bent back tulips... |
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Tuesday, December 17
Since Saturday I've mainly been wrangling with blogger, trying to enable visitor commenting on my posts. The system that's installed at the moment is not working insofar as I can't see the 'comment' link at all on either IE6 or Opera - although I can at school, with IE5.5. I see someone's left me a comment though - someone else with IE5.5? On a similar note, you can now email me by clicking on my name at the bottom of each post. For those who haven't heard of Googlewhacking, it is the seemingly pointless objective of typing two words into a Google search (no quote marks) and coming up with one single search result. Do not underestimate the awesome power of Googlewhacking - it's ridiculously addictive! Here's an Auto-whacker - it will check the results for you and also validate your words via Dictionary.com (did you know that 'xyzzy' is listed as a word?). My contributions - 'rabid quaggas', 'chromatinic psychokinetic', 'naiadales prognosis' and 'proton gnomons'. No, I'm not telling you how long I spent finding those. :P Last night was the second carol concert organised by our school (the first one was a bit earlier - on the 5th December). And because it's a girls' choir, there seems to be an assumption that all of us can do all the really high descants. I sing the bottom of four parts (2nd alto) and it's been years since I could sing anything above a top-of-the-stave Eb comfortably, let alone a high G! Result is that I have to mime to half of it, and just join in the bits that won't result in me squeaking foolishly and distracting people around me trying to sing. I wouldn't mind so much if we could just do some decent lower harmonies, I mean, that's why I chose to sing a lower part! I'd love to do the lower harmony for 'O little town of Bethlehem', or 'Silent Night', or 'Once in royal David's city'... I do like the high descants[1] - especially the one for Silent Night, which I haven't sung for... five years now - but I can't sing them! My driving lesson today went better than last weekend's - I nailed the reverse-around-a-corner (and a curved corner at that!) manoeuvre twice in a row. Apart from the observation, that is. *cough* I'm still in a good mood though, because we broke up at lunchtime today :) Only another 20 hours until the trailers preceding The Two Towers start in the cinema... (excited? me?)
[1] - Descant surely comes from 'descend' - why, then, is a descant a high-pitched harmony and not a low-pitched harmony?
Saturday, December 14
I was off school yesterday for the first time in two years - not through illness as such, but just from sheer exhaustion. I was able to sleep 5 hours more than I would have done if I'd gone to school, and consequently felt much better than I have done all week. I didn't miss much at school anyway, I had two single lessons of pure maths and nothing else (it's my free afternoon, so I'd come home at lunchtime anyway). I need to go out later to try and finish my Christmas shopping that I tried to start last week, but no luck - I became distracted by all the nice books and videos and things, ended up just buying things for myself! No matter... I've only managed to buy things for two people so far. The rest I'll have to do in the next week, when it'll be abolutely hectic in all the shops :(. I must, however, get something for the friend who I'm seeing The Two Towers with on Wednesday[1]. I have a brilliant pressie for my brother though, which I'll explain below. A couple of weeks ago my driving instructor was regaling me with his celeb tales ["I sold the Spice Girls their Rolexs, and sold Ronnie Corbett his as well, oh, and Liam Neeson, and I live next door to Valerie Singleton, and I taught Alan Rickman's kids to drive.."]. He heard that my brother is a huge F1 fan - show him any two-second clip of any Grand Prix from about 1990 onwards and he'll be able to tell you which race it was and which year, who won, etc. So my driving instructor told me that when he worked in the jewellery business they set up a promotional thing between his company and Tag Heuer, who do the timing devices for some F1 cars. As part of this promotion, he had David Coulthard's car in his shop for two weeks (and I've seen the photos!). He also got passes to the British Grand Prix with full VIP access (pit lane, meals with the crew) and a free Tag Heuer hat, which he got David Coulthard to sign after he won the race. Pretty impressive, no? The hat's sitting in my desk drawer waiting to be wrapped up as a Christmas pressie for my brother - my driving instructor isn't really an F1 fan, he only went to the Grand Prix because they were free tickets. I should probably get him a big present as well! Driving-wise, my instructor says that I should easily be able to take my driving test in January. Yay(!), but a little daunting seeing as I've only had 12 lessons so far. I'm doing well though, generally, although in the mock driving test that I took today I only just scraped a pass. Must work on that. Oh well, I'll have plenty of time next week. Other news - when I was applying to universities, I applied for a deferred entry so that I could have a gap year, during which I intend to gain some work experience working for a company's IT department or suchlike. I've applied to IBM's pre-university employment scheme and the Year In Industry scheme. IBM's website says they don't expect applications until the spring, so that'd be why they haven't replied to me since I applied in October. YinI, on the other hand... Filling in the application you have to state which region of the country you are in [South], whether you're willing to live away from home [no], which university course you have applied for [Physics with Computer Science] and which is your area of interest [Information Technology]. I filled it in[2], sent it off, was summoned for an informal preliminary interview, which is just to check through your application form with you and make sure it's repesenting your intentions accurately. Apparently mine wasn't, as the man who was going through it with me started talking about all the physics research placements that they have on offer. I interrupted him and explained that I'd prefer to work in the IT sector, as indicated on my form. He stops. Him: "But you're doing a Physics degree." My covering letter reads: 'Please could it be noted that I would prefer a placement relating to Information Technology as opposed to a Physics-based placement, as indicated under the ‘Area of Interest’ section of the form. I trust that my form will be forwarded to the relevant companies.' The next week I got a note asking me to call someone to arrange an interview with a company. I had to turn it down because (a) it was in Farnborough, which would take about 2 hours to get to every morning, and (b) it was a physics research placement. I get the impression that they're a little annoyed with me because apparently that's one of their top placements and I didn't even bother to go for an interview. I had another letter this week, saying: 'You are registered with The Year in Industry for a placement starting in September 2003, and indicated you may be prepared to move away from home for a good placement'... Um, no, I didn't. And guess what, it's another physics reseach placement. They seem to have completely ignored my form and the extra letter that I sent. They just don't want to believe that I actually want to work in the computer industry ["Oh, she's doing Physics at university. This must be a mistake, she must want a physics placement.."] I hope IBM come up trumps, else I think I might be stuck.
[1] - Yay! I'm a bit of an LOTR fangirl - I've also arranged to go and see it on Mon 23rd with my other friend who couldn't come on Wednesday. Might see it again in the New Year when they release the trailer for Return of the King :)
[2] - Filled in? Or filled out? Why do they mean exactly the same thing? Thursday, December 12
The end of the school term approaches at a snail's pace, even though we break up on Tuesday. It's just as well we don't have to do a whole week because I really think I might collapse if I had to do with 6 hours' sleep a night all of next week as well. My mental collapse happened yesterday (although I think it could have been triggered by all that travelling on Tuesday) - I couldn't move quickly, even to write, I could not think much at all (except for 'I want to go to sleep' hammering against my skull). I was just completely wiped out. Now, I know I'm tired all the time during the school term, but this was far beyond tiredness into absolute exhaustion, a state which I don't think I've ever experienced before. It's better today though - I managed a whole eight hours' sleep last night! Anyway... all this tiredness (and setting up this blog, of course!) means that I haven't been watching much television. Which is bad because, having very belatedly discovered Buffy The Vampire Slayer a couple of months ago in the middle of Season 2, I've been borrowing all the videos from my very Buffy-obsessed friend. I worked my way through the third series (amazing!) and I've now started at the beginning. The contrast in quality is incredible, I have to say! Not only do I have all of those to watch, I have a huge pile of films mounting up that I've been taping (or buying at Virgin Megastores for '3 for £15'...). At this moment, I have to watch:
I've only become a bit of a films fan in the last year, after Channel 4's 100 Greatest Films program that they did. Before that, I had thought I was reasonably well-versed in films (mixed metaphor, I know) but I was stunned at how many excellent films I hadn't seen, or even heard of. Out of the top 10 (which was actually twelve - The Godfather parts I and II were one entry, as were Star Wars: Episodes IV and VI) I had seen a total of none. Since then, I've been much more interested in films, and my favourite films are:
Note that the above films aren't ranked in order of preference because I find it extremely difficult to rate any of them against each other, partially because I don't know whether to rate them for enjoyment value or the objective 'which is the best film?' I'd feel guilty if, eg, I ranked Moulin Rouge above The Shawshank Redemption. TSR is undoubtedly a better film, but I get more enjoyment out of watching MR. And as for The Usual Suspects... A couple of weeks before my birthday in September, my brother was browsing on Amazon and I was, predictably, waiting for him to relinquish the computer. I saw they were selling the two-disc second edition DVD of The Usual Suspects for £7.99, so I asked him to buy me that as a present. At that point I knew next to nothing about the film - I knew that Kevin Spacey was in it and I knew that it had been compared to Memento in terms of a twist ending. So that's how much knowledge I approached it with when I sat down to watch it. In the first 9 weeks of owning the DVD I watched it five times - technically at least; two of those were listening to the audio commentaries on the DVD, so I've seen it properly three times - actually, slightly more than that, because after the first time I saw it, I went through only watching the interrogation bits. And strangely I haven't got sick of it yet :) That's all, folks. Wednesday, December 11
I went to an open day at Warwick University yesterday - although it was an open day for people who've already received UCAS offers from Warwick, rather than an open day designed to convince you to apply there. The whole day was, predictably, fairly tiring, with a total of five hours in the car. And it was bloody cold walking round the campus! A long way to walk, too, since it's the biggest campus university in the UK. I've now had offers from five out of my six university choices, which I'm pleased about. The one that's still forthcoming (hopefully!) is from Royal Holloway, which was the only university to ask for an interview (informal). I'm applying for Physics with Computer Science and had an interview with both departments, which went well, although the physics tutor asked me to sketch the graph of y = xe-x. Think you could? My maths teachers were struggling with it, which at least makes me feel better :) For those Not In The Know, my A-levels are Physics, Maths and Further Maths (oh, interesting green colour on your face there), and I have an A/S level in French from last year.
And (on a related topic) sooo much holiday homework! I know that it's the Upper Sixth form and we have to do lots of work - I do do lots of work, but at school rather than at home. This is possible because of the copious number of free periods[1] that I have in my week, for the following reasons: a) the further maths course only takes up one and a half blocks of lessons although it is two A-levels. b) I'm doing three A-levels instead of four, so that removes another block of lessons. c) I took French last year, so I don't have to go to catch-up lessons for General Studies (which requires you to take a modern language paper). Result: I have eighteen, count 'em, eighteen
[1] - "It's not a free period, it's a study period!" Movie quote - points for identification (and maybe a cookie :) Monday, December 9
Today, class, we're going to talk about books... I've always been a fast reader, although over the past couple of years I've found this to be a disadvantage in two ways: firstly, I run out of books to read (which is one reason that I reread all my books!), and secondly, I seem to read books too quickly. Reading 150 pages in one sitting can really distort the time frame of the book, and it feels a bit rushed. I don't have time to properly get inside the characters' heads or to fully comprehend what's happening on a fundamental level, which can be a problem when it's the first time of reading. My realisation of this trait of mine was triggered by a reading of Gone With The Wind, my favourite book. I first read it when I was eleven, and since then I've read it 15 times. (In six years, if anyone's counting.) A few years ago I read it in six days. On average, that's 180 pages and 2 years in the book's time span per day. And it's not as if I was making an effort to zoom through it - this was during term time! It felt very rushed and didn't really make an impact on me like it usually does, which could also have been due to the fact that I'd read it less than six months previously. Since then, I make myself take a long time when I read books (or at least, stop myself from reading more than 100 pages per day), and I'm only allowed to read Gone With The Wind once a year... another 7 months to go then! However, this has led to me reading different books simultaneously - yesterday I was reading five, but I finished one of them (thank goodness!). This ensures that for any particular book I won't have finished it with the plot flying past me, and it also lets me have one book in my bag for the school coach and a few on my bedside table (nightstand) which I can choose between, depending on how tired I am. I have no idea how many books I read over any given time period - I'd guess at about 50 in a year, but really I don't know. In junior school I remember a chart on the classroom wall with all our names on, and whenever we finished reading a book we woud have to bring it in (for proof) and then we'd get a sticker to put next to our name on the chart. Other people (according to the chart, anyway) got up to twenty books, I think. Being the lazy little sod that I was, I apparently read two books over the whole school year (when in fact it must have been at least ten times that number). I remembered this earlier this year, and started keeping a spreadsheet of which books I was reading and when I started and finished them. So far, in 22 weeks I've read 39 books, although this has been skewed somewhat by the inclusion of my two-week summer holiday, when I read 13 books (including the 1100-page Gone With The Wind and two 600-page volumes). And I actually have another 39 books on my 'to read' list (not including the three that I'm currently reading). So, that should keep me going until the summer holidays at least :) So, I woke up this morning... Actually, that should read, 'was rudely woken up by my damn radio alarm'. Every Monday morning it's the same thing: disbelief. The weekend couldn't have gone that quickly, could it? My problem is that I am a heavy sleeper and having to get up at 7am does shocking things to my state of awakeness during the week. So any chance I get, I just sleep on and on - I can't remember the last time I woke up naturally rather than being woken up by something or someone. (This is one of the good side-effects of being a heavy sleeper; no waking up at 3am and not being able to go back to sleep.) At the weekends I'll sleep until ten or eleven o'clock, result, I have a 12-hour day which means I can't get to sleep, especially on a Sunday. So inevitably, on Monday mornings I'll have had about 6 hours sleep with which to revitalise myself. My solution? To fool myself into thinking that I get a lie-in. And how do you do that, I hear you ask, when you arise at such an ungodly hour? Simple. I set my alarm for 6.30am, struggle out of bed and into the bathroom, then back to bed for half an hour and get up just as the 7 o'clock news finishes. This may sound mad, but if I wake up at 7.00 and have to leap out of bed and immediately get ready, I just won't be able to do it. I won't even be able to read the paper at breakfast. Whereas this way, firstly, I have an incentive to get up (because the sooner I get up, the sooner I can go back to bed), and secondly, I'm just awake enough to actually get up when my second alarm clock goes off. So there you go; bent back tulips can solve that age-old problem of how to get out of bed. And you thought I did nothing for you... Sunday, December 8
Just a test, first posting! Music I'm listening to: the soundtrack from Leon. This weekend I watched the films "The Birds" and "Amélie". Enough for now, methinks :) |
