Let me be empty, oh and weightless and maybe/ I'll find some peace tonight
Week 10 of 13 here for me, and I'm only getting my first respite now. Feels good. I had the time to go for a slow, longish jog earlier, though I must say my shins have been acting up again. I think it is time to find a doctor.
Why have I been so busy? Many reasons. One of them is that my supervisor has been pushing me to read stuff and getting back to him on stuff. This is, of course, a good thing - I would want to read philosophy in my own free time anyway, so he's basically planted that initiative for me. The downside is I feel stressed at times, because I need to get back to him on stuff by certain times; I gain motivation but lose flexibility.
Another reason is that I am taking an extra undergraduate language module in school. It's pretty heavy, with 5 hours of lesson time a week, homework, and regular tests. Learning a language at a later age isn't easy. You naturally seek to understand the new language with the languages you are familiar with, but that sometimes becomes more of an impediment than anything else. But it's fine. I like the challenge. I like thinking in different ways, and the amount of cognition I exercise in this class isn't too far off from the amount of cognition I employ in a heavy Philosophy class - or so it feels. Hopefully this means I'm training my brain to be more flexible. Plasticity, I believe the term is. In any event, I've always wanted to pick up something new, and free lessons are a good place to start.
Being constantly pressed for time underscores the fact that life has so much, for lack of a better term, 'downtime'. In life, you do work, you engage in leisure, and you do essential stuff like eating, bathing, and sleeping. These are the 3 broad categories. Downtime is that category which contains things that don't exactly fit under any of these categories. Composing a simple email of 5 sentences can take me 15 minutes. Trying-to-be-funny on Facebook can take up 45 minutes. Sometimes I tell myself I don't have time for an Agricola game - but I end up watching one for 20 minutes anyway. A supposedly simple meal after class can span 1 hour 15 minutes. Dropping by the Honours or the Graduate Room before I head home sometimes takes up 20 minutes as I sit around and talk with people.
This is not to say I completely don't enjoy having all this downtime. In fact, in most cases, I do - else I wouldn't be doing them. What this just means is that I have to plan my life in such a way to accomodate downtime. So, for example, I can't just set aside 2 hours of computer games every night. I got to anticipate various downtimes and set aside 3 hours. Consequently I will want to do my work in such a way I am able to be online at an earlier time. If I know that there's a good chance I would be tempted to stay on after a simple meal, I would want to do more work the day before. If I know I would spend 2 hours writing a blog entry of this length, I would want to do more work beforehand. Such a plain thing to see now, but it's not so easy to see when you're in the midst of things.
In any case, I'm looking forward to a board games session with some people at a community center, and a dinner with some of my peers and seniors this Sunday. It's been a long time since I've had the breathing space to actually look forward to going out.
I ate $2.40 worth of sliced fruits today. I finished the honeydew first, then the pear, then the watermelon, for watermelon is my favourite amongst the 3. Too bad it wasn't juicy enough.
Why have I been so busy? Many reasons. One of them is that my supervisor has been pushing me to read stuff and getting back to him on stuff. This is, of course, a good thing - I would want to read philosophy in my own free time anyway, so he's basically planted that initiative for me. The downside is I feel stressed at times, because I need to get back to him on stuff by certain times; I gain motivation but lose flexibility.
Another reason is that I am taking an extra undergraduate language module in school. It's pretty heavy, with 5 hours of lesson time a week, homework, and regular tests. Learning a language at a later age isn't easy. You naturally seek to understand the new language with the languages you are familiar with, but that sometimes becomes more of an impediment than anything else. But it's fine. I like the challenge. I like thinking in different ways, and the amount of cognition I exercise in this class isn't too far off from the amount of cognition I employ in a heavy Philosophy class - or so it feels. Hopefully this means I'm training my brain to be more flexible. Plasticity, I believe the term is. In any event, I've always wanted to pick up something new, and free lessons are a good place to start.
Being constantly pressed for time underscores the fact that life has so much, for lack of a better term, 'downtime'. In life, you do work, you engage in leisure, and you do essential stuff like eating, bathing, and sleeping. These are the 3 broad categories. Downtime is that category which contains things that don't exactly fit under any of these categories. Composing a simple email of 5 sentences can take me 15 minutes. Trying-to-be-funny on Facebook can take up 45 minutes. Sometimes I tell myself I don't have time for an Agricola game - but I end up watching one for 20 minutes anyway. A supposedly simple meal after class can span 1 hour 15 minutes. Dropping by the Honours or the Graduate Room before I head home sometimes takes up 20 minutes as I sit around and talk with people.
This is not to say I completely don't enjoy having all this downtime. In fact, in most cases, I do - else I wouldn't be doing them. What this just means is that I have to plan my life in such a way to accomodate downtime. So, for example, I can't just set aside 2 hours of computer games every night. I got to anticipate various downtimes and set aside 3 hours. Consequently I will want to do my work in such a way I am able to be online at an earlier time. If I know that there's a good chance I would be tempted to stay on after a simple meal, I would want to do more work the day before. If I know I would spend 2 hours writing a blog entry of this length, I would want to do more work beforehand. Such a plain thing to see now, but it's not so easy to see when you're in the midst of things.
In any case, I'm looking forward to a board games session with some people at a community center, and a dinner with some of my peers and seniors this Sunday. It's been a long time since I've had the breathing space to actually look forward to going out.
I ate $2.40 worth of sliced fruits today. I finished the honeydew first, then the pear, then the watermelon, for watermelon is my favourite amongst the 3. Too bad it wasn't juicy enough.
3 Comments:
Learning German?
Ja.
Go school doctor!! Free! haha
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