Power Corrupts but, Traffic Enforcement Power Corrupts Irrationally

I should have posted yesterday, but I was busy procrastinating over my assignment. And browsing the depths of Youtube didn't help either. So now the weekend is being spent to finish off my assignment.

Attempted to play cricket at Uni yesterday, but it was raining like hell. So we didn't get much of a game out of it. Still, we do have nets and a cricket field. It's pretty awesome, except it is a bit of a walk to get there and back.

I had a look at some of the Physics stuff Charles was doing for his Engineering course. And it looks pretty hard. That said this is just browsing the (shitty) lecture notes and past papers. Maybe I'll understand better if I actually attended the lectures. Or maybe not. But the physics in MRS is so much easier. It's pretty basic so far, so I'm breezing along.

Arrgh, the assignment is still on my mind. I'm trying not to procrastinate, but I always seem to find stuff to take my attention away. Youtube is the main killer right now. It's probably the largest collection of human ingenuity and stupidity in one place. So to compensate for this (alarmingly) short post, here's a little something something called Gorgeous Tiny Chicken Machine Show:

Directly to Your Brain

Wednesday is a packed day. 4 straight hours of lectures, then a measley one hour break, then another 2 hours. The sheer amount of information that has to be processed is staggering and most of the break is spent eating some food so you can process more information.

A 2 hour period of lectures was spent in R035, the coldest place on Earth. It was freezing and jumpers and jackets were put on in order to stave off the cold. The tiredness and coldness actually sent me to sleep. Well, only in the last 15 minutes of the lecture. Before, I was just closing my eyes and listening to the lecturer and popping up every now and then to take some notes. Then it got to the point that I closed my eyes and when I opened them the lecture just ended. All I remember was Compton radiation scatter then the lecture finished.

That said, the science part of the lectures were pretty cool, especially on radioactivity. The maths was managable, the lecturer was cheery and funny and it was smooth sailing. Radiation protection is next on the list, but it is a bit bland and dry, despite being very important. With proper protection and stringent guidelines (because rules were meant to be broken) the radiographer won't receive any over exposure to radiation, with the exception of the normal background radiation.

I finished my draft of my radiation shielding essay, so now it's just a matter to fixing it up, staying within the 500 word limit and getting my reference list in order. It's due next week, so that's plenty of time. Though, it's probably likely that I'll end up typing the final copy at the last minute, under pressure. You know what they say. No pressure, no diamonds.

Doctor Who season 3 is so close yet so far. So instead to posting a random hot chick pic, here's a little teaser trailer for Doctor Who season 3.

Dead from Beyond

Trying to get my assignment done, typing an essay can be hard when you have know idea on what to say. Anatomy practical today. Hella cool lesson. We received the upper chest and head that had been cleanly sliced in half. Some group even got a half a brain. It was mainly focused on muscles of the upper back and upper limb. So you learn stuff and get grossed out by an actual cadaver.

Today was the short day of the uni week. Altogether it was a 3 hour day, but it was the 4 hour breaks that lengthened the day. Diag Rad has it pretty good considering we get well-scheduled breaks. The Speech Path people usually have their entire day in chucks with no breaks. Ouch.

The best way to spend your 3-hour break? Playing pool. That said, we were playing it Asian style. It's $2 a game, so we have a few guys blocking the holes to prevent the balls from falling in. So we can get multiple games for the price of one.

Short post this one, so to compensate, you'll get the usual- some random hot chick. Must get back to work. Damn.

The End of the World

Two movies to look out for. Frank Miller's 300 which is hella cool and hardcore. This is a movie that I have to see in the cinemas. Forget P2P. I want my giant screen and surround sound. The second movie is Pirates of the Carribbean: At World's End. After the "what-the-fuck?!" ending of Dead Man's Chest, I want to see what happens next and how they wrap up the sucker. Will there be a fourth? I don't know. But I think that a trilogy is very good and there's no need to start pushing four unless the script is really good.

USyd's FHS is not that bad Jack. Okay so maybe it doesn't have loads of Seftoners, but more doesn't necessarily mean better. I know Charles was like "why don't you go to UNSW?". My response was "it doesn't have my wanted course." Well, it doesn't have this exact course, Medical Radiation Science (Diagnostic Radiography). Well, I could have done a Bachelor of Science at UNSW, specialising in Radiation Science (or similar), but it's not medical-orientated. That and this course is accredited. Anyway, the small-town feeling of FHS is not detrimental.

The Modern physics practical was pretty cool. Loads of people should up because the scheduling was screwed up and the two lecturers were like "OMGWTFBBQ!". We were simulating radioactive decay using cubes with one side painted black. If the the black side showed up, then that nuclei had decayed and was removed. And we had to draw the required graphs and so on. It's not too bad. I mean, there is a bit of maths involved, but nothing that can't be done with a little thinking and a calculator. Definitely not anything 4-unit.

So the PS3 came out last night/early this morning. The only thing I've decided about it, is that I'm not going to get it. The price is probably the main factor. A grand is a lot of money to sink to a console and not to mention the $90 to $100 cost of games. I know one guy has bought a PS3 and a true HD plasma tv to go along with it. Now that's dedication...and a deep pocket. Me? My pockets aren't that deep. Of course, that still leaves the Wii and the Xbox360 which are reasonably cheaper. Still tossing up on actually whether to get a next-gen console. Maybe soon. Maybe later.

And of course, this Saturday is the business end of being 18 and over. Having to vote in the state election. Since I'm an intensely non-political creature, the thought of actually voting for someone makes me cringe. That and my cynical nature on voting. Basically, we have three choices. Labour, Liberal or the Independants. All three sides are equally the lying and cunning scumbags that they are, yet voting may make a difference to the state of affairs of the state and nation. Of course, whether any party will actually make a difference if voted is debateable. It is likely that Labour will fix shit up in NSW, or the Liberals will make it worse, or the Independants...do what Independants do. Damn these decisions.

In the world of anime, I've been mainly keeping up to date with Bleach and Naruto Shippuuden. So no new anime really. I can't be bothered keeping up with loads of series. MAybe the odd 26-ep anime, but not an on-going series. I am reading the Naruto manga though, and it's exciting stuff. Too bad it only comes out weekly. I've been following House Season 3 and bits and pieces of Heroes on TV. I'm waiting for the new season of Doctor Who that comes out this month. That's about that.


Until next time.

Invictus

For the first time, and probably not the last, I skipped one of my lectures. Not because I was lazy. Nothing like that. It was simply because the lecturer, whose voice reminds me of Borat, is lecturing on Basic Chemistry. Which I've still got in my head since Year 11. So I spent the lecture time in the library, researching for my assignment. I've found some interesting leads there...

Late start tomorrow, but I'm staying all the way to 5pm. I have to attend a physics practical, which was supposed to be my tutorial, but my tutorial was rescheduled without anyone in my group knowing to an earlier day. So I miss a tutorial. Organising these sort of things get hairy I'm sure, but some warning would be nice. The USyd eLearning (formly known as WebCT) is a pretty good way to announce it. I usually check it several times a day.

I met most of the former Sefton contingent on Tuesday. I had just finished lunch and was wandering towards the library when I ran into Kevin, Sophia, Amanda, Rachel and My Hoa. We had a nice chat, and I've learned that apparently the Neuroscience unit of study is a total bitch. Which makes it seem more interesting to me, although that's probably because I'm not actually studying it.

I don't really like the library sessions but today's session was very useful. Journals seems such an underused resource, however, now with my newly acquired elite searching skills I'm able to find extremely useful information. Unfortunately, the library doesn't subscribe to every single journal, so some of the ones I really like, I can't read them. And the fact that some of the journals that contain information that are relevant to my interests regarding my essay are in either Russian or Japanese. Damn.

I got stuck in R035, which I think I mentioned earlier, is the coldest place on Earth. I don't know whether it was just today or something, but seems positively colder than usual. So much that during the quick break in the lecture, people starting putting on jumpers and jackets, me included. Someone should turn the air-con down a bit. Of course, the choice between freezing cold and boiling hot is difficult. Either extremes can get you killed, and are both uncomfortable. R035 without air-con then becomes the hottest place on Earth. Can't there be a happy medium?

You know what I dig right now? Two tracks from the movie The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. It's the main theme and the music from the scene where the three characters face each other off to find the money. That piece of music is called The Trio Or Il Triello in Italian. Get it and listen to it sometime. It's the standard of what film music should be light. Simple and full of emotion.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

Until next time.

When Death Helps the Living

Woah. Anatomy prac was disgustingly awesome. We actually got to see and touch a human arm and shoulder joint. It's a bit cool to see that the human body is such a wonderful machine, how all these muscles allow for fine motor control.

Group work is progressing nicely for our presentation. We have a better idea of the question now, so with a little luck, the presentation should be easy. I also managed to find a killer book that covers the presentation question. I gotta keep that as long as possible. And I have to get started on my other assignment. Damn.

Parking was okay as usual. I have latish starts on Monday and Thursday, so getting a parking spot close to the Uni is near impossible. I usually park in a side street 10 minutes away. It's a bit of a pain, but walking is good exercise. I hate though when you have those greedy parkers, who hog the space so no other cars can park. One car parked on the length of road between two driveways. The driver parked it right in the middle, leaving large but non-parkable gaps to the front and back. If the driver has moved up some, another car could have parked there. Think about the other drivers! They would just like to park as well.

And if you have the chance, read The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins. It shows that atheism if perfectly fine, and how it may be a better alternative than believing in a religion. If you are religious, you should read it. It brings up some good points, and interesting thoughts. That's it I'm buying that book.

Uni life is becoming much more normal. Before, every day was spent in mild bewilderment, trying to find what's going on and keeping on top of things. It's easier now, and the experience is much more enjoyable. I'm thinking on whether to skip the next set of chemistry lectures. It's all basic chemistry that I remember from high school and I'm confident that the notes will suffice. But a part me tells me to stay in case the lecturer drops something important. Hmmmm. Decisions, decisions, decisions.

Until next time.

By the power of Greyskull!

I like Fridays. You know why I like Fridays? Because I don't have any lectures on Friday. So free Fridays!

Besides the revision of lecture notes, I was bored out of my head. Finding a suitable casual job is difficult, probably because I'm picky. It has to be this, has to be that. But I'm sure I'll eventually find something suitable. So to get some relaxation in I headed to the movies and watched Hot Fuzz.

Verdict? Awesome stuff. If you liked Shaun of the Dead, you'll love Hot Fuzz. It's about a kick-ass cop, who is so good, he makes the entire London department look bad. So they transfer him to a tiny village, where there are no murders, but a lot of curious accidents. The ending was alright, but the humour had drifted away a bit since it was full on action. But I would definately recommended it.

I have assignement due in 2 weeks, and haven't really started on it. The library has a nice selection of books, it's all about finding the right one. Anyway, uni is turning out to be much better now. Sure, Cumbo isn't as massive as the main USyd campus or UNSW, but I like the small campus feeling. It's nice.

Now off to do some homework. Again, another picture of a random hot girl to compensate.

I Can See Music

Nothing much to report. Uni was cool, as usual. I handed in a passport photo to the department, because they need one for clinical. Probably to put a face to my number. I have one course called Preparation for Practice, which is a class that prepares all the MRS students are clinical practice, that has to be done sometime in July. There is a group assignment due in 9 weeks, a powerpoint presentation. Originally, we were put into groups based on our postcode so that we would be able to meet easier. Except that not all groups had representatives from all 3 streams, Radiation Therapy, Diagnostic Radiography and Nuclear Medicine, and the presentation requires info from all streams. So new groups were formed, but it was messy.

Instead of locality, the groups were redesigned to that all 3 streams were represented. But now the groups were much larger. Instead of a managable six students, the new groups are bumped up to ten, in some cases twelve. This does make it harder to learn everyone's name, but also creates problems in meeting and workflow. Still, on the bright side, we're going to meet a whole bunch more new people.

The books I have bought for some of the courses. As you can see, they are pretty hefty books. I know of at least one more book that I have to buy and it costs $240. Arrgh. Maybe there's a second hand copy somewhere.

I've finally rearranged my bookshelf, so all my books are neatly lined up. These are the books that I bought with my own money, and it's such a small collection. Damn. Still, I'm planning to slowly expand my collection. As you can see, I lean towards sci-fi and fastasy novels, but there's a good dose of 'educational' books as well.

Monday Bloody Monday

Paintball on Sunday was hella fun. We shot each other up, had pizza for lunch and had a great time. Many thanks to Olly's sister for organising the whole shebang. It was pretty much the same like other paintball places except there was no limit on distance of shooting, so you could shoot someone at point-blank range. Which hurts. A lot. I was peppered with loads of shot yesterday, so now I'm feeling the effects of all the bruises. And my legs hurt a bit. I guess they weren't used to the run-cos-you're-being-shot-at pace, so it's probably just some DMS. What? Oh that! DMS is Duke of Ed speak for Delayed Muscle Stress. Basically, you body gets used to trekking 20km a day with a heavy backpack, and you don't really feel all the sore. But when you get home, sleep and wake up the next day, the pain catches up and you feel really sore.

Today was cool, because we had our Anatomy practical. It went for 2 whole hours. Most of it was basically, filling in some sheets, but it was interesting to learn the names of the structures of the bones, like the trochanter, fossa and sulcus. In the last fifteen minutes, the teacher unveiled an embalmed arm and leg, along with other bits and pieces from the lower and upper limbs. It was disgusting, but we couldn't look away. It was captivating, in a way. This was actually someone's limbs, donated to science so that we could learn. It wasn't indepth, I mean, he just pointed out some of the major muscles. But, yeah, amazing stuff.

Then came a 3 hour gap. It was hella boring because there was nothing much to do. Lunch took up only 20 minutes, and we spent the rest of the time wandering the library, chatting to each other and trading stories. I also met some new friends! So it wasn't that bad. Just long. I happened to meet Sophia, Amanda and Rachel and we traded some stories about our courses. Speech Pathology is so different. It's interesting to know some of the stuff they are learning. I briefly saw Cindy, but she was hurrying into a lecture and I didn't get to say hi. Also saw Kevin Nguyen, who is doing Physio. Nice to know that Seftoners can still run into each other, despite our separate paths.

Off to do some study. Revision is so important. So here's a random picture of some hot chick to compensate the shortish post today.

Chalk it Up, Charlie!

Every driver will have at least one during their driving career. An accident. What's that? Yes, I was involved in a car accident. It has a high speed head-on crash with a small truck, that was also speeding, whereupon both me and the other driver suffered horrendous injuries and the wreck suddenly combusted creating a small mushroom cloud that nearby onlookers reported a nuclear explosion to the police. I sit now in front of the computer screen, typing with my left pinky and right big toe, paralysed from the waist down and swathed in bandages due to the massive amount of skin burns.



Seriously.


Nah, just joking, I just scraped the bumper of the other car in my haste to leave the carpark. Anyway, I apologised to the person and his first response was "Sorry isn't good enough". After resolving this incident and in hindsight, I began to reflect on that phrase. "Sorry isn't good enough". My first thought was "What is?” Massive aggro? Turning back time? Seppuku? "Sorry isn't good enough". Well it could be true. Sorry may not be good enough but what can be done to reverse it? Nothing. One of the simple facts in life is shit happens. When it happens, there is nothing much you can do but accept whatever bother or trouble is causes you and move on. Instead of getting unnecessarily angry or rage about it, something should be done to resolve it. It seems in life that there are more people who cry 'wolf' rather than offer or carry out solutions to stop the wolf from doing more damage.

Example. The QLD government is planning to build more dams to resolve the water crisis. Seems simply enough. However, when they announced it and a list of possible sites, everyone there went psycho and starting to opposing the idea. Now that is within their right. However, what bothers me is that no person seems to offer an alternative solution to solve the water crisis. They could bring up a thousand reasons not to proceed, but they could not bring up one alternative solution. You have to look at the bigger picture. We have a water crisis and something should be done to stop it effects from digging in deeper. My point is that doing something is better than doing nothing.

Since realising this, I have been trying to think more about the big picture. I have been trying not to let incidents get to me personally. Yelling the crap out of the other guy may be satisfying, but it is not productive. It is difficult yes, and life always likes to put the occasional edge into some random incident. All I could do is shrug and say sorry. Because I could do nothing else. And nothing else seems good enough. Except maybe comprehensive car insurance.

Woah, what a rant. It's been a long time since I ranted. To finish off the tale, the other driver called my dad and said the repair to the scratch on his rear bumper was $2000 and if my dad paid $1500, it will be all good, it would be settled privately. My dad offered $1000 but the guy refused. My dad said he would call back. He was a bit suspicious that the scratch would cost so much. He thought it would be a lot cheaper. Anyway, he called NRMA Insurance and went ahead and lodged a claim. Since I'm under 25, we have to pay a $900 excess, and NRMA deals with the rest, the repairs and stuff. My personal thought is that the other driver was still pissed, and tried to rip us off, so he could have some extra cash in his pocket. There's no proof but I'm just speculating. Instead, we pay $900 to NRMA, his car gets repaired for whatever, and he doesn't get extra cash. It was a good plan, but the price was just too high.

So that little incident is chalked up to experience. Wisdom comes from experience and experience comes from mistakes. I made a mistake and now I'm wiser. About what happens and what to do. My dad was just happy that it was only a scratch and I wasn't involved in some high speed crash. You can fix cars back to perfect condition, but fixing humans is a lot more complicated.

Will of Iron? Nah, Will of Caffeine.

Tired as hell today. I had three 2-hour lectures. That last lecture was a killer, because the room was fully air-conditioned to the point that the temperature must have dropped to sub-zero temperatures. I got through the day with a well-timed dose of caffeine, but relying on it to give a boost for the long term is probably not a good idea. Perhaps switching it out for Gatorade to rebalance my electrolytes...

The coolest class for me was the "Preperation for Practice". We had the split into different groups in preperation of presenting a slideshow assignment. It was messy, since you had to find your student number, thus finding your group number and then finding the rest of your group. I'm in lucky number 13. So in my group we have Andy, Denise, Jenni and Brendan and our final member is still MIA. All of us are in Diagnostic Radiography, with only Jenni doing Radiation Therapy. They're cool people. But then again, lots of uni people are. It's like some people reached a level of maturity that grants automatic coolness or something.

I bought my labcoat today so I'm ready when we have anatomy practicals. Fortunately, we're only looking at bits and pieces of a human body, not a whole cadaver. If we were dissecting a whole cadaver I would probably gross out.

Paintball on Sunday! My parents gave me the okay, but said I had to finance it with my own money. My reserve levels are still acceptable, so I should be okay. But I should really get a job. I don't want to dip too low (STAGE FIVE MONEY RESTRICTIONS!!!) so a job would be cool. Still searching...

Off to a quick nap.

Your Standard Gun in a Pen

First day of uni was interesting. I didn't start until 2pm and ended at 5pm, so it was going to be a short day, with only an hour break. But that was just the start.

I drove to uni but despite circling around a few times, there was no parking space for me to luckily park into. So I parked about a kilometre away next to this small park. The walk wasn't that bad, and it'll probably count as good exercise.

The first lecture was supposed to be an hour, but only went for ten minutes. Yes, ten minutes. The lecturer mainly told us about the online WebCT/eLearning thingo, and told us about our textbook. So we walked out rather suprised and with much more time to spare than originally intended. We (as in me, David V, Nishan and Mike) visited the campus bookshop to see the price of the textbook and it weighed in at $140. So yes, quite expensive. I could buy it straight off, but I'm waiting for my rewards card so I get a discount. So asian.

We spent time talking a bit, then headed to the library to check it out. Now I now the Cumbo library is probably tiny compared the main campus, but it was still hella cool. All the books, journels and magazines on pretty much all the health sciences offered at Cumbo. I could seriously spend some time just reading. Now I know why we have to get degrees from Uni and can't just go on Wikipedia. Ah well.

Last lecture wasn't really a lecture. It was more explaining on the course outline, and eLearning. Saw My Hoa (Vision Sciences) at that lecture, because a whole bunch of courses do the same on. It did go the near full hour, but that was because the lecturer was being more thorough in explanation. I stopped quickly for a Pepsi and then drove home. It took a bit of time due to traffic and wet weather.

I have to buy a labcoat soon for the practical lessons to check out dead bodies. I've seen pictures of what the dissections look like, but I know it's nothing compared to the real thing. So quietly nervous on that.

Bah! 8am start tomorrow. But I'm out by 3pm, so not that bad I guess.

Doctor Who Season Three starts 31st of March. Watch it.

A Kinda Final Solitare

O-day at Cumberland wasn't, as I had feared, a complete waste of time and effort. The information and tours were very useful, and now I feel more confident at navigating the expanse that is USyd Cumberland. That said, it's still a small campus, and getting lost is almost impossible, unless you have a terrible sense of direction.

I drove to Cumbo and got there at around 8:30am. It was a bit early so I waited until 8:45am before I went in. Then I found out that there were two groups divided based on the courses. So my group didn't actually "start" until 10:30am. I met up with David Vuong (Diagnostic Radiography) and Sophia (Speech Pathology) and we had a quick tour around the campus. My guess was that there were around 1000 undergraduates present. With a total student population of ~5000, Cumbo was big, yet still quite small. The Sefton student population at Cumbo for undergraduates is tiny, compared to UNSW (with all the commerce & engineering people) or USyd main (all those pharmacy people). If I remember correctly...

• Me (Diagnostic Radiography)
  
• David V (Diagnostic Radiography)
• Nishan (Diagnostic Radiography)
• Sophia (Speech Pathology)
  
• Amanda (Speech Pathology)
• Rachel (Speech Pathology)
• Nam (?)
  
• My Hoa (?)
  

Yeah, only eight Seftoners here. But the campus is small, so I guess we'll run into each other. Plus with David V and Nishan with me in Radiography, I guess we can cover each other in note-taking and whatnot.

After all the lectures and information flooding, Nishan, David V, a friend Mike, and I decided to grab some free lunch. Except the line was hella long, and it was certain that food wasn't going ot get into our stomach anything soon, at least not in the next 30 minutes. So we called it a day. The other guys took a bus, while I drove away, still feeling distinctly hungry. I was going to go home, but instead diverted to Parramatta Westfield. Grabbed some food from the food court, and picked up a few new books. I had gone to Parra on Tuesday to buy books as well. My now favourite bookshop is Borders on Lvl 4. It has a massive collection of books, especially sci-fi, my favourite genre. So, including the books bought on Tuesday and yesterday, the list stands at:

• Night Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko
• Day Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko
• Dis Information (and other Wikkid myths) by Dr Karl Kruszelnicki
• Neuromancer by William Gibson

Night Watch and Day Watch are very cool books detailing the uneasy truce between Light and Dark set in post-Soviet Russia. And contains musings on what is good and evil, the boundary between, and where that boundary exactly is. Highly recommended, very great plot and even greater writing. Dis Information basically refutes a number of myths, like there is no adverse reaction when mixing alcohol and most antibiotics. Very cool and interesting read. And Neuromancer is a sci-fi cult classic. The very first cyberpunk novel dealing with possible technology before it was cool and pioneered the dystopia setting. When I say classic, I don't mean those English canon books written all those centuries ago. The Lord of the Rings trilogy is a classic, along with the Sprawl trilogy by William Gibson (which includes Neuromancer as the first in the trilogy) and the Dune series by Frank Herbert. Cult classic books right there.

Now my only remaining Uni problems are textbooks cost and transportation. Textbooks costs are be dealt with, but I intend on getting that rewards card so I can get discounts. Transportation is different. Since all available and convienient parking is gone by 9am, and I don't have class until 2pm, parking will be a problem. By the time I get there and find a place to park, I might as well bring a bicycle to get to uni. Public transport is a possible idea, but altogether it'll take an hour or so. Not sure how to solve it, but I'm thinking of driving and parking near Lidcombe station and using the bus to get to the Uni. And home time, I take the bus back to the station and pickup my car. Still in progress there.

Until next time, I have reading to do.