Famous Last Words: Week 14

The semester is coming to an end! I think it’s safe to say I am ready for it to be over and the end cannot come soon enough. Now that the end is approaching I have been primarily focusing on prepping for finals. I have always hated this time of the year. Sleepless nights, caffeine binges, not eating right, and stressing out way too much make for a pretty rotten time. I started preparing sooner than normal to try to avoid the great deal of stress I normally face during this time of the year.

This past week my biggest accomplishment was probably the essay I wrote for my History of Science class. It was an analytical essay over Galileo’s Letter to Christina. This was the longest letter I have ever seen but it was pretty interesting. The purpose of it was to seek the help of the Grand Duchess Christina to avoid condemnation for the Copernican theory and overall the harmful side effect this would have on the study of the physical sciences all together. It was a pretty interesting piece that had points applicable to today’s society in addition to Galileo’s 1600’s world.

Looking forward to the infamous dead week I hope to stay on top of my studies and not procrastinate! I have my Principles of Physiology final this Tuesday and a Comparative Vertebrate Anatomy lab practical this Thursday. I really wish that OU had a true dead week that allowed students to have time to prepare for finals. How does it make any sense that I should have presentations, practicals, and assignments due right before finals?  Shouldn’t my professors want to give me all the time in the world to study for their tests, rather than cramming because I have to worry about other assignments.

Overall I am ready for the end of the semester!

Peace

Famous Last Words: Week 12

This past week was a relatively easy one. The only thing I really had to worry about was getting ahead on studying for a Comparative Vertebrate Anatomy test I have this week. The tests are pretty easy but it is a ton of information to memorize. For our previous exam in the class I had 122 terms to know for fill in the blank questions and 37 short essay questions. I make flash cards like crazy and this helps me to memorize all the information I need to know. Hopefully this upcoming test will go as well as the previous two!

My weekend was a pretty good one overall. I spent my entire night on Friday though sitting in front of the tv watching the news. I can’t imagine what the French people were going through. All I can say is thank God the bomber at the stadium was not able to actually make it inside. The eyes of the world were on Paris this weekend but we can’t forget that events like that are a daily occurrence in regions of the Middle East. People all over the world are in need of lots of prayers right now and we can’t forget that.

On a lighter note, how about them Sooners?! What a great win over Baylor this weekend. If we can win out hopefully we could be a contender for the fourth playoff spot. Everyone keep your fingers crossed! Lastly, I was able to be an extra in a movie  my Grandpa is working on. The movie is called “The Scent of Rain and Lightning” and is based off of a book. I was in a courtroom scene and sat just two row behind Will Patton! This was such an incredible experience to see the actors in action. Look for me on the big screen when the film comes out!

My Grandma and I on Set

Famouss Last Words: Week 11

This past week was a pretty hectic one. I had a lab practical in my Comparative Vertebrate Anatomy class. It was over the muscles in the shark, nectarus, and cat. This was definitely the most difficult practical we have had so far so my entire week was devoted to studying for it. Someone actually did the math based on how much we had to memorize and how little we were tested over. Only 12% of what we had to know was actually on the practical! I’m pretty sure doing that math is the ultimate form of procrastination, but at least I wasn’t the one who did it!

In addition to studying for the practical I also had to write an essay for my History of Science class. It was an analytical essay over John Buridan’s paper On the Compatibility of Earth’s Diurnal Motion with Astronomical Phenomena. This paper questioned whether or not the Earth rotated on its axis. This paper was of course written during the medieval ages before they knew the answer to such questions. The way he wrote this paper exemplified the classrooms within the universities during this time period. The manner in which he did this is called the scholastic method. This is the form of proposing a question based on an authoritative text then detailing the various sides of the argument. This was also how the classrooms during this time was conducted. It was an interesting read but slightly confusing. I didn’t even know what the Buridan’s stance was until I went to office hours to speak with my professor. He went back and forth so many times and proposed so many different argument that it was hard to figure out which point he agreed with.

Overall it was a great week that ended with a basketball and football win! That made me a very happy girl!

FYI the Earth Does Rotate On its Axis

Week 6: Famous Last Words

This past week was another hectic one for me. I had a huge lab practical for my Comparative Vertebrate Anatomy class so many hours were put towards studying for it. One thing that I continually catch myself doing is falling behind in this online course when I have other things going on in my other classes, such as this lab practical. I really needing to stay on top of this course rather than putting it to the side to focus on my other ones. This is going to be my goal going forth from this week.

In my last Famous Last Words post I talked about my volunteer work with Second Chance Animal Shelter. This past weekend I spent some more time with them. They had their Dog Days adoption event at Adams Park yesterday and I was out there for it. They were able to send home five puppies to their new forever homes! Yay! There were two other shelters there as well as Second Chance who got some of their dogs adopted I’m just not sure how many. It seemed like a pretty successful event where in addition to dogs being adopted they raised money through donations, raffle tickets, and other concessions. I even won a raffle prize that had a couple gift cards in it so that was exciting!

Looking forward to this upcoming week I intend on using it as my catch up/ get ahead week. I’ve been kind of slacking lately and I really don’t want to get caught in a bigger slump than what I am in right now. Hopefully when I write my Famous Last Words next weekend I will be able to say I got a lot done and caught up on all of my classes! Here is to positive and proactive thinking!

Goals

Famous Last Words

This past week I had a lot to accomplish! I had three exams so it was a very stressful time! On Tuesday I had Principles of Physiology, Thursday- Comparative Vertebrate Anatomy, and on Friday I had Organic Chemistry. I studied like crazy and did well on all three! As proud of myself as I am for my exam scores the best thing I did this past week was the time I spent volunteering at Second Chance Animal Shelter. I have never been there before but I went this weekend with my honors fraternity Gamma Beta Phi. While there I did a lot of general housekeeping tasks such as sweeping, mopping, et cetera. My favorite part was giving the puppies baths! I’m a huge animal lover so giving the dogs some love made my whole week. I was able to learn a lot about the establishment as well. The workers rescue abused animals, those deemed unadoptable, and others who are about to be euthanized at other shelters. Hence giving these animals a second chance at life. This is a really wonderful organization that pairs up with local veterinarians to provide these dogs and cats with healthcare and surgeries they may be in need of. This is one of the things that can deem an animal unadoptable and sentence them to death. I had a great time with the other members of my group and I plan on becoming more involved with Second Chance.  I really encourage others to do the same! Whether it is volunteering, donating needed items, or giving a furry friend a forever home we can all make a huge impact on these animals’ lives! There are a lot of really sweet animals there that just want a family! I would take them all home if I could… Thanks no pet policy at OU Traditions! :)

Second Chance

 

Week 3: Famous Last Words

In this past week probably the best thing I did in all my classes was my essay for my History of Science class. So far that class has been really interesting and I’m really enjoying it. We have been covering Greek philosophers thus far and each week we get a new outside source we are supposed to read. This week we were supposed to read Plato’s Republic, Book VII. This particular book detailed the allegory of the cave and Plato’s views on teaching and education. I have been introduced to the allegory of the cave before in high school but this time I was really able to dive into it and analyze it piece by piece. The purpose of the essay was to be a brief summarization of the reading and then to analyze it in any way we saw fit.

Overall I feel really confident about the paper I wrote and I was actually enthusiastic about writing it! I chose to tie in a previous lecture we had in which we talked about Plato’s idea of knowledge being possessed within a person’s soul. He felt that people didn’t ever learn new information. This information was already within them they just had to bring it out through numbness of the soul. This essentially means a person moves past all opinions and previous notions about what they think they know to truly open themselves up. This allows them to bring out that knowledge that they already possessed. This means that teachers aren’t truly teachers. They are more of guides that help lead someone to this level of enlightenment. All of this is exemplified metaphorically in his allegory of the cave. This was a really interesting read and brought up some pretty unique ideas. This was definitely the most interesting and the best thing I did this week!

The Allegory of the Cave

 

Week One: Famous Last Words

Looking back on the week I guess you could say it was a successful one! Now that I’m taking all upper division classes the bulk of my classes are actually over things I am interested in… other than OCHEM. I think this will be a difficult semester but overall I am excited for what it has to offer. School wise there wasn’t much to accomplish this week, it being Syllabus Week and all.  

I did move up a lot later than most people. I’m from San Antonio and I didn’t move up here until Friday the 21^st. It’s about an eight hour drive to get up here and my parents and I started unpacking right as we got here. My biggest accomplishment this week was definitely cleaning the apartment, unpacking, organizing, and decorating as quickly as I did. Now my goal is to keep everything as clean and organized throughout the semester! I’m typically a very messy person so this won’t be the easiest thing for me!

I’ve lived the bulk of my life outside of Oklahoma so I never got to see my grandparents much who live in Mustang (which is about 30 minutes from Norman). Being up here allows me to see my grandparents all the time. Last weekend they helped me move in and this weekend I spent a night out at their place. They’ve got a pup named Princess so I get my puppy fix since my babies are back home. It’s nice to go out there get home cooked meals, play with Princess, and go to church on Sunday morning!

Since there wasn’t much to do this week school wise I used this weekend to get somewhat ahead in some of my classes. Hopefully it pays off as everything starts ramping up! I can’t wait to see what this semester has to offer!

Syllabus Week