Soggy Wednesday

Campus Safari Number Five

Supporting NB pride, my hometown North Branford, I went and saw the girls Field hockey game, mostly Kaitlyn a friend from home, versus Mercy on Wednesday Night.

 It was raining a lot and a few times I thought the girls were going to get really hurt slipping. It was also chilly and windy, worst night to pick to go see a game. My boyfriend came and watched with me as we cheered on the girls. I had to explain somethings to him but the game is pretty simple to understand, its the plays and different tricks they preform which is the hard part. 

Kaitlyn got two assists during the game. In the end the score was 4-2 with our girls kicking some Mercy butt. 

The game was exciting and poor Kaitlyn was soaked to death. "I love playing with my girls here, but I still miss good ol' NB" -Kaitlyn

Get in a game, make friends, and have fun; maybe joining a sport is what someone needs?

What sport to choose? Which one could be right for you?

OUT of the COMFORT ZONE

*Disclaimer*
Oops, this blog post was never posted on Wednesday for reasons I don't know, but it's here now!


I can roller-blade and snowboard, but apparently I cannot ice skate. Last Sunday a few of my friends were home and I went ice-skating with them.

I've never gone before so it was something new and exciting. When I was lacing up my skates I watched others slide over the ice with ease and it made me want to hurry up and try.

As I stepped out onto the cold ice I realized this was going to be a lot harder to stand up straight than it looked. Of course all of my friends left me behind and started off without me. As I was struggling to skate by myself I stayed close to the wall of the rink just in case I felt as if I was going to fall.

I envyed my friends as they kept passing me by and I just wanted to leave. I hated ice-skating already. I kept trying to get the hang of it even though I couldn't figure out how to stop.

I still wanted to leave the majority of the time I was there.

I started to think about it; why was I getting so frustrated and angry. I knew I was going to have some trouble learning but I didn't expect no one to help teach me, I was all by myself on the rink. There was people all around me of course, but I was on my own trying to figure out how to skate.


Just like college, there will be people all around you most of the time but that doesn't mean they will help you when you need it. Trying to ice-skate all by myself was just an example, a taste, of what i'm going to run into in college, learning how to problem solve without any help.


In addition I was looking up articles about comfort zones for people at jobs and at college. I came across this interesting one for personal and professional growth at http://www.cdnbizwomen.com/articles/lockwood4.html. It had some very good points and made me wonder how I can be more open minded about many different aspects of my life that I always keep the same.

The Art of Critical Thinking (VIDEO)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dr8Nq-kjYlg

Grades show you your effort.

For me, my grades are where they should be. Each and every day I try to put in as much work for each class as I can.

I like to organize so I am hardly behind. Somethings however take more time than I thought and I end up losing time. However I still finish everything for school early so I wont stress about it.

Only grade I am concerned about in my Art history class, my teacher hasn't put up our grades or anything, its worrisome. Even since my quiz that I failed in his class I have been studying all the time, I don't know yet if what I've been doing has paid off, I hope it has.

If what I changed in that class works, than I need to read the readings before lecture and make flash cards during the weekend and review each day. It seems like a lot but its all spread out, and better than failing the class, which I need.



Some certain goals for the next half... I want to buy a giant calender to stay on top of dates and times. I am organized, but I do things too early or I don't finish and forget. I want something that's in my face that I can't forget about.



Kinda like this:

Some quick tips to bring your grades up.

Critical Time.

Organizing my time is something I do about almost everything in my life. I even schedule certain times to see my boyfriend. It's not like I'm crazy or have OCD about it, I just need to make sure I am using every minute I have in a day to good use.

Sadly with exams this week studying has taken over my life temporarily. Most of my time spent for the video has only been on interviews, gathering information, and a lot of brainstorming on how to bring everything together.

I put a lot of thought into brainstorming because I want to be able to film what I need, maybe some extra things thrown it, and whip it all together. I love it when everything falls into place nicely when I work hard on it.

But, just like my art, I know it wont come out exactly as planned and I am anticipating that. I will not get stressed about this video. Hopefully.

I may take off work on Monday however because I pressured on time on Mondays. I only have 2 hours from when I get home from class till I have to go to work till 10.30, in that time I need to eat as well not just work on homework.

So I have a little cramming to do but I have all day Friday, few hours Thursday, and all weekend to well whip everything I got together.


Here it goesssss.

Budget cuts?

What problems?

Technology is my thing. Thankfully I'm not having any technical problems with my video project on critical thinking. 


The only thing I am having troubles with is how to put all my information together in a clear why that all comes together in the end. 
I've been rewriting drafts after drafts and filming pointless parts over and over. 
I need some help is what it came down too. 


I asked my mom, I asked my friends, I asked teachers. Sadly I got little help. Or the help was very confusing. 


So I decided to take each piece of information and just jot down the basic understanding of what I want to talk about. It helped somewhat. I felt like I was planning out a paper, but I think that is just what I need to do. 


It needs a lot more work though and I need a few ideas for transition from one question to the next. 






Here goes some more planning!




Here's an article about planning a video. I found it pretty useful, I didn't go to the extreme that it is talking about; a full blown movie. 

Where did my advisor go?

Campus Safari number 8. 


Easily enough I called my major's secretary, which actually covers art, art history and art education to find out who my advisor was. In less than a minute I gave her my name and she told me my advisor just like that. Mr. Arthur Guagliumi. She transferred my call and I got him right away. 


I told him that I was a freshman and was just assigned him as my advisor and I wanted to make an appointment. He gave me directions to his office and told me there was a sign-up sheet right outside. 


Then next day I follow his instructions and get completely lost in Eagleman Hall. I end up in the psychology department.. then the English department. I stop at the map of directories and look to see if there is an art wing of some sort that I may have missed. Nothing.. not one place that involves art. So I think what should I do now.


Then I see "Dean of Arts and Science", something like that and I go right there. I tell the the secretary there that I think I messed up the directions and she told me exactly where to go. 


She also gave me the secretary's office in case I needed to ask her some questions as well. 


Finally I get to my advisor's room and make an appointment to see him and discuss my classes and study abroad next year. 


I feel that if I found his room right away I wouldn't have felt as accomplished as I did when I had to go and figure it out all on my own. I was happy in the end that I wouldn't be late for class and I got a meeting so early. 




Here is the Directory for anyone else in case they don't want to get lost like me. 








I don't have a picture of my advisor's mailbox because he said I could just leave things in his office. Here's the campus instead :)

The Art of Critical Thinking

What goes in it?

During it?

Why?

Who?

Does color count at all?

Extra points...?

So many random ideas have been flowing through my mind as to how am I suppose to explain critical thinking. I could ask someone... "HEY!, what is critical thinking?" and before they respond just add, "That's critical thinking, you're trying to get an answer and trying to explain it, exactly." 

But I want be more artistic with it. I want to show my own major through my work and make it blossom in a way.

I just got a camera today, so no video to show. I also got the wrong camera and hate it. On a brighter note, I don't exactly know how to use art to figure out what critical thinking is. I can show you a creative side?, that's more fun and exciting. Truthfully, I want people to watch my video and laugh and understand thinking in a whole new way. 

My theme, or the basis of my video will be me traveling around and explaining things through art and quote what others and teachers think Art of critical thinking is. 

Hopefully, by watching my video my classmates will realize how much art goes into thinking and visualizing. Getting everyone to think outside the box: 

Let your brain free and see what you come up with!

Here is something that I might ask random people to try and solve. Critical thinking.. with drawing.

Critical Thinking. What does that mean?

Lets start off with what thinking is. Well thinking is using thought or rational judgement. Critical is exact evaluation and judgement.

Both words seem to work together, trying to get to the same end point. Basically critical thinking is using exact judgement and thought. The ways to obtaining exact thought gets a little lost. People can get an answer one way or maybe a completely different way.

"The ArtScience process explores many ways of representing the same source of disciplinary knowledge without altering the integrity of that knowledge." (Siler, T)

You can take a creative approach or you can take a more intellectual approach to solving critical thinking. For me I prefer a more artistic view.
Graphs, charts, drawings, sketching, imagining, contemplating. To an extent this creative approach could be exact, or a little off.  In the end through drawing something out or scribbling I can get an answer about something that I'm questioning.

ArtScience 

Siler, T. (2011). The ArtScience Program for Realizing Human Potential. Leonardo, 44(5), 417-424. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.

Can you hear this?

Sadly I had a hard time trying to listen to the radio station at southern. On my #6 campus safari I went to the student center in search for the radio station. Unfortunately no one was there when I went. They also didn't have any listens of different shows, only different times when people aired. 


This whole trip was a disaster. I got home and tried over and over again to listen to the radio station online but I couldn't figure it out. 


Finally after I tried it the next day it worked. The whole time it was playing Spanish songs, not really my thing. Maybe it was just the style of who was on air. Finally they played songs I could understand with weird commercials in-between the songs. It was entertaining however, but personally I'll most likely be listening to my own music. 








Maybe in a week I'll check back to see if another person is picking out the songs and find a person with the same style and taste in music as me. 


Check it out in the mean time, wsinradio.org 

Bending at the wrong angles...

       Stress is a hard thing to deal with. Personally stress helps me finish thing on time or early so I have time to sit down, think, and breathe. Sometimes I need something to do to help me when I feel the pressure of stress is going to make me go mad. Lately I've been doing more yoga, almost every morning.


      My aunt is a yoga instructor and sent me one her books not too long ago. I take a lot of what the books suggests to help you become healthier overall. I found that the yoga throughout the book helps me greatly with stress. I focus on my breathing and I try as hard as I can to clear my head and not let stress get the better of me.


     Yoga has been a huge help throughout my whole life since I started a few years ago. And in my experiences with yoga I can say honestly it would help anyone to relieve stress.

Stress-free yoga

Apples are awesome

Eat an apple a day, it'll keep the doctor away.


People get sick a lot. Unfortunately I am one of those few who are always sick. It is either this or that, a virus
but it actually isn't a virus. Not matter what, I am at the doctors at least once a month with some kind of
illness.

I am just use to being sick, but I don't sub-come to my illnesses. I go to school, I might fall asleep but I
attempt, I do my school work and I push myself. For others, who aren't dying all the time, don't know what
to do when they get sick.

For me,
Nightquil is my best friend
Doctors aren't scary
You can never ever have too many tissues
Always carry extra cough drops
Take vitamins every day
Apples are awesome
Stay away from sick people at all costs
Wash your hands as much as possible
Sleep 8 hours a night, really it feels awesome when you do
Eat healthy, not fast food please


I don't have ways to prevent getting sick because I've tried almost everything. Some people just get sick. The
horrible part though is no matter how terrible you feel stay on top of your school work at all costs. Make
yourself wake up and do a little bit at a time. Drink lots of tea, I think it's suppose to be good for you.
But to sum it all up, being sick isn't fun. You just need perseverance to overcome what you have and the work you need to do for school


Prevention anyone?

It's All About That Group Thing

Number Nine on the Campus Safari 


I got lost a few times trying to find the Student Life room, which ended up being on the second floor in the student center. There I looked into different clubs that I could join. It was pretty hard for me because most clubs meet when I had class or work. It really frustrated me that clubs didn't meet on weekends too much. 


I already am planing on joining the German Club to help further my speaking skills. The club meets on Wednesdays at 1 to 2, which is a time I can actually go and be able to finish homework and get home on time to get ready for work. Commuting, working, finishing my homework, and joining a club leaves me with little time where I end up stressing about everything. 






I want to join the German Club though because I feel it would help me and give me more time to practice with others who have the same interest in trying to speak German. My professor also made it sound very fun. 


Another club, or should I say clubs, interested me was the Religious clubs. I have to go back and talk to someone else to see if they have an Episcopalian Club because church use to be a huge part of my life. I use to do a lot of community work in New Haven with other churches that were sisters and brothers of mine. I would like to bring that back to Southern and see if there are other fellow Episcopalians.    








If you're wondering what an Episcopalian is, click here. :)