Miriam Parkinson

I’m approaching the final stretch at Bosch which means a number of things.

Firstly and most importantly I need to take my finances seriously. Now I know I should have been taking my finances seriously before but somehow during the past 6 mths I’ve managed to not save a cent (Don’t tell my dad!!) Clearly all those minor discretionary purchases, you know: $1000 phone, $500 winter shopping spree, numerous nights out on the town, have added up and managed to eat up the solid $250 a week I should have been saving all this time. Bad Miriam!!!

To make up for all this financial naughtiness I’ve been doing some very sensible and responsible budgeting, and examining credit card statements and I’ve figured out how I’ll pay off my credit card in the next 6 weeks and all sorts of other well behaved activities. Then I get to suffer for my sins by working to earn the money I need to survive. Of course the best bit here is I wouldn’t have to work for a year if I’d been saving that money. Ah well, priceless lesson in the value of saving I guess. Anyway the upshot of all of this is I need a job (speaking of which if you happen to know anyone looking for a regular babysitter I am quite a lovely one, references and all)

Secondly I need to start revising my uni work. I’ve been away from uni for nearly a year now and I suspect I’ve forgotten most of the important stuff which will carry through to next semester. In fact, given I haven’t been exactly the most disciplined of students over the years there’s probably a whole bunch of maths things I never really learned in the first place. So over the next couple of weeks I will (attempt) to knuckle down and study all those things I either can’t recall (Fourier Series) or never really learned in the first place (Differential Equations) which I know will be assumed knowledge in subjects coming up this semester. Lucky me!

Finally it means that it’s nearly time for celebrating. Those of you who I’ve spoken to during my big break from blogging will know that to say I didn’t really enjoy my IBL placement is an understatement. Despite the stress of having to find a job in time the knowledge that in just 6 short weeks I’ll be outta here is a huge relief. However in the spirit of my new resolve to find the positives in every situation I have compiled a list of important life lessons I’ve gained while working at Bosch which I intend to form into a sort of series of blog posts for your entertainment.

Three of my four exams are over so I’m in a fairly good mood. The exam period has been pretty up and down. The first exam was fantastic and I’m pretty sure I got an HD, the second was Satan in exam form and if they don’t normalise the marks the entire course will fail, and the third was pretty good although a bit long so I rushed through a couple of questions. That said at least I finished it. Most didn’t. All I have left is a nice, friendly, open-book programming exam. Piece of cake

In other news I got the IBL position I was after. They offered me the job right there in the interview. Didn’t even have to sweat it out waiting to find out whether I was in. I’m going to be starting in a couple of weeks so soon I’ll be a very busy girl.

I’ve been thinking about costumes lately (I know what you’re thinking Cam and I have a perfectly good excuse – I’m going to a fancy dress party) and the real question is: would I make a better Sailor Moon, or French Maid. I already have access to the Sailor Moon costume although I’d need to hunt down a blond wig, and I’d need to get a French Maid outfit if I went for that but my hair won’t be an issue. Choices, choices. I guess I could also probably russle up a pretty good Catwoman outfit if I really wanted but I don’t really think its my style.

I’m going to be away in Bright for the long weekend so if anyone wants to contact me they’ll have to do it by phone because I won’t have internet access. I should have lots of spare time trying to avoid all the wives whilst the boys are gallivanting about the countryside on dirtbikes so I’ll probably do a bit of photography while I’m there. Last year I took some pretty cool shots of a frozen lake but it was with a 2 mega-pixie cameraphone so they were all a bit on the grainy side.