I remember back at school they used to tell us not to cram for exams. I didn't listen then. I don't listen these days either. Cramming worked for me for the Leaving cert, and so far it's working for me for the degree.

See, cramming works by stuffing all the required info into your brain so it's near the surface, so you can reach it when required (during the exam). The downside is that it has a tendency to leak due to being overfilled, so whatever is learned during cramming is most likely forgotten again a few weeks or months later. That's ok though, because by then the exam is over.

Cramming doesn't work for everything, obviously. Like in psychology, I actually do have to understand it a little bit. Therefore, if there are any questions on factor analysis, I shall be ignoring them, as that's too complicated for me to comprehend. However, as long as I understand something to some extent, I can cram in the info that goes along with it - the name of the guy (yeah, it's usually a guy, but give it time) who came up with a theory, or the year the theory was first published, etc.

So cramming wins. Probably doesn't work for everyone, but for me it has always proven an effective method of passing exams. The key to cramming is not to start too early. So that's my excuse for not having started yet...today though, it is snowing, I don't feel like doing any more spring cleaning since it no longer feels like Spring...so I might as well go ahead and start writing up some notes that I can read in a frantic panic come exam day in mid May.

A way to waste time

Wow, this is a way to suck time right up. Like a hoover. A super-powerful one. Just spent forty minutes and it flew by.

Akinator, the Web Genius

It got everyone I was thinking about right so far. From Stephen King to Doctor Who to Ray D'Arcy to Polgara the Sorceress. Pretty cool. Now I'm finding it hard to come up with people/characters for it to guess.

Great way to spend a little time messing around online...like there aren't enough already!

What came first, the chicken or the egg?

I hate it when there's debate about "which came first, the chicken or the egg?". Or if a seemingly unanswerable question is posed, it gets described as "a real chicken and egg problem" or something like that.

Evolution was discovered quite a while ago which makes the answer obvious as far as I'm concerned.

Here's the science bit...

First: Birds evolved from lizards. Lizards lay eggs. Therefore, eggs were around for a long time before birds were.

Second: The way evolution works (in a very simplified fashion, it has to do with genetic mutations which change creatures ever so slightly over thousands of years) something that was a bird, but not exactly chicken, once laid an egg. Out of this egg emerged something that was a chicken.

So, the egg came first, no matter what way you look at it. Mystery solved.

Busy, oh so busy...

So I've been so busy lately that I've been neglecting my internet addiction! Here's an update:

I've been off the smokes since Monday 8th of March. Nearly 2 weeks! Few times I was seriously grumpy and felt like I wanted to kill everyone and cause great, menacing destruction of everything in the known universe. Feeling a little better now though. Especially the not waking up with phlegm. Phlegm is vastly overrated, especially first thing in the morning.

Had three essays to write. 3000 words each. Got most of them done. Might need to rewrite one of them as I think I lost the plot halfway through and started rambling. I am definitely prone to doing that. Rambling. Rambling is also a word for walking and I do that too...see what I mean? Hehe.

Got another story published! In brand new literary and art magazine, Oblique Quarterly. Go take a look! I've barely had a chance to look at it myself but the look of the magazine is absolutely beautiful and, well, I'm in it, so of course it's good! A story by E. J. Tett appears in there as well. Definitely worth a look!

Went for a lovely long walk on the beach today...and forgot my camera! Not like me, I'm usually the annoying person who always has a camera. But somehow I forgot it today. Pity, as the sky was blue and so was the sea. Noticed a few daffodils trying to come out as well (not on the beach, obviously - the daffodils were on the roadside), so Spring really is finally here! About time too.

Hmm, what else...been watching Lost, great that Jack isn't in half the episodes, but after a bright start where they answered a few things, not an awful lot has happened. Hopefully they pick up the pace and start to tie up all the loose ends shortly. We want answers, damnit! And they seem to be going down the biblical route, which isn't the greatest option they could have chosen. But maybe I'm biased on that.