The Last Minute Panic

It's that time of the semester again! The time where we all have a lot less sleep, take in a lot more coffee, rediscover energy drinks and appreciate our pillows a whole lot more - and simply because you can put them on the chair to make your seat more comfy; on the table so you can take a five minute power nap; can use it to help you stop giving yourself brain damage when you get fed up and start banging your head on the keyboard (I do NOT recommend this).

Welcome to Deadline Week!

Following up in the true Australian way, I have already applied for an extension for one of my essays. The reason being that I have an exam and two other essays due in that same week or so. Not fun. Except that the essay that I have the extension for is the essay that I really want to do and get over with. Hmph.

My next week or so looks like this:
1) Psychology MCQ Exam (NOT as easy as it sounds)
2) Media and Meaning Proposal
3) TV Cultures Essay on Little Britain
4) Literature Comparative Essay on The Outsider and The Beloved

Oh Shit.

What makes it worse is that I'm a rather last minute person. I enjoy doing things under time pressure and working right up to the last minute. That's not a formula for success in Uni. It works in the real world because things do come in last minute, but here where you need to support everything with at least seven sources of credible information, it just doesn't work.

I really did do my best to get started on the M&M essay on Monday. A classmate of mine, Liam, and I sat at his place and discussed how we can apply different theories to our assignments. That was just before the sun bore down and the pool glistened in the corner of our eyes. Pool? Essay? Pool? Essay?

"We'll discuss the essay whilst we're in the water...."

What a joke. We sat there and said "Technological Determinism" several times before we just gave up. To be fair, we did do a rather good job at explaining to each other how Technological Determinism and Social Shaping of Technology would tie in with our own projects proposals. I even managed to throw in a little de Certeau as well. Not bad eh?

Dad thinks it's a joke (and all his mates) that I'm actually doing an essay on Little Britain.
"I'm actually paying money for this?"
"Yes, Daddy. You see we have to compare it with similar shows and discuss it in relation to different aspects like Gender and Sexuality or Political Correctness. It's really quite complex."
He didn't think so. Que sera. I'll show him the final product. I'm aiming for a really good grade for this one.

Don't take literature if you can't deal with morbid books. Each of our books have been rather mystical and gloomy if you ask me. The last one even gave me nightmares - but in all honesty, it was a bloody good book. If anyone knows where to get hold of the DVD of The Beloved (starring Oprah) then let me know, I'm desperate to watch it.

Two more weeks and all this will be over. Then it's a matter of days before the kid sister and cousin arrive from Singapore. Then it'll be time to go home. Scary thought. It seems like last week when everyone was crying and waving me off. Well, I'm coming home...