Psych 221

I'm going to try something which may be better than writing no notes at all in a lecture. I think I'll just blog while in it.

We've just got this new lecturer in developmental psychology. She'll be focusing on mainly emotional and social developmental outcomes from a holistic perspective. We don't have powerpoint slides for this lecture at the moment, she's a little slow.

Today we'll be focusing on the family as a social context and maybe even the broad environment in which a child grows up in. We'll also be looking at how the interaction of family and environmental factors may intersect and the outcomes from that.

Just a little note by Kerry who sits next to Ez as he writes this: She is VERY slow at changing slides :(

Okay so ecological theories of development!

Basic principles:

How to understand the interaction between nature and nurture - Silly to think thats its just one of the two, we need to understand how they interact together. I.e. How genetics can interact with the environment.

Active child - How does the 'activeness' of a child affect their development? A child who is very shy will illicit a different repsonse from their environment than one who is very outgoing.

Kerry again: she repeats herself ALOT!

Continuity of development - Emphasised that the development of a child does not occur in stages, but is rather a continual and gradual development of things.

Bronfrenbrenner's ecological and biological model

Not all the effects on the development on the child are direct. They realise that the child is a active contributor to their own development.

This is opposed to the traditional view that you can shape a child from birth. That is, like plato or some other ancient person said, a child's mind is a clean slate on which you can write whatever you want. Or something similar to that.

A social address model
Where they are, and how that has an effect.

A study done on adopted children:

If neither the biological father or the adopted father had a criminal record, 12% of men had a criminal record.

If either the biological father or the adopted father had a criminal record, 20% of men had a criminal record.

If both the biological father or the adopted father had a criminal record, 36% of men had a criminal record.

Wow... I think that says a lot...

Process-context model
How they learn.

Person-process context model
What kind of differences the kind of child makes on the development of the child.

MISO SYSTEM

Microsystems
E.g. School, home, childcare, family, etc.

The interaction between microsystems and how they influence each other. Apparently child care is bad for kids? (Kerry: she did not say that! Just that childcares have an impact on their development!) I heard it as a bad impact :) (Kerry: an interpretation issue here Ez!)

Kerry: it's been 15 minutes and the slide HAS NOT CHANGED!!! OMG!!!

So lucky I'm actually writing things down, or else I'd be screwed.

Exosystems
Basically things outside the microsystems which may affect the child. So the things that affect the child that are not directly doing anything? Less than proximal or something like that. *shrugs*

Work - maternity leave, parental leave, ability to work with some flexibility. Are you allowed to call your kid at work?! Basically how well the family can fulfill their role as parents or whatever.

Kerry: OMG too many questions asked about the environment!!! OVERLOAD. Cute guy sitting to Ez's right two rows in front. Chinese guy with glasses sitting next to this girl wearing purple! YAYA!

Cultural and Political factors - Examples: one child policy, childcare, capitalists, communists etc.

Kerry: OMG I get it! EVERYTHING BLOODY THING AFFECTS THE CHILD'S DEVELOPMENT!!!

Chronosystem
Time affects everything, and everything affects the child's development, therefore, umm.. time is important and (Kerry) child is very easily infuenced!

OK that's it. Blah blah blah blah. Everything affects a child. DUH.

I can imagine a multiple choice question in the exam:

Which of the following affects a child's development?
a. Nothing
b. Something
c. Everything
d. None of the above
e. All of the above

I would be confused.

Music to my - "Oh hey!"

Funny thing happened to me on the way to work today...

Actually no, nothing funny really happens on the way to anywhere, its just something comedians say. Plus, this thing didn't even happen to me, I just saw it happen. Its not even funny.

So anyway, I'm taking the tram down into work, and I get off to catch another tram. Thats mainly because I can't be bothered walking so far. In fact, theres another topic for a blog post. But more on that later. While walking to the other tram, two people meet.

Theres a lot of people on public transport these days with things in their ears. Thats not to say that they have bugs, lots of earwax or even ear hair. I'm talking about earphones. They pass the time on public transport by listening to their favourite tunes. What happens though, when these people actually find someone to talk to? They have to pull out those earphones, and then talk. Whats worse is when they don't notice, they keep those earphones in, and just keep doing what they were doing.

Not very inspiring at all.

Its funny when two people with earphones in them see each other. The first one to notice smiles, pulls out the earphones, and tries to grab the others' attention. They can't talk you see, because the other person clearly can't hear much. When the other finally notices, they let out a suprised 'Oh Hi!' and then proceed to remove their own music excretion devices. So much effort just to say hello. I grin and chuckle at the ridiculousness of it all.

Mobile phone personalisation

I've always been against the whole personalisation of mobile phones thing. To me, it seems such a waste of time and money, not to mention effort, just to get something for your phone. Mobile phone personalisation can come in a range of different ways. There are things such as different mobile phone covers, things to hang off the little hole in the edge of your phone, ring tones, display pictures... I could go on for a while.

For things such as ringtones, I can see the point. When your phone rings, you'd rather that you can tell that its yours instead of around 10 people fumbling around for their phones until somebody realises that its theirs. Thats usually the person who last finds theirs. At least personalising your ringtone is practical.

Everything else just seems like a waste of time. Things to hang off your phone make it bulkier and more prone to sticking into your skin somwhere where it can hurt. Display pictures hardly ever get seen, phone covers... well.. maybe if you're worried about your phone overheating from having too dark a cover. Or maybe if you can't see your phone cos its too damn reflective.

I'm actually being kind of hypocritical. My phone is like one of the hardest phones to personalise. Theres no hole for things to hang off, you can't change the cover, its hard to change the ringtone from anything other than the presets, and the display picture is that of a couple of cows. However, I've temporarily managed to personalise it. Apart from all the scratches on it, it now has a rather striking blood stain. Don't ask me how it got on there, but I'm pretty sure its my blood. But hey, at least its original.

Romance novels

I went into Big W the other day while waiting for the bus. The past couple of times I went, I was on the hunt for a nice book to read while taking public transport for the next couple of weeks. This time, however, it seemed that all they had was romance novels. The last time I went, there was a bit of this, a bit of that. But no, recently they've decided to convert the whole wall (except for the new releases part) into a whole book section dedicated to romance novels.

To tell you the truth, I've never read a romance novel before. Neither is reading a romance novel on my 'to do' list. I figure that since chick flicks aren't really my thing, neither would romance novels. Also, I doubt that the romantic side of the books would ever get through the insensitive exterior of my personality and into what is traditionally known as the heart: the emotional nerve center of the body.

Not only that, it'd kind of look a bit funny to people on the bus. You've really got to love those corny romance novel covers.

This isn't really a gripe, I've just got to look elsewhere for something which suits my literary interests.

Laziness and the lack of...

Blogger seems to be down at the moment. Thats kind of a bad thing, so this is coming copied and pasted straight from a text document to the web interface. I might even change the time that its written, assuming that I can even remember.

I think I'm really lazy. Last night, I think I figured out the other main reason for me not having a girlfriend. (The other reason is because nobody wants me. Its OK, I've come to grips with that.) Its because I really can't be stuffed putting in the effort to get one. There have been girls I've liked, no doubt about that, but every time I make an effort, I seem to just kind of lose interest after starting. I suppose if you asked me whether I wanted a girlfriend, I'd probably say yes though.

I'm pretty sure if its because I find that the person isn't really all that I thought them to be. After all, its not like I'm fussy. Its just way too much effort. Too much time involved, too much thinking involved, oh yeah not to mention all the money involved either. Unless the girl is rich, then thats not a problem :)

Theres also something about how high maintainence some people are. Some people are high maintainence. That means you have to do a lot to please and keep them as your friend, or significant other. I really can't stand that. Even if I thought that person was really nice and all, theres no way I would eve consider them as a 'potential'. It just doesn't work for me.

Damn I'm really lazy. Or maybe I just don't really need someone. Single life kind of agrees with me at the moment, and I don't have too many complaints. Its fun just hanging out with friends and things. But yeah, I guess I agree with Soh when he gets annoyed with people who just talk to their SO instead of making an effort. Or maybe I'm just green with envy.

Little big adventure

I wasn't really expecting any calls tonight. It was too early for my mum to be calling to ask if I was hungry, and it was too late for somebody who just wanted to make use of yes time. However, I did manage to get one tonight. It was from Soh.

You can expect a post from the man himself tonight, probably covering something intricately related to the events which will soon be uncovered here.

He ran out of petrol, on the road. I guess I can't really blame him though, having a bad day from running late and driving into all sorts of trouble. I guess his mind was on different things at the time.

I had a jerry can, but no funnel. Instead, I sacrified the plastic cover of my computer fundamentals B notes to the cause. Eric came over to pick me up (I think he may have been not looking forward to studying tonight and wanted to procrastinate), and we went in search of the elusive Soh.

We found him having a nap. A nice way to pass the time if one is waiting for others to arrive. Found that he'd had a little prang on the way as well. Wasn't much of a drama getting some petrol into the tank. At least I know my notes cover went to a good cause and not in vain. Ah... to be a notes cover...

Yeah. That was my excitement for the night.

Popularity

I'm really hungry at the moment. Just got back from a long day at uni.

Starting a post with a question is usually kind of thought provoking. But I don't really want to provoke thoughts. 'Provoke' somehow seems to have negative connotations for me. I'm not really sure why. Somehow I always seem to relate it to provoking a fight or something of the sort. So instead, I think I'll just post about something else.

Its a little bit unclear as to when somebody becomes popular. Theres no actual line that distinguishes someone from the average person to someone who is popular. Dicctionary.com defines it thus:

pop·u·lar
adj.
1. Widely liked or appreciated: a popular resort.
2. Liked by acquaintances; sought after for company: “Beware of over-great pleasure in being popular or even beloved” (Margaret Fuller).
3. Of, representing, or carried on by the people at large: the popular vote.
4. Fit for, adapted to, or reflecting the taste of the people at large: popular entertainment; popular science.
5. Accepted by or prevalent among the people in general: a popular misunderstanding of the issue.
6. Suited to or within the means of ordinary people: popular prices.
7. Originating among the people: popular legend.

I think the defintion I'd be on about tonight would probably be numbers one and two.

Today I had the rare experience of actually being called popular. It was kind of amusing actually. I walked into a lecture late (as usual), heard my name, and turned to see Kerry sitting there pointing at the seat next to her. So I start walking up the stairs, but then realised that there were way too many people in the way. It was a psychology lecture, so not one where you can easily move into the middle of a bunch of seats without telling everyone else to shove out of the way. So I kind of give up, motion to Kerry that I'm just gonna go sit somewhere else, and move along.

Then I see Karen on the other side, same situation.

Then I see Loretta, sitting on the edge. Easiest person to sit next to since the lecture is packed and all I get is to sit on the walkway. Karen gives me a funny look. Before she knew me in uni, she used to think I was a pimp of sorts. Apparently whenever she saw me, I was with some girl chatting away. She actually only told me about this last year, and its been kind of an on going joke since. Obviously this was one of those days where it would get full treatment. For those of you who read the Viking Mistresses blog, you'll notice that the link to this blog has me listed as Mr. Pimp. Well thats where it comes from.

Its quite funny really, because I don't think of myself as relatively popular. Its just that I go to places where people I know are. And the reason I know those people is because I go to those places. A cycle of knowingness.

So if you're liked "widely", it makes you popular. If you have friends who come from different places, and do different things, then you're popular. Its strange, because that means that if most or all of the people you know are from the same place, then you can't technically be popular. Although I guess, to the people that you know, you aren't popular because they know everyone you know.

That brings me on to something else. A lot of people judge others popularity on the amount and type of people whom the judgee knows compared to those that judger knows. While popularity is probably a relative term, just because someone you know knows lots of people that you don't know, it doesn't necesarily mean that they're popular.

Another thing is: Who really wants to be popular? If you ask me, I'd rather have fewer friends who are better friends than a whole crowd of people I only know by name and which course they do at university. Its kind of shallow if you ask me.

Closing comment: Popularity is a funny thing, don't mess with it.

P.S. Sorry for the post going up so much later than the specified time, I had to go on a little adventure.

Bloggin from the lecture theatre

You can pretty much blog from anywhere now. This one is actually coming from the middle of a lecture theatre. How very facinating. No, I'm just bored.

Somehow, we seem to be covering stuff we should have done in a previous subject. I don't know why, but hey, I guess it means I don't really have to listen to the lecture as much. It seems like a waste of time. Maybe I'll just bring some headphones, the laptop, and some stuff to watch next time.

work.. and stuff

Back from the weekend all fresh and stuff.

Again, nothing significant to blog about. Life pretty much sucks right about now.

Feelin' the same way all over again

Really not much to say...
Not much to say at all.

I'm kind of dazed these days. I started taking some antibiotics for some skin rashes and stuff. I think it must be that because apparently they're really strong drugs. Maybe thats why I've got nothing to say.

Feeling bad and such

Feeling crappy isn't the best. But thats how it was last night. Dizzy and with a huge headache. I don't really know what started it, but apparerntly some other family members felt this way too. Maybe its contagious! muahhaha. Nah its not really that bad I hope.

Anyway, going out for a drink while you're not feeling too good isn't that great an idea, but I did it anyway. Only one beer.. and an hour later I was feeling pretty bad. Bad enough that I only ate half of my serve of Hokkien noodles. Its kind of hard to be socialable when you're like that as well, but I tried my best.

I'm feeling a lot better now though. Bit hot, but much better.

work blog

Its been a while since I've blogged from work. Here we go. Its kind of funny how when I've actually got a time limit to blog, I seem to blog more and more.

Lets start:

Thanks to everyone who came to my impromptu birthday party, and sorry for those of you who decided not to or whom I didn't invite. I hope you don't feel TOO offended, didn't exactly want to fork out my entire life savings for a dinner.

Presents are always nice. I got a crumpler bag, a jumper and some booze. Actually I kind of needed all three, so thanks for putting an effort into that.

I was going to write something about friends, and what friends mean, and what happens when people become friends, and other related mumbo jumbo. But I've only got 4 munutes left, and that really isn't enough time. Perhaps I shall do so tonight. I'm actually meant to go to drinks with some work buddies after work, and then maybe to dinner with the group of soccer people. So yeah.. going out to do stuff.. and spend money I don't neccesarily have.

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.

Same people part 2?

I think I will actually say a bit more about people, and different ones. I was actually kind of thinking about it on the bus this morning.

Some of us call people that we meet in ways other than through friends, randoms. While its probably true that meeting these people is fairly random, its used in a derogatory form, as if these people aren't really worth the time we spend with them. I never thought that people could really be random at all. Theres obviously going to be some sort of connection between two, otherwise they would never meet at all. So it just doesn't make sense to me... Its almost as if people outside our current circle of friends has rabies, or worse. I'm sure thats quite possible, but shouldn't we at least find out?

I think this kind of attitude exacerbates the problem that we have between social classes and circles being so enclosed. Not only does it make that worse, it can also stop people becoming closer in the same social circles. Anyway, thats my tea break, off to take a piss.

weekend wrapup

If I didn't mention it before, my teamleader at work resigned. It was her last day on Friday, so we had an afternoon tea. After work, everyone went down to the local pub for a goodbye drink. She's kind of funny when she gets drunk. We all had a good time I think, and yeah, it was good.

I was really tired, so I only had a couple of drinks then headed off home. Too bad the bus actually left early, the bastard, and left me behind. So I went to the train station and asked my mum if she could pick me up. While waiting, I decided to get some chips, and call Sam. It was more of a call because I was bored waiting for the train and because, I remembered that years ago, Sam used to call me when he was bored and half drunk at the train station while waiting for a train to come, and I thought I'd return the favour. However, he happened to be playing soccer, so I asked him for a ride home. HAHAH. Poor Sam, sorry.

Slept in Saturday morning, went to yum cha with grandma and auntie. Sat around at home for a while after that doing almost nothing.

Saturday night I actually had something on. Dinner with people. Wow... people. It was at an overpriced Japanese place. The food was slow, not that great, and pretty expensive. But the place was nice, I'll give them that. After dinner, we grabbed some ice cream from Chapel St and went back to Karen's. After playing some PS2, some pool, and picctionary, it was late, and Mel went home. The rest of us stayed for some quality lawn bowels on the pool table. One of the most entertaining games of the night. In fact, it was so entertaining, we were up till 4am playing it.

Sunday was pretty boring. Sat around most of the time. Nice to relax though I guess.

Does it ever seem like you're always meeting the same people, over and over again?

Sometimes, when I meet people for the first time, they seem to remind me of someone else. Some characteristics seem to crop up in disproportionatly in people who are not even distinctly related. One could argue that these characteristics may not be separate characteristics at all, but rather characteristics derived from a more fundamental feature. However, I would like to suggest a different, and probably very obvious reason.

When I think about the people I've met, and the spread of the population from which these people have come from, it seems that they are predominately from a small, distinguishable part of society. The majority live in good homes with relatively stable families, and have been brought up to believe that which is good. Yet statistics show that a large number of people actually come from households which do not have such high standards of living, nor the love and support a family can provide.

But how come I haven't met these different kinds of people? Are they hiding in the corner? I would suggest that in our lives, we tend to stick to those we know, and those we know tend to be the ones who are similar to us. Different people make us uncomfortable, no matter how tolerant we are. Sure, you can get used to them, and in time, they become as familiar as the back of your hand, but why would we waste our time in learning that which we do not have to? Instead, we allow our minds to be enclosed.

Just think about the people you see at school, work, university, whatever. Its probably more evident in education institutions than anything though. In primary schools and secondary schools, people come from the same area, and thus similar socioeconomic backgrounds. They meet people in similar situations, grow up in similar environments, and genereally just do it all together. At university, people are similar in their academic levels of achievement. While secondary school scores are not necesarily indicative of intelligence, we could probably safely assume that the majority of people who go to a particular university would be more or less of a similar level of intelligence.

In addition to this, people who don't do as well at school, and recieve a relatively lower score will also end up together. Whether that be meeting at centerlink to collect their fortnightly dole payments, or at the same psychiatric hospital due to insanity pleas to get off a serious criminal act, they're all together.

Sorry, I'm just practicing. We've gotta start writing crap for uni. It starts tomorrow you know... Look at all those relatively big words... I think I'm doing well. I probably could have developed this thought much better than I have, but at the moment, I really can't be stuffed.

Not much to say

Yeah... not much to say recently. Haven't really done anything other than work. Only two things come to mind. Timetables and a movie. Oh yeah, and lack of sleep.

I've kind of worked out my uni timetable. I don't think I'm going to go to Monday lectures. Instead, I'm gonna come to work instead. I'm also working Wednesday mornings and Friday mornings. Its good because its quite flexible. I think I'll just count the number of hours I'm working. Hold on...

Ok.. 16.5 hours next week of work.

Should be a relaxing week finally. No tutes/labs (I hope) and just some lectures. Fun fun.

I saw Constantine last night. It was quite Matrixy. Lots of paranormal stuff. It was about God, and the Devil, and stuff like that. Quite enjoyable I thought...

Yes.. and lack of sleep. I'm clearly not getting enough. Slept on the bus on the way to work today. Hehe. Tea break almost over... Laterz

untitled

Aww.. the time I manage to get lots of comments on my blog is when they're not even about me :( Jeez I'm self centered.

Anyhoo,

Lots of newbies starting work today. Its kind of funny because now they're asking me stuff. Hhaha.. I still think I'm the youngest person on the team by far. Getting started in the corporate world very early.

Remind me to actually get up when the alarm goes off next time, its not good to sleep in too much. 'Nuf said

Wow its been a while

It has been a while since I've blogged. All the way since Thursday, and it has turned out that I have actually been able to keep myself relatively busy, which is definately a good thing.

Thursday and Friday nights, I think I was playing lots of Raven Shield with the IS bunch. Its very enjoyable multiplayer, and its a fun bunch of people to play with. Yes... its good. For those of you who don't really know what it is, you can try check out Ubisoft's website for some stuff about it.

On Friday, I was actually asked to work on Saturday. I figured that since I've got nothing better to do on Saturday anyway, I might as well just work. So off I went on Saturday morning to work. It was weird with just three of us in the whole office. Everyone else was smart enought to take the weekend off. At least it wasn't JUST me though. I couldn't find anyone to hang out with after work, so I just went home. I probably would have preferred to just sit around in the city for the night, but alas, nobody else could be bothered. Instead, I just went home to bum around and watch some tv shows.

To tell you the truth, I wasn't really looking forward to the 21st that night. I thought it'd be another one of those boring ones where we just sit around with the usual bunch of people and eat all the food and drink all the drink we can. Granted, thats not necesarily a bad thing, it just kind of gets repetitive after a while. However, it didn't really end up that way. If you refer to Soh's two blog posts, you can actually see that we had a very entertaining end to the night, since we got to witness the whole thing. Twas a very entertaining ride home.

Sunday was a whole other matter. Adrian actually came back from Japan on Saturday, and spent the day with family, so Sunday was like his friend's day. Hoho. We went to the swap meet and didn't buy anything, had lunch at KFC, sat around cleaning up, went to Doncaster for Sam's lunch, went to dinner at La porchetta, and then went to Eric's house for a movie and dessert. By the way, thats not in any particular order, so don't comment and say we didn't do that in that order.

Its kind of funny how I write these in my tea breaks, you'd think I'd actually use them to stand up and move around a bit instead of sit here at the computer longer. But I'm used to it, its okay.

Oh hey, the post from yesterday did come up. Must've been lost in transit.

Dying posts.

You know, I acutally wrote something yesterday at work. But the network connection kind of died, and I lost my post. Don't really like it when that happens. I couldn't really be bothered taking my 2nd tea break out to write it again, and by the time I got back home I'd forgotten what I wrote. In fact, I still don't remember what I said, so it mustn't have been that important.

Right now I'm rather hungry. I think I'm starting to get my appetite back. Having longer days, doing more stuff (i.e. working) helps I guess. But it doesn't really leave me much time for anything else. Can't really play tennis during the night, so all I end up doing is going home to eat dinner, then just kind of lying in bed chatting on msn or whatever. Not the most exciting of lives. I wonder if it'll be like this if/when I start full time work. But I guess this is really full time work, so maybe it WILL be like this. How boring. Maybe I'll just do another degree just to sit around some more before I enter the real world.

In other news, I made 200 or so calls yesterday. A new high for me. Granted, I worked an 8 hour day (+ 1 hour break), but still, good effort.

Thats it, hopefully this post doesn't die.

Tea break time again

I just went and got a coke from the vending machine. Supposedly, I'm doing some overtime today. However, since I'm only a casual employee, I don't get overtime rates. I'm actually doing more hours than the job advertised, but I don't really mind. In fact, last week, (I just got my pay slip) I did 40 hours! Thats actual work by the way, because they don't pay us for our lunch/tea breaks.

Its pretty good though. At my current pay rates, I'm supposed to be earning a gross annual salary of 35k. Not bad for my first job kind of. But after tax, my stupid HECs debt, and so on, its not so great. I've already paid $500 of tax! and thats like.. in 3 weeks..

Oh well, back to work now...

Slow day...

Thought of the day:

It feels good to come back home from one job and then realise that you don't have to go to work at another job.

Ez's Customer Service Tips

I've decided to put together a few things about being a customer service provider that will probably help those of you who are working in the field. If you're working directly with customers, this may prove invaluable.

1. Feign ignorance
This is one of the most important, if not the most important quality in a customer service operator. You must pretend you do not know, and refer to the relevant department, even if that department is your own. In that case, transfer to the person furtherest away from you, because chances are they'll be the one who doesn't know you. (Note: Does not work for small teams)

Examples:
"I'm sorry, I'm unable to help you with that, I'll tranfer you through to the right department."
"Sorry sir, you've contacted the wrong department. I'll put you through to someone who can help you."

Even if they are adament that they have reached the right department (and they probably have), all you have to do is assure them that you know what you're doing, and the people who told them to do so were probably new, and you don't know them.

"I'm not sure who you talked to, but this isn't the right place. I'll see if I can find the number for it, just one moment." *doo wee doo* "I'll put you through now." *transfer to the person next to you*

2. Feign Sympathy
Another thing to do is feign sympathy for your customers. If they think you're on their side, they're more likely to believe the things you say.

Example:
"I understand that you've been handballed around a lot today. The same thing happens to me everytime I call Telstra, but I've dealt with situations similar to yours, and I'm positive that the [insert random department] is the correct contact point."

3. Do NOT, I repeat, do NOT interrupt them.
If you interrupt customers, they get offended. Please avoid this, its good for your own personal health. Plus the longer you're listening to them ramble on, the longer you're doing absolutely nothing, and the closer going home time will be. Theres no example, since its pretty much self-explanatory.

4. Procrastinate as much as possible
Pretend to do other things. If a potential customer looks hard to please or looks even the slightest bit annoyed, stay in the background until either someone else takes that customer, or they leave the queue or shop. Pretend to talk on the phone regarding an urgent matter ("Please action these applications immediently!" ... "I understand you're very busy, but these people have been waiting weeks/months/years." Repeat if desired.)

Another possibility is to gently nudge one of your collegues in their direction.

5. Turn their problem into you're shared problem
Effectively, this changes the customer's perspective on the organisation you work for, but keeps you safe from their wrath. This should only be used in dire situations, for example, when you transfer someone to another department, and they get transferred back to you, by chance. So its almost impossible to avoid a confrontation.

Example:
"Really?! Jeez I talked to them yesterday, they managed to [insert solution here] with my grandma (she can't speak english you know). Its a wonder how these [insert department here] guys can work at all. They don't seem to be doing anything. I'll have someone look into this immediently."

Yeah thats about all I've got at the moment. I hope you've enjoyed it.

The perfect end to a crappy day

Oh Monday. Even though Monday doesn't really mean much to me in the whole scheme of a week these days, since I'm pretty much working flat chat every single day of the week, today it seemed like I was hit with a bad case of Mondayitis. Normally I wouldn't believe in such things, how monday is the worst day of the week. But I guess it kind of turned out that way today. Well at least I hope today will be the worst day of the week.

It all started with the anticipation that I'd have a long, hard day. Not exactly the best feeling to wake up to. I found I didn't have any clean shirts to wear, so I had to rummage through the dirty laundry to find my shirt from yesterday. It was still pretty dirty, and not exactly my favourite shirt either. Wasn't so bad I guess, at least it meant that I wouldn't need to get changed when I got back to work at my second job, because it was a white shirt.

It definately didn't help that I was running late and needed to run to catch the bus. Thats partly because I was looking around for a clean shirt for so long.

Work was just as bad as waking up. You'd think that in an outbound call center, where all you're doing is calling people to verify some information, you really wouldn't get too bad weird and angry people. Yet thats what happened. One of them was so adamant in his refusal to give income verification documents that he asked to speak to my team leader. He said that he didn't want to give us any more information than he already had. But the thing is, he'd already given us almost his whole life story, whats his income going to change? I think he was one of those retired dudes with nothing better to do with their time except make lives hard for other people.

Another customer was so tight arse that he wanted to speak to my team leader about what I thought was nothing. In fact, I can't even remember what it was about. So over I went, and asked for her. So she starts talking, and the customer says I abused him. I'm sorry, did I call your gold phone? He wanted to know where I worked, what my name was, etc. Stupid guy had his head stuck so far up his arse all he could see was shit.

The third bad call of the day invovled a widow. I managed to call her on the day of her husbands burial. *sigh* I almost cried talking to her. *sob* I don't really know what to say to people who've just lost someone. So all I said was "I'm sorry for your loss" and other random sympathetic stuff. Hopefully she'll be okay.

All those calls sapped my morale. I think today would have almost been my most unproductive day. At least my most unproductive day compared to last week. I think our whole team's morale has suffered due to the fact that we're being overwhelmed with work to do. Theres just not enough people to do all that needs to be done, and theres just some people who have to ask things all the time. Sure, we're new, but I would have thought some things just need a little intuition and common sense. Apparently common sense isn't as common as its name implies.

I just missed my last direct bus back to the restaurant. So I caught another, which was kind of annyoing, and asked my grandpa to pick me up from the shopping center. Arrived at the restaurant in the peak time, and hardly had any time to eat dinner. So I didn't really eat much, and got to work. Being valentines day, there were lots of couples and I guess it was nice to see. But I was still working my arse off. It was an early finish, so it wasn't too bad.

So the perfect end to the day:

I'm lying in bed, blogging away. Its quite relaxing, because its almost as if theres absolutely no effort involved in doing this. I get to express what I feel like expressing, and its suppoedly quite theraputic. Ahh....

Oh so now everyone starts commenting

Face it, everyone loves this blog. You can't live without it! Can't go your daily lives without a little tidbit of juicy daily ramblings from Ez. Okay... maybe I'm being a little too something or other.

The other possibility is that everyone just feels sorry for me. I think thats probably it. Anyway...

I just realised I missed out on Friday night. There was actually meant to be something, because I actually did something. I went to celebrate chinese new year, again! This time it was with my aunts, uncle, a 2nd cousin and her friend. It was a pretty random group. We went down to crown, checked out all the food stalls, ate, then left. Wasn't really THAT exciting, it was kind of like the Box Hill one the week before, but bigger. There was also a heap of shows on. There were things like noodle making, tai chi, and even chinese music. Someone from the restaurant was supposedly performing during that, but I missed it. I think I was eating.

Lisa(my 2nd cousin)'s friend was one of those people who seem to be really outgoing. If anybody knows Kerry, she'd be kind of like her. Its kind of funny. Supposedly I'm cute all the time.

So anyway, worked Saturday night. Hardcore. Sunday morning, not AS hardcore.

There was a hot pot on at Eric's last night. It was supposedly to celebrate Sam and my birthdays. I think he feels obliged to do something for me because he thinks I did a lot for his birthday. Hehe. I really didn't do that much Eric, I was working too much to have time to do anything. You should really thank Soh and Dot. Although I'm guessing that you've already thanked Dot enough :)

I just remembered its Valentines day. Guess what? I'm working, 9:30-6:30, then as soon as I get back, I'm meant to be working at the restaurant.

Mememememememmeem

It doesn't really look like anyone reads my blog anymore. Its probably not very interesting. I suppose I didn't really create it in the first place for other people to read. It was more of a personal thing. That and because I was really really bored at the time. Now it seems like its this whole social and interactive thing, which I didn't really want it to be. I mean, it can STILL be that, but its not really its main purpose. So now I'm just going to write what I want to write, not what I think will be interesting to write. Although, its not as if what I have written so far is very interesting anyway. But its just to distinguish it I guess.

I think I made a relatively impulsive buy today. I suppose I've been thinking about it for quite a while now, but its different because I've just done it. I bought a laptop. I rekon its alright. Now I get to blog while I'm in bed, and possibly on the toilet. That could be very interesting :)

Nothing more to add

2 minutes to blog

2 minutes left on my tea break.

Been reading blogs the rest of the tea break, thats why I've got so little time. All I have to say is .... GO SAM.

Yeah.. thats about it really.

Oh and I'm damn hungry. Gonna go chinese new year stuff tonight at the casino with some family. Hopefully theres food there too, preferably free!

Hmmmmm.. maybe I should have breakfast.

If I fall asleep, somebody poke me

It was pretty funny. On the way home from work yesterday, I fell asleep. Missed my bus stop by about a kilometer. So I walked to my grandparents' place to ask for a ride to my other work.

At least it wasn't as busy as the day before.

So after lion dancing, signing old classics, and cleaning up a lot of crap, I went home fairly exhausted. Today wasn't much better. We're really really behind in the queues. I have a feeling our backlog of work is just going to get bigger and bigger. Its especially bad because two people have actually already quit since we all got hired. One just disappeared midway through training, another just quit first day on the job, and another is potentially going to leave.

But hey, at least that almost guarentees my employment :)

work

I'm just writing this in my tea break at work, so I don't really have that much time to do an extended blog. But I guess theres not really much to say, so I might just not say much.

Yesterday was a pretty long day. Got up about 7:30, caught the bus to work, and worked. It was really busy, I don't think we actually got all the things we had to do done. Oh well. Anyway, after that, took the bus back home. It was actually quite packed on the bus. I don't know what happened. Did RMIT start back early or something? I'm pretty sure there aren't that many med students around my area either, so I don't think it'd be that.

So it was chinese new years eve yesterday, and my birthday. There was work, lion dancing, and umm.. lots of loud drums. Yeah, a pretty normal chinese new years eve. Today is actually new years day! Again, working the whole day. I'm pretty lucky that I'm not working in a hard labour job here, otherwise I'd be sooo stuffed. Work work work work....

Anyway, should get paid today, which is a good thing.

6 minutes left on my tea break. Lets see what else I can fit in.

Ohh yeah, birthday stuff. Lots of people sent me sms. Thanks everyone! Its nice to know I'm loved :) I can't be bothered listing names. That and if I do, then people will know who I hate... muahahahahahaha. Nah... its ok, I don't send sms birthday messages either (so don't expect one from me). Didn't really get much for my birthday on my birthday. Just a bit of cash, or a lot of cash, depending on how much you have currently.

3 minutes left.

Not looking forward to work tonight. Hopefully its not as busy as yesterday.

Wow, I actually wrote quite a bit in 10 minutes (5 minutes or less to go to the loo). I think I've run out of stuff. Maybe I'll just go back to work...

the day before chinese new year (and my birthday coincidently)

Had work today.

Came back to a huge family gathering type thing where we just ate and went home. My cousin couldn't get his car started, and Fi still doesn't drive very carefully.

I'm working the whole day and night tomorrow (chinese new years eve) and the day after (chinese new year) and the monday after that (valentines day). Just in case anyone needs me, all they have to do is errr... come visit?

I'm back! (for those of you who missed me)

So yes.... tennis.

It was actually at a free court the coucil provides. So naturally, there was a lot of people on the weekend who wanted to play. Garry seemed to be inappropriately hostile to the people who wanted to have a go after us, but thats just Garry I guess.

After getting back home, I got changed into work stuff and went to the restaurant. Dad wanted me to help him hold some long bits of wood while we drove with them half hanging out the back of the car from my grandparents house. So off we went. Its lucky that their house isn't too far away from ours, otherwise we could have been stopped by cops or something, and the fact that I wasn't really wearing a seat belt could have come embarrasingly into light. Not to mention the nails that were sticking out of it and could have poked a hole in anything, including my head. Its probably not one of the most safest things in the world.

Had a nap till work time, worked... then sat around and went to Box Hill for the chinese new year stuff. Lots of people, some food, and random things just really didn't do it for me. I wanted to go home. I thought we were going just to have supper, and I didn't even know the chinese new year things were on already. All we had were chinese sausages on sticks, fish balls, and some chinese made japanese food, which sucked. "Ran into" Soh there, who was probably meeting some "friends" to just "hang out". Sam was coming too, but I didn't see him. I just went home with mum.

Thats about it really. Came home and blogged the last post, slept, woke up, then blogged this one. Might go back to sleep now.

Flat out...

Its not often I can say I've been flat out and be telling the truth. But it is true this time. I haven't even had much time to update blogs at all. I've got so much I want to write, but too tired to write it. I want to sleep till at least 2 or 3 in the afternoon, to sleep the last few days off. I can't even really remember what I've been doing thats taken up so much of my time. Now I guess I know what it feels like to have no time on your hands to relax, sit back, and bum, like I've been doing my whole life until now.

I haven't updated since my first day going 'live' at my new job. I think I should expand a bit on it. Work is pretty good. Theres always things to do, so you're never bored just sitting around on your arse doing jack all. The people I work with are also great. They help out as much as they can, and we do work as a team to try and get the job done. The volumes at work have been rather high due to a new type of card the bank has brought out. You even get to choose the colour of your card. And you get two! For what reason I wouldn't have a clue, but I guess it seems pretty cool.

We got training for the new card on Friday. It only took about 10 minutes. We were hoping it would take a lot longer. Training is good because all we do it sit around and listen to things. We don't even have to remember it because we can just look it up on the internet. Ah, the things people waste their time learning.

In other news at work, we seem to have lost people. Theres two 'bays' of computers for our team. In each bay, theres two senior staff members and theres spaces for 4 other people who are kind of separated by a glass wall. The senior members get the window seats, which is kind of nice. We were joking the other day that that'll be what we get if we ever get promoted. That is, a window desk. Anyway, there were supposed to be 6 people in my bay (2 seniors, 3 new members including me, and a part-timer). Now theres just two seniors and me. Both the new members seem to have quit/disappeared. I feel so lonely, especially since the part-timer is diagonally opposite me with a giant column in the way. *sigh* At least we can talk over bays.

Work seems to be taking up the majority of my time. I start at 10, finish at 6, take the bus home, eat dinner, get home around 7:30-8. Sit around some, go to sleep. That takes up 5 days of the week.

Thursday night I think it was the night some of us went to Terence's (again) to watch tv/do stuff. Ended up playing poker again, which is always a fun thing to do. I got knocked out early, and spent half the night just kind of err... actually I can't really remember. But I do remember eating very oily stuff. VERY oily. Oh well. Its not like I don't eat a lot of oily stuff already.

Friday night was an exception. We'd been organising a suprise birthday for Eric for the past week, and it finally came around then. If anybody has noticed gaps, then thats probably when I was trying to organise it. Actually, theres a giant gap between now and tuesday, so.. err.. thats when I was. We were really behind schedule in getting there, and I almost skipped dinner, but got something on the way. But behind behind schedule is what we're known for, and now that being late is now considered acceptable because of mobile phones, I don't know..... I think I'd rather still be on time, but theres always something preventing it.

Anyway, the suprise actually turned out to be a suprise, contrary to what we thought. I'm not sure whether telling Adrian he already knew he had a suprise birthday was something from nothing, or whatever. There was minimal eating, minimal drinking, but I think almost everyone had a good time. I think its one of the few 21sts I've thoroughly enjoyed.

Still haven't worked out financial details yet. I'm just going to write down right now that I'm $10 up, just in case I forget. Somebody remind me anyway. I owe a lot I think.

The ride home was interesting. I took Terence, Mica, Garry and Sam home from Eric's. What a killer. From one side of the city to the other and back again... just in one night. Actually if you count going there in the first place as another trip across the city, you wouldn't be too far off the mark. Anyway, there was lots of driving involved, a lot of grunting involved, and yes... lots of turns and cruise control. It was kind of annoying, so I was also speeding a lot on the way home. Sorry for scary people, but I was just in the mood, or wasn't in the mood depending on which way you're looking at it.

There was lots of chat chat chat, worries about knife totting Viet gangsters ambushing us at our destination, threats to throw Mica out the door. Yes... entertaining. Got back home around 4am.

I'm blabbing on a lot.

Saturday, got up 9:50 to get a haircut at 10. Came back, went to lunch at grandmas, had a shower, left to play tennis, played tennis, came back, got changed, went to grandma's again to pick up giant pieces of wood and hold then while they were hanging out the back of the van while we drove them back to our place, went to work (at the restaurant, not the office), worked, went to box hill, ate stuff, came back home.

Now if thats not hard to read... then I don't know what is.

Lets go through it a bit slower.

I got woken up by mum for my haircut. I actually thought I'd set the alarm on my phone, but obviously not. So I quickly got up, drove 300m to the hairdresser, and got my haircut. Normally I don't say much to my hairdresser, but I felt like talking today. Maybe because my job involves so much talking, I find it easier to talk now. Maybe she's just easy to talk to.

After getting the haircut, I came back home to watch the latest episode of the OC. No comment there, might spoil it for people. Got dragged to lunch at my grandma's. It wasn't any special occasion, it was just .... I don't know...

Came back home to ahve a shower and went to tennis. I still can't hit the ball for shit. omg. so sleepy. Lemme continue tomorrow.

1st day 'on the job'

Normally I'd wake up and kind of fall back to sleep again. Actually I kind of did today as well, so thats nothing different.

I was meant to start work at 10:30. I got there on time of course, and I even bought a paper to read on the bus. I kind of miss reading the paper. Theres lots of interesting stuff that I normally miss on the internet version. Also, there are the puzzles. Somebody remind me to bring a pen next time.

Work itself was good though. After doing quite a few boo boos on the first few apps, I managed to get myself into gear. The supervisor seemed particularly impressed. I'm not sure whether is was genuine or just because she wanted to encourage me, but either is good I suppose. Didn't get any particularly difficult customers either, which was also good.

The weather, on the other hand, was confusing. Last night the forecast said 33 degrees. So I just wore a shirt in the morning. Went outside, cold. The bus had the air con on too high as well, so the bus was cold too. At lunch (around 2ish) it was really hot, and when I finished work, it was raining! So I had to walk in the rain, wait in the rain, then wait in the rain some more, with only a shirt on. *sigh* Remind me to check the weather report a bit more thoroughly as well.

Thats about it. Nothing earthshattering today.

My first calls

I didn't really do anything yesterday. In fact, I can't even remember what I did except watch a bit of the tennis. Its good that Marat won, didn't really like Hewitt. I think he's got his head up his arse. Not the best look ever, I'll tell you that.

I made my first calls at work today.

It was exciting. The first couple rang out, the 2nd app I worked I got through, and they seemed happy I called them, which is good.

Oh and some of my team smoke. Which is not good.

Also my quality control manager completely ignored me on the bus.
*sigh*
I hope I get paid soon.

MmMMmmMMm... Seafood Buffet

It was Karen and Paul's Birthday bash yesterday.

Eating was the main attraction, since it was an all you can eat buffet. Apart from seafood, they had a lot of other dishes, like pasta, some asian food, carvery, and desserts. The food is actually quite good, but many of the aussies went for the Asian food. I don't know why they'd go to a buffet to eat Asian food. It wasn't even that great.

Instead, I ate a lot of seafood. Things like raw oysters and mussles, crab, smoked salmon and the sort. Yummmmmm.... A typical Asian thing to do. I also had a go at the roast lamb and pork, and tried some of the 'peking duck'. It was really strange peking duck. It wasn't JUST duck in it. They stir fried it with some other stuff. Personally, I think the peking duck is better normally.

After eating too much and finally talking (because I don't talk while eating), there were photos and other assorted things. After we left, we dropped by the casino to have a drink, play some video games, and grab my sister. Dropped Mel home, and went to sleep.

I was reminded again today of how weird it is how people are connected to each other. Apparently, Mel (the one I met last night), I'd actually met before. That was when we were supposedly playing tennis with some mutual friends. Then later, we even played computer games together. Obviously you can't really tell who they are if they're on the other side of the internet, but... yeah... strange.

the total lack of movement

Not much has happened in the past couple of days. Sat around a lot on Australia day. In fact, I don't think I did anything during the day.

Then I just went to PP with some people.

Today was a little different. I still had work, so I went to that. Thats about it.

Oh any my quality control manager takes my bus. Great.

day 2: a continuation in more ways than one

Today was the second day of training. We worked on the system that we'll be using to do most of our work. Its different, old, and a little complicated. I'm sure I'll get used to it the more I use it however.

Thus, the day was draining, and extremely hot. Would have been in the high 30s at least. So right now I'm feeling quite drained from the early morning wakeup, long hours sitting and 'learning', and the hot weather sapping my energy. But enough of my whining.

Time to talk about the important things in life: People. People and public transport, again!

People at work were saying they meet lots of different people on public transport. I don't actually know it they really mean 'meet', or just mean 'see'. This is because the people I see on public transport never talk to each other. In fact, they seem to go out of their way to avoid communication. This is not to say I'm not one of them, clearly I am. But we go out of our way to avoid sitting next to someone unless neccesary, use electronic interference (music) to annoy others and make them sit on the other side of the vehichle, and basically avoid contact.

Here's something to try:
1. Get on a half full/empty public vehichle (preferably with a valid ticket).
2. Sit down in a seat with at least one seat next to you.
3. Smile at the people who get on and are looking for a seat.
4. See how many people go to another spot and sit next to someone who's staring out the window

NB: This will only be feasible if all double seats in the vehichle have at least one person in them.

Chances are, they won't sit next to you. Or perhaps I'm just ugly. Either way, it gives me a bad impression on the city we live in. There are a couple of possibilities: that we are so suspicious of the people who are friendly to us that we would rather trust some indifferent random person, or that people are intentionally unwilling to engage with social interaction with other random people. Maybe even both.

Ahh.. maybe I should just forget about it and go to the beach tomorrow and burn all my skin off. Sounds like a plan.

day 1

I was kind of excited and nervous last night. My sleeping pattern is again whacked out completely. I went to bed at about 9:30, woke up at 1am, couldn't get to sleep till around 4, and it didn't feel like I slept at all. I managed to get myself out of bed however, and got myself off to work.

I got there WAYYY too early. Like... 7:45. Better than being late I suppose. Had myself too much breakfast, and went in. There was a lot of talk about harrasment, bullying and discrimination. Also a heap about privacy legislation. A lot of the privacy stuff I'd actually covered in the last semester of uni. It turns out that an IS subject actually has some use in the real world. So... we learnt what we're meant and not meant to do to uphold the privacy principles, and other similar things. There were even things like an (Non Disclosure Agreement) NDA and stuff about insider trading etc. Basically we're not supposed to get involved with share trading when we know something others don't.

Normally I don't eat much for breakfast or lunch. But today I ate too much. I think my tummy expanded. The reason for this is because I have relatives who own a little cafe near the place I work. They stuffed me with such a big breakfast that I couldn't even finish lunch. Not the best feeling ever.

After lunch... proceedures and things like that. Just working it all out in theory and what we're MEANT to do in certain situations and how not to offend people and stuff. Yeah, pretty self-explanatory. Or maybe not, but I'm not supposed to say.

Tomorrow we're meant to do stuff on the system, see how it works, that sort of thing. Should be fun/exciting.

I also realised again today, how boring public transport can be. If theres nobody to talk to, all I do is stare out the window. I finally understand why people want to buy ipods and the sort. Its fair enough I suppose. Gives you some form of entertainment on the trip. What I can't stand is people who blare it out so loud that the people sitting next to you can hear the things you're playing even if you've got earphones plugged in. How can one be that deaf and not use a hearing aid?

Another thing I noticed is how I've changed since taking public transport however many years ago. Started off as a high school student... changed to uni student, and now working. I guess I'm still a uni student, but its mainly the dress code. Do you think that other people who take the bus notice that you change over the years? I think I've changed a lot, and I think it'd be easy to notice. But I don't really know anyone on my bus who's actually gone through as dramatic changes as I have, so I haven't actually noticed anyone else on the bus changing that much. There are quite a few regulars in peak time, usually an older generation who've been working the whole time I've been at school and uni. Whether they notice the people around them is a different matter.

There was actually an article about that in the age the other day. It was about how individuals seems to isolate themselves in places such as public transport with technology. So things such as iPods and cd players inhibit the social interaction between people, and that maybe one day, we'll see different compartments of a train for people who want to talk and those who don't. Personally, I think the writer was taking it a little too far. Nobody talks on public transport anyway, and some of the time, it's pretty obvious why. If theres a guy who looks drunk, homeless, smells, and goes:
"*mumble mumble* FUCK *mumble mumble* KILL *mumble mumble* FUCK"
then I'd fully understand why. I'm sure we've all seen it before.

Sunday

Even though I woke up at 12pm, I still feel really tired. Maybe because I couldn't really sleep last night either. Soh gave me this link the other day saying that its quite possibly because I stare at this CRT screen too much. Surprisingly, it hasn't really happened this badly before. But then, that gives me a pretty good reason to go and get a laptop. I think I should bid on something on ebay.

Had lunch with the extended family and some family friends. We tried a few new creations from the resident chef. Not bad at all.

Went shopping after that. I figured that I didn't have any time to do shopping later in the week, because I'm meant to be working, so I thought I'd get presents ready for Friday well in advance. I don't think I'll advertise what I bought, just in case they read this.

I also played some WoW. The Blackrock server always seems to have an enourmous queue, so I think I've given up on that one. I started a new character on another server. Supposedly its the one that all the other IGS people use. Haven't actually told them about it yet though. Ah well.

Saturday or so

After sleeping too long, I woke up to Sam's call.

Its good that we did something today. I was actually meant to go buy some presents, but I kind of woke up too late. I don't really know when I'm going to go get them. Perhaps I'll try find something tomorrow. That is of course, assuming that I still have a car I can drive to do so. Ever since Fi got her license, I feel like I don't really have one anymore. She's using it to go to church and have an 'experience'. You probably already know how I feel about religion.

Anyway, Sam and I went out to dinner. I'm actually a virgin to Korean food, so dinner was really good. I like their flavors and the side dishes. Different, and yet utterly intriguing. All in all, a good meal.

We went to Soh's place to play poker. Fun as usual, then came back. Good day overall.

Oh and my eye is itchy. Well.. not exactly my eye, just the bit below it.

Whingefest

The first part of the day was actually good. I went with Soh to see and buy his new car. Well.. his old new car maybe. Anyway, we left around 10:30 in the morning, when he called me and I was still asleep.

So off we went, all the way to Broadie. Dropped by Vicroads on the way, and went to check out the car. Got a temporary permit to allow the car on the road, and off I went. I had to drive because I'm pretty much the only one with a manual licence who was willing. And if you've got no number plates, chances are you're going to get pulled over.

His car is fun to drive. Easy to skid, feels like it has power steering, and very small. I've hardly ever driven a small car. I think I drove Adrian's golf once, but thats pretty much it with me and small cars.

I had to work tonight as well. Which is what the whingefest is about. Well, that and because I had to work and give up going to the tennis because of it. I'd imagine that'd happen quite often over the next few weeks actually. At least I'll have money... to do.. err... I dunno.. with. I think I will actually buy some sort of a laptop. Not much else to do with money unless I feel like going on holiday.

There was this guy at work. A customer. Firstly, rude, secondly, a liar, and thirdly, a tight arse. You really can't get much worse customers. Especially about the liar part. He wouldn't pay the whole bill because he said the service was lousy, the food was cold, and something about how he didn't get his water. Lucky I wasn't there when he did, otherwise I think I seriously would have said something that he probably wouldn't have wanted to hear. Neither do I care if he or his friends ever come back again. Firstly, the service wasn't lousy. The table right next to his said the waiters (including yours truly) were "the nicest waiters". Secondly, if the food was cold, you can just send it back and we'll cook it again. Thirdly, I'd hardly ask for something off the bill if I didn't give you something that you didn't have to pay for, nor ORDER IN THE FIRST PLACE.

Fuck him. Fuck his friends. Fuck people who are like him.

I think I'll go play some CS to get it out of my system.

Interview.

I haven't really got anything to do at the moment. World of Warcraft is loaded up, and I'm in the queue. Don't really feel like doing anything else, I've been out the whole day. So I've decided to blog.

Last night was a killer. I really couldn't sleep at all. I think it was about 6 o'clock when I finally did, just about the time the birds start to come out. I even heard my dad get up and go to the market at 5:30... I actually tried going to sleep earlier, but that didn't work, and I got up to talk to people at 3...

Got up to go to an interview. Even though I had about 3 hours sleep and no breakfast, I think I did well. They asked us to talk to the people next to us about their dream job and their worst job. After that, there was some group work on prioritising. THen there was some more group brainstorming. At least it was more enjoyable than other job interviews I've done. Thats not to say I've done that many...

Anyway. People asked some questions. Some of which were really silly, since they'd told us the answers anyway. I thought I'd just sit there and be quiet. Anyway, we all left, and I went to go find Sam and Garry for lunch. Actually, I even stopped by Anne's work to see if she was there. Alas, she was not. The day I go to the city and check in on people is the day they're not there. What terrible misfortunes I have.

We had Vietnamese noodles. Filling and tasty. Although much of the taste probably comes from the amount of salt they pour into the soup. Oh well, as long as it was filling. Headed off to buy some chocolates for Garry's farewell presents, and went to see the Auntie and Uncle to try and scab a ride home.

Turned out my grandma was also in the city. Well, actually the casino. So after my aunt finished up, we went down to get her and go home. Saw my umm... other auntie? No.. actually, she's my grandma's niece. I'm not really sure that that makes her to me. Another aunt perhaps? I'm not really sure. She was on her way back from the casino to her apartment and my second cousin (the one I picked up from the airport). Anyway, uncle dropped me off at the restaurant. But I skipped dinner, wasn't very hungry.

Cameron rang to tell me I got the job, which is good. I start training Monday.

I can't sleep

Stupid late nights. Oh well, my bad.

Hopefully I'll actually wake up in the morning.

Australian Open

Spent most of the day playing games or whatever. Didn't really do much at all. I actually got a call for a job. That was a nice suprise, since most of the jobs I apply for don't even send any sort of feedback at all. Oh well. So I've got a group interview on Thursday morning. Hopefully I'll actually wake up for that. It would be a good start.

Went to the Aussie open tonight. Twas fun. I drove, met Sam and Gaz in the city, and then went to the arena. We saw Davenport v Martinez, and Hewitt v Clemont. Martinez sucked, but at least Clemont went down fighting. He actually looked a bit of a challenge in the first couple of games of the match. Unlucky for him I guess.

How do I always get this ridiculous time for my post? Well.. I don't actually, its all changed. It just looks tidier if I actually write about the things I did on that day that I did them.

Today:

Rome
Dinner
Granny's
Dinner
Home
Soh's
Home

in that order too.

Soh's parté

Last night, a bunch of us went over to Soh's sister's place to hang out. Well, it wasn't really meant to be just us hanging out. It was meant to be a classy 'parté' with cheese, crackers and imported beer. Turned out pretty good I rekon.

Thus, there was lots of drinking, eating, and sitting around doing intellectual stuff. In true classy style, we played chess and poker. Very intellectual, kind of. Actually we played big 2 as well, but thats just because we're asian.

Please don't sue me

I mentioned something about being liable for whats in your blog, like, ages ago. That came up today in Zdnet's online 'tech news'. Click here to view the article.

So from now on, I'm going to have a disclaimer at the bottom of the blog. I'm just going to rip it off the University of Melbourne's (2005) website.

Damn those left wing student activists

The recent rise in demand for full fee university places has, I think, stumped those left wing activists. They want free education for all, not that there is such a thing, but the demand for full fee places is puzzling for them, because it means that not everyone is aligned with their beliefs.

Essentially, it doesn't really matter if everyone gets a free education or not. Its the same money that goes to the university, its just that if its free, then the money goes through another middle man, the tax office. Taxes have to stay high or get higher to support the free education, and the cost of collecting and redistributing the tax would be pretty much equal to the cost of paying the money yourself.

If you have to pay out of your own pocket, you have more personal accountability for the money that goes into it. I guess it gives you more incentive to actually do something with your tertiary degree than just to get one for the sake of it. Theres always student loans which you can take to get a degree, and I guess if you do well enough, theres always those scholarships or targeted access programs (TAP) that can get you through a degree. Well, that and a part time or casual job, which are definateley not hard to find these days.

Or theres always another option for those left wing activists to promote. Why don't we just take that $1 billion that we gave in aid to Indonesia, and give everyone a free degree (sarcasm). Theres clearly better things to spend money on than to give everyone a free education. Those leftists keep thinking that its all about the people. I'd agree, but I think keeping the people safe (spending on defence/intelligence/health) is clearly more of a priority than teaching them a different language.

Day trip to Lorne

As you've probably noticed, I've got pictures today. I've also backdated/timed this post so it looks like I posted when I got back, which I clearly didn't. I'm also going to write like it was that day too... so... don't bother telling me I'm a lazy arse, I already know.

Today, we went to Lorne for a day trip. It was meant to be 30 degrees celcius. But I forgot to check the weather on the coast. Apparently it got to 33 in the city, I'm not really sure what it got to in Lorne.

This is a picture of the big sign thing that says we've reached the Great Ocean Road, the road that goes down the south west coast of Victoria, all the way down to Warnambool.


As you can probably see, the coast didn't have as good weather as in the city. But, we (or should I just say 'I') were optimistic about it.
Not such a great day


It took about 3 hours to drive from Melbourne down to Lorne. We took the coastal roads, so we got a few good scenery shots. The car windows were pretty dirty, so I won't vouch for the quality of the pictures, but if you want to see them, just message me or head over to Soh's gallery to check it out. We should have them up in the next day or two.

Lorne's town center


The water was really cold in the morning. Actually it was really cold the whole day. After a while though, you just get used to it. I brought some body/boogie boards, so we were able to catch a few waves. They were pretty big today. Big enough for Soh to notice they were a lot bigger than the ones in Warnambool we saw last year. Clearly not as big as those on the horse ride, but big enough all the same.

We were hoping that the sun would come out and heat up the water a little. Sure enough, the sun came out later, and we enjoyed a hot afternoon. Almost no clouds in the sky. However, even when the sun came out, the water was still bloody cold. I suppose we didn't really count on the fact that there was nothing between us and Antarctica except a few penguins.



This is just a photo of us all hanging out. Or letting it all hang out, depending on who we're talking about.



We spent pretty much the whole day there, only deciding to leave because I didn't really wanna drive the GOR in the dark. I have to admit, driving around curvy stuff with a manual car is quite fun. I think Soh and Sam were getting a little worried at how fast I was taking the turns, but I couldn't really hear them when they were saying it, so I'm not really sure. I felt confident though. I don't think I would have done the turns so fast even in my other car. In a manual, I feel I have a lot more control, and I can make the turns more precise because the car doesn't have power steering. Theres that, and because I can actually see the front of my car in the van. In the commodore, its like the front of the car is so far away. I don't have a very precise picture of whether I'll hit the side of the road.

Picturesque scenery on the way back


Michael was nice enough to buy us all some beer. I couldn't exactly drink any though, since I was supposed to be driving, but it ended the day quite nicely. Spent a while dropping everyone off at home. City roads just don't seem as exciting as country roads anymore. I did the boulevard in Ivanhoe... 35km/h recommended speed?! Hah! err.. No I wasn't speeding... trust me.

Anyway, came back home exhausted, and now writing this blog... (ahem)...

Yesterday was Tommo's 21st birthday bash. So we all trooped over to his place to celebrate. There was lots of food and lots of drink. What else do you need? A quality korean film topped it off, and the sprinkling of a game of bridge seasoned it very well.

After that, there was another poker session at Alec's. It was real money though, so we were kind of reluctant to go in. Exciting and entertaining all the same. Not to mention the bridge we played as well :)

Today...

More poker, and some gaming. Thats about it really.
Ohh and some mah jong with my granny. Fun FUn.

I don't have a single new year's resolution. Not that I'd stick to any in the first place. Can't quit smoking because I don't smoke. Can't quit gambling because I don't gamble (yet). Hmmm..

I haven't been up to much either recently. A lot of sitting around...

Actually, some work, some poker (without money) and some driving around...

THats about it really. Oh and there was some tennis the other day. I still suck.

meow

I think I overdosed on my creased forehead expression today. So much so that my forehead feels tired. Thats never a good thing, having a tired forehead. Trust me.

Bugger if I can even tell everyone whats got me so annoyed. I think its a little bit of everything.

I got up to help do some more computer networking at Granny's. So we now have a wireless network between two houses and a wired network in both. That means only one cable internet bill. Handy huh?

Also had work today. I think thats about when the creased forehead started. It only really ended after I burnt myself with boiling hot water. Strange how these things can end.

omg i need to get a life

New years eve...

well it was... one and a half hours ago. Now its officially 2005, and we're about 4 and a half hours from the place we were in orbit around the sun as we were at the beginnging of 2004.

Most of the day was spent at the restaurant, working, or eating. Not very exciting.

The entertainment sucked.

I drink some champagne and stuff. Should have been more, but oh well. I'm just going to possibly read a book or something to start the year off.

They say the way you spend new years eve is the way you spend the rest of the year. Ah, maybe I should just kill myself now and get it over with.