Time-management.
If all had gone to plan, tonight I would be attending the Crowded House reunion concert. And tomorrow morning I would be sitting my exam for French Literature.
Called my parents last night to figure out what was happening with the concert (Parents are taking me a part of a Christmas present. Fucking early, I know. But it’s Crowded House.)
“What? No, we’re coming down on Wednesday, Ben. The concert’s on Wednesday.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yep.”
“Well when the fuck is my exam then?”
Turns out, the exam’s on Thursday. I somehow moved everything one day forward.
I thought it was curious when the boss informed me that she gave me the day off for my exam, and the four days prior so that I could study. When I looked at the roster, I thought she must have been confused - she’d given me three days for study, the day of the exam, and thursday - the day after.
Nope, I was wrong.
Oh well, looks like I have an extra day for studying, when will go down quite well. Sucks for various plans on Wednesday night though, varying from a Halloween Party to going Bowling…
Up next: Two days from hell.
Remember that horrible class I’m taking where the assessment is rediculously structured in a way to ensure that everyone gets the lowest mark possible?
Where 10% of your entire mark is determined by your draft introduction? And how the lecturer doesn’t bother to return the proposals until the day when the introduction is due, thereby preventing a chance of improvement?
He’s trumped himself.
I mean seriously. He must have planned this.
70% of the course determined in the next two days by way of test and the remainder of the essay.
The test, tomorrow, is two hours long.
We have to write one essay and seven paragraphs.
He was nice enough to give us a “study sheet” with four essays and twenty-three paragraph questions. The sheet clearly states “You will have one hour and 50 minutes to complete the test. You will be asked to select ONE essay question and SEVEN paired identifications from the list below.”
Yesterday we get a ‘clarification’ email reminding us that, contrary to what the sheet implies, not all of the options will appear in the test. HE suggests that only two of the essay questions will appear, and around 10 paragraphs.
So we need to prepare for three essay questions.
‘Get over it’ I hear you say - you have the questions, it’s not that bad.
But no.
These questions are the questions from hell. They have barely been covered by the course work, and require a lot of extra independant research. Not quite what’s to be expected in a test…
So I’m going to have a fun night 
Then, tomorrow, I get to go and do the test. Come home. And try to finish what is likely the worst essay I have ever written. Hopefully I do well in the test, I’m going to need to.
Got quite stressed about it all before. Just stopped everything. Took a break. Grabbed the guitar out. Spent half an hour just playing. IG’s latest playalong is brilliant, bloody inspiring. It’s amazing how relaxing and de-stressing jamming is. A bit like Shannon’s kick-boxing I guess. Just more mellow. And less sweaty. And doesn’t make me want to hit people.
I need to change my strings though. Pretty sure the B is about to break.
And so it begins.
Today has been shit.
I thought it would be a good idea to get up early and spend the day up at Uni putting in some hard hours on my assignments and revision for my tests.
Of course, I didn’t want to be too eager, so I figured if I got there around 10 that’d be fine, a good six hours before my class. Set my alarm for, oh, 8.30, respectable time. Catch the 9.20 Bus. And Voila.
But no.
Daylight saving screwed with my body clock. I don’t function before 8. While the clock said it was after 8, my body said “Yeah fucken right” and refused to even open my eyes. I finally managed to suppress my inner self and drag myself out of bed (begrudgingly) and hour later.
After some rushing around I managed to catch the 10am bus… not too late. But shitty, and half awake.
Reading my books for my French Lit test made me realise that I had far too much to read and not enough eyeballs to focus.
Working on my essay had the brilliant effect of making me doubt my entire direction and argument, my sources, and my ability to finish the essay on time.
I did write a draft intro to get me in the mood, and a quick outline which is far too sparse and short to amount to much. I found a couple more articles, but when am I going to find time to read them?
Mmm, pie for lunch. And coke. Back to work.
Class time, coinciding perfectly with a massive sugar crash, leaving me feeling, again, half asleep and not really listening to the lecturer. And the test is on Thursday.
I’m taking tonight off. I might read one article. But that’s it. I’m not going to fry my brain. I need to destress.
Could fucking do with a beer… but there are none in the house and I’m broke.
Well, that’s a lie. We have some Victoria Bitter that some guy left after a party. But I tried one last night, and seriously, its not even worth it. It can’t be classified as beer. Really. It tasted like… well, remember back to the first time you ever tried a beer. Probably a sip from your dads glass/can/handle/yardie.
Remember scrunching your face up? Thinking that it was one of the foulest tasting things on the planet, perhaps only beaten by brussel sprouts? Yeah, VB took me back to those days. And I drink a lot of beer. It shouldn’t do that anymore.
So what to do instead?
Stock up on copious amounts of caffeine of course. By drinking an entire six-cup plunger of beautiful coffee. Fair trade, organic, “a clean crisp medium bodies Indonesian coffee, with a hint of spice.”
Uh huh. Just gimme the caffeine. (It is bloody good though….)
Sunshine and Caffeine.
It is a beautiful day today.
I just spent two hours down at my favourite cafe, imbibing large amounts of exquisite caffeine while doing uni readings and research in the sun. In shorts and a t-shirt.
My senses are piqued.
My heart is pumping caffeine throughout my system. I’m more aware, can feel the slightest breeze, colours are brighter.
Feeling great.
Thank god for coffee. Thank god for sunshine.
Thank god for good days.
Insert Expletive Here
So my research proposal was wrong.
Too broad, beyond the scope of the paper, and based on too much speculation.
Basically, I wanted to look at the potential federalisation of the European Union - how far along the road to federalisation is it, how has it gotten there, specifically, what role did the Member State governments play, considering the amount of sovereignty they stand to lose?
Admittedly, it’s a huge topic.
That’s cool, always happens.
Probably going to narrow it down to something like…. In what ways does European Monetary Union represent a federal institution?
I just really wish that I’d received the feedback before the other part of the assignment was due.
Now what happens? Obviously I’ve done that part wrong as well - am I going to lose marks based on something I didn’t yet know?
That sucks.
-
Recently Written
Recently Commented
Adey Ben, 2 months without a post is terrible. Get moving!!!!!
yojoe What about Missile Pops?
Shannon OMG. Check it out… http://mudhead.uottawa.ca/~pet e/beard.html
Ben A singular beer won’t quite cut it. But you’re on the right track…
-
Admin
