Stress sucks.

I'm slowly beginning to lose my mind.

I have a movie I gotta make. Admittedly, its a cartoon, so I don't have any diva actors or writers strikes, but poking a kakapo into position by hand really isn't as excitingly sexy as it initially seems.

I have a shipping container that needs turning into art. Or to put it another way: I have a set of desk drawers ripped apart and turned into a model of a fountain, and I need to display it in a shipping container so that it has a theme, artistic merit and can be described, analyzed and exhibited.

Someone needs to call the Epilepsy Assist Dogs Trust Association for me and tell them what I've been doing for them. I barely have the willpower to talk to my friends, let alone pick up a phone.

I also need to plan next year's degree year, pick my subjects using the wisdom of experience to guide me to my chosen path etc. etc. which basically translates to "Eeny-Meenie-Miney-Moe".

Plus, I have a 20-hour-a-week job. A job I can't complain about: it's fantastic hours and the people there are lovely, but it's time I could be spending on my various assignments. The animated film, the shipping container "contemporary art" (bollocks it is) and the Epilepsy stuff.

But I can't complain. There are people worse off. Look at the people protesting outside Cadbury's cos of the cancellation of Tangy Fruits. (I mean, God knows it occupies all my waking thoughts, but to go and protest at the factory? Wow, that's dedication.) And Cadbury's surely don't want them there. So it must be stressful for them. Gee. Empathy. Aaaaaahhhh.

And I've been neglecting my best friends, one of whom is in Palmerston North and hasn't seen me since July. The other lives in Australia and hasn't seen me in two years.

If anyone wants to give me some advice right now, that would be great. Anything along the lines of "Quit your job and your degree and take up yoga", and you will be drug down to the back paddock and shot. Don't tempt me - I am too stressed to hesitate.

(Edit: 250th post. Whoop it up.)

All I can tell you is this:

1) Do what's due first FIRST (somethiing might have to give, but not everything) - cutting it up into bite sized pieces will make it seem easier (the big picture is making you spin).
2) Ask for extensions
3) PLAN everything you need to do - allocate certain times for everything - try to give every assignment a time.
4) I don't think you should have to work when you're studying full-time, but you have to - ask if you can cut-down your hours a bit if you need to (in emergency).
5) Work with someone else if you can - working together helps make it alot easier - it's not cheating...unless your work's identical....
6) Ask for an extension....
7) Also, (and this is important), make sure you take a break every now and then, and make sure you get enough, good, quality sleep!!

(This is what got me through a 1.2 year teacher college course that is supposed to be a 3 year course (I did the Graduate course - compressed).