Wow, it's been nearly 2 weeks since I posted here - damn time flies. Been really busy in the last few weeks with... of all things, work! Yep, for those who don't know, you heard right - I'm now employed! I know I said I wasn't going to before because right now I have a once-in-a-lifetime chance of being a bum, yada-yada-yada, but meh, things changed, and I have to say, I don't regret it at all.
I'm working at an IT solutions company who specialise in providing IT solutions to SMEs, designed specifically for their needs and managed so they can have reliable technology to facilitate their day-to-day tasks without having to worry about it. (Looks like the marketing brainwash is working already 
). Basically, we check out small businesses, work out what they need, then purchase, setup and maintain servers, desktops and other devices for them. Officially, I'm a technician, so I do the monkey work the others can't be bothered doing. Unofficially, I get to play around with new stuff, work on streamlining and automating their processes, as well as helping out with proposal ideas and all sorts of other things.
The guys there are awesome; I'm learning a heap of stuff, not just technical stuff (which is already lots because I haven't done anything with server and client management before), but also a lot of business stuff, and how the real world of technology works because it's a small team.
Just gotta get the legal stuff sorted and I should be getting my first ever paycheque! Yeh, I know - I'm a late starter; all you guys probably had that feeling when you were 16, and blew it all on a fake ID or (illegal) booze. Now, what the hell am I gonna spend it on...? (aside from maybe some 'celebratory' drinks...) I did put a fair bit this month on clothes and other stuff on my credit card though, including a nice, solid booq sleeve for my tablet from the great guys at rushfaster.
All that aside, I've also submitted my VTAC application for a transfer into RMIT's computer science course. I've been told my chances of getting in are pretty high, but still not sure if I want to switch. Still got a few more months to decide, before the VTAC offer comes in Jan 2008.
Meanwhile I also spent last week dropping into computer science lectures at Monash, learning stuff like graph/set/tree math theory, encryption and authentication, inheritance, C to assembler conversion, network protocols and how all the different bits in a computer work together. Reminded me why I took a semester off in the first place - university is such a dry and robotic environment (nice catching up with mates but). Maybe it's a first/second year thing, where they dump all the boring lecturers to read off their slides (I can read too damn it!). I don't have much faith in computer science being the magical course for me anymore, but we'll see where it leads.
Chances are that I'll end up going to RMIT next year, and if that doesn't work out, return to Monash, although the fact that Monash seem completely uninterested in me pisses me off. Hopefully RMIT's course will be easy enough for me to pick up so I don't have to spend so much in shit-boring lectures, especially the "and this is a CPU!"-type lectures. But then again, one of the main reasons I'm doing computer science is to meet other like-minded people, so I guess I have to compromise.
I managed to squeeze a few hours of Halo 3 time in the last week too at a mate's place - worth playing, especially if you're a shooter/action type gamer (which I'm not). The graphics are good (but not as good as Gears), storyline is nice, but the gameplay is great. It loads surprisingly quickly too, helped by the cool loading screen which features a nice composition animation rather than the typical static tip and loading message. Would I buy it? Probably not, because shooters bore me.
Anyway, this 'quick update' is turning into a chapter of my life story, so I'll end it here. One last thing though - I'll be doing a quick software update on this website after I post this, which should speed things up and fix some annoying intermittent errors. See you on the other side!
UPDATE (14/10/2007): Whoops, forgot my host requires me to notify them of my IP before I can get access to my database, and my internet having a dynamic IP means I gotta notify them every time I need to connect essentially. So looks like we're all stuck with this until sometime tomorrow...
P.S. Awesome work by Stoner winning the GP down at Phillip Island - done a shitload more than the average 21 year old! (he's even married, which is a bit of a shock...)
UPDATE (15/10/2007): All is right again - website update is now complete.