Testing Moving to WordPress

Have been thinking for a while, am getting to know WordPress pretty well, and want to move this content, and the content from http://www.bex-lewis.co.uk/ across to: http://bexlewis.wordpress.com/, and then combine them as self-hosted under bex-lewis.co.uk. We'll see!

Bex: Crazy Timetable

2009 So Far

This year has been amazing so far. I returned from Oak Hall in November, just as the credit crunch hit, really unsure where/whether I'd be able to get work, but returned to Winchester, as I knew I had a good reputation there, and was sure I could pick up a few bits! Friends put me up in their spare room whilst I applied for work, but after about 3 months, I had enough bits and pieces coming in to rent a room closer to the University of Winchester, where I was picking up most of my work, with every small project leading to another one... and at one point having to turn down work!

Summer
In May, I wasn't sure how I was going to get through the summer, as teaching was coming to an end, but I picked up a couple of summer projects, went to France with Oak Hall, and in fact haven't completed my own studies this summer, and teaching commences again next week! I then started conversations with a few others, and look what's happening now...

2009-2010 Timetable

Semester 1

I have quite a full timetable:

• Monday 3-6: Introduction to Media Studies
• Tuesday 9-12: 20th Century British History
• Wednesday 11-12: Landmark (The Internet as a Landmark in History)
• Wednesday 1-4: STUDYING the PGCLTHE
• Thursday: 7.5 hours "Blended Learning Research Fellowship"
• 5 Final Year Project Students for Media Studies
• Media Studies Website
• SkillsNet Website (we're applying for further funding for this, so not confirmed)

To also fit in:

• Monday Evening: Housegroup
• Tuesday afternoon: My time
• Super Fun Days Out Adrenablog; Twitter feed and Delicious.
• North Winchester Community Church website/Gathering website.
• Sunday: North Winchester Community Church/Christ Church
• Syzygy Website
• Adding French content to ARCA website.
• Completing Learning Website
• FRIENDS, FAMILY, SOCIAL and GYM time!

Christmas

• Cooking at Lauterbrunnen for Christmas Week (may be JA2 instead?)
• New Year, who knows yet...
• Book Proposal (Thesis to Book), Complete VD poster article.

Semester 2

I have an extremely full timetable:

• Monday 3-5: Introduction to Media Studies
• Wednesday 9-12: Dreams and Nightmares
• Thursday 9-11: Film History
• Thursday 2-5: Creating and Consuming History
• Friday 9-11: Researching Media Studies
• 2 hours for 6 weeks: Reflecting
• History Independent Study Module, Dissertation/Second Marking
• Tuesday or Friday: 7.5 hours "Blended Learning Research Fellowship"
• 5 Final Year Project Students for Media Studies
• Media Studies Website
• SkillsNet Website (continuing?)

To also fit in:

• Monday Evening: Housegroup
• Tuesday or Friday afternoon: My time
• Super Fun Days Out Adrenablog; Twitter feed and Delicious.
• North Winchester Community Church website/Gathering website.
• Sunday: North Winchester Community Church/Christ Church
• Working on Digital Fingerprint as a business model.
• FRIENDS, FAMILY, SOCIAL and GYM time!

Easter

• Cooking at Engelberg, I've not confirmed yet... I need to find some time to chill out!

Summer

The summer is yet some time away, and the Blended Learning is permanent, so I guess if I'm sensible with my money... Although waiting for the dates of Oak Hall in Israel, and may go there next summer... I know it's quite tiring, but invigorating in other ways.

So if you're wondering why I go quiet for long periods of time, this may kind of explain it, as there's usually approximately 3 hours of preparation for each hour of teaching... and then the marking, well, we try not to think about the marking (e.g. Intro to Media, around 40 students, 2 assignments, about 1/2 hour + per assignment)! Some weeks there's tutorials, and some courses run alternate weeks rather than all term, so manageable - with a few late nights, I suspect!

Damaris Culturewatch: My Sister's Keeper (review)

In My Sister’s Keeper, Kate Fitzgerald (Sofia Vassilieva) is diagnosed with acute promyelocytic leukemia when she is two years old, and the prognosis is not positive. Her parents, Sara (Cameron Diaz) and Brian (Jason Patric), and her brother Jesse (Evan Ellingson) are not genetic matches. Sara, at least, will do anything to save Kate, and Dr Wayne (Jeffrey Markle) suggests, off the record, that producing another child in a test-tube would provide a perfectly matched donor. Anna (Abigail Breslin) is the result. The initial expectation is that only the blood from the umbilical cord will be used, but by the time Anna is 11, she’s undergone a number of medical procedures, including bone marrow transplants, and the latest call is for a kidney.

Read the rest of this article (be aware, it contains plot spoilers), which I wrote.

You Only Have One Life: Live It Well

It's such a pain not having a functional (internet) computer at home, can take a little while to get around to these things, and fit them around the sheer volume of work that is currently coming in! Living by my mantra of if you're going to do something, do it on time and do it well... keeps getting me more work! Just got to keep believing it's going to keep coming, although am putting my best foot forward for a full-time post also!

One Life Live
A great event hosted over the weekend at Kensington Olympia! I've been looking forward to going to this for months, having pre-purchased my ticket via Psychologies magazine (and then getting special offers from several other RSS feeds I subscribe to - hey, you win some, you lose some!) ages ago!

The event was structured into a number of zones:

• New careers & Learning
• Free Time
• Be Your Own Boss
• Health & Wellbeing
• Travel & Career Breaks
• Sustainable Living
• Life Change
• Volunteering & Fundraising

Hmmmm
I LOVE learning, so I checked out a bit of that, wandered around the 'be your own boss', but I'm aware (but haven't quite read) most of that literature, and of course was checking out the 'Life Change' areas, but as always, I gravitate towards the travel and volunteering sections... very inspiring to see the ways in which you can combine travel with so many other things... I may return with specifics of companies, but right now I need to learn how to use Wordpress!

Sponsorship
As I said, interested in the volunteering section, so put my actions where my feet were, and signed up to do The Big Sleep Out at Winchester Cathedral on 15th May: http://www.justgiving.com/drbexl

Bex's Blog

Purpose of this blog

• Familiarisation with what is 'now' on the 'net
• Experimentation with some of the new widgets/applications
  
• Listings of useful websites, depending on my focus for that day

My Websites

See portfolio of websites: www.mydesigna.co.uk