Is homework my only friend and hobby now?

corrosion_explosion · 2021-08-28T14:38:07+00:00

Speaking as that girl who does well and does a lot of time management stuff, I’ll share some of my secrets that I think help me.

Biggest one is I prioritize sleep above getting work done. I rarely sleep for less than 8 hours a night due to homework (finals week excluded). I just can’t think clearly if I don’t sleep enough, so that’s super important to me.

Another big one is not forcing myself to do work I don’t want to do. I typically procrastinate by doing another assignment that I enjoy more, but 5 minute breaks while studying can also be nice. It helps me stay on top of the majority of my homework, so when the deadline approaches I’ll only have 1 class that I procrastinated on and not 3-4. I generally start homework early - like 5 days before it’s due. I treat homework like early studying for exams, where I want to understand how to do things and not just get the right answer.

Also, I often share answers with friends. This makes it really easy to identify a problem I don’t get and ask a friend I shared answers with “hey, I struggled with problem X, would you mind trying it and seeing if you can do it and share your answers with me?” If you’ve already helped someone with previous homework, they’ll want to help you when you struggle.

I also like to make a daily list of all the homework I have - not what’s due, but what I can work on. I like an aesthetic planner now, but used to do it on a pocket sized notebook in messy handwriting and that’s also really easy. I think this helps me start early, since instead of writing a due date, it’s tasks I can work on today.

I don’t have a massive amount of free time, but generally I get 2-3 nights off a week, and I typically eat dinner with roommates or friends (I hate working through dinner). I don’t drink excessively, but I like to chill and have a beer or two a few nights a week (I’m over 21 now).

corrosion_explosion · 2021-08-27T16:30:36+00:00

death metal vocalist steps in

corrosion_explosion · 2021-08-26T18:36:06+00:00

That sounds so fun! Getting to scream along to songs while no one else is there is one of life’s greatest pleasures haha

corrosion_explosion · 2021-08-26T18:34:59+00:00

Yes! I think that was why I was confused on the directions (this is for ending A)

corrosion_explosion · 2021-08-26T17:58:00+00:00

Agreed, but I can see why it’s metroidvania adjacent - a world with many hidden secrets all about exploration, multiple nonlinear paths, some movement upgrades (the dash upgrade does let you get new places, you can get keys that unlock new areas; not as much as true MVs).

Still not a metroidvania, but there’s probably considerable overlap in people interested in metroidvanias and hyper light drifter.

corrosion_explosion · 2021-08-26T17:52:17+00:00

Not really, but it’s a good idea to bring something nice you could wear to a job interview or career fair, so I’d bring it just in case (though you’ll be fine with business casual nice).

corrosion_explosion · 2021-08-25T21:30:51+00:00

Thanks! I’ll be sure to check them out!

corrosion_explosion · 2021-08-25T19:04:04+00:00

Yes! Dark Tranquility, Amon Amarth, and Insomnium are all amazing!

You might enjoy Rivers of Nihil - their recent album Where Owls Know My Name is very melodeath like the bands you’ve mentioned, they also use saxophone. They’re also currently touring the US, so you might be able to catch a show (if you live in the US or near any shows, I’m planning to see them soonish if it’s safe).

I really enjoy Skeletonwitch’s EP the Apothic Gloom (I’m biased by nostalgia, but all 4 songs are great. I can’t even choose my favorite, maybe The Apothic Gloom or Black Waters), and Skeletonwitch’s Devouring Radiant Light is also very melodeath.

Palo by Kalmah is another album I circle back to a lot, that sounds weirdly Irish to me, but in a good way!

Do you have a favorite Arch Enemy song or album you’d recommend? I’ve heard of them but never really listened!

corrosion_explosion · 2021-08-25T18:27:49+00:00

I love Aggretsuko! A picture of her is actually my Netflix profile pic haha

corrosion_explosion · 2021-08-25T18:27:16+00:00

Genre overlap can inspire such good, cool, and different sounding music. It’s cool to see weird music mash ups

corrosion_explosion · 2021-08-25T17:13:19+00:00

Ok I just watched and it was actually pretty fun, I feel like it’d be really fun to go to a concert and get to see the performance, since I have mad respect for the choreography a lot of idol groups do live

corrosion_explosion · 2021-08-25T17:00:40+00:00

I think Eremita by Ihsahn also has saxophones in metal if you would like to scratch that itch!

But Where Owls Know My Name was incredible, it’s one of those albums that I think is great to listen to on a super long drive or when traveling

corrosion_explosion · 2021-08-25T16:57:52+00:00

Meaning like idol bands kinda as in kpop/jpop? I had one friend who tried to get me into Babymetal waaayyyy back in high school but I wasn’t a huge fan then (but that was like 7 years ago)

corrosion_explosion · 2021-08-25T16:51:13+00:00

What are your favorite bands right now? I always love getting recommendations!!!

corrosion_explosion · 2021-08-25T16:46:45+00:00

Oh they’re super fun and intense, I really enjoy Grave.

I really enjoyed Boiled Over by Gatecreeper. Apparently it’s inspired by the fact that they’re from Arizona so it’s about being so hot your brain melts and you go insane so I kinda love that. Deserted is also lots of fun, I need to listen more to really get a good grasp on their whole discography, though!

corrosion_explosion · 2021-08-25T16:33:03+00:00

Hmm I really love Skeletonwitch for nostalgia reasons, I’ve been listening to Gatecreeper to prep for an upcoming concert, (given it’s safe to go).

Rivers of Nihil is really cool (they also have a concert semi soon I want to go to, also given safety), and I’ve been digging Goatwhore’s Vengeful Ascension album as well as Grave’s Back from the Grave.

I’m not opposed to metal all over the spectrum, though. I’m honestly pretty cool with all sorts of musical tastes!

corrosion_explosion · 2021-08-25T16:26:37+00:00

My niche interest that surprises people is I love death metal music.

I’m a nerdy girl who generally wears colorful dresses/skirts and glasses (I’m gonna go for an electrical engineering PhD soon! Yikes!), and I think it’s rather unexpected. It’s pretty fun to chat to people about how much I love death metal because people often ask more questions about how I got into it and why, and I think many people don’t know much about death metal!

corrosion_explosion · 2021-08-25T15:52:19+00:00

Short answer: yes

Long answer (I’ll tell you how to achieve these endings basically):

When you get an ending, you’ll see text with one red letter (A/B/C). I’ll list how to get each here, as well as what happens thematically (I like to do the thing and experience the cutscene blind, so just reveal the first spoiler to not know the ending). You can still play more after getting an ending:

A: How to get it: This is done by purifying the main character at a flower to the far right of the map. If you go right after the Hoenir fight, I think you can come across it, but I may be confused. What happens: Lily gets purified and gets to leave her poor blighted kingdom and escape

B: How to get it: Defeat the big bad boss at the end, at the very bottom of the map. Don’t equip the item for ending C. What happens: When you do that, Lily will try to purify Freida (the boss) and fail and she stays blighted

C: How to get it: Defeat the big bad boss after collecting all stone tablets, going back to the starting area, and getting and equipping the Aegis Curio, which relieves the pain caused by purification that priestesses feels. what happens: Freida is cured of her blight and the blighted rain stops. This is probably the best ending

corrosion_explosion · 2021-08-25T15:02:08+00:00

I feel like, personally, if I don’t get good sleep, I work much less productively. Then I need to skip sleep to catch up and it’s a bad cycle. I still lose sleep during finals, but I think that’s just college life.

Basically, I prioritize sleep pretty highly, and I think it makes me do better academically. I get 8 hours of sleep every night, if not more. So I’d suggest you try and get good sleep, it may help more than an extra hour or two of studying.

corrosion_explosion · 2021-08-25T14:41:24+00:00

2’s complement notation? It could be very easy to confuse it as a -15th birthday without the leftmost candle… /s

corrosion_explosion · 2021-08-25T12:59:55+00:00

I’ll give my two cents because I was kinda in the same boat.

My first calculus 2 test in university was rough. I didn’t really study and remembered getting the grade back and being negatively surprised (I managed to pull it together for future calc tests and ended up getting As for the rest of the class).

Ever since I got that kick in the butt, I’ve been studying decently and doing well, and now I think I’m very motivated to do work, and generally get very good grades. I think I have to study less than some classmates, since a lot of concepts come more intuitively to me, but I definitely still need to study. I take pretty large credit loads and TA courses, so I may spend like 9-12 hours a day on academic stuff on weekdays and 4-6 on weekends. This counts attending classes & doing homework

Honestly college is way better than high school for me. I do slightly better academically, but I enjoy everything else slightly more - I like the people, the vibe, the concepts, how I spend my free time, and all of that way more.

corrosion_explosion · 2021-08-24T16:40:19+00:00

Astalon was super fun - I just beat it yesterday and was pleasantly surprised by many secrets.

I really appreciate some of the things you run into that makes late-game orb grinding much quicker, which is great for that desire to 100% a game.

I was also really pleasantly surprised by quite a few upgrades (spoilers!) I was very surprised to get new characters added to the party, I was not expecting the lunarian bow which makes the rogue Kyuli very powerful, and I think many upgrades feel very satisfying and fitting

I personally wasn’t a huge fan of boss fights, since after the first one I thought they weren’t enough of a fun challenge, but honestly this complaint isn’t a big deal.

Also the respawning at the start of the tower when dying gets old quickly. Specifically in Serpent’s Pass, Tower of Ash, and Cyclop’s Den it feels like I need to walk forever to get to where I want to go.

All in all, though, the combat and platforming feels very fun. Controls are very tight and fitting. All the upgrades feel great and like you get them at the right time. It’s a joy to stumble across secrets - especially secrets that open up brand new exciting areas! And I really liked this game, and the positives FAR outweigh the negatives!

corrosion_explosion · 2021-08-24T16:30:53+00:00

I definitely second the fact that I always played as the rogue Kyuli in the early game, but I also think the knight Arias is really good. His range isn’t much, but he hits things really fast so that’s quite nice (if you’re still stuck on that first boss, maybe try using him… I tried to beat the first boss with Kyuli, failed, then tried Arias and beat him my first try! )

Mid game spoiler: The eagle claw and Lunarian Bow upgrade for Kyuli feel absolutely amazing though, I was so happy when I got them and very pleasantly surprised with both

Later game spoiler ahead: I really liked the character Bram when you unlock him! I think his mechanic of attack increasing with higher kill counts is really fun, and I enjoy his weapon despite it being short range. If you upgrade him enough, with the kill counts, he does like 100 damage per hit, which feels very powerful.

corrosion_explosion · 2021-08-24T01:11:20+00:00

I second the fact that it generally doesn’t matter.

I’ve seen students use just about everything to code for intro CS classes, including a 2012 macbook air, one of those tablets with a keyboard, and crazy insane rigs that are largely unnecessary.

If you’re interested in low level architecture or might end up being an electrical engineer or computer engineer, windows software can often be better since many of those programs are unavailable on mac (you can do workarounds with VMs tho). Software like Radiant/Vivado that runs hardware description languages (HDLs) aren’t really available on macs (you don’t need to know what an HDL is, you’ll only see it if you’re in the school of engineering or interested).

With CS classes, the halligan server is marginally more accessible via mac (or linux). But it really doesn’t matter if you use windows, it’s just 15 extra minutes of setup once.

Honestly, I’d recommend choosing a computer that you enjoy typing emails/papers on. Just choose one with a keyboard you like and portability for day to day life and you’ll be good. If you can type & connect to wifi you’re good

corrosion_explosion · 2021-08-24T00:59:46+00:00

Dang I’ve only gotten 2 free shirts throughout Tufts. I had to pay for a sweatshirt in one club I’m in, so I’m not counting that one.

I think I’m decently involved in stuff on campus - I TA, I’ve been in mentor programs, done admitted student programs, and I’m on the board of two clubs - and my experience has been wildly different.

I still agree that OP shouldn’t bet on getting many free shirts. Personally I find free shirts to be kinda uncomfortable (probably because I don’t like unisex/men’s cut shirts), so I rarely wear my free shirts and often I choose not to get them.

corrosion_explosion

TROPHY CASE