…here cometh the Exam-O-Meter, to be worshipped as a god!
The Most Exciting and Fabulous Exam-O-Meter!
My exams clashed this morning, so by choice I sat History first, although I was placed amongst the Maths students for some reason so it was ‘Dominic, you’re psychologically alone 
‘ time from the start. The first question of History seemed like a gift, since it only covered 1945-1949, though maybe I should have more more ‘critical use of sources’. The second question seemed fine to me too, though the reactions I got afterwards suggest it could be seen as nasty for asking about the role of personality and individual decisions on behalf of the leaders of the superpowers. Like I said, seemed fine to me!
Core 4, which followed almost immediately, was hard. A combination of a tricky paper where I couldn’t even attempt all of the questions – in common with most people – and me being tired and slow after almost 2 hours of History writing. There was also a worrying lack of ‘show that’ questions! Nevertheless, overall I think it’ll get me through: I may well not get an A on that paper specifically, but I can afford that. I also managed to end well by cracking one of the questions literally as time ran out – and I’m now hoping my scribbles will be legible enough to get the marks!
Hmm. Baring disaster, that was my last Maths exam – or really anything – for ever. Although forever is a very long time, who knows what might happen… 
This week brought one of those moments which makes you stop and think for a while. It was the news of child’s death only a few streets away from me – the sort of private tragedy which occurs many, many times across the world in a single day. From what I hear, it was also a case with nobody at fault and no-one to blame: in the blink of an eye a young child jumps out of a pushchair and is crushed by a reversing car.
The story is second- or third-hand and might not even be true, but it’s plausible enough. It’s the sort of situation I think everyone can easily imagine themselves in – going from normal to tragic in an instant, and a life suddenly ending so unexpectedly and undeservedly. For the rest of their lives, the parents might wonder what they might or could have done differently, and the driver equally condemned to wake up each morning with the image of the accident burned in his or her memory. And yet – as strong as the grief might be – it’s just not possible to get rid of accidents. Yes, you could theoretically imagine a society where no-one ever sped, or drove while drunk, or even drove cars at all, and followed every possible precaution: but you can never eliminate the unexpected, blameless yet terrible accident.
And yes, I am forced to question those who believe in a god: because you do not believe in accidents. You cannot. If you believe a being is all-knowing and all-powerful, it knew of that child’s death – because it knows everything – and could have prevented it – because it can do everything. Maybe you can convince yourselves that the choice to let the child die is a legitimate one, and that’s fine (perhaps), but that’s what it is: a choice. You cannot believe in god – at least the god described by the major religions today – and believe in accidents. Accidents are unexpected, and a god would expect everything.
Maybe that’s comforting. Maybe accidents are scary and uncontrollable, and it’s easier to believe that everything has some underlying reason. Though I’d rather believe in accidents than a being who, with the luxury to save a life, chooses not to.
…it’s the Exam-O-Meter of course!
The Most Awesome and Exceptional Exam-O-Meter!
Physics Unit 5 was almost hysterically bad. The first question didn’t appear to bear much relation to the syllabus, and I really could have done with more Maths throughout. More Maths, fewer bicycle wheels please. Unit 4 was better, and the first question even consisted of 4 ‘filling in the blanks’ of word equations, which I really could have done with in the previous exam :S but since I haven’t been able to devote much time to Physics this year it wasn’t as good as it might have been. I’m not sure I’ll do any better than last time, but that was a C, so hey.
(Important reminder: Physics doesn’t affect my university place )
And Maths Statistics 1 was a piece of cake, really. They had the audacity to ask us about mean, median, mode and interquartile ranges in the lone nasty question – stuff you know fine at GCSE and then quickly lose practice with – but hey, I don’t need full marks here. I made a few stupid mistakes elsewhere, but happily corrected them before the end. My only worry is if I lose marks for not showing my method, but hopefully I won’t.
Oh, and an early birthday card from Brent Council arrived today 
Robert + hat = woo yay
I don’t do this very often.
But, tomorrow – on the 14th June 2007 – Robert will be 18. Adult. Five days before me, in fact. Five days which he has delighted in telling anyone and everyone about since the beginning of time
Nevertheless, I feel I should post something moving and emotional, because Robert is really my oldest friend. (As in he’s been my friend for the longest silly, not that most of my friends are infants. Although…) And in all that time, from primary school, we have stuck together no matter what. Wait, no, that’s a lie. We have actually attacked each other, fought and generally gone to war more times than I care to remember. In fact through a very large parts of our lives I think we hated each other. But you know what? We’re boys, and boys do this weird kind of friendship thing 
So happy birthday! 
You crazed lunatic you. Well done for bringing out my most loving blog post to date!
Accepted Joshua’s invitation to go and see The Marcus Brigstocke Interview It’s Later Than You Think (the name had changed since the tickets were printed) with him, his mum and Robert last night. The format of the pilot Radio 4 show was to get a celebrity – in this case Phil Jupitus – to do things they’ve never tried before. So we got to see Phil having his palm read, drink Absinthe, shave an audience member’s head and enjoy some colonic irrigation (not, ur, live in the studio) amongst various other things. It was a good show and, hopefully, will get commissioned soon! 
On the Tube we started discussing blogs, and I was accused of having a boyband-type blog. I dislike the implication of no substance, and prefer to call it a Top of the Pops Magazine style blog
In the same way though, Sanna is clearly writing a sensuous and award-winning novel, while Andy is a teen girl’s mag laden with quizzes.
*goes off to think about other blog personas*
Rob Bell on Baby’s first blog: “Congratulations! Sounds like you are really enjoying the first few weeks which is great. Time flies!” Oct 13, 12:59
