I hate finals week. Its not that I don't study. Its not that I can't take it. Well, a part of me is saying that it needs a break. Sorry man. Not yet. Just one more day though. My mind is like an overclocked computer these days. Forcing it to go a few levels above normal to compensate for the added studying I have to do. And now its telling me it needs a break. Crap. Not now. Just for 24 more hours. Then we can take a break.
I dislike exams. I really don't think its an accurate measurement of a student's prowess. But still, even if there are those who agree with me, it still is the fastest way to evaluate someone. Besides. If it is for evaluating your performance, shouldn't you NOT STUDY in the first place? It kind of undermines the reason why you study which is to understand. Yep. That should be it. You should be gauged on how much you understand. Not just on how much you know. Then again, dream all you want boy, that's as close as it can get.
Maybe for some other course, some other college, it could be applicable. But considering where I am, sheesh. ENGINEERING cannot accommodate such fantasies. We have standards to live with. And you have to be up to par. If not, you get a few more chances. And yet, here I am, trying to get my mind to cool down. Apparently, late nights don't do much to me. That is, when I am not doing something related to studying. But insert a book, a paper, a program to well... program and everything starts to go poof, boom, kablooey. Yeah you heard it. Brain cells popping all over the place.
Good luck to my peers who also have their finals this week (and on Monday). I know we all need it. Tomorrow, as I face my final (and most grueling) academic challenge for the term (you really had to save the best for last), all I can say is, "I have prepared to the best of my abilities. Whether it is or is not enough, that is where I leave my regrets." Really. I never regretted taking this course nor enrolling in this university. My only regret is taking the early days of the term for granted. Up until the final moments.
"You have never experienced the perils of being a student if you have never crammed. And if you have never crammed in your life, up until your career, you must have one heckuva secretary."
Oh yeah. For those of you who have read my last post, I have eliminated around 4000-5000 emails. That brings me to around 8000 more to go. Well, I guess I'll leave that for another day.
Thursday, April 12, 2007
you can only take so much
Monday, April 9, 2007
deluge of electronic mail
I'm supposed to be studying for my exams. Really though, I am. But seeing my Y!mailbox shooting up to 90% full, I knew I should at least delete a few thousand of the mail I left lying around over the years. Yes... YEARS...
I have had that particular address for around 9 years. Ever since I was in grade 5. Yep. The e-mail address was actually assigned by my computer teacher before. We had a format actually, firstname_lastname@yahoo.com. I really didn't mind before. But I thought of getting a new one when I saw unusual addresses like
But that is supposedly the convenience of e-mail right? But as with those ads that come in the mail (here in the Philippines, one common one in fact is school advertisements), there is of course, an online version for this. Its not the food, its SPAM.
Spam comes in a lot of forms. I bet you probably are familiar with most by now. Ads, chain-letters, unintelligible subjects (usually these are foreign but unrecognizable by the system), and miss-sent emails (yeah right). But with the popularity of on-line novelty sites, there is still a spam variation which encompasses all I mentioned above, albeit at a different magnitude. Yep. It carries the same name as in nature, the all popular FLOOD.
Ever since the days of the old friendster, the flood due to social networks was there. It may have been even before that time but friendster happened to be the first one I joined (or was it?). The bulletin board had oh... lets see... five or ten pages at least of the same post over and over again. Well, I saw this as a personal cry for attention. But the more they do it, the less I look. Heck, I'm even annoyed when I accidentally click post twice.
Multiply, is a bit worse. The floods ante up when you join groups. And did I mention the deluge is increased EXPONENTIALLY when you join groups? Hehehe... Not that I am against it, in fact I am a member of I think around 5 or more groups in multiply. And that is the reason why I have around 10000 more e-mails to sift through (not a typo). Some good mail is in the flood. Thats true. Some are inspiring photoshoots, some messages that could make your day. But of course, there are the for sale subjects, then again, I am not completely against that either. If I was in your shoes, I probably would do the same. Who can say no to free advertising? By the way, I saw some interesting accessories for my camera in an email. Just saving up the money to actually buy.
To those of you who face the same problem I had (I still do actually). I offer a few tips to prevent e-mail deluging in your box.
Tip #1: Use filters: Yahoomail has 15 filters for the free account. You can set it to identify for example, all mail with "for sale" in the subject and place it in the trash or a folder marked "For Sale". At least its easy to delete when you are not interested.
Tip #2: Consider using daily digest: If the group you joined doesn't send email attachments in their posts, you could opt to use this to have only one e-mail sent to you per day. A caveat though is that attachments aren't sent this way so tough luck if you miss an attachment you need.
Tip #3: Delete, delete, delete: Don't delay deleting unnecessary mail. Or at least place them in folders so they don't confuse you too much. Don't send them all to a folder marked "Old Mail" either unless its an archive folder since it can still and WILL still confuse you.
So much for spam. I got rid of about 5000 messages in a day or two. But have to study again. They don't call 'em finals for nothing. It really feels final.
