Jae B.

naked chef

Harvest Festival

For those of us who stay up late, here's a New York Times blog link: http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/category/all-nighters/

nail gun

horse around

I would happily friend fellow grad students. (I'm already adding potential peers I met at a welcome event.) But I would never add anyone who was currently grading me or I was currently grading. That just wouldn't smell right. Basically, this means you have to be extra careful when you join sites that import your e-mail contacts to find relevant users. If I am very close to a professor, I might add them once I'm well out of their classes. This has worked for me so far in undergrad. If I wasn't sure it would be okay, I'd either refrain or, if for some reason I really wanted to add them, I'd check to see if they're friends with any other students. Same policy applies with administrative officials. Generally, if I socialize with someone, I add them on Facebook. But if we mainly have a working, professional relationship, LinkedIn is more appropriate and respectful of boundaries. But there is some cross-over, of course. I'm the most relaxed when following people who post publicly on Twitter. People in my field tend to focus on posting relevant news and events, so there's usually no harm in following and it's a good, casual way to stay in touch.

active file

dog whisperer

meat lover

special appearance

egg salad

True! As saharel said, sleep helps you store memories. I've heard a little sleep, or naps, can be enough to get students by because it's healthier than no sleep and improves their short term memory -- perfect for tests. But to retain what we've learned and achieve mastery, we still need a full night's sleep. There is some debate in the academic community regarding whether naps are healthy for students or not, and whether they should be encouraged with campus napping spaces or if naps should just be discouraged. I saw a scientific presentation at Berkeley once that argued course schedules (especially around midterms and finals) should be restructured in ways less likely to provoke students to do all-nighters or succumb to napping.

physical presence

I'm really looking forward to grad school, but I'm still finishing up my undergrad. Now I'm terrified something might go wrong and I'd have to stay on another semester or something. I wish I were done already so I wouldn't have to worry!

That article because I've read it before. Just reading the title of this post brought it all back!

cheddar cheese

I've used a MacBook throughout college. I definitely recommend going for the MacBook Pro -- it's a nice, speedy machine -- vs. the bottom-of-the-line Mac, which may cause more difficulty when multitasking. As the poster above said, specs are the most important thing. The journalism school I'm most likely to be going to primarily uses Macs, so I'm right on target! Office works okay on Macs (takes an annoying while to open and save on Macs with lower-specs), but as someone else pointed out, the transfer between machines isn't perfect for heavily-formatted documents. I've been disappointed many a time when my fancy cover page appeared as a mangled mess on another computer. One time my favorite font didn't come across somehow, and got replaced with what looked like American Typerwriter in size 16! I always have to examine Word docs before I print. Therefore, I tend to use regular old TextEdit for papers. Does anyone use iWork to make nice documents? I've noticed professors use it for good-looking presentations.

Wow! I would have such a hard time remembering to do that. Have they been doing it for awhile? I am always looking for ways to improve my note taking. People who type really intricate outline-style notes impress me. I get too caught up in lectures to do the indenting and highlighting I've seen on some people's screens. To help me organize, I've been using a nice application called NoteBook. It's useful if you learn all the functions. But I wouldn't recommend not buying multiple licenses if you use more than one computer. As a one-license copy requires, I only ever used one computer's copy at a time, but a security bug in an upgrade still triggered and wiped out half of my notes one semester. I tend to effectively transcribe lectures first and make bullet points with important points and key terms later. Good for memory, not super efficient. Sometimes it's fun to look back on lectures I've taken, word-for-word, though. I'm not sure if friends who ask to borrow my notes love it or hate it -- they can enjoy that it's like not missing a thing, but it's a lot to read! Penance.

I like cross-body messenger bags. They're easier on the shoulders, and give me easy access to their contents. That said, construction is important and takes precedence over looks. I got a snazzy-looking one for this semester, but the strap bust as I was running for a bus. Now I'm stuck carrying it around by the handles. Luckily, my MacBook was unharmed by the fall. One shoulder bags with two straps tend to be safer -- if one strap breaks, you have another! But I don't think the hurt it puts on your shoulder is worth it. Two straps on a cross-body would be nice....

I've heard that sentiment before! I hope it works out, too. You people who never pull all-nighters...how do you manage it? Congratulations on your discipline. Sleep is becoming one of my top priorities now, too. Better to get more regular sleep all the time, and less irregularity -- I'm trying to stop sleeping in on weekends and holidays. That happens because the lack of sleep adds up, and sleep is hard to catch up on. :/

I'm rooting for my best friend, who is still waiting, too, for English programs. I took heart when combing through some of last years results. So many acceptances were in April! April is definitely it!

No kidding! I'm still checking, even though I know my result. You know, in case they sneakily add something. It never changes, though.