Studying Skills for Dummies

Are you stressed about the exams? Do you feel that you are not quiet ready to take BIG, LONG tests? Though I had exams throughout middle school and three years of high school, I still feel burden when I am preparing for the exams. But studying for the exam can be easier if you know the "right way" to study.

1. Make Flashcards.

Careless which subject you are studying for, there are lots of information that you are expected to know. Before using flashcards, I thought I could memorize events, dates, and definitions right off from the notes or textbooks; however, when I actually set down to take the test, I could not remember everything that I was suppose to know because I "thought'" I knew the materials instead of actually "knowing" the materials.

The one of the reasons that I did not make flashcards is because I believed it took up too much time just making them. But thanks to technology, you can easily make flashcards online at http://quizlet.com. By using flashcards, it helps you actually memorize and know the terms and materials that are required for test.

2. Seek for Help.

When I first entered high school, I believed asking for help only showed the teachers that I was not ready for the tests. But after actually getting help from my teacher, I realized that seeking help was nothing to be ashamed of since I learned exactly "how" and "what" to study and prepare for the test. So do not be AFRAID of asking questions!

Also I found asking peers, who already took the course, were also helpful since they might have different explanations that you can understand better. So do not be shy or be shamed to ask! Asking for help is beneficial to you and your grades.

3. Turn off Electronics.

Do you tend to listen to music while you are studying? Or do you check your phone to "check the time"? You really should not have anything around you when you are studying since it is distraction!

For example, I use to use my computer when I studied for my exams since I had to ask my friend on Facebook. The next thing I realized is that I was "chatting" and "playing" instead of actually studying for the exam.

The time intervals do not have to be long. Take breaks between to refresh yourself and your brain so that you can learn, understand, and remember better.

4. Make Study Group.

Personally, meeting with study group is time when I get to organize my thoughts and facts. By talking and debating with peers, I learned where I struggled as well as where I do not fully understand. Also drafting study guide as a group will be helpful to you and people in the group so that when you are studying alone. I also think the topics brought up in conversation are the things that people can remember the best during the exam. So make sure people in the group are also dedicated to study so that you can actually learn from the study group.

5. Use Resources.

Like flashcards, use other resources that would help you remember the materials. For instance, timeline is great source when you are studying for the history test because it gives you "big picture" of history so that you can have wide interpretations when studying for the test. You can quickly make you timeline either for free or for feed.

The another great source is making connection between materials to pictures, drawings, or music. I made a random song when I had to memorize both states and capital cities of United States of America. Though it does not have to be professional, the song or picture will stick to your mind easily and quickly than just looking through worksheets or books.

6. REST and RELAX.

Though I personally believe that studying and looking through the notes are helpful, I also believe that relaxing is part of preparing for the test. If you lack sleep, it gets hard for you to concentrate on the test because you are tired from lack of sleep. Even though it may be a short sleep, make sure you get some rest before taking the exam!

I wish you the best luck in you exams:)!

Plagiarism v Sampling

Think about it. I can guarantee that at least once in your life you have plagiarized or thought about plagiarizing. How come people these days are fine with copy and pasting someone else's words but when it comes to music, you can't take a drumbeat without a huge lawsuit ensuing. I feel that the law is very inconsistent. I think stealing, whether it be someone's property or someone's words, should be treated the same. I know in some college's, plagiarism is dealt with immediate expulsion, but it's not the same everywhere. The same with sampling. Sampling is when one artist takes part of another artists work and uses it in their song. It can range anywhere from a 3 sec drum beat to the chorus of a very popular song. But if not cited correctly, the artists can easily get themselves into a huge, career-ending, lawsuit. MC Hammer samples Rick James' "Super Freak" in his song "U Can't Touch This." When you listen to either song, it is clear that one is based off of the other. If MC Hammer hadn't have cited his sample, he would easily get caught and prosecuted.

This is "Super Freak" by Rick James. Listen to both songs. It is clear that "U Can't Touch This" uses the beat from "Super Freak."

 

This is "U Can't Touch This" by MC Hammer.

Now think back to your high school paper, where you were short on time and it was easier to just copy and paste. When you think about it in the context of music, you wouldn't dare copy and paste. So why do it for school?

What's your costume for Halloween?

For this year's Halloween I'm dressing up as the Wicked Witch of the West from the book Wizard of Oz, my favorite book since my childhood. Since I could actually read books until I was in 6th grade, I was obsessed with Wizard of Oz and all of its series books. A kid's library in my church had an entire shelf full of Wizard of Oz books -- not just the original but all the sequels by other authors who expanded on the original later on.

Even though L. Frank Baum, the author of the original Wizard of Oz, never intended to write sequels, many young fans wrote and requested him to write more. Baum never wanted to write more but he eventually started to repond to the popular demand. From 1904, which is four years after Baum wrote his original Wizard of Oz, until his death in 1919, Baum wrote thirteen new books of the series.

After Baum died, the Wizard of Oz fans urged Ruth Plumly Thompson to write more. Thompson, who was a fanatic lover of Wizard of Oz, worked at Baum's publisher Reilly & Lee as a vice president. She wrote her 21 sequels between 1921 and 1939 mainly because she had to support her family. I remember storylines of every single book of Baum and Thompson; I remember that even though I certainly loved all of their books, the story became boring as the series went on. The stories were always about an American child with a talking animal traveling in the magical cities and meeting magical or enchanted creatures.

What makes Thompson still special is not the fact that people thought she was Baum's niece, or she wrote more sequels of Wizard of Oz than Baum. Thompson is special because her sequels of Wizard of Oz were beyond just novels. Thompson's Oz poems were collected and publihsed in 1992, two decades after she died. I didn't like this book, called the Cheerful Citizens of Oz, only because it was a 15 pages long pamphlet and I finished it in less than half an hour.

So many other artists and writers continued to produce sequels of Wizard of Oz that are not limited to paperbacks. There are so many films, comics, parodies, and most importantly, musicals such as Wicked, the life story of Wicked Witch of the West.

We Didn't Start The Fire by Billy Joel

We Didn't Start The Fire by Billy Joel

Harry Truman, Doris Day, Red China, Johnnie Ray
South Pacific, Walter Winchell, Joe DiMaggio

Joe McCarthy, Richard Nixon, Studebaker, television
North Korea, South Korea, Marilyn Monroe

Rosenbergs, H-Bomb, Sugar Ray, Panmunjom
Brando, "The King and I", and "The Catcher in the Rye"

Eisenhower, vaccine, England's got a new queen
Marciano, Liberace, Santayana goodbye

CHORUS
We didn't start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
No we didn't light it
But we tried to fight it


Josef Stalin, Malenkov, Nasser and Prokofiev
Rockefeller, Campanella, Communist Bloc

Roy Cohn, Juan Peron, Toscanini, Dacron
Dien Bien Phu Falls, Rock Around the Clock

Einstein, James Dean, Brooklyn's got a winning team
Davy Crockett, Peter Pan, Elvis Presley, Disneyland

Bardot, Budapest, Alabama, Khrushchev
Princess Grace, Peyton Place, Trouble in the Suez

We didn't start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
No we didn't light it
But we tried to fight it

Little Rock, Pasternak, Mickey Mantle, Kerouac
Sputnik, Zhou Enlai, Bridge On The River Kwai

Lebanon, Charles de Gaulle, California Baseball,
Starkweather homicide, Children of Thalidomide

Buddy Holly, Ben Hur, Space Monkey, Mafia
Hula Hoops, Castro, Edsel is a no-go

U2, Syngman Rhee, payola and Kennedy
Chubby Checker, Psycho, Belgians in the Congo

We didn't start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
No we didn't light it
But we tried to fight it

Hemingway, Eichmann, Stranger in a Strange Land,
Dylan, Berlin, Bay of Pigs invasion

Lawrence of Arabia, British Beatlemania
Ole Miss, John Glenn, Liston beats Patterson

Pope Paul, Malcolm X, British Politician sex
J.F.K. blown away, what else do I have to say

We didn't start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
No we didn't light it
But we tried to fight it

Birth control, Ho Chi Minh, Richard Nixon back again
Moonshot, Woodstock, Watergate, punk rock

Begin, Reagan, Palestine, Terror on the airline
Ayatollah's in Iran, Russians in Afghanistan

Wheel of Fortune, Sally Ride, heavy metal suicide
Foreign debts, homeless Vets, AIDS, Crack, Bernie Goetz

Hypodermics on the shores, China's under martial law
Rock and Roller cola wars, I can't take it anymore

We didn't start the fire
It was always burning since the world's been turning.
We didn't start the fire
But when we are gone
It will still burn on, and on, and on, and on...

We didn't start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
No we didn't light it
But we tried to fight it

We didn't start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
No we didn't light it
But we tried to fight it

We didn't start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire...

After doing this project, I realized that Billy Joel is probably the most creative genius in the entire world. He referenced SO MANY THINGS and got them all to rhyme and make sense. It must have took him so long to find things that represented conflict throughout the world. He chose controversial things that the everyday person would know, recognize, and understand. My hat goes off to the guy.

How to Deal with Bedtime Stories

Happy Halloween! If you do not want to go Trick or Treating, nor if you do not want to watch any horror or thriller movies, how about watching one of episodes from Supernatural?

Supernatural, created by Eric Kripke, is famous on-going television series, starring Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles as Dean and Sam Winchester. Their journey first started off looking for their missing father; however, as their journey continues, two brothers constantly encounter with supernatural creatures, such as demons, vampires, werewolf, and spirits, and they even tangle themselves into the trouble that cannot be easily solved.

In fifth episode of season three, Dean and Sam hear about a psychotic killer, who killed two of three brothers by acting like a wolf, in Maple Springs, New York. They assume it was werewolf attack because the attack matched the lunar cycle, but soon Dan and Sam realizes that they are dealing with something different. Dean and Sam also find other victim, Ken, who was killed by old grandmother, who kindly offered pie when Ken and his wife were lost in the woods. When Dan and Sam research the case thoroughly, they match the two cases with two Grimm stories: "Three Little Pigs" and "Hansel and Gretel". Throughout the episodes, Sam and Dean are faced with other fairy tale stories, "Cinderella" and "Little Red Riding Hood", so that they could save the possible victim of the stories. Who is behind all the instances? Why did it had to be bedtime stories? To find out Dean and Sam's solution to deal with bedtime stories, watch season three episode three to figure it out for the Halloween night.

Watch the promotion here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAUW7QNEt5w

In other episodes of Supernatural, the other well-known creatures and myths that have been written in literature and poetry actually comes true to hunt people with reasons to be solved. Any creatures, that people believed to be only exist within myth or literature, exist in Supernatural.

Poetry of Songs

Run and Fly toward the dream.
Though there may be times of trouble and loneliness,
I will be okay even though I am alone
Because of you, my friends and family.

Sometimes it hurts to face the truth,
But I know that it is the way to grow and mature.

However, I want to keep dreaming

Since it's okay because I still have chance throughout my life.

I will keep my memories,

my love, my music,

my passion, my happiness

Since those describe who I am.

I will be singing in the rain.

I will dancing out. I will do something

that will lead to my happy ending.

I will live simple life and simple love.

Graphic Poetry

Recently in poetry class we made poems by cutting words out of magazines and piecing them together like a ransom note. I've seen somewhere where the author does the opposite. Instead of cutting the words out and pasting them on another page, the author takes on page and blacks out the words that they don't want. The viewer reads the uncrossed words together as the poem. This style of poetry is known as blackout poetry.

This poem, author unknown, is a good example of a blackout poem. The author crossed out the other words to leave the words "I want to go back so I won't grow empty." I find this form of poetry more difficult to create than the ransom note poetry because the author is limited to the words on the page and the order that they are in. Some people chose to use newspaper articles and other choose book pages.

Some poets create their poem and put artwork around it. This poem to the left, author unknown, created a tree-esque design around the words and in the root area, the poem reads "Heart pounding, spiraling into the darkness."  Austin Kleon wrote a book titled Newspaper Blackout in which he shows his various blackout poems. If you go to that website, he has his poems titled "October Horoscopes" displayed. I find this group of poems interesting because in each horoscope he creates poem. This must have been challenging because of the limited words, but he makes it work.

However, some people strongly oppose this type of poetry. Laura, from www.go-home-roger.tumblr.com, finds blackout poetry offensive to the author of the original work. She says "

I wish people would stop doing black out poems. Guess what? A person took the time to put their feelings on paper. To put thoughts, and ideas, and perspectives on a piece of paper so maybe someone else can understand where they’re coming from and feel like they can relate to someone. A person took their thoughts and wrote them down and shared them with the world despite all the vulnerability that comes with and you just stomped all over it. Their work inspires you? That’s fantastic. That’s exactly what they were hoping for. Write it down on a piece of paper instead of destroying something that means everything to someone else. It just like burning a book, or banning it. What gives you the right? The world is one giant canvas and you had to go and use one tiny spot in this giant world that someone else already has. You may be trying to make something beautiful, but you had to destroy something already beautiful to do it and that’s never okay."

I find her perpective very interesting. Who would think that poetry could be controversial in this way? She points out that to create your own work of art, you must destroy someone elses. It would be like someone going into the Sistine Chapel and painting over the ceiling because they were inspired by it. A lot of people would be angry if you did this. Coloring over someone elses work is pretty much the same thing.

While I find blackout poetry beautiful, I never thought about it in this way. I was thinking about making some of my own, but after this, maybe I won't.