Week 11: Famous Last Words

The semester has gone by so quickly! Week 11 has already come and passed. As the temperature has dropped lower and lower this week, I have found myself looking forward to winter break more and more. Winter has always been my favorite season growing up. I hope it snows this year!

In physics lab this week, we continued our exploration into the field of optics. We used a light source and many different mediums to see how the travel of light changed depending on the composition of the material. Organic Lab was much more unfortunate this week, as our lab involved using diethyl ether, a very, very smelly compound. I don't think the stench will ever leave my notebook.

 

(Robin Hood: Wikimedia Commons)

For my weekly reading in Mythology and Folklore this week, I chose to read the classic Ballads of Robin Hood. Next to Aesop's fables, this has been my favorite reading of the year. One of my favorite tales from this reading was The Ranger. In this ballad of Robin Hood, Robin Hood treks through the forest one day in search of a deer to hunt to bring back for himself and his merry men. While trekking through the woods, however, Robin Hood finds himself amongst a ranger, who informs him that the deer of the forest belong to the king and threaten that if Robin Hood kills one of the deer, he shall attack. Robin Hood rejects the words of the ranger, saying that he has hunted in the forest for years, and will not be stopped. The two men engage in combat with their swords, fighting evenly for three hours! How exhausting! Eventually, Robin Hood's men appear, but instead of killing the Ranger, Robin Hood offers him a place in his ranks. I think my favorite aspect of this story is the two men becoming friends after gaining each others respect in combat.

Week 10: Famous Last Words

I can't believe it! Week 10 is over already. In just 6 more weeks, the semester will be over and winter break will begin. Although, I think for many of us, winter break will really just be the beginning of the December intersession! The busy life of the college student, eh?

Another round of testing has passed, so this week has been a little bit slower. I've been trying to use this additional time to finish up my second story for my storybook, but I've had a little bit of writers block. I think I know where I want the tale to go, but it has been difficult to come up with the appropriate language to direct it there. Hopefully with some coffee and a little luck I can get it finished up.

(Coffee: Wikimedia Commons)

With the Principles of Physiology test out of the way, the normal lectures have resumed. This Thursday, however, we are supposed to have a guest lecturer. I am excited to see what they have to add to the class, but it has also been strongly suggested that we may have a quiz that day; something I am not so excited about.

With OU Texas canceling physics lab two weeks ago, and the lab practical last week, this week has been the first real physics lab I've done in a while. It was an interesting lab measuring the angles of reflection from different types of mirrors and through quartz crystals. The lights in the classroom had to be off for the experiment to work properly, but this did made it a little difficult to set up.

Organic Chem lab was short and sweet this week. Although I have to go directly to work after class, getting out of class early allowed me to get off of work early, which allowed me to go to sleep before 2am.

Week 9: Famous Last Words

Week 9 is over and the semester is showing no signs of slowing down! This past week as been one of the most stressful this semester, and I am not sad to see it over.

(Stress: Flickr)

This week I had both an exam in Principles of Physiology, as well as a lab practical in my Physics II Lab. My procrastination of studying for these tests certainly didn't help either! As a result, some of my work for other classes was put on the back burner. Unfortunately, I failed to complete the weekly reading as well as the storytelling post for Mythology and Folklore. This left me unable to complete a few other assignments as well. Fortunately, however, there is a large amount of extra credit available to make up for the assignments I did not complete! I am really thankful for the flexibility that this class provides! My Principles of Physiology grade is thankful as well.

Organic Chemistry Lab this week was certainly an interesting one. I had received an email a couple days before the lab informing that the lab we would be conducting would produce a terrible smell that could linger on for some time. The email even went so far as to suggest not wearing any clothes that you valued as they could be permanently contaminated! I was very concerned as we have to take our backpacks into this classroom and I really was not looking forward to having a smelly backpack for the rest of the semester, or buying a new one for that matter. Fortunately, I think the email was a little bit of an exaggeration, as the smell produced was really nothing worse than the smell of a chlorine pool. I had expected much, much worse after reading the suggestions from the email.

Week 7: Famous Last Words

I can't believe it is week seven already. The semester is almost halfway over! This week has been a very busy one, as my coworker left and I am having to cover additional days!

My classes this week have been interesting. In Physics Lab we had and a few interesting labs involving electromagnetic fields. There were about 6 different apparatuses set up at different tables around the room, and each group took turns switching tables, experimenting with phenomenon of electromagnetic fields. Organic Chem lab was a little bit easier this week, as we just did worksheets on infrared spectroscopy and mass spectrometry. This means no lab report due next week!


In Mythology and Folklore this week, I read Tibetan Folk Tales by A.L. Shelton. I really enjoyed this reading. The folk tales reminded me strongly of Aesop's fables, as many of them involved animals and they all had a lesson to teach.

For my storytelling post this week, I rewrote the Tibetan Folk Tale The Tiger and the Frog. In the original story, there is a hungry tiger who one day while out prowling comes across a small frog. The Tiger's first instinct is to eat the frog up, but this clever frog declares that he is king of all frogs, saying that he can jump any distance and do anything. The frog decides to challenge the Tiger to a contest to who can jump furthest across a nearby river. However, the clever frog bites onto the tigers tail and uses the tiger to catapult himself across the river instead. When they get to the other side, the frog tricks the tiger by spitting up his own fur and claiming he had eaten a tiger the day before. The scared tiger then runs away! I kept my telling of the story mostly the same, but changed the contest to a race.

 (Tiger. Wikimedia Commons)

Week 5: Famous Last Words

Week five over already! It still seems like the semester just started, but here we are over a month in. I think I must say this in every Famous Last Words post, but it has been a very busy week! My lab classes have certainly been filling most of my time, but physiology has been creeping up on me too. Thankfully, I have Mythology to have at least one fun class.

In Physics lab this week, we continued our study of electric current through circuits. While I've already taken both Physics 1 and 2, and the concepts are not new to me, it is interesting to see the things we learned about first hand in the lab. In Organic Chem lab we learned about partition coefficients between organic and aqueous solutions. What a headache!

In Mythology and Folklore this week, I read the story of Twenty-Two Goblins. I really enjoyed this tale. In it, a king named "King Victory" attempts to remove a goblin from a graveyard as a favor to monk who has been bringing the king a very generous tribute. However, each time the king attempts to remove the goblin, the goblin tells the king a riddle. When the king guesses the riddle right, the goblin runs off back to a tree. This happens many, many times!

I took the Twenty Two Goblins tale The Four Brothers and used it as the basis for my storytelling post this week. In the original, there are four brothers who each know a different type of "science." One brother can add flesh to bones, the second can add skin and hair to flesh, the third can add eyes and organs and the final brother can bring the organs to life. The four brothers bring a lion to life, which kills them all! In my tale, The Two Thieves, it is instead two thieves who bring a dead man to life in hopes of learning the location of secret treasure.

(Thief: Free Vector Graphics, Pixabay)

Week 4: Famous Last Words

Wow, I can't believe it has been a month already. It's interesting counting through the weeks in these "Famous Last Words" posts. This week, like so many others, has been very busy! I've been stressing trying to get all my studying done for my Principles of Physiology test on Tuesday, and complete my Organic and Physics two labs.

I had an interesting lab involving circuits this week in my Physics lab. It was curious to see how much of an impact that a tiny little metal resistor could have on the current that would flow through our circuit. In Organic Chem lab we purified the ethanol from a yeast and sugar mixture that we set up the second week of our lab. It was cool to get a small glimpse into how ethanol was created and distilled!

Mythology and Folklore, as always, kept me busy with reading and writing lots of fables and tales. I chose to read Tutinameh, or Tales of a Parrot. this week. This story tells about a parrot who distracts a woman from leaving to visit her extramarital lover each night by telling her a different story. Most of the tale is about the individual stories that the parrot tells, but the ending is surprising when the woman's husband returns.

(Amazon Parrot. Wikimedia Commons)

My best writing this week was probably done in my storytelling post. I concocted a tale based on The Nobleman who Concealed a Snake in His Sleeve. This story tells the tale of a nobleman who, one day while hunting, happens across the frightened snake. The snake convinces the nobleman to hide him from another man trying to kill the snake. However, after he helps the snake, the snake calls him a fool for trusting him and says that he will kill the man. The nobleman distracts the snakes and crushes his head with a rock. In my tale however, it's a tiger that the man hides in his house, and let's just say it's not quite as easy to crush a tiger as it is a snake.

Week 3: Famous Last Words

Three weeks down, a lot more to go. This week was a busy one for sure! Between lab write ups, homework and studying I haven't had much free time. Working Friday, Saturday, and Sunday doesn't help either. Thank goodness for the grace period until noon!

This week I had an interesting lab in Physics where we drew out magnetic field lines by measuring voltage through a conducting sheet. It's interesting to talk about these magnetic fields, but it's really cool to actually draw out these invisible forces that we talked about so much in class. I did not have Organic Chem lab this week, thank you Labor Day!

 I also did quite a bit of reading and writing for Mythology and Folklore this past week. I selected another set of Aesop's fables to read this week, and expanded my analysis of "tricksters and fools" that are prevalent in Aesop's works. As you can see, a good portion of Aesop's fables involve one animal tricking or making a fool of another!

My best writing, however, was done in my storytelling post. When I read The Cat and the Birds this week, I was strongly reminded of the old Tweety Bird and Sylvester the Cat cartoons. In this tale, a hungry cat dresses up as a doctor to try to trick a family of birds into letting him into their house (to presumably eat them). I used this story as an inspiration for my storytelling post this week, The Cat and the Canary, also blending in elements from another one of Aesop's fables, The Dog, the Cock, and the Fox. The Cat in my story attempts to trick the Canary by dressing up in different disguises, such as a salesman and even a girl scout. The Cat ultimately fails, and instead is tricked by the Canary into meeting his bulldog friend.

 

 (Tweety Bird: Wikipedia)

Week 2: Famous Last Words

As of today, the third week of class has started! I am thankful for the labor day holiday, it has given me some extra time to study and work ahead in some of my other classes. It hasn't all been work though! It's definitely been a fun weekend spent with friends and family.

Looking back at this past week, I've done quite a bit. I wrote two labs for Organic Chemistry Lab and another for Physics lab. My physiology class also kept me busy with reading and studying. For Mythology and Folklore I read lots of stories, wrote some of my own, and starting brainstorming for our big storybook project. I also started a twitter account this week so that I could interact with other mythology students and share cool things I found.

I've written a lot this week, but I think my best writing was once again done in my storytelling post. This week I examined the story The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse, an Aesop fable that I found in the Un-Textbook. The particular version was retold by Joesph Jacobs. I retold this story, calling it, "The Country Mouse and the City Mouse." I thought the city would work better for modern times, as the word "town" is now usually used to describe rural locations. I added more detail to this work, but since I really enjoyed the moral of the tale, I decided to leave the story framework
unchanged.

        (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

 One of my favorite stories that I read this week was The Hares and the Frogs. In this fable, the hares are so terrified of everything that they decide to drown themselves than live in their miserable state. However, when they get to the lake, they see that the frogs are even worse off than themselves. I think this fable is a great reminder that our problems are relative, and that our "first world problems" aren't problems at all in the eyes of some.

Week 1: Famous Last Words

So the first week is over already. It went by pretty fast! Although the first week of classes can always be kind of stressful, I think I enrolled in some pretty good classes this semester, and it should be interesting. I am intrigued by the "famous last words" blog posts, I wonder what it will be like to look back at the end of the semester at all that I have written here.

I've definitely learned a lot this week, and one of the most useful things I learned about was the Google re-use filter. Essentially, when using Google image search you can select a "re-use" filter so that all the results included are free of copyright protections. This will be great for future projects this semester and for classes throughout the rest of my college career. I've also learned a lot about blogging in general: how to make one, how to create posts, leave comments, imbed images and more. Through the tech tip for the week, I also learned how to change the template for my blog.

I've done quite a few blog posts this week, but I think my best writing was done in my storytelling post. I wrote a story inspired by "The Fox Without a Tail" but added more detail and changed the ending. I spent some time on it, and overall I'm satisfied with how it turned out.

 (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

I read a fantastic storytelling post by Emily Groff "The Fat Man of Bombay" I really enjoyed this story; it was very well written and the details were superb. I liked how she took a relatively simple rhyme and turned it into a descriptive tale.

Overall, this week has been a good one. Although it's sad to see the summer go, I think I will enjoy my classes this semester, and I had quite a bit of fun for my birthday yesterday.