hello again
Well, this is it -- I am finally approaching the last days of my life as a student, albeit with equal parts dread and excitement. I can't wait to start working. And yet I know that once I do, I'll admittedly want to retreat into the cushioned nine-month continuum that is the academic year. No more three-month summer holidays. [Sniff] No more month-long winter breaks. [Sniff] Welcome to a life of up-at-seven, five days a week (possibly more? Save me), too many days a year. Sniff.My dissertation has gone pretty much exactly as I had hoped, and I am pleased. I am especially thrilled with my gorgeous title page, which was supposed to take only about three minutes to look that way, had my department actually sent us a template that worked. I had to code it myself -- and I know what you're thinking: you're thinking, 'How difficult can making a title page be? You go to Oxford, for God's sake' -- but when you're dealing with a typesetting program as (apologies) anal as LaTeX -- this ain't WYSIWYG Microsoft Word, folks -- nothing is easy. The coding took over an hour. An hour! But it does look lovely, if I may say so myself, complete with Oxford logo, and typographically perfect spacing.
Enough banging on about the title page. Content-wise, I'm satisfied, although the word count was so stingy that I would have gone on researching if I felt like I could actually condense everything into 12,000 measly words. (I couldn't.) It seemed a shame to have to omit intriguing results for the sake of a word count, so I didn't. My dissertation, at its final draft -- not final copy -- stands at approximately 18,000 words and 96 pages. I can't wait to submit it. The research (to me) was exciting, but I fear that not everyone will find insured loss modelling all that thrilling. You can't please everybody, I guess.
On a completely unrelated topic...
I realised that the reason why I couldn't understand why anyone would want to have children was because I actually don't know that much about being a mother -- not that it matters at a ripe old age of 23, of course. But it intrigues me, and I am a willing and able student. I bought a book -- so it's not Dr Spock, but who cares -- that will hopefully address some of my fears and answer some of my questions. I like to be prepared, even if it means being prepared five-odd years in advance.
The DVD player in my flat is brilliant. I rented Legally Blonde and its sequel last week, which were thoroughly enjoyable -- and yet totally preposterous -- films. But it made me realise that I have a bit* of Elle Woods in me, which is somewhat frightening.
I have given up on houseplants, as I seem to murder each and every one of them. Therefore I have resorted to more solar-powered plastic plants from Japan -- which, I might add, are truly adorable. Oh yes. We live in a technological world. Plants ought to be part of that world.
The autumn/winter collections seem to be a compendium of the worst trends we've had in the past half century: ridiculously tapered-leg denim, shapeless tunics, patent (patent?!), patent shoes, patent ankle boots, patent ankle boots worn with knee-length dresses, six-inch patent platforms, cocoon-shaped coats, parkas (eeew), and gold chains. I have been searching unsuccessfully for a pair of simple cherry red mid-height court shoes. This ought to be easy, especially in one of the fashion capitals of the world. But this is perhaps precisely the problem: everything, being trendy as hell, is platformed. Or ankle-booted. Or patent. How dreadful.
My actuarial exam last month -- yes, I realise that this is turning out to be the most random collection of thoughts, but forgive me please, as I've been fairly reclusive for the past month until now -- went well and I shall remain cautiously optimistic. I apparently learnt all of Stochastic Methods in Finance (a final-year undergraduate course at university) in two hours flat, on the night before the examination. And it was actually incredibly interesting, although quite a chore at the time.
That's enough for now -- it is time to have dinner. I will be back soon -- very soon, if all goes as planned with the dissertation...
*Actually, that might be a bit of an understatement.
L'Esthete @ 19:37
