bugshaw: (Default)
Bridget ([personal profile] bugshaw) wrote2010-03-31 05:50 pm

Better day

* Feel a lot better after chiro treatment but still need a fair bit of resting.
* Did some work. Have stuff to fend off, which I might do by counting the number of hours in a week and the number that need to be done to meet requests and produce some sort of a report using the amazing powers of subtraction and asking "So what can we delegate, and to whom?"
* Visited [livejournal.com profile] anef for cat induction. Think happy thoughts about Freddy's bottom, so I don't have to clear up so much!
* Called the gym at just the right time to cancel my membership. I'm sad that it didn't work out for me, well, for more than 2-3 weeks every 3 months. Exercise is good, and I really enjoy the weights machines, but regular gym use does not fit well with work+rest+the back's boom and bust cycle - my attendance over the last 18 months is evidence enough. I can stick to lots of walking, and might scour Freecycle for some weights over 5kg for upper body work. Or, y'know, buy some with the money I'm no longer spending on gym membership.
* [livejournal.com profile] tamaranth did my laundry :-)
* Work computer lost its connection to the network at 5:15. I took this as a sign to switch off for the day.
* Off to The Tiger Lillies tonight, possibly also with All You Can Eat Chinese food, then home to an ice pack and some codeine. And clean laundry!
* My Mum sent me a sweet easter card with a chick with an egg-cosy on its head :-)

I am still trying to come to terms with not doing the OU exam. I want to be the sort of person who follows through and succeeds in such things despite adversity; but my resources are largely demanded by work and consumed by the dodgy back. I'm reading the workbooks but nothing's staying in, I'm better at doing good work when I have reference books on hand. I probably won't have the physical capability of getting to the exam, sitting through it, and retaining enough brain to do some answers. These things are true - but it does feel like a huge cop-out, and I'm sure you could point to many people who do succeed under similar circumstances. The great thing about thinking about how I'd feel about not doing the exam, is how much a relief it would be - that I could spend my evenings recovering from work and relaxing with a big heap'o'science fiction, not pacing work to leave energy for study thus neither of them getting done. And I can have social activity at the weekends instead of cramming. Still trying to come to terms, like I said. Nearly getting there. And the longer I dither, the more I will make the not-doing happen by dint of leaving things too late.

[identity profile] woolymonkey.livejournal.com 2010-03-31 05:20 pm (UTC)(link)
*puts on monkey-sized OU tutor hat*
You are not copping out. You are making a decision based on the circumstances.

You'd be amazed how many students I have who never get their acts together to do that. I have several this year who worked out early in the course that withdrawal was the only sensible option, announced a clear intention of doing that, stopped sending me assignments, but just... haven't actually withdrawn. Now joined by some for whom life threw a spanner in the works at a later stage. It seems a pointless way to end up with a 'fail' on their record, but it's surprising how many people just let things drift until the exam date.

[identity profile] bugshaw.livejournal.com 2010-03-31 10:11 pm (UTC)(link)
That helped a lot, thank you monkey :-) Now I suppose I should notify them of my withdrawal...