(no subject)
This week has been very stressful. I woke up on Friday morning without the ability to stand, and was screaming for help for so long that I think I almost certainly managed to wake up the entire neighbourhood. I hate doing that, but it is unfortunately a matter of survival. While I do not exactly enjoy my life, I was not really ready for it to end right then. I have a commitment to finish this university assessment, and whether I like it or not, I have to finish it. But I have been having problems with my blood glucose levels all week, and I am beginning to wonder if maybe I should start taking the Risperdal tablets again in order to stop my brain from exhausting its glucose supply. In any case, I am really worried about my health. I have been carrying a spare tire around my gut for so long that I honestly forgot what it is like to not have one. Anyway, I turned up to uni again, and brought my camera just in case. The leader said that the other two people in the group probably would not turn up at all that day. Luckily, she was half wrong. The other woman that we expect to be in front of the camera turned up, and we filmed a good amount of footage.
I must say that she turned out to be a bit better at reciting her lines than our leader has, but that is pretty natural. Some people are fine in front of the camera, and some are not. I tend to mumble and stutter whenever I am in front of the camera. Sometimes I have trouble even remembering what I was supposed to be talking about, and just go off on a wild tangent. But the fact is that we are starting to get somewhere, and we might even have this arsehole of a project finished by the due date. Wonders will never cease. I must admit, though, that I am a bit worried about the next semester. Originally, I was going to quit right away, and heaven knows what possessed me to stay this long, but now I kind of want to meet up with the same people again because I am at least partly familiar with them. There is nothing worse for me than trying to communicate with complete strangers. We will have to wait and see. This coming Wednesday, I have to go and see the disability services officer and ask him about enrolment options. I must admit that the prospect of travelling all the way into Brisbane and making my way to the university fills me with dread. Maybe I am worried about nothing, but I do not know. Having only been in Brisbane for three months, I am still lost a lot of the time.
Edit - June 6, 2009: The group I am in, or rather three of us, have made some tentative plans to put together more footage. As I was planning to go into Brisbane on the Wednesday, we will probably meet up then and go to film some footage in our team leader's home. This worries me somewhat, because from what I understand her home is a small place, which means it may get a bit cramped when the camera and tripod are in there. Granted, it will not get as cramped as is the case when one is trying to film with a 35mm film camera, but the ability of a camera to take up space is really quite legendary. I have never filmed in a cramped space before. Oh well... we will see what happens.
Edit - June 11, 2009; 0215 hours: I made the (long) trip into the Kelvin Grove campus yesterday. I know it is silly for me to complain about making lengthy trips into the Brisbane area when I used to live near to three hours North of there. But when I used to make trips down to Brisbane from that area, I always had at least someone with me who could prop me up if my blood sugar levels crashed (which they frequently did). The first thing that happened to me when I arrived at Roma Street was a parting of my vision - I literally saw double so much that I was unaware I was seeing double until I emerged on one of the outside streets. Eventually, I walked back into the station and found my way to the McDonald's there. Rather than eat a burger or one of their breakfast muffins, I instead went right to the source for my sugar rush and ordered a Strawberry thickshake. After drinking that up, I decided against taking any insulin to curtail the sugar rush, in spite of how I knew that was going to dry me out later. I wanted to have blood glucose to spare, especially since I had multiple businesses to conduct that day. The first thing I did was to make the long walk to my team leader's home. Or at least, it seemed like a long walk, although everything seems longer when you are carrying multiple cameras and associated equipment, as well as having hyperglycaemia to worry about. Once there, we shot some footage of various scenes and disposed of the drink cans that I had specially brought with me.
Once that was all done, we returned to the university, where we parted ways. The team leader went to the computer lab whilst I got myself a drink from the cafeteria/food court and waited by the Equity Section. After waiting there a bit of a while, I met with the disability service officer who has been handling my case. We discussed options for subjects I can enrol in next semester. It is his honest opinion, apparently, that I should not enrol in more than two subjects at this point. According to him, two subjects is about twenty hours of work per week for most regular students, whilst students with a learning disability should add about ten hours to that figure. When I mentioned that I had a lot of downtime on the subject I did this semester that is now closing, he informed me that this was because I was likely not studying as much as I really should be. I cannot say I disagree with him about that. The amount of prior knowledge I brought with me to the subject was such that even if I had been stoned throughout classes, it would have been very difficult for me to not keep up. Not that I should rest on my laurels just yet - I still have a second assignment to pass that I am now tormenting myself by watching the raw footage for. This is what I will be cutting together and working on for the next few days. The deadline is coming this Monday, so I will have to be very vigilant.
Anyway, I just wanted to post this quick update so everyone knows that things are happening. Sort of. In closing, I offer the following words of wisdom: Time flies, even when you are not having fun.
I must say that she turned out to be a bit better at reciting her lines than our leader has, but that is pretty natural. Some people are fine in front of the camera, and some are not. I tend to mumble and stutter whenever I am in front of the camera. Sometimes I have trouble even remembering what I was supposed to be talking about, and just go off on a wild tangent. But the fact is that we are starting to get somewhere, and we might even have this arsehole of a project finished by the due date. Wonders will never cease. I must admit, though, that I am a bit worried about the next semester. Originally, I was going to quit right away, and heaven knows what possessed me to stay this long, but now I kind of want to meet up with the same people again because I am at least partly familiar with them. There is nothing worse for me than trying to communicate with complete strangers. We will have to wait and see. This coming Wednesday, I have to go and see the disability services officer and ask him about enrolment options. I must admit that the prospect of travelling all the way into Brisbane and making my way to the university fills me with dread. Maybe I am worried about nothing, but I do not know. Having only been in Brisbane for three months, I am still lost a lot of the time.
Edit - June 6, 2009: The group I am in, or rather three of us, have made some tentative plans to put together more footage. As I was planning to go into Brisbane on the Wednesday, we will probably meet up then and go to film some footage in our team leader's home. This worries me somewhat, because from what I understand her home is a small place, which means it may get a bit cramped when the camera and tripod are in there. Granted, it will not get as cramped as is the case when one is trying to film with a 35mm film camera, but the ability of a camera to take up space is really quite legendary. I have never filmed in a cramped space before. Oh well... we will see what happens.
Edit - June 11, 2009; 0215 hours: I made the (long) trip into the Kelvin Grove campus yesterday. I know it is silly for me to complain about making lengthy trips into the Brisbane area when I used to live near to three hours North of there. But when I used to make trips down to Brisbane from that area, I always had at least someone with me who could prop me up if my blood sugar levels crashed (which they frequently did). The first thing that happened to me when I arrived at Roma Street was a parting of my vision - I literally saw double so much that I was unaware I was seeing double until I emerged on one of the outside streets. Eventually, I walked back into the station and found my way to the McDonald's there. Rather than eat a burger or one of their breakfast muffins, I instead went right to the source for my sugar rush and ordered a Strawberry thickshake. After drinking that up, I decided against taking any insulin to curtail the sugar rush, in spite of how I knew that was going to dry me out later. I wanted to have blood glucose to spare, especially since I had multiple businesses to conduct that day. The first thing I did was to make the long walk to my team leader's home. Or at least, it seemed like a long walk, although everything seems longer when you are carrying multiple cameras and associated equipment, as well as having hyperglycaemia to worry about. Once there, we shot some footage of various scenes and disposed of the drink cans that I had specially brought with me.
Once that was all done, we returned to the university, where we parted ways. The team leader went to the computer lab whilst I got myself a drink from the cafeteria/food court and waited by the Equity Section. After waiting there a bit of a while, I met with the disability service officer who has been handling my case. We discussed options for subjects I can enrol in next semester. It is his honest opinion, apparently, that I should not enrol in more than two subjects at this point. According to him, two subjects is about twenty hours of work per week for most regular students, whilst students with a learning disability should add about ten hours to that figure. When I mentioned that I had a lot of downtime on the subject I did this semester that is now closing, he informed me that this was because I was likely not studying as much as I really should be. I cannot say I disagree with him about that. The amount of prior knowledge I brought with me to the subject was such that even if I had been stoned throughout classes, it would have been very difficult for me to not keep up. Not that I should rest on my laurels just yet - I still have a second assignment to pass that I am now tormenting myself by watching the raw footage for. This is what I will be cutting together and working on for the next few days. The deadline is coming this Monday, so I will have to be very vigilant.
Anyway, I just wanted to post this quick update so everyone knows that things are happening. Sort of. In closing, I offer the following words of wisdom: Time flies, even when you are not having fun.