PhD Apps; Dissertation; Dinner; Geordie's Myre;

Pictures - most of them Harvie Nichols - shop windows - and if you look carefully they are self-portraits as well. Connor decided my mop of hair was the place to be and sat on / made himself comfortable for a wee while - until mike left the kitchen and took Connor with him - otherwise he might still be on my head. Firth of the Forth in the background.

Well the last bit of my title comes from an old song - an old folk song - I don't know it - can't really recall it but these words have been going round my head the last day or two . . .something about mucking about in Geordie's mire (just a bit of poetic licence in the title . . .) - what does it mean - not sure - I don't know - well now your probably baffled . . . . ???? Don't ask me I'm only the piano player so to speak . . .

Last week was a funny week - I was still struggling to find my feet - my topic for the dissertation had been allocated and I had decided enough 'faffing around' - I voted for it i.e. my first choice - I was lucky enough to be allocated the topic - loads of people were given there 2nd and even 3rd choice - or that's what they are saying - so who am I to look a gift horse in the mouth - where have I heard that line before . . . lol - so I decided to knuckle down and run with it . . . .

I started by reading the book Writing your Dissertation written by Derek Swetnam that I had bought and found it to be a useful introduction to getting started. Plenty of useful tips and pointers / things to guard against and watch out for. Armed with this I was able to draw up a projected plan with rough guides as to when I should hopefully have finished various sections of my work - so I have a number of milestones and I will have to try and stick to them - my first milestone should be towards the end of next week . . . I foresee a lot of hard work between now and then . . .

I have set up my first official meeting with my supervisor and will discuss focus and structure with him on Tuesday - this will become a weekly event - to ensure that I stay on track.

I have sent off an number of applications now for my PhD
1) University College Dublin - OJAX++
2) Loughborough University near Leicester - Health Care tracking
3) Glamorgan University (near Cardiff) - Computing Education & Learning
4) Paisley University - Games-Based Learning
and await feedback. Its a big step - it will be a lot of work - I believe if I don't do it now I will never get round to doing it . . . so I am highly motivated to continue studying now that I have started . . .

Judi had some things on the weekend so never saw her - Sunday morning though she phoned me and invited me over for dinner - which I accepted - she had cleared the kitchen and she & I had a lovely candlelit evening - the boys drifted in and out once or twice but basically we were left to our own devices and it was quite a change - we are usually left to our own devices - it was just nice and I was made to feel very special . . . a lovely evening.

Monday night my computer drop-inn class and I found out that Alan has a doctorate - which was quite amazing - we have spoken about football once or twice but never really connected - he obviously has a passion for football and come to think of it seemed to have extensive knowledge of Rome - just shows you how prejudicial we are some times and now when he told me he has a doctorate I suddenly saw him in another light - I immediately respected him academically and for the first time perhaps saw Alan the person as opposed to Alan the person who checks up on me as to whether my time-sheets are up to date and my class register has been filled in etc., . . . a lesson there I think.

So not the most exciting week . . . and most of my weeks from now on will be head down and hard work . . . all necessary to get me where I need to be - if only our results would come out now - interested to see how my software construction went . . . more Java . . . not to mention Artificial Intelligencia . . lol

Nearly forgot went for my O2 interview with the agency Randstadt - turned out to be a bit of a waste of time - they phoned me and interviewed me telephonically on Monday afternoon and by the time I got to them 14h30 on Wednesday all - yes all the positions had been filled ????? They are now talking about end of July beginning of August before they will take anyone on again ????
Anyway I had time to kill before the interview and went into Borders as the interview was in Buchanan Street anyway - I even had a suit and tie on - wow first time in ages . . . didn't even wear one for my Mum's birthday . . . anyway went for coffee at Borders and on the way a book jumped off the rack at me the Secret by Rhonda Byrne well to cut a long story short - you probably will go to the web site (link) but it is all about your thoughts creating your own destiny and to prove it all after the interview I was telling Judi about the book and I was telling her about its all about thinking it and it will manifest itself and low and behold what happened - in the middle of Buchanan Street - I found £5 - amazing don't you think - you be the judge of that.

So long folks!