My first day at work

I've just finished my first day at work. As soon as 4:21 pm came around I shut down my computer and made my merry way out the door. Well it wasn't exactly like that but it wasn't exactly a tough day. It's scary how I was able to slot back into my old role as soon as I arrived back and even scarier how easy it was. Nothing seems to change. Not in Alice or the way the government runs. When I arrived I turned on my computer and found I had not been given access to the databases that had been requested the week before when they were setting up my computer account. It was for that reason that I didn't really have a stressful day. Instead I just had to try and get my head around the filing system of the person I was replacing and trying to make it suit me. The rest of the day I spent filling in forms. Forms for ID cards, forms for keys, forms for swipe cards, forms for pay, forms for superanuation, forms to fill in forms. I wonder what my second day will hold. If the past is anything to go by, much of the same.

Arriving in Alice Springs

I'm now back in Alice Springs once again. I arrived about 1:30 this afternoon and was picked up by Julie, one of the EHOs in the office, and taken the the flat that I'll be staying in for the next couple of weeks. It's hard to know if Alice Springs has really changed that much since I left. It seems a lot busier and the housing prices are amazingly high but apart from that I don't really know. I dropped my stuff off at the flat and immediately headed into town to pick up a few essentials (cleaning products as the flat was a mess).

The Hong Street flat where I am staying.

After that I walked back into town and bought myself a pillow. Since I arrived back in Alice Springs I've been thinking that it would be nice to have something like a home comfort to make my stay easier. Also while I'll gladly use the sheets, a pillow is more personal. I'd rather not have my head pressed against someone else's dried dribble as I sleep. I'm glad I did. I used the voucher that Laura and Paul bought for me. At the moment I'm just thinking of my time here will hold however long that will be.

The plane that I arrived on being unloaded at Alice Springs airport.

Walking around town I can see that the social problems around Alice have not improved at all over the previous three years. I saw a lot of broken glass around and a lot of indigenous people just sitting around with nothing to do. One thing that I also remembered which hit me as soon arrived. The smell. It's not so much smell of Alice but more of the smell of some of the residents. It's a mixture of dirt, wood smoke and weeks of built up sweat. It was obvious. As I say, on the surface, it appears that nothing has really changed even with the intervention that started before I left and is still continuing. At the moment I really don't know whether or not it is good to be back. I guess I'll just have to wait and see how it goes.

I'm leaving, on a jet plane

Don't know when I'll be back again. Hopefully thought it won't be too far away. I've been thinking and although I quite liked Alice the last time I was out there I would like to try somewhere different. Of course I know what is out there so it's much easier for me to go out there in the first place. I think if I was going to head somewhere different then I probably would have just stayed up the coast. Either way tomorrow at 5 am Mum and Dad will be taking me to the airport for me to catch my flight. I've spent the day packing and wasn't able to pack anywhere near what I wanted to. Lucky I'm coming back in three weeks, I'll be able to pick up everything (or a bit of it) next time. That's another thing. Now I'm getting a nice collection of stuff. Alice is kind of far away for me to take it all out there unless I either drive it out myself or pay someone to take it out there. That being the case. For the next six months it looks like I'll be living out of a suitcase.

Heading to Alice Springs

The time has come for me once again to leave the east coast and head into the centre of Australia. On Monday I'll be catching the 7 o'clock flight to Cairns and from there to Alice Springs. If all goes to plan I should arrive in Alice around 1:30 in the afternoon. At the moment I'm packing. I don't really know what to pack as I can't really take that much out with me as I'll be flying out there. At the moment I've just filled up a suitcase with clothes. I want to take a lot more but can't seem to find the room to put it all. I'm kind of sorry to be going, I think I'm getting to the stage in my life where I want a bit of stability and not to keep moving around. I'd like to find a place to make my own. Still, that's a long way off. First I have to get a job and earn money. Unfortunately that needs to take precedence over everything else at the moment.

There is NO democracy in Australia!

Kevin Rudd is no longer Prime Minister after only two and a half years. It was an unexpected turn of events. Kevin Rudd was removed as prime minister by the Labour party. At the moment I'm just watching an interview with Julia Gillard. She says that it was a hard thing to do and how she did it for the country. It just makes me think, what a load of crap. Apparently Kevin Rudd when and spoke to Julia last night where he questioned her loyalty. She seems to have just proved that she doesn't have any loyalty. Her saying that she did it for the country is just false. She saw that she had the support from the people who run the Labour party (and probably also run the government), and took it. She wanted the top job and was able to use the past few months as a good excuse. Kevin Rudd wasn't even given the chance to see if he could win the next election. That is probably the worst thing about it. The people don't get to say who's leading their country, it's the Labour party. We didn't vote for Julia Gillard as PM. The fact that she keeps saying that it was in the national interests to take over in my opinion, makes it sound even more like an excuse. She saw an opportunity and took it, the anti-government adverts of the mining companies may have helped with the bad poles for Kevin Rudd. Does this mean that the mining companies are going to win? It certainly looks like they have benefited. Julia Gillard said that she is opening the doors of the government to the mining industry. Is that literally what she means? They have won? The proposed tax as it stands is no more. So it certainly looks like they aren't sad to see Kevin Rudd go.

Now, I'm not a supporter of either of the major parties but it certainly makes me feel sorry for not only Kevin Rudd, but also Australia. It goes to show that democracy is just a show in Australia. It's the people who run the labour party who really run the country. Now they've just put in another stooge to do their bidding. Now I guess we'll just have to find out what happens in the election later in the year. Not that who we vote will Necessary be the prime minister. It will at least give a chance to send a message. The vote in Australia, I now believe is nothing more. It is now worth a lot less.

Farewells

This evening was my last proper evening on the Sunshine Coast and so me and a few friends went out to dinner to celebrate/commiserate my departure. We had a few drinks and went to dinner at a restaurant called 'Thai Seasons' in Mooloolaba. The food was good and in my price range (relatively inexpensive).

Me looking very surprised to receive my leaving gifts from Karen.

Darren and his birthday gifts.

Cadence, Hannah and Darren.

Chantal, Karen and Chris.

After that we went for ice Cream and coffee which was a really nice way to round off the evening. It's kind of sad to be going. I was given a card that everyone had signed which was a really nice gesture. Makes me sad to be going.

Final Exam

I've just finished what I hope will be my final exam at uni. This one was for GIS and I must say that I'm not really confident with how I did. It was one of those exams where we had to write down as much as we could remember. Unfortunately, as soon as I walked in there, as is the usual case, everything automatically left my head. Everything about the shape of the earth, coordinate systems, vector and raster data models, all of it was just gone. So I sat there for an hour and a half trying to remember and writing down what I could. I left with about half an hour to go. If I pass then that will most likely be my last exam of my uni career. I really hope it is and I really hope I pass. Fingers crossed!!!

Final Scientific Report for the SRP

I've finally finished writing my final report for the SRP subject that I've been doing. It seemed to take me ages. I've been working on it most of the week, sometimes staying as late as 1:30 in the morning. Of course the usual time I've headed home was around 10:30 pm. I've just emailed it off to the supervisors and I'm glad it's over. There wasn't much guidance with the whole subject so in the end we all just seemed to be fuddling through, just hoping that we were on the right track. In the end, I still don't know. Our group did a presentation yesterday which went for nearly an hour about our research into the source water toxicity we were investigating. Once again I was pretty nervous about the whole speech but didn't use my notes as Darren said to do. Instead I just got up there and talked using the power point presentation to guide me. In the end I think it turned out okay. Really I don't know though. We were asked some questions at the end. I was asked why I was surprised that the nitrogen levels didn't change throughout the treatment process. Why was I surprised? I though that it was obvious that I though they were going to change! Why else? Still I said this and then the examiner started talking about how it is total nitrogen and the only way it is going to change is through microbiological digestion where evaporates it off as ammonium. Very interesting but I still couldn't find anything about that on the internet. What I could find wasn't really much help so it was quite time consuming finding out information about the process. In the end, I hope I passed the subject. I don't know but I think I did.

Late night study sessions

I spent most of this afternoon in the computer labs trying to finish the write up for my SRP subject. I've got to produce a detailed lab report regarding the tests that we performed on the sample. For the past three days I've been researching and working on producing the report. It's now just past midnight and I've been here all afternoon and evening trying to get it finished. Unfortunatly though, it doesn't look like I will get it done as I've been stuck on the results section for most of the evening and even now I still haven't analysed all the results. I've got to concentrate the EC50 and make a dose response curve. It's due friday but I want to give this to one of my supervisors to have a look at and make sure that I am on the right track. I've still got tomorrow to finish off the slides for the talk but I'm much rather have it done this evening. One of my team members and me have been sitting here for a while trying to nut it out. Maybe another hour or two and it will all be sorted.

and a sea cucumber!

Or at least I believe it is. It is either an inconspicuous sea cucumber (Holothuria difficilis) or a Blackfish (Holothuria atra). I'm never too sure with my black, squigy blobs. Any ideas?

I poked an anemone!

Why not? Everyone should poke an anemone.

I believe that this one is a Green shore anemone (Aulactinia veratra).

Learning GIS, or not

After a week of working on my GIS assignment I believe that I am finally getting the hang of the basic applications. The GIS software does not appear to me to be very user friendly. At the moment I am not able to tranform shapes to shapes that are contained within a shapefile which is what I want to do. I'm not sure how people go about cropping maps but using the ArcGIS software it seems to be impossible. I just hope I can learn enough about how to use it to pass. That's my aim now.

A screen shot of my GIS map for the Orange-bellied Parrot.

Searching for GIS data

At the moment I'm sitting in the computer labs trying to work on my may for my intro to GIS subject that is due on Friday. I'm having real trouble with my project. We have to design a map on something and I chose to do the Orange-bellied Parrot. I was going to show the feeding grounds, breeding grounds, migration routs, treats and human interference. I've been looking for data to use for the past 3 weeks and so far haven't been able to come up with anything useable. This is disappointing as when I chose this topic the tutor told me that I should be able to find everything I needed. That didn't turn out to be so. Now I'm sat here wondering whether I should continue. I want to have this map completed by Monday giving me the rest of this afternoon and tomorrow. Should I choose another topic? What would be good? If I do change I think I'll have to do something based in Buderim as there is some basic data available from the tutorials. I'll just have to work out what kind of project to do it on.

Doomed SRP

Today Anne basically told me that Peter and her weren’t expecting much from our assignments that we did down at smart water for our SRP. Is that right? A teacher saying that she doesn’t expect a lot from you. I thought that teachers were there to encourage you. When I spoke to her it seemed to me that she didn’t care how we went. I was certainly shocked to hear it as I'm working pretty hard on my assignment and am trying to get it as good as I can.