Today's outfit [18 Jul 2009|03:16pm] sarah_a67 It is really hard to take a picture of your whole self. My legs look so thin, idk what happened. The run times have come through: I got a PB! I came 121st out of 130 and my time was 34:22, which funnily enough is one second faster than Wednesday's! (Yes, I am working, I've just taken a break to Google "blends linearly" because I've no idea what it means but I need to find out for my program to work). 3 comments|post comment

Just be like everybody else [18 Jul 2009|12:04pm] sarah_a67 Did Parkrun this morning, ran it all! It went well but I think I could have done better had I had more sleep last night. My back was aching, too. Maybe I'd benefit from a massage from Robert Webb? Oh right, that's why I didn't get enough sleep... I beat Kat this week. I've seen her there most weeks I've done Parkrun, from the start. She is overweight and I could never understand how she got such good times. But, yeah, I finished ahead of her for the first time! Just got a letter from Capita Hartshead - I didn't get the job. I was expecting as such but it's still hugely disappointing. I could put it down to competition in the job market but equally, doing a masters and having a year's work experience should enable me to compete. It's the personality/soft skills bit, isn't it? I can't seem to improve to the level required; indeed I don't think I ever will. Perhaps I should stop applying to jobs that I know are too good for me. Problem is, that would stop me from applying to all jobs. So I now have less than two months left in Leeds. Perhaps I'll tie myself to the front door handle and scream lots until I can stay. There was a note on the kitchen worktop this morning, from Lucy. Lucy had been staying with us for a few days and it was basically, "thanks and here's some beer". There was a P.S. too, which read something like, "When I was putting a box away I heard Sarah (is that her name?) giggling. I agree with you, that's weird!" Um, why would it be weird for me to be laughing? I was probably watching Mock The Week. And two people agree that it is weird. I don't understand. Back to Optimisation Methods, then... post comment

Class of 2009 [17 Jul 2009|08:30pm] sarah_a67 I got my class photo today! ( I'm sure they'll all love me putting this here... ) 2 comments|post comment

So now I'm strung somewhere between a dream and a humdrum day-to-day routine [15 Jul 2009|07:17pm] sarah_a67 It's been almost half a year since Dirty Pretty Things last graced the stage as a band together. Last night I reached in the drawer for my iPod, which miraculously started to work again (but still doesn't sync with the computer), and listened to their music. And I realised that I missed them. Sure there's a Libertines reunion on the cards and solo stuff and all that, but DPT were very special in their own right. Sigh. Another delayed reaction to someone who's not with us anymore: Tony Wilson. Quite sad that my introduction to him, apart from the obituary in NME, was watching a Keith Barret DVD two years after he died. But he seemed really genuine and likeable, and one of the few people in the music industry who wasn't in it for the money but for the love of the music itself. And of course where would we be without the Stone Roses and Joy Division? Household stuff: I was downloading iTunes (to see if reinstalling it would help with the iPod issue - it didn't) and noticed that the speeds were as high as 1.2MB/second. This is AMAZING! I'm used to being impressed by 150KB/sec. Also FTW is that today we had new hobs installed. Gas ones this time. I did manage to ask someone about it last week and they said that the landlord would do something about it. So finally he is (within a week - that's good for him)! I went running this morning - a midweek run so it doesn't "count" - but my time was 34:23, which is 22 seconds better than my PB! Hopefully that'll improve Saturday's time. Usually I go out on a random walk but I've explored most places within walking distance from my house now, so I was getting bored. I thought about running around Beckett Park, or anywhere else, but the only place I feel comfortable running is Hyde Park. Weird. So to make it a bit interesting, I did the Parkrun route in reverse. It seemed a lot more undulating. I'm not updating much/only writing about running because that's pretty much all I've been doing now lectures have finished. When I'm not exercising or online I'm either doing coursework or acting as a lab rat in the psychology building. My only reliable source of income! It's getting to the stage that they turn me down for some studies because I've already done similar ones. On Friday I did one where they linked this equipment up to my head and measured my brain waves! A novel experience. Also Friday I had a meeting with the professor about my resits. It went reasonably well and he was helpful - I now know what exams I have to look forward to next month. But at the end he mentioned that it may be advantageous to revise as part of a group, and that I was "shy compared to the rest of your classmates". I left his office holding back tears. He asked me if I'd "made an effort to join a study group"; also he asked whether or not I'd started either of my assignments - at that time both were due in in well over a month. I hadn't. So he had the impression that I wasn't trying, which is as far from the truth as possible. He did say that I was doing extremely well for someone without a maths background, though. post comment

Parkrun [12 Jul 2009|12:57am] sarah_a67 Today I stopped running twice for brief periods of time, but seeing the result I clearly made up for this. I got a PB, the first one in a month! My time was 34:45, quite a big improvement, and I came 117th out of 125. post comment

Help please! [08 Jul 2009|10:12pm] sarah_a67 I downloaded We Were Aborted last night, of course, but the file turned out to be corrupt and now the link's gone and expired. Anyone who could upload it for me would have my utmost gratitude! I want this song to grow on me rather badly. 4 comments|post comment

I'm alright now... [08 Jul 2009|09:14pm] sarah_a67 Everything that went wrong yesterday seemed to go right today! Apologies for the pathetic post, but it was the only way I could immediately get rid of my frustrations. Firstly, I now have my results. The maths ones didn't change from the provisional marks, so I'll have to resit two of the recent ones I took. But I passed Financial Derivatives. I was hoping for more, but I got 50, which is the pass mark, lol. Today a group of ten of us went to visit a debt collection company, led by Vim who's lovely (he looks like a Mancunian Asian Ryan Jarman). When I approached he waved and smiled and when I sat down he started up a conversation. He asked about my results and I said I hadn't been able to find them, so he told me this convoluted way of getting around the website, which was the only way you could actually see them. I had to search for "provisional marks" - there was no link - despite the marks I was hoping to find not being provisional! So I can breathe a sigh of relief about that. The other turnaround was that as soon as I came home, the new guy in the room next door to mine said he'd just finished setting up the internet, and told me the password straight away. It worked straight away! So now I don't have to keep using my costly, slow mobile broadband (somehow I'd managed to download over a third of my monthly usage in the first five days of July)! Also, my rent's supposed to come out on the 1st of the month, but nothing's been taken yet. It is past the end of the contract but the landlord said he'd sorted everything out. I wouldn't mind the next couple of months being free, but he's probably just being typically slow at getting it sorted. I thought I ought to look vaguely presentable as I was visiting a company this afternoon, so I wore skinny black jeans, a white shirt and pointy black shoes. I thought as I was dressing, hmm I'm going as Drew! But it was a bit chilly and the shirt see-through, so the jumper over the top dampened the effect somewhat. I looked good, though, haha. 2 comments|post comment

I'm sat here romancing nobody on my own [07 Jul 2009|09:05pm] sarah_a67 It's supposed to be exam results day. Here are my "results":    Semester   Module   Status   Module Title   Credit   Value   Mark Awarded  1 LUBS 5004M 01 RE Corporate Finance 15 **   1 LUBS 5032M 01 RE Risk and Insurance 15 **   1 LUBS 5042M 01 RE Financial Econometrics 15 **   1 MATH 5310M 01 RE Mathematical Review 15 **   1 MATH 5320M 01 RE Discrete Time Finance 15 **   2 LUBS 5036M 01 RE Consumer & Corporate Credit 15 **   2 LUBS 5040M 01 RE Professional & Research Skills 15 **   2 LUBS 5050M 01 RE Financial Derivatives 15 **   2 MATH 5330M 01 RE Continuous Time Finance 15 **   2 MATH 5340M 01 RE Risk Management 15 **   2 MATH 5350M 01 RE Computations in Finance 15 **   2 MATH 5360M 01 RE Optimisation Meths for Finance 15 **   There are lists of what that's supposed to mean, but neither ** nor RE are in the lists. I've literally spent all day trying to find that table, so you can understand my disappointment when it's a load of pointless rubbish. I know I'm going to have to resit some exams, because my professor emailed me to arrange a meeting to discuss my "resit strategy". Resits cost £21.50 per module, plus a £50 fee for everything. I just don't have any money whatsoever. Maybe Klaus'll pay for it. Nah, if he'd wanted me to succeed, he'd have made Maths Review NOT IMPOSSIBLE. Household situation hasn't been brilliant either. I don't tend to talk, obviously, but my housemates have been sparing with their words too, and they're sociable people. Today I was spoken to twice - once to tell me where to store the prawns I'd cooked, and the other to make sure to lock the door properly. By two different people. Had a few of those in past weeks as well. I'm sure they think I'm completely incompetent. What irks me most is complaining about things that are irrelevant. I always lock the door (and it annoyed me that others were so lax about it), and once I was told to leave my pans in soak if they were dirty. Again, I always did, just someone else would drain them for an unknown reason. I can't correct them, though, because I'm too afraid of conflict to say they're mistaken. Someone's nicked some of my chocolate too. Now there is a list on the newly-erected whiteboard in the hall of things that we apparently need for the house. Everyone has to buy one of them. Well, they're things I won't necessarily use and I can't be bothered to negotiate with everyone which to get. I have better priorities right now than deciding whether to buy scourers or bin bags (OK, I'd use bin bags, but I'm not even sure what some of the things on the list were). Also, the hobs have started refusing to come on but it's too much to even ask anyone about it. Ugh. Now I'm looking through some offers on my email and they're all "2 for 1" meals and the like. I can't ever participate in those offers. Just reminds me the many reasons I have to be unhappy, when I thought I was over depression. Probably should save this pic for a happier post, but Ryan looks so good in it. 6 comments|post comment

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