dankarran.com > latest news > June 2004

June 2004 news

All over the place posted 23 Jun 2004 by Dan Karran [permalink] Today I get my final year results and degree classification hopefully. Whilst I am a little nervous about it, it certainly will be a relief to find out how well I've done over the past four years at university! Since my last exam almost 3 weeks ago I have been on a short holiday to Canada to visit a good friend of mine from my year working in London - giving me the opportunity to explore Toronto and Ottawa. Whilst in Toronto I got the chance to ascend the CN Tower, the tallest building in the world, to take advantage of the great views over the city. In Ottawa, there was a Trooping the Colours ceremony taking place, coincidentally on the same day as the London ceremony of the same name to celebrate the Queen's official birthday (which I went to last year). Whilst I was away I took quite a few photos, some of which will be going into my galleries very soon... After coming back from Canada and trying to readjust my sleeping patterns I travelled down to London to visit Royal Ascot for the final day of this years race meeting. Despite backing all the wrong horses I still had a great time although didn't manage to get any good photos of the event to share. After the racing I went back to London to watch the third Harry Potter movie, which I did like, though I have to admit I didn't like as much as the first too - it seemed to get a little silly at times. After getting my results, I'll be starting to pack up all of my stuff here in Manchester ready to move back to the Isle of Man for the summer in a weeks time. I'm really looking forward to spending some time back there, relaxing a little after what's been quite a busy year.

Last minute knowledge absorption posted 3 Jun 2004 by Dan Karran [permalink] With less than 9 hours until my last exam - called somewhat vaguely a 'General Paper' - I've been reading a number of magazines to try and get my mind working again ready to answer two essay questions in the morning. The questions are generally very open ended, with a couple of past ones that spring to mind being 'The world is not enough. Discuss.' and 'Location, location, location. Discuss'. These do actually tie in quite well to the content of the course as a whole and particularly this years module on Geographic Information Systems (GIS). Coming back to Manchester on Tuesday I bought Focus and Newsweek magazines to help give me some examples to use in the exams. They both looked interesting on the outside and also proved to have a wealth of interesting stories inside, along with many which may be useful for tomorrows exam - especially in Newsweek, like Making the ultimate map and A future with nowhere to hide?. Having read both of these magazines for the first time and enjoyed them both thoroughly, I think I may just have to buy these more regularly! On another note, I found out today that I've been granted funding from the Isle of Man Government for the masters I'm hoping to do next year - all I need to do now is wait to hear back from UCL about the course application...

A busy weekend in London posted 1 Jun 2004 by Dan Karran [permalink] This weekend I was down in London, taking a break after three exams last week - before I have to sit the final exam of my degree this Friday. Whilst it was a nice break, it wasn't exactly relaxing, as London never is. It did mean though, that I got to visit an exhibition that I'd read about a week or so ago - called New City Architecture, it is an exhibition about 21 of the the City of London's newest buildings. The exhibition was fascinating, especially after living in London for a year, seeing some of the buildings growing over the time I was there (like the 'gherkin' which I travelled past each morning on the way to work). Later on Sunday I went to see the crowds screaming for the European Premier of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban in Leicester Square, although were unfortunately too far back in the crowd to see any of the cast going in to the cinema (other than on the big screens which they had set up for the evening). The film has had some great reviews, and is said to be the best of the three made so far. Unfortunately it was only released yesterday and has been sold out so far, so I haven't yet been able to see it. Soon, hopefully... Instead of seeing Harry Potter, I did get to see The Day After Tomorrow, which also turned out to be a great film. It's all about a world in which the climate suddenly takes a turn for the worse, caused by the growing fossil fuel usage and the global warming it creates. Whilst a little cheesy and slightly unbelievable in some places (to say the least) it certainly does make you think, and it's a great watch at the same time.