Long time no see!

It's been quite some time since I last updated. I put this down to going out too much, and of course having a (slightly unexpected) avalanche of work fall on my head. This term is the busiest for me, but I had somehow managed to overlook this. Unlike last semester, I didn't pull my finger out to print myself an essay timetable, the whole ten weeks stuffed onto a single sheet of A4 and the occasional colour-coordinated square telling me the subject matter and deadline. Three weeks ago, I did sit down to arrange one for this current semester and the summer, and then went to print it. It surprised me somewhat when they both came out stuffed into the smallest space on separate sheets of paper, despite the fact that I had asked the printer to print to scale. By what trickery my printer has managed to alter the printing of tables, I will never know, as everything else I send to print comes out perfectly.

In a matter of hours, I am giving a presentation to a seminar group along with two others with whom I have been working. I realised last night when I was cobbling together our slideshow that we really should have spent a bit more time together to make it more cohesive; however, I think the distinct separation of our three chosen topics do relate to each other well, if not directly or explicitly. We were meant to be meeting up together earlier in the evening, but somehow we managed to just convey to each other what we needed to change via the medium of the mobile phone. What a wonderful device it is.

Yesterday, whilst skiving off my studently duties, I bumped into a friend of a friend who studies law. He is quite proud of the fact that he manages to be the most laid-back law student on the campus, and I must admit I am quite envious of him. Because of the way our university arranges its first year modules, he only studies the one subject compared to my three. This means that he only has to do about four essays compared to my twelve, and his lectures and seminars are even more self-directed than my own. Of course, I don't know how he goes about doing his essays. Possibly they only have one question they need to find an answer for, instead of choosing between four different questions as two of my subjects ask me to do.

Despite the enormous amount of writing I have to do for my subjects, it makes me feel a little smug that at the end of the year, I will have gotten into the habit of writing huge amounts in a very short space of time. Of course, I will have only written about two thirds of the amount that I will need to write for my dissertation, but I'm hopeful that as long as I can keep up the habit, I'll be able to work industriously for a few days each month and keep the rest of my time as free as is possible for a third year to do. And yes, despite being a first year, I am constantly looking to the time when my bad habits may spell my downfall.

As long as I pass my degree, I'm aiming to eventually get a PhD (or the equivalent letters) at some point in my future. I've already begun making enquiries, much to the surprise of my tutors. But, like many people who strive to be less like their family members, I suspect I will in fact stay in academia for the rest of my life as long as I can get past this first hurdle. Of course, I still need to pass my first year exams ... But I'm hopeful and confident that it'll all be fine. I'm well used to writing essays in the space of six hours or less; if I can condense this and retain my marks, I feel sure my exams will be fine.

Whether the presentation at 10am will be quite as succesful, I really cannot speculate.

[x-posted to LJ]