Semesters over.

It went pretty quick. the last 2 weeks were hell, but more importantly they are over.

Had abit of a drama with my comparative media politics paper, we had an assignment worth 66% and 4000 words. It was tough, I was asked to analyse news clips pre and post the introduction of Freeview and hypothesize if there had been a race to the bottom in new stories. The problem was... there wasn't any frickin difference. I wrote 3000 words because frankly a 1000 more would have been a waste of time for me and for the reader, there just wasn't that much to talk about.

The week it was due, Mimi died and some other non-uni drama occurred, I asked for an extension, but these days I find it can take me in excess of a week to actually write an essay, nevermind how long it takes to research the fakin thing so I completed it 4 days over that time frame. I kept in touch with the tutor, I find being up front works best, he emailed me the time penalties, 3-5 days late = 10 marks, and being an average 75% student I decided to take the hit. I didn't want to hand in a piece of shit for the sake of a 5% deduction of only one day late. True to form and probably because it was 1000 words short, my raw mark was 70%, but to my total horror he had taken off 25 marks, not 10. I saw my life flash before my eyes like that moose in that car advert.

25 marks, 15 more than he had told me, this would mean a fail, 50% of 66 is 33, I would need an A in the exam just to pass the paper.... suddenly everything went dark, my GPA hit the floor and the vision of wearing my pink arts cap and gown started to die. But hang on... 25 marks is over 6 days late, mine was 4.... what the hell?

I rang the other tutor because mine was in kosovo, by this time with a overheated pulse and sweating with stress I completely winged down the phone.  I called the lecturer and resolved to see him in the morning. The next day I drove in and saw Joe, King of the ah ah ah ah ah ah ah stutter. he said ah, 420 times one day, it got so distracting I found it hard to concentrate on the words in between the ah's. I knocked on the door and went in, told him my name and had he got my phone message??? Yes he ah ah ah had.... in fact he'd rung me back ( so my trip was a waste of gas and parking ), and OMFG he reinstated my raw mark, no more penalty, his tutor had stuffed it up, not followed procedure and given me the wrong advice, I think they gave my full mark back because of this departmental stuff up. I left immediately in case I jinxed it. GPA intact, pink arts gown dream no longer blackened.

Feeling a damned sight better I went to see Melissa my welfare state lecturer and was very pleased to find I got an A for my last essay on neo liberalism and social democracy, this made me feel bullet proof haha. but that won't last. I've also been pleased to have beaten the class average on almost every assignment which means Im pulling above my weight, seems that the class average for that crap assignment was a dismal 63%. This is not good. To keep my B however I need to get 23 or above in the exam, 25 and Im up to a B+.

As for my other papers, Im sitting on a B+ for Social Justice, the hardest paper I've done this semester. I was naughty and missed a potential 4%  for a critique I ran out of time to do, this would have put me on an A-. Sociology of the Welfare State I have an A, and Im hoping Dante gives me a B+ or an A- for Te Kete Aronui. So to my surprise, thats where Im at, if I do well in exams I could come out with a near A- GPA.

I hope this goes some way to putting to bed the notion I as a person have some aversion to hard work. Of course 'hard' work to me involves going to bed with sore muscles from manual labour, so I think it to be an inaccurate way of describing things anyway. I already have one qualification gained from 3 years of tech, 12 years of parenting and a never defaulted mortgage, if hardwork therefore is a codeword for dedication/stickability then to have ever thought I was without it is... misguided.

I don't live any less chaotically, I still lose my keys everyday, I still find routine abhorrant, but we can't all be perfect, can we?

oh yeah... and we found a home for Bundle, he's going to live with Sebs brother Mike and his kids, I couldn't be more pleased but I will miss the little bugger, hes one of the cuter babies we've had the pleasure of knowing. Seb had a great birthday, lollies, Macdonalds and star trek, i think his life was complete at that point.