Like it was yesterday

I remember the days when I used to have to do assignments & tests etc. at school and Uni. I remember clearly the nights when I would go to bed at 3 & 4am only to be up before 9 in order to make looming deadlines. I remember when I would watch episodes of [Scrubs] and 'How I Met Your Mother' in order to procrastinate and avoid thinking about assignments. I remember how about week 8-9 every semester I would freak out about the amount of work I had left to do and complain to Tiarnee about it. Yet every time I would get them all done and still manage to pass. (& often more!) I remember how God was with me every step of the way, even though I couldn't see him most of the time. I remember the time that I passed a subject, simply because my assignment partner was about the smartest guy in the IT School. I remember teaching myself C++ as I completed my assignments because I couldn't understand what was said in class. I remember comparing my marks & work to my classmates and wondering how I was there with them.

I remember handing in my last assignment and thinking NO MORE ASSIGNMENTS EVER!!!! I remember feeling relieved and happy that I've made it this far. But most of all, I remember being thankfull to God. Thankfull that I've made it in-spite of all that I do not know. Thankfull that I'm 4 exams away from a Degree in Information Technology. Thankfull that I've found a job that I can make a career out of. Thankfull that I really enjoy this job & that I'll always be challenged and learning from it.

Yep. I remember the feeling of doing assignments like it was yesterday. Hang on, it actually was yesterday. No more assignments. Ever.

Say what?

Three Sundays ago, I arrived back here at Res after church, I'd just walked into my room and 1 of the girls advised me "I wouldn't go into the bathroom if I was you." A little unsure exactly what this meant, I said "Can I ask why?" For all I knew there could of been girls in there doing girly stuff that I don't want to know about. (See Upstairs Living #1 for further info). I was informed that people were in there doing a séance.

The next morning this was confirmed, as the table & shot-glass were still in there. I'm not really sure why they hijacked our bathroom to do it, apparently it needs to be dark & quiet or something. I wasn't really sure what to make of a séance happening just through the wall from me. I'd heard forever that they are bad & I'd always believed it. But it occurred to me that this was all 2nd hand information. What did the bible say about "séancing"?

So I did a couple of Google searches. Looking for articles/ commentary on the subject. After a couple of "it's bad because it's evil" justifications without any reasoning I came across "What does the Bible say about channeling?" on GotQuestions.com. There is a record of a seance in the bible. Not surprised? Well I was.

1 Samuel 28 is where you will find it.

1 Chronicles 10:13-14 is where Saul dies, in-part because of the séance.

So it seems to me that while seances are sometimes real, and not always fake as I'd suspected. They should not be practiced because it is turning to someone/ something other than the Holy & all-knowing God for guidance.

But read the article, all I'm doing is regurgitating what it says.

IBM, iRiver & 1 Bolt

Yesterday was a very eventful day, for 3 reasons. Two I had planned, 1 I had not.

1. I worked my last shift at IBM yesterday. It was a gracefull departure with hand-shakes and well wishes from my bosses. As I said in my farewell email to everyone:

   My time at IBM has come to a close today! With the end of my B.I.T. at Uni just 35 short days away it’s time for me to leave and concentrate on my final assignments, as well as exams. As well as celebrate during Week 13.

   Being a tech support person definitely helped my communication and confidence in dealing with people. I now know that in whatever job I do I need to be learning and being challenged. The challenge had been lost in my tech-support role, and I was starting to find it repetitive.


2. 
   After work I shopped around for and purchased an iRiver x20 4Gb MP3 player for $184 from JB Hi-Fi. Which is the coolest shop in Ballarat, since it opened earlier this year. The reason for purchase was that I was sick of only having the radio to listen to in my car, & it would be cheaper to buy a portable MP3 player than get my CD player fixed/replaced. I've had a play with it & it also has an FM radio & can play Video and display photos. Oh, it has an inbuilt-mic & a line in port & did I mention a Micro-SD slot for extra memory! You can't get that functionality in an iPod.


3. 
   I was driving back to res after buying said mp3 player, when my clutch pedal broke while attempting to slow down to turn into a supermarket. Later inspection would reveal that the clutch itself isn't broken, but rather 1 bolt very similar to the above has fallen out of the clutch pedal housing, so now the pedal won't push in far enough to press the clutch. Just because my 4 assignments due this week arn't keeping me busy enough, I now need to get my car fixed.

All in all it was an interesting/ fun day!

Procrastination

What is lazy initialization? Does the Singleton class display lazy initialisation? Explain. If lazy initialization is not being used, modify the class so it does.

I think I'm showing some lazy assignment initialization at the moment.

That question and the 8 or so underneath it have been staring at me for at least the last hour. What does one do to make themselves study? Are there any effective ways of managing the whole 'overwhelmed cos of lots of assignments' feeling?

Oh well, I guess I'll get there in the end. I have for my previous 5 semesters. Besides, with God on-side nothing is impossible right?

Next Phone

While procrastinating an assignment earlier today I discovered what my next phone/PDA/GPS is going to be:

The Mio Digiwalker a702 (Link)

Featuring:

• Windows Mobile® 6 Professional


• Built-in 20-channel GPS Receiver


• Built-in 3.2 Megapixel Camera


• Geotagging of Photos


• WiFi Connectivity

Bio taked from here

The Mio A702 is a high-end PDA phone equipped with GPS function, a 3.2 Mega Pixel with autofocus, a movie player and an MP3 player. All these features are built into one device and it is distinctively smaller than conventional bulky PDA phone.

The Mio A701 comes with Windows Mobile 6.0 Professional edition, providing access to the Internet as well as Windows Office functions such as Microsoft Outlook, Excel, Word and PowerPoint. It also has Bluetooth and WiFi module built in. The A702's functions are activated by using a stylus or the keypad. The large 2.7-inch screen can be switched between landscape and portrait at the user's discretion. Mio A701 gives the user the ability to synchronize contacts and calendar entries contained in the phone to those in Outlook. The pda phone also eqiups with a new SiRFDiRect based Navsteadi high-precision navigation technology. Navsteadi brings in-dash like positioning accuracy and reliability to portable navigation systems.

It should be released towards the end of the year, and seems to be exactly the portable PDA/ GPS/ Phone/ MP3 Player/ Wi-Fi/ Camera that I've been looking for!

I mean seriously, not having to remember where you took photos because they're Geo-tagged, way cool!

EDIT: Should be a nice upgrade from my trusty Nokia 3315.

Free Burma

From time to time you'll read on this blog my rants about how inept my government is. But I can do that without fear of reprisals. I'm not blogging about how my government is hunting down & killing protestors.

Unwanted Education

I'm part of the problem,
I confess,
But I gotta get this off my chest.

Let's extinguish the anguish
for which we're to blame,
and save the world
from going down in flames.
- Down in Flames, Relient K

Until recently I didn't understand how big fights and splits could happen in churches. It seems that I've been educated. How do you resolve such differences? How does God see these differences?

I know that in my particular case, both sides of the dis-agreement prayed for resolution. As far as I'm aware, both sides even prayed for conviction if what they where saying wasn't what God would want. Yet despite this prayer and many hours of face-to-face conversation a resolution could not be found. All we managed to do was barely 'agree-to-disagree'. Agreeing to disagree is fine if discussing politics or football, but in situations that are closer to home it doesn't solve anything.

Taking a step back from the situation, clearly one or both parties are acting in a way that isn't Godly. Clearly after prayer and discussion neither party believed that it was them. This has been taking up alot of my thinking time recently. Can good come out of these situations where no-one wins?

Time on

I've just got back to Uni again for the final run home. I've just moved into Time-on in the final quarter of my University career. In 8 weeks & 4 days I should hopefully have a University Education. Which on a global scale at least, makes me very fortunate!

So here is the closing stages of the game by statistics:

• 8 weeks & 4 days to go
• 5 weeks of classes
• 1 week of swotvac
• 2 weeks of exams
• 5 assignments
• 1 presentation
• 4 exams
  
• 1 massive (or more) celebration(s)
• 1 Bachelor of Information Technology w/ approx 18 months experience @ IBM.
  

I have a lot of work to do!