Robot Claw – Page 792 – “Life In The So-Called Space Age”

I’m Teaching

February 1, 2008

The day after getting back from Australia I got a call from the department asking if I wanted to teach again this semester. My advisor was in an accident and badly broke her leg, which means she’ll be out for some time. That left two courses without an instructor and I agreed to teach one of them – Electronics. This is a course on the theory and design of electronic circuits, a sort of electrical engineering course with a physics bent. The course includes a hands-on lab component, and thankfully I have a TA to handle the lab (thanks Florence!)

So here we are, after one week of classes, which seem to have gone well.

After this and last semester I’m starting to feel more like a lecturer and less like a student…this doesn’t mean I don’t like it…but it’s certainly having an effect on my ability to get a lot of my own work done…

Perentie Controls

January 27, 2008

Seconds (joke!) after returning to America I renewed my World Of Warcraft account. There’s still a lot to do in the game for me, and I still enjoy playing. Doubly so since I’m in a FF (Friends & Family) guild now, and helping others level their characters.

JBF is almost 70 on his Paladin. We’re at the point where we can 2-man the level 60 dungeons with ease:

I also stuck my head into The Temple Of Ahn’Quiraj the other day so I could die to the first boss 🙂

< Skeram Anyway, since this game is so fiendishly addictive, for the first time I enabled 'Parental Controls'. I have now prevented myself from being able to play the game except for Friday afternoons and weekends. Removing such restrictions requires a password that is entrusted to KLS. Apparently my trust of my own ability to resist the urge for the occasional Tuesday afternoon WoW binge is not high enough... In short, I have taken the first step toward treating an addiction: recognizing that the addiction exists. And if you're wondering, this is a Perentie:

Last Word

January 24, 2008

So, in summary, I went to Australia for a few different reasons.

The primary reason was to catch up with family and friends:

The second was to consume vast quantities of delicious Australian junk food:

The third was to enjoy the weather, and the surroundings:

And the last (but far from least) was to buy KLS a vast collection of belated Christmas gifts:

< 'Souvenirs' But if I were to summarize the trip in a single image, it would be this: < Australia 2008 In 3 weeks I drunk at least 54 cans and 5 1.5 litre bottles of Lift. This does not include food that came at a restaurant, at which I always chose Lift (or the inferior Pepsi equivalent, Solo), which would account for perhaps an additional 30 or more 600ml bottles. That's an average of about 1.8 litres a day (which is, I suspect, an underestimate) or about 1000 calories per day from Lift soda alone. (As a shocking aside, my calculations also estimate upwards of A$175 spent on Lift soda alone...) Needless to say, Lift was the fuel that kept me going through an entirely entertaining trip. Thanks to friends and family for letting me stay, and thanks very much to KLS for letting me go :)