10I Sin Fest

On Wednesday, I went to an event called Sin Fest that was held in the ballroom of the Adanti Center. It was supposed to be a concert for little-known bands and artists. I went with my friend, and we stayed for about five minutes and left. There were barely any people there, and there was little to no energy in the room. I felt bad, because one of the RA's were performing, and they were actually pretty good. 

I think it may have been more of a success if Lorraine Warren, one of the people who's experiences the horror movie The Conjuring was based on, was not speaking at the Lyman Center. There were roughly fifteen people in the ballroom. 

10B Being Creative

I think the first memory I have of being creative was writing a story in second grade. I wrote about a girl who lived in the rainforest and became friends with a tiger. It was only about two pages in length, and the majority of the sentences ended with an explanation point, but I used a lot of description and there was an exciting plot. I handed it to my teacher, and she had me read it aloud to my class on parents day. I was very proud of myself, and I think that was my inspiration to start writing for fun, not only for work. 

The best idea I ever had was in freshman year when I decided to draw the heart on my left wrist that later became a tattoo. Not only did I think it looked cute, it held much symbolism and many memories. It means so much to me that it makes the idea even more important. 

My dumbest idea was probably when I was younger and I decided to take all of the books in my house and make a "library fort" in between two couches. I threw a blanket over them to make the fort part. I got all of the books in it, but then there was no room for me. When I was going into it, I ran face first into the couch arm rest. That couch was nicknamed the torture couch in my family, as it was very hard and not that comfortable. The arm rest was one of the hardest parts, and I knocked one of my teeth out. This was a stupid idea because thinking back on it, I would have been yelled at to take the books out and put them back in their rightful place, and I would not have knocked my tooth out. 

My creative ambition is writing. I love writing poems and short stories. I have actually been working on a book for the last two years, but I have hit a major writers block. I also lost the hard drive of the laptop that it was saved on, so it may be gone forever which is disappointing. I took a creative writing class last year, and it was one of my favorite classes. I also try to write songs, but I'm not that good at rhyming and having the meaning make sense. Writing is, unfortunately, not one of the best ways to make money, so I had to find another passion of mine to specialize in. 

10V Creativity

The word creativity, to me, means thinking outside the box and being your own person. You cannot be creative and simply follow what others do. You do not have to completely disregard social norms, but you must have original ideas to be creative. 

Two words that helped me in classes this week were discriminant and acrylic. Discriminant was in math, when we were learning about the quadratic formula. The discriminant is a part of the formula that can help you decide what kind of answer you will get. Acrylic is a type of paint that I researched in my English class. I had used acrylic paint before, but had not known how it was different. Acrylic paint is made with latex so it is insoluble in water.

10A Video Project

I think I met the requirements of the video assignment. I met the time limit, I got it in on time, I interviewed the correct amount of people, I had a title that included my name, and a slide thanking those who I interviewed.

I had the most trouble with the technology. I decided to the the project on my iPad, so I downloaded an app that said I would be able to upload and edit a video that was 10 minutes or less. I spent two weeks creating it and editing it, only to find the day that the project was due that I would have to purchase it for 4 dollars. That day, I also had a commitment that I could not miss, so I had to do the project, with the help of my friends, two hours before it was due. If my friends had not helped, I would not have gotten it in by the deadline. This was not only very stressful, but hard to accomplish in two hours.

I tried to inform students how the study abroad process works by including interviews with Jazmin, who works in the study abroad office. She explained how students can come in, plan to have a meeting with one of the people who work in the office, and the paper that the students advisors have to sign saying they would recommend them to the study abroad program. I also interviewed my RA, Melody, who studied abroad last year in Australia. I had her explain what the experience was like, and how much she enjoyed it.

I would give myself an A- on this project. I think I covered my topic well, and I put in the effort to get a good grade. I would, however, go back and work on the transitions between the slides. I had them planned out perfectly in my original video, but the redone one that got posted was not what I had planned.

9A Thinking

Critical thinking is not only answering the basic question, but going deeper and thinking of other deeper questions to answer the basic one. It is not something that we are born with naturally, but something that must be learned. 

It is important to think critically because you not only have a greater understanding of what was asked, but you can learn more by going in depth by answering the multiple questions that were brought up through thinking critically. 

To think critically, you must not only think about the simple question. You must delve deeper into the question and raise questions that are similar to it or relate to it. After doing this, you must apply what deeper questions you thought of to the original question. 

I use critical thinking in my English, inquiry, sociology, and history courses this semester. It helps to think of deeper answers that are more correct and expand your horizons.

https://www.google.com/search?um=1&client=safari&hl=en&tbm=isch&sa=1&ei=ap5pUr6oHfSh4AOZloCICQ&q=the+thinker&oq=the+thinker&gs_l=img.3..0l10.2446.5364.0.5474.11.10.0.1.1.0.126.839.8j2.10.0....0...1c.1.29.img..0.11.856.3m1mN_SM-F4#facrc=_&imgrc=X0PlkMxs8ziEhM%3A%3BEywy2R4DzBHy5M%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Flegionofhonor.famsf.org%252Ffiles%252Fimagecache%252Fexhibition_preview_large%252FTHINKER_side_columns.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Flegionofhonor.famsf.org%252Fabout%252Fthinker%3B421%3B600

9I Justice Sonia Sotomayor

This week, I went to Justice Sonia Sotomayor's program this Monday in the Lyman Center. I found her very down to earth and genuine. While adding her book, I was under the impression that she was boastful and rude, but after seeing her in person, my views have changed. I enjoyed how she not only spoke about how students should try to get good grades, but also to have a well rounded education by trying new courses, clubs, and reaching out and expanding your friend group.

https://www.google.com/search?q=sonia+sotomayor&client=safari&hl=en&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=nJRpUpOlEZHskQeq5YG4AQ&ved=0CAkQ_AUoAA&biw=1024&bih=672#facrc=_&imgrc=Dw8ZAvFbIdjHjM%3A%3BqBVYrlFI9TFVwM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fupload.wikimedia.org%252Fwikipedia%252Fcommons%252F1%252F15%252FSonia_Sotomayor_in_SCOTUS_robe.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fen.wikipedia.org%252Fwiki%252FSonia_Sotomayor%3B2400%3B3000

9V Wait...What?

Critical thinking, to me, means being able to solve problems and think of answers that help go deeper than the basic answer to a question. 

This week, I came across the words sociobiology and familism in sociology. Sociobiology is a sociological perspective that explains people's behaviors as determined by genus. Familism is the belief that the most important unit is the family, in opposition to individualism where the most important unit is the individual themselves. 

https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&hl=en&biw=1024&bih=672&tbm=isch&sa=1&ei=65BpUu-pPMjKkAfTtYCwAg&q=sociology&oq=sociology&gs_l=img.3..0l10.90311.91866.0.91990.9.8.0.1.1.0.189.766.6j2.8.0....0...1c.1.29.img..2.7.418.OOhvENWcTB4#facrc=_&imgrc=X1QOD8Ejua4o1M%3A%3BUNoQK2k6uz2T9M%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.unco.edu%252Fsociology%252Fimages%252FSociology%252520Wall.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.unco.edu%252Fsociology%252F%3B640%3B480

9B Midterms!

When I went to go check on my midterm grades, which are available on Banner Web under Student Services, I was happy to see that I had all A's and B's. In high school, I usually would have a C in math. This year, however, I have a B. I am not surprised with any of my other grades, as I feel that I put the amount of work into each class to get the grades I did. 

I have had many successes so far this year. One is the good grades I obtained in English, as I have an A. I have always been able to write well, and I know the preparation I had in my AP Language and AP Literature courses helped me this year. 

I need to work on improving my history, math, and inquiry grades so I have an A in them. I know that I can achieve this, as I can be a hard worker. If I put more effort into these classes, I know that I can achieve an A in all the courses that I am enrolled in. I think that if I study more and work harder on homework assignments instead of doing the minimum to complete it, I will be able to reach my goal of obtaining all A's for the second half of the semester and next semester.

https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&hl=en&tbm=isch&q=red+letter+a&revid=1177581120&sa=X&ei=IoxpUonCJcjvkQfawYBQ&ved=0CDUQ1QIoAQ&dpr=2&biw=1024&bih=672#facrc=_&imgrc=T-nWJXfTaFSHSM%3A%3BPyWu9c-0vVjiPM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fdellagation.files.wordpress.com%252F2011%252F02%252Fred-letter-day-small1.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fdellagation.wordpress.com%252F2011%252F02%252F08%252F336redltrday%252F%3B607%3B750

Study Abroad Midterm Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5Ohtd5BRTA

8A I Wish I Was That Good at Blogging...

As I looked through various blogs, two bloggers from our class caught my attention. Those blogs were An Owl's Mind by Kali and The Rest is Still Unwritten.. by stepphhr. (I'm guessing Stephanie?) Both blogs had catchy titles and drew me into what they were talking about. 

Kali's blog, An Owl's Mind by Kali, is easy to read and talks about interesting things. The blog I picked was about the Majors Expo on Wednesday. It has a very catchy title that makes you want to know what the event was about. It starts with the title, and gives some background on her situation before getting into the experience. She goes into depth about what she found out about her major, and poses questions that she had and their answers. Overall, i would say that this blog is A+ work. It includes many cute pictures that help back up what she is writing about. it was actually hard to pick just one of Kali's blogs to write about, as they all seem to be A+ work.

http://anowlsmind.blogspot.com/2013/10/8i-major-event.html 

The second blog I found was The Rest is Still Unwritten. I picked the blog titled Role Models. It had many good insights on Sonia Sotomayor's memoir, My Beloved World. This blog started with some background on the memoir and a summary on what happened. It continued with how this memoir is helpful to college students. There were many good points brought up, like how students should welcome failure, not to be afraid to find a mentor, and how students have to experience something before they learn from it. 

http://stepphhr7.blogspot.com/2013/10/8b-role-models.html

8V Mastery

To me, mastery means to have a complete understanding of an issue or subject. Those who exhibit these traits are then masters. These people have put in their time and patience into completely learning a subject.

Two words that I had to look up this week were from my history class and the sociology class that is paired with inquiry. They are remonstrate, which means to criticize in a superior way, and conformism, which means to get together for a common cause.

8I Play 

This week, I went with my friends to the play at the Lyman Center on Thursday night at 8pm. The play was "Shakespeare in Hollywood." 

I thought it was a cute play, but it was very long. It ended around 10, which I thought was a little over the top. However, it was entertaining, as I love Shakespeare plays. This was a spoof on A Midsummer Night's Dream, one of my favorite Shakespeare plays. They included lines from various other Shakespeare plays, which I got very excited about. 

8B Sonia Sotomayor

My six word memoir is "Reaching out to my true self." I created this memoir because my entire life has been an attempt at trying to decide who I am. I am not sure if I will ever know who I truly am, but coming to college has given me a more realistic view of my true self. 

I think "My Beloved World" by Sonia Sotomayor was chosen because it tells the story of someone coming from almost nothing and working up to a fantastic career. This book was chosen to inspire us to be who we want to be, which is a very important lesson for a college student. I do, however, believe that reading this book was a waste of time. The book could be summarized in a few sentences, and I found it very boring. I also felt, by the end of the book, that Sotomayor was simply bragging about the famous people she has relationships with. It left me feeling more annoyed and put down than inspired.

This book did have one strong point. Many students have parents who want them to do something other than what the student themselves truly wants. I know that I am one of these students. My parents want me to do something more affluent than teaching, but I have no desire to do such things. Sotomayor's memoir tells students to follow what they want and to create their own path in life. They do not have to follow in their parents footsteps to be happy and successful. 

"My Beloved World" can also teach college students that anything is possible. Sotomayor came from a poor household but managed, through her studies, to get into an Ivy League college. Nobody believed that she could, but she set her goals high and showed them that she could. Many students who come from poorer home lives are set in the mindset that they will never amount to anything educationally and should not try. Sotomayor shows that by having a growth mindset, you can actually achieve whatever you set your mind to. This is not only aimed towards students who come from challenged backgrounds, but all students who feel that they are not able to do something.

Video project draft 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DREbtBXayn8

7B Supposed to Be My Best Subject?

I felt that I was failing at my history class, which was alarming and surprising to me as I am a history major. You're supposed to be good in the classes for your major, right? Well, I was not actually failing it, but I had the lowest grade in this class than I had ever had in a history class. 

The only grades we have in that class is quizzes and the midterm and final. We had had one quiz, and even though I did not fail, I did not do as well as I had thought. After getting that grade, I promised myself that I was going to do better on the next one. 

I had not really studied as much as I should have for the first one. In high school I rarely studied and still got good grades, so I thought the same would apply here. I was very wrong. I realized that this must have been my mistake, so I made sure to take excellent notes and study both the night before and in the break I had before history. During the quiz, I made sure to read the questions thoroughly and go over my answers before handing it in. 

I got my grade back today, and I got a 95 on it- I got one question wrong. I now know how I have to prepare for future tests and quizzes in not only my history class but all my others as well.

7A Failure is a Harsh Word

I believe that to succeed, you need to first fail. If you do not fail, then how do you know if you really succeed? Succeeding after a failure also makes the feeling of success better. We are both pressured to succeed and told that it is okay to fail. I feel that it is okay to fail in some situations and frowned upon to fail in others. For example, it would be okay to fail at a minor event, like a test, and frowned upon to fail at something major, like a surgery. 

There are definitely safe places to fail. One of these is school, because there are usually many opportunities to correct the failure. In school there are also many opportunities to change these failures into successes. An example would be failing a test, staying after for extra help, retaking the test, and getting a much better grade on it. 

There are many places that you should not fail, like in your career and occasionally at home. Some people have the home life that failure means harm or stress put onto you. Failing at your career can not only be detrimental to you, but others around you as well. For instance, I want to be a teacher. If I were to fail at my teaching, I would not only hurt my career but my students education. 

I believe that without failure, there is no success. So, to be successful in life, you must overcome failure. Failure actually makes you a stronger individual. It helps you overcome problems you face in the future, and makes you more careful of your actions.

7V Math Problems

To me, failure means not being able to accomplish something that you worked hard at accomplishing. I have run into failure many times, especially in math class. It seems that it is fitting that the two words I had to look up this week were also in math class. They are factorial and domain. A factorial is the product of an integer and the integers below it. We are learning about rational exponents and radicals, and part of the process to simplify the problem is the factor them. The other word was domain. A domain is the set of values for the independent variables.

7I Modeling

This week, I attended BSU's FACE Modeling Auditions. They took place in the ballroom of the Adanti Student Center. I had a lot of fun, especially since I have wanted to model since middle school. I was, unfortunately, too awkward in middle school to really do anything, and wanted to make sure to attempt in college. 

We learned many different runway poses and had auditions. I felt very confident after, and I look forward to see what I will hear back from them. I loved the experience, and even if nothing happens from it, will always remember it with pride.

6I,5 Football

I went to the football game on the fourth of October. My friend is on the dance team, so I wanted to make sure I could see her perform at it. It was a lot of fun to go with all my friends and see her perform, especially since it was her birthday weekend. There were so many people and I saw how much pride Southern has. I had never been to a football game before, as my high school did not have a team, and it was exciting to be able to be a part of it. I got to cheer on my school, which was something I never got to do in high school. I saw how connected it made everyone, and it was a very fascinating experience.

6B What do I think?

This weeks readings caused many questions, especially ones about intelligence and what intelligence truly is. I was very surprised when I took the Grit test. I took it before reading the article and watching the TED Talk, so I did not know how bad my score of a 2.88 was. Once I discovered that the "grittiest" had a number closer to 5, I was shocked. I had always thought myself as someone who did not give up easily, so getting such a low number was somewhat discouraging. When I saw that grit was a good measurement of intelligence, I was equally shocked. I was upset- was I not intelligent? As I thought about it more, and after the discussions in class I decided that the test was probably not a good measurement of intelligence. Many people have different definitions for intelligence, so I decided to disregard this test.

For Thursdays class, I was in group two. I learned about vulnerability and shame. Both play a heavy part in everyday life. Vulnerability was described by Bernee Brown as an "honest, raw bid for connection." We connect with people everyday- we have to as it is in human nature to socialize. I also learned about shame.  Shame relates to group threes topic of making mistakes. When you make a mistake, you cause yourself to become shamed. You become more vulnerable, because you are worried that people will judge you for the mistakes you made. This group was saying, however, that making mistakes can actually help you. By making mistakes, you can help lower your shame level as well. This can help with not only life in school, like failing a test or making a mistake in a project, but in the actual world. It can help in your job. For example, if you are late and get called out on it or spill coffee on yourself or something important.

https://www.google.com/search?q=embarrassed+cartoon&client=safari&hl=en&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=uctNUpXUDIiqyAHl-oDoCA&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAA&biw=768&bih=928&dpr=2#facrc=_&imgrc=LezmWqqmpBHEAM%3A%3BmtOPXeh2nFxgpM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Falsanda.files.wordpress.com%252F2013%252F02%252Fcartoon-embarrassed-face.png%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Falsanda.wordpress.com%252F2013%252F02%252F02%252Fbarbie-for-christmas%252F%3B243%3B224

6V History... Again

Persistence is being able to work on something until it is completed and you are satisfied with it. For example, say there is something that you are working very hard on, but keep failing at. Being persistent would be ignoring the times you failed and working towards that goal until you are happy with the result. 

This week in history, I came across two words that made absolutely no sense.They were dharma and nirvana. I discovered that dharma is the teachings of the Buddha. We were learning about Buddhism and how it came into Chinese culture. I also found out that nirvana is not only the name of a band, as I had already known, but also a state where you are at peace. The Buddhist belief is that you are reborn until you reach nirvana.

6A Regionals

In eighth grade, I participate in the CMEA Northern Regional Middle School Honors Orchestra Competition. I played the oboe, and my private lesson teacher persuaded me to auditioned. There was one problem with auditioning- I did not play in school. I was part of the orchestra at the Hartt School of Music, but I was not in my schools orchestra, which was mandatory to audition. I told my schools music teacher about how I was interested in auditioning, and thankfully he agreed to help me by saying I was one of his students. 

My private lesson teacher helped me prepare the selections; a fast piece, a slow piece, a chromatic scale, and a two octave scale of my choice. She also helped me with the sight reading part. She had me practice by giving me random selections to play. I practiced religiously for months until it was the day of the audition. I remember walking into the room and begin shaking. The only thing that helped my confidence was talking to another participant and realizing that I was one of the only ones who chose the harder of the two selected audition pieces. 

The next week, the band teacher came up to me in shock. I had an almost perfect score- I was two points off. I was first oboe for the orchestra. It was one of the proudest moments of my life. All the hard work and sacrifices I made had payed off. This experience helped me realize that working hard had enormous benefits and pays off more than putting a little effort into what I do. 

https://www.google.com/search?q=oboe&client=safari&hl=en&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=jIdMUqWvCcy6yAHejoDgDQ&ved=0CAkQ_AUoAA&biw=768&bih=928&dpr=2#facrc=_&imgrc=GdW6mOhq3AiWLM%3A%3Bwm6EPBy9r2n0hM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.rentmyinstrument.com%252Fimages%252Foboe.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.rentmyinstrument.com%252Foboe%3B545%3B409