What's upsetting you today?

[BigV]

Broken kitchen light fixture.

Well broken stuff in general, but that's the one I want to fix first. That's not true, either. The light's the next thing I'll work on.

[BigV]

update:

Light works. New ballast ($30!!!), some 'lectric tape, good to go.

[DucksNuts]

Migraine...bastard

[DanaC]

Ouch honey poor you.

[DanaC]

None of my clothes fit and I can't afford t buy new ones. The electricity people phoned me up last night to hassle me about what I owe them. How many times can you fit the sentence "no...look I can't pay anything tonight...no I can't pay £100 now...I haven't got any money, I can't pay anything straight away" into a single telephone conversation?

I am broke. On low income until next student check at end of January.

My house is a total dump and I can't seem to find the get-up-and-go to sort it out. I have three essays due in less than a month and can't seem to concentrate on the research. I am smoking too much. Everything is too much effort. All I want to do is sleep.

[DucksNuts]

Oh fuck Dana, thats not good.

Thrift shop clothes? I love them for size changes, when you know you will be able to fit into your normal clothes again.

You need to do something fun.....can you go away for a cheap weekend? Let Sundae paint your nails or something

[DanaC]

*chuckles* I wish! But unfortunately not possible at the moment:P

The thrift shop idea I might try though. I have a hatred of charity shops (dragged round too many by mum when I was younger) but I think I'll bite the bullet and try.

I'll be ok. I always am. Just pissing me off a little today.

*smiles*

[Aliantha]

Well, I vote you get at least one of your essays done this weekend, and I guarantee you (having been a mature age student myself) that you'll feel much better come monday. In fact, if you do it by Sunday lunch, you might even be able to talk yourself into taking yourself to the pub for a beer on sunday arvo to celebrate.

[DanaC]

*chuckles* good advice Ali...unfortunately I have a conference to attend on Saturday and the Legion's annual general meeting in the morning with a leaflet drop in the afternoon on Sunday.

Takes about three or four days of reading and probably a few hours in special collections examining primary sources to put an essay together (if it's gonna get decent marks anyway).

I'll spend some of today on the reading. Try and get some done in the evening as well. I am in uni tomorrow anyway so that might be a good time to go visit Specials Colls.

Have to know what the current and past scholarship is of the topic at hand to avoid accidental plagiarism. If you don't know what the main writers in any one field are saying you can come up with similar ideas and end up in trouble. Only way to avoid it is to know who's said the things you want to say and footnote them. Knowing where their analysis leaves off or where the gaps are allows you to make your own independant argument, spinning off from theirs.

basically I have to know what fifteen or twenty historians have said about each of the topics I am writing on.

But hey....maybe if I log off here and go do some fecking reading tht might help huh?:P

[Perry Winkle]

DanaC's words on how essays are done in the UK has me worried. In my undergrad education an essay was just bullshit with references. I think I'm fucked. . .

[DanaC]

*laughs* depends on the subject. History is one of those subjects you *read*. Very little time spent in classes or lectures, mostly you get given a long list of books and authors, with some helpful pointers as to which are most relevant to which part of the module. They may even include the odd chapter reference (e.g such and such a book, esp. chapters 3 and 7). The idea is that you use that list as a starting point and branch off from there into your own independantly sourced material.

The amount of self directed study you are expected to do varies from university to university and faculty to faculty.

What are you planning to do your MA on? You really cannot do an MA without knowing current scholarship, else how can you ensure you are producing original material?

In terms of the undergraduate experience, the awareness of plagiarism has become very acute in recent years and systems have been set up in many unis to combat it. You could probably have got away with more flannel and less actual reading when your work wasn't going to be electronically scaned and compared to pretty much every known article available on the web in your field:P

[DanaC]

Incidentally, how you finding the Geordie-speak?

[Aliantha]

I often find logging off the MB and doing some reading is helpful IF I HAVE A LOT OF FUCKING READING TO DO! lol kidding.

I'm sure you'll get it all done and you'll do a great job Dana. Don't stress out though. That's not going to help get them done any sooner...although research suggests that all students have a certain stress point that they must reach before they'll actually start their assignments.

Mine personally was very low. I used to do mine as soon as I got them because I couldn't stand knowing I had work to do that I hadn't done. On the other hand, my cousin who is a mature age student with a part time job and three kids, always leaves hers till the last minute (sometimes litterally). I don't know how she does it.

[Perry Winkle]

Originally Posted by DanaC

What are you planning to do your MA on? You really cannot do an MA without knowing current scholarship, else how can you ensure you are producing original material?

I'm doing a Taught MSc in E-Business and Information Systems. It's consists mostly of businessy fluff, thus tons of content-less reading. The business modules are where the essays are assigned.

I have a lot of reading to do to catch up with where I need to be. But I'm cranking through it, even though most of it is "no shit, really?" stuff, especially in E-Business. There's a higher percentage of good stuff in the Understanding Organizations module.

Originally Posted by DanaC

Incidentally, how you finding the Geordie-speak?

If they're speaking full-on Geordie, I'm lost. Even when they try to speak more standard English, I have trouble.

[smurfalicious]

My coworker just found an email from February (printed and left in an unsecured location) from the self-righteous, paranoid, bad joke telling, know-it-all bigot of an attorney I work for, to the firm's sole proprietor and lead attorney, detailing how I'm rude, incompetent, unmotivated, and act like a 'princess'.