Words to Lyrics Ben Ho's observations from the cloud

3 January 2011

What’s in Store for 2011

Filed under: Forward Thinking — Tags: , , , — Ben @ 10:19 pm

I hope you all had a wonderful festive season and New Year celebrations.

In the days before and after January 1, many people make New Year’s resolutions to achieve over the course of the year. Some are achieved, others not. However the chances of succeeding are greater if you take a look back at what you tried to achieve in the previous year.

I’d like to share with you what were my goals in 2010 and what they will be in 2011.

The first goal was to work hard enough in order to successfully transfer from Macquarie to UNSW. I wrote about this in detail in my previous post. I’ll know the result when the offers are released on January 19.

2010 introduced university life after 13 years of primary and secondary education, so obviously the challenge was to ‘get used to it’. I’m happy to say that I’ve done that.

University life is an opportunity to make new friends and associates. I called this ‘making connections’, because the substance of the friendship is what is most important to me. For example, knowing a person who has knowledge of and/or associations with entities that may come in handy in the future is a connection worth making. The goal was to make as many useful connections during the year, assuming I would only be at Macquarie for one year. I’m happy to say that I’ve done that.

Thus, 2011 will be about preserving these connections, as well as making new ones at UNSW (assuming I get in). What I also want to do is to ‘reconnect’ with those who I have not spoken to or seen in 2010. I think working hard at uni (or my attitude to social life) has deprived me of opportunities to do this.

Many New Year’s resolutions involve starting a personal project, such as losing weight or quitting smoking. These projects are easily delayed by claiming that other commitments took up the time needed to start. And that is exactly what happened with my ‘arts blog’ project, of which I’ve written about here before. I spent 2010 exploring the arts scene in Sydney, but most of what I saw was ‘mainstream’. Probably getting the plan in writing would be more convincing that to have it swimming in my head. I must keep at this in 2011, and start soon.

The other thing that could do with a bit more TLC is this blog. I say this every year without substance, with nothing planned. It’s becoming a bad habit, frankly. At least improving the frequency of posting would be a start…

And finally something a bit out there. This year I want to continue to be inspired you. Maybe I’ll leave you to think about that.

29 December 2010

Week 26 of 90+

Filed under: Forward Thinking,Reflection — Tags: , — Ben @ 9:40 pm

At the beginning of this year, I wrote about the new challenge of beginning university after 13 years of primary and secondary education. Now that the first year is complete, and the results are in (after some pushing and shoving with the unions), I’m very happy to enjoy this long summer break.

As some of you know, Macquarie University was my second preferred university. I’ve been working hard this year to achieve good results that would yield the best chance to transfer to the University of New South Wales (UNSW).

I thought I’d write about it here because as the day that UAC release offers draws closer, there’s been a lot of interest about my situation (and I don’t want to sound/feel like a broken record)!

This is what I know, and please seek independent advice on admission requirements if you are in a similar situation. I won’t be held responsible for information which I believed to be correct, that turned out to be wrong. (Disclaimers FTW!)

My marks this year were quite good. A GPA of 3.25, average 72. From what I have heard, a credit average is sufficient for an external application into UNSW. Therefore the marks should be OK.

I’ve also spoken to a university staffer who handles admissions, and she said that for domestic applications like mine, university marks are considered first, with the ATAR possibly contributing very little in this process.

At Macquarie I studied a Bachelor of Commerce – Professional Accounting (that’s the name). At UNSW, I intend to study the double degree Bachelor of Commerce (Accounting)/Bachelor of Science (Computer Science).

Once there, I should be able to get credit for my study at MQ, thus eliminating the need to redo first year Commerce subjects. I find out on 19 January whether I receive an offer, just like every year 12 who applied to UAC.

In my opinion, my application is looking good.

Happy holidays everyone.

2 November 2010

To Volunteer or to Work?

Filed under: I Wonder — Tags: , , , — Ben @ 7:16 am

Rarely All the time do I ask for an opinion on a certain matter via this blog, but I feel that the following issue could do with community consideration.

During university time, some people supplement their life with a steady income stream in the form of a part time job. Some don’t, and that can be for a variety of reasons. The upcoming summer break is a great time for many to find casual jobs, to get that bit more cash.

I find myself in an odd situation. Recently I’ve come across the idea that volunteering is rather enjoyable and rewarding, despite the lack of remuneration, but also the idea that a paid casual/part-time job is a more reliable reference. I say this, as right now there’s more volunteer work on my CV than paid work.

So I ask you. What is your position on getting work and experience? Do you find that volunteering is rewarding or useless or unnecessary? Are paid jobs the way to go? Leave your comments in the comments.

Thank You.

18 September 2010

Review: Stories from the 428

Filed under: Arts,Attended,review — Tags: , , , , , — Ben @ 10:01 pm

Earlier this weekend (Sat. 5pm in fact), I went to see Stories From The 428 at Sidetrack Theatre in Marrickville. It’s part of the Sydney Fringe Festival, and it’s got two shows left tomorrow. So if you are reading this now, I suggest you book tickets now, because in short, it’s really good.

Stories From The 428 is a collection of anecdotes and stories collected from the passengers of Sydney Buses route 428 (Canterbury <-> City). It’s presented in a way so that your attention span will not be tested (i.e. short and sweet). As someone who has never caught the 428, it’s an engrossing look into the diverse group of people who fill the seats and aisle. Whether it’s the two old folks, the city worker, the tertiary student or the socialist (oh yes, the socialist!), each have a unique and somewhat relatable story to tell.

I would have thought the monotony of the ordinary bus trip to work or uni would be rather boring. Instead the team of writers and the cast inject plentiful amounts of humour and life into each story. The intimacy of the venue also adds to the experience; it’s just like listening to the passenger next to you. If you have a spare 90 minutes tomorrow, go see this, you’ll smile once you leave.

Stories From The 428 Twitter

PS: I’m volunteering at the Sydney Fringe, selling tickets at the Greek Theatre tomorrow afternoon, next Thursday, Saturday and Sunday. If you like, come along, say hi and enjoy a show. Details at the Fringe website.

12 September 2010

Election Night

Filed under: Attended,Reflection — Tags: , , — Ben @ 10:13 pm

On 21 August, Australia went to the polls to decide who would govern for the next three years. There was no clear result, only the outcome of a hung parliament.

During election night, you will have no doubt seen the television coverage at some point from the National Tally Room in Canberra. I went to visit the tally room that night, and I was met with this:

The Queue

Yes, there was a queue outside in the cold. Dad and I waited for an hour snaking around the courtyard before we got to the front entrance. Only  a limited number of people are allowed in at one time. Luckily the ABC had a TV outside so it wasn’t all that boring. One unique feature of Australian federal elections is the atmosphere of the coverage, the excitement associated with the result if you will. (This YouTube clip of 2007 election coverage will demonstrate this point, as well as Kerry O’Brien’s famous gaffe). During the last few minutes of waiting, I noticed this placard on the fence:

Media Placard

Yes, that’s the Chaser’s Craig Reucassel with Senator Conroy in the top left corner. The AEC took the opportunity to tell everyone how good they were at administering elections and the media are an important part of the process.

(If you don’t know the rest of the media personalities on that poster, they are clockwise: David Koch, Tom Gleisner and Santo Cilauro, Kerry O’Brien, Ray Martin and Laurie Oakes, Mark Riley, and Alan Jones)

Media Tally board

Once inside at about 8pm, the tally board of all 150 House of Representatives seats spans an entire side of the hall. The numbers are manually updated throughout the night by AEC workers. On the other side are the TV media sets. Ten, Seven, Sky, Nine and ABC were there with almost every news personality sitting behind a desk. Politicians were moving between sets to do numerous interviews. Between the public area and the TV sets were representatives from political parties and other media interpreting the results.

A few electorates

Probably the other highlight of the night (besides the hung result) was the surprise visit by Greens leader Bob Brown. I was standing behind the Channel Nine interview of Warren Truss (yes, that’s the one highlighted by the Chaser) when Brown walks in to cheers and the large media pack. With me being me, I got nowhere near, but I did catch these shots:

Warren Truss with Allison Langdon Bob Brown adressing media

If I ever visit the tally room again, I’d better bring a larger camera. Dad and I left at about 11pm, and the next day I drove a long way.

5 September 2010

Film Review: Tomorrow, When the War Began

Filed under: review — Tags: , , , , , , — Ben @ 10:33 pm

Notes: This is quick and short review. My election night post is coming soon.

Tomorrow, When the War Began is the film adaptation of the first of the Tomorrow series of young adult novels by John Marsden. It follows the life of seven, later eight teenagers during the school holidays. What starts out as the perfect camping trip turns into a fight for their survival.

Upon the first viewing of the film, you get the impression that it would deviate greatly from the books. But as it progresses, director Stuart Beattie deals with the core subject of survival very well, emphasising the situations that Ellie and her friends have to deal with. Explosions and action scenes are not in short supply, so those that enjoy blowing things up won’t be disappointed.

Character development is another focus in this film. We do see the relationships between Ellie and Lee, Homer and Fi, and Kevin and Corrie presented with subtlety, and sprinkled throughout. As Ellie is the narrator, it’s also good to see the characters from her perspective. There are a few ‘cheesy’ bits in this film, although I think it won’t matter to most people.

I enjoyed this film, and I would be excited if the second book is to be made.

I give this four stars. What about you?

8 August 2010

A response to ACA’s Tim Tam story

Filed under: Rant — Tags: , , , , , , — Ben @ 6:51 pm

Last Tuesday, Channel Nine’s current affairs show ‘A Current Affair’ aired a story about the Tim Tam.

It said that Australian shops were selling cheaper and poorer quality Tim Tams manufactured in Indonesia. The story went on to say that the practice of parallel importing was the main cause of this problem.

Link to the ACA story.

Those who know me will know that I have the opinion that the current affair shows (Today Tonight, and ACA) run stories whose purpose is to stir up some old controversy. Also worth noting is that both shows have had legal troubles in the last few years. (ACA’s most recent problem was covered by Media Watch last week)

Parallel imports aren’t new in Australia. In 2006, the ACCC handed down a notice to Aldi supermarkets to stop importing cheaper Nescafé instant coffee and selling it alongside the local product, Blend 43. The ACA story also mentions of Chupa Chups produced in Vietnam and sold in Australia. Lots of companies like to differentiate their product offerings in each region for profit or market reasons. Now, this was the only part of the story that was worthy of broadcast.

The other elements of the story are worth chastising. First, ACA attempts to demonstrate the inferiority of the Indonesian Tim Tam by weighing the biscuit in a ‘lab’. The ‘lab’ is a dimly lit studio with a fire extinguisher, and shows a ‘scientist’ with a what looks like a pair of black swimming goggles on her head and a set of kitchen scales. It raises the question, “Does ACA have to go to great lengths to get people to believe their reporting?” On the same note, the reporter doesn’t really ‘report’. Instead he confronts certain parties with allegations of unethical activities and biases the story to reveal only the negative effects of parallel importing.

Apparently ACA have the view that most of their audience aren’t particularly smart. Therefore they say that the only way to tell the difference between Australian and Indonesian Tim Tams is to open the packet itself, thus discouraging people to buy Tim Tams. If you had a look at the packaging, you’d be suspicious of the origin of the Tim Tam would you? ACA even had a shot of the two packets together!

Also, let’s face it. Have you noticed that tourists/visitors to Australia always carry a few packets of Tim Tams back home? I would think that most people believe the saying, “the original is the best”.

21 July 2010

Again on Facebook: The Friends List

Filed under: Rant,Reflection — Tags: , — Ben @ 10:06 am

This is another post about what I think about Facebook. Previously: this post of general thoughts.

I noticed that my intended use of the Friends List had changed this year. Now, on the surface, the List is exactly as it says it is; a list of friends made on Facebook. But you may or may not know about the extra functionality of creating groups of friends, that also extend to Chat (function of hiding from these groups of people).

In other words, the core purpose is to list out your friends, or more accurately, your personal connections (you will see why later).

But this isn’t the point. I want to focus on who makes up your Friends List, not how many.

Now, Facebook has default groups of friends by network. If you think about it, you make friends at high school (one network), at university (another network), and at each workplace you work at (yet more networks). It is fair to say, that the social nature of each environment is different. Hence (if you have one), the criteria of whether someone is your ‘friend’ or not differs between networks.

Using my criteria as an example, someone who graduated with me from high school (i.e. same Year 12 group) will have more chance of being my ‘friend’, than someone who I met once at uni. My previous criteria was that only people I associated with regularly were ‘friends’.

Obviously, the more social experiences one has, the more friends there should be. But from the example above, be aware of who you friend and what you share with them. I have found that there are people who you would want to ‘friend’ due to the value of a personal connection with them. But be aware, there are some statements that shouldn’t be made public, because there are people who do not deserve to know/care.

We can also extend this thinking to family members on your Friend List. There has been lots of debate about whether one should friend their parents/relatives. A general rule is if the relative lives overseas or is of similar age, then it is acceptable for them to be added. But for those that are older, some caution must be taken.

The lesson to take away from this, is to be careful who you ‘friend’ on Facebook. Unless you want to become a news story.

7 July 2010

Sydney Universities Dates: Semester 2 2010

Filed under: Forward Thinking — Tags: , — Ben @ 11:59 am

I assume everyone is having a restful uni break. So, here are the dates for Semester 2.

Hope you find this useful!

DATES 2010

Notes: As reported by the university, therefore weekends may or may not be counted. If you have additional information or spot a mistake, please email me.

S2 Start Mid-semester break Study Vacation Examinations S1 2011 start
MQ 2 Aug 17 Sep to 4 Oct 17 Nov to 3 Dec 21 Feb
UNSW 19 Jul 4 Sep to 12 Sep 23 Oct to 28 Oct 29 Oct to 16 Nov 28 Feb
USYD 26 Jul 27 Sep to 1 Oct 1 Nov to 5 Nov 8 Nov to 20 Nov 28 Feb
UTS 2 Aug 27 Sep to 1 Oct 13 Nov to 3 Dec 28 Feb
UWS 26 Jul 20 Sep to 24 Sep 1 Nov to 5 Nov 8 Nov to 28 Nov 28 Feb
ANU 19 Jul 25 Sep to 10 Oct 30 Oct to 3 Nov 4 Nov to 20 Nov 21 Feb

Summer Term

Summer Start Summer End
MQ 3 Jan 11 Feb
UNSW * *
USYD 4 Jan 25 Feb
UTS 6 Dec 11 Feb
UWS 29 Nov/3 Jan# 11 Feb
ANU

# – Short session/Long session

Sources:

MQ: http://www.mq.edu.au/calendar.html
UNSW: https://my.unsw.edu.au/student/resources/AcademicCalendar.html
USYD: http://www.usyd.edu.au/future_students/domestic_undergraduate/admissions/semester_dates/index.shtml
UTS: http://www.handbook.uts.edu.au/dates_academic.html
UWS: http://www.uws.edu.au/currentstudents/current_students/managing_your_study/dates/2010_academic_year_dateline
ANU: http://info.anu.edu.au/ovc/Committees/110PP_Principal_Dates

8 June 2010

I do and don’t like Facebook.

Filed under: Rant,Reflection — Tags: , — Ben @ 4:24 pm

So, today I have completed the marketing exam. My mind is still quite focused on concepts (and my performance in the exam), so in the little ‘power-down’ period I have, I thought I might write a few thoughts on a service we all use so much that it is now ubiquitous: Facebook.

Facebook now has hundreds of millions of users around the world. It has been described as a ‘meta-layer’  (BOL podcast, within the last 2 weeks) of the internet. This is easily seen in Facebook Connect and Instant Personalisation functions. These extend your Facebook account identity to third-party websites, and personalise the content of said website according to what you have in your profile.

These functions are also common functions of social networks which include the Wall (public messages), groups/pages, events pages, photo/video sharing etc…

Now, don’t get me wrong. Facebook is fantastic at keeping in touch with people you haven’t spoken/seen in a long time. As people’s contact details change their Facebook presence is constant, regardless of whether they have updated it with their new address or not (in most cases). It makes easy to arrange events at a moment’s notice, share media, tell your friend that they’re cool, and so on. That’s why I like Facebook, now here’s why I don’t.

Facebook has moved into a position where it wants to be a central repository for your identity and content. Because all your information (including page, group data etc) is on the site and organised (in most cases) by you, this potentially makes it easy for them to share this information to advertisers and third-parties. Subsequently, marketers can segment down to your interests what you like, and serve up super-relevant ads. Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook founder) said at the recent D8 conference that the world will move towards applications designed around people and the nature of what people do, not software.

What is also noticeable, and mentioned by Zuckerberg, is that new Facebook features are almost always protested, because an engineer has found a new way to present information. Take a look at News/Live Feed. It was met with intense criticism initially, but now it is standard and quite useful.

Now here is what I prefer to do. I’m not a fan of signing up for services that duplicate functionality I already have. I share my photos on Flickr. I try to use email as much as possible (minimise Facebook messaging/wall posting). But note, this doesn’t mean I’ll stop using Facebook. (Actually, maybe this will)

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