The first batch of exams have come and gone. And I'm still here. ^___^ Hahaha...What a thing to say.

I've been trying out new study strategies recently, if only to boost my dwindling productivity. I've tried the conventional staying up 'til very late at McDonalds on the eve of an exam. I'm usually with Tennis UP people, and we go home around four in the morning. I did this three days in a row and on the morning of the third day I was definitely bangag. I'd blurt out incoherent phrases everywhere, and my logic was a little skewed. I think I was counting the number of people who noticed my condition, but bangag as I was, I wouldn't have remembered.

I've also tried the no-sleep strategy: stayed up all night solving Theory of Numbers problems with JE until it was time to go to school for our first classes. (It's kind of disgusting when you think about it, but we were sure to go home and take our baths before the study session began). Anyway, I couldn't handle it, and had to sleep in the car for one and a half hours instead of study while waiting for my first class to start. (I came one and a half hours early for my first class, and it was good that I did because I wouldn't have been able to sleep before we had a quiz...which surprised me, although it wasn't a surprise quiz, and I only remembered that the prof announced it the meeting before when I was in the middle of the second problem.)

The final strategy, which I think is the most effective whenever I successfully wake up for it, is the sleep early-wake up early strategy. I go to bed around 7-8pm, sleep for six hours and wake up at three-ish, head to a 24-hour establishment, and hit the books. (Not in my pajamas, of course. I take a bath and get ready somewhere there.) This is one very productive study technique, as long as you actually wake up that early in the day and don't forget your pencil case. (It happened to me once and I slept the rest of the morning in McDonalds, unable as I was to solve any math problems. O_o)

All those strategies all in two weeks. You can imagine the damage it has done to my bioclock. I'm not quite sure I can call it sustainable just yet. Give me some time~ Hehehe.

Sustainable environmental quality would be nice.

Anyway. I did find Forever, just in case you wanted to know. Hehehe. I'm not sure though if it'll help in my story anymore, since my plot has shifted to something away from the theme in that book, but it was a pleasant read nonetheless. And it gave me one or two insights on how to handle young adult fiction. (Number one insight: never use kilometric sentences -- which is my disease. >_<) Well, anyway, it doesn't really matter, because at the moment I'm only on the planning stage the plan I have for my story is on the rocks. You see, I think I bit off more than I can chew. I chose for my young adult story, a sort of coming of age of a teenage boy of 18 who is faced with the burden of coming up with a certain amount of money the quickest way possible for the treatment of his girlfriend diagnosed with ectopic pregnancy.

• Issue number one: an ectopic pregnancy can kill a woman in at most 24 hours. The baby isn't even considered in this case because it'll die anyway. So my story more or less happens in a span of a day. I'm wondering if I can successfully render a fast-paced story.
  
• Issue number two: does he get the money or not? There are many options: borrow from friends, pawn property, look for a 5-6 lender, tell the parents, enter into an underground group doing shady stuff for big bucks. I haven't even answered this very basic problem at this, supposedly late stage of planning.
• Issue number three: the girlfriend dies vs. doesn't die. At first I was dead set (no pun intended) on killing the poor girl as a sort of turning point, so that in hysteria, my young adult will be pushed to choose the worst option if only to pay for all the debts. But then the professor said that anything that happens after her death will be uninteresting to the reader. It has to culminate with the death, if I choose to kill her. So now I'm thinking, maybe he does get the money, after everything he goes through, and the girl still dies. I don't know.
  
• Issue number four: what coming of age realization does my young adult get from all of this? Basic would be to be careful not to get your girlfriend pregnant. Not so coming of age if you ask me. It has to be something deeper, more life-changing in a sense. But what?

Grawr~
Not something I should be blogging about is it? O_o I dunno, this could be an equivalent for free-writing. Maybe a lightbulb will light up if I keep doing this to solve my young adult lit problems.

Hmm...It's almost mid-August. Time is so fleet-footed.

Preserve the environment. I wonder what in particular about the environment I can make a propaganda poster on. Grr.

Finally...

Belated Happy Birthday Criselda Bugasto!
aka. Selda, Barri, Reiko, et cetera. XD