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!

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.

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...

mmm 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).

I 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.

What is the benefit in stagnating a countries economy?

Kudos 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

Wed Feb 6th, 2008

Once 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.

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

Tomorrow night



so yeah...

Ipod 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.

Seriously - 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.

hate 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).

why 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

So - 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.

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.

signing off from albion

I 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.

It'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.