Being Mr. Kenny

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The linked game is one I used to play to distraction in Sixth Form. I think it might explain a little of the correlation between me and bad results. Anyway, to stop myself getting distracted again, I am posting this link here so that I can play it later. It’s the best game in the world!

So, the essay’s going better than I thought it would. I have to write about three papers on a “named aspect” reproductive biology, and explain why they are the most influential. Unfortunately, I have until noon tomorrow to do it, what with dissertation taking preference. But, it’s going OK.

I’ve also just found some images of Opuntia ficus-indica on google image search. O. ficus-indica is species of cactus. It’s also called the prickly pear cactus. It has tiny little glochids which are little hairs which stick in your skin and are bloody painful. I know because I picked one up in Spain, and it really irritated me for ages. I was so cross! But anyway, the prickly pear is edible, and I want to eat one when I go to South America. I also think they are incredibly beautiful.

PS: Check out this website.

I’m currently in the library, having deposited all the library books I used to write my dissertation. I’m so pleased it’s all over, although I’m not sure about it’s quality. Reading over it, I came to the conclusion that it ranked among the worst things I have ever written. Seriously, the sentences were all boring and disconnected, like kids’ books… “Cacti are desert plants. They grow in the desert. We all like desert plants. Let’s sing a song.” Bleh.

Plus, I’m not too sure about the title. Originally it was “How do cacti survive the conditions in which they are found?” I then changed it to “What are the mechanisms which enable cacti to survive the environmental conditions in which they survive and grow” or something similar. This was to make it sound a bit more scientific and brainy, basically. Despite this sexing-up of the title, I’m still not sure how scientific the topic is. I don’t know if it’s sufficiently biological. I don’t know it it’s deep enough.

But, I’ve done as much damage to it as I can, and it’s too late to change now, what with the deadline being Wednesday. The dissertation stands at 5,200 words and 13 pages, and it’s being submitted whether it likes it or not.

Still, at least I have completed it a number of days before the deadline, and not the night before like I did with the project. Seriously, I have never felt more out of control, and I have never been in such a big panic as I was that day. I had a number of nervous breakdowns, in a variety of toilets across campus. Have I said that before in a previous post? Probably… Well, never mind I’m saying it again.

On a brighter note…

…I am going to South America in the summer! It’s gonna be amazing. Plus, I will be able to see the cacti that I’ve been writing about in the flesh, as it were. I can see it now…

“So, Opuntia ficus-indica, we meet at last!”

Yes, that ought to be fun. A massive thank you to a certain Mr Park S. Nobel, the world expert in the field of cacti and agaves (a family of desert plants - Aloe vera is a member!). If it weren’t for his work, my dissertation would have died horribly within days of starting it.

Anyway, I’m going home now, and I’m going to buy crisps and sweets. Tomorrow, I have to write an essay for another module, and that is not going to be fun. :(

This question comes to us from Danish. I have no idea what it means, but it is a good question. Ask it whenever you can.

Er festen slut?

This from my housemate’s bedroom wall:

Terrible twins go on the rampage

Twins aged three broke into a neighbour’s house and went on the rampage — emptying drawers, bouncing on beds and scribbling on walls. They were found naked in the street in Deols, France, covered in toothpaste and having stolen a bedside lamp, thinking it would help find their way home in the dark.

I think it’s from Metro, the paper you find on the trams. Isn’t it bizarre!

Well. I do some work at a contact centre in Sheffield - it’s a place where parents who have got divorced can come and drop their kids off to see the estranged parent (where divorces have been acrimonious). Anyway, another of the volunteers that was there was telling me about, well, basically her life story. And it was so interesting and inspiring! She was 73, although she didn’t seem it - she was really youthful in the way she talked. She said that she had been an engineer draughtsman a while ago, and that, at the age of 53, she had decided to change, and go into teaching.

So, after completing a degree in Sociology and Social Policy, and then a masters, she went in to teach at an A-Level college. She also mentioned, somewhat in passing, that her daughter had done her masters “in a term”. :O

Anyway, it was so good to hear her story because it made me realise that people change with time and they don’t necessarily have to get stuck in one career path. One of the things I’ve been worrying about is just that, getting stuck in the same job kinda thing.

Acutally, I’m so much more positive about the future. It’s not this big, scary thing hanging over me anymore, it’s a really exciting thing where loads of good stuff is going to happen :D. I’m gonna go into teaching, and I’m staying at Sheffield. After not knowing where on Earth I was going to live and what I was going to do next year, I know have four offers of accomodation (!) and I’m doing a PGCE. It’s all good!