engr. (student)

Think about negative numbers, for example. If you're discovering/inventing math for the first time, you might find that you can have five, or three, or eight potatoes — and you can add potatoes or take them away to change the number. So the subtraction operation makes sense. But what if you try to subtract a bigger number from a smaller one? This is just the same operation with different inputs. You could just mark it as invalid and never look into it, or you could make up a new class of numbers to represent the result of that — negative numbers. Obviously you'll never have minus five potatoes, but negative numbers are a direct consequence of the subtraction operation that you can perform on positive numbers.

Or think about fractions. We've gotten so used to the fact that fractions are a legit class of numbers that we never stop to think about how they don't make much sense in reality. Sure, you can cut a potato in half — but then you have two smaller things — and that's without getting into things like people, houses, animals, etc that you can count but cannot meaningfully divide in smaller parts. Obviously you can still do whole division on them, but you still have the same problem — if your inputs are not multiples of each other, then you'll always have a fractional part left. And you could ignore all those operations as invalid, or you could make up a new class of numbers to count them. You will never have 3/4ths of a house (unless you're willing to do some damage) but fractional numbers are a direct consequence of the division operation.

Even if you accept fractions, there's still the deal with irrational numbers, that used to be so controversial people were murdered about it. There's no way you will ever cut a cake into π parts, but the fact that we have a division operation and a circle (or a square diagonal) means that numbers like this are necessary to solve certain inputs.

And that's now getting into the whole idea of imaginary numbers, which — once again — are just a way to describe the result of a perfectly valid operation (square root) with perfectly valid inputs (the negative numbers we know and love). Describing new numbers to work with certain outputs of our operations is not a unusual thing in mathematics, especially if these numbers happen to have very consistent rules about their behavior (as opposed to 0/0, for example)

An ongoing series of Blender 3D artworks by Filipino multi-disciplinary artist Lucius Felimus.

Each piece is a blend of cyberpunk futurism and Philippine urban culture brought to life through detailed chaotic cityscapes - filled with Filipino megacorporations, flying jeepneys, and Baybayin neon signs.

ArtStation: https://www.artstation.com/luciusfelimus

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/luciusfelimus.3d

"Everything is Sex", a red light district inspired by Philippine nightlife and sex tourism.

"Where West Meets East", a collab piece with LA-based digital artist Daney C, depicting an international part of a downtown area.

"Community Pantry", a conceptual architecture tribute to the #CommunityPantryPH movement.

"Crimson Chinatown", a collab piece with @neonrockets, based on Manila's Chinatown, Binondo.

"Mingming's Escape", inspired by industrial-residential district of Potrero, Malabon in the foreground with Monumento, Caloocan in the background.

For all the procrastinators out there, here’s a list of tips that a fellow procrastinator has found very useful through the years to get her actually doing stuff.

Start studying from day one

I know you’ve heard this a million times, but seriously, before the panic of “I can’t possibly catch up with all of this’ kicks in. Once this happens, you won’t even want to try so you’ll just procrastinate even more. I know it seems overkill to study on the first day, but think of it this way, you’ve covered almost no material and it will take you no time. Also, it only takes 30 days to form a habit, I promise you revising every day becomes second nature after a while.

But I’m already in the middle of my academic year and I can’t possibly catch up!

I’ve heard that excuse a thousand times, from myself that is. So you can’t catch up? Well, don’t. If it’s a class where you don’t need to know the previous material to understand what you’re learning about right now, take it from that point and keep up with it. You can catch up on the previous stuff little by little when you have free time.

But it’s a cumulative class and I need to know the previous material to understand what the heck my profesor is talking about! 

Watch some youtube videos on the material or go to Khanacademy. You just need to grasp the basics, you can perfect your knowledge on those topics later on, if you have time.

I just can’t get myself to open the book 

First, what is it you need to do TODAY? Let’s say you need to study a unit that has x pages and you have three days ro study it. Today you will study x/3 pages. You get it, don’t just study aimlessly, give yourself a finish point. Then write down what you want to accomplish (it’s incredibly satisfying to cross things out) but don’t write more than 5 tasks (unless they’re really small ones) per day.

Now is when you find that you don’t actually want to do any of the things on that list, so what do you want to do NOW? Do you want to watch a youtube video? Read a book? Pee? What were you planning to do to procrastinate? Well you can still do it. That is, once you study a page (or x pages, whatever you feel up to). This can be repeated until you hit that finish point you stablished earlier. You can also add extra weekly rewards like ‘If I do all my studying this week, I can do x or I can buy y’ (think small stuff, x can be calling a friend to hang out and y can be a color pen). But remember, just as important as getting that reward if you do your work is NOT getting the reward if you DON’T do the work. I don’t mean like don’t indulge if you haven’t finished one or two tasks, but, if you’ve been slacking all week yet you get the reward anyway, what your brain understands “It’s ok, I don’t actually need to work”.

I just want to lie on my bed for a bit

Yes, studying on your bed is awful and you should avoid it. But you know what’s worse than studying on your bed? Not studying at all. If you’re like me and sometimes you just randomly get these urges in the middle of the afternoom to lie on your bed ‘for a bit’ and then you fall asleep, bring your study materials to your bed. DON’T lie down, just get into a slightly reclined sitting possition. I find that this kind of tricks your brain into thinking that you’re resting but you can still get work done.

I have to write a paper, not study

I was planning on telling you that I have literally no tips for writing papers and lab reports (these in particular are the bane of my existence, I literally feel such hostility towards them that I will refuse to even look at the document I’m sure it has nothing to do with being a failed writer) BUT luckily I’ve found something that kind of works. So, forget about your paper for a minute, open a text document, and just WRITE. You can literally write about whatever - your day, how adorable your pet is, or a random story that makes no sense whatsoever. Force yourself to write for about three minutes. Now look back at your paper. I find that once I’ve started writing, I am a lot more willing to keep doing it, even if it’s not about the same topic. This may not work for some people though. Also, write a SUPER rough outline or just bullet points of what you want to say like “Then we add HCl. Later decantation. Test for acid pH. Finally filter and evaporate”. Expanding on something is much easier than writing it from scratch.

Clean you desk the night before

I promise having a clean space to put your books on will motivate you the next day.

And finally, a little tip from a recent experience - YOU’RE GOING TO WISH YOU HAD DONE MORE 

Personally, every time “I can just cram for this” even crosses my mind, I remind myself of how stupid I felt last semester when it came to finals and how badly I wanted to go back in time and beat past me to a pulp. But also, I remind myself of how thankful I was to past me for every little thing that she HAD studied because it was one less thing to worry about. So, when you want to slack off, think of your future self thanking you for not doing so.

So, with this advice in mind, go hit your books right now and start becoming a better version of yourself!

Other masterposts

Memorization Tips

Skincare 101

Tips on Organic Chemitry

Give yourself enough time to get ready before you have to leave in the morning. For me this means setting my alarm about an hour before the time that I have to get my foot out the door. Eat a proper breakfast, do a little stretching, figure out your plan for the day. Having a slower paced morning is a lot more relaxing, and you can get your day started correctly.

Drink water first thing. I used to be a pretty heavy coffee drinker in the mornings in high school, but I realized that I could get away with a lot less caffeine if I started my morning off with a nice glass of cold water. You’re probably dehydrated after sleeping and water helps wake you up. 

Make your bed. Making your bed is a visual reminder that sleeping time is over and that it’s time to get up! If I have a messy bed, I want to climb in and snuggle back into my blankets. This is especially true in the winters when it’s cold and dark. The movement also helps you wake up, which brings me to my next point:

Move! Your! Body! You don’t necessarily have to run through an entire yoga routine or go for a run (but hey, props to you if you do), but getting some movement in your mornings will help you wake up. I like to stretch a little bit, warm up my joints, maybe loosen up my limbs. It helps to get your blood flowing. 

Open your curtains. In the winter it might be kind of dark and depressing where you live, so this isn’t always something recommended. I like to open my curtains when it’s sunny out so I can get some natural light, which helps your circadian rhythm so you wake up better - and fall asleep at night better.