coincidence
When I was staying the night with a nice couple from church before we went to the airport in the early morning to pick up my family, they gave me a used Spanish-English dictionary, since I am doing Spanish at university. It had a name in the front (“____”)- with “Arts” and a phone number. There aren’t many universities in Melbourne that offer Spanish, so we jokingly said- wouldn’t it be funny if you met her!
My Spanish tutor is Katie P, she’s a really good teacher, she speaks Spanish really well, she has a Latin sounding last name, which is cool. However, she is an Aussie, and really understands were the students are coming from.
So today, I took the dictionary to my Spanish tutorial, and realized that there were other similar looking dictionaries, so I opened up to the front cover to put my name in mine.
Hmm… this handwriting is very familiar.
“Katie, what was your maiden name?” the girl next to me asked. “_____” *pause* “Is this your old dictionary?”
Yep. It was. Threw us both of kilter for a second. It was her dictionary when she was an undergraduate, studying Spanish.
Very Weird!
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Clocks are out to get me
It is amazing at where the time goes. Staggering, really. Take today, a Saturday. I was rudely awakened by a nose that decided to throw a tantrum about some dust particles at 4am, and so I took one dreaded hay fever tablet. I used to take a tablet a day, but now have been trying to cut back because they make me really drowsy. And having recently passed my learner’s permit for driving test (yay!) drowsiness is something I’d like to get out of the habit of. However, when I do need to kill the reaction, the tablets seriously zonk me out. So I slept in till 12. Then, feeling pretty drab and lifeless, I read the Saturday features of the newspaper. I then thought about some university work I had to do, but switched on the internet instead. Realized I was going out to eat that night, and the deadline made me speed up and I tidied up a large mess in my room that had over stayed it’s welcome. Went out to eat. Came home. surfed a little on the internet.
I’m annoyed with myself- the only real productive thing I did today was do some tidying up. Big wow.
I love reading about “getting to done” (GTD – a popular “geek’s philosophy”) but I never seem to get to done.
But I feel better now after ranting, so that’s good. 
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advertising advertising
With advertising being so common now a days, people start to tune it out. So, if you want to get your event/product whatever out there Then you have to be original, different, and a little gimmicky.
Which brings me to what I saw today. Two guys, one dressed in a pink bicycle helmet and the other in a blue cowboy hat, with posters advertising the event taped around them to preserve their modesty and nothing else, were running around the university brandishing flyers.
As it only reached 11 degrees C today in Melbourne, and as the wind was really rushing around the buildings, I can say I really felt sorry for them.
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hooray for computer science!
A happy ending to my previous rant post- I spoke to my computer science lecturer, and she said that since I had the two text books from last semester’s classes, I didn’t have to buy the textbook. She said: “Prescribed doesn’t mean that you HAVE to buy it” so I’m happy- that’s 80 dollars I’ve saved!
A little good news makes the other subject’s requirements much easier to accept.
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textbook injustice
Argh textbooks. I went to town last semester and did the innocent and gullible first-year thing of buying a lot of textbooks I hardly looked at. Some textbooks I was glad I had bought, real quality books that I will keep for future reference, but others were seriously a waste of time and money.
This semester it’s better- I only have three prescribed textbooks (oh- and the course handbooks you have to pay for that they don’t include on the book lists) but I am wary now. I have searched the co-op (used books): nothing helpful- and frustratingly a stack of last semester’s books. I know that they wouldn’t be there at the beginning of the semester, but still- it’s annoying.
The book I am the most wary about is the one for my computer science subject. It’s an old book- 2003 which is very old for computers. There is a very real chance that I wouldn’t be able to get rid of it afterwards, or even if I kept it, would not get much value out of it as the technology keeps growing and changing. So, I really don’t want to buy it new. However, Amazon has a used books section, but then you get into shipping and other hassles. They also have a downloadable ebook (pay, of course, but still cheaper) but what happens if it doesn’t work on my computer?
I’m going to grill the lecturer about the book in class tomorrow. I hope to save some cash. Of course, the library is a good source of books too.
The other gripe I have is with the history course changing the prescribed text (hence no used ones) – but that’s another story. The moral of the story? Find out what you need, and get it. Otherwise, don’t bother.
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surf sand and some sun.
Ah, I’m back and feel nicely relaxed. It was a nice holiday- it didn’t rain all the time, we were able to do lots of walks on the beach and enjoy looking at the waves. A good, relaxing holiday, if a little sparse on internet.
Anyway, this isn’t the time to do any lengthy blog posts, but I’m starting uni again on Monday, so I should have plenty of time to blog a bit.
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slow blogging to be expected
Hello all- I’m going to be away from the internet for a while- I’m not happy about it but I have to “recharge” “relax” and “spend time with my family” I know I will enjoy it once I’m there, but I will miss my internet connection.
Maybe I’ll have a chance to write some deeper, lengthier articles.