Barrio Fiesta

So today my family and I attended Barrio Fiesta in Stevenage. This is the first Barrio Fiesta to be held there and I believe it was a success. So I look forward to many more. Barrio Fiesta (from what I gather) means town festival. For us Filipinos; this is a time in which we celebrate our nationality and heritage. There are rides, food stalls and performances. The stage features these entertainment segments and they are all delivered with a Filipino twist. These range from traditional dances, folk music and songs from Filipino artists. To give you a small taste; here is a video featuring one such traditional dance that involves coconuts.

Oh my that took ages to upload. And I cant seem to rotate it. I hope it'll do. My plan was to upload a second video featuring the parade. But I'll have to sort out the orientation first. In the mean time; enjoy the video.

There were lots of performances. There was even a little girl who sung a certain song from Disney's Frozen. A song who's name I shall not repeat as it has the tendency of getting stuck in my head. Unfortunately, after a few performances; it began to rain. But I stuck it out to watch some more.

The cold never bothered me anyway ;)

Paul G,

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GG, Well played

So after much anticipation, my Company Law grade finally came through. That morning; I woke up to find that I had apparently failed the module. Closer inspection revealed that my efforts at the final exam yielded a G. Needless to say; I got worried. I had no idea what G meant. All I know is that eVision stated that I had failed Company Law!

So it turns out that G means a "non-submission". This was difficult to believe as I DID turn up to the exam and I submitted a completed exam paper. Naturally, I called up the University to see what was going on. My presumption was that they had misplaced my paper. Calling the University directs my call to a help desk. Once there; I requested to be wired through to the Law department. After leaving my details and information about what I was after; there was not much else for me to do. Overall, it was pretty straight forward.

But to ease my conscious, I felt it was necessary for me to try and contact my lecturers directly.  I didn't know who to e-mail so I e-mailed everyone. And I mean EVERYONE. Someone then got back to me on the same day. Of this fact; I was very thankful. She said that I received a G due to the fact that the faculty was unable to locate my paper.  She went on to say that they found it in the end and that my grade will be amended after a couple of days. For my efforts; I received a B-

Peace of mind at last.

Paul G,
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Results Day

E-vision now features the results for everyone studying the 3rd year of LLB Law within the University of Bedfordshire. My initial thoughts of my grades were that it was average. I achieved a B+ in Equity & Trusts,  B in Evidence, and for E-commerce; I got a B+. One interesting thing to note is the fact that my results for Company Law are yet to be posted. I was made aware of the fact that everyone else's Company grades are up; but mine seems to be an exception to this consensus.

To segue from that, I've heard that a lot of people achieved low marks for their exams, lower than mine. I find this very hard to believe... and yet, apparently, its true. These students work hard. Most of them exert more effort than me. This then changed my outlook on my grades; it appears they were above average after all. This news makes me feel very undeserving. My current results, in conjunction with my performance in the previous years, gives me a forecasted grade of a very high 2:1. Its a border-line 1st class degree and the results for my Company Law exam or the good will of my lecturers may well tip it over the edge. This of course is subject to the accuracy of the University's award predictor; though I have no reason to doubt it.

But I digress. The point of the matter is; the work I do is minuscule in comparison to my fellow colleagues. They should be the ones getting high grades. When they partake in late nights studying; I am snug in my bed. When they surround themselves with books in the study spaces dotted around the University; I am at home playing video games. It is unjust for me to get higher grades than them :( Ive been asking around to see if anyone got good grades; maybe some of them will tell me they got good grades :D

Paul G,

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Job Hunting

So now that my course has practically finished (except for the actual graduation); I've been focusing more on job-hunting. Legal knowledge can apparently be applied to various different things. As an LLB student; your options are not limited to being either a solicitor or barrister. A world of possibilities are available. For instance; we could be a legal executive, legal secretary, paralegal and other jobs that may not seem to require legal knowledge at first glance.

For instance; this week, I attended a workshop kind of event in a new establishment over in Bedford. It was
owned by a company called European Oat Millers. From what I gathered from the talk; a new branch has recently been set up in Bedford and they need workers from all walks of life; so to speak. One of the open jobs they talked about was for "new product development" as well as something about packaging. They continued to talk about that fact that regulations and Laws need to be followed when designing new products.

Another thing to note about this company is because of the fact that they are interested in sourcing workers straight from the University of Bedfordshire (either for graduate jobs or placement years). This is very welcome news. If an employer WANTS to hire; your chances are greatly increased. And I intend to capitalize on this opportunity. On that note; I left them a copy of my CV (Note: always have a copy of your CV on you). Fingers crossed :)

Paul G,
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Cross Animals

Now that most of the activities for University have finally been completed; I have recently found myself with
more time than I can occupy. On that note; I picked up a copy of Animal Crossing: Let's Go to the City. You may have noticed that this blog was posted a tad bit late. This is due to the fact I left my laptop in my girlfriend's flat for the weekend. The same flat where my Wii is currently placed.

This of course leads to be late in both my blog post AND my duty to water the plants for the animals in Funky Town. So if any of you are mad at the concept of tardiness; so too are the animals.

On a more professional note; I saw one of my friends in Uni today. He had just finished his viva voce and gave me a heads-up on what approaches. He was allowed a PowerPoint presentation and was told that it is just a formality. So this makes me feel at ease. However, it also means that I have to work on my presentation some more now. But hey, I have time to spare so why not?

He was also wearing clothes that is more formal than what he normally wears so I reckon I'm going to go formal too. Anything to potentially make my childish presentation about gaming as formal as possible.

After his viva voce, he went out for a victory milkshake.

I too will have that victory milkshake soon!

Paul G,
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Finalés Funkeln

I have now finished all of my exams. All that remains is my viva voce. Apparently that's latin for "with living voice" or "word of mouth". Basically; this is when you present to your dissertation/thesis to your examiners. This is done orally so good communication skills and public speaking is definitely a plus.

From what I've heard, it is not compulsory to have a PowerPoint presentation with you. Although I can definitely see the benefits of being equipped with one. Having slides to lean on during a presentation means that you can have bullet points infront of you for your benefit. This results in you not omitting anything that is really important. I've always been taught that failing to plan equates to planning to fail; but that's a "glass-half-empty" kind of attitude!


Plan the work; then work the plan!


So on that note; I am definitely preparing one for mine. I'm not even too sure if my supervisor will allow it; but regardless: I'll make one anyway. One: because I have more free time due to my exams having been concluded. And two: because I like PowerPoints animating it to have awesome effects has a certain charm about it. I would highly recommend that everyone do the same.

Paul G,
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Examinations

I apologise for the inconsistency of posts these last couple of weeks. It's exam season and we're all studying hard. I have 3 exams left. Starting from tomorrow; I have an exam every day. And what's worse; my exam tomorrow is at 6pm in the afternoon! That means that the exam finishes at 8pm. So my plan is to stay up late for the sole purpose of having the ability to sleep in till noon. Then thats around 5 hours of revision time and leave the last hour prior to the exam to relax and calm your nerves.

If you are reading this; I suggest you do the same (if you dont already do). One of the biggest factors of decreased performance in exams are nerves. Take a moment to step back from all the knowledge osmosis you are trying to attempt: and just be. Keep your chin up and dont let the stress defeat you. For my exam a couple of days ago; the sun was actually out. During the last hour towards the exam; people were eqquipped ith their notes for some last minute revision. I on the other-hand was under the shadow of a tree, laying flat on the grass and playing with small pine-cones. Or whatever those things are:

The important thing is, although it might sound contradictory; the last thing you want to think about in the final hour prior to the exam: is the exam itself. It has something to do with your psychology or something. I'm no expert so I'm not going to claim I'm right. But I reckon that it stems from the fact that we used to need adrenaline whenever we were about to engage in combat. Obviously in this particular setting: adrenaline just acts as excess stimulants which might be detrimental to your cognition. But hey: thats just a theory: A PINE-CONE THEORY!... thanks for reading

Paul G,

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