Data Modeling and Database Design

I really enjoyed this week's topic. I learned alot about what goes into planning and designing a database beyond just specifying what you want a software application to do. I am still struggling with the entity-relationship diagrams, but it made more sense after I had to think through it for my own database. I think it is actually the different diagramming conventions that are tripping me up more than the concepts behind it. I really liked the "Data Modeling: Finding the Perfect Fit" article. It was much clearer and easier to grasp than the wikipedia articles. I am still not clear on the differences between conceptual, logical, physical, and semantic models and all these different diagrams with their multiple arrows pointing all over do not help! Database normalization, however, I totally connected with. Oh my, could I totally geek out over normalizing database structure. It is all so neat and organized, and I love the concept of atomicity getting everything broken down into its most individual parts. I think I could get too carried away with this and end up living in a closet like that guy in Real Genius...