Bored in Lectures

If I'm not wrong, learning usually means you're going to see and learn about new things. Learning about new things is loads of fun. I learned the basics of UNIX computing on my Mac last week after I found out I needed to compile some program from scratch so it would work. Before that, I learned from my friend that I would be using UNIX for Introduction to Programming, so I thought it wouldn't be too bad. What I later found out was that the UNIX server didn't really support my xterminal, which was described "xterm-color" (I'm sure all I have to do is change it, but I'm too lazy), which I'm sure is not very common. As a result, I'll probably be doing a lot of work at home, uploading and then testing it online before submitting it.

I went to Maths A to find my lecturer teaching what must have been elementary school maths to most of us in the class. For god's sake, we're in Maths A Advanced! Not Maths A Standard or Quantitative Methods! We had to get good results to even enrol in Maths A Advanced, not allow you to ramble on about things we already know!

Then, we have this subject called Scientific Programming and Simulation. It's fun because you learn something new here. A new language called R, which is supposedly a derivative of S-plus. It was pretty good, until you discover R is just a programmable calculator that runs on your computer and receives text input. Real fun, I might add.

I'm probably going to be bored for quite a while until projects and assignments come in, which is hopefully next week. I'm gonna stop here and go back to watching some obscure MPEG file. :D

Chapter 00 - 4: Prologue Part 4

Before the Arlt Alliance, Arltians did have a war known as the War of 23. This war was, as the name would suggest, the struggle of power by the 23 most powerful colonies. By the time the war ended, only 7 of the most resilient colonies survived within the borders of Arltian space. These 7 formed the Arltian Alliance, gathering less advanced colonies within it to stave intergalactic conflict. The two Terran corporations depended heavily on the Arlt Alliance for the education of the Gifted. Although there were only 28 of them in total, having the Gifted fully utilized was central to the accelerated development the Terrans had experienced. Before long after the 28 Gifted children were placed into key positions within the two corporations, the Terrans caught up with the most advanced colony within the Alliance.

Before long, a 29th Gifted came into view, and was the only Gifted Terran to receive education from other Gifted. This 29th person is now the Head of the First Division of Engineering within the TRi. It is believed that this 29th person already has understanding far beyond Arltian technology due to the unhindered learning from other Gifted instead of the Alliance.

As of now, there have been no other reported Gifted than the original 29. Terran territory has expanded greatly and efforts have begun on restoring the planet Earth. An individual body was formed with funds from GMTi and TRi to commence and execute all restoration processes to ensure neither corporation could lay claim to Earth.

The Terran Meganet eventually spanned far and wide, making Terran territory close to 25% the size of Alliance territory. It is believed that the Arlt Alliance has hyperspace technology independent of the travel gates, but has kept quiet on such technology, fearing that it might be used for conquest instead of exploration.

Darkness falls.

Crazy Idea: Learning Options

(Crazy idea posts will be abundant because I'm still adjusting to uni life. Give me a while. ;) )

What can you give both colours for one mana? An interesting card. Some people might argue that I should have stopped at the put it in my graveyard and made it global. I decided that it should be worse than Opt, since you could play it with either colour. The conclusion I came to was that the card should be blue and black, but arguably balanced. I believe the card is very blue and very black in essence. I had problem deciding on the red/blue one, but I settled on an effect that rocks and is most definitely an element of both colours, although it has no relation whatsoever to the guild known as Izzet. The effect isn't overcosted although it may seem too cheap.

Crazy Idea: Inspiring Song

I know the mechanic seems crazy, since it is essentially replicate onto itself. There is a twist, like how you could use the spell. An example of such craziness would be this spell. It may look like junk at first glance. For one, it doesn't do anything if you don't pay the Burst cost. This means it is instantly a 3 mana spell.

So, what can three mana buy you? For RRW, target creature gets +1/+0 and target creature gets +1/+0. Not a big deal. For RWW, target creature gets +0/+1 and target creature gets +0/+1. Another bad deal.

I'm seriously going to promote colour pairing. So... what does 4 mana buy you? For RRWW, three target creatures (which can be the same) get +1/+1. For RRRW, three target creature gets +1/+0. For RWWW, three target creatures get +0/+1. Still only so-so.

Here comes the fun part. What can 5 mana buy you? I'm only going to go through the best few: RRRWW or RRWWW. The result of paying this mana cost to play this spell is that four target creatures get +1/+1. Stacked together, this makes a creature +4/+4 for the low cost of 5 mana with enormous flexibility to spread it around. If you have RRRRW to spare, you could make a creature get +8/+0 for a crazy blitz!.

It gets loads better as we add coloured mana to play the burst cost. Be creative. :D

I put a new fun set of abilities that are something like echo. I'm sure these would have been considered by Magic R&D at some point. Maybe, and most probably dumped due to complexity.

Ten Days at Arrow on Swanston

I've heard loads of complaints about this place. This place called Arrow on Swanston. Some people have numerous stories to tell about this place. Among them, how horrible the service at reception can be. How cramped this place is. How expensive this place is. Despite hearing all this, I decided to come here and try it out anyway. I believe I need to go through this sort of ritual and see what it was like. In my first ten days here, I've found that I wouldn't mind spending a day in here. It's pretty cosy sure, but heck, I could sleep and laze around all day in this apartment. I've got a nice roommate too. The biggest problem I've found is that I've got a lot of adjusting to do here. The learning culture here is very different from Malaysia. I like the learning culture here, but it's going to take some getting used to before I can contribute as much as the locals here to tutorials and everything.

I've also realised that I shouldn't take any subject I got again. Ever. I went to an Introductory Microeconomics tutorial as part of my orientation. A billion things were coursing through my head and answers were popping up like magic. I was already well on my way. Only problem was, in my mind were also why the scope was so narrow. It was then it hit me I couldn't possibly ever do this class again. Sure, my assignments would probably be superb, like those I did for my diploma, which could pretty much even surprise lecturers, but I couldn't possible sit through lectures like that. I would die laughing in the class. Intermediate would probably be more to my taste now.

Today, I went to have a look at the Management class. I was intrigued since the lecturer was really selling his subject well. Unlike my previous Management lecturer in HELP UC, he could hold my attention. He was creating interest in what is essentially a very dry subject. I have nothing but praise for him. I'm pretty sure not all lecturers are like who I saw these few days, but if the lecturers and tutors are about this level (or slightly lower), learning here will be fun, regardless how hard the subject is! Assignments will probably be less fun since they'll probably be expected to be much higher quality - but I'll learn quickly. With all the resources in the uni, I shouldn't have too much of trouble. :D