Classic Conversation Thread

[WrathOfHan]

Just now, aabattery said:

I'd definitely consider dropping down to four classes. Shit's tough as is. I couldn't fathom doing more than that. There's no point taking on more than you can handle to try get ahead if it's gonna come back and bite you in the ass.  This is probably shit advice, but what I find helps is to break everything down into smaller parts. Basically compartmentalise everything as much as possible then chip away at it till it's done. Focus on one thing, get that done, move onto the next. It helps it feel less overwhelming (for me, anyway). Solving a hundred smaller problems vs one big, fuck-off huge one.

 

It might be worth talking to your parents about that dropping one of the classes. You say that they're just gonna say no, and maybe that's true, but maybe they'll surprise you. IDK, you know them better than me. Worth a shot at least.

 

Can't really help on the work front. I work full-time between semesters, and pretty much do nothing but school in-between. I'm pretty lucky there. Not everyone gets that opportunity.

Good to hear four classes is the norm for you. 15 hours has always been set up in my mind as the norm, and I felt like I was missing out on something by not being able to take a fifth class last semester because of scheduling. Now, I know that stuff can be a nightmare if you underestimate the syllabi.

 

I should probably wait another 2-3 weeks before bringing that up again. My mom is already kind of upset with me for wanting to drop my philosophy class, so hammering that point in again so soon would just make her angry.

[DAJK]

2 minutes ago, WrathOfHan said:

Good to hear four classes is the norm for you. 15 hours has always been set up in my mind as the norm, and I felt like I was missing out on something by not being able to take a fifth class last semester because of scheduling. Now, I know that stuff can be a nightmare if you underestimate the syllabi.

 

I should probably wait another 2-3 weeks before bringing that up again. My mom is already kind of upset with me for wanting to drop my philosophy class, so hammering that point in again so soon would just make her angry.

When is the drop date for your school without academic penalty

[WrathOfHan]

Just now, DAJK said:

When is the drop date for your school without academic penalty

The withdrawal deadline is March 27. That's still about 7 weeks away, but if I drop a class, I doubt it'll be within a week or two of the deadline; I'll probably decide much sooner.

[WrathOfHan]

I do wonder if a good portion of my stress would be alleviated if my philosophy professor was actually good. I'm estimating that I need to read about 4-5 hours worth of stuff for the exam on Wednesday; that would more than likely be cut in half if the professor actually explained what he wants us to know.

Edited February 2, 2018 by WrathOfHan

[DAJK]

2 minutes ago, WrathOfHan said:

I do wonder if a good portion of my stress would be alleviated if my philosophy professor was actually good. I'm estimating that I need to read about 4-5 hours worth of stuff for the exam on Wednesday; that would more than likely be cut in half if the professor actually explained what he wants us to know.

My chem prof sucked last semester. This semester I'm taking two courses, Anthropology and Archaeology with a prof and he's really really good. I spend less time on those classes combined than I did on chem, and I was always pretty good at chem whereas I've got no background on anthropology. 

[Dementeleus]

@WrathOfHan: there's no real benefit to trying to smash through as much as you can as fast as you can. Whether you drop a class this semester or not, it's worth carefully thinking through your fall schedule and planning things out so it's not so overwhelming. 

 

Also, forgive my old man advice, but this is a great time to start taking more responsibility for your free time and what you do with it. First and foremost is self-care and your own well-being. This means actually adjusting to a schedule that means you get a decent amount of sleep. It might take a little while, but do things like go to bed before midnight, don't use tablets or computers an hour before bed, maybe even take some melatonin or something. Giving yourself a chance at a decent amount of sleep will start to carry over to more energy the next day. 

 

Also, one of the facts of adult life (or soon to be adult life), is you have to stop accepting the easy reasons why you don't feel like doing some work (i.e. It's too loud in the house until 9 pm.) Get some noise-canceling headphones. Go to a Starbucks or a library or something. Find a way to give yourself the temporary isolation you need to be productive. I say this because the problem or issue will never go away, so by figuring out some tools you can use to get around it, you'll be saving yourself a lot of time and grief later. One of the reasons college can be confronting is it starts to force you to manage and schedule your time effectively. 

 

Look at little things you can do to give yourself some joy or peace in just a few minutes. (Listening to a favorite song... whatever). Find moments in the day where you can indulge yourself with those things, to give your soul a little bit of a recharge. If it's easier in the afternoon, a power-nap can work wonders (but a power nap means like 15 minutes max, no more). 

 

I'm sure lots of people have crazier schedules than me, but in my daily dance to accommodate son/wife/work, I'm usually up around 7am, gotta get Tele Jr woke, dressed, breakfast, and make his lunch and then get him to school by 8. Back home to grab a shower (if I didn't have time easier), off to work until about 7pm. Back home for dinner, getting Tele Jr to bed, then a bit of time to either work on creative stuff or maybe read or watch something. Occasionally I'll need to pick up Tele Jr from after-school care, which means bailing from work to pick him up before 6, hang with him at home until Mrs Tele gets back, then head back to work to finish up my day. That usually means missing regular dinner and grabbing a late snack/dinner when I eventually get home.

 

It's just the routine of life. When you're in school you've got to deal with homework. When you're in adult life, no homework but you're dealing with other stuff -- all the odds and ends of life and being responsible for yourself: shopping, cooking, laundry, cleaning, etc. The more you're able to adapt to setting up a workable routine for yourself (and having the flexibility to adjust as needed), the better you're set for when you finish school.

[DAJK]

@WrathOfHan do you have any hobbys or activities that relax you? I mean, I can definitely take a break once in a while and spend a few minutes on this site, but I mean more like just general hobbies that actually take some of the stress away.

 

For me, I'm so glad my parents made me learn to play music. Just sitting down at the piano and playing a few songs, or finding a quiet place in the house and playing the guitar and singing relaxes me (but more often the piano tbh) 

[Water Bottle]

1 hour ago, Just Tele said:

@WrathOfHan: there's no real benefit to trying to smash through as much as you can as fast as you can. Whether you drop a class this semester or not, it's worth carefully thinking through your fall schedule and planning things out so it's not so overwhelming. 

 

Also, forgive my old man advice, but this is a great time to start taking more responsibility for your free time and what you do with it. First and foremost is self-care and your own well-being. This means actually adjusting to a schedule that means you get a decent amount of sleep. It might take a little while, but do things like go to bed before midnight, don't use tablets or computers an hour before bed, maybe even take some melatonin or something. Giving yourself a chance at a decent amount of sleep will start to carry over to more energy the next day. 

 

Also, one of the facts of adult life (or soon to be adult life), is you have to stop accepting the easy reasons why you don't feel like doing some work (i.e. It's too loud in the house until 9 pm.) Get some noise-canceling headphones. Go to a Starbucks or a library or something. Find a way to give yourself the temporary isolation you need to be productive. I say this because the problem or issue will never go away, so by figuring out some tools you can use to get around it, you'll be saving yourself a lot of time and grief later. One of the reasons college can be confronting is it starts to force you to manage and schedule your time effectively. 

 

Look at little things you can do to give yourself some joy or peace in just a few minutes. (Listening to a favorite song... whatever). Find moments in the day where you can indulge yourself with those things, to give your soul a little bit of a recharge. If it's easier in the afternoon, a power-nap can work wonders (but a power nap means like 15 minutes max, no more). 

 

I'm sure lots of people have crazier schedules than me, but in my daily dance to accommodate son/wife/work, I'm usually up around 7am, gotta get Tele Jr woke, dressed, breakfast, and make his lunch and then get him to school by 8. Back home to grab a shower (if I didn't have time easier), off to work until about 7pm. Back home for dinner, getting Tele Jr to bed, then a bit of time to either work on creative stuff or maybe read or watch something. Occasionally I'll need to pick up Tele Jr from after-school care, which means bailing from work to pick him up before 6, hang with him at home until Mrs Tele gets back, then head back to work to finish up my day. That usually means missing regular dinner and grabbing a late snack/dinner when I eventually get home.

 

It's just the routine of life. When you're in school you've got to deal with homework. When you're in adult life, no homework but you're dealing with other stuff -- all the odds and ends of life and being responsible for yourself: shopping, cooking, laundry, cleaning, etc. The more you're able to adapt to setting up a workable routine for yourself (and having the flexibility to adjust as needed), the better you're set for when you finish school.

 

Isn't Tele Jr old enough to dress himself by now?

 

Also man am I glad I'm never going to be a parent. Having to wake up earlier than you have to because you have a kid? Nightmare stuff.

[Water Bottle]

7 hours ago, RichWS said:

Anybody ever have the problem of not being able to log onto the forum via Tapatalk? I'm logged into Tapatalk itself, but when I try to sign in here, I get the "no permission" message at the bottom. I'm using the right password so it ain't that.

 

When we upgraded, Tapatalk wasn't supporting the latest version of Invision software so it wouldn't work. It's been disabled on our end since then and I don't see functionality returning anytime soon. Very few people used the app.

[Avatree]

Trying to buy tickets for Star Wars in concert. Tickets go on sale at 10am, so I go onto the website at 10 and am placed in a 3000 long queue.... It's as if 3000 voices cried out and were suddenly silenced.

[aabattery]

Roman J. Israel, Esq.

 

I think I liked it?

[CoolioD1]

4 minutes ago, aabattery said:

Roman J. Israel, Esq.

 

I think I liked it?

It's great my only issue with it is that turkey bacon donut denzel obsesses over sounds DISGUSTING

[aabattery]

If I was voting today (and if I was part of the Academy and it was only my opinion that was counted) Denzel would be winning Best Actor. He's low-key kind of incredible in it.

 

The Daniel Day-Lewis movie is tomorrow so we'll see if he can match up.

[That One Girl]

2 hours ago, aabattery said:

Roman J. Israel, Esq.

 

I think I liked it?

 

It’s a weird movie for me.  Some parts of it are really clunky but there are a lot of really interesting and good parts that make it an otherwise pretty solid flick

Edited February 2, 2018 by That One Guy

[That One Girl]

@Chewy mredman got perma banned  

[Avatree]

Got the tickets for Star Wars. On the big screen, with the London Symphony Orchestra, in the Royal Albert Hall. Gonna be SICK.

[WrathOfHan]

4 hours ago, DAJK said:

@WrathOfHan do you have any hobbys or activities that relax you? I mean, I can definitely take a break once in a while and spend a few minutes on this site, but I mean more like just general hobbies that actually take some of the stress away.

 

For me, I'm so glad my parents made me learn to play music. Just sitting down at the piano and playing a few songs, or finding a quiet place in the house and playing the guitar and singing relaxes me (but more often the piano tbh) 

The only hobby I have is watching movies, which hasn't really been happening over the past month like I said. I also like going to theme parks, but as I said, that's totally dependent on my dad's schedule because my parents won't let me drive that far by myself.

 

I used to play a few instruments (piano/trombone/bass) but stopped. Idk if that would still interest me or not because I was only renting the instruments and got bored with them a few years ago. 

 

I'm totally at a loss with hobbies.

[TwoMisfits]

7 hours ago, WrathOfHan said:

Fuck it, I'm too stressed to sleep, so I'm gonna be ranting here. This post might not be the most coherently-flowing, but you should get the gist. As I'm tearing my pieces of paper from that first picture over my garbage, I just... gah. I don't know how to start this post. What the fuck even is my life? School has been stressing me out more and more. This is legitimately the first semester where I'm exhausted. My day basically starts at 9 AM, and classes take anywhere from 3 and a half hours to 5 and a half hours between commuting and being in classes. Even when I have a 90 minute break two days per week, I take that time to eat breakfast/lunch and relax before nearly two hours of listening to a lecture where I breeze through almost every problem. Then what happens when I get home about a quarter to three? I relax! After sitting in a classroom for two hours, the last thing I want to do is more schoolwoork! Maybe in about half an hour or an hour I'll start my homework. Oh, but my homework is too time consuming! On Wednesday, I spent over two hours on pre-calc homework, and yesterday I spent over an hour doing homework and still didn't finish it! I haven't even started my statistics homework for the week, still have to complete a discussion in psychology, practice my speech for next Thursday (not to mention make a Powerpoint for it), and study for a philosophy exam on Wednesday that I'm totally clueless about. I also forgot to mention I have to write a 5-6 page paper for that class which is due in about three weeks. There is way too much shit on my plate academically, yet I can't withdraw from any of those classes because my mom won't allow it. I handled four classes fine last semester, and I could probably handle five classes fine if they weren't all so time consuming. Looking back, I can honestly say I have never spent more than 4-5 hours in a single week on homework. I have already spent nearly six hours on homework this week, and I haven't even touched two of my classes. Now, why can't I do homework at night? Well, there's too much noise in my house until about 9 PM, and it's simply not the right time for me personally. I have dinner, take a shower, have another snack before bed, and play around online. That mood just extends into the night, though I have done plenty of late night study sessions in the past. Not this semester though! I mean, I was going to finish up my pre-calc homework tonight, but then I got so caught up in my notebook  

 

This feeling of exhaustion just looms over my entire day. Then when I'm done with homework on Friday/Saturday and have nothing to do, I feel incredibly strange yet do nothing to fix it. I mean, what could I possibly do to fix it? School has been leaving me with no motivation. I have done almost nothing recreational over the past month. I've made four trips to the movies, two of which were after the first week of school on a four day weekend. My other two trips were basically spur of the moment decisions, and it's honestly a miracle they even happened. Outside of those, Monday-Thursday is simply going to school and back, making dinner or getting fast food/takeout, and doing homework. I don't even watch much stuff at home anymore! People on here have given me suggestions about what I could do in my spare time before, so forgive me if it feels like I've ignored all that. However, I really can't find things to do in my area. I don't have friends, so doing stuff like bowling is out. There aren't many avenues for teens to meet outside of high school here, which I unfortunately have graduated from and can't partake in any extracurricular actives the school system offers to homeschooled students. You may think that I can do stuff with my family, but that really isn't the case. My dad is always working overtime, and it's been impossible to see a movie or go to a theme park with him. My mom is just glad to have the weekend to relax and likes to go shopping, and I almost always tag along even if it's not the most exciting thing because I like to spend time with her. My sister is in her own phase of wanting independence and has basically ignored me for about 9 months now between her schoolwork, a job, and own friend. There's almost nobody in my life I can do stuff with.

 

Whenever I'm in one of these moods on here, I'm typically encouraged to get a job working in a fast food joint. You all know by now that my parents won't let me, but even if I was allowed to get a job at a restaurant, would I even have the time? If I was working 18 hours a week, I would be even more stressed out with my current school schedule. I've seen firsthand what happened with my sister when she was being schedule for nearly 30 hours almost every week, and she was only taking a part-time course load back then! Maybe if I dropped a class that would help? Even then, my parents still wouldn't allow either to happen.

 

A big thing that's been nagging at me with my course load is how my mom and sister tried talking me out of it. I hate admitting they were right, but they were right!  This is more of a personal gripe with not achieving my goals, but what if I only take four classes per semester when I transfer? Actually, that might not be a terrible idea considering I still don't know what path I want to go down. I'm already ahead by what, 2 years? I do need to relax a bit with graduating ASAP. This is one of the few times my mom is right on something with school.

 

So yeah, after spending about 30-40 minutes writing this, I feel better. I always say the same shit every single week, and I'm sure most of you get annoyed when I whine about my life. I just really need to get this stuff out of my head because you guys are basically the only emotional support I can talk to about issues like this. I know things will eventually get better, but the past month has been hell for me. Even when I get teased on here, I really can't stress enough how much I appreciate each and every one of you  

Tele gave you great advice...

 

I'm not sure how much more I can help, but to give perspective.  As you know, I've mentioned before that every 3 credit class should be 120 hours of work, and with only 45 hours in class, you have 75 hours of work for the semester, which breaks down to 5 hours of work/week for EACH class...or 25 hours/week if you have 5 courses.  Right now, you aren't putting aside that amount of time in your planning, so it's really stressing you out. (And note - you may not need all that time each week, but planning it makes sure you stay stress-free)...

 

Each semester, I routinely started with an 8am class twice a week (the other days, I could back off to 9:30am, and I was known for making the lightest Friday ever:) to both kick my own butt and to have time to get done early enough that I could do homework at a reasonable time and still have all evening after dinner to kick back and relax.  I also saved Sunday as a big work day (so I knew I could enjoy Friday night and Saturday b/c Sunday was my "homework day" with 8-10 hours or so of work on a normal class schedule)...I was NOT an all-nighter type of person, so if I didn't plan this way, I'd have stressed myself out.  

 

It sounds like you also don't like late night work, so in the future, you may want to make sure you have an early class schedule, so you can do your work all afternoon.  You also may want to not head off after classes, but use the university library to sit, relax, and get the work done before you ever leave.  Or not the library, but a classroom window sill (which got me through political philosophy books b/c sitting in a cool window spot and looking outside every now and then allieviated boredom:)...  

 

I managed 18 credit hours every semester, but I did not have science labs (those are a KILLER - most I ever did were 3-4 Math classes, an Astronomy class, and a computer science class, and those were still my most time consuming)...I had to graduate in 4 years b/c of my scholarship and I had to take that course load level to do it...so I made it work...College is all about making it work and figuring out what works for you:)...It's about developing habits that will work later.  

 

I will say my 8am classes were genius for then starting 8am paid internships during the summer - I didn't really have to readjust my schedule to work a "real job" b/c my class load and then my normal study time pretty much fit the 8am-5pm concept:)...

Edited February 2, 2018 by TwoMisfits

[MrPink]

6 hours ago, WrathOfHan said:

Good to hear four classes is the norm for you. 15 hours has always been set up in my mind as the norm, and I felt like I was missing out on something by not being able to take a fifth class last semester because of scheduling. Now, I know that stuff can be a nightmare if you underestimate the syllabi.

 

I should probably wait another 2-3 weeks before bringing that up again. My mom is already kind of upset with me for wanting to drop my philosophy class, so hammering that point in again so soon would just make her angry.

 

15 is the norm in my experience. And this might be different because you were home schooled, but those 15 hours freed up a lot more time for me comparatively to high school because I wasn't forced to spend 7 hours a day, 5 days a week in school. Instead, it was 2-3 hours a day and go home. How you choose to spend your time from there is where people learn to sink or swim. Perhaps the environment isn't helping, but you'd be surprised at what the human body is mentally capable of enduring if you take it one day at a time. It's two weeks in and things probably seem daunting, but as the semester goes on, you'll probably realize that you can spend your time more efficiently and still do things at a satisfactory level. 

 

One of the things I learned about grad school is that the worst that can happen to you as a student is maybe not getting the grade you want. Which in the end, is a very small thing. Clearly you're an intelligent kid. You seem to get good grades based on your previous posts. So right now I'd focus on getting things done, and worry about being the best later as you 'adjust the sliders' so to speak. When I have a test, I have to call it quits at some point so I can focus on my job, and then two weeks later I sometimes wonder why I stressed so much in the first place. 

 

But as you said, you are considerably ahead, so it's not like you have to stick to 15 credits, but at some point, you'll probably want to do it, because likely your job will consume your time and stress far more than 15 credit hours (or 18 for that matter)

[filmlover]

Am I and I'm guessing @DAR the only ones watching this season of American Crime Story? This is some seriously chilling stuff, people.