Christian's Epic Blog

     For this assignment, I chose to read  The Important Habit of Just Starting  by Jory Mackay and  The Myth of "Too Busy"  by Tim Grahl.  I definitely think both articles were useful.  It almost felt as though they were specifically addressing me, as I feel as though I have gotten worse and worse with time management as I've grown up.  It was reassuring to see that I was in the 95% of Americans that tend to procrastinate.  I think the habit of just starting was an article that I really needed to read.  Mackay was accurate in that procrastination is more painful than actually doing what needs to be done.  Once you start, you realize it's not so bad.  I realized that this does not have to just apply to school.  I have recently started getting more and more into health and fitness.  I wanted to change my diet, however it was difficult since I've been a pretty picky eater all of my life.  Just in the past...

     I am not very familiar with many of these technology tools.  They all seem pretty straightforward and useful though.  I especially like the bookmark folder feature; I never knew that was a thing and it would have been very useful in the past.  I now have a bookmarked folder just for this class; it makes my homepage look a lot tidier.  This online environment is pretty different from all other courses I have taken.  In all my other classes, I have used Canvas to write discussion posts and interact with my peers.  I think I am already starting to prefer this platform.  It's pretty cool to have your own page, and the labels keep the blog posts extremely organized.  There are no specific web skills that I would like to work on.  I'm not super great with computers, so I already feel as though I am learning just by using Blogger and following the instructions from the week 1 Orientation.  I am looking forward to my continue...

     I am most intrigued by the storybook assignment.  I really enjoyed getting to read past students' storybooks.  The creativity that each and every student can use for this assignment was evident as I was browsing through the storybooks.  This really made me start thinking about what I would want to write about in my own.  Whatever I decide to write about, I am excited that I will have a creative outlet this semester.  This class is very different from other classes I have taken.  First and foremost, I have never had to make a blog.  This course is also quite different from others I have taken in terms of grading.  While it is different, I have thus far enjoyed the change of pace.  This class feels fresh and new compared to the other courses I am currently in.  The extra credit assignment for "micro-fictions" stuck out to me.  You would have to be especially creative to produce a story in less than 100 words. ...

     I vaguely remember hearing about the growth mindset and Carol Dweck, though before watching the videos and reading further into it I really did not know what Professor Dweck was all about.  When watching the video about the 10 year old children getting hard problems, I wondered which category I would have fallen into.  I started to reflect on my school experiences, and I realized my main priority practically since I started receiving grades had been getting an A.  While I do think that is important, I now see it's not nearly as important as actually learning material.  One recent instance of a time in which I greatly would have benefited from having a growth mindset came while I was taking biochemistry at OU.  While most subjects came fairly easy to me, even the science classes, this biochemistry class was one that I struggled with.  Instead of embracing the challenge however, I was prone to get down on myself throughout the course....

    Hello! My name is Christian.  My major is biology and I transferred into OU from a small school in Memphis.  Originally my major was Civil Engineering, but it took me about a month to realize I really didn't enjoy those classes and I did not want to think about concrete the rest of my life.  I picked biology for the simple reason that it was the subject that interested me the most; I really had no idea what I would want to do with a degree in biology.  It's still been hard for me to truly decide what I'd like to do after college, seeing as I always knew I wouldn't want to do medical school or some other long, arduous program.  Just recently I have become more fascinated with the growing field of biotechnology.  I'm looking to move in that direction after I graduate.      Growing up, I loved sports.  I was on competitive teams for basketball and baseball.  It wasn't uncommon for my teams to travel across Oklahoma and s...

After looking through the storybooks for both the Mythology and Epics classes, I have picked out three stories that stood out to me for various reasons.  Battle For Lanka https://sites.google.com/view/battle-for-lanka/intro?authuser=0      This topic is for the most part unfamiliar to me.  I once took a course called World Religions, and we got into some of the stories of Hinduism.  That was several years ago however, so though some of the names sound familiar I don't have any concrete knowledge on any of the characters mentioned.  The title does a very good job of summarizing what the storybook portrays.  I thought this introduction did the best job of capturing the reader's interest.  The author writes in an effortless manner and I thought it was a beautiful piece of writing; I do not say that very often.  That is what ultimately caught my interest.  The end of the introduction left me longing for more of the story.  The ...

Ten years ago I traveled to Australia with my brother, father, and grandfather.  Several years before this trip, my grandfather had saved up his money to support my sick grandmother if she needed to have extended stays in a hospital or nursing home.  Sadly, her health deteriorated quickly and she passed away before she ever needed assisted living in a nursing home. My grandfather, having saved a fair sum of money, decided he wanted to take his grandchildren traveling around the world.  This trip to Australia would be the first of several travels outside of the United States.  Though we traveled to several cities within Australia, including Sydney, I remember the city of Cairns as my favorite stop on the trip.  In fact, I now remember it as my favorite place.  It was a beach town, with beautiful white sand beaches and delicious sea food.  I was able to snorkel around the Great Barrier Reef with my brother and father, and we even spotted a small shark....