The weather in Dubbo today is glorious. Must be in the low to mid twenties in the shade, the sun is shining, there is a light breeze rustling past. It is a common theme, but glorious days are still excellent to soak in, especially when one is on holidays and doesn’t have to do anything.

For all you careful blog watchers out there, you might have noticed that the published comment count on my blog is up to two. That is out of a total of 12 comments, 10 of which I deemed to be spam. So the score is 2 – 10, or alternatively 16% of comments on my blog are legitimate. When I put it like that it actually sounds like quite a lot. My commiserations to the rest of you who I had invited to make the first comment.

It has been good so far to get away from home for a bit and catch up with old friends. The days end up filling up quite quickly, and it feels like time is getting away on me. I have especially appreciated the way that catching up with friends has shaped my frame of mind. I feel energised and motivated to focus my lifestyle and get more out of life when I return home from holidays.

We have decided to call it quits with the housing market. We had been looking with my parents for an investment property that they could buy and we could rent. A fortnight ago today we found what we thought to be the perfect house. It ticked all the right boxes, and was listed at a good-value price. We made an offer, had the pest and building inspections done, my parents got their finance approved, everything looked like it was in place. Today however, my father lost his job, so it has all been called off. Further, as we discussed things more it became clear that the overlap of our goals was diminishing as was the likelihood of finding a win-win situation.

At the moment I feel profoundly disappointed at the lost opportunity. I am not sure how things will pan out, but among other things we are disappointed that our tenancy will continue where we are now, probably until the end of the year. I am trying to resist the temptation to take out my frustration on our current landlord and real estate agent. They have some legitimate wrath to encounter for issues unrelated to the sale of this house falling through.

Last exam tomorrow. I should be studying for that now. I think I will do this exam tomorrow and then spend some time thinking about how I can let off some steam.

It’s been almost a month since I made a post to this blog. My silence has basically been due to all my creative energies being put into assessments. So there wasn’t much to blog about anyway.

Tomorrow marks the end of the teaching period of semester one this year. The three of us here have finished our assignments for this semester, so we are all feeling pretty festive. (Yesterday I thought to myself that one of the good things about being at uni is feeling like there are two Christmases a year). There are still a few exams to be sat, but they should be pretty manageable, and we have a bit of time to study for them.

The last assessment I had to submit for my design subject was a poster for a drama called The Mint Juleps Trilogy. This is what I came up with.

I am pretty happy with how it turned out. Generally I think I am pretty glad with the things I have learned from this course this semester. I feel confident that I can create designs that I am happy with, even if I cannot do it heaps expediently.

Interesting story with one of my other assessments. I was working as part of a (compulsory) partnership on a major project for a subject called Programmable Logic Design. Admittedly, my partner and I were behind the eight ball on this one, but I was doing my darnedest to achieve as highly as possible. The assignment was originally due at 4pm on a Friday afternoon, and on Friday morning our lecturer sent out an email extending the deadline to Monday. So I worked on the project and report pretty hard over the weekend, and I could demonstrate from our design files that we had a pretty good idea of what was going on, but we hadn’t been able to check if it worked in hardware yet. On Monday my plan was for me to finish writing the report and my lab partner to apply herself to getting it working in hardware. The report and design files were due at 4pm, so at 2.30pm I thought it was a good time to print the report out. While I was at the print shop, my lab partner sent me a text message saying that she couldn’t get the hardware working, so she was going to withdraw from the subject so she didn’t get a fail recorded in her marks! Anyway, her loss was my gain because my assessor took into account the fact that my lab partner had bailed out when he awarded my mark. In the end I got 55/100, which I was pleased with because that mark was a little bit higher than the assessment criteria allowed. Now it is down to the exam to see what mark I get for the whole course.

Our son started walking this week! He is still quited off balance, and he only takes 5 or less steps at a time, but it is still a milestone. He is a lot of fun at the moment.

Another thing that happened since my last post was Eurovision. Congratulations to Norway! You can catch most of this year’s acts on YouTube if you want to find out what you missed. We had a party at our house to enjoy the Eurovision final, and we drank foreign alcohol and ate European desserts. It was a lot of fun. Our expectations were not misplaced; some of the acts were suitably atrocious (the one that stands out in my mind is the Ronan Keating look-alike). But the winner, Norway, was very deserving.

The post you write when you are not writing a post.

Assessments are beginning to line up. It’s is the beginning of that time of semester.

My parents were thinking about buying an investment property, and they spoke to us about whether we would like to rent a house from them. As my dad succinctly put it, “We’re in the landlord market and you are in the tenant market, so it should be win-win.” We felt similarly, so an agreement was struck whereby we would look for a house that we would like to live in, in an area that we would like to live, that would make a good investment and that satisfied a few other constraints like not needing repair, not costing more than x dollars etc. Last weekend we found what we consider to be a house of excellent value, and after some negotiating we (my parents actually) have made an offer on the house. It’s an interesting process and I am not entirely sure of how it is supposed to work. The agent informed us that “any offer over the asking price will be accepted. I am sending contracts tomorrow, and the first party to exchange contracts will buy the house.”

Obviously the vendors want an expedient sale, more than they want the highest price they can get for their house. Thinking more broadly though, I have been wondering how real estate agents conduct the negotiating process during the sale of a house. I thought (although I am beginning to have serious doubts about this) that an “offer” on a house included information from the buyer about the conditions of their offer. For example a purchase might be contingent on a pest and building report, finance approval, and the sale of the buyer’s house, as well as a request for a delayed settlement. So a vendor might choose an offer of lower value because they prefer the other details of the offer. However, because of the way that the current sale is being conducted, I am wondering if those details are contained in a the contract. As for the negotiation process, it seems like there are a few options at least: the standard auction, correspondence auction where the agent goes back and forward between interested parties, the silent auction, and probably others. I just decided that I am going to look up the ACCC website and see if they have a document called How to Buy a House, or something of the like.

Anyway, if the sale goes through, we could be living in a very nice 3 bedroom, 1 bathroom house in Newcastle. We are definitely going to have to have a brilliant house warming if we move in. Thinking about the house now has reminded me of how much we like the house. One of the cool things about the arrangement with my parents is that we will be able to experience some (most I think) of the benefits of owning without the usual price tag. We are looking forward to hanging pictures and planting trees in particular. We will probably also not have to move as often, if the landlord wants to sell or doesn’t want to renew our lease. There are benefits for my parents too, chief of which are tenant security and no agency costs. It all sounds very win-win to me. If things don’t work out with this house, it will be a little bit disappointing, but it won’t change the positive aspects of the opportunity to rent from my parents.

For those who are interested, a few weeks ago I discussed an assignment I did for the Design subject I am doing. I got my marks back today and despite my pride in my work I achieved 50% for the assessment. Good thing I don’t care too much.

That’s about all I know about that.

I don’t think I am an idiot, but I feel like I need to point that out from time to time, when my level of achievement or progress is below expected, especially when those expectations are external. It seems to happen to me pretty regularly. I suppose it is not fair to put too much weight on those impressions without verifying their accuracy. My latest I-am-not-an-idiot prompting frustrations come from a subject that I am doing at uni. My goals are blocked at every turn. I think I can account for every lab session that I have attended, journalled in the various technological equipment difficulties. Despite my effort, intentions and intelligence (that’s the bit I feel sensitive about) I have nothing to show for it.

Lecturer (smiling warmly): “So, let’s see your project.”
me: “I would like to take this opportunity to point out the various techno…”
Lecturer (interrupting quizzically with a frown): “So you don’t have anything?”
me: “no.”

When I started university, I didn’t own a computer, and I did rock climbing, tailoring, sailing, music, hiking. These days I own three computers, and I do, stuff? Seems like a conspicuous correlation. I remember the halcyon days of early adulthood, making beautiful things, helping people out, drinking, eating, surfing and so on. I think I would like to continue to use computers to do things from time to time, like read email and the like, but I don’t want to work with them any more. I don’t even want to finish my uni degree at the moment. When someone wants to pay me 60K to work part-time making new computer-type-things, my interest might peak. Might. Actually I just thought of something, maybe the problem isn’t with computers, but with university and all the different things I need to do with a computer in that endeavour. Computers wouldn’t be nearly so painful if I could just do whatever the hell I liked with them. Then again, maybe not.

On Thursday, 5 days ago, I had my first assessment due for Visual Communication Principles. I am really proud of the work that I submitted but I don’t think I employed good assessment technique, so I may not get a great mark for it. Our assignment was to make a “gate fold” cd cover demonstrating an understanding of the visual elements of point line plane and volume. The only text we were allowed to use was the word “elements” on the front cover.

Outside of the CD cover.

Inside of the CD cover design.

On Thursday night we celebrated Passover at our house. We invited some of our friends around, two of whom speak English as a second language. Both of them asked us what Passover meant once they were here. We felt a bit, “oops, you didn’t realise you were invited over for a religious festival.” A good time was had by all, and the meal was very enjoyable.

On Monday (yesterday) we went to Wollombi with some friends from the Cornerstone Network. Wollombi celebrates a scarecrow festival around this time of year and on Monday there were some markets. The drive out there was just magic; the countryside is captivating.

While I was at my friends wedding that mentioned in my last post, I got talking with one of my friends from Brisbane, who it turns out is engaged. He wants to get married in August and would like a bush band to play at the reception. I mentioned in tentative style, “If you are looking for a bush band I would love the opportunity to try and maybe get something together to be considered for the reception.” I tried to include as many non-committal words as possible, but to no avail. My friend replied with gusto, “You’ve got the job!” Of course nothing is set in concrete yet, and some of it will depend on when the wedding actually gets scheduled for, but I am looking for some musicians for the band at the moment. The most needed musicians are melody instruments and percussion. If you would like a gig, let me know. The wedding is going to be in Brisbane, and you will need to be able to get there under your own steam. For those who can make it, the spoils will be excellent. I reckon this wedding is going to be a blast. The friend who is getting married is in the arts scene and used to lead a band that had a reasonable amount of success, so he will have a lot of interesting and colourful guests at his wedding.

The process for approving the transfer of credit at uni is slow, so I still have one subject outstanding: Quantum Mechanics and Semiconductor Physics. I received a nod from my course convener that he would award me credit for that subject, and now I am just waiting for the official administrative process to run its course. In anticipation of being awarded credit, and needing to maintain my study load, I withdrew from the physics subject and enrolled in a design subject, Visual Communication Principles. Hopefully this is the last time that any of my subjects change this semester. I am excited about doing the design subject. There are often times when having a bit of graphic design skill would come in handy. My plan is to undertake a project to make my blog less aesthetically challenged.

I went to a friend’s wedding on the weekend. It was good to go back to Brisbane and catch up with a lot of friends. I felt a littlel bit sorrowful. Remembering what it was like in Brisbane strongly contrasted what it is like to live in Newcastle. I lived in Brisy for 3 years and I knew my way around pretty well. I felt like a local. In Newcastle, absolutely everything is new. On the upside, we are planning to be in Newcastle for a while, so I should be quite at home here soon enough.

For the Buck’s “night” we went to a paintball range in Mango Hill. Because of the recent amount of rain on the East Coast of Australia, the whole joint was under 2 inches of water at the shallowest. I’m not sure how I managed it, but I got smashed. I got the worst bruises I have ever received from paintball. I think I also got the worst bruises among any of the combatants. The groom managed to survive and was in a suitable condition to present at his wedding the next day. My quads are still sore. They haven’t felt this sore since I did the bike leg in the Noosa triathlon. I think it is from all the squatting up and down taking cover.

I feel pretty flat at the moment. I expect that a lot of it has to do with being wiped out from the weekend, and on top of that I am disappointed with one of my subjects at uni at the moment. It is days like this that emphasize to me that university is academic and not vocational education. At the moment I resent my lecturer for covering too much disparate material. One of the challenges we (the students) face at the moment is learning to use a piece of software, which is in addition to the theory of the course.

We have a week of holidays next week. Not a week too soon.

My house mate participated as a volunteer in a psychology experiment. I don’t know the details of the experiment, but it involved connecting the test subjects to an EEG machine. He discovered that the EEG probes are pretty basic, and so now he wants to build one himself. He said, “All our friends will come around for a go on the EEG!” He wants me to build the sensors. Sounds like a reasonable enough idea to go along with for the time being. Feel free to come around to have your mind read.

http://openeeg.sourceforge.net/doc/

The world is going bankrupt. I am going surfing. My bank account recievd some stimulus lately and I decided to do my bit for the Australian economy and stimulated the bank account of the local surfboard retailer. It is a milestone for me; it is the first new surfboard I have ever owned. It is also the first surfboard I have ever owned that has a tailpad. Went for a surf on Saturday. Caught two waves (it was only small), and stood up twice. I think it is fair to say that I am relieved that I still know how to surf.

We hosted our first guest on Saturday. One of the community’s house mates came over for pizza and a movie. The pizza took forever to make, but turned out fabulously. Afterwards we watched American Gangster starring Russel Crowe and Denzel Washington. I wouldn’t call it a film for the whole family, but it was very good. There were some interesting themes in the film about family and goodness. Richie Roberts’ (the good guy) family life is a shambles even though he is ‘good’ and shows a lot of integrity, while Frank Lucas’ (the bad guy) family life is prosperous. It is almost as if there is a finite amount of good and bad in each of the characters’ lives and Roberts had spent all his good on people outside his family while Lucas was voluminously pushing evil into the world at arms length while he and his family lived in opulence. The film is based on a true story, and there are worse things you can do with a Saturday night than watch American Gangster.

After thinking about routine last week, it was interesting to hear a similar topic come up in my Management course at uni. Two of our lectures were about decision making. Two ways of structuring decisions in particular are programmed and non-programmed decisions. Programmed decisions are decisions that can be made by a flow chart or a computer: when x happens, do y. Non-programmed decisions are ones that have to be evaluated on their own merit. Programmed decisions sound a lot like routine to me. When it is time for breakfast, eat Weet-Bix. If it is Monday morning, go for a bike ride. Obviously, programmed decisions suit recurring problems that are not of too significant importance. It would be interesting to think about the programmed decisions that ours and other cultures have.

Economic Stimulus

Surfboard

Tailpad

American Gangster

programmed decisions