Pairs, servers and extensions - Another crazy week at the University of Northampton

I MUST admit, I had been spoilt by the amount of Bank Holidays that the country has had following Easter and the celebrations of the Royal Wedding.  The return to University on a full-time basis has seen a real mixed bag for me personally.  Although I was ecstatic to see some friendly faces again, after the time off – I feel mentally drained and exhausted at a tough week with frankly, little reward.

POINTLESS: Printers Pairs left me in a real dilly of a pickle!

     First of all, Printers Pairs!  As far as I am concerned, it is the most pointless, annoying and frustrating concept around, certainly in the layout of a magazine.  One of our modules has seen us design and produce a 12-page magazine on a topic of our choice.  I went down the route of a ‘retro’ TV magazine, and after getting all the content in and the layout organised, you would have thought that the Printers Pairs would have been the easiest concept since sliced bread was introduced!  How wrong was I!  The whole thing completely baffled me, and when things don’t go right for me, they simply don’t go right.  Seeing everyone else nail it together (not quite literally!) made it harder to swallow.  I went home from Uni last night a broken individual.  I won’t be ashamed in saying that I broke down in tears.  It dawned on me that if I didn’t sort out Printers Pairs, I would fail the module – simple as that.  What a shame that would have been after the hard work I’ve put in all year.  Somehow, I proved that miracles are possible and managed to sort it out last night, although it might have been a fluke.  Still, it’s done and as Farida would say ‘I got into a real pickle’ or Ellie saying as ever ‘Don’t worry about it’ or Emily telling me ‘DON’T PANIC! SIMON.’  It’s nice to still have the support of your fellow peers.  Talk about swallowing pride, glad I didn’t choke on my food regarding the matter!

USEFUL: Mojo the monkey could have been a better source of information!

     Next up, servers – and the grief they caused.  I’m starting to think that the lecturers have lost the plot!  They never seem to be in and for a lot of people; the lack of their availability has greatly frustrated them.  I can tell you, some choice language has been used, which shall not be repeated on here!  Let’s say; a trained chimpanzee could teach the journalism group better!  Where’s Mojo the monkey from The Simpsons when you need him!  The Student Share went down in our workroom on Wednesday afternoon and they said ‘Oh, it will be online tomorrow morning.’  In we come on Thursday and the server is still down and they say ‘Oh, it will definitely be back online tomorrow morning.’  Friday, and still no change in the situation.  Broken promises again, just ask Nick Clegg on the matter, he’s an expert in this category!  An offline server means that work can’t be worked on and if it isn’t backed up on a USB, then you are screwed!  To see people like Ellie, Shane, even Tamika panicking was not a sight I wanted to see.  True, I wasn’t affected by this, because I had everything backed up.  Nevertheless, the whole thing was a fiasco and bang out of order.  I mean, you can’t help it if technology epically fails, but to make a promise that simply won’t happen, especially in deadline city is a very dangerous game. 

     This now leads me onto my next topic of discussion, extensions.  At 4.30pm today, the news filtered through that an extension had been granted to all journalism students for their print and broadcast portfolios until May 16.  The news bought massive celebrations within the workroom; almost as great as winning the lottery!  The only one who wasn’t celebrating was me.  All of my work in these departments has been handed in.  Personally, although I totally agreed with an extension for at least two days of the original deadlines, due to the server chaos, a ten day stay of execution does feel a bit too long.  Not the fault of my fellow course mates, but once again – it is the lack of leadership around at the University.  Why so long?  I’ve worked to tight deadlines all year, and now feel like a bit of an idiot for having everything handed in so early.  Getting things wrapped up this week limited my chances of revising for my exam next week.  I can’t help but feel a bit ‘robbed.’ 

     To conclude, it has been another crazy week, but it still has some great moments to lookback on.  Wednesday afternoon saw cheesy 90s music such as S Club 7 and Steps played in the room and thanks to Farida and Shamina; the real dancing queens of the journalism course, MB5 turned into a temporary nightclub!  The journalism night out next week promises a lot of spectacular fireworks, plenty of drinking and daring dancing! 

Welcome to the University of Northampton journalism degree; a week full of pairs, servers and extensions haha!

Why wait until the last minute?

THE Easter weekend is over and with the Royal Wedding about to happen, we have two more Bank Holidays to look forward to in the next week.  For me, I am counting down the days until I finish my second year of University – now just over a fortnight away.

     I thought today – ‘let’s go into University’ and take advantage of almost an empty environment and get some work done.  I have finished the majority of my assignments this year, except a boring and tedious law exam and evaluations on several topics, where I have to critically assess my work this year.  Typical!  I get to Uni, and the institution is shut!  Why?  It isn’t Bank Holiday Tuesday!  Next up, we will be having a holiday for every political party in Britain.  It is ridiculous.

UNECCESSARY: Why put yourself in this situation?

     Okay, I probably should have checked the university website first before I went in and I only live five minutes away, so it wasn’t like a waste of petrol.  However, give me a break!  It is far from good enough and like I said, it’s not a Bank Holiday, so I don’t understand it!  Does it surprise me?  No, not really.  All the same, it is still incredibly frustrating.

     It also got me thinking about deadlines and getting assignments in on time.  Luckily, I am in a position where I’m not running around like a headless chicken.  In fact, I tried that a couple of months ago and let’s say, it put me in a very bad place.  The relaxed approach I took after March does seem to work.  However, it does get me thinking, why do people wait until the last minute to get work done? 

     For some, it is the way they work.  If so, it can’t be faulted and if that’s how it is approached by them, it’s fine.  However, it could be made a bit easier by getting the job done a bit earlier and quicker.  99% of the time, stuff done at the last minute is nowhere near as good as bits and pieces produced or handed in a fortnight earlier.  I was guilty of that myself at times, especially in Secondary School – largely because it didn’t matter so much.  If I leave stuff until the last minute, I feel frustrated in myself and realise – ‘Crud, why did I decide to take that approach.’  For me, it doesn’t work.  It might do for others, but I always struggle to see the advantages of it.

     Now, some people can just be desperately unlucky and everything they seem to touch goes wrong.  Consequently, I feel for these individuals, who work so hard and get little reward for it.  It wins more respect with me if they have worked hard on a project and are putting the finishing touches to a masterpiece of work just before the deadline.  For those who like wake up at 3pm on the afternoon before a deadline is due and have done like 10% of the work, you’d only have yourself to blame, especially if you had started receiving the work months before.  In my case, some of my assignments begun way back in September 2010, so excuses run thinner than ever before.

     Leaving it till the last minute?  For me, not an option – just an annoying distraction.