@kkaitstudies / kkaitstudies.tumblr.com
If you’re learning a language and need to polish up on your grammar I would 100% recommend the language gym where you can:
I only use the grammar testing part but as far as I’ve seen its a very useful resource!
if you realize you’ve been studying for hours: grab a snack to refuel your body and watch a sitcom to refuel your brain. then back to the books.
if you’re feeling stressed out: take some deep breaths, text your friends, maybe stare at a wall for a few minutes. gather yourself.
if you can’t seem to focus: get moving and get outside. take out the garbage, check your mail box, maybe walk your dog. just get moving and get fresh air. it’ll help bring you back.
if there’s something else going on in your life and you can’t get it off your mind: write down what’s going through your head, sort of like a diary entry. it’ll help you work things out.
if you’re just mentally and physically exhausted: set a timer for 25-30 minutes and take a nap. any longer and you’ll hit REM and you’ll wake up feeling just as tired. once you wake up, get some caffeine in you.
if the material is boring as hell: find another way to study. see if there’s a crash course video online about it or draw out what you’re trying to learn in diagrams and pictures to make it fun.
if people around you won’t shut up: listen to some music. soundtrack and classical music is always good because they won’t absorb you as much as music with lyrics. white noise (like ocean waves, rain sounds, etc.) also works.
if you only half understand a concept: call/message a friend who’s not in the class and try to teach the material to them. this will help you mentally work through the material and will help you remember it as well.
The sheer satisfaction of discarding a completed timetable!! Now it’s just me and my Philosophy readings until 2022 ♡
No filter shots of my new desk setup 💓
Credits: l.luvhee on ig ; rai on we heart it
08|01|2022
❄️Day 39 of My Winter Studying Challenge ❄️
8th January - What is one place you could never live because of the winter weather?
anywhere where it stays warm in the winter. i need a season of decently cold weather as respite from the rest of the year
Absolute beginner adult ballet series (fabulous beginning teacher)
40 piano lessons for beginners (some of the best explanations for piano I’ve ever seen)
Basic knitting (probably the best how to knit video out there)
Pre-Free Figure Skate Levels A-D guides and practice activities (each video builds up with exercises to the actual moves!)
How to draw character faces video (very funny, surprisingly instructive?)
Playing the guitar for beginners (well paced and excellent instructor)
Playing the violin for beginners (really good practical tips mixed in)
Color theory in digital art (not of the children’s hospital variety)
Retake classes you hated but now there’s zero stakes:
Calculus 1 (full semester class)
Learn basic statistics (free textbook)
Introduction to college physics (free textbook)
Introduction to accounting (free textbook)
Learn a language:
Japanese (grammar guide) (for dummies)
Russian (pretty good cyrillic guide!)
This is especially important for when you are using an electronic device to study as you tend to blink much less when using an electronic device in comparison to using analogue materials.
This can easily result in dry eyes, eye strain from blue light, and can, over time, eventually encourage the elongation of the eyeball which results in shortsightedness,
Often times, many of us tend to slouch or hunch over whilst studying or working. This consistent incorrect posture puts strain on your spine which can lead to inconvenient neck, shoulder, and back pain.
It is crucial to maintain correct and comfortable posture to ensure that our spine is in good health to allow us to work and go about our daily lives in comfort.
Your hands are one of the most crucial components of your body. When studying, you use your hands to write, draw, type, and investigate. It is always important to take care of every part of your body but your hands need particular care.
Education should always improve your mental and physical health.
What’s up just a reminder that the Hula Girl stereotype can go to hell and is in part responsible for Hawai’i being the tourist destination and getting invaded by rich white people, and for Hawaiian culture being disrespected and appropriated
Here’s a few sources on the topic:
How America’s Obsession With Hula Girls Almost Wrecked Hawai’i (the site is weird but the research is legitimate, gives a good overview of the issue and references a lot of sources that are harder to get your hands on read: books)
“Pop” Goes Hawai’i: The Twentieth Century Origins of Tourism in Hawai’i and the Impact of U.S. Pop Culture on Women in the Islands of Aloha (this one is very long but a really good read)
Misperceptions of the “Hula Girl” (this one is a personal essay but it’s an entry in the University of Hawai’i’s academic newspaper)
Cool cool so its Asian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month so I’m gonna uh. reblog this
Also if you don’t have the time and/or energy to read through these articles lemme give you the basic breakdown (I’ll try to keep this short, but I’ll put it under the cut because it’ll probably still take up space)
For real your cellphone and your computer should 100% NOT be backing up your photo storage or anything else to any variety of icloud or onedrive.
I'm aware that in some ways I'm a weird luddite but this is one of the major, major problems that I have with so much of the modern technology landscape existing as tools that allow you to access your data rather than tools which allow you to store your data.
Look at the data that you have. Look at what you are storing. Ask yourself "if the internet stopped working tomorrow, would I be able to access this information?"
If the answer is "no" you have 2 problems:
1 - You don't actually have that information and can easily lose access to it.
2 - You may not know who DOES have access to that information. If it's encrypted storage you're probably somewhat secure, but IS it encrypted storage? Or is it stored in plaintext on someone else's server?
So my deal with the EARN IT Act is that I don't super duper trust any of our government systems to do fuck all. I think it's worthwhile to contact your representatives, but I don't know that it will actually DO anything.
However YOU can do something.
If you don't want your data accessible to companies that will scan it and test it and pass it on to the government, don't give those companies your data.
Store things locally. Learn how to send and share encrypted files. If you have to store things online, store them with encryption that *you* have set up.
Honestly I'm pretty sure this is going to be bad. I'm pretty sure there are going to be significant security compromises as a result of the EARN IT Act and that we're going to get so buried in breached data that it's going to fundamentally alter how we have to identify ourselves in ways that will be more difficult to use while making people easier to track.
It's shit, and I hate it, and the internet is getting smaller and more fenced in and the big fun platforms that were easy to use and that let people of all technical skill levels share and collaborate that we had a couple decades to explore are now things that will just be a means of exploitation.
It fuckin' blows, friends.
But it also means that NOW is the time to fundamentally re-think how you interact with the internet. Ask yourself how you send data, and where you keep it. Ask yourself who has your information and how it is secured. Ask yourself what would happen if someone who hated you had access to your primary email account for a day, and ask yourself how you would try to fix what they fucked up.
EARN IT sucks, but this is NOT one of those instances in which you are helpless if it passes. Right now, before it passes, talk to the non-internet people in your life about why it is bad:
- It will mean that the government can see all your stored files - It will mean the websites you store files on will not be allowed to encrypt those files - It will mean that any asshole hacker who can access those systems can access all that data that will now be unencrypted.
This shitty act will make EVERYONE who uses the websites that are subject to the EARN IT act more vulnerable to data breaches, ID theft, and exploitation from hackers while ALSO enabling effortless surveillance by our own government.
This is bad, so tell your relatives and friends and co-workers to tell their representatives WHY it is bad by using this site: https://act.eff.org/action/stop-the-earn-it-act-to-save-our-privacy
The site is very easy to use and literally you do not even have to navigate to a separate page to contact your representatives.
And in case that doesn't work, in case it passes anyway, ask yourself what you're doing. Ask yourself who has your data. Ask yourself who can see what you've stored online, and learn what you need to do to make sure the answer is "*I* own my data, and I control who has access to it."
Hey also: get used to a slow internet again.
It sucks trying to use a site like Tumblr or Twitter through a VPN or on TOR. It's slow and terrible because they are BIG sites moving a lot of data.
It's maybe time to start setting up email lists and forums for the people you want to be in touch with. Make sure that you don't only know your online friends through their social media profiles, but have other ways of contacting the people you care about.
If tumblr went down *today*, right now, who would you be able to find elsewhere on the internet and who would you lose forever? If discord got taken down tomorrow, is there somewhere else online that you'd be able to tell a friend who you are?
Pretend it's 1995, pretend you've got rudimentary internet access, because if EARN IT passes I think that's kind of what we're going to have to go back to - especially if you're engaged in any kind of activism or any activity that is frowned-upon by most of society.
No despairing on my posts, only radicalizing.
If you want to take action here are some things that you can do TODAY that will make you less vulnerable to these sorts of harms:
The time has come for us to all become badass security nerds, friends. These are the first little steps and the nice thing is that they are very easy steps that will take you a long way toward being more secure online.
The artist gives light and paints the art so that we understand another hidden reality. Artist Nikita Busyak.
I've been studying non stop this past few days because exam season is coming for me and I'm not ready (like at all).
quiet autumn mornings in london 🍂🍁
If you have a laptop DO NOT use it on a soft surface like a pillow or on a blanket, it’ll block the vents on your computer and make it get really fucking hot inside.
If you have a desktop you gotta open it up and blow out the dust sometimes.
If you are moving your laptop in a bag turn the laptop off. Don’t put it to sleep, don’t just shut the screen, turn it off, because otherwise it’s in the bag generating heat and there’s nowhere for the heat to go in the bag. OFF. Not sleep. OFF.
Okay I know that should be obvious but drop damage to your hard drive is bad bad news. Be as careful as you can to set your computer gently on flat surfaces; don’t leave it hanging out on a bed where it can get knocked off, don’t set it on the roof of your car. And yes, just dropping it a couple inches can kill your hard drive or totally shatter your screen.
Look I’ve seen four people ruin their laptops because they had a pen on the keyboard and closed the laptop and it fucked up the screen and the keyboard and it sucks so much and you feel awful after it happens because it’s so avoidable just don’t put things on your keyboard and always check that your laptop is clear before you close it.
You’ve only got one power jack and a limited number of other inputs on your computer and if they detach from the motherboard you’re fucked. USB ports get damaged because people use them a lot and eventually it weakens the connection and then they just stop working and it sucks. You can get around this with USB ports by using a USB hub to connect things like your keyboard and mouse.
For your power plug you just gotta be careful. Avoid tripping over the cord at all costs, don’t yank the plug out of the computer. It will SUCK VERY MUCH A LOT if you have to buy a new computer because the power port lost contact with the motherboard.
Don’t move your computer with things plugged into it. Take the power cord off before you put your laptop in the bag, take out the USB mouse dongle, do not travel with little nubby bits sticking out of your computer that can easily get caught or get tweaked or snap off inside of the thing.
(I really can’t emphasize enough that most of the “it will cost more than it’s worth to fix this” laptops I see are because of USB ports and power jacks. People don’t seem to know that this isn’t something that can be fixed easily; a broken power jack is a “remove the motherboard and resoldier components” job, not a “plug a new one in in fifteen minutes” job and most computer repair shops aren’t going to solder things for you and if they DO it’s going to be very expensive)
You should probably restart more than once a month but whatever. This is actually something that I consider part of reducing heat stress because when your processor is straining to keep up with all the background bullshit that’s running from a program you opened three weeks ago it’s going to use up resources and get hot and look just restart it once in a while.
Also the updates are almost always okay and safe and generally running updates is a good and secure thing to do (though maybe follow a blog dedicated to the OS you run because if there IS a problem with the updates that blog will probably talk about it before the update gets forced on your computer)
Yes you should probably be running an antivirus.
Sophos is free and it’s fine. But don’t pay for it - if you’re using Sophos use the free version.
If you’re looking for something paid and a little more comprehensive I recommend ESET - get the cheap version, renewals cost less than the initial purchase, and feel free to get a multi-year version, the credentials follow your email not the computer so if your computer dies before your license expires you can install the license on a new computer.
DO NOT INSTALL NORTON OR MCAFEE THEY ARE EXPENSIVE BULLSHIT. Kaspersky is whatever. It’s less bullshit than Norton or McAfee but not as good as ESET for about the same cost.
If you think you’ve got a virus run the free version of Malwarebytes and get your shit cleaned.
Again this should be obvious and yet. But seriously, just make a rule for yourself that drinks aren’t allowed on the same table as your computer and you’ll save yourself a lot of headaches.
Okay I fucking hate amazon but here’s a thing you should be using, just search the rest of the internet for “surge protector/UPS” and you’ll find something that isn’t from amazon - APC is a solid brand for this.
Basically you want a fat surge protector that has a little bit of a battery backup and you want to plug your computer (desktop OR laptop) into that instead of into the wall. The benefit of this is twofold:
1) if there’s a power surge the UPS will prevent your computer’s power supply from getting fried and possibly frying parts of your motherboard
2) if there’s a power outage and you’re *at* your computer you’ll have enough time to save what you’re working on before your computer loses power (like, you’ll maybe only have a minute or two on a small UPS but that’s still time to hit CTRL+S and keep from losing work)
At a bare, bare minimum your computer should be plugged into a surge protector but NOT directly into the wall.
[we interrupt this yelling for me to tell you that Western Digital has apparently released their new My Passport line and I’m obligated to inform you that you can get a 2.5″ USB 3.0 backup drive with FIVE FUCKING TERABYTES OF STORAGE for $130. Or you can get 4TB for $93. Or you can get 1TB for $53. basically what I’m saying is that it is not only cheap computer season it is also cheap hard drive season.]
[also if you’re getting a backup drive get western digital not seagate seagate fucking sucks and has a much higher failure rate]
Uh, okay, anyway - Do an image backup of your computer every once in a while so that if you get infected or your hard drive dies or whatever you can just restore from backup and move on like nothing happened.
You know what is cheap? USB Keyboards and USB mice. You know what is not cheap? Fixing the touchpad on a laptop or replacing a laptop keyboard.
Get yourself a USB hub, a USB Keyboard and a USB Mouse (wired or wireless, doesn’t matter) and if you’re using your laptop at home plug *that* into your computer.
Also if your keyboard on your laptop breaks it’s fine just to use a USB keyboard instead I promise; if the screen breaks it’s also usually cheaper and easier to get a used or inexpensive monitor than it is to replace the screen. Your laptop is basically just a very small version of whatever bullshit is going on inside a desktop, if the peripherals break but the core components are fine you can just use it like a desktop.
Unless it’s a piece of shit that doesn’t have any USB ports or video out in which case you got ripped off, friend, demand functionality in your devices I’m sorry.
/rant
An add-on tip if you are stupid like me and don’t back up your data: if your laptop suddenly dies and you want to get the data in it back, buy a SATA to USB cable (real cheap, I got mine for like $5 from AliExpress), extract your hard drive out from your laptop carefully, and then plug it in to your new/spare computer like you would plug in an external drive. If your hard disk isn’t dead, you can browse through like normal on Windows Explorer.
[click image for high quality]
Other advice posts that may be of interest:
4.11.21 | Yesterday was bad and awful, I got nothing done and was sad and angry all day. Today has been nice and productive, I’m getting through my to-do list with minimal procrastination, and might even have time to relax once I’m done.
The only conclusion I will draw from this is that sometimes things are shitty and sometimes they aren’t and I have literally no control over whether it’s one or the other.
