Graduation

Seven years after walking into uni all bright and shiny, I handed my camera to my cousin and asked her to take photos of me celebrating wearing a gown and yucky olive-coloured hood. Here are the results, accessible at http://mallymoodlespics.shutterfly.com/

(password - 12345)

The day was pretty fun, if a bit stressful. The WORST bit would have to be a toss between taking the formal photos - turn your feet to the left, twist your torso around, tilt your head to the side, lift your chin - how unnatural!!! - and sitting and waiting during the ceremony, it just got so hot during the hall. Highlight of the ceremony would be a toss between finally getting my hands on those certificates...and when another graduand pokkai'd down the stairs! I shouldn't be so amused by it, but it sure livened up proceedings!

I can't wait till I get that fluffy velvet hat - something to look forward to in another three years!

DVD review - Jarhead

War movies and me...we have a love/hate relationship. It's a tricky genre and we can argue about what counts as a war movie (Troy? LOTR? Star Wars?) until the cows come home. Until relatively recently, if given the choice of watching a war movie or staying home alone, I probably would have stayed home but then my brother got a job working at Blockbuster Video. Since he was allowed to borrow a certain number of items for free, we started to work our way through the genre. I developed a new appreciation of them, understanding for every piece of drivel a la Pearl Harbour or Saving Private Ryan (I found it better than Shakespeare in Love, but still overrated), there was good stuff like The Pianist and Full Metal Jacket. Into the *good* pile, we can add Jarhead.

Based on the memoir by Anthony Swofford, Jarhead recounts his training and service as a Marine in the first Gulf War. We follow Swoff (Jake Gyllenhaal) from his indoctrination in boot camp, his specialist sniper training, and his experience in the Gulf. If you're looking for an action movie with political commentary, you won't find it here. Instead this movie recounts Swoff's experience from his transformation from the reluctant marine who "got lost on his way to college", into the macho crack sniper, the bored, paranoid and frustrated tightly coiled soldier, and finally...what he is afterwards.

I can't really say why I liked this movie so much. It's a lot funnier than I expected it to be. We see a lot of the marines' pranks and humiliations. It's also a lot more homoerotic than expected - there are a lot of shots of partially dressed guys and they simulate sex with each other a few times. But it's also quite disturbing as we see the psychological toll of being constantly wired for fighting has on them - their growing disregard for others' feelings and when they get so stressed that they beg for the chance to kill someone/something or have someone kill them.

Although the actors/characters whom we don't follow as closely seem to anonymously blend into each other, the lead three are great. Dare I say Jake Gyllenhaal is better here than in Brokeback? It is a very impressive performance that needs to be seen to be believed. Peter Sarsgaard as the quiet-spoken, seemingly level-headed Troy, the spotter to Swoff's shooter...I havne't seen any of his other movies (even though we have them on dvd) but he was really good too. Jamie Foxx as the staff sargeant of the sniper troop was awesome! His changes from the total badass mother!#$@er drilling the recruits, to the logical teacher and instructor, embarrassment in a memorable scene, and the tactful leader who cares for the wellbeing of those under his command - I consider this performance superior to that of Ray (which if you think about it, that was more imitation than acting).

Just go out and watch this movie, ok?
7.5-8/10

Wikipedia

Today I was going to be good. Today I was going to work on writing some pieces of my literature review even though it's not due until the end of this year. But something happened and I decided to look up something in wikipedia. After that, all bets were off.

I love wikipedia. That's not to say I treat it seriously as a resource that should be consulted when writing research essays, but if you're looking for something to give you the fleeting background information on say all the characters in Buffy, this will do it. I find that I can kill HOURS just trawling around wikipedia, typing in random things that flit through my head (of which there are many things, not heads) or clicking on the links. The fact that wikipedia is filled with numerous articles...its so easy to read something on genuine topics that might be in Britannica or like such as information on how the Big Four accounting firms developed, various people from classical mythology, or even a chapter by chapter blow-through of Milton's Paradise Lost without having to strain your back by carrying loads of volumes around! But it also contains so many articles on pop culture! You can look up who the voice of anime characters are or learn about the different jumps in cheerleading! Hell, the thing even has recipes (sometimes)!

I'm aware that this entry just made me sound like the biggest geek ever and completely validated the way Queenie introduces me to people (she likes to say I read the encyclopaedia), but I don't care. Wikipedia is a lot of fun for curious nerds like me. In fact, the only way they could make it more fun is to include something like the game on Encarta where you have to escape from a castle by successfully answering questions (from entries in the encyclopaedia). That would make it PERFECT.

Geek out!

How to remove a retina

This post is mostly for the benefit of Andrea (*wave!*) who wanted to know how it could be done. It will be pretty gory, so for those who don't want to know how I cull rats and remove their eyes....it might be better if you wait for the next post. Cheers!

Ok.



Last chance!!!



Firstly, the rat is not killed by cervical dislocation (thank god cos theyre huge! I also have a story about this concerning Lewnotab). It's injected with ketamine to put it to sleep. When the rat is completely out, you squeeze around the orbital bones with the scissors so that the eye protudes. The blades are then worked underneath the eye orbit and sever the optic nerve. After both eyes are removed, the rat is killed with an injection of phenobarbitol.

Holding the eye gently, the cornea is removed from the eye by cutting just behind a white line that separates the front of the eye from the eye cup (I can't remember the technical name). The lens is removed and gently pull out the vitreous without detaching the retina. This whole bit is quite hard but once its done, you're set. The eye cup is fixed in paraform for 30 mins. It then goes through a series of phosphate buffer (NOT PBS) washes for 10 mins each. After the washes it is put through increasing concentrations (10%, 20%, 30%) sucrose for at least an hour each. At 30%, the eye cup is placed in the fridge for at least overnight.

To remove the retina from the eye cup...there's a colour difference between the two and if you can work the fine forceps between them, you can peel the retina off quite easily and there you go!!!

Hopefully I will soon have some lovely photos of the S-100beta, desmin and smooth muscle actin immunos that I've done on some vertical retina sections. Erica said they kicked ass!!! They're not perfect - too much background staining for my liking - but they're nice and fluorescent green and you can see the Muller Cell/astrocyte and smooth muscle morphology really nicely.

note to self...

I've been experimenting with making fruit pastries. I'm currently working on trying to figure out how to make a pear...er...tart-thing. It started off as a desire for something like tarte tatin, but finding only frozen puff pastry and some pearts, it evolved into something else.

The best one I've made so far looks like this:Currently, I have figured these things out when making them...
1. Cut the pears as finely as possible or you get pear juice thats kind of just floating around. Lots of juice that will run down your arms if you're not careful.
2. Resist the urge to use all of the eggwash. Using all the eggwash results in the pastry becoming like french toast (mmmm, french toast).
3. Use baking paper, not foil.
4. Do not set the oven to *grill top* in the hope that the sugar you piled on will caramelise.
5. The middle section of the grill is hotter than the outer sections.

What the....?

What Famous Leader Are You?
personality tests by similarminds.com

Timeline of TomKat baby

I still don't buy it. Initially, wŏ xĭang tă huái de hái zi bŭ shĭ tă de because immediately after the announcement, she started appearing in public with a massive belly that I estimated indicated 5 months of pregnancy. I don't know. I guess it's possible it might have been a 3 month belly (I doubt it given how slim she is/was - the thinner you are, the less likely the foetus is going to grow that quickly to push her innie belly button to outie).

Anyway, judge for yourself.

April 29 – First public appearance together and announcement of relationship

May 23 – Infamous Oprah appearance

June 17 – Announcement of engagement

Oct 6 – announcement of pregnancy

Oct 11 – publication of photos with very visible baby bumpNov 12 – attends the BAFTAs, bump is even more visibleDec 16 – appears in public as a MuppetJan – still looking huge

Feb 2 – Publication of this photo, oddly looking as pregnant at 7 months as she did at 3.

Feb 17 – Attendance of Kerry Packer Memorial, looking ready to pop.

Mar 31 – Photos after leaving a medical centre.

April 5 – publication of a photos with a basketball under shirt.April 14 - goes shopping for high heels wearing the ugliest pregnancy dress Hollywood could dig up. Seriously. Did she not observe Sarah Jessica Parker, Reese Witherspoon, Catherine Zeta Jones et al during their pregnancies?April 17 – edition of OK! Weekly to announce that the baby is due April 21, 6 months after the announcement of pregnancy.

That makes it 6 months since the announcement of the pregnancy to the projected delivery date. God, can't believe it's only been six months, seems like she's been pregnant forever. Well that's enough goss for me today.

another geeky quiz

Which File Extension are You?

I am powerful

Which Biological Molecule Are You?

You are an enzyme. You are powerful, dark, variable, and can change many things at your whim...even when they're not supposed to be changed. Bad you. You can be dangerous or wonderful; it's your choice.
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Why can't I be dangerous and wonderful? There's no light without dark!

hmmm, something's wrong

with me. I seem to be lacking in energy despite my (I think) improved diet, regular exercise, and (generally) increased amount of sleep. For the last few days I've felt sore in my muscles but no head-sicky feelings. I've also been sleeping a ridiculous amount - going to bed at 10 and waking at 7:15. I don't think I've regularly slept that early for 10 years...possibly more.

Well, lets hope this easter break gets some pep back into me, y'all.
Enjoy the long weekend!

Can anyone explain to me...

why a card I received (SHOE WHORE!!!), which I assume was posted in London, is postmarked "Priority A".....from Sweden?

It even has a PO box in Malmo as the address if the card couldn't be delivered.

No particular reason why, I'm just curious.

Belated birthday

I forgot it was my blog's birthday. It seems I started this thing on the 4th of April, and 234 posts later, here we are.

Well, if I were anything other than a poor student, I'd probably post a competition where who ever is the first person to email me their name and address, I'd snail mail them a letter as a prize! But you know, there isnt much worth in that kind of present and I'm sure I know most of you guys in real life anyway.

Seeya!

Movie review: V for Vendetta

Wow! I've read the graphic novel recently and was a big fan of it (although not of its early 80s style drawing). Despite the news that Alan Moore had disowned the adaptation and rabid fan online going on about how the plot had been changed, I was still looking forward to it. And I can enthusiastically say that I was thoroughly satisfied. I won't compare the GN to the movie, except for places where I think it's necessary.

If you're not aware of the dystopian and somewhat controversial plot, V for Vendetta is set in London. The USA is no longer a world superpower after a disastrous war (heh), and despite social destabilisation due to an epidemic (heh), England is still "prevailing" following the rise of a totalitarian government, led by Adam Sutler (John Hurt). The population is kept under control by the use of The Fingermen (a Secret Police force akin to the Stasi or KGB), censorship of the media, and institution of curfews. Evey Hammond (Natalie Portman) is caught on the street after curfew by a group of Fingermen who attempt to rape her. She is saved by the arrival of V (Hugo Weaving) a freedom fighter/anarchist/terrorist dressed as Guy Fawkes...and from there the plot gets too complicated for me to discuss here (although if you want to read a spoiler of the film, you can see it here).

First off, this is not an easy movie to deal with. While everyone I went with was extremely pleased with the film, we agreed that it was easy to see why a lot of people wouldn't like it. It draws a lot of parallels, not only with totalitarian governments of the past, both Left- and Right-wing, but with current world events, and social and cultural attitudes. The movie requires a fair amount of thinking and if you're not willing to open your mind to the concept that governments may not have their citizens' best interests as their driving force, you'll probably hate it. There are a number of conspiracy theories banded about - the most common one being that governments would exploit a situation to exercise and exorcise opponents to their ideology. Sure, you might scoff at that idea, but if you consider that Lord Salisbury, the Prime Minister at the time of Guy Fawkes and The Gunpowder Plot, used that as a reason to persecute Catholics in the 17th century...when you think about it in conjunction with a certain war that's on right now, it's not such an implausible idea. The movie essentially shows how people can play on mob fear to do things which, when thought out rationally, are unacceptable.

Another controversial aspects of the film is that the hero is explicitly identified as a terrorist. Yes, this is a word that has extreme negative connotations, and really, that is what V is. His actions cause widespread destruction and chaos, he is ruthless and closed to opposing viewpoints, and he does kill a lot of people (although he kills even more in the GN). Despite this, he is shown to us as charming, well-educated, and abused by the government so we cheer him on and want his plans to succeed because the government is obviously in the wrong. The movie has been under a bit of heat because it shows a terrorist in sympathetic light and the climax is a bombing in the London Tube. But I dont think this movie is advocating terrorism as a legitimate method to instill change. Rather, I think the message is that one should try to look beyond the destruction and seek the motivation, which admittedly is a difficult thing to do when faced with the aftermath.

The movie is also highly dependent on the use of symbols and iconography. There's naturally a lot of communist/Nazi iconography to make us identify with what we're seeing a bit more plausible - after all, this kind of stuff has happened. Likewise, the various characters are obviously meant to signify things beyond what they initially seem. V is obviously the embodiment of his ideals as a whole while Evey is representing the audience at large - the effect of the big picture on an individual. The extensive use of symbolism has been a bone of contention between the critics, as some have complained that the movie would have been better if (spoiler) V's identity is revealed (end spoiler). In my opinion (shared by others) this is irrelevent, and I believe that if it were done, it would have diminished the effectiveness of the message.

That said, for all the heaviness of what the film is about, it's surprisingly quite funny. There are moments of levity that are so startling you can't help but burst out laughing. In particular are V's introductory speech to Evey after rescuing her. It's a brilliant piece of alliteration and diction, but so bewildering that you understand where Evey is coming from when she asks "Are you, like, a crazy person?" Hilarious. Given what he's capable of, there's also the strange sight of V in a floral apron (above) and some great one-liners. Also, for haters of Fox News and particularly Bill O'Reilly, there's a character, Prothero, who acts as the voice of the regime and the director and actor (Roger Allam) have obviously based it upon "The O'Reilly Factor". It's a great moment.

On that note, here's my take on the acting. On the whole, the cast is fantastic but extra special kudos must go to Hugo Weaving. I can imagine it would be hard to act when you've got a mask with a fixed smile on your face for pretty much the entire role, but through gesture, intonation and a certain je ne sais quoi, Weaving manages to instill in V a great deal of charisma. I have no idea how he managed to make a constantly smiling mask equal parts intelligent, menacing, humourous, sadistic, and pragmatic. Natalie Portman is pretty good. Her accent is sometimes a bit weird, but on the whole she does convey Evey's emotions. It's not an easy role to portray as the girl who initially, while perhaps not satisfied, is marginally content with her position in life but come to realise things aren't ok. Stephen Rea as Finch, the high-ranking official who didn't realise how far his government would go to acquire and maintain power is great, although I would have liked to have seen what his character goes through in the GN on screen. And of course, the casting of John Hurt as the dictator...its a great contrast to his performance as Winston Smith, the victim of a totalitarian government in 1984.

Criticisms...WTH is with the love subplot?!!?!? I was completely happy until the last 20-30 minutes or so when it looks like V and Evey are in love with each other. Errr....NO!!!! Luckily it was kept to a minimum otherwise I may have dropped the movie down a point. Completely unnecessary. The level of fighting - I thought there was going to be more. That's not to say I think there should have been more. The amount that was there was fine, but I thought there would be more. If they had chosen to put in more, I would be happy with that too but it might be a disappointment to some. Something that was expanded more within the GN that wasn't done in the film is explaining what and why V is the way he is and why Evey is the way she is. In fact, regarding Evey, while I think the development of her character within the movie is very good, it is better in the GN.

I don't know if any of you reading this know or care, but this was a really difficult review to write. There were a lot of things that it brings up that I was considering discussing here, but it would have taken so much thought and writing, V for Vendetta would end up as my review for The Matrix - a constant work in progress in my head. As it is, I think this is the longest review since that monster Brokeback Mountain one I wrote. As you can see, I highly recommend it. For a site that provides even more analysis of V for Vendetta GN, see this site.

8.5/10

Things I love that people totally get!!!

I was sorting out my dirty laundry today. While I was shaking everything and turning them inside-out, I felt something hard hit me on the hand. Since I was shaking a pair of gym shorts, I figured it must have been the toggle bumping. Then I realised....*it couldnt be the toggle because of the logistics of my shorts - too hard to explain here! I shook them again, but didnt feel anything until I was bunching the shorts to toss into the *dirty* basket when I felt it again! Excited, I kept shaking until, sure enough, a $2 coin dropped out!

I love finding forgotten money in clothes!!!

I'm still trying to work out my review of V for Vendetta. Hopefully it'll be up in a few days ;)

Lab update!

For those who don't know, I've been doing my PhD for 5 weeks now... meaning I have 150 weeks left to go (oh yay). The last month has pretty much consisted of me trying to complete reading associated with my topic and trying to formulate a plausible hypothesis. The hypothesis is a work in progress, the reading varies depending on how much my brain and I are getting along. Regardless, this was pretty much my first week of doing any experimental work - mostly refreshing stuff and learning how this lab is run.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, I did some immunoflurescence of retina sections, staining for glutamine synthetase for astrocytes and Muller cells, and staining for KIR. I don't know what KIR stains for. What a culture shock!!! I came from working in a lab that did things for various hospitals and therefore had somewhat stringent EHS stuff going on, to a lab where people don't even wear latex gloves!!! Taking into consideration my lab time over the summer, I had several heart attacks watching pipettes being thrown into normal bins (i.e. NOT biohazard - admittedly it was used for pipetting non-toxic buffers - but that's not the point) *shudder*. Abrezh the other new PhD student comes from an optometry (i.e. clinical, not laboratory) background, so I was asked to keep an eye on him to teach him good lab habits. But how can I teach him that when Erica's making up sucrose solution by pouring the powered sucrose into a jar, pouring in distilled water...and then SHAKING it?! I said something like "...er....shouldn't you be spinning that?" to which I got the response, "This does the same thing." Later when we were talking about how to do a dilution, I told Abrez that you put the diluting buffer into an eppendorf tube, remove the volume of the antibody from the buffer, and then put in the antibody...to which another lab member said to me "Oh, this is bucket science. When you're making a 1:1000 dilution, if you dont take out that microlitre, it doesn't make much of a difference." Oh yes it does!!! It completely changes the dilution!!! Anyway, I'm assured that this is how research labs work - I can either stick to my anal, but scientifically correct habits, or I'll adjust to their relaxed ones. We'll see who wins.

Today, I was inducted into the departmental Histology lab and then taught how to use the cryostat. The cryostat is a like a microtome, except it's used to cut snap-frozen tissue. After the demonstration by the lab manager, Faye, I spent about 20 minutes of so on the machine trying to cut some sections of mouse brain. On the whole, I was generally ok, except for a giant wrinkle that I kept getting right down the centre of the section. Faye assured me that for my first ever time, my sections were pretty damn good (woohoo!), so I hopped over to Path and the SNS for a little show and tell. After inspecting them by eye and under the microscope, my sections were met with rapturous declarations about how good they were and that we should stain them for H&E for posterity. Unfortunately, since the sections hadn't dried properly onto the slides, they floated off and were not salvageable. Poor Veronika who suggested the idea was quite upset, while Paul just said "Oh, maybe you should have fixed them in acetone" and was met with glares and the question "Well why didn't you suggest that before?!" Ahhh...it feels good to be back into a working lab.

Preview for the day - I've seen V for Vendetta, the review will be coming soon!

DVD review - Elizabethtown

On Saturday night, Queenie, Carmie and I decided to go get a chick-flick to watch while the boys played poker. Standing in front of the shelves, we were stuck with the eternal dilemma - *what to get?!?!* The shopgirl, cognisant of our problem, suggested we try out the latest movie from Cameron Crowe, Elizabethtown, featuring Orland Bloom and Kirsten Dunst.

Drew Baylor (Orlando Bloom) was nurtured by a Portland, Oregon-based sports show company to design great shoes for them. Unfortunately, the shoe he designed, the Spasmotica (really, for letting that name get through, the marketing guy should have been shot), lost the company ONE BILLION DOLLARS - and he got fired and dumped by his gf to boot. Just as he is about to give himself the proverbial heave-ho, Drew's sister rings to tell him that their Father has died and as the eldest, Drew has to return to his Father's home town of Elizabethtown, Kentucky, to fulfill his wishes re. the funeral. On his way there, he meets Claire (Kirsten Dunst) the flight attendent and the story writes itself.

What can I say?
1. Movies that are meant to show charming little towns in Middle-America filled with quirky people inevitably end up showing annoying weirdos.
2. Perky flight attendants who just happen to turn up where you least expect it are creepy, not quirky.
3. I don't know if its his faux US accent, but Orlando Bloom just never struck me as convincing - see Kingdom of Heaven. In fact I'm not even sure if his pretty face made up for the fact that what was coming out of his mouth just didn't ring true for the situation.
4. There should have been more Susan Sarandon - the role of her character in the father's life should have been expanded because it was the most interesting aspect of the film.
5. Alec Baldwin was also good but his character was gone within the first 15 minutes. Shoulda expanded why they bothered to waste so much time, money and thought to nurture Orlando. Then again, for someone to not realise his protege is a complete stuff-up kinda says something.
5. Seeing as there was so little plot and character development...why the hell did the movie go for two hours?! So slow!!!!

There's a whole heap of other things I could talk about why this movie is terrible but I don't want to waste that much brain power thinking about it anymore.

3/10

Movie review - Camping à la ferme

As part of this year's French Film Festival, Lydia and I were going to watch Combien tu m'aimes? (How much do you love me?) with Monica Bellucci and Gerard Depardieu, but it was sold out so we watched the movie on after it. It was Camping à la ferme starring no one I knew, although it did feature the actor who played Joseph the freak from Amelie.

Written by Azouz Begag, the basic plot is that Amar (Roschdy Zem), is a social worker with the idea that community service for juvenile delinquents should take place in the French countryside where the kids can be put to use by helping small communities. From the nasty suburbs of Paris, Amar takes six boys aged in their late teens, of multiple ethinicities but mostly of a North African islamic background, to a small farming community and a number of *fish-out-of-water* hijinks ensue.

It's pretty straightforward combination of the concept of La France Profonde, some comedy, and also an examination of prejudices, small-town politics, and the effect of European Union plans on small farmers. I'm not sure how well the movie functions on both ends. There are genuine laugh-out-loud bits and the issues raised are thought-provoking, but sometimes the humour seems out of place when compared to the issues, and while everyone involved is changed nothing seems to be really resolved at the end. I guess a part of this is due to the fact that problems regarding racism and the way politicians are willing to use minorities to push their own agenda etc. aren't things that can be solved within 92 minutes of film.
The characters both urban and rural can be quite stereotypical and the situations clichéd, but it's ok overall.
6.5-7/10.

omg

I totally didn't realise that yesterday was April Fool's. I didn't get to take advantage of it and post some crappy message about how I was converting to...I dunno....Mormonism or something and therefore leaving everything I'm doing to head off to become the 4th wife of some guy and live in the desert!

Darnit!

Charity photos!

Well the ball has come and gone and the dress dilemma turned out well :) I ended up tying a cardinal red ribbon around my waist - who would have thought that that would transform an lbd so much?

(Here's a pic of me posing with chocolate - pretending to be deep)

The pics are accessible at http://mallymoodlespics.shutterfly.com
The password is 12345

A word of warning, if you're somewhat delicate you might want to give photo titled *charity ball 011* a miss. It's a bit of a Paris Hilton moment.