God damn exams! Well I have finished my first one, and now have two more exams to go. The problem is that the one I have done was my easiest, and now I have two exams which will be rather more difficult - the first because it's Geography and you never know what kind of question they'll throw at you, and the second because it's three hours long (whereas the others are 2 hours long), and there's a funny third question which we can't really study for.

I am slowly figuring out how to work Flash 5, so maybe in the future there will be a few more exciting animated images on my page. It's just a rather complicated program to work, and I have a feeling that for all my hard work creating nifty little animated images, what I have at the moment actually would look better. Oh well I guess that I can create a trial page for my new images and see how they look there, and if I like it I can't then transfer that to my main page. The problem is that the animated images (which will be on rollover) might be a bit big, and therefore rather pointless unless you have a really fast internet connection that will show them. Will have to do some experimentation, but at least I'm finally figuring out how to work a program such as Flash, which has so much potential for creating an absoulutely wicked site.

As you might have noticed, this web-page is getting close to having achieved 2000 hits since I started work on it in about May last year. I know that probably about half of those have been me, either while updating it or checking out how many people have accessed it, but it'll be pretty cool the day we crack 2000 hits. So come back often and it might even be you!

Scarily enough I have an exam the day after next - although I think that I am fairly well prepared for it because it shouldn't be too difficult, and I have a good knowledge of what they should ask about, it's still kinda scary that in less than two days I will be having my first exam for this semester. OK OK I'll calm down now.....

I guess the good side of having exams soon means that they'll be over and out of the way soon. I remember last year, halfway through my final exam, I had this overwhelming desire for the exam to be over. I guess it's not the best thing in the world wanting your exam to be finished as quickly as possible while you're sitting it, but I actually managed to do really well in that exam and get an A for that history paper. Funny...

Once exams are over things should be sweet - I'll have work, but it isn't quite as stressful as university because once work is finished you can leave it all there. No assignments or homework (apart from the pathetically easy crew trainers homework tasks each week), you can just leave it all at work which is GOOD.

It's pretty much the last day of the year for me here at university, although admittedly with exams still to come. I guess therefore it's a pretty good stage to have a look at how this year at university has panned out for me. In some ways it has gone incredibly quickly, it hardly seems that long ago that I went to Sociology in the Arts 1 building for my first lecture of the year. However in other ways that does seems like a long time ago, so here's a look at my second year at university.

The first semester started of pretty easily, if I remember rightly. Timetable clashes meant that I was doing two Stage 1 papers as well as a couple of Stage 2 Geography papers. It had been my full-year data analysis paper that clashed with every decent history paper in the first semester, as well as aboslutely every single stage 2 politics paper. So I was left doing an introduction to Sociology and Philosophies of Human Nature.

As the semester progressed I realised that this had been both a blessing and a curse, Philosophy was incredibly interesting as the tutor was absolutely stunning and the lectures were incredibly interesting. I felt that I was learning a lot about myself and about human nature - which in some ways is one of the most important things you can ever learn. However Sociology was not so interesting, although it had its moments - there was an annoying person in the tutorial group who thought that she knew everything and was always saying the most inane and stupid things to the tutor, while lecturers were hardly riveting. The workload was less than had been the case in the second semester of last year when I did 4 papers, however my stage 2 Human Geography paper was rather challenging.

Exams came and went, and off I went to Australia in the July holidays. My marks were about what I expected, if slightly higher which was a good thing and before I knew it I was back in New Zealand, back at university and about to start what was definately the more challenging half of my year, with two stage two history papers as well as a geography paper, and the second half of my data analysis paper. And sure enough the essays began to come thick and fast, and poor little Josh became rather stressed out doing essays in three or four days, but amazingly my marks seemed to improve over what they had been in the first semester even though my papers were harder. I do think that because I found them more of a challenge I was prepared to put more effort into my papers, and I did get the rewards from this. Who knows how exams will go, but I am fairly confident that I am going to do reasonably well in them.

Overall, this year of university has been interesting and I have learned quite a lot. I made a few mistakes last year, and did a lot of work that was unneccessary, but I seem to have got the hang of the university system and know what needs to be done and how much I need to do. I know that I should start earlier on essays to save myself the stress of doing them the night before (or even on the day!) but I guess that's never going to happen. Next year of university is going to be the real test, to see how the timetables pan out and which papers I am able to do, or not able to do, so that I can construct myself a major and a minor in my degree. I know that something will clash and that I'll end up doing a paper that I never even thought I would do, but that's life and I'll get over it. The bigger question in my life is what I'm going to do at the end of next year, but I have a whole year to decide that so I guess I should be in the better position to make such a decision this time next year.

I've added another page to my site, this one consisting of various 3D backgrounds that I think are pretty cool. If you want to check it out click here although the images themselves are pretty huge and will take a while to download onto your computer once you have clicked onto the thumbnail. However I think that they're worth the wait as there are some pretty cool backgrounds there for you to chuck onto your computer. There should be some more to come in the future as well!

Second to last day of University for the year, I only have 2 more lectures and one more tutorial this year and then nothing until March 4th next year which seems forever away. Unfortunately I have three exams before I can really consider myself on holiday, but they don't look like they're going to be too difficult (touch wood) so hopefully I will be able to put much of the stress of this semester behind me.

Looks like we'll be flying down to Wellington because amazingly it's cheaper to fly in a plane down there as opposed to catching a train - and it takes 40 minutes as opposed to ten hours. So I guess that although we'll miss seeing much of the New Zealand countryside (oh it's just sooooooo amazingly fascinating.. NOT!) it will mean that we get to spend more time in Wellington as opposed to on a confined train travelling down there and back - I just need to keep an eye on my spending otherwise I won't have enough money to go there.

Yay! Last week of University this week and it seems like summer holidays already in some ways. As Craccum is full of acknowledgements, the sun is out and the lectures are cruisy you wish that University could be like this all the time... but then you notice the down-side of it all - exams in less than two weeks! BUGGER!!!

On the bright side of things it looks like I'm going to be taking a holiday after my exams are finished to Wellington. I haven't been there for 6 years, so it's probably going to be really really fun, as long as I have enough money! It will be really nice to get out of Auckland since I haven't been anywhere since July when I was in Australia and even though I really do like living in Auckland, you do get rather sick of it! So Wellington had better watch out because Nats, James and Josh are headed your way probably from November 10th until November 14th.

The end of my university year is getting closer all the time. I'm finished one of my papers completely now, am in the middle of the last piece of internal assessment and only have my three exams to go. Once they're done I'll be two-thirds of the way through my degree - although obviously I'll do more work next year than I did last year or this year. That's a pretty scary thought since this semester has been completely full-on with essays and assignments.

You might not have noticed, but my essay page has been updated significantly today. I have added in three of my latest essays which brings the total there to around 20 I suppose. Kind of scary that I realise how much work went into those pages, and how once they're marked and handed back they seem to become completely pointless. Maybe by being on my site all together I can give those essays a bit more of a lifespan, and maybe even some day I might even help someone who is doing an essay themselves on the topic, there's quite a broad range now so it's not completely out of the question.

I guess sometime next week I'll give a good wrap up of the second semester and maybe even of the whole year. It's been an interesting year for me, one which I have grown up a hell of a lot in, and finally moved on from my high school days into my university years and beyond. You could almost say that even though I officially became an adult last year when I turned 18, it took until this year for that to really take effect, and I know there's still some way to go.

Although university is very useful for my future, and what I learn here is very interesting, it still drives me insane from time to time. Long essays that are due in seem to get me all stressed, which doesn't help me or my relationships which is bad. Sometimes I think that it would be nice not having the stress of university life, and just doing something simple that won't stress me out too much. But then again I do realise that I am here for my long term benefit and future, and that kind of gets me going again. Also, learning something new does have a certain thrill to it - just as writing a really good essay gives a great sense of accomplishment.

I'm still weighing up the options about whether I should stay at McDonald's or move on to a place such as Borders. There are plenty of reasons why I should try to change jobs, such as increased experience, a better job, more pay etc. But on the other hand I am used to my job at McDonald's, I find it quite easy to do (good thing and a bad thing I suppose there as it can lead to immense boredom) and I do know the people there quite well and get along with them. But I'm pretty much decided that I will throw myself at this Borders opportunity and see what happens - who knows they might never even need me or want me. It's just that a part of me feels that it is time to move on, McDonald's is not really serving any purpose other than collecting a bit (not really enough) money and a different work place would be good for me. So maybe, the next time you come to Borders bookshop in Auckland City you might just see me, please say "hi"!

I guess that it was inevitable that the US would respond to the actions of September 11th, and that reponse has finally come. THe developments of the last couple of days can be seen as disappointing - any notion of solving the problem without the use of armed forces has completely evaporated - although it seems pretty clear that Osama Bin Laden and the Taleban are rather 'bad', and that if something is done about them the world can only be a better place. But I caution you to not believe everything you see on the news, to seek out web-sites or magazines that can offer a neutral point of view on the matter (in other words try to avoid anything American), because I hardly see CNN telling the world that civilians have accidently been hit by cruise missiles.

I've finally made the first step towards a job post-McDonald's by getting an application form from Borders bookshop. I'm not exactly sure whether I want to work there, but I am curious to see what the pay is compared with what I get at the moment, and to see if they are willing to give me a job. Could be something that can make use of the skills that I have slightly more than selling people Big Mac Combos. Now I just have to put together a CV for the first time in nearly 2 years. Oh the fun of it!

Got a lecture, gotta run!

It has been a long time since I last updated this page, but I guess that you're all lucky tonight as I have finally got the inspiration to tell you 'what the hell's going on in my life'. Well for a start University is nearing the end of the year, which is kinda good since I am getting a bit sick and tired of all the essays that I have to do. However there's always that slight problem of having to sit exams before you go on holiday, so I'm not really quite sure if I can REALLY look forward to the end of semester. Even after that I'm going to have work fulltime, which will probably be kinda crappy, but it does mean that I will have money - and I need to save up quite a bit of that for next year's university fees.

I've been working too much as well, for some reason McDonalds think that it's a fabulous idea to give me between 20 and 23 hours a week of work, at the same time as I have lots of essays and assignments due in. Which is a combination that does not really mix, and leads to a few late nights writing essays. Luckily I haven't screwed up any of these assesments yet, although I'm not sure how my Hitler essay finally panned out.

In terms of a world scale, it seems as though things have finally began to go back to normal, after September 11th, but that just might be because I haven't watched the news for a while. The USA is still unsure about what they're going to do (which is probably a good thing), and the imminent war hasn't really started yet (which is also a good thing!) Obviously Bush is getting some good advice from people such as Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice, which can further delay any unnecessary war.

Also, as you may have noticed, I have added an avatar page to this web-site. This was completely in response to my annoyance at Cheetachat for consistently rejecting the avatars I submit them (they just don't like me!!!) becuase I'm over the limit of three. Well I was over the limit of three a hell of a long time ago and they've just started giving a damn once I was able to make good avatars through Photoshop 6.0. But anyway, that page contains not only avatars with "jarbury" or "joshua" on them (although there are lots of them!), but also avatars which I have made for chat friends, and various other ones. Hopefully the database can begin to increase with other avatars, and you can either take up the challenge and submit the avatars to cheetachat yourself, or you can just save it into your avatar folder which means that we'll both be able to see it! Future changes to my site will probably include the expansion of the avatar page into sub-pages (as I have done for my own pictures as well as the ones of Anna Kournikova) so that loading time can be reduced as you don't have hundreds of images for your browser to show.

Life is also rather complicated at the moment, getting to the point where I wonder if something somewhere really wants to play around with my life and have a nice laugh. Kind of like I am Truman, in The Truman Show, and the whole world is a set for a television program where everything is predecided. I guess if that was the case then the whole world would be getting a pretty good laugh as my life continues with its many ups and downs. It's an interesting idea, thinking about if everything in your life is planned - I guess it's the basis of determinism which I try not to believe in because I don't like the idea that someone else is controlling my life, but at the same time I find myself thinking that everything has been laid out for me and I don't actually have a say in what happens. Or maybe I've been watching too many movies!!!