Reading period blues
Jan. 12th, 2005 06:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tarigwaemirLowell House, on the Feast of St. Benedict Bennet
Reading period isn't going very well. Monday was spent frantically cramming for my Korean final; then my Korean class went to dinner at Koreana (one of our classmates just got a job, so he treated us all out to galbi). I got back and pretty much did nothing until I collapsed into bed (I'd pulled an all-nighter, you see, finishing up my lab report and studying for Korean). I woke up late on Tuesday, but apparently that didn't make up my sleep deficit because I was half-asleep while I was helping the post-doc troubleshoot the new print plates, and as soon as I got back and tried to study, I ended up sleeping through dinner instead. Yuck. I managed to write up a study schedule for all three of my exams, and if I actually, you know, had the self-discipline to follow it, I wouldn't need to worry about it at all. But it's hard to sit and study, particularly when I promised to show up at lab this week. (Technically, if I said I couldn't come, everyone would understand and tell me to go study, but that would mean I'd be out of the lab for this entire month, and I really do want to keep up with the project because we're at an exciting stage: we're still having trouble getting a good print, but we're this close to having our final "super-array" of 500+ markers, and as soon as we're reasonably sure it works, I get to start hybridizing RILs and actually use the array to create genetic maps. Also, we'll also get to start writing up a techniques paper, and that would mean I'd be a co-author for the very first time on a real scientific paper.) But going to lab does put a wrench in the middle of my day; it's hard to get up early enough to start studying before lab, and even harder to try to get to work in the afternoon after I get back from lab. ::sighs:: I'll go tomorrow, and if it seems really necessary, I'll ask to take Friday off. Since the printer's booked by another lab, I don't know if we'll even be able to do work on the microarray since we've already checked the print plates.
I keep falling asleep whenever I try to study. That all-nighter was definitely a mistake, since it's apparently killed whatever hint of insomnia I had before. Also, I went to the chemistry synthesis problem review session today, and although our TF was beyond-words awesome and gave us a packet listing all the major transforms and categorizing all the types of nucleophiles, electrophiles, as well as oxidizing and reducing agents, I also realized that I didn't recognize half the reactions and I am so, so screwed for this final. ::sighs:: I wish I could just, I don't know, scan all these notes into my brain somehow. I'm terrible at memorization, and although Professor Evans taught this course using a much more conceptual approach, I just didn't have the discipline to put in all the extra hours to understand those concepts. Plus, I just get the feeling that chemistry requires more analytic ability than I have. So brute memorization it is, and I'll probably fail this final, thus ruining my chances of getting a decent grade, resurrection or no. What is it about reading period that sinks you into total pessimism anyway?
Ah well. I'm going to try and at least stick to today's schedule for biology at the very least. Chapters 1-9? I can do that, yes, I can...>_>
Yours &c.
Post-script: Why, oh, why isn't Verizon's online bill-payment system working? I checked my statement and realized I forgot to pay last month, so now I owe $94.32 (last month's bill, plus this month's bill, plus a $5 late fee). I want to get the payment done with, while I still remember, but the system keeps saying it's down! Oh well...let this be a reminder to myself: pay your cell phone bill! (After which the money in my bank account will dwindle down to a miserable $70. I should deposit my New Year's money before I go destitute.)
Reading period isn't going very well. Monday was spent frantically cramming for my Korean final; then my Korean class went to dinner at Koreana (one of our classmates just got a job, so he treated us all out to galbi). I got back and pretty much did nothing until I collapsed into bed (I'd pulled an all-nighter, you see, finishing up my lab report and studying for Korean). I woke up late on Tuesday, but apparently that didn't make up my sleep deficit because I was half-asleep while I was helping the post-doc troubleshoot the new print plates, and as soon as I got back and tried to study, I ended up sleeping through dinner instead. Yuck. I managed to write up a study schedule for all three of my exams, and if I actually, you know, had the self-discipline to follow it, I wouldn't need to worry about it at all. But it's hard to sit and study, particularly when I promised to show up at lab this week. (Technically, if I said I couldn't come, everyone would understand and tell me to go study, but that would mean I'd be out of the lab for this entire month, and I really do want to keep up with the project because we're at an exciting stage: we're still having trouble getting a good print, but we're this close to having our final "super-array" of 500+ markers, and as soon as we're reasonably sure it works, I get to start hybridizing RILs and actually use the array to create genetic maps. Also, we'll also get to start writing up a techniques paper, and that would mean I'd be a co-author for the very first time on a real scientific paper.) But going to lab does put a wrench in the middle of my day; it's hard to get up early enough to start studying before lab, and even harder to try to get to work in the afternoon after I get back from lab. ::sighs:: I'll go tomorrow, and if it seems really necessary, I'll ask to take Friday off. Since the printer's booked by another lab, I don't know if we'll even be able to do work on the microarray since we've already checked the print plates.
I keep falling asleep whenever I try to study. That all-nighter was definitely a mistake, since it's apparently killed whatever hint of insomnia I had before. Also, I went to the chemistry synthesis problem review session today, and although our TF was beyond-words awesome and gave us a packet listing all the major transforms and categorizing all the types of nucleophiles, electrophiles, as well as oxidizing and reducing agents, I also realized that I didn't recognize half the reactions and I am so, so screwed for this final. ::sighs:: I wish I could just, I don't know, scan all these notes into my brain somehow. I'm terrible at memorization, and although Professor Evans taught this course using a much more conceptual approach, I just didn't have the discipline to put in all the extra hours to understand those concepts. Plus, I just get the feeling that chemistry requires more analytic ability than I have. So brute memorization it is, and I'll probably fail this final, thus ruining my chances of getting a decent grade, resurrection or no. What is it about reading period that sinks you into total pessimism anyway?
Ah well. I'm going to try and at least stick to today's schedule for biology at the very least. Chapters 1-9? I can do that, yes, I can...>_>
Yours &c.
Post-script: Why, oh, why isn't Verizon's online bill-payment system working? I checked my statement and realized I forgot to pay last month, so now I owe $94.32 (last month's bill, plus this month's bill, plus a $5 late fee). I want to get the payment done with, while I still remember, but the system keeps saying it's down! Oh well...let this be a reminder to myself: pay your cell phone bill! (After which the money in my bank account will dwindle down to a miserable $70. I should deposit my New Year's money before I go destitute.)
