Sunday 21st March

Well I'm feeling quite pleased with myself, which is probably a short step to disaster, but nevertheless.. today I finished my second essay of the three, well two essays and a dissertation proposal. That got handed in on Friday, and now I have number two out of the way. I've also managed to get the slides organised for the coming ordeal on Friday next, when I have to present said dissertation proposal. This will be done at Lilybank House, which is the normal venue for our RRSH lectures where we don't need to be sitting at computers. It's a pretty startling room, in fact Lilybank is a pretty startling building. I remember having anthropology seminars there back in the 90s, before the restoration - it's an old, I'd guess pre-Victorian building, and they've found some sort of paintwork in there, in the room where we gather. So whilst the room bristles with slide projectors and mix and match seating, all the sorts of things a fairly modern lecture room would need, it also has a wall with rather exotic looking paint effects - in a rather unpleasant shade of red unfortunately, with the main bulk of the wall in an odd and unmatching green. It's not quite British institutional green, but frankly it's not far off, and the red is that oxblood shade that's not quite brown but isn't exactly red either, in sweeping somehow flowery cascades. Actually I don't think there's a flower in there, but somehow I look at it and I think flowery. Every week for the past few months I've been looking at this, and thinking that I should like it more than I actually do, and now it's going to witness my first, and probably last attempt to give a presentation with powerpoint slides.
You know you'd think I'd've organised an attempt to practise this since I've never done it before, and I would have liked to, but somehow either it wasn't offered to us as part of RRSH - which is a bit odd and makes me suspect I somehow missed it, as RRSH has usually been pretty good about offering us every opportunity to play with every variety of gadget in the academic toolbox. Anyhow, it's only ten minutes in duration - or at least it's supposed to be, and I don't have to use very many slides, I just click on the mouse to make it move to the next, so I'll wing it along with everyone else, making damn sure I take handouts along with me. Then people can fiddle with bits of paper, a sure way of distracting them from what I'm saying.

So.. yep the Constructing Faith essay is done and will be handed in tomorrow, yippee. Just the Gender essay to go, which is all planned out and just needs to be written. Then.. the great blank stares me in the face, and this is I suppose the really interesting bit. As a part time student I then technically have nothing else to do until term starts again in September/October. I do have the dissertation to actually do, and I will be working on it across the summer - I have to, I'd never get it done otherwise, but basically that's it. I've set myself the task of a) I absolutely must definitely absolutely find some work, which isn't easy as apparently Glasgow has an unemployment rate that's 10% higher than the rest of the country, or so they told us this week. This goes some way towards easing my concerns about not having found anything so far, but without having work, lord how am I going to fill my days? At some point in May/June/July -ish I have to deal with whether or not I'm going to have to move as my lease runs out, and I have to say I'm hoping very much that I don't because it's been a great little flat and I hate moving anyway. Luckily most of my friends will still be here across the summer because they do have dissertations that have to be written and handed in by September, so I shan't be lonely, but the lack of a day to day routine will still niggle, you know?
But as I say let's cross the first bridge first, and get the Gender essay written and handed in. And of course, let's just keep everything crossed that the bloody essays get pass marks!