Work better under pressure?

Essays...... I don't really like writing them, but I prefer them to sit-in exams. The problem that comes with writing papers are there isn't that pressurized environment that exists in a class setting (unless you start on it 2 hours before it is due). So, you can plan to write your paper in increments throughout the week before it's due, and hope that it everything works out well. That never works because the brunt of the paper will be completed the night before the due date, and the previous four nights i'll be playing online billiards while staring at a blank worksheet.

This plan has carried me through up to my junior year here in college. That's when the teachers started their crazy 15-page papers (often two professors would assign two papers of the same length due at the same day or week). So trying to write upwards of 30 pages in one night is no easy task, especially considering there is actually a question you must answer thoroughly within the filler paragraphs.

That is where this new method came about. It sounds kind of dumb, and it is dumb-- but it is effective. What I do is simple: using a stop-wacth (the one on your phone would suffice), allocate a certain amount of time for each page or each two pages, and try to meet those requirements. Also, allow 10 minutes in between pages for downtime, so you can focus on the task when the time is ticking. I find that it saves me a lot of wasted time looking at the screen.

I'm sure everyone has their own way of doing things, but I think these simple tasks accomplish alot for me and that is why I have designated them as 'genius'.

I'm offended!!!

Friday is always nice. End of the school week, weekend coming up; it's just one of them days. I took my test this morning, and it went okay I guess. As I was waiting to get on the # 12 bus home (by the way, what a bunch of assholes those transit people are. They slack off way too much on fridays, and I always have to wait like 30 extra minutes just to get on the bus. They are the epitome of tools) I was reading these articles in the red and black and another paper, and I noticed something-- people are easily offended.

Regardless of the situation, it seems that people are quick to use the O word whenever they hear or see something they just so happen to disagree with. Look people, get over yourself okay. Am I the only one that hates the fact that we talk and treat one another as if we were still in grade school? Grow up for god's sake!! This bitchi' and moanin' is not getting us anywhere.

I'll give people the benefit since they aren't aware of what constitutes an offense. It's understandable. It's like anarchy out there. What makes something offensive? Since there's no rule, people freely use the term whenever they disagree with something. So, as a public service to all of you, I have decided to step up to the plate and illustrate some examples where it would be appropriate to use the phrase "I'm offended".

1. If someone is trying to take your life, that is the most offensive thing someone could do.
2. If someone physically assaults you for no reason.
3. If someone harasses you incessantly.

These are the top reasons to be offended. It is of course, not an exhaustive list, but it should give some sort of guideline as to whether or not your particular situation deserves the branding of an "offense".

The particular article that got me pissed off were....well, there were actually two. The first one was about this stupid overblown story about this colage for black history that included some epithets (nigger) that some thought was offensive, despite the fact that it was depicting an historical event that took place at UGA. The thing is that not showing it would be sugar-coating, while placing it there somehow undermines the "diversity" efforts (man, what a bunch of horse-shit that is...i'll talk about this one day). I'm saying it's not that big of a deal, and no one is running around campus calling people "niggers". get over it and move on, simple as that. But for whatever reason, the paper dedicated the entire opionions page for these people that were "offended" by the mere mention of the phrase and....blah blah blah. They talked about how these types of incidents were the reason why there wasn't as diverse a population at UGA as there are at other comporable schools throughout the country. My take is that people that think racially will think so regardless of minority enrollment (so, let's say there are 20 black people at school, and they all hang together.... getting more blacks at the school will just make that one circle bigger, not infiltrate other racial groups. So I ask where's the diversity in that?....(i'll wait until you do the math........... exactly).

The other article talked about this stupid 50 year old tree that was taken down. I'm not going to even attempt to talk about this one, as it is completely absurd. I'll just refer you to one Eric Cartman who says "I hate tree-huggin' hippies". Enough said.
So there... hopefully within months of implementing this plan, the offense rates will decrease and I can one day sit down and read an article written by someone that acts and reacts comporable to their age.

I am heading to work in a couple of hours, so i'm going to try to get some rest before I have to go in. The indian fellas are heading up to the classic city (that's a pretty gay name for a city... how about we change it to something else please?) for India Nite on saturday. I'll be at work of course, so i'll be missing out on the activities of the weekend that will surely involve Taco Bell.

Can't sleep

I should be asleep right now. I can't, so I figure i'd write up on the radio show I did today.

But before I do that, I'd like to return a favor from Mike. He put my Blog website up on his commentary page, and I'll do the same. I guess since i've already bitten his style once, why stop there, right? The way I see things, combining his readership with mine will bring a total of 4 people who read these things, and then there will be nothing to stop us. This is actually how Wal-Mart started.

Anyways, You can get to Michael Mullen's commentary page through this link.

Back to my deceivingly boring Radio story:
Well, I've been with this all-volunteer radio station here at UGA since this past fall, and today I got to co-host a 30-minute show concerning minorities. It went pretty well, considering I had short notice (the person originally scheduled to do the show didn't make it, and they didn't find out up until the last 5 minutes before the show was to go live). So, me being there and meeting the criteria (that of a minority), I filled the void. We really just talked about stuff going on in the news. I brought up the Chris Rock controversy regarding the Oscars .

That took up some of the 30 minutes allotted to the show. We had a couple of calls, one of which made it through. At the time I was discussing why actors are rewarded retroactively for the roles they portray. I brought up the fact that Denzel Washington got an academy award for a movie, although good in its own right, that paled in comparison to Malcom X or other good Denzel movies in the '90's, and the same could be said about countless other times where actors were given their due credit years after they made their best work. Well, the caller simply stated that it was just the way things were (which is not really a comment by the way, it's like telling me the reason why the sun rises and falls is because it's the way things are, asshole!!), and that was that. He did bring up some decent arguments to support his theory, and we got through that.

The remainder of the show we talked about the Grammy's and Ray Charles getting so many awards. Other than that, the show went pretty smoothly, more so than I expected it would. Oh yeah, this guy called some minutes after the show had ended to complain about how he didn't think we knew what we were talking about.

There's actually some truth to what that guy was saying. He was referring to the segment we did talking about likely winners at the Oscars (as it related to Jamie Foxx and Don Chaedle). I said that it was a gimme for Foxx to win it, simply because of the hype, and my co-host said she was rooting for Foxx to win. The problem with this was, as the listener observed so anally, was that neither of us had seen either film and shouldn't have been discussing who should win what.

After that, I tried to work on this PSA i recorded (if I find a way to work the audio system at the station, i'll put a link of the PSA here). Being the impatient person that I am (patience is bullshit, not a virtue), I decided to leave and get home to catch up on some reading and finish up on the 4th disc of season 3 of that mega-hit "24" (i'm sure you'll be able to catch up to me sooner or later kiddo) :).

Well, anyways, my plan to sleep in early so i'd be able to wake up early to complete some tasks is backfiring, the sleeping early part anyways, and i'm sure the rest of that plan will crumble come tomorrow.

So, remember kids, don't be a failure like me.

Planning is so overrated

If you have been around me in the last few months, you are pretty much aware of my overrated rants. Basically, in the middle of any conversation, I always tend to find one thing that is overrated. I think most things are more overstated than overrated, but overrated has a more dramatic element to it that I often prefer to use it. Well, the reason I bring this up is because I stumbled on to something that is very overrated, planning.

Today I planned to do accomplish certain tasks;
1. Get a haircut
2. Fix the car
3. Clean the car
4. Study for friday's exam
5. Go to the radio station for talkblock

Well, if this were a test, I'd be failing right now. My hair is still long, the car is still dirty and broken, and I have to look over the notes for friday's exam. the only thing left is to go to the radio station, and I should manage to get that done only because it is not really a hassle to do so.

I know that the reason why these tasks haven't been accomplished are because I failed to do anything about them, which is exactly my point. I think getting the task done should be stressed over planning your day out. What's the point of planning without any follow through. I think planning is useful once you are on your way to getting something done, like being on the road on your way to your first task. Then you can organize your actions into something efficient. But planning the day or week before is besides the point and is a waste of time, to me anyways.

Well, that's pretty much it for today. I'm expecting a letter from howard (clarkston people know what im talking about) and I should start posting the letters up on days that I don't have much to say.

Im pro-anti

Have you noticed that anything can be turned into a positive? Regardless of what it is, people can justify their position by simply prefixing their position with a pro-. For example, if i was against abortion, i wouldn't say im anti-abortion; that would sound negative (and nobody likes negative people). Instead, you can romanticize your position by saying that you are for something, like life, and everything would be alright. "Hey, look at him, he's so caring, he's pro-life. awww." The same thing can be said about pro-choice people. In truth, they aren't pro-choice; that is too broad a stance. They are against something. If you for the right to abort, you are also conversley against the life being aborted. In short, you are anti-life. I think people would be better suited if they just stated what they are against, rather than spinning it into something they are for.

Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of things that one can be for. I myself am for The Indianapolis Colts (which will win next year's superbowl). This is because there is no one distinct team that will be denied from getting a superbowl; there will be 31 others. Therefore, any position that has a distinct counter-force, the emphasis must be placed on the opposing force, and not the other way around.

"24" is beyond awesome

Today's classes went pretty well. I must have gotten up on the right side of bed (whatever the heck that means), because I was pretty rested and was awake for the duration of my 3 morning classes. I did slip up though with something I have been trying to take care of for the last month. My car is in dire need of a brake job. It has been so for the last 4-5 weeks. For whatever reason, something that's not important always gets in the way of completing this task. The real problem is that the mechanic that I take my car to only accepts cars at a certain time. Anytime before 11 a.m. is early enough for him to get throgh it by the business day's end. The problem with that is that I have a class at 11. So, in order to make it to class on time, I must get up extra early and drop it off. That never seems to work, 'cause I always, and I do mean always, manage to find an excuse good enough for me to hit that snooze button. By the way, what a deceiving little device that is. I mean, the whole point of that button is to give you a little bit more time to sleep before you really have to get up. But, I think it just makes it easier for you to not get up. If that option did not exist on my alarm, I probably would wake up on time more often, seeing how missing the first alarm would not be an option.

Anyways, I woke up early enough to get the car taken care of today, but something outside my realm of control impeded that task. It freakin' rained today!! Rain is no good when you have to walk from the car shop to class (which is about a 20 minute walk, with no umbrella). So, I reluctantly (maybe not relunctantly) went back to sleep and moved the appointment to tuesday morning.

Other than that, monday is pretty much a slack day for me. No work and no extra-curricular activities to hold me down. I can pretty much do anything, but never really do anything outside of what I have always done on mondays, at least for the past 2 months, and that is watch some "24" !!!!!

For the past 2 months, I have been wacthing the show "24" (starring Kiefer Sutherland) on DVD. I must say, this is probably one of the better shows that I have come across. As transparent as the climactic endings to each episode might be, the whole concept is pretty well-thought out. I am still on season 3, so I have not been watching the new season. The local video store has this deal on monday where you can get any new release for the low price of 2 bucks; compare that to the 3.70 you'd otherwise have to pay for the same rental. So, every monday, I rent out one-4 episode dvd of the show to watch. Right now, i'm on the third set of 4 episodes (which would be the 9-12 p.m episodes). At this rate, I should be done by spring break.