02/06 | UPDATE: Added Visual Studio .NET Macros. (student
> general downloads)
02/06 | UPDATE: Updated new websites on my portfolio page. (professional
> portfolio)
02/06 | Swimming with simba
It's kind of weird how I always write these entries at the start of a month - so effectively you are hearing about what happened to me last month (i.e. in this case May), rather than the month just gone. I guess the reason I do that is to give the appearance that I update this site more often than I actually do - "wow, the month has only just started and he's already added an entry". It's crazy - last month (May) I got 990 unique visitors - almost 200 more than I've had any other month - and yet I haven't updated any of my site for ages.... and I should! I've designed a couple of web sites recently which I should really add to my port-folio section, and yet have been too lazy (maybe one day soon). :-)
I went to a couple of pretty sophisticated events with Debbie last month. First of all was the May Ball - which is I guess the third "formal/prom like" event I've ever been to - one at the end of primary school and of course one at the end of high school - except this time I had a date. There was a Latin band playing, and the dancing lessons I've given Debbie payed off. The night was lots of fun actually. I also went with her to a SWIM (Supporting Women in Medicine) question and answer night at QMIR which she pretty much organized all herself. She gave all the introductions to the female guest speakers and it was really good - even as a guy NOT in medicine I learnt something from it.
During the final week of may I was doing something pretty cool - my PhD supervisor asked me to design a computer game! Sweet! It's a educational demo 3D computer game where a little blue robot called "Nudge" runs/flys around inside a cell... I'm tempted to show you some of the screenshots, but I think it's still a *little bit* hush-hush, so I'll refrain for now. Brad wanted some screenshots and videos of this game to submit as part of a grant he's putting in... I really hope we get it - because if the grant reviewer recognize the value of our idea and give us money Brad says he'll employ me to create this game after I finish my PhD. I think I did pretty well considering I only had a WEEK to make this thing! I probably should have explained better to my supervisor that a 3D game typically takes many programmer and years of development to make, but luckily I was able to reuse lots of code from a dance factory program I made, and got something up and working. Wohooo! Always keep records of your old work - you never know when you might be able to reuse chunks of it. It's tempting to keep working on it, but it's the type of project which is likely to keep me up at night thinking, so it's probably best I try and forget about him for a while.
Recently I signed up to be secretary of a club called SIMBA (Students in the IMB). A few people have said "congratulations on being elected", but people who know how it works realize that it isn't so much a case of an election as trying to con people into doing it each year so SIMBA can keep running! My friend Adam, who works in the same group as me at the desk opposite mine, was the only person who agreed to be president, so when our supervisor realizes we've both taken on this extra responsibility! Arghhhh! I'm sure he'll find out eventually. :-O
So what else is new?
Debbie's pretty busy studying for her big med exam on the 14th, but after that we'll have a weekend away. Next week I'm going on a three day "bio business retreat" to Caloundra It's sponsored by IMBCom (the big commercial institution within our building) and is run every year for third year students to learn more about the commercial aspects of science. As well as getting free food and listening to lots of influential speakers we have been organized into groups already to mock business pitch called a "biopitch". I'm pretty happy with my group - it's me an three girls - and so I'm now the "CEO of SASSI" (Science Applied Structural Solutions Incorporated)... Yeah, it's pretty obvious that name was reverse engineered. I think we have a pretty good pitch, so we'll see how we go next week.
All in all I've been pretty busy lately - actually there are a few people I should call / contact soon, but I've been putting it off. My bad.
