Languishing parabolas

And with the emailing on Wednesday of my final assignment, I don’t have to come to campus until the final. I’m done, effectively. I still ought to do the studying thing, to ensure a good grade on that final. But Excel and PowerPoint aren’t that difficult. It was cool to learn PowerPoint and update my Word skills; I can use those. And I learned about some cool websites I didn’t know about. And I did enjoy the whole taking a class online thing. I thought it worked extremely well. I hope more classes become online.

I have enrolled in English 201 for summer. I took a class last summer and it was a very good experience. Hopefully, this will be, too. Summer classes are massively concentrated. There’s a whole lot of material to get through in such an accelerated timeframe. That can be pretty intense; requires a lot of focus for those few weeks. English 201 is supposed to be a pretty heavy writing and research class, so that’s a little worrying. Well, how bad can it be? People must be able to do it. If I have to stay late at the library, I can do that. If there’s going to be a lot of reading, that might be an issue. I don’t read that fast. Writing papers has never been a problem for me.

In Fall, I should be taking that Food class. That’ll be an experience, never having been much into food, historically. But I’m always open for learning new things.

Cartoon time! ☺

Peace,

Dave Roel.

You live that you may learn to love. You love that you may learn to live.

- Mikhail Naimi

Worldfest

Hey, I went to the Worldfest yesterday. There was some impressive stuff there.

I didn’t see any of the cultural dancing; there was a lot of swing dancing when I was there (which I guess is cultural of a kind). ☺ But I did see some people in traditional indigenous peoples’ dress.

The chalk art was pretty darn impressive. There’s some good artists there. There was a whale and a Walter White that really knocked me out. Wow.

There were booths that covered particular cultural regions, either by continent or culture.

There was a Francophone culture in the Americas exhibit, telling the history of the various french-speaking areas of North America; I heard the story of Evangeline, which I had never heard before.

There was an exhibit covering the Japanese Irezumi tattoo traditions. They were markings for the bravest of fighters and warriors and public servants. Today, the tradition continues, but with far less reverence, becoming associated with gang activity.

There were other exhibits, covering sexual assault, student health, social issues, etc. The health booth had a meditation poster that I dare say was better than the presentation I gave last week. ☺

A lot of food. Food is always a big cultural identifier.

It’s good to learn about other cultures. It’s good to learn about different worldviews, different perspectives.

At the end, there was a band. They were good, I thought. But then, I’m always impressed by musicians, not being one myself.

If I owned a camera, I would have taken pictures.

Lo, a cartoon! ☺

BULB from Dupont Andy on Vimeo.

Peace,

Dave Roel.

Seeking love keeps you from the awareness that you already have it—that you are it.

- Byron Katie

Pressure per unit area vs. deformation per unit length

So we're getting to the point in the semester when stress starts to get to us. Do you know the origin of the concept of stress? Hans Selye was an endocrinologist who developed much of the way we conceive of stress today. He was the first to study and describe the physical effects of stress. Selye was fluent in at least five languages, and chose the word "stress" to describe the process he was observing. It is said that, much later, he came to realize that, in his rough facility with English, he had made a bad choice. He was unaware that the word stress was used in physics, in dealing with elasticity. When a force, or stress, is applied to a surface, deformation, or strain, results. Selye realized that he had mixed the terms, and what he had called stress should rightly have been called strain. The term has stuck.

Stress should properly be considered as the pressure put on something; strain is the deformation that results. Stress comes to us (speaking on a mental/emotional level, not physical) in the forms of our obligations, responsibilities, our jobs, our schoolwork, or relationships, friends and family, unexpected emergencies, etc. Stress can affect us in many ways, and can have a negative effect on our health. It's important to remember it's not the pressure that hits us—it's whether that pressure bends us out of shape. Stress isn't the problem—strain is. Stress is a trigger for growth. As long as the stress is handled gradually, our mind and bodies can adapt to it, and grow stronger as a result. It's when the stress happens too quickly that we don't accommodate it, and we get strain. The system under strain breaks down.

We all need to learn how to manage our stress, to prevent it from becoming strain. Breathing exercises, physical exercise, meditation, yoga, massage, journaling, healthy eating, calming music, a trip to a favorite environment, etc. All good techniques for unwinding and decompressing. ☺

Peace,

Dave Roel.

Our ultimate freedom is the right and power to decide how anybody or anything outside ourselves will affect us.

- Stephen R. Covey

Benevolent intricacies

Dig the use of the “Verb all the nouns” Hyperbole and a Half meme on the Job Fair sign. Allie Brosh would be pleased, right before siccing the copyright monster on us.

Holy wow, are the chairs in the computer lab hurty on the spine. Think I ought to bring a pillow.

My nomination for most under-used bathroom: science building, second floor.

I’m giving a small (and by small, I mean tiny, negligible, paltry, limited, meager, microscopic, minuscule, modest, short, slight, diminutive, little, sparse) presentation at the Personal Wellness Symposium on April 23 at CSUF. My presentation is an introduction to meditation. Although I’m really not going to say anything that different from what I usually talk about on my podcast, and I don’t promote that on this blog. Why is it different when it’s in person? There seems to be some kind of gravitas and weight and formality to speaking on a stage, in front of an audience of people physically present in the room. Seems more important, somehow. I don’t think it is. The information is the important thing, and it’s the same information regardless of the medium it’s delivered in. And yet, here I am promoting it anyway, like it is something different. I guess I’m just a slave to my culturation, as indeed we all are. Well, anyway, come and learn some things about personal health, wellness, general life improvement, etc. It really is a good line-up of speakers, despite my inconsequential presence on the bill. ☺

More extensive details than the above link.

Feel like a cartoon? ☺


Peace,

Dave Roel.

No matter what's going on, or how unusual the problem, somebody else dealt with it before you. Find and learn from them.

- Daniel Keys Moran

Tools to make use of

Wolfram Alpha is not as well known as it should be. Statistics, chemistry, math, physics, biology, literature, this thing can help you no matter what you're studying. Why aren't you using it? I was going to post some screen shots to show you how to use it, but just go and check it out. Click on the examples, that'll show you what WA is capable of.

Here’s some websites that you can use: http://www.siasat.pk/forum/showthread.php?127581-List-of-websites-that-can-be-useful-for-anyone

I don't have Photoshop at home, so I use online image editors for whatever Paint can't do. I use an online OCR to get text from a scan. I call myself, and read some text to my own Google phone number, to get the transcript, to get speech to text. I can upload audio to YouTube to use the closed caption feature, to get audio to text. Windows’ Snipping Tool is a daily use for me. Bitstrips or ToonDoo can create customizable cartoon-like graphics.

With all these tools, available to anyone with an internet connection, there's no shortage of ways to get your content to an audience, in a usable, manipulable format. The only consideration the tools can’t help with is the worth of your content. As Edward R. Murrow famously said, “The newest computer can merely compound, at speed, the oldest problem in the relations between human beings, and in the end the communicator will be confronted with the old problem, of what to say and how to say it.”

☺

Peace,

Dave Roel.

Outstanding people have one thing in common: an absolute sense of mission.

- Zig Ziglar

Researching tips

When you're combing through the resources, trying to find an article that will help you with your subject, some of the results give the option of viewing the articles in html or pdf. If it's html, most likely it means that someone scanned the journal pages, and used OCR to put the text into html. That probably means that there's going to be errors, and very likely means that you will just be getting the text — if there were any charts or graphs or pictures, they won't be included, probably page numbers won't be, either. So, if you have the choice, always take the pdf, which will likely be a direct scan of the pages from the journal.

There’s two ways academic journals do their page numbers. Some journals number their pages every issue starting with page one. Some journals count the first page of the first issue of the year at page one, and then continue that numbering, adding onto that page count, every issue, until the end of the year. That’s why some journal articles seem to be on page twelve hundred and something. That might trip you up, if you’re not paying attention.

If you need to put in a “Work Cited” page, NoodleBib is your friend. NoodleBib is a bibliographical, citation-generating tool, does all the work for you perfectly. It will generate an MLA Works Cited list or an APA References list you can import directly into Word. It's highly editable and configurable, to your requirements. Definitely keep it in mind as a go-to when writing your papers.

☺

Peace,

Dave Roel.

No one else "makes us angry." We make ourselves angry when we surrender control of our attitude.

- Jim Rohn

Beyond the internet

Not everything's on the internet. The research that was done for decades is still largely out in those ink-on-paper journals, untransferred to any searchable electronic format. That means for some assignments or some papers, we'll have to hit those databases to find some of the references. These resources are available to us as students.

EBSCO is available to us with a wide array of databases to be mined for useful references. Academic journals, with resources and references for literature, English, consumer issues, health, business, history, etc., are all available. If your research has anything to do with education, you'll want to hit ERIC, Education Resource Information Center, with 1.3 million records and 323,000 full-text documents, dating back to 1966. LexisNexis is an enormous legal and journalistic resource. All these databases and more are available through the library or through the links on My Gateway, comme ça:

You'll notice that the top link there is ask a librarian. That's always a can't-miss way to get what you need: "This is what I'm looking for, where can I find it?" If you’re stuck, not finding exactly what you need, that’ll clear the logjam.

Books and articles are labeled with subject terms which can be searched. Knowing the right terms is important in searching. Some terms are pretty esoteric and unfamiliar. EBSCO uses the Library of Congress subject terms, of which there are hundreds of thousands. The librarian can direct you to subject terms that might be more efficacious.

The resources we have available reaches far beyond the internet. Be sure to make use of them. ☺

Peace,

Dave Roel.

Change is inevitable; growth is optional.

- John C. Maxwell

Paradoxical meat

So Dan calls me up on Tuesday. “Hey, I need to move my gardening equipment into your backyard as soon as possible.” (This wasn’t out of the blue, we had been talking about doing this for awhile, and had been trying to arrange things for this.) “It needs to be sometime in the next three days.” “Wednesday’s out. I’m at school all day. Unless you want to get here at 8am, we do what we need to do and we’re done by ten.” “How about Thursday?” “I am taking a computer class that requires me to spend some amount of time in the computer lab. I usually set aside one of my otherwise-free days to go in and spend as much time as I need for it. Usually Thursday.” “My storage unit is being evicted in the next three days.” “Why do these crises never seem to happen at a convenient time? Like a weekend? Or before the semester? Or after?” “Alright, I can come over at 8am tomorrow.” “Okay, that’s fine.” He didn’t come over the next day, or the next. A lot of smoke and dust for no result. Typical for Dan, actually.

This post was intended to demonstrate how I balance school obligations with other things that come up in life. School always takes priority. Luckily, most of my friends understand that. There’s only so much time and energy. We need to be clear about what’s most important to put our time and energy into. That’s the price we pay.

Here’s a cartoon. ☺



Peace,

Dave Roel.

Every act of conscious learning requires the willingness to suffer an injury to one's self-esteem.

- Thomas Szasz

Dave in computer class

"Let's learn Word!"

Okay...

"Let's get started!"

What the heck is that?!?!?!?

"...and the Word start screen opens."
What the heck is that? Start screen? Since when does Word have a start screen?

"You can open other documents here..."

Dang, this is different. Weird. I'm not used to it. This is new and makes me uncomfortable. It's not 2002 anymore.

(Forty minutes later)

Okay, that was boring.

I can do all this. I just probably don't know it where I can pass a test on it. (Unconscious competence.)

(I write using Google Docs, anyway...)

But I guess I'll need it for future employment.

Wonder what the test will be like.

Hot Technologies. Maybe I'm crazy, but won't everything on this be invalid in about two years? Five at the most. Yelp, Wordle, The Cloud... In five years, they will be but memories....

Ergonomics. There’s a subject we’ll need to know, in this high tech world. If we are spending large amounts of time sitting at a desk, probably at a computer, doing office work or schoolwork, it is possible that injuries can come about. Carpal tunnel, aches or pain from the spine, lower back, or neck can develop from long hours of sitting at a desk. If that makes up the bulk of a student's daily activity of attending school or studying, that can be a concern.

I found a cool article that talked about the Aeron chair. It's a crazy design. The seat is a polyester mesh, no padding, just a plastic network, stretched over a frame. Weird. I'd like to try it out.

☺

Peace,

Dave Roel.

Your living is determined not so much by what life brings to you as by the attitude you bring to life; not so much by what happens to you as by the way your mind looks at what happens.

- Kahlil Gibran

Lawnmowers of the apocalypse

Hey, girl on the only scanner -- you want to hurry it up some?

No vaping? So do I even want to know what that is?

Dig the vertigo-inducing dots in the science building's bathroom stalls.

Hey, smoke-free campus, bro. Be respectful. And don't get mad for me pointing that out.

I don't wear a watch, and I actually find the hourly time chiming useful. I wonder how many others do, now that everyone carries a mobile that can tell them the time easily.

Ever stand at the middle of the bridge for awhile, and just watch the traffic go by? Me neither.

The Guardians of the Galaxy trailer looks fun.

Golf courses are environmentally criminal.

Frisbee throwing should come back.

People say to always go with your gut. The convolutions of the intestines are visually similar to the convolutions of the brain.

Robin Hood randomly shot an arrow, and requested to be buried where the arrow landed. Very poetic.

Check out the background of any charity you choose to give to.

There should be a website compiling stories of people who were told to do something that they knew would fail.

There should be a website where people can list their accomplishments.

How many publishers do you notice that have an “about the publisher” blurb on their book jackets?

Someone asked me if I thought I had it all figured out. It depends on what the “it” is. Scientific reality? How to be happy? How to live ethically? Without specifying, it’s hard to say.

Cartoon! ☺

Our Son from Cartoon Brew on Vimeo.

Peace,

Dave Roel.

I think the purpose of life is to be useful, to be responsible, to be honorable, to be compassionate.

- Leo Rosten

I get into conversations

I get into conversations with people. No, there's no Microsoft Word on these computers. I think the computers over there have it. You can just use Google Drive. No, you don't need the @ symbol in front. No, I think you have to be registered in a class in order to use that room. Yeah, that would be a good idea. I'd use it. Probably really expensive, tho. I think you need an ID card to do that. I think you can get one at the student center. Oh, someone is taking chemistry. What are those flash cards? Good idea, I should do that. Redox reactions? What are those? Oh, we just call them chemical equations. Hey, funny shirt. What's that button? Oh, you like them? I haven't heard too much of their stuff. Yeah, I'll have to check them out. Oh really, no, I missed that. No, I don't get to too many shows these days. I used to go to ska shows. Is ska still a thing? Hey, what are you reading? Oh, you're into that stuff? Oh yeah, I've read him. He's one of my favorites, actually. No, I've never heard of him. Yeah, I've heard of him, I haven't read him. Have you ever heard of this guy? Yeah, check him out, I think you'll dig him. There's a lot of information on YouTube and a lot of websites. Go to my web page, I have a list of recommended books I like. Yeah, I'm on Facebook and Google+, add me. Yeah, catch you later. ☺

Peace,

Dave Roel.

There's more truth in a bigger view.

- Ken Wilber (on the reason for community)

A conspiracy of raisins

Everything people post on Facebook is incredibly hyped to an amazing degree. Not everything is the best ever, the saddest ever, something you will be amazed by.

Fullerton is certainly a very pretty campus. Pretty trees.

People sure like Superman shirts.

People still take notes, with pen and on paper. Why not record the lecture? Assuming the teacher allows it. If you need to write it down to remember it, the recording will let you do that. And you get the benefit of being able to rewind, to catch what you missed. Do people still say rewind?

Love teachers who use the tech. Powerpoint slides, Word docs, web pages. Whatever can be utilized. There’s really no excuse not to.

It’d be great if the files were made available to students, too.

For stuff that doesn’t get shared, and you have to write it down, snap a pic.

Really cold some early mornings. Glad to get in to a classroom. I can feel my toes and ears get warm. Nice.

Hey, they cut down the bike racks next to the pool. A lot of people used those. I didn’t, but I hope they just went somewhere else. In fact, I need to find a bike rack closer to my actual classroom, but I keep forgetting to look around.

It’s nice to see people playing music and singing on the school grounds. Always makes me smile.

Get to know others around you. It’s always helpful for every class. Two heads are better than one.

Cartoon! ☺

Reach from Luke Randall on Vimeo.

Peace,

Dave Roel.

Five percent of the people think. Ten percent of the people think they think. And the other eighty-five percent would rather die than think.

- Unknown

Library time

So I spend a lot of time at the library. Mostly working on classwork, but sometimes, I go in to check out some books. I still have a healthy respect for the old ink-on-paper medium. I suspect that the brain processes information differently if it's taken in through a screen. Just a hunch. Someone should study that. There's a good selection of books in those stacks. The other day, I found a good book on the comedians of the 1950s and 1960s. An interesting subject, and good for some hours of reading. Occasionally I actually get into a conversation with someone. It's been known to happen. People are friendly. The recycling bin is always a good source for scratch paper. If you're in a math or science class, there's never enough scratch paper. There's a flimsy sign out in front that says Building 800. Nicely designed buildings, not enough thought given to how to identify them. Ah, slap a sign out in front, that'll take care of it. Sure, okay. It's not like anyone's here for the esthetics. People in the study cubicles can be too noisy, sometimes. Be respectful of those around you, people. What the heck are you doing with the volume on those headphones turned up so loud? You might need those eardrums at some point later in life, you know. Hey, you. How many zippers does that pack have? You gonna zip all of them? You are. Okay, have at it. Don't mind me. Anyway, library. Yay. ☺

Cartoon! ☺



Peace,

Dave Roel.

When we seek for connection, we restore the world to wholeness. Our seemingly separate lives become meaningful as we discover how truly necessary we are to each other.

- Margaret Wheatley

Computer lab time

So I have to use the computer lab for a class this semester. I wouldn't have needed to, but I need to print out papers. And I don't own a printer. Actually I do, but dang, toner is expensive. So, computer lab. Go in. Need to establish your account. Not logging on. Oh, you wait ten to fifteen minutes. So, sit and read this essay I found in the recycling bin someone tossed. Learn a little about Hinduism. Now I can log on. Dang, screen resolution is enormous and unusable. Adjust to a reasonable size. Get week's assignment. Print. No money in my account. I need to purchase printing credit. At the bookstore. Pack up, and it's over to the bookstore. Buy printing credit at the counter. Get in line. My Fullerton College ID card is too old (I really should get a new one). They need my ID on something official, like a printout of my schedule. Go into the adjacent registration office, sit at a computer, pull up my schedule, print it. Where's the printer? Ask. By the pillar. Now with my schedule printout, my computer printing account can be activated. I put in ten dollars. At fifty cents per week, that means I should have about two dollars left over at the end of the semester. I guess the remainder could be used as a buffer for additional printings, if that becomes needed. Still feel oddly grumpy about it. Back to the lab. Hey, there's a teacher I took a class with ten years ago. Hey, he's lost weight. Good for him. Get my printing. Success. ☺


Peace,

Dave Roel.

Things can never touch the soul, for they are external and remain immovable; so that disquiet can arise only from fancies.

- Marcus Aurelius

Balance life and school

How do I balance school work with my other obligations?

Time management is an important skill to learn for anyone, but especially for a successful student. I'll explain a little of what it's like for me. Top priority is always class and classwork. I always make sure to attend every class (missing a class is an extreme rarity for me, if for no other reason than I figure, hey, I paid to be here). Classwork should always be done with enough time allocated for it. The main distraction is always the internet, but a little discipline can keep me focused. Several hours a day devoted to reading, studying, doing problems, etc. I never designate a specific time, but slot in more work whenever time is available. As I say, it’s always top priority. My workouts have been cut back to bare essentials -- the main resistance movements and core work, done with my home weights, at home, for about a half hour every two days. Bicycling to school and back for cardio. Nowhere near the full program I’d like to maintain, but it’s serviceable for when time is scarce. Maintaining a relationship with such a schedule can be a trick, but I remind myself that my relationship is truly the most important thing I do. I’m very blessed to have a very understanding partner -- she’d have to be, as a grad student herself. She knows that time is at a premium. But we maintain a text or Facebook connection, as we can. Yes, a full schedule, but doable.

Let’s cartoon! ☺



Peace,

Dave Roel.

Trust yourself. Create the kind of self that you will be happy to live with all your life. Make the most of yourself by fanning the tiny, inner sparks of possibility into flames of achievement.

- Golda Meir

New semester

Today is the first day of classes for the new semester. This is always exciting and potentially nerve-wracking. Will the classes be difficult? Can the ratemyprofessor ratings be trusted? Will I make any friends? Will I have any kind of a social life? All these questions are swirling through our heads as we navigate the parking lots, push through the crowded campus grounds, try to find our classrooms, take a seat (not too far up, not too far back), and try to calculate how much time we'll have to study for this class's tests. A large amount of things to pay attention to for the first day.

But, somehow, we get through it. We always do. By the beginning of the second week, routine has settled in. Listen to the lecture, take notes, study the texts for the relevant bits that will be on the test. Keep it up for sixteen weeks. The time seems to trudge along slowly and yet those darn tests always seem to zoom up on us before we know it. How can time be so flexible?

Is it all worth it? Statistics show that college graduates earn more money over their lifetime than non-college graduates, and most jobs of any significance require a degree as a minimum requirement. Regardless of our concerns about the economic future of the country, we must press on, trusting that college is our investment in ourselves. We may belong to a generation that is inheriting an increasingly unstable world, but if we are to make any impact, education is our first step. Let this thought be our guiding principle through this semester.

Peace,

Dave Roel.

All that matters is what we do for each other.

- Lewis Carroll

Welcome to the Fullerton College Student Blogger, Blog!

Hello and welcome to FC's student blog. Here you'll get to follow four current FC students as they share their day-to-day life as a student at the college and outside of the college. You'll have the opportunity to follow them all semester long and read about how they make it work as a student.We hope you enjoy the blog and get a sense of what it's like to be a college student at Fullerton College!

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