Graduate life

As I promised, I wanted to write you guys a little blog on one of my fruitcake heros, Jimmy Buffet.

It’s that time of semester: you versus the major essay. Essays are sneaky; they creep up on you and surprise you with their size, throwing their weight around the night before they’re due. I’ve had some mighty battles with essays over the years but I’m getting on top of them with two tricks of my own – preparation and structure.

A perennial problem that is perhaps universal to all students is the difficulty of having to sit down and actually write something. A paper, a letter to a journal editor, whatever, many of us find it difficult to start/finish/write at all. Of course this problem is multiplied a thousand-fold when the document in question is a massive thesis. We’ve all had those days where we sit in front of the computer with a stack of journal articles planning to do a day of writing, before finding that there are so many other better things to do. Make a cup of tea. Check your emails. Do another experiment to (unnecessarily) check your results. Chat with your desk neighbour. Write for two minutes and then manically check your word count. ANYTHING but actually writing.

So are you stuck with your writing? Forget nailing your feet to the floor or bribing yourself with chocolate, Dr Wicked has a better idea. Why not replace your fear of writing with a fear of not writing?! Have a go at Write or Die, where they put the ‘prod’ back in productivity!

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One of the joys of coursework postgrad study has just hit me – purchasing textbooks. The wallop is multifaceted; financial, academic and physical blows combining for one knock out punch. So join me for this three round super heavyweight bout! BAM!

Graduate study is all about choice. Be it majors, disciplines, delivery or institution, the world is your oyster as a grad student. As I’m uneasy making even the most miniscule decisions, this can be somewhat alarming. One option that I’ve been wrestling with lately is my preferred study mode, be it intensive or regular mode. With advantages and disadvantages to both, I’m still sitting on the fence. What better forum to push me onto a side than the Grad Life Blog?!?

In time-honoured fashion, I bring you the final instalment of my list of top-10 time wasters. Now when you start your postgraduate program, you’ll have a head start over all of those other poor students who are also starting out and have no clue about how to really procrastinate properly. No, no, don’t thank me...

Last week I touched on a big (and, I feel, under-discussed) issue in the lives of postgraduate students. As a sacrifice to you, dear readers, I am now going to air my dirty laundry and tell you about my favourite time-wasting activities. However, I must insert here a disclaimer- have you got an impending deadline? A paper due? A talk to write? Exams to study for? Marking to do? An actual job? If so, DO NOT read on. You have been warned!

Habitat for Humanity is set to expand in Australia

Who I am:

Originally from Michigan in the USA, I came to Australia for the first time as an exchange student in Feb of 2007. I have been here ever since!