2 November, 2011 in University by Aonghas

An Extra Day’s Grace

Today I woke up later than I wanted to (again) to start another day’s study (again). After a couple of hours I decided that I wasn’t making much progress and the fact that Jeremy Kyle was trying to give advice to another set of bogans on TV in the background didn’t help either. My mum tried to keep me awake by giving me some green tea but I still found it hard to concentrate and actually make some progress. I decided to take a shower and go into uni so that I could start studying with a fresh mind away from anything that might distract me.

When I got into uni I walked through the quad and bumped into Vas and Sushi who were both having lunch. They told me that they had already had an exam and that Systems and Control was their last exam next Wednesday (which is my first exam). They said Wednesday. And I told them it was on Tuesday. But they insisted it was Wednesday so I checked my phone and sure enough they were right! Suddenly a micro sigh of relief passed through me, because it meant I had an extra day to study (believe me, I can do with ANY extra time to study right now), although it also meant I had one less day to study for my other two exams. But that didn’t matter at that moment, because I was most worried about Systems and Control. I headed to the undergraduate labs and found a space to study. There were a couple of other people in the room when I arrived but they left a few hours later. For the rest of the evening I spent my time looking over Laplace transforms and I was pleased when I managed to do some questions I was stuck on last night.

Slowly but surely I think I’m learning. I just hope I’ll be somewhat ready this time next week! Tomorrow I’m planning to go to uni early in the morning, so it’s early bedtime tonight!

30 June, 2011 in Personal by Aonghas

A Coughing Start to the Holidays

I was really looking forward to the beginning of the holidays. After I finally finished my last exam (which just happened to be on the last day of exams!) I thought things were going to get better, but unfortunately for me it was just the start of what would become a downward spiral of health. I should start from the beginning though…

My last exam was on Monday 27 June in the morning – hardware design programming. Seeing as it was my last exam and I didn’t want to fail, I thought I could probably stay up really late and study into the wee hours of the morning. I figured if I could just make it through the 3 hour exam, then it wouldn’t matter if I was completely wasted afterwards because I’d be on holiday by then and I could just sleep it off for the rest of the day (or even week for that matter). so after falling asleep close to 5am and then having to wake up at 7, I didn’t really get much sleep and I was feeling a bit woozy in the morning. Nothing that a cup of green tea couldn’t fix, I thought to myself. In fact the exam turned out to be not as bad as I thought, and I think I probably answered most of the questions adequately. When the exam was over, I was exhausted. I just wanted to go home and hibernate. It wasn’t until then that I realised I was fostered on to work at IC that night from 7pm till midnight! Uh oh… Either way I still needed sleep so I decided to catch the next bus home and I slept until I had to catch the bus back into town. I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to make it through the whole shift awake, but because it was the last day of exams, there weren’t many students still at uni that night thankfully. At 7:45 I had to go downstairs to cover the break for short loans. It was probably the quietest 45 minutes I have ever worked at uni. Not one person came in the whole time I was there and I ended up giving my eyes a rest without realising. Near the end of my shift I started to feel lightheaded. I didn’t feel nauseous as if I wanted to vomit, but my head felt like it was taking longer to move than the rest of my body. I didn’t want to be a nuisance so I tried to press on, but it was quickly becoming apparent that I needed sleep. Luckily the taxi ride home was swift and I managed to get to sleep before long.

The next couple of days were not much better. In fact, Tuesday was probably the worst. I ended up lying in bed, restless with a headache and cough. Not exactly the best way to start the holidays. I’m starting to feel a bit better now but I just hope I’ll be fit enough to go to the V20 Conference tomorrow.

1 June, 2011 in IC Helpdesk, Work by Aonghas

Smoochy Discipline

This afternoon I had a quick 2 hour shift at the Information Commons at uni. Halfway through my shift I was looking at my Google calendar online when I was approached by a “mature” female student who was having a problem where she was studying upstairs on level 3 in the silent study computer lab. By “mature”, I mean she was probably pushing 50 years old, if not older. Apparently there was a distracting couple sitting next to her and she couldn’t concentrate because they were constantly whispering and “smooching”. She wanted one of us to help by telling them off effectively. I looked over to my workmate who gave me a facial expression that said “you can deal with it”, so I told the lady that I would be up shortly to survey the noise levels.

A couple of minutes after she had left, I went up to level 3 and roamed down the aisles to make sure everyone was obeying the silent rule. I found the offending couple near the end of the room when I noticed an Asian girl sitting on a guy’s lap. I assumed he was her boyfriend. Although they weren’t in individual booths like they were supposed to be, it didn’t seem like they were making too much trouble when I walked past. I noticed the chair next to them was vacant but still had books open on the table, so I guessed the mature student had been sitting there. I thought I’d stay on level 3 just in case anything else happened, so I logged into the staff PC in the middle of the room and thought I’d check my email. A couple of minutes later the same mature lady came back and said to me, “did you see the couple? Are you too embarrassed to tell them off?!” She told me they were still whispering and distracting her so I followed her back to her desk and tapped the guy’s shoulder and asked if he realised it was an “individual silent study area”. As soon as I said the word “individual”, he quickly replied “oh yes yes, sorry I’m just waiting for a free computer…” Hmm didn’t really justify the fact he and his girlfriend were getting cozy with each other on the chair and playing with each other’s hair. By this time everyone else in the same aisle had turned around to see what the fuss was about. I just stood there right next to him until he felt awkward enough to leave. Even when they were parting ways, they extended their arms out to each other as if they’d never see each other again.

Ahh dear, young love huh?

30 May, 2011 in University by Aonghas

One Week Left

I can’t believe it’s that time again. That time when all the lectures are winding down and everyone starts transforming into their study modes. This week is our last week of classes before we break for study leave. Luckily (or unluckily?) for me, my first exam is two weeks after my last lecture, but it means my three exams are quite close together. The annoying thing is that I can’t really get into full study mode just yet because I have a big 50% project due this Friday. After that I’ll have to cram 12 weeks of material into two weeks and it’s going to be quite a hefty challenge.

During this coming week I’m going to aim to achieve a few things. Firstly, I want to have a proper study plan all done so that I’m ready to get straight into study after I’ve finished my project. I also want to wake up earlier in the morning so that I can make my days more productive. I can do it, I know I can. It’s all just about self-discipline I keep telling myself. Let’s do this!

22 July, 2010 in Friends, Social by Aonghas

Drinks at Shadows

Today was the first time I had been to Shadows

Since I’ve been at the University of Auckland for over a year and a half now, you would have thought I had been to the student bar Shadows at least once. But before today, that wasn’t the case. I remember someone, maybe my brother, telling me about the $1 bottomless glasses of coke they used to serve at Shadows, and I was meaning to go up there one day to check it out but I never got round to doing it. Maybe it’s because I couldn’t be bothered climbing three flights of stairs, or maybe I just had nobody to go with and there was never a good opportunity. But anyway, today I was sitting outside in the quad with Nancy and Jesse, eating my sandwiches prepared for me by my mum.

After Nancy left, Jesse and I were talking about engineering when Carey and Stephanie arrived. It took me a few moments to realise it was the first time I had seen Carey since his American escapades to the States earlier this month. Carey and Stephanie were on their way up to Shadows and asked if we’d like to join them. I was excited to go up there for the first time, and after being ID checked at the door, I was pleasantly surprised to discover the bar actually looked quite tidy and clean. I always had a mental image of the bar being smoggy and dark for some reason; maybe I got the impression that a student bar would be filled with rowdy drunkards vomiting all over the place. Then again, it was 1:20pm in the afternoon so perhaps it was a bit early in the day for the hardcore drinkers to be out.

Carey and Jesse ordered a whole jug of some kind of beer while I opted for a non-alcoholic option. I didn’t know what was on the menu apart from the regular soft drinks, so the bartender offered to make me a “mocktail”. I’m guessing that means a mock version of a cocktail? Anyway, he mixed all these different things together and shook it up in a silver shaker and the final drink turned out to pinky-purple. I asked him what it was called but I don’t think he knew himself – just a mixture of everything perhaps. It did taste pretty good I must say, but I expected it to taste how it did – that kind of taste you get when you mix soft drinks and juices.

Carey told us a little bit about his trip to USA and he shared a few party stories along with Stephanie. When 2pm came knocking it was time for me to go. Overall I am impressed with my first Shadows experience, and I wouldn’t mind going back there sometime. So if anyone needs a non-alcoholic drinking buddy, you know who to call

19 July, 2010 in Engineering, University by Aonghas

Full Steam Ahead

After finding out that I managed to pass all my papers last semester (what a relief!), it was back to business at Uni today. I was getting worried for a while after my exams because the thought of failing any of my exams meant that I would not be allowed to enrol in one of my second semester courses. I really didn’t want to become a split-year student because that could just get messy so I was considering taking a break from Uni if I did fail any papers and finding an Engineering job for the rest of the year instead. As luck would have it though, I can put that past me – for now.

My first class today wasn’t until 1pm so I had a bit of free time in the morning… well, to sleep in! On the way to Uni Jesse and Luke Dickinson caught the same bus, though we only started talking after we had got off the bus behind the Aotea Centre. My 1pm lecture was Object Oriented Design (COMPSYS 202), which is pretty much a programming paper. We were introduced to the Linux operating system and were told that we would be learning how to program in the C++ language this semester. Straight after our first lecture, the second class was in the same lecture theatre so I didn’t have to move. Dr. Chris Smaill, who taught us for ELECTENG 101 last year, returned to introduce himself again for this semester’s Engineering Electromagnetics (ELECTENG 204). The introduction and course overview was pretty brief and we were already into the course material in the second half of the lecture!

Finally today, I had my first tutorial for my Technical Communication for Engineers paper (ENGGEN 204). We were welcomed by our teaching assistant Vicky, who gave an overview of the course and outlined the different modules we will be covering in the next 12 weeks. The first module is working in Microsoft Excel and Word, learning how to use the different functions and tools that are available. Although there were a couple of things that were slightly new to me, some parts of the tutorial seemed rather trivial, especially such things as “navigating around a spreadsheet using the scroll bars”. I would have thought that was implicit. Then again, if I can gain marks for simple things like that then I’m not complaining!

The first day back at Uni wasn’t too bad all in all. I’d give it about a 7/10 in terms of excitement. And for once I’m on top of all my course work now, I just need to keep this up for the next 12 weeks and I should be fine!

19 April, 2010 in Engineering, University by Aonghas

Metal Milling

First day back at Uni after the break. My first class was MM2 (maths) and we had a new lecturer. Well, it turns out he wasn’t actually “new” to most of us because he lectured us last year in our programming course, Peter Bier. This time though he was going to be teaching us Multi-variable Calculus, whatever that is. The thing I really enjoy about Peter Bier is that he makes lectures interesting by entertaining us mid-lecture. Last year he showed us his prowess at uni-cycling as well as impressive juggling tricks, so I was excited to see what he had in store for us this time round. Half way through the lecture he showed us how to juggle – with one ball. But it wasn’t your usual juggling. It was more like ball rolling from hand to hand. I think it’s called “contact juggling”. It took him 3 months to learn apparently, and it looks pretty cool too!

The milling machine looked pretty complicated at first

Tonight I continued my workshop practice at AUT. I had already spent two sessions previously on bench work and ended up constructing a dill gauge. Today it was time to change over, so our group moved to milling and lathe workshop. We were split up into two groups; half on the milling machines and half on the lathe machines. I had never used a milling machine before so everything looked pretty complicated to me at first. Our teaching assistant Paul showed us how to assemble and attach a drill bit to the milling machine, which required multiple pieces. He then showed us the basic controls of a milling machine and demonstrated how to shave off some metal to make it smooth. It was a very slow process but it didn’t look too hard.

All the pieces needed just to assemble the drill bit

We were then sent away to our own machines to begin our project. The people on the milling machine, like me, are making a level (you know, one of those things you put up against an edge and it has the little bubble to tell you if it’s properly horizontal etc.) We were given a metal bar an we had to mill it down to the right width and height (25mm square) before we could continue. As we were milling the bar, we had to constantly spray this watery/milky stuff on the drill to help keep the metal cool (I think?). As you can see below, milling a piece of metal takes ages, especially if the bar is moving past the drill very slowly!

 

It took nearly two hours, but eventually my metal bar was pretty close to being 25mm square, given the fact we were only taking off fractional millimetres at a time! Next week I think we’ll be adding the little level bubble to complete our project. Exciting stuff!

18 April, 2010 in Church, Personal by Aonghas

The Book of Genesis

We resumed our Genesis Bible study at Sunday School today. We’ve nearly finished chapter 1 now, and already it’s raising some pretty interesting discussion topics. Like in verses 29-30 when it says:

Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food.” And it was so.

The meaning behind these verses is a bit iffy since it talks about eating green plants but doesn’t actually mention eating animals. Does that mean we should all be vegetarians? If that’s the case I’ve been doing the wrong thing for the last 19 years. But I can’t live without meat, where will I get my protein? Soya bean just doesn’t do it for me. There were several other points of contention that were raised but I don’t have time to list them all out here. I’m sure more will be revealed as we study the rest of the book.

It’s the night before Uni starts again, and I’m feeling a bit edgy. I really am. Okay so basically I have an assignment due tomorrow morning at 9am and I’ve finished it (tick!), but I have a project due Tuesday afternoon that I haven’t really started (no tick…). What’ worse is that after I sweat blood and tears to get this project done on time, I’ll be fried and won’t feel like doing anything else for the rest of the day. Even though I have a test on Wednesday night which, as you can guess, I haven’t studied for! The last two weeks for me really have been a holiday… for the wrong reasons. I feel like I’ve wasted so much time doing, well, nothing really. Let’s just take one thing at at time. First, this maths project…

1 April, 2010 in University by Aonghas

A Week of Tests

I’ve been pretty slack posting for the last week because I’ve been pretty bogged down trying to study/cram for all the tests that seemed to have sprung up on me out of nowhere. My first test was last Friday night – the test I was probably least prepared for. More than half the content was about semiconductors and conduction while the rest of the test was about diodes. I managed to wade my way through most of the questions and I was glad to see the end of that test. After that test I had to rush back to church for youth group because they were watching the movie “Up” tonight. I walked in halfway through the movie so I didn’t really know what was going on, but I kind of picked up a few things along the way.

In some ways I looking forward to this week, but in other ways I was waiting for it to be over. The last week was supposed to be a way for me to cool down and get ready for the mid-semester break, but instead my week was plagued with three more tests… on consecutive days too! Computer Systems on Tuesday, Mathematical Modelling on Wednesday and Electronic Circuits today. Overall they didn’t go too badly (fingers crossed!) but I don’t want to think about them anymore because it’s mid-semester break now. This year is just going by faster and faster everyday I swear!

15 March, 2010 in Engineering, University by Aonghas

The Art of Filing

Fire drill at the gym

When I got to Uni, I met up with Rose and Angie at the gym to play squash. It was the first time I had played squash for the year so I was understandably a little rusty. Not long into our squash sesh, we heard a continuous alarm ringing. Initially we just ignored it but after ringing for more than ten seconds, we assumed it was a fire drill. Sure enough, all the people down in the gym were also heading up the stairs as we shuffled outside in a big mob of sweat. It was a relief to get some fresh air once we made it outside; I’m sure the others felt like they could do with a bit of a cool-down too. Luckily we didn’t have to wait too long before we were allowed back in, and we continued playing squash until nearly half-past eleven. 

I played squash with Rose and Angie at the Uni gym

The workshop is located on St Pauls Street

There wasn’t much time to get ready after my last lecture finished at 5pm. I had to go upstairs to my locker to get my gear before making my way across the road to find out where this workshop was being held at AUT. It wasn’t that much of a mission to find actually; the small lecture room was nearly full by the time I arrived. We were introduced to the University before being given an outline of what we’re going to do over the 9-week course. We were then split into three groups and sent to different workshops. I was put into Group 1 with our teaching assistant being Paul, this guy who looks a lot like the main character in the Eddie Murphy film The Nutty Professor. For the first three weeks our group is going to be doing “bench” work. Our project is to contruct a drill gauge with a piece of metal. The first task we were assigned to do was to file the edge of the piece of metal. You’d think it’s simple but as I found out, it’s actually really hard to get the surface completely flat. I spent the better part of 40 minutes just filing this darn piece of metal trying to even out the surface.

My first workshop was spent filing a piece of metal

Even when I thought it was straight enough, the flatness test we used didn’t agree with my judgement! I should probably explain what I mean by the “flatness test”. There was this metal table with ink on its surface and we had to rub the edge of our piece of metal we were filing on to this table. If the edge of the metal was flat, the whole edge would be painted blue by the ink, otherwise the gaps indicated where the lower sections were on the piece of metal. 

Finally when I managed to get the edge straight, I had to do the same for the adjacent side and file it flat… at right angles! I thought it would take forever, but surprising it didn’t take too long; maybe I was beginning to master the technique of filing. Next thing to do was mark out where to drill the different sized holes on piece of metal. We had space to drill holes ranging from 3-10mm with 1mm increments. I got all my holes drilled by the end of the workshop so next week I’ll only have to do a few finishing touches before I’ll have my very own drill gauge!