Indian Epics

I love my color-coded daily planner. ( Source ) I read two articles. The first was " How to build a realistic study plan that you'll actually stick to ".  I found it interesting that they focused on a weekly planner, with only a mention of a daily planner. For me, I find it much more useful to have a daily planner, to the point I buy a notebook I like and fill it out to make my own planner, so that it's exactly what I want. It helps me to have my recurring obligations (like classes, work, weekly meetings, etc.) visible along with the other tasks I need to complete. By being able to see the blocks of time I have a planned obligation, it helps me to see what time I do have open for other things, like studying, cleaning, hanging out with friends, and working on personal projects.  The second article I read was " Why time management is ruining our lives ". I found this article fascinating. It hit really close to home. I, like most people these days i...

Many of the technology tools for this class interact and intertwine. (Source) Most of the technology tools we will use in this class are pretty familiar, though I haven't done much with graphics creation. One technology tool that is completely new to me is Twine. I have read the "Create Your Own Adventure" books, but I've never seen the digital form. I feel like that is a much more difficult form of storytelling, to keep not only one plot line in your head, but many. One would have to be very aware of each individual branch, and be sure not to reference any plot points from a branch that the reader did not go down. I find it interesting you suggest Google Docs for our writing. I have mainly used it when collaborating with others in a group project, so that we can all work on a single document at the same time. I know others who use it just because they have several computers they work on, and that way they don't have to worry about version control or flash...

A painting depicting a scene from an ancient epic regarding the god Vishnu. (Source) Most of these assignments are pretty familiar. For most of my humanities classes, we have weekly readings. I have taken other online courses which require weekly blog posts and comments. It is also not uncommon to give peers feedback on their work. An assignment I have not yet encountered is the storytelling. I am interested by the concept of writing stories for a class in which we are supposed to be studying the stories written by others long ago, the Indian epics. It will be a fun opportunity to stretch my creative writing muscle, something I have not used in a very long time. Similarly, the projects sound like fun. It will be nice to develop my stories further, instead of just writing and immediately moving on without a look back. I appreciate the option of extra credit, and further, that there are so many opportunities and such variety in the extra c...

The Dichotomy of Growth Mindset I am of two minds about this idea of a "Growth Mindset". On one hand, I have experienced the pitfalls of having a fixed mindset. There's a fairly large community online of people my age who were high-achieving children, reading way above their grade level, aceing tests with little to no studying, you get the idea. I relate to them. We were praised for being so smart, and for our achievements. But freshman year, I struggled a lot. I didn't have study skills, because I had never had to study before. I felt discouraged when things didn't come to me easily. I wasn't used to having to work for my grades, and it was a huge blow to my esteem that this quality of "smart" which I held as so important to my identity didn't seem to apply now that I was competing with more than just those in my small, rural hometown. A growth mindset would have helped me embrace these harder classes that actually challenged me rather t...

Hi! My name is Alex. I'm a senior mechanical engineering major. With any luck, I will graduate this semester. After I graduate, I hope to go to grad school at CU Boulder, to get a degree in mechanical engineering with a research focus of robotics and systems design. As you may be able to guess, I love robots. I have been part of the competitive robotics team for four years now, and am currently the president. You can check us out here if you're interested in seeing what we do, but here's a few pictures anyway because I think they're neat. The early stages of this year's IEEE bot. A prototype of his year's RoboMagellan bot. I also work with robots. I work for the KISS Institute of Practical Robotics, where I get to teach kids about coding and robots, which is ridiculously cool, and a ton of fun. I also build the controllers the kids use, but that's not nearly as interesting or fun. I'm also an officer for Engineers' Club. We do lots o...

(Source) Real Housewives of Greek Mythology I love this idea. There is a ton of drama in Greek mythology, and I've never seen the stories told specifically from the women's point of view. I also find the format really interesting. I really like the uniqueness. The stories are given in episodes of a season (unfortunately it appears to have been cancelled after season 1). The stories themselves are given in the format of a screenplay. Overall I'm just loving the creativity that went into this storybook. As I was reading Season 1, Episode 1: All is Fair in Love and War, I was caught off-guard by the author's characterization of the Goddesses. Whereas I always thought of Athena as very logical and calculated (she is the goddess of wisdom and strategy after all), but this story portrays her as being rather short-tempered. I have to wonder how much of that portrayal is based in the author's interpretation of the myths about Athena, and how much is based in the des...

Double Arch at Arches National Park (Picture From Here) Arches National Park is a beautiful place full of gravity-defying rock formations, interesting flora and fauna, and excellent rock climbing. My family used to go to Arches for spring break when I was little. I have many fond memories of exploring and hiking and scrambling and campfires and stargazing. That's probably why it's one of my favorite places on earth.