Verbal Fellatio: I hope this post isn't a learning opportunity...

Okay so a big gap between posts, I don't know how everyone else keeps their blogs up to date!

I have now been assigned my research project for my dissertation. I got the one I wanted, which is very good. For my project I shall be helping teach small children who are underperforming in reading or maths. Hopefully using something called Precision Teaching they will get better. This is the same body of people from whom the idea "it's not a mistake it's a 'learning opportunity'" comes from. Which sounds so much like they'reineffectual parents from an Enid Blyton book until someone's actually explained it too you. The basic idea is that it encourages the mindset that rather than seeing it as something you just can't do it becomes something you can't do YET. Much healthier for the little darlings, 'parently.

Anyway, riveting as I'm sure that all was, more interestingly I've found a film that I think rivals 'It's a Wonderful Life' in Christmas movies. Which just makes me think I was watching it at the wrong time of year. Due to our houses abuse of online rental companies' free trial offers, we're still getting our free movies and one in the latest batch was 'The Family Stone'. First thing is that I'm so glad I watched it alone, I actually think having someone else there would have tainted the experience somewhat. It was really nice to curl up with a glass of wine on my own, it was about the only time I've had to really relax properly and have me time in about the last month or more! Anyway, It kind of opens in a way that left me thinking I was going to be watching a festive 'American Pie' take off, really getting me off my guard. Basic premise is that 30-something brings his girlfriend to the family home for Christmas and their first meeting. She feels very out of place, hilarity ensues and she calls her sister down for back-up. What follows, while including some bed-swapping jollies, is one of the most tear-jerking, realistic and just plain good old-fashioned heart-warming family stories I've ever known. Even the trailer leaves you completely unprepared for the film:

Now for a good old bitch about work. I just don't know if the University have actually thought through what they actually expect us to do? The sheer amount of what we need to get done around each other thing is just ludicrous. Well, to be honest, the main problem is one particular module: Research Foundations. The stuff we need to do just keeps coming thick and fast and around the workload for the other modules it's just insane. Not to mention the fact that after five weeks of another module, developmental, we were expected to have a midterm consisting of five quote unquote short answer questions. Not an awful task in itself except for the fact that we had 55 pages of lecture slides, any notes we had made ourselves in those lectures, five 'core readings from texts and journals, any notes we'd made from them plus 'further reading' each lecture and, you;ve guessed it, any notes we'd made from those. Now assuming somehowwe found the time to do these readings, we had to revise it all for the exam in which we had to boil down all that information into coherent answers in about 10-15 minutes for each question. Not to mention that we also had a second exam on that same day!

Also, at the same time, Research is giving us lectures which actually don't, in theory, get examined. Instead we have had to read a chapter from a text book and write exam items for the chapter, make sure noone in our group and 'sister'-group have too similar questions. These questions are then all put into an online question bank from which we have to choose, from 1500 possible questions, approximately 50 that we we think are the best. Then, as a group, we had to choose a possible exam of 50 items from our coallated 'pool'. Now we have to revise for this exam, bearing in mind that, in theory, any of those 1500 questions can be on that test. We've also written personality trait based questionnaires, given these out, determined which of our questions were the best, all the groups' 'best' questions were made into a 250 item personality questionnaire, which we then had to complete, we're now running analyses on these results and have to write personality profiles for candidates for jobs based on this. Our dissertation proposal also counts for this module and so we have to be reading journals and planning our project and writing that proposal. We also have to find the time to take part in other peoples' projects too. I just think the uni is setting is up to fail.

What doesn't help is that when we turn up to lectures so much stuff is repeated from A-Level, from last year or even in other modules from this year and is often taught by people who don't even seem interested in it themselves. With that and the unrealistic deadline combinations you have to wonder if the various lecturers and module organisers actually talk to one another. You'd never guess that there is one person that actually oversees what gets taught when for each year group.

Anyway I'm going to cheer myself up now ith a youtube video sent to me by Sallyann. Korn featuring Amy Lee - 'Freak on a Leash'. If I ignore the Korn part of the song it's very good! Also the pronounciation of 'believe' by Korn's front man (they're crap so I don't know names) Is ridiculous. And just proves that yes they are poo: