Stalling at Stalin

Over the past week, I've learnt just one thing - I'm glad I decided I'm not going to do History for my degree.

All week, I've been trying to get through Chapter 5 on Stalin. I enjoy reading about him as a person, however I soon switched off as soon as the book started talking about dates and places. While I understand it is important to know when something happened, I just find that it bores me. 

Needless to say, this was yet another chapter that I quickly skimmed over, before moving on to Chapter 6: The Diva. So far, I'm enjoying this chapter a lot more.


It hasn't been a completely wasted week though. I managed to write another chapter of my short story, as well as a couple of poems. Now i just wish my tutor would hurry up and mark my assignment so I can get on with rewriting it for TMA02.

Change of Route

Yesterday evening, I was sat watching TV with my 'Stepdad' (he isn't really my Stepdad, but there is no word for 'the fiancé my Mum never got round to marrying before she passed away even though they'd been engaged for fifteen years' so until I finish my degree and submit new words to the OED, this will have to do).


We were watching the 1999 film 'The Mummy' starring Brendan Fraser, Rachel Weisz and John Hannah. When the Mummy first spoke, my Stepdad said to me, "I preferred it in the old days when the Ancient Egyptian Muumies in films all spoke in English. I can't keep up with all these subtitles!"


After a brief discussion about how EVERYONE should speak English ALL the time, he asked me to find out how many people actually DO speak English, and whether more people speak Mandarin. He also wanted to know when English as WE know it now was first widely spoken. I won't spoil it for you here - if YOU are interested, you'll have to do your own research!


After about an hour of searching and reading, I was hooked. I immediately went to the OU's Qualification Planner and changed my study route.  I am still concentrating on Creative Writing, but now instead of History I will be doing English Language.


I now have my next four years of study planned out: After I finish AA100, I will start A215 Creative Writing and U214 Worlds of English in October of this year. They will both finish in June 2013, giving me the Summer off. In October 2013 I will start my level 3 studies with E301 The Art of English. I will then have an overlap when I start E303 in February 2014. Iwill then finish my degree with A363 Advanced Creative Writing starting in October 2014, hopefully finishing in June 2015.


So, now all I need to do is find a job as a writer, proof reader, editor, librarian or any other job which will complement my studies...

 

My Mum and her log term Fiancé, Kevin - This is the last photo I have of her, taken three days before she passed away

Far(aday) and Away

After writing last night's blog, I decided to have a go at writing some blank verse in 'Iambic Pentameter' and after a bit of trial and error, I managed to write a poem (click here). I've been a bit hit and miss with my poems since I started looking at the materials for this course, and I'm afraid it's going to stay that way.


Anyway, on to today. I've finally started on Chapter 4 - Fame and Faraday. So far so good. I'm enjoying reading about his life, and how he became a famous name through the 19th Century. However, upon scanning through the rest of the chapter, I've noticed there's quite a lot about his experiments. I realise that these contributed to his fame but I'm surprised to see them in an 'arts' course. Oh well, time to put my science head on...

Gazetteers and References

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...

Distant Horizons

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...

To Hell and back

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...

See the Pyramids along the Nile

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...