Anti-spam upgrades

I’ve been having loads of problems with comment spam, so I’ve been upgrading to the latest few versions as they come out, and I’ve also installed the MT-Blacklist and NoFollow plugins. I’ve set the blog to mostly dynamic publishing, too, which should (a) reduce the load on the server, and (b) solve the rebuilding problems I’d been having. Hoorah!
Back in the ‘real world’, I’ve just started one of my OU courses for this year, and will be starting the other at the weekend. No, I’m not completely insane (only partially) for doing more than one course at once: the music course is a 30-pointer*, and the web design course is a 12-week 10-pointer, which will be followed by two more of the same starting in May then October. Which will give me the standard 60 points for the year, all going well :-) They all count towards my degree as well as the web courses being part of the Web Apps Development Cert.
It’s also occurred to me… I didn’t actually mention on here that I’ve moved, did I? Which is a bit remiss of me, since it was a fairly big move: in September of last year I came back down here to Hastings, the old home town. And it’s very nice to be back, too. :-)
Anyway, that’s about it for now. I should be posting much more often from now on, though, now I’ve got the study-journal thing set up, and this year’s courses have started again.
* 120 points is the equivalent of one year’s full time university study.

TMA anxiety

So, I’ve been getting a bit worried, since I haven’t had my final TMA (08) for A214 back. And, it was the big non-substitutable, worth-24%-of-the-coursework, you’ve-gotta-have-this-one-or-you-fail assignment. It’s been a month since the final exam, and nearly 2 months since I sent it in, and no sign of it getting back to me, or showing up on my course record online. Urk!!
Yesterday, I rang the OU. They reckon they haven’t had it. Oh dear oh dear. So I tried calling my tutor, but she was out. Left a message. This morning: phew! She’d left a message for me saying that she certainly has had it, marked it, and sent it off, and she’s horrified that they seem to have lost it. She did say she thought there was a problem with my Student ID number (I’d written the wrong one on the cover form), so I guess that might be where the problem happened. Maybe they’re sitting on it somewhere in Milton Keynes? Still, she’s going to call me back again this evening with my mark, and she can send them a copy of the mark sheet, so yay! I would have liked to see her comments on the paper itself, but maybe it will get back to me in the end. Right now, I just want my mark sorted in time for the final result! Eeep *g*.

Exam nerves!

I’ve got my exam for A214 tomorrow morning. Um. Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeek!!! Also, I have a cold. Lovely. Still, hopefully I’ll be feeling a bit more with it tomorrow. And if I’m not? Well, hopefully I’ll still do well enough to pass, even if I don’t get a brilliant mark. I just need to do well enough, really, so that I can get the diploma at the end of next year. That’ll be just fine :-)
And now, it’s back to the last minute revision! I’m not trying to madly cram, but I am skimming over what I hope is the most useful and relevant stuff. Wish me luck!…….

Just back from Summer School

Just back from my OU Summer School – had the most excellent time! So this is a shout out to my fellow A214-ers, just in case any of them happen to wander this way. :-) See, I made it home without falling asleep once!
I really am going to make this into a study journal. Even though I’m 3/4 of the way through this year’s course already. *cough* I just have to finish the redesign of this site, move the files to the new location and transfer the domain over…. oh, and change this blog over to Moveable Type. I’ll get around to it. Honest.