Christmas is over, let the exams begin!

As the new year approaches, it's about now that I just start to panic about exams. They're just so stressful and I never know where to focus my revision. This block of exams are so awkwardly placed too!
My exams:

• 20th of January - Core 3 Maths
• 23rd of January - Maths Mechanics
• 24th of January - Physics 4
• 25th of January - Electronics 4

From the above, I believe it's obvious to see that they're a bit close together. Therefore I am rather confused and what revision I should do when. I do have a revision schedule, which I stick to, but I'm always worried that I am not doing enough. Also, in addition to all my work shifts, I don't really have much free time. I cannot wait for them to be over!

Anyway, enough of my terribly boring exam related blog posts, it's time to crack on with some Physics. At least revising for Physics is fun!

This is a lovely picture of Comey Lovejoy off the ESO website!

It's CHRISTMAS!!

Well nearly. I'm ridiculously excited! It's like I'm 9 years old all over again. I'm now sat watching 2009's Doctor Who Christmas special, you know...the one with Wilf and David Tennant. It's one of my favourite Christmas specials, because it contains all of my favourite characters (well almost).  I think putting on Doctor Who has caused my younger sister to go to bed; so now i'm just sat, on my own, drinking wine and tracking Santa online. It's amazing what you can do on the internet. You can: track Santa, email Santa and probably lots of other stuff that I haven't even heard of yet.

Today was traumatic. Yesterday I went to work, felt really ill and got sent home. This led to me spending the majority of the day sleeping and consequently led to me forgetting to set my alarm for work the next day. So, when my alarm goes off at quarter to 9, I thought it was 7am. Getting ready for work in under 15 minutes was stupidly hard. I was extremely impressed with myself when I managed to arrive at work by 9.05! My boss was less impressed, but I didn't even mind. Trying to serve customers when you've been awake for 15 minutes is tough. Apart from that, my shift was lovely. I genuinely love working Christmas Eve, easily the best shift of the year!

Excuse the poor picture quality, but this is the coolest Secret Santa present ever. It's me and Matt Smith!

In conclusion to this short blog post, I would like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas!

UCAS, star parties and a flight to remember!

Yes. It's officially been two months since my last post. I'm a bit embarrassed, but if I said it had been the busiest two months of my life so far, then I wouldn't be lying.

Main updates include:

• UCAS offers
• S197 module results
• An aurora flight
• Work experience
• Star Party

So, I should probably start with the most interesting. UCAS offers. For any of you that actually read this, my last blog post stated (I think) that I had sent off my UCAS. 2 months on and I have received all 5 offers. I'm sorry, but if someone had told me on the last results day that getting a C in maths was not the end of my university aspirations, I wouldn't have believed them. Now I'm holding 5 offers, 4 of those offers are at 1994/Russell Group universities, and I don't know where to go. Who knew I'd be so spoilt for choice? Leeds, Cardiff and Sussex all want AAB (with an AB in maths and physics). Aberystwyth and Kent have made me a lower offer, one that I can't remember right now - oops! I think my top two choices are Cardiff and Leeds. I've got until the 9th of May to make a decision, so I'm trying to push it to the back of my mind until after the January exams.

Now for some really happy news. Mid December was an approximation of when I should have received my S197 module results by. I am very pleased to announce that I PASSED! This morning I received a letter stating how well I had done on Section A, which was 20 multiple choice questions. I only got 4 wrong, so I am quite happy with that. On Section B, which involved longer written answers, I scored:  3 'Well Achieved', 4 'Achieved' and 1 'Just Achieved'. This is on a scale of 5 levels, with 'Well Achieved 'being the best and 'Not Achieved' being the worst. There is another level between 'Just Achieved' and 'Not Achieved' but I can't remember. A normal pass is 'Just Achieved'. The Open University has such a complex grading system.

Next on the list of news was my aurora flight. To give a rough idea of the sights I got to see on this flight, see some of the pictures taken by the famous Astrophotographer and Sky at Night Presenter Pete Lawrence here. It was genuinely once of the best experiences of my life. For anyone wanting to go see the Northern Lights, a flight is a fantastic way. Even if the aurora puts on a poor show, the clarity of the night sky and millions of stars on view is enough to amaze anyone. I would not get away with posting about the aurora flight without mentioning Nigel Bradbury. The combination of his passion and knowledge of the sky made sure that the in-flight commentary was brilliant. I would give anything to be back on that flight.

I should quickly mention that it would have made more sense to mention the star party before the aurora flight, but I'm not a fan of putting things in chronological order. To quickly summarise what a star party is (you wouldn't believe the amount of times I have been asked 'what is a star party?'), it's where lots of astronomers gather in some form of fields/farm/outdoor area. They camp, bring astronomical gear and geek out all weekend. For my first star party, I wanted to attend a smaller one - just to get me used to it. I decided to attend the Peak Star Party held at Shallow Grange Farm. It exceeded all of my expectations.

It all kicked off Friday night. My friends (Matt, Hannah and Bryn) and I arrived about an hour before it got dark. Consequently, this led to the 10 man tent being partially set up in the dark. By the time we had eventually set everything up, we were greeted by beautiful night sky in all its glory. I'M JOKING. After staying up until 12am, I decided to let the clouds win and my poor tired self rest. The skies cleared early on Saturday morning and I was most definitely asleep.

Saturday lunch indicated the start of the lectures. This was of course after I decided to bang my head on a very expensive telescope and caused it to bleed (my head, not the telescope). If my memory serves me correct; we had a Dark Skies presentation by John Tanner, a Astronomy in the Peaks style lecture by Dr Daniel Brown of Nottingham University and the day was finished off by a spectacular lecture by Prof. Ian Morrison. After cooking a poor meal, I decided to get out and be social with the many pleasant people who decided to attend the Star Party. If I started to list all the spectacular sights I was treated to through the kindness of many astronomers letting me look through their equipment, I would be here all day. My favourite sights were finally being able to see the Sun and all its wonderful sunspots, M13 a globular cluster and locating M31 for the first time. It's not even hard to locate, I'm just a bit useless.

I spent the majority of Sunday morning putting down Marquees, not that I minded helping of course. It did however cause me to miss the first lecture! It was okay though, because I think I managed to make a lasting impression on several main hosts of the star party. Once I actually managed to attend the Sunday lectures, it was lovely. The first (well, second of the day) presentation was given by Nigel Bradbury on aurora flights. It was really interesting and I really enjoyed it, even if I was late (once again, sorry). The final lecture of the Star Party was on Pulsars, not quasars, and was given by Prof. Andrew Lyne. I dragged along my fellow campers and found it inspiring.

Not that they will read it, but I really would like to thank James Pels and many other people who organised such a fantastic event for making my first star party so special. The Peak Star Party 2012 has been confirmed according to here, so I expect everyone reading to attend if they can!

I did intend to write about my work experience, but there simply isn't enough time. I've got to go get ready for the busiest weekend in retail of the year (apparently). GOGOGO!

M31 - The Andromeda Galaxy. Image Credits to NASA.

Long time, no blog!

I'VE BEEN SO BUSY! So I have barely had any free time to myself. By the end of October, I need to have:

• Sent off my UCAS application
• Send off S197 OU module
• Start my mechanics resit revision
• Sort a lot of things out
• Finish all my programming and circuits for electronics
• Start January exam revision

I feel like I have no time in the world to complete all these tasks, especially with the A2 workload. Dropping chemistry really does make me happy. I did enjoy it, but it would have been so hard. Doing the 3 subjects is hard enough, plus I have my EPQ (extended project) It's a nightmare I tell you, and Professor Brian Cox hasn't even tweeted me back. It's so sad.

I really can't decided my 5th university on my choices bit for UCAS. I change my mind everyday! It's either Kent or Leicester. I'm a tad worried that most of the universities I am applying for are really far away from Nottingham. Leeds is the closest, then Aberystwyth, Cardiff and Sussex. I don't think I can move out in less than a year. I find the concept really daunting! I've been 18 for almost a month now, yet I still don't feel like an adult.

I am really tired and it's only 9pm, I blame my A2s, but yes, here are a few lovely pictures to sum up my birthday! I went to Aberystwyth and Cardiff University :)

Early morning on the way to Aberystwyth, you can still see the moon if you look carefully.

The pretty coast of Aberystwyth.

My favourite place in the whole entire world! Cardiff Bay.

 Never trust your mother to take a nice picture of you to document the fact you were stood outside "Torchwood"

Seriously, what do I do with my time!?

I've been off college for two months.

I can genuinely only recall about 15 social outings. This would be great normally, but it's summer! I am definitely regretting wasting most of it in bed watching tv. If the article (which I can't find) on new scientist is anything to go by, then I have probably shaved a year off my life this holiday. Slightly counter-productive considering all the grand plans I had for these holidays. Oops! I have enjoyed them - honestly I really have, yet I cannot wait to return to college.

Missing hash browns is really confusing and probably explains how I may have spent at least 10% of my wages on stuff from the shop at Bilborough and from Cathy. She is the lovely lady who works at The Pod (a coffee bar type contraption) and sells me coffee. Considering my current high intake of caffeine, I may be spending a lot of time talking to her this year. I hope she still works there. There is one major issue though, my bank balance isn't very healthy currently and I don't know where my money has gone. If only my debit card would stop working for a week or four - that would help my work pile disappear!

So with one day until I have to go back to college only my electronics notes have been written up, haven't even started the shocking project. Oh dear. Tomorrow is going to be stupidly busy and I would much rather stay in bed. OH WAIT. I have a dentist appointment. So I would much rather stay at home and work. Catching up is essential before college starts otherwise i'll fall behind. I need to finish my open university module as well. I guess I can kiss my social life goodbye until August 2012 then.

      I want to marry Sheldon Cooper.

Pottermore rules, as do Antiprotons.

I don't care that I haven't actually accessed the site yet, apparently the few "chosen ones" will be given access anytime from Sunday until September. I'm hoping they work it on a first signed up, first to gain access basis. I created my account on the first day so hopefully I should only have to wait a few weeks.I hope. So the only update I have to offer really is regarding Leicester University.

I loved it.

Walking around the grounds behind the university had me dreaming I was there, studying on the beautiful grass. It really was quite nice. Plenty of photos were taken on the day and they will be uploaded when I can bring myself to connect the camera to my computer. That could take some time.

I have also managed to get some work done! It took so much effort but once I started working my way through the first few chapters of 'How the Universe Works' I was hooked. Although the first few chapters barely extend past AS physics. It's just nice to be talking about quarks and leptons again. On the subject of interesting particle physics, they've just discovered proof of an antiproton belt around the Earth. I won't attempt to poorly explain it, so I shall link it instead.  Enjoy.
http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/arxiv/27058/

Oh and if you live high up in the northern hemisphere, keep your eyes peeled for aurora. The Sun has been very busy and has sent many flares towards us.

Pottermore has already crashed.

I may not really have mentioned Harry Potter that much in my blog but I am a HUGE fan.
I'm currently amongst the millions of people sat staring at one pink homepage. I would like to congratulate you all for CRASHING the site.

Oh well.

If it had run smoothly then it wouldn't have been half as fun waiting up...impatiently!

Ps, hitting F5 repeatedly does nothing.
Also...15 seconds is a very long time.

Leicester tomorrow!

I am really excited about going to Leicester tomorrow! The only down side is that I have an awful cold currently. It is clearly going to ruin the day and cause great difficulty when it comes to people being able to understand what I am saying as I sound awful.

Oh and I can't sleep.

It's 1.48am and I have to be up in about six hours. It's important to arrive early at an open day so you get a decent parking space, avoid the mad crowds and get to take leisurely walks around the university. Rushing around is the worst thing.

I really need to do some open university work soon as I have only completed chapter 1, when I should have completed up to chapter 4 by now. Oops.

As I have no idea how to end this post perfectly with a picture...here's one I took earlier!

Ruby.

My first week free from college.

This has been one of the best weeks ever. It can simply be explained by two magical words.
Harry Potter.


A quick rewind to Monday does reveal a bit of a boring week. I started off my first week of the holidays by helping out at college. Why an earth I volunteered I will never know! It wasn't that bad I suppose, but it was really tiring. On Monday and Tuesday I got to wear a large mens bright red t-shirt around my college and help some slightly rude year 11's find their way around. I say some were rude because some were genuinely awful people who I pray decide to go to a different college. Some were lovely though - especially some of the girls who got on my bus.


Then we move on to Wednesday where I spent from about 9am until half past 7 dealing with silly year 10's and their parents. It was almost fun because the day was mainly spent playing with robots, but then the last few hours did just involve giving out maps. Bit dull in all honesty but someone has to do it.


I did have the best treat after.

A day in Leeds...

Found my Leeds photos!
I was a bit worried when I thought I had lost them but I haven't so it's all okay.

 Pretty view from outside some residency place.

 Another view from the same building.

 More student residences,

 The same halls of residence.

Inside the posh kids residency halls (£144 a week, I don't think so) 

 The more suitable accommodation :)

The best bedroom ever - this picture does it no justice whatsoever. 

 A weird graveyard viewed from the brilliant bedroom.

 My mother and I walked to some other halls of residence, lovely area.

 The road was a bit busier than it looks but it wasn't awful, I liked it.

 More lovely views on our walk.

 This is the bookcase from the posh kids house, how it ended up here I do not know.

 This is the church on the corner of the residency halls road.

My mother and I walking up the slightly inclined slope leading up to Devonshire Hall. 

Myself standing under a beautiful arch. 

These are the most gorgeous halls of residence I have ever seen, I would love something like this!

Definitely the best entrance ever. 

It was a wonderful green area.

 

 The library <3 I fell in love here.

 A small section of the astronomy section, wow.

The building to the left is the physics building, it was huge.

Those are all my pictures and as I just heard a glass smash downstairs, I should probably investigate.

Leeds Photos..or maybe not

Before I sleep, I thought I would add my photos of Leeds. I believe it is important to take photos as it may help you make the big decision in the future!
Excuse my terrible photography.

OH. I can't find them.

You'll just have to enjoy my weird photos from a masterclass then until I can find them. I should discuss my masterclass soon really...another time.

 The view from my coffee spot.

 A weird graveyard in the middle of campus.

 My coffee building!

 A probably very artistic, but weird statue thing.

Pretty trees and people.

I believe I am getting more and more useless and writing blogs.

I mean seriously, the last time I posted was near my mechanics exam. That was about 14 days ago!

My life has been rather dull though lately.

Updates! I am...

• currently looking and may have found some Astrophysics related work experience
• almost at the end of my college year, just one more week to go!
• very tired and in need of the longest break ever
• trying and failing to write my personal statement for UCAS
• not very interesting

Although there have been some very excited developments in my university box. It's getting smaller! I managed to throw out the prospectus' of the universities I am definitely not going to - even St. Andrews. It was weird considering I spent 2 years of my life obsessing about the university. I'm just not smart or perfect enough them to be honest, so I don't see the point in trying. Especially since I fell in love with Leeds.

University updates:

• Leeds - looked at and loved it! It's just such a beautiful place, the accommodation is perfect too. I could genuinely imagine living there and also dreamt about it.
• Nottingham - I went to the open day, it's just not the environment I want to study in. That and I am fed up of Nottingham.
• Leicester - looking at near the end of July, I don't think I will like it though. Me and Leicester didn't get on when I last visited, although the space centre is fantastic.
• Lancaster - apparently it's campus based and amazing. I spoke to a teacher who did his degree there and he said it was definitely worth a look! Not until August though.
• Cardiff - my main obsession with this city started with the fact Torchwood and Doctor Who are filmed there sometimes, I would enjoy life on a daily basis based on this fact.
• Aberystwyth - this university has the option of spending a semester in the Artic Circle, wow. Cannot wait to go see it on my birthday!
• Kent - Ellie Goulding went to Kent apparently, it's hard to imagine this but it does make the university more appealing, although basing my opinion on this would be silly. I will judge more in October.
• Sussex - this university has become my top choice, although it has some serious competition from Leeds. I hope it's beautiful.

I think this update is all I have time for, I have a personal statement to complete! That and I should probably sleep at some point...

I may have to start a diet tomorrow...

Not an actual diet (I don't think that pi pie would be very good for me though), although my current intake of rubbish - including pizza and maltesers - does indicate I should definitely go for a jog tomorrow, only because I wish to avoid heart disease and obesity. My new diet shall comprise of 90% Maths Mechanics, 5% Doctor Who and the other 5% should probably be spent on digesting relaxtion techniques.

I am feeling rather stressed.

I think what stresses me out the most is when I have to use calculus to solve problems. I like calculus, but start relating it to motion and my brain stops working and starts making stuff up. I never know when I am allowed to integrate between two limits of just indefinitely. As long as I remember SVA I should be okay. You differentiate displacement to get velocity and differentiate velocity to get acceleration. That is pretty much the limit of my knowledge. It is hard to care when you get told stuff like v = 0.1t - 5t^2, please find the acceleration. How about no, I would rather be doing something more valuable with my time - like watching Doctor Who.

Definitely doing decision next year opposed to mechanics as my application module as I just can't handle these levels of stress.  

The following picture was on a powerpoint shown in tutor recently and does describe my current state of mind when stress is removed. The prospect of looking around Leeds University next week terrifies me.

I should be revising but...I don't want to.

Well my blog title is a lie, I do want to revise! Just not as much as I want to other stuff...like embark on 81 days of Doctor Who.

I was reading a few tweets from Doctor Who magazine and apparently if you watch every episode from Rose to When a good man goes to war, but only watch one episode a day then it would take 81 days. This just sounds like 81 days of heaven to be honest - I am fed up of education and work.

Coming home from work was so painful, spending 5 straight hours on my feet really did hurt! Then I had to go fetch my fathers day gift.

Bleurghhhh!

I would continue this post but my father has just arrived home. Oh dear. HE'S BROUGHT CHOCOLATE! Win!

So I really should be revising right now but I am just not in the mood.

Currently not enjoying life due to my final exam.

This mechanics exam business is one of the worst things I have ever tried to prepare for! It's so hard to revise when all your friends have finished exams and are now enjoying life. I've already missed out of two Alton Towers trips, the cinema and I cannot attend Mofest (a free festival) this year also! Missing everything is just saddening and really doesn't help improve my motivation levels as I just want to finish my exams. You have thought with it being my last exam that it would be better - but not this time as it is so late! I do have one major thing to look forward to though after exams. Open days.

After much deliberation, my mother and I decided on the following open days (I'd include dates but they're irrelevant to the post and I don't know them off the top of my head)...

• Leeds
• Nottingham
• Leicester
• Lancaster
• Cardiff
• Aberystwyth
• Kent
• Sussex

I am also visiting UCL and Queen Mary both in London for masterclasses. Although I think I recently concluded not to go to one as I don't really have an interest in Medical Physics - just Astrophysics. I thought my list was too big but the open days are really spread out so the cost is also spread out. I wish some of the ones I want to look at weren't so far away! Although I do really want to get out of Nottingham and explore what England and Wales have to offer me!

The only other important updates really are the fact I have enquired about an Avanti scholarship, I still don't have a clue what to do next year for my A2s and I am yet to start my OU Module.

I am going to leave you now with my final words of this post and simply express how horrified I was when I discovered that Sarah doesn't know what a comet is. Here is another reminder Sarah, just for you! A beautiful picture of Halley's comet I believe.

So...when life gets you down, create a rocket out of symbols and blast yourself towards a happier place!

Today has both been brilliant and soul-crushing.

I really enjoyed hanging and revising with Megan and Katie this morning, it kind of made my day laughing so much and just generally catching up on girl stuff. I use to hang out and just do that aaaaaalll the time, now...not so much! I definitely miss it. Plus it was absolutely hilarious!

Now for the soul crushing part, my physics resit.

I can safely say I have never revised so hard for one exam, and for me to get in there and feel like ripping up the exam paper, it was just never going to end well. I felt okay for the first 15 minutes I suppose, but then I made the rookie mistake of looking at the clock. It always panics me, even when I have an hour left of the 1 hour and 15 minute exam - I just hate timed situations. Also the stupid examiner decided to throw in a completely foreign horse-related topic in there, purely for the sake of torturing the youth of today. Exam boards are clearly run by people who wish to cause 'youngsters' pain.

It now feels like an appropriate place to place a rocket.

~~=[::>

The rocket is important. It puts me in a brilliant position to discuss science stuff.

Firstly, I discovered today that 300 atoms of antihydrogen were collected and existed for 17 minutes! Unless you follow the fast paced field of physics, then this might not seem like a huge achievement - but it really is. It had taken about a year to go from the atoms existing for milliseconds to minutes; which when you consider the amount of difficulty going against nature causes, it's just fantastic.
My second discovery is NASA sending up the next Mars rover with a microchip full of peoples names, I just couldn't resist and have my certificate as proof. 

So next time you're feeling down, just think of my rocket!

~~=[::>

My deepest apologies to Sarah...

lI just want to apologies to Sarah, one of the few to actually read my feeble blogging attempts.

GOALS OF THE MONTH:

• Blog more
• Revise more
• Smile more

Once these goals are obtained, my life should be improved. That is the main plan.

So since my last blog, I really haven't done much interesting apart from sat and probably barely passed some exams. It's not that I don't revise, it's just that I get into the exam and panic. These momentary moments of panic cause the brain to go blank and cost me valuable time! I really wish I didn't have them!
I will try and eradicate them but they're just part of my exam routine I guess.

Enough about exams...
I AM REALLY EXCITED ABOUT OCTOBER!
I'm off to the Peak District to a star party. It's basically a gathering of astronomers where they observe and share wisdom about cool stuff in the sky. I cannot wait! Although I currently have no one else to go with...I need to find someone by October otherwise I'll have to be extra social to avoid becoming an outcast. I'm only an amateur astronomer really, but I suppose this will give me an opportunity to ask lots of questions.

I really need/want it to be summer also.
37 days to go!

I'm not entirely sure where this blog is going, I have left it so long since the last post that I just have to much to catch up on!

My image of the blog is once again from APOD and is just what I hope and imagine the Peak Star Party will be like.

 

So today was the day when I felt life was over...

Being blissfully unaware of how close exams are was really enjoyable, if anyone owns a TARDIS and feels like taking me back a few weeks...I would greatly appreciate it.

I know the title of this blog seems awfully dramatic, but today was the day when the fact I have exams coming up truly dawned upon me! I was happily shuffling around Peacocks, tidying and organising, when I just suddenly thought 'wow, by the next shift I will have completed 2 exams' - this is when panic hit me. I FEEL SO UNPREPARED! Yet I know i've done a ton of work and it's not like I failed either Core 2 or Electronics in the mocks! I got a B and an A without any real revision.

Oh well. I'm going to go to sleep, pretend exams don't exist and probably dream about failing everything.

Brilliant.

So here goes nothing...

A friend once told me that I should make some form of blog because I am really interesting; personally I do not agree, but I do agree that you should try everything at least once so why not?

I do believe the general themes of these will be me venting out my frustration of college and A levels - for which I apologise for in advance.

If you haven’t yet reached your A levels, here is just a word of advice - do not take subjects you think are alright, they will torture you for 2 years! I chose Maths, Physics, Chemistry and Electronics. I love the subjects, I really do…they’re just hard. I never thought i’d be reduced to tears on so many different occassions over education.

On a more positive note, I have interesting hobbies which I will probably mention once in a while also. I love Astronomy and reading, they make day-to-day life exciting and stop me from going slightly insane from the pressures and challenges of trying to get through year 12. It does worry me slightly about how hard I am finding year 12, how am I going to manage next year!?

I even decided something a bit crazy, I thought it would be a great idea to complete an open university short science module over my holidays. It's only 10 credits which equates to 100 hours of study and it's called 'How the Universe works'. It does look pretty interesting, even if it does take about 3 chapters to go beyond AS physics.

It is here, now, where I choose to end this first post, due to the fact I do have to get ready for work. My part-time job is working as a sales assistant at Peacocks. So here, have a pretty picture from APOD (Astronomy Picture Of the Day)