The everyday blog of Richard Bartle.
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7:39am on Wednesday, 2nd April, 2025:
Anecdote
I received word yesterday that my application for the university's Voluntary Severance Scheme has been accepted. My leaving date is 30th April.
This has come as something of a surprise, as I was expecting that, in the event of my application's being accepted, I'd be leaving on 31st July. This is because that's what the initial documentation implied, but that was for general consumption; I'm on a part-time contract, so maybe that made a difference.
I don't know who'll be marking the exams that my students will be taking in May. I'd offer to do it pro bono, but there are sure to be regulations that rule this out.
So, less than a month to go.
I hope it wasn't an elaborate April Fool's joke.
7:47am on Tuesday, 1st April, 2025:
Weird
I had the first step of a tooth implant procedure done yesterday. I had to sign three times as many consent forms than I did when I had surgery to fix my umbilical hernia.
This was buried in one of the documents:
This unsigned version is my own copy; the signed one that they kept had the "yes" circled and "but I'd rather not" written afterwards.
Thankfully, I didn't need a bone graft.
If I'd had one, would the next time I ate beef have counted as cannibalism?
11:04am on Monday, 31st March, 2025:
Weird
The eco-friendly Essex Business School at the university has stones on the ground in a leafy area inside the building. It looks pretty good; maybe I'll take a picture of it. Anyway, someone decided it was a good idea to provide pen paints for students to write upon these stones. Here's an example of one of the sections:
Many of these have writing on them giving motivational statements on them such as "love life", "get a life" and "get that degree". Some express personal preferences, such as "AN [heart] HC" and "I [heart] Matt X X". A good many are merely the name of the student followed by the date or, occasionally "was here". A few are political statements: I don't know if any members of the Israeli government are likely to pass by here, but if they are then they'll be urged to "free Palestine".
Some of the students exhibit more artistic talent than others. Here are four examples close up:
I suspect that the "Essex food" one was created by a member of the catering team, because the pens for drawing on the stones are in the building's café. However, having eaten Essex food on many occasions, the stone could merely be a comment on how tough the fare here can be.
I'll show you some of what's in the other sections another day. Yes, there are more.
9:20am on Sunday, 30th March, 2025:
Weird
Also at this time of year, we have MSc proposals to mark. Normally, these don't feature any out-takes, but last year several students went full-on "oh, let's get AI to do the work". Mostly the result was merely turgid prose, but there was also this:
Sadly, the student didn't do well in the exams so we never got to see a final dissertation.
11:49am on Saturday, 29th March, 2025:
Anecdote
We picked up our new car today. Three days later and we'd have been stung by a £600 increase in tax, so we're quite pleased.
I've managed to drive it maybe five miles so far without incident. I only attempted to use the clutch once (it's an automatic, so doesn't have one). I was driving in town, so was limited to 30mph most of the time; I'll have to take it for a spin on a faster road if I can find one (the A12 is permanently besodden with roadworks so doesn't count as a faster road).
The settings seem fine, but I might turn on autohold. At the moment, when the car is stopped and held on the brake, if I take my foot off it then it starts to move forward immediately; I can turn that off, so it only moves forward when I touch the accelerator. I'll maybe have a play with it and see which I prefer.
The past two cars we've bought had their windscreens chipped within a month of buying them. Let's see if this one lasts longer.
8:47am on Friday, 28th March, 2025:
Anecdote
Merely by skipping meetings and working over the weekend and evenings, I've managed to finish marking my CE217 assignment. This means I can celebrate by listing out-takes from two years ago (last year's students being still at university, and therefore spared from any worry that this might affect their grades). Here you go!
The winner of the final floor is rewarded with a win
His skin tone is dark but light skinned
they can practice their skills in the various arenas and even earn rewards for goof performances.
This will include an extensively developed dark and dreary underwater based map that will with have all sorts of equine based features
the player should expect to see lots of blood and decapitations of limbs.
taking huge inspiration from Norse mythology, the game setting will be immersive from the charming flock music from when you first open up the game
I use my Frost Lighting ability to kill it from a distance.
in the next half-centaur the world would be too cold to sustain life
I rapidly use a natural element special fishing combination move and manage to put my opponent to rest
there will be a marking of the fear on it visible for the sabataged player to see so they can mange their time correctly
It offers plenty to offer everyone
This allows the player to know that they are progressing thought the games.
On the screen, we can the race progress during a race.
This is an extremely fast game which is set in the depths of the ocean. Each Player takes Pilot of one of many various spaceships.
In 2052 a Russian Naval fleet unsuspectingly decided to wage war against the boarding countries of Scandinavia.
danger lurks around every coroner.
I use my sword to kill it with hits.
My three other teammates follow behind me as I take them down with ease, firing at their heads for the most damage.
His German is not good and he sleeps up.
Win or lose, the best mage wins.
9:24am on Thursday, 27th March, 2025:
Anecdote
I told my CE217 students that I didn't mind them using ChatGPT or similar to help them with their assignment, but warned them to check what was handed in. Most students did it without ChatGPT as it's more fun that way, but maybe a sixth of them (typically direct second-year entrants) did. This meant that I got several projects that used American English spelling conventions, were set in a futuristic dystopia and had no idea what I meant by a "pay-off grid" (which was a trap; if I'd called it a "pay-off matrix" in the specification then it would have done, but I didn't, so it went with the wrong type). I told the students who submitted these that if they didn't understand something then they should ask the lecturer, not do whatever they did instead.
Even so, I was surprised to find words like this included in what was handed-in (I've redacted the game name):
Here's a concise pitch for [redacted], keeping in mind your teacher's requirements
and
This treatment provides a clear overview of the game's concept, what players do, and the main gameplay mechanics, all while keeping the tone enthusiastic and focused. It covers the essential details while outlining what makes the game unique and exciting! How do you think this works for your project?
I wasn't expecting to see a conversation between the student and ChatGPT.
This didn't cost the student any marks, but it does suggest to me that we should give our intake some instruction on wrangling large language models properly.
7:24am on Wednesday, 26th March, 2025:
Weird
All the roses in this garden centre have instructions to plant them in "full fun".
That was too big an ask for us, so we didn't buy any.
9:37am on Tuesday, 25th March, 2025:
Weird
Hmm, this potato looked more like a dog sphinx in real life than it does in the photo.
That didn't stop it from being mashed to make a shepherd's pie, of course.
8:20am on Monday, 24th March, 2025:
Weird
Hey! Someone has spilled a pot of yellow primroses next to our walnut tree.
I'm going to have to mop that up.
8:30am on Sunday, 23rd March, 2025:
Anecdote
For the first time in twenty years, none of my second- or third-year students have mis-spelled the word "lose" in their assignment. OK, there are still the exams, where they won't hhave AI to help them, but still, I feel that my job is done.
Maybe I'll try to teach them how to spell "rogue" next.
8:59am on Saturday, 22nd March, 2025:
Weird
Our local Asda has finally caught up with the more progressive Asdas in the country and baked some raspberry and white chocolate hot cross buns.
I won't be buying any more.
9:14am on Friday, 21st March, 2025:
Anecdote
The CE317 assignment I gave my students involves writing a story. The students like to describe their protagonist (although they're not obliged to — I actually ask for a plot, not a story), which often entails stating that character's age.
I'ver been running this assignment for maybe twenty years. For the first fifteen of these, the characters were usually aged 16. This was so common that in my list of cut-and-paste frequent comments, I had one reading "Why are they always 16?".
Around five years ago, they stopped being 16 and started being 17. A year later, they were 18. They remained 18 for the next two years. This year, I had to modify my cut-and-paste comment to read "Why are they always 19?".
I don't know why this has happened. Maybe COVID-19 is to blame. Maybe social media is, or society in general, or large language models.
On the plus side, at least the protagonists are no longer habitually orphans.
7:45am on Thursday, 20th March, 2025:
Anecdote
I'll finish marking my CE317 assignment today, excepting the submissions of those students who choose to submit late. This means it's a year since I last marked the assignment, so I'm free to list some of the howlers I came across. There aren't as many as there has often been in the past, because ChatGPT isn't as prone to them as students are, but here you go anyway.
Thus, the Dame is offering her a colonic lifestyle with no efforts at all.
Gone were the baron wastelands and the deserted planes.
Cedric's eyes open, finding himself surrounded by a 13-year-old boy.
He fast enough to escape and tie his hand with some lady's dog leash father.
Skeptical and overwhelmed, she prouns the seer as crazy.
Matt tries to connect copper cables to a fridges batter.
It's an amour piece commonly used in the time period by Incredibly strong and skilful warriors.
The bark from the tree is the scares component that Ada is looking for.
He won numerous awards back in his prime, until that one faithful day where during a rally trial in sweden, his car was sabotaged and his break lines were cut and so he ended up in a horrific crash after flying off the mountain below, in which he lost his arm and mentally disturbed him.
8:00am on Wednesday, 19th March, 2025:
Anecdote
Speaking of fashion...
At the university yesterday, I noticed two different forms of the same, unusual theme, being exhibited by female students. I only saw three of each, but they were striking.
The first set wore overalls. These were basically dungarees, but not over a shirt or anything: they had sleeves and no front bib. They were like all-in-one jeans, but not made of denim. The three examples I noticed were in different places at different times. One of the overalls (there's probably a technical name for them in fashion circles, but I don't know what it is) was a light brown, the other two were light blue, like faded jeans. The blue ones were made out of cotton and the brown one was more like thick cheesecloth; none were constructed to be hard-wearing. They weren't designed to be actual overalls, just plain, one-piece outfits.
The second set wore the same kind of one-piece outfit but skin tight and made of lycra. They looked as if they were wearing spandex wetsuits. One such outfit was black, and the wearer might have been an athlete, but the other two (one light brown, one light grey) didn't give off that vibe (especially the one in the brown). This is the kind of fashion that, if it took off, probably wouldn't do much good either for young women (because not everyone will have the figure to carry it off) or young men (because it takes an act of will not to gawp).
Fashions are supposed to change, but students are wearing pretty much the same today that they did 2o years ago.
The 1970s, when I was a student, may have been weird fashion-wise, but at least they were different to the 60s and 80s.
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Copyright © 2025 Richard Bartle (richard@mud.co.uk).