Kog's Blog

Goodbye Blogger, Hello Wordpress

2009-01-29T23:42:00.003+11:00

Probably long overdue I try out Wordpress. I'm also moving to my lumini account (refer to THIS POST) so it's Sayonara to Blogger.

New post is HERE

2008-10-29T00:06:00.000+11:00

This post is intentionally left blank.

Carly Comando - Everyday

2007-12-02T21:37:00.000+11:00

I'm not normally the one who appreciates piano music but I love this song. Not least it's used in those NBA 'Where Amazing Happens' Ads. It's also the background music to Noah Kalina's Everyday project.

There is such thing as a free lunch...

2007-10-11T23:26:00.001+10:00

When it's your birthday and the boss shouts the whole team lunch. Top stuff!

Thanks y'all for all your birthday messages =)

Wow, creeping up towards the mid 20s...scary!

Election (Hak se wui)

2007-09-30T20:55:00.000+10:00

Bought this for $10 from JB Hi-Fi this afternoon (Thanks Sam for lending me the money. Will pay you back during mission weekend away). Ever since the Infernal Affairs trilogy, I've been interested in triad movies and this one supposedly got quite good reviews and won a swag of awards. One review touted it as the asian 'Godfather' =P It's a bit light on extras - a 'making of' featurette and some interviews but that's alright.

Check out lovehkfilm.com's review of Election here.

Fantasy Basketball 07-08

2007-09-30T20:23:00.000+10:00

Fantasy basketball is back and once again, I've signed myself up to two leagues with the draft for one of them happening tonight in just over 2 hours. Given the NBA season proper doesn't begin till end of October, I think it's a bit early to pick the teams tonight (who knows what might happen during pre-season?) but it'll definitely be challenging. Draft for the other comp is another 3 weeks away.

I think there will be some interesting questions asked leading up to the draft. I ain't no expert in the game, finishing 3rd a couple of times as my best record to date, but one would definitely ask themselves:

-How will Kevin Garnett go now that he is in Boston? Of course he will still be dominant for a bit yet but now that he has Paul Pierce and Ray Allen with him, would you still spend a top 3 pick on him? And how would KG's presence affect Pierce and Allen?

-Injuries. Yuck. The injury bug got quite a few players last year. Some serious, others not quite. Yao Ming, Gilbert Arenas and Dwayne Wade to name a few all missed a fair chunk of court time and whilst most should be there come season tip-off, where would you spend a pick on them? Elton Brand is the first casualty for this season already, rupturing his left Achilles tendon and will be out till at least March.

-Shawn Marion. No injuries for 'The Matrix' but trade rumors this off-season. Is he still worth a top 5 pick?

-Andrei Kirilenko. Showed glimpses of his best in Utah's playoffs Vs Golden State last season as well as the recent FIBA comp, but apart from that, he was pretty crap last year. Where would you draft him?

Bring it on boys...

Google number plate!

2007-09-10T19:54:00.000+10:00

Budgeting

2007-08-25T23:46:00.000+10:00

Yeah Yeah Yeah I know, it has taken me 7 months after starting work to put some sort of budget together. Felt I've been spending a bit too much earlier this year (new camera, mini hi-fi amongst other things) so need to take a reality check, especially realizing how much I get slugged in tax.

It's going to be a month-by-month thing. I don't like to look too far ahead (given there is no certainty I'll still be working in 6 months) and also, if I do a yearly budget, I doubt I'll stick to it.

So I've just put together a quick spreadsheet for the month of September. And the forecast is that I'm going to spend just a shade under 30% of what I earn. Will see how that goes...

More pics from site visits...

2007-07-11T20:34:00.000+10:00

CBS makes its presence felt in...Edgecliff

UNSW from a different perspective

Record number of marriages on 7/7/7

2007-07-07T16:19:00.000+10:00

Read article here

So if '7' is considered to be lucky by many, my guess is there'll be a lots of Chinese weddings on the 8th of August next year...

Random 1 Kings quotes

2007-05-27T17:01:00.000+10:00

By the yr 9 kids in our Switch bible study this morning (We were studying 1 Kings 9-11)

On Solomon acquiring 12000 horses (1 Kings 10:26)
"That's alot of horsepower"

On Solomon having 700 wives of royal birth and 300 concubines (1 Kings 11:3)
"Gee, he must get very tired"

Kids these days :P

And my facebook adventure is over after 7 days...

2007-05-18T22:40:00.000+10:00

Bye now.

Facebook

2007-05-14T21:41:00.000+10:00

Facebook is...

...the first 'social networking' tool I've used.
...addictive.
...a way of finding old high school friends and people you've kinda lost in touch.
...stalking material (so true!).
...taking over my gmail inbox.

Chocolate - For men

2007-04-28T22:31:00.000+10:00

The Blind Watchmaker

2007-04-17T02:35:00.000+10:00

Hmm...not sure whether I can go through 300-odd pages of this in 3 week but I'll give it a go anyway...

Jeff's South Coast adventure

2007-04-16T23:52:00.000+10:00

For work today I had to go to 2 sites on the South Coast. Below are some shots I took on my personal camera...

With all three company cars out, Had to hire one from Avis for the day - A Corolla hatch! The other three cars we have are huge - 2x Mitsubishi 380 series and a Holden Commodore so bit of a downgrade here. And what's with the colour? Maroon??? Yuck....

Music I brought along to listen...

Site 1: Figtree (near Wollongong). This site is located at the top of a hill so got some awesome views

Just on the horizon, you can see the Port Kembla steelworks place

A horse...a KKK horse?

Site 2: Kiama. Had a site on the rooftop of this building but it's been taken down so I was out here doing post-decomm site inspection. Driving 2 hours for a 20min inspection :)

Shot from the rooftop (1)

Shot from the rooftop (2)

The cafe and Fish n Chips place near the Kiama Blowhole.

My afternoon tea - water, mixed berry smoothie, banana and mentos

I got my piece of paper...

2007-03-27T22:34:00.000+10:00

Hurrah!

Thanks to all those who came and had pictures taken with me!

So much walking

2007-03-19T21:23:00.000+11:00

I did alot of walking on the weekend.

On Saturday, Sam, Ka-shu and I went bushwalking on one of the many Ku-ring-gai Chase national park walking tracks. We went for the 'Murrua Track', a 3.5km walk starting from North Turramurra. Why? Because you can see the whole track on one page in the UBD :D It was a good walk, not totally flat and not fully steep either. At the 'end' (We had no idea since the UBD is a bit misleading on the whole track. In fact I just looked at the Sydway map and it shows everything, including the sidetracks we came across. So yeh, UBD sucks), you get a view of Foleys Bay jetty + some bridge. The only downside of the afternoon was getting totally drenched walking back. It started pouring when we were about 1km from our cars.

Sunday was of course the much hyped Habour Bridge 75th anniversary walk. I joined Eddy, his brother Ricky, Gordon, Vincy, Jo and two of her friends for the 5-5:30pm walking slot. But if memory serves me correct, it took us ages to do the walk, mainly waiting for Vincy to catch up :P Saw a couple of familiar faces during the walk - Charissa M from church and Sam from WSCCC. Couldn't really pinpoint any highlight to be honest. Maybe I was tired, maybe I can't appreciate bridges, or maybe the thought a Christian brother brought up after basketball on Thursday stuck in my head: Are we making an idol out of the bridge? Don't get me wrong, I think it was a good idea to open the bridge up for the walk. But when you see people stopping every 5m to take snaps of nearly everything they see or paying $10 for a piece of plastic (an inflatable harbour bridge) and put it on their head, one might ask: Why are people lauding some 75 year old steel infrastructure? The Bible puts it quite clearly that God, the creator of all things should be the one that is worthy of receiving glory, honour and praise (Revelations 4:11), not the created.

So weird...

2007-03-17T01:33:00.000+11:00

Been doing a bit of research this week on Scientology for our youth bible study group's 'other religions' topical and what did I see when I got on the bus the other day? An ad for...

Co-incidence or what???

New thing to add to my morning routine

2007-03-13T21:27:00.000+11:00

Allopurinol. 100mg. Everyday.

Mission Reunion

2007-03-11T20:28:00.000+11:00

@ Dee Why beach yesterday.

Spending time relaxing in the water after a long week (left the office at 8pm twice) was good. Makes me wanna live around the beachy suburbs so I can go for a dip after work but I'm sure yesterday was just a spur-of-a-moment thing. I can't afford to live around the northern beaches...

It was also good to catch up with the non-EFC people (Those in Sydney anyway) who went on mission - Toby & MG, Adam and Carly. But where was Dan?? He called me the night before and said he was gonna go but then dogged us!! But he had another beach gathering which he was particular keen to go (to follow up a new guy from his church) so it's understandable.

So now for mission 2008. First meeting is next month and I don't know whether I'm going yet. Thought about it recently and couldn't think of reasons NOT to go but is something to think more and pray about over the coming weeks. It was definitely a privilege to be part of TSM'07 - serving God and taking the Gospel message out to the people of Tarcutta. I also find that be it mission or kylc or whatever, apart from meeting new people you actually get to know particular people within your congregation a bit better (The 'Chef' in this case).

Site visit to...Kiama?

2007-03-06T21:29:00.000+11:00

One of the perks of my job is going on site visits. Good in that I get to drive around alot and not stuck in the office (but rather in traffic). Today I spent half the day out on site (Five Dock and Arncliffe). Bad in that because I spend a fair bit of time out, there is the chance of having to stay back late to process the site visits or do other stuff, like today when I left the office at 8pm.

Next Monday I got a site visit at Kiama, just south of Wollongong. Anyone want to come along for a road trip?

Who do I look like?

2007-02-11T23:11:00.000+11:00

Woohoo, I look a bit like Yao Ming!

Uh-Oh...

2007-02-11T22:39:00.000+11:00

My body couldn't even handle 1/3 of a bottle of Cascade lights...Not good. Not good indeed.

Sneakerologist

2007-02-11T22:19:00.000+11:00

Notice how I've put in two shortcuts - 'Shutdown' and 'Reboot' on the top right hand corner. Saves time from having to go to 'Start' and switch the computer off from there. Yea I'm lazy I know...Find out how to do this neat little 1337 trick here

So I've survived the first week of work. Kind of. Definitely need to work on my sleeping hours. Still going to bed waaaay too late and not getting enough shut-eye. Trying to sleep on the 45min bus trip in the morning has proven unsuccessful due to the rowdiness of school kids. Kids these days...tsk tsk.

Work gear

2007-02-03T17:09:00.000+11:00

So I went to Macquarie Centre after Mayz and Ethan's engagement party to finish buying some work clothes. Looking back, I'm quite satisfied with the purchases over the last two weeks:

Julius Marlow shoes from Direst Shoe Warehouse: $80
Was hoping for even cheaper shoes seeing I was buying from DSW but 80 bucks is ok. Hopefully they are of good quality and will last for awhile.

Business shirts from Double Bay Warehouse: 2 for $30
Quite nice but they're made of cotton and polyester so in the end, maybe not such a wise purchase. I also have two other business shirts from industrial training so that should be enough to last the week. Hopefully Fridays are dress casual days.

Rio 5 pack business socks from Big W: $10
Cheap. I like.

Black pants from Big W: $30
Probably don't need it as I already own a pair but that one is a bit too big so bought one that's a size down and also in case I don't get the chance to wash it on the weekend (busy/rain etc) I have a spare pair for the following week.

Black belt from Big W: $20
Again don't really need it but with my existing Giordano one, one of the screws fell off so again, I bought this as a backup. Did actually consider getting a $40 one from Myer but couldn't justify myself getting it.

Converse Folio bag from Converse store, DFO: $20
Was $25 but there was a 20% storewide discount.

Total amount spent: $190
Perhaps the quality of the belt is questionable and I would have needed to spend a bit more had I not own some business shirts already. Of course there's the whole quality Vs price thing so I'll see whether I need to purchase new clothes 6-12 months down the track.

Required Worksheet Rate: 0

2007-02-02T15:03:00.000+11:00

Woohoo, no more maths worksheet writing! As usual, I did an all nighter, living on a can of coke and water. 9 worksheets in 12 hours (considering one takes anywhere between 1-3 hours to write)...it was crazy, and there were some nasty ones in there too namely Measurements where I had to draw 3D diagrams on Visio. Painful!!!

But now that's over, I can take a mini break before work starts next Tuesday. Yes, I'll be working at Hutchison on a contract role for the next six months.

Verbal agreement

2007-01-31T17:02:00.000+11:00

Yes, only a verbal agreement so from a personal point of view I won't say 100% I have a full time job, seeing I nearly got screwed over before. But it's close :)

As for the maths - 19 to go before the Friday deadline. I can see light at the end of the tunnel.

Drowning in maths...

2007-01-29T23:58:00.000+11:00

Got an extension till Friday so run rate was down for a couple of days but is now creeping up to insane level again.

Measurement(Perimeter, Area, Surface Area and Volume) + circle geometry to go but I can't see myself finishing it by Friday

Somebody kill me...
>.<

Run rate creeping up oh so quickly

2007-01-11T23:36:00.000+11:00

Required run rate: 6.8

My maths worksheet typing project is a bit like 1-day cricket at the moment. The pressure is on to get the stuff done by 26/1 and it's not looking good (in 30mins, the run rate will tick over to 7.5). I'm not counting next week because I'll be at KYLC and Switch leaders reteat so realistically I have about 9 days to type up 68 worksheets. Oh the fun.

New Years resolution: Be more organised with time and spend less time playing diablo 2.

I'm Back

2007-01-07T23:41:00.000+11:00

Yes, I'm back from Tarcutta. Maybe more reflections later (else you can ask me), quite tired at the moment.

In some sense I wish I'm not back in Sydney. The 'To do when I get back' list is freaking me out.

But for now, time to sleep...in a proper bed.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

2006-12-25T11:46:00.000+11:00

Barring anything major happening, think this will be the last post for 2006. Will be going to Tarcutta (see map below) from 30th till 7th of Jan for mission so it's gonna be interesting spending NYE outside Sydney/Hong Kong for the first time. Gonna be quite busy over the next 5 days doing the following:

- Writing worksheets (yup, barely started and have a month to write 80-odd. The dude is right, no one feels like doing work around the Christmas period. I'm screwed)
- Last minute mission prep (making props/packing. Still tossing up whether to buy an air mattress or be cheap and just get a sleeping mat.)
- Hopefully going to look at chapter one of PTC: Intro to the Bible with Tin-Lok, Dan and Jeff on Thursday.
- Various little things. Mum's gone to HK for awhile so gotta step up with doing stuff around the house.
-Watch Warnie get his 700th Test wicket.

Let there be...less light...now

2006-12-16T13:48:00.000+11:00

On March 31st, the lights of Sydney will go out for an hour (7:30pm-8:30pm) as part of the Earth Hour campaign.

Related articles:
-Sydney leading light in hour of no power
-A flick of the switch that will help save the planet
-Let there be...less light

The aim of the exercise is to educate Sydneysiders about using less electricity to address the issue of climate change. Households and businesses are encouraged to switch off their lights for an hour in the evening. Electricity providers will measure the power saved and the greenhouse gas emissions avoided. Public transport, street lighting and lighting that provides security will not be affected.

I think this is quite a good idea. I must admit I'm sometimes guilty of leaving my laptop on all night when I go to bed (yes, the whole MSN world needs to know Kogster is asleep :P) but surely we don't have to wait till March to do this. Why not start now...by getting rid of all the Christmas lights? Yes, they look pretty and really illuminate up the whole street but how much electricity do they use? You don't need pretty lights to celebrate the festive season. Such a waste of money (and electricity). And it's even worse at shops. A discount store in Top Ryde (Roni's) is currently selling all these Christmas lights and decorations. Obviously they have them switched on during trading hours which is ok I suppose but leaving them on after shutting up shop? It might look nice, lighting up the shopping centre but who's around to see it?

Anyway, that's my 2c rant. I will now switch off my laptop and go do something constructive :)

No Prams on Escalators please

2006-12-09T17:58:00.000+11:00

There is a sign/picture on escalators in shopping malls which says "Prams not allowed" right? So why is it that in recent days I see parents doing exactly opposite that? I reckon some young kid is gonna get hurt bad or die real soon and parents are going to have no one to blame but themselves. Not to mention the prams/strollers take up the whole width of the escalator step preventing people from getting through. Idiots!

Mac Attack'd!

2006-12-07T16:56:00.000+11:00

Just going through a big patch of procrastination at the moment so I decided to mod my desktop...

As you can see, it's not really a Mac interface but I can't be bothered making it look like one. If I want one, I would go out and buy a Mac. I guess the main purpose is to have a cleaner interface and not have a cluttering desktop. I'll prolly get a 'light' and 'dark' look happening and switch between the two depending on what mood I'm in. Quite annonyed with the little black patch just above 'RSS' on the desktop sidebar. No idea how to fix it...

Just got my results for the last two subjects of uni and I passed!! Seriously, I thought I was gonna fail/just pass one of them since I only got 40% in the mid sem...I guess having the final exam where you can bring 4 pages of notes helped alot.

2 (or 30) games for...$2.40

2006-12-05T23:09:00.000+11:00

Went to EB Games at Macquarie Centre this afternoon to use a $20 gift voucher that someone gave me just before I finished up at TCI last year. I also bumped into Sam who was bored at work and went to MC for a stroll hehe...

What I got at EB:

Championship Manager 4 (CM4)
Some of you know I love to play CM. No, in fact, I'm addicted to that stuff. I remember back in the first two years of uni, during the holidays I would play CM01/02 well into the early hours of the morning (like 4-5am) and you have to wonder, how can anyone get so excited by a game that is pretty much text-based? CM4 was released around 2002/03 so it's quite old but a substantial upgrade from CM01/02.

Funny enough, there were two different packaging of the same game for sale differing about $30. I bought the cheaper one but it seems there's no manual in the el cheapo version (such a big box for one cd). Meh, just find stuff online.

Price: $14.95 (Even though on the box it says $19.95)

Taito Legends
The tagline of this game is: "29 games that defined a generation". I was expecting games like Tetris, Pacman etc but no, none of that is in it. However there is BUBBLE BOBBLE, one of my all time favourite!! Other games include Space Invaders (part 1 and part 2...lol), New Zealand Story and Elevator Action. You can find the full list here. To be honest, I don't really know most of the games so not sure whether it was worth it but seeing it cost around $7.50, what the heck.

Price: $7.44 (Originally $9.92 but it's 25% of marked price. I did see some other copies marked with a different price: $14.50 or $29.95)

Total amount paid: $14.95 + $7.44 - $20 = $2.40

Confused

2006-12-03T20:44:00.000+11:00

Twice in one week mum talks about the importance of 'establishing a career' first before anything else. She even used people 'Blah' and 'Blah' (workers from church) as examples of those who serve the church 'in their spare time'. What the? It's not like I haven't been on the lookout for jobs...just not as active as some people. Yes, I have been spending a fair bit of time on mission stuff because it's nearly a month away and we have so much to get through and yes, I would like to go to KYLC 07 because I probably won't have time (if at all) once I get into full time work. She's not against me going to both, but why does she have to add a 'caveat' to make it sound like she doesn't want me to and I should be spending more time looking for a job instead?

I'm confused.

YAI (Yet Another Inflammation)

2006-12-02T13:31:00.000+11:00

My foot is inflammed again. Been feeling a bit of discomfort around the left achilles this past week and the area got pretty red and hot when I woke up this morning so went to the doctor to get it checked out. Driving there (Eastwood) was particularly bad because everytime I pressed down on the clutch it was like 'OUUUUCCCH'. Luckily the doc said it's sports injury related rather than something else *BIG sigh of relief*. But now I'm stuck at home rather than at Elaine's wedding ;(

1st week of post exam/uni life

2006-12-01T00:25:00.000+11:00

Has been tiring...and interesting. Looking forward to taking it easy tomorrow (and possibly the weekend) before hitting work mode next week trying to get some of this tutoring stuff done before mission (I gotta write just under 60 worksheets before end of January).

Whilst doing mission prep yesterday, got a call from Chris saying the new fussball table has arrived! Funny how the church approved the purchase so quickly. I shall check it out on Sunday and report back.

Done!

2006-11-22T23:39:00.000+11:00

Yaaay, had my last uni exam EVER today. As much as I like to say I passed, it is very much borderline stuff. Even with the help of 'cheat sheets' (2xA4 back to back) the exam was still quite challenging and I was pushed for time towards the end. Please please please please let me pass...maybe I should have done a bit better in the mid sem >_<

So I guess the next step is to look for a job.

Hello World!

Study/Cramming Tuesday

2006-11-14T21:00:00.000+11:00

Nice solid study session today. Got to uni at 11:30 and found a free room in Morven Brown (or as I like to call it, Moron Brown) building. Hai came along soon after and we crammed for Friday's exam till about 4:30ish. Still a long long way to go but made progress. The only downer was that I made salad for lunch and for whatever reason, the dressing leaked and now some of my notes smell of french salad dressing. I also ate the salad as soon as I got to uni so had a rather early lunch.

Back to do it all over again tomorrow.

What sort of procrastinator are you?

2006-11-11T23:18:00.000+11:00

According to Wikipedia, there are two types of procrastinators:

The relaxed type
"The relaxed type of procrastinators feels negatively towards their work and blow it off, commonly forgetting it, by doing something else. In a child, one would often see that the child would abandon his schoolwork, but not his socialization. This denial-based person would try their best to avoid stress caused by their work by not doing this challenging item, and focusing on having fun, or other easier work. This would give them a happy life."

The tense-afraid type
"The Tense-Afraid Type of procrastinators would usually feel "overwhelmed with pressure, unrealistic about time, uncertain about goals" and many other negative feelings. This person would therefore feel they are lacking some ability to do this work, and would try to escape this stress by relaxing. This temporary escape would then fall away, leading to an even more stress to this over-worked person. This would lead to this person feeling guilty, and therefore more apprehensive. It can also have a debilitating effect on their personal life and relationships. Since they are uncertain about their goals they can often feel awkward when with people who are confident and self-aware; in turn they can often fall into depression. They tend to withdraw from social life and they may often avoid contact, even with close friends."

Btw, today I:
-attended the briefing for next week's evangelistic carwash cafe
-mowed the lawn (front and back)
-played the guitar
-did all the little things not related to study (email, youtubing, fiddling with my Fantasy NBA teams, writing this blog etc)

Do not be anxious

2006-11-10T18:10:00.000+11:00

"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God." Philippians 4:6

In other news, handed in assignment today, now's the time to hit the books (well should have started earlier but...). Exam next Friday and the following Wednesday.

Also, not having bought food from the vege shop inside Badabagan for the first 4 years of uni, I got lunch from that place this week. Twice. $3.50 for a tiny salad wrap? What a rip. The price to pay for eating healthy...

Uni Finito 4 Ever!!!

2006-11-02T23:07:00.000+11:00

But there's still a little matter of getting through 1 assignment and 2 exams

*Warning: Photo Blog ahead*

Some of the Christians In Engineering bible study leaders in our final meeting

Johnson and I. We've been meeting up 1-1 this session and reading 1 Corinthians.

Hehe, 'the assignment guy' (no comment)

Good old Blitz! Been reading it ever since first year and while the quality has dropped off in recent years (I think so anyway), still a good way to get through those boring lectures on Mondays

Daytona@Roundhouse where 'Daytona Showdown' made its mark somewhere in 2nd year after Real Time lectures. Good Times.

Roundhouse. The hangout place for playing cards and chillin out in between lectures back in the first two years...

...then they built G16 and Stickcricket came along as well. 'Nuff said.

Yeah!! No more uni!

With CBS people(1): Ethan, Mayz, Me and Sam

With CBS people(2): Jay Chow, Me and Pete

Our bible study group this session where we went through 1&2 Kings: Rhys, Paul, Dave, Kev and I

Let's get the party started! CBS end-of-year party two days ago

Back: Han, Me, Pete and Kev
Front: Hui-Yee (looking happy after handing in her thesis earlier that day)

Derek and I with Jeff trying to get in the shot

Jade and I

Jeff and Jeff

Revive!

Vincy and Hui-Yee

Tony and I

Jay Chow says: "Stuff yourself with lettuce"

...

More Revive. Ended up buying their latest album 'Trafalgar St' and getting it signed by all the band members. Groovy!

With CBS setup buddy Sarah

Silly shot with Bekky.

4 hours to go...

2006-10-26T19:13:00.000+10:00

That's it, 4 more hours of uni lectures left.

I sense that hardcore photo-snapping will be on the cards next week.

Injury O-meter goes north again

2006-10-21T03:16:00.000+10:00

"Yup, Jeff's latest mishap looks to be a lower back muscle spasm of some sort. Since Wednesday morning, the injury has caused discomfort in walking, sleeping (hence this entry at the ridiculous hour of three in the morning) and made him miss his second consecutive game of basketball on Thursday night."

Did I really just turn 23 a little over a week ago?

Hyder Trivia Champions

2006-10-20T22:15:00.000+10:00

Charissa and I went to Eddy's workplace trivia tonight since the three of us are involved with organising the Christmas evangelistic at the end of next month and there'll be a quiz component on the night so tonight's 'mission' was to kinda suss out for ideas. The three of us were joined by Jim, a transport infrastructure manager and his wife Jacqui. Our team name? Ezy Jay's (based on the first letter of our names: E, C and 3 Js...hahah)

Anyway we won, mainly due to Jim the trivia buff...that guy is a freak. Check out our prize:

A bottle of wine, lolly bag and 2 movie tix. We won the Bacchus Cowboy party pack from the bonus 'Who am I' question and since no one else wanted it, I took it with me. The next table wanted to 'trade' for points...haha...crazy people. Dunno why they were so desperate though. They won a pack themselves earlier already and between the 5 of them, had 20-30 bottles of beer during the entire trivia.

On a more sour-ish note, not sure whether I got done for speeding on the way home. Travelled on Dehli Road and whilst I slowed down for the speed camera, I did not realise two coppers set up shop 500m down the road! Very clever...Not too sure whether I went over the speed limit (60km/h) so see what happens over the next few weeks...

It all goes pearshape for...

2006-10-13T17:41:00.000+10:00

Paul Robinson, Tottenham and England goalkeeper.

A bit unlucky with the bump on the ground I must say but the ultimate embarrassment for any goalie.

But should Gary Neville have done the back pass? At least he gets his first(?) international goal after 80-odd appearances.

Another year older...

2006-10-11T23:27:00.000+10:00

Thanks for all your happy birthday messages and SMS. It's been another trying week so far and haven't had much time to 'celebrate'. Maybe after all this maths stuff is due tomorrow I'll do something.

How To Make Godly Decisions

2006-10-06T21:45:00.000+10:00

Got a few big ones coming up. Will need wisdom in thinking them through.

One that wasn't hard was uninstalling Diablo 2 earlier tonight. Since week 6 (6 weeks ago) I have accumulated 60 levels of online play (that's alot of hours trust me) but it was kinda affecting uni work and sleeping pattern. Adding to the fact it was getting to the stage where everytime my character dies, I would lose a huge chunk of experience, making levelling up quite impossible.

Continuum

2006-10-05T17:04:00.000+10:00

New purchase today for $15 from Rock Bottom Music. Once again, produced in Indonesia which makes me wonder: Do they really produce that many CDs over there that they ship some over here?

A weekend of...

2006-10-03T00:00:00.000+10:00

A weekend of pain.
A weekend of reflection on various things in life.
A weekend of reading God's creation and the Fall of Man (Genesis 1-3).
A weekend of grand finals (I finished top in an NRL tipping comp - first time ever. woot!)
A weekend of catching up on sleep.

Now that mid session break is over, it's back to uni for quite possibly the last 5 weeks of uni...scary.

Timely mid-session break

2006-09-27T20:15:00.001+10:00

Very timely indeed. The last two weeks or so brought back memories of thesis period i.e late-nights (or no sleep at all), feeling quite dead during the day, acting ungodly at times etc. Here are some stuff that happened.

Graduations
Mitch, James, and Simon To all had their graduations last Tuesday so had pictures with them.

Mid-sessions
I think I failed both of them...don't really wanna get the results back. At least it's a BIG wake up call for me. Pass the subjects or hang back at uni for another year.

Work
As mentioned a few posts back, I got a casual job at a coaching college about three weeks ago and the first project was to write/develop a term 4 year 8 maths program. Took much longer than I thought and with the mid-sessions/other assessments, it was a hard slog. I dind't even sleep on the last three nights, just rushing to put the whole thing together. I can anticipate the guy calling me back to ask me to fix up certain parts of the worksheets.

Mission weekend away
I'm going to mission at the end of the year to Tarcutta (a small town near Wagga Wagga) so last weekened the 'Sydney' people and 'Wagga' people got together to meet each other for the first time. I was quite brain-dead after not sleeping much the two nights beforehand (see above) so just had barely enough energy to meet the Wagga team as well as some of the local people. Talking to the latter group made me realise how well off us city folks are over the country people. For example, one lady told me she still uses dial-up internet (28.8kbps) and how things have been pretty tough with the drought and all. Funnily enough, I experienced slow internet last night. Broadband was down so I used dial up and the speed was...yup, 28.8kbps. Gmail took forever to load. We also did a bit of doorknocking to let people know about the mission and came across this Christian truckie. He said: "My truck broke down last night and I couldn't understand why. Now I know...it's so I could talk to you guys!" LOL
On the Saturday night Sam, Noddy and I slept in Noddy's Camry and it turned out to be quite good actually. Realtively comfortable and warm. But I was quite buggered anyway so didn't really mind.

What is...

2006-09-16T22:29:00.000+10:00

BPSK, time diversity, coherence bandwidth, flat fading, fast fading, Alamouti scheme, selectivr diversity combining, shadowing, fading, trunking, GOS, Erlang C formula, CCI, ACI....?

No idea? Neither do I. And mid sessions are coming up on Monday and Wednesday *sigh*

Finally, a bit of a breather...

2006-09-07T23:41:00.000+10:00

Time went to bed: 6am
At least I wasn't the only one staying up to work. Becky came online at 5:30 and she was pulling an all-nighter as well, a law essay of some sort. I was quite happy I got one part of my lab out. I suck at coding and MATLAB is no exception. spent all last night hacking away and debugging and even though I got it out in the end it was not the quickest way and would take ages to run (too many 'for' loops, or loops in general methinks). So spent probably half the night sitting and waiting, doing nothing...listening to the rain pelting down...

Woke up at 10 so I missed out on the first 2hr tutorial. Left halfway through the second one to put the report together and print it off. On the way to the computer labs, I think I saw one guy from Nerds FC advertising the CSE revue, The teXt files. Anyway, the report was a dodgy job, put together in the last minute but still got 3/4 in the end. Goodie! To top things off, the next lab builds on from the last one so I walked out at 6pm quite happy and less frustrated. Now I just need to get myself to work on it in the next fortnight. Don't want to leave it till last minute again >.<

Was looking forward to take out The Rainmakers at bball tonight but they forfeited so Nick and I shot around and played some 3-3 with random people because we were on duty for the 9pm game. Poy came at 9 and the two of us did duty. Speaking of basketball, I was gonna post pics up of our new jersey at the start of the season but didn't because I thought the camera was busted. Turns out it was the batteries discharging too quicky and making the camera go all funny (Think it's the batteries because I'm using normal alkaline ones and it's been working fine since) so here are pics of singlet and matching shorts of team RICE.

Bad Idea

2006-09-06T03:27:00.000+10:00

1. Choosing Wireless Data Communication Systems over New Business Creation. At least I have a higher chance of passing the latter (about 100%) than the former (prolly 0% at this stage). If I don't get quick-smart over the next 8 weeks I'm gonna be around uni for another session.

2. Procrastinating last week BIG time. You have no idea I spent X hours playing computer game 'Y' (Wanna have a guess the value X and Y)? Now I'm paying for it this week with late nights every night. Ahhhh so ashamed of my time wasting >.<

3. Lip is healing along nicely. Scab is forming which means tempting to pick on it. Bad Idea

I go to sleep now. Hopefully I can wake up in 5 hours >.<

Comeback then injured...again (sort of)

2006-08-31T21:42:00.000+10:00

After a 2 week hiatus I played basketball tonight, not knowing whether the knee will hold up (Came through with no pain so that's a good sign. Hope it'll stay that way for the next few days). We had six guys and I played off the bench. However, within a minute of coming on for Andy, I went off again after copping an elbow to my lip >.< Earlier the day I was mulling whether to play tonight (only 3 games till end of season) or wait till next season (5-6 weeks)and after going back to warm the bench, I was thinking I should have stayed at home. After half time however, Andy, who had been playing with a bruised rib, had to come off and with the bleeding pretty much stopped, I stepped on for the last 15mins. Could hardly keep up in the last 5 mins but the knee felt fine. We lost the game but it was good personally to play some bball again. Now I just got to wait for the lip to heal. Eating will be interesting for the next few days but at least there's a conversation starter there.

A 'work-from-home' job!

2006-08-31T16:41:00.000+10:00

And it's not one of those dodgy ones that you see in newspapers...at least I don't think so. A guy I worked with at Vodafone last year started his own coaching college and with some free time on my hands this semester, I gave him a call the other week to see whether they are looking for people and now I got myself a project: develop a Yr 8 maths course for term 4. And I got 3 weeks to do it. Anyone got their Yr 8 textbooks lying around that I can borrow for a few weeks?

Shuffle Shuffle Shuffle...

2006-08-26T00:16:00.000+10:00

Found this on Vincy's blog and it's quite interesting so thought I'll give it a go...
----------
1) Put your music player on shuffle

2) Press forward for each question

3) Use the song title as the answer to the question

4) NO CHEATING!!!
______________________________

1.) How am I feeling today?
I'll be missing you - Puff Daddy

2.) Where will I get married?
Obsesison - Amiel

3.) What is my best friend's theme song?
03 Bonnie and Clyde - Jay-Z feat Beyonce

4.) What is/was highschool like?
Rockafella Skank - Fatboy Slim

5.) What is the best thing about me?
Servants of the Gospel - Emu Music

6.) How is today going to be?
Dance with Me - 112

7.) What is in store for this weekend?
Porcelain - Red Hot Chili Peppers

8.) What song describes my parents?
Stoned - Dido

9.) How is my life going?
"Nocturne" - Jay Chou

10.) What song will they play at my funeral?
What If - Coldplay

11.) How does the world see me?
Not Myself - John Mayer

12.) What do my friends really think of me?
Love Me Like That - Michelle Branch

13.) Do people secretly lust after me?
19-2000 - Gorillaz

14.) How can I make myself happy?
! (Song Formerly Known As) - Regurgitator

15.) What should I do with my life?
Final Hour - Lauryn Hill

16.) Will I ever have children?
Holes To Heaven - Jack Johnson

17.) What is some good advice?
Where Is Your Heart - Kelly Clarkson

18.) What do I think my current theme song is?
I'm No angel - Dido

19.) What does everyone else think my current theme song is?
Doo Woop (That Thing) - Lauryn Hill

20.) What type of men/women do you like?
The Scientist - Coldplay

21.) Will you get married?:
Slide - Dido

22.) What should I do with my love life?
Check On It - Beyonce

24.) Where will you live?
How To Be Really Rich - Tim Bowden
*Not exactly a song but a talk from CBS mission some time back

25.) What will your dying words be?
My Lord, You Wore No Royal Crown - Various artists

All Your Base Are Belong To Us + Snakes On A Plane = All Your Snakes Are Belong To Us

2006-08-23T01:54:00.000+10:00

RICE BDO

2006-08-19T23:59:00.000+10:00

My voice is gone, face is sunburnt, the hamstrings are tight and I'm extremely wasted but at the same time very excited. Why? Because RICE Big Day Out turned out to be awesome! It was kinda hard to compare to last year because I was doing security so I was 'outside' the action for most of the day. This year though, I was inside Wentworth Common for the whole 5.5 hours and it rocked!! According to the organisers, over 1500 Sydney high school youths came, not just for a fun day out but also to hear the gospel of Jesus preached! And it can only get better with next week's RICE rally at Town Hall!

Me and this other guy were in charge of the 'penalty shoootout' stall and it was very popular with the kids (Maybe World Cup fever still around?). For every hour between the talks, I spent 45mins standing up doing running commentary of every shootout. Man it was tough. It was like calling a soccer match. Didn't have much of a chance to talk about the gospel with the kids 'cos everything was happening so fast but did talk to this one guy while we were waiting for some running repairs on the goal. He's in Yr 12, just completed the HSC trials and came to RICE (for the first time) to 'chill out'. He found the talks 'OK' and I hope he'll come to the rally next week.

Afterwards I went to Mark's 'Unit warming' thing. Pretty neat place he's renting. Close to the train station and shops everywhere when you step out of the unit. Very convenient, just like Hong Kong. So bummed at his place for about 45 mins, had a cup of alcoholic jelly (weird taste), chat with uni friends and then went out to the Workers for dinner (and saw Cronulla self-destruct against the Panthers).

7/14 day countdown...

2006-08-12T23:45:00.000+10:00

KriceS, RookICE, kogsteRICEd...oh yeah, RICE is getting very close now =)

www.jesusaintadirtyword.com

2006-08-06T14:56:00.000+10:00

(click on title to go to mission website)

Woohoo, got my mission hoodie today!! (well Thursday, but since I didn't have class someone from church picked it up and gave it to me today)

Anyway, here's the program for the next 2 weeks:

Week 3 (starting tomorrow)
Mon 1pm (Libaray Lawn or Law Theatre depending on weather) - the GREAT DEBATE on the library lawn - Did Jesus rise from the dead?

Tues 1pm (Rex Vowels) - Talk 1: SEX ain't a dirty word
Tues 5pm (Main Walkway) - FREE PANCAKES and LIVE MUSIC on the Main Walkway

Thurs 1pm (Matthews A) - Talk 2: TRUTH ain't a dirty word - "Is Jesus the only way to heaven?"

Week 4
Mon 1pm (Law Theatre) - Talk 3: SPIRITUAL ain't a dirty word - Is atheism dying in the 21st century?

Tues 1pm (Rex Vowels) - Talk 4: WEALTH isn't a dirty word - "Why Jesus is the source of true riches"

Thurs 1pm (Matthews A) - Talk 5: JESUS ain't a dirty word - "Why Jesus washes more than your mouth out with soap"

God is 1337...

2006-07-31T17:06:00.000+10:00

"God is 1337. He uses n00bs like us to p4wn the 1337..."

Johnson and I started reading 1 Corinthians today and somehow this is what we came up with to summarize the first chapter. Ahh, good ol' Quantum Engineering =P

Long long weekend coming up!!

2006-07-26T21:26:00.000+10:00

And my first week of uni is done. No need to go back till Monday (Same deal for 'even' weeks so next week will be another short one). Yaaayyyy!

Had Mobile & Satellites on Monday but the lecturer didn't turn up. How gay. Could have told us beforehand he's still in holiday mode rather than making us waste money and time going in for nothing. Did get to check out the new law building from the outside. It looks nice but I don't understand why they made the library visible for all to see on the main walkway. I might go check out the inside sometime during the session and even go to a few lectures :P

No class on Tuesday but went in for CBS anyway. Joshua challenged us about making disciples (Matt 28:10) but not before asking us: "Are you a disciple?" or better still: "Are you a REAL disciple?". You can wear a mission hoodie (which I'm still waiting for mine to arrive) or an engineering lanyard but do you really follow Jesus and live your life for the sake of the gospel? Quote unquote Josh: "We are to be the MSG of the world" :P I also got to achieve my life-long dream of being a sandwich-board boy...just kidding. Because there was a late change of location, we had to figure out a way to let people know. So Mick our faculty MTSer being the engineer, scribbled on two CBS posters the new location, taped them on me and got me to walk around the commerce courtyard/library area. Hmmm...think I got some stares but it also proved helpful for a few guys running a bit late so I guess it wasn't too bad :0

Finally had my first class today at 4-6pm. I can see Wireless Data Communication Systems gonna be a pain in the bum for the rest of the session. The lecturer kept referring to stuff from a course I did more than two years ago and I have absolutely no recollection of it. And today was only a course overview/intro lecture. Uh-oh, this is going to be interesting.

I'm done for this week. Time for a break.

Let the last session of uni begin

2006-07-23T20:58:00.000+10:00

Wow, can't believe I'll be starting my last ever semester of uni tomorrow (barring any fails of course). 2 subjects, 4 hrs of lectures one week, 14 hours lectures/labs/tuts the other. Long long weekend every 2nd week (Thu-Sun) Hehehe...finally, a commerce student-like timetable...

Did end up going to my last MYC from Tuesday night-Friday. Talks were awesome and very helpful, the seminars weren't too bad (and didn't seem as intense as last year's) but struggled in the bible study after missing the first two days >_<. Bought the talks so if anyone is interested in listening Grimmo talk about iRelate (I missed the first talk myself), can borrow them off me. I guess it would be GradCon for me next year?!?!

2 weeks of holidays gone already?

2006-07-15T18:46:00.000+10:00

A few things happened over the past couple of days. Uni results came out on Thursday and yet again, I feel jipped for a few of the subjects. No, make that ALL the subjects bar one. I scrolled down the email and saw marks of 62,63,64...What the? So close to getting 3 credits?!?! At least thesis mark turned out quite good. I'm happy about that one :)

Met up with Albert yesterday and continued reading Acts after a two week hiatus (due to exams and him working on his 'off' days). We read Acts 4 and I was encouraged by the way the Holy Spirit worked in Peter and also the early Christians. Their boldness in proclaiming the Gospel is amazing. And how about Peter's comment on salvation?

"Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved." (Acts 4:12)

I guess coinciding with the sermon at church on the Holy Spirit a few weeks ago, it made me ponder whether I really ask God to fill me with the Holy Spirit as I live my Christian life and whilst I serve Him. Definitely something to think and pray about. After that it was off to cell social. We made pizza for dinner...including a choc pizza. I jokingly told d. about the idea the night before but she insisted we make one! So our chocolate pizza consisted of marshmellows, choc toppings, crushed nuts (think that was it. I didn't actually make the pizza hehe). Chuck it in the oven and bake till the marshmellows melt. Serve with ice cream and strawberries. Yum.

Had youth ministry meeting this morning and things are looking good. The basic structure of the new EFC youth program looks in place and will start in 4th term (roughly October for those who have forgotten how the high school term dates work). Now we just gotta nut out the actual program/rostering/admin stuff and we are set to go! Oh wait, we need a name for the ministry too...

2 more sleeps before start of iRelate :D

What was ZZ thinking...?

2006-07-10T16:14:00.000+10:00

A World Cup final.
Captain of your country.
Last football game of your professional career.
1 second of madness:

Red Card.

Only Zidane and Materazzi can tell us what happened in the 110th minute of this morning's Final. The game itself was alright. Both sides had good chances and it was relatively free-flowing football. I think France was unfortunate to lose Vieira and Henry to injuries before Zidane's brain explosion and by that stage, they were mentally gone.

Got RICE?

2006-07-08T00:34:00.000+10:00

Wooohoo, the new RICE site is up and it looks awesome. Really looking forward to the 19th & 26th August when the message of the Gospel will be preached to the youths of Sydney!

It's all over!

2006-07-01T21:24:00.000+10:00

Thesis...OVER.
Exams...OVER.
Crazy month of June...OVER.
Uni degree...almost OVER.

Bring on the holidays, World Cup final and MYC...

If you play for Brazil, What would your name be?

2006-06-28T02:57:00.000+10:00

Faith sent this around work spam this morning. Good procrastination tool =P

"Kincha shoots...AND SCORES!! Kincha with the clincher for Brazil!!" Hahaha...

Generate your Brazilname HERE

On an unrelated note, Harry Kewell missed the Italy game because of gout. Cool, I now have a gout buddy...

Aight, back to cramming...

Italy 1 Australia 0

2006-06-27T03:01:00.000+10:00

Totti (p) 92' (Italy 1-0)

What was that?? Fabio Grosso clearly tripped himself over Lucas Neil to milk the penalty...Correct me if I am wrong, but did I see a little smirk on Grosso's face as he went down?

I would rather a penalty shootout loss than have this kind of crap.

And so it's all over. Well done to the Socceroos. Will we see them again in South Africa in 4 years time??

Australia 2 Croatia 2

2006-06-23T07:07:00.000+10:00

Srna 3' (Croatia 1-0)
Moore (p) 39' (1-1)
Kovac 57' (Croatia 2-1)
Kewell 79' (2-2)

Source:SMH

WHAT A GAME!! Feisty at times (ALOT of shirt-pulling any why not with so much at stake for both sides), this game was well worth watching. Australia clearly should have been given two penalties, the first one when Josip Simunic held back Mark Viduka in the penalty area early in the first half and the second one when Stjepan Tomas hand-balled during the second stanza...Tomas should consider playing in the AFL with his performance (2 handballs?!?!).

And what about the goals?!? Srna's blasting free kick shocked the Aussies I'm sure, Craig Moore got us back with the penalty (What if Viduka had taken it?), Kalac must be one relieved man after his howler against Kovac (Did he play because of the significance of the match?) and Harry Kewell...well...has to be the most important goal of his international career since the one against Iran 8 years ago when the Socceroos failed to qualify for World Cup 98.

Interesting post-match analysis would be the performance of the ref. He did alright but was probably caught up with the mayhem in the final 5 minutes. Did he really give Simunic 3 yellow cards? Emerton's send off could be bad for the Aussies because I think he has been our best throughout the tournament but we'll see.

So, Guss Hiddink has another crack at the Italians next Tuesday morning. 4 years ago, he led South Korea past the Azzuris. I haven't yet seen the Italians play in the tournament so can't say too much of their performance but it'll definitely be an intriguing match.

Ok, gonna take a quick nap before going to uni to study.

GO SOCCEROOS!!!

Sidenote to Simon Hill who commentated the match: Does Josh Kennedy really look like Jesus? :P

Brazil 2 Australia 0

2006-06-19T20:33:00.000+10:00

Adriano 49' (Brazil 1-0)
Fred 90' (Brazil 2-0)

Oh well, I thought Oz was gonna get at least a draw but they looked shaky at times during the second half and Brazil caught them out. Still, it was a pretty good performance. I think they did alright containing Ronaldinho. Aust's passing game was good for most of the game and probably a bit unlucky with a few of the shots (Kewell, Bresciano). So it's all down to Friday now against Croatia. You bet I'll be up for that too. No exam that day.

So I woke up at 10 this morning (after hitting the snooze button about 5 times) and went off to my Project Management exam. It was pretty straight forward which was good. The case study question was something along the lines of: "Imagine you have been asked to organise and manage a friend's 21st birthday party...". What a question! I actually half organised my sister's 21st party last month so it was just thinking back what happened and waffle as much as possible....lol

After the exam I was feeling thirsty so stopped by Town Hall Easyway to get a pearl milk tea. $4 NOW!! a 50c hike!! Damn.

World Cup dilemma

2006-06-18T20:16:00.000+10:00

Ok, I can sense the next few posts will be World Cup related...anyway...got a bit of a dilemma at the moment.

Monday 2am - World Cup: Australia Vs Brazil
Monday 2pm - Project Management exam @ Randwick Racecourse

Not so concerned with the exam itself because I think it will be relatively simple (simple means I can waffle on and on and should still do ok) but rather whether I can make it to the exam at all. Post thesis + World Cup meant I've been waking and sleeping at weird hours of the day (The other day I woke up at 3....pm) so there is every chance I could miss this exam...or cutting it very close (catching a cab from the city which will cost around $15)

Taping the game/watching highlights are out cos it just won't have the same feel...

I like my cousin's approach. He's doing his HSC this year and has some chem prac tomorrow at noon (as well as school in the morning). His MSN nick reads:

| Phase 1:sleep 9:30-1am | phase 2: watch Aus Vs Brazil [2-4am] | phase 3: sleep 4- 6:30am | phase 4: school |

World Cup trivia question #2352

2006-06-15T22:48:00.000+10:00

Serbia and Montenegro.

As you can see, there's no 'c' in the name. So why is it abbreviated to 'SCG' on TV?

*confused*

The mentos and diet coke experiments

2006-06-14T22:37:00.000+10:00

Our TELE4363 lecturer showed this to us last week.
Warning: Video loads with the page.

Australia 3 Japan 1

2006-06-13T00:59:00.000+10:00

Nakamura 26' (Jap 1-0)
Cahill 84' (Aust 1-1)
Cahill 89' (Aust 2-1)
Aloisi 90' (Aust 3-1)

Ohhhhhhhh yeeaaahhhh!!!!!

Source: SMH

From my point of view, I think in the first half, Australia's execution let them down (as always). Then in the second half, with the introduction of Cahill and Josh Kennedy (what a hippie), the Socceroos played much better. Oh, I'm sure the heat played a part as well. Looks like Guus Hiddink's fitness torture in the lead-up to the tournament paid off :)

Bring on Brazil @ Munich!

World Cup

2006-06-10T01:52:00.000+10:00

Just when I thought I can get back to sleep in a normal manner i.e. actually getting decent sleep at night, the World Cup is here...boooiya!

Germany Vs Costa Rica starting in 10 mins...hmmm...ok, maybe just one more month of abnormal sleeping :P

All over!

2006-06-07T15:07:00.000+10:00

10:36 yesterday morning I handed in my group thesis report. So relieved. After getting 7 hours of sleep Saturday-Monday combined, I slept for 13 hours last night, even skipping dinner.

Yesterday's 4363 presentation in front of the whole class was funny. For 15 mins, I had absolutely no idea what I was saying, except mentioning the words "wireless stations" and "access point" alot. Total gibberish if you ask me. I even imitated my lecturer's water sipping antics (He always takes a sip of water in his lectures cos he talks so much). But I didn't care, I was so tired.

Aight, one more assessment to go - Project management report.

06.06.06

2006-06-06T06:36:00.000+10:00

Ok, thesis is about to be sent to the printer after all night editing and stuff. We are SO trashed right now. Still need to go to Kinkos or Kwik Kopy and bind the thesis and then take it into uni. Should be able to do all that before the deadline which is in 5.5 hours. Hope the printer don't stuff up...or a power outage.

While Lui can relax a bit, I now have to prepare for a group presentation at midday. Our group was yesterday randomly selected for a 20min presentation on an assignment due Sunday night. I don't even have a clue on what to say since I didn't contribute because of thesis. Why is our lecturer making us do that? Why Mr Moors?

Thesis rush

2006-06-04T04:08:00.000+10:00

EDIT 10:55pm
Home Sweet Home after leaving 36 hrs ago. Gonna grab a shower and then straight into it. Wonder how far I can last tonight...

EDIT 10:30am
Powernapped from 9:30-10 while Lui went and got breakfast. 2 Bacon and Eggs McMuffin + 1 Hash brown + 1 coffee. Back into it!

EDIT 9:18am
24 hours with no sleep but the andrenelin is pumping! So want to hit the sack but always just want to finish off a section. Why didn't I write the theory bits earlier?? >_<

Lui's been sleeping for about an hour now. Need to wake him soon so I can get my power nap.

EDIT 7:42am
I hate Excel.
Starting to get a few yawns now but still holding up. Might get some shut eye when I get back to Lui's.

3:52 Sunday morning...eating cup noodles at Tommy's place (Lui's friend). Only me, Lui and his gf in the house...surprisingly not tired, prolly from the 2 cups of coffee I had at Lui's during Saturday...

Thesis...going ok...had major major boo-boo(s) with our main analysis during the day but think we are back on track now...we think...still gonna have to do alot of write-up before Tuesday...

Haven't been at home since 9am yesterday and not sure when I'm going back...am I even gonna get a shower?

Ahhhh, stupid electric meter box has been making AK-47 noises non-stop since we got here...too much stuff running at the moment, using so much electricity...That thing is gonna blow soon...

New RICE uniform

2006-06-01T23:49:00.000+10:00

The new uniform for our basketball team arrived tonight and they look pretty snazzy. I'll get a shot of it later (my camera is broken, need to get it fixed after thesis) but basically it's white on the front and back with green and a shade of red down the sides. Got matching shorts too :)

We played a team called 'The Bulls' tonight and well, they were pretty average. I didn't play because I hurt my lower back at my sister's 21st and it's still a bit stiff. But the team did well in my absence :)

Final score: RICE 49 The Bulls 4. I think we kept them scoreless in the 2nd half too.

The price to pay for a 10% assessment

2006-06-01T11:52:00.000+10:00

Arrrggghhh, so annonyed with myself for what happened this morning. Apart from getting a parking fine, I can't say my handling of this morning's madness was very godly >.<

This morning was my turn to do the project management presentation and it was a 9am tut. Guess what time I woke up? 8:30..Eeepppp. After brushing my teeth, I grabbed my bag and bolted out of the house. The initial plan was to drive to West Ryde station, catch the train to Central and a cab to uni. But as I was driving, I thought I may as well go all the way to Strathfield where there will be more trains. So I got to Stratty, parked my car and made my way to the station before I realised...I FORGOT MY WALLET (But with $1.80 for the train fare). It was quarter to 9 and I was panicking. WHAT TO DO??? At this stage I think I had 3 options:

A) Go home and forget about the whole thing (and get 0 for the assessment)
B) Go home, get my wallet and head to uni where I would be ultra ultra late
C) Continue driving to uni without my license.

I went for option C (bad choice) and headed down Parramatta Road. Traffic wasn't bad at all and I got to uni at 9:30 and parked on Physics Lane (2hr parking) and ran to my tut room.

Apparently I was the first person called up to do the presentation so I made a real arse of myself coming in half an hour late. Ended up doing the presentation last after the other 8 people but at least it turned out alright (from my persepective, not sure about the tutor's). No stagefright or anything. I think given the non-technical aspect of the course, you can make things up as you go along and having worked at a project management company last year, I was able to draw from the experience and put it in the talk. Feeling quite happy with myself at the end of the tut, I returned to the car and found a white piece of paper on the windscreen...a $75 fine for not displaying a parking ticket whilst parking on uni premises. Noooooooo......that's right, you have to purchase a ticket when parking inside uni. Hmmm, should of parked on the street instead. Crap.

Alright, off to the post office to pay the fine...

Ready to be chopped into pieces...

2006-05-28T19:51:00.000+10:00

You know the scene in action movies/cartoons where the good guy/hero is captured by the bad dude and then strapped onto some sort of conveyance belt ever so tightly and is moving towards the point where they get chopped up or something? I feel exactly like that right now (except the good guy/hero bit).

*sigh*

Life Skill #234423 - How to change a car tyre

2006-05-23T18:50:00.000+10:00

So after 4 years of driving, I got to change a car tyre for the very first time and it's actually not as hard as I thought it would be. The Castro site has a pretty good guide on how to do it and includes a flash demo too which is good because sometimes you need pictures to go with instructions.

So yeh, this morning I went to West Ryde to change the rear left tyre of our Corolla. My sister took the car to finalize the hiring of West Ryde Hall for her combine 21st party this weekend and noticed the tyre got punctured. When I got there I drove the car to a vistor parking spot of this unit cos it's a flat surface. Anyway, just before I changed the tyre, this old man approached me. He looked to be the unit's residential gardener and was frustrated because he tried to put this garden tool together but the screwdriver on his pocket knife wouldn't work. He asked whether I have a screwdriver on me and I actually grabbed a few on my way out of the house. So I helped him and he was so happy he gave me his pocket knife (After chucking it to the ground out of frustration - what a nut). Of course I'm gonna clean it with disinfectant before I use it.

Downtown - Japanese comedy show

2006-05-17T01:13:00.000+10:00

10mins of absolute laughter. ROFL!!

4 weeks to go

2006-05-10T12:12:00.000+10:00

4 weeks, that's how much time I have left to do thesis. last night (or this morning) I slept at 5am and the night before 4am. Oh man, I'm gonna be so whacked out over the next month >.< On top of thesis I have:

~2 Java labs for network management
~project management seminar (wk 13) and report (wk 14)
~tele systems 2 group assignment (due around wk 13) and a presentation of the assignment if unlucky enough to be chosen by lecturer
~did I mention thesis?

After week 14 comes exams! The provisional timetable came out this morning and it looks pretty good:

12/6-15/6: Stuvac
19/6: Project Management @ 2-5pm
29/6: Tele Systems 2 @ 2-5pm
30/6: Network Management @ 2-5pm

At least all the harder subejcts are at the backend of the exam period and all 3 are in the afternoon (good for all night cram sessions).

On a different note, got a reply from the one and only grad program (SKM) I've applied so far. They said:

We have received a large response to this opportunity and are currently in the process or reading, sorting and assessing applications.

We anticipate our shortlisting process will commence soon. Interviews will be at our offices in St Leonards and offers forwarded to successful candidates shortly after this.

"Large response"? That's not good...Oh well, expecting the reject email to come any day now...

http://?????.lumini.org

2006-05-07T02:27:00.000+10:00

What should I call it? Jeff? Jkfkam? Kogster? Thanks to Sam for purchasing the lumini.org domain name though. I'll figure out later how to make use of this cyberspace 'land'. Maybe another blog, a photo gallery, whatever....RIGHT AFTER THESIS (and exams too).

Human Domino Effect

2006-05-01T20:56:00.000+10:00

Metrogaine 2006

2006-04-26T17:56:00.000+10:00

Was gonna blog last night but I was wayyyy too tired...

And we won! Team 'Top Gun' consisting of Justin Yoon, 'Guai Loh' Pete and myself were joined by this other girl called Yarni (spelling?) at rego and the 4 of us set off for Metrogaine 2006. I must admit I wasn't sure it would go ahead after it was pissing down rain on the way to CCC but God showed who was in control and it didn't rain at all during the race but turned out rather sunny.

The whole thing felt more like pre-season footy training since we pretty much ran the majority of the race. I cramped up at the last part of the race outside the Museum of Contemporary Art and is nursing some sore calves at the moment. Hopefully I'll be right for basketball tomorrow night. There was this one challenge, 'Cyclone Relay' where 3 of the 4 team members had to run to a soccer ball 10m away, place one hand on the ball and run around it 30 times! It was absolute dizziness (and madness). Pete was crawling the last ten while I staggered like some drunk guy. If only I could get video footage of that challenge :P Perhaps some of the Metrogaine organisers can put it on Youtube?

Winning is good but bringing glory to God is more important and I hope we did that rather than focusing too much on winning the race.

Team photo coming soon...

Everything Basketball

2006-04-25T01:26:00.000+10:00

Yahoo! Fantasy NBA
Over for another season in which I came third behind Ethan and Poy but probably only because I was playing right up to the last day whereas some people stopped ages before. Seriously, that stuff is ADDICTIVE.

NBA Finals
Is now underway and the first match of each of the first round series have been played. Not too many surprises except Indiana's win over New Jersey. New Jersey won 14 in a row at one stretch during the season but there is still a long way to go in the best-of-7 matchup. My tip to win the championship? Detroit will prolly win it.

RICE
Basketball starts again this week after a two week break and there are now two RICE teams (White RICE and Fried RICE? I dunno...). One in the Monday C division and the other remaining in the Thursday D division. I'm in the Thursday one and we are hoping to improve on last season's result (eliminated in the first round of finals). Oh, there's a team called 'Team Chuck Norris' in our division. Hahahaha...
Tip off this Thursday @ 7pm

(Long) Easter weekend

2006-04-18T11:18:00.000+10:00

Thursday
Took the day off from uni (normal tut cancelled and not worth going in for an 1 hr lec) and went to the Blue Mountains with my cousin visting from Canada. First stop was the Leura candy shop and we spent about $25 all up on rock lollies, coke laces, various gummies and youghurt sticks. Yum! Then we continued driving to Jenolan Caves. I guess as a first timer there it was pretty interesting going into a bunch of caves. We did the "Chiefly" cave walk which took about 1 hr and it felt like going to a geography excursion! Here's what I learnt: Stalactite, an icicle-shaped mass of calcite attached to the roof of a limestone cave looks like dripping snot :P

Had lunch after the walk and then drove home. I was so buggered by the time we hit the M4 I was micro-sleeping.

Good Friday
Spent the day at home and started on Tele Systems 2 assignment (due Sunday). Had to review one paper and analyze design principles of one Internet protocol so it wasn't too bad...except I haven't been listening in class so had to skim over lecture notes to read up on design principles. Then at night our church had a movie night - 'Luther'. For those who haven't seen it, it's about a 16th century monk (Martin Luther) who challenged the political and religious authorities that began the Reformation of the church. Interesting movie but for me, it's one of those films I'll have to watch a couple more times to get a better understanding.

Saturday
The plan was to get a guitar tuner and new strings because my old ones snapped. However when I got to Turra music, it was closed :( Went home and worked on the assignment but fell asleep (must be reading in bed hehe) so got nothing done. Went out to dinner with relatives at...Blackstump! Haha go the coupons :) Saved ourselves about $70 but boo to the public holiday surcharge ($20 all up) :(

Easter Sunday
At the Easter Sunday service/evangelistic we had Greg Prosper talking on "How do you know if you're right with God" and it was fantastic to see 4 people commiting their lives to Christ afterwards. Praise God! Went home in the arvo and submitted my assignment and then went out to the NSW-ACT Super 14 game in the evening. NSW were pretty flat in the first half but kicked ass in the 2nd half and ran out 37-14 winners. We sat behind the goal posts and got to see all but one of the NSW tries :) Oh, and one word to describe Wendell Sailor: crap. He looks crap in a 'Tahs jersey and plays crap too. Harsh I know...

Monday
Woke up around midday, went to Albert's place and we finished reading 1 Timothy. Went to buffet dinner at night and as usual, stuffed myself fully...

More Project Management ramblings

2006-04-07T01:41:00.000+10:00

What's with girls who we have never seen before coming up to talk to us? Happened to Jono after one of the lectures a couple of weeks ago and it happened to me yesterday before the start of tut. Haha so random...

Project Management cashflow

2006-04-06T02:52:00.000+10:00

Just finished Project Management homework where I had to do a planned cumulative cashflow for the demostration project which is my thesis topic. I found out that:

1. I'm a Micro$oft Excel n00b.
2. The project expenditure is roughly just under $60k for a 20-week program. Of course it is a very rough guesstimate but either way, the punks are getting around $80/hr (including overheads) to sit around napping whilst doing experiments! (see previous post)

Thesis progress

2006-04-02T00:54:00.000+11:00

Been going to uni the last two Saturdays to work on thesis (Saturday-->not many people around-->less signal interference-->more accurate data). Here are some shots of my thesis partner and I in action today (pics courtesy of Lui's phone):

Data collection is like watching paint dry...

A good idea but can't have the neck in that position for too long...

A better idea!!!

Since for each point we have to collect data with the laptop/pda pointing at 4 different directions, might as well make ourselves comfortable...Well Jono did :P

As you can see, data collection is not the most exciting job at times...

The exciting part of today came right at the end when I was doing the last point. With the battery running ultra low (<5%) I was desperately hoping to collect the 12mins of data we require and save it. In the end, I just managed to save the data before the laptop went 'beep...beep...beep' and shut itself down. *long sigh of relief*

Talk about timing...

Next time I'm stressed...

2006-03-26T19:45:00.000+11:00

...I have my stress balls to 'destress' myself. Hahaha...presenting my 2006 collection from O-week and the careers expo -

From l to r: Commonwealth Bank, Revs, Optus, Department of Employment and Workplace Relations, Hydro Tasmania and IMC Pacific.

Funnily enough the past few days I have been exposed to stuff relating to careers, employment etc but from two different perspectives. I guess after nearly 20 years of schooling, it's time to acknowledge there'll be no more 'school' next year unless I fail which hopefully won't be the case.

Last Thursday was the UNSW careers expo and whilst the goal was to score as much free stuff as possible (and I did), I actually made some sort of an effort talking to employers about getting a job next year. Some were very thorough in their role descriptions, telling me the potential career path that I could be heading and of course the $$$$. Others were more: "Here's a brochure, go read it" or "Here's the website, click under so and so link...". Hmmm, very helpful! There were a couple of hydro companies where relocation will be required (one to Snowy mountains and another to Tasmania) and they look VERY appealing since I have been to neither of those places before and they are looking for Telecommunication grad students.

Yesterday the men and women fellowship group from our church ran a combined event on...Challenge in the workplace. Karen Gettens from Ecom spoke on the challenges of being a Christian in the workplace including time, money, priorities and career advancement. She drew examples of her experience as a Christian working for one the big(ger) law firms in Sydney and it was very encouraging to hear how we should have some sort of balance between our work life and spend time with our family and serving God. She says it's especially easy for fresh grads who just can't say 'no' when asked to hang around and do some extra work by their boss. She gave an example once where she was asked to stay back even though she had to go to bible study and her boss asked: "So is God more important than me?"

From Ecclesiastes 5:18-20 we should be thankful that God has given us work for it is a gift from Him and we should also work hard in what we do. However if we work in order to find meaning and purpose in life then that's not so good and we would be disappointed (Ecclestiates 2:10-11). A difference in work and pursuit of work. Definitely something for me to think about over the coming year as I start submitting applications for graduate positions.

How to lose $20,000 in 3 hours

2006-03-14T23:33:00.000+11:00

1. Watch Australia post 4/434 against South Africa batting first in a one-dayer
2. During the innings change, place $20,000 for an Aussie victory at odds of $1.01 with Centrebet (so looking to win $200)
3. Watch in horror as South Africa's Mark Boucher hit the winning runs in the final over and with it, your money

A summary of this article.

Ouch.

Random tidbits from the past few days

2006-03-08T22:05:00.000+11:00

Mu is a free online fantasy RPG game somewhat similar to WoW or Ragnarok. Downloaded the client on Saturday night, played a few hours of it and I have to say it's not too bad. Of course this means I might get addicted to it. Luckily it's on my laptop because my desktop computer can't handle the graphics and since I don't use my laptop that often, it might be ok. Might.
.
.
.
Pokies are evil. I played it at Star City for the first time in my life on Monday and although I won $40 on '5 dragons', I still cannot see the fun in pressing a button and watch random pictures flash up on the screen. So stupid. Btw, I was at the casino because my cousin from HK is here for a week and we went to Garden Buffet for dinner. For $30 it's definitely worth it. Here's a snippet from the website: "Garden Buffet. Popularly known as the 'prawn buffet', offering unlimited prawns and now including unlimited tea, coffee and soft drinks..." Yum! :P
.
.
.
Driving range is mad. I've always dismissed golf as a boring sport but after going to the Homebush Bay driving range with my cousin last night I think I might give the game a go. Besides, My dad has two sets of clubs (dunno why)
.
.
.
Faculty Bible study started again today and this session Han, Mick and Vincy will lead my group. Today we had five 1st years and I was the only 4th year+ person in the group. I feel so old!! But it's cool to be studying God's Word on campus again and hopefully it'll be fun, challenging and fruitful for our spiritual growth.
.
.
.
The sick bug is back! I caught it last week and a few people I know are sick this week. Hope y'all get better soon!

Never trust a lady handing out free Boost bars...

2006-03-01T21:01:00.000+11:00

Darn it, 1st week back to uni and I'm sick. I blame the amount of Cadbury Boost bars I ate during O-week. Wayyy too many. Chuck in the sometimes-cool-sometimes-warm weather this past week and I now have a sore throat, runny nose and not feel like doing anything but sleep.

Uni has been quiet so far as one would expect in week 1. The only real activity is on the walkway with the diary/student card collection and the clubs/society stalls. Had 3 lectures so far and none of them lasted the full 60/120 mins. Monday in Network Management (9-11) we got kicked out of Keith Burrows at 10 because of a lecture theatre clash with another course and instead of turning away a class of 200 they kicked us (class size about 60) out. Add to that I got to uni at 9:30 after yet another peak hour traffic nightmare on Victoria Rd, I should of stayed at home. Had Maccas breakfast with Lui and then went home, skipped lunch and slept. Throat starting to feel itchy.

Yesterday was Telco systems 2 with Tim Moors. I had this guy from Data Networks 1. He once kicked Mitchell and Gan out of class for talking and Gan actually had a bleeding nose as he was walking out. Funny moment. Anyway, yesterday's lecture lasted 30mins and it was just admin stuff. Boring.

CBS resumed again and it was good to see many 1st years (as well as others) I met during O-week rocking up. Grimmo spoke on Matthew 8:1-17 and in fact this session we'll be studying Matthew 8-13. Hopefully I can be more attentive than S2 last year when I found myself 'zoning out' on a regular basis. It's something I think I struggle with. Arrggh.

Today was Telco systems 2 again and I was actually on time for the 9am lecture cos I caught a train. Wow, trains running on time? You bet. But before I heap too much praise, let see whether this can last the session. Tim lectured on connectivity for half an hour before asking whether we want to continue on Friday. Everyone said yes. Went home, skipped lunch and slept. Itchy throat, runny nose, chesty cough - the whole lot.