Car Troubles

I've just got my car back from the garage. Last week it started playing up. When I say playing up, it just wouldn't start. I got it going once but after that couldn't. By the sound that it would make when trying to start it I worked out that it might be the starter motor. After calling out the RACQ guy to get it started I drove it to my local garage and told them to fix it. Nearly $800 and two days later I picked up my car and drove it away.

This little event got me thinking. Is my car on its way to getting everthing major replaced? I really hope not. Being a full time student I already have limited funds and with the major expenses such as registration and insurance taking up nearly all of my scholarship money that I am given ($2000 p.a.) it makes it hard enough to find the hundreds of dollars that are needed to pay for a service and replacement parts. If you have a car then you have to have a job. They are just so expensive!

Working in the Laboratory

This week was the last week of the holidays in the mid-semester break.  However, I was not on holiday but working hard at uni.  We had lab classes for Medical Microbiology and so for the first time we got to play with pathogenic bacteria.  It actually wasn’t too bad although at the end of the week I could see clearer than ever before the gaps in my knowledge when it comes to microbiology.  We had to identify some unknown organisms that were given to us at the start of the week.  We had to plate them on to selective agar and run several tests on them to determine what type they were.  By the end of the week however, I was no closer to saying for sure what they were.  I could plate the bacteria up and run the required tests such as coagulation, oxidisation and staining that were required.  I could say whether the tests were positive or negative, whether it was gram positive or negative and whether it was cocci or rod shaped.  However, this knowledge needed to compared to our knowledge of certain bacteria.  That is where my knowledge fell short.  I was only able to identify the bacteria when I used the computer identification tests and software.  Despite my poor performance at least it has given me an idea of what I need to know before the final exams.  Now I’ve just got to learn!

University, where free thought is discouraged.

One thing I've noticed about this university is that students are not encouraged to think freely about issues. As one teacher put it "everything you are going to think, has already been thought by someone else therefore everything must be referenced". It is an odd thought, but one that has been reinforced throughout my time at uni and not just in regards to referencing. The rebellious side of university life has gone. It is discouraged to be different. Change is now brought about by someone else, the student body only looks on. There are no campus groups promoting activism or even extra cirricular activities. You only come to uni to study, nothing more. How things change.

How do you see it?

I had a call from a one of my old work colleagues the other day. It was quite out of the blue but I was asked if I'd speak to someone from the Anti-discrimination commission about how he was treated at his last job. I said yes naively wondering what they were investigating. I was quite amazed to find out as you can imagine, that they were actually investigating a clam from this colleague regarding different treatment due to race. It was even more shocking as I thought he understood the real reason.

Before I go on though I should explain. This story is all about bush travel. My former colleague wanted to go out bush more than he did. It's true that among all the people in the office he got to go out the least, but did occasionally (very occasionally) get to go out. The reason that he wasn't allowed to go out as much as he would have liked was more to do with his attitude than race. The guy in question is quite black and white when it comes to doing his job. This is an asset is some ways but not in others. When someone goes out into the bush it is all about building a strong working relationship with the people out there. When he went out to a community I heard that he was very forceful and unmoving when it came to his job. Nothing happens quickly in the bush and you can't go out and treat them the same way as you would for the people in town, you have to work with them.

That's why when I spoke to the person from the anti-discrimination commission I told them exactly that. By old boss never in the 3 years I was out there showed any racism to him or anyone in the office. It was the bosses job to make that call whether it is a popular one or not. It was her job to make the call that was right and for the good of the whole program. I think she made the right call. That's why I could in no way shape or form support a claim of racism against my former boss. It just didn't happen.

I'm also amazed that my former colleague automatically jumped to the conclusion that it was because of his origins and not because of his conduct. Maybe he knew, maybe he didn't, maybe he knew the reason but didn't believe it could be true. I just don't know. Either way the claim of racism, in my opinion was not even remotely true.

Thanks Ipek!

I've just spoken to Ipek and I am now the proud owner of a Distinction in Microbiology. My grade was upgraded after I spoke to the teacher and pleaded my case. Apparently I was only 3 points short of a Distinction when my original mark of a Credit came out. Ipek (the micro teacher) had another look over my lab report and gave me an additional 3 points to scrape me in to a Distincion. Not bad! Of course, I only got 58 out of 100 for the final exam so that was a bit of a shocker, but up until then I was doing well.

Environmental Health Weekend

As part of my Environment and Health degree I have to take part in a weekend course observing various businesses and looking for environmental health issues. This weekend the course was run for the first time. Basically it involved heading around to certain manufacturing businesses and having a tour of the facility. We were based out at Imbil which is a little town about 75km from Mooloolaba and drove out there Friday afternoon. I had to skip my final lecture of the day, Health Promotion Foundations, but I wasn't too annoyed. I drove out to Imbil with a friend, and stopped at the Railway Hotel for a few drinks while we waited for the rest of the group to arrive. They were at the campsite setting up. There wasn't much to set up as everyone had cabins so we were surprised when they arrived about an hour later but not surprised that they too had stopped for a few drinks. Imbil is a nice little town on the Yabba Creek. Its your typical rural town. Nice and friendly. We had dinner at the pub (roast night!) before returning to the campsite. We had a capin that was quite spacious. After a few more drinks with some of the others in the group I climbed up into the top bunk and was fast asleep in no time.

The next day was a busy one. We first drove back down to Yandina to visit the Buderim Ginger Factory. We took a factory tour by one of the food safety engineers who showed us around the site and told us how their products were made and what went into them. After that we went back up through Malleny to Mary Cairncross Park were we went for a walk in the remnant rainforest. After that we had a tour of the Malleny Dairy. That was pretty interesting. We were given a talk on how their milk was produced and what they do with all the calves that are born. We were allowed to go into the dairy and see them milking the cows and goats and then shown how they process the milk (homogonisation and pasturisation) before loading it on trucks to be sent off to the shops. The best part was the taste testing. We tasted their milks, flavoured milks and yoghurts that they make on the farm.

When we arrived back at camp that night we all sat around the fire having a few beers while we listened one of the local animal management officers talk about the tracking, capture and problems of the feral vertabrate animals in the area.

The next day was probably the highlight of the weekend. We were given a talk by a man called Steve about the proposed Traveston Crossing Dam that the current Bligh government was trying so hard to push. After speaking to him and looking at the site myself it seems like a ridicculous proposal to build a dam there. Not only would they be destroying kilometres of endangered native riparian ecosystems, the site is all wrong for building a dam. The rock under the proposed dam is fractured. This would have to be filled drilled and filled with concreted. First however they would have to dig down 46 metres through sand to get to that rock. If it is build it the dam resivour would have an average depth of 5 metres and cover several small towns in the area. What's more is that the water source would not even be able to provide enough water and act as the back up to Brisbanes three main dams. The Wivenhoe system has a water suppy of about 4 years while if a dam was built in the Mary Valley it would be empty in a year and a half. Not much of a back up. I could of course go one about many other reasons why building a dam there is just stupid but I won't. All I can say though is that it was a facinating talk. I did some further research on some of the figures presented and found that even the governments own initial papers regarding the dam say that it is a poor choice. It now looks like it was just a political promise to the people of Brisbane to win an election. The government just needed to look like they were doing something about the water issues in South-East Queensland.

The empty words of Health Promotion

Thinking back to my Health Promotion Foundations lecture, another thing that started my mind wandering away from the lecture and it's subject matter was the first words that the lecturer, Jane Gregg, said when she finally started. She acknowledged the traditional owners and it's something that I've never heard any lecturer do this before. Now, I don't want to sound like a racist bigot but people who come into class and start the lecture with "I'd like to acknowledge the traditional owners the..." makes the person just sound like they are trying to be overly politically correct. I mean, if I was in somewhere like Scotland at a uni in a region that used to be owned by some clan I wouldn't start my lecture with an acknowledgement of them even if they had been forcibly removed from the area. Not unless, I was trying to present myself as concerned or ashamed about past government policies. The fact that I wasn't alive when they were made and had nothing do do with forcing the previous residents of their land would not make me want to let everyone know how I feel about the situation. Those policies were conducted with the support of the ruling population. It might not be right, it might have been wrong by today's standards, but it was done. There is a point where you have to move on from the past. We should try to rectify poor past decisions but empty words such as those I heard today, do little but trivialise the issues. That's what I felt the lecturers words were. Empty. By the way she said it you could tell that it was just a formality for her in showing that she was politically correct and nothing more.

Surviving the first week

I've survived my first week in of my new classes. I think I did relatively well considering what they are. I think that all up I'm going to like 3 of the subjects, Medical Microbiology, Environmental Health Risk Assessment and Food Laws. The one that I'm not too sure about is Public Health Foundations. The tutorial was pointless (as most first week tutorials are) and consisted of "team building" exercises with the rest of the class. I can accept that, it's the first week and it's good to get to know some more people. However, the lecture (which was today from 2 - 4) was another story. I expected too much thinking that it was going to relate to public health. The lecture started late and the first half (I only managed to stick it for the first 40 minutes), consisted of a slide show with pictures that were intended to be amusing with captions such as "ask for help" or "stay calm". I have seen these pictures many times before so they did not make me smile in the least. When it came to actually talking about Health Promotion it was not interesting. I'm not being unkind. It just wasn't, so I left.

And the shelves were bare

I'm now back at uni after 3 weeks break. The start of this semester brings new subjects and new room mates. My room mates have already annoyed me. At least one of them has at least. When I arrived back at the flat yesterday afternoon I found that someone had eaten half of the food I had left up there. Seriously, what kind of person eats food that without asking first. That put me in a bad mood for a start and so I've only spoken to two of my housemates quickly when I first arrived and haven't spoken to them since. I'm going to ask who took my food and do my best to get them to replace it when I get back this evening.

My timetable this semester is full of early mornings and full days. I have 2 days with 8 o'clock starts and Wednesday to Friday are all full days ending between 4 and 6 in the evening. At least I have Monday and Tuesday off so I'll be able to get a bit of study done then and if all goes to plan this semester I'll be able to get a job and therefore will be able to work on those two days. My first classes start tomorrow so I'm hoping that things get better.

Half way there

I'm now officially half way through my degree. The marks from the first semester of my second year came out at midnight today. I totally bombed out during both my exams so I wasn't too sure how I'd go. It's quite a relief to finally know that I have passed. I received a credit for public health, microbiology and justice and a distinction for planning and environmental law.

This semester was quite frustrating. I was doing two subjects that I see as a compete waste of time. I'm referring to Justice and the Australian Legal System and Health Promotion Needs and Assessment Planning. Both were frustrating in that not only were both courses poorly run with the grading expectations ambiguous, but also the content was not remotely interesting. I do not want to go into details but I am very disappointed with them and how they were run, not just my final mark. I would have liked to done better in Microbiology and believe my results in the final exam had a major affect on my final grade. In the exam I completed the multiple choice without too many issues. However, the second part of the exam, the short answer questions, was a different story. There were 5 questions each worth 10 marks each. My mind went blank and I could only write something for 2 of them. Before the test there were two pieces of assessment left, the exam and a write up of a lab activity. I was on 37% before those two were submitted. Therefore I must have performed badly on both. Once again I find the empty words flying around my head once again, "I must apply myself more next semester".

Later I found out that I received 85 out of 100 for the lab report (a distinction) and only 58 out of 100 for the exam (a pass). That's why I only received a credit and could have done so much better. If only I could remember what the western blotting technique was!