Well I'll definitely be moving house after the exams. My landlord (Sunny) just told me he's going to have to increase the rent by $40 a month, and right now I just don't have that spare, so I'll be finding somewhere cheap in the suburbs to stay. Shouldn't be too difficult, August's the start of the second semester, so there should be a decent shift in student accommodation.
It's for the best, seeing as the only train operating in the entire northern half of the city is about to be shut down for 4 months so they can replace the sleepers. There's about 7 different trains travelling south, and one going north that they're shutting. That means my morning trip to uni's changing from a 20 min train to a 40 min bus that I'm guessing will be absolutely packed.
I'm actually glad I'll be leaving the flat, as these guys I'm staying with are the most unlike me in the world.
Sunny actually asked me at one point "why can't life be like American Pie, you know the movie? Why can't life just be like that all the time?"
Yeah... that's probably my idea of hell.
Chris, the other random, actually seems annoyed when I ask if he wants a homemade chocolate truffle, or a cup of tea, or anything picked up from the shops when I'm there.
[I seem to have gone on for quite a while at this point about how Sunny thinks I'm scaring his fish and breaking the sofa by sitting in the same place too much; and complaining that cleaning the windows and re-using jars isn't normal... I'll just leave it at that]
Oh, but Sunny's mum also appears to be living here now, sharing the same double bed with him and his brother, and hanging around the house all day staring out the windows like some sort of ghost.
Man, all I do here is moan. In other (lighter) news I made pesto in my mortar and pestle, which was fun, and tasted like the real thing. I really look for any excuse to use that thing, makes me feel like I'm in a computer game, even if it's usually just black pepper and garlic for pasta sauces. If anybody knows any good mortar & pestle heavy recipes I'll be pleased to try 'em out.
One last thing, I bought a bike yesterday, on eBay. Actually I bought 2 bikes: I needed ONE for definite, and the first one was going cheap ('cos it's slightly broken) at $5, so I got that for safety, then the auction for the second bike didn't skyrocket as I'd been expecting, so I got that one for $35. I'll collect them on Wednesday, don't know how easy it'll be to cycle 2 bikes home, maybe I could bring and attach training wheels to the second one, and drag it behind me on a rope?
Monday, 31 May 2010
Tuesday, 18 May 2010
Triumphant!
I stand before you, okay I sit typing before you, but triumphant! For I have in the past few hours, finished a remarkable battle. A battle of wits, skill and cunning, a battle for knowledge, survival and a decent grade.
My foes in particular, were four assignments, one for each of my subjects: Dynamics, ERP (Engineering Research Project), VIP (Virtual Instrumentation Programming) and Systems. Four assignments due in as many days, as concentrated a body of work as any person can hope to overcome. The possibility of greatness, the danger of failure; I stood alone against these mighty giants (presumably my classmates also stood against similar giants, I imagine their struggle was more academic and less heroic though).
The Dynamics assignment was tough, but being the first in line, and given that I'd been working it through the week, I only had to strike the finishing blow on Friday. The VIP assignment, also a tough looking one, turned out to be a lot easier to overcome, I took it down in two quick movements, didn't even break a sweat. This gave me a false sense of security however, and the ERP assignment was able to sneak up on me undetected.
My struggle with the ERP assignment was the stuff of legends, for two days and two nights we battled. I won't go into the underhanded tricks that assignment hit me with, every time I thought I had the upper hand it would slip from my grasp and appear before me in a bigger, more foreboding persona. A number of times I narrowly escaped defeat, when my gantt chart collapsed, and when my reference list disappeared I almost lost hope, but I kept my wits, and eventually the giant fell before me.
I had not escaped unharmed however, my head was strained from the effort, I was malnourished (having subsisted entirely on a diet of peanut butter on toast), and suffering greatly from a lack of sleep. This made the Systems assignment a lot more difficult than it should have been, it was small and relatively simple, and shouldn't have presented a challenge. I was even supposed to have help against it, but the rest of my team lost morale (they don't know how to effectively wield a calculator anyway) and abandoned me with the project.
I couldn't focus on it, I could see what the questions were, and I knew what I was supposed to do, but my mind couldn't put the thoughts together. The final hours before the deadline fell away, and I sat staring pathetically at the assignment as it danced around me, always keeping just out of my reach. At last a little luck however, as the deadline somehow slipped a day and a half ahead, either an error occurred in the online submission system, or some student had complained, perhaps the gods themselves intervened. Regardless of how, I now had time. Time, and the textbook. Bracing myself I struck out with renewed vigor.
The final assignment submitted this morning, I stood over it like Jack Bauer at the end of a season of 24, beaten, tired, and surrounded by bodies. The battle is over, and with any future assignments at least two weeks away, I go now to feast, carouse and rest.
My foes in particular, were four assignments, one for each of my subjects: Dynamics, ERP (Engineering Research Project), VIP (Virtual Instrumentation Programming) and Systems. Four assignments due in as many days, as concentrated a body of work as any person can hope to overcome. The possibility of greatness, the danger of failure; I stood alone against these mighty giants (presumably my classmates also stood against similar giants, I imagine their struggle was more academic and less heroic though).
The Dynamics assignment was tough, but being the first in line, and given that I'd been working it through the week, I only had to strike the finishing blow on Friday. The VIP assignment, also a tough looking one, turned out to be a lot easier to overcome, I took it down in two quick movements, didn't even break a sweat. This gave me a false sense of security however, and the ERP assignment was able to sneak up on me undetected.
My struggle with the ERP assignment was the stuff of legends, for two days and two nights we battled. I won't go into the underhanded tricks that assignment hit me with, every time I thought I had the upper hand it would slip from my grasp and appear before me in a bigger, more foreboding persona. A number of times I narrowly escaped defeat, when my gantt chart collapsed, and when my reference list disappeared I almost lost hope, but I kept my wits, and eventually the giant fell before me.
I had not escaped unharmed however, my head was strained from the effort, I was malnourished (having subsisted entirely on a diet of peanut butter on toast), and suffering greatly from a lack of sleep. This made the Systems assignment a lot more difficult than it should have been, it was small and relatively simple, and shouldn't have presented a challenge. I was even supposed to have help against it, but the rest of my team lost morale (they don't know how to effectively wield a calculator anyway) and abandoned me with the project.
I couldn't focus on it, I could see what the questions were, and I knew what I was supposed to do, but my mind couldn't put the thoughts together. The final hours before the deadline fell away, and I sat staring pathetically at the assignment as it danced around me, always keeping just out of my reach. At last a little luck however, as the deadline somehow slipped a day and a half ahead, either an error occurred in the online submission system, or some student had complained, perhaps the gods themselves intervened. Regardless of how, I now had time. Time, and the textbook. Bracing myself I struck out with renewed vigor.
The final assignment submitted this morning, I stood over it like Jack Bauer at the end of a season of 24, beaten, tired, and surrounded by bodies. The battle is over, and with any future assignments at least two weeks away, I go now to feast, carouse and rest.
Saturday, 8 May 2010
Big week down, big week to go.
Whew. Big week.
I had my laptop and flash drive both fully operational by the end of Monday, so I got a lot done, of course there was a lot to do, so I'm still a bit behind. I've got the hang of spraying backups wildly around now, so that on Wednesday, when I just forgot my flash drive as I left Mawson Lakes, I was able to carry on working as if nothing had happened, the only irritation being the loss of hardware (luckily some guy found it and I got it back on Friday).
I pretty much spent the whole week working on my VIP (Virtual Instrumentation Programming) and ERP (Engineering Research Practice) assignments, and my Dynamics lab report. When I get all that lot done, I've got an EPS (Electrical Power Systems) lab report to write up, and that's all due a week from now.
So another big week to come.
Also, why did nobody tell me how easy pizza is to make? We pay a fair bit (remember I'm comparing this to the price of beans and bread) for it ready-made from supermarkets, and getting a take away's like eating out. Now I've got the magic ingredient (a.k.a. yeast, a big tub ~300gram, and at half a teaspoon per pizza I don't think I'll be running out any time soon) the rest is just flour and water mashed up. Well I've been eating nothing but pizza for the past week: for breakfast, egg calzone (you can eat it like a sandwich), cold pizza packed lunch, and a large cheese & tomato pizza for dinner. Cost for the week: about $5, that's about three of yourEarth British pounds. Living on a budget WIN. I've gone through more than 3kg of flour so far though, not sure it's such a good diet...
I had my laptop and flash drive both fully operational by the end of Monday, so I got a lot done, of course there was a lot to do, so I'm still a bit behind. I've got the hang of spraying backups wildly around now, so that on Wednesday, when I just forgot my flash drive as I left Mawson Lakes, I was able to carry on working as if nothing had happened, the only irritation being the loss of hardware (luckily some guy found it and I got it back on Friday).
I pretty much spent the whole week working on my VIP (Virtual Instrumentation Programming) and ERP (Engineering Research Practice) assignments, and my Dynamics lab report. When I get all that lot done, I've got an EPS (Electrical Power Systems) lab report to write up, and that's all due a week from now.
So another big week to come.
Also, why did nobody tell me how easy pizza is to make? We pay a fair bit (remember I'm comparing this to the price of beans and bread) for it ready-made from supermarkets, and getting a take away's like eating out. Now I've got the magic ingredient (a.k.a. yeast, a big tub ~300gram, and at half a teaspoon per pizza I don't think I'll be running out any time soon) the rest is just flour and water mashed up. Well I've been eating nothing but pizza for the past week: for breakfast, egg calzone (you can eat it like a sandwich), cold pizza packed lunch, and a large cheese & tomato pizza for dinner. Cost for the week: about $5, that's about three of your
Sunday, 2 May 2010
Glenelg Beach
On Saturday, with an inoperable laptop and a corrupt flash drive, I did the only thing left to do: abandoned technology for the day and headed to the beach. I'd not visited the main beach at Glenelg before, it being entirely too hot and sunny for that sort of thing, long walks on the beach should be done when it's cold and wet, I find it tiring to walk or run on dry sand, half the energy you put in gets absorbed. Nevertheless, I haven't taken any photos or done anything interesting in a while, so the beach it was.
Adelaide has a tram line straight through to Glenelg, it goes through the city at roughly walking pace, having to stop with the cars at every red light and having the acceleration of a freight train. It's free if you're going from the city center to Glenelg, or vice versa (you still have to pay if you're only going halfway, I think the free pass is to encourage tourism to Glenelg), I didn't know this however, and wasted one of my peak journeys by scanning my ticket on the way there. It also smells quite bad, though I seemed to be the only one to notice.
The beach itself was nice I suppose, if a bit seaweedy, there were pony rides, camel rides (which I thought unusual, but I guess you can get more kids on a camel than on a pony, and they probably have less problems with sand), lots of people fishing from the pier, etc. I can only assume all the sand is being slowly washed away, and more imported, because at one end there were huge piles of sand and diggers. Either that or somebody's getting really ambitious about sandcastles.
The beach wasn't long enough for a decent walk, so I clambered over the rocks at one end until I could get a comprehensive picture, read a bit more of my book, got a shot of me reading a bit more of my book, walked around a bit more, and when no more sand could fit into my shoes, I went home.
I'll try to get all these pictures I've been mentioning posted tomorrow, it's fencing tonight, followed by hard grind at my laptop finishing off this VIP stuff.
Oh, also wanted to mention that after I made pizza yesterday to a fair degree of success, I repeated the process this morning, but with just a couple of eggs as the topping. Result: the dough really puffed up without a heavy topping holding it down, and it was pretty much impossible to eat with knife and fork due to extreme toughness (was perhaps cooked for too long), but with a quick fold, a sandwich was made.
Take that, lack of bread in the cupboard!
Adelaide has a tram line straight through to Glenelg, it goes through the city at roughly walking pace, having to stop with the cars at every red light and having the acceleration of a freight train. It's free if you're going from the city center to Glenelg, or vice versa (you still have to pay if you're only going halfway, I think the free pass is to encourage tourism to Glenelg), I didn't know this however, and wasted one of my peak journeys by scanning my ticket on the way there. It also smells quite bad, though I seemed to be the only one to notice.
The beach itself was nice I suppose, if a bit seaweedy, there were pony rides, camel rides (which I thought unusual, but I guess you can get more kids on a camel than on a pony, and they probably have less problems with sand), lots of people fishing from the pier, etc. I can only assume all the sand is being slowly washed away, and more imported, because at one end there were huge piles of sand and diggers. Either that or somebody's getting really ambitious about sandcastles.
The beach wasn't long enough for a decent walk, so I clambered over the rocks at one end until I could get a comprehensive picture, read a bit more of my book, got a shot of me reading a bit more of my book, walked around a bit more, and when no more sand could fit into my shoes, I went home.
I'll try to get all these pictures I've been mentioning posted tomorrow, it's fencing tonight, followed by hard grind at my laptop finishing off this VIP stuff.
Oh, also wanted to mention that after I made pizza yesterday to a fair degree of success, I repeated the process this morning, but with just a couple of eggs as the topping. Result: the dough really puffed up without a heavy topping holding it down, and it was pretty much impossible to eat with knife and fork due to extreme toughness (was perhaps cooked for too long), but with a quick fold, a sandwich was made.
Take that, lack of bread in the cupboard!
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