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 ;)

Cheating blog!

You Are a Chocolate Chip Cookie

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

What Kind of Cookie Are You?

You Are a Red Velvet Cake

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

What Kind of Cake Are You?

You Are Lisa Simpson

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

The Simpsons Personality Test

You Are Balanced - Realist - Empowered

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

The Three Dimension Luck and Power Test

Pretty Data!

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

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

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

InStyle Instant Style

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

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

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

In other news...

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

But I'm not going to talk about work!

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

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

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

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

Movie review - Twice Upon A Time

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

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

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

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

6.5/10

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

The End....maybe

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

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

The Kill

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

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

Hopefully I'll write something more joyous soon!

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

Back on the bike!

Literally!

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

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

IT'S (ALMOST) OFFICIAL!!!

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

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

Two days later...

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

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

Good gourd, I hurt!

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

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

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

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

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

R.I.P. Fishy I

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

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


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

At uni on a Sunday morning :(

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sydney - Part III

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

Alix and his wagyu beef burger

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

Dessert - ricotta hotcakes! Yum yum!

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

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

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

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

Sydney - Part IIA

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

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

Sydney - Saturday MARDI GRAS

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

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

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

Uh-oh, all this crowd in our way!

The crowd going all the way up Oxford St.

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

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

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

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

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

Here's some of the floats from that night

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

Mature Age Gays

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

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

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

Sydney Part I

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

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

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

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

An explanation about Candidature to Student

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

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

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

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

Back Home!

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

CONFIRMED!

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

Huzzah!

Confirmation isnt over...

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

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

right.....

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

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

Check out my review for why the academy is wrong.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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