Exam nerves

I'm sat waiting to be allowed into my final exam for the year. I have my water, sweets and chocolate so I think I'm set. Just need to remember everything that I revised. Fingers crossed...

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OMG! Panic stations

At about 2 o'clock this afternoon I realised that I had gotten the dates of my exams the wrong way around. So now I have about 10 days to revise a level 3 course from scratch. To say that I am panicking is an understatement. I think I will need to stock up on chocolate and some strong coffee when I do the grocery shopping tomorrow.

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Teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons!

Well the book has finally arrived from the states…it only took 4 weeks! I knew I should have got BFF to buy it and ship it over it would have been so much quicker.
Anyway Monkey and I have started on our learning journey. Not sure how its going to progress, but I’m sure that there will be tears and tantrums along the way… both from Monkey and myself.

We started the day before yesterday with lesson 1, which went pretty smoothly. Yesterday didn’t go so well. Monkey was tired so had a few ‘moments’ during lesson 2 when I had to tell him to sit still & that we would be finished in a few minutes. Despite this he had another tantrum when we finished as he wanted to carry on and do lesson 3. We did carry on, but I’m sure that we may need to redo this lesson tonight to ensure that we are happy that we have completed it correctly.

What have we learned over the last two days? Well the letters/sounds that the programme has concentrated on so far are m and s. The letter/sound a was introduced in lesson 3. The lessons are short and have a few ‘games’ thrown in to keep the child amused.

Monkey is enjoying it so far, but I can sense frustration already that he can not read his bedtime books yet. But I have promised him that once he’s finished the course then we will start to read his Harry Potter books that are gathering dust on the shelf. That has appeased him… for now.

New school year

So it's the beginning of the new school year and Facebook is full of my friend's dealing with the school run and the emotion of leaving their children at 'big' school for the first time. For me this emotion has been postponed for 12 months as I did not know about the deadline for applications for foundation class. Monkey will stay at Chatterbox Pre-school for another year, and although I love this pre-school and the fact that I feel that Monkey is too young still to go to 'big' school, I am worried that he will be behind his peers when he does join them next year.

So what do I do for the best? Do I teach him to read & write? Or do I leave him as he is and let the school teach him next year? I think one main reason that I want him to read is because of my love of reading. I would rather read a good book than watch the television & I don't think that this is a bad thing. Naturally I would love for Monkey to love books as much as I do.

Balinese massage at Ragdale Hall

Last week my very close friend came over from Texas to celebrate her birthday & to catch up with family & friends. In between superhero themed birthday parties, a trip to Dublin & catching up with her folks, she took me off for a wonderful day of rest, relaxation & pampering.

We went off to Ragdale Hall, just outside Melton Mowbray. It was bliss…no husband, no kids, no work and definitely no online appraisal systems & chaser reports! After we had our facials & a lovely lunch, we were booked in for massages. Due to problems that I have harbouring my stress in my neck & shoulders, I need to have a firm massage to feel as though some good has been done… step in the Balinese massage! Wow, this healing massage was wonderful & I definitely felt as if I had had a massage for a few days after.

The Balinese massage combines different aspects of holistic therapy into one massage. It contains acupressure, reflexology, aromatherapy & reiki. I was in heaven… well as much as you can be with your limbs being bent in all directions.

Following our massages we entered the new thermal spa, again a perfect way to relax with the different rooms. The candle lit pool was wonderful and so was the steam room, although I wasn’t so keen on the scented room. The best part though had to be the river pool that took you outside the building. A definite must-have when I win the lottery!

Testing

This is a test of email posting from my blackberry. Fingers crossed it works.

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M256 TMA03

Results are in! 79% and a comment about being back on track following the last TMA of 72%! Need to put in a hell of a lot of work if I am to pass the course with a distinction. I will need to get 96% or more in the final TMA AND 85% minimum in the exam. Oh dear... goodbye life!

New toy!

Finally I have managed to get my hands on a Blackberry Bold. It arrived yesterday, and I haven't been able to put it down. I am sure the novelty will wear off, but I have to say that the connection speeds and access to the internet are fab. Hopefully it will be just as quick if I take it on business trips overseas.
The only thing that concerns me is 'Blackberry Orphans '. After reading an article about this earlier in the week, I am certainly more aware that I need to ensure that 'Tyler time' does not become 'Blackberry & Tyler time'.
Gotta dash my blackberry is calling ....

The Notebook musical

Wow, its great to learn that Bethany Joy Galeotti is working on a musical version of the novel & film "The Notebook". I have found the official website for it & will follow its progress up until it is shown on Broadway. I can't wait to fly over to NYC to see it.

One Tree Hill

I absolutely love this programme. Over the last few weeks I have watch seasons 1- 5 on box set as I eagerly anticipated season 6 being shown on E4.
On Monday episode 3 was aired & I cried my eyes out. In the show the characters have to deal with the death of Quinton or Q. Wow, you could feel the emotion as you watched it. One of the best performances during the episode was from Jamie. If this child continues to act when he is older he will become a hollywood icon. Plus he is adorable.

M256 TMA03

So considering that at one point this year I was 6 weeks ahead in my reading, I am starting to panic as I have 8 days left to finish the reading & the TMA questions for TMA03. I have read unit 9 & started the related question. Today, I finished skim reading unit 10. Ths just leaves unit 11 to read as well as to complete all three questions. AARRGGGHH! Pass to valium!

M362 TMA02

So I finally completed TMA02 due to my wonderful tutor allowing me a week's extension. Luckily for me the extra week really helped & I managed to get 85% overall, which is fanstatic considering that I couldn't get some of the code to work & the rest of it I couldn't test properly due to Netbeans errors.

M256 TMA02

Finally, I have finished & submitted this assignment. I had planned to complete this TMA over 2 weeks ago, but having been ill & having a heavy workload at work, my target date has continually slipped.
This TMA wasn’t too bad, as I have definitely had worse ones to complete. At first glance it was made up of 3 questions. On closer inspection each question had about 8 sub-questions! I ended up doing the assignment in the following order, question 2, question 3 and finally question 1. But it wasn’t all plain sailing. The assignment involved UML diagrams. The OU had provided us with software to create these diagrams called Violet. Unfortunately for some reason my copy of Violet didn’t like exporting the sequence diagrams into jpeg format. The only way around the problem was to download the latest version of Violet, open my sequence diagram & take a ‘snapshot’ of it. Bit of a nightmare, to find the workaround, but I got there eventually.

Right now onto TMA02 for M362. I’m not looking forward to this one & its due in 20 days! Doesn’t give me much time ;0(

M256 Block 2

Units 5 to 8 (M256)
Just quickly skim read unit 8 as it mainly contains more examples of the work done in units 6 & 7.
I feel more confident with Block 2 of M256 than with Block 2 of M362. I still have detailed notes to produce for both courses so that will provide me with the chance to go over the material again & hopefully for it to sink into my overloaded brain!
Right onto the TMAs now then. Only four weeks until the TMA for M256 is due. Not worried as the first TMA took me less than a week to complete. Fingers crossed TMA02 goes just as well.

M362 Block 2

Units 5 to 8 (M362)
Just finished reading units 5 to 8. Don’t think much of it has sunk in the first time round, but I have 6 weeks until the TMA is due so I should have enough time to go over large chunks of the text while making some detailed notes.

M362 Block 1

Units 1 to 4 (M362)
The reading started off well then due to other commitments got left until just before the TMA was due. The TMA was rushed & I completely skipped all of the programming questions. Bye Bye to my degree classification that I had dreamed off…..a first! Oh well…could always repeat the course I suppose.

---- Got the TMA result back…..50%. Not bad seeing as I only completed about 60% of the questions. Will try harder! ;0)

M256 Block 1

Units 1 to 4 (M256)
These units seem much more readable than the units for M362. I can definitely tell the difference between the level 2 and level 3 courses. Really enjoying this course so far. I answered the TMA fairly well and think that I should hopefully get a good result for this course, although I really need to work on my exam & revision techniques….but I still can’t understand the reason for a hand-written programming exam, where you are unable to test your code.

---- TMA result 86%! WOW! I wasn’t expecting that.

My OU journey to date

I started my studies with the Open University in October 2004, shortly after getting married. My first courses were M150 Data, Computing and Information & TT280 Web applications: design, development and management. A month into the courses I discovered that I was pregnant, which added an extra twist to my attempts at returning to education. Despite this I was hooked & though the idea of a break from studying was tempting, I decided that I would carry on.

In 2005 I studied T171 You, your computer and the net, M253 Team working in distributed environments & TT282 The server-side of application development. Then 2006 saw me studying TT380 Databases within website design & M255 Object-oriented programming with Java.

In 2006 I was made redundant from my job, which I had gotten all too comfortable in. This lifestyle change made me more determined than ever to see my degree through to the end. So in 2007 I signed up for T205 Systems thinking: principles and practice, M257 Putting Java to work, M366 Natural and artificial intelligence & LZX193 Rundblick: beginners' German. Due to the way the Open University structures its ‘semesters’ these courses ran into 2008 & my new course, M364 Fundamentals of interaction design. Studying 110 points at once is hard going when you have a family & a full-time job. At the time I also had a part-time business to run. I definitely felt the effects of over doing it, so between October 2008 & February 2009 I had a few months break between courses.

This brings us up to my current commitments, which are M362 Developing concurrent distributed systems & M256 Software development with Java.

That just leaves T306 Managing complexity: a systems approach for 2010 and then hopefully I will graduate with a BSc (Hons) in Computing & Systems Practice. At last the end is in sight, but I must admit that I have loved studying with the OU & can’t wait to start some new courses away from computing.

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