Job interview went stunningly well. CEO type came and shook my hand, nice Christian women asked me about what I knew about technology and computers and Spanish and it transpired that what they most of all needed was someone for maintaining an online image archive, which I’m completely capable of and do in my spare time. Left with good feelings. Phone call later: “we really liked you but have found someone we like even more. Sorry.”

Oh well.

On the bright side, according to Sarah it is almost certain that accommodation has been sorted out and I will indeed have a Place to Live. Which is a load off my mind (leave aside that the place would also have been perfect for my new job, if I’d got it… bah.)

On the even brighter side, my first assessed essay came back; the Military Revolution one, which I thought compared to the horrible Airpower one (grade: 69%) was genuinely good. Grade: 70%. A First. (Only just, but still.) I hope my Somme essay is less rubbish than expected, but since due to failbooks the . I’m doing prep for this term’s essays starting now; the biggest issue I have, I think, is doing enough reading and referencing.

Am attending RPGsoc on Wednesdays, since Jon finally convinced me to come; playing a Savage Worlds homebrew where you are part of a rag-tag band of misfits (is there any other) sent by a league of city-states to reconnoitre the frontiers of a growing Evil Empire in the south. The main selling point from the GM was giant pangolins. This is my very first tabletop RPG; I created a generally unpleasant mercenary crossbowman (named Tadeusz Wallenstein – nobody should ever be able to get that reference on their own) and have made a Good Showing in our first session, which was pretty much “the combat introduction”. The rest of the team at the time being an urchin (who is physically unimpressive and throws rocks), a noble-born rich wizardish type (who is really bad at hitting anything), and a Florentine-favouring fencing tutor who’s useful on the few occasions he actually gets into combat, I am the heavy hitting power of the team. Rivalry with fencer has escalated to ridiculous levels, however; due to my character constantly insulting and belittling his, he and the GM started passing notes with the result that my character keeps finding unpleasant things painted on his clothes and is too thick to figure it out.

Roleplaying challenges me in new ways.

GM: The bandit is incapacitated. Do you want to finish him off, or take him prisoner?
(My character has “Bloodthirsty” as a hindrance.)
My character: END HIM
Fencer: Isn’t the reward better if we hand them in alive?
GM: Ja.
(My character has “Greedy” as a hindrance.)
My character: …I am conflicted ._.

With some advice and assistance from Gemma I am seeking to expand my palate beyond the triumvirate of “microwaved/boiled/fried things”, so I am making tomato soup (not as thick as the bond you can forge with a man over whisky and ribs but still pretty damn thick and tasty) and investigating the possibilities of other soups, doing more stir fryery and generally making use of my Student Cookbook. Since I discovered the trick of reading it before going shopping rather than after, recipes are more… within my grasp.
I am also, based on recommendations from Ben among other internet people, seriously considering buying myself an electric countertop grill. I’m unsure if I should be going with a genuine George Foreman article or an (even cheaper) knockoff, so all advice would be welcomed.

Last week’s outgoings:
£25.47

Summed costs for first three weeks of term (inc. Viking care & feeding):
£153.97

Attention all, attention all, we have now reached Semester 2, where this term will… terminate. All change, please, all change. Early Modern to Late Modern history transition not exactly seamless, going straight for the Industrial Revolution, Darwin and Freud. But it’s all pretty interesting so far.
Despite failing to have signed up for a Focused Study group I got a not-terrible one (Jacobite Rebellion; the motorways one wasn’t even on the list, probably due to palpable lack of interest), which in conjunction with my new Late Modern seminar group means I’ve pretty much lost my Fridays, and lack an alternative free day as I have something at 10 or 11 for the entire week. Oh well.

I don’t have any of my old tutors, which is a shame as I really liked them. I haven’t met Ms Henshaw (Jacobite Rebellion) yet, but my new Late Modern tutor is another young postgrad type, like Stuart. Yet where Stuart seemed to be on his own ground, entirely comfortable and confident and in control, and thus great at telling us to do productive things, the new fellow… doesn’t. So far; I hope this’ll turn around. Also, I don’t really know anyone in either of my groups except War Studies Robbie for the Jacobites and Steph from the flat opposite for Late Modern… yet.

For WAFS, the transition from Rob Thompson, big and boisterous in his revolutionary t-shirts and biker leathers, to professional-to-the-point-of-fussiness Gary Sheffield, war historian extraordinaire, has been something of a jarring one. Our two seminars with him have so far taken this form:
“The Fumble” – vict- uh, student du jour frantically tries to set up powerpoint with non-functional History department hardware, class twiddles thumbs.
“The Mumble” – student does the presentation they prepared for and lovingly based around their powerpoint, without the powerpoint.
“The Grumble” – Sheffield puts on what he describes as “his grumpy face” and tells student off for ten minutes on their presentation skills – unprofessional, lacked charisma etc – and content.
“The Humble” – class listens to Sheffield talk about history for remainder of the seminar, trying to forget the first three stages ever happened (many awkward silences as Sheffield, when engaging with the class, expectantly relies on historical trivia nobody seems to know.)
So far two in our class have gone through this and visibly not enjoyed it. I’m up next Tuesday; my presentation is on Maoist strategy in theory and practice. I don’t know a bloody thing about guerrilla warfare and the only copy of Mao’s book has been taken out by someone. This is going to hurt.

However! The essay on strategic airpower I wove out of own knowledge/whole cloth in the space of a couple of days and made up all the references because none of the books were any good, the essay I considered “this really is not good”, Thompson gave a 69 along with some seriously encouraging feedback. I feel mildly guilty, rather proud and also somewhat annoyed it’s not assessed.

Also, I have a JOB INTERVIEW! It’s for a part time admin job in Selly Oak with these people ( http://www.christianeducation.org.uk/ ). I don’t have much practical experience with admin (or interviews) so I’m rather managing my expectations, but it’d be a nice way to be employed and a useful source of experience and pocket money. That goes down on Thursday. Wish me luck!