The video project

Is the video as epic as I thought it would be? No. Did the topic I suggested follow thorugh? No. But what we did make was random, strange, and oddly funny in the right light. But hell, what's important is that we had fun making it, and no one was really that stressed out. So that works.

Besides, nerf guns are stupid.

Here's the video on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmtDOQqNI5Y

Group members list (in no particular order) :
Joel Palermo
Kim Saechao
Mynesha Grey
Patrick Harris
Ryan Barker
David Harty

Chapter ten. Go crazy.

A chapter about healthy lifestyles? Sounds like fun. Here's how the "know yourself" sections went:

Self-assessment #1 took asked for a lot of my general feelings and attitudes (being helpful to others, feeling well-rested every day), and how they contribute to a healthy lifestyle. I scored pretty well on this, but I couldn't help but notice that some factors seemed a bit unnatural. One asked if I usually go to bed happy and satisfied about the day. Well, when's the last time you went to bad happy? On a good day, right? I dunno about you, but I ususally go to bed tired, not happy. But isn't that normal? Anyway, being well-rested and having a positive demeanor is definintely beneficial to a healthy lifestyle, but no one's happy all the time.

The second self-assessment was simply saying no to drugs.

The third self-assessment was about my views on sex, and although I will not go into details, I ended up getting a pretty liberal score for many figures. But whatever your views are, what's important is that you know what your partner thinks about the subject. Oh, and since when is emphasizing communication labelled "liberal"? Is it "traditional" to make sure that neither one knows what they want from a relationship?

Chapter 8 is about tests, y'all

And chapter about tests? And right before our midterm? Who would've thought?

Let's see, first up is test anxiety. Ha! I laugh in the face of tests (even the ones I'm not prepared for... it's a rather hollow laugh). I answered "never" for a good deal of the questions, such as "I have difficulty getting a good night's sleep before the test" and questions regarding physical sickness from stress (ouch). I put "sometimes" for the questions regarding being distracted during tests, but I get distracted quite 0ft- ooh, new Youtube video!

A question about one's honor code made me think for a bit: "If someone is caught cheating, which consequence do you think is the most appropriate?" It had a few options to choose from. I thought that failing the student in the course would be way too harsh. Instead, I feel that failing the student on the assignment alone would be a justifiable approach.

Patrick goes to CMF

After working with my group on our not gun-related video, a lot of us went to the mandatory Campus Movie Fest. It was a night full of spotlights, long lines in the dark, funny and dramatic videos, and crushed hopes of winning a raffle prize.

Many interesting movie entries, I must say. However, I can only remember a few. The dramatic short "Resistance" had me tense during the whole movie, although its plot was very simplistic. The movie "Fun Scare", if that's what it was called, appealed to a lot of students, but I guess I didn't think it was so funny. In my opinion, "The Truthbreakers" is the definition of what comedy should be, but with a clever ironic twist.

Bottom line: it was a great night with great movies, but I had a God-awful headache, so I couldn't really enjoy it.

Chapter 7!

Okay, This chapter wants to tell me how I should change my study habits. When I first noticed that, I wanted to take a lighter to my textbook, but realized after a bit of reading that it didn't ask me to change anything drastically. This is mostly because I'm pretty decent at keeping good study habits.

The chapter suggests staying consistant in your time and place of study. Personally, my best place to study is on my bed in my dorm room. The thick door blocks out a lot of noise from the hall, and I have privacy and internet accessibility in here. I generally do much of my studying and work at night, because most other people in my dorm hall do the same.

Sleeping was also a big factor in this chapter. It explains how bad sleeping habits such as cramming or dozing off at a desk can lead to sleeping disorders. On the whole, I get 6 to 7 hours of sleep each day. I only had some minor checks on the sleeping disorder checklist, so I don't have much to worry about.

Peer Mentor/MUSE evaluation

Despite a couple issues in communication, I think that the MUSE class has been going alright so far. I appriciate the work that Professor Dan does to make up for when he is unable to come to class, and how peer mentor Anna works hard to make the class fun for everyone. So far, our class peer mentor has helped form our syllabus, cleared up confusion on homework assignments, and even took the time to learn our names.

I can't say I've learned much from the course, though. The title "Get Internet Famous" doesn't really cover what we've done, which is using blog entries as means of submitting homework. But recent promises of video projects and computer terms make me more optimistic.

Chapter 4 & 5

Chapter 4's approach to helping students get the most out of learning was by providing several lists of common personality categories and types of learning styles. I suppose that the goal of this chapter is to have students understand how they learn best, so that they can utilize their best ways of learning. I noticed that my two top strengths in intelligence, somehow, came to be tied at interpersonal and intrapersonal, which kinda contradict each other in concept (one suggests introversion while the other suggests extraversion). I never take such tests seriously, becuase my scores are generally all across the board.

Chapter 5 tought us how to think. Seriously. Most of it was simple, common sense knowledge, such as knowing when and how to determine if something that you hear is made up or real. But some people lack common sense, so I suppose it helps. It does helpfully explain how to state an argument, though. After a long quiz, I found out that I am classified as an information "consumer", which insultingly tells me that I can't gain knowledge outside of memorization.

My favorite title from chapter 5: "Avoid Making Bad Choices"