The reason for my extended absence has been the huuuge mountain of work caused by the impending end of my degree. The department changed a load of modules this year, to the effect that we have have to do loads more coursework than students have had to do in the past. It probably seemed like a good idea at the time, but it’s meant a mad rush to get everything in.
It’s surprising the physical impact work like this can have! Myself and my friends are variously suffering from acne outbreaks, headaches, insomnia, digestive problems (you get the idea), heart palpitations… I can’t understand how people who choose to do stressful jobs for a living survive, I don’t think I could manage more than a few weeks at a time.
The main issue with university work is how it takes over your life. With a normal job, you can have a crap day but at least you leave it in the office/workplace when you come home. You can’t do that with this kind of work - it tortures you every hour you’re awake. You can’t do anything except work all the time, otherwise you genuinely feel like you’re slacking, knowing that you could be doing more… I’m really looking forward to a few weeks of rest in the summer to get nice and fit and healthy again.

In other news, I’m giving Fusemail a spin to consolidate my email. Fusemail ‘fuses’ all of your email accounts into a single IMAP account, accessible anywhere. It automatically downloads your POP3 email into a single account and can also act as the primary destination for your own domains. This lets me see all of my email at home (through Outlook, though it will work with other programs like Outlook Express and Thunderbird) and also at uni through their comprehensive webmail system. They also have an Outlook plugin in development which lets you synchronise your Outlook contacts, calendar and so on with the remote server as well. It looks like a really useful service - I’ll write back to say how it’s working out for me

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