I am not dead.
18 Aug 2004Really! Just been pre-occupied with things, that’s all.
And this is take two, as Mozilla crashed. Actually, why am I typing this in Mozilla? Konqueror has nice spell checking and stuff! I’m normally pretty good, but a second opinion can’t hurt, now can it? *switches browsers*
Ah, that’s better. Haha, “Mozilla” is showing up in red text… no, we’re not anti-competitive ;)
Yay. So, about… life. Seminar presentation. I’ve already bitched to half the world (so it seems… half my world, anyway… probably more!) about how poorly I thought it went, but hey, for the other part of my world (the purely-connected, non-“Met” half), I’m ranting here, too. Feel free to ignore me if you think I just need to STFU and get over it.
Yeah. This seminar was meant to go for ten minutes. Mine went for fourteen. I’ve never been great (read: utterly hopeless) at timing things, especially of this nature, and brevity has never been a strong point either (phonecalls should be billed in 30 minute blocks, not per 30 seconds!). This, however, was appalling. As I said, it went for fourteen. That isn’t too bad, in and of itself…
Had I finished. Knowing full well that my timing was probably way out, the seminar was prepared with designated “exit points”, for use in a scenario such as… oh, say, the one that occurred. Essentially, there were premature conclusions which wouldn’t appear premature should I have to use them.
All that is based on the presumption that I actually DO think to use them… oh, yes, that old “thought” thing. Evidently too much. So I hit a break in presentation, and asked how long I had gone for: they said 14 minutes. I thought I was perhaps just over 10, 12 at the most. It shouldn’t have been panic inducing, but then, I’d just endured a pointless 30-45 seconds of DVD footage due to impossible cueing (my frog, the buttons on the front of those things are fiddly. Give me a remote anyday.), and knew I needed to make up for that somehow. I don’t know. I basically forgot that nice conclusion which was glaring fiercely up at me from the sheet I held less than a meter from my face.
That, of course, isn’t the thing which annoys me most. If my stupidity doesn’t affect the overall quality of content delivered, then that’d be no problem. Unfortunately, without my use of an appropriate conclusion, the whole thing falls down somewhat. The study of ONE appropriation, no matter how in-depth or well presented that may be, does not constitute “a range of” other contexts.
I looked over the presentation again, and I’ve estimated that were I to run the full length of my prepared content, it would have gone for approximately 25 minutes. Damn, my timing sucks. I say “prepared” content because I should have liked to go longer… perhaps I’m not a public speaker for a reason? ;)
Despite all that, I continue to agree with others who have described this assessment as one of, if not the most enjoyable assessment they’ve ever undertaken.
But it’s over. So that probably means I should stop working on it, and focus on myriad other assessments building up, hey?;)
Oh, it’s not so bad. A moderately huge business thing on Monday, which I’m a tad nervous about, an English listening task on Wednesday, which I could care less about, but not by much, and a Modern History essay which is due Thursday. Then a week? Maybe two? I don’t know… until yearly exams. Bleh!
And a certain Herr Goldrick is trying to convince me to do HSC stuff. I’m uncertain why. Apparently is shall “reassure” year 12. More so than paid staff shall? Bleh. I don’t see why a certain person continues to be employed. It’s funny, seeing he’ll be present for their rehearsals, and yet Goldrick is convinced that I need to be there because I was there for the trials. Yes, well, certain others who shall be witnessing aforementioned rehearsals WEREN’T there for the trials, because they had better things to do with their time.
Grrr.
To go off on a complete tangent, my parents are going to New Zealand tomorrow evening. (YAY!) This’ll probably mean a several-hundred fold increase in productivity, for various reasons (namely that there is no pressure to “appear” to be doing work of any particular kind — time management CAN occur unheeded, thankyou very much). The lovely LCD device is going with them, in the hope of attaining a tax break… I don’t know how all that stuff works, so I won’t speculate further…
That’s the last few days in a nut-shell. Today was a write-off. Absolutely. Apparently Heath is upset about the en mass desertion of his school, but given that they’ve never had an established “Bring your school books and work in case it rains” policy, I don’t think he has any right to be.
I left it too late to escape, and subsequently lost a day which could have been spent tending to assessments. St. Andrews Cathedral School embraces academic achievement and efficient time usage. What a joke. Six hours of absolute nothing. Sure, we did work in physics, the one subject I’m adamant about dropping. Wonderful. Other subjects? Oh, I’m sure I could have worked, had I come prepared with BOOKS.
I’d like to take this opportunity to extend my gratitude to the administration of the school for their astounding short-sightedness in dealing with this situation. Duty-of-Care and truancy is one matter, actively refusing parental permission to release students so that they may possibly make some use of their day is quite another.
Apparently he is angry. Well, so am I. I value my time more than that. I was looking forward to this carnival, but I can cope with it being cancelled — I’d like to be able to get work done in it’s place, though.
“Normal school day” was a fond catch-cry of administration. I certainly hope you don’t consider that normal. This isn’t like broadband, there is no such thing as a “fast churn” process between schools. Not that I’d really consider moving, anyway — I do love SACS, despite all its capricious oddities. This sort of thing does irritate, though. Yes, the situation was unavoidable, but the response left much to be desired.
Hah, the male parental unit is a source of much amusement. In the morning, whilst hopes of escape still dwelled in the echelons of the imagination, I called the parentals in hope of them calling and ensuring some means of ess-cap-ee. He was in a meeting, but sent a TEXT message as a permission to leave. You have no idea how hard I fought not to fall off my chair laughing.
“I give permission 4 josh 2 go home now that the carnival is cancelled”
No joke. I haven’t laughed so hard because of a text message EVER! Mrs. Earle found it just as amusing, hehehe. That element of humour made the day lastable, methinks ;)
Anyway. I’m off to compose an essay. Or something. Hooray for ridiculous SMS messages!