Famous Last Words: Finally Done

So these really will be my famous LAST words. No pressure. As I scramble to finish this very last assignment before I have to leave for my 11:30 class (and mentally kick myself AGAIN for not doing this last night) I've been thinking about... well... just how hungry I am really. Not much else. I'm really excited to be finishing up this semester on a relatively high note (at least in this class). I'm thinking maybe I will start a blog next semester. Nobody will read it, but it'll be fun. I can make it like an online diary. Sharing life advice with freshmen starting OU in the fall.

So my adventure last night, and why I didn't do my homework like I should have, was all because of a little Yorkie that I'd like to share with you because he is just TOO adorable. On Tuesday, I signed a lease for next year at Callaway House Apartments. Out of the Residential Colleges and into a big girl apartment! I will be living with one of my best friends and sorority sister, Alyssa, in a two bedroom/2 bathroom unit. I'm mostly excited to have a kitchen. Anyways, Alyssa is from the Tulsa area and her parents needed a dog sitter. Enter Moose:

(Personal Photo)

This little ball of fluff weighs about 1 lb soaking wet, and is beyond spoiled. Last night we drove to OKC to meet her parents and do a dog handoff before they got back on the highway to head to somewhere in Texas (don't ask me, I can hardly navigate around my own state, let alone the midwest).

This Saturday is my sorority's annual holiday dinner with our brother fraternity. The (ideal) plan for saturday is to come home after spending the night at my boyfriends, head over to Alyssa's place, and spend like 6 hours baking with christmas music and a dog (in his christmas sweater) before getting all dolled up to go have a big family dinner with my sisters. I wish everyone the best of luck on their finals, and have a great holiday season!

Review: Week 15

It seemed only appropriate for me to choose the picture and video from today's announcement. I especially like that the christmas card has so many different languages on it. The video was SO cool. I can't believe someone managed to arrange THAT MANY recordings into an actual song, and all of the singers are good too! The scrolling credits are longer than the actual song because there were that many people. I can only imagine how much work this took.

Wikipedia Trails: From Anti-Suicide Smock to Cherokee

The Random Article button took me to a rather sad starting point this morning. Anti-suicide smocks are gowns specifically designed to keep people from forming them into nooses. There was also mention of an anti-suicide blanket, which led me to the Quilting page. Many quilting patterns were done by Native Americans. One tribe of native americans that is well known, especially in Oklahoma, are the Cherokee. That is where we end out trail today. On a much happier note thankfully.

via Pixabay

Learning Challenge: Learn About Sleep

This article mainly reinforced what I have learned and have tried to practice this semester. ALWAYS choose sleep. Studying until 4am means nothing if you can't function enough to remember what you studied the next day.

via Wikimedia Commons

Article: Why Sleeping May Be More Important Than Studying

Growth Mindset: Learning from Other Students

Quote 1:

R.U.N.

I've always like the word run. When we get negative feedback, let's take it in stride. We accomplished something that received feedback. We have the potential to make it better, to do better.
R-Rejoice
U-Under
N-Negativity

I don't handle negative feedback well, so this will be one to keep in mind going forward,

Quote 2:

YOU WILL BE OKAY

My mantra is something my mom always tells me when I'm freaking out or stressed over schoolwork. When she says "You will be okay," there is a sense of "you will be okay because you better have put in the effort for this test/essay/whatever and so you will do okay because you put the work in, right?" It  emphasizes the process - the process of studying/writing a paper/listening and paying attention.

This is a big issue for me. When I put in so much effort, only to have a grade come back not as high as it needed to be.

via Flickr

Tech Tip: Canvas Dashboard

I turned off my color overlay!!! Man I wish I would have known how to do that earlier. I would highly recommend everyone go do this. If your class actually has a picture set up for it on Canvas, you'll be able to see it clearly now! That being said, if there ISN'T an image selected you can still choose a color to have displayed for each class.

Seriously, where was this all last year??? I feel cheated.

Reading Notes: Nursery Rhymes (Part A)

This sin;t my typical Reading Notes style, but the main thing I would want to consider doing is rewriting pieces from the Tales and Proverbs sections in the same style as the two Songs sections. What can I say, I like rhyming!

There's also a piece in Songs, Part One about Johnny and I have the urge to redo it in the style of the "Keke Do You Love Me' song.

via Wikimedia Commons

Story Source: Nursery Rhymes

Famous Last Words: One Week Left

Well, I did it. For the second week in a row I have completed all six regular assignments and all eight extra credit assignments. This past week was absolutely insane, and this coming week won't be much better. On the brightside, I no longer have the take my Experiencing Music final. Speaking of, if anyone is still in need of their fine art gen ed, I would HIGHLY recommend this class. It's so much easier and more fun than Understanding Music.

Anyways, on Friday my professor announced that anyone who had a 95% or above no longer had to take the final exam. Per the syllabus, we get three absences in that class before our grade is affected. I was a good noodle this semester and didn't skip a single class period (for this course at least). So I don't have to go to the last three classes (M/W/F) this week. All they will be doing is studying for the final, that I no longer have to take. It hurts my heart a bit because that was the one class I actually enjoyed showing up to. This course doesn't count. We don't actually have to go to class. I mean, Why couldn't I get out of my Organic Chemistry final instead?

This week I have this class (I need the week 15 help), an oral exam in Italian, and a research presentation in Organic Chem. It's gonna be a struggle with lots of late nights. Then, this weekend, my sorority is doing a holiday dinner with our brother fraternity. I'm going to go over to my friend Alyssa's apartment to get all dolled up and bake a crap ton of pumpkin bread. I'm so excited!

After finals week, I'm flying from OKC to Florida where I'm meeting my family to go on a week long Caribbean Cruise! It's gonna be a lot of fun, especially since the drinking age at most of the places we'll be stopping is only 18 (RIP to my little bro who's only 17). I hope everyone can finish out this semester strong. We're so close guys!

Also, I finally got my pink christmas lights hung up in my room! Yay!

Me realizing just how hot these 90s era lights were
making my flammable body pillow
(Personal Photo)

Reading Notes: American Indian Fairy Tales (Part B)

1-3. The Boy who Snared the Sun

• I just want to see the boy get pulled into the sky by his lasso.

4-6. How the Summer Came

• There is mention of a great flood in this culture too
• There has to be some truth to it

7-8. Fairy Bride

• I would love to write about the girl's point of view as she goes to the fairy world and gets married

Fairy Bride
via Pexels

Story Source: American Indian Fairy Tales, W. T. Larned

Review: Week 14

Source: Class Announcements, Sunday, December 2

I chose this picture this week because it's dead week and I feel this meme on a spiritual level. It's been a rough semester.

For the video, I went back another day to the Saturday, December 1st class announcements. This short story is absolutely adorable and the sullen teenager playing video games reminds me a little bit of my younger brother. Have a look!

Wikipedia Trail: From Ebenshausen to Nuclear Fusion

I started of this joureny with the "Random Article" button on Wikipedia. It took me to Ebenshausen, a municipality in central Germany. Then it was off to Vehicles Registration Plate. Next was Metal. Finally, I ended on Nuclear Fusion.

Germany, my starting point.
Source: Wikipedia

Learning Challenge: Crying Alone in My Room Before Class

This week I looked at the Empathy Challenge "I Wish My Teacher New..." reading the note from so many young children about fighting parents, sketchy financials, and even homelessness has me fighting back tears as I type this. The worst part is that it was done anonymously, so there isn't much that can be done about the situations since you don't know who wrote it. I understand why it probably had to be that way though. I just want to go hug all of these poor babies.

Boy Crying via Pixabay

Growth Mindset: Kitty Cats

Challenge: Explore the random Growth Mindset Cats

I'm actually VERY allergic to cats, so these kittens will have to do. Here are three of my favorites:

Look at this cute little bean :) (Source)

This cat has no shame at all (Source)

SO CUTE!!! AHHH!!! (Source)

These are in no particular order of preference. I just found two super cute kitties. For the second photo, I related to the "What Have I done..." look on the cats face a little too much.

Tech Tip: Canvas Mobile App

I've had the Canvas App downloaded since freshman year. You can technically access Canvas through the OU app, but the dedicated Canvas app works so much better. The interface is smoother and more colorful the the OU app. I would highly recommend anyone who isn't using this already to go download it! If nothing else, it's really helpful for checking your grades easily. I wish it would alert me to due dates, but there's probably just a setting I missed. Oh well.

Famous Last Words: I did EVERYTHING???

It's official! This is my last assignment for week 13! I realized (a little too late) that I was WAY behind on point, so for week 13 I did everything. Yes, everything. All of the normal work as well as all 8 extra credit assignments. I'll be honest, I didn't know if I was gonna be able to pull this off. I'm going to have to do the same for week 14 as well as the extra dead week assignments in order to pass the class, but I'm optimistic! All of the stories and portfolios/storybooks I read this week were fantastic. I'm so proud of how far everyone in the class has come. Myself included! Who would've ever thought that I would be successful(ish) at running a blog? Who knows, maybe I'll start up a personal blog after this class. We'll see.

As far as my plans for this coming week, I'm honestly just ready to be home in Maryland for a bit. My flight leaves at 5:05am Wednesday morning, which I'm not excited about. I also haven't even started packing yet 😅. Unfortunately it looks like I'll have quite a bit of homework to do over break, but none of it is too terribly difficult. I have one test today on Monday and two quizzes (in the same class) on Tuesday this week before I get to leave. My Italian teacher tried to move our test to Tuesday too, but thankfully that got shut down. Especially since it's a Monday/Wednesday/Friday class anyways!

My adorable friend Alyssa, who was awesome enough to
agree to drive me to the airport at 3am on Wednesday.
Source: Personal Photo

The reason I had to use the grace period for my extra credit assignments this morning is because last night was the initiation ceremony for my sorority. I took a little this semester, so it was definitely a proud mama moment.

I don't necessarily want to leave this class, but I'm kind of ready for this whole semester to be over. Bring on Week 14!

Review: Week 13

Source: Class Announcements, Saturday, November 17

I chose the above image because it makes my heart warm and embodies the ideals that my family has always supported, especially around the holidays.
I decided to watch the video from the Tuesday, November 13th class announcements because I LOVE animals and the android advertisement was just too cute. I've imbedded it for y'all to enjoy in case you missed it.

Wikipedia Trail: From Mermaids to the Element Lithium

I started on the mermaid page because they are probably my favorite mythological creature. Then I checked out Sirenomelia, a birth defect that leaves a child's legs attached to one another, vaguely resembling a mermaid. The condition is usually fatal, but it turns out the longest surviving patient is from the place where my uncle lives now! Next up was the Andes Mountains. This is the mountain range that runs along the west coast of South America. Apparently this mountain range holds very high deposits of Lithium. Which is our fourth and final stop on this trail.

Thanks for joining me on this journey!
Source: PublicDomainPictures.Net

Tech Tip: Getting Started with Twine

This was SO much fun! I made a game that will guess what number you're thinking of. Now to figure out how to post it to my blog... That can be for next week. Something tells me I'll spend WAY too much time on this if I don't stop now. I would highly recommend checking out this Tech Tip!

Source: Pixabay

Learning Challenge: Review Your Class Schedule

At the beginning of the semester, I had my three hours divided into two three hour chunks on Tuesdays and Thursdays. This worked okay until my Organic Chemistry class started kicking my ass and I needed that time to review functional groups and conjugation properties. I have since shifted to working 1-2 hours a night every day of the week after classes. This seems to be working better for me, but unfortunately I screwed up bad enough in the beginning that the highest grade I can hope to get in this course is a C. Because of this, I will most likely be spending most of my Thanksgiving break working on Week 14 assignments. This class obviously didn't go quite as well as I had planned, but I did learn a lot about needing to ask for help earlier rather than later. Thankfully, when Laura contacted me about my lack or work, my grade was still salvageable. This also made me take a step back and reevaluate ALL of my classes and helped me get into a much better rhythm all the way around for the back end of this semester.

Useful, but I feel attacked right now. :)
Source: Learning by HEART

Growth Mindset: Focusing on "Yet"

Challenge: Explore Growth Mindset Beyond School

This semester I have applied a Growth Mindset best to being on my sorority's social committee. There were a lot of events planned last minute and the only way to keep from going crazy was to stay hopeful and take things one step at a time. With finals week approaching, and my list of homework growing, the "I haven't done it YET" mindset will hopefully help to keep me somewhat sane.

Source: Growth Mindset and Feedback Cats