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Year View| Summary| Highlights| Month View| Monday 19 May 2003 (Day View)

Thu 15 May | Fri 16 May | Sat 17 May | Sun 18 May |   Mon 19 May   Tue 20 May | Wed 21 May | Thu 22 May | Fri 23 May |

19.05.2003 – Monday 19 May

6:27am

• Sigh. It’s before six thirty and I’m on the train. I’ve already woken up, run around in circles getting ready, and rushed downstairs, put on my shoes, petted the dog, rushed out the door and locked it, and jogged down to the station. I can get ready in about five minutes, most of which is brushing my hair, and then it takes about five minutes to the station if I run all the way – that is not a recommended way to wake any morning.

7:02am

• I’ve arrived at Dutton Park station. I walk up the stairs and onto the road, following it along until there’s a break in the traffic and I can cross over to Dutton Park, where I can walk down a bicycle path to the river. The ferry is in, and just about to go so I pay my $1.20 and board. The second ferry is just undocking from the other side – they run two ferries during peak times. A minute or two and we’re across the river and debarking on the other side. I walk through the rainforest section, past a few ponds with their geese, ducks and assorted long-legged birds looking for early worms, and up to the main refectory – which isn’t yet open.

7:20am

• I’m in the foyer of the UQ Union building, signing into MSN and checking my email. Unfortunately, I can only check my uni email from here as they’ve blocked external websites.

7:30am

• The main refectory has just opened, so I can go buy chocolate milk and some hot chips if they’ve cooked any yet. It looks like they’ve just made some chips, but the potato wedges are looking particularly good this morning, so I buy a cup of them instead, which I smother in tomato and barbecue sauces. Picking up a few napkins, I head out and into a sunny spot on a wall where I sit and eat my wedges and wait for my lecture.

8:00am

• I’ve walked around to the Pizza Hut where my Mathematical Foundations lecture is, and got a seat in the third row. It was already quite full when I came in, it’s hard to tell but I’d guess there’s probably somewhere around 300 people in here, but I could be quite wrong. We’re learning more methods of integration today, which I can actually understand. Regrettably, I didn’t manage to grasp most of the things we’re supposed to have learnt before now, so when our lecturer says we’ll differentiate this over the complex plain using the trigonometric identities I am left behind. I can do it all on my calculator, but I’m unable to do it in my head as I’m probably supposed to.

8:55am

• Well, I’m glad that’s over. Now I have to head down to the UQ Centre for my Discrete Mathematics lecture. The UQ Centre had one of the largest lecture theatres at uni. I get a seat in my normal position, a few rows from the front and near the centre. I really have no idea how many people are in here, I guess there’s a few though because it’s big. I really couldn’t even estimate. Looking around, it looks like it’s probably an eight full or less, there probably isn’t anymore than 10 people in each row, and perhaps 25 or so rows. That’s 250 people – I really don’t know, I’m just guessing. I think this lecture theatre holds around 500.

9:55am

• I am walking out of my lecture with many formulas going around in my head. As I go out the door, the sun hits me – he was still shaving and waking up when I went in, now it’s very bright. I squint my way up to the main refectory again, and past down to General Purpose South. It takes me five minutes or so to walk down there, walking fairly fast. This is where ITEE, Information Technology and Electrical Engineering, and subsequently me, lives. I head past the display of random dot stereograms and downstairs, along a hallway, and into first year lab 122. I guess there are 40 or perhaps a few more computers in here, and it’s rather full as usual. I walk down to the second last row and log onto a computer, where I can check my email, log onto UQ’s IRC network and now that I’ve worked out how – Austnet’s IRC network as well. I read all my emails and reply to the ones that require a reply – mostly IRC crap from Becky. I check the uni newsgroups – I can only access the ITEE ones from home, at least easily. I find the “wanted” and “selling” newsgroups and spend a bit of time reading them. There’s quite a few bargains, none of which I need. Halfway through the network loses all connectivity with the outside world. I found out later that what used to be the Australian university network – I forget the name, was down entirely. It took a while to come back up too, so I spent a bit of time checking the newsgroup while I was waiting.

1:35pm

• I’ve wasted enough time down in the labs, and it’s time to head home. I walk back towards the main refectory, but head down a side path through the parks near the colleges towards the river, and past the ducks in their ponds, and down to the ferry, which is just on its way to the other side. I sit on a bench and wait a few minutes until it gets back here and picks me up. Another $1.20 gets me across the river where I can walk back to the train station. Ten minutes or thereabouts later and I have walked up the bicycle path through Dutton Park, a minute or 2 to get across the busy road up the top and a short walk down to the bridge that crosses the railway tracks, and down the ramp to the station. I check on the timetable on the wall of the little building they have on the station and see I have a 19 minute wait for the train.

2:17pm

• The train arrives on time. I get in the second carriage, and as usually happens, get quite sleepy as soon as I find a seat. I doze and rest until it’s time to get off.

2:51pm

• I’ve arrived on time, and walk briskly home.

3:01pm

• I’m home! The cat is outside waiting for me to let him in through the garage roller door. There’s a little bit of junk mail that I collect. The poor dog is on the chain, but Joe wouldn’t have been gone long so she shouldn’t be so wriggly to see me. I let her off, give her a quick pat, unlock the front door, take off my shoes, head up to my room, throw my bag on the floor and plug my computer in. I go and wash my hands and get a drink while my computer is starting up.

3:06pm

• I’m sitting at my computer. The modem has just connected and I’ve just joined IRC, opened Outlook and begun to download my emails, and I’m just starting Syndirella to check the latest news.

3:40pm

• I’ve collected up my dirty washing and am taking it downstairs to the machine to wash.

7:04pm

• I go down to check my washing, but it’s still wet. I play with the dog for a bit, feed her and the cat, and have a shower.

8:42pm

• I come back to my computer and connect to the Internet again. I spend the rest of the night messing about online.

10:26pm

• I decide my clothes are as dry as they’re going to get tonight, so I go down and bring them up. They’re still slightly damp, so I get some coat hangers out of the room across the hall and hang them all up in my closet.

12:41pm

• I am tired and Joe has just arrived home, so I’m going to bed.