Apparently I can blog by email. This is a new advent for me (although I
was aware that one could... just not sure if I could) and so this is merely
the test email post. All lots of fun.

I'll continue trawling google now.

Why...

...can't I be political and yet not affiliate myself to any political party? *shakes head*

On a related note, why doesn't Student Direct print the name at the end of a letter? (Yes, I know who it was from, but the average student probably doesn't.) And related to that (although not really related to the first point), how ironic is it that it's the third issue running printing the same crossword twice within the same issue (as in they have printed the same crossword six times in three issues now), especially given my 'I think...'?

And revision is upon us

Well, long time no post/blog. (Actually, we've had very little post in the literal snail mail sense recently too... Coincidence? Likely.)

So, this is mainly because I've been busy (which is a good thing). And no, I'm not blogging about election results- my views can relatively easily be found elsewhere, or I will discuss them quite happily if you ask. I know that any in depth analysis (or less so) would come under scrutiny, when I don't know that much, apart from what I see as common sense (although educated, of course).

So... today it's been raining, and so what do I do? I stay in and I tidy and clean my room, revise and blog! I'm starting to get annoyed by not having formal definitions of important things in maths and things like that (and I should have started being annoyed by this a while ago, gah) but at least I can escape from the tedium of definitions, theorems, lemmas and proofs by looking into Shakespeare stuff. :) I love the balance of my degree.

So on with the note consolidating and procrastinating it is...

Gag removed

So, the lack of posting in the last few weeks (although admittedly not quite for all the time I actually haven't posted for) is the fact that my life has been largely dominated with election campaigns, for which online campaigning was banned (in any form, apart from approved emails to public lists), and I felt it almost impossible to blog my views about anything without wanting to post something about elections. On top of that, election fever did set in, leaving me little time to blog... I did actually need to do some work. This gag even managed to extend this week (although with fair reason) to being told not to shout and chant on the union steps (which could be heard for quite a distance, being heard inside and upstairs the union building, as well as down Oxford Road). However, for the physical safety of friends (and people in general), this was a valid gag, unlike the internet ban (tensions were likely to rise, and not necessarily in the most friendly of manners).

So the elections: there were two, NUS delegate elections and UMSU council and executive elections. I ran to be a delegate for Manchester, and to be maths rep on council (a re-election campaign)... and successfully won both campaigns. :D

We're still waiting upon some positions on council, which will actually determine which slate has the slight majority in overall council/executive composition, however it was a well fought campaign by most candidates (although some people managed to get an astounding number of votes, without producing a single poster or advertising themselves once) and I think an almost fair representation and balance on council of the student body. I think that there was a large number of students who turned up and bothered to read manifestos, voting for who they thought was the best candidate, rather than just writing a number 1 next to each name in a flyer pack. I think evidence of this is in Tom Miller managing to receive over 500 votes for Academic Affairs officer based on his manifesto alone, without posters (apart from a few several weeks ago). This must mean that at least 1000 people or so were actually reading manifestos: about 40% of the voter turnout. Sadly though, and probably for reasons like the internet ban, voter turnout was lower than last year by several hundred people at least.

School leaving age rise to 18

So, I'm supposed to be packing, and thus I blog... Always a good procrastination effort. Also, I did want to air my views on the fact that it was in the papers yesterday how there are now plans to raise the school leaving age to 18 in 2013. I personally think this is ridiculous for several reasons:
(i) Not everyone is suited to 16+ education, and unless there is some huge overhaul of the education system in that time (which I think the government might not find time to make successful by then) then all those who are really suited to leaving at 16 and doing an apprenticeship are going to be put in an awful situation where there is nothing suitable for them to do at school/college and they just don't want to be there, which will either result in high truancy rates or very disrupted classes.
(ii) Classes will be crowded with people who don't want to be there. I know from my A-levels that it was impossible with more than 15 in a class (and we had up to about 27 who wanted to learn in a class I think in 6th form) to learn efficiently and effectively, with due attention and teaching that one should receive at that point in one's education. It is unfair on both teachers and pupils alike to enforce larger classes (which will happen unless enough extra colleges are opened to accommodate the 330, 000 students).
(iii) Where is the funding going to come from? Not only are we going to have to fund the staff and buildings for the extra students, but also the EMA that almost all of the extra students would be entitled to receive. (Apologies for my sweeping assumption that the average teenagers who leave school at 16 would receive EMA, but I believe it to be true. However, I am happy to be corrected on this fact.)

So, I accept that we need a trained workforce in England and we need to improve literacy and numeracy rates, but will forcing everyone to stay in school until they are adult achieve this? Those who are illiterate or innumerate by 16 will probably remain illiterate/innumerate by 18. There is a possibility for vocational training to increase the trained workforce, however would an apprenticeship and learning on the job not be better?

I may add further thoughts at another point in time... Back to the packing for now.

Exams are coming up

... and I haven't been blogging much. How very odd. Perhaps this is due to the distraction that is facebook, as well as msn games. Hmm.

Actually, I haven't blogged for ages anyway. Perhaps little insightful stuff has happened when I've been near a computer with which to blog. Very odd.

New, different and procrastination

Well, not new at all, really.

So, whilst procrastinating this weekend (I said it was a good thing for my work for my laptop to have died... I don't get sidetracked by blogs and things) I discovered I could switch my blogger account over to the gmail beta version thingummy. Hence the slightly different looking blog. Which, once I remember and fiddle a bit more (I refuse to let myself until at least Tuesday) I think has at least one good aspect, in that it has kinda sorted out the archiving in the sidebar thingy, which I had been wondering quite what to do with, as listing every month since May 2004 (or thereabouts) seemed a bit excessive... But now it compacts down into years, so all is good. :)

Anyway, enough procrastination... I should go to bed!

Hehehe, my mum asked me if my blog had moved, since I hadn't posted for so long... so I decided that perhaps it was time that I posted something, if only to indicate my continued existence to my parents. ;) I think it's more the fact that I've been busy and also have an annoying laptop that randomly decides it won't charge and the like (which should be fixed very soon). There is also the correlation between deadlines and blogging frequency, which means that probably very shortly I will start blogging an awful lot (about 5 deadlines all for week 8, which is in 3 weeks time). Hmm, how I do love procrastination.

I'm not about to write a diary of everything that's happened recently... that's silly. However, we have started blocking in MUGSS for the Mikado (which makes me happy as my brain needs time to register the moves and then co-ordinate them... plus I require knowing the moves to the words). My other excitement is having bought some (clarinet) sheet music, CDs and DVDs: sales and student discounts are wonderful! :)

This weekend (actually from Friday til Wednesday) I'm going to Birmingham to visit Simon, which should be über fun and cool... if you are in Birmingham and would like to meet up, let me know- I know I'll have lots of spare time, although it could always be spent working. Well, I think I'll stop rambling and go and read some stuff instead. (Plus the computer room is filling up and thus I will boil if I'm not careful.)

Hmm

Despite my blog from blogger being imported to 'My Notes' on facebook (a web community thingummy similar to myspace, except it connects people through school, university, company and regional networks), what I post on 'My Notes' doesn't get exported back.

Lesson learnt? Blog on blogger if want all to see. Unfortunately, I can't be bothered to repeat the same post as I just wrote on facebook.

Boy boards plane without tickets

Right, so a kid boards a plane without a ticket. And this isn't a problem despite recent bomb plots and plane things because the airport was "confident" that the kid wasn't a security risk. Umm, doesn't one normally have to pay to fly? We can't have people fare evading on planes, that's just ridiculous!

Younger siblings are apparently funnier

According to this article that follows from some research or other, I'm supposed to be funnier than my siblings. At any rate, I think it explains why Yog finds me so hilarious.

So... today starts my second week of work. The excitement of the day is that I'm answering phones on a different floor this afternoon, due to miscoordinated leave up there.

Aaaaaaanyway, today marks the start of a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon... quite how long it'll last I've no idea. Israel have said their soldiers will still act defensively (i.e. if they are attacked) and Hezbolla have said that they'll only keep the ceasefire if Israeli soldiers get out of Lebanon, which hasn't happened as the IDF are waiting for the UN force/Lebanese army to move south and take control. The ceasefire may be interesting, shall we say.

On a completely separate note, I had a really nice day yesterday. Josh (my nephew) came over for lunch and the afternoon (although I left with Si at 1.30), and then Si and I went to the afternoon prom, which was lots of Mozart with Maxim Vengerov on violin (I have previously spelt his name differently, but that's how it was in the programme). It was a really good (and packed) prom. Afterwards we hopped on the bus towards Leicester Sq and ate at Tokyo Diner- sushi! We then went and bought ice cream afterwards, which was rather yummy too (although Ben & Jerry's in Leicester Sq doesn't have half-baked). That was basically it, but it just felt like an enjoyable day.

Re-vamp

You may have noticed something a bit different here. After a virtual poke or two (or rather someone telling me to change it), I went and changed the template and I may now twiddle some more- it all depends on quite how busy work is, and also the rest of the summer. Comments are appreciated- let me know what you think about the new look.

As I've just said... I have a summer job! Started today (I'm actually posting this from work, as it's rather quiet), two weeks of general admin covering someone who's on holiday I think. Long hours, but at least I get paid for them.

Aside from that, I've been relatively quiet on the blogging side... mainly because there haven't been many big things to blog about. Usual kinda summer break stuff: shopping, seeing friends, etc. Been to a few of the proms with Simon, which have been really nice. :)

Scrabble

So, Simon and I have been playing rather a lot of scrabble of late... He won the first five games we played, I've won the last three- and what a win last night!! I managed to score ninety-six in a single move, with "seafood" on a triple word score, creating the word "dicing" at the same time with a 50 point bonus for using all my letters! Teeheehee.

A first class first year!

Yayyyyyyy! I got a first overall for my first year at uni... all sets me in good stead. :) 72.6% average... the maths results were particularly good, all being firsts, with three out of four of them being in the region of 90%... English weighs my results down a little, but it was ok this year, so we'll see what happens next year...

Yayyyy!!

Oooops

I've just realised quite how long it is since I last blogged. Ah well, just presume I was rather busy. ;) (That or was doing nothing and therefore had nothing to blog...)

It is raining outside, and thus good weather for blogging (and ducks, apparently).

Amidst the busy-ness of roughly the last month, I spent last Monday to Thursday with Simon in the wonderful city of Florence (as well as a few hours in Pisa and über-early hours on the Monday in London). Amongst other things, we learnt that Italians are crazy drivers, which doesn't really help when you are walking everywhere. We also visited many a tourist site: the Uffizi, Accadémia (where David lives), the Duomo (which we climbed! All the way to the top! And such a beautiful view of Florence from the top... wow. Also so close to the largest fresco in the world! So cool... Photos are in hard-copy format, thus not being posted on here until my parents buy a scanner, or I go somewhere where there is one), the synagogue, the oldest church in Florence, the Santa Maria Novella church and museum, the leaning tower of Pisa, the airport and the train station! A thing that annoyed me somewhat is the ban on photos from inside so many places.

Rather surprisingly (or at least, I was rather surprised), I didn't eat any pasta while I was in Florence. I'm not sure if this was Simon's influence, as he likes fish so much, or rather that I discovered last year in Venice that pasta is never a very filling meal out there, as it is before the main course. Ooo! I've just remembered, I lied. I ate one piece of penne.

Yayyyy the university staff pay dispute has finally been settled!

Sun and swim

The incessant rain that was appears to be somewhat less incessant than I thought: it rained early-ish this morning (9ish I think) and has been sunny ever since, for the first time in weeks. Yay! This was a handy coincidence with my plan to go for a swim this morning at the Aquatics Centre, where I did 40 lengths (the wall in the middle was up, so that's 40 lengths of 25 metres). I managed to keep myself at a pace where at the end of each 15 minutes of being in the water I had finished another 10 lengths. No, it doesn't take me a minute and a half to swim 25 metres: I tend to stop in between lengths every few, but this kept me going better than I may have otherwise. I like it there: there are always at least 8 lanes (3 slow, 3 medium and 2 fast) and barely ever is it that busy that you have more than 3 or 4 people in the lane- at some points today I was the only one in the lane, and most of the time there was only one other.

This afternoon entailed clearing out various drawers and things in my room, in preparation for packing up all my stuff. Funnier is the stuff I found underneath the bottom drawers: a puzzle book and a cake knife! (As well as plastic bags and other things...)

Freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Yayyyy! I've finished my exams... In Manchester 'til Friday, so I suspect much fun and relaxation before then, then I'm going home to London.

Exams went alright: today's was harder than I expected, but still doable (we had to answer four out of seven questions, I know I answered three really well and I answered three others, possibly not as well as those first three I mentioned; they take the best four). Thursday's exam was alright too: a little tricky in places (a different format where you could only leave one question out from the second section, I attempted them all though) but generally okay and doable. I should get my results late June, or possibly later is AUT action continues. (Mrrarggh grrr *wants feedback and things to be marked*)

Yay freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

We won!

Woo! Manchester University won University Challenge!! We won the final 160 points to Trinity Hall, Cambridge's 150. Woooo!