6 Weeks Left at Bosch

I’m approaching the final stretch at Bosch which means a number of things.

Firstly and most importantly I need to take my finances seriously. Now I know I should have been taking my finances seriously before but somehow during the past 6 mths I’ve managed to not save a cent (Don’t tell my dad!!) Clearly all those minor discretionary purchases, you know: $1000 phone, $500 winter shopping spree, numerous nights out on the town, have added up and managed to eat up the solid $250 a week I should have been saving all this time. Bad Miriam!!!

To make up for all this financial naughtiness I’ve been doing some very sensible and responsible budgeting, and examining credit card statements and I’ve figured out how I’ll pay off my credit card in the next 6 weeks and all sorts of other well behaved activities. Then I get to suffer for my sins by working to earn the money I need to survive. Of course the best bit here is I wouldn’t have to work for a year if I’d been saving that money. Ah well, priceless lesson in the value of saving I guess. Anyway the upshot of all of this is I need a job (speaking of which if you happen to know anyone looking for a regular babysitter I am quite a lovely one, references and all)

Secondly I need to start revising my uni work. I’ve been away from uni for nearly a year now and I suspect I’ve forgotten most of the important stuff which will carry through to next semester. In fact, given I haven’t been exactly the most disciplined of students over the years there’s probably a whole bunch of maths things I never really learned in the first place. So over the next couple of weeks I will (attempt) to knuckle down and study all those things I either can’t recall (Fourier Series) or never really learned in the first place (Differential Equations) which I know will be assumed knowledge in subjects coming up this semester. Lucky me!

Finally it means that it’s nearly time for celebrating. Those of you who I’ve spoken to during my big break from blogging will know that to say I didn’t really enjoy my IBL placement is an understatement. Despite the stress of having to find a job in time the knowledge that in just 6 short weeks I’ll be outta here is a huge relief. However in the spirit of my new resolve to find the positives in every situation I have compiled a list of important life lessons I’ve gained while working at Bosch which I intend to form into a sort of series of blog posts for your entertainment.

A New Direction In Life

IBL has taught me many things, most importantly that I’m kinda heading in the wrong direction with all of this automotive engineering stuff. I love cars but its just not my thing. So, in an attempt to figure out what is ‘my thing’, I sat down and had a little think about what I’m good at, what I enjoy, what I’m interested in and suchlike. The upshot of all this is that I’ve decided to take a slightly different direction to my original intended one.

During my pondering I noted that almost without exception my best marks every Semester have been in my software subjects. I also noted that I really like programming. Programming is one of the few things that I can just sit down and do. My ADD seems to go into hiding as soon as I get into the swing of a bit of coding. So at this point I’m thinking ‘aha, perhaps something relating to software could be a good plan.’

I then considered what I’m interested in and, looking back on all the information I used to devour I realise that neurobiology seems to be more heavily represented in my bookcase than any other subject. I’ve also always been fascinated by automation. Not boring manufacturing style automation but proper intelligent automation, like cars that drive themselves for example.

By now you can probably see where I’m going with this. I have decided that after I finish my Bachelor degree I will do a Master of Software Systems Engineering specialising in AI. I do of course recognise that I may not be able to work in AI straight away which is fine because everything I’m doing up to and including the Masters degree will give me enough generic programming skills to get me by for a bit. In the mean time I shall try my hand at programming little web apps and suchlike. Got to do something with all the spare time that my remaining years at uni will provide.

Moving to WordPress

A while back I was flirting with the idea of moving to WordPress but never took the plunge and crossed over. I preferred WordPress over Blogger for a number of reasons, in particular the commenting system which is not only far prettier than bloggers horrible pop-up box business but is also more secure from spammers. The main disadvantage I found with WordPress.com was that I couldn’t edit the CSS without paying for the privilege and I also had to pay to use my www.miriamparkinson.com domain name.

Yesterday, I attended WordCamp Melbourne and that got me all excited about blogging and wordpress again so I’ve decided to front up the (fairly insignificant) cash to buy my upgrades and be done with it.

So, welcome to my new and (hopefully) improved blog. Perhaps I may even write in it :-)

Confidence

People from school know me as being LOUD. I always used to be confident, talkative, flirtatious (ok well I’m still flirtatious) and out there. I would debate with people for the hell of it, I was totally open with my thoughts and opinions, I was comfortable talking with different people from all walks of life. So why the fuck am I so damned shy now!

I mean my yearbook comment (from Tors) was “leave it to Mim to be outrageous and proud of it - is that rope burn?” does that sound like the type of comment that would be written about a quiet reserved girl?

Even at the TPN dinner last year where I met most of my regular readers the general consensus was that I seemed to be much louder on my blog than I was in person. Actually as far as that’s concerned I want to put the record straight. The loud Miriam who was talking about pole-dancing nurses and Angelina Jolie. That was the normal Miriam, not a drunk Miriam. Half the reason why I was so quiet to start off with was that Cam intimidates the hell out of me, and there was a huge group of new people for me to meet.

Anyway I think the key to this change is Colin. I’ve always been a little shy. But I warmed to people so fast that they’d never believe that I was shy when I told them. Now I’ve become so accustomed to clinging onto Colin for dear life during the initial introduction that I’ve never come out of my shell properly.

So I guess what I really need to do is to try to fend for myself a bit next time we’re out. I don’t want to fold in on myself entirely!

Brad’s 21st

I had a costume party to attend on Friday. I ordered off ebay a lovely french-maids outfit for the occasion about a month ago. Unfortunately the costume is arriving on Monday! So, having arrived at home at 5.30pm and discovered that I didn’t have a costume I had to find something suitable from my wardrobe.
I came up with a sort of punk look, with some ridiculously high (as in 10cm high) platform heeled boots which gave me stress-fractures and disaster was averted. Colin wore a set of racing leathers which looked cool even if they were really hot and uncomfortable to stand in.

Anyway here are some pictures to amuse yourself with. Unfortunately Colin got bored of taking pictures fairly early in the night so there aren’t many of them.

Brad making a fabulous pirate

Dre dressed as brad… with brad

Colin, looking dashing in his fluorescent yellow and black racing leathers

Uni Marks

I am feeling rather justifiably smug (or at least I think so) today.

Machine Design (learn all about cogs, and gears, and levers etc) - 77% (Distinction)
Machine Dynamics 2 (force analysis of moving things) - 99%!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (High Distinction)
Control and Automation (do some silly maths to figure out how to control stuff) - 65% (Credit)
Object-Oriented Programming in C++ (self-explanatory) - 85% (High Distinction)

Woot!!!

Apparently studying really does pay off :-)

The Things You Learn…

…When stuck in the middle of nowhere without Internet access.

Actually to be honest there was Internet access. I just wasn’t willing to pay $25 a day for the privilege; but, back to the point. When you’re stuck in the middle of nowhere without Internet access you start finding other ways to entertain yourself. Like women’s magazines.

I really do recommend that any man who has a girlfriend/wife/mistress/all-of-the-above (you know who you are) makes sure he has a flick through of whichever magazines his various significant females read. I am convinced that 90% of strange female behaviour is caused by a lethal combination of spazzed out hormones and women’s magazines.

Anyway, this months issue of Marie Claire has a fascinating and very deep article on… ‘Sex and your stars… a six-month horoscope special’. Now I tend to view horoscopes with a certain level of amusement. They are, obviously a pile of garbage, but in terms of their personality descriptions they’ve got mine pretty much spot on, so its always amusing when they give their take on my sexual and or romantic tendencies.

So here is what I learned about myself from this months Marie Claire:

1. the most important sexual organ is the brain… (of course it is… why didn’t I realise before)
2. I am spontaneous, liberated, unpredictable, and love to experiment
3. I give the impression of someone sexy, stimulating and erotically uninhibited
4. I drive men crazy with my air of amused detachment and elitist demeanour

(this is the best bit)

You need to feel connected to a kindred mind so you can be mesmerised by someone brilliant and articulate who seems to have all the answers. You usually don’t discover until it’s too late that he’s all head and no heart… You also attract unfaithful types who take advantage of your trust.

The worrying thing is that I can think of a fair handful of people who fit that description perfectly.

So there you have it. Miriam according to Marie Claire.

And if you want my shiny piece of advice. If you’re going to start a relationship with someone who has a history of affairs and one-night stands then just be honest about it and make it an open relationship. Its not usually the sex that upsets people but the dishonesty.

Exams, IBL, Costumes and Snow

Three of my four exams are over so I’m in a fairly good mood. The exam period has been pretty up and down. The first exam was fantastic and I’m pretty sure I got an HD, the second was Satan in exam form and if they don’t normalise the marks the entire course will fail, and the third was pretty good although a bit long so I rushed through a couple of questions. That said at least I finished it. Most didn’t. All I have left is a nice, friendly, open-book programming exam. Piece of cake :-)

In other news I got the IBL position I was after. They offered me the job right there in the interview. Didn’t even have to sweat it out waiting to find out whether I was in. I’m going to be starting in a couple of weeks so soon I’ll be a very busy girl.

I’ve been thinking about costumes lately (I know what you’re thinking Cam and I have a perfectly good excuse - I’m going to a fancy dress party) and the real question is: would I make a better Sailor Moon, or French Maid. I already have access to the Sailor Moon costume although I’d need to hunt down a blond wig, and I’d need to get a French Maid outfit if I went for that but my hair won’t be an issue. Choices, choices. I guess I could also probably russle up a pretty good Catwoman outfit if I really wanted but I don’t really think its my style.

I’m going to be away in Bright for the long weekend so if anyone wants to contact me they’ll have to do it by phone because I won’t have internet access. I should have lots of spare time trying to avoid all the wives whilst the boys are gallivanting about the countryside on dirtbikes so I’ll probably do a bit of photography while I’m there. Last year I took some pretty cool shots of a frozen lake but it was with a 2 mega-pixie cameraphone so they were all a bit on the grainy side.

The Story So Far…

I’m in a good mood with myself. As predicted, I all but finished my programming assignment tonight. All I have left is final commenting, UML diagram and cleanup etc. I also finished my cam design assignment which I find amusing even if no one else does. Particularly the bit where we have to constrain the jerk… actually that bit had the entire lecture in hysterics.

Lecturer: (and you have to imagine this with a really thick Indian accent)”…and then we have infinite jerking and that is unacceptable” puzzled look as everyone in the lecture theatre snorts their red-bull out their nose
Smartarse: “when is jerking a problem”
Lecturer: “on the next page”
Class: erupts in hysterics again. Eventually recovers until…
Lecturer: “what is so funny?”

On a completely different note I think my caffeine addiction has come to an ugly head. The other day I actually woke up with a caffeine withdrawal headache… at 7am… is that bad?

…And Everything Went Click

On Sunday night I was in a fairly bad mood. I’d just spent the entire weekend thinking about my programming assignment, reading the textbook and desperately trying to figure out what to do and I still didn’t have a clue. But then on Monday, everything went click and suddenly it all made a whole lot of sense. So, last night I worked through all the hairy stuff and now all I need to do is finalize the user interface and it should all be more or less done by the time I go to bed. Isn’t life great when you know what’s going on?

Anyway the semester is drawing to a close. By this time next week I’ll have finished my first exam and things are looking pretty good at the moment. I feel more prepared for exams than I’ve ever been and I’m hoping to clean up with straight distinctions. Can’t guarantee it but it’s certainly looking like a possibility. Still no word from IBL but Peter got a message last night which he needs to chase up. Hopefully I’ll hear something this week. Otherwise I’ll start to get worried.