University of Glasgow blether thread

Stace-is-Ace

No Vicky this time?

Dave (boyfriend) applied (not sure how I feel about this exactly but I'm sure it'll be fine...) and said he's willing to sit the test to drive the minibus so I'm guessing that'll work in his favour. He really needs to be able to drive them for Rowing things anyway so he might as well.

I'll make a FB group at some point and send you the invite.

What are you working on atm?

Dunno if she's applied. She and I were a bad example for LDRs everywhere, so we don't really talk much anymore. I don't know that she talks that much to her old flatmates either- She's in a flat by herself next year, and whilst I still keep in regular contact with Kat, I gather relations are a bit strained at the minute, so whether she'll be around for FW I don't know. Probably not something that should be on a public message board, but I can drop you some more details via facebook if you want to know badly enough!

I think Dave will be fine then if he wants to drive minibuses. I've said I'll do three shifts of three hours each, providing they don't want me to start early, but I think that's a fair compromise- nine hours of minibus driving would normally cost the SRC £135 for a qualified driver, so that they get us for nothing isn't a bad deal. I should maybe speak to Dave/other drivers and we can carve up a rota between us. By my reckoning there's 15 shifts that need covered per bus, and three buses. Various Subcity etc people usually help out too, I think last year there were only two helpers that drove minibuses.

What am I working on for SRC? At this point nothing- none of the Sabbs have asked for my help, and I'm too busy to offer it to them, so I'm less involved at this stage than last year. I also think this year's lot have more experience too- no one in last year's crowd had ever been a helper so a lot of the job of running it fell on Tommy, Ana and myself, especially when swine flu and other illnesses wiped out two Sabbs.

Academia-wise, there's a book coming out next year that's a collection of articles based on presentations from a big conference that I spoke at a month ago. They want everyone of the 45 speakers to put their papers in and they'll select them for publication- so I'm working on making sure I'm one of the lucky published ones. Whether I am or not I don't know, I think my speech was one of the better ones, but others might shine in the written rather than spoken form. Some were awful presenters. So until late August I'm writing that up, it's on re-armament and the politics of workers/employers around the warship construction yards in the 1930s, which is about as interesting as it sounds.

Reply 1222

munn

16

i hate driving in to uni though.
maybe that's because i have an alcohol problem (well it is a problem now that i'm skint) but also if i've been in 9 till 9 i can't be arsed driving home i just like jumping on the train.
i wish they ran later though

Reply 1223

0404343m

Dunno if she's applied. She and I were a bad example for LDRs everywhere, so we don't really talk much anymore. I don't know that she talks that much to her old flatmates either- She's in a flat by herself next year, and whilst I still keep in regular contact with Kat, I gather relations are a bit strained at the minute, so whether she'll be around for FW I don't know. Probably not something that should be on a public message board, but I can drop you some more details via facebook if you want to know badly enough!

I think Dave will be fine then if he wants to drive minibuses. I've said I'll do three shifts of three hours each, providing they don't want me to start early, but I think that's a fair compromise- nine hours of minibus driving would normally cost the SRC £135 for a qualified driver, so that they get us for nothing isn't a bad deal. I should maybe speak to Dave/other drivers and we can carve up a rota between us. By my reckoning there's 15 shifts that need covered per bus, and three buses. Various Subcity etc people usually help out too, I think last year there were only two helpers that drove minibuses.

What am I working on for SRC? At this point nothing- none of the Sabbs have asked for my help, and I'm too busy to offer it to them, so I'm less involved at this stage than last year. I also think this year's lot have more experience too- no one in last year's crowd had ever been a helper so a lot of the job of running it fell on Tommy, Ana and myself, especially when swine flu and other illnesses wiped out two Sabbs.

Academia-wise, there's a book coming out next year that's a collection of articles based on presentations from a big conference that I spoke at a month ago. They want everyone of the 45 speakers to put their papers in and they'll select them for publication- so I'm working on making sure I'm one of the lucky published ones. Whether I am or not I don't know, I think my speech was one of the better ones, but others might shine in the written rather than spoken form. Some were awful presenters. So until late August I'm writing that up, it's on re-armament and the politics of workers/employers around the warship construction yards in the 1930s, which is about as interesting as it sounds.

Haha yeah maybe we should Facebook instead of turning this poor thread into the Chris/Stacey/SRC gossip show. I didn't even know you and her were seeing each other! Maybe that explains the bad example. I've also not heard anything about Kat either. Won't it be a bit lonely living by herself?! Oh well, each to their own. Sorry if me mentioning her brought about any bad feelings - I only asked cos I knew she was the international student rep thingy.

Dave's not actually sat the test yet...what exactly does he have to do for that? I don't think he's even sent in his form cos he's working on this 'amazing' picture of Tommy the Tank Engine and Friends...if it's good I'm taking part of the credit...if it's rubbish then it was totally his idea. But yeah, you can chat to him about it if you come to the party we have.

I meant academic-wise :p:

. I wouldn't say last year's bunch did a terrible job but I think some were better at organising it than others and everyone I've spoken to since says they felt most of the burden during the actual week was left with you and Tommy. It probably stood him in good stead for the whole presidency thing.

Oooh...how many of the 45 get chosen? Good luck with that anyway...I'm sure it's riveting. History essays/articles always sound much more boring than they are...and become more boring the longer you spend on them unless you find something spectacularly amazing that you missed.

And to everyone else - does anyone know what's the best way of selling textbooks? They're mostly Economics once and are barely used...I bought two off EBay and was thinking of selling them that way but would rather not have to post them cos they're heavy and you're only allowed to charge a certain amount of postage which doesn't cover the actual cost of postage - grr! A couple of others are brand new. I have History and English books too but I think I'm going to hold on to most of those.

Reply 1224

Stace-is-Ace

Haha yeah maybe we should Facebook instead of turning this poor thread into the Chris/Stacey/SRC gossip show. I didn't even know you and her were seeing each other! Maybe that explains the bad example. I've also not heard anything about Kat either. Won't it be a bit lonely living by herself?! Oh well, each to their own. Sorry if me mentioning her brought about any bad feelings - I only asked cos I knew she was the international student rep thingy.

Dave's not actually sat the test yet...what exactly does he have to do for that? I don't think he's even sent in his form cos he's working on this 'amazing' picture of Tommy the Tank Engine and Friends...if it's good I'm taking part of the credit...if it's rubbish then it was totally his idea. But yeah, you can chat to him about it if you come to the party we have.

I meant academic-wise :p:

. I wouldn't say last year's bunch did a terrible job but I think some were better at organising it than others and everyone I've spoken to since says they felt most of the burden during the actual week was left with you and Tommy. It probably stood him in good stead for the whole presidency thing.

Oooh...how many of the 45 get chosen? Good luck with that anyway...I'm sure it's riveting. History essays/articles always sound much more boring than they are...and become more boring the longer you spend on them unless you find something spectacularly amazing that you missed.

And to everyone else - does anyone know what's the best way of selling textbooks? They're mostly Economics once and are barely used...I bought two off EBay and was thinking of selling them that way but would rather not have to post them cos they're heavy and you're only allowed to charge a certain amount of postage which doesn't cover the actual cost of postage - grr! A couple of others are brand new. I have History and English books too but I think I'm going to hold on to most of those.

Dunno- I toyed with the idea of living alone, I think final year of PhD that might be a plan, but I always felt three-four was the ideal number for a flat to have, especially at undergraduate. No hard feelings from me at all, for anything really, you just never know who reads this.

Last year did well, given the circumstances. I could have went better but we did have a young group- in 2007 and 2008 it was almost all third/fourth years with over half having done it before and an exec who had all been in convenor positions as well as being helpers themselves. It really made a big difference. Tommy should know what he's doing, I think I was his team leader briefly in 2008, so I'm really showing my age now, and Tuula has been around FW almost as long as I have- not mentioning that Fraser has been on QM board. I think they'll do well. As for minibuses, the test is really easy- you drive around a little, three point turn it in a huge carpark, and parallel park it in a space that you could probably fit the QEII in. I haven't really driven much since October though- and when I have been driving it's been my mum's mini, so I think I'll sign the bus out for an afternoon to get the hang of it, lest I crash into anything during FW. We can worry about rotas nearer the time then.

The publishers are just saying that their decision is final- I suppose it depends on the standard. If there's only 10 that are any good, then it'll be 10. There's a few people who are 2nd/3rd year PhD and a couple of post-docs, so I wouldn't be surprised if their research is more comprehensive than mines. That said, seeing how good, or more accurately bad, some finished PhD theses have been and how poorly some of them present (there's an Exeter PhD that can't even write in sentences, and a guy at Strathclyde that read from his paper without looking up once, which made it impossible for the chair to tell him he was out of time), I don't think I'll be in too much trouble. I probably shouldn't be aiming at just being better than the worst though, there's a heap that are probably going to do much better jobs of it than I will.

As for books, you can always put them into the SRC bookshop, but you don't get any money until they're sold. The other option is advertise on the Adam Smith noticeboards.

Reply 1225

River85

Hi gaus.

Mind if I crash the thread?

Glasgow was my insurance after all, and I like it a lot, and I still might be going there for postgrad soon enough (by the way, if anyone know much about Glasgow's Information Management and Preservation MSc I wouldn't mind some feedback!) I won't spam :puppyeyes:

Tell me to **** off it you want. I'll probably bugger off anyway :p:

Stace-is-Ace

And to everyone else - does anyone know what's the best way of selling textbooks? They're mostly Economics once and are barely used...I bought two off EBay and was thinking of selling them that way but would rather not have to post them cos they're heavy and you're only allowed to charge a certain amount of postage which doesn't cover the actual cost of postage - grr! A couple of others are brand new. I have History and English books too but I think I'm going to hold on to most of those.

I've got about £800 worth of books :o:

I'll only keep a relatively small number. Many end up going to a second hand book shop I know in Northumberland (Barter Books - largest in the country so I've heard).

A bit far for you though :p:

And they only do credit. But you get a decent price for what they do accept. I might feel generous and donate the rest to my college or departmental library.

Apologies for invading. Just wanted to say that I wish I was in Glasgow now :sad:

Reply 1226

OP

River85

Hi gaus.

Mind if I crash the thread?

Glasgow was my insurance after all, and I like it a lot, and I still might be going there for postgrad soon enough (by the way, if anyone know much about Glasgow's Information Management and Preservation MSc I wouldn't mind some feedback!) I won't spam :puppyeyes:

Tell me to **** off it you want. I'll probably bugger off anyway :p:

I've got about £800 worth of books :o:

I'll only keep a relatively small number. Many end up going to a second hand book shop I know in Northumberland (Barter Books - largest in the country so I've heard).

A bit far for you though :p:

And they only do credit. But you get a decent price for what they do accept. I might feel generous and donate the rest to my college or departmental library.

Apologies for invading. Just wanted to say that I wish I was in Glasgow now :sad:

Good to (possibly) have you here River.

I myself am returning to Glasgow quite soon, so fellow bletherers, you may be seeing me around the boards more often. Possibly even the university itself as I'm planning to get out of bed more often next year. :smile:

Reply 1227

OP

0404343m

So until late August I'm writing that up, it's on re-armament and the politics of workers/employers around the warship construction yards in the 1930s, which is about as interesting as it sounds.

That sounds relatively interesting. I was dragged along to the Scottish Communist Party headquarters by a rather red friend of mine and saw some old socialist newspapers distributed among shipbuilders in Glasgow around that time.

Reply 1228

foxo

That sounds relatively interesting. I was dragged along to the Scottish Communist Party headquarters by a rather red friend of mine and saw some old socialist newspapers distributed among shipbuilders in Glasgow around that time.

Probably 'Forward!' and the 'Daily Worker' I presume? If not, then I'd be interested in seeing them- because the change in attitudes in both form a component of my argument. It's a bit like now actually- post recession and banking crisis it's easy for the far left and right to mobilise support under the headlines of 'Capitalism is bust' and how they have a better way, especially when unemployment is at its highest level for X years, but they run headlong into an ideological minefield when rearmament comes along and means building warships/weapons is the way of guaranteeing jobs for tens of thousands of people, coupled with the fact most of them were campaining on an anti-war footing. The political side of it hasn't been well researched or explained yet, so that's what I'm hoping to do- but thus far the first 4,000 words have been explaining why a) warship construction and b) the Clydeside are economically and politcally discrete from their surroundings, given their vertical intregration with mainly useless-for-most-things parts of the business, like armour plant, which is expensive and is either overworked or bone idle, (not to mention warships costing 20 times more than cargo ships) and the fact they have one customer, and the whole idea that this boom and bust approach makes for a fertile ground for radical political ideas. But we'll see how the rest goes in the next few weeks. The PhD is on the political economy of the industry more generally, not just the Clyde and not just the 1930s, but that's for another day/week/month/year. Glasgow's War Studies and Business History groups are both one of only three in the UK, and one of a kind north of Birmingham, so it looks like I'll be spending a lot of time annoying people around Lilybank house.

Sorry, you did say you were interested. That'll teach you.

Reply 1229

River85

Hi gaus.

Mind if I crash the thread?

Glasgow was my insurance after all, and I like it a lot, and I still might be going there for postgrad soon enough (by the way, if anyone know much about Glasgow's Information Management and Preservation MSc I wouldn't mind some feedback!) I won't spam :puppyeyes:

Tell me to **** off it you want. I'll probably bugger off anyway :p:

I've got about £800 worth of books :o:

I'll only keep a relatively small number. Many end up going to a second hand book shop I know in Northumberland (Barter Books - largest in the country so I've heard).

A bit far for you though :p:

And they only do credit. But you get a decent price for what they do accept. I might feel generous and donate the rest to my college or departmental library.

Apologies for invading. Just wanted to say that I wish I was in Glasgow now :sad:

I know nothing about that MSc, but I know someone on the MSc in IT- so I'll see what I can dig up if the two are in any way related, although I think they're taught through different departments. Prof Michael Moss will probably be your contact. He's a historian but within the humanities technology institute and interested in information preservation- he was formally the Bodleian's senior archivist before coming to Glasgow, so I'd say he'd know about the MSc, if indeed he isn't in charge of it.

Reply 1230

OP

0404343m

Probably 'Forward!' and the 'Daily Worker' I presume?

Afraid I think it might be, and their collection is very scarce, but it might be worth giving them a phone call. It's possibly Morning Star. If you make it sound like they have a hell's chance in recruiting you I'm sure they'll let you in their book shop. Don't expect much though, it's full to the brim with propaganda. Marx, Lenin, Trotsky, Stalin and Mao take up over half the shelves. I just bought Gorbachev's Perestroika to spite them ("You won't learn much about communism from that!" :p:

). Anyway:

CPB Scotland
Unity Office
72 Waterloo Street
Glasgow G2
Phone 0141 204 1611

Reply 1231

River85

foxo

Good to (possibly) have you here River.

Thank you

I just don't want to be some outsider invader (and destroying) someone elses thread :p:

0404343m

I know nothing about that MSc, but I know someone on the MSc in IT- so I'll see what I can dig up if the two are in any way related, although I think they're taught through different departments. Prof Michael Moss will probably be your contact. He's a historian but within the humanities technology institute and interested in information preservation- he was formally the Bodleian's senior archivist before coming to Glasgow, so I'd say he'd know about the MSc, if indeed he isn't in charge of it.

Interesting. Thanks :hat2:

I'll probably stick to the civil service or rural surveying. The heritage sector is just too competitive and pay is modest (I'll always place enjoyment and satisfaction over pay but it's not like I'll hate being a rural surveyor :p:

) At least archives is relatively well paid.

Got a few years to make a decision yet. Seems I'll never finish this undergrad degree :p:

I've decided to do a Postgrad Diploma with the OU during my final year (which I'm doing part-time). So a lot to get finished.

Reply 1232

foxo

Afraid I think it might be, and their collection is very scarce, but it might be worth giving them a phone call. It's possibly Morning Star. If you make it sound like they have a hell's chance in recruiting you I'm sure they'll let you in their book shop. Don't expect much though, it's full to the brim with propaganda. Marx, Lenin, Trotsky, Stalin and Mao take up over half the shelves. I just bought Gorbachev's Perestroika to spite them ("You won't learn much about communism from that!" :p:

). Anyway:

CPB Scotland
Unity Office
72 Waterloo Street
Glasgow G2
Phone 0141 204 1611

YOU!

Hello :smile:

How've you been?

What do these plans for returning to Glasgow involve?

Reply 1233

I have chickenpox.

GREAT.

I look like my face is going to fall off.

Reply 1234

Student2806

I was so young when I had chickenpox I can't actually remember what it was like. Apart from the polka pot face.

I have had a week filled with lots of vomiting though. It hasn't been pretty :no:

Reply 1235

OP

Stace-is-Ace

YOU!

Hello :smile:

How've you been?

What do these plans for returning to Glasgow involve?

Hehe, told you I really had failed Level 2 English Lit! :p:

I've been alright. Temporarily withdrew in February and living in Kirkcaldy at the moment. Been unemployed for the last month and a bit, which is incredibly dull, but looking forward to going back to uni. Returning to Glasgow involves a nice cocktail of excuses and medical evidence, which I've got. Should know for certain if I'm back in tomorrow or on Monday, but 99% sure already.

How are you?

Reply 1236