Last Week

Thursday was our last official day, so Wednesday became the last real day. I was pretty busy setting up for Thursday, but I didn't miss the whole day. I was half an hour late, but that still left 15 or 20 minutes. It was Mr. Pinson's birthday (Mrs. Webster tipped us off), so when he popped out of the room, I hopped up on the front table and conducted the class in a glorious loud rendition of Happy Birthday To You, after which the lesson resumed as normal. We spent our final class together covering syllabus dot points. It was really quite a mundane affair. In Engineering Studies with Mr. Watts, it was much the same situation: we worked through past HSC questions just like any other class period. More than half the class showed up for Maths, which is a pretty good turnout all things considered, but Ms. Bitchgerald showed her true colours by sending a substitute (F. Dog) despite the fact that she was at school. Needless to say, noone hung around for that class. I didn't go to Software Design, I hadn't been for some time: why stop a good thing? English was pretty heavy: we did work, and got a lecture. Again much like every other class. Entertainment was pretty well the same as evr, we did work and mucked around. It was a little less outrageous than usual, but all in all, fairly normal.

On Thursday Rhys gave me a lift into town to arrive early, and dad made us bacon and egg rolls to start the day. I set up the PA (which hasn't been working for a while - the new music teacher couldn't get it to work despite his best efforts over the past months; it took me about 5 minutes to get it working) and the JBL speakers facing out the windows, playing good music until about 8:15, then an air raid siren till 9:00. That really completed the whole affair. We also put the piano out on the upstairs outdoor walkway. There were a variety of other goings on which I wont go into except to mention that Mr. Edwards van tires got deflated (he had that coming to him), and Ms. Bitchgerald had a laminating sleeve left open on her windscreen all, 32 degrees hot, day. Also, we photocopied several thousand tiny messages from year 12, and stocked all the printers in the school with footer'ed paper (under a hundred odd plain blank sheets, so it will take a while before people notice).

Following this was the 'Final Assembly', after which about 70 of us went out to the beach near my place for the afternoon. That night, we had a presentation at the MEC (got to catch up with Kooriel again). I recieved 2 firsts, 2 seconds, some OAs (Outstanding Achievement, not Order af Australia), a VET award (with cash), a year advisors award, and the 'Above and Beyond' award: an inaugral award created this year, just for me :) .

On Friday, I went to the beach 5 times, cut my toenails, and did those things that seem to get left behind the rest of the time. It's nice to have some time off, but I dont think I'll be able to get back into it...

It's now Monday night, and I haven't yet really done anything.

Ah well, I'm off to watch Top Gear and Mighty Boosh.

How about that weather

It is truly astounding how Saturday was winter, and Sunday was Summer; just like that the season changed. It was a splendid Sunday. First day I actually swam at the beach in weeks (months?), first day in a long while that I was able to really lay on the driveway dripping salty water, and just dry out by baking in the sun without getting cold. It's something I've really missed: the heat. But now it's back, right? Hooray.

We move forward a mere dozen hours, and it's Monday. No longer am I chillaxing at the beach, I now find myself in town, lurking about the concrete jungle. The morning was a splendid warm one, but by about 11:00AM, it was getting hot. By about 2:30, I was pouring liquid nitrogen over my face, neck, wrists and ears to keep cool. (We got a tank of it from the vets.) Sweet relief.

Driving home on Monday afternoon the weather was just perfect. A nice baking heat, the sun setting behind us, a warm breeze circulating through the car, really nice, adjective-obsessed-author-writing-Bradbury-Dandelion-Wine-style-narrative stuff. Within the space of less than two minutes, this weather was gone, and replaced with unrelenting rain and a gale force cross wind. I was quite aware that the car tires were fairly balding, so I sat at about 50kms on the highway. It's amazing how quickly the weather can turn on you.

This afternoon, just as I got off the bus and was walking home, a friendly neighbor was looking for her kids who'd wandered off despite her best efforts to keep them penned up in order to keep them away from the construction site at the end of the street. Just as I headed up the driveway, Rory headed past on his way to the beach (with boardies in his bag). I went in, threw on some boardies, grabbed a towel, jumped on the bike, and headed along down. Just as I arrived, it began to rain. Only lightly, but it was getting cold. "No guts no glory" he proclaimed, and we headed in to the surf.

I must say, I don't see the point in beaching on sunny days any longer. We had the beach to ourselves (just how I like it), with the exception of Betty, who was jogging by and decided to join us for a brief 10 minute splash. Sitting at home, after a nice hot shower, with a mug of soup and a hot bread roll, in front of the heater; I'm one happy camper.

But enough about the weather.

Today was our 3rd last day, so we organised for a photographer to come, so we could get one last photo. Liv, Sam and I, amongst a few others, wore suits. There were a few interesting outfits: Hulagirls, schoolgirls, bogans, a doctor, Hermoine Granger, Dracula, a lifeguard, and so on and so forth. But one piece of attire (or should I say "onepiece attire') that stood out above all others: Rhys, who come along in a relatively mundane dressing gown (which he intended to wear until the last minute). Beneath his modest gown, lurked his mankini. Which he wore with a strange misplaced pride. Photos of said outfit are sure to circulate through myspace for aeons, ensuring he never attains any serious employment. For your sake, I've chosen not to post those pics here.

P.S. Just to keep you posted, I still have no power (It went out on Sunday afternoon). I have about 15 appliances in here, all running off the one faulty extension lead.

That's more or less it for now, I have some stuff to do, but will surely post again soon.

Trial Results

So, I posted my way through the trials (mostly), now is the time for their results; did you guess from the title? Anyhow, here they are.

English:
Paper one section one: 13/15
Section two: 9/15
Section three: 12/15
Module A: 17/20
Module B: 12/20
Module C: 18/20
I'm happy with my Section 1 result, and got what I deserved in Section 3; but I must say I was disappointed with my Section 2, I felt it was quite good (Read it here).
I was well above average in Paper 2 (The modules) with the obvious exception of the Harwood module (B). This is unsurprising, as I gave it only about 5 minutes of study before the exam, and spent about 20 minutes writing the essay.

Physics:
61% - Not a great mark I admit; but it was second place.
I worked through the "Revise HSC Physics in a month (Read: Weekend)" book; and managed to make some fantastic summary notes.

Maths: I was one of the four who passed, thankfully, with a mark of 80/100. That mark should improve by at least 10 by the HSC.

Engineering: I treated this exam as a bit of a joke, and came second, with 66.5%.

Software: 72/100, & I was the only person to achieve above 50.

Entertainment:
I am yet to get my results back.

Apocalypse Twensday

Morning:

Wow. Today is not just Liv's birthday, not just another Wednesday, and not just another day in particle physics. It is in fact his 18th (birthday of birthdays) - so, HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Also, it's Twensday. Twednesday occurs every 20 Wednesdays, and is the the greatest Wednesday ever in any twenty week period. Furthermore (and it's particularly relevant because I'm currently sitting in physics), today is also the day that the large hadron collider gets turned on.



Afternoon:

Well, a black hole didn't "Eat the planet from the inside out", as predicted by Professor Otto Rossler. Nor did gravity disappear. Liv' gave everyone gifts to celebrate his own birthday, including some wonderful letters, which everyone agrees were thoughtful and brilliant. Honestly, thank you Liv', it was a beautiful gesture.

This afternoon, from schools end onwards, I sat my Entertainment Studies exam. While others sit exams in quiet, supervised exam conditions, I sat mine in a loud server room, on my own (with Internet access!). Yes, we take training and assessment seriously. The exam was ludicrously easy, and was a purchased exam from the Catholic exam making people; they went way too soft. Anyhow, the results for all trials will be up within the week (hopefully).

Happy Twednesday.


toothpastefordinner.com

The Start of a Journey

It's been a busy week, I've meant to post here about half a dozen times, but simply haven't had the time. I'm writing this on my phone; sitting in the sun catching rays and soaking up the vitamin D. Certainly beats my regular posting place; in the cold corner of Neil Locker's office, under a poor quality wall mounted heater, after having climbed through the ceiling.

Anyhow, the point of my post is this: I have a new baby, a double bass. A gift from Mum, Dad, Clare, Asher, Keda, Sanjay, Tim and Jen, for my 18th.

It is MASSIVE: that is, it's full size. I am yet to find a place to put it.

And this is the start of my journey.

This gorgeous bass sounds absolutely stunning. It has not yet fully sunk in.




P.S. Check back soon, as trials results will be forthcoming in a day or two.

Tuesday

Well, yesterday was my birthday. And I didn't just party, I redefined the word!
I redefined it to mean "Sat the biggest/most important maths exam I've ever undergone, and ever will ...and then studied physics for the rest of the day." I had a whole bunch of things I'd meant to mention about the maths exam, but I've forgotten them now.

Today, however, I sat physics. I spent my weekend covering "Revise HSC Physics in a month", and making notes on it, and reading through a few other text books as well. Not very exciting. I was late to the exam, and didn't get to read over my notes (which were brilliant, I might add). The exam was exhausting. It was supervised by substitutes, because of the strike. My Red Bull was confiscated half way through. One of the supervisors had REALLY loud shoes, and walked around alot. I drew a diagram of an experiment in a magnetic field, and used an entire page to draw that field, including lots of detail of all the flux. We were also expected to draw a sine curve that would result from an experiment, but I drew a much more complex and detailed graph, showing the results of discrepancies in their diagram.

At the moment, I should be in my Entertainment Studies exam. I chose not to go on the grounds that I'm too tired and have no way to get home after it. We'll see how that pans out. Ughh. I'm so tired.