Archive for October, 2005

Implausibly informative post…

Fyse October 31st, 2005

Ok, this is it. Time for a proper post, guaranteed to make you all once again thrillingly well-versed in all things Fyse. I’m now approaching the half-way point of term, which always brings mixed feelings. On the one hand is the proximity of a relaxing break, on the other the horrible realisation that I have achieved nothing to date. This year the positive aspect is almost entirely obliterated by my exams immediately after New Year, and I consequently wont be enjoying myself at all this festive season. Well, not too much.

I mentioned a while back that auditions had gone badly, but I only actually did two and was offered a part in one of them. The production I really wanted to do this term was the Footlights pantomime (which I was in three years ago), but I made a pig’s ear of the first round and wasn’t suprised to be rejected. The other audition was for a small production of ‘Grease’, in which I was offered a T-Bird (can’t remember the name), but had to turn it down because my voice is still a mess after the summer.

Actually, I don’t think that’s come up at all so far, and it probably deserves a little elaboration. By the end of the three week run in Edinburgh my voice became painful, which I put down to an infection. It remained bad for the three weeks in Cornwall, and even now is still completely shot. I went to a (very unhelpful) doctor early in September, and keep meaning to go again now I’m in Cambridge. Having resigned myself to no singing this term it hasn’t been a high priority, but audition time is coming round again fast and I really ought to determine what’s wrong.

In other news, I’ve been filling the dramatic void in my life with sporting exploits, notably in a football team for the first time in 12 years. Only for the college 3rd team, but it’s still great to be playing again, and I’m on a steep learning curve in central defence. There was a modicum of woeful positional play in the first couple of matches, but I generally got away with it and am beginning to get my head round everything. Perhaps it was easier when I was younger, but I’d forgotten how much football can hurt the day after. Hobbling to and from lectures gave me a sharp reminder that I’m getting old. Or perhaps just out of shape. Probably both.

If I still have your attention, I shall continue this rapid tour of my life as it stands now. Academically things are the same as ever, and I was given a sharp shock today registering for my exams next term. They’re worth 30% of this year, and take place on the 16th-18th of January. Gulp. Also today I finally received confirmation of the research project I’m to do, and it’s a pretty weird one. I’d applied and been turned down for a number of different ones, including epidemiological modelling (which would have been particularly relevant with the current avian flu scare), and finally ended up with a very unlikely project for an undergraduate physicist. ‘Inferring the calling mechanism of the bullfrog from its calls’. It is physics really, as I will be examining the form of the sound waves and don’t need to go anywhere near an actual frog. Fortunately some nutcase (sorry, committed scientist) has already recorded thousands of bullfrog calls, leaving me to just analyse the data. The project is based in the ‘Centre for the Neural Basis of Hearing’, and might turn out to be really interesting. The main thing though is that I liked the department and the supervisors seemed competent and pleasant to work with. One of the other projects was being offered by an extremely odd proffessor who appeared worryingly disorganised. With my project I should have every opportunity to get a good mark, though it is of course entirely down to me. Just gotta get myself motivated!

Anyone still reading, congratulations, and I intend to cut you a break by stopping now. I’m planning a very (or reasonably) early night tonight, and a full day in the department library tomorrow. Lots of work to be done by the end of the week, and I’m much more productive when away from my room. Oh, I must update you some time on the progress of my mighty college pool team. Remind me for next time…

Exciting development…

Fyse October 25th, 2005

It’s been too long between posts again, and this isn’t even a real update. I don’t have time to fill you in on everything (football matches, continuing lack of project supervisor etc.) but I will point you in the direction of my new photo site! It’s extremely simple, and I’m still using the same old gallery structure, but it means all my photos have a permanent new home.

That really is all I have time for now, as I must sleep. There are a lot of emails to be sent out to potential project supervisors tomorrow, as well as a lot of example sheets to be completed (or rather started).

Meme time again…

Fyse October 16th, 2005

Both Nicole and Nicholas completed this photo related meme, and it’s a good one so I figured I’d join in too. Using Google’s wonderful image search, you take the first picture thrown up by searches for your…

  • Town of birth
  • Town of residence
  • Name
  • Grandmother’s name
  • Favourite food
  • Favourtie drink
  • Favourite song
  • Favourtie smell

“Manchester”

Though I was born in Manchester, I spent only the first year of my life there so I don’t really qualify as a Northerner. It’s a relief really, since otherwise I would have been stuck supporting either Manchester United (a repulsive thought) or Manchester City (a depressing prospect).

“Cambridge”

I guess I don’t really live here, but it is where I spend more than half the year. Cambridge is stunning in any season, and there are loads of fantastic photos thrown up by Google. This first is definitely one of the best.

“Fyse”

I did try my actual name, but there were no photos returned at all. It seems I have a namesake graffiti artist out there somewhere. I assure you we are not the same person. I have no artistic talent whatsoever.

“Dorothy *****”

I’ve edited this post to remove my surname, since I like the fact that Googling my name doesn’t currently return any hits on this site. It’s not that I’m particularly fussed if people find their way here, just that ever since I heard potential employers often Google interviewees I’d rather they didn’t come across this immediately. Anyway, I think I’ve worked out why my grandmother’s name throws up this somewhat strange photo. The ‘*****’ part comes from my uncle (her son), who has done a lot of research into the Chartist movement, and he happens to appear on a web page near someone named Dorothy. Strange that it’s a related *****, but I guess it is a pretty rare name.

“Olives”

It’s really tricky to pick a favourite food, as it completely depends on my mood, but olives are certainly up there.

“Espresso”

Nothing hits the spot like a double espresso.

“Beautiful Day”

Again, it’s really tricky to pick a favourite song. This U2 song has fantastic associations for me, since it was used as the soundtrack on the video of a sky-dive I did on my gap year. That’s right, I did a parachute jump. It was AWESOME.

“Freshly roasted coffee”

Yep, it’s another coffee related photo. To be honest, my favourite food could easily have been chocolate coated coffee beans, but I figured choosing basically the same thing three times would be a little over the top.

Slacking again…

Fyse October 13th, 2005

This isn’t really a post. Consider it as reassurance I’m still out here, and that I shall try to blog properly again soon. I don’t even have the excuse of being too busy, because I’m not. Lectures have started again (and I have attended all of them), I’ve been selecting a research project for this year (most likely to be ‘Contact processes on a binary square lattice’) and I’ve been attending auditions for productions later this term (they have gone very badly). I shall drag myself back to the keyboard soon, and write again properly. I’m partly reassured and partly concerned to find that I still view all events in my life as potential blog-fodder. “Ooh, I could write about that!”, I say to myself. The spirit of the blogger has not yet left me completely…

Normal service resumed…

Fyse October 3rd, 2005

I’m very aware that it is far too long since I posted, and I hope an absence of information pertaining to my life has not proved too detrimental to your own. I’ve been back in college since last Tuesday, and am actually quite looking forward to lectures starting again. I think the courses should be interesting, and this year is the first time we’ve had much choice of subjects. This allows me to drop some of the worst areas from last year’s exams (though there weren’t really any good ones). My choices this term will most likely be ‘Soft Condensed Matter’, ‘Physics of the Earth as a Planet’ and ‘Astrophysics and Cosmology’. Perhaps if you’re very good I’ll explain all about them some time. Or perhaps if you’ve very bad. In fact, you’re gonna have to behave in a pretty average fashion to avoid that particular treat.

I realise there has been an almost complete absence of tales from my summer, and in the interests of keeping abreast of current activities it will probably have to remain thus. I did however come back with over a thousand photos, so you can have a look at them as I post them on the internet. So far I’ve only sorted through the pictures from Cornwall, but feel free to peruse them. (Don’t worry , there are only 153.) Actually of course, they’re pretty boring to anyone who doesn’t know the people featured, so the better shots can be found here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here. For those of you who trawl through them all, I can’t even begin to explain the section containing men in drag, so I wont try. The show was called ‘Iolanthe’ and you can also find some pictures on the Minack Theatre Website (though they’re only from the dress rehearsal).

Now I must head to bed, but I promise more regular updates from now on. If I discard (regretfully) a whole summer of anecdotes, I can at least resume normal service. Blogging is a habit I’m in danger of losing and we certainly don’t want that, now do we?