Motivation
Our new dining table is my thesis nook. I’ve taken a monopoly of it since the day it was delivered to our house. I find that I am more productive when I am working downstairs, in this area. And I foresee that this will be the setup until the end of the school year or until I finish my thesis, whichever comes first.
It’s hard to juggle teaching and getting an MS degree. The teaching part, I can handle. It’s the thesis-ing that’s been really agonizing for the past year. I have no idea how I managed to do it with such ease when I was an undergraduate. (Then again, looking back, that wasn’t my best work despite the grade I got.)
I’ve done a few things to motivate myself so I can finally get down to brass tacks and do this… but not to much avail. For instance, I got myself a netbook last April just so I could dedicate one computer to my thesis. But that didn’t work out so well as I found it to be quite a task to type on a small keyboard. The netbook’s proven useful (especially when I travel), just not very much when I’m writing.
But this, I know, is just the right motivation to keep me going… the perfect push so I can finally get my research done on time:
After all, I anticipate many sleepless nights for the remainder of the school year! There is very much to be done. I wouldn’t want to subject myself to bad coffee, would I?
Okay fine, I know we have a coffee maker (which needs replacing anyway), but isn’t the Nescafé Dolce Gusto simply covetable? I was so happy when I found out about this (cheaper) alternative to other personal coffee machines (hello CBTL!) The two models offered in the Philippines are Piccolo (as pictured above) and Circulo. The Circulo model is definitely the more stylish of the two but it’s still priced more than I am willing to shell out for a coffee maker (even if it’s cheaper than CBTL’s beverage system). So I’m considering getting the Piccolo.
What makes this appliance special is that your coffee is stored in a “smart capsule,” which you pop into the machine. This means, less mess and less clean-up because you no longer have to grind your beans and use coffee filters. Of course, it’s more expensive because you need one capsule per serving. I’ve researched the price to be P400/pack of 16 so that makes it ~P25/cup. I haven’t sampled this yet, but the reviews have been mostly positive. Nescafé claims the resulting drinks are coffee shop-quality because the machine delivers 15 bars of pressure. And the right amount of pressure (for both the espresso and milk) is the secret to producing a fine cup of coffee!
So yes, this pretty thing has been on my mind for quite some time now. The rational me would say that it’s more of a luxury than a necessity. But the realistic me would say that finishing ze thesis is a necessity and that the end justifies the means.
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