I didn't read as much as I wanted last night so I've still not moved onto Faraday (I will eventually... Honest). I was thinking about what to do on Saturday after the Induction Event at Leeds University. I've no money left (apart from the £5 I've put on one side for my bus ticket), so I won't be shopping. The event will finish around 12.15pm which leaves the rest of the day clear, and as I will have a 'Day Ticket' for the buses, I might as well get some use out of it.
I decided to start by looking at the Gazetteers on the AA100 website. They list locations around the country to see examples of works I will be studying throughout the course. After a bit of scrolling and clicking I've discovered that there is a great example of Pugin's architecture at St Anne's Catholic Church in Keighley, and examples of Benin art in the Leeds City Museum (there are others at the Leeds Discovery Centre, but this is only for pre-booked tours). I can't decide whether I should visit any of these or leave them until I'm actually studying them (possibly on the same day as a tutorial).
As I was scrolling through the coming weeks I discovered that NONE of the Ancient Sacred Sites, Roman Villa Sites or Eighteenth Century Houses listed on the website are within West Yorkshire. The nearest being in York, which although only another hour by bus would be another £6! I think a bit more research might be required to find something similar locally.
I also spent a little time today working through the online activities for using the Harvard Referencing System, and then followed this up by adding some references to my pre-prepared assignment and advising someone on the AA100 Facebook page. Now back to my reading...
Well, I still haven't finished the book, so still haven't moved on to Faraday. It hasn't been a totally wasted day though. I spent an hour or so preparing my document for my assignment. I'm still trying to find my way around Open Office, as previously I've always used Microsoft Word. The free version of Word that came on my laptop though has an annoying little animated advert in the bottom corner which you can't turn off (without buying the full version), and always seems to crash my computer (obviously nothing to do with the half dozen tabs I have open on Firefox).
With a bit of playing around, customising toolbars and changing default settings, I managed to get it to do what I want, although I am disappointed that there is no option for a 'live' word-count or even just a word-count button to save me having to go to the menus.
For my first TMA I've set up a document with a header containing my name, OU identifier and TMA number; a footer containing page number; title, question (copied and pasted from the PDF version of the Assignment Booklet) and bibliography for parts 1 and 2 (part 2 separated by a 'Page Break'); and just because the idea has been swimming around in my head for a couple of weeks - my introduction paragraph for Cleopatra. This has helped a lot because I now know that six lines of Arial 12pt, is approximately100 words.
As well as this, I've also set up a LinkedIn account to help with my job search, and following advice I received in an email, I shall be including details of LinkedIn, my Poetry Page and my Blog on any future CVs that I send...
I didn't really fancy the leap to Faraday in Chapter 4 today. Not because I don't like the subject matter, because I know I will find it extremely interesting once I get going. The historical aspect of this course is really fascinating (who did what and why did they do it?).
No, the reason I didn't move on to Chapter 4 is that I'm in the middle of reading 'Time Riders - Gates of Rome' by Alex Scarrow. It's the fifth book in the series about a group of kids who were snatched out of time minutes before their imminent death and taken to a lock-up under the Williamsburg Bridge in New York to work for a top-secret agency. There they repeat the 10th and 11th September 2001 over and over, watching for subtle (and sometimes not-so-subtle) changes which may indicate that someone has gone back in time and altered something.
I won't go into plot details, but the gist of each novel is that something has happened in the past which they have to go back in time to fix; aided by their tube grown, genetically engineered, super-human 'support units'. Whilst it is classed as a 'Young Adults' novel, I think Scarrow has a fantastic imagination which he is able to express through his writing in an engaging manner, without resorting to his characters swearing at the drop of a hat.
Now according to the Time Riders website, the book isn't due out until next Thursday, so maybe I've done a little time travelling myself...
Quite a productive day today! I did the online activity about the death of Christopher Marlowe and discovered that nobody is really 100% sure of how he DID actually die, although I did learn that if you are going to trust anybody's opinion about someone's biography, then Oxford University Press is a pretty good source.
Next was the 'Inside Art' activity. As you've probably gathered from previous posts, paintings are not my thing at all. This activity has helped with SOME aspects of evaluating paintings (perspective, light source, colour) but these are the few things I actually remember learning about at GCSE. I've still not got the foggiest when it comes to deciding WHY an artist painted the way he did.
It did mean that I could tick off these activities on the website. And as an added bonus I got 9 out of 9 on the Chapters 1-3 Quiz. I'm going to leave the TMA questions for a couple of week (until I've been to a tutorial) so tomorrow I might start on Chapter 4, although it is CSI Sunday on Five USA...
Well today I've managed to do hell of a lot of absolutely nothing. I haven't picked up any of my books, watched any of the films, listened to any of the CDs or wrote anything (except this of course). If it wasn't for the Facebook groups I'd have had no contact with my studies at all.
In my defence I have been busy doing other things. I received a letter this morning confirming a place on a residential weekend course at Northern College near Barnsley. I have been before (several years ago) but needed to try and work out how I will get there before I accept. Obviously if there are no buses to and from the college it would mean a long walk from Barnsley. Fortunately there ARE buses.
The course I signed up for (about a month before I signed up for OU) is 'Introduction to Creative Writing', which considering my chosen study path is ideal. Not only will it give me a good grounding for my second module, but it will also be a weekend of free food and drink and none of my electricity and gas being used. Add to that the beautiful setting of Wentworth Castle and it's a win-win situation.
Although I haven't technically started studying yet. I have already committed myself to the second part of my degree. I have just been added to the A215 Creative Writing - Oct 2012 Starters Facebook group. I haven't found one yet for A200 History so I'm not actually committed to that one... YET!
While it's great that I will be able to chat with other people who will be sharing my future journey, it does mean there will be a lot more procrastinating to be done. I have noticed though, that several of the people doing A215 also happen to be currently doing AA100, so hopefully that will be where everyone's focus is for the time being.
So, what about all those extra tasks I need to do that I identified in my previous post? Well there's always tomorrow. After all, I have more Facebook posts to read...
By the time I'd got myself sorted today, it was lunchtime. I sat down in the corner; turned on the laptop; clicked on Firefox; logged into my Student Homepage; clicked on the AA100 website... and then went to make a coffee. After my coffee (and lunch... and CSI:New York on 5USA) I went back to the laptop and stared at the Study Planner. Even though I'd worked through the Study Companion and first three chapters, there was still a lot I hadn't done.
Now that I could see everything laid out in front of me, itemised week-by-week, it all seemed so much clearer... all I had left to do was to go back to the beginning and start again. Fortunately, I didn't need to do EVERYTHING again.
Just a few extra preparatory activities; an online activity about Christopher Marlowe; A few websites about Doctor Faustus; and an activity that might help me understand Cézanne's paintings. Well that's the next few days sorted. See you at the other side...
Since joining up for AA100, I have spent quite an unhealthy amount of time online. My first stop, with regards this course was to look at the OU Forums. What a nightmare! Remember back in the 1990s when your browser of choice was 'Netscape' and to search you HAD to use 'AltaVista' or navigate your way through 'Yahoo'? Well it was just like that.. clunky and dated.
Thank goodness we are in the 21st Century though. A quick search on 'Google' brought up a 'Facebook' page specifically for those starting the course at the same time as me. Being an avid user of Facebook anyway (I always have it open when my laptop is switched on) it was the natural choice.
I've already met some interesting people, some local but mostly distant. However, the one thing we all have in common is this shared journey. A few of them have even friended me on Facebook, making it much easier to seek advice or just to have a quick chat to take our minds off studying.
One of the main discussion topics last night (when we weren't discussing Marmite, wine, fanciable celebrities etc...) was the forthcoming AA100 website. What would it look like? What would be on it? Would it answer all our questions? Would we all be so scared that we pack in the course, never to study again for the rest of our lives?
I decided I just HAD to stay up until it went online. I settled myself in front of the laptop, opened Facebook and my Student Homepage and waited. Midnight came around (just in the middle of American Dad on BBC3) and I got all excited... a red circle with a number one suddenly appeared next to 'Messages'. Could this be it? Sadly no, it was just a message telling me about the website.
Upon closer inspection, I discovered the website would go live just after 1am. As American Dad had now finished and I could find nothing else on TV worth watching, I decided to watch the live stream of some American bloke babbling on about American stuff. I think the gist of it was 'blah, blah, blah!'... ten minutes applause and whooping from all the other Americans... 'Bring me a Bill and I'll sign it'... further applause and whooping... etc. He managed to pad out a twenty minute speech into a couple of hours.
Anyway, by half past two, there was still no sign of the website and the American bloke was boring me to tears, so I decided to call it a night and went to bed. The website would just have to wait until later...
From Germany at the beginning of the 17th Century we take the short hop to the South of France in the mid 19th Century. From a Doctor of Theology to a Student of Law. This particular student has a dream of being an artist, but rather than selling his soul, he simply enrols at the free school of drawing (much easier), and then moves to Paris.
We're into chapter 3 of book 1 now, and we're looking at the artist Cézanne. He was quite a determined fellow, submitting work to the Salon (THE major art exhibition of the time) for almost twenty years before he finally had a work admitted. However, it was what he did during this period that sets him apart.
Cézanne and a group of other independent artists (little known names such as Monet, Pissaro, Renoir, Degas...), unhappy with the influence of the Acadamy of Fine Arts, held their own exhibition outside the Salon. They became known as the Impressionists.
As for Cézanne's paintings? Well I'm afraid I just couldn't grasp the concept of evaluating them, so I quickly skimmed over the rest of the chapter, though if YOU want to look at them there's a link below...
Leaving Cleo back in 1st Century Egypt (at least until it's time to start my assignment), we now wander down the passage of time to the beginning of the 17th Century. We find ourselves in a German University, knocking on the door of one Doctor Faustus.
Never has a bloke been so clever but yet at the same time so stupid. Here he is with the perfect job, having worked his way up from a poor family to being a Doctor, but yet not satisfied. So what does he do? Look for work in a different profession? Study something different and maybe specialise in a different field? No... he does what everyone would do... sells his soul to the Devil.
After a little more heavy reading (Christopher Marlowe certainly had a way with words), we discover that Mephistopheles is a bit of a crafty sod and doesn't always give Dr F everything he hopes for. Sure he has a lot of fun and travels the world, but when it comes to paying his debt he's still got nothing to show for it.
Long story short... he waits until the last hour before he's due to go to Hell before deciding he's made the wrong choice. Well that's where I'm gonna leave you... this is the bit I've got to study for the second part of my first assignment so I'm not going to write about it here. Next stop 19th Century France...
Having decided that I was indeed doing the right thing I couldn't wait to get started. I was still weeks away from the official start date, but needed to get in front. I'm currently unemployed, having given up working last year to help look after my disabled Mum. I realised that when (if??) i find work, I will have to completely change my daily routine, and as I tend to think best really late at night (or is that really early in the morning? - it's currently 1.15am), it would mean having to study when I'm NOT at my best.
Book 1 on the course (AA100- The Arts Past & Present) is all about Reputations. Why are some people famous and others not? What makes us remember some people but forget others? So as you've probably gathered, this book is about famous (and some not-so-famous) names from history.
The first chapter in the book is all about Cleopatra. You all know everything about her right? Bathed in asses milk, bitten by an asp, Julius Caesar and Mark Antony... but what about her Greek ancestry, marrying two of her brothers... where does this appear in the films? Well apparently the 'modern' view of Cleopatra was brought to us courtesy of the Romans. I must say I am hooked! Much more interesting than today's so-called celebrities. Now I'm just off to watch all the films so I can answer my first assignment...
Around five weeks ago now, I received an early Christmas present. A box full of books, CDs and DVDs... my study materials for the Open University. After checking the contents I placed it in a corner and immediately forgot about it. After all it was Christmas... and there was partying to be done!
Once Christmas and New Year were out of the way (and the living room back to a state of normality) it was time to get the box back out again. I set up a study area in the corner of the room. Desk, bookshelves, boxes of pens and pencils, laptop and printer, and calendar and whiteboard on the wall. All set, ready to go and only three weeks until the website opens... and a full month until the official start date!
Eager to get going, I took the Study Companion from the shelf and devoured it in a single afternoon. I spent the evening navigating the eternal sea that is the OU website, and still working under full steam I read the Assignment Booklet from cover to cover. Just the tonic I needed to slow me down a little!
I haven't studied since school, twenty years ago so seeing the questions for the assignments started me thinking whether or not I had made the right choice. Arts? Me? When I was at school I dropped History and RE before GCSE, just managed to scrape a C in English Language, D in Music but only F in Art & Design... should I have considered a BSc instead? My results were much better for Maths, Geography (Physical), Economics, Chemistry and Physics.
But no! I just HAD to go down the Arts route if I was to develop my writing skills. You see, after my Mum died last October, we found a book in the bottom of her wardrobe. It didn't look particularly important or exciting, just a dog-eared, greying school exercise book; the type we used to use as jotters (or for doodling when we couldn't be bothered working). But it was what was INSIDE the book that was important.
For about fifteen years, my Mum had been writing poems. They were never going to win any awards, and were unlikely to be published in a Faber Anthology. A lot of them though were about her seven children - Me, my two brothers and four sisters. She had been writing all this time and never shared them with anyone. It was then that I decided I would start writing every day and share MY writing with the world. I just hope she's looking down and reading this over my shoulder, because Mum - this is all for you.
