software, tunes and photos

so - currently I am studying phagocytosis and autophagy. A lot of hardcore visual microscopy and computer modelling-

e.g.

The above is from software called Imaris. $10k +$5k maintenance /year/computer. I have a 1 month off-site licence on my laptop for October (free, yay).

As far as tunes go - KMH's new cd is out saturday. I have been listening to it on Nova. She has gone like mainstream alternative. i.e. it's very much "quirky pop"... nothing really show's off the potential of her voice. There are a few songs on their with real singing - but the rest are ok I guess. She is playing in Melbourne next month, I think i'll go.

Photos - so many photos to go through and convert to jpg... eeek..

vicroads

In general, most roads down here are much wider then back in QLD. So why the hell do people almost run you off the road when on a freeway???

and why do people spontaneously decide they want to kill you if your reflexes aren't good enough to avoid their crazy driving.

Ahh well, the daily challenges of driving in Melbourne.

p.s. My washer/dryer has the longest, craziest "finished" tone sound.

Belgium

So.. recently I saw

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.

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.

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.

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).

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.

The universe

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

 

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

or

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.

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.

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:

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.

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.

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.

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 :)

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.

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.