holidays are wonderful

See how productive I was this weekend? Although I made those before break. But still. Really most of the credit should go to the sunset though. Just want to say that I'm so direction oriented out here! Which is a little bit strange, because I back home I don't think I could tell you which way was west/north/etc. (I'm sure I could now though because I'm more aware of which way the sun moves in the sky). Anyway, I guess you can tell that the living room/kitchen windows face west (because let's be realistic, I'm not going to wake up early over break. Actually tried to, and ended up sleeping until ten...)

I wish snow could stay like this: beautiful but without the
harsh realities of its coldness. Not really a huge fan of my
runny nose and my numb fingers...

I really was surprisingly productive this weekend though. I won't bore you with everything that I accomplished, but I'm proud of myself. My homework is done, as well as some other things that I wanted to do. And I have gotten at least ten hours of sleep every night this week (except for Sunday night I think...). What a glorious feeling.

So I put a blocker on Chrome that only allows me to visit certain sites for a certain amount each day. I can't say that it's been very effective because I started using Torch instead of Chrome, but one time when I was changing the time limit the site scolded me and gave me this site to look at. If you're reading this, I have a distinct feeling that you might be procrastinating, so hey, procrastinate a little longer and read that article, and it might even inspire you to change your ways! I'm not promising anything though.

I can't believe that I essentially only have one more day of freedom and then I'm back in real life where I have to wake up in the morning, even if that means I only get six hours of sleep that night. Where I have to go to school, write papers, take tests (ugh, one last midterm this week). And where I have to start studying for finals. I am absolutely dreading my stats final because I have used Excel for just about every homework assignment we've had so far. ...And that's the way that the professor told us to do them.

I'm not counting down or anything, but nine school days and four days of finals left. 18 days until I get to see my family. 20 days until my sister gets married. 21 days until I get to go home. I am so excited. So, so very excited.

oh Sandy

Lately it seems like I haven't been able to concentrate long enough to get a coherent post out. But this will work out... says me for the fifth time. Sigh.

I missed my good friend Sandy on her visit to the east coast. Looks like she had a good time with my family... 

Almost forgot how much greener New Jersey is.

Whoops.

Part of me is sad that I missed out on such an exciting event, but at the same time, I have found some extremely crunchy leaves here the past couple of days, and I don't know that I'd want to give that up. Then again, no school for a couple of days would be nice, and it probably would be good for me to not have power because then I'd be forced to go to bed earlier. Also, I wouldn't mind having Halloween postponed because I still don't have a costume. I think I'm going to go to DI (it's similar to salvation army) this afternoon and find something there. Man, in some ways I'm completely unmotivated. 

Day before last I was able to register for classes for next semester... Can't say that it worked out quite as well as I expected it to. I'm on a waitlist of 33 people for a class of 25, so that looks promising... And then some of the classes that I was planning on taking aren't even offered this semester, so my schedule looks a little bit different than I was planning for it to look. On the bright side though, I managed to avoid afternoon classes (other than my o chem lab, for which I'm on a waitlist of 55 people for). So now all I have to do is sit back and hope that everybody -- and then some -- drops the class sessions I want to take.

I haven't made any origami lately, or read, or practiced organ... and somehow I still need to go to bed earlier than I am. I mentioned the step study that I'm in before. Last week I went in so that they could update my pedometer, and found out that I was not actually reaching the 15000 steps I was supposed to, so now I have to figure out how to wander around more to reach that. It feels so pointless, trying to take the most ineffective paths to where I want to go, just so that I can take more steps. Maybe I wills start running so I don't have to feel obligated to take the longest path to wherever I want to go. 

cutting corners

I have a really bad habit of cutting corners all the time. Since I live decently far off campus, every time I go onto campus I envision the point from where I am to campus as a straight line, and then I adjust for cars, roads, buildings, and sometimes people. But I don't just strive the most direct path, I adjust to create the most efficient path, taking into account the energy that each path will require to expend, and time.

I guess the rest of campus concurs with me... My apologies, BYU grass

Good for you, you might say. Except for maybe not so much, because sometimes my tendency to cut corners extends beyond trampling the grass, or partially jay walking from crossing the street at a slant. For example, in my Book of Mormon class we have to read the first half of the book in two weeks, and our professor said the chapter headings weren't technically part of the text... so I haven't read any of them. And then in all my classes I can never seem to do any of the homework before the night it's due, or sometimes even the day of, if it's something that doesn't have to be handed in during the class period. And my food? Yeah, definitely not up to snuff. I really do need to do better to stay on top of things... and to do them the right way, not just half-way or part way. 

Also, my habit of calculating the possible benefits and detriments to each path has led me to the realization that to every situation there are way more factors than you can see at the initial glance. Sticking with the example of getting to point A to point B in the most efficient manner, one might decide to cut through the grass, because the distance that way is shortest. But is it the most effective path? Because after all, the grass offers much more resistance than the sidewalk does, so it probably takes longer and requires more energy. And there's always the risk that the sprinklers were just on so you might slip or at the very least your new shoes will get soaked. So really, is it worth it? I don't know. Honestly, I'd probably be better off walking to campus like a regular person. 

On a somewhat unrelated note, my organic chemistry class (so far) is awesome. My professor is absolutely obsessed with explosions and I love it. Every class period we usually get at least two explosions, although this time it was something cooler... the reaction of sulfuric acid and sugar. Watch the last minute or so of this video. The smoke you see coming off is carbon dioxide. Chemistry is so neat!