Skip Navigation

Where it’s at

Monday was my first day at UWA. The verdict so far? It’s great.

The place is crawling with Wi–Fi hotspots, and though I had to go through two registration processes (one to register for “personal” internet access, the other to register for SNAP) and then go through some VPN–related rigmarole, I consider it to be more than worthwhile. I can get online from the library, the refectory, the library’s ‘student terrace’, and a bunch of other places around campus… all for free. This means I can geek out during breaks. This makes me happy. No signal in most of the lecture theaters though.

I was surprised to see the friendly–and–familiar faces of three girls I know from high school amongst the crowd at my Psych 101 lecture, one of which is also in my Linguistics 101 lecture and tutorial group. Between them and the boyfriend–of–a–girl–I–know I discovered in Foundations of IT 104, I’m pretty much set for people–to–sit–next–to–in–the–lecture–theater.

Foundations of Computer Science 123 looks to be good (we’re learning Haskell this semester), and though Foundations of IT looks to be mind–numbingly dull (AKA: MS Office, StarOffice, and OpenOffice for dummies) everything feels like it belongs in “Chris’ Big Book of Stuff He Wants to Learn”. Keeping me interested is, after all, paramount to keeping me enrolled. I’m kind of finicky like that.

The key is as such: keep me interested, keep me enthralled, and I’ll be your star–fucking–pupil. I’ll do more than the required reading; hell, I’ll do more than the recommended reading: I’ll read shit that you make passing references to in class. I’ll do extra credit assignments, I’ll participate more in tutorials, I’ll work harder, and I’ll get great marks. If I’m not interested I won’t turn up to lectures, I won’t do the readings, and I’ll bludge along and doing only enough to pass. Keeping me enthralled isn’t my job though; it’s a responsibility shared amongst the lecturers, the tutors, and the subject. Thus far they all seem to be doing their job.

We’ll see how I feel by the end of the semester.