Everyone of my updates will now feature a picture of Kitty!
Well, crunch time is now over, for me at least. I still have one thing left to do yet, but I have until next Friday to do it. What's more it's based on a paper that I've already finished, but more on that later. Overall though, I found this semester too be easier then last semester. When I was in crunch time last semester, I was way stressed out. Didn't get much sleep, and almost always pulling constant all nighters. On one huge paper, I literally ran out of time writing it. I just handed it it, half proofread. And after that, I had to set about writing something else. I am so surprised I didn't get sick from all of that. Just thinking about it makes me ill. Yet this semester, it wasn't so bad. I had plenty of time to get all of my work done in a satisfactory manner. I even felt pretty good about the large paper I turned in on Tuesday. So I have to wonder, why did things go better for me this semester then last.
But first, a picture of my cat being adorable.
She's camera shy! Fun fact: sometimes when she sleeps, she snores. Still adorable.
I have a number of theories. For one, I was more used to it, and expecting it this time around. Plus, since I survived last semester, I knew I could do it again. I guess I was more confident this go around. It also could be that my classes were easier this semester, which is certainly also a possibility. I like to think that I was able to plan ahead properly too. I made generous use of a calendar program on my computer, to plan out what I needed to do, and when it would be due to get all of my work done. I started somewhat early, and worked on little bits of stuff all throughout the semester.
I was also exercising a lot more this semester then last. Last, I pretty much just rode my bike around for exercise, but that stopped being feasible when the weather got bad, just as the semester was ending.. During winterm of this year, I took up going to the UWM Rec center to start swimming for about 45 minutes every other day or so. And then I started biking to and from class when the weather got good again. So when crunch time came around again, I was in very good physical condition. And of course, good physical condition leads to good mental condition. I also want to think Kitty (my cat) might have had something to do with it too. No, she wasn't much of a help on writing papers. She was more keen to sit on the pages then anything else. Most of the time she was soundly sleeping on my bed while I was working on stuff. Sometimes she even started to snore! Pets have a weird effect on people... It's kind of hard to describe, unless you happened to own a pet yourself. If anything, it helps to reduce stress, and less stress leads to better mental health.
That is to not say it still wasn't difficult. For weeks, my sole purpose was to work on stuff. If it wasn't one thing, then it was something else. And every waking moment when I wasn't doing something towards working on one of these goals seemed like a waste (unless I already had gotten a lot done that day). I pretty much had to cut out swimming for the last week, and I also stopped cooking and cleaning. I ate out or ordered in way too much, and my kitchen became full of clutter. First thing I did after I was free was to spend all night getting my kitchen nice and clean. The rest of this week has been cleaning, balancing my budget and paying my bills, and running various errands I had been putting off like getting my car's oil changed and groceries.
To illustrate how bad it was, here are some before and after pictures. I'll trust you can figure out which one is which.
Not pictured: the mountain of Diet Dr Pepper boxes, which was my caffeinated beverage of choice for this go around.
So right now, I'm at the half way point in Grad School. My plan seems to be working out. It's kind of weird to think though that by this time next year, I'll be back out in the real world. It's imperative that I have a job so I can start paying off the MASSIVE DEPT I've been accruing. And I've already dropped the ball once in this process. For this summer, I had wanted to go somewhere else that is not here to do my internship. Unfortunately, I really dragged my feet on it, and I ended up being lucky just to find something in town (unpaid to boot. Bah). Still need to do a second internship after that. My plan is to start looking around next fall for opportunities in spring. I figure I can travel as far as Chicago or Madison if need be, especially since I'll only have two classes next spring, if everything goes according to plan. And then, right after next semester ends, I'll start the really hard part in all this: finding a job. I am pretty much willing to go anywhere in the English speaking world to start out, even the South (which is really the last place I want to end up.) I figure, get my start somewhere, then after I have a few years of experience (and some money in my bank account), I can then get picky about where I want to go. I think this plan will work great, IF I STICK TO IT AND DON'T GET LAZY.
To that end, this summer will all about staying active. I next week, I'm going to start looking around to find a summer job of some sort. To stay busy. I also have an internship at the Milwaukee County Historical Society. Basically, myself and a few other people will be going through their collection and decide what is relevant to it and what isn't. The stuff that isn't will then be transfered to some other institution. It should be great experience for me, and will look great on my resume, cause a lot of museums have, or should be going through similar processes. I also want to try to have something of a reading schedule going. My plan is to read at least one 500 page book a week (or a 1000 page in two weeks). This is mainly to ensure I stay active reading something, cause a lot of what I do during a semester is reading. I know I tend to gravitate towards fiction, so I'm going to try and alternate between fiction and nonfiction. So, anyone know any good books?
That's about it for this week. I'm very much looking forward to next week because next Wednesday I'll be heading down to Chicago to see Conan (O'Brien)'s live show. If you remember earlier this year, I did a few entries about how much I like/respect him, so I can wait for this. It'll probably be the closest I'll every come to see him doing an actual show, but more importantly, this is probably a once in a lifetime type event. Unless he also gets fired from his TBS show, but I don't really see that happening. Not sure what else I want to do in Chicago. Of course, I'll be paying Mitsuwa a visit, cause I haven't been there in over a month! I'm thinking of spending the day in downtown Chicago though. Plenty to do down there, but I'll probably be a geek and visit a museum. Hey, it's what I'm going to school for!
But first, a picture of my cat being adorable.
She's camera shy! Fun fact: sometimes when she sleeps, she snores. Still adorable.
I have a number of theories. For one, I was more used to it, and expecting it this time around. Plus, since I survived last semester, I knew I could do it again. I guess I was more confident this go around. It also could be that my classes were easier this semester, which is certainly also a possibility. I like to think that I was able to plan ahead properly too. I made generous use of a calendar program on my computer, to plan out what I needed to do, and when it would be due to get all of my work done. I started somewhat early, and worked on little bits of stuff all throughout the semester.
I was also exercising a lot more this semester then last. Last, I pretty much just rode my bike around for exercise, but that stopped being feasible when the weather got bad, just as the semester was ending.. During winterm of this year, I took up going to the UWM Rec center to start swimming for about 45 minutes every other day or so. And then I started biking to and from class when the weather got good again. So when crunch time came around again, I was in very good physical condition. And of course, good physical condition leads to good mental condition. I also want to think Kitty (my cat) might have had something to do with it too. No, she wasn't much of a help on writing papers. She was more keen to sit on the pages then anything else. Most of the time she was soundly sleeping on my bed while I was working on stuff. Sometimes she even started to snore! Pets have a weird effect on people... It's kind of hard to describe, unless you happened to own a pet yourself. If anything, it helps to reduce stress, and less stress leads to better mental health.
That is to not say it still wasn't difficult. For weeks, my sole purpose was to work on stuff. If it wasn't one thing, then it was something else. And every waking moment when I wasn't doing something towards working on one of these goals seemed like a waste (unless I already had gotten a lot done that day). I pretty much had to cut out swimming for the last week, and I also stopped cooking and cleaning. I ate out or ordered in way too much, and my kitchen became full of clutter. First thing I did after I was free was to spend all night getting my kitchen nice and clean. The rest of this week has been cleaning, balancing my budget and paying my bills, and running various errands I had been putting off like getting my car's oil changed and groceries.
To illustrate how bad it was, here are some before and after pictures. I'll trust you can figure out which one is which.
Not pictured: the mountain of Diet Dr Pepper boxes, which was my caffeinated beverage of choice for this go around.
So right now, I'm at the half way point in Grad School. My plan seems to be working out. It's kind of weird to think though that by this time next year, I'll be back out in the real world. It's imperative that I have a job so I can start paying off the MASSIVE DEPT I've been accruing. And I've already dropped the ball once in this process. For this summer, I had wanted to go somewhere else that is not here to do my internship. Unfortunately, I really dragged my feet on it, and I ended up being lucky just to find something in town (unpaid to boot. Bah). Still need to do a second internship after that. My plan is to start looking around next fall for opportunities in spring. I figure I can travel as far as Chicago or Madison if need be, especially since I'll only have two classes next spring, if everything goes according to plan. And then, right after next semester ends, I'll start the really hard part in all this: finding a job. I am pretty much willing to go anywhere in the English speaking world to start out, even the South (which is really the last place I want to end up.) I figure, get my start somewhere, then after I have a few years of experience (and some money in my bank account), I can then get picky about where I want to go. I think this plan will work great, IF I STICK TO IT AND DON'T GET LAZY.
To that end, this summer will all about staying active. I next week, I'm going to start looking around to find a summer job of some sort. To stay busy. I also have an internship at the Milwaukee County Historical Society. Basically, myself and a few other people will be going through their collection and decide what is relevant to it and what isn't. The stuff that isn't will then be transfered to some other institution. It should be great experience for me, and will look great on my resume, cause a lot of museums have, or should be going through similar processes. I also want to try to have something of a reading schedule going. My plan is to read at least one 500 page book a week (or a 1000 page in two weeks). This is mainly to ensure I stay active reading something, cause a lot of what I do during a semester is reading. I know I tend to gravitate towards fiction, so I'm going to try and alternate between fiction and nonfiction. So, anyone know any good books?
That's about it for this week. I'm very much looking forward to next week because next Wednesday I'll be heading down to Chicago to see Conan (O'Brien)'s live show. If you remember earlier this year, I did a few entries about how much I like/respect him, so I can wait for this. It'll probably be the closest I'll every come to see him doing an actual show, but more importantly, this is probably a once in a lifetime type event. Unless he also gets fired from his TBS show, but I don't really see that happening. Not sure what else I want to do in Chicago. Of course, I'll be paying Mitsuwa a visit, cause I haven't been there in over a month! I'm thinking of spending the day in downtown Chicago though. Plenty to do down there, but I'll probably be a geek and visit a museum. Hey, it's what I'm going to school for!