Moving Forwards

15:31, relaxing in University: Well, we're in the final weeks of Autumn, and don't we know it. Summer's oppressive heat and sticky unpleasant sleepless night seem to have given way to cold, wind, and near-constant drizzle.
It's not as inclement as it could be I suppose, we're shielded from the worst of the recent weather by the expanse of country seperating us from the south coast (which has recently had severe weather warnings, as is traditional for this time of year), and the Pennines to theEast, which although they allow us precious little snow in winter, keep the worst of the rain and wind safely over in Lancashire.

I've been sort of sitting about, not really doing much over summer, enjoying having the option of just waking up at 4pm, sitting about until 4am, and then going back to sleep for another 10-12 hours. All of that came to a sudden and very clearly defined end with the start of the new university year. Final year, apparently.

And wow, this year has started in no uncertain fashion, with everybody warned in the first week that the previous two years is but a pale imitation of final year, a trial run if you like. No sooner has the weather taken a turn for the worse, than the assignments have started coming.

The Main Project: First up of course is the dreaded "Project", with a capital P. We were warned about this last year, and the warning was certainly justified.
We've been given what is essentially a research project, I suppose you could think of it as "baby's first academic paper". We're to pick a topic, find a new angle on it, investigate, and report our findings. Simple enough, right? Except that this paper has to be scrupulously referenced, written in an extremely formal academic style, and has to stretch to about 50 pages. Most pressing of all perhaps was the need to pick a subject, and this caused no small amount of consternation as the university's approach to helping us was essentially putting a reassuring hand on our shoulders, before spinning us around, pushing us out into the world and cheerfully yelling "There's a world out there, find something you can write about!" before slamming the door behind us.

After a couple of crisis meetings with fellow students where we bounced ideas off each other, I managed to come up with an idea out of left field, which I was very pleased with. I didn't think it had a cat in hell's chance of being accepted by the reviewing supervisor, but a little cursory research allowed me to resolve a vague outline into a more fleshed-out proposal. I'm not going to exxplain what my proposal/chosen subject is, as while I'm aware that (as I use this more as a personal diary than a blog, per se) I have a reader base close to or actually zero, given that this is essentially my final year dissertation, I want to keep my cards close to my chest.

The supervisor was impressed though, and as I explained my idea to him, his smile got bigger and bigger. I explained that it wasn't strictly related to my chosen field, but he countered that any research project will include elements and subjects that from a variety of different disciplines.
My project includes elements from materials science, computer science, physics, heliometeorology, astrophysics and xenogeology.
To my great surprise, the university supervisor was on board more or less straight away. The more I explained, the more enthusiastic he was. And so he encouraged me to submit my project proposal more or less as I had imagined it.
A few days ago, the university itself accepted my project proposal. Game Time Turn On, as the meme says.

Run Up to Christmas: In other news, our excitement for Christmas has been mounting slowly as the weather turns. There have been sporadic outbreaks of christmas songs around the house, and even the local department store has their Christmas department fully decked out in tastefully and expensively created full colour.
For our part, the cake and the pudding have already been created, and both my cool nephew and I have started on our Christmas Arboretums in our respective Minecraft City.
Yep, Honningbrew, riding on a wave of popularity after its website project gained me a pretty respectable mark of 68% (respectable because the tutor made it clear at the time that the only way to score over 70% was to do something truly unique, inspired and original, and because he didn't want to give my mark "69% lol") has been somewhat laying fallow over summer. But now that the Christmas season is approaching, I've been working on the new arboretum and associated buildings.
Each year the arboretums (arboureta sounds like something from biology) get bigger and more elaborate, and this Christmas, in addition to having my hands full with university work, I have my hands full creating the traditional giant christmas-themed wonderland. Still, it's pleasant enough work, a nice diversion from the stress of university, which is slowly mounting.
On this cheerful note, I suppose I'd better get ready for my next lab session here in university. It should be simple enough.