End of Act I

The last week of college before the Christian holidays and I plan to depart with a feeling of relief and relaxation as I hope to have completed the first semester with a reasonable amount of success. Despite the major issues that students and tutors have been facing lately I found it surprising how most people coped and delivered most of their work on time and think the positive efforts in achieving status quo should not go unrecognised.
The start of the week was a genuine nightmare if I am to be honest and at one point I felt that I would not be able to submit all my work on time which would have led to the need for a re-submission which is capped at 40% and not at all to my liking. After weeks of various PC problems I have been trying to be more careful regarding backing up information and as fate always allows I was being too clinical and instead of backing up my old information with the new I replaced the new with the old. In I.T. terms this is called deleting and if it wasn’t for my constant use of Blackboard and GroupWise I would have lost all trace of all the work I have done this year.
Thankfully I managed to gather most of my projects and was left with only my 3000 word ensemble research and my multimedia proposal to start from scratch. Unfortunately I had a multitude of tasks this week and was faced with the daunting mission of completing my ensemble research paper in between the Blues Brother’s performance and rehearsals before attempting to continue afterwards to meet the 4pm deadline. To be honest the mission failed and due to poor planning and technical errors I submitted a 2700 word paper that I was not proud of at all.
The Blues Brother’s performance itself was pleasing and although it felt quite formal performing to a handful of students and a tutor I was pleased at how much enthusiasm everyone put into the performance. I thought the show was impressive and afterwards we received praise from the tutor and other students who were kind enough to comment on the authenticity and showmanship within the performance which was pleasing and probably the motivational foundation of my 2700 word research attempt.
I also managed to submit my production project on time and after a few nights of hard work and tiresome audio mastering, I finally settled on my tracks and began correlating all the segments of the projects. After burning these tracks to audio CD at the correct rate I began preparing my CD cover and supporting research and text which looked quite professional despite the last minute tattered edges.
I also managed to submit my literature review in a timely fashion and can go on holiday for nearly 6 weeks now knowing that unless I have failed any of these projects I do not have to worry about a re-submission for the foreseeable future.
Enjoy the holidays and remember to drop in again to find out if the New Year starts as it should!

Out Of My Hands!

Despite my genuine hopes that I would get back to college this week the weather had other ideas as it played a cruel trick on the commuters of Scotland during rush hour on Monday morning. It has been a big concern all week as there was severely limited public travel available from Dundee to Perth resulting in another missed week of the wonderful college facilities. Fortunately the majority of my projects have been completed at home and in my own project studio however I have missed the benefit of the usual tutor feedback and student collaboration which I feel helps keep me motivated throughout. This aside I have found comfort in knowing that we have been given extensions in all of our projects excluding the ensemble performance.
I have managed to finish the main body of my research literature review and my problems with when to reference have continued. I did find a number of documents online regarding the footnotes referencing system however I find it more logical to study a system then review an outputted source so that I can reverse engineer the system operations and find confidence in my ability to use the system. A huge benefit of this literature review is that it has allowed me to review my research material and measure its value with regard to my argument before I begin the production and structure of the argument itself. Out with these issues I have been able to grasp the nature of my argument better and believe that I have all the information I need to go forward and strengthen my research.
The biggest concern of not being able to attend college has been the lack of band meetings and practice. It has been almost 3 weeks since the band last practised together and I believe that we have only had 2 full practices with the semi-completed line-up. The performance is due to be delivered on the 17th December and so far there looks to be no provisions for the lost time that we have already experienced. It should not be a great concern however I have little faith in the positivity, motivation and reliability of most musicians and hope that the band I am working with can pull a satisfactory performance together for next Friday.
There is little to report with regard to the digital audio project other than the final draft stage of the project proposal being completed. I am feeling very comfortable with this project and have prepared most of the content already leaving me only the final design of the website to consider along with the editing of the video documentary I plan to include.
The progress of my portfolio project has been hindered due to lack of meetings with my designated designer. We are due to make a presentation of our work so far and although we have completed most of this work I am unsure how it is to be presented and what supporting materials are needed for this presentation. I am confident however that if I get into college on Monday then I can correct any issues by the Tuesday deadline.
The specialist production project has entered its final stages and I am still dealing with the frustrating task of mastering and post production. I was advised by student sound engineers to not master too much at once and take regular breaks from the monitoring process which I have found to be very helpful during these processes. I now have to provide an evaluation of the outcome of the project and finalise my product in a presentable manner with supporting information.
A disappointing 14 days at home which has only been improved by my progress which I feel has come from total submersion in the projects I am involved with. Usually I only attend college a few days a week but the recent closure and transport problems has left me stranded at home with only the project deadlines to think about. Hopefully this progress will be valuable in the next week as I look to meet all the deadlines before the Christmas break.

Snowed Under!

A remarkable turn of events this week as the whole nation is subject to the untimely effects of nature changing. Almost a full week of snow has brought Scotland to a standstill with colleges and schools closed up and down the country, a constant reminder that full control of our lives is never in our own hands. Despite the lack of control it has been comforting to spend more time at home and have found inspiration from the peaceful organising I have been able to do. It has been a week of re-prioritising with the closure of the facilities normally available to me hindering my progress with each of my projects.
Although I have had a lot of time at home with IT and internet access I have found the daily involvement with my PC to be tedious and laborious whilst offering the new challenge of finding motivation and productivity amongst extreme boredom. I am fighting through this menial limitation and have made some solid progress with my dissertation and the literature review which is to be submitted in 2 weeks time. The compilation of this literature review has helped me better understand the resources themselves and I feel this will hold me in good stead for the main research paper.
There was no band practice for the Blues Brothers this week as college was closed and despite the luxury of a week off I do hope that college resumes next week as the final performance is due to be delivered on the 17th December and we are far from being ready to deliver an impressive performance although if needs must I would confidently rely on my personality and stagecraft to create such a show.
No time in digital multimedia this week however I have all the facilities I need at home for this project and have made the final adjustments to my project proposal and hope to submit this for review as soon as classes commence again. I have been using the web design software Serif, which I use on my own computer more and might use this for the final production in place of iWeb on the iMacs in college.
Next week is deadline day for my portfolio project as I am required to submit a personal logo, CD/DVD cover and facial portraits which are part of the completed project. I have not met with my designated designer recently but plan to e-mail him to discuss the progress he has made with these items. The items themselves are not too difficult to produce and I am confident that if needed I can help my designer make them during class time on deadline day itself.
The specialist production project has had more of my time than any other this week as I look to finalise the mastering of each track and ready for compilation on the EP I intend to submit as my tangible product. I am very happy with the recordings so far and despite recent regrets I am confident that my product could be competitive in the market of solo singer/songwriters.
A quite week spent mostly at home and the snow continues as I type causing concern over the possible closure of college next week. I also had a performance cancelled last Sunday due to the adverse weather conditions and will just have to progress with all the work I can do at home which will leave me in a stronger position when college resumes.