Jogging

I think I'm going to take up jogging. Here are my thoughts:

Reasons I want to do it / pros:

-Improve general fitness, particularly with an aim to improving my general concentration and alertness (which is okay/pretty decent at the moment, but any increase I can get will be good and hopefully help my studies as well as my general wellbeing)

-It's a kind of exercise I can do at Uni and at home - at Uni I walk a lot (getting to lectures, doing shopping, etc) and do some other stuff. At home I walk a little bit (but have less motivation as we live quite close to shops etc), and that's about it. I'd like to have some sort of decent exercise I can do at home.

-Losing some weight would be neat. Although I'm in reasonable shape, I carry most of my 'spare' weight around my middle, which is a slight health concern, so I'd feel good about getting rid of some of that. I'm not primarily motivated by weight loss though.

-'Me' time - time to myself in my own head when I can listen to music or just think. During term time I can find it particularly hard to carve out time to myself - I start feeling guilty that I'm not organising something / working on something / emailing somebody back - so this could be a good way of getting some headspace.

-Endorphins - they make you happy! That's got to be useful, right?

Cons:

-Possible safety issues? I'll mostly be going around fairly nice pretty well-populated places, so I'm not too worried, but it's something I should think about, especially when it's dark so much of the time. But I should be able to manage my time so that I'm not running in the dark.

-Starting out when it's cold and miserable ... hopefully I'll warm up pretty quickly, right? But this probably isn't the ideal time of year to take it up (but since part of my motives are to improve my grades, waiting to start isn't a good idea). On the bright side, hopefully there won't be very many other people jogging so nobody will see me at the beginning when I'm lousy, right?

Any comments? There's a proper running shop I can get to on Monday, so I'm planning to do that (one where they'll analyse how you run and everything), and then shell out (probably £60-£80) for a proper pair of shoes that really fit and will do the job.

programming is strange

but getting easier, now,

more comfortable

(In other news, I've constructed a rather nice-looking lasagne. I feel accomplished.)

Putting it all into practice

Lately I've been looking at lots of study/learning/life organisation books and blogs - Tony Buzan, simplemom, positively present, other bits and pieces. But all the articles about motivation and organisation and things aren't doing anything for me ... and I think this is becauser, deep down, I know all the stuff I need to do, and it's just a case of putting it all into practice, and juggling / balancing everything so it fits.

And so to clarify all of this, I thought I'd write it down. I know, I know, not long since I wrote my top 10 things I want to do each day ... but hey, clearly I'm in a reflective mood. And who knows, maybe this will be useful to someone reading.


Things I know and just need to keep doing:

• Stay healthy.
  
  
• There's no time for being ill when you have Stuff to Do, right? So cover the basics ... eat fairly healthily. And if you're overindulging on the calories side (which doesn't really help but over Christmas it's probably going to happen anyway, right?) then at least make sure you're still getting plenty of fruit and veg. Just say no to scurvy!
  
  
• Drink lots and lots of water and herbal teas. I'm doing good on this one ... I had some jasmine blossom green tea which was disgusting until I worked out that I liked it brewed super-light, like 20 seconds, as opposed to 3 minutes.
  
  
• Get out and get some fresh air and oxygen (hey, I've heard some stuff about fresh air having negative ions and most conditioned air having positive ions. Anybody know if that's true?), plus a bit of exercise. And sunlight. I went out in the morning for the first time in ages a few days ago (having been going out at about 4pm or so for a while before that) and it made *such* a difference.
  
  
• Don't ignore your friends and family.
  
  
• Okay, so obviously the most important person for me to stay connected with is Chris ... so this means making an effort to spend time talking, spend time hanging out, eating together, all that jazz. And similarly for Sarah although to a lesser extent, obviously.
  
  
• Similarly for other friends and family ... which I guess for me at the moment translates into keeping up with things on facebook, msn, and blogs. Which can easily turn into wasting loads of time. But I do think that actually vaguely keeping up with people is pretty important. And the odd phone call to Hazel / the parents, going to family get-togethers (this being the kind with people I both haven't seen in a while and want to see), hey, that's pretty important too.
  
  
• And finding people to talk things through with when I do get to the end of my tether is important too. Luckily that hasn't really been happening over the vacation, although it definitely did during term time. You really do need your friends, honest.
  
  
• Work.
  
  
• Just get on with it. The phrase 'You don't have to want to do it, you just have to do it' got me through the down times in my A levels, and continues to be exceedingly relevant, although carrying it out has got harder (because the work I have to do is now a lot less do-able).
  
  
• Learn when to cut yourself some slack. This is a really tough one to implement, because it's so easy to get it wrong and I feel like really it's a knife-edge balance on when to get it right ... I've got so much to do that taking an extra afternoon off generally is a really stupid idea, so I should work all the time, right? On the other hand, a break will help me work - I mean, burnout really doesn't work as a strategy. So yeah. Balancing this one is interesting, and basically just takes a lot of practice to get right. I think I'm doing pretty good so far this vacation.
  
  
• Learn your circadian rhythms. This one I'm not doing so well on, but am starting to learn. Just because once upon a time I worked best when I was up and working before 9am doesn't mean that that's how I work best now. Although having said that, today I was up and spent 8:45-9:45 tidying our room which worked pretty well. Maybe if I get up at 8ish but don't want to start work til 10 I should spend some of that time doing things like tidying. I'm starting to think that I'll aim to start work at about 10:30, and also aim to take about 1:30-3pm off (lunch and then a bit of a siesta / time to stop and read / etc). I think this should generally work.
  
  
• Keep your priorities straight.
  
  
• So for me this is the one that God-stuff comes under. That's got to come first (in a priorities sense) because if that isn't happening, nothing's worth it. Hm. I probably shouldn't have got to it fourth on my list then, huh? Oh well, these are in no particular order.
  
  
• Be creative and play.
  
  
• This is another one I subscribe to in principle but have trouble actually doing (although I did buy some plasticine on Saturday). Play is great for the brain, and creativity engages bits of my brain that don't generally get used in maths unless I actively encourage that. And I should actively encourage that, although I often forget to.

So now I should go and put some of these into action. Catch you later!

'Luck favours the prepared' - Edna Mode, The Incredibles 

Bah.

There's a lot of work left to do.

I haven't been working today, because it's a Sunday and I need to try to get some sort of rhythm into my week. The church I normally go to has 2 services, an earlier one which is more traditional and a later one which is more contemporary, but this week they only had the earlier one (fair enough as they had 3 extra services this week because of Christmas - crib service, midnight service, and Christmas day service) and while it was a perfectly adequate specimen of a fairly traditional anglican service I found it really hard to connect with. Didn't help that the songs were hymns with organ (good Christmas Carols, but I still am not a fan of organs really), it wasn't particularly well attended (so self-conscious during singing), etc. Was good to take part in the Eucharist though.

Also, I don't like the peace. I hadn't noticed that the 11 o'clock service didn't have the peace in it, until I noticed today that this one does.

Other things have been irritating me today. Not big things ... just lots of niggles. In particular, Chris has promised to take me shopping as his Christmas present to me (which is great), and for most of the day it looked like probably we'd go tomorrow, as it didn't look like he'd be role playing by which I mean: the people he roleplays with are really truly rubbish at getting in touch with each other and they hadn't got in touch. But then some of them did tonight and they have a vague plan that tomorrow might  happen because 3/4 of them can make it. But they don't have a time or a place planned.

Just feeling a little down. The mountain of work is, as always, just-about-surmountable, but certainly not within reach. I've got about another week and a half at home, and too much stuff to do in it, but when is that not the case?

Do 6 impossible things before breakfast ... that way you only have another 54 to do during the rest of the day.

Thinking About Everyday Life

What are the top 10 things I do each day? Something to consider ... this is what I think I do:

1. Hang out with Chris (when I'm at home)
2. Work (academic)
3. Keep in touch with people (forums, facebook, email)
   
4. Eat well (or at least eat consciously)
5. Drink lots of herbal tea / water (recently)
6. Get some fresh air
   
7. Exercise (like going for a walk)
8. Read (fiction, nonfiction - lotsa stuff - most days while I'm at home, occasionally during term time)
   
9. Journal (most days)
   
10. Pray / Read the Bible (some days)

I think this is broadly true ... although Chris might feel that work comes before he does ... I have been getting somewhat better about that (and he's been working more which gives me more totally-guilt-free time to work in).

Time has definitely become a commodity that I am very aware of consciously spending. Yes, I spend time not doing any of these virtuous things and end up wasting time ... find myself spending too long going through people's facebook photos, say, or spending half an hour sitting around after lunch tidying my desk. And yes, occasionally I will curl up on the sofa and watch ANTM for a couple of hours ... but that's always something I'm very aware of, and try not to do too often.


What are the top 10 things I want to do every day?

1. Hang with God / Pray / Read the Bible
2. Hang out with Chris (when I'm at home - and stay in touch with him when I'm not)
3. Work (academic)
4. Play 
5. Keep in touch with people
   
6. Drink lots of herbal tea and water
7. Eat well
   
8. Exercise
9. Get fresh air
10. Journal + general contemplation
    

(Reading gets demoted to a sometimes activity, not an everyday activity.)
So the main thing is switching round the priorities to put God at the top (where he's supposed to be), and introducing play into the day. So to that end ... what am I going to do about this?

Hanging out with God and praying I just need to get up early and do, I think. Although any suggestions for creative ways to do it would be very welcome - I want to do something more active than sitting and reading all the time, I've done that but it becomes an exercise of diligence rather than of joy and I'd rather it was at least a blend of the two. Wrt play ... hm, well ... I've had £20 for Christmas from my parents ... and I could go to the toy shop where Chris works tomorrow ... I'm thinking open-play things like moon sand, plasticine, and wikki stix. I already have lots of drawing / painting things.

I also want to keep a note of what I do all day. Possibly in 15 minute chunks. That'd keep me honest.

Thoughts for the coming year

This year, I'd like to learn/meditate more on the humanity of Christ. It's something I know I've never given full attention to, and I want to. Questions like: did Jesus feel fear? I know that the answer is yes. But that doesn't mean that I've thought about it.

I also think I want to try and incorporate more play into my life.

I want to pull back from some society stuff, a little.

I want to refocus on getting a first this year. This will include at least one painful point - which will be emailing people to ask them, realistically, what level they think I'm at, and asking them for advice. If most of them think I'm sort of 2.i/2.ii borderline standard then that will really suck (although I don't *think* that will be the case). I've had that feedback for one subject, and for the others that I've had any feedback on they haven't said anything about level. But if I am doing that badly I need to know and work bloody hard to reverse it, starting soon. I guess this is extra reason to work extra-extra hard on the work I need to do to hand in at the beginning of next term (last bits of subjects we did this term) - so as to impress them.

And I need to work bloody bloody hard on revision and coursework now. I've had a fab week which has included a fair amount of relaxing. I'm now feeling recharged. Chris is going back to work tomorrow, so I'll be getting up early to chat to him before he goes, thence I shall be up and able to work.

Merry Christmas!

 Merry Christmas Everybody!

To us a child is born

To us a son is given

Christ, the light of the world, is come! 

How to do Presents for Lots of People

... make cookies!

Lots of cookies!

And then wrap them up neatly in bags, tied up with curling ribbon:

Merry Christmas Everybody!

Answers to Questions - #1

In reverse order ...

 

Lentilshine said:

Do you think a Christian and a non-Christian ever manage a relationship together?

My first reaction (as a mathematician) is 'manifestly yes', in that there exist couples where one of them is a Christian and the other is not. Though I guess it depends on what you think 'manage' means. 

One thought I've had recently is that in some ways it's your attitude to faith that is important, perhaps more important in some sense than the faith itself (note the *in some sense*). For example, being of the same faith obviously doesn't mean that you won't have faith-based conflict. I imagine that being in a relationship (let's say both Christians because that's what I know about) where one of you is a very strong believer, believes that God directly talks to them, often every few days (yes, this *is* realistic - I don't mean a booming voice from heaven, I mean nudges like 'give the packet of biscuits in your bag to the homeless guy over there' - cf Spirit Thing by the Newsboys), is highly involved with Church / small groups / etc and finds all of this a great help and support and a great purpose in life - and the other is a very very nominal sort of would put Christian on a census form, goes to Church at Christmas and Easter for the Carols and the flowers, but doesn't take God into account in their everyday life at all and is not particularly open to doing so - that would be incredibly hard to live with. In my opinion, two people at that sort of nominal level who are of different faiths (or one is of no faith) are more likely to get along, because in some ways they share the same attitudes (like 'you don't need to include God when thinking about normal things, only on odd special occasions').

Of course, I think that if you're taking that attitude to faith you're Doing it Wrong, Really Missing Out, and Giving the Rest of Us A Bad Name, but that's sort of a different topic. 

 

So I guess I think 'maybe' but it depends a lot on what you mean by 'Christian' (i.e. how much someone believes as opposed to choosing to label themselves as such without much behind it - which I think it Doing it Wrong but on the other hand I don't feel I have the right to say to such a person that they are not a Christian - I think this is why the phrase 'born again' has been used so much, because 'born again' is definitely not something that you call yourself because you've been brought up Anglican, it definitely denotes your own choice. Not that all believing Christians would call themselves born again, but I think it's reasonable to say that virtually everyone who would call themselves born again is a believing Christian who has actively made choices in favour of God for themselves), and probably a bit on what you mean by 'manage'. 

 

That took a lot longer than I thought it would ... will have to come back and answer the other questions in other posts.

Advent

Came across this on another blog I read. It may be worth clicking through to the youtube page to watch it properly (at a bigger screen size).

Fairly self-explanatory

Step 1:

Step 2:

Step 3:

 

Hurrah for free gift bags!

Life in General

I feel like I haven't really posted about what I'm up to on here for a while, and I probably should do. A lot of that has been because I've been posting about daily life and plans over on the study blog, so I feel pretty much blogged out about that sort of thing.

But for the sake of being (at least reasonably) complete (oh dear - Cauchy sequences just sprang to mind - repeat 5 times: I am not a topological space, I am not a topological space ...), here's a brief rundown of things.

I've been home now for just over a week. During that time I have: finished one of my coursework projects (eventually there will be 4 of them - they're not due in until about Easter, but getting them done now is A Very Good Idea), started a second one, revised lots and lots of lectures' worth of stuff (well, about 12 lectures' worth in detail so far), tidied up the loft (which is where I work) and sorted out storage and so on for all my books, finished my Christmas shopping, made Christmas cards, spent lots of time with Chris, and spent a lot of time asleep. And knitted 2 dishcloths, but you knew that.

I'm feeling properly relaxed now, which is really good. I've got past the stage of feeling like I'm sleeping loads to catch up with stuff, and got into the stage where I'm sleeping plenty but also working plenty. Termtime is wonderful but also deeply stressful - that is, there's background stress which you stop noticing because it's just omnipresent, and then there's the stress which you notice which drives you to distraction, like when you don't understand the work and it's due in in 5 hours (but it's not like you've left it til the last minute, it's just that you have deadlines every 5 hours. Okay, that's a bit of an exaggeration, but deadlines every 48 hours isn't.).

So I kind of feel like a lot of what I have / my body has been doing since I've been home is dealing with all of that - by getting lots of sleep, drinking lots and lots of herbal tea (to flush the system and keep hydrated), eating bio yogurt (and just generally a good diet with lots of fruit and veg), and over the last couple of days I've been feeling like I've got there. Which is really nice. So on Christmas day of course I'm not very likely to try and eat healthily (although will probably still have huge amounts of vegetation), but apart from that I should be able to keep this up for the rest of the holiday - storing up good health against the stresses and crises that next term is going to bring. And for the record, I do take care of myself during the term as well, its just a lot less feasible to do things like sleep myself out.

What else have I been doing ... I'm sure there's work I've done that I haven't mentioned above, there always is ... I've been reading, a bit. I've read a book about herbal tea, and one that was sort of about counselling and psychology but was really a series of anecdotes to show how you can apply stuff to your own life - I think it was called 'Life Support'. And I'm reading The Comfort of Saturdays (Alexander McCall Smith - it's one of the Isobel Dalhousie ones), and have picked up Deadhouse Gates again (Steven Erikson). The former is easy to read small bits of, the latter I need a bit of time and quiet to work myself back into the world because there are just so many characters / situations / political alliances that you can't be distracted every 5 minutes or you lose the plot. It's good though, I'm really enjoying it.

(Oh and a few of the really wonderful things about being home ... having a real kitchen where you can leave stuff rather than having to hover to watch it or worry that you're taking up too much time and other people will want to use the oven / etc ... having a dishwasher ... not having to do all the food shopping *and* when you do do food shopping, having a car available if you're getting lots of stuff ... virtually never having to wait for the shower ... bliss.)

The Results of the Knitting

You saw the 'yarn' ... now see what it's become!

Reeeally simple knitted dishcloths / potholders, with hanging loops. They're something like 20cm square each. The green and brown one is just a garter stitch piece, and the brown and white is stocking stitch ... and the hanging loops were just made by knotting. I'm pretty pleased with them :) they've been sent off in the mail as a present (an internet-based secret santa I'm a part of), and they *should* be with the recipient today or tomorrow! Hope she likes them.

In praise of pen and paper

(a response to this article in the Times. Feel free to go and read the article, although my post should make sense even if you don't).

The article is claiming that all exams should move to being computerised in the very near future ("Every child who starts school next autumn should be able to do their GCSEs and A levels on computer screens, rather than with pen and paper, the exams watchdog says"). This may be a good idea, although I agree with the chief executive of OCR who "said that paper-based exams would have to run in parallel for many years".

But the article is appalling. Or rather the article may be perfectly decent but the views expressed by Kathleen Tattersall (chairwoman of Ofqual) are appallingly badly thought out! Listen to this:

"We now have children going into school aged 4 and 5 who have good computer skills."
"If we have youngsters coming into school who are computer savvy in a way that adults are not and never were at that age then it is really inconceivable to think that any of these five-year-olds who have to do their GCSEs at 15, and A levels and qualifications at the age of 18, will be sitting there with a pen and paper. That is not what they would be expecting to use."

Ah ... so now we have to tailor exams to what children would *expect* based on their experience at age 5? C'mon, you don't need to be a mathematician to see the logic-fail there. (Also, 'adults are not and never were at that age' makes no sense. As if there was a possibility that adults were once computer geniuses at age 5 but have since lost it?)

I fully support the idea of computer-based learning - the main points in its favour usually being that it's tailored to the child's needs and helps them to learn independently. But computer-based testing surely has its own pitfalls. I can see that it can work on a small scale. But come on, guys, never underestimate the power of the British exam boards / administrators to Royally Muck Things Up. They can't even get sending boxes of paper scripts to markers sorted. Anyone want to bet on nation-wide scandal as thousands of digital papers are uploaded for marking, which crashes something which loses all the data? The British are *really good* at exam-based scandal. Please, you don't need to do this and add to the potential for disaster.

Another thing that strikes me is that she doesn't seem to have thought at all about the practicalities of administering this. Sorting out exams and actually physically running them is definitely non-trivial. And the people who are making the big policy decisions need to understand that and consider it.

This will obviously be hugely expensive for schools. And is anybody else thinking that it's also potentially a disaster in terms of class? Yes, many kids will play with computers when they're very young. Is it fair to assume that all of them will? With writing, kids get a lot of practice throughout their school day, in virtually every subject. I would argue that that means that even if they don't do any writing at home (which is pretty likely - the odd thank-you note or birthday card is probably the norm, unless they're budding storytellers) they all get good opportunity to develop their writing skills.

The same is manifestly not true of computer skills. Sure, kids will have IT lessons, but that will be nowhere near enough to even conceive that it might balance out the divide between the kid who is allowed to go on the computer for an hour a day at home, and the kid who doesn't have access to one (maybe the family doesn't have one, or maybe there's Mum's Work Laptop which she doesn't want to let her 7 year old loose on). Similarly there could be obvious problems comparing richer and poorer schools.

This article, which is a case study in a comprehensive school, is much more reasonable. I can totally see that the way that you have to answer multiple-choice questions on paper can be confusing - I'm sure I've checked dozens of times to make sure that I had the right answer marked up with the right question, you don't want to get to the end and realise that you missed out Q4 ... and as a result your answers from Q5-Q30 are in the wrong place. Drag and drop would indeed be nice. And the teacher quoted (who is the Head of Science) seems really rather sane:

"Ms White is pleased with her experience of on-screen tests and would be willing to look at other “e-assessment” opportunities for science papers. She thinks extending on-screen exams to all subjects is possible but poses practical difficulties such as the different typing speeds of students for extended essays."

Yeah. Essays would be one of the easiest things to do on screen (as opposed to, say, mathematics - that would be a nightmare! I know, let's teach everyone LaTeX at the age of 11 ...), but it would in no way be fair to put, say, me (I could touch type very well by the time I was taking my GCSEs) up against someone who was typing with two fingers.You need to be typing well enough that you don't have to think about the act of typing, really.

Writing is a useful skill. Writing essays by hand is a useful skill - yes, you can argue that if you're only ever going to be assessed onscreen then in some way it has no practical implications - but it really *does* help to clarify the thought and the mind and train you to think.Writing should not be denigrated, even if computerised exams might be the way forward.

What's with all the dried fruit and chocolate mixing?

I've been watching Nigella's Christmas program (whatever it's called) and am now watching Jamie's Family Christmas ... and they both insist on mixing dried fruit with chocolate.

What's up with that?

Admittedly, I don't mind (milk) chocolate-covered raisins. But dark chocolate and dried fruit ... just say no. No doubt there are exceptions (while I may not enjoy dried orange with dark chocolate, I don't think of it as an abomination), but mixing things made from christmas pudding with dark chocolate ... Wrong. Wrong wrong wrong. And sour cherries (though I'm sure they're lovely) also shouldn't accompany Very Chocolatey Chocolate Mousse. Nothing should accompany Very Chocolatey Chocolate Mousse except for some cream and perhaps some grated chocolate.

What do other people think?

A coupla photos

New stuff to knit with: recycled tank tops (the brown and teal-ish) that were a bit too short to be comfortable and that I barely ever wear any more ... and a white T shirt which I was given free as a promotion for something that was really a bit see-through and unflatteringly clingy. Probably going to be transformed into simple knitted dishcloths, which then (if they turn out looking cool and eco-chic rather than just ratty) might become a Christmas present for someone.

And here's my new flash drive being babysat by ladybird Hello Kitty ... isn't she sweet?

(previous post now somewhat hidden. Though you might be able to find it if you look hard enough)

Ask me something?

Bandwagon, jumping, etc. But also, I think this would be interesting. So ... if anyone's reading this (and I know there are at least half a dozen of you who read from time to time), think of something to ask me and leave it as a comment? And then I'll post about it soon.

Holidays!

So I've been busy working (see the other blog). It's going pretty well so far. It is certainly tiring me out. But for the moment I feel like it's a test of willpower / motivation / endurance, but it's not getting on top of me yet. And I'm having sufficient breaks - just.

I'm also trying to make sure I do the following daily:

-Drink plenty of water / herbal tea

-Have friendly human contact

-Get outside in the sunshine (or natural light, for days when you can't really talk about sunshine)

-Get plenty of sleep

-Eat pretty well (have just had very healthy noodle soup for dinner, am following it up with chocolate)

-Exercise a decent amount

So things are going okay.

Study and Revision Blog

Billy and I have started an invite-only blog for purposes of recording intentions / progress / completed work, being able to comment on each other's progress etc. It's invite only for security reasons (so that we can talk about particular members of staff / where in the country we are and what we're doing / etc).

We're going to be inviting other people to be a part of this. You don't have to be doing maths although that will be the general focus - but random friends who'd like to keep an eye on what I'm doing / maybe be able to make supportive comments about work and motivation in general etc are very welcome. If you want an invite, let me know.

I like this coming home after 5am thing ...

... mostly because of what it means. It generally means it's the end of term, or at least some other notable occasions. And it means Something Has Happened - all-night board games (as is the case today), or an all-night movie marathon (as I've done once before), Things of That Sort. Lots of good clean fun and laughter with friends and possibly some small amount of tasty alcohol (I never get drunk, but I do get slightly more emotional ... not sure this is a good thing).

Also the physical act of coming home slightly after 5am is also a wonderful thing - you get the darkness and the crisp air, and the birds starting to sing ... it's really rather lovely. 

Yesterday (Friday) was just a good day all round though ... I got some notes photocopied to pass on to Billy, and left them in his mailbox, which was useful. And then had my last hour of contact time :) which went really well ... then met a couple of friends and things for hot chocolate in the afternoon ... then an optional entertaining lecture ... then Christmas dinner with friends, then board games. It's been really good.

I'm also really looking forward to today (Saturday). Today is a gift I am giving myself - I don't have to do anything or be anywhere or anything like that. Although admittedly by the time I get up I won't have much of it, probably (it's 6:10 now and I haven't got to bed yet - will be getting there in about 10 minutes I think).

A Brief Foodie Post

Just to share with you another incarnation of the noodle soup ...

This one contains: udon noodles, pak choi, chinese leaf, king prawns, bird's eye chillies, vegetable stock (from a funny jelly packet thing - the tiny stock pots), chicken bovril, and sweetcorn. Very very tasty and very healthy :)

On Work, and Structure

Earlier today Billy and I were talking with Emily, a student who's over here on exchange from the States. And it's got me thinking about how we work and how the system is set up to get us to work.

At Emily's home University, work is hugely more collaborative - not in terms of group projects, just that everybody's doing the same work at the same time with the same due dates, and there seems to be a culture of working together and explaining things to one another and solidarity because there is so much work and it is just so hard that people wander around like zombies but they're in it together. And they have proper weekends - so they can collapse on Friday night, do something that's different on Saturday, and then catch up on Sunday ready for the next week.

Things here are set up so completely differently from that ... everyone has different due dates (sometimes wildly), and it's very much a culture of you go away and sit in your room and do your work and you do talk to other people about it sometimes, but only sometimes. And you feel threatened if they're a lot better than you, and so probably they feel threatened if you're better than them. But because you're always at a different place from others (because one of you will have had to do the work earlier than the other) this is pretty much how you interact all the time. So you don't really get the solidarity - more of a turn-and-turn-about giving each other a hand-up. Which is still nice enough but really isn't the same at all.

This place ... it isolates you. We are taught by neglect - we're being neglected by very talented and clever people, but you get to find your own way through it and if you do that well then that's good, and if you don't ... well ... you ought to graduate, anyway.

So this has got me thinking. Can we, as students, decide to put forward a collaborative model of working? Could this work? I've only got one more teaching term (as opposed to exam term) here. But it's never too late to try something.

I think the key ingredients will be:

-Finding other people doing my courses who are up for this

-Preferably ones who have deadlines when I do. This is very tricky, but may be possible.

-Schedule in hours (and hours and hours) of working together. As parenting books will tell you ... you can't schedule quality time (the time when everything clicks together and it all just *works*), you can only schedule quantity time.

Thoughts about how this could work in practice:

1) I have a large room, which has 2 tables/desks in it. With a bit of rearranging I think I could certainly have 4 people working in here.

2) I have lots of tea in my room. Everyone knows tea fuels work. Even if Erdos claimed that a mathematician was a machine for turning coffee into theorems.

3) I know Billy will be doing almost exactly the same courses as me, and is probably vaguely interested in something like this, and we are very likely to have the same deadlines in at least some subjects. Hence there is probably potential there.

4) There must be other people like this who exist. Some of them might be interested.

5) Even for people who are not doing the same subjects as me, there might be value in just having time that's set aside to work in an atmosphere where lots of people are working and tea and biscuits are available. We could still do some of the community stuff. There can still be some solidarity.

Things to think about ...