Fifth & Sixth Week-Term 1

FIFTH WEEK:

I vaguely remember a society meeting. Talking. Wondering the streets.

A blur.
Assessment #1 due.
Therefore, a blur.

Or perhaps more succinctly:

P → Q
P       
∴ Q

Through the haze and deluded details of the week, the little things became my daily markers of life.

• Getting accustomed to the English keyboards. In other words, trying to not hit the '#' key located next to the narrow 'Enter' key. 
• Dropping a pound coin into the locker key slot at the gym every time I want to go for a round on the treadmill.
• The strangely soft *smoosh* of fallen leaves.
• Tea. Black tea. And more tea.
• Adjusting my very narrow duvet about a thousand times a night.

Friday:
The postgrads blew off some steam the night after Halloween. We had our first assessment due Friday afternoon, so naturally no one went out Thursday evening (Halloween). Not an easy night to get pictures, but I did manage to snag one.

SIXTH WEEK

Monday:
At some point during the fifth week of lectures, I suggested a yoga session once a week for just us postgrads. The back pain and leg stiffness has increased at an exponential rate since lectures began. It was a small leap to assume my fellow classmates were experiencing the same thing. When I made the suggestion everyone flipped-the-eff-out. I don't believe I could have received a more excited reply if I had offered them cold, hard cash. Our first yoga session was today during our midday break. Good turn out. Good practice. More sessions were requested at the end. Yeah!

Movie night:The Fountain (Hugh Jackman, Rachel Weisz)
Exactly the amount of existentialism I expected. A really lovely experience, all the same. Check it out when you can.

Tuesday:
What happened to Tuesday? Rain happened to Tuesday. Beautiful rain.

Wednesday:
News was passed down today that there's a bell ringing extravaganza in Liverpool. Northern Universities Association of Change Ringers. Why would I not go?

Also, just as we started to get comfortable with our statistical software "R", we abandon it for a new one. Such is life.

Thursday:
I don't think I can accurately express my elation after today's events. If I questioned my actions before, I no longer have need to question them again. Picture it:

It's been a long day, nay, a long week. Seven disgruntled graduate students sit around a privately booked room, each tapping away at his/her own laptop. One student asks a poignant question about a linear expression. Another student hesitantly answers. A third student concurs and they all dive back into their own symbolic-based language systems. A student in the corner reads aloud her ideas on the most elegant expression for a regression model. Another agrees. The tapping continues. A tall student shares his thoughts on post hoc testing. Another student disagrees. A heated debate ensues. They agree to both testing formats. The tapping plays on....


Assessment #2 complete.

First Week-Term 1

Monday Madness:
GREAT GOBS OF GOOSE SLOO! There were a lot of students on campus Monday. I'm so glad I arrived a week early so I could get acquainted with the campus slowly and in my own time.

My first lecture was with Gordon Brown. No, not THAT Gordon Brown, but wouldn't that be a hoot. Sweet guy, super smart, didn't notice I was falling asleep. The way I see it, it could be that I was really good at covering my appearance, he wasn't as observant with me as he was with his lecture, or I didn't actually fall asleep and entered a new stage of hallucinatory-jet-laggy-crazy-fun-time. I'm OK with any possibility.

Between lectures I found a great tree to have lunch under-inside, and later, a great bench to enjoy the end of this English summer.

Tuesday Trials:
I must have made a unique impression on my professors from Monday, because the one who apologized in advance for not knowing students as quickly as he felt he should, called on me by name at our next meeting. But I couldn't help myself Monday. Professors Loomes & Read began a discussion on transitivity and preference theory. They were singing my song! In a nutshell, Loomes approached the scenario as an Economists, I countered his conclusions by approaching it as a Psychologist. Sweet, sweet music. Thank you Professor Berkich! (p.s. the pictures on this link are from his Advanced Logic course, where we learned these theories)

Also, I confirmed that there are at least 3 pubs on campus. That's right, I said pubs. Wine, beer, ale, Guinness, you name it.

Wednesday Wackout:
Started the day with Neil Stewart introducing us to the new statistics software (R) and programming language we'll be using to run our data. "R" is free software AND free-speech software. What does that mean, you say? It means A.N.Y.O.N.E. can download the software, rewrite it to suite his/her personal statistical software needs, then publish it for anyone else to use. It's also the hot-stuff right now for running large, nay ginormous data sets. I was of the minority that understood the basics behind the language, thanks to Professor Moreno.

After class all the Psychology and Economics MSc/PhD students attended a reception. Typical array of sandwiches, fruit, and muffins. Most of the sandwiches had some mysterious orange dressing on them, so of course I tried them all. The only ingredients I'm certain of are bread and cucumber. I ended up briefly talking with a first year PhD student who is investigating the victimhood of the bully/victim relationship. Her premise right now is that bullies show some sort of beneficial placement in human society, therefore she doesn't see the need to look into the making & role of bullies, just the making & role of victims and how they can cope, etc. I had to walk away before I made an enemy.

The Societies Fair was also today. What's that, you say? All the clubs come out to expose themselves to potential members. Exposures were varied. Check out the video. In fact, you're better off expanding it to full screen.

One of the dancing troupes.

One of the music groups.

Trying to navigate the labyrinthine madhouse that is Societies Fair. This clip begins with a shot of one of the campus pubs. Check out the variety of societies!

Thursday Rain:

This is the long day of the week. Economic lecture first thing in the morning, then 2 hours of hacking through learning a new computer language, followed by open research presentations (multi-discipline), then sharing sessions with psyc professors about ongoing research. In short, lots & lots of listening, lots & lots of note jotting. 

It's been super fun, though, watching the psyc grad students squirm in their seats during the economic lectures. We're supposed to be learning this term how traditional economists think. The upside for me, is that not a single psyc student agrees, so they questions and quarrel in class. I sit in the back. All I'm missing is a bucket of popcorn. Almost better than a Skyfall screening.