lathany

OU Summer School - Unlike previous summer schools I have been to which were summaries and special sessions on various course aspects, this summer school was almost all on the project. This year I have six assignments and assignment number six is my project. So I had a half-week on fieldwork material collection and write-up, plus some computer simulations of various market scenarios. The venue was Bath University and it wasn't too bad. Unlike my student days when you had to queue for the bathroom in the morning, every room had a shower and the bed was comfy enough for a single. The food was OK, but nothing to write home about (the desserts in particular were dull). However, the social aspect wasn't great. Maybe it's because it was only a half-week, but there was much less socialising with the rest of the tutorial group than in previous years (although another factor may have been that previous summer schools were mainly populated by women of forty and older who were doing the course purely for interest and were happy to chat about it - and other things - for hours). This did, however, have the advantage that I got to read some fiction in my room in the evenings; my first new books in about three months.
OU course whinge - The closer I get to it, the more I hate TMA 5. Y'see after TMA 4, I went to summer school and was set up to do the project (TMA 6). But whilst I'm working on that, I have to get another TMA sorted out as well. I think the course managers should have swapped 6 and 5 over, so that the project is finished before going back to essay writing exam-style. Not to mention that TMA 5 just seems a really stupid design to me - it's two essay plans and one essay. I assume that the point is to train people to write essay plans properly, but I feel that if someone can do the essay without a plan then they should be able to. Ah well, this course will be ending soon (both for me and officially).
Final Fantasy Advent Calendar - After a long hiatus, the game was back and Our Shirley was fast going down in history as Most Hated Villain Ever. This time we took a boat into space and met my great-grandmother - from before she became my great-grandmother. Then we did the earliest flashback which involved most of us thrashing around in cots whilst S'reya met her brother from the time before he became cursed to be Nadir; although Wraith got to fly and meet her mother. It's looking like the key is to find the time machine made by the Evil Court Wizard With Multicoloured Hair (who is probably peeved at being pipped to the Most Hated Villain award by Our Shirley), but we've still got a long way to go with collecting enough paradox to find it.
Wombles - How could a roleplayer show back up from the States without there being roleplaying? The player in question was floralaetifica and the game was Wombles. chrestomancy GMed floralaetifica, TheHattedOne, bateleur and I as we set out on a mission to find and rescue those Wombles of Wimbledon Common. TheHattedOne played Sprocket, a stealth womble from the Deep Burrow who talked in a small squeak that only bateleur's tech womble Bahnhof (from the Hammersmith Burrow) could understand. There were exchanges like:
Sprocket: meep-meep, err. Err, uck. Oooh, uck.
Bahnhof: You say you've found a young womble alive in the kitchen, Sprocket?
Meanwhile floralaetifica and I would be exchanging baffled glances. floralaetifica played Wickey from the Glastonbury Burrow and had the whole speak with the animals thing going and I played Godiva from the Bury St Edmunds Burrow and did the scouting thing. We saved the day (and the wombles), dodged a bunch of evil vampires and discovered that what the friendly cat was failing to describe really was indescribable (it came down from the skies!)
The Dispossessed and Stardust - Whilst I was in Bath I finally got around to reading some of my birthday horde. I quite liked The Dispossessed, which was my first Sci Fi book in quite some time. However, I found it somewhat hard going to reach the end. It had a happier ending than I pictured, and was nicely consistent, but it wasn't quite my sort of thing. My other book was the graphic novel Stardust; a lovely fairy story with some utterly beautiful art. I'm hoping to see the movie at some point, but I found the book utterly glorious.
Collateral, Seven Samurai and The Dark Knight - We got through another couple of rented films and then managed to get out to the cinema in the absence of the duo. Collateral was great; good plot, good characterisation and left me feeling that Tom Cruise makes an excellent villain. Seven Samurai, on the other hand, was a bit of a shock after a couple of decades of slick Hollywood movies that last less than two hours. Between three and four hours long (the DVD didn't say and I've seen conflicting accounts of its length), it was (still) gripping and I was pleased to finally see the original of all those other movies (the one that instantly came to mind was Battle Beyond The Stars). Lastly, we don't often get to see films at the cinema, but Dark Knight was well worth the trip. Great plot, good characters, a shock death and some lovely fight scenes. Although I had very strange dreams that night.
Kew - The other duoless event of our summer break was our trip to Kew. We, unfortunately picked what I believe was the hottest day of the year, but it was still glorious. We got to climb the tree-top canopy which has some OK views and, fortunately, was not too crowded. We also got to wander as usual (I love Holly Walk) and enjoy lattes and cake at one of their eateries.

In other news, I've been playing too much Pathologic (as mentioned a few days ago). I'm starting to think it's my reaction to having Pokemon on my DS.