Study, Work, Parent.

NZ, Undergrad Psych student, TESL student, Parent to 2, Retail Worker. I'll sleep in 6 years when this is all over.

[psychingmyselfup]

I’m fully vaccinated as of today! Still waiting to see if these reported “second vax” side effects kick in or not. So far I’m feeling great. This has been one of the most well-tolerated vaccines I’ve had in recent years - the flu jab usually takes me out for a few days. The TDP didn’t make me feel great either tbh, although as I was in my third trimester of pregnancy each time I had it as an adult, I feel like it’s not the best comparison point. 

In even better news, school is open again starting Thursday in our end of the country. I’m relieved, no, BEYOND ecstatic that the kids can go back to school/preschool again. I’ll get a chance to finally catch back up on university work, and the kids will get to see their friends instead of just screaming at the computer over zoom meeting (my laptop is v v relieved). Mr 5 admitted to me today that he really wants to go back to school because he “doesn’t like learning with mum”, so that was a little punch to the guts even if it wasn’t entirely surprising! I have no patience for when he faffs about claiming he “can’t read” his emergent reader books (4-6 word sentences, 1 sentence per page...), when he then turns around at bedtime and reads to me from “The Witches” by Roald Dahl. You can’t read “The car went up the hill” but you can read “quite obviously the stink-waves cannot come oozing out nearly so strongly”?? Sure, bud, whatever you say. (Although he’s a stereotypical boy who loves all things gross and stinky, so maybe that explains his affinity for that particular piece of prose). 

Miss 3 concurs that the return to preschool is exciting and needed. She misses her profile teacher and asks to zoom call her multiple times a day, and has informed me that lunch at home is “not healthy and really yucky” but lunch at preschool is “much better for my tummy”. It’s the same food in the same lunchbox. I guess the ambiance just makes it taste better? 

Hopefully, with the move down to lockdown level 2, my new desk I ordered will arrive soon. Hubby and I have been sharing a computer desk and over lockdown we realised it really wasn’t working - he had to work from home and I had to try make do with working on the couch (aka not getting anything done because it’s uncomfy and the kids kept jumping on me). I just ordered a small, cheap one that will hopefully not take up too much space in the living room. I really only need it for instances such as this when we are in lockdown at home - I typically do 80% of my uni work at the library, but even at level 2 that might not be an option due to restrictions on the number of people allowed in the building at once. 

[psychingmyselfup]

Hey! Just out of curiosity (I am a huge fan of the series myself) which one is your favourite character in the ACOTAR series?

I wish you a nice day and lots of rest or productiveness, whichever one you need right now. 💛🙈

Hey!!! This has made me so happy that you asked <3 Gonna chuck a break in my answer just in case of SPOLERS.

I'm super basic and love Feyre and Rhys - I'm a sucker for SJ Maas' characterization. As much as I hated how contrived Feyre's internal monologue was in ACOTAR it got a LOT better for ACOMAF, and I enjoy the equal dynamics they have in their relationship and how it juxtaposed with Tamlin. They just make me feel a kind of way and I really hope any TV adaptation gets the casting right for them and the actors actually have chemistry (looking at the netflix adaptation of shadow of bone for what NOT to do...)

I am a bit of a Tamlin apologist, though, I'll admit. I've just finished the 3rd book so still have a couple to go, there's time for my mind to change, but even from the beginning of ACOMAF I feel like despite him being arrogant and egocentric, he isn't ultimately badly intentioned. He does love Feyre, but he's never had healthy relationships modelled for him before. He's the kind of character I feel deserves a redemption arc after some long and hard soul searching and learning about his coping mechanisms. I'm really hoping he gets his time to grow and learn in the last couple of books, and if he does he'll be up there as one of my faves if only because of how interesting I think he is.

Hot take: I'm not keen on Cassian & Nesta together. Love Cassian, he's a good sort and such an integral part of the friendship group, but I just feel meh about Nesta. I get she's meant to be hard for a reason but she just feels completely unloving to me, even in her more tender moments she doesn't feel genuine. I'm guessing there is more of her story in the next 2 books though so I'm expecting my opinions to change pretty quickly.

Also, Lucien deserves better than Elain. She's boring.

[psychingmyselfup]

I’ve been reading to cope with feeling a bit down lately (and I must be truly feeling down because I’ve binged 35 books in just over 2 months thanks to kindle unlimited) and I’m 3 books into the ACOTAR/What even is the it called? series and I HATE myself for saying it, but the characters make feel alive again. Yeah the plots a bit meh at times but it’s been a long time since I read something and actually liked the characters (despite being spoonfed lazy internal monologues that are meant to tell us how to feel instead of letting us as adults who decide for ourselves..). I’ve watched far too many tiktoks of fanart and memes and UGH. Pure cognitive dissonance happening right now!

[psychingmyselfup]

Lockdown, Day 2.

It’s nearly 4pm and I’ve done nothing more than one reading and 5 mins of a lecture. I’m still about 7 hours behind in content from missing Monday & Tuesday (sick kids at home), and I’m getting nearly no chance to catch up with everyone at home under level 4 lockdown. No extensions on assignments due in the next week, either. This sucks. I rely so heavily on time at the library to actually get through stuff, so COVID is really putting a damper on my study flow. >:(

[psychingmyselfup]

Things I love about Anki: learning cards things I hate about Anki: adding new cards

[anxietyproblem]

[mygothicheroine-deactivated2023]

the sheer level of galaxy brain jane austen was on when she wrote “if i loved you less i might be able to talk about it more”

[psychingmyselfup]

Cognitive neuroscience grind 🧠

[psychingmyselfup]

Full-time study is...a lot.

I didn’t really anticipate the time commitment difference between the 2 papers I’ve been doing per semester and the 3 papers I am now doing. I’m physically on campus way more than I ever used to be, am spending more time in the library than with my kids, and feel like if I stop for even a minute I’m gonna get behind. 

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not feeling stressed about it yet. So far, I think I’ve managed to stay on top of everything quite well. But I know it’s just one sickness or big life event away from crumbling down around me, so I’m a bit apprehensive. 

Also: Anki has been a great tool to keep me working on revision as well as assignments. Really loving the multi choice question plugin I have added to create some variety in my cards to revise. It’s taking me a long time to create cards still, though, so I think I’m going to have to create less cloze cards and work on more traditional flash cards so I can copy and paste chunks of my notes instead of reworking everything. I can’t spend an hour every day making cards, so something will have to shift a bit. Lots to work on!

[memeuplift]

[psychingmyselfup]

I finished reading a book so naturally I now feel hungover and slightly too sad about reality to go back to actually doing some study. 😥

Come on tumblr, motivate me into getting my coursework readings done!!

[psychingmyselfup]

Readings are my least favourite part of uni.

Doing some research for a paper or assignment? Fine! I'll happily do it and can focus well enough. But supplementary readings for lectures? 😴 I just can't bring myself to focus on them!

What's your favourite way of doing your supplementary readings? Do you take notes, highlight and flag bits that seem most relevant? Just read them and move on with something else?

[psychingmyselfup]

Thoughts after the first lectures for each of my papers this semester.

Abnormal psych looks like it’ll probably be my favourite paper this semester. Starting off on normal vs abnormal child development which is exactly what I came to university to learn about. Really excited to get into it! Brain and behaviour looks really interesting, but also quite difficult. A lot of more anatomy to memorise, but really fun content so I’m excited to sink my teeth into it. The lecturer is really cool and engaging, but I’m definitely having to rely on using the textbook to explain the concepts in a different way to make my brain comprehend (so many gradients..concentration, electrical...) Educational psych might be slightly less to my taste than I first anticipated (as someone who is interested in doing a masters in edpsych later on). Seems a lot more about your personal learning journey and reflection than it does about formal testing of your knowledge. Might be more concrete/to my liking once we get into some learning theory stuff later on. 

[psychingmyselfup]

It’s day one of semester 2, and day one of using Anki! Only one lecture made into Anki cards today, as my other lecture consisted of almost entirely ice breakers and nothing that requires revision. 

While I will admit, making the cards is a bit fiddly (especially since I have never used the program before) - and I still don’t know what intervals to use between repetitions - revising the cards is a lot of fun! I really enjoy practice testing as a revision technique, so hopefully this keeps me on track with testing and retesting as the semester goes along rather than bundling all my revision into a few weeks before exams. 

Anyone else out there like to use Anki for revision? Got any tips for non-med school stuff in Anki?

[studentlifeproblems]

[psychingmyselfup]

About sums up how my mid-semester break is going.  I have to write a report based on a survey I did back in April for my work.  I’ve also got to review and get a plan of action ready on our new book being released by the organisation hopefully this year.  And I promised I would spring clean/clear out my entire house while I actually had a bit of time.  None of it is happening so far. I’m home sick with suspected food poisoning, have had a cold all week, and now have my son home from school sick too. I’m shaking from feeling sick and it’s taking every bit of strength I have to stay awake. 

I think at this point, I just need to accept that it isn’t within my capacity to do all these things I planned and I need to allow myself to be OK with it. 

[psychingmyselfup]

My final exam starts in less than half an hour.

I’m so ready for this semester to be over!

[psychingmyselfup]

Okay I’m really not sure how that went! As is always the way with multichoice exams for me. But I’ll definitely have a pass and hopefully with a decent grade!! See ya semester 1, onto semester 2 and being back to full-time study for the first time in about a decade :O