Words to Lyrics Ben Ho's observations from the cloud

27 February 2011

A Reflection of the Holiday

Filed under: Reflection — Tags: — Ben @ 9:22 pm

The long summer holiday has ended. So I ask myself what have I achieved this holiday?

I didn’t get a job.
I made a poor effort to catch up with friends.
I stayed at home for most of the time.
I watched a lot of TV.
I did some volunteer work!

Conclusion: I’ve turned into a vegetable.

Admittedly, I do regret not doing more than I did. Knowing when the postman comes and what’s on TV during the day is good but it doesn’t compare to getting something useful on the CV. Not making the effort to see friends is, well, shall we say unhealthy. Each day became a countdown to the next significant event: the postman delivers the mail, this TV show comes on, the parcel man comes, and so on.

Being a vegetable didn’t do wonders for my health either. I was eating less and less, but at the same time snacking more and more. Getting fat on the couch would soon become reality. I tried to find any errand I could do, just to stop being bored.

I did try to find paid work. I applied for a few jobs, none got back within the summer. One emailed to say they would like to have an interview, but they haven’t called yet. I gave up in mid-January.

On the bright side, I did some volunteering at the Sydney Festival. I wrote a review for one of the events, and I did go on about the Festival a bit on Twitter (I think). I got into the University of Sydney! Looking forward to the new experiences there.

At least the holiday didn’t go to waste entirely. Now I’m off to have an early night; 8am start tomorrow.

2 May 2009

Statistics from the Holidays

Filed under: Reflection — Tags: , — Ben @ 4:48 pm

Below are a set of statistics from the holidays past. A couple of holidays ago, I wrote a page of haikus to describe the three weeks of that holiday. This time, by compiling a set of statistics, I’ve done something different.

If there are any that you want more info on, drop a comment below.

Statistics for the holiday – T1 2009

Days of Holiday – 20
Extra days of Holiday – 1

Days spent at coaching/tutoring – 3

Money found on the ground – $50.20
Amount CityRail “stole” from me – $8.40
Value of CityRail compensation – $8.60

Birthdays observed on Facebook – 3
Average number of Facebook wall posts about other person’s birthday – 25
Wall posts for my birthday – 24
Emails for my birthday – 2
Texts for my birthday – 1
Phone calls for my birthday – 1

Total value of gifts – $375
In cash – $270
In vouchers – $105

Sydney Email
Texts sent – 117
Emails sent – 106
Total people sent to – 136
Method of reply
Total replies – 49 (36%)
By text – 32
Number of those who did not recognise my identity (BH) – 19 (59.3%)
By email – 14
Other method – 3

Newspapers bought and read (excluding our Friday-Sunday subscription) – 4
Free newspapers taken – 3

Time spent at Centennial Park – 1 hour 10 minutes
Estimated number of dogs that Monday morning – over 100

Days without my MacBook Pro – 3.5

13 July 2008

Just ridiculous.

Filed under: Reflection — Tags: , — Ben @ 9:35 am

So, it has been two weeks since the start of the holidays. And how do I feel? Really lonely.

I hear you asking, shouldn’t holidays be restful, fun, enjoyable?

Yes of course, but there is an underlying problem. It’s so bloody quiet around town and on the tubes. No one is in Sydney, everyone has gone away, and no one is online! On weekends, its worse.

This raises a lot of questions. Is it normal for people to go away at this time? Is my image of what holidays should be outdated? Or am I too closed up to know what really is happening?

I believe that I am getting out of my way to find out what people really do nowadays during these few weeks. What do people do? I think I am just forgotten about these holidays.

Please help out my mind to rest by commenting and answering my questions!

29 June 2008

The Holidays

Filed under: Forward Thinking — Tags: , , — Ben @ 10:26 am

Well, now it is my school holidays. Three weeks of rest from a long short term 2. To answer all the obvious questions, I am not going anywhere, I’m just staying in Sydney. I will be doing a bit of photography, a walking trip or two and I will be celebrating people’s birthdays.

There is a new project that I want to get cracking with, and that will be based on my webserver. (Note, this will get a bit techy!)

I want to make a directory accessible from mobile and from the web. It needs to be able to be updated with new information almost instantaneously. I am thinking of using WordPress as a CMS, with a few plugins and themes, but if you have something better to use, leave a comment below.

OK, that was my tech talk for now. Hope to write a bit more these holidays.

16 April 2008

The holidays

Filed under: Forward Thinking — Tags: , — Ben @ 5:42 pm

Well, its the school holidays. Two weeks worth. It’s never enough; we all work so hard and get so little in return. But my birthday is in the holidays, so that’s good.

I really want to get more out of these two weeks, but loads of people are gone the first week for a camp. I’m also putting more time into catching up my schoolwork; it has slacked off recently. I’m also working at the computer shop, earning money as well. That takes time from me.

There are so many things that I planned to do but they all go to waste when you really think about how much time you have. You think that downtime is non-existent, but there is always more of it than you think

Well I’ll be looking forward to my birthday party, photos will be on flickr the day after.

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