Tonight, tonight, tonight

Ever since I bought my Xbox 360, I've kept a somewhat wary eye on it. Its reputation for loudness, overheating and failure often weighed on my mind and sometimes I ask myself: Why did I buy an Xbox 360 in the first place? I now have the answer: Mass Effect.

Mass Effect is a sci-fi role playing game from Bioware, who made other excellent RPGs like the Neverwinter Nights and Knights of the Old Republic series. And this game has all the hallmarks of a Bioware game. Excellent plot, interesting characters and amazing visuals. You play Commander Shepard, a human soldier trying to save the galaxy. You can customise Shepard in a myriad ways, from gender, hair, and facial structure. The combat is fun and simple, and there are plenty of quests and things that keep you busy.

I bought Mass Effect for a mere $77 and I've been playing it since Monday, racking up 30-something hours of play. I've been hooked since I started playing and already I'm thinking of playing it again a few times just to try different play styles, dialogue choices and plot options. And the times that I'm not playing Mass Effect, I'm catching up on reading. I introduced my dad to the wonders of buying stuff off the internet and while he is suspicious of eBay, he has really taken to Amazon and has already bought a swag load of books from them. The books on my list right now are:

• Secret Army Secret War: Washington's Tragic Spy Operation in North Vietnam by Sedgwick Tourison

• The Black Book of Communism by Stephane Courtois et al

• A Devil in Paradise by Henry Miller

I've only finished the first, which basically details the shitty US spy operation in North Vietnam. Basically they trained South Vietnamese soldiers to do special ops like in World War II, recruiting freedom fighters and disrupting the North Vietnamese Army by blowing up bridges and dams and etc. Pretty much all the ops were massive failures. There was no clear leadership nor goals and later when clear goals were detailed it was way too ambitious. All the parachute drops into North Vietnam basically failed. The teams were drop way off course and in most cases were captured by North Vietnamese forces within days. The VC had basically penetrated the operations centers in the South and the US were too arrogant to assume that they had been compromised. It just shows that while the US is the world's foremost superpower, it has and can be defeated in the battlefield. That's what Vietnam was. A defeat. And that's not mentioning the conspiracy theories on how the US cut deals with China to abandon Vietnam. It's an interesting but depressing read.

The two other books I haven't read yet, but I'll probably start with A Devil in Paradise, seeing that the Black Book of Communism is over 800 pages on detailing the failures and atrocities of communist regimes.

Well I guess it's back to some more Mass Effect.

Wicked Game

Bought the Xbox 360 a few days ago and I've been playing a lot ever since. Got it at GAME for $499 plus 2 games (Viva Pinata and Forza 2) and I was damn lucky since I got the very last unit left. I'm hoping that's a good sign.

It is a lot bigger than I thought. I have a slim PlayStation 2 and compared to the Xbox 360, it's tiny. The first thing I did was to plug it in, turn it on and stare at it for 15 minutes. I was half convinced that the moment I put in a game, it would play fine then explode in a shower of red flames and leaving a small mushroom cloud behind. It's fairly quiet and it doesn't get that hot. The Xbox 360 has a notorious reputation for being loud, overheating and dying just after the warranty expires. But I think I got the new Falcon revision with a smaller CPU, so that's probably why it isn't so loud and hot.

It ended up costing quite a bit, the console pack itself was $499 plus wireless controller with charge kit, extended 2 year warranty, plus an extra game NBA 2k8. I picked up a preowned copy of Gears of War for $44 yesterday. Gears of War is proving to be great fun with co-op. My brother and I have probably finished half the game already. It's a bit of challenge playing a shooter on a console, since it's not at accurate or easy as a PC. I bought Gears of War from GAME, but I'll probably remove the "preowned" stickers and trade it in for something else, Assassin's Creed maybe? Mass Effect comes in on Monday, so I'm hurrying to finish Gears of War soon.

I also dropped into Borders at Parramatta Westfields just to see if any new books caught my eye. And one did. The Twilight Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko, part of a tetralogy of books. It's the third book and seems to be freshly translated from Russian into English. I've grown to love the series. Think Harry Potter, Russian style, set in a post-communist Russia with more adult and philosophical musings. If you enjoy fantasy, you should pick this up quicksmart and the earlier books, The Night Watch and The Day Watch.


Also picked up a DVD of We Are The Strange. $40 bucks plus delivery from the US. It's a very strange film and it's definitely not for everyone. The plot is about two outcasts, a doll called eMMM and his female companion called Blue. After meeting each other, they travel to a sinister city in search of ice cream. However, bizarre monsters roam this city all apparently controlled by the evil ruler called Him. Fortunately, they encounter a hero called Rain, who starts destroying all the monsters around them. The rather vague plot does the job, but the entire movie is held together by it's amazing and alarming strange visuals.


The director, calling himself M dot Strange, combines stop-motion animation, 8-bit artwork, computer imagery and sheer strangeness, creating the visual weirdness that he dubs str8nime. Str8nime is basically strangeness + 8 bit artwork + anime. The film itself is more of an emotional ride. It's more of "what do you feel right now?" rather than "wtf is going on?". And if you subscribe to the former, then the film is much more enjoyable. Seriously, this film looks as if Pixar made while high on drugs and it's mind boggling that M dot Strange basically made the entire film himself over a period of three years. I guess the film reminds me of 300. That film had a thin plot to string together the massive fight scenes and was a primarily a visual experience. We Are The Strange is no different. Check out the homepage and Youtube channel before deciding to commit to this.



That's it for now. The holidays is a bit more manageable and the horrors of clinical practice is still weeks and weeks away. That is going to be hard.

On Occasion

I've basically decided to bite the bullet and buy an Xbox 360. Despite my fun experiences with the Nintendo Wii and the now less expensive PlayStation 3, the games I really want to play are on the Xbox.

Knowing Jimmy, he'll probably drop a comment noting that I am mistaken in my choice, the Xbox 360 is shit, and with a month I will curled in a fetal position, sobbing, because I got screwed over. And on the balance of probability, he'll probably be right. But I'm taking that risk. There's a whole bunch of games that I want to play that are only on the Xbox 360 and not on any other platform. Mass Effect is a prime example.

I'm going to go buy it at GAME (they took over GameWizards) since they have the Pro bundle with 2 games at only $499. And I'll probably throw in an extra controller, maybe an extra basketball game for my bro and some extra warranty stuff. That'll probably add another $150 at least.

I already have my eye on Mass Effect. Too bad both EB and GAME sell it at $100. I've found a site that sells it at $77 with free shipping. Oh, the wonders of the internet. Unfortunately, my coffers will be sorely depleted. I might get some money for Christmas or maybe flog the unwanted presents over Ebay. And maybe get a job. No wait. Can't really do that. My second year of uni has 18 weeks of clinical Mon-to-Fri and unless it's weekend work I can't do it. If it were weekend work, I'd be so tired.

Now, once I have an Xbox 360 within the next few days, I should probably try to convince my dad that a new HD tv would be good. Space will be an issue, so I don't think I might be able to get those big plasmas. Bah, I'll cross that bridge later.

And when will this writer's strike end? House ended weeks ago and I need my fix. At least Doctor Who will be unaffected.

Eyes are at the Billion

I've settled somewhat into a comfortable routine of waking up, checking my downloads, then spending my time catching up on reading. It's been a long time since I read for pleasure, but I've hit up some goood books, so this post will be more like a review.

First book that I'm currently reading is The Age of Turbulence by Alan Greenspan, who is the former Chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve for over 30 years. Look him on Wiki and you'll know this guy is the real deal. His memoirs deal mainly with his experiences growing up and working in the world of economics, especially his time at the Federal Reserve. He goes on to examine the economic policy of several American presidents, and he is quite critical of George W. Bush's economic policy. Besides that it's also a massive discussion on how capitalism is the only market economy that works and how to have a successful capitalist market you need a democratic government. Those people doing economics would find it easy reading, but since I've never did anything economically related in my life, there were a few parts that had me puzzling over the technical terms.

But it's very educational and enlightening. My dad always said that if you read a book and you learn just one new thing from it, then it's totally worth the price of the book, regardless of the actual price. I subscribe to that view. For example, western Europe's economy is going to well with slow growth and high employment. Greenspan argues that there is too much labour protection that it hampers the economy. It's become too hard and expensive to fire employees that employers don't want to hire more people even if they need to, because when the economy slumps then they have to fire people which ends up costing a lot. Now I can see some of the reasoning behind Howard's whole WorkChoices thingo, but I reckon that some kind of labour protection should be in place, especially against unfair dismissals and the like. Howard probably wanted to go a little too far.

Next up is The Six Sacred Stones by Matthew Reilly, the sequel to The Seven Ancient Wonders. It's a very action packed novel that reads exactly like a Hollywood action film. 30 seconds of exposition then non-stop action and explosions. There is some character development but it's still minimal at best and you need to read the first book to get the full effect. It has a massive cliffhanger ending which pissed me off to no end, but it does it's job of making me want more. Definitely pick it up, it's different from how other authors right and because to that it's fun and exciting.

I'll probably buy more books eventually. The Dune series attracts my interest, combining science fiction, with environmental, religious and political messages with a hint of military action. Frank Herbert wrote six books, and had planned to write more before he died. His son, Brain Herbet and sci-fi author Kevin J. Anderson are writing the continuation. They did write the prequel series to Dune, which was alright, but it wasn't as good as Frank Herbert. Still I'd like to complete my Dune collection one day.

And finally some anime stuff. To be brutally honest, I don't watch that much anime. I read manga much more now, since it's always ahead of the anime and doesn't have those massive fillers. I used to watch Naruto and Bleach, but the fillers pissed me off. Eyeshield 21 is a manga I also read, since the anime, in my opinion, is crap. The last anime I watched was The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. It was different, quirky and fun. A second series is coming out next year supposedly. However, there is any anime that caught my attention quite by accident. It's called Moyashimon : Tales of Agriculture. It's about a boy who goes to an agricultural university, with the unique ability to see, hold and communicate with microbes. It's different and its taken me by surprise. With my minor Chemistry background, it is quite interesting, the whole microbe thing. Also at the end of every episode, they showcase a new microbe, its name, where its found. The draw the microbes in a very cutesy way. I'm sure plushy toys are just around the corner. You can find it here, and personally, I watch the BSS subs. Watch it. I highly recommend it.

That's all really. Oh and if anyone is having a party, BBQ, outing or anything, just drop me a line and I might rock up. Holidays is starting to get a bit boring, and my clinical placement doesn't start until January 29th.

There is a reckoning...a Crysis...

Why am I blogging at past 3am? Woke up to muscular pain due to playing a Wii. I've rubbed some of this oil thingymabob and now instead of pain there is a stinging warmness that takes the pain away.

First of all, to the reason of muscular pain. There was a Wii Party at Dorothy's place, a uni friend of mine. Everyone bought a dish for the dinner while a light lunch and nibbles were provided. I came on time, but one of my friends was late from the airport and that held up the rest of the group who were waiting at Lidcombe station to drive them there. So it was near 1pm when everyone actually arrived. But it was a lot of fun and forced me to examine my views on the Wii.

I've always viewed the Wii as innovative but something of a lightweight. The style of play on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 has always appealed to me more then the motion controls of the Wii, and certainly for some games the use of motion controls are questionable as to whether it was really effective. However, the Wii is actually quite revolutionary. The motion controls are dead simple to use and the party games are definitely much fun at the very least. And while the Wii is still a lightweight in terms of graphics and power, I'm sure Nintendo has a Wii 2 in planning that will offer better graphics and performance.

Onto some gaming now, since that's what I've been doing these past few weeks in the holidays. I have played Crysis and Call of Duty 4. Crysis lives up to the hype. It's a graphically beautiful game, and the freedom given to you to achieve objectives is wonderful. However, the game does lean towards the run-and-gun style of gaming. I've played it three times, one of times I tried not to kill anyone at all but its quite difficult. Your cloaking powers don't last that long while running and taking a long route is...well...long. Sometimes you have to kill enemy soldiers so that they don't alert their comrades. Still a very good game.

Call of Duty 4, however, is a bit of a mixed bag for me. It plays more or less exactly like Call of Duty 2 but with better graphics and new weapons. It's nothing revolutionary, more evolutionary. Still, like Call of Duty 2, it paced well and is a great ride. The plot is decent and I liked how it drew you into it. Multiplayer is blast, according to my brother. It's easy to kill and even easier to be killed. The more people you kill, the more you level up which gives you greater access to better weapons and better powers. I'll be trying that out tomorrow.

I still have Stranglehold and Kane and Lynch to play, although Kane and Lynch wasn't rated that highly by Gamespot. Also I'm reading several books which I'll do a quick review later.

Maybe now I'll get some sleep.

Long Odds

Woah, haven't updated in a while. Got capped along the way but that's been fixed now so I'm back on the net again. So updates.

Paintball was mad fun last Wednesday. It was quite hot but a beautiful day for some paintball action. Drove to Rouse Hill for Action Paintball. I came prepared to spend lots of money, but actually didn't spend that much at all. I went for a $40 gun upgrade and boy that was worth it. The standard paintball gun (technically called a marker) shoots around 3-4 shots per second with an effective range of less than 20m. My marker had a very sensitive electronic trigger, did 15 or so shots per second and had an effective range of 50m. Needless to say, the ability to pump out lots of shots relatively accurately made me the bane of all the players involved. In one game, each team had a general who could only be killed by a headshot. I quickly targeted him from a safe distance and let off a volley of shots. By the time he yelled out "Hit!" and had his hands up in the air I had hit him 4 times on the top of the head. Fun times.

My brother's new comp finally arrived. AMD Athlon X2 6000+ with 2gigs of RAM and a 8800GT. Pretty decent specs. I'm dual-booting Vista and XP since my brother doesn't feel comfortable with Vista yet. Still it has plenty of grunt and I'm looking forward to Call of Duty 4 and Crysis.

I was capped a few days ago, but I have temporarily upgraded to the 20 gig plan, so now I have 8 gigs on-peak and 20 gigs off peak to use. More expensive at $94.95, up from the $64.95 we pay for 12GB/24GB plan. However, it didn't go through as expected initially as I was capped, and the online form to change plans didn't go through because I was capped. Had to call up Optus and get tech support to change it. It actually wasn't that bad, only took 10 mins of waiting. Last time, my dad called to change billing details and it took over 30 mins before he could take to a human operator. Thank god I wasn't on hold for so long.

So now I have more bandwidth to use until the end of the month. I won't have that slow-ass feeling of being capped from 2 weeks.

In Mass Transit

So the new computer order is in, and all I have to do is wait a week or so until its ready. Until then, I don't really have much to do, except some Neverwinter Nights and CounterStrike Source.

Actually it's mainly CS. There are a few mods out there that spice things up, instead of the old 24/7 dust/office servers. My favourite at the moment is called Gun Game and the Deathmatch mods. Gun Game basically has you start with pistols and slowly level up to better weapons as you get kills. You have to get kills with the designated weapon though. Add the deathmatch mod which respawns you back in a few seconds, makes a very fast-paced game. The two last levels are pretty hard, grenade and knife. There are a few favourite servers but all of them have friendly fire on, you sometimes it's tough to identify you targets and engaging them quickly. I'm temp banned from one server for too many team kills. But it's really fast and its easy to accidentally start shooting your team mate.

Well that's really all. Just spending my time on CS until paintball comes around on Wednesday.

My eyes are bleeding...interesting

Exam period, where I cram everything I need to know into the few hours or so before the actual exam, as opposed to actually taking the time to study. I'll pass. No HDs or even Ds but I'll make it.

Brother is getting a new computer, and I'm a bit jealous but its his turn. Being the second child he seems to get all the hand-me-downs over these past few years. So this will probably cheer him up. The bad thing about buying a new computer is that there is never a good time to buy one. Intel's Penryn and AMD's Phenom are lurking in the wings, so anything I buy now is going to be obsolete soon. DDR3 is on the horizon as well. At least the nVidia 8800GT is looking good. Personally I would wait a few months, but since my brother wants one now...I'll just make the most of it then. Forgive the techno-speak for those not on the computer hardware scene.

Next exam is radiographic practice, which tests which projections I use to x-ray the anatomy and related pathology. The exam will probably rape me bad. As long as I don't fail though. Crap thing is that I have a clinical briefing at 11am, to update our radiation monitors and tell us where we're going. Except the exam starts at 9am and ends at 11:10am. I'm not sure who that's going to happen. The dude in charge of clinical should check out exam schedules again.

Paintball next Wednesday because it's been a while since I last had some paintball action. Plus I get to drive there, so a little more freedom. Still I have to find my way there. I might get my dad to accompany me on a scouting mission on the weekends. So I know where to go and don't get lost.

Job thingo went well enough. I think I'm in and all I have to do is wait for the email stating my starting times (after the exams of course). Altogether $150 for 10 hours work over the weekend. Not that bad. On Sunday, I was working with this Chinese uni dude who was studying accounting. He kept bending over to lift the heavy boxes, when he should have kept his back straight. Next time you have to lift heavy objects, either alone or with a mate, dammit, keep your back straight and use your leg power. Not worth it having a crick in your back.

Djobi Djoba

End semester exams are two weeks off, so serious (*cough*) study mode. That said I do have a little this and that to do.

Found a possible job just a few days ago. It's in a warehouse, decorating Christmas trees and then shipping it off to the customers. Sent my CV in and dude emailed back wondering if I could work today and the weekend before the official interviews. Couldn't work today, but told him I could on the weekends. He probably wants to assess me and see how I go. I do hope to get this job. Christmas is coming around the corner and it's mighty hard to buy stuff if you're broke.

Almost a week ago, I remember have a little discussion with my friend about razors and shaving. Yes, guys can talk about shaving. He was extolling the virtues of the Gillette Fusion, the one with five blades and saying how good it was. I was a bit skeptical but interested. I use a standard three-bladed one and its cuts alright. I might pop into the shops and buy one to test out. Everytime I shave it starts to grow right back out after a day.

Also watched Friday Night Download. It's not that bad. I remember Channel 9 or 7 had something similar but I think it's off the air. The videos they choose are quite good. Like there was one of those Japanese educational ones that encourages little kids to use the toilet. It's a good mix of the weird and wonderful.

Funny little email also popped into my inbox. From an old primary school friend called Noah. It's been ages since I've last seen him, 2005 was our last reunion if I remember. Apparently he goes to the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. All thanks to Facebook. It's turning out to be quite a useful social application, despite the massive amounts of vampire and werewolf invites, but at least that's dying down now. To be honest, without Facebook I doubt I would ever have any contact with him again. Despite that, it does have it's drawbacks. There's no delete function, so you can't delete your profile and I think it's too easy to steal someone's identity and create a Facebook profile of them. Still, so far the benefits seem to outweight the risks.

And listen to some Gipsy Kings. Awesome guitar stuff. I wish I could play a guitar that well. I never seem to have the discipline in the first place.

Sorry, please try again

With my brother having much more free time due to holidays and HSC, he has been hitting up the net a little harder than usual, so right now I'm capped and it is ten long painful days before I'm uncapped again.

To alleviate the pain, I tried to strike a deal with my dad. Upgrade to the next level of the plan (20gigs) for the remainder of the month and then downgrade back to the old plan next month. As a sweetener I even offered to pay the extra $30 on the bill. Didn't work. My dad was skeptical that they would allow such wanton changing to plans and observed that even with the extra gigs (8 or so) I (meaning me and my brother) would use them up anyway. He felt that the 12 gigs is enough and we should tough it out. So plan failed. The offer to help pay the extra cash to make up the difference failed. Well, shit happens and you have to deal with it.

That said, this incident brings out a few wise words out from the depths of my memory. The first thought was from a manga called Eyeshield 21. It's about a Japanese high school American Football team trying to make it to the finals. One of the characters notes that your chance of succeeding at something will be 0% only if you don't attempt it. As long as you try and have a go, your chances won't be 0%. It might not be that much higher, but you will have some chance at succeeding. That's how I consoled myself. As long as I talked to my dad and brought it up, the chance of failure was high but not guaranteed. It might have worked. The second thought that came to me after that was it's easier to ask for forgiveness than permission. Maybe I should have just upgraded the plan, profit, humbly apologise when the bill came along and then offered to pay the difference. Well, since he was rather hostile to the idea, might as well tough it out.

You know how sometimes you have these very weird yet so realistic dreams. I just had one of those. It started off with me running and gunning these bad guys ala CounterStrike, with a dash of John Woo's Hardboiled gunplay. So I'm shooting these guys down with dual pistols, doing flips and spins until I get to the last guy. He's pointing a gun at my face, which I managed to deflect yet inexplicably I fall down. The scene changes to a rooftop on a dark, rainy night. I'm lying on my back and the guy is pushing down on me trying to choke me. I'm trying to strangle him. I can't make out his face clearly, but he's grinning ferally. Rain falls onto my face. Eventually I take a deep breath and push at his chest with both my hands only to wake up with my arms outstretched and panting hard.

It was so damn real. I could feel the drops of rain splash against my face. I could feel my hands clasp and jab ineffectively at his meaty throat. And the finish push I felt my hands slam against his chest, only for me to wake up at that point. As I got back to sleep, I felt uneasy. It was a dream, right? Did I actually dream it? Dreams can disappear so quickly from your memory that you start to wonder whether you actually had that dream at all.

We are such stuff
As dreams are made on, and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep.

-William Shakespeare, The Tempest

Sorry, were you in the middle of something?

Awesome. My David Attenborough DVD The Private Life of Plants just arrived moments ago. Can't wait to pop that into the DVD player and finally watch it.

That was my first docu that I ever watched. My aunt had a VHS copy of it, and I was so fascinated, not only by the info but with the video techniques and presenter who gave off this radiant aura of knowledge, that I watched it whenever I could and even borrowed it for a while. I distinctly remember this, because I was also doing public speaking in primary and I was trying to emulate the way David Attenborough spoke and his mannerisms. Now I pretty much have his whole set of documentaries. He's making his last series at the moment. On my buy list already.

Now, I read on some forum somewhere, some when, that the poster absolutely hated mobile phones going off during uni lectures. Not my biggest peeve, since at uni I perma-silence my phone and it's relatively rare that ring tones go off. They are usually silenced quite quickly. What annoys me more is the chatting you get during lectures. Don't get me wrong. A few whispered words or sentences don't piss me off. Doesn't even register on my radar. But the lecturer stops talking for a moment. A little fumble in the slides, or maybe some delay as they mentally rearranged themselves for the next topic, and all this chatter starts. It's constant and always seems to be a buzz in your ear. You're trying to listen to the lecturer make this important point, and all you can hear are snatches and ends of conversations. My pysch lecturer told us to be quiet and asked 'why are you so noisy?' and some student replied '...boring...'. Boring? So leave. No one is forcing you to stay. If you find the lecture boring then leave and go do something exciting. Don't keep talking and disturbing everyone else. Eventually, at the break, half the class left and you could actually hear the lecturer speak and not worry about the voices you hear echoing in your head.

Private Life of Plants now. Then maybe some Halo 2, a sprinkling of Neverwinter Nights, garnished with a touch of Phoenix Wright Trials and Tribulations.

The Right Stuff

I have a little rant coming up, but let's get the little stuff out of the way first, yes?

House season 4 has started. I've seen the first two episodes direct from the US and it's proving to be exciting watching. House used to be about the strange and weird medical cases that no one could solve, but it later became more about the interaction between House and his three assistants, Chase, Foreman and Cameron. That became the whole point of the show, it was what made the show good. So when all three left at the end of season three, I was a bit worried that the fourth season would turn out to be a dud. Instead he has to hire three new assistants and the interaction between him and med people is so damn funny. Two thumbs up so far.

Rant time. This happened today during our neurophysiology lecture. There was supposed to be a 9-10am lecture, but the dude never showed up, something kept him away. So we had a 2 hour lecture instead starting at 2pm. So he starts his lecture and people realise that his lecture is nothing like our notes. Turns out the notes are for revision, and his lecture notes won't be on WebCT. People grumble and start taking notes. Every slide there are murmurs of complaint, yells to go back to the last slide and afterwards grumblings of discontent. The general consensus seemed to be "why doesn't he put up the slides on WebCT, the bastard...".

Okay, so the lecture slides will never go up online (copyright issues due to using pictures from a textbook) and we have to resort to pen and paper. So can you actually shut up and take notes? Why all the complaining? It's amazing the amount bitching people can make just because you have to take notes by hand. And it is taking notes! Not writing down the entire fucking slide. Come on, you know the drill. You read the slide, then jot down the essential information. Then maybe transfer to a Word document for easier revision. A load of time was spent doing nothing because people kept yelling out for the lecturer to go back, because they hadn't finished copying all the details on the action potential and the five main stages in neural activity. I think that having the lecture notes on the Web has soften most uni students. It seems that we can't survive without having notes on the net.

Yes, I'll admit that I was a little peeved off at the fact we had to do some manual note taking, but what did I and most of the understanding students do? Suck it up, break out the pen and paper and do some note taking the old-fashioned way. Not hiss and moan at every single slide. Really, this comes down to the fact that shit happens and you just have to adapt to the situation. Or don't take notes.

Hmmm...I do feel a little better now. Now maybe instead of procrastinating, I'll dig my teeth into some work.

There Was A Hole Here

Long time no post. I spent the dying days of September being capped, and there was a bunch of uni work I had to plough through. So updates.

I've managed to locate Bokbunjajoo, the Korean raspberry wine. My friend Sheung discovered a liquor store that sold it in Stratfield and bought three bottles of the stuff. Very nice. I still have 1.5 bottles left, and I'm saving one for...well...that Vietnamese thing where you honour the dead. I don't know who to accurately translate that into English. Death memorial? That's the closest I can get to.

Finally finished Ace Attorney Justice For All. I started it ages ago, but never got around to finishing it. But I've finally finished it and am now starting on the third game Trials and Tribulations. The American version is not officially released, but the Jap version does have the translated English game there as well, so no big deal. Playing through Trials and Tribulations just reaffirms who much I love Ace Attorney. The plot, quirky characters and awesome music just suck me in. Games is more than just great graphics, you've got to have substance to back it up.

New book addition. Neal Asher's Polity Agent. It's a hard sci-fi novel, that focuses on more on the science of future. Still, it's got some great characters, but the ending leaves something to be desired. It still leaves a lot of loose threads. Probably setting up for a sequel. I hate it when that happens.

Damn. I have a exam tomorrow. And an assignment due at the end of the week. Might as well get it over with rather than procrastinate. Trying not to procrastinate so much. I finished some of the uni work on the Monday of the mid-semester break, and now I feel good about it, because I've already finished it and I don't have to speed through it NOW. Hmmm...there is really something to be said about getting your work done in advance of the deadline. I might...try it some more.

Here's a little something that I found amusing.

Running Mates

Nothing much to report on, although the mid semester break is soon. So a well-deserved one-week break is in order.

Weekends were basically stay at home and play games and read books type. I did do some discussion with my parents on where to go for my out-of-Sydney clinical placement, and I've decided to head up to Woy Woy, near Gosford. Maybe not the most exciting place, but it's a relaxing place and relatively close to home. I'm planning on staying there for the whole six weeks. It's a bit of a bother to drive up and down and I'm not sure that after my shift I'd be awake enough to drive home.

Planned accommodation is a caravan park in the area. It's only $60 a night, compared to the other offerings which come in at $120 minimum. Some people have this fear about caravan parks. Like it's a dodgy place filled with unemployed shifty people living in run down caravans. That's not the case at all. Most caravan parks are well looked after and the staff are generally friendly. To be honest I haven't stayed in an actual caravan. Either I've pitched a tent or stayed in a cabin. A cabin is like a fully functional room with a kitchen and usually an ensuite. Depending on what cabin and what caravan park you get a queen's size bed and some bunk beds. It's a nice cheap way to stay at a place. If you want better facilities or whatnot then stay at a Big4 caravan park. Those parks are rated minimum 4 stars and have very strict rules and codes of conduct. But it is very luxurious and safe.

Meh, that's really all there is. Oh, and a little funny clip I found on Youtube.

Beautiful World

Actually, on the whole, the world isn't that bad. It's just a few bad apples that ruin the day.

I think I detailed in previous entries on how I went to a restaurant or two and had a taste of the Korean raspberry wine, which I blame Jack for getting me hooked on. So I decided to buy some bottles to sample privately. Except it was much more difficult than that. Listen well to the saga that lies wherein.

A quick internet search turned up plenty of results overseas, but none in Australia. After a little Googling I had the name of the company (Bohae Brewery) and the official name of the wine (Bokbunjajoo). I managed to find their official site, but since it was written in Korean I had no hope. But wait! There was a link to a English version! Hooray! A quick browse told me that they do export to Australia and that was all. I know I'll send them an email. So I fire off a quick email. Only for it to bounce back, saying that the email does not exist. Damn. I try again and confirmed that the email on the official English page doesn't work. Which was pissy.

Next I try to search for the import company I remember seeing on the bottle. All I remember is BH Australia and it's located in Chatswood. A search turns up nothing. I then get the bright idea that BH might stand for Bohae so I look that up and managed to find a phone number and two different adresses, none of which are in Chatswood. Suspicious. But I take the plunge and call the number. Nope, wrong company, they don't do Korean wines.

It's kinda pissy that I couldn't get into contact with the damn company. I'll probably try to decipher an email from the Korean site, write a complaint in English and hope they have some translators or something. That's the start. I might have to go back to the restaurant and ask them where they buy it. I bet they'll offer to sell it to me at a ripoff price.

Damn you Jack. Damn you to hell.

I'm addicted to that wine now.

Take Aim...

I've now fallen into the habit of going to sleep at 9pm and waking up 4am. I guess it was go to sleep at 9am or study for an extra hour and sleep at 10. Study or sleep? The answer is clear.

Went to the city to celebrate Jack's 19th. In the email, the time to meet up was 5:30pm. And as usual, defying all the Asian genes in my body, I got there at exactly 5:30pm. Jack doesn't show up until 45 minutes later. That said, it was apparently Lesley's fault since Jack had to pick him up and drive him to the station. A whole bunch of friends, new and old, joined up. Andy and Jimmy Ly, Yiwen, Jason and Alice were there. Serena, Land and Belinda showed up later at dinner.

Dinner at this palce called Full House. Was that what it was called? Whatever, but I served some great food. I ordered the Chicken and Vege yakisoba and that was some good stuff right there. Also they had some of that Korean raspberry wine, that Jack got me hooked on. We ordered two bottles and most of disappeared between Andy, Jimmy and me. So we got Lesley to order three more bottles (he only ordered two though) and most of that disappeared between the three of us. I'm pretty sure that there is an importer or wholesaler that sells this stuff. If you do know, please tell me.

Karaoke was next, and that was fun, but it was catered more towards Asian music. They had a somewhat decent selection of English songs, but most of the MVs for the english songs were generic sweeping view shots of some city or something. And their Viet selection was pretty crap.

Clubbing was next, but it wasn't that fun, for me at least. I'm not a clubbing person in any case and left early with Lesley, his girlfriend Tuyen and Belinda at 1am. How some people keep partying away until 3am is beyond me. It was lucky that we left, because we managed to catch the very last train out of Town Hall. Tuyen drove Lesley home, but Belinda and I had to catch a taxi. Damn those new P-plate laws. From Granville Station to my home 3km away, plus the 50m to Belinda's home on the way, cost $10, which is a bit of a rip. I think the price is $2/km plus loading since it was past 11pm. But it was a fun night out.

Anything else...oh yes. Apparently, a live-action movie of Dragonball Z is in the works. Which suprises me. Dragonball Z is a great manga, cartoon and games materials, but it's not an anime that screams out live-action. I'm not sure how it's going to turn out, but my prediction is that it's gonna be shit.

First movie of the Rebuild of Evangelion is out to mediocre reviews. This is due to the fact that although it looks visually astounding, it's basically a rehash of the first several episodes of the original Eva TV series. So in other words, nothing new. Still, the preview for the second movie looked intriguing and it will probably get better. I'll probably wait from someone for sub and torrent it.

Finished my physics mid-semester exam and next is the anatomy one. Well, anatomy is not totally correct. Structure, Function and Disease B is the technical title. Neoplasia, Immunology and Infection Control are the topics. Might as well start studying.

Hook It Up

On Monday, my latest purchase from eBay arrived, all the way from the United States. You see as part of my course I have to do some basic psychology, and I have to get the textbook, Psychology and Life by Zimbardo and Gerrig. Instead of buying the new thing (at $104, no way!), I scoured eBay and found a second-hand 16th edition. Total price? AUD$60 including shipping which was $20. Now that I have it though, it's proving to be an interesting read. My original plan was to resell it off again, but, you know, I might just keep this.

Last post I was talking how I was arguing with some parents on praise. It's not something that I do regularly, but I was pissed off at the whole 100%-or-nothing argument. That said, it's helpful that if you get into an argument with Viet people, you keep it logical, keep it in Viet and keep it polite. Contrary to popular belief, you can change a Viet person's mind about the mythconceptions of education. Unfortunately, a number of parents have a very narrow-minded view about higher education and job prospects. You just have to get into their minds that there are respectable jobs besides medicine, law or engineering.

Still reading the Naruto and Eyeshield 21 manga. Hmph, anime doesn't interest me as much now. Mainly, since I never seem to have enough time to download new episodes. The Naruto anime pissed me off with its massive filler arc, and Eyeshield 21 doesn't do the original story justice. It's alright but it changes so much of the original events that it dilutes the awesomeness and meaning in the manga.

No TV shows grabbing my attention either. I'm just patiently waiting for Doctor Who and House season 4. I did catch this episode of something called Masters of Science Fiction. Basically they adapt a short sci-fi story into a 45 min episode. It's quite well done, and is something I would recommend.

Man, I've got to get back to work. I have this immunology and neoplasia worksheet that I've been procrastinating around with.

Music to the Moon

In response to the content of Tales of Mu, I'll agree with Phuong that it's adults-only and only then some people will get weirded out. That said, the characterisation and plot development is excellent. It really is that good. That's why I read it. And that will probably why I'll continue to read it.

As for the Xbox 360, I'm well aware of the hardware issues that the console has. And while I'm very much a PC person, I can see the beauty of the consoles. You don't have to worry about whether the game is going to run or not, you pop it in and play. That said, right now, the Xbox 360 in my opinion, has the better software. Sure the Wii is very fun, but there isn't a game that screams to me to buy it. There is a lot of reasons to buy one, but not one that burns me to get a Wii. And while the PS3 will have some killer software, namely Killzone 2 and Metal Gear Solid 4, it's really expensive and out of my price range. Games that I want to play are on the Xbox 360: Halo 3, Mass Effect, Too Human, Warhound and probably a few more to come. But I'll keep your advice in mind Jimmy.

A few days of rain have made driving a little more pissy than usual. It's raining hard, I have the wipers burning at full speed, headlights on, going slow-ish at 50 and I have some jerk tailgating me. But this person was right behind me, maybe a meter or so. If I had to brake suddenly then no doubt the car would have been rear ended. Leave a freaking gap, so you damage our cars and I don't have to worry.

Anyway, my mother was working overtime and I had to go to pick up my brother from school. So I'm standing there, drinking some Coke and listening (or eavesdropping) on a bunch of Viet parents discussing how to praise their children. One of the mothers was wondering whether she should praise her child is they got a test score of 98, knowing another student managed 100%. In my mind, I was like "Well of course you praise them!", but the other parents were like confused and didn't know what to do. One father actually flat out said that there should be no praise. I actually got kinda pissed at that. 98% in any subject is a pretty good mark, no, an excellent mark. What, are you actually going to say to your child when they come home with a 98% mark "What the..? Where's the other 2%?".

I actually jumped in at that point and made my disagreement known. 100% is an excellent mark and all, but it's more important that you tried your best. Not everyone is equal, and there will be students who only get average marks. I was never that good at maths. 4U would kill me. But I did my best at 3U. I think my point got across to most of the parents. They were nodding and going "well that makes sense". Except the aforementioned father who started dissing me and saying that its 100% or nothing and asking "how would I know about praise?". I politely told him that I used to be Sefton student and used to have the 100% or nothing shit leveled at me. Then I told him, very politely, that he knew shit about the education system and raising kids. That was a conversation stopper, and before he mounted a counterattack it started to rain and everyone retreated to their cars.

Back in the car, I had a little reflection time. Most of the parents were stunned probably not due the insults, but more that I could talk and phrase coherent sentences in Viet. I'm not going to say that I have excellent Viet, but I can hold a lengthy conversation. And eavesdrop on conversations. That said I felt rather lucky that my own father started to recognise that 100% or nothing can have a negative affect and switched to a more "do your best and look after your future" praise.

I don't know if those Viet parents will change, but I hope they do.

And yes I've played and finished Elite Beat Agents on the DS. It's wild.

Canned Heat

Taking stock of my financial situation, I currently have just enough to buy a Xbox 360. The Wii is fine and all, but it doesn't have the games that I want to play. Of course, my financial situation is getting better, and if my schemes work out then I'll be in a much better position.

I've been looking through my clinical stuff for my course and the shitty thing is that next year I have three lots of clinical at 6 weeks each. The idea of 6 weeks of Mon-Fri working pisses me off, but I'm out for experience and I can only get some real experience by working at a clinical setting. Then there's the fact that I have to do an out-of-Sydney placement. Which isn't that bad until you realise that it's six weeks away from any Sydney metropolitan workplaces. I'm leaning towards either up to Newcastle or down to Wollongong and neither appeal to me much. Or I could delay the whole thing to third year, but it will still be pissy. I'm thinking of getting it over and done as soon as possible.

Just recently I've watched this three part doco about what life would be like 50 years into the future. They spin a story and revolve the possible changes and present day research into it. It is some interesting stuff. Like there is research on printing human organs. Seriously. This dude modified an inkjet printer and it can printed bacteria into layers. Potentially, you can print out human organs. That would be cool. It's called 2057 and was made by the Discovery Channel. If you can find it, it's some wild stuff and well worth your time.

In Nintendo DS news, I'm currently playing Madden NFL 08, an American football game, despite the fact that a mere 3 days ago I had no experience with American football and I still have limited knowledge about it. Really, it's more about the overall strategy and tactics that I'm not familiar with. Granted that's more to do with the fact that American football or gridiron as it's called is not that big in Australia. But I have the basics down, and I'm resorting to the age old technique to choosing tactics based on how cool their name sounds.

Monster Blitz vs Double Sting.

Post Out vs Hail Mary.

Corners vs Exchange.

Oh, the decisions. Back to the game.

Arrgh Motherland!

Wonky weather over the past few days. It suddenly started to get hotter like summer then quickly slammed into a more wintery climate. Hate it when the weather fluctuates like that.

I now live in fear. Maybe not direct "my-life-is-in-imminent-danger" fear, but more a "one-day-it's-going-to-happen" fear. One of my neighbours keeps a pair of Rottweiler dogs in his backyard. Despite the stories of dog attacks permeating the media, I never really felt afraid of them. They were more or less kept securely in their yard, and despite their best attempts would never get over the side fence. Except not too recently, one of the dogs managed to get out through a low spot. It went after some cat, and as the cat leapt over the top of the fence into our backyard, the dog grabbed the cat by the tail and dragged it to it's death. Now that's scary. Even scarier is that yesterday one of the dogs has permanently escaped its confines and is on the loose. I can't even walk into the backyard without having a cold chill up my spine.

Last Saturday was cool since I went out with the boys (Jack, Lesley, Andy, Oli, Darren, Jimmy Li, Alex, Kenson, Bill) to a nice little place called Hanabi in Lidcombe. My first time at a Korean BBQ. The food was great and the alcohol even better. Andy was out of it by the time we started tucking into the food, but it was so good stuff. Expensive though.

Rotating on my favourite song list is Queen's Don't Stop Me Now. I've been listening to that for a week and I still like it. I tend to listen to one song obsessively, before it gets dumped and a new song takes its place.

I'm burning through the sky yeah
Two hundred degrees that's why they call me Mr. Fahrenheit
I'm travelling at the speed of light
I wanna make a supersonic man out of you
Don't stop me now
I'm having such a good time
I'm having a ball

Can't Stop Me Now

Another week is flying on by.

Sociology, as far as my circle of friends are concerned, is a useless subject. That's not to say that it isn't interesting, but it seems irrelevant in regards to our actual career. It is defined as "an academic and applied discipline that studies society and human social interaction." We have spent the last fortnight getting to grips with sociology and the events that have changed human society. Now where moving on to the sociological imagination. Don't ask me what it means yet. I don't fully understand it, but for now, I think it is a type of mindset that looks at the links between the big picture and the little picture. Ask me again in 2 weeks after I finished my in class essay. Which leads me to...

There is a fair bit of reading to do in sociology. Also add the fact that the pro sentence structures and word usage can make it more difficult to understand. It just goes to show that reading and comprehending what a given piece of text is saying is a fairly important skill and something that I probably take for granted. Like reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in 5 hours.

Do I sound a little arrogant?

I don't mean to. But it is a skill that I am a little proud of, being able to quickly consume and comprehend text. It's also a skill that some people lack. Point in case. Before the sociology lecture, my friends and I were reading through the several pages about the topic. I finished quickly and then reread it, then spent some time explaining what I thought the author was going on about. I'm not saying that my friends were stupid, they are of equal or greater skill. But reading and understanding are such important skills. Can you imagine people without the basic skills? It would be difficult going through high school, not to mention uni, what with that massive amount of reading one has to do.

Reading, and as a byproduct comprehension, is a skill that I think is being neglected. Video games, movies and other media are fighting and generally speaking succeeding. You switch your brain off and enjoy the ride. Seriously, if I had the money and the means, all I would do is to sit down and read. I'd buy all the books in Borders or Dymocks etc, make my own library and read. Maybe not even physical books. There is some good material on the internet nowadays. And I'm not talking fan fiction. I've seen some good ones and I've seen plenty of bad ones. One of the excellent ones is Tales of Mu, which I've mentioned before. Its got a great plot, great characterisation and great writing. Every day, Mon-Fri, the author posts another chapter in the story. It's not a bad format. Posts range from 1000 to 2000 words, sometimes more if she's on a roll.

I know that some blogs are starting to disappear. I guess time and lack of material played a part. Land closed her blog, noting that a blog was supposed to be a creative outlet, an emotional outlet and that it started to feel fake, or artificial. Writing a story in a chapter-sized blog style could be a possible solution. If I remember correctly, Land was not a bad writer, you could post some short stories or poems! As for me...the idea has merit, but when it comes to actually writing something I tend to procrastinate. Oh sure, I'll plan out the plot, the characters and everything, but actually writing it is a different story.

Meh. Friday night. I really need a good book. Maybe I should actually start getting serious in getting money.

Elokuu

New month has finally arrived. We leave cold and bleak July behind and jump forth for the more promising month of August.

Sophia's and Carolyn's party went well. It was some good old-fashioned fun, although it would be better if more people actually dressed up according to the them. Best wishes to Sophia and Carolyn. To be honest, these types of parties aren't really my cup of tea and so I left early at 11pm. I'm more of a small, intimate group of friends with alcohol and food. But I did have some fun and of course, some people did some nice costumes. Off the top of my head, there was a Red Riding Hood, Zorro, Batman, Mario (Jack and Lesley did a Mario and Luigi, but someone else did a much better Mario) and someone dressed up as a character from The Incredibles, Elastigirl, if I remember correctly.

Been reading a new manga called Eyeshield 21. It's a bout this boy called Sena who has this amazing ability to run really fast. He is forcibly recruited into the American Football club and face the trials and tribulations to reach the ultimate goal, the Christmas Bowl. It has got me hooked. Right now I'm not really into anime per se anymore. Just reading manga, and keeping my eye out for limited series runs, like a 6, 12 or 24 episode anime series.

Also been playing a new MMORPG (think World of Warcraft...sort of) called 2moons. It's in open beta so it's free and its not bad. It's a less forgiving environment though. The tagline is "No mercy for the weak, no pity for the dying, no tears for the slain".

I'm glad that I took Biology during high school. I'm breezing through the immune system lectures right now.

Here's a little pic from Sophia's/Carolyn's party.
I'm supposed to be a mad scientist, Helen is Cruella DeVille (she's not wearing her awesome wig) while Jack and Lesley are supposed to be Mario and Luigi respectively.

Candy Pop

Pretty fun second week of uni. I would have posted on Monday, but the fun made me tired. Well not really, there was a two hour practical that knocked the stuffing out of me.

The practical was about using the cathode ray oscilloscope (think back to Physics). My group got the older type, so getting it to work properly was a bit finicky. We connected it to the usual suspects, a signal generator and batteries. It would have been done in an hour or so, but like I said, the CRO often refused to work. It would work for 5 seconds and then mysteriously stop working. So the whole thing took longer than expected. The fact the some of the activities in the practical manual were obscured by pictures didn't help either.

During the sometimes lengthy breaks, I join in some card games, the newest of which is proving to be rather addictive. It has no official name and explaining it is a bit difficult but here goes. This game can be played with any number of people (around 4-7 is recommended). Each player get four cards, and attempt to get 4 of a kind, 4 Kings, 4 Aces etc. The cards are passed around in a circle, with the players discarding card so that there are only 4 cards. So one person starts by picking up a card from the deck, discarding a card, whereupon the next player picks up that card, selects a card to discard and son on. Once a player has the required hand, he/she grabs an object from a pile in the middle of the table (plastic spoons or pepper packets work well). However, there is one less object than the number of players, so 4 spoons for 5 players, 5 pepper packets for 6 players and so on. Once one person has grabbed the packets, so must everyone else with the person unable to grab an object as the loser. Once a player has lost a certain amount of times, he/she has to perform a dare.

The difficult part is passing the cards around with the point of trying to form 4 of a kind and keeping an eye on the objects in the middle. It lead to some pretty intense games and moments. Some of the dares performed or suggested were:

• Offering a random person a serviette and they had to accept
• Running up to groups of people yelling "Lord Voldermort is coming!"
• Doing a pole dance while singing "Singing in the Rain"
• Eating a ridiculous amount of wasabi
• Asking random people for their photograph

Fun times indeed. Anyway, one of our psych lectures, Biological Psychology, was pretty fun because it was examining some of the biological and genetic pressures on psychology such as looking for mates. The lecturer was making plenty of jokes, and we spent the first half laughing pretty hard.

Tomorrow there's the dreaded three hour specific lecture on radiography. It didn't get to 3 hours last time, so hopefully, I'll get out early.

I've started to go to sleep much earlier than usual. It'll be like 9:30pm and I'll be like "Meh...I'll go to sleep now" only to wake up at like 5am in the cold cold morning. Well I'm warm under the covers, it's just that my room is cold. Usually I don't turn on the heater because it gets stuffy for me. If there is anything I hate worse than cold mornings, is the feeling of stuffiness in a room. Some of the lecture rooms can get quite stuffy, and for me it's a relief to breathe fresh air, even if it is cold outside.

I'll stay up later than usual. I usually get kicked awake by my body's biological clock at 6am anyway.

Cidade Sol

Friday. The end of the working week Friday. My uni day off Friday. Nothing much to report except the presence of another 5 hour break. If my calculations are correct, every fortnight I have a 5 hour break on Wednesdays. Screw that, I'll probably go City Hunter or something.

Having eased into the first week of Uni, I'm more or less content with all my lectures. Health physics is pretty cool, psych and sociology are proving to be much more interesting than previously thought, further anatomy is alright and the specific radiography lectures are long but useful. Of course, I also had my first taste of Bangers in such a long time. They make some good food, and plus with my Rewards card, it gets cheaper.

Waiting for more games to come out. Overlord is a nice little distraction, Trauma Center is getting ridiculously difficult, and there's still DoTA. I'm waiting for some nice little DS games. Phoenix Wright 3: Trials and Tribulations for the DS is number one on my list. The Metal Gear Solid 4 gameplay video looks amazing, although the high cost of the PS3 is going to prevent me from playing it out.

Otherwise, nothing much is happening. Except...oh crap...looks like rain. I going to have to move the clothes into the garage.

Housework to do, so I'm off.

Que Pena

So it's back to the university grind on the first day back. It was a decent day, but the 5 hour break between my two lectures did not help. I actually kinda felt tired.

First day back and we shared clinical war stories, the highs, lows and downright weird. But we all agreed that we learned a lot and became more confident in performing x-ray procedures. It only filled so much of our 5 hour gap. Well, starting next week, we won't have that gap as it will be filled with pracs and tutorials, but one the first day back, it was rather pissy. Anyway, as we chatted, one of our friends came up and told us that our notes were ready. It cost $77 all up. A bit on the expensive side, but hey, we want to pass, not fail. So we waited in line and coughed up the money. The notes look pretty interesting, especially for BACH11612 - Introductory Behavioural Health. The notes for that are pretty heavy, I think they photocopied an entire book or something on the subject, but it makes for interesting reading.

On the subject of reading, I braved the natural afternoon light to buy HP7. It was in my hands at around 11:30am and I finished it some 5 hours later. I won't say that it's an excellent book, but it brings the Harry Potter saga to an adequate end. The important trio of characters didn't die permanently, and there was a happy ending. There were a lot of deaths though or other minor characters. Like I said, it ends the saga well enough and it was worth the $30 I spent. Still I did feel a bit cheated. It was nowhere as thick as I expected and that was probably why I finished it much faster than previous books.

I've finally found a neat little DS game. It's called Trauma Center, and you play as a young surgeon with amazing skills despite a lack of experience. It's quite a tough puzzle game. Not only do you have to beat the time limit, you also have to keep your patient in good condition otherwise they die and you lose. Very challenging. I'm somewhat surprised that it mixed in patient care and ethics. Not a lot, but enough to remind you that as a health professional you have to save your patients and treat them well. First Ace Attorney, now Trauma Center? What next?

I also took the plunge and replaced why PSU. Which turned out to be a good decision and now my computer is running better than ever. No more whirring fan noises and overheating, just smooth quiet running.

More operations to do. I'm off.

Harry Potter and the Franchise that Prints Money

There's no doubt that the Harry Potter series has made J.K Rowling a very rich woman. Was it multi-millionaire or billionaire? Well, her total wealth is pretty damn large. Now we have the seventh and final Harry Potter book.

So, HP7 kicks off this Saturday and I happen to have some spare money. I'm thinking of going to buy the book on launch day, but seriously, I'm not sure whether I sound brave the morning queues. Shops usually open at 9am. I wonder if they will have some book left over at 11am? I'm not going to fight through crowds of people just to get one book. So that's the plan anyway for me. 11am at Parramatta Westfield, homing in on Dymocks, but there is also Borders on the 4th level. The plan's success depends really on whether I can be bothered getting out there. Apparently, it's forecasted to have showers, which dampens my mood to go out. So now I'm plagued with indecision. Damn.

Apparently, it's been leaked to the internet. Honestly, I don't mind spoilers. But I'd rather read the whole thing and let the story unfold, rather than having the plot condensed to a few key dot points. So I'm leaning towards going out and buying it. I have to buy a new PSU eventually, so two birds with one stone.

If you happen to be looking for some free (and legal) music, then ccMixter is a pretty good place. It's mainly ambient and chill music with electronic vibes, but that's just the surface. Pretty much all genres are represented, just some more than others. But it's free (and legal)!

Also there's this Jap flash game, based on slapping. You play some chick and you have to slap your opponents into submission for some reason. It uses the mouse, so you click attack and move your cursor across the opponents face and if you're fast enough, she gets slapped. To avoid slaps, you click evade and swing the mouse under you character's head. So yeah. Check it out here.

And rounding out today, here's a little something something from Youtube. I'd buy that.

The Waiting Game

Nothing to do really as I await the return of the uni grind. Mainly reading and playing my DS. And restocking and reorganising my modest comic collection. Yeah, so I read comics. They aren't updated as often as I like plus one of them is like a year behind on the third issue. No idea what's happening there.

It's strange how some memories just pop out. You're doing something and all of a sudden, a nostalgic memory blossoms. You smile, then go "WTF? Where did that come from?" I was thinking back to the ye olde days of primary school. As I was wondering about my former classmates and what they were possibly up to, my mind brought up the time of the school fete. Basically, the year 6 students would set up stalls and the rest of the school would spend money. Was it for charity or the school? I don't remember. Anyway, my group set up this skill game stall. Arranged on a table was a variety of jars with an amount of money written on it. The aim was to throw a small ball so that it landed in the jar. If it did you won the amount of money inside (ranging from 5 cents to $5). It like $1 for three throws and $2 for eight throws or something. The kicker was that the ball was those very bouncy rubber balls and the place where you stood to throw was a ridiculous distance away. Naturally, more money was made then lost. One guy was lucky. He managed to win $5 eight times in a row, but it spent $10 or so to get it. There were a lot of 5 cent winners, so the profit we made was insane. I remember we managed to con this girl in our class, Jenny Jiang(?), into having multiple goes and she basically wasted 90% of her money.

That came out of the blue as I was doing housework. Random, but it was a good, fun memory. Yep, when I'm not reading or gaming, I do the housework. Vacuuming, washing the dishes, washing the clothes, hanging the aforementioned clothes and bringing them in. I wouldn't say it's boring or that I hate it. I've seem to have developed an immunity to it. I just do everything on automatic. Still, it can take a stupid amount of time before everything is done.

On the subject of primary schools, I've noticed that my old primary school even has a Facebook group. Pity that I don't anyone in the group. Must have been beyond my time or after it.

My power supply for my computer has been acting up. Makes horrible whirr-ing noises and sometimes the fan doesn't spin, causing the PSU to overheat and the machine to restart. Maybe I should buy a new PSU...

Doctor Who and House have finished. I need something to fill the void. Maybe a short anime series?

And Phuong...why has your blog gone private? Isn't supposed to be public?

In My Skin

Well, clinical placement at Westmead is now over and I have around a week of relaxation before I got back to the university grind. At first, I didn't think it would be useful. BUt I was dead wrong.

Clinical gave me more confidence. Performing even basic x-rays was at first intimidating, but I got used to it. It might seem obvious but there is a big difference between a mannequin and a real person. I thought it would be easy to give someone one a basic x-ray like a chest. But there all these other factors that come into play. My lecturer was talking about how some people see us as button pushers, but there is also a human element. We meet with people every moment on the job. And that makes us more than button pushers. We are often the first to see the bad news. Cancer in a person shows up quite clearly on an x-ray for example.

Anyway on the last day, it was quite boring. Definitely not as exciting as the others, but just as interesting. I followed a radiographer on mobile duty. Basically, some people are just too sick or fragile to make it down to our department, so we go to them. There's a mobile x-ray machine that's powered on batteries and that's what we use as our source of x-rays. The rest of the day had x-rays that I couldn't do, but I helped as much as possible. Mainly the paperwork, of slotting the x-rays into the folders, putting on the appropriate stickers and giving them to the doctors to diagnose.

I was going to do one chest x-ray before leaving, but the patient was a Muslim woman, and she refused point-blank to have a man x-ray her. All the current radiographers were male and the female radiographers were all away busy, so we had to pull the Chief Radiographer out to do it. It just made more difficult for us. But that's her belief and we have to respect that. Seriously though, it's just a chest x-ray. Women are usually given a gown, so no one is getting you to stand naked or anything. Oh well. Not my problem.

Worth it? Hell yes. Now I can't wait for the next clinical placement. It will probably be more difficult, more pissy and with more responsibility involved, but I'm certain to learn something that can't be taught in the classroom.

Oh and Harry Potter 7? I am awaiting that, but I'm not in a rush. I'll probably grab the book later and don't worry about spoilers. I don't mind them.

My #1 HP7 prediction? Hermione dies. That's where my money's at.

Work Area One

New day, new place within Westmead. Work Area 1 does mainly Fracture Clinic (people with broken bones, duh) and a combination of inpatients and outpatients. Unlike Accident and Emergency, also known as Casualty, there isn't that much sense of urgency. The pace is slower, more managable and can be downright boring at times.

Yesterday was my last day at A&E, and it was probably the best day yet. I mostly helped with this PDY (a radiographer who has just left school and must do an "internship" so to speak) who was really helpful. Again I mainly observed but helped out where I could. Some people think that being a radiographer is a pretty cushy job and I guess it can be depending on where you work. But in A&E, it can be pretty taxing. On one occassion, we needed to do a chest and knee x-ray on this 80-year old woman wiht Alzheimer's. It was difficult because we couldn't use the DR system (she was too fragile to move around) and had to slide a cassette behind her back to do the chest x-ray. However, due to the Alzheimer's, she was very distracted and was never in the right position. In the end, we winged it a bit. The PDY set her into the correct position while I held down the prep button. As soon as he ran out, I pressed the button down fully to take the shot. It wasn't perfect, but it was close enough.

The A&E office happened to be right next to two rooms, 28 and 29. That's where the dead or dying go and the family can grieve. Well, that's where they usually go. Sometimes when we are short on beds, some patients go in there. But I'm walking back from an x-ray only to have this Asian family sobbing their hearts out just outside the office. It was pretty gut-wrenching.

Work Area 1 was different. For the first few hours, there wasn't much to do, expect the odd x-ray. But it was cool because I managed to go down to the mortuary on two occasions. One was a suicide victim, and the second was a jumper. The first guy had shot himself in the head, but the body had been cleaned up slightly, so there was only a bit of blood behind his ears. The second guy had jumped off somewhere high. The police were present during his death, so whether they were trying to talk him down, or whether he was on the run was unclear. X-raying cadavers is a lot different. And a bit difficult. By the time we got to them, rigor mortis had set in and it was difficult to move the body. But very interesting. Very, very interesting.

I managed to do another bunch of chest x-rays, and the PDY person assisting me was very frank, but that helped in my learning. He didn't bullshit, so to say. But I picked up a few tips that helped immensely.

I think Jimmy commented last time that this was I was learning something practical and directly related to my course. That's pretty much true. This sort of training is invaluable, especially in a public hospital where you get plenty of cases. Private clinics are alright, but you don't have that many cases.

Tomorrow is the last day!

A & E

Clinical placement has been pretty cool. It's quite different to learning in class. I made a mistake of going to Westmead Children's Hospital rather than Westmead, but luckily I turned up early so by the time I realised my mistake, I was still on time.

Let me say this first though. The digital radiography system is fucking sexy. Two systems operate at Westmead, the CR (Computed Radiography) and DR. The CR system works like this. You slide in a cassette, set your exposure factors, ping then take out the cassette and slot into a reader, so you can see whether you've done a correct diagnostic image. And if you get it wrong, you have to do it all over again. This is not counting the multiple cassettes. The DR system has an image receptor, so the X-rays are stored digitally and displayed instantly on the screen, you if you do get something wrong, you can quickly do another shot. Everything is automated so you don't have to punch in the factors. Sexy, very sexy.

The people at the hospital are nice, but are always in a rush. My current supervisor is definitely a pro, I mean, she knows her shit, so to speak. She is a bit pedantic on technique, but it's the right technique. I managed to do a handful of chest x-rays today. Besides assisting in procedures or observing them, I also do some reading and take care to the request forms. When a request is entered, the printer in the room churns out the form (what to x-ray, patient details etc) and some stickers. I take the form, label the location of the patient, stick the stickers on and place in queue, with the newest ones at the back. We seem to always have a backlog of requests to do. I only ever see about two radiographers, including my supervisor on duty, at most three. Today, there was more reading and organising request forms than taking x-rays, because my supervisor was running around doing mobile chest x-rays (when the patient is too sick to come to us, we go to them), and the other person on duty was a PDY that didn't really like me observing. But I learnt stuff and that's what important.

I'd probably do more x-rays tomorrow, since I start at 8am and the mornings are usually slow, so I can take my time, and my supervisor can point out some details better.

The weather has been horrible. It's stopped raining, so far, but the wind is blowing pretty strong and it's cold as well. I timed my purchase of a trenchcoat perfectly. It's so warm.

Sophia's planning her 18th birthday and the theme is Heroes and Villains. I have know idea what to go as, but preliminary ideas are mad scientist (I already have a labcoat) or 1940s gangster ( i just need a hat, and maybe a mustache and maybe a gun?). Meh. I still have time to plan.

Off I go, to revise radiographic postionings.

Sharada

Yesterday was spent away from the computer and book. I met up with some old friends to go out and have some fun.

Went to Burwood to watch Transformers. I was a little unsure about the movie. I've heard both good and bad things from it, and with Transformers being a rather dear childhood cartoon, I had worries that the director might butcher the film. My fears were completely unfounded. Relative to other action films, Transformers is a delightful romp with explosions, fight scenes and plenty of eye candy. The robots were very well animated. The movie is definitely something worth watching, and would probably be worth it to own a DVD.

The main criticisms from other people were the overall lack of plot, characterisation, bad directing/editing/cutting. But I think that such a criticism is very harsh. This is an action film! Not an Oscar-contending film! Compared to the "good" films, of course, it sucks. But that's like comparing apples and oranges. An action film is not meant or known for a deep plot or ecellent characterisation. It's supposed to be a fun film, where the audience turns off their brains and go more more base motives. On those factors, Transformers is an excellent action film that holds its own against other action films. Now. Die Hard 4, anyone?

With my overall lack of interest in anime, namely Naruto and Bleach, I search the net for some new anime. One of the newer anime series that is highly recommended is the Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. It's about a girl called Haruhi Suzumiya who is bored with the ordinary and wants to find the extraordinary, like aliens, time travellers or espers. The story is told from the point-of-view of Kyon, a normal guy who is dragged into Haruhi's world. It's a fun anime and the story is quite good. The two main characters are also well-fleshed out and the animation is smooth and looks very good. Throw in a hint of mystery and a tiny dash of Evangelion-ness, and it's a hit anime series, clocking in a 14 episodes. Note that the episodes were broadcast in a non-linear fashion, so the storyline can become incoherent or confusing at times. Some people prefered to watch it in its actual chronological order rather than its broadcast order. But it's good. Highly recommended.

Oh and did you hear? There is a new children's book in town.
The man in the picture is supposed to be House.

Take it Down to the Wire

Nothing much to report on. I have clinical placement next week, which apparently is the same time this camping trip is happenning. Can't do much about it.

Called up Westmead Hospital this morning to get detail on my clinical. I think I spent about 10 minutes on hold before actually being transferred to the Chief Radiographer. I'm kind of pissed that it took that longer, but I have had worse and the hospital has (presumably) more important things to do. I was tranferred 4 times. I remember. Because I said "Hello, I'm a student from USyd and I'm on clinical placement next week. Can I please speak to the Chief Radiographer?" four times. Ah well. That's done and now I play the waiting game.

Exam results aren't out yet. The grades on the website are like 'not yet received'. I've got fingers crossed. Pretty sure I got at least Credits.

The last episode of Doctor Who. The season finale for the third season. What can I say? It was an awesome ride. There are a few things I disagree on, like one death and the ways the physics was whacked off a bit, but that's television for you. It's not about the science, it's about the emotional ride. And let me tell you, it was one hell of a ride, especially the end.

Heh. I so want a sonic screwdriver of the Doctor. There's one on Ebay. It's a replica with a pen and UV lights and stuff. I might get it. Let me go find some money. There must be some under my bed. There must be!

The series has peaked a bit of interest in the theory of time travel. And it's a bit more complicated than I originally thought. Take the grandfather paradox. You go back in time to kill your grandfather before you were born, thus creating the paradox. Since you killed you grandfather and since you never existed, you never actually travelled back in time to kill you grandfather. This implies that you never actually killed your grandfather, and so then you were actually conceived anyway to go kill your grandfather. Yeah. A bit of a mouthful, but there you go. Wikipedia helps a lot.

Been playing F.E.A.R. It's one of those titles where the developers chose the title first then decided to make an acronym out of it later. So FEAR stands for First Encounter Assault Recon. It's a pretty scary game. Not scary like in-your-face-monsters-and-shit scary, but more like freaky-little-girl-Japanese-horror scary. I literally can't play it alone. Well I can, during daylight hours. But as the sun sets, I have to have my brother watching over my shoulder or vice versa. So yeah. Pretty scary shit.

And here's a little something-something
You would you choose? Limit of two, three, say? I'd put my money on Ms Korea and Russia.

Looking at Distant Things

Exams are over. Well, it was over back on Wednesday, and I've been spending the days catching up on some reading that I had to give up.

Seriously, if I had the time and the money and the means, I'd probably do nothing but buy and read books. But I don't. Still, it's my way way of relaxing. Sitting down and reading a good books or two. Right now, I'm reading this book called Life in Vietnam: through a looking-glass darkly by Nguyen Ngoc Phach. It's about, well, life in Vietnam obviously, but after the war when the Communists took over government. It's written in English but it also has these short poems called vè. I use the term poems loosely as the vè were mainly written by average people criticising the government. Some of them make a surprisingly lot of sense and some at applicable to the modern day, despite being written some hundreds of years ago. It has English translations and explanations so it's understandable. If you're Viet, you should read this.

I spent most of the morning, cleaning up my room. It was pretty messy, since I practice the First Available Surface filing method, so my table was covered in stacks of papers and folders, and a good portion of the floor as well. I even broke open my computer case and spent some time to get rid of all the dust inside. Unfortunately, one of the fans has developed this annoying whirr. I can't do much about it. Maybe a can of compressed air to get at the dust in those hard to reach places.

Tomorrow I am uncapped so let the bandwidth flow! Also the season finale of Doctor Who season 3 hits the air. I can't wait for it. The last episode ended on a massive cliffhanger, so I'm stoked.

Besides that, nothing else is happening. I have clinical placement, but that's like a week away. Lesley has been thinking about grabbing a group of people to go watch the live action Transformers, and if it happens then I'm in. Oh Transformers...now that was a pretty good show. The newer shows nowadays kinda suck. Like the Pokemon on Channel Ten. The basic premise of the group showing up, then Team Rocket trying to mess things up, is still the same since the very first episode of Pokemon. I reckon they should drop Ash and co and make a totally new series with new characters. A massive reboot, so to say.

Back to reading.

The Sound of Drums

Close. So close to the end of exams. Then twelve days of holidays, then a week of clinical practice, then another week of holidays, then back to uni.

Last exam is medical radiation physics. It won't go too bad. I had Radiobiology exam yesterday and sucked big time. I only knew a handful of answers and the rest were more on instinct and luck. MC questions are both a blessing and a curse in my opinion. When you know the answers, it's easy, but when you don't it comes down to probability and instinct. You look at the answers and you get the feeling that C must be right. That's probably the most useful tip that one can get for doing MCQ. Your first instinct is usually right. Remember all those MCQ we had to do since the beginning. It was a lot. I remember around the late days of primary school and the early days to high school, there were all these little tips and rules to MCQ. Some useful, most...not really. The correct answer is always B. Take a guess, there's a 25% chance you'll get it right. Three identical answers (B,B,B etc) is usually the limit and the if the next answer is thought to be the same, then something has gone wrong...unless the answers are deliberately the same for four in a row to psych you out...those were the days.

Despite the cappage, I've managed to downloading ep 12 of Doctor Who. I won't spoil it, but it an amazing episode and is filled with all this info about the Time Lords, their home planet, some of their customs. And the season finale looks dam amazing. Then gone. With exception of the Christmas Special, there won't be any Doctor Who eps until season 4 next year, starting sometimes in April/May.

I have obtained Simcity DS, but have yet to play it. Simcity 2000 was probably the first real game that I actually bought. And it was so interesting. Acting as mayor, trying to build a prosperous city while keeping the people happy and avoiding disasters. It started to get more complex from then on. Simcity 3000 was pretty good and I haven't tried Simicty 4. Simcity 2000 was designed by Will Wright, the same dude behind The Sims. Now that was quite addictive. And while both games were great, the publication of so many expansion packs seem to be more of a money grab by EA than anything else. But there's no denying it was one hell of a game.

No news on the job front. I've sent my resume almost 3 weeks back to a potential employer and they haven't replied. Their website is still "Coming Soon", so I'll wait it out. If it goes online and there is still no word, then I'm off to find another potential job. I wish I had a stable income of cash.

*sigh*

If wishes were fishes, then we'd all cast nets.

I put the Laughter in Slaughter

Three exams down, and three left to go. I have Human Biology, Radiobiology and Medical Radiation Physics. Radiobiology is going to be the tough one. I hated all lectures, cos the lecturer was so-so. I swear the book is a better alternative.

I told myself that I would start studying a month before the actual exams. Well that fucking worked. I find myself studying like a crazy man a week before the actual exams. Arrgh, so much for trying to improve myself. But I think I'll pass. Probably Credit, may even Distinction. Anyway the weather has been acting up lately so staying indoors and warm, nose deep in books and notes is still a preferable idea.

Still sitting around, studying while chomping on some chocolate and slamming down shots of Coke is not going to make my body healthy. If there is one thing I truly believe in, it's that as you go through the University of Life, you must have a PhD in Getting the Fuck Away when Shit Happens. And you're gonna have trouble getting the fuck away on chocolate and Coke. Motivation. I need some of that. As soon as the 300 DVD comes out, I'm on it like stink on cheese. It's probably the most manly, testosterone laden piece of work since...since a whole lot of other manly things. I'd probably won't be Spartan, I would be able to run like the wind whenever trouble hits.

After the aforementioned exams, of course.

Ahem.

How do you guys dream? I occasionally get these weird, surreal dreams that make me wonder whether I should write them down and make a book or something. Like how a giant octopus is ravaging the beaches, how sentient spotches of colour ink are disrupting the world's electricity supply, or how there's a group of teenagers caught in a world of time travel, big explosions and sexual tension. I don't know about other people, but when I dream, it's deadly real except for the fact that there is actually no sound, but I can understand what people are saying as if there was sound. Makes sense? No? Don't worry.

Doctor Who season 3 is beginning to come to an end. Two more episodes before the season ends. The 11th episode is an absolute blast. With the revelation of another Time Lord. But I won't say who. I know a few people eagerly awaiting the ABC to start showing some Who action, but dammit, get cable and download the episodes.

Read Tales of MU. It's worth it and addictive as crack.

More cramming. Onwards.