Onwards & Upwards!

Lucky me! Managed to log into Blogger today with no distractions! Hurrah! Shame there's no drama to report! Well, a little...

The result last week has really given me the determination to plough on at a furious pace. The 2nd book is much less cluttered with terms and is actually quite interesting (except when it starts talking about Mcluhan - he talks in a very stilted, academic manner). I'm also getting the urge to read externally for TMA2 but the books are just not in the library! Damn! You can tell I'm really keen, can't you?

One other bit of great news: I'm getting a new iPod. At the weekend Alison bought me a 'refurbished' 20GB one on Amazon for under £50! Wow! I really missed my old one when it conked out last summer and it was a 'U2 Special Edition' one I got from her as an Xmas pressie in 2004. I should get it today if the postal information is right (it said it was sent yesterday). Oooh, I'm all excited!

UPDATE: Had a bit of a disappointment this afternoon when I went to visit the LSE Library to borrow 2 books that I found out were available there. My card-carrying status as 'a member of the public' means that I can never take any books out from there. Awwwww. So, I'll have to make do with Harrow's less-than-ok selection of books. Still, at least I'll have access to it if I need to study or 'read' the books instead. ;(

Result!

Got 90 in my 1st TMA!!! Completely shocked! I really thought it was a well-polished average, amateurish piece of work. In no way did I think it was that good. The tutor praised my 'extra' work and the way I prepared my argument that 'no, you don't need to have talent to be a celeb'. She even liked my use of the Pink Floyd/Wizard of Oz sync website as an example of an 'active' audience's creativity. So inspired was I by this good news that I ploughed on with Block 2 from my sickbed (I've got the flu)! Got quite a lot done despite feeling quite rotten. Well, it's better that watching banal daytime TV.

PS Was going to announce this right after I got the news yesterday but this bloody Blogger login in 'conversion' fiasco meant I've had to wait until now!

Awaits with baited breath...

So, after all that panic, I finally submitted TMA1 a day early via the e-TMA system. It's not a great effort but it certainly reads better that the 1st draft I had completed a few days earlier. Managed to get at least one reference from all - bar one - of my 'extra' books I read as research into the essay. I stayed just within the 10% rule at 1624 words. Not bad. It's now a week since submission! Wish me luck.

Took a few days off after that as I'd unintentionally shut out everything else - even the wife! - while I was at the essay day & night. Unlike A103 last year, I really did burn the midnight oil for this one: read all the extra books before I went to bed each night, usually till quite late. Not surprisingly I was knackered some days at work and even worse when I got home. I'll not do that again unless I absolutely have to.

So, now I'm on Block 2. Did the media diary this time around as its new approach made more sense to me. I couldn't see how my glib answers to 'how does [whatever I was watching] relate to celebrity?' would make sense later. This time they asked for a straightforward log of the day's media activity with your own opinions on what you were looking at i.e. like a normal diary entry. I did also make a start on the book last night but I think I might pass tonight as I've come down heavily with the cold. Seems ok so far.

One good thing that happened today which will be useful in the long run is that I have finally got my library card from the LSE library! The media section is enormous in there and will be very useful for future TMAs. Harrow library is fine but it didn't have many 'celebrity' books for the last TMA.

Please roll on TMA1's result! I need to know.

PS Sorry for my infrequency of posts at present. It's not that I'm busy, it's just that I'm finding it difficult to log on to Blogger because it keeps bloody asking me to sign up to Google every bloody time! And even when it says 'log in here if you want to use the old system' it still goes back to trying to convert me! Arrrgh! I'm not interested. This is the 1st time in 2 weeks I've been able to bypass all that crap.

Media, schmedia!

'Understanding Media'? Do I? Well, yes, but it's been a struggle. I chose DA204 in the middle of working on A103 last year as my external interests in popular culture, I thought, might make this an interesting choice. However, be warned: this is not a course you can leap into straight away after a Level 1 course not in Social Sciences. That's why I found it a struggle.

The book for Block 1 is, frankly, bloody impossible for newbies to this discipline. It's thick, intense, loaded with terms that are passed over very quickly and - at times - very boring to read. The starting block in A103 was far more generous to readers as it didn't assume you were familiar with the arts but didn't try to pander a simple audience. Plus we had a multitude of external sources sent with the block books - CDs, DVDs, 'Resource Books' - which kept you stimulated throughout. All we have is one book. That's it. This was very much a 'full on' experience and so frightening, it almost put me off carrying on. Most of it seemed to just not stick and I just kept writing pages and pages of notes, seemingly for the sake of it. It seemed like a bloody chore.

The other annoying thing (which still bugs me now) is the utter lack of face to face tutorials in this course. Now, admittedly, I started this a few weeks early so that I wouldn't end up with the problems I encountered on my honeymoon last year (see my last entry) but even if I did start it on time, I would have to have waited 3 or 4 weeks in before the 1st tutorial. In A103 it was nearly every week! I'm not expecting as much contact as that this time around but what's wrong with meeting once a month to discuss issues that come up when you go through the block book? The next one's in bloody April! Grrr!

So, I swallowed my pride and carried on with this appalling book and gradually it got easier. Some parts (audience & production) were far easier to understand than others (texts & 'what is a celebrity?'). By the end I was glad I stayed with it because it really was 50/50 in January as to whether I'd continue. I finished it 2 1/2 weeks in advance of the scheduled diary date and was happy to have some time to research & write up TMA1.

I decided to do some external research on the question and borrowed a few books from the library. There were loads of interesting 'quotable' points re the question in the 4 books that I borrowed. Things were looking up suddenly. However, when I started bouncing ideas around for the essay plan the weekend before last, I hit a brick wall. I had no idea what I was doing and felt under so much pressure to complete something coherent and knowledgeable that I just lost it. For two days I kept pulling my hair out trying to stitch themes together to no avail. Even though it was 1500 words, it was 1500 words I couldn't see myself completing without it reading like dumbass shit. I was a frustrated, grumpy old man that weekend having wasted an opportunity to get the essay started early.

Over the following week, support was on hand with the DA204 online forum, e-mails from the tutor and the 1st tutorial. The tutorial was low on content but high on opinions on how difficult the book was. Nearly everyone hated the book and were also were struggling with its contents. That was great to hear as well as the tutor agreeing that it was not designed well for non-Social Sciences students (and that this was a common opinion of fellow DA204 tutors). The online forum - despite being a bit of a ghost town most of the time & lacking a chat room - also was a good tool to vent ongoing frustration. I got plenty of pointers from there as to how to pitch the essay as well as a simple reminder that each section that we would have to describe needs no more than 300 words each. Plus I found out my local library near work is open to non-residents and non-students. So, I signed up for it. It's name? Oh, its just the library of the London School of Economics!!! Its media section is bloody enormous!!! Brilliant!

All this cheered me up in no time and on Sunday, I finally completed a coherent plan for TMA1. Since then I've been writing away like mad each night. I'm currently at 1000 words and have 1 1/2 sections left to complete as well as a conclusion. The deadline is 6 days time and has to be submitted electronically so I can - if I need to - leave it all to the last minute. But I won't. I want to get this done and get on with Block 2.