This girl talks about vicious cycles in her blog entry... I have a cycle... everyday of the week, I catch the same train to work (7:54am), and most nights (4 out of 5 because I have uni the other night) I catch the same train home (5:32pm)... It just seems so regular that its surreal, almost an automatic thing that grows on you and something that can be done with your eyes closed. Well, crossing Blackburn Rd in the morning and afternoons you can't =P

Yay! Got some good news today from my boss, who wants me to stay on and work until mid-December. =) I had already committed to the Camberwell office as well though, but I called the manager there and he said I should stay at East Melbourne. How understanding, there's more chance of networking and finding another job out there. Which reminds me, I've started the process of applying for OS graduate jobs... don't know about my chances... but give it a try and see what happens I guess.

Alcee has flown off east to NZ this morning for a holiday before coming back for graduation. I think I want to take a holiday now =P

It must be Monday-itis.... although today was quite easy and didn't have to think too much. Just a bit of work that took a while to do. It was good though, not stressful =) Its school and uni holidays this week so the train trip in the morning was great. The train actually had to wait a minute or two on the way in and we were right on time getting into the city. =) If only every day was like this =P

One of my bosses took leave today (and last Friday) but I still had a few jobs to do. Mainly just ensuring that letters by my other boss get signed and posted/delilvered. More interesting work came about from one of the systems people who regularly gives me stuff to do... just litte things like collate data from several sources into one spreadsheet, burning CDs and courier-ing them out to the printers. We also had some principals/teachers at work to check the accuracy of the data. There were a few technical problems there that needed fixing, which I was able to help with. =) Also found a bug with their Access reports and database that has existed for several years... it was more than a bug, there were about three linked things that also came up as a result =P

Didn't have uni tonight, so actually got home early (before dark!) and its all good, because tonight is freeeezzing... meant to be like 4 degrees. Enrica sent me a job in her company on Friday that was IT but it was in Sydney. I emailed the guy today and he wants to fill the position within 2 weeks so I had to pass on that... oh well, she said that there probably will be more near the end of the year so hopefully something good comes of it... The thought of moving city is good, but at the same time is a bit scary... but at least I already have friends and family there... =)

Lazy Sunday afternoon at home, just doing some tutorial work. Its actually the holidays this week and I've been meaning to do more on my project... although it would probably be helpful if I could actually connect to the database *sigh*

Friday night was quite good, went to Chris' and got a DVD... uhh... Cradle 2 the Grave i think with Jet Li. Bit of senseless violence was a nice relaxing way to finish the week :D Didn't do much yesterday, rain and wind kind of kills any plans to do anything outside. Just stayed home last night and watched TV, Die Hard 2 (more violence :P) and City Hunter (:D) was on... not exactly exciting or new.. but still.. something to do :)

Got this email with the Quality of Teaching survey results for Melbourne Uni, no surprises that the engineering department got the lowest mean score (consistently for the past few years) and has the highest percentage of low scores (as in marks/results) in the uni. Read all about it here I always wondered where those surveys ended up... we finally may have made the engineering department lift its game.. not before time

Yay... its Friday evening and I don't have to get up early tomorrow! Thats the best part about weekends =D Not much planned, Chris is coming over and then we're gonna head out with a few other friends for a night out on the... uhh... out in Glen Waverley (doesn't sound at all glamourous, probably because it isn't) =P

This person is apparently going to cross a bridge on Sunday =P while this girl is going to the University games (which I am sure will be quite a bit of fun). Don't think I have any set plans this weekend, just cruise along and hopefully find something to do on Sunday, because tomorrow is when (apparently) most of Melbourne will be watching their TVs for about 2.5 hours in the afternoon. Its the AFL Grand Final. Don't really have a passion for it but as there will obviously be nothing else on TV and not much else happening elsewhere, I'll end up watching it. I remember once I was in Cairns, flying back to Melbourne and throughout the whole airport, all the TVs was on the football and people were just gathered around it watching. Its as if the world was on hold for that time =P

Found some more errors, I think everyone doing the testing (4 of us) have each found different errors with the reports... so now the people are fixing the bugs. They're probably little things, but if we can find those, I wonder what other bugs there are in the reports.

Finally getting all the data ready and may have to go out to the CD duplication people to give them the "final" "gold" copy of the data for them to mass produce. Its something like $25k worth of CD stamping and duplication. Of course, the data that is on the CDs (if sold) would be worth about 10 times more than that! =D

Probably going to go out with Chris and some of his friends tonight. Don't know what we will be doing, probably just catch a movie or play pool or something. I'm stuffed from work.. at least its Friday today! =)

Trying to keep myself busy at work... both bosses are in a meeting, I have had people calling up wanting to disturb one of them in the meeting. Also had a few other things to do... but the main results database is down or running very slowly... They are running some extraction program I heard, so I can't really get much work done... =P

Finally its Wednesday, middle of the week. Today was spent testing CDs and looking at data from reports. We found a few errors (which is not good) at this late stage, when the CDs are almost ready to be burnt. The boss wasn't too happy and I think he is getting grumpier than usual =P As a result, we didn't have to work late today which was really good, I was tired and didn't want to stay anyways =D

Going to meet up with Chris tomorrow or Friday night I think, haven't got anything organised yet, probably do that tomorrow during the periods of time that I have absolutely nothing to do at work. Kind of feeling lonely all of a sudden, need to have more of a social life I think...

*sigh* I think I lost my train ticket... well, I can't find it anywhere at home... so had to go buy another one at $132.10 =( Only used for a week so its about $100 worth down the drain. Geez. Added to that, today I had to cram (literally) into the train to get to uni from work. I had already let 2 trains go by as they were too full. I didn't have a chance to fit on to those and if I waited any longer, there would just be more people waiting. It was almost a case of the latest visa/rugby world cup ad, but not quite.

Went to my tutorial this evening only to find out that the tutor was sick and couldn't make it. The lecturer came down and answered any questions that we had so that was ok. Feeling pretty tired and looking forward to crashing...

An account of the weekend... Worked on tutorial work for uni but didn't get anywhere meaningful, the server (and I mean singular) was up and down and got to the point where I would do one step ok, then the next would say that the server is not present. *sigh* This does not suggest well as the tutorials are part of a learning thing on how to set up Analysis Services to do our assignment with. Speaking of which, I finally decided to read the whole assignment specs in full today =P A bit late, but you know... stuff happens. Still got a few more weeks to do (just over a month). Spent yesterday shopping for groceries and stuff at Box Hill. Bought 2 ties (for $25) from a shop there for work. Today was spent putting up some "blinds" that my mum wanted because of her paranoia of people wanting to break into our unit. I'm like, if they break in, the most valuable thing they can steal is like... the TV and computer, we have nothing else of value.

Kind of wanting to look forward to the coming week but at the same time I don't want to. I get to read some proposals on IT services and get to actually give my opinion =P to my boss, thats the good part. Tuesday (and probably Wednesday) I will most likely be working 10+ hours per day doing some QA testing for the CDs to be sent out to schools soonish. Another weekend that has gone by so quickly, without much achievement it seems...

Its been a week already? Sheesh, it seems like that last weekend was only... uhh 5 days ago =P Got an internal mail envelope at work that was sent to my (other) boss... of course I openned it (its my job!) and it was about a person who had surfed the web too much during work hours =P Hmm, I'd better cut down on that at work. The report was for a 2 week period and they only downloaded about 20Mb of stuff. Oh well. I guess I can use this cheque to live off that I received on Friday =P

Finally the weather is nice on the weekend but I have no plans, just doing some stuff around the house and trying to do some reading/homework for uni which I have neglected for a long time. Its the mid-semester break after next week but I will be working so there is not much time. The major assignment (and only assignment, woth 50%!) is due at the end of October. Should be ok, but want to get a good mark, seeing as its the only subject that I am doing...

Caroline came over to visit me on Thursday night and we went to the Pancake Parlour to get a coffee. Thats about as much social life as I've had. =( Catching up with friends is about the only "going out" I do now. Thats what I look forward to most, that and my pay (which was the Thursday just gone) =) Caught the train home with Eliza on Friday night, she is going back to Taiwan next week... Melbourne Uni always gets 2 weeks holidays while the rest of the uni's only have one... how a miss the extra holidays =P

Just another day at work... nothing interesting at all... :(

Another long day at work. Had nothing to do for a while, well, less things to do during the day so caught up on some reading =P Afternoon was super busy and didn't get a chance to stop. I started doing about 3 things at the same time. Burning CDs for my boss, doing some more data cleaning of data in the database and gathering figures/doing calculations for a report.

My boss asked me about what I am studying and when am I going to look for a job. Then we got talking about how they have been wanting to build a datawarehouse for a long time. I said I would be interested so I *may* be able to get a career here =D *fingers crossed*

Hmm... slaying the myth that working for government is a nice relaxing thing. Some events today completely destroyed any notion of easiness. I stayed to 6:15pm tonight to do something for my boss to review tonight from home. Second thing was the fact the file servers decided to go down (for maintenance) at 5:30pm. Surely you don't schedule maintenance for 5:30pm on a weeknight. *sigh* Third thing was when my boss asked "you can work late right? and on the weekend?" What am I meant to say. I didn't agree on working Sunday but will probably work Saturdays for the next two weekends to help them do the QA for the CDs that we are going to be sending out.

Few things though, the stuff that my boss wants allows me to at least apply some of my skills. I basically produce reports/figures/tables for him to use and he doesn't exactly tell me what he wants. Its up to me to "anticipate" what he wants. Usually have most if not all the cases covered, hopefully I can impress him somewhat. =)

Yeah! ADSL is back.. no more pesky dial-up =D

Woohoo... ADSL is back.. and about 3 days early as well! =) Too bad I find this out at work and won't get home till probably around 6pm at least tonight to see if it works. *fingers crossed* that it works... there have been known problems with them setting it up sometimes.. they just don't do it correctly... =P

A dilema.... two people give you advice and you believe that both of them are true.... what do I do??? *sigh*

Weekend... its over =( Back at work this morning. It didn't seem as crowded on the train. Must be Modayitis =P Had a good weekend. Friday night, went to Victoria Gardens and bought some stuff, which had to be returned on Saturday because it was the wrong type for what we wanted. Also on Saturday I went back to the apartment to check on some things (they still haven't settled it... *sigh*) and visit some people that were away when we sold/moved.

Sunday I helped Andy move house... from Glen Waverley to... Glen Waverley. That took up most of the day but everything is done now. Well, most of it anyways, just some stuff that they need to throw out in the old place (actually, a lot of stuff that needs to be thrown out in the old place) =P

Finally the weekend... went to Victoria Gardens tonight to buy some stuff from Ikea. Found quite a few bargains and bought some lights that will be better suited to our use than the lights that are already here. Sleeping in will be soooooo good =)

Seems all there is at the moment is work and nothing else. Last night was the Autumn Moon festival thingy and I went to a family friend's place for dinner. Had lots to eat and was completely stuffed full of food by the end of the night. Too bad it was cloudy last night so there was no moon to see, which was the point of the festival no?

I've been catching the train to and from work everyday at around the same time, its easy to get into a pattern and you end up seeing the same people on the platform waiting for the train, get in the same carriage and get off at the same station. Its like ground hog day... but only for those parts of the day, going to and from work. Each day is different at work, although this data matching program that I am using was obviously developed by someone who decided to make it the hardest program to use and easiest to stuff up... like putting the scroll bar right next to the "Match student" button.. *sigh*.. usability =P

Working hard... well.. not really that hard. Just going along doing everything necessary to keep busy. The days are usually spent in front of the computer looking at data that needs to be cleaned. There is other stuff like supporting the boss with all his requirements but most of the day is spent cleaning data that has been inputted wrongly by the scanning company. The results come out with weird spelling of names which don't match (one book each for english and maths)

Actually its quite easy work just that it takes a lot of concentration to do and to make sure that its correct...

I need ADSL... well.. I would like to have it so I don't have to open only 2 browser windows at a time and having sites time out because I am trying to suck too much from the little 56k modem which connects at 44k =P

First day of work and I think it went ok. Not that much for me to do yet but its just the little things that make you wonder why. I got asked to do some analysis and merge two files from a CD... no problems.. just that it was at 4:50pm when I had to leave by 5:15pm to get to uni on time. Rummaged around and then found out that the file is in text format (thank god it was fixed width space separated) and there were something like 55,000 records in each, exceeding the maximum ~65,000 records that Excel can handle. I still have to do that tomorrow and import it into Access instead.

Good news is that I will be working there (with a nice office and nice people) for the next 2 months. Then going back to the other office which will be another month or so. Basically working full time until Christmas =) Its too bad that the whole department at the moment has a hiring freeze (budget cutbacks) but hopefully that will be over by Christmas and I can get a permanent on-going job there =)

Finally moved... everything is in the new place and all is ok. Lots of boxes to be unpacked and stuff to be put away... serious lack of shelf space in the wardrobes doesn't help. Its been a long couple of days.. glad that everything has happened finally... Now I can look forward to going to work on Monday and seeing what I need to do there.

Only problem is that blogger seems to be down =(

Phone is meant to be disconnected already... but here I am still surfing... and its not connected at the new place... *sigh* Hopefully it gets done some time today.

Grrr, I hate driving in peak hour traffic. Coming home from the new place today, some stickered up car with some hoons in it wouldn't let me in, even though I indicated and it was one of those merging lane situations where *normally* its one car per lane. The guy's number plate was EEZ667 I think, a red late 80s Nissan Pulsar hatch or similar. Its a shame that the two people were so cool and had their seats so far back they might have been better off sitting in the back seat. Bleh!

Anyways, at the new place we got our fridge delivered, the plumber came and fixed up some taps to stop them from dripping and they came to read the gas and electricity meters "officially" so we start paying for it today. Phone gets connected tomorrow so I can apply for ADSL =P Got paid today as well so I'm happy =)

Last night Chris and I visited Nick in his "cottage" at uni. Basically he gets to stay for free in exchange for answering the after hours phone. Not a problem really, except when people call in the middle of the night and you have to go out and let them in (its a Vet clinic)! He cooked for us and it was really nice, Indian butter chicken I think. Lots of spices and all that, but tasted good! =)

I seem to be losing friends... well not exactly losing.. but they are all going away overseas to live. In the past 3 weeks I have found out that 3 friends are going back to their home countries to work. Makes me feel kind of empty, but in the current global economy that we live in, I guess its not unexpected. I might even end up going overseas to work. You just never know what is around the next corner.

Everything is almost packed, just some folders that I use almost everyday and clothes. Thats about it. Back on dialup which took about 3 phone calls to tech support to figure out. It ended up being just a different phone number (a national one for everywhere in Australia) instead of the local one and it all works. Its painfully slow when compared to ADSL... Must get that back soon =P

At uni now, using antiquated computers (by my standards) in a lab that doesn't even need computers! =D Getting some *free* software to use for an assignment so I guess thats a good thing =) Work was ok today, not exactly earth shattering in terms of excitement but pretty easy. Someone even cooked some scones and brought a coffee maker for morning tea as a way of saying thanks for our work =D

One of the bosses in town also called me and asked me whether I wanted to work in the city for a while. Of course I said yes! =) Not sure what I will be doing but I have to email my details/resume to him tonight when I get home. Hope that I don't fall asleep in the lecture tonight and that would cap a pretty good day! =)