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Posts Tagged ‘studies’

Being Obsessesive. Being Compulsive. And Being In Order.

02 Dec
When I was studying psychology in college, I remember the very lengthy chapter and lecture on OCD. Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. I found that interesting. I think I laughed at the things some people with OCD do.

But, wait. We’re all a bit OCD in some way, right?

If I put on my right shoe before I put on the left, I feel so uncomfortable. After walking a few steps, I need to take off both shoes, and then put on the left shoe first. Then the right. Then I feel at ease.

Before I study, my desk area must be neat and tidy. Because if it isn’t, I end up putting aside all my work to tidy up my desk. Which slowly turns into a massive spring-cleaning session in my room.

When walking along a sidewalk, or on a path, or on any surface for that matter, I don’t like stepping on anything that look like stains, patches of whatevers, fallen leaves, or even tiles that are dirty. It usually looks like I’m dancing.

And oh, I like reading and typing phone text messages in full, with proper punctuation etc. Wastes space, but it’s just more fun that way.

I do other random silly and interesting things. But I don’t bother remembering them well enough to write them here. I just thought of writing this because although I should have been working on my thesis paper, I spent the whole morning cleaning up my room. I also cooked vegetable soup for lunch. Which has nothing to do with OCD. But I like the fact that I actually cooked vegetable soup for lunch.

Now what’s for dinner?
domluk1

 
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Posted in Life, psychology, studies

 

One Day More

30 Nov

Today is Monday.

Tomorrow is Tuesday.

Tomorrow is Tuesday, my last day of class for the semester! And then I have until December 11 to pass up my final assignment which is my thesis on Handel. And then I can sleep late, wake up late, and dance in the snow (if it snows).

I have lots of work to do, but I need to wait till the last minute to do it, or else I’d feel guilty starting so early.

Tick tock,
domluk1

 
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Posted in Life, music, studies, weather

 

Snooze me, please

22 Nov

stll_alarm_clock_snooze

So this is what I have been doing lately, at least for the past 4 weeks.

I set my alarm one hour before the actual time I want/need to wake up. Because I like waking up thinking “oh, I still have another hour to sleep”.

Then I snooze every 9 minutes (I use a Sony Ericsson phone), and keep hitting the snooze button until I see that an hour has passed.

The wonderful thing is that I get such wonderful dreams and actually sleep very well in those several 9 minutes across that hour gap. Another wonderful thing is that I somehow already know when an hour has passed without looking at the time. Even more wonderful is that my hands somehow know exactly where the snooze button is, and I don’t even need to open my eyes. What scares me is that one day, I accidentally hit the OFF button. Then, I’m screwed!

I love being a snoozer.

Because I wake up thinking I’ve had an extra hour of sleep.

The things I do.

I bet you I am not the only one.

Finally wide awake and ready to Facebook work,
domluk1

 
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Posted in Life, studies

 

Inspire me, please.

20 Nov

Papers I need to write and complete in the next two weeks (and yes, over Thanksgiving break!):

1. “Music and Musicians in Ancient Greece: Finding the Muse of Modern Western Music”

2. “Understanding Masculinity in Handel’s Operas”

3. “some random topic I haven’t had the time to think of but it is related to music before 1600… topics 1 and 2 are my priority now”

The joys of wanting to excel in life: priceless.

In need of inspiration,
domluk1

 
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Posted in studies

 

Since I’ve Been Gone…

02 Aug

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Since my last post, many things have happened:

1. I flew back to Malaysia for the summer – and surprised a handful of people. I love surprising people, and I love planning surprises even more! So I decided not to announce my return to a few people and ended up giving a few people a wonderful and pleasant surprise. I love making people happy.. so call me if you need help to plan a surprise party! :P

2. I went back to KK to see my wonderful parents and sister and her adorable kids. Got to see the new condo that my parents moved into after I left for Boston. A lovely new place I shall call my home because my mum says my room will always be there for me.

3. The King of Pop left us for a (hopefully) better place.

4. Yasmin Ahmad left us for (I am very sure) a better place. Now Malaysians truly understand the power of her abilities to make us think about our identities. Many of my friends who were unaware of her work are suddenly appreciative of her brilliance.

bobo

5. I have started to think about whether I am truly solely a cat lover – or not. I always thought I was nothing else but a cat lover (as opposed to a dog lover). But a few days ago when my housemate brought her dog to the vet, I was forced to look after the dog at the back seat of the car. I was annoyed at first, but my heart melted when the mongrel looked into my eyes and then put her head on my lap. Maybe I could be a dog lover too. Still discovering myself I suppose :)

6. I got to see many friends again – the “US gang”.

7. Managed to catch up with a few long lost friends from many years ago. It is always nice to talk about the good old days when handphones were bigger in size, and color screens were only in sci-fi movies.

8. I have started reading up on behavioral economics – releasing the humble geek in me.

9. Oh, I was in New York for a week before coming back to Malaysia. Will write more about that some day soon.. I love NYC.

10. Love you all more. WIll be updating more frequently now.

Turning the lights off,
Mat Salleh aka Dom

 
1 Comment

Posted in Life, studies

 

“Pro-crastinatus”

04 May

Procrastination..

last-minute

That magic word that makes so much sense to me. It should to you, too, if you’re a good student. Because procrastinating produces better work, and we all know that, don’t we?

Yeah, I love procrastinating. It allows my mind to have more time to think of what I need to do, and how I want to do whatever I need to do. Why do it now, when I can do it at the last minute anyway?

And besides, we all know that the work we produce at the eleventh hour is always better than those we produce at the first or second hour, which is way too early to start doing any work!

But believe me I’ve tried doing work (like my assignments) way ahead of the deadline. It never works. Never.

I can start, but I’ll not like what I produce. I can continue, but it gets frustrating because I could use that time to do other stuff like sleeping or watching Heroes. Instead, I rather wait till the very last minute when my mind has had enough time to brainstorm and to decide the who-what-where-when-hows of my assignments.

My professor once told me something like “if it weren’t for the last minute, we’d never get any work done.”

My mantra exactly.

The adrenaline rush at the final hour gives me the push to produce much better work compared to doing it slowly and steadily way ahead of time. It just isn’t fun doing things in your own sweet time, is it?

I speak out to all those “good” students around the world, who love working way before the final hour… to once in a while, try working at the last minute. It’s like having a bad stomach ache and having only 30 seconds to find a bathroom before you have to let it out. Something like that. :)

In honour of the last minute,
MatSalleh aka Dom

 
2 Comments

Posted in Life, studies

 

Langdell

14 Apr

langdell

I spend a lot of my time at Langdell Hall, the world’s largest academic law library. It takes about 10 minutes to walk there from where I live, and this is the place I spend hours just sitting in front of my laptop typing out essays for my classes, and chatting online. I study here a lot whenever I can, which is quite often

The thing I like about libraries is that you are surrounded by people who are focused on their books, their thoughts deeply stuck in some other world. And as for me, I like being put in this kind of ‘peer pressure’ situation where I feel the tension in the air. The thought that if I don’t study in the library, everyone will think I am some lazy idiot who just comes to the law library for the free coffee and tea. Oh, did I mention we get free coffee and tea in Langdell Hall? Don’t worry, I’ll mention it again.

The building is, to my knowledge, the biggest Harvard Law School building, and is seen in many movies. I’ve seen this building in so many movies, I feel like I am in a movie when I am in Langdell too. I happily start acting like a very diligent student, and pretend like I am working on my essays when I am actually spending an hour on Facebook and then another hour on Youtube. It still amazes me how I manage to pass up my assignments on time and finish up all my readings for my classes. Please, if you need tips on how to make full use of your time in college, do consult me. I believe I have found the perfect way to strike the best balance between work and play, so that you won’t end up dull like Jack.

Back to Youtubing,
MatSalleh aka Dom

 
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Posted in studies

 

Brandeis

14 Apr

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Some people have started to wonder where I went off to. In case I did not get the chance to say my goodbyes before heading off to Boston and explain what kind of new journey I am embarking on, I would like to fill in the gaps for you now.

I am now a student at Brandeis University, located probably no more than 20 miles out of Boston City. I’m doing graduate studies in Musicology and Gender Studies, two very interesting fields. Musicology is a very vast field on its own, but do a wiki search on it and you’ll know what I mean.

I love Brandeis: the scenery on campus is so serene and almost magical. The people are fun, funny, and yet like all students should be, very serious when it gets down to studying. The campus is hilly, which gives me a good workout everytime I head to class… and you don’t want to know how it feels like being late for class, running up a hill, and still looking calm when you walk through the door! It takes skill. But wait, I’ve only been late once. Train was late, not my fault.

So yes, I don’t live on campus. I stay in a lovely town called Cambridge, just outside the actual city of Boston. I live around Harvard University, where there’s a perpetual flow of academia in the air. And to get to Brandeis, I take the subway, then the commuter rail, which the people in Kuala Lumpur would know more as the KTM. It takes less than 40 minutes to get to Brandeis, and I only have classes three days a week. Great, isn’t it? The other days I stay at home studying. (my parents read this blog!).

I chose Brandeis because of its wonderful condusive campus, and also for the fact that the faculty for both music and gender studies are renowned and really amazing people. And so far, I am enjoying all the courses that I am taking. Tough, but challenging in a very satisfying way. Oh ya, the food in Brandeis is good too. So if you ever drop by Boston, I’ll give you a nice trip to Brandeis and eat REAL good campus dining hall food :)

I am loving graduate studies for now. Hope it lasts.

Missing mamak,
MatSalleh aka Dom

 
3 Comments

Posted in studies