I think I really am coming down with something. I still have a sore throat and I generally feel like crap along with being very noise-sensitive. Been dead tired all day and didn't even work up the energy to watch anything but soccer on TV so far. I did manage to get one (rambling) reply done for the S104 group project, but that was about the extend of my productivity today :-/ I so need to get cracking tomorrow if I want to keep up my grades.

Lesson of the day : Never open the mail when you're already feeling low! Woke up with a very sore throat this morning and I just found I owe money on taxes. I need to push my disability claim, but I have about a million other things to do as well.

We're doing this group thing at uni and of course, it's not really working. I need to post a reply in the forum, except there is pretty much nothing to reply to. I made two posts on Thursday and I still need to make another one for the second task, plus the replies for that as well. I can't wait until we are done with the biology segment of the course. It is by far the most boring (and at least for me difficult) one yet. We're scheduled to be done with it in early July and there is an assignment and a quiz about it as well. I have the slight feeling I'm not going to do very well on those :-/

I think I'm getting a cold or something like that. I seriously don't have time to be sick.

But today I'm feeling quite a bit better :-)

Dr. G. suggested some changes to my meds when I saw him last week, and while I wasn't too enthusiastic about messing around with things again, I must admit that it seems to be working. My head is much, much quieter, despite me being stressed out over an assignment for uni. It's been a while since I've studied the actual material and after a couple of days of doing hardly anything for uni (or anything else for that matter), I'm not finding it easy to get back into the subject. But with the deadline looming, I guess I have no choice but to get busy :-)

And on a random note: LaO was weird this week, but LaO SVU was much, much weirder. Did that make sense on any level?

• I'm officially behind on my studies


• Work was a killer this week


• Did I mention I'm just not good with kids?


• I'm so very much behind on TV


• Pay for first quarter of 2008 still hasn't arrived


• yay - I'm sleeping again


• Tried to watch Dexter after having heard a lot of positive comments, but somehow didn't get much further than the first ten minutes


• it's never a good idea to go and lie down during to commercial break


• finally found printer paper that I can actually afford


• orkos delivery for this week is nowhere to be seen so far, but my books arrived in record time


• I have written a ton of fanfiction, but I can't seem to be bother to edit any of it

I'm sure there is more. I wish I could just relax and catch up on TV this weekend, but I really need to catch up on uni work.

Can't say that I felt much better after the night, but I've decide to take the morning off. After making that decision, I went back to bed and since getting up again, I already feel a lot better :-) I wish I could stay in all day, but I have to fetch my 'scripts, go to the pharmacy and then pick up some food as well. Will see about how much I feel up to this afternoon when I get back.

The work-week ended on a fairly satisfying note yesterday. I've finished and submitted the assignment that's due early next month already, I've been to the gym, paid phone and grocery bills and started to do some spring cleaning. I could have done worse, all in all. As for my plans for the break week, I'm not going anywhere and will probably spend the week holed up in my place in front of the laptop, catching up and TV and fic writing, hopefully with a couple of trips to the gym thrown in.

On an unrelated note, I'm very pleased to noticed that my effort to improve my French language skills are starting to pay off. Last night I got out the very first French-only DVD I've ever bought (Les Rivières Pourpres) and watched it for the first time in years - and I understood pretty much everything! I think it's time to get some French novels, preferably from the library, since I can't really afford to buy any books right now. They should have at least some of the classics. Otherwise, I've re-discovered the foreign language sections on ff.net. I knew they existed since I've posted some fic there ages ago, but I'd never thought of them as a source for reading material for vocabulary building. If it weren't for the net!speak that would work out very well ;-)

Bro crashed his car this morning on the motorway- he's fine, but the car is probably totaled - a tire burst (does that just happen?!) and he hit the guard rail at the side of the road. We don't really have the money for a new car right now and he needs one to get to work. My father can't work at the moment because of an injury last fall and my pay doesn't even cover my tuition fees. At least Bro's got a scholarship. I had no idea how to pay for my summer courses before, but now I don't know if I can take any at all this summer :-/

So, not a good day, but the good (and important) thing is that Bro's all right.

I'm being entirely self-centered once again by not caring. It's like that with a lot of things - I don't have the energy and/or mental space to be opinionated. I'm busy taking it one day at a time ;-) Especially, and I know everyone is going to disagree with me on this one, when it comes to such (comparatively) small issues.

Feeling better than a few days ago, although I'm still a bit off-center. I doubt I did very well on the assignment that was due today (already found one mistake after submitting it), but all I need is a pass for this course, the grade itself doesn't count towards my degree. Now all I need to do is finish my S342 assignment and make it through the rest of the week. Then, finally, break week. I already have a long, long list of things I want/need to get done during that time, but I'm trying to get at least some of those things done this week so it won't seem like such a big pile :-/

Through joint effort, L finally finished her report last night. As glad as I am to have my dear laptop all to myself again, this also means that I have to get going on the computer work that I should have done over the weekend. But I'm still well on schedule with the next couple of deadlines. There is a break week coming up around Easter. Not that I will be going anywhere, but it will be nice chance to catch up on some of the more pleasant distractions in life.

By then, I should have decided which practical block or blocks I'm going to do this summer. I've done one of the three required practical blocks last year (and actually enjoyed it), and I have been thinking of doing two this year as they are a lot of work and I don't have so much to do this year unlike next year which should be much more busy with the project course which basically involves researching and writing a thesis. So I think it would be better to do both blocks this summer and just get it over with. The application deadline isn't until sometime around May, but if I want to do two blocks, I want to do them back to back.

As much as last week went by in a blink, this one is dragging on...

I didn't go to group last night. Instead I went to bed very early. For once I was actually able to sleep after I'd hardly slept the night before because of a bad migraine.

I don't have to be anywhere until this afternoon, so I'm using the morning to take care of some rl stuff. The wire transfer from my parents has come through, so I'm not so broke anymore and can finally get some not so necessary but still useful things like ink for my favourite pen, blank DVDs and batteries for my study/kitchen timer. What I really need to do is clean up a bit and take a bunch of cartons and old newspapers to be recycled.

I have redone my calculations for the s342 assignment. I have worked out everything the first questions asks for, but I'm not sure yet how to write it up, i.e. whether we need to derive the equations we use or can use them straight from the book. The second question I haven't tackled yet, except for jotting down some ideas, but I checked my calender, and the assignment isn't due for another month, so I have plenty of time and might have a few more insights along the way ;-)

L is still not done with her report (although it's due on Monday). We agreed that she can use the laptop while I'm working this afternoon. Somehow MS Word got screwed up and only starts in safe mode now and since I don't have the CD for it here, I can't reinstall it. But it still works, so I won't complain (too much.)

The SGA update is forthcoming, probably later today.

Still no Laptop :-( I really hope she manages to finish that report soon!

Because I have some work due, too. I thought I was done with most of the next s342 paper when I realized that I had made a mistake with the units and have to do all the calculations again. Not looking forward to that, but at least I noticed before handing it in.

I can't say that this week has seemed longer than usual so far, but I'm already beyond exhausted and I'm not sure why. My TV backlog is growing steadily...but it's all a matter of priorities and one of my goals for this year is to keep up my surprisingly good grades from last year and school is going well enough, and even picked up some books for background reading, some of which seem to be actually interesting. How often does that happen ;-)

( Also, in misc news )

After a day wasted in waiting rooms, on the bus and waiting in line at the pharmacy yesterday, I have some catching up to do before the weekend (which will entail revising stuff from the week and watching TV). I did get my assignment for S342 finished and submitted, I'm not happy with it - the calculations were easy enough, but I had the biggest trouble writing a summary of my findings in 200 words. Not enough words by far to mention everything that, in my opinion, needed to be said to answer the question. Will see how that goes. No idea how quick the marking goes. Some of my tutor in the previous years managed in less than a week while others didn't manage to return things before the next assignment (and in one case, not before the final exam a good six months later!)

Also, been to the gym again today. I've been going quite often since the semester started, mainly in the hopes it would help me sleep. Not sure it's working tough.

( Updates from my not-so-crazy-anymore mind. )

Might catch up on TV tonight, finish watching Ronin or do some writing.

Despite being rather busy with school work, I did go to the French conversation group last night. I was pretty tired and didn't stay too long, but it was much more fun than the French classes I took during the winter break. Downside is, that since it's not a class, it's just conversation, nothing else. Not that I like grammar at all, but that's exactly why I need to do some revising for the TCF. The academic bookstore in town has only some general grammar books, but nothing specifically geared at the TCF. Looks like I might have to order them from amazon.fr :-/

As for school, I've finished two out of the three assignments that are due soon-ish. Those two we were allowed to do on the computer (which I prefer, because it's much easier to correct mistakes or change bits without having to write the whole thing again). The other one we have to do by hand, which sucks because there are among other things graphs to be drawn. I'm not sure what the point is in making us to drawn the graphs by hand. I guess it is good practice for the exams and to be able to roughly sketch something while in the lab, but even there everyone uses computers to do the drawing. But, I've just finished my third version of the graphs and I'm pretty happy with this one. It's not due until the 29th, and I have already done most of the calculations, so I should be able to finish on time without too much stress. However as usual, I haven't managed to make the interactive stuff work on my computer. Sometimes switching the browser and using another computer does the trick, but sometimes its simply doesn't work no matter what.

The disability claim thing is on ice for the moment as I simply don't have time. I have roughly one year left - minus the two or three months that it apparently takes to get a decision, so I figure I should at least make up my mind if I really want to go ahead with it.

I've finally set up the two rain gauges. Had to go into town first to get a funnel.

Since I have neither a garden nor a balcony here and it didn't seem like a good idea to set them up in the parking lot outside, I've put them on the outer window sill. I had to weigh them down by putting a few stones into each of them in case it gets windy. Wouldn't want them to fall down and hit someone on the walkway. Now all I need is some rain ;-)

What gave you the idea you would actually stand a chance of passing a final year any physical chemistry course given your spectacular track record with this subject!?

Seriously,

your (freaked-out) brain

It's not helping that the combination of strattera and ritalin is driving me absolutely crazy.

At least that course doesn't start for another two weeks, but the prep. reading is already enough to scare me.

It takes way too much energy to get back into this whole studying bit. But I probably think that every year ;-)

I passed at least four of my classes this year - Grade 2 pass in all of them. The fifth one I don't know about yet, but it's the one I'm least worried about :-) I'm especially satisfied that I passed the geology course, since only 65% of all students passed and it was the hardest course I've ever done (and passed).

My cold turned out to be bronchitis which I'm slowly getting over. Still dizzy and rather anxious.

Thanks to a public holiday on Wednesday, the school was closed for a long weekend and I only missed one day of work and one evening of class at the community college. I'm not sure my exam preparation is going anywhere, because although I study quite a lot, it just doesn't seem to 'come together' very much. I'll probably have a go at some old exam papers next week and see if that help. Unfortunatly I don't have the answers to those. Right now, I'm busy scribbling my self-compiled index into the back of one of my textbooks. It's open book and annotations in the blank pages at the back are allowed. After working through the specimen exam paper, I figured the time would be well spent as some of the questions were basically about stuff that's found in a single paragraph.

The project I submitted at the beginning of the week (and was so glad to have finally finished) failed to make its way over to England (it was due on Friday, I think), so I'm potentially failing one of my course. (at least I have proof of posting, even though I can't seem to track the darned thing via the internet). Need to straighten that out next week and find out what went wrong.

I wish I had time for TV right now. I really must have a memory like a sieve because some of the season openers didn't make any sense to me and made me wonder what happened in the episodes I seem to have missed. Especially Bones, Criminal Minds and CSI:Miami, haven't seen SGA, SPN, WaT and CSI yet.)

So, I actually arrived in Nottingham on Saturday, found my way to the college (and after on hours of random wandering, the Chemistry building) and got the internet to work. It's a LOT of work - 12 hour days, most of it in the lab, but so far, I'm not doing too badly. Very tired though. I think I'll have to postpone reading what you guys have been up to.