Tuesday 26 March 2013

Talk - say what?!

I am sat here with my laptop, 7 different tabs open whilst I attempt some research for a meeting I have tomorrow. I'm chatting with one friend on facebook, my phone keeps beeping as I whatsapp with another, and all the while I'm surfing and trawling, clicking and flicking, ducking and diving. How did we ever get by when the only way you could talk to someone was if they were in the same room?!

Sunday 24 March 2013

What did you do in the dark?

Last night at 8.30pm it was Earth Hour when millions of people all around the world turned off non-essential lights for an hour. I took part in this last year as well but this year I loved their tag line: what will you do in the dark? Well, we had a total Mad Men fest and watched about 3 episodes in a row, lit a fire (because apparently it's Spring yet the wind chill is minus 5...), and snuggled up in the dark.


What did you do?

Friday 22 March 2013

Rockin' socks #1

Fizz has been a very busy knitting bee. Almost once a week either Wavey or I get a funkay new pair of socks that are oh so warm and oh so unique. Here's a little taster of my latest pair:

 Good colours eh? But here is what they look like completely:
You cannot believe how truly toasty roasty they are with another pair of socks underneath. Perfect for these BLOOMIN' FREEZING "Spring" days.

More rockin' socks will follow. Stay tuned...

Wednesday 20 March 2013

By 'Eck it's cold without windows...

Wavey and I are in the middle of some serious house stuff at the moment. The study/library/snug is ever ongoing, we started to tile the bathroom -also ongoing, and today we are getting the front windows replaced. This last job is probably the most important as the window in one of the bedrooms actually moved inside its frame and that's the bedroom that the grotbags sleep in when they stay, safe to say we really didn't want to have an incident where one of them pushed it a little bit too much...so yep windows. But you know what? When someone takes a window from the front of your house it is totally freezing. Not just a little bit cold. Freezing. I decided there was only one thing for it - to get into bed. In all my clothes. Now I really am a student.

I remember one incident from student-dom the first time around when we came  home from a Christmas break to find that all our gas and electricity had gone. It was a Sunday evening and nowhere was open to go and top up our cards, we were freezing and hungry because we couldn't cook anything, the only option was to go to bed. I remember wearing my red tartan fleecy pyjamas that I had originally laughed at when my Ma bought them. I also wore a jumper, a cardigan, a hat, a scarf, and a pair of gloves. I don't think I've ever felt so cold, until maybe today. 

In a big way it makes me very glad for the things I have like central heating and a warm house. And in another way it's very humbling to think that some people are this cold all the time and they are people who have homes. Homeless people, I can't even imagine it, especially not on days like today where it's half snowing, half sleeting, and never getting above zero degrees :( 

So from my bed I type this trying to warm myself and thinking about those who are never warm. Maybe I really should do that soup kitchen from the front garden that I've been thinking about...

Wednesday 13 March 2013

Are you sure you're taking the fear out?!?!

My homework assignment for this week is to write a 500 word report on what is skewed and kurtosis distribution, and explain the positive, normal, and negative skewness. Once I was over the total bullshizz of these words skewness and kurtosis (say WTF?!) I headed to the library to get the recommended text: Taking the Fear out of Data Analysis. Great title. I was confident that this is what was going to happen. Until I got to the section on skewness and kurtosis that begins like this:

...one can get a reasonable idea of skewness and kurtosis by looking at a histogram or frequency polygon and by examining the relative magnitudes of the mean and median...

Erm, pardon? Say again? Seriously, how is that taking the fear out of anything? That is essentially taking the fear and multiplying it by a gazillion trillion billion and talking utter nonsense in words that mean nothing to people who know nothing about this RUBBISH!!! 

In my opinion a more reasonable explanation would be along these lines:
  • Skewness is when something is a bit squint
  • Kurtosis sounds awfully close to halitosis and one should never neglect ones oral hygiene
  • Positive is when one is happy jolly la-la-effin-la-ing over when one understands something
  • Normal is not a word that should be bandied around. Who or what is normal? This question requires whole PHD studies and not 500 word reports
  • Negative is how I feel about all this maths stuff... 
 I do have one question though that I really need explaining. What does all this have to do with analysing and managing risk? Why do I need a PHD in Maths to be able to say if something has a high risk event? Refer to previous points: totally baffling bullshizz. 

Wednesday 6 March 2013

Reality bites

I knew going back to school wouldn't just be about attending lectures and enjoying student time off but I think reality has hit properly now. In upcoming lectures we find out about the ICA, in course assessment, as it's called these days. Me being me I had to have a look ahead to those slides, I figured it would be good to get a little bit ahead, start planning reading, etc. But oh holey moley, now I know what the assignment is all about and it's huge! And that's just one module, I have three of the suckers on the go at the same time. YIKES! 

My first reaction was panic.

My second reaction is still panic.

By three I'm feeling a little calmer and thinking that being organised and reading ahead is a good thing. Now I know what I'm aiming at and I can start doing some real reading, rather than just reading around stuff to teach myself a bit more. 

The first thing I should probably do is stop blogging and actually start reading. Off I go then, wish me luck...

Friday 1 March 2013

Game of numbers

If I had to name one thing that was going to stress me out about the course I could do it right now: the numbers. If it was just a simple case of writing down 1 to 10, or even some simple multiplying then I'm right there, I follow it, I can do it, it's not a problem. Well actually that's not entirely true. Sometimes when I'm doing bar or icecreams at theatre I'm sure I under or over charge people because my brain goes into complete scramble mode when it comes to numbers. 

Right now I'm in numbers hell. I'm trying to understand risk management and I do, I'm all down with the basic theory. But they can't just let it lie there. Oh no, they want to QUANTIFY the mutha-effer! I mean why? Why can't they just come up with a pretty colour chart and say if something is green, amber, or red. Why do numbers have to come into it? Why does a risk have to have a probability value? And while I'm at it, why does a consequence need a value as well? I spent much of the lecture on Tuesday applying the "I'm listening" face while inside my brain was in turmoil. I know it sounds really rubbish and a bit pathetic but as soon as I see numbers and maths my normal understanding brain turns to mush and all I see is this weird scramble in front of my eyes that might as well be double dutch. The problem is that I don't feel I can move onto the next chapter until I understand this as it's covered in the basic, overview bit of the textbook. 

It's lucky that both Wavey and Fizz are maths people. I am hoping (please oh please) that they will be able to explain it to me, in a straightforward, easy to understand manner so that I can get past this block. But even this causes me anxiety because what if they can't? What if I can never get past this and am doomed to a life of only words? Actually that wouldn't be such a bad thing...

For now though it's time to step away from the book. Take a break, pop out for some fresh air, hope that out there some sort of maths bird will fly around my head and put all the probability knowledge I need into it. It could happen. It's a probable event. Now what number value would I apply to this actually happening? 

*flees out the door