Overcoming boredom for the next few months

[owidjaja]

Hey guys!

I just finished my exams today and I'm excited for the next three (or so) months. However, I can't just sit for 8 hours straight on my laptop watching Youtube videos so I decided to make a new journal where I'll just be talking about what I'll be planning on doing during the day or what I've done during the day. Hopefully, this can motivate me to actually be productive without wearing me down during the holidays and hopefully achieve some of my personal goals or just talk about my day since I'll be travelling a lot (better to actually vlog or written form?)

Starting from today, I'll be trying to fix up my body clock. Because of school, my sleeping schedule has been severely messed up to the point that if I try and sleep at 10.30, I don't fall asleep until 12am or 1am (which is why when someone asks me what time I went to bed, I always ask: what time I turned off the lights or what time I actually fell asleep). I've been waking up at 9.30 since Trials so I'm gonna see if this routine has really helped me wake up at 9.30.

I'll also be working out tomorrow. After Trials, I did a lot of 7 minute workouts because I had to slim down a bit for Formal but 7 minutes isn't enough. I've been stress-eating a lot since pre-Trials to now and have gained a lot of weight. My waist and back is also quite sore for sitting for way too long. I've heard that working out in the morning is great for energy so I'll be using the cross trainer after I wake up and then eat breakfast.

So here it goes!

- Olivia

[owidjaja]

Hey guys,

So I managed to wake up early, at around 9.15am. But I woke up really tired. My eyes felt really dry. I tried sleeping early last night at around 11.15pm and I was reading a book before sleeping. I heard that reading before going to bed can help you fall asleep quicker but not for me. It took me a while to actually fall asleep. Because I was tired, I laid in bed for 10 minutes on my phone before actually getting up and working out. I started a light 30 minute workout. I didn't feel the burn so I may need to step it up a bit. But working out in the morning seemed to be the best idea since it was nice and cool in the morning. But my waist is still sore for some reason -_-

I was hoping to go for a walk today but then it started raining -_- So I stayed home and barely did anything. I played a WW2 documentary in the background while working on my scholarship application. I was also doing a bit of job searching- even though I've always wanted a job, I've focused a lot on studying. Now I have some time, my mum encouraged me to look for a job. It was a bit difficult because a lot of Christmas casual advertisements were up until the end of October, and the job advertisements up now say that experience is required.

Apart from me just lounging around, playing with makeup and practically watching a documentary on the Soviets in WW2, I decided to start up my Xbox. I haven't played any video games in awhile so I started playing Rise of Tomb Raider (I bought this 2 years ago but I never actually played it until today lmao). I will be buying some more games this Friday but tomorrow, I'll be taking my cat to the vet.

I guess tomorrow's goals will be to wake up at 8.30am so I'll have time to do a morning workout and then help my mum take my cat to the vet.

See you soon!

- Olivia

[owidjaja]

Hey guys,

I didn't do an update yesterday because by the time I got to my room, it was a bit late. I got to do a morning workout yesterday but today I didn't -_- But I did make it up by doing a song on Just Dance- I bought some new games today, one of them being Just Dance 2019. The fact that I was exhausted from dancing to one song is kinda concerning to me because it really reminded me how out of shape I am -_- But I did spend the whole day today walking around because my mum and I went shopping today.

I am starting to wake up a bit earlier. By this, I mean that it's not too difficult to wake up earlier. Before, when the alarm went off, I would always turn it off and then go back to sleep and then wake up late and get told off by my mum. These days, I'm finding myself waking up just before the alarm goes off. My eyes still feel a bit dry and I do still yawn a lot throughout the day but there's a bit of progress with my overall health.

I'm hoping to wake up early enough tomorrow to do a morning workout since I'm not going anywhere. I know my parents will be out, but I'm not sure if my sister will be here too. If I get to have the house by myself, I'll probably do a couple more songs on Just Dance to push myself a bit. I'm also aiming to do at least half of my script for my UNSW FEAS application so I can start filming my application on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

Anyways, see you soon!

- Olivia

[Bri MT]

Great to hear about the progress you're making!

Best of luck for continuing with your goals and keeping up the good work

[owidjaja]

Hey guys,

It's been awhile since I'Ve updated. To be honest, there hasn't been anything new in the past two days. I've fallen into the habit of waking up at 9.30, playing Just Dance for an hour or two and then playing FFXV for 10+ hours. However, I still wake up feeling a bit tired. As of recently, I don't get up straight away. I wake up and lie down in bed for 30 minutes or even an hour on my phone before actually getting up. I've been trying to sleep at 11 but it's getting a bit hard for me to fall asleep so I end up actually falling asleep an hour later. I would think it's because of my long video gaming sessions but at the same time, even if I wasn't playing video games I'd be on my laptop, which to me is even worse because the screen is closer. I think once I finish FFXV, I should start volunteering/posting more on my studygram.

As for my other goal on finishing my script for the FEAS video, I didn't finish it by the weekend but I did finish it on Monday, leaving me Wednesday to film everything. I should be able to finish editing it before the end of the month (when the application is due).

Anyways, see you soon!

- Olivia

[owidjaja]

Hey guys,

I haven't updated in a while, again. To be honest, I haven't been doing much. I finished FFXV last week so I was side-questing until I really realised that there's nothing much left in the game. I mean, I tried completing the Pitioss Dungeon (for those who haven't played FFXV, is a hell-hole dungeon) and then I got frustrated to the point of tears while my mum is laughing at me being like 'It's just a game.' So I've just been playing Just Dance as a workout and then going upstairs to binge-watch video game gameplays because I can't buy another game ;-;

As for the FEAS video, it did take me a while to film it. I'm not a huge fan of filming myself so it took some hesitation but I filmed it and now I'm almost done with the editing. I need to watch the video to make sure everything is smooth (which I'm not looking forward to since I hate listening to myself -_-). After that, all of my applications are done!

At the moment, I'm also writing notes since I do have the textbooks for first-year UNSW engineering students. To be honest, making aesthetically-pleasing notes isn't the best way to retain information (and I'm not really retaining information properly) but it is very therapeutic- until you make a mistake and forgot you haven'y bought correction tape in awhile. It also gives me something to upload on my studygram lmao. But I am also starting to write again. It's been so long since I've written so it may take some time but the motivation is there.

As for my sleeping schedule, I'm slowly going back to my old habits of sleeping at 3am and waking up at 9.30am and not physically getting up until 12pm or even 1pm (to my parents' annoyance). I lose track of time and forget that it's almost 12am so then when I actually turn off the lights, it's difficult for me to fall asleep. So for my next goal, I'll try to turn off the lights before 12am, preferably 11.30pm.

Anyways, see you soon!

- Olivia

[owidjaja]

Hey guys,

I'm finally a bit more productive! Well, I've moved on from long video game marathons to binge-watching anime/Youtube videos and reading manga. My grandma arrived in Sydney a few days ago and when my parents work, there's not much she could do but watch TV (and she doesn't really understand English apart from a few words). I'm slowly getting back into writing. I submitted an article for AN a week or so ago so it's a good starting place. I did finally finish my article for We Make Change (for those who didn't follow my HSC journey, WMC is a UK-based NGO I write for). I did tell the Head of Research that I was gonna go on hiatus because of exams but I wasn't sure if I was supposed to tell the Blog Manager as well (technically I'm listed under Researcher). I did apologise to my Blog Manager for the inactivity (he's really nice though so I don't think it's too serious of an issue). To be honest, I've been working on that article since September but it was an on-and-off thing because of exams. When I jumped back into it, I wasn't sure if I regret choosing to write about the Great Barrier Reef/coral bleaching. I ended up having 10+ tabs opened because I needed to make sure I was correctly explaining the science behind coral bleaching in a simple way (I didn't do bio/environmental science), read sustainability plans from the government (because that's always fun -_-), read as much stuff on the politics/backlash surrounding the GBR (I suck at politics) and find ways for the readers to help out locally. Anyway, I finally managed to put everything together and I submitted it to the Blog Manager today.

I'm also getting back to driving. The last time I drove was January, so ages ago. My mum booked my driving lessons for this week and I booked for 2 more lessons for next week. I also drove with my mum for around 1 hour to increase my hours. My driving instructor did say that my driving isn't bad for someone who hasn't driven in almost 1 year. At this point, I'm just trying to increase the number of hours and expose myself to different conditions.

As for my sleeping schedule, funny enough, it's actually improving. Maybe it's because I'm sleeping on a mattress in my parent's room so I'm kinda forced to sleep when they go to bed (they go to bed at around 10-11pm depending on the day). Because of that, I'm waking up a bit more consistently, ranging from 9.30am to 10.30am. However, my workout routine is slowly deteriorating. I'm no longer playing Just Dance for 2 hours every morning (because it's embarrassing). I did jump on the cross trainer once or twice but it is quite boring. I need to get myself a bit more motivated to work out in the morning because it's getting very hot (kinda humid imo).

Anyways, I'm hoping to improve my workout schedule, but also maintain this light productivity. Hopefully, I could submit more articles.

See you soon!

- Olivia

[owidjaja]

Hey guys,

So my productivity has kinda dropped a bit. I have tabs open ready to do some research for my next article for We Make Change and I have a plan written up for AN and I have barely done anything with it. I'm trying to start writing for an AN article and it's been a bit difficult- I'm struggling to figure out how to start it so my plan has been sitting on my desk as I procrastinate. Is it even possible to procrastinate during the holidays?

Apart from that, I've been a bit overwhelmed with the HSC results and ATAR. I'm glad I got guaranteed entry to UNSW. I also got offered a scholarship from Macquarie Uni for Science and Engineering. I still haven't responded to the email- I think I'm going to reject it since UNSW is first on my preference list. But it also reminds me that I need to call Macquarie Uni and defer from classes since I accepted and enrolled to Macquarie Uni. Honestly though, I was content with just accepting the offer but then my dad kept asking me why I haven't enrolled (at that time, I didn't get haven't gotten my Tax File Number). At the moment, I'm listed as full-paying student. I didn't see the point in giving them my tax file number since I originally planned on deferring.

On top of that, my dad has constantly been asking me whether I want to start revising for maths and physics to prepare for engineering. To be honest, he's been bringing this up since the last day of my HSC exams (literally 2 hours after my last exam) and it's been bothering me. He's been asking me this almost everyday and it's slowly making me stressed. All I want to do is to play video games and binge-watch Youtube videos while doing some writing on the side but he's been pretty insistent on starting to revise, as well as offering to purchase books and even ask if I need tutoring. I can see what he's saying but it's honestly becoming annoying. My opinion on this is that if I'm bored enough that I want to revise then I'll look at the revision problems for MATH1131. At the moment, I don't want to do any studying. I keep telling him this and then it ends up turning into an argument.

At times like this, I tend to question whether engineering is the ideal career for me. I really do enjoy maths and physics but it does becoming disheartening when math and physics become one of your worst subjects (or inconsistent) and I didn't get band 6's in those subjects. When I spoke to my physics teacher about this at my school morning tea on the day ATARs were released, he said it doesn't matter as long as I'm cool with calculus/completed a calculus-based math and get the ATAR I need to get in.

Anyway, hopefully I can get out of this slump and improve my productivity.

See you soon!

Olivia

[AngelWings]

On top of that, my dad has constantly been asking me whether I want to start revising for maths and physics to prepare for engineering. To be honest, he's been bringing this up since the last day of my HSC exams (literally 2 hours after my last exam) and it's been bothering me. He's been asking me this almost everyday and it's slowly making me stressed. All I want to do is to play video games and binge-watch Youtube videos while doing some writing on the side but he's been pretty insistent on starting to revise, as well as offering to purchase books and even ask if I need tutoring. I can see what he's saying but it's honestly becoming annoying. My opinion on this is that if I'm bored enough that I want to revise then I'll look at the revision problems for MATH1131. At the moment, I don't want to do any studying. I keep telling him this and then it ends up turning into an argument.

Is there a way you can tell him kindly that you need a break and don't need to study until closer to the start of semester?

I really do enjoy maths and physics but it does becoming disheartening when math and physics become one of your worst subjects (or inconsistent) and I didn't get band 6's in those subjects.

High school and uni are quite different. My worst subjects, according to my ATAR, (Chemistry and Japanese) were rather ironically the only subjects I continued at university level. I did better in uni chemistry than in VCE chemistry, even though it was supposed to be harder. Don't be too bogged down by that. Anything can happen.

[owidjaja]

Is there a way you can tell him kindly that you need a break and don't need to study until closer to the start of semester?

I tried telling him last night that I'll revise if I feel like revising but then he says he wants a plan. But honestly though, is revising really that important before uni? Because I was just going to enjoy my holidays and see how I go when I start uni.

[MB_]

I tried telling him last night that I'll revise if I feel like revising but then he says he wants a plan. But honestly though, is revising really that important before uni? Because I was just going to enjoy my holidays and see how I go when I start uni.

I don't think it's important to revise and I doubt many people would. I wouldn't worry about doing anything closer to the start of the semester as you'll have time at the start to look over anything you might be a bit rusty at and you might find that you're able to recall things once you get going. Take some time to relax.

[owidjaja]

Hey guys,

I kinda went quiet during the past 6 days, and that's because I went to New Zealand with my family. We flew to Auckland, which kinda reminded me of Central meets Kings Cross. The number of adult shops we walked past was astounding. We didn't do much in Auckland because once my dad picked up a car hire, we drove to Rotorua. The apartment hotel in Auckland was really nice, but the motel in Rotorua was really uncomfortable. Since my grandma was with us, she finds it a bit difficult to walk after her knee surgery. But the motel didn't really have a lift to help her up the stairs so that was problem number one. Another problem with the motel was that the beds and pillows were hard. Mixed with the fact that my grandma snores (and my sister is an occasional snorer), I couldn't sleep. I was running on around 2-4 hours of sleep per day. I don't think I slept at all on our last night in Rotorua.

Anyway, we did go to Hobbiton and walked around the set of The Hobbit/Lord of the Rings. I've only read the books so it was a bit difficult to catch on what was going on. But the Hobbit Holes were really cute and the landscape was very picturesque. I ended up buying a Funko Pop figurine of Gandalf (making it 4 Funko Pop figurines in my room- I love collecting figurines). We also went to the Waitomo Glowworm Cave, which was pretty cool to walk around and see rock formations. And of course, the glowworms were really pretty, almost like looking at stars (blue ones).

After staying in Rotorua, we drove to Taupo. The villa we stayed in was actually really nice. Too bad I couldn't sleep. I remember walking around at night and checking the time, which was around 4am. I had about 3 hours of sleep that night. And then I realised that I caught a cold. It was difficult to swallow and I was extremely tired, which was bad because we were driving from Taupo to Wellington (around a 6 hour drive). It also rained the previous night so it was very windy and I was walking around numerous gas stations in shorts so it didn't really help my cold. Thank god my grandma is a walking Chemist Warehouse because she had cough lollies, Panadol, Nurofen and Codral in her handbag. My sister also caught a cold before me so it didn't really help my cold.

Even though Wellington is the capital city of New Zealand, there wasn't much there. I was expecting it to be filled with shopping malls, kinda like Town Hall/Central/St James. But it was kinda quiet. There were a couple of rows of shops though. We boarded a cable car there and were expecting to walk back down since you pass the Space Place and the Botanical Gardens. I ended up at the Space Place (of course), which was actually kinda small. I was hoping it to be like Questacon (fun, interactive, big) but it was just a bunch of information boards thrown at you. It was interesting to read though. It almost felt like I was revising for the Cosmic Engine/Space topic. We also bought some mugs from the Gift Shop. I kinda wished we bought the Periodic Table shower curtains just for the lols but it was really expensive, around $55 NZ. We ended up buying a Periodic Table mug and a NASA mug (so I can pretend I visited NASA lmao).

There wasn't much to do in Wellington and it was already difficult to deal with 2 sick kids, a grandma being wheeled around in a wheelchair and two parents still exhausted from the road trip so we ended up buying dinner and bringing it back to the hotel. My sleep improved slightly at the hotel but I still was going around with at least 5 hours of sleep. But it was even worse on the night before out flight. Our flight was at 6.35am so we had to be up at around 4am. And I was dealing with 2 hours of sleep. I didn't bother sleeping on the plane because I don't usually sleep well on planes. I ended up dozing off in the taxi on our way home, but didn't really doze off that long because we already arrived at our house.

I am still a bit jet-lagged, even though for the first time in 6 days, I finally slept for over 10 hours. It was also great to see my cat again. My aunt was taking care of her but since my cat gets stressed really easily (she pooped in her cage on her way to my aunt's house), she didn't eat for most of her stay there. She only started to eat a bit on day 5, but only if my aunt physically fed her. I'm glad she's starting to eat normally now but she looks really skinny (her hip bone is quite noticeable). She's also dealing with a bit of a separation anxiety. When I left her in my parents' room by herself, she would start meowing a lot. She's also sticking with us, a lot, and very affectionate.

Even though I'm still on holiday, returning to Sydney is kinda like going back to reality. I actually have things to do. I need to start doing some self-study in preparation for uni (just thinking about it makes me anxious so preparation is the only way for me to calm my nerves) and I'm working on some more writing.

Anyway, I'm a bit exhausted so I guess here's where my post will end.

See you soon!

- Olivia