Ears of Practise

Do my ears hang low? Can I swing them to and fro? Can I tie them in a knot or tie them in a bow? Can I swing them over my shoulder like a regimental soldier? Do my ears hang low? The answer to all of these questions is a resounding yes. For those of you that have known me for a while or even only a few months, you will know that my lugs are quite interesting creatures. I can't recall a social setting where my ears haven't been the topic of discussion, whether it be for their size or the fact that I can wiggle them 'to and fro'. They are not quite as protruding as they used to be but they are still one of my most distinguishing features - along with my dashingly good looks (line = crossed). When I look at old photo albums (which by the way is one of the best ways to spend your time) I see the same ears that I see every morning in the mirror in all of their glory. Of course they are the same ears - I've not had a transplant - but they have also been the same size for the last 10 years of my life. You know when you were younger and you got some clothes for your birthday that didn't quite fit and your Mum said you would grow into them? Well that's what I've had to do with my ears. The reason why I've given you this (potentially boring) background is because I've noticed recently that I'm hearing more and using them to better effect than ever. The power of the ears, along with your other faculties of course, cannot be underestimated and here's why. 

To Trust or Not to Trust - The Power of Wikipedia

Somehow I managed to get through all of my years at high school without ever having to produce a bibliography. When I tell people this they glare at me and I can feel their leer burn my face but I'm not sure why. I was of the mind that if I knew my stuff then I wouldn't have to look anything up and therefore I wouldn't have to cite anything. It's a very unprofessional way of writing essays as I am coming to realise, but then again it seemed to work pretty well for me. The thing is that I can't get away with that anymore. At university there is too much stuff sitting in books that you don't know for you to be able to get by on only the 'stuff' that you do. If I was to hand in an essay to any one of my tutors that hadn't been properly referenced then there is a good chance I would get pulled up for plagiarism and then swiftly put out on my ear by the powers that be. The thing is that it would have been far from deliberate but because I'm reading so much material now that it's sometimes hard to tell which words are mine and which aren't. As a result my essays are a minefield of footnotes, stapled firmly to a bibliography. I actually don't mind writing this type of essay. If anything I'm enjoying it more than the usual splurge of text that I would punt out for every essay in high school. However it is a time consuming business which brings me on to the topic for this post: Wikipedia. There has hardly been a piece of work that I've done since coming to university which I haven't started at Wikipedia for. We're not allowed to reference it (if one more teacher tells me this then I may flip) so why do I bother using it? I'll tell you why...

No Regrets, They Don't Work

You are defined by the things you do, not by the things you don't do. Regret is a funny word that annoys me when I hear people say it. It's a feeling that we all get (and hate) but when people say that they regret not doing something, it gets on my nerves. I don't regret anything and you'll never hear me say that I do simply based on the fact that what is done is done. It takes a lot for me to write a truism like that as well (for example: if it rains, it rains) because they really annoy me but this one actually means something. History is the stuff that is behind is and we can't shape or change. What we can do however is move on and learn from mistakes instead of regretting them. That is all well and good but the hardest thing about that is the fact that you have to learn to move on and for some people that is almost impossible.

A Society Slip or Just a Good System?

I'm at a great age where nothing ever seems to surprise me. I've not seen enough to be able to call myself 'experienced' but at the same time, I've got my senses switched to 'alert' permanently so I'm always aware of change. The reason why I say this is that I had lost faith in kids. I may well be young but (legally - yes it was only a matter of time before I started to do that) I'm an adult and certainly mature enough to look upon minors with a critical eye. I probably started to do this in the last couple of years of high school when I went from 4th year to being grown up in the space of a summer (the same of which can't be said for all of my peers though). You return to school with your shirt and tie on and (especially in 6th year) you feel so much older than all of the younger students. I can only vaguely remember being in 1st year, no recollection of 2nd year and then 3rd and 4th just melted into one big multiple choice exam. The last two years of high school are the ones that mean something to me and one of the reasons is that I was able to 'look down' as it were, on the lower year groups. I flag this because of a news report I saw on the TV last week about the number of modern language assistants in Scotland being reduced to save money. A few students were asked their views on the matter and one of them made me sit up in my seat. He said that his language assistant actually taught him the subject instead of showing him just how to pass the exam - faith restored in a single 10 second clip. In general, we are taught how to pass exams and nothing beyond that: I give you my first 'World on Wednesday' post.