ACB goes to the races!

Ahhh.....one of the great things about late October/early November is the arrival of warm weather and the Spring Racing Carnival. Of course, one of the great tragedies of late October/early November is that exams and final papers are also due, cancelling out the likelihood of a bunch of geeks attending the races. Well, as post-grads and employees, we're no longer subject to end-of-semester exams, so ACB went off to celebrate! Unfortunately Cup Day is not a uni holiday so we all had to be here on Tuesday...but Ash, Fowler, Kathryn, Lydia, Cam, Marta, Krijn, Krijn's friend with an unpronouncable name, and myself shifted the plans to Oaks Day!

I can't believe I didn't take a photo of the whole group.

Marta, Lydia and myself

Fowler and Cam

Kathryn, Ash, friend + Krijn getting into the spirit

The weather was fantastic, the atmosphere electric, food was good (heaps of it), and the alcohol flowed freely. So here we are, celebrating the races!

Walking under the famed roses

Our view of the track from our picnic spot - go you little horse!

Celebrating Miss Finland's glorious victory!
Our food + bottles!

More photos are can be viewed at
http://mallymoodlespics.shutterfly.com
(password = 12345)

It was a friendly crowd - Marta made friends with a bunch of people nearer to the fence and they gave us betting tips...that didn't work. Oh well. A great day was had by all, and like our two fellow revellers here,bring on the next batch of celebrations!

Gambling pays off!

In celebration of the day where everyone gambles, I put $2 on three different horses.

And one of them came second.

So it paid off!

YAY!

Laundry run

For some reason, I thought this was going to be an alcohol-free, restful weekend where I'd get a lot of writing done. It hasn't quite turned out that way.

Despite the core group of ACB drinkers being generally absent and me staying at my desk until 7pm (Ash and Kitchener can vouch for that!), I still managed to go drinking with Cam and co. on Friday night followed by dinner at Stonegrill, all subsidised by him (Thanks man!). After being woken up at the ungodly hour of 10am on Saturday by some damn Jehovah's Witnesses, I bummed around the house before heading out to meet the Undergrad Sci crew for dinner. Despite swearing that I would leave for home at midnight and actually drawing a map of some bars located on the southern end of the grid that don't have a Saturday night covercharge...I still ended up taking the group on a bar tour and rocking home at 2:30am. With only one Bloody Mary to fortify myself! Given my drinky/punchy rep, I'm quite proud of that last fact!

And so today I've managed to do three loads of laundry, hence the title of the post. Yay!

LoveCake

Pardon my lack of entries, I've been stuck between a mixture of working too much or sleeping too early. Well today was a momentous day in the Hons year - Defence of Thesis Day! ACB run theirs a little different to how mine was run last year. Path gave everyone 15 mins talking time plus 5 mins for questions and they were spread over two days. ACB gave everyone only 10 mins talking time, and all 20 (?) students were crammed into one day! Defences started at 9am sharp with Marlene, and ended at 3:30pm with Marina. I don't know if it actually ended at 3:30...I just assume it didn't.

Anyway, I was late to the seminar and ran into Devil's Childe James and somehow we decided I was going to make a cake for us all to eat/celebrate on Friday. But it couldn't be just any old cake, it had to be my chocolate cake or as Childe calls it, the LoveCake. There's nothing particularly special about the LoveCake. It's just an ordinary chocolate cake in my opinion, but Childe says that when he eats it, he can feel the love I put in when I cook it. O-kay...

Anyway, just for anyone who wants to know what LoveCake tastes like, here's the recipe.

Cake
125g butter
1 cup caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence/extract
1 egg, beaten
1.5 cups SR flour
3 tbs cocoa (I use Cadbury Bournville)
1 cup cold water

Pre-heat a fan-forced oven to 170 degrees celsius.
Cream the butter and sugar together.
Add the beaten egg, vanilla, and water to the sugar mixture and mix in. Try to make the lumps as small as possible, but it won't form a smooth paste.
Sift in the flour and cocoa straight onto the sugar mixture, alternately stirring until the mixture resembles a smooth brown paste.
Pour the mixture into a cake tin - I use a 20cm springform tin. This produces a cake that's about 5cm high after baking. Also, because the mixture is quite wet, I recommend covering the bottom of springform tins with foil to stop the mixture from seeping out.
Bake for 1 hour, cake is ready when a skewer comes out clean.
Cool in the tin for 30 mins, then cool on a wire rack.

When eaten warm straight out of the oven (as I have done), it tastes a bit like chocolate pudding. But since most people don't do that, after experimenting with various icing recipes, I've found that this chocolate frosting one works best with the cake. There's plently of frosting left over so if you want to be careful, make only 2/3 of the mix.

Frosting mixture
3 tbs cocoa powder
3 tbs hot water
125g butter at room temperature
250g icing sugar

Dissolve the cocoa powder into the hot water, stirring it to make a smooth paste.
Cream the butter into the cocoa mixture.
Cream the icing sugar into the cocoa/butter mixture until completely smooth.
Apply to cake when the cake is cool.
Garnish with strawberries for a brown/red colour and sour/sweet flavour contrast.

Since this is a frosting mixture, it doesn't set hard so you might want to store it for a little while in the fridge. Also, because the cakes are only about 5-10cm thick, I experimented once with making this a dual-layer cake with cream centre and a setting icing (i.e. one that went hard). It worked well (getting the icing all over it was a bitch though) but it was REALLY rich. I mean everyone still ate it and said it was good, but I sure felt sick after one slice!

So there you go. The recipe for my LoveCake. Eat it well and feel the love!

Evolution

I don't know how many people have seen this video, but it's a compelling commentary on the perception of beauty and its usage in advertising.

A Plea for A Product

When I was in Europe in 2004-2005, I was very hesitant to buy makeup products just in case I ended up really liking them, but never able to get them again. Eventually I broke the vow and bought things I knew I would be able to purchase again, if at a hugely inflated price. Well, except for one product.

On my second day in Paris, I realised that I really did need a specific facial cleanser because while I usually just use water here, the pollution and amount of walking we were doing meant that I could feel my skin getting icky and had nothing but soap to clean it. And so during our allocated lunch time, I went into the Bazar Hôtel de Ville (BHV) on Rue de Rivoli and had a conversation with the shopgirl about what I wanted. I impated that because I am prone to eczéma, my peau is assez sèche and since I was australienne I needed a marque that was internationale and pas trop chère. She suggested I get the Evian Affinity Fluide Démaquillant originel because since the mixture is a crème it would be more gentle than the gels nettoyants, and at 5.50€ it was on the cheaper end of the scale as well as being a brand she was pretty sure was sold in other countries.

And she wasright on most counts - 5.50€ at the time was about $AUD9.00 and the crème mixture had a pleasant fragrance and didn't dry out my peau. In fact, it made my skin look pretty damn good. Despite warnings that taking it back home would mystically alter its chemical properties the way my mascara had gone clumpy when I flew over, I carefully packed the product into a vacuum sealed back and took it home. And it still made my skin look good! But then things came to a crisis point - despite being sparing with my usage, the bottle ran low and I found to my horror that it's not sold in Australia.

So this is a plea to my readers in overseas (if any), what's the likelihood any of you would be able to become a source for this product?

My bad :-(

You might remember that I got myself Toshi about five months ago to help myself deal with the rigours of postgraduate study. This past fortnight has been...heavy...compared to the first few months, and this has necessitated my carrying toshi to and from uni to do homework.

Well, that fortnight of carrying it around in a backpack without proper padding has produced unfortunate side-effects, as seen in this picture.

Man, I really underestimated the amount of scratching that carrying a laptop around with the plugs in the same bag would do. I'm sorry that I made you ugly and no longer beautiful, toshi!!! *sob sob*

Relief!

Hooray! I have completed the Neurogroup presentation, and while I dont think I carried myself off with as much aplomb as I did during my Defence last year, I think I did ok. The areas that I need to improve on are slowing down my talking speed (although a Dept. lecturer did tell me he thought my speed was adequate) and knowing my shit a bit more so I don't die during questions. My cake and cookies were fine.

On a different note, if you attend Melb Uni and are a postgrad or Hons student within the Faculties of Science, Engineering, or Medicine, Dentistry & Health Sciences, we'd like to invite you all to enter the *Under the Coverslip Competition*.
For details and entry form, go to http://www.anatomy.unimelb.edu.au/coverslip/index.html

Movie review - Malena

I've written before about how I love Monica Bellucci in a totally lesbian way as well as my hopelessly inept attempt at learning italian. These two were united as I watched the 2000 movie Malèna. Spoilers abound in this review, so watch out!!!

In 1941, Maddalena Scordia, known simply as Malèna, arrives in Castelcuto, a small town in Sicily, the new wife of a local lieutenant. When he is sent off the fight in the war, her beauty and aloof manner keeps her separate from the local populace: the men don't hide their desire for her which enrages the women. The only people in the entire town on her side are her elderly father who teaches latin at the school, and Renato (Giuseppe Sulfaro) a shy 12 year old boy for whom Malèna is the ideal woman. Everyday as she walks from her seaside home, through the central piazza, to her father's house, Malèna deals with the catcalls and jealous gossip while Renato tries to ride his bike near at various parts of her path. After news that her husband has died reaches the village, the tensions that Malèna arouses in various parts of the populace reach boiling point, mirrored by the political climate of the time, as Renato looks helplessly on.

This film is beautiful and depressing in so many ways. The story is essentially a coming of age of Renato - he literally begins to feel himself becoming a man on his first glimpse of Malèna during one of her walks - the director, Giuseppe Trovatore, has indicated that it also serves as an allegory of Italy before, during, and after WWII. We see the story through Renato's eyes, and so while we're given glimpses of humour as he imagines himself as Malèna's hero in via movie roles (Tarzan and Jane, Stagecoach), we're also made witness to the various indignities that she's put through, her ostracisation from the females and harassment from males, her rape by the lawyer she hired to defend her in a divorce case, being beaten and shorn by the women in the piazza after the Allied Forces arrival, and her leaving and eventual return to Castelcuto. And while we and Renato want to intervene in what he witnesses, we are constantly reminded that he is only a boy and there is little he can do. There's an absolutely heartbreaking scene when he spies her crying after the news her husband has died and Renato imagines himself climbing into her room to comfort her with the words "From now on, I'll be by your side. Forever. Just give me time to grow up." So he takes revenge against the townspeople in little ways - spitting in the drink of a man who boasts, and urinating in a bag of a woman who calls her a slut.

The acting. I can not rave enough about Giuseppe Sulfaro's performance. With his great puppydog eyes and semi-broken voice we see all of Renato's feelings. Amazement at first glimpse of Malèna, relief at discovering that the person she gets dressed up to visit everyday is her father, his anger and despair when things start spiralling out of control, and of course, lust. His best scenes in my opinion are when he goes to the local church and going from saint to saint, trying to decide which would be the best to light a votive candle for the protection of Malèna. After having sprained his arm and leg falling from a tree after witnessing the rape, he returns limping to the church, and in a quiet manner, absolves the saint before quickly striking and breaking off the plaster statue's hand in rage that the saint didn't keep to its side of the bargain. For Monica Bellucci's performance, she does well in a role without much dialogue, her performance mostly being almost solely action. I present this clip:

Destitute (as seen by the broken shoes) and having been coerced into cutting off her hair as payment for food, she decides to turn to prostitution for food and income. I love how in this clip, we see her giving the entire town the proverbial finger by her strut into the piazza, casual crossing of legs, and waiting for the townsmen to light the cigarette. It's a change from the way she usually walks through demurely, head and eyes lowered. But also in this scene, we see her vulnerability and unhappiness that it's come to this by the way she won't meet anyone's eyes once she's sat down and the stiff hold of her shoulders and face.

I'd just like to make a comment about the music. The score by Ennio Morricone is brilliant and contains a several bars of music that have since been turned into the song *You're Still You* by Josh Groban, the lyrics of which attest that while time has been cruel to the person in particular, he knows the person inside is still the person he fell in love with. With regards to Renato's feelings for Malèna, knowing the song was a nice touch.

Moving and thoughtful, humourous yet unflinching of more serious themes, Malèna is a wonderfully and hauntingly beautiful movie. I'm not sure how much italian I got out of it, but I know that I'll recommend it to people who aren't interested in the language.
8.5/10

Amusing story

Last night after drinking with the Department, I headed into the city to meet up with Darling Carmencita for Fokmeister's birthday drinks at LaLa Land. Having already sunk at few at uni and then some more at the pub, I had some more at LaLa until something evenful happened.

A friend of the bday boy bought him a shot of something (I don't remember what it was), but having been drinking all night, he clearly wasn't up to the task. Being the kind and caring gal I am, I volunteered to do the honours. I don't know what it was, but it was nasty! And in the way that only heavy spirits can, it made my mouth begin to burn and saliva production increased. I got up to go to the bathrooms to spit out the excess when I was met with a problem.

The doors to the toilets didn't have M or F signs, but instead a picture of a cat and a chicken.

Now, in hindsight, it seems obvious, but I stood there for a while trying to figure out which one represented F, and decided *Well, chicken = chicks = females* and walked in. I saw one closed door and the open cubicle had a toilet so with no urinal in sight, decided I had picked the right one.

While I was swilling, I heard someone enter and turning around was faced with a random guy. "Oh sorry, I thought this was the girls' toilet", to which he replied "Nah its the mens. It's cocks and pussies..." and then as if in recognition of what he'd just said, his expression changed to one of horror.

Laughing, I left him to recover and walked back to berate my friends for not warning me beforehand.

Data!

I've been working, like proper working for the last few weeks because I have to give a presentation on Tuesday to the Neuro Group...and I realised that the four slides I'd allocated to *Preliminary Results* were completely blank!

So here are some pics I stuffed into my presentationThis pic here shows retina with macroglial cells labelled with the calcium-binding protein s100beta (red) and then contrasted with the location of blood vessels (IB4-FITC). The s100b...it's a really lovely antibody - always stains beautifully and clearly. The pink arrow is indicating the cell body of an astrocyte, right next to the blood vessel with its processes wrapped around the vessel wall, kind of similar to the next photo...
I must say, the day that I realised I had this photo, I both cheered and cursed. I cheered because it's a great (in my opinion) photo showing very clearly the (intimate) relationship between astrocytes and blood vessels. I cursed because the only way I could have gotten this kind of example is that I've cut the sections transversely, which means I still haven't cracked the technique.

But still, pretty pictures and proof that I work!

The Evil Twin

This is a bit old, but I swear, I laugh everytime I see it.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. I can totally see why it was banned, but it's hilarious!!!

I haven't posted the matching ad to this because it did go a bit too far, but if you're curious....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bpPpxAEt8A

Blogging woes

I've been having trouble with Blogger for the last few days - when I've tried to submit an entry, I've been getting a message saying *Error 500 - Internal Error*, whatever that means. It also meant I couldn't save my entries nor access other people's blogs.

So I'll try to remember what I've been wanting to talk about and re-write them.

*UPDATE*
Baomanda has finally updated her blog, a week and a bit after demanding that we do the same!
The entries are thus:

http://thaomanda.blogspot.com/2006/10/bobby-is-super-freak_17.html

http://thaomanda.blogspot.com/2006/10/usa-holiday-photos.html

Presenting perfection

Many people who know this find this tidbit hard to believe, but I really hate public speaking.

I know, I know. How can someone who's as happy to talk about any topic at all dislike public speaking?

Well, it's not so much the talking in public, it's the presentation of something to an audience filled with peers who are critically analysing every word I utter.

Today I had to present a talk about my project to my lab today, and while the crowd wasn't hostile, I couldn't help but compare my presentation today to the last presentation I made. That was my Honours defence almost a year ago. A presentation that has since gone into the annals of legendary presentations. People, some who weren't present at my defence, tell me that they hear I'm a brilliant public speaker whenever I voice my concerns that my public speaking skills leave much to be desired. While today wasn't terrible, I think I'll need every minute of this week to polish it up before presenting it to the big hoo-ha Neuro group next Tuesday

*fingers crossed*

Stories from the Salon

Poosy was getting her hair treated today so I decided to come along for the ride and trim my hair. Please take note of the fact that I said *trim*, i.e. I didn't want any bells and whistles with my hair.

Now, the funny thing is that we went back to the place where I got my last haircut. Oddly enough, I also got the same girl who cut it last time. So I said to her that I wanted my hair cut the same way as it was last time - layers in the back, fringe at eyebrow level. And again, she didn't listen to what I told her.

This is how my fringe ended up.Now, if I look perplexed, it's because my fringe is actually W-A-A-A-Y over my eyebrows. This photo is somewhat misleading because I went to dinner after this and my friends, especially Nance, went *WHOA!!! Your fringe is short!*

But this front-on shot doesn't reveal why I think that hairdresser is mocking me. This my hair from the back. And Poosy can vouch for me that I have not altered my hair in any way. I don't know which part of trim made the girl decide I wanted my hair to be curled and horizontally braided with a rosette kind of formation to hold it in place. I had no idea what on earth she was doing and why. I desperately tried to make eye contact with Poos who studiously avoided looking at me. She said she couldn't because if she did, she would have cracked up laughing. People at dinner said it looked good though, as if I'd made an effort to make myself nice for them.

I suppose this is what I get for going to a salon where I know they never listen to what I say. Apart from the length of the fringe, I guess the cut was what I wanted.

Guess the Location!

What does the above photo depict? Let's break it down into its components.

The picture depicts an alley in which a crowd of somewhat fashionably dressed young people seem to be congregating/queueing up outside a door. The alley is very dingy - the windows have bars and there is visible graffiti. It's nighttime and there is a deal of fluorescent lighting. A logical thought would be that this is an exclusive nightclub at 11pm.

Well, you're wrong.

This was the dinner queue at 8pm outside a famous (infamous?) dumpling shop in the city. It's become so popular that people were queueing up to get in. When Lydia, Jenny, Ernie and I turned into the alley and found this queue, we all remarked that it looked like the queue at a club, so I naturally had to take a photo.

Update!

I'd also just like to report that it's Friday and Baomanda STILL hasn't updated her blog...the slacker!

Non parlo bene italiano

Miss Soooleeeeeng and I have been taking italian lessons throughout the semester. The level of our language comprehension is debatable but I think our enjoyment levels are quite high. Each class goes for two hours (even though I'm usually late) with a break between the hours for italian-ish food to keep our energy levels up.

Every afternoon before class, we send each other the same IMs....
*Are you going to class tonight?*
*Man, I soooo don't feel like going*
*Argh, ok, I'll go*
*Was there homework?*
*Have you done the homework?*
*I'm not gonna do the homework* etc.
Regardless we always seem to turn up (well, apart from a few lessons early in the course), and we rarely do our homework although I do it with greater frequency than Soooleeeeng who never does it.

So what have I learnt after several weeks and $300 worth of lessons?
*Ciao!*
*Come ti chiami? Mi chiamo Alice*
*Dov'e la chiesa dei Frari?*
*Eccolo/Eccola!*
*Boh?!*
*Non c'e!*
*Giovedi, faccio pilates*
*Domenica, io faccio una torta, lunedi, noi mangiamo la torta*
*A che ora parte il treno? Il treno parte a mezzogiorno*

I don't know if we'll continue the lessons due to increasing demands on our time, but even though it looks like I only learn one sentence a week, the classes have been totally worth it!

Hayfever season

The hayfever season has barely started and already I'm dying in clouds of sneezes and waves of nasal mucus. An even worse development that I noticed yesterday was that my eyes and lips are also developing symptoms - itchy redness. BAH!

My main counter-attack to my biological dysfunction (it's not called Hypersensitivity Type I for nothing!) has been the use of oral tablet antihistamines. However, the tablets this season seem to have limited effectivness - the mucus is decreased but it's still there! So the skin around my nose is raw from being wiped by tissues, and my lips and eyes are red and peeling from the immune attack.

*sigh*
I'm gonna have to live in a world of eternal winters soon :(

Baomanda's *Courtesy Email*

Just in case anyone who reads this has been wondering about the message posted by Thaomanda, I'm posting her email requesting that I and the blogging population of The Circle increase our blog output.

Yo peoples, Update your blogs already! I need some excitement in my life, and right now, it's via your blogs!!!!! There hasn't been much bloggin action of late, only 1 post each from alice and kaho in the last few days! NOT GOOD ENOUGH! I've already warned some bloggers, but for others, you better have updated your blogs by tomorrow morning when i turn on my computer (lucky for you i wake up around midday). You have been warned. Next time it won't be a courtesy reminder. Love, waiting in anticipation.

But you know what? It was incredibly effective! I believe that in the last day, Poosy, Peishapan, Kat(i)e, Kahuna, and myself have all posted Oddly enough though, BAO HASN'T UPDATED HER BLOG SINCE LAST FRIDAY!!

Why hasnt Bao updated her blog? I check her page in anticipation everytime I log in to see what joys of daytime TV she's been watching while at home *studying* for CA. TV that I can't watch cos I'm sequestered at uni wracking my brains doing research work and trying to decide what to write for my blog! I mean, she could totally give me a run through of Oprah's topic of the day, or what food gets whipped up on Ready, Steady, Cook!. But no. All I get instead if nothing except angry emails. *sniff.* I TRIED BAO!!! I made cookies on Sunday, cookies that no one in the house eats cos we all seem to be on diets, cookies so I'd have something to write about on my blog to entertain you, Bao!!! But what do I get in return? I get that same old entry about Moana finally abandoning his fake blog and joining the ranks of people sucked in by Blogger.com

Take that Bao!!! I'll be expecting a blog soon...or there will be punishment!

Shoes, glorious shoes!

This post is for the benefit of Miss Pooky who wanted to see a picture of my new shoes, and Baomanda who was demanding more blog entries.

Poosy has not blogged for the last week because she ran away for taste sensations and general helpfulness. One of the helpful things she did was buy a pair of shoes for me!Aint they cute? Black leather kitten-heeled pumps - with the intention that I stop stealing hers and cease my whining when she trots around the country.

The Great Lemon-Poppyseed Shortbread Experiment

Last year, I experimented with macadamia shortbread. Yesterday, I felt like making shortbread again, but instead of using the old tried and true recipe, I decided to fiddle with it again by adding lemon and poppyseeds.

Despite adding the rind of one whole lemon, I found that the lemon flavour wasn't spread evenly throughout the cookies. Some tasted almost lemon-free, the bastards! So I'm thinking there are a few ways to solve this conundrum.

1. Stir in the rind when I'm creaming the sugar into the butter
2. Use more lemon rind
3. Use more lemon essence.

But in other news, one tablespoon of poppyseeds seem to be enough!

Recovery-induced lazy days

I must say, one of the good things about being sick-ish (I can feel myself getting better! - One week rule always works!) is that any desire to be lazy is totally justified.

But having said that, I still made myself do the laundry, mop the floor, go the market, and make chicken corn scratch soup (for further recovery) between the hours of 10am-5pm.

The Joy of Being Predictable

I think I've mentioned here many times that I'm computer-retarded. A flow-on effect of this retardedness is that I tend to go to the same computer shop because as soon as I got something cheap there, I cbb searching for somewhere to get it cheaper somewhere else. This has turned out to be something of a silver lining because I've ended up there often enough that the shopguys are beginning to recognise me. Today, I decided that I needed a mouse to go with my toshi, and when I walked into the shop and told them what I wanted (brand, budget, etc) as I went to go pay, the head shopguy said "Hey, it's Mally!" and proceeded to give me a 14% discount. Yay!

And also, it's Thursday and I'm not better yet, dammit.

Feeling poorly

Today I had to leave uni early cos I wasn't feeling fantastic and went home and slept for four hours. Right now I'm lying in bed with toshi because after I woke up, I felt sore all over and the thought of sitting at my desk...*shudder*. This general soreness, fatigue and lack of fever makes me think that I've got some kind of viral infection. I've also been coughing up coloured sputum so that means I've also got some kind of upper respiratory bacterial infection.

Being sick sucks.
The sole bright point is that I think I started feeling shit around Friday or Saturday... if this is what
I think it is, it'll need a few days rest and it should be gone by Thursday. *fingers crossed*

Sodium Bicarbonate (NaHCO3)

I've always been aware that bicarb is a somewhat wonderful chemical. I have regularly used it at home for cooking cakes and biscuits, and also as a moisture/odour absorber in the kitchen. I am also aware that some people use it as a toothpaste and antacid, although I am not one of those people. Lately however, my uses for bicarb have become more numerous. After advising Marlene to use bicarb to get rid of the mouldy smell in her closet, I began to notice that the water wasn't draining properly out of out shower, and remembering my advice to her as well as my work in the Laboratory of Death, I poured some of the stuff down the drain followed by lashings of hot water and ta-da! it started draining again.

Yesterday though took my love of bicarb to another level. I was cleaning out the shower with my trusty Domestos. I stand by my assessment that that is the best general cleaner on the market. One of the problems though is that while it cleans beautifully, the viscosity of the solution means that you can often end up with areas on the cubicle glass that's doesn't end up as clean as the original pouring point. I was contemplated this problem while I was pouring more bicarb around the drain when I suddenly got the bright idea to use the bicarb to clean the glass.
Standing up, I poured an amount of powder into my hand and then scrubbed it straight onto the glass. Imagine my joy when the powder washed off and the glass was almost beautifully clear! And the realisation that I had a cleaner that wouldn't get me high on fumes!!!

So bicarb, I tip my hat to you as a great all round chemical.

Ok, that satisfied my geeky desires for the week.

Movie review - The Devil Wears Prada

Pooey, baomanda and I decided to take a night off and watch a movie that totally appealed to each of our fashion desires.

TDWP follows college-grad and journalist wannabe Andy Sachs (Anne Hathaway) as she works as a personal assistant for the editor-in-chief of Runway magazine, Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep at her imperious best!). Andy initially takes the job even though she's not particularly interested in fashion, but after being informed that spending a year as Miranda's assistant would open numerous doors within publishing for her, she spends her days and nights and dignity trying to keep up with Miranda's demands. The moral of the story is really that one shouldn't sacrifice their friends, family and self-respect in order to keep a job if it means becoming like someone you hate.

But you wanna know what message we three got? Stuff that!!! I'll take the clothes and shoes!!!!

The transformation of Andy BJC (before Jimmy Choos) to Andy PFM (post-fashion makeover)...it's wonderful! Before...she was wearing cable-knit jumpers that made her look 5kg heavier than what she was and completely hid her lovely figure. This was a great movie for clothes. I read on the TDWP wiki entry that Chanel asked to costume the Andy character...and *sigh* they did a great job of it. Check out this white coat ensemble on the right! Brilliant!!! I can't find a photo of it, but my favourite outfit of hers in the movie was a black leather bustier/pencil skirt outfit with furry accessories that Andy wears in Paris. *le sigh*

Acting....well, Meryl Streep always does a good job. Actually, she does a fantastic job of making Miranda a well nuanced uber-bitch with only a few words of excellent diction, but also complex. Miranda is the bitch she is to keep her position in the fashion world. Anne Hathaway spends most of the time looking wide-eyed, the development of Andy as a character is not so much seen via her acting, its the work of the costume and make up department. As I said before, her clothes have a dramatic makeover, but what also happens is that as Andy becomes more confident of her position, her makeup changes from being natural to great lashings of bright red lipstick, pale foundation and liquid eyeliner (left). It looks fantastic.

I haven't read the book so I can't comment on how they compare, but if you want a movie with great fashion, have loads of fun.
6-7/10
(For those wanting to know what I thought of the book, the review is here.)

Don't you think there's more to life than being really really really, ridiculously good looking?

Woah!!! Who recognised the quote that forms my post title? If you said Zoolander, ten points! But how is this relevant to my post?

Today, I discovered The Model Home Project. This is an initiative whereby male models from NYC go to New Orleans to rebuild houses destroyed by Hurricane Katrina.

And they looked mighty damn fine while doing that.

(I'm sorry. I just can't look at these photos without thinking of Zoolander.)

This plan is brilliant on two fronts. Not only does it take advantage of all the exercise I'm sure models do to keep in shape, it also brings joy to half the pop. of New Orleans! Sheer genius.

And brought to you by the wonderful folk at Armani!

Updated links

Because The Circle is slowly moving overseas (although they appear to just be migrating to London), various members have started up blogs to keep in touch with each other. I've added links to their places under the *links* section, naturally, but they're also linked below.

Alisha
Thaomanda
Kat(i)e
and Poosy is of course here.

HBO - Rome

I've heard good reports of this show when it aired in the US and UK last year. Unforch, it took aaaaaaaaaaages for it to come here, but after watching the first episode last week, I totally believed the wait to be worth it and started to look for people to convince to download it.

After watching tonight's ep...I was horrified ot hear the voiceover say it would be the last episode *for the time being*.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Great, it's probably going to go off and either be played at some god-forsaken time like 12am or worse, never, while brainless crap gets played instead.

The Old Me

I can't remember why, but I was talking to Miss Pooky and somewhere along the line, I mentioned that in March 1986 I was 100cm tall (yes, exactly 1 metre!) and weighed 14kg. She couldn't see in her mind how small that could possibly be, so I offered to show her evidence.

I don't know what year this is from (maybe 3yo?), but it shows me wearing my former favourite dress.
I took this photo about 20 minutes ago. Yes, I still own that dress, I said it was my favourite!From collar to hem, it is 55.5cm in length. Lets say the combined length of my little legs and head in that photo is 30cm...I'm only 86cm tall in that photo!

ACB gets drunk

During semester, we generally have a seminar on Friday afternoons. After the seminar, we generally have after-seminar drinks and food...possibly as a bribe to make sure we stay around for the seminar. Regardless, this is usually taken as an opportunity for some of the younger members (such as myself) to booze up everyweek.

This week however, we didn't have a seminar and thus no organised drinks. "No worries!" some of us cried, "We'll just go to where the drinks are!" And so after cracking open a bottle of vodka in the Batcave, we staggered down to Bedford...which is where these photos come in.

Me and Marlene get cuddly

Adey and Nadia.

Ash and Jess.

Nadia gives Turdy a massage.

Marlene tries to get in on the act!

While in conversation with Turdy, John IT punches me in the head.

Even ACB offspring aren't immune to the lure of the pub!

Turdy hits the couch.

Adey and John IT are transfixed by Jewel's Intuition music video.

After Bedford, the more hardcore of us ambled down to Queensberry for even more drinking, this time spiced up with dancing and AFL preliminary finals.

Happy holidays?

One of the great things about working for the university is that you get to live a half-life existence. It's a bit like being in the *real* world (9-5, 5 days a week) while also maintaining that veneer of being a student (flexibility of being able to come and go).

But one of the good/bad things are the term holidays. Its great because there are no students around to clog up the hallways, demanding attention etc...but its also bad because they'll do something like wish my happy holidays...only for me to tell them I dont get one and them going...*ohhhhhh*. It really throws the half-life into relief.

No matter. No students for the next week!

More ball photos

I just want to add that I've also posted Marlene's and Krijn's photos to my album.
Alas, still nothing incriminating.

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

Alas, no data

Believe it or not (cos I know many won't) I have been working quite hard in the lab for the last few weeks. Problem is unforch, I'm doing stuff like counting cells or taking photographs that don't compress well and hence can't be posted here.

But I am working.

Really.

Domesticity

Funny, my parents leave and suddenly all my domestic instincts just kicked in! Right now I'm baking a cake. Tomorrow, I think I'll vacuum the upstairs rooms.

Dentist vs. Architect

Yesterday after the Ball, I went to a BBQ to recover as well as wish some friends bon voyage (they're heading to Londres indefinitely - see Poosy's blog for their identity). Naturally, with any aggregation of people with higher degrees, we started doing stupid things. It started off with arm-wrestling until two guys dependent on their hands for their livelihood decided to challenge each other to a match of Slap Hands.

So who won? The steady dental hands of Dr. Wong or the arty ones of Damo the Architect? Check out this photo and decide for yourself.
I really wish my camera wasn't low on battery so I could have posted a video on youtube.

The 2006 Postgraduate Ball

Wow! I'm getting old!!! I attended this ball and it's completely stuffed up my sleeping pattern!

Naturally as La Presidente, I had to make sure ACB gave good showing so I managed to recruit Ash, Adey, Turdy, Marlena, The Rees lab, Blue, Becstar and Maverick. The event was at the Museum so that naturally appealed to us, or at least me as seen in this photo below!The theme was 80s and so we saw a lot of people there dressed in their best lycra, frills (my dress was cooed over in the loos for being a *raa-raa*) and crimped hair. The guys however, liked to take it to another level by wearing revolting skinny jeans, snakeskin and lots of mullets. Below are Ash doing his best/worst Shane Warne (euw!) and Ronnie...whose mullet actually looked surprisingly realistic.
There were also some more creative people who wore costumes of 80s characters. Some of the best were the Ghostbusters...
(These guys actually did the strut when their song was played, but I didnt get a photo of it)
Super Mario + Maverick from Top Gun...and these Smurfs getting smurfy.
If someone had a bad time, they didn't have the nerve to tell me, so I can declare a good time was had by all!
Lydia and I swung around her place to change our killer heels for less painful shoes and then we all hied off to Velour for the afterparty for more hijinks.

More photos can be seen at http://mallymoodlespics.shutterfly.com/ (p/word = 12345)

One Day More!

and then I can collect my dress from the shop! (It's being altered)

Macbeth 2006

I'm not a brilliant Shakespeare scholar or anything, but I do tend to enjoy it whenever I manage to catch it either on TV/movies/theatre. And while I know some people hate it when the plays are adapted to modern setting while retaining the Shakespearean language (e.g. Baz Luhmann's Romeo and Juliet), I've never really had a problem with it so long as the adaptation essentially retains the meaning of the text and situation.

Having said that, this version of Macbeth will be coming out soon.



It has been transplanted from a battle for supremacy in mediaeval Scotland to the Melbourne criminal underworld from the first half of this decade. I think it's an interesting concept. But what makes it even better is that I have free tickets.

Anyone up for it?

Quiet weekend at home part two

Today I went ball dress shopping with Kirsty. (I'll post photos of what I bought soon - stupid me left my camera at uni!) I'm tired now, so I'm going to spend the rest of the day at home...possibly watching TopGear.

After starting off on Lygon where I tried on a 50s-style strapless black ruffled dress, Kirsty tried on a magenta grecian-style gown. We both liked our dresses, but had enough misgivings (me about the style, she about the colour and cut) that we called Ash as an emergency third option and went to lunch. We decided to head into the city where we would meet with increased options. Kirsty was adamant she wanted a black dress while I was pretty sure I wanted a red one, and after working our way through a number of stores looking for black grecian and red strapless gowns...we ended up at the first stores we went to and buying the first dresses we tried on. Ah well. I also bought these shoes from Ninewest - they were too cute to pass up and matched the dress!

I guess I'll just have to not buy any new clothes for the summer.

Friday night-lite!

Normally I'm out raging on a Friday...but tonight I'm home! Gosh!

How I Met Your Mother

As a kid, I used to love Thursday nights. They heralded the beginning of the end of the week, my weekly acting classes, and lots of TV shows I didn't really understand at the time but laughed at nonetheless. Well the first and the last points still stand! It used to be that I'd watch stuff like Las Vegas (don't laugh! It's a highly enjoyable show!) and The Amazing Race. Those however are now off the air and the sit-com double-team that's got my attention now are How I Met Your Mother and My Name is Earl. I won't wax lyrical on Earl simply because so many other people already have.

How I Met Your Mother features five twenty-somethings living in NYC, main guy Ted (Josh Radnor), his best friends Marshall (Jason Segel) and Lily (Alyson Hannigan - Willow!), another friend Barney (Neil Patrick Harris - Doogie Howser!), and the girl that Ted is infatuated with, Robin (Cobie Smulders). An explanation of the plot is here.

Part of the reason I like this show is it's similarity to The Wonder Years - each episode features narration from Future-Ted (Bob Saget). While as a kid I could laugh along with the tribulations of Kevin Arnold despite the fact I'm obviously not a boy growing up in the '60s, now that I'm in the same age frame and point in life, I can really sympathise with Ted! Not in the frantic *must find someone to settle with* way he has, but in the *20s are coming to an end, time to get a bit serious with what I want in life*. I suppose it helps that Radnor is kinda cute in that clueless way.

Some reviews I read of Mother said that the humour seemed strained, but I disagree. The jokes and situations the characters find themselves in are still similar to me - trying to decide if you're too old to go clubbing and if you should start finding *mature* entertainment, blowing off studying for exams to go drive somewhere, the perils of dating and where to find single people, the effects of too much alcohol...etc. Because the situations are ones where I can identify with, so too the humour seems totally normal BECAUSE IT'S TRUE! Ok, maybe not the time that Barney spends the entire night dirty dancing with a girl in a club only to find its his cousin - EUW!
While it's not brilliant the way Earl or Supernatural is, I think Mother is one of the better shows to have come out this year. And I know when Ted finds the right girl, she's gonna be awesome. ;)

Final face

So yesterday afternoon, Nance and I trundled down to the city for the competition.
So below is a photo of me with my *new* face and Marlene...except she requested that her face not be posted online.
And here is a photo of me front on. I think she did quite well. I mean , I still looked like myself, although what is not captured in these photos (god I'm unphotogenic) was the fact that I looked like a doll. All in all, it was quite fun and Nance has agreed to do my face for the ball. Yay!

Spreading sweet-sweetness

I love food. I love cooking. And of my favourite cooking *technique*, I love baking.

I've been practicing for a while now for the annual ACB bake-off, my entry day of which is Sept 11 (nice and easy to remember). This year's criteria is *herbs or spices* so I've been making an apple-crumble cake. Each time I've made it, I've tried to modify it to increase the bits that people like best (the crumble top) and to correct for my crappy home oven (I think I might just have to use someone else's). And because I've been practicing, my lab and various other people in the dept. have been happily hoeing into variations of my apple cake, which then brings me to this...

I love it when people enjoy food. I love when people acknowledge a good dish. And I love how a good meal can spread a sheen of cheer over a crowd of people.

In these crazy diet-fuelled times, people may curse me for giving them things loaded in butter and sugar but deep inside, you know you love it all too.

Make up comp with Nance

Nancyti has decided to enter a makeup competition with me as her model face. We're entering the *natural look* category and have decided that pinks are the way to go.
Looks pretty natural - looks like I'm not wearing make up at all!

Those freesias

In all their yellow glory. Unforch they are dead now. Easy come, easy go.

Movie review - Snakes on a Plane

Holy shit, people, THIS MOVIE ROCKED!!! No, I'm being serious - I REALLY enjoyed this movie! All you need to do to enjoy this movie is go in with the right mindset, and like me, you'll be howling with laughter the entire time.

You don't really need more explanation of the plot than what's in the title, but just in case anyone was wondering how those snakes got on that plane...after witnessing a gangster kill a prosecutor, Sean Jones (Nathan Phillips) is in the witness protection program and is being transported from Hawaii to LA. The agent who has been charged with looking after him is Neville Flynn (Samuel L. Jackson). The gangster decides that the best way to eliminate the witness is therefore to put lots of snakes on that plane...and the story writes itself!

Okay, anyone walking into this movie expecting anything more than 1.5 hours of complete dumbass fun...man, you deserve to feel ripped off. Anyone who wants to see a move where Sam Jackson does a lot of yelling, makes crazy eyes, and kicks the shit out of a bunch of snakes...THIS IS IT. He makes this movie!!! And it's full of Sam Jackson-esque quotes delivered Sam Jackson style!
"Do as I say and you'll live! "
"Great, snakes on crack."
(When Sean complains that it's getting hot on the plane) "I'm from Tennessee, I didn't notice! "
(After pulling out his gun) "We're about to open some fucking windows"
And the absolute clincher -
"Enough is enough! I have had it with these motherfucking snakes on this motherfucking plane!"
Not only was this movie full of fun and disgusting ways for snakes to kill people (snakes on a nipple, snakes on a penis, snakes in the eye, swallowed by an anaconda...) it also has fun ways for people to kill snakes! I thought it was damn hilarious that while everyone was freaking out, Sam Jackson just picks up and throws the first snake he sees!

This is a wonderfully crappy movie that thrives in its crappiness. There are all the cliched characters with all their cliched plot sections - the stewardess on her last flight, the sexist pilot, the campy steward, the fat woman, the snotty brit, the rich princess with the chihuahua, the boy who's meant to look after his little whiny brother, the kickboxer, the hip-hop star and his entourage, the newly married couple...all brought together and under the command of the badassmotherf@#$er FBI agent after some snakes take over their plane.

If you're in need of some cheering up and wanna do some public hooting, see this movie. Sit back and enjoy the pure-B gradedness of the whole thing and you'll walk out satisfied.
8/10

As an extra, here's a complete walkthrough of the movie if you want to *prepare* yourself.

Got Milk?

Yes please!