Summer Break!

Two assignments finished and posted. Am now enjoying every second of my freedom with a huge smile on my face! Yesterday I spent all day cleaning my house and putting away all of the "school stuff". Today is for a backlog of neglected laundry. And tomorrow I go home to visit my parents for a couple of weeks. I'm NOT taking my computer, as I hope to not have to look at a computer screen for the next 5 weeks! Probably no more blogs til next session! 

Thanks to all for reading, and for following! 

Have a great summer!  (or winter, I guess, depending on your orientation with the equator)

See you in September!

Procrastination

My assignment is due in 8 days. Right now, it looks like this: 

 

With a little bit of this: 

It seems so hopeless. It seems so massive. I don't think I can do it. Time for a break!

Oh yeah... gotta do the laundry! 

Oh yeah...I MUST clean up the balcony!

Hmmm...better wash those dishes!

Are those pigeons back? I really have to pigeon-proof the patio!

Dinner time? Yeah... I'll get to the essay after dinner!

Gosh, those plants look thirsty...

Isn't that TV show online tonight? Can't miss that! Season Finale!

OMG! Is it 10:00 ALREADY?? Where did the day go? 

Clearly, I'm not going to get any more writing done tonight...might as well just read a book!

And so it goes.

I know I'm not alone. I don't think I'm worse off than any of my classmates. We are all in the same canoe!

But the guilt!! Terrible! How could I have wasted another day? Time is so precious, and I'm letting it slip away! Is this really part of the process? Will it ever get better? I mean, I have 2 more years of this. I don't know if I can deal with this guilt every time I have an assignment due. There has to be a better way! I'm going to do some research on time management.

Tomorrow.

Never do today what you can put off til tomorrow.

Good luck to all of my Manchester classmates!

Tree Murder in a High-Tech World

So, here's Toronto as viewed from my 11th floor balcony. I'm a bit Northwest of downtown. Know what I see when I look across the city? TREES! Lots and lots of trees! Red ones, yellow ones...green, brown, purple...it's gorgeous! You wouldn't think so in a big city, but it is! So today I am quite sad to say that I am sitting here murdering trees. Otherwise known as 'printing'. A lot of printing! PILES of printing! Reams of paper!
"But why?" you might well ask. "Didn't you blog about all the tech devices that keep you going?"
hmmm... yes. Yes I did. 
I recently discovered (while cramming for final essay #1) that I read MUCH MUCH faster on paper than on uh....screen. 
And I annotate faster. 
And it's easier to go back and find things. 
And it's easier to find files.
And it's easier to see where I am, and how much more is yet to be done.
And it's easier to put a particular article down HERE, in THIS spot, and remember where it is when I need it. Imagine articles strewn across my apartment in seemingly random order.... But for this visual learner, it makes perfect sense! "Bax... he's over THERE!"
Reading offline (on paper) is still for me, the easiest, fastest, most efficient way to read. 
Especially for the massive quantity that must be done for a research paper. The poor Sony just can't keep up. And the Mendeley account is full! They want more money for more space! Ha! Why would I spend money when I have all this PAPER?!
So, back to the trees... I'm feeling guilty. It is a LOT of paper.
I think grad students should be required to pay for tree-planting.
I'll be making a donation as soon as I finish my killing spree!