Yay! Exams over

By Caleb | January 21, 2005

Ah, freedom from the stress of revision and essay writing, for a short time at least! It was great to get out of that examination hall and stroll back in the sunshine along the path by the Taff, the water lapping and the ducks quacking.

Becky (my sister) will probably be very annoyed to hear that Keane did another free gig in the Students’ Union here in Cardiff yesterday, which once again I did not go to. I would actually have quite liked to have gone to hear them, but I was busy in my revision for this morning’s Journalism exam. It seems slightly daft putting on something like that right in the middle of exams. But my revision paid off – I was going through a past paper, and the paper this morning was, bizarrely, almost exactly the same. Presumably the lecturers hope they can get away with writing a new exam each year! It doesn’t seem very fair, though. They didn’t draw attention to the fact there were past papers on the university website, so it’s really a bit of luck as to whether people found them or not. Perhaps it’s part of the test – seeing how keen our research skills are! It seems a bit strange, though. I’m not complaining, since it made the exam pretty straightforward. I’d be very surprised if I didn’t get a good mark after doing what was basically the same set of questions yesterday while revising!

Well, I’m looking forward to enjoying the coming week without any exams, lectures or seminars, but I’m still going to be pretty busy! On Monday, I’m going to some kind of consultation meeting about what people think Cardiff Students’ Union and the NUS should be doing (it was the promise of free pizza which convinced me to go!). I’ll be giving that some thought over the weekend. Over the next week, I also hope to do some writing, both articles and fiction, and do some reading in preparation for the Spring semester. Anyway, I’ll keep you posted!

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“What’s the point in being grown-up if you can’t be childish sometimes?”

By Caleb | January 19, 2005

So said Tom Baker in his debut story as Doctor Who back 30 years ago. Monday was the 18th birthday of Sarah, a fellow blogger and Contagious-goer who writes Tortillas are Yummy, and wishing her “Happy Birthday” set me thinking. I sometime joke about how ridiculous I find the idea that I’m an Adult, and therefore supposedly Sensible and Responsible. But I’m actually enjoying growing up.

Coming away to university, I’ve really enjoyed the independence of making my own decisions and being free to make my own independent decisions. This year I’ll have to move out of halls of residence and rent somewhere with friends, and I’m really looking forward to trying to find a good way to run a household together. Though I’ve not started planning it yet or talking to potential house-mates, I’m really hoping that we (whoever “we” turns out to be) will be able to really put into action genuine Christian fellowship and community. But just in general, it’s so exciting having my life in front of me. I just hope that I can serve God well and enjoy whatever he has in store for me!

Growing Up isn’t the same as being Sensible, oh no. I still have a finely tuned Sense of Silliness (though you might have to get to know me a bit before it becomes evident). Silliness, which here means an ability to appreciate the enjoyable and ridiculous side of life, people and yourself, is something very important and actually quite mature, even if it manifests itself in apparent childishness. If enjoying silly jokes, laughing, tickling people and so on is childish, then so much the better for childishness.

Oh, and I’ll just make passing mention of my first exam. It didn’t go too badly, I hope. I’m not particularly looking forward to the Journalism one. I tried doing a past paper and it was harder than I expected. Lots of revision to do tonight and tomorrow, methinks…

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Well, one essay down, two exams to go

By Caleb | January 17, 2005

I handed in my English essay on Tess of the D’Urbervilles this morning. I’m quite pleased with it, though there was one paragraph that didn’t really fit in with the flow of my argument. I thought it was a fairly interesting analysis though, so for that reason and so as to up the word count I left it in! I suspect it’ll probably come back with the comment “Relevance?” scribbled by it in the margin by the marker, however. I was able to bring in some of ideas of the Christian thinker Francis Schaeffer into my discussion on the text, which I was quite pleased about – it’s more fun writing an essay when I can bring in some of the ideas that interest me!

Yesterday was a good day. I’d finished my essay on Saturday evening (except for a couple of bits of info for the bibliography which I looked up and put in when I went to the library to print my essay out this morning), and so was able to not do any work on Sunday without worrying about it. Ah, wonderful! I didn’t even have to cook, since there was a student lunch put on by one of the couples at Mackintosh Evangelical Church, and enjoyed chatting with some of the other young people who go there. I then had a look through some of the The Return of the King extended edition extras – there are hours of them! I don’t think I’ve watched all of the The Two Towers extras yet. I’d like to watch all three films back to back sometime.

Anyway, I’d better go and get on with revision! I’ve already spent more time than I intended pottering about on various message boards that I like to visit, such as the Outpost Gallifrey forum and the Cardiff CU forum, as well as checking my email. I hope to find time to

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Look! Links!

By Caleb | January 12, 2005

I’ve added some links to some of the websites and blogs I visit. I might get round to talking a bit about them.

I’m off back to University tomorrow, so I might be a bit too busy with exams and stuff to write my blog for a bit, alas! Toodle pip for now

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What do you think of this idea?

By Caleb | January 10, 2005

I’ll soon be off back to Cardiff. It’s been nice being at home, enjoying the company of my family and having my mum’s home cooking, not having to do all my own chores and so on. It’ll be quite nice to go back, though, and see my friends again. I’m also looking forward to writing for the student newspaper some more, and hopefully getting the ball rolling on the society I want to set up. Here’s my idea:The Truth Seekers Society

(Other possible names: Questions Society, Seek Soc, Searchers, Aleithiological Society, or something along those lines.)
What’s the purpose?
To create a place for people of all beliefs to meet in friendship in order to pursue the two main aims of the society:

  • to together pursue right knowledge and right action
  • to build understanding and friendship between people and groups

What will be discussed?Basically anything which people would like to discuss, such as:

  • spirituality and religion
  • current affairs and politics
  • media and culture
  • science and technology

What will the society do?

  • Informal discussion
  • Debates (perhaps with the assistance of the Debating Society)
  • Guest speakers
  • Submitting articles to Gair Rhydd
  • Cinema trips, followed by informal discussion of the film

Once a month or so there will be a more formal meeting. A few speakers might be invited to talk and discuss a particular topic. First, they will talk and set out their positions, and then it will be opened up for discussion and debate both between the speakers and involving the audience. A poll may be taken at the beginning and end to see what people think and whether they change their minds. Hopefully there will be a wide variety of interesting and prominent guests, the best we can get!
The pattern for discussion will often be along the lines of “What do we think?” “Why do we think it?” “What’s the case for what we think?” and “What do we do about it?”
The society hopes to have close links with other student societies e.g. Debating Society, Islamic Society, Christian Union, Philosophy society, and so on, in order to provide a forum in which different groups can come together to learn from each other and discuss their beliefs.
The society will seek to equip people to put what they believe into action. This could be such things as providing information on ethical eating, encouraging members to vote, taking part in protests and so on. However, it will not take a position as an organization – every individual member’s beliefs will belong to them and them alone.
Who can come?
Anyone is welcome to come and join in.
All opinions and ideas can be discussed, but everyone must treat others with respect and civility.
(This is not because their beliefs and opinions necessarily have any value or validity, but because as a person they are due that respect – so even if they’re talking garbage, it’s no excuse to be rude to them!) So, what do you think? Comments please!

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All problems great and small

By Caleb | January 5, 2005

Gah! I’m not enjoying working on my English essay, unfortunately. I enjoy studying literature, and I found the book I’m writing on, Tess of the D’Urbervilles, to be quite moving and interesting, but the essay questions we’ve been set are just so dull. It isn’t helped that in a 1600 word essay there isn’t much room to attempt to do something a bit different unless you give over the entire essay to doing so, which is rather risky. Ho hum. I’m sure I’ll get it written eventually.My worries pale into subatomic insignificance compared to the terrible disaster that took place in Asia. It’s heartening to see people being moved by it and being willing to give to help those affected. The way the media has reported it has annoyed me, though. The news channels kept showing footage of the waves hitting, finding more people to give their own stories and so on and so forth. The excessive amount of information seems to me very morbid, and also not terribly respectful. In this age of 24-hour news channels, any disaster is quickly turned into a sick combination of disaster movie and reality television. After I’d got the facts about what had happened, I stopped watching lest I become desensitized to the tragedy. Is it really helpful to revel in the destruction, really respectful to indulge our morbid curiosity from the comfort of our living rooms?Faced with such pain and destruction, many people seem to be grappling with the question of how could God allow such a thing? Is he uncaring, impotent or non-existent? How could a loving, all-powerful God let this happen? Serious questions, and I plan to share some thoughts on them sometime soon. My thoughts and prayers go out to those affected and those trying to help them.

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2005 is upon us

By Caleb | January 2, 2005

Happy New Year! 2005 is upon us already. And what a year it’s been for me… I’ve passed my A-levels, learnt to drive, led a church service in Welsh, asked a girl out for the first time, tried to understand how God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility go together, gone off to university, made new friends, had my first script submission rejected, become a radical, worked out that the young lady and I aren’t right for each other, eaten lots of mince pies and read lots of books. God has been good to me, and I pray I’ll make good use of this coming year to serve him.

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