Chris
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Posts posted by Chris
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Currently reading Vagabond, the second of Bernard Cornwell's (of Sharpe fame) Grail Quest series. Feels a bit like he's just taken Richard Sharpe and planted him in 14th century Europe but it's OK. Not really enjoying it as much as I did the Sharpe books. Might be the slightly unsympathetic eye of history on that era though. France, England and Scotland are all just acting like shits to each other so I don't really care about the wider conflict of the 100 years war. At least in Napoleonic Europe you were rooting for Sharpe's side more often than not (even with it's own share of unsympathetic characters placed throughout the British army in those books).
Having said that I do have a general interest in that period of history. I like medieval castles and shit so it's the main reason I'm still reading the book.
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I will also mostly be hanging out with a baby, but not the one that lives with Woods. My wife's cousin is up from London so he's coming round on Sunday to see the bairn and apart from that I have no plans. I quite fancy trying to wangle a walk to the marine if it's nice though.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-32172646
Sailor found after 66 days lost at sea, sitting on the hull of his upturned boat in the Atlantic. He survived on raw fish and rainwater. Fucking incredible.
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As the others said, a USB hard drive enclosure is what you need. Something like one of these:
Couple of things you need to know first, what the physical size of your HD is (2.5 inch or 3.5 inch) and how it connects (probably SATA). You should get that info off the label on the drive itself.
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I have a Bachelor's without honours, mainly due to not completing my fourth year and getting a job instead. I think there were about 5 of us in my class that got a standard BSc.
Yup this is what I did. Bailed out after 3rd year to get a job. Not many IT employers care if you have (Hons) after your degree title.
Back in the vicinity of the topic; there's apparently a Creative Writing class in Stoney at the Community Centre. So I'm waiting for someone to call me back about that. Might satisfy the need for creative feedback and give me a taster before deciding if I want to commit to a more formal, lengthy and expensive course.
All of this faffing around looking at creative writing courses is obviously just procrastination to put off the actual act of writing though...
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in terms of available info/courses there are plenty of online resources available of course. I follow a few writing subreddits (which are generally terrible) and the odd interesting thing will pop up. e.g. this full BYU lecture course
Yeah I follow some writing subreddits too. They're not great. I have been picking up some "how to write" books though to remind me of all the stuff I've forgotten since higher english. Stephen King's On Writing was excellent and reminded me why I read his books when I was younger. There was a 50 writing tools book which was good too. Elements of style up next as both the other books mentioned it.
Just wondering if this is worth taking into a seperate thread... should we have a wee writing discussion thread in the books forum?
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Damn Edinburgh Uni has some great short courses:
https://www.course-bookings.lifelong.ed.ac.uk/courses/CW/creative-writing/
Shame Aberdeen doesn't do anything like that.
Also found some interesting courses at a private writing school in Edinburgh:
Makes sense. If you want an English degree then i'm sure the OU route is totally fine. In terms of creative writing, i'd question it though. There needs to be a 'fit' with something as personal as that. Is an online schedule and email feedback really gonna push you to write your best stuff? Didn't there used to be a creative writing meetup at the Lemon Tree? There's gotta be an in-person class or something you could do.
Purely anecdotal, but I was just speaking to a writer friend of mine who did creative writing at Uni years ago and said that the 6 week course she did a couple months ago did more for her than the 4 years at uni.
The Lemon Tree lot seem to be based in Torry now http://www.lemontreewriters.co.uk/about.aspx
I think you make a good point about getting feedback.
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Aberdeen Uni have a PG degree in creative writing - why not do that?
http://www.abdn.ac.uk/study/courses/postgraduate/taught/creative_writing/
Don't meet the entry requirements. I've got a BSc (no hons) in Computing rather than a 1st in a humanities degree.
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Maybe do it part-time at either Aberdeen or RGU? Though I guess it'd be hard to get even a few hours off mid-week, if you're in a mid-career 9-5 job, could be the better option if you can swing it.
RGU don't have an English department. Aberdeen are expensive and irritatingly bad at answering questions on the flexibility of their courses.
I think it's the variety of study that appeals to me for the degree option. But if anyone has experience of good short courses other than "writers retreat" weekends I'd definitely take a look at that (my wife would probably prefer that from a cost perspective too).
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Not to sound dismissive, but why would you want to do an English lit and creative writing degree now? Obviously not for career advancement right? If it's more a labour of love then maybe some specific classes would be better?
Definitely not for career advancement. More for my own amusement/challenge. Always been in the back of my mind that I could have done English at Uni instead of Computing but instead I decided to go down the vocational route rather than the literature one. The flexibility of the OU means I can pick away at it over 6 years or more.
A more focused short course is also option but I quite like the idea of getting the formal qualification as well and being back in a university environment.
I also want to do more writing and think that having a structure around my writing to motivate me into keeping it going will help.
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surely a revamp with new presenters would be a failure. It's been in decline for a few years anyway.
I dunno, I think it could work. I still find the show entertaining but the ratio of gold to duff segments has been swinging steadily more towards the painfully shit end of the spectrum as the years go on. It's needed a refresh for a while.
For it to work it probably has to consciously move away from the Clarkson format. Keep the track but revamp the set and don't just hire a Clarkson-alike late middle aged twat to front it. Would like to see someone out of left-field. Chris Evans would just turn it into TFI Top Gear which would be annoying (though that might not stop it being popular).
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Dunt
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-32052736
At the end of the day no matter how successful Top Gear is or how much Clarkson is responsible for that you can't abuse a colleague the physically assault them without getting sacked. The people commenting on the article suggesting it's some anti-Top Gear conspiracy have lost the plot.
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This is probably the wrong bit of the forums, but I'm about to start an O.U. English Language and Literature degree (in a bid to make me even more unemployable than my History degree already does).
Has anyone here done anything through O.U.? Any advice?
Hey how did this go? I'm looking at the English Lit and Creative Writing degree just now. Sorry it took 6 years for someone to reply to this...
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I like the MacBride books, they're pulp but they're enjoyable pulp. Good point on the characterisation. I've always thought some of the supporting characters were a bit stock or overly comedic. I think I've only read four of them though.
You should get the new one, lots of Broch mentions in it.
I don't think Stuart himself would make any great claims for the literary merit of his books. I might have come across a bit negative but I've read all his books so far and thought they've all been great fun, just a bit flawed in places.
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Burned through the latest Stuart MacBride book - The Missing and The Dead last week. I can't kid myself that they're particularly well written books. The characterisation is often over the top and the plot clunks through some awkward gear changes. But they're enjoyable and entertaining. Nice change for this one to be set in Banff so his readers got to see an expanded palette of the NE setting.
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Aaah, living with parents is hellish. I love my mother-in-law to be and really appreciate her letting us stay at hers until we found our own flat, but feeling like a kid again is shit - just having to ask if it's okay to cook supper/take over the kitchen, practically living in a bedroom and all the rest.
Staying at my parents was worse because my mum can't leave you alone, she's honestly at your door every hour just to see if you want anything/gossip about TV shows I don't watch/see how tidy the room is.
Can totally sympathise. We stayed with my folks for a few weeks between houses and it's a total pain not having the space you're used to. At least when it's your own parents you can tell them where to go if they're being overbearing though. I find I have to be a bit more diplomatic with my in laws, though obviously that's doesn't seem to work as they come and rearrange my fucking house every week and put my tea in the freezer.
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Had steaks in the fridge for tea (nothing to do with today's date sadly) and was really looking forward to them. Started preparing some accompaniments but when I went to get the steaks they weren't there. My mother in law had put them in the fucking freezer this morning without thinking to just ask if we were going to eat them before the use by date (today).
So now I'm having fucking birds eye herby fish instead. Fuck.
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what's the specs on your acoustic anyway?
It's this one:
http://www.simonandpatrick.com/woodlandprofolk.htm
I don't really care about specs too much. I just wanted a really nice playing guitar with a specific sound (nice and bright trebles for fingerpicking, not too bass heavy) and spent a great afternoon in Celtic Chords trying all their ones out until I found one I liked.
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the market is just fucking awful just now!
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Just finished Reality Dysfunction by Peter F Hamilton. What a slog. Is it too much to ask for some sci-fi that's actually readable? Too many characters, too many made up words (admittedly sci-fi is always going to struggle a bit for this but this is ridiculous) and too many pages. Probably won't bother with the rest of the trilogy.
Currently reading On Writing by Stephen King. It's great. Part biography and part tutorial it's basically King giving his thoughts on the technical aspects of writing along with the context of his own career development and personal history. Really making me want to get back into his books as well.
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Forgetting to put my watch on in the morning. Almost as bad as forgetting a belt.
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I'm just out of spending months doing this. It's demoralising.
Being on jobseekers after graduating a couple a couple of years ago was probably the worst time of my life.
I was on jobseekers after graduating for about 7 or 8 months. Had a total blast. But that was despite the job hunting, which was really shit.
Since I started my career I've changed job a few times and it's never taken longer than a couple of months to find something new. This 18 months of knowing something isn't right where I am and looking for something else has been really draining. Just seems to be a tough time to be looking, especially in IT. Too many applicants and not enough jobs.
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