Happy New Decade, and I'm Back!!!!

Penultimate semester of my life is a go! I am now one hour away from starting classes this semester, and I had to put this feeling into words. Don't worry, it stops being sappy at this point. I had a weird little decade, and my life changed in ways I cannot even describe in these ten years. I switched countries, and then continents. I made some small life choices that led to the biggest one - coming to IU. I am glad I did, now as I start my second last semester at Kelley. My road here is almost done, and I'm scared of the future, it is natural to be, but I am sure that no matter what I will be fine. Carpe Diem, right?

This decade started off with a bang, and the past 10 odd days qualify as probably the most intense time of my life. If the rest of this decade is even half as fun as these days were, it will be perfect. I may not have the exact path of my life mapped out, but I like it. I'll be 21 in 19 days, and before this year ends, I will have finished the first big milestone in my life - graduation. Do I know where I'll end up? No. But it doesn't matter, because wherever I do, I'll be ok. There's no doubt about it. 

Ok, so maybe this got sappy again. Sorry. 

Happy New Year! 2010

Accounting, thou art a formidable foe

Tis true. Thou art a formidable foe. But alas, I have bested you. Tis now in your best interests to leave me be, pray forever. 

Last Accounting Blitz of my life

It is no secret that I hate accounting from the depths of my being. It is, therefore, with great pleasure that I announce the almost completion of all my accounting in my undergrad life. I am currently in the middle of finishing up all the A325 coursework for this semester, and 6 hours in, these are the things I have learnt:

1) I hate Accounting. I want to see it die.
2) Slacker radio = Never Bored. Even with accounting open in front of you
3) Library gets very very quiet at around 3 am, and revs up again at 5am. What happens to everyone for 2 hours?
4) It is impossible to sit still and work if Single Ladies comes on. I had to do the dance, balance sheets be damned.
5) If you do the single ladies dance at 4:30 am, people do not stare. They understand.
6) Lo Carb Monster stops working after the 3rd bottle.
7) Spreadsheets < Pen and Paper. Fact.
8) I hate accounting. I want to see it die.

Xoxo,
Dying Sri

The 8-step plan to writing papers

There's nothing remotely fun about the thing that I have to do for the next 24 hours: intense paper writing. I have, and I kid you not, more papers due tomorrow than I have had all month. Did I say month? I meant semester.

I have a 15 page gem due for marketing, a 20 page case brief due for telecommunications, a 1 page paper for accounting, two more 3 page papers for two other telecommunications classes, and one 200 page book review, all due by 6pm tomorrow. Being the go-getter I am, I haven't started any of these.

*sigh*

I believe what I have done here is very metaphorically "painted myself into a corner". So, I created a game plan to deal with this intense paper situation:

Firstly, as always, energize:

Yes, that is yet another energy drink I let poison my system during and leading up to finals week. It's not my favorite, but I did give my Monster away to a friend. So, three week old Full Throttle, ftw.

Secondly, get the most awesomely meaningful shirt on. Pick one that is sophisticated, meaningful, and in general, extremely kickass:

No Stresspassing. Nuff said.

Thirdly, do not start conducting a photo shoot session because you found old 3-d glasses while digging through your closet:

I got these while watching Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. It was also the night I went just a little bit overboard and painted all my nails bright *bright* pink. Speaking off...

Fourthly -  Just because you remembered how awesome your nails look being bright pink, do not go paint all your nails pink:

Damn, they look good. Don't they?

Fifth(ly) - Turn the lighting up. Well lit areas = more concentration. Fact.

Do not blind yourself. Very very important to NOT blind yourself.

Sixthly, turn off the John Mayer. Battle Studies is an awesome album, and no matter how much Edge of Desire speaks to you, or Heartbreak Warfare makes you tear up, it is not an appropriate track for paper writing.

Push the pause.

Go on, do it.

Now.

Seventhly, turn on your get psyched playlist. Some Gaga, some Ke$ha, some other stuff:

What? I do not know how did britney got in there! I do not! I swear! (\0_0/)

[Does that look anything like a person with both arms in the air to anyone but me?]

Eightly, and lastly -

STOP WRITING A BLOG POST YOU FOOL, YOU HAVE MULTIPLE PAPERS TO WRITE.

Sri, out.

Infectious Enthusiasm?

It's 4:45 am, and I am one of the many nocturnals typing away into a computer.

At the main library.

Peachy.

Just, peachy.

Oh well, I have a paper due tomorrow, a presentation, another paper, three exams, one final, two finals, three final papers, and two actual finals within the next two and a half weeks. This can only mean one thing: energy drinks are going to see a spike in their profits, as I see a fall in my savings account. Energy is never created nor destroyed, just transferred from one's wallet to another.

Anyways, I have been here working away on accounting for about 5 hours now, and I am proud to say that by now I feel like this:

Funsies, right? Not so much. So, I reach for that mighty energizer: Lo Carb Monster. Rawr.

It's the big monster size, and it should work, right? No more need for faces like these to populate the library!

Gone are the sad pouty faces! Monster transports you to distant lands! See????

Gone are the woes! Gone is the lack of energy, motivation or drive! Let's all jump up and down!

*starts to physically enunciate (yes, another phrase I made up. Like it?) the very embodiment of energy*

*whole library joins in*

Or not.

The great TV experiment of 09 - Thanksgiving break

Perhaps the thing I was most excited for was the intense TV experiment I had planned for myself. It had been really hectic right before break, so I fell behind on my weekly TV watching. Also, I like to tell myself that I watch most of these because I'v fallen into the habit of them and it wouldn't kill me if I stopped watching one.

So, in an effort to test my "I can quit anytime I want theory", I decided to stave off these shows for a month. Any show that I didn't feel like catching up with after said month, I was going to drop till rerun season. These are the shows I started off with:

Californication

Community

Cougar Town

Desperate Housewives

Family Guy

Flash Forward

Ghost Whisperer

Gossip Girl

House

How I Met Your Mother

Lie To Me

Modern Family

Private Practice

The Big Bang Theory

The Middle

The Simpsons

The end of the month long TV rehab was yesterday.

Which ones lived?

Which ones bit the dust?

We shall see!

The Art of Communal Solitude

I am currently partaking in what has become a ritual in today's age. I am sitting, laptop open, iced caramel machiatto in hand, right by the window in a Starbucks. I had what qualifies for a bad day yesterday, and I decided I just wanted to be alone for a while. Now, I live in an apartment all by myself where I have all the things I need (including coffee, specifically from Starbucks), and yet, I got dressed up, left my very very *very* comfy bed, took two buses, and voila! Here I am sipping a 5 dollar brew overlooking an exceedingly busy street.

So what is it that brought me, and another 20 odd humans, here, in the middle of the day? Free time? Everybody, me including, are busy typing away on their laptops or reading books and such. Coffee? I've been sitting here for about an hour and a half, my drinks reached the point of being mostly water, and this is true for the 8 people in my field of vision. The need to get work done? As far as I can see, three people are on farmville, two are intently staring out the window, two are on the phone, and I am reading John Mayer's twitter page.

Carrie Bradshaw once hypothesized that all the people sitting in Starbucks were not being pretentious, they were all people mid-fight. Wise words, true, but I have a different hypothesis. The reason we gravitate towards places that are inherently crowded even when we are looking to be left alone is because it's no fun to be left alone, alone.

Think about it. I wanted to not have to deal with anybody, and where did I land up? One of the most popular caffeine peddlers right next to campus during lunch. That, in itself, is an oxymoron if there ever was one. However, here I am. Because while I want to be alone, I don't want to avoid humanity. And even if I did, as I successfully am doing now, it's a subconscious desire to almost never want to be completely alone.

This, and I am copyrighting this, is the art of communal solitude. We all wanted to be alone, whether to finish a paper, read a book, harvest stuff on farmville or stalk celebrities on twitter, we all wanted to be alone. So we all came together, overpaid for a cup of coffee, sat down in the leather couches, plugged in our headphones, and commenced being completely alone, together.

Communal Solitude.

(If they ever sell out, Starbucks should definitely factor this in as a part of their intangibles. Yay for paying attention in accounting)