The course officially started yesterday and already we have had a mini-assignment emailed to us by our tutor (a published poet). The course forums are already filled with eager beavers who have been posting haikus and freewrites as though they are going out of fashion, I have grown tired of trying to keep up and so now have taken to going in, flicking through the email titles and just marking all as read! My tutorial forum is much smaller and, therefore, much quieter, averaging about 10 posts a day.
The mini assignment we were given was to compose an acrostic poem using the letters that make up our names as the first letters of each line - so mine looks something like this:
R
A
C
H
E
L
Now, we are meant to post our 'first drafts' by Tuesday, but I am sorry, I am not spending a few days working on this. At the time I read the email containing the assignment I had just left some par-boiled potatoes in a warm dish with some olive oil, crushed garlic cloves and fresh rosemary (from the plant on my kitchen windowsill), so I used this and other smells in the kitchen as inspiration and wrote my 6 line, 36 word acrostic poem in about 30-45 minutes. That's it, done! I am hoping that just because our tutor is a poet all our assignments won't have some poetry relation - if they do then I am so going to ask about being given a different tutor. I did not choose to do this course because of the poetry, I chose to do this course in spite of the poetry.
That over and done with I need to talk about Draco. No, I am not writing a poorly chosen rip off of "We need to talk about Kevin" (I only managed to read a bit of that book before I took it back to the library and chose some chicklit), this is about my beloved 7-yr old laptop. Draco has been chugging along, rather well I think, for the last year. Despite all the chips and cracks in the casing he still works - albeit a little bit slowly - but of late I have noticed that the chugging noises are getting louder, the time it takes to carry out one single action (such as switch between my browser and my email software) is taking longer, and the cracks in the case are getting bigger. This means, I know, that Draco is due for replacement.
I decided to have a look at the Dell website (my old desktop - which is also slowly dying, and turned 5 this August - is a Dell and I never had any problems with it, but for the fact that they no longer even make parts to upgrade it and it too is struggling to work with the amount of software required to simply work view a website, check email and chat at the same time - let alone run the newer and far more reliable MS Office software) and saw that the newer machines have 2-3ghz processors, 3-4gb of ram and huge hard drives. I thought to myself, "hmm, wonder what Draco's processor is and how much Ram he has..." (no, with all the damage that he has suffered travelling to the States several times, to France and on various trips around the country in my backpack, there is no point thinking of simply upgrading his RAM and HD), I checked and had to giggle when I realised that he is a baby in comparison with these newer machines. He has a 1ghz processor and just 256mb of Ram...yes, you read that right, 256mb of Ram. It's no wonder every process is like dragging a donut away from a woman who has just been to her weigh in at Weight Watchers (and I can say this because that's me!). I get the feeling that once I get a new machine things will be less like pulling teeth, and more like pulling a freshly baked apple crumble from the oven - pure pleasure. Of course this new machine will have to have a name...and as I only very recently emailed to a friend...Draco is the baby death eater, this new machine will be the big daddy - so perhaps he should have the daddy-appropriate name, and be Lucius!
Sunday, 28 September 2008
Thursday, 25 September 2008
Time Flies
Not sure if it's only when you're having fun...think that being busy also makes time fly - so perhaps the saying should be "Time flies when you have way too much on your calendar".
A215 starts this weekend, and finally (after a mini disagreement with the OU and frustration with DHL) my books arrived. Luckily (or rather unluckily because it wasn't the best time), I was away from work with a bug that knocked me for six, when Ms Postie knocked on my front door and handed me the box with the books and cds inside. Of course I felt so drained by the time I got back upstairs to my sick bed that I didn't do anything more than prop the books up on the bookcase, but today (despite not feeling THAT much better), I will be looking through them to see what is expected of me.
I am terrified now; while all the other courses relied upon my being able to critique the work of others, this course depends upon my being able to accept the critique of others on work that is rather personal.
Next Saturday (4th October) I have 5 hour tutorial in Worthing, and part of me is looking forward to meeting everyone, while another part of me is scared (I am not good with new people as a rule). We'll soon see.
A215 starts this weekend, and finally (after a mini disagreement with the OU and frustration with DHL) my books arrived. Luckily (or rather unluckily because it wasn't the best time), I was away from work with a bug that knocked me for six, when Ms Postie knocked on my front door and handed me the box with the books and cds inside. Of course I felt so drained by the time I got back upstairs to my sick bed that I didn't do anything more than prop the books up on the bookcase, but today (despite not feeling THAT much better), I will be looking through them to see what is expected of me.
I am terrified now; while all the other courses relied upon my being able to critique the work of others, this course depends upon my being able to accept the critique of others on work that is rather personal.
Next Saturday (4th October) I have 5 hour tutorial in Worthing, and part of me is looking forward to meeting everyone, while another part of me is scared (I am not good with new people as a rule). We'll soon see.
Tuesday, 9 September 2008
Books and blogs and things
Still no sign of my books. I was hoping that – as they were apparently despatched on Friday – they would arrive in enough time for me to get acquainted with them before the course started proper. Yes, I am well aware that the course doesn’t begin for another 3 weeks, but I am away for most of next week (we are going to Center Parks in Wiltshire for a trio of days filled with sales conference talk and budget discussion YAY!!!) I wanted to have a chance to look at them, and perhaps take one with me to read while trying to get to sleep in an unfamiliar bed.
The weather here at the moment is horrible. I am contemplating designing a clock for my blog that shows the current British weather. It has just four settings, “okay”, “horrible”, “crap”, and “absolute shite”. At present it’s hovering between the last two, and I don’t predict it changing before the end of the year (well actually I do, I expect it to move to hover right over “absolute shite” and stay there). We were promised (rather recently in fact) a late Indian summer, but that has yet to come to light, and as September moves forward ever more swiftly I don’t think it will actually ever arrive.
Today I have made a move towards getting rid of my old life – well, my old online life anyway!
For the last five years I have kept a Livejournal. The journal contained (until the end of last year) every single detail of my life, every little thing that happened, how and why and where. In December last year I became very disinterested in the way things on the site were progressing – first there were mass journal deletions, then the owners sold out and started to change their policies towards the freedom of the written word. Slowly I started to realise that I no longer wished to be part of the community that the site had once been and never would be again. I had slowly moved away from the friends I had made before and during my time on the site and I became disenchanted with the idea of storing my every thought on a page that anyone could access given the right password. I have posted my final post on Livejournal, if it’s not read then it’s not read, but that doesn’t bother me (posting my comment is merely a polite gesture, I feel it only fair to give people a chance to get links to things and pictures that I have made/taken that are in my past posts before they are gone), and come Friday night everything that once was will never be again – except, of course, in some google cached archive somewhere! Strange as it may seem, this clean out is actually starting to feel rather therapeutic…off with the old, on with the new, and may the new offer me five years more.
The weather here at the moment is horrible. I am contemplating designing a clock for my blog that shows the current British weather. It has just four settings, “okay”, “horrible”, “crap”, and “absolute shite”. At present it’s hovering between the last two, and I don’t predict it changing before the end of the year (well actually I do, I expect it to move to hover right over “absolute shite” and stay there). We were promised (rather recently in fact) a late Indian summer, but that has yet to come to light, and as September moves forward ever more swiftly I don’t think it will actually ever arrive.
Today I have made a move towards getting rid of my old life – well, my old online life anyway!
For the last five years I have kept a Livejournal. The journal contained (until the end of last year) every single detail of my life, every little thing that happened, how and why and where. In December last year I became very disinterested in the way things on the site were progressing – first there were mass journal deletions, then the owners sold out and started to change their policies towards the freedom of the written word. Slowly I started to realise that I no longer wished to be part of the community that the site had once been and never would be again. I had slowly moved away from the friends I had made before and during my time on the site and I became disenchanted with the idea of storing my every thought on a page that anyone could access given the right password. I have posted my final post on Livejournal, if it’s not read then it’s not read, but that doesn’t bother me (posting my comment is merely a polite gesture, I feel it only fair to give people a chance to get links to things and pictures that I have made/taken that are in my past posts before they are gone), and come Friday night everything that once was will never be again – except, of course, in some google cached archive somewhere! Strange as it may seem, this clean out is actually starting to feel rather therapeutic…off with the old, on with the new, and may the new offer me five years more.
Thursday, 4 September 2008
And September brings with it wind and rain
You read it right. The advent of this month (only 4 days old and already desperate for it to be over) has already brought with it gale-force winds and rain. Cycling to the train station (a lovely distance of just under 2 miles) left me dripping like a piece of clothing fresh out of the washing machine and feeling like I needed to be wrung out. My clothes eventually dried, but not before they had been clinging to my skin for a good couple of hours. Well, we live and learn - and one thing I have learned is that waterproof clothing is fanatastic as long as the wind isn't blowing the rain up the back of the cape ;)
Nothing really has happened over the last few weeks. I went to see my niece perform in an Amateur Dramatics version of Annie which could have been so much better (had any of the actors been able to carry a tune), and I spent a couple of hours cleaning up the flat (okay, 3 hours on Saturday and 4 on Sunday - it gleamed for a few days but now looks like a bomb hit it again).
Happenings yet to occur:
1. College starts on the 29th September. At present I am unable to even access my OU mailbox as the site seems to resent me existing and has decided to delete me - I am sure this will resolve itself soon (it had better...).
2. My living room needs to be decorated. At present my living room (which is immense) looks as though it was originally decorated by an arguing couple. 2 walls are a burnt orange and the other two are this colour that is referred to as mushroom, but really just closely resembles a dirty light brown. I need to get this done soon as I want to hang curtains to keep in the heat over the winter. I was thinking cream and dark red - the room is big enough to carry it off, that's for sure.
3. My bathroom is still brown. Yep, whoever previously decorated this place needs to get glasses - after they have been hit around the head a few times for their dire taste. I have been thinking about decorating it since I moved in, but time sort of got away from me, and now -when I have the time - I don't have the money! I get a tax rebate, and my inheritance is due to come through really soon, so after I have painted the horrid living room, my bathroom will become a pale and calming butter cream.
4. I had intended (but then we know what happens to good intentions don't we) to do some writing over the four month break (between A300 finishing and A215 starting). Unfortunately it appears as though my muse decided to go on an extended vacation. I keep on opening up the files, but the characters are totally silent. It feels as though I have stepped into a vacuum whenever I think about writing something original.
5. I have an unfinished Harry Potter fanfiction that I started writing for a friend's birthday. I finished the first part and sent it to her in time for the big day (8th August), but somewhen between the 8th and now I lost the impetus to put fingers to keys and finishing it...I will get around to it - I have promised so I will get it done, but whether it fits the standards set by the first part I honestly have no idea.
6. Getting my cat to go for walks...Oh this has been a joke - though I wish it were actually a joke rather than something which will make people laugh while it is totally true. Mulder has been whinging for the last couple of months that he can't get outside. I finally gave in and spent money on buying him a leash, spent a week getting him accustomed to wearing the harness around the flat, put him on the leash and walked him around the flat (until he stopped dragging himself along the floor like a storm was crashing overhead) and then yesterday took him outside. You would have thought I was torturing him. He mewled like a stuck pig and cried until I gave in and took him back inside again. Oh well, back to the drawing board LOL.
Nothing really has happened over the last few weeks. I went to see my niece perform in an Amateur Dramatics version of Annie which could have been so much better (had any of the actors been able to carry a tune), and I spent a couple of hours cleaning up the flat (okay, 3 hours on Saturday and 4 on Sunday - it gleamed for a few days but now looks like a bomb hit it again).
Happenings yet to occur:
1. College starts on the 29th September. At present I am unable to even access my OU mailbox as the site seems to resent me existing and has decided to delete me - I am sure this will resolve itself soon (it had better...).
2. My living room needs to be decorated. At present my living room (which is immense) looks as though it was originally decorated by an arguing couple. 2 walls are a burnt orange and the other two are this colour that is referred to as mushroom, but really just closely resembles a dirty light brown. I need to get this done soon as I want to hang curtains to keep in the heat over the winter. I was thinking cream and dark red - the room is big enough to carry it off, that's for sure.
3. My bathroom is still brown. Yep, whoever previously decorated this place needs to get glasses - after they have been hit around the head a few times for their dire taste. I have been thinking about decorating it since I moved in, but time sort of got away from me, and now -when I have the time - I don't have the money! I get a tax rebate, and my inheritance is due to come through really soon, so after I have painted the horrid living room, my bathroom will become a pale and calming butter cream.
4. I had intended (but then we know what happens to good intentions don't we) to do some writing over the four month break (between A300 finishing and A215 starting). Unfortunately it appears as though my muse decided to go on an extended vacation. I keep on opening up the files, but the characters are totally silent. It feels as though I have stepped into a vacuum whenever I think about writing something original.
5. I have an unfinished Harry Potter fanfiction that I started writing for a friend's birthday. I finished the first part and sent it to her in time for the big day (8th August), but somewhen between the 8th and now I lost the impetus to put fingers to keys and finishing it...I will get around to it - I have promised so I will get it done, but whether it fits the standards set by the first part I honestly have no idea.
6. Getting my cat to go for walks...Oh this has been a joke - though I wish it were actually a joke rather than something which will make people laugh while it is totally true. Mulder has been whinging for the last couple of months that he can't get outside. I finally gave in and spent money on buying him a leash, spent a week getting him accustomed to wearing the harness around the flat, put him on the leash and walked him around the flat (until he stopped dragging himself along the floor like a storm was crashing overhead) and then yesterday took him outside. You would have thought I was torturing him. He mewled like a stuck pig and cried until I gave in and took him back inside again. Oh well, back to the drawing board LOL.
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