#studyblr get real

[forever-in-earnest]

Beloved professor has not been responding to my humble messages about the modus operandi of his generous test so. Self test at 6pm it is.

22nd January 2025

[heart-ghost-studyblr]

My conversation with a doctor about studying. There was a time I thought people who study medicine were the smartest in the world. Because their grades don’t allow them to have a job while studying. Their classes take almost every active hour of the day, so it’s like: either you sacrifice everything for study, or nothing.

I believed in that so much that I booked a consult with the doctor from the company I worked for. I was in an industry making car parts, and the doctors there usually do exams for employees, help with injuries, stuff like that. Most of the time they are still studying, in the final semesters of medicine.

For me, that was perfect. I actually wished the doctor was still a student, because I thought: he studies hard, right? He went through this, studying every active hour of the day for at least 6 years. So what’s the secret? Strict diet? Energy drinks? Caffeine just to read books? And what about exam days? Whatever it is, I wanted too. At that time, I was already in my first year of my bachelor in Information Technology Management.

I think everyone should have this conversation with a doctor. It’s too long for me to write everything here, but my advice is: book the visit, and bring your questions prepared so it’s worth it. Still, I’ll share the points I felt were most important:

Do it → First step. Doesn’t matter if your diet is bad, if you don’t sleep well, if your money situation is not the best. If you want that degree, that certification, go ahead. Apply, subscribe, join. You’ll feel how it is. If it goes bad, you deal with extra exams, but it’s fine. The goal is to finish, to learn, and to become the professional you want to be.

Eat good → Don’t eat too much before study or class. It’s better to take small breaks and snack when you’re hungry than to fill your stomach before studying. If you eat heavy, your body goes into that “shut down” mode (scientific name is postprandial somnolence, it’s when your body shifts energy to digestion and makes you drowsy).

Sleep → If you can’t sleep well… yeah, me too. Many people can’t. That’s why medicine exists. Go to a doctor, say you’re studying hard and struggling with sleep. They’ll suggest activities, diet, maybe medicine to help until you’re able to sleep naturally again. Like—ok, you’re under stress, fine. But now you’re not sleeping too? And for how many days? It’s better to see a doctor, ask for some help, maybe take a medicine for a while, and eventually get better.

At the end, it’s all about routine, consistency, and trying to enjoy what you’re doing. You can force yourself through something you don’t like, but if you choose to study, be good at it, be professional at it. Doing extra effort forever on something you hate is way harder.

Now to understand the image:

Left side → a docker compose file starting a kafka cluster with sasl/ssl env variables. Right side → a cat of kafka server logs running + the folder showing all components where the compose is.

The screen is split with tmux. Code is running in terminal, with neovim (theme: sonokai) + some lsp.

About the food: tuna with sauce, tomato, and eggs.

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Whoa, I'm an alien

I'm a legal alien

I'm an Englishman in New York! :)

[telescopeemoji]

life/studies update 12/21/24 :)

this blog kind of died but i want to bring it back! here we go…

i have enrolled in an environmental science class at my local community college! i’m really excited :) it officially started yesterday and my school’s winter break also just started, so i’m hoping to get as much as i can of it done over the two-week break (the class is completely asynchronous, so this is technically possible)

my score for my first sat test also came back yesterday, which will be under the cut!

plans for break:

envsci class — going to try to do 4/12 modules!

apush notes — chapters 22-24 is my goal

driver’s ed — i should have done this last year.. i think i can do it all over break

relaxation — watching arcane, finish the zines i’ve been drawing, journal a lot, read (currently: the 1619 project by nikole hannah-jones)

self-care — wake up at 7, shower and dress every day, leave the house every day?, see friends at least twice a week?

sat score below!

math 690, reading/writing 760, composite 1450! i’m really proud of myself tbh since i studied fairly minimally. going to aim for 780-90 r/w and 720 math (1500ish) for my next test, which is in march :)

[maganne-studies]

Studyblr prompt 1: What does my study space look like?

✨️ A library storage room ✨️

~ ○ 🏫📚🖊📓🖇📖🖇📒🖌📚🏫 ○ ~

It's a mess. It's distracting. But it's home.

My family had this extension to our house built for work but also stored most of the books we owned that continuously piled up in our house. Needless to say, it was easily clutter and piled with even more stuff.

Yet due to me coming back to college, I needed space to do work again, and our bedroom was not ideal. So, we managed to make space for me to do work and even ended up air-conditioning the room since SEAsia's summer months have been unforgivable.

My desk gets cluttered quick as of late but so far I've been managing.

Does it bother me or distract me easily?

So much is happening on this desk. Heck, so much is happening in the room that all of you aren't seeing. Most people would say that it's more ideal to clear your space to help focus and I agree. Yet somehow, even with most of the clutter, it still worked for me and I managed to survive an entire school year. Not the most ideal, but I have to make do.

The most that I do is clear out the area around my mat to at least have enough space to do work and a little at the front to make room for my laptop.

Now, as for my space on campus, I've failed to take a picture of that so have some old photos instead 👇

The school's library has cubicles lined two of its walls; which was ideal for me since they were nicely spaced from each other, but for some reason they decided to stick them too close for comfort. And now it's all ruined for me ☹️

Nonetheless, I still use them this semester.

But, other than that. Another part of the library simulates a very warm space despite not having said lighting. The desks had very light and yellowish wood textures that gives this impression to that section of the library.

[dabbascience]

Sights from before the acceleration of the second wave.

[ollies-law-studies]

Remembering my experiences in academia as a child makes me weirdly sad/happy??

This is never something I’ve shared online before but I wanted to now, almost as a sign to any teenagers going through the same stuff that it is totally manageable and you can get into uni if that’s what you want to do, no matter your socioeconomic status!! I grew up in poverty despite living in the UK, with drug-addicted, alcoholic parents who refused to use their money to get my brother and I the schoolbooks we needed, even second-hand. We were put into care when I was 17, but these are just some of my experiences of academia prior to this:

Joining cross country club at age 6 because they gave you free breakfast after running and my parents couldn’t afford to feed me and my brother 3 meals a day at the time

In year 11 history class (age 15), not being given the money for the required reading textbooks three weeks in a row despite them being ‘compulsory’ and my history teacher placing the books on my desk after class one day with a note affixed that read “Keep them. Let me know if there’s anything else you need.”

Turning up to help out at open evening for the same history teacher, just as a vice to get away from home for a bit. She asked if I’d had dinner yet because I was helping until 8pm; I said no because I was used to eating late and she left the room. Five minutes later, she returned, having bought me a meal from the cafeteria to eat before open evening began.

My maths teacher in the first year of sixth form opening his classroom up for me 1/2 an hour before anyone else got to school because I got the 6am bus for a cheaper fare and the mornings waiting outside the buildings were freezing

Head of maths in first year sixth form giving me the textbook for both years free of charge after hearing my parents going off at me for ‘asking for money’ when he called them to ask why I hadn’t got the textbook that year

Working Friday and Saturday nights in a takeaway shop for cash-in-hand to afford the bus fare into sixth form each week and paper and pens for my classes

Bringing homework and textbooks into work and keeping them under the counter of the takeaway shop to eagerly thumb through during quiet periods

Now I’m at university in London, a scholarship student on two separate scholarships, one bursary and the maximum grant from Student Finance, because I still have no financial support from my parents

So to anyone else going through similar financial struggles, whether that be because your parents are like mine or for other reasons, please know that you can make it. It might be a battle to get the resources you need, but there will be a chance and as long as you keep your head down and keep fighting against the odds, you will get there! :)

[zekarichan]

Just a few more days until I'm finally done with Advanced Pharmaceutical Analysis.

[verypolish-studyblr]

Juliusz Słowacki (left: Słowacki by James Hopwood, probably in his twenties; right: at the end of his life, near 1849)

Julisz Słowacki was one of “Three Bards” - three polish poets, all of them from Romanticism, who are seen as the greatest ones in our history. He was a very interesting individual and one day, I will write some more about his biography, but today I have for you some crucial detail you absolutely need to know.

In a letter to his Mother from Paris, April 13th, 1832 he wrote:

[...] will you believe that, upon learning about about Goethe’s dead, I thought that God took him from this world to make a place for me, issuing my poems [...] 

Can you imagine how arrogant this man was? How full of self-love and self-righteousness this genius who only loved his mum was? I love him so much.