My first day of semester two started with an introduction to business module. This being a 9am lecture, I was trying my best to stay alert. I must have had two or three coffees by the time I sat down within the morning chatter of the lecture hall, waiting for the lecturer to arrive.
His name is Cain. He came in the room with a commanding walk. As he sat down the room went quiet and the lecture began. “Entrepreneurship” said Cain. My eyes lit up as I heard this. “I will teach you how to manage, account, and grow a business” Cain exclaimed. As we went through the lecture I got more and more interested in the module. I had wild thoughts rushing through my mind. I could become a business owner. I could grow a company. The new age Steve Jobs. Then, suddenly, I was shot back into the room.
“... you must complete your analysis by the end of the seminar session”. Oh shit. What did he say? Did I daydream through the whole lecture? What analysis?
As I left the lecture hall, dazed, and confused, I wondered about lunch, and my next module, Information Systems and Databases.

Group project time!!! Does anyone actually enjoy group projects? Well, I don’t particularly like the anticipation of wondering who is going to be in your group. Just hoping that you don’t get stuck with someone who can’t carry their weight or leaves it to the last minute. But other than that, I do rather enjoy the process of making a plan and seeing it execute. Fortunately for us, we get to choose who to work with, so I’ve grouped up with two of my friends with whom I did a group project in the first semester. We will be working together to make a PESTEL analysis of Tesco. This is a great choice for me as I have done quite a bit of research about Tesco from my previous studies at college.
Anyway, I am quickly learning that Cain is a bit strict. He was teaching us about how to make a PESTEL analysis and basically took no shit from nobody. If someone was talking, he would shut them down INSTANTLY. That said, I think he’s a nice guy. As long as you are respectful to him. Which is fair enough.

The world is a big place. Think about it. 8 billion people. Some 40,000km circumference. Imagine, having a 5-minute conversation with a friend. Now image consecutive 5-minute conversations for the next 761 years. That’s how long it would take to have a 5-minute conversation with 1% of the population. That’s wild. The idea that some businesses actually do interact with 1% or more of the global population, is an absolutely ridiculous concept. But businesses are this big. That’s why we learn about globalisation in business. It’s an important thing to understand, especially in large corporations. Global business is complex, it involves global politics, cultural differences, international law, local law, protectionism, and many other aspects.

Let’s talk about entrepreneurs. The great pioneers of innovation. One entrepreneur that has the right idea and the willingness to risk it all can change the world. Look at people like Elon Musk, Tomas Edison, Oprah Winfrey, Mark Zuckerburg, Henry Ford, Steve Jobs, and Jeff Bezos just to name a few. Many of these people started from humble beginning and grew their empires through countless hours of hard work and creative thinking. They have had massive influence over many markets. Some have even created new markets. An important trait they all share is their openness to failure. They understand that failure is part of the journey, but they must always get back up again and learn from their mistakes.

A gloomy night, down on the sand, the waves crashing, gunshots fired and the smoke slowly clearing. The battle was lost. Most were dead. Many were injured. All were scarred. I saw him laying there. I could see his cold breath in the air. Thank God he was breathing.
I started shouting out to him “Cain. Are you okay? Cain don’t close your eyes. Stay awake. Don’t leave me. Please don’t close your eyes on me.” As Cain slowly drew a breath in, he made the sound of a thousand tiny bats in a deep chasm. And then he exclaimed, “My friend, please tell people my story. Don’t let them forget me. Keep my memory alive.”. I could feel a cold tear running down my face. “I promise I will my brother.” As the dust settled and Cain drew in his last breath, I saw the dark blue light leave his weary eyes. And his story was over.
Okay what have I just written. Like for real what have I just written. Basically, Cain was ill. So, I wrote that. We didn’t do much in today's lecture. But we were meant to learn about how to make a SWOT analysis and stuff like that. Instead, I’m going to just study the content by myself.

Cain was back today, and he was teaching us about strategic planning and SWOT analysis. We are going to have to do a SWOT analysis for our next assignment. I’m going to do it on Tesco which shouldn’t be too hard because of my previous experience writing about Tesco.
During this lecture Cain started talking about ChatGPT and how we shouldn’t copy and paste from it, obviously. Then, he went on to say that if he found out you were using it, he would write a letter about you saying that you had committed academic fraud or something like that and that if you were an apprentice, he will contact your company and try to have you removed from the apprenticeship. Some wild stuff really. But here’s the kicker, the way he was testing if some text was chatGPTed was by using some untested and uncertified software. The websites even say on them that they are not completely reliable and can have false positives. So of course, I had to challenge him on this one. He did not like that. I think he might have taken it personally, which obviously I did not intend. But seriously, how are you going to say that you’re going to cancel someone off their course or out of their apprenticeship based on the information from a self-declared unreliable software.
Just as an aside, I do not condone any kind of plagiarism in academia, including copy and pasting AI generated content.

I’m convinced that Cain has some sort of agenda. He doesn’t seem to give two shits about teaching business and the way he always brings up political issues and frames them as if there is only one right side makes me doubt his academic neutrality when it comes to politics. It’s almost as if he thinks that everyone in the room will be in complete agreement with him on political issues and states them in a way that the only answer a student could give is “Yes I completely agree” or “No I completely disagree”. He will say something like “Brexit was a terrible decision, wouldn’t you agree?”. This phrasing leaves little room for conversation. Instead saying something like “What were the pros and cons of Brexit?” is much more open ended and allows for discussion.
Anyhow, in the lecture we were learning about leadership styles, models, and theories. And in other news we finished our PESTEL analysis project. Check it out!

What is Cain doing man? Like why does he hate this lecture so much? He seems like he would be a great lecturer if he enjoyed himself a bit. But he just doesn’t seem to care about business. Which is a real shame. Here’s what he said today during the lecture when some students were chatting among themselves. “Hello there. When I talk here, if you continue to talk, I’m going to kick you out from now on. If you are not interested guys, tap your card and leave, seriously. I don’t care. I’m going to get my salary anyway. You are the one paying for it. If you are not interested, just tap your card and leave.”. So yeah, that happened. Have a listen to the audio clip if you like. It’s just frustrating because people are only chatting because he’s just reading what’s on the board right back to us. It’s like there’s no point going to the lecture if I can just read it online. Interestingly, the module evaluation survey has landed on the exact same day, so I suppose we will see how that plays out. I’m hoping that Cain gets some feedback, and he can try to improve his teaching because it’s a shame for those of us that do actually want to learn something from him.
In the lecture we were looking at e-business and e-commerce. Apparently, there are 6 types of e-commerce. Business-to-consumer, business-to-business, consumer-to-consumer, consumer-to-business, business-to-administration, consumer-to-administrator. I’d really like to get into the e-commerce space. Maybe try drop shipping with Shopify.

Today was a pretty chill lecture. Not super eventful which isn’t bad at all. We have switch from general business to finance and accounting. Looking into the difference between the two and how they help business proceedings. Cain said that this information is really useful for anyone looking to start their own business, which is fantastic for me as I’d really like to do that in the future.
To be honest, maths is not my strong suit but fortunately for me most the calculations you need to do in terms of accounting can be automated with spreadsheets and other software.
We were also looking into what assets, liabilities, equity, income, and expenses are. I believe Cain did a really good job at distinguishing each part from the other, while making it clear that the first three will be used in a balance sheet and the last two are used in an income statement.
Good lecture today. Very happy.

Submitted the SWOT analysis a couple days ago. Got 8% similarity score which is good so now just waiting on a grade. Also, waiting on a grade for the PESTEL analysis. In the lecture today we were looking at balance sheets, different types of assets and liabilities, and depreciation. It’s very interesting actually. I had a conversation with one of my friends after the lecture about machines used in car manufacturing and about how even with the depreciation of the asset, it still is more cost-effective than labour in the long-term.
I’ve also been thinking about investing and specifically in investing in assets that appreciate over time. As far as I can tell, most assets depreciate rather than appreciate. The few that don’t are property, rare items, paintings, etc. Generally, things that hold some kind of history that someone else is interested in, or an asset that continues to be improved based on external factors, like real estate. This is important to understand because it can really shift the way you look at how you are spending your money.

Data. What is Data? Is it just information made up from 1s and 0s. Or is it something deeper. Are there things in data? Or is data in things. Can you quantify life? Can you put life into a table, in a database, on a server somewhere, for randoms to access on the internet? If you could put life into a database, could you manipulate it with relation algebra. Could you select the strongest parts of one life and the smartest parts of another and create a cartesian product of them? Could you join her joy with his charm? Could you difference out the hate of man and lock it away? Could you union people’s ideas and make them see the big picture? The big picture of big data.
Though what we covered in my first ISD lecture did not answer these questions, it has still got me incredibly intrigued and fascinated. In the first half of the lecture, we went through the module structure, then we looked into the theory of the database environment. We explored some of the history of databases, showing how we got to the three-level database architecture. For the last half of our lecture, we learnt about the relational model and set theory. We were given information on the structure and behaviour of a relation, and how to manipulate a relation with relational algebra.

Data. Data. Data. Well, more accurately, data modelling. Data modelling using something called an ER diagram. Oml why can’t I remember what ER stands for… God this is annoying me. What was it? Empathy realisation… No. Eternal reconciliation… No. Ethanol recall… Oh wow, no where near. Oh yeah. Entity Relationships. This it! Entity relationship modelling is one of those things that seems simple with a small amount of exposer, but it quickly becomes much more complicated. For example, five entities with 7 different relationships isn’t too bad. But let’s say you had twice as many entities. That does not mean that you will have twice as many relationships. Oh no, no, no. It’s not that easy. The relationships can go up exponentially with the increase in entities. So, now you might have 10 entities with 25 different relationships. Conversely, you could have a model that has many entities with very few relationship and in that case, you would not want to overcomplicate the model by adding unnecessary relationships.
Jeez. I’ve got a headache.
This should be fun :)

Liz had a microphone today. That was good. Until it broke and we couldn’t hear anything AGAIN! She was halfway through explaining normalisation, and then… nothing. She didn’t realise for a few seconds that it had broken, until someone shouted out. “We can’t hear you!”. I think the batteries must have died. Oh well. Anyways. Normalisation, that’s what we are talking about. Okay so basically, relations have different normal forms… Like 1st normal form, 2nd, and 3rd normal forms. When a relation is in a normal form it pretty much means that a relation follows curtain standards. Like if a relation is in 1st normal form, then it doesn’t have any duplicate entries. It only gets more complex from there, and it goes all the way up to 6th normal form. It’s interesting because normalisation is a bottom-up framework for regulating relations. I much prefer using it over entity relationship modelling.
Oh also, we have a test on this stuff in like two weeks. And honestly, I’m a bit concerned. I’ve really got to make sure I study up on this stuff. Otherwise, it’s most certainly not going to go well.

I hate exams. They just suck. They make no sense. You learn something for a number of weeks. Then you regurgitate it once and you’re given a grade. After that, you just forget it. They make no sense because revision is not the best way to learn. Conversation is. When you revise for a test, you don’t think. All you’re trying to do is remember. But when you talk to someone about a subject, and they respond, you actually have to think about it. This allows you to think and retain information. But at the same time, I do understand why we have tests. When you have a lot of people to assess quickly, tests are sometimes the only realistic way to do it. So, I will play the game, put in the work, and try my absolute best.
We have a test next week. The test is about relational algebra, entity relationship modelling, and normalisation. I’m pretty confident in normalisation, kind of confident in ER modelling and relational algebra just isn’t that difficult. Thankfully, in this lecture we were revising it and I was getting most of it. Wish me luck for next week.

Okay my opinions on tests have changed slightly. CAUSE THIS GUY GOT A 100%! I know I said some mean things about exams last week, but I suppose that’s just what losers do. They complain about what they can’t win at. But no longer. Cos, I got 100% in a test about relational algebra, ER diagrams, and normalisation. Lemme just say that one more time. I got 100%. Okay, okay, I’m going to stop bragging now. In all honestly, I am quite proud of myself. I wasn’t too sure of my knowledge in the subjects but I’m more confident now. Evidently ha-ha. Either way, we still had a lecture. It was about SQL queries and statements such as ‘select’ and its clauses. That was interesting. In other news, our group project has been cancelled because there are 501 students and one lecturer in this module. So, it’s kind of difficult to get everyone organised and then mark all the reports. Instead, we are probably going to have more tests and maybe a smaller assignment. Which I’m not too bothered about.
All in all, I think I’m going to enjoy this module.

We didn’t have Liz today. Not sure if she was ill or what but anyway, we had Hafiz instead. What a legend for real. He was teaching us about some more SQL select clauses, such as the ‘where’ clause. We also looked at string functions, some miscellaneous functions, and date and time functions. All in all, it was again not super complicated. Very interesting stuff though. I’m understanding more and more how you would use certain queries to display information in a user-friendly way. For example, you can concatenate a first name field and a surname field, so they read as one.
Looking forward to next week.

Oh, come on Liz make your mind up please! Guess what. The group project is back on. But don’t worry, we aren’t assigned random groups. We can choose our own. This is great but for some reason, people in my group (i.e. my friends) haven’t been showing up to the lectures. Why haven’t they been showing up to the lectures you ask? Well, for this and that, or can’t be asked, or trains are cancelled. Stuff just seems to get in the way. I’m hoping that as we go into the project people will become a bit more motivated about it and start coming into Uni more consistently.
In the project we have to design and build a relational database using a set requirement. So, we have to make the ER diagram, build the actual database with Oracle APEX and code the SQL functions necessary for a user to access the data. And we have to document it all. Better get cracking aye.

Joins in SQL are where you have two tables in a database and you want to join the information together for some purpose. Whether it be for ease of the end user or to perform a specific operation, you could use a join. There are different types of joins, such as an equi-join, a non equi-join, an outer join, full, right and, left outer joins and a few others. They are pretty useful. However, I’m finding it slightly difficult to wrap my head around translating a question into an actual query. For example, “Create a list of all the descriptions of products ordered by the customer ‘SMITH’”. I get what they are wanting as an output but I’m not too sure how to go about it. This is how you would do it:

• SELECT name, descrip
• FROM customer JOIN ord USING (custid)
  • JOIN item USING (ordid)
  • JOIN product USING (prodid)
• WHERE name = ‘BROWN J’;

Evidently, I need to practice more. I’ll get on that this week.

For this lecture we looked into how to create, modify, and delete tables in SQL. This information is super useful for our database project. Specifically, for the table creation scripts element of our project.
We also looked into the database life cycle which has 6 stages:

1. Database initial study
   1. Analysis of the requirements
2. Database design – 3 stages:
   1. Conceptual design
      1. The process of constructing a model of the information that will be used in the database, independent of physical considerations.
   2. Logical design
      1. The process of constructing a data model that is independent of any specific DBMS.
   3. Physical design
      1. The process of constructing a data model for a specific DBMS (For example, Oracle APEX).
3. Implementation
   1. Creating the database in the specified DBMS.
4. Testing and evaluation
   1. Testing and fine-tuning the database.
5. Operation
   1. The point at which the database is in operation and may need design changes due to unforeseen problems.
6. Maintenance
   1. The ongoing process of updating/modifying the database so that it continues to meet the ever-changing requirements.

This is the last ISDB lecture for the next two weeks as there are two concurrent bank holiday Mondays. Talking about concurrent things. Today in the lecture we were learning about concurrency control and transaction management in relation to databases. Concurrency control means how access is managed when multiple people are using the same database at the same time. It is concerned with maintaining consistency within a multi-user environment. Transaction management helps this process by grouping commands into logical units of work. For example, someone placing an order would require a number of commands on the database. Inserting the order, updating the customers owing balance, and updating the stock. These three elements are one transaction (a logical unit of work). Once the transaction is finished it can be committed to the database. The system needs to ensure that either the transaction is completed in its entirety, or it is not completed at all.

It’s hard to explain my excitement for this module. Building websites is one of the most marketable skills right now. Everyone needs a website. Whether for a business or portfolio, having a well-made website gives you an extra edge of professionalism. That is why I was ecstatic to get into that lecture hall and hear Omar (our lecturer) say that we would be building our own reflective portfolio website. The website that you are currently on. And can I just say, thank you so much for being here :)
In this lecture we were given a basic introduction to the module and to HTML, CSS and good web design practices. After that, we went into the seminar session where we got to practice using HTML and CSS by playing around with a template that was provided for us.

Our second lecture. The second. What do I have to say? Well, we looked a bit more into CSS and HTML. It was alright. However, I enjoyed the lab session more. In the lab session we were meant to do some sort of code validation type thingy. But that didn’t seem that fun. So instead I just worked on my website. Progress has been good. Today I added a flex box container on my index page to display my journals in a more interesting and visual way. I’m feeling good about my website. It’s coming along well. I want it to be something I can be really proud of and hopefully use as a portfolio after I’ve completed this module.

The website is coming along. My index page looks good. I think next, I’ll sort out my about and contact pages. Making a contact form isn’t too hard and the about page is light work so hopefully I’ll get that done in the next week or so.
The lectures are making sense. I’m understanding the content. I am about halfway through a LinkedIn Learning course on HTML anyway, so a lot of the content is the same. After, I finish the HTML one I’d like to do a CSS, and a JavaScript course. Ooo, JavaScript. That should be fun. That’s what I’m most looking forward to in this module. When JavaScript is done well in a website it just elevates the whole thing. Takes is from a B class website to an S class site. Very exciting stuff.

End of week 4. This last week I’ve added a CV page and made a contact form for my website. Although I need to add the JS for form validation. So that’s my next undertaking. Got to learn a bit about JavaScript. We haven’t got on to JS in the lectures yet but hopefully we will soon. Anyways, in today’s lecture we were looking at the difference between inline, embedded, and external CSS and which one has priority over the other. Btw, inline has highest priority. We looked at some CSS functions and some other stuff. Honestly, I can’t really remember. It’s been a long week. But what I do remember is the Kahoot we did today. We did it in teams and our team won by an absolute landslide! GO TEAM MUNCH!

I’ve made my journals pages now. They are pretty nice I can’t lie. Simple and functional. I want to think of some cool interactive things I can add to my website, while keeping the dependencies to a minimum. Also, I need to edit all my photos to have different sizes that will dynamically switch depending on the viewport size. This will make my website more efficient. Overall, making good progress, on track to complete the website long before the due date.
In the lecture today, we covered pseudo classes, fonts, and other text formatting. This kind of stuff adds a bit of pizzazz to the website if you will. Oh also, I REALLY need to add comments to all my code, so I’m going to make sure to get started on that because I already have quite a few un-commented pages. Wish me luck with that. It will be long!

Today we looked at usability in terms of web design. The thing about good web design is that not only does your webpage need to look good. It also needs to be intuitive and make sense. There is a rule called the ’15 second rule’. This states that someone will spend 15 seconds on average looking at a webpage before clicking off of it. Other studies say slightly different numbers, but it is usually less than a minute. So, if you can’t grab the user’s attention or easily show them what they are wanting to see in less than that time, you’ll lose the visitor to another website. Good web design involves putting the most relevant information ‘above the fold’. This is especially important for eCommerce websites.

I’ve been making some big additions to my website. I’ve been adding lots of features, but I still need to add social media buttons, and I’ve got to make it more mobile friendly because right not it’s kind of a nightmare to use on mobile. I might try to rebuild the website from the base up but for mobile first. During the lecture we were looking into the CSS box model, so borders, margins, and padding. Padding and borders I fully get. But margins are still a bit weird to me. Like the way it was being described, it sounded like it sometimes worked but sometimes doesn’t… Or maybe I just wasn’t listening properly. Oh well. Talk next week.

In today's lecture we were looking at page layouts. Basically, how to use the float attribute. So, you can make HTML elements float to the left, centre, or right, etc. This will make them move to that part of the screen. In the seminar I was trying to make a universal header and footer by just using HTML. I think it could be possible using an iframe element, but it is pretty messy. A better way to do it would be to implement it server-side. However, our websites are just meant to be local. In other words, it is outside the scope of the model. Next year we should be looking more into server-side web development which will be exciting. In other news, I would say I’m 80% of the way to having a complete website and I have learnt so much through this process. I think my next website will be 100 times better. Part of me wants to just restart so I can build it from scratch and build it really well. But I’m not going to do that… I might. We’ll see.

I woke up late today. I set my alarm. But missed it and had a dream that I was late to university. I might have talked about having this kind of dream before. I’m not sure. Either way, this is not the first time I’ve had this dream but in this one it was 11am and I remember saying in my dream “Why is it always 11am?”. I think this is happening because every time I don’t start my day early, I feel like I’m missing out on something. I feel like I’m missing out on the most important time of my life. My youth. I’ve realised that now. So, as soon as I awoke, I got right out of bed, had a shower and was on the road 10 minutes later. I’ve noticed that my mental attitude is far stronger when I busy. Specifically, if I’m busy working towards my long-term goals.
In the lecture today we were looking at lists, links, and placeholders which was pretty simple stuff. Anyways, I’ve pretty much finished my website. Just need to finalise the form validation JavaScript and then I’ll be done!

The hippocampus is the part of the brain responsible for the spatial representation of an environment as to facilitate navigation.
The navbar is the part of the website responsible for organising and facilitating the navigation around different pages.
This parallel is something I thought about during the lecture today where we were looking into the construction of a navbar in HTML and CSS. We looked at how to structure it as an unordered list and how to style that list. However, I generally prefer to use flex boxes as it allows for more control over where and how the navbar elements are placed.
My website is 99% complete. I’ve added an embedded map to the contact page, I’ve finished my form validation JavaScript, and I’ve almost completed all my journals. I can say with confidence that by this time next week I will have fully completed my reflective portfolio website.