What I've been up to.

New years eve:
Eat - drink - eat - play xbox and cards

Since the 4th of jan:
Work

Just this last weekend:
Singstar on Friday night (I'm a hopeful)
BBQ on Saturday (as per pics)
Hung around with Terence on Sunday (Yes, we were bored)

Tonight:
Dad's birthday celebration
Its the first time I can actually remember where dad actually got into the whole celebrating thing, even though short lived. It was actually really suprising

Other news:
I need to go on a diet.

Saturday BBQ

Words may come later...
Incriminating Photos.

My first day... and second day

I probably should have written something about my first day of vac work yesterday, but there wasn't really that much to say, and I clearly had more pressing issues to write about. On the first day at my previous job there was a lot of talk about public transport. Theres less about public transport lately because all I do on the bus now is just go to sleep. I almost missed my stop on the way back today, but I'm just lucky that I only get off at the last stop on the way in to work. Anyway, theres nothing more to say about public transport in this city.

Yesterday was just an induction day. Somehow I'd convinced myself that there were a few IT interns starting alongside me, instead theres actually only one intern per department. That sort of thing does things for the ego :) There was just the usual meet and greet, OH&S stuff, harrasment and discrimination stuff, and then the legal and compliance stuff.

Near the end of the day we all got dropped off to our relevant departments. I'm kind of removed from everyone else. IT seems to be stuck in the corner somehow. Oh well, its not too bad. At least I don't feel like I'm in a big chicken farm. The others just have rows and rows of desks and stuff.

I also found out a lot more about what I'm meant to be doing over the period. There is a lot of BCP so I'm helping to do some stuff that will help in the event of a catastrophe involved. It looks a little exciting, but then, not really.

All us interns seem to be getting along pretty well. We've been to lunch the past couple of days. Most of us don't really seem to be doing much. Others seem to have their hands completely full.

All in all, its going pretty well.

P.S. I started writing this yesterday, but only finished it today (6/1/06). Sorry.

The redistribution of funds was never so complicated

It seems to me that the Australian Welfare Agency (Centrelink) has gone mad.

This is what happened:
- I applied for Youth Allowance.
- I gave them my TFN.
- They say that they're gonna use this TFN to do all sorts of stuff.

In addition to that, they want something to verify my previous year's income (which should have been lodged with the ATO) in addition to some payslips (which is fair enough).

However, they also want "proof of birth". What I want to know is why someone who doesn't exist want to work, study, and pay heaps of tax. Moreover, why would someone go to the trouble of working that much, and studying that much just to claim a measly few hundred dollars from Centrelink. They might as well just keep working.

On top of that they also want other documents to make that 100 point ID check. This doesn't include the birth certificate. Chances are that if you don't have a bank account, you're screwed in this department. Theres not too many students I know which have defence discharge papers, shooters licences, or security licences to make 70 points. Nor are students likely to have children's birth certificates, divorce papers, educational certificates (thats why they're studying), mortgage papers, a registration certificate from a professional board (another reason why they're studying), and also unlikely to have participated in any Australian Defence Force tours of duty, thus denying themselves access to a Veterans' Affairs Gold card (all worth 40 points).

They don't make it easy for people who don't have time to pop on by their local Centrelink customer service centre. For some reason, only original documents are acceptable. I'm certainly not going to mail my bank/credit card, Medicare card or driver's license to them. If I do, in the off chance that I find myself with measles on the weekend, its going to be a nightmare. Firstly, I get pulled over by cops on the way to the hospital/doctor without a license. Then when I walk the rest of the way to the doctor/hospital, I don't have a Medicare card so I don't get reimbursed the exorbitant amount they charge. Finally, to top it all off, I can't even pay that amount because I don't have any cash left in my wallet because I'm unable to withdraw any funds from the bank.

I'm delaying my application for Youth Allowance until semester starts again.

Reflecting on the year gone by...

So its 2006. Normally people would say something about happy new years around about now. But I've already missed it by a few days and it doesn't feel any different being now that I have to write 2006 instead of 2005. I like using it more as a milestone rather than anything else - kind of like birthdays, but thats a whole other story.

2005 kind of went like a blur. I don't really remember anything extremely significant. Whether that reflects on what I feel is important or that nothing really important actually happened is probably up to you to decide. I suppose I should do some sort of list as to what happened. Lots of other people seem to be doing the same thing.

Lets see...
- I turned 20.
- I got a nice job.
- I found out that working and studying sucks.
- I have money!
- I bought a laptop
- I did pretty well at uni
- After a very harrowing experience of rejection after rejection, I finally found some degree related vacation work at the first place I applied to.

Thats about all I can think of at the moment. Feel free to add to it if you feel like it.

Systemic Issues?

I wonder why it takes them a whole day to replace something thats broken. Technically the company I work for is meant to be an IT services company. Yet somehow it has trouble providing those IT services to the people who work there. The last time this happened, it took us days to get back online.

Anyhoo, I shouldn't really be complaining. It gave us the oppurtunity to sit around and do a bit of nothing. Actually it turned out to be a lot of nothing, and an extremely long lunch break. But hey, not really our fault. Its not like we shouldn't take advantage of the situation to have some team bonding time. In the end, we ended up going to the client's place to do the work that the client was paying us to do at our own place. They weren't really complaining either I don't think since nobody actually knew who's fault it was.

Not much I can do about it I guess.

System Issues

We can't access our client's system, so instead, we're all just sitting around doing nothing. Well... almost anyway.

Yesterday was beach day. The weather forecast was almost perfect. So we got off our arses and headed down to Torquay to have us some quality boogie boarding time. After getting stuck in Geelong for a while, we eventually made it there at around 12pm. It was pretty packed and full of people, but a claim was staked on our little part of the beach.

Isn't much else to say about the beach really. We just did what we normally do when people go to the beach. That is, sit around, get sunburnt, have a swim around, do some boarding, and then have a bit of a perve. Or maybe that was just me...

Work breakup and stuff

Friday was supposedly our Christmas breakup at work. We just went to have dinner, went to some other place for more drinks, and then went to a small club type thing. It was actually quite fun. Dinner was ok, drinks was fun for a while. I think I'm over beer now too. For some reason I just can't take it anymore. Beer just tastes like wee now for some reason, and it makes me wanna throw up.

It kind of counted as a farewell for another person at work. He's going to another part of the company for a while, and nobody is sure whether he's actually coming back. So.. that was a pretty big thing I guess.

Christmas eve - Mah jong and Carols on TV

Christmas -
Had some trouble getting up in the morning to go to work. Eventually made it. It wasn't very busy at all. The only good thing was that afterwards, we got to eat heaps. After that, I didn't eat anything for the rest of the day. Ended up sitting around for a while then heading out to someone's place to sit around. Then we kind of moved to Tez's place to sit around some more. Awesome.

So OVER Christmas

Its true.

Going to see the movies

Its about time I wrote something. Even somebody at work noticed I hadn't really updated this blog. I didn't think they even checked it anymore. Although... my team leader found out I had this only a few days ago. Anyway - need to write something.

Its also a long time since I went to see a movie... that is.. at the cinemas. Apart from there being nothing out that I really want to see, its almost like I can't be bothered.

Now I wonder why I even went to see them in the first place. Movies are nice to watch, but going all the way to your local shopping center (or casino as the case may be) with a few people to watch something where you don't really talk to each other seems kind of pointless. At least I think you're not meant to talk to each other during the movie unless everyone finds it really boring. Talking kind of ruins it.

A lot of the movies we've been to see over the past couple of years have been just that - movies. We don't do anything else before or after. We go to see a movie because its a movie we want to see rather than as a social event. It doesn't really help that we always seem to watch the 9:30 session, and by the time we get out, either nothing is really open or we don't have any money to gamble away.

In the end, I think I'd just prefer to go to a close friend's place (a friend who is close, rather than a close friend - lazy) and watch movies they happen to have. Its a lot easier than spending all that money and time going some place else for pretty much the same thing.

Don't take this the wrong way. I'll still go to a movie if something good is on, I was just pointing out all the bad things :)

Coming soon! - Ez griping about going clubbing

An update

Its not very often that I update anymore. I just don't feel I have a lot to say. Now if I were even slightly American, that probably wouldn't be true. If you've ever watched Fox news before, you'll know what I'm talking about. Its probably bad to generalise about the entire country via some very yappy news channel, but oh well. I do my generalising based on whatever empirical evidence I have, and if that doesn't work for you, then err.. whatever. So this post is just an update on what has been happening (or not happening as the case may be) in my life.

I learned how to play 500 today. Thats the card game if nobody knows what I'm talking about. Actually I was taught how to play a while ago, but at the time, I didn't really have a clue what it was about. But also after learning to play some other related games such as Hearts and Bridge, it worked out. The scoring system is just really weird.

Also, this Christmas I've decided I really can't be bothered with gifts. Maybe it shows my growing apathy towards the world and the people around me. I like to think that its just me being lazy. Maybe its because I realize that Christmas doesn't really mean all that much to me - the celebration of somebody's birthday is irrelevant if I don't really believe that person exist(ed). On the more commercialised side of things, spending money for other people at some single point of the year isn't exactly the most sincerely generous thing to do. I find it extremely superficial. And that just makes me sound like a pompous bastard. Oh I'm of all sorts today.

The weekends while working

Its quite different when you have weekends during uni and when you have weekends while you're working. During uni, weekends are just another part of the week. You can still go out and have fun during the week, and do whatever you happen to do. Some people even just take time off uni to do that. That is, err.. skip some classes. But when you go home, you can have assignments to do, exams to study for, etc.

On the other hand, if you're working, usually your days off are just that - days off. Work isn't a concern until the night before you have to go back again. You'd only have to worry about work if you had a job where you had to be on call. But then again, you should get paid a whole crapload if you were called in. You should only really be thinking about work if you're a workaholic, and you take work home with you.

But weekends seem more precious somehow. Maybe its just me, but somehow I manage to fill my weekends with things to do all the time. I guess its nice to have friends who invite you to things :)

I'm still here?!

Staying late at the office is actually pretty scary. Nobody is around to talk to, although I can hear some clicking of keys from the other side of the office. Maybe I should clarify that by saying nobody I know and work with is here to talk to. The only consolation I have is this giant TV sitting next to me. Can't watch anything on it though. One possibility I have is to blog on it, but somehow I don't think thats going to work.

Corporate Working Life

From my rather small level of experience with the office life, I've decided to write a little about it. The office is a contrast from what I've always been used to. There are of course always the perks that come from being with bunch of people for long hours and weeks at a time. That is, the relatively high level of gossiping about peoples' private lives and goings on. Other things are different.

One of the best things about working is that when you get home after a long day, chances are you won't have to think about work any more until the morning. That leave s you free to watch TV all night or whatever you want. Studying and working at the same time sucks, as when you get home, you realise that you still have that huge assignment thats due tomorrow and you haven't finished yet. Although it does give you a little incentive to start early on those.

In contrast to previous things such as school and uni, the type of gossiping is quite different too. I guess this in part comes from the vast difference in age and siginificance of the gossip. For example, a romantic relationship in the office is usually of more significance than one with people studying the same subject at university. If, God forbid, you happen to get into one of these with someone in a higher position than you, it can work well, or if it turns out bad, could be disasterous for your career. So for many people, its not a road they're usually willing to go down. For others, its an oppurtunity to move up the food chain.

I guess that leads on to politics in the office. Somehow, its remarkably similar to school life. Theres a few situational things which make it so. Firstly, you don't get to choose who you're with. School classes were set for the whole year, so when you get into a job, the people that you work with won't change until somebody either leaves or gets hired. Its a little different from uni where you have more of a chance to pick your friends and the people you hang around. So basically, if you're working with somebody you don't like, its probably a good idea to just get used to it. Talking about them behind their back normally doesn't really help the situation, because in an office, rumours spread like wildfire. Trust me.

Another thing is that there will be some manager person who has authority over you. In school, this was your teacher. If you got along well with them, you'd probably do well. Otherwise, you weren't going to get anywhere. Take for example a certain Mr. Geography/History teacher at my high school. For the whole year, he didn't even know my name. In the end, I got 50 for the subject. To his credit, I'll admit that I can't colour in very well, but my geography is probably better than your average person. I think he decided that it would be harsh to fail anyone he didn't know, but it wouldn't do to have them do really well either. I guess thats what happens when your manager doesn't know who you are either. Performance reviews probably aren't going to be glowing.

So people who want to move up in the company suck up to the managers. They get noticed, and then they get promoted. It sucks how that works (or how it doesn't). Politics is just something you have to deal with if you're in the office. Although this is probably a lot less prevelant in a smaller organisation. There aren't that many people to suck up to, and less people to do it.

Although probably not specific to an office working environment, an organisation's culture is also important to a job. I'm not talking country culture here. We'd normally be used to the culture of a country we're in, and if we're not, that'd be a whole other blog post. We're talking about the culture specific to a company. A supporting culture is probably a lot better than one which is focused on individuals and ambition. At least for the comfort of the employees. Its a pretty big topic, but if we just have the idea that its important, that will do :)

Anyhoo. Thats all I've got for now. Anyone else?

I hate interviews (and the selection process in general)

*sigh* Its over. I finally found some sort of industry related work to do over the summer. Hopefully it'll make finding a job some time after uni a lot easier. I was quite worried about it for a while. Everyone else seemed to get offered something a lot earlier, and for a while there I was content to accept the fact that I wasn't really good enough to get into anything. Although, I didn't really try that hard with companies like Deloitte and those sorts of companies. I think by the time I got to them , I just couldn't be stuffed anymore. They were all the same. Long, draining, and required a lot of things to be made up.

It kind of makes me think that I should have tried a little harder.

To get the position I was offered today was probably the longest selection process I've been through for a job. Well at least in terms of time required to go through it. Actually, Coles Myer may have taken longer, but I'm glad I didn't get a job there now.

Anyway, so the whole thing involved firstly a web based application which involved some psychometrics and the usual things involving employment etc. Then... just last month I finally got called about it. Took them long enough! 3 hours of psychometric testing later, and after some more anxious waiting time, there was the interview.

Apparently, the correlation for somebody's performance in an interview and their performance on the job is only something like .24 (if you use Pearson's d, the closer the number is to 1, or -1, the more likely it is that the two factors are related). Moreover, if you used an unstructured interview format, that is, if the interviewers just ask what they feel like asking instead of sticking to a script, then the correlation is something like .12. So I find it rather ridiculous that its the most widely used selection technique used to choose people. Other things like intelligence testing have a lot better correlation figures. I think that goes upto something like 0.6 for management related positions.

How much easier would it be if you could just do some sort of test which would be related to what sort of tasks you would actually do on the job, and you could be selected on that? I'm sure it wouldn't actually be too hard to set up. Although I guess for some jobs thats kind of unfeasible, (as they may actually need extensive training to do the job), it would still make sense in a lot of situations.

I'm guessing its because employers just want to make sure that you're not some sort of psycho axe killer who goes around bashing stuff up when they need to. Although... some of the people my current employer just recently hired sort of lean in that direction.

For those of you who asked, and anyone else who's interested, heres some of what happened today:
I actually got into the city quite early. The interview was only at 10am, but I was so used to going in to work at 9 that I got up around the same time and only left slightly later than normal. I ended up sitting at maccas eating breakfast, and just trying to kill time. Its not good to get there TOO early, so I've heard. 15 minutes was about right. It gives time for the receptionists to watch you reading the Australia Financial Review, as if you're actually interested in the economic markets. It was kind of funny actually, the receptionists got up to take me into the interview room, and they said I could take the paper in with me if I wanted to read it while waiting for the interviewers. I did so of course, what else was I meant to do except stare at blank walls?
Yeah.. so they come in, you say hello, shake their hand, etc. The usual and expected. Then they have a small chit chat about yourself. It turns out that the IT manager there lives in the same suburb I do. Helps with the whole getting to know each other thing.
Then they go through the structured part of the interview. I was told that it was going to be a behavioural one, and thats pretty much what it was. For those of you who are so sick of doing those web based applications, this would have been just like that except you had to do it on the spot, and also in person. So its hard to make things up. Thus, most of what I said was really quite honest, except for maybe a couple of things :P
So the things were the usual: Explain a situation where

you did something wrong

you felt really stressed/were under lots of pressure

something didn't go to plan

plans changed, and how you dealt with that etc.

Then there was the obligatory question: Where do you see youself a) at the end of your uni course, and b) in 5 years time?

I actually thought about that one for a while. Like... during the morning, and last night. Couldn't really come up with a coherent answer. It was quite unexpected, because when they asked, it just came to me. This is not to say that you shouldn't have a prepared answer for this type of question, I just didn't have one before I went in. My answer consisted of what would have been almost pure honesty. I said I don't know. Its hard to say because I'm not really too familiar with the industry, and the lack of experience hasn't really allowed me to see what kind of oppurtunities are available.

Apparently that was sufficient because the nice HR lady called me later to say congrats.

WOOHOO!

A big investment bank just offered me an intern position during Jan/Feb!!!

Thats a big load off my mind. Now... Just to turn down the other bank that offered me an interview. MUahahahahahahah!

Gold is up over $500US an ounce

Thats the most interesting thing I've heard all day. I'm so sick of 'buddying' with new people at work. Its really draining. Hopefully that will all be over soon. They're meant to start on ... actually its tomorrow!

Lazy day

Today was one of the laziest days I've ever had at work. Not only was it a Friday, it was really nice outside. So after actually getting to work early for once, we helped to train a lot of new people who are coming in. Then... we somehow got an unusually longer lunch, and even an extra break during the day while they were fixing some stuff up with the system.

Almost at the end of the day, I got another call from another bank, about another summer degree related position. Twas nice. Things are looking up! Although I don't think I should become too hopeful. Ah well, theres always my current job as backup.

blah

I have to start off with the obligatory excuse for not blogging so much recently: I just haven't had the inspiration. I think it has something to do with being stuck at home or being at work the whole week. Nothing has actually happened.

Had my 2nd last exam today. It was okay.

I have a psychometric test tomorrow for an intern job at a relatively large organisation. In addition, I also have a psychology exam. The exam is about Industrial and Organisational Psychology. Part of that is the selection process and the methods they use to choose the right people. How oddly ironic and somewhat appropriate.

Exams

I forgot to say how I think I went.

Welll.. Meh.

God... again

Because I've got nothing better to say.

While I'm waiting for the next episodes of my favourite TV shows to finish completing their transition, I'm going to blog. And because I'm a relatively boring person, theres nothing to blog about in my life.

My sister and I were having this discussion the other day, after she read my previous blogs. Actually, she refers to it an as argument, but I don't think I was really trying to argue anything, I was trying to understand something. Everyone seems to comment on hers like I'm the bad guy. Well fine, I'm the one who's going to hell by their standards, so whatever.

What I was trying to understand was the issue of faith. I had a lot of trouble trying to figure out why some people do make that 'leap of faith' and choose to believe in some higher being. The way I understand it now is that nobody actually understands God well enough to answer all the questions that seem to crop up about his existence. So in the void created by the lack of understanding, people have filled it with faith.

I don't think anybody really knows this, but sometime in year 12, when I was having one of those 'meaning of life' crisis, I went round to the local Christian gathering. This was about the time of the 9/11 thingy, so there were some flyers going around saying something like "Why did God let this occur?". So, procrastinating instead of studying for my exams, and trying to solve my rather bad state of depression, I figured I'd go and listen to what they had to say.

After a bunch of loud shouting (which seemed to be directed at me, I think I was the only gentile silly enough to read the flyer and attend), their arugment in a nutshell to explain the suicide flights was that God works in mysterious ways. I thought, omg, this sounds familiar. But nonetheless, I stayed behind to ask questions. Nothing they could come up with could actually go any further than that. Shouting at me doesn't really help the situation. I was after reason, not noise.
"We don't profess to know God's will." was their general gist of evading questions they didn't know how to answer. Well, neither do I, but I know that if I were God, the 'much greater good' would overcome the free will of a few suicide bombers who didn't really believe that I existed anyway. The sacred free will vs sacred humans lives thing. Maybe its because free will outlasts human life. That makes sense at least.

So I think that congregation still has faith that God let that happen because its all part of his plan. The preacher that night thought that part of that plan of sacrificing 4000 lives was to bring me into the fold. I guess he read that one wrong. There was another bloke who wrote this small book about God. It attempted to explain things. I read it, and it didn't really say anything I didn't already know (or hear about at least e.g. God loves us all awwwww *hugz*). I think I've still got that book somewhere.

Anyway, lets not get into the whole FW vs GP debate again, we've been over that.

So the hole that faith seems to fill is a big one for me. For others, its a matter of simplicity: God obviously exists, because He makes a big impact on my life. He creates a world where I'm mostly happy, and I have things which make me so. I should be thankful for the things He has done. Theres two problems (at least).

1. One is in the explanation: They assume that God exists or that the scriptures tell the truth, and then use this to justify the events. Normally I'd like to infer things from other things which are quite likely to be true. E.g. Pens write, I have a pen, therefore I can use the pen to write. Whereas 'believers' tend to think, I can write, pens can write, therefore I must have a pen. You could have a bowling ball dipped in paint and roll it around a large piece of canvas, but I'm not sure if thats writing. Assuming the conclusion and then using the conclusion to explain things isn't a very good approach.


2. Another is in the way they form the causal link between God and all the things that happen. Oh crap, I just realised this goes into all that FW and determinism shit again. Nup, screw that. Wait... I've got something. People pray to God asking for things. (E.g. "Please help me to do well on my exams...", "Help me get some more friends who are nice", or a more altruistic one: "Help me to help others") Let's see where I can take this without touching on determinism.
   Theres a lot of conflicting views on how God is meant to be a part of your life. To some, he heals illnesses, solves worldly problems, and generally does nice things. To others, he's only a spiritual guider, supposedly leading people towards what they imagine he wants them to be. There are a lot of published instances where poeple have said that their belief in God has somehow allowed them to escape some life draining disease which the doctors said was terminal. Somehow, I don't see how they get to that conclusion. Don't rubbish me with that 'Oh it must be God, what else could it be?' thing. It could be anything. Maybe it was a misdiagnosis. Maybe the doctors don't actually understand the disease well enough to explain why it happened. We don't even understand how or why we develop different types of cells yet, so understanding the rest of the body could take a bit of doing. Jumping to a conclusion of a higher being, wayyyyyy beyond our level of understanding, imbuing one person with the ability to overcome a terminal disease, the silently retreating, isn't exactly rock solid. Maybe aliens landed during the night and transplanted their prostate while they weren't looking. I think thats got about as much of a chance as the God one.

Faith does not remove the need for reason and justification. It just bypasses it. When people talk about testing faith, I think they're referring to testing whether their rational thinking would overtake their somewhat hard to justify beliefs. I don't see why people resist. Unless reason is the devil, and heaven is the ultimate mindnumbing place where absolutely no rational thought takes place, I'd be inclined to go for reason.

Forgive me for being blunt, but I think faith is a layman's way of looking at the world. Its like saying... 'Oh I can't be stuffed figuring it out, I'll just go by what you said even though it doesn't really make sense'. Seeking to understand something, and having the ability to admit the lack of understanding in something is more wisdom than just having the faith to believe. I know I always say "Whatever you say" or just agree with most things, but a lot of the time its to reduce conflict. But for the things that really matter, I'll take a stand.

As for Fi's idea of listening, yeah, sometimes we're not always right.
"god's always listenin to mE i can vouch for that" (Fi, 2005)
"God exists because I say so" (The implcation?)

Awesome

I just woke up at around 12:45. Since then, I've been studying for my computer science subject - interactive system design. I think I've finished. Thats a record for me. I even managed to answer the questions to the past 5 years of exams. Well.. at least in my head and not on paper, but its not hard. They haven't changed much over the past few years, and they always ask this one question about affordances, constraints and natural mapping. Theres also always a question on key stroke level modelling. So thats about 20% of the exam which is pretty much set.

Too bad its a hurdle requirement to pass, otherwise I might have just answered those two. LoL.

Corporate Ethics

OK. I think thats enough talking about God for one week.

So tonight we're moving on to something a little bland. Thats right, you guessed it, corporate ethics. Now what do we mean by corporate ethics? Well, I don't actually know, so we're just gonna wing this one.

Theres a bunch of people going around arguing that corporations should be socially responsible. That is, they shouldn't take advantage of people, or the world in general. They should also give back to the community. For example, some guy at work managed to get a grant to give to his kid's kindergarden. All he had to do was apply, apparently. I thought it was kind of silly because only organisations nominated by employees could possibly get grants. In a way, its limiting the types and number of organisations which could obtain such benefits. What happens to the others?

What might be a better idea is to reduce the cost of their products to their customers, so that they can use the money they've saved to buy their own treehouse and donate it to the kindergarden. Better yet, they can spend it on booze.

Maybe it doesn't count because its a mega organisation which Australians seem to love to hate. I don't think I should say which one it is explicitly in case some suits rock up at my door threatening to disconnect my grandfather's cable tv. He lives on that thing.

Anyhoo. I'm here to argue that corporations shouldn't really need to do things like that. Companies (at least in Australia), are treated as separate legal entities from the people who own and work in them. One great thing about this is that if the company goes backrupt, the shareholders get away scot free. Unless of course you get caught. This is always fun when you pay youself heaps from your own company and then it goes kaput'. Then you get investigated and people in suits start raiding your pacific island and stealing your holiday boats :( .

Companies are created to simplify things, and make money. If you owned a company, it would probably be to make money. As a corporate entity, they have fixed levels of income tax (currently at 30%), which is a lot less than the current top income tax rate. They also let a bunch of people own it, which is different from a person. A person is still a legal entity but you can't own one. At least not in this country.

So why do people argue that corporations should be socially responsible? I don't know really. I guess its because people want to get over their own stupidity and want someone to blame when they did a big boo boo. Theres numerous examples of such things, heres two off the top of my head:

• I heard of this thing where this large bank was approving car loans to aboriginals at the top of Queenland. They were all living on centerlink benefits, so it ended up with people having something like $20 to live off every week after they made their loan repayments. I don't see this as socially irresponsible, I think its stupid. Not only are the people borrowing money a bit silly in biting off more than they can chew, the money lender is also kinda stupid. Which bank would lend people money if they know they can't pay it back? Thats right, the Commonwealth Bank. This is not to say that this is the only bank that does this. Banks lend money to dole bludgers all the time. Sittin on their arse and using their credit cards until they run out of limit, then go get another credit card. So I'm stereotyping, whatever...we'll get to that another day.


• Everyone knows about those people who have ridiculously high phone or internet bills. There was this whole saga how some poor sod who had a bill in the thousands of dollars. So what they did was go on telly, tell their sob story, and then somehow managed to get most of the bill written off. People should learn what they're getting themselves into. Sure, if you're new to the area, find out about it, consider some alternatives, then make your choice. Don't go blindly to the biggest thing you find and embrace it like Winni the Pooh Bear, however huggable it may be.
  

Ok I've had enough. Corporate Ethics is a load of crock. People aren't going to buy your products because you sponsor charity events or cancer curing organisations. Or maybe I'm just an evil capitalist >:D

In other news

1. Somebodys cat got shipped to France by accident.
2. Tomorrow is a public holiday (Melbourne Cup!) but I'm working, and will gets heaps of $$$$.
3. Exams are next week and I haven't started studying
4. Daylight savings has started and its scary

Next... Intelligent design

Keeping in line with this week's theme of writing heaps, its time to shoot down the idea of Intelligent design. I'm not going to take credit for this one. I actually read an article in a magazine which had most of the ideas I'm about to put down.

For those of you who don't know what we mean when we say Intelligent Design (ID), let me lay it down for you. Basically its the notion that this universe is too well designed, too well structured, for it to be made by chance. The idea is that it could only have happened if someone, or something, wanted it to happen out of concious thought (or whatever the alternative to thought may be).

So thats their argument basically. The world is too perfect to have been made by chance. I think its silly because nobody actually knows what the alternative is. Nothingness, including the non-existence of space, is hard to imagine. I mean, you could imagine it, but all I can come up with is blackness. The thing is though, even blackness is something. How can you possibly have nothing?

I'll be one of the first to admit that this universe does seem to be rather nice. I mean, the weight of a quark is supposedly good. Apparently if it were slightly different, the universe would have collapsed in on itself before it even begun. The thing is though, we would never be here to consider the possibility of intelligent design if it were different. Now I don't know whether the existence of this 'perfect universe' is actually enough to say that someone designed it. The existence of a universe would only show that one exists, not that something created it. Its like saying I have good eyes because I must have eaten some carrots. It could be true, but it is impossible determine the cause you only know the effect.

Then we run into the age old infinite question of, if it was made by something, then what made that something? To put it more explicitly, if a God made the universe, then who made God? And so on and so forth. It just goes nowhere, and then we're only delaying the inevitable. These questions are always fun to ask, however.

Lets say something did design the universe. I wonder how many they flopped through before they came up with this one. Universes that go backwards in time (Red Dwarf anyone?), or what about the one where they didn't get it right and it flopped before it even started? The possibilities are only limited by our imagination, or those of our creators. It kind of reminds me of thse time in chemistry when we were trying to separate some flammable liquid or something, and instead of it falling through the tube, it caught on fire. Oh the memories. But I digress...

This is not to say that ID is such a bad thing. They've got a theory, and trying to find evidence to support it. However, the only evidence they have is existence. The problem is drawing a substantial argument to link the two together apart from "just because".

Oh the mysteries of the universe... This one is almost as hard to figure out as why Soh is always late. I have a feeling that one will stay locked away for all eternity.

God's plan

There has always been this thing about fate. Many religions preach it, astrology certainly preaches it, The Matrix has some elements, and so does Mortal Kombat: The Movie (I am the one). What is it about fate that we find so attractive?

Keeping with my theme of bagging Christianity most of the time, I've decided to do just that. Justification of fate from a Christian point of view seems to revolve around the notion of God's plan. From my somewhat limited reading of Christian stories of rebirth and divine intervention (its so short, I'll list it: Run Baby Run, starring Nicky Cruz; The Hiding Place, starring some Jews, I think and most recently, The Cross and the Switchblade, starring a minister with a cameo appearance from Nicky Cruz), they all seem to mention God's plan. The novels appear to basically present the author's narration of what they percieve to be God's plan working in their own lives, and how that has brought more people to Him.

So lets assume God's plan for people does exist for the moment.

Free will is another theme which is on the other side of the fence as fate. Belief in free will allows people to percieve that they have more control over their lives, that what they do has some impact - the whole cause and effect thing. As a side note, positive affectivity, i.e. the belief that one's actions can and will have an effect on one's life, reduces the risk of stress *insert fatalist comment from devoted communist here*.

Yet Christianity also preaches free will. God gave us free will, thats why Adam and Eve ate the apple from the tree. I, however, eat apples less frequently. Enough said about Christians and free will.

So how does God's plan (GP) fit in with Free Will (FW)?

I don't think they contradict too much. Apparently if you freely devote yourself to God, thats what it is. However, the problem lies in interaction. Fi says that God has someone for her, where they'll be perfect (in terms of being a spouse). Now, lets skip over the statistical probabilities of finding that said person, and that he exists. What if he doesn't quite follow GP? What if he's using his FW to marry some other person?

Moreover, whats to say that GP even involves having the best of things? Bill Gates is apparently the anti-christ, and he's doing quite well for himself.

I'd say Fi's pretty screwed. Maybe its because I don't believe in 'the one'. I think more along the lines that people grow to love each other and all that stuff.

Oh well, apparently it still all works out. Whatever happens, they can always just fall back on 'God works in mysterious ways'. Seems to work for just about everything, as long as you have faith.

I think I've asked more questions than I've answered. But I think I'll sum it up in a take home message:

(GP + FW) ~= Pig Wif (Read into it)

Life sucks, just do whatever. Maybe it'll work out.

P.S. Don't actually read into it if you don't get it to start off with. Its very obscure.

P.P.S. I have finished my psych assignment

Just an update on me assignment yarrr

Ok, so I missed "International Speak like a Pirate day" by a few months. Better late than never I always say. Although if you're going to be late, at least let me know so I can keep sleeping.

Currently my literature review is on 1789 words, not including references. I'd say thats actually pretty good considering I slept at around 1am last night without doing any more work on it since the end of uni that day and I've had several hours of uni today. Whats even more impressive is that my list of references is currently sitting at almost 2 pages,. Thats approximately 600 words in references speak (according to MS word), or approximately 4 times as many references as I have for my average assignment.

Too bad I haven't actually read a single one of them from start to finish.

Its the end of semester! Well.. almost

Last week!

Bad thing about it is that we have exams, and I've actually got an assignment due on Thursday, and I worked this evening, I'm probably working Wednesday and I'm probably working Thursday too. Oh well, at least I've kind of started on the assignment. I've actually written about 700 words already, which is a good thing.

Time for an update

A few things have happened since the last posting:

1. IS Ball
Probably wasn't one of the best balls I've been to. Not enough alchohol basically. Also, the music wasn't that great. They kept skipping the good songs and had some really weird techno stuff mixed in between. You can see Garry's new thing for some pics. Alice also had some too, but I dunno whether its ok to put them up.

2. Actually I dunno what number 2 is
It felt like I did a few things this week, but apparently not. Played tennis again with Age on Tuesday morning, but thats about it really.

A week of nothing

We're extremely understaffed at work. A string of people leaving and being unable to work, including a few people who are about to leave makes it very hard on a small team. It doesn't help that I'm not there either.

Other than that, nothing much is new. I have to find a new place to have lunch. The usual places are starting to get really boring and stuff.

The weekend went by so fast

So fast in fact that when I woke up this morning, I thought it was Friday.

Funny thing is though, I remember being really really bored on the weekend. I didn't actually DO anything except come into uni on Saturday and do my group assignment. The only other thing I did outside of the house was eat dinner at the restaurant. I think I skipped lunch and breakfast. No wait, I had lunch at red rooster on Saturday. Ah, its all coming back to me now (not Celine Dion style however).

As for what I did today... well.. almost missed the bus, came into uni, went to class, visited Terence at his consultation hour, went to class again, went out for lunch with relatives, came back to uni to do group assignment and now I'm sitting here, still at uni, blogging.

I'm actually waiting for dinner. Supposedly we're going out to some place in the city. We're not actually sure where we're going yet, but I'm sure it'll be some half baked place.

The other day when I was watching Batman Begins again, I noticed what made me like it so much. It was the music. That Hans Zimmer dude is so good. He also did the music for Gladiator, The Rock and The Lion King, just to name a few. Then I realised those are movies which I really liked as well (The Lion King is one of my all time favourties). I think its those really tense and inspirational scores he seems to come up with all the time. Its really inspriring of course, and it fits the scenes they've made in the movies really well.

Just today's 2c.

Something to write about

Or to write about nothing. There is actually nothing to write about, because I'm so bored tonight. Maybe I'll go see a movie by myself or something.

Another one of those strange things

I've noticed that our small circle of blogs seems to be a little funny. When one of us stops writing for an extended period of time, others seem to pick up the slack. Or maybe its the other way around. Maybe when one of us sees the others writing, they feel they don't need to write and 'fill in the gaps'.

Take for example last week. I didn't write a single word. In that week, Adrian wrote heaps. Even Sam wrote something once (however small and miniscule it might have been). The VMs seem to have bouts of inspiration, if thats the correct term. Theres occasional spurts of posts. Even Kerry, who normally only writes one or two posts a week came up with quite a few recently. Eric and his smallish blog is steady but seldom updated.

Now Adrian hasn't written anything, I've written a bit, and its like the amount of writing has more or less stayed the same overall. I'd blab on about harmony or chi and ki, but I don't think thats really relevant.

It was just curious to see the patterns. It doesn't really bother me why it happens, as long as I have something to read. Damn selfish of me :)

Home Alone

Tonight is a little lonely. I'm sitting in my room by myself, with nobody else in the house. My grandparents have gone on holiday, and so has my aunt. My sister is out at some church thing, and my parents are at work, as usual.

It may seem weird to some, but I'm rarely at home just by myself. I've always been used to having other people in the house with me. No its not because I'm popular, though sometimes I wish I were, its just that theres always some member of the family who's usually here. Usually my grandparents or aunt are at home. I'm used to the fact that my parents aren't at home, I don't think theres been more than a total of a month worth of nights where they've been at home earlier than 10pm in my entire life that I can remember.

This is not to say that its not that bad a thing. The experience is quite weird right now, and theres no nagging grandma or bored grandpa to distract me from what I'm doing (which was watching Batman Begins, again). It may just take a little getting used to... the serenity. Which reminds me of a strange thing my workmate was saying to me.

So heres the situation: You're on a really long road trip, playing Eye Spy.

"I spy, with my little eye, something starting with 'S'."
"Street sign"
"Nope"
"Shit"
"Nope"
"Steering wheel"
"Nope"
*Fast forward half an hour*
"Okay we give up, just tell us!"
"Oh you guys! SERENITY!"

Now who can actually SEE serenity?

Anyway, too much digression, or had I already finished what I was going to say? Oh well, that'll do.

No I'm not dead

I've been meaning to write for a while, just unable to build up the motivation to do so. I've also had something to write about for a while. It seems like a good idea to me, but will ultimately turn out to be a flop. Notice the conviction there. Ah.. literary genius in the making.

Chinese Product Quality

Firstly we need to define quality. It is not in the sense it has been used in the past i.e. with acronyms such as HQ, AQ etc. I didn't actually even know what those meant, nor the ranking system behind it. I think its only the guys who know. But I think I'll just leave it at that. Quality is (partly from dictionary.com's definition) as:

Superiority of kind: an intellect of unquestioned quality
OR
Degree or grade of excellence: yard goods of low quality

To me they mean the same thing. So to me that'll be enough.

In modern times, China has been associtated with low levels of quality. I shall now attempt to explain this phenomenon.

One of the problems with the Chinese culture is its selfishness. While it is officially a communist country, in reality its more of a dictatorship. The politburo controls everything, and the Communist party a.k.a. "The Party" supresses anyone who opposes them. It is only in recent times, with the advent of the Internet, that many of the Chinese have been able to speak out against the government. The Party epitomises the selfishness of the country. Many, dare I say, all of the members are in it to gain something personally. I don't mean to say that everyone is like that, and China is not the only country who has this kind of problem. We're all selfish to one degree or another.

The other issue which contributes to the problem is the short-sighted nature of a lot of Chinese people. This is probably true in a visual sense as well, but thats not really the point. Chinese will do whats best in the short term e.g. buy whats cheap even if its useless, sell dodgy products because possible punishment would be a relatively long time away. In fact, I'm in a room where the priority is actually going home right now instead of doing their assignment thats due on Friday. Gladly, I doubt anyone of them read this blog on a regular basis.

I don't actually wish to support this claim by any evidence, because this isn't really meant to be a substantial argument, plus I can't be bothered. Its just an inference I've made from my err... rather small period of life experiences.

Chinese, and quite possibly Asian people in general, are damn cheapasses. Yes, so I'm Asian too, and I'm a damn cheapass. From our sample size of one, we can generalise this to the rest of the population.

If you combine the above three propositions, you reach a conclusion where if the Chinese produce a product, we'll make it cheap, sell it even if its dodgy, and then it becomes your problem. If its your problem, we don't care about it anymore, and we won't spend any more resources on fixing your problem because... well... its yours. Following from this, if we're not prepared to fix your problem, we don't feel the need to reduce the problems that you have, that is, inproving the quality. Adding in the short term outlook, we couldn't care less if you are coming back to buy any more stuff later down the line.

In sum:
Selfishness + Short term outlook + Being a damn cheapass = Doing stuff at lowest cost == Low quality goods.

Stories

I should really get back into watching TV. The thing is, advertisments really piss me off. They just keep showing them! I realise that without the ads, there probably wouldn't be much TV, or I'd have to buy everything on DVD.

Its funny how when people tell stories in the form of TV shows, it can hook people. Actually its funny how stories in general can have people wanting more. Everyone seems to want to know 'what happens next'. In some ways, the internet has kind of let people know what happens next without even watching. Websites reveal the storylines to movies, shows and what not. So much so that some people probably don't even watch their TV shows anymore because they already know what happens.

I've never really believed in having stories spoiled. Its really bad when you're watching a movie, usually a thriller or some sort of mystery movie, and then they go and suggest the ending. I find it actually really annoying. I'd rather just sit back and let the people tell their story without any interruptions. I guess thats kind of why I like reading as well.

However, on the flip side, some things are just too predictable. For example, horror movies are the most predictable. Apart from being disgusted at the stuff that happens in them, thats probably why I don't watch horror movies. They're just so boring. Another genre of story which is fairly predicable is drama. Especially cheesy drama like the OC. I watch it because its addictive, and because its funny. Not funny in the conventional sense, but funny in that its... different. You can probably predict whats going to happen next because its the least likely thing to happen. Everything bad seems to always happen to Marissa too.

Somebody tell me a really good story.

P.S. Sorry for not writing a lot recently.

meow

Working lots sucks when you get home and you've got more stuff to do. Damn uni and work. Oh well. Thats about the extent of my life at the moment. 'Scuse me, I gotta do some more work.

Two things

1. I suck at bowling.

2. Cheek pinching is evil, especially when done to little kids.

World of warcraft is getting ridiculous

I'm almost ashamed to say that I used to play it. Luckily I didn't ever go fishing in the game, I conjoured up my food and water instead. Oh wait, thats just as bad :/

What they've done in the latest patch is make this new fishing competition for people to get involved in. What fun! Check it out. Its starting to get a little out of hand how far these MMORPGs go. Oh well... I guess sometimes doing stuff over and over again competitively can be kind of fun, sometimes.

Well... nothing actually

Theres really nothing to blog about. The only new piece of information I have about my life today is that Lucy the dog vomited and pooped in the car on the way to the vet and back. Not particularly good news at all.

Its getting very boring

My life, that is. I seem to be doing the same thing every week. Uni and work during the week, and then on the weekend theres usually something we've either made up or some other birthday thing going on. Other than that, nothing really has happened, hence the lack of blog posts.

I didn't even get any responses from vacation work applications. Well.. actually I got a letter in the mail, but it was a rejection letter. I don't know why they bothered.

Haven't blogged from work in a while

There isn't much new going on at work. However, apparently we're recruiting some new people soon. I have no idea from where or anything, but I guess if anybody wants a job... theres stuff available.

I got a new mouse and headset yesterday, so gaming is taking a whole new dimension. Well.. not really, but it was exciting while it lasted.

Managing the IT function

Today we're doing IT governance: Standards and Change Controls.

If we don't know where the IT is going, it doesn't really matter if you have brilliant IT. You need to create clear and appropriate IT governance (Broadbent and Kitzis, 2005:9). IT governence refers to the proper management of the IT group functions. It is a set of formal policies and processes put in place to ensure proper decision making around IT.

We need IT governence because:

• Potential for inappropriate and irrelevant processes that are not well monitored


• Risk management and control


• Clarification of roles and responsibilities


• Formalised integration, cooperation and collaboration

Good IT governence

• Builds trust


• Means better delivery


• Sychronises IT strategy with business strategy


• Encourages desirable behaviours in the use of IT

Why standards? Why benchmark?

• Best practice and standardisation


• Comparison


• Certification and trust building


• Internal controls


• Expert Input


• Diagnostics and analysis


• Process orientation

I can't be bothered anymore.

Fathers' Day

As per the usual Father's day present, I worked at the restaurant today. Yeah, we never really do anything for special occasions because we're always working on those days. So instead, what we do is postpone the occasion for a week, or even have it a week early. That way, we get both the benefits of a special occasion and not having the inflated prices that come with it. However, we don't even go out for special occasions, just have it within the family, so I guess its not that big a thing.

Catchup

The past couple of weekends we've been playing a lot of mahjong. Last Saturday night was one of those nights, and we played again last night. I'm starting to get the hang of it. We only started playing at around 9:30pm, but I think it was about 4:45am when people actually left. I don't think we actually played for that long since people were watching movies half the time while watching. We also had this massive break when we were going to stop, but then just kept talking. There was this big discussion about women in the workplace or something. It went for ages, and didn't get anywhere. I, however, was enlightened to the intricacies of child custody and child support payments in Australia. It was entertaining to say the least.

Anyway so after that we got to playing again.

In other news, Lucy the dog has become very playful. She bites when you sit down with her. Although she does like to sit in laps, which is nice :). I think she's meant to get some more injections in a week or so. Also, I have ordered a new mouse and headset to play games with.

Dying blogs

Its kind of sad to see some of the linked blogs die. But then its also good to see that some of the blogs that don't usually have much activity suddenly bustle with activity. Maybe its something to do with how happy their authors are feeling. The Viking Mistresses actively went out and declared the death of their blog due to anger (well at least the one named Olga did). Krispy Kreme also mentioned he couldn't really be stuffed anymore citing the open nature of blogs as an excuse not to post any more.

I'm capped

NoOooOooOo

I only realised it today, but my 'net has probably been capped for a few days now. That explains why everything kinda took too long.

I was going to blog on Tuesday in the labs like I usually do, but blogger wasn't working at the time, and now I've forgotten what I was going to say. Theres a lot of 'I's in this post. I think I'm getting very self centered.

In other news, the weekend was spent doing nothing except mahjong and assignments. The week has been okay in terms of everything and I've done some vacation work applications. Heres hoping for some sort of contact!

haven't blogged for ages

last friday:
uni, went to watch soccer

saturday:
yum cha with ilss, tennis, smorgey's for garry's birthday

sunday:
work up with a lil doggie :)
chinese lunch for grandma's birthday, came home to do some homework

monday:
uni and work

tuesday:
uni all day

wednesday:
work all day

thursday:
work all day

friday:
uni, came home to sit around
just finished tom clancy's red rabbit

Doggie pics

YAY!

My bad

Sorry. The dog is actually a cross breed. Cocker Spaniel and Beagle.

OMG

We now have a small black labrador named Misty (sorry Soh, it came like that).

New teamleader at work.. and stuff

So we have this new teamleader dude at work. It was kind of funny because he wasn't really used to how I work, or rather, how I get asked to come to work. Normally they just let me know. He asked me in the morning (by sms) if I was coming in. I didn't actually wake up until the afternoon. Oh well. Went in in the end, and we've figured it out, so its all good. Tis all good.

Smokers

I've always had something against smokers. My rationale is that smokers, and in turn, passive smoking is bad for my health. This comes in both the lung cancer threat and the fact that it doesn't really help my athsma.

There was another reason why I didn't really like smokers. They usually had a very smokey fragrance to their breathes. After a while, you can tell how much people smoke by how bad their breath is. Some people aren't bad, you can't actually tell they smoke. Maybe they use a lot of mouthwash. Some others don't seem to make that kind of effort, or really smoke a lot. Its really bad when they're close and talking to you. Is it alright to ask them to point their mouths in a different direction?

I was alarmed last week when I saw that even though Australia had one of the lowest smoking rates in the Western world, the rate was still about 17% (I'm assuming thats just the population that can legally smoke, otherwise we're in trouble). It was only alarming because I wouldn't think 17% of the people I know actually smoke, but recently, working in an office with a relatively smoker rate has perhaps changed this. Its also forced me to change the way I look at smokers. They're no longer the brainless idiots who seem to be wasting their money on an evil and ultimately useless vice, but they're actually quite normal. I still think they're wasting their money, but then, we all have things which we waste our money on - this was just their thing.

I remember one of the things a smoker said at a drinks night: "You're all going to die anyway." He seemed puzzled that people didn't indulge in the thing like he did. Well sure, we're all going to die, but I didn't really want to smoke. I think I'd rather sleep or spend the money gambling. At least thats more exciting. I didn't really see that as a good justification to smoke. Others have come up with better.

The thing is, you probably don't really need a good reason to smoke. People just do it because they enjoy it. But people who are meant to be role models for children also seem to smoke a lot. I remember when a bunch of teachers from my primary school had a function at the restaurant. It turns out most of them actually smoked quite a lot, and even cigars. This, of course, was before the law forbade people from smoking inside restaurants etc. I'd understand if they smoked to reduce the stress caused by working with a bunch of screaming little smart arses all day. But even some of the greatest minds and winners of the "Most Quoted People" in the world smoke(d). People like Winston Churchill (Prime Minister of Britain during WW2), Thomas Edison (inventor of the lightbulb), Douglas McArthur (Supreme Commander of the Allied forces in the Pacific theatre during WW2) just to name a few.

No wonder the smoking rate is still so high.

Here I am again

Today seems like an almost identical day to Tuesday last week. I'm sitting here next to Helga, again.

Helga: MAY I SAY YOU ARE BLESSED TO BE ALLOWED TO BE IN THE PRESENCE OF MOI RIGHT NOW. SO FINE. I AM GOING TO RUN AWAY FROM YOU NOW. HELLO EVERYONE.

Yes so anyway. The classes have been the same, the people are the same, I even had lunch with Sam again. So if you're wondering what happened today, just refer to last Tuesday.

Weekend and Monday

I have just finished GTA:SA. Well.. at least the storyline part of it.

Gaming is back

I'm really tired right now. Its probably not the best idea to go to work on about 6 hours of sleep. I'm just so used to sleeping late now. Its kind of bad actually. Anyway, I almost missed my bus stop on the way back home from work, because I feel asleep on the freeway. Its all good though, made it in the end.

So what was Ez doing last night I hear you ask: Actually nobody really cares, but I'll write it anyway. Last night I started to play counterstrike, again. *Collective groan* Yes yes yes, I've heard it all before. I am now officially back into computer games. So much so that I'm considering buying a new computer with my tax return. Well.. it beats waiting for the Xbox 360 or worse yet, the PS3. For those of you who couldn't tell, I'm also playing GTA:SA as well.

Unlikely as it may seem, I somehow got accused of cheating on one of the CS servers. Well actually its not that unlikely at all. A lot of people just accuse anyone who has a ration of 2 or more of cheating. It seems thats how they rationalise their own inadequacies. Although, I was doing quite well if I do say so myself :)

Oh Glorious... Tuesday?

It wasn't actually that good today. It was cold, windy, and rained sometimes.

Apart from that though, it was generally good. I brought my laptop to uni, and as usual, didn't actually do any work on it. Although I didn't bring it out in the first lecture, I actually listened, and I think I learned something. This was amazing because it was an IS lecture, but the only reason why I think I learned something is because it was a guest lecturer who has worked in industry as an academic. He had a good spin on things and actually had some sort of useful application of theory.

Also had a small psychology presentation. I don't think we stuffed it up too bad considering we didn't actually meet as a group like we were supposed to, but oh well. I was so bored since some of the groups decided to present the same article. Actually we heard almost the same thing three times all up. Was kind of depressing.

Today's lecture in psychology was on workplace stress. I don't really feel much stress at my job in the call center. That can probably be attributed to the fact that its not really my problem if things don't get done. Since I'm probably working relatively hard most of the time anyway, I don't feel I can do that much more. But its kind of funny since when I'm waitering or working at the bar, I do feel quite a bit of stress when things pile up. I guess its because a lot more is actually being demanded from me. It doesn't help though since when it gets too much, I just don't work as hard. Thats something I learned from 3 repetitious presentations. Piling too much work on one person makes that person work less hard. They need to have realistic goals.

I could probably go on a bit more about what I actually listened to today in class, but you'd probably be bored by the time I finished, so I think I'll just leave it at that.

Time to go.

Lunch: KFC with Sam

P.S. GTA:SA anyone?

Oh glorious Monday

I think I just doubled the traffic to this site. Apart from me checking it thousands of times a day, a few people at work have visited. It looks as though I'll actually be working this week, since I'm actually at work now. Didn't really intend on coming to work when I got up, but one of the guys is away, so I'm filling in I think.

This morning, I had another one of those useless mobile applications lectures. In addition, I also had a tutorial for the subject. Both were almost a complete waste of time. The lecture was...errr... actually I can't remember. But the lecturer spent a lot of time just talking about her mobile phone, which was one of those old 3210s. Classic...

The tutorial was even worse. Remember this post? Well.. basically we did that all over again. This time with a really boring tutor. I think Kaz almost fell asleep. I spent the whole time typing an email and playing smash tennis for snes.

Thats my day so far. I'm meant to go for dinner later with my aunt, but I think I'll be a little late since I'm at work till 7. Oh well.

Exersisey weekend?

First bout of err... relatively extensive exersise was this weekend.

Saturday:
- Mowing the lawn
- Playing some tennis

Sunday:
- Badminton

It was good.

Something to blog about

I realise that my last few posts have been few and far between, and they're usually short and boring. So today its something a little bit more substantial.

Currently I'm sitting in one of my lectures. Mobile Technology Applications. Supposedly today we're learning about critical mass theory. The lecturer is saying that the theory comes from physics, from the "Dummy's guide to physics" or some such. Just goes to show how low the information systems field is going to get their developments and new theories. It seems like a whole bunch of garbage to me. Well, not garbage, more like common sense. Basically he's saying that this theory applies in situations where there is "adopter interdependances". That is, it applies in situations where the use of technologies relies on other people using the technologies. Obviously you can only call people on a phone if they have a phone themselves (or are near one).

This is ridiculous because theres another theory which is just as good. There was that whole 'graph of hype thing' which has been around for ages as well. This critical mass theory has some graph that looks like a standard bell curve which he grabbed from Rogers (1995). I think I like the hype curve better.

Now he's going on about a public goods as a result of people using the new technology. Technically its not a public good since people are actually paying for it... I don't think he's ever done economics before. Somebody correct me if I'm wrong and I'll be forever shamed. He's saying the internet is a public good. Hardly... we're paying for it. People are paying for it, a market economy doesn't need to tax to pay for it. It didn't need any government intervention to make it happen. It was even created in the most market orientated economy in the world - the big US of A.

We've moved onto an 'S' curve to explain the integrated bell curve. Its kind of funny, because all he's talking about is the shape of the S. Looks like... a more curvey 'S'. It all reminds me of Strong Bad's Dragon E-mail. Go watch it, its hilarious. 'First, draw an S, and then draw a more different S' - Classic. Its intellectual standard is about on par with this lecture as well.

Somehow theres another curve which does some other stuff. Its modeling the same thing but it looks different. Basically its saying you're going to have trouble achieving critical mass if no new people use the product. Great, thanks for that.

They're really struggling now. Its only 40 minutes into the lecture and they've run out of things to say. Oh well. At least its easy I guess.

P.S. For those of you who may be remotely or may just pretend to be interested, I've written a review for lego star wars... cos I was bored.

Becuase I'm bored

Too much battlefield 2 and less time to think means Ez is a very boring boy

Another Weekend

I was going to blog about old ladies on the bus, but I figured I couldn't be bothered.

This weekend, I mostly sat around. But I did play some mahjong, cards, and went to see the Island.

Moo

These past two days have been kind of boring. Been playing battlefield quite a bit. Other than that, been getting up late and hardly doing anything the whole day.

Went to check out some new cars for my aunt today. Nothing special. I don't know anything about them. *sigh* I gotta find something to blog about other than my boring days spent at home doing nothing all the time.

Semester 2

Uni started again on Monday. Its kind of weird going back to uni and not having to work. It must be really quiet at work or something. Either that or they figured they can do without me now :) Oh well.

Anyway, onto uni. Psychology this semester is probably going to be the most interesting out of all the psychology subjects I've taken so far. We've only had an introductory lecture, but still....

Interactive system design actually looks a little interesting too. While the lecture notes aren't really that great (they're in html without any formatting for some weird reason), hopefully the content will be interesting.

The other subjects are IS. I don't think they'll be TOO interesting, but should be ok.

I've also got 2 days off uni. This is like the second time I've ever had days off uni. I think I'm going to turn into more of a bum than I am already :(

21sts

After work on Friday, I was feeling really anti social, so Dave's 21st was kinda a bit of a sit around eat kind of thing. I didn't even drink because I drove. The speeches were good however.

Saturday night was Sabz'. Well... at least I got to drink.

Another long day

Yes, work, again.

Made a personal record today, almost 300 calls. AHhahaahahah.

Granted this was over a 10 hour shift (with an hour of breaks scattered here and there), giving an average time of around 2 minutes a call. Pretty funny. However, due to people being sick, we're still very busy and stuff, so more work tomorrow.

I'm bored, this blog is boring. Maybe I'm boring. *sigh*

Work, again

Half the people seem to be sick today. Well, at least half the people at work and the people I call as well. Either that or they've just pulled sickies. Doesn't really matter for us casuals though. If we're not there, we just don't get paid. Fair enough really.

So out of the people who were sick we had the team leader, the senior rep, and two of the other people who help me do the stuff I needed to do. That just about eliminated everyone that could even possibly help me. Inevitably, I got asked to do some 'extra time'. Its not called overtime because we don't actually get paid any extra for it. Not only that, I also got stuck with a bit of the admin work as well. Granted there wasn't exactly much, but it was the first time I'd done it before, so even though I knew it happened, it was still new. So in the end, we're way behind schedule and seriously need to do some hardcore catching up. I'm just glad thats not my responsibility.

Chances are we'll be short staffed tomorrow as well. Yup, seriously screwed.

After I got back home and ate, I watched some telly. Some shows have started their new seasons just recently, and they look to be rippas. I don't think I'll bother going through them. Can't be bothered at the moment.

Do lions pur?

Purrhaps, purrhaps not

Shamelessly ripped from a combination of The Sydney Morning Herald and my somewhat crazy sense of humour tonight.

For those of you who are really curious, yes they do, when they exhale.

A day out with da ladies

Went out for Helga's Birthday today. We just all trooped down to the nearby city to have lunch. I only realised on the way down that I'd be the only guy with a fairly large bunch of girls. It was kind of weird, but okay I guess. Just.. weird. It just inflates my own notion of being some kind of pimp.

I was with Olga, and we were late, but thats kind of expected these days. There were people even an hour or later. Then there was somebody who said she was 5 minutes away, and then somehow decided she wasn't going to come anymore. I found that a little weird.

The place wasn't that great, and the food was somehow ridiculously expensive, but otherwise okay. I think most of us had a good time. We did the whole Asian thing where theres a whole bunch of dishes and we all share. However, their medium dishes were really small, and their large dishes were kind of... small... We didn't actually get any 'small' dishes, but I can only imgaine how big (or small) they would have been.

After a whole series of confusion, we all trooped around to go have dessert, which was nice. Too much chocolate and several minutes spent agonising over the bill later, we all went home. Olga decided to buy the new Harry Potter book on the way after changing her mind about... 3 times during the trip. Bought it in the end though, so I guess tonight and tomorrow will be spend reading that...

Few things to say

1. Banged up Ford Lasers from the 1990s with a huge exhaust and simulated turbo are so NOT in.

2. Blue National Buses are really really similar and definately look like Ventura Buses

3. Had a good time tonight at a bar with work buddies.

4. Bus rides home with nothing to do suck.

5. I don't seem to get as bad asthma around smokers now.

Fi cracked the &^%@ at me again today

Yeah. I dunno whats up with that. Obviously we're not as close as we used to be. Guess it happens to everyone though. Drifting apart that is. She thinks I'm lazy, I think she's lazy, ridiculous and hypocritical. Maybe its to do with our diverging beliefs.

Its stupid, because every time she cracks it, she comes back to me later and apologises because apparently it was a bad day or whatever. I just figure a simple solution to it all: get a grip on your temper.

Confidence with a capital err... A

I've been meaning to do some sort of meaningful post for a while now, but things have been taking up my time. Well... not really 'things' as such, its more like just Battlefield 2. I think I play it way too much. Not nearly as much as some people, but still quite a lot. Anyway, so here goes.

con·fi·dence
n.

1. Trust or faith in a person or thing.
2. A trusting relationship: I took them into my confidence.
3. a. That which is confided; a secret: A friend does not betray confidences.
b. A feeling of assurance that a confidant will keep a secret: I am telling you this in strict confidence.
4. A feeling of assurance, especially of self-assurance.
5. The state or quality of being certain: I have every confidence in your ability to succeed.

Shamelessly ripped from Dictionary.com.

Hwang (2005) suggests the female half of the species likes to see confidence in the male half.

Actually, I can't be stuffed finishing this off.

Basically, I don't like arrogant people.

Catch up time

Errr.. I can't really remember everything that happened but heres a rundown

-Thursday
Halfday at work
Went home and sat around, I think, pretty sure I went out at night, but can't remember where. Oh yes... old boys reunion/catch up thing. Was nice

-Friday
Day off work
Went to PP at night after sleeping in the whole day and playing BF.

-Saturday
Slept in half the day and went to Alex's birthday at night. mMMmmm buffet. Ate so much I couldn't walk properly.

-Sunday
Err... Another day of nothing.

Thats all!

It always seems to be every couple of days now that I update my blog. I don't really have any kind of excuse, I have heaps of free time during the night. I guess its just because I just want to play battlefield instead.

Anyhoo - Stuff thats been happening:

- Got paid today
- Went to see Batman Begins last night. It was actually HEAPS better than I expected! Definately recommended and worth the $5.25 I paid for it (Yeah it was tight arse Tuesday).
- Umm... I can't really remember anything that happened before that... Just work and err... stuff.

The weekend!

Friday I had work. I was only actually asked to go in for a half day. I spent all of Thursday night playing Diablo 2, so the alarm didn't work and I was late. But there was a whole heap of work to do, and they asked me to stay later. I didn't really mind since I had nothing else to do.

It was even worse when I got home. I was really really really bored. Rob was trying to pursuade me to go and buy battlefield 2 because I had nothing else to do. Then I got asked to do a home delivery, so that settled it. I went over to the local Dick Smith's and got myself a copy. As a side thought, I also got a book for myself to read on the bus on the way to work and back. All I've usually been doing on the way is just sleeping. I'm not sure which one is better, because I don't feel any better after sleeping on the bus.

So... I spent a lot of time playing Battlefield this weekend. Its kind of fun. Look for a review on MSCG soon. The only other thing I did was go out to watch War of the Worlds. It was actually better than expected. Aliens invading earth has never been an easy thing to make a movie about, but Speilberg did a pretty good job. I'll try not to spoil anything so all I'll say is this: It was really intense throughout most of the movie, but it had a pretty dull ending.

Day off

Today was a day off work, so I took the oppurtunity to get out and about. I went to see Mr. and Mrs. Smith. It wasn't exactly what I'd expected. It was more about humour and a play on suburban lifestyle than anything. However, the action scenes were pretty good though considering. They did well to mix in the whole married atmosphere too.

I also went shopping for a little bit. Bought some JEANS! Haven't owned jeans for ages and now I have two pairs. I was also looking for Battlefield 2, but the place I went to didn't have it, so I guess I'm not playing that for a little while yet.

Sent home early from work :(

Today was a pretty quiet day at work. I pretty much finished all the stuff I was responsible for before about 11am. The people who process stuff before me don't seem to be doing anything. Or maybe I'm just working too hard get stuff done too fast. Heheh.

Theres two sides to the coin. One is that now I have a bit of time to do things, since I don't even have to go to work tomorrow, but the flipside is that I don't get as much money. Oh well, I guess I don't need THAT much money, and I guess I need some time to get things done, like get some new glasses and buy battlefield 2.

Maybe I'll even go see a movie tomorrow, and use those tickets from call of the month I got a few weeks ago. YAY.

Groups and names

Its definately been a while since I've done any real thinking. Most of the past couple of weeks have been full of sitting around procrastinating from thinking or doing mindless work to earn money. So instead, I think I'll do a blog about friendship groups. I'm not sure if I've done one on them before, but I just did a search through my previous posts, and it didn't look like it, but its quite possible I missed something. Oh well, somebody let me know if I'm just repeating myself.

Friendship groups are funny things. Each has their own inside jokes, their own little culture, and just various little things which make it unique. For the people who might belong to multiple friendship groups, you can see this quite clearly, and in many circumstances groups aren't compatible at all. There will always be one person from one group which will have something against someone else in the other group. I guess thats why they're separate groups.

Its a lot different when you only belong to one friendship group. Everyone else who isn't in your group is just that little bit weird. They talk a little differently so immediently you'll have to explain certain terms, or come out with the "don't worry" approach when they don't understand something. You might still do that if you belong to two, but you understand the problem.

I was just thinking about this whole group thing when I realised the other day that a number of different groups that I know actually know me by different names. My high school friends actually know me by a mix of names: Ali, Ez, Alistair. The VMs know me as AAAALI... with an emphasised AAAA (you didn't think I'd notice?). Uni friends know me as err... Alistair or Ali. Work friends know me as Al, and then theres another group of people who know me exclusively as Ez. When you ask them who Alistair is, they won't even have a clue. Its kind of funny really, how someone can have so many names. I just wonder what its like for those people with like more than one middle name, or even just one middle name!

Funny things that happen at work

As you probably know, my job involves lots of phone calls. In fact, I spend about 50% of my time actually on the phone, that is, in the process of making a call.

I actually got the hiccups today at work. Its actually been the first time since I'd started that I've had hiccups. Heheh... it was funny while it lasted, since I thought I'd just keep making calls. People started laughing, which is a good thing!

Various

I've meant to blog before, I just haven't really got around to it. I'm not really sure why, just used to procrastinating I guess.

I feel drained. I'm probably not getting enough sleep. I sleep on the way to and from work, and when I get back, all I do is sit around. I think I need to get more sleep, and get out more. The whole weekend was spent just sitting around pretty much playing games. I don't know why... wait I do: Because I had nothing better to do.

Funny thing happened to me at work today. I had to call somebody, and it was their work number. Turns out I called and Eric picked up. Was quite funny at the time, because I heard his voice but I asked for the dude, and then he said he wasn't there. I thought it sounded kind of like Eric... so I asked.

Yeah anyway, wasn't really all that funny. Actually things that happen at work are sometimes really funny, but they're more like inside jokes than anything. Nobody else would really get them.

Oh I'm so sad :(

Yay now I feel like other people

Sitting around at work doing nothing again. Nothing in the queues to do. I don't know what the people at the bank are doing. They must be all like... walking around like zombies mummuring 'credit card applications... errrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr..........' instead of
'brains........ errrrrrrrrrrrr....'

I'm not complaining though. As long as I get paid...

Bored

I'm at work again at the moment. I knock off in about 15 minutes, which is good. But this is one of the few times when I've really run out of things to do. Its quite strange because it normally doesn't happen very often when I'm here.

Maybe I just work too hard... haha... umm. nah.

So.. yeah just killing time and pretending to do work. Can't exactly sleep because its a fairly open office and people can look at me when they walk past. Oh well. Maybe I'll just leave a little earlier and catch the earlier bus.

I'm kind of bored when I get home now. I'm thinking maybe I should actually go out of my way to make a few phone calls to people I haven't talked to in a while. But then I remember a lot of people still have exams, and that probably wouldn't be an extremely good idea. However, a bunch of us have started playing diablo 2 again. That should be fun to get into for a while again.

Ho humz... 10 minutes left. Let me check if theres any more work to do.

Nup...

Other peoples' blogs haven't been touched recently. I wonder what everyone is up to. Dunno whats happening anymore. I need to go out. The free movie offer is still up for the first lucky person who wants to come and can send me a message.

Back to work, again

Its been more than a week since I've been making phone calls for money now. But suprisingly, it didn't feel all that different. I guess its because things don't change much at work. Theres a few new people at work. I don't really know who they are. Its just kind of adding to the number of people in my team I don't really know at work. Ah well, no huge loss, its not like we really hang out all that much outside work anyway. But hopefully there'll be Friday night drinks on this week, I haven't done one of those in a while.

In other news, I'm now part of this other blog. Its just another blog about random things. Well, not exactly random, but yeah. Guy stuff I guess. You can find it by clicking on this link.

Recent Happenings

Work, sleep, diablo 2, battlefield 2, eat.

Jeez I've been productive

Been playing too much Battlefield 2 demo. Couldn't really figure out how to fly helicopters, but I think I figured it out now. :)

Helicopter Landed on Crane

Click for bigger pic

YAY

Okay so I've done the psychology exam. It wasn't as bad as I thought it'd be, thanks partly to the cramming I did in the morning. Well okay, not really, I just got lucky with the questions. Luckily the essay questions gave the option to choose both family and language as topics to write on. Language was something I'd done last year in cognitive psychology, and family... well... it was even better that they asked us to write something on parentin styles, because thats easy. Coming from a different ethnic background and being exposed or aware of other parenting styles definately helped. I rekon I could have done that question without doing psychology. Thing is I wouldn't have been able to cite research. Oh well... can't really get us for plagarism in an exam... or can they?

On another note, I got my database assignment back today. I think I did quite well, which is a good thing. Hopefully the database exam won't be too hard either. We've also got a review lecture tomorrow. They asked us to bring some issues which we had trouble with, and since I hardly done any study for database so far, I don't have anything to add. I think I'll just go for the hell of it though. Might as well feel better when listening to the problems that other people have with material which I don't. But seriously, some of the questions they ask in these kind of sessions are pretty stupid. Yes, there is such a thing as a stupid question. I should know, I ask them all the time.

Bad thing happening:
The wireless adapter on my desktop computer is dying. The antenna fell off a while ago, and I can't seem to get it back on properly. I think I'll just get another adapter that supports WPA. Or maybe two.

In addition, my modem is dying too. The DNS server on it doesn't seem to want to work half the time, which makes browsing an absolute bitch. Seems like its one of those 'buying computer equipment' times again. Just gotta figure out where to get the money from without using a credit card...

I got nothin...

Its been so long, and I've still got nothing to write about.

*sigh*

This exam is killing me, and I've hardly done anything for it. Stupid psychology. I don't know if I want to keep doing it anymore. So disillusioned.

Exams

I've had two exams so far. One was for Project management, which was an absolute joke. It was almost exactly the same as last year's exam, that is, completely full of crap. Basically its a matter of how well you can crap on. You basically didn't even need to know anything except vaguely remember what you did last year in OAC about organisational politics. And even then, that was for 10% of the marks.

The second exam was software engineering process and practice. That was basically the same subject but from a software engineering point of view, so it required knowing a little more in terms of actual substance. It was different, but good I think. There were a couple of things which I didn't know, and I thought it was pretty silly they asked some questions from which they only had a couple of slides which covered, but oh well. It was kind of lucky that I'd done project management, because I wouldn't have known the answers if I didn't.

So now I'm procrastinating. Hmm.

Girls who don't like people and play netball

So its the night before an exam... and I'm going to blog.

Two things happened today. I went to work, and mum got back from China. At the moment, my house smells like Chinese firewater. I think I'll get drunk just from smelling too much of it.

The other night, a few of us (Mr. Soh, The Agemiester, Olga and I) made a trip to maccas. I don't really know why the others went, but I was DAMN hungry. Anyway, since maccas is such a happening place, we spent almost two whole hours there talking about stuff. Maccas is da new joint! Its newly renovated and everything! Screw PP.

So anyway, we're talking about this girl who doesn't like people (and somehow has a boyfriend) and plays netball. This, in addition to the fact that she's been to Mongolia and that she watches documentaries on World War 2, makes her a very interesting person. Somehow more interesting than any other person some people have met, which isn't that big a thing. I know I've never met anyone who's been to Mongolia, nor anyone who willing watches documentaries about World Wars besides my grandpa and I. At least not that I know about. Maybe I'm specialising in knowing certain types of people. Or maybe Mr. Soh should try to meet some more people, instead of blowing them off because he "can't see" due to his alchohol induced state. If you ask me, its a whole heap easier to meet and get to know people while you're drunk than when you're sober.

See previous post number one and another post about this self same topic.

Randoms are GOOOOOD - Sometimes.

I'm so very bored.

I feel like playing computer games, but I've got nothing to play. At least theres nothing that I'm not already bored of. I need to find something to do, since I'm not actually studying for exams.

I'd even write an extended post about something, but I can't even find something to blog about. Anybody with help?

Ah Well.

Went to work, 9-5. Finished studying for two subjects in about 3 hours after that, then came home to find I didn't get DB. Ah well.

I get so bored when studying. Maybe its the subjects I'm doing, maybe its just that I don't have any concentration. Maybe its a whole heap of other things. I just can't do it.

I don't think I'll go to uni tomorrow to study. Can't be stuffed.

A cheesy Olga is now gracing my background

I just have to keep stuff in the way to stop myself collapsing in gales of laughter everytime I see it.

Bloggin from da kitchen

This is the first blog from the kitchen. I think its kind of a turning point, because I've never blogged about cooking before. Thats probably because I don't cook. That is, until now.

Of course, with any first attempt at cooking by oneself, there are errors. Thats not to say that this was the first time cooking, I'm just really unco. The error was that I made way too much. I should really watch the packet when I'm pouring it in. I thought, its okay, I'll just err... eat it all. Then it expanded, as pasta tends to do. I figured I was in a wee bit of trouble. I started to panic about what I'd do with it all. After a bit of wondering, I figured.. wham! I'd just invite people over for free food.

Nobody who happened to be on MSN and within driving distance accepted my offer. Bemused and somewhat astonished that nobody wanted free food at 12:30am in the morning, I felt all my hopes had been dashed. Finally Fi came and saved the day.

Then Anne pointed out that I probably didn't have enough sauce. Easily solved: I used two bottles of sauce to make it kind of tasty. Don't get me wrong, it WAS tasty, you might even say tastier because it had two different kinds of sauce mixed in. So in effect, it was an artichoke hearts, onion, basil, tomato and mushroom sauce (maybe with some other stuff I've forgotten about). Nice.

So now I'm sittin here with 3 containers of leftovers. At least breakfast and lunch are covered.

Nerdy score.

I think I just pooed my DB interview

Just an overview of some of the questions, and what I was thinking.

"So.. why did you use prolog for your project instead of something like Java?"

Err....

"How do you think you'd use a sprial model in that sort of situation?"

Uh oh... Prototypes? Yes... thats what it is.

"Can you tell me what a derivitive or options are?"

Err....

"What are the key things you should have in a presentation?"

Err.... Wait.. I can BS this one.

"Can you explain a situation where you've had conflict in a group and how you solved that conflict?"

ooOoo.. BS skills are coming in handy.