BDC.com Blog

So, there is a big “debate” going on in my townhouse between the landlord and the residents.  About 1 year ago we started getting cockroaches in our kitchen crawling on the counter in the evenings.  This was all because (what was thought to be) food left on the counter from an ex housemate that is now parted the house.  Ever since they left there has been a large amount of cockroaches still there.  Also, ever since this housemate left we have been on the landlords case about taking care of the roach problem since none of us believe that we are the cause of the infestation.  The landlord has been unresponsive to requests to pay for bug control, and finally has mentioned that they only take care of repairing and fixing items due to general house wear and tear, and that the infestation of cockroaches is not their problem and the only way its going to be fixed is if the tenants pay for the roach control.  What is YOUR opinion on this?  Is the landlord right in not taking care of the bug problem and leaving it to us, or are the tenants right and the landlord should take care of this?

So, today (until I have a class at 4:30), I am going to study my book on electrodynamics listening to playlist of light classical music (randomly chosen by slacker.com) to see how my ADD is effected (i.e. do I stay focused longer or shorter).  I seem to lose focus almost too easily lately, and I’ve read something that suggest people with ADD who listen to music (i chose classical because they say words can be distracting) will stay focused longer. I am officially starting at 12:57PM today, and I will evaluate my attentiveness later tonight.

Edit: 2:50PM
This seems like it has some validity to it.  I have definitely gotten through much more of the reading than I would have without listening to the music.  There are definitely things happening in the background, there are many things that could possibly distract me, but it almost appears as if the music has a purpose of driving my brain back into focus.  I noticed the distractions, BUT, I noticed that I was always back at task almost instantly.  Since the reading has a lot of problems and example problems, I was also able to work through the example problems quite well, and without the help from others.  I have tried this without the music and I have trouble thinking through the problems as well as getting distracted halfway through the problem.  All positives so far, I am taking a break just to walk around and get loose again, my body was starting to ache from sitting in one spot/position for a while.

Edit: 4:00PM
Well, this ends the time I have to put into reading during my time on campus today.  I can definitely say that this theory has helped me out today and is definitely worth trying again, and possibly doing frequently.  I stayed focused so much easier, and although there were many distractions the music helped me bring my focus back.  I wouldn’t consider this evaluation a breakthrough by any means, but I’m cautiously optimistic of the results today, and I will try to comment later on in the month how well it helps in a prolonged usage.

Today I am going to give everyone advice on writing papers… Make sure your teacher gives you very detailed outline of how he/she wants the paper written!!! My teacher told us in the beginning of the semester that we have to write a 1-page compare/contrast paper on the readings for each week. If we happen to go over one page, print on the back to save paper. So… my first paper, I got a B+. I thought to myself “that’s a good grade.” … the thing she marked off on my paper was I needed two spaces between each sentence. I have never been told I needed two spaces. Anyways, I corrected that error for the following papers. The second paper… horrible… she crossed out ¾ of my paper and said too much summary. Okay so I can fix that. Paper three, I wrote less summary but it was still too much for her and I was not contrasting the readings well enough. The fourth paper I did great on… she crossed out my conclusion and that was all. For the fifth paper, I went over the first page by five lines. Therefore, I printed on the back like she said to in the first week of the semester… I got the paper back and she wrote, “I am only reading one page.” I thought it was okay to print on the back because she told us too. She also wrote on one paragraph of the paper, “Did you read?” The next paragraph discussing the other article she wrote “Too much summary.” … I cannot seem to come to a good equilibrium with this teacher. Okay on to paper six. I rushed to get this paper done, and I got the best grade out of all the other papers. My mistakes have been corrected finally. Then I get paper seven back… she crossed out the word female, and was not sure how I connected the two readings together. We discussed in class when we all got our papers back why we cannot use the word “female” in our papers. Although the other times I have used it, I was never marked off for it. She said it was degrading to us (women). She asked if we have ever heard men saying things like “there were a lot of females at the bar” or “look at all the females out tonight.” Out of the 20 students in my class, none of us has heard guys say statements like those. We have heard guys say the following when referring to the female gender: girls, hotties, shorties, ladies. We thought saying “female” was proper. Only to find out its not. Hmmm I have never learned this before. I wish she would tell us this kind of stuff in the beginning. She said all our previous teachers did not teach us how to write properly. The last paper I got back I did not do too badly. She said, “this is too general.” So… to anyone who reads this… ask your teachers what they want if they do not give you details so you can get a good grade on every paper. This is the worst class I have taken in my whole 3.5 years of college so far!!