Apologies for having abandoned my blog for the last month or so - things have been rather chaotic! In between the end of term, essays, finishing data collection, doing data entry and battling my stats program in the hope of one day being able to finish my research project, there hasn't been too much time for blogging!
There has been rather a lot to blog about though! Firstly, the World Wildlife Fund (http://blogs.panda.org/climate/) hosted an initiative a couple of weeks ago, in which they asked people to blog about climate change. Now, I could write a really heart-wrenching post about the melting ice-caps, but instead I'm going to write about recycling - with a difference. I'm not talking about recycling glass or paper or making compost (all of which are really good ways to recycle). Instead, I'm talking about recycling intellectual property. I don't mean plagiarism though - 4 years of lectures on referencing will put the fear of God into you should you ever decide to neglect good ol' APA format referencing. Basically, I discovered that my Honours neuropsychology essay topic this year was almost identical to last year's 3rd year essay topic. Since I was rather stressed and short on time, I decided to "recycle" last year's essay into a new, slightly updated essay - not a bad idea, considering that I got 86% for it the first time round. It didn't go particularly well - I wasn't too motivated about it, and the electricity went off twice while I was typing it, which meant that my computer switched itself off and I had a small nervous breakdown. I got my mark back though - 90%! If I keep handing in this essay, I should eventually get 100%! Hurray for recycling!
Finishing my research proved to be a bit of a disaster too! I eventually finished data collection (54 proved to be close enough to 60 to be an acceptable size sample), did my data entry (the joy of reducing 8 months of work to a bunch of 1’s and 0’s on an Excel spreadsheet) and started data analysis. Analysis lasted all of 10 minutes, because the stats program remained grumpy, and I eventually ended up at the house Granville was house-sitting, from 18:30 to 00:30 on a Tuesday night, running my stats on his laptop! And after a week of very little sleep, multiple drafts, sending my supervisor 40 page drafts via fax and discovering that in 8 months, I actually found nothing, it was handed in on the 30th of October, all bound and shiny. I’ve set up another blog for my research findings (or lack thereof), so got to http://risktakingbehaviourresearch.blogspot.com/2009/11/results-and-discussion.html, if you’re interested (or bored).
Having handed in on the 30th at 13:00, I then invigilated a 3 hour exam with Granville and Bronwyn. Granville had also just handed in, and had pretty much pulled an all-weeker (rather than an all-nighter), and so we were all rather exhausted. I had bought everyone a packet to sweets from Woolies (the gelatine-free ones) to get us through the afternoon, and by the end of it, we were all hyper, and were all head-banging to whatever music we were listening to on our iPods. Between all this, we escorted students to the bathroom, read a little bit, chatted to the psych lecturers (who all think we’re nuts) and watched Granville twirl his moustache (surprisingly fascinating). It was actually a rather fun afternoon!
As exciting as all of the above has been, there are 2 rather huge pieces of news. Number one is that I’ve been accepted for Research Masters for 2010, which means that I get to do another degree, get an office and don’t have to join the real world for at least another 2 years! I also get to figure out what I want to do with my life, etc. The second piece of very exciting news is that I have a boyfriend. And it’s not the Crush or the Potential Potential. It is, in fact, someone who has been mentioned a couple of times on this blog (see my posts entitled "The Beach", "Casino Royale" and "Brokeback Mountain"), and who Helen has named He Of Many Sports Injuries (which I quite like, and which I will now adopt). We've been together for about a month or so, and he's very lovely. I won't bore (or nauseate) you with the details though. Fair to say though, I think my inner romantic cynic is slowly dying... ;)
There has been rather a lot to blog about though! Firstly, the World Wildlife Fund (http://blogs.panda.org/climate/) hosted an initiative a couple of weeks ago, in which they asked people to blog about climate change. Now, I could write a really heart-wrenching post about the melting ice-caps, but instead I'm going to write about recycling - with a difference. I'm not talking about recycling glass or paper or making compost (all of which are really good ways to recycle). Instead, I'm talking about recycling intellectual property. I don't mean plagiarism though - 4 years of lectures on referencing will put the fear of God into you should you ever decide to neglect good ol' APA format referencing. Basically, I discovered that my Honours neuropsychology essay topic this year was almost identical to last year's 3rd year essay topic. Since I was rather stressed and short on time, I decided to "recycle" last year's essay into a new, slightly updated essay - not a bad idea, considering that I got 86% for it the first time round. It didn't go particularly well - I wasn't too motivated about it, and the electricity went off twice while I was typing it, which meant that my computer switched itself off and I had a small nervous breakdown. I got my mark back though - 90%! If I keep handing in this essay, I should eventually get 100%! Hurray for recycling!
Finishing my research proved to be a bit of a disaster too! I eventually finished data collection (54 proved to be close enough to 60 to be an acceptable size sample), did my data entry (the joy of reducing 8 months of work to a bunch of 1’s and 0’s on an Excel spreadsheet) and started data analysis. Analysis lasted all of 10 minutes, because the stats program remained grumpy, and I eventually ended up at the house Granville was house-sitting, from 18:30 to 00:30 on a Tuesday night, running my stats on his laptop! And after a week of very little sleep, multiple drafts, sending my supervisor 40 page drafts via fax and discovering that in 8 months, I actually found nothing, it was handed in on the 30th of October, all bound and shiny. I’ve set up another blog for my research findings (or lack thereof), so got to http://risktakingbehaviourresearch.blogspot.com/2009/11/results-and-discussion.html, if you’re interested (or bored).
Having handed in on the 30th at 13:00, I then invigilated a 3 hour exam with Granville and Bronwyn. Granville had also just handed in, and had pretty much pulled an all-weeker (rather than an all-nighter), and so we were all rather exhausted. I had bought everyone a packet to sweets from Woolies (the gelatine-free ones) to get us through the afternoon, and by the end of it, we were all hyper, and were all head-banging to whatever music we were listening to on our iPods. Between all this, we escorted students to the bathroom, read a little bit, chatted to the psych lecturers (who all think we’re nuts) and watched Granville twirl his moustache (surprisingly fascinating). It was actually a rather fun afternoon!
As exciting as all of the above has been, there are 2 rather huge pieces of news. Number one is that I’ve been accepted for Research Masters for 2010, which means that I get to do another degree, get an office and don’t have to join the real world for at least another 2 years! I also get to figure out what I want to do with my life, etc. The second piece of very exciting news is that I have a boyfriend. And it’s not the Crush or the Potential Potential. It is, in fact, someone who has been mentioned a couple of times on this blog (see my posts entitled "The Beach", "Casino Royale" and "Brokeback Mountain"), and who Helen has named He Of Many Sports Injuries (which I quite like, and which I will now adopt). We've been together for about a month or so, and he's very lovely. I won't bore (or nauseate) you with the details though. Fair to say though, I think my inner romantic cynic is slowly dying... ;)
