Translate

Tuesday 29 January 2013

Now its bad audio

Well, pairs didn't work as I had to finish by Thursday and my 'pair' could only work over the weekend. And I didn't see anything else submitted by any other pairs either.

I tried to listen to the new audio lecture but it was punctuated by so many bangs and 'noises off' that I couldn't concentrate and even TSH was making 'what on earth is that?' noises. I wrote to the tutor and although she concedes its not very good, she thinks its usable. Fortunately textual cohesion is a topic I've come across before so I'll revise it from my OU text book before I tackle the exercise. Its an analysis of Obama's second inaugural speech.

We've been so busy I've missed the sales!!

Tuesday 22 January 2013

Will pairs work?

The essay is in. I really enjoyed comparing the language in the trials of the Dike of Norfolk (1571) and Shipman, but I've really got tired of them both and I'm glad to move on.

Its TSH's birthday tomorrow and we are out for dinner. No idea what to wear yet. How smart? How warm? Its barely above freezing day or night at the moment. We couldn't even do our daily walk today because the ground is so icy and slippery.

The tutor for critical discourse analysis wants us to work in pairs for our tasks- every two weeks, we have an audio lecture, do some reading and then submit a task to our forum. No marking, but we are supposed to contribute to about half of them. Now, we are a group who are working part-time and distance and have busy lives, so this is going to be interesting. Several of us have said it won't work but they want us to try.

One of the other students has suggested we work together and I have no problems with that - we always have a good chat when we meet at the face-to-face days. But the current one is due in next Monday and I can't work this weekend. So I have Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday afternoons to complete this. I thought that would be OK, as many tasks are not too difficult. But this one is quite time-consuming - I spent all Tuesday afternoon on it and have done barely half. I am sure my 'pair' has similar constraints, as she also has a job. We have no time that I can see to work on anything jointly.

So how is this to work?

Tuesday 15 January 2013

A poem by Tony Harrison

No, I know this isn't a poetry blog. But I read that there's a huge fuss because the BBC are to read the whole of  a poem with 'bad' language in it. So I read the poem all through and its amazing. Written by the Leeds poet Tony Harrison about his working class roots. Tragi-comic. These are very much like my  roots.
warning - language may offend. http://famouspoetsandpoems.com/poets/tony_harrison/poems/12693

Thursday 10 January 2013

We went to London

It was the face-to-face day for my course - discourse analysis, where we looked at texts including newspapers and cold call telephone conversations. I think this part of the course will be one of the most interesting for me.  I wore one of my new sweaters - big, baggy and elegant, with the necklace I haggled for in Shanghai.

We took the opportunity to see War Horse. It was a bit jingoistic at first, but that was how the propaganda was. But then it presented the action from the German perspective. They were just like the English and wanted to go home as soon as possible. Also, I expected to be annoyed about the emphasis on the horses but they repeatedly said 'actually, this doesn't matter, because so many people are dying'. The horses were spectacular, but scary from where we were on the front row. I thought they were going to gallop off the stage and crush us!!

We also walked a lot and visited the V&A and the Transport Museum at Covent Garden, which is a good social history of London. I bought a new silver necklace which will look good on smart evenings on cruises.

Tuesday 8 January 2013

I'm an old age pensioner

Today is the official day. Its not my birthday but they are gradually moving the date from 60 to 65, so most of us hit the milestone at some totally random date in between. We are the same people who when we were 18, the age for 'coming of age' was 21. By the time we were 21, the age was 18. So we misssed that milestone too.

Christmas and New Year have been good but hectic and I haven't even touched the essay, which is due in in less than two weeks. And a minor exercise which I haven't even looked at yet is due on Monday. And the Christmas tree is still up. And the guest bedroom needs cleaning.  I'm declaring a state of emergency!