Piece no. 2

This is very very very old. It was written several years ago, when I was supposed to be writing a prep for an in-class essay and could not concentrate. No, sorry... A letter home from -- agh, that would make it 11th grade. This is OLD.

( mind )

Now that I look back on it, I am reminded (of course) of Buddhism - they did a whole bunch of stuff on non-duality too.

umph... midterm

Maybe I read, write, and type faster than most people (which in turn is probably due to the fact that I simply do so more than most people as well) or maybe I took that story about that quartermaster friend of my dad's who did so well on the army exams, or maybe any number of other things, but I really don't think it's worth it to stay up all night before an exam. Let me elaborate.

Firstly, cramming really does very little for you. Sure, you remember things you wouldn't have before, but with proper studying that's the case anyway, and at the level of head-stuffing this particular midterm requires, you're just as likely to forget what's important anyway.

Secondly, by staying up all night, even if you drink a lot of coffee or other things with huge amounts of caffeine in them, you still stayed up all night, which means you've probably been awake for at least 24 hours already when you walk into that exam, and believe me, human beings are not meant to stay awake that long and remain alert without some serious training.

So here you are, stumbling into an exam with a head so full of crammed facts that you can't remember anything else (short-term memory really needs to be refreshed on a regular basis) and that you're just as likely to forget anyway, with no sleep , which means you can't think all that well and you probably have a shorter attention span and are twitchy.

Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't this likely to make you do worse rather than better?

Last night I got seven hours of sleep (that's one more than usual), I let myself wake up slowly, so I don't feel tired at the start of the day, and I sat down at the computer and wrote out my outline. It took me an hour and a half, which is pretty long for me (I tend to write essays in that time - four page, five page, six page essays in that time) but that's because I went back and did lots of revisions and was thinking things out in my head at the same time and committing to memory certain phrases that I knew wouldn't fit on the card I'm allowed to have. This should be fine. Four countries in fourty minutes, with one thing that stands out about each of them, and no real need for a thesis to say why I picked those? No problem. I'm probably over-prepared: I have thesis-possibilities on that card that I probably won't even need.

As far as the simple ids, I'll either get them or I won't - no point agonizing over them at this date. And the complex ids? I'm about to go over the notes again (although I just did that for the outline writing thing).

Besides, a test is supposed to be to see how much and what you've learned, not how much you can cram into your head at the last minute.

(Alright, I do cram for vocab quizzes, but that's because I'm terrible at vocab, and I'd fail otherwise)

I've been taking tests (excepting vocab quizzes) with this mentality for as long as I can remember, and I got into Pomona, didn't I? I probably won't get an A - I probably could if I abandoned my social life in favor of grades - but a B is fine. Straight Bs means a 9/12, which translates down to a 3/4 on the smaller scale, which for many people is DAMN good.

Besides, I wanna be a techie. That's practical experience, not grades.

*sigh*

Yep, I love the performance life. In the end, it doesn't really matter what I do, so long as I can sit down in the middle of a whole bunch of bustle and just work on something, being with everyone and... and... and... Well, I can't describe it! It's the feeling I get before plays, before recitals, in this prep for the Japanese Dinner just now, at cons...

Perhaps more than anything else, I love this feeling.

Even though we didn't rehearse my dance, I did get to watch mhikaru and lots of other lovely people do the Sakura Fan Dance for Kabuki, which is also going to be performed. And an Ayumi Hamasaki song that I cannot get out of my head.

So I'm listening to it right now.

Piece no. 3

Another older piece, but eh. I kinda like it, hopefully rabidfarfgirl and her friends will like it *hint hint*.

It's a Inuyasha/Naruto crossover - Sesshoumaru vs. Naruto. You'd be surprised.

( ficage )

I kinda like the idea of Naruto being able to do that. ^_^

Piece no. 4

And again, immediately. I just realized I can put this stuff out and there are people who might actually read and like it. That would be nice.

A confrontation between Ran of Weiß (Weiß Kreuz) and Ryushi of Bösen Blick (original).

( wai! )

wow...

Following random links randomly, I find (at yxonomei's [Internecine Adoration]) this.

Wow.

I love this.