Blogosis

This morning the bus came at 11:55. I had just awoken. Today, my classes started at 9:00. I was peacefully dreaming of my lovely girlfriend (or was is ‘peaceful’… hehehe). Today was a harsh lesson learned in being on time. I have previously skipped classes because I just felt the content was too boring to stimulate me, or I had more fun things to do (Hello, supermodel girlfriend… I think that will be the official inside joke of Blogosis), yet today was the first day I had ever overslept through not one, but two of my courses.

Actually, I slept through one, and was forced to wait for another bus to pick me up halfway through the second course. I arrived at school just as my professor for Formal Logic had walked out of the classroom. I approached like the approach a kid makes to his teacher when he just misses his class. Yeah, good use of a simile.

“Well, I was well awake and kicking during your course, sir. I just had to sit on the only bus 11:55 until now. (Now was around 2:00 pm).”

“You had plenty of time to run here,” he replied jokingly (campus is 25 kilometers from my apartment. That is about 15.5 miles for the Americans) “No worries,” he reassured me, “Just come to class on Thursday. All you missed was a pop-quiz.”

I was prepared for that quiz, too. Quizzes are only 10% of the grade, but 10% is the difference between an A- and a B-. I wasn’t too happy that I missed an important part of a class I actually find mentally stimulating. On top of this class, I missed my Media Production course which I love. It’s a graphic design course with an amazing Thai artist, marketer, and producer. Those are the 3 best things rolled into one tiny guy named “Buddha.” Yes, his name is really Buddha. Awesome, right? I missed that, though.

Now, I could go blame the people that take care of the bus schedule for missing my Formal Logic course that started at 1:30. Who puts a 2 hour break on buses that show up every 45 minutes during the other times of the day? Had a bus come at 1:00 I would have made it to class just on time. I have no reason to complain for missing my first course at 9 am. This is why I really have no reason to complain as far as my mathematics class. This is my fault, and I am to take full responsibility of it.

Had the college not made it known when the buses come, I could have been excused for this. Had I just come to Thailand, and my school had not made an announcement as to when my classes were to start, they could have been put to blame for this. However, I am well aware of the bus schedule, my courses and their times. I was unprepared, slept far too late, and my alarm clock was set just too close to my hand.

What does this have to do with blogging? Like your education, blogging is a job for most. It requires time. Time requires a schedule. You need to blog on a schedule and prepare yourself for shocks to that schedule. I am not saying you need to schedule your blog posts, but you need to provide to your readers, just as I should have showed my presence in class today. Fail to show up and you fail your readers. Fail to show up to class, and you are placed into academic proration.

I have done a few things today to prepare myself if I am stuck in a similar situation like this one, and tomorrow I will finish those preparations.

Set your clock, and when it goes off, wake up!

I will no longer hit the snooze button. When it is time to get up, it is time to get up. When it is time to blog, it is time to blog. If something gets in the way of my school or blogging schedule, I will attempt to fix it by getting to the solution the fastest. To fix my school situation today, I got on the next bus and contacted my teachers with my situation. Luckily, they were sympathetic as they knew getting to school without a car is no easy chore. If you cannot blog now like you planned, put it in the top of your head, write it down, and get to is the next chance you can.

Have a back-up plan

In the case of blogging, I will always have unpublished articles in my ‘Draft’ box. If I can’t publish a new article, then I just sign on and click “publish” on one of my previously stored posts. In the case of school, I will always wake up in time, as I have now purchased a second alarm clock and placed it behind my monitor so I have to struggle to hit it.

Keep visual reminders

I grabbed 5 bus schedules from my university today. I know have one in my main wallet pocket, one in a side pocket, one schedule is tacked to the wall next to my computer, on taped to the top of my laptop, and one taped to my door. I will forever be reminded the last bus to get to my Formal Logic course is at 11:55. As for blogging, I always have the Wordpress CMS opened in my browser so I know I can always add a new post when I feel it is blogging time. I also keep track of my posts in a notebook.

That’s my story and those are my tips, kiddies. (I can say that now that I am 20. Yuck.) You will always have your schedule, but you need to be prepared to work around other peoples’ schedules. Stick to your schedule when you can and change it to fit the others. Usually, you can make it work out to where you bounce right back into your normal schedule.

This was a long article! One-Thousandth word is here.