AL 17/08/11

Continued with wreck research all day today. Again, good experience in researching different types of wreck and what sort of information is available. Bit sad coming across some of the more tragic events such as SS Mendi, this one not just for the loss of life but the reaction of the Captain who was to blame, not making any effort to help with the rescue causing such high loss of life. Searching the web on this one shows just how much interest there can be in such tragedies with numerous researches conducted into the event by South Africans interested in the history.

AL 16/8/11

Started the day by investigating the process involved in becoming a commercial diver. This was for my benefit as well as to produce the wording for a poster on exactly that subject. A useful exercise for both reasons but if the threads in the forums relating to that particular career move are to be believed then the following applies. 1) Make sure you have a relevant skill set out of water before you endulge. 2) Be aware that there is years of 'donkey' work before getting onto the bigger better paid jobs. Given I want to do archaeology masters and PhD part time possibly funded by diving then the full course is not going to benefit me. Lesson learnt.

Had fun trying to recreate stratigraphical archaeological deposits in minature as an exercise for kids to practice archaeological skills and recognise stratigraphic changes. It's safe to say it needs some refinement both in the ingredients of the sand and methods of construction but it wouldn't be summer without playing in the sand. An idea with potential and an interesting educational resource idea.

Finished day off by researching data relating to wrecks of the south coast to aid the database. Important work in terms of understanding which are most likely to provide useful archaeological data, from my limited knowledge this is an area that that is sadly lacking across UK waters. It's interesting to see just how little or how much data is available for different sites and the variation in survival rates of different materials in different stretches of water. Good for exercising the old investigative brain muscles before returning for dissertaion study, if not a little frustrating at times.

AL Blog for 15/8/11

Yesterday was my 1st day on placement.
After being shown around the office and stores I completed forms expressing what I hoped to gain from my time at HWTMA. This was useful as I was able to express my aims for my time here.
I am working on the TS Mercury project and as such I was given a copy of the project proposal to read. This allowed me to gain a good understanding of the site, it's likely formation, areas of focus for this excavation season and the questions looking to be answered.
In addition to this we did some straight forward organisation by gathering what equipment was already available and starting to procure those items which were not to hand.

HWTMA Work Experience July 2011 Day Ten

My final day of work experience, arriving at 8:35am I started what I did yesterday all over again, making colour coded backgrounds fit the Jenga pieces, editing photos and changing all their resolutions. I made sure I saved my work every five minutes and when I got up to the 20^th century (which had taken three and a half hours) I wanted to check to see if Corel was being nice to me again. So I saved again, closed down the programme and opened it again from my documents. I was devastated when all that came up was a blank screen! Fortunately though, Julian and Brandon were able to help me locate the file again by loading Corel X5 (which we’d installed earlier) and opening what I’d been doing through that! So if I ever want to access it again I have to do it by first opening Corel X5, then loading it.

Then all five of us in the office (it was a very quiet day today) went to the park for lunch which was lovely because it was sunny and there was a squirrel running around. When I got back in I finished what I was doing and now am feeling quite proud. For the rest of the afternoon I had to type up instructions for the next person to work on developing this game. Whist doing this I realised there was something I still had to do, which was sort out the edited photos so they were saved in the photo file, this took me ¾ of an hour. I then finished the instructions and just as I did Steve came over with some forms I had to fill out.

Before I leave today I will have a meeting with Steve (because Gareth is not here) about my placement. He needs to fill in a form of mine and I think I may need to fill in more. I’ll get some feedback about how I’ve been. Then I hopefully will have all my work in some way so I can access it at home to see what I’ve done. Then I’ll catch the bus home.

Overall, these last two weeks have been really enjoyable and eye opening to the world of work. I've learned loads, had fun and have something I can put on my CV! I've also completed all my targets, which is great! If you are considering doing work experience here then do because it's way better than anywhere else and if you're going to do work experience here I hope my blog has been helpful in telling you what to expect. To finish I would like to say thank you to everyone at the office (especially Gareth) for having me and helping me! You have all been lovely! Thank you!

JG

HWTMA Work Experience July 2011 Day Nine

Today was a bit like my last day because Gareth wouldn't be in tomorrow so I had to say thank you and goodbye which was sad as Gareth has been very helpful and friendly. I arrived at 8:40am but before completing my blog for Wednesday I spoke to Valentine about what colours to use for each layer. She was very keen on using natural soil like colours but as there are 18 layers I thought I would have to use a few unnatural colours otherwise there would be too many browns for people to tell apart (which would be hard especially if they had bad vision).

I had to move computer today because Lauren (the lady who normally uses the computer I was on) was back. Anyway, I experimented with a whole range of different colours, textures and patterns on Corel before deciding on 18 to use. Whilst I was doing this and my blog I had several problems with the new computer so I had to ask Brandon (the diver and IT guy) to help me. Also I'm not keen on the new mouse on this computer although like the double screens. Then throughout the morning and half the afternoon I assigned the backgrounds on the Jenga pieces to colours, edited the images and completely finished all descriptions so the date was included in the dated artefacts description. I had lunch in the park in between which was lovely because it was really sunny and warm. I was pleased with everything I'd done because I'd finished a big part of the project!

But then disaster struck! I'd somehow lost everything I'd done today (except for the document where I'd written which colour belonged to which layer). It might have been me not saving my work (although I don't remember not saving) or the computer messing up but either way I've lost what I did. I was quite annoyed but there was nothing I could do except start again. At least I'd be faster as I knew what I was going to do. Gareth had to leave early so I gave him a thank you card and some Celebrations which were for everybody in the office.

Then I tried to load Corel and start again but it was not responding so I gave it a break for today and began typing up instructions for whoever continues this project after me, to tell them what I've done and what they need to do. After that I typed up this blog and will be leaving in five minutes. I just hope tomorrow I can redo all the work I lost today so I can feel like I've completed something...

HWTMA Work Experience July 2011 Day Eight

I arrived at 8:45am, wrote blog, then all morning I looked for photos, updated the grid and put new photos on Corel. I’d found all objects apart from 3 from the 18^th century (which I had a bit of a grudge against) and 3 from 1800 to 1849. After lunch in the park, I got straight back to work and in the last hour progress went really well, I found all but two photos which Gareth helped me find and now I have all the photos!! I have 54 clear (hopefully) interesting images from the Palaeolithic ear up to the 20^th century. I now need to colour code each layer. Feeling very pleased!

HWTMA Work Experience July 2011 Day Seven

I arrived early again at 8:35am, as usual I did my blog first thing and that took about 3/4 of an hour yesterday! When Gareth arrived (just as I finished) I reminded him about finding the photos from the Maritime-Line. I should explain, this Maritime-Line is just a rectangular poster produced by HWTMA and it's a timeline of Maritime and local history. There are many pictures on it and some I need for the Jenga game. They must be saved somewhere on the computer, we just have to find them. It was quite a busy morning and I worked really hard. I wrote all the descriptions for every photo I had found, re-arranged my grid so it made more sense and updated the Corel programme I made yesterday to fit in with my grid.

Then I had lunch at about 1:00pm before continuing with finding more photos and checking through all the internet sites I'd bookmarked yesterday because they may have been useful in finding artefacts. This afternoon my teacher was supposed to arrive at 2:00pm to check up on me and how my work experience placement was going. At just after 2:00pm the office got a phone call from a lady at the NOC office (in another part of Southampton) saying my teacher had turned up there! It wasn't my teachers fault; she had been given the wrong address by the company my school books work experience through. I also noticed when I discovered this placement that they'd spelled the Wight from 'Hampshire and Wight Trust for Maritime Archaeology' wrong, they spelled it 'white' like the colour not 'Wight' like the Isle of Wight.

Anyway, my teacher did get to this office eventually at about 2:30pm. Firstly Gareth spoke to her, then she came over to me and I showed her everything I'd been doing, such as all the descriptions and photos I'd arranged and I also showed her the animation I made. We talked about the Jenga game and the blog and how I was finding the placement. Then she filled in a section of my Work Experience Journal (it's a booklet the school gave everyone in my year to fill in details about where you did work experience, what you did and then three review pages at the back, one for you, one for your teacher and one for your employer).

After my teacher left I continued finding artefacts and writing descriptions for them as well as making not of what website I found them on. I think today was a very successful day and possibly tomorrow I may finish finding photos!!