Tag: studying

Mandarin

So, I go to Mandarin class now on one of my off periods. Originally, it was because I was stressed after one particular class, and it helped me to release the stress by learning something new right afterward, just across the hall. However, that class is loads better and stresses me barely at all these days, and I’ve just continued going to Mandarin class, because I actually like learning the language. Not to mention that Houston is filled with Chinese folks, and Mandarin is not a useless skill to have here.

Anyway, so, I go. And I do as much of the work as I can, including the quizzes and such. I don’t always make it, but I go when I can. The teacher was at a conference last week, so I didn’t attend the class with a sub there, and I also totally forgot to look at whatever they were assigned while the teacher was gone. So, I only found out yesterday that there is an oral quiz tomorrow.

If I had known a week and a half ago, like the others, obviously, I would have done my intense studying and preparation a week ago, and be merely reviewing gently last night and tonight. However, I didn’t know. So, I’ve been doing some big studying the past two nights. Not crazy or anything, but enough to have a reasonable grasp of the questions and answers.

If the teacher does the regular questions and vocabulary in the interview, I should be fine. I seem to know my answers for all of that stuff. But I don’t know lots of vocabulary that don’t apply to my life much, so that could prove to be a struggle point. Naturally, I have back-up plans, though.

For example, there are only two vocabulary words that are for things I dislike. I have learned one decently and am working on the other a bit more in the morning. So, if he asks if I like or want to do something, so long as it isn’t one of those two things, even if I have no idea what it means, my answer can be a ‘yes’. So, yeah, I’m reasonably prepared.

I just wish I were more prepared. I don’t like the feeling of floundering. In another week, I could be very comfortable with these questions. But the quiz is tomorrow, so we roll with it.

With that, I go to sleep, so my brain can process and remember the stuff even better tomorrow. And so I can do well at my job, of course, though that doesn’t require the same level of sleep right now. 😛

Post-a-day 2023

Great strides

I did a few hours of work today on my course, and then I closed up earlier than standard, and got down to business on the tidying. I truly handled the bathroom stuff surprisingly well, though it felt like it took forever. It was a few hours, to be sure, but the result is great. I’ve already been able to take advantage of having done it all, and it’s been super satisfying.

In addition, I got several other little things done that have been driving me kind of nuts lately. I even got my man in on it a bit, and he helped me hang a mirror and he finished hanging the guitars – needed a special tool for the spot where the drywall crumbled last night as he installed one of the hangers – which was awesome and very helpful. AND, now that the guitars are hung, I actually sat down and played tonight. More than once. And on more than one guitar. Super great. Super great. 😀

I think I’ll take tomorrow similarly. I have to go get flowers for my mom’s upcoming birthday, and so I might do that in the morning… we shall see. I like the ‘work a few hours on school, then a few hours on home’ schedule of today. Would love to start the day sooner tomorrow, though… haha

Okay, so, setting an alarm to get up, even though it’s almost two now. That’s okay. I won’t push it too much, but I will set the alarm short of the time that would give my body’s requested nine hours of sleep. I only slept about seven last night, and I think, with the current drive finally to do these things that have been giving me grief and stress so much recently, I can handle it. I can always take a nap in the afternoon, if needed, too.

With that, I go sleep, now. Goodnight!

Post-a-day 2023

A different day

It was very difficult to get out of bed this morning. Very difficult. I didn’t make the first workout’s alarm, as I was way too heavy with exhaustion. However, I snoozed the second workout’s alarm twice and then got myself up before it went off the third sounding… something like that. It might have been only one snooze… Whatever the case, it took a lot of effort to get up, even then, but I did it and I exercised.

Afterward, I made breakfast tacos for me and for my man, and I even weight and measured for his macro and calorie counts for his food. Then, though I wanted to sleep, I showered and got to work on my coding courses. Early afternoon, while he went to the gym, I finally lay down for a nap for about an hour. I needed it at that point, as my brain was starting to take breaks all on its own.

Afterward, I got back to work. One of the things I learned in the history but I was reading was about the original NASA computers – real people who did mathematical computations, before machines existed for it – and about the original IBM used at NASA, which took up an entire large room and required a whole slew of people just to make it work at any given time. It was a massive advancement at the time, though it is comical to consider that it could do less than just about any digital device we have today.

Nonetheless, reading that bit of history finally put me over the edge for wanting to see the movie it briefly referenced, “Hidden Figures”. I’ve known about the movie since it came out in 2016, but never quite worked up the full desire to sit and watch it. But now was the perfect time. I could appreciate – and understand! – so much more about it now than I would have even several weeks ago, let alone years ago. The movie was quite cool and was well done. Though, my man and I both chuckled at the part where a new reporter in the film said some absolute bogus info, stating the craft and man, Alan Shepard, would be traveling “at an altitude of 116 miles per hour.” Because altitude is measured in miles per hour, and all… 😛 That was rather funny to us, and we both enjoyed that we both caught it, especially since it was more of a filler kind of shot than a main one.

Anyway, I’m really glad we watched the film tonight. Now, however, I just go to sleep. Much more to do tomorrow! (Including that 7:30am workout that I always dread, somehow. Haha)

Post-a-day 2023

Another day

I had caffeine yesterday, and, due to my long mid-morning nap, I hadn’t realized how late in the day it was when I was having it. Therefore, as I lay in bed last night, just after 9pm, though I was exhausted, I never could truly fall asleep. I was doomed to dose for most of the night. By the time my alarm sounded just before six, I had deemed it smarter for me to go back to sleep than to go to the gym. I was, after all, finally able to sleep, and I still would be going to the gym four days in the week by the end of the week. So, I went back to sleep.

I ended up sleeping well for another three and a quarter hours, then got up just after nine and got to work.

Mid-afternoon, I met my mom to pick up a couple books, and ran a couple other errands before heading back home and doing more work.

At the end of it all, we even watched an episode of “Friends” before I came to bed, and it is only now just after 10pm. I feel very accomplished from today, and I am grateful for all the progress in my studies, as well as having been able to make the other errands work in the schedule and still get work done.

Thank you, God. Help me to continue in being satisfyingly productive each day, always pursuing your will. In your name, I pray. Amen.

Goodnight.

Post-a-day 2023

Day one: check

Day one of these interviews is completed. I went to the opera tonight with my mom – Mozart, “Too many notes.” It was awesome, as usual. Though, it went until late. I didn’t get home until after eleven, at which point I then had more applications to read for tomorrow.

But I got them done, and am finally getting ready for bed. It’s only 2:10am. Not terrible. 9am start tomorrow for the interviews, finishing by about five pm. Then I have to study and learn some information fast for karate, as our written test, which was scheduled for a week and a half from now, is suddenly Saturday morning with our physical fitness test. We were told that this morning. So, not exciting there. Lots of info to commit to memory asap. (On that note, I probably would do myself well to read it before bed tonight, so I can sleep with it an extra night.)

Wish me luck!

God, give me the strength and endurance and demeanor to do well and to do you will, both with thee winter views and with my own testing this weekend. Thank you for this life and your love. Keep my man safe, please, and bless our relationship. In your name, I pray. Amen.

Post-a-day 2023

Next Step

Okay, training on my own (with mandatory videos) is complete! Now to do some in-person training and some solo study (because I want to do the latter, not because I have to do it).

I’m actually excited about the solo study that I get to start doing tomorrow. I really hope I start with it tomorrow. Things really do transform when we are interested, invested, and enrolled in them – I was rarely so excited about studying on my own for things in school… or even learning the information in the first place, at least for most of school… wow.

Crazy, huh?

Post-a-day 2020

Bedtime, and yet

It is bedtime (and has been for hours), and yet here I sit on the floor, being silly with my phone.

To be fair, I am not wasting away myself or my mental capacity – quite the opposite.

I have been practicing and studying Italian.

I’m one of the people on this planet who genuinely aim to use the genius cell phone technology to improve myself, and not simply to send a million bad photos to semi-close friends all day (and night) long.

So, rather than go to bed, I first sat listening to my latest audiobook (with the excuse that I was waiting for photos to load to my computer from my camera, but I sat long after the computer was already put away), then finally showered when my phone died; returned to my phone for some Italian practice and a jumpstart back into the game for my Duolingo learning league of the week; and then finally hit the point of declaring a need to go to bed, and so am placing my last few open-eyes moments here, writing this.

Op!… looks like we’ve lost one: only the right eye is fully open anymore… and the left is sagging below halfway…

Oop!… the right one just did a temporary slip, and they both closed briefly.

Now it is really time to get to bed, and not just to sit on the floor at the end of it, wearing my jumbo-knit (hand-made by yours truly) green blanket like a heavy Mardi Gras parade cape, considering whether I want to put on a sweater…

Oh, the silliness of sleepiness… 😛

Goodnight!

(Or, better yet: Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!) ❤

Post-a-day 2020