Essay season…

So, I just finished 2 weeks of prac placement, and of course now I’m sick.

I have an essay due in 2 days, and I just can’t THINK straight. Just want to sleeeep 😦

~K

Too busy for productivity – TEDx

~K

Chaos has begun again…

So I’m back to spending whole days at the computer.

And it’s still 3 weeks until I go back to uni!

So why am I at the computer, you ask?

Some of you may remember this post from mid-last year, when I orchestrated the majority of a stage show in the 2 weeks before opening night (yay for volunteer/not-for-profit events :S).

This year, I made it clear that I would do as much of it as possible before I started back at uni, so I only have to do a handful of songs (if any) at crunch time.

I have finally gotten sheet music for the majority of the songs, so I’ve started orchestrating everything. I’ve got 3 weeks to get as much as possible done. Seeing as I did it in 2 weeks last time, 3 weeks should be plenty of time (famous last words? possibly).

I’m already beginning to see which songs I’m going to be really proud of, and which ones I’ll be SO SICK OF by the end that I’ll never want to hear the song again. Thankfully, it seems there’s only 2 of those so far (I’m still missing a few songs, so there may be more).

I should head to bed now, ready for another full day at the computer. I will definitely be including a trip to the gym though, or I’ll go completely stir crazy. Today I broke up the sitting all day thing with my food shopping.

~K

NB for the record, after checking the previous post, I should probably mention that I am also doing signwriting again this year. I just don’t have any signs to paint yet. At least I can listen to lectures while I paint!

Things I’ve learned from being off Facebook

I went off Facebook in April 2014, after I realised just how much time I was spending wasting on the site. This ended up being a really good decision for me, because it meant that I was better able to concentrate on my uni work and other things that constant scrolling had been taking me away from.

 

Here’s some of the things I’ve learned in my time off of Facebook:

1. Most people won’t even notice you’re not there.
   I put up a “hey guys, I’m disappearing for the foreseeable future, please text/call if you need me” post when I bailed off, and STILL everyone was surprised when I’d say in conversation “remember, I’m not on Facebook at the moment”.
2. You WILL miss some important announcements, unless you have someone who is keeping tabs on stuff and can update you.
   Between Hubby and my best friend, I managed to keep mostly up-to-date with the really big things (babies, engagements, etc), but I did miss a few things. I missed several birthday parties because they only did Facebook invites.
3. Sometimes, Facebook really is the best way to keep in contact with family.
   I have a HUGE family on my Mum’s side – she’s the oldest of 6 kids, and everyone has at least 2 kids, and most of the ones over 18 have long-term partners. Not being on Facebook meant I had honestly no clue what was going on with them unless my Mum told me.
4. You will find out who is really your friend.
   The friends that actually care and want to still catch up with you will text/call. My “friends” list has reduced to about 6 or 8 people compared to while I was on Facebook, and I can’t say I’m particularly sorry – I prefer having a few good friendships than having heaps of superficial ones.
5. I increased my “other social sites” use, but not by a significant amount.
   I found that when I initially got off of Facebook, I had a steep increase in the amount of time I was spending on Tumblr, Twitter and WordPress, but that reduced after a few weeks – when you don’t follow a thousand people, there’s only so many new things that will turn up on your feed when you refresh it.
6. Now I’m back ‘on’ Facebook, I’m not checking it anywhere NEAR as often as I used to.
   I’m only doing 1 or 2 scrolls per day now, and I think that this is a sustainable amount. The time I’ve spent without Facebook seems to have broken me of the constant-checking habit.

Things I’ll be doing differently this year:

1. I won’t be completely bailing this year – instead, I will be making changes to the things that turn up in my feed.
2. I will be un-friending and un-following people.
   There are some people I can’t un-friend without creating a shitstorm, but I can remove them from my sight.
3. I won’t be posting very much, even when I’m on there.
   I honestly find that there is very little I want to share on Facebook – the time away has given me a new insight into just how shallow and RIDICULOUS a lot of posts really are. I found that I didn’t even want to share some of my really exciting stuff (YAY I got a 6.0 GPA and got invited to the High Achievers lunch) because I didn’t want shit to hit the fan – I know that there are people who would take it as a slap to the face, rather than be happy for me. Maybe I’m over-thinking that, but I just can’t be bothered dealing with that crap.
4. I will not have the app installed on my phone.
   I still have the app installed on my iPad, but not on my phone. On my phone, I am too likely to just randomly scroll because 80% of the time my phone is where I can see it.
5. No notifications
   The only Facebook notifications I’ll be getting are the Facebook Messenger ones, because I have a few friends who prefer to use Facebook messenger so they can save on credit. Fair call.
6. Facebook calendar sync.
   I have turned on Facebook calendar sync, and I’ll keep it on this year, even if I go off Facebook for all intents and purposes – because that way, I shouldn’t miss out on the birthdays/celebrations I did last year.

~K

Procrasti-blogging

I know I said that I would disappear until the end of exams… but I got bored with studying and had to write something.

And the taco casserole recipe I’ve got set for Friday was just TOO GOOD not to share with you all.

Now I should really get back to studying.

YAY exams :S

~K

Semester is almost over!

I have now officially finished classes for the semester, and I’ve only got a little more than 2 weeks until my exams are all done too.

YAY HOLIDAYS!!!!!! Not-so-yay being the fact that OMG SUMMER IS HERE AND IT’S GOING TO BE DISGUSTINGLY HOT.

I’m aiming to get in a better habit of writing blog posts over the break though, so there should be a bit more reading material for you all!

I’ll probably disappear now until my exams are over. See you on the other side!

~K

What’s been happening?

I’ve been sort of absent for a little while – many apologies!

I’ll try and get you all caught up with what’s been happening here in that time.

Uni
Semester 2 started, and we’ve got even more reading than last semester! I’m a bit behind on the readings, but that’s to be somewhat expected. We get 4 weeks break from classes from mid-September to mid-October, and during that time we get 2 study weeks and 2 weeks of prac. Looks like I’m going on prac during the second 2 weeks. I’m planning to catch up on all my readings during that time, because between now and then I’ve got 2 assignments and an exam. Thankfully, the exam is open-book, so I just need to know where to find the info.

Health
My physical health has been really good (except for good ol’ hay fever – the wattle started flowering about a week ago and my sinuses hate me right now). My mental health has been reasonably good too, except for the day I forgot to take my tablets, and the week when I overclocked my ability to deal with change.
I haven’t really been riding to uni much this semester (only ridden twice in the past 5 weeks), mainly due to horribly inclement weather – it’s been very wet for this time of year, and the nice days have pretty much only been the days when I’m NOT at uni.

Home life
Our washing machine appears to be on it’s last legs – Hubby pulled all the outsides off to fix some stuff a couple of weeks ago, and it seemed ok… Until yesterday, when it started making weird clunking noises during the spin cycle again. I REALLY don’t want to have to replace it, but we might not have a choice if the problem is what Hubby suspects.
Other than that, I’ve managed to mostly keep up with the housework, and I’ve been reasonably good at actually sticking to my meal plans. I also got an AWESOME new toy for my birthday – the slowcooker/ricecooker/etc magic machine that I’ve been wanting for ages 🙂 It’s having its slow cooker maiden voyage today – I’m making Chicken Teriyaki, and I’ll put the recipe up once I’m done. I’ve kept my little rice cooker as well, because I figure I will probably need it occasionally when I want to serve rice with something I’m doing in the slow cooker (like today).
Hubby and I have been doing date nights a little more often as well over the past few months, which has been really nice 🙂 Hopefully we’ll be able to keep that up for the rest of the semester.

Now, I’d better get back to studying and working on my assignments.

~K

Mulan Motivation

So I watched this on the weekend 🙂

~K

To-do List 19/5/15

List progress for today:

• dishes
• watch week 11 Clinical Health lecture 
• watch Neurological Assessment video
• research for presentation
• finish uni “catch up” list
• cook dinner
• clean paintbrushes

Now I’m off to do the dishes, so I can make them dirty again when I do dinner hahaha.

Then, it’s off to do some more set painting tonight (hence cleaning the paintbrushes). I always forget to clean my brushes properly after I use them, so I tend to just wash the worst of it out and then clean them properly a few days later. This time it’s been a whole week :S I need to replace a few though, out of a starting set of 7 (rounds in sizes 1, 3, 5, square in 2, 4, 6 and 10) I only have the round 3 and square 6 & 10 left. Others have gotten lost along the way, or I’ve left them too long without proper cleaning and they’ve gone solid. I’m managing with just these three atm though, so I can wait for replacements (white taklon brushes are expensive :S).

Now, I should GET OFF TUMBLR and WordPress and actually go do the dishes.

~K

Beautiful music…

Or at least, that’s what I keep telling myself.

I’ve been transcribing and rewriting music today for the show I’m doing… 

I haven’t actually counted how many times we do this bit yet… basically, this song uses the same chord progression for the chorus, verses, even the BRIDGE. The melody changes just slightly each time, but if I write out everything in full the music will be like 15 pages long. Done this way, it’s only 2 pages.

I had to play this song today at rehearsals too. I stopped reading the music after the 2nd time through the progression… Then the cast was like “Where are we up to”, and my reply was “No idea sorry, I haven’t been reading the music. I’m just following you guys!”. This was the point when I was informed that there was a key change for the last couple of times through. Woop-de-doo, now I have to work out HOW the key change happens.

How I feel right now… please tell me I’m not the only one who remembers this…

At least my A&P exam is done – it was WAY easier than I thought it would be, and that could mean that I either did really well, or bombed. I think I did pretty well though (I hope so, anyway!).

I’ve got a presentation on Thursday, so I’ll have to sort that out tomorrow, but it’s pretty easy (hello first-year boringness). I’ve got to talk for 3 mins about what sort of nurse I want to be, and what training etc is needed to get there. 3 minutes!?!? Piss easy. We don’t even have to hand anything in, or have a powerpoint, or ANYTHING. We just have to get up and talk for 3 minutes. We are purely getting marked on how well we get up and talk, and whether we describe what we want to do sufficiently.

I’d better get back to finishing this song. At least that will be 2 down off of the list.

~K