i’m feeling strangely productive. i want to make something. i think i’ll write a letter to someone that i promised i would write to a long time ago but never found the time. time is an interesting thing. the people who came up with the idea that there are 24 hours in a day and that each hour has 60 minutes and that each minute has 60 seconds and so on, those people are amazing! i’ve always wondered though, how did they figure those numbers out?! why was it agreed upon that a minute will have 60 seconds in it and not any other number of seconds? why also, was it figured out that there will be 60 of these minutes in what will come to be known as an hour? and why are there 24 hours in a day? now i know it must have to do with the cycle of the sun but how did this breaking up of the day come about? why are there not 30 hours? and why are the hours not shorter? why are the hours not longer? why are the minutes not a different length? time is confusing. and so often we take time for granted. “i’ll do it when i have time” but you don’t know how much time you’ve got. that’s maybe a morbid thought… but its true. if you go through life saying you’ll do things when you have time you’ll never get these things done. now i don’t think that means you should just drop what you’re doing this instant and go do this thing you want to do, some planning should go into it maybe. but in this day and age, we so often find ourselves just doing the same thing everyday. waking up in the morning, going to school/work, coming home, maybe meeting some friends, having dinner and going to sleep. only to wake up the next day and do it all over again. and we get into this routine. and those things we wanted to do, they get pushed to the back of our minds. i’ll do that when i have time. i’ll do that when i have money. i’ll do that when i have a job. when i’m older. when i’m this. when i’m that. and then that thing never gets done. we get so caught up in just living, that we don’t actually live. its not something i want to happen to me. and i have alot of dreams i want to turn into something. like alot. i made a life-list when i was like 14 of things i wanted to do in my lifetime (cheesy i know. get over it.) and its kinda sad how few i’ve accomplished. when i know plenty of people my age who have already done so much more… but yes. i think that’s what this whole train of thought is about. don’t think about things you want to do that you think will never happen. get out there and do them. make them happen.
i’m writing a lab report and i just tried to make a sentence in my head using the word “mixation”. the word “mixed” with an “ation” ending. is there an actual word for mixation? the act of being mixed? mixation beats mixed anyday.
on my way home today i stopped off at sainsburys to get some milk and a few other things, but as i left the shop i didn’t put my gloves back on. “i can handle it,” i told myself. its not that far. oh my days how wrong i was. i most certainly could NOT handle it.
not wearing gloves is a bad life choice.
i was doing some research for a lab report the other day and i came across this sentence in connection with distillation columns, “these trays bring liquid and vapour into intimate contact in order to obtain the required separation.” and i was just like intimate contact ehhh?? because i’m just that mature…
so a couple nights ago i was woken at almost 4 in the morning to the sound of the buzzer in the flat across from us. i should not be able to hear that. its weird. and a little creepy… but anyway it buzzes. and then 5 seconds later it buzzes again. and again. and again. and again. until i’m like can someone please just let these idiots in?! finally the buzzer stops. and then i hear them coming up the stairs. making a freakin’ ruckus like its nobody’s business. and i can hear that its them. guy in the flat across from us and his annoying girlfriend. they finally get up to the flat and i hear them bustle inside. and then i hear the guy shouting, (he must have made it to his room) “THEY’RE HERE! MY KEYS, ARE HERE.” and i’m just lying in bed like “GREAT. NOW SHUT THE FLIP UP AND GO TO BED.” they bang about and i can hear them having some form of conversation but i don’t catch much before i magically manage to drift off again.
but today there has been a development. or maybe rather, a potential development. annoying girlfriend might actually have a name. and her name may or may not be… megan. i heard the guy calling out this morning and she was laughing and then saying something. but i was half asleep so couldn’t make it out. but i heard ‘megan’. also, she has a cough that makes her sound like she’s on the verge of death. but its also like a fake cough. like that super exaggerated one you do when you do actually have a cough but you’re so fed up of having it you exaggerate it so show your frustration. and usually follow it up with “blehhh i’m dyingggg” or some such comment. but she always coughs like that. so either she’s just really unfortunate and is ill on and off alot. or she just permanently has the cough of death. or maybe she just likes to make a big deal out of something that’s really not a big deal…
this has been, the continuing saga of the life of the guy in the flat across from us and his annoying girlfriend. (who is potentially called megan…)
tune in next time to find out what hijinx, capers and shenanigans they get up to.
this is my favourite time of day to be working at my desk in my window. when the sun is on its downward path. and everything becomes orange and bright. it makes me happy. but then sad because its such a short window of time. and then everything starts getting darker. and colder. oh summer please come to me. i miss your fingers of warmth on my shoulder, urging me onwards. to victory. come to me soon.
last night i was googling something for my lab report, “does a frictionless surface exist”, even though i was already 95% sure of the answer. (but when you’ve been writing one of these reports for a while you begin to doubt all fundamental knowledge of the world around you.)
anyways, when i’d only typed “does a” some suggestions came up:
nose piercing hurt
tattoo hurt
kindle have a light
baby need a passport
and for some reason “does a baby need a passport” made me laugh hysterically for like 5 minutes.
enjoy this little anecdote from, “a late night in the life of a chemical engineering student.” i might write a book of them.
you know that awkward moment when you’re working on getting a degree in chemical engineering, and your best friend is working on her degree in social anthropology, and she has better mental arithmetic than you? yeah that happened to me. we were playing cribbage, or rather, lucy was destroying me in cribbage. i don’t usually have any trouble at all adding up to 15. but that night i was having some issues. like major issues. it was pretty hilarious. for her. i just felt retarded. or the next day when she asked me to do a sum for her, to figure out what she’d gotten for one of her essays, and i couldn’t. but her flatmate who is doing zoology could. yeah that was pretty great as well. she knew her overall mark. and she knew that 20% of that was from one of her other essays, which she also knew. so i just had to use that to work out the mark for the remaining essay in question. but i couldn’t get my head around what was happening. good grief it was like being back at ayr academy, trying to do those stupid brainteasers for the maths challenge. not fun times.
how loud is a handgun? i was thinking about this the other day. you always see in shooting ranges and stuff people all wearing ear protectors. but in real life, like in a police chase, ain’t nobody got time for ear protectors. and after they’ve shot their gun, maybe multiple times, they’re never like “OH MY EARS I SHALL NEVER HEAR AGAIN.” now obviously they’re loud. a mini explosion is happening for gosh sakes. but just how loud?? i was in the library the other day when i overheard this guy using his ipad to talk to his mom over skype. it was hilarious. he was getting so frustrated. “ok i have to go now, i’m in the library. no, i’ve been working all day on my report. WHY ARE YOU GETTING MAD AT ME?!?! I NEED TO GO. right, my battery is gonna die i have to go. i need to go finish my presentation. i’ve been working in the library all day! i have to go! i’ll speak to you tomorrow. right, i have alot of work to do. i have to go. yes, ok, i need to go now. ok bye.” post-its is a weird name. like, who the flip came up with that?! who was the person who decided that “little pieces of note paper that i can stick wherever i want” should no longer be called “little pieces of note paper i can stick wherever i want” but should instead be called post-its?! is it an abbreviation? and if so, what on earth is it an abbreviation of?!
for the last 5 minutes i’ve been playing a game called “guess what the guy in the flat next door and his annoying girlfriend are singing along to” its hilarious trying to guess what its meant to be because they’re so bad. now i’m not the greatest singer out there, not by a long shot, but i can carry a tune and put across a melody. these guys did at least sing in chorus. though what they were singing i think i will never know.
i just heard a sound that ima go ahead and guess was a door closing. now there is silence. it would appear they have taken their little concert elsewhere…
this has been, the continuing saga of the life of the guy in the flat across from us and his annoying girlfriend.
tune in next time to find out what hijinx, capers and shenanigans they get up to.
this is the second time tonight i have looked up from where i was sitting on my bed, working away, to see a mouse run under my door and behind my wardrobe. why do the mice love my room so much?! i’m not down with sharing it with you guys. you wanna stay here, you gotta pay rent. its only fair. so with that, i’m publishing an eviction notice. if you do not cooperate matters will be taken into my own hands. and you will be made to endure your fate. you will receive no sympathy from me. HE HAS BEEN SIGHTED ON MY BOOKSHELF. I AM SERIOUSLY NOT DOWN WITH THIS. STOP BEING SO BRAVE MOUSE. YOU’RE SCARING ME. my flatmate declared its a rebellion. i’m not ready for an uprising. i need back-up. DON’T YOU DARE PULL A KATNISS EVERDEEN ON ME MOUSE. seeing him on the bookshelf seriously scared me. the shelf he was on is level with my bed… also, the other night i was just about to fall asleep when i thought i felt something brush my shoulder, i jerked instinctively and pulled my covers closer to me and thought i saw something near the bottom of the bed down by my legs. but it was dark. i didn’t have my glasses on. and i did have a pile of unfolded laundry sitting near there… i assumed what i felt was just my hair falling as i moved. and the thing i saw was a stray sock. but now i’m not so sure… EWEWEWEW DON’T WANNA CONSIDER THAT RIGHT NOW. i feel sick.
bbc educational times now. we’re in east africa. we see some wildebeest. ok we see alot of wildebeest. then attenborough is talking to us. “wildebeest. nothing stands in their way.” INCLUDING MUFASA YOU BUMS. we move on to see some glaciers. there’s freakin glaciers in africa?! i just think thats crazy. and the biggest one is so near the equator! when you think of the equator you don’t think oh aye, glaciers. you think hot! when you think of africa you don’t think oh aye, glaciers. you think NAHHHHHHHHHH SEPETINYAAAAAAAAAA BABA BEEEESHEEBABAA. now we follow some freaky swamp birds. seriously their eyes were so gross. we have a little family. the mom has gone off on a quest for water. we see two babies. and what follows attempts to break my heart. when the older chick pecks away at the younger chick?! and its not like sibling rivalry pecking its like, “beat it you don’t belong here!!” pecking. the younger chick hobbles away, out of range of the older’s sharp beak. the mom returns, sees the chick and pauses. attenborough narrates for us the mother’s thoughts. “the mother has seen what the older has done” it still has a feather hanging from its beak! the beat up chick hobbles up to its mother’s legs and tries to cosy up in between them. but she walks away from him. she goes toward the butthead chick. i can’t help crying out “nooooooooo!” muchos sadface times. attenborough tells us that she has chosen which chick will survive. in his honest yet harsh way. letting us in on the heartbreaking realities of life in the wild. BUT WHAT IS THIS?! we move on from these birds to hippos. SO. MANY. HIPPOS. them and their twitchy lil ears. I’M IN LOVE. i want to write david attenborough a letter. “dear David-gloriousvoice-Attenborough, when are you going to do a show on hippos? sincerely, a hippo-obssessed admirer” there is also a baby elephant who majorly enjoys chasing around some egrets that was super super cute. and then we have two fighting bulls. david tells us “their heads, each the weight of a car” their heads each the weight of a car?! thats insane!! and here they are just bashing them into each other! whiiiiiiiiit?! the natural world is a crazy place. a crazy place i want to explore so badly. there are so many mindblowingly amazing places out there to be seen. it is often said its a small world. but even on this little planet of ours, there are innumerable wonders to behold.
so its come to this. wearing gloves in my flat to maintain the functionality of my hands as i work on my lab report. the exciting thing is, my gloves have magic fingertips so i can still use my phone. and the trackpad on my mac. its the little, glorious, things in life that keep me going. and those little things are everywhere. for me they’re not hard to find. i’m pretty easily amazed. have i told you about my fascination with time-zones?! an everyday phenomenon i can never quite get over. and geeky shows explaining how things work? they’re what i’m all about. its not hard to make me laugh either. i’m incredibly easily amused. but i think its better to be that way. its better to laugh more. for what is life without laughter? it can be difficult however, to cheer me up when i’m down. but luckily those times don’t come around very often. i also have a tendency to be a bit of a rage-face at times… but i’m a girl. cut me a little slack yeah? but anyway, i should probably get back to the task at hand, lab report times. i don’t want the scary demonstrator woman to eat me alive when next we meet…
outta the lab and into the library. very much like outta the frying pan and into the fire… lab reports were certainly not missed over the holidays, but now they’re back. i had my first lab this morning. the demonstrator was the scariest woman i’ve ever come in contact with. something you wouldn’t have guessed from her appearance. high heels, painted nails, made-up face, big pink turtle-neck-jumper thing overflowing out of her lab coat. but she is my friends. she is. she grilled us with questions that apparently we should have known the answers to. we blindly signed the risk assessment form and when she asked if we’d read it of course we said yes. you always say yes. (to be fair, i do read it almost everytime. just not this time..) the demonstrators never ask you about the risk assessment form. but she did. “so since you’ve read the risk assessment you know all about all the risks involved in this experiment, yes?” blank stares from us. followed quickly by affirmative nods and comments. “so what are they?” uh-oh… we know the experiment involves steam so someone mentions that. “yes and what about steam?” more blank stares. my mind is empty. its not a hard question. but just the way she puts it… i’d question my own name at that point if she’d asked me. “its hot…?” this seemed to be the answer she was looking for, “yes its very hot, steam is hot.” then, in one of the equations we had to use there was a term, A. surface area. she pointed to it and asked “what is this A?” we look around at each other, hoping one of the others will have the answer she is looking for. i take one for the team, this will be my question. “surface area” so she presses for more info, “surface area of what?” … “surface area of the tube… where the condensation is taking place…?” she still wants more, “inside or outside surface area?” i go for inside. she comes back, “it should be the overall surface area. you are calculating the overall heat transfer coefficient so it needs to take into account the overall surface. its common sense.” BOOM. STICK ME IN THE CORNER WITH THE DUNCE HAT NOW. then there were more questions about what units we were gonna use for measuring the flowrate. there was a conversion chart attached to the front of the equipment. (which usually means you have to use it at some point…) she then pipes up, “if you’re smart, you won’t need to use the chart” BOOM. AGAIN. there are more intimidating questions followed by what she termed “advice” but what sounded more to me like, “if you do not follow these, i’m not reading your report.” she gave strict instructions on what she wanted and where we were to put it. in the results section, only the derived results. everything else goes into the appendix. put your assumptions BEFORE your derivations of any theory. “if you don’t put your assumptions first i don’t even want to read your theory.” she then told us, “you have 2 weeks before you come back and do the other part of the experiment, i expect you to bring me calculations for this half when you come. don’t come back if you don’t have calculations. don’t come back until you understand what goes on in this experiment. you have 2 weeks, thats plenty of time so i expect your reports to be well written. i’ve given out too many D’s for this lab, i expect them to be very good.”
if that woman does not put the fear of the lab report into you, i do not know what will.
something i’ve been meaning to record for a long time now…
(20 plays)oh david attenborough, how beautiful is your voice. i’d forgotten how much i’d missed it being in my life until i went onto iplayer and watched your program on africa this afternoon. amazing. africa is amazing. we’ve only looked at this little corner so far, but i’m excited. when we were following the baby ostriches and their parents as they went on a quest for water, MAN they were cute. and then we get to the seemingly miraculous water hole in the middle of a desert. all kinds of animals are crowding round. and then bam some lions appeared. and as attenborough is narrating, telling us that even when we think we’re safe, we’re really not. predators are always near. i feared for the baby ostriches. in shows like these they don’t take sides, some animals eat, some animals get eaten. thats life. luckily for the lil babies they were safe. the lions actually worked to their advantage by scaring away all the other animals, leaving a trample-free zone for them to make their way to the water’s edge. they timelapse the night sky and show us the strange behaviour of some rhinos at this same water hole at night. more babies! escorted by their mothers they greet other rhinos, and it appears to be more of a social event than a quest for thirst. at the end we follow an old-man giraffe to his territory. a dried up river bed. he finds himself a lady friend and is chillin with her when we turn, and standing in the distance is a young-man giraffe. and then this music that sounds like it belongs in an old western starts playing. and i can’t help but laugh. the young giraffe strides forward and the old man comes out to meet him. they look at each other for a while and then engage in battle. a battle for honour, for the ladayyy and for the land. in real time the fight last about a minute. but we get to watch it unfold in slow motion. with each hit we see the ripples from the impact spread across the giraffe’s backs. but what is this? old man giraffe is down on his knees. nooooooo i don’t want the cocky newcomer to win! come on old man get up! the young guy thinks he’s won. he stands for a moment. and then bam! old man whacks him in the leg. young guy is down. skadoosh. the land, the ladayyy and the honour belong to the old bull. hoo-rah!
