Ok, before I get into this. I just have to mention how I was giong to post this an hour earlier, until Firefox crashed, and my unsaved entry was lost. I may have had 60+ tabs open at the time…

It’s been ages since my last blog, the reason being study for the HSC.

My first exam is in nine days, and they will last four weeks. I don’t think I’ll do particularly well, but I’d still like to try studying and see how I go. It’s not that I lack knowledge and logic, it is simply that I’ve lost interest entirely, due to English, the most pointless (yet the only compulsory) HSC subject in existence. Why is it crucial that we study our primary language in depth for another two years? We already know how to write essays and narratives and feature articles, why is it absolutely necessary that ALL of us study it for our HSC? After year 10 it is entirely pointless, unless we intend to pursue a career in journalism or something similar, or if some people still haven’t grasped written communication in the last 11 years of school. I would much rather have dropped English and continued to study Physics for the HSC.

// End of English rant

My result isn’t particularly important to me, as long as I pass. I don’t really need a good ATAR (Australian Tertiary Admission Rank – like the UAI, but now transformed into a national index), as I already anticipated my loss of interest, and decided to apply for early entry in three universities. I just need to wait and hope I get into either the Bachelor of Software Engineering at University of Canberra, or the Bachelor of Computer Science at UNE in Armidale. If both of those fail to accept me, and I am instead accepted into a Bachelor of IT at SCU Coffs Harbour (or not), I’ll just do a Diploma of IT for one year through TAFE, followed by an Advanced Diploma for six months, and finally finish my final year of the Bachelor of IT through SCU… Bachelor of IT completed in 2.5 years paying mostly TAFE fees? Deal.

So anyway, I’ll be missing for another month as I try to study and do moderately well in my HSC exams. Wish me luck. To keep you all occupied until then, I’ll show you some video tutorials I’ve been watching recently. Some are really intriguing and win.

1. Build a wind generator
2. USB air conditioning
3. Defending against high fives (Not that you’d ever want to, but just in case the need arises)
4. Turn a parabolic satellite dish into a WI-Fi antenna – similar, yet much more complex (and more effective ) approach to something my friend tried a couple of years ago. Perhaps the reason why his did nothing was because he used a a shiny bowl and a USB receiver instead of a parabolic dish?
5. Avoid speed detection with IR LEDs
6. USB through phone (RJ-11) cables
7. DIY Alpha clock
8. Swedish piano stairs to encourage stair usage
9. Photosketch
10. Vortex Cannon
11. World’s Largest Pumpkin Cannon
12. NASA bombing the moon
13. Extracting change from an unfriendly coke machine

Enjoy!

I’m also trying to come up with a new internet alias to replace HIM357 as it’s too impersonal, and not nearly as interesting as I’d like my alias to be. I also want to register a new domain for my personal site (this one), that would be suitable for my blogs, professional portfolio, projects I’m working on and such. I want to make something interesting, something that is me. It’d be good to incorporate my new alias into the domain, but seeing as I haven’t thought of one yet, it’s quite difficult. So, for now I’m trying to think of a decent alias, and an interesting domain that is still quite general, and not linked to any particular future alias.

If you can help me think of ideas, please do.:)

Ciao.

Lachy

Original Date: March 22nd, 2006 by HIM357

Today was evil for me. I couldn’t connect to the internet all day, because of a blackout this morning that only lasted one second. I wasn’t even awake then!

The modem seemed fine, all the lights were on, but when I checked the modem page, I found that the connection couldn’t even get past the gateway, and there was a big DNS error. I had a science assignment to do, and I couldn’t get info if I couldn’t connect.

Yeah, I rebooted the modem several times, but nothing worked, so I’d just have to wait it out. It’s so annoying, cause every time we have a blackout, our connection screws up later, even if the computer isn’t turned on at the time.

At least it’s all working again now. I got all the info I needed, and now my assignment is finished and printed out.

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