"Miserable at Best" and the last exam...

I'm a bit of an acoustic geek and I couldn't help but wind down, tremendously, by youtubing every possible acoustic cover of every possibly ickily romantic and sappy song I've ever actually liked. So, Mayday Parade has an amazing song called "Miserable at Best" and as great as they are, there are 5000 different covers that are fantastic. I wanted to post the Chris and Catie Aiello cover, which was great (female vocals), but Sam DeArmond had a fit version.

Anyways. This is me simply saying that I'm procrastinating and that my last exam never felt so far away (Tuesday the sixth, oh the horrors). But hey. Can you imagine how much geeking I'll be doing afterwards? I'm talking videos. I'm talking about getting reacquainted with my upright piano. I'm talking about saving whales. I'm talking about Lakeshore, ice cream and movies galore. I'm talking about absolute pandemonium.

Oh, I can't wait.
Now, if I could only study...

Global warming, exams, and brain meltdowns.

Besides the fact that there will be a CHM139 exam on Friday May 2nd; besides the fact that I ought to be studying my bloody brains out; besides the fact that I'm incredibly tired and sick and I can't taste my food -- I managed to go on YouTube and decided to spread the message. I don't know why, but I felt like it. To top things all off, now don't tell the folks about this, I'm thinking of joining Greenpeace. What would they say? They'd probably shake their heads at me and lock me up forever, but hey. Right now. I'm feeling pretty edgy, pretty optimistic and in nearly-there-2-exams-left summer mode. Oh curse U of T and their ultra-late schedules. Had this NOT been the case, I wonder what I'd be thinking/doing right now. Probably something more productive. Yipes, I'm rambling. Again. For the fiftieth time this morning. First with the lack of milk and my coffee issues, and now with... Well. Whatever I was rambling about.

Go study.
"Ay, ay, captain!"

I can't hear you.
"AY, AY! Captain!"

(Oh ix-nay on the Ongebob-Say.)

It's: day 2 of being legal AND Earth Day -- and I'm inside.

"Whenever you find that you are on the side of the majority, it is time to reform."
-- Mark Twain

So. The final BIO150 exam occurs tomorrow, at 14:00 hours and lasts for an approximation of 2.25 hours. Realize that that's a decimal and not a colon, thus a quarter of an hour is equivalent to? Yes. Fifteen minutes. I'm also in math-is-the-death-of-me mode, and in saying such, I am implying that I'm avoiding the review of what is more necessary (at this very moment): BIOLOGY.

What is a taxon? I thought I knew. Now I don't. Considering that I'm planning to major in the Evolutionary Biology area, it's pretty sad that I know none of their terms in any depth. What does that say about my attention span? It's quite limited. Now. I've been introduced to the idea of procrastination, but I think I'll lay off the idiocies for a bit and read a bit more. Then I'll do a bit of crazy American Idol Youtube-ing. I don't watch it live simply because it's a waste of effort and I hate commercial breaks, so I just watch segments. Go David Cook go! Haha.

Back to non-procrastinating procrastination.

Oh. And Happy Earth Day!
Plant a tree... If you can spare study time.
Oh, so sad.


PS: I bought Burt's Bees. Took a really long time to find in Fortinos. I didn't realize it'd be under Organic Foods and Products. Hmm. For anyone who knows the true taste of honey (like the non-Billy Bee brands you find at farms), that's what it tastes like. It feels fantastic as well. It's my non-Soft Lips supplement, which I've run out of... again. For the third time in the last 6 months. I wonder what that says about my lip surface area. Hmm.

And so the exam weeks begin.

There is no quote to describe the madness that will pervade our minds in the weeks to come. For those with absolutely fantastic time management skills -- you probably won't feel extremely hung-over by the end of these three, long, dastardly weeks, but you'll wish you were high. Ok. No. That's stretching wishes by a bit. You'll probably collapse onto a couch and just... expire.

Can I just point out that exam week starts with... dun, dun, dun, dun...

My birthday?

Update, pre-study week.

"The best way to predict the future is to invent it."

-- Alan Kay

Cleaned the closet.

Dumped the shoes into the closet.

And my progress ends there. Geeze. Can we say intolerable amounts of work yet to be done? Yes. Can we say procrastination in the form of thinking of things other than exams? Yes. Can we say being collectively creative and coming up with shirt/sweater/stuff design? Heck ya.

I'll get back to the real world when I'm insane.

POSts, Exams and Profanity -- oh my!

"All the world's a stage and most of us are desperately unrehearsed."
-- Sean O'Casey

As of 11:50PM (yes, this means April 9th 2008), I have been a part of the Evo-bio POSt program -- Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. Of course, this wasn't the plan. The plan was to hold off the application until the entirety of my "known POSts" were chosen. Of course, it is nighttime and I have every right to go bonkers right now... so I just tried it out. And huzzah. That's curiosity for you.

And now I'm going to try my hand at chemistry. Or environmental chemistry.

I think I've gone mad with... admission lust. Hmm.

How Not To Get Sleep

[On the topic of Sleeping]
S: You have a test tomorrow, why don't you sleep?
E: I'll sleep later. If I sleep now, I'll sleep at one.
S: And if you sleep at twelve... you'll sleep at twelve?
E: Yeah--I don't know.

Sleeping Tips From The World's Weirdest Insomniac

Don't:
"I get more work done if I don't sleep at all."

Wrong-o. Lack of sleep leads to crankiness, disorientation and so much more. Take this from someone who has personally experienced disorient. When Professor Aaron Wheeler let out the morning CHM139 class ten minutes too early on a Tuesday, I thought it was a Friday. You can't imagine how the rest of the day felt to me. Anyways. Trust me on this one; if you get enough sleep, if you manage your time well enough -- you'll feel perfectly fine. Time management is key, to be honest, and there's no other way to put it. Excess sleep here makes you groggy; lack of sleep there makes you irritable and confused.


Do:
"Clear your mind of everything possible. Temporarily."

On a personal level, thinking of chemistry or math (the usual side-effect of finishing homework, a test, or an assignment) will have you in super-thinking mode when you're fast asleep and in a comatose like state. If I do recall, the number pi popped into my dreams a couple of times and several reactions followed me in my semi-nightmare. It's not pleasant. If you go to sleep restless and full of 'work', you won't get any sleep done. So do think of puppies, flowers and bluebells -- or other. Just completely wipe your mind of what you've learned for the day (temporarily only!) and zonk out. That's the best way to do it. Sometimes ignorance is bliss. Sometimes.


So yeah. Don't take my word for it.
You can try to Redbull a night away and see how you are the next day...
Or you can pick up the pace the next day and get some well-earned sleep.
Your choice. Your life. You choose, I guess.

How Not To Write A Report

[On reading assigned articles and writing the Ethics Report]
R: ...I can't write.
S: ...I can't read.
R: We're so sad.
S: We're illiterate!

Writing Tips From The World's Biggest Procrastinator

Don't:
"Kamikaze!!!"

Use the word kamikaze, or later, too much. You'll end up pushing everything to the farthest corners of the earth, watch five million Disney movies (and/or Disney-Pixar) and deny that you ever had work to do in the first place. The key to success is knowing when to kamikaze -- and that is usually, if not normally, five minutes after a test or an assignment is due. Save your kamikazes. Save your madness. Save your spewing, rabid behaviour for after major assignments. The word "kamikaze" has a tendency to skew the remainder of what your report, or the whole of it, depending on how you look at it. If you decide that you're in writing mode -- do it. Just don't kamikaze. It's not recommendable. At all.

Do:
"Pretend I'm fascinated with the subject matter and keep working."

A little acting never hurt anyone, really. If you pretend that you like something enough, eventually you'll believe in your lie, pick up the pace, tighten that belt and get a crack-a-lacking. Sometimes all you really need is the belief in an assignment. Conviction is key to actually getting things done. You can bribe yourself with five-minute sugar-highs (i.e. sour keys and jujubes), or you can opt to do something incredibly amusing afterwards (i.e. have a Alfred Hitchcock movie marathon)... So long as you get something done. Sometimes it's hard to get work done, so making it a stipulation doesn't make your case any better. It just makes it worse. If you're convinced that you really want to get this done and in the process, you want to learn something and develop your bullshit skills -- write that report with the utmost conviction. You are a superstar. You are a journalist. Now get to it.


But hey, don't take my word for it.
If making work a chore and kamikaze-ing your life away works for you... Do it.
I just don't think it's optimist-friendly, not in this universe at least.

Studying Tips From The World's Worst Student

"Sweetness, sweetness never suited me."
-- Stars (Midnight Coward, In Our Bedroom After The War)

Studying Tips From The World's Worst Student

Don't:
"Drink coffee in sporadic, copious amounts."

The last time I did this, I think my heart went into overdrive. My nerves were beyond repair and I was, not bouncing off the walls but, in this living-dreaming state. I'm going to compare it to high-like feelings and something on the lines of bungee-jumping, without the cord. For one thing, you're super-focused, but for another, you're completely bonkers. Studying credit. Health demerits. Equates to nothing at all, really.

Do:
"Watch movies, take a break, take a breather here in there."

I believe this is best called procrastination for studious students, but for the semi-studious or the not-so-studious, this is a regular. Do something for yourself; being cooped up in your room really needs to nothing but hysteria. A bit of reality is needed, and yes, that reality lies in something completely bogus, like Harry Potter. Get out of your 'work world' and slip into another one for a moment. It doesn't hurt to rest. Mental state regained. Fun in life restored. Major plus, really.


But hey. Don't take my word for it.
If studying like a beast hooked on caffeine works wonders for you -- do it.
I just don't think it's healthy, in the long run, that is.