Vacant Mind

Wedges, Salad, Dinner and Pancakes July 24th, 2006

Different people from different times in my past represent different sides of me with each of them I was a different person and it is only now considering how much time has passed that I can see how different I was back in those days and how much I possibly haven’t changed.

Wedges are a couple of people I used to work with at my first place of employment, after so long it took a little time to relate to them again, we were able to talk for a good little while but after a little bit of time I could feel that sense of ‘running out of conversation’ it’s probably going to be one of those things where we will see each other every so often but not a great deal. No matter what I thought of the night it was good to see them again and we left quite amicable, I vow to email them as often as possible.

Pancakes is another former work college, one which I had a good relationship with and continue to do so, although when we worked it was more party and fun, now it’s slightly more serious and deep. I’m not certain which I prefer more, I had learnt a lot about myself and had heaps of fun in the early days but now that relationship had developed into something that I also enjoy immensely, I now notice how we have changed in the few short years that we have known each other even the past 6 months there as been a noticeable change, mostly for the better. Pancakes were each others rock in the ocean when we were going through personal problems and in a way we still are they are just different problems. I am just uncertain how I am seen by this person, I wish I was more but less, either way I know that we value each other and that’s what counts. I vow regular face to face contact, email contact and the occasionally drunken party.
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Posted in Friends, Life, Personal, Relationships | 3 Comments »

One Sided Romance July 23rd, 2006

I suppose that relationships (platonic or romantic) are very often a two way street where there is a lot of give and take and compromise, but in most cases (in my experience) there is always one who fights harder than the other, one who will give up or do more than the other.

Why?

So that one can feel better about themselves, because the other is insecure. Or is it just personality, that could be why they are a match, once chases the other allows the chase, like a plug fitting in a socket.

Personally I hate being the one to make all the phone calls having to do the run around. It makes you feel unwanted, sometimes used but most of the time, and worst of all, unsure about the relationship. I am not insecure about myself or my feelings I am very certain, and emotionally stable, which is probably my downfall, its the reason that I keep making those calls against my better judgement or is it my eternal curiosity, I haven’t figured out which yet.

Eventually one person will stop, one will have enough of the chase when they realise that they were chasing nothing at all.
But how do you tell when the same person is consistently nice to you, how to do you see through the smoke screen, I certainly can’t which is why chasing ghosts is such a sport for me, it’s shame because I have lost too many friends that way too. How do I know if someone likes me, platonic of course, is there a way to tell or is verbal conformation that only way?

I was told by a friend that it is a natural occurrence in the context of relationships for people to be followers and gathers, there are those among us who are magnets for people, you naturally gravitate towards them, there is something about them that facilitate
conversation and social scenes, I have seen this and I’m a little annoyed by it mainly because I’m a chaser.

I am probably too harsh, if they don’t show the same amount of enthusiasm that I show I tend to give up on them, but why, could it just be me and the way that I interact with people, of course I speak only of a handful of people that I know, most are not like this and I enjoy their company and I have certainty that they enjoy mine. It is always that 1% that makes the difference, that gets you wondering as you walk home “wow that was a great night, buy why is it always me that makes the contact, if they are not interested why not just say no to coffee?”

I’m not a fan of the one sided romance.

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

The Only Downside July 19th, 2006

I love where I work, and I think that it’s the one of the best industries to be in, there is always something exciting around the next corner or coming up, each day there is something different and I am able to consistanly challenge myself with new problems or solving odd situations.

But the only thing that I do hate about my job is the fact that I am always waiting for computers, being an IT tech means being at the mercy of computing power. I always seem to get caught in the moment where the computer is doing something and I’m waiting, essentially looking like I’m doing nothing but really doing something.

Anything from installs to reboots can take time up which makes the job seem like it takes longer than it should and sometimes unjustifable because it did take so long even though you are working the whole time. A lot of the job is troubleshooting, when something goes wrong you have to know what to look for and testing takes time, for me it’s rather annoying because it feels like it should take less time but doesn’t. Searching for solutions to see if anyone else has had the same problem either finding the solution or not finding it.

Considering all this as far as downsides go it’s pretty minor, I wonder if other people have the same thoughts or situations?

Posted in Computers, Life, Technology, Work | 4 Comments »

Are we still friends? July 6th, 2006

This seems to be a reoccurring theme when I catch up with my old work friends, and I’m not too sure what to do about it, they are great people but I don’t seem to have kept in contact with them but the door swings both ways I haven’t had any contact what so every from them either – and now here is the problem.

Those that I have kept in contact with they have invited me out, and I’m glad to go, but those that haven’t talked to me, or I to them they don’t seem to like me so I’m a little hesitant to head out, considering that the night will involve alcohol and partying which could mean that I will end up a little worse for wear.

I don’t know if I am better off having individual catch up sessions with only the people that I like instead of seeing those that I both like and dislike and throw caution to the wind and hope that nothing too bad happens.

As I don’t really have a choice I guess that I will go along and hopefully it will turn out alright. My other decision that I have to make would be to decide if I should drive or not, driving affords me the possibly of getting home easily while spending less money on drinks, but it could mean that I won’t be drinking, duh!

But drinking has that same ups and downs, I might not find easy transport home, but I could have slightly more fun and on top of that I haven’t had a decent night out with on the grog in quite a while.

As with most things I guess that I’ll just make my decision at the last minute.

Posted in Life, Personal, Relationships | No Comments »

Ethical Robots June 22nd, 2006

I have just finished a semester doing a subject called ‘Professional Issues in Information Technology‘ which I found immensely fascinating and out of curiosity and a break from exam study I started looking up some topics relating to it on the Internet and I came across this article:
No sex please, robot, just clean the floor

I’ll just mention a few good quotes here:

“We have to manage the ethics of the scientists making the robots and the artificial ethics inside the robots.”

…identified key areas that include: ensuring human control of robots; preventing illegal use; protecting data acquired by robots; and establishing clear identification and traceability of the machines.

“Scientists must start analysing these kinds of questions and seeing if laws or regulations are needed to protect the citizen,” said Verruggio. “Robots will develop strong intelligence, and in some ways it will be better than human intelligence.

How far should robots be allowed to influence people’s lives? How can accidents be avoided? Can deliberate harm be prevented? And what happens if robots turn out to be sexy? “The question is what authority are we going to delegate to these machines?” said Professor Ronald Arkin, a roboticist at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta. “Are we, for example, going to give robots the ability to execute lethal force, or any force, like crowd control?”

The whole idea is that there will be a team drawing up a code of ethics for both robots/AI and the scientists who create them.

I totally agree with the article above but there are few things that got me thinking that I want to elaborate on.
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Posted in Future, Geek, International, Life, Nature, Technology | 1 Comment »

Beard June 5th, 2006

It’s exam time and as a result I have time off work and just about everything else, so I’m not going out, not shopping, not working, I’m not doing anything but staying at home studying, maybe going into uni and possibly going to the gym to kill the monotony. As a result I have decided that I don’t want to shave it’s not a protest I’m not trying to say something, it’s just me being lazy.

I admit that it’s not the best look that I’ve ever had, it’s probably up there with those bad mambo t-shits way back when but hey, I don’t care. The girlfriend has decided that I look like crap and proceeded to tell me so, normally when this sort of thing happens I usually give in because I don’t really want it anyway and I was just experimenting, but this time I truly didn’t care and didn’t want to shave because I wanted to see what I would look like after a month of not pruning my facial hairs.

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Posted in Life, Personal | 1 Comment »