University Life

Not a good day, today. Took the 8:30 am shuttle to Caulfield and got
a pastry and a coffee and a large chocolate milk to eat while walking
to the racecourse. I was balancing the latte on the plastic plate that
comes with the pastry. Unfortunately my skillz were not up to par and I
ended up spilling half the latte all over my shirt. Grr…had to go to
the toilet to clean up and I could smell coffee all day long. Oh well,
at least it woke me up. The first exam was went okay. Systems Design,
I’m repeating it (keep your comments to yourself) and it’s a core
subject so that’s good. Didn’t have enough time to do the business
class diagram well, but that’s okay coz I think I did pretty good on
the other parts. My “pretty good” might not be Martin’s “pretty good”
though. Heh. Martin is my lecturer for this subject. Anyway, I had a 2
hour break in the middle, so I got a burger from the plaza and went to
the labs to read up on Unix. I read all the past exam papers and the
lecture notes. I didn’t have time to read the Week 12 tutorial
exercises though, which, as I would learn later, was a Grave ErrorTM.
About this time, I felt a disturbing trickle of warm liquid down the
back of my pants. I already knew what was up without having to look
into my bag. The chocolate milk that I got this morning and drank only
a bit from lay spilt at the bottom of my bag. A little quick math
reveals the amount of liquid that has been displaced from the bottle
into my bag. 600 ml (bottle capacity) – 100 ml (amount drank in the
morning) = 500 ml of chocolaty goodness. My books were soaked and so
were my pants. I went into the Winner’s Circle feeling very decidedly
un-winner like. The Unix Programming assignment can be summed up in one
word. Hard. Upon coming out, I was told that all the questions were
based on the Week 12 tutorial solutions, which I didn’t read. There was
even a 20 mark question that can be done in one line of code. One
measly line of code that was in the Week 12 tutorial exercises which I
neglected to read. One miserable line of code to grant me a “Get out of
Fail free” card. One wretched (I’m using the inbuilt thesaurus here)
line of code that is worth 20 marks. I’m going to print out the Week 12
tutorial solutions and eat it for revenge. To top it off, I tried the
balancing act again with two seafood baskets and a hot cocoa from
slops. When I opened the door to my room, the plates tilted and the cup
of cocoa started to slide. One of my hand was on the door knob and the
other was holding the plates with the sliding cup which dropped and
spilled all over my floor. It was either that or drop my two seafood
platters. Guess which one I chose?

Exams exams exams. I have two papers on Monday so I’ll have to miss
out on some sleep tonight so I can sleep early tomorrow. Need to get in
bed by 11 pm so I can wake up at 7 am and take a shower and pay my rent
and then catch the 8:30 shuttle to Caulfield Racecourse. Last exam I
got a really good seat. Right in front where you can see out into the
race course. It gives me just that little bit of inspiration. Heh. I’ve
got a paper from 9:30 – 12:30 and another one from 2:30 – 5:30. Not
exactly the best arrangement considering both of the papers are really
important. Oh well. Wish me luck people.

I am going to sit for my finals one week from today. Better get some studying done.

Well, I had my Unix assignment interview today, which didn’t really go
well due to some “undocumented features” I didn’t notice in my…uh,
rigorous testing. Oh well. I hope that I get good marks for it, coz it
does meet the basic specifications. Anyway, I’ve noticed that the blue SmITh’s
vending machines accepts Malaysian 20c coins as Australian 10c coins. They
are the same size, not the same weight though, so the half price
trick won’t work on the more sophisticated machines. According to the
Universal Currency
Converter [xe.com], a 20c Malaysian coin is equivalent to 0.0940808
cents in Aussie dollars. That makes for a saving of 0.940808%. If you are
so inclined, you can lug over a trillion of 20c coins and use them here.
That should give you a net profit of…oh I don’t know, something like 5
dollars? Heh. The best get rich quick scheme is still the one which nets
you one million dollars in 2 weeks. Here’s how to do it:

1. Buy 20 kgs of raw chicken thigh (or some other white meat)

2. %@#$!&*^((*&^!ERROR: ASCII conversion error

3. Profit!

How’s that for a quick and easy million? 🙂

I can’t go to sleep. My fears about failing is keeping me awake at night. Jesus Christ bananas.
I feel that if I don’t get up and study, I’ll fail for sure, and I’ll regret not cutting back on
sleep and studying instead. Then I go into full out panic mode and entertain very weird thoughts
which I will share with no one. I wonder why the thought of failing makes me feel so bad and
depressed and desperate. What a guilt trip. Hmm…I need to chill out for a while and try again 30
minutes later. Get things in focus. *breath in* *breath out* *breath in*

Days till I get my digital camera: 1

This is my Java Unit Test. I got 5 out of 20. 3.0 for Part A, 2.0 for Part B and a total of 5.0.
Since this is worth 10 marks towards the final result, this means I got 2.5/10. That comes to 3
“real marks” after rounding up. Not a very good number by anyone’s book. I did notice that the
marks had been liquid papered due to a calculation error(?). It used to be 3.5 for A and 3.0 for B.
That gives 6.5 as the total, which is 4 real marks after rounding up. If I fail by one mark I’m
going to think about this paper.

Days till I get my digital camera: 2

If anyone noticed a numbering discrepancy, its coz I counted Saturday (the day I get my digicam)
as one day too, which isn’t quite right. Thus, I’ve cut the days by 1.

Bloody 9:30 AM fire drills…the alarm just went on and on and on and on. Beep! Evacuate the
building! Beep! Evacuate the building! Beep! Evacuate the building! Beep! Fucking hell…
(me) Beep! For fucks sake! (neighbor) Beep! Oh, shut up! (another neighbor) Beep!
Fire drill people, get up get up. (overenthusiastic resident advisor) Beep! Only a handful
of people actually walked down to the designated area. I sure didn’t, I was taking a nap, so I just
stuffed my ears with my pillow and tried to ignore the irritating alarm. Besides, if it were real,
the message would have been – Beep! This is not a fire drill! Beep! Heh…happened last semester
when Richardson Hall (the one closest to us) got smoke logged. Why do they schedule the fire drills
in the morning anyway? It just irritates everybody.

Days till I get my digital camera: 4

I’m feeling rather pan because I’ve got heaps of assignments due and finals are on the 10th
of July and I’ve been really slack this semester. Arrrrgggggghhhhhh *runs around in circles* It
will feel good when all this is over and I pass all my subjects. It will be better if I get credits
coz pass doesn’t look really good on paper. Well…going to head off to the library later to borrow
some more books. I feel that I need to study every second of the day now if I hope to pass all my
subjects. I’m not worried about Unix Programming, Systems Design and Documents Imaging, but Java
and C++ is giving me a bit of trouble. Hmph. Oh well, at least I slept from 4 pm till 2 am last
night, so I’m all ready to hit the books. Libraries are mysterious places, don’t you think. Every
time I walk into a library, I feel like something weird and mystical is going to happen. Like
behind every shelf of books there is a time portal all ready to transport an unsuspecting library
goer to the 14th century. I did discuss this issue with my friend and he said that it’s probably
coz I don’t go to libraries much. It seems that the mysterious-ness disappears after you go to
libraries for a while. Hmm…must be something about the smell of old books. Possibilities!

The books I checked out from the library the day before. Lugging them back was no mean feat, I
tell you.

Days till I get my digital camera: 4

Just came back from a tiring day at school. I didn’t sleep last night to finish my Unix
programming assignment and I had to leave for a 10 am class. It’s just my luck that the tutor told
us it was okay to pass it up before Friday at 4 pm. I stayed up to finish my Documents and Imaging
Systems assignment earlier in this semester and the submission date was postponed as well due to
the lecturer leaving for Brisbane for a seminar. And the same thing happened with my Database
Systems assignment last semester. I wish that the assignments that get postponed are the ones I’m
having trouble with as opposed to the ones I’ve finished. Oh well, at least I have a bit of time to
add some features. Anyway, I saw that Chocfest 2002 (Melbourne Chocolate Festival) is being
held this weekend. I might drop by since I’m heading to Flemington this Saturday anyway.

Today is a rainy day, which makes the ground muddy. People like me shouldn’t wear light colored
clothes on a rainy day. That’s coz I track mud all over my pants. I saw several people wearing
white pants which weren’t stained with splashes of mud, so I’m force to conclude that there must be
something wrong with the way I walk. On a side note, Unix is the only thing I know of that can
reduce a grown man to tears. Manly tears, that is. 😉

Off to the washing machine you go.