KEGS Film Competition 2006.

Today was the day of the Film Comp showing. So basically this took up part of the morning. It went really well, much better than expected. The DVD worked fine (thank God, or else I would probably be dead right now), there prizes were there and the trophies looked superb. There was one thing though, Scam forgot to thank Thurston (although he did realise it later...). I did go to a bit of Maths, although didn't get much done. French was spent worrying about the impending speaking test. Tech was doing a bit more research on these alarms.

The final assembly was weird. Durham (or Lord Durham?) got a standing ovation (while wearing a cape) and so did Sparrow. There was also a rousing rendition of 'Jerusalem' to end the term. I dunno why but it doesn't feel much like a holiday. I need to do loads of revision and also the exams are creeping up quickly. I'm going to start worrying again now...

Walking In Memphis.

It was slightly annoying this morning because I could have gone to the Slave Auction but instead went to Tech. It was good that I did though as the stuff which we did was actually quite important. Apparently the second paper is about something which we have to research prior to the exam - which was slightly worrying as up to this point I didn't know fk all about this. So most of the lesson was spent researching about domestic alarms, apart from the points when Worrall and Birke came in. Worrall had a card for Bunting to sign for, "Spadge," who I guess is some sort of staff nickname for Sparrow. Birke came in and then went around trying to steal equipment who he said was better than the Physics Department's - but ironically Physics wouldn't give her any equipment so she had to go begging for equipment.

Geography was beginning a new topic, which happens to be tourism. It was a poor lesson (which is unusual) mainly because we had to do an exercise on something which was blatantly wrong. I'm sorry but 27,000 people do not come to visit the UK every year. Every time I go to London there is nothing but tourists!!! Drama was spent running through the script sorting out the technical bits. At lunch there was the fabled Girl Gladiator which to my surprise I can sum up in one word: violent. I didn't go to PSE because I had to make the disc for the Film Comp 2moz. Up to this point there is actually nothing to show anyone. Bio was doing an experiment, setting fire to food and then trying to heat water. It was actually 'fun' doing this. I know, how can I be talking about fun in Biology...

Random Dice Rolling.

Geo was awful. We had a test on earthquakes and volcanoes, which on the face of it doesn't seem that bad. However I didn't actually know most of the stuff that we were being asked as I hadn't revised at all. We were told that we might have a test, but I never got round to revising. Physics was a bit of a joke. No one was paying attention although at the end we did get to do an experiment. I thought that the experiment might have some relevance to radiation, but it didn't. All we did was roll dice (which had one side painted black) and then take note of which side they landed on. WTF? This has no obvious relevance to Physics at all!!!

English was doing the dreaded FFMC timed essay. We had some weird cover man (who slightly resembled Mr Crook (ah, the beloved Dr Crow...)) who didn't seem to have control of the class. He left to find the cover work and all hell broke loose. He did eventually return with the cover work, which in theory we actually had on us (these gold/yellow booklets). I found it much easier than I thought I would which was slightly worrying/good. Maths was marking the h/w and beginning a paper. Drama was spent in the Drama Office converting the films for the Film Comp into a usable format, although this eventually failed. I wouldn't have got anything done next door anyway, Tom's still in Sicily...

iPod Shuffle Dock.

In Art I did some of my actual (real) exam prep work, which was going to involve clay but then didn't, but finally ended with lino printing. It's really funny how the moment you put an iron on the lino everyone can suddenly smell it and then moan about lino printing. Anyway the lesson was cut short because of the class photographs. This did seem a tad pointless because our form were missing eight people. It was good to know though that I'm not the shortest in the class, Chris gets that honour. English was doing a Best Word essay - big yawn. I'm very quickly beginning to get annoyed with all of these damn essays, why can't on word answers suffice? 'How effective is language in the poem?' - 'Very'. See, that's nice and simple.

Maths was going over the paper from the h/w, yes yet more repetition. Games was swimming, which is the last one of this block. It seems a bit strange how we've had almost three months of this block, and yet the final one will only be about three weeks. Evenly spaced out, eh? In other news my iPod Shuffle Dock has arrived. Yes I know, I don't actually have an iPod Shuffle, but I do have a good use for the dock. It's a really sweet way of holding my USB drive...

Nothing Is Impossible.

In Art Wiltshire got pretty annoyed that practically no one had done any exam preparatory work. In fact most of the class weren't even there. I managed to finish my exam piece but at the end I noticed that I had missed a really small but obvious bit. Damn. This means spending ages trying to mix this colour up again. English was doing (yes another) timed essay. French was preparing for the impending oral. Unlike the previous lesson there weren't any dodgy food references. Last week she asked us to give her some meat to get her teeth into (which as you can imagine brought five minutes of solid laughter!).

RE was poor. We were meant to do our presentations, but only one group performed. He also got really annoyed when loads of people came in really late. Bio was going over stuff which I swear we've already covered. Chem was watching a video on getting metals from their ores. Oh the joy...

8.7.7.5

There was an FDL assembly as it's FDL week next week. All I can say is that watching Ryan attempt to eat tuna and eggs is not very pleasant. Maths was slightly more pleasant. It was doing (another) paper. In French pretty much everyone learnt that they had messed up their speaking test cards and we spent a fair bit of the lesson correcting them. It's really annoying as this is the third time I've handed it in and it is the first time I've been told it's wrong. Tech was fairly laid back compared to normal lessons. I had finished my coursework, so could spend the lesson doing basically fk all. I took a couple of pictures of my project and then put some fancy rubber feet on the bottom. I also got to go to lunch on the bell for once, which to say the least was a 'surreal experience'.

Physics was just short of a joke. First of all there was no one really in the lesson. Secondly no one was paying an ounce of attention to Herr Birke. Chem was much more exciting. We had to get copper from some copper something (as usual I can't remember the name). We also got our c/w marks back at the end, I got if I can remember correctly 8,7,7,5 which is good, better than Physics but not as good as Bio. I'm still not taking Bio A Level tho...

Sticker Cutter!!!

Tech seemed rather empty today for two reasons: Sicily and Geography. There's the Latin Sicily trip going on at the moment and also the Geography revision conference. I had finished my Tech c/w the night before, well morning before at 12.30am so I was pretty happy. It sort of works, I mean you turn it on and the switches illuminate and all that but the countdown is slightly erratic. I decided not to even bother fault finding, as it is basically impossible with about sixty flying leads. So I decided to make some stickers to label the various bits of my case, ie. 'ON/OFF'. I didn't realise that the Tech Block had a machine which did it for you. It is so cool, you just draw/type out what you want and it cuts it out. I really want one of those, even though it will probably never be used. The sticking the stickers done was really hard as I decided to invert it, so I would need to keep the centre of the 'O's and 'A's etc. It was a big mistake, but it looked really good.

Geography wasn't even a cover. In fact it didn't really take place. I was relegated to the library as Service couldn't justify a cover teacher for two people. I had to do the paper which I had foolishly asked for the day before. Drama too was a cover, and we actually got some work done, despite Roberts covering us. Liam stood in for Tom and we managed to run through the entire play. PSE was spent finishing the Bio work and learning Hymns while listening to music. Bio was a cover, and I only saw the beginning of the video as I had to see the Orthodontist. It was a complete waste of time going to see him, he didn't even do anything...

Frantic Finishing.

Geo was in the computer room and was finishing off the Kobe malarkey. Physics was a cover even though Birke walked out of the staff room moments before the lesson. We had to watch a (boring) video and then do some (pointless) tasks. English was doing some revision on R+J and then doing some more c/w admin. I found it really strange that we had to fill in a yellow form previously with all of our work on it and then we were told to bin it today. Maths was marking the h/w. Drama was a cover and Tom and I got on with our long standing game of squares. I began losing terribly, 17-1 (at one point) but I had a good reason. I was learning the script as we don't actually have much time. After school I had to finish my Tech c/w as I really do not have much time left at all. In fact it's due in tomorrow. AH!!!!!!!!

The Apprentice was also on tonight. It was fairly funny due to the fact that neither team seemed to have a grip. Also how cool was that blue sky room? I didn't think that Ruth's team should have lost as their stuff was much, much better, but I did think that Mani should go. I can't stand him, he thinks he's so darn good at everything. He just annoys me...

House Drama 2006 (Or Lack Of).

During registration we were told to check our options for next year, and I was really, really surprised that they had accepted my 'fifth' option, or more precisely fifth options: Drama and Electronics. Art was painting the background of my exam piece, which was annoying as I should have done it first and also because the lesson ended before I could finish all of it. I am probably going to have to try and finish it after school sometime this week.

English was spent doing some quotation exercise where you to find ten quotes relating to the thing you did the previous lesson. It did seem rather pointless. Then we had to do some Drama task based on it; which too seemed pointless. I though I might point out that I used that semi colon for 'balance and contrast'. My groups performance was awful, partly because I didn't have a clue what was going on. Maths was marking the paper and then going onto doing some probability revision.

At this point it was lunch and then House Drama. I didn't go to House Drama as I had the very pressing matter of my Tech c/w. So I spent all afternoon doing it. I had to actually change my case, which involved drilling holes, making them bigger and then doing the dreaded rectangular hole. I honestly can't see where people have trouble with it. It's easy. Drill a hole, then use the abrafile saw to make the hole and finally use a file to smooth it all of. I just need to solder in the switches and then I'm done. Well that's the plan...

The Fisherman Dance.

During assembly something really strange happened. A bunch of Japanese people stood up and did a fisherman dance. I honestly didn't know whether to laugh, be shocked or amazed. At times I could understand what the hell was going on, but it did seem like at one point they were pulling a rope (possibly with a fish line on?) and throwing buckets about. Whatever they were doing it certainly beats a normal assembly or some, frankly totally rubbish FDL announcement.

In Art we got our exam papers, and I thought that there were loads of good ones, and some ones which I wouldn't touch with a long pole. I think I'll go with the surface one, as you can do video and photos. English was doing some drop dead boring FFMC work. Morrell tried to make it exciting by bringing in some random stuff, but even that didn't make it anymore fun. I may at the end of the year go out and buy a copy of FFMC and burn it. No seriously, I despise it so much I am willing to waste money on a copy only to burn it. French doing some oral revision and then going back to more textbook work.

RE wasn't really RE to begin with. Newmie wanted some feedback on the Options Evening and most of it was bad. It was too late in the year, the forms had to do back to soon and none of our teachers were there. The rest of the lesson was spent preparing for a presentation next week. I can't wait. Bio was a cover and I managed to get a fair amount of the booklet done. Chem was going over the test. I'm a bit annoyed as I got 15/22, and should have got 17/22 as I made two blindingly obvious mistakes. I'm not going to run head first into a brick wall...

The Options Evening.

Tech was the usual rush to try and get the c/w done and sort of one the way to being finished. Geo was in the computer room and I spent it researching about the Kobe earthquake. Service had brought in a 'mint' condition newspaper from 1995 and expected us to use it (and presumably keep it relatively 'mint'). No one used it, until she pointed it out and then loads of people went up. I don't think it was 'mint' at the end. Drama was fairly pointless for me, my group weren't there. Some stupid Maths thing I think.

PSE was the supposedly final one with Walker, and he tried to do a recap and it seemed to show that no one had been paying attention at all. Bio was pretty poor. We are on our last topic, and it seems like we won't ever finish it as every time she sees someone talking she would stop talking and just wait. At one point she was just waiting for like six minutes. After school I had to do some more Tech c/w. This made me decide not to do it next year as I'm not spending another two years after school until like five.

Later on there was The Options Evening. It's a fairly strange thing as you go around looking to see what you could do next year, or realistically go around the school looking at various pieces of work which you don't understand next to people who want your place next year. Alright, in all fairness the Geo 'stand' was very good. Service talked me through the course and showed me all the work and for Physics Greenwood showed me the tests. We were also told about a new course being run that was 'Critical Thinking' which is meant to be good, or so everyone says. It better be, I'm planning on taking it. Anyway, must back my bag for the DoE expedition tomorrow...

Low Budget Thriller.

I only went to half of Geography because there was a DoE meeting. The half which I did attend was watching a truly awful video. It seemed to be a low budget thriller based on Mt St Helens with a cringe worthy American narration. It was possibly the worst thing that I have ever seen in my life. Physics was funny as Birke made a big deal at the beginning of the lesson to remind us that we shouldn't write on the benches. He basically said that if we had anything bad to say about Physics teachers we should say it to our friends or to him ("You can tell it to my face"). It is very tempting to suddenly throw your hand in the air and shout out obscenities.

English was doing a cover timed writing piece. Roberts was covering the second section and as usual with him there were chaotic scenes. Towards the end he told Chris to go and bring some people in who were throwing stuff around inside, and then later he sent some people out to what can only be described as 'bullying them'. Maths was marking the paper and then doing some graph stuff. Drama was a cover, and although my group actually did some work the other groups didn't. Gibbs didn't even notice the fact that out play was full of swearing, but Moore did. I didn't realise but we only have about six weeks until we perform. I better learn my script then...

Falling Down Stairs.

I went to school today even though it was a staff day (yes, I know, shock horror!). I went in mainly because I needed to do my Tech c/w in order to get it done in time. However fortunately and unfortunately Bunting wasn't there. Fortunately because I had realised I had made one massive cock up and needed to unsolder lots of wires and put them back on, in a special order. Unfortunately because it meant that we couldn't get any components or different coloured wires and that some, to put it mildly, twat was in charge.

Honestly, he was an absolute idiot who upon us entering the room demanded to know our names and then told us to shut up and get on with our work, even Bunting doesn't do that. As if that were bad enough he had somehow acquired a set of speakers and was blasting music in the Tech Block and stopping us from working. Fortunately Bunting arrived and was on crutches (something I won't forgot in a while!) and I could just see some of the class imagining to snap her sticks or steal them. Aren't we nice...

A Complete Disaster.

Before Art there was another assembly telling us that we were doomed, and to choose our options wisely. We also had to fill in some form about what options we are likely to take and why. The assembly was in the Old Gym, so possibly the worse place to hold it? Anyone fancy the canteen? No, didn't think so. We'd all rather write in thin air. Art was a cover, and it seemed to go by really quickly. English was revising some Best Words poems with everyone performing a short presentation. Our one was awful, in fact it was so bad that I don't even want to think about it. In French I actually didn't do that much, it was an oral prep lesson.

RE with Newman can be summed up in the following phrase: a complete disaster. Nothing seemed to go right. Firstly he was late and other people were late. Then no one listened to him and kept talking. He couldn't get the DVD to show up on the projector. I probably would have wanted to have not seen the film that we were being shown. It was about abortion and featured a girl who was twelve. Nothing wrong with that? She was pregnant. It was really funny when the camera panned to her face and everyone, well, basically made a sound of disapproval. Newman promptly paused the film and asked us to keep our opinions to ourselves.

I was really amazed that I got 18/20 on the test. I knew that I must have done well on one of the tests as I got a B and the previous two that I got back were rubbish. The lesson ended with another 'hilarity' with Newman asked for us to bring the tests back next week and waved mine about, and then walked off with it. Yeah, I'm going to be able to bring it back if you walk off with it. Bio was more about extinction/evolution and Chem was going over the h/w and then being told there was a test. Ah...

The Secret Sparrow Concert.

Today seemed really weird. I went to school even though it was Sunday. There was a good reason though, it was the day of the secret concert for Sparrow, which he is in and so is not secret anymore. We had to film the rehearsals and set up for the evening, which meant there was an insane amount of stuff to do. Overall the concert was pretty good, it was funny watching what looked like three men on a piano all playing at the same time, and as usual the wind band was amazing. The finale was also pretty amazing with Sparrow conducting both the audience and the orchestra. I somewhat foolishly took my camera into the audience to get a better view and on a number of occasions almost got covered in wine...

DofE Prep.

I had to go to town to get various things for the DoE expedition next weekend. This involved going to Blacks and this All Weathers place several times to get: backpack, mat, walking trousers and some other things. It was difficult trying to get the rucksack because I had the choice to go for a 75 litre one and a 85 litre one, with only £5 difference, but there was a huge difference in size. I went for the larger one although I might regret it later. I can also almost guarantee that I have forgotten to get at least one item...

Our Day Out.

After school I (possibly foolishly) went to see Our Day Out. From what other people had said I wasn't sure what to expect, after all apparently on the first night Ryan fell out the fire escape. It was better than I thought it would be, and really funny in some places like the charisma/chlamydia joke! Afterwards we cleared up in record time, partly because we wanted to go home and because of the need to set up for the secret concert...

The National Grid.

Geography was first as was about plate boundaries, earthquakes and volcanoes. It was pretty funny because she tried to explain the different types of boundaries using a rather dodgy paper model, which was apparently made whilst she was becoming a teacher. It was so funny as there were little volcanoes and everything. Physics was spent watching Birke, well, play with a small model of the National Grid. It was really ironic at one point that there was a transformer plugged into the mains and connected to a transformer which was connected to another transformer which was then running a mains bulb.

English was doing the c/w admin. It wasn't terribly interesting, or terribly boring, more in the middle. I must say that I am still 'on a high' from that creative writing coursework (27!!!!) even though it was like a month ago. We also learnt that Morrell hates her middle name, and that the class thought 'Digby' was a stupid name. Maths was marking the paper and Girdler seemed amazed that I had managed to mark both mine and Thurston's papers. Then it was onto indices. Drama was a bit of a joke, again most of my group weren't there due to the 'Our Day Out' rehearsals. So Tom and I just went through our lines a couple of times and wasted the rest of the lesson. I learnt after school that Wiltshire likes The Apprentice!!! In fact talking about that it's almost on, better go an see it then...

Two Essays!!!

In Art I gave up on my final piece and went and did some sketchbook work. English was doing two timed essays. In a fairness the first one could hardly be classed as an essay, but still. TWO ESSAYS!!! Maths was doing work on vectors and then simultaneous equations. Fun then. Games was swimming, and I think it was my last week of it (ever, if you don't count the other times I might do swimming during games lessons...). I though Green was not well when the warm up was four lengths of each stroke. I took me twenty minutes to do this - although I was going slowly and talking a lot in between. After getting back to school I had to do some Tech c/w. I have actually realised now that I may not get it done in time...

A Four Letter Outburst.

After assembly we were held back by Bevan and what happened next could only be described as amazing. There was a four letter outburst and he got really angry because someone had sworn at a Haywards School teacher. I don't think anyone had ever seen him that angry before. It was actually really scary, when he's normally angry he will make it into some sort of funny thing - like the 'clubs', but this time he was furious.

Art was doing more drawing out my idea for my final piece. I didn't do much work though, as I kept drawing something and then rubbing it out a couple of moments later. English was making up question for the pre release booklet. It turned out to be a bit of a farce as we had to read them out aloud and then the other groups would write this down. It was anarchy, and eventually she allowed people to resort to the use of the board. However some people had created massive questions, so over half the lesson was spent copying down questions and we hadn't even reached half of the groups.

French was doing a reading test, which I though was so so. RE was fairly drop dead boring. I was tempted to get up and drop dead. I didn't as you can tell. Biology was watching some video with people who had some of the funniest names I have ever seen. Chem was doing work on the Nitrogen Cycle. After school I had to go to the Art block to do some work after school. I had made the fateful mistake of saying that I should spend some time in the Art Block doing (surprise, surprise) Art...

70 Years On.

I ended up spending my afternoon doing two tasks: homework and installing various games for my brother on the Dell. French was terrible, I had most of it translated for me - but in fairness did work most of it out beforehand and only used it to check it for me, English was painful, writing another damned essay and Art, which was messy. I ended up covering part of my desk in yellow paint and fortunately made the wise decision to move my laptop beforehand.

Today, as I was reliably informed in the morning by the radio, is the seventieth anniversary of the Spitfire first flying, so I thought I'd slip that in some[where] in this entry. It is really quite significant as if it hadn't been made there is a chance that I might be typing this out in German (Urgh! The thought of it alone...) rather than English. Also did anyone see that awesome Planet Earth program? Wow. It was amazing, I want a helicopter with one of those gimbals...

Band Night 2006.

Maths was first and was spent doing more damn proof. French was doing a listening test. I thought 'Oh no. I hate these. I can't do them', but it seemed ok. In fact I did rather well getting 25/30 which is very impressive, for me. Tech was doing more work on my PCB and I had to work through lunch to get a lot more done. I'm getting slightly worried with my project as the amount of wires in it at the moment is just insane and it's about a 1/4 done. Physics was funny. Birke had a massive go at us for firstly a large number of people not having done the h/w and practically no one having their textbooks with them. This led to the memorable Birke quote, "We appear to have eight textbooks." Just for the record I did actually have my textbook. Chem was making a fertiliser from the stuff we made last week. It was really strange how we had like loads of the stuff, like 1.5g of it when, for instance, Cook had like 0.5g. At the end of the lesson there was a nice bit of Inkball to end the week.

Then the preparations for the filming of Band Night began. We got everything out of the office, took it to the balcony and set it up. But first there was the small matter of having dinner, which was a microwave meal which Worthy got, and I almost burnt myself with. Anyway afterwards we set up all the cameras and moved them to their positions, and we were ready in record time. This was pretty amazing. Our filming plan seemed to work for the first act, but afterwards it went to pot. There wasn't the five minute gap between each act which we were promised, it was more like twenty seconds tops. In short it was fking chaos on the balcony, and it seemed like we all missed every clapperboard. It should be a laugh for Harris to edit it...

I Haven't Finished Yet.

The Apprentice last night was an absolute joke. I mean come on! Grown people crying over seemingly pointless things. To top all that off that stupid Nargis woman was completely rubbish and downright rude in the negotiations. How can anyone say to a prospective buyer, "I haven't finished yet," when they try to ask a question. She doesn't deserve to be fired, she ought to be shot.

Tech was doing more c/w work and again unfortunately we were given a h/w to do an hour of work outside lessons. I guess it is kind of necessary or else no one will finish their c/w before the deadline. Service was back in Geo today and we saw the picture that Hitch had promised, which was basically a Mexican dressed as a seat so that he could get in America. Drama was practising our play, although to begin with he went around checking that people had actually bought paper pads after yesterdays lesson.

PSE was political awareness with Walker, although this time he wrote on the correct side of the board. I contributed a fair bit during the 'lesson' as it was actually about something which I knew about and no one else seemed to know anything about it. I mean everyone knows what a manifesto is and a white paper? Bio was about cloning, if only I could clone myself and then have been somewhere else and my clone could have sat in for me. That's a bit harsh though, it wasn't that bad. It was annoying though as halfway through it began snowing really heavily but then stopped. DoE ended the day where we didn't really learn anything, except that route cards are important...

Ice In March.

Hitch isn't as bad as people make him out to be. We had him for Geo cover as Service was ill, and I had expected someone who shouted, handed out detentions and was generally grumpy. But he wasn't, he was really funny and kept cracking jokes. Just after the beginning of the lesson he took his phone out and began using it, then supposedly turned it off. Physics was doing some experiment where we made a small transformer, and then had loads of different combinations and had to measure each. I actually think its pretty amazing how it works, I mean you can make the electricity 'jump' from one wire to another without them touching, how good is that? Ok, it isn't. Since when has Physics been cool? We also got our c/w back, and I can't remember my mark but it was down from my Bio one.

English was a cover for the first part, as Morrell was doing some Science thing. She was back for the second half and we had to pretty much do an essay. It wouldn't normally have been that bad, but after spending a section leisurely completing a mind map and then having to an essay with four minutes per paragraph was tough. Maths was going over the h/w and then playing 'a game'. I didn't think it was much of a game though, how can matching up equations be a game? Drama was discussing the play which we saw yesterday, and at the beginning he went ballistic when he found out people had been going into the Drama Office looking for paper. He exploded at Jack when he hadn't even gone in there which was really funny. In fact the homework was to buy a pad of paper each, which I had to get. I bet you no one else has bothered to get one so I didn't need to waste £1.19...