Under A Sky So Blue...

Just got back from hiking. It was only a one-nighter, but it showed that everyone, except maybe Jack, was a little bit out of shape. It was hella fun though.

We meet at Lidcombe Station at 8am, only to find that a whole bunch of people had decided not to go at the last minute. So our group consists of:

• Me
• Alex H
• Jack
• Charles
• Raymond L
• Harry
• Lesley

We hop on the train to Central, then change lines and head to Heathcote. Once there, Jack tells us that there are no fires allowed and Ray starts getting anxious about lighting, since he didn't bring his torch. So before Charles and Jack walk into town to buy food, he tells Charles to buy a torch. Charles bought a $22 torch using most of his money and Raymond's. Complaining ensures, and so by the time we actually head to the campsite, it's 10:30am.

It was 4.5km to camp over rough hilly terrain. And this is where pretty much everyone struggles. Walking 5kms is nothing. Walking 5kms over rough terrain and a 15kg pack is a whole different story. We take breaks every 15 mins, and by the time we reach the campsite, it's 1pm. It took us 2.5hrs to get there which is pretty crap by Duke of Ed standards. But the fun starts at the campsite.

After taking a quick break, we start setting up our tents. I'm on my own, Charles and Lesley are a tent, Raymond and Harry are in another and Jack and Alex make up the final group. But when Alex pulls out the tent, he only find the outer layer, it's missing the inner layer, the pole and the pegs. Apparently, Alex had lent the tent to Helen and when she returned it, she probably forgot to check that all the stuff was there. So there was this "Oh, shit" moment with Jack and Alex. It was settled that Jack would bunk with Charles and Lesley, and Alex would bunk with Harry and Raymond, because they have 3-man tents.

Mobile phone reception was bad, but Alex managed to call Helen to ask where the heck the ret of his tent was. The missing tent was fustrating, but Alex and Jack were pretty cool with it, so there was no real yelling involved, just a "I'm missing half my tent, yeah". The rest of the day was spent milling around, resting and eating dinner. By nightfall we had retreat to our tents to talk. Harry and Alex were playing Uno, and other stuff, while the rest of us crammed into Charles/Lesley/Jack's tent to talk. We talked about a diverse range of topics, qith some honesty. The policy is similar to drama room policy. What is said in the tent, stays in the tent. So it was nice to be somewhat frank and not worry about what your said being spread around the world.

The final day, today, was much better, because we were travelling on a fire trail, where fire trucks would use in a bushfire. So the road was wide and flat with a sprinkling of gentle uphill sections. It was 6kms to Waterfall and we did it in under two hours. We ducked in a shop for fish and chips before heading home.

The walking part of the hike was difficult as always, and the lack of the usual luxuries made life a little more harder than usual. Right now, my legs have just stopped aching, but my shoulders are burning with a dull pain. However, it is after these hikes, that I really appreciate the luxuries that civilisation provides. Clean running water, a soft, warm bed and electricity. All of them are more appreciated. I don't know if there will ever be another hike, but if there is, everyone is warmly invited.

Jack took several photos on this trip. Once he has rested up, he'll probably post them on his blog.

To sleep! And perchance to dream.

Death's the final word

I managed to get all the clearance things done on Thursday. I did forget my BOS Stimulus Booklet, but instead of returning later, I just paid 5 bucks. It wasn't worth the hassle of going back and then returning tomorrow.

I had planned to spend the next few months taking it easy, and grab my P's before Christmas. Besides the planned hike, I don't have anything else to do. Or so I thought. Now that I have had a couple of days to relax, I realise that something to keep me busy would be nice. That was when, after the HSC, I bought a PS2 and a few games. But you can only play for so long, and the fact that my parents don't know about it, ruins the playing experience. But that endeavour has pulled me flat broke, and like many other post-HSCer, I'm thinking of finding a temp job. Something for a month or two, so I can have some cash to use.

And the fact that eventually we'll all be going to Uni and paying the fees means I'll have to get a tax file number. And I now regret not getting one earlier. My dad said don't worry about so early, but now seeing that it requires original documents and takes up to 28 days to clear, I regret my earlier decision. Hmmm...this is going to take some thought.

As for the job, I have a couple in mind. The best one seems to be a 3 day temp doing stocktakes. They didn't list the pay, but I'm thinking it's not going to be that high. At best, I'll probably get a couple of hundred. The other is a more long term temp, going into Christmas and may even offer permanent casual jobs. More money in the long term, but more work. Decisions, decisions.

Yearbook is cool. I mean, I knew it was going to be cool, but this was way cool. I had a lot of fun reading articles and other people's thoughts. Someone put the poem Jack and I wrote for English. It's nice, although I didn't expect that. I didn't think it was that good or anything.

I have finally finished watching all of Trigun. Usually I'd take the Japanese audio with English subs, but it had the English dub which was fair enough. Its mix of comedy and seriousness was perfect. The ending is a little open-ended, but I hear the manga is still going. That's like definately at least 10 years.

Besides House, I'm also watching Heroes and Torchwood. They're suffering a bit, since I have Final Fantasy X to play on my PS2 and Sudeki on my PC. I'll probably just keep updating House.

Damn it, I'm going to have to vote in the upcoming state election. That's one part I hate about being 18. The responsibility that comes with the age.

The Big Schwarz

I remember having a Chemistry substitute teacher who would say that Google is crap because it is not a "meta-search engine" and that it could not find some tiny obscure Vietnamese town. Instead he recommend the use of meta-search engines such as Dogpile and Mamma and a whole bunch of other obscure engines.

However, there is a reason we should use Google and that is because it's very powerful. Very powerful. So powerful, that it can give the answer to Life, the Universe and Everything. Don't believe me? Take a look down.
On another note, I'm not selling any textbooks or notes because they are all going to my brother to use. And Final Fantasy X has too many cutscenes for my liking.

HSCompleted

That's all I have to say.

Distracted Reactions

For some reason, I don't really want to study for Chemistry anymore. Now I have this strange urge to go and do some ironing.

For the seventh time

I must confess some love for SBS. When all the other channels are showing some crap shows, you can switch to SBS and watch something interesting or mindblowing or a combination of both. But I'm not talking about those really weird foreign films that throw borderline porn when you parents enter the room. Everyone knows about those films, but your parents walking and seeing that questionable scene can be hard to explain (as someone else knows so well, P.)

I'm talking about a series that is up there with the best. I mean there's Chaser's War on Everything, Glasshouse, House, Doctor Who and Thank God You're Here. I'm talking Mythbusters. No other show on Earth makes science so fun. It answers the questions that we really need to know, like can paint your house using dynamite and how much blasting agent you need to completely demolish a cement truck or using salsa sauce to escape from jail.

In doing Physics, Chemistry and Biology, there are definately fun and interesting bits. Mythbusters takes these three sciences and puts them in a blender. A myth pops up, they test the myth, replicate the effect usually with explosions and then you learn something new. I think there was another similar kind of show called Brainaic. However, they only focused on big booms and hot chicks with a tiny bit of science sprinkled around. I mean it couldn't compete with Mythbusters and now I don't see it anymore.

In other news, Glasshouse is being axed! Shock! I really wish I discovered this series earlier because it's so funny and informative. It's days were probably numbered when the ABC decided to go unbiased in all its programs. Comedy is so hard to come by. Skithouse was funny for a while, but as the program went on, it didn't really get any funnier. It was like there was a asymptotic line in which no comedy program could break free. But. There was a program that was funny and got better with each episode. I'm talking "The Sketch Show". Now that was some British comedy that didn't really on stupid people doing stupid things, but focused more on wordplay and absurdism. Unfortunately, the internet is showing a distinct lack of files relating to this program. I just hope there is a DVD series somewhere.

Only Chemistry left to go. Then 3 months will nothing to do. Nah, I guess I'll find something to keep my mind busy. I mean, Doctor Who will be coming back and I've discovered a new series that I like. It's called Heroes. Search the net. Find it. Watch it.

Hook, Line and Sinker

Amusing Star Wars quote I found:

Wedge: "Sithspit! What's that?"

Wes: "That's the sun, Wedge. It's after dawn."

Wedge: "Well, it offends me. Turn it off."

Obviously, it's part of the novel range (or Expanded Universe) of Star Wars, but it made me smile.

I had to go shopping today with my mum. I needed a new cap, because my old one is tattered and faded due to constant and repeated exposure to extreme weather and sea water. I also needed new shorts for the beach. It would have been a quick "in-and-out" exercise, but my mum got distracted and ended up buying a whole bunch of other clothes for my dad and brother, a new bag for her, some makeup things..zzzz....zzzz....and a whole bunch more. But as we left, my mum went to buy some chicken for lunch, it was $8 for one and $14 for two. We talking about buying the BBQ chicken and some Asian guy next to us asked if we would mind buying two chickens and split the cost 50-50, because he wanted some chicken as well. End result? We saved $1 on the BBQ chicken. Must be an Asian thing.

Why is it that the really good books are in a series? I popped into Dymocks to check out the sci-fi and fantasy section, and there were plenty of books, but they were always part of a trilogy of some sort. Now I saw this book, can't remember the details, but it was massive. It made Wild Swans look small. Or better yet, it made Le Morte D'Arthur look like a brochure. It was big and it was part of a trilogy with two books that were equally as big! I mean, come on, chuck us a decent one-shot, something we can finish in a week or two.

So I have only two exams left, Bio and Chem, and what decides to pop up, but House Season 3. God, I love this show, and I'm constantly on edge waiting for the next episode to make it out onto the internet. Heroes is another great show. It's about a few people developing super powers and has the shady, mysterious, morally ambigious guy who seems to know more than everyone else. Check that out. I've been watching Avatar: The Last Airbender on Youtube, but no new episodes have appeared in a month. Dammit, release that next ep! The fact that they model the bending on real Chinese martial arts is so cool. Naruto is still on crappy filler arc, and so it Bleach, but its fillers are less crap, so I'm still watching it.

My collection of comics are slowed to a mere trickle as all the comic artists are way past their deadlines. It is supposed to be an issue a month! Not 6 months late! Just for the heck on it, here's a list:

• Alan Moore's Top Ten
• Codename Knockout
• Danger Girl
• Gen13
• Hunter-Killer
• Metal Gear Solid
• Neil Gaiman's 1602
• New Avengers (ongoing)
  
• Shanna the She-Devil
• Superman and Batman (ongoing)
  
• X-Factor v3 (ongoing)
  
• Ultimate Universe
• Ultimate Daredevil and Elektra
• Ultimate Elektra
• Ultimate Fantastic Four (ongoing)
  
• Ultimate Galactus Saga
• Ultimate Spiderman (ongoing)
  
• Ultimate Wolverine vs Hulk (ongoing)
• Ultimate X-Men (ongoing)
  
• The Ultimates v1 and v2 (ongoing)

Also, I'm trying to get all 26 episodes of Trigun. It's around 5gigs and I'll probably start getting it after the Chem exam. And John Legend's new album Once Again is mega hella awesome. Get it and listen to it, especially the first single Save Room.

JUST TWO MORE EXAMS TO GO!

Diversion Inversion IV

A computer lets you make more mistakes faster than any other human invention in history…with the possible exception of handguns and tequila.
-Mitch Ratcliffe

People are like stained-glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within.
-Elizabeth Kubler-Ross

I like the stars…it’s the illusion of permanence.
I can pretend that things last...that lives last longer than moments.
-Neil Gaiman's Sandman: Brief Lives

There is nothing to fear, except fear itself?

Physics was alright. I was expecting some really hard questions, especially for astrophysics, but it wasn't that hard. For other physics devotees, what did you write for that magnet falling on copper, cooled to -50 degrees C? I don't think the copper would be a superconductor at that temp...I just threw in Meissner Effect since I have no idea.

Maths exam on Monday. It's alright, but I know that I'm more or less screwed for Maths3U. Still, I'll just do as many questions as possible and ride that one out. Bio and Chem are last. I think I'll be alright for Bio, but I can't seem to be able to get my head around Chem. All the stuff I have to remember...did the past papers pretty badly though, so I might chuck in some extra revision time for that.

Now here's an idea that the Board of Studies should consider:
Jack: hows your study going?
Me: cool
Jack: lol
Jack: your the only one who seems to be enjoying it
Jack: I say they should ban all studying
Me: yeah no study for hsc
Me: you pass on what you remember over the past 2 years
Jack: damn rite
Jack: and if you study, instand NSA
Me: yeah
Jack: you made a non serious attempt at not studying!
Me: hsc would be so much cooler with no studying allowed

HELL YEAH! NO STUDY FOR HSC, BIATCHES!!!
Seriously, if that concept ever got voted in, the HSC would be more competitive, since no study is allowed! It will be a whole new revolution in examinations. Students getting zeroes because they studied. No cramming, no stress, just walk in and do your best! Hey, that should be the slogan.

We Are the Strange

Monsters Inc meets The Nightmare before Christmas inside of a retro Japanese videogame.

Game on

I'll be posting during the HSC. Don't expect anything long. It'll probably be a few words and maybe some interesting picture/s that caught my eyes. So good luck, everyone. Although some won't need luck. They'll probably need a miracle. Or two. Or three.

Diversion Inversion III

Down the Home Stretch

HSC in close, very close now. I've got my last-minute study tables in order, though hopefully, I've successful know everything. Just practical experience, so I'll probably do past papers.

Actively avoided study today. I'm definitely feeling...something. Something like nervousness mixed with anticipation. It's not a good feeling, but not a bad one. Anyway, Youtube became my saviour today as I discovered someone had uploaded the entire series of Evangelion. It's the english dub, which is passable, but it's so cool to see giant mecha battle it out with the Angels. I've downloaded some clips, mainly of Unit-01 going beserk. Good it's just so cool when Unit-01 goes berserk. And the music for those scenes fit perfectly. I gotta find a soundtrack.

My family has plans to go to Frasier Island, off Queensland during the holidays. Most likely the beginning of January for a week or so. I don't think any important stuff happens then. Since we'll be making the journey by car (yes, we're that hardcore) I'm tempted to buy a PSP for the journey. I might have to dip into my savings, but it won't burn my pockets too deep. Anybody, know any good games to recommend? Preferbly RPG types?

Last test for my is the Chemistry HSC exam on the 10th of November. Can't wait.

Diversion Inversion II

Diversion Inversion

This is SPARTA!!!

Can you say cool? This looks like to be the best movie since Sin City. Grab the trailer of the official site or Apple trailers, fullscreen, max volume with max bass. This is definately something to watch in the cinemas.

Male Restroom Etiquette

A nice little diversion.

Leave this academic factory...

There's nothing quite like the feeling of finally being uncapped. Broadband is so cool, until you're capped and you have to agonisingly wait for days until the next month rolls over. I feel the need...the need for speed....

Besides all that, graduation was alright. I mean, we got crappy certs, but this is a public school. I really like the keyring. It's a nice little token, definitely a keeper. After the graduation, there was many a photo taken and a tear cried. The best part was when a godly part of the grade lined up on the basketball courts in a massive group. That was fun.

A thousand photos later, and a million words later (cos a picture is worth a thousand words), Jack, Lesley, Simon, Kenson and I drove off to bowling. I played a pretty crappy game, but then again, I've always been crappy at bowling. Except that one time when I got 3 strikes in a row and managed a 190ish. We dashed back early for the luncheon, with a change of clothes at the bowling centre and were shocked to find ourselves underdressed. Several of the girls definitely put a lot of effort into their dresses. Soon, my shirt and cargo pants faded softly from view. Well, at least I wasn't the only one underdressed.

Luncheon was anticlimatic. We came. We ate. We talked. The food was excellent though. A water bomb fight broke out, but the teachers weren't up to the task to telling those involved off. I mean, last day come on. After luncheon, a bunch of us travelled to Birrong Park for some sport. Jack, Kevin Tran and I went to get some drinks with Kevin driving. He's good, at least he doesn't turn the corners as quickly as Jack, although Jack keeps saying that Carolyn is a crazy driver. Anyway, he reversed parked and Kevin nudged the back of the front car, resulting in a slightly dented license plate. Nothing that could be fixed with a little elbow grease and headlight fluid.

Soccer went well, but then people left. Jack got me with a water bomb, splashing me in the back. I'm gonna get you back, Jack!

Watched the DVD of our kick-ass concert, thanks to Gough. Some of the jokes were 'meh', but the gravity one went down really well. Maybe too well. I ended up looking like a complete moron. Just so you know:
S: Well, you know how gravity is cruel and unpredictable mistress...
P: No it isn't, it's a constant all around the world, dumbo.
(crowd jeers and I look like an utter idiot)
Thanks Phuong for making me look dumb. My legacy to Sefton High.

Apparently the MCing went down better than I thought. Most students I talked to liked it and the teachers enjoyed it a lot. As I was handing in the note in the morning, Petersen said I did a good job, which was suprising. So there. The jokes weren't that lame.

Phuong has started blogging. That's a good sign. More blogs for me to read and procrastinate.

Land, I do not enthusiastically make "Land" jokes all the time. I enthisiastically make "Land" jokes with Jack some of the time. Now that is something that I'll miss. He made those first jokes and it kind of carried on from there. And we keep joking about it, because you do nothing to stop it. If you swung a textbook at Jack or me, then maybe we'll stop.

Yes, Jack, you do take the corners too fast for my liking. It's not that you're a bad driver. It's a little too fast for me. And I know for sure that you're no Schumacher.

Obviously most of the teachers were talking about the "Kylie Minogue" act which had 15+ guys in skirts. In the office, MacPhearson was saying how she never expected that Lesley...er...had that side in him. It's definately a talking point for a while.

Yay! Sefton High School is Wikipedia. Click here to read the completely honest, objective and unbiased article.

For Great Justice!

It's finished. It's over. It rocked, as Serena would say. The year 12 concert is something of a tradition that looked easy, until we actually did it. Then you have to think about the timing, sound and lighting, technical difficulties and organisation. So let's go through this in a chronological fashion.

Firstly, my skit died. It's performance was good, but it was long and in hindsight, didn't fit the concert mould very well. Yes it was funny, but it wasn't fast. It was a three-course meal in a tray of quick snacks. It died an honourable death, and while I'm a bit disappointed, it was for the best.

Then Jack rings out of the blue and asks me to be the MC. To be honest, it was something that I desired and dreaded. I'm not much of a funny improviser. I tend to improvise good lies better than funny comments. So I rushed a quick script. It was quick, bite-sized humour that would let the stagehands do their thing. Did it work?

The concert itself ran very well. The Sound/Lighting crew had wired the stage. Jack and Alex set up a wireless link from the front to the back so that Kathy could see what was next and how we were going for time. We even had a comm link straight to Alex, so she could yell stuff direct to the sound department. Also, congrats out to Sabrina and Corrina. They made sure that the acts were prepared and onstage and confirmed which act was next.

I don't know how the jokes ran with the crowd. From the general impression, it went down quite well with most of the school. There were mixups though. Apologies to Helen, when I introduced her fashion show as Hiba's Dance. And much thanks to Phuong for doing some wonderful script work and improv. I couldn't ask for a better partner MC.

The acts? Grease was groovy. Sway was sexy. Kirteeka was cool. Rae-li's dance was all razzle. Anderson was awesome. The Fashion show was fabulous. Hiba's dance was hi-five. Kung Wow was the pow! Phat crew was phowerful. Land's song was lovely, despite hitches. and the Kylie Minogue act killed. Literally. It was that good. With 15 guys in skirts, it was the best act and I think it'll be hard pressed to be beaten.

Time was against us due to technical difficulties with Land's song, so the intro was skipped. But here it is, for you to see:
P: Tomorrow, it's the end of year 12, and we're free, while you're still stuck here! Ha!
S: Yep, and that means we'll be driving, while everyone else to take the bus to school.
P: I betcha I'm a more hardcore driver than you.
S: No you're not. I'm hardcore.
P: Yeah?
S: Yeah.
P: Do you swerve to avoid kangaroos?
S: Never. Do you?
P No.
S: Koalas?
P: No!
S: No?
(Silence)
P: ... Children?
S: I do, I do... Children, yeah. I have swerved to avoid children.
P: You see, you see, you're too soft for this game.
S: ...Dammit.

It was great, dammit. For moments I thought that our concert would be mediocre compared to the previous ones, but we pushed the envelope and did it. We fucking did it! The Kylie Minogue act was some guys acting, er, questionably and Petersen was lurking near the stage in disapproval. Who cares? Not us!

I also have to say here that we got, hands down, the best present ever! It was seriously that good. We got a SuperSoaker Triple Agressor for Mr Armitage. You have the main gun, a small pistol, and a water grenade (read: a fabric ball that absorbed water). We managed to trick Ms Pham into taking over our class temporarily. Go Land doing the lying. So she's in the class and we say "Mr Armitage said to duck" and Pham was like "what?". That's when Armitage burst through the door and sprayed her with water. Awesome.

Hope everyone else had fun during the concert.

Note to self: Buy concert DVD of Gough ASAP.

I'm not a superhero. I kill superheroes.

Just finished applying for my UAC application and preferences. I need to submit a copy of my STAT results, which have disappeared. Well, at least I have the weekends to try and find it before I have to ask for another copy.

UMAT results are back and I did...I don't know...crap?...average?...one of those words.

Section I - Logical Reasoning and Problem Solving - 49
Section II - Understanding People - 49
Section III - Non-verbal Reasoning - 47

Considering I did better than 49% of most entrants that I must be average at least.

I bet a whole ton of people got better than me though.

OMGWTFLOLROFLBRBBBQ!

Have you ever caught yourself using a net acronym in a real life conversation? While this requires the assumption that the reader does participate in real life conversations, it is actually kind of sad that this is occuring. Someone says something funny and instead of laughing really loud and saying "that's so funny!", you laugh and "lol, dude". I'm also reading Jack's blog and for him it's more like these acronyms have lost their meaning. Maybe, but the day they enter common speech is when they definitely lose their meanings.

So 4 weeks to the HSC and now it's time to ditch light study in favour of heavier studying. Still it's a bit hard to believe that there is only 4 weeks left to the HSC and that our compulsory education started 13 years ago ends in 2 weeks. I mean, wow!

Everyone else's blogs seem to be on a extended hiatus, so procrastinating is less fun now. As far as I can tell, out of my pathetic list, only Jack and Sophia are posting new things, and Corrina too I guess. Everyone else is more or like "meh...i'll do it in a week.....wait I said that a week ago! Stuff it!" So yeah, Jack and Sophia, keep posting.

Probably about time to arrange a rehearsal session. I'm thinking of a Wednesday or Thursday as a preliminary and maybe a final one on the last week or something. Give me several hours to mull on that.

Lost my Physics textbook several weeks ago, but a few minutes spent moaning about it produced a miracle. Lesley was in Physics and managed to find my textbook. You legend, Lesley! Now I can do those shitloads of physics questions Fearnside gave us.

Now I have to finish these questions and maybe sneak and hour of DoTA. Too much and I'll be failing my HSC.

Game on, people.

Work, Work, Work...

Five weeks until the HSC. Five weeks. Read it and weep, because now all my energies have to be directed towards this milestone. After beating my way through the trials, I know what I need to learn and what I need to do. This blog will probably be on semi-hiatus. I'll probably post once a week or less, just to show that I'm still alive and kicking.

Finally got our jerseys today. They are all right, but to be honest, they kinda suck with no names on them. Even if it was just our first name printed the jersey would be a whole lot better. Still, it's kinda cool in its own way.

Pretty much finalised UAC course preferences. I'll probably submit on Tuesday. Get it over and done with. And references too. Damn it, I hate school paperwork. Might as well gather all my textbooks so they are in one place as well.

Don't know about anyone else, but I'm setting up a study timetable. When I actually followed the table, I did better in the Trials, especially for Maths 2U and Biology, unlike the 1-mark below average I usually pump out.

Hate the way we are learning in Biology. Here's this booklet. Go learn. Damn it, I need to write things down, drawn diagrams and paste sheets. Not memorise the entire booklet. Well, it's probably a good time to update my notes.

Damn rain. So much rain. I hate walking in rain. At least the dams will get some water.

Higher School Certificate Examination
20th of October to 10th of November (2006)
Target UAI:
95
Target University:
University of Sydney
Target Course:
Bachelor of Applied Science (Medical Radiation Science)
Diagnostic Radiography

I heard this from a friend of a friend of a friend....

Girl #1: My tits feel weird.
Girl #2: What do you mean?
Girl #1: I did Party Tits at the share this weekend.
Girl #2: What??
Girl #1: Party Tits. You get saline injected into them, and they get really big. It wears off in a few days. The guys love it.

--Subway platform, Fulton St, New York City

What the hell? I think some verification is in order. It's not on Wikipedia, so I'd say be cautious about this.

Rest in peace, Steve Irwin. Killed by a stingray. This next little story may be considered bad taste to some viewers. So we're in Biology and I'm sitting in between Albert and Charles. We're doing work on the option topic communications out of a booklet and we need to draw this graph. Charles wants to copy off Albert, who doesn't want Charles to copy. I pass the graph to Charles and he starts complaining about the scale and line of best fit. I tell him to stop complaining and he argues he's telling the facts. He asks me, and I say that I think the scale and lines are perfectly alright, so Charles is at a loss on what to counter with. So I start poking his chest, where his heart is and said "Stingrayed!". Then we broke into gales of laughter. *ahem* So anyway, RIP Steven Irwin 1962-2006.

Euro hand ball comp against a team called Nameless. Anybody remember the Chinese movie Hero with Jet Li? And he was called Nameless (according to subs anyway...) and he was really good? So our team name is WBNBBBY8A or We Better Not Be Beaten By Year 8s Again.

Avatar: The Last Airbender rocks. Everyone must watch it along with Dragonball Z and the first few seasons of Pokemon. Every young child must be exposed to it.

Naruto is nearing end of fillers, I hope. Bleach fillers are meh, but still good. Waiting for House and Doctor Who season 3.

And, Battlefield 2 rocks.

Compass Heading: New South

Let's make this clear. I have no intention of going to UNSW. This is of course assuming all goes to plan with the HSC and whatnot, but my aim is for USyd. Still it was interesting at the open day. I met Charles and Ray L at Central at 8:30am, and we journeyed to UNSW. Some freebies later, we journeyed to the Medicine lecture, which was quite packed. I have no intention of doing Medicine, but the stuff you learn is eye opening. A UAI of 99.4 is considered below average for Medicine at UNSW. Below average. Some guy did make it in with a UAI of 95, but that was a fluke in a sense. And it takes minimum of 10 years to finish all your training. Damn.

Since I didn't have any real timetable for UNSW I mainly hung around Charles and Ray attending their lectures, mainly on engineering. UNSW is pretty big and quite pleasing to look at compared to USyd. So lets see who I saw or thought I saw.

• Charles
• Ray L
• Ray D
• Kevin T
• Kevin N
• Land
• Phuong
• Julia
• Jimmy
• Yiling
• Yang
• David V
• Andrew
• Kathy
• Ann
• Jennifer
• Jack
• Lesley
• Angeline
• Gough
  

That's pretty much it. From anecdotal evidence, it seems a whole bunch more Seftoners came along, but I missed all of them. Anyway at 1:30pm, Charles and I left to meet Jack and Lesley at the Roundhouse. Our plan was to journey to Croydon, get Jack to drive us to Burwood and meet up with other Seftoners at City Hunter, a net cafe. Charles eventually left at Central, saying it was too late and Jack, Lesley and I made the trip. We joined up with a whole bunch of other Seftoners and started to play Battlefield 2. My team won the first game, but lost the second in a closely-contested match. In one instance, Jack and Lesley stormed a small island where the artillery cannons were located. Their intent was to knock them offline so their team wouldn't have to suffer the deadly barrages. Except I was sitting in between them, heard about it and got there first. I held them off for a while, but it was 2v1. They left and I just repaired the artillery. Jack and Lesley make a great team, especially when they both are driving tanks.

Initially I was going to play for an hour or so, but the second match took longer than expected and altogether I played 2 hours. I had told my parents that I was to be back at 4:30pm give or take 30mins. Since I finished at like 5pm, I called and made up a story that the train was delayed and whatnot. So I got home close to 5:45pm. They didn't seem to mind (Cityrail problems, yeah!). There was a BBQ on, but most of the guests had left. Some people remained and as I chomped on leftovers, washing it down with Pepsi, I regaled them to the stuff at UNSW, and the new facts in Medicine. Day over!

I'm quite sure that everyone else had a great day at UNSW, whether they plan to go or not. And I'd like to not that yesterday marked one year of blogging. As I read back, some things have changed quite a lot. And some haven't.

Skit is finished and now its about learning the lines and doing a quick dry run so we're ready for the rehearsals. Here I have to give some credit to Jack, for actually being one-step ahead, and thinking about rehersals and stuff. Kudos to you, Jack.

Shit. Now I actually to have to organise some stuff for skit. I hate doing things. I like deadlines though. I love the whoosing sound they make as the fly right by....

You live and learn. At any rate, you live.

Writing a skit has been an enlightening experience. Given the chance I would never do it again. Then again, I might change enough to do it again. Writing is tough. Making it funny to the majority of people is difficult. I've never been a fan of slapstick or crude jokes. Yes, they're funny but you can only laugh so much. I like more wordy jokes, jokes that rely on puns, irony or satire. Intelligent jokes if you will. But since those types of jokes actually require some thought, it's not ont everyone's wavelength.

Also, following the 2Unit skit, there was a bit of fear around. They were funny, because they were so lame. That's not to say they didn't try. They did try hard, and they deserve kudos for them, but it showed the problem of not really appealing to everyone. Reviews were mixed and most poeple could not say that it was definitively funny. But this fear should stop us. I have knowledge that Bill is working on a skit, it's rather random, but quite funny in its own right. I also know that my skit is pretty much done, with only practice and minor adjustments.

There seems to be a whole lot of dancing and music, which is the staple of a year 12 concert. Then occasionally you get some really good shit. Anyone remember that martials arts/game skit-thingy. That achieved a nice balance to physical action and comedy. Hell, they could have gone all serious and stuff, but they mixed it up with some funny stuff. Still, I'm quietly confident that this years Year 12 will maintain the bar of excellence.

UNSW C+C Day tomorrow and I'm attending due to some interesting lectures and courses. I know a whole bunch of people will be there, and just to let you know Charles and I will be trying to meet up at 9:30am at Central. If you want to join, you're definitely welcome. City Hunter afterwards.

There's always UWS, right?

University of Sydney Live Open Day. I didn't want to go initially, stuff to do and things to catch up on, like Bio and Chem pracs, but at the last minute I changed my mind and decided to go. And it was definately worth it. For those who did not go, like Gough (he's going UTS), it was like a huge expo where you could go to hear lectures on university life, courses and such. My main aim was Medical Radiation Science and it was quite packed. Still good info was delivered.

Since I decided on the spur to go, I planned to initially meet up with Charles and co at Redfern 10:30am. They had changed to 9:30am Central. So off I went pretty much alone. I did try to stay in groups but it didn't last very long. Everyone wanted to go to different lectures at different times and so more often then not, groups were split up. On cool lecture was Dr Karl's hour-long on about science. He spoke generally about science, instead mixing amusing anecdotes and hilarious commentry. One funny piece was his three ways to destroy the world:

1. Drop the big one (massive EMP bursts)
2. Do nothing
3. Destroy the innocence of kiddies

Number 3 was cool. He was talking about Santa Claus' trip to kid and using the law of physics to show that it was basically impossible. A few things that popped up was that Santa has to visit at least 380 million kids, at 1,000 visits/sec, travelling at 1,000km/s with basically 500,000 tonnes of payload and consuming 3,000,000 million litres of drink. Now that's what I call applied science.

Now a whole bunch of Seftoners and other familiar faces were there, but again I was so wrapped up in going places that I didn't notice them until a second later and by then they had moved off somewhere. So here's a quick list of people I saw or thought I saw:

• Charles
• Lesley
• Raymond L
• Yang Lu
• David V
• Andrew
• Anderson
• David T
• Tan
• Harry
• Richard
• Julia
• Susanna L
• My Hoa
• Nam
• Carolyn
• Danny
  
• Land (fairly certain but not sure...you were walking with some guy and went to Dr Karl's lecture at 1pm?)

Now I'm sure there's probably more, but that's a hella lot of faces in one place.

I spent some time looking for Lesley and Charles, and cursing the fact that I didn't ask for their phone numbers. Apparently they went to to some net cafe called City Hunter to play Battlefield 2. I was about to search after them, but tired I decided to head home.

So how was other people's experience at USyd?

My name is Tran. Henry Tran.

What do you do when you're trying to procrastinate? Steal quizzes and stuff from other people, in this case, Land's blog, cos no one else had any quizzes up.
On another note, the "official" skit for year 12 concert is done. Heavily revised to be shorter as other acts are eating up time. Casting dates and info are to be announced. Jack, Sophia and Anderson are on, so we have star power for our skits. Kind of like having Academy Award winners on a movie project.
And, err, ignore Henry Tran. That's my alter ego for browsing the deep, dark recesses of the Internet.

A drive in the country

Pushing one-ninety down the open road,
Guzzling thirty litres a minute, with wind blowing through my hair,
Cops in the mirror, sirens screaming with double demerits,
But I don't care, all for a drive in the countryside.

Jack & Steven

Poem that Jack and I pumped out during English Adv. We were annotating Skrzynecki's A drive in the country and Levick had us brainstorm what images came to mind for a drive in the country and then got us to write a poem. With Tom away, Jack and I actually had to think, well, think a little harder than usual. Jack wanted to put all the negative stuff to mind into th poem, but it ended up with a positive spin. Everyone else's sounded better though, especially the haikus.

Jack had proposed that when he turned 18, he wants to go barhopping. I think that's a good idea, but someone's got to be the designated driver. Currently list stands at:

• Jack (when he turns 18)
• Me

I think Phuong and Ricknam celebrated their birthdays today, but they are only turning 17, not in time to get drunk when Jack turns 18 or after HSC.

I got conscripted into writing skits for the year 12 concert. Or did I volunteer? Right now, I have a basic outline with 5 skits each around 5 minutes or so. Jack, Sophia and Anderson want in, so I can definately say we have some star power on it. Should be done next Monday, with character biographies and script with stage directions. If I'm going to do it, I might as well do it properly.

Physics Prac ReTrial is on tomorrow. Classes are F3, F4 and A4. Dunno which one to go too, but Gough suggests to troll the hallways. Period 1, so I miss out on my free period. Luck to the people who needed. I intend to get there early and jump up to see if I can see the equipment, but I won't be telling anyone. So there.

Happy Birthday to me

I'm very happy to say that on this day, I have survived 18 years in this world. And hopefully more years to come.

Trail HSC is Over...not really...

Maths 2U: Did pretty well, completely screwed by last question.
Maths Ext 1: Screwed, hoping for a pass.
English: Meh...it was alright.
Physics: Very confident
Biology: Can I say aced? No, I can't, but damn close I say!
Chemistry: Urrgh...not very well hoping for 70%
Pracs: Aced Bio, screwed Chem, Physics need to redo

Yes, so these are my feeling for the trial HSC. It was alright overall and it definately helped to show my weakness. Tomorrow I will take steps to prepare to address them. Procrastination, what can I say?

When the Physics finished, Fearnside announced that there had been possible malpractice inthe prac exam, involving 8-10 people. I guess most of us first thought it was some sick joke, but it wasn't. So now we have to redo the prac exam on Friday 18th. But if they have identified the cheaters, why can't the cheaters get their marks reduced to zero? Why a retest? Now the cheaters will get away with it. I think the science faculty suspects malpractice, maybe circumstantial evidence, but can't definitively prove that malpractice had occured. If I had be on the ball, I might have asked why marks weren't cancelled. I have my suspicions on who cheated, but it's all a moot point right now.

So I sure everyone did well in at least one subject. I heard Lesley was really good at the speeches. So good that he made Tom look bad. Is that possible? I'm not sure, but I have good info from MiG.

Rest up and prepare. There are 70 or so days to HSC.

Trial HSC Examinations

Game on, people.
Good luck to all, and miracles to the few that need it.
Of course, I'll be off until Friday the 11th August.
Until then.

A minute's success pays the failure of years.
-Robert Browning (1812-1889)

A Flat, Flat World

Went to the SMH Career Expo today with my brother and dad. It started off alright, but we forgot to get off at Town Hall and instead got off at Wynnard. Then we got lost, walking to the Rocks and wandering around before we found our way back down to Darling Harbour and into the Exhibition Center. It wasn't really anything good. The expo had a whole bunch of companies advertising what a career with them would be like. There was a lot on business and computing, but I couldn't find anything health or science related. There was some breakdance comp going on in there as well. Some of the dancers were cool, others were kinda crap.

Of course, the armed forces were there, spreading their propoganda about joining the army, navy or air force. But the weird thing is that there was some Asian guy in Army uniform there. Apparently he joined the army and worked into technical division, wires, computers and communications and stuff. Still it was weird. Not that Asian-Australians aren't patriotic, its just that we don't want to be on the frontline in some war in Whateverastan.

My mother bought me a new phone as an early birthday present. Its a Nokia 6101, and I'm still reading the booklet on what it can do. It kinda sucks in the memory department, around 3 megs, and so I have to do some cleaning, getting rid of themes, tone and other pictures. I guess its a cool phone. By the way, if anyone has a CA-42 adaptor cable, give me a shout. I'd like to borrow it and see if I can add some personal tones and wallpaper.

A Carnivorous Flamingo

For those who you don't watch the Chaser's War on Everything on Fridays on the ABC, you should. Sometimes their jokes could be better, but they do some mad 'stunts' like wearing a stocking and going shopping or trying to smuggle meat into a concert only to have all the sniffer dogs smell the meat and swamp the person, so the cops think he has a ton of drugs. This little music vid is from the Chasers, and for the Doctor Who fans.



I'm no where near that hardcore. Still not a lot of people seemed to be clued into Doctor Who or have watched the earlier episodes. I know has watched the earlier Doctors, Sophia apparently watches the new Doctor Who and Phuong is only watching as the 10th Doctor actor, David Tennant, is good-looking. Still, better than being alone.

I've confirmed that I was the only Seftoner there at UMAT at UTS. Damn that was lonely.

Gotta type up speech to submit tomorrow.

I'm now hopelessly addicted to Terry Pratchett's Discworld series, especially those that invole the Night Watch. Bad time for an addiction.

Undignified but Mandatory Antispasmodic Tablet

Just got back from UTS and finished UMAT. While I can't definately say that I felt bad or good, I did feel anguished, annoyed and apathetic. The first two sections went rather well. I got most of the answers, though I felt that I did better in the 2nd section, that is the 'understand-what-the-bastards-are-feeling' section, than the 1st, that is the 'damn-I-don't-see-any-logical-answer-and-I-want-calculator' section. The 3rd section was the worst for me. It seems that my non-verbal skills are not so good. Like I said before, I want to ask the creators an explantion for the order/solution, then punch them in the face. So I guessed the most of the questions, using my own twisted logic.

What the hell? What comes next?
There's no pattern at all!
Hey, since that triangle rotates 90 degrees...
....then so must everything else!
Done! Now next question...

That was more or less how it went. So how did other people do? Bad? Good? Aced? Failed?

You know when you see someone, then like later on in the day you're like hey I know so and so, they were from so and so! but its way too late and they're already somewhere and you're already home? I think, 95% sure, that I saw two old classmates from primary. It just didn't hit me until now that I'm home. So if anyone knows a Henry(guy) or Tian(girl) that used to go to Blaxcell Street Primary and knew a Steven Nguyen, tell them I would have said hello, if my mental gears shifted up a but quicker.

Supposedly, Raymond L and Tan were also going to UTS for UMAT, but I didn't see them. Maybe they were at the back of the line and since I was at the front, we missed each other. It was hella lonely when you're there and you don't know or recognise anyone else.

Now I have to burn the new Doctor Who series for Phuong. Hopefully, she'll get distracted by it and I have a better chance to doing better in the trials. And English speech, yeah, better finalise that tonight and type it up tomorrow so its ready for to submit and so I can get some practice.

Undergraduate Machiavellian Attitude Test

UMAT is tomorrow and while I can't really say that I'm stuffed, I'm damn near to it. Most of the questions are alright, read the passage, answer multiple choice verbally reason this and that. Then I got to the non-verbal section of the practice exam and it kind of went downhill from there. It's non-verbal so it's basically a bunch of pictures [in/out of] order and after [rearranging/ordering] the pictures you answer the question by noting which picture is [next/in the middle].

Which is okay, except 50% of the time, it doesn't make sense what picture goes next or why a picture is in the middle. To the average person, the ordering can be a load of bull. Granted it may be because I'm too stupid to figure it out, but I want to meet the person or persons who devise these 'logic puzzles' and ask them for their reasoning of the order or solution. And then punch them in the face. Repeatedly. Preferably with blood and broken noses.

Still I get a day off school. But I did pay for the Chemistry Quiz and I am a little pissed off that now I'm going to miss it.

UMAT @ UTS 8am. If you want my phone number, tell me through MSN.

Hocked

Not much happened these weekends. Just ramping up for the Trials and UMAT. And English speech, which I am finding suprisingly difficult. Maybe I should back off on some of my goals...yeah that's a good idea. Now I'm browsing through other people's blogs and I'm a bit suprised how far that little question-procrastination-thingimabob went. Guess a whole bunch of people wanted to procrastinate as well.

Year 12 Concert is floating in my mind, but with trials so close its on the backburner for now. I have no idea what skit we're (so far just me and Jack) going to think up, but hopefully it won't be as lame as the 2Unit thing. So when we (in this case, me) have something concrete, hopefully after the trials I'll submit a 10-page concept paper to Sophia and Dorothy. Ok maybe one page and a few scribbles...

With Doctor Who and House already watched, I'm eagerly waiting the next season with nothing to watch. Naruto is still in stupid filler-arc-for-two-seasons mode, Bleach is in filler-arc-boring-crap mode, and I haven't found any good comic series to dig my teeth into. So what can I do? Mythbusters and Top Gear. Mythbusters because they MAKE science fun and have explosions. And Top Gear because it is an unshamedly biased, male-orientated, non-environmental car show. Watch and learn people.

Hockey competition tomorrow and its for the whole day! Take that!

Note: Ultraviolet is cool, but where's the plot and acting? Still, gun kata for the win!

Doctor Who?

The Doctor theme music has basically remained the same throughout the years, the only difference really being what instruments were used to play it. So as a test, I give you the intro theme to the new 2005/06 series of Doctor Who.

Doctor Who 2005/06 - Opening Theme

Let's procrastinate rather than work...

1. You can press a button that will make any one person explode. Who would you blow up?
Very tempted between Bush and Howard. Flip a coin on that.

2. You can flip a switch that will wipe any band or musical artist out of existence. Which one will it be?
Kill of a band? I don't really know...but off the top of my head...Aqua.

3. Who would you really like to just punch in the face?
The person that fucking invented integration and the dude that thought up circle geometry.

4. What is your favorite cheese?
Coon cheese. It rules.

5. You can only have one kind of sandwich. Every sandwich ingredient known to humankind is at your immediate disposal. What does your dream sandwich consist of, and does it contain the aforementioned cheese?
It will have bacon, beef, lettuce, scrambled eggs, red capsicum, and the aforementioned cheese.

6. You have the opportunity to sleep with the movie (porn counts) celebrity of your choice. We are talking no-strings-attached sex and it can only happen once... Who?
My first though was Jenna Jameson. If you're gonna screw a celebrity, it might as well be the queen of porn. But I would hit Natalie Portman. She's hot.

7. You have the opportunity to sleep with the music-celebrity of your choice.
What a music celebrity? In that case I'd hit Hyori Lee. She's hot as well.

8. Now that you've slept with two different people in a row, you seem to be having an excellent day because you just came across a hundred-dollar bill on the sidewalk. Holy shit, a hundred bucks! How are you gonna spend it?
Put it into a bank and watch it grow.

9. You just got a free plane ticket to anywhere. You have to depart right now. Where are you gonna go?
Japan.

10. Upon arrival to the aforementioned location, you get off the plane and discover another hundred-dollar bill. Shit! Now that you are in the new location, what are you gonna do?
A Chairman Kaga coat. Those are so weird and eccentric. And I want one.

11. An angel appears out of Heaven and offers you a lifetime supply of the alcoholic beverage of your choice.
VB.

12. Rufus appears out of nowhere with a time-traveling phone booth. You can go anytime in the PAST. What time are you traveling to and what are you going to do when you get there?
I would go back to Ancient Rome, so I could get a Roman sword and meet Octavius Caesar, Mark Antony and Cleopatra. I would so own the pwoerplay essay then,

13. You discover a beautiful island upon which you may build your own society. You make the rules. What is the first rule you put into place?
Free cable television.

14. You have been given the opportunity to create the half-hour TV show of your own design. What is it called and what's the premise?
"iT", someone becomes 'it' and everyone else has to kill that person with a handgun. The person who is 'it' gets to defend themselves by selecting any any weapon of choice that can be carried.

15. What is your favorite curse word?
Fuck. The most versatile word in the English language.

16. One night you wake up because you heard a noise. You turn on the light to find that you are surrounded by MUMMIES. The mummies aren't really doing anything, they're just standing around your bed. What do you do?
Ask about curses, because I would like to drop a few death curses on some people.

17. Your house is on fire, holy shit! You have just enough time to run in there and grab ONE inanimate object. Don't worry, your loved ones and pets have already made it out safely. So what's the one thing you're going to save from that blazing inferno?
Simple. Computer

18. The Angel Of Death has descended upon you. Fortunately, the Angel Of Death is pretty cool and in a good mood, and it offers you a half-hour to do whatever you want before you bite it. Whatcha gonna do in that half-hour?
Go on MSN and tell everyone. In that half-hour, I'd been spending more time chatting than in a decade of normal chatting.

19. You accidentally eat some radioactive vegetables. They were good, and what's even cooler is that they endow you with the super-power of your choice! What's it gonna be?
Throwing up between X-ray vision and telepathy. I'd probably go for telepathy, like mind reading, control and stuff. Like Xavier from X-Men.

20. You can re-live any point of time in your life. The time-span can only be a half-hour, though. What half-hour of your past would you like to experience again?
Last half hour of Year 6.

21. You can erase any horrible experience from your past. What will it be? (the answer "nothing" doesn't count)?
All the time I got whacked by my father. It hurt. A lot.

22. You got kicked out of the country for being a time-traveling heathen who sleeps with celebrities and has super-powers. But check out this cool shit... you can move to anywhere else in the world! Bitchin'! What country are you going to live in now?
Italy. Perfect climate, Italian is quite easy to learn and it has some of the best football clubs. And Italian food is cool as well...

23. This question still counts, even for those of you who are under age. Check it out. You have been eternally banned from every single bar in the world except for ONE. Which one is it gonna be?
The one that in USyd. Manning Bar or whatever. It's like the only bar I know, so I hope I can still enter.

24. Hopefully you didn't mention this in the super-powers question.... If you did, then we'll just expand on that. Check it out... Suddenly, you have gained the ability to FLOAT!!! Whose house are you going to float to first, and be like "Dude, check it out... I can FLOAT!"
I'd probably float to school into the quadrangle.

25. The constant absorption of magical moonbeams mixed with the radioactive vegetables you consumed earlier have given you the ability to resurrect the dead famous-person of your choice. So which celebrity will you bring back to life?
JFK, then conspiracy theorists will have a hoot.

26. The Celestial Gates Of Beyond have opened, much to your surprise because you didn't think such a thing existed. Death appears. As it turns out, Death is actually a pretty cool entity, and happens to be in a fantastic mood. Death offers to return the friend/family-member/person/etc. of your choice to the living world. Who will you bring back?
Errr...I guess Elvis. I can probably make money out of it somehow. Charge people to see Elvis, like $50/hour.

27. What's your theme song?
Somewhere Only We Know by Keane

SMH Careers & Employment Expo

Date: 28-29 July 2006
Time : 9am to 4pm
Place: Sydney Convention and Exhibition Center, Darling Harbour

The Sydney Morning Herald Careers & Employment Expo is a FREE to the public event and hosts a large range of Australia's leading employers,government agencies, educational and training facilities. It is a must attend event for anyone wanting to get free career advice, meet Australia's largest employers, research educational and training options or even find a real job!

Could be a worthwhile visit for anyone up to it. I'm going to try and attend on the 29th, which is a Saturday.

Ultimate Goals in Engish Speech Assessment

Having goals are important, especially in a speech.

• Quote from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, 42 times
  
• Quote from Dune series, but references to spice must appear at the beginning and end of speech
• Quote the G-Man in Half-Life 2
• Drop I have no enemies, merely topographies of ignorance quote from Deus Ex: Invisible War somewhere.
• Double points for using T.S Eliot in speech
• Triple points for quoting Emma
• Quadriple points for quoting Wild Swans
• Quote of lyrics from rock bands
• Any quotation of Monty Python instantly wins
  

Unleash the power!

Little cartoon is from Applegeeks. It's basically been the main thought in my head these holidays, swirling around. We put up with 13 years of education to do another 5 to get a piece of paper. I've been thinking, why AM I doing this? I think about Darren who, besides loving his anime and has a HUGE amount of it, went for an apprenticeship after year 10 and is now working, while I'm still in school...I can't help but think of the incredible advantages he has over me. Sure there are disadvantages in the long term, but I really wonder whether I really want to go to Uni. There doesn't seem to be a course that really interests me. Sure, health and engineering all pique my interest, but I don't feel really connected to them. Maybe a little time will change my views.

So I've been crawling through work and study and the main thing one my mind is the English Advance oral. Why can't it be called a speech assessment? Oral can be used in the wrong context. Anyway, I've been throwing up mainly between Antony and Caesar. They are two of the three most obvious choices, and the two that I have the best chance to acting out solidly. Still the paper doesn't say who the characters are limited to. I had a brief idea that I would be one of those anonymous messengers or one of those minor characters in the beginning, like Philo. I'm leaning towards Antony on this one, but haven't really thought up of a speech. I want to use the quote I'm still Antony yet! in there somewhere, and make Antony like some emo mofo railling at Caesar, at Cleopatra and at himself for being such a weak-ass loser. Hmmmm, I may be on to something here.

On an entirely different note, year 12 concert is coming up and with my memories of the previous year 12 concerts being really good, more or less anyway, I've been trying to come up with some ideas. Haven't got anything substantial yet. Damn creative block. Although the little comic on to does raise some vague idea about students unleashing the power of their degrees to become like actual personifications of the degree. A person with a Physics degree could start manipulating or violating the laws of physics. Of course, it kinda smacks with the god-awful 2Unit skit in the Talent Quest. Well, not god-awful, just weird. And sucky. And...yeah...awful. So I can't sing, not very well anyway, so if anyone out there are thinking of a couple of skits, I'm more than happy to join. As long as it's not too stupid. Stupid is fine. But there's a line, just so you know.

Finally, I've noticed that whenever there is something on, yr12 concert or talent quest, the hosts always crack some jokes, some more lame than others. This year instead of jokes we could have lines out of stand-up comedy routines, even the ones we think up ourselves. For ideas, go Youtube, and search up Mitch Hedburg. He's so damn funny, and since his jokes are mostly one-liners they work perfectly. There's Dat Phan, a Viet comedian and considering how a sizeable amount of the school population is Asian, some of the lines will go down great. No Russel Peters. I think everyone has basically seen that. And dammit no Dave Chappelle. You can only say I'm Rick James, bitch! so many times before it gets lame. Lame, people!

And now a blast from the past. Who remembers The Adventures of Milo and Otis? 1 point for remembering and 2 points for liking it. I have discovered an old VHS copy and am now trying to transfer to my computer. Or maybe there's a torrent somewhere out there....

The Lack-of-Talent Quest

The Talent Quest has generally dropped in quality as time passes. That's not to say that there were good acts, it just becomes harder to find that gem of an act. Anyway, I've finally seen what the 2-Unit thing was all about. It was kind of embarrassing the whole act, although I do have to give them credit for having the guts to do a weird-ass skit.

In terms of pure eye-candy, the short-shorts group, Supercool Cheesy Ninjas(?) , easily won that one. I think Charles said it best, "If only all the acts were like that, then I could watch the Talent Quest for hours." This is one of the rare occassions that I wholeheartedly agree with him.

Now Rock'n'roll Man was definately an act. He spent most of the time screaming inaudible words, but he definately had what many acts lacked, energy and passion. Him standing there, screaming his lungs out, whacking his tambourine and slamming in a bit of piano, was awesome and outstanding. He was probably the most enthusiastic act ever.

Helen's and Land's was cool. Round of applause to them for getting out there and representing the year 12s in the Talent Quest. Great work!

Holidays...holidays...holidays...just say that a couple of times. It may be a study break, filled with work, but remember to have some fun people. And let's get some ideas for year 12 concert.

The Lackhouse

There was a time where I went through a kind of phase. I started to watch Korean movies, for some inexplicable reason. Still, it was an enjoyable phase. One of the movies that I really liked was "Il Mare", about this guy and girl who live 2 years apart and fall in love with each other, communicating through the use of a letterbox. "The Lakehouse" is basically the American version, posted above, with Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves. Could this be a movie where Reeves doesn't suck? Quite possibly.

The fact that "Il Mare" was a romance is a bit strange. They don't really work for me. I usually tune out, if I'm forced to watch. But "Il Mare" kept me watching, so I probably started going soft then. The trailer certainly looks good, and I'm definately going to watch this.

By the way, the trailer music is "Somewhere Only We Know" by Keane.

Feverish

So the end of another week. Another week to go and school ends, and the two-week holidays begin. Just had my 3U test and I severly regret watching the match between Australia and Croatia. I felt sleepy and muddled and during the test, I got stuck with some relatively easy questions. I hoping for a pass here. Damn World Cup! Why must it be on now? At least the World Cup final is during the holidays. I don't think it will interupt things.

Of course, the match was spectacular and nerve-wracking, even in the final minutes. The referee was alright, but near the end, he didn't seem to be in control and his whistling to signal the end of the match was so unclear, I thought it was going to be a penalty kick. It would have been nice if Australia got the goal and won the match, but this thing a draw was enough. There is this one thing. Hiddink was impassive as a rock. He kept standing there, leaning against the dugout and his emotion was only really visible when Australia scored a goal. He mainly pumped his fist. The Croatian coach, Zlatko Kranjcar kept leaping onto his assistant coach, in a move my brother tentatively called "riding-the-cock."
Comments anybody? Thoughts are welcome.

Schoolpolitik

I like going to school. The mix of people of different races, genders, backgrounds, intelligence and morality makes interesting events and are absolutely fun to watch. Now apparently, Serena told Jack she didn't like Manno very much. Fair enough, we like some teachers more than others. Then Jack went off and told Manno what Serena thought of her. So, Serena was not happy. That's probably a bit understated. In English adv, Serena started going off at Jack for revealing her personal thoughts. Jack was defending himself saying it wasn't a big deal. Serena called him gay and Jack countered saying Serena discussed stuff about him with David. By the time, they calmed down I was laughing, though I hope I hid it well enough. Serena started throwing dirty looks at Jack. Jack just laughed it off. Now I hope this happens more often so I can have a laugh like this. It's probably bad of me to laugh at people's arguments, but it was funny and definately made my day, despite the hammering rain.

There were a whole bunch of essay questions we were going to have to write up, but it was located on the school computers. No one wanted to go on the school computers to get it. Too much hassle. And 10 cents printing per page. So we choose Jack to copy the questions and post it on his blog. I think this is the first time anything education-related is going to be blog posted. We've sent emails, MSN transfers, scans of prac results, but this is going to be cool. In a way.

Land was away to day. Which is strange, as she usually shows up to school, often late. Very dedicated and enthusiastic. So I'm thinking she's sick. Must be one hell of a cold. Charles was late yesterday, but he had to help translate for his mother's blood test. Must be one hell of a blood test.

Superhero

As I was browsing the net, procrastinating rather than doing my English related text analysis, I stumbled upon a website that generates a superhero identity from your name. It's humour based but a lot of fun.
Link is here.
Here's what I got:

Your Superhero Identity Is:

Name: Duke Lad

Secret Identity: Steven Nguyen

Special Power: Flight

Transportation: Wonder Horse

Weapon: Electron Lasso

Costume: Lead Gauntlets

Sidekick: Mary Anne

Nemesis: Melvin the Yodeller

Tragic Flaw: Fear of flying

Favorite Food: Twinkies

The Last Detective

If there ever was a show that I regretted missing the first ten minutes of, its The Last Detective. New series that started showing tonight on ABC. It follows Detective Constable "Dangerous Davies".

Davies is a low-ranked CID officer in the London borough of Williesden. He is nicknamed Dangerous ironically because he is the member of the department least likely to get into a dangerous situation. In the novels and TV series he is called The Last Detective from his superior's assessment of him as the last detective you'd ever send out on a case. Despite this, Davies is by no means a poor detective, and although he can take longer than his colleagues, and is dogged by bad luck, he does usually get his man in the end.
from Wikipedia

tThis is a series that I definately don't want to miss. Peter Davison (who played the fifth Doctor in Doctor Who) is absolutely amazing as Davies as the nice guy trying to do his job. He's in the middle of a divorce, considered useless by fellow colleagues and unlucky in love. He is the physical embodiment that nice guys come last, well, most of the time. Instead of being a gruesome police drama, with blood, gore and angry characters, The Last Detective is slower, more subtle. The solution doesn't come straight away, but fits nicely into the overall plot. The DVD for series one is out on Amazon.com, but no word on series two and three.

Screw liquid nitrogen, I have to get all these episodes taped. Now I'm pissed that I missed the first ten minutes of the opening episode. Hopefully, they'll do an encore or repeat.

Push the fader, gifted animator...

So, the last athletics carnival I'll hopefully ever have to attend is over. It was pretty good anyway, but despite the fun I had, I couldn't help but think I'd rather have an ordinary school day.

So the day started at 7:30am, waking up, shower, brushing teeth, breakfast, and so on. Prefects were probably already at Jensen Oval setting up. Well, sucks to be them. By the time I got to Jensen Oval, the sky was blue and the sun beginning to shine feebly at the horizon. The name marking was slightly better organised this time round. I spent the first couple of minutes wandering aimlessly because I missed the first announcements and didn't know where to go. There were no 18-years this year for some reason...so I had to join the 17 years. 100m sprints were up first, and probably the only event that I can do decently. I came first in 13.75 seconds, but since it was a non-serious attempt, I didn't move into the heats or finals. Just as well anyway, as the finals had some serious racers.

I drifted from event to event, participating in some, sitting out in others. Damien had brought his PSP and loaded some tennis game into it. So I could safely say that most of the morning and afternoon were well spent on trying to beat Federer on Hard mode. Lunch came and of course that meant the sausage sizzle. Honestly, I didn't buy any, for two reasons. I had my own lunch and the food was a rip. I mean, the buns were bought from some Viet bakery at what, 20, 30 cents per bun. And they were flogging them for $3. Still, thumbs up for the perfects for such a business venture.

Most of lunch was spent playing soccer. The field was small, there were no outs and only goal kicks. It was quite a challenge as Yehson, Khoa, Ji Bin, Ray D and Paul N formed the core of the opposing team. Still our team, with me, Dexter, Andy, TJ, Ru Yang and Hao managed to pull off a 4-2 win. The day ended with the finals for 100m sprints. Richard did badly, but at least he didn't come last. Strangly, Jessica N was in the finals but didn't appear at the end. I wonder, whether she screwed up her start to badly to even consider even finishing. Still, it was some fun.

I spent most of today busy. Routine blood test in morning, then haircut, lunch with aunt, then off to ARC to buy a new graphics card. Throughout the day, I was listening to the radio and this song would come up. I love that song, but I never got its title or artist. I managed to track it down anyway. Dani California by the Redi Hot Chili Peppers. It's a great little track.

Curse you, quantum flux!

You know those days where everything seems to go wrong and it feels like the whole world is against you? I had one of those days yesterday and like half of those days today. It's one of those days where religion is nice, at least you can say God (or gods and/or goddesses) have a plan for you and you can blame them for it. It would take a pretty brave and committed atheist to say "damn-you-random-quantum-fluctuations-of-space-time-continuum!!!". To be honest, I don't know anyone who says that at all.

Anyway, long story short, my computer decided to die, resurrect itself and then die again. Repeatedly. The video card has been making a loud whining sound for some time now and yesterday the computer decided to freeze, switch the monitor off and die, or, well, go into a coma. It's fustrating when you're trying to do something and the computer goes comatose. I've given it a few whacks but it dies without "percussive maintenance" anyway.

Doctor Who season 2 is out! Actually it's been out since April, but I keep forgetting. That is this is the newest series of Doctor Who, restarted in 2005 and now continuing in 2006. Look it up in Wikipedia, if you're missing out. It's one of the best things to come out of British popular culture. Besides Monty Python and other comedies [I want my Sketch Show!]

Funny. I've just remembered. Serena was saying that science was crap in maths. Within 15 mins or so, she started going how science rules. Yes, we're made of atoms, which are possibly reused. Look on the bright side though, it only took like 2-3 years to sink in how science is cool.

Now to set the timer recording on our new DVD recorder. My mum and dad bought it in a kind of spur of the moment thing. I actually kind have wished that they did some research before deciding just to buy whatever of the shelf.

Later, readers. World Cup Fever! Why does the World Cup have be on now? I'll never get any homework done....

Ever been integrated?

Yipee! 2U Maths test is over! It was much easier than I feared, though I'm sure I'll get a couple of questions wrong. Still, I'm quietly confident that I'm going to do well. I did some serious studying and asked serious questions.

Now the 3U exam is up next and its definately going to be tougher to score better marks. A lot of the 4U people will ace this and I'm not terribly confident about getting decent marks.

English analysis on related text for powerplay is due tomorrow. I reckon I should get started soon. I always estimate like 2 hours to do it, but procrastination rears its ugly head and I usually end up taking 3 to 4 hours.

So long weekend coming up. Can't wait.

FIFA WORLD CUP MONDAY 12th JUNE!

Friendly Fired

It's been a while hasn't it folks? The days are getting harder, with more work to be done and assignments to hand in. But, it will be all good in the end. Two main events to be noted today.

Reports. Now I got a fairly decent report, but my brother got a really crap one. I won't go into exact numbers, but the marks for all subjects were below average and under 50%. This report could possibly attributed to the obscene amount of time he spends playing games. Obviously, he's been more stringently banned from playing, but I've been caught in the web as well, even though I play less hours and have a better report. So that throws I few things out of whack, but I think I'm alright with it. It could have been worse.

Next up, the Physics excursion to the University of Sydney. We took the train to Redfern and spent most of our time doing the crosswords and listening to music. The walk was short and the uni was HUGE. We spent quite a bit of time to get to where we were supposed to go. The classes was divided into two group and we did the same things but in a different order. I got stuck in Fearnside's group. We attended the lecture first. It went for an hour or so and was on binary and variable stars, and how they are used in astronomy. It was quite interesting, but became a bit boring during the middle part. Still, the end was quite fascinating with several exotic types of binary stars and these cool animations.

We then had a two hour break. Eating was going to be on the agenda, but firstly we visited the Macleay Musuem of Natural History. It was an interesting collection of stuff, ranging from beetles to butterflies to Aboriginal instruments. If you ever visit USyd, a quick visit to Macleay should be on your agenda. We had lunch at the Manning Bar. Well not actually at the bar, because they were serving alcoholic drinks, so we were stuck on the two lower levels. They had a bunch of decent food, but it was expensive and a rip as far as we were concerned. Charles bought these sandwiches with beef, lettuce and stuff and it was immensely satisfying to the stomach, but a pain in the hip pocket at $4. The Uni has a whole bunch of activities going on as part of Life Week, some excuse to do silly stuff. One little diversion was to throw a rubber chicken up 2-3 metres into a crate. If you did get it in, then you were in the running to win an iPod shuffle. Several Seftoners tried, but none were successful. Also there were a whole bunch of stress balls in the image of cricket balls beening given away for free. Land and Phuong were the first to strike, and quickly set off a chain reaction of Seftoners running to get some free stuff.

After all this fun, and suitably refilled and refreshed, when went back again to the School of Physics to attend some lab work sessions. Just before entering, we were told that they weren't ready for us yet, so we had some fun on the nearby oval. Most people were throwing the stress balls, but a whole bunch of us started to play shuttlecock, drawing a few stares from the Uni students.

The lab work was quite cool. It was basically what we had done in class, but with much superior equipment, that a University can afford. We didn't finish all of the activities as we were pressed for time, but we did managed to do the superconducting one, and our 2nd year students-guides were joking around with the liquid nitrogen. Liquid nitrogen is so cool. They had their own supply in a giant tower outside. Man, I gotta get liquid nitrogen. My greatest disappointment was that I didn't bring a thermos flask to leech some liquid nitrogen.

Still it was great fun. On the way back to Sefton, a whole bunch of people had early leavers. Still 23 people were supposed to be back on Sefton station and there were only 12 students. Hmmm, looks like some people just decided to leave. Don't know whether Fearnside will follow it up though. Nah, probably not...

Laughter in Physics

Scene : In a physics classroom. Several students are huddled around a book, gathering answers for physics questions.

Phuong : Determine the velocity of Uranus...

Charles : ...and the momentum of gas ejected...

(laughter)

End scene

This actually happened. Hilarious.

Ideally Speaking of course...

All this english adv homework caught up with me last night and I couldn't blog yesterday as I had planned. This is important following a revelation in Biology. Microwaving food with gladwrap still on can cause demasculation. Armitage revealed that apparently glad wrap has a chemical that is similar to estrogen, the female hormone. So microwaving food, still wrapped in gladwrap causes this chemical to be released and into the food. So bad news for guys. Charles was like "WTF?!" as he has been doing exactly that. What was hilariously funny, but not everyone probably heard, was that Land turned around and said "This explains everything Jimmy!" Yeah it sure does.

Usually I raid the fridge to eat leftovers for breakfast, because at this moment, I just despise cereals. I don't seem to get any energy out of them. Then again, I may be buying the wrong brand of cereal. So what I usually have is chicken coujons, ham and cheese. The coujons are basically a small stick of chicken with crumbly stuff on the outside. Ham is like the ham between sandwiches and cheese...is cheese. Maybe a weird combo for breakfast, but it gets me through the morning without much cooking.

I was going to stay back and do some work in the library, you know, make us of my study period. Instead, I left early to pick up a ball that had gone over the otherside, whilst playing cricket. So I waltzed back to the school, changed my mind and continued to the corner shop to buy a Coke and a hamburger for lunch. That was a good decision.

Can't wait til the weekends. I'm beginning to feel dead tired.

It's now the Witching Hour

To procrastinate while I'm supposed to be doing work, and thanks to the high-speed nature of broadband, I browse a few webcomics. It's quick and usually hilarious. Well, I was recently reading a comic called Questionable Content, and the author/artist is a bit of a music junkie. He has a recommended list of music albums. One of these was an album called Witching Hour by a band called Ladytron. Here is his description:

If Ellen Allien's amazing Berlinette is the sonic equivalent of a sexy German assasin-cyborg, Witching Hour is the equivalent of an aloof, ironic (and sexy) London murder-droid. Gritty like damaged data, aloof like a girl too hot to associate with the likes of mortal man, melancholy like fog at night. Excellent electro-sex neu-wave rock sneering. Okay I'll stop now, this is getting pretentious.

So seeing that I haven't really updated my music collection, I got my hands on this little album and it turns out that its not to bad at all. It's kind of like electronic meets rock. It's a little weird, but I like it.

Year 11s on camp tomorrow. So we'll have plenty of space at school.

Rushing through chemistry practicals and doing some biology homework. I'll probably wake up early tomorrow to finish off the pracs.

Went to hockey training today, and no one was there. I was dogged. Woodbridge was a little fustrated that no one showed up. Lazy buggers. We're going to lose this year, I know it.

That's Poker, baby

Mae West: Is poker a game of chance?
W.C. Fields: Not the way I play it.

Arrgh, gotta do all this stupid stuff for careers meeting. And there is science prac. Is this careers thing necessary?

My Miracle Drug

Excursions are cool. That's a fact. But it's also true that some are cooler than others. Take this latest Biology to UNSW Muesuem of Disease. It was a great excursion. I pity the people who don't do Biology.

So we leave school and end up at UNSW with a few hours to kill. We go to this lecture hall for a physics demonstration. We were supposed to go to Randwick Children's Hospital, but they kicked us out at the last minute. Bastards. Anyway, the guy starts to demonstrate these little experiments, playing around with electricity and explaining things like voltage, current and electromagnetic induction. One cool demo was the Van der Graff generator, which generates static electricity. If a person with long hair stands on an insulated block and touches the generator, their hair starts to rise. So the guy asks for a volunteer with long hair to touch the generator. Who goes up? Land, obviously. For the simple reason that she has the longest hair. This guy isn't Fearnside, so he didn't want to choose a volunteer, but we pressure Land into doing it. The demo guy kept calling Land "Meriweather". Too bad no one took a photo, because it was absolutely hilarious when Land's hair started to rise. Another really cool demo was passing an electric current through a long chain of people. I was sitting in the third row, so I missed out on getting shocked. Charles had gone through it before at some Open day and described it as "like getting a cramp every second."

The demo ended early because there was a scheduling error and uni students entered for a lecture. Anyway, it was great fun. As usual, it wouldn't be a proper science demo without liquid nitrogen entering the mix. I got to find out how to get some. Liquid nitrogen is just so cool.

After that, we head to the cafeteria for lunch. I say cafeteria, but it was really a food court, with sections selling different types of food; Chinese, fish and ships, sushi, just to name a few. Most of us finished lunch quickly and headed to the UNSW bookshop. What was it like? Heaven. The sheer amount of books on interesting subjects was staggering and I just wanted to pick up a bunch of books and buy them. But they were hella expensive, price ranged from a mere $8 up to $120. Since the good ones were beyond my budget of $20, I had to pass. Land an Kathy discovered a little gem called "Why Do Men have nipples?" which answered a heap of questions in a hilarious manner, including the title question. Land initially didn't want to buy it. It wasn't an issue with the money. both Kathy and I offered to lend money, but Land was more concerned about the actual buying process. A girl buying a book called "Why do men have nipples?" disturbed her. But she bought it anyway, using Kathy as a proxy. They were chuckling on the bus all the way back.

The actual Museum of Disease was very interesting, and had not only actual preserved examples of disease. but also a digital collection of photos, some more disturbing than others. There was a very gruesome picture of a spine that had compressed too much, and it was from the point of view of a surgeon. It had a lot of red flesh and the spine standing out clearly. Some stomachs were turned, but during our free time, Yang, Khoa and Yehson started to search for imades of diseased testes and penises. The results were...intense. That's all I can really say. We spent the rest of the afternoon filling out a worksheet and looking at real specimens, a kidney that had a tumour, the black lungs of a coal miner, and a gall stone the size of an avocado seed.

This excursion had a strong root in medicine, and while I've always been squeamish with the sort of detail and gross things that you'll see in a career in health, I couldn't help but be absolutely fascinated with everthing. Its playing a torturous game in my head about my future carreer. Anyway, a fascinating little trip worth every damn minute.

Heaven Knows What...

Just came back from tutoring. This guy was doing planning on doing Chem but after choosing it, decided to drop it and choose Art. My tutor's reaction was priceless. But why art? He's a very decent maths and science guy, why the change of art? When the lesson ended, he made a quick exit, so I couldn't ask him.

And Koreans singers on Paris By Night?!? I come home and my dad is watching it, not that enthused since it's Korean. But I guess that after 80 something PBN events, what else are you going to do?

Whiplashed

Arrgh, was it just me but I could not physically stay awake? All those days of waking up late, and now having to wake up early to catch the bus put a dent in me. I felt like I was punched in the face, and then kicked in the face for good measure. Ironically, I woke up to U2's Beautiful Day. It was a beautiful day alright, but the spirit and the body weren't willing to appreciate it.

I guess the only reason I managed to maintain some semblance of consciousness was the fear the Fearnside who ask me something and I would be dead asleep. Maths was probably the worst though. I asked Gough if there was any work due, and he responded in the affirmative, with 5 pracs and 5th dot point summaries. The dot spoint summaries I couldn't care about. But 5 pracs?!?! So I did what I could and copied done the main points of the pracs, totally ignoring what Sharp was talking about. So by the end of the lesson I scratched down some notes on the board and then determined to hand the Chem pracs tomorrow.

It turns out that there were no pracs due today, only the dot point summaries, which are due tomorrow. I was seriously pissed off at Gough for scaring the crap outta me. Still, no pracs are due until at least Monday next week, so I've still got time. What I'm worried about is Bio pracs. Charles has indicated that they are due tomorrow, but Albert and Land didn't confirm (A & L have finished it though). So bio pracs will take an hour or two, with the dot-point summaries taking maybe an hour. So, back to business people!