Vacant Mind

Advice from my Father November 6th, 2006

I have never been comfortable with this, I’m not sure why there is nothing wrong with what he is saying, I suppose that most of it is true but there is something about it which doesn’t sit quite right. I don’t think that I’m alone because most of my mates have said the same thing as well.

This is the first time that he has tried to give me ‘life advice’ the other times had always been school and friends stuff which is harmless but then we got to the sex talk….uncomfortable!

Everything he said just was really weird and disjointed I was more embarrassed for him rather than me, it’s actually quite funny now that I think of it how he decided to deliver his speech and mum for some reason thought that it was his job to do it rather than hers or both. From here it moved to relationship advice, marriage advice with the odd technical stuff thrown in for good measure to make sure I am enough of a man…roar!!
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Posted in Life, Personal, Relationships, Wondering Mind | No Comments »

Almost Done October 27th, 2006

I have finally had my last class today and now so begins that dreaded time of the year. End of year exams are different for two reason and so much more painful:

The spring racing carnival is everywhere at this time of the year and it’s annoying because I have always wanted to go but for the past 5 years exams have been on at the same time of the year. But if everything goes well this will be the last year that it can be shoved in my face and I can do nothing about it.

Summer, how we love summer and being at Uni doesn’t make a difference everything is so much better. Having to sit inside at a desk/computer and work instead of going outside just isn’t fair. This isn’t so much of a problem because with proper planning most of this can be avoided.

The finish line for this year is so close I can almost see it.
One more semester to go and I am finally done.

Posted in Life, Personal, University | No Comments »

Business Section October 22nd, 2006

Do any of you read/own business or entrepreneurial type books?
If you do what are they and did you find them useful?

Anyway I was in Angus & Robertson today and just strolling through as you normally do when I stopped at the business section to see what new releases where about, when I saw a book by Donald Trump and Robert Kiyosaki called Why We Want You to be Rich I gave a little laugh ( at the absurdity of it), and it was probably a little too loud because the lady who was standing next to me also noticed and commented on it.

We ended up having quite an interesting conversation about business and books and I later found out that she is in the business of helping people with theirs, I felt rather embarrassed recommending books to her when she was already well read on the subject.

I had always wanted to start a business but being a student and not having heaps of money doesn’t really help the situation. Most of the ideas haven’t been anything useful in the end. I don’t think that I would survive well running and IT company, running a take away pizza or buying into a franchise has crossed my mind. I have always been interested in investing, mainly the stock market but again needing a reserve of funds has stopped that going too far.

I left her because I had things to buy and places to be but it did get me thinking on a forgotten subject again which is good, and she had given me some tips on a few books that I could look into which I might pick up when I have some spare time. I have been meaning to look into buying some shares, I’m not going to go for the T3 offer but something else like Optus or something in the Health Care sector I think, but I would probably be after something that was safe rather than risky I know that being the age that I am I could go for something with more risk but I just don’t think that I have the money for it. Maybe when I get older.

So if you are here reading this…got any tips – books, stocks or otherwise?

Posted in Books, Finance, Life, Personal | 2 Comments »

Taking Photos October 20th, 2006

Have you ever thought that everyone is looking at you?
I know it’s stupid but I can’t help it, for some reason it’s a natural reaction for me most of the time for some s, granted I was doing something at the time.

I was in the city today taking photos, not for any great reason but I thought while I was there I might take a few for the photo-a-day experiment that I am trying to do, I was around the AXA building and there is a statue of John Batman which looked kinda interesting as I was walking past (at 7:30 am which is another story) and decided that it was a good chance to take a photo.

I pulled the camera (I carry it with me everywhere) out and looked around to see if anyone was watching or if there were a suitable number of cars going past so that no one would notice.
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Posted in Life, melbourne, Personal, Photography | No Comments »

Photo a Day October 19th, 2006

I wasn’t really a big photo taking person, but since going overseas and pretty much going nuts I am a little addicted to it. I now carry my camera everywhere in case there is a something unique or funny that I want to take a photo of.

But almost a year has past since I have come back and I don’t really have much to show for it (in terms of photos) I have have the odd batch here and there but nothing consistent. I have started a photoblog at least a couple of times but still can’t keep it going for very long.

I would like to think that the problem is that my weekly schedule doesn’t really allow me to see enough of the world to photograph. Money to Friday is Uni and work, which is mainly indoors and doesn’t provide much variety in terms of differing scenery. The weekends…well nothing happens on the weekends (which is another gripe of mine that I won’t go into)

I do try to keep my eyes on the web about how to become better at taking photos, ideas about what to take or even reviews on that Canon 350D that I desperately (but can’t justify) want – because I stupidly think that it will make me better or inspire me more. But then recently I stumbled across an interesting post.

Project 365

I wasn’t too sure about starting something like this, I mean I haven’t been very successful in the past with taking photos just randomly, but now that I have to will I be able to find something. But hey, what would it hurt…if I don’t do it or doesn’t work out nothing lost. If I do it and I do get something out of it…all the better.
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Posted in Life, Personal, Photography, Wondering Mind | No Comments »

I didn’t see them October 16th, 2006

So it’s about 9:30pm and I’m coming back from Uni, it’s been a shitty day nothing went right and the presentation didn’t go according to plan. I’m sitting at the lights and there is the 4WD drive behind me with it’s lights shinning in my eyes..not getting better.

The lights go green I decided “screw it” and punch the accelerator, I wait until the engine revs hard and change gear before I know it I’ve hit 70Km/h and I’m in 3rd so I keep going till I hit about 90km/h. The whole while there is this taxi oh my left hand side just sitting in my blind spot to just behind me, I’m thinking what the hell is he doing just sitting there he is either going to pass or drop off, but no. So I slow down and speed up and the distance remains the same.

So I forget about it and the adrenalin fades away as I pull up to the first red light in about 500 meters and suddenly realise as I look over that the car I thought was a taxi was in actually fact a police car.

So I begin to panic and think holy crap how come I didn’t get pulled over while I was going 10 15 km/h over the speed limit while a police car was behind me, how did she not know I was speeding.

After that faded away I started to just laugh at my good fortune.

Posted in Life, Personal | 2 Comments »

Dissemination of Parts October 14th, 2006

It is inevitable I suppose as you get older things start to change, you think differently, act differently your general tastes in various pursuits change as well. Parties are no longer an excuse to just get wasted, although I still do that now I try to do it somewhere nice or a pub that I haven’t been before and generally I don’t get as paralytic as I used to. Movies are seen in a different light as to before and they are more varied. It would only have been last year that I would have never considering going to see Macbeth (2006) but this time around it’s on the cards.

The changes that I have seen in myself I have also seen in my group of friends, as we have group we have always been good mates and I have no doubt that we always will be, but we have begun to separate and follow different paths. Read more..

Posted in Friends, Life, Personal, Relationships, Wondering Mind | No Comments »

My Web 2.0 Life October 4th, 2006

As I involve my self further and further into the Web 2.0 world I find that more of my life is going online, this blog is one example.
I started out reading other blogs, I suppose because I always thought that everyone had an interesting story to tell and I wanted to know about them, after a while I thought that I might give it a go so that I could have somewhere I could express thoughts and some motivation to go out and see the world (Melbourne) and report back. I am slowly finding more and more interest in blogging which in one way or another had lead me to other places online:

Flickr

Digg

coComment & commentful
last.fm

del.icio.us

scuttle

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Posted in Blogging, Computers, Geek, Internet, Life, Media, Technology | No Comments »

Halls Gap August 28th, 2006

Halls Gap

Took a weekend to go up the Halls Gap in the Grampians for a bit of time away. The drive wasn’t all that hard and roughly 3 hours out of Melbourne isn’t all that much to ask anyway. We did have a bit of trouble finding our way back to the M8 after we entered ballarat but that’s wasn’t too much of a drama.

I used to do a lot of bush walking back in high school and the Grampians was our place of choice, I’m not certain exactly why since there were other places we could have gone, the Dandenongs for one. But going back brought back quite a few good memories of the place and my time doing The Duke of Edinburgh Award.

We stayed at Gang Gang villas which was in our opinion absolutely excellent, the location is not too far out of the main halls gap town, has a very snug fireplace and layout, beds, cleanliness of the place were all top notch. Couldn’t recommend enough.

We did a few walks but because of the bush fires earlier this year most of the walking tracks are closed. But it was good to see a lot of the regrowth happening around the area.

Leading such a busy life I find it easy to forget the feeling of doing nothing and the sounds of silence, standing at the top of Mt William (not near the communications tower with the generator) and walking a little distance to the right of the lookout towards the edge I found total silence, I couldn’t even hear my own heart beat. It was for a single moment there was nothing and you were looking at absolutely everything that your eye could see, it may sound confusing to you but it was silence and peace to me at the same time and all together very relaxing.

Between climbing mountains or looking at the waterfalls we got to cook our own simple meals and just read, watch a bit of T.V (very little, Sunday night was the most) listen to music. I do feel a little guilty for going all that way and not experiencing more but it was jus so good to sit back and do nothing in particular, to wake up three days straight with an agenda for that day, nothing that had to be completed.

Although returning to Melbourne was a necessary evil the break made coping (for me) with the rest of the semester that little bit easier, but I guess that everything has a compromise, I am going to be be flat out this week with assignments which isn’t fun when you find yourself staying at Uni till 10pm at night 3 days a week.

Buy hey…that’s life.

Posted in Life, Nature, Personal | No Comments »

Uni Books July 27th, 2006

I hate the fact that when ever a new semester starts we are always expected to buy new sets of book, not because I am opposed to the unnecessary waste of text books when they could be used in electronic form. But because of the sometimes excessive cost of them. Most lectures know full well the cost of books and the fact that the vast majority of student enrolled and attending subjects are undergraduates which in most cases means that they are on tight budgets.

All four of my subjects require me to purchase text books that are $100 and above the most expensive being a double book reaching the $170 mark. So as a result this week I have been running around looking for second hand books for most of my subjects, so far I can only find one, I will soon try the other channels such as ebay and non-academic second hand book stores. This cost of text books pushes my start up costs for each semester up to about the $500 mark which can impact quite a bit on the back pocket and force me to be tight with money for the next couple of weeks until everything stabilise and debits are paid off.

I have been told and I have heard that there can be some influence as to which book is chosen to each subject because there are sometimes connections between the author, university, subject coordinator and lecturer making the book not always the correct choice for the students particularly if it ends up being rather expensive. I am unsure how true this is and there are cases where it could be legitimate but thinking back I could see this happening on occasion.

My other gripe is that for many of the subjects the books could just as easily be offered in electronic form. Many subjects only use sections, parts of the book or certain chapters it is a little bit of a waste when you consider that you paid $100 of the book and only using $50 worth. University libraries already pay large amounts of money to have digital libraries of books at their disposal for students to use, and in some cases when an electronic book has been accessed a number of times the paper/hard back version of the book is bought. This I see can have two effects for both students and the university; firstly the University will be able to better track it’s book inventory because it will see more accurately what students are reading and where the money should be spent, the second reason I can only speculate but considering that students might end up having more money (although we might pay more in uni fees each passing year) and therefore have a better University experience or even spend more money at Uni on other things.

Just on a side note, I have started to notice the cut backs that the VSU faced are coming through on higher fees for University activities. I guess that I’m just among the many disgruntled University students with no money.

Posted in Books, Life, University | 2 Comments »