There comes a time in every persons life where they must admit that they were wrong.

This is not one of those times. Ok, partly, this is one of those times.

In the recent past, there have been those who criticised the path I have chosen to walk. The choices I have made, and the sacrifices I made for those choices, have been criticised. My accomplishments (hardly inspirational, but no small feats either) have been belittled. I’ve reflected on these criticisms with more thought than I usually devote to such things. This is because they came from someone in a position of some power over my future, someone whose criticisms I think it is wise to at least consider. However, my thoughts lead me to the following responses:

• Yes, I do deliberately maintain multiple personae.
• Yes, this is because I don’t trust easily.
• Yes, this is sometimes detrimental to first impressions in a social setting.

However:

• Do Not mistake having multiple personae for lacking confidence or being deeply internally conflicted. Neither could be further from the truth. I maintain separate personae for my various professional outings, my various social lives, my close friends, my family and myself.
• Do Not fool yourself into thinking you know me just because you’ve seen two of those personae, but also
• Do Not feel offended in that knowledge. Like most things in life, your experience with me will always differ to everybody else’s.
• Do Not think that I am lying or being dishonest with these personae. I very seldom lie. In fact, my strongest convictions will out no matter what persona I’ve chosen for a situation. It’s just a matter of choosing the right attitude for the right time and place.

Furthermore, I challenge you to find someone who doesn’t do this, at least sub-consciously. The difference is that I do it very consciously, and make very little effort to hide it.

Separately:

• Yes, I have sacrificed certain past interests in order to maintain present interests. Often these choices have been knife-edge decisions, ones that I look back on frequently. In a way, closing the door on these parts of my life have been like closing the door on parts of  myself. I don’t like it, but neither do I have 48 hour days.
• However, just because the decisions I have made don’t add up to your particular brand of vodka, doesn’t mean they were the wrong decisions.
• It also doesn’t mean you should dismiss the resulting achievements and experiences out of hand. However, your biases are your biases, and so it is inevitable that you will dismiss such things. There was a time when I would have changed my path to meet your expectation. That time has passed, because I now see those expectations as extensions of your bias, one which I disagree with.
• I maintain active interests in business, politics, computer science and sports (both participating and officiating).
• I work every week in a job that continually extends my ability to analyse business practices and relate them to software solutions.
• I make a point of keeping up on current events, and on reading analysis from multiple viewpoints on important issues.
• I maintain great (if not stellar) results in my studies (while making a point of understanding the subject matter, even if I don’t do the work that proves it).
• I have passive interests in film, music and video games.
• In all of that, somehow, I maintain a social life. A few close friends, and a multitude of acquaintances, some closer than others. This is exactly how I like it, and how I have always liked it.
• That I have somewhat relinquished my interests and roles in theatre and music is not because I didn’t want to continue them.
• I did, I really did.
• I still really enjoy sitting down on a piano and playing scales for goodness sake.
• However, that is not the path I have chosen. Perhaps, at some point in the future, my path will meander its way back to some of those things.
• But it will be because I choose to reopen those doors, not because you have chosen that path for me.

I guess if there has to be a take home message from all of this it’s this (ie. tl;dr):

• In life, you will run across people who will judge you based on an incomplete and perhaps incorrect set of data.
• In some cases, this will be because they have to judge you on that data.
• In some cases, they should know better than to include some of the data that they do.
• In fact, everyone will judge you on incomplete data. Do not let these people faze you.
• As long as you are happy with the choices and accomplishments you have made for yourself, everybody else can jump off their collective cliffs.
• Your path might lead you to climb the tallest of mountains, or it might follow the most boring of plateaus.
• Wherever it takes you, you can be proud that it’s your own.

As for me, my plan is to continue walking on the path I’m on. Of course, the criticism of others will change it somewhat, where I find that legitimately better changes can be made. However, in this case, I suspect I’m being bullied by a big fish in a little pond – a pond I intend to outgrow shortly.

More specifically, it wasn’t booting. It got to a certain part of the Windows boot sequence and then stopped. Startup Repair didn’t work, Safe Mode didn’t work. Nothing I tried would make it work.
Eventually, I made sure the problem was the hard drive. (It’s easy enough, with small enough screw drivers, to take a HDD out of one laptop and put it into my own).

So, this person had lost 1500 words of a 3000 word essay due the next day. Last night, I was thinking of this blog, and how I hadn’t written in it for a little while, and it came to my mind that I should start writing about things that would help my fellow Uni students out. So, maybe a series, maybe a once off. Anyway, here goes:

How to make sure you never lose work from a Hard Drive crash:

This is simple. Dropbox. http://www.dropbox.com . Click download, set up an account, always save your work in the Dropbox folder. If your hard drive dies, don’t worry! Either go back to dropbox.com and download the file to work on in the short term (more on that later), or simply download Dropbox again, and look in the Dropbox folder. Voila! Your work is there. Ok, so it only works if you have an internet connection, but those are pretty necessary for most Uni work anyway, am I correct? Note that you only get 2GB free on Dropbox, so this is only for work, and not for music/video, etc. Of course, if you pay, you get more. You still need to be able to download it though.

How to make sure a Hard Drive crash doesn’t stop you from doing work:

This is slightly less simple, and we’re still planning ahead here. However, it’s still well within the reach of anyone who can find the power button on a computer. First: Get yourself a 2GB USB drive. They’re probably selling them on campus for $10 or so. $20 if you’re at my uni. Second: Download unetbootin from  http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/ . Plug your USB drive in, and tell unetbootin that you want Ubuntu. This is probably the largest of any of the options (and by all means, feel free to try some of the others if you feel up to it), but it’s also the easiest to use and best supported. Let unetbootin do its thing, and when it’s done safely remove the drive.

Now you have a bootable USB drive. If your hard drive dies, you can plug this USB drive into any computer made since ~2005 (probably earlier) and boot from that, instead. If you used Ubuntu like I said, it’s probably going to automatically detect your mouse, keyboard, wi-fi card, and I would guess most modern printers. If you’re using 3G/4G/HSDPA  wireless broadband, you may not have as much luck, but I’m sure it won’t kill you to go to McDonalds and use the free Wifi for a while. Or, you know, your university. You’ll also have a fully featured office suite (Libreoffice), capable of saving and opening .doc files, and at least opening .docx (new office files).  So while you’re waiting to get your computer fixed, at least you’ll have an alternative. It might be a little slower, but that never killed anyone.

Being a real smarty-pants (not relying on HDDs. At all.)

So that thing about using a USB bootable drive? If you have a newer computer, check to see if it has USB 3.0. If it does, get yourself a reasonably big USB Flash 3.0 drive (32GB should do it) and install Ubuntu on there. You might need to play around a bit to get it to be bootable (Google is your friend – you’re being a smarty-pants, remember?), but it should be fast enough to be permanently usable. And, you’ll never need to worry about your HDD crashing. It’s solid state, so unless something fries the electronics (not nearly as likely as a mechanical failure in a regular hard drive), you’ll be safe. Of course, you need to not lose it, but that’s different. You’ll also be able to take your configuration anywhere you go, keep your files with you at all times, and use ‘your’ computer on anyone else’s. Be warned though, it’s probably a touch slow for everyday use if you’re not going to go with a USB 3.0.

Two mice fell into a bucket of cream. One of the mice gave up and drowned, while the other mouse struggled and struggled to stay alive. The second mouse worked so hard churning up the cream that he turned it into butter and walked out. As of this moment, I am that second mouse.

– Catch Me if You Can

If you want something to happen – make it so. Large parts of my life are good because I went to considerable effort to go out and get what I wanted. The parts of my life that I’m not so strong in are the parts that I neglected in the effort to make the other parts of my life better, or because I was lazy and let the opportunities slip.

Yes, I understand that I have so many more opportunities than some people, but I like to believe that that is in no small part because I put in some pretty significant background work to making that happen.

Small example: Today. Marksenfest tickets sold out in under 5 minutes. They went on sale 20 minutes late. Do you know why I got tickets? Because every minute from 9:00 onwards, I pressed F5 until that page changed. When it did, it was still broken (the link didn’t show up.) I went into the source code, copied the link, and pasted it into the toolbar. Lucky? Maybe. But the opportunity wouldn’t have presented itself had I not had the window open on my laptop, pressing refresh every 20 seconds.

Larger example: My exchange. Do you know why I went on exchange at age 15? It was because my Father came home and told me about the exchange program the night before applications were due. So I grabbed it with both hands, and ran with it. It got me a year overseas. Lucky? Perhaps. But Dad wouldn’t have brought home the forms had he not known I was interested before hand.

Similarly large example: My job. My current employer was introduced to me by a friend of my parents, who has known me since I was born (seriously, I’m pretty sure they saw me before my grandparents). Now, sure, you can say that I had ‘connections’ that got me that job. But that family friend was taking a huge chance on his reputation by recommending me. I doubt he would have done that had I not put an effort into appearing competent and intelligent for the entirety of my life. He certainly wouldn’t have done it if I hadn’t walked into his office and asked him about it. Furthermore, my employer was still doubtful that a student with one year of tertiary education could do the job he needed as quickly as he needed it, so he trialled me. And I aced it. Now I have a pretty sweet job.

The point of this all is not to brag, but this: I got this awesome stuff (and more!) because I went out and got it, rather than waiting for it to get to me. This might sound condescending, and in part it is, but I bet you can see other people who have it the same way. Especially around the college, people have a tendency to engage in some pretty major tall poppy syndrome. I’m not saying I’m different – I’ve engaged in it myself. We all could do a better job given the chance, but that’s the thing. No one was given these chances. The people we chop down went and they did whatever they had to do to get those chances. Are you one of those people who seems to be constantly being chopped down? If so: Good for you. Who the hell am I, or anyone, else to judge you for doing what you have to do to get where you want to be? To you I say this:

–http://www.hatersgoingtohate.com/tell-um-old-timer/

Seriously, people. There’s nothing wrong with doing what you have to to get ahead. Sure, you’re probably disadvantaging someone else. Screw them. What makes them any better than you? If they really deserved it, they would be going to the same lengths you are. They’re not, so they don’t. They’ll probably blame it on shitty luck, but you and I know better. You have an opportunity, whatever means you used to get it.

You made your own luck. You are that second mouse. Now, run off and bite the cat in the ass.

Read it. It’s good. Just, trust me on this one.

213: And so it was that Nic did find himself with only the bare minimum of telecommunication. The Tech Gods had supplied him with a phone, and though it was dual-sim, it was neither 3G, nor Smart.

214: And though Nic did whinge and complain, not once did his faith in the Tech Gods waiver, and not once did he cease his worship.

215: So the Tech Gods did test Nic further, and before his worship of the God Python, did remove from him his Laptop of Worship.

216: And though Nic did whinge and complain, he did continue his worship of the God Python in the best way that he could.

217: And the Tech Gods did see this, and were impressed.

218: So the Tech Gods did test Nic one final time in his journey back from his pilgrimage to the God Python.

219: And the gods did force Nic to arrive at the airport late, and be left with no form of transport but the Taxi.

220: And though Nic did whinge, and Nic did complain, he and his friend Adam did make the offering to the Taxi that the Tech Gods did wish.

221: And the Tech Gods did see that Nic’s faith in them had not once waivered, though he had whinged, and he had complained.

222: And they did see that he had continued his worship of them.

223: And they did see how he had continued his attempts to convert others to their Shrines.

224: And lo, they were impressed.

225: So the Tech Gods decided to visit upon Nic a reward.

226: And so the God Telephonia did manifest herself in the form of a man with two phones.

227: And the God Random-Curiosity did guide Nic to the shop in which the man was employed.

228: And the God Telephonia did offer Nic two phones, for a low, low offering.

229: And the first phone was a Motorola Atrix, and it was shiny.

230: And the second phone was a Motorola Defy, and it was durable.

231: And Nic was confused. For, though the gods had placed a bounty in his lap of unimaginable wealth, he felt that he was forced to choose.

232: But then Nic did think to offer a higher offering to the gods.

233: And the gods were pleased, and did offer him both the phones for a lower offering.

234: And there was much rejoicing.

235: Then, as further reward, the gods did make the ticket machine on Nic’s bus broken, and unable to receive money.

236: And there was much rejoicing.

…

How about some real examples, like the fact that we never see any womens sports on mainstream commercial TV apart from the Olympics? What about the fact that womens hockey seems to be almost completely disregarded in some circles in terms of development? What about the complete disparity between young female and male umpires?

Get a real example, don’t try to sell me based on an obviously crappy list that was obviously never going to make any sense.

AT least 92 are dead as a Norwegian gunman fired at a youth camp and a bomb blast ripped through a government building in Oslo in Europes deadliest carnage since Madrid in 2004.

Police said they were questioning a Christian fundamentalist over twin attacks in Norways deadliest post-war tragedy while local broadcasters were speculating that he may not have acted alone.

via Bombing, shooting kill 92 in Oslo and holiday camp | The Australian.

Hate is not confined to a religion, a race, an area or a culture. Hate is human. The only way to beat it is to stop encouraging it. We are all human, we are all subject to human failings. The sooner we get over ourselves, and the arbitrary lines in the sand we use to divide our nations, our cultures and ultimately our species, the sooner peace can be ours. All of ours.

My thoughts are with the families and loved ones of those who were killed and injured, and with the people of Norway.