Azziria's journal

So, I have just caught up on 5 weeks of study in 2 days.

I am now only 1 week behind instead of 6 weeks. Which is far, far less scary!

The whole work/illness stress thing that was going on through January and February completely f*ck*d over almost every aspect of my life, but finally - finally - I seem to be getting back on top of things. I've managed to reorganise and dial down the work situation (a few bridges to - not rebuild, exactly, but strengthen a bit, and that's happening), I'm back running and going to the gym again, and I've finally managed to get started on my Oceanography course.

I love this stuff, I really do, it's fascinating, but these last couple of months I haven't been able to touch it, it's been another thing that's just been too much to cope with. It's like I've been existing somewhere totally other from normal.

It helps that this first module of the course is mostly stuff I've met before in previous courses: constructive and destructive plate margins, birth and evolution of ocean basins, structure and formation of oceanic lithosphere, hydrothermal circulation in the ocean crust, and sea-level changes over geological time. So much of this was revision rather than new concepts.

Now on to Seawater: Its composition, properties and behaviour. Which I suspect means a healthy dose of chemistry :(

Another exam done and dusted... just one more to go, next year. Don't think this one went as well as last year's... but I'm sure I've passed, at least.

Now to enjoy a couple of months of no studying before the next course starts :)

Geology field trip to West Runton to look at the Cretaceous chalk wave-cut platform and the overlying Tertiary glacial deposits.

Well, that's my S279 TMA done and dusted. Not too sure about this one, though - I still struggle with trying to decide what information they actually want for some of the questions, and I seemed to spend an inordinate amount of time trying to cut perfectly good and pretty lean answers down to within the word limit (I got really annoyed about this, this time, because it seemed such a waste of time).

Anyway, it's done, and I'm not looking at it again. It can go in the post next week and take its chances.

Now on to S260 Chapter 12, and the SXR260 stuff.

I've spent most of today immersed in the Cambrian, Ordovician, Silurian and Devonian periods, and this evening I'm tackling the Carboniferous coal forests. Fascinating stuff :-)

Out for a short, sharp 2-miler at 1130, just to stop myself going stir crazy from sitting here studying.

The deal was: work through one chapter of Physics and then you can go for a little run (I'm not a great one for Physics - why I gave it up at 18 is now coming back to me vividly!).

The run has revitalised me - I almost feel ready to tackle another Physics chapter (has to be done, even if I'd rather be carrying on with Life in the Oceans, which is proving to be fantastic).

Today: Newton's laws of motion, and the make up of the Solar System.
Tomorrow: Earthquakes.

I've just put in another hour on my OU work, this time working through the introduction to planning and performing experiments.

I hadn't realised how much of a scientist I really am - all the stuff about designing an experiment with (preferably) no variables other than the thing you're trying to measure is second nature to me, almost of 'that's so obvious that any idiot should know it' status. But of course, if you're starting this course without the benefit of an existing science education and working in a science field for many years, then maybe (probably) it isn't so blindingly obvious.

Although this is basic stuff so far for me, I can see that this will be very useful when doing science with the kids - a good reminder to me that what's obvious to me may not be to someone with less scientific knowledge.