Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Finals: Day 2...summary

Day's Stats
Finals: 0 (ish...take home requires attention)
Hrs. of sleep: 8 (ish... it's a Christmas miracle)

I basically spent my day working on my take home final for Advanced Econ. 9:30 to approximately 4 (except for lunch... I nuked soup and made a grilled cheese for those concerned about my nutrition during this difficult time). Put a good dent in it. Should be able to wrap it up tomorrow. This evening was all about SIM with Ed. I worry our model is too simple but then I remember it's possibly because our class models were SO CRAZY. Whatever. We've committed. It'll be fine.

Next maneuver: Go to bed. Again at a decent hour...unless Conan gets good. Finals week sucks but somehow I'm working in more sleep... how does that happen?

Tomorrow's plan: Get to school by 9ish and just start annihilating that econ final. Go team!

Monday, December 13, 2010

Finals Day 1.5

Captain's log--Star date: 12/13/2010 00:08 central time
Current coordinates: Durland Hall
Status: Groggy
I managed a nap this evening after dinner and cleaning the kitchen (it was bad and I had to clean it before the health department found out). It was supposed to be for 20 minutes but because I'm tired and our microwave clock is way wrong I miss-set my alarm and overslept (a whole hour nap!) and left Ed to fend (simulate) for himself. Woops. Good news, he forgave me.

Tomorrow's agenda: 9am begin Advanced Econ take-home final in earnest. Work until 2 or 3 when Ed and I begin working on SIM. Eat at some point... fill all spare time with Econ Final. Try not to fall asleep on my computer.

Next maneuver: go home and go to bed at a decent time. Tomorrow should be good.

Finals: Day 1

Day's stats
Sleep: 3.5 hours
Finals: 2 (CAM and Urban and Regional Econ)
Mood: Fair considering the lack of sleep

Captain's Log--Star Date: 12/13/2010 13:51 central time
One final down (CAM) and fast approaching #2 (Econ). CAM went well. Anticipate a decent grade on my Econ final.
In spite of sleeping only between the hours of 3:30 (ish) and 7:30 (ish) I am functioning normally (as far as I can tell).
Caffeine consumption is at normal levels (1 travel mug) and I didn't skip lunch entirely (there was a free sandwich and a piece of cake).
Next maneuver: Econ final in 10 minutes.

Will check back in later with further updates.

Thursday, December 2, 2010

My SIM family

It's currently the middle of the night and I am still in the lab. I have been in the lab for basically every spare moment this week and it's starting to get cagey in here. I'm running on 11 hours of sleep since Monday and it's not looking like there will be any improvement before Friday (and even then the improvement will be small). On the bright side I am "stuck" here with my team who has fashioned itself into a family. No really. We are calling Jeff "dad" because he keeps bossing us like our fathers would. We also call Brant dad because he was the one who mandated that we wouldn't be leaving for dinner until everyone reached a stopping point (which didn't happen until 8pm). Yep. We have two dads. Two "gay" dads. They aren't so fond of this. Like I said...we're not functioning at our peaks here people. Kevin, Ruth and I are pretty good kids and we're trying to be obedient to the team leaders but we tend to drift. We took a "family trip" to Dara's (the gas station across the street) for late night sodas and snacks and a boost in team morale (Kevin's personal mission on this project is team morale so we try to do things to uphold it often).

Which brings me to my next barely coherent point. My diet is abysmal these days. Well during the day it's fine. Emily has even fed me REAL DINNER twice this week. But after about 10 pm I try to be strong and fail. I either eat whatever candy I can find, drink a pop, or eat a baked good Jordan brought in (she did some baking and we are all reaping the benefits). I've just resigned myself to the fact that I have to get energy from somewhere and late night food (CAFFEINE!) is my only option (sleep just doesn't make the cut). It is what it is. I keep telling myself that after finals I'll try to reign myself in. It shouldn't be too hard because I'll go into a temporary coma once I finish everything and I'll sleep through the sugar jonesing that would pull me off the wagon.

The things keeping me going at this point besides coffee: Christmas music, Greek yogurt with honey (discovered it at Dillon's the other day and it changed my outlook on life), Kevin's morale boosting efforts, Tweeting all the ridiculous happenings of the lab, and short naps.

If you don't hear from me in the next two weeks (or for a few days after that) it's probably fine. I'm either holed up somewhere trying to furiously iron out four projects simultaneously or I've fallen into that coma I alluded to.

Countdown
to the end of this project: 1 day (technically 2 but we're pretending otherwise so we can go to the pub crawl)
to Christmas break (end of finals for me): 15 days
to actual Christmas: 23 days

People... good things are coming. At least that's what I keep repeating to myself in hushed tones when I get more assignments and tasks added to my list...