OU blog

Personal Blogs

Philosophy open day.

Visible to anyone in the world

FASS have organised a philosophy open day in March.

I do fancy going, however it is on a Thursday and it is in Milton keynes.

So do i fancy driving two hours each way to attend, and do i fancy going during the working week?

Might be interesting, but it is a drag to get there.

Permalink 1 comment (latest comment by Simon Reed, Friday, 5 Jan 2018, 10:48)
Share post

Simon was right.

Visible to anyone in the world

Simon Reed was right, of course.

Kant is much easier to process, as Simon put it, ' you are better off with a maxim. Gives clarity and something concrete to discuss, shame Kant is not part of this TMA.

Permalink 4 comments (latest comment by Michael Gumbrell, Monday, 8 Jan 2018, 07:57)
Share post

That time of year

Visible to anyone in the world

Happy new year to you all 

May 2018 be peaceful for you all.

Permalink Add your comment
Share post

The Good Place

Visible to anyone in the world

Having the two weeks off from the study planner over Christmas has been nice.

I did continue to study, but having no work meant i had some extra time available.

So i used my extra free time to watch the first series of The Good Place on netflix.

I enjoyed it, it is a show about philosophy, in fact each episode seems to follow the harvard philosophy curriculum quite closely. I have watched the harvard lectures on youtube.

It is a good series, The Good Place throws up many philosophical questions, and plato, kant, bentham, Hume, satre and Rousseau all feature as a theme of episodes.

It is worth a watch.

The Good Place on netflix.

Permalink Add your comment
Share post

Snow

Visible to anyone in the world

It snowed this morning. It almost drifted up to 0.9cm in some places. Then the sun came up and it was all gone by 9.30am.

The joys of living on the south coast....

Permalink Add your comment
Share post

Views.

Visible to anyone in the world

Just a quick thank you to everyone who has taken the time to visit this blog.

The view counter is about to hit 11,000 views.

Who would have thought my view counter would have got to 11,000 when i first started writing this blog.

Permalink Add your comment
Share post

Did everyone survive?

Visible to anyone in the world

So hopefully you all got through Christmas day okay.

We went to have dinner with auntie Nikita. Due to the age of her children, much of the day was taken up building playmobile airplanes, police cars and trucks, plus much Lego was built.

Which was great fun. Little Ana, who is three got a doctors play set, which meant alot of ear checking and reflex tests.

Dinner was tasty, so all in all, a lovely day 

Hopefully you all had a good day, without any hassle or arguments.

Permalink Add your comment
Share post

Merry Christmas everyone

Visible to anyone in the world

I will be busy tomorrow.

So today is the day to wish you all a merry christmas and a peaceful new year.

Permalink 1 comment (latest comment by Simon Reed, Monday, 25 Dec 2017, 14:13)
Share post

A difficult time of year

Visible to anyone in the world

I work in health and social care.

It is frustrating when other people talk about what the 'true meaning' of christmas is.

For those of us who work in the health and social care sector, christmas is about many things, many of them difficult and saddening.

But people don't really want to hear about that.

Permalink Add your comment
Share post

Ashes to Ashes

Visible to anyone in the world

Well that escalated quickly.

3-0 down in the first 3 tests and the ashes handed back.

I am very disappointed that it all went downhill so quickly.

Lots of lashing out in the press.

Not a great result.

Permalink Add your comment
Share post

Hits

Visible to anyone in the world

I just noticed the view counter is going through 10500.

Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to visit my blog.

A big thank you to everyone who has taken the time and effort to comment.

And a massive thank you for putting up with my moaning about module a222.

#bloodya222.

Thank you one and all.

Permalink Add your comment
Share post

Chapter 2 again

Visible to anyone in the world
Edited by Michael Gumbrell, Wednesday, 27 Dec 2017, 15:42
#bloodya222.

The block 3 tma question is similar to the last one in structure.

Once again it is all about chapter 2. It is a shame because you plow through 4 weeks of reading and work and only use 1 week of it.

I had a look ahead at all the other tma's and the same structure applies.

It might be possible to write all the tma's by only reading one chapter from each book.

That would leave you unstuck for the exam, however your ocas would be complete.

This is a very odd and off putting module.

I shall not miss it.

Permalink Add your comment
Share post

Tma 2 mark.

Visible to anyone in the world

So i just got my mark back. I got 63 for tma 2. I got 68 for tma 1. So i am averaging 65 ocas at the moment.

65 is a 2.2 which is my lowest module score so far.

But that's okay. I do not like philosophy and nor would it appear that philosophy approves of me... 

#bloodya222

Permalink Add your comment
Share post

Star wars

Visible to anyone in the world

We went to see the new star wars film last night. The last jedi.

I thought it was pretty poor. Once the hype is over i wonder how much demand there will be for the ninth one.

Permalink 2 comments (latest comment by Michael Gumbrell, Saturday, 16 Dec 2017, 12:30)
Share post

Busy day today

Visible to anyone in the world

It will be a busy day today. 

A full external awareness day at work.

A quick christmas visit from auntie mary, who is down from wales.

Then jump back into car and out into the evening rush hour traffic to get to the cinema to see the star wars film.

So out the front door at 7.45am and back home again for 10.45pm.

Good job its friday.

Permalink Add your comment
Share post

The social mine field

Visible to anyone in the world

Its that time of year,

Time to cross the social mine field of the works' christmas dinner.

I don't drink alcohol, which people at work know, however the christmas dinner this afternoon will mean two hours of 'go on, one drink will not hurt' or ' is it not boring if you do not drink'

At least we get three hours off of work...

Permalink Add your comment
Share post

Venue change.

Visible to anyone in the world

##bloodya222.

I attended the first tutorial. In Guildford, a 40 mile drive each way.

Not great, now i have a charmiess email telling me the venue is now changed to Farnborough.

Great that adds another 20 miles on each way. One hour each way.

The OU really can stick a222 up their online portal.

This module has been the worst i have ever studied, by a country mile... and i will have to drive 60 country miles in each direction to attend tutorials now...

Permalink Add your comment
Share post

#bloody a222

Visible to anyone in the world

Still grinding my way through block 3.

This module is very tedious.

I cannot wait to be out the other side of it.

Roll on june...

#bloody a222

Permalink 2 comments (latest comment by Michael Gumbrell, Thursday, 14 Dec 2017, 06:51)
Share post

Snow day.

Visible to anyone in the world

I live in Hampshire, on the south coast of england.

So while the rest of the country is covered in snow, and social media is awash with pictures of snowmen, i am looking out the window at... some mild rain.

Permalink 2 comments (latest comment by Michael Gumbrell, Sunday, 10 Dec 2017, 16:26)
Share post

Star wars

Visible to anyone in the world
Edited by Michael Gumbrell, Saturday, 9 Dec 2017, 15:33

So i booked tickets for the new star wars movie next friday.

5 of us, 2 children, 2 students and the mrs as a full price adult.

52 pounds! And that was a standard 2D showing.

It would have been 65 quid for 3D and over 75 quid for Imax...

It would have been 90 quid for imax without the student discounts.

As they say on the dvd cases- 'priracy of this copywrite is a CRIME'

However highway robbery at the cinema box office appears not to be...

Permalink 2 comments (latest comment by Michael Gumbrell, Sunday, 10 Dec 2017, 08:09)
Share post

10000 views

Visible to anyone in the world
Edited by Michael Gumbrell, Thursday, 7 Dec 2017, 17:24

The counter just clocked 10000.

Thank you to everyone who has taken time out of their busy lives to read my witterings.

It is very much appreciated.

Permalink Add your comment
Share post

9971 views

Visible to anyone in the world

The counter is on 9971. I will be at work today, so i might miss the counter hitting 10,000.

I dont think ' sorry boss, i can not come to work today, i need to keep an eye on my ou blog view counter' is really going to stand up as a excuse not to go to work.

Permalink Add your comment
Share post

NHS Statistics

Visible to anyone in the world

Just watching the BBC news.

Apparently 27 million people have been to A+E so far this year 

The UK has a population of 56 million.

So according to the figures, every other person in the UK has been to A+E so far this year.

That seems very unlikely.

They must be counting repeat visits.

Permalink 4 comments (latest comment by Michael Gumbrell, Friday, 8 Dec 2017, 06:49)
Share post

Not the only undergraduate in the house

Visible to anyone in the world

Hopefully by the time i put #bloodya222 behind me, i will not be the only undergraduate in the house.

My oldest got his ucas application back yesterday.

He has a provisional place at the University of Portsmouth to read Politics and internstional relations.

So that is good news. All he hss to do now is make sure he gets the correct a level grades.

Permalink Add your comment
Share post

Block 3 and the christmas break

Visible to anyone in the world

Having had a look at the block 3 tma question, i am going to have to work through the christmas break.

The tma question is very long. More like a four part question.

That is a big question to answer so it will require alot of work...hence no christmas break for me.

I got 68 for my first tms, i am waiting for the mark for tma2.

I think it will not be as good as 68.

So i need to put the work into tma3 to try and keep my ocas in the 2.2 range for this module.

A222 has 6 tma's and no substitutions, so a good ocas will be hard to achieve.

Lets hope that it does not go from 68 and then downwards.

#bloodya222.

Permalink Add your comment
Share post

This blog might contain posts that are only visible to logged-in users, or where only logged-in users can comment. If you have an account on the system, please log in for full access.

Total visits to this blog: 375416