Halloween just around the corner

Tomorrow is Halloween. I wonder if anyone is going to bother going out trick-or-treating. Personally, I think I'm past the trick-or-treating part and will probably just go out to see the many Halloween decorations that people have put up. One of the things I talked about in my Observation paper was how my subdivision puts up so many decorations, for almost any type of holiday, that it feels like I'm walking through some type of decorations museum. For some reason I've always been interested in what exactly people will do to celebrate Halloween and over the last few years I've gone out just to get a good look at what people have done. This year looks like it's not going to be any different. Does anyone else share this type of interest?

Thursday=Relaxation Day (Almost)

Yesterday I was able to take a break from all the pressure that comes from turning in important assighments. Aside from studying a little Math, I did absolutely nothing that was related to schoolwork. Instead I sat around on my computer and looked up any good games that may be coming out around the holidays. Silent Hill Shattered Memories and Bioshock 2 are games that I'm currently interested in. For those who don't know, the former is about a guy named Harry Mason who searches an abandoned, haunted town to find his missing daughter and the latter is about an underwater city called Rapture in the 1970's that's fallen into chaos. Today I'm back to the old routine of working on homework. Still, it was nice to catch a little break yesterday.

Busy Weekend

For some reason this weekend seems to be really busy for me. On top of the english observation paper, I've got to study for a music exam on Monday and work on a History paper for Thursday. All of this might not seem to be too bad, but usually when I've got a test to study for or a paper to complete I have a habit of spending too much time on it. Thus us because I have a habit of pondering over whether or not I'm ready for the test or if the paper's good enough to turn in. Hopefully I'll be able to stop worrying over my performance and just do what needs to be done. For now, I'll just be working on these current assighments and hope for the best.

Analysis for Midterm

So far we have worked on a "introduction to who we are" paper, a visual that shows our views on democracy and a paper to go along with it, read and reviewed several chapters from "Reading and Writing for Civic Literacy", and are now working on a Observation paper. I'm starting to feel a little more comfortable within the class in terms of what to expect and am currently getting a solid B. I find the papers that we have written, and will write, concerning our community and democracy to be very interesting, though I would prefer these papers to have a little more "variety." What I mean by this is instead of just focusing on current events strictly within our communities, we could focus on the diversity of communities that may have existed thousands of years ago and how these communities may be different from the ones that exist today. To me, it just seems that some of the other students may be bored with the class and I think that this focus on diversity would help to make the class far more interesting. It's always better to explore new areas rather than focus on ones that students may already be familiar with.

QW for p. 45 #1 and p. 71 #1

p. 45 #1
The current number of parking spaces that are on campus is not enough to effectively allow students to get to class on time. As students who are late drive around hoping to run across a free spot or find one where a student is leaving, they can easily spend up to fifteen minutes in a time frame where they only have around five minutes to get to class. This can result in students getting repeated tardies and eventually, getting a failing grade for a class. If the number of parking spots is increased around the buildings on campus, it would allow many students to find a parking spot next to the building in which they have class more easily, allowing many students the ability to avoid repeated tardies and a potential failing grade.

p. 71 #1
Many of the "basic" courses that I have taken throughout high school and are currently taking in college, such as History, English, and Math, have promoted various critical thinking skills. History requires a cumulativeness of historical facts in order to be able to write about conditions that may have existed in a certain time period and how those conditions may have effected the people living in that time period. Math relies on a very similar form of cumultativeness, since certain knowledge in one section would be carried over to and expanded upon in another section. English, out of History and Math, promotes the most critical thinking skills, such cumulativeness, symbolism, metaphors, and viewpoints. Many of these skills were given to help us write papers that focused on our own opinion about a certain topic, or thesis papers. These are the classes where I have retained the most knowledge, since I have been taking them ever since I first started school and because they continue to go over and expand on the knowledge I have already gained.
Many of the elective and filler classes I've taken in high school and also in college, such as Computer Applications, and Music, are classes that seem to "jump through the hoops." These classes didn't and don't have any type of relation with the other classes I have taken and there wasn't really any type of class that continued what was learned in these classes. Since many of these classes was, and currently are, being taken so I can get enough credits to graduate, I just focus on the material so I can successfully pass the course, with the sense that I wouldn't really need to retain what I've learned.

1st month of college

The 9th of October marks my first whole month in college. Ever since my first day at U of M Dearborn I've grown more and more accustomed to the school and by now I'm starting to feel right at home. I don't think I'm going to start feeling uneasy as I'm driving to school anymore since I pretty much now what to expect by now. I feel like I know each of my teachers a lot better then when I first started to get to know them when school started. I also feel like I know what to expect in terms of homework, how much I'll be getting, and how much effort I have to put in towards completing it and getting a good grade. However, I haven't really gotten involved in any extracurricular activities, such as clubs, simply because of all the work I have to do. For now, I'll just concentrate on keeping up with the work assigned and doing the best I can to do well in class. Hopefully as time goes by I'll be able to start exploring the world of college outside of just going to class and really get to see what it is that people do to have fun at U of M Dearborn.

Easy Math Test

Today I took what must have been one of the easiest tests I've had in Math for a long time. I've always been OK with Math and thought that I would do alright on the test but man, this test was so simple I bet even a 3rd grader could do it! I wish the other classes I'm taking offer tests like this. That way, I could just breeze right through them without a worry in the world. Oh well, I'm sure that the tests in Math will get harder later on and eventually I'll soon start sweating over studying for them. Still, it was a nice break from the constant tension over trying to do well in class and it helped give me the confidence that I can do well if I put my mind to it.

This weekend's football game

Saturday will see both Michigan and Michigan State squaring off on the big field. To be perfectly honest, I've never really been into big football game events such as this, but I'll see if I can spare a little time from working on my English paper to watch some of it. Obviously, I'll be rooting for Michigan to win (unlike my next-door neighbors who always root for State). I'm not sure if my family and I will be going over to any of my relatives' house for this one, but seeing as no one has said anything, it looks like we'll be watching it at home. If anyone else wants to talk about this game, than feel free to leave a comment!