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.

On Tuesday, it was tertiary open day in Dunedin. This was an opportunity for year 13 students to go onto campus and find out information on courses and such that the Otago University and Otago Polytechnic has to offer. This was compulsory for the year 13′s at my school to go to and the roll was taken to make sure we at least showed up (although that didn’t stop everyone from wagging it *cough* GTA IV *cough*.)

I turned up there and had a fair idea at the presentations I was going to see and the pamphlets I was going to take. I also went to a couple that I wasn’t going to but ended up going to because they were kinda relevant and a mate was going anyway and I needed something to do to pass the time. I went to the General Science presentation which covers the different courses for a Science degree. After that I went to the Applied Science presentation which has Software Engineering, although they didn’t say much about it. Then later on, I went to a Information Science presentation which talked a lot about IT. It was the most interesting presentation up to this point because the others were boring.

At the end of the presentation, I had 5 minutes to get over to the Polytechnic buildings to see a presentation for Information Technology. On my way there, I didn’t make a turn when I should have and I got completely lost. I had had to find my way back to on the right path. When I did finally figure out where the hell I was, I managed to find my way to the building. I was already 5 minutes late and I had difficulty finding the room in the reasonably large building. When I got to the room, there was a notice on the door saying there was a change. Different building, different room. After making my way to the correct room, I was 10 minutes late and I had missed quite a bit of the presentation. I was a little annoyed.

Anyway, after that fiasco, I made my way back to the University area and went to the Computer Science building for my last presentation before I go home. If you hadn’t guessed, the presentation was on Computer Science. It wasn’t that bad of a presentation. After seeing all of the presentations, I am still not 100% sure what I want to do next year but I am swaying towards doing Computer Science at Otago University. Now I just need to get that one pesky English credit and I should be well on my way of getting there.

From now, I will have no more school for 2 weeks. This has been a long term consisting of 11 weeks, although there was Easter break in the middle somewhere so it was probably more like 10 and a half weeks. Still, the term has been pretty long and has been pretty busy, as you would know if you have read the post from last week.

As far as schools concerned, we haven’t done that much at all this term. Have had 2 assessments in Statistics, which I managed to get an Excellence in, and the other one hasn’t been marked, 1 assessment in Geography, which hasn’t been marked either, 2 assessments in ICT, one passed, other not marked (but will be a pass),  1 assessment in Electronics which I passed and 1 in Physics which hasn’t been marked, but I know I haven’t passed it, yet.

Last day pretty much was mucking around. In ICT, I had finished the test in 2 and a half of the 4 periods given, so I ended up browsing the Internet and playing Minesweeper. In Electronics, I helped a friend try and troubleshoot a computer but it was well and truly fucked, then I started installing Windows XP on another machine and later on helped, which turned out to be actually doing it, installing RAM into another machine. Then last period of the day was the Physics test which was hard. Got to leave early which was a upside, I guess.

I don’t have anything planned for the holidays but it will more than likely consist of my being on the computer and internet doing basically nothing. Two weeks after doing that, school will start again. Not really looking forward to that but it will be nice to get test results back. Hopefully I can think of things to blog about during my holidays to make up for the lack of posts during the school time. HOLIDAYS ARE GO!!!

As you may not have noticed, my blog was updated to WordPress 2.5 last week, thanks to Peppery. The only noticeable change is in the admin panel where is has been redone to be easier to use and look much nicer. It is taking a little bit of getting use to but after a while, I’m sure I will remember where they have moved things. For a new WordPress user, the admin panel will definitely be easier to use but for an old user like me, I’m going to have to get fully use to it.

You may have noticed the lack of update in the past week or so. The reason for my absence in blogging is because I have been overloaded with assessments that were due. I had 5 different bits of schoolwork to do. One was a report for geography on the processes of building the new Carisbrook Stadium in Dunedin, which was really hard to do. I’d be lucky to pass because I had no bloody idea what I was rambling about. I also had a Statistics project to complete which was straightforward, just took a little bit of thinking and time to complete and write up. There was also some small bits of homework such as 2 pages of physics questions, some Computing tasks and also an electronics research project on transducers to be completed.

I have finished doing all assignments and hopefully my plate stays relitively clean for a while, especially during the holidays, so I can do what I normally do and not be tied down with homework and assignments to get done. Hopefully there is no homework for me to do over the holidays so I can have a relaxing break without having to even think about school or school work. I guess we will just have to wait and see.

Tuesday this week wasn’t a normal Tuesday. There were no classes, but the whole school was required to go to the Caledonian at Logan Park for Athletics Day. The day pretty much consists of doing athletic events, eating, socialising and sitting in the stands. The day is also an opportunity for the school houses to earn house points.

That is all great but personally, I don’t care about or feel like participating in the sports events, I socialise at school with people and a whole day of it would be too much for me. And eating and sitting all day (doing nothing) is pretty much what I do at home everday, right now for a matter of fact. So again this year like the past 2 years, I have felt no reason to go to this even so I stayed at home.

Anyway, I had a nice relaxing day at home. My mother took a sick day so she was here too. I pretty much did what I normally do, and that is go on the internet. Although I did take my day off to do something more constructive. I finished reading, well listening, to my audiobook that I downloaded from Audible. A also did some light housework and got $10 for it. Finishing an Audiobook  and making $10 or sitting down and hanging around talking to people and doing absolutely nothing, what would you do?

Going to Athletics Day is compulsory and you get a detention if you do not attend. But this year, and the two before it, I have managed to slip through the gaps and have had no punishment. To be honest, as far as they know, I was there. They wouldn’t know if I was there or not. I’m not one of the loud people or the people that get noticed so my absence goes unnoticed. If I did happen to be there, no one would probably notice either.

I’m pretty happy about getting the day off, again, like the other years. I’d always trade a more enjoyable and productive day for a boring and unproductive day. So pretty much I took a sick day when I wasn’t sick, although the ironic thing is the next day, I woke up a little sick with a cold that has been progressing for the rest of the week.  Karma, it gets you doesn’t it?

On Monday, school started again for me. I am now in Year 13, which is my final year. Pretty much this year is for getting University Entrance requirements. My first day subjects were my two favourite ones, Electronics, followed by ICT. All the class consisted of was admin stuff and course outline and such, not a lot of learning. In ICT, there were new computer which were really small, but powerful enough for what they are supposed to be used for, office crap!

The other subjects I do are Statistics, which is a small class and should be pretty smooth except with all the homework given. Geography should be easy. There is one problem, they have stuffed in 26 or so students into a small classroom ideal for 20 students. It is really squashed and you hardly have room to move. I hope they can get us a proper classroom. Then there is Religion Studies, which is compulsory, and I have nothing much to say about this subject. My final subject this year, which I finally had last period of this week is Physics. This is going to be slightly difficult, but the teacher is pretty good and has some new toys and technology for us to try/play with soon.

My week at school has been pretty cruisy, except for the annoying homework. Next week everything shold be normal. I still have a little trouble keeping up with my TV shows and podcasts, but that could be because I have been doing other things. Hopefully I can fit school, homework, internet and media all into my day and have it all done and watched before the weekend so I can have them free for other things, erm… I mean more internet.

Today, I officially finished school for the year. Classes stopped 3 weeks ago for study leave and exams. You are no officially on holiday until you get signed out of school, which they do on a specified date and time. I had to go back to school for 30 minutes just to return text books and get signatures from teachers so I can leave for my well deserved break.

It is stupid that they make me travel to school just to do that. Its a waste of time. I don’t see why they can’t do that during exams. That would save me from having to return when my exams are all over. At least they are not taking our textbooks back before the exams because they are a useful tool to use when studying, if you choose to study like everyone else, except me.

I personally would have rather slept in this morning instead of making the journey back to the place I would like to leave behind after the difficult year. Oh well, I have to do what I have to do. Now I have 2 months and a little bit more where I will have no school or work. I will be on the computer for most of that time. i with I had something as well as the computer/internet to keep me entertained during this long break. Money would be nice right now, a lot of it, then I could buy video games and other cool gadgets and gizmos to keep me busy until next year when I return for the final time.