I'm extremely excited that I am finished with this semester. I took my last two finals today, and I am aiming for a 4.0 this semester, so I'll let you know in a couple of weeks when my grades come in if I got the 4.0...(fingers crossed). I actually had a really fun semester and I didn't really plan on getting a 4.0, it has just kind of worked out that way, and I'm pretty confident that I'll get it or close to it. I mean I always try to do my best, but the only other time I got a 4.0 was my first semester of college and I was only taking 2 classes at the time. The closest I got in high school was a 3.95 so it would be nice to beat my record. The classes I was taking this semester were Psychology, American Civilizations (which is the class I liked least), English, Ceramics, and Astronomy, a total of 15 credits. Ceramics was really fun but it was actually more difficult than I imagined it to be. My professor made it look so easy, but it definitely takes some skill! Below is a picture of all the work I did in ceramics this semester.
The thing in the front looks hideous, I know, but we had to learn a technique called "coiling" and my project turned out ridiculously awful--that one is most likely going in the garbage eventually. So we had to make three things of just about every assignment we were given. I ended up making 5 bowls (because in my attempt to make mugs I couldn't get the handles to work out so I made my "mugs" into bowls), 4 mugs once I finally got the handles down, 3 pots with lids (totally hard to do the lids, by the way!), 3 bottles (I still haven't figured out what the bottles are used for but we had to learn the technique of bringing the clay in), a coil project which is the ugly one in the front, and a slab project which is the tall one in the back with the ugly glaze job. I was actually quite impressed with how well I did in ceramics this semester. I have never taken a ceramics class before, and I realized that I was somehow doing better than a lot of people in the class, who also had not taken a ceramics class before, but I just have to say I am proud of myself. Especially for being the non-artsy, non-crafty person that I am I feel I did pretty well. The basic principle we had to get down was just centering the clay on the wheel, and then once we got that down we had to learn how to pull the clay up which is also much harder than it looks. I think the problem some people had was just not being able to center their clay properly and I think I had it down pretty well after a while so my stuff didn't turn out as lopsided as some peoples work. Either way, it was a super fun class!
Another fun/exciting thing about finishing up this semester is that I finished top of my class in Astronomy, without the help of Darwin, despite what some people think. He's not the only brains in the family :) He only helped me with a couple of questions throughout the semester and I did everything else on my own. Yay me! The cool thing is that I didn't have to take the final and I still would have had the highest grade, but I took the final anyway because I'll be taking another class in the fall. Astronomy was by far my favorite class this semester because I had an awesome professor, and having the highest grade in the class wasn't too shabby either. Some people are surprised that I enjoyed it so much, and because I enjoyed it so much I decided to take another astronomy class from the same professor in the fall called "Life in the Universe" which sounds intriguing, so we'll see how it goes. One thing we had to tease my professor about is that he is one of that certain group of astronomers who demoted Pluto from being a planet to being a "dwarf planet", or as my professor likes to call it "a Kuiper Belt object". My class enjoyed trying to make him feel bad for his decision, but he didn't budge. After taking the class and learning all we did about the solar system, galaxies, and the universe, it is easy to see why Pluto really isn't a planet. There is a spacecraft on its way to Pluto right now and should arrive in about 8 years, so once it gets there we'll know a lot more about what Pluto really is. I learned more in this class that I actually remember than I feel I have learned in any other class in my college career thus far, although getting a degree in astronomy doesn't sound exciting to me. There's WAY too much math involved!! Anyway, I'm sure I'm probably boring you with my blabbing so I'll leave it at that :)
DARWIN is on his 12th year of teaching, currently at Springville High School teaching astronomy, geology, environmental science, and physics. He also teaches physics at UVU for a 7 week STEM summer school program for junior high students. He also teaches teenagers in our church ward. He's super busy, but still makes time to be an awesome dad and husband.
I have to tell you that I have accomplished the task of memorizing the alphabet backwards. I'm sure most of you are wondering why I would even do such a thing, or why it's even important. Here's the thing...Darwin learned it backwards before he went on his mission, and I've heard him recite it several times with great speed, so I was determined to learn it backwards as well. I started learning it by going over it in my head while laying down trying to go to sleep, and it worked (plus it's much more fun than counting sheep)!! I was reciting it to Darwin last night to prove to him I had learned it backwards, and because I was tired while doing so, I kept accidentally saying "XYZPDQ," which for those who don't know what that abbreviation means: examine your zipper pretty darn quick. He just kept laughing at me, but I really do have the alphabet memorized backwards now :) I can't say it as fast as Darwin can, but at least I can do it!! Yay! If you want proof for yourself, you'll just have to ask me!
