*Nerd Alert*

Ok, I am a nerd.  I admit that I like to play D&D, and I secretly like Star Trek.  I haven’t played in a long time, but I have a group that is getting ready to start up a game, I am introducing actually playing D&D to my sister, who has learned about it via YouTube.

I am currently obsessed with a live stream on Tuesday nights run by the amazeballs DM Chris Perkins.  It’s on Twitch.  Right now he is running a 5^th edition game of Curse of Strahd on Twitch.  While this game has its light moments, it is actually pretty dark.  Holly Conrad plays a neurotic Teifling Sorcerer named Strix.  Evlyn is a Human Paladin and servant of Lathander (also known as the Morninglord) and is played by Anna Prosser Robinson.  Evlyn happens to be the overly upbeat and oblivious whacking stick of the party.  Jared Knabenbauer plays a Human Rogue named Diath (he isn’t so much a thief as he is a treasure hunter).  Diath really is the voice of reason.  Last, but not least, is Paultin the Human Bard who is played by Nathan Sharp.  Obviously the bard is the partier of the group.  He is proficient in castanets, lute, and bagpipe.  They accidentally named themselves the Waffle Crew on the first episode.  So if you are on twitter and wonder why #wafflecrew is trending—that is why.

Ok, I have nerded out way more than I should.  However, if you are curious about these games, or are interested, do a YouTube search.  You will be amazed what you find.  It is fun, and better than regular television, unless you know, you like to watch 90 minutes of political ads and 5 minutes of television programs.

Tour de Planner

So, today, I will be talking about my personal planner.  It is something that I cannot live without.  It allows me to keep everything organized (due dates, exams, quizzes, lectures, cancelled classes, etc.).  I use this like another part of my body.  I am lost when I don’t have it.  It seems silly to say that, but my planner is everything.

I have tried so many different premade planners, and I have found that none fit me in every way.  The Arc Notebook System from Staples has become something of a blessing because I change my mind on planners so much.  I also use my Arc for my notes and school stuff, not just my planner.  I like to have all of my information at hand in one place.  It is great because I can pull things out of my planner and put other things in at a whim.  I create my own planner inserts, because I can hybrid what I like between several types of planners into one single planner.  Since my needs are constantly changing, my planner also constantly is changing.

At the moment, you can see that I have adopted the vertical planner method.  I love the look of it, and I feel that it works really well because I have the boxes divided up as morning, afternoon, and evening.  I decided to try this particular method because the horizontal planner wasn’t working for me.  This specific type that you see in my post still is only a working copy.  I plan on adding a chronodex at the bottom this summer to see how it works out.  I stumbled across this particular little gem while browsing bullet journals on Pinterest.  It is a good way to glimpse a day’s schedule without perusing the entire day’s entries.

I kept looking at the Erin Condren Life Planner, and they are awesome.  However, I can tell by looking at them, that they didn’t fit 100% of what I was looking for.  As beautiful as they are, I can’t bring myself to spend that kind of money on something that isn’t going to work completely.  So, I created something similar (not exact, mind you, but something similar that kind of works for me).  I love the colors of the Erin Condren, but they weren’t going to work for me.  I have found that since I color code and decorate my planner with printables from websites, I feel that grey is the best option for me.  It is pretty boring without decorations, so I am compelled to decorate my planner.  In the future, I will post my go-to places for free printables, and there are a TON!  I think I have a list of 20-ish?  Also, there are really cute stickers at Etsy as well (being the poor college student I am, I rely on mostly freebies and ones I make myself).

So, these are just the past few weeks of my planner and how they look.  At the end of the semester, there are classes that get cancelled and stuff gets shifted around.  Sometimes I even get stuff done before hand, and I don’t post it in my weekly layout.

Download my 2016 planner here!  For personal use only!!  Do not alter this and call it your own please, this was work I did and thought I’d be nice and share with everyone since I get asked where I get my planners and note pages.  If you like it drop me a line/tweet (@CoffeeConfessor).  Let me know if you have any requests or ideas, I will put it in my queue to do!

Rainbows of Colors

With the spring semester over, I am now able to concentrate more on my blog.  Last Thursday, I got an e-mail saying that they cancelled my Intro to Computer Programming class, so I am going to take it in the fall, and this summer I am going to take Anthropology.  I figure since I am not looking forward to the class anyway, I might as well take it in a shortened version where it only lasts until the end of June.  I still have my two other online courses:  Visual Literacy and Digital Photography.

Being the type-A personality I am, I try to remain organized (sometimes it doesn’t remain so).  I color code my classes and use a planner.  I have noticed that the busier I am, the easier it is to stay organized.  Today’s post is just about the tools I use to ensure that I stay organized.  I use colored pens (my favorite are the Paper Mate InkJoy pens) and my Pilot Frixion erasable highlighters.  They are imports from Japan, but totally worth th
e money on Amazon.  I got a really good deal at Staples on the InkJoy pens.  I signed up for them to send me coupons, and I got a pack of 14 colorful pens that usually run about $25.00 for half the price.  So, I jumped on that bandwagon.  I don’t get paid to endorse these companies, I just really love their products.  The Pilot Frixion pastel highlighters are awesome.  I got mine from Amazon.com.  They were about $7.00.  I used to use Pilot Frixion
Gel Pens from Japan, but they ran out of ink quickly.  As much as I loved them, I didn’t even finish a semester before the ink was out of them.

              After that happened, I switched back to my Staedtler Triplus Fineliner pens—I love them, but the tips definitely smash quickly if you are a person who is heavy-handed when you write.  Plus they are expensive– $12.00 for just 10 pens.  A different brand that isn’t so expensive would be Stabilo .88 Pens.  I used them for my Anatomy and Physiology 261
class.  I also used them to color my diagrams for the class.  I got a pack of 30 colors for about $16.00.  Experimenting is definitely the way to go when it comes to different pens and markers.  My sister doesn’t like Paper Mate InkJoy pens and prefers to use Pilot pens.  Everyone has a preference for certain things.  There is no one size fits all when it comes to organizing one’s time.

Finals Week

These past few months have been really chaotic.  It seems like the semester flew by.  I am now facing the dreaded Finals Week.  So far this week I have spent over twenty hours studying Trigonometry in order to keep my solid A in the class.  It is a comprehensive final, so I am trying to go back to the beginning of the semester and remember what we covered.  I have been lucky that the rest of my classes have been pretty breezy just because they are interdisciplinary core courses that are required.  So, instead of exams, I had papers– so many papers.

This leaves my two finals.  One is for my Psychology class and it isn’t comprehensive, and then my Trigonometry class.  So, needless to say, I am memorizing as much as possible for my Trig class.  My Psych class is going to be a perfunctory glance over my notes between my two finals tomorrow.  After tomorrow, I get a week and a half off and then I start my summer classes:  Computer Programming, Visual Literacy, Photography.