Eyes of the Cosmic Whale
“…leaving the heavens naked, glistening blue-black, like the belly of some cosmic whale…”Archive for Thoughts
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 »
1,000 visits to the blog…and what it really means!
On November 07 I reached my 1,000 visits mark!
It’s actually quite exciting to see the number there… “Total views: 1,000″ … perhaps because I wasn’t really aiming for anything when this blog began it’s even better and more…exciting, I suppose!
But I think there’s somehting that makes this all the better. My Aidgle posts were the ones that brought me the most traffic- until today, my three posts on Aidgle have been visited no less and no more than 449 times. That’s quite a lot!
Now, I’ll do a flashback. It was the eve of one of my history mock exams and because of Facebook I stumbled across Aidgle. The idea was just so good I decided to sacrifice a few minutes (well, maybe more) of sleep, even if not that many people ever came to my blog. Still, it was my grain of sand. My contribution to a worthy cause.
Almost 500 views later, I’m amazed at what taking that time did. My grain of sand did make a difference, even if it was a relatively small one. The moral of the story? (No, not to keep writing about Aidgle XD!) Never think “oh, I won’t make a difference”. Never think that just because you don’t have a popular blog, or because your single signature in a votation or a petition is just one it won’t change the status quo. It takes so little to make a big change, and we lose nothing in the process.
It’s always, always worth a try. So try!
Thank you to all who did check Aidgle, thank you to those who keep coming, thank you just for being here now. Every little view in my blog means a lot and is truly appreciated!
Now let’s go for the 5,000 landmark!
<3 CW
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 »
Nanowrimo, here I come!
Oh yes. This year, I’m going to try Nanowrimo. I say “try” because there’s a million impediments. For a start, the IGCSE exams. They’ve already started and I can barely believe it. The ones I’ve had so far haven’t been so hard, but then there they were Spanish and French and those are easy subjects. The ones that scare me are those that are coming up…history and sciences. Yikes.
The IGCSE’s finish on November 16th. So let’s say I don’t write anything until the 16th- I still have half a month to go. Today I realized I’ll also have the retiro de confirmación and stuff…but I hope it works out. I hope I get to write. Which is the whole point. Man, I’m going to have so much fun!
Today I reached a point in which I can say: Nanowrimo, here I come! I’ve got a plot and it’s slowly piecing up. Well, it’s not a complete plot, either, but the ideas come in the form of patches and patch by patch, I hope I’ll be able to make the quilt.
So far I’ve got 4/5 main characters and most of the plot. I need a twist and I need the end. But it’s working out.
My plot in one sentence: a failed psychologist decides to try and help people by putting motivational quotes on the back of a fake dollar in the street.
It sounds…weird like that (it’s hard to put it in one sentence, there’s so much I’d like to say about it). But it’s going to work. I’m going to make it work. I hope so.
I’ll keep you updated 
.
And now, ahoy, I’ll do more Paper 1 History questions.
C:
Tough world and uncertainty scares.
I’ve been thinking about the future so much, and yet it’s still blurry and confusing. And somehow, yesterday I worked out what bothers me so much. I’m scared. Allow me to explain, though.
Let’s go step by step. The calling I’m following right now is that of international relations. That’s because I’d like to work in the UN and defend human rights. But now let’s be realistic. Even assuming I manage to choose the right university, settle in easily and get a diploma, how many chances do I have of actually doing that? The answer is: not many. And what else comes to mind when one thinks of international relations? Politics. And politics are a complicated, complicated thing.
It’s politics when people in Puno stone the mayor to death. It’s politics when Sarkozy leaves a meeting with Putin drunk, only to give a conference in that state. It’s politics when schoolchildren have to question the legitimacy of Woodrow Wilson’s actions, or Truman, or Stalin. And even if I probably won’t get to be president or whatever, but still, politics are a complicated, complicated thing. And very often I wonder if I have the personality (and the stomach) to deal with being a politician. And very often I wonder if it’s not the right thing for me. Politics are interesting, but to be the politics…it scares me.
And when people ask me what I like doing, it’s writing. Of course, there’s a million things I enjoy doing, but I suppose writing is high on the top 10 list. And yet writing is also scary. Writing for your food? To pay for your rent, your bills, your clothes? It sounds risky. And, it’s a very corrupt media. Once I saw a movie, an Agatha Christie sort of thing. It was a mistery set in a small town in the UK, and it was about a writing festival. Between the publishers, editors, ghostwriters and writers, they all ended up killing each other. But then there, I’d like someone to name one uncorrupted media. Journalism is complicated too.
And it doesn’t help not to know where I’ll be living. Because the whole “where I’ll study” complicates things more. You would think having the whole world ahead of you is an advantage, but it only makes things a lot harder. There are two main scenarios, though. Will I be able to go somewhere else, somewhere far away, where I’ll be alone and exposed to so much of the world’s hardship and without anyone I love with me? Will I be able to cope with all of it? Or, on the other hand, will I choose someplace relatively mediocre because I’m unable to leave the safety of home’s nest? Where will we be? Oh, where, where, where?
But I tell myself, I also have two years to overcome what needs to be overcome and to work out and organize my jumbled up thoughts. I have two years still for God to tell me where He wants me to be.
Because truth be told, right now I’m uncertain about so much, I need His answer.
It’s good to have this whole thing, in a way, out of me.
“If I get it all down on paper, it’s no longer inside of me, threatening the life it belongs to”. Three cheers to Anna Nalick’s musical wisdom!
And now, with a lighter mood, the joy of the calm , awesome music Grey’s Anatomy’s soundrack is made of and the duties of writing and correcting for the Journalism Interhouse, all lying next to me, I sign off.
Start the week with a smile! It always makes a change, always C:
If Aidgle is all about Aid, does that mean Google is all about Goo?
As you can see, I worked out why Aidgle is called Aidgle. I’d been wondering, actually, why someone might pick a name that doesn’t roll off the tongue and essentially means nothing. At some point, though, inspiration struck me and I just knew it was because Aidgle is all about Aid. Which leads to the question: is Google all about Goo?
And because I was very bored and procrastinating (surprise surprise!) and searching for inspiration to write the editorial for the Journalism Interhouse, I decided to search the internet (using Aidgle, needless to say) and the results were:
sludge: any thick messy substance
wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn
This is where I should insert a witty statement on how Google really is gooey. Read the rest of this entry »
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’.
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.
The Terror
I hate the Drama.
I hate the Terror. The unfair, abrupt Terror.
And every now and then, I feel like a peasant or a worker in Stalin’s Russia.
EDIT: Life sucked in Stalin’s Russia.
