Friday night out!

Well the semester has come to a close bringing an end to classes (yay!) but also the end of seminar drinks (boo!). So DancingHula, Marlene and I decided to head into the city and attend a Lane Party (i.e. a party in a lane).

The lane party, meh...the excitement of the location wore off pretty quickly when we saw the massive queue to get into the lane and the excitement of two free glasses of alcohol wore off even quicker when we found the wine to be yerky. But here are some pics.

The location and crowd

Some of the entertainers. I found the silver stilt ppl quite creepy.

We three party girls

Our drink cards were cards from the bar secrets pack!

Taking time to enjoy the champagne

Alcohol induced silly posing!

We left the lane to meet up with Hula's sister Kt and went off to Degraves to get food before meeting up with some of Hula and Marls' friends. The next drink location was Bambu were Uncle Loi was having his going away party as well as to satisfy Marlene's desire for a good margarita.

Kt, Hula, Vinh, Lisa
Me, Mike, Kt, Studds, Hula

Marls trying to get a margarita (I find this pic unbelievably amusing)

Bringing out my inner jap posing.

Unforch, pretty much every time I went to go buy Loi a drink, he usually had one in each hand. Eventually we left (quite early) for tea in a warm and quiet-ish place to converse. Despite the silly posing, I only sunk three drinks and was home by midnight! If only all Friday drinks would be so easy and eventful!

Me and the Internet: A Love/Hate Story

I love the internet. I don't deny it. But I hate it as well - also undeniable. I love how much easier it makes my work - to go to PubMed, type in a few words and have it spit out journal articles that haven't even been published yet! No poring over that medical compendium index or whatever its called. But at the same time, I miss the effort and satisfaction of having to physically track down an article, photocopy it and slog over its pages. Plus, the lack of tangibility that books have. I had to pore over journals that were over 100 years old for Art Hist and referenced the collected works of John Ruskin that had obviously had generations of over researchers go over it - it was that beaten up. *sigh* But then, it wouldn't be beaten up if it were on the net since it would then not require physical handling!

After hearing rumblings of it, I had my first interaction with the internet in 1996 when our IT teacher tried to demonstrate its use and other things. I was largely unimpressed due to the slowness of our school's connection and poor formatting. It was just like reading the MSY site. Things changed in 1998 when the internet was connected to our house via a 32.2k modem. Still slow, but now I could satisfy my desire for knowledge at home! I also discovered email and chat rooms and somehow ended up exchanging correspondence with a US Marine until he got posted to the Gulf (probably not the wisest thing I've ever done).

University brought huge changes in the role of internet in my life but it didn't become that integral as my Faculties continued publishing their own notes and forcing us to purchase them rather than download. Instead the net became the means to explore celebrity gossip and use a variety of instant messaging programmes such as tetranet Big Two and ICQ to communicate with friends. And of course a way to share our favourite music and to waste time while significant others were busy playing LAN games :P.

While I accept its role in my life, I curse my dependence on it for communication (oh god, life stopped when the email server went down) and deadlines are even scarier when you have to submit something online and you know everyone else is jamming it at the same time. Procrastination increasing multi-fold. The downgrading of print media. The constant threat of viruses...*sigh* But I appreciate the ability to see and speak to people on the other side of the world short of flying over there. How much easier it makes my working life and a myriad of other aspects. From my original dismissal to the present dependence, the internet and I have had a difficult relationship. I consider it akin to an abusive lover - capable of doing things to make me sing your praises to all and sundry, but never knowing when you're going to turn against me and make life hell. And yes, I see the irony in me posting this online

Birthday dinner at Bluefire

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

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

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

Pre-drinks at the Lion

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

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

Trying to get the food servers' attention

Kirsty tries to make the msg a bit more obvious.

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

Dammit

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

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

Paullina Simons' Tatia and Shura (Bronze Horseman) Trilogy

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

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

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

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

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

Data from the new confocal!

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

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

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

Birthday stories!

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

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

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

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

The Vow...re-opened!

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

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

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

Crappy song that I love

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

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

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

Bored sick

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

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

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

Happy Mothers Day!

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

(Image source)

And yes Mum, you look just like Teresa Teng!

73% German Blonde

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



With this photo however, the result is different.

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

The last few days

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

horror of horrors

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

Guess I'm not finishing on time :'(

Not much to say

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

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

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

There you go!

Crimes against fashion

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

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

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

Crimes against fashion

A return of the much-loved segment!

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

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

Time on my hands

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

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

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

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

Quizzes!

You Are 24% Nerdy

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

How Nerdy Are You?

You Are a Normal Girl

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

Are You a Good Girl or a Bad Girl?

You Are 52% A Child of the 80s

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

Are You a Child of an 80s?

You are a Brainy Girl!

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

What Kind of Girl Are You?

Movie review - The Departed UPDATE

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

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

INFERNAL AFFAIRS IS BETTER THAN THE DEPARTED

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

This is COOL!

Image Source

Oreo cheesecake

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

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

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

For the topping:

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

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

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

It sure is nummy num-nums!

The Meaning of Life

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

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

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

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

Faith restored!

The story of the sheep scam is a scam!

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

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

Japanese Poodle Scam

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

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

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

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

The week (so far) in review

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

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

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

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

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

Well its only 1pm...

and two things of note have happened.

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

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

When PhD students go bad...

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

The Whole Deal

A different view

Close up of the chair and drawers

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

Just in case we forget whose desk it is ;)

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

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

Ho hum

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Chocolate brownies

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Movie review - 300

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

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

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


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

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

Movie review - Nobody Knows

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

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

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

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

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

Puppet up!

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

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


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

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

Anyway, catch this show if you can!

Movie review - Stomp the Yard

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

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

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

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

Happy Easter!

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

Hope you all got lots of chocs!

This is cool!

Brain fried

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

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

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

I'm stoopit!!!

Camping at the Farm for Jimmy's 21st

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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