How I Keep Myself Sane During Summer Break.

truly an old-book-enthusiast haven.

i remember going to this mall once, then having severe anxiety and guilt for not using that time on studying or requirements instead. thankfully, i saw this shop, and although it did not fully relieve me of my guilt— it made me feel like i would also regret it if i wasn’t with my family to see this.

give yourself a break sometimes! ✨

This is the first article under the 3 part series of Taking Control Of Your Life. To view the other articles under this series head here!

Ever had that weird feeling when you’re sitting (or peeing) and suddenly it’s like you’re losing everything? (I mean, ok, you’re losing your pee, lol). Everything just becomes too much, and you either prepare to cry, (bonus points if you curl up in a fetal position, ‘cause on the toilet seat that’s practically gymnastics) or grab a bag of popcorn, your midnight bathroom snack, not caring that you’re going bonkers (I respect that, you da hood). Except for the buttered popcorn, nothing about it is fun, yet it’s happened to every single one of us.

To cut short this intro, here’s how NOT to lose your shit. It’s time to take complete ownership of your life (someone cue the dramatic music, I don’t have a stereo. #BROKE-AF).

Someone amazing once said “your brain is your most valuable tool.” That’s true. Once you learn how to control your mind, you will start to see that we, being the dumb idiots that we are, over-complicate the simplest of things. You’re not losing your shit (but finish that popcorn anyway). Your mind just convinced you that you are. My wise friend once said that it’s either you directing your mind or it’s the other way around. Show your mind who’s boss and conquer it. Here’s how:

Don’t make excuses. Not only does it piss off Miss Honey and your dog (your dog has better things to eat, my dude), but it robs you of the opportunity to learn from your mistakes. As I always say, life is not a report card. It’s never perfect, and it’s the little flaws that push you to aim higher. In the end, life is just growth as a human being (or as a basic hoe, like me). Here’s an example of taking full responsibility for your actions:

 Action: You didn’t submit your essay on time.

 Normal response:  “I didn’t know about the essay.”

                               “My dog ate up my entire computer.”

                               “I was saving the world from zombies.”

Conqueror talk: “I didn’t get in my essay, for that no excuse is valid. I have learned from this and you can expect better next time.”

Miss Honey will be pleased.

I’m a firm believer that emotions hinder productivity. Now, don’t get me wrong, emotions are great. There are many things to shed tears on. Tris from Divergent died. Trump became President. You just got friend-zoned. It’s great to have emotions in cases like these. But when it comes down to getting work done, it’s better to have a firm control over them.

Imagine finishing that crappy essay 3 mins before your deadline when Sophia from book club comes up all like “Did you hear what Archie just said to me? He’s such a jerk.” That’s torture. Honestly, it’s a miracle we get team assignments done because there is always that one friend who’s either crying over her ex or dying over how cute puppies are.

When working, choose productivity over pride. The reason being, it not only affects your quality of work by distracting you but also makes you the 90 year old grannie shouting from behind in the supermarket line. People legit fly away in the other direction when they see you.

But of course, in other cases, go ahead and release the waterworks. I’m still crying over Mufasa’s death anyway.

(I’m about to get deep, wearing that diving suit, alright). Conquering is hard. There’ll be days when you’ll feel like doing anything but that boring report Miss Honey assigned. Like, who cares whether the Nile or the Amazon is longer?

However, the mindset of a conqueror is so strong that the little demon called procrastination doesn’t stand a chance. You’ll see us partying the whole weekend because we already slayed ‘em rivers and hunted down those fishies Friday. Wanna join in? Here are some aspects of the conqueror mindset: 

Procrastination isn’t allowed. We understand that procrastination not only wastes precious time but basically means partying on a guilty mind. We would rather be that person drinking all them shots than be Abby sitting in the corner, worrying about her calc HW.

Discipline. Every conqueror knows that things need to be done at the right time (and in the right way, of course). Playing slither.io is great, but if you’re hooked for 7 hours and your poor report on rivers has turned into a dust bunny, then mate, you are not conquering. Get up and get the job done already.

Time management. It’s 11:58 pm. Your report (lol, get a grip mate) has finally been wiped of all that dust, and you’re settling to start on it. You open the first page of the assignment and have a mini heart attack. It says: Bring in by 12 am, xx Feb ‘18). To become a conqueror, hence, you must learn to travel back in time. JK. To become a conqueror, it’s important to value time because it’s priceless. A year from now, those hours you spent eating all that snake kill in slither.io won’t mean shit, but if you grind, if you choose to work hard, then every single moment will be memorable and pay off.

So, how do you do it? Ok, grab your notebook, grab your cauldron, and jot down. Let’s see what we got here… ‘Add a horn of bicorn’ and just a little bit of -what’s that- salamander blood?” *Potion explodes* Um, sorry for that mess. *Waves wand to clean*

Point is, there’s no secret spell to becoming disciplined and focused. Put down that wand, please. I’ll explain.

If you truly want to take control of your life, you must know your why. Why do you want to? Maybe you’re sick of procrastinating and letting yourself down? Maybe you’re tired of being a couch potato and want to get that ass to the gym? Maybe Abby wants to drink them tequila shots too? Because unless you really want it, you won’t get it. It’s important to know your why and let it lead you into battle as your motivation.

In short, you have to be a superhero (I choose to be Superwoman!) and learn to conquer your life before you save Kim from the fire. Your life is truly valuable, and here’s a secret: If you want to get results you have never gotten before, you’re going to have to do things you’ve never done before. Everyone gets the same 24 hours in a day, the same opportunities, and the same chances to follow their dreams. They just make different choices. If you choose to re-watch F.R.I.E.N.D.S. for the 58th time while balancing chips in one hand and popcorn in the other, our world will lose one of its heroes.

But if you do decide to put on that superhero cape, I’m with you. Kim, hang on. We’re coming for you.

want to read more? view the other masterposts in the series “get your shit together, you are here to conquer.” :-

general tips for getting your shit together

loving yourself and letting go of negativity

understanding the meaning of your life

Well, it’s a wrap! I post new articles every week (the schedule’s up on my blog’s front page) so you can follow me if you are interested in killing the game & conquering life bc I’ll do my best to help you in the tough yet amazing journey called life.

If you want to go thru my blog, I would rec picking your choice of post from my masterpost list! Or, if you want to read something insightful on your cozy Sunday afternoon while chilling under blankets, I would recommend reading one of my interviews. + You can also request a blog post! For that, leave your question in my ask box!

I hope you are well, stay strong and conquer life, you conqueror.

- nandini (´｡• ᵕ •｡`) ♡

when you find an academic source that’s perfect for your paper but it’s behind a pay wall

We'll get our report cards again today! Please wish me luck~ 😄

180611

We received our report cards for the first semester today. Most of my grades remained the same from the midterms all through out finals. One subject decreased drastically, but there were few marks that increased. I’m happy with the results, but I know that I can do better than that. Second sem will definitely be better, I will make it better. Let’s do our best! :–))

Hey rising college seniors (or anyone needing to write a thesis-length work)! Last year, I tackled not one but TWO theses, one of which was honors-length and over 100 pages long. One was for Art History and the other for International Studies, so if you come from a discipline from outside of the humanities, it might look a little different for you. Here is my advice for making your thesis a little bit less scary to navigate.

1) Focus on a topic before developing an argument.

I don’t know about y’all, but whenever I write a research paper, my argument drastically changes from the conception of the paper to its final draft. It’s not necessary to have your argument nailed down right away. My Art History thesis loosely started at “20th century art and politics” in September, but by November it had gone through 2 or 3 different iterations before becoming “everyone forgets that Jackson Pollock was a communist”. Often choosing your argument before doing your research boxes you into a place from which it is difficult to grow.

2) Try to avoid falling into a research hole.

I’m a jSTOR hoe. I love clicking through library search results and scholarly articles and collecting anything that seems relevant to my topic. This always leads me into hours of sifting through articles that are ultimately unhelpful and a waste of time and brain energy. Start with four or five sources. Read, analyze, regroup. Take notes, and when you are done with those sources, move on to more relevant information. Don’t forget to look up the citations of your most relevant sources. This is a treasure trove!

3) If you need to collect data, do it early.

Nothing is worse than being unable to move forward with your research analysis because you still have to collect more data. If you need to conduct interviews or produce survey data, make sure that you prioritize the research required to generate these things and get them approved and out early. I couldn’t analyze my results until a month before my IS thesis was due, and it made my last month of college rather hellish.

4) Have an accountability partner.

Try to find any friends or classmates who are also thesis-ing and band together. Host library write-ins or start a group chat if you prefer to work alone. You can also turn your thesis into a social activity! My friends and I would spend our Friday nights drinking and talking through our arguments and exchanging feedback in a casual social setting. That might not be what it looks like for you, but regardless of what you do, it’s great to have someone who will hold you accountable and work alongside you.

5) Format your citations and works cited right away.

While it is super tempting to footnote sentences with links to articles while writing, leaving all of your citations for the very end makes life harder. Format your citations frequently to give yourself a mental “break” and keep them in a separate word doc.

6) I don’t know if this actually needs to be said, but keep all of your work backed up.

For the love of all things that are good do not leave your work saved exclusively do a desktop. I like to use Google Drive to manage all things (I even upload journal articles so that I can organize them in folders and access them anywhere from any device), especially because it autosaves constantly. Use whichever platform works best for you, but please, please, please back up your work to some sort of cloud.

Hopefully some of these are a helpful place to get started. Good luck!

15 steps on making a sweet sweet powerpoint presentation*

*for class presentations and seminars, like at conferences or meetings. Lecture notes for teaching are different, though some of these may still apply:

Tell a story. A story always has 3 parts: a beginning, a middle, and an end. Create a compelling narrative so the audience feels invested in knowing what’s next. 

Know your audience, and adjust accordingly. Presenting to people with our same background (like students in our program) will differ from presenting to a broader audience like the general public, who may not care (or understand) nitty gritty detail. 

Use large readable font. Especially on graphs and figures, and..

Limit text. A busy intimidating slide = a distracted/zoned out audience

Refrain from using pastel colors with a white background, or dark colors with a dark background. Projectors =/= your computer screen, and these colors may not have the same contrast during a presentation. 

Also related, be considerate of the color-blind/visually impaired. Make figures accessible to them by not just relying on color but also patterns, shading, symbols, etc.

Show only what’s necessary. Try not to overwhelm an audience who’s seeing all this for the first time. Always remember: presentations are not data dumps; they’re stories. Simplify figures by remaking them if possible, or block out unimportant areas. 

And walk the audience through complicated slides. We should never assume everyone in the audience knows exactly what we’re talking about. Use animations to show only one point or figure at a time if necessary.

Speaking of figures, use high-quality ones! None of the deep fried-jpegs please. 

Also refrain from putting things that have no meaning. Examples include gratuitous eye candy (which are only acceptable in title and closing slides) or points that won’t be talked about. They’re just distracting.

Show interest when speaking. If the speaker sounds bored talking about their work, then I assume it’s boring and not worth my attention.

Refrain from going wild with that laser pointer. It’s there to bring attention to certain key points, not to continuously circle around the entire slide like we’re playing with cats. (If your hand holding the pointer is shaking, it helps to grab your wrist with your other free hand, or rest that arm on something (like the podium) to “root” it.)

Refrain from going wild with the animations/transitions also. Super cool in 4th grade; slightly nauseating at a national meeting. A simple “appear” animation will do just fine. 

Rehearse rehearse rehearse. Being well-prepared can combat stage-fright, as it takes away the anxiety of “not knowing what to do next” or “mental freezes”. You may also find yourself editing a few things as you rehearse, because something that seemed ok while making the ppt may not flow so well when you actually get to talking about it. Also, pay attention to the usage of filler words (like “um”, “sorta”), and body language: are you leaning on the podium too much? pacing a lot? looking at the screen and not the audience? 

Adopt a “power pose” to instantly feel more confident and relaxed. Stand up straight, chest out, shoulders back, uncross those arms, and smile. Hold yourself up like royalty, baby! Here’s a TedTalk on power poses. 

ODE TO LIFE (1) / (2) / (3) Cheryl Strayed, Tiny Beautiful Things / (4) / (5) Keith Haring, Journals / (6) / (7) / (8) / (9) / (10) / 

Sentence Practice - July '19

Welcome back, everyone! It’s been a busy week and just yesterday I had my first ever Korean Food in a restaurant and I fell into a food coma instead of writing this post. So I’m a tad late, but here we are!

We spoke about a lot of things so far and last was the tenses with speech levels, so today instead of adding to the pile of overwhelming knowledge I’ll be doing some practice sentences. As always I may make mistakes but that is okay. We are here to learn not only a language but also to realize that it is okay to make mistakes and that they are needed to learn! So are you ready?

Good. Let’s go! 가자!

1. Yesterday I went to a Korean Restaurant.

Yesterday - 어제

to go - 가다 - Past tense 가았어요 -> 갔어요

Korean 한국 

Restaurant 음식점

-> 어제 저는 한국 음식점에 갔어요

2. In August I will visit my parents. (In August I will go to my parents)

August - 팔월

to go - 가다 (I use to go instead of literal ‘visit’ here) - Future tense 가겠어요

My - 우리 / 저의 (제)

Parents - 부모님

-> 저는 팔월에 제 부모님에 가겠어요

3. The weather is cold today.

Today - 오늘

Weather - 날씨

Cold - 추워

-> 오늘 날씨가 추워요

4. I like the flowers in front of our house.

Flowers - 꽃

House - 집

Our - 우리

In front - 앞

To like - 좋아하다

-> 저는 꽃을 우리 집 앞에 좋아해요

5. We live in this apartment.

We - 우리

To live - 살다 - Present tense 살아요

This - 이

Apartment - 아파트

-> 우리는 이 아파트에 살아요

6. My big sister went to physical therapy.

My - 우리 / 저의 (제)

Big sister (from girl’s view) - 언니

To go - 가다  - Past tense 가았어요 (merges into 갔어요)

Physical therapy - 물리 치료

-> 제 언니는 물리 치료에 갔어요

7. We will go to the hospital tomorrow.

We - 우리

to go - 가다 - Future tense 가겠어요

Hospital - 병원

Tomorrow - 내일

-> 내일 우리는 병원에 가겠어요

That’s it for now. If you found any mistakes, please let me know - how else would I learn, right? 

Also if you have any requests outside of the grammar posts that I am doing please let me know. I’d like to know what’s useful and what is not. I might to some small themed posts here and there with vocabularies and such, just to give our brains time to process the grammar with some vocabulary and sentences. Let me know if you think that would be useful! 

I don’t know what the next post will be about yet, but it’ll come soon! Until then, stay awesome!

파이팅!

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feeling beings full of fleeting feelings