Fridays Blog on Tuesday week

I have just been looking over some of my past blogs, ahh some of the stuff that's been posted is fantastic for a laugh and reflection. The comments are great too (Thanks Johno).

Philosophical Speculation

The past 2 years or so have been dark times. Another soul set free from this world maybe due to life's pain and cruelty, I may never know. R.I.P Jamie Stewart.


My memories fade back to the end of Year 12 loosing a great friend whom reflected happiness in this world. Times were dark then, but yet we managed to make the most of it and have fun when Jack was around, his death affected all of his mates and family. I wish from the bottom of my heart that I could see him again with his mates in his year level to reflect some light into their eyes and minds.

I am very lucky, I have a strong group of mates in the age bracket below me and the same as me. Reilly's 19th was a good representation of that group, they are such and awesome group of mates in terms of how they perceive the world. (Their happy). I think that's what I need right now, some strong mates to hang out with every now and then. Maybe by doing that I could reflect a bit more of this attitude in the age group below. Why else would I be writing this stuff If i did not want to help change the conundrum in my head.



Another issue could be that because I don't see much of the age group below I am overreacting, but then again they have admitted themselves that they are messed up at the moment so I think thats proof enough for me to lend a hand.

LAN Panel Management System

On a totally different note and tune, I am working pretty hard on the LPMS when I get a chance. I think i'll be able to pull some strings and get the deadline but the version I release to the LAN group probably won't be what I wanted in terms of quality. It'll get there, Christmas deadlines for fairly complex projects probably was not the brightest of ideas on my behalf but hey I am learning what do you expect. I'll improve by making mistakes and practicing. So might as well do that now so when I get to commercial systems (maybe who knows) I'll have something special called Skills. That's the plan anyway.

IBM & Project Management

I am still really enjoying my job at IBM and am finding more challenges along the way with the help of our team's management. I am learning Project Management Orientation at IBM which is fitting in nicely with my past knowledge of project management from a personal and academic aspect. I am really looking forward to getting back to University to start learning from a different aspect.

Last Few Months Summary

Christmas has been good, spent some time with Tamara's family and then with Nick's family (my sister's boyfriend). I am glad Nick is in my sisters life, he's a great bloke and has some interesting stories with his mate Rob. Awesome stories :)

The family get together was held at Jane's place again this year which is awesome place to have it I think.

I have been going through a Will Smith phase at the moment have got about 5 of his movies in the past couple of months and have been watching them. Some include: Pursuit of Happiness, Hancock and iRobot.

That's pretty much all I have for now, will blog more if people comment to show interest.

Career Possibility

    I think I have finally figured out what I want to be, a Project Manager! I have been having fun organizing all my ideas into projects and hopefully by the end of the year mastering a technique to kick off my project organization skills a bit. Currently I am working on the following projects.

• LAN Panel Manager - For hosts to collaborate LAN events.
• Luke Stephens - Personal Website to display project status, blog, gallery and more?
• Eureka Athletic Club - First stage went well, lost communications with the club president but i'm sure i'll make some progress on it by myself and hopefully surprise the club with some funky features.

    The above are the main ones I am focusing on for now but there are many many more that I will get to in due time.

    Thanks to Joel Fitzpatrick in IBM is a legend have been chatting to him about Project Management and I think I'll progress in the company to some sort of project management position hopefully.

    The company i most admire is that of Gabe Newell's Valve Software whom develop games of amazing quality with a massive team of talented programmers, modelers, script writers you name it. Gabe Newell worked on some of the earlier operating systems at Microsoft and privately funded Valve Software. What they do is just amazing, I sent him and email about their latest release Left 4 Dead which took 2 years to develop and is just so well put together its inspiring.

    To top this off I got an email from Gabe just a small one but hell I am over the moon, was not expecting a reply. Much respect that just got a whole lot stronger for the company and Gabe Newell!

The power of music reflects the power of you

Well I suppose I will talk about now and work my way back… I currently am playing a song called ‘Flipsyde feat. Piper – Happy Birthday’ this song is full of allot of meaning for the person that wrote it. Its basically based on a kid that was never born into this world and that 1 year on its would have been his birthday. I know that probably sounds pretty cheesy or wired but its quite an interesting song, Tamara’s borther Josh introduced me to it. But now ‘Basshunter – All I ever wanted’ is playing… I really like the Basshunter’s songs. They reflect the world in a positive light, a few people objected to this music. To be honest so did I at first thought, but the people’s reasons for their objection was quite odd.

I went to UoB (University of Ballarat) had a lecture, after this lecure I was listening to Basshunter and people asked what it was. After I explained what this music was they said it was too bubbly for them too which means positive. So I was thinking right, what music do you guys like. One chucked on ‘Linkin Park – Bleed’ it out and I said to them its too negative people cutting their wrists and talking about throwing away the device that they cut it with. So I told them what I thought and they shook it off and told me that’s life and Linkin Park have realised life is shit so I listen to them because they have the same understading that they do.

This sort of shcoked me a bit as the people I was talking to are very bright people and raise some very interesting conversations that I believe can make a difference in this world which is a posstiive vibe. But to hear them talk about negative things as being acceptable makes me think this world is turing ugle and were putting up with it. If you want something in life you fight for it and you work hard for it and when you get it life is great. What I am saying is basically we have nothing worth fighting for these days. I am sure there are people out there that will object that but that’s how I feel in my current environment.

I just think that there has to be something to unite people and focus them, theres so many people unhappy in the world and its because of other people’s simple actions. I imagine a community of people arising from everyday Australians and creating a place where people work for what they want and have with respect for others efforts. There are so many possibilities in this world and I would love to see some people rise up. You can see possiblities everywhere when two people start a converstaion about something they are passionate about you can see something could become of this. It could expand into other people having this same passion about this topic and snowballing into anything.

I think this will do for now, my next post will probably bemore of a blog type rather than a topic of discussion.

These holidays from University have shed some awesomeness and some not so good things.
A couple of days ago Reilly, Ben and Jack came over to see me which was awesome!!! I am very lucky to have mates like them, Reilly and Ben are going up to Mount Bulla to work. I hope they have an awesome time! Thanks mates for coming over.

LAN Canceled

I was looking forward to going to Reality Evolved LAN, it was canceled due to some venue problems. Although out of some bad things come good, I had an awesome time with Anthony Rhook and Matthew Brehaut playing Diablo 2 Expansion and nearly passed it.

Projects at the moment

Eureka Athletics Club

I have taken the pride to be able to create the Eureka Athletics Club Website it is a work in progress at the moment but Rod (Club Coach) and I have allot of ideas for it that I hope I can make a reality.

Wide Area LAN

I have just tested a wireless access point at Rhooky's place and it appears to be working good, so we are just waiting to get a good day to be able to put this access point on his roof. The main aim is to gain a WAN that we can do tests on to detemine if we can have a duel LAN Party. If this wireless option fails then I will move onto buying some VPN routers and we will join the LAN's this way... although there are speed constraints there with broadband the way it is in Australia. All in is showing to be a good learning experience.

I dont really have allot else to talk about at the moment... Tamara got a job at IBM on Westpac New Zeland (Yes the same team I am on). Which is quite awesome! She seems to finding it pretty good so far so thats always good. I will try to blog some more soon as I have some photos that I would like so share with the world. Please if anyone has anything to share in regards to these blogs I would be happy to hear from you.

Amazing, simply amazing an insight to a gamers mind
I was reading one of my favorite sites on the net that keeps me up-to-date on my favorite games company Valve Corporation. When I read the news, I was like wow cool I get to see some more content of an exciting new game that Valve is developing. That was cool by it self, a news article warrants a smile from me and imaginary thoughts of friends and I battling it out side by side in Left 4 Dead (New games I am talking about). That game will create events where friends and I will be able to share experiences laughter and sad times of loosing. All in all a great atmosphere and experience that us games become to crave when we look over the great times of laughter and joy whilst playing these games.

Now I look upon this news article and see 'Counter-Strike 2', my mind is sent into a craze. Imagine all the possibilities, not following? Counter-Strike has held the record for being the most played First Person Shooter for an extremal long time. This game I have been playing since 1997 on and off. Around 2005 Counter-Strike Source came out to the public. This was running off Valve's new game engine, this engine has revolutionized gaming for me! I can run around and look at the surrounding wall's / debris or models and say wow this graphics looks more than half decent and runs awesome! Not only that I can interact, a grenade explodes barrels fly away... woot physics. Countless hours of shooting barrels and saying w...ooo...w that's so cool, interacting with a virtual world that someone else has created and being able to manipulate things in this engine is definitely has an awesome factor to it. This is of course purely multilayer game based off Counter-Strike strongly, extremely fun.

Thus seeing this story of Counter-Strike 2 can only make me go ohh that's going to be awesome! I know the company when they make things they do it great, don't believe me. If you don't please at least research the Half-Life stories, even look at the art or Team Fortress 2. The amount of effort alone is amazing that this company can pour into a game development process. The fact that they could keep a series alive for so long and hold a massive development of a game secret from the whole entire gaming community for more than 4 years is just amazing. With a vague idea of how much fun and community atmosphere this company has produced I think you could imagine what the release of this game could mean, for me and so many others that I know or am connected through online communities or locally.

References:
Valve Logo: http://www.valvesoftware.com/

Desensitizing... I think I was becoming like this. If someone said yeah there was a group of teenagers at the local shopping center having a brawl. I am not surprised, I am not disgusted. An event like this does not surprise me. Hence no big reaction.
I don't want to be like this anymore so I am changing where I can so when someone says a teenager was stabbed last night I will be surprised and will react in a way that will get emotion and a reaction. In my life emotional reactions are becoming less and less. What's a society that will not be sensitive to whats happening in their own backyard? This world is not going in a negative direction, not through my eyes. I have hope.... hope in others. Faith is something I have in allot of the people I have met in this world. Faith in their being, in the possibilities that they are creating. This creativity I respect and honor, I respect it because I can see that whatever it is that this person is doing is greatly cared for with passion from their heart. Honor because some of the things that I see people do, great things that I could hardly imagine happening in a modern world. Bill Gates donates a ridiculous amount of money towards some fund, wow... next to no reaction. Imagine for a minute what 0.01% of that donation will do to one life, I would not mind betting their reaction will be that of great magnitude of happiness that average people in the modern society could not even produce. We need hope in this world... we need leaders.

Leaders... there was a great point on the radio the other day as I was eating breakfast. Where are our leaders? What do politicians do? Lead. If so they are not performing anywhere near as good as our leaders of the past. When have heard someone say a crazy idea and thought that's impossible. What if, what if it was possible. What if we had a leader who said lets create the most amazingly beautiful city in the world in one of the Australian deserts, what if this possible. No red tape, no limits. Sure you could say its unsustainable we would lose billions. Imagine you had thousands of average people helping towards this vision to make it possible. Once you have an idea and have followers who will passionately support you where possible, anything is possible. Don't give up hope, start something. Be a leader! What have you got to lose, better yet what will you gain from this? Finance? No, you will gain what matter most. You could gain hope for others, you could be honored.

Love life, don't hate it. If my life was so bad that I was contemplating killing myself, I would live just to see tomorrow. There are so many talented people in this world. When you find them and watch their progress and how they shape people around them, you can see the magic in life. The spark of life, creativity.

Art... I don't know what you think of art. I believe art is like taking a camera into someones imagination, being able to capture just one frame of a dream. This is the most amazing creativity in the world to me. I am looking at my background at the moment of a wolf by Tigershark (deviantart.com user) the level of detail put into this world is absolutely amazing. Another that I was obsessive with was Final Fantasy X-2 artwork and CGI (Computer Generated Imagery) movies. Wow... the amount of creativity and imagination is mind blowing. I just cant help but respect the people that create that kind of material. It is inspiring!

Well hello there...

IBM Solo

They have set me loose, I am now solo at IBM. Will probably still be training in a sense since I will have heaps of questions until I get the swing of things. Enjoying it at IBM, it has boosted my confidence a fair bit in terms of communication. Met some great people which are joyfull to be around. So overall its a generally a positive experience for me. This job is defiantly developing me as a person. Hopefully I will be able to give my 2 cents later on in life to help out in IBM.

UoB

Yesterday I registered as a student at the University of Ballarat. I am doing a course known as Information Technology Professional Practice. Its quite interesting on of my books is development and knowledge in Professional communication and how we interact through 'communication'. So it goes mainly in detail into speech mainly which coincidentally I am developing my communication skills through my job at the moment.

I joined the Student Association which enables me to drink lots and still have $ in the bank :P. No but its going to be good because I can go to events cheap through being a member, can't wait Hilltop Hoods are playing soon which will be ace!!! Can't wait.

Friends

I can already see some friends are drifting away where I cannot go, although its reassuring that some of my friends make time to come and see me whilst I am working and basically living half at my girlfriends place. I think that is quite special, its great! I hope I can repay the favour someday. There only visits at random times but hey it bloody awesome to see them.

Tamara's 19th

Tamara's 19th is coming up should be interesting got a match of Laser Force coming up, drinks and a night out on the town clubbing. Should be pretty good, looking forward to it. I think I'll be drunk pretty much on one beer/shot, absolutely stuffed from working out at tam's and work. This is defiantly not a bad thing :) enjoying working out and work. So should be a good night! Hopefully post some photos if I get into my usual camera crazy mood.

Random Thoughts

The basic is the 'cup half empty or half full' has been raised to a new level in this society <---> what in the *@*% has gone wrong this time lets do a dance and bitch about it for half hour or oh bugger I think something went wrong there better get that fixed up hey :)

Society is becoming so random and scary in some social networks, It is quite disturbing because their affect on other people in this world is going to be quite negative. But hey what's it matter right... its the nature of humans. Something has to be defined right? Good or bad? We need a balance, good and bad are one means of creating that In our lives.

Good or bad, I am not sure... I sometimes say "ohh that's not right" when I disagree personally about a topic. I wish I didn't, imagine a world where no one said this is right this is wrong. Only don't do this because or that's horrible? I'm not sure... the point is nature takes care of itself. What does that mean boris? Let me explain.... Do you think all the kids roaming the streets that have absolutely screwed up lives would be destroying things if there was a direct affect? My point is this world is evolving into something where morals and respect are finding harder to find as a large. People are still out there, so many I trust and know I can trust with my word and morals. Respect!

Life is what you make it, enjoy it! If your not get yourself in a position where you can. It'll make you happy and others.

A new year, a new beginning

At the end of 2007, I was lucky enough to be given a provisional offer through the REEP Application into the University of Ballarat. The offer is for Information Technology Professional Practice, this seems like a dream come true as this is my passion. Strangely I am not as excited as I thought I would be at getting into the course, I am not sure why this is. Maybe it's because I am being pushed further and further away from one's I respect and admire, my friends throughout Kindergarten, Primary School and College will always have a place in my heart and soul. All my values and what I stand for are all built upon every person who have come into my life. I cant express how much I appreciate everyone in this would being apart of my life.

Family Visit:
Kate my sister came down to visit for our family Christmas and to catch up, Thor (her boyfriend) came down and he is a classic. Great bloke! Kate took us (Tam, Thor, Jane and myself) to the races in Melbourne was awesome. I won enough to buy everyone drinks and a few bits of food. Our family Christmas was good, Tamara came down to Melbourne to enjoy the moment as well.

Welcome to 2008 my friends and what a year it is going to be!
To kick start my year I am working, woo hoo. I am working at IBM doing Call-center stuff at the moment and enjoying it very much!
I cannot believe how big IBM is, there are many companies I have researched and formed views on. IBM is one that I have not done so in depth, you don't have to look deep to find the vibe. If any of my friends are reading this they will know I am obsessed with a gaming company called 'Valve' this company in my eyes are like architects who are forming a unbelievable passionate community who love what they do. The company is simply a legend, creating a virtual world where anyone can create sound or visual entities. If a group of people do something amazing they notice, they do something about it, the company has worked with average blokes teaching and helping with their knowledge how to make that talent something special. Even bought their ideas, employed them and said have fun basically. IBM is a bit like Valve they are expanding but they are in touch, ideas and creativity are a reality. If something is not so good and there is room for improvement IBM has the processes in place to be able to evolve basically.

Wye River Holiday,
Yeah I know a holiday already and only just began work, Tamara's family go down to Wye river for a week so I tagged along with Tam. Had a great time swimming nearly every day, some good waves. I am thinking when I get some time I'll try learn to surf. Had an interesting conversation at one of the stores in Torque about Surf boards with a worker, he was telling me how one of his friends cuts the boards into three pieces and turns them into chairs and that the top of the surf board is "absolutely awesome for your back and your shoulders just sink into it perfectly." Caught some crabs on the beach there, John (Tam's brother) wanted crab meat and nowhere sold it so we ended up catching crabs. Did not eat them in the end Josh (Tam's younger bro) and I went back to the beach in pitch back and let them free. He had a conversation with me on the beach with I respected and thought not many people in this world would put themselves in the concept of an animal. He showed me that the world still does have passion, 'imagine if you were a crab and these big giants just took you away from your home, away from your family, how would you know how to get back home?'. If everyone thought like Josh the world would be a greater place.

Whats new?
Well I bought a new bike Trek 7000 its a bit heavy but its great. Going to use it for work, hopefully get used to getting to bed early and getting up at 5:30 for bike rides. One of the new years resolutions Tamara and I have is to get fit. So I want to get right into bike riding again. Maybe even get some mates riding doubtful but the thoughts there. Bought Tamara a PC for $20 not bad hey! It works, with screen! Its set up with a decent keyboard and mouse. That's about all that's new... I have an obsession with Skype I have bought $16 credit for it and well hey I love it. 2.7cents per minute to United Kingdom to my cousin, cant complain. Looks like in the future I am getting wireless broadband and a Skype phone. So cheap its not funny.

Philosophical thoughts (This might make more sense to other, because I don't know where it is coming from just random thoughts):
The eyes of a human can tell a thousand stories, the eyes of a human are not capable of lying.
You can tell when someone is losing their spark, their eyes go dull. Keep your eyes alive, thought creativity and imagination.
Most of all keep a burst of uncontrollable happiness in your eyes!

Last but not least have a good one!!!