EPA Carbon Regulation

The deadline for the EPA to decide on carbon dioxide regulation is Friday. I just gave them my opinion:

Dear EPA,
This is your chance to save the world, in a very real way.
Remember, don't give a license to pollute. Carbon permits and carbon trading are not real soloutions.
Implement a carbon tax; with no discount for industry or electricity generation (it would be senseless to enact the tax and then strip it back where it's needed most!)
Good luck in making the right decision,
Michael

Be sure to give them yours too.

Hope my SDD exam is marked by a is a digital freedoms activist

This morning I sat for my final Physics examination. I'd only studied starting the afternoon before, which for a subject like physics really isn't enough. I was already a little out of form because I have wagged so many classes. I remember the last day of K-Dog (an awesome music teacher), when we all (about 12 of us) piled into his car and went on one final Maccas run. I was wagging physics, and it was on this day that the class covered laser diffraction in the form of a lab prac. Of course, that formed the basis for several further lessons ("You all remember the prac we did on laser diffraction? Well this is just like in the prac... oh right, you weren't here...").

I also managed to miss about three weeks of physics (I attended some classes, I just played solitare on my phone when I was there), the whole first half of the quantum physics section. Luckily on the morning of the exam I read through the quantum physics section of the textbook, because there was a lot of quantum physics material in the exam. I think I did quite well, all things considered.

Following this, after about an hour's break, I had another exam; this time on Software Development and Design. This is a poorly taught subject, and the course really needs to be scrapped, and be replaced with an industry developed course in my opinion (Oh, that's right, it's called a Cert IV).

I was reminded just by chance to check where it was held a few minutes before I headed off for it, and it's lucky I did, because it wasn't where I thought it would be (Thanks Kate!). By the time I was about halfway through, there was only about 4 or 5 people left in the whole exam room. I make a point of doing my best to manage my time in exams, which in my case means going as slowly as possible to try and fill the time. I filled 6 booklets (most people write the equivalent of between 2 and 4).

At the conclusion of the multiple choice, just as I begin the short answer section. I find myself violently writing an essay, page after page, about how software piracy laws result in a waste of effort by programmers and developers and restrict creativity, and they only exist because people have a malformed vision of ownership over intellectual property.

I am a fan of the open source movement. Somehow I don't think the syllabus/marking center will agree that intellectual property is a farce and reverse engineering is a God given right. I think they are more into following licensing agreements and the like. I snapped out of this, realised it was only a 2 mark question, and moved on.

I continued my slow, long handed, thorough question answering to the end of section II, the penultimate part of the final question in this section was a list of syntactical definitions in modified extended Backaus Naur format (EBNF).

Now the basis of this course is semantics. If there's a dot in the wrong spot, or you forget to capitalise a letter, or you use a new line when you shouldn't have, or you misspell a word, all hell breaks loose. That's just how programming is (with the exception of 5GL. How frustrating, then, when in an algorithm we're supposed to desk check, they have written "IFF" instead of "IF". Furthermore, they substitute "" for "". In a fit of rage, and perhaps not my best judgment, I scrawl across the paper in bright blue "Proofread your exams for Christ's sake. This is the H. S. Fucking C!", and fling the examination booklet to the ground.

Oops.

The exam supervisors seemed impressed with my passion, but somehow I don't think that's classified as in keeping with examination conditions. They said nothing till after the exam, which is probably good, because I would have just screamed at them and broken something had they intervened.

I don't want to let a post go by without a photo, and I've been wanting to try my new photobucket account; so here is a picture of the fine mesh the paper is made from. It kept me mesmerised during the exam.



Now, unfortunately, I need to study for my next and final exam tomorrow; engineering studies.

Peace be with you,

- M

Death, walking, and photos

Almost got in two post in the one day (but this is Monday morning, technically, because the internet is going slow). Most unlike me.

I was out walking. I put on a pair of studio quality monitoring headphones, plugged them into the music in my pocket, strapped a camera to my back, and headed for the cliff. I went ambling through the streets, with my music up full, listening to the wind blow scream through the power lines. I was looking at the fallen branches, watching people through their windows. Seeing them flicker different colors as they absorbed the commercials.

All of a sudden I looked up and saw an incredible pole with a streetlight. No doubt I've passed it many times before, but the way the light fell on the timber caught my eye. I stopped to take a photo.

My camera batteries died before I could get the picture I wanted, so I headed home to get some 'freshies' out of the charger. I reloaded, and decided to cycle instead of waling, since my bike was already out of the shed. On my way up the hill to the pole, I noticed something lying in the grass. I went back to see it, and it was a bird. It was dead. I decided I would have to photograph it; I always feel compelled to do so, just to document that it was alive. Here you can see the ants already hard at work on the beak, which clearly was badly shattered upon impact.

While I was trying to find the right angle for the picture of the pole, I heard a loud noise down the road, over the music. I turned to see that in the time I'd been shooting, another bird had fallen, not two meters from the first. I went straight down, and shot a snap of it. It fell from the power lines, and landed on the tarmac and blue metal, so I decided to shoot it with a flash to capture just how raw and inhuman the results of our human society are. Enough wank, here's the photo:

HSC ampersand

So it may sound like poor form when I say the reason I haven't posted in almost a month is because I'm doing exams, it is worth noting that the HSC is renowned around the country as being one of the most stressful, rigorous, time consuming examination there is. Every year, it leads to suicides.

Even after all this time, this post will be a short one. I still have four exams over the next few weeks; I have sat three and they all went fairly well.

It's funny: having started the HSC, I've found myself cycling more, going to the beach more, playing more music, watching more TV, checking blogs and webcomics for updates several times a day. (I've just started using iGoogle, it's great having all my feeds in one place).

Also, I have put up some more photos. Here's two of them:

Last Week

Thursday was our last official day, so Wednesday became the last real day. I was pretty busy setting up for Thursday, but I didn't miss the whole day. I was half an hour late, but that still left 15 or 20 minutes. It was Mr. Pinson's birthday (Mrs. Webster tipped us off), so when he popped out of the room, I hopped up on the front table and conducted the class in a glorious loud rendition of Happy Birthday To You, after which the lesson resumed as normal. We spent our final class together covering syllabus dot points. It was really quite a mundane affair. In Engineering Studies with Mr. Watts, it was much the same situation: we worked through past HSC questions just like any other class period. More than half the class showed up for Maths, which is a pretty good turnout all things considered, but Ms. Bitchgerald showed her true colours by sending a substitute (F. Dog) despite the fact that she was at school. Needless to say, noone hung around for that class. I didn't go to Software Design, I hadn't been for some time: why stop a good thing? English was pretty heavy: we did work, and got a lecture. Again much like every other class. Entertainment was pretty well the same as evr, we did work and mucked around. It was a little less outrageous than usual, but all in all, fairly normal.

On Thursday Rhys gave me a lift into town to arrive early, and dad made us bacon and egg rolls to start the day. I set up the PA (which hasn't been working for a while - the new music teacher couldn't get it to work despite his best efforts over the past months; it took me about 5 minutes to get it working) and the JBL speakers facing out the windows, playing good music until about 8:15, then an air raid siren till 9:00. That really completed the whole affair. We also put the piano out on the upstairs outdoor walkway. There were a variety of other goings on which I wont go into except to mention that Mr. Edwards van tires got deflated (he had that coming to him), and Ms. Bitchgerald had a laminating sleeve left open on her windscreen all, 32 degrees hot, day. Also, we photocopied several thousand tiny messages from year 12, and stocked all the printers in the school with footer'ed paper (under a hundred odd plain blank sheets, so it will take a while before people notice).

Following this was the 'Final Assembly', after which about 70 of us went out to the beach near my place for the afternoon. That night, we had a presentation at the MEC (got to catch up with Kooriel again). I recieved 2 firsts, 2 seconds, some OAs (Outstanding Achievement, not Order af Australia), a VET award (with cash), a year advisors award, and the 'Above and Beyond' award: an inaugral award created this year, just for me :) .

On Friday, I went to the beach 5 times, cut my toenails, and did those things that seem to get left behind the rest of the time. It's nice to have some time off, but I dont think I'll be able to get back into it...

It's now Monday night, and I haven't yet really done anything.

Ah well, I'm off to watch Top Gear and Mighty Boosh.

How about that weather

It is truly astounding how Saturday was winter, and Sunday was Summer; just like that the season changed. It was a splendid Sunday. First day I actually swam at the beach in weeks (months?), first day in a long while that I was able to really lay on the driveway dripping salty water, and just dry out by baking in the sun without getting cold. It's something I've really missed: the heat. But now it's back, right? Hooray.

We move forward a mere dozen hours, and it's Monday. No longer am I chillaxing at the beach, I now find myself in town, lurking about the concrete jungle. The morning was a splendid warm one, but by about 11:00AM, it was getting hot. By about 2:30, I was pouring liquid nitrogen over my face, neck, wrists and ears to keep cool. (We got a tank of it from the vets.) Sweet relief.

Driving home on Monday afternoon the weather was just perfect. A nice baking heat, the sun setting behind us, a warm breeze circulating through the car, really nice, adjective-obsessed-author-writing-Bradbury-Dandelion-Wine-style-narrative stuff. Within the space of less than two minutes, this weather was gone, and replaced with unrelenting rain and a gale force cross wind. I was quite aware that the car tires were fairly balding, so I sat at about 50kms on the highway. It's amazing how quickly the weather can turn on you.

This afternoon, just as I got off the bus and was walking home, a friendly neighbor was looking for her kids who'd wandered off despite her best efforts to keep them penned up in order to keep them away from the construction site at the end of the street. Just as I headed up the driveway, Rory headed past on his way to the beach (with boardies in his bag). I went in, threw on some boardies, grabbed a towel, jumped on the bike, and headed along down. Just as I arrived, it began to rain. Only lightly, but it was getting cold. "No guts no glory" he proclaimed, and we headed in to the surf.

I must say, I don't see the point in beaching on sunny days any longer. We had the beach to ourselves (just how I like it), with the exception of Betty, who was jogging by and decided to join us for a brief 10 minute splash. Sitting at home, after a nice hot shower, with a mug of soup and a hot bread roll, in front of the heater; I'm one happy camper.

But enough about the weather.

Today was our 3rd last day, so we organised for a photographer to come, so we could get one last photo. Liv, Sam and I, amongst a few others, wore suits. There were a few interesting outfits: Hulagirls, schoolgirls, bogans, a doctor, Hermoine Granger, Dracula, a lifeguard, and so on and so forth. But one piece of attire (or should I say "onepiece attire') that stood out above all others: Rhys, who come along in a relatively mundane dressing gown (which he intended to wear until the last minute). Beneath his modest gown, lurked his mankini. Which he wore with a strange misplaced pride. Photos of said outfit are sure to circulate through myspace for aeons, ensuring he never attains any serious employment. For your sake, I've chosen not to post those pics here.

P.S. Just to keep you posted, I still have no power (It went out on Sunday afternoon). I have about 15 appliances in here, all running off the one faulty extension lead.

That's more or less it for now, I have some stuff to do, but will surely post again soon.

Trial Results

So, I posted my way through the trials (mostly), now is the time for their results; did you guess from the title? Anyhow, here they are.

English:
Paper one section one: 13/15
Section two: 9/15
Section three: 12/15
Module A: 17/20
Module B: 12/20
Module C: 18/20
I'm happy with my Section 1 result, and got what I deserved in Section 3; but I must say I was disappointed with my Section 2, I felt it was quite good (Read it here).
I was well above average in Paper 2 (The modules) with the obvious exception of the Harwood module (B). This is unsurprising, as I gave it only about 5 minutes of study before the exam, and spent about 20 minutes writing the essay.

Physics:
61% - Not a great mark I admit; but it was second place.
I worked through the "Revise HSC Physics in a month (Read: Weekend)" book; and managed to make some fantastic summary notes.

Maths: I was one of the four who passed, thankfully, with a mark of 80/100. That mark should improve by at least 10 by the HSC.

Engineering: I treated this exam as a bit of a joke, and came second, with 66.5%.

Software: 72/100, & I was the only person to achieve above 50.

Entertainment:
I am yet to get my results back.