Learning Experience #2

For one of my learning blogs, I planned on reflecting on all of my classes that I am taking this semester to recap what  I have learned, and how what I have learned will apply to the rest of my life.

Accounting:

This is the first class that I have taken that is major specific. This class will prove to be the foundation for the rest of my major, and (as of now) my career. Because it is an introductory class, we are learning the basics of financial and managerial accounting while barely scratching the surface of much of the material. So far, we have learned about financial statements, which provide a snapshot of a company's performance. This is useful for managers because they can decide if they should be more aggressive or conservative financially for the upcoming year, amongst other things. Financial statements are useful for stockholders because they can determine if they want to invest in a company based upon their financial stability. Being able to read and understand these statements is crucial for accounting.

Business Information Systems:

This class has truly opened my eyes to how important technology has become in today's world. We have been introduced to two technologies that businesses use today, SharePoint and Microsoft Access. SharePoint is a Web application platform, and is very important for collaboration. SharePoint allows you to create a website that includes many different features, including discussion boards, surveys, collaborative calendars, shared documents etc. This is important for projects because it allows people to work together via an online source. Microsoft Access is a database program that can present data in a number of different ways through forms, reports, and queries. This is useful for presenting data in customized fashions.

Calculus II:

Most of what I have learned in this class will only be useful if I pursue a mathematics minor. Regardless of that, we have learned how to take integrals of improper functions, and test series for convergence.

Foundation of Business:

From this class, I have learned what the name of the class says, the "Foundations of Business." We have briefly talked about all the different aspects of business, including marketing, production, finance, accounting, human resources etc. We are also running a simulation that allows us to make all key decisions for a company for eight years (or rounds). This shows how all of the different departments of a business are ultimately connected by their impact on the financial statements. For example, if we increase the automation level for our production, our labor cost will decrease, meaning that our profits will increase. This class has been informative because it has opened my eyes to all the different parts of a business that I wouldn't ordinarily think about, as well as the relationships between the departments.

Lit and Civ II:

Last but not least, I have learned a lot from our Lit and Civ II class. Our discussions about humor have made me consider the source of my laughter nearly every time I laugh. It has introduced me to new definitions, such as cognitive shift, that help me understand humor more. Our books have introduced new topics and theories to me, while typically making me chuckle. These lessons have made me think more, and seemingly legitimatize what I laugh at. 

Conversational Partner #2

For my second meeting with Hussain, we met at the library. Initially we had planned to go to the TCU Rec and workout, but our schedules didn't allow enough time for that. We hadn't chatted much between the first and second meetings, and I was wondering where the conversation would lead. Our conversation started with talking about what we had been up to the past few weeks. He told me about how he had just finished his finals for the first two months of IEP, and so I inquired more about his class schedule and material. He told me about his classes and different assignments he was working on. One thing that caught my attention were the books that he was assigned to read, which were The Outsiders and The Old Man and the Sea. These were both books that I was assigned to read, but eight years earlier. This made me think about the different stages of learning the English language and where Hussain was in the process. After this, we delved into some more interesting conversations. He told me about his fall break plans, which included going on a hiking trip sponsored by TCU. He is going with ten other students and they will be backpacking through a mountain range for four days. This made me feel excited for him, because in our first meeting he had talked about how he struggled to meet people outside of the IEP. He sounded as if he was looking forward to it, but he seemed anxious because he didn't know anybody else on the trip. During our conversation, I wished that I could somehow go on the trip with him to make him more comfortable with the trip, but I knew that was impossible. I am confident that he will be able to make friends with those that are accompanying him because he is open to conversation and genuinely interested in what other people have to say.

            Talking about backpacking led to conversations about other outdoor events that we had each done. I tried to explain Boy Scouts to him, but I think he had a hard time comprehending that. Nonetheless, I told him about various camping and kayaking trips that he had been on, and he shared some of his own stories with me. We talked about fishing and about how that was something that he missed from Saudi Arabia, which is the first thing I have heard him say he missed. When he was home in Saudi Arabia he would fish at least once a week, and he showed me some pictures of his catches. The fished looked very different from any that I had ever caught, and he was unable to tell me the English name for the fish. We talked about different types of boats we had been on, and just talked about common experiences. This is one of the first times that we had shared a common interest, and I was glad that we were able to establish this.

            We somehow got on the topic of food, which we talked briefly about in our first meeting. This time we got more in depth, and he told me about Arabian restaurants in the area, as well as some new foods that he had tried. I was impressed at his attempts to reach out and try a lot of different foods, because I know that is something that I would be hesitant of if I was in his position.

            The most interesting takeaway from our conversation was a story he told me that occurred in Saudi Arabia. He left his car at home when he came to the US, and he said in the past week his friend wrecked his car into a bridge. His friend was hospitalized and the car was totaled. The picture of the car left me surprised as to how his friend even survived the accident. When I ask how the wreck occurred, Hussain said that his friend "couldn't remember." I wasn't sure how to interpret this. I thought maybe the wreck caused short term memory loss to Hussain's friend which left him unable to recall how the wreck occurred. When I voiced this to Hussain, he said he didn't know if that was the reason or not. This confused me, and made me wonder if language was preventing me from understanding his story, or preventing him from telling me the story correctly, or if Hussain's friend just really couldn't remember the events prior to the wreck. This would have been the first time that language barriers caused a misunderstanding between us. 

Laughing Experience #1

            After we discussed the blogging topics for the upcoming school year, my attention was initially drawn to the two blogs about our laughing experiences. I tried to think about the times that I laughed the hardest, and I couldn't think of any specific examples. Some experiences of uncontrollable laughter came to mind, but I couldn't recreate the source of the laughter. Ever since that day, I have tried to analyze each time that I find myself laughing "uncontrollably." I try to think of the source of the experience, while keeping in mind the different types of humor theories that we discussed in class. This analysis garnered some relatively interesting internal thoughts and sparked some productive conversation with whomever I shared the laugh with. From these thoughts and discussions, I determined two things:

            After a lot of consideration, most of the things that I find humorous relate to the theories we discussed in class. When we first discussed these theories, I didn't find them to be believable because I did not think they were applicable to my personal experiences that I found to be funny. I didn't think that my roommate doing something stupid fell into the superiority theory-I simply thought that whatever he was doing was funny. I wasn't laughing at him because I felt superior to him, I was just laughing. Whenever I watched Dumb and Dumber, I didn't understand I felt superior to two imaginary characters that I was laughing at. But, after listening to our discussions in class and reconsidering each theory, I realized that most situations where I found myself laughing fit into those theories in some way, even if it was in the slightest. Although I may not be laughing at my roommate or an imaginary character, I am laughing at something they are doing that I am perceiving to be dumb, and in some way inferior. This took some time to realize, but I came to the conclusion that these theories are applicable.

            The next thing that I discovered was during one of the experiences where I found myself laughing uncontrollably. It happened on my recent trip home with some of my friends from childhood. We met up after the TCU-OU football game, and decided to smoke cigars, which wasn't an abnormal thing for us to do. The conversation that followed was what spurred the laughter. Considering that we have been friends for such a long time, we know a lot about each other and a lot of common memories from our childhoods. While we were talking, we were recollecting memories of the days on the playground and all the comical things that happened during our recess football games. Before long we found ourselves in fits of laughter, and one of my first thoughts was our assigned blogs. I started to think about the source of our laughter, and it didn't take long to realize that we were laughing at our old selves. What heightened the laughter was the position that we were currently in, all of us being in college and far from our elementary school selves. The setting also contributed to the humor, because we were performing an adult activity, while talking about our childhood activities. The laughter brought back even more memories, and the evening was spent reminiscing.

            From this experience, I realized how much laughter can bring a group together. We were all close friends already, but the experience of laughing uncontrollably brought back memories of when we were kids and how, although we are much older, the laughter still occurred. It made me realize that laughter is truly a timeless experience.