Week 13 Review: Sagan

Caption: A Carl Sagan Quote. Link.

I'm a big fan of Carl Sagan, so this graphic from today's announcements (https://canvas.ou.edu/courses/31878/wiki) really stuck out to me. I love most of his quotes and have even highly been considering getting one tattooed on me so I definitely loved this animation. I also thought that the graphic about why punctuation matters was pretty funny too. I think that punctuation is under-used in society today and it can cause some pretty funny mixups so I liked reading that graphic about it. I'm not super involved on campus so I unfortunately do not have anything exciting to share about!

Famous Last Words: Surviving Senioritis

Caption: The throwing of the caps at graduation. Link.

I knew senioritis was real because I experienced it in high school. I struggled to want to go to class, I didn't put as much effort into the assignments, etc. However, the teachers in high school were understanding. We were all going off to college, and that's what actually mattered. College senioritis has been an entirely different beast. I graduate in May and it's been the hardest semester of my life to stay motivated in school. I know that graduation is looming quickly, but I start medical school in August so I know the end isn't quite as near as I'd like for it to be. I've been coasting by this semester and admittedly even that has been hard for me. This is the first semester that I've ever turned in late assignments, that I've missed as much class as I have, and that I've just genuinely had no motivation. I've been trying to turn that around in the past couple of weeks but it's been getting hard. I'm hoping knowing that graduation is just 3 weeks away will give me the boost of motivation I need to get me going. After graduation, I will have one class in Norman in May and then it's off to Leipzig, Germany for me all summer to learn more German before starting Medical School. I'm really excited for my summer and I think that is making this semester even harder. I've been putting my assignments off even more than I usually do but I think I've found a way that can help me get through the rest of this semester and fight off the senioritis. I'm a list-maker. I love making lists and checking things off of them. I'm convinced that there is no better feeling than checking things off my list. So, for the last three weeks of the semester, I've become even more of an avid list maker. I've made a list of every assignment that must be completed before I graduate in May and it's been incredibly therapeutic to cross things off of that list. It's made working on the assignments a little easier because I can see my list getting shorter and shorter and that means I'm getting closer and closer to graduating and whisking away to Germany!

Wikipedia Trail: From Grimms' Fairy Tales to National Park Service

Link 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grimms'_Fairy_Tales
I started with the Grimms' Fairy Tales. I read a lot of their stories this week and they're the focus of my storybook and I just find them really interesting so I wanted to learn a little more about them.

Link 2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Yolen
I decided to explore a topic of somebody that I didn't know. This led me to the author Jane Yolen. She is an author that has written many a books.

Caption: Jane Yolen, the author, Link.

Link 3: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statue_of_Liberty

I thought that it was interesting that Jane's wikipedia page contained a link to the statue of liberty because it's hard to see their connection by looking at them separately. I decided to follow this link because I thought it would be an interesting read and that I could stand to learn more about the topic. 

Link 4: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Park_Service

I admittedly do not know much about the National Park Service, so I decided to follow the link to its' page to learn more about it. I thought it was an interesting read and lead me to a very different ending than my beginning so I thought it was a good end to this trail. 

Learning Challenge: My Health Guide

Caption: Health. Link.

My guide to being happy and healthy! Health isn't always something I've been super keen about. Growing up, my family wasn't very healthy so it's just not something I ever really thought about. However, in the past year, I've started to really focus on my health and I'm a lot happier because of it. One of my biggest health tips is to find something you actually enjoy doing. You will not enjoy exercise if you do not enjoy the type of exercises you are doing. There are TONS of ways to get your exercise in so don't spend your time doing it being unhappy. Find something you enjoy and stick to it! That's similar to my next piece of advice, eat what makes you happy, just not too much of it! You're not going to be able to keep eating things that you don't like, so don't even try. Eat what makes you happy and eat things that you enjoy, but don't eat too much of them and try to balance out what you eat. I always try and work out in the mornings because it sets me up to have a healthier, more productive day. I like to work out with people, because it keeps me accountable. I don't weigh myself because I care more about how I feel, not how a number describes me. 

Growth Mindset: Growth in Training

Caption: A line of triathletes waiting to swim. Link.

I've recently picked up the sport of triathlons. I did my first ever triathlon back in December and I immediately fell in love with them. I've been training and on April 2, I completed my first Half Iron Man, going a total of 70.3 miles. Training was admittedly very hard and I didn't train quite like I had wanted to for it. I was hoping to have trained a bit harder so I would be more prepared. However, there were many times where I wasn't training for the goal of becoming a better athlete and preparing for my triathlons to come. There were many times where when I was training, I was just trying to finish the workout I had set for myself to do. I wasn't working for a larger goal, I was just thinking about accomplishing the task at hand. I think that I could apply growth mindset to my goal of becoming a better triathlete and preparing for my future triathlons. That way, I don't look at the individual workouts as something to get over with, but as stepping stones to the bigger goal at hand.

Google Timer Tech Tip

Today for my tech tip, I learned how to create a timer using google. I rarely use timers now, though I see how they could be incredibly useful and handy. Sometimes, I tell myself I'll devote x amount of time to hardcore studying and then I'll give myself x amount of time as a break. This would be a great way to do this without watching the clock constantly and causing myself to focus on the clock instead of my work. I also think that this could be useful for spending too much time on one problem. Often in my homework assignments, I'll have a long list of problems to solve and I'll tell myself that I'll work for x amount of time on a problem before I'll move onto the next one if I haven't figured it out yet. This would be a great way to ensure that I don't spend too much time trying to figure out one problem to no avail.

Week 13 Reading Notes: Brothers Grimm Hunt Part A

Bibliography: Margaret Hunt, Household Tales by Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm, Link.
Caption: An illustration of Hansel and Gretel. Link

Reading Notes: I didn't realize that in the story of Hansel and Gretel, their parents were trying to be rid of the children and had left them in the woods to die on their own. That is pretty heartless and definitely changes my outlook on the story. Hansel was very clever to use stones that would shine in the moonlight though. What a horrible mother to keep sending them into the woods to die! It's too bad about the birds, because Hansel was clever to leave a path. My heart goes out to the dad who loves the children but must be faithful to his wife and go along with what she says. I think Hansel is a really interesting character because he is so smart and cunning. It's very clever of him to trick the witch into thinking that he isn't getting any fatter. I think that it's interesting though that the final trick that saves the kids is done so by Gretel. All along, Hansel is the smarter of the two but ultimately Gretel saves them and I think that's great. I really like this story and think that it would be interesting to write a story based off of the characters of Hansel and Gretel. 

Week 13 Story Planning: The Big Bad Wolf

Bibliography: D. L. Ashliman, Grimm Brothers' Children's and Household Tales, Link.
Caption: A wolf. Link.

Story Planning: I really liked the wolf character in the Grimm Brothers' stories. I noticed him in (obviously) the Red Riding Hood story and also in the story with the seven children raised by their mother who goes to run some errands and the wolf eats her children while she's away. I liked the wolf because he had such a defined character and this is something I immediately knew I wanted to use in my story. I want to give a backstory of the wolf and hopefully explain why he's the way he is. He is deceitful and hungry, but he didn't know any better because that's the way he was raised. In my story, I intend to tell about the wolf's story. I plan to explain his rough childhood and his parents' stories, because I think that there should be an explanation for why he's not very nice. I think it'll be interesting to give his back story and will make people pity him more, because he always ends up dying in the Grimm Brothers' stories, which I don't think is always fair. This way, the readers will sympathize with the wolf more and will understand his story. I plan to explain how his parents taught him to be deceitful and were never loving, supportive parents so he hates the children with supporting parents (or grandparents, for Little Red). The Wolf was raised with a lot of other siblings (way too many), and his parents never gave him any real attention. His older brothers bullied him and he was always bullied at school too. He didn’t have very many friends because his older brothers were notorious for picking on anyone and everyone. The Wolf was a solitary child who liked gardening and music, but eventually gave both hobbies up as he got older due to his brothers’ bullying.

 

Week 13 Reading Notes: Ashliman Part B

Bibliography: D. L. Ashliman, The Grimm Brothers' Children's and Household Tales, Link.
Caption: An illustration of the cat and the fox fable, Link.

Reading Notes: I like the characters of the cat and the fox, how the fox is extremely narcissistic and gets caught by the dogs whereas the cat is able to escape the dogs with its one trick. I feel like a very common theme in the Grimm's brothers stories is an evil mother. In Aschenputtel, the step-mother is evil and mean. In the story of the children being turned into the fish and the lamb, the mother is again evil and enjoys hurting the kids. This is a very common character and I think would be interesting to use in my story. The Mount Simeli story is very interesting and feels a lot different than other Grimm brothers stories. They usually include kids and some sort of lesson. The Mount Simeli story teaches to not steal, but I think it's interesting that it doesn't actually include any children. I think that the duration of life story was very interesting and would be a good story to write about. It would be interesting to write a story about a man's life and how he is passing through each of these different stages of his life, through the years of man and donkey and dog and monkey. I did not like the story about Death and his messengers, so I do not think I will write a story about this.

Week 13 Reading Notes: Brothers Grimm Reading A

Caption: Rumpelstiltskin illustration from the original story. Link.
Bibliography: D. L. Ashliman, The Grimm Brothers' Children's and Household Tales.

Reading Notes: I really like the play and the banter between the cat and the mouse in the first story. I think it keeps things light and fun which I really appreciate. I really liked the story too about the wolf who ate the children but the children were saved by the mother and the wolf drowned in the river. I think it is an interesting story and reminds me of Red Riding Hood in a way, which I like. It would be fun to write a story with these characters in a different way somehow. I like the deceitful wolf and I like the strong-willed mother. I don't particularly like the story about the seven ravens as much because I don't think it had a very strong ending. It's interesting that the Little Red Cap story is so similar to the one where the wolf eats the seven children. The wolf in both cases is very deceitful and is ultimately killed by filling his stomach with stones. I really like the character of the wolf and think I will use him in my story somehow.