You can tell I’ve got loads of uni work to do…I’ve got lots of blogs planned… October 18, 2009

This first one is general updating. Uni = well interesting this year! I looooove my subjects. However, I am knackered. My timetable is slightly punishing, but at least I’m enjoying it.

On Thursday I had my most stressful day yet. I had my supervision meeting for my dissertation. I was told it would be “interesting” to add a load of variables to my study (making my stats analysis hugely scary) and to submit my ethics form without her checking it as she would email the ethics man who happens to be her friend and try and push me to the front of the queue. I wish I could say it’s because I’m special or something, but it’s just because I’m using the lunar cycle in my testing which restricts when I can test so I need to be checked by ethics asap. But in order for me to be pushed to the front of the queue I needed to have it submitted by the following day, which was OK ‘cos I had most of it done already, BUT she decided that it would be best to withhold the info from the participants that I was looking at the lunar effect, which creates problems. The ethics committee are VERY strict about how you should treat your participants; psychology has gone from no ethics checks to over-scrupulous ones. So incase my participants feel particularly affected by my withholding that piece of info I had to demonstrate to the committee it would harm them in no way. Cue a loooong bit of ethics work. Tiring. But I did it.

Another thing happening on Thursday….well let me give you the background. At uni we have “advantage modules” which we have to take one of every year to help increase our employability. In the first year I did Spanish, last year work experience. This year I’m doing counselling skills. I got a phonecall during a lecture on Thursday from a Coventry number. I phoned it back of course and found that the advantage “team” wanted me to move my timetable around and change groups ‘cos they had over subscribed mine. Despite me being one of the first to sign up. Also despite the module woman saying to us in our first session it was important to remain in our groups so we felt comfortable and moving around was not advised. And also despite her telling one girl to leave ‘cos she was in another group but letting two others join despite them also moving from another group. So I promptly told them I was not able to move. I could have done without the worry.

Dissertation word count update: 50 words completed. 9,950 to go.

Third Year October 8, 2009

My timetable isn’t too bad. Apart from Wednesday….I have a lecture 6pm til 9pm. Who thought that one through?! Not only is the time horrendous, it happens to be the hardest module. My mind stops functioning at about 5pm. This was highlighted during said lecture yesterday, when I kept accidentally writing “does” instead of “dose” and finding it really quite hilarious. I don’t find it funny now of course. But it was about quarter to 8 and I’d been forcing myself to concentrate since 6 causing the rational part of my brain to melt.

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.

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.

Must…do…work… October 31, 2008

Still only two slides to write. I’m getting there, honest.

I’ve started my second piece of coursework. I can’t say what it’s about just now, due to the fact some people I have recruited as participants may read this blog and know what it’s about, which they can’t. I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who taken the time to participate so far. It’s very appreciated. This coursework has to be in in 4 weeks. We were only told what it was about on Monday. 3 days after that coursework is in, I have another piece of coursework to be in. And then about 6 days after that my fourth, final piece of coursework from the term has to be in. I’m going to be a busy bee.

I’m quite amused by this whole Russell Brand and Jonathon Ross furore. I don’t think it’s funny what they did to Andrew Sachs, he’s old and it wasn’t really fair. However, I do think the reaction to it is a bit over the top. Since the news and the papers have latched onto it, there have been even more complaints. There wouldn’t have been so many complaints had they just ignored it ‘cos people wouldn’t be hearing about it over and over again. I bet most of the people who have complained don’t even listen to Radio 2 and have heard about it from papers like The Sun, who are so obviously biased in their reporting it’s unbelievable. They absolutely condemn the actions of Jonathon Ross and Russell Brand and therefore most of their easily influenced readers also condemn it, despite not actually hearing it when it was broadcast. The prank may have been in poor taste, but people are making a mountain out of a mole hill. There are much more important things to be worrying about.

That turned into a bit of a rant, it wasn’t supposed to be one.

To end this blog, I’ll give the answer to the puzzle in my previous blog. A few people got it. Well done to them. “The Roman numeral IX stands for 9. Using only one line, change IX to look like 6.”….simply add one line to the front of IX….to make SIX. Ta-da.

Elbows in October 29, 2008

Presentation nearly finished. Two slides left to write. All is good.

It snowed yesterday. It amuses me how child-like people become when it snows. I was sitting in the hairdressers, reading Pride and Prejudice….as you do….when one of the employees came up to me and said “Hi! I don’t know you….but it’s snowing outside! How exciting!” It was indeed snowing outside. Quite heavily. Which looked lovely and wintry, whilst I was nice and cosy inside. About an hour later it was still snowing heavily and I had to venture outside. I no longer thought it was lovely as I proceeded to freeze to death. This morning, it was frosty, some snow remained and there was lots of ice around. By the time I had walked to Uni I was an ice cube. In conclusion, I think the cold weather is lovely…when I can be indoors in the warm.

My seminar today consisted of job anaylsis. It wasn’t too bad. I couldn’t see much psychology in it, but never mind. At the end we did a problem solving task. Well, we did two actually. Both infuriated me. I shall post one of them here:

The Roman numeral IX stands for 9. Using only one line, change IX to look like 6. Enjoy.

Eeeeepa October 24, 2008

I’m very tired. I’ve spent 3 days and many hours trying to work out how to make my research proposal work. How to make it fit a statistical analysis. I’ve finally cracked it. Hurrah!

Uni is tiring me out. Study week is ages away. When I was very confused over my coursework, I was convinced that I shouldn’t be doing a degree or thinking about a doctorate. Now I get it, I think none of those things. I’ve been going into the faith centre quite a bit this year, as opposed to never last year. It’s nice in there. It was weird seeing the FP there, but also nice. At the moment she’s nearly convinced I’m going to die of an asthma attack since learning about asthma in her lesson today. I’m not sure why. She’s such a FP.

I’ve worked jolly hard today. So as a reward…like I need an excuse….I’m going to watch The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe….I’ve not seen it in a while you see. And Lost in Austen…seems to be Lost in the Post. Damn you Royal Mail. If they lose Prince Caspian or Mamma Mia…I will sue.

Blogging = Procrastination October 17, 2008

I am procrastinating. I have done all my background reading for my first piece of second year coursework. Lots of notes have been made. Now all I need to do is plan and put them together to form a 12 slide presentation plus notes. It has to be a research proposal. I don’t actually have to do the research mind. I’m planning to do it on whether attachment issues in early childhood correlate with personality disorders in later life. We had to do it on developmental psychology see…and I find that quite a dull subject area…so I paired it (with inspiration from the FP it must be said) with something quite interesting. Just to make it easier to do

In other news….Uni is wonderful, I love being back. A lot. I love the work, I love my new shiney textbooks. I had a temporary job. That’s over now. As I quit. For a number of reasons, the main one being it was a two person job but my work partner didn’t do much work, so it felt like a one person job. There also weren’t enough hours in my days to get it done, as my Uni timetable is rather packed. I was stressed and it was getting me down. Now I am neither.

Ooooh there are a number of things I’m looking forward to, I must mention them. Christmas time is the main one. I love Christmas. The togetherness. The dark cold nights. The special food that comes out. (Not forgetting the most important thing of it being the time we celebrate a special Someone’s birthday, although He may not have even been born then…) Also, I have a few DVDs on order; Mamma Mia and Prince Caspian. They’re not out til next month, but I ordered them now just incase Play.com want to send them a bit early. And I’ve ordered Lost in Austen….just ‘cos I love it.

I suppose I should get back to homework. I need to write my CV, I’m going to try really hard to get onto the clinical placement. Fingers crossed.  

Busy busy bee October 6, 2008

Back at Uni. Second week now. I’m already feeling very stressed. My timetable is pretty horrendous but I’ll live. My work load is quite large. I’m expecting a lot of myself this year and I know the Uni is expecting a lot too. I just hope I can do well. I have quite a lot of work to do already but I’m not sure where to start. I sat down to do some earlier, then decided to get a drink before I started. I sat back down and then I decided to have a little wander around the house to get me motivated. Sitting back down I decided to oragnise my folders and now…I’m blogging. I think I’m very tired and should start my work with a fresh mind. It’s been a long day.

I ordered my textbooks. They’ve cost me a fortune. Well over £200. 4 have come. I’m waiting for another 4. And deciding whether to order another two. To cheer myself up after that awful amount spent on books I got some DCs…mainly because my Converse have a hole in and they’re not very suitable for the winter. I also got some smart shoes, trousers and a top. Because….I got a job An Electoral Role Canvasser is what I am, for the next few months anyways. It’s only temporary. Before I do my work experience module, to get some money for Christmas.

I’m now going to go prepare food for the longest day ever tomorrow and get a really early night ready for a really early morning. The FP is very down at the moment. She does too much. I’m taking her to lunch soon to try put a smile back on her face