Still on the upcurve

Today was another busy day- and another day with a fair bit of CMCC in it. First thing was Surveys and Experiments in Social Research- once again interesting (though my mind did wander a bit...), and this time we actually have some work to do: reading two specific research papers, one quantitative (of the type we'll be dealing with on the course) and one qualitative (interviews and so on instead of numeric data collection and analysis) just so we can see the differene. There's also an optional third article- bizarrely about Bart Simpson and identity- which illustrates the cobbling-together-books type of research*. The lecturer also recommended the Bad Science column in the Guardian on Saturdays- which I've enjoyed for a long time as it is.

Then I went and did some Principles and Methods of Statistical Practice in the library; I couldn't do it all but on the other hand I surprised myself by being able to do some of the bits that needed sort of tricks- though admittedly they were the same kind of trick as the one for the example the lecturer went through last time. Still, under similar circumstances in the past I stilll haven't been able to get anywhere so it was encouraging in a way.

I went to get some lunch around 11.30, even though the UGM wasn't till 1, as the Quad cafe (and all the others come to that) get pretty busy from 12, though mostly because I hadn't had much breakfast (still haven't got any bread in). On the way in, I bumped into CMCC, who was leafletting passers-by with one or two other people to encourage them to come to the UGM- a motion he had proposed was to be voted on today, so he wanted to get as many people as possible there- as he pointed out to me, he wasn't saying which way he wanted them to vote as he handed out the flyers (I gathered that wouldn't be allowed)- but I imagine he had worked out that he'd get more people who'd vote for than against through this method. He actually pointed this out a bit later though: I just smiled at him as I went into the Quad Cafe (I didn't want to bother him while he was in the middle of something and anyway I couldn't think of anything to say). I then realised as I was about to approach the sandwiches that I'd forgotten to get any cash out, and of course they don't take debit cards. So I had to go back out again and was quite embarrassed at the thought of passing CMCC going in the opposite direction so soon- but we actually had a talk this time (and he told me about the flyers) and of course that was nice. On the way back from getting cash I bumped into one of my flatmates (Flatmate 3) who said she'd been wanting to ask me about cycling in, and I got out a cycle map I happened to have on my to show her which way I went, which took a bit of time. So when I went back past where CMCC had been to go back to the Quad Cafe, he'd moved somewhere else (I didn't see where)- and for once I was actually relieved: it would have been too awkward passing him three times and I really had run out of things to say.

The UGM was good; of course I couldn't help looking over to where CMCC was sitting every now and again, but I was also listening to what was going on, and after all the reports from various people, there was a speech from the President of the NUS, who was visiting, which was quite interesting. The best bit was the motions, though. The first one failed- it was to do with promoting an event called Battle of Ideas which was being held by the university, and trying to get discount for students, and it would have been a good motion except that, as the speaker against pointed out, it was the same weekend as the fees demo, and thus support for it could weaken the turnout for that, as well as diverting the Sabbatical Officers' time away from preparing for that. The second motion was CMCC's- basically it was against LSE accepting money from firms with a bad record in trading in arms (it's a bit more complicated than that as the Union can't decide for LSE not to accept it, so the motion could only be essentially that the Union was officially against LSE accepting it). He made a great speech, which addressed the issue raised in a letter to the Beaver after the debate (cut short due to time constraints) on it last week- the writer of the letter had said that the motion would actually harm human rights as weapons are needed for peacekeeping etc, and CMCC explained how the companies in question were not providing those arms but rather engaging in such activities as supplying both sides of a war which definitely aren't helping human rights. ECMC also made a speech as the seconder of the motion, which was good too. There was quite fierce debate, with plenty of questions for both sides, and one of the speakers against called the proposers of the motion 'idiots' which CMCC roundly denounced him for to ringing applause. The motion passed, by quite a majority, I think.

Then I did some more Principles & etc, but it wasn't going that well and in the end I stopped, with half left undone, to make the recycling poster and draw the pictures for the leaflet that I'd told SC2 I'd have ready by Friday. I can always finish the excercise tomorrow and over the weekend, though I expect the lecturer will go through at least some of them tomorrow- we have the solutions so I won't miss the chance to see whether I was on the right lines and what to do if I really can't do any particular question.

I made quite a bit of headway with the poster, getting it all drawn out in pencil- which was quite an enterprise as I wanted six circles equally spaced round a central circle (like a stylised flower), and I didn't have a compass or ruler. What I did was to draw a line in black pen on a spare piece of paper (I had things to rule a straight line with) then put this under another bit of spare paper with one end of the line underneath a dot (the centre of the circle I was constructing) and made a dot at the other end, and rotated it many times till I had enough points to sketch the rest of the circle in. I then went over the outline of the circle in black and thus had a template to trace for my circles. I got them lined up properly using a similar method to construct a 60 degree angle template (an equilateral triangle), and I even drew a curved space round one side of the circle template for text so as to be able to align it the same for each one. I had progressed to drawing in all the things that could be recycled and starting to ink over when it was time to leave for the Maths and Stats Society Freshers' Dinner- I signed up for it some time ago (mostly out of a loyalty to maths societies in general after my Presidency of the UCL one- I still remember how much I wanted people to turn up for my events so feel I should go to the LSE society's. I then found out there were two other things going on tonight- a showing of Howl's Moving Castle by the Manga and Anime Society, and a Spanish film by the Film Society. The Spanish film was actually cancelled at the last minute though, so I was only missing one thing. As I came out of the library, I spotted CMCC sitting outside tucked away in a dark corner with a box of Kantan rice; I'd been spotting him all day for split second intervals untill I realised it was someone completely different, but this time it really was him. I almost walked straight passed as I was so shy and he hadn't seen me, and I thought maybe he wouldn't want to be bothered, but I forced myself to go and say hi, and was rewarded with a brief conversation.

The Freshers' Dinner was ok, but not that great. I was too tired to be at my interactive peak, and most of the people there knew each other anyway- I was really the only fresher. Some of them were really nice, but some of them it was more a case of putting up with; and I found it hard to think of things to say. But I'll probably go along to future events anyway (the loyalty thing) and I found out about a tutoring scheme they run which sounds like the PAL one at UCL, only run by the society not the department- students can come along to get help from other students (usually a year or two higher). I really liked helping with PAL, so may do the same here- if I have time! It sounds like less of a commitment though- for PAL, though those wanting help could drop in whenever, those providing it had to sign up to a particular slot for the term. For this, I think you can just turn up.
And now I am really, really tired. Up bright and early tomorrow to put up posters on Houghton St for People and Planet (meeting at 8.30). Thank goodness the weekend's coming...

*Not to sniff at it- my fourth year project at UCL was just a mixing together of two textbooks.