First up, remember remeber the 5th of November!
Second up, what a relief it is that Obama won. If McCain had got in...ugh. It doesn't bare thinking about. Anyway, it's wonderful that America finally has a black president - I just hope he isn't assassinated รก la JFK.
Just a short post, anywho - I'm typing this before school.
Stupid date...It's the 5th of November now.
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Friday, October 31, 2008
Happy Halloween!
Not that we did anything for Halloween. There weren't even any trick-or-treaters!I went to Robyn's birthday party yesterday, and had the most fun I've had for ages. I met loads of new people and we played spin the bottle and whatnot! Wonderful!
I bought Robyn a Daruma doll. You make a wish by painting in one of the eyes, and when it comes true, you paint in the other! I got it in The Japanese Shop in York. York was great, by the by. I love the University - they have the tamest ducks and geese just wandering around. The facilities are amazing and everyone was so nice - it was like something out of a dream. Of course, if I wanted to do Biochemistry there I'd have to work like crazy.
Speaking of which, I'm in a bit of a mess with Chemistry. Owing to some stupid schedulding errors on my part, I managed to forget two pieces of homework (you only get one chance in the academic year) and as such I could end up off the course by Christmas! This wasn't helped by the fact that I got 29% on my amount of substance test - muggins here forgot his calculator!
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Birthday etc.
I had a nice Birthday weekend - too nice, in fact. I'm paying for it now by frantically typing out 5 pieces of homework for tomorrow. Or trying to, at least - you know how it is with the internet, right? So far, I've only got all my homework together. I suppose I might as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb so I'll carry on typing.
I got a walkman for my birthday! I'm not terribly clued up with personal electronics even though I'm a member of the "Wikipedia generation", so whenever I say Walkman, I think of the clunky old casette players. Ironically, I found myself puzzling over how to use a tape player the other day, it being so long since I'd used one; which way up was A side! Heh.
Following on from this, I may have mentioned my liking of steampunk. There's somethin
g incredibly romantic about the Victorian era (or at least the idealised version of it), and I'm going to endeavour to be more Steampunky. Heck, I may even pop down to Camden next weekend and go into some of the Goth shops there; Goth and Steampunk are inorexably intertwined.
As a final note in this post on Steampunk, here's an amazing modification I saw on the internet.
Something of concern is the sudden resurgence in wildlife this close to Winter; after a rubbish Summer we're having a few days of warm weather. The Passion Plant is in full bloom, along with some Clematis and several nasturtians! I just saw a hairy yellow caterpillar inch across the table outside. I hope the winter frost doesn't do them all in!
I got a walkman for my birthday! I'm not terribly clued up with personal electronics even though I'm a member of the "Wikipedia generation", so whenever I say Walkman, I think of the clunky old casette players. Ironically, I found myself puzzling over how to use a tape player the other day, it being so long since I'd used one; which way up was A side! Heh.
Following on from this, I may have mentioned my liking of steampunk. There's somethin
g incredibly romantic about the Victorian era (or at least the idealised version of it), and I'm going to endeavour to be more Steampunky. Heck, I may even pop down to Camden next weekend and go into some of the Goth shops there; Goth and Steampunk are inorexably intertwined.As a final note in this post on Steampunk, here's an amazing modification I saw on the internet.
Something of concern is the sudden resurgence in wildlife this close to Winter; after a rubbish Summer we're having a few days of warm weather. The Passion Plant is in full bloom, along with some Clematis and several nasturtians! I just saw a hairy yellow caterpillar inch across the table outside. I hope the winter frost doesn't do them all in!
Sunday, October 5, 2008
October
Well, the days have just been zipping by, kinda like in this video.
I'm going to make sure I update this blog once a week, or at least try. Heh, I've just had so much work to do! Chemistry is going quite well, although I did hit a bit of a stumbling block the other week with some equations. I think I've got the hang of the idea gas equation: I must remember to put Celcius into Kelvin!
Biology was a bit tricky, but it's more of a case of knowing how much work to put into your homework. GCSE answers to a worksheet don't cut it - it needs research. English essays are also a bit tricky to adapt to, but I've got loads of notes (I'm doing Wilfred Owen poems and Pat Barker's Regeneration). French is also hard work, but I might be going on the Acorn Education Exchange, which is exciting!
Hm...What else? I've got back into The Sims 2 in a major way, although the "Store" is disgusting; why doesn't EAxis just release new things on the exchange like they used to? Ah well, a pirate's life for me! Yo ho ho etc. I'm also trying out this new theme for Windows XP; I buggered up the Start button with some different text a few years back and could never change it back, so I've got this cool steampunky thing going on.
I've also got this random idea involving taking a photograph of something interesting for each week I update, so I may try that out.
Oh, and to tie back into the video from the start of this post, I'm going to try forcing some daffodils and have them bloom by November! It'll be interesting.
Edit:
I have started taking part in debate club at school, which is quite enjoyable. And I just reread my post and noticed that there are far more exclamation points than full stops, which is not good!
I'm going to make sure I update this blog once a week, or at least try. Heh, I've just had so much work to do! Chemistry is going quite well, although I did hit a bit of a stumbling block the other week with some equations. I think I've got the hang of the idea gas equation: I must remember to put Celcius into Kelvin!
Biology was a bit tricky, but it's more of a case of knowing how much work to put into your homework. GCSE answers to a worksheet don't cut it - it needs research. English essays are also a bit tricky to adapt to, but I've got loads of notes (I'm doing Wilfred Owen poems and Pat Barker's Regeneration). French is also hard work, but I might be going on the Acorn Education Exchange, which is exciting!
Hm...What else? I've got back into The Sims 2 in a major way, although the "Store" is disgusting; why doesn't EAxis just release new things on the exchange like they used to? Ah well, a pirate's life for me! Yo ho ho etc. I'm also trying out this new theme for Windows XP; I buggered up the Start button with some different text a few years back and could never change it back, so I've got this cool steampunky thing going on.
I've also got this random idea involving taking a photograph of something interesting for each week I update, so I may try that out.
Oh, and to tie back into the video from the start of this post, I'm going to try forcing some daffodils and have them bloom by November! It'll be interesting.
Edit:
I have started taking part in debate club at school, which is quite enjoyable. And I just reread my post and noticed that there are far more exclamation points than full stops, which is not good!
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
What I think happens upon death
Easy.
Everyone goes to a lovely dream world where they get to do whatever they please! We visit that world several times a night, but we don't get to stay there. People in comas sort of visit it, but not fully. When you die, you get to live and control it, and you can go visit your friends by thinking about a door in a hallway. The hallway is in fact just a cloud in an endless sky of clouds, and you instantly know how to get to your friend. And you can't fall.
Of course, there's a world that everyone hangs out in, and they only go in their own world if they want to have private fantasies. The main area everyone hangs around in is a bit like Second Life, in that people work together to do what they want.
You can also instantly find any dead person you like. You can go visit living people, but unless you try really hard, you can't have any effect on them. The easiest things you can do is transmit emotions e.g. approval of a new spouse, or love.
If you're a fundementally bad person, you get locked into your room, although if enough good people decide to unlock it, they're allowed out.
Oh, and Vlad, thanks for the first comment. :3
Everyone goes to a lovely dream world where they get to do whatever they please! We visit that world several times a night, but we don't get to stay there. People in comas sort of visit it, but not fully. When you die, you get to live and control it, and you can go visit your friends by thinking about a door in a hallway. The hallway is in fact just a cloud in an endless sky of clouds, and you instantly know how to get to your friend. And you can't fall.
Of course, there's a world that everyone hangs out in, and they only go in their own world if they want to have private fantasies. The main area everyone hangs around in is a bit like Second Life, in that people work together to do what they want.
You can also instantly find any dead person you like. You can go visit living people, but unless you try really hard, you can't have any effect on them. The easiest things you can do is transmit emotions e.g. approval of a new spouse, or love.
If you're a fundementally bad person, you get locked into your room, although if enough good people decide to unlock it, they're allowed out.
Oh, and Vlad, thanks for the first comment. :3
Sunday, September 14, 2008
CERN et al
Well, we all died a horrid death on Wednesday when CERN's LHC made a black hole and killed us all.
Sorry, I just didn't want to start with "Well, CERN didn't kill us all on Wednesday", since I imagine every blog in the entire world probably started with that. Still, I shouldn't tempt fate; the LHC doesn't just "start", the scientists do all sorts of experiments.
Not that that matters; cosmic rays create high energy collisions up in the atmosphere. The most convincing argument I heard was an emotive argument, however:
"We all have families too, and we don't want them to die either."
Also "Spaghettification" is now my new favourite word.
The A Level Work load is quite tough, but I think I'm dealing with it. I had a strange dream this morning where instead of doing homework, I snuck out and bought a microwaveable bacon bap, and got drunk off it, then arrive in school in nothing but a cardigan. Odd, eh?
Sorry, I just didn't want to start with "Well, CERN didn't kill us all on Wednesday", since I imagine every blog in the entire world probably started with that. Still, I shouldn't tempt fate; the LHC doesn't just "start", the scientists do all sorts of experiments.
Not that that matters; cosmic rays create high energy collisions up in the atmosphere. The most convincing argument I heard was an emotive argument, however:
"We all have families too, and we don't want them to die either."
Also "Spaghettification" is now my new favourite word.
The A Level Work load is quite tough, but I think I'm dealing with it. I had a strange dream this morning where instead of doing homework, I snuck out and bought a microwaveable bacon bap, and got drunk off it, then arrive in school in nothing but a cardigan. Odd, eh?
Friday, September 5, 2008
My first week of A-Levels
Just in case I haven't mentioned it, I'm taking:
French
English Literature
Biology
Chemistry
Critical Thinking
I didn't pick Critical Thinking; the school makes us take it, as it's desired by Universities. From what I've seen of it, it's really enjoyable - I love debating (I've been on the junior debate team for all three years, and we won twice! I'm always seconder) and this is pretty much that. It's only a double period once a week, but it's still good!
There's no longer any single lessons, but now I've got free periods! Well, study periods. You have to work. But that's ok - there's plenty to do! I have to copy up and expand my notes for every subject, so I'm keeping on top of it.
A levels are completely different. There's a much better rapport with teachers - in French, the majority of the lessons so far have just been chatting in French! Biology and Chemistry are really interesting; at the moment it's mostly expanding on what we already know, but it's engaging.
English Literature is wonderful. We get to critically analyse texts, and I've learned so much. For example, there's a school of thought based on Roland Barthes' Death of the Author essay that says that it's the reader's interpretation that matters, no matter what the author intended. I think it's a bit much, but it basically means that since authors are shaped by what they see and read, anything you read into the story could have been put there by the author subconciously.
I've been reading a lot of Banana Yoshimoto; have I said before that "Kitchen" is probably one of my favourite books ever? I'm also trying to learn spoken Japanese; I can say "Good morning", "Pleased to meet you", "My name is Arex Shirfiedu" (That's adjusted for Japanese tounges) as well as many words like "coat", "bed" and how to phrase a question. According to the three Japaenese speakers at my school, my pronounciation is good. Japanese is a tonal language; you can't stress syllables (so it's not America, but Ah-mare-eek-ah) so you have to change intonation. So Eigo and Eigo sound the same (except for the inflection at the end of the word) but one is a name and one means "English".
There's no longer any single lessons, but now I've got free periods! Well, study periods. You have to work. But that's ok - there's plenty to do! I have to copy up and expand my notes for every subject, so I'm keeping on top of it.
A levels are completely different. There's a much better rapport with teachers - in French, the majority of the lessons so far have just been chatting in French! Biology and Chemistry are really interesting; at the moment it's mostly expanding on what we already know, but it's engaging.
English Literature is wonderful. We get to critically analyse texts, and I've learned so much. For example, there's a school of thought based on Roland Barthes' Death of the Author essay that says that it's the reader's interpretation that matters, no matter what the author intended. I think it's a bit much, but it basically means that since authors are shaped by what they see and read, anything you read into the story could have been put there by the author subconciously.
I've been reading a lot of Banana Yoshimoto; have I said before that "Kitchen" is probably one of my favourite books ever? I'm also trying to learn spoken Japanese; I can say "Good morning", "Pleased to meet you", "My name is Arex Shirfiedu" (That's adjusted for Japanese tounges) as well as many words like "coat", "bed" and how to phrase a question. According to the three Japaenese speakers at my school, my pronounciation is good. Japanese is a tonal language; you can't stress syllables (so it's not America, but Ah-mare-eek-ah) so you have to change intonation. So Eigo and Eigo sound the same (except for the inflection at the end of the word) but one is a name and one means "English".
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