Lecture

If i had to quote my most memorable lecture i would have to say that it was Dr. Woodfin for the IDC lecture about Roman literature. The lecture was monday October 20,2008. Dr. Woodfin spoke about how the Romans were the best. Rome was the dominant country. Rome was the most powerful. They took over countries and killed all their people. The Romans killed people from the countries they took over in very brutal ways. They would chop off there heads or sell them into slavery. Once they had too many slaves they crucified them all. The Romans were very strict. They were all about the military. The reason i really liked this lecture was because Dr. woodfin go into the mind frame that he was talking to teenagers. He got us interested. He kept our attention. He would get loud at exciting moments which would caught my attention if my mind would have drifted off. He had an interesting subject too. Brutal deaths is an interesting topic for anyone. This was by far the best lecture i've ever been to. He did not lose my attention at all. He knew what he was talking about. He made it intersting. Most importantly he got us involved. He did a great job.

Traditions.

Converse College is well known for their traditions. At converse, my favorite traditions is big sis/lil sis week. This week is dedicated to sister hood of the junior and freshmen class. If you come in on a even number then you are a pink panther. If you come in on a odd number then you are a red devil. Every night of this week the big sister will get together and bring their little sisters presents. Every night has a different theme. Some of the themes are pink night, kitchen night, bath night, school night and reveal night. on pink night you recieve everything pink including your tail and ears and shirt(that is if you are a pink panter.) THe next night you will get lots of pink stuff for you kitchen. Plates bowls, forks, spoons, this is all in the package. the next night is bath night. You will receive towels and all bath supplies. Then on school night you will receive notebooks, pens, folders. This is all vice versa for the red devils. This is such a fun tradition. On reveal night you all watch a slide show of the activities from the week of big sis lil sis. THen you go in groups and your big sis is revealed. This is a great tradition because your big sis is someone that had been through what you have been through and can really help you out in your first couple years in college. Your big sis could give you a ride if you don't have a car or show you the cool places in town. Traditions here at Converse are the best.

studying for idc

Reading classes have always been harder for me. I usually have to read the matterials several times before i commprehend. I usually tend to read the book first though. The next step is to go to spark notes and read the summary of the book. THe next step is to go to the library to see if there is a movie for the book. Watching a book after reading a book just helps everything fall into context. It always helps seeing it acted out. The movie part works extremly well when you have to read a play. The spark notes always help. When reading an older text the language isn't always the same as the way we would talk today. So it really helps to read a summary to make sure you have all the main points down. Also when im reading through a book, i will highlight certain details that i feel are important. This process helps in the longer term bc i can just scan through my notes whenever i have to answer questions about the book. My professor my IDC is Dr. Lipe. She usually makes us write papers on the book. Writing a paper for the book also helps because inorder to write the paper you must make references to the book. THis helps you reread it several times and yet again helps with the comprehention. For everybook, dr. lipe assigns a student to that book to do a presentation on it. This helps because students show a slide show they have put together about the history of the book and also important details of the story. THis is how i learn and study for IDC.

Alcohol

Alcohol is a drug. Most people do not want or care to believe this fact. I feel that alcohol is an unneccassary supliment. People drink way too much, get drunk, then do something stupid. I do not see any fun in that. I've had no acohol before. I do not trust it.
Someone i knew, that was very close to me, had a very bad experience with acohol. THis is the reason that i will never ever drink. Will my friends name is Adam. Adam was 18. He worked at a fast food restaurant. After closing at work one night one of Adam's older friends invited him to a party. Adam thought it would get him some points with the college kids if he went, so he did. Adams older friend was Pete. Pete had just turned 21 and was throwing a huge party at his house to celebrate. Petes' parents were out of town so they didn't have a clue about the party. Pete had beer everywhere. Adam couldn't help but try one becuase everyone else was drinking. Adam thought that he would look stupid just sitting there not drinking. He drank one beer, two beers, three beers , and before he knew it Adam had blacked out. Pete notice and went to see if he was ok. Adam didn't respond. Pete called his mother and frantically asked his mom what to do. He ended up taking Adam the the emergency room. Adam had acohol posioning. The doctor told pete if he hadn't of brought Adam in when he did, He could have died. THis is why i will never drink. There is too much at risk.

differences

Whos better off? Who would be more comfortable? Everyone has differences. Everyone has problems that they are facing. Who are we to judge them. Who are we to set ourselves apart from a certain group because of color or culture? The conversation in my converse 101 class tuesday was about differences. The class was told to split up into one of the three situations you would be least comfortable being. The three situations were living in your car with your two kids, being well educated and well off but being gay in the closet, or being the only white kid at an all black college. I decided that i would least rather be in the group that had to be homeless and live in the car with their two kids. I good parent would never put their kids in that situation. A good parent would provide for their children. I feel like being a well off, high educated, happy gay kid in the closet wouldn't be a hard life at all. I believe that being gay is a choice people bring upon themselves. If you are living a happy life except your afraid of telling people your decision about your sexuality then you shouldn't have chosen that sexuality. Also, being the only white kid at an all black college would really be weird for me. I would feel out of place . I wouldn't care about the school being al black. I would be nervous about being the only one that would have a different culture. All the situations were something that i wouldn't want to have to deal with but if i had to choose the worst i would choose the homeless situation.

influences

I have been influenced by several different people during my life. I have been influenced by family,friends, and aquaintances. My most influenction experience was about nine years ago. I was nine years old and it was a Wednesday night. I was with my dad at Gateway Baptist Church. I remember it so clearly. The preacher was talking about hell and how the world would come to an end one day. He talked of how the saved would assend to heaven and the unsaved to go to hell. He said if we didn’t repent and ask God to come into our hearts that we would be like the other unsaved and perish in hell. These words scared me as a child. It was then that I decided to get saved. My dad lead me down to the altar when I asked God to come into my heart. Ever since the nineth of May in 1999 I have been a changed person. I am a strongly devoted Christian and I am very proud of what I believe in. I stand up for what I believe in and base my everyday life on it. If anyone has any questions im also very comfortable with answering them.

note taking

Note taking can be accomplished many different ways. Tuesday, during my converse 101 class, we had a lecture about taking notes. Some main points I took away from the lesson were controversal. Yet, Most of the points were very useful.One point was that if you have a boring lecture that you should at least show your teacher that your interested. By showing interest in the lesson and by thinking of a purpose for it , the lesson might not be as boring. I also learned that if I start taking notes on just main points instead of writing down every detail, I will be more organised and stop wasting my time. I learned that I should leave space around the left margin of the paper so that if I have to come back to that subject , I would have more room to take notes. I am a visual learner. My teacher showed us several illustrations of how to creatively take notes. For example, we were given hand outs about how to draw cool outlines for our notes. We were told to listen to what the professor is saying and write everything down that he/she puts on the board. We were taught that if the teacher’s voice is loader/raised then they will more than likely be saying something very important. I took a lot away from this lesson. It will be very useful to me.

time management

According to dictionary.com the definition of time is the "duration regarded as belonging to the present life as distinct from the life to come or from eternity; finite duration." Dictionary.com defines managment as "the act or manner of managing; handling, direction, or control. "
Time management, in my opinion, is when you are organized enough to plan out your days ahead of time. I also think time management can also be when you plan according to what you need to accomplish. In converse 101 we were assigned an assignment to fill out a schedule of what we are doing throughout the week. I completed my assignment. I realised that i spend a great deal of my time sleeping and procrastinating. I am by far the best procrastinating i know. Since realising this i have dedicated my mind frame to stop procrastinating and just finish my work. I've learned that if i stop wasting time, then i could just finish my work and have the rest of the day to have fun. Another assignment we had was to organized the things we need to accomplish this week. We had to put them in order from most important to more important and important to urgent. After making this list i did my assignments in that order. I found that doing this makes work less stressful and easier to finish. I will more than likely continue using this method of time mangament.

getting started

So im really new to this.... hey im Miranda and i created this blog for my converse 101 class. Enjoy!