chicken little

Saturday, November 5, 2011

I should put this in a cover letter someday

I'm listening to a lecture on green architecture and the speaker just said that there's no discipline that actually looks at the interactions between ecology and cities. There is! That's what I'M studying! Fine, I haven't quite learnt much about the city side of the story (since I've chosen to focus on water as my final year subjects) but I've spent quite some time on ecology subjects and then on management in terms of dealing with humans and regulations. And while they didn't spend much time teaching us the link between those two, I'm assuming that as I graduate and move on, each separate subject I learnt should work in tandem to help me in the work I'll do.

I once worked with a mature-aged Masters student on an environmental monitoring subject. He kept asking "What's the point of focusing on rivers when there's so much more to study? How is this applicable in the real world if I don't want to be involved with rivers?"And all the while, I assumed that this subject was teaching us the basics of environmental monitoring. Yes, the work we did was based on rivers but it's totally applicable to other regions.

To me that's what environmental engineering is about. In uni, we learn the basics by focusing on small topics. More importantly we learn that what they can teach us is a small part of the bigger picture and we need to be inventive with how we apply these lessons in the real world. So while my lessons are focused on environmental stuff (especially water), I guess the main message from my course that I'll take home with me is to think of everything in the world as a system and that fixing one thing here can cause another problem there (ie there's no simple solution to real world problems). And that covers how I'll approach the issue of the ecology of a city.

Oh and that while we can come up with amazing stuff, if it isn't explained well to the people lower down in the command chain it's kinda pointless. Heard that story so many times in the past couple of years....

Monday, October 24, 2011

11 statements to complete

I love the scent of...

Vanilla. The ocean. Freshly cut grass (unless it's a really humid day). Citrus-y scents are pretty nice too. Oooh freshly baked goodies!

I once had a really weird dream that...
I was chasing a ghost away. Oh gosh, the memories are coming back haha. I was around 11 years old and my parents had moved me out of a shared room to my eldest brother's room (he was studying away from home). I was the only one sleeping on my floor and I wasn't used to sleeping alone so I said a little prayer for courage so that I would hopefully stop seeing monsters in the dark. And then I dreamt that I chased a ghost away -_-

I did feel a whole lot braver after that :) but I don't think I ever really outgrew thinking there was a monster in the dark.

If I were a Disney character, I'd be...
Crush from Finding Nemo, coz he was like woah and I was like woah and you were like woo-oahh
*haha I actually first wrote this when I was 19..*

My hourly rate is...
5 bucks apparently. But that's since 2006. I'm sure my rates have risen by now

*this reminds me of college and the silly stuff we made up hehe....all the "For last night"s we said =p*

Do you like your peanut butter crunchy or smooth?
Smooth. It's so hard to spread crunchy ones..but sometimes I crave that extra texture. So.hard.to.decide.

Ever broken a bone?
Nope. Had a ruler poke my eye before though.

*heh I only vaguely remember overhearing about this. I kinda thought it was just a dream since then but my mum recently confirmed it*

The last time you cleaned your room, how many hours did it take?
Heehee, which room? In Malaysia, it takes at least the entire day. I've got a big room and a lot of things in it. But here in Melbourne, I tend to keep my things away pretty ok so it only takes an hour or 2 to clean up.

*Actually my room in Malaysia has NOTHING in it anymore. Sigh to be honest, I don't know what's in it anymore because my mum cleaned it up without me and I haven't been back to Malaysia since...*

Boys go to Jupiter to get more...
stupider!

People think that I'm...
2007 answer:

a person who gets angry quickly..but I really don't! Most of the time I'm just messing around. My housemates and I have these arguments every so often that are really stupid. Pretend arguments la concerning small matters that will make us laugh when we're arguing. Like which soft toy is the cutest or hm..not sure what else I'm allowed to say =p

2011 answer:

I wish I wrote down what we argued about. Forgot a lot of it by now...

Hm..I don't know..what DO they think of me?

I think I don't talk to people as much anymore...or we only talk about the superficial stuff like Apple news or where's the new best place to go check out.

Would you rather own a dog named Growler or a parrot named Captain?
A parrot named Captain. Cool la, then I can get it to repeat after me "arrrr, *insert some pirate slang here*

---

It's interesting how 4 years have past and my answers are mostly still the same :)

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Klutz

There's this particular spot near Melbourne Central that people tend to slip on while walking on it. And last night I fell prey to it.

So I was happily walking along the pavement near Little Lonsdale Street, talking on the phone and carrying my handbag at a weird angle because it had my laptop in it and it was kinda heavy. As I hung up, I immediately slipped with a little scream/shriek, knocked my knee and fell to my ass. And then my bag swung into my head.

Fortunately it was a gentle bump to the head. Like someone patting it after I fell haha. Yet, despite the fact my knee was burning from pain (I later found out I scraped it a bit), I rubbed my head out of reflex.

It took me a few seconds on the floor to realise what just happened..and it made me laugh. And this nice dude asked me if I was okay as I walked away. He was laughing at me too though haihh

I blame it on the lousy no-grip shoes I was wearing but to be honest, the pavement's too slippery! And it's sloped at the part where I slipped! And it's not my fault! Haha that's somewhat true since in spite of my klutzy nature, I rarely fall on my bum :(

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

wombat's ramble =p

I'm debating if I should stay up all night knowing that way I could definitely catch the 7.30am tram and make it to my 8am class so I can fall asleep there.

Yeahh maybe not.

Nights!

Sunday, July 24, 2011

You remind me...

..of a queen bee in high school, making snarky remarks and trying to get everyone else to hate on someone.

I feel bad that I just walked away from the conversation but I did tell you to stop gossiping/talking that way about people because it skews how I think them...and usually for the worse. And I'll much rather form my own views based on how they interact with me..

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

???

My mum just told me off for not knowing how much a close friend earns..
"You must ask these kind of questions; it's stuff you should know."

What???
Do I really need to know how much X is earning? Isn't it too personal? And if my mum was referring to the market rate for engineers, wouldn't online job websites be a better resource especially considering my friend is not even working in that field? Or even in the same country?

And clearly my mum doesn't realise one of my weird quirks is that I don't like prying into people's lives. It's not that I don't care, I just don't like intruding into people's personal stuff unless they don't mind. And that's kinda hard for me to tell. I guess I find it scary to ask questions when I'm not sure if I'm crossing some boundary.

So, if I see someone crying, instead of asking them what's wrong, I usually end up digging for tissues, patting them and offering them silent comfort until I gather up the courage to ask them to share if they're comfortable. Or I give them the chance not to answer by saying stuff like "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to".

Or maybe I'm just badly equipped when it comes to asking questions. Sometimes when people tell me over the phone that they are coming over, I just say ok and hang up. Then I'll realise I don't know when or where or even why haha. So I have to call back and ask for those details...

Anyway, in regards to the whole income thing, I prefer to learn about personal stuff like that when people mention them in conversations on related topics. Which I hope goes to show that they're comfortable enough with me to casually say such stuff. Unless they're showing off la which doesn't make sense because it's usually preceded/followed by "I'm so broke"..

Friday, July 8, 2011

I have a tumblr site!

Helloo
I've started using tumblr over at wennietheboo.tumblr.com
Just because it's really easy to post up links/pictures/videos there instead. And because I started following eatyourkimchi on tumblr haha
Right now I periodically update it with stuff that I find interesting but I'll still use this site to post up my thoughts whenever I finally put them into words. I just keep blanking out whenever I have blogger open :/

I've also started knitting again! Will I finally finish my first scarf? Hm..I'm really loving the wool I'm using (it's so soft and FLUFFY!) but it's pink and grey and is really begging to be knitted into a cute shirt for a baby instead. Ah well, maybe I'll put the scarf on my baby pooh bear toy if I get shy about wearing it.