S2E1: Back to School

In this episode we offer our advice to students returning to school this term, whether they are learning online or are visiting campus.

Hear from our regular contributors and learn some tips that could make this year a lot more fun and enjoyable!

Arjun Radeesh
Stephen King
Mabel Roy
Angelica Banares
Hashim Riyan
Imnah Varghese

Transcript

Stephen King: 0:00

Alexa, make a noise like an alarm clock

Alexa (Amazon): 0:03

Badum..

Stephen King: 0:08

Alexa, ring like a clock.

Alexa (Amazon): 0:14

So I don't know that.

Stephen King: 0:20

Alexa, sound your alarm, now.

Alexa (Amazon): 0:25

Alarm for what time?

Stephen King: 0:27

Now!

Alexa (Amazon): 0:33

Alarm for what time?

ALL: 0:36

SCREAM!!! And intro tune...

Stephen King: 0:46

It's got no battery. I took it out for ... Hullo!

Arjun Radeesh: 0:52

So hey guys welcome to a brand new episode and a brand new season of the Incongruent. So today, like after away longtime see after the two month gap back. So I'm here with Imnah, Angelica was went off on the third episode o season one and came back second Ah, Mabel there are Hashim, a d very dear own Stephen King. So today, we are gonna talk something in regards to back to school tips and tricks. So I will first get the stage to Steve

Stephen King: 1:34

I have just acquired this, it's like

Hashim: 1:37

It's a green screen!

Stephen King: 1:38

It's a whiteboard sticker. So I'm going to stick a whiteboard up in my in my house, which is going to be awesome. And then I have managed to acquire a HDMI video capture card, right you get these 57 Durham's, you put that into your DSLR. And then wow can use the DSLR camera as an extra as an extra camera.

Hashim: 2:06

Bubwaaa!

Stephen King: 2:07

And then you see, so I'll be able to have the whiteboard set up. And it will just be like having an online class at home which is pretty cool. Now, the other things that we have, we have this USB microphone, which is really helpful for the voice quality. I also have a lights beauty light, which you see the impact. See how beautiful I am now. Beautiful,

ALL: 2:31

Whoa!

Stephen King: 2:33

Beautiful. Beautiful. It works. So well. What else do I have? Blue screen glasses.

Arjun: 2:39

He looks like a nerd right now.

Stephen King: 2:41

Thank you very much

Arjun: 2:41

Steve you look like a nerd.

Stephen King: 2:42

I'll have you know, this is this is chic. This is this is homeschool, chic. Thank you very much. I have a stand for the laptop, the laptop. So it's only about another 1415 dirhams. So you can get the laptop to stand up straight. So I can look directly into the camera so that when I'm doing a video conferencing chat, I'm not hurting my shoulders, I can look straight ahead. And I have a gaming chair, which is which is this thing sitting which which was backwards and forwards for comfort, because I'll be sitting on this thing for some time. And the other thing that I did was I took a picture of my office. And I use that as my virtual screen. So that when I'm in conversations, I still have the record the presentation that I'm on campus.

Arjun: 3:25

That's one hell of setup, what you actually said,

Stephen King: 3:28

Well, I have my own Wi Fi router in the in the room as well. So that means that the internet is better,,

Arjun: 3:36

Imnah note this tuip. Okay, and now get a Wi Fi router for yourself.

Imnah: 3:40

Hey, don't be calling out as poor Wi Fi people out here.

Arjun Radeesh: 3:44

Moving on to Mabel. So maybe since you took an online class, what are some things which you would do make the expeed to elevate the experience? What did you do?

Mabel: 3:55

I don't know if I can say anything to elevate the experience but what I found like makes the online experience easier is like waking up a little earlier in the morning and starting my day off right with like, a good breakfast or like maybe sometimes not right now but I used to like go for a walk outside just like fashion myself up so that I'm not sleepy before class. That's my only tip.

Arjun: 4:20

That's great. Short and sweet. So Angelica, what do you have? Because Okay, normally I'll tell you this when Angelica comes to class, she has a background which is sort of like a bookshelf with so much I sometimes wonder has she come from from the library or something. So Angelica, come on, what's up with you? And what do you have to say?

Angelica: 4:41

Well, I think my advice will be the opposite of short and sweet. But I think the most important tip that I can give you guys is to find time for yourself. It's a lesson that I had to learn the hard way so I know some of you guys know about this, but last year was difficult for me. And you know, I suffered from a burnout. Do you guys know what a burnout is? Yeah, so well, it's a state of exhaustion, whether you know, the physical, mental or emotional, and it's where you work too hard to the point where you're just drained. And you feel like you can't do anything anymore. And I remember, you know, people kept telling me to take a break. But I never listened to it. Because I always believe that my productivity and my quality of work and my quantity of work, I believe that they were my worth, the more I did work, the more you know, I felt like I was useful to the community to people. And I still do believe in that. But you know, if there's one thing that changed, it's that I've learned to listen to myself, whenever I need dress, and I'm still trying to accept you know, that I'm human, and I make mistakes. I'm entertaining, enter, it reminds me of this saying, it's not the load that breaks you down. But it's actually the way you carry it. So let's say you're running a really long race, a marathon, but you haven't slept for days, you haven't eaten much, you don't have the, um, the nutrition that your body needs, and you go for that race. Let's say you win. Yeah. But at the end of the day, it could really impact your health. And the way you view your passion, as I said earlier, it's the lesson it's a lesson that I had to learn the hard way. Always just take care of yourself, your mental health is important, and you should prioritise yourself over anything else.

Arjun: 6:59

Fantastic. Moving on to Hashim.

Hashim: 7:03

Most of the stuff that happens in our lives, we can't really control resilience is key. If you can practice anything this year, or anything that you really want to improve in, resilience should be one of the top things because if this you meant anything, it means that nothing is stable. So always stay on your toes and try to practice resilience, whether it's with your friends, your conversations, your your own opinions, because sometimes they might change and you don't even realise it, or your work life balance, try to in any way, read books, or just try to make it so that whatever happens, you have some structure that is still there. Because naturally, we want structure. I love entropy, just as much as the next guy. But structure is what keeps us in business and what keeps us moving through through goals. So I think really, resilience is really important this year, if you learn anything.

Arjun: 7:58

And that's sort of like a good, insightful advice Hashim. Moving on to Imnah!

Imnah: 8:04

Hey, Arjun. So I've got a super practical tip for you guys. And this is from one uncoordinated person to the other. And so what I found myself over just as quarantine season and then moving back into uni, I was finding it really hard to just juggle all the different things I'm doing. So I make it a point to meet some of my friends over the week, I'm also working, and I'm also going to uni. So I found that now with these different flexible schedules, because my work is also flexible hours, I don't even have a nine to five. So a person like me who just can't manage their time for anything, I'm really struggling. And so for those of you that have your schedule set, and you know what to do and where to go at what time, this part of the podcast is not for you. This is for the messy majority. So this may sound very, like cliche, and it may sound kind of obvious, but get Google calendars, it may actually just save your life. So I use Google calendars, they have different colours, it's super easy to just put something in your schedule to move it around when you need to reschedule, it saves you from double booking yourself. And it's also helpful to see the different time slots that you have in which you aren't doing anything. Because I think the temptation with us is, we feel like we don't have a lot of free time. But generally in between things that we're doing and not doing. We just have like some hours at a stretch. We're just on Instagram, scrolling through the towel about an hour is just kind of passed by not that it's wrong. And not that every waking second of the day you should be doing something and actively pursuing something because you're going to end up feeling burnt out like what Angie was saying earlier. So yeah, it's good to take breaks, but it's also good to know what times you should be doing things and what times you can allow yourself to book things for other people. And because I'm that kind of person that's like an overachiever. Anybody asked me You want to do this this week? I'm like, Yeah, let's do it. And then by the end of the week, I'm like, ah, maybe I shouldn't have agreed to that. That's maybe not the best idea. Um, so don't be that guy. Don't be like me get Google calendars. It may save a life!

Arjun: 10:15

Dude definitely like, okay, Google, you did you literally get like an indirect promotion for Google calendars.

Imnah: 10:23

This podcast is not sponsored by Google

Mabel: 10:25

Imnah mentioned Google calendars. I just want to like, cut.

Arjun Radeesh: 10:29

Yeah, go on Mabel go up, I would

Mabel: 10:31

like to unofficially promote an app called notion. It's a wonderful planner. And anyone out there who's struggling to organise themselves, get everything in track, or at least try to get things in track, I highly recommend that you guys get notion login with your university ID, or your personal email id and you know, just just get stuff in there, I use it to log out like there's a daily journal option, there's an option for university tasks and assignments. So, you know, kind of keeping those things in track, again, will make sure that you don't forget anything, you won't like miss out on major deadlines. So that's a recommendation.

Stephen King: 11:11

I would just like to say that if you can't, and it's perfectly fine, just to focus on one day. So if you are burning out at all, or you're finding yourself under strain, don't feel like you must have your entire life or even your entire week. laid out for you. It's perfectly fine just to focus on one day at a time. And to treat yourself with kindness.

Arjun: 11:33

Yes, of course, being kind be kind be what led generous moto Be kind.

Imnah: 11:41

So Arjun, what tip or trick do you have for us today,

Arjun: 11:45

I'll start off with the online stuff. So when I saw when we actually started online classes, I normally sit at any random place and still like turn on my camera. And I'd find myself being what so clear, it would be like pixelated or stuff. If there is natural light, it'll just stream the video in HD. It This is basically a tip. So any any laptop camera say was a MacBook was the Dell was an HP anything, keep your screen somewhere, they're not two words, but against the light you face towards the light and let the laptop screen face against the light that will actually give you like better quality video. And always before any class starts, just make sure you test the speed. If suppose your your mobile, your mobile or your laptop match, internet speed match, count. If that's low, you can accordingly change positions. And when it comes to blended guys, for you guys, I think almost every, every country, every country has a sort of a contact tracing app. So just keep that always on your phone. So it's like, oh, here we have the host and app. And even though our university has our own word, phrase and track systems, I would recommend you to download that and keep So Steve was having like even items, we'll have that. So it's like the I go to gym everyday morning. So definitely I and I mostly go out like going for groceries and all those. So it's like just download an app of contract racing. So that in case someone else by God forbid, no, I wish no one gets it. If someone gets it, they will actually give an alerting. That'll get you up to get tested. That's one thing. So in a way you want to say

Imnah: 13:26

Now that we're just on basics, I think I also have a few tips for those doing virtual. And this is the basic, that's the basic, but like Google calendars, it can also save a life. So I have had some super embarrassing moments on Zoom, and which I thought that my mic was off, or my video was off. And I was just walking around and doing random thing. There's like cooking or whatever. And these to be like proper official meetings. Don't do it. For the sake of your sanity, don't do it. always double check if your mic is muted, or if your video is on slash off. It really goes a long way. And also there is a function on zoom in which you are able to chat privately, or to absolutely every single person in this room calls if you're going to message someone on zoom. And if you're going to take the risk, please make sure the word privacy is written next to their name, or everybody in that Zoom call. Oh, they're listening to you have a private chat and you just don't want that to happen. Just don't do it!

Arjun: 14:31

I will not forget that stuff. Trust me. It's only the biggest mistake like anyone could have do. Moving on, Steve, it seems like you're having a saxophone with you. What's up any surprises?

Stephen King: 14:44

I've been learning some... my thumb is better and I wanted to just send you off of what I've been what I've been learning. Am I allowed?

Arjun Radeesh: 14:54

You are allowed, let's see how things are

Stephen King: 14:56

We'll see if see if he can sing along with it. Okay.

Saxophone Music: 15:29

Bohemian Rhapsody - perfect!

Arjun Radeesh: 15:40

Oh my god,

Stephen King: 15:41

Did you get that? Like was that was that like out of 10?

Arjun: 15:47

It was 10 out of 10.

Imnah: 15:49

11 out of 10 go Steve!

Stephen King: 15:52

Other advice, finishing advice for being back at home is show off your musical talents. Because if you have the chance and your lecturer will let you, and you've got to still build the relationships with the people around you make friends. So, share your hobbies if you can do it.

Imnah: 16:08

Show off your hobbies and your pets.

Mabel: 16:11

Yeah.

Imnah: 16:13

Yeah. Share your cats, dogs on Zoom, pick them up and show them to the screen.

Arjun: 16:20

Our professors are really good at this. And yeah, I've even Angelica she was her dog. Samira shows her cat. Okay, Steve shows his Olivia. his cat. Like normally that comes around. I don't know what happened to her?

Stephen King: 16:38

She's scared of the saxophone!

Arjun: 16:44

So that's all folks. Thank you so much for listening. It's I'm getting like, what positive vibes right now to get things working on because trust me like for the past two days, it was super negative. super lazy. I was like dead lazy that I couldn't do work. I'm like I'm fired up for working right now. Good luck, guys. Good luck with online school classes are all those stuff and I'll see you next one.