Ah!
Iziblog is back. Should never have changed. Hey-ho. It's like a supermarket that shuts to repaint and move the shelving radically, and then you find it was better how it was before.

Anyway, I digress. Singing's going well enough, Helen says she'd like to work on low notes but knows where my priority is, simply adding that she doesn't want my low notes to go to waste as they are apparently rather good; there is a valid question as to the extent to which one chooses to either build on one's strengths or tackle one's weaknesses, and I suspect that the singer-songwriter will place more emphasis on the latter than a classical singer in particular (for the latter is judged on delivering certain expectations of his or her fach, whereas the former is judged on self-expression which can be constrained by weaknesses). Exam results were moderate: two in the low 60s (2:1) for Politics, two in the low 50s (2:2) for Economics, and enough of a gap in the pass rate to make me convinced that my real marks were four 2:2s. Treated it as a major failure, probably fairest to call it a modest performance rather than a disastrous one. Even a 2:2 would be a pretty substantial achievement from the position I was in before, but a too-easy first year (and my excessive drive to get through it to prove a point, while others boozed their way to low pass marks with a too-small minority failing) rather suggested otherwise.

And we elected a vacuous blonde girl as Student Union President, which riled me so much that I now intend to throw myself into SU politics. Have already put myself forward for the position of Sites Officer, which is not a sabbatical position as the Presidency and a few others are, and involves coordinating the various satellite sites (most pressingly at present; the Boldrewood site just west of the main campus, home to the medicine students, earmarked for demolition and replacement, and nary a medic seems to have a non-zero idea what the heck's going on). The current Sites Officer has gained the sabbatical position of Vice-President (Media, Communications), and in hustings had called for an e-marketing push including Bluetooth advertising. Guess what? I voted against him. Fortunately, this is almost certainly unviable, but I will fight tooth and nail against it if I have to... The rest of the sabbatical team are much better.

It's worth noting that Vacuous Barbie Girl - whom I rather imagine singing Popular (it's not about aptitude, it's the way you're viewed indeed) - was only known pre-campaign within the Athletic Union. Guess what? They elect their President on the same ballot. In an election where turnout is otherwise 20% if you're lucky, that's one heck of a way to manipulate the outcome of the other races. Make the AU election exclusive to AU members, do it at some other time, and you'll get better (or at least different) SU sabbaticals. Alternatively, do what our sixth form did after two years of disasterous elected representatives; put all candidates through an interview process, weed out any unsuitable candidates, then let the rest campaign. This year, that'd have almost certainly removed Barbie Girl, and if it didn't then it's not enough of an interview. (Disclaimer: I was on said interview panel, effectively partial apology for one member of staff stopping me from standing for the student union presidency anticipating me being unable to do the job, then failing to remove the elected representatives when they were rather proven inadequate. Apparently the anger spread, another from my sixth form stood for Vice-President (Education) and came second despite being a second-year; he'll be favourite when he makes a repeat run next year.) Replacing AV with the Borda count - as we did in the same year - might also work. It should be noted, however, that neither proved quite adequate to stop a third straight disastrous pair, and the Borda count was reversed, despite (because of?) the fact it was vanishingly close to changing the outcome.

There is something else to mention, but I shall put it in a separate post, behind a cut, for it may be triggering.