Book Club!

Hi everyone

So Stephanie and I had our first bookclub meeting :) 

We have the blog all set up. Its called On The Shelf, and I think it looks FANTASTIC! Kudos to Stephanie and her design skills, as I don't have a creative bone in my body :)

We have a blog badge, but no books yet.

If you have a book you'd like us to read, please let us know and we will endeavour to put it on the list. Please join up and read along with us, or just comment. 

Check out the blog here.

I know I have neglected you all lately, but this is soon to change I promise! Uni is just crazy busy at the moment, and I'm barely having time to sit down and work out what I'm doing. Right now, its an essay on how the media portrays (inaccurately) scientific research. I promise you all a proper blog post soon.

Until then, much love and I hope to see you On The Shelf

Ashleigh 

Summer Studies

Since I suppose this blog should have some university aspects about it, given its name, I thought I would write a post on doing a summer unit. Yes I am supposed to be writing my assignment for said unit right now, but I am putting you, my lovely readers, first. And maybe procrastinating a little. 


So I am doing a summer unit at the moment called Human Resource Economics. Wake up! I'm not going to tell you about the content of the unit, so you shouldn't fall asleep on me. Unless of course, you have a particular interest in the content, in which case email me. I can talk about HR all day long. That is my small consolation when uni gets me down: I, unlike a lot of people, truly love my degree and am passionate about everything I learn in it. I cannot think of a topic that makes more sense than HR and that is more relevant in todays world. 


Basically this unit is a compressed summer unit. Instead of spreading it out over the whole summer break (mid November to mid February) it is completed in only 4 weeks over January. But the same amount of content and assignments are completed in that short space of time as when it is done over a 12 week semester. Hence the compressed part. 


Honestly, over the entire 2 years I have been at uni, I have not struggled with a unit so much. I am one of those very lucky people to whom learning and education comes easily to - I love to read, I like going to class, sometimes I even like assignments! This is, of course, helped by the fact that I love my degree, so learning about it is natural. However, this summer unit is killing me. I don't think it is the content so much, although that is incredibly boring, more that there is SO much to learn and do over such a short space of time, and its summer! Its hot. No one else is at uni. I don't want to be at uni. I need a break. 


People often criticise uni students for the amount of time spent on 'break'. And really, if you look at it from their perspective, we have a LOT of time off. This semester for example, I will only be at uni for 2 days a week - that is a 'full time' load. I myself make fun of the little time I spend at uni all the time. But, I think what a lot of people don't quite understand is the level of stress most uni students operate at. I have abnormally high stress levels, pretty much all the time. And its a different kind of stress and tiredness to someone who is working and has kids. The stress and tiredness that is experienced by a uni student, usually around exam time or during heavy assignment times, is debilitating. Its all mental, and trying to put huge amounts of information into your brain in such a short period of time, and knowing if you fail, it will a) cost a huge amount of money b) cost you a lot of time c) may not let you graduate and d) let down all those people in your life who 'are so proud of you for going to uni and making something of yourself because your so smart and are going to be so successful', well that is painful. 


Anyway, so I haven't really had a break for a while, because I did that internship over December and then went straight into uni in January. I did have a bit of time off over Christmas, but even Christmas is stressful. 


God I am looking forward to Europe in June. Its all The Boyfriend and I can talk about lately... when he's not yelling at me for stressing myself out, which has the negative effect of stressing me out more. 


The only reason I am doing this unit, is so I can fit a minor into my degree. For those who don't know, my degree is currently a Bachelor of Commerce, with majors in Human Resource Management and Psychology. I want to add a minor of Organisational Psychology, but the only way to do that was to put a unit into summer. 


But its not all bad. I only have a 2000 word assignment to write on Pay for Performance from an economic perspective, which I'm struggling with because I'm all about motivating the people. Plus 1 more exam (I had one on Friday) and only 2 classes. We are nearly there people!


Anyway, until next time :)


Ash 

What I am Grateful for Today

I'm in such a good mood right now, I thought I should let you all know why: 


1. The happy fact that by this time tomorrow, my exams will be over for another semester - which leaves only 3 lots until I finish my degree!



2. Despite the fact my statistics exam did not go as well as I had hoped (I'm thinking I'll probably get a credit), the assignment I got back straight after more than made up for it - it was for the same class, a research proposal on gender difference in starting salary negotiation. I had worked really hard on it, and its a topic I'm quite passionate about (gender inequalities in the workplace that is) and so I am pleased to announce that the final assignment I received back for the semester earned a High Distinction :). This means that as long as I pass the exam (which I'm fairly certain I have) I will get at least a Distinction for my final grade. 



3. The fact that since having a personal trainer I have become more fit - and the trainer has to continually update my workouts. Plus he says I am his star student and my technique is perfect. I'm not trying to brag or anything. Oh what the hell, you don't know me - I am awesome ;) 
NB: Pictures is actually not of me - I'm far sexier, what with my pasty skin and little pockets of fat and forgetting to shave (no, not really - ok sometimes) - seriously, it doesn't get much hotter than that. 



4. The wonderful cup of coffee sitting in front of me powering me through the final day of studying.



5. My Shin-Bio heat packs - if you haven't got these, go get some! They are amazing. And yes I know you could just use a wheat pack or a hot water bottle, but I can use these anywhere, and they will be instantly hot. The neck one fits around my shoulders perfectly and does wonders for a sore neck, the back one has a band to put in and the little one, well thats just fun - and awesome on the train to work on a winters morning. Last night I was feeling achy (sorry boys, little girly moment coming up) with a sore neck and back from study and some pretty intense period cramps so I had all three going at once! Incredible. 



6. The fact that I am confident about my exam tomorrow - I understand the unit. 


7. The village was quiet enough last night for me to have my windows wide open and still get a good nights sleep.



8. New high score on Tetris! Yeah, I know I'm supposed to be studying for exams, but come on? I've been studying for 3 weeks and I'm about ready to snap. You read my last blog post - it was not pretty. So Level 12 baby!! 



9. This Chicken and Spinach Lasagne I am planning on making tonight! Celebrating my last night as a 2nd year uni student - and I have this unexplainable craving for chicken and spinach :)





Have a wonderful day! 


Ash xo 

The Perpetually Tired Student

Hi everyone,


So it has been an uneventful couple of days. I woke for my 9.30 lecture yesterday, promptly groaned, switched off my alarm and went back to sleep until 11.30. This is becoming a disturbingly common occurrence. I don't remember what I did on Monday night, but I'm sure it wasn't particularly exhausting. 


Just as a side note - in Australia, lectures are NOT compulsory and I can listen/watch it online later, so its nothing detrimental to my education, just annoying and a bit more difficult to listen to later. 


Normally the mere thought of a cup of coffee is enough to propel me out of bed, no matter what time it is. I think I know what the issue was though.


Have you ever heard of a sleep debt? Or sleep bank?
We covered this stuff a bit in psychology (no I don't know exactly why we were talking about sleep habits, I'm pretty sure its because its linked to mental health). Basically, theres some equation that for every hour of sleep you lose, you need 8 hours to gain it back. Or something along those lines. So when you build up a sleep debt, you can't just have a massive sleep in to pay it off - you need to do it in increments every night. 
And when you consider the average uni student stays up late studying probably 1 or 2 nights a week, stays up late partying 1 or 2 (sometimes 3) nights and has to get up for classes/work/more studying at a 'reasonable' time, thats a lot of sleep debt! So when I went out on Friday night (in my defense, it was the Village Pirate Party and it was happening outside my window anyway) and had one of those fantastic nights where you end up awake until 4am, then finally sleep, then when you sober up in your sleep your body wakes you at some ridiculous hour (9.30am in my case) (the 'go-to-sleep-drunk-then-wake-up-when-you-get-sober theory' came from Flying Monkey - in my experience, its definitely true). 


So I have accumulated this massive sleep debt - which was probably never 0 to begin with, as I've had some major assignment dramas last week (one horrible moment when I finally went to bed at 12.30 after doing an assignment, then waking up at 1am only to realise I had forgotten about another assignment due the next day and having to get out of bed to do it) and so unless I start getting some serious 9 hour nights in, I will probably be tired forevermore. And since, there is little chance of me getting those coveted 9 hour uninterrupted sleeps, I will be tired until my holidays. But then I have an internship so that'll put me back a bit. So yeah, we are looking at Christmas for me to feel properly rested again. 


I think this is a fairly widely spread phenomenon around universities and maybe, just maybe, one day I will be able to go to my lecturer and say 'I'm really sorry Professor but my sleep debt is just HUGE, can I have one more day to do this assignment'. Of course, the response will probably be 'No Ashleigh, you shouldn't have gone to that party/club/potluck/drinking game last week. If you hadn't we wouldn't have this sleep debt problem'. Which is true. But I maintain that going to those parties/clubs/potlucks/drinking games is all part of being a student, and if I'm tired the next day, but I had an awesome night the night before - I reckon its worth it :)


Thanks guys
Ashleigh xo


http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=fact-or-fiction-can-you-catch-up-on-sleep