Week 2 Story: Pumpkin Spice Queen

Brooke the queen of fall and everything pumpkin spice, was laying in bed one hot Oklahoma morning rolling over and checking her phone to open it to the first post that was there.

OMG! OMG! OMG!

Were the sounds you heard down the hallway as Brooke took off from her bedroom to wake everyone up in the house to tell them of the news she saw. Steven one of the roommates came out of his room trying to figure out what happening, making sure that the house was still standing.

All Brooke said as she passed Steven’s bedroom was, “we have to leave now, no time to discuss just we need to leave now”. Not knowing what is going on and just having the hype of seeing someone run down the hallway and screaming that we must go, the only thing you know to do is follow in pursuit.

There was one other person that was in the house and her name was Karen, Karen was in the living room sitting with the dogs when all the started to go down. Brooke and Steven come running into the living room and Brooke grabs Karen by the arms and says, “we have to go and don’t ask any questions we just have to go”. Steven and Karen run after Brooke as she gets into her car and has it in reverse before the other even had time to open their doors to get in.

Steven and Karen got into the car and Brooke took off down the road as fast as she could, even almost taking off the bottom of her car by hitting the speed humps in the neighborhood at full speed. Steven and Karen hit the roof of the car since they didn’t have any time to put their seat belts on.

Latte Art taken from Pixabay

Brooke makes a turn onto a street that Steven and Karen are all to familiar with, the road that leads to the coffee shop that all millennial's know all to well. Steven and Karen looked at each other in complete confusion, “Brooke why the heck did you come barreling out of the room just because you wanted Starbucks”. There was no response from Brooke to Karen and Stevens comment just a hard stomp on the brakes making Karen slam into the dashboard of the car.

Brooke took off out the car and running into Starbucks with Steven and Karen in tow. Only to get into the store and find Brooke standing in the corner shaking with sadness. Karen walks up to Brooke and asks, “what is wrong with and why are you about to cry”, Brooke says “because I saw a picture of the new fall cup on Facebook and wanted to get here before they sell out”. Karen and Steven look around and can’t find a new cup anywhere in the store.

One of the Starbucks workers walks up to Brooke and says, “the new cup won’t be released for sell until tomorrow”. Karen and Steven just look at her with eyes that just fill Brooke full of guilt. Steven walks over to Brooke, “Brooke you owe me the biggest iced coffee they have for dragging me out of the house for nothing”.

Karen standing in line with Brooke as she orders us all coffee for dragging us all out of the house for nothing, looks at her over her glasses as an old wise grandma and says, “how many times do I have to tell you not everything on Facebook is the truth”.

The logo we all know taken from Flickr

Authors Note: For this week’s story I used, “The Foolish, Timid Rabbit” to rewrite into my own story. I used this story because it was the one that really stuck to me because I related it to the story about Chicken Little. I thought about rewriting this story using chickens but thought that wouldn’t be to original. This story just goes to show in today’s world how we take information that is right in front of us and not fact check it. Also, it shows that in the heat of the moment we just follow what everyone else is doing without stopping and thinking about it.

Bibliography: “The Foolish, Timid Rabbit” from Jataka Tales by Ellen C. Babbitt, Web Source. 

Reading Notes: Week 2 Anthology

The Foolish, Timid Rabbit

The story that kept popping back into my mind the whole time I was reading these stories was about the rabbit. The reason I think this is so is because the rabbit reminded me of the story about Chicken Little that kept running around saying, "the sky is falling". 

• The story about the rabbit has six animals- three rabbits, one deer, one fox, and a lion
• Story begins with rabbit sleeping and thinking about the earth breaking 
• Coconut drops from tree and scares rabbit 
• Rabbit starts running like chicken little and yelling that the earth is breaking 
• All the other animals run in tow with the rabbit 
• Lion is wise and brave and goes and finds out what really happened

Family of Animals. Source

Bibliography: Ellen C. Babbitt, "The Foolish, Timid Rabbit", Source.  

Week 2 Reading Overview

Ramayana Book Decision 

The version that I have chose to use for the course work is the R.K. Narayan's version. I picked to use this copy because it is composed of only one persons writing style and I think for something that is unknown to me this will be the best option for me to be able to dive into the material. 

Comic Books 

The first comic book that I picked is "Thanjavur: City of Brihadeeswara". Then the second comic book talks about the same gods and characters but in slightly different story and that comic book is "Shiva Paravati: A Story of Divine Love". I picked these two because because they seemed to have a story line that just in the overview I was able to follow and the Story of Divine Love has a decent story line that has a little bit of action and deception within it. Then I found the Thanjavur comic and noticed that it had the same characters and also if you read together you can get a broader picture of Shiva one of the gods.

Videos 

The first video that I picked is the "Stages of Life" where is goes through the timeline of the Hindu ways of the way of life. The video goes into detail about the four ashramas of life and how they progress. It is very interesting to watch this video and see that the person goes through life to basically give it all up in the end and gives himself up to God. 

The next video is, "Harry Potter Meets Hindu Mythology", this video really just stuck out to me because I am a Harry Potter fan and so what better than to find something that I am familiar with and add to what I am trying to learn about. In this video it takes the Hindu myth and relates to the story line of Harry Potter to tell the story and it was really easy to follow. 

Image used from Indian Epics: Images and PDE Epics

Image depicts two of the characters from the comic books I chose. 

Time Strategies

The Thing We All Struggle With- Time Management

Time management is probably the number one thing that gets me every semester in making sure that I am getting everything done in a timely manner. I think the biggest thing that gets me and probably just about everyone is procrastination. I allow myself to procrastinate to the very last second when it comes to the point of I have no other option but to finally sit down and do whatever is needed to be done. I have faced this issue since being in high school and it just has followed me into my college career. I read over the article "How to Beat Procrastination" and it did give me some insight into different things to look for and be on the look out for to detect when I'm allowing myself to push things off to the back burner. I think the biggest thing with procrastination is I always find a way to make something else sound better than what I am actually suppose to be doing at that time. I think this were a little bit of psychology comes into play with cognitive dissonance, where the person takes something that they are suppose to do and find every which way not to do it by making small excuses to make something else seem better. I think to take what was talked about in the article "How to Beat Procrastination"  and blend it when the article "How Checklists Train Your Brain To Be Goal Oriented And More Productive" to make something that is effective in combating procrastination. 

Photo from Flickr

By taking the information that is given in these two articles and blending them together I think it would make a good strategy to test out and see if it works. I think to begin with is making sure to get something like a planner and using it to write down everything that needs to be done on the day that it's due and then planning it out on which day it should be started and completed. Then looking into your daily schedule and incorporating that into time blocks to give yourself something to check off and be able to see the progression of your day. I think looking at the schedule that was built for this classes is a good fit for the time that I have available this semester, I just need to take the leap and actually sit down and plan out my week and find the strength to make myself actually stick to that plan for the week and not let the little things distract me from my goal for the day and week. To help reinforce this plan, there needs to be some sort of reward that is set for the end of week if the objectives set forth for the week are met. This all sounds awesome and a good idea but now to see if after writing this post can will actually sit down and construct the master plan and follow through with it.  

Photo from Flickr

New Technology To Be Learned

Everything that is being used in this course is all new to me except for canvas of course. So I think the most interesting thing about this course is going to be exploring and experiencing new things that I have not used before. Also just getting to use these things and create things that I search and look at things all the time but never stop to think of how the people created the content they create. As i'm writing this post it does seem a little odd to me because here I am never have created a blog, never created a website, never even knew how to attached some of the different widgets and things to something like this. I say this is all weird to me because I have taken classes on coding in C and also taken a MIS class where I learned how to code in VBA and learned different coding language in Excel that I never knew existed. 

Photo taken from Pixabay

Epics of India Semester Assignments

This class has already pushed me a little, in that I've never really even thought about creating a blog and writing things down and posting them. However, I have kind of taken a liking to idea of what blog can become and what different uses there are for blogs. So I am really interested to be able to progress through this course and see where it brings me at the end, who knows maybe I will continue to use this blog after the course is over with. When looking at the assignment list I think the thing that stuck out the most to me is the portfolio where you keep developing certain things, I think that will give me a start in maybe taking a greater interest in continuing this after the semester is over. Then the extra credit assignment famous last words seems interesting and also gives a break from the required assignments and gives you and opportunity to write about how the week went with the class. I think this something that could help out in the future if it goes well because I'm not one to voice my feels. Then also looking more in depth to the growth mindset studies and how it all works and how to implement it into teaching because I see this being something that I can progress and refine for when I'm ready to become a instructor for future pilots.

Photo from Flickr

My Take on Growth Mindset

When reading the words Growth Mindset, nothing really clicked for me on what the subject was really going to pertain and what it truly was. Before listening to the videos from Carol Dweck's videos I had never heard of this type of learning and have never heard of any teacher trying to implement this version of teaching. However, after listening to the videos and reading some of the descriptions I have really thought about it and kind of relate some of the things to my every day life of being a aviation student. In the department of aviation we do a lot of self grading and grading that is based on how we feel about that certain lesson that we've done that day. For example, for each flight lesson we have a syllabus ticket that goes to that lesson and it has a list of items that are suppose to be taught and practiced for that lesson. Then at the end of the flight you and your instructor go over those items and discuss what went wrong and what went right during the flight and if there are any areas that need to be worked on. By doing this sort of system of doing a post flight brief you and your flight instructor are able to obtain feedback from each other and see what progress is being made and also if the instructor themselves need to change the way they are teaching something. I have greatly noticed a difference in my flights when I have flight instructor that communicates with me before and after a flight, rather than a instructor that just gets in and gets out and no feedback at all. 

So I see where there can be an effective system of teaching and learning in the education system. However, as it was pointed out can it be effectively put in place with a normal grading system of right or wrong and getting a percent based grade on the number of points that are received. I believe that they way the classes is structured where it is based on completion and writing about what they have learned during the assignment is more effective than the student just getting points based off of right and wrong answers. 

Meme taken from Growth Mindset and Feedback Cats by Laura Gibbs

Introduction to Future Aviation Major

Updated Post: Epics of India Portfolio

Hello, my name is Tyler Knight and I am a senior at the University of Oklahoma (OU) and hopefully graduating May 2020. I currently pursuing a degree in aviation from OU and hope to find a job in the corporate world of aviation. My plan is for when I graduate from OU is get on with a corporate company or private entity to be able to fly people around in private airplanes. I think the biggest goal out of my hopeful career is get with a company that travels all around the world so that as they are seeing the world so can I.

Image of Jet waiting to take to the sky

When looking back at last semester and also looking back at this summer I think there are two things that really stand out to me the most on what I was able to accomplish. The first thing being able to pass my tests and get my instrument rating added onto my pilots license. For anyone that doesn't know the instrument rating is probably one of the most difficult ratings for a beginning pilot to be able to obtain just because of the vast amount of information that you have to consume and then be able to apply that while flying the airplane at the same time. Then the second thing, is this summer when I passed my checkride and tests to get my commercial pilots license, this isn't really are hard course to pass and master but there is a lot stress put onto the student during their commercial course. This simply just because the examiners are being extra cautious in making sure everything is done correctly and also the standards are held to a much higher level than for a beginner pilot. So for a pilot to be able to obtain a commercial license is the best feeling because you have trained so hard and now that you have passed you can finally start using all those hours and hours in the cockpit to actually start making money and begin a journey to your future career.

Picture used from Pixabay

More about my personal life, I'm not the most active person in the world, I don't really have any hobbies or things that I really try to do. I would say the only thing that really comes close to really being considered a hobby for me is that I love the art of coffee and trying new and upcoming coffee shops here in Oklahoma and else where when I travel to new places. I love anything that has to do food and will pretty much try anything at least once because I like to explore new things; however, if I even see the slightest resemblance of what could possibly be a mushroom you might as well just throw it in the garbage, I'm not sure how anyone likes the taste of mushrooms. When I am home it is usually spent with the two dogs that are in the house we have a husky and german shepherd and man are those two more than I would like to deal with sometimes, especially when school starts back up. 

Personal Photo of Smash the Husky

Story Book Favorites

Music Stories

The first storybook that I found and liked is called Music Stories. This caught my eye because who doesn't like music? Music is really big part of almost every persons life, it's used for all kinds of applications. From adding context to something, from a person using it tell a story, and just for personal use for relaxation. The storybook title was useful in that it was not misleading on what the actual story was about. The introduction to the story was well written and kept me engaged and interested in actually reading the rest of the storybook. The introduction does give you a really good understanding of what is to be told in the main body of the storybook without giving out all the details of the story. The design is nice and I really like the home page of the storybook. For the rest of the storybook the integration of videos to aid in the visualization of the story was a nice touch. 

Battle Between Horses

The title of this storybook really came out to me because who doesn't like horses or any animals for that case. The title didn't disappoint in that it really is a story about horses and the people that are considered the masters of horsemanship and many other talents. The introduction was good at starting the story and giving a brief outline how things came about and what was about to come in the next sections of the storybook. The thing that really grabbed me in the introduction was at the end when it started to talk about the swordsmanship (who doesn't like something with people who know how to use a sword) between the different characters in the book.  

The Epics of Food 

Well the title had instantly because all I saw was the word "food" and if anyone doesn't know me I really like my food. I have always been interested in Indian food but never really have indulged in trying it because I just don't know the culture and what to expect. The introduction was good and it kept me interested and wanting to go forth and read the rest of the story and find out about the different things that the gods have given the three different subjects to help deal with. Plus, like before who doesn't like animals and to add food and a monkey into one story well who wouldn't be interested in reading about that. The design was clean and simple; however, I think the only thing that I saw differently in this one compared to the first two is that the use of pictures and visual aides were not there like the other two that I read. So, I think this gave me a thing to make sure and look out for when it comes to writing a storybook, is to remember to add visual to try and compliment my storybook. 

Image was used from the Music Stories Story Book

My Favorite Places- Norman, Ireland, Sweden

As for my favorite places only one of them I have visited the other two that are listed are places that I won't to be able to go to. 

The first place is Norman, Oklahoma, the main reason I picked Norman is because it is the place where I first started what I hope to be my career in less than a year. It is the place that I did my first ever solo flight in an airplane (and as a pilot you will never forget that day when you instructor gets out of the aircraft and hands you the keys to take the aircraft by yourself).

(Image Information: Personal Photo of Crimson 7 at Norman Airport, May 2018)

The next place is Sweden, reasons for this is just the beauty of the landscape and nature that you will find. There is vast amounts scenery and nature to look at and just seeing different peoples vlogs that they have posted about their time in Sweden, looks like there is never a time that you will get tired of what your looking at. 

( Photo of the Sweden Flag)

Then the last place that I want to visit in the future is Ireland. Ireland was added to my list of places that I want to visit simply by listening to the stories of one of my roommates when she went there to study abroad. The culture that the locals surround you with while your there and how they are open to allow into their traditions and accepting. Plus from listening to my roommates stories the people there in the evening are really laid back and don't spend a lot of time worrying about problems that the day brought upon them. 

( Photo of the Ireland Flag )

Testing First Ever Blog Post

Testing to see if I've done this correctly.