A103: Introduction to the Humanities
Monday, March 03, 2008
I got the second part of my TMA finished tonight about an hour before the deadline- cutting it fine as ever.
It’s a bit of mess, I can see all omissions that are going to cost me marks but as usual time is my enemy. It’s been such a long, eventful week that I didn’t get nearly as much time to work on the assignment as I would have liked and having to work late on Saturday night didn’t help.
For the second part of the assignment I had to write a response to another participant’s essay. I didn’t even get around to choosing one until after work late Saturday night, leaving me with only Sunday to do some research. And as libraries aren’t opened on Sundays I had to rely on the internet alone. I think I need to enroll in a course on being more organised!
I did enjoy a tiny moment triumph when I had a Balderdash and Piffle moment.
Music: ‘Going Home’, Jon Allen
Sunday, October 14, 2007
After waiting four weeks for TMA08 to be returned I finally decided to e-mail my tutor to find out what was happening. Now, with the conferencing software the OU uses you can find out exactly if and when your message has been read. And no sooner was my message read than the TMA was finally returned via the eTMA system. Followed by a rather terse message from my tutor that it was now available for collection. I can only surmise that he forgot to do it in the first place. 30 days from submission to return! Colour me unimpressed!
But it’s back and while I won’t have officially passed the course until the course results come out in December I can now safely say that I have successfully cleared the first hurdle in what might eventually be a BA in English Language and Literature. That’s supposing nothing else comes along to distract me in the meantime;)
Music: ‘Great Waves’, The Dirty Three feat. Cat Power
Tuesday, October 02, 2007
...it is 18 days since my last eTMA*
and still no mark.
Hurry up, Mr Tutor Man, hurry up!
Some of us need to be put out of our misery already! It took four weeks (!) to get TMA07 back, but I had this strange idea that because TMA08 was the final one to be submitted electronically and extensions can only be granted in extremis that this one would come back a bit more promptly. But no sign of it yet, grrrrh! *stamps foot impatiently*
*electronic Tutor Marked Assignment
Listening to: ‘Corduroy’, Pearl Jam
Thursday, September 27, 2007
It’s been a stressful few weeks, all in all, for various reasons that I won’t bother to go into here. It has all impacted quite badly on the last two assignments for my OU course, especially TMA08. I haven’t got a result back for it yet, and given how long it took to get the mark for TMA07 back, I’m not holding my breath.
Read more...
Music: ‘Copied Keys’, Kathleen Edwards
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Tonight I read right through to the end of my History of Science unit. This would be an example of how NOT to study. A103 is a 60 point course and therefore equivalent to half time study so each course unit is supposed to be approximate to one week’s worth of study (or 16 hours). That means that the two History units I covered yesterday were supposed to be covered over a period of two weeks. And tonight’s reading (which took less than 4 hours) should have been a week’s study.
How much of the material am I actually taking in? That’s debatable...
Music: ‘She’s My Baby’, Mazzy Star
Monday, August 27, 2007
Well, today I ploughed through Units 25 and 26 of my current OU Block, The Sixties: Mainstream Culture and Counter-Culture and can I just say now that the antipathy I felt towards Arthur Marwick during Block 3 has been fully reignited. Except that it’s worse now as thanks to the DVDs I watched at the end of Block 3 I now find myself reading the current unit with Marwick’s voice in my head! He is a truly horrible writer, full of needless interjections that consistently break the flow of his sentences.
As I’m very behind and short on time and TMA08 only requires to answer on three disciplines...
Music: ‘Choosing Life’, Philip Glass, The Hours OST
Friday, August 24, 2007
I am finally starting Block 6 of my Open University course, weeks behind schedule. I should have started it on July 28 but life has rather got the better of me of late. Still better late than never! I have quite a bit of annual leave to take so I might book a week off in September and hopefully cover enough of the course work to make some sort of half decent attempt at my penultimate tutor marked assignment.
The final TMA (number 9) of the course is a different kettle of fish from the rest as it’s a timed affair...
Listening to: ‘There’s More To Life Than This’, Bjork
Saturday, August 11, 2007
I have just written 1500 words of barely coherent nonsense.
And I sort of don’t care.
Listening to: ‘Miles Away’, Jen Gloeckner
Wednesday, August 08, 2007
Someone is playing Europop of the most obnoxious type at very high volume somewhere very near my apartment.
It is so distracting! I’m never going to get this bloody essay done :(
Grrrr!!! Do you ever feel like life is conspiring against you?
Monday, August 06, 2007
So I have a big old TMA due this Friday, 1500 words on comparing and contrasting how two characters are constructed and developed.
My problem? I haven’t covered the course work. In fact I’ve only managed to read one of the set texts, Medea, and only read the first part of Wide Sargasso Sea.
And it’s due Friday. And it’s non-substitutable. And my tutor’s on holidays so asking for an extension is out of the question.
So am I…
Read on!
Listening to: some OU types talking about translating Greek drama. Tis’ riveting stuff!
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