Mr-F.org

Today I was lucky enough to be graded in Karate again. Since the club I attend is small, grading sessions haven’t in the past happened as regularly as might be expected. From a personal point of view this isn’t such a bad thing since I’m not really interested in collecting the belts, but more interested in the general fitness, agility and the art form of Karate, although the ability to defend one’s self might also be handy to know. Anyway, it is nice from time to time to know that you are improving and so when grading sessions do occur it’s always worth comparing yourself to how you were when you achieved your current grading.

Last time I managed to “double grade” which is to jump a level in the kyu system from 9th to 7th. This time I was aiming for 6th kyu, but was informed that I hadn’t managed this. After a short pause my sensei informed me that actually I managed to double grade again and achieved the standard for 5th kyu, a little shocked to say the least. I should explain the whole process of grading, it isn’t like normal tests. It’s not a case of turn up on the day and pass a set of predefined tests. Grading is actually a constant process in which you are constantly being watched, your performance and progress continuously being evaluated throughout all training sessions. This means you should be performing at the desired level way before you even attending a grading session. From my understanding the grading session itself is used to add a little bit of pressure to see how well you can perform certain techniques and just to confirm your instructions view that you are ready to move up. Furthermore it provides a formal place to recognize people’s achievement and progression within the club. I’m happy to also state that everyone else managed to grade at least to the grade and one other member also double graded.

So I would like to say thank you to sensei Chris for all his time and instruction in these session. I know your job is particular demanding making attending the sessions sometimes difficult, but we all really appreciate your time and teachings. Also congratulation to everyone else that attended the grading session on their new grade.

A while back I mentioned that I was approached to setup a training course for programming psychology experiments. I spent a considerable amount of time researching the best approach for this, putting together some resources and drawing up a plan of attack of how I would potentially approach teaching this. The biggest challenge faced with is the fact the majority have absolutely no experience or concepts of programming and that the course duration would be very short, less than a week. So after a lot of work I presented some findings and heard nothing more. I decided that it was just one of those bright ideas that someone had and just wanted to get some information, but that is was never really going to go anywhere.

A couple of months back I was approached with the very same concept, setup and run a training course to teach not only staff but also students how to program. I listened, nodded and smiled in the appropriate places. After they finished they asked for my views to which I pointed out that I already had been asked to investigate this previously but nothing came from it. They looked a little confused, but went away. I thought nothing more of it, until I heard on the grape vine that it had been brought up in a department meetings. Shortly after that meeting I had another two visit one from the head of the department and another academic asking if I would look into this and come up with a plan.

So I pulled the files from moth balls and re-worked the contents a little. Filled in some of vague details, and suggested a new method for providing contents to the course attendees (not gonig to call them students since half of them would be the lectures of the department). After that I fired it off to the two members of the department that asked for it, and though not much would come from it. Half an hour later I’d had a reply saying this looks great lets see if we can get some money and also look into the possibility of offer this out to other users not just our department. Today I just got another reply from the other member of staff pretty much saying exactly the same thing. So I guess this means it’s a go this time round.

No seriously I’m on fire, oh and my brain is slowly oozing out of my ear. The last two days have been I’ve been coding like a mad man, taking eight different projects from zero to hero. It’s been mad, mental, crazy, hellish……well ok hellish might be a bit far. I’ve enjoy the challenge and whilst working on all these projects at once it’s been dare I say fun. Though having said that I’m starting to pay for the massive amount time spent non-stop infront of a screen and the mental drain of juggling the various different projects and programming languages in my poor little brain. In the words of Scotty “she cannae take any more” so I’m switching the brain off and heading down to the pool to phsyically drain my body with some serious lengths and unders and overs and giving the ol’ grey matter rest.

I was asked a month ago to setup a new website for the start of December for a conference the department was holding in 2010. I thought it was a little early to set something up, but who am I to reason why. So at the start of December the site was ready to rock and roll. Well when I say ready to rock and roll I mean the design was ready, but I’m still waiting for the contents. This has made me think what all the rush was about in the first place, but hey at leasts it is done now.

Actually even though I wasn’t too happy about having to work with the purple colour I think it’s come out alright in the end. Just wish the guys in service could have sorted out the link I’d ask for rather than the silly redirect that they’ve opted for. Just in case you want to look around the site http://www.kent.ac.uk/dfp2010, though remember it’s just the sturcture and style you’re looking at, not the contents since they still haven’t provided that information yet.