Week 8 Famous Last Words

Praise the lord I survived my midterm week! I'm not sure how, but I did. I don't even want to think about my grades. Monday was really stressful because I spent the entire day studying for my midterms on Tuesday. After my exams, it's been smooth sailing academically. I don't know where I'm at with my social life. Although I must say that I did spend time with my brothers! That was really cool! I went home early since all my friends were busy with classes and their midterms. The best part was that I hung out with BOTH of my brothers, not just Erik (my younger brother)! It was really nice for all of us to be together again. We had a good talk about several subjects such as transgender, satire, and new movies.Also, I witnessed the process of feeding my snake! I must say that it was brutal. She has to be fed fresh food, and she's still learning how to constrict her prey. It took her a couple of tries, but she finally ate. I'd like to post a photo, but they're really graphic. I don't think too many people would appreciate it.

On a different note, I started reading about Krishna for this week's reading. I have always heard about Krishna, and I know several people named Krishna. So I finally decided to look more into this Krishna character. From what I have read so far, Krishna is like a Hindu Hercules. He's a beast! As a baby, he destroyed two demons just by playing with them. At the age of eight, he also defeated a giant hundred-headed serpent. What's crazy about him is that he plays with his enemies. There isn't an epic battle between Krishna and his enemies. He literally plays with them as if he wasn't in any real danger. Then he kills them without breaking a sweat. In short, Krishna is awesome!

My take on Krishna. A photo of Disney's Hercules. Source.

Week 8 Tech Tip: Quozio.com

For this week's tech tip, I used Quozio.com to make the quote poster below.

Quote by Unknown. Source.

The website was really simple. I think this website has the fastest and simplest way to generate a quote poster. Simply type in the quote and its author into the box provided, and the website will create pre-made font and background. Quozio creates a lot of different fonts and backgrounds to choose from so if you're not a fan of the first poster it generated, you can always pick others.

I decided to choose this quote because it describes me well. I'm always afraid of change because I feel like I'm not ready for new challenges. I think about what I have to sacrifice and that makes me even more reluctant to welcome change. For example, I didn't want to work because I knew I had to give up my weekends. MY WEEKENDS! That was such a major blow because the weekends are my days to catch up on homework and spend time with my family and friends. I finally persuaded myself to get a job, and I'm so happy that I did. Yes, I still had to give up my weekends, but I have learned so much more from working than watching Netflix. I have acquired necessary career skills, such as professionalism, communication, and teamwork, and learned so much about the healthcare system.
I was so focused on losing my free time that I never realized what I would gain from working. In the end, I'm happy that I pushed myself to a new challenge.

Week 8 Growth Mindset

I found the perfect infographic that I need to incorporate into my life! It literally lists all the phrases I use on a daily basis. Here it is:

There's always room for improvement. Source.

I know I have said every single phrase listed on the left side at least a thousand times, especially the sixth statement (math is not my friend). Growth mindset puts a strong emphasis on improvement rather than viewing mistakes as permanent failure. In order to improve my self-confidence, I'm working on shifting my perspective on my mistakes from "this-is-the-end-of-the-world" view to a self-improvement view. For example, at the beginning of the semester, I was really struggling in my molecular lab class. This is by far the most difficult lab I have ever taken in my college career. I failed my first quiz and my first notebook check which really took a hit to my grade and self-esteem. I constantly thought to myself:

"I can't do this."
"I want to quit."
"This class is too hard."

Fortunately, I had an encouraging lab group that helped me break through my slump. As a group, we focused on our short-comings and ways to improve our studying and lab reports. A couple weeks later, I aced my quizzes and had the top lap report grade. My professor even complimented on my improvement! Now I have a new way to frame my problems. Instead of putting myself down and thinking that I don't have what it takes, I try to use what I know to attempt the problem. All I need is a little faith in myself.

Moreover, I like how the infographic also lists the "I'm awesome at this" statement. This shows me that even when you are skilled, you should keep your humility. I'll admit that sometimes I think I can do anything when I feel comfortable, but then I make a mistake! Words to live by: Never let success go to your head or failure go to your heart.

Reading Plan

I decided for my reading plan that I would read stories by woman authors. My focus is mainly on Sister Nivedita. I picked woman authors for several reasons. First off, most of the online versions of books are by woman authors (most of them are by Nivedita). I wanted to learn about Krishna, and I noticed that Nivedita did have a story about the adventures of Krishna. So overall, my preferences for online sources plus a story about Krishna led me to read stories that had woman authors. I think this will be a good idea for me to branch out from a single topic and to analyze how writing style and character portrayal by woman authors.

My schedule will be as follows:

Week 9 - Kishna by Nivedita

Week 10 - Kali the Mother by Nivedita

Week 11 - Shiva by Nivedita

Week 12 - Ideal Indian Women: Savitri, Damayanti, Sati, and Uttara by Sunity Devee

I'm stopping my reading plan at week 12 because I'm sure by that time I will have reach my point goal. I might switch up the order because I'm excited to read Devee's Ideal Indian Women, but I'm conflicted because I would like to know more about Krishna.

An Image of Krishna. Source.

Reflections: Looking Forward

As I look at the second half of the semester, the best strategy for me is to work ahead whenever possible. Although I try my best to do the posts early, I usually finish the week's work and stop there. Something that I would like to try a little differently is to try to do as much work as possible until I reach my goal which is to finish early (perhaps around week 11). At the beginning of the semester, I was overwhelmed by the number of weekly assignments. Sometimes I didn't understand the directions and other times I forgot to do assignments (thank goodness for the grace period). For the second half of the semester, I need to be more aware of due dates and how they conflict with my exams for other classes. Exams tend to take priority so I end up concentrating on studying which leads to missing assignments for my online classes. On a positive note, I'm looking forward to completing more growth mindset challenges. Not that I don't like the other assignments, but I really enjoy learning more about growth mindset. I'm planning to complete multiple challenges at once so that I can complete weeks of extra credit in advance. Surely this will help me complete this course early.

For my writing skills, I'd like to work on descriptions. I've done a lot of monologues and dialogues, but now I'd like to focus on establishing a setting through description. In order to improve my writing style is to take careful notes of the reading's descriptions on setting. So for future readings, I'd like to take more notes on settings.

I can't believe it's already halfway through the semester. Where did the time go?

To the finish line! Source.

Reflection: Looking Back

Looking back at my posts, I realized that my writing style has changed dramatically by including more dialogue and chacter development. My favorite posts are definitely the growth mindset challenges and the famous last words. The growth mindset really appeals to me because I like the fact that everyone is capable of reaching their goals if they just put in the work and effort. The growth mindset memes crack me up! I love seeing the cats and the lessons that they portray. It's also interesting to see what teachers are involved in teaching growth mindset to their students. Famous last words is another interesting weekly post that I enjoy participating in. It gives me a moment to reflect my week. I like to think about how I can find solutions to my current dilemmas and post the little things that made my week. Although the majority of my posts talk about stress, hardships, and other dilemmas, I try to make sure to post something positive.

On a different note, I do most of the work for this class in the library. Every morning after class I try to finish the assignments that are due the next day so that I don't fall  behind. Except today I am falling behind because I have two midterms today! I completely forgot to make this post until I saw the reminder email. I spent my entire day yesterday studying, and I feel like my brain is nuked.

How my brain feels. Source.