exams and all that

I feel bad not posting for so long.

I really do apologize.

I am in the middle of exams at the moment and therefore under a bit of pressure.

Old drawing of stress to follow.

out

Poetic Venting

I don’t need the money,

Or fancy new cars,

Account in the millions,

Or house of the stars.

I don’t need the clothes,

Hats or the shoes,

I don’t need to travel,

Eat out, or tattoos.

I don’t need new gadgets,

Or studio headphones,

The fastest laptop,

The coolest phone.

New big shiny cameras,

With interchangeable lens,

Brand new instruments,

Talking pens.

I don’t need sunglasses,

Or a Giant T.V,

A massive bedroom all for me.

I don’t need a thing

To know who I am

You can think I’m wrong

I don’t give a damn.

I’m fraking amazing

At whatever I try,

Time and talents God gave me,

I don’t let slip by.

I’m creative and clever,

And this is no boast,

This is me just saying,

I’m no useless ghost.

out

Why should I know?

I’m going to be talking about a complaint students have had since studenthood began. I’m in a lecture at the moment who just shared with us that the exam questions are set so that the lecturer will know how much we read. Now, I looked at these articles and documents in question, and Oh My God!

No, no, seriously. I mean, I’m sure law has a lot of studies, and so does medicine, but I mean those are useful and needed, you might come across a case in your future working life where the particular detail you’re reading now might be useful.

I am obviously at this time not talking to Matt, but we’ll have to call him Dr. Matt in a years time, and that alone is worth it.

Anyway, these documents are written by people who sit and think about issues which will not be solved evar! And if you have to write about it to feel fulfilled, for the sake of all that is good, keep it short and to the point. You know, something along the lines of, THIS is bad, because of THESE points, except in THESE cases. That’s all we need to know.

But some issues need to be explained in detail. That’s what you’re thinking right? I know you too well.

Besides the subject of God Himself, I am sure there is no subject in the world that needs more than a billion words to explain properly.

When you need to get onto a stepladder to see the first page of a pile of notes, you know that the writer is going to be beating about the bush for 95% of the time.

But he might be making interesting points.

Fair enough.

Make your interesting point and explore different point of views, because some people might be seriously interested in the subject at hand. As long as you write a short summary of not more than 600 words at the end of each chapter. Because you know what? That’s the length of essay I will be writing during the exam, so that’s all the information I need to know. If I’m interested, I’ll read the rest of the valid points and interesting perspectives, in my own time.

So teachers and lecturers, you might have a passion for your subject, spend all your time thinking about it, and have read every book, paper, essay and review about it, but we don’t. We have other subjects to think of, and most probably your subject is just a few credits for us. So please don’t expect us to know particular details you know. We have not spent the amount of time on the subject that you have, we have other things to think about, work at and do.

And finally, if in the future I will need to know some stupid detail that you want us to read now and learn by heart, I’ll wiki it.

study mode

This studying thing is not good for me and those around me.

Both yesterday and today I have done a good number of hours studying outside Chaplaincy.

I'm working well, studying efficiently, the atmosphere could not be a more pleasant one and yet, I reach a point, where my mood sinks into a quiet dangerous sad one.

I don't know why this is.

Previously, I used to just get hyper and restless, but these exams apparently this is not going to be the case.

It could be due to the added pressure of needing to get a certain percentage to get into honors. Or the added pressure of 4given, or of the presentations and so on I have to do.

Either way, if I started studying at 10 or 11, and you meet me at Chaplaincy, in my usual place by the left column at a table with my feet in a bean-bag, approach with caution.

Altruistically, I will not study

I actually managed to sit down and do some work yesterday. It’s funny, It’s like climbing a mountain. The climb is the struggle to get myself to sit down at a desk, pull out my books and start working, but once you get to the top, there is a pleasant view, clean air and a pleasant feeling all round.

Because, yes indeed! Once I actually got working at a good pace, I felt good, I felt free, even though I was inside behind a desk, with the sun shining outside. It was a good feeling seeing work being done.

Like previous years, I managed to work because thee where other people working in the room. The train of thought I think my head follows is:

well, I have friends here so I can enjoy myself. But they’re working…. So I guess I better work too, must not disturb them.

Of course, there is a problem, as while I do enjoy the company of people and love socializing, I spent quite a lot of time a lot on the interweb so, after a while in my study mode, or working mode, the temptation of youtube and facebook return. And no I can not switch off the wifi, cause I need it for preparation of presentations and so on. Plus, it only takes a click to switch it back on again.

So I’ve found a solution to this. Open the web pages you need and load them, without closing the browser, go into one of your lectures which is held in a room without wifi, and there you can work privately and content, knowing that there are others around you working, the fact that they are doing something completely different which you should be doing too is not important, you are not tempted by the internets, and you have loaded all, or most of the information you need.

So in a lecture one will manage to work.

Well,

Work, or write a blog and later doodle.

And I was one day going to try and find a way to stop myself doing both these things during lectures, but then I thought to myself, “depriving the world of both those things would be unfair and selfish”.

So here I am, 11am on Thursday, sitting in a lecture of Christian Anthropology, writing this for you.

Sex or Space

As exams approach, “three weeks!” Charlene would say in that special voice of hers, it becomes more apparent that the human body, and more importantly the human brain was not meant for studying.

Well, some older people might be ok with spending their time inside with a book, but those of the younger generation, say between 16 and 25 years of age, are restless.

This is a screw up in the scholastic system. Why? Well, because exams, at least final exams come at ‘That time of year’. Spring comes around, with all the new life and rise in hormones, every guy and girl in the mentioned age bracket is thinking of nothing other than cuddling, kissing, and well… keeping the species alive, and we all have to get ourselves inside, out of the beautiful sun and gorgeous weather, to first decipher the gibberish the lecturer would have said, and we’d have scribbled down that year. And then learn it, and then study it to remember it for the exam.

It says a lot when you’re walking into the last few lectures of the year and, if you’re of a sensitive nature, have to keep turning your eyes away from the sight of mating cats all over campus.

I mean the whole studying working system is wrong in this respect. Biologically we’re all ready for the mating and family having at about 16. At this age we want to go out fight the older men for a chance at the females. But now, we’re stuck in school or at home studying for our O levels. (good luck to all those who are going through them at the moment). By the time we finished school, and all the studies and have a job and settle down, which according to today’s society we have to do before we get married, we’re hitting the middle age crisis.

Centuries ago people where getting married at 14. It was right. By 14 they would have learnt a trade from their fathers or gone off and become an apprentice to someone else. None of this learning useless stuff.

Fair enough, through this system we actually have a choice of what we’re going to do with our lives, and we’re not confined to following in the footsteps of someone.

So, the choice is: the possibility of becoming the first Maltese person to go into space, or, sex at the age of 16. Tough one.