Birthday dinner at Bluefire

I was persuaded that an appropriate celebration for the ending of my life would be to eat as much meat as I could on Tightarse Tuesday at Bluefire Grill (Melb Central). So that's what we did. I would like to thank everyone who made the effort to come on a cold Tuesday night, especially Kimmy who made the ultimate sacrifice of eating as much as she could....before going to indoor soccer at 10pm. I hope you were ok and didn't vomit in the goalsquare like Dirty Roy and Kahoons were telling you do.

Unfortunately, the rules of Bluefire are that you can't have more than 15 people/booking. Adey and I decided to get around this by booking two tables in each of our names and split the groups between ACB (his table) and non-ACB (my table). This backfired because they sat us on different sides of the restaurant - him with his full table of ACB-ers and me with Sharon while my late non-ACB friends straggled up. Except for Icey. He decided that since he had already taken his pants off, he wasn't coming to bluefire.

Anyway, here are some photos from DancingHula showing ACB shenanigans - I forgot my camera.

Pre-drinks at the Lion

Everybody ignores the entree of bread and dips
Rees lab sitting politely

John IT and Ash get ready for food... ...only to concede defeat later

Trying to get the food servers' attention

Kirsty tries to make the msg a bit more obvious.

Alas, no photos of the food were taken (sorry Pooey!) or of the other table (sorry guys!) but I guarantee you, a fun night was had by all...although the rest of the night was a bit uncomfy as it seems we all had to sleep on our sides like pregnant women.

Dammit

I'm not the only one with excessive love for the new confocals - I'm writing a presentation to be delivered on Friday morning and I can't get onto the bloody machines to take some photos.

Oh well, I could always just omit that slide :P

Paullina Simons' Tatia and Shura (Bronze Horseman) Trilogy

I have been reading romance books for years. I've got a good pile on my floor and bookshelf, accumulated over the last five (?) years. Not Mills and Boon stuff but the covers do sometimes feature the couple in full Regency regalia. I think the reason I started to read them despite my own initial disgust was that happy endings are always good (I got a bit tired of all the unhappy endings you find in modern literature - Virgin Suicides, anyone?), and frankly, I didn't want to read books that would tax my thinking too much. The other day I was looking at my bookshelf and marvelling at the copy of War and Peace that I purchased after reading it in 1997. I remember enjoying it immensely - the family dramas played against the epic scope of the Napoleonic Wars, cheering on Natasha, hating the Kuragin family, and falling in love with Pierre and being elated when he marries Natasha. An excellent book, but such a slog and to much to think about.

Well, I have now found a wonderful medium between romance and epics.

The Bronze Horseman (2000) by Paullina Simons is a 664 page epic story of 17-yo Tatiana Metanova and Red Army officer Alexander Belov, set against the horrific Siege of Leningrad (for those who don't want to click the link, go watch Enemy at the Gates). On June 22nd 1941, war is declared and Tania sent out to buy food for family. Due to not taking the threat seriously, the shop runs out of food and while waiting at a bus stop to go somewhere else, she sees a soldier staring at her. The two strike up conversation and are instantly smitten, until he helps her carry her groceries home and they realise that Alex (henceforth referred to as Shura) is the soldier Tatia's older sister Dasha has been seeing.

Right now, you're probably thinking *oh, Mooey's just reading another old romance...* but I swear to you all, THIS BOOK IS BRILLIANT. Life, death, war, love, impossible situations, what people can/will do when they're pushed...the characters just....oh shit, read it. You'd have to have a heart of stone to not be moved what Tatia, Shura and the Metanov family have to endure during the Siege and *SPOILER* especially since Shura is actually an American who was forced to migrate as a child by idealistic parents (since executed by the NKVD) - and he told the wrong person his secret *END SPOILER*. Simons' prose is such that it really sucks you into the daily lives and thoughts of her characters - those 600+ pages really fly by. Seriously. I wish I'd waited to read this when I fly to London - it has kept me constantly wrapped up since I started reading it on Monday, pausing only to sleep and work. And even then, I've been reading at work during incubations.

While I technically haven't finished it (too busy flipping forwards and backwards - I really wanted to know what happens!), I have already borrowed the two sequels, The Bridge to Holy Cross, (2003) and The Summer Garden (2005). Right now you're probably thinking *Well if there's two sequels then they must survive the Siege - duh* but as I said before, Simons makes Tatia and Shura real people and life is never easy for people who survive that kind of trauma. Real people and I want to know what happens to them! Real people that I can see in my head. My image of Tatiana is just like the girl on the cover of TSG:
But Shura is without a doubt Marat Safin right down to Simons' description of being tall, dark, and needing a shave everyday:
Ok, I really wanted to post that pic of Safin again, but really, READ THE BOOK! I think I will take it along with me to Europe, 600+ pages and all.

Data from the new confocal!

I celebrated my birthday week by going kur-ray-zee!!!!! on the new Meta and Pascal confocal microscopes from Zeiss. And let me tell you, they are absolute beauties. Scary machines, but beauties.

Super-compressed triple wholemounted retina showing vessels, pericytes and astrocytes

On Thursday night, Erica hosted a goodbye dinner for Theresa. It didn't end that late, but I was absolutely wrecked by the time I got home. Problem was that I had one of those nights where you flip over and go *oh, its 3:00am* and then a bit later go *oh, its 3:30am*. So I eventually got about 4 hours sleep (I allowed myself to sleep in)....and then followed it up by spending 5 hours on the confocals. How I managed to stay awake in those dark cold rooms, I'll never know.

Birthday stories!

Another year past, another year over. But this year, I have officially been told that my life if over!

Yes. At the lab meeting yesterday, upon hearing that I am now vingt-six years of age, Erica in all her wonderful tact and wisdom said to me, "You know, when I turned vingt-six, I remember looking into the mirror and thinking 'I'm so old, my life is over!'" and then she went on to tell us a story about how her Dad decided that since she had come of age, she should move out of the family home. I don't know what kind of messages she's trying to send me, but I'll go happily on my own way.

Later Kirsty had made her mars bar cake and we scoffed it down in the phd room, especially Marlene who had 2.5 pieces. I also downed a shot of port for good luck. Then I met up with Laura and went to Toff in Town for a celebratory glass of champagne. As a bar, the prices are quite $$ (the Grand Empress would have a fit!), but the decor is lovely! The place is divided into little compartments like the Hogwarts Express. Nice and privacy-inducing, but a little claustrophobic when we shut everything and we suspect that unless you get there early, you're just gonna have to stand.

Later we went to part two of the Opera series - The Pirates of Penzance! I won't deny it. I was MOST ANNOYED to discover that David Hobson had decided to go on It Takes Two instead of appearing in Pirates - if i knew he was going to do that, I wouldn't have booked tickets for a Tuesday performance! Either way, I did enjoy it (just not as much). And Anthony Warlow was fantastic as the Pirate King/Jack Sparrow.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhkamkSHDpY
(embedding disallowed)
There's just something about Pirates that looks like jolly fun when its being performed - makes you want to just jump up and join in! I think I may purchase the DVD to get the real deal.

The Vow...re-opened!

In 2004, before the Great European Trip 2004, I told my parents that if I met a guy in Europe, I would not be returning to Australia. Imagine my shock when they said that was fine! Unfortunately (or fortunately) it didn't happen. Now that I'm heading back, older and wiser, the vow is re-opened!!!

Cousin Alix is intrigued by this and said I shouldn't leave things to fate and start advertising now in various languages...but not Russian because its too cold there. We have decided that the best options would be Italian or Greek shipping heir with a chalet in Courchevel for winter and a yacht to cruise around the Cote d'Azur in summer.

So watch out, Europe! (All applicants must agree to being vetted by Cousin Alix and Lydia).

Crappy song that I love

Everyone defines a crappy song differently. Few songs are almost unanimously considered crappy. Right now I'm listening to Lady in Red by Chris de Burgh. With few exceptions (hi Tina!) this song is regarded as one of the crappiest songs around for its cliched words and that whispered *I love you* at the end. It is considered so crappy that it was featured on Supernatural (a show I ADORE!) as the song that aliens used for slowdancing.

But for all its perceived crappiness, I LOVE THIS SONG! I can't help but revel in its glorious saccharine emotion. Everybody has a song that they love that everyone hates. Whether its by the Vengaboys (ugh) or Hinder (double ugh!) its ok.

Actually, love of that song by Hinder is enough for me to send you to hell.

Bored sick

Well the stress of all last week's and this week's activities have finally taken their toll. I have a cold or some other kind of sickness that produces muscle sores, headaches and sniffles.

I felt pretty crap on Tuesday afternoon, feeling bad enough to go home early but then made a superhuman effort to come in on Wednesday, only to have a number of ppl tell me I looked ill, including a number of my students (hell, they only see me once a week if they're lucky!).

So now I am lying at home bored out of my brain. This cold better finish fast or crazy things might start happening.

Happy Mothers Day!

I'd just like to wish all mothers, especially mine, a Happy Mothers Day.

(Image source)

And yes Mum, you look just like Teresa Teng!

73% German Blonde

In September last year, Nance decided to enter a makeup competition using my face as her canvas. MyHeritage.com is a site that takes a photo of your face and compares it to photos in their database, spitting out data that says how much you look like a celebrity. Apparently, I look 73% like .....CLAUDIA SCHIFFER?!?!?!



With this photo however, the result is different.

83% Stephen Chow?!?!?! LMAO!!!!

The last few days

Well another week comes to a close *sigh*. I'm writing this at unes right now as I wait for a repeat of one of the lost experiments to finish. Apart from threatening to slaughter people like pigs, it's been commented that I'm awfully calm for someone who has lost a great deal of data. I say, accept it and move on.

In other news, I went to Lydia and Marina's place on Thurs night to discuss the itinerary of the Great European Trip 2007 and to partake in the glorious feast that my hosts prepared for dinner. And it was GLORIOUS. Lydia's Pumpkin salad, mashed potatoes, and lamb and green bean casserole. While we were too impatient to eat it after the 2-something hours it was meant to be in the oven, the lamb was so tender, so succulent....I just know that the day after portions would have been awesome. I wish I took a photo. Lydia and I bashed out which days were going to be spent where and it put me in a good mood for the rest of the week as everytime someone mentioned *Europe*, it would put me into great fits of excitement!

Friday also marked the last Melbourne drinks night with the Grand Empress - her account of drinks is in that link. While she went off to celebrate with her family, Maybo, Kahuna, Dirty Roy, Fokmeister & two friends, and I went to Singapore ChomChom for dins, followed by exploring the DVD shop across the road where I bought a Teresa Teng concert DVD for mumsie. Incidentally, Mum thinks she might already have it :( BUT NOT ON DVD!!!! I then went and killed Dirty Roy in the Wii RayMan target game thing.

We met up again with the Empress at Jwow wine bar where she tried to explain the concept of the Circle to Dirty Roy. I maintain that so long as Pooey says I am not Circle, I am not Circle. But the Grand Empress pointed out that her word can not be contested...so yeah. While this was happening, Searnsy came along and he asked if he was Circle to which she said no. Her reasoning, and she said this may also apply to me, is that we have many (i.e. non-Circle) friends - her implication being that Kahuna has no other friends. As you can imagine, this was rather amusing and a lot of backpedalling was done :P

We then proceded to take some silly photos and here is me and Searn.

Gotta love the *wtf do you think you're doing face*

The Grand Empress thinks she might go to BLVD tonight...I'll reserve whether I also attend although I never did make it to her *Lavish* spiritual home. :P If I dont make it (which is likely), have a great time in Thailand with Martina, shake up the London crowd, and see y'all in September, Empress!!!

horror of horrors

I've lost my slide box. The slide box which has everything precious from this year in it. !@#$%^&*^%$#@!@#$%^&*(^%$#@!@#$%^&*^%$#@!#$%^&*(&^%$#@!#$%^&*

Guess I'm not finishing on time :'(

Not much to say

The title says it all. This entry is mostly to pander to specific readers who get cranky when I don't post regularly. Or one specific reader who regards me as the only member of geometry (although I don't consider myself part of that mystic group) who has any regularity in their blogs.

Some have asked me why I have yet to comment on the conviction of the world's greatest Oxygen Thief. Quite frankly, there's enough out there to let everyone realise the level of celebration that came at the announcement. What more could I possibly add to it?

It's been a standard week - here are some stats so far:
Rats killed - 6
Gym/jujutsu sessions - 1
Bruises and other assorted injuries - 2
Hours on cryostat - 6
Cakes made - 1

There you go!

Crimes against fashion

I never thought I'd see the day that I'd have to designate what is the worst crime against fashion. But I remember being so absolutely aghast at seeing that below that my mind was made up.

NUMBER ONE - BUTT CRACK. Everyone has been guilty of this at some point in time, and everyone I'm sure has felt the shame. This photo was taken in a bar on Anzac Eve. I don't remember which, all I remember is the absolute feeling of stupefaction at the amount of crack revealed.

This is never, never, NEVER an attractive look. I apologise for the poor quality photo but I fear using a better camera might make the lens crack.
No pun intended.

Crimes against fashion

A return of the much-loved segment!

Number 60 - Similar to the Reverse Skunk, but generally more rare and therefore further down on the list. However, the true extent of this shocker makes me want to rate it *better* than 60. Thoughts people?
Number 25674 - As said in 25673, its good to make your outfit match, but you must take a stepback and look at the outfit as a whole. The skirt does no favours. It's not easy being green (velvet).

Number 8956 - Leather pants are some hell of a fashion statement. If you are a 6' glamazon supermodel, dominatrix, shit-hot motorcyclist or something equivalent, this is a sexy and functional look. If you are a 50-something year old man wearing a red and white striped jumper sitting opposite me on the bus...just...don't.

Time on my hands

This is my first uni-free weekend in ages! So I spent most of today sleeping.

Last night after the usual work drinks, I went to Cam's goodbye drinks are Baroq. In the same way I prefer Manchuria without all the people, I prefer Baroq without all the people (although it has never been on the *my bar* list). But the alcohol was flowing (Cam has hinted that the bar tab came to over $1k) and it was good to catch up with Liz who was present.

I then had to trundle off to what was described to me as a *Breast Cancer Charity Networking Night*. As a research scientist, I thought it'd be nice to attend seeing as most of the professional networks I attend seem to be for accountants. It turned out to be something akin to Lavish...but where they set up groups of people into areas with the idea that we randoms were to talk to each other....without turning down the volume of the music. When we ran into each other in the loos, a girl in my group apologised to me later that she couldn't hear me. And even then, not to sound like a snob but I think the education levels of my fellow crowd members may have intimidated them as when asked what I did for a living, the reply *studying my PhD* *In what?* *Neuroscience* made a lot of people back off. *shrug* Nonetheless, thanks to Kim for organising and we need to catch up in a less loud venue soon!

I went back to Baroq but not long after I realised I was totally buggered and decided to go home and as I wrote before, spent most of today sleeping. C'est la vie!

Quizzes!

You Are 24% Nerdy

You're a little nerdy, but no one would ever call you a nerd. You sometimes get into nerdy things, but only after they've become a part of mainstream culture.

How Nerdy Are You?

You Are a Normal Girl

You are 50% Good and 50% Bad Sure you've pulled some bad girl stunts in your past. But these days, you're (mostly) a good girl.

Are You a Good Girl or a Bad Girl?

You Are 52% A Child of the 80s

Back in the day, you were totally 80s. Tubular, totally tubular.

Are You a Child of an 80s?

You are a Brainy Girl!

Whether you're an official student or a casual learner, you enjoy hitting the books. You know a little bit about everything, and you're always dying to know more. For a guy to win your heart, he's got to share some of your intellectual interests. A awesome book collection of his own doesn't hurt either!

What Kind of Girl Are You?

Movie review - The Departed UPDATE

As a follow on from my review of The Departed, there was a war of attrition between Martina and I about whether the remake or original was better. After trying to wear each other down with various arguments, things came to a head at the Kum Den dinner to celebrate the return of Grand Empress Katie from the Netherworld (USA). By my side, the awesome Kahuna who stood well as my trusty lieutenant, while Glendam revealed his yellow-feverness did not extend to taste in movies.

The Grand Empress Katie then turned everything on its head when she revealed she had seen neither. A desperate battle ensured to recruit the Grand Empress to our respective sides knowing that with her support, a clear-cut result would ensue. After a long and lengthy time waiting in our trenches as the Grand Empress stalked no-mans land...a victor has been declared...

INFERNAL AFFAIRS IS BETTER THAN THE DEPARTED

The Grand Empress has spoken. Her word can not be contested.
Ok, she said it was because The Departed is essentially identical to the original (quote: why bother doing a remake if it's going to be the same?), too longwinded, and Andy Lau is hot x2...but a win's a win!

This is COOL!

Image Source