Ups and Downs

Valentines day. Bah, a commercial day, where many shops make money out of people, and prescribe what is romantic. A day where people value love more highly than on other days. I don't really approve. Not because I'm single and feeling lonely when everyone around me is being all Valentines dayish, but because I don't see the point. The commercialism thing, I hate strongly dislike it. Shops with these garish displays and stuff. They do it for Christmas and Easter, and it irritates me then too. The high emphasis placed on love, well isn't love important everyday? And doesn't Valentines cheapen love, and weaken people's originality when it comes to showing love?

Ah, well. That is just a random piece giving my feelings on the day because I don't think it is possible to blog on Valentines and not mention the day. What this day really comprised of was weirdness, with both good and bad bits in the mix. First off, yesterday I had a day off, so it felt a lot like a Monday today (what a way to start Friday). Then I got some admin sorted out with my varsity access card, great. I'm a registered student, and I now actually have access to computer labs and the library. This is a very good thing. The thing that followed was a bit of a downer though, a very cold NVP lecture. That is really one of the things that stands out. Yes the concepts of the lean start-up are pretty interesting, and I would have thought the most logical business model if you have enough money and enough guts. I don't. I do not have it in me to go up to someone randomly and say, 'hi, can I talk to you for a moment about the idea of product X. What do you think of this and that, what would you really want from such a thing.' I admit this is very necessary in a business that wishes to provide a product, but its not me.

It probably didn't help that we were trying to do market research about an app for junior school kids on a varsity campus. Where anyone with kids is probably actually a lecturer or member of staff, and those are much less common than the students. Also, none of my group had whatever it takes to find some of those people. Maybe we were cowards, but I found us one person to talk to, so at least we did get some feedback. I dunno. I'm all uninspired again, maybe this is to do with the remainder of the day.

Since I'm using logical order, we'll move on to lunch. This was provided by the Maths department, so they could meet the honours students. All six of us. This was awkward, but at least there was free food. That was good. And I did get to know a little bit more about the maths honours class, which is helpful. I then did random stuff most of the afternoon, some admin, and a visit to the library, where they didn't have the books I wanted. I then waited around with a few others for a meeting that had been moved without our knowledge. I'm a bit bummed about that  one actually. It would have been nice if we had been contacted more reliably than through a chat room. An email would have been really nice, but alas it was not to be, and so I waited at varsity, and made my brother wait too, for no reason.

The evening was at least pleasant. Sewing and listening to rock music seems to have helped me to calm down. Maybe I can face tomorrow with a little more positivity and energy. It would be nice if the weather would cool down as well, but that is unlikely.

So, my funky rant about the day is now over. I don't know if it is meaningful for anything except to get it off my chest and to put things into perspective for me. Overall, I don't think the negatives should out way the positives, but the positioning of them made them seem even worse. So on that note, I say to you, may God bless you, and may you have a pleasant weekend, whoever you may be.

Presentations and projects

Wow, sorting out a preliminary presentation for a business plan that wasn't even a real idea a week ago is impressive. That is what the intensive PCU and NVP courses are about. In two weeks we go from no idea of what is happening, to presenting a skeleton of a business plan to be critiqued on presentation style, and to some extent what content we need to add or subtract. I don't think most full start ups move quite that quickly, but then again, most start ups are staking their livelihoods on this kind of thing, not just needing to pass to get their degree.

It does take off some of the pressure when you remember that just because you haven't earned 100% it doesn't mean that you've failed. I know there are some things in life where that maxim may hold true (all or nothing kind of vibe) but this is just a course. It is quite possible to graduate at the end of the year with no more than 50% in the course. Obviously those people who like me want firsts for everything wouldn't be happy with that, but we are the "overachievers" of the class.

I have been very impressed at how hard everyone works for this kind of thing though. There are some groups who make me feel lazy because they have done so much, whereas we have done the basic requirements for some things, but done them as well as we could. A full on presentation (with slides) is not always necessary when critiquing a piece of written work in front of a class. It can be useful, especially if you have been tasked with re-writing the piece, but a straight critique can be done by simply making sure everyone can see what you're talking about.

The other thing that has been happening though is that a course that has been all but forgotten has shown its head again. VIS, a design course, is starting to show signs of being a monster waiting to hatch. We need to have a solid project idea and premise for that one, so that the preliminary presentations of it can begin next week. Which is also, incidentally, when normal lectures resume. So on top of those presentations, there is the horror of beginning even more new classes, whose timetables have not yet been set. Whoopee!

So, the next week and a half could be quite interesting. At least I don't have to worry about data scraping and so on any more, having worked out how to actually use the software that comes natively with a decent Linux distribution. I just need to worry about visual queries, colour, texture, shape and other interesting ideas. But I must not get them mixed up with my business plan. That could get really weird. Now that I have got to the point of being rambly, I think it is time to stop boring the few readers I have.

P.S. I just realised, I think I may have now put up more posts this month than in the whole last year. This review of life as a CS student in SA could be worthwhile for the stats that my blog needs.

NVP Day 4

Nearly a week's worth of lectures. If I'm not mistaken the last of the lectures for this course happen tomorrow. This is very condensed, but it seems to be effective. Today's topic was finance, an interesting enough topic if you like money. Some of the systems are quite intriguing, but I feel a little bit like it was rushed. Probably because it was, due to needing to finish early for the majority of the class to attend a memorial service. This rush impacted a little on how much could be covered. Also, our lecture venue was locked (the purpose of which is unclear) and so we had to start a little late.

I did manage to improve my note taking techniques though, which was good, so I have a nice document with notes that will hopefully make sense to me if/when I need to look over them again for reference. That makes me feel a little more confident about the course. Also the brainstorming and planning session we held this morning before the lectures was very good, we decided the basic idea of what our App will do, clarifying quite a few of the necessary details. I feel a little bit useless in this section, but I will bring my skills in the admin stuff into play again, and I will do things around the edges, like writing an introduction and a conclusion, and consolidating the work. If it is me who does that, and we don't do it all together.

We have to get the skeleton of this done and dusted by Wednesday for our preliminary presentations for the communications course. This is actually quite a good thing, in that it forces the work to continue, although on that note I must remember that I have other work to do as well for another course. This other work comes from the interesting extra week that was tacked on to our year due to some administrative mix ups. The extra week has been taken to be quite a good thing by a large portion of the staff though, and may well be repeated. Odd how circumstance changes the way things are run.

Now that I am running off in a spiralling line outwards from my original topic, and reflect on the fact that blogging about a course for which I have not been particularly enthused (and am technically not required to take) has taught me more about myself. This is something that often happens when I blog though, that I get sucked into these introspective and soul searching posts. Not very typical, and possibly not very good for the readership, but hey, its not like the readership is very wide here anyway, and I might as well be honest, albeit a little monitored due to the public availability, and not wanting to condemn myself on the internet.

So, finance and risk stuff. It seems weird to do this all before the business starts, the idea of the cash flow thing, surely no-one would put a negative cash flow study in their business plan? You know if your cash flow thing is starting to look bad that you need to do something to make it look better before that. Perhaps put a few cash flow projections, with different initial investments to show how the investment amount can impact the success of the venture? It is something I would do, but then I am a scientist, and I believe in asking for money to do research (or to pay for research I've already done). I know that this is a little bit different.

Now I'm just going off on tangents, so it is probably time to stop writing about doing things, and actually do them.

NVP Day 3

Day 3. It feels more like Week 3. Although I don't think we actually have that many lectures on this course. We have been moving fast and intensively. And I am re-writing because I managed to post this early, and then delete it, and now I have to type it all out again, because I didn't just use the revert to draft feature. So, where was I last time. I think I was saying something about how this wasn't quite as bad as I thought it would be.

Yes, I have seen the point of doing this course, it is for the point where you are out in real life and something puts you in the path of a business venture. Without this course, you are completely lost, and don't even know enough to stay afloat. With this course you know the basics of treading water when you land in the deep end, and from there you can learn to swim by listening (Googling) to instructions from the sidelines. The concepts are useful.

I am still not convinced that I am entirely suited to the business sector, but the groups we are in were chosen intelligently (and not by us, this is likely linked) so I am in a group with a Business Science student, so my weakness is made up for in his strength. I bring other things to the group, like the fact that I take notes of things. Not to say the others wouldn't, but I do do it. That is part of the value that I bring to the group.

On to today's lessons. We spent a VERY long time on case studies. This is because we didn't just look at each case, but rather after each group reported back, we had a (short) lecture on some of the topics raised by the study. This is quite a nice method of lecturing, but I need to get better at taking notes with it. I feel a bit silly taking notes when the lecturer is using a very casual style, but I need to take notes if I want to assimilate the information properly. This may simply be something to be aware of with regards to this course. I must make note of the fact that I am used to lecturers being fairly formal, and so when one breaks that mould so much it can be a bit unnerving.

Of course I am now having a discussion about this over email with my lecturer who is reading yesterday's post, so there you have it. Brains are weird. Or possibly it's people who are weird.

Now, back to the topic. Business. I think today's spider diagram deserves a spot in this post, it was pretty cool. And it has some very important headings that we discussed in the class, which have details I don't fully remember (o_O).

Of course you get a little bit of insight into my doodles as well, but that is a bonus. They do not actually have to do with how I feel about the course, but rather begin as what can I do with lines in this shape or that.

So I have come to see that I may not be a business person, ever, but I may well benefit in some way from these concepts.

NVP Day 2

Yes, another day of the new venture planning course. I am starting to revise my opinions a little, with the help of friends. I think the course is interesting, and the concepts could be very valuable, but I have trouble taking it seriously. It feels very cynical, and tongue in cheek. Like we keep getting told all these bad things about entrepreneurship.

Anyway, moving on to the basic concepts learned in the lecture, and some thoughts provoked (based on the notes I took and annotated). So, the creative process. A messy business, but no-one really cares about that. All the customer cares about is the result, not how you got there. We do need to care about the route though. We are expected to follow that route. As a fairly well ordered person though, I find that a messy process can be irritating, almost as bad as adapting to a slightly different key spacing and sensitivity on the keyboard of a computer. So, to follow the route, we need to accept that everything is essentially creative. This means that every process we follow, every item we develop or use, is a creative process or the result of a creative process. So why don't we pay more attention to this? The creative process is powerful, yes every person has their own unique process, but what are the common threads?

Sorry, that was a little bit side-tracked. That is how my mind processes things though, the search tree is not very efficient, but it is generally pretty thorough. Our lecture did go through some interesting routes though. For example we had a brief lesson on tax evasion in the import/export industry. Which then lead on to different areas where creativity evolves. That doesn't actually seem that related, but it comes from too much(?) story telling around the subject.

I am now starting to wander if I am doing this quite in the same spirit as expected, but I think I will decide not to care. This is a blog of thoughts and ideas and how they affect life. If I analyse things here, well that's cool isn't it?

Right, moving along. After deciding the difference between innovation and creativity (innovation is creativity with value) we move on to the ideas of the great Walt Disney. Be a dreamer, be a realist, and be a critic. Get all three of those right, and maybe you will be able to be as innovative as him? That would be cool.

Skipping ahead a bit, because I feel like I'm going on too long on a topic which I don't find as interesting as some others I could write about here, I will get to the final points. First off, when marketing, raise a purple cows. Yes that grammar is intentional, it bugs me too, which is why I quoted it. Then, make use of milkshake marketing. Then use the concept of the "golden circles" by selling a dream that happens o be functional and feasible.

That seems to sum up the day's lectures. What did I learn? My lecturer needs to sit in on our professional communications lectures. I think he might benefit from some of the presentation skills we are learning. Also, I am not very interested in marketing and business strategy. Oh well, I must do what I can to get through. At least the group has some kind of idea of a product which could possibly make money in the education sector.

Books, the past, the future

Well, its been a while since I last had enough on my mind that could actually be written out meaningfully. I suppose reading real books does this to me, it starts me thinking about the meanings and purpose behind the works. I have recently found two authors who's writing I have enjoyed more than I would have expected.

C. J. Sansom's historical works starring the lawyer Mathew Shardlake are interesting. They are well written, in the style of a fairly generic mystery story. What really makes them good is the historical content. Set in the 16th century, in the time of King Henry VIII, Sansom brings into discussion the politics of the time. Shardlake is shown to become disillusioned of the reform in the first novel "Dissolusion" but he has long disagreed with the papist faction. This leaves the reader with a hero who is open to both worlds in a sense, and so the story is not about religion, but simply politics.

The stories contain enough fiction to captivate a wider audience, but also enough fact that the captive audience cannot help but learn some of the less pleasant details about the history of England, and the time of Henry VIII in particular. The set of three books spans a period of four years, in which three wives are killed. For the first time ever, I know the names of the wives of Henry, assuming he only had six, which I think he did.

So thos books give you thoughts on the past. I have also been reading the novels of David Mitchell, who writes convoluted stories that intermingle, and there are characters who cross between books in a manner which either suggests the author struggles to create cameos, or is a clever way of saying, "all these novels are actually linked." I have read three of his novels, and all three have the same kind of convolution as the movie inception. Stories within stories, and no clear description of when waking or sleeping. But there are two things that strike me most strongly about these books. One Mitchell is a fan of the Japanese and Eastern culture. Two he makes some of the works of George Orwell look optomistic.

These novels are set well ahead of where we are today, but a large amount of what we see happening we know could very well come true. The wars that are suggested are not unrealistic, although they due portray a particularly cynical view of America and the American military forces. What Mitchell does which both darkens his works and gives hope to the reader is he gives his characters their humanity. They are realistic, and it is possible to imagine meeting one of them in life. Even those characters who play cameo roles have enough depth that one can relate to them ad to their feelings.

This look into the future is bleek, but the people inside it are shown to be just like us, even if they are more likely to be caught up by the crime bosses, or develop amazing scientific technologies. The fact that every hero is humane, and even the villians are possible to relate to leaves the reader feeling positive, where it would be easy to leave them feeling negative about what the future promises.

So there are my Ramblings on the books I've been reading. I hope you haven't been too bored.

Jane Austen, a diversion

Having just returned to my digs before the start of a new semester at university, I have found myself in need of something to occupy much of my time before lectures start. So with great enjoyment I have been making the most of one of my holiday purchases, that is a volume of the complete novels of Jane Austen.

I first worked my way with some difficulty through Emma. A novel which according to some critics is Austen's greatest work, but which was not given such honour by the author herself. My feeling is that perhaps it is altogether too well written, since you are intimately involed in the feeling of Emma Woodhouse herself, and are made to cringe when you realise just how spoilt she has been. It is, however, great consolation to watch the development of all the characters. Finding Mr Elton to be fickle and unworthy of the attention he believed himself to deserve, and seeing poor Harriet Smith learn to not always trust her good friend's advice. The best development must, however, be said to be that of Emma herself. Watching and feeling how she learns regard for the feelings of those around her is greatly informative into her way of life, and makes for a most enjoyable ending to the story.

Having finished with Emma, I felt I was still in need of diversion, and realising that I had a less well known novel in Lady Susan I attempted that next. The style of this one is most interesting, in that it is a series of letters between all the interested parties, betraying to the reader an intimacy with each letter writer which is not known to the characters about whom they write. The Lady Susan for whom the novel is named is seen for what she truly is quite quickly by the reader, and as soon as her daughter Frederica is introduced one cannot help but feel sorry for her. Her treatment by her mother is quite disgraceful. This novel gives a view to a different side of society to that which I am accustomed from Austen. It shows the scheming and nasty side of the upper class women, when usually we see a much more romantic side of this same class.

To continue, I must confess to having read another, which is agaain very different in tone. Dealing very much in vanity, and pride of position and how these and the evils of peer pressure can influence the lives of the characters. I speak now of Persuasion. The novel deals quite extensively with what may happen to a young lady surrounded by vain and shallow companions when her greatest fault lies in being to gentle. If poor Anne Elliot were to have a little more backbone when it came to dealing with er family one cannot help but feel that she should have been very happy much earlier. That would of course mean that there was no story, but it is most amusing to see all the different reaction to Anne meeting Captain Wentworth in so many different situations. It is also good to see how over time her confidence grows through living with those who are able to appreciate her for who she really is.

Hereby my abbreviated opinion on three novels of Jane Austen, all in very different styles, abd all with very different meNings. But intereatingly enough all social commentries on the same society, that of high born ladies.