Student Rating for Fall 2010

This is for my Physics 107 lab: Hello Michael J. Besselman,

Please make the TA explain what we are doing when we first start class. That would have helped this semester. Steve was wonderful. However, he could have known what was going on a little more than he did. Sometimes, he didn't explain things very well. He was a great help to me though. Please have the TA's return ours labs in a timely manner, because we don't know what we are doing that's docking us points. Plus, can you have them take off half-points instead of full points if we miss a unit on one of the labs? I think that missing a full point is pretty steep. The lab manual is written pretty poorly so I have no idea to do the experiments. Our group always had to get help from Steve. Please make sure that our equipment works. A couple times, we had to work with faulty equipment. I am thankful that this lab isn't harder. I'm thankful that we don't have any tests or a final. I'm thankful that this lab followed the lecture. It actually reinforced what I was learning in lecture and made me understand the concepts more fully. I'm so thankful that this lab wasn't as nearly as hard as the O-chem lab.

This is for my Physics 105 class: Hi Professor Harold T. Stokes,

I think that you are an alright teacher. I've never seen so many demonstrations in my life!! It's a good thing that you concentrate more on concepts than you do trying to solve problems. Your tests reflect the way that you teach. That's a really good thing. Can there be more multiple choice questions though?? Your tests are so short!! I mean one has to know everything. If one misses something, one is screwed because your tests are so short. Can you make a study guide?? That would really help. You don't show how to do the homework problems. So, I had no idea how to do the homework. That's why I had to get a personal tutor to help me get through the homework. I haven't taken math for four years. I was really rusty and had to get some help since you don't cover any math in your class. The physics tutor lab had way too many people for me to get adequate help. It took way too long for me to get through the homework in that lab. That's one of the reasons I fell behind. The book is confusing too. I only read it a couple times. It was so much faster for my tutor to explain the concepts to me than for me to read the book. You just don't teach to my learning style. I'm so thankful that I have a good tutor that can help me get through physics. You've been helpful and nice the two times I've gone to see you. Your class is pretty well organized. I really appreciated that you cut down the homework problems sometimes. Thanks for giving me credit for my student rating.

This is for my Health Promotion class: Hi Marin Morgan Poole Meyer,

I really liked this class. I really liked going through the newspapers trying to find a health article. I really, really appreciate that you gave reviews for the tests. Not many professors do that. Thank you for telling what was going to be on the tests. Thanks for teaching me the importance of prevention. Thanks for making this class really manageable and interesting. Thanks for letting us have discussions. They were enjoyable. For the reading, can you pull all of them in a format where one can highlight the text?? Since I couldn't highlight a little more than half of the readings, I had to look for the articles on the web so I can have my natural reader read it to me.

300th Post

This is my 300th post!!!! It's pretty cool that I've been writing since 2006. I didn't know that I'd be writing this this blog four and a half years later. I like writing. It's just sad because I get so busy that I forget about writing about anything. It's only fitting that I'm going to write something that is martial art related. This is why I started my blog in the first place. I wanted to write about karate because I loved it. Plus, I thought that this was a good place to put all my thoughts down. I have terrible penmanship. That's is why I don't write in a journal. I love Google because I can write and save my entires in blogger and save all of my assignments in google docs. It's so much easier because I don't have to email myself the document all the time if I change computers. I can just save it on google docs and work on my assignments on my laptop and BYU's computers without any inconvenience.

The Healthcare System

In September, the CDC came out with statistics about ADHD and learning disabilities. I kept this in my email inbox for months because I thought it was very interesting and wanted to write about it someday. I thought it was really interesting of how low the preveance of learning disabilites and ADHD is in this the US.

I'm sorry that I haven't been writing that much lately. I've been writing in my private blog pretty regularly for the past year. This semester I haven't been writing that much because I've been really busy with everything. It seems like that the older I get, the busier I get. I'm going to be really busy for the whole year of 2011 because I'm planing on increasing my school work load so that I can graduate next December. Then, I'll be off at chiropractic school.

I'm really thankful for my public health major. Why?? Because it's shaping my view of the health care system. When I first came to BYU, I was really against vaccines and doctors in general. However, that never sat well with me though being against doctors. I was talking to a chiropractor who practices in Heber, UT on Tuesday night. He says that the health care system is going down the drain. Everyone is really fed up with them. From my public health point of view, I really disagree with him. I know that the health care system can be really improved on. I think that just disregarding the whole health care system as a whole is really brash and irresponsible especially for a doctor. The more I learn about public health, the more I really appreciate the health care system. We really do have a wonderful system. I know that there is a whole bunch of flaws, but I know that there are people out there who are actively trying to fix them. I know that we need to contact our congressmen about the issues that we are facing. It's just a matter whether they will listen to us or not. Only by laws, we can really fix the health care system.

I know vaccines are really important. I know that I'm not up to date with my tetanus shot and probably won't receive the flu vaccine this year. That's because I'm a poor college student and don't have health care insurance. That's going to change though because the amount of credits I want to take, BYU will require me to have health insurance. That's OK with me. I really need to get my teeth cleaned. I haven't had them cleaned in a few years now which is really bad. I've been forgetting about it. The chiropractor was saying that the infectious diseases were going down when the vaccines took place. I say that's untrue. Many of the infectious diseases decreased because of vaccines. It's just sad because many people haven't seen these diseases. "If they aren't around, why would they get my child sick??", they ask. Well, they are still there. Some of them at least that can be carried through other means than humans. That's how we got rid of small pox. Again, I'm totally thankful for my public health major. I've only taken two classes so far. I have a lot more to take which will further my understanding.

I want to truly help the patient instead of harming them. I need to look at the sources that I'm reading. The newspapers are an OK source. I like when they talk about journal articles. My last newspaper article that I turned into class was about Vitamin D and calcium. The Institute of Medicine said that most people make and get enough Vitamin D and calcium from their bodies and diets. It was interesting that my teacher disagreed with some sub-populations like pregnant ladies and teenagers. These experts looked at 1,000 published studies and the testimonies from scientists and stakeholders. I don't know what are stakeholders.

I know that Dr. Mercola is all about Vitamin D. I still get his emails about his website once a week. I hardly read them because it's a bunch of crap. I used to read a whole bunch of his stuff. I know what the alternative health world is saying about things. Now, I've been slowly changing my opinions because of my public health major. What really gets me is when they say that the swine flu was a big hoax because there wasn't that many deaths. However, we can only know about the prevalence and how quick it will spread after it spreads. We have no way of knowing. It's better to be safe than sorry. We know that the flu can really mutate and cause lots of deaths. That happened in 1918; however many people don't know about that. That's the thing about health in general. Many people don't know how to take care of themselves and make good, healthy decisions.

The public health class that I'm taking this semester is called health promotion. I learned about the importance of prevention. It's best to prevent than allow the people to get diseases. I learned the importance of really good marketing. Raising awareness of some health issue is really important. That's how people can see what's going on. For example, DARE and red ribbon week raise awareness of the dangers that drugs present. I know that the chiropractic community really, really need to make the public aware of what services they provide. Many, many people don't know what chiropractors do and treat. Some chiropractors treat only backs, some treat things like injuries to the muscles and joints along with the back. There are a whole bunch of techniques out there. I want to learn the techniques that will have a lasting impact on the patient so that they won't have to keep coming back all the time. I know that it does take time for the body to health though.

This is why I'm so excited to go to chiropractor school. I really want to start learning and forming my own opinions about chiropractic. I just need to get done with BYU first. I'm thankful for my education here though because my knowledge that I obtain in schooling, I will have forever. I know that I will and have forgotten much of it throughout the years. Probably much of it can come back if I re-learn it again depending on how long I've taken the classes. I think the basic premises and the things which I thought were really interesting will remain with me forever. I know when I die and get up into spirit world, I'll remember everything which I did and learned in life. With this life, one needs to learn how to discern what's truth and what's garbage. This is why I'm so thankful I have the Holy Ghost. I need to be worthy of his presence though.

Another thing that the chiropractor said to me that medical mistakes are the leading cause of death in the Untied States. I looked at accurate sources and knew that was untrue. The CDC reported 616,067 people died of heart disease in 2009. Heart disease is the leading disease of that causes the most deaths in the United States. The Institute of Medicine said, "At least 44,000 people, and perhaps as many as 98,000 people, die in hospitals each year as a result of medical errors that could have been prevented, according to estimates from two major studies."

New LDS Website

Here is a little letter that I sent to the people in charge of the Latter Day Saint website. This is the first time that they changed the format of the website when I started useing the website back in high school!!

Hello,

I love the new format of the new lds website. However, the text margins are pretty narrow compared to the old site. I really loved seeing a whole bunch of text on the screen. Now, I have to scroll down a lot when I read anything. You guys got rid of the scriptures in this format too. :( I just want to see a whole bunch of text at once. It makes it seem that the talks and the scriptures I read are shorter. Plus, you guys need to fix the highlight function. I want to unhightlight things. However, the website isn't letting me do that. I like the look of things. Plus, navigating through the website is pretty easy compared to the old site. Thanks for having the function for to listen right on the page. I didn't know that the LDS church had people read their magazines. I love people reading to me. However, they are much slower than my natural reader.

Thanks,

Lizzie