Took this the other day, rather like it. No tripod, just rested it on the little wall by the thames…

It’s always nice to see some “unusual” weather here, and yesterday morning was really cold – there was a nice frost on everything, so I got myself out of bed early enough to make the most of the sunrise. I’ve got some good ideas for shots the next time it’s clear and frosty – I went down to the lakes on campus and got a couple of nice images, but nothing special.

And just for fun, an unusual perspective on the library.

Bullrush by tocil lake

Tocil lake, frozen over

The SRC at night

There’s now a shiny new button on the blogs front page, giving some ideas to blog about. In typical fashion, I shall proceed to answer all parts :)

What’s the strangest thing you’ve brought with you to university?
Myself

Would you renationalise the railways? Why (or why not)?
No. I believe that the private sector can run services as well, or better than government. But at the same time, such important social services do need to be strongly regulated, to avoid firms only running the most profitable routes. Some routes that are of no profit in their own right may well serve important social functions for towns and villiages that they serve.

Whose thoughts would you most like to read?
George Bush. I want to know to what extent he is ignorant, compared to the extent to which is is arrogant.

What have you lost that you’d most like to retrieve?
Emily.

What’s your favourite red thing?
Sunset

If you had the power, what laws would you make, or change, or repeal?
I’d move our justice system closer to the continental system of codified law. Both systems have their benefits and their weaknesses, and the ideal balance is probably in between the two systems as they are now.

What are some things that make you nervous?

• The thought of not getting through the faststream selection.


• Getting my PhD

What’s the best tasting food you’ve ever eaten?
One always gets a good meal at Solo in Leamington.

What’s your favourite boy’s name? Girl’s name?
I don’t really do favourites.

Why did you choose the course you’re studying?
Personal challenge. Wanted to see if I could do it.

What’s on the walls in your room? Why?
Some photos that I’ve taken of scandinavia, and some pictures of my girlfriend.

Name a CD you own that’s a guilty pleasure (one you adore, but pretend not to for fear of irreversible negative social consequences). Why do you like it?
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat – Andrew Lloyd Webber. I was in this at school, and I enjoyed it. I like the music from musicals generally, and most of ALW’s stuff. So natch.

What item of your friends’ would you most like to have for your own?
mmmm. A finished thesis? :)

Where will you be in five year’s time?
Hopefully, working for the civil service in london.

What one thing would you most like to accomplish with your life?
To Make A Difference.

What’s your favourite scary movie?
Alien.

Who’s funnier, Jim Carrey or Bill Murray?
Murray.

Have you ever been in a school play? Was it good? Were you good?
yes, several. Mostly they were good, the last one I was in was diabolical. I think I did okay, but then I was 12–17, so my idea of “okay” then was probably not award winning.

What’s the furthest place you’ve ever travelled to?
Durban, in South Africa.

Have you ever won a trophy? What for?
No.

Name a book you’d recommend to a friend. Why?
Edith Wharton: The Age of Innocence. I really liked this book, is was such a plausible situation, and an interesting story.

What’s the stupidest thing you’ve ever done?
Emily.

What’s your favourite cartoon? Why?
Piled Higher and Deeper – it’s so true it’s incredible.

Which animal do you most resemble in both appearance and habit?
Homo sapiens sapiens

What mesmerises you?
The light show in good nightclubs.

Which other universities did you apply to? Why did you choose Warwick?
Mmmm. This is such a long time ago now. I think:

• Leicester


• Cambridge


• Reading


• Warwick

I just liked the atmosphere here. It felt right.

Name something about yourself that people don’t expect.
I like poetry and photography.

What’s your favourite place on campus? Why?
By the lakes on the way to Gibbet Hill. It’s lovely, especially in the summer when there are no students around:-)

If you won £5 million, how would you spend it?
I’d give a fair amount to friends and family. Then I’d buy a new car and some kick-ass camera gear, and invest the rest.

If you could invent a piece of technology that would improve your academic life, what would it be and why?
Mmm e-learning looking for ideas… A comprehensive integrated system for linking references to reactions, for inputting my chemistry and notes together, chemically aware and searchable.

What everyday item is the most well designed? (Fit for purpose and aesthetically pleasing.)
Being a photo geek, I like my D70

What’s your favourite time of day? Why?
I like the late morning, when it’s already bright, and warming up.

Describe what you consider to be the most beautiful view in the world.
There are so many places that I’ve been where the views have been tremendous. I don’t think that I really have a favourite. The waves crashing into the shore along the coast of Kwazulu-Natal, sitting on a tiny island in the Stockholm archipeligo, looking out over London from Shell Center. They’re all beautiful, and they’re all special in their own ways.

What are your strengths?
Being able to get to the root of a problem quickly, and devise a workable solution for it.

What is your favourite artwork on campus?
I don’t really like the artwork around campus, to be honest. It looks like it’d be at home in a mid-70’s shopping center.

Which issue would make you want to beome a politician?
None. I feel that my talents are better suited to more direct work, rather than trying to get myself elected.

Which union society would you make every other student join?
I wouldn’t really mind, as long as they join and take part in something. Societies are the best thing that the union does, it’s a waste to not take part.

What is the best place to live: Leamington, Coventry, Kenilworth or on campus?
They all have their merits. I’m living in leamington now, and I enjoy it. I liked Earlsdon while I was there. Campus is great if you’re a fresher.

Which book has helped you most with your work?
My lab book.

What is the best thing you have done in a seminar?
I’m a scientist, we don’t do seminars.

What is the best moment you have had in a lecture?
Nothing particularly stands out. Some comedy moments with a [german] lecturer we had for a while were amusing.

What would convince you to choose a specific career?
How interesting it would be for me, and whether it’s motivated merely by profit, or by something bigger.

Which module would you make compulsory?
Dishwashing.

What was your biggest mistake in your first year?
IRC.

List your top ten revision tips.

• Work somewhere quiet. You may think that you like the radio on, but it’s actually distracting you from what you are trying to focus on.


• Work consistently. It’s so much easier to revise if you’ve already learned the stuff when you went through it the first time. This is hard, and I only really did it toward the end of my degree.


• Make extra notes during lectures. This is really for the scientists, who typically just copy down what’s put up on the board. Lecturers are usually saying important things, even if they don’t write them down. What seems obvious to you in the lecture will just not be in your consciousness when it comes to revision.


• If you’re not getting anywhere with something you’re trying to revise, give up, skim read it, then go and work on something else. Come back to the hard stuff later and try again.

There aren’t ten, but that’ll do.

There we go. Much more fun than writing my Chem Comm :-)

Writing about web page http://www.faststream.gov.uk

Just got back from doing an “e-Tray exercise” for the faststream [civil service] assessment procedure. Very interesting indeed. To summarise what it was, from the faststream site itself:

The main part of the event is the e-Tray Exercise. This is based around a realistic simulation of a typical Fast Stream job. You will be given an on-screen briefing that includes familiarisation with the system and the resource materials provided before the exercise begins.
The first part of the exercise will present you with an email in-box containing various emails. You have to deal with each email by reading the message and choosing from a list of possible actions which one you will take. You can use the resource materials to inform your decisions. As the exercise progresses, more emails arrive. This first part of the e-tray lasts around 50 minutes. The second part of the exercise builds on the first. You will be asked to produce some written work that relates directly to the material in the first part of the exercise. You have access to all the material used in part one and the decisions you took. You are allowed one hour for the second part of the e-Tray.

It was interesting, and quite high pressure. I really don’t know how I did – know I got at least one thing totally wrong, but hopefully that won’t be enough to scupper my application.

I really want this job.

Ok. I’m polymerising ethene, and typically use between 10 and 0.2 mg of catalyst. The problems are:

• It takes an more than an hour to set up a reaction, including sorting out the glassware, setting up the computer, measuring up the catalyst, making up solutions and getting things stirring.


• It takes an hour to run a reaction.


• If a reaction goes nuts, I need to sit with it to drop ice into a waterbath to stop it blowing up. Which is boring.


• 0.2 mg of catalyst is fuck all of fuck all, so it’s easy to kill it off inadvertently.


• If a reaction produces nothing, you’re never quite sure if that’s because the catalyst isn’t really a catalyst, or because you’ve broken something – used a wet cannula, or left something provocative on the reactor that didn’t come off when you cleaned it. This is boring, because it’s very hard to accept a negative result.


• It takes an hour or two to clean up after a run. More if you’ve got frickin’ low molecular weight PE adhered to your glassware.

Summary: I can only really do one reaction a day if I want to be able to do anything else. If a reaction yields nothing (like today), it’s tempting to re-run it, especially if you think that the catalyst really should have been active. If it yields nothing again, then you’ve wasted a day, which is just lovely.

I’m bored of doing poly runs. Very very bored.