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| Blogs > rm_mazandbren > The Complaisant Husband |
New Beginnings
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New Beginnings The one thing I have discovered about working full time and studying for a double degree in Accounting and Commerce is that it does not leave a lot of time for sleep, much less anything like a social life or a blog. One of the great ironies is that you get told at the start of the year that the key to coping for students is being organised- and eventually you agree that being organised the key to doing better than you have been. With 13 units in 12 months resulting in three High Distinctions, nine Distinctions and one Credit, I can safely say that I am doing alright. Still, it rubs me the wrong way that I know I could have done better if I was more organised. I would also probably be more rested and healthier, but there you have it. I am hoping that all the big mistakes are behind me. Things like mixing up the submission dates of various unit assessments and even forgetting to notify the boss I had a mid-semester test and needed the time off. But I have no doubt that the little mistakes are likely to continue; I imagine that they are part and parcel of the student experience. The worst of these is the habit where some assessments are posted without word counts included, only for word counts to appear some time later with the marking rubric or whatever. Of course by the time you find it, it is either a few days or even a few hours before the assessment is meant to be submitted. Now I work on the basis that all assessments are about 2000 words and then expand or contract my submission as required. The other thing I have done is to place a little quote on my wall- “If you are unable to explain it simply, then you do not know the material well enough” (Albert Einstein). This has been, without doubt, my biggest failing- my inability to communicate an idea without qualifications. I am a pretty opinionated person; I am also, alas, a person who is unwilling to leave such opinions in the shed. I do not doubt this has cost me marks, especially in some of the more ra-ra booster units like Communications or Information Systems. Communications has become another word for ethics. I deplore cultural relativism and find it abhorrent that our students are being taught to simply accept some detestable cultural practices as fait accompli. If we are to have truly ethical companies dealing in respect for diversity, environment, corporate governance, etc, then some cultural practices from foreign climes need to be protested. Similarly, if I have to endure one more lecture or tutorial on the brilliant future of humanity promised by the internet, I think I may very well vomit. I could certainly go on about the other things that bother me, but these two are by far and away the worst. Another issue I have is that my exam results do not seem to match my knowledge. Of course it is not always possible to get feedback on the exams, but what little I have had has generally focussed on my handwriting- it is atrocious. I have tried to go a bit slower, and this has worked, but only slightly, leading me to think that either I have not sufficiently improved the quality of my handwriting, or that there is some other, as yet unidentified, reason for my poor performance. Still, so far, it has been no great disadvantage-when going for most exams I already have a steady flow of High Distinctions from my assessments to ensure that I usually require less than ten points to pass the actual subject, which, as you can imagine, takes a lot of pressure off. So the real challenge is to become more organised. I have already taken a number of steps in this direction, the least of which will be a honking great wall calendar to help me keep my assessment due dates in order. Another method I intend to lean heavily on is to continue using a new notes template I picked up from the Information Systems unit. Although suggested mid-way through the unit, I quickly adopted it for many of the units I completed over the latter half of the year. With some printing exercises and practice, it should hopefully result in an easier academic effort with better results. As an aside; How many of today’s popular musicians can actually sing? For much of the past year I have been something of a classical music junky; generally glued to ClassicFM on the radio and using it guide my purchases of CDs for home entertainment. Of course man cannot live on Bach alone and a recent foray into the mainstream stations was marked by a constant musing as to whether the person ‘singing’ was actually engaged in that act. Katy Perry stands out as the main example- she has a distinctive style that I liken to ‘attacking’ the song with her voice. I have also noted that not a few of the live performances of many artists are marked by poor breathing- the odd gasping lungful of air marring an otherwise acceptable performance. I realise this is a largely snobbish rant; few popular singers could afford the sort of lessons that would be necessary to make a talented amateur into a professional singer. But it would be equally remiss of me not to mention that one of my current crop of favourite singers, Madeleine Peyroux, had similar problems with her technique, which she resolved by taking lessons between her first and second albums. I suppose my real aim in these musings is to determine just how much other people’s enjoyment of their favourite artist is marred by poor technique- or if they even notice? As Susan Boyle makes another sojourn to our fair shores, her horrid technique being the subject of yet another round of gushing praise, I am minded of the plethora of professional Australian classical singers who are all but forgotten by their home audiences despite their prowess on the world stage. The sudden high demand for Australian classical singers almost the world over is another confirmation of the wise decision to do away with the Parallel Import Restrictions on music- and further proof that the PIR on books should also be removed. Once upon a time, Australian classical music threw up a diva every generation. Now, we seem to have a production line of Australian (with a heavy dose of co-opted Kiwi) artists, male and female, using their recording success to break onto the great stages of Europe and America. And aside from the occasional block buster tour, audiences seem more willing to support a major series by a purely Australian (and co-opted Kiwi) cast. My fondest hope, and the day cannot be far off, is that we will find an Australian of the calibre of Phillip Glass to compose the Great Australian Opera, as doing away with the PIR has led to a revival in interest in the great Australian composers of the past.  In truth is there no beauty? I am not in love; but i am open to persuasion. |
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