So far, I’m a bit confused as to how these educational conferences are supposed to be better/different than tech conferences.  Other than the much higher conference fees that is.  Yesterday’s sessions didn’t begin until the afternoon – it’s really only 3 days worth of sessions spread over 4 days – and I obviously selected the wrong room/session for at least an hour of my day.  While the abstracts seemed interesting the presentations were scattered.  Little background was provided for international research (context people, context) and don’t get me started on the poorly constructed PPTs used in the sessions.

Granted, there is an equal amount of enthusiam and passion for their work in the ed conference as previously experienced in tech conferences.  However, there’s limited WIFI.  Scratch that.  There’s none that I’ve been able to find at this particular junction.  Borning PPTs = 3, Useful technology = 0.

I know we get rather attached to our own research but I’m a bit disappointed at the quality of response to questions and criticisms.  I thought the reasoning behind presenting work was to gain insight from peers.  Too many of the presenters I’ve seen to date are reacting as if any criticism of their methods or conclusions is a personal attack.  How can we learn and grow if we can’t remain objective?

Today I’m skipping the morning keynote and session B to attend to some errands.  Since most of my co-workers will be missing many of the weekend sessions – and since I’m attending as a student rather than a representative of my employer – I’m not feeling too guilty about it.  After all, ’twas I that paid the conference fees.

I’ve come to the conclusion that perhaps my expectations are a bit too high these days.  This evening my mark was returned for my Enviro Chem paper and I nearly cried.  It’s the lowest mark I’ve received on any assignment or paper since I returned to university (discounting the disasters that my exams always turn out to be).  Considering the struggles I have with understanding Enviro Chem, I shouldn’t be so surprised that my marks are – at least according to me this evening – substandard.

That said, I squeaked out an A- on my paper.  I have a feeling that I should be satisfied with it and continue moving forward in the hopes of improving as the weeks progress.  I’m just worried that if I can’t keep up a minimum 3.7/4.0 average that I won’t make it into grad school.  Scratch that.  I’m worried that I won’t make it to 3.7.  I’ve got two stinky 2.7s (B-)  and two 3.0s (B) on my transcripts from courses I completed before I transfered to RMC.  They haunt me.  I see B’s dancing around my head in my nightmares.

I’m feeling very overwhelmed at the moment.  Perhaps it’ll pass next week when I’m roaming the halls at ISSOTL.  I’m super excited about next week.  First, I’ve taken the whole week off so I can concentrate on school papers and assignments for a few days.  Second, I’m attending my first major education related conference.  I’ve been to a number of technical conferences over the years, but I’ve been told that an ed. conference is distinctly different.  Third, I’m a co-author (but not presenter) of one of the papers being presented at ISSOTL this year.  Yep, I have another notch on my curriculum vitae.  Perhaps this will motivate me to write a few other papers over the next few months to try and increase my publishing credits while I’m still working on my undergrad degree.

In a few days I’ll be registering for my winter courses.  Perhaps that explains my current feelings.  I checked my course plan this evening and see so many blank areas indicating courses left to be completed.  It’s like I’m swimming in glue.  I know I’m moving forward but it certainly feels like I’m treading water at the moment.

Worrying comes natural to me.  That said, I do need to get my butt in gear for my current courses.  I have two more papers and multiple assignments due before the end of the month.  Which brings me back to my happy feelings about the much needed days off next week.

I registered for ISSoTL today.  Thank goodness for student rates!  Despite the discount my visa is still smoking…It’s much easier to afford conferences when you’re not paying for school at the same time.

I checked my assignment schedule and have a Psych paper on the final day of the conference.  Guess I’ll have to be extra diligent and ensure that my paper is completed long before I step foot into the Shaw Conference Centre.  The location is pretty handy – I can take the LRT to the Shaw each day.

I’ve been to a number of professional and technical conferences but never to an academic one.  I’m quite looking forward to it.

I had this great fantasy planned for this week wherein I was going to post pictures of the garage building process and offer witty commentary.  It’s been so busy at work that I haven’t had a chance to pull the photos off my computer yet.  I’ll get around to it as soon as I start procrastinating during my exam study sessions.

Of course, since I was writing papers this past weekend, the bits of construction I saw are nearly entirely limited to the short breaks I took so I could take pictures of the guys working.  Rather than being witty, I’ll just make stuff up.

It works for my Enviro Chem class.

I wrote a nice big caveat on my last few papers explaining how I ended up just making stuff up based on how I “imagine” things would work and my limited understanding of the process.  Apparently, a semester of caveats works out to a 4.0 grade.  Too bad I have to drag my mark down by writing exams…

Mark wise, I’m better off going into my Enviro Chem exam than I am for my Psych class. I have 4.0’s in both, but there’s more wiggle room (percentage wise) in the EC course.

It’s also my older sis’ 36th birthday today.  Happy Birthday Roseanne (not that she reads my blog).  Unlike past years where I got her card in the mail bright and early, I was late sending it this year.  I’m not a complete cretin.  I did give her advance notice that it was going to be late.  Hey, it beats sending happy 30th birthday wishes to someone on their 29th birthday (yeah, I sent that card to my sis years ago).

My papers are finished and submitted.  Dr. Horrible has been purchased and watched repeatedly.  There’s an ex-con dinner planned for this evening.  Only one assignment left for Psych and one paper left for Enviro Chem before exam week in August.  My incredibly expensive text books and course packs for next semester have arrived and I’ve loaded the course packs into binders.  Sometimes it’s very depressing to see what 368$ buys you at a university bookstore…

To celebrate I’ll try to remember how to play a scale and grace notes.  Perhaps after a month I’ll at least be back to where I was before the summer of crazy papers and assignments nearly did me in.