Feisty’s College Connection: Never ask for an extension again

Posted on by Sandy

Today I’m going to teach you two tricks to get great grades without asking for extensions and without pulling all-nighters. I got straight-As for seven years of post-secondary education and never once stayed up all night to do it. Here’s how you can, too. Because nothing is as guaranteed to create garbage results, cause tons of stress, and turn you into a walking zombie as starting to write a paper at 3 a.m. on the day it’s due. Trust me.

 

Trick #1: Set aside 1-2 hours a day for assignments, and plan them out now

By now, you should have already put all your exam dates and assignment due dates into your agenda or calendar program. (If you haven’t, do this right now before continuing to read.) If you have, you’ve already realized an unfortunate truth: deadlines are cowards, so they attack in groups. You might not have anything due this week, but when midterms hit, you might face two exams and three assignments in a single week.

The only way to tackle this is by planning for it now. For every assignment and exam, figure out how much time it will take you. Break it down into 1-2 hour tasks if possible. Then figure out when you’re going to do these tasks and write them into your agenda.

Got two assignments due on the same day? Which are you going to tackle first? Or are you going to stagger them? Plan it now. Write it down! Yes, you might find yourself starting a few weeks earlier than anyone else in your class, but it’ll pay off when you can go out on partying the night before the deadline, stress-free.

 

Trick #2: Add an extra 30%

Okay, you’ve got all your dates set for assignment prep and study time. You’re ready to go, right? Not so fast! Now I want you to go back and add more days. For every 3 days you’ve set aside, add one more. Don’t assign a specific task to these sessions, just let them sit there.

These extra days are for the inevitable printer malfunction, emergency library trip, and flaky partner. You don’t want to have a perfectly-planned schedule, only to get thrown off on day 2 because the book you want isn’t in the library or Internet connection died. Professors have heard every excuse there is, and when you say, “I  need an extension,” they hear, “I haven’t started yet.” I used to be a T.A. Trust me on this one. Don’t force your professors into that situation: plan the extra sessions.

 

One last tip: If you do find yourself needing an extension, ask early and be honest. I asked for one (and only one) extension during my university career, because I had been in the hospital with a serious asthma attack and had no energy for three days. I let my prof know as soon as I got out of the hospital, showed him the doctor’s note, and got a 3-day extension. Extensions are meant for these kinds of emergencies. Don’t fall back on them because of poor planning. You’ll be doing your professors (and yourself) a great service.

 

Attention Bond Grrls “of a certain age”:

Have you realized that all these tips apply to work life as well? Everyone has deadlines, and the sooner you start planning for them, the less you’ll need to work evening and weekend shifts to meet them.

Biggest Loser 2009

Posted on by Sandy

SO, this year, after 2 years of just basically “letting it all hang out” (meaning – I have a James that loves champagne, foie gras, and all things lovely and fattening!) I am in a Biggest Loser contest. A few gals in my neighborhood and I decided that instead of spending the $ for Weight Watchers, etc., we would meet once a week, weigh in, and support each other on Facebook.

We each paid $100 – and we are paying it out 25% first month, 25%, and then 25% last month, with an extra 25% to the person who loses the biggest percentage overall. Each month, it “re-ratchets” so that anyone could win – your weigh at the beginning of the 2nd month (and the 3rd month) is your “zero.”

So, I won the first month! $225 to me – yay!! I have lost 7.46% of my body weight. My body fat since 1/5 has gone from 29.40% to 24.50%, my hydration from 50.10% to 54.60%, and my muscle from 34.30% to 37.30%.

I want to win the 2nd month, too! I am 1/2 way to where I want to be (weight at my wedding 2 years ago). And given that…time to get out and exercise!

 

Memories of World War I by Robinson Shepard (my Grandpa) – page 2

Posted on by Sandy

[continuation of my grandfather’s typewritten notes; see previous post for title page and page 1]

 

Some of the artillery, having been drafting, came by and got sore and they wrote to the Boston Herald and they printed it, that while we enlisted, wedid it to escape the draft, and so we could choose the Signal Corps, the “least dangerous” branch. A few days later our Major Fanning, who after the war was Chief of Operations at Filene’s station, had a letter printed in the Herald where he said “in response to the artillery” he had looked up on Company A and found that all but one were under 21 and that the “one” was over 30, so they wouldn’t have been drafted as the draft age was 21 to 30. Furthermore, the enlistee could choose his branch, and “these boys” chose the Signal Corps, the second most ~dangerous~ in the Army – the Engineers being the first, most dangerous. That statistics showed that the Signal Corps was eleven times more dangerous than the Artillery! That shut them up, but we had to take up the stones as it created bad feeling. I have a picture of those stones.

We practiced the semaphore and wigwag and had two sending sets. One on the end of a truck powered by the engine. It was an old white Truck and the transmission had an extra speed to turn the generator. The other was a hand generator which turned like a grind stone (very hard).

We were supposed to be mounted, and eventually the horses came, “direct from the West” as we were told. None of us, or very few, knew anything about horses, so everyone tried to pick a horse as lethargic looking as possible. As a matter of fact, T. W. Harris’ horse “Two Bits” stopped during a ride, lay down, and went to sleep. T.W. got off and I guess waited until the horse woke up. My horse “Pegasus” never did anything, but a slow walk, for which I was thankful, until one day two of us met a motorcycle. In spite of all we could do, our horses turned around, took after the motorcycle, and passed him. He later said he was going 25 miles per hour. The horses headed for the barn and when nearly there, made a right angle turn at full speed. I wasn’t ready for that so made only part of the turn and landed on a pile of ice. My companion, can’t remember who he was, wasn’t as fortunate. He stuck on until the horse entered the barn, when a beam over the door struck him full in the face and knocked him unconscious. No bones broken though.

One other horse incident. On Christmas Day 1917, I was on “stable duty” (detail) and had to see that no horse or mule was loose. Usually several were and they had to be tied up. I started to enter one stall and got kicked in the knee, doubling it backwards (I thought) but I landed in the opposite stall, the only empty one of the 36. I don’t like to think what would have happened had I landed in the stall of another horse.

That winter of 1917 was cold. Once I saw the thermometer 55 below zero. I have a picture of the boys wearing their overcoats and trying to keep warm near the “furnace” in the center of the barracks.

Introducing Feisty: The Bond Grrl College Correspondent

Posted on by Sandy

Hi, everyone! Sandy has generously allowed me to fill a niche in the reading audience: the college-bound Bond Grrl. College presents quite a few hazards for would-be Bond Grrls: cramped quarters, mediocre meals, and pressure to get good grades, be a party animal, and find your life purpose… all at the same time! But college also offers a host of opportunities: the independence of being on your own, the chance to find a passion, and the dynamic of a student body tens or hundreds of times bigger than your high school. There’s a lot of responsibility, but there’s also a lot of opportunity to shine.

I’m here to tell you the tricks I learned while getting my Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees. Sometimes I lived with my mom, sometimes I lived in a 1,000-person dorm in a different city. Sometimes I was single, sometimes I had a “James.” Through it all, I was a straight-A student, an executive in a student club, and a social butterfly. I tutored, wrote for a college paper, and hosted medieval feasts.

I’m here to show you how your college experience can be just as rich. I’ll teach you how to get stellar grades without pulling all-nighters. How to party without ending the night face-first in the toilet bowl. How to find a passion and surround yourself with like-minded friends. We’ll talk about lofty things like living your dreams and day-to-day stuff like dorm-room essentials.

In the end, I want to help you make your years at college be everything you want them to be.

 

Attention Bond Grrls “of a certain age”: 

Okay, maybe the last time you wrote a college exam the Berlin Wall was still standing and Friday night was disco fever. Don’t click away just yet! I bet you have a daughter, niece, or family friend who could use this advice. Consider passing it along, so she can have the college experience you did… or wish you did!

The Buffalo Principle….

Posted on by Sandy

{a joke we heard in a Sedona bar over the Holidays – my lord, I have a lot of notes to blog about!)

(First Guy) I drink because of the “Buffalo Principle.” You see, buffaloes travel in packs, and wolves take the slow and weak. This is how brain cells work.”

(Other Guy) How’s that?

(First Guy) Well, you see, alcohol is like the wolves. It only takes the slow and weak brain cells. So I only drink ‘for the good of the herd.’  Cheers!

🙂

Memories of World War I – by Robinson Shepard (my grandpa): Where he talks about hearing on the wireless the Carpathia pick up survivors of the Titanic

Posted on by Sandy

This is the cover page and page one of the typewritten sheets that I received from my uncle:

 

Born: August 23, 1896 in Bangor, Maine (his mother’s home)

Enlisted in the Signal Corps, May 10, 1917

Landed in Cardiff, Wales on July 31st having left by Troop Train on July 8th or 9th for trip overseas.

Arrived at the front lines near the end of August.

Armistice, then stayed at Saizerais detailed to YMCA until March 2, 1919.

Attended Besancon University from March 5 to June 25.

Return: On July 9 left France and arrived in Hoboken July 17th, discharged at Mitchell Field July 23 and finally home July 24, 1919.

Written from memory and with the help of diaries kept while in the service and at Besancon, in March 1975 while recuperating from a heart attack on February 1, 1975.

The diaries have, of course, day by day detail of the YMCA period and also of the college months.

I don’t remember when I first became interested in science, particularly physics. However, four classmates of Franklin High School 1914, built “wireless sets.” (Henry Prescott, Maurice Gilchrist, Harry Atkins and I.) Father had a lumber lot and he had a tall straight tree brought home (106 Prospect Street), and placed back of the house, like this:

1

1

1 house

and all of us boys, working together, made an “umbrella” antenna, wires like the ribs of an umbrella supposed to receive from all directions. Worked good – got SL1 (Sayville, Long Island), NAD (Charlestown Navy Yard), hte station on top of Filene’s (first station in Boston), official time from NAA (Arlington, Virginia). My greatest thrill was in 1912, listening to messages from the Carpathia picking up survivors from the Titanic.

 

Since the physics teacher in high school didn’t even mention “electricity” (a most important part of physics), I went to Andover for a year so I could get into Harvard. At Harvard during the freshman year, I joined the Wireless Club (4-25-16). The “Manager” of the club was a boy named Dallin, son of  the sculptor Cyrus Dallin who made the statue “Appeal to the Great Spirit.”

Newt Monk and I, on the same shift, logged stations all over the world: FL, The Eiffel Tower; YN, Lyons, France; Australia, etc. Many funny things (incidents) like the amateur who was very slow on the code got another to slow down and told him he was in Brookline, Massachusetts where it was bitterly cold and a lot of snow. The other said he was in Los Angeles, his window was open and the aroma of roses was coming in! We looked up the call letters and “Los Angeles” was just around the corner from “Brookline”!

 

My greatest “thrill” here was when the Tufts College station kept calling until most others were off the air, then said “Do you want to hear some music?” Everyone jumped on his key and said:

— .– — / . / … / (“Yes”)

 

Then we heard a very tinny Yankee Doodle. It sounded wonderful, the first time any of us had heard anything but dots and dashes.

So I took mostly sciences and when a recruiter named Russell came around several of us enlisted in The Signal Corps, May 10, 1917.  War had been declared April 6, 1917. The recruiter said we would be in the 26th, Yankee, Division and train at Ashbury Park, NJ, but we got to the 76th (draftees) division and trained at Camp Devens, Mass.

 

In World War I, there was considerable feeling between the enlistees and the draftees. When we landed in Fort Devens, we were the only enlisted outfit in the division. We whitewashed some stones in front of Company A, mostly from Harvard, and B from Dartmouth and C (general), but A was the “Wireless” Company barracks. We made the signal flags (insignia) and the words 301st Radio Volunteers. It is the first time I remember the word “Radio” being used.

[That’s enough for today! :-)]

I’m Baaaa-ack!!!!!!

Posted on by Sandy

OK, so this is where the picture of Jack Nicholson from “The Shining” goes…right?

SO, my computer went down quite spectacularly at the end of last year. You know, the end of the year SUCKED, in fact. 2 friends with cancer. Car died. Computer died. Dog needed surgery. Blah blah blah. I’m SO done with that!

Anyway – so in “blowing up spectacularly” (sparks, smell….), somehow the computer took down the way for me to get to my WordPress Dashboard. We kept trying to sign in the way we had before (because, of course), the cookies were not going to be on the new computer, etc. – it just didn’t work.

My ever-suffering husband, however, “backsearched” through some magic computer Stuff, and wound up getting me back in this weekend.  WA-HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

SO, what’s new? First of all, I am sadly NOT going to be able to post the podcasts that I had done for the “Emergency Holiday Podcasts” – I got one up, and then KA-BOOM….! – So it’s all dated. I will re-do them, because I think they were good (especially with respect to financial stuff) – it’s just no longer Christmas!

HOWEVER, I ~am~ going to have a new contributor to the Blog – My Bond Grrl “Feisty.” She had some great ideas. She’s just at the end of college and definitely knows how to apply the fEmpowerment ideas to those of you in this “time of life”!! These are the thoughts she’s had so far:

– Dorm diet: indulge in the luxuries
– Avoiding the Freshman 15 without hitting the gym
– Living your passion at college
– Studying like a Bond Grrl
– What to bring to a Bond Grrl dorm room (and what to leave at home)
– Remember why you’re at college (ie: a post about new experiences and getting your degree)
– How to party in style without falling face-first into a toilet
Sounds great, huh??? I’m hoping that our work together might even lead to a second, co-authored book aimed with this audience in mind! (Go Feisty, Go!)
Anyway, so on a completely separate subject, this Holiday season, my uncle sent all of us a copy of a typewritten diary that my Grandfather had written, with respect to his time fighting in World War I. I think this is so cool, that I’m going to type it in and post it here. One thing that I really miss is the fact that I never really “knew” my grandparents – one set was in New Hampshire, one was in Florida, and we were in California. Then, they passed fairly early. If you have your family close by (or even if you don’t), maybe it’s time to hone your “Bond Girl Skills” and find out bits about them? Those “Grandfather Remembers” and “Grandmother Remembers” books are great – even better if you can ask them the questions. My grandma (this grandfather’s wife) actually filled a couple of those out for me – because she loved to write. But Grandpa was pretty laconic (a definite New Hampshire man!), and so I’m so excited that my uncle found this information.
I am going to be reading as I’m typing – so you will find out as I do! Then….back to podcasting and all that jazz!

Step AWAY from the Stuffing! EMERGENCY PODCAST: How To Survive – and Thrive! – During the Holidays!

Posted on by Sandy

How to Survive – And Thrive! – during the Holiday Season! In this first of the Emergency Holiday Podcasts, we return to Scott Smith, my Motivational Guru from MotivationToMove.com. Scott is one of my Secret Weapons, and I’m sharing him with YOU.

Are you having an issue with Will Power? Are you stressed out? Have you just tiptoed up to the precipice and looked over…into the abyss of Holiday Feasting Madness? Scott’s here to give you a lift – and a plan.

Here are the links that Scott mentions in the interview:

The MotivationToMove.com Holiday Survival Guide

Free Premium MotivationToMove.com Membership

Enjoy and… Step AWAY from the marshmallow yams!!!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 38:59 — 35.8MB)

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San Fran “Bike The Bay” Tour

Posted on by Sandy

Who’s considering coming to San Francisco?

I just found this website – and it’s great fun.  It has about 500+ photos on it, info on biking across the Golden Gate Bridge, etc.

Best – it has a FREE 43 page document titled Bike the Bay in 1/2 a Day, Your Way. It’s an itinerary that takes you from Downtown San Francisco to the Ferry Building, along the Embarcadero, past Fisherman’s Wharf, through the Presidio, across the Golden Gate Bridge, down the hill into Sausalito and ferry back to The City. There’s more – 15 sites in all, and 75 photos. It’s all fun and free. 

Want to see where I live? Check this out 🙂

1. Go to the link: http://www.QuirkySanFrancisco.com

2. Fill in your name and email address; then click on the button: Bike the Bay in 1/2 a Day, and you’ll be enrolled (no obligation – I checked).

Even if coming to “Cali” isn’t on your priority list (or budget) soon, the photos might change your mind!!!

Erotic Integrity Podcast – Interview with Dr. Claudia Six (“Six on Sex”)

Posted on by Sandy

Last week, I had the honor of being interviewed by Dr. Claudia Six from “Six on Sex.”  (I’m still having trouble uploading photographs, but if you click on the link above, you will be able to see Dr. Six). Dr. Six and I both attended the same school for Sexology, it turns out, though she went on to get her doctorate; she has her Ph.D. in Clinical Sexology and is Board Certified by the American Board of Sexology.

Dr. Six has a great podcast, which is about Erotic Integrity. She interviews local personalities about what Erotic Integrity means to them, and how Erotic Integrity shows up in their work and in their lives. As stated by Dr. Six, “Erotic Integrity is about the humanity of sex, not the acrobatics. It’s about being true to one’s erotic self.”

I strongly recommend downloading and listening to her podcasts. Dr. Six is a fantastic person, and a wealth of information! Not only that, Sheila Kelley’s S Factor has offered anyone who listens to the podcast and mentions it to their local S Factor half off on an introductory S Factor session through 2008. I discussed how working out at S Factor really has helped me to release my “Erotic Creature,” and S Factor has generously offered the ability to any of Dr. Six and my listeners!

Here are a couple of other links that we discuss in the podcast:
Dr. Michael Roizen and Dr. Mehmet Oz’s website (put “sex” in the Search Box in the very top, blue bar to get some of the sex facts that we discuss in the podcast)

Sheri’s Ranch website link

Click below to listen to the interview:

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 27:51 — 25.5MB)

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