Monday (Post 50)

I got back my religion exam and I received a 100. I was very happy. We were also given the final. It is a take home test and it is going to be very difficult. While I was going into class I thought how important exams were. But it turned out that exams are not important at all.

At the end of class Professor McC. pointed to a chair. The chair was empty. The woman who sits there is an older student (like me). She sits at another table so I didn't get to know her, other than a hi, or bye. Professor McC said she was not here because she suffered a horrible personal event in her life. He went on to say there was an article in the newspaper some of us may have read. He also said if any of us are inclined to pray than maybe we could put her in our prayers.

I read the article last week. I knew what he was talking about. A young CCCC student was killed last week in an auto accident. Although he didn't say, I guess this was the woman's child. I really don't know what to say. I am speechless. I want to cry for this woman, this woman I don't know but shared a semester with.

I will keep her and her family in my prayers.

Christmas Tree (Post 49)

Last night we put up our Christmas tree and today the cats and dog are going crazy. Hopefully, the tree will last until Christmas. I usually make gingerbread men and hang them on the tree, but I am not sure that is a good idea this year. last last couple of years we put the tree up on Thanksgiving. It gives the kids something to do while I am cooking. This year we didn't. I like the tree up early but I also like to take it down early. We usually have it all packed up the day after Christmas.

I wonder if it will snow in December this year. I hate the snow so I don't even care if it snows fro Christmas. I guess I can be a scrooge sometimes.

Taoism Notes for Exam (Post 48)

Taoism

“The Tao that can be spoken is not the eternal Tao” there is no way to tell someone what Tao is.

Confucianism notes for exam (Post 47)

Confucianism- more of a social philosophy than a religion

1) Confucius-

I had a bunch of notes that I wrote about Confucius but I could not post them because the format wouldn't let me. I thought it would be easier to write in word and then copy and paste but it didn't work.

Test (Post 46)

Well I did horrible on my religion exam. I swear I have a mental block whenever I take these exams. I studied and I knew everything that was on the exam. But I did stupid things. The first mistake I did was to forget to put BC after the year 563 for the date of Buddha's birth. The other stupid thing I did was I didn't fill in 3 answers. The question was, Name the four noble truths of Buddhism.....EASY!

First- to be is to be unhappy, suffering, the second, the cause of suffering is desire, the third, the conquest of desire will cease the suffering, the fourth is the 8 fold path to nirvana, right view,hope, speech, conduct, work, effort, mindfulness and concentration.

For some reason I ran right to the forth and listed the 8 "rights". I look at the exam now and I can't believe I didn't fill in the other three.

It's embarrassing.

I am also taking Freshman seminar and one of the things my Professor was explaining to the class was the importance sleep has on the brain. She said if you get less than 7 hours a night your brain gets "stupid". The last couple of weeks I have only been getting about 5 hours a night. Maybe this is the reason.

Reserch Paper (Post 45)

I am so happy! My research paper is finished. I am not totally satisfied with it. I think there are areas that are a little vague but I did put a lot of time into it. I also went over and over and over it again and again. I think I stress too much about things and that is why I am so happy it is finished. My next paper is about cyberbullying. I feel so bad for the kids today. They have to deal with so much more than I ever had to deal with, cyberbullying is just one of them. I do not like Facebook or MySpace,.I feel it is so public. Where is the privacy? It is gone. This generation doesn't even know what they lost.

Quiz (Post 44)

Today I have a quiz in English. The quiz is about sentence clarity. The chapter talks about how to make writing as clear as possible. A way to make writing clearer is to make sentences not excessively long. I think sometimes I tend to do that. It also says to avoid unnecessary repetition. I think I tend to do that too. The chapter also says a writer should not be noun heavy and instead should be more verbal. The chapter lists conjunctions. they are, however, consequently, therefor,thus, hence, furthermore, afterward...etc. The list of parallelism words are both/and either/or neither/nor only/but also. I can see how using parallelism makes a sentence interesting to the reader.

Math Moves You (Post 43)

Yesterday I went to an all day math event with the Girl Scouts. We had a great time. The girls went to three workshops. The first one was learning how to run a computer program. The second one was building a structure out of marshmellows and spaghetti. The third one was building a windmill that lights up a little light. The event was held at Bristol College. The girls were very excited to go and take classes at a college. This is the second time we brought them to a college. The other time we went to MIT. They loved it. We are hoping to make them feel that going to college is something they should do if they want to and not to be intimidated.

8 Fold Path (Post 42)

There are four noble truths of Buddhism. this is the heart and soul of Buddhism. From McCullough's lecture.

1) To be is to be unhappy (suffering)

2) The cause of suffering is craving/wanting/desire

3) The craving which is caused by the suffering ceases with the conquest of desire and non- attachments to things of this world.

4) The 8 fold path -formula to attain nirvana

A) Right Views- Be careful what praise or insults do to you

B) Right Hope- Be sure the things you hope for are the right things

C) Right Speech- If what you are saying is not better than silence, son't say it.

D) Right Conduct (dharma) -Do not kill, steal, lie, drink, etc,

E) Right Work- it is better to be a nurse than a hit man

F) Right Effort. Avoid spending time that is unproductive, drugs, bad people, etc

G) Right mindfulness- If you take care of your mind, everything will take care or itself.

H) Right Concentration- Focus through meditation.

The 8 fold path is like an 8 lane highway. No priority. Can do more than one at a time but usually only do one at a time.

Three Marks of Existence

1) Suffering (Dukkha)

2) Absence of Soul (Anatta)

3) Impermanence (Anicca)

Buddhism (Post 41)

When Siddhartha Gautama meditated under the Bodhi tree he went through three temptations. One of the temptations was from the demon Mara. Mara sent beautiful woman to tempt Siddhartha Gautama. This was the temptation of the flesh. Siddhartha Gautama was not tempted. Another temptation was the temptation of the spirit. Ferocious demons tried to frighten him by lighting bolts and missiles. Siddhartha Gautama touched the ground showing he had the right to stay where he was. Another temptation was the temptation of pride. Mara told Siddhartha Gautama it would be pointless and profitless to try and teach others. Siddhartha Gautama again resisted. After Siddhartha Gautama resisted all temptations he passed through all stages of awareness. He achieved the goal and became enlightened. He became the Buddha.

Religion Vocabulary Words(Post 39)

Vocabulary Words for Eastern Religion Class. I have an exam on Monday so I decided to take all my notes and rewrite them. While I was rewriting my notes, I took out key words to look up and write a definition. Here is the list of words.

Buddha-Enlightened or Awakened one

Samsara_The wheel of life, death , and rebirth

Nirvana-To extinguish

Dhammapada-Buddha text

Dukkha-Out of joint,suffering

Tanha-Drive for private fulfillment

8 Fold Path-intentional living opposed to random living

Karuna-Compassion

Anatta-No Soul

Atta-Atman-Soul

Anicca-Impermanence

Arhat-One who has attained nirvana and no longer subject to the cycle of rebirth

Bodhi-Wisdom

Birthday (Post 38)

Yesterday was my birthday. I had a lot of fun. My sister and her husband, my four children, my husband, ,my grandson and my mother were all at my house last night. We just hung around and played the WII and my daughter made dinner.The day started off with coffee in bed. My daughter put up signs saying, "It's all about me today...don't anyone ask me to do anything, If you make a mess clean it up yourself." I love that sign. It was a no stress birthday. No running around crazy, just a nice day at home. Yesterday was also a day off from school because it was Veteran's Day.

Today is Friday and I noticed my sign has a new line written on the bottom.

It reads,"This paper is only good for one day...the day of you birthday." Too bad, I was hoping for a birthday week.

Quiz chapters 14 and 15 (Post 37)

Tomorrow I have a quiz in comp 101 on chapters 14 and 15. The first thing the chapter talks about is modifiers and how to properly place them in a sentence. "the modifiers should be placed as close as possible to the words they want to modify. " I think that makes sense. The chapter also advises to "put lengtly modifiers at the beginning or the end of a sentence."' (I think I tend to put them in the middle, I'll have to watch that.) Two other potential problems are splitting modifiers and dangling modifiers.
Chapter 15 is about Faulty Shifts. the book says, "when writing, it is best to use the same verb tense throughout ." This too makes sense. then it goes on to talk about avoiding mixed constructions and to create consistency between subjects and predicates.

New format(Post 36 )

I am doing a format so I can make sure I do all my blog entries for my English Comp class. I need to have fifty entries. I decided to make all fifty entires and number them. Now all I have to do is open each one up and write a blog post. I believe this will work for me because I can see how much I have written, and how much I still have to write. I decided to do this because almost two weeks went by without me writing a blog entry and I did not want to end up at the end of the semester writing to catch up. I also think it defeats the purpose of having a blog. The purpose is to get us (the class) to write daily in order to make us better writers. If we wait and do all the entries at once it will not have the effect on our writing.

Siddartha Gautama Continued(Post 35)

The four things that Siddartha Gautama saw that led to his enlightenment was:

1. A decrepit old man with a cane.

2. A very sick man in the gutter.

3. A human corpse.

4. A Monk sitting quietly and peaceful amongst all the turmoil that surrounded him.

Siddartha Gautama left home to study with wise Hindu Bramins and learn what "it all" meant. After years of studying, he came away unsatisfied so he went out on his own in search of the truth. Professor McCullough says he believes this is when Siddartha Gautama took his first true steps to become the Buddha.

Siddartha Gautama (Post 34)

We are learning about Buddhism this week in Eastern Religions. the first Buddhist was Siddartha Gautama. Siddartha Gautama was born into the Kshartrias class. The Kshartrias class is part of the caste system that dates back to early Hinduism and was in the Vedas. If you are born into the Kshartrias you were from a wealthy family. In fact, Siddartha Gautama's family were nobles. When Siddartha Gautama was born, his father was told that his son would either be a great ruler or a great teacher. If his son knew suffering he would become a great teacher. His father wanted him to became a great ruler so he tried to keep him from seeing any suffering. He was raised in luxury and he was kept from knowing about sickness, poverty or death. But, when Siddartha did venture out when he was around 20 he came upon 4 things that changed his life and put him on the path to enlightenment.

Field Trip (Post 33)

Tonight Ana and I have a girl scout meeting and we will be talking about the upcoming field trip to Middlesex Community College. The college is sponsoring an event called “Math Moves You.” This is a day long workshop that will involve the girls doing puzzles, experiments and having fun with math. Some girls do not like math, think it is too hard, or even think that boys are better than girls at math. We are trying is show them that math can be fun, and girls can defiantly be good at math if they choose to be. The trip is On November 14.

Pottery Goddess (Post 32)

Ana and I brought our girls scout troop to the Pottery Goddess last Friday night. The girls learned how to make pottery by modeling the clay and making shapes. Some made bowls. Others made plates or plaques. The girls are so talented! It is amazing what they can do. The woman who owns the Pottery Goddess talked about how she opened her own business, and how much she loves what she is doing for a career. Our job as leaders is to expose them to as many different events as possible so they realize that they can do anything they dream to do. They can be a business owner if that is what they want. Next week we are going back to glaze the pottery. I can’t wait to see the results!

Parades (Post 31)

I haven’t posted in awhile because it has been crazy for the last two weeks. All of a sudden everything was due and I had two major exams. I am looking forward to next week when we have a day off. Veteran’s day is next Thursday and the college is closed and the schools are closed too. It is also my birthday. I usually march in the Veteran’s Day parade with the girl scout troop but I am not sure if I will this year. Our troop usually marches in the Christmas parade also. Last year the girls came in first place. They made a gingerbread house that they pulled on a wagon and they each made cardboard gingerbread costumes. They were so cute!

Kittens in the woods (post 30)

Last week when Danny and Dave were walking in the woods they found six kittens. Someone had dumped them in the woods. I cannot understand why someone would do that. Where we live there are coyotes. If Dave and Danny didn’t find them they would not have lasted. I sent out a mass email to everyone in my email address book. I am happy to say that all six kittens found nice homes and it only took three days. I wish the person that dumped them had tried to find the kittens homes because it really isn’t hard. The kittens were adorable. All but one had double paws. We could not keep any because we already have two cats. But if we didn’t find homes for all I never would have sent them to the pound.