Personal Blogs

I have finally  made it to my last course. Sad in away as I have enjoyed learning so many wonderful things, Still I have the skills now to do my own research and become an independent learner.

This new course A344 looks exciting. I have looked at the course book and reader, a bit, and am looking forward to getting into the swing of things. I can honestly say I have enjoyed all my courses. They were informative and well organised, a I have definitely grow as a person learning valuable techniques for my own art. 

Thank you OU

Karen 

So the course is about to begin again. Thankfully I am well and looking forward to completing AA315.I must remember not to over do things and keep focused on my studies.

I have all the course books through and the course study guide is up and running on the web site. I have been busy throughout the summer visiting museums, stately homes, Palaces and castles looking for a piece of renaissance art that I would like to base my dissertation on and have found something that I feel excited about researching and writing about.

So here goes for my penultimate course.

Happy to say the IT department managed to retrieve my TMA's many thanks and kisses  to you for your efforts and so sorry I put you to all that trouble.

That will lighten the load which is good as this year is going to be tough. My mother in law died yesterday, a very sad day. She was a good women, always fought for those unable to fight for themselves. She will be sadly missed, it will be hard learning to live without her.

Also my medication has been doubled, mixed state over, I would be a high as a kite without the extra medication. However, the side effects means I find it difficult to talk, to find the right words to express my self, and the retrieval of info is difficult. On the upside I have stopped spending money on my fabulous bright ideas, much to the relief of my poor long suffering husband.

Hopefull my mood swing will be over within the next couple of months so I can be ready to finish AA315. I must remember that just because life is feeling stable and I now feel strong that I have limitations and I must not push these as doing so causes the mood swing. Still at least I stayed out of hospital this time.

Well the first TMA is back 3 more to go and an EMA to do. It's a great feeling thinking I do not have an exam . The TMAs are always a challege but satisfying when done. It really helps consolidate ones knowledge of the course.

However, writing a TMA feels like creating a work of art. In that extracting the information from ones brain and designing the structure of the TMA, whilst sticking closely to the course requirements for the TMA, creates a series of emotional experiences that finally leave one feeling exhausted yet elated. Only to come down with a bit of a crash when one's audience did not see one's amazing skill and creativity and failed to give you that longed for 100%

Okay thats in my dreams so back to reality, I am really enjoying this course has to be my most favourite thus far. History, religion and Art all in one go, Heaven.

P.S don't wish to speak to soon but it appears life's firery missiles are leaving me alone at the mo. So have been able to study uninterupted and ahead of schedule, yeah.

Well the exam went really well, It seems I did enough to answer three questions for it. The only problem this time, I could have answered any six questions on the three books I had studied for. The only draw back then was spending time deciding which ones I had the most relevant information for.

So, with a rather hectic and chaotic summer holiday, with virtually nothing turning out the way it was meant to go, I find myself faced with the wonderful prospect of another challenging but informative OU course. Renaissance art is the course I have most been looking forward to in this degree, just can't wait to get my books and get started. So excited.

I decided to take this humanities course as a distraction from my emotional and social life. A life that seemed to erupt at that time and impose a sense of reality which had been dominated by idealism in making excuses for people. I decided that this course would help ground me as I faced serious life issues and it is doing just that. It is also helping me to understand life and focus on the issues involved. Understanding other peoples struggles with the world through philosophy and art history is humbling, as one sees that what I face is not unique to me but something we all face at some time in our life. M. Scott Peck says in his book The Road Less Travelled. Life is difficult. This is a great truth...once that is accepted, the fact that life is difficult no longer  matters. He goes on to show that life is a series of problems and asks do we want to moan about them or solve them? Sobering thoughts I think.

Finding studying difficult right now maybe because  I am half way through my course or maybe because life has just got difficult. Philosophy involves some really heavy thinking to get my head round the concepts. There are some really clever people out there and it vexes me so if I can't understand them. At the moment I am dealing with a difficult personal issue that is consuming my thoughts leaving little space for philosophy and it irritates me that I have to attend to this issue that has dominated my life. I tell myself for goodness sake move on and get on with the things I love and can control and forget the things I have no control over. Oh if only I were a Vulcan.

It has been an eventful summer a lot of it spent in hospitals. Apart from landing up in hospital during summer school I ended up in A&E after blacking out in my mother in laws hall way spraining my right foot, gashing my right arm and breaking a bone, we think, in my left hand it's currently in plaster. I am only 5 ft 5 inchs not really that far to fall so how can i have caused so much damage to my self ?

I also had a cyst removed from my right thumb, which caused a lot of grief during my exam in June, but so much scar tissue has grown back I can hardly bend my thumb at all. If my body reacts to small operations like this I better rethink my face lift don't really want a lot of scar tissue there that might defeat the object.

Still on the bright side I finally got around to having a go at scuba diving. It was every thing I dreamed of and more. So I have decided next summer, if i can stay out of hospital, I am going to take the course and learn to scuba dive. I am so looking forward to that.

Plus its not long now before our next OU course starts. I am begining to get nervous about this course as it is Philosophy which will involving critiquing debates not one of my strong points but  something I need to learn. However the issues Philosophers like to debate are interesting and issues I myself have thought about. Thus a challenge I am looking forward to.

Two days to go before summer school and as usual still unprepared. I have the whole of section D, western art, to study yet. I have found the text in the off prints hard going as there are no pretty pictures to look at to break up the nasty writing. However it's always a joy to learn new things and unfortunately that means reading, not my favourite pass time, reading is hard work for me. But so looking forward to summer school getting excited now. 

But very nervous about exam results which will be coming out while at school so no where to hide if things go hideously wrong.

I am so looking forward to summer school . I went on one a few years ago and really enjoyed. Spending Five days wondering around art museums' sounds great and being taught how to interpret art, brilliant, will make my trips to art museum more meaningful in the future . However the tricky bit is revising for an exam and now having to study for the summer school, feeling overwhelmed .