07 Nov 2020
This week passed by quickly. The real highlight was Flat E coming around on Monday for an IKEA assembly party! 🎉 Thank you everyone, and I’m sorry I had to drag you to my place to put together furniture.
John, damn you for the stain on my brand new mattress, and the rest of you, you should’ve come back to mine! I had space for the lot of you, and you didn’t need to walk back to campus in the middle of the night.
I also went out with Flat E on Wednesday night, and it was absolutely stunning. Thank you so much for the great night, you all.
The ASV’s also taking place next week, and I’ll be addressing the lack of engagement with student democracy in my next post in the Let’s Talk About series. I hope you’re looking forward to it!
01 Nov 2020
I’m settling into uni really well, making friends, interacting with people, getting absolutely smashed and almost breaking my ankle. Here’s a super quick rundown of this week, because I’ve got reading and cousework to get to!
(Last) Sunday
Kicked off the week with a call with the cult. (Just to be absolutely clear, we are merely an organisation of individuals who are particularly devoted to a particular individual. No blood sacrifices here, folks. Move along.)
I’m especially thankful for every one of you, Adam, Ewan, Felix, Katie, Jake, Selen and Jenny, who’ve made university a lot easier. Hopefully we’re all still together once we go into the big, wide world!
Monday
I met with Matt Leeke (praise be) to talk about uni, coursework and settling in. He’s a great bloke, honestly, and I can’t thank him enough for how much he’s helped in the transition from college to university.
Also met with Tocil Flat E (completely legitimately) to have a meal and lovingly assault some priceless piece of artwork worth almost twice my annual tuition. Truly riveting stuff.
Tuesday
Something happened? Don’t remember what. Would appreciate if anyone could jog my memory. Not like I’ll be jogging anytime soon! (hAH comedy, boys.)
Wednesday
I found the library! (Finally!) A little disappointed that the specs on the Library AIOs are somehow better than the towers in, y’know, the Department of Computer Science.
Thank you for coming out, Felix, and thank you Adam for keeping me focussed. I got a ton of real business-y, wage earning work done that day!
Thursday
Was sad. Slept in all day. Missed a few lectures and synchronous sessions, but read to make up for them. Not really much to report here.
Friday
Thank you for convincing me to get out of the house and letting me stay the night, Krys. Porridge is a curly-haired spidey boi and makes me feel like a proud uncle. 🥺
Saturday
Oh, goodness. Where do we start?
After planning an art tour for a week, Adam (absolute gem) picked up the last bottle of vodka from Aldi. Seems like most people were also having a good night.
Cheerleaders got ahold of Felix. I’m so, so sorry I couldn’t save you.
Also, somehow, a dinosaur? Rawr XD
After describing one piece of art, things happened. People got lost. The night, as I predicted, descended into an absolute shitshow. Someone got a little bit too tipsy and sprained their ankle. (Naming no names, at all.)
And here’s just a selfie. Welcome to Flat E, Jen!
Katie art! Epic drawing. Yay I’m included! (:
I’d like to thank everyone who put up with me, including Flat E, Joe, Oscar, Rowan, and anyone else who had to put up with my obnoxious, belligerent drunk self. Hopefully we can do it again sometime!
Got home, called, coded (and completed my coursework drunk like an absolute fucking leGEND), cried, conked out.
Sunday
Had some Greggs for breakfast. Delivered, of course. Omelette and bacon baguette, with brown sauce is the best. Also, just to be clear, brown sauce beats ketchup, mustard and mayo. That is an indisputable fact.
I did a few bits and bobs throughout the day. Polished the coursework, spoke to clients, planned some solution architecture, wrote some more code for clients, and, finally, wrote this post!
My priorities for next week are to keep on top of my coursework. My iPad’s coming on Monday (along with furniture, but that’s a story for another time), so hopefully I can start reading and interacting more with the lecture material.
I don’t think I’m going to do too well, though, mostly because yours truly can’t leave their house. And has to crawl or hop everywhere. For the next eight weeks.
I’m probably going to die from a lack of sunlight, a mental breakdown and malnutrition, combined. This is going to be enjoyable.
01 Nov 2020
Hi!
This is the first post of (hopefully) a long series, Let’s Talk About, which are shorter posts about things that’ve happened to me over the past week. These are mostly going to be lightly edited, dictated rants that my computer has converted from speech into text. Enjoy!
This week, I’d like to discuss mental health, the need for a more honest conversation, and what you can do to help.
First off, I’d like to state that I am no expert on mental health. I know nothing about the field, other than what I’ve read and observed. If you do notice something that is factually incorrect, then please do email me at hello@thiswebsiteisnotaffiliatedwith.warwick.university. I’d also love your feedback.
Although there’s been a lot more discussion about mental health as of late, I feel like there hasn’t been enough emphasis on how we can help one another to take care of our mental health and how small things do we can have big impacts. For the past nine months, I’ve been working at a small, unincorporated charity called MyMind, which helps to connect people to trained volunteers through voice, video, or text chat.
MyMind isn’t designed to replace a trained therapist, or a service for people who are in crisis and who need immediate assistance. It’s designed to get people speaking to one another, and to avoid mental health problems by reflecting on thoughts and feelings.
Your mental health is just as important, if not more important, than your physical well-being. Yet, we treat it like this abstract concept, this thing that you either have, or you don’t. You’ve either got your shit together, or you’ve completely lost it. I feel this is the wrong approach to mental health.
I also feel like most of the discomfort that comes with speaking about mental health comes from a place of “If this person is struggling, what exactly do I do?” I get that.
If you’ve got a friend who has a cut, or a scrape, or they’ve sprained their ankle, well, you know exactly what to do. I need to clean the cut and put a plaster on it, they need to bandage that ankle with ice.
When it comes to mental health, it’s the opposite. We don’t necessarily know what to do. What exactly do you say to somebody who is depressed? What exactly do you say to somebody who is in crisis? What do you do to help somebody cope with paranoid delusions, or schizophrenia, or a manic episode?
I feel we aren’t necessarily as well educated on mental health, primarily because it’s not as intuitive as physical health. Physical health you can see and feel, mental health you can’t.
We need to have a conversation about solutions. Mental health is inextricably linked to physical health. If you don’t eat properly then that affects your mood, and if you don’t take care of your mental health, that, in turn, affects your physical health.
Mathematics is abstract, but we have people who can get on stage and who can, in half an hour, introduce you to some of the most amazing topics and tie them into everyday life, and we need something like that for mental health. With mental health, a possible solution could be mental health educators to help us understand how exactly we can cope with our own mental health, and also help people who may not be doing so well.
Empowerment in healthcare is becoming more and more common. Doctors are now focussed on prevention, rather than cure. Mental health definitely needs more of that. We made great strides in that direction over the past few years and that definitely needs to continue. Education, especially in early age is key. Mental health should be introduced into primary and secondary school curriculum, because we need to teach young people that their mental health, and the mental health of their friends, is important.
It’s also important to engage with mental health advice when it’s provided, just as it’s important to clean and re-apply a bandage when it gets dirty or stick a new plaster on when the old one falls off. Early education can help us realise that we need to continually take care of our mental health, just like you need to brush your teeth every day, and stay active, and eat healthily.
Eliminating the stigma around mental health can also be achieved by stepping back and not being dismissive or judgemental of peoples behaviours. Someone who comes across as needy or constantly requiring validation could be suffering from paranoid delusions during an episode of psychosis. They may feel like they’re being watched, they’re being gossiped about, they’re being excluded, they’re being targeted, and so they’re looking for some sign that this web that entangles them isn’t real.
Everyone is going through something, and it’s important to speak to one another instead of simply coming to conclusions that are wrong, damaging and inaccurate.
Stay safe, and look out for one another.
25 Oct 2020
After a few days of struggling with redirecting the apex domain using Namecheap, I’ve switched to Cloudflare and managed to get it done in under an hour. The domain warwick.university now (finally) redirects to thiswebsiteisnotaffiliatedwith.warwick.university.
Being honest, time’s been passing so quickly since university’s started, but I feel like writing about each week keeps me a little grounded and helps me reflect and plan. Although it feels a little silly putting my thoughts down on paper, I made a promise to myself and I intend to keep it.
This week’s been busy and productive for me!
On Tuesday, I made Internet friends Johnnyboiyeet and Katie (and then met them 20 minutes later)! We’re meeting up again on next Monday (socially distanced and safely!) and I’m excited about that.
We got half-priced Greggs as well! I’m on my way to Greggs with Johnny, I’m passionately recounting the Lore of the Kones (coming soon to a bookstore near you). This girl in front of us drops her ID card. Little do we know, she’s been listening to our conversation, enjoying my way with words, and she works at Greggs and offers us half price food! Let’s be honest, food always tastes better when it’s discounted.
I’m also now on a quest to make a cuppa in every Warwick building, starting with the WMG Buildings. Keep an eye out for posts about that!
On Friday, I got a delivery from Iceland. Thank goodness for online shopping, as it means I get to be an anti-social, introverted recluse when I feel like it. I also ordered a pair of Vans, which I’ve been putting off for a while. I’m waiting anxiously for the delivery now!
On Saturday night, I went to a showing of Fight Club, a cult classic. It was a last minute decision, and I’m happy I went. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, right? The cinematography and score are absolutely beautiful, and I already want to rewatch it. I can’t recommend it highly enough. Thanks to Adam, Felix and Johnnyboi for making it one of the most fun nights here so far!
Today’s mostly been spent working away at coursework, and completing clearing up some of the backlog on my to-do list. I feel the coursework’s been a little over-hyped, and once I get a few hours of quiet focus, I can knock it out.
I’ve done really well on my goals for this week. I’ve completed problem sheets for CS118 and CS132 on programming and data representation, and I’m working on Problem Sheet 1 for CS130. The content for CS133 isn’t too difficult to read up on in my spare time, so I’ll probably knock that all out in an afternoon.
I’ve also been eating regularly and healthily. I’ve been having pizza and packed with salad and I’ve been enjoying fruit and juices. My mood is definitely tied to whatever I eat.
I’m learning more about myself, especially because I have a lot of time to reflect. I definitely need to come to terms with the fact that nobody can change their past, including who they were. I feel like life’s about managing expectations, as well as understanding past behaviour and learning to enjoy the moment. I’m slowly becoming happier with myself, and I hope I can make some friends I can keep for quite some time.
On another, lighter, note, I find it a little difficult to study sometimes. I’m putting together songs I can focus to, and I don’t know whether to share the link or make it a collaborative playlist. If anyone wants that, I’ll pop the link in another post!
The plan for the fourth week is to
- Keep on top of my coursework
- Continue to eat healthily
- Be more social!
- Keep reading the textbooks
- Catch up on lecture content, possibly finding some way to automate the download and stitching together of lectures
- Stay positive!
19 Oct 2020
It’s been a bit stressful, and I feel like I’m falling behind before we’ve even started. I know it’s silly, but I’m pretty proud of myself for keeping my head above water this past week.
Despite the stress, I’ve done a lot to come out of my shell and get a lot more social this past week. I’ve got plans to meet up with people (safely and socially distant!) over this next week as well.
I’m also realising that independence doesn’t mean pushing people away, but instead means knowing how and when to reach out for help. I can often be a bit like camping (‘Cos I’m in tents. Get it?), so I feel like asking for help in the right way is just as important as asking in the first place.
Even though I’m two (well, technically three!) weeks in, I feel I’m making positive changes, branching out in terms of my interests, meeting new people and enjoying my independence. I’m learning to manage my time and handle my assignments, and I want to keep that up. I’m definitely happier.
Over the next week, I want to focus on
- Catching up with assignments, working on optional problem sheets and pushing to understand the material,
- Balancing my work and my studies,
- Learning to enjoy myself a little, by meeting up with more people, attending society events (ew, Teams) and saying hi!
I feel like sometimes, either because my life’s been boring or because I’ve had a ton of deadlines, I’m going to struggle to maintain this blog, but I’ll definitely try to write a post on Saturday or Sunday, along with my silly little rants during the week.
This week’s fun fact is that Greater Manchester has about 9.1 critical care beds per 100,000. That’s after reading this Guardian article confirming that a trust which needs to take care of 2,822,000 people has only 257 critical care beds.
The number of beds the Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust has is higher than the UK’s 6.6 beds per 100,000. However, that doesn’t account for the fact that the UK’s number of critical care beds is 43.1% less than France’s 11.6, despite the fact we have comparable population sizes.