Journal 27: Must-do, want-to-do, and hope-to-do activities?

Recently, I am behind with the class's works because in the past three weeks my mind was disturb by some personal issues that are neccessary to be solved. However, until today I am sitting in this class and writing this journal without acknowledging a way to handle those situations and with a wondered mind how I am going to catch up with my class works within a week. I have not completed my essays, several other journals, and not submit homework 12 even though I was finished it a week ago and could not submit due to the reason of no submit link on the blackboard to do so. I did email my instructor about this failure technology but have not received a respond email from her yet because she was sick for a week. Anyway, my current goals are to catch up with my school's works and find a way to solve the problems of mine as soon as possible to prevent myself from being exploding in these days.

Moreover, today I am going to have connective tissue drafting for my canines. I hope that I will be doing well and still have mind and time to catch up with works. This week will be busy and tough for me.

Journal 25: A best thing about this class so far

The best thing about this class so far are the time consumer. The instructor gives us as students a fair amount of time to complete our assignments. We have until the Sunday of every week to finish the assignments of that week without a penalty. This gives me the opportunity to turn in my assignment on time if I am not capable to get them done on that specific day. The other advantage is that I have time to cogitate about the assignments so that I would do and understand them better as well as have a higher chance to get a decent grade. For all of the above reason, I appreciate the instructor for giving us the opportunity to learn and finish our class's assignments.

Journal 22: The Hardest Thing about this class so far

The hardest thing about this class so far is writing five paragraphs essay about the meaning of a movie's messages. Currently, the class is on the page of writing an essay about emphasizing the actual meaning of a director’s messages in the movie “Crash”. I have a difficult time to start doing the assignment because explaining or emphasizing the meaning or the purpose of any movie’s messages is not part of my expertise. It is not because I do not like to watch movies but because I do not acknowledge the deep implications of movies’ messages, and this is one of my weaknesses in my educational skill. However, I am not fear to expose to this type of assignments at all because to me they only help me in enhancing my capability in emphasizing messages in general. I hope that I will do well in this assignment.

Journal # 19: How is going so far in this course?

The class is getting more difficult. Our writing is recently at the level where we practice writing five paragraphs essays. I individually feel excited about a coming up essay next week which we have to express our opinions about an assigned movie in a five paragraphs essay. Practicing writing five paragraphs essay is a fundamental process that deliberately brings us to the upper level course of writing, like a research paper, after this course. Also, in a professional field, we are required to have a writing proficiency to present concepts or materials about any subject we are responsible to deliver it to the public well enough to have a persuasive power. Therefore, I am glad we have chances to write longer essays.

I am very appreciative for the way the instructor has purposely organized to bring us to the higher level of writing and to teach grammars to us at the same time as well. I also appreciate when the instructor corrected our grammar mistakes and gave us a feedback about our writing in front of the class so that we altogether can learn from each other writing mistakes and that we will not produce the same errors gain in the future. So far, I am doing okay and have learned a lot in this class.

Journal 18: AZ Central: Banning Smoke in Public

The Arizona Department of Health Service pursues a goal of having statewide smoking ban be effected May 1. The smoking ban is passed by voters in November and forbids smoking in most enclosed public places. The smoking ban is a great idea to gradually decreasing number of smokers in this state, and also to eliminate smokers in the recent society because smoking is unpleasant action toward the body’s health and surrounded people as well. Air pollution in the Arizona is getting worse every minute because of a multiple number of cars, industries, and smokes have increased. The smoking ban would help in reducing pollution as well as reducing human's health problems.

Journal 16: Free: Write about whatever you like

Today, I’d read a news about a thirteen years old girl who ran away from home for more than once had been killed. Her body was found in a garbage trunk couple days after she was homicide. I also heard my brother said that there were two teenagers boys were killed by robbers at the supermarket where we often go to. Moreover, the other night when my family and I went to Starbucks for a coffee, we saw two officers doing a report about a robbery that a robber tried to rob a lady walking out of the store to her car. Arizona’s crime is intensively increased in the last two years; and this environment is no longer used to be as safe as last couple years ago. Now, Arizona's crime can be comparative with that in New York. Looking for a safety place to settle down is so harsh because of either criminal issue or hurricane.

Journal 15: Comments on AZ central

Journal # 15: Bush policy Turns Mesa Airport into deportation hub
Mesa Airport, a non-Mexicans deportation hub, had fight thousands of undocumented immigrants home or to the border. This process had cost more than $ 70 million dollars in the fiscal year of 2006. Because of the greater enforcement of immigration laws by the Bush administration and the expedited removals of illegal immigrants within sixteen days, the percentage of undocumented immigrations have decreased to fifteen percentages compared to all of the previous years. President Bush has also vowed to end “catch-and-release”. As “catch-and-release” process ends and with the helps from the Mesa Airport fighting twice daily, I believe that this country will soon be free from illegal immigrants; this might be a positive factor.

Journal 14: A recently plan and how well did it work?

A plan I came up with recently is applying to Grand Canyon University this coming September. I hope that I will start my long journey of becoming a physician at this school next year. I plan to have a nurse degree before applying into medical school because I will be more competitive at that time with other contestants. To achieve this goal, my contemporary tactics are taking prerequisites classes for the nursing program in this summer and in this coming academic year, and then transferring all credits to the university. I went to the pre-orientation at the university last Wednesday to perceive more information about the nursing program and the application process. I recognize that there are two plans offered by the school for the nursing degree. One of them is a traditional plan. This plan allows students complete the degree within two and a half year with common breaks of summer and winter in between. The other plan is fast track. It gives students an opportunity to receive the degree in twenty months with only a week off for a winter break and another week off for a spring break. Now I am still indecisive for which plan I will going to sign up, but I will definitely make my decision before September.

Journal 13: My favorite commercial and why?

My favorite commercial is a “junior banana split” commercial for Sonic. I found this commercial is hilarious because I got caught by the ways it is shown on television as a big, yummy ices cream boat and along with a fairly cheap seal price of .99 cents, which is over a half sell price cheaper than the regular size. I remember when my brother drove me to a doctor appointment, and we stopped by Sonic for an ice-cream boat, we ordered banana split. I recommended him to order the junior size because when we ordered the regular size we often shared, and I would like to have my own ice-cream boat at that time. For this reason, I consistently told him get a junior size because it is not only a lot cheaper, but its size is seemingly a right size for each of us as well. He intentionally opposed my opinion and ordered a regular size as he normally did. I, however, obstinately ordered a junior order and told him that he were wrong and will not going to finish it. As a roller carried out our orders, I was shock the junior size was so tiny and only equitable to little children. I know that junior size means smaller, but I can not imagine it is that small. The television commercial does an excellent job on advertising products. The junior size for banana split on TV is much larger than it is in the reality.

Journal # 12: AZ Central

Article: "NAU to guarantee students can get a degree in 4 years"
I think it is very hard for students to earn a degree in four years. Some students have to work to pay for their tuitions and their expenses, and all classes in universities requires lots of studying and have lots of reading assignments. Sometimes, students can have six to seven examinations at the same times if they take six to seven classes. The other problem is some classes are not offered or available when students need them. Also, it is sometimes not easy to meet with an adviser. This problem happened to my friend. One semester she tried to call and email her adviser to make an appointment with him to discuss about her next semester schedule; she ended up planning and taking classes by herself without consulting with her adviser. As the consequence, she failed two classes that semester, and she could not able to graduate on time. She ended up receiving hers in five years. So, I like the idea that NAU has coming up the idea of guarantee students will earn a bachelor’s degree in four years, have guides from advisers, and must meet with an adviser at least once a semester.

Journal # 10: WikiJournal

DNA is a nucleic acid that contains genetic instructions for the development and function of living organisms. I have learned some of the factors about DNA. DNA is not only a blueprint, but it also contains instructions to construct other components of the cells such as initiating the process of coping DNA into RNA molecule which then will be protein. Also, the structure of DNA is a double helix that is held by hydrogen bonds. UV light can damage DNA; and it has been estimated that in each human cell there are about 500 bases damage per day. The thing amazing me is our body works so hard to try to fix and replace most of the damages in the cell so that our body would remain functioning normally; additionally, there are thousands of mistakes in the process of making copies of our DNA into RNA and our body fixes almost all of them. Unfortunately, some of the mistakes are unrecognizable and unfixable by the cell; and the major damage/effect can eventually lead to fraternity illness such as cancers. In short, DNA is a complex molecule.

Journal 11: Most Spectacular Place and My Reaction

The most spectacular place I have ever seen in my life is Atlanta, Georgia. Since my family and I immigrated to the United States, we have not travel around much, and we have not seen any landscape that is distinguishable from Arizona and Vietnam. Last year, I had a chance to live in Beaufort, South Carolina for one year for my education. I exposed to the environment of the east coast. I visited the Atlanta once during the time of changing the reason from summer to winter. Along the highway, there are many trees with various types of color. Even on one tree, there could be four different colors such as green, light brown, red-orange, and yellow. The scene was so beautiful; the air was so breeze and fresh; and people are nice, too. However, because of some personal issue, I need to moved back to Arizona where I also have amazing and unforgettable memories.

Journal 9: AZ central current event journal

Name of article: “Romney announces presidential candidacy”
Mitt Romney officially entered the 2008 presidential race Tuesday. I agree with him about the United States must build a brighter future for American family by creating better schools and more available health care, and etc because if Americans live the sufficient life, the country will have more power to lead the nation family due to the reason it has the faith from citizens. However, I do not support the idea about abortion regulations. Abortions should still be illegal because researchers and doctors proved that fetuses for several weeks do have sensations. One of the sucking technique experiments where the doctors use the high power medical vacuum to extract the fetus shows the embryo was jumped and curled in. This state shows us the fetus is hurt. Also, abortion issue is also a concern for many religious because it falls under the moral category. For the previous reasons, we as Americans should regulate abortion as illegal.

What is it going so far in this course? Dislike and like?

So far I am doing okay in this course. I have learned a lot such as: how to write an appropriate paragraph and essay, even though I have not written any essay yet; how to narrow a topic; how to write a confident topic sentence/thesis statement as well as a provocative introduction and conclusion. Moreover, I learned to manage my time well so that I have time to get things finished on time and have some time remnant to rest and do my hobby. There are many things I like about this course. First, the instructor gives us as students enough time to finish our assignments, as long as we get them done within the week of those assignments are assigned, and she has been really fair on grading so far. Second, she is genuine enough to take her time to teach us how to do the assignments in the corrected way and teach us about the school technology. Third, she is reachable. We can easily contact her out of the class time and her office hour. However, there is one thing I think it would make this course more helpful and more successful if the instructor gives us feedback on assignments we had completed so that we know what we need to improve to get better grade next time and be better in writing in general as well.

Something I Noticed About Myself Today

Something I noticed about myself today is I have not been planning well for my education. I have a dream to become a physician for my future career. To achieve this, I need to have a four years college degree. Not only that, I must acquire decent grades for all of my academic classes, lots of hours in volunteer or community works, and good reputations in all places I have had been working in. High scores in medical college admission test also must be considered for student who wants to apply to medical school. However, for all these years I thought that as long as I put all of my effort in studying hard to receive good grades in classes I take in college is a good-to-go affair. I totally did not think about doing volunteer works at hospitals or community organizations at all. I just notice about this within a week when I talked with an acquaintance who is currently taking classes in med school. She told me all of these things and encouraged me to start doing them right now so that I will have enough time preparing for applying into the school. Now, I have to re-plan and save some of my time for the volunteer. This journey is more difficult than what I thought it is to be.

Comments about AZ Central Article

The article I read at azcentral.com is “Biotech Cotton offers protection against pest”. I enjoyed reading this article because I learned that there is a genetically modified seed, known as Bt cotton, out there in the crop field and ready for farmers to use them to prevent pink bollworm from destroying cotton crops. Many scientists had proven these biotech seeds are useful to get rid of the pest and fight off pink bollworm as well. This type of seed also help eliminating a large spend of money on pesticides and insecticides because it contains a bacterium gene that resists bollworms in the majority. In these recent years, farmers harvest lots of products and make lots of money by selling valuable land to developers. Finally, environmentalists are happy about this because this product has not caused any harmful to the lands and crops, instead it helps.

Wiki Journal

Reading an article in Wiki Journal about Sego Lilly, I learned that Sego Lilly were the imporant food source for Native Americans and Mornon pioneers, and is a state flower of Utah. It has one to three flowers. Each has three petals in which are tinged with lilac and have a purplish brand radiating from its yellow base. It has a linear leaf. Native Americans were often broiled and boiled Sego Lilly to use it as their food source. Currently, it is planted as an ornamental in Utah because of its natural, attrative tulip-shaped petals. Utah adopted this flower as its state flower on March 16, 1911. These are two things I have learned about the Sego Lilly at Wiki encyclopedia website, and the depict of this flower posted on the website page looks really beautiful and attractive. I would like to have it at my backyard and in my room as well.

Would I like to be Famous

Famous!! Would I like to be famous? I believed most people in the world wish that they would become a famous person some day in their life. I am one of those people. I enjoy the moment of everybody look at me, admire me, and want to be like me one day in their life. Only people who are famous are able to perceive and can describe the truth feeling of being famous. If it is me, I would feel like I am living in the heaven or a castle with many servants surrounding me and waiting for me to give them a decree. Also, I would feel like I am at the center of the world, and have most of people's attention. However, I want to be famous not as movie stars or singers. The parts of famous I want to be are the one who has lots of talents, capability to do most of the crucial things or things that others can not do, and a good reputation. My future goal is to be a virtous person, helping people who are in difficult condition and involving in charitity organization.

A time someone dared me to do something

When I was in six grade, my friend and I went to a booth in Vietnam to have something for a snack in the afternoon. As we entered the placed, we saw a large bowl of red, spicy salt located on the table in the front of the booth. While we waited to be seated, she scooped a full spoon of spicy salt and dared me if I can swallow it as a whole because she said that I told her earlier that I can eat spicy food and would feel as normal as I eat other regular, unspicy food, then she would give me or do anything I desire her to do. At first, I only want to tease her for a while. I gradually brought the spicy spoon of salt as she gave it to me and stepped aside, and moved it up approaching the edge of my mouth. I then widely opened my mouth and looked at her. I called her. She turned around and looked at me. She walked toward me, and suddenly she pushed the whole spoon of spicy salt into my mouth. At that moment, I felt like I had been soaking in a mountain of salt, or in an ocean for years, and my mouth are full with spicy chili. I ran straight into a bathroom to wash my mouth for fifteen minutes, because it was too salty. She was so evil; she laughed at me all the way through. I felt so embrass due to the reason that everyone in the booth turned around to look at me. However, I did not get mad at her. That event was one of our favorite memories we had together when I was in Vietnam that I believe I would never forget for the rest of my life, because it was so hillarous whenever I thought about it.

My strongest communication skills; Other skills and talents

The truth is I don't really have a strongest communication skill. I am still under the process of working with my communication. Currently, I am taking Interpersonal Communication class, and hope that this class will help me improve on my communication skill because I have a hard time to express my thoughts and feeling in English. In the pass few years, I had been directly translating my emotions and thoughts from Vietnamese to English in my head whenevery I try to express myself.

Other skills and talents of mine are I speak Vietnamese fluently, love to do math and have a decent grade in all of my math and science courses. Additionally, in my spare time, I like to do flowers arrangement, and I think I am really good at it, too. Those are my skills and talents I have for now and hope that in the future I will master in English skills as well.

Journal: Real World Goals & Course Goals

My journal today is contained my main points about my real world goals and course goals. For my real world goals, I want to be a general doctor. The things that I can do recently to achieve this goal are to study hard and have a positive altitude in believing myself that I will get there one day as long as I keep trying and working hard. I am currently putting all of my efforts to go to school, and denote most of my time in studying. Getting down to my fundamental goal at this period of time is to speed up with my English. I wish that one day my English would be fluent as many other English-speaking people. For this reason, I am only taking classes that are related to English language such as: Writing, Reading, and Communicating. The next step is to get a good grade and involve in activities that would assist me in the path of getting into medical school. I will not giving up any opportunity that aids me accomplishing this ambition.
My goal of this course is to enhance in my writing competency. The steps towards my success for this are getting helps from my professor, do all the assignments that are assigned by her, and be on time. The other thing that I can do to achieve this beside my class time is read more, and along with that, is to learn more vocabularies to increase my variety of tones when I write. All of the above listing things to do are necessary to bring me to my real world goals and course goals.

Journal Practice

Today is my first day of class for English 071. Hopefully, it will be a great journey for me.