Oreo cheesecake

Pooey makes a pretty mean Oreo cheesecake! Unfortunately I couldn't find the recipe on file so I took one from online and made the modifications that I could remember Pooey making. I ended up making it for Theresa's going away and it turned out so well that John IT requested I make it for his birthay. Which I did not do because I am too busy. Win some, lose some.

Anyway, here's the recipe!
Ingredients:
For the base:

• 1 pkt Choc Ripple biscuits, finely crushed
• 60g butter, melted

For the topping:

• 500g cream cheese, at room temperature (UPDATE - I used lite cream cheese on 9/May and I think it turned out better than full fat)
  
• Finely grated rind of 1 lemon
  
• 65g butter, at room temperature
  
• 100g castor sugar
  
• Juice of 1 lemon
  
• 3 tsp gelatine
  
• 1 1/4 cups cream, whipped until just stiff
• 1 pkt Oreo Cookies, roughly chopped

Method:
Base:
Line a 20cm spring form tin with baking paper.
Mix melted butter and choc ripple crumbs together until evenly mixed.
Spread evenly in tin and flatten out using a flat-bottomed glass (or something else flat) and press mixture evenly over the base.
Refrigerate for 30 minutes or until firm.

Topping:
Blend cream cheese, sugar and lemon rind until smooth; add butter and continue to blend until smooth.
Mix lemon juice and gelatine in the microwave oven. Heat on power high for 30 seconds, uncovered. Stir until the gelatine is dissolved, then pour the gelatine mixture into the cheese mixture.
Fold whipped cream into cream cheese mixture.
Stir in biscuit crumbs and pour mixture into a prepared cake tin.
Refrigerate for at least three to four hours or until set.

It sure is nummy num-nums!

The Meaning of Life

For reasons I don't understand, a lot of people over the course of my life has asked me what I think the meaning of life is. This is probably due to me being a smartarse kid and various adults wanting to shut me up and get me thinking instead of talking. And I've heard them all from *42* to *footy* and *Monty Python*.

Anyway, I've been reading Christopher Moore's A Dirty Job, the text of which is prefaced by this passage from The Epic of Gilgamesh:

What you seek, you shall never find.
For when the Gods made man,
They kept immortality for themselves.
Fill your belly,
Day and night make merry,
Let days be full of joy.
Love the child that holds your hand.
Let your wife delight in your embrace.
For these alone are the concerns of man.

Atheist, nihilist, humanist, transhumanist, positivist, pragmatist, existentialist... this passage has it all! But I think it's a pretty good answer and one dating back thousands of years! So have a good time while you're here ppl -its all you should be worried about.

Faith restored!

The story of the sheep scam is a scam!

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=263447
and
http://www.souzouzone.jp/blog/2007/04/media_flock_to.php

I am pleased that the world is not descending into Idiocracy.
Yet.

Japanese Poodle Scam

When I first saw this article I thought it was a scam. And then I thought *but it's not April Fools....*

Thousands of Japanese have been swindled in a scam in which they were sold Australian and British sheep and told they were poodles.
Flocks of sheep were imported to Japan and then sold by a company called Poodles as Pets, marketed as fashionable accessories, available at $1,600 each.
That is a snip compared to a real poodle which retails for twice that much in Japan.
The scam was uncovered when Japanese moviestar Maiko Kawamaki went on a talk-show and wondered why her new pet would not bark or eat dog food.
She was crestfallen when told it was a sheep.
Then hundreds of other women got in touch with police to say they feared their new "poodle" was also a sheep.
One couple said they became suspicious when they took their "dog" to have its claws trimmed and were told it had hooves.
Japanese police believe there could be 2,000 people affected by the scam, which operated in Sapporo and capitalised on the fact that sheep are rare in Japan, so many do not know what they look like.
"We launched an investigation after we were made aware that a company were selling sheep as poodles," Japanese police said, the The Sun reported.
"Sadly we think there is more than one company operating in this way.
"The sheep are believed to have been imported from overseas - Britain, Australia."
Many of the sheep have now been donated to zoos and farms.
(Cut and pasted from http://www.theage.com.au/news/World/Japanese-fooled-in-poodle-scam/2007/04/26/1177459875122.html)
And then I found many other articles online reporting the same thing.

On one hand, I'm astounded that someone thought it up. On another, I'm shocked that so many people didn't realise something was up - I mean, ok they may not know what a sheep looks like...but surely they know what a dog looks like? Haircut not withstanding, a little bit of investigating would show the difference.

If anyone can show me that this is a fake report, my faith in the general state of the human race will be put back to normal levels.

The week (so far) in review

It's only Thursday (wooh! nearly end of the week!) but it feels like Monday. The ANZAC public holiday was yesterday and by golly I needed the day off. Originally I was going to do some sectioning, but I was convinced by Grand Empress Katie that I should take the day off. Or at least that I should take the day off after going bar-crawling with her on Tuesday to celebrate the sacrifice that the Anzacs made so that I may have the freedom to go to uni and do work.

So Tuesday ended up being Friday - we crawled into a number of bars and I made the mistake of telling people that if the days *clocked over*, the drinks count would technically begin anew. So despite my best efforts, the total number of drinks came in at six. Or five because apparently a jug of Pimm's doesn't count. Katie's review of what we did is here.

I also finally got my flight booking for London. This made me sooooooooooooo angry. I had been forewarned that a certain travel agency (jiggle these letters around to get the name of the company - AST), was slightly more expensive but to use them as a guide to costs. Well those assholes quoted me $2,700 on Singapore. When I expressed my disbelief, I was smugly informed that it was the only flight and that many ppl book their flights months in advance. WHAT?! Like FOUR/FIVE months isnt enough notice?!?! As you can imagine, I was somewhat unhappy. Especially since I was going to submit the quote to the department for reimbursement but everyone said $2.7k was excessive, even for Singapore - and I was told I'd have trouble recouping costs. So I journeyed into the city and got a more reasonable $2.24k flying Emirates. Wooh, I get to stop in Dubai!!!

And to make yesterday seem even more like Sunday, I went to a BBQ at Ruffey Park, organised by Jade. I rocked up 1.5 hours late, ate some sausages, demonstrated some choke holds on Dirty Roy, and then watched Team Asia play Team Europe (some Greek guys & their kids who were also having a bbq). Team Euro won 3-0...they even widened the goals to give us a chance but lets just say that the ppl you'd think were a liability (i.e. the kids) were the hardest ones cos they were fearless!

Thank god, only a few more days before the weekend again!

Well its only 1pm...

and two things of note have happened.

1. Adey discovered his desk. As you can imagine, it was amusing. He appreciated the joke and here are some photos of himself and his desk.
2. There was a gas leak. Unidentified gas, but we've been given the all-clear.

Man, almost enough to make me want to go home.

When PhD students go bad...

Adey is supposedly a PhD student. As such, he is supposed to be churning out experiments that don't work, putting in 12 hour days and 6 day working weeks. Instead, he has taken off Friday and flown interstate....TO PLAY GOLF. When you throw a number of *bright minds* into the one room, you would expect fantastic, original results. Well this result may not be original, but you've gotta admit, it's pretty damn fantastic.

The Whole Deal

A different view

Close up of the chair and drawers

We tried to do the cords but they seem resistant to the sticky substance

Just in case we forget whose desk it is ;)

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
Gee, I'm kinda scared about leaving my desk now.

The stats!
800 post-it (TM) notes
4 people
20-30 minutes
I don't know how many square metres

Ho hum

Nothing particularly interesting is going on - I'm trying to get really good stuff to present in London in September. The only real hitch is that I thought abstracts weren't due until July. Turns out I was wrong. Turns out they're due on May 1st.

!@#$%^&*%$#@!#$%^&*(^%$#@!#$%^&*(&^%$#@!

As you can imagine, life has become pretty dull while I'm trying to churn stuff out.
My apologies
Je suis désolée
Mi dispiace
Dui bu qi

I don't think I know how to say sorry in any other languages.

But I suspect tomorrow's entry will be freakin' awesome ;)

Meeting up with Kat(i)e and The Barber of Seville

The Grand Empress Kat(i)e is back in town and I participated in her Friday night shenanigans. Luckily she's posted about them here so there you go!

Saturday, I went out with Laura, Ruilin, Natty and Kenny to go watch The Barber of Seville. I've been a big fan of the Barber ever since I saw the Bugs Bunny version as a child and that love has only grown with age. All my various favourite arias were there - 'Largo al Factotum' and the Lesson Scene. We got opening night tickets and two things stood out:

• It seemed like we were the youngest people who were voluntarily there (I'm excluding the kids who attended with their parents); and
  
• I rarely ever feel underdressed but I sure did here!
  

Either way, I still enjoyed the show even though reviews such as this one in The Age aren't as favourable. While I do agree that the set was a bit confusing, the things that mattered to me - the story and performances were still great. I will admit to a bit of disappointment that the person who was supposed to play Figaro was sick, but his understudy Luke Gabbedy's portrayal was great showing him as young and slightly crazier than the Figaro I saw in the Marriage of Figaro. Maybe this will turn into one of those stories where the understudy has to fill in on short notice and goes on to have a brilliant career! Emma Matthews was/IS brilliant as Rosina - best one on the night, and while it took a while to get used to Count Almaviva as being round and cuddly as opposed to Teddy Tahu Rhodes' stomping sexy sleazebag, Henry Choo made the Count out as a charming and lovelorn, if somewhat impulsive young man. It almost pisses me off that he turns into such a bastard in a few short years!

I don't think it was better than Marriage, but if you do have some spare moolah, I do recommend it, if just to hear Emma Matthews' performance, the Lesson Scene in particular. Those high notes....brilliant.

Chocolate brownies

There were significant birthdays in the lab last week but since everyone was distracted by Easter, they went by forgotten. I was going to make up for it by baking the Love Cake, but since it was already 11pm when I decided to get started, I chose instead to make brownies because lets face it, when there's no creaming the butter into the sugar, its a lot easier. I found a recipe online that seemed ok - but it used both cocoa and chocolate. I made it anyway (took a while) and while everyone praised the brownies, I decided the extra chocolate is a waste of time and resources. So I modified it. And it turned out fine :)

Ingredients
150g salted butter
1 cup cocoa powder
3-4large eggs (we only buy large eggs, I assume ppl who get small ones might want to put in four)
2 cups sugar (doesn't matter if it's castor or normal)
1 tsp vanilla essence
3/4 cup plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
250g choc chips (I prefer to use white here cos they look nice) or 150g macadamia nuts *EDIT - there is consensus that macadamia nuts are better due to texture and flavour changes).

Melt butter and add cocoa powder until it forms a blacky-brown paste and allow to cool.
Beat in the eggs, sugar and vanilla essence until smooth.
Sift the flour and baking powder straight into the egg mixture and fold in until all the flour lumps are gone.
Stir in the choc/nuts and pour into a brownie pan lined with baking paper
Bake at 170 degrees celsius for 45 mins in a fan-forced oven, then leave to cool in the tray.

The tops and edges should be nice and crunchy, the inside all fudgey. Don't make the mistake of putting them in the fridge - it makes the fudgey bits go hard! But when they warmed up, they were nice again :)

But for those who want original brownie, here it is:

INGREDIENTS
185g butter
185g dark chocolate
3 eggs
1 1/4 cups castor sugar
2/3 cup plain flour
1/2 cup cocoa
2/3 cup milk chocolate bits (or chopped chocolate)
2/3 cup white chocolate bits (or chopped chocolate)

METHOD
· Preheat oven to 170C.
· Butter and line a 20-centimetre square tin with baking paper.
· Melt butter and dark chocolate together. Beat eggs with sugar until pale and thick.
· Fold chocolate mixture into egg mixture.
· Sift flour and cocoa into mixture together with chocolate bits.
Spread into tin and cook for 35 minutes

Movie review - 300

What to say about a move that I have been waiting so long for? I was satisfied!

300 is based on Frank Miller's retelling of the Battle of Thermopylae. The basic info - the Xerxes I is attempting to conquer Greece. Leonidas, King of Sparta (Gerard Butler), wants to send a force but is opposed by the laws of the Sparta and the Oracle's advice. He decides to take a force of 300 soldiers to stop the Persian force over ONE MILLION SOLDIERS from entering mainland Greece by blocking a small passage, the Hot Gates (lit. Thermopylae). Meanwhile, his queen (Lena Headey) is trying to convince the council back home to send a larger force.

Yes, the movie was very stylised. Yes, things looked damn fake. Yes, the movie showed the Persians as a band of freaks. But you know what? It's based on Frank Miller told a the Greek perspective. Of course it's stylised and the opposing force is displayed as monsters! If you wanted an accurate re-telling, go read Herodotus' Histories. Really. It's a good yarn. But for lovers of fighting, such as myself, I was perfectly happy!


As you can see, the visuals are magnificent. As just like how Miller drew them, the men are magnificent. Such abdominal definition - whew! *fanning myself* The Spartan force was just a crazy huge bunch of guys. Sure, their acting's not particularly convincing - I'm not sure why Butler chose to give Leonidas a scots accent but hey *shrug* I'm cool with that. The plot may be called disappointing by some, but if the ending was changed, I soooooooo would have been pissed off! Thermopylae is a great turning tide battle in history! Changing the end would be like if the Carthaginians won the Punic Wars or if Wellington lost Waterloo!

This movie's not for everyone, but it is bloody awesome! As Linda's said in her verbal review "Hot abs, hot bodies, lil' bit of soft porn...go see it!"
7/10
(picture from rottentomatoes.com)

Movie review - Nobody Knows

I remember being intrigued by this movie when it was released in 2004 although for whatever reason I didn't manage to watch it until now. Although I knew the story upon which it was based, I still found myself stunned by the careless actions of the mother and upset at the fate of the kids.Keiko, a single mother (her age is never revealed but it's probably early 30s) has four children from four fathers. All the children are illegitimate, have no ID papers, and don't attend school. The family move into a small apartment at the start of the movie, or rather Keiko moves in with her eldest son and sneaks the other three in. Twelve yo Akira is responsible for his siblings, 10 yo Kyoko, 7 yo Shigeru and 4 yo Yuki, doing the shopping and feeding them during the day while the mother goes off to do whatever it is she does (her job if any, is never defined). The kids live by a set of rules that each has their own chores and the younger ones are to be as quiet as possible and never let anyone see them lest they get evicted. Keiko leaves Akira money and has taught him basic mathematics to get by but her absences get longer and longer. While Akira has figured out that he can scrounge some money from the suspected fathers of Yuki , as their abandomnment gets more apparent, the kids do what they can to survive.

Like Pooey, I'm not an indiscriminate lover of children. Having said that, the plight of the kids and their loyalty to each other is truly touching. At several points in the film, Akira gets frustrated at the magnitude of his load and apart from a few times when he allows himself to be a 12yo boy, he does his best to be the parent Keiko wont be - making sure everyone has their New Year money and taking Yuki out to see trains for her birthday. In return, the kids are pretty obedient. In contrast to the relative maturity of the kids, we have Keiko. I HATED KEIKO. Not just for her baby voice and neglect of her kids, but the way she uses her relative knowledge of the world to cow her kids into thinking that what she's doing is right. At the end of a month long absence, Keiko returns bearing presents, showering attention on the kids, acting as if she's never been gone only then to announce that she's leaving again. When confronted by Akira about her selfishness, she sulks and asks "Why shouldn't I be allowed to have any fun?" and when asked why they can't attend school, she replies that school isn't necessary for life as "there are many famous people who haven't gone to school" and goes on to list people Akira obviously hasn't heard of such as the Prime Minister and a wrestler.

I suppose that then brings me to the acting. The acting from the kids, particularly from Yuya Yagira as Akira. At 14 years, he totally deserved that Best Actor award from Cannes! The four kids, they were all so sibling like and normal with each other...yeah. And I guess I couldn't hate Keiko that much if You wasn't good as her too. Plotwise, this is not a movie where a lot of things happen. Instead we are given hints about time passing (the kids' hair growing), the deterioration of their lives (chores not being done, clothes getting ripped), and various schemes to get by (collecting seeds and dirt from the park in an attempt to grow their own food).

There isn't much that I'd complain about this movie. It gets a bit slow in between Keiko leaving and Akira's realisation that she isn't returning but I guess that's how it would have been for the kids - a mixture of boredom and killing time. In addition, there appears to be a bit of conflict on the IMDB forums about the lack of closure. I think you'll need to read the wiki entry to find out what happens to perhaps understand why director Kore-Eda Hirokazu finished where he did.

There's so much I want to talk about why this movie is great. There were so many things in this movie that got me thinking - the responsibility adults have to children, childhood vs adulthood, the ties that bind people together, etc etc. It definitely stuck with me for ages after viewing and while that may not make it a movie for everyone, I recommend giving it a look if you find it.
9/10
(photo from rottentomatoes.com)

Puppet up!

For this year's Comedy Festival, Laura from Level 3 suggested we go see Puppet Up! The show comes from the Jim Henson Co. featuring non-copyrighted muppets doing R-rated material. The key point is *non-copyrighted* - i.e. no Bert and Ernie gay jokes.

I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS SHOW. Here's a clip showing what the show is like :)


Apart from making me laugh very much, it also made me appreciate how much work the puppeteer puts into handling the puppet and how some puppets automatically have personality. My favourite skit of the night would be when they took a guy from the audience and he had to handle a muppet with the story that his was trying out as a gladiator. You could see how hard it was to co-ordinate action to voice as well as how much effort it was to hold the thing up!

My main criticisms is the audience participation. The people on my night seemed to be preoccupied with *taking a dump!* - that suggestion came up a few times. Sometimes the scenarios were extremely hard to work with - such as requesting Shane Warne as a character, good thing the puppeteer was a fan of cricket.

Anyway, catch this show if you can!

Movie review - Stomp the Yard

I know what you're thinking. You're thinking *Mally...why did you waste your money on a movie that is ranked 32 (as of today) in IMDB's Bottom 100?* To that I answer *Nuts to you! It's a dancing movie and I'll blow my money to see some phat moves!* And with that perspective in mind, I walked out totally satisfied.

Quick plot summary with cliches highlighted. DJ (Columbus Short) is a former teen gang member/dancer who got his brother killed in a brawl (he's got issues!). One of the last things his brother said to him before dying was something along the lines of *It's not about you, it's about the TEAM!* DJ is sent to Atlanta to attend Truth University where he meets a bunch of rich frat brothers who in his opinion are dance "pretenders" (they're different from each other!) and falls in love with April whose bf, Grant, is one of the leaders of a frat dance team that's been national champion 7 years running (chief rival here!), and whose Dad is provost (other side of the tracks!). DJ joins a rival frat whose dancing sucks, but using his fully sik street moves, quickly whips them into shape for the national competition. Two days before the competition, Grant digs up info on DJ's criminal record and he gets suspended (how can the team compete without him?), but April's Dad says he can get reinstated if DJ gives up April. April overhears DJ's aunt and her Dad arguing (they used to date, Aunt chose a janitor, Dad's bitter and holds a grudge!), says her Dad has lost her love, she loves DJ, he's gonna dance! DJ arrives just in time for the final, where his and the other frat tie for first place...so there's gonna be a dance off! DJ thinks the frat head should lead the dance because he deserves it - but the frat head says something like "But you're the best dancer - YOU GOTTA DO IT FOR THE TEAM!" Grant is selected as the other team's dancer (natch) and he uses a move that he stole from DJ! In the moment of crisis, DJ puts on his brother's gloves, pulls the elbow handstand, and the UNDERDOGS WIN!!!

Needless to say, I didn't think much of the story. Or the script. Or the acting. In fact, I think they made the actors look pretty damn stupid with all the dumb chanting and silly sounds - DJ's frat motto is the snake and they made a lot of *pythony* hand gestures and *sssssssssss* hissing noises. The rival frat's symbol is the wolf and they did a lot of dumb howling. But then, I didn't come for any of that - I wanted DANCING!
Yep, with dancing like that, is it any wonder I enjoyed myself!

The movie should have been just dancing and cut out the rest of the crap. I don't think its #32 worst but keep your expectations low and you'll enjoy yourself.
6/10

Happy Easter!

Uni breaks are far and few between, but I soooooo needed today's Good Friday break. I spent the day cleaning and sleeping. It feels good. It feels like I'm a real student again ;)

Hope you all got lots of chocs!

This is cool!

Brain fried

Life has become pretty boring - I think all the time I sit around trying to churn out data is frying my brain of all the stupid opinions I used to have :(. I'm even considering coming in during the Easter break so I can cut some tissue with no one to kick me off the machine :O. Shocker.

Having said that, some of the data I produced on Monday is quite purdy.

Anyway, yesterday I had a complete brain meltdown and did a number of stupid things.
1. I forgot to put on two secondary fluorescent labels. I was on the microscope and only one colour went up. I've done the s100b a zillion times and it always works so...yeah. Luckily I took the coverslip off and fixed it.
2. Went home from uni even though I was supposed to stay in Parkvilled to help Nance make e-party invites.
3. Went home without my purse. Good one, that.
4. Took a drink of coke, but the coke went down the side of my face instead of in my mouth.

I'm stoopit!!!

Camping at the Farm for Jimmy's 21st

Bah, this weekend, I two things that I thought I'd never do again:
1. Went to a 21st birthday party
2. Went camping! (what on earth?!)
For his 21st, Jimmy decided to go back to his Dad's farm in Drouin. The announcement was met with glee from the others about camping overnight and absolute horror from me about camping overnight and the semi-formal dresscode. In any case, a trip to Rays Outdoors, a poke around the house, and a lot of discussion with others resulted in me with enough equipment to camp comfortably although I did like the idea of getting a Taj Mahal of tents for maximum comfort.

A few acts of random stupidity meant the convoy to Drouin was a little late in starting, but we met up as designated location of Pakenham macca's for dinner.
We ended up arriving after sunset so I acted as torchbearer for everyone to set up their tents and waited for whoever would finish first so they could help me put mine up and pump up the mattress. I would have to grudgingly agree with John IT that it would most likely be hell to fill up a double air mattress without the aid of an electric pump attached to a car. I also think I should get a larger tent should I ever go camping again because it was a bit of a struggle to get the mattress into my 2-3 person tent. Marlene and Linda (my tentmates) then rocked up and the tent was suddenly filled with fluffy blankets and cushions. A view inside by the others made someone comment that it looked like the dream of a certain disgusting yellow-fevered guy.
After that, we had a bit of a poke around - finding a working tv in the barn's loft!

And then we got down to the business of the party!I dont know why these all seem to feature Kirsty.

Some people had a bit of fun with my choice of accessory.

Here's some shots of Jimmy during the speeches which were good...just a touch long though very entertaining.There are no photos after this other then this view from the doorway of the tent because no one (including myself) were up to it.

As you can imagine, the party went long into the night. Some crazy bastards also decided to stay up to watch the cricket (Aus vs Bangladesh) and didn't go to sleep after that. The birthday boy himself got only 30 minutes - we heard him laughing nice and loudly in the morning. I am pleased to say that I had 8 drinks - four for each night that the party went on, but I still only managed 3 hours of sleep. Breakfast consisted of bbqd sausages, toast and fried eggs, or if french toast if you were me, and we all slowly convoyed back to the big smoke.

So was camping fun? I will concede to a measure of fun but I believe that is related to hanging out with friends and a great deal of alcohol. The things that make camping camping - being in the outdoors, sleeping in a tent were not fun. The tent was poorly ventiled and difficult to get changed in and there was the constant threat of treading mud everywhere. Euw!!!

But happy birthday Jimmy - awesome party - and may everything be as awesome from now on as it obviously has been ;)