigeria of course. You know we live in interesting times right now in Nigeria. The business environment in Nigeria at the moment is kind of confusing and stifling if one is an investor. Often times I think this country is being run by another country :-(  We say we practice a mixed economy here, but government intervention and policies makes it come off as some clandestine socialist economy.

Not to be caught unawares, I'm just going straight off at the assignments. But then, I noticed the deadline dates weren't quite stated on this module. So I sent an email to the course tutor for clarifications on submission deadline dates. Besides responding to my question, I noticed he took his time to clarify how he would like to be addressed...

My email:

Dear William (not his real name)
.......................................................

Ada.


His reply:

Dear Ada
........................................................

Dr William Randle

I didn't need a soothsayer to tell me that 'the first-name basis' does not apply here...at least not with him. I had addressed tutors in my previous modules with their first names.
In my next email to him, I was sure to address him as:

Dear Dr William (I never wan carry over this course, abeg)

This reminds me of a former colleague in my former place of work. Despite the rule that we should address everyone on first-name basis, everyone in that establishment called a certain set of people 'aunty' or 'uncle' so and so. That colleague of mine refused to call his line manager 'aunty'. (This is what too much studying in the abroad can cause o). He would always refer me to the employee handbook and insist on first-name basis as it was stated there. I often reminded him that this is N-I-G-E-R-I-A. Our culture is pretty much immersed in everything. The guy no gree o. Well, that didn't go down well with his line manager, who made certain he never got above 35% in his appraisal, despite being a fantastic team member. The guy got frustrated and left the organisation. O ma se o. 

My people, please what do you think about this aunty this or uncle that in the work place? Personally, I don't have an issue with sir or ma, but all this aunty and uncle stuff, e use to do me somehow sha. I still address them in that manner if that is how they want to be addressed. I don't want wahala o.

Let me know what you think in the comment section!

Till next week Sunday, God willing...take that step, because