The Final Week

I'm still alive. By some stroke of luck I haven't collapsed or gone insane like some of my fellow peers but more on that later.

So, from these two posts you can tell I've had my work cut out for me. Well as I mentioned before my workload had suddenly tripled. Some of you may remember my research problems, numerous technical errors and other small problems impeding the project. Good news is that I finally fixed everything and was able to start running people through it.

The bad news was I had 4 days left until the end of the term and I still needed 15 hours worth of data to go through. This required me to stay on Campus until 8PM several times. Plus there was the day that I forgot my key, and the day that the printer stopped working. Tons of fun little disruptions.

This also stole time away from the rest of my work. And if you know anything about me, I compensate for less time, by not resting.

And babies and dead people.

But that's not all! I realized that on the same Wednesday my papers were due I had not only a presentation to prepare for, but I was also expected to lead a discussion on a paper for a seminar. Things were not looking good for me.

I am pretty good at BS'ing my way through things. It's one of my few talents. But there's a limit to how much I can pull off. And on that cold Wednesday morning, April 11th, I was staring at a computer screen and realizing I had hit that limit. There was no way I could prepare for both presentations and papers even if I pulled another all-nighter. Scrambling for a solution I began reading through syllabi, hoping for some of salvation.

And then I saw it.

Developmental Paper Due Friday April 13.

Friday 13.

Friday. 

 

This was pretty much my expression.

I had got the due date wrong, I had more time than I anticipated. And with this new information I focused on my other work. It gave me enough time to focus on my other paper and the two presentations. All in all, I thought that Wednesday went fairly well. Well, as well as a day can go when you have that many things to do and turn in.

At the moment I'm finishing up my last paper. I have everything planned out it's just a matter of putting it altogether in a coherent fashion. If I'm lucky, I might be able to go to bed soon and sneak in 2 hours of sleep before class.

But another unexpected problem popped up. Who remembers the friend that I had that probably had some form of mental problem? The guy who was possibly doing and saying a lot of things for attention seeking purposes? Well he's back and crazier than ever. And not in a good way.

Seriously dude, go back to your therapist. There's nothing I can do for you anymore.

So I walk into class, Yu comes to sit beside me and goes "Hey man, Damian look at this."

He rolls up his sleeves and all over his arms are these cuts and slashes. He's written words like FOCUS and A++++ all over his forearms. And I'm sitting there in disbelief, I mean, this is what Junior High kids do to themselves, not 4th year University students ready to graduate.

And when I ask how he's doing it, he reaches into his bag and pulls out... 

A scalpel. Like, the kind of scalpel that a surgeon would use.

And then here's where it gets even better. He starts cutting himself. IN THE MIDDLE OF THE LECTURE. 

Just. Why.

So I'm sitting there, trying to concentrate on what the prof is saying while Yu is sitting beside me, wincing in pain as he's slicing his arms up. At one point he even goes "Hey man, here you go." And dumps a chunk of skin in front of my laptop.

I tried my best to ignore him but inside I'm starting to panic a bit. I half expected him to go feral and start stabbing me. And I hope no one dares ask why I didn't try to take the scalpel away from him (which he claims came from his Anatomy class). Would you want to try and wrestle a sharp object from a potentially deranged person? No? Neither would I.

For whatever reason, he also decided to make a Facebook status update inbetween his cutting sessions. Something along the lines of "SOS, someone on campus help me please!". And well, he got his help. Some people responded and due to mutual friends I managed to get a group of people to escort Yu to some mental health clinic. I couldn't go with him, I had research stuff to do.

But what really caused me to shake my head was as Yu left, he turned to me and said:

"Yo Damian, my arms really hurt.".

GEE. I WONDER WHY.

(I cannot wait for this term to end.)

My Little Rant

I'm just warning everyone beforehand that this post is going to be somewhat whiny. I've had my monthly quota of nonsense and I really don't want anymore. So if you don't enjoy hearing blog posts about people venting about their lives, ignore my post and leave a comment below about sea urchins.

Because they're delicious.

But the source of my irritation comes from people. For whatever reason I appear to be the go-to person whenever someone has issues with their life. Maybe it's because I'm getting a degree in Psychology. And you know what? Usually I don't mind.

But a friend of mine has a problem, actually, he has numerous problems. And he's kind of a drama king. Imagine if the Annoying Facebook Girl was Asian and male and bam, you have this guy.

. . . .

See, the thing about him is that it's partially not his fault, so he claims. He probably does have some form of mental or anxiety disorder that causes him to be like this. HOWEVER, this does NOT justify posting your every thought or whine on your Facebook wall. And then texting me how the girl you like doesn't like you and going into detail about your session with your psychologist.

And he exaggerates and/or lies a lot too. So I half the time I'm doubting what he says. One moment he's telling me he's going to run away to Montana, next minute he tells me that the police broke into his house because they thought he was going to commit suicide. Then he's going into detail about how smoking medicinal marijuana is awesome because it helps with his schizophrenia.

Sad thing is, half the above is true and/or happened. I'm not telling which.

But then I had another friend who was depressed and suicidal. And it's not fun, often dealing with both these people simultaneously. It's very draining especially when when one guy clearly just wants attention and the other guy refuses to seek professional help. Usually all I could do was sit, listen and offer my unprofessional opinion on what to do.

After a few weeks, 1 guy is better (I hope), and the other guy is still talking about devices to enlarge his various body parts. Myself, I'm growing apathetic to people's problems.

Ugh...

Oh and to make things better Theresa is refusing to talk to me. I'm receiving her infamous cold shoulder for whatever reason. Normally I would just attribute it to stress and schoolwork but I can still see you being active on Facebook talking to other people. And even when you were really busy you'd still send me a text or instant message. Meanwhile I haven't seen her in a week and she hasn't communicated with me in days. It's clear she's avoiding me.

And you know what, fine, be that way. I'm tired of dealing with people and the apathy is spreading to other parts of my social life. Whenever you're ready to talk with me again I'll be here waiting. I'm not going to you and finding out what the problem is. I've had enough of other people's problems.

Precisely.

I'll have a post about the China trip on Sunday, including answers to a majority of the questions people asked. I just needed a post to vent about personal problems because I really don't have anywhere else to. Normally I'd talk to Theresa but I can't go to someone who currently wants nothing to do with me.