These are my two favourite poets. You can find copious amounts of their material on the internets. I'd particularly recommend the following: Ogden Nash's You'll drink your orange juice and like it, comrade and Philip Larkin's This be the verse. Their sublime efforts at capturing what is important to my soul makes them absolute musts in my life. Couple that with the truly manic brilliance of Spike Milligan and you have a collection of intellectual property that makes Auckland University look like a kindergarten. (Isn't it already?)
On that note, do look for a Bob Jones book: Degrees For Everyone. It perfectly captures the essence of New Zealand universities at some level. I can assure you that there is still some good academic work being done, but capitalism is clearly proving to be a downfall in standards at universities where grades no longer matter, but financial performance which equates to headcounts, fee rises and service cuts. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, while Bob's book is very accurate (he admits he didn't realise how bad it was!), it is also one of the funniest books I have ever written - it is up there with Milligan and Monty Python for some serious fun. I remember the first time I read it (I've read it a couple of times), I was constantly being told off by my girlfriend for incessant giggling and sniggering! That's what the book is... it's an IGS-inducer.
Anyway, work's good at the moment. I'm dipping my toes in some VBA, and it's not too hard at all, just have to get my head around the fact that it isn't .NET, and the editor has fewer features than the VB6 IDE, and you need to know a few hacks to prevent "Excel has suffered a fatal error and needs to close... Report Yes/No"-type popups. Frustrating when it happened for about 10 minutes, but hey... I'm supposedly an engineer - I worked out a solution.
Other than that, it's not too bad. University is providing the buzz that I've needed for a while. A friend of mine, Zhewy, has encountered the same feeling of wanting something more for the brain. I don't pity his workload: my part-time load is bad enough with full-time work, but his workload sounds crazy! I hope he doesn't burn out. At least not before we have noodles.
Last night I cooked a rather good meal... Thai-Japanese fusion! I had stir-fried veges on udon noodles and dashi broth with battered, pan-fried fish on top. Delish! I must write the recipe down before I forget it - I think I want to make it again.
This is quite a rant.
Killing time until my first lecture of the morning: Math406: Bioinformatics I. It's intriguing how the models used in biology are not that different from applications in communications networks. Indeed, I can see how the examples we are presented with apply to communications and often interpret the results of theorems and such mentally. While a background of working at a radio engineering firm is handy, I can't help but wonder if I really should be starting to think in terms of biology/ecology! I can't help myself.
For instance, on Tuesday, I was nattering away to the lecturer of my Math405 course and we were discussing the model I've implemented. It models density spectra of fish in the North Atlantic - exciting, I know. At the end of the conversation, I started discussing the New Zealand economy and how we are bound to lose a lot of smart people from the country due to the economic downturn induced by the high US dollar. I compared the instability of a fish density when the large fish are overfished to the economy without a critical mass of intelligent people to pass on their experience to the not-so-experienced people in the industry. I am a bit worried about the baggage retrieval system they've got at Heathrow. Errr... and the loss of smart people! NZ should do something about it, and also they must stop penalising young adults who go overseas to advance themselves by charging excessive interest on their student loans. They're going and acquiring experience that NZ industry needs. We shouldn't be provoking them to bugger off and never come back!
Anyway, rant over. I need a coffee so you bastards can wait.
Lotsa love,
Jonathan
