People who bitch about others - seriously, get a life!

Although I am only doing part time at XXX Company, there's one thing I have learned about the work culture in Auckland. And goddamnit, I hate what I've learnt! I really hate it when I am working and random guy comes and start bitching about other workmates. This has NEVER for once happened while I was working in Christchurch. Maybe it's just Arc with it's awesome work culture and people. Don't you just hate those people? Like I was working in this team, and in this team, there's one manager. And the manager is in charge of 4 ops-engineer and 1-inv manager. I on the other hand work under the inv-manager. So that means I am also under the team manager and he also have the right to tell me to do this and that. Really, the inv-manager and the team manager are all really nice people. The inv-manager is kinda lax while the team manager is kinda uptight and hardcore. Like inv-manager is the kind of guy who would let me leave if I didn't have anything to do but if team manager was to see that, he would find some work for me till it's home time. It's not like he makes me work overtime without pay or anything like that. And so annoying this is random guy decides to kiss up to the inv-manager and starts saying things like, you are so lucky you are working for inv-manager and not team manager. He will work you like a horse bla bla bla. And then when the inv-manager is not there, he goes and say I don't see why inv-manager does it this way. It doesn't make sense at all, no value added to the team. Bleh. Hate getting caught in this bullshit. I swear no politics for me! I am just a "stu-die" as they call it, and please don't get me into this crap. I really don't appreciate this kinda bullshit when I only do two days a week. I really can't fit bitching into my tight schedule!

Summer!!!

Now that all my engineering exams are over and results are out, I am glad to say - no more engineering papers EVER :) Also, this means that it is the last year of uni for a lot of my friends with whom I have spent the last four years hanging out with. Although I might not like all of them, but it does feel a little sad when it all ends.

The last day of uni came and went quite undramatically because I had my EPICS presentation that day and I helped my friend, LY, with her moving after that. And when it all ended we were all exhausted and all 5 of us went to Narita for a late dinner and I ended up feeling sick because the dinner was too late.

It seemed like a fairly good ending, but some random stuff happened aftwerwards between LY and M over a stupid parking ticket and a lift to the airport and I think that was probably the last time the 5 of us would hang out again.

All in all, I think that it is silly to get angry over small things in life. Life is too short to be unhappy. What more, to lose friends over things that don't even really matter e.g. money is quite regrettable. I guess sometimes only when we are old and wrinkly and to be on our death bed do we realise what is really important to us.

I guess the best (or worst) part about uni is learning how to observe people and from that information be able to gather their true personality. And it seems that what I have found is that most people I know are not very good people.

I remember having a really good friend at uni called J. When she broke up with her boyfriend I was always there even though it was the exam period. But what I didn't know was that way before that, she was trying to make H dislike me. What I also didn't know was that she had also previously tried to break up my friend A from her boyfriend B, and that was 2007. And till today, in 2009, she is still doing things behind my friend A with B. During that same time, I won the prize for design and she got really mad at me was would continuously complain to JK that she really hated me for being so lucky and having a good team.

If I were to name all the people I knew at uni, I could probably be able to give you a story for each of them. When I began to look around I noticed that people around me in general are users and they would say things you want to hear when they are with you, and they are probably a lot more selfish. I can take selfishness but I cannot take that people try to hurt you when you are better than them. I guess this is an ASIAN trait, to always want to show off so when other people get better, they can't take it and they resort to hurting others. And this why I have slowly distant myself from the people I knew from uni because I have known who they truly are by the end of it. And really, I do not treasure many of them except a select few. And those are the people I will try to keep in touch for as long as I can.

At the end of the day, what I am trying to say is that there are hardly any friendships worth treasuring. So there is no reason to feel sad about leaving. Instead, I take this a fresh start, and you bet, what I've learned from all of this is to protect myself. That means, no more favours from me :)

Patent

I am now an inventor and have a patent. Haha. I don't think we made anything breakthrough but with sponsoring companies, they just like to patent any little thing they make so no one else can copy it. So whatever, I don't really mind them doing that since they might be paying us a bit of money for it. Not in the millions of course, just a semester course fees. I think we did a better job than the guys last year, and to be very honest, I don't think they deserve the A+ they got. What they did weren't really design. They just used the most expensive components to achieve some very simple functions. I guess a lot of the times, the grade you get depends on how much you have made your supervisor proud in front of the sponsors.

I think that this year, every one of my friends have done a very good job with their design project, especially those of us working on CPT. So anyway, if anyone's interested, CPT is a form of wireless power. The concept is very simple. Basically all you do is seperate two conductive plates at a distance and when you feed AC, it will go from one plate to the other because at high frequency capacitors exhibit low impedance. It's a pretty clever idea. But when actually implementing it, there's A LOT of problems to be fixed. I am very impressed with how all of us doing it have got it working. S got it to charge an e-puck robot and we got it to power a sensor on a mask which cannot be electrically connected to a power supply for safety purposes. But now that all the projects are done, there's the report, poster, presentation. Gah! All the paper work! Crazy.

A little unhappy

I think as a person, I take fairness more importantly than anything. It's just a built-in instinct for me. So really, I am not a person who likes it when Christians go "God loves everyone, and will forgive you for all your sins" bull crap. I think that even if God loves you, and you do in fact did something wrong, you should repay for what you have done. Things just don't go away just because you know what you have done is wrong. Say, if you killed someone, and you feel sorry. The person is still dead and nothing you do can change that.

So what I'm trying to say is I CAN'T STAND IT WHEN GOOD THINGS HAPPEN TO BAD PEOPLE. I understand why bad things happen to good people, because life is just full of ups and downs so no surprises there. But when good things happen to bad people I don't get. Because I think they deserve shit, and should just rot in hell for all the bad things they have done in their life.

Anyways, that was just a vent, and of course it does bear some relevance to my present life.

Uni is going to end soon. And I have two projects to hand in pretty soon and four pieces of coursework jumbled up between those. I hate uni, so I am glad it's all wrapping up now.

Speaking of the recession, it sucks. I think only one or two of my friends have got job offers. And a few interviews here and there. Last year now heaps of people have already got a job lined up for them. Good thing I have one year of commerce to keep me away from the sad job market out there. Fuck the American housing bubble!

Friends

I know I probably shouldn't be rationalising so much when I decide who I should be friends with, but how can I not be when the only thing I feel is being used around some "friends". If they are using me, at least let me rationalise and think of how I can benefit from being "friends" with them.

I now know why R does not like to have friends from class. At least, those high school friends I have are still friends with me even though there is absolutely NOTHING I can offer to them except maybe company (and maybe the ocassional feedbacks for CVs and cover letters). This sort of friendship is increasingly harder to get.

I am so sorry I moved to DP when I knew you guys wanted to get some help for Power and Control. But really, if you could at least make me feel that you liked me MORE than just for those tutoring, maybe I would have helped. Unfortunately, I am not J, I am not desperate for friendships. And how dare some of you guys said "I didn't really ask J that much for communications. I learnt them by myself"". I think you guys should just screw yourself. At least, show some sort of appreciation for all those time he spent attending to your questions. He spent a WHOLE day when there was only THREE days to study for that exam. He is smart, and nice and there is a hell lot more reasons to like him then just to help you get that C- you need so badly.

Expectations

I am about to crack under the pressure.

One thing I like about doing this degree is the group projects. The randomly assigned ones are even better, only because we all get to know one another really well.

When this year's over, we'd prolly not keep in touch. But it was great while it lasted. As much as I hate this degree and the stress we get, I enjoy the company of all my friends.

And if you've been prying on my facebook photos, just to let you know, there aren't only asians doing engineering. We are a mixed bunch, but we've all only gotten closer this year. Hanging out with different people feels a lot greater. Diversity rocks!

BBQ

Yesterday we had an awesome BBQ party at Maggie's awesome house. It's got a proper pool, a jacuzzi, and 5 acres of well landscaped land for a backyard. But it was soooo hard to find!! We got lost for a good 30mins looking for her house!! Partly because the road to her house has been sealed and we all had old maps. Note to self: check google maps! Daniel went all the way to Ponsonby because Maggie hadn't mention the suburb her house was at in her text ...

Overall, it was an awesome party. It wasn't an overly crowded one so everyone got to know each other.

Now, it's back to the books and researching. Man, I really really can't wait to get out of uni and get a proper job!

Uni is so different when you want A+ instead of just getting a pass. A pass is always easy, but after that, I can't imagine how hard it is to get a job!