Will’s View

As an engineer, I am cursed to a lifetime of obscurity. That is unless I cause some sort of terrible disaster, or the ruining of the ozone layer. So I am always looking for ways to make myself famous/memorable.

Whilst talking to my cousin a while back, he said that he was starting a band (which I think is pretty cool) and that they had recorded music and everything. “Hmm,” I said to myself “Now here’s a chance to get famous/important.” Admittedly there were a few beverages concerned, but I cornered my poor little cousin, and discretely suggested that if he were to ever get famous, that I would have to do a guest spot with his band.

Okay, so it may not exactly have been the subtlest of suggestions, but that’s not really my style anyway. But, full credit to him, he actually said yes. Not only was a random, slightly intoxicated cousin trying to assure him of their vocal prowess, but was also trying to leech off of any fame that he might one day acquire. That’s what family’s for!

--> As an engineer, I am cursed to a lifetime of obscurity. That is unless I cause some sort of terrible disaster, or the ruining of the ozone layer. So I am always looking for ways to make myself famous/memorable. Whilst talking to my cousin a while back, he said that he was starting a band (which I think is pretty cool) and that they had recorded music and everything. “Hmm,” I said to myself “Now here’s a chance (More...)

Oops…!

--> Oops…!

Just this morning I was faced with a dire dilemma. Let me set the scene:

I had wandered downstairs to get some breakfast and as usual the world wasn’t making much sense. So to try and make sense of it all, I sat down with my breakfast. Deciding to be a little adventurous I skipped the Weet-Bix (the well-loved favourite though it is) and moved onto the corn-flakes and some toast.

About half-way through my corn-flakes, the toast popped. Blast! You see here I was presented with a most vicious decision. Either I went to go and butter my toast, and let the corn-flakes get soggy; or I kept eating my corn-flakes and let the toast get cold. What a choice! We all know soggy corn-flakes are no fun for anyone, but what’s the use of cold toast? The butter/peanut-butter won’t melt onto it! And at that hour of the morning, it was all just too much for me. It felt like the world was testing my mettle, and I was sorely failing.

That was until a handy housemate popped by and brought me the toast, a knife and the butter…Saved from certain indecision and the perils of cold toast and soggy corn-flakes!

--> Just this morning I was faced with a dire dilemma. Let me set the scene: I had wandered downstairs to get some breakfast and as usual the world wasn’t making much sense. So to try and make sense of it all, I sat down with my breakfast. Deciding to be a little adventurous I skipped the Weet-Bix (the well-loved favourite though it is) and moved onto the corn-flakes and some toast. About half-way through my corn-flakes, the toast (More...)

I went to Sydney recently to go and see what the Golden Land up North had to offer (and for my sister’s birthday). Seeing as it was a particularly early flight I thought I’d take a taxi. Sounds reasonable enough, it is a rare occasion that I taxi anywhere - being a student and all - but public transport just doesn’t run that early!

So I did the right thing, ordered the taxi the night before and proceeded to pack my bags. The next morning rolled around and I rolled out of bed, bleary-eyed and a feeling a little venomous toward the world in general for existing at 5:30am. Standing on the footpath (or the sidewalk/kerb for our North American readership) waiting for the taxi, I saw it sidle past and quite obviously neglect to notice me. After a brief taxi-chase I jumped in the back and told the driver I was going to the airport.

After I said this we sat idling on the corner while he programmed ‘The Airport’ into his Navman GPS navigator mounted conspicuously on the dashboard. Oh dear. What sort of cabbie doesn’t know his way to the airport?! Especially when:

• The airport must be a very common destination for taxis in general, you’d think a taxi driver would get reasonably familiar with the routes to the airport
• I haven’t been in Melbourne for all that long, and even I know the general direction to the airport!
• The taxi was ordered in advance, the blimmin’ cabbie already knew where I was going, so he had time to check a map or program his GPS navigator

What is the world coming to when cabbies don’t know the way to the airport? Imagine a large-scale-blockbuster-record-breaking-box-office-hit-smash movie where the male lead jumps into a cab and suavely says, “To the airport, driver” and the driver spends the next 2 minutes of the movie planning the fastest and shortest routes there on his handy GPS navigator. Or that all too-familiar scene where someone jumps into the back of a taxi and yells: “Follow that car!” and so the taxi-driver goes diligently about programming the perfectly enunciated dulcet tones of the GPS navigator to guide him turn-by-turn through the chase. It’s just plain unheard of.

--> I went to Sydney recently to go and see what the Golden Land up North had to offer (and for my sister’s birthday). Seeing as it was a particularly early flight I thought I’d take a taxi. Sounds reasonable enough, it is a rare occasion that I taxi anywhere - being a student and all - but public transport just doesn’t run that early! So I did the right thing, ordered the taxi the night before and proceeded (More...)

As an engineer, I am cursed. Not necessarily because of the fact that I enjoy maths, or my inability to communicate with people effectively, but because I am doomed to love ‘fiddling’ with gadgets.

During a (particularly boring) lecture today a friend of mine started taking apart a rather cool pen (I must admit that I was partially responsible for this because I had put forward an idea as to how it worked, and that just spurred on his curiosity). After taking it apart and proving that neither of us were exactly right, he started the logical process of putting it back together.

This is where things often start going wrong, as it is often easier to keep taking things apart than it is to remember how they go back together and in what order. And this is where things went wrong this time. I must say, though, that it did make the remainder of the lecture much more interesting, as we watched him strive to put the pen’s workings back together.

As an engineer I think we’re stuck in this vicious cycle for the rest of our lives. I’m not saying that we have low latent inhibition (like that Scofield fellow off Prison Break), but rather we have the compulsion to figure out how and why things work, and whether we can make them work better.

This again struck me reasonably recently when I was at an assembly facility located here in Melbourne. While the plant was shut down for lunch, I had a wander around the plant and I found myself having to consciously cross my arms in order to avoid playing with all the buttons and switches. Normally I’m not so restrained, but I didn’t particularly feel like postpoining an entire day’s productivity because I played with the pretty buttons.

--> As an engineer, I am cursed. Not necessarily because of the fact that I enjoy maths, or my inability to communicate with people effectively, but because I am doomed to love ‘fiddling’ with gadgets. During a (particularly boring) lecture today a friend of mine started taking apart a rather cool pen (I must admit that I was partially responsible for this because I had put forward an idea as to how it worked, and that just spurred on (More...)