kittenPAUSE
Hello again, been a while.
I've been working on a mountain in SoCal for the past two months, and I have to say, overall it's pretty great. I mean, for one thing I've been doing things I've never done before. Go on a zipline? Check. Climb to the top of a pole and jump off 30 feet from the ground? Check. Become a lifeguard? Done and done.
The people here are amazing, and I'm finding my niche, but as excited and happy as I am to be here, it's already time to start planning my next move. That is, I have to figure out what I'm going to do this summer and next fall.
Notes on applying to grad school:
Do: procrastinate to the last possible minute, give your recommenders absolutely no time to write their letters, don't proofread anything, don't check your internet connection
Don't: plan everything out months ahead of time, give your recommenders a ton of reference material, contact the department ahead of time and the person you are interested in researching with, get everything in at least 2 weeks early
Or was it the other way around? Eh, too late now.
So I applied to three schools and now is the part where I wait with bated breath. Well to be accurate my backup has already accepted me, but I'm still waiting to hear from the other two schools who might be more financially sound decisions.
...yep. My life is full of thrills.
kittenPLAY
Showing posts with label Life. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Life. Show all posts
Friday, March 1, 2013
Sunday, December 4, 2011
I'll never get this right, will I?
Hey y'all.
It's been a couple of months so of course it's time for another blog. I wish I remembered to do this more often but with two vlogs (kittenpaws33 and 39reasonswhy) and it being my final year at uni - welllllll you know.
I tried (by tried I should say signed up for) NaNoWriMo but as with this, I never seemed to have time to start. And I made up lots of excuses. I'm good at that.
It's hard for me to take a leap, especially when I think I can fail. I don't think that's really news to anyone. So I have lots of ideas, but I rarely manage to have the wherewithal to start them on my own. It's funny because I excel at things when I set my mind to them but lately, my brain has seemed... fuzzy. I don't know how else to explain it. 16 years of knowing exactly what I'm supposed to do, where I'm supposed to go, what I'm supposed to excel at - it's gotten me here and I'm not sure where to go next.
I have a plan though! And I'm not telling you internet, but it's a good one! In the mean time, look forward to more posts from me, as I procrastinate these last few weeks of class.
It's been a couple of months so of course it's time for another blog. I wish I remembered to do this more often but with two vlogs (kittenpaws33 and 39reasonswhy) and it being my final year at uni - welllllll you know.
I tried (by tried I should say signed up for) NaNoWriMo but as with this, I never seemed to have time to start. And I made up lots of excuses. I'm good at that.
It's hard for me to take a leap, especially when I think I can fail. I don't think that's really news to anyone. So I have lots of ideas, but I rarely manage to have the wherewithal to start them on my own. It's funny because I excel at things when I set my mind to them but lately, my brain has seemed... fuzzy. I don't know how else to explain it. 16 years of knowing exactly what I'm supposed to do, where I'm supposed to go, what I'm supposed to excel at - it's gotten me here and I'm not sure where to go next.
I have a plan though! And I'm not telling you internet, but it's a good one! In the mean time, look forward to more posts from me, as I procrastinate these last few weeks of class.
Thursday, April 7, 2011
BEDA
PAUSE...
So yeah, long time, no blog.
I mean I had plenty to blog about (SETI Institute REU until August, my vlog, the crazy classes of an astronomy major, figuring out what to do with my life, boy drama) but, as you might have guessed, having a lot to blog about also means having very little time to blog.
But I really enjoy blogging (and vlogging) and since I haven't gotten to vlog recently due to a whole bunch of things (primarily Christine and her not starting our new season), and because it's Blog Every Day in April, I felt at least one post was necessitated. I miss this.
So what have you missed? A birthday (another year older and all that jazz). Continued questions of what I should do with my life (yes I'd probably get into graduate school but what do I want to go for? Science outreach? Astronomy? Planetary Science? Space Science? So many choices, so indecisive...) I had the prospect of a boy for all of about 5 days until he stopped texting me and I discovered that we had VERY different understandings of where the relationship was going. It ended up blowing up in a lot of ways and resulting in way too much drama. Interpersonal relationships initiated via text message result in many many many miscommunications. Oh, and I'm taking Quantum Mechanics. So that's fun.
I'm also going to be in Australia for the summer! I'm super excited, I got an excellent internship, but now I have to figure out flights and housing and all of that... Hopefully it'll help me focus on the good in life and not perseverate on my lack of romantic interest.
I'm thinking about starting a fun science blog, or at least posting some fun science here, so if there are cool experiments you've heard about and would like to know more about, cool scientists you care about, or even science related TV shows you care about, let me know in comments!!
...PLAY
So yeah, long time, no blog.
I mean I had plenty to blog about (SETI Institute REU until August, my vlog, the crazy classes of an astronomy major, figuring out what to do with my life, boy drama) but, as you might have guessed, having a lot to blog about also means having very little time to blog.
But I really enjoy blogging (and vlogging) and since I haven't gotten to vlog recently due to a whole bunch of things (primarily Christine and her not starting our new season), and because it's Blog Every Day in April, I felt at least one post was necessitated. I miss this.
So what have you missed? A birthday (another year older and all that jazz). Continued questions of what I should do with my life (yes I'd probably get into graduate school but what do I want to go for? Science outreach? Astronomy? Planetary Science? Space Science? So many choices, so indecisive...) I had the prospect of a boy for all of about 5 days until he stopped texting me and I discovered that we had VERY different understandings of where the relationship was going. It ended up blowing up in a lot of ways and resulting in way too much drama. Interpersonal relationships initiated via text message result in many many many miscommunications. Oh, and I'm taking Quantum Mechanics. So that's fun.
I'm also going to be in Australia for the summer! I'm super excited, I got an excellent internship, but now I have to figure out flights and housing and all of that... Hopefully it'll help me focus on the good in life and not perseverate on my lack of romantic interest.
I'm thinking about starting a fun science blog, or at least posting some fun science here, so if there are cool experiments you've heard about and would like to know more about, cool scientists you care about, or even science related TV shows you care about, let me know in comments!!
...PLAY
Saturday, May 1, 2010
The Beginning of the End & How to Procrastinate
Surprise! It's kittenpause time again!
I know, 5 months, no excuse.
To be fair it's been a very long, frustrating couple of months in my land, and free time was more likely to be spent on mind deadening things than anything else.
Anyhow, exams will begin Monday and be over by 1:15 on Thursday at the latest so... I'll try to be a more prolific writer. Although I won't have my own computer for almost a month, so my ability to post may be limited. BUT once I get to SETI (where I'm working this summer!) I'll try to post what I can and keep you all apprised.
Onto the meat of this post... procrastination strategies!
STRATEGY #1: sleep. This is an excellent form of procrastination. Just don't get out of bed. Side effects including feeling gross and the need to shower.
STRATEGY #2: watch Hulu. This also applies to regular tv, youtube, any website with video content, really. Basically watch everything you find interesting. Then search for new shows.
STRATEGY #3: Find friends. They are very diverting and distracting. Go for a walk, go on an adventure, forget that you have to study for things in general.
STRATEGY #4: make a list of things you need to do. Don't do any of them. Feel that this is enough work and read a book, play a game, check all of the above to see if anything new is going on.
STRATEGY #5: learn an instrument! Not well enough that you can actually play, just well enough to annoy people.
STRATEGY #6: Realize it's too late to start anything. sleep some more.
Who else has effective procrastination strategies? I think zoning out is also pretty effective.
Thanks for reading this brief kittenpause. Now back to your regularly scheduled life.
PLAY
(finished SG-1 ages ago)
I know, 5 months, no excuse.
To be fair it's been a very long, frustrating couple of months in my land, and free time was more likely to be spent on mind deadening things than anything else.
Anyhow, exams will begin Monday and be over by 1:15 on Thursday at the latest so... I'll try to be a more prolific writer. Although I won't have my own computer for almost a month, so my ability to post may be limited. BUT once I get to SETI (where I'm working this summer!) I'll try to post what I can and keep you all apprised.
Onto the meat of this post... procrastination strategies!
STRATEGY #1: sleep. This is an excellent form of procrastination. Just don't get out of bed. Side effects including feeling gross and the need to shower.
STRATEGY #2: watch Hulu. This also applies to regular tv, youtube, any website with video content, really. Basically watch everything you find interesting. Then search for new shows.
STRATEGY #3: Find friends. They are very diverting and distracting. Go for a walk, go on an adventure, forget that you have to study for things in general.
STRATEGY #4: make a list of things you need to do. Don't do any of them. Feel that this is enough work and read a book, play a game, check all of the above to see if anything new is going on.
STRATEGY #5: learn an instrument! Not well enough that you can actually play, just well enough to annoy people.
STRATEGY #6: Realize it's too late to start anything. sleep some more.
Who else has effective procrastination strategies? I think zoning out is also pretty effective.
Thanks for reading this brief kittenpause. Now back to your regularly scheduled life.
PLAY
(finished SG-1 ages ago)
Friday, September 25, 2009
Failing Tests, Evaluating Life Goals, and Harry Potter
It's time for a big, fat, KITTENPAUSE.
Or at the very least, it's time for me to ramble on aimlessly for a bit of a while during which time you procrastinate doing your work (or perhaps I'm interesting to you, what with my woes of life and Harry Potter obsession.)
Which brings me to the topics of today's post: Failing Tests, Evaluating Life Goals, and Harry Potter.
Failing Tests
For those of you not aware of where I go to school and what I do (do I have any of you yet? I think most everyone who reads this knows me "irl") I'm currently taking a class entitled "Thermodynamics" although I think a more apt name would be "Thermodynamics is only a third of this class and you're going to fail." The professor of this class is the bane of many a student's existence and, I am given to understand, grades more based on whim than on demonstrated understanding of course topics. This past Wednesday was my first experience taking one of his tests and, despite studying for nearly 5 hours the night before, getting to bed by 1 A.M., and eating a breakfast the next morning, I'm fairly sure I failed the test. The thing of it all is, I needn't have failed the test. I probably would have passed (and still could have, I suppose) if not for the fact that on the easiest problem of the test, I neglected to actually copy the equation properly. This is pretty much the silliest reason I can think of to fail a test and, hopefully, my crazy teacher will agree and allot me two-thirds credit for the question because, really, I understood how to solve the problem I just couldn't help my brain from running through the final song from "A Very Potter Musical" We must unite, so we can fight, turn the battle around. We must unite so we can fiiiight. Voldemort is going DOWN. I am not alone in the failure of this test, but I'm fairly sure I'm the only one who will fail for such a ridiculous reason.
Which leads me to Part II: Evaluating Life Goals
Failing a test is a big deal to me. You have probably already guessed this, as you most likely actually know me, but doing well is incredibly important to me. If I failed this test it leads me to wonder if I'm actually pursuing the right career. I mean, it's only a second year course and I'm on scholarship so if I fail this class (extrapolating, I know) then I could conceivably lose my scholarship, have to drop out of school, and find a nice place to live in some alleyway with a couple of cats. Yep. This led me to asking myself what I want to do with my degree when I get out of here and the truth is, I have no idea! I don't really fancy being a professor or a teacher, and the only real vision I had for my future was a bookshop of my own with a resident cat. That's not to say I don't love learning about the universe and how it works and doing math equations and generally searching for life's existence elsewhere but somehow... I can't really see my life past getting my doctorate and I'm starting to wonder if I'm just putting myself through school because it's expected and because I never saw another way of doing it. I mean I'd really like to be the next Bill Nye, but how does one get that to happen? So I figure, getting my doctorate is a good place to start. If a realllly long course of action. And all because I think I failed a test. Sometimes my imagination just gets ahead of itself.
Harry Potter
While I was evaluating my life goals I asked myself: What do I really love? And the only answer I can come up with is Harry Potter. And by that I mean the series, not the actual character. I spend most of my life thinking in terms of Harry Potter, quoting Harry Potter, and finding other awesome things that people who love Harry Potter have done. (A Very Potter Musical, anyone?) If I could just figure out how to make a living off of my love of Harry Potter, I'd be golden (This is possible, besides the boatloads of money Warner Bros. has made, there are Wizard Rock bands, Vloggers, the Mugglenet and Leaky Cauldron people... I could do that!) The only problem is I can't quite figure out how to make that awesomeness a reality. The advice I'm constantly thrown is "do something you love and you'll never work a day in your life." I can't help wondering how I know what I love... it seems to me at this point that I won't figure it out until it's too late.
If not astronomy, then what?
Okay, enough of my depressing (if witty?) banter.
It's time to PLAY.
Or at the very least, it's time for me to ramble on aimlessly for a bit of a while during which time you procrastinate doing your work (or perhaps I'm interesting to you, what with my woes of life and Harry Potter obsession.)
Which brings me to the topics of today's post: Failing Tests, Evaluating Life Goals, and Harry Potter.
Failing Tests
For those of you not aware of where I go to school and what I do (do I have any of you yet? I think most everyone who reads this knows me "irl") I'm currently taking a class entitled "Thermodynamics" although I think a more apt name would be "Thermodynamics is only a third of this class and you're going to fail." The professor of this class is the bane of many a student's existence and, I am given to understand, grades more based on whim than on demonstrated understanding of course topics. This past Wednesday was my first experience taking one of his tests and, despite studying for nearly 5 hours the night before, getting to bed by 1 A.M., and eating a breakfast the next morning, I'm fairly sure I failed the test. The thing of it all is, I needn't have failed the test. I probably would have passed (and still could have, I suppose) if not for the fact that on the easiest problem of the test, I neglected to actually copy the equation properly. This is pretty much the silliest reason I can think of to fail a test and, hopefully, my crazy teacher will agree and allot me two-thirds credit for the question because, really, I understood how to solve the problem I just couldn't help my brain from running through the final song from "A Very Potter Musical" We must unite, so we can fight, turn the battle around. We must unite so we can fiiiight. Voldemort is going DOWN. I am not alone in the failure of this test, but I'm fairly sure I'm the only one who will fail for such a ridiculous reason.
Which leads me to Part II: Evaluating Life Goals
Failing a test is a big deal to me. You have probably already guessed this, as you most likely actually know me, but doing well is incredibly important to me. If I failed this test it leads me to wonder if I'm actually pursuing the right career. I mean, it's only a second year course and I'm on scholarship so if I fail this class (extrapolating, I know) then I could conceivably lose my scholarship, have to drop out of school, and find a nice place to live in some alleyway with a couple of cats. Yep. This led me to asking myself what I want to do with my degree when I get out of here and the truth is, I have no idea! I don't really fancy being a professor or a teacher, and the only real vision I had for my future was a bookshop of my own with a resident cat. That's not to say I don't love learning about the universe and how it works and doing math equations and generally searching for life's existence elsewhere but somehow... I can't really see my life past getting my doctorate and I'm starting to wonder if I'm just putting myself through school because it's expected and because I never saw another way of doing it. I mean I'd really like to be the next Bill Nye, but how does one get that to happen? So I figure, getting my doctorate is a good place to start. If a realllly long course of action. And all because I think I failed a test. Sometimes my imagination just gets ahead of itself.
Harry Potter
While I was evaluating my life goals I asked myself: What do I really love? And the only answer I can come up with is Harry Potter. And by that I mean the series, not the actual character. I spend most of my life thinking in terms of Harry Potter, quoting Harry Potter, and finding other awesome things that people who love Harry Potter have done. (A Very Potter Musical, anyone?) If I could just figure out how to make a living off of my love of Harry Potter, I'd be golden (This is possible, besides the boatloads of money Warner Bros. has made, there are Wizard Rock bands, Vloggers, the Mugglenet and Leaky Cauldron people... I could do that!) The only problem is I can't quite figure out how to make that awesomeness a reality. The advice I'm constantly thrown is "do something you love and you'll never work a day in your life." I can't help wondering how I know what I love... it seems to me at this point that I won't figure it out until it's too late.
If not astronomy, then what?
Okay, enough of my depressing (if witty?) banter.
It's time to PLAY.
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