Thursday, April 30, 2020

Tech Tip: Latest Posts

This week, I did the tech tip to add a widget on the side of my blog page that lists the posts that I've published recently, just in case the viewer is not on the main page.  Steps to do the same are included here

Tech Tip: Weather Widget

For this week's tech tip, I decided to do the weather widget to add a widget on the side of my blog to include the weather where I'm currently at (Broken Arrow, OK). 

Monday, April 27, 2020

Tech Tip: Countdown Widget

For this week's tech tip, I decided to try the countdown widget.  I chose to make a countdown based on the end of the semester.  This semester was probably the most difficult in terms of material for me, so I'll be really glad once it's finally over.  This should be the most difficult semester, as I am finishing off the difficult classes and I won't have to take as many credits in the future, so I'm looking forward to the end.  

Week 13 Reading A: Ramayana C

Rama and Lakshmana go and meet Hanuman.  They befriend each other, and go to Sugriva.  Sugriva explains that he and his brother, Vali, quarreled.  Sugriva was to guard a hole while Vali fought, however, Sugriva believed Vali had perished, so he filled the whole.  Vali believed that Sugriva buried the hole in order to possess the kingdom.  So Vali took away Sugriva's wife.  Sugriva and Vali battled, and Rama shoots Vali.  After Sugriva became king, he didn't do anything for a long time.  Rama sent Lakshmana to threaten him, and Sugriva sent four armies to search for Sita.  One of the armies goes south and meets Jatayu's brother, Sampati.  Sampati reveals that Ravana took Sita to Lanka.  Hanuman goes to Lanka and finds Ravana's apartment.  He finds his wives but can't seem to find Sita.  He goes to the Ashoka grove and finds Sita.  Many rakshas guard her.  Ravana wakes and goes to Ashoka grove and attempts to persuade Sita to be his wife.  Aksha comes and battles Hanuman but loses.  Then, Indrajit comes but Hanuman loses and gets captured.  Ravana decides to punish Hanuman by setting his tail on fire.  Sita prays to the fire and it ends up burning Lanka.  Hanuman returns to Sugriva, and the army marches to Lanka.

Hanuman, the monkey who is king and companion to Rama

Monday, April 13, 2020

My Library Tech Tip

For this week, the tech tip I am choosing to do is the OU Library's My Library.  The library source that I added to my library is the: "IEEE Xplore" resource.  It's very useful for the research papers that I do since almost all of the good papers related to my study are commonly IEEE conference papers. 

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers is one of the largest organizations related to Electrical Engineering and other related subjects

Monday, March 9, 2020

Learning Challenge: Happiness Jar part 2

Last week, I decided to undergo the Happiness Jar learning challenge. Overall, it was nice to see the things that went well for me.  A concrete thing that does so can really give a motivation boost for the week.  I can see how it's a good idea for some people to do a happiness jar.  However, for me, it sometimes felt like a "chore" just having to put a thought on a schedule.  I'm a very flexible person, and I personally don't like following guidelines.  I think that a change that I could do is: instead of doing a happiness thought every day, I could just do one every time I felt happy for something.  It would make it feel less of a chore and more of "I want to document why I'm happy". 

Happiness Jar

Tech Tip: Google Data

I use a decent amount of Google services.  For my burner emails, I use gmail since it's quick and easy to set up, and I don't have to worry about sensitive information being on a burner.  I know that many companies, such as Google, are already gaining information on me.  To be honest, it's not an imminent issue for me, since I feel like there's not much they can do with information about me. I've just learned that everything about me is already about there, so there's not much that I can even do.  One of the best resources that I use in my everyday life is Reddit.  r/privacy is a good to read news or research more about internet privacy. 

Week 9 Story: The Search for Sarah

The deer deeply gazes at the clear pond.  As it drinks the water gleefully, an unsuspecting bullet clears the air straight into the heart of the deer.  "What a shot!" exclaims Charlie.  "Just like father taught us" reminds Robert.  The boys have a celebratory high-five and proceed to bag the deer up.  "I can't wait to see the look on Sarah's face when she sees this beauty." remarks Charlie.  They venture back home through the same path they take.  Each of the boys understands the many twists and turns as familiarly as the back of their own hands.  As they approach the village, something seems amiss.  The smell of smoke fills the surrounding air.  The boys drop everything they are carrying and rush to their home.  They find their mother sobbing at the doorstep.  The only coherent words from her mouth being, "They took Sarah".  The boys think intensely as to "who took a Sarah" and "where did they go".  They decide to run to the port south of their home.  Along the way, they find their father deeply wounded.  Robert frantically pulls out the first-aid kit in their bag in order to care for his father.  The boys' father begins to breathe and speaks.  "Pirates came to the village and ransacked everything.  They murdered countless of our friends and family and took Sarah away from us.  I ran to confront them after Sarah was taken, but they were too strong.  You must hurry.  They have already left the port but you can still catch up to them and save her."  The boys' father slowly closes his eyes and breathes his last breath.  Charlie begins to sob but Robert holds his tears back with much difficulty.  Robert consoles his brother, "Save your thoughts for father later.  We don't have much time to catch up to the pirates".  Both of the boys run to the port to find a pirate ship.  They inspect the ship but nonetheless, there is nothing and nobody aboard the ship.  Charlie looks at the helm of the ship and notices that wheel is detached from the boat.  Charlie yells to Robert that the ship is not able to be sailed.  Robert remembers the Charlie as a child being so fascinated with ships and remembers the peace that his family had.  "Perhaps there's another ship that we can use." suggests Charlie, but Robert reminds him that this was the only ship at the port.  As the brothers stare desperately at the sky, a voice echoes behind them.  An old man appears and tells them, "The pirates that you seek reside at Treasure Island 45 kilometers east of here".  Still despondent, Charlie whispers, "Even if we know where they're at, this ship is in no condition to be able to set sail".  "Do not worry" says the old man, and suddenly the ship begins to move forward.  "I can steer this ship", claims the man.  Ecstatic, the boys have a celebratory high-five and questions the old man, "who are you?"  The old man tells them, "I am the spirit of this ship.  My journey will be ending soon, and my last act must be helping to stop the pirates."  The boys see the coast of Treasure Island and thank the man for taking them there.  The old man pleads with the boys, "When we land, my last request is for you to set this ship to fire.  When the ship is burned down, I will be free from being the spirit of a wicked pirate ship."  As the ship docks at the port of Treasure Island, the boys light the ship on fire with a burning blaze and glory as the old man disappears from the ship with a smile.  As the boys leave the dock of the island, tears run down from the side of Robert's cheek.  Charlie reminds him, "We still have a job to do", and the boys continue in their search for their sister.


The inspiration for the old man, Klabutermann,
sharing parallels with Kabandha
Author's Note:
I loosely based this story on a few of the stories from the Ramayana.  Originally, Ravana and Maricha plan to kidnap Sita, Rama's wife, from Rama.  Maricha lures away Rama by shift shaping into a golden deer.  As Maricha gets shot by Rama with an arrow, he alarts Rama's brother by imitating Rama's voice, leaving Sita alone.  Then Ravana comes and steals away Sita.  Rama and his brother go to find Jatayu who battled against Ravana in an attempt to get Sita back.  Then they find a demon who tells them where Ravana went and they cremate him in order to free him from being an evil demon.  My story and the story in the Ramayana have some plot similarities between them.  My inspiration for the spirit for the ship comes from the Klabautermann, which is a Germanic myth where the ship has a spirit that sometimes protects sailors and comes out when the ship is doomed.  The rakshasa, Kabandha, made me think of a spirit because it wanted to be free from being an evil rakshasa.  So I thought about a spirit that served wicked purposes without wanting to.  Similary to Kabandha, the spirit of the pirate ship served an evil purpose but wanted to be free from it.

Bibliography: Indian Myth and Legend by Donald A. Mackenzie (1913)

Extra Credit Reading: Ramayana B

Messengers come to Bharata to inform him that his father, Dasharatha has died. He learns that Rama has been exiled and plans to bring him back.  Bharata performs funeral rituals for his father after Vashishtha comes to him.  Bharata meets Rama in the jungle but Rama can't come back.  Bharata places Rama's sandals on the throne and stays in the jungle.  A rakshasa, Viradha, takes Sita from Rama.  Rama and Lakshmana tries to shoot arrows at Viradha but the arrows fail to work against him.  They finally beat him but cannot kill him since he seems to be immortal.  They then cast him into a pit.  They go further and meet a sage, Agastya.  Rama receives weapons from Agastya.  Rama meets a rakshasa, Shurpanakha, the sister of Ravana.  She falls in love with Rama.  Since Rama is already married, he suggests that she attempt to seduce Lakshmana instead.  Shurpanakha attacks Sita, but Rama and Lakshmana fend against her attempt.  A demon army is formed to fight against Rama.  Shurpanakha goes to Ravana and tells him of the events that have occurred concerning Rama.  Ravana goes to meet with Maricha.  They plan to take Sita away from Rama.  Maricha turns into a golden deer and encaptures Sita.  Sita has Rama to go get the deer.  Rama chases after the Maricha and shoots it with an arrow.  Maricha disguises his voice as Rama's and yells for Sita and Lakshmana.  Sita thinks that Rama is in trouble, but Lakshmana disagrees.  Finally consenting, Lakshmana goes to look for Rama.  Now alone, Ravana turns into a sage and goes to Sita.  He offers for her to be his queen.  Sita rejects him and shows her loyalty to Rama.  Rama transforms to a demon with many heads and arms and takes Sita.  A vulture, Jatayu, tries to save Sita and battles with Ravana.  Ravana defeats Jatayu, and takes away Sita again.  In Ravana's palace, Ravana continually attempts to seduce Sita.  Rama and Lakshmana return to find Sita missing.  They wander the jungle until they meet the dying Jatayu.  Jatayu tells the brothers of the events that took place and finally dies and goes to heaven.  Rama and Lakshmana go south and meet a rakshasa, Kabandha.  He gives them information pertaining to Ravana and they cremate him so that he may be free from being a rakshasa. 
Rama shooting Maricha, disguised as a golden deer

Wednesday, March 4, 2020

Week 8 Reading and Writing

Overall, I'm satisfied with my blog.  I'm not exactly an extravagant person, so I like to keep my blog plain and simple.  There's not much to change about my blog.  It's just an amalgamation of different thoughts.  So it serves its purpose.  I might change my website in the future in order to pertain to a certain theme, but that depends on my future stories as well.  Overall,  I believe that the quality of reading and writing is good enough for me.  I'm not much of a reader or writer, so it's a change of pace for me.  I could definitely do more quantity of reading and writing, which I actually plan to do either this or next week.  Going forward, I definitely need to spend more time and effort on both reading and writing. 
Picture from one of my stories that involves testing.  While exams are always scary to think about.  I think exams are awesome because it can give you a sense of accomplishment when doing well. 

Monday, March 2, 2020

Growth Mindset: Share

I recently had a conversation with my friend about a growth mindset.  We talked about how insanely crazy it is that we learn so much over time.  For example, just being in University for a few years gives so much knowledge that it seemed unfathomable to reach in the past.  The growth mindset is a really good outline in how humans have evolved intellectually.  Even the most profound geniuses who are famous for their intellect were once just children.  The growth mindset really gives a big encouragement to all and gives hope that we have so much more to learn and become in the future.  It's crazy how advanced our current modern-day civilization is.  

Every fruit that's been grown has become something extraordinary.  The future is at the top and there's still so much more room to grow upwards.  



Learning Challenge: Happiness Jar

Since this is a two week challenge, this will be the first part outlining my overall plan.  I'm not exactly a paper and pen type of person, so I am going to type out something that has made me happy every day for an entire week onto a digital sticky pad.  I think it's a good idea because I am already used to using a digital notepad and I already check it often.

Although it's silly to "celebrate" Thanksgiving in March, it's always good to be cognitive about what being thankful and knowingly keep in mind the everyday things that make you happy.  

Monday, February 24, 2020

Tech Tip: Backing up data

Over the past week, I attempted to undervolt the processor in my laptop.  In turn, this gives better battery life and reduces the overall heat in the laptop.  However, I ended up going too far and corrupted the data on my laptop.  What a shame.  The tech tip that I have for this week is backing up your data.  There's many of programs on the market that make backing up data incredibly simple and easy.  For my own use, I am using "Macrium Reflect Free", but any backup programs are sure to be useful.  Just a quick side note: if you're running your PC using a traditional hard drive instead of an SSD, that is your greatest bottleneck.  SSD's are much faster than traditional hard drives in terms of speed.  However, SSD's are more volatile and have a lower lifespan than traditional hard drives, although they're still pretty safe to use.  In my opinion, when using an SSD for your computer, it's a really good idea to run a backup schedule that backs up your data to a traditional hard drive.  This setup combines the speed of an SSD along with the reliability of a traditional hard drive.

Backing up your data is easily done with the use of a traditional hard drive

Monday, February 17, 2020

Tech Tip: Online Typing Test

I would say that I'm a pretty proficient typer.  While KeyHero is the typing test that is being outlined in the tech tip on the course page, I'm a big fan of typeracer.  There's not much different between different online typing tests in my honest opinion.  However, typeracer lets me compete with other people in my typing.  There's just something about competition to me that really appeals to me.  You can even share links to your friends and race in real time.  But I've been typing for most of my life, so it's always fun to compare myself with others.  I also have a $100 keyboard for "the feels".  It's much more comfortable than many other keyboards.  There's actually a large enthusiast community behind mechanical keyboards.  $100 is on the cheaper end.  Some of the keyboards can be as much as $1000.  I would definitely agree with the sentiment that a better keyboard can make you a more efficient typer.  So if you type a lot for school or work, just know that there's a market out there for nicer keyboards.  On a sidenote, I've actually also built a keyboard from scratch using a microcontroller, diodes, switches, and wires, which was really fun to do. 

The IBM Model M keyboard.
 Regarded as the "holy grail" of keyboards due to its build quality and tactile feel

Monday, February 3, 2020

Feedback Strategies

Why Do So Many Managers Avoid Giving Praise?:
The statistics of the article are interesting.  I think it's strange that managers who believe that they have good feedback are usually the ones with negative feedback.  It's kind of like a loop.  Generally, managers are the leaders over their employees.  One of their main jobs is to give feedback to their subordinates.  But it's interesting that for a manager to give good feedback, that they also need to receive feedback from their employees.  Without feedback from employees, they have almost zero clue whether or not their feedback is even helpful or not. 


The Trouble with “Amazing”:
I can agree with the reasoning for the dislike of the word "amazing".  For me personally, I correlate the word "amazing" sometimes with sarcasm.  In my opinion, the word "amazing" is used usually in only two ways: sarcasm and pure awe.  Both of which don't contribute much to anything.  Sarcasm is just in bad taste.  Pure awe sends off the message that "nothing needs to change".  In both cases, there is no feedback that aims to improve the work of the other person. 


Similarly to the manager-employee example, feedback should also be a loop.

Topic Brainstorm

The Gods / Devas:  Overview article of Vishnu's avatars
This topic is interesting because it's a big general topic.  Rather than focusing on and limiting myself on just one topic, I can go over a big variety.  I don't have too much prior information on the topic.  A couple ideas would be to either do a story involving many different deities from the culture or even focusing on Vishnu and his avatars. 


Supernatural Characters of the Ramayana: Ramayana PDE
I think that this topic would be good because we're already reading the Ramayana and I can just do a more "focused" viewpoint from a project.  I've read part of the Ramayana, and it seems like it'd be possible to do a project over a selection of the characters and have them intertwined in a different story.


The Ramayana Told Your Way: Ramayana PDE
This topic is interesting similarly to how the "Supernatural Characters" topic would be interesting.  The difference, however, is that the previous topic would be more focused on the characters (writing a story with the characters as a base).  This topic would be more focused on having the Ramayana stories told in a different perspective, perhaps with different characters involved in the Ramayana story. 


Creation Stories: Samudra Manthan
Creation stories are always interesting, I feel, because there's always a similarity between different cultures.  Reading about the Samudra Manthan, there is comparative mythology with it.  So there's a possibility to have a project that plays off of that idea where, for example, you could have a combination of the different stories into a compilation story. 


Artwork depicting the creation story, Samudra Manthan

Friday, January 31, 2020

Week 3 Story: The Soiled Examination

Updated Story
Image result for school test
Like Rama, we all have important tests that determine our paths
"You may begin the examination."  The instant Peter heard these uttered words, an intense determination filled the whole of the room.  This was the moment that he had been waiting for his entire life.  If he passed this test, he could finally fulfill his lifelong dream of becoming a lawyer.  Rumors of this very test haunt the students of the department.  "Not more than even one out of 100 students are expected to be able to pass the exam." whispers a student.  Despite all the discouraging thoughts floating about, Peter had studied long and hard for this test.  Countless nights of sleep surrendered.  Peter knew, deep down inside, that he was ready to pass this exam.  He blazes through the first section; confident that the nights of lost sleep were worth it.  The second section comes, and he has no hesitation in his answers.  After the second section, he is ahead of schedule and decides to take a quick drink.  As Peter reaches to set his water aside, a slip of the hand causes the bottle to tip over onto his desk.  The examination pack is ruined beyond repair. The loudest silence fills the air of the room.  Peter feels the gazes of the students behind him.  The proctor, Mr. Jackson glares at Peter with the most disappointed look.  Mr. Jackson gets up from his chair,  "Peter, come with me."  Peter follows Mr. Jackson to a small office.  Mr. Jackson begins sighing, "Peter, I am upset that you would have so little care in your work.  Go home.  You're done for today. Come to my office tomorrow."  The next morning, Peter came to the building and stared longingly at the front lobby board.  "Congratulations to the graduates of 2020!"  A few of his peers had seemed to pass the examination.  Peter walked to Mr. Jackson's office.  "Hello, come in Peter.  I have just cleared it with the department.  You may take this make up alternative examination."  Easily racing through the exam, Peter gives the finished exam to Mr. Jackson.  Waiting patiently, Peter sits on the chair outside of Mr. Jackson's office.  A voice echoes from behind him.  "Congratulations Peter."


Author's Note:  This story is loosely based off of the test that Rama had to overcome to win the favor of King Janaka for his daughter, Sita.  Rama must bend the bow of Shiva, which is a feat that has been unsuccessful for many before him.  Unsurprisingly, Rama is able to bend the bow, however, he also ends up breaking it.  As a result, Parashurama comes angrily, and gives Rama another test: to bend another bow.  Rama succeeds in this trial and is given the weapon to keep.  I chose this story because it felt the most applicable to me in terms for a modern example.  We've all had to overcome different tests and trials, and so I think that the story can be empathized by any person.  For Ramayana part A, I would argue that this point is one of the most important moments for Rama.







(Extra Credit) Reading Notes: PDE Ramayana, Part A

The story begins with two kings, Dasharatha and Janaka.  Dasharatha was father of Rama.  The capital was very prosperious and wealthy.  Although Dasharatha had everything, he still had no son.  Dasharatha performs a horse sacrifice to have a son.  Many brahmins (similar to a priest) witnessed the ritual.  The gods promised four sons unto Dasharatha.  Vishnu was divided and was born as each of the four sons of Dasharatha.  A rishi (enlightened person), Vishvamitra, gathered the two of sons of Dasharatha to battle against rakshasas.  They battled a rakshasa, Thataka, and Rama shot her with an arrow and killed her.  Vishwamitra chanted mantras, and Rama received celestial weapons.  Vishwamitra tells Rama of a few stories.  Rama and Lakshmana wanted to see the city, so they left Vishvamitra.  Rama meets Sita and they fall in love.  As a test, Sita's father, Janaka, has Rama bend a bow.  Rama breaks the bow and there is a loud thunder. Parashurama (Axe-Rama), tests him with another bow.  Dasharatha chooses Rama to be his heir among his sons.  Manthara, a nurse of prince Bharata (one of the sons), is unhappy at Rama's instillation.  Rama is banished and he goes to the jungle of Dandaka.  Sita and Lakshmana plead with Rama to accompany him.  Dasharatha remembers his curse due to his karma and dies.  


Parashurama, or Axe-Rama

Wednesday, January 29, 2020

Tech Tip: Dual Boot Operating Systems

This tech tip may not exactly be pertinent to this course, but I think that it's a very technological tip useful to have at your disposal.  For my last tech tip, I wrote about text editors, and this tech tip will be slightly related. 

If you're familiar there are many operating systems: Windows, MacOS, and Linux are the main ones floating around.  I'm sure that the first two, Windows and Mac, are fairly known.  However, not many people are familiar with the Linux operating system.

For a quick summary of what the Linux operating system entails, essentially, Linux is a open-source freeware operating system as compared to Windows and MacOS which are commercial products entailed towards consumers.  Essentially a public library compared to a book store.  Linux is used for professional use in many technical areas. So it's good to be familiar with the system if you're involved in a particular field (although it has a learning curve compared to Windows and MacOS).  I am a big advocate for the use of Linux systems due to the fact that it values public and free information of its use.  The Linux system is free online, and any person can view the source code to see what exactly makes up the Linux operating system and see what they are installing on their computer.  In this day and age, both Windows and MacOS come preinstalled with software that allows Microsoft and Apple to track your information.  Linux will always be free to install and secure. It's extremely fast and memory&CPU efficient.

On to the tech tip, the Linux OS does have its caveats.  It's a bit difficult to ease into:
  1. You must be comfortable without a graphical user interface and be able to type in a command line terminal (There are resources online). 
  2. It does not have many of the commercial products and software available on Windows and MacOS (However, there are many open-source free alternative software available that fall in line with Linux's free mission statement.

 My tech tip is to dual boot (or even tri-boot) multiple operating systems.  You can have multiple operating systems installed on the same computer and use each one accordingly to which particular function you need at the moment.  There are many resources online that you can search up that instruct and guide through the process of doing this.  However, if you don't know what you're doing, there's possibility to accidentally erase your data, so it's a good idea to back up (That's also a really good tech tip. BACK-UP YOUR DATA!).

Learning how to install multiple operating systems is also useful because you get to be more proficient on working with the computer BIOS.  I would say that doing this sort of stuff with computers is similar to working on a car.  You gain so much knowledge about the specifics.  The next time your hard drive fails, you can diagnose and fix the issue just like changing your own oil or switching a tire in a car. 

Even if Linux is not attractive to you, there are many software that are on Windows but not on MacOS (and vise-versa), so a multiboot is still very useful.  However, a caveat on MacOS is that MacOS can only be installed on Apple products.  So "theoretically", Apple products are the only devices that can "tri-boot". 

Tech Tip: Text Editor

Since I have previously taken the Myth. and Folklore course a few semesters ago, it seems that I have exhausted most of the recommended tech tips.  However, luckily, I have a few tech tips that I use that are not listed. 

Text editing is extremely important and useful to do when working digitally.  Not even overstating it, tech files are the most used and useful types of files for any use on a computer.  Virtually every file is derived from a text file in some form of shape. 

The standard text editor is notepad for windows and textedit for macOS.  However, both are fairly function-deficient in terms of use.  A few recommendations I have are: vi/vim/nanovim (different forks of vi), emacs, and notepad++.  Personally, I use vim on my Linux device.  I will admit that vi forks and emacs have a steep learning curve since there is no user interface.  However, when you learn it, you will never have to take your hands off the keyboard since there are so many hotkeys that allow you to traverse the text file in an instant (much faster than using a mouse).  As for Windows, I'm not entirely sure if vim is supported, but I know that notepad++ is available (and fairly easy to use). 

As for purposes of this class, I think that using a text file in order to write for the assignments is very useful.  You don't have to pull up any online writing site (similar to the writing in webpage tech tip) such as Google Docs or Blogger.  The text file is local to your system.  It's extremely fast and you don't have to rely on any other factor.  Personally, since I have to deal with many text files, it's very efficient to learn these text editors in order to increase my productivity. 

Monday, January 27, 2020

Tech Tip: Firefox

I've used Mozilla Firefox on multiple occasions.  While I like Google Chrome for its sleek and simple design, its memory efficiency is a hot mess.  I'm not entirely sure what it is, but its memory management is very poor.  I would say any of the other browsers is better in terms of memory.  However, out of the other browsers, I would have to say that Mozilla Firefox has the most features as well as having great memory management compared to Google Chrome.  I carry around an old laptop with me for classroom purposes.  I upgraded it to 8Gb of memory and it's a necessity for me to use Firefox on it.  While 8Gb of memory is a decent amount (I have around 40 tabs open on average most of the time.  Don't ask.  I don't know what's wrong with me), it's not enough to fuel Google Chrome.  Firefox is quite snappy with it though. 

Feedback Thoughts



Seven Ways to Crush Self-Doubt in Creative Work:

I completely agree with point #2.  There's a point where you have to abandon perfectionism.  My philosophy is that if it's something that you don't have a passion for, then it's completely okay to be so persnickety with it.  Where's the joy in life if you spend so much energy on something you don't care about only to be left feeling exhausted and burnt out.  Instead, find hobbies that you're more passionate about and immerse yourself in the perfectionism of it.  In some of my hobbies, I enjoy doing them so much, that I spend hours chipping away aiming to be perfect in it.  When you aim to be perfect at a tedious task, you lack confidence in it.  That's self-doubt.  However when you aim to be perfect at something you're passionate with, you end up having pride in it.  That's confidence. 
I also like point #5: "Setting attainable goals".  It's always the same story where somebody aims for the stars only to be let down so hard.  I hear about a few different methods of applying attainable goals.  One is: while you have an overarching large goal, keep sub-goals with it.  Make it a step by step process that makes that unattainable large goal into something that seems possible.  Another method is to just have an additional goal to be less discouraged.  While you have a difficult large goal, also set a separate achievable goal.  When you feel like you don't get anything done, it's very discouraging and easy to quit.  But when you have a large and small goal simultaneously, you always have that simple goal to fall back to and keep confidence.  Meanwhile, as that's going on, you can  always chip away at the large goal. 

Silence the Critical Voices in Your Head:
This is also a interesting thought. In a sense, criticism is always a form of persuasion.  It's a persuasion to have a change of thought.  We as humans, for some odd reason, also seems to have a pessimistic viewpoint when dealing with criticism aimed at ourselves.  However, persuasion always has its positivities and negativities.  When dealing with criticism, we just have to filter out the negativity that we can't deal with.  There's always a way to frame a negative as a positive.  We just have to rewire our brain to think that way.  It's like a glass half empty is a glass half full. 
File:Glass half full or half empty.png
A Glass of water can be either be half full or empty depending on your mindset

Wednesday, January 22, 2020

Week 2 Reading Overview

For the Ramayana choice, I am picking the public domain version.  I'm just a big fan of open source material.

Rama: Retold from the Ramayana: This one is interesting to me because I'm a fan of summaries.  I'm not an amazing reader, so reading summaries helps me keep on track.  They just make reading easier in my opinion.
Artwork for the Rama comic

Hanuman: The Epitome of Devotion and Courage
: I also like a good variety to read from.  So I would be interested in something that has an overview of Hanuman who is a follower of Rama.  It allows to me see a different view of Rama in a different story. 

Ancient Technology: Atlantis and India: It's interesting to hear about ancient technology from India.  I always hear about ancient technology from other cultures and societies, but India isn't too popular.

Sanskrit in 60 seconds: Also with this one, in High School history, you always hear random phrases and terms thrown around.  Sanskrit is one of them.  I always knew it existed, but I never knew what it exactly was and how it was important.  I didn't even know it was related to India. It's just interesting to me to further solidify knowledge that I've previously acquired and clear any misconceptions I've had in the past. 


Tuesday, January 21, 2020

Time Strategies

For the most part, the schedule seems good.  However, the schedule plans for me to be finished by Thursday, but sometimes my week gets fairly hectic.  So it's nice that I still have 3 and a half (with the grace period) days to finish the assignments in case I'm too swamped to be done by Thursday.  For my time management articles, I read the two articles:
"The Myth of Too Busy" by Tim Grahl and "4 Questions to Help You Overcome Procrastination" by Peter Banerjea. 

For the former article, I can see myself falling into the traps that the article talks about.  Sometimes, I just don't do the things that I prioritize.  Which is a pretty strange thing to do.  So I just have to ask what I really prioritize in my life. 

For the latter article, I feel as if I ask myself those four questions subconsciously every time I need to get something done.  So that's a good start.  I just have to begin asking these questions more concretely to myself in order to further prioritize the fact that I need to get some things done. 

A calendar helps plan out the week to have an organized time strategy

Technology Class Tools

For the most part, the class tools are already familiar to me.  As for the browser tune-ups, I actually prefer a 3rd party website for spell checking and word count.  There's a bunch to use online that you can google. For me, there's just something off about using a browser for writing.  I would rather use a dedicated specific source for it, but that's just me.  As for bookmarking, I have so many bookmarks, this reminds me that I need to clean my bookmarks now.  I probably have almost 50 bookmarks and it's not getting its purpose done (to be organized).  

Bookmarks are very useful when reading both books and the internet

Assignments Overview

Since I am a returning student, for the most part, I am familiar with the assignments.  There were some extra credits that I did not do often last semester.  However, for this semester, I will probably try to do more since my other classes in this semester are getting difficult.  So for the most part, the plan is to simply try to finish as much as I can for the semester.  In the past, I liked how flexible the assignments were. 

Rubber Bands symbolize the flexibility of the course assignments

Friday, January 17, 2020

Growth Mindset Week 1

As I've taken the Mythology and Folklore class before a few semesters ago, I am familiar with the Growth Mindset.  I find myself to be a fairly big procrastinator, so I think that the Growth Mindset may not be as potent as it should for me.  I think that in an ideal world with an ideal person, the growth mindset works well.  However for somebody like me, I would have the notion that I haven't reached my goal "yet".  The main problem with that is that the  subconscious in my head will tell me that it's okay that I haven't reached that point yet, because I will get there eventually.  Then my subconscious will lead me into believing that the goal is less pertinent than it is.  Overall, my courses at OU have been fairly difficult to me.  If I went on believing that I will learn everything in time, then success would have been really difficult.  Sometimes, instead of being patient with yourself, realistically, you have to go and deal with the stress by overcoming your goals.  I honestly don't think that stress is a bad thing.  It's similar to a "fight or flight" reaction.  Stress is a natural instinct that helps you overcome challenges.  With that said, I also do not believe that the growth mindset is a bad mindset.  Previously, I said that I believed that it could work in an ideal world.  The main problem is that this is not an ideal world. There's real life deadlines and real life competition to deal with.  However, I also do believe that the growth mindset is a necessary mindset to have in order to keep yourself sane and also to grow as an individual.  I think that the growth mindset is applicable to things that are not time sensitive to the moment.  I believe that keeping hobbies and other activities on the back burner is a really great way to employ the use of the growth mindset.  You won't fall behind in your career or school, but you also don't deal with stress and are able to grow a hobby of yours.  Then sometimes, when work or school isn't pertinent, you can swap between hobbies and work.  Honestly, I think that a good mindset is to get what you need to get done, and enjoy doing the things that you love.  I think that the best mindset is to get what you need to get done, and enjoy love doing everything you do. 

Image result for stress
Stress is one of the biggest motivators that gets work done

Introduction to a Computer Engineering Student

Hello, my name is Nathaniel Vo.  I am a Junior Computer Engineering student here at the University of Oklahoma.  One of my favorite things about Computer Engineering is that it is basically 50% Computer Science and 50% Electrical Engineering, so the courses never get too stale.  One of my favorite things to do is to cook food.  I pride myself on cooking low-cost good food.  I am by no means a good cook, I just enjoy doing it in my spare time because I think it's really fun to do, it's a good skill to have, and it lets me express myself to other people.  I love to cook for my peers and loved ones because it displays my love for them.  I really enjoy listening to music in my free time.  I find myself usually mainly listening to Christian music, but whenever I listen to secular music, I listen to indie rock and alternative rock.  I like to play the bass guitar; back in my hometown of Broken Arrow, I played in the worship band for my church.  I really enjoy watching television shows and movies.  Some of my favorite TV shows are: "The Office", "Parks and Recreation", and "Freaks and Geeks".  Right now, I am currently catching up on a lot of anime that I haven't been keeping up with for a while.  I've also been reading One Piece manga.  It's been going on since 1997, but I'm pretty sure that it's ending soon, since all the pieces are finally coming together.  I like to eat healthy food as much as I can, but I find myself really loving a nice steak on the occasion.  I enjoy a good steak.  I also really like to eat bananas.  They're almost like a dessert to me.  I actually really love mathematics.  I've always had a knack for mathematics ever since a young age.  I've finished all of the Calculus Classes, Linear Algebra, and Differential Equations.  However, a few semesters ago when I took Calculus 3, it was so terrible that I questioned whether or not I even liked math anymore.  However recently, I relearned Calculus 3 from one of my professors and he made it more intuitive.  So I have a deeper appreciation for the subject now, and I think it's actually much more interesting now.  My career goals are to just get a stable job and settle down for adulthood.  I'm not much of a book person.  I  My grades were pretty bad because of this, but I still made it!  Someday I'd really like to learn the guitar.  I've messed around on guitars, but I've never owned my own guitar and hope to do so someday.
This is a picture of one of my favorite foods, the banana.

Thursday, January 16, 2020

StoryBook Favorites

Flood Stories
I really thought this one was good because it provided a "quick" introduction to Epics of India for me.  I do not have much background in the subject so the stories helped give a quick insight.  I really liked that the stories for this storybook were relatively short and easy to digest.  Then at the end, it gives a background of the topic that was written about.  Personally, I would have liked to have the "Author's Note" at the beginning of the page so that whenever I read the story, I already have the background of the setting of the story. 

Syrup, Sand, and Stories
I really liked this one because, come on, who doesn't like Waffle House.  But jokes aside, the stories use a common theme of Waffle House as a humor device in order to convey the stories of the Egyptian gods.  I also thought that it was really cool that they edited the pictures for their stories.  In each of them, while there is a picture of Egyptian art, they also added bits and pieces of Waffle House items. I actually thought that it was very clever to include a youtube video at the beginning of each story as a sound clip.  It gets you even more in the story while listening to the music. 

Jake's Story
I would have liked to see an "author's note" for the first story.  Reading the first story, it felt like a quick summary of one of King Arthur's Journeys ( I don't know if it was actually one of his journey's or this was an original story by the author of this storybook).  So the author's note should detail the background behind the story informing if the story is original or just a summary.  I wasn't necessarily a fan of the fact that the first story had a different font compared to the rest of the stories in the story book.  But despite the criticism on only the first story, the rest of the stories are really great.  The stories are all original and creative.  They all follow the same theme between Arthur and foxes.  I really like the Author's Notes for all of them since they really give a good background. 


Picture in the "Intro" story from "Syrup, Sand, and Stories" storybook

Tuesday, January 14, 2020

Favorite Place

File:Norman, OK, USA , University of Oklahoma - Evans Hall - panoramio.jpg


One of my favorite places in the world is the University of Oklahoma Campus.  I spend most of my time at the campus, and it's a really beautiful campus.  There's a lot of activities to do here.  It's a pretty special place.

Test post

This post is a test.