Happy Halloween

Happy Birthday Kat

The Weekend

I guess the weekend really kicked off for me on Friday afternoon, after presenting our project for retail design. I feel that the tealight holders were fairly well accepted, and some of the class members wanted to buy some for gifts.
The folio Mauris, Evan and I submitted looked awesome too, and was really professionally done. (Snaps for Mauris! *Snap, Snap, Snap*) Mauris did a lot of work on the folio to get it ready just before our deadline, without his work we would have been up the creek without a paddle. As it was, Friday morning was a mad house. I experienced nothing but dramas when I was trying to print the files we had prepared the night before. Some bits and pieces wouldn't load, and some of the images  got lost while I was porting them between computers. In the end, I had to convert every page into a PDF file, and then print it. (I wonder if I am able to collate all the PDFs into a single document, because that would be a really cool digital folio!)
Following the class presentations, I caught the train over to Hawthorn campus to turn in my re-enrollment form. I figured out that I only need to take 3 classes each semester in my final year of study to still get all the subjects and credit points I need. I still hope to do Industry Based Learning, but I will have to amend my enrollment once I find an employer.
Speaking of Industry Based Learning, I applied at a couple more places, because I am sick of waiting to hear from Ford. I applied for Moose Enterprises, which is a toy company. I also applied for some industrial machinery companies, such as iBulk, Polysius, and Applied Auto. RedFlex is another company that were advertising on the IBL website, so I applied there; they manufacture and maintain red light cameras and speed cameras.
After I had dropped in my re-enrollment form, I caught the train into the city to see the Droog Designs exhibition. It was quite good, and I recommend everyone goes to check it out. It's on at 101 Colins St, in the East Gallery on the ground level. It's excellent for getting ideas and trying out some more unusual products, such as the floating chairs, or a wine-glass doorbell. It's a free exhibition too, so no excuses! Check it out!
Following the Droog Design exhibition, I went to hear Chris Bangle (the head designer from BMW) deliver a presentation about design. He was a great speaker, and gave a really insightful talk about what he and the BMW team see as the path forward for design in our world today. He also talked about some of the new processes of rapid tooling that BMW is using to create their cars, and some new inspirations the team has found.
Following the BMW thing, Chris, Jenny, Quang, Evan, Anna, Mauris and I went out to dinner at Thy Thy in Victoria Street. Then we all visited Kade, Tom and Allison at Kade's apartment.
After a couple of games of foose-ball and a couple of drinks, we headed over to the Nevermind Bar. It was a nice surprise to bump into Matthew, who was working as a bouncer at the door. I wanted to go home fairly early, I was pretty pooped after my busy day.
Saturday was a fairly quiet day, with ballooning canceled, and Kmart in the afternoon. I got a nice sleep in, and a lazy morning. Kmart was pretty busy, because we have a big sale on at the moment, but Stewart and I managed.
Saturday night was Kat's birthday party. Jason and Kat decided to have a BBQ at their house to celebrate. Their house is made for entertaining, with lots of space for the kids to play, and a great outdoor area too, (even though it was too cold to use the outdoor space). It was such fun to catch up with everyone. There was also singstar at the end of the night (of course), in which I figured out I should not try and attempt songs I don't know. LOL.
Daniel showed us his new toy, a sexy little alpha. It's red, and has the coolest little gizmos on the inside. It was hard to see some bits in the dark, but it seemed to be very shiny and well kept.
Sunday morning I helped lead the youth service at church, which went pretty well. I think we need to practice some of the songs a little more though. Sunday afternoon I was called into work, because there was nobody rostered on, and management didn't realize until nobody showed up to work. I think someone will get in trouble for that.
Church on Sunday night was the first P3 event.... that's Prayer, Praise and Pizza. It was such fun, with lots of singing and dancing and games and activities. There were people there from all different churches, and it was just such fun.

Weeks 11 and 12.

Time really flies these days, it seems like I only posted stuff just
yesterday, but looking back through my blog, it has been nearly two
weeks! So I am sitting here on the train on my way to uni trying to
figure out what I have done that is of note over the last two weeks of
the semester.
Ooh, before I get too distracted, someone asked me what the theme for
party tram was (as I didn't specifically mention it on my blog) The
theme was "South of the Border".
Now, back to what's been happening over this past two weeks. I have been
working very hard on presentations and folios and projects and reports
that were all due in very close together. It has been a most stressful
time. It almost feels like I start working on my laptop in the morning
when I get on the train, and don't stop working until i fold down the
lid before going to bed. Why is it that the convenience of being able to
work ANYWHERE at ANYTIME quickly turns into the burden of being expected
to work EVERYWHERE, ALL THE TIME. I shouldn't complain that much, I do
it to myself.
One of the memorable events of this past week was an "idiot moment" I
had the other day while I was at work. I was taking photos in the Yarra
Valley for the first time in ages, and I managed to screw it right up. I
accidentally twisted the focus ring on the camera instead of the zoom
ring, and when I got back to the office, I discovered that all of my
beautiful photos were fuzzy! I was so annoyed at myself. To my surprise,
people still bought them, although I am sure I could have gotten more
sales if I had not screwed it up so much.
Another memorable event of this last two weeks was Cheyne's birthday.
Chris and I took Cheyne out for his birthday last Friday to a place
Chris found online. They had a great location on the waterside at
Docklands, but it's just a shame that the food was a little
disappointing. First, they didn't have what I had wanted to order,
because they had not bothered to buy and crocodile. Then I ordered
kangaroo, which was quite nice, even though it was served on a bed of
mashed sweet potato. The odd thing about the meal I eventually ordered,
was the mashed sweet potato was served chilled. I am not entirely sure
weather it was supposed to be chilled, or if the chef just forgot to put
it in the microwave, but it seemed a little odd.
Saturday night we ate out again, having dinner with Ryan at another
restaurant Chris had discovered online. This one was a lot different.
For a start, they were a pancake place, so most items on the menu were
not overly unusual. The menu was very reasonably priced, and the staff
there were unbelievably friendly. I had a good time, and I am sure Chris
and Ryan did too.
On the educational side of things, everything is going swimmingly. On
Monday, Jenny and I delivered a presentation about the manufacturing
process of a M20 bolt. I think the presentation went well, but most of
all, I am relieved that it's over. Wednesday was another day that I was
stressed out about an assignment. I had to hand in a plastics re-design
assignment. I'm not sure how well I completed it, but I sure am glad
it's over.
Today (Friday) the retail design assignment is due in. Another
presentation goes along with that, so let's hope it goes ok.
Rovers on Tuesday night was something a bit different. We went to a
circus school! I learned how to do the tight rope, juggle scarves, walk
on stilts, and do some trapeze tricks. There will be some photos added
shortly, as soon as Tim can get them to me on a CD.

And more Party Tram

Party Tram 2006! (again)

Party Tram 2006!

A couple random photos from Andrew's life...

Party Tram

The biggest thing that has happened over the weekend was the Bill
Rutherford Rover Crew's Party Tram event. It happened on Saturday night,
and essentially is a party on a tram that travels from Vermont South to
Port Melbourne and back, with a few detours through the CBD along the way.
Chris and I helped organize the decorations for the night, and we made
the tram look awesome (even if I do say so myself). I was a little
disappointed with people's unimaginative costumes, but perhaps we could
blame the theme that we chose for that. I have uploaded some photos from
the night, so have a look, everyone seemed to have a great time. I am
sort of glad that it's all over for another year though, so now I can
focus on my studies a little more... That's the theory at least.
Speaking of my studies, I feel it is appropriate to have a little winge
about all the work we have been getting lately. Why is it the last
fortnight of semester, and we are still learning new material? Almost
everyone else is revising, but not PDE students at Swinburne, we are not
allocated any revision time at all! Apparently, that's what SWATVAC is
for. Unfortunately, the Industrial Designers who are running the other
half of the PDE course think that SWATVAC is just an extension of the
semester, and they can run projects overtime into the SWATVAC period. I
have my doubts as to weather this should be allowed by the rest of the
university community, as it just highlights the incompetence of the
design teachers and coordinators. As it stands at the moment, I have
been rushed off my feet all semester trying to earn marks for design, so
much so that I am afraid I have been neglecting the engineering
subjects. Now I find out that due to the design studio project running
overtime, I am only going to get a week to study for each engineering
subject, when I was anticipating at least two or three.
I'll shut up about uni work now.
In non-uni related news, Chris and I went to 18 plus last night, and I
managed to distribute some more birthday party invitations. I will have
to mail out a couple I think. I have started to receive RSVP's too,
which I think is rather exciting. I can't wait until the 22nd of
November... **LAST EXAM** YAY!
I think that's all the big news from my life at the moment, so until
next time... =) keep on keeping on.

Happy 21st Birthday Tristan!

PDE trip to the beach.

Boing Design - more than just sexy tealights. BUY ONE NOW!!

Happy 21st Birthday Tristan!

Happy 21st Birthday Kade!

Photo Flood

Ok, so I have not posted for quite a while. I just went through my
iPhoto library and selected a couple highlights from the last week.
This weekend was the weekend of the 21st birthday, with both Kade and
Tristan having their celebrations. Fortunately, Kade's party was on
Friday night, and Tristan's was on Saturday night, so we managed to get
along to both.
Kade had his birthday at Metropol in StKilda. It was quite difficult to
find the place, even with Sophia guiding us. The hunt for parking was
even more frustrating. I got so annoyed at the lack of parking spots
that I mad Chris drive to find us one. Once we finally got into the
party, it was so much fun. It was such a great opportunity to catch up
with people from uni, and perhaps more importantly, their partners.
There was singing and dancing, and a little bit of drinking (as you may
be able to tell from the photos). There was heaps of food too, and I
think everyone had a really fun time. Chris and I stayed until about
12.30am before heading home. I was lucky enough to not have work the
following morning, but Chris had a very early start lined up.
Saturday night was Tristan's birthday. The theme for the night was the
1980's, so there were bad hair cuts everywhere and lots of really camp
music. As you can see in the photos, there was more dancing, and some
singing along to the music.
Tristan's family had organized a photo wall for Tristan, so we could see
how much he's grown up over the years. He was so cute when he was in
primary school!
The rest of the week has been fairly uneventful. Most of my time has
been spent finishing off projects and organizing details for my own 21st
birthday party. I have finished the invites, but you will have to wait
until I give you yours before you can see them... or is that evil?
Thursday was 39 degrees, so perfect beach weather. I didn't go, but lots
of my friends from uni went. There are a few photos of the trip down to
Sandringham beach, thanks to Linda. I sort of wish that I did have the
time to get down to the beach, but I guess there will be plenty of time
for that in the holidays....
Other BIG news is that we got our tealight candle holders prototyped.
They look good, and I have attached some promotional photos. If anyone
would like to order one, contact the team at boing.design.au@gmail.com
I think that pretty much sums up the week! Hope the heat is not killing
anyone, and that the weekend is fantastic!
PS: Don't forget to keep November the 24th free.... there will be a
party =)

SIEVX pole

Find out more about the SIEVX pole project, and watch a slide show at
http://www.sievxmemorial.com/ Make sure you look out for some familiar
faces :)

Back to the grind (it hurts)

Well, after a short break from uni, on Monday I got to see everyone
again. I think the common consensus about the holidays was that they
were too short and too busy. I can certainly agree with that comment.
Thinking about what has happened since the last time I wrote, the
highlights would have to be celebrating Chris K's birthday, painting the
SIEVX pole, and finishing house sitting for Barbara.
Chris's birthday was fun. We had a BBQ on Friday afternoon, but it was
during the day so CJ couldn't come along. On Monday night Chris K, CJ
and I went out for dinner to mark the occasion. We went to go and see a
movie afterwards, which turned out to be better than I had anticipated.
We went to see Stormbreaker, which is a movie about a "14 year old boy"
who becomes a secret agent. The story is pretty far fetched, but it is
entertaining. The guy playing the main character looked a lot older than
14.
Claire and I pained the design onto the SIEVX pole this week at church.
The design features ferns, flowers and butterflies. The design was
chosen because it reflects the place that we live in. We completed it on
Sunday afternoon. It turned out a lot better than I had though, and
hopefully, will look great when it's put up in Canberra. The ceremony
will be taking place some time in October, I can't remember the exact
date though.
House sitting was fun, but I am convinced that keeping animals is a lot
harder than anyone will ever admit. Chris and I kept the three cats, and
the dog at Barbara's place fed. I think we didn't give them enough
attention though, especially Frankie the dog. I don't think they were
used to the odd hours Chris and I keep either, because they never wanted
to eat at the times when we fed them. (And they say humans get stuck in
their ways!)
As I mentioned earlier, this Monday was the first day back at uni for
students. It sucked majorly. We recieved another assignment on Monday,
and yet another on Wednesday! This brings the total number of
assignments to five I think. How odd, when I am only doing three
subjects? I don't think I am going to enjoy the next few weeks, because
none of the assignments are trivial or small either. They are all major
ball breaking ones.
Another little snippet of news is that my last exam is on the 22nd I
think. That means that I am going to have to push the date I was
planning for my 21st back a week. The date I want to have it now is
around the 24th of November. *So keep that date free* I have no idea
where I am going to have it, so I have to get cracking and book somewhere.

Last week's happenings. (In picture form)