Off to the Edinburgh Fringe 2016

The reason for the deferral of my last course in my PPE degree is that I have a chance to take a show to the Edinburgh Fringe and it is going to take an enormous effort and all of my spare time to get it off the ground.

It is the story of how BFBS provide radio and TV for British Forces while serving abroad in war zones. It is, as far as I'm concerned, an astonishing story of over coming unusual challenges in order to provide that vital link with home. Unsurprisingly, if you throw a bunch of civilian broadcast engineers into a conflict zone to work alongside the military, funny things will happen.

This show is essentially a humerous account of what BFBS does, the untold story of how the British Forces get radio and TV on the front line.

You can follow this project at:

Blog Page : Extreme Broadcasting Blog

Facebook : Extreme Broadcasting Facebook

Twitter : @ExtremeBroadcas

DD306 Living political ideas beginning 01 October 2016.

The Open University Student Support staff couldn't have been of more help, the process to defer my course until next year has been quick and easy, and I am now registered to re-start DD306 on 1st October this year.

This leaves the way clear to concentrate on my other project which will be announced shortly.

DD306 : Living Political Lives - TMA04 Marked and Returned

Really pleased with the mark for TMA04, a high-ish Pass 2, which keeps me on track for the overall Pass 2 I need from this course to hit my final degree classification target.

Again, the tutor wrote a really thorough assessment of where things could have been improved and what parts were good. I think I have been lucky that my tutor is flexible enough to accept my style of TMA writing while at the same time warning me that come the EMA this may not be every markers cup of tea.

Also, my passionate dislike for organised religion is something that may polarise markers, so although an EMA about religion seems to be am obvious choice, it may be difficult for me to keep to the academic points rather than let my prejudices run wild. But, I have a year now to sort my life out and make sure things are in place for a resumption of study in 2017.

DD306 - Course defferal

I never thought it would come to this, but as soon as the TMA04 score is on the website I will be deferring the end of the course until next year.

I have been offered an amazing opportunity this summer and there is no way I can commit to this project and OU study without both suffering. As the summer project is a once in a lifetime opportunity and because it is possible to defer this course at little cost and while banking the work already done, this would be the most sensible solution to ensure that I can do my best in both.

So, there will be a few posts covering the TMA04 score and then the actual deferment, and then silence for quite a while....... 

*** Please Read This ***

This blog stated of as a little project to keep me on track through my studies, I thought if I made my progress sort of public it would be a driver and motivator to ensure completion of the course.

I have been surprised by the amount of hits this blog gets, since it started it has had over 100,000 unique visits, page views are much larger, I have been told that I could monitise the blog by adding adverts, but this has never been about creating a revenue stream, it has been about sharing my experiences and hopefully encouraging others a they contemplate study, and I know that some people have found the blog very useful when considering if they can or should study.

So what is all this leading up to.

I have a work colleague/friend who is now the father of 15 month old baby boy called Karl. 

Karl's mum has written an incredibly moving account of difficult time that Karl had during childbirth and the efforts that Karl and his parents have gone to to give him the support he needs since then.

You can read this account here.  Please do so, it is inspirational.

Luckily Karl is a little fighter, but the therapies and medical costs are extremely high, and the emotional toll on his parents is significant. I don't know two more committed parents, everything they do is for Karl, but caring of him is exhausting and financially draining.

So to the purpose of this post.

If everyone who visited,read or enjoyed this blog felt able to donate even just 1€ or £1, combined this would make a significant contribution to paying for therapies for Karl.

If you felt able, and were willing to share this story among your own social networks that would also be appreciated.

www.youcaring.com/karl-fernihough-526433 

Thank you for your time in reading this.

DD306 : Living Political Lives - TMA04 Submitted - with an extension

Life has been very busy and I am afraid that this has come at the cost of my study.

Without being too melodramatic about the whole thing, work commitments, family worries, a house extension and two unbelievable - pretty much once-in-a-lifetime - opportunities are being explored. These may not come off, but in order to have a fighting chance at them I have had to put in an awful lot of effort to write proposals and investigate the logistics and budgetary aspects of what I wish to do.

In the mist of all of this, TMA04 got done. It was reduced to the French Riots and Abortion as I did not have time to look at the third case study. Rawls was all over the place - Taylor and Fraser less so, passing remarks at best - so I am not sure if this passes for using at least two theorists. In the end the TMA was a good as I had time to make it, and indeed it was far better than I feared it would be at one point last week.

I am now seriously thinking about deferring until next year. I understand it is possible to bank the TMAs you have done, but I don't know about the costs of deferral - that may be the clincher.

Anyway, lets see what the TMA score brings.