HP! (no spoilers)

[raven]

A word to everyone going to see Goblet of Fire today, or whenever (I don't see it until tonight, so I'm as spoiler-free as the rest of you) - pay strict attention to any scenes of the Great Hall which show the high table and the large window behind it. That is MY COLLEGE, OMG.

Yeah, I'm done.

Despite the imminent GoF goodness, I am still having a miserable day. Yesterday was interesting, at least; Thursday is my day of maths, maths and more maths, and it began by one of the morning lectures attempting to teach me differentiation. All these years, I've believed it's some sort of strange, arcane art only accessible to lucky few, so I am amazed and impressed by the fact I can do it. Not very well, but I can. So there. I still suck at maths, though; the class in the afternoon was an exercise in horror. Why I am so mathematically illiterate, I don't know. I just have a mental block concerning numbers. Actually, not numbers, as my straightforward mental arithmetic is quite good; it's symbols that cause the problem. I'm not clever enough to manipulate them with any great intuitive ease.

But beyond that, there is also Politics, which sucks due to outside circumstances - my tutor was two days late in sending off the reading emails, and there are no books in the Social Sciences Library on my list. OLIS tells me that they are, but they're not on the shelves, which leads me to believe that some total bastard has gone round the shelves hiding them all. Why would you be so anti-social? Therefore I have two days to write a 2500-word essay on devolution with no books, and it is going to be hideous.

There is good stuff - Firefly and writing and the amazing twelve-foot Christmas tree currently being erected just outside college and in the morning, the sight of the perfect, comprehensive frost, but until I have dispensed with devolution, I foresee much angst on my part, at least over the weekend. Sigh.

Still. Seventh week next week. We're working to a conclusion here.

Comments

[amchau.livejournal.com]

No books? Did you ask the librarian? I'm told that sometimes someone (wow, isn't this specific advice?) can tell you that they've all be borrowed and should be returned tomorrow, or that your tutor will probably be happy with book X instead.

Over half way through term, right?

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

I can see on OLIS what books are in the library, which ones have been taken out and when they should be back, and none of this is remotely helpful if people insist on hiding the books. Grrr.

Seventh week of a eight-week term, so I'd say so! I'm looking forward to going liek whoa. :)

[amchau.livejournal.com]

Grr indeed. You're sure they weren't using them somewhere in the library, reading without signing them out? Failing that, I wish I had an automated radio-controlled book-hunting robot to send you.

[walkertxkitty.livejournal.com]

*squees* I thought you'd said they hadn't filmed any of it at your college?

We won't be seeing the movie just yet because Simtra is on call and we don't want it interrupted. Also, I need a broader opinion of whether or not my son should see the movie before we go. I don't trust movie ratings.

I have the same problem with math. I can deal well in concrete things but as soon as you introduce the complex symbological stuff, I lose it. That and I tend to argue theorems. NEver could get it through my head that I didn't need to know why, I just needed to do the operation.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

They didn't really. It's just that window that they didn't like at Christ Church, so they superimposed ours on top of it. This makes me happy.

Film ratings are very different over there, I think, but I reckon it's not being pitched much older than Simon's age. I'll know more once I've seen it, natch. :)

*g* I like theorem proofs. Actually using them is a whole different thing!

[that_mireille]

See, I am your polar opposite. I'm extremely good at maths provided I don't have to work with actual numbers and can stay in the "abstract manipulation of symbols" state.

Still, in my case it doesn't matter much any more as my mathematical education is over, and in yours... *hugs* Hope it gets better soon.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

I really, really wish I could swap places. For real numbers, there's always a calculator!

As for my mathematical education, providing I drop Economics with a vengeance after my prelims, there should be no more maths after the end of this year. But that's a whole seven months away! *cries*

In my day...

[lady_of_asheru]

The competition in the law faculty at Cambridge was so cut throat that students used to razor the cases we needed to read for assignments out of the library archives, thus stopping anyone else from reading them. This taught me an invaluable skill: how to argue a case with virtually no evidence or case law to support it!
Sx

Re: In my day...

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Urgh, that's horrible! (The lawyers here report similar; this may be why they're such a stressed-out bunch as a general thing.) Still, that is a skill I wish I had! (Says she, having written 1000 words on devolution without quoting any legislation/referenda at all.)