Let's have a heated debate!

If I had to make one complaint about the course so far it would be about the beginning of Unit 6 of Block 2. Last week I told you how I really enjoyed Unit 5's look at the wider context of the games and its tales of gladiatorial glory amidst the microcosm of Roman power that was the Colisseum. Now, admittedly, last weekend I came down with a rotten cold and TV5 (the 1st TV programme on this block) was missed because of a faulty mailout DVD, but that does not excuse how badly the way they pitched the 'new' subject of architecture to unassuming students like me. It was sooooooooooooooooooo boringly complex right from kick-off. Unlike in Block 1, there was no attempt to try and simplify the language to ease you in. Instead the academic bombarded us with all kinds of terms far too quickly & too frequently. It took me ages before it sort of clicked but I know I will not be coming back to this ever again. I have to admit this was the first time I really wanted to switch off and just walk away. But I stuck with it because I know there is a greater good at stake here. It has been so poorly thought out for newbies like myself. Surely, they know that not everyone has a basic understanding of architectural language and terms and needs that guiding hand in?

A different approach would have been to look at the later part of the Unit and briefly draw comparisons with the Colisseum before then getting into the thick of the terms (albeit with less of a hammer & tongs approach). This part looks at the Colisseum's influence on later architecture and the 'typical' example given is the old employ Stadium. This bit - looking at the Empire exhibition of the 20s and the comparative context of modern stadia building since the late 80s - is absolutely fascinating and has got me back 'onside' I'm glad to say. But earlier in the week I was really lost with all these 'orders', 'vaults' and 'pilasters'.

Last night's tutorial without doubt was the best we have all had so far. Up 'till now some people have been quite reserved and the odd debate here & there tends to flounder after myself and a few others have dried up their reserve of ideas. Not last night. In fact, I don't think we did much in the way of extra-curricular 'exercises' on Block 2 during the evening. The whole thing started off from a line from the tutor asking what we had learnt since reading the Block book and went on to someone saying they were not shocked at the 'supposed barbarity' of Roman culture in comparison with our own. The debate on this must have gone on and on for an hour or more and, I'm glad to say, I chipped in quite a lot to its frenetic activity. It was absolutely superb stuff and I really enjoyed its ebb & flow. I can't imagine ever doing this before on a grim Wednesday night (and when a good footie match was on TV too!).

Also, we found out last night from our tutor that all but 3 students have had their TMAs marked & returned and so far everyone has passed! Fingers crossed!!!

TMA2 - Done! Onwards to Block 2!

It's been a while (13 days!!) so where was I? Oh yeah..

Last Monday (the 6th) was a great day. After struggling with the vexing Music question on that ill-fated Sunday before, I finally managed to nail it on my day off. If ever do this again, I know that any method other that using headphones & my iPod simply is not good enough. When you are right in the middle of the music you can hear the contrapuntal phrases, the dynamics etc but not when you have the sound halfway up in a room full of distractions. That was my mistake. I managed to etch out a lot of notes in several hours and as a result managed a decent answer to the question. It's still rubbish but I can live with it (it answers some of the questions and uses the right terms). Mind you, if I ever hear 'La Ci darem Di Mano' again in my life, I'll kill myself.

The rest of the week I spent reading over the other bits of the TMA, checking again and again to see if they read ok and fit within the 10% word count rule (i.e. no more that 330 words). Getting it down to the limit without ruining your key points and the flow of the piece is a absolute nightmare. I was wrong to think it could be done quickly. In fact I ended up taking my efforts into work & sneakily toiling with it there when no-one was looking. I'm glad I did as I would not have been able to get it done in a reasonable time without resorting to the olde 'midnight oil'. I had to substantially alter the 'Art History' answer 3 times before I was happy with it. The same for the Poetry bit.

By Wednesday night, I thought I was done and ready to ship out the next day but when I returned from the tutorial everything changed. Alison had been naughty and read my answers while I was away. She told me she wasn't sure about my answer to the Philosophy question as she thought I'd got it all wrong. This was the easier of the 4 questions to do as it involved 'solving' problems rather than analysing them so I completed it very quickly the previous Saturday. I'd based the answer for the last part of the question on a well-known mathematical theory and doing further research that night I found I'd completely got the wrong end of the stick. I had to go back & think it all out again. This time I walked away from the maths and looked at it in a layman's context. Within an hour or so I got it and luckily I found the right theory from Newton to back it up! My problem was simply that I restricted it to just 2 premises when what I should have done was added another one to help it follow through to its conclusion.

Now at the tutorial, I had a stroke of luck. It looked like the majority of people there had also had difficulty with putting their own TMA2 together and they all asked for an extension! So, I thought, why don't I? It's true that I could have sent it on Thursday (albeit in a hurry) but an extra day would have given me time to go over it at the last minute and check for mistakes. It was lucky that I did ask (and was granted it) because earlier in the day I had accidentally saved over one of my final drafts after I printed it out. Then late that night I found out I'd made a spelling mistake when I proof read it! Arrrghh! The next morning I had to re-create the erroneous page in my copy, print it out and then photocopy for my safekeeping. When I finally handed the envelope to the teller in the Post Office last Friday lunchtime I breathed an enormous sigh of relief. Done. What a bloody nightmare!

After taking a well-earned break from studying this weekend (and boy did I need it!), I pushed on with Block 2 on Monday - The Colisseum. I'm rather enjoying it so far. Fascinating insight into the "games", its cultural context and our modern perceptions of its cruelty. Not something I would previously have enjoyed but after being at the beautiful yet tragic Pompeii last year, I'm starting to take a real interest in Roman culture. The only downside of this block is that the TMA's deadline is halfway through our upcoming mini-trek through Europe (April 7). I'll either have to ask for another extension 'till the following week or get it in early. It's going to be hell getting it done, I know.

As regards TMA2....I've just gotta wait, boy.

I think, therefore I am a clever bastard!

Following on from my failure on Sunday to even concoct a reasonable first draft on the music question, at one point this week it looked like my resolve in this course was once again to be severely tested . That moment was halfway through our tutorial on Wednesday - it teetered very close to an absolute disaster. We were going through Rupert Brookes' sonnet "The Soldier" which is not an easy poem to dissect quickly and (judging by looks) most of us in the group really struggled with it. In these sessions so far I have been quite vocal and made some good contributions to the debates we've had but on Wednesday I totally lost it. I made far too many assumptions on this bit or that bit of the poem and as a consequence I felt like a total fool when the tutor told me off time & time again. It was horrible. After a umpteenth time of being embarrassed I just shut up and said nothing....and, unfortunately, so did everyone else. The poor tutor just went on and on with her assessment in total silence with just the odd comment from the only two know-it-all students who did say anything.

After 15 minutes of this torture the tutor finally snapped and confronted us. She was bemused not only by the lack of discussion during this session but also in the other tutorials we've had so far. What followed next was a real breath of fresh air. We openly debated the difficulties with the poem and why we said very little in these sessions. I said that getting something out of a complex, unfamiliar work in such a hurried fashion was quite difficult for us as we do it in our own time at home. Also, because the"war poem" was from the other end of the genre (i.e. not anti-war), it was unusual and added to its difficulty. After that, things got much better. People opened up when we continued with the poem's analysis and even I, finally, made some learned contributions.

Well, after last weekend's TMA2 calamity I swallowed my disappointment and moved straight on with the final part of Block 1: Philosophy. Contrary to my pre-conceived notions about the discipline (difficult, brainy, challenging, hard to tackle etc etc), I actually found it quite enjoyable and fairly easy to tuck in to. So much so, that I completed the reading on it yesterday (and yes, I did do the lengthy exercises as well)! The timing is impeccable as this Saturday we've been invited round by a close friend of ours to party at his house. So getting this done a day or so early means I can start the last part of the TMA2 on Saturday morning rather than on Sunday and I can still have a guilt-free good time this weekend! The question doesn't seem too bad either. Mind you, I said that about the music one! Fingers crossed.

For those who tune-in regularly, I'll be at this TMA2 hammer & tongs over the next week as the deadline is March 11th. This will explain my absence in the meantime. Having completed penultimate drafts for both parts 1 + 2 I'll be trying again the music question on Monday and then polishing off all 4 parts by Thursday in time to post it to the tutor. Wish me luck and I'll speak to you soon.