Turning Point

All things come to an end, and so my university years are over. I now look forward to the next phase in my life and all it will involve. Step one is to find a job and start working so I still can pay rent once my student allowance stops. There are be many things about being a student I will miss, and many things I will not.

I will miss:

• the freedom to choose how I spend my time
• the easy-going social atmosphere
• the opportunity to focus solely on learning

I will not miss:

• living off the student allowance
• the stress of having assignments for every single course due all at once
• working on assignments until I can’t think straight

My desk at the university

Time to be Me

From a very young age, I was happiest while engrossed in a book, or sitting quietly somewhere with paper, sellotape and scissors creating yet another masterpiece of engineering. As I grew, the focus shifted from paper & sellotape to various other things. Since the age of about 6, I have finished several cross stitches of varying sizes, almost built a model boat (it just needs painting!), drawn, knitted, made jewellery, tried tatting, attempted crochet, sewed, written, and many other crafty and creative things. Even with all this, it wasn’t until last year that I finally connected the dots and realised how fulfilling and connected all this creativity was.

As I worked my way through the school system, then through university, I lost some of this along the way. I stopped taking time out to mess around with raw materials and see what I could create. I channeled what creativity I did still use into writing efficient and beautiful code, or working out new ways to explain concepts to students. I forgot the joy and freedom of creating.

A couple of nights ago I made this rose:

The whole thing is made from seed beads and wire. I really enjoyed making it, and it helped me to see how much I had been neglecting my creative side.

For the next 5 weeks, I am giving myself full permission to be creative. I am giving myself permission to make bead flowers and jewellery, to bake, to write, to do cross stitch, to play my violin, to take photos, to draw, to be me and to enjoy it!

What parts of your personality have you pushed to the side to concentrate on work or study? Perhaps it’s time to set them free and enjoy being who you are.

Stalling in the Starting Blocks

It’s day two of SoCNoC and so far I have written very few words. I know this won’t be a problem if I can get started within the next week or so, as I know I can write large amounts of words in small amounts of time. (At the end of last year’s NaNo, I wrote ~10,000 words in ~8 hours) The problem I have is just getting an idea that I can work with.

I had a very cool idea, but have discovered that it needs more thinking and research time than I am able to give it for a SoCNoC that has already begun. So now I’m back to square zero, looking for an idea to inspire me for the month of June. Does anyone have any ideas? I’m tempted to do what I was going to do for NaNo last year, and incorporate as many suggestions as possible, no matter how ridiculous, into my work. With that in mind, any suggestions of elements to include in my novel will be much appreciated. Feel free to leave a comment below.

In other news, my last assignment of the term is not going well. While trying to test it out, I got this lovely error:

Not what you want to see while trying to finish an assignment!

Time to get back to work, and hopefully writing later on.

June Begins

Another month is past, and a very interesting month it was. I’ve altered my study plans for the year, and am now feeling much happier about it all. As an added bonus, I also have 5 weeks off uni starting after my exam on Thursday.

This month is the month for SoCNoC, the southern hemisphere equivalent of NaNoWriMo. SoCNoC is run by Kiwi Writers, and is similar to NaNo, except the rules are slightly more relaxed. There also seems to be a little less of the atmosphere that surrounds NaNo, as the number of participants is 1000 times smaller!

I’ve put my name down for giving SoCNoC a go, but I am reserving the right to switch to HalfNoC (25K rather than 50K) if I find the month isn’t as relaxing as it needs to be. If anyone else is keen to give it a go, head over to Kiwi Writers and sign up!

Also this month, I’m continuing a 7 week series of workshops on Alice & Java programming for kids. The workshops have been a bit of a mixed bag so far. Hopefully Java this week will go better than it did on Friday.

SoCNoC word count so far: not many

Delicious Procrastination

It seems that when ever I have things I should be doing, I start baking. My flatmates appreciate and encourage this habit. Last week, we had yoghurt in the fridge, so I decided to make muffins to go with dinner. I have a yummy double chocolate muffin recipe which includes a cup of yoghurt. The yoghurt makes them nice and moist, and they keep quite well, if they get a chance!

Saturday afternoon, I went to my cousin’s for high tea and bible study. I took along mini carrot cakes with cream cheese frosting. I just used a standard carrot cake recipe and baked it in mini muffin tins. They turned out very well, despite my rough estimation of cooking time. The leftover mixture I turned into a (smallish) cake which I left behind for the flatmates.

At the high tea we had cucumber sandwiches, a tea set (complete with a matching coffee cup for the coffee drinker), scones with quince jelly and cream, beautifully decorated cupcakes, and other delights. It was great to catch up, meet new people, and share a love of God and food.

Now back to trying to catch up on sleep and get work done before 48 Hours this weekend!

A small friend found in the honours room last week

Yesterday I felt like doing some work on my writing, so I decided to have a look at last year’s NaNoNovel. I printed it off at uni, then went home to curl up on the couch with a hot chocolate and read it. I hadn’t touched the story since the end of November, and it’s surprising how many details I had forgotten.

This read through is just intended as a quick read to get the gist of the story again, and spot any major holes, boring bits or continuity blunders before trying a first rewrite. However, I’m having a hard time sticking to my plan as some of the writing is cringeworthy. I have to keep reminding myself that the whole thing will be written anyway, so there is no point in fixing all the small errors in this draft.

NaNoWriMo over the past two years has been a great experience. In NaNo ‘07 I only managed to write 30,000 words. For me, that was still a massive achievement and I was happy with my efforts. NaNo ‘08 I decided to be a part of the local NaNo community. It was wonderful to gain the support and companionship of other writers facing the same challenge. Were it not for the local group, I would never have written the last 10,000 words. Submitting my draft for verification and seeing the winners’ page made the whole crazy month worth it.

Perhaps that is a lesson I should remember for this year. Even though it may seem like there is no way for me to finish what I need to, I should just keep going. Being able to hand in each assignment and project will make it all worth it.

-M

The beginning

Welcome to my little corner of the internet. For those of you who don’t know me from elsewhere, I am an unashamed geek. I love listening to and playing music, I write, I bake, I make jewellery, I take photographs, I code, I teach, and sometimes I even do the work I should be doing. I am currently in my final year of a BSc(hons).

Among other things, this blog is a proof of concept. Will I be able to write posts that others find entertaining/informative/thought-provoking?

Here’s to a new journey beginning, I hope you will choose to share it with me.

-M