Transporting Wastewater at UWA

I'm doing a unit called Engineering for Sustainable Development, which is in fact a mechanical unit, but I had to do it anyway due to timetable issues. It's one of those fluffy units that's not very well defined, and where lectures are guest lecturers from industry, and I haven't quite figured out how to enjoy it yet.

Although, it does have it's moments. One of the major assignments for the unit was a Wastewater Transport Project. There was a company, JAMARG, who was producing a bunch of wastewater (i.e. water from a hose) that needed to be transported through the Fiefdoms (different regions of the campus) by the 9 transport companies A-I (we were Transport Team I - iTransport) to UniTreat, the wastewater treatment plant located on the opposite side of uni.

The lead up to the practical was to write a huge management plan involving a risk assessment, communication plan, forms, procedures, policies, etc. That... was not fun, and turned out to be a huge time sink which is not good in final year. However, the day was pretty awesome!

We were given a wheelbarrow and 4 buckets, and we had to physically transport the 220L of wastewater (per transport company) with a wheelbarrow via our secure transport system. Some teams went all out and bought paint buckets as enclosures. We went for the cheap option - put bags in the buckets and fill those up instead, then tie them up with a knot to prevent spillages. By the way a spillage is penalised by a 10minute wait and some money loss too.

We didn't do too badly - we only had one minor spill, but didn't manage to deliver our full consignment. This was relatively minor compared to UniTreat who managed to have two fatalities; a mother pushing a pram wandered into the wastewater treatment area and became contaminated, and promptly died.

So after all my complaining I managed to have a pretty good time! Going down to the tav with our blue suits on was a nice end to a hard days work hauling hazardous waste.

Glad Wrap vs. Al Foil

This is something that's been bothering me for a while now, and I was hoping to get some comments that will clear up my kitchen konundrum.

OK so how do you make the decision to use Al foil rather than Glad Wrap and vice versa? Sometimes it's obvious, for example, left over pizza is definitely an Al foil thing, where as left over chicken is definitely a Glad Wrap thing.

But sometimes I'm left confused - how do I cover up the left over sausage sizzle? What about left over steak? Left over pasta? Help!

On another note, check out Matt's post about the worst movie in the world, Dark Hunters, which happens to star Jeff Fahey, a Lost cast member. I strongly suggest that you watch this movie if you ever happen to come across it - it's... HILLARIOUS - I think I've seen it about 10 times now and each time has offered a new facet of ridiculousness. I picked it up from a bargain bin in a Sydney $2 shop as a joke present for Matt's sis. Best $2 spent ever!

Face to Face Expo and Google Visits

I thought I'd post about some stuff that happened last week, since I've been really distracted with final year project proposal due in, tests, assignments... the usual stuff!

Google Tech Talk
The Google guys have been going around to universities spreading the word and doing tech talks. UWA was lucky enough to have Susannah present the Map-Reduce tech talk. I had already heard it at the Anita Borg finalists retreat last year (tech girls - APPLY!), but I picked up a lot more this time around.

The Googlers invited the previous year's finalists out to dinner to catch up on what was going on. Of course the topic of final year project was taboo (for obvious stress reasons) so it was no tech talk at the dinner table. Speaking to the guys got me thinking about applying for an internship over the summer... but I've just moved out so small steps, small steps.

Engineers Australia Face to Face Expo
The Face to Face expo is held at the Claremont Showgrounds and is really just a hoard of companies with stalls trying to scope out the talent (engineering talent that is). I attended this year not as a student, but as a representative for L-3 Nautronix! It was very fun being on the other side, despite the being soaking wet all day (there was torrential rain all morning - but my shoes were fine phew!).

Our stall was put together in a bit of a rush, so we definitely learned a lot that will make it better next year, for example, we're planning on having a banner that lists the types of engineering disciplines that are relevant so that the civil guys don't bother inquiring.

We had a few really interesting people talk to us, so all in all it was successful! Hopefully there's a lot of applicants this year, since it seems to be hard to find good graduates who aren't planning to move away from Perth.

Uni Stuff
Digital Microelectronics System Design (DMSD) test next week, group assignment due, Digital Communications and Networking (DCN) assignment due, Engineering for Sustainable development management plan and practical due (it's actually quite awesome, I'll post about it later), final year project in continuous high stress mode... I miss the days when comp sci and maths units took the edge of the engineering :(

Keeping my chin up though!

RIP Penny the Mouse

Penny was a happy mouse and was loved by everyone (except for my grandma, but that doesn't count). She liked to be patted between her ears, and her favourite treat was biscuit crumbs.

Penny was my pet for a year, and she is greatly missed :( Goodbye Penny!

Easter Long Weekend!

This year Easter was not during the mid semester uni break, so we all got a 4 day long weekend... AHHH :) Although it went to fast, like all holidays, and it was back to work today, and uni again tomorrow grrrr

I'm still recovering from the continuous stream of food over the weekend, and we now have more chocolate than we've ever had in our house.

We also have lots of boiled eggs now - we have a tradition where we colour boiled eggs, usually red, and it's sort of a game where you try and break other people's eggs with your egg (don't ask...), so that'll be lunch for a few days yet!

Matt and I thought that Saturday would be a nice relaxing day to go IKEA shopping, since of course, no one was likely to go shopping during the Easter break (no sarcasm, we really did think that). But the monstrous new Innaloo was packed as always, making it extra fun to weave through the IKEA maze. We picked up a lovely Expedit bookcase, which we've been wanting for a long time now yay!

In other news... nothing much has been happening other than working hard on my final year project, and being back at uni. The new house is going well, and our new washing machine means that we are now fully independent!

Keep an eye on Matt's website for some upcoming developments! I'm helping Matt work on a fun project that I can't wait to see take off :)

So hope everyone had a happy Easter with minimal chocolate/food overload!

Valentine's Day

It's one of those things you can't help but get sucked into despite the shameless marketing ploy that it is. But the way we think about it is that it's the day where we have to make an effort to relax and have a nice dinner, no matter how busy we are.

This year Matt surprised me with breakfast pancakes with jam and cream, and bought me this gorgeous green vase with a red rose. I had a similar idea, and bought a big square vase (we both like the modern square stuff) and filled it with red things like strawberry tea, Cherry Ripe bars, strawberry lollies, and berry Tim Tams.

After dinner we went to our favourite Chinese restaurant, which is usually very quiet, but was uncharacteristically filled to the brim with Valentine's Day restaurant goers. It was nice and romantic, despite having to scream at each other to hear anything.

We ended the night with strawberry tea on our swing, with the fairy lights on (awww). Hope everyone had a great Valentine's day!

Big Day Out 2008

Yesterday was the Perth 2008 Big Day Out, and I'm still recovering from the best festival I've ever been to. The weather didn't let up, and it ended up getting to 37 degrees - and boy did everyone feel it. I straightened my hair before I left, and when I got home I had tight curls!

Matt and I were there to see Spoon, Arcade Fire, Bjork, and anything else on top of that was pretty much a bonus. We also ended up seeing Josh Pyke, Battles, Silverchair (well, heard Silverchair), and LCD Sound System (last 10 minutes).

Spoon was first up, on the Green stage, which was a small, out of the way venue. What we saw was really great, but we had to leave early to get to Arcade Fire in time. We had to leave during Don't Make Me a Target which was a real shame, but I'm just happy I was there for You Got Yr .Cherry Bomb.

Arcade Fire was AMAZING, really just awesome. Because the band is so big (10 people I think?) and because they all play so many instruments, the show was really amazing to watch. At one point one of the drummers climbed the scaffolding and started playing up there. My highlights were Intervention, and Keep the Car Running. I didn't realise there were so many Arcade Fire fans, but everyone was singing along to almost all the songs (bar the French lyrics of course).

Bjork stole the show with a crazy performance littered with bizarre costumes, lasers, and confetti. The crowd went nuts for her and you could tell that everyone around was a die hard Bjork fan. The whole set was great, and really, every song was a highlight, but I guess my pet favourite has always been All is Full of Love, which she sang so beautifully that everyone just went silent to listen to it.

So all in all it was the best festival I've ever been to, and the night ended in the best shower I've ever had, and lead into the worst day at work I've ever had. But of course you can't have one with the other.

Still Getting Used to Writing 2008 on Stuff

Well it's 2 weeks into the new year, and it looks like I've kept up my last year's new years resolution (keeping this very blog) quite well! All in all the new year's break has been non eventful, with family stuff taking up most of our spare time.

Christmas, new years, and boxing day were spent with the family (as always), so we ate a month's worth of food in a week (as always).

In work news, I've moved on to my CEED project on site work, so I'm no longer getting paid as a vacation student. This is very depressing as I was just getting used to the steady income of money, which I found to be very pleasant. I'm currently researching the different types of solutions that I may use for my project, which has involved reading many books on adaptive filtering/blind source separation theory, which all tends to look like "Greek alphabet soup" after a while. But I am not discouraged! The sea trial where I'll be recording all my data is coming up, and I'm really looking forward to that.

I've just finished reading "Flatland - A Romance of Many Dimensions" (Edwin A. Abbott) which was a Christmas present from Matt, inspired by my interest in manifolds. It was a really great little book which involved no maths, and really gets you thinking. I had previously tried reading "The Shape of Space" (Jeffrey R. Weeks), but that really requires pen and paper to fully keep up with the content. But I strongly recommend Flatland as a short read for anyone who's interested in thinking about our perception of space.

I'm back at work tomorrow after a week of struggling with the dreaded holiday stomach bug. It looks like the year has already fallen back into the regular pace!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Just had a really nice, relaxing (by my family's standards anyway) Christmas day. Got some very cool gifts including:

• A watch (thanks Mum and Tati)
  
• A new desk for Matt (some contribution from my parents)
  
• A little outdoor setting for our little duck out (pressie for us from us)
• A blender and a baking dish (thanks ZiiZii)
• A cute bath mat and some Nandos sauces (thanks Elissa)
• Tea towels and salad tongs (thanks James and Chloe)
• Door bell and a vacuum cleaner (thanks Matt's parents

I bought Matt a big CD wallet, a desk protector mat thingo, a draw tidy, and Corpse Bride, Night Before Christmas, and a Labyrinth and Dark Crystal double DVD. Matt got me 3 full length mirrors (for when my pole finally gets here), Xenocide (an Ender's Game novel), and one more surprise coming in the mail!

We're having a boxing day family thing tomorrow, but it's going to have to be indoors since it's going to hit 41 degrees tomorrow eek! Get a chance to see how that water cooler air con works in high humidity...

In other news, work is going well! After the break I'll be entering my CEED student on site period during which I'll be gathering info for my final year project. It's starting to look very exciting (and scary!) but it's very promising and I can't wait to work on it. The project itself is to investigate a noise canceling system for the receiver end of an underwater acoustic communication system, but I'll save the details for a later time (and for those who care!).

Work went really well over the summer break. I finally got to solder something! Reaching the end of my engineering degree without having soldered anything was getting embarrassing so I'm glad I finally crossed that bridge. My test box works well and is currently being used a lot, so that's very fun to see. I quite enjoyed making the box from scratch (which involved wiring diagrams, drawings, ordering the parts, drilling the box, soldering stuff, crimping, heat shrinking, and many more very fun things), even though that sort of thing isn't really what the engineers do every day.

We had the office Christmas party at Social on Station St (which is where I had my 19th birthday) and I was disappointed to find out that the adjoining restaurant was not of the same high caliber as the cocktail bar. Also I was looking forward to trying my first cigar but they no longer sell them at the bar, probably due to the new indoor smoking rules. I ended up enjoying the night a little TOO much (engineering student + free wine = mayhem mayhem mayhem!), but on the upside I won a greatly needed cookbook in the raffle, which will hopefully help expand our diet of frittatas and toasted sandwiches.

Hope everyone has/had a great Christmas and an exciting new year!

Results are Out

Results came out a few days early this year - hope everyone went well and passed, and can put the 2007 uni year behind them!

Here's mine:

• 91 Robotics
  
• 84 Analog Electronics
• 95 Graphs and Geometry
• 100 Electromagnetic Theory

Electromag theory!! WHAT THE HELL? Those who know me (or read my blog for that matter) will have had to frequently put up with my complaints about how hard that unit was and how I didn't understand anything. That one was completely unexpected!