Week 7 Famous Last Words

I almost forgot to to write about my week! This week has been more relaxed than last week, but that's because next week will be another tough week. More paper. More lab reports. More open lab. I'm glad I have a close-knit capstone lab group who keep going when I feel discouraged. I'll be honest. I let my imagination run wild and thought about dropping all of my classes except for capstone (I still need to graduate). Of course my friends told me that was a ridiculous idea. I knew it too. I just need to finish this second half of the semester. The eighth semester is almost done. I can do this.

In other news, I went to Riverwind Casino for their seafood buffet this past Friday with a few friends. It was expensive, but so worth it. Endless crab legs, catfish, oysters, and shrimp as far as the eye can see. I thought I died and went to seafood heaven. I must have eaten double my recommended calorie intake but, hey, seafood is healthy right?

Crab legs are the best legs. Source.

I only worked one day this week which is great! I was able to spend time with my brother and my dad today which is a rare occasion. Oh! And my dad fixed my trunk! I forgot to mention that I was involved in a hit and run on Wednesday morning near Lloyd Noble. I was turning into the parking lot when all of the sudden a car rear-ended me. He/She sped away before I could not the license plate number. Now there's a huge dent in my bumper and my trunk couldn't close. Later that night, I had my friends look at it, and we spent an hour trying to close my trunk with zipties and rope. Good news is that my dad is the master when it comes to auto-body, so he was able to fix the trunk.

Things that I'm excited for in the future: Stan's 21st birthday party! One of my best friends is turning 21, and, as tradition, we plan to throw him a party that he probably won't remember. Also, Dawn of Justice is coming out soon, and I'm pumped! I've been waiting for the release of that movie for ages. Spring break should be fun! I don't have any plans except catch up on homework and maybe work if I can. Other than that, all is swell!

Week 7 Tech Tip: YouTube Playlist

Now, I have no idea why I haven't looked into this tech tip ages ago. I'm on YouTube all the time. Whether its to listen to music, find funny videos, or watching a scientific animation, I'm ALWAYS on YouTube. In fact, I'm on YouTube right now listening to music. I used to just listen to the YouTube mixes that are provided, but I finally customized my perfect playlist for each occasion. So I created a playlist called Soul Music which contains some of my favorite soul music videos:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLd6UAn61wxLIQt89RQcqZzPTD4yF-lJL6

This is usually my playlist when I walk around campus or if I have tons of homework to do. It's really soothing and powerful at the same time. In the future, I'll make more playlists for running, parties, sleeping etc. and it'll always be perfect because I made it.

Week 7 Learning Challenge: Attention Memes

Half-way through the semester, yet graduation seems so far away! With that being said, classes are becoming harder and projects are piling up. Sometimes things become out of my control and that creates more stress. I found this image and it made a good point. It's posted below:

Attention meme. Source.

There are things that matter, things that I can control, and only a silver of things fall between in the middle. I should make my priority over the things that matter and are in my control. For example, I can control my grades. My grades matter because I need to graduate. I should focus on my grades rather than worrying about what other people think about me or other trivial things. In this way, I won't feel like I'm wasting my time. Instead, I'll be redirecting my attention to more important matters.

Week 7 Growth Mindset: Learning about Growth Mindset

I was browsing through the articles about growth mindset, and I found one that seemed to relate to me. The article was called "Learning about struggles of famous scientists may help students succeed in science." In this study, freshmen and sophomores of a low-income high school were divided into three groups. One group read about scientists' struggles while the other group only read about scientists' successes. After a six-week period, the students who read about scientific failures showed a grade increase while the other group showed a grade decrease. The part of the article that really stuck me was this sentence: Many students don't realize that all successes require a long journey with many failures along the way. I can't stress this enough to my friends that failure is part of the learning process. In fact, sometimes I forget that! Recently, I haven't been receiving the best grades for my capstone assignments, and it becomes frustrating knowing how much hard work I put into each paper. I have to remind myself constantly that I can't succeed at everything. It's not failure. It's a lesson to be learned.

Moreover, it's sometimes difficult to be a science major and to see failure when you're taught about every scientists' successes. In comparison, I felt stupid and inadequate. Sometimes it seemed useless to continue studying science because I believed I couldn't never reach their level of success. However, everything came into perspective in my history of science course when I learned about the hundreds of failed experiments or the years of research to finally reach the eureka moment. Science is hard work. Life is hard work. There would never be any progress if no one failed. In fact, the world be plain and boring if we didn't fall every once in awhile.

Failure doesn't define anyone. Source.

Week 7 Extra Credit Reading: Saints and Animals

For this week's extra credit reading, I skimmed through the Biblical unit, and I found the Saints and Animals Unit. The most interesting chapter to me was the Ballad of Saint Felix.This story is from the Book of Saints and Friendly Beasts by Abbie Farwell Brown (1900).

The Ballad of Saint Felix

 I liked the way the story was formatted. Since it was a ballad, the story was written like a song. There was a rhyming scheme with perfect paragraph breaks. I actually read the ballad out loud, and there was a nice rhythm to the ballad. Overall, the story of Saint Felix was quite interesting. An emperor was slaying all the Christians in the land. Being a Bishop, Felix was a target in the Emperor's persecution. To escape the Emperor, Felix dressed as an old beggar and pass through the soldiers undetected. He runaway as fast as he could until he couldn't run anymore. He then found a hiding place in a crack of a wall. Luckily, a spider saved Felix's life by creating a thick web that covered the crack. The soldiers never found Felix. Felix survived in that wall because everyday a Christian lady would pass bread through the web until the persecution was over.

I liked this story mostly because it deals with the persecution of Christianity. It's unbelievable to think that people were jailed, tortured, and even put to death because of their religion. Even more unbelievable is the fact that persecution due to religion still occurs today.

Saint Felix. Source.

Week 7 Storytelling: The Three Ducklings

It was Scrooge Mcduck's final hour, and he had to tell his grandnephews something very important before he went to heaven.

"Huey, Dewey, and Louie, come close please. I must give each of you a gift." The three grandnephews scooted closer to Grandpa Scrooge's side, being careful not to miss his final Scottish words. "My dear boys, you know that I am wealthiest duck because of my successful business. I have worked hard to give you, my grandnephews, a better life than I have lived. Now it is time to give each of you a share of my fortune."

Huey, Dewey, and Louie jumped with joy! They were going to be filthy rich!

Huey: "Thank you Grandpa Scrooge! With your money, I'm going to buy the fastest jet in the world!"

Dewey: "Grandpa, with your money I'll be able to buy the fastest boat that has ever sailed the ocean blue! You're the best!"

Louie: "Grandpa, I can buy the newest, fastest, car that just came out the market! It's all because of you!"

The three grandnephews hugged Scrooge with such delight, hoping that their grandpa would pass over in any moment so that they can buy their new toys. Grandpa Scrooge rolled his eyes and sat his grandnephews at the foot of his hospital bed. "Listen here, young boys! You will not be receiving money! Instead, I have just the gifts for you." Grandpa Scrooge rummage around his sack that was next to his bed. "Huey, here is a scythe. Be very careful with it. It's very sharp, and I better not see you chasing your brothers with it, young man! Dewey, for you I have a rooster. It is the finest rooster in all of Duckburg. Don't let it chase your brothers like a mad man! Last but not least, Louie, I have a cat for you. It's very fluffy."

Huey, Dewey, and Louie looked at their gifts with shock. This was not what they had in mind at all. All of the sudden, Grandpa Scrooge coughed violently. "Boys, do me proud and make a fortune from those gifts." With that, he was gone.

A week later, the boys were still searching for a way to make money from their gifts.

Huey: What can I do with this giant scythe? No one wants it!
Dewey: At least it cuts! I have a rooster that wakes me up at the crack of dawn! Who would want that?
Louie: I like my cat. It's fluffy.

Then their prayers were answered. A stranger came into town.

Stranger: Top of the mornin' to ya young lads! I was hoping that you could point me in the direction where I could find a tool for cutting crops, an alarm clock, and poison for the rats. My town is in trouble. My crops rot because we can't pull the stalks by hand fast enough. My workers sleep in because they have no sense of time, and mice have infested my town! They eat all the crops!

Huey, Dewey, and Louie looked at each other with great joy!

Huey: Say no more, sir! I have your tool for cutting crops!
Dewey: I have your alarm clock!
Louie: I don't have anything for rats...

Huey and Dewey kicked some sense into Louie.

Louie: I mean.. I have a fluffy cat.

The stranger paid the three boys more than their weight in gold for the scythe, the rooster, and for the fluffy cat. From the heavens above, Scrooge Mcduck looked down at his grandnephews with tears of joys in his eyes. "My boys, my little entrepreneurs, I knew they would make me proud."

Scrooge with Huey, Dewey, and Louie. Source.

Author's Note: I wrote this story based of off the Filipino tale The Poor Man and his Three Sons. I the original story, a poor man gave his three sons gifts: a scythe, a rooster, and a cat. With these gifts, he told his sons find a place that will give value to each item and sell them. The son with the scythe sold his tool to a village that needed to cut down rice crops. The son with the rooster sold his rooster to a town that had never seen a rooster before. The son with the cat sold his cat to a town that was infested with mice. He son had won a large sum of money because they selected the right place in which to trade (the moral of the story). I changed the story up a bit. Since there were three sons, I immediately thought of some of my favorite cartoon characters: Huey, Dewey, and Louie. They had an Uncle Scrooge (aka Grandpa Scrooge) who was a successful business man and tycoon. I tried to portray each of their personalities into their dialogue. To make the story shorter, I had on stranger needing all three of their items.

Bibliography: Filipino Popular Tales by Dean Fansler (1921)

Week 7 Reading Diary: Filipino Tales Cont.

This is the continuation of the Filipino Popular Tales by Dean S. Fansler (1921). I wasn't a huge fan of the Filipino tales. They seemed a little one dimensional. I chose to focus on the two chapters listed below since it they appealed to me more than the others.

Why the Sun Shine More Brightly than the Moon

I liked this story because, well, for one it was about the sun and the moon. I have always enjoyed hearing about other culture's origin stories about the sun and the moon. Secondly, the story was about two daughters which reminded me of my twin sisters. In this story, Araw, older daughter, was very kind and good-natured. On the other hand, her younger sister, Buwan, was rude and cruel. One day their mother, who was a fairy, witnessed Buwan mistreating Araw, so the mother prayed to God for help. God wanted to see for himself what the fuss was about so he disguised himself as a beggar and approached the sister. Araw treated the beggar well so God gave her a diamond that shined brightly. Buwan didn't get a diamond. Therefore, she traveled to the heavens and stole a smaller diamond from God. Infuriated, God sent his angels to retrieve the diamond and to punish Buwan. However, the angels ended throwing both the girls into the ocean and threw the diamonds into the sky where they still remain today. Araw means day or sun; Buwan means moon.

Sun and Moon. Source.

The Lost Necklace

In this story,  a crow buys a fine necklace that shined brightly. He wore his necklace everywhere. One day, Hen was walking with her little chicks when she noticed the crow's necklace. Mesmerized by its beauty, Hen asked the crow if she could borrow the necklace for the night. Crow liked Hen so he agreed. The next day Crow noticed that Hen was no longer wearing the necklace. When he inquired about it, Hen apologized and explained that her chicks took in the middle of the night. They've been looking for it all day, but still had no luck. Crow was angry and told Hen to keep looking for the necklace. To this day, hens and their chicks scratch the ground looking for the crow's necklace.

Week 7 Reading Diary: Filipino Tales

I decided to read through the Filipino Popular Tales by Dean S. Fansler (1921) for this weeks Asian unit. My favorite readings were about three brothers and three sons. I'm not sure it is about the number three that makes it so popular in folk stories.

Three Brothers of Fortune

Three sons, named Suan, Iloy, and Ambo, played hooky and decided to go on an adventure. Throughout their journey, each of them found charms. Ambo was given a book that revived the dead. Iloy was given a magic carpet that flew in the air. Suan wasn't given any charm. Instead he found two rocks that morphed together when they touched then separated again. He was convinced that the stones had magical powers, so he kept them in his pocket. Further into their journey, the three sons found a couple crying over their dead daughter. Ambo brought her back to life with his book. Iloy whisked them away, including the daughter, to a beach. Suan saved them all from drowning by repairing a broken plank pieces with his rock. In the end, they argued who would keep the daughter. Because they couldn't reach an agreement, they had a kind decide. The king split the daughter into three parts so that the sons could have an equal share. Ambo, an Iloy didn't want their share and left. Suan gathered all three pieces and had his magic rocks put the daughter back together. It was then Suan who had the greatest charm.



The Poor Man and His Three Sons

A dying father gave his three sons three different objects, a scythe, a rooster, and a cat. In order to make money off of those objects, the father advised his sons to find a place in which the people were in need of each object's function. The first son with the scythe found a village with rice crops. He showed the villagers how a scythe can be used to cut down the crops much faster than ripping the crops by hand. Amazed by the new tool, the villagers bought the scythe for a large sum of money. The second son introduced the concept of time to a town that didn't have a rooster, so they bought the rooster for lots of money. The third son found a town that was rat-infested. He showed the town that his cat could kill the rats. His cat was sold and he left with a large sum of money. The moral of the story: Select the right place in which to trade.

The Three Sons. Source.