Mamma Mia

went to see Mamma Mia today with some people from uni, and I think this film was just brilliant. Mark Kermode from the 5 Live film review was right about all of it (Pierce Brosnan was horrible singing, but at least he tried I would never have the guts to sing on camera, Meryl Streep was quite good, and this film does indeed make you feel good). Well I can see how you could not like this film though if you don't like ABBA's music. I loved this so much that I now want to go see it again. Hope I can find someone to join me. I'd also love to go see the Stageshow. Maybe I can convince my mom to go see it when I am in Germany in October for a week.

Michael Clayton

This week is a week of films. Tuesday the Dark Knight at the Odeon, Wednesday night Michael Clayton at home on DVD, and there are more to come. But this is about Michael Clayton. It's an ok film I think. Very confusing to start with, and actually right through to the end. Lots of things are not explained properly and you never quite understand the motivation of the characters. The music was brilliant though, and George Clooney handsome as always, and Tom Wilkinson was really good in his role as the laywer.

The Dark Knight

We went and watched the new Batman movie last night with some friends, and it was very good, although not quite as good as the previous one I think. I am sure lots of people will disagree with me on that one, especially for Heath Ledger's performance, but I still think as a Batman film Batman Begins was better than the Dark Knight. This one also didn't set itself up for a next one, so it will be interesting to see what happens next. Still very enjoyable and very creepy and dark film with lots of moments to make me (and other people in the cinema) jump.

I am done!

well with the paper for now anyway. It felt quite good to send it off earlier today, but I am sure that it still could have used some more work. but then again nothing ever is perfect with writing, it can always be improved somehow. But for now I am done with it, it has been sent off to the judges who will decide who will win the student paper prize (€1000 and a subscription to two academic journals, or just a subscription to an academic journal). Either would be nice, but of course the €1000 would be better, but even the runner up prize would be nice in the sense that the paper will be recognized.

Besides that not much has been going on. We had workmen in the department today to re-seal the windows so there are no more drafts in the building, so from about 11 am this morning our office was smelling so bad of this sealant that we had to relocate to another office for the day until they came to that room as well and made that just as smelly. By that point I had submitted my paper and also read a few other ones so I thought it was ok for me to go home, where I now am.

Oh an earlier I had a moment of inspiration regarding my PhD. I have found another line of research within which I can situate my work, or I might be able to use it as an answer to a number of questions I still have unanswered or only have vague answers to at the moment. I need to go back to my earlier studies and properly look at the results in very much detail and see if this applies, but it might do. I'll discuss it with my supervisor next time i see her. Wonder what she thinks, probably a rubbish idea, or someone else would have mentioned it along the way, but who knows, might be that just no one has looked into it as much as I have by now...

Also the conference is less than 7 weeks away now, very scary to think about it. The programme has been published on the website and I know when I am presenting. But it is in Rome!

just finished two days of admissions work. We had a group of sixth form students from the Channel Islands visiting us, so we put on a show for them. Begged lots of the other postgrads and postdocs to do a short presentation that's fun and still teaches these students a little bit about psychology and what it would be like to study at university level. I think they all enjoyed themselves, and we are happy that it all went so well. No major problems came up and now we know that we can organise these things successfully. Now we just have to wait and see whether these students will consider Exeter (and especially Psychology at Exeter) as one of their university choices once they are done with A-levels. We all thought it was a good sign that a lot of them went and bought Exeter University hoodies while we took them on a campus tour yesterday.
Now back to normal PhD student life, which at the moment means for me to finish off this paper I have been writing on forever already, so I can submit it for the best student paper competition for a conference paper for the conference i am going to in september.
and now it is my weekend!