Hmm, not sure how I get myself into these messes.. but alas they happen, very frequently, it just seems to be 'my thing' to have the most unlikely, coincidental events to occur. I shall keep this one quick.
You may recall a mere 4 days ago I was a little down at how bad my luck seems to be lately, well this week adds 2 unlucky events to the list, although technically one of those eventually becomes mute... kind of. On the Tuesday just gone, the day that was pretty memorable on its own, I drove to Uni for a change because I was running late (I rarely drive). I arrive at Uni... had no change in my wallet so I couldn't by a parking ticket and not enough time to park at the free carpark (which has to be about 500m from the campus) so I risked it and parked in the ticket only spaces opting to put an old parking ticket (back from June 6th hehe) upside down on my dashboard in the hopes to fool any inspectors.
Well yeah... apparently the parking inspectors caught onto my foolproof scheme and booked me an impressive $72... sigh!
The next day was to be a very busy day. My plans were to spend all day at Uni, go home (by bus) around 4.30pm, get changed into gym clothes, drive Jade (my housemate) at myself back to Uni, meet my sister who goes to the same campus as me at 5pm so I could collect something off her and then arrive at Jade's and mines spin bike class session at 5.15pm. Easily doable, I've cut plans way closer then that before!
That idea didn't work out so well.
Along comes 4.20pm... whoops, better check what time the bus leaves to go home... damn, leaves at 4.22pm, that gives me two minutes! I can make it! I packed up my stuff, give a hurried goodbye to Lee, run down 3 flights of stares, across the campus oval, down an embankment, up the other side, across the road, up over a flower bed to see that the bus hadn't arrived... win! And as a side note, my fitness is definitely improving, I ran brilliantly ha!
Panting and staggering I slow down to a walk, do my standard 3 pocket hand tap (phone, keys, wallet)... hang on, wheres my phone? Check my other pockets... no phone. Damn, is it in my bag? Nope. Aww man, I must of left it on my desk!
Back I run over the flower bed, across the road, down the embankment, up the other side, across the campus oval, up 3 flights of stairs to arrive back at my office... to which it was not there. I had cargo pants on that day, an undesired conclusion was forming... it must of fallen out of my pocket whilst I was running... sigh.
By this stage it is about 4.35pm... my sister is going to be calling me at 5pm to try see where to meet up, and my housemate Jade is most likely going to catch the bus into Uni, thinking I had instead decided to just meet her there!
After about 10 laps of the oval, accusing 2 separate people of finding my phone that turned out to be their own phones and many sighs, I couldn't find it anywhere. Luckily Lee was still around so I used his phone to get into contact with my sister so she can drive me home. Quite a debacle indeed... luckily I was able to log onto Facebook and Jade was online so I could tell her the situation and warn her not to come by bus.
Upon my sister and myself walking towards her car however (after a few more unsuccessful searches of the oval)... her phone rings, it was me! Well, my phone =P
"Hey, yeah ummm I found your phone on the oval" said the girl on the line.
"Oh that's way awesome!"
"Yeah haha, so, what do you want me to do with it?"
Now, I guess I have a slightly negative view of humanity at times, because I said this. "Oh.. well, could I have it back please?" As if to imply that she was going to keep it ha?
She cracked up laughing "Haha of course you can!"
She gave me her address and my sister drove me over... I was in a hurry so regrettably only gave a very brief hi and thank you (sigh... should of started a convo...). We raced home, I got changed and Jade and I decided to do the 6pm boxing class instead, so everything worked out in the end I guess!
But yeah... what a ridiculously crazy hour...
I am about to head out now to a party right this minute, I was thinking of stopping by her house and dropping off some chocolates or something to say thanks. Not creepy, is it? lol.
The hilarious thing was, when I turned my phone on the next morning, there appeared a picture of her and her friend set as my phones background haha! That was definitely epic to say the least =D
11 September 2010
08 September 2010
Well, that was eventful
Today at Uni there was an I.T event that has been planned for quite some time now... it didn't quite turn out as expected. Kids from the surrounding high schools came to my University to see presentation and speeches from professionals, academic staff, career advisers and past degree graduates to promote careers in I.T. A pretty standard event for me now as this year especially I have been apart of countless events, seminars, presentations and the like, most of which are not blog worthy. However, this day was quite eventful to say the least.
Each presenter had 8 minutes to speak, most of them were terribly boring but there were a few highlights at least. My job for the day originally was to give a speech of my own and after wards I would be demonstrating a video game that I made last year as part of my final year project, with the aim being to show the kids what can be achieved at University, that I.T isn't always just computer code and can actually be fun etc.
Typically so I hadn't planned my speech what so ever and instead whilst the other presenters were speaking I wrote my speech on my hand ha!
Half way through the event I was standing next to the main organizer and I asked him when it was my turn to talk, to which he replied that I was not needed (the event was badly organized)... oh well, I had never spoken in front of 70 people before which was a little nerve shattering and now I didn't have to, sweet. Looking down at the blue ink on my hand that represented my 'presentation' didn't really seem very speech worthy anyways ha.
The presenters rolled by (some painfully so...) until we reached a particular speaker by the name of... we'll call him Dom. Now Dom was a past student at a local Tafe in my area who was completing an I.T degree and was going to talk about his experiences and so on. It started out ordinarily enough:
"Hey guys, yep I'm Dom, I am from the local Tafe. My current degree I thought was..."
...
"...Sorry guys, jumped ahead of my self a bit there. Anyways, my degree is all about..."
...
"...Sorry, hang on... yeah, sorry I am just a bit nervous." *takes a few deep breaths*
...
"Ok, where was I? Ok, so. Yes, so my course... it... sorry guys I'm too nervous, I am going to have to cancel, sorry guys."
And he walks out of the room!
Now, I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand it was pretty funny, you just don't see people walk out during a presentation like that very often! Although to be fair, I know exactly how he feels, talking in front of a large audience can indeed be frightening to the point of panic attacks, it was only at that moment I realized I had never spoken in front of that many people before so in a way I am not entitled to laugh. A small sigh of relief escaped me at the thought that, as excited as I originally was about doing a speech it was kind of nice to know I no longer had to.
That dream however lasted about 5 seconds until the main event organizer turns to me and says "hmm, well, that was odd. Do you think you could give a speech now?"
I looked at speech written on the palm on my left hand... which made the situation worst ha. I had come in with the mindset that I was going to give a speech anyways, might as well roll with it!
"Sure" I replied.
The next presenter was absolutely awesome and really woke the audience up, during which terrible thoughts were forming where I too would get to nervous and would have to walk out of the room. Imagine how bad that would look, two presenters at the same event leaving! After the great speech by the current presenter... next was me. Yikes! The organizer introduced me... I took the microphone, stood in front of the podium, put my left hand out in front of me to read from...
... and rambled some of the best rambling I have ever done in my life!
Well, apparently anyways. When I re-run the speech in my mind it seems jumbled, confusing and pretty roundabout... however Sophie (my Honours supervisor), Lee (my fellow I.T Honours student at Uni) as well as the events organizer said it was absolutely brilliant. Win! I guess =P
It wasn't until many hours later that I realized what an achievement it was (hence the reason for this post). Previously before today I had only spoken to about 20 people at most... that being last year... which went terribly. And not just terribly, I am talking really bad. Cringe worthy. Anyways. This year I have progressed so much, you can see from my blog posts in the last few months the continued growth I seem to be achieving this year, constantly accomplishing things that I would never have been able to do even 12 months ago.
It was just nice to be able to add another achievement to my forever expanding list. It makes me proud of myself, as well as excited for what more increasingly challenging tasks the future has in store for me.
Bring it on I think sums it up nicely =)
Each presenter had 8 minutes to speak, most of them were terribly boring but there were a few highlights at least. My job for the day originally was to give a speech of my own and after wards I would be demonstrating a video game that I made last year as part of my final year project, with the aim being to show the kids what can be achieved at University, that I.T isn't always just computer code and can actually be fun etc.
Typically so I hadn't planned my speech what so ever and instead whilst the other presenters were speaking I wrote my speech on my hand ha!
Half way through the event I was standing next to the main organizer and I asked him when it was my turn to talk, to which he replied that I was not needed (the event was badly organized)... oh well, I had never spoken in front of 70 people before which was a little nerve shattering and now I didn't have to, sweet. Looking down at the blue ink on my hand that represented my 'presentation' didn't really seem very speech worthy anyways ha.
The presenters rolled by (some painfully so...) until we reached a particular speaker by the name of... we'll call him Dom. Now Dom was a past student at a local Tafe in my area who was completing an I.T degree and was going to talk about his experiences and so on. It started out ordinarily enough:
"Hey guys, yep I'm Dom, I am from the local Tafe. My current degree I thought was..."
...
"...Sorry guys, jumped ahead of my self a bit there. Anyways, my degree is all about..."
...
"...Sorry, hang on... yeah, sorry I am just a bit nervous." *takes a few deep breaths*
...
"Ok, where was I? Ok, so. Yes, so my course... it... sorry guys I'm too nervous, I am going to have to cancel, sorry guys."
And he walks out of the room!
Now, I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand it was pretty funny, you just don't see people walk out during a presentation like that very often! Although to be fair, I know exactly how he feels, talking in front of a large audience can indeed be frightening to the point of panic attacks, it was only at that moment I realized I had never spoken in front of that many people before so in a way I am not entitled to laugh. A small sigh of relief escaped me at the thought that, as excited as I originally was about doing a speech it was kind of nice to know I no longer had to.
That dream however lasted about 5 seconds until the main event organizer turns to me and says "hmm, well, that was odd. Do you think you could give a speech now?"
I looked at speech written on the palm on my left hand... which made the situation worst ha. I had come in with the mindset that I was going to give a speech anyways, might as well roll with it!
"Sure" I replied.
The next presenter was absolutely awesome and really woke the audience up, during which terrible thoughts were forming where I too would get to nervous and would have to walk out of the room. Imagine how bad that would look, two presenters at the same event leaving! After the great speech by the current presenter... next was me. Yikes! The organizer introduced me... I took the microphone, stood in front of the podium, put my left hand out in front of me to read from...
... and rambled some of the best rambling I have ever done in my life!
Well, apparently anyways. When I re-run the speech in my mind it seems jumbled, confusing and pretty roundabout... however Sophie (my Honours supervisor), Lee (my fellow I.T Honours student at Uni) as well as the events organizer said it was absolutely brilliant. Win! I guess =P
It wasn't until many hours later that I realized what an achievement it was (hence the reason for this post). Previously before today I had only spoken to about 20 people at most... that being last year... which went terribly. And not just terribly, I am talking really bad. Cringe worthy. Anyways. This year I have progressed so much, you can see from my blog posts in the last few months the continued growth I seem to be achieving this year, constantly accomplishing things that I would never have been able to do even 12 months ago.
It was just nice to be able to add another achievement to my forever expanding list. It makes me proud of myself, as well as excited for what more increasingly challenging tasks the future has in store for me.
Bring it on I think sums it up nicely =)
05 September 2010
Luck for sale?
Please note that this post is not written for sympathy, it is written purely for myself so I don't explode =)
My Honours study is coming close to an end with a mere 7 weeks left before my Thesis is due on October 22nd... and how much have I written so far? About 500 words... sigh. I'll get it done though, I am strangely calm about the whole process (ignorantly so perhaps?). My research went very well and I have some great results to go off, it is just the process of sitting down and actually writing the words is where I seem to lack any shred of motivation.
That however is not the pain of my existence at this taxing, hectic and essentially life defining moment of my life. Uni work I can deal with, the trouble is trying to deal with it whilst having to deal with 10 other, often times completely unnecessary, events concurrently.
It's funny actually because I was thinking about these things just last night while driving home from my parents house... it wasn't until today that everything pushed me over the edge (hence this post, figured I should write it down instead of bottling it all up inside).
My unlucky list:
1. Broke my iPod... yay. Well it wasn't even mine to begin with actually as my awesome friend Sabrina lent it to me (about 8 months ago haha), but having music with me wherever I go is pretty much mandatory these days. So yes, currently in the process of acquiring another...
2. Problem #1 is related to problem #2... because I have so much work to do at University I have cut my days at work down to a mere 2 days a week. This means a massive slash to my weekly pay check, couple that with the expenses of living out of home and I am on a very tight budget... ($25 in my bank account at this very moment hehe). Just more drama to deal with.
3. For anyone who knows me personally will know that my laptop is one of my most prized possessions... if I could marry it I would =P. I bought it 2 years ago for a hefty $3,300... which yes I know is an insane amount of money but its purchase is justified. It has served me exceptionally well... until the other day. I reinstalled my operating system for a fresh start and now, for absolutely no reason, all my video games stutter. My favourite and most effective stress relief hobby is now in peril =(
Being in I.T I know what I am doing with computers but this one just has me stumped... I just don't have the time nor the patience right now to deal with it meaning I will have to wait quite a while before I can start playing games again. Ouch.
4. Thus we arrive at today where everything got a little too much...
I really love my job, I have some awesome friends there, the environment is relaxed and friendly, the work is challenging and rewarding. My current project however is absolutely ridiculous... it is overly complicated, large and the documentation I need to follow is beyond useless. Couple that with the fact that I only work twice a week now means I am making little to no progress, obviously making me look bad...
My supervisor comes around expecting some progress and I have literally nothing new to show. It is just annoying because the documentation I need to read so I can understand how I am meant to complete my task I swear was written by Russians or something, it makes no sense. I spend hours on Google but that just seems to create more questions rather than answers... sigh. I know I won't get fired or anything but still, I just hate having even more stress to combat.
Sigh.
Troubling times, hoping it turns around soon. I guess I am just in one of those moods where it seems like everything that can go wrong, will. It will pass at least I know.
As a side note as I sit here writing this post... where is our summer weather!? Winter (in Australia) has passed... yet just when it starts to warm up we have just experienced our biggest floods in 15 years.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)