Eyes of the Cosmic Whale
“…leaving the heavens naked, glistening blue-black, like the belly of some cosmic whale…”Archive for Random
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IGCSE Resources: to students, by a student
I’ve posted before that my IGCSE exams are over. They involved lots of preparation, and so I have lots of valuable resources that took me some time to discover and that could help others very much.
This is why I’ve decided to create this IGCSE Resources list. I want to share these links with the world! Of course, you’ll need more than this to get an A or A* on your IGCSE’s. I recommend you to grab syllabuses and create summaries, objective by objective. If you make them by hand, much better. That’s how one learns!
Before we go to the link list, I’d like to add a not-so-fine-print. If you do think this list is useful, please leave a comment. So I know I am actually helping someone. Besides, I don’t have to do this. A little appreciation would be nice.
And now…to the links!
ALL SUBJECTS:
http://www.cie.org.uk/qualifications/academic/middlesec/igcse/subjects - Click your subject and download the available past paper, markscheme and examiner report.
http://www.cambridgestudents.org.uk/examtime - Exam tips from Cambridge
HISTORY
http://www.activehistory.co.uk/igcse/paper_1a.htm - All Paper 1 past paper questions, very useful to identify patterns and practice
http://www.crampuppy.com/1/IGCSE/history/complete-igcse-history-summary.shtml - History summary, very brief and summarized but good if you already know the info. Other pages in this site have past paper questions, too.
GEOGRAPHY
http://www.geographyalltheway.com/igcse_geography.htm - Very friendly, fun to use, with lots of exercises and pictures
http://www.cambridgestudents.org.uk/subjectpages/geography/igcsegeography/ - Geography past papers and resources
BIOLOGY
http://e-subjects.co.uk/mod/resource/index.php?id=55 – Fabulous link!
http://www.cambridgestudents.org.uk/subjectpages/biology/igcsebiology/ - Biology past papers, examiner tips, useful sites…particularly check the “model answers” bit!
CHEMISTRY
http://www.docbrown.info/page10/page10.htm - Sometimes confusing to use, but if you search and search, you WILL eventually find the answers to the more obscure, horrible objectives.
http://www.cambridgestudents.org.uk/subjectpages/chemistry/igcsechemistry/ - Lots of chemistry resources, including past papers and model answers.
PHYSICS
http://physics.greengates.edu.mx/igcsenotes.htm – Equations and objective-by-objective tips. Great resource!
http://www.cambridgestudents.org.uk/subjectpages/physics/igscephysics/ - Once again, past papers and physics resources
For English LIT, there’s lots of sites out there with book analyses, and character and symbol insights…
For Spanish Lit there aren’t, so know your books and try doing some analysis yourself before the exam.
For French…it’s hard for me to say here, because my personal belief is that you either have it in you or you don’t. I had it in me, so it was all good. Still, review all your tenses and the “formule de politesse” used to close formal letters.
English and Spanish language…here it’s your writing skills that are tested, so no helpful site there. Practice, practice, practice. Check markschemes. Learn the strategies. And write!
Now you’ve got the base knowledge and a place to return to when in doubt. Work hard and use the resources well, young padawan.
It will have been worth it when it ends!
CW.
My IGCSE’s in a nutshell
Now the IGCSE examinations are finally over, I feel relieved and relaxed and a lot freer than before. The whole moving thing dawns on me more too, and makes it all the more hard. The intention of this post is to record what the IGCSE experience has been like. (For IGCSE resources, click here)
The IGCSE’s began on Oct 15, with the Spanish first language exam. The exam went ok, though I left with big doubts that made me truly uneasy, like having called someone a cretin in a letter and having given an introduction and a conclusion to my summary. It was a very boring exam, too.
Tuesday was the Spanish literature exam. I had prepared pretty well for it, but the questions can be hard sometimes, so I was panicking a bit. I suddenly felt I no longer had clear what had happened in Doña Barbara. As I was going in, though, I reminded myself something that Mr Andrews told us during his History revision sessions: don’t go in scared to the exam, take it as an intellectual challenge. You have no idea how much that worked. I instantly felt relieved of a lot of pressure, and knowing that I knew the books quite well helped too. When I went in, it was hard to choose what asterisk question to do, because I thought all the essay ones were easy. I chose an asterisk one for Doña Barbara, one on dramatic irony in El Sí de las Niñas and one on Impía, a poem I had done a project on. I was amazed and happy with myself that I could do well the question on Los Heraldos Negros, since Vallejo and his suicidal tendencies can be my weakness. It went well. Read the rest of this entry »
Writing: my anti-drug
Nanowrimo is fast approaching and I’m enjoying every second of the preparation.
The cons is that I’m spending less time studying and focusing in my IGCSE’s.
The pros is that I’m having so much fun, it’s hard to put it into words.
The brainstorming in the last few days has been neverending. Today, while in the library, the character on mine who is a conspiracy theorist suddenly became an avian flu conspiracy theorist. And then I could just see him, in the Biblioteca Nacional (which I’ll have to visit, since it’ll be a recurring setting), flicking through old archives and suddenly screaming out loud “I knew it! It’s all because of the chicken exports!”. And then I saw Marlene, telling her mom to stop buying chicken, and her mom asking why, and she saying “I’ve got this half Swiss friend that told me. The embassy keeps sending them stuff”, and of course her mom would be like wtf? (And she doesn’t even know he’s like 50!)Naughty Marlene would have to fake knowing him from the public speaking classes, because the truth sounds way surreal.
The truth is way surreal. Their truth. This truth. Read the rest of this entry »
On Aidgle and its growing revenue
The growing popularity of Aidgle, the search engine that donates its revenue to disaster victims, is beginning to show.
Aidgle began less than a month ago, yet by the beginning of this week, over 440 US dollars had been made by the search engine. It might not sound like that much at first sight, but considering that 1 cent is made for every search, it’s quite an achievement.
This amount will be paid to Aidgle’s (genius) creator, Roberto Thais, at the end of the month (Google’s slow in that matter), who will in turn donate it to two organizations who are already taking action in the affected areas of the earthquake in Peru on August 15th.
So far, so good. But the revenue has to increase, for these people’s sakes. So many, many people lost it all while so many more forget of their existence, while in their comfortable homes.
Particularly for those who don’t live in Peru, here’s a chance to make a difference from our comfortable homes.
Hopefully one of these days we’ll hear ”Aidgle, miracle search engine changes lives of hundreds”.
It’s up to us, Aidgle users, to make that happen!
Aidgle: better than Google!
Aidgle is a search engine with a different approach: revenue goes to relief efforts in disaster locations around the world. It works just as well as Google, because it’s a custom version of the Google Search Engine, but the fact that it helps people in need makes it even better.
Right now, they money generated is being sent to Peru, where there was an earthquake on August 15th (I plan to make a blog post about my memoirs on that day, too…some other time). It was of 7.9 magnitude, killed over 500 people and left more than 85,000 without a home. These people are hungry, and homeless, and doing their best to survive the harsh winter. Aidgle is directing the money in rebuilding homes in the most affected areas: Pisco, Ica and Chincha.
Needless to say any help is welcome. And now the world has the chance to keep helping just by using a search engine! It couldn’t be easier!
I’m totally going to use Aidgle from now on.
The big question is: Will you?
A rant on nationalism -and other things
Nationalism does not exist. Or does it?
That’s what I started thinking about today at lunch while eating the best chicken I’ve had in ages. (I guess that’s what beng sick does to you XD).
But seriously though. Nationalism is purely abstract, a concept. Is it a feeling? I’m not sure it’s a feeling in itself. It may be pride for one’s country, so does that make it a different feeling or does it remain pride? I’m going for the latter.
I was thinking nationalism, if you compare it to religion. Like, is it something people believe in to believe in something? (Though, and I’ll make this clear, I don’t think people believe in religion to believe in something .__.; ) Is it the real opium of the masses? I’d tell Marx it is. That’s why dictatorships and authoritarian governments work so well.
Nationalism is an invention of politicians. They can control people with nationalism. They can claim the end justifies the means, if it’s done for one’s country. The media takes advantage of nationalism, because since it’s so deeply etched in society, it works for marketing and stuff. It’s all over the place in advertisements. Then I stopped to think: if nationalism is really an invention of politicians, why do parents build it up? I suppose because that way they have something to be proud of. Even if you have nothing else, you have that. You have a sense of belonging, and what you do can be for a ‘greater good’.
ORISINAL: There are cuter ways to procrastinate
Everybody has played online games at some point or another. The Internet is just full of them, from MMORPG’s with lots of users to smaller ones in interactive E-Cards. Orisinal is a gem unknown to many, so I want to share with the world Ferry Halim’s adorable creations.
Orisinal is certainly different. Ferry himself says, in an interview by b3ta.com that “Everyone has their own style, and mine is the “clean & nice” style.” and that he avoids first person shooters “there’s already a lot of those games on the net”.
Truth is, except for a minimal number of them, Ferry Halim’s games are anything but violent. Most games involve cute little situations with very lovable animal characters. The artwork is lovely and the music fits the games well while being relaxing. The overall effect is a heartwarming addiction to his games, which are certainly dripping originality.
Not surprisingly, the site has millions of hits. Just checking out the Guestbook confirms it. The Guestbook too happens to be a work of art. It allows you to choose and create your own little blob character that reacts differently when the mouse is rolled over.
Anyway, Orisinal is worth being discovered. I, for one, certainly recommend it.
It’ll get your mind off things and into fluffy worlds of squishable cuteness.
<3
Entrenched in quotes
-’expectation keeps us standing
but it’s the unexpected
that changes our lives’-
I found the quote while studying learning for the History Mock Exam. Suddenly, in the lower right corner, a quote caught my eye. There it was, written in cursive and with a pen that wrote in a blue different from the one used in the timeline itself.
My first reaction was a smile of approval at the quote itself, followed by intrigue. Where did this come from? Who said it? Faithful old Google could not find an exact match, only something roughly similar- a quote from Grey’s Anatomy (*bricked*).
But then I thought, halt there! Last year I didn’t even know of the show’s existance! How could it be…? And then the scene flickered through my eyes. Me watching Grey’s Anatomy on the laptop, finding that quote excellent, muttering it to myself as to not forget it, grabbing the closest copybook, my beloved Orange debate one, opening it in a random page, scribbling what my memory could recall.
Turning the quote into something that wasn’t Grey’s Anatomy and that wasn’t my own, but something in between. This is the explanation I give as to why I didn’t annotate the author of the quote. (There remains the chance that it’s from somewhere else) Oh well.
Plugged into another world
Long time no write. I’m back now from the three week holiday. It’s paradoxical how, looking back, it seems to stretch out and out, but now I’m here in Lima, it’s as if barely any time had passed.
It was probably one of the few times we returned at daytime. It’s so much different from returning at night! I felt like I had been plugged into another world. (Notice the use of the word ‘plugged’. A plug can’t plug itself. ‘Plugging’ suggests that the change wasn’t voluntary- someone else forced it).
I guess the change between Europe and Peru had never been so evident. We can start with the weather. Coming from sunny, blue skied, warm Barcelona, grey grey grey Lima hit me hard. Not so much the cold, because I was clothed enugh but still. It was all so gloomy! Then the poverty. European streets are all filled with fully built houses, and in places like Amsterdam and Barcelona, it’s all about the architecture. In Lima, (hello!) there is no architecture. Thinking more about it, I realized we live with the poverty so much, it doesn’t seem out of place anymore. We get used to it. And then we really really notice it when we have a clear picture in our heads to what we can compare.
Anyway, it all seemed so different. And the greyness of it all was choking. Honestly, if Lima was sunny all year long, it would be so much different. Even with the poverty. Well, at least there are things to look forward. (Though not the mocks. AT ALL.)
Today we put on the fireplace and now it’s all more cosy, and at least the atmosphere isn’t as frozen as when we came into the house.
I felt like writing a bit 
. I was (yet again) avoiding homework. These physics past papers are killing me slowly and painfully.
Ah well, I will write about the trip when I have the time.
