| Friday, May 20th, 2011 |
| 12:43 am |
Update
>Dissertation First assignment for the Dissertation is done and submitted (full research proposal, rather than the approved outline). Next deadline is 1/7 - final version of research proposal with ethics review checklist, plus indicative literature review. I'm feeling confident about the lit. review, thanks to my choice of subject. >Counselling course Want to revisit the coursework before submitting at end of the month, but it's pretty much done already >to-do list Added item: write post-event feedback, downtime, and in-game letters for the Fantasy Regency larp I played last weekend. |
| Sunday, October 24th, 2010 |
| 5:39 pm |
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| Wednesday, October 7th, 2009 |
| 10:56 pm |
Actual Quote
Spoken by a teacher at the danish roleplay school, (reported by a german spy) "I have to go and shut down the main lights the kids are gonna play vampire live..." Would you send your child to a school like this? |
| Sunday, December 28th, 2008 |
| 12:46 am |
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| Saturday, December 27th, 2008 |
| 4:48 pm |
Quick post to say I'm back. More to follow when I get the time. *** This LJ is now friend-locked from this point on. Feel free to ask if you'd like to be added. Larpers may also like to read my public larp theory LJ, Larp_musings |
| Friday, December 19th, 2008 |
| 1:26 am |
Well, that's work finished until after christmas. Varied news: - I've been invited to an 'informal chat/interview' in relation to the job I've applied for. Oddly I was invited to this today, before the deadline for applications even closed, so I guess that is a good sign. - I discovered the current vacanacy for the work psychology job is based in Washington (that's the Washington near Newcastle / Durham). Not quite the end of the country I was looking to move to (that said, Durham is very nice). - I went to the geekshop tonight and played the battlestar galatica boardgame for the first time. It's very good; the next generation of the 'co-op game with a traitor element' style of game from my current favourite shadows over camelot. I haven't seen the new series, but I'm told it captures the feel of it very well. |
| Wednesday, December 17th, 2008 |
| 5:59 pm |
Results, continued
I've phoned up my uni today. They confirmed I've got the conversion diploma (no grade, since it's the old version) and they will send me the academic transcript I need to register with the BPS (the body that regulates the psychology profession in the UK). Since it's the old version, there should be no reason for the BPS not to give me GBR (graduate basis for registration). I get the shiny certificate for the qualification in a few months. The bad news is I don't get to go to an award ceremony, since it's a conversion course for existing graduates. I was looking forward to that as life milestone ritual. I am now allowed to put 'Dip Psych (Open)' after my name. |
| Tuesday, December 16th, 2008 |
| 9:21 pm |
Results
I just got my results for this year's module. Coursework mark: 78% exam mark: 48% result for the module: 'grade 3 pass' (what the OU calls a 2:2) So, not great, but I think it's enough. I now need to sort out paperwork to get converstion diploma awarded, and hope it's correct that I come under the older version of it due to when I did the first module. |
| Sunday, December 14th, 2008 |
| 5:45 pm |
We wrapped up D&D on friday. When the heroes are on their way to the 'innermost cave' for the final climax, they aren't supposed to fall for the clay golem's diversion tactic that leads them off down an unscouted side passage into a gelatious cube that kills most of them. Still we finished the module by the end of the night. I watched the end of the dire Merlin series. The climax had all the writing skill of Russell T Davies - big buildup to a character death, followed by a cop-out. In other news, I've progressed the nodal point article a lot and actually got on with the statistics work I needed to do for my course. |
| Wednesday, December 10th, 2008 |
| 12:50 pm |
Still alive, and mostly over the flu. Being kept busy at work by backlog. Not got much exciting news to talk about. |
| Sunday, December 7th, 2008 |
| 10:39 pm |
various
I watched 'the changeling' today (child gets kidnapped and replaced by an aspie child), and discovered at the end it was written by JMS. He's definitely got better at writing dialogue, and the child actors are all surprisingly really good. Xmas presents are now sorted, apart from little brother asking me what I want. If I don't come up with anything, I'll end up with another tie. |
| Friday, December 5th, 2008 |
| 12:07 pm |
Still poorly. This flu thing is really bad. I was stuck in bed yesterday, and I'm not much better today. |
| Wednesday, December 3rd, 2008 |
| 11:17 pm |
I feel terrible. It's the horrid flu thing. I spent a lot of this evening unable to stand. In other news, the dvd of joseph campbell lectures i ordered off Amazon turned up. I've watched the first one - Campbell explaining Jung. |
| Tuesday, December 2nd, 2008 |
| 9:52 pm |
Monday night at the geekshop was fun. Another long day in Weston completed. Back to my normal day job tomorrow. Thanks to Traci for finding a freeware version of the latest board game we have been playing - 'Ra.' I've played it very very many lots. |
| Monday, December 1st, 2008 |
| 2:28 pm |
Update
Outside the sun is shining. It may be cold outside, I have a thermal layer. In here it's warm and comfy, and after a couple of the worst sort of customers this morning (lone parents who do nothing until the children are older, and manage to have more children in the meantime) I just had a much more positive one. I'm not quite as happy as I was a couple of weeks ago, but I'm definitely a lot happier than I was last week. In other news, I got the nodal point article up to second draft stage last night. |
| 10:33 am |
Beside the seaside, eventually
Despite a late train (it got stuck behind a train on the line) I'm here in sunny Weston. Looks like a busy day of work ahead, but I am forced to take a full hour for lunch since they lock the room where us single parent advisers lurk. |
| 10:32 am |
New larp LJ is set up. Codename: Larp_musing I've done some crossposting, but there is nothing new there at the moment. |
| Sunday, November 30th, 2008 |
| 6:43 pm |
I'm now back in Bristol, after my break away with Traci. I'm feeling somewhat better. Plans for this week: - Working in Weston mon and tues - D&D on friday Plans for the next three weeks: - sort out xmas presents - sort out getting ready for family wedding - start coursework - finish nodal point article on hero's journey - revise bab5 larp In other news, I've decided to set up a seperate LJ to put my larp musings on, and keep this one for the rest of my life. More info to follow. |
| Monday, November 24th, 2008 |
| 6:31 pm |
Consequences
>against the night, I did the first run of my B5 freeform over the weekend. Just like Serpent of Ash which influenced it, one or two players didn't seem to get it, but the others did. The theme of self-sacrifice emerged well, as did the theme of humanity e.g. what does it's survival mean? (the continuation of it's genetic code? the continuation of it's culture?), what does it mean to be human? (e.g. can humans from other worlds, telepaths or aliens be human in some sense?) The closing moments did seem to get the deep level of emotion I was aiming to hit, despite technical failure. I plan on sharpening the briefs up a little, but keeping it mostly the same for the next run (at Mittelpunkt in January) >freeforms generaly I found the freeforms a mixed bag. In some ways, they suit me better than uk larp mainstream (less gamists, no power progression, etc). However, some (not all) of them are still heavy goal-based. Some seem to boil down to the old larp puzzle of 'try to get alone with X so you can murderise them.' or the slightly more advanced puzzle 'spread gossip against X.' I also dislike the use of item cards rather than even low-grade props, The one I think I most enjoyed playing over the weekend was 'The show must go on,' (set 1930's backstage at a small town threate, just after a murder) which managed to put me into a tough emotional dilemna just before the end. It was also notable for making use of a flashback technique, which is very unusual for the UK. It also benefitted from all the actor cliches to draw upon. What most of the freeforms still seemed to lack which I felt I needed to really enjoy them was an underlying theme to give them a deeper meaning. I really don't think this is a particularly high brow concept for role-playing. WW (which is about as mainstream as it gets) has been saying this for almost two decades now. >In other news I'm out in the trenches again tomorrow over in the far side of bristol. I'm expecting lots of worried customers since the the changes to the law concerned our benefit rules came in today (and so have been in the news). |
| Tuesday, November 18th, 2008 |
| 9:24 pm |
update, various
- One new bookcase is safely arrived in my front room. I'm now in the strange situation of having spare shelf space. I don't expect it to last. - Geekshop was fun last night. - I've got another three days in weston next month, wearing my adviser hat. - I have hurty fingers. |
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