Archive for the 'Caley' Category

It’s amazing to think about how short my time at AGS seems when I look back on it. I’ve been here for almost 7 years now, and every one of them has had its ups and downs. But I don’t think they’re times I’ll ever forget. When I talk to Ron (my soon-to-retire colleague at Tring TV) about his school days, he can tell me about it as if it was last week, and I know that I’m going to be able to do the same with my school days when I’m his age. Still, the thing that I noticed is that it’s not his school he remembers, but his school friends. And I know for a fact that they’re going to remain the same in my mind until I’m senile and have lost all of my marbles, although I’ll see them in through rose-tinted spectacles, as it were.

The fact is, these past 7 years would have been nothing without the people whose company I’ve shared along the way. And, while I’d love to list everyone who’s made a difference, I don’t think there’s enough room in my database for everything I want to say. Still, seeing as both Caley and Dodge have written their own nostaligic posts, I think it’s high time I did the same.

When I joined AGS in Year 7, I had absolutely no friends. I was one of 4 people in my school who passed the 11+ exam (seeing as I live in Hertfordshire, where it’s not compulsory), and the other 3 were girls. 2 of them went to Aylesbury High School across the road from AGS, and one of them shot off to Norway and I only recently got back in touch with her. But the jist is, I was alone. On the induction day, where we first met Mr. Harvey (who actually seemed big back then), I was absolutely shitting myself. I’d never been in a situation like this before. But, the atmosphere relaxed a bit, and through the few sessions of the day, I made my first friend there. His name was Will Sellers, he was short (as were we all), had blond curly hair, and was the jolly/chubby type. But he moved from my house Ridley, to Paterson, where his friends from his old school were, and once more I was alone.

It took a little while to make new friends, and it would take another 6 months before I found people that I shared common interests with, but once I did, I was at home. These friends were Toby, Matt and Fagan, and they all lived near to each other. There was also Fox and Spencer. I also met Dodge (back then by the name of Downie), but at the time I thought he was a bit of a knob.

In all fairness, since Year 7, the people I consider my closest friends haven’t changed all that much, when I think back on it. The same people are still all there, although some have grown more distant, and others have come closer. Toby’s always remained one of my best friends, mainly as we share the same slightly twisted sense of humour. Fox I’m not so close to these days, but I still have a lot of time for him - I have fond memories of getting drunk at his sleepovers on little more than a can of cider back in Year 8. Matt is a nice guy, although I still can’t work out his sexuality and probably never will - I’m pretty sure he dislikes me strongly - but we get along. Spencer is a good friend, and has moments of sheer comic genius - and I’ve discovered can get pretty deep at times.

As for Dodge, well, he’s possibly my best friend now. While I still think he’s a bit of a knob, he’s also a wonderful person, who’s been for me through the shittiest of times, and I know for a fact is going to go far in life, despite his complete inability to get a job. I have a lot of brotherly love for the guy, and a lot of good memories of the times we’ve shared.

And of course there have people who I’ve made friends with along the way - far too many to list them all - but each has contributed to my life in a way that has made a difference to me. One of these people is Andy, who is an absolute genius, with whom I have had a lot of good times, and he’s probably the force of sanity that has stopped me murdering anybody in my Maths lessons so far. Dave is another one, with whom I’ve shared a few doobies and had a lot of laughs, and has done for Computing what Andy did for Maths.

And, while she isn’t anything to do with school, I couldn’t not mention Caley. I mean, she has been my reasoning for trying hard all the time in everything I do, and has given life that wonderful shine that love brings. But I have far too much to say about her to fit into this post, and I wouldn’t want to deviate too much from my point.

And this is my point: to everybody I’ve known throughout my time at AGS, I wish you all the best success that you can have, and hope that you enjoy your lives. I hope to stay in touch with all of you as best as I can - thanks to my nerdiness I’m always going to be reachable somewhere. Although we still have 8 more days at school, and then all of the excruciating time that will make up our exams, I know that in these last 8 days, it may be the last time that I see a lot of you. But that doesn’t scare me as much as I thought it would.

While we’re all going our separate ways, I’ll always have fond memories of this place and the people that make it what it is. As for me, I’m shooting off to Cambridge with Spencer to work for a software company for a year, maybe make a little bit of money to get me through uni after that, wherever I end up. I have a feeling I’m not going to get the A in further maths that I need, and will indeed end up going to Bristol rather than Imperial, but wherever it is, I hope we can all meet up some time and have a few beers.

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.

Yet another week has passed me by in my life, and I’ve achieved next to nothing. But I guess that’s what comes from being a serial procrastinator, and always finding something less important to do with my time. I mean, that’s half the reason I pay for web hosting, and have a WordPress blog which I bothered to theme myself, as well as update fairly regularly. I even downloaded and installed Microsoft Office Accounting 2007 as a way of passing the time today - when would I ever have a use for it? It’s things like these which just show me how badly I procrastinate. However, despite knowing that I’m such a person, I don’t actually do anything about it - the same goes for a lot of other habits I have which I could do without.

On a positive note, I’ve had a reply from each of the universities I’ve applied to, with the exception of Warwick who seem to be slower than the others. I’m surprised (pleasantly) as to the responses I received - last week I received a phone call from the admissions officer at Imperial offering me the chance to go to interview, then later a letter from York saying a similar thing. I also today received such a letter from Bristol, and Churchill college (Cambridge) sent me a questionnaire gathering yet more information about me, as if the UCAS application and CAF I filled out weren’t enough. But I’m very pleased so far, and if I can add Warwick to the list of universities who said that they were ‘very impressed’ with my application, then I shall be an extremely happy Jim.

With or without these responses, I’ve been a happy Jim anyway. It’s Caley’s birthday on Friday, and we’re going to be celebrating it properly. I’ve also been cheered by the almost fluid lyrics of Akira The Don - a rapper who creates ’sexual flows’ (as described by Dodge). His single, Oh! What a Glorious Thing, from his forthcoming album, is one of the happiest songs in existance, and has been buzzing around my subconcious twitchings for the past couple of days. And frankly, any man whose blog is banned in US educational institutions must be onto something. Check him out.

On the driving front, I’m doing pretty well. I’ve mastered my mum’s car finally, and apparently am better at driving it than my Dad, who accompanies me when I go out for a practice. According to my instructor I should be at a pass standard after another 15 lessons, presuming I carry on learning/improving at the same rate. I can’t wait to be able to drive solo - it opens up so many possibilities to me, and being able to go where I want, when I want strikes me as being one of the best changes that’ll happen in my life.