This year, I was given the opportunity to do a course in Computing which is run by the Otago Polytechnic. The school is paying $1000 for each of the students in the course (5 of us) and we pay $100. The lessons happen once a week on a Wednesday and are a one hour video conference. The course consists of 3 parts, and the first part was programming. The language we were learning was MSW Logo.

Now for anyone who has used Logo before, a lot of you may think it is stupid and not even a real language. I would semi-agree with the above statement, but its the easiest language to teach and learn in a very short space of time. Logo can do quite a few things and is more powerful that you would think, there is more to it than drawing lines on the screen. I think the most important lesson it the process of learning a computer language, and from it we obtain the skills that will help us learn new languages in the future. A lot of the concepts are very similar, if not the same.

There were 3 assessments for this topic. The first one was a long one where we had to write the code (on paper) to draw shapes. Very basic. The second assessment was about using arrays and lists to store, retrieve and analyze data. Again, we had to write the code on paper, without any help with syntax or anything. Slightly more difficult but still easy enough. The last part of the assessment was a project where we had to use Logo to display the time, either in analog or digital clock form. This was the most difficult part of the test and required a lot more thinking, as well as trying various methods to make the clock work.

This first topic in the course I found to be really simple, and the main reason behind it is due to the fact that I had already learnt 80% of the stuff four years ago. In saying that, it was still all very enjoyable, and even somewhat challenging during the end with the more complicated stuff. Now we are moving on to Operating Systems where we will learn about DOS and Linux and such in a bit of depth. One last thing, kudos to anyone who gets the relevance of the image.

I’m a geek, but I only eat Chicken Teriyaki sushi, and I don’t like anime, comic books, Star Wars or Star Trek.

I don’t like fantasy or Japanese RPGs, so I’ve never seen Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter, and I’ve never played Final Fantasy or any MMORPG. I don’t mind the odd western RPG though. On the other hand, some think I’m crazy because I never play First Person Shooters.

I do however have a PSP and a PS2 (and a retired PS1). Mum has a Wii but I never play it (I only used it for Mario Galaxy.) No one else plays it anymore, it collects dust. I don’t have any of the other “current generation” systems, but that is not due to financial issues. I wouldn’t mind owning a PS3 one day.

I use RSS client on my computer, this is because I don’t feel that web readers such as Google Reader are powerful enough to handle my bloated set of feeds. I only use VLC because Windows Media Player and Quicktime never work. I do however love iTunes because of the way it manages my music library.

I absolutely hate websites made in Flash. Flash should only be used to play videos, music or games on. Another web peeve is websites that play sound and video automatically. I don’t want to hear your crappy alternative taste of music blasting over my speakers. It’s going to make me never come back to your website again.

When it comes to operating systems: I use Windows Vista and I kinda love it. I would love to move over to Mac OS X because I am sure I will love it too. Linux is okay (my favourite distro would probably be Ubuntu) but I’m not using it on any computer right now. And I know Windows Vista works just fine, better than XP actually.

I’ve never use social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace, Bebo ect. I do have accounts there but I will not use them. There’s nothing on those communities I miss.

The vast majority of my music collection is from 2004 onwards (although the majority of it is my sisters.) I am currently in the process of discovering my own taste and trying to obtain albums that I fancy. I try to stay away from the shuffle mode, I prefer to listen to full albums at once (the way it was intended.)

I don’t feel the need to risk my life to conquer challenges such as climbing mountains, falling out of planes or jumping from high places. I don’t feel like I’m missing anything. In fact, I wouldn’t get any enjoyment or satisfaction out of them. To be honest, I’d be scared shitless.

I am a night person. I prefer to be awake late and sleeping early in the morning. Although in saying that, I do like sleeping on a schedule, going to sleep around the same time, and waking up around the same time too.

I never wear jeans. I’m always more comfortable in other pants. I also rarely wear short-sleeved shirts, even in the summer, because I never get cold (and I’m not that keen on showing skin).

I didn’t get a cellphone till 2005, and used it primarily for text messaging. I got a second cellphone in 2006. Both of these phones went into retirement in 2007 and I don’t miss having one at all. I may think about getting a feature-rich cellphone in 2010.

Inspired by Marco and Marcus

Despite yesterdays awful weather, both of the year 13 Geography classes went on a fieldtrip down to the beach. The purpose of this trip was to see human interference on coastal processes. This is important because the information we will collect and the things we will see will help us with an internal assessment later on in the term.

So anyway, when I woke up that morning, I could hear the rain hitting the roof of the house. I was a little disappointed because I had hoped for better weather because I would rather stay warm and dry than cold and wet. I was sure they wouldn’t cancel the trip so I went up school prepared, with pens, paper, lunch and a camera. As I got to school, the rain had settled, although it looked like it could start again at anytime. Regardless, down at the beach was going to be wet and icky.

Everyone got on the bus, and we were off on the trip. Our first stop was down to the Dunedin City Council where we would meet with a lady that will talk about Coastal Dunedin. Oddly, she was Australian and had only been here doing the job for 5 weeks, although she did seem to have a fair bit of knowledge. She talked and there was a slideshow on the projector, but I couldn’t see that. I did have a look and touch of some plants that are down there.

After that, we started heading down to the beach area. But before we went there, we stopped outside McDonalds for people to get (and eat) lunch. It was only quarter to 11 so it was a very early lunch. Me and my mates decided to walk down the road a little bit and get Burger King instead. I got a BK Chicken Value Meal. It was really good, much much better than anything McDonalds could offer.

Then it was time to go down to the beach. We went down the St Clair beach and walked along it. We looked at the water and what the beach looked like. Everyone took heaps of pictures so we could look at them and refer to them later on. During this walk, the weather was starting to get worse. It didn’t pour down, but it was starting to drizzle. We then got back into the bus and drove further along the beach. At this point, it was raining. The teacher decided that we would stay in the bus and not go outside and do what was originally planned.

Driving around for 2 hours was interesting but started to get boring. Then we got back to school and I went home. I don’t know if it is a good thing or a bad thing that the weather was bad, but at least we didn’t have to go out in the rain and get cold and wet. If it wasn’t raining, we would have been collecting data of the beach such as measurements, calculations, sketches and pictures of the beach, so I suppose we got of that work. The trip wasn’t that bad because it meant a day of school. I can’t wait for the next Geography fieldtrip later on in the year, we’re going to Queenstown!

Geography Beach Fieldtrip Photographs are at http://flickr.com/photos/yum9me/sets/72157605209611191/

As mentioned in my previous post, I spend Monday and Tuesday away at a school retreat. In the morning, I went to school with my gear, which consisted of clothes, a pillow and a sleeping bag. From there, we went on the bus to a place not that far out of Dunedin. It was basically in the middle of a rural area so there were no shops or places to run away to. When we got there, I got my gear and went to my cabin. I shared this with 5 other guys, all but one of them were okay.

The whole time we were there, we did some games, discussions and some own time for personal thought. The group discussions were pretty interesting and mainly consisted of subjects about ourselves and our family. There were also some group activities such and the usual confidence course and getting over the giant wall etcetera.

During the night, we had dinner, which I do have to say was really horrible! They got fish and chips. The fish wasn’t that good and the batter on it was horrible. The chips were alright but I have had a lot better. Its not really the schools fault that is was bad, for they didn’t cook it. After that, we went and did our own thing, which was socialising for most people. The a bit later in the night, there was a mass. Yeah, its a Catholic School retreat so it was expected we would have something like this, but this was really the only religious stuff that happened, which I’m thankful for.

The next morning, we got packed and did a few more things. One of the things that we did was get back into our groups and individually say nice things about each member of our group. It was a really nice discussion and hearing what others thing about each other and what others thought about myself. We then wrote personal notes to each of our group members. This is probably the most interesting part of the retreat. Then it was time to go back to school.

We ended up getting back at 3:15pm. I had to catch the public bus to my house with a bag of clothes/pillow and a sleeping bag. This is rather awkward and I was tired from the lack of sleep that night which made carrying the items down the hill a challenge. When I got home, I realised I didn’t have my keys, they were inside the house. I also remembered that my sister wasn’t going to be home till late so she won’t be able to let me in. The only other person that could let me in was my neighbour, but she wasn’t home when I walked past. I went for a walk around the block and by the time I got back, she was home and she let me in.

The retreat was a great experience and I am happy I went. It didn’t bother me one bit that I didn’t have any computer or internet, or any communication to the outside (internet) world. The only problem with leaving the internet for more than 40 hours is the email banked up, the 20 or so pages of tweets on twitter, the dozen pages of articles on Digg and the thousand or so articles in my RSS reader. Lucky I was away during a quiet period or else I would have a whole lot more to catch up on. I AM BACK AND BETTER THAN EVER!!!

Tomorrow I will be leaving for an overnight school trip. We are going somewhere not too far away and will be doing something that I do not know. So as of around 11pm tonight, that will be the last time I use my computer until I get back on the Tuesday afternoon.

Now that’s around 40 hours with no computer, no cellphone or iPod or anything of the sort. I am not going to have any technology for a long time. I can’t remember the last time I have been away from my computer for that long, but its probably been years. The longest I am usually away from the internet world is about 10 hours which isn’t that long but I am going to be away from it all for 40 hours and in 10 hours the internet moves pretty fast so I’m going to have a lot to catch up on being away from it for 4 times that.

Being away from the internet for so long is going to make it hard to come back with a huge pile of articles in my RSS reader, stories on Digg, Tweets to read, and other things to catch up on. This opportunity my help me by evaluating my internet usage and possibly help me make some cuts on unnecessary parts so I have more time to do other stuff and be more productive. As well as helping me through the experience of going away, it may also help me in my current life, online and offline. Maybe 40 hours away from it all will do me some good after all.

This evening, my family and my good friend Josh went out for dinner to a Japanese restaurant. It was a teppanyaki style place where they cook the food on these giant metal cooker things. Looking at the menu, I couldn’t see anything that sounded “normal” that I would eat. Mum ended up helping choose for me and I ordered Teppanyaki Chicken, and my friend picked that too. I really didn’t know what to expect because I have never been to a Japanese restaurant like this before.

After waiting for 10 minutes or so, a bowl arrived with salad on it. It wasn’t the typical type of salad I am use to seeing, instead it was lettuce with some weird, crispy thing on top with a funny sauce. I wasn’t game to try it so I gave it to Dad, who later on said that it had a strange taste. Then came another bowl with two deep fried balls on it. My friends asked the waiter what it was and she replied Octopus. Neither of us were willing to eat that so we passed it on to my mother who did eat them, despite the look on her face when she took a bite. After that came a bowl of some Japanese soup. It had a weird flavour that I would describe as a soy sauce like taste. I didn’t really want this either so I passed it on. Then finally the main meal came. It was chicken, along with bean sprout, onions, green pepper and tofu, along with a bowl of rice. I didn’t eat any of the weird stuff, only the rice and some of the chicken. I decided I didn’t want to eat any of this so I just left it. The rest of my family didn’t think much of their meals too so we paid and left.

As we were going home, we stopped at Dominoes for some pizzas. We got 3 pizzas, 2 Meat Lovers and a Hawaiian. When we got home, all of us got into them. The pizzas were all cleaned up in no time. From this experience, I don’t think I am going to go to another place with foreign food, or at least not for a long while. I think I will stick with what I am familiar with and know that I will eat. Its weird to think people actually like to eat this stuff that I couldn’t even touch. This was probably one of the worst meal outings in a long time!

On Friday, 9th of May, I turned 18 years old. Now this is a big thing because it means I can legally do a lot of things. Purchase Alcohol and Cigarettes, Gamble money, and do other things that I will think of later. Anyway, its supposed to be a milestone for a young person. To be honest, I couldn’t care less. It doesn’t feel any different and I probably won’t do any of the things stated above for a fair while because I don’t care and am not interested in wasting money on those luxuries.

Now onto my birthday… Every year for a few years now, Birthdays haven’t really meant much. They seem like normal days, only slightly different because I get a few gifts and people give you a different number to associate how long you have been alive. This year, I didn’t really get much in the terms of the gifts department. I did get gifts, but they weren’t anything special or anything worth talking about. Maybe that is one of the reasons I don’t care much about birthdays anymore, I don’t get cool toys like when I was little.

And in case you are wondering, no, there was no party. Parties do not appeal to me really. I did not have friends over and do stuff. There is really nothing to do, nor a reason to celebrate, in my opinion. Some would say I have a negative or bland view on birthdays, or celebration in general, and yes, you are probably right. Why don’t I care? Maybe because no one else does either.