Achievement

I don't have an endless supply of expendable labour, so to get my 3 assignments done by the end of the week, I can look forward to screen-sore eyes, caffeine and not much sleep. Hopefully by the weekend I'll have some sense of achievement.

New Template

I decided it was time for a bit of a make-over. I'd been looking for a new & free template for a while, and finally found one I liked. What do you think?

Good Day

Today has been a really good day. A number of really good things have happened. Allow me to list them in chronological order.

1. I was able to purchase the final parts I needed to complete my 2nd PC project.
2. I defeated Aaron at squash for the first time this year. This broke a drought lasting 6 months from November last year. To play as well as I did today was satisfying.
   
3. I saw this same Aaron spend well over 30 minutes messing around on a computer running a LINUX distro. The reason? He couldn't get a program to install. I wasn't amused by the fact he was frustrated, I was amused that even Linux will crash and not work sometimes for no reason. Thus showing that different to Windows isn't necessarily better.
4. Was able to make some progress on 1 of the 3 assignments I have due this coming week.
   
5. I watched the Bombers kick 3 goals in 5 minutes to come back and beat Richmond in a thriller at the MCG. I was worried at 3 quarter time, as Richmond are on the bottom of the ladder, so to lose to them would've been somewhat of a shock, it also would've greatly harmed Essendon's chances of seeing action in September.
   

I'm off to build a PC.

The Wiki Truth

Arguments about the nature of truth are as old as the hills. Arguments about the age of the hills have been around since about 1859. So we can naturally assume that arguments about the nature of truth have been ongoing for a minimum of 148 years.

While reading another blog today, I checked out the link to the Wikipedia article on truth, the introduction says:

There is no single definition of truth about which the majority of philosophers agree. Many theories of truth, commonly involving different definitions of "truth", continue to be debated. There are differing claims on such questions as what constitutes truth; how to define and identify truth; what roles do revealed and acquired knowledge play; and whether truth is subjective, relative, objective, or absolute.

This amuses me. Assumptions about truth need to be made to even understand the above. These statements seem to assume that if the majority where able to reach a consensus about truth, then we would know it.

It seems to me at least, that everyone holds to some absolute truth whether they believe it or not. For if you believe that all truth is relative, then that is your absolute. (Not to mention self-contradicting) Whereas, you obviously hold an absolute if you believe in any sort of absolute truth.

What is your absolute truth?

Corporate Machines

They've just introduced a new 'coaching' system at work. Where we are given statistics on our previous weeks performance and then work out a couple of 'goals' to work on to improve our call handle times. I'm lucky enough to be apart of a pilot group, that'll be extended if it's a success. (Early signs are pretty positive) The aim of this is to obviously find ways to help us improve our call handling times. Stated benefits of this system include:

• Over the weeks being able to see improvements in our performance & therefore being better at our job.
  
• Better motivation to work as we can see that our improvements are helping.
• Better working conditions as improvements slowly mean that things will get less hectic & so everyone is less stressed and happier.

Non-stated benefits of this new system include:

• Better employee productivity/ more efficient labour.
  
• Lower wage expenses/ better use of wage expenses.
  
• Revenue growth due to better overall performance.
  

Apart from the aesthetic positives listed above, there are no benefits for the individual. I don't get paid any more for doing my job more efficiently. Yet the system works, after only just over 1 week on the new system, I've already shown strong improvements in some areas. Therefore, I'm doing quite a good job at helping an American multi-national corporation boost it's profits.

Yep. I'm a good little cog in the machine of capitalism. Doing my bit to maintain the socio-economic status quo. That is, the divide between rich and poor, and those in between like myself.

Appropriate Response?

Found this article on The Age website:
Late trains spark commuter riot in Buenos Aires



Imagine if Melbournians reacted like this every time a train was delayed.....

Two Prawns

Far away in the tropical waters of the Caribbean, two prawns were swimming around in the sea - one called Justin and the other called Christian. The prawns were constantly being harassed and threatened by sharks that inhabited the area. Finally one day Justin said to Christian, "I'm fed up with being a prawn, I wish I was a shark, then I wouldn't have any worries about being eaten."

A large mysterious cod appeared and said, "Your wish is granted" and lo and behold, Justin turned into a shark. Horrified, Christian immediately swam away, afraid of being eaten by his old mate. Time passed and Justin found life as a shark boring and lonely. All his old mates simply swam away whenever he came close to them. Justin didn't realise that his new menacing appearance was the cause of his sad plight.

While swimming alone one day he saw the mysterious cod again and he thought perhaps the mysterious fish could change him back into a prawn. He approached the cod and begged to be changed back, and, lo and behold, he found himself turned back into a prawn.

With tears of joy in his tiny little eyes Justin swam back to his friends and bought them all a cocktail. Looking around the gathering at the reef he realised he couldn't see his old pal. "Where's Christian?" he asked. "He's at home, still distraught that his best friend changed sides to the enemy & became a shark", came the reply.

Eager to put things right again and end the mutual pain and torture, he set off to Christian's abode. As he opened the coral gate memories came flooding back. He banged on the door and shouted, "It's me, Justin, your old friend, come out and see me again." Christian replied, "No way man, you'll eat me. You're now a shark, the enemy, and I'll not be tricked into being your dinner."

Justin cried back "No, I'm not. That was the old me. I've changed. "I've found Cod - I'm a Prawn again, Christian!"

Good Signs

While I don't think anyone is game enough to call the drought over yet, there is a lot of hope for this coming season and the rest of this year. The signs are definitely better than they where this time last year. I noticed this especially when I was at home over the weekend, the country-side is green again, (this didn't happen till June-July last year) and the tractors are out in-force seeding this years crop.

If statistics are anything to go by, Kaniva has already had more rain in 2007 than it had for the entire year of 2006.

Unpopular

It seems that Iraq isn't the only country that is getting sick of American Military presence.
Collateral Disasters

While Afghanistan hasn't been nearly the PR disaster for the West that Iraq has, there have been several interesting developments there.

For instance, it is estimated that Afghanistan produced 6,100 tonnes of Opium in 2006. That is apparently enough to make 610 tons of Heroin. That represents about 92% of the worlds Opium supply(According to a U.N. Report). What's perhaps more interesting is that the Taliban, with help from the UN, had almost eliminated Opium production in Afghanistan in 2000-2001, prior to the US-led invasion. In 2001 Afghani Opium production was an estimated to be 185 tons. Which means (if my maths serve me correctly) that Afghani Opium production has increased 3,297% in 5 years! When you read this article, it soon becomes apparent why they do it.

So, everyone who supported the war in Afghanistan have supported: untold thousands of civilian deaths, massive increases in Heroin production worldwide and the resulting deaths & illness caused from it.

500

Congrats to my 500th Visitor, who visited my blog on: May 8 2007 10:50:46 pm(AEST). They where probably from somewhere in Sydney. They have some brains as they where using Mozilla Firefox on a screen resolution of 1024 x 768. What's the best bit is they stayed for a while, having the page open for 6 minutes and 56 seconds.

But thank you to all my visitors. It's your readership that keeps me coming back. Special welcome goes out to all my International Traffic, especially my Swedish visitors.

But then you assure me.....

It's amazing how God can assure us.

Anthony suprised me by showing up in Ballarat out of the blue on Friday night. He collaborated with another one of my good mates who is down here & we meet up under the attraction of Pizza and bowling. Which meant that instead of a weekend of dirty rooms, assignments and boredom I had a weekend of mates, movies, eating out and laughs. Despite my initial internal apprehensions, (& shock/surprise) it was the best thing that could've happened. (or second best anyway!) It interrupted the cycle of Uni, sleep, work, Uni, Assignments, Work etc. Also, instead of sitting in my room feeling guilty about now doing work of some description I was able to get away from it completely.

Sometime during the duration of the weekend I was also reminded somewhat of my (our) own self-worth. God loves me enough to give me mates that will take a weekend out for no other reason than to 'catch-up' or 'hang'. It was a huge encouragement to be reminded that with God I've got this far through Uni, and the with his help I can get through my final year. I have more Uni work now than I've ever had, but 2 years later I'm starting to learn to actually manage it. Don't get to wrapped up in the immediate stresses and work of life. Because then you lose your perspective on other areas of life. Not only that, but you become (as I did) introverted & self focused. This leads to guilt, selfishness and negativity etc. It seems that as Spiderman 3 (which we saw) showed, it's very often that the greatest battle lies within.

In Summary:

Sometimes I think that I'm not any good at all
And sometimes I wonder why, why I'm even here at all
But then you assure me

I'm a little more than useless
And when I think that I can't do this
You promise me that I'll get through this
And do something right
Do something right for once

More Than Useless - Relient K

Protests

Does anyone know what the protest up Swanston St. Melbourne was about yesterday? The tail of it was walking past just as I had to cross it. I couldn't see what they where protesting about though. My guess is either against Uranium mines (in which case it was pointless) or Industrial Relations (Again pointless, just vote Labor at the next election).

Anyways, good on them for protesting against whatever it was they didn't like about our Government. We're very lucky to have the right to disrupt daily life for thousands of people just because we have a gripe about something.

My only fear is that it fell on deaf ears.

Poster

This has just gone up in the toilet.

Wonder what comments this will bring?

Upstairs Living

Brace yourselves for the most controversial and insightful blog ever to grace the thisisjonny.blogspot.com/ domain....

Prior to now, I have not divulged to the blogosphere (I think that's somewhere between the stratosphere and the atmosphere) the fact that my room on res. this year is Upstairs. Not a major revelation, unless you are familiar with Res workings here at Mt. Helen. The units here consist of 12 rooms, 6 upstairs and 6 downstairs. In a mathematically perfect world this would mean 6 boys downstairs and 6 girls upstairs. But as those of you that've ever woken up before 8am would know, we don't live in a perfect world. So I'm living upstairs with 5 other girls. While I could say many things about living alongside the opposite gender, for the time being I wish to concentrate of the peculiarities of the upstairs bathroom. Now I know you're all expecting & waiting for one issue in particular now that I've mentioned this, but it really won't hurt you consumers to wait a moment for your fill of blogging gratification. That topic is last.

1. Hair in the Sink - I walked into the bathroom one day & discovered hair in one of the 2 sinks. Not unusual in my past, but as the only male frequenting this room, I was a little perplexed as to how this hair had appeared. You see, I had not shaved at that sink at any time in the past 2 days. (Any longer than that & it probably would've been cleaned)
   
My logical brain struggled for solutions:

• Underarm Hair? No girl would do that publicly.
  
• Facial Hair? Mine was still on my face.
  
• Arm hair? The day I see a girl with arm hairs that thick... I'll be scared.
  
• Leg hair? How is it possible to do that?
  
• Head hair? The smallness of the hairs would hardly warrant that much effort.

Answer: I learnt a few days later that it's possible to shave your legs in a sink if you sit on the bench. While it's not confirmed, this is the most likely explanation.

2. Splash back - Now we come to the toilet. No waitup, it's not that topic yet. But I generally go to the toilet standing up, whenever I can. So imagine my horror, when on one of those occasions when I'm unable to go standing up, I spot some droplets of.... liquid on the toilet seat. Again, mostly males get the blame for this, but I know for a fact that it wasn't mine!!!!!! My logical brain didn't even try to understand this one. Guys can misfire, but girls..... AHHHH!

Answer: I've since discovered that occasionally after flushing, some water will splash out onto the bowl. Again, this is the likely explanation. But there are others.....

3. Toilet Seat - Here you go, this is what you where all waiting for. Surprisingly, this hadn't been an issue until last week sometime. When a green sign with black writing appeared at about eye-level above the Toilet: "If you pee standing up, can you please remember to put the toilet seat down." Why? If the issue is touching the place that numerous people have had their bare bottoms, I have to do it to pee. It's fair that if they expect me to put it down, I expect them to put it up. I used to think that the issue was seeing whatever wasn't flushed down last time. But that isn't the case here, as there isn't a lid. Just a seat. So there is no resolution for this one as yet. Time for me to go make a sign of my own.......