Christmas 2008

Christmas has now come and gone for another year. This year was another quiet one as Mum had to work in the afternoon. Even so, in the morning we had a breakfast/brunch after opening the presents under the tree and then watched a few videos in the afternoon. It was a good day.

Sea Otters gambolling in the wild, wild surf

I must say that I’ve read some weird books in my time but I’ve just finished reading one that must take the cake. I started reading the novel two days ago and have just finished reading the 260 or so pages of the oddest storey I’ve read (including those with characters such as Orks or Wizards)! This story by John Bennett involved a 16 year old kid who’s just sat his ‘A’ levels. He finds an odd plastic statue in a 99p shop. The statue, a balding man shagging a pink, glittery otter, intrigues him so much that he flies around the world trying to find out why it was made. It was written the way a 16 year old would speak so it took a little getting used to, even more than the implausible and ridiculous journey he goes on. The book was total crap, but the odd thing was that I couldn’t stop reading it. Sea Otters gambolling in the wild, wild surf certainly makes me think though. It would be great to just get up one morning and head away from everything on some pointless quest. Maybe I just need a holiday!

Roadworks or just traffic jams

I’ve just driven back down from the coast and you would not believe the amount of road works that are going on between 100 kms or so of road between Logan and the Sunshine Coast. At points it seems that the whole of the motorway is a road work zone. One thing that did annoy me tonight though was the change of speed limit signs for road works. Now I am all in favour of them lowering the speed limit when the road workers may be in danger but when the signs are put out and the traffic forced to slow down to 40km/h when there is nothing there is just pointless. It is so frustrating to sit there in traffic at 10 o’clock at night when you just want to get home. Words can’t describe how infuriating and exasperating it is. I guess the fact that there are so many road works about at this time because of the current state governments inability to conduct forward planning and put off costly infrastructure projects until the road system is so bad that there are traffic jams from before the sun rises, to well after it sets!

Gliding over Victoria

On Saturday I was given the chance to go up in a glider above Bracss Marsh. It was AWESOME!!!

Second Semester Results

Today my marks for semester two of this year came out. Although overall I am pleased if not a little amazed. My marks are below.

Subject	Class Title	Grade
COR 111	Environment, Technology & Sustainability	Distinction
SCI 102	Biodiversity and Environment	Distinction
LFS 112	Human Physiology	Credit
PUB 102	Environment and Health	Distinction

I was thinking that I wouldn't do as well for Human Physiology but I did thing I would scrape in with a pass. Therefore a credit is more than I thought I would get. I am curious to know why I didn't do better for Environment, Sustainability and Technology. For the assessment pieces I scored highly and although the test contained very dopey questions asking for the answer you thought the teacher thought was right as opposed to the correct one, I thought I'd get a HD. I didn't an I am quite amazed. Unfortunately I won't be able to find out why I didn't get one because you don't get a run down of what you did wrong. You just have to accept it. Never mind. I should be happy.

Mum's 60th Birthday

I'm writing this from Melbourne where I came down to surprise Mum for her birthday. Mum went down to Melbourne to visit Laura and to help her get some of her wedding preparations done. I flew down the day before her birthday and surprised her. We took Mum to the Melbourne Aquarium. The aquarium itself is not that big but pretty interesting. There is a shark viewing area where you look at them swim around in a big tank that surounds you. It is quite breath taking to sit there and watch them. We also watched them get fed which was interesting and looked quite unsafe. Not that the sharks would intentionally bite them. Just that they would put the food right up against their mouth then pull it away as they tried to bite it. Then they would throw it towards their open mouth pulling their fingers away at the last minute. I'm guessing with they probably have quite a few work place accidents. That night we went out to an Italian restuarant off Lygon Street called Michelino's. I had a pizza which was very nice.

End of Semester 2 and the oncoming holidays

All of the exams are now finished and I'm now at a bit of a loose end of what to do. I am on the coast for another week and then I move out of where I am staying. After that, I don't know what I'm going to do. I need to get a job now but I don't know what I should look for or where I should look. I'm going to head out to Alice Springs in January so any work that I get would only be temporary (four weeks worth). At the moment I don't really know what to look for or where I should be looking. I think that I will apply for some temp work, hopefully I'll be able to find some that will give me enough money to return to uni next year. It's amazing how quickly my saving have deteriorated over the year. I don't know where it goes and don't really have anything to show for it. Either way, I need money.

Consistency. Is it too much to ask?

I've got a big question regarding the marking of assignments.  I've just received back an assignment with the comment that I used too many newspaper articles.  The assignment was to pick two topics from a newspaper and write about them.  The only newspaper articles I used were to reference the original article the rest were peer reviewed scientific papers and one website of an environmental organisation where I mentioned the 'environmentalists view'.  Did the tutor even look at my assignment?  I probably lost a point because of that!

That's one thing that I've noticed with the marking of pretty much all my assignments this semester.  It is just so confusing.  I've had teachers write over my graphs with things like 'use 1/3 of a page, bold here, more information, and so on'.  Then for the next assignment I go and fix those things and I get it back with something totally different.  Why can't they just take their time and look at it properly while also being consistent in their marking.  One of the teachers said to be when I questioned the way a question was phrased "you have to look at the question and think about what it mean".  Call me lazy but if I'm in a test I don't want to have to sit and think about what is wanted when the teacher didn't phrase it properly in the first place!  

So far it doesn't look like I'll be doing as well as I did last semester.  It's so frustrating and I'm not the only one who has this happen to.  My classmates tell the same story but only to deaf ears.  I don't know... tut tut tut.

Getting to know the neighbourhood

I’ve just come back from a walk.  I don’t usually go for them but I decided that if I’m going to loose a bit of weight for Laura’s wedding then I will have to start sooner rather than later.  I left at about 9:30 at night after I’d had dinner.  I thought a half an hour walk or so would do me good and help me to burn off a bit of what I’d eaten today.  That was the plan anyway.  An hour and a half later I finally found my way back to my unit.  So much for my plans of a quick walk.  The streets around here are like a rabbit warren.  You follow one trail thinking that you will end up some where and end up totally going in the opposite direction.  I actually though that I was heading north but actually started heading south right to the edge of the housing estate.  I’d say that part of the estate would be at least a kilometer away as the crow flies so I probably walked around 5 km through the streets and for the most part didn’t have a clue where I was going.  I’m pretty sure that I passed one part of the lake twice and only managed to find my way back when I noticed some high voltage power lines that run towards the university.  I picked a direction and finally made my way back.  My legs certainly are tired now.  I think next time I’ll go walking when it is light and I can see where I’m going, either that or there will be more people around to ask!

Gone bush

Last week was the final week of the holidays and Stewart and I decided to pack up the truck and go camping.  We were actually panned to help out with a fauna survey that was being conducted in Barakula State Forest which is about 400 kms from Brisbane near the town of Chinchilla.  We set off at about 5 o'clock Monday morning.  That was the plan anyway but by the time the ute was all loaded the time was nearly 6 and the sun was well up.  Still we had plenty of time and stopped for breakfast in Gatton.  We arrived in Chinchilla and followed the directions to the forestry office to meet up with the survey coordinator, Rod.  The dirt roads out there were suprisingly good and although going sideways a couple of times on the more sandy bits there were really no problems.  The camp site was just a part of the forest that was more thinly wooded than the rest and after finding a shady spot we pitched our tents.

The next morning the hard work started.  We had to set up 10 lines of traps.  He had the help of a Dingo with a drill.  When I say Dingo I actually mean a small digger with a hole boring attachment and not the canine variety.  It made things so much easier, especially in the Brigalow.  In the Heath it was just sandy soil while in the Brigalow area there was about half a foot of soil and then the drill would stop.  The traps, which consisted of large buckets about one and a half feet deep would then have to be dug into the hard, dry clay that was at the base. Putting 6 lines in the heath area took about two hours while putting in 4 in the Brigalow took nearly 6.  That's how hard it was.  And this was with a team of about 12 people.  Still once they were in with the lines set up it was time to relax.  

Each morning and afternoon we checked the traps and we found quite a bit.  We found a goanna, legless lizards, skinks, geckos, house mice (and one of the little buggers bit me!) and a couple of hairy looking centipedes.  I took my camera out there and took a few photos of what was out there.

Me holding a Golden-Tailed gecko when spotlighting at night.

A Yellow Faced Whip Snake (Demansia psammophis) that Stewart found under a log while spotlighting.

A Stone Gecko (Diplodactylus vittatus) that I found on a stick.  They usually sit on sticks that are close to the ground and when you come close they hear you and can slip off into the darkness.

This Golden-Tailed Gecko (Strophurus taenicauda) was found on the first night.  After spotlighting we came back and Stewart found this one on his tent.  Here he is being released onto a nearby tree.

This Delma plebeia was found in one of the pit traps that were out on the heath that we checked in the morning.