Confirmation isnt over...

but I've already got my post-confirmation celebration semi-planned!

Now all I need is somewhere to stay in Sydney...

right.....

What I'm about to say, I must confess I stole it from a review on IMDB.com

If The Departed is the Movie Of The Year, then Infernal Affairs must be THE BEST MOVIE IN THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD

Check out my review for why the academy is wrong.

Also, no disrespect to Forest Whitaker, but I really would have liked Peter O'Toole to win. Image what the thank-you speech would have been like! Maybe something like this!

The new and *cough* 'improved' Atrium Cafe?

One of the great pleasures of a late night is the taking of a pot of tea midway through the night. Usually I go to the Westin due to its proximity and the giant pots of tea they have. However, sometimes you really want to see the great view from the 35th floor toilets at the Sofitel so you go to the Atrium Cafe. The view really is fantastic (and free!) but it was also backed up by a nice old-fashioned decor, free nibblies which may not always be eaten, but certainly appreciated, these awesome pots of hot chocolate, and $11 pots of loose-leaf tea that came in a silver service, although naturally without the kettle.

Lately, the cafe has been undergoing renovations and, as I discovered last night, a complete change in service and quality. The decor...its quite *cool and modern* looking - the colour scheme has changed from a reddish-brown and yellow colour scheme to black and silver. It looks quite nice but it makes the place look more like a cocktail bar than a place for relaxation before more partying. Or as Cam described it "It looks like Sydney".

The service - after initially being denied entry because one of the males in the group was wearing open sandals, we found the quality of service has decreased. Not only did it take a waiter a while to give us our menus, we did not receive the nibbles (not that we would have eaten them anyway), and things just seemed to have lost their sheen of quality. For one, Cam's Chilli Martini (which was really hot) was forgotten, and we had to remind the waiter for it. The cool little pouring pot of hot chocolate has turned into just a normal cup and saucer. I'll complain mostly about the tea since that's where most of my expertise lies.

You all probably had a heart attack at the thought that I have paid $11 for a pot of tea. Well, that pot of tea was usually pretty great. Not as gimmicky as the Westin with their tea-light keeping it warm, but the silver service set is a nice touch and they're pretty generous with the refill pot (although not as generous as the Windsor). I don't recall who supplied their brand of tea but I can say for certain that they are now using Lipton tea bags. And no hot water jug. I was a bit surprised that their new menu did not include which teas they had and I was downright fuming at the thought that I may have had to pay $11 for tea bag tea! The other tea-drinkers (peppermint tea) were not as incensed as me, although they too baulked at the idea of an $11 tea bag tea.

Well tea has now been downgraded to $5.50 so it wasn't so terrible but I'm still much displeased. Hopefully they'll pick up their game and my next visit won't be so full of horror. Lucky for them the view is awesome - that probably guarantees another visit.

Oldie, but Goodie

The uni staff servers are down so instead of procrastinating from writing my report by firing off emails, I've been surfing youtube.

I rediscovered this BBC One ad from 2002 where traceur David Belle (such an apt name!) races home from the office to watch tv. Enjoy ;)

Too busy working on PhD to post

Yer, sorry for the lack of updates.
But just to let you know that I am still alive, my French cuz Alix is in town and despite our confusion as to whether he drank or not (he's French so he probably does, but he's asian so he might not!), me and Spu took him out for a mega bar crawl. Now before you all die from the sheer number of bars, some were hit and run jobs where we came in, sat down and then decided if we should drink or not. Or theme bars that we thought he'd like.

So here's the list:
Baroq
St. Jeromes
M.O.O
Section 8 Container Bar
Manchuria
Eurotrash
Croft Institute
Double Happiness
Big Golden Mountain
Bellavista Social Club
Lily Blacks
Gin Palace

Makes me tired looking at that list.

And just in case you're wondering, I did stick to four alcoholic drinks the entire night ;)

It's that time of the year again!!!!

My favourite time of the year!

CHINESE NEW YEAR!!!

Happy Year of the Pig!!!Mmmmmm....tasty......

Still not much happening

But I have clocked up 12 hours on the decon microscope this week and it's only Thursday!

More Data!

There's not really much to say, I've been working quite a bit to the point of being in the lab on Sunday! And then I came back on Monday and put in SIX HOURS on the decon microscope! *sob sob* And it's not particularly glam stuff either - just cell counting and testing methods. *sigh* The one year review is coming up so we're trying to churn out some awesome results.

The only really good stuff has been us trying to show that astrocytes have vesicles by injecting dye into their eyes. Its not as gruesome as it sounds! The data produced has been...striking...I'm not sure if I'm convinced though.
This photos is a retina thats been injected. We think the cells next to the blood vessels (pink arrows) might be astrocytes. The layer that we've taken the photo in normally contains ganglion cells which are shaped like those big cells (G). To be more convincing, I'd have to label the injected tissue with various cell markers. I'll do that tomorrow.

In other news, I washed my hair and blowdried it straight - it still looked ok in my opinion!

Stories from the Salon

After the last few times of getting my haircut and ending up with something I didn't want, I decided to give the place yet another go and this time, ask for the guy who does Pooey's hair. I'm not sure if the guy I got WAS her guy, but he could (kinda) speak english and he automatically detected that I periodically curl my hair for volume. While I did kind of end up with a mushroom-y cut, I did like the way he blow-dried and curled it...or at least I did until the wind had it's way with it and I started thinking it looked a bit mullet-y.

Here are the (post-wind) photos using my new Logitech QuickCam Communicate STX:

Lots of top volume with side layering

And from the side/back:

The layers start from just above the nape of my neck so I don't look as hairless this time.

While I see difficulty in replicating the blowdry (again), I will probably go back (again). I've got to give the guy props for suggesting highlights as a way of getting the illusion of volume over blowdrying. Or to get a perm and then seeing if highlights should be put in. We'll see

The Run Test

Among one of my many theories about attraction (The Window, anyone?), I have a theory about how to determine if you are truly attracted to someone (if you are a girl).

It is known as The Run Test. Basically, when you meet a guy and you think he's good, at some point in time you should make him run around the block or do some kind of exercise. This is not just to see him in little clothing so you can check out the hot bod (if applicable). It was mostly to see you could detect a certain *je ne sais quoi* - something that makes a true honey smell nice after exercise.

Well, it seems a research group based at UC Berkeley have proved me right! A publication in J. Neurosci has found that male sweat can alter hormonal levels in women! This is their abstract:

• Rodents use chemosignals to alter endocrine balance in conspecifics. Although responses to human sweat suggest a similar mechanism in humans, no particular component of human sweat capable of altering endocrine balance in conspecifics has yet been isolated and identified. Here, we measured salivary levels of the hormone cortisol in women after smelling pure androstadienone (4,16-androstadien-3-one), a molecule present in the sweat of men that has been suggested as a chemosignal in humans. We found that merely smelling androstadienone maintained significantly higher levels of the hormone cortisol in women. These results suggest that, like rodents, humans can influence the hormonal balance of conspecifics through chemosignals. Critically, this study identified a single component of sweat, androstadienone, as capable of exerting such influence. This result points to a potential role for synthetic human chemosignalsin clinical applications.

Its good to have my theories validated ;)

For geeks who want to find the article and read it, the full reference is:
The Journal of Neuroscience, February 7, 2007, 27(6):1261-1265

This also happened today. Cute.

KERMIT THE GORF!!!

In the continuing theme of childhood memories, Spuey found this online and said I had to post it, if just for Pooey.

So here it is. Kermit is not a GORF!

Glory of the Morning

This blog is dedicated to my contemporaries who loved the television of the 80s and who mourn the dross that is on tv now, and to the inventors and posters on youtube who make life so glorious.

After reading this blog which brought made us remember the glory that was late 70s/early 80s Sesame St :http://blogs.theage.com.au/music/archives/2007/02/everythings_aok.html
Spuey and I were inspired to look up as many of the obscure shows we used to watch as children.

After so many years of thinking that we watched far too much televison or were flat out insane when we tried to explain shows to others and get them to remember only to be rebuffed, youtube came to our rescue when we found among others.

Quaqquao:


Dr Snuggles:


Bananaman:


And omg, the man who I have spent almost all my entire adult life hunting down....
LA LINEA!!!


I think my main problem was that I was a kid who didn't speak English watching a cartoon that was italian gibberish.

But what I would dearly love to see....and perhaps even pay for in human blood, would be to see clips of A.E.I.O.U.
C'mon, there must be SOMEONE out there who has a video of this!!! Be my hero and post it online!

There are so many other *classics* that I could have posted like HeMan, Thundercats, Muppet Babies, Captain Planet, TMNT....but I'll let you all rediscover them on your own ;) But if you want some help, this forum has a whole list of memories!

Delayed blog - Lunch at Cafe La

To continue the Foodie tradition, Sharon organised lunch at Cafe La. One of the great things about the restaurants in the Sofitel are the free views from the loos. But since we'd decided to actually pay for food, we got an even better view!Unforch, none of us are Pooey so there are not pics of the food. But that food was excellent and well presented! Instead, here are various shots of us doing stuff when we're not eating.

Foodies. Not to be confused with Feeders

The chicks sans Pooey

The guys

Khoon gets into the spirit!

Trying to hide from the camera

After lunch, Pete went to meet other people for more food while the rest of us went to exercise off lunch at Khoons - Guitar Hero and DDR style!

Martina has a go

Khoon shows us how it's done

The Guitar hero!...

...who then sits back, relaxed that the challenge for the crown will not succeed

All in all, a good was had. Bring on the next batch of food!