To Start the Day

Having found my bearings (just about, as the wealth of information is so detailed and sprawling) in the new job, I was delighted to find that the old haunts of which I used to frequent (pubs, supermarkets, the local chippy comically named The cod’s Scallops) – handily near the Open University campus – have been supplemented with a new cafe, so having arrived stupidly early for one my shifts, I can sit back with a book, a coffee and a generous bacon cob and watch the world go by.

I always like to see a place wake up, the bleary eyed people (not me, I’m already on my second coffee), the workers, school children, the build-up of traffic and general early morning chaos.  From my vantage point looking out onto the main road I can take it all in and feel slightly smug that I beat the rush, even if rolling out of bed early is a challenge for the moment.

As you have probably noticed I haven’t been visiting your blogs much of late and now due to my workload, I will probably only be able to visit once a week but will endeavour to be around more. I am also writing blog posts on my breaks at work so I can keep some form of regular posting going.

O No U Didn’t!

Oh yes I did!  I’ve only gone and added another job to my tally, and this , my third and final form of employment, is at the open university.

Celebrating its fiftieth year, the OU is all about getting people the education (and degrees) they wish for.  A lot of focus goes on the part-time learners who are also earners, courses are all online and reach outside the UK to a further 157 countries.

You can find out all about the ‘deets’ elsewhere online, and if you ring up about anything, you may just be speaking to me as I will be the guy that sets you up on the course you need, offering up the best options and generally knowing stuff.  In the meantime if you fancy taking a gander at the free courses on offer and seeing what its all about, head here and learn stuff gratis.

It’s always great to find a job that involves something you enjoy, and with this one I will be offering services of which will benefit everyone.  Education is the key to a lot of the world’s problems so it is a fine state of affairs to help people better themselves and go home having done something worthwhile, which is a rare position to be in.

Plagiarism as an Art Form

Have you in the last year or so looked for free essays to plagiarise? Have you adapted what seemed to be attractive material into your essay or dissertation without properly checking or referencing…

Some of you may have asked these questions of students before and some of you may have taken part in the Koolhaus discussion on my review of ‘his’ book Creative Theory, Radical Example, well now the link between these two is revealed and discussed over at Jeff’s blog pertaining to the use of technology and how it’s changing education.  Check the link below.

Source: Plagiarism as an Art Form

Save

Save

Shelving That Idea

I’m sat on my bed as I like to do when getting read to lie down in it and I feel inclined to reach for my laptop.  Well I say reach, it’s more of that keep-your-legs-on-the-bed-whilst-dragging-the-rest-of-your-body-across-the-room effort, in an overly strenuous and needless attempt stay on bed, admit it we all do it!  The reason I’ve picked up the laptop instead of winding down is because I just realised how incredibly lucky I am.

There are many reasons for this, family, friends and all the rest of it but the thing that did it for me today was actually seeing my bookcases.  They aren’t subtle or anything, I look at them all the time but today I have actually seen them.  Like most people  I’ve spent years accumulating books but I’ve been taking them for granted of late because I have them near me, they seem to almost become almost less special for a time..

That is until they come back into my sphere of attention and now they have and I see the absolute awesomeness of having my own personal library.   That hoarded collection is not only words – words of wonder and magic – timeless words but also memories or the promise of memories for those books not yet gotten around to yet. What I love most about having an accumulated amount of paper is the accidental placement and combinations of books.  Having memoirs of life next to sci-fi flights of fancy or staunch atheistic existentialists next to a history of the church is such a whimsical by-product of stacking.