Sunday, 03/09/2017 (Weekends, where blackholes exist and disciplined & motivation disappears into thin air).
My last day before my mid-semester breaks ends. I got to hand it to RMIT, the break really is in mid-semester unlike a lot of universities. This is something that RMIT has done well, although then again NAS has been pretty good though, but then again we just got the Allocate+ timetable system to replace STS so maybe I shouldn’t give too much credit to them.
Has my break been enjoyable? Somewhat, but then again, I’m kind of a workaholic so I guess in a “normal” sense it wouldn’t be. But what can I say, work is work and if your passionate about it, then you’ll enjoy it no matter what. Although as I say, that my 1,000-word report begs to differ. But I’ll shoehorn that away with the powers of procrastination :P.
But despite that I did really get a lot of work done, which is great since I have time to do my report properly and not half-ass it like my last one. I mean I only have self to blame for thinking dot point format would fly under a report, I know I’m an idiot we can establish that.
I’ll stop self-depreciating, as from the looks of things the quota for this is filling to the brim. But on to the good stuff now, my library has finally sent me the email that Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky can be picked up from Swanston Library. Which is fantastic since I’ve always wanted to read it and Russians come second to none in literature. Honestly, like if you ever get a chance, read Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy and Solzhenitsyn their books are amazing. Although fair warning, if you aren’t ready to throw your life into chaos and have multiple existential crises then it isn’t an appropriate time to read these books. If you unsure if you can handle it, then read 1984 and Road to Wigan Pier by George Orwell as well as Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. 1984 and Brave New World will amaze you on how accurate both Orwell and Huxley were about their vision of a dystopian future and then slowly fill you with dread on how the world will progress into the nightmare depicted in that book. I can still remember myself shaking after finishing Brave New World and re-reading the ending to understand how futile it was for the John. The parallel to the ending passages of the book to the victims of online shaming on Twitter.
I know this entry isn’t exactly per say about my course, but once class starts I promise I will guide you all on my journey into untapped land that is Geospatial Science and a bit of Surveying.
What i'm studying for the rest of semester two
Physical Geography, Introduction to Physical Modelling, Spatial Information Science Fundamentals and Applied Geospatial Techniques
I just finished my one and only exam for my last semester of Year 1. I think i did I alright on it, I admit some of the questions caught me by the wayside so I'm unsure if I got a distinction for it. I actually don't know if I got any Distinctions or High Distinctions this semester at all. I'll wait and see when my results come out.
But I'm not too upset over it, I mean I spent a lot more time doing out of class activities like working with my club, dealing with my parents coming back overseas and of course helping/shit-posting on here.
I'll most likely reflect how I find this year, when I know my overall results. As for what I plan to do on the break and beyond. I'm going to enjoy my overseas trip.
My thoughts on me being on ATARNotes
I'll also think about if I'll still hang around on ATARNotes. To put it bluntly, I didn't get a "high" ATAR or a 40+ study score and a change of study design. This means I can't contribute a lot. After reading the responses from Joseph41 and AngelWings as well as spending my break reflecting on this. I'm going to becoming less active and lurk till next year. I'll still update my guide, my journal and the economic news. I still doubt the values of these posts to the community especially my journal. I'll have look in my posting history sometime next year to make a more informed decision on what I will do with ATARNotes.
Monday, 27/11/17. Reflections of JAFFY
Uni stuff
Yay!!! my results finally came out.
3 High Distinctions & 1 Distinction for Sem 2.
I actually jumped out of my chair & screamed a bit (lol, this what happens when you set low
expectations or worry the worst will happen. You usually beat them 9.99999999999999999/10 times. If you don't want to be disappointed in life, aim within the realm of possibly :P).
2 of my High Distinction marks just squeezed in though so that was surprising and my Distinction was 2 marks to making it a High Distinction (just like my subjects from semester 1 as well).
But i'm surprised at the results since I spent a lot of time on this site helping students with primarily Medea and some Economics as well.
I also love how our GPA gets updated ~2-3 days before our results come out. So you can have a indication how you went beforehand. But it is uncertain if you failed a subject or not.
Well, it only gets harder from here. But I'll worry about that about a month away from university next year or when it starts. 8)
Out of Uni stuff
I've been just reading, journaling, goal-setting, learning and other "boring" stuff.
I haven't been out too much due to personal circumstances. But alas you make the most of what you have.
I'm just enjoying this break as following onwards, I'll have a reduced amount even none due to getting work next year.
I'm not too sure what else I should do with my life in terms of what should I be trying out now and not later like should I really learn how to cook actual meals or focus on learning about how to do taxes, investing, etc.
Too many things to learn and not enough me to go around doing it.
I guess cloning becomes a thing in my lifetime, but then how would I get the memories shared?
Hmmmm... something to look into when I'm procrastinating.
Oh also I really wish someone told me that the Harry Potter books are better then the movies. I'm surprised at the level of detail left out of the movies such as Harry gets his letter from Hogwarts in the Philosopher Stone to even the mention of a certain dog in the Philosopher Stone as well. Its like one of life's secrets that people don't tell you about.
Future of this journal
I'll keep updating this for next yearAlthough I really doubt anyone reads these besides me to be honest and maybe the odd stalker. But i'll do every week as opposed try to update it every day like this year, I'll do highlights of the week as opposed to a full- breakdown of it. I'll also have a section on university related things & non-university related things.
Year 1 Overall reflection
I think I was extremely better off then a lot of my peers in the transition to high school to university. I think being disciplined and also just having great, well-established work practices like how to deal with procrastination, how to get a "social" life, how to manage the workload, planning a schedule, etc really helped with this.
I think also treating going into university as a fresh start and knowing that I didn't have anyone I knew in my course or that I wouldn't see other students from high school was the big push I needed to go and pursue things.
I'm always a very passive person. I didn't like putting myself out there and in general quite private as well. So I think knowing that I would be in an
environment where people didn't know who I was, let me go and change myself for the better.
Like taking student union positions, being a lot more vocal in lectures, voicing concerns & feedback to professors and even going to talk to strangers in my industry about their work was something I wouldn't imagine doing at all.
A big thing that helped was that the professors and my friends I made at university were very supportive of me and this ultimately made me enjoy the subjects I took and really understand the necessity of the work that can be done like Map-Making is a lot more intense and complex then people give it credit for like the difference between a "great" and a "good" map is quite astounding and also
the maps that could be made when given the time and also the support is truly amazing. I remember when I made a map using a GIS (Geographical Information System) software package and then comparing it to when we could use a graphics package like Adobe Illustrator to make a map. The difference really shows and I think people outside of the industry don't understand how big of an impact that can have on their map.
Also fun-fact: I have taken ~25 workshops regarding career related stuff like networking, resumes, job searching strategies, cover letters, interviews and still haven't gotten a job :P
The Only Easy Day Was Yesterday 08/05/18
Why the delay since the last entry
Long story, short. I got really sick with a terrible cough, sore throat and the occasional headache so I wasn't in a condition to type these entries up. A student I knew passed away so I had to deal with the shock of that. The "assignment due every 2nd day" for ~4 weeks meant that I couldn't dedicate time to typing entries up as it went to finishing the never-ending assignments. Year 2 is harsh and intense, it gets even worse next semester I've heard. Fun!
I'm currently deciding what to do with my final map assignment. I'm thinking of maybe doing a travel map of places I want to visit like a bucket list or something. I'm still undecided, but will give it a good think over the next few days as I want to do well on this map. Good maps take a long, long time to do.
Physics is well hard. I'm surprised i'm actually passing it at all since 3/4 of it flys over my head. I really wish I did high school physics since everyone who did or is friends with someone who did is acing this. Oh well, i'll just grind at it. Something something "doing hard things make you learn".
I'm still working through my semester exchange application for next year. Its due in 6 days, I'm accepting I'll spend an extra semester/year finishing my course. No biggie honestly, the benefits of doing the exchange outweighs the extra time spent at RMIT. I have yet to interact with most of the 1st Years below me who I'll be with, but the ones I have are alright so far. Fingers crossed there are students that care especially for Cartography 3, which is a class project. I really don't want to work with students that are just going for passes because it isn't fun and a drainer for me.
Quote of the day: "We suffer more often in imagination than in reality". Seneca