University Life – Page 4

Wednesday

March 26, 2003 by HB

I enjoyed my tutorial today. Where else can you surf websites as
tutorial exercises? Heh. It’s a first year subject I took because I’m
still eligible to take those since I took mostly 3rd year subjects in
my second and third year. 🙂 There’s an assignment due in 2 weeks but
that’s an easy one…could probably finish it in one night. This is a 9
am class, but it’s not that bad, coz it’s held in Clayton. I live at
the halls of residence in Clayton so it’s just a couple of minutes
walk. I’m glad I took two Clayton subjects this semester. The other two
are Caulfield ones so the commute takes much longer. My faculty is
based in Caulfield though.

Well, Easter break is coming along soon and that’s a one week
holiday for us. I’ve seen a lot of chocolate Easter eggs of all shapes
and sizes, including huge ass 1 kg ones. However, I’ve never seen these
before. Cadbury’s Hot Cross Marshmallow Buns! I also picked up some
liquorish. I love that stuff, though not many people do because it’s
one of those things you either love or hate.

Anyway, I finally deleted my domain from the previous host coz it
was causing problems within the Monash network. I live at halls so that
affects me. I won’t go into the technical details but the way the DNS
server at halls assigns serial numbers makes it think my old host is
the newest entry instead of my new host. It’s been 6 days so my new
name server has probably propagated to even Afghanistan so deleting the
old one shouldn’t be a problem.

Well, migrating Movable Type to the new host was not as easy as I
thought. The database dump managed to load, but logging in gave me an
error. I tried dropping the mt_permissions table and it worked, but
then I lost my user name association with my blog. I tried running some
SQL statements, but nothing worked, so I had to import it using Movable
Type’s import system. What this means is that the pages are renumbered
so all the internal links are messed up. I’ll fix that this weekend.

Hmm…should I eat Indomie tonight or Yum Yum? I used to eat a lot of
this stuff back when I was studying in Christchurch, NZ. I only like
the duck flavored ones, it’s really good and quite spicy so if you see
it around, give it a try. I only saw this in Melbourne a couple of
weeks ago and was happy to find it. Ah…nostalgia. 🙂

My wallet?

March 25, 2003 by HB

I passed by the campus center cafe while on the way back from my
tutorial. I was alone at that time. I decided to take away a rice box
for dinner, so I ordered one. I proceeded to the cashier and put my
right hand into my right pocked to get my wallet out. It wasn’t there.
I checked my other pocket, and it wasn’t there too. I had forgotten to
bring my wallet out.

*cough*

“Er…I seem to have left my wallet at home”

That’s what I said to the cashier.

How embarrassing. 🙂

Week long food

March 25, 2003 by HB

I’m going to sleep after I eat this. I don’t know if it’s still
edible but I’m going to eat it anyway coz I haven’t had anything for
the whole day. 🙂 I bought this rice box ONE WEEK ago and forgot about
it. I left it in the fridge though, so I guess it’s still edible. I
think. Gonna microwave it now and see. Heh.

Do tell me if you happen to see any dead links or missing pictures on the site. Thanks! 🙂

Behold the new dog tag, same as the old dog tag

March 21, 2003 by HB

Behold, I say! 🙂 This is the new Roberts Hall dog tag. It’s used to
open doors in public access areas like the kitchen, common room etc. I
received a memo advising me that there’s only one day for Roberts Hall
residents to change their dog tags, and that is today. Good thing I set
an alarm in my Palm to remind me, or I would have totally forgotten
about it. It looks similar to the old one, except the new one has
grooves reading RoY instead of RoR.

This is the last post I make before I change the name servers. It
can take 24 – 48 hours till the DNS propagates to everyone though. If
you’re still seeing this post tomorrow, check back again in a couple of
hours to see if your ISP’s DNS lists have been updated. Take care
people. This is me signing off from Host Nexus…see you all tomorrow
at ICDSoft.

Bi-Lo in disarray

March 16, 2003 by HB

I went out this afternoon for some grocery shopping and also to hunt
down the remaining ice creams in The Sixties Nine collection with
Adrian. It seems that the line is not available in the big grocery
chains like Coles or Bi-Lo but only in small convenience stores and the
stores in petrol stations. Not only that, it also seems that each store
has only part of the lineup so you have to hunt around a bit to get the
whole series. I’ve gotten 8 of them so far (picked up Jami Hendrix
today), and there’s only one last one to finish my collection. 🙂

Well, saw something interesting in the meat section of Bi-Lo today. Nice and lumpy ox kidneys.

It also seems that Bi-Lo (Clayton) is doing some heavy staff
pruning. Only two checkout counters are open, the deli section doesn’t
have a dedicated sales person, and there are heaps of weird stuff in
the aisles! You know how people take something and then decided they
don’t want it and conveniently put it out of order at any aisle they’re
currently in? Yeah, there’s heaps of that going around. Juice in the
detergent aisle and stuff like that. I also saw:

An empty wrapper of crisps beside a box of Special K.
A half empty McDonald’s soft drink cup in the sauces aisle.
A 6 pack of pies that someone had poked their fingers through the packaging and even one of the pies, revealing the meat inside.
An eaten yogurt cup in the dairy food section.

Tsk…I was under the impression that the Bi-Lo in Clayton is about to go under.

Anyway, what is up with all the calling cards? Indo Card, Go
Bananas, GPS and several others can’t be used to call Malaysia for the
past few days! Today is the third day I’ve been unable to call out. I’m
not the only one either, everyone using the cards couldn’t call
Malaysia. The error message is always either “The number you have
called is disconnected” or “The overseas network is currently down”. I
tried calling Telstra customer services at 1221 and they said their
cards were fine, so I’m gonna get a Say G’Day one tomorrow. Sheesh, wtf
is up with all the other cards…

Mummified possum

March 14, 2003 by HB

Look at this picture of a dead possum! It was left out for so long it looks slightly mummified.

Saw it today while using a shortcut back to halls. It’s a rarely
traveled path so it’s no wonder it’s been unnoticed for so long. I’m
gonna make this Picture of the Day. 🙂

Well, I finally sorted out all my subjects today. Today is the last
day to add subjects and 5 pm is the cut off time. I got an email from
the GSC2714 Alcohol and Drug Use
[monash.edu.au] lecturer at around 4 pm that said I could enroll in the
subject even if I didn’t do the co-requisite. I did a first year
Psychology subject back in Inti College, Kuching and he accepted that
as a pre-requisite.

In a last minute decision, I dropped one of my CSSE subjects and
took this one. I already had more than enough 3rd year CSSE subjects to
meet the requirements and already had enough for two specializations,
so I’m taking an interesting subject for a change this semester. I’ve
previously only taken subjects from the CSSE (Computer Science and
Software Engineering) faculty.

We actually have several free electives where we can take subjects
from other faculties, but I’ve never exercised that option until now. I
also found out that we need 36 points of second year subjects and I
only had 30 before this semester. I had always taken 3rd year subjects
and logically that should be alright, since 3rd year subjects are
harder. But there is a quota of 2nd year subjects which I haven’t
fulfilled, so that’s why I’m taking some 2nd year subjects in my final
semester. A bit weird eh, but I’ve already done more than enough 3rd
year CSSE subjects.

My final subject list:

CSE3151 COMMUNICATION NETWORK PERFORMANCE
CSE2030 WEB INTERFACE TECHNOLOGY
ELC1000 ELECTRONIC COMMERCE FUNDAMENTALS
GSC2714 ALCOHOL AND DRUG USE

This should be an easy semester for me. I’ll be pretty comfortable
with CSE3151 and CSE2030 from the subject description. I’m also taking
a first year subject from the Electronic Commerce faculty as an
elective coz I figured it’ll be easy and it’s somewhat related to my
degree anyway. And finally, GSC3714 Alcohol and Drug Use, a Behavioral
Science faculty subject and something I’m personally interested in, so
this should be fun. They even have an agency visit to a related
organization planned, which we’re supposed to write up and give a
presentation on.

I also managed to allocate all my classes to Tuesday, Wednesday and
Thursday so I have an extra long weekend. Heh! 🙂 Well, I also paid all
my bills and sorted out some stuff today so everything is ready for the
new semester. Did you know I couldn’t make outgoing calls on my cell
phone yesterday because I forgot to pay the bill? It just slipped my
mind and I only paid it today and got it unbarred again.

Paid my course fees and halls rent too, so everything is settled.
Phew. Had to run around a bit today. Since there is a limit of EFTPOS
transactions here, I had to withdraw A$3,500 from the bank earlier in
the day to pay for everything. They didn’t have A$100 notes so it was
all in A$50 notes. I couldn’t even fit that pile in my wallet! I tried,
but my wallet wouldn’t fold after that. I had to carry it around like a
stack of letters.

Anyway, there seems to be a lot of competing calling cards nowadays.
The prices for calls to Malaysia have all dropped down to several cents
compared to 20c when I just came here. There were heaps advertising
4.9c, 3.9c, 3c and such. I saw a new card called Australian Express
which stated 3c to Malaysia. Usually, the quality of the connection for
the low cost ones are terrible, so I just got an A$5 one to test it out.

I found out that it was made by the same company as Planet Telecom Australia
[sixthseal.com], which I mentioned in that post as having an absolutely
terrible connection. The dial in numbers for Australian Express were
the same as Planet Telecom Australia so I wasn’t expecting much. I was
pleasantly surprised that the connection quality has improved. However,
they have an absolutely appalling connection fee/flagfall/watever. I
called back home to discuss my subjects with my dad and got my mom and
I called my dad’s cell and talked for probably all of 15 minutes and
that was the end of the card.

Granted, it was only a A$5 one, and calls to cell phones are charged
a higher rate, but that means their connection fee is really, really
high. It said I had 96 minutes when I called my home phone (there’s
something wrong with their math here somewhere, that’s not 3c per
minute) and 63 minutes when I called my dad’s cell, so I reckon the
connection fee (the fee that’s charged each time you use it) is A$1+.
That’s a ridiculous amount, so I don’t think this card is worth it
unless you buy higher denominations and plan to talk for a long time.

Almost heaven, West Virginia

March 13, 2003 by HB

Good news! I have wonderful news! The issue with my CSE3153 Network
Administration subject, which marks were withheld because my
assignments were somehow lost, has been resolved! I resubmitted the
assignments (which was why I was up all night yesterday) and have
gotten word that I’ll get a Credit for the subject! I did correctly
predict my expected marks [sixthseal.com] after all. Wonderful news by itself, but wait…when it rains, it pours! =D

Remember that I failed my summer semester subject? The BUS3650
Business Applications of Neural Networks one? Yeah, I got a 45, which
is a Fail. I’ve been talking to my course coordinator, Sylvia Tucker
who has been extremely helpful and I ended up getting a Near Pass. A
Near Pass is considered a pass and counts towards the credit points so
that’s good news indeed! I don’t have to re-take any subjects and I’m
taking a normal workload this semester. Many thanks to Sylvia and also
my lecturer Kate Smith for making this happen. Anyone notice the
abundance of hyperbolic adjectives in this post? It’s because I’m
absolutely st0ked! =D

Life is peachy…

Yeah, I bought a nectarine at Coles before I came back just to add
that “Life is peachy” sentence and a peach picture in the post. It cost
me 81 cents if you’re interested to know. I was anticipating that
things will resolve itself this way, and it sure did! 🙂 Ah…the 81
cents wasn’t spent in vain. 😉

Anyway, I didn’t get any sleep last night, but I’m still alright. I
actually spent more time doing other things than my assignment last
night. I spent 2 hours at McDonalds with my buddies and ended up
surfing a whole lotta blogs and making comments here and there. I only
rallied up and started working seriously at 3 am. Heh! It’s all good,
everything is resolved now and I can finally get into my last semester.

Well, there’s another thing, I also received word from my IE client
Jason Ceddia that we’re passing the subject for sure, although the
grade is still unknown. Rains. Pours. =D Anyway, tell you about my
day…went to uni early in the morning to print out my stuff and
discovered that my account was locked because there is one unpaid
subject. I have paid for the whole year last June but I didn’t know IE
was considered as two subjects, so I have to pay for an extra subject.

Anyway, that’s okay, gonna pay everything tomorrow so my account
will be unlocked again. Good thing my halls net access is still online.
Well, since I couldn’t use the computers in uni to print out my stuff,
I went to see Ashley (my IE supervisor) and he kindly allowed me to use
his computer and his staff printer to print out my stuff. It has just
been a good day for me, everything is falling into place nicely. 🙂

Yeah, anyway, I can take an elective from any faculty this semester.
I’ve done most of my 3rd year CSSE (Computer Science and Software
Engineering) electives so I’ve got some free electives stashed away. I
was very, very interested to take this:

BNS3052 Drugs, brain and altered awareness [monash.edu.au]

An excerpt:

Clinical, prescribed and recreational drugs are discussed in
regard to their modes of action on brain cells, the regions of brain
targeted and their effects on cognition and behavior.

What an interesting elective to take! It’s from the Faculty of
Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences and I would have really enjoyed
doing this subject. I mean really enjoyed it, instead of thinking of it
as uni work, I’ll be willing to spend heaps of personal free time on
it. I reckon I would do well in it too…;)

Well, too bad it’s only offered in the second semester, and it’s the
first semester now. 🙁 Too bad, that would have been a very interesting
subject to take. Another interesting one is:

CGP1004 Alcohol and drugs [monash.edu.au]

An excerpt:

Management of withdrawal and brief and long term management
strategies are discussed in relation to alcohol, nicotine,
benzodiazpine, opiates, stimulants, cannabis and other drugs.

They misspelled benzodiazepine. It has an ‘e’. Don’t mean to be the
Spelling Nazi, but this is pretty basic to get wrong. This subject
sounds slightly anti-drug compared to the previous one, which sounded
neutral and more interested in research than moral issues. Oh well,
it’s a second semester subject as well, so there’s no point drooling
over this. I can’t take it coz it’s the first semester now! I would
have loved to take the first one though, I would have enjoyed working
on that one indeed! I’ll be interested to do some research (in the name
of science of course, what were you thinking?) on whether high doses of
methamphetamine actually causes the irreversible degeneration of
dopamine receptors and dopamine transporter loss. 😉

Ah yes…I lost my train of thought.

Banana

March 11, 2003 by HB

Why do people crave bananas when they’re feeling depressed? My
theory is (I have a theory for just about anything, just ask me), it’s
because bananas naturally contain tryptophan. That is a precursor for
5HTP, which you can also get in capsule form in some health food shops.
No one I know takes 5HTP for anything other preloading or postloading
(softening the comedown from Ecstasy (MDMA)) though. Well, we all know
that serotonin is 5HT2 and 5HTP is a precursor of 5HT2 (serotonin).
This information is all available somewhere if you search for it. Thus,
if we follow this logic and we assume that the body does readily
convert tryptophan -> 5HTP -> 5HT2 (serotonin), then bananas
(which contains tryptophan) is a natural anti-depressant. Serotonin is
naturally produced in your brain and is what actually makes you happy
(to put it in simple terms). And that’s why some people crave bananas
when they’re depressed and that’s why I reached into the fruit bowl
when I went for lunch today. There you have it. I think…:)

Hmm…I’ve always found the word ‘banana’ slightly amusing. Guess my mind never did graduate from primary school.

Failing sucks, eh?

March 6, 2003 by HB

I saw this today while in uni. I just got my summer semester results
today and as I said earlier, I failed and wanted to see if there was
anything I could do to get something like a near pass or faculty pass.
I was worried about failing this and approached the lecturer during the
exam about the possibility of doing some extra credit work just in case
I fail.

Well, the lecturer pretty much said it’s out of her hands. I went to
my course coordinator for help so we’ll see what happens. I hope to get
some consideration regarding this matter as I’m supposed to graduate in
June and my student visa expires then. I like Sylvia (my course
coordinator) as she’s always been very helpful.

Well, I hope we can work something out. I really need to pass this
subject. I’m pretty bummed about this right now. Hoping for a conceded
pass or something. Well, we’ll see how things go. Hmm…I posted
pictures I took of the clubvibes.com reps that were at the Clayton
campus this afternoon but talked about something else altogether. My
Industrial Experience is practically over and that should be something
to be happy about but this failing business sure rained on my parade.
Failing sucks. I feel st00pid…

45

March 6, 2003 by HB

I failed my summer semester subject. I had wanted to write about a
lot of things today, but I’m not in the mood right now so I’ll make a
proper post tomorrow or something. I’m already stressed out and sleep
deprived from IE and I’m trying not to think about this right now.