Christmas is upon us, but of course in Houston, you can't tell it by the weather. It feels like time is suspended in autumn still, because the leaves are just now falling and covering the lawn (but not our house; we had to have evergreen trees!). The temperature is actually below 70° F. Two years ago, it snowed on Christmas Eve. Judging by Houston's thunder-plagued temper tantrums, we'll be lucky if the rain is even cold instead of lukewarm. I'm quite certain that dehydration is more of a factor in rain-related deaths than hypothermia. Up until five minutes ago, Houston didn't even know the term.
So there's the dreariness of Christmas, set in motion by natural events. But when I go down the street, looking at the well-lit houses and tender care required to make one's yard as gaudy as possible, and then stare at my absolutely bleak brown monolith of a house, a shadow in the night, I'm not certain of how to address it. It would be hard to climb to the top and even attempt to hang the lights to begin with. It would be harder to hang them from the first story and feel as if the top of the house just fades into the darkness, as if we tried at Christmas and failed miserably.
Then, there's the matter of the gifts. My brothers and I have put the most emphasis on buying Christmas presents; they only do it informally with presents here and there but never on Christmas. I've been pooling my meager earnings from my job teaching piano to buy presents for the past two years, and it's so much fun, this budgeting and alloting just enough love to each person to make them feel special. Recently, we went to Barnes and Nobles (bookstore for those of you who aren't familiar with the chain), and participated in a binge of book buying. I overestimated how much I wanted to spend, AND my brothers forcefully found out what books I was buying them. A mediocre start to the holidays indeed. But now, with six days left, I'm wondering. Is it possible, my dear and darling parents, for me to have a normal Christmas this year? Have a little tree for the second time ever? Exchange presents like everyone else? Next year is going to be even worse than this year. I'll be up to my eyes in college applications. Can we make this work out?
If not...there's always a ginormous list of things to do during the holidays as this article continues.
If we can't have Christmas, I'm going to make my holiday as productive as possible. Here's how I'm going to start:
Cleaning
My house is always a mess within two days of being wonderfully clean. We all have busy lives; we move things around as it's convenient, and in a rush, we forget to put them back. Have a mess and want to clean it? Here's the best way to get things done.
- Clear everything out of the ordinary off of the floor and furniture and set it somewhere, preferably in a pile outside of the room. Make sure everything stays together.
- Vacuum or mop the floor. Once you put your stuff back, you won't have the ability to do this. Even if it gets messy afterwards, you'll have the satisfaction of knowing that it was clean for at least a minute!
- Clean the things that belong in the room separately. This can be dishes, pillows, vases, bedding, etc. If it's sort of bedding that is regularly used, don't let it sit on your bed for months! Bedding is more comfortable fresh out of the laundry, and in addition to smelling wonderful, you don't have to worry about it being dirty.
- Bring the big things back in first. If you've ever felt the need to reorganize, it might just be the little things you have to think about.
- Since you took everything out of your room, bring back all the little things that you want to keep. Look back on your pile. If there's any trash, throw it away. Make sure your pile is gone before you consider yourself done!
Elapsed time: ~30 min. - 1 hr.
Studying
I have three major competitions next semester, maybe four, that I want to be prepared for. One of them is simply general knowledge. The other three [two] have packets and packets of study materials. Here are some study tips!
- Simply reading material is dreadfully boring and hard to manage. You end up getting swept away by the text, and not concentrating. Instead, skim the material. Look for action words, such as "rising", "running", "hiding", "writing". Also look for superlatives: "This event was the best thing to happen to...", "This was the worst defeat for...". Pay complete attention to dates, people (and achievements) and procedures.
- When you find a date, write it down, preferably on a flash card, and on the back, write the event. Repeat this for people and procedures. For the latter, have an understanding of the order of the procedure, and its purpose.
- Numbers and figures tend to throw people off very easily, because there are often too many to keep track of. Make a chart or flash cards with the number on one side, and the relation on the back. That way, your sole association to that number will be whatever is on the other side.
- Read and reread! The more you read, the more you memorize. If you can pinpoint where on a page a certain amount of text appears, you can deduce nearby text and that will help you on related tests.
- DO NOT CRAM. Cramming for exams creates an influx of too much knowledge. You'll remember some of it, but you won't remember enough to do extremely well. Unless you have prior knowledge of something, don't even try it. Cramming is not learning; it's folly.
Relaxing
That's it! Take care guys. and happy holidays (courtesy of the Flying Spaghetti Monster — thanks Kilian!)
Read 2 comments (Leave a comment?)
Kilian Valkhof said:
…You didn’t just link to me using www, did you?!
I have to admit I can’t identify with your longing to Christmas. If I see one more life-size, hip-wiggling, plastic santa I swear I’m going to hurt someone.
I have vacation, but It’s only noticeable by the fact that my sleeping patten changed to give me more evening and less morning. Work for me just goes on, and schoolwork as well.
However, try to cram in some more of the relaxing, and a bit less productiveness. You have to get out of your vacation feeling like you’ve spend it useful, but most of all that you had enough rest, and can go at it again for the full 100%. Happy holidays :)
Also, your preview page is still brokered.
Posted on December 22, 2006 10:43 AM; Permalink
Ranjani said:
I just feel the need to be doing something. I have two and a half weeks. If I’m not going on vacation, I want to do something with them! So far…I haven’t done half the paperwork I need to be doing, scanned any of the maps for my Ancient Geography kids, or started on the mound of packets I need to learn before January 20th. It’s hard, making your willpower work :(
And no, I linked to you with the whole shabang- http://www :)
Posted on December 22, 2006 1:13 PM; Permalink