Revision Week: Day 7

Well, my laptop decided that it had had enough studying for the revision week and decided to take a break yesterday morning. I was filling out some flashcard to help commit researchers' and psychologists' names (my true weakness) when all of a sudden the mouse pad stopped responding. I closed him all up and let him take a break for a little before opening him back up. The mouse still wasn't responding so I decided to try and shut it down. But the keys were also taking a short break. That left me with a manual shut down. I don't like doing those, but there was no way to turn Harry off. After the shut down and a five minute rest I turned Harry back on and he started doing a routine drive check. At this point, I was thinking, "Alright Harry, you do what you need to do."

Well he found a problem, something that has never happened. A little screen popped up asking if I would like the computer to automatically fix it. Of course I pressed the "yes" button. Too bad Harry couldn't figure out how to fix his problem. *sigh* So for the whole morning Harry kept saying that there was a problem and it couldn't be fixed, "press finish to shut down."

Now, I started freaking out a little. As a child of the technology age I don't really know how to function without my laptop. The first thought that popped into my head was, "How am I suppose to study!?!?!?" That's when I thought that perhaps I rely a little too much on technology and if my parents and their parents could study without the Internet at home then so could I.

I went to the library and checked out five very heavy books. Then I found a computer and printed off all the SAQs I had answered and written up so that I would have a guided study with my books. Retro right? Anyway, while online I took the opportunity to ask my friend if he could help Harry. He agreed and I spent the rest of the day worried about how I would study. I mean, who uses books anymore right? Haha!

Anyway, that evening I went over to his house and he fixed Harry in about an hour. I'm keeping the books though. It might be interesting to see what happens when I have to read a few chapter from each. Might even get a better mark on my exam because I didn't just listen to the lectures and review notes. I did extra stuff. *smile*

What I learned yesterday: You can study even when you don't have access to the Internet 24/7.

November 4: Procratination

I'm trying very hard to get these essays done, but you see I have this big problem. I'm a chronic procrastinator. I just can't seem to kick the habit no matter how hard I try.

What usually sets of the procrastination is that it's something I don't particularly want to do. I love writing, but writing essays just sort of bores me. And this time I have to write 3 different essays for 3 different classes all due on the same day. Each one of these essays is suppose to be done in a different format and style and I just don't quite feel like going in between the "British" version of MLA to...whatever it is my Art History essay is suppose to be written in. There's just so much more fun things to do.

For one, blogging. I like this kind of writing. It's fun and free and you can pretty much write about anything. In an essay I am set to what the markers want to read. If it were up to me I would go on long rant about how fairy tales used to be this great oral tradition of all of our ancestors and now they are a ploy of the movie and book industry to make more money than God (no offense Big Guy). But instead I have to write about how transformation can be analyzed phycologically (this is a word I've never been able to spell so, sorry) in fairy tales. Needless to say I'm choosing one of the many variations of "Beauty and the Beast" and saying that the Beast represents the young girl's fear of growing up into sexual awareness and her inhibition of the opposite sex. And I'm also using Snow White to point out that older women also have this fear of growing older and that the reason the queen turns into an old, ugly hag is because that is how she now sees herself. Nothing too exciting, but I have to find articles and books and journals that back up my point which is where I'm running into a wall on this one. I hate searching for journal articles because sometimes the most useful article only says one or two things on the subject but it's the most profound thing you have ever read. Only, you can't find those articles easily because they generally only show up on the 5th or 6th search.

See what I mean? There are just a lot of things that are more fun than sitting in the library searching endlessly through journals. This includes things like studying my Gaelic and cleaning my room. I know I'm weird but I do enjoy cleaning to an extent. A clean room allows your mind to become less cluttered and Lord knows I need a good sweeping in there.

So for now, to increase the quality of my essays you understand, I am going to unclutter my room so I can unclutter my mind.

If any of you have any advice on how to help with my procrastination I would welcome it.

November 3: Never Do Art History

This is the pile of books I brought home from the library yesterday. I should have had 3 more, but one of them was larger than the largest book in that pile and I couldn't find the other two. I'm thinking about going back today to get the larger book and pick up a book I had reserved, but that one's not due back until 11:59 tonight so that one might not be in just yet.

The moral of the story is to never take an Art History calss. It's a lot of fun, but the books are ginormous. You should see some of the folios they have over here. I swear some of them look like they're heavier than me. And they told us that we were more than welcome to take the folios out of the library...if we had the upper body strength.

Anyway, these books should help me write my Art History essay, my English essay, and my Linguistics essay. All due next Tuesday. YIKES! But hey, only 1000 words! Who do they think I am? A first grader? I don't even know if I can get my point across in my English essay in 1000 words...and we have to count footnotes. Sigh...I hate having to condense my work. I think essays should be "write until you've fully answered the question."

Funny little tidbit about our library by the way. We have to use our Student ID cards to get in and out of the library. They are those turn stiles (I think that's what they're called) like the subways do in NY and LA. They read the barcode on our cards and the turn stile allows us to pass into the large and wonderful cavern of old books. But, they allow us to forget our card up to 3 times. After that they say, "sorry, go find your card or buy a new one." Fair enough. But when I was told this in a "How to Use the Library" lecture I started in a fit of giggles that I couldn't stop. I imagined a person trying to leave the library but he had forgotten his card one too many times and the librarians wouldn't let him leave. He was forever trapped behind the turn stiles with nothing but old books and newspapers for company. :)