Lunch Time

Fifteen minutes till lunch time and not enough time to really start doing the work I should be doing... Blogspot or Facebook, that is the question??? Well, I guess the blog won out.

My weekend was too short. A good thing I've got the week to catch up on much needed rest.

A fantastic footy game on Saturday where one of the field umpires got a death threat was obviously a highlight - New Norfolk got over Hobart in a thriller at the TCA.

Apparently grown men giving death threats (in front of their kids or grandkids) is acceptable. Apparently it's acceptable for club presidents to carry on like pork chops (is pork chop rhyming slang for anything???), verbally abusing people in a very loud and crude manner is also acceptable. Not even my placating hair could calm them. Ironically their team ended up winning.

Nine minutes 'til lunch.

Then on Sunday I again umpired Hobart and New Norfolk. Not such a cracking game. The most frustrating thing was that the Auskick kids wouldn't get off the ground (not the kids fault, rather the fault of the coaches). We started 40mins late. This made me frustrated because I was meant to be back in Kingston for music practice at 5pm - the game only ended up finishing at five to five. But I got some good practice in for my football juggling...

Speaking of football juggling, I'm going to Oatlands on the weekend - Central Hawks v Dodges Ferry. So I get to see my fan club again! I have way too much fun at those regional league games.

A whole post on footy - not very thoughtful. I'm sorry.

I suppose there is also the World View Survey happening at FOCUS. Despite my semi-deist tendencies, I still came out as a theist... I raised a few eyebrows when I made the claim that morality is meaningless.

Anyway, it's 11:59, so time to go...

Disempowered

Several bits and pieces have come together, or fallen apart to leave me banging my head against a brick wall, thinking those walls were doors...

This week has featured feelings of complete helplessness in a fight for decent choices. The people I thought should have been on my side were very much against me. Moreover, it wasn't just a "me against them" issue, rather, there were a lot of us against a few of them, but they have the power and they know how to cover their proverbials.

It is the fight for reasonable subject options. As I'm getting used to, the people in power who should respond to reason, simply do not. I met on Thursday with the Associate Dean, the Head of School, the Course Co-ordinator, and two engi society reps (pres and v/pres). The faculty reps (A/Dean, HoS and CC) seem to have split personalities: one moment they are all for relevant subjects and the reason we can't do other subjects is because they are not "relevant" (when, in the next breath, they say that they are). Then all of a sudden, it becomes all about the rules. We can't break the rules. And they make it look like they would be breaking the rules... but they wouldn't be, because they make the rules. They make the rules so that they can be broken if they feel like it. They always cover their backs.

To add insult to injury, the one relevant subject offered to me (for my elective) is Advanced Dynamics, taken by the lecturer against whom I am leading an official complaint. The other two subjects are Intelligent Systems (AI stuff, all comms, computing and electrical based stuff) and Image Processing (more mechatronicsy and electrical). For both of these subjects the lecturers, when queried, suggested that there was very little application for mechanical students. In contrast, the CC is adamant that these are relevant subjects, though he did not specify whether they were more or less useful than the subjects that we were trying to do.

Anyway, if my situation makes sense to you, please spend a few minutes to explain it to me, because it seems like a load of old tosh to me.

It's funny to think that in a few years time it could well be me making those decisions that nobody likes and/or understands. Scary thought. Could do with a wee bit of God's guidance. I don't know.

The other airy-fairy issue that has been plaguing me is work. Again something that I am in control of, but again, in no control of. One must learn to love dualisms. In any case, I still have Hydro and BHP to get back to me to talk about interviews. And I have the DMO who will get back to me before the end of August with either an offer or another rejection. At least they will give me feedback. But, again helpless.

I don't really like being out of control, or disempowered.

In case you'd forgotten how insane I am...

I went to the beach this evening, Justin and I. We went in and bathed our tired quadraceps, calves and hamstrings. I have not felt water quite that cold for longer than I can remember (if at all) (other than ice, or freshly melted ice, you get the idea you pedants). It's meant to be therapeutic. It had bloody well better be because it was one of the more painful experiences. It made my legs sting in ways that they have never stung before...

And last night I managed another PB - this time for the 2km: come down from 6min53 to 6min45, which corresponds to 81s laps. I finished in 78. Interestingly, my previous best was set in the second half of my 4km timetrial last year, so I may well have been able to go below that time last year (back in the golden days when I was fit). And then I ran a PB, or close enough to one for the 400m - about 61.5s (I finished in between the guys who ran 61s and 62s). Previous best was 62.

Ok, so I've scared everyone off with all my boring running details, so now I can reveal the confidential details of my HPV design. As far as my HPV progress goes, (vehicle, not virus) I got my progress report back. One of the things that I have to decide is whether to stick to the traditional chain/derailleur drive train, or be daring (and expensive) with a shaft drive/hub gear set up. There's not much documentation on mechanical efficiencies of such systems in bicycles, let alone in HPVs. Problem is that the hub gear that I'd like to use costs about A$1500, and we need two of them... But I got an HD for my report so I'm very excited... this is almost a return to the glory days of highschool. (Please excuse all the nostalgia, there's been a bit lately.)

To add to the nostalgia, Mike reckons I've been blogging about a year. He is to be commended for enduring my poignant rants.

Further nostalgic moment: Sam completed his series on Matthew's Gospel. He returned to Chapter 7 as he had gotten someone else to do that particular talk previously. So now he has covered all of Matthew. A nice little nine year stint. (I think it's nine???)

Sorry Jonny, can't be bothered with posting pics tonight...

Anna Coren Special

Footy finals are just around the corner, so it seems to be a good idea to get fit. So Justin and I went out in the sunshine this afternoon for a rather solid run: 36.5mins up hill followed by 28.5mins back down. So a 65min run. And I can currently feel every single minute of it.

We ran up Leslie Rd (I think that was the one) and it was very clean and green. There were plenty of signs of horses going through there recently and I didn't get any asthma (a regular feature of my running efforts in Launceston last summer). It was funny hearing Justin reminisce about taking the same tracks on his bike back in grade 10.

It reminded me of stuff that I did way back in primary school. (Anna Coren eat your heart out...) I remember my best friend and I would get up to all sorts of shenanigans. I was actually the first person to complete the almond tree crossing (ie getting onto the carport roof by climbing the almond tree. Proud moments. And getting a very nasty case of rope burn from the flying fox we had set up in his backyard. And then there was the "Magic Faraway Tree" in the corner of his property that would give us great view out over the whole neighbourhood. Anyway, I got a call from him on Friday night to say that he'd gotten engaged. Ahh, the days of kiss chasy are over for him. It's a veritable Grey's Anatomy effort: a couple of med students (I hope I've got that right.) I only met the lucky girl on Friday night where we had a kind of "hand shake" over the phone. I remember grade 7 (my first year of grade 7, his only year of grade 7) where we did maths - he would dictate the answers to me just from reading off the question sheet. And then we would do lateral thinking puzzles the rest of the time. Good times.

Fan Club becomes Official

I've been having far too much fun with my footy umpiring of late. And it has bugger-all to do with the footy. In fact, the footy that I've been umpiring has been of a relatively* poor standard. Last week I was out in the Dodges Ferry mud, this week it was in the Sorell water-hole.

Anyway, the story is, I have an official fan club. Never underestimate the power of hair, and trying to play soccer with a football, and talking to the crowd (basically going against every shred of wisdom imparted to me by the gods of umpiring). Every time I went by a certain flank, some guys would start serenading me (probably Wolfmother's greatest hits, but I can't be sure). Then, behind the goals, there was this legend with dreads. We got talking while I was waiting at the post (a giant faux pas for any sort of umpire: thou shalt not interact with the crowd) and he'd seen me the previous week at Dodges and he and his mates had been taking bets on whether I was a soccer player from wayback. This was due to attempts at juggling the footy during the half time break (soccer style). He reckons I got up to 30 - I think 10-15 was a more realistic number. Anyway, I had a drink in the bar afterwards and he came and introduced himself, and it was all very nice. It was at this stage that I confirmed the fact that I do have an "Official Fan Club". Putting boundary umpiring on the map: it's gotta be good for footy.

I think, now, I'm gonna have to preface blowing my whistle with a McEnroe-style "The ball was out".

It is sad that I can't actually be original. Oh well, maybe it'll happen one day.


*Relative to anything from Auskick to the AFL.

Picasso Strikes Back

The family have been. Actually, A-S has been here all week, but I haven't really been cognissant - particularly early in the week. Anyway, last night we were cognissant, quite chirpy really. We pulled out the board games and I almost finished my first ever game of Absolute Balderdash. A-S & Cath were almost at the end when Nicolas returned from music prac... so we scrapped that and played pictionary. So after so many attempts, still haven't gotten to the end of a game... But Nicolas Cath and I had a big come from behind victory despite my "post-modern" drawing skills. We were all on the final AP square, so we did leave our run rather late...

I'm hoping that missing footy training will mean that my cold departs. My hanky quota is struggling. And I had my first proper sleep in since before MYC. Anyway, have too much work to do and I'm acting as if I'm on holidays and I'm clearly not.

I feel so loved...

I am currently suffering from a cold. It doesn’t really bother me, however, when I got up this morning the conversation went to my footy training. Mum says: “You’re not training tonight”. Dad says: “No, probably not a good idea”. I say: “I’ll take it easy. I feel fine.” Mum says: “You don’t look fine”. I say: “Mum, don’t I look beautiful?” Mum says: “Um… Beautiful on the… inside”.

My Struggles

We locked horns with the new Head of School today. He was a bit unconvincing in that 1h of facing a whole group of unhappy engineering students. I met up with him afterwards to discuss the official complaint afterwards. I'm not sure if he's a nice bloke or if he just has good people skills. I'd like to think that it's the combination of both, so I entrust him with my respect. But Jolly did say that I was too nice (which is ironic considering he knows me to be a pugnacious argumentalist).

In any case, the two main issues discussed were the elective and the big brother monitoring system.

In second semester of fourth (final) year of engineering, the school offers one elective with three options. One of those options relates to mechanical engineering, the other two relate to electrical and mechatronics engineering. The problem is, the mechanical subject is very useful, but is being run by a lecturer against whom I am in the process of leading an official complaint.

Furthermore, there is a subject that people have studied in the past on business ethics in the school of business. This relates closely to project management, so would be a very useful subject to study. We're being told we can't enrol in that. A lot of us are quite unhappy because none of the subjects offered interest us.

The second issue is that the computer tech decided to trial new software that gives a live stream of all the computers in the engineering labs. Essentially nothing is safe. One of the problems is that the university has a different ethics agreement to the school of engineering. The story about how I came up against the system is kind of amusing...

It was swatvac and I was looking at my blog, or checking my footy tipping or dream team or something. Up popped a chat window saying "These computers are meant to be for course work only". I kept going. Then up came another thing saying "You have been warned." At this, I tried to type into the chat thing, but it wouldn't let me. So, I thought to myself "whatever".

It was swatvac, so I wasn't regularly using the uni computers, so a week after this episode, I tried to login again, only to be told to go and see my system administrator. I needed to check my email, so I asked a friend if I he would mind if I used his account for this. It wasn't a problem. Being a gmail user, my status became active, so a friend, who had also been locked out and was thus working from home began chatting to me. He requested that I download some stuff for his upcoming exam that he needed. We got chatting a bit and he starts telling me about the new software that they have. So I make the comment that it's a bit Orwellian, 1984esque, and I say that the computer tech guy is a too gutless to let us write back to us.

Just as I enter that text, the chat box pops up saying "Do you really think so?"

So, somewhat stunned, I begin typing: "I can type?"
"Sure" comes the response.
I then get on my moral high-horse about signing stuff that I inherently disagree with.
Then the computer tech says "Well you'd better come and see me then."
"Just got a bit of stuff I need to do, be up there in a bit."

So 15mins later I venture up to his office and from the door I hear him talking to another guy: "Yeah, some guy in the lab downstairs... said I was gutless... but he doesn't have the guts to come up and speak to me..." It was at that point that I knocked on his door.

We had a chat for half an hour or so. He showed me the software. He then went on about how it was all about keeping in step with the uni computer policy. Also, the downloads were proving to be too expensive, so that was why we weren't allowed to use the computers for general browsing. At that point, I was quite happy with what he had said, and understood that he was just subject to the uni policy.

Afterwards, however, I checked the university policy, only to find that it explicitly stated that computers could be used for personal use. So the school policy was not at all a reflection of the university policy. My respect for his arguments took a nose-dive.

The upshot of all this is that the new Head of School has banned the IT dude from using the software until next year, because it is not catered for (adequately) in either of the ethics statements, and therefore haven't signed our rights away in this matter.

So, that makes for a 50% success rate.

Boating the rock...

I was going to blog about something, but I can't remember what it was.

Maybe it's time for a rant about politics. It is everywhere, and now it's infiltrated my blog. In particular, I see the school of engineering stuck between a rock and a hard place with a certain lecturer. He represents the "old school" and many of the lecturers at UTAS are trying their damndest to regenerate the place. Their efforts are appreciated. But this rejuvenation is not the place for sacking old guys just because they're not with the program, so to speak. And I kinda see this. So, it seems appropriate to appreciate the efforts of the majority and try to hold the rest accountable.

But it has taken a lot of time to get to this stage. It feels like a degree in Terriering might be appropriate.

And the uni bar now has two (2) tabletennis tables. I'm very excited. My bachelor of tabletennis is back on track.

Side issue on politics... Don't resign yourself to the fact that they can do a better job than you... maybe they can, maybe they can't... Hmmm.

Drugs in sport

Umpired at Dodges Ferry - they were playing Triabunna. Dammit, I am meant to be workin... Anyway, some bloke thought I was carrying a pipe in my sock, but alas, it was merely a pen. He still thought he'd try to sell me some weed - we kinda got chattin after I asked him to get his dog off the field. Maybe I should suggest to AFL Tasmania that they enforce searches of all cars that try to enter football venues across the state. Maybe call Crimestoppers too.

I was chattin to Jolly online before - he told me had to leave cos he had to wash his hair. Freakin hell. I didn't even try to ask him out. It's a bit feminine really Mike.

And Jonnie is winning the mattress shenanigan hypothesis contest to date. Get those entries rolling.

Another Rejection

Just got another rejection: SKM sent me a nice email saying that they don't want me. Oh well. Who can blame them? At least they had the decency to let me know. Nothing worse than that waiting feeling, putting everything on hold, only to hear... nothing.

MYC Part 2 (MYC Part 1 is not called MYC Part 1)

I am procrastinating. I have my lit review and progress report due on Monday. It was nervous times. I went to save my stuff and the new Word wasn't a fan of the idea. It decided to revert back to a copy from over a week ago. So I lost 1500 words. I was far from impressed. The Dan felt my pain and downloaded some data recovery software and got back 1300 of the 1500 words I lost. Nervous times. I was a little pouty for an afternoon.

AS is coming down tonight. I haven't seen my dear sister in far too long, so I look forward to seeing her again. Not that there'll be much time. I have to go umpire at Dodges Ferry tomorrow, so most of Saturday is gone too. Oh well.

Too much to do. Too little time. That saying always seems to get proven wrong.

Was stoked with my results - my first HD since first year, and I got two of them. The other two were Ds. I had a rather surreal smile on Wednesday after finding that out.

Could it be time to stop procrastinating??? Surely not.

I also forgot to mention the Bush Dancing in the previous post. It was fantastic: it managed to resemble footy training more than anything else. Far too much fun was had considering it involves spinning round and round and putting your feet in awkward places at times that should be natural. Me in flanno... can't go wrong.

Went to MYC. Am back from MYC. Had a great time at MYC. MYC = Mid-Year Conference.

Amongst the highlights was the opportunity to catch up with my friends, to make new friends and do all this in an environment where we get to know more about our great God - in particular, his sovereignty.

There was also plenty of time to discuss some of the big issues, and some slightly smaller ones too.

I'm always interested to hear thoughts on Christian unity. What boundaries shouldn't be crossed? (How do you back up your thoughts?)

Anyway, there were also some epic table tennis battles - the first to ten sets made for fierce competition. I managed to survive both marathons 10-8, if I recall correctly, the first involved a late slump on my part, the second was a come from behind victory. Moments to savour!

I'm sure I would have lost Carcasonne, but that's ok, it's always fun - except we never did finish the game. Oh well.

On Tuesday, I went to Lonnie to teach the dudes/dudettes about aerodynamics. Several things were quite amusing: first, the two guys I was with, after all these weeks of expressing an overt excitement about engineering in their job interviews, could only muster the courage to say that aerodynamics was the most interesting thing we studied in our 32 subjects at uni... and the kids weren't particularly enthused with that. Maybe I'm mis-reading them. Anyway, we peddled the money/interesting job pitch and went on about how the four years of engineering are just a "hard slog". Which they are.

Second part about it was the fact that the Examiner reported the next day that for the project they had reported "three top honours students". Not exactly how I'd describe myself! All rather amusing...

MYC was the venue of my first ever public soprano sax performance with my new little baby. I didn't squeak (that I can recall). Still much practice to be done, but I do like its sound.

I'd be interested to hear hypotheses for the MYC mystery...

So far rumours have left me quite omni-present... Tim, you are excluded from the comp unless you come out with something appropriately outlandish.

So whodunnit? How did they do it? When did they do it? Professor Plum in the lavatory with the lead-piping...

For you non-MYCers, I'll tell you later what little I know...

"Mummy, what's smoking?"

Just thought I'd make this procrastination official - it is friday night and all.

So many things have happened since my last post.

I went to Melbourne and caught up with Irene and Chara. The purpose was to go to the footy and buy a soprano sax. I also had a job interview with the DMO (Defense Materiel Organisation) - I should give them a mention because they paid my passage.

So, blow by blow description of my time in Melbourne... I'm sure to make it sound far more dull than it really was.

So, plane ran late - was meant to meet the gals at Fed Square, instead we met somewhere along Little Collins St. Went to a nice little cafe next to one with some pleasant live music. It was cold but the gas heater was pumping. Chara's lost wallet put a dampener on things, though the waiter gave her plenty of attention...

Later that night I walked from my hotel to the Defense Plaza where my interview was. I timed how long it took to get there. Added an "I'll be wearing a stuffy suit and dress shoes" allowance. Then with military precision I worked back from the time I would need to get there the next morning. Of course, the next morning I followed my plan and arrived at the interview centre about twenty minutes early. Better that than twenty minutes late...

I got to the assessment centre (interview) and checked in at security. Of course, my name wasn't on their list. That left me a little nervous. Oh well. It seemed like everyone else there was really on edge, so it probably raised my stress levels just off the floor.

The assessment consisted of a 30min written comprehension test, a 30min maths test (no calculators), a 30min abstract test (shape and pattern recognition), a 40min written hypothetical, a 50min interview and a 50min group assessment and lunch and morning tea and afternoon tea. Met some cool people. Everyone was too nervous. Nobody got close to finishing the tests. The contents of the tests are meant to remain confidential. The hypotheticals related mainly to ethical questions. I was able to plug several principles that my enviro lecturer had taught me straight into the scenarios. I don't know if this was a good thing because it probably sounded very cliche - I don't know if I was meant to know/use all the jargon. I don't know.

Then I went out to the suburbs - took the tram. I was expecting to have to pay my six or seven dollars. So I put my details in: a full fare, zones 1 and 2 for 2 hours. It just wouldn't work. I tried and tried and failed. The other fare options were working, but it was this particular one that I needed. I got random people to try and I finally got a tram employee to give it a razz for me, but he gave up. Anyway, I told Irene about it later and she said "Oh, you only need Zone 1". So I got a free ticket.

Anyway, I was walking along the footpath from the tram stop to my night's lodgings. I walk past this lady. As I walk past she begins to wail loudly. I turn around and gently ask, "Are you alright?"
She replied, "Yeah, I'm fine." Then she went straight back to her tears, louder than before. I kept walking, completely unsure what to do. I turned around once to make sure she hadn't run out in front of a car or something sad.

Another strange occurrence. I was waiting in town for the tram. I was standing alone, ten metres away from the rest of the commuters. A guy approaches me and says, "Don't use a taxi with a Paki driving it, they'll rip you off every time. They're all pigs. You know what we should do?"
"No, what's that?" I ask.
"We should do the world a favour and put a bullet through the head of each of them."
"That's a bit harsh," I mumble, completely shocked.

There was some weird stuff...

Anyway, Irene and I went to the Melbourne v Essendon game that Friday night - Daniher's final as Melbourne coach. We only got there at half time because Irene had to work. We were standing in line, I was wearing my Eagles scarf. Two chicks come up to us and say, "Do you want our tickets? We're leaving now." And then they stopped. "You are going to this game, aren't you?"
"Yeah. Yeah."
"Oh, ok. They're good tickets. Just go round that way."
So we had these tickets - all scrunched up, thinking cool, free $33 tickets, how legal is this, what if they don't work... Anyway, we go round to the next gate. I try mine first, and it doesn't work. Irene tries hers and it does and so we're separated by this evil gate... and then this gate dude comes up and rescans my ticket and then I try it again and it all works and we live happily ever after...

So we find our seats... Fifth row from the fence, right behind the goals. It was kinda cool! Melbourne was down, but was coming back. I had this mad Melbourne woman sitting next to me. She was yelling out to all the players by their nicknames. It was quite hilarious. There was an amazing atmosphere with over 47000 people there.

Anyway, there's a set shot. I say to Irene, "That's coming towards us". We just sit there, the ball keeps heading closer and closer to us. It ended up bouncing off Irene's knee and up into my hands. In hindsight, I would have liked to have signed the footy - think of it, AFL guys playing with a JR personally autographed signed footy. Either that or do the "If found, please return to..." Anyway, that didn't happen, but I did have the footy which was very cool. And I didn't even have to stand up for it. Never got on the box, I don't think - probably the Eagles scarf that was putting them off, though I was wearing a bright red jumper that would have matched either team's kit.

The game itself was ridiculously close. Melbourne had caught right up to Essendon by three quarter time and were leading most of the last quarter - never by much though. Essendon kicked two last minute goals to get them a point up. Both came from some interesting umpiring decisions - though nobody seemed to have too much of a problem with it. When the siren went Essendon was up by two points. I turned across to try to see the reaction of the mad Melbourne woman. The seat was empty.

On the Saturday, I went soprano sax shopping. I went to The Music Place. A bloke by the name of David Temby designs and manufactures instruments there. He had three styles of curved sops that he made - gold lacquer, silver lacquer and non-lacquered. So the three different finishes result in vastly different tones. The brighter the instrument the brighter the tone. I managed to produce a better tone on the non-lacquered instrument that the others, so I bought that. Sounds simple. Trying to fork out two and a half g on EFTPOS cannot be easily done. It was so difficult that I just couldn't manage it. Rang Commbank. They couldn't help. Rang them again, and all of a sudden they could. Either way, The Music Place is happy, and I'm poorer.

I was sampling the various horns with this $200 mouthpiece. Why a mouthpiece would be $200, I'm not sure. But it makes a difference. Got back to I&Cs, and had to work awfully hard to get a sound. I am making progress, however; and am getting used to the fingering - which is similar but different from clarinet.

I then made a little sax that looked like a J for the side of my hosts' fridge. Of course I put it up back to front! So it is now referred to as "dsylexic jeromes saxaphone".

Played some weird version of Rummy while watching the footy that afternoon and then I mauled some lasagne. I&C were glad to learn a game other than 500 - even if the rules were make up as we went along. I was glad to eat lasagne - I might have been fed on the Qantas flight, but it really wasn't much chop.

Of course the plane was running late again, so I watched the start of the Harry Potter movie in the airport lounge. I've seen snippets of that movie a few times.

Most priceless kid quote from plane: "Mummy, what's smoking?"