March 2004

Well my tutor sent back my assignment with some points about this and that. And despite my concerns about being treated like the red headed grandchild all the points were fair.

In retrospect it is just possible that not all poor people should be sent down pit. Additionally the term “women” might be more inclusive and less aggressive that “reactionary whinging feminists” and “economically disadvantaged” might be more sensitive than “grubby little poor people”.

And better still I have a few days to make these small changed before it is due on Monday.

Lesson for the day - perhaps asking for a little help is not such a bad idea.

The boy is asleep and the silence is golden.

Lesson for the day - Zzzzzzzzz.

The words used in my sociology lecture are about opening your mind to thinking about things in all sorts of way. But many people in the class just hear the alternative view and think that this is the dogma they are meant to learn.

And perhaps they are right, for all the words about different perspectives there is quite a narrow field of ideology put forward as reasonable.

I am not sure that I regard swapping one structure of bias for another is all that massive a step forward.

Lesson for the day - people often hear what we mean and rarely what we say.

It strikes me as hinky to wage your little war against people just because your ideology places all people of that type (men, women, gay straight, white, black, purple) on your list of viable targets.

And it seems that such people genuinely don’t understand the reaction of those they deem inferior. “It’s not about you in particular it is about {insert group}, you shouldn’t take my treatment of you personally”

And what I find even more hinky is that if you ideology guides you to behave this way to people who are disadvantaged then you are a bastard (and rightly so). But if you behave that way towards people who are in some fashion part of the majority then that’s quite ok. Bigotry, discrimination and intolerance and not just acceptable but they are virtuous.

Horse-shit.

Just horse-shit.

Lesson for the day - save me from categorisation.

I have put the boy to bed and I am not in his good books. There was all sorts of blubbing and crying. Unfortunately for him this just serves to underline how much he needs a sleep.

Lesson for the day - you can’t please everyone.

There was a one-off lecture today and the Funster and I went along. I didn’t absolutely have to go but it was information it would have been harder for me to get any other way.

Luckily it was in a massive rec room so we could hide down the back. This was a good things because the Funster was in an especially chatty mood this morning.

So we lasted about an hour of the two hours which was enough for me to get what I wanted. After that I just felt that we had distracted people quite enough so we came home.

Lesson for the day - there is a reason they don’t normally have babies in lectures.

Well I have written my two thousands words and they suck somewhat less than my first effort. They may even, in spots, address the questions as asked.

So I emailed it off to my tutor. I am not expecting to be told that it is a work of genius but something along this lines of “this will pass” would be welcome news.

I’ll let y’all know.

Lesson for the day - sometimes a pass is all you need, especially when you are me. which you’re not but I am sure you get the idea. well perhaps not sure but confident. whatever.

I had twelve hundred words and almost all of them were rubbish. And clearly I needed another either hundred and the chances of them being rubbish also were pretty good.

So I started again and tried to chill.

Now I have my two thousand words. The writing style is fairly conversational and not especially academic. But it is something I can send my tutor so that I can cultivate the perception that I do perhaps give a fuck if they think I can think like them.

Lesson for the day - sometimes the only way around is to go home first.

When I was at the local school the other day they have a word of the week on the front door.

It was Respect.

Lesson for the day - it is good to see them teaching kids their Aretha.

It seems that I am far less clever than I imagine and certainly less clever than my fellow students who I normally am happy to regard as intellectually gentle.

But they are mostly writing a simple two thousand word assignment without great problems. I, on the other hand, am finding it difficult to churn out even such a meagre piece at all.

Lesson for the day - if the proof is in the pudding then I am in the custard.