Archive for the 'Rants' Category

It seems that increasingly so, I’m beginning my blogs with the shameful words, “It’s been a while since my last update”. And, as it has been for the past few months, I’m going to have to do the same here, except without actually writing said words. A lot has happened in the past month or so, most of it determining my future to some extent, and I’m proud to say that life is sweet.

At the beginning of December I went to Churchill college in Cambridge for two interviews, one logic/mathematical oriented, and another simply maths oriented. Unfortunately, when I say ’simply’, I actually mean ‘excrutiatingly’. Both for me and the interviewers. As it was, in fact, just past 9 o’clock in the morning, and I’d been up since 4.45am, I was not at my brightest, and plotting graphs of parametric equations involving trigonometric functions kept returning a 404 from my left brain. Take for example the following question:

sin²(2⁴ × 3⁵) + cos²(2⁴ × 3⁵) = ?

Now, I straight away fell into the trap of trying to work out the value of 2⁴ × 3⁵, when anybody who had done the maths modules I had done would have remembered the trigonometric identity which means that the answer to that question is 1, so long as the parameters of the functions are the same. It was at this point that my downward spiral began. After failing miserably to answer questions, or just after a very long time, often prompting the exclamation, “Finally!” from the interviewers’ mouths, I left feeling pretty sorry for myself. And, about a month later, the reply came saying that Churchill college didn’t see me as the right material for the place. However, I was put into the intercollegiate pool, and plucked out of said pool by Jesus college, who as we speak are planning to give me an offer.

This is the point where my rant begins. The reason that I don’t have a definite offer from Jesus college. The small niggly downfall of Cambridge administration that I’ve spotted a few times now. Upon being phoned by the adminissions tutor at Jesus, she informed me that the white form — that which I painstakingly wrote out in the neatest of handwriting, carefully listing every single module I’d taken at AS, with UMS, with grade, with exam board — had gone missing from my file. It all clicked into place when I remembered back to the first interview I had at Churchill, where they asked me what scores I’d received in my Maths modules, and even at that early hour of 8.30am, my brain had chugged away wondering why they didn’t already know. This has really, really annoyed me. What is the point of bureaucracy if it can’t be done right? Why do we have to go through a ridiculous amount of paperwork, which should by rights be done by a computer system anyway, when it just ‘disappears’ from my file?

This is where my rant ends. I (and Chris) have since been offered jobs with a web development company based in Cambridge as part of the Year in Industry program, and have both accepted. So, at the end of this academic year, I’ll be shipping off from this place to live in a flat with Chris and ultimately geek out. I’ve also decided that entering for Grade 8 piano isn’t going to be something I’ll do this year, as playing the piano is only a hobby of mine, not a career, and the pressure it was putting on me was stopping me from enjoying it.

In terms of other exams, I have 3 maths module exams coming up shortly, and one physics exam, and I’m completely unprepared for all of them. I also have my driving theory test coming up, for which I am prepared, but utterly complacent as a result. With any luck, I’ll pass that and then be well on my way to driving by the end of March. February will see both Valentine’s day and my birthday, and a lot of fun will be had. I’m going to be spending both Valentine’s day and the weekend before my birthday with Caley, and then the weekend following my birthday I’m gonna have a LAN party at mine - with any luck I can persuade my parents that it’s in their best interests not to be there.

So, until the next time, thankyou for reading, and good night.

‘Tis conkering season once more, and all over the country, people or all ages are fighting to the death trying to pick up the best conkers from under trees, soaking them in vinegar, baking them in the oven, and then drilling holes in them. Quite why, I’m not sure, that sort of thing never really appealed to me.

In actual fact I’ve spent the past day or two in a zombie-like stupor as usual, although numerous people have said to me that I look perhaps slightly more pale than normal. Somewhere in the region of #FEFDFD. I guess that’s not healthy. But through the magic of highly-caffeinated, sugary drinks, and jittering a lot, I’ve managed to last from Monday morning right through until Tuesday lunchtime.

I’ve also started learning to drive. Despite my complete lack of foot coordination, I’m doing alright. I’ve had two lessons, and on Sunday morning my Dad took me out for a drive in my Mum’s car, where I managed to lose an L plate. It’s quite worrying that they sell these L plates, which have two magnetic strips on the back, and don’t stick on anything but a perfectly flat surface of metal. My Mum’s car is curvy, and thus they don’t stick well - so somewhere in the vicinity of Tring, I lost an L plate.

But the thing about driving is it’s great fun, and when I eventually get good enough and pass my test, I’ll be spending a lot more time out and about, most likely with Caley, which can only be a good thing. However, in order to past my test I have to take a theory test too, which ensures that I know the laws and rules that apply to driving, as listed in the Highway Code. The problem with the Highway Code is that when you read it, you often wonder why certain things need to be said. It worries me that there are people out there so stupid that they have to be told: “You MUST NOT drive dangerously.” It actually says that in the Highway Code. Number 122. Look it up.

Still, I’m glad I’ve finally started lessons, after having wasted a hell of a lot of time trying to get my provisional license, and I’m glad I’ve found something new that amuses me greatly in life. By the way, go over and check out Caley’s new blog, powered by Magic!

Also known as the Daddy-Long-Legs, the cranefly is one of the most ridiculously stupid creatures that somehow managed to evolve on this planet. With long gangly legs that fall off in a strong wind, and about 6 brain cells together, they have annoyed the shite out of me for the past week. Starting from midnight, I’ve got killing them down to a fine art - last night alone I killed 15 and put them in my bin. I honestly don’t know what purpose they serve. All they seem to do is flap about, lay eggs and die, and in the meantime have an incredible attraction to the light from my computer screen.

In other news, my computer lives again! Turns out the power supply didn’t blow up as such, just the fuse in the plug, but the voltage surge which caused that blew up my motherboard instead, so unfortunately I had to replace it. Having said that, I now have a much better one.

School is stressing me out, despite having 14 free periods a week, and somehow even when I have work to do, I’m bored out of mind. The new head of sixth form, Mr. Lehec (French name apparently) has decided to actually enforce the hair rule at our school - if it’s shoulder length or longer, cut it or tie it back. So for the past week I’ve had no choice but to tie it back, and be called both a girl and a faggot, only adding to my belief that I’m a fat lesbian stuck in the body of a skinny guy. Still, my parents started enforcing their own rules yesterday too, and I was forced to get my hair cut. It’s not much shorter, just somehow it looks terrible so I’m being forced to tie it back still so that it doesn’t fluff out too much.

As of today, me and Caley have been together for 10 months, which makes this my longest and best relationship I’ve ever had, and I’m quite proud of myself for not shagging it up yet. I’m going to town with her, her hoes and her dad tonight, which should be fun.

Right now I’m sitting in the computer block at school on the shiny new XP machines, which so far we’ve managed to run Half-Life 2 and also Counter-Strike 1.6 on - although network play doesn’t work too well yet. We’ll get there. In 8 minutes time I have a computer science lesson, in which we’ll spend some more time learning about recursion, and I’ll get shit bored and try to finish my towers of Hanoi program. I’m so bored.