Stickers! (Rick)
Hey peoples!
After reading a previous post I thought I might talk about my workload. In general, I haven’t felt it’s been too bad. I honestly don’t study like I should but I know that what I do have to learn is manageable. This is likely to also be due to the fact that I have 24 contact hours. Much of the work I do is done at the university and the set reading just goes over what has already been learnt in class (it’s hard to pick up the first time), so the books are only read when I find it’s necessary to understand. I’m also lucky in some ways that I have few assignments, and that I can divert more attention to trying to learn stuff that I have trouble understanding rather than a less constraining assignment.
One subject that has an annoying note system I find is Physics. Our lecture notes that we get on the web are incomplete and require us to fill some things in during class. The only thing is that it is inconsistent, and often my concentration is diverted to copying a formula rather than actually trying to take in what is being said and sometimes missing out because of a slide change. I’m trialling just not getting the printed notes and just copying stuff, and in some ways I’ve found less confusing.
This wasn’t the most fun week, I got a cold early in the season, and been feeling a bit sleepy. On Saturday night I went to a friends place, and watched ‘Saw 2’ (haven’t seen the first), and found it a little freaky, and would give it three and a half stars. It was also the first time I had been to this friend’s place, so it was nice to see where they were. I went back home by tram, but it turns out that getting home by tram at night may not always be pleasant. While waiting at the tram stop, some hoons who were driving past threw an egg at me, but luckily hit a bin in front of me. When the tram finally did come, fifteen minutes after scheduled, there were four drunk teenage guys on the tram, one of whom was very drunk, and later vomited on the tram. My plan was to get off at Royal Park station as so I could get close to my college without having to walk too far, but the four guys got off there so I decided I’d be better off just staying on and walking a further. Normally it wouldn’t matter but at this time the tram was only going to near the Children’s hospital (I knew this all along) and walked from there to my hall, which is a fair bit longer than what it would’ve been to most other colleges.
On Sunday I woke up late but expected to have lunch at 12:30pm, turned out it was only 11:30am due to daylight savings. It was annoying since I’d already held off eating anything before (for breakfast). (ie. I keep some bread for toast in the communal fridge at college.)
I’ve been looking in the ‘U Film Fest’ this week, and found it quite a hard thing to find information on. I first heard about it last Thursday on the TV screen they have at the live music, and tried to investigate. I found the url for a website http://www.ufilmfest.com.au/ which does not currently work, and was quite frustrating because a paragraph in the Activities and Entertainment leaflet was hardly sufficient to tell me what to do. Luckily my friend had picked up the leaflet for the film festival and was able to give me the copy. Eventually, after asking around in Union House I was able to find who could get me registed so I could see the DVD as to learn more. I hope to prepare an animation (if I get myself a computer) and/or create something with people in my college using the video camera we have here.
I’ve been finding that my commitment to ‘Socialist Alternative’ is quite a fair bit, with the stall on the Saturday and a meeting straight after. It’s ok now, but I’m not sure if I could balance it with a part time job and when I have a computer here still be able to work on 2D animation. The weekend just gone the stall that I was on was making a big point of Howard’s I.R. laws and how they have led to thousands of sackings since it’s implementation just this week.
I’ve now been going to my college tutes at Newman for Physics A (Adv), the first one I was a bit iffy about our setup, but this week I was quite able to contribute and learn something. One person that I’d met the week before at the college night was also there, so it was nice to see a familiar face.
Also, all this week I have been putting up red stickers to promote the student rally on Wednesday the 12th onto poles, lecture benches and poles. We are protesting against VSU, and I will be missing a tutorial for the rally. (In Intro to Programming, I’m not finding it a challenge, unlike maths and physics)
In my room I have a roller blind, and a few weeks ago I noticed a squashed spider sitting on it, which had obviously gotten stuck in it when I rolled it up previously. It remained there for several weeks and has since disappeared (presumably on the floor, must vacuum.)
This weekend I’m going to ‘Marxism Today’, a conference by ‘Social Alternative’ and expect to enjoy it with an anti-war activist speaking from the USA. But it does mean I’m having a busy weekend. Also tonight (Friday) I’m going to go and see a former exchange student from Germany who is in Australia for a short time.
Next week brings me a Maths A (Adv) test and a Physics A (Adv) test. The maths one is my only other assessment apart from the exam for the semester, so I’m going to be ensuring that I understand what we’ve been told so far. The physics is not so bad, only contributing for a small amount, but still, I’ll be putting in some effort. Also, it’s the last week of the demi-semester, so we get a one week holiday for me to revise and maybe talk about some other things for this space.
Chao!