I went for a career talk today. It was run by Shell, and I have to give them credit for their tactically superb advertising. Yes, let's send the goodlooking and inspired fresh graduates who still love their job, and the charismatic below-35s to talk them all into subjugation. Let's show them a video and brainwash them into thinking that Shell's THE place to work. I bet there were subliminal messages in that "The world without power" clip. I know I took away more than a couple of leaflets from that presentation. I think I remember more from that forty minutes than I do from all my other lectures. Maybe IC should employ gorgeously darkhaired, green-eyed hunks to teach us stress analysis...
Coming back to reality though, the talk brought up the slightly less attractive prospect of filling out application forms and sending CVs in before the Dec/Jan deadlines. A bit like UCAS all over again, only worse.
I'm also pleased to say that I'm as up to date with my tutorials as I can be - or so I think (but then there's that nagging feeling that I'm forgetting something). I know there are so many half done questions, but that'll have to wait til the lessons to finish. I really don't feel like studying for next week's tests, so I think I'll sit here, wait for football to come on, and miss my goodsmellingcocoabutterboy.
I'll probably regret like hell tomorrow when I kena ambush by more work.
Tuesday, November 02, 2004
Monday, November 01, 2004
Baby, it's cold outside
Lab was an hour and a half of writing down numbers, and another hour and a half spent making them jump through flaming hoops. We're not engineers, we're accountants.
We longingly watched from behind the huge glass window as students skipped home, as people waved goodbye, and as the sun set. We saw our peers pack up their books and pencilcases with smiles of relief, grab their coats and bags in earnest, and leave the laboratory at a near run. We saw the shadows on the wall creep further and further up the brickwork as darkness descended on the South Kensington campus and we were finally allowed to go home, all because of a couple of bent lines and a few poorly marked 'x's.
Then it was the cold walk home. You could feel the frost in the air as people walked in and out of the pools of murky light cast along the street. The romantically rambling gardens suddenly turned into forbidding shadowy portals. People pulled their coats tighter, their collars higher, as they hurried on at the sound of footsteps. Warmth spilled out briefly from open doorways as they were opened and then quickly shut again against the pervading draft.
When it's cold and dark, everyone's hurrying home, fiercely protective of whatever warmth and love they possess. I wish I had someone to go home to.
We longingly watched from behind the huge glass window as students skipped home, as people waved goodbye, and as the sun set. We saw our peers pack up their books and pencilcases with smiles of relief, grab their coats and bags in earnest, and leave the laboratory at a near run. We saw the shadows on the wall creep further and further up the brickwork as darkness descended on the South Kensington campus and we were finally allowed to go home, all because of a couple of bent lines and a few poorly marked 'x's.
Then it was the cold walk home. You could feel the frost in the air as people walked in and out of the pools of murky light cast along the street. The romantically rambling gardens suddenly turned into forbidding shadowy portals. People pulled their coats tighter, their collars higher, as they hurried on at the sound of footsteps. Warmth spilled out briefly from open doorways as they were opened and then quickly shut again against the pervading draft.
When it's cold and dark, everyone's hurrying home, fiercely protective of whatever warmth and love they possess. I wish I had someone to go home to.
Week 5 :: 1 - 7 November 2004
We're almost halfway through the first term already, and I could kill for a midterm break. I never knew how unbelieveably valuable three or four days off school can be until you don't have them.
No, instead, they give us progress tests to, ha ha, test our progress. I wonder if they've realised that we don't retain anything in the first six weeks, much less the whole year, so testing us means unnecessary stress on both parts.
We have to learn and commit to memory things that we barely grasp in the first place. Proof? What proof? You think we actually know the fluid flow derivations inside and out enough to reproduce the proof based on pure instinct? Yeah Right. We don't even understand the damn thing, so, like in all other cases of desperation, we end up memorising lines and lines of derivation. Tough luck if you're dyselxic. All those curly d's and deltas can be a real pain in the ass.
Labs start this week too. This afternoon actually, an inspiring three hour session that effectively doubles the class time for today. And it's so cold outside.
This week also plays host to the elections that will determine the next four years of America (four years, is that right?). Because of poor information and time-zone calculations on my part, I can only hazard a guess that it'll happen sometime between today and tomorrow. As it stands, when one candidate wins, about half the nation'll be demanding recounts and blaming underhanded tactics and conspiracies in bitter disappointment.
It looks like America'll have a tough time deciding between a couple of complete tits under the bombardment of masses of advertisements and rallies. Give human beings a vote and it gets complicated.
No, instead, they give us progress tests to, ha ha, test our progress. I wonder if they've realised that we don't retain anything in the first six weeks, much less the whole year, so testing us means unnecessary stress on both parts.
We have to learn and commit to memory things that we barely grasp in the first place. Proof? What proof? You think we actually know the fluid flow derivations inside and out enough to reproduce the proof based on pure instinct? Yeah Right. We don't even understand the damn thing, so, like in all other cases of desperation, we end up memorising lines and lines of derivation. Tough luck if you're dyselxic. All those curly d's and deltas can be a real pain in the ass.
Labs start this week too. This afternoon actually, an inspiring three hour session that effectively doubles the class time for today. And it's so cold outside.
This week also plays host to the elections that will determine the next four years of America (four years, is that right?). Because of poor information and time-zone calculations on my part, I can only hazard a guess that it'll happen sometime between today and tomorrow. As it stands, when one candidate wins, about half the nation'll be demanding recounts and blaming underhanded tactics and conspiracies in bitter disappointment.
It looks like America'll have a tough time deciding between a couple of complete tits under the bombardment of masses of advertisements and rallies. Give human beings a vote and it gets complicated.
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