Uni Tour 2 - Computer Science

First some movie reviews. I can't remember how many movies I've seen since the start of the holidays, but it's some sad number like an average of 1 a day or something. Here's what I think of them:

Inside Man

8.4
[Spoilers coming] Really good movie! Came out of the movie feeling like what I'd seen had actually happened. Very real, very well acted. You end up connecting with the people who hold up the bank and actually hoping they'll suceed. And it keep up the mystery right up until about 15 minutes from the end. The end drags out a bit, but that's ok coz u genuinely want to see what happens to the "bad guys". Jodie Foster annoys me though. I don't like her.

Go see it!


Just Friends

7.1
Very very funny! If you're looking for a light movie and a lot of laughs, then go see it! Kinda chick-flicky though.


March of the Penguins

7.7
Really enjoyed it. Interesting, moving, and funny.


Scary Movie 4

6.5
Drags in some places, hilariously funny in all the others! The UN scene particularly - that had the entire cinema roaring! (And it was a full cinema - every seat full and people sitting in the aisles!)


That's all the movies I've seen so far these holidays. I still want to go see Keeping Mum.

Anyway.


So a couple of weeks ago I started exploring the places in uni that no-one goes. I discovered the Electrical Engineering, Geology, and Statistics departments above and behind the MLT lecture theatres. The whole time I was trying to get to the building circled here:

















Then by accident I discovered a way, which sparked episode 2 of the Guided Tour Of Uni.

Tucked in behind MLT1 is this colourful corridor:










(All the images from here on are tiny because my phone scaled the pics down, not because the building is tiny)
The coloured wall is a timeline of the history of computers. As you walk to the computer department, you walk backwards in time. At the end of the corridor is a really dark foyer with ultra-modern lifts. A door off this foyer leads to a general-use (I think) computer lab, which could come in useful between 9am and 4pm (when Kate Edgar is full) when you need to use a computer. I remember Craccum saying once that there were computer labs hidden all around uni that no-one ever used coz everyone swarmed around Kate Edgar. I think this is one of them. Could be handy. Here's a photo of it, looking through the door:










The only other thing I could find on this level (and the one above it) was camera-monitered locker rooms (or locker corridors would be a better word) and exit signs that lead to restricted access rooms.

I don't know what it is with the Sciences building, but departments (or maybe just Engineering departments) have this thing about putting department offices in random places. The Electrical Engineering one was hidden so well that you have to either go through Statistics or Geology to get to it, and the Computer Science/Engineering Computing office isn't much better. It's got a tiny little foyer to itself on the third(?) floor. It's about as tucked away as you can get.










Anyway, that building really wasn't as exciting as I thought it'd be. A lot of it seems to be restricted access, and they have cameras. So I went back to Geology. Geology is characterised by having far more stairwells than they actually need. Here's one of them:










Behind me (taking this photo) is the geology department proper (this is on the first floor (1 above ground) in the building on the corner of Symonds street and Wellesley street). You gotta go through some fairly hefty doors to get into it, and once you're in there is this thin smell of something acidic or chemically in the air. Like the air you're breathing isn't entirely normal. And no wonder, it's full of a whole lot of mini labs with doors covered in warning signs. And steps. There's series of steps scattered around the narrow corridors. Like, you go along a corridor and it randomly goes up a few steps, then just round the corner it goes down again, just to go up again a few doors along. Maybe flat floors wasn't enough for them. Maybe the architect sneezed while drawing the plans and the poor engineers had to compensate by building steps everywhere. But anway, one of the lab doors was open and I took the chance to take a good look inside it:










Then my bus came and I had to hurry to it.

I wish the university provided floor plans of the buildings. It would save a lot of getting lost.

Next episode I'll show you the underbelly of Engineering, the side you don't see.

Night~