Orbis non sufficit
Wednesday, March 22, 2006
Weird
Ok, last time I took the spark test I apparantly got MASTERMIND(SIAT), like Jason. However this time, I strangely got...
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You are an Administrator!
(Submissive Extroverted Concrete Thinker)
You are an ADMINISTRATOR (SECT)— detail-oriented and organized. You're an extrovert, but you lack the over-aggressive tendencies of obnoxious go-getters. Very nice. However, you probably like getting up in other people's business— living through them a little... dude, sometimes you just gotta let it ride. Don't be such a busy-body.
Anyway, you're an excellent manager, of both yourself and other people. That's because you prefer thinking concretely rather than creatively, and you'd rather follow what your mind tells you than your heart— people respect this, but it can make them mad when their appeals to love and kindness fall on deaf, deaf ears. Try to have a heart sometimes.
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Seems a little weird to me, on the myer-briggs tests I've gotten INTP and ENTJ at different times, usually with the I/E and P/J being almost 50:50 and the other two being really high, thus the duality I suppose. Doesn't quite seem the same as this test.
In other news I tutored a mature age student yesterday, whom steve was supposed to be tutoring but ended up bailing on. Works for me, scored $50 for two hours work. Could be a decent little income if it stays regular. Also I went and got a blood test for the army the other day, I was in and out really quickly, quite amazing. Fingers crossed that I haven't mysteriously contracted HIV somehow. Ok, time to go learn about PDE's. *exits south*
Ok, last time I took the spark test I apparantly got MASTERMIND(SIAT), like Jason. However this time, I strangely got...
-----------------
You are an Administrator!
(Submissive Extroverted Concrete Thinker)
You are an ADMINISTRATOR (SECT)— detail-oriented and organized. You're an extrovert, but you lack the over-aggressive tendencies of obnoxious go-getters. Very nice. However, you probably like getting up in other people's business— living through them a little... dude, sometimes you just gotta let it ride. Don't be such a busy-body.
Anyway, you're an excellent manager, of both yourself and other people. That's because you prefer thinking concretely rather than creatively, and you'd rather follow what your mind tells you than your heart— people respect this, but it can make them mad when their appeals to love and kindness fall on deaf, deaf ears. Try to have a heart sometimes.
-----------
Seems a little weird to me, on the myer-briggs tests I've gotten INTP and ENTJ at different times, usually with the I/E and P/J being almost 50:50 and the other two being really high, thus the duality I suppose. Doesn't quite seem the same as this test.
In other news I tutored a mature age student yesterday, whom steve was supposed to be tutoring but ended up bailing on. Works for me, scored $50 for two hours work. Could be a decent little income if it stays regular. Also I went and got a blood test for the army the other day, I was in and out really quickly, quite amazing. Fingers crossed that I haven't mysteriously contracted HIV somehow. Ok, time to go learn about PDE's. *exits south*
Thursday, March 16, 2006
Stupid Lunch
Ok this post was going to be a comment on steves blog, where he has a post about an old man and how he was once young and not a cripple. My comment was going to be about this being one reason I practice martial arts, in the form of the following annocdote:
On monday my karate sensei went to get some chinese natural medicine therapy, however it seems the guy he went to may have been an awesome master of it, rather than a lot of the people who do some short course in it and set up a business. This guy was an 87 year old chinese man. One of the first things he did was to hold sensei's wrist in a certain way and say "hmm, good heart", then move his hand a little bit "hmm, good liver, you'll live a long time". He had a student there too, who then held sensei's wrist, presumably trying to find the same things that his master had found, though clearly having difficulty. Anyway, after his treatment sensei talked to him a bit and then to his student, finding out the following things:
This guy is a martial arts master too, with super high ranks in so many martial arts that in Korea he was awarded 10th dan in "martial arts", in general. He's also a tai chi master and teaches martial arts and chinese medicine in conjunction, each supplementing each other. Apparantly he still throws people across the dojo during practice as well. Pretty good for an 87 year old.
Anyway, thats about where my story intersects with steves post, I'm just saying I'd like to be able to throw people across the training hall when I'm 87. The rest I just found to be cool, and good to know that there are still such people around. You can never be sure with people, some people just make crap up or have 10th dan in some crap easy-way style or something, but my sensei seemed to think this guy was the real deal.
Also, I'm considering stealing Steve's blackboard idea, it would be awesome-cool to have a big blackboard on my wall to do work on. Also it would be amusing to freak out people who come into my room with crazy equations and such. I have a pretty big wall opposite my bed, with a lot of space between my bookshelf and the door, if I move the cork board some other place. Having a big blackboard covering that from about waist height almost to the roof would just be classy. I wonder how I'd get it in there... probably have to have it in a couple of pieces. Steve says there's some kind of blackboard paint you use, we probably won't need a whole tin of it each, might be able to go halvsies or something. Unless it comes in a small tin. Would have to buy wood too... though painting straight onto the wall would be fun too :p.
Ok this post was going to be a comment on steves blog, where he has a post about an old man and how he was once young and not a cripple. My comment was going to be about this being one reason I practice martial arts, in the form of the following annocdote:
On monday my karate sensei went to get some chinese natural medicine therapy, however it seems the guy he went to may have been an awesome master of it, rather than a lot of the people who do some short course in it and set up a business. This guy was an 87 year old chinese man. One of the first things he did was to hold sensei's wrist in a certain way and say "hmm, good heart", then move his hand a little bit "hmm, good liver, you'll live a long time". He had a student there too, who then held sensei's wrist, presumably trying to find the same things that his master had found, though clearly having difficulty. Anyway, after his treatment sensei talked to him a bit and then to his student, finding out the following things:
This guy is a martial arts master too, with super high ranks in so many martial arts that in Korea he was awarded 10th dan in "martial arts", in general. He's also a tai chi master and teaches martial arts and chinese medicine in conjunction, each supplementing each other. Apparantly he still throws people across the dojo during practice as well. Pretty good for an 87 year old.
Anyway, thats about where my story intersects with steves post, I'm just saying I'd like to be able to throw people across the training hall when I'm 87. The rest I just found to be cool, and good to know that there are still such people around. You can never be sure with people, some people just make crap up or have 10th dan in some crap easy-way style or something, but my sensei seemed to think this guy was the real deal.
Also, I'm considering stealing Steve's blackboard idea, it would be awesome-cool to have a big blackboard on my wall to do work on. Also it would be amusing to freak out people who come into my room with crazy equations and such. I have a pretty big wall opposite my bed, with a lot of space between my bookshelf and the door, if I move the cork board some other place. Having a big blackboard covering that from about waist height almost to the roof would just be classy. I wonder how I'd get it in there... probably have to have it in a couple of pieces. Steve says there's some kind of blackboard paint you use, we probably won't need a whole tin of it each, might be able to go halvsies or something. Unless it comes in a small tin. Would have to buy wood too... though painting straight onto the wall would be fun too :p.
Tuesday, March 14, 2006
Strange World
Tis strange to think that while we sit here on our computers, thinking about work or school or whatever, that there are assorted people in various parts of the world shooting at each other for assorted complex (and some not so complex) reasons. You know that it's happening all the time, but somehow it doesn't seem very real, no matter how many movies you see. Reading descriptions of actual scenarios that have taken place in the recent past has made it somewhat more real for me, makes you realise how different things are in other parts of the world. I mean, these days it's easy to feel like the entire world is getting all modernised and commercialised and having all its moral values screwed up by TV and magazines and that one of the most common problems faced by people is dealing with middle-class mediocrity, but there are many places in the world where none of that exists. What's a little confusing is that sometimes I'm not sure which I'd prefer.
There needs to be a happy medium somewhere. Somewhere where our spirits are not constantly assaulted by the stupidities of modern living (yet we retain the conviniences and other things we like) but where we are also not getting shot at or our homes blown up because of racial/political/craziness or because people are so poor that they need to kill us for our food, or that we just simply starve because we have no food either. Asking too much?
Maybe that's part of why I'm trying to join the reserves, I think I'd like to see some of the fucked up-edness of the world for myself. Too bad that that can be dangerous. Meh, they wouldn't send me anywhere for a long time anyway.
Oh, I have been declared medically fit btw, means that I got my waive for being slightly more blind than they'd like and they'll let me join anyway, if I can pass the next part of my assessment. 29th of April I think it is, hopefully I'll be ready. I have to go have a blood test done before that though, to make sure I don't have HIV or HepB or any shit like that. Can't have your soldiers infecting each other and the medics when they go bleeding everywhere.
Tis strange to think that while we sit here on our computers, thinking about work or school or whatever, that there are assorted people in various parts of the world shooting at each other for assorted complex (and some not so complex) reasons. You know that it's happening all the time, but somehow it doesn't seem very real, no matter how many movies you see. Reading descriptions of actual scenarios that have taken place in the recent past has made it somewhat more real for me, makes you realise how different things are in other parts of the world. I mean, these days it's easy to feel like the entire world is getting all modernised and commercialised and having all its moral values screwed up by TV and magazines and that one of the most common problems faced by people is dealing with middle-class mediocrity, but there are many places in the world where none of that exists. What's a little confusing is that sometimes I'm not sure which I'd prefer.
There needs to be a happy medium somewhere. Somewhere where our spirits are not constantly assaulted by the stupidities of modern living (yet we retain the conviniences and other things we like) but where we are also not getting shot at or our homes blown up because of racial/political/craziness or because people are so poor that they need to kill us for our food, or that we just simply starve because we have no food either. Asking too much?
Maybe that's part of why I'm trying to join the reserves, I think I'd like to see some of the fucked up-edness of the world for myself. Too bad that that can be dangerous. Meh, they wouldn't send me anywhere for a long time anyway.
Oh, I have been declared medically fit btw, means that I got my waive for being slightly more blind than they'd like and they'll let me join anyway, if I can pass the next part of my assessment. 29th of April I think it is, hopefully I'll be ready. I have to go have a blood test done before that though, to make sure I don't have HIV or HepB or any shit like that. Can't have your soldiers infecting each other and the medics when they go bleeding everywhere.
Wednesday, March 01, 2006
Back at uni
So I'm back at uni now, it's been fairly decent so far. Today is my first really long day, I was falling asleep in physics already. Atm I'm in the comp labs waiting for wushu. There was an eng bbq today, that was pretty cool, ate about 4 sausages and 2 hamburgers. mmm. There's another bbq tomorrow night to welcome new members to the monash philharmoic orchestra (now including me every second week), and a wushu bbq next week (potential along with science and SPAM bbq's, according to the word on the wind).
A few of my classes are going to be fairly tricky (the special topic in maths and good ol physics, probably the PDE class too), though the eng stuff seems simple enough (engineering materials and engineering design). Design actually seems kind of interesting, we learn about how various things are manufactured and how to design them appropriately and such. It also has a project where you have to build a crazy robot contraption thingy to perform a set task (steve had this last year with a different task). It seems cool in concept but there's not a lot of time to do it so it might sort of suck because of that.
That's the project that would have been replaced by the Formula SAE car project, except it turns out that I can't do that coz I can't make the required time commitment to go to tafe and learning welding and machining. I want to learn that stuff but it requires 8 hours a week at frankston tafe, and I have classes in all the times they have allotted for it. Also they don't recommend you do it if you don't have a design subject next semester (coz the project goes for the whole year), which I don't, so damn. Maybe next year. I'll try and keep it in mind when I pick my subjects for next year so that I can try and make space for the tafe stuff. I might even be better off taking it easy and doing an extra year (rather than overloading as I currently will have to do) so that I have time for it. I dunno, i'll have to think about it. I currently have 3 units which aren't going to fit properly into my course, so I'll have to overload by one subject in 3 semesters to fit them in, which may cause horrible, horrible clashing. If I do an extra year then i'll have those 3 subjects for it and also an extra 5 spaces, so I could cut back by one unit in say 3 semesters and do 3 units per semester in my final year.
The suckage of that is that I would be here for 6 years doing my undergraduate degree, 7 if I do honours in science. I'll be an old man by the time I get free. I'd probably want to do something after that too, either a phd in science or a masters or whatever in engineering. Not sure how engineering phd's work. that'd put me at 10 years or so all up. So I'd be about 28 by the time I finished at university. If I decide to go with the engineering though I should probably go work in the industry and then come back and do postgrad stuff. I think that's the usual trend. Bah. I don't have to worry about that yet anyway, just gotta come up with a design for this contraption for now.
*Edit
Ok, turns out I miscounted, I'm doing 5 units this semester coz of the special maths topic, leaving only 2 extra units to jam in somewhere. Also the course adviser told me that I could probably work something out with them when the time came to fit everything in, like doing some of my final year project stuff over the holidays or something. As for the SAE team, I probably won't be doing that as my design project but I'm applying to join anyway. Hopefully I can be involved with it in some way, it's pretty freaking cool and good practice for designing and building things and being part of a team project. Maybe i'll get lucky and be able to some of the tafe stuff too; since I live in frankston and all I should be able to get there at times other people can't, even if I can't make the allocated times. Here's to hoping. It'd be good to at least be a bit involved with it this year, coz as I get into my 3rd and fourth year there are opportunities to be involved in more leadership roles with the thing, which I'm more likely to get to do if I have at least been part of it before, at least according to my theory. We'll see what happens
So I'm back at uni now, it's been fairly decent so far. Today is my first really long day, I was falling asleep in physics already. Atm I'm in the comp labs waiting for wushu. There was an eng bbq today, that was pretty cool, ate about 4 sausages and 2 hamburgers. mmm. There's another bbq tomorrow night to welcome new members to the monash philharmoic orchestra (now including me every second week), and a wushu bbq next week (potential along with science and SPAM bbq's, according to the word on the wind).
A few of my classes are going to be fairly tricky (the special topic in maths and good ol physics, probably the PDE class too), though the eng stuff seems simple enough (engineering materials and engineering design). Design actually seems kind of interesting, we learn about how various things are manufactured and how to design them appropriately and such. It also has a project where you have to build a crazy robot contraption thingy to perform a set task (steve had this last year with a different task). It seems cool in concept but there's not a lot of time to do it so it might sort of suck because of that.
That's the project that would have been replaced by the Formula SAE car project, except it turns out that I can't do that coz I can't make the required time commitment to go to tafe and learning welding and machining. I want to learn that stuff but it requires 8 hours a week at frankston tafe, and I have classes in all the times they have allotted for it. Also they don't recommend you do it if you don't have a design subject next semester (coz the project goes for the whole year), which I don't, so damn. Maybe next year. I'll try and keep it in mind when I pick my subjects for next year so that I can try and make space for the tafe stuff. I might even be better off taking it easy and doing an extra year (rather than overloading as I currently will have to do) so that I have time for it. I dunno, i'll have to think about it. I currently have 3 units which aren't going to fit properly into my course, so I'll have to overload by one subject in 3 semesters to fit them in, which may cause horrible, horrible clashing. If I do an extra year then i'll have those 3 subjects for it and also an extra 5 spaces, so I could cut back by one unit in say 3 semesters and do 3 units per semester in my final year.
The suckage of that is that I would be here for 6 years doing my undergraduate degree, 7 if I do honours in science. I'll be an old man by the time I get free. I'd probably want to do something after that too, either a phd in science or a masters or whatever in engineering. Not sure how engineering phd's work. that'd put me at 10 years or so all up. So I'd be about 28 by the time I finished at university. If I decide to go with the engineering though I should probably go work in the industry and then come back and do postgrad stuff. I think that's the usual trend. Bah. I don't have to worry about that yet anyway, just gotta come up with a design for this contraption for now.
*Edit
Ok, turns out I miscounted, I'm doing 5 units this semester coz of the special maths topic, leaving only 2 extra units to jam in somewhere. Also the course adviser told me that I could probably work something out with them when the time came to fit everything in, like doing some of my final year project stuff over the holidays or something. As for the SAE team, I probably won't be doing that as my design project but I'm applying to join anyway. Hopefully I can be involved with it in some way, it's pretty freaking cool and good practice for designing and building things and being part of a team project. Maybe i'll get lucky and be able to some of the tafe stuff too; since I live in frankston and all I should be able to get there at times other people can't, even if I can't make the allocated times. Here's to hoping. It'd be good to at least be a bit involved with it this year, coz as I get into my 3rd and fourth year there are opportunities to be involved in more leadership roles with the thing, which I'm more likely to get to do if I have at least been part of it before, at least according to my theory. We'll see what happens
