I have somewhat of a confession to make – I’ve been ill with depression for a few months now, and it’s made doing stuff that used to be simple a bit more difficult. I mean, it’s not like it’s the worst thing that’s ever happened to anyone, obviously, but lots of times I’ve missed out on doing things I’ve really wanted to, such as volunteering and blogging (and college work most of all), because I couldn’t leave the house, which is a bit annoying. I didn’t go to Picocon (Imperial Sci Fi Society’s annual mini-convention) on Saturday because… well, there really wasn’t a good reason for it. I was even in college briefly and went home instead of staying for the remainder of the day. Anyway, perhaps this can serve as an excuse of sorts for my lack of blogging. Also, just in case anyone was worrying, I have medication and have been talking to lots of helpful people, so hopefully the situation will continue improving, albeit slowly!

In fact, the only thing I’ve really been able to keep up with is University Challenge practices (which makes me feel incredibly selfish, but oh well), and today we went for filming. I can’t tell you how we did, because Jeremy Paxman will hunt me down and follow me around saying “Come on!” ad infinitum if I do, but I did enjoy myself a lot. Even if I did only get four hours sleep, then drink too much tea and twitch the whole day.

I think I might have picked up a virus from a team-mate though. I’m writing this because I can’t get to sleep and I’ve been meaning to write it for a while. Hopefully it won’t be as long until the next post! (Especially since I’ve been planning to write something on the Science Challenge and the deadline for it is a week away…)

We got through to the television rounds of University Challenge!

THIS CAN ONLY GO WELL.

Hello. It’s been a while since I blogged last – I thought it might be a good idea to now, since I’m going away for the weekend and I’ve been meaning to for a while!

First of all, I’m no longer a Physics with a Year in Europe student – I’ve transferred to the Physics with Theoretical Physics course because it sounds cool to say that you study theoretical physics because the German component of the degree was too much and I didn’t think there was much point continuing when I definitely wasn’t going to be able to go abroad in the end. Since we haven’t started options yet it was quite easy to change – instead of my language counting for half a unit this year (each year is worth four units) a course in Mathematical Analysis will. I am far too excited about this course; I found the Mathematics Library especially so I could get out a book from the reading list I discovered for it! Apparently, it’s maths we won’t use in our regular physics work, so it should be a really interesting change of scene. Also, it means that I’ve changed from theoretical to YiE and back again – hooray for being difficult!

Anyway, first year physicists had a careers talk on last Tuesday. I was incredibly surprised when the lady asked for a show of hands of people who (a) were certain what they wanted to do, (b) had some ideas but weren’t certain, and (c) had no clue, and the majority of people didn’t fall into the first or second categories. I suppose I didn’t think about the idea that physics might be the sort of thing people choose to do if they’re not sure – and, of course, the fact that people don’t usually make decisions like that before even getting to university! When I came here I thought I was an (a) type of person, but as I do new things I’m realising that it would be very hard for me to choose a narrow sort of career path – as much as research interests me, I don’t really want to become highly specialised in just one field. There’s always science journalism, but I don’t know if I’d be able to communicate ideas that effectively. I didn’t think I’d be the sort of person who would end up not knowing what they would do in the future! I guess I should make my way over to the careers service at some point, if only to check my CV is okay…

Also, on Monday we went to the London Television Studios for our University Challenge interview! It consisted of a recorded quiz with 40 questions 8 seconds apart (I managed to answer 30-odd, hopefully correctly!) and an informal chat about our subjects and how our team came together. We’ll find out if we’re through next Friday – it’s nothing like a certainty (they don’t just select on ability – there’s also geography and other things to take into account), but I think we’ve got a fair chance of getting through. Even if we don’t it’s been a lot of fun so far!

Anyway, I should go now and finish getting my stuff ready for this weekend. I will get my act together and actually write all the things I’ve been meaning to soon, I swear!