academic update

Firstly, please excuse the recent lapse in posting. I've had a stressful few days and blogging has to take the backseat when that happens or I'd probably have a breakdown in blog form. I won't bore you with the stressors, but tell you instead that things are picking up now: maybe it's correlational with the fact that tomorrow is the last of midterms.

I'm trying to think what's happened in the 6 days since my last proper post (3 if you count the temporary post I'm yet to redraft), but sadly it's not been much. This is one of the stressors, although I intend to stick to my earlier statement and not bore you with it, but tell you instead that I've planned to do more things from now on, to prevent it becoming stressful again.

So here's what I've got in the way of post content:

I've watched a lot of videos on Youtube. It would seem that last year's Peep Show grind (5 seasons in just over a week with Simon) was not a one-time-only occurrence, as this week I've watched the last 2 seasons of The IT Crowd, all 6 episodes of Garth Marengi's Darkplace, and the first 3 episodes of Peep Show season 6. On brief calculation that's 8 hours 24 minutes of videos, which could be considered slightly shameful.

I don't consider it so, however. The videos have been interspersed with high amounts of academic activity, and have acted as a barrier between it and insanity. With midterms, assignments and staple reading and note taking, I think it's healthy to have a break now and then!

On the midterm front, 2 of 3 exams are now done. I feel they both went well: I got 80% in Abnormal Psychology, which I'm happy about, and I mentioned my positivity regarding the most recent exam a couple of posts back (I'll see if it's well founded when the results are given out next week). Tomorrow's exam, though, I'm not feeling so positive about: I've been a bit too casual with revision to feel completely confident, and annoyed at myself because that's a lesson I should've learned by now.

No matter, though. I'm revising now, have done so earlier today, and intend to do so again for the whole of the time I'm awake until the exam. I can draw upon a lot of what I learned last year at Keele, too, which I knew from the start and think is part of the reason I was casual in the first place.

So although the stress, high-volume video watching and qualms about exam preparation don't suggest the best mental state, I'm feeling good. Being here is teaching me a lot about myself and life, and they're lessons I'm happy to learn. I figure it's best to learn them and feel crap temporarily than not learn them 'til it's too late and feel crap for ages.

I'm sure if I put some more thought into that it could sound more philosophical, but as long as it gets the message across it'll do for now!