Fizzy jerkz November 21, 2008

As I struggled to get to sleep last night…I remembered those lovely sweets that would periodically be in the vending machine at school….Fizzy Jerkz. They were lovely. I haven’t seen them around in years, I believe they were made by Nestle. Mmmm.

My genetics essay is well underway. After that I’ll do my cognitive essay and then all is done before Christmas. In terms of my placement, I’m leaning towards just applying at MIND, it’s closer and the people seem nicer.

I went to the opticians the other day. It was an awful experience. Not for the fact I was told I need glasses for reading, computers, lectures etc. But the horrible things you have to do. And the fact I don’t know left from right also creates a problem. I do get it right sometimes…but probability would dictate that would be the case. I have a 50% chance of being right. When the woman asked me to look left…I looked right…when the man asked me to move left…again I moved right. Silly. There was this machine too, you have to rest you head on it and follow a red dot with your eye (whilst wearing an eye patch on your other eye…I did look silly) and press a button when you see green lights. It took forever. I got bored. My eye wandered off for a split second…and the machine told me off :O I was surprised it knew.

Prince Caspian arrived here on Monday. The DVD. I’ve watched it everyday ever since. The extras are amazing. The film…is awesome. The only thing I’d say, is the audio commentry over the film…Andrew Adamson goes on a bit too much. Only sometimes.

34 sleeps to go!

Week off! November 14, 2008

As of today, I now have a week off. Guided study week. A.K.A get to stay at home and laze around week. I will do some studying of course, but some lazing around too I think.

My placement is sehr messed up. I did my cover letter, after researching brain rehabilitation and putting information about that in….emailed it to my tutor, she said it was all fine. Brilliant. A few minutes later she emailed informing me that she’d got it wrong and the placement was actually on the learning disability ward. So not only did I waste my time doing the brain rehab research, it’s for a placement I’m not quite sure whether I want to go on. I know when I’m training as a clinical psychologist I’ll have to do some work with learning disabilities…but they don’t particularly interest me, it wouldn’t be an area I would like to work in. So I’m unsure as to whether to go for that placement or not. I would be working with clinical psychologists, which would be a good thing. But whether I’d like it or not is another. It’s a long way to travel too. Apparently I would need to “complete a number of research/evaluation and audit projects (how we include fathers, carer satisfaction, needs analysis) overhaul our information leaflets, generate databases( voluntary and external agency support) and support the processes of our work“ if I worked there.

MIND have said if I send my application off they will give me an informal interview and that I can do voluntary work there. MIND is much closer. I would like to volunteer there anyway. But I’m not sure if not going to the hospital placement is shooting myself in the foot a bit. It’s a good opportunity if I get it.

So what to do. What to do.

I’m going to go bake a cake now.

Doodle doo. November 12, 2008

I’ve had a breakthrough. I believe I’ve finally cracked my ANOVA results. This doesn’t mean they’re actually any good you understand, in fact quite the opposite. Where our lecturer told us we needed non-significant differences, my ANOVA has found significant differences. Where significant differences are needed the ANOVA has found non-significant differences. Which is going to be a bit of nightmare when it comes to writing my discussion. However it does mean I don’t have to do any t-tests.

I had my placement meeting. If I get the position, I’ll be going to a brain rehabilitation unit. Basically a place helping those who have had brain injuries. Well interesting. Although is it wrong to find such things interesting? I need to finish my application. I feel that’s a job for tomorrow.

As you can probably tell I am procrastinating. There was no need to write in my blog about any of the above. However, I feel statistics may have sent me insane had I not had a bit of a break.

Remembrance Sunday November 8, 2008

Lest We Forget

 

Tomorrow is Remembrance Sunday. A day for us to remember our fallen soldiers in all the wars we’ve been in. When I was younger I didn’t really understand the importance of Remembrance Day, but as I’ve got older and particularly as I’ve done my family history research it’s become a lot more poignant. One of my Grandads was in the RAF in World War 2.  We have one of his log books, in which he had to write everything they did. His main job was an aircraft gunner. He used to fly in a Defiant and then a Sunderland plane (they’re those planes that can land on water), one of them a T9111. They mainly bombed ships. My other Grandad was a fireman, he mainly worked in Coventry, so whenever we got bombed he obviously helped try put out the fires. He went to London too. He was a voluntary fireman, he was actually a barber before and after the war. Then there’s my Great Grandad (or possibly my Great Great Grandad…they both have the same name see), he was a Prisoner of War in the Word War 1. We still have a postcard he sent home, complete with the blanking out of anything the Germans didn’t want his family to read. I feel really proud of them all. In fact, I feel proud of everyone who has served in the wars or back at home during wars and I feel proud of those who are still serving in wars. Brave people.

Maths Atheist November 7, 2008

I agree.

I have come to the conclusion that I only ever blog when I have other (technically more important) things to do. However blogging is easier. Much easier than trying to interpret the data from a mixed factorial design piece of research. The data we got from our study…was basically a bit rubbish, in that when we tested for “Skewness” (it can’t be skewed data else the stats analysis won’t work) and it was more skewed than anything. In fact, it was SO skewed, that the statistics programme couldn’t even fix it (you can transform skewed data to make it non-skewed) and it remained still…very skewed. So we had to take out some extreme results (it’s OK we’re allowed to) and now it’s not skewed. Now I just don’t know what the mixed ANOVA is trying to tell me. It’s all very confusing.

Anyways, I’ve had some good news. The hospital I sent my CV to, to do work experience in, want me to submit a formal application to them. Yay! I wasn’t sure they were going to get back to me, so I contacted MIND to do some work there. They’ve offered me an informal interview once my application has been submitted. So now I have two possible placements. Better than none.

I’ve also applied for my provisional licence. I’m going to be learning to drive soon. How scary. I’d advise all people in Coventry to stay off the roads. Honestly. I’ll possibly be the world’s worst driver. I do need to learn to drive before I can apply for my docorate. The pressure is on. I’ve also sent off my form applying to be a student member of the BPS. Woo!

I can’t think of anymore things to ramble about. I guess this means I have to go back to trying to work out stats.

Bonfire Night November 5, 2008

Every 5th of November people celebrate the capture and execution of Guy Fawkes and the consequent saving of the Houses of Parliament from being blown to pieces. I don’t mean to sound like a killjoy, but I find Bonfire Night rather annoying. So many bangs and flashes everywhere. I used to love it as a child, when it was actually celebrated on the 5th November. Nowadays it starts early and ends about mid-November. The fireworks don’t even look good. Poor.

Also, thinking about it, it’s quite odd to celebrate the capture of Guy Fawkes. That poor man has had his effigy burned  on a bonfire since the 17th Century. What about the other 12 men also involved? Was it not enough for Guy to be tortured and then publically executed? Surely he’s had his comeuppance now?

Downtrodden November 4, 2008

You know some days, you just feel like doing this:

Today is one of those days. It wasn’t to begin with. And yesterday I had a marvellous day! And things are all going sehr good. However now I feel quite frustrated, a bit upset and generally bleh. Maybe because I am tired.

I’m unsure about whether to write about this here, I don’t want to bitch about people on my blog, even if they do remain anonymous, so I may decide to take it down. But anyways. There is someone at Uni, whom I have known since secondary school, who is in a lot of my classes. Which is fine. Except he has this annoying habit of putting me down and making me seem about <—> that big in front of my other friends at Uni. Or he completely disregards and disrespects me. The prime example today was during a problem solving task in our seminar. (Haha we do a lot of them) It was late so I got bored of writing and just worked with him and another friend. I came up with the answer and told him it. Then some girls asked if we had come up with the answer to which he replied “me and him have (pointing to the friend we were working with) but she ain’t done anything.” I found this quite poor. It annoyed me quite a lot and he does it all the time. He takes the credit for the things I come up with and then blames me if they go wrong. He belittles me all the time and I’m feeling quite fed up. Usually in such circumstances I would confront the person and tell them they were irking me. However if I do so with him, he will either manipulate it to be my fault (he’s very good at manipulating) or he’ll tell me I’m wrong about it. Stuck between a rock and a hard place don’t you know.

But other than it, all is well. I’ve nearly sorted out my placement. My stats are sorted. And it’s November and I like it. Excuse the rant.

No puppy November 2, 2008

Well. I know I said yesterday we were getting a puppy. And we were. My parents went today to get it. However, ever since last night I had been plagued with doubts about getting this puppy. They are lovely and cute and dogs are lovely when they grow up. But the idea of having a dog is far better than the reality of having one. They’re really expensive, they get ill, they die, they tear up the house and the garden (and our garden and house have just been done all really nice) so I asked my mother several times whether we were doing the right thing. I didn’t feel I could offer it the love, care it needed and take the responsibility of having a dog. My parents said that was fine, they would look after it. However when they left this morning, I had a terrible feeling about them getting the dog…it seemed a terrible idea. So I phoned them several times to tell them. Turns out the puppies weren’t ready to leave til December anyway. So we’re not getting one now. I am relieved. I have very fancy ideas, they’re never any good.

This article both amused me and horrified me at the same time. I’d hate for that to happen to me. I’m going to check public toilet seats now, just in case.

Puppy! November 1, 2008

We are getting a puppy tomorrow. A boy one. A black Labrador. I am excited! Although a little nervous. The last time we had a dog I was under 3. I liked having one and everything, but will I still like having a dog? I hope so. I’ve wanted one for ages. Once he is trained and everything it should be awesome. We’ve got a shortlist of 4 names for him: Merlin, Jasper, Zac or Saber. I’m not sure which we will choose! Exciting times.