California Fires ( Journal#22 )

As any natural disasters, fire is a very “destroying weapon”. It ruins everything on its way; no matter it is a live creature or a building. I have never seen mass fires before I came here. The air was so dry sometimes it was difficult to breathe. The wind was hot and strong. The air was filled with smoke and ashes. As a result, the sun was red during the dawn and during the sunset. It was so weird. The fire might begin as a result of a small spark. The squall helped to spread fire very quickly. I understand when fire starts because of an accident. Sometimes such thing happens and we can’t avoid it. But I can’t understand people who start fires intentionally. There must be some logical reasons like envy, revenge, mental illness or something else. Why did they do it? The consequences of fires were terrible. A lot of people lost their homes. Many houses were burgled after people had been evacuated.

Time Tips

1. Count all your time as time to be used and make every attempt to get satisfaction out of every moment.
2. Find something to enjoy in whatever you do.
3. Try to be an optimist and seek out the good in your life.
4. Find ways to build on your successes.
5. Stop regretting your failures and start learning from your mistakes.
6. Remind yourself, "There is always enough time for the important things." If it is important, you should be able to make time to do it.
7. Continually look at ways of freeing up your time.
8. Examine your old habits and search for ways to change or eliminate them.
9. Try to use waiting time-review notes or do practice problems.
10. Keep paper or a calendar with you to jot down the things you have to do or notes to yourself.
11. Examine and revise your lifetime goals on a monthly basis and be sure to include progress towards those goals on a daily basis.
12. Put up reminders in your home or office about your goals.
13. Always keep those long term goals in mind.
14. Plan your day each morning or the night before and set priorities for yourself.
15. Maintain and develop a list of specific things to be done each day, set your priorities and the get the most important ones done as soon in the day as you can. Evaluate your progress at the end of the day briefly.
16. Look ahead in your month and try and anticipate what is going to happen so you can better schedule your time.
17. Try rewarding yourself when you get things done as you had planned, especially the important ones.
18. Do first things first.
19. Have confidence in yourself and in your judgment of priorities and stick to them no matter what.
20. When you catch yourself procrastinating-ask yourself, "What am I avoiding?"
21. Start with the most difficult parts of projects, then either the worst is done or you may find you don't have to do all the other small tasks.
22. Catch yourself when you are involved in unproductive projects and stop as soon as you can.
23. Find time to concentrate on high priority items or activities.
24. Concentrate on one thing at a time.
25. Put your efforts in areas that provide long term benefits.
26. Push yourself and be persistent, especially when you know you are doing well.
27. Think on paper when possible-it makes it easier to review and revise.
28. Be sure and set deadlines for yourself whenever possible.
29. Delegate responsibilities whenever possible.
30. Ask for advice when needed.

Adapted from A. Lakein. How to Get Control of Your Time And Your Life
ÓAcademic Skills Center, Dartmouth College 2001

Time Management ( Journal#21 )

Sometimes we don’t notice that time runs very quickly, we can’t stop it, but we tend to spend our time as efficiently as possible. Time management helps us to organize our tasks and actions within a certain period of time. If people follow their schedules, people will become more organized. It is very important to be always on time: when you turn in your homework, research paper, documents and so on, when you have an appointment or a class, and when you have to do something before a deadline. When I try to organize my time I usually use following tips:

Prioritize assignments - you can begin with the most difficult or with the most important or with the most urgent subject. It is up to you. For example, if you have project assignment and the deadline is next week (Group Survey Project), it is better for you to begin with this subject.

Try to split your homework during the weekends. Don’t think that Sunday is an endless day and you can finish all your homework within one day. Usually it doesn’t work.

Write down things you have to do, and decide what you have to do now and what you can postpone for a later time period.

Watching television is not a waste of time ( Journal#20 )

All people have a leisure time. Some people prefer multitasking rest that is to spend their free time efficiently doing more than one thing at the same time, for instance, we can cook a dinner, watch TV and talk to our family. Others like no-brainer activities, which do not require people to think, for example taking relaxing bath with bubbles and candles. Some people can’t imagine their rest without television. Television is a great entertaining invention. Watching television is having a fun time but at the same time it’s a huge resource of useful information about our planet, people, animals, plants, history and scientific discoveries. Television is also an efficient tool to learn foreign languages. So watching television is not a waste of time, it is the process of having a great time.

First of all, television is a great relaxing tool. Sometimes when people come home, especially if they have had a hard and full of events day, they want to relax and to distract from heavy thoughts. People usually turn on TV in order to watch a good heart touching movie or a very funny comedy. For example, the film “Sense and sensibility” is a captivating romantic comedy with Emma Thompson, Alan Rickman, Kate Winslet and Hugh Grant in main roles. This movie is based on Jane Austen’s classic novel, the intriguing plot of the film catches audience’s attention and leads them through Dashwood sisters’ hardships, when Elinor’s and Marianne’s chances at marriage seem doomed by their family’s sudden loss of fortune. When we watch a comedy, funny moments make us laugh; laughing helps us to relax and to get rid of stress and tension inside of us.

In addition, television is an efficient educational tool. Such channels as Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, History Channel, National Geographic Channel and Travel Channel introduce us historical events, scientific discoveries, beautiful places of interests, distant countries, incredible resources of human body, life of wild animals and other treasures of our amazing blue planet. For example, Discovery Channel broadcasts the program “Blue Planet”, which tells us about different marine inhabitants, their fight for being alive and passing on the genes to further generations. At last, television is a great tool of learning foreign languages. When foreign student watch TV they both enrich their vocabulary and develop their listening skills.

In sum, some people can say that watching television is a waste of time; however I strongly believe that advantages of watching TV outweigh its disadvantages.

The New Year ( Journal#19 )

Halloween is a scary holiday of spirits and ghosts, people wear terrifying costumes, play jokes at each other, tell horror stories and so on. This holiday is not popular in my country. The most popular occasion in my country is the New Year. The whole family usually gathers together, we cook holiday dinner, present gifts, decorate New Year tree and just have fun with our relatives. During the day we take children to the local kindergarten, school or youth center, where kids can see a huge and beautiful New Year tree and take part in celebrating holiday with Santa Claus and his granddaughter Snowgirl. Children usually play games, read rhymes, sing New Year songs, dance around the tree and get candies. All children wear different costumes, the most famous are spider man, batman, hair, snowflake, princess and pirate. All kids are so cute and funny. They aren’t afraid to be ridiculous and they enjoy the whole process very much. The New Year is a holiday of believing in magic and making wishes.

One Terrible Morning ( Journal#18 )

It was the most terrible morning in my life. First, It was 3 o’clock in the morning, Sunday – I was seeing the sweet dream, only my neighbor’s dog didn’t sleep, he needed attention. I thought it wouldn’t last for a long time, but the dog was barking for two hours. I wanted to kill him however I covered my head with the pillow and tried to fall asleep again. Secondly, it was 5 a.m. when the sound of trickling water woke me up. I got up in order to check the source of the sound. The floor in my kitchen was covered with the water which was pouring from the ceiling. I rushed into the bathroom and brought a big bowl. Then I quickly gathered the water with a rag. I hurried upstairs” to talk” to my neighbor. Of course, he was not at home or he didn’t want me to know that he was at home. However he didn’t open the door. Finally, I couldn’t get into my apartment as I forgot to take my key and the door was slammed by draft. So it was 5:15 a.m. I was staying in the doorway; I was wearing my dressing gown and slippers. I had no choice I woke up my neighbor with the dog and asked him for a phone call. I don't think that he was very happy to see me at 5 o'clock in the morning. At the end I was rescued by my sister.

"Pride and Prejudice" ( Journal#16 )

There are a lot of different kinds of books – adventure stories, detectives, love novels and so on. I can say that my favorite movie is “Pride and Prejudice” drama serial with Jennifer Ehle as Elizabeth Bennet and Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy. First, I like this film due to professional play of actors and “ideal” casting. Finding the right actor for the film is one the most important parts of successful movie. In my opinion all main actors and actresses fit each other perfectly. They really feel their characters – manners, mimics, habits and behavior. Their professional play makes the audience think that you can find better Mr. Darcy that Colin Firth. Secondly, the film is adapted from Jane Austin’s novel “Pride and Prejudice”. But the dialogues don’t loss their impressiveness. Every speech draws your attention. How they reply for ambiguous questions and how they avoid undesirable questions and themes keep your attention all the time. In addition, it is a really beautiful movie, the see sights of nature, “Pemberley” and “Longbourne” houses, the costumes for the drama are astonishing and amazing. This movie makes me feel the spirit of that time. It always leaves a feeling of calm and happiness in my soul.

The Place I Dream to Go ( Journal#17 )

If I could visit any place in the world I will go to my country, because now I am dreaming of going home. As you know home is the best place in the world, even if you have an awesome and fun time abroad, you will think about going back to your country. The first reason is that my family and my friends are there and I miss them very much. But I can’t afford to go home now because I have to finish my study here. In addition, my country is really very far from here and I can go home maximally only once a year. For example, it took me 33 hours to come here and I assume it will take almost twice much time to go back. The second reason is that my country is the best place for me to spend my vacations because there are a lot of delightful and wonderful places to relax and enjoy my free time. I can go to the mountains with my friends and organize picnic on the fresh air. Or I can go to the Issyk-Kul Lake with my sister and enjoy mild breeze, tender sun and warm sand. Finally, fruits and vegetables have sharp flavor and scent in my country. I don’t have to worry about it is organic or not, because everything is grown in my garden. In summer when I am outside I can detect the smell of ripe apples, peaches or apricots. Now I can say that it is an amazing feeling.

Speed Ride ( Journal#15 )

Do you like extreme? When your heart almost stop beating because of fear or extreme danger. When you can’t control the situation and you are within a hair’s breadth from a possible death. I don’t like this feeling, that’s why I had never tried a high speed ride before I went with my friends to the Universal Studio. The first try was absolutely unexpected. It was an amusement park with a very peaceful name “Mummy”. I assumed that it was a museum, but my assumption was very far from the truth. It was a high speed ride in the dark. While I and my friends were going to take our places in a cart, someone told me that I could relax and enjoy an exciting “journey”. So I made myself comfortable in the seat and ready to see some wonderful pictures or scenes. When the cart began moving very fast, I realized that it was my nightmare. Thanks to God it was absolutely dark, so nobody could see my scared face with a widely opened mouth and tightly shut eyes. I screamed so loudly that it was impossible for me to hear surrounding people. Finally the cart stopped and warm humid air covered our bodies. It was terrible. My heart was beating so fast it sounded like a drum roll, my body was shaking and my brain stopped working as it was paralyzed. Other guys were excited and impressed but I didn’t share this feeling with them. When I went out only one thought came to my mind: “I love to feel firm ground under my feet.”