Despite technically getting it, I definitely haven’t got the qualitative research job.
I got a housemate to show my passport to HR today but they wouldn’t accept it because apparently I had to be the person to show it to them. The contract had been withdrawn by the lecturer in charge anyway but, for whatever reason, HR still needs me to show them my passport. They are going to have to wait until Wednesday.
Because of the strikes, I emailed my research team leader and the HR lady to try and get some clarification on what exactly was happening with my contract, so I was a little surprised to get an email response from the lecturer in charge. She politely confirmed that I have been released from my contract and that she’ll get in touch if any future opportunities arise. I wearily forced myself to respond with a basic thanks-for-replying-and-keeping-me-in-mind-yes-I-am-feeling-a-little-better-but-I-am-also-covertly-torn-between-crying-or-murdering-you type email.
Like I’ve said before, I really wanted the job.
It’s not the end of the world and I keep telling myself that it’s more their loss than mine, but it has been frustrating to the point of my friends expressing their condolences. So, to cheer myself up, I’ve been thinking ahead to my post-graduation summer plans.
I don’t cope well with boredom. My first blog post illustrates that very clearly. I like to be busy and to feel like I’m doing something productive/useful, but those are not things commonly associated with graduate job hunting. Therefore, I’ve compiled a list of stuff to do in-between my summer travels (more on that later).
Griblee Friend Collaboration
He suggested that I record various parts for his songs over the summer (piano, harmonies, ukulele etc.) and send them to him. It sounds like fun!
The Spotify Project
I have written at least 160 songs in my 13 years of playing instruments. Not enough of them have been properly recorded. Therefore, I pledge to try and record one of my songs every week. At the end of the month I shall release the results on Spotify (after interrogating my griblee friend about how exactly to do that).
The Animation Project
A while ago I was experiencing a particularly annoying case of writer’s block. None of the words I wrote felt right, so I turned to animation to tell my stories instead.
I downloaded a free, crappy piece of software called Stykx and got really into it. I decided that I wanted to create a stickman film which wasn’t a bog-standard shoot-em-up.
It took me a while to figure out how to animate walking movements so I did my initial character experiments with basic stick figures and a trio of flying superheroes. I also decided that the superheroes would be in a healthy, happy, polyamorous relationship because why not (heh, I remember showing them to my brother and him being a little unnerved by just how many of the superhero animations ended on the verge of sex. I want my LGBTQ+ characters to be happy and casually affectionate!)?
I was discussing ideas with my logical friend and she suggested a plot for a romcom (for different characters). I got started but have yet to finish it. It takes a lot of patience and some element of distraction because the software takes seemingly forever to respond and frequently crashes. However, I would like to finish it at some point over the summer.
Programming
I would like to learn how to use Python. For many years I’ve been keeping a record of my finished songs on an Excel spreadsheet but there must be an easier, more user-friendly way to store them than that so I’m hoping that some form of programming will hold the solution.
MAX-MSP (the complicated audio focused programming-type software thing that I learned how to use in second year) is great but it’s best at dealing with audio and visuals, as far as I can tell. My final year music tech project has taught me that getting it to successfully store text is a bit of a nightmare. Plus it’s hard to make things look pretty in MAX-MSP; it’s not very user-friendly and it’s just plain difficult to get anything done with it.
When I was learning how to use the software in second year I had one tutorial with the lecturer that went on for over an hour (it was supposed to last 15 minutes) and he only managed to solve my problem by deleting everything and rebuilding the patch from scratch. It was for an exercise that he’d set the class too!
Similarly, last semester I spent a considerable amount of time troubleshooting a particular problem with my supervisor for us to eventually learn that we just needed to change a 0 to a 1 (the same supervisor sent a screenshot of our progress to me in an email with the amusing subject title of “Max pain”), and this semester I have spent entire tutorials with my new supervisor trying and failing to achieve what I want to achieve.
I’ve had to learn when to pick my battles with this goddamn software. It is a powerful processing tool and it can do so much but it’s just so difficult and counterintuitive every step of the way! However, when I can get it to function the way that I want, I find it surprisingly relaxing to use.
I first obsessively got into programming when I was introduced to a basic form of game design for a period of ICT lessons in high school. The software was called Scratch so today I asked dad what programming language was like advanced Scratch and he suggested Python. I now know how I’m going to procrastinate for the next few days.
Webcomic Collaboration
One of my home friends, let’s call her the fashion friend (she’s studying fashion design), pitched this idea to me: she’s thinking of going into illustration but, although her sketches are good, storytelling isn’t really her thing; therefore, I shall construct the plot and she’ll illustrate it. I agreed and suggested that, once we’ve got something to work with, we can ask our languages friend (guess what she’s studying) to make a website for us (said friend did work experience at a web design place and consequently got a job there because of how great her coding skills were).
I was gushing to my logical friend about the whole thing a while back and she suggested that my fashion friend should illustrate the characters from Graveyard Lane.
Graveyard Lane was something that we came up with in first year. My logical friend and I were walking up the hill back to the block and I started making up a story based on what I thought was a poetic street name. My logical friend joined in and, whenever one of us got stuck with the improvised narrative, the other chipped in or took over. The residents of Graveyard Lane included a grumpy cactus called Roy and a homicidal tulip, amongst others. The story made little sense but it was fun, creative and a pleasant distraction from the steepness of the hill.
I sent the relevant diary extract to my fashion friend in order to explain it and today she showed me her initial sketches. They look amazing! She really captured the antelope that thinks it’s an anteater (when telling the story originally I forgot what animal she was and that character adjustment was the consequence). We’re both very excited for this summer!
Massive Open Online Courses
I will once again have time to do MOOCs! Therefore, I will do as many as I can.
I’m also going to be doing a bit of travelling over summer. I’ll be going to Peru for 2 weeks on a family holiday and I will be going to India for a week with my logical friend as part of SLV.Global’s educational psychology course.
I have lots to look forward to! So for now I just need to keep my chin up, get on with my degree work and try to ignore the tingling sensation/pain in my foot (time for more painkillers methinks).
randomsongwriter 
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