Time Strategies

For this topic, I chose the following articles:


The Important Habit of Just Starting by Jory Mackay

The Psychology of Checklists by Lauren Marchese

These hit me personally because I make checklists all the time and the hardest part of accomplishing ANY task for me is starting.  When I was building The Jam Shack, my food trailer, I had to make a new checklist practically every single day.  Not only did it give me the ability to think things through and not forget something, but it gave me satisfaction and assurance when I was done with something.  It is both an organization tool and a reward system!

When I need to get work done, by far the hardest part is getting the motivation to do it.  Sometimes I just have to turn my mind off, blast some music, and walk to the library or wherever else I need to go to get started on my work.  The good part about this is that once I get there, I can usually get to work quite easily and have no trouble working even longer than I plan to.  Procrastination really is almost like an addiction, and for me I just need tricks to fight any urges I get.

Luckily I don't have too much trouble with time management because I like being in the library.  I pretty much dedicate as much of the day as I can to being there working so that by the end of the day I can completely relax and not have to worry about anything that I haven't done yet.  While doing the work is sometimes annoying, having to stress out about not having it done yet is much worse so I avoid that feeling as much as possible!

war propaganda found at Wikipedia

My Experiences With Relevant Technology

Although I haven't really used them, I frequently have visited Tumblr and blogs for a large variety of subjects.  They are really cool and I am getting the hang of blogging for this sort of project.  It is almost like a digital diary that you use to express what you have learned, which is really cool!  I can't wait to go back and look through everything that I have created over the semester!

I have used Google Doc for a ton of things, I have done ma fair share of image editing and I use bookmarks all the time!  I have had decent exposure to most of what is talked about in the technology mentioned except for support sites, content sites, and class wikis until now.

I think my biggest weakness in technology is website development and computer programming.  Our society is becoming more and more dependent on these technologies and I'm the type of person that is much more interested in how to physically build a computer rather than do programming.  Some day I really need to just force myself to start learning and bite the bullet.  I would probably start to really like it if I gave it a shot, but I am so focused on so many other things that it can be hard to find the time to dedicate the energy and time I need to learn things like that.

Raspberry Computer Board from Pixabay

My Thoughts on this Class and its Assignments

I think it is quite obvious just how different this class is compared to anything I have ever taken before, and I love it!  I love the style of teaching and the grading system.  I really do feel like it will enrich my learning experience and allow me to learn "my way" which if you have read my blog post about Growth Mindset you'd know I am a huge fan of learning my way :)

I think this style of a class is perfect for a mythology and folklore class.  I mainly did projects in my high school mythology class, and it seems like we will mostly be doing projects in this class too.  What better way to operate a class like this than through a blog?  It is creative and perfect!

I am very excited to write so many stories about the things I learn.  I really like to be creative when it comes to mythology and so this class seems to be right up my alley!  This class seems to be heavily based on using what you learn in a creative and fun way!  Speaking of which, the Wikipedia trails extra credit is 100% me.  I am on Wikipedia a LOT and it is amazing how I can start out reading about Terence Mckenna and end up reading about how instruments work and the fundamentals of sound waves.  The way Wikipedia trails work remind me of a Mandelbrot fractal in how each page leads you to tons of different branches of other pages which have other pages etc...

Mandelbrot Pattern on Wikipedia

My Thoughts About Growth Mindset

I have absolutely no doubt in the power of Growth Mindset.  When I think about my growth as a learner, I didn't quite understand what exactly happened in my life where I became obsessed with learning, but now that I think about it Growth Mindset was certainly involved!!

I think everything changed partly because I was focused on learning more than I was at doing well.  I wanted to do well, but my genuine interest in learning was what was truly satisfying!  It feels good to get good grades, but it feels even better to realize you have learned a difficult concept and that is what got you that good grade.

Sadly, the education system in America is incredibly lacking.  While I am in no position to introduce ways to fix our problems, I can certainly agree that it is negatively impacting students when we are so focused on letter grades.  A person's GPA does not accurately express the level of one's abilities or intelligence.  In fact, the way I usually explain it is grades represent how smart someone is, but intelligence is only reliably found through a conversation with an individual.  Intelligence is much more valuable than knowing a bunch of ideas.  Intelligence is in my own words the ability to use prior knowledge to make accurate predictions for other more foreign concepts.  It is the ability to think critically.  More often than not, many answers to many questions in science and out of it can be reached through means of critical thinking.

Wilson's Flipped Lab Pyramid
Found in Wilson's Flipped Lab Blogspot

Often my biggest challenge in school is wanting to learn things my way.  My way usually works, but it can hurt my grade when professors and teachers want me to learn it their way.  And sometimes their way is more convenient or useful, so I really should do better at adapting to different ways of thinking about problems.

I am incredibly excited for my microbiology class this semester!  I have never had the chance to learn about microbiology.  The only other time I was taught it was freshman year of high school and that was back when I didn't enjoy learning.  So it will be really interesting to learn about this gigantic field of study that I have never gotten around to learning about.

My goal this semester is to get a 4.0, finish my experiments and get at least half way through my research paper for my Asphalt Binder research, and work on my personal mindset and physical health to live a more happy and less stressful lifestyle.

Introduction to my Crazy Life

My name is Connor Dugan.  I'm not sure if this post will do justice, but I am one of the more different people in the world.  In lots of good ways (in my opinion), but it has its consequences as well.

I am a Junior majoring in Chemical Engineering with an emphasis in Biotechnology at the University of Oklahoma.  I absolutely love my major.  I'm not sure what exactly sparked my love for science and learning, but around junior year of high school I became obsessed with science.  I love learning about nature, physics, particle physics, quantum field theory, psychology, I love learning about the world.  My favorite branches of science are chemistry and particle physics (the math for particle physics is very intimidating).

My picture I took of The Jam Shack
(I am on the right)

I have also become very productive in the past couple years.  Last summer I began my first company, The Jam Shack LLC.  The Jam Shack is a food trailer that sells exotic and gourmet sandwiches inspired by the PB&J.  I and my friend that attends OSU spent close to a year building the entire food trailer with little experience with anything.  We learned as we went, and boy did we learn a lot.  The Jam Shack was the hardest thing I have ever done psychologically.  The pressure I put on myself, the money I invested in it, the time and effort, and all this while knowing it could be a complete failure that can't pass health inspection or hold up to what our operation would demand.  But after a very long time of dedicated work, we were fully operating The Jam Shack at events all over my home town of Edmond, Oklahoma in the summer of 2017.  The wrap of The Jam Shack that can be seen in the images has our information and the artwork (which wraps all the way around the shack) is scenes of the greatest achievements of humanity (discovery of fire, egyptian pyramids, theory of relativity, smart phones, moon landing, etc.) played out with PB&J characters.

Another Picture I took of The Jam Shack

While pursuing my dreams with The Jam Shack, I was also beginning my career in science by pursuing research in the Asphalt Binder Lab at OU.  I am working with my Momentum, Heat, and Mass Transfer professor Dr. O'Rear.  My goal of my research is to measure the effect of the addition of oil in binder (the tar in the roads) that is heavily composed of recycled asphalt pavement.  With my gathered information, I am hoping to be able to reduce the costs of materials for Oklahoma roads, as well as make them last for a longer period of time while reducing the footprint of humanity by using recycled material.

Lastly, my more creative side comes out when it comes to philosophy about life itself.  I have always been asking "too many questions" which would often get me in trouble at my private religious school.  I was never one to just believe, it also had to make sense and line up with the world.  My line of thinking stems from the fact that science and logic should all point directly toward whatever true philosophy that may exist.  Thus, I have come up with many hypotheses about reality and so far most of them have utterly failed in some way.  My current most profound philosophical thought that seems to line up with reality most accurately is that consciousness is a part of the universe just like gravity.  It is a force of nature.  And just like we know mass seems to generate a gravitational field, neurological structures generate consciousness, we just don't know WHY it happens yet.  The consequence of this is all consciousness in the universe is the same, but manifested in neurological structures that are vastly different.  I could get into this much further but this post will be RIDICULOUSLY long.

I love life, I love the universe, and I always do my best to not get too caught up in worldly things that aren't worth being upset over.  The Jam Shack and my research brought upon me a really negative mind set where nothing was ever enough and I was suffering for a while, but I am on my way out of that and into a much more positive mind.  And a positive mind is without doubt one of the most valuable things to posses. 

Thanks for reading! :)

My Favorite Storybooks!

1. Monsters or Misunderstood?

I happen to love monster mythology.  I love the early literature of the explanations for fears of mankind.  So naturally, this title caught my attention.  And better yet, the story book seems to be about exactly what I had hoped for it to be.  I love the intricate thinking that goes into making claims that are completely opposite to what they are "supposed" to be.  The creativity of making the theme of the story a therapy session blew my mind.  This storybook really opened my eyes to the possibilities of this project!

I found it really funny that before reading the storybook the image below started as an ominous picture, but after reading ended up looking really lonely and sad and it made me feel bad for Nessie!


Loch Ness Monster. Web Source: Wikipedia
2. The Great Debate: Zeus vs. Apollo

Greek mythology is absolutely crazy.  There are so many twists and turns and what better way to talk about any part of it than from the perspectives of the gods themselves?  I love the way this was written and presented!  Not only do you get the information, but the writer can impose personal bias from multiple perspectives to make it that much more interesting!

3. Greek Goddesses on Trial

By now the trend might be pretty clear.  All of the storybooks have at least somewhat interesting information, but what really makes them stand out is the way they are presented!  This is just another example of the infinite possibilities that this project has in store!  I love the dynamic with this storybook and how once again all the different perspectives and personalities that are involved!  I also really like how the conversations within the trials flow like a casual conversation rather than a formally typed dialogue.

After reading these my head is whizzing with ideas ranging from Dr. Phil type settings to game shows. This is going to be a fun project, I can tell!

The Grand Canyon, My Favorite Place I Have Been!

The grand canyon (south rim view) from Wikipedia

The grand canyon from Wikipedia

I went to the Grand Canyon during the spring of 2017 and the experience was life changing!  My friend and I with no prior experience hiked past the Colorado river and all the way up one of the tallest mesas in our first day carrying close to 50 pounds of gear.  We rested the second day and just enjoyed the solitude and breathtaking views.  We then hiked back up the canyon the third day which was the most physically challenging thing I have ever done!