In 48 hours...redux

It's now under 26 hours before all assignment deadlines are upon me. Fortunately, my all-nighter was a success and I wrote a huge amount of my essay, as well as managed to help a few of my coursemates via chat messages. I finished at 6:00am to go for a walk.

For my walk, I went to Ruddington and rode the 10 bus to the city centre. I was surprised to encounter one of my coursemates board the bus briefly as it went through West Bridgford and when I arrived in the city centre, it was at about the time when my sociology/history teacher would arrive at Central. By happy circumstance, I was able to see her for a few minutes this morning, which is the first I've seen her since the Nottingham Post Awards ceremony last December.

I later spent much of the afternoon resting and now I'm about to return to the library for a second all-nighter, during which I will complete and submit my two outstanding assignments.

Media practical done, dancing done (for now)

The Media practical is done. I finished it off in this afternoon's workshop and then uploaded it to the submission folder. As a result, that module is finished. For now, practical work in Media is complete but I intend to choose another practical module for next year.

In addition, the Latin Dance Society held its last session for the academic year; the next one will not be until at least September. I shall be renewing my membership with the society next year and will continue dancing; while I'm hardly up to the level of a professional, my skills are greater than they were from when I started.

Now, to submit American Literature and finish writing my Media essay.

Practical production log

My group for the Media practical and I spent this afternoon finishing off the production log for the video we made. This was a fiddly task rather than a difficult one, as parts of it involved printing off slides of the PowerPoint, signing them, scanning them and then re-inserting them into the main document.

All that has to be done in that module now is to personalise our production logs (we have a master copy of shared work but then we each adapt a copy of that for ourselves to upload for our individual eidts) and to write the portfolio. We have to write a portfolio each and so this is not shared work; all being well, I should be able to complete this and finish off my American Literature essay tomorrow. That'll be two assignments down, with one to go!

Media practical upload and dancing

In today's Media workshop, I uploaded for grading my edit of the film my group has produced. Before activating the upload, my tutor/lecturer guided me with what needed to be done and then, just like that, my edit was sent to the server.

After the past few days, this is the sort of boost I needed, as it means that for that Media module, all I have to complete now is the written part, which consists of the production log and an analysis of the recording. My goal is on or by Friday to have this module and my American literature one both complete, which means Literary Foundations and Understanding Media & Culture will be all that's left for this academic year.

Besides an academic victory today, I attended my penultimate Latin dance session of the year. The only people in attendance were two of the organisers, the two teachers, another student and me, which makes it the lowest-attended session so far. This was my best performance yet, it terms of my dancing, and I had a chance to dance with one of the teachers (I danced with the other last week).

In all, a productive day!

A new day in the library

To help catch up on my work, I decided last night that I would spend the majority of this afternoon in the library. Indeed, I did just that and wrote one of my assignments until it was time for me to get ready to head over to my mother and brother's house for a bank holiday meal. As a result of my choice for today, I am now back on track with my assignments.

For tomorrow, I'm going to again spend the day in the library and my intention is to stay in there until one of outstanding assignments is effectively complete. For Tuesday, I'll have the Media practical to contend with again and then I'll soon be writing up the assignment for my main Media module.

A set of lectures completed

I no longer have any lectures for my Understanding Media & Culture module, which is my 40 credit Media module (larger than the practical, which is only 20). When it comes to teaching new content, this module has been depleted.

So what's left? It has a seminar next Friday and the assignment is due the following Friday. My Media practical and American literature assignment are both due that day, also. My current goal is to finish my American literature piece on or by this coming Monday, as the other two assignments both have a lot of work left on them and I don't want to still be working on all three on the deadline day. I'll have it done (I have to!), there's just much to do.

My one and only exam for this year is on the 25th of May and is for my main English module, so I don't have to worry about that one at the moment.

Media assignment (due 23rd February)

For my main Media module (not the one with the practical work), there is an assignment due for it tomorrow afternoon at 5:00pm. While I've conducted some research on it in advance, I've only started writing it this past week; I have another couple of hundred words or so to write and then I'll be able to submit it before my American literature lecture and seminar tomorrow.

I was up until 4:30am today writing it and expect, when factoring in some other things I have to do in the next few hours, to be working on it until close to that time past midnight. The reason for writing it during the night is because Wednesday is my only non-lecture day during the week and I was able to plan it so that I'd be able to work for much of two nights and all of one day. I have also fit sleep in when needed, so I am resting.

Missing the long posts

Many of my posts here nowadays consist of about one or two paragraphs - three at most. Anything longer is now rare, as I just don't have the time to write longer posts, with all the reading I do. Hey, I haven't even posted a blog party for months, despite promising one for January.

I miss writing long posts but I think the days of those appearing here on a regular basis are from an era that is now long gone. Even picture posts are a rarity; it's been ages since I last posted one of them.

Return of the blog parties

At present, my most recent blog party party is the one for September 2016, which was written back in October. I have not forgotten nor have I discontinued the Secret Life of Bloggers Blog Party - since I've been at university I've had other priorities besides long blog posts. That being said, I shan't be neglecting this place: I'll have a three-month blog party post up soon enough.

Pre-winter break assignment (redux)

I'm still at work on this essay! It is coming along well and I should be able to write a significant amount more before I head off to bed. One element that has made writing it trickier is that today, my seminar tutor for my American Literature module said that footnotes (but not the bibliography) counts towards the word limit; that kind of cuts down somewhat on what I wanted to write but no matter!

Pre-winter break assignment

The winter break will begin after this week. From now until then, however, I have an assignment to work on. I was writing some of it today but nowhere near the amount I wanted to (and should have done). Fortunately, I have most of Wednesday, much of Thursday and - if necessary - Friday after my last lecture of the term to complete it.

First university assignment returned

This morning, my first university assignment was returned to me. It was from my module in (English) Literary Foundations and was a 500 word essay about a piece we had read within that module. I chose to write about the first few lines of William Wordsworth's "Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey, On Revisiting the Banks of the Wye during a Tour. July 13, 1798".

My result was what is called a "2:1". It's below an Exceptional 1st and a 1st but above a 2:2, a Third and well clear of any failing grade. I was kept from a higher grade because I wrote my piece with a proper introduction and conclusion, which ate into the word count somewhat. On an assignment with a larger word count this would have been fine but for this essay it only needed a minimal intro and ending and more analysis. My actual analysis, however received plenty of good marks and little criticism, save for a couple of odd word choices.

Still, a good result for my first university assignment!

Bad headline

Here is a good example of a bad headline:

"Poll: [US President-elect's] popularity soars after election"

Moving from 37% to 46% approval isn't a "soar" in popularity; soaring popularity would be if someone whose approval is above 50% has a significant increase. Improving numbers while being underwater is just that: Improving numbers. "President-elect sees poll numbers improve" would be a more suitable headline.

The whole situation is wrong, anyway, as a President-elect who is backed by white supremacists shouldn't even be experiencing an improvement in their poll numbers, anyway.

The friend zone redux (again)

Years ago, I wrote a few posts about the "friend zone" (here, here and here). To summarise my thoughts about the friend zone: I don't believe it exists - it's simply a case of feelings/attraction not being returned and not one person randomly or vindictively putting someone in a "zone" of sorts. I also mostly regarded the friend zone as a term that men rather than women use.

Interestingly enough, today I came across an article that was written before I wrote the first of my aforementioned links:

http://thoughtcatalog.com/chelsea-fagan/2013/03/girls-get-friend-zoned-too-and-it-sucks/

The writer, Chelsea Fagan, wrote about her experience of being "friend zoned" and said that the concept is not something that only happens to men (in one of my posts, I did mention that men do reject women). I thought it was interesting - albeit saddening, of course - how Fagan discussed how she became attracted to a friend but the friend rejected her. While she said that those being rejected should not turn into jerks, I also found the following passage from her article fascinating:

"We should never take advantage (as can sometimes happen) of the person who is clearly devoted to us, using them as an ego-boost or exploiting them being at our beck and call. We shouldn’t go out of our way to tell them all about our dating follies when we know that they have feelings for us and are doing their best to be respectful and a friend."

Fagan documented how her friend talked about his romantic life with her, in the full knowledge about how she felt towards him. Long story short, the friendship ultimately ended.

I haven't changed my thoughts about the friend zone: I think it doesn't exist, as I've explained before. Romantic rejection is a sad fact of life but it's not the end of the world. Someone else will come along and in the meantime, it is possible for a friendship to survive - even become a better, stronger friendship - when one person has rejected another. It is upsetting it couldn't happen in Fagan's case.

A major article

I have been working on a major article, which will be about politics. The piece is not yet complete but I hope to have it up by or during the weekend. It wasn't something I expected to write about but I feel that it is something I need to cover.

The lyrical reminder

In the early morning, I was listening to "Strong" by Robbie Williams. Now bear in mind I've listened to this song at least a couple dozen times; however, on this occasion, the following lyric stood out to me:

"And that's a good line to take it to the bridge"

It reminded me of something someone said to me over nine years ago, which was "step away from the bridge" (I was interacting with a troll on the Internet). Back then, I thought the person was advising me to remove myself from a metaphorical helm, like on a ship; however, when listening to "Strong", I realised that the person was making a clever reference to Three Billy Goats Gruff - the fairy tale in which a troll living under a bridge is defeated by goats.

Either way, I was being asked to remove myself from the situation but the metaphor was more clever than I had initially realised. A shame it took me over nine years to work out - and with the help of a song I'd heard several times!

DNC 2016 finale

I have just finished watching Hillary Clinton's acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention from yesterday. I had intended to write about the speech tonight but I won't have the time to; as such, I will use the extra time tomorrow to write a longer piece than usual about it.

The victorious Bieber and Carter

I've written two posts on Facebook today:

"Justin Bieber has won a Grammy! In all fairness to the Bieber, he does perhaps deserve it: He is, after all, one of the few people who has made a song that Skrillex has had anything to do with actually sound like music and not a chaotic cacophony of commotion."

The Grammy was for the song "Where Are Ü Now", on which Justin Bieber collaborated with Skrillex and Diplo. I don't really know who Diplo is but Skrillex is someone who, in my estimation, makes music that utterly sucks. While "sucks" isn't language I usually utilize on my blog, "sucks" is the best word that I can use to describe any music I've heard by Skrillex.

In that same Facebook post, I then wrote:

"(And from what I understand, at the Grammys Lady Gaga gave another awesome high-profile performance!)"

Lady Gaga's tribute to David Bowie was well-received. The other "awesome high-profile performance" I was referring to was Gaga's rendition of The Star-Spangled Banner at the recent Super Bowl, which was also well-received.

My other post was:

"Turns out that President Jimmy Carter won a Grammy Award, too - his second Grammy, at that. His being 91 must also list him among the oldest people to have won a Grammy. His wins are impressive; more so, I think, than the "major" categories of awards at the ceremony."

President Jimmy Carter won his second Grammy, in the Best Spoken Word Album category. Carter continues to astound me; I think he's an amazing human being and is fully deserving of any positive awards he receives.

I'll wrap this post up by saying that I never expected to write about Justin Bieber and Jimmy Carter together in the same blog post. It's almost as bizarre as the time I wrote about Mary Landrieu and Pixie Lott.

The upcoming review

Do you remember the Red Arrow buses from last month? Well, I have since ridden the route and tomorrow I shall be writing a review on the Red Arrows. I'm looking forward to writing it - I was going to write it tonight but I had some other tasks to finish first.

Charity reflection

I am in the process of writing a reflection piece to hand in for Employability tomorrow. One of our assignments was to write about the charity events we organised early this year and about what we had learned from them.

Last week, I handed in a reflection piece about my experiences during my course and how I am a different person now as to when I started. My Employability teacher loved last week's piece and I hope she'll be satisfied with this one, too.