Life and Fourth Year
Bloody hell, bloody hell, bloody hell, I'm in fourth year. Thankfully it's not been too different from third year yet (except that everything is slightly easier than at the end of last year. I don't expect this to last long), although one of my courses hasn't actually started yet, so I don't quite know what that's going to be like. Nor have any of the projects started, these are where I guess the major differences to previous years are going to happen.
What I am absolutely loving about this year is the distinct lack of 9am lectures this year. Unfortunately the only free bus that gets me to KB in time for my 10am lectures is at 20 past 9, so I don't get as much extra lie in as I would like, but I am loving the extra 10-20 minutes I can stay in bed (I could stay longer, but this way I don't have to rush breakfast quite so much either). The only day I have anything starting at 9am is a two hour tutorial so it matters a lot less if I arrive a bit late. After Christmas it gets even better, no lectures till 11am.
I'm continuing with the judo, but I've also decided to take up trampolining this year, and so far this has also been awesome. I'm really jealous of the people doing the really complex tumbles and stuff, but hey, I've had a grand total of 3 sessions (that's maybe about 60-80 minutes tops actually bouncing on a trampoline) and I can (most of the time) manage a swivel hips, and I can almost successfully do a faceplant front drop, which looks easier but is a bit more difficult because you have to keep your body entirely flat, and that's a bit tricky for a newbie at least (and also that bit where you're deliberately landing almost face first on the trampoline). This year I might even make up the cost of buying full gym membership!
This week is also apparently Quaker Week, with the various groups running talks and things to reach out to non-Quakers. Thanks to the Edinburgers lj community I discovered that Jocelyn Bell-Burnell (who is possibly most famous for her phd supervisor getting the Nobel physics prize for the work she did, but is also famous for discovering pulsars, and is a life long Quaker and very involved in the workings of Quakerism) was going to be doing a talk on being a Quaker and an astronomer.
Being an astrophysicist-in-training as well as a Christian (although mostly Methodist and not Quaker), and rather in awe of someone who should have got a Nobel prize, I went along, and I'm very glad I did. I find it fascinating hearing about how people experience religion for themselves, and especially interesting in this case from the combination of astronomer and Quaker. It was especially refreshing to hear Bell-Burnell say that where science and religion come into conflict it is science that will always win, and that she does not belive in either a Creator God or an omnipotent God. This is the kind of stuff that i feel would go a bit explosive if someone high up in, for example, the Anglican Church said it. And yet it didn't even raise a murmur in the talk yesterday, even during the discussion bit after the talk it only came up as people asking about ways in which that works for her. This I really, really like.
After the talk there was tea and biscuits and I got a chance to talk to her, this left me a bit "aargghh I'm talking to a famous astronomer!!!" and I'm fairly certain I babbled and made a fool of myself, but it was awesomely cool!
I've been invited to a singing group at the Quaker Meeting House that one of the people I talked to is running tomorrow, and I'm thinking I will probably go. The singing is one of the reasons I'm still sticking with the Methodist Church (the other main ones being the community I've found at the local church, especially the student group and chaplain, and also that it's what I'm used to, which is really a not-very-good reason for sticking with something). But the longer the Methodist Church takes to get its act together over same sex-marriage, the more I am feeling drawn to the Quakers (in the UK they seem to be one of the Christian groups leading the way a bit on fighting for religious same-sex marriage ceremonies, also one forum I'm on has an awesome person who is a brilliant advert for the Quakers). But anyway, there's no real hurry to make a decision, I think the Methodist Church is moving in the right direction, it's just taking longer than I'd like. And I can still go to stuff at the Quaker Meeting House too.
And then I just have to survive the year...
What I am absolutely loving about this year is the distinct lack of 9am lectures this year. Unfortunately the only free bus that gets me to KB in time for my 10am lectures is at 20 past 9, so I don't get as much extra lie in as I would like, but I am loving the extra 10-20 minutes I can stay in bed (I could stay longer, but this way I don't have to rush breakfast quite so much either). The only day I have anything starting at 9am is a two hour tutorial so it matters a lot less if I arrive a bit late. After Christmas it gets even better, no lectures till 11am.
I'm continuing with the judo, but I've also decided to take up trampolining this year, and so far this has also been awesome. I'm really jealous of the people doing the really complex tumbles and stuff, but hey, I've had a grand total of 3 sessions (that's maybe about 60-80 minutes tops actually bouncing on a trampoline) and I can (most of the time) manage a swivel hips, and I can almost successfully do a faceplant front drop, which looks easier but is a bit more difficult because you have to keep your body entirely flat, and that's a bit tricky for a newbie at least (and also that bit where you're deliberately landing almost face first on the trampoline). This year I might even make up the cost of buying full gym membership!
This week is also apparently Quaker Week, with the various groups running talks and things to reach out to non-Quakers. Thanks to the Edinburgers lj community I discovered that Jocelyn Bell-Burnell (who is possibly most famous for her phd supervisor getting the Nobel physics prize for the work she did, but is also famous for discovering pulsars, and is a life long Quaker and very involved in the workings of Quakerism) was going to be doing a talk on being a Quaker and an astronomer.
Being an astrophysicist-in-training as well as a Christian (although mostly Methodist and not Quaker), and rather in awe of someone who should have got a Nobel prize, I went along, and I'm very glad I did. I find it fascinating hearing about how people experience religion for themselves, and especially interesting in this case from the combination of astronomer and Quaker. It was especially refreshing to hear Bell-Burnell say that where science and religion come into conflict it is science that will always win, and that she does not belive in either a Creator God or an omnipotent God. This is the kind of stuff that i feel would go a bit explosive if someone high up in, for example, the Anglican Church said it. And yet it didn't even raise a murmur in the talk yesterday, even during the discussion bit after the talk it only came up as people asking about ways in which that works for her. This I really, really like.
After the talk there was tea and biscuits and I got a chance to talk to her, this left me a bit "aargghh I'm talking to a famous astronomer!!!" and I'm fairly certain I babbled and made a fool of myself, but it was awesomely cool!
I've been invited to a singing group at the Quaker Meeting House that one of the people I talked to is running tomorrow, and I'm thinking I will probably go. The singing is one of the reasons I'm still sticking with the Methodist Church (the other main ones being the community I've found at the local church, especially the student group and chaplain, and also that it's what I'm used to, which is really a not-very-good reason for sticking with something). But the longer the Methodist Church takes to get its act together over same sex-marriage, the more I am feeling drawn to the Quakers (in the UK they seem to be one of the Christian groups leading the way a bit on fighting for religious same-sex marriage ceremonies, also one forum I'm on has an awesome person who is a brilliant advert for the Quakers). But anyway, there's no real hurry to make a decision, I think the Methodist Church is moving in the right direction, it's just taking longer than I'd like. And I can still go to stuff at the Quaker Meeting House too.
And then I just have to survive the year...