I Want!

I saw this book online and the library had a copy. I needed some information for my Information Security Essay. I ran to get it. Turns out its so interesting. So if any of you are feeling very charitable towards me..hahaha, I want this book!

A Little Bit of Success

Yeah, great things come in small packages. Hahaha, that's what I'm telling myself because one small, minor part of my thesis worked yesterday. I walked home grinning. I actually carry a cardboard box to uni these days. It has all my thesis components, my favourite USB book (Jan Axelson, you're my hero), a multimeter (used to measure voltage, current, resistance, capacitance and all that), my two microcontroller programmer devices and so on. It's not heavy but it is cumbersome. The alternative is to leave it in the lab. It's quite safe, but you know when you are jinxed sometimes, you have to take extra precaution? I'd hate to walk into the lab and see some things missing, I'd cry for weeks then I think. Hehehe. So the best way is - bring everything back and forth.

Some Pictures.

I know I promised pictures a long time ago but the pictures I take don't flatter me...I mean I don't look very nice. LOL.

This is myself and a friend of my friend's...(Nerida, my former floormate's classmate, Michelle). We were at the formal dinner last night.



This is myself, my friend Manelle and the new people we met at David's 21st. From left: Manelle, Me, Stuart, Robert, and Cesar (the guy with lots of embarassing stories).



Lastly, this is my friend David. I met him on IRC when he was 14 (and I was 15). Then as we used to chat (more like just sit online and trade insults, then laugh it off), we realised that we will eventually meet at uni because he was in Year 1 and I was in Year 2 (in Malaysia). So when I came to Aust in Year 3, we met up. Now two of my free electives are his core courses. It's quite nice to have different type of friends. I bully David a lot :) Like if I want to find out stuff about TV episodes or something, I'll bug him instead of looking it up myself. He's pretty reliable, I must say. Like if you ask him something uni-related, he'll find out and get back to you asap. He has a very sarcastic sense of humour. LIke he'll tell me "you're no fun" when I tell him I'm working on stuff. Oh and I remember when I told him "Tough chicks like me don't fall for guys." He replied, "Look at me, I'm tough as nails, I fell for my girlfriend." Hahaha, he is so not tough as nails. He also listens to really loud music - like death metal? Opeth and Iron Maiden and all that, stuff I will not even look at because my taste in music is more subdued? I remember once I lent him my external hard drive to put some episodes in it and he returned it back with a whole Opeth album in it. Hahaha, I only could endure 1 track, the rest were scary :) He's so intelligent he actually got a job before he even graduates...though he won't admit he's intelligent. He's pretty laidback. So yeah, that's David. Happy 21st, you brat! :)

Bits 'n Pieces are Better Than Zilch..

Well, I have bits and pieces of my thesis up. 17 pages written, a few diagrams drawn, 1 large chunk of code ready for testing...somehow I feel a bit motivated lately because my thesis has been all that I have been thinking about. It's tiring, no doubt. Especially when you have to hide from your supervisor because you don't want him asking you about the progress of it.

It's frustrating when everything you pick up just proves to you that you really don't know enough sometimes...

I cooked fried rice with belacan (prawn paste) yesterday. Didn't smell too good but it was really tasty. I used this belacan-based fried rice paste I brought from home. Hm, talking about it now is making me hungry because its almost 2pm and I haven't eaten lunch.

I am actually blogging from outside the labs...sitting on this cemented area near large green bushes. I came by to look for one of the lab guys to return his programmer he lent me - I borrowed it during the first week of August actually but I can't return it to him (for the record, it didn't work, that's why I bought my own programmers -- yes, 2 programmers, 1 spare...burnt a big hole in my pocket) because the times I come by - he's not in! Argh. I hate seeing that programmer, feels so jinxed.

So I took out my laptop to e-mail him. Now I'm blogging to clear my head :)

On the way home now, to eat lunch and re-think some code snippets then I might come back to the lab tomorrow to start more testing.

Have a great weekend guys!

Mind Block

There is so much information for me to absorb. I have a 10% mid semester exam for Information Security tomorrow. The exam is actually just 30 minutes with Multiple Choice Questions. It's a bit difficult to study "everything" because there's like 8 lectures to read through. Then again, it's only 10%, but me being the nerd, I really want to study for it. Funnily enough, I made so little progress the past few days. I have to cram tonight and tomorrow morning (exam at 2pm). I think I'm a bit saturated from last week's constant studying.

I haven't done enough of my thesis to go and see my supervisor yet. Not that I miss him - that person-who-doesn't-reply-to-his-e-mails. I could use meaner words to describe him but then my blog is not a very "secluded" spot..hahaha. I doubt anyone who knows him reads my blog, but I'll still try to be nice..to a certain extent.
Ooh, I was in an Asian supermarket nearby my residential college and guess what I saw? They have dumplings!

I was considering getting it, but its just glutinous rice ( don't think they had a filling )- not a very good idea if you have to lose weight. So I just looked at it for awhile, then moved to the next aisle. It's something I do very frequently these days - just look at nice food, then wander off. Can't say I'm "eating" my fill, just "looking my fill".

Hmm

Well, nothing much happened at the party :) I for one thing ran off before they could go clubbing/drinking because its not my cup of tea. We did sit around and chat though - that was fun. Unfortunately, the joke about how much salary I will earn if I go home and not stay here did come up. It's disappointing when your friends don't support you, despite knowing your predicament well enough. I guess Indian culture and my family's principles - is a bit difficult to understand, but it would still be nice if they'd stop with that joke already. It's not even funny anymore, comparing my future possible salary to that earned by a restaurant worker here. *Sigh* It only makes you feel worse when you know that you would really like to work here and establish yourself rather than go back.

...Maggi Goreng & Masala Chicken

Wow, what a combination. Hahaha, I found this recipe online and I thought I'll give it a try since I had two packs of instant noodles in my cupboard. It turned out quite good. I didn't take a picture of it because the food I make tastes good, but doesn't look special or anything, you know? :)

So yeah, that's lunch. For dinner, I am attending a friend's 21st Birthday BBQ (if that makes sense)...got to take 2 buses to go there :(

It Works!!!

And my programming device works. PHEW. OMG, I cannot believe it took me two whole weeks to set up a suppposedly plug-n-play programmer. *Sigh* On to the next step of my thesis - coding. I shall be rambling in code from now on, so if you bump into me and I don't greet you - it just means I'm in code-world or something :)

I've Got Mail!

Yep yep, parents + sisters (= family, okay :)) sent me a package full of Indian movies. I watched one I've watched before...it was good. I was laughing pretty loudly and my housemates were a bit weirded out because I'm usually quiet :) You know, got to pull off the intelligent-but-reserved-yet-classy-chick image. (Okay some of you can stop choking now..)

Oh I had Thai takeaway for dinner yesterday. According to my housemate, Sham, the delivery boy was hot. Nope I didn't get to see him..makes sense why she was in a hurry to pick up the food alone.

Oh, its M's (one of my former classmate) 21st birthday this Saturday. I don't even know what gift to get him. It's easier to buy gifts for girls..I feel. With guys you know they won't like it either way, so why bother trying?

I have a mid semester exam for Microeconomics this Friday at 8am. Yeah, splendid timing. I still have a bit of revising to do. Not particularly worried about it, but I'm so not a Business-person, so I have to force myself to think in that direction. I look at supply and demand graphs and think "yeah, doesn't really play a role in my line.." You know? It's very interesting, but its not something I could do for a job.

So, why did I take Microeconomics? Like most snobby science people, I wanted to boost my GPA. There, I've confessed. Hehehe, but its not that easy...

It's a Device...NOT a Person!

I've been getting weird comments from my friends. It seems when I whine about a "programmer" .. they think its a PERSON, not a THING.

Well, just to set the record straight, I'm disgruntled over a small machine, like a device thingie with a dimension of approximately 3 x 2 inches (I didn't use a ruler..I have measuring eyes...hahah).

I'm in the lab now. My programming device is still not working. I actually ordered another one (entirely different brand) just in case. I don't know what to do - to be honest. I can feel the thesis deadline chasing after me. My supervisor hasn't replied to my past three e-mails. Looks like he does not want to hear from me or something.

I'm still positive that I'll finish my thesis by hook or by crook, but I still feel very crappy. I'm trying very hard to hang in there...succeeding - at least most of the days.

Interesting :)

I read this post on MSNBC a few minutes ago. It's so cool. You know how most girls sit and bawl their eyes out when they get ditched/dumped/rejected? At least someone had some sense to make something good out of it. Men are overrated...really ;)

Frustrated

Well, the company replaced my programmer but its still not working. I get a different sort of error message now. *Sigh*

Losing My Readers

It feels like less and less people read my blog these days. I know, its my fault for not really writing much lately. I'm sorry :)

It's just that as things get more and more difficult, instead of whining, I just don't think about it at all. I'm trying to change, to be honest. I can't just crack at the drop of a hat, right?

So I'm fixing my moods and how I react to things. Of course, my thesis is a major setback lately, but I'll fix it - eventually. I know it'll take days of hard work and loads of time, but I'll manage. Somehow, I just know I will...

I'm actually about to start on an assignment, then study a bit for an exam. I have two exams and two assignments due between September 15th till October 6th. I also have two 21st birthday parties to attend (Davey's on 23rd and Mush's on 16th). I'll take pictures and put a few here, promise, promise. It's just that I don't look nice in photographs - my face is always oily, so when I look at pictures, I end up not putting them up. Hahaha :)

Weird..

Sometimes you just don't understand why everything works against you. I spent AUD160 on a microcontroller programmer about a week ago...guess what? It doesn't work. It's so weird, when I called the guy up and asked him, he said it'll work. I had so much problems with it. Now, 1 week later I have returned it back to the supplier. I feel terrible because I have so little time left and everything is just getting messed up. It's so hard not to panic. I don't understand why everything is so difficult and just plain impossible sometimes. I really don't understand. It's not fair...it's just not fair...