celebrate my 20th + 40 day on the planet

I haven't been stuffed to do anything recently, including blog. I can hardly even remember what I did on Tuesday, but it mustn't have been that exciting. All I really remember is going to lunch and eating. Yeah actually thats probably all I did.

Wednesday I had work. I actually woke up REALLY dizzy and stuff. Dizzy enough to fall back into bed, which actually doesn't really say much since I'd probably fall back into bed without being the slightest bit busy at all. In fact I'm in bed now.

I was kind of pissed off on the way back. Pissed off at relatives, and at Asian people in general. Pissed off at their prejudiced way of thinking, and of their arrogant nature. Perhaps I was being just like that by thinking that way, but I'm sure I'm not alone.

Dinner on the other hand, was enjoyable if not tasty. We had Mexican, just to be different. Very cheesy. Went back to PP afterwards and sat around as usual. Oh this was meant to be for my 20th birthday, which was err... 2 months ago.

bloggin from the bathtubtubtubtub

I love this wireless technology. It makes blogging so much different now. I can blog from anywhere in the house, and even from other peoples' houses.

Anyway, I've kind of noticed that I seem to miss out on the weekends a lot when I'm blogging. I'm sorry. Well, actually not really, its just that I don't really have th urge to blog when I'm just about to go somewhere, or just got back from somewhere. Or maybe I'm just lazy. I think its probably the latter.

So whats been happening? Quite a lot. Well, not that much actualyl, just more than usual I guess.

Another one of my second cousins (whom I've never met before) came from Hong Kong for a short holiday and to catch up with her family who are already here. A whole bunch of us went to Healsville Sanctuary. I think we even won the 'Who can bring the most people to this destination' award. There were about 3 cars full of us.

Its been a long time since I've been there. So long that I can't even remember going. It was enjoyable. Well, as enjoyable as any trip to the zoo can be. I quite enjoyed the birds of prey show they had on. Its amazing the kind of birds we have in Australia yet hardly ever see. I guess thats what civilisation does to the animals, makes them go further away from the rest of us.

I went to see Danny Bhoy on Friday night. He's a Scottish comedian . Rather conventional, but he was good. The only gripe I'd have about that show was that it was a little bit shorter than I would have liked, especially considering the price we paid for it.

When we got back, it was kind of still early, so I leeched quite a bit of stuff from Soh. One of the things I got was a sci-fi tv show. I've been watching quite a bit of that over the weekend. Actually, I've just finished the first season this afternoon. So maybe quite a bit doesn't really cut it. Anyway, its a good show, full of twists and turns like a sci-fi series should be. Also, theres a hot chick and a cute one there too, so that kind of keeps me hooked.

Saturday night was Chris and Eddie's birthday bash. Some of us went with the intention of getting pretty smashed. I think quite a few of us more than achieved our goals. There were some extended trips to the toilet, some nice walks outside, some new things to gossip about...

So overall, I thought it was really good... I learned from my last Xtreme adventure with alchohol, and managed to stop myself from going too far.

Adrian on the other hand, had a somewhat unpleasant experience, vastly contrasting what appeared to be a very successful night beforehand.

Sunday:More tv, poker night on westside.

I lost $10. Won some close ealry hands, and then didn't get a single good hand after that. *sigh*

But the company was good, and thats all that really matters.

Advanced db in 10 minutes

OOOooooooOoOo.

Time to learn some quality Oracle, the leading vendor in database software. So much so that I think we get to have a copy of it for free. Well its so hard to use that you wouldn't have a clue unless you did their course, so I guess they'll know if you'll be using it or not.

That didn't make much sense.

I'm just kind of typing randomly trying to kill some time before the lecture starts.

Yeah. Thats about it.

Wholesale bloodshed

Everyone is being mean, blogwise that is. Sam is being his weird angry self recently, Terence is being his normal intolerent self, Garry is making his presence known, and Soh is making some new friends. So Soh isn't actually being that mean, but its starting to turn ugly in a general sense.

On the other side of the fence, the VMs are being their normal selves. That is to say, I wouldn't really expect them to be any different.

So thats how things are in our little group of bloggers. One group of them have met the other, and the stage is set for a gladiatorial death match of err.. rather small proportions. But in my view of the world, its rather significant.

Maybe thats why mixing groups doesn't really work very well. Sure, individuals can join groups without too much problem, but when you have a whole bunch of them meet each other, theres almost guarenteed to be some sort of conflict/backlash.

I think I'll just give up on attemping to get groups to even KNOW each other groups, not that most people are very interested in it anyway. Peope have things to do, other people to see. I know, but I don't understand. Although I guess this time it wasn't even me who conciously went out and did this, it just kind of happened by association.

Just sit in your corner and think about it. Little brother does not approve.

Cravings

I finished uni early today. When I got home, I saw Em online. I think I did something very spontaneous and we went out for coffee / grocery shopping. We must have both been pretty bored. Em is actually one of those people who are really easy to talk to. They can talk about almost anything. That is, anything that is common. Obviously they wouldn't be able to speak to someone about the intricacies of the latin language (although I guess a few of them could), but they can talk about anything.

The thing is, Em is actually doing a course quite similar to mine. Although in a completely different university, she's also doing a Computer Science course with some psychology tacked onto the side of it. But the thing is, we hardly ever talk about the things we study. In the rare times that we catch up (every 3 months or so), study is just another thing that we do, not our topic of conversation. I think its kind of cool.

Anyway, she mentioned she had a craving for cheese. Now I don't know about anyone else, but I've never really heard of a craving for cheese before. I thought it was really strange. Maybe its because I'm not really fond of cheese, but then she said she wasn't either. It didn't really make any sense to me at all. So the question is, does anyone else just have random cravings? Am I abnormal by not having random cravings?

First blog from a lab

After all this time, I've finally written my first blog from a lab at uni. At least I think its my first. Its my first for this semester at least, and that'll do.

Now just to find something to blog about...

Doing some project management work today. I'm kind of sitting next to my team leader, he's working out our roles and stuff and just kind of asking me a few things. Jeannie and Andrew are in this lab as well, sitting in front of me just chattin about things... and people, and gossiping. Its kind of interesting eavesdropping, something about Pharmacy people hooking up...

Something I don't really understand.

Yesterday was also a good day, because we handed in our group assignment for software eng. Theres actually a lot more to it, but thats the first one. Another one not due for a while.

Ho humz. Psychology... boring lecture soon. Not looking forward to it at all. :(

Missed out a whole weekend

Indeed I did. Better write down what I did before I forget.

Friday night: RVS
Saturday: Yum cha and Nancy's Birthday
Sunday: Not much, but did some homework and went out to dinner with some family friends whom I did not know at all.

Sorry for the short posts, again.

Soz

Sorry I haven't written anything substantial for a while. I've just been really tired lately. I probably should have been playing Ravenshield until 1:30 last night, but I just couldn't help myself.

I haven't really been doing much either, just kind of sitting around a lot. Supposedly I'm going to Soh's place tonight to play pool. The other possibility is that I'm working at the restaurant. Um. I just want to sleep actually.

Announcement to make

Today, I lost my jacket, and then found it again.

That is all.

Eek

So tired yesterday. It feels like I'm more tired after 2 hours of uni than I am after a whole day at work. I wonder why that is. So, thats about all I did yesterday. Quite sad really.

Today I'm at work bright and a little bit late, but nobody seems to mind. Other than that, I've got Project Management later in the afternoon, thats gonna suck. Not looking forward to it at all.

Damn I'm hungry and egocentric.

Shaz

Shaz gets a mention in my blog. She was doing something interesting, I forgot now what it was...

OT!

Currently at work, 3 minutes into my tea break, and I've decided to blog.

What am I doing at work on Labour day I hear you ask? Well... I'm not really too sure. Public holiday rates (which I hope is either 1.5x or 2x rate) are hard to turn down. I've also got uni later in the afternoon, so had to come out anyway.

So I'm taking Tuesdays off work now. It'll be good to have a bit of a break now, so I can get back early on Tuesdays and err.. do some study.

Yesterday was Templestowe festival. According to the banners, its full of fun, food and umm... actually I can't remember the last one, but I'm sure it started with F. Not necesarily a good thing. Anyway, I was working, kind of. Didn't feel that good though, because I'd only had about 3 hours of sleep the night before, I was reading Dan Brown's Deception Point until around 3 in the morning, and I was supposed to get up at 7 to help dad set up for the day. Needless to say, I was feeling kind of bad the whole day. It wasn't THAT busy, so I didn't slip and hurt myself, and went to have a nap when I got home.

For those of you who don't know (and I suspect thats pretty much everyone who reads this blog), I've been playing quite a bit of Ravenshield lately. Its basically Rainbow 6, the 2nd sequel. I play with a bunch of friends from uni. I think we're starting to get it together now. We can finish missions just by ourselves and we're starting to get to the stage where we try different things, like attempting to clear levels with only pistols and machine guns. Still fun.

So yeah... I was up till about 4am playing that, and got up at 7:30 to come to work. Not a bad effort huh? I guess that nap earlier in the night came in handy.

Oh btw, anyone know any 4-6 year olds I can interview for a psychological study? I'm struggling.

Typing with my eyes closed.

I'm feeling quite tired at the moment, so I think I'll tr and type this post with my eyes closed most of the time. Yeah I'm just trying to show off. :) So what happened recently? Not really all that much.

Fi just came in to ask a question about shares. I think its rather silly that they're teaching stuff thats general knowledge. I mean, even I can answer her questions. Maybe I should have done commerce instead. *sigh*

Anyway, I've given up on trying to type without my eyes open, as people are trying to message me at the same time, and its not nice to keep people waiting too long.

The westies and the soccer bunch went out to dinner last night. I'm not really sure what I was doing there, as I'm neither a westie or a soccer player, but I had work in the city. I guess that'll do. I was actually on my way home from work when Sam called to remind me that it was on. He wasn't actually going to that either, but he was looking for someone to kill time with until he had his other Korean law students dinner. So I got off the bus and bummed.

Dinner was okay, but expensive. Not going back there again any time soon. Went to pancake palour after to bum and play cards.

That was my Friday night. So far this Saturday, I've done absolutely nothing, but its good to have a break, since I won't be having another break till next Saturday at the earliest.

continuation

He mentioned that having an industry perspective when he was at uni helped him a lot to get motivated. I think he also found that subject one of the most enjoyable he took. Its the same the other way round. If you're in industry, training is usually from that perspective. However, when you have a different thing, like have training from an academic perspective, then its like having the vice versa. I guess its kind of the same as something I learned in psychology the other day. I wasn't really listening that well, but the basic gist of it was that you pay more attention to things that are different to what you're used to.

Fi was nice enough to leave the car behind so that I could drive home. I was planning just to take the bus home, and maybe even visit Mel on the way, because I had to wait quite a while for the bus. Mel actually messaged me to ask whether I'd finished class yet, apparently they weren't all that busy and closed up early. So instead, we went to have some Viet noodles! Mel saw some friends there, and we all ate. Actually, by the time we got there, they'd already eaten, so its more like, I ate and Mel talked to her friend's Japanese friend. Its kind of funny, now I'm all excited about Japanese people because this guy was funny. His name was Kenji, and he had come to Australia in his 3 week spring break just for a holiday. He met Mel's friend Emma on the bus apparently, and ended up hanging out a lot.

After that, we all went looking around for chocolate. No such luck unfortunately. So we all trooped down to southbank for some drinks, chocolate cake and ice cream. Twas good.

Got stuck in traffic on the way home... strange that theres traffic at 11:30 on a Thursday night, but oh well, what can one do?

FULL days

It was a long day yesterday. I only started uni at 10, which is probably my latest start of the working week. It doesn't even feel that bad though, I think I'm starting to get used to sleeping less and waking up really early. We'll see how it goes when I wake up before the sun does. Maybe its just a sign that I'm getting old :(

So anyway, yesterday:

Had my first software processes tute. It was SOOO boring, the tutor doesn't really seem to have a clue what he's talking about, nor does he even seem interested in the topic. I don't know how he even got the job. After that, the usual lectures, labs (advanced database concepts), and more lectures.

Psychology does seem a lot less interesting these days. It seems like they're just regurgetating what other people have done. Normally academics do that on occassion, but psychologists seem to take it to the extreme. Most lecturers will credit a theory to someone the first time they mention it, and then very seldom after that. Psychologists on the other hand name their theories after each other. For example, Piaget's (1960something) theory on child development is contrasted by Kzovsky (1985) in his work on some other stuff. Its bad because you have to remember both the theory name, ideas and the person who made them up. Bored...

So it seems like its just a subject where all you do is remember stuff. Lots and lots of stuff. This subject (developmental psychology) even makes you remember it in depth because its not ALL multiple choice questions. Since when did they not have multiple choice questions for psychology? They've always had only multiple choice exams! *sigh* I may even have to read the book this year.

Advanced database on the other hand, is very good. I think its probably my first IS subject where I'm feeling I'm actually learning something. Its something practical, and comes from a different perspective. I was with Wayn after the lecture, and he decided to give some feedback to the lecturers while they were walking out. The lecturer (who works for Telstra) is actually kind of a guest lecturer. He takes the oracle component of the course. Its refreshing to have an industry perspective on some aspects of the course.

Will finish blog in next tea break.

No time to do anything

I feel like I have no time to do anything anymore. Its either consumed by work, uni, or both. The thing is, I probably worked more when I was doing full time than uni and work combined now. It feels like more though. Maybe uni takes a lot out of you. Its either that or public transport. I know public transport takes a lot out of you. Stupid trams, stupid buses, and stupid late public transport. Today I found out that the goal for 'on time' trams is 80%. Last month, the tram company failed that. How depressing. 80% of the trams that ran last month arrived within 5 minutes of their scheduled time. That means 1 in 5 trams were either late, or didn't even turn up.

Anyway. Met my project management group today. They seem okay I guess. Theres a lot of 3rd years in the group, it makes me feel old. They wanted me to be team leader. I regretfully declined, citing my previous employment engagements. Luckily somebody else indifferently volunteered. I think I'm going to try and get Tuesdays off work.

Perhaps I'm doing too much work.

I feel kind of tired recently. Lots of long days and stuff. Yesterday I did a 9am-6:45pm, got back to eat around 8:15pm and then sat around with Soh's family till about 10pm.

Yeah that was fairly long, Saturday was fairly long too. Everyone can see the result of long days: short blog posts.

I'm going to have a long day today as well. I had a lecture at 9am, came to work, then have another lecture at 5:15pm. So I knock off at 4:30, head up to uni, attend the lecture, miss my bus back home, and have to wait for another 45 mins for the next one, which I have to change on.

How do I know I'm going to miss my bus? Because of the stupid trams, so slow. Perhaps I should just leave my lecture early... that sounds good actually.

Another weekend wrapup

Work on Saturday, was good.

Michael and Angelo's birthday on Saturday night. Was good.

Went to Adrian's after that. Was ok.

Slept in Sunday morning (and a bit of the afternoon), was great.

Ate, fixed up Tez's computer, ate again, fixy a bit more, came home. Was ok.

Uni!

Again, I don't seem to have anything to say. There hasn't really been much going on. Syria pulling troops out of Lebanon, some woman who got eaten by a hippo...

Guess what? I'm working tomorrow. Thats a Saturday. I think I'll put in a whole days work with double pay. Yum....

I'm sorry. I feel obligated to write something substantial because I haven't updated in such a long time, but I've really got nothing to say. I think maybe I'll just talk about uni, since thats the only thing thats really changed in my life recently...

Lets see, Advanced database concepts looks to be a subject where I'll actually learn something this semester. This is as opposed to a subject like project management, where all we do is just sit around and listen to the same old crap told to us over and over again. Not the most enjoyable thing to do late on a monday or Thursday afternoon. In fact, I think I'd rather be sleeping, a lot. Maybe thats what I'll do next time, just sleep through the lecture.

Theres also a group project thing for software eng. Its a fairly big group, like 7 in total, although apparently in project management we have more than that... like 10 or 11. Not looking forward to them very much. *sigh*

Fire Drill

Currently in the middle of a fire drill. Just goes to show how seriously we take our workplace health and safety. Theres a siren, but thats about it really...

Uni woes...

I finally started uni today, (I actually went to work yesterday) and turned up to a couple of lectures. Whats good is that uni doesn't seem to have changed, so I can still find my way around. What wasn't good was my timetable. It turned into dog poo pretty much overnight. A prac got cancelled and stuck on at 9am on a Wednesday morning. Its not that I really dislike early morning starts, its more because it gives me lots of time to sit around doing pretty much nothing.

I'll just fill those of you who don't know what it used to be like.

Monday 4-5pm
Tuesday 9-10am, then 5-6pm
Wednesday 9-11am, then 4-5pm
Thursday 9-3pm with a lunchbreak
Friday 1-2pm

Now if thats not bad, I don't know what is. I think if I kept that timetable, I wouldn't have a job anymore. I might even have to go back to working at the restaurant. NOooOoooO. So instead, I decided to change subjects from Application Environments to Advanced Database Concepts. I'll have to do Application Environments next year anyway, so no big loss.

At the moment, my new timetable looks pretty ok. I've got Wednesday and Fridays off, which is great. First official days off uni that I've ever had, so its a bit of a novelty for me. Instead, I think I'll be working.

Other than that, today was a bit of a catch up and errand day. I got my concession card for public transport, went to a couple of lectures, tried to work out my subject change and pretty much bummed around the rest of the time.

EDIT: Muahhaha.