Category: AJ’s Advice
AJ’s advice – scary movies
| July 7, 2012 | Posted by Alaa Jasim under AJ's Advice |
So here we are once again, a week later and with our Twilight bashing all finished. Today, I want to talk to you about scary movies; I love scary movies. They can be really good fun, though there are people who just can’t handle the stress and that’s fair enough. For the rest of us, however, I want to ensure we make the most of our scary movie experiences. I’d like to think that over the years I’ve worked out a pretty decent way to watch scary things – at least, it works for me, so it might for you too! One of the perhaps harsher things that you could do (I confess: I’m a terrible person) is bring someone who hates… more
AJ’s advice – dealing with Twihards
| June 30, 2012 | Posted by Alaa Jasim under AJ's Advice |
I think it’s safe to say that we live in a society riddled with throngs of a new generation of obsessive, hormonal, teenage fan-girls and fan-boys, the most intense of which – at least of the ones I’ve encountered – must be the Beliebers, the Twihards and the Potterheads. Goodness me, they bring us a whole new level of fandom, and in some cases shriek in such a high pitched manner that either we’re all deafened or only the local dogs react. But today, I want to put the Beliebers to one side; I don’t care enough to, well, care about them. I’m also going to leave out the Potterheads because, as you can tell from my Pottermore post, I’m… more
AJ’s advice – various
| June 23, 2012 | Posted by Alaa Jasim under AJ's Advice |
So this week, I’m going to answer a few questions as best as I can. It’s hard to believe how quickly the weeks are going by and I hate dumping suggestions that I get given, so in a compilation of questions and answers we’ll cover a few topics from teeth to university. Here we go! Q: I just got braces. How can I stop my teeth hurting? A: Ah. The dreaded brace-induced pain is actually pretty bad. I have experienced this horror first-hand and I’m glad that it’s over! The braces are putting pressure on your teeth, so they’ll hurt for a few days – I usually found that they stopped feeling tight and painful after two or three days, but… more
AJ’s advice – summer
| June 16, 2012 | Posted by Alaa Jasim under AJ's Advice |
And we’re back! After a couple of weeks of absence, AJ’s Advice has returned just in time for summer. A lot of us this year round will have a pretty long post-study leave holiday, and we may not really be sure how to spend it. Whatever you do though, make sure you enjoy it – get into the sunshine and make the most of it, because let’s face it, it’s not going to be there for long. For a good proportion of us, this might be the summer before we jet off to university, which is exciting and scary at the same time. Let’s all just have a good summer and enjoy it before the madness of going back to… more
AJ’s advice – dealing with drunk friends
| May 26, 2012 | Posted by Alaa Jasim under AJ's Advice |
As many people do, I have a close group of friends, and often when they get together a large volume of alcohol will be consumed. Honestly, I don’t know how they do it. Large amounts of alcohol often mean large numbers of drunken friends, who can be pretty hard to look after. I’m fortunate enough to only have heard tales of the really bad bits, but I thought it might be prudent for us all to have a checklist for when we’re in the “designated driver” or just the “I don’t drink” scenario and everyone else is completely trashed. Keep them hydrated Alcohol is a diuretic, meaning it flushes all the water out of the body, so after a certain… more
AJ’s advice – patience
| May 20, 2012 | Posted by Alaa Jasim under AJ's Advice |
We have all had those days where we hate the world and everything in it, and nothing seems to move fast enough. There are always times when you just want to get something over with so you can just go home and do something more fun. Not nearly enough of us (often, myself included) are patient enough, and a lot of us can be short-tempered and perhaps a little irritable. Being patient – becoming patient – can be pretty important in a world full of people that need help, or that are just generally irritating. Maybe it’s watching that damn painting dry, or waiting for results: patience is a life skill and a virtue, and we could all stand to… more
AJ’s advice – surviving exam season
| May 12, 2012 | Posted by Alaa Jasim under AJ's Advice |
Once again, exam season is approaching. Students across the country are currently under ridiculous amounts of stress. You can just picture it: the tears, the tearing out of hair, the slow loss of sanity… no? Just me? Oh… The point is, exam season isn’t a nice time of year. It’s full of running around and revision, many of us lose any form of social life we once had, and everything comes to a standstill until exams are over. This means that you just end up bored and frustrated, which can’t be good for studying – so here are my top tips for surviving exam season. Don’t stay cooped up I’m certainly guilty of this, and as such I’m always being… more
AJ’s advice – saving water
| May 5, 2012 | Posted by Alaa Jasim under AJ's Advice |
Water is an undeniably important resource, and using lots of water uses up lots of energy, creating greenhouse gases and that whole global warming thing. In fact, one of the largest contributors to greenhouse gases is the use of hot water. Everyone uses a lot of water, and maybe it’s time we started considering just how much: the average person in England and Wales uses 150 litres of water every day. By 2020, the demand for water could increase by 800 million litres a day. Saving on water can help the environment and can save you money. Here are my top tips on saving water: Don’t fill the kettle right up Only use what you need: there’s no point boiling a… more
AJ’s advice – tackling boredom
| April 28, 2012 | Posted by Alaa Jasim under AJ's Advice |
We all have those days, don’t we? You just sit and sit and sit, staring at the wall a little while you continue to sit. Being bored is, well, boring, and sometimes you just have no idea what to do because you’re that fed up. There are some really easy answers to tackling boredom; namely, you’re usually bored because you’re not doing anything, so do something! The world is your oyster: you can do anything you want – and really, if you’re that bored and you’re not revising or doing work, you’ve probably got the time to. So get out there, find something you enjoy, and have a bit of fun. Here are a few suggestions for ways to get… more
AJ’s advice – food poisoning
| April 21, 2012 | Posted by Alaa Jasim under AJ's Advice |
Food poisoning: we’ve all been there, haven’t we? It’s not pretty, it’s not fun, it’s not cool. Symptoms include vomiting, diarrhoea, stomach cramps, feeling sick – not very glamorous. Usually, the symptoms of food poisoning start to show about a day after eating the dodgy stuff, and it really is just horrible. Food poisoning is very common, and everyone is likely to get it at some point (I once had food poisoning twice in a month, coupled with two bouts of stomach flu… yeah, I have no idea how either) but everyone has to be able to deal with having it; there’s not always going to be someone there to help you out. Here are my top tips on dealing… more
