Monday, September 08, 2008

Belgium

So.. recently I saw



In Bruges


Released: 2008


Go to IMDb page


Information © IMDb.com



In Bruges


Elizabeth Berrington, Olivier Bonjour, Ann Elsley, Jean-Marc Favorin, Brendan Gleeson, Zeljko Ivanek





 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What can I say... damn good! One of the best movies I have seen in a while, unique, well written and a good laugh. It is the directors first full length film, but he did well. You can tell he is a playwright - and I like the style. Anyway - go see it.

Monday, September 01, 2008

a little happiness

So, there is a little good news. I have a new portable HDD... and a laptop that seems quite reliable... and a desktop that behaves.

Steph wants to buy a mac laptop, they are sexy.

I have some new camera equipment, canon EOS 40D, 17-70 f2.8 sigma, 70-200 f4L IS USM, canon 430exII speedlite/flash etc.

Settled into melbourne, working hard, little time for fun - but oh well.

sadness

so... i've ben meaning to post for a while. but meh. Life is busy, another year older, a bit more broke.

My old computer crashed, the one I used to store a lot of my data/photos etc. I've lost the original (raw's, some jpgs) of a LOT of my photos. 50gb of data, irretrievable. THAT FUCKEN SUCKS. so yeah, I have a few jpgs, the ones on my gallery, in high quality - but most of the originals are GONE.

so yeah - I booted it up to back it all up and ... bam... grinded to hell.

I now have a 500gb portable HDD for scientific data and photos... aswell as dvd and my computers HDD (laptop for some, desktop for others). hmm.

Saturday, August 09, 2008

purchases

So, recently steph purchased:

HTC touch dual - http://www.htc.com/www/product.aspx?id=142 

 

(work will pay, eventually).

Recently I purchased:

Canon EOS 40D - http://www.canon.com.au/eos/range/eos40d/default.aspx

Sigma 17-70mm F/2.8-4.5 DC macro - http://www.sigmaphoto.com/lenses/lenses_all_details.asp?id=3315&navigator=6

Canon 70-200mm F/4 IS L series - http://www.canon.com.au/products/cameras_lenses_accessories/telephoto_zoom_lenses/ef_70-200mm4lisusm.aspx

so yeah, I feel guilty.

what a bust

Damn, 4.4 tonnes, 15 million tablets or $440 million worth of ecstasy. They claim it's 60% of Vic's eccies. One would imagine a price rise. At least the dealers not arrested won't be affected by federal inflation for a while. That's a lot of drugs to be in tinned tomatoes... I hope the legitimate shipments of tinned tomatoes from Italy aren't held up. I am quite fond of the ones from my local importer.

Friday, August 01, 2008

full hdd

So, mental note: clicking cancel (then yes to delete the torrent) on a partially downloaded file in ShareAza does not delete the data. It leaves it sitting in your temp files in the shareaza directory. After struggling to work out why the windows system drive was full - I deleted 30gig of partially downloaded files. yay.

In other new... yeah nothing really. Had an awesome sat/sun away at blairgowrie (mornington peninsula).

CRW_7166

Photos on FB, so far.

It's good to chill. So much cleaning etc to do this w/e. tax return is back, yay.

I might go buy a camera.

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

The universe

The universe apparently wants the hooker-look-a-like Miss Universe: Venezuela to be the new Miss universe.

MISS UNIVERSE 2008 

Miss Venezuela (as per the judges)....

or

taliana-miss-colombia

Miss Colombia.

ahh well..I'm happy with steph :)

miss universe

so... 5 left. I think MU: Australia should have scored higher. Stunning dress she had and yeah, talent. MU: columbia, damn... she is utterly gorgeous. The judges actually seem to be leaning her way (they never agree with me). Anyway, we'll see in a few minutes.

Tuesday, July 08, 2008

reviews

Researchgate: Going strong, lots of pimping and many conferences, societies etc joining in. They offer many web-based tools that companies pay lots of money to implement. All free. Just do it!

Monash Imaging: some funky new equipment, but I still miss UQ's easy access to decent equipment.

Kung Fu Panda: seriously over-rated. Kind of funny, drags on a bit though.

Get Smart: average. 99 is quite decent :), max was ok. The secondary actors were a bit ave though. Worth watching, but the TV show was cooler.

Bruce and LLoyd out of control: a spin-off movie of the two tech guys from Get smart. Worst movie I have seen this year.

Shutter: Kind of freaky, a little odd, very much japanese styled horror. Reminiscent of the Grudge. Dawsons creek guy did a good job.

Street Kings: definitely worth watching. Good acting. Different to most.

animal training

There is a cat lover speaking to me atm, she is arguing that animals should not be used for research. She is however, a vet, and her training required animals for practice. Interesting. It's also interesting that she sits here saying she doesn't want animals used for research and will do her best to reject your applications.

So yeah, fun times today. monash has wifi in most buildings. Once connecting with the VPN it's quite easy (for vista) to gain access to everything.

Cinque Lire on monash clayton campus has good coffee.

Tuesday, July 01, 2008

half a year

So half a year is gone. Crazy hey? Damn time can fly.

So yeah, they are giving me my PhD. UQ certainly takes their time sorting it all out.

Work is moving along. Lots of pain and annoyance with cloning - c'est la vie.

Spain won the euro2008. Good for them, they haven't won since 1974 (but nearly always make the quarters/semi's etc).

Ever wondered what I work on?

Here is a simplified version of one of my projects:

toll-like_receptors_pathway

Isn't science fun.

I know you all love it.

MMM coffee. I know I am addicted.

Garuva's was fun and the old lab peeps are fun. I'll miss them all. Melbourne is a little chilly today - damn breeze.

Sooooooooo many minipreps to do!

Yay for end of the financial year - now I just have to wait for my tax return.. Big return - heaps of HELP repayments and I should still have a decent return to py off some debt with. Forced savings.

Sunday, June 22, 2008

The Hulk

So, I thought edward norton did a good job. I quite liked the film. Marvel is doing well now. Ironman + the hulk + hancock.... will be an interesting cross-over film.

So yeah, the incredible hulk is worth watching. Stan Lee doing his normal cameo appearance. Liv tyler did well...she's odd but sexy. The other actors all did alright.

Australia lost to China, but are through anyway. yay. Is it wrong to know more about european countries football teams then you do about Australia's.

anyway, stress is not good.

Friday, June 13, 2008

anti-religious games

SO, with the trend of violence in computer games now comes a trend of violence and anti-christian/muslim. A new game previewed here http://www.wsls.com/sls/news/local/article/object_of_new_video_game_is_to_stop_the_spread_of_christianity_and_islam/11957/

focuses on killing religious leaders, abraham, mohammed etc before they get a chance to spread religion. The atheist designer seems like an immateur toss, and I know most atheists would not share his opinion.

But seriously - how screwed is the world?

heads up to sendai for pointing it out to me.

Monday, June 09, 2008

Football, the real football

Euro2008 is underway. My $15 has allowed me to watch (at least parts of) 4 games so far. Setanta-by-broadband is pretty cool. Especially with skitz fast net. hmm Skitz, haven't used that word in a while.

Anyway, unsure who I am going for in euro08 yet, germany, italy, croatia, spain..... I wish Turkey had a better team then I would support them.

So yeah, lack of sleep come the week of the finals... damn talk gets in the way a bit.

Working

So today is a public holiday for victoria, and many other states. For some reason, Monash university has declared it not a public holiday and everyone must go to work. We get 1.5 days leave in compensation between christmas and new years. Somehow, the EULA contract the union has sorted out with monash syas its ok, even though it is not an AWA or anything. c'est la vie.

so 54% of people say they are now worse off with Rudd then Howard. http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=577014 interesting - the headlines say MOST Aussies are worse off... I guess 54% is the majority, but "most"? ahh well, I agree.

Anyway, working is good, tax isn't. Tax return should be :)

Monday, June 02, 2008

Week of crap

So, a week of really crap lab results, or no results, triggered by continuous stuff-ups by myself. Intermixed with random bits of crap, my car overheating going down the M1 and me luckily pulling off (and noticing it) just before roadworks would have prevented stopping for about 5 kms. To top that off I was sick for a bit, but got over it pretty fast. The weekend was good, victory vs juventis friday night. Melb played better than expected though the end killed them with some awesome Juve' goals. Sat night was colonial tramcar restaurant with steph, Em and Seth. A little over-rated, but good nonetheless. Following this was casino, random walk across the city to get coffee and then chai back @ my place. sunday was a bit of shopping, and bunnings and using the BBQ to cook dinner (after buying gas from bunnings). So a decent end I guess... except for sunday's work (in between shops etc) and monday's work giving NO DAMN PROTEIN from my purification. argh!. I am use to things at least partially working lately.

tiger vs top gear

So if you are watching TV and not watching david attenborough's Tiger finale, or Top gear, then you suck. Both awesome shows... though tigers gets the main showing and top gear during the breaks. Log cam is a damn interesting feature, and the tiger's seriously ignore it. Great work for mobile cams carried by elephants.

Anyway, top gear also rocks. Jeremy (host) recently got caught out telling a reporter that he did 186mph on public roads. That's 300km/h.

Damn I want to race in a lambo against a porsche or aston. Though that is probably the only porsche I find attractive.

So yeah the new lotus/proton elise is hot. As are the new protons. My 97 model proton sucks. Not only is it damaged (body) but it is currently in the shop getting the water pump and aircon pulley replaced. Hopefully it's just that, or I may well be ditching it.

Sunday, May 25, 2008

eurovision

If people vote for spain - they deserve to die.

There are some very attractive euro acts, and a little musical talent.

Tonight is a night of crap. Indy 4 is average, starts of quite good then yeah, goes down hill. They did well to keep it themed in the 50's, and was filmed quite well (yay for spielberg). Ahh well, it better be over with no more sequels. I watched about 5 minutes of Big Brother, it's still crap but at least it's different to previous years. Now flicking between CSI, eurovision and all the other junk on free-to-air digital.

I am not a fan of steph working nights. I should prob do some work.

P.S. movie prices in melbourne SUCK! I miss southbank cinemas.

Thursday, May 22, 2008

Icey

So this morning I wander on down to the proton, which I have finally paid off the student loan for, and it was covered in ice. colder weather is starting to kick in. None of this crappy brissy ice on the windscreen, it was virtually covered in ice. c'est la vie.

damn students loans are evil, as soon as you are "expected" to graduate they hit you with bigger interest.. nothing compared to a normal personal loan, but still. I want to buy before the end of the year, need to save $$$$.

blah, almost time for the coffee van to arrive.

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Lab or Lib

So, who is happy with the new government? Are people amazed by the new budget? Has it made Australia better off. Are they happy with the labor government's point-of-view that a complete stagnation of the economy is the only solution?

Regardless of what I think, the figures don't add up. 16000 people will apparently miss out on the baby bonus now, and about 40,000 will miss out on some form of family benefit tax. Interesting since the last sensis showed 216,000 Australian households earning over $150,000.

Funding for medical research/science has been redistributed, reconfigured and essentially reduced. The previous government has steadily increased funding over the last 10 years to come almost level with other developed countries (obviously paling in comparison to the states). This government kept the total amount of funding the same. When you factor in quite a large inflation, funding for Medical research/Science has decreased. No wonder people head overseas and take their gifted minds/inventions with them.

I liked Rudd when he was just the local MP in brissy. The government is screwing the country up, and the liberals are like pathetic little kids bickering over the scraps thrown to them after their defeat.

Saturday, May 17, 2008

today

Weirdest realisation of the day - Toby Maguire looks a lot like K.D. Lang. seriously messed up.

rainy cold weather is perfect for chilling on the sofa bed and watching a movie. First day that was 'cold'. I like it.

Got back from my holidays down the great ocean road 2 days ago... A good break. Had some nice wine at Otway estate.

My 7" digital photo frame arrived today, a freebie after buying a HP printer 6 MONTHS ago!

FA cup is on tonight and I can't be assed heading into the city at midnight to find a pub that has it on tv... I wish I had foxtel.

Monday, April 28, 2008

tv

so, I watched a little TV recently (Apart from replay premier league and catching up with underbelly). There are some cool doco's on the HD free-to-air channels. Some crappy soaps aswell. I can't remember what I was watching - oh yeah the Rove dance after party thing.

Mischa barton rocks. There is a cool photographer called Chris Weeks that I follow/occasionally chat to through uber, deviantart etc. He doesn't care for technique, or what people think, as long as it sells. He has had the chance to photograph mischa a few times and keeps saying how cool she is. I didn't believe it till the rove interview. Her favourite TV is animal planet/nat geo etc. anyway, she's cool.

During this crap there were a few ads for BigBrother 08. It looks like a total freakshow. Might be worth a laugh, for once, until the media shuts them down for discrimination against, dwarves, mentally impaired etc etc.

so yeah, there is no real point to this post other than waiting 5 minutes for the hood, and Mischa being cool, and BB08 freakshowness.

Thursday, April 24, 2008

Crust

Crust Pizza (Burked Rd, Camberwell) is the worst gourmet pizza place I have been to. $15.50 for a piece of crap that ended up having half of it thrown away. The base was good, so they did well with the crust. that's it. Perhaps they should sell bases to other pizza places. Anyway, my calzone was not much better, absolutely dripping in tomato juice and oil. Totally crap. Just thought I'd rant about it.

P.S. Here's a photo to relieve your boredom from the above rant.

therightcurvess

Monday, April 21, 2008

why

why do melbournites dress so casually, yet it still looks cool.

why do they drive 20-30kms over or under the speed limit, but never at the speed limit.

why does the monash-westgate bridge upgrade project have mythical "roadworks" underway with reduced speed-limits (for months).

why does indomart sell organic, preservative free 500g tubs of tofu for only $1.80.

why does gelsolin give me issues cloning one fragment, but not another.

why does PKR never abide by the rules.

why do coated peanuts taste so good.

why is steph so hot.

why does nastro azzuro taste so good

just a few questions I have thought of recently.

Friday, April 11, 2008

byebye office

so the office area is being renovated... and I have to pack up my desk. It's kind of annoying after finally getting settled in. At least I haven't accumulate much yet.

So busy times, work, fun, work. Sister is down this weekend with her hubby. Jared's friend terry is down at the moment, so should be catching up with him. Joe cremin is moving down to melbourne next wed. My parents are visiting end of may...

Ahh well, stuff to do. I am addicted to coffee, I am drinking way too much of it lately. Not good. Need to slow down I guess..

Going to be redoing my photography site. My personal photo collection will be dumped (might put it up on facebook). My blog is almost done. The katharine kerr site is getting a long overdue overhaul. The worldsoffantasy.net main site is also getting a new look, which I should help with I guess.

I have so much crap to get sorted, stuff I just kept putting off till later. Now it's later and I still barely have the time. My aspect on life, work etc has changed. very little gets put off till later now. Refocussing.

Sunday, April 06, 2008

TV

hey wow, gladiators is as crap as the original series. even in HD on my 32" it is still crap. haha, correction - it is MORE crap.

I have been watching a lot of sports lately. delayed telecasts (streamed from iinet) of premier league matches, asia cup, soccerroos friendly's, euro championship and even the AFL. It is impossible to avoid it down here... "football" (soccer) is still better though.  Hopefully I will start playing soccer down here aswell.

The variation of the HD channels is cool, especially with the extra doco's they seem to show. 

Not liking steph working night shifts, but ahh well, that's life.

I want to go to the Werribee zoo/safari park, before village roadshow spends $220M screwing it over.

Friday, April 04, 2008

Melanie Burford

So last night I went to the Kaleidoscope theatre at RMIT to see Melanie Burford give a seminar on photo journalism in the online age. It is sad, but true, that paper circulations are dwindling massively. The crew at Dallas Morning News, are like most of the US circulations, in that they are moving to the online world. More emphasis on audio, slideshows, video etc. The still image is dying, for that purpose anyway.

She is an incredibly laid back kiwi, shared winner of the pulitzer prize and several other awards, and inspiring. She cares, unlike most photo journ's.

Check out the Sugar Hill slideshow or The McCrays Full cycle or ... I'll add more later.

Thursday, April 03, 2008

melb - the start

So, I haven't been out in melb too much yet, but gradually doing it. Our adventures took us to the Abbotsford convent which was built in 1861 or something. Right near the centre of melbourne (Carlton), next to the Yarra.

We also managed to get to the Howqua river, near lake eildon, for a day.

indomart

Ahh (one of) my local asian supermarket is good. Fresh organic tofu, 1/2kg $1.50. KohKae coconut cream coated peanuts at half the normal price. Redbean buns, BBQ pork buns, $3 for 4. And the awesome cashew/honey candy thing.

Friday, March 28, 2008

melbourne

This concept called seasons is quite interesting. Spending the last 23 yrs in brissy and the last quarter of a century up north really alters your view. Melbourne has seasons. stable summer and unpredictable "other". The other can be a mix of the three stereotypical seasons. Today is 9-20 degrees, rain, no rain, a bit of sun, the no sun.

Don't get me wrong, I am liking it, just quite different.

p.s. I like tunes, and vanilla biscuits from floriana's and wine and coffee and my new merrel shoes and my new couch from freedom that will arrive tomorrow and stephs return from her rural rotation TODAY!

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

mmm knoedl

Kartoffelland Knïdl - halb'n'halb in onion, mushroom and leffe radieuse (bavarian dark ale) gravy with some awesome lamb.. yeah that's a good meal.

Why was I born in australia?

That's one of the benefits of melbourne I guess, it's not just the occasional gourmet deli that imports foreign food  - it's fricken all of them. Well a lot. Although for some damn reason it's so damn hard to find prosciuto. I am not a fan of the million and one salami's - but like my cured/semi-cured Pork products.

Someone wants to give me and my 2 siblings $5k. Now I am torn as to whether my scepticism over it being a possible scam and my debt being reduced a bit. Have one more aspect to check out tomorrow to see if it's a valid trust/insurance payout company, two avenues seem all clear so far.

Juno

So, I watched Juno. Quite impressed actually. A little slow at points, but overall quite a good, mostly unique movie. Simple, but entertaining. Go watch it.

p.s. Dodgy old fluoro lights + white shirt + shiny screen = bad reflections. Lets see if they replace the light fixture when they do the roof tiles and desks for the office area next week.

Friday, March 21, 2008

new blog

so peeps - changing servers. new blog will be at http://worldofannwn.net/night/blog/ <- nightshadow.co.uk will be redirected there soon enough... a few new tricks, once I get them sorted - like openID support - prefpass if it chooses to work, new syndication - windows live writer plugins to crosspost to blogger, lj and my site. etc etc...

Sunday, March 16, 2008

sunday workmmm beers + tiesto make work on a sunday almost pleasurable. (p.s. a real tiesto CD, bought from a store, my how the times are changing).

Saturday, March 01, 2008

still kickingI am just starting to get over a nasty bug - it may well be real influenza. Knocked me in the ass, which is very frustrating since i never get that sick.

paying off debts, working hard, steph managing to get the car towed, buying some new furniture (cheap ikea bookcase etc) and ...

A new laptop.

Asus F3SR, 15.4" WS, C2D 2.0 Ghz, 4 gig ram, 160gb sata, BT, abgn wifi, DVD multi, fwire,fprint reader, cam, vprem etc

A fast lappy (bought for work, not geekiness, photog etc) and fast net (nakedDSL) is a nice combo.

No time to set it up how I want it yet, just installing the basics.

Steph is now sick, so thats no fun. Also got to clean the apartment, and take more crap to the storage locker downstairs

My head hurts, I might take some codein with some beer.

Thursday, February 14, 2008

arghWhat is the benefit in stagnating a countries economy?
sweeney toddKudos to Tim Burton. I quite liked it. Very odd and I did not realise it was a full musical, rather than just token songs. Anyway, i enjoyed it. Nicely put together, well filmed and Tim Burton up to his usual antics. The plot isn't the thickest, but it's unique at least.

p.s. lab audits suck

p.s. melb does rock - going to the grape grazing festival on sat. mmmm wine

Sunday, February 10, 2008

aus vs qatar photosWed Feb 6th, 2008






















































CRW_6448











CRW_6451











CRW_6452











CRW_6454











CRW_6455











CRW_6461











CRW_6464











CRW_6467











CRW_6468











CRW_6470











CRW_6484











CRW_6485











CRW_6487











CRW_6491











CRW_6495











CRW_6499











CRW_6503











CRW_6509











CRW_6510











CRW_6513











CRW_6521











CRW_6522










CRW_6524











CRW_6526











CRW_6531











CRW_6540











CRW_6548


     

Friday, February 08, 2008

science vs medicineOnce upon a time, a person could do a medical degree and then choose to work in science. Physically doing labwork aswell as being a group head or even the director of an institute. They could even come up with the method for producing a vaccine against cervical cancer and sell the patent. licensing. These "medico's" prove to be quite good at research, for the most part, due to the ability to look at thigs from different perspectives. Yeah there are a lot of tosses that think they can work in science because they are doctors, but the good ones are really good. Nowadays, you need to pursue different paths. You need science, honours, sometimes masters, then a phd. To be a 'group head' you need publications, a good standing record and lots of ass kissing. The divide between science and medicine is increasing. There is a great divide between those pursuing direct treatment of individuals and those searching for an idea as to how the bigger picture works. One is not better than the other, but there is a lot of negative tention between the two. In Aus/US/UK etc this is particularly true. The lack of communication accelerates the negativity one shares with the others. People need to realise the benefit of intertwining the two disciplines. A lot of Euro countries still pursue it, why not the others. Now that doesn't even touch on the government pressure to provide a "translational" or clinical outcome, and the shit clinical treatments that are being pushed out the door without fulling understanding the reason as to how it works. But that is another story, along with China's sheer dominance over the number of publications being released. With proper guidance, china can be an impressive force in the scientific community.

Tuesday, February 05, 2008

soccerSteph is cool, she lets me go to Australia vs Qatar, FIFA World Cup Qualifier.

Tomorrow night



so yeah...

Saturday, February 02, 2008

techIpod nano 4gb's rock. itunes sucks.

Just because you throw a fwe thousand songs into the library it decides to chuck a spaz and spend literally hours analysing gapless information, downloading album art etc etc. Yeah it doesn't help that they are on a machine in another room, but still.. Even windows media player does it better.

Just as yahoo seems to be getting back on their feet properly and starting to take off.. WHAM - $50b .

I guess absorption into MS isn't too bad - they have bought so many companies that they obviously have a few decent coders now.
desperate terrorSeriously - if you are reduced to using mentally-impaired old ladies to blow up innocent civillians in a PET market, just because you have ADHD, you should give up. Why would you even bother if you had to resort so low.

p.s. Damn magpies are big down here!

p.p.s. It may not have the biodiversity, but damn the flora and fauna is abundant in Vic, even in the inner city.

Friday, February 01, 2008

HATEhate is a strong word, I rarely use it. When I do use, I rarely mean it.

I would, however, say I hate < a href="http://perezhilton.com/">Perez Hilton

He is an arrogant ass, who makes money from stupid people, has no taste and steals photos from photographers.

In other news - it sucks being home alone on a friday night when you actually have money (for once) to go out.

Should do some work I suppose. - today was my most productive day of lab work in over a year. A damn busy day, but productive.

p.s. - if anyone is interested in Researchgate, let me know (it's like a facebook, for scientists. beta at the moment).

Thursday, January 31, 2008

grrwhy do people always try and rip you off...

Anaconda has a photography competition - of course by entering they take ownership of your photo. http://www.outer-edge.com.au/competitions.html

Then, Daniel from Mio rejected my winning entrant for the mio competition, despite complying top the terms and conditions... I am being sent the discontinue base model - c220, instead of the top range model with bluetooth, camera, 2gig memory etc etc. He is the marketting manager of Mio technology Australia - feel free to spam him.

yeah there is more - but I can't be bothered.

Internet is good, but damn torrents are slow. If you can recommend some good fast torrent networks (even if free membership is needed) that would be good.

I had to pay $16 to see a movie (I am legend - average, a few good points, many bad) as there is no southbank cineplex down here.... Stuff that. I now support piracy!

kthxbi

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

onlineSo - got my iinet nakdeDSL sorted.. Stupid telstra basically forgot to plug in the second patch lead.
17mb downstream, 1mb upstream. Finally I have fast broadband.
I also have a new landline (via VOIP) number - if you want it, just ask.

Friday, January 25, 2008

long time no update!

So yeah, if you haven't guessed - I still don't have net access at home.
Will be sorted soon!
I agree, quantum of solace is the worst bond movie name I have heard.
Yes, I have moved to melbourne and yes - traffic here sucks. Why the fuck do melbourne people drive at 80km per hour in the right hand lane of a freeway zoned at 100km/hr!!! crazy people - they don't know how to merge either. I swear they make the traffic so much worse through their own driving... they are good at the euro style "ignore road lines and get around traffic" though. It takes a bit to get use to - and the whole just pull up and put on the hazards.
So much coffee - Melbourne rocks.
I am working in my new job at the Monash Institute of Medical research - and liking it.
So much near my apt - like 20 indian restaurants and nepalese, indian, chinese, thai, multitude of alcohol sellers incl. safeway and coles! Found an indo/malaysian supermarket about 5 mins from where I live - so good, cheap tea etc!!!!
enjoy peeps, ciao.

Thursday, December 20, 2007

ciaosigning off from albion

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

atonementI went out last night and watched atonement at th palace centro - c/o babes in business (a great organisation if you are a business orintated female).
I really liked it. I have not seen many good movies lately. Good acting, intriguing twists, most bits were unpredictable. Nicely made (I am a sucker for fine detail) and great cinematography (i feel like a toss for using that word, but it is needed).
Good actors, and despite Keira Knightley being thinner than I normally like, damn she is hot.
traffic rantIt's been a lil while since I have ranted about traffic - but seriously - what has happened to brisbane?
So many bad drivers, either not indicating, just being asses, driving 20kms under the limit (you know thats illegal and you get fined for it)... and people not knowing how to drive in traffic.. You know if you take your foot off the accelerator you slow down, you don't have to speed up, then slam the brakes, continuously - or crawl and leave massive gaps that only allow 3 cars to get through a light.

Friday, December 07, 2007

christmas giftsIf you are stuck for a christmas gift - consider giving a "gift of life" instead of wasting money on a token present.

CBM Gifts of life

Thursday, December 06, 2007

stressis fun... not
AAARRRGGGHHHH
application approvedwell, looks like my melbourne address will be burwood road, hawthorn... arrive 28/12 - removalists drop gear off 30/12

Wednesday, December 05, 2007

freebiessomehow, i manage to get a lot of free stuff.. a lot of crap mind you, but free. Today I scored another 2 1gb USB sticks and 50 dvd-rs.. making it a total of 9 free 1gb USB sticks I have received from companies...also anyone want a Halo 3 lanyard or wrist/sweat band?

Monday, November 26, 2007

doctors...damn evil - the potential of doctors.
an unsecured low interest $10k loan, approved in 5 hrs with just a photocopy of an intern contract.

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

classic"I'm getting tired bubba, might have to stop studying" is a pretty funny statement from someone already asleep.

Saturday, November 17, 2007

shirts
I find this shirt



I wish my lawn was EMO so it would cut itself

Reasonably funny....

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

blissmmm ice cold red eye platinum...

p.s. removalists booked.. I am seeing phantom of the opera in melb on the 29th december aswell.

Friday, November 09, 2007

MoSThe ministry of sound annual 2008 (aus release) is one of the crappest MoS cd's i've ever heard..

I feel like listening to some good old hardcore dance, NRG, happy hard etc.. Any recommendations?

Thursday, November 08, 2007

win a mioIf you want to win the new mio c720T then go Here to view my entry, and get details on the competition. Feel fee to share it around - its run on a new site thats part of "ritchies room" a segment sponsored by Bing Lee stores down south.
1 of 3 c720T's have to go to an australian entrant (since mio aus is the one sponsoring it)....
not many people have entered so far, so go for it.. and pimp your link.

Monday, November 05, 2007

hmm1) why is it so hard to concentrate

2) why isn't ibuprofen, caffeine or wine helping with my headache

3) I need to focus....

p.s. the coffee machine is for my "home office"... mm tax write off.

Saturday, November 03, 2007

mmm coffeeOur love of coffee led us to spend some money on a decent coffee machine.



The sunbeam EM6910.


anyone want our old $100 espresso machine.

Friday, November 02, 2007

Who wants my jobAnyone interested in being the Mio customer representative and merchandiser for south-east queensland? (well all of qld really, but noosa - tweed heads). Own car required. ave 12hours/week, 45 "calls" per4 week cycle. One call involves about 50 minutes of training stuff how to use the device and dropping off merchandise etc. A bit of but kissing aswell.
It's not a bad job, I am only leaving as I am moving to melbourne to do my postdoc at MIMR.

Anyone after anything I own, chances are you can have it.
... and no daz, not steph.

Saturday, October 27, 2007

sat nightWell another week goes by way too fast. The annual Jian Zhou lecture went ahead, with a different speaker as american airlines made the invited speaker miss his onnnecting flight.. Customs house is a nice venue for seminars though, even if not particularly needed. UQ did well in purchasing it.

Damn XP sucks compared to vista. struggling with this lappy.

Currently watching qld roar vs perth glory. I know its cheap to watch the A-league football, but I never remember when Brisbane is playing a home game. Since foxtel owns all rights there is crap all advertising on free-TV now aswell.

I really struggle selling tomtom GPS units at DSE now, even though people come in and ask for it.Garmin and Mio are so much better, but if people ask, its an easier sale to upgrade them to a better tomtom model then change their mind to a new brand. ahh sales, its so easy and requires no thought. I often wonder whether science is the right career. I know sales itself would lose my attention after a couple of months at full-time, but there is a lot of other stuff in that area.

For those geeks out there, if you want to know how to turn your mio into a full PDA, give me a buzz. I'm sad I know.

matt finally succumbed and joined facebook... who else out there hasn't joined yet?

I quite like pet sabotage and scrabble apps for it aswell.



so yeah - moving seems like the thing to do. A lot of people are giving brissy the flick. Next out of here will be alex, who despite hating americans, is choosing to live there.

Anyone want to move my stuff to melbourne for me? removalists are expensive and suck to organise.

kthxbi

Friday, October 26, 2007

concerto and foxmy month of free platinum foxtel is over.. alas, i will survive without the excess crap.. going with basic + sports for a little while.. damn foxtel is crap.
also, ABC classic 106.1FM has its 100 top concero pieces starting tomorrow morning (sat) from 8 am.

Thursday, October 25, 2007

REPahh red eye platinum, how good you taste..
I have tried many energy drinks, and none compare.
p.s. dumbledore's gay

Saturday, October 13, 2007

pro surfingLately, I have watched a bit of pro surfing (c/o foxtel). Its damn amazing to watch.The footage they can catch nowadays.. There's a lot more to it than it seems anyway.


So yeah, just watched Surfs Up. Cool movie. A few funny lines, great animation, several camios and they did damn well at capturing the surfing. The movements etc were scarily realistic. I think they must have been watching a bit of foxtel too.


so, anyone know a cheap removalist - my quotes so far suck, or seem quite cheap (and so I think must be from budget companies).

Friday, October 05, 2007

tadaMy posts have been somewhat negative lately, apparently. that will change.

so yeah - heard Geeban play at the lesbian's food hall on tues night (T'n'G). Twas cool.

The light saber (wii control+software for light saber sounds) featured... was mad.

Apart from that, I more than likely have a job sorted. The NHMRC gave bryan funding, so I need to get it sorted but a position is available at the Monash Institute of Medical Research, unless some massive high-roller scientist-type comes along.

On another note, this UQ international med student should be kicked out of both medicine and Australia.

Saturday, September 29, 2007

NGi now have foxtel, for a while. Channels like NatGeo Adventure just depress me. All I ever really want to do is travel (with my baby by my side).

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

elixirI love walking into a place, asking two questions, and then being offered a free coffee.
Elixir coffee, next to di bella, certainly ain't bad. Not doing retail there yet though, just wholesale.
so no, it wasn't merlo warehouse, where I am virtually guaranteed a free coffee.

Saturday, September 22, 2007

wiiI'd be tempted to buy a Wii for This Game.

Monday, September 17, 2007

hack itSo yeah, the Kerr site is still not working due to features turn off cause of warez hacking.... fun.

new domain - worldofannwn.net - wait for it.

Speaking of hacking - my mio c520 was "unlocked" c/o the GPSpassion forums to give me access to all the windows CE 5.0 features..
aka MS word viewer, excel viewer, ppt viewer, adobe acrobat viewer. I also installed the TCPMP video player - to play divx's/mp4 etc and an internet browser (I don't think steph will let me buy a sd-wifi card though). Unfortunately this loads the little CPU a bit and if its unlocked the text-to-speech starts stuttering occasionally. So I had to leave it as an unlock bootable SD-card, so I can run it as normal when demonstrating to store staff.

Did you know Mitac owns both Mio Technologies and Navman (land-based GPS, water-based is still brunswick corporation).
Mio is very up and coming though... new models out in 4-6 weeks including the a702 and the c720t.

Tuesday, September 04, 2007

moviesDia Hard 4.0 - actually enjoyable. Some parts obviously way over the top. Kind of humorous, but well worth watching.
Premonition - I don't like sandra bullock, but yeah not too bad. Interesting anyway.
NeXt - Not the biggest fan of nicholas cage's acting ability, but he certainly goes in interesting films. Quite good. A little different to most. Dissapointing ending, but I won't say anything about it. Jessica Biel wasn't too bad (acting wise).

Bourne Ultimatum - next to watch, I think.

Friday, August 31, 2007

ageI am now in my second, quarter of a century. I feel old.
But, times are a changing, and it's a good thing, i hink.
A flowing river, not a stagnant pond.
Now, Can I win it.

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Strokin'I remember once, as a very young kid, I was singing a song. Strokin' by Clarence Carter.

I didn't quite realise how dodgy it was at the time, and kept singing when my dad told me to shut up.He, of course, slapped me quite hard.

Quite a bit later in life, I wanted to hear that song again... damn the 90's were dodgy.

Click here to watch th film clip.

Monday, August 27, 2007

freebiesEvery year harvey norman has a "supersized category conference" for the top sales staff/managers from stores around australia. 30 vendors are invited to hold stands and demonstrate their products to the staff (in 10 minute sessions, 10 peeople at a time etc). So Mio GPS had a stand with synnex (distributors). I got paid to stand there and occasionally rattle off specs.
I managed to pick up:
1x Playstation3 Hoodie/jumper
3x Mio polo shirts
1x mio soft softball
3x Mio pens (different types)
1x D-Link polo Shirt
1x Atari T-shirt
1x Atari hat
2x intel mouse pads (blue light and USB hub built in)
1x generic headphone/mic set from synnex.
A bunch of demo cd crap.

I also got paid to play a pre-release version of the new Need for Speed (xbox 360), Heavenly Sword (playstation 3) and PES 8 soccer (Atari/PC). Also paid to play with the new nikon D300 and some toys from canon.
an interesting break anyway.

Monday, August 20, 2007

iphoneplayed with an iphone yesterday. some dude was in and has an unlocked one (running on vodafone) to film the aus commercial.
sexy,
mio is also sexy, for the most part.

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

pics and pimpingSome shots from the CRL sand mine on North Stradbroke Island (was there tutoring).



And my sister is a litle unique - her latest pets, hamlet and Maddi





Also, I am soon to be a pimp for Mio. Training in melb Thurs/fri - back sat night.

[Listening to: %T% - %A% - %B% (%D%)]

Wednesday, August 08, 2007

thesisWasabi peanuts and MS word... oh what a day.
Free 17" CRT monitor for someone.
superman energy drink is pretty average.
my tongue is burning.
deleting movies off my HDD - if you want the movie-list drop me a line.

Wednesday, August 01, 2007

coffeeI guess you could call me a coffee snob. I love a good coffee and know what I like.
It doesn't help that steph works at merlo and that gets me the good beans, or a good coffee when I go into james st.As much as that would bias me towards merlo, I still love grinders and di bella (or lavazza & vittoria made by the select few). Today on the way home I went into Merlo to get a takeaway. There were no parks (3pm, james st, understandable). I continued driving home to albion and passed di bella. For once, there was actually a park. I went in to get a T/A sk flat white, but they don't make it on your choice of blends any more. You are stuck with premium or their pick.
Their pick happened to be rainforest allianze something or other. A certified Fair trade agreement approved single-origin bean. As much as I love coffee, and like the idea of workers in the poorest countries having decent work conditions, I can't normally afford to stick with that choice. These beans aren't particularly more expensive though.
Unusual taste, nice (kid of rich, creamy but fruity) enough, but I probably wouldn't go it again.
It was free since I hadn't tried it before and the guy just gave it to me.
I don't really know the point of this story...
ScienceAs much as a PhD depresses a person working on it, I have no totally lost enthusiasm.
I still love science. I still quest for knowledge and understanding. It still intrigues me and drives me further on.
I still want to work as a scientist - just not in the same project as my PhD :)
finished lab work, need to focus on writing better.
Any pointers on how to not procrastinate?

Sunday, July 29, 2007

yoI have been sick for a while now, damn cold.
Must write thesis, llab work is done.
Finally starting to feel a bit better now... doesn't help having to work while sick.
UnCyclopediathe Content-free Encyclopedia.

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

hp7I thought I should finally update my thoughts on Harry Potter and the Deathly hallows. Overall - quite good. It reads very differently to the other books and flows more as far as action etc is concerned. Must less descriptive and less character development (as it was not needed). A little short, but yeah. I did not like the last chapter, just seemed poorly written or something. The ending was rather predictable, to me anyway, but not bad. Possibly finished a little too happy for my liking, but perhaps that is an unwarranted sentiment. It is a childrens book, and easy reading for an adult, but unique in its own right.

p.s. parking at the PA sucks more than ever now!

Friday, July 20, 2007

aus vs japanWho's keen o hed out tomorrow night and watch the soccer? kickoff is 8.20pm.. after the bledisloe cup is finished.

Thursday, July 19, 2007

HP7poor duds simply referred to poor duddikin being a wuss. nothing else.
A few people thought I would post up a spoiler. I won't.. well maybe sat at 6.59am or something, just before borders opens their doors.
HP7Well, deathly hallows definitely starts off differently than I expected... poor duds. and whats the deal with the number 7 in wiccan, they use it a lot. & occurs in nature a lot aswell.

Wednesday, July 18, 2007

Public transport rantFor most of last week and this week I have been utilising my free 2 week transport pass (c/o of the bribes offered to staff at the PA hospital due to the lack of parking).
It's not particularly a good encouragement to use public transport when every single train I have caught has had an issue. Either arriving late, being overfill and having to squeeze in (because people won't move down from the entrance into the hallway), connections not matching up or just having to sit in a damn tunnel for 5-10 mins waiting, for no reason.
It took 30 minutes to go from central to dutton park (normally takes 12 mins). No explanation offered, no 'apologies for your inconvenience' or anything.
It's not all a result of the refurbishment to Brusnwick st station either (platform 3/4 closed, for like 6 months).
I've also had buses not turn up, and just dissappear from the electronic screens.
Awesome work Brisbane.

And what the hell are trams suppose to do to help this? It's too late, you can't add extra lanes for the trams, or special turns etc. There is nothing 'light rail' can do for the inner city now (preposed for newfarm - city - south brisbane) that more buses etc can't.
And don't get me started on parking in the "pa hospital parking distrcit".....

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

im sorry australiaI should never have doubted the socceroos.

Saturday, July 07, 2007

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

blankmentally, I feel quite dead atm.

Monday, June 25, 2007

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

dinner at fatboysahh RIC's, I forgot how bad the bathroom smelt.

Monday, June 04, 2007

comments

COMMENTS SHOULD BE FIXED....
oohh, i have a capslock key.

Friday, June 01, 2007

We love soundsOuch - we love sounds is $92, :(

KMH is playing on june 30th aswell, she's only $25 @ tivoli... hmm

Katharine Kerr's new book is out aswell, so I just spent $32...

I need to be a pimp on the side I think.