I’ve decided to completely overhaul my site structure and operate from one page. This blog will no longer be updated but will remain as an archive that can be reached from my new front page at interactive wearables.
…and it’s still not over.
This week got off to a bad start, on Sunday night at 23.30ish my son woke me to tell me he was in a lot of pain, this quickly developed into a pain that had him doubled up and screaming. I’ve never seen anyone in such pain and I’ve witnessed drug free childbirth! Our wonderful health service decided that this didn’t qualify for an ambulance so I had to get him into the car and drive him to hospital myself. When I pulled up at A&E an ambulance crew came over to help.
A few hours later he was stable but in serious pain still, even on morphine. It looked like appendicitis but over Monday and Tuesday the pain seemed to settle then subside. The doctors weren’t totally convinced it was his appendix and operations to have a look were scheduled and cancelled a couple of times before a decision was made on Wednesday to send him home. It was put down to an infection in something (!) near the appendix, probably stemming from a sore throat he had the week before. I find that difficult to understand, the level of pain was so bad but then again, I’m not a doctor.
I’ve made a complaint to the ambulance service over the refusal to send out an ambulance so I’ll blog about that in the future. I’ll be contacting my MSP as well. That decision was an absolute disgrace.
Other things of note this week – I started my new job at DJCAD as IMprints research project technician. I can’t wait to get stuck into this role, it’s going to be fantastic working on the project and getting more time creating in CAD and in the jewellery workshop. I’m not sure how much, if any, I’ll be able to blog about my work on the project, time will tell.
I’ve also changed my car this week, the old one was starting to develop one fault after another, it was at that time when it’s a case of throwing good money after bad. I had intended replacing it with a smaller car to keep running costs down but got a bigger diesel instead. More mpg and less tax so it’ll be a saving in the long term. It’s also big enough to get my bike in the back so that’ll make it easier to take it with me and keep it secure. It’s a Citroen Berlingo (the car not the bike!)
More regular blogging soon, stick in!
Dougie
…I knew that I hadn’t posted here for a while but didn’t realise it’s been so long. I’ll have to remedy that very soon and get more posting done here.
In the weeks since I last posted I’ve been very busy on the MDes and I’ve got a new job although I’ve not got a formal start date yet. I’ll post about that when I know more.
I think my site is due for another overhaul, the blogs need tidied up and reorganised and I think I need a new front facing page. I’m thinking of putting the interactive wearables pages back on the front line as I want to try and create a commercial image. I think I may be looking at working on Rhino a lot more and am hoping to get work CAD from designers, creating CAD models from their designs.
More soon
Dougie
I’ve been busy over the last day or two changing my main site from a MS frontpage built html monstrosity into a slightly better WordPress based collection of stuff.
Making up some image galleries made me realise that, apart from course work, I’ve produced very little jewellery in the last 3 years and how I’ve produced even less drawings and paintings.
Anyway, the result is that I’ve got a little corner of the web that links to all my other blogs, has a little bit of information about me and shows some images from the past 8 years.
All the best for 2012
Dougie
…I’ve been ignoring this blog. I’ve been really busy over on the Masters blog because that’s all I’ve been doing recently. The MDes is keeping me really busy, I expected it to be intense but I’m still a bit shocked at the level of intensity.
To be honest it’s all very new and a bit of a culture shock to me as a jeweller, even though I have moved across the design spectrum quite a bit since writing the undergraduate dissertation. In the last couple of weeks I’ve written more notes than I did in the whole of 2nd and 3rd year. That might seem a little shocking but considering I didn’t see the relevance of the 2nd year lectures and most of the 3rd year one’s ’til it was too late it’s a little easier to see why I didn’t take many notes then.
If I’m not here too often you’ll find me on the other blog
A blog post from Honey Build, everything you wanted to know about Selective Laser Sintering but were afraid to ask. SLS is, I think, the favoured technology for 3D printing in metals and glass. This Honey Build post describes the process and subsequent processes depending on the material.
image credit Vladmir Bulatov
Monday the 12th of September sees the beginning of the Master of Design course at Duncan of Jordanstone. To document the coursework and my progress I’m starting another blog There will also be a link to it from my homepage. In other news I’ve also been given another contract by The Adam Smith College, Fife and am teaching 3 non-vocational jewellery design classes a week until June 2012. It’s going to be a busy year!
4th years will be starting serious dissertation writing by now, here are some tips from me.
1 Use loads of notes, keep track of them using post-its or cue cards
2 Save files often, keep back-ups (On a pen drive or even 2!)
3 Keep a (digital) rolling bibliography, don’t leave it ’til last.
4 Keep track of images and tables.
5 Learn how to use the ‘track changes’ function in Word, it’s great for editing drafts.
6 Don’t get hung up on word counts, but keep track.
7 Re-read your work often.
8 Set realistic targets for getting writing done, planning is everything.
9 Get it proof read by at least 4 people
10 Aim to finish at least 10 days before your deadline, relax, get some final proof reading done and get it printed.
11 If you’re doing questionnaires to get research data, do them on-line, that more than tripled my response rate.
Good luck – final tip – don’t stress in silence about it if it isn’t going well, talk to someone about it.
I’ve been messing around with Rhino for a few days, some images from the results, a couple of rings and a QRoffee table!
I’ve all but completed the site pages re-shuffle and now operate from a ‘homepage’ rather than use this blog as a front. I’ve removed some blog pages and replaced them with site pages (CAD, About, Contact). I’ve also added a new ‘Services’ page. Not sure it will get me any work but it’s time to start getting a web presence related to an income. I also think that trying to get CAD work is the best way to get CAD experience. As things develop I may add a library of CAD ‘products’ in an on-line shop environment but I’m expecting the M.Des to keep me busy so that might take a while. You can visit the new front page by clicking the red link in the sidebar.
The M.Des begins in September and I’m I’m really looking forward to it, even though there is also a feeling of trepidation at the prospect! I had a letter last week telling me I’ve been awarded a William Sangster Phillips award which, apart from a fee waiver, helps me out with finances over the year. This is a huge thing for me, I doubt I’d have managed a full time course without it.