Sunday - February 26, 2006THIS BLOG IS NO MORE!After several years of blogging,
Blah blah
blah has sadly come to the end of its natural
life and is, even as we speak, donning its pipe and slippers for a long and
happy retirement (Alzheimer's disease and sudden heart attacks notwithstanding).
However, my new personal, philosophy and technology blogs can be found on my equally new web site, which is located at www.keithwilson.org.uk. Although the existing site will stick around for some time yet, I will no longer
be actively maintaining it, so please see the new site for all the latest news
and philosophical
reflections. Having two separate blogs means that my friends
and family can keep up to date with all the latest news without having to
bothered with all of that 'being and not-being' philosophical mumbo-jumbo that I
keep going on about, and of course vice
versa for my more philosophically inclined
friends. Of course, if you're really keen you can subscribe to all three sets of RSS
feeds (found here, here and here), as well as those for my latest music and photo uploads, which are also available in podcast and photocast format, respectively (phew, any more
technobabble and I think my head may
explode!). Many thanks for visiting the site and I hope you have found it entertaining, informative and, who knows, maybe even a little bit enlightening. I know I have had a lot of fun writing it and hope that you'll check out the new site to see what I've been up to lately. If you have any comments or feedback on any of my blog entries or the design of the new site, please feel free to add them via this blog, or e-mail me at web1@keithwilson.org.uk. It's always good to hear what people think, as well as catching up with old friends who I haven't heard from for a while, so don't be shy, bung me an e-mail! All the best and, in those immortal words that Socrates famously uttered immediately before he died from drinking a cup of hemlock, blah blah blah… Yours eternally, Keith Wilson. Thursday - January 12, 2006Oh no, not again…Shortly before Christmas, Heike and I received a
letter telling us that we had to move out of our new flat by the end of January
because the landlord had decided not to extend our contract. It later transpired
that he was having some kind of financial problems and the letting agency had
decided to warn us in their usual cack-handed and unprofessional manner that we
may be forced to vacate the premises in case the bank decided to repossess the
property as had happened on a previous occasion with another landlord. In the
end, the matter was resolved, but the landlord then decided to hike the rent
quite substantially, effectively forcing us to move out anyway, as we were
already paying as much as we could afford and had made that clear from the
start.
Apart from being incredibly pissed off and
annoyed about the whole thing (we were originally told that the landlord was
looking for a long-term tenant and was specifically flexible on the rent for
that reason), it came as a massive shock, especially with there being only one
week to go before Christmas. Heike and I had both just started to feel settled
in the new place and were beginning to relax and concentrate on other things.
It's been quite a tough year for both of us and we were really looking forward
to some much needed R&R over the Christmas
period.
Fortunately, however, a whole load of flats in the same development (Centurion Square) had recently come onto the market and so I set about trying to find us a new place. I'm glad to say that we've now managed to find another flat and all going according to plan, we will be moving on the 27th January. Although I'm still not very happy about the whole situation, it's good that we only have to move across the courtyard, although when you take into account the additional agency fees, telephone connection costs, etc. it still works out quite expensive. The new place is very much like the old one, only a little smaller and on the 3rd (rather than the 1st) floor. We have a nice view over the Square and the rooftops of the city, although the windows are a little small and don't open all the way out for safety reasons, so it may get rather hot during the summertime—I'm not sure what we're going to do with all the plants, but some sacrifices may have to be made! We managed to negotiate the same rent as we're currently paying (£550/month), although this time the contract is for a year rather than six months, so hopefully we'll avoid a repeat of the current situation. It had been bad enough moving once every year for the past few years due to our respective university studies, but once every six months really is too much, especially when you have all your own furniture and stuff. Anyway, hopefully the move won't be too much of an upheaval and we'll soon be back on our feet and ready to get on with the challenges of life, which for me involves finishing my degree without going slightly (some might say 'even more') mad, and for Heike is finding herself a job that she really enjoys and can earn a good living doing. But most importantly, we both just want to be able to enjoy ourselves and have a little fun for a change. The last few years have been quite hard, and have involved a lot of soul searching which, while important, can really take it out of you after a while—especially at my age! (35 this year, in case you're wondering… ;-) Saturday - July 30, 2005We've moved! (again…)I am writing this while sitting in my new flat,
surrounded by half-unpacked boxes and random bits of furniture, so I guess it's
safe to say that Heike and I have now officially moved to York. The new place is
great—very hi-tech—and the move itself actually went quite smoothly,
despite the fact that it took three days and involved driving over 250 miles
across the country in a large van. Seeing as this is our fourth move in as many
years, I think that we're finally getting the hang of it, although I'll be happy
if we don't have to do it again in for at least another couple of
years.
Not only did we move stuff from my old place in
York and then drive over to Lancaster to collect Heike's things from Lancaster
(we split the furniture and bulky stuff between us when I moved to York last
year), but we ended up helping two other friends move—one in York and the
other in Lancaster—making a total of four moves in all! It all worked out
rather well because our friends were also able to help us load and unload our
stuff, meaning that we finished much quicker than expected and were able to
recoup some money from the hire company for returning it one day early. This
went some way towards covering the cost of the diesel used in driving to
Lancaster and back, which came to an astonishing £52—ouch! However,
it was still a hell of a lot cheaper than hiring a professional removal company,
and was actually quite fun, even though we are both now totally exhausted and
don't have much energy left to do the unpacking! I guess we'll just have to put
up with boxes all over the place for a few more
weeks…
Moving house is never a terribly enjoyable experience, and this one has been particularly long and drawn out. Heike started packing several months ago, and to be honest I still can't really believe that it's all over (except for the aforementioned boxes). It's great to be in the new place though, especially as we now live right in the city centre. My previous house (and also Heike's in Lancaster) was quite a distance away, and although was reasonably close to the university, it felt like I was living in a completely different city as I hardly had time to make it into York proper. I love the fact that all the shops, cinemas, cafés—not to mention bars, of which there is a particularly nice one just across the river—are now practically on our doorstep, meaning that it only takes a couple of minutes, rather than a major expedition, to get there. For me, this is the end of a long process that started nearly three years ago with Heike's move to Lancaster to study there while I was still based in Bath. We've both come a long way since then and the experience of going to university has been a very positive one for each of us—even though Heike would have been quite happy if it hadn't have lasted quite as long! For her, this is just the first step in relocating to a new home, and she is now concentrating on finding a job and start her new career here in York. Although it will probably take a few years before she is able to move into the sort of thing that she wants to be doing (art therapy, creative nursery education and/or teaching parenting skills), she aims to develop her skills and experience with a view to working in these areas in the future. Above all, it's great to be finally living together under the same roof again. York is an excellent place to live and we're looking forward to exploring the city and surrounding area over the next few years. I think we'd both be quite happy to stay here for a long time, but somehow I think that we may be on the move again after I finish my studies… but please don't tell Heike I said that! Updated contact details can be found on my main contact page. Tuesday - July 19, 2005The results are in…Well, I received the final results for my first
year at University and am pretty happy. I got just under 72% overall, which my
supervisor tells me would give me a ‘good first’ if I keep up the
standard for the next two years, although of course it gets harder as you go on.
(I'm not quite sure what an ‘ordinary first’ would be, but
presumably somewhere in the 67–71% region—they round up from a high
2:1 here at York provided your other marks fall in roughly the same
area.)
To my great surprise I was also awarded a University prize for “academic performance, commitment and important contribution to the Department”, although I'm not sure which part of that conjunction (sorry, logic-speak) I fall under. I first got wind of this in an e-mail from one of my lecturers who said that as Chair of the Board of Studies for the summer term he was putting me forward for an “Ede and Ravenscroft prize” (they make academic robes, apparently) and was “hopeful that I would receive it”. Sure enough, about a week later I got a letter through the post saying that I had won the prize, along with a cheque for £150… Nice one! Although I am still somewhat confused as to what
I did to deserve this accolade (my results in the summer term were pretty good,
but not exceptional, and I'm not sure that I've really contributed anything to
the department other than attending a few extracurricular events, so I can only
conclude that it must have been my commitment that has made an impression), it's
good to know that my hard work has not gone unnoticed. I've tended to make a
point of mentioning to whoever is willing to listen that I'd like to go on and
do an MA and PhD if at all possible, and I'm sure this kind of thing will look
good on my CV when I do finally get around to applying for them. Perhaps that
was why he put my name forward, I don't
know.
I'm particularly happy that, of all people, it was Andrew Ward who recommended me, as I must admit to having been somewhat intimidated—not to mention a little put out—by the fact that, as admissions tutor, he seemed rather uncertain about whether to offer me a place to study at York or not. Although the University as a whole is fairly pro-mature students (which translates to anyone over the age of 20), individual departments can pretty much set their own acceptance criteria for each course, and evidence of recent academic achievement seems to figure pretty highly on the philosophy department's, with the emphasis on recent. As was pointed out to me, this makes it difficult for mature students, even those who have an extremely good academic record but have been working for more than a few years, to gain admission. No special consideration is given to the fact that you may have gained relevant skills and experience through your working life, or be able to contribute a lot to the university as a whole. This is evidenced by the fact that there are only a handful of over-25s on the course I'm studying, despite the fact that philosophy is a subject that is probably better followed, and more attractive to those who have ‘lived a little’, shall we say. After a nail-biting several months, Mr. Ward decided to offer me a place to study at York—something for which I am eternally grateful—and the rest, as they say, is history. However, I always felt rather nervous of this guy who held my fate in the balance, even when I later found that he is actually really nice, extremely helpful and considerate when it comes to giving advice, and a very entertaining and interesting lecturer. I guess I felt like I had something to prove, i.e. mature students can be at least as good as, if not better than, school leavers, academically speaking. Having been awarded this prize, particularly on his recommendation, I think I can finally put this feeling to rest and get on with finishing the rest of my degree without worrying about whether perhaps he was right, and being a mature student really does put you at a disadvantage when studying at University. Personally, I think the reality is quite the opposite, but then I would say that, wouldn't I? Thursday - July 07, 2005We've found a flat!Great news! Heike and I managed to find somewhere
to live practically in the centre of York. It's a great little one bedroom flat
on the first floor of a brand new building, close to the river and about half an
hour's walk from the university. In fact, it's so new, it doesn't even have a
postcode yet! We signed the contract yesterday and are very much looking forward
to living in the city, as the place I'm in at the moment doesn't really feel
like it's part of York at all. Plus, it's very handy for buses and trains as the
train station is just around the corner, which will be useful for Heike getting
to and from work, wherever that turns out to be…
We were actually incredibly lucky to find this
place, as we only came across it by accident when we bumped into an agent from a
different property company while waiting to see another flat elsewhere in town.
They asked if we were looking for accommodation in York and told us about a new
development that had just come on the market, and so we booked a viewing
straight away and decided to take it later that day. Last time I was looking for
a house I saw over 20 properties in the course of about 10 days before finding
something I liked, but this time we only looked at five and found the perfect
place in just one day!
We later found out that another couple had seen it on the same day and wanted to take it for a higher rent, but our agent convinced the owner to let us have it because we were likely to be staying there for up to two years, and so they would benefit from not having to re-let the property after the first six months. Although the rent is still slightly more than we had originally wanted to pay, the flat is absolutely superb, and the location couldn't be better. The river Ouse is about 20m outside our front door—although there's no danger of flooding as we're on the first floor—and the train station is only 5 minutes walk away. There is no car parking, but this isn't really a problem as my car is currently out of action and destined only for the scrap heap (sorry Dad!), so instead I'm planning to buy a bike and cycle to university, although there's also a bus that goes from just round the corner in case of inclement weather (which unfortunately seems to happen rather often, even during the summer months!). Because no-one's lived there yet, the inside of the flat is immaculate and has brand new fixtures and fittings, a fitted bathroom with a hotel-style power shower (luxury!), and a polished wooden floor throughout the spacious living area, which includes a kitchen-diner at one end with all the mod-cons (bloody hell, I'm starting to sound like an estate agent!). I have no idea if all our stuff is actually going to fit in there, and it's going to be a challenge trying to figure out how to successfully combine work, study, music making, art and everything else that we do with just two rooms, but I'm sure we'll figure it out. Rumour has it there's even going to be a garden in the courtyard at the back, which hasn't been built yet, and the same goes for the bike storage area, but hey, you can't have everything! I must admit that I've spent the past few days looking for the catch, but so far there doesn't appear to be one, other than the price. If all goes according to plan then we should be in by the end of the month, and I'll be keeping my contact page updated with the new details as soon as I have them. We hope to be ready to receive guests by mid-August, so let me know if you fancy a trip to historic York this summer and we'll pencil you in! :-) Thursday - July 07, 2005The end of the first yearI can hardly believe it but last week I finished
the first year of my degree at the University of York. I think it's fair to say
that I worked a lot harder than I thought I would in the first year (who said
studying at university was easy?), but I have enjoyed the experience
tremendously and certainly have no regrets about my decision to return to
academia, and particularly the choice of philosophy as a subject. Although I'm
not sure I'm much closer to solving the mysteries of life, the universe and
everything (sorry folks…), I do at least have a clearer idea of what some
of the issues are, and my own position on them, even if I'm not always able to
justify it in purely philosophical terms.
I thought I'd take this opportunity to mention a
few of the highs and lows of the last nine months, the high points of which have
been:
• Making Mexican waves in Central Hall while waiting for the NUS president, who was stuck on the A64 in traffic, to arrive to give a speech to all the first years in Fresher's Week. • Listening to Miles Davis A Kind of Blue being played over the lecture theatre PA during our first philosophy lecture… If only they were all like that! • Having part of the ceiling collapse in the house where I'm staying after several weeks of calling the landlord to advise him of the large crack that had started opening up in the kitchen ceiling… • Attending my first philosophy colloquium, which was quite an experience! I've been going to these for some time now and may even be chairing a session at the National Postgraduate Analytic Philosophy conference (!). • Having a barbecue in the back garden while listening to Live 8 and celebrating the end of term on a (relatively) pleasant summer's evening. Vegetarian sausages have never tasted so good! A few of the slightly less enjoyable parts were: • Living apart from Heike for another year while she was finishing her degree in Lancaster. Happily that is now over and we can look forward to spending the next few years in York together. :-) • Sitting in seminars with a bunch of 18/19 year olds who have little or nothing to say about philosophy, or anything else for that matter, and haven't even bothered to read the text we're supposed to be discussing. D'OH! • Having the constant worry of essays and exams hanging over my head. No wonder students always complain about having so much work to do! • Metaphysics. (Don't even ask!) All in all though, it's been a very enjoyable experience, and one I would recommend to anyone considering returning to full-time study, although this certainly isn't a decision to be taken lightly. As someone who went straight from school into the world of work without first taking a degree, I'm glad that I'm able to take the opportunity of studying a subject at an advanced level as a (relatively) mature student. Although this has meant that I've had quite a different experience of university from the one I might have had if I'd gone there straight from school, in many ways I feel that I'm more able to appreciate it now, and am certainly more focussed and motivated than I would have been at the age of 18. A lot of these youngsters, although interested in philosophy, have no idea of its relevance, and have little way of relating what they learn to their own lives or the world in general and so find it all very abstract and theoretical. Although youth is definitely an advantage in terms of having a quicker mind and better memory, when it comes to applying what they know, a lot of them seem to struggle a little. Perhaps Plato was right to say that nobody under the age of 30 should be allowed to study philosophy—particularly the dangerous art of dialectic, which is way too subversive for such tender young minds! Who knows, they might start to question the authority of their elders, and then where would we be?! Anyway, I'm glad to have got through the first year relatively unscathed and am looking forward to the challenge of the second and third years, which is where the work really begins. In the autumn, I'll be starting off with an in-depth study of space, time and causality, which sounds like fun, and the political views of Hegel, who is regarded by many to be the founding father of continental European philosophy (as opposed to the nasty analytical Anglo-American stuff that we do over here). In the meantime, I have the NPAPC conference next week and the UK undergraduate philosophy conference in Durham this September to look forward to, plus a stack of books to read that would quite literally stun an ox (as the Laurie Anderson song goes), so I won't be suffering from philosophy withdrawal symptoms this summer. Oh, and I'm working full-time for Ingenta too. No rest for the wicked, eh? Wednesday - June 15, 2005Heike has finished her degree!Well, it's taken three years of long, hard slog,
but Heike has recently completed her degree in Child, Young Person and Family
Studies (CYP) and Fine Art at St. Martin's College, Lancaster, and very happy
she is about it too! I went over there last week to attend the grand opening of
her final year degree exhibition, called 27º (twenty-seven degrees, geddit?
Unfortunately, there were only 24 students exhibiting, but the thought was
there!). It was a great night, and there was much celebration by all, both at
the exhibition itself and afterwards in the student bar, not to mention relief
that all the hard work is now over and that normal life can resume again
(whatever that is).
The exhibition itself was extremely impressive
with a wide range of styles and techniques on display. Here is a picture of
Heike standing in front of a couple of her larger pieces, which are constructed
in the expressive style of children's art, using simple lines and bold colours
to convey feelings, events and visual narratives that can be interpreted and
understood once you understand the language of elements employed by the
artist.
 To the uninitiated eye, they may look like scribbles, but believe me, there's a lot more to it than that! Also on display were a series of fourteen (out of an original twenty-one) smaller pieces representing a diary of several weeks of Heike's life. Although each picture is unique, the similarity between the compositional elements represents the monotony of getting up, studying, painting and then going to bed again every day, making each day almost indistinguishable from the last. The use of colour and lines over written elements, which form a backdrop to each of the pictures, is very striking and they work really well together as a sequence. Heike has already had some interest in selling some of these pieces (£85 each if you're interested!). The exhibition runs until Saturday 18th June, after which Heike will be coming to York so that we can start looking for a place to live for the next couple of years while I'm finishing my degree. I can't believe she's at the end of her third year and I'm not even finished my first yet! Overall though, I think Heike has done brilliantly, and has already received very high marks for much of her written and visual work. This achievement is even more amazing when you consider that she is studying in a second language, which slows down the reading and writing process, even when you do have a willing and able native speaker on hand to help out with the occasional questions of wording and grammar (that's me, although my knowledge of English grammar, or any other kind for that matter, is sketchy at best). Although the hard work is now over, Heike still has to wait until the end of the month to receive her results, before finally graduating on 12th July. At the moment she's just happy to have finished the course and is rediscovering the joys of free time and watching television (although finding the latter not too exciting, it has to be said). Plans for the future include looking for a job working with children and artists in the York area, and possibly becoming more involved with the Reggio Emilia approach to early years education, which is something she has become very interested in since writing her dissertation on the subject. However, her first priority is to relax and recover from what turned out to be a very hectic and intense nine months, not to mention the two years prior to that… Whatever she ends up doing, I am sure I express the feelings of everyone who knows her when I say, with great love and admiration: WELL DONE HEIKE! Saturday - May 07, 2005Back to schoolLike the new Labour government, I am officially
starting my third term, although at 10 weeks, mine pass a little more rapidly
than theirs (unfortunately). Actually, it's already the end of week 2 as we
don't have any lectures in the first or last weeks of term, which are reserved
for exams. After the five week Easter holiday—it's a hard life being a
student, I can tell you!—I'm actually rather glad to be back at University
and continuing my studies, and I now have some new modules which will see me
through to the end of my first year, which I can hardly believe is almost over
already…
The subjects we are studying this term are Reason
and Argument, which is basically formal logic and its relationship to natural
written or spoken language, and Philosophy of Mind, which as you might expect is
concerned with issues of consciousness, memory and personal identity. Both of
these are areas that I'm very interested in and so far the lectures and seminars
seem very promising. Some of the lecturers and tutors I have this term seem to
be real characters, although I won't mention any names for fear of
self-incrimination…
I was glad to have a couple of weeks break after my travels around the country last month as I was pretty exhausted after studying and working so much. At York, they like to get you working very intensively during the 10 week term and then give you a month or so to recover over the holidays before doing it all over again. Alongside with working for Ingenta, this was proving to be a bit of a strain, but I now feel relaxed and recovered after the holidays again and ready to tackle the next batch of craziness. It's a bit of a roller-coaster ride and I've already come to miss the comfort and security of having a regular job where you can leave the office in the evening and forget all about what you were doing until the next day—although it doesn't always work out quite like that, I know. The thing about being a student is that you always have work to do, so no matter what time of the day or night it is, you know at the back of your mind that you should probably be studying, which can be a drain, and it takes a lot of discipline just to try and inject some kind of structure into your day. This is why students are always complaining about having so much work to do, even if they end up doing the same amount or less than everybody else! After the first two terms though, I think I've figured out what I need to do to keep on top of things, and provided I stick to my study plan, I should manage OK (although I will probably eat those words in a few weeks time!). Heike is also reaching the end of her academic year, and the end of her degree, which cannot come soon enough as far as she is concerned. She only two essays and her art project to complete now, and has already handed in her dissertation on creativity in early years education (and very interesting it is too). Over the next month or two we'll be looking for a place to rent together in York, which finally will mean the end of our long distance relationship lifestyle too. Although in many ways, the time apart has probably been a good thing for both of us, and it's not such a long journey from York to Lancaster as it was from Bath to Lancaster (and it's a hell of a lot closer than London and Calgary, which is where we were living when we first started going out!), we'll both be very happy to be living under the same roof again, and are hoping to find a nice little flat somewhere close to the city. Although Heike's not sure what she'll be doing for work when she gets here, and my work situation currently looks a little uncertain, I'm sure we'll manage to find something even if it's just temporary. So, all in all, things are going pretty well just at the moment. In the meantime, I'm actually quite enjoying life here at Cosmo Avenue. Although one of our housemates who only moved in a couple of months ago to get some space from his girlfriend has decided to move out again, this won't make much difference to the rest of us as we hardly saw him anyway, are we are all getting along rather well. Although George, Matteo and I weren't particularly close during the first term or two, now that they are both at home studying for exams and I have a little more free time, we've been doing a lot more stuff together. It's not uncommon for us to all cook a meal together in the evening and sit down afterwards to watch a film, which has been a lot of fun and helped to get everyone talking, making for a nice relaxed atmosphere in the house. Even though I was quite apprehensive about living in a shared house again at first, especially when I found out I it was going to be with two other blokes, it's been a good experience. We seem to have managed to keep the place reasonably clean and tidy, and there haven't been any major problems that we haven't managed to sort out between us, so I can't complain really (although given the choice I'd much rather be living with Heike, but I guess that's only to be expected!). I will apologise in advance in case I suddenly go rather quiet during term time. It's always a bit hectic and unfortunately I don't seem to find as much time to phone, e-mail and visit people as I'd like. I'll be keeping the web site updated though, as apart from providing a useful work-avoidance strategy (see ‘constructive procrastination’), it's been rather useful in terms of practising my writing skills, which is something I wanted to work on while I'm here at University. Even if nobody reads half of this stuff, getting into the habit of expressing thoughts and ideas in a (hopefully) reasonably coherent fashion has been extremely helpful, and if someone else can get something out of it, then all the better. It's been very gratifying to see some of my pages appearing in Google—something that was made a little easier when I started making up my own words—and I'm hoping to publish my philosophy essays and writing in HTML form for easier access soon. [Now available here.] Thanks very much for reading, and I hope to have more news and interesting nuggets of philosophical enlightenment for you all again soon! Wednesday - April 27, 2005It's my birthday!Yes, it's finally happened. I'm 34 today, and I
don't feel a day over, well… 34. Actually, it's a rather exciting week for
me because today I get to shave off my beard, tomorrow sees the release of the
new Hitchhiker's Guide to The
Galaxy film (can't wait!) and on Friday, Apple
is releasing the new version of Mac OS X (version 10.4, or ‘Tiger’
as it's known to us Mac aficionados). There is also a local Buddhist festival
this weekend, which I'm hoping to attend, and on Monday it's back to university
to study philosophy, which is probably about my second favourite thing in life.
It's like all my birthdays and Christmases came at once!
My immediate plans for today
include:
1. Shaving off my beard so that at least if I have to get used to being one year older, then people might think I look a few years younger. 2. Playing with my new iPod shuffle, which I have already fallen in love with. Even the box is cute! 3. Going into town to try and buy a pair of sandals to complete my new student look. 4. Cooking a nice Thai green curry in the evening and settling down afterwards to drink some beers with my housemates and watch a film (I'm thinking possibly Star Wars: Episode IV, but Waking Ned is another possibility). …the perfect day. Cheers, everybody! :-) Sunday - April 24, 2005Comments now supportedAs part of the ongoing update and redesign of
my web
site, this blog now allows you to add comments and feedback about
individual entries by clicking on the
Comment
link after each post. Entries that already have comments attached will show the
number of comments in brackets, as shown in the link below. Simply click on this
to read the comments and optionally add your own thoughts or replies. Try it,
it's fun, and I'd love to hear what people think about the contents of the
site.
Bloggers who wish to comment on my verbal
outpourings on their own web site may also use the trackback facility to add a link to their
relevant blog entry. This allows one blog to reference another blog, and you can
see if anyone has added such links in the same way as for comments with the
number of trackbacks indicated in
brackets.
Note that supplied e-mail addresses are not published online, but will allow me to reply to your comment in person. Offensive or irrelevant comments will be deleted, but genuine feedback and criticism is always welcome. What with this and my new listing on dotmac.info, I feel like I have truly joined the blogosphere! Wednesday - April 20, 2005Tour of BritainWell, I'm finally back in York after a most
enjoyable trip around Britain visiting friends, family and colleagues all over
the country. Many thanks to everyone for their hospitality – it was great
to catch up with you all again! On the three legs of my journey (Lancaster,
Scotland and the South West, as illustrated below), I managed to clock up over
1,200 miles of train travel, a considerable quantity of beer and several
curries, and I think I need another holiday to recover from the first one!
Fortunately, I have just over a week to recuperate in time for going back to
University on 2nd May, which I intend to spend as much of as possible sleeping
and making music, although I expect I'll probably write a few more blog entries
along the way.
Just for fun, here is a map of my recent travels,
which were largely incident-free, something that is quite surprising as I was
travelling by train (my car is no longer roadworthy) and so managed make full
use of my Young Persons Railcard (ha!) that gives me
one third off
train travel around the UK. I did manage to leave a few things along the way,
including some books on consciousness (the irony!) which made an unexpected
detour via Darlington and are hopefully waiting to be collected in York station
later today, my Make Poverty History wristband, which I left up
in Fife, and some hair product that now has a new home in Newport, Wales. Oh
well, c’est la vie!
To be honest, I've spending so much time shuttling back and forth that I sometimes have think twice to work out just where the hell I am. It mainly happens to me while I'm sitting on a bus, walking through a relatively nondescript part of town or just letting my mind wander, at which point I suddenly forget whether I'm in Lancaster, Bath or York (which to add to the confusion also reminds me a lot of where I used to live in Kingston-Upon-Thames). Normally when you move from one place to another, it's a permanent change, but the constant travelling back and forth to my two previous homes seems to be just too much for my poor brain to cope with! Or perhaps I just need to get some more sleep...  Tuesday - April 12, 2005My brother the scientistI was very happy to discover on my recent trip to
Scotland that my brother Craig has been accepted for a PhD at Herriot Watt
University in Edinburgh. The subject he will be researching is the
effect of chemical differences in the water on distillation processes used to
make Scotch Whisky, which is most appropriate as it is a topic that I know is
very dear to his heart. Indeed, he expressed some regret that it will not be
part of his job to taste the resulting produce, as there are so-called
‘experts’ specifically recruited for that task (I imagine there's no
shortage of volunteers)!
Aside from his love of 15 year old single malts,
Craig is indeed the ideal person for the job as he wrote his final year
dissertation on a very similar subject with regard to the fermentation process
of beer before going on to work for the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency
(SEPA)
analysing the water quality in the River Forth and around Scotland, looking at
the health of micro-organisms in the water as an indicator of pollution (he
recently had a paper published on this subject in a national scientific journal
– unfortunately not yet available on IngentaConnect.com). Consequently, the
university had no hesitation in offering him the position, resulting in much
jubilation and celebration in the various Wilson
households.
It's funny how both Craig and myself have ended up back at university, and especially now that my ‘little’ brother is studying to be a Doctor of Philosophy (in the widest possible sense of the word) whilst I am still a first year undergrad (albeit of the more conventional form of philosophy). We have both orbited in and around academia, Craig with studying for his degree, masters and now a PhD, and myself with studying and working at Kingston University, and later Bath and now York. All going well, which I'm sure it will, Craig will become the first Doctor in the family at the sprightly age of 33, the same age that I am now – though only just! It's a scary thought that if I wanted to take my studies to the same level – even supposing that I have the opportunity to do so – I would be almost 40 by the time of finishing my PhD! Now that's OLD. (In my defence I refer the reader to Plato, who suggests that nobody under the age of 30 should be allowed to study philosophy as it makes them too headstrong and likely to question the authority of their elders, something I would of course never dream of doing... Yeah, right! ;-) In any case, I'm incredibly pleased for Craig and wish him every success in his new venture, which he is starting at the end of this month. I'm sure that he will make a terrific PhD student and look forward to taking a dram with one of Scotland's first ‘Doctors of Whisky’. In the meantime, Craig is keeping on his previous job at Pizza Express on a part-time basis... so that's the food and the drink sorted. Some people have just got it sussed! Saturday - March 19, 2005Web site updateAs you may have noticed, I am currently in the
process of 'refactoring' my web site. The new site will be split into four main
sections...
1. Home - links, blog, calendar
etc.
2. Work - professional activities, IT etc. 3. Play - creative things, such as writing and music. 4. Pictures - photography and family snaps. Each of these contains additional pages with various types of downloadable content (MP3, PDF files, etc.) and will be updated from time to time as new things come along. I will stick to my convention of marking any new content or updated sections with >arrows< so that you can see what has changed in the last month or so. Hope you like the new layout. The Work section is still under construction, but will eventually contain my curriculum vitae, links to various projects and/or companies I have worked for over the last 20 years, and any other goodies I can think of (such as downloadable versions of some of the computer games that I wrote back in the 80s). Enjoy! Monday - March 14, 2005Exams, exams, examsJust a quick note to say that if it's gone a bit
quiet around here it's because I'm in the middle of exams and university
assessments at the moment (two down, two to go). Normal service will be resumed
shortly...
:-)
Sunday - February 27, 2005Skype nameJust to let you know that I now have a Skype name, which
is simply "keith.wilson".
For those of you who haven't heard of it before,
Skype is a free online telephone service that uses Internet connections to
provide voice calling. It works just like AIM except that you can also buy
credits to call regular phone lines at local rates, which is great if you make a
lot of calls abroad. The best thing is that it doesn't require a broadband
connection. A normal dial-up modem, microphone and PC headset or speakers is all
you need.
If you're interested, just go to www.skype.com, download the free software and get Skyping! Tuesday - February 22, 2005It's snowing!Yes, we've had lots of snow in the last few days,
and to prove it, here's a picture of me talking to a
duck:
 The duck, it has to be said, was rather
nonplussed by the whole situation, and was later reported to have told her
friends that she "had never seen the geezer before in her life" and had no idea
why she might have been approached by a random stranger in such a manner. This
comment was quickly met with derisory hoots of "orange sauce" and "crispy
pancakes", and it was decided by the duck community in general that the whole
sorry affair was probably best forgotten, after which time they returned to
their favourite pastimes of swimming about in the river and quacking loudly and
indiscriminately for no particular reason whatsoever.
Wednesday - January 05, 2005Progress update...Well, the latest news is that my beard growing
experiment has survived the festive period relatively unscathed, and I have
recently purchased a beard trimmer to keep it under control. Of course, the real
test is whether anybody spots that I am in fact over 30 rather than, as is
commonly assumed, somewhere in my early to mid-20's. Early signs are
encouraging, although my bank manager did say that I looked "far too young" to
have been working for 15 years before starting University, so the jury is still
out.
I will of course be posting a picture for you all
to snigger at in the very near future... Watch this space!
Sunday - December 19, 2004Merry Christmas!Just a quick note to say Merry Christmas and
Happy New Year to you all! Heike and I are off to Germany today for a few days
in Berlin and then Christmas with the Wischmann family before coming back to
York on the 30th to see in the New Year.
I should also apologise to anyone who's been
trying to contact me by phone as the telephone number on the web site had the
wrong dialling code. It should have been 01904 413901 and not 01901, as I
originally wrote. Just goes to show that studying at university is no substitute
for good old fashioned
stupidity!
Anyway, best wishes and look forward to catching up with everybody in the New Year. Lots of love, Keith and Heike. Sunday - May 02, 2004University of YorkThe latest news on my mission to go to University
and study philosophy for the benefit of all sentient beings... (or something
like that...)
Well, after months of waiting, I've finally been
offered a place to study philosophy at the University of York later this year.
After having checked the UCAS web site on an almost weekly basis over the last
few months I finally found the glorious words I've been waiting to see:
UNCONDITIONAL OFFER, and there has been much celebration and rejoicing in my
household ever since!
Emotionally, it's been a real roller-coaster ride ever since submitting my application in early December, having gone from reasonable confidence that I would get a place to near certainty that I wouldn't. I spoke with the admissions tutor back in February who said there had been a record number of applications this year and he wanted to consider each one before accepting any more students for 2004 entry. Although there was still a chance I would get in, it was by no means certain and my prospects of returning to academia appeared to take a sharp nose dive, rescued only by the possibility of studying at Liverpool University, who offered me a place at around the same time. However, after much deliberation I decided – partly for academic reasons, partly for personal ones – that York was definitely the place for me. Although Liverpool is also an excellent University, neither Heike nor myself relished the prospect of staying in the North West, or of moving to a big city, even if it will be the European Capital of Culture in 2008. It was doubtful whether I would take them up on their offer even if I had been turned down by York, and a visit to the University's open day last week only served to confirm that the course wasn't quite what I was looking for, so I am incredibly happy and relieved to have been offered a place at York, which is not only a great University but a beautiful and inspiring place to live (if a little on the expensive side). It is an exciting and scary prospect to be becoming a student again at the ripe old age of 33 (yes, I'm even older now – it happened last week). When I was 25 and went to Kingston-Upon-Thames to study music technology, the age gap was less pronounced and there were several other 'oldies' (you know who you are!) to hang out with. Although I'm sure the same will be true this time, I don't imagine I will be participating quite so enthusiastically on the social side, but I do plan to have a good time nonetheless. Hopefully I am not too jaded and cynical yet to fit in with the fresh young minds that are drawn to the study of truth, reason and the human condition, even if I do have a slightly more years under my belt than your average 'fresher'... I'm also excited to be able to study a subject that has fascinated me for some time now and hope to apply some of the skills I have learned in computer programming and software design to the more fundamental issues of language, logic and the 'good life' (in the ethics-of-Socrates rather than BBC-2-sitcom-with-Felicity Kendal sense of those words). Everybody keeps asking me "What are you going to do with a degree in philosophy?", to which I reply "Get an MA in philosophy", or sometimes just "Teach philosophy", as I can think of nothing more important than helping others to improve their quality of thinking and awareness. However, first I have to achieve that goal for myself and hopefully this will be a step along the way to a more interesting and satisfying way of life. I'll keep you posted... Saturday - October 18, 2003The furniture arrives...The joys of Ikea sofas, writing and giant sliding
puzzles.
THE FURNITURE HAS ARRIVED! I never thought I
would be so happy to see my Ikea sofa. Unfortunately, we now have so many boxes
stacked everywhere that the house resembles a giant one of those sliding puzzles
where you have to move fifteen other things just to get the one piece into the
place you want it... but slowly, things are coming together (that's what I keep
telling myself anyway!)
The writing classes are going well and I've put together a couple of short pieces that I will post here as soon as I'm finished. I'm just starting on a new piece that I'm pretty excited about (kind of a post-apocalyptic sci-fi bedtime story type of thing) so check back in a week or two and I'll hopefully have it online. |
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Published On: Sep 07, 2007 08:16 AM 
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