Holidays are a time for reflection

Well the assignments in and the holidays have begun. Assignment day was just as I expected really. I got into college early and handed my work straight in at reception and went up to the room feeling both extremely calm, and happy that I had handed it in and I didn't have to worry about it anymore. There were a few people in the room, some panicking slightly, some not. I decided that seen as I had all my work done and in that I would give some people a hand sorting out their assignments by reading through them or explaining solutions to their problems (mostly printer related). After a while a few of us headed down to the canteen for about an hour before heading to the pub.

At first when the idea of the pub was suggested I was slightly wary. I didn't know if it was a joke or not as Steve has always been about maintaining a proffesional approach to the course. But when we got there I realised the reason. We had no work we could be doing so most people would just of headed home anyway had we not have gone, but by going to the pub it helped us relax and gave us our first chance to discuss the assignment as a group and our views.

I found going to the pub somewhat helpful (for want of a better word) as I think that I got talking to alot of the members of the group more than I normally would and I think that everyone bonded alot more on a whole in a social situation rather than little groups in class.

But that's just one day. The first half of the term so far has been alot different.

In general it's been quite a hectic few weeks. What with starting the course, getting to know everyone, learning new software, and learning what is expected off us. I think that everyone has done well to cope with the amount of work we have received.

My favourite part of the course so far has been learning the new software. Although it hasn't been easy at times I think that in the long run been able to say that I know how to use different pieces of software will really help. Especially when we get onto software such as Photshop, Flash and Dreamweaver.

The worst part of the course however is probably having to readjust how I do things, as I've gotten used to what tutors expect from the AVCE course and what Steve expects on the HND is completely different. I suppose that this is just something of which I shall get used to as the course progresses however.

Next week when we are back at college I am going to really buckle down and get on with the work as I did this first half term. However I think that I may need to put alot more effort into self study periods, as I did have the occasional tendancy to let my work slide a little bit whilst I was at home. Some would call this confidence, some would call this stupidity, but when we go back to college there will be twice as much work to do so no matter what it gets called, it won't be happening again.

I'm quite looking forward to college again next week as we get two new assignments, one of which is a photoshop assignment which I think will be quite interesting, and the other is more of the same as we have done the past few weeks. It also means that we will be shortly getting our grades back from the first assignment and I find out if I passed the assignment.

Pre-Deadline Nerves? Not for me thanks.

It is a day before the deadline. I feel I should be worried, yet surprisingly I'm not. No nerves. No mad state of panic. Nothing. This is why I am writing my blog entry for the week less than 24 hours before the deadline.

Saying this however, the weeks not been all calm. Tuesday was quite a hectic day, making sure that all my work was printed, putting everything into plastic wallets, making sure that everything was filled in etc. This was probably the worst day in the whole of the assignment, which is why I chose to do it at home, where I may not get distracted as easily, and might find it calmer than panicking at college. I've also began to design and create my own portfolio website which gave me a welcome break from worrying about the assignment.

The best thing about the week so far has been the satisfaction of knowing that my assignment is pretty much done and knowing that Thursday will not be a blind panic for me, arriving at college at around 8am. I have based my thoughts around a quote that Steve gave to us a few weeks ago in a lecture. This being:

"Time only seems to matter when it's running out" - Peter Strup

Which is why I have tried to get my work finished slightly early, so that instead I feel confident enough that I can arrive at college at around 10.30am and spend half an hour just double checking over my work before dropping it in at around 11am.

The worst thing about the week so far has had to be the amount of tedious checking over of work that I've had to do as well though. However, saying this, I realise that this is a necessary part of the course and that without checking over my work many times I would never pass the course. I'm also quite glad that I did check my work over a few times as every time I found something that was wrong, even tiny things such as a double space or a missing capital letter.

All in all, I've had a very positive week. Probably my most positive yet. I don't feel like anything extremely negative has happened this week for me to worry about, and I am looking forward to the weeks break of half term where I can continue to develop and create my portfolio website and not have to worry about an imminent deadline looming.

For once I do not think that there is much I could have done differently this week. Perhaps if I had taken a little more time and care over some parts of my assignment then I would not be sat here typing up a blog, but it all comes down to my results of the assignment. If when I get my results back from Steve, and I have failed my course then I will wish that I had spent today adapting my assignment further, however, if I get my assignment results back and I have passed (or even received a merit or distinction) then I will be happy knowing that I have put extra hours in throughout the week into my self study time so that my final week before the deadline was not spent rushing the assignment to get it finished on time in a flurry of nerves.

Hours until deadline: 23

"And Our Time Is Running Out"

Life seems to be imitating art this week as Matt Bellamy (Lead vocalist of Muse) can be heard echoing in my ears with 'Time Is Running Out'. After all, time really is running out for us at this moment in time in the course. It's now less than a week before our first deadline which means I'm thinking more in terms of days rather than weeks. Luckily however, I've managed to get the majority of my work done which has now given me the week to spend time checking over every word, nay letter, of my assignment.

It has definitely been one of the most stressful weeks of the course so far. The sheer mountain of work that has had to be done, on top of the knowledge that we had until Thursday to have our work to 'Submission Standard' has meant that it's been pretty much non-stop working since last Thursday. Over the course of the week I've redrawn my screen designs in my sketch book, which now look a lot neater and more accurate, as well as then re-creating them digitally in PageMaker. I've also written my evaluation, corrected most of the mistakes in my assignment work, and put it all into the correct format.

All this work did firstly mean that starting the week I was quite nervous. Scared even. But from the word go on Wednesday I immediately began to feel slightly more relaxed. We had a lecture from John about our blog’s which was quite useful as well as interesting as it gave us the chance to see other peoples blog’s and see what other people where doing wrong, which coincidentally also happened to be what we were doing wrong. In the afternoon Diane came round to speak to a few of us again which gave me an opportunity to finish off my screen designs and once again create them digitally which was one of my major worries as I thought it would take a lot longer than it did.

Thursday contained another lecture, this time from Steve, who went through the PageMaker template with us, which I was very pleased about. Even though my assignment was already in PageMaker, some of the thing's I had not done, such as using the style formats. Instead I had simply manually altered the fonts of the text which I found out was incorrect. The rest of the morning was spent changing my assignment to make it to, what I thought was, submission standard. This took a lot of the pressure from me, because I knew that we were the first group into our feedback meetings. This meant that anything that required changing I had most of the afternoon to continue changing things.

As I said before now all I have left to do is check through my work and make sure that no corrections are needed. All my work is hopefully correct so it is just a case of me looking for spelling and grammar mistakes, double spaces, double line breaks, etc.

Next week should be a relatively easy week for me. Just again checking through my work and printing off what needs to be printed off. On Thursday I'm hoping to get into college quite early and hand my work in early enough before the deadline to avoid anything going wrong (such as today's fire alarm).

Days Until First Deadline: 7

Time Fly's When Your Having Fun

Well, another week over already. Time seems to be flying at the moment. Once more I’m unsure if that’s a good thing. Half term is only 2 weeks away, but so is our first deadline, looming over us growing closer every day. No, time flying is definitely not a good thing.

With just one week until our assignments have to be up to submission standard, it’s been yet another manic week, importing all the work into PageMaker, beginning putting in our references, and getting vast amounts of feedback about our designs.

A week without any lectures was relief due to the amount of work we have to do. It was good to have Wednesday and Thursday morning’s free to simply work on our assignment’s and actually feel like I was getting somewhere. The scariest thing at the moment funnily enough isn’t our ‘Great Briton’ assignment. It’s actually thinking about our next two assignments. It will take serious time management to concentrate on two assignments at once, which is something I’ll really have to work on. But that’s a few weeks away yet.

As I already said, a lot of work has been done this week. It’s probably my most productive week yet. In fact I seem to be capable of doing more and more week each week. I don’t think it’s down to me trying any harder, though I’m sure if I get asked I won’t deny it, but I actually think it’s down to the fact that I’m getting into my stride a lot more and I’m now able to cope with the work better and not sit pondering over a question for 15 minutes. The only problem with the week really is, like I said before, time seems to be passing by so quickly that I fear the assignment won’t be ready in time. I can see serious self study at home this week.

Next week the assignment has to be up to submission standard, so next week I think will be spent changing things pointed out to me in our feedback groups, and tidying up loose ends. I will then no doubt have another feedback group where further things are found wrong with my assignment and I will then spend the majority of Thursday afternoon altering my assignment further ready for submission date.

Week until first deadline: 2 (Submission standard in 1)