Ladder to the Sky

Back to the uni grind, although it wasn't that much of a grind. I had a one hour lecture, when it was supposed to be two hours and thus ended up paying $3 for an hour or so of parking. Meh, the parking is cheap compared to other unis and I can always park for free in those side roads.

I actually drove to uni in the Daihatsu Terios today, a big achievement since its a manual car. Driving with the clutch still throws me off a bit, but I only stalled twice...no three times today. So I'm improving! Still not that confident to do reverse parks, but I'll get some practice in the weekends.

I noted two things this morning. The first is that the Australian Navy seriously wants to get an aircraft carrier. Despite my military experience being limited to Tom Clancy books and Wikipedia, my first thought (I thought it was really good) was "we don't need any stinkin' aircraft carriers". They are big, expensive and basically a massive target. Let the US have their 11 aircraft carriers, Australia has no need of one. Later in the day, I started to rethink my position. Considering that Australia does have certain responsibilities in the region and the fact that we do get involved in other Pacific Islands (East Timor and the Soloman Islands spring to mind), maybe having one aircraft carrier would be okay. If some uprising or whatnot was taking place on the Solomon Islands, with Australian lives at risk, the PM could send a naval task force with an aircraft carrier with Hornets ready to drop some bombs. To show that we're serious about whatever the issue is. It will be a couple of billions of dollars, but it may be a few billion dollars well spent.

The second item was talking about how Nick D'Arcy, part of the Aussie swim team, could lose his position in the team and not go to the Olympics because he was involving in a bar brawl. I was watching Sunrise on Channel 7 and the hosts were of the opinion that he should still be allowed to represent Australia, but a large majority of letters wanted him dumped off the squad. The only letter read that even remotely supported him was one noting that everyone was making such a fuss over a bar brawl and not noting China's appalling human-rights record. The letter ended with a firm suggestion of a boycott. Firstly, I think that D'Arcy should be allowed to represent Australia unless he is found guilty of something substantial during the brawl. It's not a major offense and no one was critically injured or killed. He wasn't taking drugs or whatnot, I think a public apology should suffice. Secondly, I disagree about boycotting the Olympics. It is a frankly useless political gesture, in my opinion. China is too big and powerful a nation to ignore. It's on its way to become a, if only economical, superpower. A boycott only works when the target is weak and can't risk losing the backing of other powers, or when everyone does it. Not everyone is going to boycott the Olympics and it'll be heartbreaking to the athletes who train for it. It's much better that China's Olympics should be in the spotlight, to better inform the world of the lack of human rights in China. The Tibet riots and the situation in Darfur, Sudan are just two examples of what activists and athletes could note on television to make it stick in people's minds that not everything about China is all sunshine and lollypops.

That's really the only things that really caught my attention. My TIMES subscription comes in tomorrow, so at least I have something to read about the world. I really want to see how the US election is rolling along.

Long Reef Beach

Just when the long Easter holidays threatened with boredom, a well-timed trip to the beach washed it all away. Well, it wasn't that spontaneous. The beach outing had been planned before quite well by Andy and Michael K, two good uni friends of mine, so when the long weekend came around everything was planned out and we only had to worry about the weather.

I ended driving four people there and probably overpacked and underpacked for the trip. It's a bit of a doublethink yes, but you'll see why. Pretty much everyone except me cut north to Chatswood to avoid going over the Harbour Bridge, maybe in dread of the city streets or seeking safety in numbers. I asked my dad about the route and after some scouting on Good Friday, I felt pretty comfortable driving over the Bridge. You just follow the signs and you'll be right.

Long Reef Beach in near Dee Why and it's a splendid place. The beach is nice and big and isn't very overcrowded. Its got decent parking at reasonable cost, has all the facilities, even has a electric BBQ. On arriving though, we tried the BBQ but it refused to work, no matter no many times we pushed the button. We were in a bit of panic and was about to resort to cooking the meat at a BBQ in another beach 2km away then bringing the food back, when Daniel L got one BBQ working. So we started to cook. The meat was alright, although who bought it probably never bought food for a BBQ. I was expecting steak and sausages, but ended up with frankfurts and thick slices of pork, plus chicken kebabs and chicken wings. You can't really cook frankfurts, usually you dump them into some hot water. The pork was pretty thick and cooking them took a long time. Thankfully, we had all this flavouring and we dumped massive amounts onto the meat to add some taste to its absolute blandness.

Also never ever use raw chicken wings in a BBQ. They are bloody difficult to cook on a BBQ. You usually scorch the outside while the inside is still raw. Cooking them properly takes a very long time on low heat. And I've been to many BBQs where someone decides chicken wings should be on the menu. Oh, you can precook them and then just heat them up on the BBQ, but raw chicken wings just can't be cooked properly on a BBQ. Still, it wasn't that bad. The group quickly split into three groups, the sitters, the cookers and the tasters. Most people would sit and wait for cooked food to come, while the cookers worked the meat, pouring on oil and flavouring, while the tasters would stand near the BBQ and grab all the good stuff. So basically all the people at the BBQ intercepted the good stuff.

But on the whole, it was an excellent day out and I had lots of fun with friends. While I didn't bring a camera, but luckily my friends did and here is a selection.

Me and two friends at Long reef

In the ocean, getting some salt water

Long shot of the ocean

The hard decisions of cooking

People grabbing food

Needed the umbrellas to shield us from the sun

I would heartily recommend Long Reef Beach if you ever want to go to a beach to have some fun, but do take some care with the BBQs.

Never Gonna Give You Up

Spent some time on yesterday and today getting used to driving a manual car. It's not difficult per se, mainly just another layer of interactions. Getting used to driving and using a clutch to change gears is somewhat tiring, since I have to consciously think about changing gears. Meh, I have an entire week off, so I'll probably do some driving to get better. I've gotten better today, only stalled twice, but the car doesn't accelerate smoothly as it should, so just more practice.

Yesterday, my dad also took my brother and I over to Collaroy to scout out the route to Long Reef Beach. My uni friends are organising a beach trip this Wednesday and I wanted to get an idea of the route and the facilities at the beach. It wasn't too hard, although just after we got off the Harbour Bridge there were a few confusions. Thankfully, with the combination power of Google Maps and a street directory we managed to get heading the right way. Its been a long time since I've crossed the Bridge, so it was nice. Also the beach was pretty good. My dad did a bit of exploring; he's probably marking it down as another possible destination.

Haven't really been doing all that much for this little break. Since I'm getting close to being capped and want to preserve what I have left, I haven't been downloading or anything much. So mainly it's reading. Might have to drop into a library or something, I'm running out of books. It always nice to have reading to fall back on. There is just so many books, different styles, different genres, you'd never really get bored. Seriously, if I had the time and money, I'd probably spend most of my days reading.

Funny thing, I was browsing on Wikipedia, until I got to the article on Sun Wukong, the Monkey King from Journey to the West. Then I started to remember the Viet dub of Journey to the West (Tay Du Ky) and I suddenly had this craving just to watch it again. I can't find the old VHS tapes, so I ask my mom to ask her friends if they have it. Unfortunately, they only had the older Chinese version from the 80s, while the version I used to have was the HK version from '96. None of the video shops seem to have it either. I've been spying the HK Journey to the West on a US website for US$38 plus shipping. I might that up soon, seeing as the Aussie dollar is still good against the US greenback.

Oh ho, Naruto and Bleach manga are out. Shame Eyeshield 21 isn't yet. Off for some reading.

The Fragrance of Dark Coffee

Second Week of uni over and I've gotten back into the hang of things. Some people bitch about the "uni grind" but to be perfectly honest I'm having a lot of fun. It's nice to be back at uni and meeting good friends.

Got my green Ps on Friday. Wasn't really that difficult, but I played it safe most of the time. The RTA handbook and other info scream that turning right isn't possible because a car is too close, but when in reality, you can still make the turn. Also had to shell out 70 bucks for license renewal and 35 bucks for booking fee. Far out, they make a killing with all these fees.

I've finished Apollo Justice some time ago and I've been bumming around with no really good DS games to take up my time. So I went out to grab a book. There was this book Final Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko that finished the series that I was reading. I couldn't find it before remembering that it doesn't come out until July. Damn. But another book did catch my eye. The New Space Opera edited by Jonathan Strahan and Gardner Dozois. It's a collection of sci-fi short stories featuring 'lushly romantic plots and the star spanning empires to the light year spurning star ships...stuffed full of faux-exotic colour and bursting with contrived energy'. Sci-fi epics in other words. It's only a collection of short stories but some of the writers intrigue me a lot. I might see if I can grab some of their book later.

Hmmm, now for a bit of rant. Parking at Cumbo is pretty good. Decent cost, and it's quickly likely you'll find a spot if you time is right and if there is no spot there are always back roads you can park at, although it is a bit of a walk to get to uni. Except there is always these people who will do anything for a park even if it creates problems for others. In carpark 3, there is a new pay and display system. You park, buy a ticket and put it on the dashboard. And there is like 500 odd spaces. But some people come in and can't find a spot so they park on corners or road ways. A few days ago, when I was turning to exit I found my route blocked my two cars. See below for a cool, ultra-realistic diagram (not to scale).

The two cars left a tiny gap where I had to squeeze my Falcon stationwagon through with just centimeters of give on either side. It was a little too close for comfort. I was glad to see the next day the parking inspectors were out in force, fining every bastard not parking in the bays. The fine is probably in the region of $50-70, but I reckon they should double it and put up bigs signs in red letters to that effect. Because I still see people not parking in bays. I wonder if next week will be any better.

Anyway, back to some reading.

Apollo Justice Impressions

Just when I thought that I would spend the weekend doing not much and lazing around I remembered that I had Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney on my DS. Shame on me for not remembering! I'm about 75% through the game, so here is my impressions so far.

First recap, I've played the last 3 Ace Attorney games and was struck by the wit and charm that it displayed. It was an awesome series and when I first heard that a new main character will be added to Ace Attorney 4(AA4), I was skeptical. Gamers will remember Metal Gear Solid 2 and Halo 2 when you diverged from playing the "main" character to another "main character".

So far I'm having a good time, as some old characters do return. The main character Apollo Justice feels a bit too much like Phoenix Wright. While that's not necessarily a bad thing, he's not as good as Phoenix Wright in terms of characterisation. This is something AA4 suffers from a little bit. The new characters weren't as funky as the old characters. They all seem a bit weak. However, the writing is still excellent, full of charm and jokes and is as good or even better than the old AA games.

The gameplay is similar to old AA games and that is a bit of a shame. In the DS port of the GBA AA1, there was an extra chapter only for the DS which showcased some new techniques, like examining and rotating evidence. The new AA4 was built ground up for the DS and that does show in stuff like character animation and detail, but the new gameplay elements aren't used enough to take advantage to the DS capabilities. It is almost as if the developers were a bit hesitant in changing the old gameplay too much. Of course, the music retains is usual high standard.

All in all, AA4 is good game and a worthy addition to the AA series. However, it doesn't seem to shine as much as it's predecessors and it is a letdown that the developers didn't take more advantage of the DS capabilities. Still, if you've played that last 3 AA games, you'll enjoy Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney.

Our Velocity

Wanted to post earlier but with the end of clinicals I had to take care of all the paperwork and administrative shit.

So yes, clinicals ended last week and it was a little sad. After working there for six weeks you get so sued to it, so ingrained in its culture and everything and now you suddenly walking away from it all. I really liked it there and I have been thinking about working there after I finished uni.

Also the start of the uni semester also brought two other goodbyes. Two friends Thien and David are off to Pharmacy, at the big main campus. There was a farewell party just after the clinicals. I'll see if I can grab some photos. Good luck to both of them, and I wish success on their chosen paths.

Uni has started and it is still a little shock to realise that a year is over and its now the second year. Lectures haven't really started yet, mainly little intros to the rest of the year. It's not that packed a week though. I still have Fridays off and there would be a lot of breaks if not for the bloody tutorials. Oh well. You can't have everything. The only bad thing is that there these stalls and volunteers all these pamphlets. Cumberland is only so big and there are only so many evasion routes. It could be worse, it could be on the main campus.

Pah. This is a pretty short post. I'll guess some time later in the week I'll have some more stuff to post.