Friday, October 30, 2009

feminism is responsible for my employment

Here it goes:
  1. rise of feminism
  2. 'equal' rights and all
  3. more females going for careers
  4. careers taking priority over producing children
  5. more families started later
  6. increase in demand for IVF treatment
  7. increase in demand for IVF lab equipment
  8. increase in production of IVF lab equipment
Even better for the owners who saw this trend... they must be awesomely rich.

In celebration of this insight, I'm going to bake a cake tonight. Well, not really in celebration - the slab of butter that I bought for my cous cous is going to go off soon and I need to use it. Cous cous is pretty awesome... like the pasta version of 2 minute noodles.

[yeah, I'm procrastinating for my exam on Wednesday]

Thursday, October 29, 2009

by demand


No longer a $upa bargain... they've gone CRAZY!

Excuses: crap phone camera + taking a photo at 8PM...

For own reference (readers ignore):
500g satchel; 353mm x 220mm
3kg satchel; 405mm x 310mm

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

pre-exam holiday [clean-up]


1. I went to see a lovely Japanese animation film, Ponyo, that started on Friday evening and ended on Saturday morning. :O such a random viewing time. As always, films bring up a wide range of issues - in this case some of them might be, but not limited to: respect for elders (or can we view all adults as children pretending to be adults?), standard of female driving (crazy cliff-top driving!), human-induced environmental damage, dominion of animals/Ponyo-creature.
Drunk people getting angry at taxis.... hmmm

2. I think we have too many spoons in the household....


3. Replaced 4 slightly bulging capacitors and then we can record again on the TV hard drive recorder box! If only there were more easy problems like this...


4. Does anybody else have the same wear patterns? o.O


Edit: I thought this one is relevant as a matching photo...



Saturday, October 24, 2009

the real unit evaluations sem2 2009

ECE3091 Engineering Design
I suppose this unit is intelligent design... But what is intelligent design? After seeing a hovercraft cobbled together from household materials and second-hand parts, it doesn't seem all that purpose-built. Plus it's still going to fail some times...
I suppose just like how humans don't work that well underwater, in the extreme cold and heat, neither do hovercrafts. (yeah, lame link in I know)
Seems like disproportionate work for 6 credit points. Still, fun while it lasted. Fun while people were jealous of our speed. :P Happy before the air con was switched on. =/


Systems Thinking
Kinda got lost in between the youtube videos with the message we're all screwed to varying degrees since 30ish years ago and the causal loop diagrams. Luckily it's an open-book exam. It seems like it might have been just me but the lecturer wrote that I didn't actually answer my individual essay question (funny realisation after I compared somebody else's). But he was nice enough to give me enough marks from the presentation, referencing stuff...

MGC3250 Management in small firms
reading about statistics and facts about small business
pretending that you're an accountant with 2 years' foresight for a fictional small business
Seems odd but not a bad level three unit that you don't need to think too hard about - more 'creative' work.
Would have been good to work with somebody else for the fictional small business but commerce students aren't really handy during the week.
Playful contempt towards the elderly tutor floods the tutorial room. x_O

MGC3450 Managing conflict
This one goes around in circles, but the lecturer said it would. Everything is connected to every other topic in the unit. It's good in that it emphasises personal development and scenarios rather than chunks of theory. Role play can be a bit weird in a class full of internationals. Quite a worthwhile unit for its randomness.

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Things learned/obtained this semester

From design
  • ignore demonstrators - they haven't been through it. They may likely send you up the garden path.
  • persevere - from above
  • design is a lot about stealing ideas and implementing them as best you can
  • more confidence in random electronics
  • more of a practical 'can-do' attitude (from previous point) 
  • just because you bought two of something is not a good enough reason to use two
  • reassurance that cramming as many components into a small piece of stripboard is quite alright (especially when the groups that ordered PCBs were disappointed with the no-show)
  • simplicity can work quite well
  • Being 'adult' is merely the best imitation of what you think an adult is...
  • use of IDC connectors, header pins (now I have some wacky ideas about using right-angled stuff)
  • Don't bother perfecting something when there's other random factors involved... try to think those up first? ie broader thinking
  • 哎呀!! 丢脸. Air conditioning can increase friction on a garbage bag by 9 times! Playing by the rules of the game suck when the rules are made up on the spot.
  • Fruit smoothies are quite refreshing as an early evening stimulant (Not that I've spent money on anything else)

From work into design
  • How to properly use solder wick (zomg; >half my DSE solder wick has oxidised and is worthless)
From design into other units
  • worse time-management
  • more procrastination for reports
  • more all-nighters

Monday, October 19, 2009

a rush

I left this one way too late...

Absolutely ridiculous. My time management seems to have completely gone this semester.

I seemed to get through the wordy part of the report alright. I still got bogged down because Jewel of the Crown was aired on ABC2 on Sunday night. However, part of the report was to make cash flow, profit/loss and balance sheets for a fictional business and two years in advance. So I went to sleep at around 3AM to tackle the task in the morning.

Unfortunately, I managed to drag it out so I was trying to better fudge numbers at 12:45. I had to catch my 1:15 bus to make to the 2PM tutorial where it was to be handed in. Of course something had to go wrong... Since I had copied it out into MS Excel, it no longer fit properly. ah well. Scaled it down to squinty font and whacked it in the appendix. Now this is where the jogging pays off I suppose, except that the bus was delayed to my stop so it was totally unnecessary.

Later in class I find that at least one of my classmates also did a dodgy with the balance sheet in that they took the difference number and shoved it back up so assets, liabilities and owner's equity all plays nicely. It's always nice to talk about how crap a task has been done together with other people. I find out that they went to MacRob, same year level. Well, a lot makes sense now. heh.

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

What is ECE3091 Engineering Design?

What is design for that matter? A bunch of components bound with a few dabs of once-molten metal alloy then precariously balanced on a foam board... hmmm. Question to be revisited after final demonstration next week I suppose. Do come~ it's at Monash Clayton Building 72, room 132-133 Wednesday 21/10/2009 9AM.

 It's a video... :O

From GEM media

Anyway, this came something like second in the time trial (automatic pass/fail 70% of unit). There's a few competitors in the same Picasa folder. I also got the interesting comment that my MOSFETs look fake.

Also had an interesting situation where 40 minutes before the presentation for the hovercraft, my teammate tries to eat a big muffin and locks his jaw. Not being medically trained, I googled the situation and even got a reasonable remedy.. but he just goes off to the campus medical centre. So we end up covering his part. bah

And now I'm just listening to Michelle Branch - Paper Pieces while I have a 15% and 30% assessment due Friday and 25% due Monday. Here's hoping I can get my all-nighter average up to D.

-I was pleasantly surprised that I got a C for my 1700 out of 2500 case study analysis. The only comment was "wider reading would have resulted in a higher mark". Yeah, I'm probably not going to do wider reading at 4AM >.<

Saturday, October 10, 2009

the community

I ordered three Platinum Preppy fountain pens from overseas - they're cheapo ones at about $4 each. (The refillable converter cartridge costs more than the pen) They write really well but the lid starts cracking after some time. So I thought... why not google it?

And there we go; heaps of people have had the same problem. It turns out that a bit of electrical tape is all that's needed to keep it from drying out. I reckon it's pretty awesome how the internet can spread even this kind of information through the community.

Friday, October 9, 2009

deep stuff


I discovered that at work there are no fewer than eight different teas and coffees, including four of those fancy instant flavoured coffee drinks (like French Vanilla or was it Creme). Maybe they've worked out that they can tempt the employees into drinking these stuffs that they get better productivity... or I suppose they could be nice (a bit too convenient for my liking although it does appear to be the case).

Anyway, onto deeper stuff: I took some photos at Nunawading after catching a delightfully delayed Springvale Road Smartbus. The run wasn't too bad after Waverley Road but Glen Waverley is a mess with the construction work. Total delay was about 15 minutes.


Nice ancient train


Deep


Deep again


Good one! Compare the tentative introduction date of Myki with the demolition of Nunawading Station.

Thursday, October 1, 2009

that other kind of semester

Damn... the bus is so good when there's no school kids and uni is officially on break. It makes me not want to make the most of my Ps, which I was rather late in getting anyway. (The other factor is that I have a monthly ticket.) Not so sure if there's enough patronage to make a rail line out to Monash in any direction. It doesn't seem worth it for something that is well-used for 26 weeks in a year. Apart from getting my Ps on Monday, it looks like it'll be 4 days of 5 at the labs perfecting the hovercraft.

My exam timetable is looking quite awesome though - a bunch of relatively low-value exams spread out ridiculously nicely. Only a diagram could do it justice.