Cultural Experiences

Throughout the weeks, I created a jar of happiness and positive reminders for me to open up and read so that I am positively encouraged and positively inspired to do something good. I have come up with a months worth of notes that I keep by my bedside to help me go to bed happy every night rather than having something on my mind that bothers me. Reading a note such as you are awesome or keep doing you helps me sleep well at night without room for people to have hurt me and make me cry myself to sleep. I also keep a jar of change that I will donate $0.25 per day that I only started recently but eventually, it will build up like how money builds up in a bank and grow with interest and one day i will be able to open it and treat myself or save up and buy a present with it or go invest with it. Jar of Happiness positive and inspirational quotes that help make you a better person slowly but gradually.

   Looking back at my assignments and progress, I am not as happy with where I am with this class since I know I can do better and know that I can meet due dates and deadlines as I am not a slacker. I am most proud of me starting strong at the beginning of the year and actually sitting for hours whenever things are not so crowded and so stressful and pulling through but then I am also upset about not being on top of things and for slacking as time went on and when things started going downhill with my personal life. The class assignments that I enjoy the most are putting my feelings and emotions into my writing and assignments like these blog posts where I can just be myself and make whatever story I want to make. I used to do the extra credit assignments and then I started to focus on my organization that I am on since it requires a lot of my time. But I need to get back on the extra credit assignments to earn a decent grade in the class and I need to literally stop procrast...

Starting point :  Mother Shipton - Mother Shipton, also known as Ursula Southell, was an English soothsayer and a prophetess. Her first publication of a prophecies occurred only in 1641 which was approximately 80 years after she died. Her most famous addition of the prophecy foretells many events that are identified as modern. Not many things about her for certain, but what is known is that mother Shipton was linked to many tragic events that were recorded all over the world throughout the 17th, 18th, 19th century. Many other fortunetellers used her name for the purposes of marketing. Many businesses, pubs, buildings are named after her highlighting her legacy but only two of them remain where there is a statue in front of the building. Second Link :  Fortune Telling - Fortunetelling is the practice of predicting future information about an individual. The scope of fortune-telling can come along with the practice of divination. This is used in many religious r...

Rama was loved by all the men and women in the city as he was soft-spoken and tried to serve the king in every way possible. He was loved because he spoke softly but wisely even when someone tried to take advantage of him or spoke badly towards him. Dashararatha was the king who was thinking of his retirement which would happen soon and he was going to leave everything to his sons, Rama and Lakshmanan. The two princes along with their wives helped the king in every way possible. Although Rama was the one the people vouched for to become king, both boys were respected as heroes. Rama was filled with compassion and was always humble. He did not engage in unnecessary misbehavior and always looked for the good in other people. Dasharatha, the king, longed to see Rama as the prince reagent. They all unanimously agreed that Rama, the eldest son, was the rightful heir to the court and to the throne. He was the most popular choice amongst the people however, the royal astrologers thought ...

The reading for this week and the past couple of weeks went alright, was not the best since I was not on top of things so that is one thing I need to focus on and really work on since I haven't been the best at keeping up with everything that is due for the week. I didn't have time to do both portions for the past week since I have been preoccupied with my organic chemistry exam and other things that I needed to get done for the week. The best writing that I have done in this class was the beginning blog post that I did relating to Grey's Anatomy with Meredith trying to choose between Finn and Derek. Looking forward, I feel like there are so many more changes I could make for the upcoming assignments that I have yet to do. I will work on the schedule I originally planned and I will try my best to work a week ahead and spend one entire day and dedicate that to the assignments for the week. The pitfalls I would want to avoid is procrastinating since I am in an override and...

The Canvas mobile app has been really useful in the final weeks of the semester and I wish I had used it to begin my college years with. Through this app, you are able to track when and what assignments you have due for the week once you log in with your 4x4 username and password. You are able to see your dashboard of classes, courses, calendar, inbox, etc. You are able to turn on notifications for graded assignments, as well as notifications for assignments that are needed to be turned in by a certain deadline. This app will remind you of due dates and upcoming exams which is very helpful as many individuals have very busy schedules. Me, taking more than the maximum of nineteen hours really found this vital to my college experience as just having a write in planner is not anything compared to this mobile app. You do not need to open up your computer to open up canvas to check due dates each time you forget, and having a pocket friendly version is very easily accessible. This helped m...

"Whose children are they then?" asks Corey quietly. Grace's sons Spencer and Dillon are in the next room. "They're mine. Not yours, not Billy's, they are mine. So please do us a favor, and just bail on this family like how you did eight years ago," replies Grace stubbornly. "They should know the truth," replies back Corey. "And the truth is that they are my kids as I have stayed with them from the very beginning and I will stay with them till the very end," Grace states with tears in her eyes. Grace and Corey talk about what they want to do with Dillon's paternity since they are aware that Corey is Spencer's father. Since Corey had thought that Grace had known who Dillon's father was all this time, he wanted that piece of information to make the family complete and for him to fully be present in their children's lives, but as he comes to know that Grace has been in her head and been unsure of the ent...

Granny's Blackie A rich man gave a baby elephant to a woman and she took good care of him and was fond of him. Everyone called her Granny and they called the elephant Granny's Blackie. Blackie would play with the kids in the town but never did anything productive. Blackie went looking for a job and found a man who was willing to pay two pieces of silver for each wagon Blackie pulled across the river. The man put one piece of silver for each wagon and when Blackie figured out he was being tricked, he did not allow the wagons to pass through till he was paid the right amount. When Granny heard the work that Blackie did for her to gain money, Granny was so grateful and they were both very happy. I felt that this story was something that was super touching as it relates to some of us as college students. In the story plot, it shows that Blackie makes an effort to pay back to what Granny has done for him and likewise, some students work to pay for their tuition or to pay back par...

The Sandy Road - A merchant had goods in his cart on his way to the country opposite of the desert. It was too hot to walk in the sunlight so he waited till it was dark and then started walking. He ended up taking water, rice and firewood along with his goods so that he could cook and eat rice along the way. In the daylight, he guided the drivers while he took off in the night time. Him along with his men built fires and cooked rice. They did this for all of the journey and then the last day as they thought, the pilot took his place at the front of the line and laid down in the wagon with the cushions. The oxens went on and then they all realized that they were lost. This was bad as they did not have any water left and no water meant no rice or food could be made. They found a rock which had flowing water underneath and they busted it open so that they could bathe, drink and use the cool water. What I learned from reading this jhataka is that through will and determination, you ar...

Author's Note : Stef Foster and Lena Adams, a lesbian couple, have a big, happy family of foster, biological and adopted children. Mariana and Jesus, siblings, are adopted thirteen year old twins that the couple have taken in. Brandon is Stef's fifteen year old biological son who the couple keeps as she has rights from a previous marriage. Fifteen year old, Callie and ten year old, Jude are the new comers into the Foster household who are also biological siblings but are placed in this household as foster children. As they have been moving in and out of homes and have not stayed in a stable household, things begin to happen relating to emotion, fights, etc. The Fosters deal with many different issues such as romances that spring about, break ups that take place, hook ups, life lessons, etc. and somehow, they overcome it all. Callie is Lena and Stef's eldest daughter, half sister to Jude, adoptive sister to Brandon, Jesus and Mariana. The court places Callie in the A...

Princes and the Water-Sprite - A king had three sons: Prince of Stars, Moon Prince and the Sun Prince. King was so happy for the third child being born he granted the queen a boon. When Sun Prince was 21, the queen asked the king for him to have the kingdom before his elder brothers. King refused and told the elder sons to go live in the forest till the king dies as they can take over the kingdom then. Sun Prince joined them as well. The water-sprite each of the brothers what the good fairies like. Sun Prince didn't give a good answer so he was taken down into the cave, and later the Moon Prince joined him as well. The elder brother went to go find his brothers and answered the question correctly and was given the opportunity to choose which brother to save. He chose the younger one as he was the reason why they got sent away and because of his kindness, the water-sprite sent both brothers back up from the cave. The king later died and the eldest brother was made king and ruled al...

Banyan Deer - Once upon a time there was a gold deer with a red flowerlike mouth and bright hoofs. He resided in the forest and was the king amongst 500 other deers. They lived close to the Monkey deer population. Townspeople wanted to make the deer locked into a park so they could carry on with their errands. They drove the deer there and shut the gate and told the king. The king would hunt the deer from that stable. The Banyan deer king had been granted his life so he will not be killed by the king and one day, a mother of the baby deer was chosen to fall and since the Banyan deer put himself as tribute, the king ordered that no more deer in the park or the forest will be hunted because of his kindness. This jataka stood out to me as it shows us the value of friendship and treating people the way you want to be treated. Even though the Banyan Deer King had the opportunity to save himself and not get his life taken away and to choose someone to get killed by the king, he still pu...

Once upon a time, there was a woman named Jane who was happily engaged to Michael, the love of her life, until she was accidentally artificially inseminated with the sperm of the owner of the Marbella hotel, Rafael Solano. Once the news was brought to both Jane and Rafael, the telenovela starts from there onwards. Skipping forward into the episodes, Rafael's sister, Luisa gets caught into a love disaster with a foiled escaped prisoner referred to as Rose which is short for the widely known, Sin Rostro. Rose is a sociopath and a convicted murderer who ends up having plastic surgery and looks composed as she goes about her evil deeds. She ends up going off the rails and taking people hostage and taking lives because Luisa ends up betraying her love as she keeps hurting the Solano family. Rose is unable to process the fact that Luisa does not love her anymore and she ends up killing people Luisa cares about to win her back thinking that this is the solution to a broken relat...

The Woodpecker, Turtle, and the Deer - Deer lived in a forest next to the lake close to the Woodpecker and next to the turtle. A hunter wanted to trap the deer going into the water and he did. The hunter came into the house with a knife and the woodpecker struck him in the face. The turtle had blood all over his mouth because of the leather. The hunter picked up the turtle and threw him into the bag. The deer tried helping the turtle by coming into site of the hunter and the hunter started running after the deer. When he lost the deer, he went back after the turtle and the turtle was gone as well. The turtle and the deer teamed up and found and rescued the woodpecker and they all lived happily ever after. This jataka stood out to me when reviewing the jatakas from the list of additional jatakas to read as it facilitated teamwork and standing up for one another. When the deer was in trouble, the woodpecker and turtle came to help out. When the woodpecker was in trouble, the deer and ...