new blog URL and name

So, for the past few weeks, I've been thinking of a new name for the blog and it was only a few days ago that I managed to think of one. 'Paper Lovestory'. I think this name is better than 'Paper Rush' as for me, I'm a romantic at heart (I'll make no bones about that) and I soften at a romantic story.  In my head, I have my future personal love all planned out (filled to the nines with Price Charming, long flowing hair, a wedding in the winter complete with snow, a romantic proposal) but I know that dreams rarely become reality! Still, I can dream - hence the 'love story' part of the blog name.

I've kept the word 'paper' as I feel that also fits in well with my interests. I'm a geek by nature and if I try and cover that up; I'll only be lying to you all (and I love my readers!) and also myself. Anyway, I'd better end this post before it gets too long.

One last thing: expect a new site header once exams finish for me! (28th of June at 5pm, I'm counting down the minutes, never mind hours! And then...roll on third year!)

summer goal

With less than a month to go before my last exam, I'm eagerly planning summer in the hope of making myself find the motivation to study hard for these exams. (Trust me, it's distracting - Hyde Park within a short stroll, the summer sun, Knightsbridge nearby too, High Street Kensington also nearby... I'm spoilt for choice for a place to hangout with my friends.)

Anyway, one of these goals is to get back into making 'graphics' or I prefer to call them 'graphic collages' as that's essentially what I do.

This is one I made last summer:

And I was quite proud of it as I think it was the second one I made after three years away from making any! I started using Photoshop when I was 14, so I've been using it for a grand total of just over 6 years now.

If you're interested, feel free to give me Deviant Art Gallery a browse - but I will be having a clean up of my portfolio in a few weeks time as I feel a lot of the work on there doesn't reflect my current style!

Have you got a creative side to you? It could be scrapbooking (which I love! Wish I could do it!), photography, painting, sketching... you name it. If you have Deviantart, please feel free to link me to yours as I find other creative people really quite inspiring!

filofax sighting!

I was on the tube the other night (London Underground to those of you not from the UK) and this lady got on (she was around her late twenties I would guess) and guess what she whipped out... well, from the blog post title, you've probably already guessed it. A Filofax! If I'm not mistaken, it was a pink mini of the Metropol variety. Unfortunately, I couldn't pluck up the courage to strike up a conversation about it, but needless to say, I couldn't stop staring.

Credit: Just Spot and Leisure

One of my lecturers also had a Filofax on her desk a few weeks back and I'm pretty sure it was the pocket size but I couldn't figure out what model it was as it was lying open. Though, it was green (and a very pretty green at that!).

Have you had any Filofax sightings of late?

how I organise my lecture notes

Jennifer asked me how I organise my lecture notes and here is my post on it. Firstly, before lectures, I print off the notes and then annotate them during the actual lecture. After this, they go into a normal A4 ringbinder. I then write up these lectures in a notebook after the lecture along with any extra reading I had done. I usually use these Muji notebooks:

I write the title of the module on the front so that I know what the contents of the notebook will consist of. Now, to look inside.

As you can see, I try and draw my own diagrams so that I learn it at the same time as writing the things out. I also like using coloured pens (usually the Uniball Eye ones in a 0.5mm nib). More pictures:

Now onto notes from another module (these are laid out differently).

This time, there is less colour and more underlining in red. I find the red and blue contrast work really well. The pens here are Muji gel pens in 0.5mm (blue) and a Uniball rollerball in 0.7mm (red).

If diagrams are too complex to draw out, I tend to print them out from lecture notes - or if they aren't very clear, I look a better one up on Google Images. 

I find putting things in boxes very helpful as it keeps all the same information in the same place. It also helps my brain remember things more clearly. More on that post it note to the left...

I use post it notes to put extra reading, additional notes are important diagrams which may be of importance or may help me learn what would have been a paragraph of text. Putting them on post its also reinforce the fact that there isn't that much to learn (when in reality, there is. But condensing it onto a small post it does help with my mentality!)

Now, onto the last stage of revision. Flash cards. I use them more as note cards where I condense the information further. Anything that is already clear in my mind or that I already know is now left out and as little information as possible is put on them. Most of the time, I only use flashcards for things that REALLY need sticking in my brain, i.e. things that I keep reading but don't seem to enter my brain.

Anyway, I hope this is of help to anyone who was interested in how my lecture notes are organised and written up.