Midterm Music Madness! (Now That’s What I Call Music)

Posted by stressingoutstudent

It’s week 6 for those of us on the funky quarter/trimester university schedule. Midterms have been and still are in full swing. Here’s a list of 5 songs and artists that have been keeping me sane(ish).

1. “Warpath” by Ingrid Michaelson

I could create a whole list composed of just Ingrid Michaelson. (Got to see her live for the first time last week. I’m in love.) She has the three essential moods of music (for me): pensive, chipper, and opening can of whoopass. “Warpath” falls under the whoop-ass category. [“You and I” makes me so happy and her “Can’t Help Falling in Love” is my favorite cover of that song].

2. “En T’attendant” by Melanie Laurent

Shosanna Dreyfus/Emmanuelle Mimieux/that beautiful, maniacal, laughing face of the Jew from Inglourious Basterds (still my favorite movie) – Melanie Laurent doesn’t have much of a voice, but she’s very nice to listen to and this song is so soothing, yet motivating at the same time with that driving beat in the background. And she’s nice to look at, as well. She’s got a natural beauty that’s refreshing in the midst of our airbrush madness.

3. “The Big Bang” by Katy Tiz

I’m a sucker for modern songs integrating older styles of music or throwing in a sweet classical instrument or two, like “Ottoman” by Vampire Weekend and Parov Stelar’s “Chambermaid Swing”. This Katy Tiz song isn’t quite Stelar [see what I did there] but it’s new and I’ve found myself listening to it a lot recently.

4. “Follow Me” by Uncle Kracker

Throwback! My sister and I learned every word to this song when it came out many moons ago. Almost needless to say, it was before we knew what the song was about… No matter, still catchy and we still know all the words. (Although I do find myself constantly misremembering whether the line is “swim through your bangs like a fish in the sea” or “swim through your veins”…)

5. “You Can’t Always Get What You Want (Cover)” by Band from TV

Band from TV is, well, a band composed of TV actors and actresses. Band members from TV include Hugh Laurie (“House,” duh), Teri Hatcher (“Desperate Housewives”), Greg Grunberg (“Heroes,” the actual founder of the band), and Jesse Spencer (“House”), among several others. The proceeds of their performances go to charity and they all look like they’re having an awesome time showcasing talents most of us didn’t know they had. (And bonus: the song is set to clips of “House” – god, I miss that show).

Stay [mostly] sane, folks. And if you have any good song recommendations, leave them in the comments. Make ’em good!

Scrap Paper Poetry #7: The Studying Dead

Posted by stressingoutstudent

The students crawl in,
The students crawl out
They stalk the library
And lug about
Their arm-and-leg textbooks
And coffee stained pages
With eyes lacking luster-
They haven’t slept in ages.
It’s Dead Week – Beware
For the dead shall walk
Through dorm rooms, cafes,
And each campus block.
We hunger for brains
And will never rest
Until judgment day:
That sweet final test.

And holy balls- did you watch The Walking Dead? Good reminder of the benefits of staying ahead ((badum tss)). Good luck with finals, fellow students! And to all else, good luck with… life!

I Regretfully Regret: Cramming for Physics

Posted by stressingoutstudent

Wait, wait, I know this isn’t all that original. “A college student procrastinating on important college work? Oh me, oh my.” But hold on and just read the damn post. Humor me.

Indeed, “Procrastination” is my middle name – a middle name I’m sure I share with plenty of you, college students or otherwise.

As you may remember, I recently started a new post series called “I Regretfully Regret” – which was supposed to be weekly, but cut me some slack. I’m a lazy college student, remember? This week, my Regretful Regret is cramming for a physics midterm and here is why:

Physics is damn tough.
What the hell is Bernoulli’s equation again?
When did my handwriting get so bad?
Crap, I can’t figure out half of what I wrote down for notes
Is that a “t” or a “w”?
Calculator… battery dead? Nooooooooo… Must scramble through a dozen and two drawers to find batteries.
1:43 a.m. – if I finish in half an hour, I’ll still get approximately 5 hours and 47 minutes of sleep
2 hour session of alternating among studying, YouTubing, and crying
4:12 a.m. – can still get 3 hours and something something minutes of sleep [oh no, my math skills have died]
Inject emergency caffeine supply into arm. Head to class.

Stay in school, kids, and practice healthy study habits.

Yeah, right.

What is a recent Regretful Regret you have? If you’re a student, do you have any school-related regrets to share? (Don’t lie – we know you have plenty). Share them in the comments!

The Adventures of the Five Page Paper (or Damn It, I’ve Lost the Thesis)

Posted by stressingoutstudent

All right, five pages. Five pages due tonight. That’s not bad. That’s freshman high school English stuff. Easy peazy, lemon squeezy. Last paper for this ethics class. Last. Paper. Then you’re home free (after two more exams, but not gonna’ think about that right now). Ok, here we go.

Assigment: Your goal is to identify the text’s central claims, the author’s major arguments that support these claims, and the evidence that supports these arguments. Think carefully about the purposes of the text and about the context and background knowledge that it presupposes.

Yeah, this shouldn’t be too hard. Easy text. Pretty obvious claims. Of course licensing parents is a no-no. There are so many moral violations – this is going to be a piece of cake to write about. Ok, here we go.

[Times New Roman, 12 pt font]

[Format name, class, prof name, date]

[Right click -> Paragraph -> Double-space]

Cracking my knuckles. Ok, here we go.

Oh a text message. Hahaha, gotta reply to this… “LOL yeah. Ron Swanson’s teh best :-)”

Ok, here we go.

“In this essay, I will analyze the claims of the paper.”

Hm, skip the intro. Save the intro for last. Screw writing an outline; I’m just going to go straight into the body (that’s what she said…?) All right, identify the claims, identify the claims… La-di-da-dah… Facebook… Oh, George Takei (or George Takei’s Facebook mod), you cheeky funny bastard. Pandora… Johnny Cash station. Yeah, Johnny’s my home boy. Ok, here we go.

“In support of his assertion that parent licensing programs are necessary to protect children, LaFollete cites studies and researched statistics as well as referring to self-made observations.”

Whew, that’s an amazing sentence. Time to reward myself with a few Cracked.com articles.

After several quick fixes…

… What am I writing about again?

Scan through prompt with half-shut eyes and half-open mouth.

Ok, I got this, I got this. Claims, analyze, identify…

Two hours of YouTube, a sandwich, and two and a half paragraphs later…

KILL ME NOW.

Good luck to all fellow students on exams! What’s your essay-writing process? Got any procrastination tips? (And by “procrastination tips” I mean “ways to put off doing my essay for even longer.”)

Professor Strangelove: Or How I Learned to Stop Freaking and Love My Finals

Posted by stressingoutstudent

And thus, we reach the end of a romance, a thriller, a comedy of errors (thank God for the curve).

Finals weren’t – aren’t – so terrible.

It is with regrettably late realization that I have come to embrace finals. They stir me, quake me, make me feel alive as never before! Finals – essays, labs, exams, and presentations alike – are my sole reason for living. What am I to do this upcoming month? This barren wintry month without your sweet, sweet whispers into my ears as I lay awake at night? All-nighters – where am I to go to become motivated, as you have motivated me, to stay up into the wee hours of the morning to finish the 20-page essay? Where, Darling Finals, am I to turn to to soothe the cortisol withdrawals? The stress! Oh the stress. The brand of stress that the holiday brings is no match for you and your ever looming deadlines, procrastination, and the ring of the alarm clock at 6 in the a.m. Farewell, Fall Term and Finals, I knew thee well – far too well!

All the studying, the late nights/early mornings, and the hours spent staring at line upon line of text – all gone in favor or normality. What is “normal?” College is life, is it not? College is life and love and everything from here to the moon and beyond. I await the return to school, to winter term, to my new and true “normal.” Until then, let us write writhing, throbbing fan fiction of our fated love: Fifty Shades of No. 2 Ticonderoga…