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Believe it or not, this 'oil painting' is a photograph.  February 2018

PalaeoOHMYGOD

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I appear to have an unconditional offer to study Bristol's MSc in Palaeobiology, starting this September.

Yup, I am most definitely leaving my comfy career to freefall cheerily without income.

So now I just need to do up my house sufficiently to sell it, actually sell it, sort out somewhere to live in Bristol with three elderly cats, oh and finish the two OU modules I'm currently in the middle of.

WHAT DO I THINK I AM DOING?!?!

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Believe it or not, this 'oil painting' is a photograph.  February 2018

Dusty in here, isn't it?

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*blows off the dust*

So, S330 Oceanography.  It's a vast course.  It's a great course if you want to know everything about oceans, but it's kind of vast.

Possibly this is not the course to do when you're suffering from stress and medication side effects.  However, we work with what we got...

I have thoroughly enjoyed all the geology and physics, even though the geometry of the Coriolis effect and its repercussions does my head in on a regular basis.  My marks have been decent, although unless I play a blinder in TMA04 I don't have to worry about a distinction for the exam.

Ah yes.  The exam.

After careful analysis of six years' worth of past papers, I have determined that the following topics are likely to come up:

  • Everything.

Even the choice of questions doesn't restrict the revision options much, since a question on ocean basins might suddenly ask about gas hydrates; or a question on currents might sneakily enquire about the food web in gyres.  So... I guess I've got a month to memorise roughly 1200 pages of science.

...I wonder whether it wouldn't be simpler just to dry out all the oceans...?

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Believe it or not, this 'oil painting' is a photograph.  February 2018

I love rocks.

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I spent several days of the last week scrambling up and down steep slopes, over loose shifting piles of rock, and across wet, slippery, seaweed-covered stone.  It was teh awesome.

And my dodgy achilles tendons very kindly waited until I was home to die utterly.

I have seen fossils - oh have I not seen fossils! - and I have identified unconformities, I have recognised the Bouma sequence and I have seen Walther's Law in action.  And in a haze of exhaustion on the last day I have protested against the need to leave, because I so badly wanted to go back to the first couple of sites and look at them again with all the experience I had gained at the later ones.

This sedimentary field trip was worth the fee for SXG288 all by itself.  Pity I had to suffer through the rest of the module to get to it smile

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Believe it or not, this 'oil painting' is a photograph.  February 2018

Now S366 is at it.

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Edited by Ceiswyn Blake, Monday, 21 Jul 2014, 11:40

Enough with the self-reflection!

S366 TMA04 has six marks riding on discussing an occasion on which I had a problem with the project, and overcame it in a way that used my l33t communication skillz.

I have (so far at least) had very few problems with the project, and I have overcome them all using my l33t reading and Googling skillz.

Time was that being good at what I do was a positive thing.  Apparently these days it loses me six marks.  I guess I shall have to brush up on my incompetence.

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Believe it or not, this 'oil painting' is a photograph.  February 2018

I have an ology problem.

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When I started down the OU route, I was wavering between biology and geology.  Both subjects that interest me deeply; both subjects that have aspects that I'm very much less interested in (ugh, mineral stuff!  Ugh, biochemistry and cells!).

As I get towards the end of S276 Geology, and really get stuck into S366 Evolution, it's becoming very clear that what I really, really love is the detective work of delving into the past and trying to solve the mysteries presented by ancient life and ecosystems.

So, err, both.  Drat.

I've just spent lunchtime updating my study plan.  Never mind Understanding the Continents; I like the grand scale of plate tectonics but the more study I do the more I realise that delving into the detail will just make me miserable.  The multidisciplinary nature of Oceanography, however, is starting to make me salivate.

My one worry is that Understanding the Continents is known as Hard Rock for a reason; and I never want to take the easy option.

Having had a quick look at the reviews of Oceanography, I am now convinced that I'm not smile

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Believe it or not, this 'oil painting' is a photograph.  February 2018

SXG288 annoying me before it even begins...

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...this has got to be some kind of record.

So I took a look at the 'Reflection Activity' at the end of Week 1, and it includes the following questions:

What was your educational experience with science in general prior to beginning university studies? [followed by a number of options relating to courses at school]

What was your experience with practical science prior to beginning university studies, including school-based experiments, field trips, and home-based activities (e.g., 'kitchen science')?

What work-related experience have you had with science in general prior to taking this module?

What work-related experience have you had with practical science techniques (e.g., scientific data collection, laboratory work) prior to taking this module?

Um...

Technically, the answer to all those questions is 'very little'.

Of course, there is the minor fact that 'beginning university studies' happened fifteen years ago, with my Honours degree in Experimental Psychology that included really quite a lot of practical science (indeed, original research).

But I can't find any way of expressing that...

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Believe it or not, this 'oil painting' is a photograph.  February 2018

Brainzzzz

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I'm so tired.  So very tired.

A lot of it is work stress catching up with me, but for the last two weeks I haven't even been able to sit at my desk and open my textbooks; I've been collapsing in bed the moment I get home, not that it's helped much.

The lead I worked so hard to get is almost gone, and I've got two more courses starting in February.  I feel... doomed.  But mostly I just feel tired.

If the week's break over Christmas doesn't sort me out, I really will be doomed.

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Believe it or not, this 'oil painting' is a photograph.  February 2018

Life is like a box of chocolates^H rocks

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Today is my birthday.

Last night I spent a happy couple of hours reading about plutons.  This morning, I opened a parcel from my parents containing these:

http://www.geologysuperstore.com/product/20-specimen-basic-rock-collection-boxed-set-3739

http://www.geologysuperstore.com/product/15-specimen-mineral-collection-set-3748

All is well :D

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Believe it or not, this 'oil painting' is a photograph.  February 2018

What were they thinking?

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According to the S282 papers I've downloaded, the exact same multiple choice question has been given three times in the last six years.

So I'll be revising that one, then.

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Believe it or not, this 'oil painting' is a photograph.  February 2018

Perfectly normal ways to spend a Friday evening...

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Edited by Ceiswyn Blake, Saturday, 14 Sep 2013, 08:51

Lying on my back, on the study floor, holding a glass slide up to the light, and slowly rotating it between crossed polarising filters.

I could have done anything with my evening, but this was what made me happy.

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Believe it or not, this 'oil painting' is a photograph.  February 2018

What do you mean, no easy shortcut?

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Edited by Ceiswyn Blake, Saturday, 31 Aug 2013, 23:03
I've just started my revision for S282. Before I revise each section, I go through and check the last six papers to see what tends to come up, so I know what I need to memorise.

The answer is... everything.

Argh. I mean, the entire Universe is a lot to try to pack into a single brain.

Oh well, I'll just have to give it some hard work, won't I?

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Believe it or not, this 'oil painting' is a photograph.  February 2018

New blog post

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Edited by Ceiswyn Blake, Friday, 14 Jun 2013, 22:00
On the one hand, I'm the one studying supermassive black holes and galaxy formation.

On the other hand, my cat Chloe just quite plainly used me as a five-foot self-mobile tool for scaring off feline intruders.

I am no longer certain which of us is the clever one.

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Believe it or not, this 'oil painting' is a photograph.  February 2018

Since when has my memory been so visual?

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Edited by Ceiswyn Blake, Sunday, 2 Jun 2013, 22:51
I'm lying in bed testing myself on today's revision, and time and time again it happens that something I thought I hadn't memorised comes to mind; along with a snapshot of the relevant part of my revision notes.

'Mitochondria!' I think (as one does), and in front of my inner eye is immediately a purple diagram with a lot of little pluses in the inter-membrane space and minuses in the matrix. Purple is my code for 'plant and animal cells', and the little pluses and minuses indicate the gradient during oxidative phosphorylation. Oh good, I don't have to memorise the direction, then smile

'P waves!' I declare; and as I try to remember everything I know about P waves I realise I'm reading it off the line on the paper in my head. 'Shadow between 105 degrees and 145 degrees' I think, somewhat astonished, with the brackets quite vividly in front of me.

But I've never used my visual memory. I've always memorised things verbally Many many years ago, when memorising all my lines for plays and other drama pieces at school, I'm pretty sure I never paused in a speech and thought 'halfway down the page... second column... right, on we go'. So why now? And how can I work with what is belatedly turning out to be one of my strengths?

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Believe it or not, this 'oil painting' is a photograph.  February 2018

Some questions are hard

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The trick is not to panic.

The next trick is to break it all down into pieces and find somewhere to start. Look for an equation that uses all or most of the properties in the question. Start putting things in order and worry about what that order means later.

Basically, it's exactly like discovering that all your yarn has tied up into a huge knot. You just need to pick a thread and follow it to an end and start untangling from there; and avoid the temptation to go 'Aaargh!' and just start yanking at random loops.

Oh, and read the question again and make sure it really says what you think it does. Because quite often, the confusion is because it doesn't...

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Believe it or not, this 'oil painting' is a photograph.  February 2018

...and speaking of S282...

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94% in my first TMA! I am over the moon! (Which is kind of appropriate for an astronomy course)

Given that it was the first assessment submitted for the course so I didn't know how my tutor thinks, and I wasn't at all certain of a couple of my text answers, I'd convinced myself to expect about 78%. As it was, the problem wasn't the text answers; it was a couple of my hallmark silly mistakes in things I knew well. Those moments of what-was-I-thinking drive me almost as mad as they have driven many teachers and tutors over the years; and I never seem to find them when I'm checking over my work.

Still. I really want to get a good grade in this course, given how much I have always loved astronomy. And maybe I can smile

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Believe it or not, this 'oil painting' is a photograph.  February 2018

I have never received 100% for a piece of work.*

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Edited by Ceiswyn Blake, Thursday, 28 Mar 2013, 14:01

This is not because I have never turned in a piece of work that was worth 100%.  I have oh-so-many examples, going back to primary school, of tests and exams on which I have met every single criterion, and yet been docked marks for tiny random things that nobody else was.  (The award-winner in that respect has got to be my old chemistry teacher's 'this line of your diagram projects slightly beyond this one, so you only got 98%'.)

I have no idea how it would feel to get 100% for a piece of perfect work.  But I have a lot of experience in how it feels not to get 100% for work that deserves it.

Demotivating.

It feels like marks are arbitrary, and teachers are only there to keep you down.  It feels like ability is its own punishment. I spend increasing hours busting a gut to try and make everything absolutely waterproof only to discover that the goals have moved again, and every time I'm a little more inclined not to bother next time.  To coast.  To do half-arsed work. It teaches me, not to strive, but that there's no point in striving because nobody wants you to succeed.

But I'm too damn competitive to stop trying, which means I just keep banging head-on into that wall, and I keep getting staggered by the knockback; and honestly, there's only so much of that a person can take.

So... what is it that is so terrible about awarding 100% that it can possibly be worse than the consequences of not awarding it?

(This rant brought to you by the 95% on my latest assessment)

* Actually, this is not entirely true.  I've got 100% on quite a few computer-marked tests.  Just none marked by human beings.

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Believe it or not, this 'oil painting' is a photograph.  February 2018

9 days to astronomy...

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Edited by Ceiswyn Blake, Thursday, 24 Jan 2013, 12:26
...and the S282 website is open.

Hurrah! Stars and galaxies and all things interesting! OBAFGKM and all that! I have wanted to study this since I was ten, I just wasn't willing to do the rest of Physics to get it...

After reading the first chapter of Sun and Stars I was a bit worried about my ability to do this module alongside S104. Just that first chapter took me a long and painful five hours, and of course early chapters tend to be the easier ones.

Having looked at the website, I am now less worried. Apparently that five hours was two weeks' work smile

Also, STARS!

(in their multitudes, filling the darkness with order and light...)

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Believe it or not, this 'oil painting' is a photograph.  February 2018

No, Frozen Planet. BAD Frozen Planet.

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Edited by Ceiswyn Blake, Friday, 4 May 2012, 08:15
As anticipated, myself and the Frozen Planet module have had a falling out in Chapter 3.

It was bad enough that, on the map of routes through the Northwest Passage, they failed to show the one actually taken by Amundsen in the Gjøa. But only one sentence on Nansen! Nansen!

You want to talk about science in polar exploration? Let's talk about Nansen. Nansen, who was not only a scientist himself (unlike the other well-known explorers like *spit* Scott) but one of the founders of modern neurology. Nansen, whose Fram expedition not only tested and confirmed his theory about ice drift but collected so much data on the Arctic ocean that the results took him years to analyse and publish; in six volumes. Nansen, who designed oceanographic equipment that is still in use today.

And that's even if you focus on the science alone and skip over the Nobel Peace Prize thing and the saving the lives of thousands.

The man is one of Norway's great national heroes, and rightly so.

One sentence. Pthah!

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Believe it or not, this 'oil painting' is a photograph.  February 2018

Great god this is an awful place

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Edited by Ceiswyn Blake, Monday, 30 Apr 2012, 12:48
Why yes, yes I have started reading the book for the Frozen Planet course. Though given that polar exploration is one of my favourite obsessions (and Shackleton and Nansen are two of my personal heroes) I expect I'll be shouting at the text before long smile

In the meantime, it appears I have already forgotten everything I learned in S151. This is the story of my life. Learning things, no problem; becoming an insta-expert on complex technical subjects is kind of my job. Retaining them in my mind? Not so much.

Does anyone have any techniques for learning things so that they actually stick in the long-term? (Note: repetition does not work.)

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Believe it or not, this 'oil painting' is a photograph.  February 2018

Brain-food

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Edited by Ceiswyn Blake, Friday, 2 Mar 2012, 08:08
For any study period that lasts longer than an hour and a half, I need to take a break in the middle. This is at least partly because I start craving chocolate.

I have therefore invented a chocolate drink to make during those intervals that is better at kick-starting my brain than any amount of caffeine.

1 palmful grated bitter chocolate (we're talking 90%+ cocoa solids here)
1/2tsp sugar (as little as you can stand)
Generous pinch of chilli powder (yes, really)
Cinnamon to taste

Heat gently with water, and pour into a mug.

It's very much an acquired taste - it's insanely bitter, and the chocolate doesn't mix properly without milk - but it really does the job. And I'm totally addicted to the stuff.

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Believe it or not, this 'oil painting' is a photograph.  February 2018

Maths. It's not my strong point.

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Edited by Ceiswyn Blake, Monday, 6 Feb 2012, 09:20
If ever I am asked to choose between, say, converting a concentration in mg/ml to g/m3 and being beaten around the head, I'll take the beating. It all gets to the same place in the end, but at least the beating is over sooner.
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