“Hello, world!”

Lockdown may have warped perceptions of space and time,

we might all appreciate them a little more once our individual

normalities return.

Or, maybe not….

Maybe “normal” is still a little ways-off yet.

After two-weeks of A/L and as new academic year approaches, I have decided to create a personal website for the first time and blog (maybe) once per-month, but we will see how that goes….

In-part, it seems to be a rather effective way of demonstrating and tracking achievements, both academic and personal. But, can also serve as an informal version of my Cardiff University page for any students in the 20/21 academic cycle who may wish to understand my particular areas of interest without having time on-site in Cardiff COMSC for a chat, or the inclination to read any of my available work.

So, hello to you if you are a student looking for a little more information about who you might be engaging with this year!

Super excited to see what the new academic year brings - the people, the hard-work, hard-fought defeats and hard-won successes!

Whichever you encounter remember to,

Reflect, renew and go-again!

My preference for a reflective framework is that of Borton (1970), "What?", "So What?", "Now What?" as the rather broad parameters each of these open questions allow for more freedom prompting deeper reflections, I find, once one sets about writing.

Renew, refers to the need to recalibrate. Once you have encountered a success or a failure there is a need to reflect, as identified, then renew ones motivations and look to the next objective. Take stock, rest if needed and plan-plan-plan. SMART objective setting (defining Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-specified outcomes) is very helpful, I find.

Go-Again - because resting and procrastination will only get you so far you must act!

Whilst I don’t know what MSc modules I will be supporting yet in this coming academic cycle, I am always happy to take queries via the links given on my contact page and will endeavour to signpost onward if I do not know the answers.

I think my next blog post will be related to my own experiences of undertaking an MSc level course at Cardiff University (but I am open to any other suggestions).

Continue to stay safe!

See you on the other side ^_^

NB//

A little code to accompany the title (I have a preference for Python, you may notice):

greeting.py

def hello_greeting():
	'''  function returning the string "hello"  '''
    	return "hello"

scope.py

def greeting_scope():
	'''  function returning the string "world"  '''
    	return "world"

greetingANDscope.py

# imports acquiring functions we have written in the modular files
from greeting import hello_greeting

from scope import greeting_scope


# assigning variables with values of the functions return statements
h = hello_greeting()
w = greeting_scope()

# using the in-built print function with variables as established above
#   the second concatenated with the string "!"
print(h, w + "!")

Run greetingANDscope.py and we should see in the Terminal (or cmd):

hello world!