What. A. Semester! It was way more intense than I had anticipated. This is partly why I didn't post anything extra during it. Summer session is only 8 weeks so all of the courses were accelerated. Somehow I managed to get all A's! My overall GPA right now is 3.35. Nature in Literature involved reading two books, writing two papers, and writing a 600 word+ post every week. This was, as the name implies, focused on nature. In particular we worked with biodiversity and conservationism. I did really enjoy these books! Calculus II was incredibly difficult. It is often touted as the most difficult of the three calculus courses. It covers things like integrals, parameters, and series. Getting an A was super hard and I'm grateful for the support I received in helping me get all the facts down. Also a shout out to my instructor who did a good job explaining the material, and the accessibility of the recorded lectures was great. Lastly, Videogame entertainment was a lot more difficult than initially anticipated. Part of this is because it was an accelerated course. We had three 750+ word video game reviews that used course vocabularies, a weekly test, 2 weekly discussion posts and a couple other things as well. It was really fun though. I liked learning about the history of video games and the different research perspectives used to analyze different aspects of the field. It was also a nice relief to be required to play some video games, considering I had the other courses to take care of.
So that's it for this semester. I'll be going camping soon while on break and I'm pretty hype about it. Haven't had a camping trip since the start of the pancake. I'll try to post some pictures afterwards if I remember. Signing off!
-Alix
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Spring is here! The weather is turning nicer and I am yet again planting things! This year I have a new trellis and will be attempting to grow some berries. I'm most excited for tomato plants as last year's gave lots of delicious tomatoes. Also going to throw in some chrysanthemums, yah know, for bugs. In terms of indoor plants, my orchid is already sprouting! It seems that as soon as spring comes there is a wave of spring cleaning. A lot of little messes have been decluttered, some closet space welcomed a couple new items, and the little bathroom is in progress of being organized. It was pretty cramped, and now it will feel less so. Also of news is I am now open to a part time job. I am looking for something that is either at a lab or work from home (no phone calls.) I'm hoping to be able to move more into the category of living things. My availability is pretty open, as my summer classes that start in a month are mostly all asynchronous. In the meantime I'll be applying for scholarships, reading, enjoying my break, preparing for the new semester. I did about as decent as last semester in terms of grade average, even though I had harder classes. This makes me feel like I'm improving overall. This is the second time I've attempted calculus and I would've gotten an A except for time. (Time management, unfortunate events, etc.) The course home is open til the end of the month so I could brush up on the last stuff and try to get a head start on calculus 2 which is next semester so I'm not too bummed! I'm actually pretty impressed with my stats grade, I kept getting B's on the tests. There was a lot to memorize but I think the information will be super useful. I'm glad I got a physical copy of the book so I can go back over things as I get more into my career. I think it'll be super useful for my future in science! Did very well in Biology 2. It's one of the subjects I like the most. My professor is pretty great. Chemistry was... so difficult. I enjoyed this semester much more than last semester. Professor R. is a super kind person who made all his own asynchronous lecture videos that went with these little quizzes to make sure you understood the material. It was really great, actually. It was just hard. My goal is to keep improving at chemistry which will be a lot simpler once a specific general thing in my life is taken care of. All in all a pretty good semester. Summer session I will be taking Nature in Literature, Calculus 2, Yoga, and Videogame Entertainment. These classes will help me get the transfer pathways so I can hopefully go on to the U! Signing off!
-Alix I feel Spring! Spring is probably my favorite season. I am very excited to get outside and go biking and hiking again. I brought my bike in for a tune up at the local bike shop so it'll be all nice and ready to go. Classes Update: Right before spring break we had our calculus midterm. I managed to get 100% on it! I spent the whole weekend studying so that made me feel really good. Hopefully more good things are to come in math, since I'll be taking Calculus 2 in the summer. Little nervous about that because summer semester is accelerated classes. I feel like I should be doing better in Biology and Statistics but it's been pretty rough. Maybe I'm having trouble focusing? Probably. And chemistry I'd say I'm doing... better than expected. In other news, I attempted to make bath bombs recently. I'd say it's going well and has been turning into experimentation to see if I can get them to act like the ones from Lush. So far I have got them to fizz, but not float or spin. Also I had to change the type of coloring I was using as the one I used in this blue one pictured ended up coloring the tub. I also joined wanikani this month, which is a website where you can learn kanji. One day I'd like to go to Japan so this will be really useful. Learning Japanese is fun! Signing off!
-Alix
Above are images I took of the same piece of leaf from a money tree. Since I didn't put it on a slide like I should've, it was curved as is visible in the blurry sections of the images. My 'scope has both an overlight and an underlight (are their technical terms for this?) So I took images of the leaves with each light. I had a lotttt of fun playing with the microscope camera and seeing what things looked like through the camera versus through the lens. It was exciting and I'll be using it again sometime. Maybe when I have a project? I'm doing a personal research project on grey hair so it would be fun to have some micro-images to go along with it. Signing off!
-Alix On December 22nd, 2016 I began my new job as a lab sample processor for a start-up forensic toxicology lab. For the most part my job experience up to this point had been retail and food service. I was excited that I would get to use a pipette everyday and learned words I had never heard of like "aliquot" and "metabolite." It was a wonderful learning experience. After a year and a half I had made major improvements and was one of the fastest processors. I had taken extensive notes during trainings and meetings and became the go-to person for questions. My work with Microsoft Office improved as well and I was regularly called on to assist with various projects such as daily sample counts. During this time I was also trusted to work independently on Saturdays, and was even allowed to assist the lab assistants with their labeling. More time passed and I helped develop many processes like long term sample storage. My "go-to person" persona became formalized and I was promoted to Processor 2. I helped train and I led. I took care of back-end admin work and more in-depth problem specimens. My problem solving skills and ability to work independently became more and more crucial as I was again promoted, this time to Specimen Management. I was a lead who not only was the primary specimen-fixer but I also managed a team of data entry specialists. When the pandemic hit, I had to manage the workload alone for awhile, but my team started to re-grow. During this time, I also started school. I began with a few classes in the Summer and then by Fall I was trying to work full time and do school full time. This was of course difficult, and I learned many a lesson. I know however that in order for me to reach the goals that I strive for, school has to be the thing that I focus on. It was with much deliberation that I elected to leave my job of 4 years and continue on to seek my dreams. I will miss my old coworkers, the sound of the screening instruments in the background of the lab, the business style coffeemaker, and all of the other things I will keep re-remembering with every passing day. I will have many memories to keep me company and maybe I will see some familiar faces in the future. My plans are as follows: Get ahead in all of my classes, generate new and interesting content, apply for as many scholarships as possible, and in March, get a part time job that will propel me forward in my career. I welcome any assistance or motivation! Signing Off!
-Alix It is the end of fall semester 2020! I am so happy I was able to make it through. The good: I received three A's. I was pretty certain I'd get a B in biology so I was very happy to see I did well enough on the final to bump it just that much more. I learned a lot in my classes. Speech class helped me feel a bit better about being on camera and I got a couple video editing tools to help. This will aid me in future projects. Also it gave me some content for this website and for YouTube. Ethics class involved a lot of discussion and I most enjoyed the extra articles we had to read. If I had more time during the semester I probably would have posted about some here on my website. Biology was great because it's one of my favorite subjects and I learned some of the basic content that will be the foundation of my research in the future. I hope I will feel similarly in the next semester. The Bad: I thought I would end up with a B in chemistry but it dropped to a C after my final exam. This is due to several factors including time constraints, a teaching style versus learning style mismatch, and a test taking style versus test making style mismatch. (I.e. one could not go back to previous questions after moving past the page - different questions on each page though there were 4 to a page for the final at least. I tend to make dumb mistakes that going back and re-reading a question before submitting would easily fix. I can verify 32 points worth of mistakes over all exams I realized I had made halfway through said exams.) Chemistry was not an easy class for me by any means. The labs were really fun and helped cement a lot of the concepts, but it was not easy to memorize the equations and when to use them and how to use them. I lost a lot of motivation towards the end because if I started a test feeling like I understood something, the best I would get is a C. I have a feeling though that this next semester will go differently. Working full time and doing school full time is too difficult for me. I am working on a solution to increase my success while decreasing my stress. And the solution starts with me doing a bit of extra work before the next semester starts. Next semester I will be taking Calculus 1, Applied Statistics, Chemistry 2, and Biology 2. I hear one of the main reasons people fail Calculus is a lack of understanding of the mathematical basics, so I'm going over some of the simple things that are definitely present in calculus ranging from exponents and fractions to maneuvering polynomials and understanding trig functions. I have all of my textbooks already for all of my classes and I feel like that will make a big difference in my ability to succeed for at least the first month of the semester. Signing off!
-Alix It is with much joy I bring up the end of my Summer Semester. This was my first college semester after a break from academic studies. I took Business Computer Systems, College Writing II, and Adult Fitness. In Business Computer Systems we were given various assignments with the goal of teaching the Microsoft Office Suite. I was already fairly proficient in Office, but I learned several things. It showcased Word, Powerpoint, Excel, and Access. I learned the most about Microsoft Access, which is for databases. In College Writing II we were tasked with creating a 10 page argumentative research paper on any topic. We only had about a month to choose a subject, draft, edit, revise, and finish the paper. It was a major challenge, but one I ended up doing very well at. Our teacher was encouraging, insightful, and witty. Lastly, I had taken Adult Fitness. Every week we were to do 120 minutes of exercise. This was wonderful as it got me back into the habit of movement. The instructor was kind and respectful, and I enjoyed all of the content. It included guides on nutrition, exercise (like resistance training), and managing stress. I'm glad I was able to re-start college again and keep moving forward towards a degree. I'm also super excited for Fall Semester! I will be taking Chemistry I, Biology I, Speech, and Ethics. I have very high hopes for this next semester and the rest of my future. Signing off!
-Alix |
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