Stress Relief.

It's only been the 2nd week into school and life has been nothing but hectic. Which explains my sudden absence from the blogosphere. Oh, the daily homework regime, weekly house practices, club meetings and extra tuition classes! The amount of homework has been increasing steadily over the past week. Being bombarded with essays and equations most of the days at such an early time of the year pretty much tears us all down already. Mind you, the weight of my bags is making me slouch over to prevent me from giving in to the pull of gravity. My hectic Mondays are even worse when I'm forced to choose between attending either my Additional Mathematics tuition class or house practice, both of which are decisions to be made on a lose-lose situation. To make things worse, the daily deprivation of sleep just seems to tear all my guard down at school, often resulting me into blinking profusely to keep myself awake.

Seriously. How do those excellent students manage to keep their grades and not miss a single activity in school or tuition classes without having to bear with dark circles around the eyes and appearing to school everyday looking prim and proper?! Here I am, struggling to keep my head above the mountain of unwritten essays while juggling to balance my club meetings and tuition classes besides trying to not look like a walking zombie! Do those students even stop to eat?

Things outside of school hasn't been of much help either. With the temperature rising lately, it's hard not to break a sweat during sleep without the help of an artificial cooling system or the fan blowing directly into my face, ruffling the pages of the textbook while I try to complete my homework drenched in sweat. Even Edward claims that it's hot both at home and at school! Seeing him fanning himself with money gotten after change, desperately trying to cool off... enough said! I've also took the liberty to switch places from the miserable corner in my class, cramped between the wall and another student, to the back of the class where at least I get some air circulation. To add things up, my computer's been running at a snail's pace lately too. The internet connection as well as the system itself. Running Photoshop is merely possible if I still want to have time for homework and tuition and waiting for Mozilla Firefox to load is equivalent to waiting for time to pass by in class!

It's really getting on my nerves. I cant help but realized myself morphing into some ferocious creature with a huge appetite to vent my frustration on people and things around me. Even the tiniest mistake can cause my protruding fangs and claws to glisten in angst. I'm not sure if the unpredictable weather or the tardiness of the computer is to be blame for my complete idiotic behavior but there are just a few things that I do to keep myself from sprouting hair and howling under the full moon.

Therapeutic Music.
Honestly. The wonders music can do to your emotions are amazing. It just soothes everything in your mind. Works like a lubricant to ease your thoughts for that short 3 minutes where you can scream your lungs out to anything. Preferably something vocally challenging! Can't say the same for me cause at times like this (when I'm all up in a bundle of nerves), I tend to opt for something less provocative. Think of Norah Jones (Not Too Late), Westlife (The Love Album), Lucie Silvas (The Same Side) and Take That (Beautiful World). Man, they really do help me ease my mind from midday woes and keep me from breaking down into insanity. Can't quite imagine doing my homework without the speakers playing Patience. Quite a source for inspiration and a good outlet for frustration if you ask me. Of course, on the more normal days, doses of Justin Timberlake, Nelly Furtado, Beyonce, Christina Aguilera, JoJo or Gwen Stefani shouldn't be too risky. Though, when things get really uncontrollable (running amok with pens and rulers!), there's always Joshua Radin (We Were Here), Josh Groban (Awake) John Mayer (Continuum), Jim Brickman and Kenny G to turn to for total relaxation.

Thankfully, so far, there hasn't been any complaints yet from the neighbors about my fetish for loud banging music (even the softest genre!)!

Couch Potato.
At a time crisis like this, possibly losing the internet to an earthquake, the television is probably the most reliable thing compared to the internet connection for a computer addict like me. The television comes the closest to staring into space through billions of pixels than doing it in front of your monitor screens. It sure beats the hell out of waiting for the damn Blogger page to load. What can I say? The remote control and the couch is like a match made in heaven! Provided, of course, if you're the type who is able to watch almost anything and everything aired on tele, including cartoons and music videos that's been aired for the hundredth time on MTV! Being
a worshiper fan of American Idol both of which can be seductively addictive at the same time. With American Idol coming back for their 6th season, I'm definitely going to be spending more time in front of the tele. I've gotta say, spending completely 2 hours sitting in front of the tele , watching thousands (or millions!) hopeless hopefuls audition to be the next Taylor Hicks can get somewhat excruciating after some time.

Especially when creatures from Lord of The Rings escapes from the forest for a chance to audition and then to tell Simon that he knows nothing. How very rude!

Priceless Photoshop.
So when there's no internet, I don't feel like blogging but I can't shake off the urge of wanting to edit photographs despite the lame fact that my computer's (more than) 8 years old and runs like crap. I get so elated when I can make wonders with Photoshop, like giving Grace a digital rhinoplasty and liposuction. Well, that's only for kicks but I really do get excited after being able to correct the worst photo or successfully follow a tutorial. Still, nothing beats the real fun and orgasm satisfaction out of getting the shots you want, first handed with the camera without post-editing. Nevertheless, getting so many comments and 'favorites' for the first time on Flickr! really boosted my confidence a little. What more when I got to be on Flickr's Explore for the first time! That's more than enough to compensate for the wait I had to go through to post those few pictures up on a time crisis like this, not to mention the time I took to Photoshop 'em!


Excessive Shopping.
Definitely one of the best ways to ease up all the nerves in that body... if I had the earnings to do so. Sad to say, neither mom nor dad can actually give me briefcases of cold hard cash to spend everytime I get frustrated. Even if they had the money, they'd be out of their minds to spoil me like that! Considering the fact that I don't even have my own credit card yet, excessive shopping is a big no-no for me. The good news is, I'm going out with Edward tomorrow and in one way or another, it's something positive that I've been looking forward to. We might not be swapping our credit cards that often but we're still hanging out at the mall and catching a movie or two! Hey, at least it's better than spending another Saturday at home, surfing the inevitably slow internet or wrestling with Edmund over the remote control! By the way, did I mention there'll be food tomorrow?

Afternoon Naps.
This method proved nonetheless flawed. Yeah, getting an afternoon nap - snoring away on the couch with the television left switched on - to get your mind away from school and homework can be almost deadly. I for one, has always been a heavy sleeper - being able to fall asleep easily given at any one time of the day has always been a plus for me. The problem is, once I get into my sleeping shoes, it's pretty hard for me to wake up before I pass 3-4 hours of afternoon, already taking up a hell lot of time for me to complete my homework or even do any revision. In other words, afternoon naps are time-consuming. Like that's not bad enough, afternoon naps can only turn me nocturnal as I find it extremely difficult to sleep then in the night. Almost impossible at times - rolling in bed till the wee hours and having panda-like eyes in the morning! Oh no!

Artificial Cool Air.
Has anyone ever told you air conditioning rocks? Seriously. Now I know why those aunties who gather at the nearby barbershop for their daily dose of gossips where I used get my haircut claims that they can't sleep without the air-conditions switched on. Here, I thought they were just bragging! I've been sleeping with the thing switched on for almost every night for about two weeks now considering how warm and humid my room can get in the middle of the night and sleep disruption is the last thing I need on my list when I'm lack of sleep most of the time. I don't want to get too dependent on it, though. Hell, the electricity bill it comes along with when used on a daily basis is shockingly high. Expensive or not, it saves me from waking up in the middle of the night, soaking wet, groping for my watch to see the freaking time!

Comfort Food.
Besides having supper at various nights, I have no comfort food to speak of. I don't hog on ice-cream while watching tele, I don't devour multiple packets of chips when I'm frustrated, neither do I cover smear my mouth with chocolate (although, I still have 3 different packets of packets of Freddo Frog chocolate in the fridge, untouched) and I definitely don't stuff myself with dozens of cups of instant noodles as if I was in the army. Which is a good thing actually, seeing how fat I already am. Still, eating does comfort the soul in some way (I just finished a whole packet of Famous Amos marshmallows which mom bought for Edmund!) . I find eating at restaurants (with mom) the best times when I actually drown myself in good food and company! We just tried Seoul Garden last week and I wasn't disappointed at all!

Now, what do you do when you're stressed?

P.S. : It's going to be the 20th tomorrow and if I'm not mistaken, Edward told me the internet connection will be recovering from the trauma and things will finally be back to normal, as reported by our broadband providers. Let's hope so.