Muse Workshop

I attended a Muse workshop on the 4 Secrets for College Life Success, put on by Clint Pardor.The first step was self-care. The stereotypical college college student does not eat, sleep, and well nutritioned. Also it is important to have your emotions under control. This could be done by keeping a journal or even going to counseling. Going to class and listening in on lectures can also be an advantage to self-care. Also being spiritually inclined helps self-care. This would consist of going to church or a type of meeting like this. Another secret is one’s relationships. If one is in a romantic relationship, that must not bring them down. Also close friends help and it is good to be surrounded by positive people. Stereotypical friends are not needed to help have success in college. It is also important to have creativity and structure to have success in college. Getting stuff done and being productive with oneself is very beneficial to helping be successful. Time management plays a big role in how college life will be for us. If we find time for what most important, that is what will be most successful. Lastly our actions help our outcome of college. Knowing what is going on around us really does help with what is happening for our future. This workshop really showed me a lot about what I really need to know in my future. I feel that I really need to work most on my time management. By being apart of a sport, I feel like I allowed that to take up a majority of my time. I need to understand school comes first no matter what.

Muse Workshop

The Muse Workshop I attended is called “Test taking Teddy plans to win” put on by Kahlila from the counseling services. I was able to benefit a lot from this workshop. This workshop really showed me that there is a way to deal with stress before a test, and how that stress can affect an outcome of the test..

Making a schedule is one way in helping to prepare for an exam. This schedule should include a detailed time of when the person is going to do, for example, when to exercise, study and eat. The person should also plan to eat healthier and exercise more often, which causes a better brain actively when doing the opposite. This tip seems to be reasonable considering we can create habits in our lives and by making a schedule and making these things apart of our day, remembering material should come easier. Other useful facts I learned were that to avoid negative words or prefixes because they can mix up the sentences actual meaning. Rule out oblivious answers when it comes to answers multiple choice questions. This is a good tool because it minimizes answers to choose from if it’s a question a person is stumped on. Also, the most missed question on tests is due to lack of following directions. So to rule out this factor, one should read the directions multiple times to make sure one really grasps the concept of the question.

This workshop really had a more positive affect on my knowledge towards test taking and what I may do to prepare myself for future exams. I would recommend this to students at San Jose State because there really is a lot of cramming and issues with studying, and this workshop really has little tricks to help calm the nerves and cramming from happening.

NON MUSE EVENT #3

For my third Non Muse event, I attended the Athletic Talent Show. This took place on Thursday December 3 at 7:00 P.M. Every sporting club had a group of their freshman get together and do a skit, sing, dance or anything to try to win the talent show. Considering that these are all athletes, the competition was intense. For my team, one of our girls went solo and did a dance interpretation of Napoleon Dynamite. She was hilarious and did the dance almost perfect. My favorite act though was the Football freshman boys. The all dressed as girls and danced to numerous songs. I feel that they had the crowd’s attention best. Unfortunately for them, they took second. Gymnastics took third place and men’s Basketball came in first place. The Boy’s Basketball team showed of their dance moves for their talent. The winners of this event received 200 Gold Points, which all sports are involved in, they won a gold cup and also the glory of the most talent out of all athletes. I really enjoyed this and I can not wait till next years talent show.

Interview a Senior

I interviewed 2 seniors at San Jose State University. The first senior I interviewed was Danielle Brown. Danielle lives about 20 minutes away from the school and is graduating in the Spring of 2010. For Danielle, her college experience has been interesting. Coming into the school Danielle had no expectations what so ever. Danielle believed that it was going to be a more difficult experience. She thought the school work would be overwhelming, but that was not the case for Danielle. She is a teammate of mine on the softball team and believed that playing a sport at a Division 1 level, and attending school was going to be a challenge, but it was not that way at all. Danielle was majoring in Kinesiology, but switched to Health Science and minoring in Kinesiology. If Danielle could go back she would get better grades in her GE classes. She would do this just in case she was to slack off later she would have that extra padding for later. If Danielle could tell all the in coming freshman she would tell them to enjoy every moment of college because it goes by way too fast.

The second senior I interviewed was Ursula Lopez. Ursula grew up in Corona California and will also be graduating in the Spring of 2010. Ursula is a different type of student though, she has attended three different colleges in her career. She is also on the San Jose State Softball team. For Ursula, she believed college was going to be a lot easier and a more controllable situation. Her first year in college showed her that she was lacking focus, but as the years grew on she learned quickly how to not get distracted and get down to business. Ursula’s major changed from Behavioral Science to Sociology. If she could have gone back and changed anything, she would not have gone to 3 schools. It is a difficult situation she said when you do not know many people, also when you do not live on campus you do not get the full college experience. To all the in coming freshman, Ursula would tell them to focus on your classes and pass them the first time around. She also explains that being far away from home she got home sick, so for those that are in a similar situation, make a lot of friends, it helps takes home off your mind. College is what you make it in the end.

Music Memories #2

For my Music Memories I interviewed my grandma Sandra Hodges and my grandpa Johnny Garcia. My grandma grew up in Paramount California. Although she was very poor, it was a very wealthy area. She is 64 and full italian. She enjoyed listening to anything popular growing up. She said her life was very much like the movie Grease. At her high school graduation there were many groups that preformed at her school. She remembers the Temptations very well because she got sick from some food she had eaten and was throwing up off of the top of a parking garage. Right under where she was throwing up, the Temptations were warming up. I found that very funny. She also had seen Smokey Robinson. Over the years her music taste has always remained of that of her teenage years. Her interest has broadened but she still has love for the music she grew up on. She is a college professor at a junior college in Visalia California. She teaches child development, and likes to play many different types of music for her classes. She plays artists such as Jill Scott, India Arie and Norah Jones.These are also some artists she has grown to like as her life has grown. She also likes to listen to a lot of Bob Marley now. These singers are very relaxing for her and also her classes.

I also Interviewed my grandpa. My grandpa grew up in Sanger California. Growing up in high school he was a very big fan of jazz. He was also into rhythm and blues music. He remembers listening to Elvis mostly though. He always listened to spanish music. That was more of a cultural thing though, because his mother played it when he was a child and it stuck with him as he grew up. In high school he was also in a jazz band with 4 of his close friends. He played the flute and piano. His teachers loved his music ability because he could simply pick up an instrument and play it. Regardless if he really knew how to play it or not, he could still make some type of song. As the years progressed he grew really into groups like Earth Wind and Fire. His taste too though remained constant with the jazz, rhythm and blues and spanish music. He also got into George Benson and Miles Davis. His overall favorite singer though was James Brown. Every time James Brown comes on, he lights up and goes crazy he said. Spanish music has still been a constant in his life and that that will always be a part of his musical taste.

Similar to my grandparents, my taste in music has stayed pretty much the same as i’ve been growing up. Only being 18 I am not sure what my music taste will be like in 40 years. I know that I will always love the music I have been growing up on though. My mom loves classic rock and I believe that is where I received a lot of my interest in that genre of music. My father, also interested in classic rock, also loves soul music and oldies, just like his father. I believe that what my elders have listened to really has had an affect on what I am interested in now. My siblings as well have similar music tastes as mine. Who knows the changes of style in music for the future, the music that has been made though will always be around.

Scholarly Journal Summary

For my Scholarly Journal Article I have chosen and article on Led Zeppelin. The article i have chosen is an excerpt from Rollin Stone Magazine, “The Return of Led Zeppelin” written by David Fricke.

In this article Fricke explains on June 10th of 2007, all the remaining members of the famous group Led Zeppelin met to rehears some old songs. Being the first time they had actually gotten together since 1995, guitarist Jimmy Page, singer Robert Plant and bassist John Paul Jones explained how emotional this experience was. Page explained how much a delight it was to be back with his former band mates. Plant states there were many smiles and there being no pressure it was a very therapeutic experience.

Regardless the lack of practice as a group for many years it was easy for the group to go straight into rehearsing their first song “No Quarter” off their House Of The Holy album. They went on to keep playing and began to play another hit song “Kashmir”, but in the middle of the song, Page asked his group for a hug.

This article to me is really interesting because it is so amazing to hear a group in their prime and how amazing they sound. No matter how old they get or if the band grows a part, even if some members are no longer alive, its really cool to see they can come back together and find that same passion in music they once had.

-DAVID FRICKE | Excerpt From Rolling Stone, Issue 1041

"The Return of Led Zeppelin" - Rolling Stone Magazine cover story

November 29, 2007

Behind the scenes at the rehearsals for the biggest show of the year

My Bucket List

Planning my future is easy, actually accomplishing these plans though is what will be difficult. I have almost finished my first semester of college at San Jose State University. This semester has really taught me a lot about myself. I have found the actual difference in school and commitments for my softball career as well. After this first semester though I have a better understanding of what road I would like to take my life towards.

For the next years of my college experience I still am not fully sure if I would like to take upon a Business Major. For now I am taking classes to fufill my GE credits. After I figure out what I truly wish to do for the rest of my time on this earth I will be able to take those classes. I also am going to continue my softball career here at SJSU. I am so happy that I got to finish my remaining years of playing here, and still have not lost my passion for the game after 10 years.

This first semester has also taught me a lot about myself and how to be on my own. Although I am not totally on my own yet, this has given me an insight of how things will be when I begin that adventure. Some take the party route and get caught up in those types of events. For me though, I spent my time practicing and playing. On my down time I would find pleasure in relaxing and listening to my music. I did go to a few parties but I knew when the right times were and when they were not.

I also found that I have become a much more positive person. After having some tough times the first couple of months, I have learned that I want to live my life happily. I do not want to sit around and be sad or stress. Even though sometimes you can not prevent these emotions, there are ways to be positive and keep happy. This is a big change for me because I was never able to be this way.

In order to graduate from college and start my own life there are many things I will need to do and many new habits I will need to gain. I will need to take school more serious. Not that I do not take school seriously, I know that I could be doing more to help myself. I know I will need to learn how to balance my softball time with my school time.

With my life moving rapidly, I look back at what I have done my past 18 years. It truly is amazing to me how I have made it to where I am now. I can not wait to look back 10 or 20 years from now and see how my life has grown. College is a wonderful experience and has already made my life change for the better and help me begin my life right.