The Blog

The stats from MacFest '08 day 1...

A short breakdown on the people with stalls:

• Christian groups (primarily prosperity-preaching evangelicals): 40%
• Nationality-based groups: 30% (There are some overlaps, such as the Chinese Catholic Students Association, but these stats were never going to be terribly precise)
• Other religious groups: 2% (I think I saw the jewish students group somewhere)
• Charitable groups (eg. Amnesty, Cancer Council, Macquarie students who want to help the starving children in Africa (yeah, they didn't have an acronym)): 10%
• Clubs based on choice of major (eg. economics students association): 10%
• Actual clubs for hobbies or social activities (eg. role-playing society, dramac): 8%

I feel old and unwelcome. Even the clubs I used to have membership of don't seem to be there anymore. Now if only our corporate overlords had shown up, there might have been some free food to scab. But I'm assured they'll be there tomorrow, so there may yet be ramen for Catherine.

Labels: get off my lawn, I want to go home now, uni

Tired of trekking across the city to see people...

...and yet no one gets that it doesn't mean I'm sick of them. What it means is that it's 7 degrees out, I don't have a car and I currently can't feel my fingers. So I don't want to spend two hours on public transport meeting you on your side of town and then two hours going home when the temperature is most likely sub-freezing. It's decidedly unpleasant.

Also, when I say I don't want to go to a conference, it means I don't want to go. Not that I want to be persuaded by you because look at all the wonderful warm feelings you're going to get out of it and you get to visit your daughter and your good friends in Canberra and you're not even a fucking student anymore, you submitted! Fuck off, I don't want to go, and I really don't want to go with you.

Am looking forward to going home and watching avatar. I still can't quite believe it's nearly over.

Labels: I want to go home now, losing sleep, stupid people, time and space

   You don't even remember, do you..?

I'm really tired of feeling like I don't belong.

Labels: family, I want to go home now, phd, sending our love down the well

   1.3 days to go...

My long awaited vacation is here at last. Only I'm not ready yet, I haven't even thought about packing and my PhD isn't in a state to be abandoned for a month despite me staying til 9 tonight. *sighs*

But my cake decorating class is done and I'm rather pleased with the monstrosity of a result:

But right now I think it's time to sleep. Night all...

Labels: cake, holiday, I made this, I want to go home now

   This is where I live...

Or, more precisely, this is a block away from where I live.

Labels: hiding it all behind a smile, I want to go home now, shots fired in the dark, yagoona

   Ye gods and little fishies...

I'm so very tired, but I'm done now. Just have to live through the next few days. Not sure what kind of access I'll have, but if you don't hear from me, expect me to be drunk and happy and back on sunday.

Labels: conferences, I want to go home now, losing sleep

   Heh...

I checked with the treasurer this morning, and it turns out we only needed 39 students to break even on the kiddy conference. We had that by lunchtime yesterday and are now at ~45 or so, with a few bonuses from New Zealand coming along for the ride.

And we're only 17 short on the grown-up conference, no doubt with a big rush to come this afternoon.

Someone remind me to post photos of my new knitting project at some point. I keep meaning to make it a "take a photo once a week and show how it grows" thing, but I keep forgetting. The good thing is I have a very good memory, and I'll just annotate the first photo with dates.

Labels: conferences, I want to go home now

   Brief Update...

So, if we include all the Local Organising Committee and the kids who asked for financial support, we've had 25 registrations for the student conference so far, with 2 weeks until the earlybird deadline. This is great news, I think, since most people wait until the last day to register, and we've done most of our budgeting around there being at least 50 people.

I'm not sure that any of this was because of the work I've done for it all, but it's nice to know that the webpages (including the registration system) are still working and nobody has made any complaints (except for Lesa, who broke it on the first day by not liking more than one type of food).

So yeah. I will at some point bring everyone up to date about what's going on and why I'm so busy with it all, but it's not going to be today because I'm about to go teach a lab class.

Labels: conferences, I want to go home now

   A seriously crappy day was just made better...

Me: 9 people in the office...
James: Time to vote someone off.

Labels: I want to go home now, love my boy, odd smells in my office

   I liked my old office...

It was nice and big, there were only three people in it on the busiest of days and only one person could be gazing at my screen while they were at their desks.
Sure, it didn't have air conditioning, but it had a fan, which was nice, and most of the time I was the only person there.

Now they've put me in a huge cubical farm, with no whiteboard, air conditioning that is on by the vote of a committee of overheated peoples (I should not have to wear a jacket at my desk) and they won't stop talking. If they're not arguing over the position of the fridge (which I suspect Korinne won't be happy about, since everyone will be congregated at her desk if it stays where it is), they're fretting over what numbers the phones currently possess (which are being changed as soon as IT services gets around to it) or they're just fucking talking all the fucking time!
I was told it was going to be quiet in here. That it was nicer than my old office. That I would be seated with a bunch of people who are never in. Only now those people are saying that they like it so much they want to be in all the time, and they are all looming behind me making it so I can't concentrate and do any work.
Frankly I'm tempted to switch my computer off and move it back, because I'm really very unhappy here. Either that or switch the position of my desk so that I can face the window (another plus of my old office) with my screen pointed away from everyone else.

I hate it here, and I wish that W would get off the fucking phone and do some bloody work. It takes him an hour to drive here, he ought to respect that effort more and not spend the whole time talking to his wife.

Edited to Add: Break out the fucking headphones, or I will break them out for you, dipshit. Your taste in music sucks arse.

Labels: get off my lawn, I want to go home now, never going to graduate, odd smells in my office, stupid people