3 March, 2010 in Engineering, University by Aonghas

Sore Limbs

The cicada that flew into the bus

Day 3 of my Uni year. I was really lazy this morning and didn’t decide to get up until after 10am! Shocking I know. I only really had time to have a shower and a quick bite before I had to rush out the door and catch the bus. There weren’t any empty seats when I got on the bus today so I had to sit with a stranger half-way down the aisle. At the next stop one of the ladies near the front of the bus got off just as Julian Tang was getting on. He took her seat, but by that time it would’ve been awkward for me to join him from where I was sitting. Luke Dickinson also caught the same bus as us and he sat next to Julian. They were both wearing the same green-coloured T-shirts and from behind they looked a bit like twins! As we neared our stop in town, a cicada flew into the bus somehow and landed by the window right next to me. I didn’t want to make any sudden movements just in case it leaped off the window and sprayed that cicada fluid stuff all over me (they do that right?). So instead I took a photo of it

After my first lecture finished at 1pm, I went to the gym to continue my 2-day attendance streak since Monday. I was still feeling rather battered and sore from the previous two workouts but I told myself that I couldn’t break the routine! Not long after I started, I was walking through the gym when I heard someone call my name. I turned around to see a beard-faced man on one of the machines. Staring at him for a few seconds jolted my memory before I clicked and realised who he was – Jonathan Wilson from Rutherford! I didn’t even recognise him at first; he looked so different. We had a quick catch-up which was really good after so many years since the TDI Originals in 2006. He’s now studying for his Honours in Jazz Music and plays drums with Nathan King from the NZ band Zed. He’s also the drummer for Life Church in the city and anyone who has heard him on drums will agree with me when I say he’s amazing! He also told me that Michael Elliot (the guy who used to play the bass guitar with him at Rutherford) is now married in Australia! That was a pretty big shock, but congratulations Michael! In our Computer Engineering lecture today, our lecturer was wearing a really cool Elmo T-shirt. I just had to get a photo of it!

My lecturer's Elmo T-shirt

I’m still sore from the gym… I really hope it doesn’t get any worse or else I’ll have real trouble getting up that hill at Albert Park tomorrow!

1 March, 2010 in Engineering, University by Aonghas

First Day Back

Today was the first day of lectures for me back at Uni. Luckily for me, my first class wasn’t until 12pm so I got to sleep for a little bit longer in the morning. After a shower and a bowl of noodles, my mum dropped me off at the bus stop down by the shops. I didn’t have to wait long for the bus to come as I sat there making sure in my mind that I had everything I needed in my bag. When we stopped at the bus stop down Flanshaw Road, I was surprised to see Jesse and Luke get on the bus together. They sat with me and we were like the three Engineering musketeers from Rutherford. They’re both specialising in Civil Engineering this year and we shared timetables as we journeyed into town.

My first lecture was Mathematical Modelling 2 (ENGSCI 211). On the way to class I bumped into Rebecca Cunniffe, who had a lecture in the room nextdoor to me. We walked down the stairs into the library basement passing Ethan and Sue in the process. It was like a Rutherford reunion that lasted a few seconds. The lecture room was already quite full when I arrived so I sat in the second row down at the front. I met a new guy who was sitting next to me called Nick – he’s specialising in Biomedical Engineering this year. I didn’t talk to the girl sitting on my other side though, not for any particular reason, just because the window of opportunity for introductions passed and then it would be awkward if I introduced myself half-way through the lecture. Our lecturer’s name is Dr. Cameron Walker. I remembered him from my Advanced Mechanics (ENGGEN 150) paper last year. After he introduced himself, Cameron told us that he didn’t have any idea what the time was (the clock on the wall wasn’t working and there was no time shown in the corner on his computer screen) so he went on the internet and searched “current auckland time” on Google. For the entire lecture, he had a window open on the projector with a large display of the time (this one) so he wouldn’t go over time. I thought that was pretty ingenious!

After our Mathematical Modelling lecture, I thought I’d head for the gym since I had a 2-hour gap before my next class. As I walking through the Informations Commons though, I met up with Menglu. She was waiting for her twin sister Mengyun to get out of class. Then I found out that Mengyun was actually in the lecture that I just came out of! She’s doing Electrical Engineering this year while Menglu is doing Civil. They introduced me to one of their friends called Manu, who’s doing Computer Systems Engineering just like me. I was glad to have finally found someone else doing the same specialisation as me! Together we all went to the office of one of our lecturers so he could give us our course notes.

Menglu had to go to one of her lectures, so Mengyun and I went to the Engineering library to do some study for our Basic Skills test next week. On the way into the library I bumped into Clinton who was coming out of the library and he told me that he had a test on his first day! Looks like he got dunked straight into the thick of Engineering. Reading over the practice questions for the test made me realise that I had forgotten a lot of what I had learnt last year. I think I’m going to have to cram for the next week to make sure I’m ready!

My second lecture of the day was Circuits and Systems (ELECTENG 202). After a few introductory messages from the course co-ordinator, our first lecturer took over the class, Dr. Waleed Abdulla. He’s actually quite a funny guy. He gave us a brief introduction of what Electrical Engineering is all about, including a slide about Biometrics, which I thought was pretty interesting. He told us that you can tell the difference between a male and a female by the way they walk, demonstrating for us in front of the class. At the end of the lecture, he left us with this quote regarding study (I’m not sure if he made it up himself or not):

An hour a day keeps the failure away.

Straight after that lecture, I had my last class for the day: Electronics 1 (ELECTENG 210). Our lecture’s name was Dr. Mark Andrews, a name that sounded familiar to me yet I didn’t know where from. His introduction lecture was quite entertaining too. He gave us a bit of a shock when he told us there was no coursebook OR lecture slides for the course, and that we’d have to take notes every lecture. I don’t even remember how to take notes properly since we’ve had coursebooks for every other Engineering course so far! He told us that we have a test tomorrow morning to evaluate the level we’re at with Electronics. I hope it’s not too hard because I’ve forgotten a lot of the stuff we learned in Electronics last year as well.

After my last lecture, I decided I’d go to the gym since I didn’t get to go earlier in the day. Being back at the gym for the first time in a couple of months brought back memories, though several of the exercise machines are now in different positions to how I remember them last year. I didn’t stay at the gym for too long because by that time I was getting a bit tired, but I definitely noticed the effect of not going to the gym for so long. This year hopefully I’ll get into a good routine to go so I can get into shape! This time next year I’ll be a changed man!

My first day back at Uni was pretty good overall. So far I’m not behind in any of my coursework (mainly because we haven’t really done anything yet!) but I’m not sure how long that will last. I better get studying for that test tomorrow morning.

23 July, 2008 in School, Uncategorized by Aonghas

Burning Off the Fat!

Unlike usual Wednesdays when I get to sleep in until half past nine in the morning, today was different. The Prefects meeting scheduled for 8:45am in the Board Room meant that I had to wake up and get to school early. When I arrived at school and got to the Board room, most of the Prefects were already sitting down and Mr Coughlan was speaking. There were no chairs left so I went and stood at the back of the room with John Kim. Mr Coughlan was talking to the Prefects about help needed at Parent/Teacher Interviews tomorrow also at the Open Evening next Thurday night. He also talked about the evaluation of the Prefect group this year so far and suggested that we come up with ideas for the rest of the school year, because it’s going to go by so quickly. Luke continued the meeting when Mr Coughlan left and suggested some different ways the Prefects could profile themselves within the Junior student body. I thought all his suggestions were valid and I was keen to see them put to action, though I don’t know if some of the other Prefects had the same reaction. Maybe they might just have to bite the bullet on that one if they don’t like it.

It was strange going back to our form class and having the first period off because I wasn’t used to coming into school that early on a Wednesday. It felt like there was nothing to do, since I usually have a class before my study periods so I’m already switched on into that school mood.

The rest of the day that followed was pretty standard really. We had a quick cultural committee meeting in the music room at interval – that was pretty much just to get everyone up to date with what the cultural committee were doing this term and also to organise the Sing Star competition that we are running in week four of this term. At lunch time we had choir practice as well, because the choir is performing at Te Atatu Intermediate School on Friday this week to promote our school. Apparently Mrs Faaea-Semeatu had asked Ari to run the choir rehearsal because she wasn’t going to be here at lunch time. When most of the choir (actually not that many people turned up, I would say maybe half the choir was there…) had arrived to the music room and were lingering around, Ari called for a attention and gave us our starting notes on the piano. She gave the tenors (me) an F sharp as our starting note, but it sounded a tad odd. Maybe it’s because I haven’t sung The Rutherford Way for a long time, but I wasn’t really feeling it with an F sharp. It was like yeeeah.. but nah. The other people in the tenor section (who were there) were Julian and Alex Strange (I think he was supposed to be singing tenor… unless there was a bass part, though I’ve never heard it before). The balance between the girls and the boys wasn’t very ideal; the ratio was like five to one (5:1). “Five to one man, FIVE to ONE!” -Paul Fisher Anyway, before we got much further, Mrs Faaea-Semeatu (it feels weird typing her whole name out all the time…) popped in and we quickly ran once through The Rutherford Way. I accidently sang “The Rutherford Day” in one of the choruses and had a little self-chuckle.

The rest of the day seemed to fly past because our Year 13 assembly ran slightly overtime, which meant the English period was shortened even more than the already shortened periods we have on Wednesdays. Like yesterday, I wasn’t going to be picked up from school until later (today it was 4:30pm) so I just stayed in our form class while I waited. Today after school Ms Russell was helping John Kim fill out an application for a scholarship of some sort (I think) and was discussing some of John’s personality attributes. We all agreed that John was an honest, determined and considerate individual who tried his best all the time (good on you John!). I sat down on the sofa with Faber and we started to talk about the film camp in Christchurch that we went to last year. That’s when I took out my phone and started playing him the song Popular from the musical Wicked. It was a song that a couple of girls performed in the studio at film camp. That’s when Faber jumped up and told me that he had brought in his DVD of film camp to school. Excited by this, we both sat around a laptop and watched the Popular performance on the DVD. Michele Lee was also bystanding while we watched, although I don’t know if the performance was very appealing to her. Or perhaps it was just because the girl on the video was jumping around in a pink babydoll type dress. Other videos we watched from the DVD afterward included Feeding the Ducks which I must say was quite random. It was basically random shots of ducks in the river at St Andrew’s College (the school where the camp was held) with the shark music from Jaws as background music. I don’t know if they were trying to buld up some sort of suspense with that music but the ducks were too innocent-looking to cause any harm. We also started watching The LipSync Competition but gave up on it when it started to drag on for too long.

Time was running along and before long it was time for me to leave. Dad picked me up at the back gate at 4:30pm and I went home to get changed because I had an appointment with Nick at the gym today. I drove myself to Club Physical and saw Nick there, who had just started. I was a bit anxious about coming to the gym today because I hadn’t been for a good two weeks at least (Nick thinks it was more than that… I’m sure it wasn’t that long ago!). Nick decided that I would just do his workout today (well, with slightly lighter weights) so I could get back into the routine again. I must say that the weeks of not going to the gym took a bit of a toll on my body. The weights felt heavier than they used to be, but fortunately I managed to keep up with Nick’s intense regime. Half way through our workout I met Helena by the drinking fountain. Apparently she had just been running on the treadmill for half an hour (wow, I don’t even think I could run for that long!). Nick introduced me to all these weird exercises today, which he assured me were more advanced than the exercises I was doing before. The last exercise I did was this one where I lay on a backwards inclined bench with a pole held behind my head, and I had to do reps of crunches-type things while looking at the ceiling before swinging the pole from side to side ten times. Yeah I know it sounds weird and, believe me, it definitely looked weird too! After our workout at the gym I took Nick home in the car because it started to rain. Before I dropped him off we had a chat in the car just to catch up in general, since we haven’t really talked for a long time. It was a good chat though. Very interesting.

I didn’t really do much else tonight to be honest. I think I had better get some sleep though, because I have a walk with Mr Moore before school tomorrow!