Panic-ed today, could not find a book by Alexander McCall Smith in Waterstones. Looked in fiction, no luck. Then Crime, no luck under "S" for Smith. Found them under "M" for McCall.

My name is David Fraser McColl, where will my books be found?

Happy Christmas (assignment less, as expected).

Industrial Action Short of a Strike

The University and College Union (UCU) - the union for many members of University staff in academic and academic related roles - has announced its intention to call on its members throughout the UK to begin a comprehensive boycott of setting and marking of assessments with effect from 6 November 2014.  It is doing this as part of its response to proposed changes to the USS pension scheme. 

We do not have any indication of how many or which members of the UCU are likely to follow the boycott, so at this time the University is unable to provide details of how this boycott may affect you.  Tutors taking part in the action will be instructed by the Union not to give a mark or a grade to assignments but that they should continue to provide teaching comments.   They will be instructed to put a ‘zero’ in the score box on the PT3 form – without a ‘score’ we are unable to process assignments through our computer system – and then to return the assignment to you in the usual way.   As soon as the dispute is over we will then expect tutors to provide the marks for these assignments and you will be notified when this has happened.

We realise this is not welcome news.  We would like to assure you that the University is committed to doing whatever it can to minimise the effect of the boycott on your studies and progression to your next module.  We will keep you updated as further information becomes available.

In the meantime we would urge you to continue to submit your assignments in the normal way and to do so by the cut-off date.

The examinations scheduled for December will proceed as planned and those of you who are due to submit an end of module assessment over the next few weeks should do so by the scheduled submission date.

If you have any queries about how your assessment may be affected you should contact your Student Support Team.

Keith Zimmerman Director, Students

After a highly active session of lobbying, the two grey Detective Cats went out into the yard. It is hot, it is smelly (to cats), but it is their yard. The flies dealt with, the gate examined, the too hot to touch cat ignored, they both flopped on the ground. "Tum to the sun" yoga, followed by stretchi-cat and then a dust bath.

Both are now rather tired; they are asleep. Ssh.

The two Grey cat detectives have fallen out, with each other and with me. I am working on an assignment, technological determinism and language, and so I am on a chair they want.

Think I'll stop and peace can descend.

The two grey cat detectives are exhausted. The builders next door keep banging, hammering and drilling. It's driving them and me absolutely mad. The house was first demolished from the inside leaving only the outside walls and the roof. It has been rebuild using a cardboard-like substance to allow more students to be piled high and charged the same. The cats have had enough.

Merry Christmas .

The two grey Detective Cats were not very good at detecting. They are mother and son and are looked after, very well, by Mummy and Daddy. But the boy cat has a mummy already, he thinks that he is very fortunate to have his own mummy and 'mummy' Mummy to pay attention to him. Also the boy cat doesn't understand how he and his mother have the same Daddy.

Nonetheless, recently Daddy was looking for something and the two grey Detective Cats were anxious to help. Daddy looked on his computer, in his inbox, on his screen at some very sophistocated pages, but Daddy just couldn't find whatever it was he was looking for. The cats tried to help. The mother cat rubbed up against Daddy's bare legs, it was summer and Daddy was wearing shorts. The son cat jumped up and ignoring the mouse, sat and looked at Daddy's screen pawing at whatever moved there. But Daddy wasn't happy.

"Where is it" he said, and "Stop it" he said more loudly, and he rubbed the mother cat and gently put the son onto the carpet. "Where is my assignment?"

Confessions of a Bibliophile

Warning, this blog contains references to books other bibliophiles may find interesting, but absolutely no flash photography.

Block 1 of the introductory module AA100 has many topics, all with potential for the serious bibliophile. Are you also a bibliophile? A simple test: have you now or have you every shelved books at home one in front of the other, or on top of the other. Full obsessive bibliophiles, please do not look at the reference list, called a bibliography in the Arts.

For book 1 in AA100 we are looking at the reputations of Cleopatra, Dr Faustus, Cézanne, Faraday, Divas, Stalin and the Dalai Lama (The Open University, 2008). For very senior strategic reasons we were stripped of Faraday, leaving six book filled opportunities.

Cleopatra, although an assignment topic, was rather low key, the module material managed well enough (Fear, 2008). On the advice of others, I did, however, download a radio broadcast to listen to (Morris, 2010), a tangential move or preamble to a bibliophilic episode, opportunity missed.

Dr Faustus and Marlowe as a topic (Pacheco, 2008) was laden with book buying, both opportunities and threats. First the set book by (O'Connor, 2003 [1604]), a quaintly but  cunningly named “A Text”, leaving room possibly for a sequel even the American would understand. But no, I stayed true to the course and kept calm even though there was an assignment and a reflection to be crafted, so hard core Marlowe only from York Notes (Barker, 2012).

I skipped Cézanne, Faraday, and the Dalai Lama, keeping my credit card dry for more important assignment related topics. Stalin, as in life, was irresistible (Montefiore, 2003).

Divas proved to be many faceted and too tempting. Who would have known that the TMA itself would provide a link (Sargeant, 1973), albeit purchased from the transatlantic cousins and not yet arrived. Also reading round the topic a book, borrowed not bought, from the local library (Bakker, 2012).

So far so good. Previewing the next blog, in book 2, philosophy (Warburton, 2011) and essay writing, coincidentally from a philosophy researcher at Durham (Greetham, 2008). Books harm only your credit not your mind.

Bakker, J. (2012). Behind the Rainbow: The Tragic Life of Eva Cassidy: Omnibus Press.

Barker, J. (2012). York Notes - Doctor Faustus. Harlow: Pearson Education.

Fear, T. (2008). Cleopatra. In E. Moohan (Ed.), AA100 The Arts Past and Present - Book 1 Reputations. Milton Keynes: The Open University.

Greetham, B. (2008). How to write better essays, Second Edition (2nd Ed.). London: Palgrave.

Montefiore, S. S. (2003). Stalin - The Court of the Red Tsar. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson.

Morris, T. (Writer) & J. C. Olivia Seligman, Charlie Taylor (Director). (2010). In Our Time - Cleopatra. In T. Morris (Producer), In Our Time. London: BBC Radio 4.

O'Connor, J. (Ed.). (2003 [1604]). Doctor Faustus - the A text. Harlow: Pearson Longman.

Pacheco, A. (2008). Christopher Marlowe, Doctor Faustus. In E. Moohan (Ed.), AA100 The Arts Past and Present - Book 1 Reputations. Milton Keynes: The Open University.

Sargeant, W. (1973). Divas. New York: Coward, McCann & Geoghegan.

The Open University. (2008). AA100 The Arts Past and Present - Book 1 Reputations (E. Moohan Ed.). Milton Keynes: The Open University.

Warburton, N. (2011). A little history of philosophy. London: Yale University Press.