jeremy.id.au

We’ve had a good few days of decent weather, about 20°C each day. It doesn’t end here either, it’ll be 21° tomorrow and warming up to 23° during the week. None the less, this afternoon instead of letting the day waste away into nothing I decided to go for another bike ride. It’s the first ride I’ve done for a while since having the sniffles put me off for a while. I clocked up almost 34km riding alongside the railway line to Hawthorn then ducking down Kooyongkoot Road, along the Yarra up to Dights Falls, before taking the Outer Circle back down to Whitehorse Road which I finally road along to return home.

Other stuff that’s been going on lately include Barnaby Joyce crossing the floor in the Senate during the week to vote with the ALP and minor parties this week (the first time it’s happened in 19 years). It is always reassuring to know that despite the Libs/Nats having control over both house of parliament that some form of democracy remains. Hopefully he’ll block some of the crazy upcoming legislation from getting through.

Another interesting thing that I saw on the 7.30 Report the other night was that they almost have propagation of the Wollemi Pine to a level where they’ll be able to sell it to people around the world. I remember seeing something about the Wollemi Pine on TV almost ten years ago, though the amazing thing is that it was believed to be extinct for 200 million years until an adventurer/rock climber came across a grove growing in a secluded canyon in the Wollemi National Park, just out of Sydney. Another freaky thing is that out of all groves found in the wild, the tree showed absolutely no genetic diversity.

The weather has been a bit crazy as of late. There has been thunderstorms every day for the past four days, including one that woke me up on Wednesday morning.

Only went to TAFE once this week as I was home Monday with a bit of a cold. Went Tuesday to find that I was pretty much up to date with all the work and was able to finish the module. That meant I didn’t have to go in on Wednesday.

This was just as well as I had a meeting to attend at the townhall on the Box Hill Activity Centre where I was stressing the importance of public transport. The approach of the public transport bureaucrats present was rather negative and the lack of enthusiasm could go along way to explain why little is done to improve Melbourne’s public transport.

The weather couldn’t have been better today, so decided to use the opportunity to go for a bike ride. Just did the usual, rode up Whitehorse Rd then took the Anniversary trail (former outer circle railway line). Then I took the Yarra trail and kinda cheated by taking the train home. It’s the first time I’ve done this since the weather got colder. The train was noticeably cosy for a Sunday service that only runs every 20 minutes. People must actually go out on Sundays, if only the State Government knew this!

Also took some photos while I was out. Though it is a bit tricky trying to ride a bike and take photos at the same time.

Power went off for another 40 minutes tonight. With all the blackouts (along with surges/dips) we’re getting lately, one would think we’re living in a third world country. Must be time to lodge some complaints. Once again it went off at the most inconvenient time (6:15pm), just as everyone is cooking dinner etc. Not to mention that it came on just before my pizza arrived.

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!

Yesterday while I was dropping by RMIT to lodge my application for changing to this new course, I stopped to take some photos. Though the campus was noticeably quiet due to the fact that it was holidays, the following was of interest:

Chris has suggested that they could house students there. I certainly think it would be rather amusing if it were used for classes It is in fact Building 19 of RMIT which was formerly the Police Watch House. More recently the building has been used as an art studio. It’s now a construction site.

Today I went mountain biking in the You Yangs which was being organised by my brother through the outdoors club. The weather was a little wet for it and it would help if I rode my bike a bit more to get my fitness up before attempting anything like this. Fortunately we were never far from the car park, where the only shelter in the area could be sought (that is; inside the vehicles).

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.

Well it seems it’s possible to find new friends even when things get so bad that there are a few friends to celebrate my 21st birthday with. So now I have two new friends, Luke and Annelise. Whoo!

Anyway met up with them last night; just over 24 hours ago that is. We had pizza for dinner, watched some DVDs then just mucked around, listened to 80s music (e.g. Sunglasses At Night by Corey Heart). When it came time to go home, we walked outside to be surprised by the most awesome fog. It wasn’t the thickest fog I’ve ever seen, though it was very pretty, as well as a little spooky. Trees were dripping as water droplets precipitated in the leaves. So we just couldn’t pass up the opportunity for a walk down to the local park/creeklands. Once there, we walked along a walkway which goes over a lake and walked over the suspension bridge (from the distance you could hardly make it out) that crosses the Eastern Freeway. Car headlights were just appearing out of the haze while their taillights were disappearing again, rather mysteriously.

Finally it came time to drive Annelise home. It was a fairly slow trip, considering that visibility was quite poor in places. It’s a different world when everything is hidden by fog.

Until now, it had been getting darker and darker, while the days were getting shorter and shorter. But today was officially the shortest day of the year, being Winter Solstice. Sound too technical? Well basically it means that the sun is as far north and as far away from the equator as it gets, leaving Australia titled towards the arse end of the solar system.

Unless you thrive on darkness, you may be wondering why one would even bother to remember this time of the year. Well the main point is that things only get better from today. From here on the days will be getting longer and the nights getting shorter. On roughly the 21st of September we then reach the Equinox where day and night are roughly of equal length. Finally we reach Summer Solstice which is approximately 21st of December, where we will enjoy the longest days. Between now and then, enjoy the ever increasing daylight.

It is also a reminder to make the very most of what little daylight is available to us at this time of the year. Fortunately in Melbourne the days aren’t too short though (roughly 9.5 hours). Being an insomniac last night, it’s unfortunate that I wasted three hours of this daylight on the little sleep that I did end up getting.

Of course, this all applies to those of us who are lucky enough to live in the southern hemisphere. Those in the northern hemisphere will be experiencing the opposite.

Links:
Winter solstice brings scant sunlight (ABC News)
The long and short of winter solstice (The Age)