Well I was going to start up a blog elsewhere but seeing as I lurk on the site nearly daily I may as well post on here.

I am an Open University Student and about to start year 3. Every year I have such good intentions but by the end I am always getting behind. I'm hoping that by starting this blog I will not only have a record of how badly I have done but maybe a few people may encourage me.

So at the end of January I will be starting MST209 (mathematical methods and models), S382 (astrophysics) and SMT359 (electromagnetism). I'm not working but do have two kids so you could probably say I am naive or stupid as I will need to be putting in 40+ hours a week.

Until the end of January I will be getting ahead with the topics covered next year. Some of the units are available for free on the OU website so I will be hoping to complete most if not all of these. I have also bought Calculus vol 1 by T.M.Apostol so I shall be trying to fit this in somewhere.

I'm thinking I should look for some textbooks related to the astrophysics and electromagnetism courses but don't know if I can afford this before Christmas. Any recommendations to go on my Christmas list would be appreciated.