| 3 may 2024 |

I was at the library, I'm working on a paper for my internship. its going very slowly, I wish that "the hardest part is getting started" applied to me because it doesn't when I'm writing most times 🥲 maybe it's an adhd thing. proud of myself for making it this far into the year and still using my bujo (even if it's inconsistent).

anyway it's been a bit hard for me to be consistent on here because I don't have a desk where I live and I'm not allowed to take pictures at my internship (national lab rules). I will be moving and starting my Ph.D. program so soon I'll have a study space!

Sundays were made to make you feel guilty and embarrassed and anxious huh

Reblog if youre any active studyblr in 2024

Reblog so i can find my people!!

4.24.24 | went out into the field today to do some plant collections to create some preserved specimens for our school’s herbarium! I’m really excited to see how they press and I felt extremely academic while doing it.

🎧 on repeat: speed of the sound (of you) by peter mcpoland

so back when i was teaching, one of the things i learned to look for were the "mood makers", as i liked to call them, of the classes. there were always 2 or 3 per class, and it was easy to find them in the first few days. you got those kids on your side, and it was a ripple effect with the rest of the students - they would all follow. so winning those kids over was huge when it came to how the year would play out. and from time to time, whenever the class was sort of faltering - middle of winter, of a big project, burn-out high - i would lean back in on those mood makers again to turn things around.

one particular class, when we had a big multi-month group project happening, were just... really struggling with getting their shit together lol. they were supposed to be practicing their presentations (english speaking class) and they were doing pretty much anything but, and their presentations were supposed to start the next class day. they were also PANICKING as i started giving out some feedback - which was NOT GREAT - as they were running through the lines they were supposed to be remembering. after realizing all of them needed so much extra work, i decided we needed to have a turn-around, so i invited one of the mood makers up to the front. i held out a cup to him, with two papers inside.

"one of them," i said, "says tuesday, and if you draw that, presentations go as planned. but one of them says thursday, and if you choose that one, everyone gets extra time to practice."

everyone was like OH SHIT. OKAY. THIS IS IT. and this mood maker, he was a big personality (they usually are) so i knew he'd really ham this up, and he did. we made a huge deal, with drum-rolls and everything, of him picking one out of the cup. he opened it up the paper and announced THURSDAY to a round of huge cheers. he was the class hero. everyone had TONS of motivation to work super hard on this gifted extra day, and really put the time in. their presentations were great. morale SOARED.

the plot twist was that both papers said thursday, because they all needed the extra time. my forever teacher advice: find creative ways to make things happen so that you get the buy-in from the class.

Summer holidays. I started reading Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. I’ve wanted to read this book for a while.

Here’s my therapy homework that I thought someone else might enjoy. My therapist suggested I make a “Dopamenu” which is a list of activities that boost and support your dopamine levels. I’m very extra, so I created one on canva and had it printed and laminated.

You don’t have to do all of this. Having a dopamenu as a note on your phone is just as good, and can be helpful as a written down reminder of the things that help your happy hormone.

03.04.2023

this is the study snoopy. he bestows good fortune to all the students that cross his path this exam season. he believes in you and so do i

Ilya Repin (1844-1930), Students Preparing for an Exam, 1864, oil on canvas, Saint Petersburg, State Russian Museum; present at the retrospective expo Ilya Répine (1844-1930) : peindre l'âme russe at the Petit Palais in Paris, 21 October 2021-23 January 2022.

March 19, 2024. In order to validate a PhD in France, a candidate must do 100 credits worth of workshops, seminars, etc. Some require active participation, others simply require presence, but none of these are graded.

I'm in my first year as a PhD candidate and one of my goals for this first year was to get as many of the 100 credits as I could. I was so aggressive with this plan that I went over the 100 mark this week, with another dozen or so credits left to go from things I registered for in early April as well as the all-day workshop I sat through today about "Developing effective reading strategies and tactics".

I tried to go into this with an open mind, I hoped to get some ideas about more efficient reading, but then we spent most of the morning talking about building bibliographies. There are multiple dedicated workshops for doing just that, even though I personally find it quite concerning that after doing a Bachelor's and a Master's to be able to apply to doing a PhD, there's still a question about how competent we are in building bibliographies, but I digress.

I was not the only one surprised by this, and I actually went back onto the catalogue to read the description which did mentioned the word bibliography not one single time, but the instructor persisted and I suspect most of us just worked on our own things while pretending to pay attention. (It was online, thankfully.)

In the very beginning of the workshop though, before the instructor sunk all of our spirits down, she had us discuss in smaller groups our own reading techniques, which ended up being the most enriching part of the day. So here's a sequence of steps comprised by a group of PhD candidates across different disciplines:

Anyway here’s a poem I wrote about my cat

After “Do not stand at my grave and weep”, author disputed:

Do not stand at your bowl and meow. I gave you food. It’s in there now. I feed you at the dawning light, I feed you at the fall of night. I feed you kibbles mixed with meat And wet food for a special treat. I feed you even though you scoff At all the food within your trough. I feed you and still yet you yell Like as a beast from deepest hell. Do not stand at your bowl and cry. I gave you food. You will not die.

I wrote one for my roommate’s cat as well;

Do not stand at my feet and cry It’s VEGETABLES, you silly guy! Your begging will not change the food Into a thing you think is good I’ll give you things not cheese or meat You sniff at them and then retreat And yet, as soon as chopping starts You run back in and beg for parts You squint your eyes at plant-based food And yet you won’t stop BEGGING, dude! Do not stand by the stove and bleat You don’t like this. You will not eat.

I haven't had the best day, but this...this made me laugh so hard I had to get a tissue and wipe my eyes 🤣🤣🤣

@bestnoncannonship Samson

@petermorwood

March 28, 2024. Between the full sunshine, the flowers in bloom, and the easy breeze in the air, the temptation to skip this afternoon's seminar was high. I did my due diligence though, and I'm glad I did because it was genuinely interesting and also it was an opportunity to catch up with my PhD friend afterwards. We sat at on the terrace of a café for a while and then we walked around for a bit.

the only way i'm able to get work done these days

Do people in other countries memorize things with a red transparent plastic sheet or is this Asian or East Asian thing? Or even something unique to my country??? I never see it coming on English-speaking internets so I assume people don’t do this in North America and Europe

I searched up and it seems like it’s unique to my country

For real ?? ??? ?????

I’m pretty sure I’d be stuck in middle school if I didn’t know this technique. This might be the biggest cultural shock in last 5 years

I supposed that at least fellow East Asians are doing this but there’s no info besides the ones introducing stuffs from my country

I know you guys have no clue what I’m talking about. Sorry. I’ll explain this to you tomorrow.

This is bugging me now and I can’t sleep so I’m elaborating now. It’s 4AM so please excuse the grammars and stuff

I thought this could be useful for somebody, but a person told me they don’t sell the sheet there. So just listen

Also if you’ve used the technique in the school please tell me where are you from.

So you prepare your notebooks. The point is to write the stuff you want to memorize in orange

And you prepare a red, transparent sheet. I haven’t got one with me so I’m editing the image but you know what I mean by the picture. Imagine the sheet is on the notebook.

And then you hide the orange letters with the sheet. And go “hmm what was the Czech word for even though?”

You slide the sheet down to check the answer. And continue. “Now what was the Czech word for even though/even if?”

“Oh it’s i když”. Then continue. If you want to, draw an ! next to the word you can’t memorize. Or something like that.

You want to memorize something printed?

Then highlight the word with a dark green pen

And the sheet. Now who was the dude who held the Slavic Congress of 1848?

Oh it’s Palacký (btw yes, they teach you about him if you’re in an advanced class)

I suppose this is especially handy in our education system where kids are forced to memorize tons of facts

You may not be able to adopt this style even if you find useful because it seems like they don’t sell the seat overseas. I’m aware of it.

Idk where this post was going so I’m ending this post. Bye

It’s especially handy when you want to memorize certain parts of a sentence and only that part

Or maps. Dude the MAPS

Also speaking of redsheetified maps can you take a look at a creation by 18yo me. It’s Colonial Africa

Oh that's fucking awesome.

I knew op was Japanese as soon as I saw the headline because the only time I've seen this is was when I bought a book for a japanese language test (NAT Test) and yeah, Absolutely unique to Japan. But now I'm glad to know how to use it!