Rambling again

Nothing much to say really today. I've just been busy cleaning so that it won't need doing over the weekend. It suddenly came to me though while I was dusting the remote control graveyard that we have on the corner of the living room that half of those appliances were retired to the bin months ago. Goodness knows why we never got to throwing the remote controls out. Out of the pile I bet only 3 of them are actually used.

The tree is up

We finally have the family Christmas tree up.I have been busy trying to catch up on some uni work but haven't really got to far. The first day went very well and the second day was naff because some friends turned up at the library and then started interrupting me all the time wanting answers. I know there my friends but seriously I had to work so dam hard to figure the answers out and why should I just give the answers away. Yesterday I spent the day at home and got nothing done and it seems today is going to be the same. Looks like I have one heck of alot of work to do at the weekend now. Its my own fault so I can't complain.

Nearly Christmas

Well its just over a week till Christmas and we still haven't got round to putting the Christmas tree up. I think we might put it up tonight - I'll have to drag everything out of the attic since my hubby is to tall to fit in there. Being short does sometimes have its advantages.
I was just reading through the bbc website this morning and found an interesting picture of new York's Christmas tree. At least I think it's there Christmas tree - or maybe its just a collection of oversized baubles. I don't know but it looks cool anyway. If your interested the link is http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_pictures/6162979.stm.

A holiday free vacation coming up

I was just going through my Christmas plans that I drew up with my dyslexia tutor this morning. They look depressing to say the least. Out of 3 weeks vacation I have 4 days off. I am so behind with course work and class work that I need to do something every day just to stand a chance of catching up. Heck I'm not even sure I have time to celebrate Christmas this year (Swiftly onto less depressing thoughts I always want to chuckle when I think about my dyslexia tutor. It kind of sounds like she teaches me how to be dyslexic doesn't it. As if I'm not good enough at that on my own LOL.

Busi

I have so much work to do over Christmas just to catch up with classwork and tutorials. It seems that I won't be getting much of a holiday I don't think. I am hopeless at planning things and thought I'd ask my dyslexia tutor tomorrow if she will help me draw up a plan. I need to put things in place otherwise I'm going to be starting next term still completing work for term 1. Well this entry will be short and sweet because I have nothing to say today (for a change).

It might be to soon

It might be to soon to say but I think the poster presentation went ok. I felt a bit nervous with the first tutor but then got more relaxed as more tutors came by to question me about my project. I think about 8 to 10 tutors and examiners interviewed me in the end. I noticed the same questions kept coming up which made me wonder wether I should of made certain aspects of my poster clearer but then there really is a limit to what information you can squeeze onto a poster. It made me think though that maybe I should emphasise these points when I rite my dissertation. It gave me a good idea what the examiners are looking for anyway. I think it went well any way and was pleased to here one lecturer say it was definitely among the best posters and I had one of the top marks. I am relying on this dissertation project to pull up my disastrous marks from year 2.

1 day to go

1 day to go until the presentation and I think I have just about finished my preparation for it. I paid £14 to get my poster professionally printed and laminated at the university print shop. I hope it is worth the extra effort and expense. I have tried to anticipate every question that the examiners can ask me and I think I can answer them ok so I'm feeling a bit more relaxed. Today was a pretty quite day at uni because we finish for Christmas this Friday and so most assignments etc are all handed in. We had electrical labs this afternoon which I'm never any good at. I have a lousy short term memory and forget all the instructions. I just wish the lecturer could tell us one step at a time. Even with my dictaphone its still hard work following all the steps and getting them the right way round. I always feel really scatty and stupid in labs eve though I'm technically in my 5th year. One good thing about these labs is that the lecturer lets me hand in typed log books instead of the usual hand written ones so at least I don't loose valuable marks because he can't read my handwriting. Apart from not being able to follow the steps I enjoy the labs for this subject because were building an automatic guided vehicle and its great to get some hands on experience for a change.

Almost done

(Copied from my old blog)

I mention yesterday that I am preparing some information to take to my poster presentation on Tuesday. I am so glad I did this because it has really helped me to remember excatly how I have done this project and the reasons I came to some of my decisions. Hopefully I will come across as knowing my stuff when I have to answer the questions from the examiners. I will be so pleased when Tuesday is out of way and will be a little nervous until it is all over - but at least I feel a little more relaxed knowing that I have prepared something. Since about 8 weeks ago I have been falling behind with my class notes and tutorials and can not wait for Christmas so that I can catch up so I will be making a plan tomorrow for all the things I need to do over Christmas. I guess Christmas won't be the relaxing holiday I had hoped.

Feeling nervous

(An entry from a really old blog)

I have a big poster presentation on Tuesday about my final year project and I am working myself up into a rite stew about it. I'm always the same no faith in own ability. I was determine this time was going to be different but hey ho. The worse thing is I used to have a different supervisor but felt he wasn't doing his job properly and asked to change and now I think he will be at my presentation and will ether be super nasty or ask lots of deliberately awkward questions. I hat things like this because I can never remember even basic information about my own project. Even things like what background work I did for it takes me ages to remember what I did. I really want to come across like I know my stuff because I have worked my socks off on this project. Because I know I will forget everything I have decided to take a file containing some basic information about the project. That way when the examiners come ask me about various aspects of my projects I can just illustrate the point using my information and then hopefully nothing will be forgotten. ll I had better go and do some more preparation.

First post from my really old blod

I'm copying some entries over from my old blog. Here is the first one written December 2006.

I'm not really sure why I decided to start writing a blog other then thinking the writing practise would be good and also because I think it reassuring to other people with dyslexia who are planning on going to university to now that it is possible to cope with being dyslexic at university.I am hoping you will be able to follow what I'm saying because even using literature support software my spelling and punctuation can be miles off. In todays post I'm going to tell you a bit about me so you know what your dealing with. I'm a mature student and have always had problems with spelling and punctuation and essay writing and exams generally. I found out why in my first year at university when I was finally diagnosed with dyslexia. I think I always new there was a problem and it was actually a relief to find out I wasn't thick but had genuine problems. I am in my final year at university unless I decide to stay on for another year to do my masters. I have dyslexia support at university with things like assignment extensions if I want them I haven't had one yet though and extra time in exams since I'm extremely slow with reading and writing. I also get some other concession such as been able to record lectures and submit typed rather than handwritten log books. I have a dyslexia tutor who is paid for through disable student allowance (DSA) from the LEA. Its for 1 our a week and she teaches me the skills I need to be able to study effectively. She doesn't do work for me and I wouldn't want her to....Mrs Independence....that is me. I use some software for my university work that I got through DSA - Dragon naturally speaking (speech to text software) and Texthelp read and write (literature support) software and Inspiration mind mapping software. I find these very useful. Ok I think that is enough for now. Talk later.