drunken in Spora

Just woke up from a 3 and a half hour 'snooze' after Monday's teaching.

Last week was such a big week of drinking that I desperately needed an additional snooze to the 7h I got during the night. The sleep last night was the only one during this week that I fallen into completely sober. On some nights I was meeting neighbours (welcome newbies: Irene and Eugene ). On some, hanging out with people currently staying over (Jamie and James, both ex-international teachers). And then on other nights we were all together.

Naturally, week's peak was during the weekend. We celebrated Passover, Jewish holiday - 1st one for me - on Friday night (Jamie's post).


And then on Saturday, there was a quite crazy farewell party for an expat that came to our parties.

In between the two big weekend parties, on Saturday morning, I was up at 9:30am - still considerably drunk after 4-5h sleep and too many wine glasses to count. Somehow I set the alarm correctly to go to the school library and watch the basketball game-live. Kevin, one of my friendly neighbours, joined me in the library shortly after I got comfortable in the ESPN room. He was there with the backpack. To my surprise, not ready for his usual Saturday kick-boxing training; rather, Kevin was ready for his usual way of watching the basketball: beer and chips. Hard one to say not to - or in words of old Cro saying: ' it's not hard to get a frog to jump into the water'. Teachers showing (some) class; Kevin prepared two plastic water bottles with the Poly advertisement on it serving as beer-mugs in disguise. Kudos to Kevin, as this qualifies as the craziest Spora experience that I can remember in my year and a half here. Btw, before wrong assumptions creep in, please note that Kevin, like most of my friendly neighbourhood comes from the States - the games run there late in the evenings :)

Well, I should also mention, that the last week comes straight as an continuation from the four day Malaysian diving holiday at Tioman where Tsing Dao was flowing at $3/650mil.

(For the start of) This week, I'm sticking with water... not 15 (y.o.) any more...!

Non-utilised advise

I've just finished the feedback for the ex-student's Final Year Project proposal. While sending the edited document - manly just English/writing corrections (I know, who would have thought I'll be doing that :) - thought I'll throw in something extra as well. The lessons I'm still to learn:

-when it comes to BS advise, I know you heard it many times and it sounds corny, but here it is again: do try to do things as early as possible, and be organized! [These two things come as advises given to me by some very smart/experienced people that, unfortunately, I did not manage to put into place during my research time - such as life... live and learn - for your advantage, I wish u can learn on other (my) people's mistakes.)

Wish you all the best for your final project - and the future in general.

goodLuck...!

Congratulations Golubovi

30 years ago:Zivili...!

The Last semester

In all likelihood, this was the first week of what, as it looks now, will be my last semester at the school. The plan is, come Oct/Nov to leave this 'paid holiday' behind, and get a job in IT industry.

After 2 years, it's time for me to move on - and they agree (especially the HR :).

Or so I thought... funny story of assumptions is that first I thought I'm out at the end this contract. Then I was sure that I am out. And now, apparently, there is a possibility of extending.

Here's what happened. Last week, after the 1st module meeting for the new semester, my RO (Reporting Officer) got me surprised; she asked me what's my plan. This, after her public announcement that this will be my last semester. She made the announcement during the 'Software Development Cluster's end of the semester lunch' the day after I got back from my Hong Kong trip back in February. I was happy during the lunch, still buzzing w/ a 'travel rush' (or was it just the lack of sleep), and then her surprising delivery of the expected news got me stunned. Excuse me for expecting her to tell me in private, before announcing it to some 20 people. As for the news itself, after all the 'scolding' by the Director, I used to say that: 'there's a higher chance of snowing in Spora, then me getting an offer to extend the contract'. So to clear-out our, yet another episode of misunderstanding, RO and I had a meeting last Friday. I assumed she said what she said, during that February lunch, because she was told that by the 'higher powers' that this is it for me. Well it turns out that (apparently) she assumed that International Fellows stay for a maximum of 2yrs.

I wanted another contract offer as, like most of us, I like choices. Thought it would be nice to have that contract offer as a safety net - just in case nothing else works out. RO told me that she is happy to support the contract renewal for me, even to help me find a teaching position at the neighbouring school. Thanks, but no thanks... being honest with her, there is no point to ask her to arrange for another teaching position at this stage when I'm all gearing up to jump the ship. This being said, if I needed, I will contact her - though fingers crossed, that scenario will not play out.

Reminding myself that this is my last semester on the way to the class, made me enjoy the class just a tad more. Seems this student batch is more 'switched on' - sentiment seconded by few colleagues.

In addition to the 'bread n butter' - Object Oriented Analysis and Design (UML) - I'm also teaching two classes for the 2nd year elective Java programming module, WAD -Windows Applications Development (if you thought a title like this would come with .Net, ASP, VB or something else form the house of Microsoft, you'd be forgiven. I was pleasantly surprised to find Java). I was happy to teach this module. Thinking was: many of students at the school ended up there because none of their 1st 49 choices got through, and thus majority really 'hates' programming, especially Java (the 1st year language), and thus most of them would chose anything else but WAD. So far it looks like I'm manly right, kids in WAD class are the 'better' kids (there is a number of them in each class who dislike the networking more then they dislike Java).

All together, as in previous semester, I have four classes. This time, this adds up to 20 hours of teaching, with Fridays off.

Also I have four Final Year Project Students. Last semester I had two, one got an A, the other one is repeating this semester.

It's the last, here's the hope it's not the least...!

The Story of Stuff

Ran across this amazing video about The Story of Stuff by stumbling across C. Wess Daniels' blog, gathering in light, where he says:

"you’ll enjoy it, learn from it and be challenged by it. I know I was. I like the fact that its really well done, Annie, the host doesn’t brow beat anyone, she’s candid, has her facts straight and uses some fun and creative animation to help tell her story. Her story has a little more teeth to it than other enviro-films, in that she tackles production, marketing, consumption, waste as well as the politics behind this stuff."
If your net connection is very good then see the original video, otherwise I recommend the following:

Total blackout

Following on from the previous post about the blog's new colour scheme, and the objective to minimise the strain on the eyes, I've done some more customisation:

What's included:

• Firefox Stylish add-on with Dark theme 2008 style - turns background colour of ALL web pages into the dark grey with light grey text and blue/purple links. To change the predominantly dark grey to black colour, go to Stylish --> Manage Styles --> Dark theme 2008--> Edit. Change the first - from the top down - colour code number from #111515 to #000000; as in:

body, span, background, select, form, td, th, tr, p, dd, dt {
background:#000000 !important;
color:#CCCCCC !important;
}

• Firefox RedShift theme - turns the light grey of the Firefox default theme into black/red.
  

• Zune theme - turns the bright blues and light greys of the Windows XP theme into black.

Moreover, on Lifehacker you can find out how to swap colours on the Notebook, and Adobe Reader. For Adobe, go to Edit --> Preferences --> Accessibility --> Replace Document Colours).

For MSWord, go to Format Menu --> Background, and then select the desired colour.

...!

Earthly Face Lift

The new colour scheme for the blog is inspired by the 'Earth Hour' - the 'green' initiative that started in Sydney last year. The initiative simply aims to educate and encourage people on how to be more energy efficient. This year Earth hour became a global movement, e.g. receiving Google's support. Google produced the main page in black, instead of traditional white, for an hour in some countries. A similar version is still available as the customised search engine Blackle (thanks Vesna and Tom for introducing me to it; - more info).

Whereas a predominately black screen uses less energy then the white screen (black colour requires zero energy from red green and blues sources, where as to create white, a maximum energy output from all three sources is required - non applicable to LCD screens. Credit to Björn for pointing it out; see the comments), ...the more immediate benefit is for your eyes. The predominantly unlit screen is much easier on the eyes as one doesn't need to stare into the headlights all day...!