Like A Day Out In Legoland...

Before creating this blog I came up with many 'Lego' related titles - 'Brickin' It', 'Riding the Emotional Rollercoaster', 'Coming Together Piece by Piece', etc.

I decided to choose a completely different title, due to the fact that all are true. Like a steady progression as the day goes on.

Starting off the day 'Brickin' It' would have been my title of choice. Arriving at college with a very uneasy feeling in my stomach. I felt like I had so much work to do today, and with so little time to do it, my nerves were at an all time high. I soon realised that I had left my sketch book at home in the nervous rush to get my work ready that morning. Could the day get much worse?

Yes would quickly declare it's self to be the answer.

Just as I had started to settle into the work, and feel like I was getting somewhere, more problems arose costing not only money to correct, but yet more time. Aiding my nerves in their goal for freedom, the fire alarm. Bring on 'Riding the Emotional Rollercoaster'. The fire alarm brought back memories of our previous pre-deadline day, once again going off to stop us working, and getting on with our assignments. Not knowing exactly how much work was left to do on my assignment, every second outside seemed to drag on and on. Eventually however, we were allowed back inside...

Slowly but surely, a pile of pages with a large X marked on them began to grow next to the computer I was using. This cheered me up slightly as I knew my work was 'Coming Together Piece by Piece'. My assignment was beginning to take shape. A few stray nerves began to appear as my stock of plastic wallets slowly dwindled, for once however, luck was on my side, as I filled my plastic wallets without even a side to spare.

All that I'm now left with is my merit/distinction criteria sheet to create. This means that I can stroll peacefully into college tomorrow morning, and hand over my assignment happily in the knowledge that it is fully completed, and that hopefully nothing is wrong with it. We shall soon see after Christmas.

Christmas will be in no way a chance to relax however, there is still much to think about. Whether our assignments will pass? Whether we will still be on the course come next semester after the exam board have had their way? Whether we will get chosen to go see Dave Pannell for Industrial Liaison groups? And what will London throw our way?

Already 2007 is looking to be a very eventful year.

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