mistakes

I've made a lot of mistakes recently.

 Stupid things said to friends.  Silly things done.  Bad decision making.  Terrible time management.

Take yesterday for example.  I went into a 3 hour engineering workshop unprepared without practice with the computer program matlab.  No problem, I thought; my other two work partners would be able to help me out  and we could accomplish it together.

Neither one of them rocked up.

There I was stuck there with a program I couldn't get to work for me and I was at the mercy of a computer screen which made no sense to me and questions which I could not answer.  It was me against matlab, and matlab was owning me left, right and centre.

I've rarely felt so helpless in my life; only chinese exams which I hadn't prepared for could possibly compare with yesterday.

I ended up answering two of the five questions, with one of the questions requiring only excel.

The culmination of all these mistakes was today when a friend told me an assignment was due yesterday and I hadn't handed it in yet because I thought it was due next week. I was hoping he was wrong, but the assignment boxes were taped over with paper saying
'LATE ASSIGNMENTS TO MICHAEL BRAK ROOM 195'

He's the lecturer in case you were wondering.  It actually wasn't that bad; he wasn't terribly intimidating and said matter-of-factly that I would get a 0 for the assignment, unless if i scored a 48 or 49 overall, upon which it would be counted and I would pass.  No sermon or rhetorical questions designed to force you into a corner of shame, which I was immensely grateful for.  I do wonder why late assignments have to be handed to him to deal with personally though- so he can remember our faces and be less forgiving towards us during his lectures perhaps?

I'm not posting this in a grab for sympathy, for indeed I deserve none; my mistakes have been my own and mine only.  I just feel a compulsion to post this as a record of my waywardness, and hopefully with a combination of willpower and perhaps some luck this will never happen again.

On a more positive note, thanks to adhi and edi for a fantastic party!  happy 18th birthdays to you both :)

walking

Apparently someone in my neighbourhood complained about not getting the melbourne weekly magazine last week because I was on holiday.  The manager had sent someone to replace me but it seems like they didn't do their job.

It's nice to know that my work actually has a positive impact on other people's lives, no matter how trivial that may be.