Tommy Collison

Every time I wake up at 7am, I’m convinced I just won’t make it through the day. C’est impossible! said the stereotypical French wino. By jove, it’s mathematical certainty, old boy! said the quintessential university Maths lecturer, complete with tweed patches on his leather jacket. Not really stopping to think about why these people are in my head, I agree with him, and roll over, back to sleep. Luckily for me, I guess, Mom isn’t gonna take no for answer, especially not today, and woke me up again.

My brain, I’ve come to learn, has certain presets. There’s the ones for talking to boring people (*mildly interested look* Yeah.. mm. really?), acting (pull the plug on the nervousness, engage the line-learning section and before you know it, you’re taking your bows) and of course, the morning routine. The legs walk, the toothbrush cleans, the hand (just about) manages to complete the mammoth tasks like opening doors and closing buttons.

And so the morning preset took over and next thing I knew, I was dressed and trying to think of what to pack. Luckily, all the Young Scientist was already in the car, so after that nothing was terribly important. My laptop never really leaves my side, so that’s a given, but I’ll need headphones, my Flip! camera and my wallet. Once all that’s in a bag and the zips manage to close, it’s time to hop in the car and leave.

The journey is spent listening to Adam Pascal’s new album and mentally plotting drum rhythms. Recently, I’ve been trying not just to keep up with the song rhythmically, adding in my own tricks and fills along the way, but also to actually try and replicate what the song’s drummer is doing.

The other project from Castletroy College, entitled What’s wrong with man’s best friend?, is ahead of us and thankfully keeps us updated on traffic and weather conditions. Without incident, we arrive at the RDS and register.

In a climate where nobody will give you so much as the time of day, it’s nice that they provide helpful stuff to help you set up your stand. The handy stuff like scissors and blutack and people in red jackets are invaluable for people coming who’ve been solely focusing on what goes on the display, as opposed to how to get it up. Once again I’m glad for getting my display printed on A0 because it cuts the setup time quite wonderfully, instead of having A4 sheets that require gluing together.

It’s all a bit of an anti-climax really because once you’ve set up everything and said hi to your neighbours, there isn’t a whole lot to do. The internet, the world’s number one distraction/time-waster (wait, I’m supposed to be advocating it.. *coughs* Go blogosphere!) comes in handy for killing time. The problem is that on Wednesday, it ain’t open to the public, so nobody’s around to engage in idle banter with – on the subject of your project or otherwise, that all changes from tomorrow though.

There were a few people who came round and looked at it, including one who thought blogs were ‘a complete waste of time’. I tried pointing out how since my brothers don’t live at home, it’s nice being able to read what they’re upto. (This was completely in the hypothetical sense because my real brothers are too fail to actually write blogs…). “Ah well that’s different so” says she, and moves on.

The opening ceremony is next. Yer man from that show on RTE 2, The Café is the new co-presenter of the Young Scientist – I can’t say I watch it much but he’s quite good.

Next, disaster (sorta) struck, because I couldn’t find one of my locks for my Kensington lock – a wee chain which locks the laptop to my stand. I still have one, though, so all isn’t lost.

However, there were more people milling round, which meant I was happy because it was people to talk to. The judge came along, and I felt it went well, apart from the fact I was conscious of speaking too quickly.

Roll on day 2, in any case. If anyone’s around, I’m stand 3114, in the blue Social & Behavioural Sciences section. I’ll also be tweeting stuff like judging times if you wanna follow that.

I’m Tommy Collison on the floor of the RDS in Dublin, back to you in the studio.