Initial impressions
Ok. Been here long enough to form some initial impressions of this city and the campus. First off, Liverpool is a fantastic city. The night life is unlike anything I've been exposed to. Everywhere you turn there's some new pub/bar/club pounding out music and alcohol frenzied students. It's mental and can be a little overwhelming, especially coming from Rum. Haven't made it to the Cavern Club yet, but it's on my to-do list. There are markets on the weekend (selling LOTS of meat, which is unfortunate as I decided to try vegetarian for 3 weeks), constant live music acts and some nice parks to walk around in (before dark).
The MSc course is proving to be interesting. For once when I read an article, I'm actually generating valid questions and framing relevant thoughts. Before I just glazed over and prayed the next page was the last. The class is larger than expected... 25 people, and each module has around 20-23 people attending as we had some flexibility. I dropped Neuroscience next semester in favour for a small dissertation in an area of my choice. Had enough neurogenesis and modularity in undergrad. So far the best is Fundamentals of Evolutionary Theory. We sit at Robin's feet and listen to him 'twitter' about everything. If you can hold on, you gleam a lot out of that 1hr session.
I've also narrowed down some areas of personal interest, and plan to see a prof this week to get some direction. I'll sketch them briefly here... 1) humans consistently rank intelligence as an attractive quality in the other sex. Why is that so? What advantages to intelligent people have over others? What do humans use to gauge intelligence in conspecifics? Is it relative or an absolute measure? Have any indicators of intelligence been selected for in human/great ape populations? 2) When looking at human (or primate) social networks, one notices that there are individuals that link smaller isolated groups together within the population as a whole. Are there any characteristics (behavioural or morphological) unique to these individuals?
On a completely unrelated note: finding a suitable laptop has been an absolute bitch. Dell and Big Box stores are overpriced, eBay full of scams (a fully loaded Alienware for £700? send payment to Romania? ok...) and PCnextday is now Pc in 5weeks due to high demand. Too bad, cause they have the one I want: Intel Duo 2 Core (T7400) 2.16GHzz, 160G HD, 2 G ram, ATI x1600graphicss (256M) and various other crap that all laptops have. Once I put a new sound card in (7.1 surround), it should be everything I'll ever need. So... should I order one and wait, or settle for something else now? The problem is there is little to settle for. Every other machine I've looked at doesn't come close for the price (Dell was off by £200, almost £400 when you factor in I wouldn't be able to claim back the VAT).
alright... I was drawn away from typing for about an hour now, talking to various people on MSN etc. I'll take that as a sign and end things here.
If you have any PC related suggestions... fire at will.
The MSc course is proving to be interesting. For once when I read an article, I'm actually generating valid questions and framing relevant thoughts. Before I just glazed over and prayed the next page was the last. The class is larger than expected... 25 people, and each module has around 20-23 people attending as we had some flexibility. I dropped Neuroscience next semester in favour for a small dissertation in an area of my choice. Had enough neurogenesis and modularity in undergrad. So far the best is Fundamentals of Evolutionary Theory. We sit at Robin's feet and listen to him 'twitter' about everything. If you can hold on, you gleam a lot out of that 1hr session.
I've also narrowed down some areas of personal interest, and plan to see a prof this week to get some direction. I'll sketch them briefly here... 1) humans consistently rank intelligence as an attractive quality in the other sex. Why is that so? What advantages to intelligent people have over others? What do humans use to gauge intelligence in conspecifics? Is it relative or an absolute measure? Have any indicators of intelligence been selected for in human/great ape populations? 2) When looking at human (or primate) social networks, one notices that there are individuals that link smaller isolated groups together within the population as a whole. Are there any characteristics (behavioural or morphological) unique to these individuals?
On a completely unrelated note: finding a suitable laptop has been an absolute bitch. Dell and Big Box stores are overpriced, eBay full of scams (a fully loaded Alienware for £700? send payment to Romania? ok...) and PCnextday is now Pc in 5weeks due to high demand. Too bad, cause they have the one I want: Intel Duo 2 Core (T7400) 2.16GHzz, 160G HD, 2 G ram, ATI x1600graphicss (256M) and various other crap that all laptops have. Once I put a new sound card in (7.1 surround), it should be everything I'll ever need. So... should I order one and wait, or settle for something else now? The problem is there is little to settle for. Every other machine I've looked at doesn't come close for the price (Dell was off by £200, almost £400 when you factor in I wouldn't be able to claim back the VAT).
alright... I was drawn away from typing for about an hour now, talking to various people on MSN etc. I'll take that as a sign and end things here.
If you have any PC related suggestions... fire at will.
posted by Ian at 5:14 PM
3 Comments:
Hi Ian. One suggestion re. the laptop - why not order the one you want and look into renting a cheap one for the 5 weeks it'll take to arrive?
Hey Ian,
Do you have a phone out there yet? I just realised that England is not long distance on my vonage phone.
Denis
Yah - unfortunately notebooks, unlike desktops, aren't something you can buy in bits and screw together yourself. Can't buy a used/stolen low power job till the good stuff arrives :) but I guess if you add that cost to the cheaper notebook cost you're at the full ticket priced item - good luck...
As to "there are individuals that link smaller isolated groups together within the population as a whole. Are there any characteristics (behavioural or morphological) unique to these individuals?" Well of course - the fringes are where the interesting people habitat and they link easily because of their inate dislike of the norm - a band of rebels and free thinkers. They don't try to change one another, just exist in proximity to one another. Quite unlike the borg (norm)!!!!
It will be interesting to hear your impressions after a year of uni in the big smoke - will it be small town or big in your future....
Take care - off to get some turkey (for the third time this holiday weekend!)
Garry
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