Buckle up kiddies, this is gonna be a long one.

I realise that I have subjected my blog and accompanying Web site to shameless neglect. I last blogged in November 2007. Since then, quite a lot of things have happened.

I have a feeling that very few people are actually interested in my blog, but updating it helps me to remember things that have occurred. A snapshot in time, if you will.

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I do. Because then, when I have it, and when I’m driving Silver Belle to uni each day, if something like what happened this morning happens again, I can drive home.

I am stuck here until 5:00 PM. I arrived at 9:30 this morning for a tutorial which is supposed to start at 10:00 AM. “Supposed to” are the operative terms, my friends. My tutor decided not to show up. Therefore, I am stuck here until 5:00 PM. Without a car, without a lift, without any conceivable, safe way of getting home.

My dad is right. I need my licence, stat.

So you’ll be glad to know I’m taking steps towards achieving this goal.

I passed my computerised Hazard Perception Test a few weeks ago now - which, if you want my opinion, is a pretty silly way of seeing how safe we are, given the pass mark is a measly 54 per cent (but it’s hard).

For instance, how am I supposed to tell the computer when I would slow down on a road? There are so many things to consider. For example, how fast is the rest of the traffic going? Is there anyone behind me who, if I “slow down”, might plough into the back of my sweet little vrrrooomthing? What exactly do you mean by “slow down”? Do you mean start slowing down? Or, perhaps you mean coming to a near-complete stop?

What the hell does “click when you would slow down” essentially mean?

I was so prepared to stay home from uni today. I was. I fought tooth and nail to stay home, even though my mum fought tooth and nail back to get me to go.

So I went.  Only my going had no purpose after all.

Mondays are only an hour’s worth. Now, some of you might question why the hell I go to uni on Mondays this semester at all, but I figure it’s X-amount of weeks, it could be worse, et cetera, et cetera.

My lecturer didn’t show up.

So all in all, attending uni today was an exercise in complete pointlessness.

This freakin’ sucks.

I got out of bed way too early this morning to get to uni by 9 AM (because Mum starts work at 9 AM, and I go to the university where she works - yeah, I need to start driving). My Business Law tutorial class started at 10 AM.

Only it didn’t.

My tutor apparently still has jet lag, or is ill, or something. He couldn’t even be bothered to inform us that he wasn’t going to be there. My only other class today is Knowing and Knowledge, which is a one-hour lecture at 3 PM.

So I could have come in at 3-freaking-PM. *punches something* I got out of bed way too early for no reason whatsoever.

Oh, and we had homework to hand in as well, and apparently there’s an assignment due next week that my tutor hasn’t even discussed with the group.

Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

Today is so not my day.

Okay, so it was kind of good, with only one hour-long lecture, and in most weeks my dad’ll be able to pick me up soon afterwards. And my lecturer for the next month in Psych 1B is practically a comedian, so at least the excruciating 9 AM-10 AM Timeslot of Death and Sonya Not Being Totally, Completely Awake Yet will be an entertaining prospect.

But the big problem is with the Faculty of Business and Law’s online education system, WebCT. I dropped a subject (Accounting for Decision Making) that I enrolled into at the start of the year because I realised it wouldn’t fit in to this semester’s schedule.

However, I kept the other business subject I enrolled into (Human Resource Management). I can’t access either subject’s home page on the system because it alleges (and IT, useless as they are) presume I am not enrolled correctly. Rule one of the blackboard jungle of academia: it is your fault, even when it is decidedly not your fault. So, I have to deal with this pronto. There’s online assessment I have to do for Business Law which, ironically enough, is accessible only through WebCT! And I can’t access it!

EDIT: I can access it now. How amazement.

To top it off, I can’t access the home page for the University altogether. Oh wait, now I can.

And according to TNT Logistics’ package tracking service, they tried to deliver my iPod, but we aren’t home, home, home. A free cookie for anyone who can guess what song that sentence could be sung to the tune of. You all know when my birthday is. If not, it’s on that sidebar o’yonder. *points pointedly*

I treated myself to a fantastic box set of ten Doctor Who novels featuring the Ninth and Tenth Doctors. They’ll keep me going for a while. It was only $54.95, can’t say fairer than that. I estimate that that’s about $5 AUD a book, but my maths is rubbish, so don’t quote me.

Oh yes. I was going to post about the seventh and final Harry Potter book. But do you know what? I don’t think I will. I have so much to say about it that I’m just going to cop out and say nothing. Much.

It was one of the best books I’ve ever read, I couldn’t read it fast enough, and I read it in four hours without a break to eat, drink or go to the loo, so that should tell you something of how enthralled I was by the spell of “Deathly Hallows”.

… and I passed all of my subjects! Well, according to the unit results.

Actually, I better than passed my subjects, which I am very pleased about.

Key to Result Codes:

• P - Pass (50-59 per cent);
• C - Credit (60-69 per cent);
• D - Distinction (70-79 per cent);
• HD - High Distinction (80-100 per cent);

Introduction to Marketing: I got a Distinction (76). I remember whingeing about this subject so much in my blog; words cannot describe the relief I feel at getting away from that lecturer! I’m not sure how I managed to earn such a high mark, but I’ll take it!

Knowing and Knowledge A: I got an High Distinction (84). This was the easiest subject I did, and it was an elective. I’ll be doing Knowing and Knowledge B next semester.

Management and Organisation Behaviour: I got a Distinction (76). I worked my tail off, more so in this subject than any other subject, and it’s slightly upsetting to not get an HD. However, I know a D is still a very good result.

Psychology 1A: I got a Credit (65). This was obviously my worst mark. My statistics, coupled with two I-worked-really-hard-but-they-were-not-quite-right lab reports might have had something to do with it.

So. If I’ve passed everything, I can move on, and here’s what I’ve chosen to do next semester:

• Business Law;
• Human Resource Management;
• Knowing and Knowledge B;
• Psychology 1B.

I can access my university results for this semester from twelve midnight tonight (or should that be tomorrow morning?). I’m kind of really nervous, and kind of really calm, both at the same time. I guess I realise that there’s not much I can do now - they’ve been calculated, and all that’s left is for me to discover what they are.

I’m going to see Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix tomorrow night with my friends. I hope there aren’t many (read: any) little children (who, in my opinion, should not be reading the latter Harry Potter novels until they are older) there to spoil the experience for me. There shouldn’t really be any there, though, considering that school starts back tomorrow.

All the same, though, I wish we were going later than six-thirty in the evening. But at least this way I won’t miss Torchwood.

I really want to go to Federation Square in the city on Saturday morning for the official Deathly Hallows book launch. I wouldn’t ordinarily go to one of these things, but because it’s the seventh and final book, I just - I want to be a part of that.

I survived my first round of university exams! (We hope.)

My last exam was Psychology statistics, and it was completely multiple-choice. I read the paper in perusal time and my breathing got easier as I read and re-read each question. I have to get at least 40 questions right to pass.

As I was answering the questions, I saw my Psych lecturer walking up and down the rows of students. This might seem odd, but that gave me some comfort,. The same was true for my Management exam, because one of my lecturers (I had two) was present for the first half an hour. It was somewhat reassuring, I found.

Oh, and then I ran into my other lecturer in the supermarket on Friday night.

So. I’m on holidays for about five weeks. Five weeks! It’s amazing.

On Friday night (or was it Saturday morning?) I stayed up until four in the morning watching Doctor Who episodes on the computer. This season looks absolutely fantastic. And it premieres two days from now. Wow, Thursday’s shaping up to be a pretty big day, what with the Spice Girls announcing their reunion tour; Borat premiering on pay-per-view and Doctor Who starting on ABC!

As you can probably glean from the post title, I have completed four out of five exams!

The last one is Psychology 1A statistics at 2 PM on Friday this week (my excitement is just palpable, isn’t it? *rolls eyes*) but I have to take this one pretty damn seriously because it decides whether I pass Psychology 1A.

As in, it wouldn’t matter if I got 100 out of a hundred questions correct on my theory exam - if I don’t pass stats, I have to repeat Psych 1A.

I really, really don’t want to repeat any subjects, although the trusty student grapevine says this is fairly common and not the end of the world. But.

So, the eighty questions on my stats paper are… scary. Even if the exam is only worth 20 per cent of my total mark. Which means each question is worth roughly… and I suck at maths, people - like a quarter of a mark?

Anyone? Bueller?

I have to get forty questions correct to pass, and that scares me.

I hate maths. I hate logic, although I don’t hate Sudoku puzzles.

And I hate statistics. (more…)