Well, after almost a YEAR-AND-A-HALF without doing any serious programming
I've started again. It's liberating! Well, maybe not liberating, but after doing
all this biology/microscope stuff, it's nice to be back doing something I'm
familiar with ... although now it's actually a case of I'm a bit rusty. The
good news its pretty fun, graphical stuff I'm programming, with the potential
to save cell biologists hundreds of hours of labour, so that's my incentive
to do it well, and get it done fairly quickly so that my own workmates can use
it and say: "hey, you were totally right about this being a great idea,
this will save us heaps of time". That's the plan! Wish I knew how
long it would take!!!
01/08 | Investing
in a club
I've had a good week this week!
Market day was on the 26th of July and it was HEAPS of fun. I'm a bit worried
about how attached I am to my dance club. I helped organize a t-shirts, painting
a banner and getting people together for the day itself. Photos are here.
We signed 190 new member on the day which was pretty good (although 10 less
than my "target" as I tell Nadim), bringing up to 800 members. I have
FIVE separate (but not mutually exclusive) theories as to why
I invest so much time in the club.
(1) The first is pretty simple: I love dancing,
and I love the people in the club - they're the nicest people I know. Oh - and
unlike most of my other friends most of these guys have grace and manners; and
they're not almost never rude!
(2) The second involves a moment when someone from a different
club told me he'd never go into business with me ... implying that I made stupid
decisions. Maybe I subconsciously took that as a challenge to treat uqdance
as a business project: my challenge was to amass as many members,
"assets" and funding as I could and I think I've done pretty well
too. You have to spend money to make money. We've spent money on banners, posters,
t-shirts and equipment, but the money has already come back and the clubs now
800 members ... over four times as big as last year. I know it might sound silly,
and I know it's just a club - a volunteer/non-profit thing ..... but hey; it
might be as close to running a real business as I come, so I count it as a valueable
experience. And I AM definitely good at getting things done! Anyone I've ever
worked with knows I get the job done and I do it WELL! So THERE, guy who said
he'd never go into business with me!
(3) Well this is an odd one, and kind of awkward to explain,
but lately I've felt picked on. As soon as people realize you're patient enough
to take their frustrations out on because you've been raised not retaliate they
will do it. Most people do have that evil bone in their body. Me? Well unfortunately
I'm completely passive non-aggressive .... I've probably only raised my voice
with any conviction five times in my life - and for extremely good reason. I
regret that I was raised pretty much only by my mother because I never did learn
to stick up for myself against any form of bullying .... and living twenty one
years with someone with a disability, well maybe that made me too patient. When
your own housemate throws a football ball at your back, and you just take it
and don't say anything .... that's when you know you missed something critical
in your upbringing. Sometimes I feel I joke around too much to command any type
of presence or respect when I am serious. It's hard to explain, but I wish just
once I had the courage to punch someone instead of just keeping my cool ....
I'm 23, it's about time I got into my first fight. I want to really lose it.
Hrmm... let me think about it more.
Oh wow, I forgot to even explain how that related to my dance club. Well, in
the club I feel like I get respect from dance people that I'm currently not
getting from my new housemates ... but hey - living with FIVE people I'm bound
to have a few hiccups .... it's actually been relatively good .... it's just
sad Jim left, and I write silly things when I'm tired after a girl five years
younger than me was rude enough to tell me to shut up.
(4) Well, like I said: I really love the people at my dance
club, and I think because I have no girlfriend I need to pour my energy/affection
into something, so it may as well be the club! On a complete tangent: I like
that I put a rose into our logo. That was Celeste's idea actually.
(5) This is just what I do. If I commit to something I do
it properly. I organize, I like to be efficient and I am a documentation machine.
I did EXACTLY the same time when I was school captain ... even BEFORE the year
began I had organized a whole resource folder and website for our student council,
because there was no such thing when I started. I just can't help writing shit
if I believe that it might benefit people. I don't really have anything like
student council, or debating, or a band, or any of that high-school stuff anymore...
and I haven't tutored since leaving Cairns ... so uqdance and my PhD .... that's
my thing now. Oh - and there is a small club called Simba too which I do stuff
for, but not on the same scale as uqdance. My analysis is that it's late, there
is NOTHING on television and I'm rambling!
