We arrived last night (Sunday) in Taipei, Taiwan to realise that we had reservations, but had no idea where. Our next flight is scheduled to leave at 4pm the Monday. We soon realised that the reservations must be with someone through the airline. Turned out it was at a Golf Club out of town. We were too tied to argue, and for $30 a night it was a good deal. We just forgot to factor in that we would be in the middle of nowhere, and were forced to order their crappy room service. But we did score a free (unscheduled) wake up call at 5:30am!!! Awesome *cough cough*.

Since we blew all our cash on food, we decided to go on the free tour of Taipei. Was a good way to pass the time, we saw a temple, some markets, and some very nice (expensive) pottery. I am getting in the swing of using my camera again, always takes a little while to warm up to. See if I can’t get some photo’s up in this post.

Feeling tide now and looking forward to setting up in my new room in Gifu tonight.

Stay tuned,

N

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Posted on November 27th, 2008 :: Filed under Uncategorized

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When heading overseas I usually take some time out to write how the preparations are going and outline some rough plans. However recently I’ve been so caught up living that I’ve had no time to write. It has been an exciting semester. I’ve recently finished my last coursework that I have to submit on campus. With the exception of the 3 months compulsory work experience, and the final year (honors) project I’ve finished.

Because I’ve been pushing my self to get good grades, I was presented with the opportunity to undertake my work experience and final project overseas. I selected Japan for the work experience, and Germany for the final year project. As I write this I’, 25,000 feet in the air heading for Japan. I’m traveling with 3 other guys undertaking the same work experience. I’m a little nervous about how it will go as there has been no indication about why type of project we will be undertaking in Japan. All I know is that I’ll be working in the Electrical Engineering Facility at Gifu University, in central Japan.

The last week has been crazy busy. There are so many things to think of when your heading overseas for potentially 8+ months. I finish university in Australia on the Friday, have to have move out, travel to japan, move in, and start by the Monday! Little nuts if you ask for my personal opinion. Has been a little stressful, hasn’t been many free moments. Just tasks back to back.

The other significant thing that has been happening is life is Love (with a capital). It has been a powerful thing, I guess I’ve known Angie for several years now. About 3 months ago we hit it off, and there has been no looking back. It’s been an intense, we lost all perspective of time. I’ve never experienced anything else like it. In moments of clarity I suddenly realise that I have a beautiful companion, that life is so good that I have stopped thinking about it. It simply unfolds in front of my eyes. We knew all along that our time together was limited, and this morning we said our good byes. It was very sad, and no doubt it will take a little while to set in and readjust, but I think this love will remain for some time to come, regardless of geographical distance. My spirits are kept high by the exciting possibility of traveling together next summer, perhaps around Europe, perhaps South America. I don’t think it would matter if we could do it together. It just seems to good to not pick up again, some time in the near future. Angie, I love you with all my heart.

We are about 2 hours out of Taipei at the moment, and I’m desperately in need of a good sleep and a good feed. They have the air conditioning set very cold and I’d forgotten how hard it is to sleep in these seats. I find myself a little board with flying this time around. Perhaps it just because I’m so tide, but I suspect it also has to do with all the awesome friends and family I am leaving behind. I’m doing it alone this time, and have just remembered how awesome all my friends are. You guys rock my world and I look forward to keeping in touch! I guess it is also a little hard to get excited when you don’t know what exactly you will be doing so far from home. Defiantly going to learn a lot and make the most of things. Looking forward to a regular routine, without take home assessment and with weekends! That will be a change.

Thanks for reading and look forward to your comments.

Love you all,

Nathan

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Posted on November 23rd, 2008 :: Filed under Education, Life, Travel
Tags :: airport, Japan, Taipei, Travel

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As a young engineering professional coming to the end of my degree Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s talk on creativity, fulfilment and flow introduced a useful model for assessing elements that contribute to pleasure and lasting satisfaction.

Money doesn’t matter: He illustrated that once income is slightly above the poverty line, further increases in income don’t contribute to further increases in well being or happiness. Rather increased pleasure and satisfaction come as a result of being involved in activities that are valued by the participant.

Skills & Challenges: The following diagram clearly indicates that flow is achieved when the participant has high skills to meet the high challenge that they are facing. Slightly lower skill level lead to arousal as the participant is stimulated to meet the challenges, while slightly lower challenges enables comfortable control to be achieved with the participants skill set. If challenges increases, while skill are not improved then this can lead to anxiety and worry. And if a person with high skills is unchallenged they will most likely be relaxed or board. Low skills & apathy results in the largest tragedy of all: apathy.

With this in mind I am continuing my search for a final year project in the renewable energy, energy efficiency and clean green technology sectors. Areas that I feel have the potential to make huge contributions to environmental and social well being. I am lucky as an engineer that I have the good fortune of my income being above the threshold of significance to personal well being. In addition, I am putting particular focus on companies that can challenge me and build my skill level.

If you would like to see the full talk head over to Technology Entertainment Design Talks (TED) or watch the embedded video below.

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Posted on November 9th, 2008 :: Filed under Education, Life, Technology
Tags :: creativity, engineering, fulfilment, happiness, innovation, job, management, TED, young professional

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