The Week of Coffee, Chocolate and the Box-Set

If someone was ever to write a book about my life then the last few days would be referred to as the title of this post. After initially getting over the confusion as to why someone was writing my biography (and checking they were mentally sound) I would have to ensure that such names were used to describe the inane details of my life - I doubt if it would be an easy read. This last week of my holiday has been spent drinking my favourite brown coloured drink (closely followed by a cup of Bovril), eating more chocolate that I have in the last 5 years and watching the same amount of House as I usually do in these times of 'vacation'. If you read my post on Monday night then you were probably thinking afterwards just how much better you're holiday has been than mine. The truth is that it's actually not so bad at the other end of these fingers that type this sweet poetry to you this evening.

I'm a Local...Get Me Out of Here!

Facebook is a marvel don't you think? Without it we would not be able to get our grievances off of our chests or read about those of other people that seem to haunt their lives so. It seems that every time I click onto Facebook I see at least one 'friend' moan about where they live and the fact that they have to 'git oot ae this place'. Firstly I would like to point out that I detest people writing like that. I was once a person of such literally laziness but I've since shaken my bones to become the very person that you read today. The only time that you'll catch me writing anything like that would be out of mockery of people that are the same age as me but act as if they are 12. Anyway, back to my main point. People don't ever seem to be happy with where they come from. They always seem to feel that the grass is much greener somewhere else but my view is that the place you live is what you make of it, not what it says on the tin.

Advice to Naive Sports Stars

Following on from the fact that I don't really blog about much else than person experience at the moment, today's post is going to be about something that I learned today. I'll provide you with your fix of 'world events' later on but you'll just have to wait for it! Today I played football for the first time since the summer and it didn't go very well. I thought that I was a lot fitter than I actually am and this attitude that I had soon lead to problems. 

To-Do or To-Do? That is the Question

It's happening again! Tonight I lift my head with my stiff neck to see, on the wall, my week planned out before me. Day 1: Lots of work; Day 2: Lots of work, start essay; Day 3: Finish essay (if possible) + lots of work; Day 4: Lots of work for the week after. That is the abridged version of these notes of course because I'm not a complete moron - they are much more substantial than that of course - but you get the idea. I was writing out said week-plan last night when I realised that I was already at Friday. Luckily I realised that I had fired through everything that I needed to do and that ultimately, I should be able to take the weekend 'off'. Sadly the reality of it is that my brain hasn't been switched off since the end of the first week - during which it was technically going anyway but just warming up! 

My Favourites: Listen to Yourself!

I forgot to post last night and I'm sorry. Well not really but for the last choice of this week there is a slight irony that the reason I forgot was that it was Friday night and I was out having a good time with friends. Somebody came up to me this week and told me that their favourite posts from my blog are the ones when I teach myself a lesson or when I realise something about myself - 'Me on Monday' has never received such high praise! My last choice for this week before I get back to normal posts again next week is the one where I realised that people around me live for the weekend too much sometimes. It was a fun post to write and it was one that I remember talking about with the very same person that I was talking to this week - one of the main reasons for choosing it.

So yes have another look at it because personally I'm going to read it a few more times so I can get into my head again that weekdays are as important (if not more than) weekends:
http://roateenager.blogspot.com/2011/02/try-living-for-now-and-not-weekend.html

Thanks for joining me this week for a look back at my first 100 blog posts - hope you've enjoyed it!

Martin

P.S. I'm now writing another blog over on Netcars - go have a look!

My Favourites: A Lesson Well Learned

I've only got a couple more days to pick out some gems from my blogging back-catalogue and for that I'm a little sad. As I said in yesterday's post, I've really enjoyed looking back into the past at what I've been thinking and feeling about certain things and how I've interpreted them. It's interesting from the point of view that I might interpret various things in different ways now and I might have different ways of dealing with things on the whole. Today's choice popped into my head this afternoon before I even had even sat down this evening to choose a favourite for this evening. In fact it's in my head pretty much all of the time which is testament to just how much of a change it indicated in me. The post in question was the one when I got back from a tutorial early last year to realise that I had just made a massive break through both in confidence and productivity. I can still remember that day as if it was yesterday and the thing that I learned still crosses my mind every time I pass through the door into a tutorial room.

For those of you that are lacking a little confidence or just aren't getting enough out of university, I suggest you take heed from my epiphany from this time last year: 
http://roateenager.blogspot.com/2011/01/eureka-new-way-to-learn.html

Cheers everyone!

Martin

Tell It How It Is Or Suffer The Consequences

It was only a matter of time before I started to take inspiration from Eastenders. In general I think that most people have 'their' soap and mine, for as long as I can remember, has been the goings on in Albert Square. It provides a nice break from university work or just lets me get away from everything for a couple of hours a week. Escapism is something that I'm always interested in findings new forms of but this is my constant and the thing I can always be sure to make me feel a little bit better - call me sick because I've been called worse in the past! Anyway what inspiration did Eastenders provide me with this week? There is currently a storyline about Phil Mitchell (everyone must know Phil!) and his son Ben who has recently realised he's gay. The thing is that Ben is petrified of him finding out and only him and and an old dude Patrick (who caught him kissing a guy) knows. Phil thinks that Patrick is picking on Ben and subsequently Phil is going crazy with people calling him a racist and other such things. The thing is that this is having an affect on lots of different people in the show and this is where today's message comes from.

The One-Upmanship Complex

It doesn't take very long before university students get down to the conversation of how good their respective universities are. If there happens to be a group of people coming together from various establishments then that particular conversation tends to occur sooner rather than later. The usual spiels relate to some kind of ranking system where someones university is 3 places above another out of 1000000 and for someone looking in from the outside it just wouldn't make any sense but I've come up with the reason why people do it. It's not because they want to make other people feel bad about their university, it's not even because they are going to gain anything from it; it's because they are proud of their university.

Could Face-to-Face be Phased Out?

As the dulcet tones of one of my university lecturers echoed through the corridor of my flat this afternoon, it dawned on me that personal contact isn't quite as important as it maybe once was. We (that being myself and 2 of my flatmates) had a lecture today that was replaced by a recorded lecture which was online. It was the same stuff that we would have been told had we all trudged over to the lecture theatre as our timetables tell us to but this week the lecturer in question was unable to attend and so made a digital version instead. It's a curiosity of the modern era that, in a time when we are told as youngsters to get away from the computer screen and become more sociable, we are being fed more and more information via the internet. Personally I like it because it adds a new level of flexibility to your day - something that I'm starting to feel is essential after only 3 days of 2nd year - but its long term affects could be perilous.

Embrace Debt for an Easier Life

Apologies for not posting yesterday but last night was my flat-warming party and I couldn't find the time to post. But anyway here I am, slightly worse for wear from last night and ready to post again. Today's post is about something that I noticed today (yes, that means that I didn't even have an idea for a post yesterday!) when I was walking through the university campus. It's freshers week at the moment and so the central area of the campus is very busy with students of all ages. What that then means is that you catch small chunks of a lot of conversations as you walk past people. It's usually quite funny when you catch little parts of other people's conversations because you don't have any context as to what they are talking about and the words therefore take on potentially wide ranging meanings. The thing about today was that I noticed one word come up at least twice in conversations that I passed that can't really be misconstrued - debt. It appears to be the word on every student's lips at this time of the year because this is when we start taking it on, safe in the knowledge that one day it will all have to be paid back. 

Reality Bites, But Only Because It's Hungry and Needs Attention

Much has been written recently (by myself more than most) about the impending rebirth of the university/college drag and today's post is going to be very much along the same lines. After all it is just around the corner for most of us and therefore the feelings are running a little bit higher about it than at any other point in the summer break. For me, today signals the 2 weeks notice until I pull myself out of bed at some unfamiliar hour for lectures that are going to twist and stretch my brain power to the max - this year never said it was going to be kind to me. My timetable for the year ahead was released last week and it looks pretty ugly - think Shrek after being hit over the face by a thick textbook. The reality of my situation is that the days are going to be longer and the stress levels are going to be elevated. The thing is that I knew it was coming and that's the reason why I think that I'm going to be able to take it in my stride. This is where I'm coming from in today post: if you prepare yourself for the reality of your situation and don't ignore it, it won't be quite as hard to deal with.