Archive: exams

I was going to write a review of the election leaflets, but I don’t think I have the energy to do it. I would have done it earlier in the week, but I have had exams to concentrate on.

The worrying exam was today, and I was rushing to get the train back home — I had bought a cheap day return, and in some kind of mad post-exam suicide mission I thought that I would easily be able to catch the last train before peak time kicks in.

Of course I didn’t catch it, so that running around with heavy books in the hot sun was all in vain, and I ended up spending the next hour and a half pottering around Princes Street (with heavy books) because that is the sort of idiot I am.

I have decided to subject myself to a punishing schedule of blogging about the elections and staying up all night. Because that is the sort of idiot I am.

But I’m not the only one. Plenty of us will be liveblogging. You will find me here at Twitter (where else?), but the odd post might appear here as well. Keep an eye on Scottish Roundup, because a few posts will appear there as well this evening.

In case you’re wondering how I voted, I voted for the Liberal Democrats in both Scottish Parliament votes. It could have been the SNP for the constituency vote, purely as an anti-Labour vote. The SNP were second last time around, but the Lib Dem candidate has built up a high profile in Kirkcaldy since she booted the old Labour councillor out last time round (she is hardly out of the paper, and is seemingly quite popular). On balance, I decided on the Lib Dems.

I am only hoping for a collapse in Marilyn Livingstone’s support. She sorely deserves based on the stories I have been hearing. I have heard bits and pieces about the wheels falling off the Kirkcaldy labour campaign. It seemed as though it was typical Scottish Labour arrogance getting the better of Marilyn Livingstone.

Apparently at the polling place today she was complaining about the size of the Lib Dem sign (!!), squealing, “But I’m the MSP!” No you’re not. Nobody’s an MSP during the election.

It’s this kind of nonsense that is sickening people about Labour in Scotland. It is childish and a turn off. Labour think they have a God-given right to be in office. They totally take the voters for granted, or even look down their noses at them. It was for this reason that our local Labour councillor lost last time around. I can’t help feeling that this is the situation right across the country.

Talking of local government, here is how I voted.

  1. Liberal Democrat
  2. SNP
  3. Conservative
  4. Solidarity

In case you were wondering — yes, that it everyone except Labour. I wrote before about how queasy I felt about voting for anyone apart from the Lib Dems.

But I decided I really wanted to maximise my chances of kicking Labour up the rear, so I just decided, “what the hell, I’ll just vote for everyone but Labour.” Who’d have thought I would have ended up voting for the Conservatives and Solidarity — and both of them at the same time as well!

I delayed the posting of this until 10 o’clock. I’m not a fan of that thing that newspapers do, when they tell you who to vote for. I have my opinions, but I expect the readers of this blog to have their own opinions. I certainly wouldn’t like to tell anyone who to vote for.

But it might be of interest, so I have stated who I voted for just so that it is there. Plus, I probably should be held to account for it.

When I decided to throw my weight behind Scottish Roundup, I didn’t quite think things through. Right now I am in the middle of a deep, dark phase of my life: exams. Yes, just when the Scottish blogosphere is getting busy with the elections, I am getting busy with… er, well I don’t know because I need to revise to find out.

I won’t be pulling the plug on Scottish Roundup, but something has to go. I am even resorting to things like switching the computer off. :o So you will probably find me blogging here much less often at least until after the election. Doh.

Somebody just arrived at this blog searching for “edinburgh university physics exam time“. Something tells me you’re looking in the wrong place! Here would be more helpful. Whoever you are, you don’t have much time!

I had my last exam today! Only to turn up to work and find out that I only have three days off between now and Hogmanay. One of which is Christmas Day. Another of which is tomorrow. And I’m working from 0800–1800 on Boxing Day. They’ve obviously never seen what I’m like at that time of the morning…

Sorry if you’ve been trying to visit this blog over the past couple of days only to find that everything had appeared to have gone tits up.

I had decided a while ago that I was going to change my host and domain registrar. Unfortunately — typical me — I decided to leave everything until the last minute. The last minute just happened to be in the middle of my exams! You know, those exams I’ve been cacking myself about. Dohh! That made the whole thing much more difficult than it needed to be which is why this blog has been in testcard mode for a couple of days.

You’ll be delighted to know that the whole business isn’t even finished yet, but keep your fingers crossed for me, eh? I’ve also had to tinker with the theme a bit. I’ve taken a lot of stuff away from the sidebar, but it was pretty out of date anyway. I’ll be totally redesigning this blog in a week or so anyway, so it’s no great loss. I’ve also taken Gravatars out because they never seem to work any more.

So what news have I had since I last posted? My first exam wasn’t quite as bad as I had feared. My second exam was every bit as bad as I had feared. And my essay mark — yes, that one I messed up the word count on — was way higher than I expected. So a mixed bag all-in-all. I’ve only got one exam left. Thankfully, I will actually have some time to prepare for it! Hopefully this means that I’ll be able to post. Woo hoo!

Psst. Check this out: duncanstephen.co.uk. Don’t worry. I’ll make it non out of date aswell.

Update: On the subject of Gravatars, I’ve just read about Pavatars. It’s a similar idea, but this time instead of being stored centrally like Gravatars, Pavatars are stored on your own webspace. Nice idea. I’ve already got my own one. I wonder if it will catch on like Gravatars did, because it sounds to me like Gravatars are dead. Via Weblog Tools Collection.