Lorenzo’s Oil

In class today we watched the movie Lorenzo’s Oil. If you are looking for a serious, true-life story this is one to check out. It is interesting how much time there is to waste if life and death is taken out of the equation. Fair warning is that this movie can break your heart, but the benefits are huge in life lessons. Never, ever give up. Show up everyday to do what you need to do. There is knowledge out there, you just have to find it, or extrapolate it. There are always other way to do one thing. Smarts don’t always get the answer, but persistence might.

I think that’s what makes the difference between someone who is good, and someone who is great at what they do, persistence. The SEALs teams are considered one of the elite military groups in the world, but while everyone who gets into the training are physically similar, only 10 percent graduate to become SEALs. It is not the strongest that become SEALs, but the ones that can push their bodies further because of their mind. The ones that can function when their bodies want to quit, and normal people would have just stayed in bed.

There are two sayings which comes to mind when I think of Lorenzo’s mother and father fighting for the answer to fix their child; The difficult we do at once, the impossible will take a little longer. And; The easiest day was yesterday.

Thank you Lord for giving us the tenacity to persevere!

Gearing up the Spanish in Me

So my midterm in Spanish is on Thursday, and if you have been following this blog you will know that it is my kryptonite. I need everyone’s collective energy to wish that I will do well. So, I need to ask the right questions today, the last class before the midterm, so Thursday will hold no surprises. I have found that learning Spanish is helping my brain remember and find other answers better, so I guess my brain will not explode anytime soon. Cross your fingers!

Time to Catch Up!

Yesterday was a furlough day for my Spanish class and I thought that I would be able to get ahead on my Spanish, but the teacher gave an online blackboard assignment. If you have been following this blog at all you would know that Spanish is my weak spot. This Spanish assignment was only supposed to be an hours worth of time, at the most. It took me four hours to finish!

I hope to get some Spanish done today, regular online assignment, and get ahead on my two Info classes. I figure I will use time to leverage my ability to solve the problem of constant homework and reading.

The reason I want to get as much done in Spanish is because of the midterm that will be on this coming Thursday, or Jueves en Espanol.

Hasta la vista!

The Prof was Correct Again!

My last entry to the blog was a lamenting of the capacity of the resident of my cranium. Since then I have found that it is not a container that can only filled a certain amount, but that Mr. Brain is more like a muscle, even though it’s an old muscle, that will grow or be conditioned to handle the task it was given. Those of you who have been following this blog know my constant battle with the Spanish language. So two midterms, on the same day, combined with my Spanish nemesis, has left this newly found muscle a little fatigued, but not broken. Our Prof told us in our last class that he had to hold his foot over a bucket of water so if he were to fall asleep, while studying, it would fall into the cold water! Here he was conditioning his mind for stamina instead of horsepower. Thank God he made the brain such a versatile tool!

So Do You Have to Empty Part of the Brain to Put More Into It?

So when you’re studying for two midterms on the same day and your brain feels full, how do you get more to fit into it? It seems that you have to lose or take something out for it all to fit. And since I’m learning Spanish does it mean that I can fit less because I’m doubling up what everything means so I’m filling my brain faster? I guess I’m asking how much knowledge is too much knowledge? I suppose that’s why pen and paper is so powerful, so you can save the actual brainpower for thinking new and innovative ideas, and we can just look up what we thought up before (making sure you’re very organized really helps!).

Learn the Pattern

Today in class we were asked to solve several problems, the kind that kids excel at but adults feel awkward doing because they can’t do it and feel inept by not solving it.  I didn’t do so bad but I could have done better. I had to overcome a scratched eyeball and a sprained ankle. Ohhh woooo is me. It’s okay gotta just do my schoolwork and hopefully do well on the up coming midterms.

Super Bowl doesn’t mean the same to everyone.

When most people think Super Bowl they think, party, football, great commercials, unofficial holiday, and… studying?!? That’s right, they don’t think about studying. So that’s why this week is so tough before this weekend, its because we’re trying to get ahead of some studies and assignments so it won’t be crunch time when Monday comes and you’re playing catch up until the middle of the week. No bueno!

Nine Little Dots

This morning at 8am I was in my Info Problem Solving class and we were given the exercise to set up a three by three box of nine dots and then we were told to try to connect the dots with four straight lines without lifting the pen. Thinking out of the box is very liberating. Now if my brain can assimilate Spanish I would be a lot happier.