Following on from my last post on the paradox of the ship of Theseus, and following on from the post of some pictures from berlin that are social science relative,

here are pictures of the two sides of the Theseus paradox.

This is the Mary Rose, completely unrestored, the only work that has gone on with her, is to preserve her timbers.

And here is the HMS Victory, the Mary Rose is preserved in the black domed building in the background:

As you can see from the picture, the top part of the Victory's three masts have been removed for some more 'restoration', ergo, 'replacement' work.

So both side of the ship of Theseus paradox, just a stones throw apart.

I have some more pictures from our berlin trip to share, so I thought I would bundle them up here, with how they relevant to the key themes and idea's discussed in my Politics, Economics and Philosophy course...

Marx, the political and economic philosopher, and his backer, Engels.

The Reichstag, power, sovereignty, Legitimate use of violence.

The Berlin Wall, boundaries, international relations, globalisation

Wearing an old soviet republic t-shirt outside the rebranded Russian federation embassy.

International relations,

I think the new study planner layout is good.

But then i have a new pair of glasses!

The others were 10 years old.

So rather than splurge on new stationary for the start of the module, i went for new glasses instead.

Hope you all had a good summer.

Mine was okay. I changed jobs in August, so i did not get a summer holiday.

I get get to go to Berlin with my son, to celebrate his 18th birthday. That was a great trip.

Berlin is a beautiful city. Here is a picture of us at the Reichstag dome.

as well as that trip, I also abseiled down the spinnaker tower to raise funds for the Solent MS Therapy Centre.

This is me 315 feet, 103 metre's up the tower.

I got 79% for my DD211 exam, so a overall OES score of 79%.

So a 2:1 score so far.

Now here I am, it is September again and time for fire up for my third module.

This time round it is A222- Philosophy.

Let the fun begin, and more blogging, now that we are back to study.

also as well as wishing my cohorts good luck in the exam tomorrow, I just wanted to thank all of you who have taken the time to visit my blog, it is much appreciated. The hit counter now stands at 3600 views, which is amazing. I hope everyone who has visited my blog has found something of interest in it, I wonder if I will get to 4000 views before the end of June. I imagine the blogs slow down quite a bit during the summer recess.

Thank you.

I do like to be organised, although sometimes life really does try to throw challenges into the best planned schedules.

however, I have managed to arrange another life change, which will not put any pressures on my open university study time table.

I have been the manager of a medium sized regional charity for 6 years now. The Solent MS Therapy Centre provides therapy and support to people with Multiple Sclerosis in Hampshire, Dorset and the Isle of Wight. If you would like to see more information about their work, this is the website:

http://smstherapycentre.org.uk/

Before he passed away my father lived two streets away from the Centre, so that was very convenient for me. Since his passing, my mum has decided to sell the house and move out of Portsmouth to the suburbs. This meant that my reasons for coming into Portsmouth every day have been reduced. I only go into Portsmouth now to go to work.  So with these changes I decided to apply for some other jobs, out of town and nearer to where I live in Havant.

I have been very lucky to have been offered a job with a National Charity. I am now in my two month notice period with the therapy centre and on 1st August will start my new role as the national manager of the Hounds for Heroes.

The hounds for heroes is a large national charity that provides assistance dogs for injured veterans.

You can read more about their work here:

http://houndsforheroes.com/

So I am sad to be leaving my current role, however life changes mean I needed to seek a new role and I am delighted to be appointed the national manager of a large national charity.

So life changes again, and thankfully it changes in the summer, during my study break from the Open University.

Today is the abseil day. 315 feet or 103 meters down the Spinaker tower.

I have been leant a go pro to record the abseil from my safety helmet.

So the will be a film of me doing it.

Should be fun.

Thank you to everyone who has sponsored me.

Here is the link to my latest specialistgeneralist.net blog:

https://thespecialistgeneralist.net/2017/05/21/centrists/

The blog deals with the current general election and a fledgling political party in the U.K which hopes to offer a Centrist alternative to the political agenda in the U.K

I hope you follow the links to the Centrist UK page and have a look through their materials.

I made this for the local micro news site I volunteer for,

The 2017 snap election word bingo card...

What's your score?

is it transnational or suprainternational?

You decide... with the help of this flash card for block 5, globalisation.

now for the second flash card about globalisation.

Here is my final flash card for DD211 block 4, this one deals with leadership within lijphart defined liberal democracies.

Is it okay?

I sat the 3 hour mensa IQ test last week. I did not tell anyone i was doing it. I thought that it would become a giant piss take and people would think i was arrogant and a 'know it all,.

So i got my results letter today, i scored 132 and got into mensa.

I told the family, much piss was taken... which is fair enough, i love them and they have the right to take the piss..

But it does make me wonder, is admitting to being in mensa something to be proud of, or a reason for people to mock you. Does even thinking that way make me abit on an arse?

I was initially pleased but now wonder if it is a mistake?