Has now taken four out of five exams. It seems a bit pointless waiting a week to do the “lowdown” so here it is, minus the Economics exam to be taken next Friday.

I am currently, at this very second, being molested to buy a cheeseburger by Yves and Baldy, which is under Yves jumper and he’s stroking it in a rather seductive manner, they actually tried American-accented flirtacious talk in order to sell me it. It’s comical. I said no.

Edexcel Core Two.
Harder exam that I expected, but I was far more prepared than I was in June (missed out ten marks of trigonometry, haha). I only needed 2 extra UMS from last time (76 to 78) to get me an A in AS. Still missed out seven marks worth of questions. I’m pretty confident I got that, if not higher. I just wanted an A in AS Maths certificate to stick on my fridge.

Edexcel Decision One.
I did a lot of Solomon papers/old spec to prep for this exam, which shot my nerves right up. The actual exam was easy, except for the definitions. Is always great when your hardest question is ‘what is a tree.’ The grade boundaries are always beastly for D1 but I’m pretty sure I got an A of some description. Taught Baldy most of the syllabus before we went in and then made a bet with him that I did better, then realised we got all the same answers except he got the definitions and did more thorough working. I won’t pay him even if he does win.

Edexcel Core Three.
I have a feeling this will be my highest UMS score. It was hard exam, but I was fully prepared. I made a few stupid mistakes, but the minimum percentage I will get SHOULD be 80% which is more than enough for an A. So I was happy when I came out. Although I made some criminal mistakes which I want to beat myself up over. But if I could get an A at A-Level Maths…well…that proves there’s hope for anything.

OCR US Government & Politics.
I planned to retake this anyway, because I barely revised for it (C3 was on Wednesday PM, this was Friday AM) and I hadn’t written an essay in three months. I “wung it” (whatever the past tense for ‘winging it’ is)  as best as I could; but the questions weren’t the ones I wanted. I know Presidential Elections inside out and there wasn’t a question on it! I was gutted. For that reason alone I may retake. My essays weren’t as strong as my AS ones I don’t think, but then again I barely remember what I put. I need a 70% average this year. I think I may have earnt that, but I honestly don’t know.

Anyway, I have lots of Economic revision to do.

It’s been a pretty good week on the whole. Let’s try and tell a tale with photos.

First thing to arrive through the door. Squee! Indiepop 09 mix from Rough Trade. I don’t have a working CD drive at the moment (silly Macbook) so it’s on rotation in the old boombox. It’s really really good.

There’s the tracklist. The highlight for me was Hopelessly Wasted by Shrag, followed closely by The Punks Are Writing Love Songs by Tullycraft (which has a nearly identical opening riff to Mandy by Jonas Brothers…) and (naturally) You!Me!Dancing! by Los Campesinos!

Then the thing I was most excited about. Cooking Cleaning and Flower Arranging by Manic Street Preachers. Limited to 300 copies. And then….

Garrr, red ink marks. There’s been a lot of problems with them according to the forums - mostly bad packaging and red ink. Have emailed Rough Trade to see if I can get a replacement, although I’m sure they will sell out by the time they get back to me.

After my Decision Maths exam (which was surprisingly…enjoyable?) I went for a drive with my friend from Durham University before he goes back. He taught me life lessons; like the value of university pre-lashes on the wallet, what to drink/what not to drink and most importantly, raiding Sainsbury’s for clearance CDs  = good stuff. [Top one is a David Gray album]. The one of the left is making my ears bleed right now, although getting home and putting on ‘Paris to Berlin’ was pretty priceless. I don’t he’ll ever let me in his car again because he bought me cookies and they were crunchy and I got crumbs everywhere. He also lost a £2 bet because he thought I didn’t know the company of my local petrol station. Dork.

Then…as if life couldn’t get any better…

Yay! Foreign Policy Magazine! I must’ve paid for the subscription months ago (and by I, I mean using my father’s funds) and it’s finally came. Half way through reading it at the moment. Has thrown a spanner in the works in the whole revision weekend shebang. Speaking of which…

My desk has seen better days…

The journal has taken away any need to write personal bullshit. In a nutshell, life events have been good but emotions haven’t. “Lashed” out (in the lightest possible way) at Baldy, luckily he’ll never hold anything against me. Thank the world for great friends. And eating McDonalds and playing music before exams together, and then turning up late. We are silly.

Woo new year. WOOOOOOOOOOO. I woke up early this morning to break the RIDICULOUS 3am-12pm sleep pattern I’ve got going on. Spent the morning raiding the house for a working AA battery to put in my mouse (Logitech VX Revolution for the nerds…ooooh it’s a fiend). I tried at least TEN ones that were flat, going up and down stairs each time. New year, new problems. Hardy-hah.

So time to erase as much of last year from my mind. 2010 is going to be an amazing year for me, no question. January well be hell, slaving through exams and whatnot. I want As, damnit. It won’t happen. Decision is going to be my worst exam, I’m telling you. Prim, Kruskal, Dijsktra, Anonymous Chinese Postman…no. Just no.  Core 3 should go alright, as will Core 2 as long is there isn’t a question on circles. Politics should be the least of my worries, but I’m kinda going for an A*. Same with Economics. Oh and I’ve written half my English coursework in a day. Yeah. As long as it’s above a D I’m content.

Oh, look at me, rambling about my exams. Anyway as for future plans, I’m going to Washington DC in February which I would be excited about except (a) I’m not keen on flying for longer than about five hours; and (b) the whole failed terrorist attack means extra security which means I’m at odds to whether an SLR will get seized. Then to York and Sheffield Universities. LSE will also have to reply to my application this year; I’ll admit, it will be an inconvenience if I get rejected because I’d have to send begging letters to Sheffield asking for a very late course change.

And basically, in ten months time I’m either going to be starting at university OR on the best gap year of my life. Plan is, full-time work for about four months, Open University introductory social science course, summer in Hong Kong University, reading IR course texts, language classes (either French or Mandarin) and remember how to do graphics design. It’s irritating that with the next government coming this year (and the sad truth is, we all know who the PM will be) tuition fees will rise, which makes me reluctant to defer my university entry if I do get an offer. C’est la vie. I may just suck it up and be in the extra debt, I suppose a year to remember would be worth it.

So I don’t do this “resolution” thing. Well I’m lying, I do. I have some great ones from when I was a hyperactive 14-year-old feminist; “no more insensitive lying fuckwits who are so effeminate yet vulgar…” I forget the rest but OH MY GOD I WAS SO HILARIOUS. Yeah well, this is a “to-do” list almost.

1. Stop Swearing. Or at least cut back. I will regret this. I think I should stop using the c-word though, I have got into trouble for that. To me, it will always be “just a word” and the greatest insult to mutter under your breath. Alas, I have an icky personality I should shake off.

2. Get my Left Anti-Tragus Pierced. I regret not getting this sooner actually, because the longer I’ve waited the more scared I am. Just pinching my anti-tragus hurts like a bitch. But I will get it, I will SCREAM in pain and not be able to sleep on my left side for a year, but it’ll be worth it as it will look sweet  with my 14G (1.6mm yeah, I’m THAT hardcore) lobe piercing.

3. Sing A Song For Somebody. I’ve written about my Friday afternoons in the piano room, and how it has inspired me to sing again. But confidence is something which will take most of the year to gain. I will do it eventually though. Hopefully to someone who never has to see me again!

4. Not Buy Any Black Clothes. Because getting called a closet goth kinda sucks, even in jest. I did have the phase though, oh didn’t we all - copious black liquid eyeliner, Murderdolls & Emily strange t-shirt and battered black Converse (because my parents would disown me if I ever wore New Rocks). But a lot of my clothes are really plain as well, because I’m not confident to be crazy. We’ll see how this one turns out.

5. Have A Ridiculously Messy Night. Because I haven’t had one in a loooooong time And I don’t just mean half a bottle of vodka or whatever I mean getting MESSED. You know what I mean. I’ll just avoid the Class As.

6. Have an Amazing Christmas. The plan is to be in Hong Kong next Christmas which I’m SUPER excited about because I love HK and also because they don’t really celebrate Christmas, which means you avoid all the pallavah you get in this country with Boxing Day sales/endless bank holidays etc. I’m not a very festive person so that does me good. It would be my first Christmas abroad if it happens which would be lovely.

7. Redesign This Website. The domain expires in September and I have no plans to renew it. I’ll make something bigger and better. It’ll probably take a summer or so, because I’ve forgotten how to code/use Photoshop but I will try and invest as much time as I possibly can. I’m doing a bit of photomanipulation here and there so we’ll see what comes of this over the summer.

All right, well, I should retreat back into Coursework/Revision land. And I don’t plan to blog for a while, I became all prolific over Christmas holidays but that’s over now. I NEED to avoid failure in these exams, I know I can do it, I just need confidence and LOTS MORE READING. I’m also reading “An Open World: The Truth About Globalisation” by Phillipe LeGrain, which is a bit dated I must admit but I am truly fascinated by the globalisation debate and IR theory (I do plan to study it for at least three years) AND it’s helping me with my Economics/Politics revision (when words like ‘deregulation’ and ‘Ralph Nader’ come up I smile, what a nerd).

I got called a closet goth.
I was told I was scary
intelligent, attractive
self-deprecating, silly.

It means nothing when you achieved ninety-percent in a C3 mock paper.
I’ve fallen in love with core maths.
It means little in terms of skill though, luck was on my side.
I got 82% in the C2 paper, but that means little because it was my ACTUAL paper in June thus I’ve now done it twice.
How one does better in C3 than C2 is beyond me.
Still can’t do Decision either. I don’t know whats wrong with me. Nothing but Core makes sense anymore.
Hell yeah with that rhyme.

I bought the new t.A.T.u. album despite listening to the Russian version of it for over a year, it’s the best English counterpart they’ve made, but conceptually and musically Waste Management and Happy Smiles are so much better to anything they’ve done before. The Transcendent version was interesting, but in hindsight a waste of £7.99 and the “dirty” feeling every time I purchase music from iTunes. It was nice idea, but the overpowering synthy semi-industrial fillers don’t make the transitions between songs smooth enough. I was hoping for something more consistent and subtle.

There are plenty of albums I’m looking forward to next year: The Like, Los Campesinos!, Vampire Weekend, Fleet Foxes, Maroon5, LCD Soundsystem, (We Are) Performance, The Ark, Dream Evil (fingers crossed!), The Dollyrots, Girlicious, Heidi Montag, She Wants Revenge…
This year had some good offerings, I’m loving 30 Seconds To Mars’s new album despite pretty much despising their last offering and thinking they were an awful band. New stuff = epic. Lady GaGa is just amazing, that goes without saying. Tegan & Sara and Phoenix were also bloody brilliant. Lenka, Manic Street Preachers, La Roux, The King Blues, Kelly Clarkson, Ashley Tisdale…there’s probably more. Infected Mushroom should go on here too but I’ve had their newest album for months but have yet to listen to it, which is just shameful. I just can’t stop listening to Vicious Delicious!

Song of 2009 has to be Falling Down by Space Cowboy it’s been my ringtone for at least six months with nearly 300 plays and I’m not even remotely sick of it. I think the ability to lust after Space Cowboy and Chelsea Korka in the video simultaneously does help.

Nom.