australia – Page 8 – sixthseal.com

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.

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.

Lock Your Door

March 4, 2003 by HB

Lock Your Door
It is your responsibility to ensure that you lock the door to your
bedroom whenever you are not in your room. If you do not lock your
door, you risk having your personal property stolen. Even if you leave
your room for “just a minute”
LOCK YOUR DOOR

I just saw this sticker stuck on my door today. It was stuck on
every single door in our halls. It’s sad that living in a community
does have some bad elements as well. Personally, I’ve only been shafted
twice and only once was from my room. I am notorious for not locking my
room when I go out, partly out of a belief that people are generally
honest and partly because I hate having to dig though my pockets for my
key when my hands are full.

I’ve had a fridge stolen two semesters ago, but that wasn’t from my
room. I had stored it in the common room as required by the regulations
when I went back for the mid semester break and when I came back, it
was gone. The resident advisor’s records showed someone claiming to be
me checking it out and moving out. Oh well. I guess I’ll have to store
my Marquis reagent in the common fridge from now on. I’m kidding of
course. No, I’m really kidding so don’t go rooting around the fridge.

Anyway, the second time was when I left this really nifty A$24.95
can opener in the common sink. When I came out to wash it, it was gone,
and I thought that was the end of it so I got another cheaper one. A
week after it disappeared, it mysteriously appeared again at the same
place again. So I guess this qualifies as “borrowing” but he/she could
have at least asked me. What am I supposed to do with two can openers?

The third time was when someone took cash out of my room while I was
taking a shower. My room was right beside the shower then and my door
creaks distinctively when it’s opened. While I was taking a shower, the
door creaked and I shouted “I’m in the shower, I’ll be out in a sec so
just sit around a while” coz the walls are thin and they can hear me
from my room. I thought it was a friend, but the person didn’t answer
me and soon after that, the door creaked closed again. I returned to my
room to see that the A$10 I put on my keyboard to remind myself to get
a calling card was missing.

The guy rummaged around a bit too coz my room was messier than
usual, but he didn’t find my wallet so I think the most he got away
with was A$10 and some change that was on the table. Heh. I don’t think
it was done by a ressie (resident) though. Must have been someone not
from the halls. Oh well, it’s just A$10 so that wasn’t that big a deal.
But I did lock my door after that, although I’ve gone back to the habit
of not locking my door again.

I believe most ressies are honest people anyway (me = idealist), and
these things don’t happen all that often. I wonder why the management
decided to stick this new sticker on everyone’s room…I didn’t think
theft was such a big problem here.

Stuff like single serve ice creams, dairy food, yogurt, juice and
beer have a mysterious habit of disappearing from the community fridge
though. 🙂

7 Deadly Sins

February 27, 2003 by HB

Give in to it

Ah…now this gives me a fair bit of nostalgia. The Magnum 7 Deadly
Sins ice cream came out about a year ago and I wrote about it in one of my first few posts
[monash.edu.au]. You have to scroll to the middle of the page coz my
blog was plain HTML then. It was a limited edition of seven ice creams
representing each of the 7 sins with a different theme for each ice
cream and a phrase imprinted on the stick.

Which sin are you?

Well, it’s out again, but with only three of the sins now. No sign
of the other 4 that was out last year. That’s too bad coz the best
tasting and best looking sin from last year was Vanity. It was
champagne ice cream with pearl balls in the shell.

Wrapper of Sloth

It’s also smaller than the ones that came out a year back. The size
now is similar to the Magnum Minis instead of the normal sized Magnums.
They are only available in a boxed set of 6 mini Magnums (2 x 3 sins).

Wrapper of Gluttony

Well, I ate all six of them over the course of the night while I was
coding. I haven’t eaten anything besides the six ice creams for a full
32 hours but that’s still pretty bad. Heh. Eating so many ice creams
can’t be good for me.

Wrapper of Greed

I haven’t eaten anything else because I’m lazy to cook and I’m busy
coding for IE. I can actually go without eating for a long time, you
just don’t get hungry after you pass a certain point. I’m not planning
to eat anything until noon today. I find it easier to concentrate this
way.

Gluttony – Craving something rich enough for your appetite? Gorge down this! Chocolate mudcake on a stick.

Well anyway, the 3 sins in this pack are Gluttony, Greed and Sloth.
I like Sloth because it’s “my” sin. 🙂 Gluttony tastes the best though.
It’s chocolate mud cake ice cream with a white chocolate shell. For
some reason the stick didn’t have any writing on it. I forgot what it
had last year too, but it’s all the same as last year’s only smaller
and repackaged.

Greed – Let the golden richness of the honeycomb entice your
ravenous desires. The deep indulgent outside layer of chocolate will
excite your sensual hunger.

Greed is okay, but I didn’t really like it all that much. It’s
honeycomb ice cream with a shell made of milk chocolate and that hokey
pokey thingies that’s like the thing inside Crunchie. Come to think of
it, Greed tastes like Crunchie. It had “Greed is good” written on the
stick.

Greed is good

Sloth – Slack off on a peanut butter indulgence. A creamy excessive luxury for the loose relaxed sloth you are.

The last one is Sloth and it’s peanut butter ice cream with white
chocolate and peanuts for the shell. It didn’t taste all that good, but
I like it anyway coz it’s Sloth. 🙂 It has “It is better to have loafed
& lost then never to have loafed at all”. Haha! I like this one so
much.

It is better to have loafed & lost then never to have loafed at all

I feel like I’ve time travelled back a year.

Link of the Day: NOFX – Summer Sonic Festival 2002 Tokyo, Japan [fuckinbollocks.com]
111 MB

(Right Click, Save As)

What’s Bob gonna do, now that he can’t drink?

Murder The Government/Dinosaurs Will Die/I’m Telling Tim/Bottles To The Ground/Bob/Linoleum

Classic! NOFX in playing some of their greatest songs in Japan. The
audio and video are really good quality. It’s on a fast server too,
it’s around 230 KB/sec sustained and I’m in Australia. A must download
if you like NOFX. Too bad my two other favourite songs are not in. 🙂
I’m partial to Pharmacist’s Daughter (Pump Up The Valuum) and Go to
Work Wasted (Surfer EP). It’s interesting that the Surfer EP is where
they kinda go back to their roots production, sound and lyrics wise. If
I didn’t know better I would have thought it was a Liberal Animation
era album. Go download the video. 🙂

The Third Peak

February 19, 2003 by HB

*puuuushuuuuuuuuu* (sound of a balloon deflating) I just got back
from the code review. I’ve got a list of 23 odd things to fix with my
code before Monday. It’s mostly minor stuff though, so it’s still okay.
Our supervisor has selflessly sacrificed a good chunk of his after work
time to go through our code and my group mates and I spent several
hours in his office while he went through the code with a fine tooth
comb.

Anyway, I’m pretty tired now so I’m going to sleep early tonight.
I’ve gotta wake up early tomorrow coz it’s the last day I’ll be able to
work on my Neural Networks assignment. It’s due by Friday 12 noon. The
above picture was taken tonight on the Pakenham train I take to get
home. It’s not very clear, take a train in Melbourne and you’ll know
why. It’s not exactly smooth sailing.

I took two photos actually, and the second one was when the train
was stationary so it should be clearer. Unfortunately, the second one
mysteriously disappeared from the memory card. I’m going to file that
under mysterious mysteries. I think I may very well be the only one
that finds myself funny. =D Anyway, I’ve noticed that there are three
peak hours for trains. The first two are logical – the hour before
office hours and the hour after office hours.

However the carriages are always full from 8:30 pm – 9:30 pm too.
I’ve thought about this and the best reason I could come out with is
that the passengers are people who went out for a drink and to catch up
with friends after office hours instead of going straight home. The
fact that night trains are truncated might have something to do with it
as well. The trains after 7:30 pm are not full length ie some carriages
are removed because it’s supposed to be off peak hours. Truncated
trains. 🙂 I alliterate.

Will write help files for marks

February 17, 2003 by HB

I’ve been writing the help files for the WIER project my group is doing for Industrial Experience. Here’s a snippet:

Adding Times

Adding times to the Task/Time Tracker is done by clicking on the subtask you want to add to.

The first button in the upper right hand corner is then clicked.
You’ll know you have the right button when you hover the mouse over the
button as “Log Time Under This Task” shows up.

When you click on the button, the Log A Work Session screen comes up.
Here is where you add the times and descriptions. The date can also be
changed by clicking on the Select Date link and selecting a date from
the pop up calendar.

After everything is filled in, clicking on Log Time will enter the times into the database.

Editing Tasks

The tasks should be updated periodically as the project goes on to
reflect the correct initial estimated hours and current estimated
hours. This is done by clicking on Edit This Task in the Task/Time
tracker upper right hand corner.

Clicking on the button will navigate you to the Edit a Task screen.

The Edit a Task screen is where you can update the Current and
Initial Estimated Hours. In this screen, the Current Estimated is being
updated to 50 hours instead of the original 150 hours after finding out
that the task is nearing completion and would not require as much hours
as previously estimated.

What do you think? I know I got confusing at times, but oh well…

I’ll be free-er (if there’s such a word) this Friday. The summer
subject I’m taking finishes for good on Friday 12 noon after I hand in
the last assignment. I don’t know why the assignment due date is after
the final exam but it just is. These couple of days are gonna be busy.
I’ve got to go to the Clayton labs tomorrow to work on the Neural
Networks assignment because the program we need to use is only
installed in the labs. Then we’re going to have our IE presentation on
Tuesday 2:30 pm and then we’re going to move all our code to the live
server on 5 pm on the same day and then we have a code review (also for
IE) on Wednesday 5 pm onwards till God knows when and then I’ll have
one last day to finish up my summer assignment and hand it in on Friday
12 noon. Phew, someone pass me the meth…no sleep for the wicked.

WIER

February 13, 2003 by HB

This is the Industrial Experience project my team is working on.
It’s nearing the end and the coding part is basically done, except for
some bits and pieces. The project is coded mainly using PHP (with a
tiny bit of Javascript) and it uses an Oracle database that is located
on a different campus, which requires us to be frugal in making
database calls. WIER stands for Web Industrial Experience Resources and
it’s a project management system that’s going to go live in 2 weeks.
Crunch time, baby!

Someone please wipe the drool off my chin

February 10, 2003 by HB

I’ve just watched this NTU (Nanyang Technological University,
Singapore) Halls of Residence cheerleading video from last year that
Daniel kindly FTPed to me. The pictures are pretty blur because I had
to photograph the monitor. I can’t seem to grab screenshots of MPEGs in
Windows XP. It’s some kind of interhalls competition and I was
surprised that some of the routines are really good. There was one that
particularly stood out, I can’t remember which stairway it was but they
had the Moulin Rouge Can Can snippet which lead into Offspring’s
Original Prankster. I liked the intro where they lifted this girl high
up and she waves and did the arms-folded-trust-drop that cheerleaders
do. It’s a really good video, if you’re inside the Monash network I’ve
got it shared under killuminati in Direct Connect (Hub: davo).
Otherwise, bug Daniel [mailto:] to send a copy to you. 🙂

Anyway, as I was walking to the dining hall today, I passed by a
possum rummaging around in a rubbish bin. I didn’t see the little guy
until I was right beside him and in a caffeine induced jitter, I jumped
a little. Well, I think I scared the possum more than he did me,
because he jumped even higher and scrambled over several rubbish bins
and flinged himself into a wall! Ouch.

Link of the Day: A Frightened Boy [rathergood.com]

I’ll have two of whatever he’s having. Oh, and if anyone knows the
title of the song used in the flash animation, give me a holler. Thanks!

Curious George

February 5, 2003 by HB

I didn’t do too well in the exam today, but I should be able to
pass. *fingers crossed* I only got 1 hour of sleep last night. Wanted
to sleep at 2:30 am but couldn’t so I laid in bed doing jack shit until
5:30 am before I finally decided against sleeping and got up and
studied some more. I thought about crunching up a couple of Valiums
(legally prescribed) and getting some sleep, but that would not be such
a good idea considering there’s no way I would be getting 8 hours of
sleep. Diazepam makes me feel really scattered if I don’t sleep for a
decent amount of time after taking it.

Anyway, I did finally sleep for slightly more than an hour at 8 am.
Woke up feeling strangely refreshed and got some serious studying done.
I always tend to cram a few hours before the exam. George picked up the
shovel and started digging into the ground. The tree has been there for
more than 7 decades, but good things must come to an end. He digs, one
shovel at a time, one rock at a time, one pebble at a time. The
children crowded around him, peering curiously at George. Curious
George.

Sleep beckons me.