Posted: 4/26/2009 7:58:01 PM EDT
| So I'm in college and its finals week and I'm pulling an all nighter tonight. Have two tests and a paper due at 9:00 a.m; good times. So while I jump back a forth between working and procrastinating my question to you all is this. Whats the biggest and most challenging all nighter type of situation you have done and were you successful? |
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So I'm in college and its finals week and I'm pulling an all nighter tonight. Have two tests and a paper due at 9:00 a.m; good times. So while I jump back a forth between working and procrastinating my question to you all is this. Whats the biggest and most challenging all nighter type of situation you have done and were you successful? I once drove 3 hours the night before finals to go to a buddy's 21 birthday and drank the night away. Managed to get up at 6:00 in the morning and drove back to UGA just in time to take my finals. It was a rough 3 hour drive and an even rougher 4 hours of testing! NEVER AGAIN!!! 
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I wrote my undergrad thesis (35 pages) on Power abstraction and its effects on Domestic Violence by pulling 3 consecutive all nighters. I got out of class at 8:40pm, grabbed some dinner and a 2 liter of mountain dew and was able to go from 10pm-4am each night. Even made it to my classes the next day which were at 9:05. I got an A- and pulled my overall GPA up to a 3.2 after a very bad semester during my freshman year.
Now 5 years after getting by B.S im contemplating going to law school. If I make it, I imagine that Ill have plently more "all nighter" stories to share in the future |
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Back in the day, 30 mins a page was a "good" (B) paper; 45-1hr a page was A level work.
All nighter? Hmm. We once had to work all night for an inventory of equipment for a CDR/1SG who had no supply accountability, filled out all the 1750s immaculately; 1SG said he was going to take them as no one else was trustworthy. I left the unit right before they deployed... and as soon as they were in country, they tried to make the Rear Det do a 100% inventory of their stuff. Was talking to a buddy in Rear Det who coincidentally got the call while we were BSing at lunch, told him what happened, so they went and got the civilians the company signed over the equipment to, and lo and behold... all the 1750s were gone, and a bunch of high dollar equipment in containers the 1SG had sole key access to. Last I heard they were adding that to the packet against that corrupt NCO. Everything else I have is just shit I forgot to do and worked all night and some late mortar attacks where people were hiding in the wrong hole, couple convoys lasting 2 days, trying to have an FTX when a bird dropped all the jumpers on the wrong LZ and they lost a g** d*** rifle - bringing out the entire battalion to help the dumbass PV2 find his shit he jettisoned. Not even our battalion!! Other than that, I got nothing noteworthy. Night-night, gl on the papers. |
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My most memorable all-nighter:
3rd year (5 year program). Computer Architecture class. Project was to design an 8-bit CPU with ALU from the gate level (i.e. we had AND, OR, NOT, XOR, XAND gates). Assemblies were OK (i.e. registers) but you had to also design the assemblies. Prior to the all-nighter, my buddy and I put about 5-6 hours into the project. The all-nighter was across two days, pretty much a straight 48 hour burn to get it done. We only took breaks to make another pot of coffee or chow down on pizza. We finished the damn thing at around 9:30a. It was due at 10:00a. The schematics, microcode, and documentation totalled around 150 printed pages. It also consumed a significant portion of a CD-R (I was very proud of that!). We both took a shot of tequila, delivered it to the prof and went back home. We got a C+ on the project. It was the second highest grade in the class. This was washout class #2 for CS. More people than not were retaking the class and more people than not failed their second time. My buddy and I were among 6 people who passed the class and were taking it for the first time. After we got it back I hung the schematic on most of a wall of my apartment. There were a couple of neat features in the architecture we designed. Some day I'll root through the boxes of binders & CDs from my college days and take another look at it. |
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Take it from me. Unplug your internet, or block AR15.com or any other useless site until everythings done tomorrow. Good luck! Haha, your words are wise but I'm using my schools online library for research so I can't unplug! And wow so far some good stories. 3 all nighters in a row? They would of found me shaking so bad by the end of it because of all that caffeine. |
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My most memorable all-nighter: 3rd year (5 year program). Computer Architecture class. Project was to design an 8-bit CPU with ALU from the gate level (i.e. we had AND, OR, NOT, XOR, XAND gates). Assemblies were OK (i.e. registers) but you had to also design the assemblies. Prior to the all-nighter, my buddy and I put about 5-6 hours into the project. The all-nighter was across two days, pretty much a straight 48 hour burn to get it done. We only took breaks to make another pot of coffee or chow down on pizza. We finished the damn thing at around 9:30a. It was due at 10:00a. The schematics, microcode, and documentation totalled around 150 printed pages. It also consumed a significant portion of a CD-R (I was very proud of that!). We both took a shot of tequila, delivered it to the prof and went back home. We got a C+ on the project. It was the second highest grade in the class. This was washout class #2 for CS. More people than not were retaking the class and more people than not failed their second time. My buddy and I were among 6 people who passed the class and were taking it for the first time. After we got it back I hung the schematic on most of a wall of my apartment. There were a couple of neat features in the architecture we designed. Some day I'll root through the boxes of binders & CDs from my college days and take another look at it. My old freshman R.A. was an engineering major and took a class similar to that his final year. I remember the last two weeks he would flip out on anyone who caused too much noise and would disturb him. I asked him to show me his senior project, O.o don't know how you guys do all that work without hooking yourself up to an I.V. that pumps red bull directly into your veins. |
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This is not a school related all nighter but here goes.
It was back in January of 2006. I was sitting in a dealership trading my truck in for another truck. Of course I was carrying over a previous balance from the loan on the old truck. I got through with signing the papers and then drove off the lot with a newer truck. It was a 2003 Silverado 1/2 4x4 with 49,000 miles on it and I paid $22,000 for it (way too much). Of course like a dumbass, I was signing through the papers and realized how much I really was spending. Salesmen didn't care nor did the finance guy. They were rushing like mad to get me out of there in that truck so they could take me to the cleaners. I got home and showed it to my parents and all was good. Got me a new truck for $380 per month but at that time I had well over $15,000 of credit card debt from spending foolishly. My old truck was not that bad but it had it's issues. Anyways, It hit me about 2.5 hours later as to how much I was spending and what it was gonna cost to drive this thing. This was way before gas hit $2.50 per gallon as well. The dealer gave me a 3 day 150 mile return policy on the newer truck. Needless to say I didn't sleep at all that night sitting in my chair waiting for the next morning to come so I could go get my old truck back. I got back down to the dealership and they were wondering what I was doing back. I said, "Here is the keys and I don't feel like getting raped owning this thing". Then they told me that my truck was no longer there and some stupid BS story. I told them you got 3 hours to get my truck back here or there is gonna be hell to pay. Turned out they loaned it to some guy for the morning while he had service performed on his vehicle. I'm so freakin glad i got my older truck back because I would have lost that Silverado by going bankrupt. I rushed into a situation but my old truck is still running, I have zero debt, And a healthy savings account. That was my all nighter and it was a living nightmare. It's weird how I literally seen my future unfold had I kept that Silverado. |
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Second semester freshman year I pulled about 3 all-nighters writing papers: There were a couple English Comp 2 class papers that I ignored till the night before they were due. I tested out of Comp 1, so I didn't really take Comp 2 very seriously. I would start a paper at 10PM the night before it was due (eat an entire package of Keebler chocolate chip cookies and suck down a 20 oz. bottle of Coca-Cola in the process) and somehow type a 5-6 page paper before 4 or 5AM. I'd usually have the paper done by 3AM but getting everything in perfect "MLA" format was a pain in the butt. I still got A's on the papers- aced the class no problem. Also wrote a pretty stellar research paper on capital punishment for my Correctional Philosophy class. Worked on it between the hours of midnight and 7AM the day it was due (at 10AM). A on the paper, A in the class. I think I had one or two last semester working on some projects for classes. I usually stay up till 2AM anyway, so an "all-nighter" isn't really too hard on me. I just have to get to bed earlier the following night. I have come to the point where I will never sign up for another 8AM class, and I'm reluctant to sign up for 9AM classes. 10AM is about as early as I want to go.  |
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The worst mistake I ever made in college was to down an extra large straight black irish cream flavored coffee from the campus coffee spot. I had been studying for a linguistics final and nothing was stickin' to my brain, so I took a break and got the coffee. Now, keep in mind, I don't drink coffee but I figured that the jolt would put me in super alert mode. Wrong. I took a few gulps (maybe half the cup or so) and sat back down at the table in the library. I was sitting in the semi-dark portion near the book stacks that were all lit with 60 year old fluorescents. Almost IMMEDIATELY I was hit with a freight train sized migraine. The straight black coffee + stress + worry + bad diet just didn't combine in my favor. I kept chugging through my notes and made it 10 minutes before I decided to stumble out and head home. I figured I'd get home, pop a few ibuprofen, some cold water, and get a few hours of sleep and wake up early to study again. Wrong. The straight black coffee had me so buzzed that I didn't sleep a wink. I sat there in my dark apartment with not a gram of sleepiness, a throbbing headache, and about 50 pages of notes that I needed to study (for a class that I didn't care for, but needed to do well in). I rolled around in bed, watching the clock slowly change minute by minute. I would occasionally glance over at the floor where my notes were and see all the shit that I couldn't study, but needed to study. 2AM passes by and the headache is still there. 3AM rolls by and the throbbing has reduced, but the pain is still present. By 4AM I started to feel OK, but then the nausea hit me. Yeah, all that black coffee combined with a diet of hot pockets sent in the 2nd wave of troops. I got up and took some pepto and went back to bed. 5AM passes by and I realize that I only have 2 hours left to study SOMETHING before I have to drive back to school to take the 9am final. 6AM and no progress. I can still feel the remnants of the migraine and my stomach is slowly getting better. I decide that a good long shower can help me shake off the feeling of zombie-brain and everything else. Wrong. Once I got out of the shower the headache left, but then I had the worst case of motion-sickness. You know, where moving SLIGHTLY will cause you to feel like you need to barf. At this point I had made it maybe 16 years without puking, so I wasn't going to do it. I slowly got myself dressed and I literally scruffed myself over to the kitchen (sit on your ass and drag yourself around since standing is the worst possible position at the time). I took a few sips of cold water which helped, but I couldn't shake it off. I trudged over to my computer and googled for 'home remedy motion sickness' and found that flat cola was supposed to help. So I manage to get the cola half-flat and I take a few sips before the migraine COMES BACK. OMG what the hell. At this point it is 7:30 and I need to get my ass to school so I can try to study before the final. Off I go. On the way, I stop by the gas station and pick up some dramamine. I pop a few and grab a huge bottle of that Evian water. So, I arrive at the library and decide to plop myself down in an attempt to study. By this time I'm feeling better since the dramamine kicked in and sort of put my brain stem into 'zZzz' mode. Slowly, but surely, I am starting to get tired. The sensation hits me hard and I am unable to read anything without nodding off. I am convinced that finals week was designed by satan himself to stress your body beyond healthy limits for academia, because I made the mistake of getting ANOTHER STRAIGHT BLACK IRISH CREAM COFFEE. OMG. DO NOT ask why. All I can guess is that my thought process was something like "Need to stay awake. What can keep me awake? Coke? No. Coffee? YES." So I head to the coffee shop and buy another coffee and I swear they hadn't changed out the pot since last night. The barista poured it into a medium cup and it looked so oily and dense that it was THICK. At this point the brain wasn't working so I downed about 1/3 of the cup and headed back to study. I think I got through 1 page of notes before realizing that I need to leave to the final. I head out the door and set on my walk toward the building where the final is held (maybe a quarter mile walk). Keep in mind this was a spring semester so it was the middle of May and 9AM can get pretty warm. Add on a layer of suck because it felt like it was already 95*F outside and 100% humidity. I slowly scuffled down the sidewalk with my 3x5 notes in one hand and that damn coffee in the other. Around the half way mark, the feeling hit. It wasn't the headache. The dramamine must have worn off because suddenly I NEEDED TO PUKE. I scanned the area and found a building nearby that must have had a bathroom close to the entrance. I didn't even make it to the door before I found myself leaning over a trash can. The feeling was slowly rising inside my abdomen and I ended up releasing half a cup of the sickest, hottest, steamingest, acidic coffee and water flavored with the unmistakable hint of Irish Cream. I stood there for maybe 2 minutes before I headed inside the building and found a bathroom where I could rinse my mouth of the horrible aftermath of stomach acid and irish cream flavoring. A splash of cold water to my face and I felt like I was ready to go. Vomiting always seems to have that immediate "I'm OK" feeling, huh? So I get to the final and I'm about 5 minutes late so the only seat I can get is in the back of the room where normally the slackers sit so they can read the paper or text on their phones. The test is handed out and I'm slowly comprehending each word at a time since the fluorescent lights are beaming into my pupils, bringing on another migraine. I don't recall a single question from that final but I know I was the first one to turn it in. Does my story end here? Nope! So I had finished my last final, but I was supposed to head into work when I was done. I had arranged this a few days before with my managers. At this point I'm feeling not so great, but with the final done I have less stress to aggravate any existing conditions. I stagger back to my vehicle, get in, start the engine and put the AC on full blast. Ahhh cold air is such a relief when it feels like your brain stem is cooking at 500*F. For some reason, I decided that I'd stop by the grocery store to pick up some meds so that I could make it through the day. I stopped at a local place and went inside and picked up some maximum strength Pepto. I paid, went out to my truck and then that feeling hit again. By this time it was 10:30 or 11AM and it was HOT and HUMID outside. I just sat there in my hot vehicle with a sense of "I am going to puke. There is no option. I am going to puke". By the time I felt the senstation in my esophagus, I looked around for the safest thing to puke into. Passenger chair? No. Floor? No. Ah yes! the bag from the grocery store. I quickly pulled out the bottle of pepto (forgot the receipt) and I unleashed the fury of hell into a plastic shopping bag while sitting in my vehicle (windows closed) on a 100*F day in the middle of May. I think I went full blast for a good 20-30 seconds until I couldn't go anymore. I can only describe the mixture spewing out of my mouth as a rancid combination of black coffee, irish cream flavoring, bits of hot pocket that I had eaten a day before, and the recognizable funk of stomach acid. I tied up the bag, went outside and dumped it into a nearby trash can and went home to take a quick nap before heading off to work. I don't remember what happened after that but I NEVER drank straight black coffee with irish cream flavoring EVER AGAIN. Oddly enough, I ended up making an A on the final and managed to get a B in the class. Oddly enough 2, now that I'm a working joe, I can't get through a day without a nice cup of coffee in the morning. Of course, now I use creamer and sugar and occasionally cut the coffee with some water. |
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I had several all-nighters in college.
The worst was for an orchestration class. My GF and I shacked-up in a motel for 2 days orchestrating our projects, and then when I thought we were done, I realized that while I had finished the master score, I had not transposed the score for individual instruments. I already knew who would do what, but at that time (1986), we had to do it all by hand with a pencil. Today, it would be done almost automatically with software. So, which it was not a difficult task, it was tedious and meant I would be late on turning it in. So, we showed up at the prof's apartment off campus after he got home from class (I skipped the class) and both the GF and I turned in our projects. I got 100% on mine and the honor of the university orchestra performing it a week later. 
It was an honor to study music with Wayne Peterson, truly one of the old masters. One of the high points of my life. Working with a true master of any discipline is both an honor and awe inspiring. |
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I've got a 20-25 page personal leadership action plan due tomorrow at 1700....I've not started writing it yet but I've got all my shit together for it finally. This SOB will take me most of tomorrow afternoon just because the level of detail I need to put into it. I also have to write a 3-4 page journal entry for the class, that will take me about an hour
I've also got to give a speech tomorrow on Italy for a public speaking class (hey I needed 2 more hours to graduate, this class is 3 and it's an easy A)....I'll throw something together later on today before lunch, it's only a 10 minute speech and I've bullshited all of them on the spot all semester. Granted they were 5 minutes and I knew what I was talking about, so this one may take a little bit of preperation, I'm guessing maybe an hour and a half tops. I'm going to be up late . Anyways off to bed for me for 3 hours of sleep then back to work.
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And done with the paper. Five hours until the first test and then another one directly after that. 5 hours to study for 2 exams...think I'll watch t.v. for a bit and procrastinate some more. Bah, fuck you ;P I've still got 434 words to go, and I'm fresh outta' bullshit. Paper's due online by 1200 today, but if I fall asleep I'm not going to wake up in time to get anything submitted. The real problem is that there's simply nothing to write about-it's basically one of these "write two pages in response to the question 'how many lugs does an AR-15 bolt have?'". My bullshitting skills have served me well many a late night before, but this is the last time I need ever call on them, and they've been depleted. |
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And done with the paper. Five hours until the first test and then another one directly after that. 5 hours to study for 2 exams...think I'll watch t.v. for a bit and procrastinate some more. Bah, fuck you ;P I've still got 434 words to go, and I'm fresh outta' bullshit. Paper's due online by 1200 today, but if I fall asleep I'm not going to wake up in time to get anything submitted. The real problem is that there's simply nothing to write about-it's basically one of these "write two pages in response to the question 'how many lugs does an AR-15 bolt have?'". My bullshitting skills have served me well many a late night before, but this is the last time I need ever call on them, and they've been depleted. Tell us the question. Talking through it usually helps. |
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And done with the paper. Five hours until the first test and then another one directly after that. 5 hours to study for 2 exams...think I'll watch t.v. for a bit and procrastinate some more. Bah, fuck you ;P I've still got 434 words to go, and I'm fresh outta' bullshit. Paper's due online by 1200 today, but if I fall asleep I'm not going to wake up in time to get anything submitted. The real problem is that there's simply nothing to write about-it's basically one of these "write two pages in response to the question 'how many lugs does an AR-15 bolt have?'". My bullshitting skills have served me well many a late night before, but this is the last time I need ever call on them, and they've been depleted. Tell us the question. Talking through it usually helps. Bleh, sucks man. If it were me, and I couldn't BS anymore depending on what the prof is like, just do some fancy rewording , again, again...and again lol. Also one exam almost done, about to start on my other class, Brain and Behavior. Pretty fun, Interesting class. |
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So I'm in college and its finals week and I'm pulling an all nighter tonight. Have two tests and a paper due at 9:00 a.m; good times. So while I jump back a forth between working and procrastinating my question to you all is this. Whats the biggest and most challenging all nighter type of situation you have done and were you successful? My TACAN unexpectedly went down in Iraq in 2003. I worked on that stupid thing for 36 hours straight. I swear that I still see sentences out of the manual in my sleep. |
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And done with the paper. Five hours until the first test and then another one directly after that. 5 hours to study for 2 exams...think I'll watch t.v. for a bit and procrastinate some more. Bah, fuck you ;P I've still got 434 words to go, and I'm fresh outta' bullshit. Paper's due online by 1200 today, but if I fall asleep I'm not going to wake up in time to get anything submitted. The real problem is that there's simply nothing to write about-it's basically one of these "write two pages in response to the question 'how many lugs does an AR-15 bolt have?'". My bullshitting skills have served me well many a late night before, but this is the last time I need ever call on them, and they've been depleted. Tell us the question. Talking through it usually helps. I think someone failed their quest. Sorry but if you're asleep there is no way you're going to wake up, no way you're going to finish the paper, and no way you'll go to any classes before 18:00. If you're proff is a jerk you'll have to think of a good excuse on why you were being treated for swine flu. Hopefully you'll have a badass native German hottie like my German 350 proff, who is hungover every Monday, so he/she will cancel all but 2 of your Monday sessions for the entire semester... Good luck! |
| Ehhh, I cranked out another paragraph or two of pseudo-coherent politically-correct babbling, and decided that enough was enough. Didn't quite make the word limit, but past a certain point you just don't give a flying fuck. Close enough counts in horse shoes, hand grenades, and classes where you've probably already got a high enough grade to maybe possibly pass the course... |
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So I'm in college and its finals week and I'm pulling an all nighter tonight. Have two tests and a paper due at 9:00 a.m; good times. So while I jump back a forth between working and procrastinating my question to you all is this. Whats the biggest and most challenging all nighter type of situation you have done and were you successful? After being awake all day, left home at 2AM to drive 45 minutes to school to catch the charter bus to drive 5 hours down to Austin to lobby the Texas Legislature. Had to talk to politicians and run around the capital all day being persuasive and coherent, hated life, went to a museum, had dinner with some Alumni and then we headed back up to school. Arrived at 1 AM, drove 45 minutes home. Just about 40 hours with no sleep. Worst day ever. |