TomRed's blog & stuff

Evenin’ all. To the three people still following this, you would’ve noticed I haven’t posted in like two months. Uni life has been good, and I could talk to you about my course as well if I was actually doing some work (I’m just suppressing the thought of my two January exams).

I’m not going to shove empty promises about new features for this site – all I hope is that I keep it going for the moment. As for the heavily prized A-level stuff, I’ll add the 2011 papers and do necessary updates soon (hopefully before New Year’s), so please stop asking. If you have any requests, please e-mail me via the e-mail on the sidebar as, as you know, I have an annoying habit of not replying to requests in blog comments (it’s laziness, not spitefulness, I promise). If you‘re still waiting on a reply, just repeat your question as an e-mail please.

Back to me, I’ve been home now for about ten days after a ten week term. I’ll be back sometime between the 3rd and the 9th. It’s been a fulfilling experience, packed with anecdotes that tend to always involve our much loved character, protagonist or antagonist, The Bottle.

Oh, get this: I did stand-up. Like hell I’ll let you watch the video, though.

It’s Christmas Eve, isn’t it? Merry Christmas to all, I’m getting a nice new suit. I was browsing Wikipedia this morning (or 2 p.m. as I like to call it), and only just found out about the Christmas truce in World War I, one of the most beautiful things I’ve heard of in history.

Much love.

Over the last two weeks my priorities were:
To ensure my blood-alcohol level doesn’t reach a dangerous low,
To stay alive,
To enjoy the company of the lovely people here,
To sort out what I need for everyday life,
To procrastinate on Facebook,
To do my work,
To update this blog.

Warwick’s been great, but with one exception. Lectures and Freshers’ mix like heroin and cocaine. The Freshers’ was two weeks but was dimmed by 9 a.m. lectures the next morning and related assignments (that actually mattered). Don’t get me wrong, I’ll take any excuse to avoid clubs but getting in the way of a pub night is a big no.

The academic material is thankfully more interesting than A-level, but obviously I have to do more work. The experience in general is different, but overall better. It really is freedom.

I don’t have much else to say as I’m still getting used to it. Oh, I can cook now*.

*We’re getting there.

I haven’t posted in a while, and part of that is because I’ve been playing with my new phone. It’s been over two years since I got one, so I’m pleased to say I now own a smartphone, the HTC Sensation.

It’s top of the range at the moment. I actually bought it and will get a SIM-only deal soon. It’s great to have a phone that can surf the internet comfortably, can text quickly without straining my fingers, and is plain sexy. It runs on Android, so it has tonnes of apps to download (a lot of which are free). I went over the top, and now have over 120. I can’t exactly give a full review as this is the only smartphone I’ve owned, and I’m still in the honeymoon with it. Just to mention, there’s no Weebly app (and I can’t post from Weebly on the phone’s internet as the keyboard doesn’t come up when I try to write one – it’s something Weebly can fix if it wants to I’m sure).

As to why I bought it, I was promised a smartphone from my results. I found the iPhone unnecessarily pricey, and had a look at HTC Android phones as I wanted apps and HTC had a good reputation from my peers. I was thinking of the Desire Z because of the physical keyboard, then the Desire HD for the larger 4.3 inch screen (as opposed to the 3.7 inch screen), then finally the Sensation (after some self-debate) due to the 1.2 GHz dual core processor (as opposed to the 1 GHz single core processor).

This should get me through a few years at uni, depending on Moore’s law and the price of baked beans.

The final round. The deciding round. Here they are:

Maths: A*
574/600 UMS
Physics: A*
567/600 UMS
Chemistry: A*
571/600 UMS

I’m absolutely delighted, and into my course of Mathematics and Physics at Warwick. I did an AS in further maths this year, and got an A, so that takes me up to A*A*A*abb overall with the lower case being AS-levels. Unfortunately a fair few of my friends didn’t get what they needed, and were thrown out even with a differential of one grade. Well done to everyone and best of luck to those sorting it out!

And I understand the rules, my results make me officially a wanker.

FREEDOM!

10:43 a.m. yesterday morning was one of the latest finishing times in the year, but that’s all in the past (in stark contrast to the state of my liver). Overall, apart from C4 stabbing me in the back, they weren’t horrendous. I’m noting how my views are beautifully dropping now exams are over, but now I have time to post (and start uploading comics and podcasts). Time for a few months of doing nothing and being proud of it, with results day in the back of my mind.

I don’t really have anything to say at the moment, so just look out for the ’cast on Friday.

I applied to university a day before the deadline, and I submitted my choices a day before the deadline. Like a boss. But what did I decide from my many offers?

Short answer:
Firm: Warwick
Insurance: Manchester

Long answer:
Firm: Warwick F303 (Physics)
Grades: AAA including maths and physics.
Change course to FG31 (Mathematics and Physics) when I arrive.
Grades: A*AA including maths and physics, with the A* in maths.
Insurance: Manchester F305 (Physics)
Grades: A*AA including maths and physics.

Basically, a while ago I was strongly considering changing from Physics to Mathematics and Physics if I went to Warwick, because I hate labs (which barely exist in the latter course) and I don’t mind maths (even if my prerequisites and ethnicity are substandard for Warwick’s maths). There’s also the fact that I suck at and hate physics, but you weren’t supposed to know that.

Having two offers probably helped as I suck at making choices. I chose Warwick as a university over Manchester mainly because of its setting (my eighteen years as a Londoner made me resent cities), and as a course from Warwick’s elimination of labs when changing to MathsPhys. I sent an e-mail a few days ago to change course, but it’s too late now for it to go through on Track (however, I’ll be fine when I arrive as long as I get the higher grades). The plus side of that is that I have two insurances, and won’t go into clearing with AAA. The downside is that it’s pretty much impossible for me to end up in Manchester.

That said, from my small experience I did really like Manchester’s department; it also helps that Manchester isn’t Durham. Just sayin’.

In an hour or so I will be an adult. Mmm that depends, to be honest. Midnight if you’re from a fairytale, around 2 a.m. if you admire the time one popped out, and just before 5 p.m. tomorrow if you do the maths regarding the Earth orbiting the Sun (yes, ladies and gentlemen, I did the maths).

So apparently this is the end of my childhood. The childhood’s not been too shabby. I’ve learned a couple of things, such as not to piss oneself and take further maths A-level when one can.

As everyone knows, it’s hard to be aware and keep track of your development through life, and after some years you look back on yourself as a different person. I love the nostalgia of old photos, and would’ve liked more videos. I’m working on that.

My mind has changed a lot in these eighteen years, obviously, and for some time now I would say that I think the same way as an adult, and I’m (believe it or not) as mature as one. I just lack the years of experience that separate the adult from this man-child. However, similar thoughts have happened before, and every time I look back I really don’t see myself as grown up then. To be fair, I don’t think I’ll ever resist sprinting to empty swings in a park, no matter how ‘grown up’ I become in the coming decades.

The whole ‘being seventeen’ package isn’t brilliant, I must say. Real men and women don’t treat you as a kid, sure, but the pubs do. It’s been a nagging problem that I get treated like my five year old self in the house of beverages because my mother didn’t shoot me out a week earlier. Voting is a similar game, I’m sure I’m at the intelligence to make the logical decision of which prick to grant some power to, as well with many of my seventeen year old peers, but perhaps these are just petty things I have to deal with in exchange for less responsibility. However, it’s really nice that trains, cinemas and ice rinks think I’m a big boy and give me a big boy price.

So there’s my 18 years of childhood, I wonder how these 68 years of adulthood will treat me (the malnutrition university holds might have other plans).

I’ve written this quasi-philosophical post as I go along, just to have the smallest memory of my mindset at this age when I read it a little later. I don’t care if it doesn’t flow. I’m just one who focuses on dates and numbers more than I should.

I need a drink…

It’s been over two months now since I got Minecraft. Two months of getting progressively better at making homework excuses and losing the ability to walk. What can I say? It’s just plain addictive.

A couple of you were thinking, “what the hell is Minecraft?” Google is your friend, fools. But it’s basically the ultimate sandbox game. You mine shit, craft shit, build shit, fight shit. The philosophy behind it is logical (e.g., you dig up sand from a beach best with a shovel, and smelt it with coal (or some form of wood) in a furnace to make glass) and the potential is simple huge. If you’re genuinely interested, you might want to start with this old weekly video or Yahtzee’s review for a brilliant summary.

It started off with single player, but I wanted more. I now make shit on a server with real life friends with the aid of Skype. I have no shame.

Anyway, here’s a small gallery of some of the stuff we’ve accomplished over the weeks.

MEINKRAFT!

It’s March, and about time. I’m a bit stingy in disclosing them this season, but if you’ve come to my blog to read my blog then it makes sense to keep with the two year tradition of publishing these bastards. Here you go:

Chemistry (Unit 4): A
118/120 UMS
Physics (Unit 4): A
120/120 UMS
Maths (Core 3): A
100/100 UMS
Maths (Further Pure 1): A
98/100 UMS
Maths (Statistics 1): A
99/100 UMS
Maths (Decision 1): A
93/100 UMS

Obviously I’m over the moon. There are a lot of cocky observations I could point out, but I’ll spare the being a dick this time. If it’s any consolation, the UMS marks are very generous relative to what I actually got. I don’t have much else to say really. Oh wait: up yours, Durham.

I hope you got what you wanted!

A few of you might be a little suspicious about my being in upper sixth, saying I’ve applied to university, and saying nothing else of it. That changes today. The reason was that I was a little paranoid about universities finding this blog, and consequently seeing my other choices and any opinions I have about them. I now have four replies, and I expect to hear from the fifth by February, so I’m tired of waiting and secrecy.

Here you go (Track order):
University of Warwick:
Physics
Offer: AAA
University of Bristol:
Maths
Awaiting reply.
Durham University:
Natural Sciences
Rejected like a fool.
University of Manchester:
Physics
Offer: A*AA
University of Cambridge:
Natural Sciences
Off— Joking! Rejection.

Three different courses? Yep. I mentioned a good while ago about my inability to decide on my future, so I didn’t really decide in the end. My choices were sort of rushed because of the early Oxbridge deadline. The personal statement was a job to do for this, and as you can see it’s had a mixed success rate.

I’m pleased with my two offers, both for physics. At this present point in time I can’t choose between the two if I have to. I actually had an interview for Cambridge (or three to be precise). Evidently I failed them, and had that infinitesimal unit of hope blown away from my eyes. I accepted this fate long before the letter so the news wasn’t that bad. Durham rejected me soon after, so I’m not even good enough to be a Cambridge reject. However, I wasn’t too bothered about Durham either, I regretted applying there for several reasons (as said, the choices were rushed) and so would not have gone. Still, it’s a good blow to how you evaluate your academic character (especially when you thought you’d get an offer there).

Bristol is still waiting, as you can see. I wanted a maths choice because I like the prospect of a maths degree even if the gods are directing me to physics. I don’t expect an offer due to its competition and my circumstances, but if I did get one I’d definitely investigate, visit, and contemplate my three possible futures.

I must say one thing about rejections. I don’t know about you, but I cannot stand the phrase ‘we regret to inform you’ or something along those lines. It’s a trivial point to get angry about, but Jesus, it’s technically incorrect.

I’ll keep you updated by putting my Track record on the sidebar, and I’ll likely throw a post when I make my decision, ’cause, y’know, it’s just my future.