Spring has arrived!

And so has hayfever season! I bought my first box of antihistamines of the season today.

Woohoo!!!

Freesias

The organic shop where I buy stuff to put in my sandwiches was having a sale on freesias ($4/bunch?! That's like wholesale price!) so I bought two bunches to put on my desk. I can't wait for them to open up and that spicy/sweet smell of theirs gets released. I'll post a photo of them soon.

Man, it's times like these when I'm fiddling with flowers that I think I miss working at the florist.

Then I remember all the shit I went through and say *Nah!*

Unwritten law

I'm sure I would have ranted at some point in time about the unwritten laws that stop our society from falling apart at the seams. Stuff like *stand on the left, walk on the right of the escalator*, you know, seemingly trivial stuff, that upon thought, are actually quite handy.

I do like to adhere to these rules and chunder angrily when others don't, although having said that I was in a quandary when I was driving on a very busy road and the car in front of me broke down. I was looking to change lanes while the guy got out of his car and started to push. I considered whether I too should have gotten out to help him push his car out of the way when someone from the queue of cars behind me got out and helped push, while I happily drove off.

This got me thinking, as the first person in the line behind the guy, should I have been the one to help him push his car? As I was the first one to see him break down, I should have been the one to help push, or at least steer, in order to decrease the line. However, my brother says that as a girl I am exempt from all parts of this rule.


What does everyone else think?

A Ball with No Booze

For my regular readers (funny, I just thought I heard a pin drop!), you all know that Friday is my weekly booze day whereby I drink to forget the week that I've had and to celebrate a weekend where I don't have to do any work.

This past Friday began when I headed off to Bedford with my fellow Friday drinkers, having passed on the normal Dept. drinks to doll/slut (the difference is dependent on perspective) myself up for a ball that I'd be attending later that night. Good ol' Bedford happened to be on happy hour, so I decided to drink up in the hour that I was there, sinking a vodka lemon lime, vodka cran (that happened to have 1.5 shots in it), and a g & t. I was a bit worried that 3.5 drinks in the space of an 1.5 hours might have been a bit much, but I didn't feel particularly out of it as I tripped on over in my Paris shoes to where the ball was located.

Normally, when I attend a ball, I don't expect the alcohol to run free, that's just crazy talk, but I do expect wine to be available. None of that was available at this ball. While I don't think I was devastated to realise that, a supply of alcohol may have put me in a more charitable mood towards the keynote speak who lectured us about poverty. At least the quality of the food was really quite good (perhaps best I've ever had at a ball), and that stopped me from getting into too much mischief.However, there was a silver lining to this tale of woe. I met up with Poosy and co. at Manchuria (above), to find that she was three sheets to the wind and that I'd have to drive us home. One meal at Stalactites later, and the night didn't seem so bad after all.

I have superpowers

Pracs have started up again (yay! easy cash!) and I'm reminded that all the time I've spent at uni hasn't been such a waste of time. At the very least, I can say that I know how to use a microscope correctly, something some medical students may never do.

This week I've had to supervise two "Focus on the Microscope" sessions whereby the students are taught to use them. Unfortunately due to time constraints, the instructions on how to use the microscopes are run through pretty quickly. Half the time, I end up just focusing the thing for them so that they don't fall too far behind. My doing this lead to a funny moment in this morning's prac as I answered a bunch of hands saying that they couldn't see anything down the objective. I then went through the machines and quickly focused for them. As I walked away, I heard someone mutter "Holy shit, how did she do that?!" in incredulous tones.

I imagine this is how Batman must feel.

Movie review - Miami Vice

Movie versions of hit TV shows are generally hit-or-miss. For every Charlie's Angels (I don't care what you say, that movie was highly entertaining!) there's a The Flintstones. So how does Miami Vice stack up? Is it a Starsky and Hutch or a Dukes of Hazzard? Icey told me as we were going that he thought I was going to rip this movie to shreds, but I was fully prepared to give it a fair go - after all, I did give Underworld: Evolution a six out of 10 (well, 3/5).

Miami Vice is based on the 1980s series of the same name. Sonny Crockett and Ricardo Tubbs (Colin Farrell and Jamie Foxx, respectively), are the leaders of a crack team of Vice squad cops in Miami (natch). While in the middle of some kind of porno bust, they get a call from a former informant, who tells them that an FBI/FDA bust of a drug-smuggling ring is about to go pear-shaped because, after the informant's family got threatened, he spilled all the info he knew...except for their squad. And so Crockett and Tubbs go undercover and are drawn into a world of Colombian drug rings.

Or at least that's what I think the movie was about.

Not to sound conceited or anything, but enough people have told me that I'm rather intelligent for me to think that they may be right. But I wasn't alone in my confusion at what was going on and I went with a bunch of people who averaged two university degrees. In fact, during the movie, Poosy the optom leaned over to me and said "Mally, you're a smart girl. What's going on?" but brainy or not, for the first...ooh, lets say hour...I had no idea and I honestly had to reply, "I have no idea." The reason for the lack of coherence mainly stems from the movie's attempt at authenticity. The initial club scene, yeah it looks like a club and it sounds like a club...but like a club that's playing really loud music, and I can understand that the informant is suitably stressed-out, but I couldn't understand what the characters were saying and therefore had no idea what the relevence of the scene to the rest of the movie was until a while later.

The *problem* of authenticity extends to the acting. Foxx and Farrell seem to be ok in their acting...not that I can tell because the entire script appears to have been written in South Florida/Latino cop-drug jargon, which being a nice girl from Melbourne, I obviously don't speak. I mean sure, Farrell's accent varies from Deep South to generic American to something unidentifiable, but that made no difference because I didn't know what he was saying anyway. Gong Li, geez I'd forgive Gong Li (left) a lot of things, but what the hell kind of accent was she doing? I understand that there's going to be difficulty because she's a native Mandarin speaker doing English, but Memoirs of a Geisha proved that she could speak the language coherently if kind of heavily accented. But it sounded like she was doing a Chinese-English-Spanish mix. This may have been explained by a scene when she and Farrell go to Cuba and she shows him a photo of her mother and some Latin-looking people and mentions something about Angola (Angola, Africa???) and an establishing shot of a Chinese guy (who looked like John So!) drinking coffee with a Cuban.

On that note, lets look at the cinematography. Like Michael Mann's last movie Collateral, Miami Vice is shot in a mixture of HD digital and that kind of grainy film they use on Cops, so I guess it looks real...but cuts are quick and many scenes are short and unexplained until later in the film. This contributed to the feeling of confusion enough for Icey to lean over to me and Poosy to declare early on that "This movie is shit." There's also a strange bit where it appears that the same sex scene occurs...but with different characters going at it. Really, it was seriously identical shower sex! Having said that, the visuals are quite beautiful in a purely aesthetic sense. And when the violence finally kicks in, it's done wonderfully.

The violence would probably be the sole factor which stops me from giving Vice a score of 1/10. Judging from the trailers, I was expecting a gun-fest. The reality was that other than a teasing shootout in the first 10 minutes, there was nothing for the bulk of the movie until the last 20 when it gets awesome! There's a brilliant bit when the blonde female of the squad (if we were told her name, I didn't hear it) tells a piece of white trash how she's going to shoot him in the medulla...and then does so. There's a cloud of red expanding on the wall behind him before he just collapses - awesome! I was going to post the youtube clip of it, but couldn't find one. The last shootout between the Vice squad and the Drug Team is also great as they get out their guns (such as the Benelli M4 Super 90 12-gauge shotgun, used by Jamie Foxx - above) and get to ass-kicking. The only other good things I can think of are the go-fast boats used in the drug-running (they look fun to ride in), and the cars...although how a cop manages to afford a Ferrari Spider (left) beats me.

Poosy has also requested that I make a comment on how Colin Farrell's hair (and styling in general) was really annoying.

Final verdict? Kudos for attempting authenticity, but it just takes itself too seriously. Stick to gunfights.
2-3/10 (and I've been told that this is a generous score)

OUCH!!!

I played squash today for the first time ever with the girls of the Physiol Bornstein Lab. According to them, I improved a lot in that one session, becoming less timid with my shots. It was good to get my racquet arm swinging again after so many years away from playing something like that, but despite my years of gym work and swimming and pilates... the muscles in my ass are killing me! All that bending and stretching and what not doing exercises where I have to run and then stop and then change direction really quickly....yeouch! They totally worked my muscles in ways that they haven't worked in ages!

Oh well, this is just gonna make me work harder!
Miami Vice review coming soon!

Alert to Miss Pooky!

I miss you too!!! One of us needs to go the other's city so we can hang out together again and you get away from those stupid A and B, but especially B!!! Some good news - Erica said we might go to IBRO cos there are some symposia there that look interesting and relevent! But the rego costs might still be a bit of a problem.

I hope you have an awesomely successful conference in NZ, and that you find a lab that has a technique you want to use that's located in Melbourne so you can relocate back here!!! YAY!!! Seriously, use your networking skills to get back here.

Lots of (non-lesbian) love,
Miss Mally

Another weekend roundup!

I've had a full weekend this week. After last week's debacle, I decided not to drink....much.

On Friday, I had managed to stick to my resolution. Despite the free booze at afterworks drinks, I managed to meet Li-Hsia and Mondz for dinner at Hairy Canary completely devoid of alcohol in my system. One plate of tagliatelle (Li), risotto (Mondz) and lamb pizza (for me) later, we headed down to Bourke St. where we checked out a new shop dedicated completely to asian dvds! If you think about it, its surprising that no one thought to fill up that giant hole in the market before! And being a store full of asian products, engrish was present - I was much amused to find the box set of Jet Li's *Classil* films. We three then went down to the concert hall to listen to a performance of Shostakovich's Symphony number 7. It was highly enjoyable...although I must confess that I did fall asleep a little bit in the first movement. *blush* We then met up with Ian, Shan, and Franco in Wing Loong for supper before heading out to Section 8 for some drinks. I realised that I'd have to take the midnight bus to get home, but fortuitously found that my brother was still around and scummed a lift home from him, arriving home at 1am.

Unfortch, I had to be at uni by 10am for a killer 3 hour session on the con-focal. I was already feeling pretty crap but my mood was improved by the *flawless* reverse park I did on Barry st. If only there were someone there to witness it *sigh*. The only highlights of the confocal session are that I've now got some data to post here soon and that I managed to turn the place into my own personal disco as since there was no one around, I could pump mp3s at full blast! Beautiful Carmencita and I then met up for a frenzied shopping session to find her a dress for a ball next Friday. I am pleased to announce that we were successful and she's wearing a sexy silver leopard print dress!

Saturday night...geez, it was like one of the benders of old! After pushing Lydia to stop procrastinating, we headed out Fed Sq. and Time Out where I sunk a frangelico, lime & soda while we waited for Turdy, Ash, and Marlene (drink count - 1). After everyone arrived, we headed into Transport where we, INCLUDING 29-yo Turdy - who might I say looked mighty hot and not her usual casual self - were asked to show our ID. With an average age of 24...the incident was highly amusing. Here I sunk 2 gin and tonics (drink count 3). We then moved back to Time Out to wait for Marina & her friend Heather. We all had some cocktails here, although we were amazed to hear the waitress tell Ash that they had run out of mint and would he like his mojito without mint. Mojito without mint?! That's just rum and lime! I had a lotus...some kind of champagne cocktail - quite strong (drink count 4). Since we were on that end of the city and Marlene wanted to dance, we hied over to Bambu where no one was dancing, but we managed to snag a good amount of couch area and I managed to down a f,l & s and a couple of vodka crans (drink count 7). According to Turdy, some guy was checking out my fishnet and booted legs...but I didn't see him and he didn't make himself known to me so he couldn't be marked off on the list of things to make a night almost complete - getting hit on by a stranger. This problem was solved at the next location, and last for me and Lydia, Apartment. Some weirdo tried the old "So, where are you from?" line, to which I succinctly replied, "Melbourne." He then tried a different tack, "So, where are your parents from?" only to receive "Melbourne"...and then Lydia and Marlene made me change seats. To make the night complete, me and Lydia then got souvlakis at 2am from Stalactites - that's gold!

All that drinking really screwed us over come Sunday morning. We had to be at various places pretty early. I attended a bbq where I had to keep my sunglasses on due to the bright sun and the dark circles around my eyes. I then went back to uni for Open Day where I just kinda sat around with Fowler and Poole and we deflected questions onto other ppl. And now I've just come back from picking up my sister from the airport.

A full weekend!

The Roland Mouret Galaxy Dress

If you've spoken to me about fashion within the last year, you may have heard me wax on about Roland Mouret's Galaxy Dress (pictured).The thing about it's name is that due to the cut and the bodice being boned and lined with fabric that was previously used in girdles, the dress gives the wearer a nipped-waist hourglass figure - flattering a *galaxy* of female body types. Of course, the model wearing the dress is here is Carmen Kass...the kind of gal who could wear a potato sack and still look good in it.

Retailing at 800 pounds, the design was naturally soon pirated and soon appeared in a number of shops in varying colours and level of quality. So, how do the knock-offs stand up compared to the original and do they produce the same result? Pictured below is me wearing an $85 knock-off which didn't have lining, although it is made of an elasticised fabric.Overall, I would say that I'm somewhat satisfied with the dress, and even though it didn't turn me into Carmen Kass, some people did give me a double-take when I wore it around uni.

Feel free to post comments! I've changed the settings so anyone can post now.

Pilates without Glen

You may recall that I've complained about my pilates instructor, Glen, several times. Perhaps the most notable time was this entry here. But you know, I've been attending these classes almost weekly for about 6 months now...I'm kinda used to his drill sargent tactics of shaming everyone into doing the right thing. I mean, if you take me as an example, I may not have shifted that layer of fat on my gut, but when I tense them, those abs of mine are like a rock! *snicker*

Anyway, the degree to which I have been indoctrinated by Glen became horridly apparent today when Ange (who takes the Fitball class before us) had to fill in as instructor for whatever reason. Ange is a nice woman and her teaching methods are more relaxed. Instead of barking at us, she tells us when to breathe, how to do the exercise etc. She also plays relaxing kinda new-age music in the background and gently adjusts us with her hands when we get the exercise wrong - i.e. NO KICKING. And while she was marvelling at what a great class we were and exclaiming over our wonderful technique...I was lying there thinking *This isn't right, it's not the same without someone barking at you!*

There I was, with an instructor who I was the type I was expecting when I started, and I felt totally dissatisfied with her teaching technique, thinking that the use of music was kinda silly, and knowing that it was Glen's indiscriminate use of fear tactics that had changed us from soft, squishy everypeople to the obediently tensing drones we had become. Kinda like in Full Metal Jacket without all the guns or the swearing.

But I think he's back next week so I better practise my 100's and leg extensions.

hayfever?

Omg, I'm sneezing like all get out and I hope its hayfever and not a cold/flu. I know we're still in the throes of Winter...but its been warmer than usual and windy as hell. There's lots of crap flying around in the air.

*sigh* Better get some antihistamines

Only in Japan...

The Paris Hilton Hello Kitty edition?

http://www.tmz.com/2006/08/07/only-in-japan-hello-hilton

WHY?! WHY?! WHY?! The only logical reason I can think of that may explain this is that, due to the language barrier, the people who think these things up for Sanrio don't realise that Paris Hilton is a skanky oxygen thief. Think about it - you can't speak english, but when you look at english-language media, it's covered with images of this blonde....thing. You could possibly come to the conclusion that she must be an important person and, you know....*cough*.

On the other hand, Gallery of the Absurd has come up with this - and it is soooo true!!!

*sigh*

I've been meaning to post this video since I discovered it sometime either last year or early this year.



*sigh*
Okay here's the challenge... I will date ANYONE who sings the song to me in person. And I'll consider enslavement...er, sorry, marriage if it's done with a bunch of roses! :P
hehehhe

Rundowns

Haven't been at home or desk to post anything, so here are some run downs of each day.

Thurday - Uni as usual. Finished some S100beta/IB4 and EAAT4/IB4 immunos on some Ren2 control and STZ tissue. The S100b one seemed ok, but the EAAT4...looked like there was no staining. Either the antibody has somehow degraded...but I suspect that I may have actually forgotten to put the antibody in *blush*. Pilates with Glen was shocking - he actually told me I was good when we were doing rolldowns! GOOD!!! Like...wtf?!!?!? Actually, come to think of it, he hasn't stepped on me in a while. I also spent a frustrating two hours on the deconvolution...but yeah. The less said about that the better. The day was finished off with my first act as La Presidente - we had a DVD night. We watched Kill Bill 1 and Batman Begins. Fun for all

Friday - Uni as usual, followed by drinking. I think I'm going to try and stop drinking. No, really. I ended up with something like 7.5 glasses of wine and dying before midnight. I didn't black out or vomit, but it wasn't nice and I may have lost some coherence.

Saturday - After waking up at 4am thinking that I had uni (yep the alcohol really !#@$% me over), I slept in until 11am. I ventured to uni to get some stuff and promptly nearly got hit by a car that almost didn't stop at the Grattan St. traffic lights. You know which ones I'm talking about.

That is all.

Drama alert!!!

I should have been more careful for what I wished for - I just got some bad drama.

SOME OF MY TEACHING DUTIES HAVE BEEN CUT BACK DUE TO TIMETABLING AND BUDGETARY PRESSURES!!!

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

*sigh*

Calling for new drama!

Everything seems to be falling into a routine now. I go into uni everyday and do specific things and then depending on the day, I either go to the gym, go home, or go drinking. It's getting quite boring, really.

It's probably wrong of me to wish for some drama in my life, but I wish there would be some. Good drama, no bad stuff. Good drama would include...

Males - nice ones, no assholes
Money - increased income, less debt
My work to produce an awesome, undisputed breakthrough
Mastery of a difficult technique
Mastery of a difficult recipe
The sudden discovery of my latent superpowers
The complete and utter crushing of my enemies (not that I have any *cough*)

Ah well. I can keep wishin' and hopin'.
Toodles!

The Need For Speed (and shucking of chickenshit tendencies)

I had an interesting day yesterday whereby I did a number of things I normally would not. Firstly...well, despite being a Saturday, I was home all day! No parties, no shopping, nada. And then because I was home, I ended up watching Dr. Who which I surprisingly found quite entertaining. I also dismantled a computer by myself (!!!) and removed the CD ROM, before driving to the airport to pick up Luthersmee and Poosy.

We went back to Luthersmee's place for him to extract the motor from the CD ROM (which I also helped in) and for me to kill time. I killed time by watching some episodes of Little Britain and, more interestingly, Top Gear. For those who don't know what that is or are too lazy to click on the link, Top Gear is a BBC2 programme about cars. Generally, I don't care too much for cars so long as they get me from A to B in a comfortable manner. However, the demands of Monday Gymday often results in me eating dinner alone with Top Gear as company and so I have started to appreciate cars and, more ominously, driving.

The episode that Luthersmee set up for me to watch hasn't aired here yet, but it was the one where Jackie Stewart attempted to help presenter James May cut his lap time around a circuit by 20 seconds. And so, I sat and watched and absorbed Jackie's advice about driving, how to drive fast, when to brake, when to accelerate, how to take corners etc. At 1:30am, I had to go home but when confronted by that beautiful stretch of clear road that stretched from Luthersmee's to my place, a road I know has been used for racing in the past...suddenly all I heard in my head were Jackie's scottish accent barking commands at me. At some point I realised I was driving 30kmh over the limit in a suburban area. But shocked as I am now when I read that last line, I remember that brilliant thrilling feeling I had last night as I overtook all those cars. Perhaps I'll start enjoying driving more now.

I just hope there weren't any speeding cameras *gulp*.

duh...yup yup!!

I don't normally consider myself naïve. I'd say you could shoot all manner of double entendres towards me and 90% of the time I'd figure it out straight away. This is probably due to my innate sense of mischief (peanut butter!!!) and love of word plays. I may have to reconsider my mindset because last night someone made an observation to me about whether clean-shaven or stubbly men are better. I took her comment and laughter at face value and made a return observation of my own to her. It wasn't until today that I actually understood what she was getting at...and while I'm pretty sure that my comment doesn't paint me as a pervert...I hope she realises I didn't get what she was getting at!

I've sucked ppl in and they've told me to do this one

Your Personality Is Like Acid

A bit wacky, you're very difficult to predict. One moment you're in your own little happy universe... And the next, you're on a bad trip to your own personal hell!

What Drug Is Your Personality Like?

You Are 28 Years Old

Under 12: You are a kid at heart. You still have an optimistic life view - and you look at the world with awe. 13-19: You are a teenager at heart. You question authority and are still trying to find your place in this world. 20-29: You are a twentysomething at heart. You feel excited about what's to come... love, work, and new experiences. 30-39: You are a thirtysomething at heart. You've had a taste of success and true love, but you want more! 40+: You are a mature adult. You've been through most of the ups and downs of life already. Now you get to sit back and relax.

What Age Do You Act?

You Have a Choleric Temperament

You are a person of great enthusiasm - easily excited by many things. Unsatisfied by the ordinary, you are reaching for an epic, extraordinary life. You want the best. The best life. The best love. The best reputation. You posses a sharp and keen intellect. Your mind is your primary weapon. Strong willed, nothing can keep you down. Your energy can break down any wall. You're an instantly passionate person - and this passion gives you an intoxicating power over others. At your worst, you are a narcissist. Full of yourself and even proud of your faults. Stubborn and opinionated, you know what you think is right. End of discussion. A bit of a misanthrope, you often see others as weak, ignorant, and inferior.

What Temperment Are You?

OH NO!!!

I take pride in my cakes (that is not a euphemism for anything).
I went home early today so I could bake my apple cake for the dinner party Erica is throwing for the lab.

BUT OH NO!!!

In my rush to get it done and make myself lunch at the same time, I accidentally set the oven to *grill top fan-forced* rather than plain old *fan forced*!!! Now the top is burnt and I don't have time to go make another one!!

Well, I suppose there is time to make another one if I start now...but I can't! :'(