Famous Last Words Week 10

Well, I am so happy that this will be the last Famous Last Words that I will be writing for the semester because after this week I will be pretty much done with this class.  I am so happy that this semester is almost over.  Now I have enjoyed my time at the University of Oklahoma, but I am so happy that I will no longer have to do homework.  Speaking of homework, I got pretty much nothing done over the break.  I did a few small things but as far as big papers go, I did not do anything.  It is not that I needed to have these things completed by this week or next week, but if I would have, it would have made my life so much easier for the rest of the semester.  Oh well, I’ll just have to do it the hard way.

            So last night was a little crazy with the tornado in Moore.  I went to my night class at six o’clock that evening.  We were watching a movie, and were only about forty minutes into it when my teacher kept walking in and out the room several times.  At first, I did not notice this at all until several times later.  Finally, she rushed into the room and shouted for everyone to leave because there was a tornado in a panicked voice.  Now, usually, I stay pretty calm, but I was a little freaked out at first.  I had no idea where this tornado was and my professor acted like it was right outside.  Also I was being a good student so I did not have my phone or computer out.   Well, everyone was freaking out.  It was not until someone checked and saw that it was in Moore.  Now, Moore is close, but it was definitely not close enough to come running into the room shouting and causing a panic.  

A tornado.  Source: Wikipedia.

Famous Last Words Week 9

I am so glad that Spring Break is almost here.  It is definitely time for a much needed break.  I do not know about anyone else, but I am going to be sleeping and spending some time with my family.  A few weeks ago we were supposed to have a birthday party for my niece, but due to the bad weather we changed it to another week.  Instead of having her birthday party that next weekend, we had to cancel because I got really sick.  So this Saturday we are having a little party with cake and ice cream.  She has already gotten her presents, but we just want to make sure that she has a birthday party and feels loved.  Other than that my Spring Break week might consist of playing some video games, helping my sister move into her new house, and more sleeping and resting.  Yeah, it sounds like it is going to be a pretty good week.

This week has been crazy.  I hate midterms, and the types of midterms I hate the most are ones that require you to do everything in only fifty minutes.  This test had multiple choice questions, true or false questions, short answer questions, and an essay with only fifty minutes.  It just seems like it was too much.  I think the test would have been better if one of those sections would have been taken away because there was literally no time to think about what to write within the essay.  There was no time to think clearly or organize how you were going to write the essay.  I know that when I left almost everyone was still there.  It was just way too much, which is why I clearly need a week off from this school and just life in general.  

Spring Break poster.  Source: Clipart.

Famous Last Words Week 8

Wow, this week has been hectic.  I don’t understand why but in almost every class, I have to do a presentation this semester.  Before this semester, I have probably done three presentations in my entire undergraduate career at OU.  Well, I don’t mind doing these presentations, but so far every group that I have tried to meet up with, we have had to cancel because of the weather.  Since
I am a perfectionist, nothing scares me more than meeting up the day before and having a few hours to put everything together and make it coherent.  But what is really ridiculous is the grade amount that this presentation is worth.  It is 6% of our overall grade.  What?!  Why even bother? I just wish that I had more time and was better prepared. 

However, I’m glad that there was a snow day this week because it gave the chance to get some much needed work done.  Unfortunately, I’ll be paying the price for it next week when my night class will have to stay the entire three hours to make up for the time missed.  It’s okay.  It is an easy class with little to no work, but it is exhausting to stay three hours in a room and talk about race issues.  The class is an AFAM class.  It is not stressful because there is blatant racism from people but because race is such a heated topic that it always brings up issues that are controversial.

I’m so glad this was a review week because I definitely needed the break.  I needed the break to help relieve the stress from other classes and work and I needed this break to focus on getting rid of this sickness that I have.  I’m sick but I have no time for it.  

Winter Weather. Source: Wikipedia.

Famous Last Words Week 7

            Wow, this week has been crazy, but first let’s talk about this weather.  I’m so sad that I my class was an hour before the cancellation occurred on Monday.  On top of that, I had work after class.  Now, many people could call in to work or just assume that their work is closed due to the weather.  The latter should be even more so because I work for the University of Oklahoma, but unfortunately, I am considered essential staff so we do not close down.  Furthermore, since I am a student worker I do not get paid time and half like everyone else.  But what do I expect from the University.  Not more money, that’s for sure.  What upsets me more about the weather is that it is ruining my weekend.  My niece’s birthday was yesterday, and we were supposed to have her birthday party this Saturday.  However, the weather in my home town is going to be bad so they had to cancel the party, and from fear of getting stuck there for days and missing school and work, I’m just going to have to suffer through another week without seeing my family.  Well, as if that is not bad enough, the weather in Norman is going to be horrible all weekend, which means that I will not be able to do anything this weekend except for be cooped up inside.  What’s worse is that I have work on Sunday at 8 am, and they are saying the roads will still be horrible at that time.  Ugh is the only word that I can say about this.  Ugh.

            Other than the weather ruining everything, the Storybook Projects that I read this week looked really great.  Both were about the relationships of couples within the epics.  I was so happy that people have decided to write about this subject because after reading Sita and Rama’s relationship within the Ramayana, it was something that needs to be explored in greater detail, and I am so anxious to see what type of voice the female characters will have within these stories.  

What I hope this weekend doesn't look life.  Source: Wikipedia

Famous Last Words Week 6

            I’m so glad that this week is over.  It has really been tough to recover from such a busy weekend.  I am so ready for Spring Break.  It is so close but so far away, and there are so many hurdles to jump before I can get there.  This week hasn’t been too bad, but I need to sleep for a week.

            After reading a few projects this week from my fellow classmates, I am very impressed with people’s writings so far.  I felt like the storybook projects that I read were really creative and intriguing.  Although almost everyone is still on their Introduction, I was very impressed with the narratives that some people have created and how they have planned to insert their individual stories within that narrative.  I also felt the same with the few Portfolios Projects that I have read this week, which were also good.  Usually, when you read someone else’s story you can easily see grammar mistakes, but I had a tough time critiquing other people’s work because the problems were less obvious.  Everyone’s writing skills have definitely improved.  I feel the same way with my Portfolio Project.  This week I got a really good review from Laura.  It makes me nervous because I feel like my work will probably not always be that good.  I just don’t want her expectations to be set too high because I really don’t know if I can bring that kind of writing week after week.  It is a bit terrifying because it is a lot of work to write like that every time.  I just worry that I may get overwhelmed and start to slack and then she’ll question me more harshly because of it.  Oh well, I guess I dug myself into that hole without really knowing it.  I just want to sleep this week off.  

A lovely picture of a bed.  Source: Wikipedia

Famous Last Words Week 5

          This week has been very blah for me.  Nothing has really happened, except that every day I wake up more tired than I was the day before.  I wish I could get out of this funk of being tired and wanting to do absolutely nothing.  I have heard people say that an easy way to get more energy is to fake it at first.  They say that eventually, the real energy will come.  That sounds great, but every morning I am struggling to put on mascara, which is a big deal for me because otherwise I would have no eyelashes.

            As always, I would like to be more ahead in this class, but I’m happy where I am at the moment.  I’m a little anxious about the Projects.  I chose to do a Portfolio and I’m happy with my choice but I’m just anxious to see other people’s projects and their reactions to my own.  I think the first week of projects went ok.  I didn’t receive too much negative feedback and overall, I was pleased with what was said. 

            Something interesting that I did in another class was that I got to watch the film New Jack City.  The film is about a cocaine dealer within Harlem destroying his own community through the selling of drugs.  I like the film because it truly doesn’t glamorize drug culture.  Instead, it shows a man who tears down his community through selling cocaine, killing all of those who oppose, even his best friend since childhood, and essentially becoming a drug lord who controls the community.  The one thing that I found interesting about the film was how he bought the community off.  At one point in the film, the drug lord gives food to the entire community and at another time he buys off the local reverend by giving his daughter her dream wedding.  However, his true colors are eventually shown because later on in the wedding scene he uses a flower girl as a human shield during a shoot out.  I found this film to be interesting and I wonder why it is not as remembered as other films from the 90s.  

Wesley Snipes plays the drug lord within the film New Jack City.  Source: Wikimedia

Famous Last Words Week 4

           This week I have actually been able to get ahead in most of my classes.  I wish I was farther ahead in this class, but overall, I am pretty happy where I am.  This week has definitely been better as things are slowing down, but I still wish that some of these big presentations that I have coming up would just be done and over with.  Other than those weighing heavy on my mind, school is good.

I’m pretty proud of my story this week.  At first, I was really struggling with finding something to write but I’m very happy with what I did.  I just have to remember to stop being so critical of my own writing because all that matters is that I just do it and get those points.  Something interesting that I did see when I was trying to the extra credit blog commenting was how different everyone takes notes.  For me, I always write out my thought in full sentences and paragraphs, but other people were using bullet points with few words and plenty of quotes.  Other people asked questions to themselves, which I thought was a great way to start the creative process for a storytelling post.

Nothing too important has been going on outside of this class except that I went shopping for niece’s birthday today.   Her birthday party is going to be My Little Pony themed, so I thought that it was only appropriate that I buy her something My Little Pony.  However, everything that Target had of My Little Pony was almost completely sold out.  For this reason, I thought it was safe to go with an Elsa jacket and some Hello Kitty accessories.  However, I did manage to find her a My Little Pony beanie.  I just hope that she’s happy with what I got her.  I mean what little girl doesn’t love a birthday present combination of Hello Kitty, Frozen, and My Little Pony.

My Little Pony.  Source: Wikipedia

Famous Last Words Week 3

            This past week has definitely brought some normalcy into my life.  I’m so glad that I was actually able to breathe and relax.  It was quite refreshing.  I’m glad that within this week we were able to finish reading Narayan’s Ramayana.  I can’t wait to start reading Buck’s version and see what the differences are between the two.  I know Buck’s is definitely longer just by looking at the size of the book.  While Narayan’s version was not bad, I wish that some parts of the story had been elaborated on or put more detail into because I felt like I needed to know more.  Hopefully, Buck’s version will give me more of that.

            As far as reading other stories this week, I enjoyed reading a lot of my classmates’ stories.  They all vary in creativity and writing styles, but I like that the ones that I have read always tell the story from someone else’s perspective.  Instead of telling the story the same way but only changing the setting to something more modern, everyone’s story that I have read this week wrote from a secondary characters perspective such as Vali, Sugreeva, or Vayu.  I also chose to write my storytelling post using this same technique because I believe that by not changing the story in some significant way, the reader will possibly find it boring and redundant.

           I’m looking forward to next week’s readings but I’m also a little nervous about the storytelling posts because we are going to be using the same story but just a different version.  I’m sure I’ll be fine because I know that I’ll get the assignment done either way.  However, I don’t know if things will catch my attention the same way as certain parts of the story within Narayan’s version.  I’ll guess we’ll see when I start reading for week four.  

The battle at Lanka, Source: Wikipedia

Famous Last Words Week 2

This week has been crazy.  I keep hoping that this semester slows down, but it hasn’t slowed down a bit.  Within this class, I feel that I’ve accomplished a lot.  I really enjoyed writing my story this week.  As soon as I read Thataka’s story within the Ramayana, this idea popped into my head.  I think I went out of the box on this writing project, but I’m glad I did.  I hope that I can get inspired like this for future storytelling projects.  I think one strategy that helped me out this week was to pick parts of the text that are not main focal points.  For me, I find it challenging to elaborate and be creative with main points within the story such as Rama meeting Sita and Rama being exiled.  I think that it is already put into great detail and I just can’t find the will to put my creativity into it.  I believe that it is predictable and a waste of an opportunity, but in the future, I may be inspired to write about a main plot section. 

The best writing that I read this week was Marielle’s storytelling post.  She wrote about Kaikeyi and her inner thoughts on being abandoned.  She did a really great job at explaining her insecurities and fears.  I even sympathized with Kaikeyi after reading it because Marielle showed Kaikeyi as someone who has had a difficult life as a woman because she was only seen as a dumb, sex object.  I think most women could relate to her struggle as being underestimated because of their sex.  By writing this section of the story from Kaikeyi’s point of view, it greatly helps the reader identify with her.  I hope Marielle realizes how great of a writer she is.

Overall, this week has been hectic with homework, school, and work, but next weekend should be better.

Kaikeyi asking Dasaratha for Rama's exile. Source: Wikimedia

Famous Last Words: Week 1

This week has definitely been hectic.  I’m glad the first week is over but I’m still too exhausted from everything to be ready for this semester to start.  I knew that the start of this semester would be a mess but I didn't know how big of a mess it would actually be.  The biggest problem this week was being extremely shorthanded at work.  I had to work every day and even be at work at 6 am on a few occasions.  It was a difficult start to the semester, but I know that it will get better with more people applying.  On that note, I’m glad that I started early on this class because I would have been in big trouble. 

I’m also glad that this is my last semester and I’m taking nothing but electives.  My semester seems like it I going to pretty relaxed if I can just keep on top of my work which I know I will.

Within this class, I enjoyed doing the re-write of a story.  It was surprisingly fun, but after reading other stories, I wish that I would have more creative.  Oh well, there is always another chance within this class.  I enjoyed reading several introductions and my group’s storytelling posts.  I’m looking forward to this class as a creative outlet.  Hopefully, it will help me blow off some steam this semester. 

I’m glad to have the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday this week but I’m already looking forward to the weekend.  I know it’s bad but all I really want to do is sleep for two days straight without the stress of work or school.  I know it’s a lost cause but I can still dream.  Well, I've already started to count down the days to spring break which tells me I’m ready for this semester to be over with.  

Spring Break banner.  Source: Clipart