Dissertation Reflections

Dissertation and idleness. Those are the two extremes on what has very much been a sliding scale of emotions and productivity for me over the last couple of months. Before the idleness, however, came the 'Big D' and I think that enough time has elapsed for me to be able to properly reflect on it.

It was a curious experience for me. The biggest hurdle was getting over the disappointment of not enjoying my dissertation as much as I thought I would. When I set out to 're-think liability for defective products' back at the start of fourth year, I had the genuine belief that I could make a valuable contribution to the product liability debate. I set myself up for a fall. 

The Beauty of the Past

This post is five years in the making. To be completely accurate, it is five years and nine days in the making. On December 23rd 2008 I opened a Notepad file on my laptop and started to write about my day. The event that set me off was the messy capitulation of a high school romance; a break-up that I oddly owe so very much to, in hindsight. Every day from that moment on I would write an entry, some longer than others, in what would be called 'Diary of a Boy'. Between that youthfully painful day and the 27th of May last year I typed thousands upon thousands of words, as I mapped out four and a half very important years of my life.

The Great Delusion

It was pointed out to me the other day - in fact, on many occasions - that my posts are usually quite bleak affairs. This is partly by design and partly a reflection of what my mood is when I write, particularly recently. If it's not been one thing that's been getting me down recently, then it's been another thing. Then I read a book: a book that has shifted my view of things ever so slightly.

Night Time, Write Time

The title is cheesy but it rhymes - what more do you want? I got in about half an hour ago after being at the pub with a few mates and thought that I might be able to get a little bit of the work that I've got to get done for tomorrow out of the way. I picked up said work and put it down almost immediately, safe in the knowledge that it will still be there in the morning. What, then, is the next best thing to do when I can't be bothered doing university work? Blog of course - it's been a while since I've had a good proper ramble about nothing in particular.

One Month Down

I'm running through a forest. I'm running away from something - but I'm not sure what. I keep stumbling over tree stumps and tree branches are lashing me in the face, cutting new cuts and deepening old ones. I know my legs are below me - how else would I be getting anywhere? - but I can't feel them and have to rely on guesswork as to where I'm putting my feet. Something warms breathes down my neck like the heat from the back of a city bus. I recognise the pungent smell but I can't quite place it - I've smelt it before, I know I have. Then I see the end of the forest, the light in the distance slashed by the trees that stand between me and potential freedom. My legs are still going, somehow, and my heart seems to be the only thing in my body that is functioning - how many beats per minute is normal? The edge gets closer yet still seems so far away, the pungent smell and warmth of a thousand ovens still close behind me. Then I burst out of the forest into the daylight. It's raining but I'm sodden from my own sweat and tears so I hardly notice. As I stumble to a stop I turn instinctively to look back into the deep darkness that lays behind me. But nothing is there, just the rustle of the trees in the soft wind and a few broken branches that I left in my wake.

I Can't Get No Satisfaction

One of the weirdest parts of my recent essay writing was the prevalent fear of plagiarism. There was this constant guilt that I was writing something that I hadn't come up with but when I read over things again I had given everyone the credit they deserved and the only times I hadn't was when it was a 'commonly known fact'. I found that phrase before I properly started writing to make sure that I was footnoting everything and everyone that I should, while also being very wary of avoiding footnoting everything. 'OH! I've used a full-stop, who was the first person to ever use a full stop?' - you get the picture. Oddly enough, this post is not even about plagiarism but the fact that I used a Rolling Stones lyric as my title got me thinking about it. So I'm going to give them the credit they deserve by putting the song below. It also means that you can listen to it as you read the rest of this ramble!

I Think it Might be Christmas

Well this feels odd. I'm not using Times New Roman,  double lines spacing or footnotes. I mean I could but I don't thing that would be much appreciated by a readership who have been starved of my words for so very long. I know you've missed me and I've missed you as well! In my absence, my browser had forgotten my log-in details and, somehow, this blog has now had more than 10,000 views. It's nice to know that it's still alive somewhere on the internet.

Anyway, I've just come off the back of getting to the point in my essay writing mission that I planned to get to before Christmas so I thought I would put down a few, slightly less formal, words for you. If I can't do it now when can I?