The Fixer

First up: uni related, techie stuff. Skip three paragraphs to avoid.

Well I got the appeal (finally), I get to do that minor thesis. Actually I don't get to do the one I wanted, the one working on that state of the art electric motor; instead I'm doing a more 'Electromagnetic Compatibility' style project, but it's a decent enough project, and still interesting. 

You could say I'll be solving crippling interference problems in a million dollar university critical remote laboratory; or, on the other hand, you could say they're getting me to fix their broken stuff (and charging me) instead of hiring a professional. Either way I reckon I can do it well, which'll get me a good degree, which'll make it easier for me to get a decent (or any) job → money → house → etc. → win at life. In the meantime I've been frantically working on both the project and my backup courses (taken in case I failed my appeal) which I found to be the most boring hours of my life; very glad I can now drop those and stop going to lectures. 

So, life should calm down now, a little at least, as I have about 3 months to complete this, and it's the only thing I'm working on. Plenty of opportunity to work on other, smaller, projects. I'm going to see if I can bash out a 3d printer before I leave, then use that to print parts for robots and the like. Honestly after the mess I made of the Mechatronics course I could do with the practice. 

Now the non uni, non techie stuff: 

I said I'd mention the crabbing, but I'm not sure my experiences count... The first time we went to a local beach, the wind and tide weren't really in our favour, we sat at the end of the pier anyway and had a few beers with the net down, checking it occasionally. There were kids climbing up onto the shelter at the end of the pier and jumping off into the sea, which looked fun, but may have been scaring any crabs there were. We left just after the sun set, pulling up the net to find a single crab, just big enough for eating (there are minimum size restrictions they enforce to maintain the population). He was very tasty. 

The second time we headed for a beach an hour and a half's drive from Adelaide, where we heard there were tons of crabs all over the beach, and you could catch them with only a rake. After getting a bit lost on unsealed roads on the way there, we arrived, and couldn't find a single crab. There were plenty of rock-pools with tiny crabs in, but no big ones no matter how many stones we turned, or how deep we got. So not really crabbing, but it was a beautiful day, and the sea was glorious, so I had a swim (actually I just floated about a bit getting quite burned) before we drove home. Later we heard the same 'multitude of crabs' stories about beaches much closer to home, so with patience I may still get that massive crab feast. 

Now that uni's started again I'm back on the fencing, getting thoroughly stabbed on a weekly basis. I'm planning to join a few more sports clubs this year, ones which were too far away before I had the car (like rock climbing), or maybe the games club for a bit of chess/LAN gaming. 

So plenty of plans, lets see how many gang aglae.