Archive for the 'Education' Category

More on the nation of procrastri

Published at December 2, 2008 in Education, State of the raph and Life. 0 Comments

So, its getting close to the end of this masters. In theory, complete this last assignment, then do two industry based exams, and I have completed my course requirements. Of cours, during the course of the masters, I think I have attained a PhD in procrastination, and a Grad certificate in self frustration.

I should have had this assignment already. Its due in two days, and I have my day job to keep me busy in that time. Of course, being me, instead of finishing the assignment, I played a bit of spore over the weekend, and did some cooking, and sleeping.

Ok, i did do about 9 hours of reading, planning and preparing, but that leaves another 8-10 hours that need to be done in actually completing the bloody thing. Also, as this is the final assignment for this subject, it is an exam equivalent, and therefore is a MUST PASS assignment for the subject.

Still, I am learning, and despite my self sabotage habits, I am also progressing. I cannot ask for an extension on this one either, because on Saturday, myself and Rachel are off to Tasmania for a weekend away.

So hopefully, I can get it done over the next few evenings, well not hopefully, I WILL get it done… May involve some bleary eyes at work.

The next thing to consider is whether or not to put myself through more educational anguish, and pursue an MBA. I will get significant credit for coursework already completed in the Masters, but I need to consider my general sanity.

 Of course, having got a new desk to work on may help. I think I need to place a “study computer” on it, just so i can have a dedicated study desk. Could be interesting.

Ah well, will update when the assignment is in. I may even write up a brief commentary on the Rondell Data Corporation, as by the end of it, I may have some good ideas to impart. For such a well used example of organisational strategy and change, the Rondell Data Corp seems to be conspicuously absent from the web.

Update - Its been a while

Published at March 18, 2008 in Weight, The House, Education, Wii, State of the raph and Life. 1 Comment

Ok, so I will be the first to admit it, I have really slacked off here for a while. A lot has happened since my last update in December, and I have been either too busy, too tired or too slack to post any updates. So without much further ado, heres a bit of a quick summary.

Still in love with Rachel.

The house is going swimmingly, and with a little luck, I shall commence moving in within the next 4-6 weeks. At the moment, it is in the final stages, things like light fittings, appliances, carpets and flooring are left to do. Then its simply the driveway and the back decking and done.

Had this trimester off study, resume the masters in May, and will hopefully complete it all then. So by the end of August I should have a MCSE and also a Masters of Management. Hooray for me. The conditional there is that I am completely moved into the new house by May, otherwise I will only do 1 subject and not finish until December.

 The lap-band is also working pretty well, weight loss has slowed to a healthy 4-5 kilo a month and I am now down to 134 kilograms. Thats nearly a 40 Kilogram loss. I am able to eat nearly anything I want, I just eat very slowly and and make sure I chew my food thoroughly. I have only ever experienced one very painful episode where i chewed a roll and mustnt have done so thoroughly enough. I have still remained faithful to my giving up of soft drinks, though I do sometimes have some icecream.

Eating out is not an issue, though I do need to remember that I cannot eat as much as I used to. I often over order. However leaving food on my plate is not something that riles me like it used to.

On February 29th, my friend Bed got married to the beautiful Kristin. It was both an honour and a privilege for me to be part of the bridal party as a groomsman. The wedding was beautiful, the bride absolutely stunning, and Bed, dressed in a suit is a sight to behold.  Was an awesome night, and I know that it is a fantastic move onto the next chapter, for the two of them, in the wonderful story of their lives.

I did end up buying an Xbox 360 - JB Hifi had them on sale for $450 for the premium console with Forza and Viva Pinata. Have been playing it a fair bit. Certainly a lot more than the Wii, which I consider more of a party console than one to play solo. I do find that being a member of the Atari 2600 generation, the current model controllers with their many many buttons are a lot more complex to use, making certain combos rather difficult, but hey live and learn. Certainly a lot of fun. The new Tony Hawk game - Proving Grounds has been both entertaining me and frustrating me a fair bit lately. Am also going to be getting into Assassins Creed more soon. I may do a post or two on video game reviews in the near future.

So theres the current state of the raph. Comments might make me post more :D

State of the raph - an ongoing saga

Published at November 18, 2007 in The House, Weight, Education, State of the raph and Life. 0 Comments

So where to start? I am not really sure, so lets just jump in and see what happens.

The house is going swimmingly. Frame is totally up, Rachy and I wandered down on the weekend as is our habit and its really starting to look like a house. Woah do the cupboards look big! It will be most excellent to have a house with enough storage to put all my stuff away. Of course, i do have WAY TOO MUCH stuff ™ but I do plan on getting rid of a lot of it. Will sell some, and freecycle the rest. The debate is on between myself and Rachy as too how much furniture to keep and how much to throw out. The part of me that takes after my father is absolutely loath to get rid of stuff, especially stuff that can still be used, however to a point, Rachy is right in that it would be lovely to start off with a lot of new stuff. I suspect we need to make a big furniture list and see what we can afford to start with. Ah well, still have a short while to work on that.

A lot of people keep asking me how I am going with the lap band. The short answer is “quite well thank you.” but that isnt the whole story. Truth be told, I am quite often very very hungry at the moment. The scenario with a lap band is that when they put it in, it is unfilled, giving minimum restriction to food. This means that now that the swelling in my stomach has gone down and I am back onto solid food, as long as I chew carefully, food just slides down the hole. So, because there is still a band around my stomach I do feel a lot less hungry in general, I am yet to get that “ooh I am full and satisfied” feeling. The big problem there is that I am and always have been a nervous eater, and not having hunger does not necessarily equate to not eating. On the more fortunate side, because my insurance did not cover the surgery, I had to pay for it off my own dime, and that means I have a lot of guilt if I do not stick to it, so I have been forcing myself to eat minimally. I am looking forward to my first fill in 2 weeks so that hopefully I will get that satisfied, full feeling soon. In the meantime, just having the band does reduce the need to eat, as in general I dont feel too hungry most of the time. At times the hunger does flare up, mostly after having eaten carbs, but I try to ride it out, especially late at night where I am pretty sure it is just psychological hunger.

I am still losing weight, and though I know through the online forums that a lot of lap band people gain a little weight during the first few weeks, I remain determined just to keep losing and losing.

Its exam time for uni, and I have one take home exam for my Strategic Practice subject and a Microsoft MCSE exam to sit ad Excom. Had a look at the take home exam and it doesnt look like I will have too much of a problem. I have had a fair amount of issues with this subject, mainly related to the fact that during assignment time, I have been either starving myself for pre-op reasons or being generally messed up post op. The lecturer has been very good in letting me be late with my assignments though, and I hope to do well enough in my second assignment and exam to pass with at least a credit. Time will tell.

As for the Microsoft exam, its active directory stuff and I am reasonably well versed in it, both from constantly being immersed in it at work, as well as having done a little actual study over the course of the trimester. Should be fine there.

 Next trimester is going to be a lay-off trimester as none of the subjects I need are being offered. I may do some other industry stuff just to keep the study knack. Second trimester next year I will do two core subjects and hopefully finish the masters. Dad is really hopeful that I will consider a phd after that, but I am not so sure, though part of me wants to do a MBA at some point. So much to think about.

Anyway, thats about all thats going on at the moment. Work is busy, life is busy. Its full steam ahead and much fun.

More later.

Second Assignment down, but youd think it would be easier

Published at July 16, 2007 in Education. 0 Comments

Well, I have just submitted my second assignment for my Ethics for IT Managers subject. I must say that though the assignment itself was a little tricky, the really hard part was submitting it in a format that would still look ok by the time the markers get to it.

The issue is caused by the fact that the assignments for this particular subject all require you to submit an argument map done with Reason!Able. Now doing the argument maps is reasonably simple, as long as you can construct the, it is all ok. However, even though they supply the software to do these argument maps, and also specify that you MUST use this software to do so (a pain in the ass when I do most of my uni work on macbook, thank god for Parallels), you first of all, can only submit one file electronically for your assignment, and secondly, they wont accept a file in the format outputted by the Reason!Able software anyway.

So after you have done your argument map, you must find a way to get it into the word document you are then going to submit. So, using the Microsoft Document Image printer, you can create an image that you can put into a word document, but if its a big diagram, and some argument maps can get quite big, its a battle to be able to fit it in.

A further word about the way I work, because everything needs to be submitted in word format and I do 99% of my work using NeoOffice, I end up doing all my formatting through an RDP session to my desktop at work. Very frustrating, but the university is clear on what it will accept. A little stupid imho for a course designed for IT professionals, but I digress.

So anyway, total time spent on actually doing the assignment, 9 hours. Time of that spent getting the stupid diagram to fit in a way that will hopefully print correctly, 1 hour.

Sure its doable, but you would think it would be easier.

Masters of the universe

Published at July 12, 2007 in Education. 2 Comments

For just on a year now, I have been studying via correspondence in order to attain a masters degree of management in IT. Not bad for someone who quit high school in year 11 due to lack of attendance eh?

I was fortunate in my late teens to fall into a career that was essentially an extension of my then hobby. Having always been a nerd and into computers, I started off as a lowly computer technician and for the past sixteen years have been slowly but surely working my way up the ladder. A few industry certificates, a few contacts and its been a reasonably decent ride. So when it was suggested that I could use my industry experience to gain entry into a masters program, I jumped at the chance.

Initially, the university was a little dubious, but they stated that I could do the graduate certificate program, which was the inital part of the masters and if i did ok with that, they would allow me to continue and full credit would be awarded so no time lost in the masters program.

Last month I was officially informed that I have met the requirements for the graduate certificate and given the option of attending a graduation ceremony or graduate via university council meeting. Given that I am still continuing on with my masters, i have elected to graduate via university council meeting, and as such given the council meets August 17th I expect to receive my Testamur sometime around my birthday on the 20th.

If you would have suggested to me that I would complete a masters degree in my life several years ago, i probably would have scoffed at the idea. Now, it is entirely possible that I will do so, with a credit or higher average. Those completing with a credit average or higher are eligible to apply for a PhD. Whilst this does not really interest me at the moment, my dad is already trying to talk me into thinking about it (is that premature education?) and his teasing about Dr Raph is kind of cool. So who knows what the future may hold.