The first half of semester went so fast and the two week break is already here before I realised. I have managed to kept the good progress from last semester and actually tried not to get freaked out by assignments/tests, etc.
In addition to the four MEDSCI papers that I am enrolled in, I also elected to audit a BIOSCI paper which I could not enroll in due to timetable issues. Looking back, what I really should have done last semester was
Swap MEDSCI201 for the protein structure and function paper once I have been to the intro lab, which was the sole reason I took that paper.
Audit BIOSCI356, it would helped me a lot with cancer and I had nothing to do before that lecture anyway. Still, better to realise your mistakes late than never.
Highlight of this semster: Queenie. I still remember the first time I tried to talk to you which was met by your utter indifference. Still, you are the most intelligent and pretty female I have met in a while. All the best and I hope you will live in a grand house with your Great Danes.
In my continued self-pursuit, I have planned to attain my ideal weight in one year's time (By the end of August 2011). Surprisingly I am a lot closer to the goal than I thought; according to my not so accurate scale it is only 15-16kgs away. I'd be ready to call a partial success if I weight 80k or less by the end of the year.
(500) Days of Summer: Smart and quirky, Zooey Deschanel Summer is really the type that I would fall for. The ending is rather depressing, but this is life.
An American Carol: Some scenes are pretty funny, but overall too much stereotyping and overt jokes to make it more worthy than direct-to-video stuff.
Angels and Demons: I liked it more than Da Vinci code, the same goes for the books and the movies. Overall the plot stayed faithful to the original Dan Brown, nevertheless some rather audacious scenes (i.e. the free fall) did not make it to the screen which is a major setback. Still a very much viewable piece for conspiracy theory lovers, although the ending may be somewhat of an anti-climax.
I have been a bit loose with money recently: since the semester started I have lost about 40% of my savings to my mundane needs (i.e. lunch, drinks, tools, etc). I will probably start making some money again after the break when work is back on, meanwhile everything is manageable.
On the other hand, I am happy to report some good progress towards living a normal life again:-) I will be busy for the next three weeks, nevertheless stay tuned and I will keep writing.
Not-so-subtle imitation of Paulus. Well Australians are not well known for their originality so I will stop from making more deriding comments. Personally I am predicting a hung parliament; it seems so fashionable these days.
There is a recent resurgence of 8-bit style flash games, especially on sites such as Kongregate.com. I enjoyed most of them, however they probably mean a lot less to me than they would have to people slightly older than me.
My first personal computer is a 300MHz Celery-A, however before that came along I mostly played with computers at my mom's workplace. She worked in the accounting department and they had hundreds of desktops, mostly of 80486 and Pentium vintage. Most of my family are quite spartan and we never owned a console, hence I skipped the entire 8-bit era into the wonderful 16-bit gaming.
It is amazing how much content people used to be able to pack in a few megabytes: The graphics have certainly improved from 8-bit consoles, however most of the time standout pixels still dominate.
A few of my favourite DOS games revisited in no particular order:
Silent Hunter is the first serious naval simulation game not set in the post-war era (i.e. Harpoon). The game offers a wide range of difficulty to satisfy anybody from diehard military chic to average teenager with too much testosterone. At the end of the day, nothing is better than seeing three well-aimed torpedo rushing to your target.
Unfortunately, Silent Hunter 2 is a much better game and I have not replayed the DOS version since then. Later on the franchise took a different direction and I have not looked back, however someday i definitely will.
12 or 13 years later, I still subconsciously quote phrases from this game in my everyday life. Back then it was probably the best day of PC gaming, when creative and audacious studios like Black Isle and Bullfrog (which incidentally made this game) were still alive and well. Theme Hospital is certainly comedic in its portrayal of various real and fictional diseases (Eating stale pizza will give people bloaty head, nevertheless there is a machine that will reduce the size of your head to normal, seriously), as well as hospital management(apparently sick people like to relieve themselves in public when toilets are lacking, and hospitals routinely perform research on undiagnosable/incurable patients while the world remain calm and carries on), but in the end of the day, it is a great game. Micromanagement is vital, but made much easier than the chore that must be practiced endlessly in RTS games.
Another strategy/simulation type of game. Aerobiz is the game for the plane-crazy, where you manage everything for an emerging airline from aircraft purchase to the amount of MSG in the in flight meals. Not recommended for those with a poor gripe of details, but the silly amount of money you are given in the game really makes you feel more important than you really are.
Like cancer, game localisation is a highly stochastic process, and I don't mean the botched translations such as Zero Wing. Many relatively obscure games, for example, Gemfire, gained a loyal following once introduced to the English-speaking players. (Gemfire/Royal Blood II is really worth commenting, but they are Win32 games and must be left till a future chapter) However, many wonderful titles such as Uncharted Waters 2, never saw the light of the day outside Asia.
Certainly, some will argue that the game is nothing but a beautified 8-bit RPG with a seafarer theme pack thrown on top of it. The addictive formula lies with the high factual accuracy, players with good knowledge of geography are blessed. Seeing the end of storyline is just half of the game, the rest is exploration into uncharted seas. Perfectly suited to an armchair traveler like me, who often lament the fact that humans beings has already probed every inch of the planet's surface that there is little left to be discovered.
At one point I owned an old rig and I remember the specs clearly: It was at one point a high-spec workstation: Pentium Pro, 440FX mobo, 64MB ECC EDORAM, S3 ViRGE VX grahics and a full sized Creative Soundblaster Pro 16. I kept it solely to play DOS games, as support for DOS games is dropping behind in Windows XP. I used it religiously till I discovered DOSBOX, and the aforementioned machine was promptly sold for scrap metal.
I thought my mind is mostly up to date with the latest development in technology, but to be able to perfectly emulate DOS on top of another OS has completely blown me away when I first found this out. Right now, it is even possible to run it on your phone:
Technology has changed so much that I almost come to be a little scared by it, albeit in a good way.
The only viable option to transport cooked meat to the USA is to carry it as your personal luggage (in-cabin, not checked).
Inflammation increases the mutability of cells, hence NSAIDs reduce cancer risk. Aspirin and coxibs cause too much side effects so stick with paracetamol, which will do no harm unless taken in dozens.
Lab rats are the tragic results of forced incest between siblings over multiple generations to create a genetically identical population(and albino, too).
Be very careful with your mouth.
The streakers in HSB lecture rooms last year were either: 1. Bored students from Huia Residence or 2. Medics promoting the med revue. If the latter was true then it has utterly failed to achieve any kind of publicity.
Continued from last point: The PR team for the med revue has escalated their tactics. Once of them dropped into a BIOSCI202 lecture pretending to be choking and almost convinced Don Love to perform the Heimlich Maneuever on him. They also carry bodybags into MEDSCI142 labs and emerge from them 15 minutely later after failing to entice any interest.
There will be a new timetabling system in place from next year that is supposed to miraculously end the plight of traveling between campuses in less than 15 minutes. We biomed people remain universally unconvinced.
Computers in the pharmacology lab has wireless kb/mouse sets that interferes each other like crazy. Only known method to make them work is to place the transceiver right next to your hands, smooth like nitrogenated butter.
Dropbox - Best cloud backup/sharing tool available at this time, sign up if you have not already and wave goodbye to USB drives, which either get lost or end up spreading diseases.
Statistically speaking, vending machines, with their intrinstic instability, are more deadly than sharks. But the danger is more than acquiring atherosclerosis from the fizzy drinks, or getting crushed by a steel box filled with fizzy delights.
I have been researching for my toxicology report on Paraquat, a readily available toxin to bring quick and clean death to pesky plants and, painfully slow death to animals including humans. Paraquat is a potent quaternary ammounium viologen that induces reactive oxygen species in cells and cause havoc in any living organism; two teaspoons p.o. is more than enough to kill an adult. If any of my readers happens to ingest some (hopefully through an accident) I would recommed that you take another gulp after leaving a concise will. Assuming survival after the first 24 hours, lung fibrosis develops, and the major organs all gradually shut down over a period up to 30 days. The toxin does not harm the central nervous system in anyway, and there is no antidote as yet.
Coming back to vending machines,its relevance in this post is one incident in 1984, when 12 people of different backgrounds died from soft drinks lacked with paraquat from inside vending machines. None of the 12 survived; some died in a few days while others lingered on in agony for weeks.
The modus operandi successfully applied several principles of perfect crime:
Acts are against innocent people with no obvious motive, therefore no suspects could be narrowed down.
Similarly, all vending machines involved are in places of high traffic volume with no surveillance.
Instead of leaving bottles of popular drinks in the open, placing them inside the vending machine make people ASSUME it had came FROM the machine. (hey somebody left their purchase here/two drinks came out when I ordered one, the vending god must be smiling today!) Particularly for the last female victim, who took a poisoned drink from a vending machine that had a notice posted warning consumers against suspicious "free drinks".
Like successful rat poisons, paraquat is guaranteed to kill with a slow onset of symptoms, hence most victims are already beyond rescue before they reach out for help.
One unintended fallout is a sharp rise in paraquat suicides due to the extensive coverage. This is consistent with anecdotal evidence that suicide rates tend to surge following the publicity of other high-profile cases.
Other relevant development included the demise of screw-top bottles in Japan because they are much easier to tamper with than cans. Well, maybe we should view the recent re-introduction of classic coke bottle as a mixed blessing.
(Below is a post i tried to finish before the soccer world cup but never had the interest to go back to it. I'd rather post it now than leaving it forgotten for years. Who knows, I might complete it one day.)
Yes, the soccer world cup is ON! Argentina is set to play against Nigeria later and I don't have Sky TV...
A short cosmopolitan list of various sports teams I support with inconclusive reasons:
Men's Soccer - Argentina, they have not been very good recently, but still has my unwavered support.Oh and they have the best fans!
Women's Soccer - Sweden, as long as L8 is on their national team.
Rugby Union - South Africa, yeah, a shameless bokke here in Kiwiland, so what, they are good, i mean very good despite their lackluster coach.
I wish there is for for the AB
Baseball - Japan, unlike most other time-limited sports, baseball (cricket as well) has a very different gameplay, where the losing team could turn the table in a brief moment. The USA probably has most of the top players, but in Japan, baseball has become a part of the national psyche. The annual High School Baseball tournament to Japan, is what the Super Bowl is to the US.
Women's Curling - Germany, I have images to prove this
Alaska: Igloos, period
Canada: Bloody ice hockey nation
Iceland: Autonomous Danish territory, still hunting seals
Quebec: Business as usual, wine/aids
USA: World Police, modeled after Gen. MacArthur
The little ball with the hat: Republic of Texas
Mexico: Lazy latino, duh.
Central American isthmus: Nobody knows about them, just never assume Belize is a province of Guatemala or Lord Ashcroft's fury will descend upon thee; also, note the divided Panama.
The Bahamas: Oil-sucking tourist island.
Bermuda: Obvious allusion, the other triangle is probably Singapore or Nepal.
Turks and Caico: Not unlike the Bahamas, with Canadians running most of the offshore financial services.
Cuba: Socialist
Hispaniola: Dominican Republic and, er, Haiti
Puerto Rico: De facto 51st state of the USA
Jamaica: Rastafarian
Antilles: Not much going on, the 8-shaped Siamese twin is Dutch Antilles and French St. Martin. BTW, Grenada only produce 20% of the world's nutmeg, the rest most likely originates in Indonesia. A, B and C are Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao respectively.
Colombia: Meth lab Vassal of the USA.
Venezuela: Can afford to diss the US and pretend to be socialist because they've got the oil.
Guyana and Suriname: Majority of population have ancestry in Uttar Pradesh.
French Guiana: 90% wasteland and the rest comprises of the French space facilities.
Ecuador: I am really surprised by the lack of Banana jokes.
Peru: Meh
Bolivia: 150 years later, still missing its shores.
Brazil: HEUHEUHEUHEUHEU
Paraguay: No idea
Uruguay: I am trying to find out what is he drinking
Argentina: Still desperate to get the Falklands
Chile: Gone fishin'
Europe
Iceland: Sulfide and Ash generator, I mean Eyjafjallajökull, pronounce it, it's fun. Whale riderkiller.
Ireland: Still drunk on EU aid money
Nothern Ireland: Raging UDFIRA
Scotland: Nationalistic since WWII, obvious allusion to a certain Mel Gibson movie
Wales: with a sheep...?!
England: Bloated and troubled, note that when the UK is represented as Britainball, it always dons a top hat and a monocle.
Channel Islands: Half french, half British
Portugal: is a towel
Spain: Rather unconcerned about the breakaway Catalanball and Basqueball.
France: Funny cap, baguettes.
Bengium: No, Belgiumball does not exist, you have rivalling Flandernball, Walloniaball and tiny tiny Brusselsball.
In successive good news, Droid 2 goes on pre-order tomorrow. The improvements from the original droid include:
1GHz OMAP 3630 SoC by TI almighty(Not official but almost certain)
512MB RAM, 8GB(!) NAND and optional 32GB SD card
Hardware-based Wifi Tethering and DLNA support
Ships with Android 2.2(wow) and MOTOBLUR(ew)
Same 3.7in screen; improved keyboard
Maybe it is just my eyes, but the package reminds me strongly of Nokia N900, with the rounded edges, blue printing, etc. It also appears much thicker than the original Droid.
Overall, a very respectable brother of Droid X, however it will probably inherit the Blur disease too. I might consider the GSM/UMTS version once that is released. The 8GB internal storage is especially tempting; just don't expect the price to drop anytime soon.
Internet access is readily available at the University of Auckland, albeit much confusion about how to connect, even the official channels often give outdated or wrong information. I will try my best to summarise your options:
Wired connection: Desktop computers at various places are connected to the network via a physical cable. You will have to login with your usual credentials(usually on EC but some faculties maintain their own domain) or . However to be able to connect to either internal or external services you need to run NetLogin(I will write more about it later). There are also LAN sockets in some places i.e. general library, I have not used them however I suspect they work in a similar manner.
Wireless connection: The IT department has, over the years, added many wireless hotspots to most campuses so we will be able to surf the internet on the run.
Physical Coverage can be checked here. In short, newer buildings are usually well served while older ones often miss out, with access only on some levels. Nevertheless the wireless connection is more erratic in some places, for example law school buildings(too many users saturating the channel), the general library(bookshelves block signal very efficiently, some corners are perfectly shielded) and Cafe86(Bad AP, only cover about half of their floor area). In general, coverage in Grafton is fragile at best, except level 12 of the hospital wing where the connection is always smooth.
The hotspots offer several SSIDs which may appear quote daunting for the untrained eye. I will try to go over the pros and cons of each option
UoA: The plain jane non-encrypted route, and probably the easiest to use. Simply connect, launch browser, type in your login details and you are good to go. The problems are multiple: The connection send packets in plain text which is extremely vulnerable to eavesdropping; the HTTP based proxy behaves just like NetLogin(more on this later, I promise) which asks you to re-authenticate every once in a while; finally the bandwidth is limited to 128kbps, unless NetLogin is present and working, mixed blessing indeed.
UoA-Mobile: While intended for mobile devices, it works work just as well for laptops(or desktops if you like hauling heavy objects) with a little additional work using the official guide. Mobile OS handles it much better without having to mess with CA certificates, just put in your UPI and you are good to go. No high-speed connection though but it matters a little given our meager data cap.
UoA-Secure: Connect just like UoA-Mobile, except that you will be back in the same league of wired connections, where you are not getting anywhere without NetLogin. Avoid this one like plague.
UoA-Guest: Like the name suggest, this one is for guest access to university resources only. Users does not have access to the internet and other services. Particularly EC mail is unusable because it is hosted by gmail.com. I don't see any reason why any student would elect to use this one.
Eduroam/Engineering/FMHS IT/....: This is a long list of mysterious SSIDs that have nothing to do with us. Out of interest, the Engineering network is protected only by the ailing WEP encryption, but this doesn't translate into "easily crackable" since there is absolutely no traffic on that channel at all.
The major problem with the network at uni is the lack of user account integration: Logging in on a domain allows access to AFS, printing and a few other services, however to get anywhere further you will need the NetLogin client, which is probably not an issue if this piece of binary actually worked.
Well it works, only to drop connection with the server every few minutes in the background and does not reconnect. I might be exaggerating, however it is extremely annoying when it happens. Beside that, I have not been able to find a cause leading to this erratic behavior.
The problems does not stop there: even with NetLogin running, frequently used services like Cecil still require manual log in; there are still many labs where the computers are isolated from the main network, and on many occasions lecturers were unable to use the lecture terminal because someone else have locked it down(you need to be that person or belong to an admin group to unlock).
Instead of using their precious life-time to correct these issues, the IT department, out of their infinite sense of political correctness, decided that the default language of Microsoft Word should be Maori. It would have been an non-issue if this had not crippled the built-in spellchecker, which innocently assumes whatever content we typed is in our second official language and arrogant software written by English speakers deserves brain spasm.
Apparently it is manually coded into the default template to make sure users are unable to bypass it(the global settings still list NZ English as the default language, even complete removal of Maori language support does not help). The only way to re-enable spell check is to create blank documents elsewhere, or manually select paragraphs and mark them as English.
ECHO Some people have brains the size of their eyes ECHO OFF
"The theme song of the lost decade" according to almighty Wikipedia
The clip above is from the last and only live tour by ZARD, Budokan, 2004. The group is no longer active following the death of Sakai Izumi, the lead vocalist in 2007.
She was one of the dying breed of versatile and simple singers like Harry Nilsson, who rarely performed live and had a modest life in relative obscurity despite her album sold in millions.It is hard to recognise that the world has been going on for over three years since Sakai passed away. She was diagnosed with cervical cancer in 2006 with distant metastasis to her lungs. She is immediately hospitalised but sadly perished in February of the year after(not directly to cancer, nevertheless attributable) at the mere age of 40.
Back when the news of her death broke, I was particularly offended by a comment to the meaning of "she deserved what she had got because she had a venereal disease" Excuse me, HPV can be transmitted sexually, but I am ready to thrust my pitchfork if you carry on to imply (without evidence) that "she is a slut".
I had to relive my anger today as two different lecturers mentioned HPV vaccine and the problems of distributing the vaccine among the vulnerable population. Most resistance, surprisingly, came from parents, who reckons that vaccination will make their daughters have less fears of sexual intercourse, which of course might lead to another assortment of undesirable things.
How could a mature person think like that is truly beyond me. What kind of a cold-blooded sadist put their self-righteous moral standards before life and death?
As a firm believer of free will, I have no basis to judge people on their freedom of choice in their lives, including their sexual orientation. Over time, I have observed the fact that the most vocal homophobes are fags in denial.
On the other hand, accuse me for double standards if you have to, I do have issues with some people in the LGBT subculture. They can be roughly divided into two groups:
- The reactionary type who, upon any constructive criticism, react with the assumption the world is biased against them. For example Chris Carter MP, who with great zeal defended his right to excessive spending on taxpayer's tabs, all because he is subject to unfair public scrutiny due to his own homosexuality.
I can see his logic, which is probably a self-fulfilling prophecy as long as he continues to give gay people a bad name
- The disillusioned type who, following admission to their own homosexuality, took it as their license to promiscuity and irresponsibility. Or worse, to cause harm in innocent people.
Wake up, most developed societies of the world are amply enlightened, as long as they live a moral life like the most other people.
Irrelevant good news: Froyo is coming to Milestone at last, minus built-in tethering and a few other bits but those wont be missed.
I have been using andriod phone for a while and I have little to complain about. The only thing is the behavior once "low memory" warning kicks in: sms will drop without warning, sync functions will cease and other weird things happen, most of them without any indication that is it related to low memory. So the phone goes into voluntary brain spasm once available NAND storage gets below 20MB, and the situation gets somewhat paradoxical since the 20MB mark is set to prevent loss of data but data will be lost anyway.....
"I had a friend who, back on the day when Harry Potter and the Half-blood Prince just came out, changed his MSN screen name to 'Dumbledore is dead',then applied a simple vbscript to log in and out every 5 seconds so every friend he had could be reminded of the cold fact that indeed, Albus Dumbledore is dead. That night he received a mild concussion and five stitches.
The same person, having read the leakedDeathly Hallows before hand, went to a major bookstore very early on the official day. He pushed for his way, rather rudely, through the excited crowd to a pile of the new HP hardcovers. He grabbed a copy, turned to the last page and immediately yelled with all force he could gather:'O-M-G SNAPE KILLED DUMBLEDORE!'
Suddenly there was silence. Mouths that belong to females began to resemble an unlikely O; the eyes of the children took a blurry red shade and several others raised their fists and/or frantically looked around for anything that they could use to build an improvised guillotine.
Nevertheless on this occasion he escaped the scene unscathed, for an white haired wise man raised his voice just in time:'Calm down, this bloody w**ker is talking BS about the last book!' "
- From a story told by a certain Waikato graduate
Isn't that adorable, I wish Lauren AMTFJ Cooper is still alive for this act.
Once upon a time, I did my best to avoid spoilers. However as a career forum junkie it is nearly impossible not to see people commenting on their favorite movies/books/games/etc without considering those who have not had the chance to learn the story themselves. It was ages before spoiler tags became standard of courtesy, and people paid for TV Guide to know what will happen before they even decide whether to watch it.
However later on I realised that in the end, knowing the story does not ruin the experience, since movies are expected to be more than sitcoms or TV melodramas. We are attracted to the silver screen for the visuals, not to hear a story that might not be a good time to start with.
This also explains why some people can watch Avatar over and over, which is just a slightly more sophisticated remake of Pocahontas or Dace with the Wolves.
I was made aware of the movie from a chapter in Rights of Passage by Chris Laidlaw. I googled the movie, read the synopsis and then promptly forgot about it.
It came back to me one day when I was hiking uphill from Khyber Pass Road to the hospitals before the Grafton Bridge reopened. On one side of the road there is an abandoned service station with some odd vehicles parked in the dilapidated forecourt.One day a spotted a yellow Mini sporting registration plate "PORK PI" and went to Queen Street right after to get this movie on DVD.
The movie is set and filmed in the late 70s/early 80s, way before Rogernomics and destruction of the old Mangere bridge. The story follows three spontaneous traveller from Kaitaia to Invercargill, each with different motives and outcomes. 30-something years on, this film still has not lost its relevance.
Another interesting point is the low rating of R13(reclassified to PG recently) despite its blatant depictions of rough language (damned funny nonetheless), drug use and some nudity, a contemporary remake would score at least an M.
Another Bill Murray film I intentionally stayed away from due to prior knowledge of the plot. I convinced myself to watch during the intersemester break and wish I had done it sooner. Comedy may be more vulnerable to spoilers since they sometimes rely on a unpredictable storyline to work best, however with s strong cast and superb cinematography, this movie is still 100% enjoyable.
It also reminds me of the old days when perms were the norm. Andie McDowell undoubtedly look best in her old hair.
Pretty good, but not as good as the perpetually gorgeous Jennifer Connelly
Okay, enough, I shall get back on topic.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I had little plans to watch this one, however since the semester started, at least fifteen different people have told me that it is great and I had no option but to see it for proof.
To be honest, my first viewing (implying I have seen it twice) was not under the influence of spoilers, so my usually slow-thinking mind had some hiccups with some familiar faces.
Mademoiselle, you look like Ellen Page, but you are not pregnant?!
Fridge Logic: I only realised once I walked out of the theater that it was Marion Cotillard from Public Enemies
Despite a well known ensemble, everybody seems to blend into their respective role with ease. That probably explains by inability to recognise many of them.
DiCaprio is probably on his way to become the next Sean Connery, the number of good films he has done is just amazing. Another decent surprise is Ken Watanabe. Before this his acting always appeared out of place in Hollywood, especially in Letters from Iwo Jima. His performance is more than agreeable, so is his English. (if they actually used his voice)
Another déjà vu moment can be found at the start of snowy mountain segment, which bears a striking similarity to one level of Modern Warfare 2. Considering the fact that Hans Zimmer scored for both it may be more than a coincidence.
Overall, it deserves its 9.2/10 rating on IMDB. I have since replaced my morning alarm call with this Edith Piaf song, you will find out why once you have seen the movie. If you really can't afford movies you may go on a Tuesday, it does not get cheaper than that.
