Posts Tagged ‘ringing’
Busy busy busy
It seems I am embroiled in a lot of different projects and activities at the moment, and this is absolutely fine in the summer holidays. However, it will definitely not be in September when I will have far too many subjects to be able to do the amount of tasks that I am carrying. The problem is that often I find I am not actually doing enough actual work, but I plod through anyway so it isn’t too important. My issue is primarily with my Wikimedia work where I do number of different things – my main jobs at the moment are IRC group contacting, e-mail response team work, press and communications work and mediation on the English Wikipedia. The problem with all this is that increasingly I find that little jobs such as admin work, queries for advice and other non-Wikimedia projects such as working on Heather Gladney’s website are being put aside as I haven’t the time. I’ve also been promoted on freenode staff which means there is more stuff I can be involved in. Doesn’t actually use that much more time, though.
So, the answer is to start dropping jobs. This is unfortunately not that simple because that set of jobs that I actively do are all ones that I really like and thing I’m reasonable at. IRC group contacting is something I cannot stop because I am needed for that; I have brought in changes to speed things up and process cloaks very quickly as a freenode staffer. Answering e-mails on OTRS is important now that I am additionally doing the press queue as part of communications work. It would be reasonable to take a break from answering the general info queues as they have plenty of people on it, but I haven’t been that active on that anyway. Press and communications work is short-staffed and I think I’m pretty good at it, so I want to continue with that one. That leaves mediation… I really like the idea of it and think that is an important part of the community (and am honoured to be involved) but at the same time I’m not actually that great at it. It sucks time in with the reading required and often I’m not sure where to go. I am now weighing this one up.
We played DnD last Sunday, and it went very well. I was able to DM effectively and the players made it very entertaining by coming up with things; it was nice having Jonathan do most of the combat and riding on the airship was fun. The pickled brain prompted me to give brine-related magical abilities to our party leader, who can now do some cool stuff. The party used strategy but quickly bored of combat so the dungeon I made was sorta wasted as it has been before, but it wasn’t a problem. They did the key bit of having the rest of the story explained to them: they are now at a stage to continue the campaign next year fully understanding what their aims are. More here.
Well, I bought the Harry Potter book a lot earlier than I expected to and have consumed it quite happily. I originally decided to wait and get it out of the library, resolving that since the the past two books had been spoilt for me this one would be too. However, the opportunity arose as I am with grandparents at the moment to buy a copy relatively cheaply and so I did. It was definately worthwhile; it was *a lot* better than I expected. The story of the book itself was good and the overall plot, coming together across the series bringing in elements and characters from all the way through, was brilliantly done. I realise Rowling is, as they say, an excellent story teller. The hype that surrounds the release however remains absurd as it isn’t that good.
Exams have finished
Well, that’s the end of exams for this year. Some minutes ago I completed my final exam, the second food paper, and so that’s it! I am proud of how I broke the mould with my final answer, turning a six mark, half a side answer into a two and a half side essay by going onto extra paper on “the implications of health and safety legislation for manufacturers and consumers”. Overall, my exams have gone well. The only ones where I’m more iffy about not getting an A* are English (lack of skill), History (lack of time) and Food (really hard to get it – high boundaries etc.). However I remain confident that it is quite possible to get the straight A*s I have been aiming for. It is strange now knowing that so much of what I have learnt I will never use again. I do not like the attitude of learning so much and then not putting it to use beyond these exams, but I have probably complained about it before on here at some point.
I now have the question of what to do with my long summer holiday. I have a number of things to do and I would actually like to complete some projects that really should be done. I suppose it is the last really free bit of time I will ever have until retirement with the career I have in mind, so we shall see. I would like to get a job for two, three or four days a week, because I would like the money for University (bah capitalist education systems are evil) and also it is experience and an alternative activity. However, at the same time I do want a number of days off for my online work and other things: I intend to do a lot for Wikimedia and freenode (see the last post for something that I will be developing and coaxing along, as it’s excellent it’s landed just before this break). The downside of this is that I have several hundred e-mails to read that I no longer have an excuse not to, but I will get to it. Hopefully I can do some really useful stuff in mediation, OTRS and ComProj as my usual work, perhaps with other things on the side.
Ringing is the other thing that I intend to push, as I have said in previous posts. I have moved on to ringing the “tenor behind”. This means ringing steadily at the end of other bells which are changing around in a odd-numbered method. There are two reasons for doing this, the first simply being that for odd-bell methods you generally need someone doing it in order to maintain a pleasant sound (and it’s easier to ring a method when learning with someone always at the end to lead off I believe) and as an exercise it helps to develop ropesight, which is very important for method ringing. This is a concept of being able to ‘see’ all the ropes at once and being able to judge who is going to come down before you as you change speed is something that must be developed. I’m told some ringers never do get it very well and thus their ringing suffers, but I hope to not be in that group. If you were a perfect striker who could change speed etc. without following another bell it would be completely useless because you wouldn’t need to confirm you had your rhythm right, but it’s a pretty standard way of ringing. There is an alternative of doing it by numbers (using coursing order, a concept which I am struggling to understand) but this is not reliable on more complex methods.
Trip to Cambridge, on go the exams & first tower grab
During the holiday I was taken to Cambridge by my grandfather to take a look at the city. He has a big thing about it and its university (which takes up most of it, it seems) in thinking that they are dramatically different from every other place and by comparison with Oxford which he believes is just like any other city. I would like to go to Oxbridge if they’ll have me (it’s worth a try) and right now Cambridge sounds like a better choice than the other. Plus they have a lot of ringing going on there. It’ll also be a chance to debate lots (although Oxford is a bigger place for that from what I can tell) and also cross verbal blades with the so-called upper classes, a term which I ignore the presence of as often as I can. In these ways, it would be nice to go.
On the trip we did a lot of wandering around although we couldn’t go in a lot of the colleges as they were shut off for exams. The most impressive bits were those that could be contrasted with Sheffield, and I realise how backwater it has become up here, namely the Botanical Gardens, the Fitzwilliam Museum and the general atmosphere on the streets. The excellent bookshop (although libraries are better, they wouldn’t let us in the library proper) Heffers stocked the Guardian at a significantly reduced price, making it even more worthwhile to go.
The darker side is of course the elitism and the like, which is a considerable argument I seem to face regularly. However, it’s a challenge: let them come and fall at my sword. I’m not saying I’d automatically win but I’m not bad at debate in general, despite the fact they may well have practice from private schools. The other issue is the money. It’s huge and is only going to get bigger when the cap on tuition fees comes off. However, I do not believe that it is unreasonable to take advantage of upbringing and parents in this way because the good one can do with a better education from one of these universities outweighs the capitalist nature of modern higher education. Please do get in touch if you disagree here.
On return I got straight back into revision, which as of this week has got a lot easier because the exams are a lot lighter in the second of the two main weeks. After Friday I only have two others with about six days to revise for them, which is great. So far they have been going generally quite well, the only real issue being History and perhaps English as I’m not sure I planned my time that well. However, it’s great to know that Biology and English are over forever! On the flipside, I’m very dissapointed with Maths. For the first I was expecting a challenge and (yes, I’m sad, but that’s okay) was really excited the night before. However, it was as I put it insultingly easy. Rosie made the astute observation that the difference between A* and A is how many silly mistakes you make rather than the true mathematical skill which can usually be shown on the last few questions. I was told by Maths teachers and others that when the first paper is easy then the second is usually much more of a challenge, but again I was dissapointed today with only the odd question where I had to think with any depth, and even then it wasn’t anything very exciting.
I keep being asked when I intend to do with the very long summer holiday that I have stretching ahead of me now, and one thing that I aim to do is push ringing hard. This is because my bell handling needs a lot of work and if I can solve this with simply lots of ringing very regularly I can make better use of limited weekly practices back during term time. My mother says I’ll get bored of it but other ringers say it’s definately a good idea as learning at the Cathedral has the disadvantage of not getting many turns, with the advantage being that you have an advanced band of strong ringers to help you. By going to other places I aim to make better use of being at the Cathedral.
So, tonight I went to the tower I have planned for Monday (I have options for every night of the week, Cathedral and possibly Walkley on a Sunday and possibly weddings at the Cathedral on Saturday) which is Walkley, recently hung for ringing and with a lot of Cathedral ringers up there; I was introduced as “a[nother] Cathedral ringer” to the others that I didn’t know. It’s a nice downhill walk from Crookes but a bit of a slog back. This was my first tower grab or ringing visit, something integral to the ringing culture it seems. It went quite well but the bells had some major differences from the Cathedral. They were much deeper set which means to pull off requires a lot more strength than at the Cathedral. Indeed, when trying the 5th (I rung 4th 5th 2nd and treble in that order to simple call changes) I could barely pull it off at all :S
The other thing I did that wasn’t so great (I got used to the bells after a while) was ring the treble badly and therefore mess up leading (which I only learnt last week but which I can do reasonably well). At one point in those call changes all the bells were sounding at once which I think was at least partially my fault. Ah well.
The place itself is a nice enough church, and as I say I knew most of the people there. It’s a lot smaller and while at the Cathedral because there are twelve bells altogether ringing on six requires a virtual straight line whereas at Walkley you can very easily see everyone. I’m told it should be easier to ring on six because the Cathedral is tweaked and lined up etc. for twelve primarily, whereas Walkley will only ring on six (or possibly five). In terms of sound, it’s no where near as nice as the Cathedral. So, I will push my ringing this summer by going to lots of different towers.
Ringing and revision
I may have noted it before on here, but over the past few months I’m much more enthusiastic about ringing than I was. This does not mean that my skill has got better; I’m progressing just as slowly as I was before (but I am progressing). However, I’m no longer really concerned about causing damage (or so I tell myself) and look forward to the next session. I’ve realised that I’m way more interested in the theory, too, and have been doing some research. It’s fascinating how much maths is involved in it all, and apparently it all swings on group theory, for those of you that means something to. For those who do not, like me, the idea of ringing is to change the order in which the bells chime, because this produces some form of music as all the bells are tuned to a scale. They are way too heavy to just ring a tune as one hasn’t got enough control, so change ringing involves changing the order of the bells to a planned algorithm, or something the conductor is calling out (more on that later). Thus, once bell handling is mastered or something close to that, it becomes simply a matter of mental concentration, more towards the end of pure wit a lot of the time. Also, I have observed that there are many areas the hobby can be taken to: the maintenance of bells and ropes themselves, conducting a proper algorithmic method, composing a new method (frighteningly hard, apparently, and unlike most music almost no creativity ^_^) or learning a new manual skill such as handling two bells at once. I’m also branching into hand bells which involves swinging two small bells back and forth, obviously being 95% about mind rather than the required physical movements, which I’m keen on for that reason.
On myself, as I said before I’m interested in the theory and in the future putting this into practice with methods etc. I’m far less good at actually ringing the bells, and this is I suppose due to the fact that I’ve never put any real time in my life into physical activity, leaving me unfit. However, I’m confident that I can get over this. Apparently if I learn to ring more efficiently and well I can overcome my general arm weakness, which will mean I can concentrate on the execution of changes, which is where it will become a lot more fun, I hope. I’ve acquired a small ‘One-per-Learner’ book and progress chart that, while designed for those a few years younger than me, puts me around the middle of the book with a lot of good material to work forward into, which is great. I’m glad to have a copy of it.
My current stage of learning is following changes called out by another ringer, which is a bit false in terms of preparing for methods as in one of those you change every pull, but helps with handling, following another bell and of course changing positions. I’m also taking advantage of the fact that I’m learning in a cathedral: I can practice ringing on higher numbers of bells which requires slower ringing than in a typical village church which may only have six bells. I consider myself pretty privileged to be learning in this way as I’m learning things like this early on. For the record, I have rung on five, six, eight and ten bells. Throughout all this I remain supervised for safety, which is great for me as I don’t have to be concerned about that. However, last Sunday there were only eight of us there and so we did some rounds (straight round the room, no changes) on eight, and of course I therefore had to be unsupervised. I rung better than I often do so that was an accomplishment, seeing as though I was on my own and had mother and sister dearest watching.
As part of these call changes I tried yesterday to call (some would call it conducting, but it isn’t really) the bells around. Unfortunately it failed miserably and I had to get my teacher, Simon, to advise me on why we were further away from rounds than I thought. This was annoying to say it was my first go and that I had messed it up quite badly, but I hope to try again next week with a new strategy for keeping the order straight in my head. I’m also ringing on a Sunday now and this is generally a step behind what I do on practice night because it has to sound good. However, I did some call changes lately on a Sunday and so this shows I’m not doing badly with it. The big thing I can’t do with regard to this is lead, that is ring in first place, and so I aim to learn this soonish so that I can call people around in a more interesting way, and without worrying about not putting myself in the lead.
I’m revising hard in the final few days before my main block of exams now, and I’m not doing so well. I’m finding that a lot of the revision I have done so far hasn’t been as effective as I thought it would be, meaning that although I haven’t completely wasted my time I would have liked to use it a bit better than I did. I am now shoving fact-based stuff into my head hard because I’m stronger it seems with regard to skills. Hopefully, I can pull it off. With all the exams I have had so far I’m happy with the result. I was going for 100% in RE as I had to live up to someone getting that last year, and while I think I am pretty sure of getting A*, I don’t know if I managed that. English Literature was a lot easier than I expected, and ICT wasn’t that bad in the end, with some nice questions. I’m so glad I revised for it, though. This is another example of not doing my revision as well as I wanted because I spent too much time on RE, really.
Coming up: I took a trip to Cambridge this week with my grandfather for two nights and so I will be blogging about that shortly 
You’ve probably noticed you are being redirected to a temporary blog address. Apologies for this, I’m working on moving the blog to blog.seanwhitton.com so I can put general pages on the root seanwhitton.com, but Blogger is behaving badly and so it’s not working quite right yet.