exam pain

Doing a take home exam at the moment and its painful!

thankfully I never have to look at quantum field theory again after this.

Plan for today

So I need to write this down some where so it will actually get done.

The plan for before I head to work is this: stick all the data from December through excel and make sure its graphed and averaged so I can peak fit at work tonight. Ideally I'd like to have the stuff from feb done as well. This is so I can spend tomorrow on my other assignments.

Wish me luck.

Oh and there will be this months Daring Cooks post up in the next few days. Just bare with me!

I promise I'm still alive!

So there is a backlog of posts that are waiting to be uploaded. The only issue is that I have no time at the moment.

I'm also trying to figure out what to serve for Australia Day. One of the bands I play in has 2 gigs on Australia Day, the city parade and then an afternoon gig in the country complete with picnic lunch. I volunteered to do the sweets part. I'm thinking this months challenge, cheesecake brownies and possibly the danish pastry challenge if I can find it.

I've also had a revelation as to my career.

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I'm going to be a teacher

Shocked?

After 3 years of working full time I've decided that I'm really not happy in my profession. I'm bored, unenthusiastic and really just don't care anymore. So my fan is to finish off my honours degree this year and save like crazy so that next year I can quit my job and go back to uni full time to do a Grad Dip Ed.

Oh and I'm also moving out of my current house when the lease is up at the end of the year. Love the house, hate the situation. My housemate and I have known each other for over 10 years but in the last 6-12 months things have gone down hill. The main issue I have is that she is never home. She still pays rent but has essentially moved in with her boyfriend and his family. I hate living alone. More on that later.

Just a taste of what has happened in the last few months

The last month or so

The last month or so has been pretty hectic.
Exams are now over and its onto the research part of my course. It looks like I won't actually start the experiment side of it for another few months as the lab hasn't been set up properly. Other then that there has been lots of baking and cooking happening. I have a back log of things to post.
Some of the items are birthday cake and muffins of awesomeness.

The latest in baking news is that we're having Christmas in July this year! The 25th falls on a Saturday. I'm not working that night so we can party. It's pot luck as usual and all I need to do now that I've sorted out what I'm making is to hire the bulldozer and cleaning fairies to clean the house.
I considered taking before and after pictures last night to document just how bad things can get. The only issue is that I did do a bit of a clean last week so things aren't looking too bad at the moment, compared to normal that is....

More on that when there are photos

Ta Da!!

I just handed in an assignment worth 30% of my grade, 4 days early!!

The rest of the work load looks like this

23/5 Supper for 300 (coconut macaroons, choc chip biscuits and some kind of slice)

25/5 8am - X-ray Diffraction exam
12pm - practice talk in front of entire research group

27/5 10am Honours talk (for real this time)
1pm Electron Diffraction lab (5 hours)

29/5 Electron Diffraction assignment due

5/6 Lit review Due

11/6 Quantum Mechanics exam

19/6 Electron Diffraction Exam

At some point I need to write up and hand in my lab report.


Then I can sleep

Hmm...

So it seems that writing a Lit review at the last minute properly with references and such, only works when you remember to bring the file with you to work.

It seems that I have left the file along with my ipod (aka, usb stick) at home. This has left me with the option of handwriting my draft and then typing it up tomorrow.

Yes, there is a copy of it in my uni inbox. This is only useful when the text editor you're using opens properly without crashing. Word has decided to die on my laptop, hence the handwriting.


It other news, it seems that my shoulder is still hurting. It's been almost a week and there's a good chance that yesterdays massage made it worse. Pain is annoying as its the type that makes me queasy.

Oh well, back to it.

Xxx

My mission tonight

Tonight I intend on doing some serious baking as well as cleaning out the freezer.

The plan is to make more chocolate raspberry cake and possible a repeat of the caramel cupackes.
There may even be a visit to the gym if I get home in time. Otherwise its chicken salad, baking and more study for me.

Oh the pain of my huge work load!

mmm tacos and exams

It there was one spice combination I love, it would be mexican. That elusive blend of onion, garlic, cumin, paprika and chilli that makes my taste buds sing.

I discovered the spice mix by reading the back of a packet. Yet getting the quantities right still eludes me. At the moment I deal with it by using a packet of taco seasoning and then adding extra cumin, paprika and chilli powder. The onion and garlic just get added anyway.

So the latest creation has no photos as I left the camera at uni. It's a take on beef and bean taco fillings. I'm not the biggest fan of tortilla bread or taco shells. I'll eat them but I do prefer to mix all the fillings together on my plate and eat it that way :D

500g minced beef
onion
garlic
taco seasoning
cumin
paprika
ground chilli
1 can refried beans
2 cans crushed tomato.


chop onion and garlic. Fry until golden. Add the mince and brown.
Stir in spices, seasoning, beans and tomatos. Add a few cans of water and stir to combine.
Simmer for 30ish minutes until think and tasty. Make sure you stir frequently as the beans have a tendency to stick to the pan!

I've been eating this straight the last few days. Tonight however, I jazzed it up with some mashed potato, cheese and sour cream. I found extra light sour cream at the shops which is devine. Most dairy products (cheese, icecream, milk, yogurt, etc) I prefer the full fat stuff. Sour cream however, I prefer the light. Full cream sour cream makes me ill if I have more then a tablespoon. It's also too think to properly melt over everything.


My other news is that I have my first exam in 3 weeks. In the second last week of semester. A 2 hour exam at 8am Monday morning. The good part about this is that it gets it out of the way so I can concentrate on my other two exams which will be nastier then this one. I have the advantage with this subject that its on synchrotron optics and xray diffraction which is what I work with. So I can make a connection between the theory I'm being taught and the reality of what's actually being used.

Hopefully things will turn out well.

The tally so far is 4 assignments, 1 lab and 1 exam in 4 weeks. Then 2 exams afterwards. By the end of June I will be less stressed.

Ideally I will get a chunk done this week as I'm taking 3 days off work to spend on study.