andresmetacognition-blog

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What is one technique you use that you already know to understand Frankenstein?

I like to read with an audiobook. I don’t necessarily only use the audiobook, but I like to have the audiobook playing while I have the physical copy with me. Because I am far-sighted, it is hard for me to focus on the small text and read line by line without glasses. Even then, when I have glasses on it is still sometimes hard for me to follow along with the text. Having an audiobook playing in the background helps me follow along with the book. Besides helping me read the book, an audiobook also gives tone, character, and voice to the text also making it easier to understand.

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My Meta-cognitive Diary. Vocabulary

Welcome to my metacognitive diary. No I’m not doing this for fun, although I find myself having fun when writing this. This is a part of my class requirement for my Core Class at UCSC. It’s requirement for Crown college and this is part one, a vocab list. Welcome.

Ostentatiously -  attracting or seeking to attract attention, admiration, or envy often by gaudiness or obviousness.

“Those who protested against a nuclear weapon, by ostentatiously not taking shelter, could be arrested, and some were.”

This is like when someone does something only for the attention. There is no meaning behind their action because they do it for attention and recognition.

Harbinger -  one that initiates a major change : a person or thing that originates or helps open up a new activity, method, or technology.

“That was the harbinger of change. Today biotechnology rules.”

A harbinger is like an instigator. Someone that is the reason for change.

Aphorism - a concise statement of a principle;  a terse formulation of a truth or sentiment;  an ingeniously terse style of expression : aphoristic language.

“He had a gift for aphorism; and his names have acquired an unusual status, for although they were once arcane, some of them are now colloquial English.”

Aphorism is a type of language. Not in the traditional sense but in the way that English is spoken differently.

Minutiae - a minute or minor detail.

“As a philosopher I find it amusing, and certainly forgivable, that honest Kant himself confesses, in a footnote, that he is not in a position to pay attention to the minutiae of historical details.”

To remember this one I think of the word minute. A minute is a SMALL amount of time so a minutiae is a small or minor detail.

Incommensurable -  lacking a basis of comparison in respect to a quality normally subject to comparison.

“The two men put the word incommensurable on the table. Each seems to have been glad that the other was, for a moment, traveling on a parallel road, but after that their ways diverged.”

This is like comparing apples to oranges

Myriad - a great number of things or items.

“Anyone familiar with contemporary analytic philosophy will know that there are a myriad competing theories of truth.”

Hitherto - up to or at that time.

“We may be wafted to a land surpassing in wonders and in beauty every region hitherto discovered on the habitable globe.”

Basically a fancy way to say up to this point

Waft -  to move or go lightly on or as if on a buoyant medium

“We may be wafted to a land surpassing in wonders and in beauty every region hitherto discovered on the habitable globe.”

Waft sounds like a wavy word so it’s easier to associate it with the ocean.

Inexorable -  not to be persuaded, moved, or stopped; relentless

“But the old man decidedly refused, thinking himself bound in honor to my friend; who, when he found the father inexorable, quitted his country, nor returned until he heard his former mistress was married according to her inclinations.”

This is like when the hulk gets really mad. No one can stop him.

Capitulated -  to surrender often after negotiation of terms.

“Margaret, if you had seen the man who thus capitulated for his safety, your surprise would have been boundless.”

This is when I lose an argument with my girlfriend and I surrender to her terms.

Amiable -  friendly, sociable, and congenial.

“He must have been a noble creature in his better days, being even now in wreck so attractive and amiable.”

Amiable reminds me of my friend Ami, she’s super nice and friendly

Indefatigable - incapable of being fatigued : untiring.

“He was respected by all who knew him for his integrity and indefatigable attention to public business.”

This describes the feeling when you are super excited and want to do EVERYTHING

Mien -  air, or bearing especially as expressive of attitude or personality : demeanor.

“His manners in private were even more mild and attractive than in public; for there was a certain dignity in his mien during his lecture.”

I have different mien when I am dealing with different people. For example, my mien in classes and at work is more professional than when I am with my friends.

Dogmatism - the expression of an opinion or belief as if it were a fact : positiveness in assertion of opinion especially when unwarranted or arrogant.

“His gentleness was never tinged by dogmatism; and his instructions were given with an air of frankness and good nature.”

Again, when I argue with my girlfriend and neither one of us wants to listen to the other side. When this happens we are dogmatic about our beliefs.

Proletariat -  the laboring class, especially : the class of industrial workers who lack their own means of production and hence sell their labor to live

“The extreme, and, for proletarians, ultimately disastrous manifestation of this dynamic was in sub-prime mortgages.”

Proletarians are the people at the bottom of the class pyramid.

Syllogism -  a deductive scheme of a formal argument consisting of a major and a minor premise and a conclusion

“That, however, would have invalidated the deductive logic that tells us that a syllogism’s conclusion must be true.”

This is like when my geometry teacher in high school explained squares. All squares are rectangles, however not all rectangles are square.

Pundit -  a person who gives opinions in an authoritative manner usually through the mass media.

“Notice how in the following passage about New York mayor Michael Bloomberg’s proposed ban on the sale of sugary drinks larger than sixteen ounces, conservative pundit George Will shifts the focus from that proposed restriction to global warming.”

These are the people that run Trumps twitter.

Elated -  marked by high spirits

“Psychologists find people to have fairly constant levels of happiness to which they return after elation or disaster.”

Elated is what people feel on drugs

Posterity -  the offspring of one progenitor to the furthest generation

“They will enrich both him and those customers to the point where the loan can be repaid to posterity.”

Every single one of my future grandchildren is a part of my posterity, just as I am a part of my forefathers posterity.

Consternation -  amazement or dismay that hinders or throws into confusion

“Two centuries later the decline in industrial employment in the late twentieth century caused a similar consternation among economists, who saw services as a frivolous distraction from the important business of manufacturing.”

Something that is so amazing that it confuses you.

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Background noise

I can’t study in silence. There is an eeriness, an unsettling feeling when I try to work in silence. To solve this I usually listen to music. I am very particular about my study music, well, it comes down to one simple criteria, lack of lyrics. All the music that I listen to when I am study has little to no lyrics in them. Specifically, I like to listen to hip-hop/jazz fusion. There are countless 24/7 live-streams of music like that on YouTube labeled “24/7 study grind music” so its helpful to have them. The lack of lyrics allows me to fill the eerie void of silence while not distracting me with words. When I try to listen to music with lyrics I end up distracting myself with singing or dancing.

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Dealing with Stress

I’ve never experienced so much stress in such a short amount of time, however dealing with stress has never been so easy. Living in a dorm definitely helps with dealing with stress because I am in close proximity with all my friends. A lot of the stress that I deal with is school related. Projects, papers, even regular homework seems to stress me out, but the fact that I literally live with my best friend, and our friend group lives across the hall makes it all easier to deal with.

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Programming

I am a proposed CE and Physics major, meaning I spend a lot of my time in front of a computer. When I a programming it feels like a different type of work. It’s a flow between your fingers moving across the keyboard and your mind recalling the specific commands you need in order to successfully compile your code. I find that I program the best sitting at my desk. This isn’t because my desk is particularly comfy, its quite the opposite, or because it’s in my comfortable room, because it isn’t. Rather the desk setting allows for me to virtually move nowhere. It’s just somewhere I feel productive, specifically when programming.

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Sleep

If there’s one thing I’ve learned that is crucial to the college experience it’s sleep. I’m not saying that we should prioritize sleep over school work, nor am I saying that school work should come before sleep, rather I am stressing the fact that sleeping too much or too little can be a detriment to your academic life. I’ve been in both of those situations and running on too little sleep makes the quality of your work worse than when you have ample amounts of sleep. On the flip side, if you sleep too much you are left with not enough time in the day to do the things you need to get done. Sleep is important, but so is school, so finding the perfect balance between sleep and work time is important.

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Extroversion

I’ve noticed that I am an extrovert. While this may mainly affect people socially, this also affects my academic life. It’s extremely difficult for me to sit down by myself and study. I have to have someone there with me in person or on Facetime in order for me to do ANY work. I don’t like the feeling of emptiness around me when I’m alone. This also happened to me in high school. I would frequently go to a public place like the library or more often the coffee shop to do all my homework. I like the presence of people, so I work best when I am around them.

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Letter to My Future Self

Hey Andre! You remember me right? It’s you, but freshman year you! Specifically you from the first quarter. Remember we wrote this for Patton’s Class, and this seemed easier than everything else we could’ve done. How’s life? Did we end up declaring a double major? Are we still with Annabelle? I hope so. How’s programming? There are so many questions I have and so many things I hope we got to do but I guess there’ll never be answered. What are some things that we should do? What things should I do right now to prepare what we have to do in the future? Mostly I just have a lot of questions. I’m hoping that whatever you CAN tell me doesn’t disrupt the space-time continuum. Anyways, good luck with whatever we do in the future!

Younger you.

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A Letter to My Younger Self (CRWN 1)

Whats up Andre, I know this may come at an odd time for you but it’s you from the future! I’m here to tell you about what your first quarter in college is gonna be like. Trust me it’s going to be fun, but it’s really challenging and you really need to pick up the slack. There will be time for smoking weed and drinking alcohol but I can’t stress how important studying is. It’s going to be easy writing off homework and things you need to do for hanging out with friends but everything catches up to you. Right now I’m one week away from finals with PILES of work I need to get done, Homework, projects, essays, programming, and all these other mandatory things that we need to catch up on. On the brighter side, I’m having a ton of fun. Besides all the work at Banana Joe’s( you got a job), and playing volleyball for the club team (we start by the way), and all the homework you slack on, college really is an amazing experience and I hope yo do things better than I did, well, respectively because we are the same person.

Anyways, have fun, don’t slack off too much, and don’t party too hard!

Best of luck,

Andre from the present (AKA your future)