I haven’t done a referral in a good while, but here you go. The Perry Bible Fellowship Comics are probably the funniest, most well done comics I’ve found across on the interwebs. I suppose it’s pretty well known, but I’m telling you merely to share the joy.
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It’s March, and about time. I’m a bit stingy in disclosing them this season, but if you’ve come to my blog to read my blog then it makes sense to keep with the two year tradition of publishing these bastards. Here you go:
Chemistry (Unit 4): A 118/120 UMS Physics (Unit 4): A 120/120 UMS Maths (Core 3): A 100/100 UMS Maths (Further Pure 1): A 98/100 UMS Maths (Statistics 1): A 99/100 UMS Maths (Decision 1): A 93/100 UMS Obviously I’m over the moon. There are a lot of cocky observations I could point out, but I’ll spare the being a dick this time. If it’s any consolation, the UMS marks are very generous relative to what I actually got. I don’t have much else to say really. Oh wait: up yours, Durham. I hope you got what you wanted! Ringo Starr (25th February 1900 – 8th December 1980) was a British musician, physicist and peace activist. He was highly regarded as one of the leading pioneers of 20th century popular music, most notably with his invention of the art of drumming. Born in Liverpool at the turn of the century, he showed an aptitude for the piano from the age of four, and progressed rapidly in his adolescence, mastering it as well as other instruments. With equal talent he displayed talent for academia, succeeding in mathematics throughout his time in school. He left at 17 to take part in World War I, and served until the end in 1918. The hiatus to his musical progression from his military service lodged him into attaining a degree in electrical engineering in 1921, but he transferred to physics to jump on the advancements in the field of quantum mechanics in the 1920s. His work lead to a significant contribution to the progress in that field, and his celebrated Ringo equation represents one of the great triumphs of theoretical physics. Starr, middle row, second from right. Fifth Solvay Physics Conference, 1927. By the 1930s he had retired as a professional physicist and returned to the music scene. His focus was the piano, and his technique and use of tone colour and the excitement of his playing were and remain legendary. Among with his later musical advancements, he is widely considered as one of the greatest pianists of the 20th century. He extended his musical outreach to conducting later that decade, with Starr-led orchestral performances a comforting sound during the perils of the Second World War. Starr, at the time of his first piano recordings. Undated. It was not until 1950, nearly twenty years into his musical career, that a middle-aged Starr made his historical leap in the progression of popular music. Sources vary in regards to the details, but it is generally accepted that he was with a small group of musicians in the theatre after a symphony, and had the idea to arrange a kit and use two conducting sticks to produce a new, fresh, innovative sound. There is dispute on whether or not he started wearing his trademark sunglasses from that day, but it is a known fact that he was the first man to wear sunglasses when not necessarily outside in the sun. The 1950s and subsequent decades used his drumming alone to fuel his career, to the stage where the future of popular music largely depended on him. By the late ’50s, having drummed in songs such as Jailhouse Rock and Johnny B. Goode, he was a superstar among the younger generation. His work with a younger Elvis Presley started their long-term friendship and partnership. Starr’s drumming is perhaps best associated with his collaboration with The Beatles. Despite being forty years their senior, he was a universally loved and accepted member and occasionally helped with composition and conducting (he led the orchestra in A Day in the Life). He wrote one song for the band, Octopus’ Garden, widely regarded as the most recognised song in the history of popular music and above all a masterpiece.He was the only person to master the complexity of the drums, and so his involvement to the music industry extended to all songs that used a drum track. Starr, working with The Beatles, 1963. The next and last full decade of his life was not so forgiving. Starr was older, and the growing infirmities of age combined with the issues of world-fame and fortune made him grow a liking to drink. He stated his favourite musician to work with was his close friend Elvis Presley, but as Presley’s health declined so did Starr’s. Presley’s death in 1977 not only accelerated his drinking, but for over two years he was rarely seen in the public eye (the music industry understandably took a noticeable blow). Starr slowly became reserved to the back of the memory of the public eye.
However, in 1980, Starr returned to music. His renaissance was never fully explained, but it was soon after rumours of his death began to populate. Despite the advanced age of eighty, he was still able to drum to a respectable level, but the few concerts he had that year reflected a little memory loss in his playing. Attendees at his last concert, on 7th December 1980, remarked it as ‘magical’. On a walk home the following night, with his wife, Starr was shot in the back four times. Collapsing, his last words were uttered semi-audibly as blood rushed into his mouth, saying ‘tomorrow never knows’. Rushed to hospital, he was pronounced dead on arrival. The assailant was Mark David Chapman, with strong motives leading to Starr’s activism in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. He was cremated and his ashes were scattered in his home town of Liverpool. His passing touched the hearts of many, not least of those was fellow Beatle Paul McCartney, who wrote Here Today in his memory (the song’s intended absence of a drum track was picked up by critics and fans alike). But most importantly, Starr left one gift to his fan base. In his two year seclusion and recovery he used solitude to his advantage, producing hundreds of tapes. Most drum fills, some piano pieces. Many of those tapes are used today. With or without his final recordings, his music will live on forever. Webcomics. I’ve talked about them. I’ll talk about them more. But for once there might actually be a possibility of me putting them up. I now have a scanner for the first time in years bundled with twenty drafts and cards and stationary. The main problem is humour, which is why I’ll submit these three typical drafts. If it goes ahead, I won’t computerise them because they’ll look horrible (but clean), I’ll stick to these lined (yes, lined) cards with a variable amount of panels, but will add a little colour along with partially legible handwriting (OK, I might make the text computerised). Here you go, anyway: Don’t spare me the harsh criticism, but if all is well I’ll make this a regular thing (perhaps a Monday/Wednesday/Friday thing if I can keep up). I think my presentation options are either a separate blog or a gallery, but the former will annoy readers when there’s four panels due to limited space. Let’s see how this goes…
Exam time is when I have the occasional browse on the net to prevent myself from going (more) insane, even at 1 a.m. to precede the paper I’ll have in 8 hours.
Ever heard of the Rageguy series? If not, you probably have a life. It’s a meme concerning poorly drawn comics that involve several recurring meme characters. You’ll eventually know what I’m talking about. I just felt the world needs to know how funny they are… A few of you might be a little suspicious about my being in upper sixth, saying I’ve applied to university, and saying nothing else of it. That changes today. The reason was that I was a little paranoid about universities finding this blog, and consequently seeing my other choices and any opinions I have about them. I now have four replies, and I expect to hear from the fifth by February, so I’m tired of waiting and secrecy.
Here you go (Track order): University of Warwick: Physics Offer: AAA University of Bristol: Maths Awaiting reply. Durham University: Natural Sciences Rejected like a fool. University of Manchester: Physics Offer: A*AA University of Cambridge: Natural Sciences Off— Joking! Rejection. Three different courses? Yep. I mentioned a good while ago about my inability to decide on my future, so I didn’t really decide in the end. My choices were sort of rushed because of the early Oxbridge deadline. The personal statement was a job to do for this, and as you can see it’s had a mixed success rate. I’m pleased with my two offers, both for physics. At this present point in time I can’t choose between the two if I have to. I actually had an interview for Cambridge (or three to be precise). Evidently I failed them, and had that infinitesimal unit of hope blown away from my eyes. I accepted this fate long before the letter so the news wasn’t that bad. Durham rejected me soon after, so I’m not even good enough to be a Cambridge reject. However, I wasn’t too bothered about Durham either, I regretted applying there for several reasons (as said, the choices were rushed) and so would not have gone. Still, it’s a good blow to how you evaluate your academic character (especially when you thought you’d get an offer there). Bristol is still waiting, as you can see. I wanted a maths choice because I like the prospect of a maths degree even if the gods are directing me to physics. I don’t expect an offer due to its competition and my circumstances, but if I did get one I’d definitely investigate, visit, and contemplate my three possible futures. I must say one thing about rejections. I don’t know about you, but I cannot stand the phrase ‘we regret to inform you’ or something along those lines. It’s a trivial point to get angry about, but Jesus, it’s technically incorrect. I’ll keep you updated by putting my Track record on the sidebar, and I’ll likely throw a post when I make my decision, ’cause, y’know, it’s just my future. It was a good while ago when I saw a QI episode discussing how a particular person ‘saw’ colour in the presence of music, then it lead to a discussion about the mind assigning colour to things (in their case days of the week). That weird phenomenon is something I do all the time, and I’ve only become fully conscious of it recently. I’m sure it’s common in a lot of people (perhaps it’s a default property of the human mind), but I feel like bringing it up.
What exactly am I talking about? Well, think of a letter, or a number, or a word, or a sound, or a name, or a song, or any sort of idea. Is there a colour (or colours) your mind assigns to it? Is it potent? Is it vague? As unusual as this discussion is, I’ll give you a few examples of how it works in my head. “I picked maths, geography, politics and classics for my A-levels.” If you haven’t work it out, those are the colours my mind naturally applies when I hear (or read) of those subjects. There is some reasoning behind it, for instance, my primary school maths book was yellow. My geography book has been green quite a few times, and the whole ‘Earth’ thing might add to it. For interest, biology is also green due to the actual subject. “He was born in the early 1930s, did a lot of his work during the 1950s, and consequently received an honorary degree just before the financial crisis of the late 2000s.” And here are the colours my mind assigns to a few decades (for the record, the 1930s are actually pinker in my head). When I think of a timeline of the twentieth century (for whatever reason), those colours slightly merge as one decade ends as the other begins. As I formatted that quote, I ran into a small discovery, which I will explain in this next example. “I’ve been a proud mother since my early 20s, and at the grand age of 30 I now have 5 beautiful children.” Any pattern? The main numbers are the same colour. To develop this, something like the year 1954 would be like that (but not as well defined). I have a vague memory in childhood of equating the number 5 with the colour blue… I could give you many more examples, but you’re probably freaked out and/or sick of this. All the better to give a brief outline to how this thing works for music. Well, I suppose it’s something similar to what you get when you play music on Windows Media Player, with those colours moving as the song changes and whatnot. For me, synthesisers invoke most of the colour in my head (e.g., red dashes in a black background for Baba O’Riley, yellow-brown pulses for Won’t Get Fooled Again, light blue rays and fields for Radio Ga Ga), Instruments will affect the colour as well, it depends on how fancy they are (Sgt. Pepper songs produce an array of bright colours, while early Beatles songs don’t produce much). It’s important to note that I don’t actually physically see these colours, they’re just something attached when thinking of the idea. As mentioned at the very beginning, it has been told of those who have been able to see the colours of music, and they’ll be the ones writing a book about the topic as opposed to a very weird post. I’ve given you a tour of my posts, shown you my library of files, and as you look through the miscellaneous section I pull out my butterfly knife and make a good hit in the back. Basically, this site has seen less updates than my joke archive. In all honestly, I don’t have very much to say, but I’ll go on and actually publish this.
Here’s a little problem for the eager mathematicians that I made up, you might like it if you get the answer: Solve for i in terms of u (assume positive square roots): -4a<36au² a ∈ ℝ a>0 u ∈ ℂ A bit weird, but a basic understanding of imaginary numbers and inequalities should get you the answer (do tell if I mucked it up). It’s just a bit of ‘fun’. The answer and working are below the ‘Read More’ break. Just to let you know, expect some updates in the near future (predominantly relating to the fact that exam season’s a coming). Unless you’ve been on the same boat as me for the last few weeks, you’d have noticed that I’m quite busy. I’m up to my balls in commitments (academic or not) and can’t be bothered to write a post complaining about it. However, it’s not critical, otherwise I would have missed out on an obvious opportunity to post about The Beatles. John Lennon, if he wasn’t brutally murdered like Bertrand Russell ten years prior, would have probably lived to today, marking the grand age of 70. I’ll be perfectly honest, I’m not too much a fan of post-Beatle John, but still, he was a great musician and fucking funny. I would have liked to see him at 70, and mind you, I’d have liked to see all four make it to 64. And on that regard: By the way, I don’t think it’s fair to completely overshadow what would have also been John Entwistle’s 66th birthday, he was quite an epic bassist.
Happy birthday, John! Once again, I have a reason to post about what is pretty much the mascot of this site. You know, Walter Breuning. He reached 114 today, the fifth man to indisputably do so. As that is a milestone in itself, I don’t think I should dedicate a post to the birthday alone, for the sake of not being overkill. However, a few days ago he answered some questions on video from those who asked through the site of his retirement home: I asked three questions, one of them was sent (at least I believe it’s mine), at 4:23. From that, I’ve disputably contacted someone from the nineteenth century (and crossed the corresponding task off my 100 things list). I think that’s something worth bragging about, even though most don’t see how there’s even a point in mentioning.
Happy birthday, Walter. Please don’t let it be your last. |
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Welcome to my site. To the left of you are hundreds of posts where you might find something mildly interesting. If you’re here to use mark schemes, look up. For a further introduction and description, try the concise about section. Contact
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Any comments will have to be approved before they are published. I read all comments (usually within two years) but probably won’t reply. AuthorI’m TomRed. I’m a twenty-two year old maths graduate from London. A little more about me can be found over here at the bottom. People I know
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