The Sharp End of Term
So here I am, sitting in the (empty) Physics Computer Lab. The formal Computational Physics lab sessions are over, but I’m on duty to provide help the students with their project work, which will take up the remaining two-and-a-bit weeks of term. It’s a lovely day outside which explains why there are very few people in the lab, and none of them have asked for help so I’ve been busy getting on with some work. Past experience with these sessions suggests that they’ll all come just before the project deadline, which is May 8th.
Up until last week I had a Computational Physics lecture at 9am on Thursdays, but the last one of those happened last Thursday. It was nice to have a more leisurely start this morning. I did think I might get a haircut on the way to work but when I passed my usual barber’s I saw it was full of people waiting their turn so I walked on. It seems that the good weather gave quite a few people the same urge to have shorter hair.
Yesterday was the last Class Test for my other class, Particle Physics, and I’ve taken the opportunity to correct all the scripts for that. I even had time to type up the solutions all neatly and tidily in Latex (including doing Feynman diagrams, which is fun).The end of that job means no more grading for that module until the main examination, which is about a month away. I do however, have lectures and tutorials still to do, including two at 9am on Tuesdays.
The finest weather is usually reserved for the exam period, of course, to maximize the annoyance of students. In my memory all my undergraduate examinations took place in very fine weather, with the exception of my Physics practical the night before which there was an enormous thunderstorm. Come to think of it, that could well have been a portent that warned me off experiments and made me become a theorist.
In the Dark 
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