The Brain Factory - No talking please!

Accepting the fact that I simply could not focus when I study at home, my brother and I decided to head off to the local library today. Our local library isn't far, a 5 min drive. It's a great place to study. In fact, during university and high school exam periods, it is bursting with eager, young and hopeful students. Or students that realize the very probable and grim fact that they may fail the upcoming exams. I would say I belong in the latter.


Our library is divided into two main study sections.

The "noisy" section: close to the books, where a number of tables allows you to chat, discuss and terrorize the public... From experience, the "noisy" section is a wild, unruly, and, a natural habitat for high school boys and girls. These two species co-exist in this habitat solely to meet one another and attempt to mate. Why in the library? Well, it serves as a good excuse for both their parents and for their guilty conscience for not studying.

Then there's the "silent" section in libraries. They happen to be the better places to get focused and study. The main reason why I find studying in the library so effective is that it is free of distractions, noise and you have other people motivating and edging you to study. The atmosphere is great. In fact it's so great, that if you arrive too late from when it opens, all the seats in the silent section are taken up.

Arrived early! Hasn't filled up yet

Not just a brain factory, where memories, thoughts, opinions and knowledge are created and absorbed... The library is also a time machine. Without the distractions, a minute in there is a long time. What seems like 3 hrs of study comes down to possibly 30 minutes. I find one or two full days of solid study in this time machine allows me to revise an entire subject that took a semester to learn.


There is an unspoken code of conduct in the silent area. "No Talking" Really. How much simpler can this instruction be? Nothing but the sound of your brain gears moving can be emitted in the "silent" section. Well, at least, technically. Many a time have I wanted to seriously injure a person for emitting more than an involuntary sound. STOP TALKING. Switch your phone on silent! If you are to answer a call... walk outside! Nothing annoys me more than being disturbed in the middle of an intriguing and engaging calculation of a problem (heh) than someone answering their phone next to you. Well that's not true, crying babies do annoy me more than that... But still?



It's not hard to recognize repeating offenders. My brother and I have come to recognize a certain ring tone that keeps ringing every time we go. I remember sitting there, along with 30 other people, listening to this ring tone for a full 10 min. as the owner had left it unattended on the table and went off somewhere. Despite the extreme annoyance displayed by everyone's faces, the ring tone grows on you. It's actually quite catchy. Do do do do...


These brain factories are my salvation, my safe haven, during exam periods. Whoever thought of putting tables in a house and making everyone stay quiet? Brilliance.

Remember Dr. Evil from Austin Powers? His button that ejected annoying and imbecile people down into a pit of flames below their seat? I really need one.