Mon - April 3, 2006
The end of "studying" is nigh!
Wooooooohooooo!
Last week saw the momentous occasion of me (with
a small amount of assistance from him indoors) finishing my final
assignment...ever! I have just posted off my final piece of coursework for the
Graduate Conversion Course (Housing) that I am studying for via distance
learning with Middlesex Uni, which is a facilitating body for the Chartered
Institute of Housing. It's a well respected professional qualification in the
field in which I work, but I have to say it's been nothing but an uninspiring
bunch of irrelevant arse.
I have been studying since the age of, well, four, and now I have had enough of it, which is really sad. The main reason I have lost heart with the whole learning thing recently is the absolutely arbitrary nature of enforced study. This course, along with my previous one (a Diploma certified by the Chartered Institute of Management) was prescribed for me by my employer. When I was offered my job I thought "Great! I get to work in a place that values and develops their staff". This is still true, by only to the extent at which it is convenient for them.
The courses I have had to do (if I want to progress in any way) have been beyond irrelevant and the modules have often run by utterly incompetent fools. Now that I have a job to go to and don't live in the eternal laze of studentdom, I begrudge spending my own time "learning" such pearls of wisdom as how to draw a scale plan or how to delegate to shop floor staff in retail when I have SO much to learn about my own field of work. The area in which I work (leasehold management) is so complex yet I have never had a single bit of training in, for example, how to read a lease (fairly crucial to my day-to-day work), or how to interpret legislation - this I have had to suss out myself. But obviously I could never have got by without doing a profit and loss balance sheet for a greengrocers.
This latest qualification (assuming I pass the final assignment, which I've probably now jinxed) makes me "part qualified" within my organsiation. I can't think of a single thing I have learnt that has enabled me to do my job any better, but ho hum, people want to see bits of paper.
Being the first in my extended family to ever enter into higher education (and having stumped up the fees for the privilege myself) I feel very strongly that this isn't what learning is all about. I was very lucky to have some fantastic and inspiring teachers and lecturers at the grammar school and university that I attended but if I hadn't had, and all my experiences with education were like my most recent ones, I would have given up ages ago and narrowed my horizons considerably. Ultralab, the organization based at Anglia Ruskin University that him indoors works for has the motto "making learning more delightful" which is not only cute, but how it should be. Check out their site and read about their ethos and the future of education here .
I have been studying since the age of, well, four, and now I have had enough of it, which is really sad. The main reason I have lost heart with the whole learning thing recently is the absolutely arbitrary nature of enforced study. This course, along with my previous one (a Diploma certified by the Chartered Institute of Management) was prescribed for me by my employer. When I was offered my job I thought "Great! I get to work in a place that values and develops their staff". This is still true, by only to the extent at which it is convenient for them.
The courses I have had to do (if I want to progress in any way) have been beyond irrelevant and the modules have often run by utterly incompetent fools. Now that I have a job to go to and don't live in the eternal laze of studentdom, I begrudge spending my own time "learning" such pearls of wisdom as how to draw a scale plan or how to delegate to shop floor staff in retail when I have SO much to learn about my own field of work. The area in which I work (leasehold management) is so complex yet I have never had a single bit of training in, for example, how to read a lease (fairly crucial to my day-to-day work), or how to interpret legislation - this I have had to suss out myself. But obviously I could never have got by without doing a profit and loss balance sheet for a greengrocers.
This latest qualification (assuming I pass the final assignment, which I've probably now jinxed) makes me "part qualified" within my organsiation. I can't think of a single thing I have learnt that has enabled me to do my job any better, but ho hum, people want to see bits of paper.
Being the first in my extended family to ever enter into higher education (and having stumped up the fees for the privilege myself) I feel very strongly that this isn't what learning is all about. I was very lucky to have some fantastic and inspiring teachers and lecturers at the grammar school and university that I attended but if I hadn't had, and all my experiences with education were like my most recent ones, I would have given up ages ago and narrowed my horizons considerably. Ultralab, the organization based at Anglia Ruskin University that him indoors works for has the motto "making learning more delightful" which is not only cute, but how it should be. Check out their site and read about their ethos and the future of education here .
Posted at 08:35 PM
Thu - March 2, 2006
BUM
Lazy lazy bum
Just checking in to say, yes, i know I said I
would write things and I know I lied. I would bore you with how busy I've been,
how my life is one hectic merry go round etc. But, I can't be bothered. In a
nutshell, New York, work, Kent, work, Kent, work, Kent, coursework, a bit more
work, Birmingham.
I have made one small piece of progress. I now have a bookcase (wooo!) so I can actually see my books now and get access to them without having to rifle through the pile that has lived on the living room floor for a year. I didn't like doing that and spiders lived there.
It's a good job I can see my books because my nutty friend Tricia has asked me find a reading for her wedding. Now, which shelf houses my feminist works. Germaine Greer anyone?
I have made one small piece of progress. I now have a bookcase (wooo!) so I can actually see my books now and get access to them without having to rifle through the pile that has lived on the living room floor for a year. I didn't like doing that and spiders lived there.
It's a good job I can see my books because my nutty friend Tricia has asked me find a reading for her wedding. Now, which shelf houses my feminist works. Germaine Greer anyone?
Posted at 06:23 PM
Sat - January 21, 2006
My Father the Football Nut
Evidence that too much Sky Sports rots
the mind...
I have not laughed so much as I did today for a
long while. My Dad is bonkers. Even more so than I already thought. Now, my
Pop is a fairly intelligent man but he is convinced the Earth is flat. Well,
actually he is utterly
convinced that there is a time delay between
us Southern Poofs and them Scottish folk. Yes, my Dad actually believes that
not only is it grim up North but they are actually several minutes in front of
us, time-wise. And why does he believe this? Because every week when he
watches the footie results roll in on Sky Sports News the Scottish results come
in first.
He let me in on his observation a couple of weeks back and his bonkers theory behind it and I thought he was pulling my leg. But today he actually forced me to watch the results come in and shouted "See! SEE!" each time a Scottish home team's result came in for the first five minutes. When I tried to reason that "Yes, I understand they are coming in first but don't you think it might be something to do with the way the results are reported rather than some time shift that defies all logical reasoning?" but he just got all the more animated about his TimeLord given fact. And the more animated he got the more I pissed my pants. When I suggested it could be something to do with *shock horror* technology he all but exploded. Apparently computers playing a part in this phenomenon is utterly inconceivable but the idea of Superman slowing and speeding up the world and tilting the Greenwich meridian is obvious and indeed FACT.
Dad facts are great.
Pop has also spent an abnormal amount of time recently sweeping up a million leaves from his back garden and then seems to rant at the world in utter disbelief when the wind blows and more leaves appear, as if he thought his manic sweeping cleanse would last forever.
Yes he's nuts, but you gotta love him.
He let me in on his observation a couple of weeks back and his bonkers theory behind it and I thought he was pulling my leg. But today he actually forced me to watch the results come in and shouted "See! SEE!" each time a Scottish home team's result came in for the first five minutes. When I tried to reason that "Yes, I understand they are coming in first but don't you think it might be something to do with the way the results are reported rather than some time shift that defies all logical reasoning?" but he just got all the more animated about his TimeLord given fact. And the more animated he got the more I pissed my pants. When I suggested it could be something to do with *shock horror* technology he all but exploded. Apparently computers playing a part in this phenomenon is utterly inconceivable but the idea of Superman slowing and speeding up the world and tilting the Greenwich meridian is obvious and indeed FACT.
Dad facts are great.
Pop has also spent an abnormal amount of time recently sweeping up a million leaves from his back garden and then seems to rant at the world in utter disbelief when the wind blows and more leaves appear, as if he thought his manic sweeping cleanse would last forever.
Yes he's nuts, but you gotta love him.
Posted at 09:12 PM
Mon - January 2, 2006
The Magic Roundabout
Americans are scared of The Magic
Roundabout. And so they should be.
I didn't appreciate until recently that Americans
are scared of roundabouts, or "turning circles". They don't have many
apparently. This is one of the subjects discussed on tripadvisor.com by
American tourists, where a guy was talking about the "Magic Roundabout" in
Swindon, which is made up of 5 linked mini-roundabouts. His description seemed
to put the bejesus up our American chums, but not I! For I went to university in
Colchester, home of the crazy roundabout
set-up!
I lived on the infamous Greenstead roundabout. Well, not ON it, but in the house that overlooked it, and boy did I see some accidents! Whilst searching for a picture of said roundabout I came across an excellent blog entry that looks at Colchester's most crazy roundabouts .
The 5-in-1 sign does not do it justice, so if anyone has a photo please let me know!
I lived on the infamous Greenstead roundabout. Well, not ON it, but in the house that overlooked it, and boy did I see some accidents! Whilst searching for a picture of said roundabout I came across an excellent blog entry that looks at Colchester's most crazy roundabouts .
The 5-in-1 sign does not do it justice, so if anyone has a photo please let me know!
Posted at 12:14 PM
Thu - December 29, 2005
Greef in a Nutshell
I suppose we should get to know one
another....
Well, some factettes about the
Greef:
Born: 13/04/1981, Maidstone, Kent
Lives: Writtle, Essex. Him indoors and I bought a ickle 2 bed flat in February 2004. We've outgrown it already. (Books and general shit, mostly remote controlled, no babies) and might move next year (more on that dilemma later).
Sex: Female, with "lesbian boots".
Education: The naughtiest girl at the local grammar, the moodiest girl at Essex University (I had issues, ok!). Graduated 2002, BA Hons English and European Literature (2:1).
Work: Leasehold Officer for Housing Association based in posh Billericay. Nice sandwich shops .
Likes: Home and Away (the places, not the programme, although I did meet Les Hill and Melissa Bell at a local garden centre, aged 11), pajamas, tea, jammy dodgers, fruit, white wine, Hylands Park, driving, Ricky Gervais, living next door to the V festival.
Hates: Basildon, Dukes in Chelmsford, the old bitch next door, stalkers, the fact that I can't speak fluent french, people who can afford fags and SkyPlus but can't feed their children fruit, the housing market, old comedians (Morecambe and Pants, Bruce Shitsythe, the Two Twats etc).
So that's nut in a Greefshell. Enchanté.
Born: 13/04/1981, Maidstone, Kent
Lives: Writtle, Essex. Him indoors and I bought a ickle 2 bed flat in February 2004. We've outgrown it already. (Books and general shit, mostly remote controlled, no babies) and might move next year (more on that dilemma later).
Sex: Female, with "lesbian boots".
Education: The naughtiest girl at the local grammar, the moodiest girl at Essex University (I had issues, ok!). Graduated 2002, BA Hons English and European Literature (2:1).
Work: Leasehold Officer for Housing Association based in posh Billericay. Nice sandwich shops .
Likes: Home and Away (the places, not the programme, although I did meet Les Hill and Melissa Bell at a local garden centre, aged 11), pajamas, tea, jammy dodgers, fruit, white wine, Hylands Park, driving, Ricky Gervais, living next door to the V festival.
Hates: Basildon, Dukes in Chelmsford, the old bitch next door, stalkers, the fact that I can't speak fluent french, people who can afford fags and SkyPlus but can't feed their children fruit, the housing market, old comedians (Morecambe and Pants, Bruce Shitsythe, the Two Twats etc).
So that's nut in a Greefshell. Enchanté.
Posted at 09:16 PM
Wed - December 28, 2005
Birth of GreefBlog - My First Thought
I really should get off my arse and
write something again....
Let's be honest, I didn't do an awful lot of
hardcore studying at University , but at least I did write some bits
and bobs. Since graduating over three years ago I have written little more than
a birthday card, which is pretty poor for someone who enjoys language. So,
a-bloggin I will go, and my aims are
four-fold...
1) To master this damn blogging software with minimal 'input' (read: interference) from him indoors.
2) To control my addiction to reading news websites by writing about current affairs as opposed to drowning in it.
3) To read again, and to write about what I have read. That is to read "proper books" and not just websites, just like ye olden days at university. I have finally got over the trauma of having a fucking horrific reading list and I feel I am ready to look at, wait for it, a novel again!
4) To write about things that make me laugh, happy things. For some reason unbeknown to me I have a reputation of being somewhat of a pessimist. Well they would say that wouldn't they. I suppose they're all miserable wankers. Or something jolly.
1) To master this damn blogging software with minimal 'input' (read: interference) from him indoors.
2) To control my addiction to reading news websites by writing about current affairs as opposed to drowning in it.
3) To read again, and to write about what I have read. That is to read "proper books" and not just websites, just like ye olden days at university. I have finally got over the trauma of having a fucking horrific reading list and I feel I am ready to look at, wait for it, a novel again!
4) To write about things that make me laugh, happy things. For some reason unbeknown to me I have a reputation of being somewhat of a pessimist. Well they would say that wouldn't they. I suppose they're all miserable wankers. Or something jolly.
Posted at 10:06 PM
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Published On: Apr 03, 2006 08:37 PM
Published On: Apr 03, 2006 08:37 PM