A thought.

There are so many extremely interesting people in the world... and I will never be able to find and get to know them all.

This makes me feel slightly sad.

Kennedy-fail.

Ted Kennedy had life fail a couple of days ago. This made me feel a little bit sad.

It wasn't because of his seniority in the Senate, or all the good work he did in his career, or the end of an era of Kennedy presence in American politics. Oh no.

My first thought was the movie When Harry Met Sally. I was thinking of the bit just after "Baby fish mouth!" when Harry and Sally are talking to Jess and Marie respectively about the dates they brought to the little gathering. And, Harry's dating someone quite a bit younger than him. And he says to Jess, "I asked her where she was when Kennedy was shot, and she said, 'Ted Kennedy was shot?'" which causes Jess to giggle.

And, that was my very first thought when I heard that Ted Kennedy had died.

Wednesday, unrelated to Sheffield.

Today I used snooze on my alarm clock when I woke up for the first time in ages. Since going to the gym, I've had more energy in the days, and not had a nap since I joined, but if I go to bed too late, I'm still tired in the mornings. So, as soon as I've done this post, I will be going to bed.

I am lucky; tomorrow, my shift at work doesn't start until 2pm, so I have time to have a leisurely breakfast, watch America's Next Top Model and eat a light lunch, since my shift isn't long enough to take a break.

I like this cycle of Top Model that's on Living at the moment. I think that, since while I've been on holiday, I have watched from the very beginning of Cycle 1 all the way through to today, which was the third episode of Cycle 4. This is the cycle in which Tyra goes insane when a girl laughs off her elimination, as opposed to having an instant nervous breakdown. If you're really bored, go to Youtube, and search "Tyra goes crazy". Pretty easy to find. This is also one of my favourite cycles because of Kahlen, the shy girl who loses out to the winner for not quite pulling off "the Covergirl look". She's given up the modelling gig, and she is a bartender.

I was looking through Facebook pictures, and I saw some of the time David's sister came to visit him, and we had a laugh in his hall's kitchen/dining area. I really miss him... I miss not being able to sit with him quietly and just look at him and feel happy. I talk a lot sometimes, and forget just how nice it is to just exist next to him. For some reason, it makes me feel very happy, even though it's not something physical to hold like a gift, or something that's happening, like a birthday or something exciting. It's just... nice.

I got bit by insects; once on the side of my face, next to my ear, once on my neck.

There was some football violence yesterday in Upton Park, where West Ham were playing. This meant that Mother went to Finsbury Park instead to buy hair products, and they were more expensive there, but she was worried that there'd be a lot of mess from the rioting and chaos.

I went to the gym. I slacked off on the bike, and I should really try harder. There's two different types of stationary bike at the gym, and I think I might try the second type tomorrow, to see if it's any better for me.

I have stabbing needle pains in my gut, my arms, and my legs.

It's midnight-ish. I am going to braid my hair, and then go to sleep so I can wake up in time for Top Model tomorrow morning at 10am. Besides, getting up past 10am is pretty decadent, isn't it?

Developments at work.

The median and modal age of the employees at the shop I work in is seventeen. A lot of them work the occasional 10 hour shift (8am to 6pm). However, it's been called to the attention of management in our store that under 18s shouldn't be doing this. So, all the shifts have had to be shuffled around to accommodate this change. The upside of this is that I get an extra shift next week, and potentially more shifts in general!

They've started to accept me at work. They show this mostly by good-naturedly teasing me. They ask me a lot if I have swans and ducks in the lake in my back garden, because I'm posh. I always felt a bit different from all of them, because they almost revelled in their lack of a good GCSE grade in Maths (D was the highest). But... they seem like quite nice people, really, and it's not horrible to work with them at all.

I kinda have a mini-crush on a girl I work with. She's pretty and generally quite nice.

Pay day is coming in a week's time!

Student debt.

Students starting university courses this autumn can expect to graduate owing £23,000, a survey suggests.

- BBC

So, everyone's saying, "Poor students! So much debt to start their working lives with. How will they cope?"

There are two kinds of debt the average student gets themselves into.

Type One: The Student Loans. This covers tuition fees and maintenance loans. You never have to pay a penny of that until you graduate and earn at least £15k, you pay it off automatically from your salary bit by bit, and the amount you pay per month is proportional to your income, so it's always a manageable amount to pay (in theory).

A lot of people don't understand about the way student loans work, and assume they work the same way a regular bank loan works, with the corresponding difficulty getting loans and mortgages in the future. First, the interest on the loans is much smaller than a normal loan, so you don't get shafted quite as badly paying it off. Second, it doesn't affect your credit rating at all. Third, if you never earn more than £15k and don't manage to pay it off, you don't get angry men taking away your car/house/firstborn to pay off the debt. So, this sort of debt is (mostly) harmless.

Type Two: Proper Debt. This is what happens when, after you graduate, all of the sudden, your interest-free overdraft becomes a Proper Overdraft, with charges and interest. This is what happens when you fail to pay off your credit card bills, and you end up just about getting the money together to pay off the interest each month. This IS the sort of debt that can cause credit rating troubles.

However, a student may be forced to use their overdraft if the loan falls short, or parents can't give as much financial support as is required, or if work doesn't pay enough, or is unavailable, or incompatible with the type of study that is being undertaken. (Unfortunately, everything in this paragraph applies to me in varying severities. Yay!)

So, really. Most of that £23k of average debt is Type One, and shouldn't be worried about too much. Considered for a while, but not the sort of thing you should lose sleep over. It's the bit that the maintenance loan doesn't cover that you should really be looking at, if you're worried about not making ends meet.

Now, what would happen if the government allowed universities to charge what they actually wanted to for tuition? That's up to £30k. Of course, you would have to maintain a similar system to what we have today; £30k is more than the average yearly salary in Britain - not many families have it just lying around to pay upfront. So, let's say we keep the current system of not paying before you reach the £15k mark and paying off a small, manageable amount every month. Would you actually be able to pay off £100,000+ worth of debt over a lifetime of work without lifting the amount required to pay off a month? I doubt it.

This university thing sure is tricky.

(I might moan sometimes, but I'm pretty glad I study in the UK. It would be so much more expensive to study at MIT for four years, and there's very little government support.)

"Is going to university worth it?"

The BBC has a Have-Your-Say section, where people can post their opinions on a topic. The title of the post is today's topic.

I am exactly halfway through my degree right now, chronologically; in terms of weighting, just under a third of the way through. I have friends that didn't go to university at all, and I have friends that dropped out. I have friends that are getting, or have got, degrees from the Open University. So, there's a lot of different university stories in there.

Reading the comments on the website, people are focusing on the debt and whether it's a good investment for a career that may never materialise. One even said that degrees with no direct employment benefit shouldn't be offered, so that students don't waste their money. That comment upset me; not everyone goes to university to just get a headstart up the corporate career ladder! I know it's not the common thing, but quite a few of my friends are looking to remain in academia, and their degree is the first step in getting the PhD, and then onto the office in the University of Sweet-and-Awesome. It's money you spend that never really gets the wages back, but you do your subject for love.

I am of the opinion that the 50% university attendance target the government has for school-leavers is absurd. One of the smartest people I knew at school dropped out of university, not because he wasn't smart enough, but because it wasn't the right place for him to be. He had a job that he could learn as he went, they offer training as he works and he's happier now, an employed university drop-out, than I saw him before. If that could be the case for someone academically bright, with three As at A-level, and all As and A*s at GCSE, I'd hate to think of less bright people who aren't suited to the academic environment and the self-disciple required to do a degree who feel like university is something you should do, simply because it's something you should do.

In a recession, some school leavers will fear the job market won't be able to offer them the career they want, and so defer it for three years by doing some degree that might not be useful, but simply buys time. I can't decide if this is good or bad. It's good to get a qualification, spending three years gaining skills that are needed to succeed at university. It's bad if you spend three years drinking, partying, not studying effectively, not learning skills, and scraping a pass. Nowadays, the big graduate employers are looking for 2:1 or above (2:2 if you're lucky and they are particularly interested in relevance of degree). So, it's not really worth it if you're not going to get that.

Also, there are more mature students hanging around - people who entered the job market, realised that a degree would quicken their progress up the career ladder and decided to study for something. That's what happened to my friend, but he kept working while getting a degree with the Open University. He's now got a degree, but I'm not entirely sure that's changed much for him.

So, back to the question. Is university worth it?

If you seek solace in the hushed corridors of a library, find comfort in a proof outlined on a blackboard, look forward to discussing Voltaire with intellectual peers, university is most definitely worth it. (Can't say they discuss his works much in my current workplace.)

If you want skills to progress in the career ladder, I reckon the Open University could be a good option. Working to gain practical skills, studying to gain the paper ticket to faster career progression. It does depend on which career you want though. Some financial careers use so much maths that it's best to get a good degree in Maths or Statistics so that you can actually do the work!

If you're buying time, it's probably not worth it. You might lack the academic motivation to do well, and end up with a classification that will say to employers, "I spent three years partying, not studying".

For me, I'd say my choice to university was half love-of-academia, half buying-time. That's generally served me quite well so far. I've lost motivation at times, but my not-so-secret passion for maths always comes through to save me. And, I've proved to be smarter than I thought I was (although everyone claims they knew I was that smart already!) And, I met the best man in the world. So, is it worth it?

Most definitely, yes.

This post is about my body!

(So be warned.)

I had my one-on-one gym induction today. Expecting a Ben-Stiller-from-Dodgeball kinda man, it was a slight surprise to find my instructor, Matt, was a guy who looked pretty normal, and not scary at all.

We talked about goals. He did all my measurements; I decided not to look until just before I go back to uni, see if progress has been made. He took me through a workout routine - it was hard. I'm so madly unfit, it's quite embarrassing. After five minutes on bike, treadmill and crosstrainer, and a small set of reps on a couple weight machines, I was ready to go home already. I only did a half workout as well. Tomorrow, my first proper workout, will be challenging.

It's about a mile from my house, the gym. So, walking there and back is two miles extra walking already, and that's before I've even worked out. The plan is that I'll be able to keep up with the boys walking to lectures without moaning!

I have a headache. I wish I had some cake. Victoria sponge, perhaps. Or, a regular vanilla nutmeg loaf. Should I make a cake now? I'm not sure I can be bothered, sadly. Cake is a joy.