The Fourth Degree

I started a degree with the Open University last September under their Open Degree programme. I have a long term goal of completing another degree by the time I am forty (nine years to go!). So far I have finished one 10 credit module, which leaves me with 350 credits to make up. There are some restrictions to what I can study, but only in that I need to get certain numbers of credits at certain levels.

My first module was on computer games, and while I enjoyed learning about the industry and development I was much more excited by the philosophical side of things which was covered in the first few weeks and the historical side of things. In a few weeks I will start another 10 credit module on writing fiction, and I am currently planning to take a module on the "story of maths" in May.

I already have a BA in Maths and Philosophy, and MSc in Mathematical Sciences and a PhD in Maths (all from the University of Liverpool), but after three years away from the learning side of higher education I decided that I needed more. I want to keep learning all through my life; I know that I am anyways, outside of the OU, but doing what I have come to call my "BSc in Interesting Stuff" has really given me some motivation.

After my "story of maths" module I will have a break for a few months, and then most likely start a big module on creative writing for the autumn. I'm currently trying to build a good writing habit (after years of "wanting" to do it) which I think will help all the things that I do work-wise in lots of ways. Creative writing definitely comes down on the Arts side of academia, but so long as I do plenty of maths and tech modules in the years following I will definitely come out the far side of the OU with a BSc.

And who knows... Since my original BA lead to an MSc, maybe this will be a BSc leading to an MA...

Script & Flickr

The end of Script Frenzy was slightly anti-climactic for me, because I finished over a week early. Going along to all of the write-ins after that point were good, and even though I was working on various bits of writing I felt like a little bit of an impostor, that maybe I was disturbing people who were trying to get things done.

It did give me the chance to get some photos taken as well, and a couple of those along with some I took at the start of the TGIO Party can be seen over on Flickr here!

Script Frenzy has been good for me, but not, perhaps, in the way that you might think. It's given me a lot of motivation, a real creative kick up the arse, a real hunger to get things done. I enjoyed writing scripts, but not as much as I enjoyed being sat down with my Moleskine and just getting stuff out. Sometimes frantically so. Sometimes just needing to write and feeling free to do so and to just see what happens as I write.

I've made new friends, become closer to people I've known for a while and am feeling... I guess I'm feeling pretty happy all in all. April was a good month. I wonder what May will bring?

Two Sentence Story

It's not one of my 101 things, but I have submitted a Two Sentence Story to TwoSentenceStories.com!!! I would be very grateful if all five of my readers went and read it, and if you like it please give me a good vote!

The story is called "Timing" (with big thank yous to Sarah for the suggestion!) and you can vote for it by clicking here.

Thank you!

Update, Thing 33

As I noted recently, I realised that one of the things that I had listed was a duplicate! This left me with having to find something else cool and creative to do. This last week I've been looking over some old things that I've written (this is as I've been sorting out my room). I found some notes to do with my 2005 NaNoWriMo novel, and this got me thinking.

From 2006 I've written a novel every November that has been a complete story, but in 2005 I came very close. I got those 50,000 words written, but the story wasn't finished. I'll write a little bit some time soon about what the general plot was and the structure. One of my 101 things is to work on the novel from 2006, which I finished, and to redraft it and edit it - and now I think I am going to use my spare challenge (rising from the duplicate) to finish the novel from 2005. And not just finish it, but edit and redraft the parts that I had done. I'm not interested in just finishing the last few chapters unless I go back and work on the whole thing.

So there we go, thing number 33 in my list of 101 things is now:

33. Complete my NaNoWriMo novel from 2005.

That novel was set in Liverpool (more or less); just had a thought, might actually go out some time while I'm working on this - though not this week due to the snow! - and take some pictures in and around the suburbs of Liverpool and in the city, see if I can't get something there to help me with the mood of it.

Am I beginning to think like a proper writer???

Day One

Going to start off nice and easy today, will write a few haiku tonight and get some ideas for flash fiction down - maybe have a think about the SFX Pulp Idol...

In time I want to get some kind of organisation together in the side column to help with navigation concerning the different challenges and projects; I might take a stab at it tomorrow, along with working on the look of the blog. I quite like the colour scheme, but want the margins wider and I want to remove my picture too. A few tweaks here and there will keep me happy for now, and then I can start working on the layout issues that I want to correct.

By the way, if anyone reading this has any questions as to why I've chosen some of the challenges that I have, please feel free to ask; I hope to write something about them over the next few days (especially giving some idea as to what some of the maths things actually mean!) but if there are any in particular that you want me to talk about then please let me know.

Day One - sunny outside, happy inside, more or less.