Yay team Beverly! 

Gav and Anthony, our toughest critics. 

Just before our first run. 

Beverly is such a beast. 

Even Beverly's seeds were special! 

Mauris made a beautiful ratchet for Beverly, to stop her from backing over the line.  

Beverly's second run

Beverly had her second run later in the day, and didn't do so well. I
didn't get the chance to watch her the second time around, due to the
fact that I was busy printing up the report to accompany Beverly when
she is finally submitted.
The second run didn't score as highly as the first, but we still
managed to place 10th over thirty other contestants. Not bad,
considering that Beverly was the only device raced on the day without
any electronics. I've got a video to put up later on, with her
complete second run.
After everyone's races were over, there was a short awards ceremony.
This was to award the top three contestants of the day. To my great
surprise, after the third prize was announced, there was another
certificate handed out. This was a certificate for encouragement, and
was accompanied with a $100 prize money! Beverly only cost $50 to
make, so we made a small profit on our work.
To celebrate our performance, we all decided to goto dinner at "red
silk", in china town in the city. The food there was really quite
nice, and I think we should go back there sometime. Mauris got to "red
silk" early, and thinks he possibly might have witnessed a drug deal
going on. Mauris should leave the story as a coment.
After our nice meal, we went to ICON in flinders lane. I had never
been there before, and so we have to wander around a little before we
found it. ICON is one of these bars that is all about the show. They
still do that fire across the bar thing, and they encourage everyone
to dance on the bar. (Movie to be uploaded later, lol) I danced on the
bar, and had a fantastic time!
This morning (Saturday), I spent cleaning the store room with rovers.
We found about 40kg of drinking cans, and took them to the recyclers,
earning $38 for our crew! I was so impressed. Thats enough to take a
trailer of stuff to the tip.
This evening, I am heading to Geelong for Russell's birthday party.
Tomorrow is a car rally.

Beverly's first Video

Beverly's first run.

Beverly just had her first run. She did really well, scoring us a total of 36 points. I was pretty excited, but I soon discovered that we were about 2cm away from scoring 46 points (I think). Anyways, I will be working of getting the video footage up here as soon as I can, so you can all share in our success.

Beverly

Well, the past two days I have been working with Mauris, Diana and Linda on the weir warman seed distributor project. The idea is to invent a device that will run through a track and distribute a 'seed' into each of the areas along the sides of the track. Our device is pretty basic compared to many of the other groups. Our device is made from blue foam and other found objects, so she's full of character! I named her 'Beverly' about two weeks ago, and the name has just stuck. Beverly is doing quite well at parts of the course, but she is still experiencing some technical issues. We have done so many test runs I have forgotten what improvements we have made, and what improvements still need to be made. It's a tedious process, and is beginning to frustrate me.
What frustrates me more is the fact that the day before the major project is due, the university is unable to extend the opening hours for the race track, so we had to make our own. Our special track is marked out using masking tape in the student union building. We found the floor of the old bistro to be quite a good running surface, so we have taken over this space, using it at a test track and temporary office/workshop. I really hope the union does not mind.
The union has no use for this space apparently. There is very little activity in this building. I guess it's because of the VSU bill that Mr Howard has insisted on. It's not good news for student services. Anyways I guess I can gripe about this later. I really should get back to work now. LOL.

Busy boy.

I have been a very busy boy this week. I have completed two assignments so far, and the week is only half over! I have one more group project due in on Friday.
Monday was the first of the group presentations, with the human factors project and essay being due on Monday. Olman, Arjun, Michael and I presented our work about the ergonomics of supermarket check-outs and their affect on the health of cashiers. I feel we presented fairly well, considering our topic was very dry and boring.
Monday night, for 18 plus, we went to see the Da Vinci Code. I really struggled with that movie, it was very gory and I think I just didn't get some parts of it. Some parts of the story must have been lost between the book and the movie. Next week at 18 plus, we are going to talk about some of the issues raised in the movie, which I am really looking forward to. (yes, I know thats totally square)
Tuesday was the second group presentation for the week. Linda, Mauris, Diana, Anthony and I all suited up for our sales presentation for Wireless Medical. The group presented well, and I think we got extra browny points for making pamphlets to game out during our presentation. A special thanks goes to Chris for printing them for us.
After our presentation, we all went out for lunch at the pub. It was so much fun to hang out with everyone and de-stress. Later in the day we had another break, so we went exploring. I know I am in third year, but I had never managed to find the student lounge. Yesterday, I was on a quest to find this sacred student space. We succeeded, and also found the student radio station, the international student lounge, a computer room with free printing, and the old abandoned student bistro. Quite a day, but to top it all off, I had rovers that night.
At rovers we had a challenge night, the task was to cook a two course meal using $10. (well, I guess we used pots and pans too) Brendan and I cooked a nice meal, with starters and a main. Maybe we should have done dessert, but oh well. Our bill came in at $8.50, so I think we did well. I didn't particularly like what we cooked, it had far too much cou cous for my liking. Oh well, I enjoyed the night anyway.
I am considering buying a MacBook. what does everyone think?

New Blog

Drew has a new blog, I suggest you check it out. The address is http://drewoz.blogspot.com/

Happy Birthday Bruce!

Cars can have two types of birthdays, one being the anniversary of the year they were 'born' and the other is based on how far they have travelled. Bruce turned 300,000 yesterday, and in my rush to submit our competition entry I didn't even notice! I only discovered it today, when I was working with Emma on the ballooning photos. I think I will have to treat bruce to a car wash to celebrate this milestone. It's hard to believe that there's only 4,000km to go until his next doctor's check-up.
In other news today, I worked like a dog... That was about it really. The morning I spent working with Emma, and the rest of the day I was at Kmart. So things weren't overly interesting in the life of Andrew today.

The Premier's Design Awards

Well, the last 48 hours have been very full on; and I don't even get any marks for it! LOL. I guess I should console myself with the thought that Weeksy, Gav and I might be able to share in $5000 prize money. Some of you will be thinking 'what is Andrew on about?' and quite rightly so. Let me explain.
On Wednesday, Gavin asked if I had entered this design competition that Judith had wanted us to enter ages ago. I had forgotten about it, so the next day I googled the awards. I found that we had 48 hours to scrape together an entry into the design awards! E-mails started flying and soon enough, we had enough work to put together a small presentation for the judging panel. The project we presented was the wireless medical device that was designed by us last year. I just got back from dropping it off in the city, so fingers crossed that they like it.
Tonight I was supposed to attend a fancy dress party as something from the circus, but with this project, I just don't feel up to it. I will have to call Olman and let him know.

Me working on Mauris' laptop. I have decided that I really can't survive at university much longer without getting one. I wold love to have a MacBook. They are hot. hehe 

We found that Beverly could shoot out seeds more predictably when the seeds were arranged like so. I think this indicates that I got the calculations for the reduction ratio all wrong. :(  

Linda and Mauris arranged the 'seeds' how I had thought they should be according to my first plan, but beverly dropped a seed only every now and then. We need her to drop one every 400mm. So you see the problem we are faced with.  

We named the Weir-Warman car "Beverly". Beverly had her first run yesterday, but she didn't work as well as I had hoped. 

New Blog... Check it out.

My friend, Dean, has just begun blogging. Bookmark his page, it's at http://deanpup.blogspot.com

Uni work, week 11... urrg..

Well, it's week 11 at uni; time to take stock and see how I have been going. I guess this gives a pretty good indication as to how I might be able to cope in the exams? Anyways, I am worried. Maybe I won't do so well at these exams? I don't know. I don't feel very prepared, which is not comforting at all!
I should probably point out that my exams are fast approaching. My first one is Engineering Management, on the 14th of June. The next is Human Factors, on the 16th of June; June 19th is Thermofluid Systems and the last one is Machine Design, on the 21st of June. Then I can relax.... finally!
Anyways, stuff that has happened this week is all pretty boring. The week has been a blur of team meetings for various group projects, and team evaluations for other people's assignments. Nothing thrilling.
After bowling this week, Chris, Roger, Chris and I went out for coffee. The bowling is not going so well, but I am definitely enjoying the social aspect of it a bit more. It's exciting to meet people from Uni who aren't in my course.
Anyways, I have had a big day and need my beauty sleep. I only really came online to check my e-mail and now look what's happened. LOL.

Sunday

Ok, so this brings me to the last day of my weekend, and probably one of the least eventful. In the morning, I went to church. It was mingling Sunday, so I went to Bayswater Uniting Church. I had to rush off straight away though, because I started work at Kmart at 11am. I worked for five hours, which almost never happens at Kmart.
When I got home, I worked on an essay and power point presentation before I had dinner and went to church. Upon returning from church, I continued working on the assignment.
See what I mean by a boring day?

So pretty 

For caption, see photo ^^ LOL 

It was great to catch up with everyone from high school.  

Happy 21st Birthday Tegan!!  

I know this is a fuzzy picture, but out there, at the bottom of the hills, is where I live.  

On the way home, I took the back seat. Much less stressful. 

Touridin airport. I still can't figure out how a ship got so close to the airport. 

Chris took the back seat, because he's flown before. 

Look who is having a little panic attack while flying the plane. It was scary, but really cool.  

Look who is flying the plane!!!!!! 

The view from the plane window as we launched. 

Saturday's excitment

Saturday was a very exciting, and action packed day. It started off very slowly though. Chris had to work in the morning, so I took advantage of the fact that I could sleep in. After Chris finished work, and a leisurely lunch, Dean decided to take us up in an airplane. Not the kind of plane I usually travel in, this was just a little light aircraft. It belongs to one of Dean's friends, and seen as Dean has his license, we took advantage of the opportunity to go for a joy flight.
We flew from Moorabbin to Touridin airport and back again. Dean's brother works at Touridin as a flight instructor, so we decided to pop in to say hello. After launch from Moorabbin, Dean explained the basic aircraft controls to me. I was then let loose, being able to fly the plane wherever I wanted. I thought that Dean was actually doing most of the flying, until I looked over to see that he didn't even have his hands on the controls! I totally freaked!
I sort of froze, and started shaking, I went all cold and my fingers got pins and needles in them. So here I was, having a major panic attack while trying to fly a plane in mid air! Apparently I didn't do too badly though. Looking back on it, it was pretty funny. I would try it again I guess, but I am more comfortable being a passenger. It was a very exciting afternoon.
That evening, Tegan had her 21st birthday! (Happy Birthday Teegs!) Lots of people from high school were there, which meant I had some catching up to do. I actually managed to meet some new people too. The girls Tegan went to Denmark with were really cool. It turns out that one of them is a flight attendant! What an exciting job.
Saturday night was also John's sister's engagement party, so John and Jeff had to be at that instead of Tegan's party. After Tegan's party, Chris and I went to visit John and Jeff. It was quite late in the night, so John was a little drunk. We didn't stay long, we took the opportunity to catch up with Jeff.
Jeff has gotten a new job; working for a property developer. It's a pretty good scam, and apparently he's getting a pretty good pay rise out of it too. How exciting, good work Jeff.
On the way home from John's place, we came across a hitch hiker. Chris stopped and gave him a lift. This is the sort of thing I usually wouldn't do, but I wasn't driving. The hitch hiker turned out to be a really nice guy, studying to become a writer or something similar. Sounded boring to me, but he seemed to enjoy it.

Here's hoping that we can finish the Weir-Warman course! 

Now for the artistic bit... sculpting out the blue foam. 

Our weir-warman entry is quite literally held together with rubber bands and hot glue!  

The weekend starts on Friday.

The weekend starts on Friday for uni students, so I should start there...
Friday morning I worked for Rushwood photographic, taking photos of the hot air balloons. It was very exciting, because it marks the end of my training. This is the first time I have worked alone, balancing all the tasks I have to perform without any help. It was a challenge, but I think I did well with it.
After work, I raced home, because I was having Linda and Mauris over to work on our weir warman project. Even though I got there late, I still managed to arrive at the same time as Mauris and Linda. I guess its a blessing that they missed their train? Lol. We had lunch, then got to work on the project, making shafts, and tubes and sticking it all together with heaps of hot glue! Its looking really good, even if it is being held together by an elastic band. Diana had to work, so we called her at work the first time we managed to get the car to work. I was so excited.
Friday night is the start of the weekend for all non uni people. Chris and I went to Dean and Drew's place for dinner. It was really fun. Dean took us to this cool little noodle store, where there were so many options on the menu I took almost half an hour to decide! After all that, I just told the lady what I didn't want, and she made up something that tasted great.
I guess that about sums up the days adventures for Friday.

Last try... (sixth)... and look who has their eyes closed!!! I decided that we would have to photoshop Anthony's eyes open, and give up on this photo. lol