App Recommendation: Hemingway Editor

Fun fact: According to Greek legend there was a famous prostitute who managed to avoid a death sentence by showing the judges her boobs and arguing that it would be a crime against the Gods to destroy something so beautiful. 

Before you ask, yes there are paintings of this. And yes, they’re amazing.

Read more.

22-03-2015

Does anybody else have one of those working days where you just want to lie on your bedroom floor and work, whilst listening to music and drinking tea/eating strawberries? Well, today has been that day for me. I wasn’t feeling the library, or venturing into town on a Sunday to be faced with reams of tourists filling the coffee shops either. So: my bedroom floor it is, where I can spread my mess (or as I like to call it, ‘thoughts’) all around me. 

Today, I would like to talk about working at your own pace.

I am just about to start writing up my second year dissertation on ‘Nature and Art in Milton & Marvell’. However, I am a lot later in doing so than most people doing 2nd year English with me, and over the past few weeks I have secretly felt very troubled by this. You probably know the feeling - when everyone discusses where they’re at with work at lunch or something, and you have a little bit of a panic as it seems everyone is so much more ahead (!) . Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve repeatedly tried to avoid ‘dissertation chat’, but its been nigh on impossible, and to be completely honest it was starting to stress me out a lot. Which is never a good thing.

Had I been Superwoman (or Hermione armed with a Time-Turner), I would have written my dissertation on top of my portfolio essays, weekly essays, and practical criticism classes last term; only I’m not, and last term didn’t happen to work out like that. Luckily I had done a substantial amount of my dissertation work previously in anticipation of this, but ultimately dissertation work was momentarily pushed aside by me due to my weekly essays, while others had some extra time last term to work on their dissertations instead. Whenever I happened to mention that I’d only met my dissertation supervisor for one out of the four hours we could have had last term, others looked at me in varying states of shock; eventually it seemed that practically everyone apart from me had a complete first draft sorted by the 15th March. I could have cried as panic began to set in. 

But then I reminded myself that dissertations are due on the 23rd April. My dissertation supervisor isn’t worried in the slightest by the time-frame we are working to: I’m meeting him next week with my first draft, which means I have 7 days to write 5000-ish words, all of which I have already meticulously planned. Things could be worse. Had I forced myself to write my dissertation last term, just to have been writing at the same time as others, I feel that it wouldn’t have been of a very good quality because I would have rushed it, and I wouldn’t have been happy with it. It ultimately wouldn’t have said what I really wanted it to say, as I wouldn’t have had the time to put as much thought into it. Moreover, had I taken the time to write my dissertation last term, my weekly work and portfolio of essays would have been drastically affected, both of which were a more pressing matter at the time. 

So:

Even though it is now technically the Easter holidays, I am at university writing my dissertation whilst also fitting in a bit of Medieval/Shakespeare revision: however I feel happy with myself. I have so much time to really think about my own work and really engage with my dissertation. I feel calmer. The thought of writing it doesn’t make me want to cry anymore. To get so caught up in what others are doing/how far others are in work is nothing but stress, and its really pointless. As long as I am content with the quality and (seemingly snail’s) pace of my own work, I need to stop measuring myself against others. Realising this today has meant that I have felt a lot less stressed about dissertations than I have done for the past two months. I only wish I had realised this sooner. 

Try not to think about how great you feel others are doing (chances are they’re actually feeling exactly the same); work at your own pace, and focus on getting the job done well when it comes to big deadlines. 

Right - this dissertation won’t write itself! 

-Sarah 

I REALLY LOVE KIKKI.K OK (city trip w @shystudy today!) - ig: @studeying​

The main reason I love University Challenge is that it gives the lie to the media stereotype about young people – that they all know nothing, and couldn’t care less. It’s complete rubbish. Every year we see more and more teams of young people who know amazing things, and you’re just left wondering in pleasurable disbelief, “How on earth did they get that?”

Jeremy Paxman (via thecryingofblog49)

ART PRINTS BY HENN KIM

Everybody Hurts 

Big girs don’t cry 

Don’t come any closer 

want to know you 

Good Night 

Come into My World 

Love you so much 

Lock with you 

Rest inside you 

Also available as canvas prints, T-shirts, tapestries, stationery cards, laptop skins, wall clocks, mugs, rugs, duvet covers, All over print shirts, Phone cases, Throw pillows, tote bags and More!

Guys, I’m trying out a new method of studying that seems to be really effective so far. Instead of writing with your hands, place a staedtler pen between your first two toes and use your other foot to hold down a page on your moleskine. Writing with your feet stops your hands from getting tired too quickly so you can use your hands for more important stuff! Happy studying!!!!!!!

howtobasic? is that you???

world record for most cans opened in 3 seconds

A master post of Thomas Romain’s art tutorials.

There’s not enough space to post all of them, SO here’s links to everything he has posted (on twitter) so far : 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12. 

Now that new semesters have started, I thought people might need these. Enjoy your lessons!

Johari Osayi Idusuyi: the hero who read through a Trump rally. 

A writer and student at Lincoln Land Community College in Springfield, Illinois, Idusuyi found herself not only in the right place at the right time, but with the right book in hand: Citizen: An American Lyric is a critically acclaimed, award-winning work by Claudia Rankine that explores the pervasiveness of racism and micro-aggressions in America.   

“I think we were chosen for obvious reasons. We were minorities and there weren’t a lot of minorities there,” Idusuyi told Jezebel. “He also instructed us to sit in the middle, so we kind of already knew what this was.”

The 20-year-old student stressed that she went to the rally not as a plant, or with ill intent. She genuinely wanted to see Trump speak. Idusuyi said she had no interest in Trump. “But if you have the chance to see a presidential candidate, why not?” But when a few protesters interrupted the speech and the crowd collectively turned on them, Idusuyi got angry. “The way the supporters treated the protesters was really unbelievable and that’s what made me mad,” she said. “There was a man who snatched a lady’s [Barack Obama] hat. She was one of the protesters and was leaving and her hair just went with the hat. Then the man threw it into crowd and everybody cheered. I thought, ‘That’s bullying. That’s aggressive.’ I don’t think Trump handled it with grace.”

So she pulled out her copy of Claudia Rankine‘s award-winning book of poetry, Citizen and ignored the rest of the speech. That’s when an older couple, visibly irritated by Idusuyi’s action, poked her on the shoulder and said, “If you don’t wanna be here then leave.” A brief argument ensued, after which the older woman said she was glad Idusuyi wasn’t her daughter. 

(read the Jezebel post »here. watch the video »here, interview »here)

i might not show it, and it’ll only remain visible as a glimpse of a burning passion like a star at night and invisible during the day, but it will be forever there