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rallamajoopThe period since the Last Post up here in brief review:
Exams
Were, as always, stressful with slight undertones of being really quite routine, given that this makes six years of the things. I still swear I get less actual work done in the study break every semester, but you probably didn’t want to know that. No, you probably don’t want to know what marks I got either. Most of you can probably guess the general theme.
Re-enrolment
Was, as always, an exercise in frustration. After four years of my degree - during which it has been made painfully obvious that the combination I’m taking is all but unique, the course requirements have been changed almost every year and I’ve gone through more difficulty trying to figure out just what I’m actually meant to be doing than I thought possible - I have come to the conclusion that no-one; not the course advisors, not the sub-dean, probably not even whoever actually writes the handbook is really sure what the requirements of my course actually are. Somewhere along the line, this has apparently resulted in my getting awarded the science part of my degree without actually having taken as many points as I was meant to. On the upside, the eventual consequence of this was that they’ve very nicely decided that - since they did accept that enrolment - they’ll pass me anyway even without the missing points, and as a bonus, I only need to take three quarters of the usual total point load in my final year.
Suddenly, all those hours spent queuing to see course advisors seems worthwhile.
P.S. If I do not wind up using at least some of this extra freedom to get some writing done, someone come harass me about it.
Work
Has actually been kinda fun. After many months of near desperation in finding some way to fill my required twelve weeks vac work, I managed to land a place at a pretty small firm full of almost scarily friendly South Africans with a workplace tradition involving buying chocolate muffins for everyone in the office usually at least once a week. A while back we wound up discussing religion and Why America Sucks over cake and coffee. They’ve got me automating Autocad routines, and it definitely says something about the tenacity of my inner computer geek that despite horrifying monster that is the Autocad/LDD VBA interface, I’m actually enjoying this. I’m even getting *paid* for this. Where’s the other shoe and how high are they winching it?
Lunch breaks have been a little creepy though. The place I’m working is in West Perth. Take one step outside, and there are business people everywhere. *shivers*
Wai-con
Was unspeakably cool. This is the first anime con that has ever been run in this state, and was run primarily by people who’ve never run a con before. We went there expecting extreme disorganisation, and were - to our immense surprise - disappointed. But in a good way. Sure, there were some minor glitches, but there were (to the best of my knowledge) no major disasters, the video equipment worked, and the little games they played while we were waiting for the cosplay judges to come to a conclusion were actually a lot of fun. I’m actually a little horrified at how little of the con I actually wound up seeing, since most of it wound up being spent upstairs somewhere around my sister’s art table, gawking at more anime merchandise than I’ve ever seen in one place, or running around in our Chrono Trigger costumes and taking photos/having them taken/etc. In retrospect, however, it turns out this really is all you need for a great weekend.
The standard of the cosplayers were great, there were some genuinely impressive entries in the AMV competition, and the artist’s booths were like seeing the Best Of Deviantart show up for the occasion. We took second prize in the group cosplay competition for Sunday and my sister not only won the quickdraw competition, the original art competition *and* the fanart competition but actually *made a profit* out of her stall. Best of all, though, I got to spend the whole weekend surrounded by other anime fans; most of whom I’d never seen before, but many of whom were Very Very Cool. For anyone who doesn’t already know, they apparently totaled over 700 people through the doors over the weekend. I didn’t even know there *were* that many fans in Perth.
To summerise, Wai-con rocked.
More work
See above. I’ve been working there a month now, and I’ve gotten two Christmas parties and a week off.
This is supposed to be realistic preparation for our time in the work force *how* exactly?
Writing
About six months ago, the story I am now trying desperately to get done for a competition deadline turned out to be roughly three times as long as I thought it was. A couple of days ago, one of the characters turned out to be insane. This monstrosity is still being polished up.
I really love writing sometimes.
Christmas
Was mostly uneventful in a nice sort of way. Had some family friends over, which we don’t usually do, but since the friends in question are practically family anyway it was nice. Got a new USB drive, a Kamui plushie, an Empire voucher, chocolate and a singing teddy bear and the chance to introduce Yolanda to The Penguin, which is still worth listing as a highlight.
We visited our grandmother in hospital in the afternoon. I can’t remember her ever not being over for Christmas before, and she’ll probably be back with us next year, but. Well. Sick grandmother. Over eighty. Never a good thing.
More Writing
So. Anyone else up for some constructive criticism?
I have so many more things planned for these not-holidays than I have any chance of doing that it's not even funny. See you again in another couple of months.
Exams
Were, as always, stressful with slight undertones of being really quite routine, given that this makes six years of the things. I still swear I get less actual work done in the study break every semester, but you probably didn’t want to know that. No, you probably don’t want to know what marks I got either. Most of you can probably guess the general theme.
Re-enrolment
Was, as always, an exercise in frustration. After four years of my degree - during which it has been made painfully obvious that the combination I’m taking is all but unique, the course requirements have been changed almost every year and I’ve gone through more difficulty trying to figure out just what I’m actually meant to be doing than I thought possible - I have come to the conclusion that no-one; not the course advisors, not the sub-dean, probably not even whoever actually writes the handbook is really sure what the requirements of my course actually are. Somewhere along the line, this has apparently resulted in my getting awarded the science part of my degree without actually having taken as many points as I was meant to. On the upside, the eventual consequence of this was that they’ve very nicely decided that - since they did accept that enrolment - they’ll pass me anyway even without the missing points, and as a bonus, I only need to take three quarters of the usual total point load in my final year.
Suddenly, all those hours spent queuing to see course advisors seems worthwhile.
P.S. If I do not wind up using at least some of this extra freedom to get some writing done, someone come harass me about it.
Work
Has actually been kinda fun. After many months of near desperation in finding some way to fill my required twelve weeks vac work, I managed to land a place at a pretty small firm full of almost scarily friendly South Africans with a workplace tradition involving buying chocolate muffins for everyone in the office usually at least once a week. A while back we wound up discussing religion and Why America Sucks over cake and coffee. They’ve got me automating Autocad routines, and it definitely says something about the tenacity of my inner computer geek that despite horrifying monster that is the Autocad/LDD VBA interface, I’m actually enjoying this. I’m even getting *paid* for this. Where’s the other shoe and how high are they winching it?
Lunch breaks have been a little creepy though. The place I’m working is in West Perth. Take one step outside, and there are business people everywhere. *shivers*
Wai-con
Was unspeakably cool. This is the first anime con that has ever been run in this state, and was run primarily by people who’ve never run a con before. We went there expecting extreme disorganisation, and were - to our immense surprise - disappointed. But in a good way. Sure, there were some minor glitches, but there were (to the best of my knowledge) no major disasters, the video equipment worked, and the little games they played while we were waiting for the cosplay judges to come to a conclusion were actually a lot of fun. I’m actually a little horrified at how little of the con I actually wound up seeing, since most of it wound up being spent upstairs somewhere around my sister’s art table, gawking at more anime merchandise than I’ve ever seen in one place, or running around in our Chrono Trigger costumes and taking photos/having them taken/etc. In retrospect, however, it turns out this really is all you need for a great weekend.
The standard of the cosplayers were great, there were some genuinely impressive entries in the AMV competition, and the artist’s booths were like seeing the Best Of Deviantart show up for the occasion. We took second prize in the group cosplay competition for Sunday and my sister not only won the quickdraw competition, the original art competition *and* the fanart competition but actually *made a profit* out of her stall. Best of all, though, I got to spend the whole weekend surrounded by other anime fans; most of whom I’d never seen before, but many of whom were Very Very Cool. For anyone who doesn’t already know, they apparently totaled over 700 people through the doors over the weekend. I didn’t even know there *were* that many fans in Perth.
To summerise, Wai-con rocked.
More work
See above. I’ve been working there a month now, and I’ve gotten two Christmas parties and a week off.
This is supposed to be realistic preparation for our time in the work force *how* exactly?
Writing
About six months ago, the story I am now trying desperately to get done for a competition deadline turned out to be roughly three times as long as I thought it was. A couple of days ago, one of the characters turned out to be insane. This monstrosity is still being polished up.
I really love writing sometimes.
Christmas
Was mostly uneventful in a nice sort of way. Had some family friends over, which we don’t usually do, but since the friends in question are practically family anyway it was nice. Got a new USB drive, a Kamui plushie, an Empire voucher, chocolate and a singing teddy bear and the chance to introduce Yolanda to The Penguin, which is still worth listing as a highlight.
We visited our grandmother in hospital in the afternoon. I can’t remember her ever not being over for Christmas before, and she’ll probably be back with us next year, but. Well. Sick grandmother. Over eighty. Never a good thing.
More Writing
So. Anyone else up for some constructive criticism?
I have so many more things planned for these not-holidays than I have any chance of doing that it's not even funny. See you again in another couple of months.