I'm at a seriously low ebb today. On so many levels.
Yesterday evening, I went out for a drink after lectures. For the umpteenth time, I ended up staying out for the rest of the night, sleeping it in this morning (on someone else's couch) and missing lectures. I've just come into college now to pick up a report I handed in last week, and found that I had got a crap mark. Added to an assessment I got in the same subject a couple of weeks back, where I barely passed, my record so far for this year has been rather rubbish.
I've lost count of the amount of times I've gone out for the 'just the one' and ended up staying out all night. I've lost count of the number of occasions I've checked my bank balance the next day, dreading what number is about to come up on the screen. And I've lost count of the how many days running upto an exam have seen me in bed, trying to sleep off a hangover.
I've had it. Starting today, I'm on the wagon. I'm going take it one month at a time, but at the very least, I'm aiming to be alcohol-free between now and Christmas, if not beyond.
Friday, October 27, 2006
Wednesday, October 25, 2006
Another example of Dan's recent penmanship
Received when I had first returned to Brighton in September, for passing my repeats.
Friday, October 20, 2006
Philadelphia
Recently, I saw Jonathan Demme's film Philadelphia for the first time since I saw it when it was released.
Along with Tom Hanks' Oscar win for his role, it was proclaimed as a major progression in the recognition of the 'plight' of gay men, in particular with regard to AIDS. The truth is that it finally, and rather belatedly, reflected the acceptance of same by the masses.
I remember a fairly mild backlash since then, denouncing the film as a bit simplistic and patronising, with its 'Gays are people too' message, and I watched it carefully the other night, and I noticed a few things. The following day I searched the internet, and came across a few sites, one of which was this, a critique of the film.
As is often the case with overly academic film criticism, the author draws some conclusions that are seriously open to debate, and tosses out questionable statements as if they were as obvious as night following day. That said, there are a number of points on which I agree with him.
a) Denzel Washington's character (Miller) was an annoying gnat. As a lawyer, he's obviously an educated, middle-class man, yet at times speaks like a small-town boy who never got the experience of the big city lights, so to speak. When we see his homophobia for the first time, with his wife, he excuses himself on the grounds that he's 'old-fashioned' and 'conservative'. I've heard people defend their homophobia in this way before, and it's bollocks, not to mention offensive. Do we take it, then, that anyone over a certain age automatically operates this kind of dicrimination, or that the acceptance of gay men is 'radical' or 'progressive'? You might, if you weren't the brightest light on the christmas tree, but this is what is put forward. Then there is his wife, who instead of doing what most people would do (and especially most women, and most women with gay relatives), which is telling him to shut it, just laughs it off.
A similar train of thought is put forward later when Miller tells Beckett (Hanks) that When he was growing up, they were taught that gays were weird, gays were afraid to fight, gays were this, gays were that, etc. etc. At times like this, Miller represents the voice of the lowest common denominator, but it's not all that necessary.
Then there are the images of Miller at home with his wife, presented as they are directly after scenes of substantial interaction with Beckett, and could, if one was predisposed to paranoia, be interpreted as a sort of escape back to normality for him. Either that, or they show him up as rampantly insecure, especially when he lies next to his wife in bed after the scene where Beckett waxes lyrical during a section of an opera.
Finally - at least, this is as far as I'm going to go with him - there are the scenes in the courtroom, where his opening lines about how he shares with most people (!) the desire to keep gays and AIDS far away, and the especially toe-curling posturing about how attitudes to AIDS is determined by attitudes to gays just make you want to chuck him into an all-night BDSM club and lock the door.
b) Tom Hanks' character Beckett, and his relationship with Miguel (Antonio Banderas) are about as neutured as any representation of gays up on big screen. Did anyone see a single mouth-to-mouth kiss between them during the film? I didn't. Yet (again!) Miller is repeatedly shown with his arms wrapped around his wife. Demme really played it safe here, and there was without doubt room for improvement in this regard.
c) The characterisation of people as either rampantly homophobic or completely accepting was a more than a little simplistic. The part where Hanks is holding his baby nephew in his arms may as well have had 'HIS FAMILY LOVE AND ACCEPT HIM FOR WHO HE IS' writ large across the screen, and the senior lawyers on trial are almost ridiculous: These are men of the law, and should at least know better than to open themselves to potential lawsuits by making homophobic jokes in a sauna, where they could be overheard by anyone.
d) The eternal connection between promiscuity and AIDS. At this point in the essay, the author argues the following, with regard to when Beckett is cross-examined in connection with his visits to a porn theatre:
"The film presents this connection in a negative way, however, by putting it in the mouth of the defense. This leads audiences to believe that the connection between AIDS and gay sex is unwarranted..."
Perhaps it could be argued that this is true at some level, it certainly didn't strike me as such during either of the times I saw it, and I'm pretty sure most other people wouldn't see it that way either. What it most likely did was reinforce in a lot of people's minds that AIDS is some kind of retribution for promiscuity in the gay community ("Oh yeah, it's a shame about him, but he was always sleeping around blah blah blah"), which is interesting in and of itself, because while promiscuity amongst gay men often makes some squirm, promiscuity amongst heterosexual men is still tacitly celebrated.
So, Demme could have done better in some respects. The closing scene, though, showing a home movie of Beckett as a child, was very moving. I've always found that a powerful device in any kind of film, and I've flagged it with high importance.
One thing I've noticed in this essay is the barely concealed contempt for liberals - another term so overused it has also started to lose all meaning - something that is shared by many of the more militant activists in the gay community. I can appreciate that the earnestness sometimes hides something a little darker within the well-intentioned, but which is better: A gay basher, or someone who speaks out against it?
One thing that was missed (and I'm not making this up) was that in the movie poster, Hanks appears to have had some lipstick photoshopped onto his lips, and looks strangely androgynous. What's that about?
Have said all of the above, the film was aimed squarely at heterosexual middle America, and Demme included Springsteen on the soundtrack as a way of reaching people who wouldn't otherwise be aware of the film, or wouldn't consider going to see it. With that in mind, we can't expect all that much, and the film still serves some purpose in that respect.
One quote I leave you with though, which jumped out at me the minute I read it:
"In the post-Philadelphia imagination of the Screen Actors Guild, straight-identified actors will consider such characters as Beckett a prestigious opportunity to explore their histrionic expertise. But God forbid an openly gay actor and actress play Harry and Sally types. Then again, openly gay men and women are rare commodities in Hollywood."
Never a truer work spoken.
Along with Tom Hanks' Oscar win for his role, it was proclaimed as a major progression in the recognition of the 'plight' of gay men, in particular with regard to AIDS. The truth is that it finally, and rather belatedly, reflected the acceptance of same by the masses.
I remember a fairly mild backlash since then, denouncing the film as a bit simplistic and patronising, with its 'Gays are people too' message, and I watched it carefully the other night, and I noticed a few things. The following day I searched the internet, and came across a few sites, one of which was this, a critique of the film.
As is often the case with overly academic film criticism, the author draws some conclusions that are seriously open to debate, and tosses out questionable statements as if they were as obvious as night following day. That said, there are a number of points on which I agree with him.
a) Denzel Washington's character (Miller) was an annoying gnat. As a lawyer, he's obviously an educated, middle-class man, yet at times speaks like a small-town boy who never got the experience of the big city lights, so to speak. When we see his homophobia for the first time, with his wife, he excuses himself on the grounds that he's 'old-fashioned' and 'conservative'. I've heard people defend their homophobia in this way before, and it's bollocks, not to mention offensive. Do we take it, then, that anyone over a certain age automatically operates this kind of dicrimination, or that the acceptance of gay men is 'radical' or 'progressive'? You might, if you weren't the brightest light on the christmas tree, but this is what is put forward. Then there is his wife, who instead of doing what most people would do (and especially most women, and most women with gay relatives), which is telling him to shut it, just laughs it off.
A similar train of thought is put forward later when Miller tells Beckett (Hanks) that When he was growing up, they were taught that gays were weird, gays were afraid to fight, gays were this, gays were that, etc. etc. At times like this, Miller represents the voice of the lowest common denominator, but it's not all that necessary.
Then there are the images of Miller at home with his wife, presented as they are directly after scenes of substantial interaction with Beckett, and could, if one was predisposed to paranoia, be interpreted as a sort of escape back to normality for him. Either that, or they show him up as rampantly insecure, especially when he lies next to his wife in bed after the scene where Beckett waxes lyrical during a section of an opera.
Finally - at least, this is as far as I'm going to go with him - there are the scenes in the courtroom, where his opening lines about how he shares with most people (!) the desire to keep gays and AIDS far away, and the especially toe-curling posturing about how attitudes to AIDS is determined by attitudes to gays just make you want to chuck him into an all-night BDSM club and lock the door.
b) Tom Hanks' character Beckett, and his relationship with Miguel (Antonio Banderas) are about as neutured as any representation of gays up on big screen. Did anyone see a single mouth-to-mouth kiss between them during the film? I didn't. Yet (again!) Miller is repeatedly shown with his arms wrapped around his wife. Demme really played it safe here, and there was without doubt room for improvement in this regard.
c) The characterisation of people as either rampantly homophobic or completely accepting was a more than a little simplistic. The part where Hanks is holding his baby nephew in his arms may as well have had 'HIS FAMILY LOVE AND ACCEPT HIM FOR WHO HE IS' writ large across the screen, and the senior lawyers on trial are almost ridiculous: These are men of the law, and should at least know better than to open themselves to potential lawsuits by making homophobic jokes in a sauna, where they could be overheard by anyone.
d) The eternal connection between promiscuity and AIDS. At this point in the essay, the author argues the following, with regard to when Beckett is cross-examined in connection with his visits to a porn theatre:
"The film presents this connection in a negative way, however, by putting it in the mouth of the defense. This leads audiences to believe that the connection between AIDS and gay sex is unwarranted..."
Perhaps it could be argued that this is true at some level, it certainly didn't strike me as such during either of the times I saw it, and I'm pretty sure most other people wouldn't see it that way either. What it most likely did was reinforce in a lot of people's minds that AIDS is some kind of retribution for promiscuity in the gay community ("Oh yeah, it's a shame about him, but he was always sleeping around blah blah blah"), which is interesting in and of itself, because while promiscuity amongst gay men often makes some squirm, promiscuity amongst heterosexual men is still tacitly celebrated.
So, Demme could have done better in some respects. The closing scene, though, showing a home movie of Beckett as a child, was very moving. I've always found that a powerful device in any kind of film, and I've flagged it with high importance.
One thing I've noticed in this essay is the barely concealed contempt for liberals - another term so overused it has also started to lose all meaning - something that is shared by many of the more militant activists in the gay community. I can appreciate that the earnestness sometimes hides something a little darker within the well-intentioned, but which is better: A gay basher, or someone who speaks out against it?
One thing that was missed (and I'm not making this up) was that in the movie poster, Hanks appears to have had some lipstick photoshopped onto his lips, and looks strangely androgynous. What's that about?
Have said all of the above, the film was aimed squarely at heterosexual middle America, and Demme included Springsteen on the soundtrack as a way of reaching people who wouldn't otherwise be aware of the film, or wouldn't consider going to see it. With that in mind, we can't expect all that much, and the film still serves some purpose in that respect.
One quote I leave you with though, which jumped out at me the minute I read it:
"In the post-Philadelphia imagination of the Screen Actors Guild, straight-identified actors will consider such characters as Beckett a prestigious opportunity to explore their histrionic expertise. But God forbid an openly gay actor and actress play Harry and Sally types. Then again, openly gay men and women are rare commodities in Hollywood."
Never a truer work spoken.
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
A night in Kemptown
I went to the Bulldog last night for the first time in a while.
They've decided against their 24-hour weekend drinking hours, thanks to a recent fight that allegedly was started by a straight couple - or by two lesbians, depending on whose version you hear - and spilled out into the street.
However, compensation has arrived in the form of a darkroom night on Tuesday night. This means that on Tuesday nights, you can go upstairs and get upto things not entirely dissimilar to what you could once get up to in Schwarz bar before it closed.
I went last night (just for investigative purposes, mind!) and had a rather enjoyable time moving around, before settling on a rather dashing chap, whose contact details I have since secured. After that, he walked me part of the way home, which would have been nice were it not for the bloody rain.
Still, it was good. Must do it again sometime.
Monday, October 16, 2006
Thoughts on failing
I've been thinking a bit about someone recently.
In first year, when I was living in halls of residence, I might have mentioned that I lived with an Irishman, who was originally from Carlow.
Sophistication wasn't exactly his middle name, and it wasn't long before he had got an (albeit fairly harmless) reputation as a bit of a muck savage. However, it became obvious over time that good-naturedness wasn't a trait intrinsic to his personality either, and as time went on, he began to alienate the irish students in the pharmacy class one by one, and upto a point where we had agreed to disagree on a couple of things, I was one of them. By the end of first year, most of his so-called fellow countrymen were having very little to do with him.
It's pretty difficult to come over to the UK from Ireland to study pharmacy and not fall in with a group of friends, such is the number of Irish people coming over here to study for that degree, yet he managed it.
When we returned last autumn to proceed into second year, we all noticed, as time went on, that he was keeping very much to himself, hanging out only with the international students in the class, and probably nursing a grudge against the Irish crowd for the way things had turned out. We were all a bit nonplussed, as by then we had all decided that if he wanted to start over, that would be fine. But he didn't.
He wasn't the most gifted student in the class by a long way, and at times I wondered what kind of role he would be able to take up when (if) he graduated. It turns out I was being optimistic, as he failed his summer exams (4 of them), and was not given the option to repeat them.
One of the things I've noticed about the faculty of pharmacy department over here is that if you fall foul of the end of year exams, sometimes the faculty can decide, where you have failed coursework or clinical exams, that you don't get a chance to resit them in the autumn, and if you're really unlucky, that you don't get a chance to do them ever again, i.e. you get thrown off the course. The latter scenario was what ended up being played out for Martin, and in spite of him attempting to appeal the decision made by the board of examiners, he was out.
I can't fault the board entirely, because he would have been at best a very mediocre pharmacist, no matter what area he would have ended up going into. The reason I do feel sorry for him is that he had spent quite a few years, prior to his entry onto this course, just trying to get in. Ideally his unsuitability should have been spotted sooner, and some advice or help offered. Also, he has spent quite a bit of money getting as far as he did, and now it's all for nothing. I've spent quite a bit of money myself already, getting this far, and I'd die if that happened to me.
One of the big motivating factors for people to go back to college as mature students is a substantial dislike for the kind of job you had before, and that is the way it was with me. I gathered, from various conversations, that it was also the way with him. Now he has to go back to that.
That kind of failure is more than a little difficult to take when you're a little bit older than the average young twenty-something. All I can say is that if that had happened to me, the way forward afterwards would be more than a little unclear. Thank God it didn't.
In first year, when I was living in halls of residence, I might have mentioned that I lived with an Irishman, who was originally from Carlow.
Sophistication wasn't exactly his middle name, and it wasn't long before he had got an (albeit fairly harmless) reputation as a bit of a muck savage. However, it became obvious over time that good-naturedness wasn't a trait intrinsic to his personality either, and as time went on, he began to alienate the irish students in the pharmacy class one by one, and upto a point where we had agreed to disagree on a couple of things, I was one of them. By the end of first year, most of his so-called fellow countrymen were having very little to do with him.
It's pretty difficult to come over to the UK from Ireland to study pharmacy and not fall in with a group of friends, such is the number of Irish people coming over here to study for that degree, yet he managed it.
When we returned last autumn to proceed into second year, we all noticed, as time went on, that he was keeping very much to himself, hanging out only with the international students in the class, and probably nursing a grudge against the Irish crowd for the way things had turned out. We were all a bit nonplussed, as by then we had all decided that if he wanted to start over, that would be fine. But he didn't.
He wasn't the most gifted student in the class by a long way, and at times I wondered what kind of role he would be able to take up when (if) he graduated. It turns out I was being optimistic, as he failed his summer exams (4 of them), and was not given the option to repeat them.
One of the things I've noticed about the faculty of pharmacy department over here is that if you fall foul of the end of year exams, sometimes the faculty can decide, where you have failed coursework or clinical exams, that you don't get a chance to resit them in the autumn, and if you're really unlucky, that you don't get a chance to do them ever again, i.e. you get thrown off the course. The latter scenario was what ended up being played out for Martin, and in spite of him attempting to appeal the decision made by the board of examiners, he was out.
I can't fault the board entirely, because he would have been at best a very mediocre pharmacist, no matter what area he would have ended up going into. The reason I do feel sorry for him is that he had spent quite a few years, prior to his entry onto this course, just trying to get in. Ideally his unsuitability should have been spotted sooner, and some advice or help offered. Also, he has spent quite a bit of money getting as far as he did, and now it's all for nothing. I've spent quite a bit of money myself already, getting this far, and I'd die if that happened to me.
One of the big motivating factors for people to go back to college as mature students is a substantial dislike for the kind of job you had before, and that is the way it was with me. I gathered, from various conversations, that it was also the way with him. Now he has to go back to that.
That kind of failure is more than a little difficult to take when you're a little bit older than the average young twenty-something. All I can say is that if that had happened to me, the way forward afterwards would be more than a little unclear. Thank God it didn't.
Wednesday, October 11, 2006
The Pink Patrol
Dublin police go undercover to combat gay bashing
I must say, the image of police in 'jeans that are tight, and shirts that show off their pecs' brought a smile to my face. A good idea too, and not before time.
Interesting that all the perps seem to be from the same gang, though this could just mean that the police are targeting the usual suspects first.
Oh, and while I'm writing in this vein:
Same-Sex Parents No Impediment To Child Development Court Told
I must say, the image of police in 'jeans that are tight, and shirts that show off their pecs' brought a smile to my face. A good idea too, and not before time.
Interesting that all the perps seem to be from the same gang, though this could just mean that the police are targeting the usual suspects first.
Oh, and while I'm writing in this vein:
Same-Sex Parents No Impediment To Child Development Court Told
Monday, October 09, 2006
First day on the job...
... and it was soft.
The boss is cool, the work undemanding (consisting mostly of helping students open an MS Works file using Word) and best of all, the use of the printing facilities free. I've pretty much printed out all my lecture notes from last week - in colour where I deemed it necessary - and it didn't cost me a penny. The co-workers seem pretty cool too.
It beats standing behind a till for eight hours, having to ask chavs for ID all the time.
In keeping with the tradition of this course, I have my first exam of the year next week. Time to get on it.
The boss is cool, the work undemanding (consisting mostly of helping students open an MS Works file using Word) and best of all, the use of the printing facilities free. I've pretty much printed out all my lecture notes from last week - in colour where I deemed it necessary - and it didn't cost me a penny. The co-workers seem pretty cool too.
It beats standing behind a till for eight hours, having to ask chavs for ID all the time.
In keeping with the tradition of this course, I have my first exam of the year next week. Time to get on it.
Friday, October 06, 2006
An exchange
This morning, during a lecture on medicinal chemistry, thanks to the cold I've caught and the attendant constant nose-blowing, I got a nosebleed. On a Visa bill that Dan had given me earlier (I've had all my mail go to his place while I was staying in the hostel), the man started writing on the envelope, and I replied back. His contributions are in the slightly darker ink. My writing is a bit untidy as I was pinching my nostrils shut with my left hand.
You have to take your entertainment where you can find it in a Friday morning lecture.
You have to take your entertainment where you can find it in a Friday morning lecture.
Bleurgh!!!
The week is over, and starting it as I meant to go on, I went into all my classes, and not only that, I was early for them. I was rewarded with my diligence by being rained on so much, I have now caught a cold.
I swear, on the walk to college from my house, as soon as I came out onto an open road with no real protection against the wind or the rain save for a poxy umbrella, the heavens would open and a force ten gale would appear out of nowhere. I got soaked from the waist down this morning on my way to college, and later on when I got off the bus near Sainsbury, in the distance I ran to get to the supermarket, it suddenly started raining so hard, my only recently dried pants got soaked all over again.
So that's it. Runny nose and acres of tissues for the next few days.
I start my part time job as a computer helper for the college on Monday. Basically, I sit behind a desk in an office in the computer pool section of the library, do some extremely basic admin work and, when required, answer any computer-related questions the students may have. It's the first time I've ever had a boss who has used words to the effect of 'You can work as little or as much as you like'. Sounds right up my street. The only balls is that I get paid a month in arrears. As if I wasn't broke enough already.
Oh well...
I swear, on the walk to college from my house, as soon as I came out onto an open road with no real protection against the wind or the rain save for a poxy umbrella, the heavens would open and a force ten gale would appear out of nowhere. I got soaked from the waist down this morning on my way to college, and later on when I got off the bus near Sainsbury, in the distance I ran to get to the supermarket, it suddenly started raining so hard, my only recently dried pants got soaked all over again.
So that's it. Runny nose and acres of tissues for the next few days.
I start my part time job as a computer helper for the college on Monday. Basically, I sit behind a desk in an office in the computer pool section of the library, do some extremely basic admin work and, when required, answer any computer-related questions the students may have. It's the first time I've ever had a boss who has used words to the effect of 'You can work as little or as much as you like'. Sounds right up my street. The only balls is that I get paid a month in arrears. As if I wasn't broke enough already.
Oh well...
Thursday, October 05, 2006
A pet hate of mine.
Oh, for fuck's SAKE!
There is a term in the above Guardian article that in the past has been applied so indiscriminately and, it has to be said, by some of the greatest gobshites that have ever come to popular attention, that it has now ceased to lose any proper form of meaning.
Oh, and the concept is largely fictitious as well, having very little basis in reality.
Can you the reader spot what it is?
There is a term in the above Guardian article that in the past has been applied so indiscriminately and, it has to be said, by some of the greatest gobshites that have ever come to popular attention, that it has now ceased to lose any proper form of meaning.
Oh, and the concept is largely fictitious as well, having very little basis in reality.
Can you the reader spot what it is?
Interesting...
I found out, via my sitemeter, that if you type haemhorroid treatment (the english spelling) into Google, this blog is second in the list of search results.
Whatever next?
Whatever next?
Wednesday, October 04, 2006
Landlords and lesbians...
I have finally got the keys to a new and quite nice house with the same two pharmacy students I referred to in the previous post. It nearly didn't happen, as the landlord wanted to convert the sitting room into another bedroom and squeeze a fifth person in there, but we revolted en masse and he compromised.
So now I can relax and chill at long last. Well, apart from the fact that I am now almost penniless after handing over the deposit and month's rent. Roll on the grant cheque.
I went out last night to the Brighton Uni LGBT pub crawl, but arrived too late for it to be any good for me. I ended up in Candy Bar, a pub for girls who like girls. At some point in the night, a fight broke out between two guys, and lots of people (girls an' all) waded in to restrain them. So did I, and the bouncer ejected me afterwards telling me that I had too much to drink, when I'm sure it was just because I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. I promptly threw a tantrum, so the manageress shut me up by promising to buy me a drink the next time I'm in there.
Which should be some time next year, going by my current pattern.
So now I can relax and chill at long last. Well, apart from the fact that I am now almost penniless after handing over the deposit and month's rent. Roll on the grant cheque.
I went out last night to the Brighton Uni LGBT pub crawl, but arrived too late for it to be any good for me. I ended up in Candy Bar, a pub for girls who like girls. At some point in the night, a fight broke out between two guys, and lots of people (girls an' all) waded in to restrain them. So did I, and the bouncer ejected me afterwards telling me that I had too much to drink, when I'm sure it was just because I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. I promptly threw a tantrum, so the manageress shut me up by promising to buy me a drink the next time I'm in there.
Which should be some time next year, going by my current pattern.
Saturday, September 30, 2006
The search grinds on slowly
I was supposed to meet my landlady-to-be last night, pay her the deposit, and get the key to my new place, which fortuitously enough happens to have two girls from my class already living in it. At the eleventh hour, yesterday, she dials directly into my voicemail (the coward) telling me that she has already lined up other tenants to take the rooms instead, but 'isn't sure' and I 'might still be able to move in'.
Add to this the fact that the previous landlord I left behind actually did end up deducting the week's rent from the deposit of one of the guys I lived with in the house, along with £40 extra, for 'leaving the place in a mess' (Absolute horseshit, it was fine when I moved out), and I'm sure you can understand that landlords aren't my favourite people at the moment.
Tossers.
I have a list of other potentials lined up. I have to sort this out quickly. I start classes proper on tuesday.
I coped with yesterday's let-down by going to the Bulldog, getting hammered, and copping off with a bloke whose personality traits suggests that he may at the very least have Aspergers Syndrome.
There was one or two seriously hot daddies out there last night though. I need to get me one of those now.
Add to this the fact that the previous landlord I left behind actually did end up deducting the week's rent from the deposit of one of the guys I lived with in the house, along with £40 extra, for 'leaving the place in a mess' (Absolute horseshit, it was fine when I moved out), and I'm sure you can understand that landlords aren't my favourite people at the moment.
Tossers.
I have a list of other potentials lined up. I have to sort this out quickly. I start classes proper on tuesday.
I coped with yesterday's let-down by going to the Bulldog, getting hammered, and copping off with a bloke whose personality traits suggests that he may at the very least have Aspergers Syndrome.
There was one or two seriously hot daddies out there last night though. I need to get me one of those now.
Friday, September 22, 2006
Holy war? Holy Fuckwits!
As much as Nazinger has put his foot in it (again), I can't empathise with this shit that is currently going on by way of response.
When someone makes vaguely negative references about Catholicism in a public address, do the bible bashers go batshit fucking mental over it like this?
And now, a nun has been killed in the crossfire. A nun.
Anyone who is in thrall to organised religion to this extent seriously has a screw loose somewhere. As for Islam, anywhere it dominates, it may be noted that the advancement of gay rights, or progressiveness in general, isn't all that high on the agenda.
I don't think I ever gave a second thought to Islam prior to Sept 11th, and after that I was more curious about it than anything. Now, after this and all the shit that went down with the Danish cartoons, I'm just losing patience.
Well, fuck them. If they keep behaving like this, public sympathy for them will be a little bit thinner on the ground the next time they get bombed from the sky. Praise Allah!
As for the protests themselves, you can find an article in the Guardian here, about placards. My favourite slogan?
'Behead those who insult the peace of Allah'.
Saturday, September 16, 2006
Thank God! THANK GOD!
The results of the repeats came out early!
I'm going into 3rd year!
Oh joy! Oh rapture!
I'm carrying one module (immunology) which I have to resit when it is examined in the summer again, but other than that, I can progress as normal.
Having now got a soft part-time job sorted for the coming year, all I have to do is find a house, and that's it.
Could it be that things are finally going my way for the first time in ages?
Oooooohhhh!!!!
I'm going into 3rd year!
Oh joy! Oh rapture!
I'm carrying one module (immunology) which I have to resit when it is examined in the summer again, but other than that, I can progress as normal.
Having now got a soft part-time job sorted for the coming year, all I have to do is find a house, and that's it.
Could it be that things are finally going my way for the first time in ages?
Oooooohhhh!!!!
Friday, September 15, 2006
Alliteration, assonance, and ants
An excerpt from an article in this week's Washington Blade, written by Wayne Beesen (Full text here), via Buff Tuff:
Won't someone please think of the ants?!
Also, I quite like the way 'carnal carnival' rolls off the tongue.
This battle of the male brain is now playing itself out in gay society after paparazzi ambushed pop star George Michael coming out of the bushes following a supposed sexcapade with a pot-bellied peasant. [Was Michael acting differently than other gay men?] My comment:
Back in the 70's days, bathhouses were hugely popular and the gay bars had blackened out windows, creating a virtual cocktail-serving closet. Many of the patrons had to have sex away from home to keep the secret from an unsuspecting wife and kids. Of course, there was a portion of men who did have options but who enjoyed unfettered promiscuity for the thrill.
With time, the ease with which people could come out, combined with the fear of contracting HIV, sharply curtailed the carnal carnival the gay subculture once represented. The whole notion that gay men are more libidinous than straight men is a canard pushed by right wing fanatics in an effort to deny homosexuals basic rights. Indeed, one of the most guarded secrets of gay life is that a good portion of homosexuals are as undersexed as their straight counterparts.
Some of these lonely gay sorts keep long hours at the office and never took time to pursue partners. Others are shy and have great difficulty meeting people. Many men, gay and straight, simply have low sex drives and hardly desire gratuitous encounters. From my observation, a surprisingly large portion of men find the notion of hooking up with strangers totally unappealing. It is not looks nor variety, but intimacy that is the greatest turn on.
For the hyper aggressive men who fancy uninhibited sexual exploration, it is easier being gay because you can always find another man looking for the same thing. But, instead of being blamed for a lack of self-control, most gay men should get a medal for restraint. Heck, if straight men could have sex in public restrooms with women, would we ever again be able to use the facilities for legitimate purposes? If straight men could easily pick up women for sex in parks after midnight, would the grounds be so trodden that ants would become an endangered species?
Yeah, gay men have access to sex if they want it bad enough and are willing to take risks, like George Michael did, but the majority consistently chooses not to recklessly cruise.
George Michael may want his sex, but placing the blame on gay culture no longer reflects modern reality. Given a full range of choices, including marriage, gay life increasingly looks as diverse as mainstream culture with monogamously oriented men finally having the option to choose monogamy.
Won't someone please think of the ants?!
Also, I quite like the way 'carnal carnival' rolls off the tongue.
Wednesday, September 13, 2006
Tuesday, September 12, 2006
At home again.
My mother turned sixty yesterday.
It was nice to be able to do it for her. She had been a bit down about it seemed that the occasion would pass without some form of commemoration, so she got a nice lift to see what had been organised for her, and it all went rather smoothly, as long as you discount the fact that some of the balloons that we had put up on the wall seemed to mysteriously vanish into thin air less than 5 minutes after they had been put up. Go figure.
While on the subject of birthdays, this blog turned 2 years old over a month ago, and I completely forgot to mark the occasion! Oh well, here's to another two.
I rang the payroll department of lloyds pharmacy today, and in spite of the fact that the dozy pharmacy manager told me she had faxed them all my details, they still had an incomplete record of my time there. The guy I spoke to on the phone suggested that I should e-mail them the details myself. I'm inclined to agree. I'm going to wait until the money is gone into my account, and then the letter of complaint will be sent. This is nothing short of ridiculous.
I flew home Friday morning. It was by pure chance I got a message the night before from one of the former tenants saying that they had all got their deposits back, and that the landlord's hold over me had effectively been relinquished. The following morning, I had my interview with the college for the job (which I got), and then went back to the house, got my baggage, and legged it. I left the key, along with a note explaining the absence of the week's rent. I signed it 'with deepest regret'. The landlord has tried ringing me twice since I've got back here, but I've just ignored it.
I got shafted for excess baggage at check-in, to the tune of £50. I quietly resolved that it would be for the last time. Oh, and I bag I got for a 'bargain' at £5, split all along the seams as I was heading out the door of my house. I suppose I got what I paid for...
The results of the repeats are out on monday coming. I have a knot in my stomach. Regardless of whether or not I proceed to third year, I think the best thing to do would be to go back to Brighton. My parents don't know that I had to do resits, and everyone is assuming that I'm going to go straight into 3rd year. Not sure what I'm going to do about this. It would be such a balls to lose a year when everything is finally starting to go well (well, insofar as I have a nice well-paid job this year which allows me to catch up on coursework from time to time while I'm doing it). Oh fingers, toes, cock and balls, all crossed...
P.S. I fucking HATE my parent's dial-up internet connection.
It was nice to be able to do it for her. She had been a bit down about it seemed that the occasion would pass without some form of commemoration, so she got a nice lift to see what had been organised for her, and it all went rather smoothly, as long as you discount the fact that some of the balloons that we had put up on the wall seemed to mysteriously vanish into thin air less than 5 minutes after they had been put up. Go figure.
While on the subject of birthdays, this blog turned 2 years old over a month ago, and I completely forgot to mark the occasion! Oh well, here's to another two.
I rang the payroll department of lloyds pharmacy today, and in spite of the fact that the dozy pharmacy manager told me she had faxed them all my details, they still had an incomplete record of my time there. The guy I spoke to on the phone suggested that I should e-mail them the details myself. I'm inclined to agree. I'm going to wait until the money is gone into my account, and then the letter of complaint will be sent. This is nothing short of ridiculous.
I flew home Friday morning. It was by pure chance I got a message the night before from one of the former tenants saying that they had all got their deposits back, and that the landlord's hold over me had effectively been relinquished. The following morning, I had my interview with the college for the job (which I got), and then went back to the house, got my baggage, and legged it. I left the key, along with a note explaining the absence of the week's rent. I signed it 'with deepest regret'. The landlord has tried ringing me twice since I've got back here, but I've just ignored it.
I got shafted for excess baggage at check-in, to the tune of £50. I quietly resolved that it would be for the last time. Oh, and I bag I got for a 'bargain' at £5, split all along the seams as I was heading out the door of my house. I suppose I got what I paid for...
The results of the repeats are out on monday coming. I have a knot in my stomach. Regardless of whether or not I proceed to third year, I think the best thing to do would be to go back to Brighton. My parents don't know that I had to do resits, and everyone is assuming that I'm going to go straight into 3rd year. Not sure what I'm going to do about this. It would be such a balls to lose a year when everything is finally starting to go well (well, insofar as I have a nice well-paid job this year which allows me to catch up on coursework from time to time while I'm doing it). Oh fingers, toes, cock and balls, all crossed...
P.S. I fucking HATE my parent's dial-up internet connection.
Thursday, September 07, 2006
Christ ALMIGHTY!
The last few days in brief:
a) In spite of the fact that I put up an ad in Netlet (an online accommodation website for the college) advertising the house, the applications to see it come in slowly. Slowly, like chinese water torture.
b) On Tuesday, the landlord rang me asking me if new tenants had been lined up for the house yet, a mere five days after the previous group left. I tell him no, but I'm working on it. He tells me he needs to get the house filled as quickly as possible, and by being there, he can't let it as an empty 6-bedroomed house. He tells me I'll have to leave by Thursday. I negotiate Friday instead.
c) I had flights booked to go home to Mallow on Monday 11th, as a surprise for my mother's birthday. Because I have to leave the house, I have to reschedule the flights to go out on Friday afternoon instead. Price involved for this change: £100, and the tosser still wants me to pay for the week I've stayed in the house (£75). I'd just do a runner, but then it would come out of the deposit of the girl who sub-let her room to me.
d) The stupid BITCH who runs the pharmacy I worked in for a while, messed up my details on the pharmacy computer. The result? I don't get paid until the end of September, instead of the end of August like I should have been. I've drafted a letter of complaint. I'm going to sit on it for a few days to work out what I should do with it. I want to wring her scrawny neck.
After I got the lovely life-affirming instructions from the landlord, I was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. I rang Daffy, and he turned out to be a big help in all of this. Last night the two of us managed to get most of my stuff moved into storage, and then he showed me his room which he's thinking of renting out. My name is on the list of those being considered.
I feel a bit better now, though the last few days have been shit. I have an job interview tomorrow in the college for something that will last throughout the year, and would be very handy to combine with my course (assuming I get through). The flight home is straight after that. Hopefully I'll be able to combine the two without any disasters.
a) In spite of the fact that I put up an ad in Netlet (an online accommodation website for the college) advertising the house, the applications to see it come in slowly. Slowly, like chinese water torture.
b) On Tuesday, the landlord rang me asking me if new tenants had been lined up for the house yet, a mere five days after the previous group left. I tell him no, but I'm working on it. He tells me he needs to get the house filled as quickly as possible, and by being there, he can't let it as an empty 6-bedroomed house. He tells me I'll have to leave by Thursday. I negotiate Friday instead.
c) I had flights booked to go home to Mallow on Monday 11th, as a surprise for my mother's birthday. Because I have to leave the house, I have to reschedule the flights to go out on Friday afternoon instead. Price involved for this change: £100, and the tosser still wants me to pay for the week I've stayed in the house (£75). I'd just do a runner, but then it would come out of the deposit of the girl who sub-let her room to me.
d) The stupid BITCH who runs the pharmacy I worked in for a while, messed up my details on the pharmacy computer. The result? I don't get paid until the end of September, instead of the end of August like I should have been. I've drafted a letter of complaint. I'm going to sit on it for a few days to work out what I should do with it. I want to wring her scrawny neck.
After I got the lovely life-affirming instructions from the landlord, I was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. I rang Daffy, and he turned out to be a big help in all of this. Last night the two of us managed to get most of my stuff moved into storage, and then he showed me his room which he's thinking of renting out. My name is on the list of those being considered.
I feel a bit better now, though the last few days have been shit. I have an job interview tomorrow in the college for something that will last throughout the year, and would be very handy to combine with my course (assuming I get through). The flight home is straight after that. Hopefully I'll be able to combine the two without any disasters.
Monday, September 04, 2006
Compare and contrast exam results
The Irish Leaving Cert:
Minister backs bonus points system for maths and science
Poor marks in maths, science in Leaving cert results
English A-levels:
Record passes revive calls for review of exam system
Maths fuels rise in top grades at A-level
"Learning isn't cool"
A comment from a educational officer, on how the basic skills of reading, writing, and numeracy are absent in some young british school-leavers, after spending 11 years in school. It was part of a documentary focusing on how the labour of Polish immigrants is now often favoured over that of workers native to the UK.
Firstly, to deal with the irish conundrum on poor performance in the technical areas.
I don't know if it was always the way with Irish students - I don't think it was, to be honest - but lately, I've seen people over here on my course from my home country who have refined the skill of rote learning down to a fine art. It's something I've never been able to do for as long as I've been in a classroom. My thing has always been solving, re-ordering, analysing, and processing. It's the reason I steered clear of subjects like Business Studies, Home Economics, Biology, and Geography in school. It is, however, the way that a lot of students now seem to get through second-level (and in particular, points factory grind schools), and I can see it on my course. I can't fault it, because it requires no small work ethic, and can net someone a pass in a subject even when they don't fully understand what it is they're studying, but it can't be applied to technical subjects. If grades in maths and the sciences are lousy (and I think a lot of that really is only hype), then that is because students are choosing to just try and bulldoze their way through it with memorization rather than actually getting to grips with it properly.
I remember in first year in school, I had what was a definite contender for worst teacher of the year instructing us in maths. I failed that subject in the end-of-year tests, along with most of the other students, and the teacher was promptly juggled out of our classroom and into another of poor unfortunates waiting to be bored to tears. If you had said to me then that I would end up netting a good B in honours maths in the leaving cert, I would have laughed, but the following year, I was fortunate enough to get a good teacher in the subject, and after that, I never struggled with it again. What I think the problem is, is that a lot of people aren't pushed beyond this initial hurdle. Once you get over the initial incomprehension with the subject, it's like riding a bike. You never forget. Once it does click with you, you will also find that all other technical subjects like the sciences will come much more easily to you as well. This is where the experts need to start, because I've noticed that amongst students who are of enough ability to regard all subjects as equal, the science and maths subjects are always chosen, because scoring highly in them can be a more straighforward matter in a lot of ways. It beats sweating blood and tears over an Irish essay, only to get a C afterwards, that's for sure.
So, good maths teachers are needed to get to the root of the problem, but then that raises the whole issue of how the HDip for secondary school is a convenient qualification to fall into for unemployed and indifferent college graduates, and that's for another day.
Failing the above, you could always get the artistically minded students to watch Darren Aronofsky's Pi and hope for the best. Or get the girls to watch A Beautiful Mind, on the pretext that it's got Russell Crowe in it.
Now, onto where these subjects can lead you.
Mary Harney, the minister referred to in the second link, has been sharing a bed with industrial interests for quite some time now. It is no surprise to hear her encouraging Irish students to sharpen up their technical skills, for then they become viable candidates for employment with the companies she so desperately wants to keep happy and whose investment in this country she works so hard to secure.
It has been said that in order for companies to invest in Ireland, an adequate 'knowledge base' must be present. For this, you can almost read 'worker drones who are prepared to accept minimal rewards for maximum technical endeavour'. It is often pointed out that there are still lots of jobs to be had in the technical and scientific sector. What the media conveniently forget to mention most of the time, is what the nature of these jobs really are. Working in what can be a intellectually very challenging area, designing or refining a product that will generate the company a great deal of revenue, and then having to negotiate a measly 3-4% pay increase in your yearly performance review. Thank you, but no.
That's not to say that the aforementioned academic areas aren't important. You'd have to be an idiot to think that, but they aren't rewarded all that much in the marketplace. For example, chemists (people who have studied chemistry, as opposed to pharmacy, in case you misunderstand), a group of people who have engaged in the study of a subject that is the amongst the most challenging you may care to mention, and who have at their fingertips knowledge that is fundamental to the life sciences, are not amongst the most well-paid in industry in general, and are amongst the least well-paid in the pharmaceutical industry in particular. Fact. I'd feel a little cheated if I'd struggled with that area for a minimum of four years in higher education, and then found out I'd have to take weekend shifts where I worked to make ends meet. That's the situation that one of the mature students in my class found himself in before he went back to college.
I remember roughly 10 years ago, quite a few courses were introduced in the irish universities that were 'close' to industry. By this I mean the courses were tailored towards the passing on of a body of knowledge specific to various kinds of industry. Materials science was one. Marine science was another. Industrial engineering another. Year after year, those courses were only partly filled, with most of those accepting the offer doing so because they hadn't got anything else, or didn't know any better. By not knowing better, I mean that while the courses were being tailored towards certain kinds of jobs in industry, anyone taking them seemed unaware that they would find themselves in a serious bind if that particular industry dried up years later and those workers found themselves at the mercy of their company, unable to leave. That's what happened in IT (and may well still be happening now, for all I know) when the recession hit there. Wage freezes were brought in by the truckload, and there was sod-all the employees could do about it.
Around about this time, a lot of academics in the developing areas moaned that the candidates with the best grades in science subjects were hightailing it into medicine and the like, and ignoring their areas. At this time of going to press, this is still the case. Applications for science and engineering courses are still falling. There is a reason for this. Healthcare courses, having been around the longest of all, have a proven track record in generating rewards for people once they enter the market. Working for a company as an authority in a particular area generates a lot of money for that company, of which you will only see a fraction.
The fact is, if you choose to work in the corporate technical sector, you need to be aware that it can backfire on you, and this is something that people advocating the study of technical subjects don't really tell you. In a particular area, once the number of employees exceeds the number of jobs out there, you're fucked, and this is precisely why I chose for my career something that is not usually perceived as a hotbed of scintillation: There are almost always more jobs than pharmacists to fill them.
And lastly, but most certainly not least, you can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make them drink, and if Irish students are displaying ineptitude in this area, promising them bonus points if they do well isn't really going to achieve much. Ten years ago, it was appreciated that our syllabus in maths was amongst the most rigorous in the world, next to Japan, and then it was overhauled and made a bit easier. We need to leave the course itself alone now, and go after the students themselves.
And now, onto our over-achieving neighbours.
First a hypothetical question for our audience. If you are allowed to pick three subjects to study at any level in school, hands up those of you who are going to pick subjects that they don't really like, or pick subjects they're not really good at.
Are you getting this, everyone? People are doing well at A-levels because they are studying subjects that they are free to opt for!
The A-level system is somewhat unique in that it allows academic specialisation at a stage in education where most other systems would still have a student studying a number of mandatory subjects. In Ireland, you have to do seven subjects at leaving cert level, of which only 3 (in some schools 4) are chosen by the student. In Scotland, you do five subjects for the higher exams. The French/International baccalaureat, while allowing the flexibility of studying a number of subjects to more depth than others, still requires the reading of a broad range of subjects. In Canada, Australia, and America, the situation is roughly the same. Which is better, allowing someone to specialise early in their academic careers, or instil in them some knowledge of a variety of subjects before they leave school, is a moot point. Allowing a technically minded person to ditch the humanities early on can prevent them from achieving a fully rounded education, but requiring them to study them when they don't want to isn't going to develop in them a great appreciation for the subject either.
Then there are the succes stories of the sciences and maths. This is simply because no-one in their right mind is going to opt for these subjects at A-level unless they are at least halfway good at them. These are simply not doss subjects, not by any stretch of the imagination, and only students with their eye on science, engineering or healthcare courses (again, not exactly a cakewalk at third level) will opt for them. It's not that they're easy, it's that the students doing them are prepared to work hard.
It has to be said, though, 3 A-levels is not the most taxing workload. While the level a subject is studied at probably is ahead of the level the same subject would be studied at under a different secondary school system, it is only winning that race by a nose. This is already reflected in the fact that some students are now opting for a fourth A-level, and some even for five. Yet snot-nosed british universites seem to have a problem with recognising any qualification outside of their own. I was required to get an A in leaving cert honours chemistry in Ireland for the course I'm in now, but my English classmates would have got in with a C in A-level chemistry, and I can tell you now, there is not much difference between the two courses.
Having said that, the whole concept of education has changed since the naysayers in their 60s got their degrees. It's next to essential to get some award of higher education under your belt now before entering the jobs market, and a lot of courses, and places on those courses, are springing up to meet this demand. Students leaving school are much more mercenary about education, and have much higher expectations about it now, and are not just accepting it as a privilege. Then there are the grind schools, whose job it is to squeeze every last drop of attainment out of even the most mediocre of students. Is it any wonder people are opting to extend the best days of their life into their twenties?
Anyway, to sum up this part, if British universities are finding it harder to pick out the 'brightest of the bright' then a broader system like the one I've already discussed should be put in place. It should be pointed out that studies correlating performance in universities between bac results and between A-level results showed that graduates with a mediocre bac still tended to do well at third level, whereas graduates with mediocre A-levels didn't. So there it is.
And now, onto the thickos.
I saw a documentary on TV a while back. I can't remember on what channel, but it was about the influx of Polish immigrants into Britain, and how they are addressing the skills shortage being suffered by this country at the moment. The general point being made was that Polish workers were much more reliable, skilled, knowledgeable and hardworking than their indigenous counterparts. Someone should have introduced the presenter to that stupid pharmacist I had to work with, as I since found out that she is Polish as well, but I digress.
It was pointed out some companies loved the Poles because they were willing to work hard for half-nothing. Dissenting opinions were that the companies should pay more in general, the presenter pointed out, but it was time to get realistic: If certain british based companies found they had to raise the wages of their workers too much, they would simply go elsewhere. Of course, it was easy for the presenter to say that, settled cosily in a nice comfortable job with a national television station. I wonder how he'd feel if he had to hoist around cargos of fish all day for £5.10 an hour.
Anyway, the point was made that british students leaving school after their GCSEs were turning out to be getting thicker by the year. A post-secondary technical college was finding that a lot of them lacked the basic skills of literacy and numeracy, and as quoted above, one expert in education said that it seemed that learning wasn't quite the thing to be into in school any more, if you were concerned with your trendiness quotient. The reasons for this are sure to be many and varied, although if I were to point at something and complain like an old-age pensioner, I would say that the veneration of the most inconsequential of celebritys (Preston, Chantelle, Kerry, Paris, fucking premiership footballers) in the popular media does rather send out the message that though you may be as thick as shit and have nothing to say, if you look halfway good (though not with too much character, mind), and are willing to prostitute yourself for a bit of exposure on celluloid, you don't really have to worry about having to string a sentence together as you'll succeed anyway. But maybe that's just me.
There is also the fact that a culture exists over here that where, if it turns out that you're not too intellectually gifted, the GCSEs can be a convenient drop-off point for some now, whereas in other countries, you're generally regarded as more than a bit of a loser if you leave before you final secondary school exams. So if anyone wants to start complaining about people 'coming over and taking our jobs', they would do well to do a little inward examination first.
But lastly, to return to my first point, when are people going to get that university is not about acquiring a set of skills that don't require Einstein's IQ to master? It's about education. Let the fucking corporations train up new employees in the skills they need. They can certainly afford it, and if their habit is to underpay the people that are most important to their success, they may soon find that they have no choice.
Minister backs bonus points system for maths and science
Poor marks in maths, science in Leaving cert results
English A-levels:
Record passes revive calls for review of exam system
Maths fuels rise in top grades at A-level
"Learning isn't cool"
A comment from a educational officer, on how the basic skills of reading, writing, and numeracy are absent in some young british school-leavers, after spending 11 years in school. It was part of a documentary focusing on how the labour of Polish immigrants is now often favoured over that of workers native to the UK.
Firstly, to deal with the irish conundrum on poor performance in the technical areas.
I don't know if it was always the way with Irish students - I don't think it was, to be honest - but lately, I've seen people over here on my course from my home country who have refined the skill of rote learning down to a fine art. It's something I've never been able to do for as long as I've been in a classroom. My thing has always been solving, re-ordering, analysing, and processing. It's the reason I steered clear of subjects like Business Studies, Home Economics, Biology, and Geography in school. It is, however, the way that a lot of students now seem to get through second-level (and in particular, points factory grind schools), and I can see it on my course. I can't fault it, because it requires no small work ethic, and can net someone a pass in a subject even when they don't fully understand what it is they're studying, but it can't be applied to technical subjects. If grades in maths and the sciences are lousy (and I think a lot of that really is only hype), then that is because students are choosing to just try and bulldoze their way through it with memorization rather than actually getting to grips with it properly.
I remember in first year in school, I had what was a definite contender for worst teacher of the year instructing us in maths. I failed that subject in the end-of-year tests, along with most of the other students, and the teacher was promptly juggled out of our classroom and into another of poor unfortunates waiting to be bored to tears. If you had said to me then that I would end up netting a good B in honours maths in the leaving cert, I would have laughed, but the following year, I was fortunate enough to get a good teacher in the subject, and after that, I never struggled with it again. What I think the problem is, is that a lot of people aren't pushed beyond this initial hurdle. Once you get over the initial incomprehension with the subject, it's like riding a bike. You never forget. Once it does click with you, you will also find that all other technical subjects like the sciences will come much more easily to you as well. This is where the experts need to start, because I've noticed that amongst students who are of enough ability to regard all subjects as equal, the science and maths subjects are always chosen, because scoring highly in them can be a more straighforward matter in a lot of ways. It beats sweating blood and tears over an Irish essay, only to get a C afterwards, that's for sure.
So, good maths teachers are needed to get to the root of the problem, but then that raises the whole issue of how the HDip for secondary school is a convenient qualification to fall into for unemployed and indifferent college graduates, and that's for another day.
Failing the above, you could always get the artistically minded students to watch Darren Aronofsky's Pi and hope for the best. Or get the girls to watch A Beautiful Mind, on the pretext that it's got Russell Crowe in it.
Now, onto where these subjects can lead you.
Mary Harney, the minister referred to in the second link, has been sharing a bed with industrial interests for quite some time now. It is no surprise to hear her encouraging Irish students to sharpen up their technical skills, for then they become viable candidates for employment with the companies she so desperately wants to keep happy and whose investment in this country she works so hard to secure.
It has been said that in order for companies to invest in Ireland, an adequate 'knowledge base' must be present. For this, you can almost read 'worker drones who are prepared to accept minimal rewards for maximum technical endeavour'. It is often pointed out that there are still lots of jobs to be had in the technical and scientific sector. What the media conveniently forget to mention most of the time, is what the nature of these jobs really are. Working in what can be a intellectually very challenging area, designing or refining a product that will generate the company a great deal of revenue, and then having to negotiate a measly 3-4% pay increase in your yearly performance review. Thank you, but no.
That's not to say that the aforementioned academic areas aren't important. You'd have to be an idiot to think that, but they aren't rewarded all that much in the marketplace. For example, chemists (people who have studied chemistry, as opposed to pharmacy, in case you misunderstand), a group of people who have engaged in the study of a subject that is the amongst the most challenging you may care to mention, and who have at their fingertips knowledge that is fundamental to the life sciences, are not amongst the most well-paid in industry in general, and are amongst the least well-paid in the pharmaceutical industry in particular. Fact. I'd feel a little cheated if I'd struggled with that area for a minimum of four years in higher education, and then found out I'd have to take weekend shifts where I worked to make ends meet. That's the situation that one of the mature students in my class found himself in before he went back to college.
I remember roughly 10 years ago, quite a few courses were introduced in the irish universities that were 'close' to industry. By this I mean the courses were tailored towards the passing on of a body of knowledge specific to various kinds of industry. Materials science was one. Marine science was another. Industrial engineering another. Year after year, those courses were only partly filled, with most of those accepting the offer doing so because they hadn't got anything else, or didn't know any better. By not knowing better, I mean that while the courses were being tailored towards certain kinds of jobs in industry, anyone taking them seemed unaware that they would find themselves in a serious bind if that particular industry dried up years later and those workers found themselves at the mercy of their company, unable to leave. That's what happened in IT (and may well still be happening now, for all I know) when the recession hit there. Wage freezes were brought in by the truckload, and there was sod-all the employees could do about it.
Around about this time, a lot of academics in the developing areas moaned that the candidates with the best grades in science subjects were hightailing it into medicine and the like, and ignoring their areas. At this time of going to press, this is still the case. Applications for science and engineering courses are still falling. There is a reason for this. Healthcare courses, having been around the longest of all, have a proven track record in generating rewards for people once they enter the market. Working for a company as an authority in a particular area generates a lot of money for that company, of which you will only see a fraction.
The fact is, if you choose to work in the corporate technical sector, you need to be aware that it can backfire on you, and this is something that people advocating the study of technical subjects don't really tell you. In a particular area, once the number of employees exceeds the number of jobs out there, you're fucked, and this is precisely why I chose for my career something that is not usually perceived as a hotbed of scintillation: There are almost always more jobs than pharmacists to fill them.
And lastly, but most certainly not least, you can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make them drink, and if Irish students are displaying ineptitude in this area, promising them bonus points if they do well isn't really going to achieve much. Ten years ago, it was appreciated that our syllabus in maths was amongst the most rigorous in the world, next to Japan, and then it was overhauled and made a bit easier. We need to leave the course itself alone now, and go after the students themselves.
And now, onto our over-achieving neighbours.
First a hypothetical question for our audience. If you are allowed to pick three subjects to study at any level in school, hands up those of you who are going to pick subjects that they don't really like, or pick subjects they're not really good at.
Are you getting this, everyone? People are doing well at A-levels because they are studying subjects that they are free to opt for!
The A-level system is somewhat unique in that it allows academic specialisation at a stage in education where most other systems would still have a student studying a number of mandatory subjects. In Ireland, you have to do seven subjects at leaving cert level, of which only 3 (in some schools 4) are chosen by the student. In Scotland, you do five subjects for the higher exams. The French/International baccalaureat, while allowing the flexibility of studying a number of subjects to more depth than others, still requires the reading of a broad range of subjects. In Canada, Australia, and America, the situation is roughly the same. Which is better, allowing someone to specialise early in their academic careers, or instil in them some knowledge of a variety of subjects before they leave school, is a moot point. Allowing a technically minded person to ditch the humanities early on can prevent them from achieving a fully rounded education, but requiring them to study them when they don't want to isn't going to develop in them a great appreciation for the subject either.
Then there are the succes stories of the sciences and maths. This is simply because no-one in their right mind is going to opt for these subjects at A-level unless they are at least halfway good at them. These are simply not doss subjects, not by any stretch of the imagination, and only students with their eye on science, engineering or healthcare courses (again, not exactly a cakewalk at third level) will opt for them. It's not that they're easy, it's that the students doing them are prepared to work hard.
It has to be said, though, 3 A-levels is not the most taxing workload. While the level a subject is studied at probably is ahead of the level the same subject would be studied at under a different secondary school system, it is only winning that race by a nose. This is already reflected in the fact that some students are now opting for a fourth A-level, and some even for five. Yet snot-nosed british universites seem to have a problem with recognising any qualification outside of their own. I was required to get an A in leaving cert honours chemistry in Ireland for the course I'm in now, but my English classmates would have got in with a C in A-level chemistry, and I can tell you now, there is not much difference between the two courses.
Having said that, the whole concept of education has changed since the naysayers in their 60s got their degrees. It's next to essential to get some award of higher education under your belt now before entering the jobs market, and a lot of courses, and places on those courses, are springing up to meet this demand. Students leaving school are much more mercenary about education, and have much higher expectations about it now, and are not just accepting it as a privilege. Then there are the grind schools, whose job it is to squeeze every last drop of attainment out of even the most mediocre of students. Is it any wonder people are opting to extend the best days of their life into their twenties?
Anyway, to sum up this part, if British universities are finding it harder to pick out the 'brightest of the bright' then a broader system like the one I've already discussed should be put in place. It should be pointed out that studies correlating performance in universities between bac results and between A-level results showed that graduates with a mediocre bac still tended to do well at third level, whereas graduates with mediocre A-levels didn't. So there it is.
And now, onto the thickos.
I saw a documentary on TV a while back. I can't remember on what channel, but it was about the influx of Polish immigrants into Britain, and how they are addressing the skills shortage being suffered by this country at the moment. The general point being made was that Polish workers were much more reliable, skilled, knowledgeable and hardworking than their indigenous counterparts. Someone should have introduced the presenter to that stupid pharmacist I had to work with, as I since found out that she is Polish as well, but I digress.
It was pointed out some companies loved the Poles because they were willing to work hard for half-nothing. Dissenting opinions were that the companies should pay more in general, the presenter pointed out, but it was time to get realistic: If certain british based companies found they had to raise the wages of their workers too much, they would simply go elsewhere. Of course, it was easy for the presenter to say that, settled cosily in a nice comfortable job with a national television station. I wonder how he'd feel if he had to hoist around cargos of fish all day for £5.10 an hour.
Anyway, the point was made that british students leaving school after their GCSEs were turning out to be getting thicker by the year. A post-secondary technical college was finding that a lot of them lacked the basic skills of literacy and numeracy, and as quoted above, one expert in education said that it seemed that learning wasn't quite the thing to be into in school any more, if you were concerned with your trendiness quotient. The reasons for this are sure to be many and varied, although if I were to point at something and complain like an old-age pensioner, I would say that the veneration of the most inconsequential of celebritys (Preston, Chantelle, Kerry, Paris, fucking premiership footballers) in the popular media does rather send out the message that though you may be as thick as shit and have nothing to say, if you look halfway good (though not with too much character, mind), and are willing to prostitute yourself for a bit of exposure on celluloid, you don't really have to worry about having to string a sentence together as you'll succeed anyway. But maybe that's just me.
There is also the fact that a culture exists over here that where, if it turns out that you're not too intellectually gifted, the GCSEs can be a convenient drop-off point for some now, whereas in other countries, you're generally regarded as more than a bit of a loser if you leave before you final secondary school exams. So if anyone wants to start complaining about people 'coming over and taking our jobs', they would do well to do a little inward examination first.
But lastly, to return to my first point, when are people going to get that university is not about acquiring a set of skills that don't require Einstein's IQ to master? It's about education. Let the fucking corporations train up new employees in the skills they need. They can certainly afford it, and if their habit is to underpay the people that are most important to their success, they may soon find that they have no choice.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
