Off on a frolic of his own...
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Jul. 9th, 2009
Final exam for subject last term: 100%
Mid-term exam for current winter subject: 100%
I had a fun discussion with the Ambitious Geek Girl where I said I thought that 100% was entirely achievable in MBA subjects. She doesn't agree. :)
Dear [bank] Consumer Credit team,
I refer to your letter dated 4 July 2009 (attached) in which you sternly informed me that my Visa card [...] has an overdue balance and you are about to cancel the account for non-payment.
Please. I really do hope you cancel this account. I really hope you can. I've been trying for a year now.
( Read more... )
Jul. 3rd, 2009
I have just discovered my final grade for my first grad school subject last semester.
I apparently scored 100% on the exam. My overall grade is only an 87 (lost a lot on the group assignment), but that's good enough for my first subject. Next time I'll do better. :)
Jul. 2nd, 2009
I have never owned any Apple gizmos. I wasn't sure how an iPhone was going to work for me.
The first hour vexed me. It took several tries before it would admit I had put a SIM in it. I was constantly having to look things up online, "where the hell does it bury its MAC address so I can tell my wireless it's an allowed device", "how the hell do I move all my phone contacts out of my SIM into the phone", etc.
But after that, it's all been positive. I have definitely picked up the UI faster than when I last transitioned between phone brands (Ericsson to Nokia). Being able to sync directly to Google Calendar without requiring an Outlook in between is very nice. And yeah, I'm having a great time with the apps I've put on. (Yay for the 32Gb model, I've barely scratched the surface.)
As just a plain phone, it's better than my ages Nokia N70 - voice quality and volume are better.
I am amazed to have scored this for only $20/month (for 2 years) more than I was already paying for my old plan plus a separate mobile broadband thingy (which I will cancel soon). I don't know that I would've bought the handset outright at the RRP, but I'm more than happy paying $480, interest free, over 2 years - which of course for me is a business expense anyway.
So far I'm grinning like a loon. :)
Jun. 30th, 2009
I will continue playing GemCraft Zero until
- I reach level 200
- I acquire all amulets
- I complete all levels on all modes
- I re-do all x3 XP level/modes
And not whichever comes first; *all* of the above.
Jun. 26th, 2009
So I've said a few times that now that I'm not in any LDRs for the first time in 17 years, I would really rather not enter any new ones.
I apparently don't consider a 2 hour train journey a long distance. I spent the day in Bendigo yesterday, on a first date with someone from OKC. It went pretty well. It's not an in-love type of relationship for either of us but we're very fond and friendly. We're both interested to see where it goes.
And last night I drunk the Koolaid. My new iPhone 3G S 32Gb is being couriered to me on Tuesday. :)
Jun. 24th, 2009
Last week I was cold called by people I've never done any work with. "We hear you are possibly the best in the country at [x]".
"Oh, I can think of a couple of people who'd argue that, but thank you. What can I do for you?"
They have a client of their own. Client is in trouble and needs help with stuff I know a lot about. Would I be available to spend a couple of days in Sydney in the next couple of weeks?
As it happens I am.
How much do I cost?
They don't seem worried about that. Looking good then.
This morning I get a follow up call. The end client would like to have me participate in a conference call - they (reasonably) would like to assure themselves I do know what I'm talking about, and to give me some background on their environment and situation. No problem.
I just got off the phone for a 30 minute call where they basically asked me outright to impress them. Heh heh heh.
( Read more... )
I've been asked a few questions about what I'm doing and why, and how the course is structured.
( Read more... )
I am reminded that I have several of these, free to a good home. Comment (in either LJ or DW) to receive one.
Per the excellent way of doing it I've just seen elsewhere, I'll edit this as they're consumed:
I have four left.
Edit: Screening comments now, in case that matters to anyone.
Jun. 23rd, 2009
I find out my mark for the Accounting subject in a couple of weeks. I have no basis for being nervous about it but I'm finding I am a bit. Maybe it's just anticipation. :)
Had my first Finance class tonight. The lecturer is quite a character - works as a consultant and has a million work stories. Smart, knows the material backwards, is messing with the standard curriculum a bit. I am effectively being taught by a slightly older version of myself.
Some students recognised me from Accounting and are clearly agitating to have me be in their group for the group assignment. Heh. I was surprised by how pleased I was to see them.
My exemptions and RPLs have all been approved, which means they appear on my transcript as effectively completed. This means after completing one subject my transcript says I've done over 20% of my double Masters. Fun!
Jun. 19th, 2009
We have a DVD/HD, a Wii, a VCR and a STB we don't use for much other than directly playing things from USB thumb drives.
This might sound like plenty of capacity for recording TV, but Australian TV is going all-digital sometime next year, which means our DVD/HD and VCR would become a lot less useful. (Sure, the STB can decode a digital signal and pass it onto them, but they would not be channel aware, so we'd have to set the STB to the correct channel in advance, and could only record one channel at a time.)
( Amps and splitters and switches, oh my )
Jun. 15th, 2009
Laura & I have been together almost a year! We're both a bit startled by this, in some ways it feels like we've been together a long time, but in other ways a year sounds like a long time. (Yes, despite also being in a 21+ year relationship with K. :) )
We had to think about when we're going to count the relationship as having started. We seem to have decided on the second date, so I think that's about 3 weeks away. Of course now I have to find the exact date of that.
While driving:
L: You're crazy! Or as we like to say... [pause] [hunts for words] [fails] ... crazy!
J: [laughs a lot]
L: [embarrassed miaow]
When we are laying about in bed and not otherwise engaged in shenanigans, L does this thing where she grabs my arm and flings it open so she can then lay down and snuggle into my shoulder. SO CUTE.
The difference between local and LDR partner is so vividly demonstrated to me at least weekly. Last night at 10pm I suggested she come around and we'd go out for late food and snuggling, since neither of us had to be up early today. At that time of night it takes her maybe 20 minutes to drive to me. Compare that to the, oh, 28+ hours it takes to get to the US East Coast. :/ LDR will be really hard for me to ever do again.
She is splendid and I love her splendidly.
I saw Wicked a couple of nights ago with Karina. We sat in the exact centre of the 5th row, woo! That was close enough that we were well into the extended set decoration area, and anyone standing on the front of the stage was only about 15 feet away.
We were both pretty impressed with it, and ended up buying the "behind the scenes" book, and some other minor bits of swag. :)
It was nominally a surprise present but she guessed as soon as I told her a few weeks ago we were going on a mystery date. It's difficult to surprise her about such things!
We were out with a friend a couple of weeks ago, the first time the friend had spent any length of time with us both at the same time. About 15 minutes into the evening the friend says "I can totally tell you've been together a long time! You do that thing where you finish each others' sentences!"
We both denied it vigorously at the time, but yesterday as we were walking to brunch K started saying something like "Hmm, that's like-" "-I know", I said.
She of course is always suspicious when I do that and demands I continue, just in case I'm wrong, but I almost never am. She does it to me, too - often we don't have to finish sentences or jokes.
I mentioned the above friend's comments. K: "It's not that we finish each other's sentences; we finish each other's thoughts." :)
Melbourne winter is well and truly upon us. I'm usually wearing my new coat when I'm out... and if I'm in a coat, you know it's cold.
Maybe two nights ago I woke up, cold, and decided to put the second blanket on the bed. K prefers the fuzzy blanket stay on top. She was stirring as I got up so I asked her if she still wanted that. She sleepily murmured something affirmative. I pointed out that meant I'd have to take the fuzzy blanket off so I could put the other one down on top of the sheet. She still said yes. (Note that she now denies this. :) )
So I took the fuzzy blanket off, and she made an aggrieved sleepy noise at the cold, and then I put both blankets back on, and she made another aggrieved sleepy noise about the disturbance, and then I got back in bed, and she made a further aggrieved sleepy noise about my letting cold air in and needing to tuck her in again properly.
I said, oh, you think that's cold, what about *this*?! And touched my cold hand to her back.
The poor thing, she *shouted* some incoherent noise composed equally of indignation, surprise and outrage. Cold hands + cold air + blankets being changed + being woken in the first place = tremendous grievance.
Instantly I said (with quite a fake aggrieved tone of my own) "Don't shout when I'm trying to get to sleep!!!"
She tried to be indignant but was laughing too much. I laughed for about two minutes non-stop until she started making aggrieved noises about how much I was laughing. :)
And then the next morning I had to tell her all of this as she knew nothing of it. :)
We've been together over 21 years. She is magnificent and I love her magnificently.
The subject coordinator says despite all the procedural shenanigans, preliminary grading shows the same average and spread of grades as they've seen for the last several years, and concludes no class-wide adjustment to grades is required.
They note there is a well established process by which any student dissatisfied with a grade of any individual assessment component, or of a subject overall, may request reassessment.
And that appears to be that.
The procedural shenanigans are being formally investigated, which is good, and I expect those problems won't happen again. I also predict most students will complain about their marks, request reassessment, and the reassessment process will find there are no grounds for changing their grades.
Jun. 12th, 2009
This week I submitted my first fixed price proposal for consulting work.
Those of you who work in or closely with project management or consulting roles might be raising your eyebrows a bit now. :)
Fixed price is scary. If my estimates are wrong, I have to keep working to finish the work, without being paid, and being unable to do paid work elsewhere. Clients love it because it means I have agreed to take on most of their risk in committing to the work.
Fixed price is exciting. I have written well over 120 IT consulting proposals in my career so far and only two of them have gone over my initial time estimates. The work I have quoted for is work I understand well and I have carefully and rigidly defined and limited its scope. (And have a regular time-and-materials component for other stuff I understood less well, which the client is fine with.)
I think this is about 7-8 weeks' work. I will be paid the equivalent of 19.5 weeks at my regular daily rate. That means I have a comfy margin of error, even if it takes twice as long as I think it will I will still be better off than if I were just on my daily rate.
So far the client seems very receptive. I think I'll know next week if they're accepting the proposal.
Jun. 9th, 2009
So, recall I said my exam was more difficult and took longer than I was expecting.
It seems many other students feel the same, some so strongly they have initiated a formal grievance process against all the academic staff involved.
( Read more... )
Jun. 6th, 2009
Exam was actually kinda tough. Everyone else was complaining about it. I suspect I missed a trick in one of the questions (but should still get partial marks for it). I am reasonably confident I didn't screw up anything else. So long as I get a mid B or above on the exam I have an A in the subject. I think I got a mid to high B, which is not the outcome I expected, but I am content.
The local friend-on-the-way-to-more I mentioned last week has confirmed they are indeed now monogamously involved with their new person. I think they were a bit nonplussed when I asked exactly what that meant and they realised they weren't actually sure at all. ("We said we wouldn't have sex with anyone else... but we didn't define that. Hmm.") This is exactly the outcome I expected, and I am discontent.
I currently have no work signed and scheduled. In the next week I will (probably) gain a new gig that will be worth 4-6 weeks for me. The client I just finished with today told me to expect to be asked back in in 4-6 weeks. In this case at least, that is both the outcome I expected and I am content.
I now have a week with no work and no study. I shall sleep a lot and do business & house chores. And continue reading ahead for my next subject.
Jun. 3rd, 2009
Hmm. For some reason I have been finding it difficult to study for my exam tomorrow.
I'm not particularly stressed about it, and the exam isn't until 6:30pm so I still have more than 18 hours to go. I only need 8 for sleep and 1 for travel, and I think 4 more hours will get me to where I want to be. (In which case I'd like to aim for 6.)
But still. Annoying that I've had so much inertia to overcome.
At this point I am confident I could muddle my way through the questions I'll encounter on the exam... but I'm not quite fast enough. Most of my preparation involves doing past exams. I'm currently doing exams to a 95-100% standard but I'm taking about 2.5 hours when I'll have 2 hours. A couple more exams will get me up to speed.
I then have a week without classes, and then into winter term where I'll be doing 2 classes a week. I'm so firmly in procrastination mode I keep wanting to start reading the texts for the subject. Eh, I can wait a day or two.
Ok, time to finish the last question on the past exam I'm currently working on!
May. 31st, 2009
I found out on Thursday that my current engagement would finish at the end of the next week. I had no work scheduled beyond that.
Friday afternoon I was in a sales meeting with a client where I've been asked to put together a proposal for what will probably be 8-10 weeks of work (at 4 days/week), and there was talk about later work of probably a similar duration. Of course nothing is final until it's all signed, but they need the work done, they want me to do it, and we've agreed in principal how much it should cost. They were looking at starting early July but there might be some stuff I can do in June.
I didn't bother getting stressed Thursday since I knew I'd drum something up before long, but I didn't quite expect it to be the next day. :)
However this is not a "yay me" post, but instead a slightly bemused "... yay consulting", for its utter unpredictability. :)
Anyway. My exam is in a few days, so I'm not going to think much about this until that's out of the way.
May. 27th, 2009
I've had an extraordinarily fortunate run in the six years I've been running my own consulting company. Yes, I will take credit for some of the success but I do well to remember I have begun with a lot of privilege and other fortunate circumstances, and have been reasonably lucky since.
I would rather not rely on luck moving forward. It's time to start living by the advice I'd give anyone else trying to do what I'm doing.
( Read more... )
May. 26th, 2009
So. There's someone local I contacted on OKCupid about 10 weeks ago. They're young (and relative to me) awfully inexperienced in relationships. But they're smart and sassy and (as I do) I developed quite a crush on them.
( Read more... )
May. 22nd, 2009
I have applied for some insurance quotes.
The insurer is unhappy with my answers to two questions, which I summarise and paraphrase as:
1) Apart from all the conditions you've just told us about, have you ever had any medical condition at any point in your life, or had any medical tests performed at any point in your life?
2) Will you ever seek medical advice or consultations ever again any any point in your life, or will you ever have any other medical tests performed at any point in the rest of your life?
They said I hadn't answered the questions.
I said I had answered them keeping in mind the extremely strongly worded statement about the duty of truthful disclosure. As I am not in possession of my entire life's medical records, nor do I know what tests may have been performed on me in utero or as a baby or infant, the only truthful answer I can provide to the first question is "I don't know beyond what I've told you above", and the only truthful question I can provide to the second is "I don't know".
Answering either yes or no to the second question in particular seemed to me to risk breaching the truthful disclosure requirement, which in turn could then be used to deny me cover perpetually on a claim by claim basis.
I assured them it was a measure of how seriously I took my duty to disclose that I answered as I had.
I suspect this will end as did my last attempt to apply for some of these insurance products, namely my objecting to terms and conditions that could be used to avoid ever paying out on a claim, while they counter with "yes but we wouldn't do that". (Which I find strangely lacking in power to reassure.)
May. 19th, 2009
On Sunday I went to empty the post office box I use for most of my company paper mail. It was completely empty, with a formal notice that it had been cancelled. Australian Post Offices aren't open on Sundays, so nothing to be done about it then.
I went home, dug up my paperwork and found the invoice for renewal which I'd paid online. It had a payment ID as a receipt number and everything.
I was initially kinda annoyed and even angry. "WTF, why would they cancel my PO Box without contacting me, they have my email and home address and mobile number."
Anyway, today I took my paperwork and went to the post office. Got to the counter, and said, well, I have a PO box here which you seem to have cancelled according to this notice. This puzzles me as I thought I'd paid for a new 12 months of it back in February."
They checked their records, confirmed they had no record of payment. I produced my bill with the receipt. They asked me if I could check bank statements and get a copy of proof of payment, as they'd seen it happen before where an online payment didn't get correctly processed by Australia Post.
They then went and fetched me all the mail that had been there. Normally it should have all been returned to sender but they said since they knew these things seemed to sometimes go awry, they'd held it for longer than they were supposed to, just in case. They also said they'd put a reservation on my box so it couldn't be in the meantime rented out to someone else.
I thanked them profusely, and said, hey, it's entirely possible I messed up, didn't type a number in correctly and somehow got a receipt number that nonetheless didn't represent a successful payment. They in turn were quite sure Australia Post had broken somewhere, they'd seen it happen many times. I promised to fax them a bank statement tonight.
Well, I got home and looked through all my online statements. To my growing surprise I couldn't find any transaction corresponding to the payment! I checked all of my accounts and couldn't find it anywhere. I don't know how the hell I got a payment ID as a receipt for a payment that apparently didn't happen. I've opened a technical case with the payment infrastructure people on it.
In the meantime I wrote a letter to the postmaster explaining, apologising, thanking them again, and saying I didn't want to make them wait for the outcome of the investigation, here was payment in full, and worst case if it ended up being a double payment they could keep it on credit and draw down on it for next year's renewal.
I am *very* lucky they were patient and generous, and *very* glad I didn't march in there full of righteous indignation!!
This title for The Fast And The Furious was suggested to me by ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif)
usuakari when we caught up recently. It was in reference to the supposed homo-erotic tension between the two male leads and sorta-protagonists, sorta-allies.
I wanted a mindless movie with Laura on the weekend and it certainly delivered. And yes, the boy-boy reading improved the movie and made some dialogue and plot more plausible.
That's two hours I'm never getting back, though. I'll see Wolverine soon as I'm curious to see which is worse.
(I think I'd go with "The Fast And The Spurious", though.)
May. 11th, 2009
Я устал расти в Российской ботов.
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