Recently I’ve a experienced a coursework schedule similar to that of London buses: you spend an eternity waiting and then three arrive at once. Subsequently, the reason for my absence from the blogosphere is that I’ve spent the last 2 weeks fully in transit.

The first thing I want to address is the absolutely astonishing new blog homepage. We were all told about the crazy plans back in November, and after months of anticipation, the page has exceeded all of our expectations. I know that a lot of people have been playing around with it and I’m very interested to see what people are able to produce. So please send me screenshots of any particularly creative arrangements you can come up with, (bonus points available for putting me in a position which feeds my ego). I’d also like to thank the powers that be for briefly putting me on the Imperial homepage. While I’m sure it’s made many of you seriously question your choice to apply to or currently attend this wonderful University, it certainly made my month and has convinced my parents that I’m actually achieving things here (as figuring out vector mathematics is nothing for anyone to get excited about).

Now that I am safely boarded at my stop, I can cease being academically busy and resume being busy in all other aspects of my life, including: my duties as Campus Rep for Apple and my responsibilities with EPOD. Optimism about the 14 videos I planned to produced was a result of me seriously underestimating how much coursework I would have this term (apparently being on the homepage gives you no special treatment), but I will go back to it and write something self-centred whenever I feel it’s appropriate. I am also beginning the process of applying to spend next year in the National University of Singapore, which I trust will be informative and interesting reading for anyone at Imperial with the intention of seeing the world in the course of their degree.

Much to look forward to (even more if you all have a play with the homepage and show me the fruits of your procrastination).

Thanks for reading,

Chris xx

As I’ve said many times before, ISE is a remarkable course. With just 90 people, we are small enough to have many recreational advantages, such as knowing everyone’s name, but still large enough to count as a real course by any standards. Last Monday, these social perks were unbashfully exposed when over a tenth of all ISE students made their way to the Trocadero for some bowling and bumper car action.

It is always enjoyable when we get together, as we seems to follow the same social dynamic as an ethnic minority. We all inherently have something in common and we all know of the inside jokes and traditions, so we naturally get along. In this case, it’s the ability to make jokes in python or C++ at any nonspecific moment. Moreover, I sense that part of our time together is a survival instinct – by banding together, we appear bigger, and so ward off any potential predators.

The bowling was fun, and because of my severe inability to knock down wooden pins with a large spherical object, conversation was a lot more fun. Afterwards, any pent-up rage I had for those that beat my score (everybody) was thoroughly dislodged with a stint on the bumper cards.

Since Trocadero is a large, and incredibly enjoyable arcade, with bowling we got tickets for every spare or strike any of us made. At the end of the night we all decided to combine all of our tickets and purchase what would become an ISE mascot. Another great thing about having such a small number of people is the lack of red tape for these kinds of decisions. We already had over 10% of the year present, as well as 3 year reps who represented 80% of the entire course. In short, say hello to ISEBear, the official ISE Mascot!!

ISE ♥ ISE-Bear

Thanks for reading,

Chris xx

P.S: Huge thanks to Charlotte for the photographs and for general amazingness

London is an amazingly multicultural city. I can confirm this as I’ve been here for 20 years and in that time have built a friendship group consisting of two people from Poland, a Malaysian/Chinese architect, a Theologian from the Philippines and live with housemates from China, Japan and Northern Ireland. In very few cities in the world am I able to meet and befriend such a assorted selection of treats in the pick-n-mix that is life.

When it comes to celebrations, the regional enthusiasm of all of these diverse backgrounds has an accommodating stage somewhere in the city. Last week was Chinese New Year, and I was particularly excited about this because it would be my first year celebrating in China town itself.

My housemates and I went early to an atmosphere that was steadily amplifying till the festivities began. Outside each restaurant were large, foil-wrapped, tubs of street food, ranging from noodles with pork, beef and chicken to treats like egg tarts and sponge cake. All nostrils were tinged with the aromatic blend of the concoctions used to make this vast mound of food. Towards the outer edges of the town were stalls selling bright red souvenirs for tourists, such as trowing-crackers (whose small, exhorting sound were filling the air) and origami dragons that children were playing with. Every Chinese face was aglow with anticipation, every other face was eagerly looking around with great curiosity.

A Very Photogenic Lion

Just before noon the lion came out, as prominently indicated to all by the rhythmic drumming and the steady cymbals that accompanied it. It danced it’s way through the throng of people, their cameras and camera-phones raised yearningly above their head, trying to capture the beast before them.

The mission for the lion was to make it’s way to every restaurant and get itself some cabbage with a red envelope attached. It would stand outside the door and dance to earn it’s meal. The cabbage was hung high above the door, and once the lion was ready, it would reach up and grab it with it’s mouth, later expelling shards of the cabbage to indicate that it had been eaten (festival aside, I don’t think doing this at a dinner party would be a particularly nice way to impress the guests).

Following the lion was incredibly difficult. The only way to move about was to go with one of the small streams of people that were making their way through the horde. If you were inadvertently caught in one of these flows, you had no choice but to go with it and see where you ended up. In spite of this world-record-setting group hug we all seemed to be a part of, everyone had a great time, and left with a stomach full of delicious Dim-Sum and a camera full of incredibly blurry images of a bright orange lion.

Kung Hei Fat Choy!

新年快樂

Thanks for reading,

Chris xx

The way you perceive money changes a lot when you become a student. When growing up, my sister could always find some extra funds by putting on a sad face, sweetening her voice and approaching the nearest parent. Whenever I imitated this behaviour, I would come away with no money, less dignity and a serious discussion about my sexual orientation. Money certainly doesn’t grown on trees, but it’s a metaphor that could be feasible if our preferred method of picking was to have young, want-ful girls try to lull the fruits down.

Whether you had a means of accumulating money with minimal effort or not, when you become a student, regardless of how potent your parent’s wallets are, you find you don’t have any. With this comes a complete unashamed disregard for anything that adds cost to anything. Things like expiration dates, “tap water” as apposed to “water” or having a nice 45 minute walk, instead of a 10 min tube journey. I don’t usually crave stale croissants at 9:00 in the evening, but when it’s 10 pence a pop, do I really want to splurge on Tesco’s basic loaves?

As cheap and unhygienic as I’ve now made myself out to be, there are quite a few nice things a student can actually do for no money. This applies to London more than any other city because of the pure abundance of places to go.

The Applause store is a website that provides free tickets to television recordings. When BBC, ITV or Channel 4 wish to record a show in front of a live audience, it’s more important for them to have every seat filled than for them to make money on ticket sales. In this website you apply for tickets and, if you get them, have the chance to see popular shows like Never Mind the Buzzcocks or even Top Gear for absolutely nothing. I say “have the chance”, because they always overbook tickets, so if you don’t get to the studio early enough, you will be turned away.

Previously, I’ve only made it to the hilarious “Now Show”, a Radio 4 comedy that I suggest all of you subscribe to (after subscribing to EPOD, of course). but last week I managed to book free tickets to see KT Tunstall, an artist who I’ve been a colossal fan of for quite some time.

The format was an interview (filmed in glorious 3D), with her playing a few songs when the particular track became appropriate. While it was annoying that only a handful of songs were played, I much preferred this kind of show to anything else I’ve seen. It was an intimate meeting with her, so the audience really got to know the person behind the artist. A summary of the night: KT Tunstall is a remarkable woman. Her life involved going down to London from St Andrews, as a teenager to busk every weekend; slumming it in a dirty old van to do gigs round the UK; and sleeping behind friends sofas while recording her first album at the age of 28. All of this she did proudly with the unwavering belief that her passion would see her through. Without a doubt, I’m not giving her story its deserved zeal, but it was one of the most inspiring nights I’ve ever had.

What separates a good musician and a great musician is conviction, not talent. Only when you apply 100% of yourself, can great things come your way. Intelligence and obsession are important and will lead to success, it’s the reason I have no worries about the career prospects of every Imperial undergrad. Why not all of us end up being Zuckerberg’s and Jobs’ is that very few have the drive and the arrogance to fully commit to a project. In my view, a big factor in that is they both dropped out of college. For Jobs, arguably it was a sign that he had nothing else to fall back on, if he didn’t give Apple his all, he would be back to having nothing. For Zuckerberg, it was a sign that he knew how big Facebook would become and he no longer needed the distractions College provides.

I’m not encouraging everyone to drop out of Imperial (although a less crowded JCR would be nice). I believe: to have the ability to shed all, including your safety net and march forward with credence in your own idea and your own ability, leads to failure 95% of the time. However, it also permits, and is the only path to, that small 5% that makes you legendary.

Thanks for reading,

Chris xx