CUDOS Optical Switching Tutorial

Just got back from Coogee beach, Sydney, after a couple of days at the CUDOS Optical Switching tutorial. It was really interesting stuff! The majority of students there were physics students, but there were also a few electrical engineers. Quite a bit of the material was too in depth for me, since I had no previous experience with photonics, but there were also quite a few sessions on applications and integration which were right up my alley.

The schedule was fairly tight so I didn't manage to see much of Sydney, but I went into the city on Thursday night with a few other students and we spent some priceless time at the Oprah House bar enjoying the views of the house and the bridge.

Had some fun, made some friends, but now it's back to reality and my ever increasing pile of things that are due. Although I'm back in Sydney for the Google Australia Anita Borg retreat on the 11th of October so that'll be another fun weekend to ease the pain :)

2007 Google Anita Borg Scholarship

Just got the word that I'm an Anita Borg Scholarship finalist again this year! Currently awaiting an email back from Google for the date of my phone interviews which will determine the winner. Fingers crossed :)

I Always Wondered How Far I Ran

I just discovered the coolest feature on Google Maps that lets you plot a journey without snapping to the roads. I have two routes that I take depending on how nice the weather is, and depending on whether I feel like walking or running. I'd always wondered how far they were, and I estimated that my run was about 3k (it's actually just under) and I estimated that my walk was about 6k (it's actually WAY over haha). It tells you the distance of the route, and you can also save the routes so you can actually see my walk and my run! How cute!

The House feels more like Home

Matt's house is finally officially his, so we've been doing a lot of work lately cleaning and moving lots of things. It's been really tiring, but also really rewarding and every day it feels a bit more familiar and comfortable.

It hasn't quite sunk in yet that we have a house, and that we can choose where things go, and what to do and when. It's so cool! It's also fun to do stuff on our own, but we still need a lot of help from the parents when it comes to making new electrical sockets and antenna plugs etc. Yesterday we went shopping for a new shower head which we picked and installed in the big bathroom yesterday all by our selves! Ok this all might sound stupid to many people who have already lived on their own before, but this is the first time for me (and for Matt too).

Another thing we need to do is to start making friends with our neighbors, who all seem really sweet. One night when we arrived at the house, the couple next door was cleaning up our driveway! Another neighbor left us a welcome cake, which was delicious. We had our first guest over last night, Adam, who came over to watch the old Transformers movie (it gets more confusing every time). We still haven't stayed the night because we currently only have a king single as a bed, and plus my parent's house is only 5mins drive anyway.

In other news, the UEC (engineering) cocktail night was on Friday, and I went with a few uni friends. It's Simona's 30th birthday today and I'm just about to start getting ready to go to the bbq at her house. I also need to take Penny (my little mouse) to the vet to get her last installment of itchy cream (she was all itchy behind her ears, but she's almost better now). After a lot of thought, I've applied for vacation work at Nautronix in the hope to get some engineering experience with a company who cares about me. I decided to do this after looking through endless other job descriptions about equipment maintenance and installation, monitoring, writing user manuals, and other boring crap.

And that's about it for now! Oh I had an electromag theory test on Thursday (which went OKKKKK but we'll see), which ended in an interesting way. At the end of the test, everyone had to pass their tests to the end of the row. I was sitting next to Lara, and so Lara and I passed our tests to the guy sitting to the right of me. Lara and I started to talk about the test when I realised that I still had my equation sheet. As I turned to ask the guy at the end for my test back so I could slip my equation sheet back in, I noticed that he had his pen in his hand, and was busy copying the front page of my test onto his paper! Plagiarism at its best! We told the lecturer, but considering that the first page was only worth 3 marks out of the 60, I'm guessing it didn't help him much anyway.

More on the house later!

Vacation Work

The time has come to secure work for the summer vacation... and I'm completely lost. I went to the IEEE networking evening and that sort of made things worse. I realised that I have no idea what I want to end up doing after I finish my engineering degree.

Now I could always take the easy way out and go get some software work, since that's always easy to find, but I've already done plenty of software and really want to get some engineering done before I graduate. The problem is with engineering is that most of it in Perth is very evil. Companies that make ammunition and battleships littered the prospective employers at the networking night, and I'm pretty sure I don't want to be involved with stuff that kills people. Of course many will argue that it's defense and someone needs to do it, but still, I'd prefer it not to be me.

I'm quite interested in the water corporation and the Perth transport authority for these reasons, and I'm currently trying to find out more about what kind of work I'd be doing there. Although, I already know that the water corp pays about $17 an hour, which is pretty much what I'd be getting as a sales person at Tandy, so I guess you need to sacrifice money for morality - great :(

In other news, my car is back, and she's more beautiful than ever! I never realised how much I actually use my car until it was gone for a week and a half. They even vacuumed it for me, which was an unexpected nice suprise! Also, Simona and Chad and their baby Keanu are coming to Perth on the 25th, and Matt's getting the house on the 28th of August. It's Sim's birthday on the 29th and I have no idea what to get her. All this excitement does NOT bode well for my electromag theory test on the 30th...

Kymmy's Gone Again

Last night Kym went back to Ireland for two years :( She's going back to finish her (optometrist) degree, and will be back in Perth after she's done. Hopefully she'll make it back for Christmas as well.

Amy and I stopped by her house last night for some goodbye strawberry cheesecake (any excuse will do), and to see her off to the airport.

We'll miss you Kym! But we know you'll make us proud no matter where you are :)

Car Troubles

I thought I'd wait until it all got sorted out before I posted about my little car accident. I'm currently at uni waiting for Matt to pick me up (I caught a lift in with him since my car is in the shop), and so what better time to write about why that is.

I was in the engineering car park at around 11am. Circling around the pews slowly, I notice a car coming towards me in the opposite direction (in the other lane of course). As we approach each other, he starts to indicate, slows, and then stops. I didn't see the space he was indicating for but I guess it was behind him. I'm still driving forward slowly while he's stopped, which has been for a while now. At this point I'm next to him, when he starts to reverse, turn, and slowly hit the front-right of my car. He didn't actually notice this, and so I beeped my horn. So he stops, and then drives forward again, hitting me a second time (I'm pretty sure this is when my door got dented).

Two and a half weeks, two quotes, and a lot of heated discussion later, he finally came to his senses and wrote the cheque for the full amount (he originally only wanted to accept 80% of the blame for some reason). I guess I should be happy with the fact that this is my first car accident in the uni car parks which are packed with students, mostly P platers, desperately trying to find a spot that doesn't involve trekking for 20 minutes to class.

I get my car back on Friday which is nice and speedy.

My 21st Birthday

Last Saturday night I had a small gathering of family close friends to celebrate my 21st birthday (which is actually today)! It was a really fun night (or so I'm told, I was mostly too busy to notice!) and I'll never forget it :)

I decided to have my party at home this year, and keep it small since our house is spatially limited. My mum worked really hard and managed to turn the garage, which is usually so full of cars and other stuff that you can barely walk through it, into a gorgeous room which I personally thought looked like some sort of Arabian palace. We put some rugs down around the place, and Matt's parents lent me their plastic chairs, so together with a table overflowing with food, we had a nice little party happening :)

I really wanted it to be as fun and non-formal as possible, and so I refused to give/accept speeches/toasts, and insisted on having a pass the parcel and a Pinata to prove that I am NOT an adult no matter what number candle is on my birthday cake. Although I did go a bit far on the dress, but hey, I thought I'd push the boundaries of my usual style and take a risk. Everyone really enjoyed the games, especially the pass the parcel, and especially Stefan who hadn't ever played either game. The pass the parcel was played to Toop Toop by Cassius with me as the music stopper lady person, and Kym won the big prize which was a beer mug filled with chocolates and lollies.

I had the first go at the Pinata, and managed to hit it once (very weakly), and missed for both my other goes. When it was Ashvin's turn, I had to leave the garage to take a phone call from Matt's Nonna, and when I came back everyone was crawling on the floor. I assumed everyone had gone crazy, but then I noticed that there was chocolate everywhere and the Pinata was no longer hanging from the ceiling but was in pieces on the floor. I was really upset that I didn't get to see what happened until Matt came running up to me to show me the awesome shot he got just as the Pinata had smashed to pieces! So awesome.

Apart from that the night was pretty tame. By the end of it though people could barely move because of how much food there was. People had heaps to drink but I think it's virtually impossible to get drunk with the amount of food that was eaten. I forgot to mention to everyone that it is customary for my family to make food for 10x the actual number of people coming, and I probably should have mentioned that NOBODY can say no to my grandma when she's offering food. Seriously though... there were 4 cakes!

So all in all it was a great night with great memories that will last for ever :) I put up all the photos at my Flickr page including photos of the night and of the pressies, which were all really awesome (OMG I have Eva Unit 02 I can't get over it it's so awesome - thanks Matt!)

Turning 21 is funny - I don't FEEL any different, and nothing has actually changed, except for being able to legally drink in America (FINALLY just what I've always wanted). I guess I'm still stuck at thinking I'm 17, but that was a whole 4 years ago! Time didn't fly by or anything, in fact it's dragging it's ass with uni taking me so long, but I guess I always thought I'd feel mature and responsible at this age...

NOPE!

Flickering Screen

My MacBook goes in for repair tomorrow for the notorious flickering screen problem. I'll be without it for about 5 days grrrr so hopefully Winthrop Computers gets their act together and fixes it FAST!

What is it about my car that screams "Please Hit Me"

I'm currently in the middle of sorting out some damage done to my car in the uni parking lot last Thursday. I was in the car at the time when this guy swiped the front of my car while he was reversing into a parking bay. I went to the panel beater this morning, and he'll have a formal quote written up for me tomorrow, but he estimates around the $1000 mark. It's funny how much a couple of scratches and a dent can cost.

More details later when it's sorted out grrrrrr.