54. Burnt Brain

Toast is delicious, especially right after a light toast in the oven and an application of some butter. Crispy on the outside, and scrumptiously moist on the inside. But, what about burnt toast? Really burnt toast? ...Not so delicious.

Noted for its atrocious burnt smell, burnt toast is black on the outside and hard all over. Burnt parts can cause cancer and taste like death.

Right now, I can detect a whiff of that burnt smell. But, it's not burnt toast. It's burnt brain.

Burnt brain can be caused by uninterrupted studying, concentrating for three or more consecutive classes, hard-to-understand lecturers who talk about hard-to-understand concepts, and trying to read a textbook after all the above.

Symptoms include headache, loss of grip, sore joints, muscle tension, pain when trying to think, drowsiness, increased temperatures in cerebral areas, disinterest in doing anything, feeling stuffy, misspelling or mistyping words, messy handwriting, daydreaming about computer programming code, and, in some occasions, sudden episodes of "Where am I? How did I get here?"

Don't get me wrong. It's good to think. In fact, it's quite deliciously stimulating to think and learn. However, like bread, if you toast the brain for too long, it can get burnt too. Good thing we have cellular respiration and our brain can repair itself to a certain degree when we rest - unlike burnt toast, which cannot repair itself.

Therefore, as the saying goes, "If you smell a burnt brain, get some rest."