Where great ideas are born

Orange Donkey administrative staff held its
first meeting to discu
ss important issues of today at Madras Masala, the finest Indian cuisine of Ann Arbor.

If you are interested in traveling and exposing yourself to various cultures and foods, Indian restaurant is a great place to get started on that. The moment you walk into Madras you get swept away by the aroma of curry, paprika, turmeric and a multitude of other strong spices. If you do not chicken out and leave to settle for plain ol' hamburger, but dare to pursue the unknown you will be

pleasurably surprised. Madras's buffet has a wide selection of lamb, chicken and vegetarian dishes

with radiant smells and colors. Bethany, Ben and I tried many of them without inquiring about the exact content or origin of dishes and gave thumbs up to most. Lemon curd soupy/saucy

dish was the only one Bethany and I turned down. Its odd flavor and texture did not seem to faze Ben so he helped us finish it up. (Sometimes I wonder if there's anything out there that Ben would not feel comfortable eating? Hmmm...)

Throughout the meal I kept taking bites of delicious naan (leaven, oven-baked bread) and Bethany helped herself to at least 2 full glasses of water (as they

did not have milk that she enjoys greatly with her meals) to dilute strong spices of the foods we ate. Mango lassi, which is a blend of yogurt, water and mango pulp, was the culmination of our dinner, its sweet taste and smooth texture calmed our taste buds down after being attacked by all the hotness of the entrees. When paying on our bill at the counter Bethany got intrigued by the bowl of mixed plain and candy coated anise seeds available for the customers to eat. After doing a bit of research on the topic I learned

that it serves to aid digestion and freshen breath.

In conclusion, Indian food is good for you, due to the medicinal spices (ginger, garlic, green chillies, turmeric) and fresh veggies used in preparation but what's most important delicious!

Salut!

Today is the day I make my first appearance here, on Orange Donkey! It is my first blogging experience of any sort thus I am excited and a bit nervous about the venture. Nevertheless I'm looking forward to sharing my thoughts and ideas with such great friends as Ben, Bethany and whoever else finds reading this page worth their time. It's almost midnight, so I am not planning on flipping your world upside down with my profound revelations... at least not just yet. More substantive posts that trigger your imagination, question the "truths" you never doubted, and raise controversies are soon to follow. In the meantime lets take our time and enjoy this holiday season and appreciate friends and family that we are so fortunate to have.

Playtime is Over!

Sorry for the lack of updates but since the end of finals I have allowed myself a bit of a breather. Now that I feel revitalized I will commence with goals for each of my days. This way I hope to be productive over break instead of wasting my time. With no school there will be fewer distractions as long as I plan my days they shouldn't be a waste.

So my goals for tomorrow are as follows:
Laundry
tuning up the resume
emailing possible internships
reading

My reward if this is all accomplished is to watch Love Actually with my roommate! I am hoping with a set of specific goals and a reward if I meet them I will be more productive.

another thing I'm hoping to do this break is find out how to best organize my time and motivate myself. I plan to do this by experimenting with a couple of different approaches, tomorrow's being a reward system.

well that's all for tonight

-Bethany

Here's to "do or die"!

I was going to write a post on Orange Donkey, but realized it would be exactly the same as what I just posted on Simple Challenges.  See above link.

Life Lessons, and a New Leaf

So I'm not exactly where I wanted to be when writing my goals Friday, but I am close. I have studied every section of math, finished and submitted my marketing final and set up a time tomorrow to meet with my math teacher before the final.

I feel good about where I am, but wish I felt great about it. This weekend however has taught me a lot about myself, and my habits. I think I may have figured out a way to boost my productivity immensely and that makes me feel great!

The biggest thing that has helped me this weekend has been planning! I never realized how having a plan could completely change the way I think about studying. Having certain check points and goals allowed me to stay on top of things, and better judge how to manage my time.

Also going into it with a do or die attitude helped a ton! I have found that by breaking through the apathy I have towards homework/school work I am far more successful. It is easy to sit back and think "yeah homework I should do that, I'll do a bit tonight stop whenever, and say I'll do the rest tomorrow, whatever." This, I have come to realize is not an acceptable way to think about homework or work in general. I need to fight this urge, and that is just what I did this weekend! I told myself instead "Get this done tonight so tomorrow you wont be behind, the distractions can wait, if you don't do it no it wont get done." this is a simple idea that I have never really followed before, and can't for the life of me figure out why! I feel better about myself, my school work, my life and just about everything. I can't figure out why I haven't been doing this all along!

Another invaluable technique I used to get things done was small rewards. I told myself "if you finish this problem set you can watch one youtube video." this appeased my desire to watch television without derailing me for an hour our more. Youtube videos are great in that they last a few minutes then your back to work feeling refreshed and not like you're missing anything.

And lastly, I can't talk about what made this the most successful finals study weekend ever without talking about this blog. Writing my goals and outlining my plan has allowed me to feel as if I'm accountable to someone. I would hate to post on here saying I met none of my goals and watched a Survivor marathon instead. That would be unacceptable to myself and the point of this blog! so therefore I worked hard all weekend and will continue to work hard in the future, using this blog as a catalyst for success!

So to all those reading this wish me luck tomorrow! hope my hard work this weekend wasn't for nothing

-Bethany

Dear Orange Donkey

I'm not forgetting you! You are the only donkey for me, but I get so caught up in all the stuff I do that I don't make time for you. Please forgive me. You are such a good donkey, and you deserve better from me.

Love,
Ben

Home Stretch!

So today is my last day of classes then I only need to worry about finals (Yay!) but studying for finals is a daunting task, that usually does not go so well for me, but NOT this semester! I'm getting organized and setting goals, to avoid wasted time and maximize learning. here are those goals in a nut shell.

Today: finish exam review for section one of math final, Work on written final for marketing, Go over assignment for communications

Saturday: finish sections two and three of math, Finish written final for marketing, and begin work on Entrepreneurship final

Sunday: proof read marketing final and submit, go to math review and go over trouble sections, and continue work on Ent final.

Monday: study for math final/take math final, com final assignment, reward myself with televison after its all done!

Tuesday/Wednesday: work/present Ent final then celebrate my great success with friends!

those are my finals goals now that they are written down I know it will be easier to stick to them. I will give updates on my progress.

-Bethany