Or I think that's how the quote goes. So let me try some planning.

My current dilemma is divided into two sides: final exam and thesis.

Final exam

It's divided in 3 topics, with 3 questions each: general geology, historical geology, and one elective topic. I haven't even thought about which elective topic to choose, and it's not like there's an "easy" topic either. I just know it WON'T be related to mineral resources. Perhaps geomorphology, I liked that class...

To be honest, given health (and others) issues, there are entire years of my life that I barely remember, most of them during the period when I studied. Not good. I don't think I have to start from scratch, not in the majority of topics at least. But I will have to work really hard to get my passive knowledge into something usable. The mere idea terrifies me a bit lot.

Is there any other way to do this than brute force my way through textbooks? I'll be asked only theory anyways. How do I know if I'm actually learning? How do I retain all that info in my brain?

Action: Start reading, I guess...

Thesis

My thesis also can be divided in 3 main parts: the writing itself, the model, and the AR implementation.

Writing

I'm stuck (what's new?) in trying to make something coherent out of my thoughts. But whenever I get something on the document, I immediately think of 5 things that could be wrong with it.

This is how I live, by the way. Whenever I have a thought, my brain goes "if we were wrong, how could we prove it?". It happens when I try to write, when I get asked my opinion, when I cook, when I clean my cats' litterbox1, always. It's great for troubleshooting ideas, but a nightmare when it gets out of hand (like in this case).

Right now I'm specifically stuck at coming up with a working definition to extend to my work. Or to be more exact, to settle in which goal does the concept focus on. There are several goals, which one is the one that fits the best to my idea? Can I justify why I chose that one?

Action: write the damn definition, and explain what's behind the different goals. Don't worry with which one to choose yet.

Model

I'm stuck at modeling the feathers of the body. I tried with cards, but I didn't like how it looked. I thought of sculpting them but, again, it didn't look realistic. My last attempt was creating brushes out of pictures and the results were better than in the previous ones. But then I bumped into the problem of "whose feathers to use?" This animal does not exist, and there's still some debate on which order of birds they belonged. Would I be able to defend why I chose one over the other?.

Action: narrow down to at least two options of birds, the ones with more backing. Afterall, this in itself is not the focus of my work. And I can ask for feedback later. But I need to have something to show before asking, duh.

AR

After all the false starts with this, I was under the impression that this would be the less-difficult part. I had found an addon for Blender that allows to export AR to the web, right from the viewport with a few clicks.

But I hadn't tried it yet. I tried today before writing this... and it didn't work. I followed the documentation and (almost non-existent) tutorials but right at step 3 it stopped working 🫠. The FAQs didn't help either. It went all above my head. What did I get myself into?

Ngl, this filled me with despair. But then I reminded myself that nothing has been easy nor worked at the first try since I started university. Just more of the same old, same old. So I stepped back, went for a walk, ate something, and made myself some tea to calm down.

Action: make a list of alternatives to create AR, with a focus on the ones with most resources to learn. And free, because of course there's no funding for this.

Insert 'Ah shit, here we go again' meme here.