Productivity vs Sleep Deprivation

I've been struggling a lot with productivity a lot lately. Right now I'm trying to juggle being a student and being a blogger at http://www.iphonealley.com. The biggest challenge here is staying focused and using my time well when I have time, so I can maximize it. This was easy during the summer, when all I needed to focus my attention on was blogging. It took a while for me to get into the groove of getting things done, but once I got there I was golden.

Now that classes have started up, a monkey-wrench has been thrown into the works. I was informed about a month in that if I fail any of my courses, I'll be required to pay back a $15,000 "gift" that was given to me due to me based on my financial status. I'm balancing this with my increasing lack of interest in my chosen major. Currently I'm a Fine Arts major, meaning I'm learning how to paint pretty pictures and the like, which is seeming more and more stupid.

Anyway, since school started, not only do I have less time to spend typing for the website, but my productivity during that time has been terrible. Now I think I know why. It's my sleep schedule.

I've been having a hard time going to sleep when I need to. I'm used to being up at 2AM, but I need to be going to sleep at 12. Today I slept in and I was able to focus perfectly. Unfortunately today was used up on doing other non-website things, so I still came up short. Hopefully I'll get to sleep on time tomorrow. If I can get that fixed, everything else should fall into place.

Career Conundrum

For the most part, I spent my childhood thinking about everything except what I should have been thinking about, including "what I want to be when I grow up". For a while it was a fireman so I could have a red hat and shiny protective suit. Then I saw a chemist mixing test tubes of liquid to make them change color and I decided I wanted to be a chemist. In highschool my art classes where some of the ones I enjoyed the most (probably because they were the easiest), so I thought I wanted to be an artist. That last notion followed me all the way to the end of highschool and into college.

Needless to say, I no longer feel that way. Since then I started writing for iPhone Alley, and for the most part I really enjoy it. I always liked technology, and the introduction into the Apple Inc. world fanned the flame. The opportunity to make my livelihood through technology and especially the Mac cult/other Apple-made goodies now seems ideal.

I've already obtained my AA from the local 2-year college, but I'm now enrolled at a 4-year school in their BFA program, and I'm sinking faster than I'm swimming. Art feels like a huge waste of time now. It's very important to me that I find something I can make a good living at, not scrape away an existence.

I've bounced around the idea of a business major, but I'm pretty terrible at math. I think I'm leaning toward writing now, but I've never heard of making a living as a professional blogger, and I can't tell if full-blown journalism is my thing.

Recently my father has been trying to persuade me to stick to getting my BFA just for the sake of getting a degree, but the thought of obtaining a Bachelor's degree in something I neither derive satisfaction from nor know how to monetize seems extremely futile, and places a dark cloud over my head.



I could really use some guidance. It's a shame I'm not religious.

Thoughts On Apple's Notebook Event

I've been looking forward to today's event for days. Watching Apple keynotes is always fun, and I've been contemplating getting a new Mac for months. I love my MBP, it's my first and only Mac, but with 2GB max of RAM, 80GB HD, and an ATY Radin X1600 gpu, I'm outgrowing it.

I can't really make any legitemate claims after the fact, but I actually saw most if not all of the changes coming. I was surprised when the Macbook Air didn't have the black border around the screen like the iMacs, and I figured the new MBP and MB would move to the Air's keyboard, and the beveled edges I suspected. When rumors of the glass trackpad arose, I figured those would be real too.

As much as I was looking forward to today's announcements, I'm pretty dissappinted. Unless Apple un-changes several things in the next refresh down the road, this may be my last Apple notebook. (Sorry for the drama but I'll probably just get an iMac instead.)

Why the dissapointment? In the new mac, they did away with nearly all of m favorite things from the last model:

1. the original MacBook pro keyboard that had no spaces and contoured to fit your fingertips
2. the rounded edges and corners, something completely unique to Apple's brand, but they scrapped it in favor of an ugly curved bezel that makes it look more like an HP than a Mac
3. the LED on the front that pulses slowly when the mac is asleep
4. the MATTE DISPLAY!!!!!, which was my overall favorite thing
5. The product line distinction between the Macbook and MacBook Pro with the white plastic vs aluminum

For that reason, I'm probably going to wait for new processors and integrated graphics units for iMacs. Either that or go ahead and get a referb.


--- Fin. ---

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

I'm leaving you.

I'm on tumblr now.
kbye.

Just bumping that rant down...

...bump.