And one day done.

[silveradept]

One day back, and I was already trying to fall asleep in class. I swear, I need something to keep my alert - maybe I should start bringing caffeine or something to distract me - or maybe I need to just take a nap before class or something. This is getting annoying. I want to stay awake in class, but there’s something about three-hour classes, even with hour breaks that frags my ability to stay awake. Maybe it’s this particular professor, maybe it’s the lecture format... if actively engaged, I do better in terms of trying to stay awake. But for some reason, in the standard lecture format, I’m just nodding off occasionally. Is there something I can do to fix this? (It really started to set in the later years of my undergraduate. I swear I get enough sleep at night, really.)

This picture’s worth a thousand laughs: Maritza wins the cinema meme, and with it the internets.

Just for you, uncle_pervy, I give you, another cuntentacle monster, given to lordmork. If you ask nicely, maybe I can persuade the person who made it to make another for you. Maybe. It was a one-shot, most likely, though. Still, thought you would enjoy.

Also, the Edge Annual Question for the year - What’s your dangerous idea? See what’s already there - definitely lots of food for thought from many different people and perspectives. So what’s your dangerous idea? Mine appears to be the idea that the sum is stranger than the whole of its parts.

One last bit - if the laws of the universe turn out to be radically different than our current understanding, then hyperdrive may be in our future. But it’s still only a hypothesis at this stage, which is dependent on the underlying hypotheses being provable or at least workably true.

More stuff tomorrow.

Comments

[2dlife.livejournal.com]

Hmmm, my college attendance rate: 40%
My awakeness rate: 70-80% (Would have been much lower if I'd been to more of my classes.)

I find that if it's not something I really want to learn, I'm not going to stay awake for it. (Or if it's something I could easily learn someway else -- like by reading the book or downloading the lecture notes.) I'm most likely to stay awake in classes which really interest me, which never rehash last weeks material (or the reading assignment) for 30 minutes before presenting new material (ARG, I hate it when they do that), which have a specific goal for each lecture and are well organized, which force me to take notes and which *do not dim the lights* (Good grief, we can see a powerpoint just fine with the lights on.) If the prof actively engages the class, I'll still fall asleep or stop going unless they're interesting/provocative questions. "What's x when 2x=5?" isn't going to cut it. As for tricks to stay awake: Get 8-9 hours of sleep a night, decide if you really want to go (pick classes that you enjoy the lectures (funny or interesting) and ditch the rest), and read the *assignment* for the next week/old tests beforehand so you know what you need to get out of the particular lecture. Most of the learning happens through doing homework anyhow. Bad tricks (that work, but are a bad idea) to stay awake: stay cold/hungry, stick your tongue between your teeth and (gently) rest your head on your hand, do homework for other classes (you might as well stay home), or take dictation (mindlessly write every word that you can).
Hope those help, but really, ditch those classes.

[silveradept]

Right. Well, that class may be more interesting, as it's going to be a seminar-type format, so I'll have more to keep me engaged than the professor.

I'll know soon enough whether or not the rest of the classes are going to be of the sort of snooze or of interest. So far, one of them looks really engaging.

And most of those classes are required/semi-required classes. Getting out of them is tough.