Time Strategies

To be successful this semester I will have to work more than a week in advanced, which will be a struggle for me. I usually finish assignments no more than a day early. I can't really do that with my schedule this semester, I have 3 of my hardest classes back to back to back without a break. With that being said there is no way to complete a task right before class and I can't realistically wait till the night before to do 3 classes worth of work.

11 Ways Unsuccessful People mismanage Their Time by Áine Cain

This article felt like I was being called out. I have several of these bad habits,  but I hope that by reminding myself of these bad habits I can focus on changing them.

How to Beat Procrastination by Caroline Webb

I am a huge procrastinator, if the University had a degree for it I would have graduated years ago. I liked this article because Caroline Webb talks about how humans are wired for procrastination. I really need to work on my cost benefit analysis of getting things done ahead of time.

Stop Wasting Time

Source: Pixabay

Technology

 I like to read a lot online so I knew that WordPress could be used for blog posts, but I didn't know it let you make your own website.

PRO TIP

Okay, so the coolest most helpful trick I've learned in college is how to use google to search a specific site for something. Say there was a site with every myth ever called mythology.com, if you wanted to find myths about wolves specifically you could type: wolves site:www.mythology.com

That would force google to search that site for every mention of wolves on the site. It is a really good tool to use if you know what you want to see on a site but can't figure out how to navigate to it.

Google on a MacBook 

Source: Pixabay

Assignments

 I can't wait to read more myth and folklore. I've always loved to read an part of the reason I took this class was to be exposed to new culture and myths outside of the Greek and Roman norm. It will also be interesting to see what everyone else chooses and their thoughts on the topics.

Bookstore

Source: Pixabay

Growth Mindset

Learning at OU has taught me a lot about myself and learning ability. Honestly, I struggle with being a bit of a perfectionist and anxiety, it is easier with more hands-on thing, but I struggle with more open-ended conceptual learning. I often find myself writing paragraphs over and over again, trying to find the perfect way to write something. I can’t even count the amount of times I’ve turned in rough drafts and then rewritten the entire thing because I hatred it. I have started to grow more on this front due to one of the friends I made here at OU. She is a creative writing major and she told me that every time I want to delete a sentence I should copy it into another word document, because it might not fit where I want it, but it could work later in my writing.

This class is the class I am most worried about this semester, when I signed up for it, I thought it would be more focused on mythology. I was extremely intimidated by the concept of creating a blog. I hope I can use what I learned from my creative writing major friend to help me in this class.

A growth mindset embraces challenges.

(image from growthmindsetmemes.blogspot.com)

Introduction to an "Old" Sailor

I graduated high school back in 2011 and I knew I wasn’t ready for college. I was going stir crazy I wanted excitement and adventure, I didn’t want to sit in more classrooms day after day. So, I joined the US Navy. I know that might sound totally out of left field, but I am 4^th generation Navy, so I had a good idea of what I was getting into…

I signed my contract the summer of junior year, and it was oddly liberating. I never experience that mad college enrollment scramble; I never had faced the anxiety of opening that letter to see if I was accepted. I was already in I knew where I was going. I was a cocky kid at 18, but aren’t we all, I asked them for the most academically difficult program they had. I was going to be a Nuclear Engineer.

 

The funny thing about Nuclear Engineer is that it takes 2 years of school to become one…. Remember when I said I wasn’t ready for college? I still wasn’t. The Navy’s Nuclear School is a bit like going to college in prison. Imagine going to school for 8 hours straight in one room with no windows and if you had homework it had to be done in the same room. No information could leave the secured building, so if you needed to study before an exam you would have to do it there. This was pretty much my nightmare. I wanted out; I had joined for adventure not this. After a bit of struggling and a lot of paperwork I was able to transfer to a new job outside of nuclear engineering. My first real duty station was Japan, I was finally starting the adventure I had envisioned! I loved Japan and I loved my new job aboard the USS George Washington.

 

USS George Washington (CVN-73)

Source: Wikipedia

I had my excitement and adventure, but I knew I still wanted to attend college. So, after almost 8 years I left the Navy and came to OU. Honestly it was rough at first, I had seen the world and worked in the Navy this whole time. Coming to college at 25 isn’t too extreme, but it was definitely a shift from what I was used to. Even now, a few years later I feel like I am still finding myself both outside of the Navy and student in college. Each semester is now like a small adventure I learn and grow from.

Storybook Favorites

 

Old literature books

Dragons

This blog immediately pulled me in because it is a about a topic that I am very familiar with. Dragons are such a prevalent mythological creature in fantasy genre that it would be hard to find someone that hasn’t heard of them. I like that the layout is very simple and easy to navigate. The alternate not quite ending is an interesting way to start a story. I liked the nontraditional dragon aspect and it was cool to see major gods from different pantheons show up.

Dungeons and Decisions

This blog is amazingly creative! First, I like that the naming convention changes the normal D&D just a bit, it’s a simple nod to the types of stories held within. Secondly, I never would have even imagined that could set up a blog this way with the branching story paths. The introduction did a good job of briefly describing D&D. It was interesting to see the story spread over several pages; I am not sure I could replicate this, but it is and interesting idea to keep in mind when setting up my own site. Again, I just love the way it uses a nontraditional way to tell the stories.

Werewolves

This blog also covers a topic of mythology that has become widespread, Werewolves. The introduction is very thorough, it covers the most common myth and goes into the various different myths from around the world. I like that it didn’t just choose the easy route and stick to the most popular myth. The story book was easy to navigate and I loved that they used a different picture to set the mood of each story. If I do a story book with different tones, I want to replicate this so that the mood is apparent as soon as someone navigates to each specific story.

Japan, My Favorite Place

 

The coolest place I have lived has to be Japan. I've moved around quite a bit, but the first time I moved to another country was in the summer of 2012. It was such a shock to exit the plane and suddenly immersed in a different culture. I absolutely loved Japan and still wish I could visit my old house there.

(Source:US Department of State)

A personal picture of my house in Japan.