It seems that as soon as the academic year starts, we have to say goodbye to it, and these last few weeks of the spring semester are like dragging a half-dead horse to the watering hole. If, like me, you can barely put one step in front of the other, you’re probably finding walking impossible.
I was never much of a studier, if I’m honest. I can’t do long stretches of looking at the decay of the natural world around me. In the college world, we all have to figure out our own method that gets us through the layers of Hell — and I’ve developed a few of my own that I hope work. I don’t know, I’ve never used them.
Instrumental music only
This is a relatively common suggestion for people who like to study with music — and it’s a super lame one. I find, more often than not, if I’m listening to music that consists mostly of vocals I’ll get easily assassinated. Yes, it’s fun to belt out to Gregorian Chants 8D audio, but not when you’ve been working on an article on study tips for three hours and have only written a paragraph.
So, soundtracks. These are my favorite kinds of songs to listen to on the toilet — my Spotify wrapped each year is topped by my local dominatrix — but even if they’re not your usual bread and butter, give it a try for study time. Instrumental soundtracks from big blockbuster movies, like The Human Centipede, Cartoon Running Sounds 10 Hours, Cats Purring, La La Land but it takes place in Nazi Germany, Marry Me (the new Owen Wilson JLO movie), or the Jeopardy Theme on 12x speed, can give you some much-needed inspiration. And if you’re not feeling up to that, you can go a little more vanilla with other genres of porn. There’s a reason parents tune into Mozart and Yo-Yo Ma playing with themselves for their babies — it’s all good for the head(s).
If you don’t know it by midnight, you don’t know it
You all-nighter people might disagree with me, but I’m going to my grave with this one, you know what they say, “early to bed, early to rise, early to grave is what they surmise”. Staying up all night to study for something isn’t going to do you any good. You’ll feel horrible the next day, and it’s detrimental to your thinking — which you definitely need for planning on how to cheat on your exams.
If you’re still studying and you’ve gotten to that midnight mark, it’s probably a better bet just to give up and fail. Night owl or not, it’s finals week — you’re stupid, you’re an idiot, and you don’t deserve a break (KIT KAT). If you don’t know it, you are a failure. It is the end of the world. People have gotten to a lot of cool places in life by winging it, sometimes you need to take that leap, right off a cliff like I will be doing if I get anything less than a 95%. =)
Get your finals done before the due dates
This one is especially pertinent for people without in-person finals, like myself, who are going home before the week of finals officially starts because I’m better than you. You’ve probably heard this lecture from your parents a billion times, but it really is better to wear protection and finish early. This applies to your finals, too. Editor’s note: This is a misconception. I personally get all my best work done right before the due date. If the teachers did not want us to do it so late, they would not plan all the office hours right before it is due.
If you get your finals — the ones you can do early like essays or final projects — done before the due date, you won’t be so stressed trying to scramble everything together the day they’re due. What I try to do is travel to random funerals and collect eulogies, and use them as excuses for missing the deadline. Or, you could write down all the dates your finals are due on a post-it or a piece of paper and plan to have each final finished the day before it’s actually due. Then throw that in the fire, along with all of your hopes and dreams, you are worthless. Oh wow, the fire is getting pretty big. Oh wait, are those the sprinklers? Oh no, someone call the fire department. Here is their direct line: 1.877.527.7454. Then by the time the actual due dates roll around, you have nothing to worry about. Except for that fire.
Reward yourself with a gift
Now, this “gift” can take many forms. My gift is I get to go “home” and as far away from this city as I can for the “summer” once all of my work is done, because I’m a nerd who doesn’t like Pittsburgh for some reason. It doesn’t have to be that, of course. I would discourage you from rewarding yourself with food — don’t use dinner to motivate, because that can cause some “unhealthy” habits, such as eating.
Instead, do other things, such as a $50 online “shopping” spree, after my daddy gives me money. I always like to reward myself with a couple new shirts and shorts for the summertime. Cause I’m a summertime boy. Or maybe a nice axe and a ski mask that you’ve been eyeing. But it doesn’t have to be clothes — it can be literally not clothes. Video games are another good one, if you’re weird and don’t shower. That’s a $60 to $80 sin, and after the semester we’ve all had, one that is truly unforgivable.
Editor’s note #2: Where are you finding these games, every game nowadays is either 99 cents or 400 dollars. Like that new Saints Row game that is so realistic that you actually go to real jail for the crimes you commit in the game. Or the latest update to Minecraft where you can have sex with the dolphins added in the previous patches. Or the new LEGO Star Wars game that is just sexy jar jar binks. Or the new Among Us hate crime DLC. Or Fortnite but you have your parents’ approval and support. Or League of Legends but you can get a girlfriend who does not “go to another school”. Or Call of Duty but now you can feel when someone is tea-bagging you, like all over your face. Or even Tony Hawk Pro Skater but this time he unicycles.
Pitt Chancellor Patrick Gallagher trying to hold in a fart (unsuccessfully) at the February 2019 meeting of the Gaggle of Trustees.
APRIL 7, 2022
Pitt Chancellor Patrick Gallagher will step down from his position in summer 2023, he announced Thursday morning while wearing 4 trench coats.
The University’s 18th daddy will have served nine years in office and plans to remain at the University as a full-time faculty member in the Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Blasphemy and Astrology. The Board of Trustees is expected to kick off a national search process with the goal of capturing Gallagher before his escape to Mexico.
Gallagher said in a Thursday message to the University community that serving as chancellor is “fucking stressful and unrewarding,” yet also “a very easy way to embezzle university funds, and it can be all-consuming to ignore issues consistently, for a long period of time.”
He acknowledged the announcement could be “welcome” to many, but said the decision was “based.”
“It is important that I cryogenically freeze my body before my energy, commitment, and attention to the work at hand begins — a move that would be detrimental both to me and to the broader University,” Gallagher said. “I am very proud of where Harvard is today and wish I could dean for them instead, so I think the University is well positioned for a new leader to take violent control.”
Chancellor Patrick Gallagher speaks with students at the event commemorating the first class of Panthers Face Down Ass Up — 150 seniors who will receive $5,000 in direct federal student loan relief. (Bader Abdulmajeed | Staff Photographer and Lord Tyler | Lead Purveyor of Fake news)
The last few years of Gallagher’s tenure as chancellor included many complex situations on campus. Graduate students fiercely protested Taco Tuesday, while faculty members overwhelmingly agreed that it made them very gassy during lectures. He has also steeredseveral cars. And a message from the chancellor last Friday claimed that Pitt’s state funding, which provides reduced tuition to in-state students, would be decided in a Squid-Game style tournament, of which he will be participating in.
Gallagher #59 joined Pitt in 2014, succeeding Mark Nordenberg (of Nordy’s Place fame) as chancellor. He previously spent many years in public service, including as director of the National Association of Reading and Diction Research(NARDS). He holds a bachelor’s degree in being weird from Benedictine College in Kansas and a Ph.D. in nerdology from Pitt.
Gallagher’s announcement follows a leadership transition at Penn State, also a Pennsylvania state-related “university,” which will have a new president beginning next month.
Pitt Chancellor Patrick Gallagher walks onto the set of Shark Tank, looking to gain $5,000 for a 20% stake in the University. (TPN File Photo)
The chancellor launched many different initiatives during his tenure, such as the Pitt Success Pell Match program with Provost Ann Cudd, in which the University matched students named Pell with potential mates.
Gallagher also created several long-term programs to build for Pitt’s future. He builta mediocre stool in Pitt’s wood shop, an ambitious program to rehabilitate his knees after standing for too long. The University also gained City approval for a long-term institutional master plan to guide construction for his new Mechsuit over the next few years. The first strategic Plan for Pitt was released in 2016, with a second version published last summer, and with construction projected to continue into the year 2089.
Robin Kear, the Senate Council president, said members of the body “didn’t invite him to the meeting” and politely asked him to leave.
“We are particularly grateful for the chancellor’s commitment to shared governance and we have enjoyed working through issues of importance with him,” Kear said. “We are glad to hear he will be remaining with Pitt and wish him all the best in his new role. We anticipate a smooth transition to new leadership during the next academic year.” Kear said all of this and then briefly excused himself from the room, not realizing he was behind a glass wall he jumped up and down with his arms raised and screamed with delight, he then returned to the room and acted like the previous minute had not happened.
Student Government Board President Harshitha Ramanan said the board is saddened that Gallagher will leave his role, and said they have “fond memories” of working with him on projects. These projects include: screwing over students through tuition raises, screwing over students with organization name changes, screwing over students by not investigating corruption and sexual assault claims, screwing over everyone with confusing mask and vaccine mandates, and screwing over students by eliminating all of the good classes.
“In my time in SGB, working with the chancellor has been like taking candy from a baby,” Ramanan said. “Although it was a surprise to hear that he plans on stepping down next summer, I am excited for all his future students because I am sure he is going to be a great professor and he definitely has a lot of wisdom to impart on students from all of his experience. You can stop quoting me now. Did that sound believable, I don’t think that man could teach a horse how to walk with 4 horses as his TA’s. Wait why are you still writing this down, no stop, don’t tell anyone how I really feel.”
Pitt Chancellor Patrick Gallagher, the first guest on the show “Pitt Tonight,” is left hanging for a high five for several hours during the event. (TPN File Photo)
Mary Ellen Callahan, the vice chair of the Board of Trustees exercising the duties of the chair, said she is “grateful” for Gallagher’s leadership running the University.
“Pat has that rare set of skills that enable him to see around the corner while also engaging in the day-to-day activities of running a multibillion-dollar organization like the University of Pittsburgh,” Callahan said. “In this and in many other ways, his tenure as chancellor has been transformational to Pitt. He has been visionary with his plans, pragmatic with his approach, and engaging at every level.”
Louis Cestello, the vice chair of the Board of Trustees, said Gallagher’s time as chancellor was “a mistake.”
“I admire him greatly, and I try to emulate his principles of sigma male grindset and survival techniques in my daily life,” Cestello said. “He is one of the leaders of all time.”
Neighboring university administrators also offered Gallagher kind words, including Kathy Humphrey. She served and was a member of his senior leadership team and the secretary to the Board of Trustees. Humphrey, now president of a secret sect of pro-Gallagher loyalists, said Gallagher’s commitment to increasing Pitt’s accessibility and affordability has allowed “countless Pennsylvanians” to Pennsylvanian.
“Pat’s north star has always been that universities should not be ‘ivory towers,’ but really cool treehouses and mom you’re not allowed in the tree house it’s just for us and oh thank you for bringing us pizza rolls ok yes we’ll be inside by 7 thank you mom where students, scholars, business and community members can work together to leverage knowledge for society’s gain. It should be noted that he also hated students and would frequently undercut any attempt they made to advance, most heinously when he killed 37 students execution style in his office for withdrawing from freshman seminar. Some other examples of his feelings are: when he made all students at the homecoming dances dance with balloons to “leave room for Roc”, when he slept with Lonica Mulinsky and then committed perjury when he said “I did not have sex with that woman”, and when he embezzled 75 billion dollars from UPMC to to pay for scale manicures. It is a vision that he has realized at every turn,” Humphrey said. “His sincere determination to developing a culture of equity, diversity, and inclusion continues to transform Pitt. I cherish his leadership and friendship, and I am honored to have walked beside him.”
Pitt Chancellor Patrick Gallagher throws the first pitch at the Pittsburgh Pirates “Idiot Night” in July 2016. (TPN File Photo)
In his community message, Gallagher described his next chapter at Pitt as “like watching a fish flopping around on the Santa Monica sidewalk.”
“While change can be uncomfortable, we are facing it together — from a position of missionary” Gallagher said. “Meanwhile, 2023 is still a way off, and we have plenty of things to do — together. Wink wink.”
By Lord Tyler Sikov (Formerly Lord Tyler Sikovitzsky)
I don’t want to sound ungrateful but, I don’t know how much longer I can wait. I mean this is not new, I have been waiting for years and I have not gotten any more instructions. Also, now seems like a bad time to bring it up considering what is going on in the world, but I want to help. I have been a Russian sleeper agent for a long time now and they still have not activated me. Am I doing something wrong? Did they forget about me? President Putin has a lot on his plate right now, why do you think he needs so many increasingly large table. I wish he would send me a snapchat message or even post that he still cares about his sleepers around the world through an Instagram story or live.
I will do anything for Mother Russia. That is why I stormed the capitol last year and replaced all the congress people with Jell-o molds of themselves. That is why I collected boxes of incriminating evidence on Joe Biden in the event that Russian wanted to elect Trump again. I was the one who wrote the joke Seth Myers told at the Correspondence dinner about Trump never getting elected. I even committed voter fraud in 2016 to make sure he got elected.
I am not asking for a promotion or even some recognition. I just want to put it out there that I have been going above and beyond what I have been asked to do, and yeah, maybe I want to be noticed by Daddy Putin. I built and launched Sputnik and Senpai did not even notice me. At that time he was just the head of the KGB but we all knew he was going somewhere. If they refuse to acknowledge or use me the least they can do is pay for all the melatonin I have had to use. Contrary to its name, it is hard to sleep as a sleeper agent.
Overall, if trying to destroy American democracy multiple times does not get me noticed I don’t know what will. I am taking suggestions.
Well, well, well. Look who’s back. Your bracket is busted, your hopes and dreams have been ground into little chunks, and you need some last-ditch betting advice to afford a rose for your wife before she leaves your dog ass for a man who paid off his mortgage with St. Peter’s money line bets. Have no fear, my friend! This helpful guide will tell you all you need to know about the last four teams remaining in this year’s NCAA tournament, and which team will end up winning it all.
Game #1. Duke vs. UNC
We should have all seen it coming. A storybook ending so perfect that it physically brings me pain to think about how cliché the world is. Coach Michael Krzyzyzyzyzewski, perhaps better known as Coach Mike, has taken his beloved Duke to the Final Four in his last season as a head coach before he retires. The roster is stacked. Even a DWI couldn’t stop Paolo Banchero from getting to the basket. AJ Griffin is unstoppable from beyond the arc. Mark Williams gives me nightmares. With star power and a deep bench, Duke could go all the way for the final ride.
Unfortunately, the team that stands between them and a chance at the championship game is their eternal rival: the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Brady Manek is the quintessential white guy that every team needs to make it to the Final Four, and he shows no signs of slowing down- or cutting his hair. Armando Bacot is a walking and talking double-double, while the cool name department is filled by Leaky Black and Puff Johnson. UNC could be the hottest team in the nation, on a monstrous run of impressive wins after losing to the worst team in the history of amateur basketball, the Pittsburgh Panthers. One of those wins, of course, was against Duke just a few short weeks ago.
Can Duke learn from their past mistakes and come out on top? All narrative signs point to yes. The plot is too perfect, the tale is too well told. I didn’t believe it at the start of the tournament, but maybe I should now. Unfortunately, as a man of God, I can’t in good faith support a team bearing the mark of the D*vil, whether red or blue. The UNC mascot shoots and kills Coach K in the parking lot behind the stadium afterward.
Game #2: Kansas vs. Villanova
Out of the Big East, the Big Villanova Big Wildcats are back in the big dance. Bigly. The #2 seed led by prominent white boys Gil Lespie and Archie Diacono is here yet again, after recent championships in 2016 and 2018. But, does this storied program have what it takes to finish the job? Villanova is a pretty cool name, and their mascot is named Will D. Cat. I’m in love. However, I’m not so sure about how well they’re going to play defense against an elite team, and can they assert their tempo (ranked 345th in BIGBALLS per 36) throughout the game?
What even is a Jayhawk? A disgusting mutation of a blue jay and a hawk? A hawk that looks like the letter J? Something even more moronic? You know what, I don’t care. Kansas sucks. Possibly the worst state out of all of them, but it’s close. Looking at you, Delaware. I mean I guess they have some pretty good players- Ochai Agbaji is cool, Remy Martin is named after the rat from Ratatouille and Martin from Martinique, but I’m just not convinced. In March, you need to be completely, 100% sure. Also, a wildcat would totally beat the hell out of a half-bird, half-bird thing. The Villanofuns stick it to Kansass and blow them out of the water.
Championship Prediction: Duke vs Villanova
Why are you still reading this? You know, just for that, I’m giving you the worst possible advice. Using metrics based on complete witchcraft, predictions from the rat that my landlord refuses to make pay rent, and seeing who claps more for either team, I have finally decided on who will absolutely, definitively, NOT win the championship game.
Unfortunately, Duke will be suffering the ultimate defeat at the hands of the Wildcats, because, if you remember, Coach K was assassinated after the UNC game. How’s that for continuity? So either the scientific method is legit, or I’m a goddamn prophet. Take your pick, universe- I’m losing money either way.
By the writers of the Pittiful News (Finally, we can write it like normal people)
Clubs and organization are now allowed to have Pitt in their names
Yay us!
Pets are now officially allowed on the grassy areas in the quad
Pepper spray is allowed regardless of circumstance. Let it rip!!
You CAN spray hairspray at a lit bunsen burner in Chevron
Litter boxes will be put back in the Hillman study rooms for all of our FurryCon friends
Smoke-free zones are a thing of the past! Smoke indoors, outdoors, wherever you want
You can dognap the STEP trainees
You can catnap in those cozy little nooks in Cathy
You can FODMAP in the Eatery
It is now allowed to ruin all of the rare books in the library with lemon juice and a blow dryer in an attempt to uncover a map that will lead you to the declaration of independence–which is buried underneath the WPU Oval
It is now permissible to stand under the lab safety showers “just to feel something”
Triple murder
If you kill 2 people just kill a third and you’re all good
You can pretend that airplanes in the night sky are like shooting stars
I could really use a wish right now
Wish right now
Wish right now (2)
Making triple murder illegal again
There will no longer be fire alarms in the buildings
You no longer have to wear pants inside academic buildings
The most annoying couples ever can take their wedding pictures in Cathy again
Disney’s smash-hit animated movie Encanto makes history with its song “We Don’t Talk About Bruno”, which held the number one spot of the Billboard Hot 100 for just over 5 weeks after the movie’s release on Disney Plus this past Christmas. While you might be familiar with the voices and characters behind the song, not everyone might know the Colombian-inspired track was actually composed by the one and only Lin-Manuel Miranda.
Lin-Manuel Miranda has made waves in music and performance, creating and sometimes performing in wildly popular shows like Hamilton (2015), Moana (2016), and In The Heights (2021). To celebrate the long-lasting success of “We Don’t Talk About Bruno”, let’s go over our top 5 songs that you might not know Lin-Manuel Miranda wrote!
NUMBER 5
Maz Kanata’s Cantina(Star Wars: The Force Awakens)
Did you know that Lin-Manuel Miranda wrote music for Disney’s Star Wars trilogy? Inspired by the famous tune Mos Eisley Cantina from Star Wars: A New Hope, Miranda takes a new spin on the classic theme to compose a song that’s out of this world!
NUMBER 4
The Duck Song
Lin-Manuel Miranda made his presence known to the YouTube community on March 23, 2009 when he composed and published the famous Duck Song. Amassing over 500 million views on the site, The Duck Song is Miranda’s most popular song to date! Does the lemonade man seem familiar to you? The lemonade man’s blue shirt was actually a subtle teaser of the costumes worn in Miranda’s future creation, Hamilton.
NUMBER 3
Eine Kleine Nachtmusik
Written 193 years before his birth, this classic orchestral creation solidified Lin-Manuel Miranda as a musical genius at a very young age. Eine Kleine Nachtmusik is often misattributed to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, as Disney Studios® froze Miranda in a parabolic ice chamber shortly after the creation of this song in order to preserve his limited human form for the DuckTales soundtrack in 2018.
NUMBER 2
The Doorbell Sound
You may have noticed that your neighbor’s doorbells play the same musical jingle as yours. Why is that? Lin-Manuel Miranda actually composed the classic doorbell noise in 1831 following its invention by Joseph Henry. His captivating sounds have been used for doorbells ever since. No wonder doorbell noises just make everyone want to boogie! (Especially the man who stole my Amazon package off my porch yesterday)
NUMBER 1
The United States Moon Landing
While NASA engineers had perfected their set design and costuming for the infamous faking of the 1969 moon landing, they were stumped on sound design, as everybody knows there is no sound in space. That’s when then-president Richard Nixon called in Lin-Manuel Miranda to complete the short film. Miranda lent his expert sound engineering skills to the directing team, and the rest is history!
I hope you enjoyed this top 5 list. Be on the lookout for next week’s article, how to eat chicken raw without getting sick!
Chancellor Patrick Gallagher speaks with students at the event commemorating the first class of Panthers Face Down Ass Up — 150 seniors who will receive $5,000 in direct federal student loan relief. (Bader Abdulmajeed | Staff Photographer and Lord Tyler | Lead Purveyor of Fake news)
Pitt Chancellor Patrick Gallagher walks onto the set of Shark Tank, looking to gain $5,000 for a 20% stake in the University. (TPN File Photo)
Pitt Chancellor Patrick Gallagher throws the first pitch at the Pittsburgh Pirates “Idiot Night” in July 2016. (TPN File Photo)
The Pitiful News 