foolfillment: the blog

Don’t worry, this was pre-posted, I’ve got better things to do today!

No Technology and Society lecture today so I tried to take the time to look at the topic areas for the essay we need to write soon, tending towards the transport and the environment topic, need to take a look in the library sometime for any relevant materials.

In graphics we got given our next assignment - to draw a measured perspective view of Celtic Park, then render it full detail. 6-8 hours an idea of time but it’s something I could get my teeth into.

Submission of the folio for Design today as well at last, it’s only a small part of the folio we need to hand in but the amount of other sheets we needed to develop before all the required ones are done was quite considerable. When I handed that in I got given my Professional Development Folio back which I thought had been thrown out over the summer. The department take a really bad attitude to students’ work - anything left in the building over the summer vacation, beit work marked over the holidays or any other work handed in throughout the year, gets thrown out after a short time where you can collect it. Last summer I was in Peru when I could have picked up my work so it got thrown out - but they kept the folder! Great for me… I can hand in this year’s folio in the same folder.

I went to see the new Narnia film last night. Despite expecting it to be a huge disappointment I was pleasantly surprised. There were a few things I didn’t like about it but all in all I really enjoyed it - a good story nicely adapted for film, keeping enough of the book in without making it too long.

It was only let down really by the casting of Peter and Susan I felt, they were rubbish - if you’re going to give a kid a sword and want him to seem like a King then at least show him how to wield it properly instead of trashing it around like Peter does.
There were a few things I expected to be different, but only because of how I imagined them when I read the books - Aslan should have been bigger too and the stone table should have been round and on top of a hill that surveys the land, it shouldn’t have been solid either. I can’t really complain about them though.

One question though I’ve been pondering; did my oldest brother notice any of the religious imagery when he was reading them to me all those years ago?

All of a sudden things are dawning on me, it’s the last week of term already! Starting off with a guest lecturer from NHS Greater Glasgow going over all the many things we are supposed to be on top off, it tied in nicely with the news about obesity in Scotland’s schools, then got on top of a few last minute things for our design handin on Thursday.

Doing that though I realised just how much work there is to be done in a very short time. We have about five weeks between now and when we return after Christmas and then just a little time after that we need to have all the manufacture information ready for submission which means I’ll probably have to take time off earning work to do some uni work, I don’t fancy that.

A list of things to be done before the end of third year

• think up a model suitable for S1/2
• manufacture a model that would gain a credit at SG
• 3000 word essay on tech and society
• piece of work on formative assessment during placement
• two assignments for understanding energy
• 30 minute presentation for materials, with supporting handout
• and a hell of a lot of design stuff

It seems like less when it’s written like that, still, can’t wait to get out to school in February.

Dropper
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I’ve just got in from town. Town being in this case the centre of Glasgow, but you can use it for any city centre with the same rough meaning - a horrible, built-up, seething mass of people with no awareness of what’s going on around them and laden down with bags. Going to town is such a tiring, distressing thing to have to do but there comes a time at Christmas when it is just about unavoidable. If I had been more organised I could have got away with not going.

I went in search of: a lemming, a tiny table and chair, and things that symbolise cheerfulness and enthusiasm. How many of them did I manage to find? One, almost.

I’m tired now and am very glad that tonight is a pub night. I need to vent some anger about people who can’t walk.

Off to college today, most people choosing to take the day off to get last things done for tomorrow’s presentation so only about 8 of us in metalwork and even less in woodwork - despite us being able to work on our models. And that’s about it for the day. Our models are looking okay but not as they maybe should, but I keep reminding people that the presentation tomorrow counts for just 10% and the models for a small part of that. How well will tomorrow go? I don’t know, I’ve still got a lot to practice with my parts of it but I’m not too concerned. Keeping it to 10 minutes shouldn’t be too much of an obstacle.

Tuesdays are really dull! Except today. Education at nine was quite interesting - different looks and discussion about Social Exclusion and Social Capital. It may seem dull to you and everyone else in my class but I took quitre a few notes. Got to go and read about Boudieu now and Putnam.

And then we went to Cardonald to try and get our models looking a bit better for Thursday. I can’t believe we’re putting this much work in for a tiny part of 10% of a 30 credit course. The expectations for the third year are all over the place, some courses demand a lot of work for not many credits while others you can get away with not much work for a lot more credits. It’s all to do with tactical learning.

Spent the day just tidying things up in preparation for a presentation in Thursday for design. That and going into town for a collection of paints for one of the models that I’m making for it. Finding a way of getting the finish I want is proving hard - ordinary spraypaint just melts the styrofoam and special stuff needs a coat of PVA glue under it to make it at all shiny.

The news that we may not be going to Sutherland next year came through as well today, the hut hasn’t been booked. Next year the club will be in need of a new secretary and a new president. On a purely selfish level I’d love to be president but I don’t feel I have the time or enough experience caving to give it an appropriate amount of time (although the number of people not in Glasgow next year who knows) so maybe sect would be more realistic? Will I have time to be involved in these sort ofthings when I’m a teacher, or even the opportunities? I hope so. I need to get my act together and do my mountain leader training. Having read on Ollie Bray’s blog yesterday that Stevie Boyle was helping out with DGS’s trip to Nethy Bridge spurred on this thought stream.

Tomorrow should be a relatively short day with the Understanding Energy lecture cancelled which should give me more time to get my parts fo the presentation perfect.

BBC NEWS | Scotland | ?1m fake goods seized at market

Dodgy goods at the Barras? Who’d've thought?

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