Angry Man and other crazy antics. (Rick)

I’m not sure how my other fellow bloggers write their entries, but I never do it all in one go. I’m fortunate enough to be able to write this post in my room, after my brother has been not doing his homework at home, so now I’ve got this computer for a while. It’s also good because it’s giving me access to Macromedia Dreamweaver as the Medley Hall computers do not have it. Unfortunately my brother forgot to bring the adapter so I can use the sound card, meaning I can’t listen to the music and also forgot the power cord for the wireless mouse recharging dock, so I estimate I’ve got about 30 hours of use in it, which should be ok at this time of year, as I will be doing lots of study, and I can use the computer reasonably efficiently just using keyboard shortcuts.

The last week brought a few small things apart from all the study I was doing for exams. I created a comic strip called ‘Angry Man’ and have since uploaded to my website.

This was published in our college newsletter ‘The Medley Mail’, and was enjoyed by many. I’ve had many references to it by people including when they’ve been angry about something and talked about biting it.

On Tuesday I had my Physics extended abstract writing, of which I don’t really enjoy, once again because there is no consistency in what is expected by us according to the lab manuals and web resources to what our lab tutors seem to want. I do feel though my current tutor is more consistent with the manual than my first.

I was fortunate to finish that early and went with someone else in my lab class to the U-Bar, along with some other people. I was able to meet some other people studying science, but were doing different subjects. (I’m one of the very few not doing biology or chemistry in my degree. (Most likely will not take them up.)) I played doubles in pool with these people and after quite an adventuress game, including an army of four of our balls blocking their ball, we lost.

Also this day there were people giving out free promotional Berocca tablets, a multi-vitamin supplement. Appealing to the fact that we want to do well in exams for less effort is why they were obviously around for. It’s worked for me and I got a pack of thirty tablets. I figure I’ll just try to ensure that everything’s all well and good in my health department, even if maybe I am getting all the vitamins I need.

Wednesday brought a debate between Socialist Alternative and the ALP club. Although the ALP club asked for this debate, they felt less organised in their preparation than we did. Although I do know that many of our members are used to speaking and debating due to the nature of the clubs meetings, and that a smaller organisation needs to make sure it has well developed politics. (Also so we couldn’t get sold out.)

There are only two things I find it hard to fully comprehend in this organisation: The use of the word ‘girl’ is somehow sexist when referring to anyone of a mature age, about 13 up, and should use ‘woman’ instead. I can kind of see their point but isn’t the word ‘boy’ used just as often? Ok, maybe quite not as often, but the word ‘guys’ might also be used. (Although sometimes also used to refer to both sexes.) We sometimes use ‘gals’ but damn doesn’t that sound like ‘girls’? When people say ‘man’, I even find it hard to feel comfortable being put in that category, and, maybe it’s just me, the words ‘man’ and ‘woman’ when used I think of someone over the age of thirty. The other is that our police really shouldn’t be in society are not the solution. It is true that our police really don’t always do the right thing by people, including incidents (one’s I’ve known about before this year) where the police have charged peaceful protesters, thus causing fights. Naturally the media were filming, and edited it so what was covered was a violent protest, that people just don’t relate to. Emphasising the violence of any protest discourages future protesters, and since we live in a corporate world where our media are so closely tied to big business, it is in there interest to make as many demonstrations as possible violent. But on the flip-side we couldn’t do without them. There are many who just simply do what they want and chaos would break loose. Our police ensure that we don’t live in a society where everyone is fighting and murders are rampant. Police won’t solve the current gang fights in aboriginal communities, but the current situation will require them to contain it. This will not be enough, but will require some real planning, real funding, and a sincere effort to make peaceful communities. We must also not forget one of the many reasons why their society has descended to this! (The Stolen Generation)

Now for something more entertaining. On Thursday at lunch time I went to the back entrance of the J. H. Michell theatre of the Richard Berry Building. There was an Introduction to Programming lecture with Alistair Moffat. I knew one person from my college in there and also knew Alistair from enrolment day. He’s quite a character. Anyway, when I was out the back I put a scream mask on, and waited until I could heard that they’d finished the student surveys that students fill out about the lecturer. One person, who happened to be late (not many after lunch), saw me, and was staring at me for a while as they walked up the stairs into the lecture theatre. Eventually I decided to walk in and sat up the back of the lecture theatre, listening to the lecture. A few more late people came and quietly laughed as they saw me. Eventually, after about four minutes Alistair saw me and said something like “Hello, we have a visitor! Do you have something to tell us?” in a curious and slightly bemused voice. Everyone in the lecture theatre turned around and looked in my direction. I then asked if we could use ‘goto’, but he couldn’t hear me under the mask. (‘goto’ is a function in C that allows you to move to another part of a program instantly, but is unused by computer scientist’s due to the fact it can make computer code very hard to read. His book says to be ‘deeply suspicious’ of any program that uses this function.) I ran down to the front and asked him closer, and was answered “Absolutely not!” I then walked out waving my arms in the air in disbelief, and then tried to push the wrong side of the door (unintentional), and then moving to the other side to exit. (That last part got quite a laugh.) I then proceeded to the other door with a window to have a quick peep in, just for a few people’s entertainment purposes, (a few did look), and went back to the rear entrance to collect my bag that I had left there. (And also my chance to de-mask)

On Friday night I had my first ever proper game of that one where you’ve got two cards and you try to get certain combinations of up to five cards and hopefully have better combinations than others. I lost. I then played again Saturday night, I came 5^th out of eight, and burnt out two other apparently good players. I’ve also had some success lately with pool at my college. By success, I mean of the two games I played I won.

A few nights ago I had a weird dream about being stuck in a small patch of cactuses. I had to push my way through them with the spikes poking into me, and many getting stuck in my skin. When I woke up I had to check I still didn’t have spikes poking into my forehead.

Exams are obviously soon, as Jeremy pointed out. I feel I’m going well and will be studying for my two hardest subjects this week, Physics A (Adv) and Maths A (Adv), with exams on the 6^th and 7^th of June respectively. I’d like to at least get a H3 in Physics while going for a H1 in Maths, as to leave me more options later. Unlike many other courses, I’ve seen that higher second and third year maths subjects require good marks from previous subjects, and would be of great advantage to be studying for a pure or statistics maths major. I’d also like to get into the Applied Mathematics Advanced Plus next semester. I feel that it is in my grasp.

As for Introduction to Programming (Adv) and Scientific Programming and Simulation, they won’t get any time until after my first two, being on the 16^th and 20^th respectively. Even still they have more time to study for them then the exams coming just next week.

Naturally I need more food at this time, more than my college can offer. I’ve also had to get some things like soap (had a few soap-less showers), toothpaste, some bowls, and some pens. (All the blue and black ones I have are either turning dodgy or running out – not good for exams.)

I feel lucky that I’ve tried to keep on top of things during semester – going to make the following week so much easier.