End of the road (for now)

I've just realised that it's been three months since I last posted on here. The time has flown by with too much to do, and too little time. As well as my studying, which I'll tell you about in a moment, I've also had to attend a 'Mandatory Work Placement'. I was fortunate to have had a placement in a local charity shop rather than a supermarket. The shop is one of several across West Yorkshire raising funds for The Forget Me Not Trust Children's Hospice, and as I feel it is such a good cause, I continued to volunteer part-time whilst I am still unemployed. I've also been distracted by some sporting things going on in London.

Right then, time to tell you where I've been on my study journey. Last time we met, I was just setting off to Benin in the jungles of West Africa, following the journey made by the Benin Bronzes as they were 'liberated' by those jolly nice Victorian gentlemen. Since then, I've travelled  all over the world via the Short Stories chapter. Destinations included South Africa, Cuba and Florida, Canada and France. So that was TMAs 5 and 6 out of the way.

TMA07 took me on an altogether different journey, into the deepest darkest recesses of... me! It was a reflective assignment, looking back at my progress through AA100; the highs and lows; the good and the bad; what I enjoyed and what I didn't; where will I go next? (You can find the answer to this in my next blog post!) 

My final travels through this first leg of my degree came in the form of Book 4 and my End of Module Assessment. I quickly skipped the sections on Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome and instead plumped for a staycation, remaining in the good old British Seaside. Although the deadline is still three weeks away, my AA100 journey has ended, having submitted my EMA last weekend.  

I hope you enjoyed the journey, please remember the AA100 terminates at this stop and all passengers will need to change if they wish to continue their journey. All aboard the A215 and the U214!

Go West (Country)

I'm going to start this post with an apology. I'm sorry I haven't updated this blog for over a month. There... done!

Now on to the news of my studies over the past five weeks or so. I've finished and submitted TMA03 - the one about Dalai Lama and Plato. I also got my result for TMA02 - a rather pleasing 80%.

Even though I haven't written anything on here, I have done plenty of studying. I worked through the chapter about The Faber Book of Beasts and read most of the poems in the book. I also contributed to the OU forum (an experience I won't be repeating too often, if I can help it).

I've also managed to write a few poems and a story or two, although not as many as I would have liked. One of the poems, did however, manage to win me a box set of 'Game of Thrones' books and DVDs. To win, I had to say who my favourite character from the series was, and why. Having never read nor watched any of the series, I had absolutely no idea, but twenty minutes of research was all I needed to come up with this:

Who is my favourite character
That appears in 'Game of Thrones'
Somebody from House of Tully
Or Greyjoy, or Baratheon?
No... I think I'll have to choose
One of the Stark's instead
And who's the daddy of them all?
It's Eddard (known as Ned)
Honour and justice the noble traits
Of the Warden of the North
And best of all, on television
He's played by Bean of course!

 I have also received two read and review books (which I haven't even opened yet), so the next few weeks are going to be just as busy.

As for the next step in my study journey. I've just finished reading the chapter about Tradition and Dissent in English Christianity and am just about to start reading about Pugin, ready for TMA04 which is about St Chad's Cathedral in Birmingham (the other option is Shostakovich; a chapter I don't even intend to read).  

I'll report back after my virtual visit to the 'West Country'.

The Orient and the Ancient

I've submitted my second assignment. If there's anything wrong with it, it's too late now, there's no going back!

I've also been very busy this week working through the chapters on the Dalai Lama and then Plato. While I was in the mood for studying, I thought I might as well get my third assignment written up.

I really enjoyed both chapters, although I started to falter a bit when I got to the political stuff about Tibet and China. I have always been interested in learning about all religions. I don't know whether this is because I am atheist, or whether I am atheist because of it? I can identify with many of the Buddhist ideas, as there is none of the 'we are right and you are wrong' that you get with some other religions.

I have to say though, that the Plato chapter stands head and shoulders above all the other chapters as my favourite. I don't know if this is because, like Plato and Socrates, I enjoy a good argument. I have decided I am definitely a Moral Rationalist - I like to know the reasons WHY people choose to do things; WHY they believe what they do; I like to challenge the reasons and make conclusions based purely on the evidence, not experience.


This often annoys people, as most people tend to be Moral Traditionalists - They do things because that's what they've always done; they believe things because their parents believed it... and their grandparents... and their great-grandparents...


Think of how many people you know who are like this - the bloke who comes in the pub at exactly quarter past twelve on a Sunday, has three pints, plays the fruit machine for ten minutes when he gets his second drink, then goes home at exactly ten to three because his wife will have the dinner ready... or the old lady who goes into town on the eleven o'clock bus every Tuesday, visits the same three market stalls, has fish with peas and a cup of tea for lunch, goes to the supermarket to buy the same seven items, then gets the quarter to one bus back home.


I am most definitely NOT a creature of habit. To illustrate this, I have worked extra hard this week so I can have the next couple of weeks completely study-free. I'll see you after the Easter break...

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.

Road Block

For almost a week now I've not been able to write anything, unless you count the umpteen Facebook statuses and replies to other people's posts. I've also managed to revise my CV, but that was more of a chore than a pleasure. I haven't written any poems, stories, or even this blog!

It isn't just writing either - I've hardly done any reading. I've attempted to start reading several books, but got no further than half a dozen pages in each. I do have one of Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels sat on the shelf, which I haven't read yet, so I'll have a go at that tonight and see how it goes.

I have managed to do a lot of 'not very much at all', as well as watching a lot of TV and films. I have managed to get out of the house a few times as well.


I really need to get back into the habit of reading and writing again, so that I can continue with my studies as I haven't managed anything since sending off my first assignment. OK then... here goes... Chapter 5: Stalin, here we come!

Over the first fence

On Sunday, I decided to go through my assignment for Cleopatra and Doctor Faustus. I was having a little trouble with both parts of the assignment for different reasons. With the Cleopatra part of my assignment, I had so much to say and so many ideas that I was finding it hard to condense this into less than 500 words without compromising on the quality of my argument. With Doctor Faustus, I was finding it hard to get above 400 words without waffling.


In the end, I managed to get the assignment completed in 475 and 455 words respectively. I sent it off this afternoon so that's it now, until I have to revisit again in a month's time for my second assignment (a reflective assignment and reworking of the first).


I've also finished working through Faraday (Chapter 4) and started on Stalin (Chapter 5) which puts me about three weeks in front on my studies...

A trip to Leeds

I had a shock yesterday morning when I got home from the shops. My Internet wouldn't work! I phoned Virgin to find out why - a call that lasted almost half an hour and cost me the full £10 that I'd just topped up. Apparently, the £30 I'd paid off my bill hadn't gone through in time as I'd paid using PayPoint. Anyway, it meant that yesterday I had no internet... no email... no jobseeking... no Open University... and shock, horror, NO FACEBOOK!!!


It did mean that I could get on with a bit of reading and writing. I read a little more about Faraday but I'm still struggling to take in all the science bumph. As this reading isn't essential for the assignments, I may just skip it and move on to Stalin. I also finished reading 'Moon Over Soho' by Ben Aaronovitch, which is about a Detective Constable who is also an apprentice Wizard. Next up is 'The Windup Girl' by Paolo Bacigalupi.

As for the writing... I did a little tweaking of my Cleopatra/Faustus assignment. I edited some of the information in my CVs. I also wrote two poems about yesterday's ordeals with Virgin. The bulk of my time yesterday though, was taken up writing the first draft of the first chapter of a story I've been thinking about for years called 'The Leeds Witch'. Please DO read them, and as always, your comments and advice are gratefully received...

Different Directions

As I have decided to take a short break from studying, I needed something else to keep my brain busy. After conversations on the A215 Creative Writing (October 2012) Facebook Page, I've decided to write the occasional short story. This is in addition to the poetry I'm already writing. To view my efforts, use the links to the left of this post, and please bookmark them so you can pop back later...

Take a Break

I've done it! I've finally managed to write Part 2 of my Assignment. After reading Faustus's Last Soliloquy about a hundred times, listening to the CD track about twenty times and watching Richard Burton in the 1967 film version three times, I've managed to get something down in my own words.


The tricky part here wasn't understanding the play or deciphering the language; nor was it a case of not knowing the character of Doctor Faustus and figuring out why he did what he did or said what he said. No - the hard part was trying to put this into my OWN words when the books were making such a good job of explaining it all to me.


For this 500 word assignment I only managed 375 words but decided if I added any more I would just be waffling. At first I was a bit worried until I read the rules about 'word lengths' which told me it is fine to be under the word count but frowned upon to go over. Still to be on the safe side, I may go back and have another go just before I send it off. For now though, it's time to take a short break from my studies...

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...