The MPW Munchkins

Quote of the moment:
Emma - "I've just remembered why I've never never felt compelled to watch it(Little Britain)."
Will - "Yeah, I know."

I missed Mort! I forgot it totally until about midnight, when I found Will T's missed call on my phone. I was supposed to be there tonight to see him in his cameo appearance. D'oh!

In other news: Paddy has finally departed on his tour of the world. Poor 'the world'. The trail of destruction is being documented! I note Prill's rapid reaction speed in changing the link. We are not worthy, webmistress.

Other other news: I spent from about 3pm to 2am 'tidying my room', with only a break for supper. Well, I got delayed because when I cleared my oversized tuckbox of rubbish, I felt like painting the carved in name silver. It was looking dull as just wood showing throught the black paint. This required emptying all the stuff out of one cupboard to find my old Warhammer paints. D'oh! Very good tidying! I then spent ages afterwards trying to clean the brushes, most of which had been put away unwashed about 5 years ago. Oops! My room is now, however, clear and rearranged. Shame I only get three more months in it!

Now, for your viewing pleasure, some more photos. This lot are from results day, when I went up to Cambridge to collect my envelope and re-live the halcyon days of yore.

The Center for Masochistic Personal Whipping:


See!


I joined my posse (the GCSE students who worshipped me as a mysterious deity) for the midday sports session in the Leys sports hall, where we played an appallingly bad game of indoor hockey with a tennis ball, then headed back to the pool table, aka the student sofa.

Andrew and Kenny:
(Cartman and Kenny)


Michael:
(Stan)


Sophie:
(Wendy)


Sophie again, still trying to avoid the camera:


Tom:
(Kyle)


Put little cartoon hats on them and they'd be indistinguishable from the South Park characters. Well, almost. Stan and Wendy (Michael and Sophie) are at the holding hands stage, which is very awwww, but I'm not sure about the size of Kyle(Tom)'s mum:

Results Day, Take 2

Quote of the moment:
P1: 88
P2: 72
P3: 56
M2: 48
- My results.

Total mark(including previous results): 435

435/600 = 0.725

0.725 x 100 = 72.5%

I AM INVINCIBLE!

K, so it's only a B. Nonetheless I am invincible!

I got 48 in M2! That's less than last summer! D'oh! But on the other hand I pulled P2 up from 25% to 72%. P3 also rose from 25%. So it was pretty schweeeeet.

So, now comes the great deciding. But you thought I was going to Cardiff? Now that the Army have automatically rejected me because of my knee, I need to find out if I'm automatically rejected from the OTC too, since that's a major part of Cardiff's appeal.

I also need to get a job. SIGH.

Mwahaha... Di-do-do-do-di-do... I am invincible... Di-do-do-do-di-do...

End of Exams... Take 2

Quote of the moment: "A man, weighing 80kg, starts climbing the ladder. How far up the ladder is he when it slips?" - My M2 paper.

At least it's over... My life gets even more empty! Hurrah! Someone slap me: I'm actually wishing I was working at uni. Lazy Will isn't supposed to be like this!

M2, by the way, wasn't great. The first 4 questions were fine... 5 was about a car on a ramp (circular motion), so I skipped to 6, which was projectiles colliding in mid-air, with cofficient of restitution blah-blah, and then find the direction and speed of impact. Unusual, but a doddle, especially because the numbers were nice and came out whole for the most part. 7 was about a ladder leaning against a wall: find the normal reactions, then the friction. Then the bit quoted at the top, which I didn't have time to even start, because I went back and did 5, which was almost as poo as the last part of 7.

To summarise: I needed to get a decent 90% or so to have a good chance at an A. Unlikely, as I said before, and my luck wasn't in... Still, nothing wrong with a B in maths, eh Rob m8?! It's enough to go to my first choice uni, so all I have to do is decide which one that is! [Rolls eyes]

Eggers Alert

No post last night, breaking a prolific run of daily posts that lasted 2 weeks. I was feeling far too emo, and I thought I'd be kind and not inflict it on everyone.
I'm now sitting in college 'preparing' for my final exam, M2. Exciting stuff. At least I'll be able to beat Prill in something... :D

P.S. I think I saw Eggers in Cambridge yesterday... At least, I saw a light blue Peugeot hatchback, as owned by Eggers, pulling out of the road by the college. Then the passenger leaned right up to the window to look left at the junction, and it looked like Mrs Eggers... How rare!

The Great Debate

Quote of the moment: "The enemy cannot press a button when you have disabled his hand!" - Starship Troopers.

Oh, the irony... There was an advert for becoming an Army Cadet Instructor in the break!

Now, I have a major decision to make. I'm pretty certain of getting at least a B in my exams, and so I'll fulfill the BCC offers I got from Bath and Cardiff. Tis time to choose...

Type:
Bath: Campus, departments along a promenade (central walkway).
Cardiff: 'City', departments spread along a road.

Size
Bath: 7,000 students.
Cardiff: 22,000 students.

Position:
Bath: At the top of a hill above the city.
Cardiff: Near the city centre.

1st yr accommodation:
Bath: On campus, networked.
Cardiff: Blocks mostly along the university road, computer rooms in engineering block.

2nd yr+ housing:
Bath: In the suburbs of the city, mostly down in the valley.
Cardiff: In the triangle formed between the university road and the M4, known as the "student village".

Greenery
Bath: Surrounded by the stuff.
Cardiff: Bute Park is the other side of the university road.

Sports
Bath: Olympic Training village on campus, complete with 50m pool, dojo, the works. In top southern university leagues for most sports.
Cardiff: Pitches 5 minute walk, overflow pitches 15 minutes. Inter-departmental rugby matches.

University Officer Training Corps (UOTC)
Bath: None, must join Bristol OTC. Must commute every week for training.
Cardiff: Own, based at Maindy Barracks, at far tip of 'student village' triangle. Joint exercises and expeditions with other 3 OTCs from Wales.

Entertainment
Bath: A couple of clubs, more in Bristol.
Cardiff: Millenium Stadium for sports, plenty of gigs.

Union
Bath: Small, compact.
Cardiff: Huge, sprawling, occupies the former Cardiff Train Station.

For me, Cardiff is winning until here. However, here's the crunch:

Department
Bath: Unique department of Architecture and Civil Engineering.
Cardiff: 1st in the Times league table for the last 3 years.

COURSE
Bath: Combined with the architects for the first year. From then on, projects involve cooperation between the architecture and engineering students, simulating real-life projects. Engineering students also learn the basics of architecture, its history and the aesthetics of buildings. (The architects do the reverse, including the physics of buildings). The whole department is focused around design, not the actual building work. The whole course - 60 per year -is architectural(structural) engineering orientated.
Cardiff: Combined all-areas engineering for the first year. Architectural engineering is a subset of civil engineering, with 15 'arcs' and 60 straight 'civils' per year. 'Arcs' do three quarters of the same modules, and instead of the enviromental and hydrological ones (drainage and dams) they go over to the Architecture school for basic modules there. End of 3rd (and 4th, for MEng) year projects involve cooperation between the arc. engineers and the architecture students.

It doesn't sound that bad when written down! The main issue is being a minority subset, instead of everyone doing it: the same 15 people for 3 or 4 years could be a real pain in the bee-hind. Plus the Bath course in just cool... like doing Architecture, but grounded in physics instead of art/design. Instead, the Cardiff course is a much more broadly engineering sort. However, that could be more useful if I make it into the Royal Engineers, as practical and hands on is what they're about.

Overall:
Bath wins on Type, 1st year accomodation, Greenery, and Course.
Cardiff wins on Position, 2nd year+ housing, UOTC, Entertainment and Union.
I'm not much fussed about the size, and I'd call Sports and Department a draw.

Basically it seems Cardiff would be more fun!

Biscuits!

Quote of the moment:
Psychological research carried out in supermarket biscuit aisles has revealed that you can tell a person's personality from their favourite biscuit.

According the Emeritus Professor of Biscuitology, the following main groupings have been identified:

Dull: (E.g. digestive, rich tea) For masochists, who like to punish their taste-buds. Into bondage.

Plain: (E.g. Hob-Nob, 'Nice') For purists, who like things simple. Probably have white-painted (or Symbolistic White :p) walls.

Filled: (E.g. Custard creams, Jammy dodgers) For people who like surprises. Likes going out without underwear on.

Iced: (E.g. Party rings) For people who like displaying their assets. Likes to wear large amounts of 'bling'.

Chocolate covered: (E.g. Chocolate Hob-Nob/digestive) For people who like luxury. Has a cupboardful of beauty products (especially if male).

Some small specialised groups have also been observed, for example:
Ginger Nuts: For active people. Is into naturism.

However, one select group stood out from the rest:
JAFFA CAKES: For people who are destined to rule. If still pining for the special edition totally chocolate covered ones, destined to be world leader.

Long live the biscuit revolution!

My contribution to the newstudent.org forums. Place your bets now!

I just finished my P3 exam. It sucked! I couldn't do question 2 or 3! Oh dear! I could do most of the rest of it, but still, compared to the papers I did this week it was evil! I predict 60% maximum. Still, if I managed 90+ on P1 and I get 90+ on M2, an A is possible... but improbable.

Exams, Day 1

Quote of the moment: "I'm sure that there was a mistake on that paper." - Will, just after his P2 exam.

Apparently not, according to Vicky! D'oh! I tried it forwards, backwards, with my back-up calculator (thanks to my paranoid father), and I always got the same answer, nothing like the one on the paper. Oops!

Other than that P2 went fine, fortunately. I owned P1, naturallement! So I'm on track so far :D

Sponsored Swimming

Quote of the moment:
Vicky: "I want to suggest to Floppy that we do something to raise money for the Tsunami relief stuff."
My mum: "How about a sponsored swim?!"

Due to an exceedingly helpful lorry-driver rolling his vehicle on the A120 near the M11 junction, I detoured through the countryside on my way home from college and rejoined the dual-carriageway at Dunmow. Just after I got on a trio of cars came speeding up in the outside lane. I was accelerating up to a decent speed, but they were still catching up fast. It was only when the first one got alongside me and I was going nearly 90mph that I realised all three Ford Escort estates were police cars! D'oh!
Fortunately they didn't seem bothered, perhaps because they were just leaving the crash scene and had had enough!

Poynton

Quote of the moment:
Bill: "Ted, you're alive!"
[Bill and Ted embrace, then spring apart]
Together: "Fag!"

Things left in Edinburgh:

1. My huge mouse stabber. [Sniffs]
2. My Bill and Ted DVD - I think I left it in Jimmy's DVD player!

That's it so far. More may well be added!

I went back to college for the first day of this term, and was shocked to find that on the last P2 paper I handed in before the holidays, I scored 57/60! That's 95% :D

I also found a drawing of a Pie on the top of a white-board last term. Being a mature adult I added Weebl yelling "PIE!" and Bob being blown away, with the web-address underneath. Pics when I upload my vast archive from Edinburgh(Drools over new 128MB XD card). Geek award, please!

I feel congratulations are due for the way myself and Rob tag-teamed on the rude comments on Podgy's update. Go us!

P.S. Looking down the cast list, I spotted that Missy (Bill's step-mum, 2 years older than him) was played by an actress called Amy Stock-Poynton(Married to Bob Poynton). Presumably the surname comes from ancestors in the village of Poynton, Cheshire. Ye olde familie ghetto, eh?

End of term!

Quotes of the moment: A couple of classics from my lesson today:

"Can I have a slice of paper please?" - Me

"I have to get mens gloves because my (false) nails are so long" - The same girl who said that me only having 5 lessons a week was "Safe man! Awwww, thats heavy!"

Term is over! Hurrah! I've just been given a copy of The Felstedian. The Elywns section is dominated by pictures of Pete etc mudsliding! Lol! There's also a fair bit about the all-conquering House Challenge team :D

To B, or not to B?

Quote of the moment: "You're mad! But you can come in early if you want..." - my section manager, when I asked to start at 8am on New Year's Eve.

Hurrah! That means I can be there, according to the current time-table, at 19.38! So hopefully I'll have time to get to Prill's and back without too much running. Soz, Kaz m8!

While I'm mentioning Kaz, I'd be very grateful if she took her Monopoly set. It could be an old-fashioned alternative to the Game Cube?... Plus I'm better at it :D

In other news, I now have all my formal offers:

• Bath - BCC
• Cardiff - BCC
• Sheffield - ACC

I was only putting Sheffield as an insurance choice, but they'd upped their standard offer since last year from CCC to BBB, and I didn't bother getting a new prospectus! D'oh! It's not like I actually wanted to go there though, t'was just to keep the 'rents happy. Since, including my AS modules, my overall score in my mocks would have been 456/600 or 76%, ie a high B, I'm (probably rather too) confident :D

Cardiff and Mockery

Quote of the moment: "It's so life-affirming..." Another Koel classic!

As Rob said, an example of its many uses could be:

"It was so life-affirming I wanted to cry!"

:P

So... This week was mocks week at le college. On Monday I had a P1 and P2 double bill in the afternoon, which went pretty well! I ran out of time during the last P2 question, and today I found out that I differentiated instead of intergrating in the first P1 question! D'oh! But still, I got 88% in P1 and 85% in P2.

That's up from last year's impressive performance:

• P2 25%
• P3 25%
• M2 50%
• (AS year: P1 77%, M2 82%, D1 87%)

That means that to get a B I need to get 74 more overall, and to get an A I need 134 more. So a B is within reach, given that I got 71 more on the first two exams!

Today I took M2 in the morning and P3 in the afternoon. Unfortunately I wasn't particularly awake for the mechanics... It was kind of "I know how to do this... I'm just too busy yawning (and being annoyed by the sniffing people with no tissues) to actually work it out." P3 went ok-ish, as expected... nothing spectacular, given that I'm still getting it sorted after sorting out P2, but on the two together I should be able to add 3 more marks! If I get the P3 sorted by January, an A is reachable - not bad from a U last year!

On Monday afternoon after my mocks I took my executive car, with paternal chaffeur, across to the Welsh Border to stay the night with my granny. On Tuesday I had an interview at Cardiff University, which was basically the same as last year, except that I made it there in time for the bus tour of the city, with the Millenium Stadium, the new arts centre and the Welsh Assembly. Oh, how exciting! Welsh politics! :P

My interview was with a different Prof this time. This guy's research involves "creating computer programs for the monitoring of engineering conditions", and he looked like a stunted version of Mr Dawkins! It was more of a Q&A actually, including me getting confirmation that I can do a language (e.g. Arabic) instead of a couple of the management type modules. Hurrah! I also given some information on the OTC, but it didn't include what my dad told me on the way home: The new CO of either the Cardiff OTC or the overall Wales OTC (my dad was "merry" at the dinner when they last met) is a guy who was in the Royal Regiment of Wales at the same time as my dad! How handy! So he'll be like: "Poyntz... I recognise that name... Yes, I expect he'll be falling asleep all the time too..."

Random piece of amusing information: Ben, our (older) labrador, snores exactly the same way as my dad... LOL

Medical Students

Quote of the moment: "MSN Hotmail Plus is Here! 2GB of storage, 20MB attachment size and more." At last!

This evening I had a First Aid mini-course. Which was alright... the guy taking it works as the on-site first aider for the Cambridge University Rugby Club, which was quite cool! According to him, getting concussed even once significantly increases your chances of senile dementia! D'oh! He was very confused when I said the only time I'd got concussed was in a hockey match, being hit by someone's hip! Oh dear! So no probs there, apart from his slight lack of control.

The problem was the wannabe medical students! They kept asking niggly questions, mostly regarding what they'd seen in hospitals while on work experience. The teacher guy was just like: "As I have already said, when you find yourself in an emergency situation, you don't normally have a surgical theatre full of equipment, or even a first aid box!"

Sigh. Medical students, honestly. Though I suppose these are the ones who didn't make it. Oh dear.

P.S. I finished reading The Lord Of The Rings on Monday, so it took me 10 days, including reading all the appendices. Go me!

You killed Phil's mum!

Quote of the moment: "Yes Mum, I ate lots of fruit this week." - Phil, my Essex University attending colleague, talking to his mum when she appeared in Tescos doing her shopping...

Also: at the college there's a short guy in Yr 11 called Kenny. Really, apparently. I haven't ever seen him with his hood up, but it's a start! :p

P.S. I've started reading The Lord of the Rings, for the fourth time! Perhaps I'll get past the first book of the six this time!

Oops!

Quote of the moment: "Oh. Should I have woken you up?"

That was my dad, upon seeing me come down the stairs, at 2.30pm. When I was supposed to be starting my Maths Challenge paper... Sighage...

When my dear mother harassed him about it this evening, he said he'd forgetten I was even here, what with my sisters having just gone back to school after half term and all. THANKS!

Fitness Report: Erm, that would have been the 1pm sports session? Oops to that too...

Hail to the Thief

Quote of the moment: Kerry calls Bush to concede...

Two days ago, but unmentioned as yet. I thought it was quite impressive that Kerry didn't go into the courtroom battles, despite being a lawyer!

Sighage... Looking on the bright side, at least the Armed Forces will be kept busy, and hopefully thus escape too many cuts as a result of "having too many troops". More likely, they'll have to go to war, but not have any budget increase, and thus be forced to make more cuts like those happening now. I think Bush should chuck 3 billion our way to pay for our assistance, since Gordon Brown won't - it's less than what gets spent each day on the US Armed Forces, apparently!

The political maps show America in terms of Red Republican states and Blue Democrat ones... But here's the proportional representation map: nearly Cadbury Purple, Podge m8!



Fitness Report: I got owned in Badminton doubles by a pair of females! Shocking! I blame my partner for being a short-ass... Short people are t3h sucky :P

UCAS - He shoots, but will he score?

I should be in bed... I have an induction for my new job at Tescos at 9am! "OMG, early!" I (don't) hear you cry (9am lectures? What are they?), but when I start the actual job it's 1pm til 6pm, Friday and Saturday - not a particularly early start! But apparently Bath has lectures from 8.15am... Cardiff suddenly bounds even further ahead in my estimation! Talking of which, my UCAS form is done: Hurrah! The only thing I haven't marked finished yet is the courses bit, because I still only have 3... I do have replies from the Bath and Cardiff admissions tutors saying that they'll take me on BEng with BCC grades, but I've stuck down Sheffield as well, since their standard BEng offer is CCC. I'll probably use them as my back-up, just in case of accidents. I'm fairly sure of managing a C grade, since I'd only have to gain 14 marks across 3 papers! Adding 74 marks for a B should be ok as well, given that I should manage to get at least 80% in M2 (+30 marks on last time) and 75% in P2 (+50 marks on last time!), even without improving P3 or P1. An A would be rather harder to achieve...

Anyway, it feels wrong to send off the form with only 3 universities on it. But I haven't got any others that meet the criteria of running design-based courses (as demonstrated by the "& Structural" or "& Architectural" titles on the MEng courses), will offer BCC or less, and that have an OTC! Since I don't have any others to add, I'll take that plunge now!...

Plunge taken... Brrrr, it was chilly! :p And now, to warm me up, a pair of:

Handy sites:

http://www.newstudent.org - A most handy site for new uni students and applicants: it has forums on each university, as well as a general one with diverse topics ranging from Who's been ill? to How much money are you taking?... (You need to register even to look at those links, but it's worth it :D) I especially recommend this to Podge, cos most of the people seem to be very emo... :p

http://www.dogpile.co.uk - A browser (pfft - Google it) with a handy extra feature: you can search for people by surname and postcode/town/county... How handy! The American version came up with just 20 Poyntzs in the whole of the USA... How rare!

Pictures!

Quote of the moment: "Insomniac Publications thanks you for your jigsaw piece"



My Prize! W00t w00t! :D Fairtrade choccie... Podge can enjoy the moral justice of that while I enjoy eating it :p

Also, while I'm posting pictures, vote now for which of the following you reckon should become my more up to date picture at the top right of my blog:







Apologies for the vanity of all of that, and also to Rob for not downsizing the pics - I will with the one I eventually choose... Plus it means my fans can have bigger versions :p

P.S. My Profile has finally been updated! Hurrah! I've written 17 posts since it last did!

SCORE

YES!!! For some reason, my stubborn pig of a blog has finally submitted and republished properly... Before, it was telling me my FTP password was incorrect, when I'd just taken the damn thing OFF FTP! Maybe tis just cos I'm not at home on my Paccy Lappie? [Sigh]

A full collection of random thoughts from the past week of non-blogging will follow when I return home... Also, I will insert all the links etc that used to be on the toolbar! Back to the three page version! :D I'm investigating drop-down menus, but so far I haven't found one that I can just steal from a page and stick my own links into... How unhandy!

A brief note, while I'm here: There was a strange little competition thing running for the last week chez MPW, which stemmed from everyone getting a sheet of random quotes n stuff, with a blank jigsaw piece in the bottom corner. The idea was to somehow decorate the piece, cut it out and stick it up on the whiteboard in the "Reading Room". (I.e. the library, only no fiction section... There's also a Library, which is the computer room. And a computer classroom. [Roll eyes]) Anyway, I photocopied a biro doodle-sketch I did of the garden out the front when I was bored between lessons a couple of weeks ago, zoomed it down and cut it out to fit the shape... And when I arrived today, I found a bar of chocolate in my pigeon-hole! Scorage! I owned les artistes... :D Doodling does pay, really, whatever teachers say :D

That was the day that was...

Quote of the moment: "I miss his short jokes :D Even if sometimes they were a lil over the top"... Sorry Prillo - it was irresistable!

Hurrah for me! I went to the job centre in Braintree this morning - my dad had an appointment to sign on (aka start claiming dole money)... LOL. That just cracks me up... I can't stop thinking of the Full Monty dole-queue dancing scene... :D Anyway, I used the rather fun touch-screens to search for a job to occupy my spare time. The machines have built-in printers that spool out slightly outsized receipts with the job reference number, then you have to take your collection of printouts across to a person who looks them up on the archaic old system to find how you're supposed to apply for them, and add the possible jobs to your account-thing (which I obviously had to set up). A bizarre combination of flashy new stuff and very old stuff... why couldn't the touch-screen just have a login and the contact details with the job? But then the job centre staff would be made redundant - how ironic... Plus, from the way it's explained to you, I guess some people need it one... syll... a... ble... at... a... time...

Anyway, I found a selection of jobs, including table-waiting or bar-staffing at the Raj Mahal in Felsted! As well as that, barman at the Chicago Rock Cafe, or being a general dogsbody in a couple of pubs around Braintree, including the Green Dragon half a mile down the road! 17 hours a week: sounds promising! Alternatively there's the warehouse at Comet or Interlink Parcels... and I still haven't made progress with asking about the printers up the drive at the industrial units on Lynderswood Farm, which would be an even shorter distance to walk!

On the way up to Cambridge today, I noticed that since yesterday, a rather impressive 6 dead creatures have appeared on the central reservation side of the road, somewhere on the A120 near Dunmow... in a single stretch... Two rabbits, two pheasants, a pigeon and a squirrel: get your country meats here! Fresh and free-range!

Having arrived, I noticed another curious phenomenom upon entering the computer room, confirmed by the flow in and out. The girls go in and sit anywhere, but the guys use the same rules as apply when using public urinals: First person picks their spot, other guys try to maintain a gap of one unused urinal between each one being used. It's the same with computers! I realised I always do it when I go into the computer room... There isn't such a problem with being unwilling to fill a gap and prefering to wait - even with legs twisted together - though!

While there I noticed that my visitor ranking had leapt by about 400, in a day! Bizarre! And by the time I got home it had leapt another 200! Most odd, even given that commenting means it gains at least 4! There aren't enough comments to merit that!

My T.A. this week, unfortunately, owned me... It was a full paper and I only had 55 minutes though! But still, I estimate 60% at the most...

This evening I watched Doc Martin, which included a blood-spurt that soaked the poor chap's shirt rather impressively! The highlight of the series so far! I've been conversing until recently with Podgy, meandering through various topics as we rambling types tend to! For your delight and delectation I present the highlights:

• Podge revealing that in her youth (aged 5, that is) she was an outspoken, self-confident "raucous lil brat" (in her own words!)... I find that hard to picture, somehow! I think family snaps from the time are needed!
• Podge on never having been to Wales:
  "well, ive been to Wells, and as my mum says both names the same way, you could make a case for it :p"
• Podge on Bono's speech at the Labour Party Conference: "it was admirable... except the constant gay "im a rock star" mentions..."
  Will: "You mean like yadda yadda yadda Ive got an alienware! yadda yadda yadda..."
• Podge reckoning I should work in a Video Store and look like Bill Bailey... :D

Fitness Report: I didn't run, nor did I manage to attend the sports session at college today! I somehow slept with my knee slightly twisted - or otherwise under pressure - and so it was stiff and generally complaining this morning... By the time of the sports session it was actually alright, but I'd have had to have left an hour earlier to attend! Oh well! Disgracefully lazy, me...