Back To Uni

Yes, it’s that time of year. Second semester of Uni has started! Today I had Applications Programming and Business Requirements Modelling. Both were surprisingly great! We still have Robert Rist for Applications Programming (we had him last semester for the previous subject, Programming Fundamentals), but he seems a lot more relaxed and… Nice? Also, there were a few laughs in the class, so that can’t be a bad thing. And best of all, the assignments are not about the stupid bloody farm! I think they were going to be, but I gather most of the feedback he got from last semester was along the lines of “i h8 teh famr”, so he canned it. Instead, we have a bank and a video store.

As for Business Requirements Modelling, it’s in the strangest place ever – a hard-to-find room in a hard-to-get-to corner in a hard-to-get-to wing of the Science building. Getting there was an adventure in itself… But it turned out to be worth the trip, as our lecturer, Bernard, is awesome. He had us laughing through most of the lecture, not just because of his jokes, but also just his… ‘vibe’. The subject sounds pretty interesting, too (a minor consideration?).

So yeah, here’s hoping Collaborative Business Processes (tomorrow) and Networking Essentials (Friday) are just as good. Oh, I also changed the days I’m working – now Wednesday and Thursday. Not that anybody really cares…

Anyway, that’s about it from me! Oh wait, not it isn’t. Steve came over today and we got into the guts of a program that we’ve (well, mostly me to start off with) been working on, and it now actually works! (okay, so although I’ve been working one it for a while, it didn’t do all that much, and it was in bits and pieces). It’s all very exciting stuff. Basically, you enter a person’s (or multiple persons’) Last.fm username(s), and when you click ‘Update’, the program reads a file from Last.fm that has the user’s last 10 tracks played in it. It then parses the file to get only useful information, and then runs a shell script that searches the Amarok (music player) collection database, and if it finds any of the specified files, it adds them to your playlist. So basically, you can copy what other people are listening to, providing you have those songs in your collection. Support for other music players is planned (after some fixes and important features), although this probably won’t involve anything in Windows, at least in the near future (although it’s possible, because the program itself is written in Java). Anyway, I’m sure nobody found that interesting. It was probably just confusing. Oh well!

Um… Yeah, I’m off. Goodnight!

And Again…

NOOOOO!!! In rearranging my room (taking a long time – last night I slept on the floor because my bed was not available), I found last year’s Damascus Yearbook. Which is okay, because it’s got some cool stuff in it. However… It also contains school photos. Of everyone. Including… Imogen. Gah, just as I thought I was over the whole thing, I find a picture to bring back memories. Great. Just my luck.

Surprises

Wow, I just got a comment on my MySpace from Catherine King, the Federal Labor MP for Ballarat! This is because I added her as a friend a while back. I was pretty excited when I realised who the comment was from, but you know what? When I think about it, it’s actually something I would expect (or at least not un-expect) from Catherine. Even at times when I’ve been a bit iffy about Labor in general, I would never have voted for anybody other than her, as she’s one of the best MPs I’ve ever seen (shame I’ll probably never get the chance…). She’s actively involved in the community, and she really (like, ACTUALLY really) listens to everything people say (my Dad went up to her at the market in Ballarat and just started chatting to her one time). She also has a great taste in music!

Anyway, she thanked me for adding her as a friend, asked how things were going away from Ballarat (how does she know this? Actually there are numerous hints on my MySpace, but still, it means she actually took notice of it), and said how great it was that I was supporting the Rudd Labor government at the upcoming federal election. The first and last bits of the comment were actually just generic (everyone who added her as a friend got it), but the middle bit was actually personalised!

Oh, also on the politics front – it’s nice to see so many Labor politicians getting involved in things like MySpace. Big contrast from the Liberals, who’s pages and opinions (quality ones, at least) are in very short supply on social networking sites (horrible as they are, I guess they can serve some purpose).

Hmm, in other news, I’m back from Ballarat. Noteworthy things (since my last blog) included dinner at Zagame’s with friends on Sunday night, playing Just Cause on the Xbox 360 (awesome game, a little too addictive though), driving (enough said), getting upset about Imogen for some reason (the reason escapes me, too), and the weather (i.e. the complete, absolute, total, utter lack of any heat whatsoever). Oh, and the train trip back, notable only because of the fairly rubbish day it created afterwards (no sleep, then work).

Oh, and today I bought a laser printer (a HP LaserJet 1020). I had an interesting time shopping for it, mostly because of the lack of some things working on Linux. The guy at Harvey Norman let me use one of their special computers to use the internet to see of any of the printers they had would work, then left, and somebody else asked me what on earth I was doing on one of the special computers. I told him the truth, and he let me be.

At Dick Smith, they don’t appear to have any Internet (although I’m rather suspicious, as the girl who first served me didn’t know what ‘Limu’ was). However, they did have a better range of printers and one of the other guys there was pretty switched on in regards to Linux drivers and stuff.

It was quite funny – when I was at the checkout paying for the printer, we were discussing Windows/Linux because he had just upgraded his machines (the ones at Dick Smith) and they kept crashing, so he was complaining. I explained that this was one of the many reasons I use Linux, despite hardware incompatibilities, and he went on to say that he would use Linux also, except he has an $8000 sound card and a special program that works it, neither of which work under Linux. I said that was fair enough, and could definitely see where he was coming from, however some other guy wandering past chipped in asking what type of soundcard it was, and suggested running the program under Wine. And a small debate ensued. I couldn’t help smiling, and left the store in a rather good mood, pleased with the time I chose to go printer shopping.

Speaking of printer shopping, I was actually out to do the grocery shopping when I got distracted by the thought of a printer that actually works (goodbye Lexmark!), so I’d better go do that now, before I starve to death (yet to buy tonight’s tea…). Bon soir, mes amis!

Uni Results – Autumn 2007

Steve texted me this evening to let me know that I could ring up and find out Uni results over the phone, a full day earlier than online! So, at the risk of losing any bit of modesty I might’ve had prior to this, here they are:

Communication for IT Professionals: 79 (Distinction)
Introduction to Information Systems: 84 (Distinction)
Programming Fundamentals: 88 (High Distinction)
Web Systems: 80 (Distinction)

So yeah, that’s my story. I’m pretty wrapped! Steve has also posted his results here, if anybody was interested.

P.S. It’s so so cold here (max of 5 degrees today)!! I woke up to it snowing, and it’s snowing again now. I have had two jumpers and a doona on for most of the day, and still been cold. Brrrrrr. I have some photos, and will probably post them somewhere at some point.

An Idea Becomes a Plan

In the last day or two an idea has been forming in my head. I’ve had two desires – to travel some more, and to see more of Sydney. So, why not combine the two? I came up with the idea to travel to each and every one of Sydney’s 171 (I think) railway stations (that’s the ones in the city, not the intercity lines). And I’d have to get out and have a wander around, of course. It might take some time, but… I’ve got quite a few years!

Anyway, tonight I was talking to Steve about it, and he said he’d come with me, which would be grand! It shall be a terrific adventure! And anyone else who has an interest in joining us is more than welcome – the more the merrier! So I guess just when we have some spare time on a weekend or something, we might have a few trains to catch! Something to do, for sure.

Oh, there’s also a few places I want to visit outside the CityRail network. Namely a couple of places up in the Blue Mountains (Katoomba, Wentworth Falls, etc), Palm Beach (far northern beaches), and down Woollongong way. I’m excited! Aren’t you?

P.S. King Island Dairy Double Brie (cheese) is totally delicious! Despite its price…

Rants – Centrelink and Kiera Knightley

Yeah, it’s that time again – time for a rant! Two, actually. Bear with me please . (P.S. Anyone who hasn’t seen the third Pirates of the Caribbean film should probably not read past the first paragraph, unless they want a little bit of the plot spoiled (not that it’s anything terribly important)).

Well, last week I received a letter from Centrelink saying that they couldn’t renew my Health Care Card because my income was over the limit. Now, I’ve never had this problem before, so I assumed it was because I worked four days in a week a couple of weeks ago (and from memory you’re allowed to do extra work on holidays). So I rang them up, waited for a while, waited some more, and finally got onto a guy who proceeded to ask me to wait while he figures out my income, etc. So, I waited. After a bit of discussion, he told me that because my income had gone back down again before my card’s expiry date (today), I would be fine and they would renew it automatically. So, an 11 minute, 19 second phone call from my mobile was completely useless. Woo!

Last night I went to see Pirates of the Caribbean 3 with Jemma and Stefan. We went out for dinner beforehand at Circle 8 in Newtown, which was totally delicious, and not terribly expensive either. They will definitely get my patronage again in the not-too-distant future. Anyway, as for Pirates – it was a fantastic movie, despite it’s long length. But I have a bone to pick, and you might’ve guessed it was to do with Kiera Knightley (oh, Orlando Bloom too – he makes an awful pirate at the end there).

Okay, so it’s not Kiera herself. She’s quite good, actually. But I’ve noticed a pattern with her characters – she seems to get around a bit. Take Pirates, for example. In the first film, Elizabeth Swan is betrothed to Captain James Norrington. But who does she make out with? Will Turner, a mere blacksmith with not a lot going for him. Whore! Hehe joking.

Anyway, second film: She’s still in love with Will (Norrington got the boot in the first film), but makes out with Jack Sparrow, a pirate of all things! Yes, cheating on poor William! And then the third film, well, you wouldn’t have guessed it, but who does she kiss? Norrington! Yes, the guy she was originally engaged to but dumped way back in the first film. Okay, so maybe she can be forgiven for this – her and Will have been fighting a lot recently. But then what does she do? Goes and marries Will in like the next scene! Admittedly by this time Norrington is already dead, but still – shouldn’t she be mourning his death or something?

Oh, and one last thing in the third Pirates film. Near the very end, saying thanks or whatever to Jack Sparrow, she goes to kiss him. And HE declines. I think he probably realised how much she gets around and decided he didn’t want a part of it. Smart guy, that Jack. Oh, and then Elizabeth and Will make out and have sex on the beach. I assume.

Okay, next film – Love Actually. Kiera’s character, Juliet, gets married to Peter at the very start of the movie. However, we soon enough find out that Peter’s best friend Mark is in love with her (and not Peter, as that woman with the annoying ringtone thinks). Okay, any reasonably monogamous wife would tell him sorry, but she’s married and she loves her husband very much. But no, not Juliet! She goes as far as kissing Mark after a touching display of humility and honesty. And, like with Jack in Pirates, it’s HIM that declines anything more (after she goes back inside, he says “Enough. Enough.”, referring to him perving on her constantly and getting kisses in return).

Um… Other movies to make reference to. I’m pretty sure Bend It Like Beckam was pretty okay in regards to cheating on husbands and husbands-to-be. They were too young for that. Oh well.

Oh, I should mention – I really enjoyed all the movies I mentioned above. I in no way mean to degrade them, I just noticed how much Kiera’s characters seem to get around and I thought it deserved a rant, albeit not a terribly serious one. Hope you enjoyed it!

Falling In Love When I Shouldn’t

It’s weird – I think this sort of thing is mostly brought upon myself by, well… Myself. ‘This sort of thing’ referring, of course, to falling in love with girls who I really shouldn’t fall in love with. In this case, the girl on the train to Urunga, as described in my last post.

Honestly, I don’t think I really like her any more than as somebody who I had a really great conversation with. That’s all that happened, and chances are that’s all that will happen (much to my dismay, at times). I think that I just… Want somebody to be in love with? And I guess both the girl on the train and Imogen have filled this role pretty successfully. I mean, there has sort of been a pattern to it: broke up with Elaine, then once I got over her, I started liking Imogen. Finally managed to let go of Imogen, and less than two weeks later, this girl on the train comes along. Weird, eh?

I figure that eventually, somebody will come along with whom something will actually happen. I don’t think it was too far off happening with the girl on the train, except that I screwed up and got off the train, getting neither her name nor her phone number. But, if my theory works, once I let go of the girl on the train (which shouldn’t be too far off, according to my (semi-reliable) sources), another nice girl should come along pretty swiftly and take her place. All I have to do it take a chance and nail it (the opportunity, not the girl).

Sound reasonable?

Urunga

As you probably know from my last blog, I’ve been away for the past few days. I caught the train up to Urunga (just south of Coffs Harbour) to see my Mum, who I hadn’t seen in a few months. Well, it was quite a trip, so I guess I might as well detail it here!

Day 1:

I had to get up super early, because my train left Central at 7:15am (gah!). It was actually nice though – I don’t think I’ve really been up that early in Sydney before, except when I’ve got off the train from Melbourne, so it was a nice surprise, as the morning was wonderful.

On the train, I sat by myself for most of the time (not out of choice, but because seats are allocated, and nobody was allocated to sit next to me for the majority of the trip). However, some interest was created when I noticed that the girl sitting in front of me was reading a book about the history of Russia (something which I would really like to know more about). I actually got pretty excited, because since when is a girl about my age interested in Russian history? Well, I soon found out… She got out a notebook and started taking notes, and I soon realised that it was a book for school/uni/whatever. Oh well.

All was not lost though, as another girl sat next to me towards the end of my journey (not sure exactly where she got on, but she was coming from Port Macquarie, so I assume it was around there somewhere). We didn’t talk for quite some time, but after she finished reading her newspaper, she offered it to me. I declined, saying that I had to get off pretty soon (which was true), but asked if there was anything interesting going on. She mentioned that she was reading about the new Harry Potter book, and so ensued a wonderful conversation that lasted until I (sadly) had to leave the train. I don’t know what it was about it, but I felt completely relaxed and confident talking to her, and she seemed the same way. She’s also a first-year university student, studying Arts/Law at the University of Woollongong, and was heading up to Byron Bay with some friends (who weren’t on the train, I gather) for a break. The only horrible thing about the conversation was that I didn’t get her name, let alone phone number or anything… So yeah, for the following few days I was madly in love with a girl whose name I didn’t even know. Such is life!

Anyway, I got off the train and gave mum a nice big hug! We spent a fair bit of time just catching up, chatting and stuff. We took a walk out on the boardwalk at Urunga and saw a couple of whales playing out to sea a bit (jumping and splashing and stuff), which was pretty awesome! Then it was made even better when we saw a few dolphins playing in the waves not far out! Super!!

Day 2:

Well, we got up nice and early, as it’s pretty hard to sleep in when you’re camping (oh yeah, we were camping by the way!). Mum took me out for breakfast at a lovely little cafe run by a couple of really nice guys (gay, they were (Steve!)).

We decided to go for a drive up to Dorrigo National Park, where there’s an awesome rainforest. The road the was awesome – up into the hills, nice and steep and curvy . Oh yeah, I got to drive for the first time in a couple of months! I don’t seem to have lost my special touch, though. Hehe.

I’ve been to Dorrigo N.P. before, but didn’t walk as far into the rainforest last time (dysfunctional family…). Despite the cold (it was lovely and warm outside, but in the rainforest I had to put my jumper on and was STILL freezing!), the rainforest walk was awesome. So pretty! Mum and I took heaps of photos, some of which will probably make some appearances on grep * life > blog in the near future. Actually, I should post a couple here, too.

Driving back down the mountain, I had somebody tailgating me, which was really annoying. And I most certainly wasn’t going slow – I asked Mum if I was, and she said that she wouldn’t have wanted to drive any faster, so I guess it was just idiots.

I think it was this night that we went ventured out to the beach and took lots of photos of the moon (or possibly the first night, I can’t remember…).

Day 3:

Day 3 (being Monday) I discovered how confusing Coffs Harbour is to find your way around. I expected (pretty reasonably, I think) that the city centre would be pretty close to the beach, like most other coastal towns and cities. However, Coffs Harbour decided to do things a bit differently, and make their CBD not near the beach at all.

I also expected (also pretty reasonably, I thought) that the train station would be close to the CBD. This expectation was also shattered, just like the last one. The train station was next to the beach. Not only that, but it was in a really obscure place too, and I drove past it the first time. Oh yeah, I had to go to the train station to get my train ticket back to Sydney.

I am pretty sure that the ticketing system for CountryLink is the least automated and intuitive booking system I’ve ever seen, or at least close to it. When it comes to paying, at least. They had to enter my card number into the computer when entering my order details, but I don’t think that it actually served any purpose, as the man then had to manually enter in the amount to be paid into the little machine thingy where you swipe your card, and then I had to swipe my card and enter my PIN, etc. as usual. Weird. They screwed up the payment of the lady before me, too – the amount was out by 20 cents or so, so they had to redo it.

Oh, also while in Coffs, we stopped by the Big Banana to take a couple of photos, just because my boss said it was really bad (which is it, by the way).

When we got back to Urunga, I took some photos and video of the crested pigeons at the caravan park, which are some of the coolest and cutest birds ever. They bring back some good memories, too (of back in ye olde days, when we travelled around the western half of the country). YouTube video available here.

That night, Mum and I went on one of our random drives to Coffs Harbour and had a look around, had tea and stuff. This kind of thing used to be pretty frequent last year when we lived back in Ballarat.

Day 4:

I was feeling not-so-great, something I’m pretty sure was to do with the girl I met on the train (ergh, how did I not even manage to get her name…), so I went for a drive – music blaring, etc . I thought about driving down to Nambucca Heads or something, but the only place that ended up feeling right was north. So I ended up in Coffs Harbour, but didn’t stop there. After almost an hour of driving, I ended up in some place called Woolgoolga, north of Coffs, and thought I’d better ring Mum (she asked me to ring if I was going to be longer than an hour, which I definitely was). She told me I’d better head back, so I did, although I really didn’t feel very good about it. I would’ve been happier just continuing north… Who knows to where, although I probably would’ve stopped for a bit in Byron Bay…

Day 5:

Not a terribly interesting morning – got up, bought the newspaper in preparation for the train journey back (only had The Daily Telegraph… ugh), and jumped on the train! Pretty uneventful trip back – nobody sat next to me at all, so I just listened to music and read my book (I Wouldn’t Start From Here by Andrew Mueller – fantastic, if anybody was wondering).

I had to pick my sister Jemma up from the airport later that night. I caught the train out (>$10 for a return ticket, when the domestic airport is only 3 stops/9 minutes away from Central!). It was good to see her again, and we’ve been catching up on old times and all that. The only negative being a new thing, when I discovered that she’d taken up smoking. Ugh. Big ugh.

I wasn’t real keen on going to meet one of her friends that she’d met during her travels, but I went along anyway, and was glad I was in the end. Stefan is from Germany and he’s really awesome. Not the sort of guy I would expect Jemma to hang out, but that turned out to be a good thing! We wanted to get something to eat, but took too long to decided and all the shops closed, so we had to go to McDonalds…

Epilogue:

Well, I think that’s about it. I’m content just sitting around today, while Jemma goes out with Stefan again. Long blog, eh? Cool! Okay, bye!