The Denouement

Hello and goodbye readers,

This will be my final blog (for now at least, who knows I might get an urge to take it up again in the future). I must say I have enjoyed the experience, it’s been fun getting to discuss my college and personal goings-on in this medium. I hope I have kept you entertained in these last few weeks, and that you all continue to stay busy in these trying times. Don’t do what I did and sit in direct line of the sun without sunscreen on, resulting in a quite irritating sunburn. Enjoy the weather sensibly.

I’ve been developing my website over the last few days, titled From Seed To Stalk. I chose to go with a gardening themed site, that aims to encourage food production at home and inspire a healthier lifestyle. Planting flowers is also encouraged. I myself, as some of you know, have started my own greenhouse in the last few weeks. I’m going to take some pictures of some of my seedlings (which I’m very proud of) to use on the website.

I’ve found it to be a really enjoyable exercise to do. The ability to have creative liberty over a project is always fun, and it’s a nice break from the monotony of quarantine. I was a bit worried that I wouldn’t know how to edit the website, but I feel it’s really taken shape. I had been using Google Sites but my attempts with it looked horrendous, so I switched to using WordPress, which I found much easier to use. I hope my efforts pay off and From Seed To Stalk resembles a website that can inspire a love of gardening.

It’s farewell for now, I’m afraid. We’ll hopefully be somewhat free from isolation in a few weeks. Stay safe.

Alison

S. Milledge Greenhouse — Hopefully my site brings out the inner Alan Titchmarsh in someone

Yay for Easter

Hello again,

Greetings from quarantine. I hope everyone is a maximum of 2km from their home reading this. This week hasn’t been particularly eventful. Same old, same old from isolation. However, for those of you who were curious as to how my gardening was going, buds have appeared in some of the pots, which I was very excited about.

For my history tutorial last week I had to ask a question or make a comment regarding our upcoming essays. I’m a little concerned about the essay as I have found that the sources for my topic are scarce. At least it will be something to occupy me and take my mind off things. For the Technical Writing tutorial we had to pick a website that had either a good or bad design and give reasons for our choice. I chose Koi Footwear; it’s a vegan shoe company that I’m very fond of, and scrolling through said site has kept me entertained as of late.

We had two online lectures for Public Admin this week. The lecturer reassured us that the exam for the module won’t be too difficult, which I’m sure was a concern for some of us due to having to access the module online. For myself and others this has been difficult. We didn’t have an editing lecture for radio, as we were given an opportunity to edit the audio for our package. We will be editing audio our lecturer selected as some of us will obviously not be able to complete our original package. The audio covers different aspects of the Coronavirus and its impact, and we will have to create our own links (snippets of us talking to give content to the speakers and to ‘link’ them together) to tie the package together.

To maintain my sanity during these unusual times, I have dedicated time to the following activities:

Running/walking within 2km of the house (once this is all over I’m running as far as my legs will take me)
Following workout videos on YouTube
Getting work done on assignments
Trying not to read the news too much (I know its not exactly an ‘activity’, but for myself at least I feel it’s important).

I’ll leave you with that. I’m off to design my website for Technical Writing, the process of which I will update you on next week in the finale of my blogging endeavour.

Stay safe,

Alison

Computers! — Try limit your news intake, for your own sake
https://search.creativecommons.org/photos/e502cd38-afd4-46e4-9df7-a7450516988b

2km

Apologies for starting on a negative note readers, but this week hasn’t exactly been amazing. I’m sure others feel the same way as well. I’ve seen things online like “We wanted to live during something extraordinary, but this isn’t what we meant”, and I feel that sums up this time in our lives perfectly.

While I am aware that online learning is a necessity at this time, I am not a fan of online lectures. I struggle to pay attention. It is not the lecturer’s fault; my ability to tune into something for a period of time isn’t great at the best of times, but I have found that watching my lectures on a screen doesn’t help that. I’ve been struggling with the website for Technical Writing. I still don’t have a concise idea of what I’m doing mine on, and I’ve been finding the actual setting up and creating the website difficult.

Since I do not have many assignments due for the rest of the semester (and this is going to make me sound a bit annoying), I haven’t got much to occupy my time with. I find myself running or watching YouTube videos. Although I did plant some seeds in a greenhouse I got, so at least that’s productive.

I really hope the speculations that most of the seclusion will be over by June. I’m not the most sociable person, but actually having to stay at home and only being allowed move within a maximum distance of 2km from my house is really stressing me out. I’m running 5km today so I’ll have to loop back after my first 2km down the same stretch of road, which I can’t imagine is going to be much fun.

I made the mistake of watching War of the Worlds for the first time last night. Experiencing it for the first time in this current climate was not a great idea, and my mother ended up switching it off and putting on an episode of Schitt’s Creek after seeing the nervous wreck I was about half an hour into the film.

Anyways, I hope everyone is keeping themselves busy one way or another. if you didn’t you’d crack up. In a few weeks hopefully this will all be over, and will exist only as a topic in the Leaving Cert in years to come.

Alison

https://search.creativecommons.org/photos/0ddb7728-b2a9-4cb7-ae9d-1f4fb79be4e4

Suwon HS — Hopefully my endeavours in gardening are successful

Lockdown

So things have taken a turn.

The country has officially gone into a ‘lockdown’ of sorts. All our college work has been moved online as colleges and schools have closed. Bars and restaurants too. I admit the thought of weeks of quarantine got to me a bit. I sat in tears following the Taoiseach’s address to the nation. However, realising than I would still be finishing the semester until the end of April, therefore wouldn’t be having a ‘wild time’ regardless of quarantine or not, really helped. Despite this epiphany, the gym I go to closed due the fears of contamination, so I have had to do my running on the roads near my house (not ideal, it gets cold).

I only had two lectures this week, Public Admin. and Radio Journalism via the Big Blue Button. The audio was fine, thankfully. Due to the circumstances we find ourselves in so of us are no longer able to complete our radio package, are we aren’t able to finish doing our interviews because of the state of the country. Instead we’re going to edit audio that our lecturer will send us and create a package from that. I was a bit disappointed at not being able to complete my package, but at least a got to experience what being a journalist in the field is like.

I still have a book review and a history essay to keep me occupied, and I’ll have some tests in the upcoming weeks, so I can study for them. Exciting times, I know. With regards to the circumstances the country is in at the moment, it’s just a waiting game. Hopefully the precautions we’re taking will pay off, and we can go back to normal in a few months. In the mean time, I will continue with my new penchant for jam-making.

Stay safe,

Alison

Rozanna Purcell’s cookbook is a God-send in these uncertain times
https://search.creativecommons.org/photos/04d8115f-a0df-4885-9e7c-8aaa26ad6f40

No. 4

Hello again,

I hope everyone is well in these uncertain times.

The interview with the women in the market went well. Editing the audio with Adobe was a lot easier than I had anticipated, thank god. I plan to interview the owner of The Grove Veggie Kitchen (the longest running vegetarian restaurant in in Limerick) soon. I hadn’t heard of it before I had my research for my radio package done. At least I know that there’s another place in Limerick that I can have a meal in that isn’t a plate of leaves.

I had Monday ‘off’ this week because of History reading week and our Technical Writing lab was moved online. We had to create a website that we will develop over the next few weeks.

I started reading a book on the Spanish monarchy in the 17th century for my History book review. At least I’ll have more time to finish that and my essay due to the deadline extension in loght of recent college arrangements.

We started using the Big Blue Button system in Public Admin. in light of the coronavirus fears. It’s a livestream of the lectures so that we can view them off campus, which we will be using for other modules as well. We got an email saying college material will be moved online until the 29th amidst fears of physical contact spreading the virus. I’m not sure how it will go to be honest; the livestream mightn’t necessarily have good audio, and we have assessments that need to be done with specific software so I don’t know how that is going to work considering we’re not allowed on campus, so we don’t have access to the computers that have the software and most of us don’t have it at home.

It’s all a bit up in the air at the moment, but I’m hoping things fall into place in the next few days. It’s just a waiting game at this stage.

I’m finished my existential musings for now. Take care of yourselves.

Alison

Wired — Hopefully the livestreams go ok.
https://search.creativecommons.org/photos/0ad45ee5-c4ab-420c-b30a-8b25d9c52c90

The Not-So Rag Week

Hi, readers. I hope you’re all having a good week with the unexpected sun we’re receiving. My week was good. I’m not a big drinker, and don’t like being out past 11, so this week was like any other for me. The most exciting part was getting to use a treadmill in the gym at peak hours.

Despite remaining indoors for a lot of this week, I was busy. I had a lot of work to complete for LULITMI (all assignments were meant to be due today but Rag Week prompted the deadline for the group essay to be extended) and various blogs and an essay to finish.

The InDesign exam went well, after I had a mini meltdown because I didn’t realise we actually had another hour to finish it (I was struggling desperately with the simple task of fitting the text into columns at this stage and had a job interview to get to). However, after having a vague recollection that I had to do something with a small red icon on the screen, I eventually realised through somewhat of a Mind Palace moment (that’s a Sherlock reference) what it was that I was meant to do. Was is perfect? No. Was it a good effort? Indeed it was.

For Radio Journalism we have to create a radio package on a topic that we think is interesting. I chose to do mine on the provision of vegan food in Limerick (finding a chocolate I like was one of the biggest struggles I’ve had with being plant-based). I am interviewing a woman in the Milk Market who set up a plant-based company tomorrow. Will I end up buying what some may consider an excessive amount of desserts? Probably. I’m hopeful that my first steps into radio journalism goes well.

That’s all for this week.

Alison

Radio — Fingers crossed my interview goes swimmingly.
https://search.creativecommons.org/photos/9bf788e9-a74c-4a90-bbe9-d15ec34d1ca8

The Beginning

Hello there,

So far, the semester has been going well I feel. Making the decision to keep on top of assignments from the get-go has really eased off some of the worries about deadlines (a decision that may have benefitted me last semester). This will be very effective as I mainly have continuous assessments, which involves a lot of assignments before Week 13. Like Hamlet, my biggest weakness is procrastination (however my inaction has not led to tragedy, so I’ve one-upped him in that regard.

At the moment the most challenging assignment so far has been for Public Administration. The fact we were doing Public Admin itself alone was enough to confuse us, as we had been doing Politics. I digress. the students were put into groups, and each given a topic regarding a recently re-established country called ‘LULITMI’. The question my group was given was about the oversight of policing, and how it should be completed in LULITMI. We each had to do an individual essay on an aspect of our question, mine was about district policing. I found the most difficult part of the essay was the research into various country’s district policing, which involved more fact-based information.

I aim to get my assignments for all my modules done as efficiently as possible, to reduce stress at deadlines and allow me to actually enjoy free time I have without the impending assignments looming over me. I believe the image below perfectly encapsulates that feeling. I decided in January that 2020 would be a productive year for me and combatting my habit of getting into a panic over assignments will be a part of my New Year’s resolution. I know it’s all well and good saying that now, but I will keep you updated on my progress of revamping my academic methods. If I don’t work on my procrastination I will at the very least increase my water intake.

Until I post again,

Alison

https://search.creativecommons.org/photos/e6d3b8ec-aa62-4741-be35-202de7e9a1d0

It was a cold week

Hello again,

I hope all’s well with you, dear readers. I had the group presentation for ‘LULITMI’ yesterday. I was a bit nervous thinking about it beforehand, but by the time it rolled around I was feeling ok. I think we did a good job with our poster (I mean I’ve nothing on Bob Ross but a fair attempt for someone who regularly locks herself out of Word Documents on her own laptop). Bless pre-made poster templates. I felt like a proud mother seeing it displayed at the Ideas Fair. I surprised myself with how I was actually able to come up with a somewhat comprehensible answer to some of the questions the panelist’s asked. Overall, I think the oversight of policing in LULITMI was in good hands.

With regards to History, I was busy completing a precis (sounds fancy I know) based on an article by Amanda Wunder detailing the impact a controversial hoop skirt, the guardainfante, had on 17th century Spain. There was a variety of absurd arguments against it, like it could be used to smuggle prisoners out of jail. Oh to have the fanciful imagination of a man in the 1600s. In a way I found it amusing how men tried to discourage women from wearing it. It made me think that this ignorance could be seen reflected in today’s world, where similarly non-sensical and laughable arguments are often made, especially in the era of Trump (and various others who like to invent their own reality).

I’d say my biggest hill to climb this week was InDesign. I’ve been struggling with it since the start of the semester but I fell I had somewhat of a breakthrough with it. I felt it was a major achievement that I manged to actually get words onto the file, courtesy of a friend who figured out how in the last week or two. I was nearly delirious in this weeks lab, but eventually got there through the power of shared uncertainty about the exercise at hand. I managed to get practise in on Wednesday, using borderline incomprehensible notes I had made on my phone. Fingers crossed the exam next week goes well.

I think that’s the end of my week’s account. Farewell, talk soon.

Alison