The Right of a College Student

We're in a stage of time when we can break out of the program; the mold society formed us in with their rules of everything.
Yet, I'm in a class right now where the professor tells me what to think--gives me the rules that I need to follow. That antonyms are separated into three different types: relational, gradable, and complementary. So I listen. But then I disagree, and the professor doesn't want to hear it. Isn't there something wrong in that picture?

We're in a small class and he asks questions that have one word, yes/no answers.

Prof: What is the object that I sit down on?
Student: A chair.
Me: Can't it be a table or the ground? Isn't the point of college to think outside the box. Why can't you sit down elsewhere. I'm not trying to be a smart-ass, just trying to think more. On average, sure I can say chair. But I'm a college student, we're all college students, we already know chair. Let's think bigger.

A relational antonym is when opposites are related. Example: father/son, daughter/mother
I understand.
A gradable antonym is when opposites can have some range of connection. Example: pretty/ugly.
His (the prof's) explanation is that you can have a sort of timeline of when a person can be somewhat pretty.
A complementary antonym is when opposites are complete 180s. Example: on/off, alive/dead
No in-between.

My argument is that complementary and gradable can be easily the same thing. There's a thing such as the partly alive and halfway dead, and zombies. It's part of the English language. And a pretty thing could not be ugly because that, for me, is a complete 180.

Sociolinguistics- means that our language is connected to our identity.
If this^ is so, shouldn't the rules of language fit our description? To what the majority of the population thinks?

We got our tests back, and recently I've been hating on grades and decide that they shouldn't matter. If I want to learn, if I learn, if I end up remembering what I learned...if I disagree with what I learned and want to have a discussion over it. That counts for more. I'll still listen. But remember that we're in college. You should let me respond. Especially if it's outside of class and I'm not taking away any of your class monologue time.

Tai Chi: a soft spirit

Before, there was wo-chi. After, there was Tai-chi. Therefore, before, there was nothing; and, after, there was movement. A flow, some type of change.

From sunrise to sunset, there's a constant flow of motion.

We have a Tai chi teacher here at Hanover visiting from ...actually, I don't know where. But he's come to Hanover to talk to the Tai Chi class and I happened to visit the class the day when this guy came and was so in awe.

His name is Deng Ming Dao.

We bowed to the teacher, bowed to the guest, and then Deng Ming Dao introduced himself and led us in a stretching routine. Almost like a whole yoga routine. And after showed us his own version of form 24 in Tai chi. It was so different from the one our professor taught us but the concept was the same: "You want to save your energy." You want to keep an ongoing rhythm of breath. After he showed us some rel cool steps and gave us some lessons, Deng then sat us down for some question/answer time.



What's the connection between tai chi and meditation?
-"Meditation should be the objective of Tai chi," "the movement of martial arts with the understanding of meditation," and the goal is to "couple them [tai chi and meditation] together"

What are your favorite ways of gathering your chi?
-Sleep, diet, and don't be stressed

What role do you think technology plays with tai chi?
-The internet gives you more available information but it's not natural to spend eight hours a day in front of your laptop. It should not to be used as if addicted. I want to get a house someday that turns the electricity off during the night, you'd be surprised to how quiet it'd get. There's something of awe to that kind of quietness.

How do you incorporate tai chi into your daily life?
-Mornings, I stretch and do some forms. At night, I practice drills, stances, on the punching bag, and lastly meditation

How would you describe a Scholar Warrior?
-Can you be a person of study and sport? You have to have both skills of action and rest.

Other comments he made:
-Key to my philosophy: can you improve yourself? Can you learn more?
-"I believe in this ideal of cultivating yourself"

The class of 1 hour and a half ended faster than I anticipated. It was a great experience.

In the words of the great Bruce Lee, "Be water, my friend."

Two thumbs up to this spring term Tai chi class, online it's spelled Tai Ji but that's the first time I've seen it that way. Seems like a very beneficial class. And I loved taking specifically's today class, Deng's teaching.

Fairy Tale Reality Check

Did you know that.....
Rapunzel's prince had his eyes scratched out by thorns from when he jumped off  the tower in escape of the evil witch. And he didn't return home because he was so miserable from not being with his true love and searched for her while blind until he heard her song. Fortunately, Rapunzel's tears healed his eyes and he was able to see again.

AND

Cinderella was her own fairy godmother, she would be able to talk to animals by herself and order them around while also asking birds to help make her a gown. And when she went to the ball, the prince would only dance with her for the whole three nights of the festival and her shoe didn't come off until the third night. It wasn't even made of glass. Since the golden shoe didn't fit, one of Cinderella's sisters cut off her toes to squeeze in and the other sister cut off her heel to put it on. Both times the prince believed them until little birdies sang to him about how there was blood on the shoe therefore it wasn't the one.

...now you know.

I have three English classes this semester and all of them have great literary selections that pique my interest. In my "Women in Fiction" class, we're reading all the fairy tales right now and later we'll have to write our own fairy tale based on the fairy tales we've read in class. Our professor gave us two websites to find all the stories to read  today: www.surlalunefairytales.com and http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/grimm021.html 

The assignment for the day was to discuss themes and patterns we saw with all the stories, what patterns do you see?
Also, a musical that my professor recommended is "Into the Woods." Super good so far, I'll keep watching it when I have more time. You can watch it on Netflix, but prepare for a long time on the couch or bed or wherever you're watching it because it runs for around two and a half hours long. Thumbs up.

The Weight-Loss Dilemma

11 am Health & Fitness class with Coach M
Class Size: 27 (good lecture class)

Things I learn in this class:
~diets do not work
        ....without exercise

This class is the perfect class to prove how much we need a health and fitness program. If we could have a class like this every school year of our lives, that would be perfect and could lessen the risk of many bad things...I think. We have a health lecture on Mondays and fitness workouts on Wednesdays. We've figured out our BMI, we've figured out our heart rate, our ability to workout. We're just now learning about everything

If this information was given since elementary school and middle school and high school, if people could know before college that eating disorders were bad, so much could be prevented. Girls and guys would not have gone through period of anorexia or bulimia. If sociology classes were taught in early middle school and late elementary school about fashion images and how messed up airbrushed images can be. Girls and guys wouldn't be so messed up in the head. People wouldn't have self-esteem issues...as much.


http://truprep.com/news/preppers-blog/whats-health-and-fitness-got-to-do-with-prepping/



Quote:

"A lot of what we're talking about here (pause) is HOW MUCH you eat."

~ not about what you eat, it's how much you eat and when you eat


Thumbs Up
***Notes to consider: the professor makes the class

Name the three types of rock: Classic, Punk, Hard

8 am Geology class with Professor W.
Class size: 40 (the biggest class I've had so far)


We're going over chapter 14 from our geology textbook right now. And it seems as if he's trying to make it interesting to the class but I think we're all so jaded from his normal class lessons. . .scratch that. Maybe I'm one of the few not paying attention right now.

It's 20 min since the lecture began and he's just now beginning to talk about today's topic.

Sometimes, half of us sleep and he keeps talking. Sometimes, we ask questions that he doesn't know the answer to such as, what does that picture mean? "Idk" Yet, he was the one who made the power point and the one who put the pictures up.

I would understand the necessity of taking a science class to have the qualities of a well-rounded person. I would love to talk about minerals and fossils. I would like to TALK and be part of a discussion and analyze. Unfortunately, my professor this semester likes to talk more than let others talk. He loves his talking so much he doesn't even need an audience. We sleep and do other homework half the time. He sees us and keeps talking.

...

I'm sorry. I am being rude. He's a person like everybody else.

...The three types of rock are sedimentary, igneous, and metamorphic. But I enjoy the joke better.


http://meetinghousegeology.pbworks.com/w/page/22992333/Geology%20Jokes

For this class, we've had to memorize the names of minerals, the names of different rocks (of all three types), and the names, phylum, and class of fossils. And the only reason I'm passing this class so far is due to sharing this class with my two best friends. We always try to study together. One wants to be a teacher so when we're studying she takes up leadership and helps us remember the names by association. I have no idea what I'd do without her.

EXAMPLE: fossil:: phylum::: mollusca --class::: pelecypoda
                    There are three mollusca in our fossil group.
                    I remember the class 'pelecypoda' because we broke it down to three words.
                   Pele: is of course the famous soccer player. And how do I remember that this specific title is Pele? Because there is a division on one end and it reminds me of two legs. Then 'cy' sounds like 'see' and I want to see Pele. And..I want to take a 'poda' or 'photo' when I see Pele because he is such a famous futbolista.

Class is finished for today children.


This is a thumbs down.