h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

They are, they're cool and I can fit in with them without having to watch what I say too much and without the image I have here from 3 years ago hanging over me.
Facebook works for schools too but I think it is directed at unis and it's predominantly American I think. Tis good though, better than bloomin bebo!
We've not got many but one of the last exams that's on is one of mine and then I have to hang around for a music exam that I'm going to fail. I don't know why I'm bothering, other than that if I don't try (and fail) now I probably won't have another chance.
I love Welsh speaking people, they're immense! And they're so friendly, I can't imagine a nasty welsh person, mainly because when they get cross they just get even funnier.
My second is probably Exeter I suppose. Or Durham but I don't want to go there. Shame because it was a really low offer too. (ABB)
I dunno if it would be compatable, but there's a thing that you can get for macs that when you use it it's called running parallels or something, and it's when you run full windows on a mac laptop. That would be compatable, plus you can run the mac operating system at the same time on the other half of the screen so they're next to each other, parallel as it were. I don't have that but I have microsoft word and excell and stuff on my mac because they're rather good.
The F in the middle was to point out that it was there, there shouldn't be a massive emphasis on it really. Just say it 'fifth' and see you the fth rolls off your tongue. And I've never come across head bobbing before.
I've heard of the Reichstag because there was a fire there. What's Checkpoint Charlie again?
Awww...
It's kinda freaky but that's just because the older years told us the convent site was haunted. It's normal now that we're in the new houses. Normal and boring.*humph*
And yeah it was Shawn because he spelled it for us. I thought Shawn was the Irish way? Sean's really normal so I thought it was English. That sounds horrible pretentious doesn't it? (or whatever the appropriate word is)

No, Sean is definitely the Irish way. If it were English you would probably pronounce it 'seen'. Shawn/Shaun are the phonetic spellings of Sean, probably because English people kept mis-prounouncing it and the Seans got fed up. (I'm sorry, but your comment gave me the right to slag off the English a bit)
I just found out my last exam isn't till the 14th. It's one of the last. Half my friends finish two weeks before me (isn't that just ridiculous though? At least I think so. Probably because I'm bitter)
I wish I knew a Welsh person now, they sound funny. For some reason there are quite a few Scottish people here and one or two English people but absolutely no Welsh people.
Maybe we can swap Durham offers? Mine was AAA but if I had yours I could put it as my insurance offer. That would be nice.
Oops, be right back.

Sorry about that, I had to go watch a party election broadcast. I get to vote in my first ever election next week and I'm rather excited about the whole thing. (In case you didn't know, it's a Northern Ireland election to try and get a devolved assembly up and running again cos currently we're being ruled from London. Our assembly collapsed a couple of years ago because there were accusations that the IRA was bugging the place. Confusingly, this was untrue, and it later came out that the guy accused of bugging it was actually a British spy. It's a crazy place.)
Usually I just say 'fith'. And what do you mean you've never heard of a head bobbing? It's like a nod, but less abrupt.
Checkpoint Charlie is the famous crossing point of the Berlin Wall. There was a big stand-off there between Russian and American tanks and it nearly ended in a nuclear war (but it didn't, for which we can all be grateful. )
Also, I think the older years were just having you on. (Is that a Northern Ireland-ism? If so, it means they were playing a joke on you.)

Yeah probably. We English (I say we, sometimes I can't get far enough away from them!) are very phonetic sometimes. And yes, that was a perfectly entitled slagging off.
If that's English it's probably the same day as mine, I don't actually know when mine is. No wait, mine'll be later than that because we break up on July 7th and the last one won't be as far before that as the 14th. I'll have to check that tomorrow. Or whenever I next care. So yeah, tomorrow.
And yes, it's a bit ridiculous.
The Welsh are amazing! We had a Welsh chapel today because tomorrow is St David's day and they spoke about Welsh identity and leeks and stuff (the vegetable, it's a Welsh thing like England's rose, Scotland's thistle and Ireland's clover. Bit of a gip getting a leek though isn't it? Though I think they have the daffodil as well.)
I'd love to swap my Durham with my Cardiff, that way I wouldn't have to worry about having to still get top grades.
Ooo, politics. It might be a while before I vote because I know nothing about any of the parties, and from what I hear they're rather similar now anyway. My friend was talking about his grandpa or someone who walked into the kitchen after watching tv and said something like 'I've just watched the news and I don't know who to vote for anymore, they're all the same!'.
Sounds crayzee. That's my new spelling of crazy by the way. I personally think it's more fun. As is nekkid, a bit less sordid.
I mean head bobbing while trying to pronounce something. Obviously I've heard of it.
Ah, one of those stand offs. Like with Cuba but dryer.
Nope, 'having you on' is definately not just a Northern-Ireland-ism. We do it aaaaaaaaall the time.

No, my last one's German. It's a bit annoying cos all my other exams finish a couple of weeks before that, and then I've just got to sit around and wait for German. Oh yeah, I meant 'revise'. *shifty look*
And my English will be different to yours because it's CCEA which is the Northern Irish exam board.
Ooh, St David's Day? How nice. The leek is a bit pathetic though. It's like "You can have a fearsome thistle, you can have a beautiful rose, you can have a theologically interesting shamrock, and... oh dear, we seem to have run out of interesting plants, here, have a leek." Does anything special happen on St David's Day? The way it does on St Patrick's Day.
Well, if we're going that far, I'll swap my Oxford with my Dundee and get in with BBB.
Yeah, the parties all seem a bit the same in England. Luckily here we don't have that problem. They're so different half of them refused to talk to one another (in debates and things) before quite recently. Now they're going to form a government together, should be interesting.
I was wondering. I thought, do people not bob their heads in England or something? But that would make more sense.
Yes, I thought 'having you on' was a kind of general phrase, but when I tried saying it in an English accent to check it just sounded completely wrong. Like me saying "I say old chap, jolly good show" or something.

Yeah, revise. Obviously. You know, I think I'm in for more exams that I've anticipated. There's these 2 stupid critical thinking ones on top of all the others, probably 3 maths because of retakes, 2 physics because one's a synoptic paper, I don't know about English but I think that might be 2, and I've got coursework now as well.
A Theologically interesting shamrock? yeeesss What is a shamrock? They were talking about it in Harry Potter but I never realised what one was, is it a plant?
That about sums up the Welsh though. And no I don't think anything great happens but we did have Welsh cakes in our discussion thing on political correctness. Not sure quite how they differ from normal cakes (they're a bit like scones with raisins in) but they were rather nice.
And isn't the only special thing that happens on St Patrick's day that everyone gets drunk moreso than usual? Because if so I'll bet the Welsh do that too.
Not that's worth watching. It'll be like a political version of big brother. Oh! We should get them all in the house together and see what happens, it'd be amazing! Actually it might not because it's still politics.
You know we don't actually say 'jolly good show' or anything like that unless we're being ironic. Though I find that for 'foliage' I seem to say 'fo-li-aah-ge' rather than 'fo-li-idge' which is like how most people say it.

Yeah, I know you don't say 'jolly good show' any more than I say 'top of the morning'. And as for foliage, I say 'fow-lidge'.
What does critical thinking actually involve? I've heard of it but we don't do it, we just do boring normal subjects. Though next year they're introducing Moving Image Art and Theatre Studies and all these random ones.
I think I have 4 German (eek), 1 English, 2 politics and 2 history. Not including resits. I've a ton of coursework at the minute too, it just all seems to come at once.
You don't know what a shamrock is?!? Come on, you're bound to have pictures of them at least. It's like a type of clover or something. Look it up on Wikipedia. Basically it's the symbol of Ireland because St Patrick (apparently) used one to explain the Trinity to the natives when he was bringing Christianity over (three leaves in the same plant or something like that ). That's why I called it theologically interesting. But you get them all over on St Patrick's Day and stuff.
Actually, my friends and I are thinking of going to the St Patrick's Day parade in Belfast this year. I've never been before, but apparently it's good fun. Everyone dresses up in green.
And when were they talking about shamrocks in Harry Potter? I think I missed that bit.
Now I think about it, why is the symbol of Wales a dragon? I thought it was St George killed the dragon? Or am I mixed up?
Yeah, politics is a bit crazy over here. Though one party seem to have their heads screwed on, they put a leaflet through my door offering to enter me in a competition for tickets to a music festival if I signed up to receive their propaganda. Bribery, you gotta love it. Nit sure if I will though, I don't think music festivals are really my kind of thing (tents/mud/not enough toilets etc.)

Oh, so it's just me then.
Thinking critically. Basically analysing arguments and stuff like that. Actually it's just arguing, though I suppose that's going to be helpful to me if I'm doing law. Shame, it's with the headmaster and he's a tw*t, plus I'm the only one in my class still taking it.
I only need 53 (a D) in my next maths to get an A at A level but I don't know about English or Physics. Some people over here got really bad results, one girl who got an offer from Cambridge got an E in her history. She was not happy. History's weird though, everyone did really badly, and geography. And yes, I have heaps of coursework. I shouldn't even be on here.
I thought so but I wasn't sure, I thought it was a hat because in Harry Potter at the world cup people are wearing shamrock hats and stuff. That's where that came from.
Dunno why wales is a dragon but they're the only nation to have entered the new milennium with the same flag as when they entered the old millenium.
Bribery is good, and if you get the tickets you could always sell them if you don't want them. Festivals are ok but I've only been to ones in Jersey and never an overnight one.

Hmm, sounds fun. Except if you're the only person in your class, how do you argue? And is it not really awful being in a class on your own? And why does your headmaster teach classes anyway? So many questions!
Well, I did well in all my modules, so no resits for me. And you can tell your buddy that two of my friends who got Es in the summer resat them there now and got As. So it's entirely possible.
Oh yeah, the shamrock hats. Well, those would be hats, with shamrocks on them. Like maybe Scottish people would wear hats with thistles on them, or Welsh people would wear hats with leeks on them (admittedly I really can't see either of these actually happening. Maybe we're just a little more crazy than everyone else. Wheee! )
Talking of national pride etc, have you been watching the Six Nations at all?
Oh, and you've probably seen on your blog, I tried to watch you on Songs of Praise but couldn't. We had to leave halfway through. I tried to explain to my parents that some guy I knew from over the internet would be on it but I think that just freaked them out more.
As for the election, it was pretty exciting. The guy I voted for 1st preference got in, but my 2nd preference didn't (it was the Greens, he had no chance). Overall though it was a bit rubbish cos the two more extreme parties got in, so it's anyone's guess if we'll have a government or not. But actually going down and getting to vote was really exciting. And then in school we sat in front of the TV all day (well, except for classes) and watched the results coming in. Twas fun.

Well I basically sit there and wait until the lesson finishes. Normally he's not even there though which is fine by me. And it is really boring. And he only teaches it because he thinks it makes him cool. Or something. I don't really know why he teaches it because he's obviously not that great at it.
If you did well in all your modules good for you. (that's not meant in a sarcastic way by the way) People here dislike people who do well. I've had briskly polits 'oh well done's for by abbb results and it makes me want to scream because I want to say actually that's not very good for me but if I do I'm the arrogant oh so clever guy because I beat everyone else in their results and I'm still not happy. Frankly I don't care what everyone else got, mine weren't good enough for me. There I said it.
Yay, you spelt wheee correctly! Most people just put weee which is just wrong.
Not really but I saw the end of the welsh game where they thought they could go for the try and the ref blew for full time. I thought that was really unfair.
Yeah I saw that. I actually pictured you saying 'I know someone on this through the internet' and your parents and everyone being like 'what...?'
I remember for the last general election we all voted in school to simulate it and I can't remember who won. Shows how much I cared then.
Do you know I'm now old enough to vote and I've never even bought a lottery ticket? That's like a rite of passage for a 16th birthday.

Hola! Sorry it took me so long to get back but I was in Dundee for a uni open day. Was quite good, so it will probably be my insurance choice. The thing is, I don't really want to stay in NI and go to Queens, but all my friends are, which is a bit rubbish. But I will see them at holidays and stuff I suppose.
Yeah, I can sympathise. They are pretty good results still (though I appreciate that isn't helping very much). Are you planning to resit them or what?
Hope you had a good St Patrick's Day.
And Ireland were ROBBED of the Six Nations, ROBBED I tell you. They were winning until like the last SECOND of the France game. Normal time was over! And then France scored! And then they won on points difference!
'Weeee' is just wrong. Speaking of such though, have you ever played a Nintendo Wii? They're the coolest things ever.
Yeah, we had a mock election thing too. I stood for the Curly Hair Movement. We didn't come last.
Well, I've voted, but I've never bought a lottery ticket. Seems like a waste of money to me.

Yeah sorry on my end too, just got home for easter and have been relaxing and messing about and trying to put off doing anything useful.
I think my insurance will be either exeter or edinburgh because they've both given me offers and I think I know people who will be going to both. With second options though I don't really care, if I don't get into Cardiff I guess I'll morally give up on the whole law side of thing and find something else to do. Now that I've said that though it might happen which means I'll have to pick something else to do and that's going to be hard, especially talking to my parents about it.
Resits? Well only the physics, maths I only need a c on my next paper and english was the a and I'd have to retake that one.
I wasn't really watching that intently, I know england are rubbish but that's about it.
Yes! I played on one at a party just before term started, they're so much fun!
Oh I don't know, with lottery tickets I think one day I'll be there and so will they, I'll but one on the spur of the moment and win, and then never buy one again. You know how these things work. Never going to happen though but I can dream.

Well, I am off for Easter now too which is wonderful. Also I think Northern Ireland is getting a heatwave, because it's been gorgeously sunny all week and I'm even able to go outside without a coat (in April! ) Roll on the summer! But the downside is I have a ton of work to do so I'm mostly stuck inside at the minute. I'm trying to get it all done ASAP so I can enjoy what remains of next week. At the minute I'm trying to write German coursework. Not going well.
Will you be able to do law at Edinburgh though? You know, the way Scottish law is different to English/NI law. I was told if I went to a Scottish uni and did law I would have to be a lawyer in Scotland. Apparently Dundee is the exception, which is why I applied there, because Scotland is easier for me to get to than all the way down in England. But then, England is sunnier.
It's kind of the same with me: if I didn't get the grades for Oxford, I don't know if I would go to my insurance choice or take a gap year and reapply. I'm just hoping it doesn't happen.
I was at my granny's on the last day of the Six Nations and we were all sitting round the TV screaming at it. Except my granny, who was hiding her face and moaning 'Oohhh, it's a terrible game, look at all those poor boys being jumped on, ohhhh'.
One of the guys at my church got a Wii and he brought it to the Bible study and we sat and played tennis on it for ages. It's so addictive. I would also really like to have a swordfight on one, that would be incredibly cool. The XBox just doesn't seem the same now.

Hi, sorry this reply took so long but the weather's been great and I've meen in St Malo with 10 friends sunning myself and drinking. I now have black arms and a line across my forehead from a bandana.
And I still have another week off because we have a 4 week holiday which is stupidly long because I have no sense of urgency for my work which means I haven't done any for about 5 days. Did a little this morning of Physics but then bloody facebook distracted me and we had a comment fight on a photo. Now everyone else who is tagged in that photo has over 100 emails in their inbox (literally, we counted them) that say so and so has commented on a photo of you. They are gunna be piiiissed!
I don't now about law at Edinburgh, I haven't looked at the course. To tell the truth I am horribly unorganised about universities and I suppose it would serve me right to not get anywhere and fail and get shouted at. But I hope that's not going to happen.
Actually I'm a little bit back on the idea of law as a career because there's an advert for a new tv show with lawyers in it and it looks cool.
Six Nations is over (probably, I wasn't really paying attention) and now the cricket world cup's on which is really boring. Although apparently Jersey could be in it next year as an individual country team thing. That would be rather cool.

St Malo? I assume this is some kind of Channel-Islandy place?*
*No offence intended.
4 week holiday?!? That is really rather annoying. Been back at school for a week now (seems like a month already) and absolutely loaded with work. Some bright spark read the rules of our German coursework too closely and discovered we're not allowed to draft it, so I'm now trying to write a first and final copy. Eek. (Well, as you can probably tell from the fact I'm writing this, I'm not actually trying too hard).
Oooh, lawyers on TV. Are they all evil? Lawyers on TV usually are.
I will never understand cricket. Ever ever ever.
Though that would be cool if Jersey were in it on their own. I suppose they usually get lumped in with Britain for sporty things? The big excitement here at the minute sporting-wise is that Northern Ireland might qualify for Euro whenever-it-is, for the first time since 1982 (and even I know that, it's practically folklore round here. For us, it's the equivalent of England winning the World Cup in 1966. )
Flip, I've just realised I need to reply to my UCAS thingy in about two weeks. Lucky I remembered, it had completely gone out of my head.
Well, nothing else is really happening round here. It's horrible being back at school. But I now only have 3 weeks left! Which is actually at the same time both encouraging and terrifying. I can't make up my mind whether I want to leave or not.
I suppose you're back next week then? Enjoy.

No, St Malo is in France, we went there on the ferry for the day, it was fantastic! I think I burnt my arms a lot though and I had a bandana on so I still have a line across my forehead from the tannage.
Yep, 4 weeks. Actually it's almost too long because there's no-one around, everyone's back at school over here so it's been me and my bro lounging around the house being bored. And he's gone back to school this morning for pre-season cricket training anyway so it's me on my own until I go tomorrow.
I've just finished a critical thinking paper which was horrible, sooooooo boring!
No, they're like cool lawyers, I think it's like CSI but for the bit after they realise who dunnit and they're trying to sort it out.
That's odd, I thought you liked cricket. Don't know why, I must be getting you confused with someone else. But yeah if Jersey were in it next time it would be cool, and it wouldn't be such a disappointment when we don't win unlike with england who are supposed to be good.
Yeah I need to do my UCAS too, I got my UCL reply and they said no so now I've had all of them and I need to sort out my replies.
I don't know if I'm looking forward to leaving either, basically I'm going to try and enjoy my last term because summer's the best one anyway, and then see what happens after. When mine finishes though (a week later than everyone else, hence the long holiday now) I'm off to Tunisia with 13 other people from school, then when I get home it's a triple birthday party that I'm hoping I'm back in time for, then relax and maybe work experience, then over to england for a birthday, then to Alderney (another channel island) for a week of camping and fun, then home and hopefully JerseyLive festival in september. So I should be able to keep myself busy.

Firstly, profuse apologies for the extreme lateness of this reply. I am thoroughly ashamed of myself.
But I have been having a slightly stressful few weeks, what with exams and minor distractions of that sort. A load of them all came at once (well, three) so it was very busy, but I now have a reprieve of a week. Phew.
They haven't been too bad so far. Well, my German oral was very stressful, because we were only given the questions a week before the actual exam. So we had a miserable time trying to get answers written and learnt. But it went OK in the end.
And I've now left school forever (apart from going back in for exams), which is terrifying. I swore I wouldn't get nostalgic but I miss the place already. Well, not the place, the people really. It's weird going from seeing your friends every day to having had no contact with any of them for two weeks, apart from the mad-panic-revision-session ten minutes before your exam starts.
We had a good last day though, we went to the rugby pitches and they had It's A Knockout stuff like giant inflatable assault courses, and I made an idiot of myself by being terrible at everything, but it was good fun. And then we had a massive waterfight and everyone was absolutely drenched (it was a freezing day too which didn't help). But it was a nice way to finish.
Sadly no-one did anything very mad or crazy around school (apart from chaining all the doors shut first thing in the morning so no-one could get into the building). And we had a lecture from the headmaster about signing shirts, because apparently it makes the school look shabby or something ridiculous. Which we ignored completely.
Oh, and I replied to my UCAS offers so if I mess up these exams I'm off to Dundee. I'm regretting that now though, I wish I'd put Queens. But if I had put Queens I know I'd be regretting that too, so I can't win really. Unless I get my 3 As.
Oh, and I've been to Dundee since I wrote last (flip, it has been ages!) Me and a guy who also applied there went over for their open day. It was pretty good. We arrived a day early and spent about the whole afternoon playing pool and arcade games in their student union (which is immense). Though I was staying in just about the trampiest hotel imaginable, so that was pretty nasty.
Well, I'm going to Italy for a week with my family in the summer. Then at the start of September a crowd of us from school are going to Berlin (very excited). (Have I told you this already. I forget. )
I'm also going to have to get a job though. I've been looking around for ages now and absolutely no-one is hiring. I tried going around Belfast with CVs (height of desperation) but only one place would take one and that was to get rid of me, because they said they never take summer staff. So I don't know what I'm going to do. Suggestions welcome.
Well, that was quite a long message. I hope it makes up for the miserable lonely weeks when you haven't heard from me. Try to write back quicker than I did!

Wow, it has been a while hasn't it! But I suppose I haven't been online much either, especially on here. I only really go on thingite stuff now if that. Haven't properly posted in ages.
Anyway, yeah, exams are crap but I've only had 2 and they were critical thinking (worst idea ever). I can't believe I still did that subject, it's such a load of rubbish! And my other exams are all a week apart at least, which means I'm not panicing about them at all which is really bad because without the panic I won't do any work.
That sounds like a cool last day. I've still got another week of lessons after half term, which I'm on now, and then study leave, then leavers ball which should be good. Then me and 13 friends are jetting off to Tunisia for a week, which will be AMAZING!!
I've done my UCAS too, Cardiff and Exeter as insurance. I hope I get my 3 As though, I don't want to go to Exeter that much. Cardiff looks really nice.
As for jobs, I don't really know much about that. It's taken me ages to sort my work experience because the company hasn't got back to me for ages. They have finally though so I'll hopefully have another placement and be able to pay for my summer.

What's a critical thinking exam actually like? Do you just have to write essays on random things or what?
My exams are all kind of jammed up together. I've done three and now I have a week's break and then I have the other 6 in a couple of weeks. So they'll be over about halfway through June and then I will be FREE, mwahaha.

Sorry, I think I'm going slightly crazy.



You have half term now? Pfft. We got a day off for May Fair and that was it. The fair is actually quite good this year though, there's a continental market. I'm addicted to Dutch pancakes. They're the nicest things ever.
So you're doing exams, but you still have lessons? That's a) weird and b) horrible.
I suppose your leavers' ball is a bit like our formal? It would make more sense to have it now. I don't know why ours is in February.

It's rubbish, mainly because there's 2 papers at once. One starts with multiple choices, like what's the underlying assumption here and such crap, then there's a section about arguments and analyzing others/writing your own. That's not too long though, the worst bit is the other paper which is about quality of evidence, you read passages and new reports about something and weigh up the sources and how good they are, takes so long and you have to perfectly tick the boxes they want when you're writing or you'll get no marks, and the actual answers are so budget and simple that if you think of it you'll think it can't be right then get frustrated. That's what happened in practice papers anyway.
I had my last ever maths yesterday which was actually quite good, and today we have maths for first 2 lessons and we all went along and gave our teacher presents, a glass tankard and a picture frame with photos of the class and stuff written on it. We've had him for 5 years and he's cool so we thought we'd do something nice for him.
So maths was yesterday, Thursday, and my next one is physics, 2 exams at once one of which is a retake, which are next Thursday, and then another physics the Thursday after that (I'm sensing a pattern here) and then the Monday after that I've got English, which is the 25th, and then I'm free! I don't suppose it'll be much different though because at the moment I'm not panicking about my exams, meaning I'm not revision enough. That's a problem with having them really far apart, no pressure thus no work ethic.

I was on half term, got back at the beginning of the week. We have lessons for this week and then study leave because our school is weird and evil, though the lessons are quite helpful because without them I'd have done no work all week.
February? Why so far away? That's just strange...