March madness is almost over, it is April after all. I figured with the tournament coming to a close tonight, today would be a good day to remind us here at Wisconsin who the true champions are. If you go solely off our performance in the tournament, then obviously we are not champions, we’re just another school who got taken down by the landshark. However, our regular season victories as well as our victories in the Big Ten Tournament place us right in the ranks of the best teams in the country. We beat Michigan twice, Indiana twice, and beat the hell out of Ohio State on our home floor. That alone places us among (and even on top of) the top teams in the country.
In addition to this, we can place ourselves on top because we don’t take ourselves nearly as seriously as our competition. I personally find the video of Dan Fahey interviewing the team pretty funny and I love how he ends it with a Ron Burgundy-esque sign off (“I’m Dan Fahey?”). Finally, I’d just like to say that next season looks bright for us, even if the one player who knew what the capital of Missouri was is leaving.
One last thing, we recently changed the layout of our blog. What do you think? Should we keep it? Should we make more posts visible? Let us know what you think in the comments!
Procrastination is awesome. Seriously. Thank goodness we have enough common sense to not put forth our best effort, to wait until the last minute to do things. If everybody got things done on time, what kind of madness would ensue?
WAIT! Don’t run away to work on that paper just yet. I’m not trying to make you feel bad about procrastinating, honest. I do it too, and it can be great. Sometimes you just need to unwind, to waste a little time after or between classes, before you get to work on that big assignment that’s due tomorrow. So here are some ways to make your time spent procrastinating even more (in)efficient.
1. Productive procrastination
This is one of the best things ever. The idea is simple: avoid doing something you don’t want to do by doing other things that need to be done. Don’t want to start that research paper? Clean your room. Don’t want to tackle that math homework? Clean out your inbox, and maybe even answer some of those emails that have been there since September. Even working on other homework can be procrastinating. (For example, I’m writing this blog post instead of doing my math quiz.) The benefits of this method are obvious. You get to avoid doing something unpleasant and check things off your to-do list at the same time, so you still feel productive. So… is it really procrastinating? (Yes it is. Sorry to burst your bubble.)
2. Educational procrastination
Ever wonder why Jupiter’s moon Europa is a good candidate for extraterrestrial life? When was the last time you read an actual news article? (The Onion, while awesome, doesn’t count.) And what were those small white crab-like things you saw on the beach over spring break? Educational procrastinating is almost as good as productive procrastinating, because again, you feel like you’re accomplishing something. Take the time that you’re not using to study, and use it to brush up on your trivia. So much of our time in school is spent with our noses to the grindstone. Think about it – when was the last time you actually learned something? Visit a reputable news site, or find some educational youtube videos, and procrastinate away!
Here are some of my favorite educational Youtube channels:
I’ll divide this into two sub-categories: engaging fun and mindless fun. Sometimes you want your brain cells to be stimulated… but not with physics homework. Games like Sudoku and Minesweeper (yes that still exists) are fast, easy, and addicting. Find a game that takes a little thought and skill. These are great for 5-10 minute study breaks, where you need a distraction but don’t want to turn your brain off entirely. On the other hand, sometimes you honestly just need to check out. You need to take some time to not have to think. There are some seriously addicting funny Youtube videos which are good for just that.
If you are a student here at UW-Madison as I would guess most of the readers of this blog are (although apparently we had one view from Belgium and if you’re reading this in Belgium then WHAT UP THANKS FOR READING OUR BLOG) then you’ve probably seen the groups of prospective students wandering around campus with our red-jacketed tour guides. In a conversation that I had with a friend early last week, she said, “I wonder how many people decide to come to Madison when it’s crappy out and how many choose to come when it’s nice out.” This was interesting to me and I didn’t really think much of it outside of the conversation until this weekend.
What reminded me of the conversation was seeing one of those tour guides giving students and parents a look around campus…on Sunday afternoon. I’m sorry, but no parent should submit themselves to going on a tour here in Madison on St. Patrick’s Day. I would assume that most parents don’t want to imagine their child going to school on a campus where the tours are followed by a bunch of drunk ass dudes yelling at their kid to “come to Madison because we rage so hard, have the finest girls, etc.” We already have a reputation for being a party school as it is, so maybe the administration just doesn’t care, but it seems odd to me that these tours continue to go on on St. Patrick’s day is odd to me. It was definitely more out of control last year, when St. Patty’s day was on a Saturday, but I definitely saw some drunk dudes harassing tour groups and making those parents sure that Wisconsin is the wrong place for their children.
All that said, I actually really like St. Patrick’s Day. I’ve often wondered if these tours on St. Patrick’s Day make kids want to go here more or less and the same for their parents. It would be difficult to say for sure, but if anyone reading this took their tour on St. Patrick’s Day, did it make you want to come here more or less? Or did it not change anything?
Said No One Ever at UW 