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Stephanie Garcia
12/11/11
English 201 A/B
DIY: Write a Letter
Dear Stephanie,
How are you doing? How’s life? Are you still in college? Have you transferred yet? Hahaha so many questions i want answered right. Well first I hope all is well with you and your future. Well as you know I’m still here at BCC finishing up this Public and Humans Services Program and my generals, hoping to transfer soon. To maybe SF State or East Bay, still not sure if I want to prosue my career path as a social worker or in public health. But I’m determined to be successful; I didn’t work this hard for nothing. Hopefully I’ll figure that out soon. Are you still in contact or friends with your classmates in the Public Human Services Program? I hope you are because they are wonderful, best classmates ever. Especially Michelle, Christian and Victoria. I don’t know if I would have passed my second semester if it wasn’t for them pushing me to do my work. Got to love them for that. So what now’s for you? It’s a year later? Still procrastinating like how you did in Scott’s class. Because I sure still am. I procrastinated while I was writing this letter, which was so easy to do. But do I ever listen. Always leaving everything to the last minute. Ha-ha You still working two jobs, and have a busy schedule or has that changed a little. Still Assistant Manager at bootsy Domino’s? Ha-ha I need to find me a new job, hopefully I do soon. How your internship at the Tobacco Prevention Program go? I’m hoping well. Because right know it’s going good everyone’s nice and helpful. I’m still same old shy Stephanie. Ha-ha I should really change that. I honestly see yourself right know, having all your stuff together, because right now I’m all over the place, need to get organized. But hopefully in five years I hope to see you already done with school with you AA in Public and Human Services, and BA in Social Work or Public Health. Also at a good paying job, working in doing what you love and went to school for and not at Domino’s anymore. It’s time to step it up. You didn’t go to school and work hard to just stay at domino’s working all your life. Also I see yourself living independently, paying your own bills. I honestly can’t wait for a year or five years to pass, to see were I I have ended up with my life. So far I’m going through the right path and hoping it stays that way.
With Love,
Stephanie Garcia
Reflection
Writing was kind of confusing, I wasn’t sure if I wrote to myself a year from now, and asking her questions. Or I wrote to her talking about what I think should happened a year later. Either way I did a little bit of both, to my understanding of it. I liked doing this assignment the most out of the other one. Because it was easy, it was about me. Didn’t have to research, think, or look up anything. I basically asked myself questions that I would answer a year later. Also what I see myself doing and being a year or five years later. And a little about my classmates and how I really liked being in the program and how I really like my internship so far. I really hope to be going the right path that I am now and even better.
Cutting Edge Research and Ideas
What do babies think?
This video is about a lady talking about what babies thinks. She explains about “what is going on in a babies mind” In the last 20 years scientists have over turned the picture. Because what we think and feel one person is thinking could be thinking and feeling something completely different. We don’t know what goes on in a mind over person, nothing less on what’s going on a babies mind. So she say’s how do we ask them? Betty Repocaholi did an experiment on an 18 month baby. She put a bowl of cracker and broccoli. She saw which one the baby went for and he obviously went for the crackers. Then she went pretended that she liked the broccoli, and asked the baby to give her some. He went for the broccoli because he knew that’s what she liked. She also tried it with a 15 month baby and it did the same just took him a while to give her the broccoli. With that it is said and proven that babies and children may look like they don’t know what they are doing or saying but there more cautious than others.
As I watched this video, though it was super long for me. What I did was write down main points about the talk so I can write in my summary because I was not going to remember. I really liked the video overall; it shows that babies are smart. Though it may not look like it. It reminded me of the movie “Baby Genius” when they were doing the experiments on the babies. Hahaha but good video.
How Many Lives We Live?
In this video it talks about a girl named Sara Kay, who starts off reading a poem about an astronaut who is not going to work and sleeps in and many other things are going on at his household and work while he sleeping in. After she finishes reading her poem she talks about how when she was smaller she used to think she can live multiple lives. People asked her what she wanted to be and she would say a princess ballerina astronaut. She wanted to be many things when she was small. But as she grew up she noticed that she wouldn’t live multiple lives. Instead she would live the life of a young teen that lived in New York City. She was obsessed with poetry as she grew older and made it an art out of it. Just like how her father and grandpa made art out of photography. She talked about how her parents met, how her grandpa worked, and the hit of the twin towers.
As I watched this video, what I liked was her obsession of poetry. I love poetry myself to, so listening to it caught my attention right away. My process was to watch it and just took notes of the main points so I can write it on my paper and really listen to what she was meaning. What I got out of the video was that yeah you only live on life but you chose how to live it. She chose to live it with poetry, and her parents with photography. I may be wrong. But overall I really liked the video.
Being Young and Making an Impact
In this last video by Natalie Warne. She is a 20 year old who talks about anonymous extraordinaire. Anonymous extraordinaire means people who work selflessly and vigorously for what they in. Were people who were motivated by conviction not recognition. Natalie at age 17 watched a video called “Invisible Children”. A video about African American children taken from their parents and forced to kill. After watching it she decided she wanted to do something about it. The founder of the Invisible Children told her there was a bill they wanted passed. So along with 90 other unpaid interns, she was flown out to San Diego and was giving the task to get this bill passed. They went all around the country to get people to help them get this bill act and stop this long running war in Africa. All the other states were received excepted were she was from Chicago. So they decided to take it to Oprah and have it be known. Then they finally got them to receive Chicago and Obama in 2008 finally passed the bill and stop the war in Africa.
For this video along with the other two, I took notes, and wrote down the main points. This was one of my favorite and most interesting video I watched. Just watching her being the age she is making a change along with other people. Kind of inspired me that I can do the same too. I liked the fact that she didn’t give up and was determined to get this bill passed.
Overall Reflection
Overall the process of doing this paper was fun and easy. I liked writing my letter to myself. Kind let me know what I expected from myself in 1 or 5 years from now. Was a little confusing on the understanding of it, but I think I did it right. When I watched the video o ted talks. I enjoyed them, i watched a couple other few ones, but those were my top three that caught my attention. I like the babies one because it got me thinking of when I see a baby or when there talking in their language, on what exactly are they saying. Also what are they thinking? Mostly it reminded me of the movie “Baby Genius”. The other one I liked it because she talked about how she thought she could live multiple lives but as she got older she noticed she couldn’t. My most favorite one was the last video I watched “being young and making an impact”. That one caught my attention most because she was young and was making a difference, kind of made me want to go make a difference to and be part of something big. With that I think I did good on this paper.
Michelle Russ
December 10, 2011
ENG 201A
Instructor: Scott Hoshida
Writing Assignment: DIY_U
Becoming a Better Student
Why is it so hard for people to get things done on time? People will put things off, because they think they have time to get it done in a timely manner. I myself battle with this same issue in which we call Procrastination. So, how do we deal with this matter. Can we fix it or is this a behavior that we have dubbed a new found disease, whether hereditary or learned.
Let’s start at the beginning. The dictionary definition of procrastinate is: to defer action; delay or to put off till another day or time; defer; delay. This word derived from the Latin language and entered into the English vocabulary in the sixteenth century around 1540’s. In Latin it means procrastinationem “a putting off”, noun of action from procrastinare “put off till tomorrow”, from pro “forward” + crastinus “belonging to tomorrow” from cras “tomorrow”. Now that we know what this word means and how it came about, why does this happen? In a New Yorker article “LATER, What can procrastination tell us about ourselves”, James Surowiecki says that, one of the common answers is ignorance. The reason ignorance might affect procrastination is, it is a fallacy in planning. People tend to underestimate the time it’ll take to complete a task. But ignorance can’t be the only account.
In an EBSCO article by Mark Hansen, he describes procrastination as a rationalization in action (or inaction) broken down into four categories of “Distractions, Something came up, someone else is to blame and simply not motivated. His groupings are all things that I myself have experienced. Distractions are always in need when there is a task that you don’t like. We tend to feel good when we are doing the fun things that allow us to put off the tasks at hand. But once the fun and excitement is over we remember that the job still needs to get done. The thing is even though we feel good when we are having fun, we feel even better once we get the task completed and that sometimes is enough to get us to pull things together and get the job done. Another excuse is “Something else came up”. But to really rationalize this justification the “something else” has to be more important than what needs to get done. To beat this, you have to promise yourself that nothing else is more important than finishing the job you left behind and keep your promise. A third excuse to procrastination is “Someone else is to blame”, basically this is a situation where an assignment is being given to you because the person it belong to didn’t do it right and now it is being dropped in your lap. You can definitely complain about this or refuse the assignment all together, but because you know it is something that needs to get done, just do it. If you take the appropriate time and get it done quickly, not only will have done what others couldn’t do right but you will get the praise and respect for doing a good job. Now I have found this fourth and last reason to be the one thing that is most challenging, self motivation. If you imagine the problems that may occur if you don’t crank up your will power and get the work done rather than leaving it for later and never getting it done, you’ll feel much better about yourself. But in an article in the Scientific American, Trisha Gura believes that biology is partly to blame for foot-dragging, she thinks that anyone can learn to quit. Trisha did a research on a high-powered attorney whose habitual putting off behaviors, seriously threatened his career. This attorney who we will call Raymond decided to seek professional help and went to a clinical psychologist named William Knaus from Longmeadow, Mass. Knaus gave Raymond a two-page synopsis of procrastination and asked him to read and see if the information applies to him and his actions or lack thereof. Raymond did agree to read it on his flight to Europe. He did everything but read he watched a movie, went to sleep and continued to put it off time and time again with things that were more compelling to do. In the end, Knaus concluded that Raymond spent 40 hours delaying this task that would have only taken him two to complete. According to a 2007 meta-analysis by economist Piers Steel of University of Calgary, procrastination plagues approximately 80 to 95 percent of college students whose packed academic schedules and frat-party style distractions put them at particular risk. It makes you wonder why we will voluntarily delay an intended course of action despite expecting to be worse off for the delay. It would be so much better if we just accomplished our activities as soon as we get them.
There are many factors to procrastination but based on a psychologist Piers Steel, Ph. D. at the University of Calgary, the percentage of people who admitted having problems with procrastination quadrupled between 1978 and 2002. We all tend to put off projects that are tedious. But some things inspire a fear of failure. Our insecurities begin to threaten our identity and are afraid that we are not living up to our own expectations, of never finishing. Procrastination can steal time away from us. How can we overcome, get our time back and make things happen? There are a few ways to get on track and in the article “Stop Procrastinating – Right Now!” in Good Housekeeping, Melissa Kirsch gave us six different helps towards a solution. First, Stay focused on getting started and to avoid the intimidation of your fears that surround finishing. You have to be able to move forward and not criticize yourself in the process. You also need to keep in mind that you not only have to get the task completed but it should be done well. As a psychologist, Neil Fiore, Ph.D. advises, “Think of big projects as a series of beginnings – and remember that no failure is final”. Second, Commit to short amounts of time to work on a task. To ensure you meet your goal with getting stressed out, for five minutes do nothing but work on whatever you have been putting off. You can even start with the easiest steps just so you can get things in motion. So if nothing else, by taking short dashes of time this helps you get started and hopefully get you the momentum to finish. Third, we have to stop self sabotaging ourselves by writing to-do lists. Making a list is a project itself because we end up tricking ourselves into thinking that we are actually doing something by just planning it out. As Timothy A. Pychyl, Ph.D., a psychologist from Carleton University says¸ “Planning substitutes for real action”. Try breaking off little pieces of a job by only writing what you can do in a 24hr time frame. Don’t put the bigger tasks that may take days to complete. Do one thing at a time. Fourth is something that I spoke about earlier, distractions. It is so much easier to get distracted with so many electronic devices in our reach. A couple tips for this is to have an “electronics-free hour” while doing whatever task needed to be done. Turn off your phone, internet or any other device that may deter you from your goal. Keep a note pad close by to write down anything that pops up in your head, to remove any temptation to escape by doing other things that less hated. Fifth point is putting off living life. This can be a devastating consequence to procrastination. In a research done with graduated students at the University of California, Berkeley, they found that the students that made time to hang with friends, play sports and just enjoyed a little time for themselves were actually able to get their work done faster, where the ones that procrastinated tended to worry a lot and feel guilty for even thinking of taking time out for themselves. Setting aside time for leisure before you schedule time to work will then feel like a reward for doing something less appetizing. Now sixth but not last, because I am sure there are many other solutions that we can think up. But procrastination is deeply rooted in our fears about ourselves and our abilities. If we can confront the concerns that haunt us then we can get past our mental roadblocks. When procrastinating over a huge task, ask yourself “what is the worst thing that could happen if you don’t finish the task?” Don’t beat yourself up about it, don’t worry about it and just start working on it. Your worst fears will eventually fall away and you will realize that you can do anything you want, just take it one step at a time, one day at a time, and breathe. You can do it.
Procrastination can inhibit your life if you let it. It can destroy your career and even cause financial ruin if you allow it to do so. But if you check in our history there has been forms of procrastination that have caused armies to lose battles. I do believe that we all have tendencies of procrastination, some worse than others. It really is a matter of recognizing the issues and making an effort to try and change the way you do things. It is not an easy task to change bad habits, but it is possible. You have to want to change and take the steps to do it.
Work Cited
Gura, Trisha; “Procrastinating Again? How to Kick the Habit”
November 28, 2008. Scientific American, 6 December 2011.
Hansen, Mark, P.E., CSP, CPE; “Are You Procrastinating”
November 2002, Professional Safety. EBSCO Host. 6 December 2011.
Kirsch, Melissa; “Stop Procrastinating – Right Now!”
http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/health/wellness/procrastination-get-done
Good Housekeeping. 6 December 2011.
Surowiecki, James; “LATER”
October 11, 2010, The New Yorker. 6 December 2011.
Reflections:
As usual I procrastinated to do this project. Everything was a distraction from my kids, to work, finals, other papers I had to write, TV., cell phone, friends, facebook and whatever else I allowed to keep me away from this assignment. Now that I have researched and understand why I do these same things that are described in the research, I now have to take that information and apply it to my own crazy world of feet dragging. So, next semester will be my test, but I will surely start applying these tips to my other day to day life habits.
Michelle Russ
December 10, 2011
ENG 201A
Instructor: Scott Hoshida
Writing Assignment: DIY_U
A Letter to Michelle Russ
To: Michelle Russ
4814 Michelle Way
Union City, CA 94587
Dear Michelle,
A year from now it will be December 12, 2012 (12/12/12). This day is great within itself, but I believe at this time you will have completed one year of college and possibly be living back in Philadelphia. It will be hard for you to relocate with your children but because I know how much your heart aches to be closer to family, I feel you will make every effort in doing so. Your biggest obstacle with be your children being willing to go and finding a decent place to live with great schooling. You will want to finish your pursuit in furthering your education so looking for somewhere to transfer will also be a challenge. If that be the case you will try LaSalle, Drexel, University of Penn or another community college. You will want to complete you journey to becoming a Counselor to teenagers and youth, because you know that there is a great need to help find themselves as they live in a crazy world of life, peer pressure and adults.
If I don’t move to Philly, then I will still be in Berkeley City College working on my pre-requisites so that I can begin my transfer to Mills College or University of California, East Bay. I would hope to have started to learn more Spanish. But I would like to take lessons in advanced sewing and jewelry making so that I can please my artistic side and possible make some money on the side. By then, I am looking forward to have already started my goal of “Clean Slate” or starting from scratch in every way possible. As I get older and realize that I am not where I want to be, I plan to take my time and try to finish or accomplish all my dreams. All dreams don’t come true, but I can surely try to make things happen.
Reflections:
I originally was going to do the career assignment but it didn’t work out. But here I am writing a letter to myself. Do I think all these things will happen? Possibly. But I am looking forward to reading this in a year. I really like this assignment because it not only makes you think of your future, but it helps you to really look at yourself and mentally prioritize. I have so many things I want to do but I had to think of one year. It seems like a lot, but I think I will quote my grandfather and his motto, “It Can Be Done!”
Michelle Russ
December 10, 2011
ENG 201A
Instructor: Scott Hoshida
Writing Assignment: DIY_U
Becoming a Better Student
Why is it so hard for people to get things done on time? People will put things off, because they think they have time to get it done in a timely manner. I myself battle with this same issue in which we call Procrastination. So, how do we deal with this matter. Can we fix it or is this a behavior that we have dubbed a new found disease, whether hereditary or learned.
Let’s start at the beginning. The dictionary definition of procrastinate is: to defer action; delay or to put off till another day or time; defer; delay. This word derived from the Latin language and entered into the English vocabulary in the sixteenth century around 1540’s. In Latin it means procrastinationem “a putting off”, noun of action from procrastinare “put off till tomorrow”, from pro “forward” + crastinus “belonging to tomorrow” from cras “tomorrow”. Now that we know what this word means and how it came about, why does this happen? In a New Yorker article “LATER, What can procrastination tell us about ourselves”, James Surowiecki says that, one of the common answers is ignorance. The reason ignorance might affect procrastination is, it is a fallacy in planning. People tend to underestimate the time it’ll take to complete a task. But ignorance can’t be the only account.
In an EBSCO article by Mark Hansen, he describes procrastination as a rationalization in action (or inaction) broken down into four categories of “Distractions, Something came up, someone else is to blame and simply not motivated. His groupings are all things that I myself have experienced. Distractions are always in need when there is a task that you don’t like. We tend to feel good when we are doing the fun things that allow us to put off the tasks at hand. But once the fun and excitement is over we remember that the job still needs to get done. The thing is even though we feel good when we are having fun, we feel even better once we get the task completed and that sometimes is enough to get us to pull things together and get the job done. Another excuse is “Something else came up”. But to really rationalize this justification the “something else” has to be more important than what needs to get done. To beat this, you have to promise yourself that nothing else is more important than finishing the job you left behind and keep your promise. A third excuse to procrastination is “Someone else is to blame”, basically this is a situation where an assignment is being given to you because the person it belong to didn’t do it right and now it is being dropped in your lap. You can definitely complain about this or refuse the assignment all together, but because you know it is something that needs to get done, just do it. If you take the appropriate time and get it done quickly, not only will have done what others couldn’t do right but you will get the praise and respect for doing a good job. Now I have found this fourth and last reason to be the one thing that is most challenging, self motivation. If you imagine the problems that may occur if you don’t crank up your will power and get the work done rather than leaving it for later and never getting it done, you’ll feel much better about yourself. But in an article in the Scientific American, Trisha Gura believes that biology is partly to blame for foot-dragging, she thinks that anyone can learn to quit. Trisha did a research on a high-powered attorney whose habitual putting off behaviors, seriously threatened his career. This attorney who we will call Raymond decided to seek professional help and went to a clinical psychologist named William Knaus from Longmeadow, Mass. Knaus gave Raymond a two-page synopsis of procrastination and asked him to read and see if the information applies to him and his actions or lack thereof. Raymond did agree to read it on his flight to Europe. He did everything but read he watched a movie, went to sleep and continued to put it off time and time again with things that were more compelling to do. In the end, Knaus concluded that Raymond spent 40 hours delaying this task that would have only taken him two to complete. According to a 2007 meta-analysis by economist Piers Steel of University of Calgary, procrastination plagues approximately 80 to 95 percent of college students whose packed academic schedules and frat-party style distractions put them at particular risk. It makes you wonder why we will voluntarily delay an intended course of action despite expecting to be worse off for the delay. It would be so much better if we just accomplished our activities as soon as we get them.
There are many factors to procrastination but based on a psychologist Piers Steel, Ph. D. at the University of Calgary, the percentage of people who admitted having problems with procrastination quadrupled between 1978 and 2002. We all tend to put off projects that are tedious. But some things inspire a fear of failure. Our insecurities begin to threaten our identity and are afraid that we are not living up to our own expectations, of never finishing. Procrastination can steal time away from us. How can we overcome, get our time back and make things happen? There are a few ways to get on track and in the article “Stop Procrastinating – Right Now!” in Good Housekeeping, Melissa Kirsch gave us six different helps towards a solution. First, Stay focused on getting started and to avoid the intimidation of your fears that surround finishing. You have to be able to move forward and not criticize yourself in the process. You also need to keep in mind that you not only have to get the task completed but it should be done well. As a psychologist, Neil Fiore, Ph.D. advises, “Think of big projects as a series of beginnings – and remember that no failure is final”. Second, Commit to short amounts of time to work on a task. To ensure you meet your goal with getting stressed out, for five minutes do nothing but work on whatever you have been putting off. You can even start with the easiest steps just so you can get things in motion. So if nothing else, by taking short dashes of time this helps you get started and hopefully get you the momentum to finish. Third, we have to stop self sabotaging ourselves by writing to-do lists. Making a list is a project itself because we end up tricking ourselves into thinking that we are actually doing something by just planning it out. As Timothy A. Pychyl, Ph.D., a psychologist from Carleton University says¸ “Planning substitutes for real action”. Try breaking off little pieces of a job by only writing what you can do in a 24hr time frame. Don’t put the bigger tasks that may take days to complete. Do one thing at a time. Fourth is something that I spoke about earlier, distractions. It is so much easier to get distracted with so many electronic devices in our reach. A couple tips for this is to have an “electronics-free hour” while doing whatever task needed to be done. Turn off your phone, internet or any other device that may deter you from your goal. Keep a note pad close by to write down anything that pops up in your head, to remove any temptation to escape by doing other things that less hated. Fifth point is putting off living life. This can be a devastating consequence to procrastination. In a research done with graduated students at the University of California, Berkeley, they found that the students that made time to hang with friends, play sports and just enjoyed a little time for themselves were actually able to get their work done faster, where the ones that procrastinated tended to worry a lot and feel guilty for even thinking of taking time out for themselves. Setting aside time for leisure before you schedule time to work will then feel like a reward for doing something less appetizing. Now sixth but not last, because I am sure there are many other solutions that we can think up. But procrastination is deeply rooted in our fears about ourselves and our abilities. If we can confront the concerns that haunt us then we can get past our mental roadblocks. When procrastinating over a huge task, ask yourself “what is the worst thing that could happen if you don’t finish the task?” Don’t beat yourself up about it, don’t worry about it and just start working on it. Your worst fears will eventually fall away and you will realize that you can do anything you want, just take it one step at a time, one day at a time, and breathe. You can do it.
Procrastination can inhibit your life if you let it. It can destroy your career and even cause financial ruin if you allow it to do so. But if you check in our history there has been forms of procrastination that have caused armies to lose battles. I do believe that we all have tendencies of procrastination, some worse than others. It really is a matter of recognizing the issues and making an effort to try and change the way you do things. It is not an easy task to change bad habits, but it is possible. You have to want to change and take the steps to do it.
Work Cited
Gura, Trisha; “Procrastinating Again? How to Kick the Habit”
November 28, 2008. Scientific American, 6 December 2011.
Hansen, Mark, P.E., CSP, CPE; “Are You Procrastinating”
November 2002, Professional Safety. EBSCO Host. 6 December 2011.
Kirsch, Melissa; “Stop Procrastinating – Right Now!”
http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/health/wellness/procrastination-get-done
Good Housekeeping. 6 December 2011.
Surowiecki, James; “LATER”
October 11, 2010, The New Yorker. 6 December 2011.
Reflections:
As usual I procrastinated to do this project. Everything was a distraction from my kids, to work, finals, other papers I had to write, TV., cell phone, friends, facebook and whatever else I allowed to keep me away from this assignment. Now that I have researched and understand why I do these same things that are described in the research, I now have to take that information and apply it to my own crazy world of feet dragging. So, next semester will be my test, but I will surely start applying these tips to my other day to day life habits.
Michelle Russ
December 10, 2011
ENG 201A
Instructor: Scott Hoshida
Writing Assignment: DIY_U
A Letter to Michelle Russ
To: Michelle Russ
4814 Michelle Way
Union City, CA 94587
Dear Michelle,
A year from now it will be December 12, 2012 (12/12/12). This day is great within itself, but I believe at this time you will have completed one year of college and possibly be living back in Philadelphia. It will be hard for you to relocate with your children but because I know how much your heart aches to be closer to family, I feel you will make every effort in doing so. Your biggest obstacle with be your children being willing to go and finding a decent place to live with great schooling. You will want to finish your pursuit in furthering your education so looking for somewhere to transfer will also be a challenge. If that be the case you will try LaSalle, Drexel, University of Penn or another community college. You will want to complete you journey to becoming a Counselor to teenagers and youth, because you know that there is a great need to help find themselves as they live in a crazy world of life, peer pressure and adults.
If I don’t move to Philly, then I will still be in Berkeley City College working on my pre-requisites so that I can begin my transfer to Mills College or University of California, East Bay. I would hope to have started to learn more Spanish. But I would like to take lessons in advanced sewing and jewelry making so that I can please my artistic side and possible make some money on the side. By then, I am looking forward to have already started my goal of “Clean Slate” or starting from scratch in every way possible. As I get older and realize that I am not where I want to be, I plan to take my time and try to finish or accomplish all my dreams. All dreams don’t come true, but I can surely try to make things happen.
Reflections:
I originally was going to do the career assignment but it didn’t work out. But here I am writing a letter to myself. Do I think all these things will happen? Possibly. But I am looking forward to reading this in a year. I really like this assignment because it not only makes you think of your future, but it helps you to really look at yourself and mentally prioritize. I have so many things I want to do but I had to think of one year. It seems like a lot, but I think I will quote my grandfather and his motto, “It Can Be Done!”
Victoria Cuan
December 10, 11
English 201
DIY U
Pamela Meyer: How to spot a liar
This Video was about how to spot a liar when watching this it was unexpected of the information that was given. That there were some studies were done and proved you may be lied to anywhere from 10 to 200 times. Man lie eight times more about themselves then they do other people. But something interesting this was women lie to protect other people. Pamela gave some videos of presidents and mothers that had lost children and showing the things that can determine if they are lying. When Bill Clinton was caught sleeping with an other women you can tell from the facial expression he is making that gives you second opinion about it. The example given about the first mother Diane Downs who shot her children at a close range then drove them to the hospital while they had bled all over the car. Then Diane claimed a person had came and shot them. But when Pamela was analyzing it her face can tell it all no crying at any point and at the end of her talking she smiled. The true mother Erin Runnion had lost her daughter because someone had hurt her and decide to kill her. This mother had showed her feeling of losing her daughter there’s is no doubting about her emotion. Lairs show how the feel but a fake smile, fidgets with there hands, body language.
Reflection How to spot a liar:
Something I learned from this video is a lot of the main points of determining a liar. It was surprising to know how many times men and women lie and the reasons why they do. It was a interesting topic the watch and take notes of this to completely understand what are the ways to tell who is lying. Now that I did this I can somewhat not second question myself when I am facing a liar.
Suzanne Lee: Grow your own clothes
When making clothes some of the material she thinks of is animal’s skin, factories to making one product to wear. Meeting a biologist she now thinks of green tea, sugar, and a few microbes, and time of course. This process is a long time to make a simple vest, jacket, and other clothes pieces. She starts with brewing the 30 liters of green tea, adding couple kilos of sugar, having the temperature below 30 degree Celsius, adding the final thing is the living organism, along with that some acetic acid. How it is time to start the growing half of the experiment. Suzanne uses heat mats but when it is a hot weather she grows it outside of her shop. After all the parts to this and going on with the process it is like a sponge and take in all the water and dried on a wooden board it will become to a clear transparent sheet that is made to a dress, jackets and other. Also she had made it change colors without using dye to change the color of the clothes. Then other problem that she has is going outside in a rainy day because it is not waterproof and if does face water it will take in all the water it can and become heavy and fall apart.
Reflection Grow your own clothes:
Learning how to make clothes this way was amazing to watch because I would never had thought it was possible. Suzanne is a fashion designer and from meeting this biologist she had change her life. By making clothes that will have no relationship with animals skin, or made in factories with a lot of people making one part of the shirt or shoes at a time. She came up with something that will not pollute the air from the factories making clothes or shoes etc. I would wonder if she collect of clothes she design and experiment grew and it up and working.
Annie Murphy Paul: What we learn before we’re born
This speaker is talking the things that happen to mother when they are pregnant. The things that the fetus can do in the mother’s womb and can hear. Some of the things that the baby can do is hear the mother’s voices. That study shows that the babies cry in a accent of their mother’s native language. From listening to the mother they learn the language they speak and that how they baby when it is born starts to repeat the words that remember form the mother when it was in the womb. The sounds are not the only thing that they can do. The fetus can also taste and smell by the seven months their taste buds are fully developed. Also given the example that when the mother eat something that she likes often or not. When the baby is born and has the chance to eat what the mother was eating. When pregnant the baby can recognize that taste and will taste the same as when it was in the womb.
Reflection: What we learn before we’re born
This topic is an interesting thing to know about the mothers and the fetus and things they learn. I seem like the babies have super powers they can hear though falls but in this case it is though belies. I didn’t think that they can react to the things that mother is doing. This experiment reminds me when I saw other video or show on TV. When two pregnant women and tested what babies like to hear as in music and which one make them react to the noise. One baby was listening to instrumental and the other rap. The nurse had taken shots of the baby in the womb and seeing the reaction the baby would make. In the one that had rap music the babies had it’s mouth open and look it the baby was crying on the noise. On the other hand the nice relaxed music had claimed the baby.
Becoming a better student
Something that I got from this website about anxiety in college is the age range goes starts from 18 to 24. “If students do not feel adequate or prepared to cope with the new environment of a college campus, they could easily become susceptible to depression and anxiety,” Many student struggle with studying for tests because they feel anxiety and forget what they learned. Some people use visual to help determine the answer and not picking the other wrong once. Some other issues the student face not having money to pay for school. The only way for becoming a better student is by asking for help and having things on your to do list done. Most students don’t qualify for financial aid because of the income of their parents. The tips that each article has work if you set your mind to it and actually do them. An example of one of them is work going to you counselors for any help. The one that you can ask for any advice is other classmates or your friends that had over came the obstacle.
Work Cited
1. Tartakovsky, Margarita. “Depression and Anxiety Among College Students |Psych Central.” Psych Central – Trusted Mental Health, Depression, Bipolar, ADHD and Psychology Information . Psych Central Learn. Share. Grow, 27 Aug. 2008. Web. 10 Dec.2011..
2. (223), In Scopus. “Science Direct – Computers in Human Behavior : Incidence and Correlates of Pathological Internet Use among College Students.” Science Direct – Home. 19 June 2006. Web. 10 Dec. 2011. .
3. Hansen, Randall S. “25 Tips to Help You Survive and Thrive Your Freshman Year.” Quintessential Careers: College, Careers, and Jobs Guide. Web. 10 Dec. 2011. .
To Scott’s future students,
The 4th floor corridor in which houses many rooms but one room in particular the room in which you sit right now is Scott’s room, learn to love it and call it home. When I walked in on the first day of this class I realized that I had just entered college and to tell you the truth starting right here is a hell of a place to start. You’ve met Mr. Scott Hoshida who is going to be your instructor for the next few months. He’s a good guy get to know him a little because he might be your teacher for the next 3 months, and try and go easy on him he’s had a rough semester with us. This class is akin to a journey traveling down a river. And you’re going to need it to stay afloat in this river. Sure there are estuaries and calm waters but between them lay fast water and obstacles, this class is about how you can learn to be your own river guide.
Now that we’ve walked in the door and met Scott now let’s look around and meet everybody. Meet your fellow English 201A classmates they’re here to help keep your hair in your head and your greatest allies. The energy of the people around you creates an atmosphere and since you are going to be spending some time in this atmosphere it wouldn’t hurt to make it a pleasant one, get to know each other, be nice and just respect everyone and there won’t be any problems. Now that you’ve made it past the first days welcome to the first two weeks our foundations class and a place to Temel Nosce, (know thyself in Latin,) the first two weeks of this class are all about getting to know what you’re really good at and how you learn by yourself and with groups. You’ll explore the concept of “bio-reaction” thoroughly, learn how to effectively communicate, determine your learning styles, and build relationships with your fellow classmates.
Now that foundation has been set now we can begin to build on this foundation and create something and watch you grow. What to expect in the weeks to come include learning how to channel your thoughts into four columns, how to take information off paper and edit them for your benefit, write essays that push you to think in ways that are flexible and endlessly reproachable. From there we continue on through the semester and continue till winter break arrives. That is what makes up the first steps in your adventure into college it might seem minuscule but the most important steps are always the ones we took to get started
I took on the role of the bright yet lazy kid in class who fell behind because he didn’t do homework please heed my warning and get all your work done in a timely fashion and get organized and serious about school. Many kids fresh out of high school can’t deal with the stress to take school at a high seriousness level and that why I am where I am right now, in the computer lab doing a paper that was due last week. You might even ask yourself the same question that I did when I started the class what “what can I learn and how will I learn it?” all I wish to tell you is keep your mind open and let your thoughts run wild. No question is a bad question, no answer is wrong, and everything that your teacher says you can learn you can learn. and I wish I could have avoided all this stress and I hope that you will in the future best of luck tackling the obstacles ahead of you. From what I’ve learned so far It’s the duties of a student – pull everything out of your teacher; pull everything out of your fellow students as you’ll see in Scott’s rules for the classroom.
My advice, leave all judgments and assumptions at the door and keep calm and breath you can get through it. Just relax and keep rolling with the punches don’t let anything prevent you from doing what you want to do and listen to what people have to say you’d be surprised what you learn by just listening to Scott talk.
Dear Miss Maria G. Gomez,
How’s life going for you? Well I’m writing a letter to you to tell you all of the things you have accomplished. You have overcome many obstacles in your life and yet you still remain with your head up high continue to do what you have to do to get where you want to be. Also you never let any of those obstacles bring you down, if anything they made you stronger and made you the person you are now. If I were to write all of your accomplishments I would be typing for hours. One of the most important accomplishments yet was graduating high school and continued to go to school. Not everyone does that and having to struggle with money you found a way to go to school till this day. Becoming pregnant at 18 wasn’t one of your plans nor did you expect it to happen but it happened. Its not a regret or anything for you in fact it has been the greatest blessing that has happened to you and became your main motivation to continue to rise to the top. Finding out that you were pregnant made you think of what you were going to do with your life and how it would change. You made plans and one of them was to continue to go to school regardless the situation. You have come a long way to pause and stop going to school. Although it wasn’t going to be easy you’re getting through it and it has become a greatest accomplishment yet. Not many are able to do it but with the support from your family and friends you did and will continue to succeed. That’s one of your greatest accomplishments yet that you are proud of and are glad that you did. Although the plans you had changed you will still succeed regardless the situation. Five years from now you see your self-done with school with your AA degree, hopefully you had the chance to go to a 4 year like you planned and get your career there. But as long as you have your AA degree and your certificate from the Public and Human services program you’ll be fine. It will be harder for you to become a pediatrician like you hoped you will, but in 5 years from now you see yourself becoming a nurse or a dental assistant. Working in any office doing what you love to do is helping others out, organizing files, and just the fact that you’re working in an office. That’s what you love to do and because of the person you have come to be you most definitely will accomplish and will get a chance to do it. You see yourself finished school and moving up in your career. Your life changed in many ways and will continue to change as the years go by, but your life changed for the better. With the support from your family you will get where you want to be. As long as you see your wonderful Son as your greatest motivation and the reason for your accomplishments you will continue to be a success in your life.
Love,
Maria (:
Reflection
Writing this letter it took me a while because I thought deeply of the things that I was writing. Thinking of it closely I realized that what I wrote would actually influence me to succeed more in life. I felt as if I was writing my perfect future that I want, I just hope I can accomplish my goals to succeed in life. Also writing a letter to myself I realized that I’m more of a better when it comes down to free write rather then me writing on a specific topic. I think that with writing this letter it has helped me think of my future. Also I feel that overall this class has helped me become a writer and showed me how to write in all kinds of ways. Thanks for the help Scott.