Summertime = relaxing, fun, cleaning, crafts, classes?

That's right I am taking summer classes again... I don't dread taking summer classes, I prefer them over regular semester classes. Seriously if I could take one class a month for every month (4 in the fall, 4-5 months in the spring, and 2-3 in the summer)I would be happy. Could you imagine how many classes you can get done with in a year and how well you could do in that class since you are putting your sole focus into one class. I know it is different for everyone, I just would love to do that myself, I enjoy it a lot more. Think about it, if you go for one full year, taking a class a month and each class equaled 3-4 hours (we have science labs to think of and what your major is), at minimum that would total to 36 hours in one year, maximum could be up to 52! How awesome would that be.

Sounds insane, but I would love to take a class a month.

Moving on, this summer I am at the moment taking just two classes. I am taking developmental math and Business and Technical Writing class. For my math it should not be too difficult, I only have modules 8 and 9 left! I am excited. And the Business and Technical Writing Class should be fun.

I may add another one on as well because I would love to get a class out of the way, but I want to be able to have a bit of a summer to and hang out with my family, friends, and my boyfriend. Also I will be finishing up my math around early July and since I only have 2 modules left I should be fine. But I have to consider the other factors along with the fact that I want to have a job, I'm not sure yet though.

Besides taking classes I will be looking for a job, begin working on the responsibilities it takes when it comes to being Treasurer for the group I am a part of Gnosis. I will be cleaning my room, throwing stuff away, and donating stuff. I have been a pack rat for a long time so it has been hard but I have been really doing a good job. What I have realized going through all of my stuff, is that I have a lot of arts and crafts supplies. With realizing this I have decided that I will make this a craft filled summer so that way I can use as many craft materials as I possibly can, without needing to buy more (and if I do buy more I will buy less than more, just so that way I won't have anything left over). Hey who knows if I do a really good job I could sell the stuff on Etsy. Another little project I will be working on is more academic...I know as if college was not enough. Well I am interested in learning more about Holodomor and I want to eventually do a presentation about it so that way people are more aware about the topic. That itself is another post for another day, unless I get in the mood later on to talk about it.

Until tomorrow...

Zobeide Invisible Cities

Above is my very awesome English project. For my project I had to take a book that was in the textbook, but had not read. Then I had to study about it, write a paper on it and give a presentation to my class. We were allowed to get creative and do what we want.

So I decided to do a puppet show. Yes it is silly and no its not supposed to look professional. It was my 1st time doing a puppet show and making a movie. I was very excited and the fact that I got an "A" on it just makes me even more happy.

For my topic I focused on Italo Calvino's Invisible City http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italo_Calvino

Invisible Cities is about a conversation between Marco Polo and Kublai Khan. Kublai Khan feels that his empire is failing and so he has Marco Polo tell him stories of the many wonderful places that he has been to. But the more Marco Polo tells Khan stories, the more the emperor begins to doubt Polo. About what?? Well that's something you will have to find out. :D

Now here is the back ground story to this video to see where I got the idea from. Remember the movie is not an actual representation of this part:

From there, after six days and seven nights, you arrive at Zobeide, the white city, well exposed to the moon, with streets wound about themselves as in a skein. They tell this tale of its foundation: men of various nations had an identical dream. They saw a woman running at night through an unknown city; she was seen from behind, with long hair, and she was naked. They dreamed of pursuing her. As they twisted and turned, each of them lost her. After the dream, they set out in search of that city; they never found it, but they found one another; they decided to build a city like the one in the dream. In laying out the streets, each followed the course of his pursuit; at the spot where they had lost the fugitive's trail, they arranged spaces and walls differently from the dream, so she would be unable to escape again.

This was the city of Zobeide, where they settled, waiting for that scene to be repeated one night. None of them, asleep or awake, ever saw the woman again. The city's streets were streets where they went to work every day, with no link any more to the dreamed chase. Which, for that matter, had long been forgotten.

New men arrived from other lands, having had a dream like theirs, and in the city of Zobeide, they recognized something from the streets of the dream, and they changed the positions of arcades and stairways to resemble more closely the path of the pursued woman and so, at the spot where she had vanished, there would remain no avenue of escape.

The first to arrive could not understand what drew these people to Zobeide, this ugly city, this trap.

This is only a part of the book and the part of the story. You will just have to find out what the actual conversation that took place between Kublai Khan and Marco Polo.

I hope you all like it. You can go to the youtube and leave comments there if you want to.

Enjoy!!

Busyness!!!

So I just noticed something while writing the title for this blog: busyness and business. This may have been obvious to others, but to me this is a revelation. There is a definite connection between the two. I wonder if business came from busyness???

Moving on though I have been very busy for quite some time, I have been studying my butt off for this class, reading other books, hanging with my friends, chillin with my boyfriend, and all the while improving myself and trying to go nuts :D.

I am so excited though, within two days I will be completly done with this class. So far in this class I have gotten 2 A's on 2 exams and I want to get that last A.

Besides that I am dealing with paperwork for Pelissippi and its been a total pain,everything from registration to financial needs. I won't be going back to UTC where I originally was going for quite some time. But I won't be able to because I have been ill for quite some time and my immune system sucks as a result.

I am getting better, but until I am back to my peak I am going to stay at home and go to school.

Either way I am very excited to be finished so that way I can relax a little bit before classes start for the fall.

My plans for the rest of the summer is excersie, write more, post more on this blog, read more, practice on my flute, and maybe even paint and draw. I'm pretty excited.

Finished One Exam

So I have just finished taking my first exam for this and I am very glad that this is done. Man that was a hard exam, it was not multiple choice. There were stupid identifications, short answers, and we had to do 2 essays. It took 2 hours for me to finish this test and my hand starting cramping up. I was so glad to be done with this test, now I know what to expect in the future.

I haven't finished my reading response....but frankly I am tired and I plan on doing that tomorrow morning. I did start on it (a tiny bit) but I should be fine. Other than that there is nothing really else I can say about today. I'm just proud of myself, I hope I get an A.

Although of the girls that is in my class today wasn't there. She is really nice and I met her on the 1st day. I hope everything is all right with her, cause she doesn't seem the typr of person to miss an exam.

Anywho other then that nothing much else is going on. Off to watch reality tv...a way to vedge after reading lots of english. For an English Major it can get hectic.

Life Goes On..

So far my month of July has been great. I hope that it will stay that way, because I like have this happy content feeling I have been having. Right now I'm in the Pellissippi State Library right now waiting for my class to start.

Good news about the last class I took this summer.

My American Literature I class (that I worked so hard in) was a sucess...I got an A!!!! I'm still overjoyed about that. Since I was sick all last year the highest grade I made was a B, so seeing an A right now, really, really boasts my confidence.

Also this past weekend was an awesome weekend, I got to see some of my friends, hang out with my family and my boyfriend got to come up and spend the weekend with my family. He and my family got along really well. That made me very happy. I was great we went to a few bookstores, drove around K-Town, spent time together playing the new Harry Potter lego game (Years 1-4), it was the awesome!!! We also went to the World's Fair Park, and saw the fireworks and listened to the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra. That was fun, but I'm not sure I would do it again....still on the fence.

This past 4th of July was pretty important and special for me. Not just because of my family, friends, and my boyfriend. It's because of everything that has happend these past 2 years. It's not just because Barack Obama is the President and we have a democratic majority in the House & Senate. That is a part of it, but not the reason. They helped play a part when it comes to question everything I have known and been told since I can remember.

An example with education, how many of us ever thought we were going to question what our teachers and professors told us? After all they are the "experts" they are the ones that know there stuff. How many of us read about history, science, and literature beyond what we are told in taxtbooks and the classroom? I know for me science would be a little hard seeing I am an English Major ( I also want to be a History major as well, I have just not filled out the paperwork yet to do this). But for me reading Literature and learning about History is not a hard thing. But others find it boring....which is a shame.

I use to not read a lot of historical non fiction books, after all it just wasn't my interest. But I started watching Glenn Beck. I honestly originally did not watch him even though he was on Fox News because he was on Headline News ( supported by CNN). But I started watching him and was amazed with how he was able to go after both parties with completle honesty. Then there was the fact that he talked about history and how it can apply to today, this was exicitng for me simply because I always thought that this was true. Then he really started to go into detail about history, that's when my brain went, "Wait....what!?!?!?!?"

He started talking about all these people, places and events that I have never heard of in American History, especially Colonial era during the time of the American Revelution, which my family and friends can tell I love readin about that era and I am an enthusiast. So for me not to know these things, immedialty put me into action. I started doing more research on what he was talking about and at the same time trying to find at the same time to see if there is any evidence that contradicts it. However I soon realized that I wasn't finding any evidence to contradict what he was saying, in fact I was finding more evidence to support it.

As a result I feel what I have learned in all of my class cannot be taken at face value. Like I said in my last post I really can't know who or what to believe anymore. I have to go straight to the sources.

I almost done reading a book called "The Hidden Diary of Marie Antoinette" by Carolly Erickson, it is quite good. After I finish reading that I think I will be reading a biography she wrote called "Misstress Anne".

Yes it is about Anne Bolyen, but I find her just fascinating and also since I checked it out of the library I should try to read that first instead of the other numerous books I have. I don't think I should check out books for a while, unless I have a paper to write. I always do this, I try to not to, it's just that I love books so much.

Anyway I should get going my class is in about an hour and I want to be able to read more of my book before class starts.

Oh and by the way for all those that live in Knoxville, Tennessee. it may reach 101 degrees today (which may be a record for the area of Knoxville). Stay cool everyone during this hot summer and have a great day!

Been Busy With Classes

So I haven't been on my blog since I have been taking classes. Right now I am taking a class at Pelisssippi State Techincal Community. Its American Literature I and overall it has been awesome. We have talked about everyone from Anne Hutchison, Roger Williams, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Frederick Douglas, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melvile, etc.

Overall I have been enjoying this class. Everynight I have to read about 50 pages of reading for the next day, it just depends. I also usually read more about the background of the author and other writings that our porfessor says that we don't have to read it, but she recommends it. So I take no chances, so I can be prepared at the end of the day.

I have had some annoyances while in this class, actually just one continuing annoyance. There is a girl next to me that rarely pays attention in class, she always is trying to copy other people's notes (as a result of her texting on the phone and not paying attention) highlights her book to the point where the page is moslty bright flourescent yellow (no one taught this girl how to use a higlighter) and this girl is going to be finished at the end of this summer at this community college.... really I know people get lazy at times I understand, but with her attitude and how she talks, she did this the entire time!!!! I know its a community college and it will get harder and blah, blah. But this girl is the kind to repeat questions in class that goes something like, "Wait...huh...w-w-what page was that on? Wait I don't see that, what page did you say it was? Umm what did you say the answer was?" And on and on. I sit next to an idiot and she keeps sitting next to me! I know I could move, but I like being close to the front.

Anyway, this class besides dealing with stupid girl has been a lot of fun, people might groan at that but I love literature, I have my own library(that's for another post). My favorite readings that we have done is:

1. Benjamin Franklin's Autobio( a part of it)
2. Anne Hutchinson's stuff
3. Frederick Douglass Narrative (a part of it)
   

I found these works my favorites, I found it to be inspiring and brilliant. I didn't agree with everything the professor said not because of my own personal beliefs, but because she was going on feelings of the what she got from the text, not using history of that person to interpret the text. Like with Benjamin Franklin, she said that he was that not much of a believer in God. Thats not true, you could say he would be considered a modern day non denomination Christian of sorts. For we were talking all about the His list of 13 virtues; she said he used them for money making puposes???? What!?!?!?!?!? Okay He did this, mostly because he wanted to be a better person and also ( this part Im not as sure of, cause I'm trying to recollect some research I had done a while back) because he knew that since he had trouble believing in the divinty of God, he thought that by practicing these virtues he may become a better person and maybe have a better understanding of God. But then again she is allowed to have her own opinion and I do respect her a great deal. Besides this, I really haven't had any moments that make me go Huh?

Now the one thing I learned a lot about was Frederick Dourglass. I admire that man, he is very brave and strong to have dealt with what he did. I am so glad I was able to read a part of it. I will be reading the full Narrative in the Future, I already bought it.

Back to the class itself....

So far in this class I have gotten 2 B's on 2 exams. An 88 & an 81. I have a strong B in thsi class. I am very proud of myself. And I have only missed one class; despite the fact that it is 8:00 every morning. I guess it helps that I'm home and I have my mom to tell me to get my butt up. ( :P )

Anywho I have just turned in my paper into this class this past Mon. and I will be taking the final exam next Mon. I hope I can get my grade up to a strong A!!

I'm also thinking of taking another class in the next session, American Literature II. I hope I wiil be able to take it. I know it may be shorter, but so far I was able to do real well, hopefully I can get it up to an A with the last test. I just have to do real well. Either way, I will be really proud of myself.

Well wish my luck with the coming exam next Mon!!