Lucky Charms!

Do you believe in good luck charms? I'm beginning to think that they do work. Take my "Nugget/go for gold" RYLA band thingy for an example...

Wore it to my friday interview. I did an impressive job. Too impressive. Let's just say an unsuccessful one was in my favour. How about this reasoning instead? I ain't beating myself up over it.

OK... now... wore it to the "dinnterview". I'd say that was a success. WOOT! Scored a job!

Midsems. They felt tricky, but I guess I did ok. We'll find out next week for the other 2.

Which brings me to today.

3 things...

Lunch: $3.50 shitty fish and chips. Normally, it's dried up crappy tail end or just non meaty bits of fish, if you could even call it fish. This time, it was nice meaty and juicy. Real fish. For $3.50. Very rare for main cafe's shit to get my thumbs up!

Exams: "oh shit, screwed that up, didn't do that... blablablbla" *checks results* "90%? Nawww.... Really? FULLY SICK!"

Wages: After the stories I heard, I was feeling really down. Why the heck would I study for 3 years only to work at a job that pays $30k p.a.? I can get that flipping burgers! More if I packed chips! But, taking JB's word, right now, market rate is $40k, expecting to go up next year. SWEET! That works out to be $20/hr roughly. Which is what I reckon to be the minimum! I'm happy. As long as I ain't being paid slave labour rates, I'm happy.


So yes, lucky charms work. Or maybe they just make you focus on the good, and ignore the crap.

Pre emptive strike

I'm going to be pre-emptive and by being overly positive, I will say.

Woo hoo! I got the offer!

(This is a woohoo in advance)

Special Song

To me, music is music- most of the time. I rarely associate it with an event or emotion in life. Well, at least I don't believe so. I might, but I probably am not aware with it.

So instead of going with feeling, let's go with logic and pick a special song. For this year's RYLA, it is Steppenwolf's "Born to be Wild".

It's got that kind of tune to it which is appropriate for driving. So one day, I would like to have this playing while I'm cruising down some winding road in my "dream" car.

So you could consider it a motivator type of song, where I associate it with a goal/achievement and it's there to motivate me to achieving it.

But that would be very superficial, wouldn't it?

I see it as a little bit more than that. Try, independence?

If you look at the list of cars I would like to choose from, they're not very high up the price ladder. I'm a practical person. So if they're in the very affordable range, why is it still related to dreams and independence?

I've got other plans for my money. A car's a car. They lose value. You sink money in it and it still loses value. So I can't get my "dream" car until I can afford its extravagance. You have to take into consideration its higher insurance, maintenance and heftier petrol bill, not to mention possible less practicality than a small hatchback.

So when I finally have everything in check- get my own place, my money making money, a sweet job, or no job due to the former, I'll have Born to Be Wild playing whilst I'm cruising around. Provided there's still petrol.


On another note, I have found the song that is played in Forza Motorsport- "La Grange" by ZZ Top. That too, shall be playing when I drive in my "dream" car.

RYLA '007

WOOOO!

It's been about half a week since RYLA '007 has finished. And I'm still recovering.

Some things I went in, aware of. For example:
- You live the RYLA week, once. You can never relive it again.
- As a facilitator, do NOT attempt at reliving the RYLA experience.
- It's all about the participants.

So from that, I inferred:
- You're not going to grow much from this.
- Enjoy the ride.

What I didn't realise was:
- You can take a RYLArian out of RYLA, but you can never take RYLA out of a RYLArian.
- You do relive half the RYLA experience.
- It's just as hard on you mentally, physically and emotionally.
- You still break down and build yourself up.
- You never stop learning something about yourself. (when will it stop!?!?!)
- Salad rolls day after day for 9 days makes me SICK!
- No rice for half a week, makes me SICK!

AANNDDD, you can't really talk about the RYLA experience. I tried. It don't work. It's an experience that can only be experienced, and I would love to facilitate again. Meanwhile, I think I might go and enjoy some precious sleep.

Solution to a problem

"Beginning in the late 1990s small cars, especially in the European market, really began to pick up a lot of new technology that had previously been reserved for larger, more expensive cars. One particular incident that precipitated this was the bungled launch of the first generation Mercedes-Benz A-Class. Shortly after the initial launch of the A-Class some auto journalists conducted an "elk test". This is a common test for new cars in Sweden where elk are fairly common on the roads particularly in the northern part of the country. The test is essentially an obstacle avoidance test with a double lane change. The A-Class did not fare well in this standard test. It ended up wheels up. Mercedes went back and did a crash program to add electronic stability control, to the A-Class and the smart fourtwo which was due to be launched just a few months later. Less than a year later, all the early production A-Class cars were retrofitted with ESC."


Their solution was to add stability control and whole lot of other electronic whizz bangery, which I couldn't be bothered ctrl c ctrl v'ing. I have a much simpler solution. One that wouldn't have resulted in a wheels up conclusion.

You know what it is?

Don't make the car as tall as a fucking van/4wd/truck/ whatever other tall car there is!

Centre of gravity. You who designed the damn ugly thing. You're an engineer. Remember your basic physics? Low cars have low COG. Low COG = harder to flip.

By having a car that is naturally harder to flip, means you don't need to add the ESP. And since you don't need ESP, you don't need all the extra hydraulics and electronics that operate it. Thus reducing weight. You can probably skimp on the other features like butt warmers, and everything else that unncessarily adds weight. And all these weight reductions mean that the car actually has some grunt.

Oh, and consume less petrol too.

Don't let me get started on the new cheaper petrol prices. I love the cheaper petrol prices. But I hate the fact that now it means people might decide not to downgrade their suburban assault vehicles of mass destruction. You want us to conserve this limited non renewable resource? That's all gone out the window.

Damn you performance oriented goals!

Damn you, damn you I say. GRAAARGH

Society sucks. People suck. What goes around comes around? Utter bullshit.

Way to go. Kill my frickin self esteem, and what remains of my confidence. I hope you people are happy.

You've come a long way

To think. At the beginning of the year. I was hopeless.

After RYLA, I changed. I could see the hidden "crazy ninja pirate" within.

Now. I can see the improvements, and the recognition I have.

I can lead a team.

I can get people come to me asking "what do we do next?".

I got people older than me, get a shock when they realised they've been led by a kid (in comparison).

People think I've got it made- that I am the ideal candidate for a job position.

Apparently, I DO have really good interpersonal skills.

I got to shake hands with Richard Court. That man has rubbed shoulders with some pretty damn powerful people.

At the awards ceremony...
I'm bloody famous- "OMG you're that guy Glen keeps talking about... Mister 98"

They thought I was a bigshot- Yeah, I was wearing a suit, I got some good reputation, I handed out business cards. I've got no

affiliations. I have no influence. But I'm still a bigshot to those who don't know!

I felt proud to be representing Curtin- students asked, "what uni/course?" I was giving them my honest opinion that I believe Curtin offers the best.

And I've been asked to write something for the school newsletter. A past student... writing for the newsletter about their experiences since highschool! Normally that's reserved for some successful person.


What else? *shrugs* Perhaps I've finally assimilated these changes.