sw’as

Wednesday marked the end of my first assignment for this semester. This is a rant about its stupidity.

I’m doing a subject which I have to admit I chose because it looked easy. There are two assignments which account for 60% of the subject and a relatively small 40% final exam. As well as that, one of the assignments involved web development, which I’m reasonably good at.

Easy? Maybe. Infuriating? YES!!

In the first lecture of the semester we were asked “has anyone done [Subject X]?” to which I raised my hand along with about one third of the class. We were then informed that we would have to do a different assignment to the rest of the class because the first assignment was ripped straight from that subject. Now that kind of pissed me off because:

1. There was no mention of [Subject X] being an incompatible subject in the unit outline
2. [Subject X] was possibly the worst subject I have ever done. Ever. And the mere possibility that this subject would be, in any way like it, was a fairly big concern.
3. It seemed more than a little bit unfair that we would have a different assessment item to the rest of the students simply because of our prior study

As it turns out we didn’t really have to do a different assignment so at least they sorted that one out.

However the subject is still very ill defined and SO FREAKIN’ BORING!!

On the upside for this subject, our tutor is a complete dude (that’s a good thing). He is very relaxed and easy to get along with. If only the subject matter were more interesting.

As I mentioned, the assignment was to build a website, which I’m reasonably good at. The only problem was that the only tools we could use were Macromedia Dreamweaver and plain old HTML. Basically the requirements said we were to have a bunch of content and a variety of different access points for locating that content in different ways that made it easy for the user. That’s all well and good but there is no way that a site like this can be built efficiently with out a database and some dynamic functionality.

Anyway, we built it and it works. Let’s see how the marks come back.

To get back to the cryptic title - well sort of - I’ll have to get back to Wednesday night. As we were walking back to the bus station over the bridge we were witness to one of the strangest things I have ever seen - it truly brought new meaning (for me anyway) to the phrase “barking mad”. The bridge, I would say, is approximately 200m long and has a slight bend in the middle. When we were approximately one third (aside: that’s the second time I’ve used that proportion in this post) of the way to the bend a pair of reasonably good looking ladies, walking their dogs, came around the corner. Right back at the start of the bridge a man (who we couldn’t really see very well in the dark) STARTED BARKING.

He was emitting what I would describe as a high pitched yappy kind of bark and doing a reasonably good job of sounding like a real dog (but obviously not well enough, because I turned to see what was going on). This guy (read: complete freak) kept barking at about the pace of one bark per second until these ladies with their dogs got all the way past him. As they passed by him (understandably giving him a rather wide berth) he lent over and barked incessantly at the dogs and I’m really surprised they didn’t bite is face off.

That’s the story of the barking man. If you are this man or have ever done anything even remotely similar I suggest you never do it again - it will make people think you’re crazy.

My (relatively) new baby cousin, Teah Delbridge.

Well, not this year. September this year is already reserved.

We went to look at a winery last weekend as a potential venue for our wedding - and I must say we were very impressed. It looks like a lovely venue and Laura is now very keen. On the way home Laura said to me “I really liked that, it was beautiful.” To which I replied “yes, it was lovely, I’m glad we went and had a look.”

I thought this reply was reasonable but she just kept looking at me with strange eager eyes and the conversation went on:

“I mean, I really, really liked it.”

“Yeah, it was very nice. I especially liked the restaurant (see picture below) but I wouldn’t have the reception in the barrel room.”

“No…I mean it was really beautiful.”

“Yes…”

(Continuing eager, staring eyes)

“So what do you want me to do about it?” I said.

“I don’t know…BUY IT!!?”

It was about this point that I stopped the car on the side of the road and paid $1.50 for three bags of manure and then she pretty much berated me for and complained about that for the rest of the way home.

Two of my best people!

Happy Birthday!