Day 146: How to Manage Time and Set Priorities

Feeling sore all over
Just got a postcard from Thailand
It's 12:29 PM

Read this and do it, everyone. Yeah. All of you. Now shoo.

How to Manage Time and Set Priorities
Good time management means defining priorities and scheduling activities.

What Are the 3 Rules for Effective Time Management?

1. Don't create impossible situations.
2. Define priorities.
3. Avoid distractions and lack of focus.

Don't Create Impossible Situations.

Don't get trapped into doing too much. Don't try to work full time and take a full load. Don't take too many lab classes. Use time to create success, not failure. Be realistic about school. For most classes, plan to study 2 hours for every 1 hour of class.

Make time your friend
not your enemy.

Identify your first priority classes and do whatever it takes to succeed. Drop second priority classes or reduce work hours if necessary.

Define Your Priorities Using the 3-List Method.

Plan your work,
then work your plan
All time management begins with planning. Use lists to set priorities, plan activities and measure progress. One approach is the 3-list method.

List #1 - The weekly calendar.
Create a weekly calendar. Make it your basic time budgeting guide. List your courses, work, study time, recreation, meals, TV, relaxation, etc.

Plan to study first priority classes when you work best. Be flexible, adapt your schedule to changing needs. Keep your schedule handy and refer to it often. If it doesn't work, change it.

List #2 - The daily "Things to Do".
Write down all the things that you want to do today. Note homework due or tests or subjects you want to emphasize. Include shopping and personal calls, etc.

This list is a reminder. Use it to set daily priorities and to reduce decision-making and worry. If time is tight, move items to your long-term list.

Rewrite this list each morning. Use visualization to help you focus on what to do. This list is also a measure of your day-to-day success. Check off items as you finish them and praise yourself for each accomplishment.

List #3 - Goals and other things.
This can be one or two lists, a monthly list and or a long-term list. Put down your goals and things you have to do. What do you want to accomplish over the next month or year? What do you need to buy?

Use this list to keep track of all your commitments. If you're worried about something, put it on this list. The purpose of this list is to develop long-term goals and to free your mind to concentrate on today.

Avoid Distractions and Lack of Focus.

Time is precious. Yet many people waste time by getting stuck in one or more of the following habits.

Procrastination - putting off important jobs.

Crises management - being overwhelmed by the current crisis. No time for routine matters.

Switching and floundering - lack of concentration and focus on one job.

Television, telephones and friends - these are all ways of avoiding work.

Emotional blocks - boredom, daydreaming, stress, guilt, anger and frustration reduce concentration.

Sickness - getting sick and blowing your schedule.

In all of these cases, the first step is to recognize the problem and resolve to improve. Use priority lists to focus attention. Try positive self-talk. To avoid distractions, find a quiet place to study, the library or a study hall. Get an answering machine.

Copyright 1991 Donald Martin, How to be a Successful Student

Day 143: Wha.. ?

Sometimes coming into
A new world
So buzzing, puzzling, dazzling
I don't know where to turn to
I don't know who to turn to
I don't know what, when
And don't know why
Can someone lead me?
Guide me?
Hide me?
Take this pain away.
Far away.
Away.
Just away.

Maybe it's just because
This new swirl conjures from me
Indifference?
Insignificance?
Pointless malignant mannerism?

No cigarettes, have I started from way ago
Now, l'il cigarette, with a puff 'n two I go
And with three, four, and more numbers mowed
Tension and anger ... then the first pack I just towed
Into my bag pocket
There, in you go!
Lighting up like a rocket
Discreet, with my lips they meet
Puff, puff - there you go!
One, two
More in you go!

But what assistance,
malignance,
indifference
do you bring, oh bringer of
Wooziness
Dizziness
Haziness
And Jazziness..

My mind cannot take it
Nor face it
Evade it
Avoid it

My conscience just takes it
Faces it
Fails to evade it
Or avoid it
All together
As one, together
More together
Together, together

Puff, puff
One, two

Puff, puff
Three, four

Where do I go?
Where do we go?
What more do you want, world?
What more do you want?

I am sick and tired of your inevitable hardships
Inevitable they are, I still spit from my lips
These thousand blights and thousand threats,
Oh I cannot, cannot, cannot
Cannot!
Blight me,
Fill me with sorrow,
For 'morrow, and its 'morrow,
Fill me with anguish
Unquenchable and Everflowing
Evergrowing

And then again, oh beautiful, oh!
I'm always thinking of you
My eternal worry
Can't stop thinking of you

Touch me in the morning
And last thing at night
Punish my mind and body
You know it feels right

Take a little higher
Tell me what you're feeling
Tell me what's happening
And why, why, why

We can only understand what we are shown
How was I supposed to know our mutualism would grow

Move a little closer, lady
Things sure are looking up
Kill me with your one, two
Three and four
I want you so much
I need you so much

Then again, why do you bring me
Bring me these tears
Tears of unidentifiable origins
Schmorigins, Morigins,
Why
Why
Why

I'm in pain, but nobody knows
Are you in pain? Nobody knows
Why don't you open yourself?
Nobody knows
A closeted bookshelf
Nobody cares
Open,
Open,
Now or never
Moreover, Never Ever

A teardrop,
One, two,
Invisible, Unseen
three and four
A cracking
One, but not two, three nor four
Anguish and gnashing
Five, six, and a lot more
The eyes,
Blink one, two, maybe three and four
But the heart
Once, but not twice, thrice or more

Help, help
Listen to my cry
I plead, and I plead
but will I not audibly cry!
Listen, listen
Listen to my cry
I'll plead, and I'll plead
Listen to my cry

I plead and I plead
Listen to my cry
With bloody knuckles and tired knees,
I cry and I plead on my hands and knees

Why? Why?

Day 141.5: Why do so many believe in Jesus?

Why do so many believe in Jesus? Because they don’t actually know what the Bible says.

By theBEattitude.com

The majority of Christians in America are biblically illiterate.

This is kind of a big deal considering the Bible is the foundation and basis for their belief system and reason for living. Does anyone else find it odd that so many Christians are willfully illiterate to something so pivotal in their lives?

Here are a few statistics:

• 93% of Americans have a Bible.¹
• Only half of Americans can even name one of the Gospels.¹
• The majority of Americans don’t know that Genesis is the first book of the Bible.¹
• 60% of evangelicals think Jesus was born in Jerusalem rather than Bethlehem.¹
• 22% of high school students think Moses was one of Jesus’ disciples.¹
• Half of High School seniors think Sodom and Gomorrah were a married couple.¹
• 1 in 10 Americans believe that Joan of Arc was Noah’s wife.¹
• 60% of Americans can’t name 5 of the ten commandments.¹
• Given thirteen basic teachings from the Bible, only 1% of adult believers embraced all thirteen as being biblical perspectives.²
• One-third of college attending Christians could not put the following in order: Abraham, the Old Testament prophets, the death of Christ, and Pentecost.³
• One-third could also not identify Matthew as an apostle from a list of New Testament names.³

Many Americans continue to believe that a Jewish man from 2,000 years ago was God’s son … simply because someone told them so when they were a child. This is the equivalent to believing in Santa Claus as an adult. If you choose to worship Jesus every Sunday, at least take the time to read the book about him. Otherwise you’re nothing more than a lemming.

Obama Admits to Smoking on Occasion

Obama admits to smoking on occasion

Posted: 08:43 PM ET

WASHINGTON (CNN) — President Barack Obama said Tuesday that he is "95 percent cured" of his smoking habit, "but there are times I mess up."

Obama said "that as a former smoker, I constantly struggle with it. … Have I fallen off the wagon? Yes."

Obama noted he is not a daily smoker and "doesn't do it in front of" his children.

The president argued that a new law providing for FDA regulation of tobacco "is not about me. It's about the next generation of kids coming up."

The president made his remarks during a news conference at the White House.

Day 141: How to Not Be Happy pt III

Feeling like the world's coming down on me
Listening to Erik Fendik comment on some movie
It's 12:50 AM
And I am pissed off

Looking for a way to be happy is one thing, but looking for a way not to be happy is another. Completely different. Absolutely, positively, yes yes yes. Why? Go figure.

I am particularly disappointed at how Middlebury College students throw a baby tantrum over how bad the dining hall food tastes. Every time a disgruntled undergrad comments on how the chocolate brownie should taste like this, how the oatmeal raisin cookies should be banned, or how the salmon should be cooked to their own damned taste, I feel an irresistable urge to reward them.

To reward them with a solid pummeling. Words won't do. Actions speak louder. Physical pummeling? Bingo.

I just can't understand why all these spoiled kids believe that they are somehow magically entitled to the most delicious, lip-smacking meals. What- is it just because the $50,000 comprehensive fee you pay - scratch that - your parents pay every year for your bachelor's?

Do you even understand what people have to go through to bring you the quality education and standard of living you experience right here in Middlebury College? This isn't Africa, so I won't bring up examples from the spectrum's extreme, but an example, a real one, I will illustrate for you is this:

Snap. You see a chocolate chip cookie on the cookie platter in Ross dining hall. You put three on your plate, and go back to your table. You pick up one of the cookies. You take a bite.

Little did you know that in order for this cookie to be made, someone had to mix a great amount of ingredients together into cookie batter. That person, along with his or her assistant(s), then had to go scoop each and every fucking piece of batter, fucking line them up on the pan, and fucking bake 'em in the fucking oven. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. And for your information, people have to do this for the 76,000 fucking yearly cookie quota just for Ross.

Snap. The chocolate chip cookie tastes yuck today. You put down the rest of the cookie, and you decide to leave the other ones alone. "The dining staff sucks," you comment to your table friends.

You're an asshole.

The dining staff has to go through the same kind of process to make all the different kinds and styles of food you see in Ross. And in Proctor. And in FIC and Atwater. You're just too fucking cold and heartless to even consider that this was made by people, NOT fucking machines, fucker.

But you know what, I guess this goes the same way for everyone, too. Not just Middlebury College. Other schools. Amherst, Yale, Williams, Harvard, and so on. And everyone else in the world.

Have some decency, people. DECENCY!

Day 135: You Need to Go Die, Sir. RIGHT NOW.

Feeling infinitely enraged
Listening to Bach's Cello Suite 1 Prelude
It's 6:19 PM

I'm going to curse, and I'm going to bitch and moan. If you don't like it, then DON'T READ IT.

My blood pressure won't go down for a while because of these damned fuckers. I hate them, I hate them, and I hate them. I just can't describe through words how much I wish I could pummel these pieces of shit from the face of existence.

I hate these fuckers who blatantly write bloody lies on their pay sheets so they can self-righteously steal hundreds of dollars from the College.

I hate these fuckers who blindly spill forth lies from their filthy, rotting mouths about the hours they put into the jobs which they have no respect for or pride over.

I hate these fuckers who have no damned ounce of respect whatsoever for the resources that are graciously provided for them, but then choosing to abuse, overuse, and waste them with their motto of "I-paid-the-school-fees-so-I-can-do-whatever-I-want."

I hate these fuckers who live without ever thinking twice about their principalities and actions and the repercussions that will follow them.

I hate these fuckers who have no more decency than child raping, disgusting pieces of scum.

Why can't people have at least some decency?

Why don't people learn to have respect for others and the environment?

Why are so many peopled marked with decadence and ugliness?

If there were no humaneness and decency in me, I would enjoy being my own judge, jury and executioner. Pummel people into the ground and beat the living hell out of them.

Scientific discoveries and technological breakthroughs are being made at a blinding speed, faster than we can imagine, but what can we say about social responsibility and moral aptitude? Not much change since... when?

Seriously, people, COME ON.

Day 134: About World Refugee Day

I just received an e-mail about the World Refugee Day (June 20) from a respectable man I know back in Bangkok, and I'm posting it here for your sake:

Dear Friends,

In 2000, The United Nations General Assembly designated the 20 June of each year as World Refugee Day to recognise and celebrate the contribution of refugees throughout the world. It is a day to acknowledge and salute the spirit and courage of these people. They have fled their countries of origin to escape persecution, the threat of imprisonment and even threats to their lives.

The intolerance that refugees have experienced in their homelands is also present in some of the countries where they seek sanctuary. As it is not a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention or its 1967 Protocol, Thailand is one such country. Instead of finding empathy and understanding from the authorities here, refugees discover that they are considered illegal immigrants and daily face the threat of arrest, detention and possible deportation back to the countries they have fled. As a result of their illegal status, they are not permitted to work and have no means of supporting themselves or their families. Many experience mistrust or scorn and find it difficult to to gain acceptance here in Thailand.

The theme for World Refugee Day 2009 is Real People, Real Needs. This theme is so very relevant here in Thailand as a result of the hardships refugees face on a daily basis. The Bangkok Refugee Center, with the help of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), exists to bridge some of the gaps by providing medical, psychosocial, educational services and some material support to refugees.

Let us not forget asylum seekers, those seeking refugee status, whose needs are even greater because they do not receive much of the help provided to refugees. Through the generosity of its donor community, the Bangkok Refugee Center has been able to provide some essentials like basic medical care, emergency financial assistance for accomodation and material support.

There are 2118 refugees and asylum seekers from 44 countries currently in Bangkok for which the Bangkok Refugee Center is responsible.

You too can help the Bangkok Refugee Center's work with asylum seekers by your cheque donation made payable to COERR/BRC (Asylum Seekers). Mail your personal or bank cheque to the contact and address listed below.

Alternatively, you may be able to organise an electronic funds transfer through your local bank. The account name to which such bank transfers should be made payable is COERR/BRC (Asylum Seekers). The account number and name is 098-0-07783-4, Krungthai Bank, Suthisarn Branch, Bangkok, Thailand.

A PDF receipt will be emailed to you upon confirmation of receipt of your donation and if requested by you via email.

The difference between refugees, asylum seekers and the rest of us is our respective circumstance. let us not forget that some day any one of us could find ourselves without a country to call home, little else but the clothes on our back and bleak prospects for the future. Refugees and asylum seekers crave the normalcy of life that many of us take for granted. So, because we know we can, let us give them our full support and encouragement in dealing with their day to day hardships and their quest for a better life.

While most refugees and asylum seekers want to go home, the majority cannot safely return. But wherever they are, refugees will always strive to pick up the pieces and start over. The courage and determination demonstrated during their darkest hours will serve them well in rebuilding a new life.

On Saturday June 20 - World Refugee Day, let us honour them for these qualities and recognise the richness and diversity they bring to our societies.

Your support means so much to our refugee and asylum seeker community. Thank you.

Sincerely,
Arthur Mangan.
Resource Mobilization & Volunteer Recruitment Officer
Bangkok Refugee Center

Day 130: Middlebury Voyeurism? Word..

Feeling like I need some good coffee!
It's 2:49 PM and it's Saturday!

Voyeurism in Middlebury College. Very interesting.

Middlebury student facing charge of video voyeurism
Guest Author: Gordon Dritschilo, Staff Writer of Rutland Herald
Published: May 21, 2009

MIDDLEBURY — A Middlebury College student is facing criminal charges for allegedly taping himself having sex with a woman without her knowledge.

Rupert C. Ralston, 23, pleaded innocent Monday in Middlebury District Court to a misdemeanor charge of video voyeurism, according to the Addison County State's Attorney's Office. Ralston was freed on the condition he stay away from the woman.

If convicted, he could face a maximum of two years in jail and a $1,000 fine.

Police said the woman learned of the video from mutual friends, and that several of Ralston's friends denied the existence of the video before others confirmed it. She said she never consented to being in such a video.

Two of Ralston's friends gave statements to police describing him showing them the video on a laptop, according to affidavits. One said the woman did not appear aware she was being taped.

Police said they seized a laptop from Ralston, but had not found the video. Ralston's friends told police they notified Ralston they had been contacted by private investigators. Ralston did not give the police a statement, according to police.

Ralston is the first person in Addison County to be charged under Vermont's voyeurism law, passed in 2005 following a case involving a man photographing a 14-year-old girl in Montpelier.

The law forbids photographing or filming people without their consent somewhere they would have a reasonable expectation of privacy. Deputy State's Attorney Christopher Perkett said the consent issue would likely be the trickiest part of the prosecution, though he said there was no apparent evidence the woman consented.

"The question quickly becomes, is consent based on just the act of entering into an intimate relationship without knowing all the facts," Perkett said.

In 2007, a Manchester man was sentenced to 20 days on the work crew after pleading no contest to charges he secretly videotaped women bathing at his home.

Middlebury College spokeswoman Sarah Ray said it would be inappropriate to comment on a pending case. She said the allegations, if true, could constitute a violation of college policy, but there had not been any complaint filed with the college's judicial system.

She also said Ralston, a senior, would not participate in Middlebury's graduation ceremony Sunday.

"This is a decision he made on his own and informed our registrar's office of," she said.

Day 129: Get-Out-Of-Class Pass

Feeling full
It's 1:54 PM EST

From CNN White House Producer Xuan Thai

GREEN BAY, Wisconsin (CNN) — How do you get away with skipping classes on your last day of school?

Make sure you get your hands on a presidential pardon.

President Barack Obama held a town hall meeting on Thursday in Green Bay, Wisconsin to discuss his health care agenda — but he also took a little time to write an all-important "get out of school" note.

A young girl named Kennedy attended the town hall with her father, who was called on to ask a question.

Her father, John Corpus, started his query saying he hoped his daughter wouldn't get into trouble for missing the last day of school.

"Do you need me to write a note?" Obama asked.

Clearly assuming that Obama was just kidding, Corpus continued with his question — only to be interrupted by the president.

"No, no, I'm serious. What's your daughter's name?" Obama said, as he started to write a note. "I'm going to write to Kennedy's teacher."

He then walked over to the girl and handed her the note: "To Kennedy’s Teacher, Please excuse Kennedy’s absence…she’s with me. Barack Obama"

No word yet on whether the president's get out of school free card did the trick.

Day 122: The Anti-Chain Gang, Middlebury VT

Feeling excited for reunion weekend!
Listening to Di.Fm @ trance channel

It's 12:59 PM

I have to say! It's unbelievable that Middlebury fended off Staples, Walmart, and Starbucks, though McDonalds and Subway made it in. Strange, strange.



Guest author: Greg @ MiddleburyVT.Blogspot
"Staples Comes Unglued"
June 03, 2009

The end of plans to place a Staples store in Middlebury is yet another marker of how things have changed in Vermont.

Once upon a time maybe 30 years ago, any economic activity that wasn’t obviously polluting was welcomed by virtually all elements of Addison County.

Now, though, even community-oriented projects like Eastview can be delayed for years by a neighbor or two worried about the view out their windows. And woe be onto anyone who proposes to bring a nationally recognized brand such as Staples into town.

Much of the opposition to the Staples store proposed for The Centre, near the Hannaford supermarket, revolved around loyalty to Middlebury’s downtown stationery store. That store, like the independent bookstore next to it, is a much loved and endangered species. The organized opposition, calling itself Middlebury Area Residents for Sustainability (a curious acronym of MARS, which I guess makes them Martians), also voiced concerns about the visual appearance of the store, parking, traffic and a degradation of the ever-elusive community character.

The minisucule opposition to Eastview is just bizarre. But in the case of Staples, all the concerns voiced by the opponents made sense. We’re much the better place for the efforts of community watchdogs like these folks.

But I confess to watching the demise of the Staples plans with some misgivings. Little of the merchandise it would have sold would actually compete with any downtown stores. Moreoever, many of us will still be left driving to Williston or Rutland for major purchases such as computers, office furniture and other bigger-ticket items.

Yes, there are local alternatives to that long car trip and yes, you can order door-to-door delivery from a distant Staples. But the continuing absence of a local Staples-like store provides yet another excuse to expand our carbon footprint by racing off to another county for our many of our office supplies and equipment.

And the cynic in me can’t help but wonder if the Martians who opposed the local Staples -- and Starbucks before it -- really mean it when they say their opposition is to chain stores.

Will Olympia Sports, TJ Maxx, Hannaford and Shaw’s be next on their hit list??
Rite Aid, Aubuchon Hardware and Kinney Drugs? What about the Marbleworks Pharmacy, which has demonstrated dangerous chain-like tendencies by having two stores, one in Middlebury and another in Vergennes?

If you’d like to discuss this topic in person, you can find me having a mass-produced burger at McDonald’s.

* * *

We may be in a major recession, but you’d never know it from what gets left behind by affluent students who are anxious to blow this joint.

For those of us who grew up believing that one’s person’s trash is another’s treasure, the annual May departure of a couple thousand Middlebury College students is true cause for celebration.

The college of course organizes and sells off most of the treasure dumped by students at the end of the academic year. But for those able to escape the eagle eyes of campus security, the drop zones themselves are bonanzas. So, too, are the piles of barely used items that are left at various spots around town, on the curb outside student rental housing.

Over the past holiday weekend, several friends and I rescued silk pillows, rugs, a futon, hockey skates and a Schwinn cruising bike, courtesy of the newly departed students.

* * *

I got my own personal taste of the students’ dilemma last week, when I moved my home and home office to another location across town.

Moving is in theory a good excuse to divest oneself of unused worldly goods. But I’m one of those people who looks at a shirt I haven’t touched in three years and says, “Well, you never know, I might want to wear that someday.”

Which is part of the reason that I have so many jackets. They range in style from an enormous sheepskin coat and truly hideous matching hood, which I acquired at a used-clothing store in Rochester, to several ski parkas and light-weight windbreaker. Apparently I have a jacket for every five-degree shift in temperature, ranging from 20-below to 70-above.

Butpackrat tendencies do pay off eventually.

For example, it began to rain rather steadily last Sunday morning as the hour approach for the college’s graduation ceremonies. I was attending the first graduation ceremony since my brother’s commencement in 1976 (speaker: Anne Morrow Lindbergh). Among this week’s Midd grads unleashed upon the world was my delightful young friend Abel Fillion, whose parents were college classmates of mine.

Over my last four household relocations, Packrat Greg has held onto a pair of rain pants that I’d never worn. But they sure did come in handy during the graduation deluge.

Day 120: Know your priorities. Seriously. And succeed.

Feeling mixed feelings, regret and anger
Listening to Di.Fm @ trance channel
It's 2:36 PM

I just looked up my semester grade for this past spring semester. And I said in my head, "SHIT." But what can I do, now? Learn. Learn. Learn from your past mistakes and apply it to your life.

Why? Because it gets more cutthroat and serious as life goes on?

These past few weeks, I've had one too many conversations to think of the subject at matter as mere coincidence. Fong said it. Yok said it. My host parents have said it. My parents have said it. My parents' friends have said it, and my friends' parents have said it. Far too many people have said it, but I keep forgetting.

Know your priorities. That's the first thing. Know where they lie, and know what they are to you. Set them, and stick to it. Simple as that, but not so simple as it sounds. It takes an incredible amount of willpower, dedication, and effort - especially more so when you don't have the brains to make up for it.

Damn.

This makes ICS look like poop.

By the way, I got my Canon EOS Rebel XS in the mail! I'm so excited :D

Anyways. I pledge not to ever look at my grades again. It just adds unnecessary stress to my already stressed out life. I'm not doing this because I'm so concerned over my grades, how they would match up with others', how I can get into the honor roll, and all that jazz. It's because I don't know what my priorities are, and because of that, I don't know where to focus my efforts. Like my Econ class. I'm so happy with an A- because I learned how to study for the class in the middle of the semester. And I made myself study the RIGHT way by not just knowing, but understanding the idea BEHIND the concepts and its applications.

But then again, Middlebury College offers so much, a hundred times more things that ICS did not. It's so easy for me to get distracted, and I believe that unless I move my ass to take real action, it might be a long time for me to even become who I want to be. It's now. Not next week. Not next day, even. It's now or never. I don't care if I'm an 18 year old who just graduated from high school yesterday. Today is the right day. Putting it off for a week will turn into two. Then a month goes by. A few years disappear. The next thing you know, you're a man in your fifties still working nine to five, struggling to feed your family while paying all your bills and all that shit. The next thing you know, who knows? You might be some 65 year old on a fixed income bitching to that waitress to give you your senior discount because that $0.89 really makes a difference on your finances.

But really.

I can say this now. I can say this many times, multiple times, many a million times to myself, but nothing may change. Will I take action? Or is this just a mere fantasy, a crazy illusion that I set up for myself? Will everything stay the same even if I do at least something? Are heroes born or are they made?

What do I want out of life? What do I want out of getting good grades, and going to a good graduate school? Am I asking the right questions?

When all is said and done, what's left?