Day 27: A Famous Doors Song

It's the last day!

Post mortem tomorrow.

Day 26: Ode to an Exam Beard

"Tomorrow" marks the Beard,
"Is the day I've often Feared"
He fondly remembers the start,
Bless his sentimental heart.

There is study and chat
of programming a Bat,
Tennis to play on Flash,
Phone keys wait to be mash.

But he knows what is near,
His nerves are on top gear.
The Call of The Gillette
taunts him with intent set.

Time was not the Beard's friend
Tomorrow the exams end,
Leaving his owner free
to waste time with bad poetry.

Day 25: Human Computer Inaction

HCI (Human Computer Interaction) today... nothing of particular interest here unless you want to know where computer programs come from (although your parents really should of been the ones to tell you). The real question today is whether to keep my beard after the conclusion of the exams. For the first time, the beard resembles a real beard. Do I dare leave it...

...then again it's beginning to annoy me.

Day 23 & 24: Zip be do dah...

In case you were wondering why I missed yesterday's blog post. I had a great plan that I would post it just before it turned midnight and it would the latest possible blog entry, but I didn't make it in time so I watched Youtube instead.

Nothing eventual this weekend, but my beard is looking nice. and I'm wearing a yellow T shirt. It truly is the summer.

Day 22: Internet! Internet! Internet!

I'm confused, a touch cold and have an exam in Internet Based Applications at 2. 

So for a bit of fun, I've change the font type, size and paragraph form of this blog entry. 

It's Arial now. A refreshing change of pace, firm minded yet welcoming. 

Surviving Exams is all about the little joys one can take from every day.

Day 21: Delaying Tactics

I finished tidying my room. This is a bad thing. It was the last productive thing I could do as a distraction from study. Now I'm left with the old standbys of TV and internet. While fun, they do lack that sense of urgency that makes them that bit harder to justify wasting a day's study. Maybe I should paint the walls...

Also less than a week till the end.

Day 20: Testing Times...

Today comes with two challenges. First, 3D Graphics and Modeling, then The Abbey Table Quiz tonight. After the mighty victory of last week for our team, The Sheepdogs, expectations are high. We have now entered Rocky III area. After great triumph, what next?

Easily the most important test of today.

Day 19: Look What They've Done To My Phong, Ma.

After spending today looking at Computer Generated Graphics and Animation, I've decided that in the future, should anyone ask me how your favourite Pixar film was made, they will get one of the two following answers.

1. It's Movie Magic

2. It's real. They are using a special type of camera.

While you may be disappointed, it will save time and not ruin your enjoyment of Monster Inc. with thoughts of "I wonder what illumination model is at work here. Is it Phong? Ray Tracing?"

Day 18: My Part in the World's Downfall

Today was an exam in Future and Emerging Technologies. (It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, but then it would of had to be 1000 thousand questions written in upside down Aramaic to be as bad as I thought it would be.) Afterward I watch Wall-e for the first time. I noticed many of the technologies depicted were on my course. so I like to feel at least responsible for the total destruction of Earth ecosystem that leads to two robots falling in love. Awww...

Day 17: How's it Growing?

In case you were wondering the beard is coming along nicely.

Day 16: Deja Views

Today study has been sluggish and at the moment, I'm watching Alien. Funnily enough the last time I watched Alien I believe was this day.

http://cethansbeard.blogspot.com/2008/05/day-3.html

In case you were wondering, I never did get Tom Skerrit's beard in the end. Perhaps this year...

Day 15: Weaken Weekend

Well the week of four exams is over. To review, it was really of more quantity than quality, but I did alright. I do have several regrets though.

1. I missed listening to Peace By Inches twice this week. One can only imagine the detrimental effect this will have.

2. I should of made more comparison between the Week of Four Exams to The Year of the Four Emperors (64 AD, Fact fans). It would of made a contrived but educational theme.

3. Getting chips instead of salad. I don't like salad, but the chips were awful.

4. Entering the Physics Lab. It was much cosier than my lab and has windows and everything. Returning to my lab was like leaving Johnny 5 from Short Circuit to live with HAL from 2001: a Space Odyssey.

If you are waiting for "I should of done more studying for exams." well I can't say I regret the time I didn't study.

Day 14: A Moment of Reflection...

No Exam today. So I thought I would take a moment to breath in and consider things... and currently two things are on my mind. 

Number One: It is really hot in this lab and I'll have to be here most of the summer. I may have melted come August.

Number 2: While thinking of good Al Pacino speeches, I realised old Alfredo James Pacino does not seem to have made a decent film since 2002, which is concerning. 

So ideally this summer, a good Al Pacino film and snow...

Day 13: Halfway There

Today is Exam Number 6 of 12, Audio and Sound Engineering, thus I'm marking it the half way point of the exams. During exams, the maths skills of everyone seems to get better. At a moment's notice, everyone can work what percentage they need to pass and what is the ratio of exams completed to exams overall.

Cripes! I just remembered I need a calculator today!

Day 12: Warning: Processed Images contain Trans Fats

First rule of preparing for a big exam like Image Processing: 

Don't accidently lock yourself out of the room you are doing your last minute studying and have left all your required documents.

Day 11: A Case of the Mondays

Today is the start of the longest week. Four exams... One today, tomorrow, the next day and Friday. I fear this week will age me before my years and I'll finish with a grey, but still not very long, beard.

Day 10: Reverse The Polarities!

Huzzah! My course proved itself to be useful last night. I went to see Coraline in 3-D last night (Great film, although it has a couple of lazy "use this handy magic object" moments). The 3D was acting funny. The foreground seemed to be behind the background and it was all quite fheadache inducing. But using my knowledge from Future and Emerging technogolies, I deduced that the projector was set up wrong (I would explain the problem better but I haven't revised that section yet)and by wearing the glasses upside down, the day was saved. Hurray for science!

Hopefully this will prove useful, in case of a question on the exam paper about The Jonas Brothers 3D Experience

In other news, My beard is filling out slightly and my phone won't tell me how much battery it has anymore.

Day 9: Sad Saturday Study

*yawns

Study is less than thrilling today. I need an inspirational mentor figure that believes in my abilty to process audio. Where is Robin Williams?

Day 8: Sir, Have You No Sense of Compression?

Digital Video Compression and Delivery is up today. Our patron saint of exams, Al Pacino once faced off with such problems outlined in the course in the awkwardly named S1M0NE. Here he is "error handling" as we say in the "biz". This video may contain helpful hints for my exam but alas I don't speak Spanish. Long term readers may remember I faced this problem two years with a S1M0NE clip, except it was in French. (I'm beginning to suspect I'm the only one on the internet who likes it in English.)

Day 7: Round 2

In preparation for today's exams in HTML, I went to the Abbey table quiz in the vague hope that it would have the exact same questions as my exam today, thus giving me all the correct answers. Whether it works or not, we'll soon find out. I'm not optimistic though, we didn't cover a lot of James Caan movies in the lectures.

Time for Al...   

Day 6: Do You Wish To Publish Your Result?

A brief respite from exams today, so I'm once again easily distracted. Each exam month seems to come with a specfic distraction that effects most people. For example, two years ago it was that program that told you what celebrity you looked most like from your photo (I was a dead ringer for Gary Oldman and any famous Asian woman in existence apparently). This year it's Facebook Quizzes, a giant influx of personality quizzes.

Seemly one for any hypothetical question you could pose yourself, such as If I was a member of the 1976 line up of the Beach Boys , Which Would I be?, these quizzes are addictive, but create a strange profile of yourself. Judging from my overall results, I'm a studious, depressive female hairdresser who in her spare time, writes heady literature while hiding in order to avoid being stabbed. Oh and I'm Swedish

Day 5: Firsties!

Today's exam, the first of many, is Authoring. This is basically writing code for Flash programs. Knowledge of which gives me the ability to create the Flash games and animations that have distracted students from study all last month (There may be an irony there, but as I'm not studying English today, I won't look for it.). 

It's the first day, my beard is mildly itchy and I need pep talk from Mr. Pacino...

Day 4: Forget Everything And Remember

Two things are presently concerning me. My moustache seems to be invisible (I can feel it, but I cannot see it.) and exams begin tomorrow.  I've yet to feel the FEAR! but nerves are beginning to seep in. I know it will be fine but sometimes I have moments of doubt, I lie awake thinking, "Damn, will I ever have a good moustache?"

Day 3: A Beard... So Far?

In Bearding growing there is stage which no one likes, A no man zone if you well. It's known simply as the "fuzzy" stage. It doesn't have that Don Johnson cool of Stubble and it, sure as heck, isn't a beard. You just look like you haven't washed your face, or worse yet, It looks like you're trying to grow a beard. Less hardy men abandon it at this point, but I made a commitment, darn it.

Day 2: Tripping Over Time

Stubble is looking visible in the neck area, not so much elsewhere. The face feels like low grade sandpaper. One hopes there will be some progress before the first exam.
Incidentally I fell foul of one of the most common mistakes that students make and that is misreading their timetable. I believed that for some unclear reason, my exams started on Wednesday, not Tuesday. Many a college pupil has turned up at Neptune Stadium a day early (and worse yet late). They stand there, confused as to why they don't see anyone in their class there. They then take a few minutes to fumble through their bag, looking for a raggy timetable. Upon reading, they realise they wasted the €2 it cost to get there.
Fortunately I was corrected of this misapprehension in time. However it teaches the valuable lesson of even after four years of college, one still should know how to use a calender correctly.

Day 1: In The Beginning...

It's the First of May and the razor has been retired. 11 hours in, My face is stubbly in places and smooth in others (possibly as a result of a poor final shave, as opposed to irregular hair growth). A mostly unterrible start, although it may need to pick up the pace. This year it has the least time to grow, as I'm finished on the 27th, making this my shortest exam month. Fortunately to compensate, I have twelve exams, making this the most action packed beard blog yet. There may be expansive use of the Exclamation point this year.

Day 0: Never thought I'd be in this town again...

May is almost upon us (he wrote forebodingly). There will be exams, The weather will be unreasonably pleasant to distract from said exams. Energy drinks containing any number of mysterious plant extracts will be heavily promoted round campus. Finally I will grow an exam beard and document it.

For those of you joining us this year, The rules are as follows.
-I grow a beard from May the 1st to the day of the final exam (27th this year). Throughout this time period, I must not shave or trim it.
-I must write about it each day.
-Before each exam, Peace by Inches must be listened to.



That's it, I believe. Check back each day for updates.