Cheating blog!

You Are a Chocolate Chip Cookie

Traditional and conservative, most people find you comforting. You're friendly and easy to get to know. This makes you very popular - without even trying!

What Kind of Cookie Are You?

You Are a Red Velvet Cake

Rich, decadent, and sensual. You have a deep appeal that transcends all trends. You are the definition of passion: intense, adventurous, and seductive.

What Kind of Cake Are You?

You Are Lisa Simpson

A total child prodigy and super genius, you have the mind for world domination. But you prefer world peace, Buddhism, and tofu dogs. You will be remembered for: all your academic accomplishments Your life philosophy: "I refuse to believe that everybody refuses to believe the truth"

The Simpsons Personality Test

You Are Balanced - Realist - Empowered

You feel your life is controlled both externally and internally. You have a good sense of what you can control and what you should let go. Depending on the situation, you sometimes try to exert more control. Other times, you accept things for what they are and go with the flow. You are a realist when it comes to luck. You don't attribute everything to luck, but you do know some things are random. You don't beat yourself up when bad things happen to you... But you do your best to try to make your own luck. You have a good deal of power, but you also know the pecking order. You realize that working the system does get you further. You know who to defer to and who to control. When it comes to the game of life, you play things flawlessly.

The Three Dimension Luck and Power Test

Pretty Data!

I have been trying to show that vesicles are in retinal glia. I had been testing an antibody for cellubrevin and it looked good. We weren't convinced though so I repeated it with cross-sections of optic nerve.

OMG.That's a 20x magnification. Red = astrocytes, green = cellubrevin, yellow = where they occur in the same place!

This is a 60x. Mmmm...looks good. And the especially good thing is that it looks like the cellubrevin is in the astrocyte processes - exactly where i want them to be!

InStyle Instant Style

Despite my meagre income, I do enjoy shopping and fashion. I generally know what suits me (curvy petite + asian colouring = ladylike + warm colours) and things I love (strapless dresses! coats!) but since people who usually help steer me around have gone to further shores (hi Amandine!), I couldn't resist picking up this magazine when I saw it in Mag Nation.

It's like a mini version of InStyle's Secrets of Style! The cut of a coat! Skirts and how to wear them! How the cut and fabric of pants makes your arse look big! Many bags and shoes! *sigh*

I'm afraid I might have to purchase the next season's version too :S

In other news...

...apart from dinner at Lydia's (Nachos! Tacos!) and watching Twice Upon A Time, work has pretty much dominated this weekend.

But I'm not going to talk about work!

Today Nance and I took a trip down to Chanel in Myer to try out makeup...for...her....WEDDING!!! I will be a bridesmaid!!! EEEEK!!!!! Nance wanted a look similar to the Oscar de la Renta Spring 2007 - skin on show, natural colours, heavy eyeliner on top lids.

Here's a step-by-step evolution of Nance's face.Looks good!

The effect was slightly different on me.Although I was happy with it overall, the eyeliner was very obviouswith my usual kinda blank/sulky expression, almost as if I were about to do some theatre! Less flatteringly, Spuey said I looked like a droog :(

But in my asian smile face ~*(^_^)*~, it wasn't!So I would say I was quite happy with it, although I might ask that she not go so heavy handed on the eyeliner for the wedding. Excitement level rising....!

Movie review - Twice Upon A Time

For this year's French Film Festival, Lydia, Cam and I went to watch Désaccord parfait/Twice Upon A Time. At first we were going to watch My Best Friend/Mon Meilleur Ami with Daniel Auteuil but Lydia read the programme wrong and we ended up with this one instead.

French director Louis Ruinard (Jean Rochefort) and English actress Alice d'Abanville (the always beautiful Charlotte Rampling) were a celebrity power couple of the 70s...kind of like Roger Vadim and Brigette Bardot/Catherine Deneuve/Jane Fonda in the 50s/60s/70s...but everything came to a screeching halt when Alice walked out and married Lord Evelyn Gaylord (Ian Richardson, R.I.P.). The movie starts up 30 years later when some British film institute wishes to award Louis a lifetime achievement award and they want Alice to present it to him. Sparks and verbal barbs fly whenever the two meet and slowly Louis comes to understand why Alice left, while she begins to realise that maybe she never stopped loving him.

I can't think of a description for this movie other than pleasant. It didn't blow me away - the story is pretty predictable and almost everyone apart from Rochefort and Isabelle Nanty was an English person speaking French. That was great for me because it often meant that it was spoken slowly enough for me to pick out if the subtitles were wrong, but it made me feel kind of ripped off as if the movie wasn't really 'French'. However, there were enough humourous parts that made me laugh out loud - it was great seeing Rochefort and Rampling spark off each other! And of course, the romantic in me liked watching two old people fall in love again. There was a bit of fear that, this being a French movie, we'd have to see Old People Having Sex, which we did, but the whole thing was very well done.

Script, sets, casts...everything was fine as far as I cared. Rampling and Rochefort had great chemistry and Richardson was a kindly husband who knows he was married out of spite (but understands), although it did feature one of the oldest looking 30 year olds I have ever seen (James Thiérrée) as Alice and Gaylord's son, Paul. My greatest complaint is that when the time came for the happily ever after, things just kidn of came to an abrupt halt. Oh well, can't win them all.

6.5/10

As a side note, I also found it amusing that this famous shot of Rampling by Helmut Newton played such a prominent part in this movie. Just a reminder of what an awesome babe she was (and some may say, still is!).

The End....maybe

Today's calcium loading attempt didn't work. They pretty much haven't worked since this entry back in November. Four months worth of rats died.

Today, we decided to stop killing rats to do experiments that don't work. Instead I am going to kill rats to culture their cells and do the same experiment in culture rather than whole tissue preparations.

The Kill

Yesterday, Yetapee and I killed 26 rats and took their eyes. My summary of the experience?

I think I am better at dissections, but I'll be even better if someone pops the eyes out for me.
I am thankful we didn't have to cut off their heads to collect the blood.
I am glad I wore comfy shoes.
26 adult rats are really heavy.

Hopefully I'll write something more joyous soon!

*Updated Edit*
I got disrespected by a student in tute/prac today!
In answer to my picking him at random to write up the answer to a question on the board, he said:
"Sorry honey, I didn't do the homework."
WHAT THE HELL?!?!?

Back on the bike!

Literally!

After falling off it and then discovering the brakes were loose, due to my crappy ability in bike management, the thing had been sitting in the garage since then. Had the brilliant idea of getting Yetapee to take a look at how to fix it on Wednesday whereupon we found that the guy who helped put the bike back together had done it wrong and the brakes needed to be tightened.

I finally went out on another ride today but since it had been sitting around for two months, it made this horrid screeching sound when I was riding. Now I need to figure out how to oil it and get the tired pumped.

IT'S (ALMOST) OFFICIAL!!!

I'm heading to London for the European Glia Conference and then taking the next few weeks off to hang around Paris and Rome again :D.

I haven't booked tickets yet but I have an exit date! Yay!

Two days later...

I still have general soreness as if I were doing some hardcore weightlifting (and given I was on the bottom usually, I guess it is a form of that!). But here are some photos of the matching bruises on my arms.
They have been met with mixed emotions. There is one group who believe that BJJ is the perfect outlet for my violent tendencies, another who think that I should stop immediately, and yet another who want me to continue because they either like the idea of a couple of girls wrestling, or they want to poke the bruises (Hi Cam!).

I think I'll decide next class - if the bruises aren't sufficiently healed, I'll ask the others their opinion. I must say that I dont like the idea of one activity completely knocking out my ability to go to the gym :(

Good gourd, I hurt!

As part of my quest to stick to my resolutions (the drinking one is going strong, the being nice one...less so), I finally decided to start learning something new - Brazilian jujutsu.

In hindsight, I probably should have checked out that link first because I thought I was doing normal jujutsu! As a description if you can't be bothered clicking the links, normal jujutsu involves stuff like joint-locking and blocks. In today's class, we basically started off sitting on each other, trying to throw them off, and then rolling them to make them submit. As someone who weighs about 55kg, I was thrown around a lot. We then had a period of free-sparring where we had to attack each other.

I was matched against a girl, Lisa, who wasn't very large, but still topped me by about 6kg and had a year of judo experience. She stated that she didn't like attacking so there were periods where we were circling each other cos I knew she could take me. This was interspersed with periods of furious grappling and me erupting into laughter whenever I found myself pinned (which was often). I seriously cannot remember the last time (if ever) I had ever spent trying to fight someone while rolling on the ground. This is what I get for trying to be a lady for the last 15 years - someone sitting on top of me and me being unable to kick them off.

I was going to put some photos of my bruises up for this blog, but I spent the last hour lying in a bath of Epsom Salts trying to soothe my various aches and pains. They haven't come out yet, but when they do, they will be spectacular! Lisa said after the class she wished she bruised as easily as me. Other injuries include a knee to the head (but its ok now!), my left knee looks like it's swelling a bit, while my right elbow is skinned.

I have no idea how I'm supposed to do normal gym training tomorrow.

R.I.P. Fishy I

About a year or so ago, Mum came home with a pair of goldfish. She couldn't explain her seemingly random act and we kids didn't question it too much. The fish lived in their little bowl in the lounge room and the world kept turning.

I sadly report that one of them died today. For a pair of fish whom we never even really bothered to name, I was quite horrified when Spuey informed me that one of the fish died. In an act Spuey described as being illustrative of the somewhat haphazard way we grew up, Mum couldn't remember the last time she changed their water and apparently Fishy I either died in the putrid water or died while it was being changed. Either way, Fishy II is now the only inhabitant of the bowl.


Rest in peace, Fishy I. Enjoy your time in the big pond in the sky!

At uni on a Sunday morning :(

I'm just procrastinating right now - I should be starting up an immuno, one to finish today, one to finish tomorrow...but after spending my first hour here looking after the ratties, I just want a rest.

As a rundown of what I've been up to these past few days; it has involved a lot of going out, being out, but not drinking much. Yay, I've managed to stick to my resolution (so far) :).

Thursday night, Jess is back in town for a fortnight and so a bunch of us girls met up at Madame Brussels for drinkies and then off to ajisen ramen for dins. I had *omurice* which looked intriguing on the menu - it turned out to be tomato fried rice rolled up in an omelette with more tomato sauce. It was actually quite tasty.

Friday, after making it to work drinks and then walking everyone down to PA's, it was off to Docklands for dinner with Nance, Marcus, Rachie and Clint at Berth. I had the marinara - also tasty! I had a chilling preview of my life to come as the conversation had a lot to do with marriage and children *brrrr*! Things then took a different turn as Jess had expressed her wish on Thurs that we go back to Lavish "for old time's sake". Seeing as I was in the general vicinity, I decided that honouring her wish wouldn't be too onerous...well...no more than usual to get into Lavish. It was as I have always remembered it - the crowd was young, the place was too full, police were present at some point in time, my feet started hurting, and we finished the night with kebabs!

I was meant to have my first Brazillian jujutsu lesson with James at uni the next morning, but he had a tire puncture so I got to sleep in! I later rocked up about an hour late for the BBQ to say goodbye to Marta who has finished her term with us and is flying back tonight :(. But seeing as it was her last night, we decided to have one last go, and so after a few hours for a refractory period, we ended up at CQ until the wee hours of the morning.

Hence, my need to procrastinate - I'm just worn out from the last few days.

Sydney - Part III

I was still crippled after waking up on Sunday morning, so I slipped on a pair of flats and stumbled out to meet Cousin Alix for lunch. We ended up going to Bill Granger's bills in Surry Hills. It was pretty good. In the spirit of Pooey, I took photos of what we ate.

Alix and his wagyu beef burger

My sweetcorn hotcakes with spinach, tomato, bacon, and avocado relish

Dessert - ricotta hotcakes! Yum yum!

As you can imagine we were pretty full by the end so we spent the next hour or two just wandering around the suburb. Then we got a bit lost. And then we found ourselves back at Central station so Alix took the bus back (it was pretty hot by then), while I stumbled over to Pooky's to pick up some stuff I left there teh night before.

Afterwards, I was supposed to meet Pooey's friend Paulie for drinks at Monkey bar in Chats. Since it was only going to be the two of us 'reformed drinkers', we both independently thought it was going to be a small night. That all changed when I got there earlier than expected and decided to try a drink recommended by Pooey, the Zubrowka Bison Grass with apple juice. She assured me it tastes like an apple pie - I just couldn't pass up that description. I was discussing it with the bartender just as Paulie came in - we all had a go of the drink, the bartender declared *Hey, it does taste like apple pie!*, I bought a round, and all plans for a quiet night went out the window.

In the end I think we did stop at our respective standard drinks limits...but we'd managed to reach the limit (4 drinks for me, 5-6 for him) in about two hours. Luckily Fei had come along for the last round and we decided she should drive his car back to her place while he sobered up. Alas, an awesome lightning storm started up while he was there. Then it started pouring. Here's a short vid of the storm.

It continued all the way into the night. The next evening, my flight home got delayed an hour because of the storm. But I wasn't bored - a very cute baby was playing with the ribbons on my suitcase and even called me *Mama*! But her mum wouldn't let me take a photo. Take my word for it - cute baby.

Sydney - Part IIA

Well after the Mardi Gras, I met up with Miss Pooky again - we were going to swing by a some James Bond-themed party that her lab friends wanted to attend...as we were about to leave we found out that the organisers had piked (pikers!), so we changed plans to going straight to Hotel Chambers and meeting up with Addy. We went to Sushi Train and had a quick supper, before walking to Martin Place.

Now, that bit might have been a tactical error because I was breaking in a new pair of shoes; here's what they look like in the NineWest catalogue. They look good. After about an hour, they felt like hell. Long story short, I had to leave around midnight, not only because my last train was at 1am, but also because if I stayed there much longer I wouldn't be able to have pulled off the 1 minute walk from the station to the apartment.

Sydney - Saturday MARDI GRAS

The morning was pretty uneventful other than agreeing to go clubbing with Addy, Pooey's friend from undergrad days, and then meeting up with Pooky for lunch and shopping for club-suitable clothes. The afternoon is when the show started!

While waiting to meet up with others, I spied a bunch of guys wearing some colonial miliary kit standing outside the Town Hall. I have no idea what was going on there, but took a pic for posterity.

We then followed a major procession of people moving from George St. to Hyde Park/Oxford St. Man there were a lot of people! Here's a few shot of the moving crowd!
We then parked ourselves at the corner of Hyde Park/Oxford/Liverpool streets. Cam's friend X bought some stools that were being hawked because being Asian, we were shorter than the majority of the crowd. While we didn't end up towering over everyone else (mostly because the others had the same idea), we did get a reasonable view.

Uh-oh, all this crowd in our way!

The crowd going all the way up Oxford St.

But it's ok, we got an excellent view of the Big Screen!

The parade kicked off as usual with the Dykes on Bikes.

There was one who was riding with a sign that said *Rooters on Scooters* but I didn't get a photo of that.

I did manage to get a little bit of the Parade King, Rupert Everett, but not a single good photo.

Its only the last five seconds that you see him - the car was moving pretty slowly.

Here's some of the floats from that night

Clockwise: the police band, A drag group, Melbourne Gays, And their proper float

Mature Age Gays

I dunno who these guys are, but I like their style and effort!

But the best video I took that night was definitely of the Asian Marching Boys.

I ended up having to leave after about an hour to get ready for clubbing so I was disappointed to hear from Alix on Sunday that I missed the two ppl who were held together by a giant P33N. Ah well. Always next year!

Sydney Part I

This was (in hindsight) quite amusing. I told Cam I'd be happy to go to Syd and celebrate my confirmation, but it was on the condition that I could not pay more than $300 for tickets. Unforch, the lateness of plans meant that I couldn't get them for that price, so he very kindly sacrificed some of his freq. flyer points and *boom!* I had tickets to fly up at 7:15pm Friday, arriving in Syd at 8:45pm. There was a frantic call around for accom when I discovered that Pooky's mum was in town for CNY and I therefore could not stay with her as usual. To my eternal gratitude, a lot of ppl came through with offers that I could sleep on their floors/couches, and with great thanks to Miss Roxy, I ended up staying with Miss Fei in Chatswood.

A suitably large number of people were informed of my impending arrival and I rocked up to the airport at 5:45pm and went straight to the gate as Cam had done the online check-in thing. So imagine my puzzlement when the gate on the boarding pass did not have our flight listed. Nor was it listed on the Departures monitor. From here, imagine my horror when, after enquiring *What gives?* from the desk attendant, I was informed that the flight booked was for 7:15AM!!!! While phoning Cam in horror, the attendant managed to find us tickets for an earlier flight (wooh!) and we arrived in Syd about an hour earlier than expected.

I had planned to meet up with Miss Pooky and My Childe for drinks, I discovered that Pooky was having dinner with her mum, whilst my son was on Oxford St - somewhere I didn't really want to venture with my suitcase *shudder*. So my little suitcase and I met up again with Cam, Lily and Jane for dinner at Chinta Ria in Cockle Bay. I didn't take a pic of the food (which was quite tasty), but I did manage to get a shot of the Big Buddha you meet when you enter. He is a happy fellow indeed.

After dinner I stumbled to Town Hall and made my way to Chatswood and slept in preparation for a big Saturday.

An explanation about Candidature to Student

I'll just have a summary of why I decided to go to Sydney seemingly on the spur of the moment.
My one year review (a.k.a. Confirmation) was on Friday. The Confirmation is when a PhD *candidate* must submit a report summarising why they're doing a PhD. The report has to contain stuff like

• Hypothesis and Aims,
• Background justifying how you formulated the above and why your project is important,
• The Methods you'll use to solve the problem/s, and
• Your progress to date i.e. What have you been doing for the last year?

You then go in front of a panel of Academics and again justify why you're doing what you're doing and why they should let you continue with your study. They get to do things like question your aims, methods, whatever. Should they decide that everything is sound, they *Confirm* your position as a PhD from *candidate* to *student*. Should they decide it's not good enough, they can change your enrolment to Masters, or if they decide you're really crap, discontinue your study. Although I had been assured that it is almost unheard of to completely reject a student and that demotion to Masters would be unlikely given the work I had done, my lack of brilliantly concrete results did worry me (and did the many other fresh PhD candis).

As you can imagine, the last few weeks were not fun as I read and re-read many papers, stayed up late writing my report and Lit Rev, and agonised over my data and public speaking flaws. Eventually at 2:15pm on Friday, I was told the magic words "YOU ARE CONFIRMED!" and I happily had a weight off my shoulder that they can't kick me out anymore. MUHAHAHAHA!!!! So based on the above, I decided to go to Sydney for the weekend, sans le travail, sans les inquiétudes, and celebrate. I was originally just going to get drunk in Melbourne, but Cam pointed out it was Mardi Gras weekend and I should get out of the city instead. And that brings me to my Sydney blogs :-)

Back Home!

My celebrations in Sydney are over! I'll post about them when I can get to uni and exploit the badwidth there!

CONFIRMED!

No longer shall I be referred to as a PhD *candidate*. I am now a PhD *student*.

Huzzah!