5 Finals Tips for Everybody

The time has come! Finals week is upon us and as we approach this week everyone is trying to calculate their grades in their classes so that they can see how shitty they can do on their final to still pass the class. Coffee will be poured, obscenities will be shouted as people look upon confusing school material, and before you know it, those syllabi that have dictated our lives for the past few months will be sitting comfortably in the trash as we go on to enjoy three month of non-intellectual bliss. To get through this week however, here are a few tips that will help you survive the next seven days with a little bit of your sanity left over.

1. Do not go on a caffeine binge to those few extra hours of studying done.

I know that this is tempting for college students and it is easy to do. “Oh why don’t I just have eight cups of coffee and then I will be up for a long time and then I can study more?” DON’T DO IT! First, other than the fact that caffeine in large does is extremely unhealthy for you, you will be pretty unproductive. As a freshman, I too came to the library with an energy drink in one hand and a cup of coffee in the other and was ready to stop at nothing until I mastered the content of my class I was studying for. Hours later however, I found myself shaky, unfocused, and feeling extremely crummy as the stress and my body preferring the idea of a warm comfy bed as opposed to a quiet library with nothing but me and a bunch of books. If you need some energy, then having some caffeine in moderation is perfectly fine, but don’t go overboard. A little bit will help  you through the wee hours of the night, but beware of the notion that more caffeine equals a more productive you, because in the case of caffeine you will just be that really jittery person at the library, wondering what the hell you’re even doing there in the first place.

2. Do not stay up until the sun is rising the next day.

You look at the corner of your computer screen and see the clock read 5:59 AM. You’ve been at the library since 6 PM the day before and you’re determined to just get one more chapter done before you pack up your things and go get four hours of sleep and do it again, but at what cost to your studies and your body is this coming to? Beware of the vicious cycle that study for finals can bring about. It took me awhile to figure out that after my twelfth consecutive hour of study I was simply at information overload and was not concentrating on the important concepts that I should have. This past year I just thought that I would just study as much as I could until about midnight (sometimes an hour or so later even) and then get to bed earlier, get a good night’s sleep, wake up  early the next day, and hit the books. This strategy was not only effective in how I retained information and was a lot more energetic in my studies, but my body didn’t hate me due to the little amount of sleep I was getting. I know that studying almost nonstop sounds like it has a huge payoff, but after a certain amount of time, your body and mind want to call it quits and you need to give yourself some time to recover and soak in everything you  have covered up to that point. So in summary, get a good night’s sleep, and hit the books hard, but during the day, not in the wee hours of the night.

3. Give yourself some “you” time.

This is as unproductive as it sounds, but it necessary. While everyone around campus is getting real intimate with their textbooks and the illuminated computer screen in front of them has students in a trance, where is there any time during finals week for a student to release some stress and not have their brain going at 100 miles per hour? I am by no means saying to do things that will detract from your studying, get your work done first, but whether it be a small break, or a relaxing way to end your night, if you just take a little time out of your finals week and do something for you, I promise that there will be no regrets. Let me reiterate that this doesn’t have to be anything grand or spectacular. Whether it’s a game of FIFA, sitting back and watching a movie after getting your studying done for the night, or taking the time to make a really nice home cooked meal, do something that will give you a sigh of relief with all of the stress around you and it will help you to cope with everything you have to do. Maybe it will even help you study more effectively as you look forward to your activity you have planned for yourself later that day!

4. Indulge in one guilty pleasure every day.

Now, when I say guilty pleasure, I highly advise using discretion when deciding what this guilty pleasure is. Getting absolutely tanked everyday of finals week is probably not the best idea and I wouldn’t advise having too much fun, but (within reason) why not splurge on yourself to counteract all of the stress you are putting up with? I won’t go into this too much, as I’m sure each of you has something in mind already that will help you go through this week, but just remember to not be afraid to indulge every day this week because we both know how good it feels to do so. For me, I will make sure that every staff member at Chipotle knows my name, as I will be steadily giving them all of my money this week and I drown myself in burritos and guacamole. Find your guilty pleasure and for the next seven days, break the rules.

5.  Have a go-to playlist for studying.

This almost goes without saying, but it is an important reminder nonetheless. I know many of you are fans of Pandora and have a list of channels that you always default to for some feel good study music, and by no means deviate from that if that’s what works for you, but why not make a playlist in your iTunes that you can tailor even more specifically to you? I don’t know why, but when it comes to study music, I seldom trust the judgment of Pandora and make a list of song that I can hypnotically listen to as I am doing my work. Just something to consider. Also, I recommend making this playlist as diverse as possible so that no matter what your mood your playlist can always capture one of your moods. Classical, pop, rock, and hip-hop are just a few genres that will put you in the right direction to some solid music to zone out and study the night away. I won’t list specific artists or songs, just pick out what you know you like, and put that shit on loop.

Good luck with studying everyone, and may the curve ever be in your favor! (Yes I used a Hunger Games line…deal with it.)

New ammo for the gun control arsenal?

                 A recent story released in The Washington Post discussed a tragedy that occurred when a young boy shot and killed his baby sister in Kentucky. This is a horrific and sad story, what makes it worse is that the boy is 5 years old, the girl was 2 years old, and she was shot with a rifle that this boy was given as a gift.

                Now I know that with many incidents occurring all around the nation with gun violence in the recent few months, the debate about gun control has heated up quickly. The big question has been: Should we allow firearms to be purchased over the counter for public safety, or should we limit the guns sold to prevent the proliferation of gun violence occurring throughout the country? I am at odds with either choice, because I think that each of them has their ups and downs. With trying to limit the sales of firearms, there will be less weapons being circulated throughout the country, and possibly (while very unlikely) gun violence overall may go down, and law enforcement will not have to worry about trigger happy civilians walking about the streets with lethal weapons. If you allow everyone to buy guns, crime rates may lower as perspective criminals may be more hesitant to commit crimes knowing that the odds of other people they are terrorizing may be armed and ready to use their weapons against them. Citizens can have the peace of mind that they are safer, especially in the cases of women and parents with young children. 

                The counterarguments for each side are just as abundant. With restricting guns to the public, that is only limiting those who want to go about purchasing a firearm legally. The bad people of society will get a gun illegally anyway so that there is no connection to them and thus do not go to gun stores to purchase their weapons anyway. So in order to combat that, allow those people who are honest and willing to get their weapons the legal way, to give them the right to some protection. If you support that everyone should have the right to purchase firearms, you still run the risk of major amounts of gun violence: with more guns sold, you have more chance for an accident or something worse to occur. If someone develops a mental condition after legally purchasing a firearm, you have now equipped someone who is not fit to own a gun a tool of major concern to the public.

                What I wanted to talk about was not about gun control specifically, but builds a foundation so that we can evaluate how this recent tragedy plays into this whole debate. A big question the article was asking was, “Who should be to blame?” It is unknown who gave the rifle to the boy as a gift, but there are many other factors that should be considered. While I was reading the article I was slightly taken aback by some of the testimonials given by the people interviewed. Remorse was obviously the primary emotions expressed by them as they were deeply sorry for the family’s loss and were grieving for them, but the other prominent emotion was that of surprise/shock. For them, children’s handling dangerous weapons was commonplace in their community, but to have one of them lack the proper knowledge of handling a rifle seemed to appall them: are you kidding me??? To further find out that there is even a gun maker that markets some of the products especially to children! Now I don’t know if you guys are on the same boat as me, but to find out children younger than ten years old are able to have their own guns seems preposterous to me. While I don’t know if this will sway the public opinion of gun control one way or the other, I am sincerely hoping that a tragedy like this will at least make sure that if guns become readily available to the public, that they ensure no child can get a hold of it. Whether it is through a gun cabinet, locked drawer, or something the adult purchasing the weapon should be responsible for any fatality that a young person of their family commits by getting a hold of a weapon due to the negligence of the parent.

What is hip-hop coming to lately?

               Allow me to give you a brief history lesson. In 1955 a young boy by the name of Emmett Till (originally from the north) visited some of his family in the south and while he was there, was dared by some friends to flirt with a white woman, which he did. After finding out, the woman’s family kidnapped him. After beating him, shooting him, tying him to a cotton gin and throwing him into a river, the family felt as if justice was served. Till was just 14 years old. The men responsible for killing him were acquitted of charges, and the case received national attention, bringing into question civil rights for African Americans in the US, and is said to have played a large role in sparking the civil rights movement.

              

                So I’m sure at this point you might be wondering what this has to do with hip-hop. Well today while I was browsing through some current events a particular story struck me. Lil Wayne is receiving heavy criticism for a line in a verse he recently dropped which disrespects Emmett Till. The line stated, "I beat that pussy up like Emmett Till." (The song, in case you were wondering, was Karate Chop (remix) where Wayne was featured by Future.) This is very disheartening for multiple reasons. The first is that this is showing major disrespect to the African American community and spits on those who have worked so hard and sacrificed themselves so that African Americans today can enjoy the rights that they did not have back in Till’s  day. The amount of disrespect that this one line has is unbelievable and I absolutely cannot believe that nobody saw this offensive line in the song before it was released to the public. Furthermore, this has been the second case in which a rapper has come under major criticism for their lyrics as Rick Ross was recently dropped as the spokesman for Reebok following controversial lyrics that seemed to advocate rape. Wayne, wanting to avoid being dropped by his big sponsor Mountain Dew, issued an “apology” to the Till family (aka a bullshit statement that eloquently dances around a real apology) and the Till family actually did not accept the apology, as it did not actually apologize for any wrongdoing!

                 

               I have been a huge fan of hip-hop for a long time and to see the kind of lyrics that have been coming is starting to really disturb me.  I mean I know the lyrics of many rap songs have been under scrutiny ever since N.W.A. in the early 90s, but  even I think rap has been taking it too far lately. Many songs that I have seen in the past that had controversial lyrics were still part of a bigger picture (for the most part). Whether it had political motivation or was just part of an artist’s struggle to stardom, many rappers have used graphic or obscene lyrics in order to paint the ugly picture of living a tough urban life to their audience. But things such as rape (or even hinting at it) or disrespecting the people who have helped the progression of civil rights are not only unnecessary, but give the genre of hip-hop a bad name. I think these recent controversies have forced us to ask the question: What can be done to resolve this problem? I ask this because I feel that more than the artists are to blame for these issues. Managers, producers, record companies, all of these people could have stopped these songs from being released before any sort of conflict could have come about. Should there be fines, suspensions from recording, or some other punishment that these artists and/or their labels should face for these? Saying you’re sorry (not even that in the case of Lil Wayne) is only a bandage to a bigger problem that has been coming up too much lately and there need to be more proactive solutions to stop this from happening again.

Kony: The Aftermath of a Viral Campaign

So last year, as I’m sure your Facebook feed was littered with the Kony 2012 video being shared and commented on nonstop for what seemed like forever. As this video has just under 100 million views on YouTube alone, everybody seemed to jump on the bandwagon of wanting to help these poor Ugandan children. When I first saw this video I must admit, like millions of others who saw the emotional message this video tried (and very successfully) conveyed, I was touched. The problem was however, by the end of the thirty minutes, I was a little too touched, and something seemed suspicious about this video. While some of my friends scrambled to donate money, or spread the word about this campaign, I was hesitant to fully jump of the bandwagon and I was skeptical of this whole situation. Don’t get me wrong, I am by no means against helping out poor Ugandan children, boys and girls, who are being forced to do horrible things by groups such as the Lord’s Resistance Army and individuals such as Kony, but what made me hesitate joining this cause  was after I did some research about Kony. Rather than ramble a bunch of dates and statistics I will just sum it up to say that basically (according to some basic sources like Wikipedia, to various academic papers written about conflicts in Africa) Kony was and has been for several years now on the downfall, the LRA has been dwindling in numbers, and Kony is not even in Uganda anymore (so why should we send our own troops to train Ugandan soldiers to find a man not even in their country?). You might be thinking to yourself: “Wow jackass this article would’ve been helpful last year, why are you writing this now?” The reason I am writing this is because of a recent Associated Press article that was released that basically reiterates all of the objections I had about this whole Kony 2012 thing since the first time I watched that video. The Article, which I specifically retrieved from The Washington Post goes into detail about where Kony is now, how  he is unable to be apprehended due  to some political refuge he has  found, and how is LRA group  (the same big bad group  we were warned about just  one year ago) has less than  500 members at this point in time. With the United Nations hot on his trail, and after eliminating most of his  head officers, they are just waiting for the opportune time to capture Kony. The purpose of me writing this is that in today’s day and age with anybody being able to make anything available to the public, be careful about what you believe because it could not be as legitimate as the fancy looking internet campaign makes it seem to be. There are plenty of other perfectly fine charities, both that seek to assist in domestic problems and those in problem countries such as Uganda, just do the research and pick a cause that you care about, not just one that is the newest, trendiest thing to support.

5 Must Have Albums for Some Solid Music

Here's a mix of a few CDs that I have not been able to stop listening to, whether they are old or new, there is some variety in here that hopefully all of you will enjoy! Also, comment if you have any songs or artists that you think people should give a listen to!

1. Kid Cudi- Indicud: Great for studying and relaxing. Has an almost hypnotic beat that you can easily fade in and out to as some good background music. Even has some techno mixed in there to.

                Recommended Tracks:

                King Wizard

                Beez

                New York City Rage Fest

2. Kendrick Lamar- Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City: Has a good amount of some smooth beats, but with some of the fast paced raps from Kendrick. This is nice to work out to and walking around campus just singing along to.

                Recommended Tracks:

                Poetic Justice

                m.A.A.d. city

                Swimming Pools

3. Justin Timberlake- The 20/20 Experience: This album is filled with a bunch of quality, long songs that is great to study to or if you are just the kind of person that zones out for a few minutes at a time, these songs feel like they go on forever, but in a good way! Trust me you’ll enjoy it.

                Recommended Tracks:

                Suit and Tie

                That Girl

                Let the Groove Get In

4. The Dirty Heads- Any Port In A Storm- Perfect relaxing music, especially if you’re in a group. These guys have a mellow beat (different methods as Cudi obviously, but the same effect) and they actually make some catchy songs too. Definitely check these guys out!

                Recommended Tracks:

                Insomnia

                Chelsea

                I Got No Time

5. Frank Ocean- Channel Orange: This is some amazing R&B music, a genre I’m not normally into, but this was a huge exception. Frank Ocean being openly gay and also affiliated with Tyler the Creator definitely gives him a unique product when he made this, but if you haven’t explored R&B too much, I would for sure check him out.

                Recommended Tracks:

                Thinkin About You

                Pilot Jones

                Pink Matter