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!

Xmas photos update

It has been pointed out to me that I have been very lax in getting the photos from the xmas party online. Here is the link just for you, Pooey!

http://mallymoodlespics.shutterfly.com
(p/word = 12345)

(Gee, there seems to be a lot of babies, not much xmas)

Crapmeister

Today we had to inject some rats and despite wearing a mask and taking an antihistamine, I had to stop at 11 animals because it was becoming too hard to breathe.

That's it. After a year of terrorising them, I have become allergic and since they've chosen to attack a system that could result in my death vs. me doing something that does actually kill them...I guess its a stalemate.

I'm gonna investigate better methods of protection!

Something to make the trains run on time

When I was in Europe, I did marvel at the rail buskers there. I must say that when someone sent me this youtube clip, I thought it was fake until I googled it and found it confirmed by The Times.



That's right, some gal was poledancing her way around Milan's subway in December. I don't know how well this will go down here but if it decreases the amount of traffic on the road, I'm cool with it!

This summer of tennis

As I type, Roger Federer and Fernando Gonzalez are duking it out for the Men's Title. As much as I like Gonzo, I want Federer to win.

But I can't watch (right now) - it's too tense!

*UPDATE*
ok, I watched the last two sets...and Federer won 7-6, 6-4, 6-4.
How could I doubt?!

Its a Friday

but damn me if it doesnt feel like a Sunday! Gotta love public holidays.

I'll make a proper blog about what I and the Foodies did today when I get the pics off Shaz.

Hard Week

I know it's only Thursday, but I feel as though I've been trampled by elephants. Maybe it's because I've re-started my gym programme after 4 weeks of relative inactivity. Maybe its cos my experimental load has gone to another level. I don't know, but I do feel like breaking resolution 4 - the no drinking one.

I am really smart

One of the hazards of working with animals is developing allergies to them. I know that I have an allergy to mouse fur. Today I had to handle a number of animals today but for some reason I didn't take any antihistamines with me to uni or wear a mask when handling those squirmy little critters.

So naturally by 12pm my nose and eyes were going haywire. At 12:30, I started wheezing as if I were asthmatic (as described by someone who asked if I were alright). That was a little bit scary and people were saying *geez woman, are you gonna die?*

But at 5:45, I can say that I'm almost back to normal! Time to stock more drugs in my desk, I think!

I am smart

I cut my finger on a rosebush trying to retrieve the newspaper earlier this week. Very small.

But then I made it worse by squeezing lemons several times since then.

Ouch.

Movie review - Click

Think Adam Sandler, think stupid movies like Billy Madison or Happy Gilmore. I'm beginning to think that as Adam Sandler grows up, so too Adam Sandler movies are becoming more mature. Kinda.

Click tells the story of architect Michael Newman (Sandler), who attempts to balance the needs of his family - wife Donna (Kate Beckinsale), parents Ted and Trudy (Henry Winkler and Julie Kavner - yes, the Fonz and Marge Simpson!) and his young children Ben and Samantha - and his boss, Ammer (David Hasselhoff). As that the finances of his family are somewhat precarious, when his boss dangles the promise of a partnership in exchange for landing a large account, Michael's ability to cope with all the demands finally breaks when he can't change the channels on the tv. He goes to Bed, Bath and Beyond to purchase a universal remote, but instead purchases a mystical remote control from Christopher Walken that has the ability to do things like fast-forward past arguments to promotions and decrease dog barks. However, the remote control learns to programme itself and Michael loses control of his life when it learns to fast-forward during various events. Unlike other Sandler movies, except perhaps 50 First Dates, the second half of the movie *spoiler* takes a dramatic turn as it is shown that by fast-forwarding and putting work ahead of family, Michael loses out on being able to watch his kids grow up, being able to spend time parents before they die, and maintaining his relationship with his wife *end spoiler*.

Believe it or not, Adam Sandler gives a pretty good dramatic performance here, helped along by the Fonz and Selene the Vampire. It's pretty clean for a Happy Madison production although there is the obligatory gross bit as the family owns a dog who has found it's soulmate in the form of a stuffed toy duck. While viewers may complain that the movie can't decide if it's a comedy or drama, and the message may be a bit cliched, overall its enjoyable.

6.5/10

I've got one more movie review (Nacho Libre to do) but I'm all reviewed out at the moment, so that probably won't come for another week or so, if at all.

Congratulations!!!

This is a shout-out to my former train buddy and now PhD advice kinda guy (I'm working, ok?!), Dr. Schrodinger, who is gonna be a daddy in about 6 months. Congratulations to you and Yani.

Another generation of duck-men to come ;)

Movie review - The Lake House

Who likes movies that mess with your mind a bit? And when I say mess with your mind, I don't mean something as dumbass as *oh, it was all a dream!* like Vanilla Sky. I mean something that produces a *whoa! That's freaky!* kind of reaction like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. The Lake House is one that MAJORLY messes with your mind.

The Lake House is based on the 2000 Korean movie Il Mare (original Korean = Siworae). Kate Forster (Sandra Bullock) is a doctor who is moving out of a house built on a lake, hence the title Lake House. She decides to leave a letter for the next tenant. Architect Alex Wyler (my future husband, Keanu Reeves) moves in, finds the letter and points out somethings wrong in his reply.

1. It's obvious no one has lived in the house in years, and
2. The year is 2004, Kate has dated her letter as 2006.

After a bit of to-ing and fro-ing with letters, they realise that the letterbox is some kind of conduit that exists in two different timelines. Is that screwing enough with your head? Despite the seemingly impossible barrier, the two fall in love...but how to join the time-separated lovers?

I won't talk about plot of acting or writing because, put simply, whether or not you enjoy Lake House will depend on whether or not you're willing to just accept it as it is. Or you can try and work out how the time-space continuum thing works. Or you can feel like you've been punched in the head several times, like Pooky did! Jiggs had not seen Lake House but he had seen Il Mare and as I said in the Sydney Rundown, we had a massive argument about whether the time paradox works or not. I said that it did because while their conscious awareness of each other exists at different points in time, they themselves exist in the same time as each other. Jiggs said it was impossible for them ever to meet because they exist in two different timeframes. Jia hadn't seen either movie and couldn't add anything. In any case, I hear the endings are different - this may be where our problem stems from.

In any case, I found I enjoyed it and didn't feel as though I'd been punched too hard.
7/10
(Poster from www.thecinemasource.com)

Movie review - Just Friends

Rarely have I actively disliked the lead characters of a movie as much as I did in Just Friends. They just got on my nerves sooooooo much that I just could not feel sympathy for them (although I did sympathise with a character who was obviously meant to be a foil), and the end message was kinda screwed up too.

Chris Brander (Ryan Reynolds) is a fat teen whose best friend and secret crush is the hot cheerleader Jamie Palomino (Amy Smart). The night they graduate, Chris decides to declare his feelings for her by writing in her yearbook, but the small party he intended turns into a whole school blowout. Daunted, he nonetheless proceeds to try and make her read his message but is interrupted by Dusty Dinkleman (Chris Klein) a pimply, stuttering singer who also has a crush on Jamie, and her quaterback ex-bf Tim. In the course of things, Tim's yearbook and Chris' are swapped and Tim read the love declaration to the entire party, further ridicule ensues when Jamie reiterates that they remain best friends. Humiliated, Chris declares that he'll show them all and runs away to LA. A decade later, Chris has lost all the weight and turned into a womanising record company exec. In the course of trying to sign the Paris Hilton-esque Samantha James (Anna Faris) to his company, he and Samantha end up stranded in his home town and the new Chris attempts to show the town what he has become and win Jamie's heart.

Now that may sound like a pretty unoffensive movie. Pretty common, in fact. But here is a list of some of my grievances.
1. Chris is obviously picked on at school by Jamie's other *friends* and yet while she makes some token protests, she keeps the people who have obviously spent their entire lives bullying him around her. Some best friend!

2. While Samantha is pretty clingly and stupid, but Chris at times is almost downright abusive towards her and seemingly has no interest in her well-being. For example, she falls off a balcony at the Mall and sustains a concussion, yet he keeps putting her in the care of his younger brother who obviously can't handle her.

3. None of the townspeople can comprehend that Chris has changed in the decade he has been away, and insult him when he attempts to show that he has changed. Key scene - when the waitress gives him pancakes covered in chocolate and cream and he goes to refuse it due to his adult diet, then Jamie acts as if he is majorly insulting the waitress by turning it down.

4. The characters' immaturity in general. Chris allows himself to be goaded by children when playing ice hockey, and instead of trying to minimising the damage, takes the children out. I can understand pride but that is ridiculous.

5. Dusty as the villlian is shown to be acting in a particular way to get Jamie to fall in love with him as *revenge* for her relegating him as just a friend. But that's pretty much the same as what Chris is doing.

6. The pair sleep together in Chris' old bed but don't have sex because Chris realises that perhaps Jamie will only ever want to be friends. Jamie however thinks she's been humiliated because he didn't make a move on her. Hello?! She spent the entire time prior to that reiterating that they are just friends, treating him accordingly and then being pissed that he didn't act!?

7.We are shown that the new Chris is a shallow asshole but when he reverts to his prior self, they get together. But he acted like that all through high school when he was fat and scored nothing. So Jamie is also shown to be a shallow asshole who only dates Chris now that he's rich and built.

In the end, I ended up feeling sorry for Samantha of all people, because despite being a deluded talentless hack, she seemed to genuinely like Chris, although whether it's just to forward her career is in question, but she as a person stays true to who she is and is never painted in a different light to what she is. Who would have thought I'd like the bimbo out of all the characters, eh?

2/10

Movie review - The Pursuit of Happyness

The Pursuit of Happyness is a difficult film for me to review because while I genuinely enjoyed it in the cinema, my curiousity about the story upon which it was *inspired* made me dig around about it and makes me think a bit more about film's manipulation of facts to manipulate the audience.

Set in San Francisco in 1981, the film stars Will Smith as Chris Gardner, Smith's own son Jaden plays Chris' 5 yo son, Christopher. Due to not knowing his own father until the age of 28, Chris swears that his son will have a good relationship with him, but this is put to the test when he comes into financial difficulty after investing in portable bone density scanners that he later finds are considered a luxury by medical people/establishments and therefore difficult to sell. After meeting a stockbroker, he applies for and is accepted into the traineeship programme at Dean Whitter Reynolds (now known as Morgan Stanley), but this makes things even more difficult when his wife abandons the family to move to NYC and he discovers the internship is unpaid. While periodically selling a scanner to make money, a variety of events result in Chris and Christopher becoming destitute and the pair end up homeless - sleeping in the toilets of a subway station for a night and eventually ending up in homeless shelters. The movie shows Chris struggling to do his work while being a good father to Christopher at the same time, leaving work early to pick up his son from daycare in order to make it to the shelter which works on a first come, first served basis. Eventually the story ends up nicely when Chris' perseverence pays off and he is accepted into Dean Whitter as a permanent employee.

First the bits that work - the acting and writing are great. The trials that Chris goes through, his jubilation and despair at the breakthroughs that turn out to be setbacks and his overwhelming concern for his son is totally convincing and absolutely sucks you in. This is no doubt aided by the fact that Smith is acting with his son - their interactions are naturally convincing and well done. A particular standout the scene where they end up in the subway station. Christopher having thrown a tantrum after they were evicted from a motel, is refusing to speak to his father and you can see the stubborness in his little self as they sit on a subway bench. Chris meanwhile is frustrated at his inability to be able to explain what is going on, does the real fatherly thing in convincing his son he should treat the entire thing as a caveman adventure. It's really great.

But the bad things - there are times when the treacle is laid on REALLY thick, and given that Chris states that he arrives at work late and leaves early for the sake of Christopher, the fact that he gets accepted into the company because he made the most sells due to his awesome people skills seems a little far-fetched. While I knew that I was being manipulated with regards to the story, this didn't bother during the film. What does bother me is the extent of the liberties taken when I looked it up later. While the pair really did end up in homeless shelters, key parts in hindsight which bother me are when Chris finds out the traineeship is unpaid - in reality he was getting $1000/month (ok, not enough for rent/food etc but still not as destitute as made out), and when a homeless shelter for women and children turn the pair away despite Chris' pleading and instructs them to a male shelter across town. In reality, the shelter actually let them stay. The wiki entry on the story of the real Chris Gardner is here.

In all though the movie is ok and even if liberties were taken, it is a good story made more incedible by the knowledge that it is essentially based on a true story.
6.5/10

The Sydney Rundown

Well I’m newly returned home from a holiday in other city. I won’t say it was a total break from work because I did bring some things up with me, but I hope you all gather much satisfaction that I didn’t do anywhere near as much work as I thought I would. Aside from that, I do feel quite refreshed even though Miss Pooky packed my days full of activities she’s wanted to do but couldn’t (mostly due to the malicious fun-decreasing elements of her lab), and we also did a lot of lazing around in her wonderfully appointed apartment watching DVDs. Also, since I am stupid, I forgot to take a camera so there are no photos.

After visiting her lab on Friday, we went to some of her favourite undergrad haunts in Glebe, a café called Badde Manors and a The Gleebookshop. The café was a semi-vegan place where I made her eat a Tofu burger that was quite delicious, much to her surprise. And they had really awesome gelati and sorbet. At the bookshop I picked up a copy of More Mere Mortals – a book that contemplates the various medical maladies of historical figures and how that may have affected history. That night we met up with Pooky’s sister, Fluff, and after gorging ourselves at Sushi Train, we watched The Pursuit of Happyness (review coming soon).

Having discovered that Jia One Plus was in town, we met up with her and Jiggles for lunch, Starbucks (I refuse to call that coffee), and shopping. One heartwarming story, Jigs left his umbrella in the Myer foodcourt, a fact he only realized once we were in Starbucks. We didn’t think his chances of finding it again would be high, but despite being away for maybe 20-30 min., it was found in the same place where he left it! That night, we met up with Fluff and her bf, You Won!, for dinner at Pancakes on the Rocks, to get more DVDs, and to buy ingredients to fulfill my sudden urge to bake shortbread. I did and they were delicious! That night we watched Little Man (review NOT coming soon – that’s a shocking movie!) and The Lake House (review coming soon).

Sunday, we met up again with Jiggs and Jia for yumcha, which was actually quite interesting because none of us could speak enough Cantonese to order what we wanted to eat and because Jiggs and I nearly came to blows about whether the Time Paradox was plausible in Lake House. Later I purchased myself a fetching new purse and we purchased some more DVDs to watch. Jia departed to meet up with family, we other three returned to the apartment to watch The Curse of the Golden Flower, Just Friends, and after dinner and So You Think You Can Dance, Click (reviews coming soon).

Seeing as Monday was my last day, we decided to do something educational and spent the morning at the Powerhouse Museum, looking at the history of The Great Wall of China and amusing ourselves in the Science section. Hey, we’re geeks!!! We then went to a Korean restaurant for bulgogi and a way too much food. We didn’t stick to the formula of n dishes + rice – whereby n is defined as the number of people - the two of us ordered four dishes + rice! And then we went back to the apartment for me to pack…and then we bought ice cream and bubble tea to boot!

Despite being internet-free, alcohol-free, exercise-free, and (almost) work-free, I had a really good time! I had such fun bumming around with Pooky and Co. that I’m dreading going back to the lab tomorrow morning. *sigh* This is why I shouldn’t be allowed to take holidays.

Back in Sin City

Hey y'all. Firstly, I'd like to thank everyone who congratulated me for getting the schol. You guys rawk! And to Rox, I fully intend to marry rich, just not now and preferably someone closer to my age. And I want to hear that *smart girls* proverb!

But anyway, after a year of labwork and never taking five consecutive days away from the lab (shocking I know), I decided to fly up to Sydney to visit Miss Pooky. The flight was uneventful, the train ride to the city was uneventful, the walk to her building was uneventful. Waiting for her to realise that her phone was dead and I'd been trying to call her for over an hour to say I had arrived was a bit troubling! After calling everyone I knew in Syd and having them laugh at my predicament (which is funny), problems were solved and we headed off to a Thai restaurant for dinner.

Today I'm at her lab, doing some of my work (:S) while Pooky perfuses animals but we'll be heading out to do more of the usual fun stuff in the next few days. Cheerio!

Good news!

All that furious writing in the middle of the year finally paid off cos I was awarded one of the scholarships I applied for! YAY!!!

It's not an end to my financial woes (I dont think anything other than winning the lottery or marrying some kind of sugar daddy - yuk- is gonna solve them), but its a start!

I'm not sure if I should be pleased here

Which Goddess Owns You?

The Goddess Death: Dark, morbid, appropriately represented by the color black and the element water. Death is reserved, intellectual, introspective. Rarely does she do anything requiring a lot of energy or display of emotion -- but when she does, anyone within a few planes would do well to duck and cover.
Take this quiz!








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Battle Scars

Ooh, something exciting happened!

Due to my decreased portions diet and being in the lab for 4 hours, my stomach was pretty sore so I skipped gym thinking that I'd just hop on the bike for a ride post-dinner. Little did I know that I would come to grief after such a short ride. Going downhill towards the parks, I went to brake and turn a corner when all of a sudden I was flying through the air over the handlebars! Ok, it wasn't that dramatic but I did find myself on the ground with the bike on it's side.

After getting up and assessing the damage (sore hip, sore hand, grazed knee) I assured the people who witnessed my fall that I was fine and they helped me pick up and bike and attempt to discern why I fell. It was all a mystery as there were no large rocks present until someone who had righted the bike noted that the front wheel had come off the axle. The axle itself was not broken which made someone else say that it probably had been loose. This then leads me to two conclusions. Either someone is trying to kill me or Pooey didn't assemble the thing properly. In anycase, I now have an ugly scabby graze on my knee in the middle of short skirt season. CRAP!!!

Not much going on

As result of my resolution to lose weight and work harder, there wasn't really anything to write about over the weekend. I sense that I may become increasingly boring if the last three days are anything to go by. OH NO!!!

But as an update, I had a relatively alcohol-free Friday (what?!?). The night started with dins with dirty roy and Hat in Chinatown before mucking around the city to meet up with Teena, Shaz, etc for karaoke at Khoon's place. Such a good hostess, always making sure her guests have an alcoholic drink. I ended up having to take one from her to avoid upsetting her. Unforch, karaoke dragged on for so long that at 2am I declined the invite to stay over night and took a taxi home. This actually may have been the smarter option for I hear that the singing didn't end until 5am.

Saturday I hunted for a webcame and when the store I selected turned out to be closed, I ended up driving randomly in the eastern suburbs, then went home to a night of the classic 80s movie, Ghostbusters.

I did some cycling on Sunday and the new piece of wildlife viewed was a homeless person sleeping on the bike trail, and that evening I met up with Akina and many other Japanese people to watch Zoolander at rooftop cinema. It was quite cold but the many hilarious lines kept us warm with their jollity.

hell

As part of my resolution to work harder on my phd, I've spent 5 hours on this microscope.

1.5 left to go!!!

Resolutions

Just so I remember what they are and people can bitch at me if I don't hold myself to them.

1. Be nicer to people I don't like. Or at least get better at hiding my animosity.
2. Work harder at my PhD. This one is a bit of a necessity.
3. Learn a new skill. I've narrowed it down to either ballroom dancing, kendo or jujitsu.
4. Limit myself to a maximum of four alcoholic drinks per outing.
And of course,
5. Lose 5kg. Heh, this one never happens.

One Good Turn...

Today on the bus we all did the usual skip and dance around the seats to allow people to get on and off but when I sat down in a (new) seat, I jumped up when something hard hit my ass. Imagine my surprise when there was a phone there as if freshly laid, egg style. After picking it up, I tried to figure out how to access the phonebook to see if I could find a number labelled *Home*, *Mum*, *Dad* or possibly even *Work* to contact the rightful owner as I hopped off at my stop. After revealing the true extent of my technology-retardedness, *Dad* rang to claim himself as the rightful owner. As I was already at my place of work, and his was located a fair distance away, we agreed to meet up later for the handover. Imagine my surprise when he handed over a pile of chocolate as a gesture of thanks.

I do like ferrero rocher.

Happy New Year, y'all!!!

I rang in the new year at Lexington, a bar I have maligned as being full of tossers. But you know, experience in bars is always affected by the people you're with as well as the crowd's general demeanour. Well last night's crowd just wanted to kick some 2006 ass and we all partied on with good feelings and minimal tossing! I went with Akina, Alain, and Robert and we met up with some more of Akina's buds, Shirley and her friends, and Eva & John and their friends. Unforch, I have no photos cos I cloaked my bag which had my phone in it.

What can I say? It was a lot of fun, even when some ppl decided to start the count early and then splashed us all with their (free) champagne. And although Akina et al. crashed and went home soon after midnight, I rocked on with Eva & co. and took their invite to go back to their apt so we could dance with shoes off! I eventually crawled out home at 6:30 cos although the invite to crash there was mighty tempting, I really wanted to take out my contacts, wash off my makeup and brush my teeth to feel more human.

2006 ended on a bright note, let 2007 shine on!

Had to be shared!

Dang this is funny



Step 1!

Rundown

Not much has happened in the last few days

Tues - Stayed home to avoid bankrupting myself at the sales, practiced cycling.
Wed - Spent the whole day at uni re-sectioning and then went home to practice cycling
Thurs - Went to AL's place for the Big Breakfast party she was throwing that turned out to be lunch, went to uni at 1pm and spent the rest of the day sectioning, visited Akina at work, had dinner with Thai, had drinks with Amandine
Fri - Practiced cycling

The only really interesting this is I saw a snake and a lizard when cycling today.

Movie Review - Casino Royale

I am a fan of the James Bond films. I am one of the many who think Sean Connery is the best one. So where in the scheme of things does Casino Royale stack up to me? Well. Very well.

Casino Royale is the 21st Bond film (in the official EON lineup), and the first to star Daniel Craig. Like a number of other recent films which followed established franchises (Batman Begins, Superman Returns), CR goes back to tell how Bond became 'Bond'. Based loosely on the first novel by Ian Fleming, Bond is attempting to take down the villian Le Chiffre, 'banker to the terrorists', by bankrupting him in a high-stakes Texas Hold'Em competition at the Casino Royale in Montenegro. As befitting the re-load status of this film, a lot of the things which denote a Bond film has been taken away, such Q and his gadgets. But on the flipside, we see Bond acquire the accoutrements of 'Bond', from the '00' status (in the opening sequence), the car (the classic Aston Martin DB5 and new Aston Martin DBS - ooh lala!), the tux, the vodka martini, the name introduction and the womanising.

There was a measure of *oh, this film is gonna bomb* thinking around CR following the dumping of the popular Pierce Brosnan and the casting of Craig's was met with a general 'who!??!' as well as media revelations that he couldn't drive manual, and had to turn up to a press conference wearing a lifejacket. This is probably the lowest profile Bond cast in ages following the casting of Eva Green, another not so high profile actor (especially considering the shortlist for the role allegedly included Angelina Jolie, Charlize Theron, Aishwarya Rai, and Scarlett Johanssen), and Mads Mikkelsen as Le Chiffre. But you know what? High-profile people, who gives a damn so long as the actors are convincing in their roles! (Denise Richards as a nuclear physicist? WHATEVER!!!) And they are convincing! Craig doesn't go throughout the movie with a permanent smirk, instead he's quite good at showing the semi-psychopathic tendencies that might belong to someone who hides their true identity and kills for a living! Eva Green is BEE-YOO-TEE-FUL as the Treasury agent Vesper Lynd, nicely icy when faced when Bond is annoying, but also vulnerable when made to face what his career actually involves.

But it's more than just hiring the right people which makes this movie so effective. For one, the plot is actually believable compared to some of the more recent ones (e.g. the Media Baron starting a war so he can increase profits in Tomorrow Never Dies). Le Chiffre set up the game because after losing over $100,000,000 that belongs to an African Guerrilla guy of some sort, he REALLY NEEDS to win big quickly. Bond is less of the flip joker and more an actual spy whose actions potentially affect the lives of many people - his eyes are on the prize and he even gives up seducing a woman to chase a terrorist! That's not to say he can't be funny - the scenes when he confronts Vesper about the suit she ordered for him, hilarity in a purely normal way. However, if there is a fall person, its M - a degree of humour comes from Bond breaking classified information about her. The action sequences are less stunt-laden and cartoonish (e.g. the invisible car in Die Another Day). And man, when this movie starts the action, it doesn't let up! But the real tension comes the poker game itself! It was just like watching the tennis sequences in Wimbledon.

Casino Royale is a great movie that takes something that had become a cliched parody of itself and made it new. I don't know if its the best Bond ever - it has a lot of nostalgia to beat - but it's certainly one of the better ones and one of the better movies of 2006.
8/10

P.S. The song is pretty nifty too

Merry Christmas, y'all!

I know this may sound like sacrilege, but I don't put much stock in Christmas cos as kids we never really celebrated it so there's no history of gift giving/receiving. It was just a day off when the shops were closed and tv programming was terrible! That's kinda changed as we got more integrated into society and while there's still not gift exchange and the TV is still bad, we sure do celebrate it with a big family get together!

This year it was bigger than usual - there were ppl present I swear I haven't seen in 20 years, and even some I'd never met before. Here are some pics:

Some of the food

Dad frying more (why he's wearing that plastic thing, I don't know)

Lobster heads for all! Random people eating

We don't see many babies and spent a lot of time playing and photographing ourselves with them:And we discovered that 'Milly has an unexplicable love for Spuey - choosing to go to him instead of her own MOTHER! - and using him as an adventure playground.

E also somehow discovered how to take photos of himself. How asian!In all, much fun.

All photos are online (soon) at http://mallymoodlespics.shutterfly.com (pword = 12345)

I'd also like to mention these mince pies that Cam gave me as a present. I'm not sure how they were decided to be *exceedingly good*, but that labelling sure gave me a laugh.

Learning to Ride

For the past 25 years and four months, I have not been able to ride a bike. That changed this month when Poosy declared that after 27 years, she was finally going to learn and would start by actually buying a bike. While I've never felt a burning desire to learn I have conceded that so long as I never could ride I would probably never be able to compete in The Amazing Race, so now that a bike was in our possession, I decided it was also time for me to learn!

My announcement to people that I was going to learn was met with bewilderment that I had never learned as a child to welcoming enthusiasm and flat-out amusement. I got a lot of comments such as "Are you gonna use training wheels?" Haha. "No really! Man, I'd love to see an adult bike with training wheels!"

Pooey began by practicing riding up and down the 15-20m path in our backyard. About a fortnight ago, I first climbed on the bike about and amazed Pooey when I immediately rode about 5-10m. Now that Pooey is gone, I've decided to be more dilligent and soon the path became too small. So today Spuey and I took the bike down to our local bush park where there's a path about 1.5km or so long. And I kept riding it until I could do the whole course without stopping. And now I can!

Hooray!

It was kind of galling to have kids a fraction of my age passing me though. Grrr.....

wth!?

It says I only have 3 gig memory left on my computer.

Time for a format!

New personal best!

Six hours (11-5) on the cryostat today!

Although I suppose I should remove 30 minutes I took for lunch and however long I took to dissect an eye for sectioning...

I've got seven blocks to go before I can restart the staining!

Never heard of this character

Your results:
You are Iron Man

Iron Man 65% Spider-Man 65% Wonder Woman 60% Catwoman 60% Supergirl 60% Batman 60% Robin 57% Hulk 55% Superman 50% The Flash 40% Green Lantern 35%

Inventor. Businessman. Genius.

Click here to take the Superhero Personality Test

The honeymoon is OVER, baby!

Omg...first big hurdle of my PhD has just been thrown into the mix - the cell counting that I've been doing for the last few months have to be repeated right from the beginning. I have to recut the sections, restain, recount.

O.
M.
G.

Well, I don't have to rekill the animals, I guess that's a small blessing

Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Played it last night at Kahunas! And I had fun! I think I might break my no-consoles rule!!!!

The Marriage of Figaro

I have a new favourite opera performance!!! I've written previously about my oft misunderstood enjoyment of opera (here) but if there's one that everyone can enjoy, its The Marriage of Figaro by Mozart/daPonte. I saw the revival of the 2002 Neil Armfield production (costume and set design based on Goya) last night and it was absolutely brilliant!

A short synopsis for the people too lazy to click the link, the story takes place about five years after the events in The Barber of Seville, on the day that Figaro, former barber and currently valet for Count Almaviva, is about to marry his sweetie Susanna. Susanna is the personal maid to the Countess, Rosina, whom Figaro brought together with the Count in Seville. As times have changed, the Almaviva is now an unfaithful husband with Susanna as his next target, but also terribly jealous of any man who may have an eye for his Countess - particularly the pageboy Cherubino who has just hit puberty. Hijinks ensue as Figaro, Susanna, Rosina and his tenants attempt to thwart Almaviva's plans to debauch Susanna and send Cherubino to the army, while also returning him to the Countess' loving arms.

Watching the production unfold, I remembered what a funny story Figaro is, and I guess that's one of the drawbacks of listening to opera on CD. Watching the acting and translation with the music - soooo many lol moments along with the enjoyment of so many familiar arias! Richard Alexander and Tiffany Speight were terrific and equally matched as the quick-witted Figaro and Susanna running rings around Almaviva. Alexander was just the cheeky and slightly rotund Figaro I always picture in my mind! Leanne Kenneally was fantastic at portraying Rosina's sadness that the good times between her and Almaviva seem to be gone in the aria Dove sono? but also shows her backbone of steel for wanting to exert a bit of reveng on him. Joslyn Rechter had Cherubino's male walk and loose limbs down pat, but the real star of the show is Teddy Tahu Rhodes as Almaviva.

Cheating bastards aren't usually my thing but Tahu Rhodes plays him with such charm and charisma that you kind of feel like Barbarina who'd give in to the seduction when he promises you everything! From the moment he walks into Susanna's room barefoot with his shirt open and wearing a velvet robe, you see this is a guy who is not normally denied anything he wants. Act II is even better as he storms around Rosina's chamber using every wile he possesses to make her open the door to her dressing room where Cherubino is hiding, from seduction (pictured) to breaking it down with an axe. And upon finding Susanna in the closet, to be so shocked as to just let the axe drop! But he doesn't have it all his way with buffoonish moments such as in Act III his *Omigod, don't talk about this now!* reaction when Barbarina mentions his promise in public to coerce the Count into allowing Cherubino to stay, and when Susanna under Rosina's orders turns on the seduction to get Almaviva to meet her later in the garden...the way the 6'5 Tahu Rhodes mimicks the coquettish dance around the props, sheer hilarity!

Figaro is probably one of the best operas you can be introduced to due to the hilarious storyline and familiar music. And it is familiar because seriously, the music from this opera has been played everywhere. As Ruilin said to me after the first act: "I wanna buy a subscription!" Yeah! (Now maybe OperaAustralia will put more productions on in Melbourne *grumble grumble*)

Book review: Train Man

Last Friday, Pooey and Jade needed to go shopping and drinking but I didn't really feel like coming along so I sequestered myself in one of my favoured bookshops and waited for them to get ready to eat. They say you should never judge a book by its cover but while I was perusing the shelves I found a book that looked so cute, I had to pick it up and read it! And the book was really cute!!!

Train Man (Densha Otoko in the original japanese) tells the story of a 22yo otaku (computery anime geek) who one day intervenes when a drunk starts hassling women on the Tokyo metro. After the drunk gets arrested, the women ask for his address so they can thank him...and imagine his surprise when the young attractive one sends him a pair of Hermès teacups as a present. The book chronicles his metamorphosis from a guy who has never been on a date (or possibly even looked a girl in the eye) to a more confident guy who gets the girl.

Sure, I know what you're thinking Oh, it's just another Mallymoodle romance book. WRONG! What makes the book is that it's a translation of the real forum postings that Train Man wrote on 2Channel and the advice, comments, and reactions of his fellow board posters. I said he was a computer geek! Being somewhat geeky myself, I could really see the reactions of the fellow posters and cheer on Train Man as he went after Lady Hermès. And you've got to admit to the warm fuzzy feeling when you realise that all these strangers are cheering on someone they dont know and probably never will.

It's hard to describe what made the book such a great read. I can imagine that people might find the postings difficult to read or even gimmicky. There's no 'characterisation' in the formal sense. Whether or not the situation seems credible or not will depend on your personal mindset, I suppose. What is realistic is when the various geeks wait for Train on the forum for updates, how they band together in mock battle as Train shares the details of various dates, and share in turn their tales of woe as they marvel at how Train's little acts of confidence deliver for him. It's almost enough to be a little more forgiving of the various people who hit on me. Almost. There is also the question about authenticity. The identities of Train and Hermès have never been publicly revealed...but when I typed in the urls listed in some of the postings, they really existed. There is also a lot of geeky things like ASCI art so that might annoy some too.

But seriously. Its a cute book and an entertaining read. I'm not sure how widely available it is here, but read it if you can!

Adey's 26th Birthday blowout

(I didn't think my words could do justice to this party, but Kirms has requested this entry.)

On a horridly hot, muggy, smoggy day, the night started off at The Metropol at 7:20pm because Marta, Krijn and I were early. A jug of sangria later, we sat back and watched the crowd and waited for Adey + mates to roll up.

And roll up they did! Pretty much as soon as he arrived, the festivities (i.e. us trying to get him drunk) began. There was also ice-cream cake which was awesome but quite difficult to eat due to the difficulty of us finding a staff member who could/would get us knives, plates and spoons. There is a photo of Adey giving up and actually drinking the cake somewhere.

Another note about the Metropol - don't order the tapas. Not because it's bad, its quite good, but because each serving has about 3 items on a giant plate *eye roll* and it was hugely overpriced. It was recommended that 3 plates is enough for 2 people to share. We ordered 15 plates for 5 people...we had to order extra food due to our hunger and to line our stomachs for the alcohol. The tapas might also have been the reason why we had to wait ONE HOUR for the food to arrive. There was a lot of questioning the staff about whether they had our order ready or not.

Anyway, since the crowd was standard St. Kilda - little girls in little dresses...many with questionable fashion taste, the boys were in heaven. Marlene and I on the other hand complained about the quality of the males. Tsk. Around about midnight or so we decided to find ourselves a classier crowd of people...but we went to The Elephant & Wheelbarrow anyway :-P

There....things got a little bit more raucus. There were more shots, a *body shot*, a huge line to get into the ladies' loo, a lot of smirnoff blacks, I remember hitting Ash in the face, and a bunch of guys rubbing their 1, 2, 3 and 5 day growths against my face when I complained about someone being hairy.

I pulledup alright the next day, but two days later, Adey, Ash and Kirm are still eating deep fried foods. And with that, I declare the party a job well done!

Shoe dilemma

I was going through my closet cos tonight is Adey's 26th birthday party and I was looking for a suitable outfit when I came across these lovely shoes that Miss Pooky gave me as a present last year.The reality of these shoes is that Miss Pooky bought them out of love but discovered that the angle combined with the heel size meant that she couldn't actually walk in them. Knowing that I'm a handy traveller in impossible shoes, she gave them to me, I proved my ability by traipsing around in them from her place to FM Karaoke, and back again. The fact that they don't match my general wardrobe colours (comprising of blacks, reds, pinks, and other bright jewel colours) and the right shoe needed an extra hole punched into them limited their wear by me.

But times have now changed and I've got a bit more white and blue in my closet...although I was thinking of pairing them with a plain black dress. I got the holes punched into them today so I was trying them on in the bathroom...when I caught of sight of them in the mirror. They actually look REALLY painful! Please ignore my disgusting feet and the dirty tiles to check it out:I don't know what to do know cos I have a feeling we'll be out for a while tonight.

SATC complete series on DVD!

Here is a pack of the thing that has financially broken me. And below is the stuff that came in the kit! Totally worth it!

Skint

Omg, only one week into Christmas shopping and I'm already broke! Admittedly a few of the presents are for yours truly *cough SATC complete season *cough* but it's still a shocking state of affairs!

Funny day

Mondays can get pretty strange due to the re-jigging of routine after the sloth and alcohol of the weekend, and today was pretty weird.

It started with me waking up at 6:30am thinking I was late. The really weird bit is that I didn't have anything that was concretely planned that had to be done. I got to the bus stop at the adequate time of 8:30. We passed a bus on the way to the stop so I felt pretty confident that I would get it. When we got to the stop, there was a bus already sitting there and I walked towards it. Imagine my surprise when it pulled away. *No matter,* I thought, *There's always the one we passed.* Then, imagine my horror when it didn't even stop!!!

There were a few more strange happenings today that I can't be bothered going into, but one that is a bit amusing...despite it being Monday, I still somehow found myself drinking hard spirits at 6:30pm. Go figure. And a nosebleed at 9pm. Interesting day.

And before the day is through, I'd just like to wish Lydia a happy 23rd birthday. Hooray!

Sumi Jo, Ravel and Childhood

Well, I spent another evening listening to a highly publicised opera singer who sang a few pieces, and an orchestra that played a lot.That's not to say that Sumi Jo didn't sing well (indeed, she sang her roles beautifully) but the main role, The Child, in the choral piece presented to us L'Enfant et les sortileges is for a mezzo.

No matter. I really enjoyed it and liked the theme of childhood, particularly the 'Toy'Symphony by Leopold Mozart. Very cute.

In a fortnight, The Marriage of Figaro!

General stuff

I have decided to switch to the beta version cos I like how the archiving shows up as individual posts...should anyone (snort) decide they want to read over back entries, its a bit easier now!

In other news, it was an unfulfilling week in research. I did a lot of lab work that was ok (connexin stainings), inconclusive (blood vessel vs pericyte staining), or downright didn't work (calcium loading). So here are some photos.

Ok, the arrows in this pic is pointing to labelling of cx43 - a molecule that occurs at the junctions of particular cells. We are of the belief that these junctional molecules disappear in the disease. The bad thing about this photo is that i really had to jack up the background colour so that we could see the location of the dots in relation to everything else. Next time, I'm gonna use a counter-stain.

This one labels for cx26 - similar to cx43 but not dotty. We wanted dots.

This is a whole mounted retina labelled for NG2, and shows blood vessels. The lumpy things sticking out of the vessels are cell bodies. Huzzah for geeks!