This blog almost faces neglect these days. Though I did get through Semester 1 of uni in the end. It was a bit of an effort with the house moving, etc. I got two disctinctions and a credit. Took 3-4 weeks for ADSL2+ to be connected properly (and pretty painful to endure dialup for all that time but such is life when dealing with Telstra). Back at uni full time this semester.
The year is finally coming to an end. A week and a half ago I finally had my last class for tafe, though in the days after I had fun finishing off some of the work that I hadn’t completed in time. I had even more fun trying to track down the teacher, two phone calls, a few emails and then finally I went in on Tuesday and there was no one around. The place was completely dead though eventually someone from ITS let me into a lab so I could print my final work. I left all the work except for the final task which I wasn’t sure how to do, so hopefully they either won’t notice or they’ll let me finish it next year!
Yesterday I went to the fourth Christmas function this year. Fortunately I don’t have anything else planned for the silly season, except for family stuff on Christmas day of course. I haven’t done any Christmas shopping but fortunately I haven’t got a lot to do and who knows, the elves may do it for me again this year.
Today I cleaned up my room. For the first time in 3+ years I don’t have piles of junk and bits of paper staggered around on the floor. Though it was this time last year when I rediscovered carpet for the first time in roughly 2 years, possibly more. While earlier this year I was cleaning out the top drawer of my desk, to find notices dating back from 5 years when I was at high school. Among them was a notice about starting year 11 in early 2001 which is so long ago, it seems like an eternity. I’ve pretty much got through all the mess, though could do with cleaning out some of the large drawers and getting rid of some of the ancient computer gear lying around.
Among other things, went to see The Lion King broadway musical during the week. Mum wanted to take us and it was quite an amazing production.
Yes, that’s right. On Monday this week, I was sent home from TAFE. But for no other reason than being too good with computers.
While everyone were to be using Typequick, one of those typing tutor programs, I can already type faster than 60 words per a minute (WPM) with good accuracy. The teacher had already asked if any of us could type fast so he set me up on one of the most advanced lessons in Typequick. All I did was concentrate on typing accurately at a comfortable pace and although I can’t remember exactly what the results were now, my accuracy was close enough to 100% with my typing speed mostly well over 60 WPM. So the teacher said I could go home.
But he said I didn’t have to go back for another two weeks, since the whole module was a basic introduction to computers. Though it was only going to be Monday and Tuesday this week and next week anyway. So here I am, sitting back, enjoying the sunny (but chilli) weather. Though I have had a few things to do.
Well today pretty much completes the first week of starting a new course. I’m now doing Electronic Publishing - Certificate IV at Brunswick TAFE. Although I have no idea what I want to do for a career and it was more or less recommended to me, it actually seems quite interesting.
The course is mainly concerning things related to the prepress process though it should be useful for working in other areas as well. Obviously the whole field has changed massively since computers took over. Jobs used to be really specific, i.e. typesetting, though with computers the field has become more generalised. This week has been mostly introductory stuff though at least the tours of the campus aren’t so boring and are not just the usual “here’s the Library, oh and here’s the Canteen”. Instead we took a tour of the facilities including a look at the printing presses and an even closer look at the flexography presses. So while most of our work should be on computer, it looks to be fun.
In other news, we were hit by a partial blackout on Monday night, right at the most inconvenient time of night when everyone is arriving home. Rang the power company and they told me that there was nothing wrong with the power in the area. I later confirmed that some of our neighbours didn’t have power (while to make matters more complicated, some others still did have power). Fortunately the power was restored about an hour later, possibly when they realised it was half the neighbourhood and not just us!
It’s been another one of those busy times. Last week I organised the newsletter mail-out for the PTUA. It turned out quite well, with six of us in the room at one time, all folding, taping and attaching address labels to individual newsletters.
Followed by this I’ve been trying to work out what to do with my studies. The options were to stick with my current course (Adv. Diploma of Computer Systems Eng.) at a reduced load or to try another one. At this time of year, the only other option was really a Certificate IV course which is in Electronic Publishing. I thought I might give it a go and see how it goes, if I don’t like it, at the end of the semester, there will be a heap of other courses that I could switch to. Though it does look rather interesting and hopefully it’ll be a rather useful introduction to concepts such as typography, layout, design, etc. If it’s any good and if I’m any good with this stuff, I can do the whole 12 months and perhaps even pursue another course in the field. Got to get my application in tomorrow (well later in the day since it’s 2am).
Right now hanging around with Luke and Annelise, who are over at my house still, having watched Bill and Ted earlier.
It’s certainly been a while since I’ve updated Jogger! I can’t believe I’m 20, it’s like my life is just slipping away on me. Though that’s not exactly news as my birthday was two months ago.
So what did happen with uni? Well I’m not exactly sure, but I didn’t get the assignments and all done in the end. But if there are any fails showing up on my acedemic record I’m hoping to have them removed. For this semester I have enrolled in two online subjects, Organisational Behaviour and Macroeconomics. Don’t really like the idea of being home all the time though. Not having lectures to go to does make the day a bit boring.
Nothing else all that exciting going on. Except going out for afternoon tea last Thursday (was good to see Kara and Katrina)… that’s about as exciting as things get at the moment!
Once again it’s been a while since I’ve updated. Have not kept up with this course at Uni so don’t know if I’ll pass the semester. I haven’t made too many any friends. Though haven’t been there enough nor doing the full time course.
Haven’t been getting far with this whole course. It hasn’t been working out with the teams so well. I managed to drop off from one team, perhaps through lack of communication. I have been told that I can complete the project on my own, though these business plans are huge.
The other team that I’m in hasn’t worked out all that well either. I just don’t know how I can contribute to the team and the others see it as not putting in my share. To top it off there’s heaps of other work that I have to do.
Well perhaps not so breaking now, since 24 hours have passed since the moment of truth. I wasn’t expecting to get to first round offers until this morning, until I stumbled across a url listing the results on the herald sun website. It was in a real shocking layout and there was a real sense of that moment of truth as I sat there waiting for the page to load and my brother to scroll through it at a painstakingly slow speed. However, once I got to my name, the course number looked familiar, perhaps overly familiar! I knew I was in the course I wanted but perhaps not overly sure, so I clicked the link, waited for the next page to load and sure enough I was. So there it is, I will now be studying Bachelor of Business (Entrepreneurship) at RMIT University.
So the months of frustration while waiting are finally over. Still holidays have been good. Spent a week in Ocean Grove, including a day trip from there down to Apollo Bay. Went home via the car ferry to Sorronto, via that place that makes those ‘famous’ vanilla slices (actually they’re the only ones that don’t make me feel sick afterwards). Though nothing too exciting.
Server has been down for the last week and a half so haven’t been able to update this. Though now it’s at home and on the net thanks to a few temporary hacks while I wait to get ADSL.
A lot has probably happened since my last update. The 23rd of October was my last day of school forever and at the year 12 breakup assembly I somehow recieved a chick magnet award. The following night was the school formal, quite an alright evening (better than the deb, though the deb after party certainly was better). Time got away with me before my First exam on the 31st of October which was English. Cup day came and was kind of a designated day off as I spent a good portion of the day at a cup day party. Before I knew it I was back in another exam on the 7th of November and the second maths exam on the 10th. With all exams coming to an abrupt end on November the 11th when I had physics. Now I have time to sit back and relax (though not that you can do much in this hot weather!).
Last enty is getting on to be 1.5 months ago! Nothing too interesting to write about, though we had school holidays just two weeks ago. The highlight was probably ANZAC Day when we had Richard and Paula, their son Joshua and their baby Saskia over for lunch. I cooked up some roast lamb on the weber, as always with weber cooked meals, it turned out great.
We’re already three weeks into the school term I think. Kinda bad because I’ve hardly advanced at all with catching up with school work. Not sure what I’ll do there. Yesterday it was Effie’s birthday (my brother Tim’s girlfriend), so I went over to their place and then we went to Strike on Chapel and then later I went back to sleep at their place, though now I’m home.