Wednesday 31 May 2006

Post-grad Flexibility

It's finally almost the end of semester and the end of my pile of assignments. I'm currently working on my last one for the semester which is for my post grad marketing paper. I would actually have 2 due on the same day for that same paper, but the beauty of post grad papers as I discovered last week is the flexibility. 8)

The lecturers having deemed that we have had learnt what they set out to teach through the assignments, decided to be nice and remove the need to do one of the assignments. That assignment would have carried 20% of the grade which is now redistributed over the other 2 assignments. On one hand this is great coz I've one assignment less to do, on the other hand I didn't do too fantastic for the other assignment so with the percentage raised to 50% on that I've lost even more. Despite the lecturers saying we've satisfied their objectives, I feel as though I've not actually learnt whatever it is they say we're supposed to have learnt... Ah well, I suppose most of business is more of common sense and analysing stuff anyway. I wish all my other papers were as flexible as this post grad one though...then my workload would be so much lighter!

Saturday 27 May 2006

Radical Action

Every now and then I get this compulsion to do something radical and the radical stuff have a range of magnitudes. Well this one is not a big shaker I guess, just radical for me... Anyway I've always been kinda curious about matchmaking services. You see plenty of ads for them on the net. I was clicking around on Trade Me and clicked on the personals section just coz I was bored. Then I found myself signing up with NZ's online matchmaking network thing (whatever you call it).

Don't get me wrong, I'm quite happy being single with all the freedom that comes with such a status, but I guess I was curious to see if it works and I dun understand why people sign up (unless they do it outta boredom comme moi). I mean quite a few of the younger people listed are good looking, with attractive personalities (if they are speaking the truth of themselves)...it doesn't quite make sense that they'd be lacking for partners. It makes one think there has to be something wrong with them...lol or perhaps I'm just pretty cynical about all this. In any case I should be able to find out having signed up myself! Still, I really would like to ask each and every one why they signed up which is the most effective way to satisfy my curiousity but I doubt people will be too comfortable with some random asking a kinda personal question.

I've had a couple of messages so far. I feel bad for replying selectively though, although it seems I have this tendency to attract really old guys (and it's not just in this case either!!). There are people whom I'd like to get to know just coz they have interesting jobs...but if I contact them I'm afraid they might get the wrong idea which is more likely to happen with an older guy as I suspect that these guys are in it for real. In any case, it's a form of entertainment for me (yes I know tt's kinda sad...) and it's something new. It's amazing what boredom and procrastination will drive you to do! If I do make a couple of friends outta this, I wouldn't mind either!

Monday 15 May 2006

Spark of Technological Advancement

It never fails to amaze me what people think of selling. On Trade Me, NZ's version of eBay, you can pretty much find people selling everything from smiles to diamonds. In case you are rubbing your eyes and thinking you've read incorrectly, yes, there is actually some idiot/smart aleck listing smiles for $0.50, in hopes that a bigger idiot will come along and actually bid for it. The description of this listing is as follows:

1 smile.
If you win this auction you will receive nothing but the guarantee that I will smile at you through my computer. Thanks :)


And if you think there hasn't been anyone who has bid for this. Well one person actually did. Just goes to show that some people really have nothing better to do or no better way to spend their money. The jury is still out on whether the seller is smart or an idiot with nothing better to do. Still if he's making money off idiots...

Other interesting stuff you can now purchase or auction for on Trade Me include horse manure, firewood, bricks and landfill. Oh kittens are also up for grabs too. I've not looked to see if they've started selling livestock online but I suppose when it does come to that, the economy has crashed. However, I must say that for a technologically backwards country, we seem to be amazingly advanced when it comes to online shopping/selling!!

Friday 12 May 2006

New Look

Having got tired of the boring design style of my blog, I have decided to give the blog a new look. As of the moment, changes are slowly being made coz I'm customising it myself (rather than merely plonking down one of the templates) and I've never written in CSS before so it's taking some figuring out. I guess the most annoying is trying to figure out the exact size of de boxes to make the background images fit. Well that and trying put images on a textured background. I got the header background right yesterday after 7 sizing tries. Then when it came to putting my blog title (which is an image) on the header today, matching the background by positioning was awfully tedious...ended up doing adjustments px by px in different directions. It doesn't look seamless but close enough I guess.

Well hopefully I'll have better luck now that I've somewhat got the gist of CSS. Nonetheless this sure beats working on my assignments!!! Lol Yeah, yeah I know, I'm procrastinating...but it's for good cause...it'll soothe my aesthetic spirit. Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

Sunday 7 May 2006

Cannabis Freedom Day

Perhaps NZ isn't has liberal as the Netherlands, where everyone knows weed is not condoned but not illegal either. Still, I didn't realise we were liberal enough to legalise cannabis for 1 day each year. That day was yesterday. According to an acquaintance who smokes all sorts of stuff, on this day many people gather at the octagon smoking cannabis...and there'll be many who deliberately smoke in front of the police stations simply coz de police can't do anything about it.

It's funny the way the human mind works. We find it exciting to do the forbidden, proud if no one can stop us, thrilling when there is a risk of getting caught. Lots of people think that the Netherlands would be full of drug addicts given their liberal laws, but in reality, that's not the case. It's probably the tourists who'd make up the bulk of those who take advantage of the law. Again it's the whole psychology thing whereby people do it coz it's illegal, but if it's legal everyday, less find it a thrilling act.

Certainly there's a whole debate on whether or not legalising certain stuff would act in reverse psychology on people. I'm not saying that we should legalise drugs and all sorts of stuff coz there are those that do need to be controlled, but I think that legalising certain things together with public education may be helpful.

Tuesday 2 May 2006

Complaint Against Time + Some Randomness

Why is it that in the second half of the semester, everything seems to happen so fast? In a blink of an eye, weeks are gone and deadlines come rushing at you. Yeah I know, I'm griping about my piles of assignments again and I really really need to begin some of them soon. That plus work on scholarship applications and CVs and business plans. Why is it that a day only consists of 24 hours? Someone should change the whole time system...30 hours a day seems nice. It's not asking for too much aye?

On a random note, (just coz I feel random today) I was surfing for articles related to one of my marketing assignments and came across this quiz. Peter and Maiko and whoever "a rainbow trout" is if it isn't one of them should probably like this:

How Will I Die Quiz

How Will I Die Quiz

You will die at the age of 65

You will be killed when the chimpanzee's rise up and take control of the planet

Find out how you will die at Quizopolis.com

Quizopolis

Figures that some monkey would kill me....