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