College, Children, Colds and Customs

It's been an unusually long time since my last update, and so much has happened since then that I know I can't squeeze it all into one post. So instead, lets just grab the highlights, and I'll expand on other matters over the next few days.

College wrapped up on the 30th of May with my final exam. All in all, they went well, though that last one has left me puzzled. With three hours and only three questions to answer, I felt I was finished with some time to spare. I wrote enough on each, and there were a lot of the class that left before the end, so I guess I wrote more than them! I stayed for the full three hours, though by the end I had to resort to doodling on my question sheet to pass the last ten minutes. I'd have to say that only about half of the 98 strong class were left at the final bell, and some were still writing. It unnerved me to see so many getting extra answer books to write more, but a few I spoke to only wrote on one side of the page, or skipped every second line, or whatever, so I'm not too worried now. Still, out of all the exams, I'm very happy with what I did write, so all that's left now is to wait for the results.

As soon as I was out of my exam, I was in to work! I started in the preschool that I've been in and out of on the very next day! And I couldn't be happier! I love working in the setting and get on well with both the adults, the children, and their parents. The parents were just as happy to see me as the children, which is always a confidence boost! I missed seeing the kids while I was studying, and being back there is just great. There is nothing I dislike about my time there, and it is the only job I've ever had that I look forward to on a Sunday evening, and dread the arrival of Friday afternoon. Worse, tomorrow is the final day of term, and one I am not looking forward to. For some, it will be their final day in preschool, as many of the current group will be moving on to Primary school next year. Thankfully there are more than enough returning to guarantee that I'll be popping up now and then when I get the chance in the 2007-2008 school year.

On the other hand, being around young children does have some minor drawbacks. In the last few days I have developed a killer head-cold, complete with pounding head-aches, a nose that thinks it should be flowing like the Nile as a standard, a sanding drum lining my throat, a cough that threatens to eject that previous issue from my neck at high velocity and eyes puffed up like I've just finished up a Bette Midler movie marathon! I've gone through a 24 pack of Uniflu Plus, a packet of extra strength Halls lozenges, a packet of blackcurrant Halls Soothers, and now I'm working through pharmacist recommended Merocets lozenges for "dry, tickly sore throats". And I'm only feeling marginally better. The honey in my tea is yummy, though.

Finally, my freedom from college and the short days in the preschool (I'm home by one o'clock every day) has given me time to catch up with some customs I've been thinking about, as well as make progress on ones I stalled on. Over the coming weeks, I should have more and more done, so keep an eye on my Custom Action Figure set to see how things go!

So that's just the highlights. I'll post some of my doodles from that last exam I mentioned, a review or two and some more stories of illness and hallucinations!

Until then, enjoy your Friday! Remember, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer is out this weekend across the world! Expect a review if I feel healthy enough to type out my utter love of Marvels newest cinematic release! Yes, I am preempting my feeling toward this movie, but I'm like that... easily pleased!

No Time To Blog

Just to let you all know that I'm kinda busy with my final exams, and don't really have time to post anything interesting or worthwhile!! My last two are Monday and Wednesday, so expect to see lots and lots or random rubbish spewing forward after that!!

Efficiency

Because I am repeating this year in college, I am sitting in many of the same lectures. Slide for slide, an awful lot of these haven't changed. But that's not a bad thing, especially for me!

What I have noticed changing though is the time it takes to give lectures. Take this morning for instance. I start Monday mornings with a double Sociology from 9am until 11am. It was agreed early in the term to start at 9:20 and run through until 11, giving us those precious few extra minutes to get out of bed. But this mornings lecture ran from 9:20 to just 10:25! A total of an hour and 5 minutes! And he got everything he wanted done.

This isn't a rare occurance, either. It seems that all the lecturers are in a rush to get out. Most of my double lectures finish early, sometimes only lasting an hour!

In My Day...

Wow! UCC has changed since I was last there. Not just physically, but also what seems to have become acceptable. Again, "acceptable" both in terms of actions, as well as the intelligence level of the student body. Allow me to explain. Lets start with the physical changes.

Well, rather dramatically there is an entire new building; huge, shiney and with lecture theatres to boot! The Brookfield Complex is sweet. Very cool to be in. And the restaurant is very nice. Great food, cheap prices. Though I was talking to someone who was complaining about the prices, but I think that's because I'm still stuck in non-student prices mode.

Also new is the current addition to the Boole Library. The biggest problem with this is, that it's not done yet. This means that you can be in studying, or photocopying when a piercing drilling sound vibrates through the building, causing everyone to look up in annoyance. It's not going to be even done in time for any of us final years to care about it enough to put up with it.

Right, on to what has become acceptable, starting with actions, though this flows nicely into the intelligence issue also.

A little anecdote:
There is a particular girl in my class who was the first to sit beside me and talk to me. This was nice because I'm a repeat, and none of the other students know me. Also, the fact that I'm working mornings means I'm missing out on tutorials, the perfect time to learn about the others or get to make some associations. Anyway, I digress. This girl sits next to me and then proceeds to talk throughout the class. Sometimes to me, sometimes responding to things the lecturer says. Sounds ok, right? Only if she doesn't get heard by the lecturer, she repeats herself. Over and over. Until she gets attention. And she makes stupid comments. Really stupid. Like she catches two words in a sentence and calls out an answer. Rarely, so far has she even been close. Then she misses something in class and gets the lecturer to repeat herself one-to-one. She fell asleep in a lecture, completely distracting the lecturer. She was in the front row!! Seriously, how is this acceptable?!? All this: one person! And she answers her phone during lectures! Not to hang up or say "shhh. I'm in a lecture. Ring in an hour". No. She spends 5 minutes whispering making plans for a trip to Galway at the weekend. Gah!

How does someone like this get into 3rd Year Early Childhood Studies? And this girl of even less attention span than me wants to be in the UN!! If that happens I'm moving to one of those countries that didn't sign whatever bit of paper made the UN. I don't care if it looks bad now, it'll be better than UN countries in a few years if she's their quality standard!

Inteligence is dropping rapidly. I realise I'm no high level to aspire to. I may be a smart guy with a decent IQ, I just don't have the attention span to match. But I try to pay attention in class... this time. I have sufficient respect for the lecturers not to disrupt their class. The levels of sheer ignorance and lack or respect for others displayed by students in my year is staggering.

I'm not really sure where this is going. It's not really supposed to be a rant. It's more of a description of what I see. Obviously my own views strongly influence what I've written. It's not exactly an impartial description of how things have changed.

Just take it as a short essay, poorly written, lamenting the lack of repect among the youth of today. I'm only 26 (and two thirds) and I'm appalled at people just a few years younger than me. Was I that bad? Is it an age thiung? Will they get better in just three or four years? Would you let people like this look after your kid? You tell me.

Let's Try That Again

I've been having a tough time over the last few days. Nothing major, just lots of little things. I'm not gonna moan about it, but let's just say that giving up work just before Christmas was still awesome, I just wish I had something else by now. Not that I've been looking much, I'm currently helping in that pre-school I completed my work experience in four mornings a week for a week or two, paid this time!! Nice! But it's not enough, and now Claire is out of a job too. Yup. She got laid off. "Not enough work for everyone". Blah. What I'm earning isn't enough, but I can't really do a whole lot more because of college. And college... they're all so young. And they don't talk to me yet, because I'm the "new guy" in a class of 87 girls and 3 guys! It doesn't help that I've been missing a small selection of lectures and tutorials because I really, really need to work to earn something to survive on. Tutorials in particular are where I'm going to get to know the class. Bah. There. Most stuff vented in a single (bigger an average) paragraph. Not everything. Most.

But...

Life is still good ok survivable pretty damn awesome. No, seriously. No matter how bad stuff gets for us, we always survive. Always. And I still have her. Amd broadband. God I love broadband. I'm watching House MD at the moment. Halfway through series one. I should really write an entry on how ridiculously identical every episode is. And I will. Soon.

And I've started a full set of custom action figures based on Nextwave!! The entire team. I'm even planning Dirk Anger, Elvis MODOK, Neekid Ninjas, the works!! Awesome. My sewing skills have vastly improved too! And I've learned that when you want fabric to make tiny jackets, go to a charity shop and buy a jacket! Much cheaper than getting the fabric alone.

So look. Life might suck, but actually, when you think about it, it's not all that bad. Nothing lasts forever, and moments of hardship are just that; moments. Not every day will be terrific, but did you know that pre-school teachers have a longer life expectancy and get out of jury duty!! And for those reasons, right now, my life will be great. Worship me.

Finally. Sorry for deleting the previous post. I've never had to do that before. Sure, I've scrapped posts before, but never posted something I wanted to delete later. But it's gone (along with your comment Weefz. Thanks, though. Nice to be thought of... not that I doubt others weren't thinking of me too, but you commented, so that's cool!). Hopefully I'll never have to do it again. After all, that's what One F*£%ed Up Sucky-A$$ed Day is for. Right?!?

Edit: Sorted!! This "learning HTML on the go" thing can have it's disadvantages.

Woah. Long Break

It's been almost a month since my last post. Sorry about that. The reason has mostly been because I'm crazy busy with my work experience, which I'm still loving. In fact, it seems to get better every morning. The sucky part is the diary writing. Yawn!

Also, my life has been pretty much "wake work, write, sleep", repeat daily for a while now. I'm getting very run down, though I try not to show that in class. Even when I feel good I can tell when my body is begining to give up. I've been getting dry patches of skin, black bags under my eyes, yawning constantly and more. Oh well.

Anyway, I can't promise anything, but I'll try to update a little more often.

Back In College

So I apologise for not updating my blog lately, but I've been super busy. I started my third year work experience last week. I'm working in a preschool with children ranging from late two's to four year olds.

And I love it!

Every minute is awesome. Every tiny event is a joy to see. All the developement, all the practical examples of that boring, boring theory. I love working with the kids and the adult staff, of which there are only two others!

But, boy is it tiring. I get home, usually around 4 and go for a two hour nap. Then up and have dinner, cooked for me while I am unconscious, and I'm back in bed and out like a light before 11 most nights!

There's just no time for posting. Which is a pity, because I have to write a daily diary and I thought I could start a blog about it, so it's obvious if I fall behind. Plus, there might be a few people interested in reading it. My diary for college has to be 100% confidential, so no names of children, adults, area, school, anything. So I don't see the problem with posting it on a blog. It would allow people to make constructive observations about the theory and practice, and help me in better understanding events through a fresh pair of eyes.

Yawn... Maybe I'll start that this week... or next...

Yikes!

Dispite being very excited about the prospect of returning to college, I did not intentionally post that four times! I was having minor problems with Blogger, which kept telling me the post had failed to upload and eventually told me to get lost and try again in a few hours.

Three of the four have been deleted now, so that looks much cleaner.

Victory

Today I received a letter from UCC confirming that I have been accepted back into college. Yay! Now that I've gotten this, I realise just how nervous I am about the upcoming year. I really don't know what to expect, even though I've been through all of it already. I just have to work hard and pass everything this time around. Umm... brain not working. Want to write more, but can't. Later.