TMM 2.1 – A New Naming Scheme

Sunday:
I gave myself the day off on waking up early today, but I still managed to get up at 8 on my own. Making progress, I think?

A few weeks ago, I was contacted by a computational modeling professor from one of the schools I applied to for my PhD. I didn’t list them as a potential mentor, but they saw that I’d taken some computational modeling classes before and have had some experience with programming, and asked if I’d be interested in working in a computational modeling lab. I’d never considered it before since I’m in no way proficient at programming. We had a phone conversation about what it’d be like to work in his lab, and about his research, and after spending the next week reading a few of his papers, I came to the conclusion that I would likely enjoy working in his lab, although it might be difficult to pick up the programming and the advanced statistics that they use.

I emailed him back saying basically that, and he replied that if I were having trouble with reading papers with lots of equations, it might indicate that his lab isn’t a good fit; however, he also mentioned that while grad students wouldn’t be required to come up with models, we’d have to be able or willing to learn how to read computational papers. I replied saying that I would be willing to learn, and confident that I’d be able to pick up the necessary skills. It’s been a week since I emailed that to him, and no response back yet, while before that he’d always responded to emails within a day or so. Now I’m worried that he has lost interest in me as a potential PhD student.

On the bright side, this has kickstarted my motivation to finally learn Python; I’m trying to work it into time slots in my planner. I’m hoping he just suddenly has gotten very busy. I’m not sure whether or not I should email him again, and even if I did, I don’t know what exactly I’d say.

Bleh.

Monday:
Today I have an appointment with a new PCP. I haven’t been to a PCP in a while, and I don’t think I’ve had a physical since high school. However, since my insurance changed to Obamacare last summer, I wasn’t able to go to my psychiatrist anymore for my Adderall, and yes, I’m only now finally going to a PCP to get back on my Adderall that I’ve been out of for months. It’s only thanks to one of my friends giving me a list of some doctors that she knows are good and are also “prescription pad-friendly”.

I goofed and forgot I have lab today, so I accidentally scheduled it for 2:45; since it’s a new patient intake, I have to fill out forms and stuff as well, so I actually need to be there by 2:15, meaning I’ll have to leave the lab early. I know it won’t be a big deal, though, especially since I’m not working in the lab for credit. I still kinda feel bad, though. Maybe it’s part of my self-esteem thing, but I always feel like I’m not doing enough or not making much progress.

Tuesday:
This past weekend, I looked through the apartment and through the last two boxes that haven’t yet been unpacked to see if I could find my sketchbook. No dice, although I did find the pencil bag that had all my “art” pens/pencils/stuff. Oddly enough, it was missing the pack of felt-tip type art pens that I had. So either I looked everywhere and still somehow missed seeing my sketchbook and pens (entirely possible), or I lost them or maybe they got taken to my parents’ house. In any case, I bought two small sketchbooks from Michaels, along with some Sakura Micron pens that are used for Zentangle.

Maybe I’ll block out some time today to try it out. All I’ve really got is work tonight, though I do want to start on updating my budget. My goal for that today is to at least get my main bank account updated in YNAB. Aside from that, I want to spend some time learning Python, and get my Adderall prescription filled before I go to work.

I feel like I’m trying to do a lot of new things/establish a lot of new habits this month, so I hope it doesn’t backfire on me for trying to bite off more than I can chew.

Wednesday:
I was pretty successful in my attempt to be productive yesterday. I didn’t end up trying out Zentangle, but I was able to get my checking and savings account all updated in YNAB. It probably helped that I took my last Adderall, after saving it for months, for whatever reason. It never fails to amaze me how much of a difference it makes, especially after having been on a break from taking it. Chores feel less like a burden that I have to work up the motivation to do, and more like something that simply needs to be done. I feel like I’m able to better inhibit that part of me that has some slight anxiety and overanalyzes interactions in social situations; i.e., it’s easier to talk to people, especially strangers. Planning comes more easily — it’s not as difficult to break difficult tasks into steps, and prioritize which to do first — which in turn makes a difficult task (such as budgeting) less daunting and easier to start and finish.

And my new PCP wrote me prescriptions for Adderall for three months out, so I don’t have to worry about running out for a while; I even already got the first one filled yesterday.

Tl;dr, I did adult things and got back on my medication and now I feel super productive and motivated to get stuff done. HAPPY HUMP DAY GAIZ.

TMM – Week 1 (Pt. 2) . . . Again

Thursday:
My naming scheme for restarting these MM posts are so original, ya know?

I actually woke up 5 minutes before my alarm went off today! But then I climbed back into bed after getting my phone and didn’t wake up until 7:30. I could’ve sworn that I put my alarm on snooze after it went off, but I guess I turned it off instead. I should wake up when it goes off the first time, anyway. At least, that’s what (part of) my goal is.

Here's an example of the style of abstract stuff I've done in the past -- though a majority of the time it was on some scrap paper or in my notes. I think this is probably on some printer paper.
Here’s an example of the style of abstract stuff I’ve done in the past — though a majority of the time it was on some scrap paper or in my notes. I think this is probably on some printer paper.

I recently something called Zentangle — I was at Michaels earlier this week and came across a section of books on it. On the official website for it, Zentangle is “an easy-to-learn, relaxing, and fun way to create beautiful images by drawing structured patterns”. The way it’s elaborated on, it basically sounds like an alternative way to meditate. I’ve doodled in the past in a similar way, where I just zone out and let my hand draw whatever abstract stuff it wants, but I like the appeal of this in that you use simple, repetitive strokes to build into a complex pattern. In any case, I bought an ebook on it from Amazon and look forward to trying it out, but I think my sketchbook might still be packed up in one of the few boxes that hasn’t yet been unpacked from my move last summer. I’m not exactly sure where my sketching/drawing/art pencil bag is, either, though I’m pretty sure that’s been unpacked and has just been shoved away somewhere that I don’t remember.

Friday:
Today I woke up at 7 when Chris got home. I apparently forgot to turn my phone off of vibrate yesterday after I got off of work, and I keep my phone in the kitchen now, so I didn’t hear it at all. At first I thought something might’ve gone wrong with my phone/alarm since I know I didn’t turn that alarm off. And I *always* know when my alarm goes off if the ringer is on, since Toto howls whenever he hears it.

My new set of knitting needles came in today. I forgot to mention that on Wednesday, Remi the Terrorist got into my bag of yarn and made a mess of them all over the apartment while Chris was working in the garage downstairs. He chewed up the circular needles that I was using to knit a sock, but luckily, he didn’t pull out the cable holding the stitches so the sock is still intact. I also have to knit Chris’s mom a beanie/hat; I told her I would make her one for Christmas when she visited for Thanksgiving, and we bought a ball of yarn for it, but now I can’t seem to find it. We’ll be visiting Chris’s family the week after next, so I want to get it done before we leave. At least that project shouldn’t take more than an afternoon. I’d heard that knitting socks is “quick and easy” or something like that, but so far it hasn’t seemed that way to me. Maybe I’m just used to working with a bulkier yarn that works up quickly.

In any case, it’s time to leave for lab, so off I go!

Saturday:
I actually woke up at 6 today! And Chris and I started the morning off intending to be productive, but we ran into some bumps. Our plan this morning was to get Chris a new phone and set up a joint bank account, but getting a new phone turned out to be a little bit more difficult than expected, since he needed to go to a specific Verizon retailer in order to get his upgrade. We ended up not finishing up with that until around 11 (we left at nine, but apparently Verizon stores don’t usually open until 10 anyway). We tried to get a joint bank account open, but when we got there, all the bankers were occupied; we waited for 20 minutes before finally getting fed up and leaving.

Well, here’s to hoping the rest of the day is a bit more productive.

TMM – Week 1 (Pt. 1) . . . Again

Sunday:
We’ve been here before, haven’t we? It probably would’ve made more sense to start this back up with the new year, but the new year didn’t start on a Sunday, and I also wanted to indulge in some hardcore dunning after the end of my last semester.

Speaking of which, I graduated from the program and got my masters degree! Yaaaaayyyyyy! The semester ended up feeling pretty hectic and stressful. I’m not sure if I was expecting it to be easy or not, but I think those were mainly from trying to do PhD applications and the realization that “Holy sh!t, if I don’t get a B in this one class, I won’t graduate, AND, if I don’t get B’s in both classes, it’ll make the end of my degree look really weak.” So then that made me avoid stuff, which made things pile up, and then I got more stressed — you know how the cycle of procrastination goes, I’m sure. So, I did manage to graduate, but my applications were pretty weak and half-hearted.

In any case, here we are again, with me starting fresh on establishing my TMM routine/habit again. I woke up around 7:15 instead of 6, but considering I slept in til 9 or 9:30 yesterday and didn’t go to sleep last night until around 3, I think I did pretty well for the first day. After about a month of hardcore dunning, I’m starting to feel motivated to be productive . . . or something like that.

Look out, 2016, we’re gonna (try to) get sh!t done this year!

Monday:
I got up at 6 when my alarm went off this morning, but I climbed back into bed because it was so chilly. Ended up not actually getting up until 7, but hey, it’s better than 8! The way I see it, I’m working my way back to 6. I’ll get there — I did it once before, so I can do it again.

Pic of my stencils before I got tattoed. The Triforce had to be repositioned a few times before I was satisfied with the placement, but luckily the quote was good on the first try!
Pic of my stencils before I got tattoed. The Triforce had to be repositioned a few times before I was satisfied with the placement, but luckily the quote was good on the first try!

I forgot to mention that I got some new tattoos this past weekend! My boyfriend told me he’d pay for a tattoo as a graduation gift to me, but we didn’t get around to finding an artist/scheduling an appointment until last week. One of them, the Triforce, is on the inside of my left forearm. The other tattoo is on the inside of my right forearm, and is a quote from Persona 3. “Attaining one’s dream requires a stern will and unfailing determination.” I’m not exactly sure why, but I had planned on getting those two at the same time. Maybe for a sense of symmetry?

I chose the quote mainly just because it’s a good quote, and also because it’s a sort of tribute to P3. P3 Portable was the first Persona game I’d ever played, and I got completely sucked in by its charm. As for the Triforce, I consider Ocarina of Time the true beginning of my deeper interest in games. I’d played Pokemon on my Gameboy color years before I got the N64, and I’d played games like Crash Bandicoot and Prince of Persia: Sands of Time with my cousins quite a bit as well — but Ocarina of Time was the first game that I’d really owned outside of Pokemon. Its story was so different and fresh in comparison to the Pokemon I had played and replayed, and since I owned OoT, playing it alone was an experience that was markedly different from playing Prince of Persia with my cousins.

Pretty sure my parents won’t be big fans of them, so I might have to start practicing how to use makeup/concealer once they heal up all the way.

Tuesday:

New tattoos freshly after being inked on. The shading on the Triforce hurt a surprising amount!
New tattoos freshly after being inked on. The shading on the Triforce hurt a surprising amount!

Today was basically a repeat of yesterday in terms of waking up. Maybe I’ll just shoot for 7 for the rest of the week and start trying for 6 next week.

Not much planned for today — the main thing is to schedule some doctor appointments. After that I’ll probably work on knitting socks as a “Thank you” gift to one of the people who wrote a letter of recommendation for me. I get the feeling that I probably should have given thank you cards/gifts sometime at the beginning of January, but I’m hoping that the fact that the gifts are going to be handmade will make the lateness forgivable.

Got lots of compliments on my tattoo from people at work and in the lab yesterday, especially on my font choice for the P3 quote. Surprisingly, no one recognized the Triforce. I guess I’ve been a bit spoiled by the culture at UTD.

Wednesday:
It was difficult to wake up this morning; I stayed up til about 1 AM last night knitting/watching a playthrough of Until Dawn by Strippin (@Strippin) and Dodger (@dexbonus/@pressheart2continue) on Youtube. I’ve been a fan of Dodger for a few years now, and her relationship with Strippin is adorable. I’m excited for them having gotten engaged over the holiday — especially since their relationship seems so healthy. I’ve gotten into the habit of watching Dodger’s playthroughs while knitting or crocheting, which basically amounts to one of the most enjoyable and relaxing hobbies/pastimes I have. Watching her co-op with Strippin was so entertaining, in spite of it being a horror game.

In other news, I recently bought a pair of headphones to use while working in the lab. The ones that I’ve been using are on-the-ear “Creative” brand headphones that I’ve had since freshman year of college . . . so about 6 years now. They don’t sound all that bad to me quality-wise, but I don’t think I’m an audiophile. My main issue is that they’re uncomfortable — the padding that was on the headband has long since worn off, and the way that they pin my ears against my head makes it that much more uncomfortable when wearing them with glasses. I’d have to reposition my glasses so that the arms sat above the padding of the earphones.

So the new ones I bought are a pair of circumaural headphones by Koss that I found on Amazon for $20. I was hoping that they’d insulate my ears from outside sound a little better, but they still do a pretty good job. Compared to my old pair of headphones, they are amazingly comfortable. If I still feel this good about them by the end of the week, I’m going to buy a pair to keep at home as well.

Speaking of lab stuff, it is really chilly in here today. Maybe I should bring a snuggie to keep in my cubby cabinet. Too unprofessional? Lol.

TMM – Week 1 (pt. 1)

Sunday:
It is now 7:20 AM. I’m trying this new morning routine called The Miracle Morning (haha, “morning”, not “mourning”, Praxling). The idea of the routine is that you wake up an hour earlier than you need to, and spend that hour going through a routine intended to give you energy, motivation, and focus for the day. Considering how I’ve been dunning for a majority of my life, and that I am at a point where I am applying to PhD programs and getting ready to graduate, I think it’s time to stop dunning. Or at least, not dun so much.

Honestly, I am a little bit skeptical of the routine just because the creator of TMM and the author of the book (The Miracle Morning: The Not-So-Obvious Secret Guaranteed to Transform Your Life (Before 8AM)) was an employee at Cutco — and a very successful one at that. Having worked there briefly during one summer, and having come to the conclusion that it is likely a pyramid scheme, it was a little difficult to trust this author. However, I actually rather enjoy waking up early — it’s just the act of following through that I’ve always had difficulty with. So after hearing about this routine and the book about it, I figured that there’s no harm in at least giving it a try.

Part of the TMM routine is “scribing” aka journaling. So hey, that’ll also help me blog more often! I anticipate some of these daily entries being pretty short, so for the moment, I plan to post these daily entries as one single weekly entry.

This is actually day 3 of me getting up early at 6, but I haven’t done the full routine until today — after all, you’re not seeing any blog entries before today, amirite??? — so today is my official Day 1 of the TMM. Here’s to hoping this one sticks, ’cause I’m actually really enjoying it so far.

Monday:
I got a little bit of a late start to my TMM this morning (and yes, I realize it should probably be “MM” not “TMM” because the latter is not grammatically correct). I’ve been leaving my phone charging on the bar counter outside of the bedroom since there’s not really “across the room” space in the bedroom. Plus that adds motivation since Toto always howls when my alarm goes off or I get a phone call; really don’t want him doing that for very long at 6 in the morning. But I digress — I laid back down in bed today after shutting my alarm off, so I didn’t start my routine until about 30 minutes later. But hey, I’m still doing it!

Getting up this early is getting easier, but I probably need to start taking a nap later in the day. I think my body needs more than ~6 hours of sleep — then again, I have also been falling asleep earlier, so hopefully that helps. I just don’t want to get drowsy since all my commutes are longer than 20 minutes.

Oh yeah, I got a new job — quit my old one. More on that tomorrow, though. :)

Tuesday:
Day 5 of getting up early at 6, only day 3 of doing the full MM routine. The first seven days of forming a new habit are the hardest, right? If I can make it to Saturday, it’ll start feeling easier after that. I actually woke up this morning before my alarm, worried that it somehow hadn’t gone off. Checked my watch and it was 5:30.

Part of me thinks that starting this new habit of waking up early and doing the MM routine in the winter was not the best idea. We still haven’t started using our heater — and I always relied more on space heaters and my electric blanket whenever I lived alone — so it’s pretty cold when I wake up in the morning. Everyone knows that all you want to do when you wake up on a cold morning is to just bury yourself deeper in the blankets. Setting up my space heater by the couch (where I do the MM) and/or wearing my cow kigurumi helps with that a fair amount, at least.

I’ve had to shut in the Terrorist (Remi) in his kennel during my MM, otherwise I have to struggle with meditating and exercising and whatnot with two dogs playing around noisily. He hasn’t had much of a problem with it until today, but he only whined occasionally.

So, I got a new job. It’s at this small lingerie/loungewear boutique on 75 called Soma. About the same distance from my apartment as Talbots was, but at least this way I don’t have to take the tolls to go to work. Plus, it’s closer to campus in case I have to work before classes. I’m going to be a regular associate there, not a keyholder, so I’m getting paid less; but on the other hand, their extended holiday hours aren’t really extended, and their stock room is small so that I don’t have to worry about having to come in early at 6 to do floorsets anymore. I’ll miss a lot of the people at Talbots, though. They were fun to work with. The store manager who hired me left because she found a better position that was also closer to her house, and the interim acting manager — as nice as she is — kept trying to implement changes to my store’s working structure when she was only supposed to hold down the fort and help us with shift coverage.

Sunday was my last day at Talbots and also my first day at Soma; the shift at Soma was just a store meeting though. I got to meet pretty much everyone who works there. One of them is the former assistant manager who recruited me for Talbots — she got into a bit of an altercation/there was a big misunderstanding with the acting manager, so she decided she didn’t need that stress in her life and left to work at Soma. So she decided to steal me away from Talbots in the process, though I mainly decided after finding out how small the shop is/how easy the work is/it’s the same distance but without having to take toll roads.

Seems like I’m writing more than I thought I would for each of these daily entries, so I think I’ll post bi-weekly so that these entries don’t turn into massive walls of texts. I guess also let me know what you’d prefer — once a week or twice a week.

GRE – I Hate Standardized Tests

It’s been a little over a month since my last post, huh? I’ve mainly been trying to focus on balancing appropriate studying for the GRE, keeping up with classes, going to work, and working in lab — mostly unsuccessfully haha. I took a practice GRE at the beginning of September, and my actual GRE (which I took this past Wednesday! On my birthday, no less.) scores were the same as that practice one. Which is good, in a way, since I was worried that the actual GRE would be more difficult than the free practice tests they have on their website. On the other hand, it means that I didn’t study properly, otherwise I should’ve done better. I didn’t really study verbal reasoning stuff, since I’ve always been good at it, but the quantitative reasoning really bit me in the butt. I’m sure if I had actually done a few practice questions every night, then I wouldn’t have had such a difficult time with pacing myself during the actual GRE.

My score wasn’t bad though! 161 on verbal reasoning, which is around 87th percentile according to the chart the GRE website has. 152 on quantitative reasoning, which is around 48th percentile. Not necessarily bad, but not competitive either. However, I have a feeling that most of the programs I’ll be applying to won’t stress that score as much. As long as the scores I get back from my analytical writing are 4 or above, I think I should be okay on the GRE. Then again, I also had some difficulty with pacing on the analytical writing section also, so it still feels iffy. I just kept overthinking the prompt in its possible interpretations, and probably making it overly difficult. Like I usually do. I know I am good at analytical writing, if my grades on past papers I’ve had to write for classes are any indication — I just don’t do well under a 30-minute time limit. It takes me about that long just to mull things over and develop a definitive position on a topic, if not more.

I feel confident about it though, in spite of all that. Nowhere near as stressful as taking the MCAT, although that might be due to the fact that I got to see my scores immediately after finishing, rather than having to wait an entire month. I also might’ve gotten a little bit better at not being as intimidated by the GRE as I was by the MCAT. Or maybe I’m just dunning caring. Who knows at this point lol. Though, if I just don’t care enough, that’s probably an indicator that I should rethink my career decision to go into research and academia haha.

Update: I got a 3.5 on my analytical writing shiiii-. Well, guess I’ve got my work cut out for me for the next month. Dangit dangit dangit. Booooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.

What really irks me is that I generally write well — I just don’t write well under timed conditions. And except for exams, when during my PhD program would I need to hammer out an essay in 30 minutes? On all the essays that I’ve written for class assignments that I can remember off the top of my head, I’ve generally received top scores on. And some of these assignments were papers reviewing scientific articles, which makes them analytical writing assignments. I am so salty. :<

So much for feeling confident.

750 Words: The Final Stretch

Wow, it’s really been a while since my last post. I’m guessing I talked about quitting my job at New York & Company in the vlog (I’m not going to bother with listening to myself talk lol). Well, I wasn’t jobless for very long — I started working at Talbots later in April as their keyholder and it has been great. They’re more organized, they actually have enough people to cover a shift, and most importantly, people periodically bring food for everyone to snack on (especially during new floor sets). Other than that, I went to A-Kon again this summer. There were a few highlights — cosplay contest, a few panels, artist’s alley — but overall it didn’t feel all that special to me. Comparatively, I still prefer SGC to A-Kon; this year’s A-Kon had a similarly laid-back feel to it, but there wasn’t much that piqued my interest in way of panels. To be fair, I haven’t watched or kept up with anime in years. Maybe one day I’ll go to a comic con. It feels like it’ll probably be more appealing, since it’s not focused around one specific genre.

North Mall
The construction of the north mall has finally been finished! During my entire undergrad, that area with the fountain and the grass on either side of it was blocked off. The whole park atmosphere that they’ve added is really refreshing — it makes me kinda regret having classes on campus only one day a week.

In other news, I started working at a lab this summer, as part of my research internship requirements. This lab (Kennedy Lab of Aging and Cognition) focuses on cognitive aging, and they actually do a fairly wide variety of things for a lab. My project/focus is on white matter hyperintensities, and so far most of what I’ve been doing in lab is figuring out how to use MATLAB and playing with this Lesion Segmentation Tool, which makes WMH probability maps of participants’ scans.

I could go into more depth about lab stuff, but that’s not really my focus for this post. It has come to my attention that this is really going to be my last semester here at UTD. While I don’t have the usual “school pride” that students have at other schools — particularly large ones like UT Austin or Texas A&M (maybe it’s a football-related thing?) — I’ve grown very fond of UTD. Living in an apartment from freshman year was great, playing online video games with my friends in the computer labs at night was awesome, and I always enjoyed watching people play pool and ping-pong while I ate at the student union on the upper floor.

While I guess only the first point is something that was unique to UTD — not anymore though, since they finished the residence halls after my freshman year — something about the size and location of it has always struck me as quaint and homely. Like, in the absence of a football team to bring us together, the student body fully embraced all the habits and behaviors of being nerdy and prided itself on it. Fliers of LAN parties could be found all over the campus, one would occasionally find little printouts of Pokemon stuck in random places from a Pokemon scavenger hunt, the computer lab pretty much always has at least one person playing a MOBA game, and I can always count on getting streetpasses on my 3DS while walking around on campus. We have cheerleaders for our chess team, which is apparently phenomenally good. I often feel out-of-place, like I don’t belong or really fit in with the people I’m with, but being a student at UTD is probably the closest I’ve come to feeling “at home” with a general population.

I found some amazing friends here at UTD, pretty much from the first day — even if the circumstances that brought us together were a bit odd. I doubt I would’ve found such amazing friends as quickly if I had gone to another school. Admittedly, and somewhat regrettably, I’ve gotten pretty distant from the culture at UTD since I and my friends finished undrgrad and two of them moved away. Now that I live ~45 minutes away from campus, I doubt I’ll be able to remedy that in this last semester of my masters program. Nevertheless, I’ll always think of UTD fondly; for all the ups and downs I encountered during my 6 years there, the time I’ve spent on that campus has been the best time of my (short 23-year) life. I don’t think I have ever regretted choosing to come to UTD, and consider myself unbelievably lucky for choosing a college where I met my best friends and discovered my true dream career — a life of research in neuroscience. I can only hope that I will be anywhere near as fortunate in my search for the school where I’ll get my PhD.

Realizing how little time left I have at this school has also really made me realize how little time left I have to apply to PhD schools. I have to choose which schools I want to apply to, plus study, take, and do well on my GRE, ask professors to write letters of recommendations, write my statement of purposes, and figure out application processes — all on top of my courses for the semester and a part-time job. I guess that’s one thing that being pre-med had over going into academia; they had a dedicated program and multiple pre-med student associations to inform and coach you through the application and admissions process.

Ah well. I guess all I can say is this: WISH ME LUCK!

Travel Vlog: Dunning Jobs and Getting Healthy

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Look at this happy baby! One of my sister’s guests used to make balloon twisting art, so Owen got a fancy birthday hat.
I was going to talk about this in the video too, but I’m pretty sure I totally forgot. During spring break, I had taken my car in to the Ford dealership in Austin because it was still having the same problems that were supposedly supposed to be fixed with the recall last year. For dumb reasons, that dealership wasn’t able to diagnose the problem because the technician who specialized in the code they got from the car was out sick. So I left my car in Brenham since spring break so that my parents could take it to the dealership, so that I wouldn’t have to deal with not having a car if the Escape needed to be left there. I’ve been borrowing my mom’s Hyundai Elantra in the meantime. I used to drive that car when I was in high school, so it was pretty interesting to see how the car had aged in that time.
And he hulked out in the process.
Owen totally demolished his smash cake.

Anyway, the issue with my Ford Escape was actually with a sensor that is responsible for gas being pumped to the engine when the gas pedal is depressed. I’ve been pretty skeptical of my car ever being actually “fixed” considering my past experience with taking it to the dealership and getting it back “fixed”, but I immediately noticed a difference in the way it drove on the way back to Dallas today. Before, you’d feel a noticeable lurch whenever the car was shifting gears, but today it was hardly noticeable, and it didn’t hesitate in accelerating/switching gears like it used to. It felt really nice to be driving my Escape again — I didn’t realize I’d miss it haha.

750 Words: Work Stress

20150131_153439
This is about 23 hours of work on my nephew’s blanket. One ball of yarn out of the 3 that I bought for it, so the finished product should be about three times this length.

I’ve always found it difficult to make posts about mundane little details of my life, which is partly also the reason why I have trouble making daily posts. However, I saw two posts on my Tumblr dashboard that were basically lists of questions that followers could choose for the poster to answer, so I copied a few of them into a word doc to use as topics for these 750 Word posts. Maybe I’ll aim for 2 posts a week and work my way up during the year, ’cause once a day is too much of a commitment for me right now lol.

In other news, apparently this past week has been pretty stressful on me. I opened every day that I worked last week, and only one of those days was with an associate who’s been at our store for more than a month. Two of those days was with a manager from another store who was helping us out since we have only one associate at our store who can open during the week, and she was gone on vacation. It was nice though, since the other manager was able to show me how to do more of the paperwork and stuff for the store. The last day, we borrowed an associate from another store, and the closing manager from the day before forgot to do the computer stuff so that the associate could clock in and had the correct register permissions and whatnot. I vaguely remembered how to do it from when I helped out another store, but in the end, I still had to call the help desk.

Speaking of the help desk, I had to call them pretty much every day that I worked last week because we kept having issues with our coupon codes not working properly on our registers. I’ve gotten the same tech support person practically every time I’ve called, which feels a little weird. I guess we only have a handful of tech support people for the stores in our region? It’s the only plausible reason I can think of for me getting the same person that many times in a row.

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Here’s the picture from last summer, after I had worked on it for about 13 hours.

I didn’t realize how stressed I was until I saw the schedule for this week and just raged. First of all, I’m scheduled for 26 hours this week, when I specifically requested for a max of 20 hours. Secondly, I’m scheduled to open again on Thursday for the few hours before my class starts because I’m the only associate who consistently has opening availability on Thursday. And thirdly, two of my shifts are with new associates. I just dislike that they schedule me with new people when I’m still new at my position. It’s frustrating that most of our associates only have closing availability, so I’ll probably be stuck opening on Thursday for a while until we hire someone who has opening availability. At least our new store manager is done with training, so he’s working at our store starting this week.

I actually raged so hard that I cried after I clocked out on Friday. I’m stuck on campus from 1:00 PM – 9:45 PM on Tuesdays, and even though I only have a class for just over an hour on Thursdays, I still consider it a “class day”. Being scheduled on Wednesdays and Fridays makes it difficult to read ahead for class, or even review stuff for class, since work mentally tires me out so much. So the days that I actually have off from work and don’t have class are mostly spent catching or keeping up with classes, making it feel like I don’t get much time to just relax. So that, and the fact that they disregarded my max availability really irks me. Additionally, my parents are visiting this weekend, so I’ll probably be spending a good deal of my free time cleaning my apartment. I’ve actually been wanting to clean my apartment for a while, but I’d need at least a day to do all of it, and since I’ve been using my days off to study, I haven’t been able to get to it.

I dunno. It doesn’t sound quite as complicated when I explain it, but I guess it feels really stressful to me since my time management skills are still pretty crappy. That, and a whole bunch of new stuff was thrown at me this past week.

Well, on the plus side, I worked on the blanket I’m knitting for my nephew, and I’ve been rereading the Harry Potter series before bed since I don’t have any of my portable game systems to play on lol. I’m already on the fourth book in the series even though I’ve been trying to limit myself to only one or two chapters a night. Then again, the first three books are kinda short — and I also binge read a few times last week when I was feeling frustrated and unmotivated to do anything requiring effort.

Somehow, I can’t believe it’s already February, but I also can’t believe that it’s only February.

750 Words: Still in School! Work Promotion! Resolutions!

I’m not sure where to start on this one. The last post was written right before all my final exams and papers. I somehow managed to get two A’s and one B- for my classes from last semester, but that left me with a cumulative GPA of 2.959, which was just under the 3.0 I needed to get out of academic probation.

My bro-in-law and I both got our backpacks from Goodwill. xD
This girl has the exact same backpack as I do. My brother-in-law also has the same backpack.

In undergrad at UTD, if you get into academic probation and aren’t able to get out of it within 2 semesters, there are a few other levels of probation and whatnot before you get dismissed from the university. However, in grad school, all you get is the one chance. So the second half of my December and the first few weeks of January was spent worrying about whether or not my adviser would be able to convince the Dean of Graduate Studies to not kick me out of the master’s program.

Luckily, he did, and I’m about to start the third week of classes. One of my friends also made me give him my 3DS and PSP for the semester, so hopefully I’ll be able to keep my shit together. Speaking of my 3DS, I bought Etrian Odyssey sometime at the end of December when it was on sale for $15, and somehow managed to put over 40 hours into it before giving my 3DS to my friend after the first week of classes.

I started working at NY&C again 2 weeks ago and made sure they made a note of not scheduling me for more than 20 hours/week. The first week, I probably worked somewhere between 25-30 hours, but that’s fine since classes were just starting up and I wanted to earn money to make up for not working for over a month lol.This past week, they scheduled me for 15, but then I got randomly promoted to management support associate (MSA), so I picked up another 5 hours or so from being trained on opening and closing the store. I get a $1.50 pay raise that should come into effect this week, and tomorrow will be my first time to open the store.

The company decided to remove some job positions (namely, part-time assistant manager) and add others (floor sales leader, pretty much same thing as assistant manager but with less pay and more restricted hours, I guess). Considering that my store has been undergoing management changes pretty much since I started working, and that we’ve been shorthanded in general, this change came at a bad time; I’m guessing that had a lot to do with me getting a promotion. Speaking of which, MSA is a temporary promotion, and I go back to being a regular sales associate once we get a full management team back.

The crappy part is that they’re having me open on Tuesday and Thursday this week from 9:30 – 12 (when I have class at 1), so they’re really desperate. I hope that this doesn’t become a trend, otherwise I’ll change my availability to where I can’t work on Tuesdays and Thursdays at all. Another crappy thing is that we lost one of our part-time managers because she decided the demotion to floor sales leader ($4 decrease in pay) wasn’t worth it, and took the severance package instead.

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I’m trying out this work organizer thing that came with last year’s organizer. I read so many things today! @_@

I’m not really sure what else I have to talk about. I have no idea how people can work all day and then get home and study for classes, though. I’m so mentally drained after working a full shift that I can’t do any studying unless it’s something menial. And since my classes mainly require reading, that means I just don’t study more often than not.

I’ve been getting up and going to sleep earlier and on a fairly regular basis since starting work at NY&C again, and also classes. I enjoy it, but I also wish it were easier to actually get up in the mornings. It probably would be easier if I had something to eat for breakfast. Speaking of which, I still need to go buy some groceries. Better wrap up this super-fragmented blog post quickly. It’s already 8 PM and I should be in bed by teeeeeeeeeeennnnn.

To end things, I guess I could list my vague new year’s resolutions here, since I did think of a few. I usually make any, since I’m of the school of thought that people should continually trying to improve themselves, so I guess this is more of me writing out goals I’ve been working towards, but in a more concrete/detailed way. I should probably write them down and tape them to my monitor so I see them daily, but meh, maybe later.

2015 New Year’s Resolutions:

  • Make fewer impulse purchases
    • Make fewer *large* impulse purchases
    • Short-term goal: limit to one impulse purchase a month
    • Update budget regularly
      • When getting paycheck
      • When making purchases
      • Reconcile w/bank statement @ beginning of month
    • Fewer purchases = moar $$$
      • For food
      • For bills, credit cards
      • For financial buffer
      • For THE FUTURE
  • Keep up with classes
    • Read chapters before class
    • Review class notes & personal chapter notes weekly
    • Update planner w/study timelines for upcoming assignments
  • Use planner regularly
    • Class assignments/exams
    • Work schedules
    • Meal plans
      • Also helps with eating more healthily
    • Bills
  • Blog more regularly
    • 750 Words
      • Such work
      • Much time
    • ???
    • ?????
    • ???????????????

750 Words – Hyperbolic Crochet

I haven’t been keeping up very well with these “daily” 750 word posts, have I? During Thanksgiving week and the following week, I had myself checked into the inn on HRPG so that’s the main reason why I haven’t been posting. I also changed the “750 Word post” daily task to “work on blog/750 words”, so I sometimes (often) cheat by considering updates and comment moderation as “working on the blog”, even though those usually take less than a minute or so. In any case, I haven’t been doing anything particularly noteworthy  . . . and I also just didn’t feel like making a completely random brain dump post. I know these types of posts are supposed to be uncensored and free-flowing thoughts, but I still prefer my posts to have at least some type of focus and structure.

Mine doesn’t look very coral-like . . . I think it’s because of the Christmas-y colors.

I probably won’t be posting these daily starting from now, either; I’ve got finals and papers due next week, and then I’ll be visiting family for winter break (plus my parents don’t have internet), so I might instead type up little blurbs each day and post whenever it reaches 750 words/I feel like it.

So I came across this thing called hyperbolic crochet. I actually discovered it from a Kickstarter that is showcasing them as stress balls, but I think hyperbolic crocheting was popularized as a way to raise awareness concerning environmental issues while at the same time paying homage to the beauty of coral reefs. (See more coral-like crocheted versions here.) I have a few balls of yarn that I impulse bought because I felt like knitting/crocheting quick and easy things for instant gratification — and as a way to take a break from the yarn projects that I was working on for other people — so making little crocheted coral stress balls seemed like a quick and easy way to use up that yarn. It is rather stress-relieving to toy with, but I was also pleased to discover that it’s really simple to make as well.

I learned how to crochet before learning how to knit, but I much prefer knitting over crochet. It’s easier to keep track of stitches since they’re always on a needle, I like that the resulting fabric is stretchier and less stiff, and it’s easier to knit by touch than it is to crochet by touch (knitting/crocheting without having to constantly look at your work, if that didn’t make sense). It’s easier for me to space out and watch videos or shows while knitting, which makes it more relaxing and enjoyable. On the other hand, with crochet you typically have only one loop/stitch on your hook at a time, and sometimes it’s difficult for me to tell which stitch to work in — plus I have to count stitches at the end of each round/row to make sure that I have the right number. And when I’m off by one or a few stitches, I’m usually unsure of whether it’s from me just being ADHD and herping up when I was counting, or if I’m actually missing stitches. So counting (and often recounting) rounds is tedious and frustrating when I have to tear out the previous round because I was off, and has a high potential of devolving into a frustrating cycle because I don’t pay close enough dsafdsafsdffsdto where the previous round ends.

Does my desktop background look familiar?
Got a vertical notebook riser so that I have marginally more desk space!!! :D

The beauty of hyperbolic crochet is that I don’t have to keep count of stitch count nor number of rounds. The pattern is based off a simple repeat, and it doesn’t matter if I miss a stitch or forget where in the repeat I am because it’ll look delightfully convoluted regardless. It’s practically impossible to mess up, so with this pattern, I’m able to enjoy crocheting to the same extent that I do knitting. It’s an easy and simple project that I can pick up and put down without having to keep track of how far along I am because I can make it as big or small as I want. The only downside is that there’s not much point in me making multiple stress corals for myself, and I probably have enough yarn to where I’d make way more than I have friends and family to randomly gift them to. I suppose larger ones that I make can be replacement bath loofahs. (Image for those of you unfamiliar with the term lolz.)

The only other thing I know I wanted to mention is that I got a notebook riser for my laptop to increase the screen height and (hopefully) reduce neck strain from sitting in front of it for so long. I finally have some desk space in front of my laptop so that I can write things in my planner or random notes! My desk doesn’t feel so cramped now haha. Plus my cat can’t sit on my laptop keyboard anymore, and him sitting on my desk will no longer obstruct my view of the screen. However, I don’t mention this because of the increased potential in my productivity, but because of the herp solution I came up with in figuring out how to raise my external monitor to approximately the same height.

Monitor Solutions
I tried to camouflage the herpery with nerdery. Did it work?

I’m not sure how noticeable it is in the other picture, but I took a closer one so that you could see exactly what I’m using to prop up my monitor — 2 empty daily vitamin bottles and an empty bottle from one of my past Adderall prescriptions. It’s not the stablest setup, but at least my desk is up against a corner so I don’t have to worry as much about it potentially falling back off of my desk.

THIS ALSO MEANS I HAVE MORE ROOM TO EAT STUFF AT MY DESK WHILE WATCHING STUFF ON THE INTERNETS. It just feels more spacious, less cramped, more enjoyable. I have more room to do stuff without having had to drastically change the layout of my work area.

Aaaanyway, I’ve already spent over 2 hours on this post and it’s time for bed. Hopefully I won’t be tossing and turning in my bed for hours tonight — it’s been a while since I’ve taken my Adderall regularly, so it’s making it difficult to fall asleep even though I take it at 6 in the morning.