The Cambridge Chat Thread

I'm more worried about the fact that I might mess up getting them to their interviews on time/at all and be blamed for disadvantaging people.

Sorry I'm probably not the most comforting person to talk to. I'm a bit matter of fact about these things. I'm sure you'll be fine. I do think you're taking it far too seriously. It sounds like Emmanuel have a more organised system which might make it all seem like a bigger deal than it is. At Peterhouse they're usually desperate for people and will take anybody. And you don't get told what to do. You just show up at a particular time and have the porter bark instructions at you.

At Peterhouse the porters manage the timing of everything. You don't know when everybody's interviews are. You just sit there reading your book, and when the time is right they yell at you and tell you which person and which room, and you scurry off in the cold. So yeh - I don't know what seems so awful. But just wait till you're there. It all works itself out.

I think skiing and skating are quite different to biking though, on a bike unless you are stupid there is no risk or falling off and it isn't really 'unnatural' in the same way that the other activites are. Just riding a bike in a straight line, no matter how fast, is still safe and doesn't take you out of your comfort zone.

Having done mountain biking in South Africa, I totally disagree. I did one superman act followed by a nasty fall and that was quite enough, thankyou.

The wheel turned on a stone.

Sorry (I've had a bit to drink in my defence, so my arguments won't be massively coherent, and take a LONG time to type out) but what I was trying to do was extol the virtues of mountain biking over road biking. Obviously in mountain biking there is a risk of falling off, but that is part of the fun (but also part of the reason why maybe you need to have ridden a bike for quite a while before it becomes viable as a means of fun. whereas just skating around is fun perhaps because you have very little experience of it...)

Fair enough. And again, my argument is purely subjective, but...

I think a lot of the fun is found in a 'potential loss of control' or indeed a mastery over something you have no right to control though which can be found at for example, going down a big hill on a bike, or skiing, or mountian biking, but won't ever be found just cycling in a straight line, no matter how fast. So I guess we'll agree to disagree.

No exactly, I get what you're saying, that's why I said "I think...", I meant that's what I think is fun, not what I think everyone does (including you, so we disagree on it)

Argh! Its impossible to motivate myself to work after term. I'm staring at my reading, mostly ignoring it.

I've had the true Arts student lifestyle this term - no particularly early mornings, few lectures, comparatively little work; it's been great!

I just watched Frost/Nixon and it really is one of the best films I've ever seen. The historian in me is now crying because I have to do literature for the rest of the year and I really should be studying History. Forgot how much I loved American history

Is it a prima balalaika? The tone might be awful if it's seen some use, but it's hard to knock the sound out of them all together. There's that old Soviet joke about the balalaika factory which you've made my think of, but I won't repeat: it is not especially funny.

There ends my contribution to the thread for tonight, enjot it while you can.

Yeah they are very organised. We've been assigned one person to a specific room (one person - me - to two rooms for computer science) and we got a list of applicants and what their interview times and we are suppose to take them to that room 5 minutes before the time. There won't be anyone reminding you so if you forget then that's you possibly ****** up another person's interview.

Don't worry, my interviewy person who ended up being my college mum totally forgot to take me to my interview and left me stewing in the reading room for an extra few minutes, and then forgot to pick me up afterwards and so left me wandering around in front of Hostel feeling scared and lost

Anyone know how much of the NatSci physics mark comes from the practicals?

How could you have gotten lost at the Hostel? Isn't that the one you reach if you simply walk straight from the plodge, through Old court, across the paddock and past the duck pond in a poker straight line?