Sunsets =(

So far, I'm unable to take a picture for this week's theme: sunset. The past week has been full of clouds and snow. If it's still cloudy tomorrow, I will have to rely on drastic measures...

Since my finger is still slightly injured, I didn't go to volunteer. It still feels a bit awkward to apply some pressure on my right pinkie. Speaking of pressure, I've been using my ring finger to press the shift key, which initially felt weird, is the new norm for me. I'm not sure how I'm going to go back to my old method of typing (which is using my fifth finger for the shift key on the right side of the keyboard).

Today was a pretty lazy day for me. I ended up not doing any work... which I hope is not going to bite me on the butt when tomorrow comes. I'll get work done tomorrow! I actually feel quite rested from the past couple of days! =)

Hmm... picture...here's one I took last week while I was waiting for others to show up.

Shepherd's Pie at Jamesons (Brentwood) and Spicy burrito

EDIT: Grammar should be fixed now! =P

It was quite busy tonight due to the football game between the stamps and the lions.

Anyways, the shepherd's pie consisted of a mash potato top (I believe) with, what tasted like ground beef. For $17 after tax and tips, it was not really fulfilling. The food tasted alright, but I was definitely not full from that.

So what do you do when you still feel hungry? You go out and eat more! We went to Mucho Burrito by Studio 16 and got some food there. It was my first time there, so I went and got myself a "Hotter than Hell" Ghost Pepper Burrito.

It was definitely an experience I'm not going to forget for a while. A burrito loaded with jalapeños, hot salsa and what looked to be like 2 teaspoons of ghost pepper sauce.

I went through half a litre of chocolate milk and a bottle of water to eat that burrito.

It was spicy. It burned my throat. It made my body, from the chest down, numb. It made me cry. It made my nose run. And pretty much whatever else you can come up with (include shaky lips). My stomach is still burning, but it was for sure an interesting experience. For about $14 for the burrito, drinks and nachos, it was an expensive, but one of a kind meal.

Picture of my Shepherd's pie. I should have taken a picture of the burrito as well...

Nice to have a breather!

After a pretty hectic week, I managed to find some time to rest tonight! Strange, that I'm unable to sleep early tonight...

Well I handed in my lesson plan today. Overall, it was about 40 pages in length or so? It wasn't all paragraphs, but I have to say that it is my biggest single project to date so far. All in all, I had around 12000 words (8500ish for the unit plan, 3500 for assignments, and individual lesson plan and so on). Thank goodness it's finished!

Right after 506, I worked on the 507 poster with my group mates. We managed to finish the poster in just a couple of hours. Everything went quite smoothly!

Sooooo, for the first time in a while, I don't really have anything that I have to do (readings, 502 presentations, 507 paper... they can wait.)

Today's picture

Our poster!

And I was thinking of taking Ritalin...

I'm not even joking how miraculous I found this time management skill to be! My 506 prof mentioned this method to us yesterday to help us learn time management skills. I first tried this last night as I attempted to finish the rough draft of my unit plan.

The results were amazing...

I managed to get 8 pages of writing (not full paragraphs... there were some sections where I had point form points) in 125 minutes of work (5 working sessions).

So how does the method work? You work hard for 25 minutes, without letting any distractions get to you. So in other words, ignore your emails, text messages, mom yelling at you, etc. All it is, is concentrating on your work for 25 minutes

After the 25 minutes are up, you take a 5 minute break. You want to get up during this time and do something to take your mind off work. Once your 5 minutes are up, you get back to work.

This cycle repeats for 4 times. After your 4th 25 minute shift, you take an extended 30 minute break.

I call this the 25+5 minute plan.

And it has produce some serious results... (as you can probably tell, I'm writing my blog now because I'm on my extended break to 11:30!). Even today, I was able to finish two assignments and a lesson plan in 100 minutes of work time. That would normally take me more than a couple hours to get done since I would constantly check my email, go on facebook, browse websites, talk to people on msn, etc etc. I guess the shorter work periods make it a lot easier to concentrate for the entire task!

Ahhhh.... now to really enjoy my break before I try and go for another 4 shifts...

No picture for today! Too lazy to go find one =P

Night Owl Mode

I'm not sure how people can do it, but I will attempt staying up late (perhaps till 2) to work on homework. It's a skill I should try to develop, for it may be helpful later in my life when I do need to learn how to stay awake and do work. =P Anybody has some advice on staying up late? Besides napping... since if I nap now... I won't wake up till tomorrow morning.

The latest I ever stayed awake and was still mentally sharp was like... back in high school... I recall staying up till 12 to do homework, but that was mostly because I was on MSN chatting to people. And I guess 12 isn't consider to be remotely late at all...

Time for recap:

506: How to time manage well: 25 minute work sessions with 5 minute breaks. Do this 4 times in a row, and then take a 30 minute break. In this case, you can get in a solid 100 minutes of work! I'll try this tonight. =P

503: ATA code of ethics and scenarios. Some really interesting scenarios we looked at in class today! No time to elaborate though =P

Today's picture

credit: http://www.pamsclipart.com/clipart_images/cartoon_night_owl_on_a_branch_0515-0908-1500-2402_SMU.jpg

I will attempt to imitate this owl in hopes of being able to stay up late to work (I'm already feeling sleepy... the caffeine I drank a couple hours ago didn't work!). Maybe if I stare at my screen like this owl, I'll be able too...

It's like my brain just crashed on me!

I spent nearly 10 working hours on my unit plan today... and it's still not close to being done! I still have two more concepts to talk about and a second lesson plan... It's like this unit plan has no end!!!! I see the end of the tunnel, but its still so far away! =(

My brain just literally gave up! I felt like I was just rambling and that it wasn't justification about the way I'm approaching the unit anymore... more like it looking like a pile of BS. So I gave up trying to write more for the unit plan for tonight... =(

Not to mention that I need to get started on 507 paper, 503 paper and 501 website soon as well... And those readings (a whole truckload) for 505...

Just three more weeks (including this one) before semester is over! I'm starting to feel the muscle fatigue but the finish line is soooo close! This is the only way I can think of to push me through the last couple of weeks before practicum starts...

For today's picture, I didn't manage to take any nice pictures so instead, here is a picture of what I feel like right now with the unit plan...

credits: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOBQI_5OouXEMsDkUNro1SjhCzhj79FoSHmcVXJEO4jCTWjEgVScJZl0479NUNdVtkkx9KjF1BM8daD54ZZeMbNT1SJCJTHjlVJgNiEi02bd_x_sXyNmGUUc9LzXAWIK9ehtlJgsUd19E/s1600/cartoonsteam.gif

Injured Once Again!

I just realized that I never related my post to my title yesterday... I forgot to mention how cold yesterday felt, even though it didn't dip below zero. (Or so I believe). I'll make sure that my blog post today relates to my title! And that shouldn't be a problem at all =P

In karate today, I managed to injure myself when we were doing sai training. I think I got kind of lazy with my swings, that I ended up ramming the butt end of my left sai to the base of my right pinky nail. It was definitely hard not to curse out loud as I hopped on the spot, and even harder not to drop my sais (that weigh about 5 pounds each). I noticed that the base of my pinky was bleeding profusely (maybe too strong of a word, but I feel so proud that it exists in my vocabulary!) and thus I placed my sais down and rushed to the bathroom while I shake my hand to dull the pain...

It was painful rinsing the cut, more painful than normal. Once I got a close look at the damage, I noticed that I managed to skin a good chunk of skin (sounds a bit weird) and damage my cuticle. It doesn't look deep, but boy, it sure burns/stings...

Also, I was supposed to help my dad swap on winter tires on our vehicles, but with my pain-ridden right hand, I wasn't able too....

So when I got home, I just worked on my unit plan for 506. There's so much to write for it! I have about 10 pages so far, but that's only about.... 1/4 of what I need to write for the unit I believe? I hope that the other sections aren't too long... I'm getting extremely frustrated by this assignment!! (Though I do find that this exercise is useful, even though it is currently very tedious to complete).

For today's picture, I was complementing on showing the extent of my injury, but I thought of those who don't do gore, so I'll just post a picture of my hand! Don't worry, I have a bandage on top of the cut.