Firstly, I am finally back home in Brisbane! Secondly, my dad gave me a call about 2 days ago saying that there were approximately four packages waiting for me at home.
Hold up.
How do you approximate four packages? There are either four, or not four. No in-betweens.
To my delight, upon walking into a house I have not seen for 3 weeks, there were indeed exactly four. Exactement. I ordered a new fan for my laptop because it was absolutely killing me with this horrendous sound. Honestly, I couldn't even localise it when I first heard it and after reading a few forums, I was panicking in angst because it could have been coming from the right side. Right side = hard drive.
Right side. Catastrophe. Right side. $2000 that I do not currently have.
Thankfully, I opened up my baby (and almost killed my hand in the process, escaping with a mere but foul swoop of the aluminium with one of the screwdrivers) and discovered that it was the fan. Thank goodness.
Left side. Sécurité.
And just when I thought things couldn't get any worse, I almost stripped the head on one of the unibody screws trying to detach the fan in case it was a piece of dust or something caught in the fan. No luck. Doesn't help that I was trying to unscrew a torx screw with a phillips.. that was even too small for the casing screws. I should have just left it right there and then, but I had to continue and almost single-handedly destroyed my laptop in one night. Magnifique. Anyway, the point of the story is that you should always buy the right sized screwdrivers if you want to unscrew a.. screw. That's a lot of screws. So, $6.00 and a new fan later, my laptop is in perfect working order.
Oh, right. LookFantastic. Whoops.
Being a bleacher, I'm constantly on the lookout for hair products that aren't going to make my hair feel like absolute death. Basically I want the facade of "healthy" looking hair without letting everyone know that I've indeed murdered it already.
(And I have.)
I've been tossing up whether I should take the plunge and delve into the depths of Kérastase. I've heard mucha glory about their products and even though I'm in the possession of, I still have not, to this day, put a drop of any of their products to my head. All dramatising aside, I ripped open the box last night and was pleased to see that everything was packaged so nicely. It looks like I bought a lot, lot more than I actually did. I really like the site - I was reading a few reviews on their shipment times, but honestly it's not much of a problem for me even if shipping is a tad slow. Unless I'm tight for time (which I am never, might I add, when it comes to online therapy), so long as there is a package that arrives on my doorstep sometime, I am pleased.
And here we have it.
Monday, June 24, 2013
Saturday, June 22, 2013
MAC Prep + Prime Transparent Finishing Powder
Greetings everyone!
Exams have been over for a week and I have had a (I think) well-deserved break so far. I had a pseudo-weekend in Cairns with le boyf and came back on Wednesday. I didn't even think to take photos.. and I mean it didn't help that I only just found my SD card about an hour ago. That's how out of it I was. I say it's a pseudo-weekend because it wasn't really the weekend, but it was still 2 days. I sort of realised that it was our one month anniversary that day.. man, I suck. Anyway, the weather was magnifique and it was so good to get out.
As a small aside, I'm going home tomorrow and I'm super excited to see everyone! Time flies. Seriously. I remember leaving home at the beginning of the semester, and already it's been one week out of six of my holidays.. just gone.
Anyway, I thought I might introduce one of my everyday products: MAC's Prep + Prime Transparent Finishing Powder. Personally, I find it a bit annoying and after it's finished I will definitely be moving onto pressed powder. It's just that when I'm on the go, it's a hassle opening the container to an explosion of powder when it's moved around in my makeup bag or whatever. Not ideal. Overall though, it's pretty good, although the only other powder I have to compare it to is one from Natio. I want to try Urban Decay's finish powder so it's definitely on my list of next purchases.
To be honest, I didn't ever think of finishing powder as a necessity but once you go MAC, you can never go back. Kidding. I just wanted to put a rhyme in there. But seriously. I don't think I could ever put on foundation again without setting it with some sort of finishing powder. I'm the type of person who has fairly dry skin, but I still opt for oil-free foundations because I absolutely hate my skin feeling really dewy, moist and just.. gross. That's my opinion anyway. I will do anything in my pow(d)er to attain a matte finish. That's just how I roll. I just like the way it feels.
Exams have been over for a week and I have had a (I think) well-deserved break so far. I had a pseudo-weekend in Cairns with le boyf and came back on Wednesday. I didn't even think to take photos.. and I mean it didn't help that I only just found my SD card about an hour ago. That's how out of it I was. I say it's a pseudo-weekend because it wasn't really the weekend, but it was still 2 days. I sort of realised that it was our one month anniversary that day.. man, I suck. Anyway, the weather was magnifique and it was so good to get out.
As a small aside, I'm going home tomorrow and I'm super excited to see everyone! Time flies. Seriously. I remember leaving home at the beginning of the semester, and already it's been one week out of six of my holidays.. just gone.
Anyway, I thought I might introduce one of my everyday products: MAC's Prep + Prime Transparent Finishing Powder. Personally, I find it a bit annoying and after it's finished I will definitely be moving onto pressed powder. It's just that when I'm on the go, it's a hassle opening the container to an explosion of powder when it's moved around in my makeup bag or whatever. Not ideal. Overall though, it's pretty good, although the only other powder I have to compare it to is one from Natio. I want to try Urban Decay's finish powder so it's definitely on my list of next purchases.
To be honest, I didn't ever think of finishing powder as a necessity but once you go MAC, you can never go back. Kidding. I just wanted to put a rhyme in there. But seriously. I don't think I could ever put on foundation again without setting it with some sort of finishing powder. I'm the type of person who has fairly dry skin, but I still opt for oil-free foundations because I absolutely hate my skin feeling really dewy, moist and just.. gross. That's my opinion anyway. I will do anything in my pow(d)er to attain a matte finish. That's just how I roll. I just like the way it feels.
Thursday, June 6, 2013
An update on the last 24 hours
Aside: I had the weirdest dream last night. I dreamt that someone from uni got cut to pieces by her parents and then they did it to themselves. Somehow, my friend came back to life. It was so weird.
In order to make up for the past 3 months of absence, I have decided to make my re-entrance during the most impractical time within the academic year. My level of care ain't happening right now, let me tell you.
But before I start, I'd just like to say that my 4mL sample of Tom Ford Champaca Absolute arrived this morning and I can smell it from here. It's so delicious and I'm so tempted to start spraying myself, but I'm refraining and using it as a reward instead.
I know this post is a little overdue, but I'm guessing it's before exams for most people. Oh well. Point taken. A common question I get asked is how to focus study. Basically, how do I revise the main points while making sure I cover everything?
I like to divide my learning up into two phases: concepts and detail.
Look at your learning objectives. You'll be given an overview of things you have to cover, and those are probably the bare basics that you'll be looking into for each week. Make sure you can answer all of those objectives because the bulk of the exam will be based on them. There's no point in trying to go into insane amounts of detail if you don't have to. I mean sure it's interesting and it might be something to come back to, but you probably can't afford to spend so much of your efforts/brain capacity trying to shove a new bit of information that isn't that relevant (to your exams).
The learning objectives are keys because most questions will stem from them. If you have tutes, look at those too. This isn't for university exclusively - high school has learning objectives and in fact, they're probably a lot more structured than those given to you post-high school. Ugh. I want to be back in high school, where pretty much everything is done. Sure you get freedom, but at the same time, you're subjected to about 10 times the amount of content. Literally I learn an entire term's content (equivalent at a high school level) in 2 weeks. Sometimes even less. It always acts as a constant reminder of how much more I could have done in high school.
ANYWAY, that's totally besides the point.
In terms of answering the learning objectives, what you want to do is skim over them briefly and just try to form a very brief mental answer, to give yourself an idea of whether you know at least something about what it's asking. Interpret the question. Then you can focus your learning while you look over your notes. You might come across something and say to yourself, "Oh yeah, I remember seeing that in the learning objectives". Big light bulb. Have the learning objectives next to you. Mine are always at the top of my notes, so I just take a photo on my phone to keep them in sight. It saves having to scroll up to the top of the document every time I finish answering an objective.
It's also always really helpful to know what you covered in each week of every subject. That way, you can pinpoint the major concepts behind each week. And there will always be a major concept or idea. Drill those principles into yourself, and then you've laid the foundations needed to build upon it. If you get the major principle, then you can build your detail on that because you actually understand the bare fundamentals going on in that week. Just pinpoint the major concepts underlying in each week. It's usually outlined in the learning objectives anyway. I mean, even in a subject as seemingly non-conceptual as musculoskeletal anatomy, there are still major concepts in there. Like.. muscle is attached to bone. If you pull on muscles, bones will move and it depends on the placement of the muscle as to HOW the bone moves. That's that major principle in almost every week of what I learnt. If you take those bare basics away, then it makes learning a lot more relevant and understandable.
You always want to be reading over your notes. Now that you've looked over the objectives, see what else you've been taught that could be tested. This is the key behind doing well in multiple choice. Because it requires (mostly) no thinking (except if you have bulk calculations to do.. eugh..) and if you see an answer that you recall seeing in your notes, then it's most probably right. This is where you don't really need to dedicate it to memory, but seeing it will stimulate your memory enough. It's amazing what memory recall can do.
Then you want to consolidate. Having done all this work, you're obviously going to have strengths and weaknesses. Write down your weaknesses and just revise the content again. There's no harm in having done more study than less during this week because it's going to be over with in a week or two anyway. You might as well give it 100%, rather than 40% and then regret. For the most part, you get 1 or 2 chances to pass the subject. That's it. Try hard now and then you don't have to worry about it.
If it helps, try making yourself concept maps. Like, if you get one thing, it'll lead to another, and another and another and another and eventually things make sense because it flows. That's mostly how I remember things. I try to group things into logical events.
Hope this helps!
Again, good luck everyone. :)
In order to make up for the past 3 months of absence, I have decided to make my re-entrance during the most impractical time within the academic year. My level of care ain't happening right now, let me tell you.
But before I start, I'd just like to say that my 4mL sample of Tom Ford Champaca Absolute arrived this morning and I can smell it from here. It's so delicious and I'm so tempted to start spraying myself, but I'm refraining and using it as a reward instead.
I know this post is a little overdue, but I'm guessing it's before exams for most people. Oh well. Point taken. A common question I get asked is how to focus study. Basically, how do I revise the main points while making sure I cover everything?
I like to divide my learning up into two phases: concepts and detail.
Look at your learning objectives. You'll be given an overview of things you have to cover, and those are probably the bare basics that you'll be looking into for each week. Make sure you can answer all of those objectives because the bulk of the exam will be based on them. There's no point in trying to go into insane amounts of detail if you don't have to. I mean sure it's interesting and it might be something to come back to, but you probably can't afford to spend so much of your efforts/brain capacity trying to shove a new bit of information that isn't that relevant (to your exams).
The learning objectives are keys because most questions will stem from them. If you have tutes, look at those too. This isn't for university exclusively - high school has learning objectives and in fact, they're probably a lot more structured than those given to you post-high school. Ugh. I want to be back in high school, where pretty much everything is done. Sure you get freedom, but at the same time, you're subjected to about 10 times the amount of content. Literally I learn an entire term's content (equivalent at a high school level) in 2 weeks. Sometimes even less. It always acts as a constant reminder of how much more I could have done in high school.
ANYWAY, that's totally besides the point.
In terms of answering the learning objectives, what you want to do is skim over them briefly and just try to form a very brief mental answer, to give yourself an idea of whether you know at least something about what it's asking. Interpret the question. Then you can focus your learning while you look over your notes. You might come across something and say to yourself, "Oh yeah, I remember seeing that in the learning objectives". Big light bulb. Have the learning objectives next to you. Mine are always at the top of my notes, so I just take a photo on my phone to keep them in sight. It saves having to scroll up to the top of the document every time I finish answering an objective.
It's also always really helpful to know what you covered in each week of every subject. That way, you can pinpoint the major concepts behind each week. And there will always be a major concept or idea. Drill those principles into yourself, and then you've laid the foundations needed to build upon it. If you get the major principle, then you can build your detail on that because you actually understand the bare fundamentals going on in that week. Just pinpoint the major concepts underlying in each week. It's usually outlined in the learning objectives anyway. I mean, even in a subject as seemingly non-conceptual as musculoskeletal anatomy, there are still major concepts in there. Like.. muscle is attached to bone. If you pull on muscles, bones will move and it depends on the placement of the muscle as to HOW the bone moves. That's that major principle in almost every week of what I learnt. If you take those bare basics away, then it makes learning a lot more relevant and understandable.
You always want to be reading over your notes. Now that you've looked over the objectives, see what else you've been taught that could be tested. This is the key behind doing well in multiple choice. Because it requires (mostly) no thinking (except if you have bulk calculations to do.. eugh..) and if you see an answer that you recall seeing in your notes, then it's most probably right. This is where you don't really need to dedicate it to memory, but seeing it will stimulate your memory enough. It's amazing what memory recall can do.
Then you want to consolidate. Having done all this work, you're obviously going to have strengths and weaknesses. Write down your weaknesses and just revise the content again. There's no harm in having done more study than less during this week because it's going to be over with in a week or two anyway. You might as well give it 100%, rather than 40% and then regret. For the most part, you get 1 or 2 chances to pass the subject. That's it. Try hard now and then you don't have to worry about it.
If it helps, try making yourself concept maps. Like, if you get one thing, it'll lead to another, and another and another and another and eventually things make sense because it flows. That's mostly how I remember things. I try to group things into logical events.
Hope this helps!
Again, good luck everyone. :)
Wednesday, June 5, 2013
In which I dedicate this post to SWOTVAC
And again, I am alive.
It seems almost surreal as to just how quickly time passes. One minute you're excited to see your friends and fellow doomraiders after having not seen anyone for 3 months, and literally the next moment you're up to your neck in work and you still can't see anyone. It's amazing how quickly that excitement completely diminishes into but a remnant of memory. Well for me at least, I wonder why I ever had any twang of excitement about starting to study again in the first place. No? Am I the only one who feels like my brain cells have lost capacity to learn over the holidays?
It's exceptionally hard to strike that balance. How do you keep your mind educationally active during that long holiday? My answer right now is to be thankful that you never have to put up with the sheer amount of stress you're subject to during that dreaded week of each semester - SWOTVAC.
Hold up. Just wait one second there. Let's just evaluate that very acronym: study without teaching vacation.
Did someone say vacation?
Non. My definition of vacation generally encapsulates feelings of joy, stresslessness, happiness - pretty much anything that points in the direction of happiness. So while I'm clearly in need to stress less by reducing my workload, I have a couple of tips to perhaps lessen the load. And it's (99%) guilt free! While you're in your pursuit of procrastination, you're actually learning a few ways to maximise your efficiency this week.
It seems almost surreal as to just how quickly time passes. One minute you're excited to see your friends and fellow doomraiders after having not seen anyone for 3 months, and literally the next moment you're up to your neck in work and you still can't see anyone. It's amazing how quickly that excitement completely diminishes into but a remnant of memory. Well for me at least, I wonder why I ever had any twang of excitement about starting to study again in the first place. No? Am I the only one who feels like my brain cells have lost capacity to learn over the holidays?
It's exceptionally hard to strike that balance. How do you keep your mind educationally active during that long holiday? My answer right now is to be thankful that you never have to put up with the sheer amount of stress you're subject to during that dreaded week of each semester - SWOTVAC.
Hold up. Just wait one second there. Let's just evaluate that very acronym: study without teaching vacation.
Did someone say vacation?
Non. My definition of vacation generally encapsulates feelings of joy, stresslessness, happiness - pretty much anything that points in the direction of happiness. So while I'm clearly in need to stress less by reducing my workload, I have a couple of tips to perhaps lessen the load. And it's (99%) guilt free! While you're in your pursuit of procrastination, you're actually learning a few ways to maximise your efficiency this week.
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