Lexical Gap

2011 was 365 days of experiences. Some of those were new and exciting and cool, others.. not so much. For about a week I’ve been sorting through 2011, picking out the good, the bad, and the ugly and since I’m in the mood to blog I wrote down the lessons I learned from some of those experiences to share with the world (or at least with tumblr and twitter, and maybe facebook).

The Good:

• cigars are infinitely better when smoked while wearing a fake mustache
• taking risks is best done surrounded by people you don’t mind laughing at you
• doing laundry is best done when most people are in class
• talking to someone without inhibition is all it takes to make a new, genuine friend
• write a music review every week
• keep reading, keep writing, stay sane

The Bad:

• your sports teams will never do as good as you hope and pray. always remember that next season is your season
• life is short and people don’t live forever; take time to tell those you love and appreciate that you love and appreciate them
• you don’t need to be in a constant state of stress to get things done

The Ugly:

• always wear more sunscreen than you think you need. always pack aloe in case you’re an idiot and don’t.
• vodka is bad. visiting your grandmother the morning after the vodka is worse.
• don’t cut people off because you’re angry; try to remember that your friends are your friends for a reason
• when planning an outfit to wear, check the day before to make sure it’s not in Buffalo (unless you are too)

2012 will be 366 days of experiences, and I can’t wait to see what good, bad, and ugly things are in store for me.

It’s that time of year again, the time when the sound of the impending stampede of finals has escalated from a faint whisper in the distance into a dull roar. Your time is limited and you need a game plan before you become another trampled victim of the unforgiving heard of final papers, presentations, and exams.

This might sound a little dramatic, but as someone who is about to take an exam in Inquiry into the Natural World and Foundations of Western Civilization, I very much feel like I’m about to get bowled over by a GPA destroying finals week and I’m sure there’s a lot of other people who feel the same. So as my first official break from studying and because I haven’t posted in awhile, I decided to put my own exam 5-step survival guide into text to try and help any other lost souls that might be floating around.

1. Make a detailed list. Prioritize what you need to do based on when it’s due and how hard you need to work on it. Don’t try to do everything in one day. Try to figure out how much time you want to spend on everything, and start early enough in the day to get it all done. If you need to schedule in food breaks and sleep to make sure you have time for both, do it. I always do.

2. Make a good playlist. If you’re anything like me, you can’t study without background noise. My playlists tend to be upbeat to keep me happy and cuts down on stress, but also unobtrusive. If you can’t think over your favorite song, leave it out. Songs that distract you are counter-productive. If you need to study in silence, make a playlist anyway! Listen to it on your way to and from the library or during a Facebook break. It will calm your nerves and help you to start the next task renewed.

3. Find somewhere you can study efficiently. If you like to study in your room, try to clean it up so you aren’t in a stressful environment. If you like to work on your bed, make it first and sit on top of your blankets so you don’t fall asleep. If you like going to the library or a study room that you know is going to be busy, get there early to claim your spot. Pick somewhere you’re comfortable, but don’t get too comfy; you still have work to do.

4. Take a break! Studying for eight hours straight is going to stress you out and stop you from learning anything. Take a half-hour break between finishing one task and starting the next. Go on Facebook, post on Tumblr, listen to music, or watch a little TV. You can afford small breaks, and you deserve them too.

5. Remember that finals aren’t the most important thing. Try not to stress yourself out too much; these finals aren’t going to make or break the rest of your life. You want to do well, but you don’t have to be perfect. Don’t let finals trick you into thinking they’re more important than eating and sleeping. They’ll try, but it’s up to you to make sure you put your own well-being ahead of them.

Finals are only one week long. It might be one hell of a week, but every week has to end eventually. Go into it with a plan and don’t let it stress you out, and you’ll come out and head into the holidays happy and (hopefully) successful.

While stumbling earlier today when I probably should have been finishing my homework, I came across an internet project called The Burning House that asks the age-old question, “Your house is burning, what do you take with you?”. I thought the pictures people shared were fascinating, and since I have a lot of homework to do I figured why not try it myself?

There’s no parameters to the online project, but I gave myself some guidelines to make it a little more realistic. I laid out a blanket on the ground and gave myself two minutes to gather what I wanted to take with me (I figured two minutes would be enough time before an RA came knocking on my door, and I probably wouldn’t have died of smoke inhalation yet). Once the two minutes were up I organized it all so I could take the picture, and I was kind of surprised at what I picked.

(Starts from the left and goes in kind of a zig-zag, so try to keep up)

• Five records I can’t live without (it was easy, they were already on my desk): James Taylor “Sweet Baby James”, The Beatles “Abbey Road” and “The White Album”, Neil Young “Harvest”, and Deluka “You are the Night” (it’s autographed and the first record I ever owned)
• My Build-a-Bears, Jo (the bear) and Goose (the leopard)
• My Harry Potter books (my good copies, not my travel copies)
• The journal that holds my bucket list
• Little Princes, autographed
• The copy of Dubliners that my dad brought me from Paris
• My first O-Team picture in a frame
• My copy of Where the Sidewalk Ends, given to me by my 1st grade teacher
• ABC’s of Ms. Jess that was my graduation present from my first graders
• The Spoonriver Anthology, my favorite book of poems
• My favorite hoodie
• A pair of Buzz sunglasses
• A bracelet that belonged to my grandmother
• A watch my other grandmother bought me when I was nine (still fits, and still works)
• A bracelet that my Italian teacher brought me from Italy
• This past year’s O-Team picture in a frame
• Confessions of Life, Death, and God, autographed

This wasn’t as hard as I thought, and it was definitely a learning experience. It puts things in perspective, and shows you what you really can’t live without. Personally, I think it was healthy for me to realize that not a single electronic device made it onto the blanket. The things most important to me are mostly sentimental things, things from my family or things that bring back memories.

And books. I still can’t live without books.

Even if you don’t take a picture, I encourage you to give it a shot and see what’s really important to you. You’ve got two minutes, one blanket, and one burning house. Go for it.

A year ago I started typing out a Bucket List that will eventually have a much more aesthetically pleasing home in a journal when I get around to it. I don’t know when “crochet a blanket” made it on the list or why. I’ve never crocheted anything before in my life, but I guess at one point I saw a blanket that my grandmother crocheted on my bed and thought I could totally do it. Bucket lists are all about life experiences and trying new things, and a year ago I thought it was incredibly important to crochet your own blanket before you die.

So here I am, $25 invested in yarn and crocheting needles, working on row number eight of God knows how many, learning from a guy named Mikey on YouTube, and you know what? This blanket is actually looking pretty good. Is it going to take forever? Yes. Is it going to be much more expensive than I thought? Very much so. But it’s also turning out to be more important than I ever thought when my compulsiveness made me put it on the list.

I don’t generally say things like this, but I feel like adding this project to my bucket list wasn’t a coincidence. That first blanket that inspired this idea wasn’t the only one my grandma ever crocheted. She used to be crazy good at crocheting. She crocheted so much she didn’t have to pay attention to every little stitch like I do, making blankets while talking to people or watching baseball games on TV. I grew up hearing that the people who leave us are never really gone and that they help us out when we least expect it. I don’t necessarily know if this is true, but I do know that my grandma would be proud of this silly little blanket, and I’m just happy knowing that I’m doing something she’d have loved to teach me when she was still around. Maybe 19-year-old Jess wasn’t as crazy I thought.

On July 18^th, 2007, a YouTuber uploaded a video in which he sang a song on the release of the 7^th Harry Potter book. This vlogger was Hank Green who, with his brother John, uploads videos to a channel called the Vlogbrothers. Four years later that first song, “Accio Deathly Hallows”, now has over one million views and has spurred a new music career for Hank Green. Since that video Hank has produced three studio albums and played for crowds of over 3,000 people. More impressive still, Hank has partnered with fellow YouTuber and musician Alan Lastufka to create DFTBA Records, an independent record label that produces and distributes the music projects of other talented and passionate YouTubers.

Almost exactly four years after “Accio Deathly Hallows”, Hank Green released his third studio album to an eagerly awaiting internet community. Named after one of Hank’s fans who won a raffle during the “Project for Awesome” online charity event, Ellen Hardcastle features Hank at his nerdy best. In the two years since his last album, Hank has grown as a musician and a nerd, and he has created an album that is unquestionably his own. Though Hank has never been afraid to be himself in his music, Ellen Hardcastle is more focused and polished than any of his previous albums thus far, allowing his voice and point of view to be the driving force behind the entire album. Though the topics of the album are unconventional, featuring songs about the medical mystery Phineas Gage, the science behind quarks, the questionable existence of aliens, and chat roulette, the themes of the album are often uplifting and motivational.

Ellen Hardcastle may not feature the most serious songs, but that doesn’t mean the album shouldn’t be taken seriously. Hank Green isn’t afraid to be a nerd and he’s inspired countless others to feel the same, myself included. For those of you brave enough to embrace a nerdier side of yourself, give Hank a shot. Not only will you not be disappointed in the high quirkiness levels of Ellen Hardcastle, but the whole thing is just too catchy for you not to enjoy it.