S - Express!

Always think of this song .. when i got a deadline ... "the countdown is progressing ... 10 .. 9 .. 8 ... duh duh duh duh duh, duh duh duh duh duh! S Express!


Spent 3 days at home in my pyjamas trying to plan and write my final 3rd year assignment. 13hrs on my ass today and it's still going .. got my ma reading my effort so far (the consummate health professional! and essay reader .. she just loves my style!) Mind you, it's been a while since I emailed it over .. doesn't normally take her this long .. must be something wrong .. have I got to scratch it and start again ... I can't .. got no time .. it's got to be handed in, in 16hrs (Friday 1400 GMT), and hopefully I will be spending at least 8 of those asleep .. unlike last time when I got 3hrs sleep ...


Calm down Nick, it's onnnnnnly an assignment! Haven't washed for 2 days .. hmmmmmm. Well, let's just hope i get more than the miserly 51% that f****g B**ch gave me for my last assignment ... I have only got under 60% twice in 3 years, both times marked by her, I found out when I picked my essay up last week. So basically she doesn't like my style, or all the other lecturers that mark are missing something that only she is privy to. And they have all those grids and matrices to make marking as objective as possible. What a load of ... So it's a lottery, isn't it? If she marks this one I have slaved over, high liklihood of another shite mark.

Anyway -- I've got 2,100 words under my belt - so actually in a bit of a 'need to crop' situation which makes a change ... hence chilling out now to play around a bit here. Come on Mum .. crap or genius .. want to get it done.

What will I bitch about at 1401 tomorrow when this last 3rd year assignment goes in?? Until the Autumn re-sits anyway .. who cares .. 3 words left on the matter ... pub ... 1405 ... tomorrow.

N x

Um Obsession Nacional

3 days to go till last assignment has to be handed in. Dissertation went in yesterday. The end of 8 months of study and group work delivered in a 15 page binder (30 with references and appendices)! Not much to show really. I tried to read the finished product, but not sure I will ever be able to look, talk or think about the subject ever again!

Having read Jake's latest post a few days ago, I feel like both a simpleton and egomaniac! I clearly only think about my course, my family and football, while his musings cover business plans, global macroeconomics and progress (how the hell have you managed to get yourself into that position, Jake!??)

The ego-centricity I can work on, but the football ... it can't be helped. It's getting really hard to focus now on this last piece of work. Spotted this great article, on BBC site about Brazil .. why are they sooooo good at football? I'm just being greedy now, as I already have by birth right, two mighty nations to support already in the World Cup, but of for the pure joy and love of football (and of course the £50 I am definitely going to win in the family sweepstake! (Sat 4th March, 2006 post)), it would be negligent of me not to pause from the studies to pick up on stories about Brazilian Footie.

18 days to go ....

Just a little bit of History re-peeeeeaaaaaaaaaaating itself!

Gosh -- Am surprised not to have seen any references made to this story, following the nature of yesterday's defeat. Last night's controversial ref sent off an English team's player in the first half against Barcelona just 3 short months ago ...

So, Terje Hauge - You sacking that other Norwegian Ref for wearing a Barcelona top was just an elaborate smoke screen to deflect attention away from the one you were wearing last night under your black ref's strip??

I think Thierry has summed up all our feelings perfectly, wouldn't you agree? Mind you, a perfect result and circumstances for anyone hoping that Thierry should stay with Arsenal in order to complete unfinished business ... Arsenal were robbed last night. Allez Thierry, make them 'soofah', oui, L'annee prochaine.

Up to me Arse ..

.. no, me bald spot in fact in dissertation mayhem (it has to be handed in on Tuesday 23rd), however -- being a passionate football (soccer) fan I couldn't let the day pass without a post, time-stamped with Wednesday May 17th, 2006!

I don't even support either of them, but to not have butterflies in the stomach at the prospect of watching Barcelona play Arsenal in the biggest Cup final game European sport has to offer, would be like having ice-water running through my veins following a lobotomy (hmmm .. those Australians are much better at the colloquial similes than I am! Oh well ...)

To add a little excitement to the occasion (I really, really don't need it mind), I have the added tension of my Dad placing the £20 he owed me on Arsenal to win at 14/1 (yes that's £300 winnings including the returned stake)! Well, I believe Dad's splitting the winnings with me anyway if/ I mean when Arse win ( c'mon Nick .. BELIEVE! in the VICTORY that is, not the cash!).

The odds are outstanding because Dad spotted long odds (and believed in Arsenal) back in February when they were sh*te! So, incredibly (given their domestic form this season), Arsenal are in the final and two of Europe's sexiest football playing teams (the football that is .. not the players - anyone taken a close look at Ronaldhino lately?!) get to slug it out tonight at the Stade de France in Paris. Given that Arsenal is the French national team in disguise, it's auspicious I tell you - AUSPICIOUS!

Come on Arsenal ... Vive l'ARSE!

What with this and the World Cup (and my own trip to Germany to see some games) a few short weeks away - could someone please pinch me. Life for a football fan really doesn't get any better than this.

Right then, back to the dissertation (6 hrs down, 1 to go .. then it's SHOWTIME).

This is a video test - Firsby World Cup Draw

Tom's brush with destiny - caught on video with my mobile phone - see it below! What's going on? In the run-up to every major football (soccer) tournament, my family hold a sweepstake. Tom and Jon, being the resident mathema-statisticians disappear for a few hours and work out the odds for every team involved, in order to create 10 equitable groups (of 3 to five teams) so that everyone has a group with comparable overall odds of winning. Think Brazil and Togo, for example, in the same group. Anyway, Tom's efforts were hardly rewarded considering the group he ended up with. Check out the reaction now.



If you can't see this, let me know by email ... an interesting development loading video clips into this site ..

Comidus, you go too far.

My illustrious seat of learning and academic achievement (UeL) has, it seems, a few more surprises to pull out of the bag before the course ends in 3 weeks. I am about to 'exit stage left' with a whimper, having received a miserly 51% for my latest assignment. This is the lowest mark I have had for written work since beginning the course and comes off the back of 5 assignments over the last 12 months that all received between 73%-80%.

Did I cock up? maybe, but if that's the case, then so did over half of the rest of the year .. who did even worse than me. Among them are 6 who consistently score even higher than me on their written work, yet this time got marks ranging between 43%-49%. Very odd indeed. I can cock up of course .. plenty of evidence of that in my life! ... but all of us?? The feedback should be interesting.

No plans to appeal. Compared to some of my peers, I will reflect back on the last 3 years and thank the stars that I appear to have made it through the course virtually unscathed, by the vagaries of mood and unexplained 'randomness' that has characterised the marking of a lot of peoples' assignments throughout the duration of the degree.

The mark does however appear to drive a nail into the coffin of my late-run aspirations for the top grade of a "first". Barring any further disasters, I project I will miss it by a fraction, perhaps 2-3 percentage points. Still a 2:1 (the second from best grade) is commendable and more than I initally predicted on moving into a whole new (for me) science focussed area of academe.

I stopped feeling ambitious a while ago anyway, when I started to mull the difference between ambition and talent. In my old corporate job, the notion of ambition was a compliment. Work hard, demonstrate your ambition and maybe you'll get to the top. but then it suddenly occurred to me that ambition might just be the aspirational label for all of us who actually lack real talent! Scary thought, but it does seem that some people I know with real ability don't seem to need or appear to work hard. This doesn't mean that talented folk don't have a strong work ethic etc., just that it seems ambition is not necessarily the pre-occupation. But I'm beginning to ramble. And besides, I may have talked about this somewhere earlier already. It sounds familiar, or perhaps has just been an niggling idea bouncing round my head looking for an outlet.

There was a moment when - even to my surprise - a "first" seemed like a real possibility. But it was presumption for an ambitious soul like me, who really should know my place and be content with achieving the higher borders of mediocrity!

postscript:

this sounded pretty depressing when I just re-read the post; it doesn't have to be - after all I have heard more than one person say that "all of us have a talent/ a special skill" just waiting to be discovered (I think I may have heard that in a Hollywood movie actually, but anyway stay with me). For example, Jo reckons hers is being able to smell if there's any sugar in tea without tasting it! Mine may be blowing individual 'spittle bubbles' off the edge of my tongue. Is there any money in that?? I need a planet whose economics and personal reward stuctures can accomodate such a unique gift ... any ideas?

Gunny and I, representing ... (May, 06)

Gunny and I, representing ... (May, 06)
Originally uploaded by Nick Seecharan.

477 appearances for Norwich City F.C. This man is a legend! Got a few other mobile phone snaps at my Flickr website ... Miles and Mum and Toby and Dobs ... you have to check out this SURREAL afternoon! There is a god!

And the MOST SURREAL part of the afternoon?? ... me alone .. in the showers with Dale Gordon and Jeremy Goss (he of "that volley" fame, against Bayern Munich in the Olympich Stadium) ... and them thanking me and scooting butt naked (obviously) over to my mine when I told them mine was the only hot one left (I left ... obviously .. although they are my heroes .. should I have stayed ... George Costanza moment .... arrrrrrrrrrrrrgh)