End of April Update + May Plans

I’m glad I’m not really late with this post, like the last update, but I had always planned to post these updates on the last day of the month before going to bed. Never mind, I’ll try to do that next month!

April was a success in some parts of life, but not a success in others. I’m still not done with most of my studying for the exams, but I managed to do all other routine tasks. Some of the routine tasks that I newly added to my schedule: writing, 2 showers, photography, etc, I did every single day, such as the water quantity, exercise, showering & revising Quran. The other 2, photography & writing, I didn’t get to do everyday.

In May, I have my exams and studying for them, so I decided to put a goal of studying everyday for 3 hours at least. I also upgraded my writing goal to 30 minutes a day. I’m now revising the First Part of the Quran, which I memorized recently, since the beginning of this year. Exercising, taking 2 showers, a photo and drinking more than 2.4l of water a day are still part of my schedule. I have A4-sized calendars printed out on about 7 sheets of paper for all these tasks so I can put in Xs when I do them. Of course, not forgetting the regular 4 movies, 4 books, 2 documentaries and memorizing 4 pages of the Quran.

All right, that’s all for May. Stay tuned for updates and new posts. Once I finish studying for my exams I’ll find the time to write up all those pending reviews, hopefully!

End of March Update + April Plans

I know I’m extremely late with this post, but I’ve been awfully busy this past two weeks for a couple of reasons. One, I’m still struggling to catch up with my studies before exams; two, I got a job. Which is part of why I’m still struggling to catch up with my studies, but at least now I’m making use of that couple of hours per day instead of surfing the Internet and procrastinating.

Anyway, I didn’t do much in March studies-wise, but I did manage to do a few other things, one of which was getting the job, another was doing a prep course for the job (which actually made me apply for the job, I was just doing the course as getting some more skills), and yet another was completing a few goals I had set for myself (the shower everyday one, and a couple of others).

Though I did procrastinate a lot in the beginning of March, my screwed up sleep schedule also contributed to my not progressing much in my studies. I have now planned a sleep schedule for April, which I started sticking to just a couple of days ago. If it doesn’t work out well, then maybe I’ll pull a few all nighters. In my opinion, pulling the all nighters to finish my syllabus a couple of weeks before the exams is much better than doing that the night of the exam, because then I would be exhausted during the exam, which is not a very nice scenario.

Anyway, my April plans are not much, just the usual 4 movies, 4 books, 2 documentaries and memorizing 4 pages of Surah Al-Baqara; plus catching up with my studies (which is also quite usual compared to the past 4 months). Hopefully, this time the studies part will work out as planned, just as the rest.

I also took up a few other challenges during April, including upgrading my one shower per day to two per day unless I’m ill — when I’m allowed to bring it down to one shower, no excuses. I’m also trying to take one photo per day to fulfill one of the goals on my 101 Thing in 1001 Days list; establish a habit of writing for 15 minutes everyday (which translates to about 1000 words in English and about 500 – 750 words in Arabic, depending on the flow of ideas); revise the Thirtieth Part of the Quran, which I’d memorized since I was a kid; exercise everyday and drink the recommended amount of water per day or more.

That wraps it all up for April, and I have a feeling even though half of the month is over, I’m going to rock the rest of the month. Stay tuned for updates and new posts…. some of which will be coming up soon, hopefully!

[W2] Book Review: The Emerald Atlas — John Stephens

courtesy of Goodreads.com

This book belongs to my younger sister. She wanted to read a couple of my books, so we exchanged books and I read hers. It’s a book aimed at a younger audience, maybe between the ages of 7 and 12. However, I did enjoy reading it.

The story is about three children: two sisters, Katherine and Emma; and one brother, Michael; whose parents left them for reasons unknown to them when they were very young, in the care of a trusted friend, who sent them to an orphanage whose owner he knew personally. After a few years, the orphanage got burned down, and the children were sent from one orphanage to another, and their parents’ friend lost touch with them. One day, when the caretaker of the orphanage they are in was calling up other orphanages to send these children to, someone calls her up from an orphanage that is very little known, and asks for them. They’re immediately sent off, only to find out that they have been sent to a magical land that is invisible to most people and is accessible by a boat ride across a lake. Soon, they meet their parents’ friend, and they find out that they are special children who have been chosen by the three magical Books to be their owners. But finding the books proves to be a harrowing and dangerous adventure, full of helpful dwarves, the soul-less Screechers, an evil witch/Countess and lots of near-death encounters.

I’m not a big fan of the fantasy genre, mainly because most fantasy stories I’ve read were aimed at very young children, the typical stories with bad witches, good fairies and humans who are constantly victimized by the former and saved by the latter. I must say this is the first children’s fantasy book I’ve read that had a real mystery in it, and I can’t wait to read the next book in the series.

Happy reading, and I’m sorry again for posting this so late.

[W1] Movie Review: 21 (2008)

 

courtesy of IMDb.com

I had decided to watch Inception the first week of January, but the day before when I was supposed to watch it, I came across 21. I watched the trailer and I thought I liked it, so, in an attempt to put off watching Inception, I watched it.

I did like the few shots in the beginning of the film of the Charles River and Cambridge, MA;  but overall, I didn’t like the film much. Maybe this was because I have strong views against gambling, which was one of the main themes of this movie.

The story is about an MIT undergraduate student named Ben Campbell, who needs about $300K to attend Harvard Medical School the next year. His math professor is impressed by his ability to solve complicated equations in his head, and introduces him to a secret club comprised of other MIT students. Reluctant at the beginning, he later joins, to be trained in the skill of card counting. Soon, he is on his way to Vegas every weekend with his new friends, and they make a lot of money, which starts a few problems in the otherwise peaceful life Ben leads.

It was an interesting watch, but I won’t watch it again, because I’m pretty sure there are other movies out there that are more interesting which I haven’t yet watched.

Happy watching, and I’m sorry for posting this so late.

End of February Update + March Plans

Once again, I accuse myself of procrastinating this post, which should’ve been here a couple of days ago.

I read 4 books, watched 4 movies and 2 documentaries in February, the reviews of which will be posted shortly. I also managed to eliminate reddit from my means of procrastination list, but as usual, something else has to take it’s place. This time, it was watching TV series’ episodes!

I did pretty well in February’s writing project, researching and outlining the Mars novel idea. I learned a few new things about Mars, making characters, and wrote up a 1K+ synopsis for it. I still have to do some outlining, such as adding dates and stuff, but I’ll be doing that shortly. I didn’t work much on the Famous Five fanfic or the Arabic novel either, but I plan to continue working on them along with this month’s projects, NaNoEdMo for the Arabic novel and outlining the fanfic.

I did however, manage to finish up all of my Physics lessons, except the last two, which I finished in the past two days, so I’m officially done with Physics, except for a few chapter review questions which I intentionally left to use during revision. I didn’t use Khan Academy at all, but I intend to start on it this month. I also have resolved to do 10 chapters of Chemistry in March, along with 20 lessons of Geography. I have yet to start on the other subjects, but I’m planning to do so within the next week.

I wasn’t able to use the treadmill yet, something’s wrong with it, and I’m brainstorming for ideas on how to finish up my C25K training with a pedometer, running shoes and limited space.

Job-hunting isn’t going good, I didn’t work on it much. I’m feeling I’m too afraid to go ahead and apply and then get rejected for something or other. I need to work on this issue, but in the meantime I’m considering other options also.

I also didn’t do well with going poly-phasic. So far I would go poly-phasic for a day or two, then go back to sleeping late and waking up late (although it is kind of earlier nowadays). I’m also doing a 21 Day Positivity Challenge this month.

It’s about 23:50 here now, so I’m going to get off and call it a night. I’ll back soon, hopefully, with all the posts I’m behind on.

Feel free to share your March plans below! Best of luck.

[W1] Book review: Mummy told me not to tell — Cathy Glass

courtesy of Goodreads.com

The first time I saw this book in the bookstore I knew I wanted to read it immediately. Not wanting to exchange one of the books I already chose for this, I hurriedly recorded the name in my cellphone… to forget about it for the next 6 months or so.

Then one day, early December 2011, we paid a visit to the bookstore again. I had promised myself I wouldn’t be spending all the money I had, I would just buy one book from the discounted books shelf. After choosing my discounted book, I wandered as usual into the aisles of the bookstore, looking for names of books that will jump out and catch my eye. Unknowingly, I found myself in front of the non-fiction stories shelf. From among the dozens of books, I found this book jumping out at me once again. I remembered seeing it before, so I picked it up and read the synopsis at the back. I immediately knew that I couldn’t leave without buying it, especially as it was one of the last ones available. So, with a sigh that reminded me of the dozens of times I broke my financial promises to myself whenever I came to the bookstore, I carried the book, among a couple of others that jumped out, to where my family sat along with a basket full of books we had picked that day.

I had already decided that I’m not reading any of the books I bought until January, when my Project Literacy 52 ’12 will start. I kept looking at it all the time longingly, but surprisingly, I found myself keeping my promise to myself this time. At least, I had the book in my possession, I thought, so I could wait a couple more weeks before starting on it.

Fast forward to the 3rd of January. I was excited to start reading the book, but I was busy on the 1st and 2nd, so I couldn’t. I was following my poly-phasic schedule, which meant that I would wake up at 01:00 in the morning. I flipped through the book the night before, and I decided on 100 pages for the next day.

In the morning I woke up, and took the book and dove back under the covers for warmth. When I hit 100 pages, I found that the chapter doesn’t end there, so I told myself, just till the end of the chapter. At the end of the chapter I said just one more chapter, and so on, until I finished the book!

I know usually people don’t say the circumstances that lead to their reading a certain book in reviews, but I wanted to be different. Anyway, I digress.

It was an engaging, informative, pleasant yet shocking read. The book is about a 7-year-old boy who was raised in an abusive home and then placed in the foster care of the writer, who writes under a pen name. I have read a few stories about children raised in abusive homes who were later placed in foster care, but never did I read a story so grave and shocking. I would mention the details, but I don’t like spoiling the read for anyone out there who is looking to read this book.

What I would say is that I wish the author has altered the details enough so that later on, if the book ever falls in the boy’s hands, he would never realize that the book is about him! Also, this book has valuable information about foster care, and it gives an insider’s perspective. I recommend this to anybody who likes kids, is involved with or looking to be involved with foster care, and anybody who enjoys a good read that seems like fiction but isn’t really fiction.

Happy reading, and I’m sorry I posted this so late.

End of January Update + February Plans

I know this post should’ve been here a few days ago, but procrastination has been trying to take over me lately, because I’ve not been trying hard to stop it.

So many exciting things happened in January. Firstly, I got my first ever organizer! I’m really really happy with it and will post about it in a few weeks’ time when I’ve completely settled in with it.

I read 4 books, watched 4 movies and 2 documentaries, each to their own weeks/fortnights. I’ve been pretty good in eliminating watching movies as a means of procrastination. But unfortunately, I stumbled upon a really good time waster, a website called reddit. It’s good at wasting my time, and it’s also good in the sense that I learn new things/discover them while I’m on there. But I plan to eliminate that too, in February.

I failed at both of my writing projects, finishing up my novel and reading the books for fanfiction. I’m currently at about 2K words more in the novel, and not yet finished with book 3 for fanfiction. So I decided to punish myself. Instead of pushing the whole plan ahead, now I have 3 projects to complete in February, finishing up my novel, reading the fanfic books, and researching and outlining my Mars novel idea!

I didn’t catch up with my studies either. I did register, however, for my exams, so now I have a real deadline to finish my studies before. I’m not getting a C again!

I got my results for the 3 IGCSEs I sat in Oct/Nov ’11 almost a week ago. I got a C (or 3.0 GPA) in Maths and 2 As (or 4.0 GPAs) in both English and Biology. Although the C made me quite sad, I was happy about the As because I’d expected Bs in them. The C was what I expected, so I felt it was OK to have gotten what I expected to get. But this doesn’t mean that I’m allowing myself another C this session. The lowest I’m allowing myself is 1 B. That means I have to get off the Internet and work hard.

And before I do that, here’s what I’ll be doing in February. I’ll be watching another 4 movies, 2 documentaries, reading 4 books, and memorizing 4 pages of Surah Al Baqara, but that’s routine now. I also have to research and outline my Mars novel idea, while finishing up my NaNovel ’11 and reading up another 18+ books for the fanfic.

Because I did not do very good in Math, I decided to take IGCSE Additional Mathematics, instead of just going on to AS Maths. That means I have to start using Khan Academy seriously. I also have renamed February to Physics Month, so I’m expecting to do a triple dose of Physics lessons this month so I can finish the syllabus earlier to give me time to focus on the others (2 of which I haven’t started on yet!)

I’m also supposed to continue with my C25K plan (I’m stuck at W2 D3). I bought a pedometer a couple of days ago, and I plan to see when I’ll hit 10,000 steps. I started today at 12:10.

I’m still job-hunting, though I’ve been lazing about the last two weeks. I plan to make a few calls before the end of this week. Let’s see how that goes. I also plan to go back to my poly-phasic schedule which I started in the first week of January. I officially accuse my family of disrupting that heavenly routine!

OK, so it’s almost 21:30 here, and if I really want to get back to being poly-phasic, then I’d better get off the Internet now. I’ll be back in a couple of weeks with updates, and hopefully closer than that with an article or two!

Feel free to share your February plans with me below! Best of luck!

Why Half-full Glasses aren’t Indicators of True Optimism

courtesy of Derek Jensen

What do you say when you look at a glass like the one in the photo, regarding its contents?
It has been said that there are two answers to this question, which two different types of people will choose to answer. The first is the glass is half-full, which is always associated with positive thinkers, or optimists. The other answer is the complete opposite the glass is half-empty which is always associated with negative thinkers, or pessimists.

Recently, I was reflecting on this fact, and I realized that this is not always true. Before I explain why, let’s take a look at what is meant by optimism, and it’s opposite, pessimism.

Optimism
The word is derived from the Latin optimum, meaning best. The first entry in many dictionaries under the word is: the tendency to expect the best and see the best in all things.
Optimism is often thought to be synonymous with positive thinking.

Pessimism
The word is derived from the Latin pessimus, meaning worst. The first entry in many dictionaries under the word is exactly the opposite of optimism: the tendency to expect the worst and see the worst in all things.
Pessimism is often thought to be synonymous with negative thinking.

Why is saying the glass is half-full not really optimistic?
Now that we have fully understood what optimism and pessimism mean, we can understand why I think it’s not being optimistic when someone says the glass is half-full.

The definitions say the optimism is expecting the best, and seeing the best in everything, right? This doesn’t agree with the fact that saying the glass is half-full means you’re being optimistic, because when something is full, then we cannot add anything more to it, right? So basically, when someone says a glass is half-full, they’re reflecting on the half that you cannot add anything to any more.

Now let’s look at the other side. If someone says something is empty, then what’s the first thing that comes to your mind? I can fill it with things that are important or worthy. The same thing applies when you reflect on the empty half of the glass. You can fill it with more of your drink, or add another drink to it to make it a unique mixture.

So what? I don’t care if the glass is half-full or half-empty. I just want to drink up what’s in it and be on my way.
Slow down. This whole glass half-full or half-empty thing is metaphorical. In fact, it’s an idiom that is usually used as a litmus test to define an individual’s perception of the world. So we’re not talking about real glasses that are half-full or half-empty here. We’re talking about how you view your life. This is the reason I’m saying we should be saying the glass is half-empty, not half-full, is because our lives have room for improvement all the time. If you say the glass is half-full, then you’re saying that there’s no room for improvement in your life. This is not true. Even if you’re fully content with your life, there is still room to make it better. You don’t have to be lacking something to improve your life.

The next time someone asks you whether a glass is half-full or half-empty, smile, and say it’s half empty, because you can fill it with more!

Run, run, run….

…for life!

I mentioned earlier that I will be starting a C25K training program this month. I started it yesterday, because last week I was a bit ill and didn’t have the energy to do any exercise.

A couple of years ago I used to go to the gym once a week for about 2 – 3 months. During that time I was only allowed to use the cardio machines because I was under 18 years of age, so most of the time I used the treadmills. I wasn’t very much into fitness at that time, so I thought that walking at a speed of about 3 km/h for 30 – 45 min was good. I used to see all these people on the treadmills to my sides who used to speed up and run on them, but I was afraid to do so for two reasons: I was scared my additional weight might break the machines, or I might slip and fall down; and I didn’t want people to laugh at me. The latter reason was due to the fact that when I was younger, I was told that grown-ups aren’t supposed to run, running is only for kids! I remember many a time when we were at the airport and there would be these people running to catch a flight, I used to laugh at them trying to be like kids.

Then a few months ago I heard of a kind of exercise that’s useful for losing weight, it’s called HIIT (or High Intensity Interval Training). This particular kind of exercise involved doing cardio in intervals, short bursts of high speed and longer intervals of low/normal speed. It is said that it burns calories faster. I decided that I would do it one day, but I left it aside for the time being because I hadn’t got a venue where I had access to cardio machines.

Then a few days before January, Mum got us a treadmill. At the time I was preparing my Project 2012 goals and reviewing my performance in 2011. I saw that there was a goal that was still being pushed from around 2009 — losing weight. I decided that 2012 is going to be the year in which I will cross that goal off my list forever. I began researching different kinds of exercise, and I emphasized on whatever can be done with a treadmill. Then I came across the C25K plan. I had heard of it earlier but I never bothered to check it out, because I thought running was something lame that kids did (and I liked to think of myself as a grown-up). This time, I decided to try it out, because I realized that thousands of grown-ups run and don’t find it something for kids only. I put it on the list. I decided on the days I would do it on (Thursdays, Saturdays and Mondays), and I assigned other exercises for the other days: stretching and climbing stairs.

I was supposed to start on Monday the 2nd of January, but I couldn’t, so I switched the exercises around for that week, making Wednesday’s stair climbing instead of Monday’s C25K, and vice versa. On Wednesday the 4th, I was in bed with a fever. I was so tired I just decided that I wouldn’t exercise. The next day, Thursday, also had a C25K workout scheduled, but on that day, I woke up early in the morning to throw up! I decided not to exercise yet again. On Saturday, I was fine, and I decided that if I don’t start today then I’m going to have to put a penalty system in place and penalize myself according to it. But I didn’t need to, because I did it.

I’m following the C25K plan precisely, and in the first few weeks, the workouts are designed in a way that resembles HIIT. For example, the first week’s workout is: 5 min warm-up walk, then alternate 60 seconds of running with 90 seconds of walking for 20 minutes, then 5 min cool-down walk. Repeat for three days with one day rest in between.

Yesterday, I was going to run on a treadmill for the first time in my life. When I stepped onto the treadmill, I was really scared — what if I’m too heavy to run on it and it breaks? What if I slip and fall down? All horrible possibilities came to mind. I started the machine. After half an hour of alternating walking and running, I stopped the machine. My heart was racing. I was sweating all over my body. I had never felt so hot even though we live in a very humid and hot city. I was tired, but I was excited. I stepped down and went and lay down on the sofa nearby. I felt like I could do anything, even though I was so exhausted. Then I started thinking about the whole workout, and how I felt after it. A question came to my mind. Unknowingly, I said yes.

I had taken the decision to run for life. I wasn’t going to stop running.

2012: Action!

Recently I was introduced to the concept of using one word to empower you throughout the year instead of setting goals and resolutions. I liked it immediately. But not the part in which I had to ditch my goal-setting habits. I just love them too much to let go of them. But I still wanted a word which I will remember everyday, a word that will inspire me to do something.

I decided that I can modify the rules, so instead of ditching my goals, and using just the word, I was going to have both, goals and a word. My goals were quite clear, I had a good head-start in 2011 on different aspects of my life, so it was quite easy to set them. The most difficult part of my plan? Finding the WORD.

I had to go through lists made by other bloggers who had already done this word-thing earlier (see here), and I still felt that I didn’t have a good candidate. It took me about 2 hours to figure out my word. In the end, I settled on the word that had come first into my mind when I thought of all the things I wanted to do in 2012: ACTION! Turns out that I need to have more confidence in my intuition (same thing happened with me on the SAT practice questions, you know the ones that you sign up for to be sent daily… on the harder questions I used to try and eliminate, but so many times the correct answer turns out to be the one that came into my mind first! I always tend to dismiss them, why I don’t know yet!).

I have great plans for January, I’m going to start on a C25K plan, have to catch up with my studies (falling behind schedules you set up by yourself isn’t nice), reading a lot (4 books towards Project Literacy 52 ’12 + 21 books towards my fanfic research), writing about 750 words a day, memorize the first 4 pages of Surah Al Baqara, and lots more! I’m also doing the 21 Days to a Healthier Lifestyle Challenge, on The Personal Excellence Forums.

What are you doing in January? Did you choose to have a word for the year, set goals, or are you doing both?