Results!

A lot of results came out last Tuesday (6th), but not ours. So, it's been a very, very long and stressful wait! This afternoon, we were told that the results would be posted onto our student pages overnight, so, nobody was expecting their results at approximately 16:45!!!!

I am almost completely lost for words! I got a DISTINCTION!!!! 85% for the ECA! Heck, my Part C couldn't have been total rubbish after all!! So, this means, of course, that I now have my BSc - and I don't know quite how to deal with it! I was in tears for a good couple of hours! It's a very strange feeling. But I am very, very happy!!

Time to open a bottle!! :)


sunset over Dartmoor

DONE IT!!

I've finished - hooray!! I finished a couple of weeks ago. Or I thought I had. But I hadn't, because I just had to change a couple things on the project review. But I've finished now!! My project, I'm happy with. Part_C I'm less than happy with - although I'm happy with what I've written - but it depends on how you interpret their question as to whether it's any good or not.

But I'm not touching it again.

Oh, and rather a little bonus - I decided to have a (very quick) go at TMA06 in the end (just so as to complete the course really) and I got 73% for it! Amazed!!!

SCHOOL'S OUT!!

(or it would be if I didn't have rather a lot of sums to do ...)

Henry update:



The slugs got him. :(

Pooped!

The project is all but done (though, of course, I'm not ecstatically happy about it) - and the project review is all but done - so that leaves the report. Phish. I've been looking at it for 2 weeks. I've made notes - printed summaries - highlighted key words in yellow - read through all the activities. I'm still staring into space. They want you to talk 2 000 words of skills and knowledge.

It's awful how this last hurdle is proving so difficult. I wonder how much of that is to do with that prize at the end? I'm aiming for a grade 2. A grade 3 (or 4) would do nicely, of course - but I think I deserve a grade 2. And for that I need 70% for the ECA. The project's worth 60%, the review 15% and this report 25%. I really need to get at least 10% for it - but nothing is coming into my head! Well, plenty is coming into my head - but none of it in any useful order - and it doesn't come with named examples (as they ask) or ready-made diagrams, to illustrate. I have promised myself that I will sit down IN EARNEST and type out something next week.

Shall I do TMA06? I don't want to (it's horrid) - and I certainly don't need to (0% or 100% it would all depend on the ECA) - so maybe I won't. So why do I feel guilty about that?

85% for TMA05, by the way. Best one yet!

Henry update:

Banned Banner!!

You can have text in an image. You can put images together to make a bigger image. You cannot put text into images that have been stuck together - ESPECIALLY if it's a heading, as that's getting around the rules? Eh? OK, we'll type a heading in the lovely PURPLE lettering, stuck over to the left side, while our following image has to be centred. It is SO ugly! Anyway, this is the banned banner. Spurned - discarded - dumped!



Apart from that though, I have been head down and getting stuck in. And my project is all but done!!! I shall be fiddling with it until hand-in time, of course - but it would be good enough as it stands (I think ... maybe). So, what a relief! Pressure off!! It was so strange. I looked at it, when I finally finished the draft and had it down to the word limit - and I thought, "is that my degree?".

A degree??

A degree???

Oh, can't count chickens or anything - and there is still the project review to finish off and the 2000 word report to do (dreading that - but we still don't know what it's to be about).

But,

Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!! :)

It just feels like a huge weight off my shoulders as so much was riding on it. I just hope it's good enough, as I had to leave out LOADS of stuff, so I'm not even sure if I've met my objective!

Anyway, now I can concentrate on the rest of TMA05, followed by Block 4 and TMA06 (which is an extraordinarily WEIRD thing!) in a relaxed frame of mind. Onwards to critique the news stories!

Oh, and here's my wedding hat! :) Only a few weeks now to Nick and Nicola's BIG DAY!

How Does Your Garden Grow?

Henry (centre, pumpkin) has become enormous, with many flowers, so hopefully we will have some decent fruit (veg?) by November! It's not surprising that he's so huge - although there's been very little (no) rain since we got back from France etc (where it was hot!), it's been stifling weather.

I thought I'd finished Block 3, but I forgot that I have to go back to those looooooooooong offprints on governance (yawn). And I've been battling with the wiz again, this time for the first part of TMA05, which is (more or less) done and dusted - and it's only the critiques left to do on that one. Now (today!) I have broadband, so perhaps the evil monster will behave better with that.

I got TMA04 back yesterday. 71%. I'm happy with that!! I made some really unforgiveable errors though - sloppy and lazy.

I *could* start on my project AT LAST now - now that I have some free time. But I have those offprints to read .... perhaps I could save those as a treat ......

Ooh-la-la!

Off to France, Spain and Andorra tomorrow (with Meanie and his new shorts!)



So, I was delighted to get back TMA03 today - with an 83% mark - which means that even if I did nothing else (which I have and will) - I've already passed the coursework!! :)

I'm a Capitalist?!?

I really don't think that my ISEW is meant to follow the line of GDP ....



"Technical problem registering your ISEW, please contact our webmeister".

I didn't contact der webmeister because I was too ashamed!!

(this is terrible stuff ..)

Blogger the Blogger!

I've gone independent!

(This has nothing whatsoever to do with the fact that I kept forgetting my password or anything!)

I appear to have lost the ability for folk to add comments (for the time; til I work it out!) - which is probably just as well!

When is a bird not a bird?

When it's not in the same 10 sq km square as a woodlouse or a dragonfly. Apparently. I've lost it .... but I've sent in TMA03, complete with the Project Plan (with a million links), the regression on the biodiversity data (where I lost it, it seems - cos I thought that a bird was a bird ...) and the sweet BAP fiction.



AND I've done TMA04 - it is the biggest load of twaddle on climate modelling, but will have to do. I am not imagining that I'll get very good marks on either, but at least they're DONE and I can (perhaps) enjoy my holiday (if only I could stop twitching cos of the STRESS and the seemingly constant slumping in front of this PC!)

Oh, and I got 82% for TMA02, so that's good! :) I've translated "How Green Is Your Latte?" into HTML and put it on here.



Where the heck did the font edit disappear to on here?

I am a dragonfly .....

.... A gem of the air - flying around without a care ...

But where??

We went to Stover again this evening (after buying a wedding hat in Torquay), but, although we walked completely around the lake and studied virtually every clump of reeds, there was no sign of any dragon or damselflies today. I suppose it was just too cold. We did see heaps of squirrels and water rats, but they don't count!! OK, just the birdies to finish off and that's that exercise over with (until the data stats stuff).

I needed desperately to get out of the house this weekend (yesterday we spent the afternoon at the Marine Aquarium), because I am in danger of cracking up with the hotspot/percentage area debate.

Now I'm off to microwave some chips, cos I'm starving.

The 14 days of Biodiversity

7 Porcello scabers
2 Philoscia muscorum
Many Passer domesticus
and 5 Pyrrhosoma nymphula!!



(or 5 large red damselflies!)

It was a glorious morning, so we drove out to Stover Country Park and did the first count. I didn't think there'd be any to count, as it was extremely cold. But there they were, at the far side of the lake!! Probably there were heaps more, but they were very difficult to spot.



And yesterday I counted the woodlice in the garden (with the help of the hub, because of the spiders ...) and the bird counting is ongoing. It's interesting. It'll be especially interesting when we get all the database results down and can do our regression analysis!!

Apart from that, there's the hotspot/GAP stuff .... I don't want to talk about it. Sometimes I don't know why on earth I'm doing this course. But, must plod on ...

DEATH to the Wizard!

He is pure evil!

I've just spent 3 solid days, staring the beast in the face. He is angst; Beelzebub; a running sore!! When he's not satisfied with frustrating you to death by making you wait eternity before he will present you with the page you need - he will then torment you by suddenly making you 'sign in' again - and when you have, he'll strip you of any remaining sanity by announcing that 'you must not bookmark this page' - like you had, or wanted to, or even knew you could! Grrrrhhhhh!!

But question 1 of TMA02 is now completed. Phew. The online tutor group conference was busy. And it was complicated. And I was near tears at times because I didn't understand the phraseology. But we eventually arrived at a consensus list of criteria to be used to evaluate our chosen website for sustainability. And then followed the trip into hell with the wizard! But we are done.

That I got 82% for TMA01 has given me renewed confidence. But there is a second tutor group conference to attend before the 2nd TMA02 question can be done, and I will be happy when this second block is over and we start on the Climate Change.

I can't believe I just said that!!