#i needed to distract my brain so here's a mini review from me lol

[meiozis]

slight detour from the previous topic because i watched chanyeol's black out mv and the cinematography is so delicious, it feels so wong kar wai-esque (which is a surefire way to make me love something)......

[theuglybujo]

My (ADHD) focus/organization strats

Here's some stuff that I've found works, and is working for me this semester! I want to go back and make cute graphics for this but. We'll see.

Doing a reading: Going for less visual clutter (tip: throw everything in a box, a pile behind you, or tucked behind your computer so you can't see it). Just need:

Computer to keep pomodoro timers and use with...

...Overear headphones to (1) block out distractions and (2) give me enough stimulus to stay present. My fav is white noise + the lofi study stream (nothing else fits my brain's requirements of no voices, round not sharp sounds, minor or no fading/switching side-to-side)

Critically, mini notepad for distracting thoughts. Anything that's not the reading (cool websites, chores, people to text, games to try...), write it down, deal with it when you're done. By which point it will probably not feel as important lol

A notebook if the reading is digital, or the reading + stickynotes if it's physical (bc I take notes like this but without the rewriting part usually)

Taking notes: Going for faster & easier writing, reviewing, & remembering

Color code classes and use that color in my headings, boxes (if we watch a video, i'll box my bullets on the video so I can differentiate from the lecture content), and...

...Pictures/diagrams, esp during lecture for Speed. Easier to look at and easier to remember than words.

Color code annotations (underlines/highlights in my notes, or the sticky note colors). I use big point, subpoint, new term / names / etc stuff I'll probably be tested on, and my thoughts/stuff i like

Annotate everything. Add your emotions, reactions, connections, examples, questions, ideas. I give these their own color. They go good in margins. Easier review, better remembering.

Surviving lecture: Thankfully my professors are very engaging this semester but I still use some strats

Fidgets omg. I got over myself and started bringing a fidget spinner and popit to class and it saves my life

Chop up video lectures, this is Prof. Mary Latta's idea she gives us 2-3 shorter video lectures instead of 1 long one. Pomodoro it.

Get involved with people. This is hard and took me years but it's awesome. Complement people and ask questions (stickers they have? their outfit, hair, nails, tattoos? work? major? interest in the class?), because you can (1) get friends/study buddies/people to sit next to, and (2) break the ice to asking for help and getting different perspectives. Hang out a little after/before class, ask for their reactions, examples, ideas. Gush your excitement or confess your confusion to the prof, or overhear someone doing that and jump in if you relate. None of us know 100% what's going on and it feels great to fill the gaps (or validate asking the prof for clarification!)

And important addition, when you get the pomodoro breaks (and before you start), ACTUALLY TAKE A BREAK. Do you need a shower/snack/water. You probably need to stretch. You might even need to move locations or get a different chair or move the light just to shake things up.

[savemygrades]

do you have any tips for how to study efficiently?

Hiya!

Thanks for the ask! I’m glad you said ‘efficiently’ because I’ve seen so many study tips on here which may seem cute but aren’t very efficient.

First of, everyone works differently, so the best thing to do is to try out a variety of techniques and see what works best for you.

At the start of your study period, you need to ask yourself what exactly you want to gain from this session. Is it memorising a big chunk of information? Or is it understanding a tricky maths question? Or perhaps you need to finish up a 2000 word essay on ancient philosophers? You would need to take a different approach on how you would tackle each of these different assignments.

Memory:

In terms of memorising I would recommend Quizlet. If it’s learning vocab, Memrise works really well too. The key with memorising is repetition. So the more you go over something, the better it would stick in your memory. Try using spaced repetition. So after going over a topic, briefly revisit it again 3 days later, then revisit it again a week later, then revisit it again 5 weeks later and so forth.  In reviewing the topic, you’re reinforcing it into your brain. Maybe use a tracker or a calendar to remind yourself when to revisit each topic. 

“Blurting”:

I don’t know if you know who Unjaded Jade is, but she’s a study YouTuber who came up with this technique called blurting. Blurting essentially involves you getting a blank piece of paper, and you “blurting” out any knowledge you have of a topic or sub-topic on to that page, without the aid of your notes or textbooks. I really like this technique- as it clearly shows you what you know and what you don’t know.

Practise questions

Familiarise yourself with the exam structure and technique by answering practise questions as soon as you can. That way you can see your areas of weakness. Sometimes you may know a topic inside out, but you just can’t seem to able to interpret what a question wants you to write. I know I have this currently with A level biology, but I’m slowly understanding them weirdly worded questions!

Getting the motivation and endurance to actually study:

Sometimes you know what works for you, but you just can’t be asked to do it. I know I have this problem. To combat this, you need to try and make ‘studying’ actually something you enjoy. Now this is going to be different for everyone but this is what I do to brighten up my study sessions:

- I put lofi music or bts instrumentals in the background (that way the words won’t distract me)

-Coffee or tea (not for the caffeine but I just like the cosy feel I get from them)

-comfy clothes (a must)

-a tidy study area (otherwise I just get distracted and I’d feel icky)

-write a prioritised to-do list at the beginning of the day (that way I always feel like I have my shit together)

- during exam season I made my self a study timetable (not only did this ensure I can break up the tasks I need to do efficiently, but it also meant that I didn’t get too caught up with school and that I had some time for relaxation, I literally scheduled in Netflix time lol)

-sometimes I watch mini-study with me videos or I would look under the studyblr tag on Tumblr to feel inspired 

Finally just as a small tip: don’t study for hours on end without breaks. Your brain would not be able to absorb all the information. I usually study for 40 minutes then I take a 20-minute break.  

+++ also, you don’t need to make fancy notes with fancy calligraphy - those actually take a lot of time to do, so a lot of your time would be wasted, when you could have spent the same amount of time doing practise questions and understanding what you need to focus on.

Good luck with your studies :))

[evenstevensranked]

#24: Season 3, Episode 10 - “Hutch Boy”

School bully Lloyd Offler targets Louis as his next victim. Meanwhile, Ren’s hair is accidentally dyed blonde!

First off, I just want to say that I'm dedicating this review to Brad Bufanda, the actor who played Lloyd. It was brought to my attention on Instagram that he just recently passed away on November 1st. He was 34. Very strange timing because this episode was next on my list already and I was working on the review as I found out. My heart kinda sank. I feel really weird segueing into my regular, light-hearted style now after the fact -- but I figure it's actually better to keep things light during darker times. So yeah. Let's do this!

This one opens with one of the most incredible things ever: a flying squirrel. Not an actual flying squirrel of course, but a mechanical one that Louis and Twitty rigged to scare Tom -- who happens to have an extremely specific and strange fear of flying squirrels. I wonder what instilled that fear? lol. How many squirrels have you seen flyin' around out there? 

This bit used to have me in stitches. Tom’s terrified scream is something you have to hear for yourself. 

Just then, some guy named Lloyd Offler approaches them and starts yelling at Louis for giving him "hard looks." Like, excuse me? I'll never understand how bullies pick their victims. Louis is the best, leave him alone. I know that Louis, Tawny, and Tom are supposed to be outcasts of sorts (leaving out Twitty because we’ve seen that he’s actually pretty popular)... But still. Louis is cool imo. Lloyd walks away, but not before letting Louis know that he’s on his radar now. Great. 

~Radar~

Cut to the subplot. Ren volunteers her hair to the “Future Beauticians” Club, and let me tell you... I had such an ah-ha moment when I was re-watching this episode. For whatever reason, I always thought the club was called the Future PETITIONS club. Ruby says the name so fast it’s hard to understand. I was always so confused, like... What the heck is that? What petitions? And what do they have to do with dyeing hair? And then it hit me. I kid you not, it was like the skies opened up! "Beauticians” obviously makes so much more sense, lol. 

To Ren’s horror, her hair turns out platinum blonde. Ruby has a flashback to the moment it all went wrong. We see that mid-gossip, she was distracted and poured soda into the dye mixture instead of whatever else she was supposed to use. I always felt personally responsible for this accident because she starts off the gossip with "So, I'm talkin' to Brittany..." Don't drag me into this, Ruby. 

At least it was “natural” soda. 

Ren is furious at first but soon notices that her hair is garnering attention. So she starts strutting down the hall to a "Walking on Sunshine" rip off. 

This is another situation like the "Staying Alive" rip off in Stevens Genes. From memory, I would've bet money that the actual "Walking on Sunshine" was used here!! But nope. I'm still fascinated by how the brain can be tricked like that. Girls are staring at Ren with jealousy now and guys are checking her out... including Louis -- who doesn’t recognize her at first. It’s highly disturbing. 

“hey, blondie... how u doin?” - Louis stop. Ignoring the fact that it’s Ren, it’s so weird to see Louis attempt to hit on someone. *shivers with disgust* I take back what I said about him being cool. 

At lunch, the gang is laughing about how Lloyd’s name is spelled with two L’s. “Maybe he pronounces it La-Loyd?” Tawny jokes. Louis dies of laughter and says “...And my name’s La-Louis” so sarcastically. IT GETS ME EVERY TIME. Shia is so full of joy here and the whole scene has such an organic feel to it. You get the sense that these are real friends at school having a laugh. It’s contagious and warms my heart. 

So pure.

Suddenly.......... this iMovie “suspense” sound effect plays twice as Lloyd appears hovering behind Louis asking “You having a good time, La-Louis?” Why are these double L jokes so funny to me?! Oh my god. Lloyd picks up Louis’ sandwich, licks it dramatically, and puts it back on his tray. Nice guy! Louis tries to reason with him, but Lloyd refuses and says “See you in shop class” ominously.

During shop class Louis is so afraid of what Lloyd might do, he’s quite literally shaking like a leaf. Twitty tries to reassure him by saying the teacher is nearby and won’t let anything happen to him. But then the teacher is all “I’m gonna step out of the room for a minute and I will take my time.” This is so good. Now that they’re alone, Lloyd snatches away Louis' “shelf” project and puts it in the hutch he's constructing. This is a great bit though because Louis decides to face Lloyd then and apologize (even though he did nothing wrong.) It’s really nice. Louis is so sincere and mature here. Lloyd seemingly accepts the apology... but then stuffs Louis into the hutch as well. (see cover photo)

Tom politely confronts Lloyd insisting he let Louis out of the hutch, before he says “I’m sorry it’s come to this...” and randomly goes completely black belt on Lloyd to everyone's shock. Then again, was it to everyone’s shock? Because their classmates emerged from their workstations, conveniently holding up wood for Tom to break lol. I love how the teacher walks back in while Tom is kickin’ around like he’s Jackie Chan, and has one of those “f this, I’m out” moments: 

This show’s humor was way ahead of its time. 

Louis is beyond shocked and it always cracks me up when Tom calmly helps Louis out of the hutch and whispers “Come on, buddy.” I don’t know what it is... but it’s just so freaking funny. There’s this hilarious ~zen~ music playing as well which is the icing on the cake. There’s a great line later that day when Louis starts evaluating the situation: “If Tom was the biggest wimp at school, and he saved MY butt? That means I’M THE BIGGEST WIMP AT SCHOOL.” ....true tho. Twitty mentions our good ol’ buddy Pete who everyone apparently prays to on this show when he says “Who would’ve known he was an honest to Pete, second degree black belt?!” lol. 

To wrap up Ren’s plot, because not too much else happens: She basically becomes an overtly stereotypical blonde overnight. Constantly saying “oh muh gosh!,” reading fashion magazines during class, and blowing off her commitments to roller skate in the house instead. 

Okay, is she curling her hair now? or did they honestly think we wouldn’t notice that Ren’s hair magically became curly after it was dyed blonde. Who picked this wig? 

She also went out and got a whole new wardrobe to go with her hair or something?! Because these clothes she’s wearing do not seem like stuff she already had in her closet. Ruby rounds up a bunch of blondes from LJH and holds a mini intervention for Ren -- telling her that she’s giving blondes a bad name. And that’s pretty much it! Ruby dyes her hair back to normal.

I love how Ruby left her “a little souvenir” of blonde! I’ve been dyeing one small section of my hair blonde for years now, so this always makes me happy lol. Look at how much body Ren’s “hair” has when she’s blonde and how flat it is when she’s back to normal lol.... seems legit. I also definitely owned that yellow and blue striped top that girl on the left is wearing.

Back to Louis’ drama. Tom is outside casually practicing his martial arts when Louis approaches him with some hot chocolate from Doris. Tom’s so ~in the zone~ that he almost roundhouse kicks Louis in the face. I needed to gif it:

Louis tells Tom that he wants to be just like him, he wants to learn how to fight. Tom agrees to teach Louis ~his ways~ and I swear this is one of my favorite bits EVERRRRRRR. There’s no way I’m typing all of this out. You have to feast your eyes on the greatness yourself:

“Louis... did I mention it takes 9 years to learn my ways?” - This show is absolute GOLD, I do not care what anyone says. 

Who knew Fred Meyers could actually do all of that, though?! So yeah, after telling Lloyd he’d fight him, even though he can’t fight -- Tom tells Louis his only option is to “find his inner strength and harness it.” And Louis, being the actual genius he is, takes that advice quite literally. I also love how Louis just says “meet me in the alley at 7″ .......which alley, bro? Ya also gotta love that “The Rock” reference. (”If you smell what Louis is cookin’!”) This show really did pick the BEST things to reference when it came to pop culture. It feels like Dwayne Johnson is everywhere these days!

The last big scene of the episode is the alley sequence, and I love it so much. Louis has Beans and Twitty secretly help him work a harness he rigged to fly around like some crazy martial arts master just to freak Lloyd out and avoid fighting altogether. It starts off pretty hilarious (Louis literally does the macarena as a “kung fu” move) but then it gets serious for a minute and it’s perfect. Of course, it all goes down in flames and Lloyd sees the wire. It feels so satisfying to reach the heart of a bully. It's great when you start to see Lloyd feel bad about how he’s treated Louis and I freaking love how Louis gives in, but at the same time -- stands up for himself. He tells Lloyd to beat him up, almost pressuring him to do so -- which obviously makes Lloyd NOT want to beat him up. It's great. 

“I’ve come to the realization that if I’m gonna get hit, I’m gonna get hit. You know what you’re gonna wanna do? Get some towels. ‘Cause I’m a bleeder.” - Yesss, Louis. 

This leads to one of my favorite little exchanges in the series. Lloyd immediately becomes a huge softie and wants to know how Louis pulled off the harness trick and they quickly start bonding over engineering. Lloyd is all "I didn't know you were into mechanical stuff!" And Louis says "Yeah, dude. I am. But you were too busy putting me in your hutch." - I'm sooo glad they actually had Louis say that engineering is something he's into! Because otherwise, his inventions come across as nothing but wacky things that only exist to support the gags he pulls with no further explanation. Idk. It's such a short moment, but it makes me so happy every time!!! Louis even gives Lloyd a quick rundown of the materials he used to rig the harness and idk man, it just makes me smile. I LOVE THIS CHARACTER SO MUCH. (I also just noticed that the flying squirrel gag was solid foreshadowing for this harness rig.)

I always get a little sad that Lloyd didn't become a bit of a recurring character for the rest of the season or something. This final scene between them has a ~beginning of a beautiful friendship~ sort of vibe. Lloyd invites Louis to check out his home workshop and ugh it’s so nice. We hardly ever see Louis with any friends outside of his core group, let alone someone else who shares his love of engineering, so maybe that’s why this scene always hits me.  

I really like this episode for some reason. Always have. Like, A LOT. I think it’s because of the big showdown in shop class. And Louis wanting to learn martial arts from Tom. And the flying squirrel. And Louis and Lloyd in the alley. It's all amazing. And Ren’s plot is pretty fun, too. This is just an awesome episode all around. 

Rest in Peace, Brad Bufanda. 

Thanks for reading! And please contribute to the conversation below if ya like. 

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