Lazy?

I live in the United States...as most people who read this probably do also. A new breed of teenage has spawned in the mid eightes-early nineties...lazy people. I am one of them. We procrastinate, we avoid doing work, we believe in play before work, and so many of us have gone through the education system and come out looking at themselves saying, "What the fuck."
Our study habits suck.
Our organization skills don't exist.
We went through 12 years of schooling and we only know now how to coast through things. Not going to happen in college. In college, you have to make yourself stand out, but in a good way. :)

Here are some tips I have acquired over the past few semesters in college that would benefit any person who has a case of lazyness.

1) First and foremost: School comes first. Not your 45 hour a week job. Not your girlfriend or boyfriend. Nothing. If you have a test coming up in a week, you should be studying an hour each day by reading the text, making notecards, rereading notes, etc. Whatever works for you - this takes some trial and error to see what helps you remember things for that test.

2) To study you need a quiet environment. Nothing but your text, notes, hand outs, and so on. To study, most people need to have no distractions...make use of your college's library. A good place to study because almost everyone else around you is doing the same thing...it kind of motivates people to work hard too.

3) Eat breakfast. Believe it or not, breakfast really helps you out. It will give you a boost to your day allowing you to study as early as you like or as late. Try some coffee too. Or for those who have taste buds that aren't to coffee liking...try some juice. My favorites is the usual orange juice, but also plum juice. Mmmm. Plum juice.

4) Take lots of notes. Only write what you think is important - what could be on the test. It takes about one test to go by to learn how your professor makes his tests and how he or she grades them. So for that first test, go with your gut.

5) Be better organized. Separate your notebooks into single subject notebooks, bring folders, bring extra pens and #2 pencils. As a warrior in battle you must be prepared. Sword? Check. Shield? Check. Extra sword. Check. Armor? Check. To have any less than these makes you vulnerable and open to fault. Do yourself a favor a suit up for battle. College is no playground.

6) Work hard but don't strain yourself. Following all of these tips and the ones you learn yourself along the way can be pretty hard sometimes. Give yourself a break once in a while. Schedule your job for one day less a week. Play sports. Participate in clubs. Treat yourself to something. If you're like me...you don't buy stuff for yourself often. Whatever it is, stay happy. =)
It takes a good mood to do well.

Good luck and see you in the "real world"!

Coffee...healthy? unhealthy?

BEEP BEEP BEEP
Life is calling me...Oh I don't want to live then. Let me die...
Sorry. It's time to wake up.
Ugh.
"Here we go again..." Same thing; every morning.
I lean up and pull myself out of bed. I need to wake up...I feel so tired. I hobble down the stairs that I curse every day for being so numerous...I walk to the kitchen. I feel this all too familiar routine of mine is becoming an addiction. Who cares. I just want to wake up.
I pull the refrigerator door with my reserved energy and open the bag of coffee grounds that looked all so innocent sitting on the inside shelf. I open the package. Ahh..that aroma. What I do next is unknown to me since I'm awake right now...but it ends up with a hot cup of coffee in my hand and a smile on my face, so I could care less.
That is the average American. I am the Average American.
Good Morning. :)

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Over 50% of Americans over 18 years of age drink coffee every day. This represents over 150 million daily drinkers. (1)

There are some common wrongful accusations about coffee and I'm here to set a few facts straight.

Drinking Coffee at night is bad because it'll not allow you to have a good sleep (relaxed).
False.
Coffee actually has no effect on your sleep, except it may take you longer to sleep - but your dream stage (the one that counts in how rested you feel the next morning) is unaffected in length. According to one study, a person may drink anywhere up to seven cups of coffee and apparently did not lose out on having a good sleep. (2) So if you're going to drink coffee, you're just going to fall asleep later, but if you wake up a later from your original plan - you'll be fine. Coffee had nothing to do with your sleep except the fact YOU stayed up longer and decided to wake up at the same time you were going to wake up without staying up.

Some people say that coffee gives them heartburn. This again is
False. (3)

Fine. Let's make something totally up that Coffee doesn't do. Say...Coffee helps people with asthma.
True.
What the hell?
It's true. Coffee helps people manage their asthma as shown in an Italian study of 72,284 people (4) showed that the incidence of asthma fell by 28% when they drank three or more cups a day.

Fine. Here's a big one. Coffee is addictive!!!!! Ahaha! We win!


False.
According to the World Health Organization, has stated that, “There is no evidence whatsoever that caffeine use has even remotely comparable physical and social consequences which are associated with serious drugs of abuse.(5)" So therefore..it's a habit that a good deal of Americans are used to doing to make them alert. But every time, they are in complete control of whether or not they pour a cup.

So believe it or not, coffee isn't so bad as the media likes to make it. It's actually beneficial to you as long as you know how to use it.
I'm going to keep drinking my coffee now even if it is 1 in the afternoon. It tastes good to me and that's all that matters.

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1) www.scaa.org
2) Montserrat, Sanchez-Ortuno, Sleep Medicine, 2005, (6): 247-251
3) Feldman, M. and Barnett, C. Gastroenterology, 1995,(108): 125-131
4) Pagano, R. et al. Chest, 1988,( 94): 386-389
5) World Health Organisation (WHO). The ICD-10 classification of mental and behavioral disorders. World Health Organisation: Geneva, 1994

What is Ingenuity?

According to Oxford...
ingenuity n. the quality of being ingenious

Well that helped. What's ingenious?
ingenious adj. clever, original, and inventive

So what is this blog going to be about?
My name is Jeff Cerreto. I'm twenty years old. I'm a 2nd year student at Ocean County College. Not really sure what my future career is going to be but I'll am majoring in Psychology because I like studying abnormal psychologies. Maybe I'll make something of it. I also like to repair computers in my spare time for some extra spending money. I work full time also as a restaurant manager of my local Mcdonalds.
Pretty much this blog will generally include anything from rants to computer repair fixes to a daily life update. I'm nobody special, so I don't expect anyone to take notice of me here. If you do - Hello. Enjoy the reads.
More to come in due time.