Wednesday, August 31, 2005

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!

Friday, August 26, 2005

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

Sunday, August 21, 2005

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).

Friday, August 19, 2005

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.

Tuesday, August 16, 2005

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.

Monday, August 15, 2005

Weekend and Monday

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

Thursday, August 11, 2005

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 :)

Tuesday, August 09, 2005

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?

Monday, August 08, 2005

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.

Sunday, August 07, 2005

Exersisey weekend?

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

Saturday:
- Mowing the lawn
- Playing some tennis

Sunday:
- Badminton

It was good.

Friday, August 05, 2005

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.

Thursday, August 04, 2005

Monday, August 01, 2005

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.

Thursday, July 28, 2005

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.

Wednesday, July 27, 2005

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 :(

Sunday, July 24, 2005

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.