Brain Power

Looking at kimba tacos will only make you dumber so approach with caution. WTF a lot of cool looking things in this world makes us dumber. Then again there are boring and uncool things that can make us smarter. for example, weeds make us feel good, but at the end, your brain cells are pretty much half dead from getting high and dumb. Science books on the other hand gives us the benefit of obtaining knowledge, but who the hell in their right mind will pick one up and read it in their spare time. The only sane person who does that are people whose lives depended on it. Luckily there are stuff out there that can help give us brain power and be cool at the same time.

GINGKO

You know those commercials or websites where they sell those random pills with unknown ingredients and they claim that it will increase your IQ and make you smarter, well don't buy into it, it's a scam. However, there are pills on the market that do help improve memories and reduce headaches. These are Gingko pills, they don't make you smarter, they just help improve your state of mind when you study. I took these pills for about a month and I notice that my headaches were gone. I use to have these random feeling of stuffiness in my head after hours of reading, but after taking Gingko, I notice I don't feel stuffy anymore. Also, without headaches or stufffiness, I can study more efficiently, thus improving my memory.

COLOR-PENCIL DRAWINGS

At first I thought this was a painting, but it was actually made from color pencil drawing. Believe it or not, drawing something for half an hour before studying can help improve critical thinking skills and prevent exhaustion from hours of cramming. That is why I bought some Crayola color pencil and seriously drew some flowers and plants. They look very authentic, it made me realize that color-pencil is another way of making art look real aside from paint.

GUM

When I was a little kid, I would go through 10 packs of gum a day. I was obsessed with chewing gum that even the dentist notice from the amount of cavities I have on my teeth. Plus my obsession with gum was also the reason why I was a math genius. Then after the warning from my dentist, my mom took my gum away and my math scores tanked :(. I don't know what it was about gum that stimulated my concentration process, but it really have this strange effect on me. It probably could be the chewing motion that helped me concentrate because I was so ADHD. If I was only to concentrate on doing one thing, my brain would be all over the place. I think chewing gum help me focus on doing what I needed to do, sigh too bad I can't do that anymore because it hurts my jaw.

CITRUS FRUITS

When I was at University of the Pacific in California, I would always take advantage of the so call "Dining Hall" where students swipe their cards to get food. it was like a buffet so there were quite a selection, even in the fruits section. Practically every morning, I would go there to get some citrus fruits like oranges, tangerines, grape fruits, etc. I find that eating citrus fruits help with my digestion in the morning thus contribute towards more energy to the body, which in turns help me stay awake in class. Now that I'm in Boston and have to do my own shopping, I didn't bother buying any citrus fruits. Then I start noticing that for some reason I'm eating less food in the morning and also craving for something citric. This craving lead me to believe that citrus is a must have for breakfast, give it a try and you will understand what I'm saying !!!

GREEN TEA

If I'm blogging, drawing, or watching a late night movie, I would love to indulge myself in a warm cup of green tea (without caffeine). I find this strange, but green tea helps open up the creative side of me and also energizes me at the same time without the shietty morning affects of coffee. In brain power-wise green tea is more for the artsy fartsy doing the all nighter, I wouldn't recommend this for hard core studying because its cool, calm warming effect could relax you too much.

SO YOU ARE PLANNING ON PULLING AN ALL-NIGHTER

Make sure you watch a comedy while you study for some shietty exam. One of the biggest mistakes students make in doing an all nighter is purely concentrating on their work without any distractions. this would be a good idea if you are studying in the mornings, evening, and afternoons, but not for all-nighters. All-nighters is where you feel like your life is about to end, its like if you close your eyes you can see the light. In order to get rid of these gates to heaven situation, you must turn on the tv and study at the same time. Think about it, for an all nighter: the brain can only absorb 50 percent of the material because its drifting. If you do the whole study without distraction, you are only going to absorb 20 percent due to exhaustion and drifting. If you turn on the television, you will be more alert, and be able to absorb 40 percent of the material. So what happens to the other ten percent? Duh, any normal student would be distracted by the tv :).

I totally give props to hulu and youtube, without them I wouldn't be able to survive academically.