Oh Christmas Tree... (Christmas Competition)

Two posts in one day! I'm making up for a few lost days.

I know that it's still quite early, but since I will be going to London next Friday I am, as always, having one week's Christmas in Bristol. I don't go mad, but I do draw my own tree on my whiteboard. This year, I decided to let out my tree's inner 'anorak' and have highly symbolic, uber geeky decorations. To make it a little more exciting, I've decided to set you guys a challenge:

• There are 13 'baubles' and a 'star' on my tree, and each one is a reference to something I love and am considered geeky about.
• You will earn a point for each of the 14 symbols you can recognise, and hopefully everyone knows what points mean - Prizes!
• The first 3 people, if any, to get over 10 points (without help) will receive a prize, hopefully related to their own personal area of geekiness, but possibly just chocolate...

Small Print:

Don't put your answers in a comment as this will help others and render the game somewhat pointless. It's probably best to email me, or send me a message on Facebook where the game will also be posted. Some of the pictures, are really obscure/rubbish, since they were drawn by me - who is a bit of an obscure person at the best of times, and I'm also not known for my artistic skill. As such, if I get lots of complaints, I will lower the prize threshold; I'll keep you posted on that.

... of the Week (#12):

This week - Word of the Week (#11):

boffin

n. Possibly an acronym taken from the Armed Forces, meaning 'Back Office Intelligence'.

The etymology of this word is actually uncertain, but I have presented my personal favourite theory. Having had this word levied at me as an insult for the majority of my school career, this post is aimed at reclaiming it as a positive word. I was always proud to be called a boffin, and I would like to think that this definition may help others too.
If you are unsure of how to use it, think of it as the original English version of the now commonly used Americanism - geek.

This post is a couple of days late due to a horrific coursework load, sorry about that. Apologies also for the somewhat lacklustre words lately, I will soon be returning to London and the majority of my books, so hopefully I'll be able to share some more unusual/fun words over the Christmas period.

Who says Miracles never happen?

Okay, don't ask me how I did it, but somehow I managed to pass my first year retake, and almost respectably too. This means that at the end of September I will actually be going back to start what will be my 3rd year in Bristol, and my 2nd year of the course. I can't say enough how grateful I am to the folks who were, and indeed still are, supporting me, you all rock. Hopefully, with the plans I mean to implement over the Summer, I will be better placed to work and repay the belief that everyone seems to have in me.

I hope this holiday to consolidate the experience/knowledge that I have, apparently purely by osmosis, gained over the last year, and also to do some advance reading on next year's material, including an early look into the two new programming languages that I will be studying. This and the new daily schedule/routine that I am going to be settling in to over the next couple of months should mean that I can once again take on the role of the diligent student.

Further plans, which may, or may not, come to fruition, involve picking up some old hobbies, including some model making; and restarting the writing (poetry and prose) that I have been sadly neglecting lately, I'm out of practice, so apologies for the poor quality of this post. If I manage anything that seems okay, I will contemplate posting on here, maybe it will make up for the depressing rants that have been taking up all the space lately...

So, thanks again to everyone, and I really do hope that I will be able to make you all proud over the coming months/years.