Wheeee! Finished exams and freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! :D
Trends and Patterns was good this morning, I thought, transition metals alright, possibly could have been better.
Then we went to l'artista for lunch and off to the park.. :D :D Yayyy.
And now I'm freeeeee! Well, until I start work that is..
6 days 'til Venice!
Tuesday, June 28, 2005
Monday, June 27, 2005
Friday, June 24, 2005
Chemistry units 4 and 6
I think overall it went well. Possibly didn't think properly for a few questions in unit 6, but I think it was okay. I worked out that the gas given off was SO2 and not S2 or N or something weird like some people thought.. but I mainly worked it out from the reactants.. I suppose that's the point in the fact that it is unifying concepts.
Organic (unit 4) was alright- I was glad that they didn't ask for too many reagents and conditions, as they often get confused. Although I'm not sure I knew completely correctly how to use Tollens' reagent, but it was a decent guess. I tried to recall our lesson in the lab where we did about 5 tests at once and so they all get jumbled in my mind. But only one produced a silver mirror. Anyway, it should be okay. Or at least I hope it will. Now I need to learn lots for Tuesday, which is by far the hardest chemistry paper, if only for all the stuff that requires proper learning.
Organic (unit 4) was alright- I was glad that they didn't ask for too many reagents and conditions, as they often get confused. Although I'm not sure I knew completely correctly how to use Tollens' reagent, but it was a decent guess. I tried to recall our lesson in the lab where we did about 5 tests at once and so they all get jumbled in my mind. But only one produced a silver mirror. Anyway, it should be okay. Or at least I hope it will. Now I need to learn lots for Tuesday, which is by far the hardest chemistry paper, if only for all the stuff that requires proper learning.
Wednesday, June 22, 2005
Found a new site for image hosting if you don't have anywhere to upload an image to, but want to show it to someone: www.imgfreak.com
Just came across, thought it might come in handy for some people.
Just came across, thought it might come in handy for some people.
The poem from yesterday
The Landscape near an Aerodrome
More beautiful and soft than any moth
With burring furred antennae feeling its huge path
Through dusk, the air-liner with shut-off engines
Glides over suburbs and the sleeves set trailing tall
To point the wind. Gently, broadly, she falls,
Scarcely disturbing charted currents of air.
Lulled by descent, the travellers across sea
And across feminine land indulging its easy limbs
In miles of softness, now let their eyes trained by watching
Penetrate through dusk the outskirts of this town
Here where industry shows a fraying edge.
Here they may see what is being done.
Beyond the winking masthead light
And the landing-ground, they observe the outposts
Of work: chimneys like lank black fingers
Or figures frightening and mad: and squat buildings
With their strange air behind trees, like women's faces
Shattered by grief. Here where few houses
Moan with faint light behind their blinds,
They remark the unhomely sense of complaint, like a dog
Shut out and shivering at the foreign moon.
In the last sweep of love, they pass over fields
Behind the aerodrome, where boys play all day
Hacking dead grass: whose cries, like wild birds
Settle upon the nearest roofs
But soon are hid under the loud city.
Then, as they land, they hear the tolling bell
Reaching across the landscape of hysteria,
To where larger than all the charcoaled batteries
And imaged towers against that dying sky,
Religion stands, the church blocking the sun.
-Stephen Spender, 1933
*And yes, since yesterday I have discovered that he wrote lots about industrialism and stuff and that would really work with the poem, but the exam is over now, and I just have to hope for a kind examiner and that I may have done okay enough to get a B (although an A would be preferable).
More beautiful and soft than any moth
With burring furred antennae feeling its huge path
Through dusk, the air-liner with shut-off engines
Glides over suburbs and the sleeves set trailing tall
To point the wind. Gently, broadly, she falls,
Scarcely disturbing charted currents of air.
Lulled by descent, the travellers across sea
And across feminine land indulging its easy limbs
In miles of softness, now let their eyes trained by watching
Penetrate through dusk the outskirts of this town
Here where industry shows a fraying edge.
Here they may see what is being done.
Beyond the winking masthead light
And the landing-ground, they observe the outposts
Of work: chimneys like lank black fingers
Or figures frightening and mad: and squat buildings
With their strange air behind trees, like women's faces
Shattered by grief. Here where few houses
Moan with faint light behind their blinds,
They remark the unhomely sense of complaint, like a dog
Shut out and shivering at the foreign moon.
In the last sweep of love, they pass over fields
Behind the aerodrome, where boys play all day
Hacking dead grass: whose cries, like wild birds
Settle upon the nearest roofs
But soon are hid under the loud city.
Then, as they land, they hear the tolling bell
Reaching across the landscape of hysteria,
To where larger than all the charcoaled batteries
And imaged towers against that dying sky,
Religion stands, the church blocking the sun.
-Stephen Spender, 1933
*And yes, since yesterday I have discovered that he wrote lots about industrialism and stuff and that would really work with the poem, but the exam is over now, and I just have to hope for a kind examiner and that I may have done okay enough to get a B (although an A would be preferable).
M2
That was a tricky paper. And, rather evilly I thought, they put the really tricky question penultimately, so if you weren't careful you didn't finish the paper. Naaaasty. But I moved on and left space, finished the rest of the paper and went back. :) Still didn't get it right, I'm pretty sure, but what the heck.
All maths and English is finished now!
Major chemistry cramming tonight in preparation for tomorrow.. lots of reagents and conditions to learn, plus phrases for those silly (or probably more correct, annoying) QWC questions.
All maths and English is finished now!
Major chemistry cramming tonight in preparation for tomorrow.. lots of reagents and conditions to learn, plus phrases for those silly (or probably more correct, annoying) QWC questions.
English unit 6
So, the poem they gave us was 'The Landscape near an Aerodrome' by Stephen Spender, 1933. A little odd, with an inverted image of the church, but I think my essay for that was alright.
The synoptic question (which I prepared 'Translations' and 'The Tempest' for) was a choice (as ever), but (as always) I can't remember the question that I didn't do. I did one that was talking about "...power-real power- ultimately doesn't lie in physical strength or emotional pressure, but communication", or something along those lines. A very similar oneappeared a ew years ago, just minus the emotional pressure, so I was quite happy: I'd written an answer to the past one, so had an idea of what I was writing, but wrote different stuff all the same. I hope I did alright in that paper. I kind of need to.
Last night we had over 60 people in our garden for baby's pidyon haben (no, he still isn't named... photos when I'm told I can, and when I remember and have time to find a cute smiley one). The weather was good (we wouldn't have easily fitted that many indoors) and the whole thing was very nice. :)
On to M2 this afternoon and chemistry revision for tomorrow! (I must learn more about arenes I think.)
The synoptic question (which I prepared 'Translations' and 'The Tempest' for) was a choice (as ever), but (as always) I can't remember the question that I didn't do. I did one that was talking about "...power-real power- ultimately doesn't lie in physical strength or emotional pressure, but communication", or something along those lines. A very similar oneappeared a ew years ago, just minus the emotional pressure, so I was quite happy: I'd written an answer to the past one, so had an idea of what I was writing, but wrote different stuff all the same. I hope I did alright in that paper. I kind of need to.
Last night we had over 60 people in our garden for baby's pidyon haben (no, he still isn't named... photos when I'm told I can, and when I remember and have time to find a cute smiley one). The weather was good (we wouldn't have easily fitted that many indoors) and the whole thing was very nice. :)
On to M2 this afternoon and chemistry revision for tomorrow! (I must learn more about arenes I think.)
Thursday, June 16, 2005
The music of the primes
I've just found the coolest mathsy site! It shows you waves of violins and clarinets (and tuning forks of course) playing! It's exciting and cool. It tells you about Gauss and Riemann and prime numbers and music and how they relate! Naomi is excited. :D Oh yes, it's here. *bounces and jumps and squees*
M1
Was easy. Well, not overly tricky anyway. Which is good. Unlike with the past papers I did at home, where I finished it in half an hour, I finished the paper with half an hour to spare (the paper is an hour and twenty minutes), so it did possibly have more things to do.. or maybe I took more care with my diagrams and things like that and so it took longer. Not that much of it took long to work out. There were seven mark questions where I really couldn't understand where all seven marks came from, but that's life I guess.
Anyway, on to revision for next week's exams.. funfunfun! ;)
Anyway, on to revision for next week's exams.. funfunfun! ;)
Wednesday, June 15, 2005
'Othello' and Chaucer
Well, it's over with a muchly aching hand. I finished both my essays, spending exactly an hour on each (I remember finishing the first one at 10.10, when we started at 9.10 and the second one I finished and then they said "put your pens down" a few seconds later). Okay, so not that great technique in that I didn't have time to check or read through either essay before handing them in, but I did notice mistakes while writing the essay and corrected them there and then, for example writing Shakespeare's contemporaries in my Chaucer essay and the like. But I realised that and corrected it straight away. :) I don't even quite know why I wrote it in the first place, but I did. For anyone who is interested, I did both (b) questions on Shakespeare's 'Othello' and Chaucer's 'The Merchant's Prologue and Tale', the Chaucer one was about the Tale appealing to the modern reader due to us recognising our own world of deceit in the Tale, whilst the Shakespeare one was something along the lines of "In 'Othello' Shakespeare creates a similar world to that of our own: one where stupidity is more destructive than evil." How far do you agree? Or something like that. Both were quite good for putting in lots of context, the Chaucer more so as I talked of modern, religious and Classical morality and modern and contemporary readers etc. I don't remember the other questions for the life of me, so don't bother even asking. One thing I do know is that I didn't like the other questions and that my hand ached lots by the end of it. One of my fingers clicked during the exam! (Naomi's fingers don't often click.)
Anyway, on to revising mechanics, synoptic English, reading random poetry in preparation for unseen (haha, what an excuse! Oh I love it) and I suppose lots of chemistry too, which is all still to come. I think I mainly need to do lots and lots of organic revision for that. Unit 6 is fine.. it's all mathsy and so I can do it: lots of calculations and the like. Transition elements and trends and patterns is last and I'm thinking of leaving the bulk of that revision until I have finished all the other exams, since I have about four days of no exams before that. Should be okay. *hopes*
M1 tomorrow. Easy I think and hope. :) Yay.
Anyway, on to revising mechanics, synoptic English, reading random poetry in preparation for unseen (haha, what an excuse! Oh I love it) and I suppose lots of chemistry too, which is all still to come. I think I mainly need to do lots and lots of organic revision for that. Unit 6 is fine.. it's all mathsy and so I can do it: lots of calculations and the like. Transition elements and trends and patterns is last and I'm thinking of leaving the bulk of that revision until I have finished all the other exams, since I have about four days of no exams before that. Should be okay. *hopes*
M1 tomorrow. Easy I think and hope. :) Yay.
Friday, June 10, 2005
Right and I'm now back on the computer for continued babbling.. woo :) lucky you.
At the moment I can't quite understand what the obsession various people have with hi5 is- it's some online community thing I reckon, which I'm signed up, have had people join me as friends and people have written testimonials about me (along the lines of my pedantry, yellow, chickens and other random things), and yet I haven't actually discovered the point of it. I sign on so that I can say to Kajal (or Yog or Christina, but generally it's Kaj who actually asks me if I've read it) that yes, I've read her testimonial and (I guess) to affirm my friendship with her (who knows what might happen if I didn't.. probably nothing really, but I guess it's a good thing anyway). I'm reckoning it's a handy procrastinatory tool. I'm also reckoning it might be something similar to Orkut (another online community) which I managed to get into, joining communities and posting lots of messages, engaging in arguments and the like. The only thing is, people are much younger on hi5. I'm informed by Indian friends that it's an Indian thing to be addicted to, but I know plenty of non-Indian people who are also addicted to this, so I'm not sure about that theory. I've also not yet managed to find any communities that sound appealing or interesting to me, so I haven't joined any. I fear they will be worse even than the Orkut ones.. and those got hijacked by Brazilian people in Portugeuse! (Nothing against Brazilians or Portuguese, I just can't understand, speak or write in the language and so it's a bit hard to hold a conversation with them.) Yes, I know I was mad for joining, but then at least I don't get every two weeks an email telling me all the people who I know who are on there (or, to be more accurate, who know me) and that I really really should join because it is just the coolest to place to be. (N.B. I know that it is not the coolest place to be.) So instead I get bugged every time someone who knows me finds I'm on it, but I don't get reminded about this again and again and, quite frankly, I can ignore the emails and let them all filter through to junk mail if I really want.
By the way, the randonimity of today's babble probably would not have all gone into the one and same email: I doubt many people are interested in this much rubbish. I've just decided to vent my thoughts and ideas on various random things I have been pondering.
In between this post and the last one I've been planning an essay arguing whether Chaucer creates humour in 'The Merchant's Tale' through his satire of religious and courtly ideas. It's great fun. :) Chaucer is (or should I say was; his Tales are) funny, so an essay on humour is quite a good one to happen upon to write: you find some funny images, if possible connected to the statement given that you're arguing against and write about the irony and satire in it. I'm also pondering discussing other humourous attributes to the Tale to show that humour is not only created through the satire, and I'm also being careful to distinguish between Chaucer and the Merchant. Funfunfun.
Hopefully the weekend will bring more workyworkiness before my readathon that is Shavuot. I've realised that chemistry may need some attention, but am also aware of the fact that English exams come first and so surely they should be practised and worked on first? Maybe I'll wait til my first English exam is over and then will start on the chemistry a little more intensely. I did do some chemistry at the beginning after all and made lots and lots and lots of posters (a wall and a half's worth is that much). I also reckon that chemistry-wise I should be fine with unifying concepts (unit 6) but might need to do more organic work, learning lots of reagents and conditions, and possibly cramming them the night and morning before, since they are the things I forget very quickly. (Those are the first two modules. The other ones: trends and patterns and transition metals are my last exam and I have four whole days before them with nothing in, so reckoned I could work on them then. Hm, well that's what the main plan is anyway.)
Please tell me how many boats you think there are in this painting. I think there are three, but others think two.
Other news: my abilities at procrastination have definitely increased this week. :S I think this is rather obvious considering the amount of posting.
At the moment I can't quite understand what the obsession various people have with hi5 is- it's some online community thing I reckon, which I'm signed up, have had people join me as friends and people have written testimonials about me (along the lines of my pedantry, yellow, chickens and other random things), and yet I haven't actually discovered the point of it. I sign on so that I can say to Kajal (or Yog or Christina, but generally it's Kaj who actually asks me if I've read it) that yes, I've read her testimonial and (I guess) to affirm my friendship with her (who knows what might happen if I didn't.. probably nothing really, but I guess it's a good thing anyway). I'm reckoning it's a handy procrastinatory tool. I'm also reckoning it might be something similar to Orkut (another online community) which I managed to get into, joining communities and posting lots of messages, engaging in arguments and the like. The only thing is, people are much younger on hi5. I'm informed by Indian friends that it's an Indian thing to be addicted to, but I know plenty of non-Indian people who are also addicted to this, so I'm not sure about that theory. I've also not yet managed to find any communities that sound appealing or interesting to me, so I haven't joined any. I fear they will be worse even than the Orkut ones.. and those got hijacked by Brazilian people in Portugeuse! (Nothing against Brazilians or Portuguese, I just can't understand, speak or write in the language and so it's a bit hard to hold a conversation with them.) Yes, I know I was mad for joining, but then at least I don't get every two weeks an email telling me all the people who I know who are on there (or, to be more accurate, who know me) and that I really really should join because it is just the coolest to place to be. (N.B. I know that it is not the coolest place to be.) So instead I get bugged every time someone who knows me finds I'm on it, but I don't get reminded about this again and again and, quite frankly, I can ignore the emails and let them all filter through to junk mail if I really want.
By the way, the randonimity of today's babble probably would not have all gone into the one and same email: I doubt many people are interested in this much rubbish. I've just decided to vent my thoughts and ideas on various random things I have been pondering.
In between this post and the last one I've been planning an essay arguing whether Chaucer creates humour in 'The Merchant's Tale' through his satire of religious and courtly ideas. It's great fun. :) Chaucer is (or should I say was; his Tales are) funny, so an essay on humour is quite a good one to happen upon to write: you find some funny images, if possible connected to the statement given that you're arguing against and write about the irony and satire in it. I'm also pondering discussing other humourous attributes to the Tale to show that humour is not only created through the satire, and I'm also being careful to distinguish between Chaucer and the Merchant. Funfunfun.
Hopefully the weekend will bring more workyworkiness before my readathon that is Shavuot. I've realised that chemistry may need some attention, but am also aware of the fact that English exams come first and so surely they should be practised and worked on first? Maybe I'll wait til my first English exam is over and then will start on the chemistry a little more intensely. I did do some chemistry at the beginning after all and made lots and lots and lots of posters (a wall and a half's worth is that much). I also reckon that chemistry-wise I should be fine with unifying concepts (unit 6) but might need to do more organic work, learning lots of reagents and conditions, and possibly cramming them the night and morning before, since they are the things I forget very quickly. (Those are the first two modules. The other ones: trends and patterns and transition metals are my last exam and I have four whole days before them with nothing in, so reckoned I could work on them then. Hm, well that's what the main plan is anyway.)
Please tell me how many boats you think there are in this painting. I think there are three, but others think two.
Other news: my abilities at procrastination have definitely increased this week. :S I think this is rather obvious considering the amount of posting.
I'm really in the mood for writing a really long email to someone, but I just don't know who, so I decided to alleviate the urge to babble nonsensibly (or at least just randomly) by writing a delightfully long random babble on my this here blog.
My revision is moving, particularly in the maths and English departments: I've been doing lots of quick maths past papers (M1 is my next maths module and I can complete one of those papers in about half an hour, when we are given 1 hour and 20 minutes to do the real thing) and quite a few essay plans, as well as lots of criticism reading (most of which manages to stay in the head for a while as opposed to going in one eye and out the other). My intention for this Shabbat and Shavuot (Monday and Tuesday, the Jewish festival of Pentecost) is to re-read 'Othello' and 'The Merchant's Tale' in entirety, visually recall it (that's how my memory works.. I know where on the page and where in the book the particular quotations that I want to use are located) and possibly also start 'The Tempest' again.
This babble will continue again soon, but other people want to use the computer for the time being, so I'm off.
My revision is moving, particularly in the maths and English departments: I've been doing lots of quick maths past papers (M1 is my next maths module and I can complete one of those papers in about half an hour, when we are given 1 hour and 20 minutes to do the real thing) and quite a few essay plans, as well as lots of criticism reading (most of which manages to stay in the head for a while as opposed to going in one eye and out the other). My intention for this Shabbat and Shavuot (Monday and Tuesday, the Jewish festival of Pentecost) is to re-read 'Othello' and 'The Merchant's Tale' in entirety, visually recall it (that's how my memory works.. I know where on the page and where in the book the particular quotations that I want to use are located) and possibly also start 'The Tempest' again.
This babble will continue again soon, but other people want to use the computer for the time being, so I'm off.
Wednesday, June 08, 2005
Exams yesterday
So yes, P6 was rather scary and horrible I thought, but I managed to write answers for all of it, which I thought was a good sign. Whether these answers written are complete gobbledegook, I don't know... a lot of it felt like I was doing certain methods through some kind of instinct without being able to properly back up the reason that I did what I did. Ah well, the answers looked reasonable and not too strange, so I reckon I should have got a good handful of marks in it.
P3 was easy (or for me it was, before anyone starts commenting with "no it wasn't! It was impossible!"), and I managed to finish with a good 40 minutes to spare.. about half the time given for the whole exam. This differed quite a bit from P6 where I finished with about 5 minutes to spare, if that. There were no trick questions, and they were even kind enough to say that we didn't have to express p explicitly in terms of t, which meant we could pretty much leave it how it integrated to without doing much to it. Lucky that. It would have taken an awful lot of fiddling and manipulating to get it into an expression of p= and not p/(1-p)= or similar. Well, not that much fiddling, but more fiddling anyway. In fact, I've just sorted it in my head, but still they didn't ask for it, so I didn't give it. I was a bit silly at the beginning writing x.2x=2x, but then quickly corrected that when checking through (I always make silly mistakes in the first question or two) and also realised whilst doing another question (because I came out with an impossible answer) that I had written lnp + ln(1-p) instead of minus, so had to change that, but that didn't make too many problems.
I'm also glad I was allowed to do P6 first and then P3... we only finished our second exam at 4.44pm, and struggling with P6 that late would have been a nightmare. I'm glad I effectively had lots of time to rest at the end and did the harder one first.
Now, enough procrastinating and time for me to go and do some English revision methinks..
P3 was easy (or for me it was, before anyone starts commenting with "no it wasn't! It was impossible!"), and I managed to finish with a good 40 minutes to spare.. about half the time given for the whole exam. This differed quite a bit from P6 where I finished with about 5 minutes to spare, if that. There were no trick questions, and they were even kind enough to say that we didn't have to express p explicitly in terms of t, which meant we could pretty much leave it how it integrated to without doing much to it. Lucky that. It would have taken an awful lot of fiddling and manipulating to get it into an expression of p= and not p/(1-p)= or similar. Well, not that much fiddling, but more fiddling anyway. In fact, I've just sorted it in my head, but still they didn't ask for it, so I didn't give it. I was a bit silly at the beginning writing x.2x=2x, but then quickly corrected that when checking through (I always make silly mistakes in the first question or two) and also realised whilst doing another question (because I came out with an impossible answer) that I had written lnp + ln(1-p) instead of minus, so had to change that, but that didn't make too many problems.
I'm also glad I was allowed to do P6 first and then P3... we only finished our second exam at 4.44pm, and struggling with P6 that late would have been a nightmare. I'm glad I effectively had lots of time to rest at the end and did the harder one first.
Now, enough procrastinating and time for me to go and do some English revision methinks..
Monday, June 06, 2005
Scary
P6 tomorrow... and I'm still scared of vectors. Everything else is fine, but I don't like vectors. P3 I'm not worried about, just P6. Scary. And vectors always come up. Mrrrrrh. It's not like I haven't practised them either: I've done all the questions in the book and all the past papers, and I still find them hard! Mewwww.
Friday, June 03, 2005
I have a summer job!
Woo and yay. :D Means I'll have some money for holidays (or won't feel so bad going into savings before I work for money for Venice, as I should be able to replace it). *grins*
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