Read Before: SPRING BREAK 2010

Well well.. college students. It's break time yet again.. Spring Break time.
I would like to offer some advice to ease into your vacation.

If you are headed out to a far away hotel hittin' up with Carson Daly and your new peeka-boo swimsuit- Remember this there are a lot of creeps crawlin' in dark corners so be cautious. Whatever you do don't open the door to this guy NO MATTER WHAT!



OR

Perhaps you are traveling to go sight seeing. In that case expect the unexpected. Be sure to keep your eyes peeled at all times! You never know what you will see! Take me for example, the following photograph I took on my last vacation! You think I was expecting THIS.....




OR

Maybe during spring break you will be with the family. Remember to love each other like my favorite on camera family...



OR

Perhaps you are going to stay home and do nothing. Here is my advice for you then. Do not get bored and start doing crazy things. No one thinks a cat dressed up in a clown suit is funny! Trust me I know from personal experience- you could be reported for animal cruelty!





Whatever you are doing this break be sure to rest and rejuvenate so you can hit the ground running when school starts again.

Try and be cool!

Kelly- your favorite office manager!

Food for Thought

There are few situations to be in as a university scholar that are worse than completely blanking on a midterm that is worth a large percentage of a final grade. There are many factors that contribute to "going blank", but it is likely that all of us have experienced the feeling at one point or another. How can this situation be avoided? Some tend to think some assistance can be found in your fridge.

An article published on selfgrowth.com has highlighted the categories of the best foods to improve memory. The following all have a direct impact on brain function:

BUILD:
-Healthy Omega-3 fats found in eggs, walnuts, salmon, and soybeans.

PROTECT:
-Antioxidants in foods such as blueberries, green tea, tomatoes, broccoli, soy, and carrots.

ENERGIZE:
-Neurotransmitter building foods like seafood, soy, and eggs.

REGULATE:
-Fiber controls sugar absorbtion and is found in foods such as raisins, apricots, peas, broccoli, lima beans, seeds, apples, avocados, brown rice, and whole grains.

HYDRATE:
-The brain is 80% water. 3-4 liters per day is recommended!

To discuss this and other creative ways to prepare for exams, schedule an study skills appointment at the GUTS office! As for me, I'm going to go make a salmon raisin blueberry lima bean sandwich. If anyone has any better recipes, let me know.

Emily

Wanna take a breather?

Hey,

I was informed of these excellent free sites for music and shows:

1) Pandora:

Pandora: Internet Radio

Recommendation: Jim Crose

2) Hulu:

Hulu: Watch your favorites Anytime

Recommendation: Saturday Night Live

Check them out in your "free" time!! ^_^

Hank

Adventures in Study Skills

The weather has been getting warmer, the days getting longer and my bike getting anxious. Spring break is coming, trees are budding and yes, my homework is no longer getting done. It is a simple and true fact that the nicer the weather gets, the more time we want to spend outside. I feel like it's my duty as a study skills coordinator to instruct all of you to fight the urge to blow off your work. I should be encouraging you to set goals and manage your time and so forth. Honestly though, I would feel guilty. I know that we have decided to be here, we're paying money to be here so school is what we should focus on. But what are we missing while we buckle down?

I'm missing bike rides around the lake. I'm missing lazy afternoons on the deck with a cup of tea and book that I haven't been told to read. I'm missing walks at midnight in a quiet part of town. I have been making choices lately to forgo these opportunities for a little enjoyment in hopes of academic success and I don't know how I feel about that.

I doubt that I will really make the choice anytime soon to start ignoring my work and spend more time doing nothing but,crap, it sounds appealing right about now. As much as I want to change direction and encourage all of you to say, "screw this, I'm going to have picnic today" I know that I probably won't and therefor can't really advise you to either. I guess Ill just refer to the cliche and remind us all that we need to strike a balance....blah blah blah... but I don't want a balance, I just want to go for a walk outside. The spring sun is calling my name...

M

Speaking More Better!

Having spent a considerable amount of my time teaching English and learning Chinese, language (and the studying or learning of) is almost always on my mind. I find myself trying to think in Chinese or thinking about my own language in new and challenging ways when asked a good question about English (I’m surprised how often we know so little about our own languages because we rarely stop to think about them).

I would love the opportunity to study Irish (Gaelic), Persian (Farsi), Japanese, and Latin but I doubt I’ll have the chance to even nibble at any of them in my life time. But languages fascinate me--I think they should be pushed harder in the US curriculum. My accomplishments in the field are few and small: a few summers ago I became fluent in Pig Latin... And get this: my twin brother and I spoke our own exclusive language as toddlers before the outside world came in and tore it away from us, forcing us to switch to English. Because of my last name, we often jokingly refer to it as “O’Connish.” Even today, my friends refer to the peculiar way that my twin and I speak English as “O’Connish accents.” We have a tendency to speak very fast and slur our words together, and sometimes even pronounce words in our own unique ways. When we are very comfortable or excited we often switch to this fast-paced English and our friends often complain. Some of the friends we’ve had for a long time even claim to “understand O’Connish.” But I digress. Although the “original” O’Connish has been lost, some names remain: Doogan and Dogan, which were our names for each other; Nahna – my older brother Marty, and Gahk – my oldest brother Erik. I wish more of this “language” could have been recorded!

Anyways I think this blog post is supposed to have some sort of point, something for the reader to take away, so I’ll argue something: the most important thing to practice when learning a language is speaking, speaking, and speaking! What good is mastering the grammar of a language when you lack the confidence or ability to speak it (well it’s good for research and academics I suppose)? I would rather be comfortable speaking a language even if my grammar was subpar than be a master at writing or reading it while being a lackluster speaker. However, speaking a language is also the hardest part—it takes practice, patience, and courage. But as Nike says, swoosh. Oops I mean just do it.

-Michael O’Connor

A blog about blogs

While beginning to type another blog about what exciting new anecdotes I have learning about study skills in the past month, the thought struck me that I know very little about the activity I am doing right now, blogging. So in leui of continuing to divulge my study skills secret I decided to teach you (and myself) some information about blogs. I hear about blogs almost everyday, and I read a recipe blog almost everyday. However, when I google searched "history of blogs" and was taken the Wikipedia paged titled "History of blogging timeline" I might as well have been reading a Portugese newspaper (and my Portugese skills are...well...non existent). Blogging has become such a part of our everyday life, that it is almost assumed that everyone knows what a blog is and how to work them. Well I have had a small amount of practice with GUTS blog (and by a small amount of practice I mean approximately 4 entries), but I am by no means comfortable with my blogging skills. So for any other uneasy blog writers/readers here is a short crash course in the history and the present of blogging.

1. Justin Hall, is considered to be one of the first bloggers. He blogged about happenings in his personal life while a student at Swarthmore College. He began in 1994.

2. The word blog is short for "weblog" which was coined by Jorn Barger in 1997.

3. Technorati is a search engine dedicated to BLOGS. They have an index of over 112.8 million blogs.

3. Technorati shows that the most popular blog today is the Huffington Post (www.huffingtonpost.com). They update their top ten list daily.

4. You can read the "State of the Blogosphere" on Technorati.

5. There are many types of blogs: personal, business, entertainment, news, politics, diaries......

Well I'm a little blogged out, but I'll share more at a later date. Until next time...keep blogging!

Abby

Drop-In Update

Hey there,

Drop-In is up and running smoothly at both College Library and The Student Activity Center, so come on by. The schedule is posted at the centers as well as online at our GUTS website http://guts.studentorg.wisc.edu/Drop-In%20Schedule%20Page.html In addition to all the most common subjects (Math, Chemistry, Physics, Econ) we now offer Political Science Tutoring from the Political Science Honor Society, just another reason to check the schedule or stop by.

If you have any questions, feel free to let me know at:
guts-di@rso.wisc.edu

thanks,

Lee

letter found at guts, mystery ensues

madison, wi - contacts at the guts office told the media today that there were a number of staplers missing. on february 27th, it is rumored, one of guts' smallest employees awoke to a noise and asked the intruder why he is taking the staplers. the intruder was quite clever and made up a story, gave the smallest of employees a glass of water, a pat on the head, and sent her to bed. the staplers were reported stolen on february 28th around 4:30pm. when asked how this will affect the day-to-day activities of guts, officials stated, "the consequences of the dastardly theft of our staplers have yet to be fully realized." thus far there are no leads. however, a letter was found at the crime scene:

Dear GUTS,
A bunch of our staplers work like crap, and I can't Find any tools here. So I took them home to fix. I will bring them back next time I'm in the office. the 2 blue ones are fine.

The authorities are looking for a green, bearded man. If you have any information, please contact guts at guts@rso.wisc.edu.

Monday March First.

I must say, there are not many calendrical events that I like more than when the first of the month is also the beginning of a new week. It feels like I've been presented with a clean slate on which to start fresh and improve myself. This morning, I was drinking my Tahitian Vanilla Hazelnut Tea and thinking about my goals for March. Suddenly I noticed the quote printed on the little piece of paper at the end of my tea bag. It told me to "unite with your own higher self and create a friendship."
The insight of this quote propelled me to consider the relationship I have with myself. I asked, "Self, am I friends with you?" And before you start to think I'm crazy and like to have conversations with my self-I should point out that I am indeed a bit crazy, but then, who isn't? Back to my point, I challenge you to ask your own self this question. Do you treat yourself like you would a friend? Do you encourage yourself in times of sadness, hardship, and/or stress? Do you celebrate your successes and find joy in spending time with yourself?
I found that in general, me and myself are pretty tight. But there are aspects of our friendship that I want to improve. Sometimes I'm too hard on myself, I take my own limitations for granted and don't do enough encouraging. We all have a strong inner spirit, this month, I challenge you to befriend this spirit and love yourself as you do the other people in your life.
With academic stress building around midterms and the countless other engagements you probably have, there will never be a better time to get to know yourself and always remember the advice Ralph Waldo Emerson gives us, "insist upon yourself. Be original."

Have a beautiful month of March, enjoy the coming Springtime weather, and try to strengthen that bond between you and you.

Kasandra Brown
Study Skills Coordinator