Another week has come and gone, and here I am, writing this out once more. To say this last week was uneventful would be a lie, but to say it was eventful would be pushing at the boundaries a little bit. Let's get started on the first day of my week - Monday.
Expedition Planning and Skills was a little more focused at us as people rather than learning anything new. Our lecturer wanted to find out what kind of things we as people would like to do on any expeditions in future. For me, as those of you you know me will know, this is pretty much anything where an animal will be that I can film, regardless of what I have to go through to find it. But next week should be better as we'll be having a day out to learn navigation.
There were no hares this time, but what can you do.
Biodiversity on Tuesday wasn't particularly fun - but that was probably because it was a nice day right up until the point where we went outside to look at the different species of tree around the campus and I had no waterproof. But, I reasoned to myself that I was probably going to have to go through much worse than this to film things in future so I bore it without complaint. Other than this it was quite an interesting lecture, and I now know a good deal more about broadleaf trees than before. I could probably pick out oak, holly, silver birch and horse chestnut before that lesson, but now I could show you ash, rowan, beech, hornbeam, sweet chestnut, elm, lime sycamore, maple and hawthorn. And I'm still learning more. Conifers next week.
Wednesday was a bit lame. I went into Penrith on my bike to search for a DVD shop, as Walk on the Wild Side had come out on Monday. I explored the whole town and found only one - Blockbuster - and it didn't have it. Then I went to Morrisons and bought so much stuff that it didn't fit in the bags I had brought. This meant I had to leave it open and hope that the stuff in it didn't spill out.
It did. I lost the carton of milk, as it split all over the pavement. 4 pints of it lost. And since I was almost all the way back I really couldn't be bothered to turn around.
Oh well. At least I had some chocolate Frijis.
Thursday was a busy day. The Media practical in the morning was greatm because we were finally able to get outside and take pictures of random stuff to allow us to get used to the ISO function (just don't ask me what that means.) I got ahead of the game by photographing a pigeon, while everyone else did trees. I also photographed a fire hazard sign and a toilet.
On Friday I went back to Morrisons and bought more milk, as well as some cakes.
Saturday was a great day, because at 12:30 we went to a place called Martindale to look for rutting red deer. It was a little disappointing in that we didn't actually see any male deer smashing their heads together, but this was made up for by the sheer number of deer we saw on the day. There were three seperate herds within half a mile of each other. One had fifteen deer, one had twenty and one had forty deer. I got some great videos of them all trotting across the hills.
And I got back in time to watch Merlin. Hooray!
Today had been rather dull in the grand scheme of things. I was woken up by a groaning pipe at seven-thirty in the morning. The pipe continued to groan, loudly, for half and hour before it packed it in. My other doormates were too far gone to hear it. I blame the alcohol they consumed the night before. And then I cleaned the fish tank. Kurt and Pikachu are doing rather well, although we have to stop one of our dorm-mates dropping Frustration pieces and conkers in the tank.
And that's about it really. See you all. I hope you're all having a good time.
ML, signing off.
Sunday, 10 October 2010
Sunday, 3 October 2010
UOC Week 2 - The intro bit
A new week, and I was raring to go and couldn’t wait to get started on my modules – which is something I’m fairly sure I’d never be thinking while still at Trent.
But hold your horses, Matt.
After a relatively peaceful Monday morning of no work whatsoever, I went to my very first university lecture that was actually part of a module. And the module was “Expedition Planning and Skills.” I was all for this one, because it’s no good to know how to film all this stuff without knowing how to organise the trip or get to the area you need or survive the wilderness. And indeed, it does look like we’ll be doing these things in the not too distant future. We get to plan a specific over the course of the next two years that we will actually then go and do close to the end of the second year. How awesome is that? Only problem is, you aren’t allowed to go on your own, so I’ll have to find a bunch of people with similar interests to me.
Fortunately, I have found a good bunch of people on my course. I am particularly becoming friends with Patrick, Paul and another Dan. That’s not to say I’m not friends with all the others. It’s quite a bizarre feeling to be here, because I have yet to meet a single unpleasant person, which is, sadly, more than I can say for Trent, where I picked on for the first five years of my life there.
Monday was possibly my most interesting day, because I saw my first ever Brown Hare outside my window, sniffing curiously at a bike. Naturally I whipped out the camera and got some nice videos of it haring all over the place. And that was not intended to be a pun, but it is an adequate description of what happened.
Tuesday rolled around and after another free morning, I had my first biodiversity lecture (another intro one) and practical, where we split into pairs and tried to use a key (as in the kind with lots of descriptions) to identify three species of plants we were given. I am pleased to say that Patrick and I got all three correct – a bilberry, a bell heather and a ling heather. Nice. I was, however, concerned by the question in the key that said “Is it palatable when chewed?” WHAT KIND OF QUESTION IS THAT? THE DAMN THING COULD BE TOXIC!!!!
Wednesday – nothing. Laaaaaazzzzzyyyyyyy day.
Thursday – busy. First practice session with a Nixon D90 camera, although we weren’t taking any pictures of animals just yet – just each other so we could get a feel for it and learn what all the buttons did before we broke the thing in the field. Sorry, Conor, but I stole your hand-on-chin pose for the picture of me which is going on the University website. Don’t kill me.
Following this was what was supposed to be an ecology lecture, but it was two more hours on REFERENCING!!!!!!! I HAD ENOUGH OF THAT DURING FRESHER’S WEEK THANKS!!!!!!
Friday rolled around and since I had nothing on then either, and no weekend activities, I decided to pop home for the weekend. This would be quite important, because I’d never travelled such long distances alone before and it was the first time I’d be taking a bike with me. However, everything worked out fine and I cycled to the station, got on the train at Penrith, played Pokemon Platinum all the way to Crewe, got off, ate a panini, got on another train, played Platinum again all the way to Derby and was picked up there.
Then, I had a nice weekend, watched Merlin with everyone else and returned back to uni today.
One other interesting thing that did happen this week, is that my building is now in possession of a pair of goldfish that we keep in a tank in the kitchen. They are two males and we have named the bigger one Kurt and the smaller one Pikachu. And no, Pikachu was not my idea. It was Harry’s, although he pronounced it Pick-achu.
And that’s about it from me, so Matt Leiper, signing off.
But hold your horses, Matt.
After a relatively peaceful Monday morning of no work whatsoever, I went to my very first university lecture that was actually part of a module. And the module was “Expedition Planning and Skills.” I was all for this one, because it’s no good to know how to film all this stuff without knowing how to organise the trip or get to the area you need or survive the wilderness. And indeed, it does look like we’ll be doing these things in the not too distant future. We get to plan a specific over the course of the next two years that we will actually then go and do close to the end of the second year. How awesome is that? Only problem is, you aren’t allowed to go on your own, so I’ll have to find a bunch of people with similar interests to me.
Fortunately, I have found a good bunch of people on my course. I am particularly becoming friends with Patrick, Paul and another Dan. That’s not to say I’m not friends with all the others. It’s quite a bizarre feeling to be here, because I have yet to meet a single unpleasant person, which is, sadly, more than I can say for Trent, where I picked on for the first five years of my life there.
Monday was possibly my most interesting day, because I saw my first ever Brown Hare outside my window, sniffing curiously at a bike. Naturally I whipped out the camera and got some nice videos of it haring all over the place. And that was not intended to be a pun, but it is an adequate description of what happened.
Tuesday rolled around and after another free morning, I had my first biodiversity lecture (another intro one) and practical, where we split into pairs and tried to use a key (as in the kind with lots of descriptions) to identify three species of plants we were given. I am pleased to say that Patrick and I got all three correct – a bilberry, a bell heather and a ling heather. Nice. I was, however, concerned by the question in the key that said “Is it palatable when chewed?” WHAT KIND OF QUESTION IS THAT? THE DAMN THING COULD BE TOXIC!!!!
Wednesday – nothing. Laaaaaazzzzzyyyyyyy day.
Thursday – busy. First practice session with a Nixon D90 camera, although we weren’t taking any pictures of animals just yet – just each other so we could get a feel for it and learn what all the buttons did before we broke the thing in the field. Sorry, Conor, but I stole your hand-on-chin pose for the picture of me which is going on the University website. Don’t kill me.
Following this was what was supposed to be an ecology lecture, but it was two more hours on REFERENCING!!!!!!! I HAD ENOUGH OF THAT DURING FRESHER’S WEEK THANKS!!!!!!
Friday rolled around and since I had nothing on then either, and no weekend activities, I decided to pop home for the weekend. This would be quite important, because I’d never travelled such long distances alone before and it was the first time I’d be taking a bike with me. However, everything worked out fine and I cycled to the station, got on the train at Penrith, played Pokemon Platinum all the way to Crewe, got off, ate a panini, got on another train, played Platinum again all the way to Derby and was picked up there.
Then, I had a nice weekend, watched Merlin with everyone else and returned back to uni today.
One other interesting thing that did happen this week, is that my building is now in possession of a pair of goldfish that we keep in a tank in the kitchen. They are two males and we have named the bigger one Kurt and the smaller one Pikachu. And no, Pikachu was not my idea. It was Harry’s, although he pronounced it Pick-achu.
And that’s about it from me, so Matt Leiper, signing off.
Sunday, 26 September 2010
UOC Week 1 - Freshers
As scheduled, here is the first upload to my online diary over the course of my stay at the University of Cumbria. I’m staying at the Penrith campus, which is actually in Cumbria, unlike the Tower Hamlets campus which, for some reason, is down in London. I’m not sure what the uni was thinking when they opened a campus there. It doesn’t give the students easy access to facilities on other campuses.
Anyway, instalment one. We were actually told this week that making a diary of what we do would be a good idea, so I thought, “Oh, goodie. I’m doing something right already.”
I’m settling with relative ease in comparison to my shoddy introduction to Trent College life back in Year 7. I have yet to tell anyone here about the dinosaur and Gollum impressions, and I intend to keep it that way for as long as possible. I am situated on campus in the Blencathra building with 7 other people – 5 boys and 2 girls. They are:- Neal, Karl, Harry, Elliot, Josh, Olivia and Kate. See, I know them already. Yay!
So, the beginning. Days 1 and 2 were, quite frankly, rubbish. This is because nothing unduly interesting happened. We just had lectures about a bunch of stuff, like the students union and what the course was about. In effect, it was a double open day. And since I’d already been to two open days, I was bored out of my mind. It took a real effort not to shout, “I’VE HEARD ALL THIS ALREADY! TWICE! GET ON WITH IT!” And guess what Trent Tridents, there is a chapel here. Fortunately, it isn’t a regular event – you just go there if you feel like it. And after the Trent College experiences, i don’t think that’ll be happening any time soon for me. Plus, the Chaplain has just left. Yeah, that’s right. Already.
However, on day two, as those of you who look at my wall will know, I made a small discovery that quite startled me. We went on the bus to Brampton Road to look at the media facilities there, and the minibus was crawling with tiny spiders. However, when we got back, we had an hour long lecture about Ixodes scapularis (note the Latin name, I’m gonna have to do this more often now) or deer tick, which look just like spiders and are common in the area. What’s more, they are a leading cause of Lyme Disease. Ooh-er.
Fortunately it turned out that the spiders were actually spiders, and none of us got bitten. But we were also told that one of the best ways to prevent tick bites is to tuck our trousers into our socks.
I don’t think so, do you? I’ll take my chances with the ticks, thanks very much.
Wednesday and Thursday were much better, although Thursday was not all good news. Wednesday involved heading to the RSPB bird reserve at Leighton Moss. What a great day out for birdwatchers that is. Shovelors, teals, nuthatches, greenfinches, bullfinches, robins, moorhens, lapwing, golden plover, pheasant and many, many tits – (yes, very funny) – blue tit, great tit and coal tit. Apparently there are supposed to be Bearded tit there too, as well as Bittern, but I didn’t see either on that particular day. However, I did see a rabbit and a bunch of red deer. Apparently there will soon be Marsh Harriers arriving at the place, so that should exciting. Also, the red deer rutting season starts soon, so while that is a great video opportunity, I’ll have to stay out of the way. Very out of the way.
On Thursday it rained.
When I was on a boat on Lake Ullswater.
A small boat with no cover.
Despite my waterproof I was thoroughly soaked and remained that way throughout the rest of the day. At least I didn’t fall in like someone I could mention *cough*Olivia*cough*. We also visited the uplands that day, to the area where Britain’s only Golden Eagle lives. Didn’t get close enough to see the eagle, but now I know where to go to see it.
Friday, I discovered my new timetable.
Pure... effing... win.
I only have a maximum of two days of lessons a week – and half of this is practical. I have a two hour lecture Monday afternoon, a three hour practical on Tuesday afternoon, nothing on Wednesday, a three hour practical on Thursday morning, and another two hour lecture on Thursday afternoon, and nothing on Friday. And if that wasn’t good enough, the lectures and the Tuesday practical only take place on certain weeks, so there will be many weeks where I have only have one and a half days, or just one day. There are a couple of weeks, such as 9, 11 and 17, where I only have the Thursday morning session. That means I have a maximum of only four hours of lectures a week, and then lots of fun crawling through mud outside. YEAH BABY!
Friday rolled around and became quite dull again. I bought a white lab coat, thus ruining my Mum’s plan of not taking any white clothing so the washing doesn’t get too complicated. Other than that, nothing happened. However, we did play several games back in Blencathra, such as Mouse Trap, Frustration and Kerplunk. Ah, good times. Next we’re getting Hungry Hippos. We also bought a fish tank to put in the kitchen, but if the fish we eventually will put in it begins to get unhealthy I’m going to commandeer it. Our kitchen started out as the cleanest one, stayed that way for a couple of days and then started to degenerate.
No, I didn’t do that much partying. I did some, but I didn’t drink anything and quite frankly I preferred the event that Dan organised at Rock City because I actually knew people there. Oh well.
Saturday became the maiden trip for my folding bike, which I took out of the bike shed and used it to cycle to Morrisons and back. The trip back was a killer – two heavy bags of food, one on my back and one of the back of the back, on a trip that was almost completely uphill.
Ah well, I need to get more in shape anyway if I’m going to go traipsing through the wilderness looking for wild animals.
After Morrsions I watched Merlin. How hilarious was that?
Anyhoo, that’s the end of my week so far. A reasonably good start I reckon. The only real downside is that I still don’t have any hot water in my shower, so washing in the morning has been rather unpleasant. Oh, and the other downside as that my TV does this weird thing were the colours seem to move slower than the rest of the image, which isn’t noticeable most of the time but is painfully obvious at others, like when characters are walking slowly. Oh well. I’ll just have to get used to it.
I hope everyone else is having a good time. My guess is that all those who have also been on fresher’s week did so more loudly and drunkenly than I did, but whatever floats your boat.
Goodbye until next week, where I can tell you all about my new modules. I may start uploading the best photos I take on the course onto facebook.
Matthew Leiper, signing off.
Anyway, instalment one. We were actually told this week that making a diary of what we do would be a good idea, so I thought, “Oh, goodie. I’m doing something right already.”
I’m settling with relative ease in comparison to my shoddy introduction to Trent College life back in Year 7. I have yet to tell anyone here about the dinosaur and Gollum impressions, and I intend to keep it that way for as long as possible. I am situated on campus in the Blencathra building with 7 other people – 5 boys and 2 girls. They are:- Neal, Karl, Harry, Elliot, Josh, Olivia and Kate. See, I know them already. Yay!
So, the beginning. Days 1 and 2 were, quite frankly, rubbish. This is because nothing unduly interesting happened. We just had lectures about a bunch of stuff, like the students union and what the course was about. In effect, it was a double open day. And since I’d already been to two open days, I was bored out of my mind. It took a real effort not to shout, “I’VE HEARD ALL THIS ALREADY! TWICE! GET ON WITH IT!” And guess what Trent Tridents, there is a chapel here. Fortunately, it isn’t a regular event – you just go there if you feel like it. And after the Trent College experiences, i don’t think that’ll be happening any time soon for me. Plus, the Chaplain has just left. Yeah, that’s right. Already.
However, on day two, as those of you who look at my wall will know, I made a small discovery that quite startled me. We went on the bus to Brampton Road to look at the media facilities there, and the minibus was crawling with tiny spiders. However, when we got back, we had an hour long lecture about Ixodes scapularis (note the Latin name, I’m gonna have to do this more often now) or deer tick, which look just like spiders and are common in the area. What’s more, they are a leading cause of Lyme Disease. Ooh-er.
Fortunately it turned out that the spiders were actually spiders, and none of us got bitten. But we were also told that one of the best ways to prevent tick bites is to tuck our trousers into our socks.
I don’t think so, do you? I’ll take my chances with the ticks, thanks very much.
Wednesday and Thursday were much better, although Thursday was not all good news. Wednesday involved heading to the RSPB bird reserve at Leighton Moss. What a great day out for birdwatchers that is. Shovelors, teals, nuthatches, greenfinches, bullfinches, robins, moorhens, lapwing, golden plover, pheasant and many, many tits – (yes, very funny) – blue tit, great tit and coal tit. Apparently there are supposed to be Bearded tit there too, as well as Bittern, but I didn’t see either on that particular day. However, I did see a rabbit and a bunch of red deer. Apparently there will soon be Marsh Harriers arriving at the place, so that should exciting. Also, the red deer rutting season starts soon, so while that is a great video opportunity, I’ll have to stay out of the way. Very out of the way.
On Thursday it rained.
When I was on a boat on Lake Ullswater.
A small boat with no cover.
Despite my waterproof I was thoroughly soaked and remained that way throughout the rest of the day. At least I didn’t fall in like someone I could mention *cough*Olivia*cough*. We also visited the uplands that day, to the area where Britain’s only Golden Eagle lives. Didn’t get close enough to see the eagle, but now I know where to go to see it.
Friday, I discovered my new timetable.
Pure... effing... win.
I only have a maximum of two days of lessons a week – and half of this is practical. I have a two hour lecture Monday afternoon, a three hour practical on Tuesday afternoon, nothing on Wednesday, a three hour practical on Thursday morning, and another two hour lecture on Thursday afternoon, and nothing on Friday. And if that wasn’t good enough, the lectures and the Tuesday practical only take place on certain weeks, so there will be many weeks where I have only have one and a half days, or just one day. There are a couple of weeks, such as 9, 11 and 17, where I only have the Thursday morning session. That means I have a maximum of only four hours of lectures a week, and then lots of fun crawling through mud outside. YEAH BABY!
Friday rolled around and became quite dull again. I bought a white lab coat, thus ruining my Mum’s plan of not taking any white clothing so the washing doesn’t get too complicated. Other than that, nothing happened. However, we did play several games back in Blencathra, such as Mouse Trap, Frustration and Kerplunk. Ah, good times. Next we’re getting Hungry Hippos. We also bought a fish tank to put in the kitchen, but if the fish we eventually will put in it begins to get unhealthy I’m going to commandeer it. Our kitchen started out as the cleanest one, stayed that way for a couple of days and then started to degenerate.
No, I didn’t do that much partying. I did some, but I didn’t drink anything and quite frankly I preferred the event that Dan organised at Rock City because I actually knew people there. Oh well.
Saturday became the maiden trip for my folding bike, which I took out of the bike shed and used it to cycle to Morrisons and back. The trip back was a killer – two heavy bags of food, one on my back and one of the back of the back, on a trip that was almost completely uphill.
Ah well, I need to get more in shape anyway if I’m going to go traipsing through the wilderness looking for wild animals.
After Morrsions I watched Merlin. How hilarious was that?
Anyhoo, that’s the end of my week so far. A reasonably good start I reckon. The only real downside is that I still don’t have any hot water in my shower, so washing in the morning has been rather unpleasant. Oh, and the other downside as that my TV does this weird thing were the colours seem to move slower than the rest of the image, which isn’t noticeable most of the time but is painfully obvious at others, like when characters are walking slowly. Oh well. I’ll just have to get used to it.
I hope everyone else is having a good time. My guess is that all those who have also been on fresher’s week did so more loudly and drunkenly than I did, but whatever floats your boat.
Goodbye until next week, where I can tell you all about my new modules. I may start uploading the best photos I take on the course onto facebook.
Matthew Leiper, signing off.
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