Love this!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifUQq5p5i2g&feature=share

This is amazing!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWYtkn_8D-g&NR=1

If only more people could be convinced!

Blowing the dust off the Blog!

Dear all,

Where to start? Well I think my last post was prophetic, Facebook really does seem to have replaced most of the other modes of online communication. I also think that “blogs” have become something very different than they used to be, with people using them to waffle on about their political beliefs, religious views or other things that seem to get “followings” which, sometimes, make national headlines. I suppose mine was used in the past as a means of updating people on what I was up to, people which, like I say, now get to hear such news through Facebook.

I know from my own experience, that I couldn’t really care less about reading what someone had for breakfast 7 days ago etc, and there are very few Blogs which I find remotely interesting. Tim Wakeling’s is an obvious exception and is very good indeed! Perhaps the act of writing a Blog is, in itself, a cathartic experience, much like writing a diary, and maybe the fact that such a diary is “followed” by people, is what keeps the discipline alive for those of us who lack such discipline in the twenty-first century.

Mini-moan over, where I’m at:

I have just completed my Bachelor of Arts Degree at Plymouth University. This was in the subject of History. As you may recall, I studied at North Devon College (now called Petroc, don’t get me started) from 2007-2008 doing an Access Course (as I had no A-levels) and I passed with the highest grade in the whole year, across all subjects. Whoop whoop!

I then stayed on in North Devon, studying a Foundation Degree in English with History (majoring in English with History as a minor). This was a two-year course, and I “graduated” from that in October 2010, by which time I’d already moved to Plymouth. It was while studying Critical Theory at Petroc that I realized that English Literature wasn’t for me. Despite being the first person to score a first in that module since it was introduced at Petroc, and scoring some of the highest marks in the class in other literature modules, I decided that my new-found love of literature was in reading books and poetry for fun and not for work. I’m also a great believer in what other theorists have said of the advent of critical theory: that it stems from English Literature’s insecurity about its place in modern academia, and its need to prove its value by making the subject more science like. Yet it, like any other arts and humanities subject, will always be largely subjective. Sorry friends that did English Lit to the very end, but it’s true. History is no exception by the way … I’m just saying!

I have THOROUGHLY enjoyed my 3^rd year, though studying 100% history with no Literature modules at all was a bit dry at times. The modules I loved best of all were The Second World War i and The Second World War ii. Since this is the subject I’m hoping to study to PhD level, and ultimately lecture in, I suppose I should be greatly encouraged by the fact that my essays were often of the highest marks in the class. Yet, as many of us can attest, when we place our self-worth in anything other than God’s opinion of us, we end up feeling empty and disappointed, even when we get “shit-hot” marks.

I’m utterly proud of my achievements at Plymouth, but am profoundly unsettled by my return to Coalville, after seven years away from the racist, homophobic and bigoted mining town in the Midlands. Very few childhood friends still live there, and I always feel like the little boy that left and shrink in confidence. I’m reminded of several friends’ reassurances at this point, that “you’re no longer that person, it’s a chance to face your demons” but I suppose the proof of the pudding is in the eating, and I guess only time will tell.

I am now on much better terms with my family, and a lot of misconceptions, guilt, forgiveness and MOVING ON have been done between us all and I’m really looking forward to being an uncle again. Especially since I now have another niece, who, at the time or writing is about 10 days old.

I’ve applied to get into Birmingham to do a Masters in British Second World War Studies. It’s one of the best places to go for this specialist subject and it is, of course, a Russell Group University, so to say I’m as nervous as I’m excited would be an under-statement.

I think an update on Theology will be required, but it’s too long and complicated to include in this post. Suffice it to say, the pendulum hasn’t swung significantly in that area for at least a year, and I think I’m finally excepting myself as both “gay” and “Christian”, though that is a constant trial and never a one-off decision as countless Christians continue to insist they no best despite having no personal experience of homosexuality themselves, or in their families. Ho hum, God Bless America.