I'm really having a lack of motivation to do anything. I try and reason with myself in two ways: There's the one side of me that tries to explain why I should do all of my work and the other side that explains why I don't. The side that explains why I don't always tends to win.

The reason that I don't is simple: I spend seven and a half hours a day in school, and an hour on the commute (fuck cars, I'm British, and even if cars are the norm in America, I refuse to own or drive one). So, after more than eight hours away from home, the last thing I want to do is six hours of homework. They're basically trying to get me to simply eat and sleep. And that's all. I had this problem in high school, and it was rectified by this: My parents took away my computer, and I started taking courses I like. However, now, that is not an option. I have to all sorts of shit I don't want to, and so, I simply don't. What gives them the right to expect this from me?

I know that if I ever want to go anywhere in life, I have to start applying myself. If I don't, I'm going to end up like my father; fat, with a slight alcohol addiction, who lives for the moment that he can come home and play video games. So far, I'm actually pretty close to that, except that my reason for coming home is to eat.

I figured out that if I go to the library after school, or if I consume an immense amount of caffeine, I can get all of my work except the stuff that requires a computer. However, I'm hungry as fuck by the time school is over, and I rarely have enough money to pick up a snack to eat outside of the library, and I almost never have enough money for a lot of caffeine.

Another problem I am having is that one of the teachers has his own special and unique program that we are required to use. He programmed it himself, and I am too embarrassed to tell him that it is a piece of shit and I could have programmed something better than that in Python when I was 14. But the program isn't the real problem, once I start doing it, it's ok. The problem is, the program is Windows and Mac only, and I fucking HATE booting windows. My copy of windows is infested with bugs. Who knows, maybe they're built in to the program itself. And whenever I use it to do anything on the net, it seems to just get more viruses. And if that isn't bad enough, I just hate windows in general. I won't go into it, because basically every Linux user I've met eventually gets the same grievances against M$, but needless to say, my blood boils at the mere log in screen of Windows. So right now, I'm failing that class... 39%, actually.

So I'm wondering, how did you all get through this sort of thing? How should I? Any advice at all you can give me?

Oh, unrelated, but I think I'm getting carpel tunnel or something. Any advice for dealing with that?

Things I would reccomend:

1. Uninstall Windows, install Windows 2000 instead of whatever version you're currently using. Get an anti-virus program like NOD.32, Ad-aware, Firefox, and you should be okay. Windows is pretty unsecure right after installing it, but if you download a few programs you can have it secured in like 15 minutes.
2. Tell your teacher his program isn't good. Don't be mean, just be honest. If you do have more extensive programming knowledge, offer to help him improve it. Hopefully if he's a college professor he'd be mature enough to accept constructive critcism and offers for help.
3. As for your main problem, lack of motivation, that's a tougher one to solve. Really the one that can help you with that is you. But it will only work if you find meaning in what you're doing. If you're getting nothing out of college, if you feel that it's pointless, maybe you should stop. College isn't for everybody. If you know it's beneficial though, and you're just being lazy, then you have to straighten up. You already have an example of how you could end up if you don't improve. All you can do is apply yourself, there's no magic trick to getting your work done (and it's certainly not caffeine). What you need to decide is really what you want to do with your life, what will make you happy. They only have they right to make you take college courses you don't like because you let them. Your future is always your choice.

Well, you can use either wine (I presume you have) or emulate windows with either XEN/VMWare or install a stripped down version of WinXP called TinyXP that you can afford to use on a thumbdrive(and reinstall if it goes to hell). Alternatively, decompile the program and then reverse-engineer a better one for yourself (and motivate yourself to program a bit more).

As for food and the hunger pains, go chow down on some bland but filling food (oatmeal, Cliff bars, rabbit food). You'll have a slight dip in energy (no more sugar rush), but you'll feel more satisfied.

As for motivation: see above poster

Motivation... Find something you like, but don't feel you have the motivation to pursue - and start out small. If you like, say, art, start by drawing simple little cartoons in your spare time. You'll be bad at it at first, but that's fine. Just enjoy what you're doing. Eventually, you may find that you're moving up, doing whatever you chose in bigger ways, and gradually your motivation will grow.

Gaining motivation, that's something it seems most of us are looking for. Obviously nobody knows how to obtain it. And nobody can help.

I agree with you completely on the motivation part! Lately I haven't been getting my essays done because I have not one iota of motivation to do it. Right now I should be doing homework, and instead I'm on here because I'm bored. I feel like the laziest person on earth -.-;.

>>1

> The problem is, the program is Windows and Mac only, and I fucking HATE booting windows.

Get a Mac? I used to laugh when people suggested this to me, but I own two of them now (two Mac machines to three Linux ones, Linux is still winning in my house.)

Yeah, but macs are so expensive, and they really don't do it for me. To me, they're like, uh.... Far too easy Linux without much room for modifying and a lack of a download repo. I like the concept, but they're rather costly.

I agree with the cost problem although salary sacrifice through work completely negates it (of course you only get that privilege once you actually have work, which is always much later than study...)

I used to think that the cost was acceptable because so much comes with the OS (which it does... when you compare it to Windows, at least Mac bundles a half decent (actually a very good) mail client, and a fully working calendar app, and you don't need to install anything third party to sync the above.

But then a new copy of the OS costs only $150 which is far cheaper than a new copy of Windows, and that's where the aforementioned applications come in, so clearly the apps aren't the thing driving the price up, I'm sure it's purely paying the designers and giving Steve more pocket money.