Orbis non sufficit
Thursday, November 30, 2006
Mahahaha
Ahh, the art of cramming. How I love you so.
So, I got my results just now. Scored myself a 94, my highest this semester by the way, for Aircraft Structures, my most hated of subjucts, the one in which I fell asleep often, didn't go to many tutorials for and didn't really know much about before my two days of studying before the exam. In fairness I did learn quite a bit in those two days and decided that the subject wasn't so bad, it was just my lecturer who was a bit crap. Still, the fact the it was my highest score is kind of funny. I'm thinking there must have been some scaling involved or something, since I don't think I even did 94% of the course let alone get that much of it correct. Although I think the exam was worth about 80% so if I aced that I suppose its possible without scaling. Hmm. The other scores were HD's too if you were wondering, second highest was particle physics with 91, which I'm particularly happy about because I actually cared about and liked that subject. Still don't feel like I know it well enough to be worth that score. Funny how that works.
Err, I was planning to talk about other things so I'll get to that. Firstly, been moving shitloads of stuff out of my house for the last few days; its been rather tiring. In addition I've been getting myself in gear for my recruit training course for Army which I head off on on Friday, which has added to my stress levels. Also the house still has a fair bit of junk in it which I have to move out tomorrow myself, as my dad has to work. He's here now at this silly time of the morning packing what is hopefully the last of the stuff we're keeping into his car, so theoretically I can dump whatever is left. It will still take a while though, probably won't be going to wushu or orchestra tomorrow. Ahh wushu, its been a while now. So hard to get around to everything these days. On that note, I saw Ruthy on friday and sunday, for those of you who don't know her she went to school with us and played cello in a quintet with Nat, Meg, Candice and I. We all went to Japan together. Anyway I hadn't seen her since year 11 and she was always one of my favourite people so it was really good to see her again. I didn't hear her play but somehow I was inspired to become a good viola player anyway, so I'm going to try and put a bit more effort into that, actually practice some technical stuff, or even just practice. I kind of miss her already actually, I'll have to make an effort to go up (she lives in woolongong, someplace near sydney) and say hi sometime.
Where was I? Oh yes, amongst the junk that is my house I have discovered some rather valuable items. Not the monetary kind of value (scott), but things I feel I must preserve for future generations, or something. Firstly, there is a Readers Digest Great World Atlas, from 197*something* which is rather old looking but is quite a beautiful old book, with some really great pictures of the landscape of the Earth, as well as a whole lot of extra stuff at the back of it, info about evolution and the variety of species on the planet and our place in the universe. It also has a really nice passage in the front of the book, I can't remember how it goes but I'll publish it later.
Item number two is a whole selection of original newspaper clippings from the space race in the 60's, mostly from The Age I think, including the moon landing and some other rather important events. One of my favourite is the clipping that has as its main picture the famous earthrise as seen from the moon, the first picture ever taken of that particular sight. It has some very poignant words about how 'mankind has waited thousands of years to see this sight' or some such. Anyway, these things are all just mashed between two pieces of cardboard, not very fitting I feel, so after I come back from my recruit training -if I have a house by then- I plan to buy a rather large picture frame and create a big collage from these clippings, or possibly several collages, so that they can be properly preserved and displayed for all to read. These clippings represent some of the most profound events in history and I would like to read the articles properly sometime, and having them on display will allow others to read them too. Plus they'll make a much classier wall hanging than most people have in their homes.
Ok bed time, my lappy says its 7.54 am on the 6th of november, however as this is clearly not the case I'm going to guess its about 2 am, and I'm tired.
Ahh, the art of cramming. How I love you so.
So, I got my results just now. Scored myself a 94, my highest this semester by the way, for Aircraft Structures, my most hated of subjucts, the one in which I fell asleep often, didn't go to many tutorials for and didn't really know much about before my two days of studying before the exam. In fairness I did learn quite a bit in those two days and decided that the subject wasn't so bad, it was just my lecturer who was a bit crap. Still, the fact the it was my highest score is kind of funny. I'm thinking there must have been some scaling involved or something, since I don't think I even did 94% of the course let alone get that much of it correct. Although I think the exam was worth about 80% so if I aced that I suppose its possible without scaling. Hmm. The other scores were HD's too if you were wondering, second highest was particle physics with 91, which I'm particularly happy about because I actually cared about and liked that subject. Still don't feel like I know it well enough to be worth that score. Funny how that works.
Err, I was planning to talk about other things so I'll get to that. Firstly, been moving shitloads of stuff out of my house for the last few days; its been rather tiring. In addition I've been getting myself in gear for my recruit training course for Army which I head off on on Friday, which has added to my stress levels. Also the house still has a fair bit of junk in it which I have to move out tomorrow myself, as my dad has to work. He's here now at this silly time of the morning packing what is hopefully the last of the stuff we're keeping into his car, so theoretically I can dump whatever is left. It will still take a while though, probably won't be going to wushu or orchestra tomorrow. Ahh wushu, its been a while now. So hard to get around to everything these days. On that note, I saw Ruthy on friday and sunday, for those of you who don't know her she went to school with us and played cello in a quintet with Nat, Meg, Candice and I. We all went to Japan together. Anyway I hadn't seen her since year 11 and she was always one of my favourite people so it was really good to see her again. I didn't hear her play but somehow I was inspired to become a good viola player anyway, so I'm going to try and put a bit more effort into that, actually practice some technical stuff, or even just practice. I kind of miss her already actually, I'll have to make an effort to go up (she lives in woolongong, someplace near sydney) and say hi sometime.
Where was I? Oh yes, amongst the junk that is my house I have discovered some rather valuable items. Not the monetary kind of value (scott), but things I feel I must preserve for future generations, or something. Firstly, there is a Readers Digest Great World Atlas, from 197*something* which is rather old looking but is quite a beautiful old book, with some really great pictures of the landscape of the Earth, as well as a whole lot of extra stuff at the back of it, info about evolution and the variety of species on the planet and our place in the universe. It also has a really nice passage in the front of the book, I can't remember how it goes but I'll publish it later.
Item number two is a whole selection of original newspaper clippings from the space race in the 60's, mostly from The Age I think, including the moon landing and some other rather important events. One of my favourite is the clipping that has as its main picture the famous earthrise as seen from the moon, the first picture ever taken of that particular sight. It has some very poignant words about how 'mankind has waited thousands of years to see this sight' or some such. Anyway, these things are all just mashed between two pieces of cardboard, not very fitting I feel, so after I come back from my recruit training -if I have a house by then- I plan to buy a rather large picture frame and create a big collage from these clippings, or possibly several collages, so that they can be properly preserved and displayed for all to read. These clippings represent some of the most profound events in history and I would like to read the articles properly sometime, and having them on display will allow others to read them too. Plus they'll make a much classier wall hanging than most people have in their homes.
Ok bed time, my lappy says its 7.54 am on the 6th of november, however as this is clearly not the case I'm going to guess its about 2 am, and I'm tired.
Monday, November 13, 2006
Albury Seminar 2006
Well I'm not really going to say too much about this but it was an awesome trip and its existence needs to be acknowledged in my blog. It's difficult to explain what I learned from it -aside from the actual techniques and such, which weren't the important part really- so I won't bother too much. I feel somewhat enlightened by the experience though, and I find myself noticing the potential 'kung fu' in everything more than before. It was quite awesome seeing the grand master demonstrating the various techniques and everything. It's not so much that you watched him and thought "wow, I'd be so dead if I was on the end of that", since I don't really think he went all out at any time when I was watching, but the skill and perfection with which he executed everything was inspiring. Also the speed. Especially since he made it look so easy, like anyone should be able to do it, no problems. Then remember that he's 64 or so. And having said that, those techniques may not kill you but they'd mess you up pretty bad.
It was good seeing the people from the other Victorian dojos too, good to train with a whole heap of people who you've never met before but have been on a similar path to you. Played some basketball with some of the younger people from another dojo, man I suck at shooting. I need to develop more kung fu in that area. It was fun though, must play more basketball.
I was considering the evolution of the human race before. Say for instance that we are moving towards eventually being of pretty much transcendant intellectual ability, say with everyone having savant abilities and high IQs to go along with it. Could we also be moving towards everyone being perfectly physically in tune with themselves and their surroundings too? Ie, having having extreme skill and grace in everything? This could have a savant component to it, but harmonious muscles are also needed. But then I wonder if this would be a good thing. It would seem to be totally un-kungfu, since kung fu requires motivation, discipline and especially time. I believe a decent short translation is something like "achievement through great effort" or simply "virtue". If there is no effort, there is no kung fu, clearly nothing is learned from being preternaturally skillful. Perhaps the same can be said of all savant abilities, though clearly some of the things those autistic people can do could never be done by a normal person no matter how many years they practised for. So if we aren't headed for these things, where are we headed?
Well I'm not really going to say too much about this but it was an awesome trip and its existence needs to be acknowledged in my blog. It's difficult to explain what I learned from it -aside from the actual techniques and such, which weren't the important part really- so I won't bother too much. I feel somewhat enlightened by the experience though, and I find myself noticing the potential 'kung fu' in everything more than before. It was quite awesome seeing the grand master demonstrating the various techniques and everything. It's not so much that you watched him and thought "wow, I'd be so dead if I was on the end of that", since I don't really think he went all out at any time when I was watching, but the skill and perfection with which he executed everything was inspiring. Also the speed. Especially since he made it look so easy, like anyone should be able to do it, no problems. Then remember that he's 64 or so. And having said that, those techniques may not kill you but they'd mess you up pretty bad.
It was good seeing the people from the other Victorian dojos too, good to train with a whole heap of people who you've never met before but have been on a similar path to you. Played some basketball with some of the younger people from another dojo, man I suck at shooting. I need to develop more kung fu in that area. It was fun though, must play more basketball.
I was considering the evolution of the human race before. Say for instance that we are moving towards eventually being of pretty much transcendant intellectual ability, say with everyone having savant abilities and high IQs to go along with it. Could we also be moving towards everyone being perfectly physically in tune with themselves and their surroundings too? Ie, having having extreme skill and grace in everything? This could have a savant component to it, but harmonious muscles are also needed. But then I wonder if this would be a good thing. It would seem to be totally un-kungfu, since kung fu requires motivation, discipline and especially time. I believe a decent short translation is something like "achievement through great effort" or simply "virtue". If there is no effort, there is no kung fu, clearly nothing is learned from being preternaturally skillful. Perhaps the same can be said of all savant abilities, though clearly some of the things those autistic people can do could never be done by a normal person no matter how many years they practised for. So if we aren't headed for these things, where are we headed?
Sunday, November 12, 2006
Childhood was cool
Entry from the journal of Ben Farmer, 24/10/1994
Ahh, grade 3 was fun.
Entry from the journal of Ben Farmer, 24/10/1994
Yesterday I took the 9V batterie out of my remote control and put it in my lego 9V lights. Then I put two red things over each light. Then I got my lego board out and I put the lights on it. Then I made boom gates, cars and a railway track. I also made a train and motorbikes. Then I played a game and made a motorbike stop on the train track. I made the boom gates close and I made a train come and it ran over the man and his motorbike. Then his bike went down a drain and he had to walk back to get another bike. Then I made him get run over again.
Ahh, grade 3 was fun.
