This semester has been an interesting one, it marks my first online class at IvyTech and also my second highest GPA since high school. As I prepare for final exams I have to remember some of the teachers who helped me get where I am today looking through my Chemistry book in the nice quiet Panera Bread. But why do we remember teachers and not the classes themselves? the class was not necessarily developed by the person teaching it and a majority of my college classes so far have been put together by a committee of teachers who, if I can be so bold, cannot agree on any changes to save their students GPA. Though the teacher, also especially in college, gets freedom to determine the test questions and what type of lecture they provide. While some teachers are very limited by the course itself it is not always fair to blame either for your mistakes.

I have had teachers ruin subjects for me and some that have made it more entertaining but if you have the first type of teacher it might be good for you to put in a bit more effort. I was failing Calculus 2(ended up dropping it after getting near the end and realizing I could not bring my grade up even if I got an A on my final exam) I realized that it was not my teachers fault and made corrections, though I made them too late. The instructor barely used class time and mostly told stories but many people were still passing, and even excelling, in the class. I asked them what they were doing and it turned out that many of my classmates came to lecture only to review and have already watched several lecture videos online. It was way too late to start that so I decided to drop before my time was up but when I take Calculus and Calculus 2 again I will most certainly be looking for those tutorials online in order to find some help.

There are also many alternative tests out now which really help, CK12 offers flexbooks and lessons that are more understandable than most classrooms! I do not really like the way all of them are laid out but CK12.org has been a great resource since I learned about the project. And if neither of those work go to a tutor of form a study group! This year in Chemistry has been the first time I’ve actually had a study group (4 people works better than 2 I think) and I have been excelling by helping them get the questions and also by asking them questions. I’m at 90% right now and that is mostly because of the slight mistakes here and there. Thats all for today, I’ll hopefully be posting much more often this summer so stay tuned!

To simplify a math equation all you need to do is to plug in variables or reduce it down, it’s simple, clean, and unique to each problem. Life is no different, or so I’m told, there are plenty of books out on how and why you should simplify your life and it mostly boils down to one reason (in my circumstance) I have too much crap! I have been accumulating for 21 years! My entire life I have been sentimental about keeping stuff that I don’t need like a way of saying: “I still remember that person who gave me that” but it is time to stop gathering crap and start gathering stuff I actually need. I’m not going to make a 30 or 90 day commitment because I would not follow it anyway and it would be a waste of time to do so, what I am doing is saying that I really need to get rid of stuff before our next move (which might be next week for all I know).

I think my collecting of stuff started when I was young. I would never want to get rid of anything and my room was piled with broken toys that I would get around to throwing away but never did. This is fine for a kid but now I have shoes that are torn apart that I do not need, clothes torn that I will never wear again, and cords that belong to electronics I no longer use or sometimes even own! Those aren’t the larger problems though, in reality I think I have one pair of shoes that really are in bad condition and my clothes are thrown out regularly as they tear but paperwork and physical media seem to be big issues with me. I used to think I needed to own every movie on DVD and all my music on compact discs even after Itunes, Rhapsody, and many other software has made DVDs and CDs pretty much unnecessary since your purchases can even be backed up online. The final push to get rid of my excessive CD and DVD collection (what seems excessive to me may not be too much to you) I will have to repurchase about 30 movies online or make the choice that I do not need these which will be a hard decision though most of my music is already in my digital library and I no longer need the CDs in that form to use the music.

The paper from notes and other school assignments I think will be the hardest  to get rid of since there is still not a simple way to transfer all of it to digital (since it mostly consists of spiral bound awesomeness and drawings in the pages that I will never make again) I just have to make the decision of what I really need, the textbooks are useful but I may never use them again. additionally they take up a lot of room in my bedroom and I never really pick it up and use it so my next task is to take them all and get rid of them but maybe take the name and isbn to put in a database and make sure I can find them if I need something from them.

If anyone has more suggestions I would love to hear them there is a comment section below, thanks for reading.