Week 9

Welcome to another condensed diary from my journey within the bowels of UOS and Media City. This weeks post is kind of bitter sweet in it’s content, even though I feel the bugs / settling in process which has followed our group from late September is now fading away as each week draws us closer to the impending christmas break, I cannot shake the growing feeling of “loss” which comes from moving to another semester and the introduction of new lecturers and their module content whilst in the same breath saying goodbye to the friends I have made.

This introduction may come across as “soppy” but as I get older I find myself watching the younger students at Media City (this isn’t creepy, it’s just old age) who have their entire life ahead of them with some “envy”, this ideal becomes more focused as I rapidly reach the half way mark in my life with the belief I need to savour each and every moment as the events which have unfolded over the last few weeks have, in a way, compounded my awareness that time is moving on.

Wilfred’s class has now moved onto the subject of our main assignment, lectures have now been pushed to one side to make way for my fellow students to start their own work. From “Team get it done’s” point of view this allowed us to review the work we have already filmed on Wednesday night by getting a few pointers on problems we have encountered. From a work point of view we are 3/4 through our assignment with the final scenes taking place on Thursday night, once again the three amigos will ooze confidence and style based on the fact that whatever may happen we are very happy with our own work.

As I leave the warm confines of the Salford Quay’s bus service I am rudely reminded that we are moving from autumn to winter, the cold wind from the harbour blows across the gardens ushering me into David’s DAP class which like Wilfred’s has moved into full assignment mode. Since “Team get it done” is at the end of our group assignment I am going to start using this time to write my 2k word self assessment of the work I have done for his module. As always David has another listen to our “Radio show” to see if we can improve it in whatever way possible which is always welcomed (fresh ears are always good if you spend a long time doing some work). As I glance over the screens I have noticed a continuing reduction of students who attend this class and in the same breath promptly dismiss it as David start his weekly discussion with myself and Nick on various audio related topics and how we would use them in real world applications. I personally enjoy these “chats” as it give me an insight on how a lecturer / engineer thinks within his given career (this will be sadly missed).

As I move from 2.18 to 3.04 I can always tell when assignment deadlines are imminent by the many students running round our building with cameras and recording equipment, today is no exception with various equipment being setup and used in every corner on each floor.

Helen’s class is now in full final assignment mode, “Team get it done 2.0 (minus Chris)” has finished all their work. Movies are now uploaded and blogs, pics and wiki’s are up to date so this allows us to sit back and soak up the vibe of the room. HK and BS are moving around checking up on students endeavours offering pointers and reassurance for their own films, their enthusiasm should be bottled up and sold as I have always felt it fills you with creativity given their very infectious way of teaching. As I sit back in my chair I am again made very aware of the impending closure of this module and slump back into my own retrospective thoughts (you will both be sadly missed, but there will always be Twitter).

Dinner comes and goes today, nothing really going on. The egg seems unusually quiet, small pockets of activity spread over the entire floor so no chance of eavesdropping on a conversation. Anyway I digress, HK’s MSc class becomes a project workshop dealing with all aspects of their assignments. This almost creates a barrier as I feel I cannot contribute to the proceedings but on the other hand allows me to catch up on blog posts. In all honesty I didn’t just update or write new posts, in one hand I was listening to the groups discussions next to me and in the other I started working out my play list for #DS106 which I will be uploading in the next week.

Even though this post is a little “downbeat” I still feel it has been an excellent week so on that note I bid you all a fond farewell.

Peace, Love and Happiness

Signing off

PD