Shoshe - Done!

The grades are in, as are my problem sets, presentations and term papers. We fly out on Wednesday!

Anna : Middling Sickness

Been feeling slightly iffy for about a week now, the stresses of the last 3 months walking my body slowly towards flu town. A sneeze here, a long tired afternoon there, and everyday it gets harder to get out of bed.

My question for the week is : How can Doug Liman films be so good yet so absolutely forgettable at the same time? I'm looking at you "Bourne Identity"

Tancred - It's far too hot today!

It was -8° when I headed off to work today. Once at work the lazy bum of a sun finally come up over the horizon and raised the temperature to an almost balmy -7°. Everywhere there is a thick 1-2cm of frost and ice along with black ice lying in wait on the footpaths. No idea where the gritters were this morning.

What has made the day truly special is that last night the server room A/C froze up and now one of the chillers has a large crack in the side. No cold air for us :( At the moment it’s 45° in the server room and the rest of the building has no heating. If only we had a window in the server room to open.

Cocktails in Glasgow

Spent Saturday night drinking cocktails in a lovely Art Deco bar in Glasgow in celebration of Kane's birthday. Then discovered that the party season means its impossible to get a bus or taxi home. Well almost, turns out you can skip the non-moving queue when a cab's booked ride doesn't answer and you promise them a big tip.

Overestimated my fitness

Did the adventure race on Saturday in the Avoca Beach/Terrigal/Central Coast area. 4.6km on the kayak, 8.5km on foot and 17.6 on the bike. Totally underestimated my fitness. Walked most of the running legs. Bloody Kincumber Mountain - Pushing bike up the narrow steep & rocky track up to the Wariwari look out - painful and disheartening. Compunded unhappiness because the mozzies hovered, ready to devour you if you paused for a rest. Hot. Got dehydrated. Still sore. Did I have fun? Ummmm….

Dan - another week passes

So, I haven't been posting here much, reading too many RSSes to remember to post. Did lots of work stuff this week, got a bunch of long-overdue stuff done. Took yesterday off, and am now 65% done with Xmas shopping (helped by the various No-Xmas-Present pacts I'm involved in). Busy weekend ahead, lots of work to do before Xmas.

Anna : 500

This is post 500! Well done all! Beach this morning, huge waves that made the first morning beach of the summer feel a bit EXTREME!! Got to try out the cars new stereophonic music magic-a-nator and listened to Triple J on the way home!

Sun gone

Really not one sentence but...

After most of the snow went away yesterday, I decided to actually wear shoes instead of snowboots today. Fortunately, I looked outside before I left -- everything was white! The sky, the cars, the trees, the ground, the falling flakes...

My bus got to uni early enough for me to go to Coffee Hour. I usually just drink tea, but because I had been up until around 4am grading papers, I decided to try the caffeinated hot chocolate that I'd bought for the office. Big mistake. I don't know how much caffeine you absorb from that compared to coffee, but it's way more than I normally get from tea. Unpleasantly so. I'd recovered enough to do some work by around 2pm.

Then at 2:30 we got an email saying that the head of department said we should go home because of the snow. I didn't think the snow looked too bad, but all of the staff -- the people who've lived here for years -- thought it was bad. That was worrying. And I'd just missed my bus (we now live around 15-20 minutes away from uni by bus, and our bus comes once an hour). So I waited there, the only person on the whole floor, for almost an hour. Spooky. I got to watch people with a cherry-picker and a huge (pool?) brush try to keep wiping the snow off the building across from my window though. It's having structural issues, and apparently if more than 3 inches of snow accumulate on the roof it might collapse.

The bus came late but made it home okay (a friend of mine reassured me by saying "the buses here are tough as fuck, as are the drivers. I don't think they've ever shut down due to weather"). Now we're sitting on our couch with a fire in the fireplace, and I'm trying to finish grading my students' papers.

It was a weird day.

Ouch

I just figured out that the reason the sun coming through the window is hurting my eyes so much is because there's sun.

Just 20 more papers to grade and one paper to write. Yesterday I made a numerical model of the Earth's interior!

Shoshe -- getting there

Mineralogy is done (yay!), the seminar is done, and now there's just a term paper, a problem from a way overdue problem set (but I've handed the rest of it in), and grading 30 8-10-page papers.

Our snow is starting to melt. It's weird when the temperature goes above freezing.

Oh yeah -- the other day, first I realised that it wasn't snowing. Then I realised that there weren't any clouds. Then I realised that the sky was blue. It's funny how fast you can acclimatise.

Breaking glass

I broke the kitchen window trying to get a fly that was buzzing around indoors.

I chose a bad weekend to do so.

Yesterday, there were largish hailstones raining down in a summer storm. Pretty much every windscreen I saw afterwards was either cracked or missing.

I got the fly though!

Another Year Older

Wiser, hmm? A work xmas party provided free alcohol for the day, good. No snow, bad. (although we did get a few flakes on Saturday night)

David - Snow, Glorious Snow

I am back in Portsmouth New Hampshire for the week. This is about a 4 hour train ride north of New York. And it has been snowing. In fact the day I got here they had a mini-blizzard in my honour. You don't know quiet until you are walking back to the hotel from a pub down the way - no cars in sight, its the weee hours of the morning and there is snow falling around you muffling the few noises that are being made in the town.

Jaime - I'm a rock star

So apparently I am now "famous". Or at least thats what the cool kids say when your on youtube.



This was done for our christmas party. If only everyday was like this ;)

YL - Rayman Raving Rabbids 2

Yeap there is no escape now. We will HURT more bunnies!!

[Wii is releasing Rayman Raving Rabbids 2. Also, an Official Rabbid Site with bunny related news & videos.]

Anna : Yay Punching!

Too many people and too few bags has meant weeks without punching something. Well that all changed yesterday! 12 x 1 minute rounds with 6 rounds of 8 pushups and 6 rounds of 8 situps and about 35 seconds rest between each set. Finish it off with some punching above the head and 2 x 30 seconds on the bags and you a recipe for KICKING ARSE! I do believe I may STILL be high on the endorphins :)

Ben - Lazin' Around

Fourth day of hols, and relaxation is juuuust starting to turn to boredom. Weather clearing up quicker than expected; might make the beach before the weekend, if lucky.

falsedan - I got a parka from H&M

YL - just one more day

Yeah I have been telling myself that for weeks, nay months, nay years. And finally in terms of exams, it is just one (and three) more days. Written on Mon, practical on Wed. omg when will this be over? *insert pained cry* *shakes fist*

I will just say I am very ranty about a lot of things right now. still being a medical student, other medical students in the new 4th year, people who suggest that I was unsure about doing medicine (*shakes fist*), people who look down on me that it took +3 years to do this degree (hey my reasons were genuine compared to the person who had to repeat a year cos the person slept with a patient and came back to tell others about it!!) and random assortment of things - some completely unrelated to med.

omg please let this be over soon. I cant bear to do the dance of sucking up and placid smiles and purported interest anymore. I suck at being a medical student but I'm going to make a helluva better doctor than half this crowd. *gestures with frustration*

David - Dangerous Statistic

I found out tonight that if the subway gods are smiling on me it is a 60 minute trip from the front door of my apartment to the Apple store and back again.  This is of particular interest when you consider the fact that the NY Apple store is open 24/7.

I left my apartment at 8pm this evening, ran uptown, purchased an iPhone for a colleague in Australia and was back in my apartment by 9.10pm.  We all know how easily seduced I am by the shiny - this could get spectacularly dangerous.

Shannon - SNOW!

It's snowing, it's snowing, it's snowing!!! YAY!!!

Dan: Chaos and illness

Went to niece Jasmine's 5th birthday party. Very noisy, and ate more then strictly necessary. Atty has been out of sorts the last few days, and an illness has finally manifested and he's sniffling and coughing and generally miserable, and Jen has caught the same thing. I'm feeling generally crap as well, so I'm expecting to come down with is soon too. Got a big party tomorrow as well, which is next door so we can't really pike out.

In recent news, put in a large grant application yesterday, which lowered my stress levels since it was the biggest nastiest job on my task list. Also new project tracking system up and running as well, which should make life easier.

Becstarr : More unpackering

Still more unpacking!
Today Karinne, Joel and I boldly went forward and cleared the kitchen bench, resurrected the microwave, tamed the fridge temperature, stashed all the boxes in the roof, and started prettying up the backyard for the housewarming tomorrow.

Then we went over to Joel's and continued at his. The house has been transformed! And J has his study back again. It's all looking very cleared out - so much old furniture going out onto the street! So much recycling!

Shoshe -- Done! Almost.

I had my mineralogy lab final exam today! That's exciting because it's over. Now I just have a mineralogy project, a mineralogy lecture final exam, three planetary physics problem sets, a planetary physics presentation, a planetary physics term paper, and a seminar presentation (group project) to do by the end of next week. And then thirty 8-10 page papers to grade the week after. And then I'm done for the semester!

Ben - Free at last

Prac finished today. School swimming carnival. It was interrupted for an hour and a half due to an electrical storm, but the kids were pretty well behaved anyway. One girl wanted to know the odds of swimming fast enough to avoid a lightning strike;

Yesterday, a student from another class asked me if he could tell me all about the dinosaurs. If I'd had known that he was moderately autistic, I might have been more hesitant about saying yes. As it was, I heard all about the dinosaurs.

Tomorrow, holidays start which will mean a week of rain; but I guess my garden could use it.

Friday Afternoon Special

Ah ha ha ha ha ha.
Ah ha ha ha ha ha.
Ah ha ha ha ha ha.
Ah ha ha ha ha ha.

Could things get any worse? These disasters come in threes, right? I'm just waiting for the friday afternoon special to arrive.

falsedan - countdown

Molly Meldrum bought a pie at Aija's shop yesterday, and he's coming back for another today.

V-day!

I totally made it! The evil class gave me a round of applause at the end, a soft-of card and the comment "thank you for controlling us sometimes." I replied "it's been an education."

*sigh* Done!

And now two weeks of nice classes. Sweet!

Anna : Keep On Keeping On

Beating the inevitable post birthday crash into submission through the power of exercise induced endorphins. Had a "cooking emergency" on Tuesday when the freezer door didn't close properly and all the meat defrosted ... "I'll put this chicken in this pan and then put that pan in this bigger pan and then whack the lamb in the bigger pan and then put chicken, lamb and pans into the oven" ...

Jaime - Waitress

Cooked rack of lamb for the first time last night. It was delicious, now I have to improve on that. I think next time I'll take "20". Watched Waitress last night and it was one of the nicest little films that I've seen in a while. It was also a real shame as the writer/director/actress was murdered before the film was released, so much potential wasted.

Oh Fook.

You know when you have one of those days where everything is going along swimmingly, and then !Bang!, something goes totally wrong and hits you upside on the head and no progress has actually happened for the past 2 months? And your project timeframes are then shot to pieces?
Yeah, I'll have one of those thanks.
I hate local councils.

Becstarr : Sleeping in the new room

Got back to Combat after the move - I've been saving all my energy for packing and shifting boxes recently! It wasa new release, hard ("35% more kicks!") but lots of fun, especially the jenga (sp?) shuffle.

Finally made it home to make up my bed and sleep in my new room! Down to one row of boxes along the wall. Feels good to have a place to call home again.

Ben - One Art Please!

Taught my first art lesson today; I wore my beret and tormented the kids with my French accent. The look of disgust on one girl when I demanded to be called Monsieur Hilton was a delight to behold.

YL - Election Results & Procrastination

WOOT!!!! I hope there are good/better things to come ...

And yes *sulk* I am procrastinating with anxiety .... gah. grrr.

On the up side, Anna's birthday party at Coogee beach yesterday was awesome. I almost forgot how much I like it outside in the sunshine ....

Becstarr : It's a new day, it's a new dawn

The air seems sweeter, the sky seems bluer, the trees seem to have more leaves, and I can't stop smiling. Still watching the results come in, and Greens are looking good in Senate! Also amazement at the Costello news. I do feel sorry for him, but I think he's making the right choice in terms of his future happiness.

First swim of the summer at Anna's wonderful birthday BBQ down at Coogee. HURRAY!

David - I Have Been Converted...

I suppose it was inevitable. Being a stranger in a strange land, a continuing focus on style and being surrounded by rampant consumerism... it all came to a head today when I wandered (willingly I might add) into the Apple store. I... I purchased... a Macbook Pro... years of faithful devotion to the capitalist god of Microsoft cavalierly thrown away with the simple swipe of a credit card.

Of course it doesn't actually turn up for a couple of days so I still have time to go out and purchase an adequate supply of berets...

Ben - Back Again

Haven't written anything for months, so here is a random assortment of things that happened with me:

- Made homemade crumpets
- Read a stultifyingly dull book about Australian Prime Ministers.
- Read a quite interesting book about chemistry
- Built a solar cooker that doesn't work - I think I need to rebuild the lid entirely
- Was told by a five year old that I look like a gorilla
- Was told by a twelve year old that I smell like vinegar
- Planted a herb garden.
- Found out that year six kids can write excellent similes but aren't so good with metaphors. Go figure.
- And last night watched the bad man go bye byes.

Becstarr : At the polls

Today is the final day of weeks of knocking on wood every time the possibility of a government change is mentioned.

At the polls for Greens down in Marrickville from 8am - 12:30. It's strong Labor but very friendly (as usual on polling day). I'm too nervous to think in any depth about the results starting to be decided - as if by thinking about it, one might disturb what's happening.

The day was overcast and spitty but by the time I make it to Leon's Election Night party, the results are already starting to look good and the parties are spilling onto the street. The whole thing has an air of surreality. Howard concedes at last and we toast the start of better days to come.

The whole day felt unreal....

Dan - Wooooo!

Woooo! I'm not at the party, but I'm watching the forces of good triumph over evil, and it feels awesome :) Dante came up with me to vote, and quite enjoyed the process.

falsedan - phenomenal

Went for after work drinks, Andrew & Peter taught Aija the basics of playing pool. Watching England lose to Croatia in a pub full of Englischer was fun. I was charged with maintaining the fridge supplys and given the Sainsbury account, so I an instituting a strict policy of replacing Coke with Irn-Bru.

Just voted, was impressed to see party members handing out how to vote cards, disappointed not to see a sausage sizzle or cake stall.

Dan - issue tracking and not smoking and all excited about the election

Got our new Issue Tracking database up and running today - it's way shiny and seems to do everything. Watched Thank You For Smoking this evening. Probably should have watched it last year like everyone else, but I didn't. But I have now. And it's good. Looking forward to election tomorrow, but I swear, if it goes bad, I'm gonna start cutting people.

Jaime - Gooooooaaalllll

Just got back from indoor soccer. Got 2 goals, was very happy with myself (regardless of the fact that one was a complete fluke). Very much want to join a team if possible.

Also, saw this when I got home and I wants it.

Tired now... me ... slee..zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Becstarr : Return to the classroom

Taught my first class in about 2 years today! Assessment in WebCT was the topic, 3 of 5 in the Intro series. Only 2 hours and about 9 people, and a beautiful lesson plan and site prepared by the training team, which made for a nice class that was easy to pick up having never taught it before.

Felt good but after this week I am tired tired. Need to get some sleep in before polling in Marrickville tomorrow!!

Anna : !

It's been an exclamation mark kind of day ... I may have an exciting wiki project in the works. Details to be confirmed, pitch to be written, watch this space!

David - Yay Holidays

Its thanksgiving over here - and I find myself with nothing to do! I was originally supposed to be in London but the trip got cancelled 2 days ago. Wandered up to the event before the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade: Inflating the Floats! Of course I am an idiot and didn't realise that every man and his dog was going to be there. After flirting with a senseless death as a result of being run over by a neverending series of strollers that were larger than the average compact car I abandoned ship.

Oh and I voted. Viva la revolution!

Becstarr : Moving zombie

Started back at work, house as yet unpacked, boxes 4 deep and 6 high in my new bedroom.
I feel like the shell of a person, with someone sitting inside my head looking out and steering from....very....far.....away.

YL - Country Doctor

Almost there! At 5pm 7 Mar, you can call me Doctor. And I got my paperwork from Westmead yesterday. 31 Mar I start work at Coffs Harbour Hospital for 5 months! Emergency Dept then General Medicine. So I'll be off to the country for a bit of a seachange but will be coming back montly to Sydney anyway. Still no Latte since hospital accomodation doesnt allow pets I think. *mutters*

So while I'm not entirely sure if the future will be bright/dark ... it sure will be different! That much will be interesting.

Anna : Stress

Over the last 2 weeks I've noticed some skin problems that I get when put under prolonged physical/mental stress. What could be causing this? New job, Guy and the horror class, 3 weekends lost to filming, increased hours at the gym and more drinking? Nah. How many weeks until Christmas? Hmmm. Well maybe some dancing will help!

Kit - Net Detective

Had a lovely cup of takeaway coffee - just the way I like it, instead of the so-so "It's oh-kay, I can live with it" that usually happens. Ordered a bee keepers hat, to try and keep the blowflys off. Did some net detectoring and worked out what the specials were at the GBs/Myer Sale tonight. Yeah!

Jaime - new shoes

Last weekend was good. Went out friday night to a friends work event and played 14 player halo 3. Then came home and caught up on weeds, next week is final ep for the season.

Saturday went to the Cheese festival on Granville Island and at a bunch of cheese, it was DELICIOUS! Bought a few cheeses for later. Then went over to friends place and played boardgames until 2.

Sunday was cleanup day. Got a lot done and then went out for Dinner. Just before that went and bought myself some indoor soccer shoes as I've been going twice a week.

Indoor soccer tonight, looking forward to it.

falsedan - Amon Tobin

Went to see Amon Tobin on Thursday—his new stuff is a lot noisier, industrial, and techno than previous. The gig was done in 7.1 surround sound, which means the dance floor is encircled with speakers with different sounds coming out of each. Highlight was him using a sample of a 150cc trail bike revving in an outro.

Aija's sisters and mum are visiting, they are nice, also don't speak much English, so I am fully exercising my 4-word Latvian vocabulary… labvakar!

Shoshe: two for two

Yesterday we had people over for a "Christmas pudding making and problem set doing" fest. And we actually did both! We made the pud (plus a figgy pudding so that people would actually get to eat something that they'd made that day), and while it was steaming we actually worked on our assignment! We got two questions done in three hours, which was quite satisfying.

Then today we made super-fast parmesan wafers for a Thanksgiving potluck dinner at my friend's co-op. They were quick and simple and really yummy. We highly recommend the recipe!

Anna : Where did the weekend go ...

That's what happens when you build up to something too much, it flies by and you feel kind of deflated afterwards. A Saturday afternoon looking at fishes and penguins and seals (oh my!) was pleasant, soothing and somewhat educational. Sunday was spent ripping apart camera memory cards in the hope of salvaging them (failed :( ) and spending last Christmas's gift vouchers. And sleeping, there was a good 8 hours of sleeping.

David - Yawwwwnnnnnn

Spent the weekend mooching around the house - which is pretty impressive given that mooching in my apartment means you can take all of 6 steps before you hit an obstacle of some description. Watched Transformers - reconfirmed that as long as you ignore the dialogue it is shiny. Just ignore the dialogue. Also have Spiderman 3 which I can't quite bring myself to watch. And now I have to go into the office and engage in political shenanigans. :-(

Confirmed my flights to Australia last week - I am coming back to surprise my parents for Christmas. They have no idea I am coming at all. Which also means party time with the hive... at some point!

Dan - weekend at home

Had Nothing Much to do this weekend, so I fought an epic battle against the lawn, filling two of those big wheelie bins with grass cuttings, plus the amount dumped onto the garden or in the compost. We've officially got Redback spiders in the yard again. Jen found some monster sized ones in the compost bin which I proceeded to hassle with a stick (I think I squished 'em, but one might've gotten away). Need to have some more Nothing Much weekends. Apart from that, I successfully avoided doing much.

Two Weeks Until V-day

Highlights of the week?

1) We had a "global forum" to discuss the topic of whaling from a variety of perspectives on Monday. The pro-whalers kicked the ass of the anti-whalers. The "Australian school student" (someone playing the role of course, we wouldn't actually let one on the premises) was mocked for getting their anti-whaling propaganda from the Internet and from their Geography teacher. At the end she agreed that she wasn't really sure about the whole topic and perhaps she agreed with the pro-whalers.

Left wing bias in schools indeed.

2) Busy, angry meetings between teachers and the executive. Whenever I walk out of a meeting teachers keep telling me that I'm very brave. I'm so not getting a job.

3) When looking at the Black Sea oil spill story I was asked on multiple occasions "is this for real"? How many times do I have to say in Geography, "YES! THIS IS ALL FOR REAL!"? Damn it's a depressing subject to study.

EC - Best. Show. Evar!

So after Al's thing Kim and I just hung around a bit before meeting up with with some friends for Dinner before going to see Muse. Dinner was OK, support act was crap (The Checkers I think . From NZ?)

Anyway Muse came on about 9:30 ish and was enraptured from the very beginning. I've liked their music since they came out but have not been obsessed over them but this show has certainly got me changing my mind. They really know how to put on a grand show with epic riffs interspersed with hypnotic piano. As good as the music was though, the visuals were absolutely mind blowing with video effects playing in the background that entranced me more than the band playing on stage just as the lights distracted and enhanced the band to produce an effect as if the band themselves were apart from the stage. Very cool.

One thing that struck me though was that this was the first time in a while that I was sitting a distance away from the stage and was watching the crowd on the floor go nuts during the show. I certainly missed it but an observation made was the number of lights coming from the audience. It was obviously people with their phones recording and the constant glow of LCDs stood in stark contrast to the one time one or two people who brought out lighters for a slow number. It certainly seems the transience of the flame has been replaced by the relentless glow of LCDs as people record things for posterity instead of the fleeting sense of the experience. I smile as I listern to Matthew Bellamy singing 'I need it now' while those people keep it for later instead.

Dan - All conference and no play makes Dan go sleepy

Spent yesterday & today at EdHealth 2007 conference in Terrigal. Nick & Marina also there. And the VC. Presented a poster (well, two, but Nick did the actual presenting for one of them, and did a bunch of the making). Had to catch public transport up there now that the little car has gone to car heaven, but got a lift most of the way back. When you're used to kids and living in the city, it's a bizarre but delightful experience getting to stroll quietly along the beach before bed. Got home to a house full of happy smiley kids and relieved Jen, which was nice.

Becstarr : Day 1 of packing

Today I packed. I think I've packed about half the house. I have boxes stacked up to the ceiling. Thanking my lucky stars that I got rid of most of my stuff in the last move (to a studio). Threw away the last of my uni notes, and dropped off heaps of stuff to Vinnies. It felt fantastic - I want to get rid of MORE!

Kit - The interwebs are go!

*Finally* got the interwebs up and running. Had troubles connecting to wireless modem - it would freeze & need a restart everytime I made a change over wireless, and I had to get to the third cat-5 cable before the cable connection worked.
In other news, we're halfway through Movember, and there are lot of seedy looking moustaches hanging around work.

Jaime - Votes in

This morning Shan and I voted at the consulate. Take that Howard! Now I want to sleep.

oh my gee

There is a fridge full of milk and snickers and coke and basically I won't ever need to buy lunch again.

First day at work: here's the OH&S policy, here's a wiki full of documentation, here's a box of computer parts and a screwdriver and a folder of CDs and a desk for you to put your computer on once you finish putting it together, off you go

NEGLECTING TO MENTION THE FRIDGE FULL OF KIT-KATS >:|

Anna : Stay on Target!

Counting the seconds to my first completely non filming weekend in 3 weeks! 2 whole days not thinking about work or anything to do with "red heads" "framing" "cutaways" or "crossing the line"!!!!

Day off has side effects

I took Wednesday off for a "me" day, and to go climbing in the Blue Mountains. Fun! However, an unintended side effect is that Thursday now feels like a Monday. Hard to get out of the house.

Becstarr : A move and a mob

A few big days of clearing out J's studio has made room for little sister Zoe (20) to move in. Flatmate Sarah has also announced she's found a place, so in about 2 weeks J gets his studio back! The clear-put was good though: many things thrown out, and good training for my own upcoming move. It's much less emotional helping someone else sort their stuff!

My main birthday present for J today (1975) was cooking for a big family dinner: parents, Zoe, uncle & grandfather up from Melbourne - 7 people all up (with a possible 10 at one point). It was a lot of planning but I'm pleased to say I pulled it off! Roast chicken, heaps of vegies and chocolate mousse for dessert. Plenty for everyone and pretty much without stress.

The other great thing today was seeing Bob Brown, Kerry Nettle and Jenny Leong launch the Greens' higher ed policy up in the Quad. I loved what they said, but I also loved that they didn't seem to have the fakey "gloss" that many pollies have. It's good to feel there are some people I'm really happy to get behind and vote for.

Anna : Quino-ings On

My Apple, Sultana and Quinoa pudding is a success (as long as you have it with custard) so I thought I'd celebrate with more mediocre wordplay since I got such good feedback about the last lot. Went to see Bob Brown today launching his education policy at Usyd and making a lot of sense about all the issues, $35 billion in tax cuts or $3.5 billion a year to abolish HECS??

David - Answer for Tancred

My project is in the toilet as usual. No idea which freaking city I am going to be in next week. It could be New York, it could be Portsmouth New Hampshire, it could be London - there is even an outside chance that it could be Edinburgh! Good job I don't have a loving partner as I would have been divorced by now!

Tancred - I suspect that in order to get your name over there => you have to be one of the people who has an account at blogspot?

falsedan - I got a job

Went for my interview today at 11. I was a little concerned that my appearance may cause the interviewers to negatively favour me, but interviewer Andrew:

1. is from Newcastle (NSW, not -Upon-Tyne)


2. has shoulder-length hair dyed black and a lip piercing


3. is wearing an untucked casual shirt and boots

We launched into general nerd-talk, and I made a good impression… so good that he called at 2 asking me to come back and meet the CEO and the rest of the team. The CEO is a New Zealander, and is business partners with an anaesthetist. We had a chat about BPEL and I mentioned SOAP, which impressed the project manager. There is one other guy, the actual
programmer, who was busy programming. I went home for dinner and to give them time to come to a decision.

Got a call just now asking me to start on Thursday, hooray!

Tancred I think you have to be less evil. Are you evil? I'm not evil.

Tancred - How?

How do you get your name on the list over there -> ??

Tancred - the weekend

I was on call over the weekend. I was also rather sick. So I was paid to sit at home feeling sick and play World of Warcraft :)

The best bit was nothing went down (fnar fnar) all weekend. Actually no, the best bit was hitting 40 and being exhalted with Darnassus, Ironforge & Stormwind. Human diplomcy FTW!

Becstarr : Revue at Riverside

Off to the Riverside Theatre at Parramatta to see the annual Wharf Revue with Mum, Jess, Tim and Joel. Excellent show, though perhaps more surprising was the lovely dinner beforehand and the generally nice atmosphere. Parramatta seems to be getting more and more "liveable". They do seem to have a particularly good mayor at the moment, in terms of encouraging the arts , a sense of community & involvement and so on. Nice work Parra.

Jaime - Cyperpunk and Vampires

Went out last night and saw Blader Runner at the cinemas. It was the new release and it was kick ass seeing it in a cinema. The re-mastering was great. Went for dinner on commercial driver afterward with Shan and Rob at Waazubee Café. Then went back to Rob's when we rented Cronos as Rob and Shan hadn't seen it. Awesome vampire movie.

YL - random thoughts

Life is still evolving which is good. Today, my friend Anne said "you've just likened dating guys to your hair" - easily changable if not liked! Hmmm I must not be taking things so deeply anymore. More importantly, we are evolving and learning. Let's try another one ....

Still not sure about the hairstyle. Kinda "in your face" for me. Colour's great. I think I liked subtle and sexy better so maybe back to my usual hairdresser at Head over Heels. Will keep experimenting with styling but fortunately hair grows back. Really unsettled about hair which is strange.

Parents here = good for many reasons. not so good for others. Being a hybrid culture person now with 2 feet in 2 boats can lead to decisional confusions. Cleaning/packing = still painful. Apt no sale = angsty & wearying. Maybe later.

Definitely pub Friday. I miss my dog. I also miss companionship.

falsedan - layers

Christmas decorations are up in London: Oxford St is a discothèque of flashing lights, while Shepherds Bush has small (live) tannenbaums attached to the streetlights.

Dug out my foul-weather jacket since the cold and wind tag-team is very effective. I am up to 3.5 layers: hard shell, hoodie, t-shirt + naturally insulating layer of hair. I'm missing my jumper, hi Tancred & Evelyn.

First interview tomorrow at Tower Hill, not nervous about it yet.

EC - The food. My God, the food!

A much happier Monday this week. Started off a bit weak since we needed to get up at 5:30 or so. Of course that was to show up for the first climb onto the Harbour Bridge which was just spectacular. Weather was perfect and it was a lot more fun than I expected. Essentially my (mini) Uncle Michael is leaving for Canada (Vancouver of all places) for an extended stay so we had a family farewell on the Harbour Bridge. No - no pushing was involved.

This was followed by a nice Yum Cha at the place at the top of Market City. The place has opened up again and the service has improved vastly. Food has and still is good. This was followed by a quick session at Galaxy World where Chuppa Chups were won. Yay!

Nap later, we had a mun yit for my cousin who's had their third kid so celebration was done via a 10 course meal - Chinese style. Much eating was done - epecially since our table was under attended as compared to everyone elses. One observation made was that our table without rugrats running around. Hmm.

Hurray, the sun came out

Lovely weekend after all because the sun came out. Orange grove markets to pick up some sourdough bread, nectarines and goats cheese; Then had a picnic on the Sunday at Wentworth Falls Lake with some friends I haven't seen in ages. One person has given up being a vegetarian because it became all too hard when she was diagnosed as gluten intolerant as well as being a diabetic vego.

Jen - Zonked before midday

Long time, no see, Hive One Sentence Journal. I'll try to post some updates soon. However, today is not the day. It's not even midday and I'm completely zonked. What a morning! Oh, the screaming and the clinging and the crawling whilst screaming and the wet pants and the toilet refusals and the screaming. Did I mention the screaming?

Plus I feel terrible because I locked Atti in the lounge room while I put Elora to bed - he's worked out how to open the safety gate at the top of the stairs. Oh no!

Anna : Cinema Very Tired

A big weekend, cooking up a storm on Saturday (still haven't cooked my Quinoa, think I might do that tonight, it's protein-tastic!) and then shooting from 8.30am to 10.30pm on Sunday. A highly successful shoot but it has left me a shell filled only with mediocre wordplay!

Shoshe: Backlog + swamped

More-or-less finished reading the 60 page paper on elasticity in the Earth's interior by the time of the seminar this past Wednesday. Still haven't finished the problem set that was due two weeks ago yesterday, but about half the class is with me on that. Finished the mineralogy lab from 2 weeks ago; still have to finish last week's and this week's (tomorrow arvo after Ratatouille?). 28 papers to grade this weekend, plus I'll have to assign letter grades for the 30 papers my graders are grading so I can give the essays back to the students on Wednesday. And I'm giving my third lecture (this one's on the International Space Station and Ares/Orion) on Wednesday...hopefully I'll be given slides for that one. And we're going to an Arlo Guthrie concert on Tuesday night.

Becstarr : Digging through braindumps

Spending hours digging through braindumps. Everything feels like it takes a very very very long time because it's not just a case of doing it, it's remembering how to do it.

Pub: Talked with G&A about the wiki conference in Egypt in 2008. Let's go!!!

falsedan - sorry, you're not my type

Got my first job rejection today—it's a step up from sending out heaps of CVs and never ever getting any reply.

Grr London job culture… "If you have not heard anything by the 21st of December then you have been unsuccessful on this occasion."

Dan - day off

Took a day of work to recover and de-stress. Mostly sat around. Tried to nap, but Atticus decided it'd be more fun to jump up and down on top of me. Looks like Good Fruit season is starting again - strawberries and cherries and apricots are starting to get cheaper.

Not much happening..

Bored at work, suffering prospective Cabin Fever for the weekend. I know we need the rain, but I'm sick of being indoors!

Shoshe: Righty-o then

So apparently the reason that my geomorphology prof is so into plate tectonics is that he invented it (pdf).

It's an awesome class, by the way. I've missed it a few times 'cause it's at 9am and I'm not taking it for credit, but the lectures are great. He make excellent use of PowerPoint, which I find really impressive, especially for a guy who's about to retire!

Anna : Desk, Sweet Desk

Taken a few more steps this week to make my temporary desk my actual desk. Printed out a copy of this to stare at and brought in my Andy Warhol / Marilyn Monroe cup to hold my pencils. Oooh and a fork, ICT seems to have lost all of its forks.

Becstarr : Hula hula dreams dreams

Big event of the day was the opening for Hula Dreams II out at Clovelly, which J has two works in (Sheik Uke Al-Hilaly and Martin Uke, which sold on the night). The opening went well and my mum met J's mum and Jess met Zoe- not that anyone really got a chance to talk; too much ukelele playing going on!

Had a small family dinner with Jess, Mum and Dad after. 4 is actually a very civilised number for a dinner - everyone can be in on the same conversation easily. :)

YL - red hair at last!

Lousy week until I settled into what turned into a long hair appointment at Bedrock, Newtown. 1-6pm. Yikes. Trimmed, cut, bleached and coloured. There's nothing like 5hrs of sitting still, drinking tea and doing nothing to lift one's moods.

I now have deep cherry red/brown hair with streaks of bright engine red & 1 gorgeous bit of deep fushia pink. All cleverly able to be hidden when swept into a neat bun/pony tail. Hah! The hairdresser Katerina was listening when I tried to explain I had to look professional/conservative while really not being that tight laced! (except when talking about corsets - Fashion has moved on. Time to get new ones from Gallery Serpentine & House of Fetish in the near future.)

Evolution baby yeah. It's a steep learning curve.

Now to see the look on my parents & grandma's face when I pick them up later tonight. lol.

Shoshe: It's snowing!

It's just a flurry, and you have to go outside to see it (you can't really see it through the window), but it's snowing!

It's 38 degrees out, and tonight it's going down to 25. Fahrenheit. I think we're just not going to translate that into real units 'cause it'd be too scary.

Now you can see it out the window! It's not sticking to the ground yet though.

We need to buy snowboots.

falsedan - mo' money mo' problems

Successful budgeting has left me with lots of food I didn't eat, so this week's food budget is now a £15 fun fund. I am resisting blowing it all at the chippie.

YL - rain, blood and babies

Today started out poorly with me venturing out into the sudden outpouring of rain with no umbrella. Realising I had no mobile phone (which I needed in case my real estate agent called me), I got off the bus at Fisher Library and proceeded to get even more wet while trying to get back home.

Needless to say, no action on the apt sale front that I know of. Sigh. Auction is on Sat though.

After feeling out of place on the labour ward, we did end up delivering 2 babies by caesarean between 4-10pm. That was kind of sweet in a sad broken way. In those few moments, women who had loving partners and who were having babies. Captured moment of bliss. Sure there may be many other problems beyond that moment. But I suddenly felt like it was a moment I'd never experience - loving partners & having babies. Deeper sigh. Now that makes me cry.

Anna : Getting better at getting off the floor

New gym program with "Extra Pushup Action" is totally working. First set of pushups no longer feels like death. Just don't ask me about the following sets.

EC - The blood - oh my god, the blood

So was walking home through Vic park late last night because I figured I'd have less distractions to finish essays in the office and I get approached by two kids waving a Coke bottle around telling me to give them my laptop. I obviously told them to go to to hell - especially when one of them didn't look older than 12. Anyway they told me to look behind me twice with nothing there before two more came around trying to intimidate me with numbers - again age no older than 15 in the four of them.

I try scaring them off myself with a few empty kicks since I really didn't see these guys as a threat and they were just kids beforeI find myself grounded from a Coke bottle thrown to my head. I was obviously bleeding but I got up and told them to bring it on. I have to wonder what I looked like getting up from what must have been a nastily split lip and a bleeding nose and still telling them to come again. Anyway they threw the bottle again and missed. I went to pick it up and walked away. Shouting was done and I went home.

I was bleeding something savage but figured - well a split lip - nothing to worry about. Come home and Kim freaks and I look in the mirror and see yeah, I should probably get that seen to. A taxi later am in the RPA waiting room... waiting. 5 hours later I'm stitched up and home again.

And the worse thing? The 5 hours in the waiting room I was forced to watch old sitcom after old sitcom interspersed with the Shopping Channel trying to convince me Air Supply was good.

falsedan - boom bang bang bang bang crack bang

Everyone is letting off fireworks as soon as it gets dark and it gets dark pretty early around here. It sounds like a war zone (except for the magnesium sprays *pppffzztssstzszssssscchchchchchch*)

Becstarr : Belatedly houseproud

First day of LMS not as bad as I thought it would be!
Walked home to Newtown to clean the place up prior to its first inspection as it goes back on the market (Wed pm if you're interested). Once it was clean, I belatedly fell in love with it again. It's been a wonderful little place.... I'm sure I'm going to miss the privilege of having such privacy and independence. No ties has its pluses.

inner city urbanite

Busy day. Had a nice dinner at newtown thai 2, before heading to the australian surf movie festival at manning. Haven't been to manning for donkey's years! The films were a bit of a letdown, with shaky home footage of 80s surf comps. The footage of surfing near port arthur was more interesting, with the guy being towed out by jetski, and taking a bit of a tumble at one point falling down the wave.

Becstarr : Nuh-uh!

Spent a large part of the day trying to finish project work and hitting stupid obstacles (Audacity losing LameLib, etc). Resolved once again not to let a project get to the "I should definitely work on this on Sunday" stage. I thought that ended once I finished uni and essays!

Dan: battling hordes of midgets

We had all the nieces and nephews around today, so there was running and squealing and playstation. Battled the ants that have decided that it's nicer inside than outside in the rain. Changed the TV input arrangement for the first time in years, promoting the computer to AV1 in recognition of its sterling service (everything else shares AV2).

falsedan - witness protection program

Went to Michael's & Megan's on the 1st; drank all their expensive champagne, missed the last train so spent the night on the couch they found on the street the other day. It's a very comfortable couch. Also I was asked (and accepted) to be the witness at their wedding next month.

By the time we woke up on Friday there was an O.C. marathon showing—Latvia doesn't get The O.C. so we stuck around all afternoon while I revealed that you could tell which season an episode was from by the presentation of Peter Gallagher's eyebrows.

Woke up on Saturday to cook teriyaki tofu and watch Thunderball. Went to the dodgiest cleanest bar on Goldhawk Road and drank Amaretto.

Yesterday was the 50 year anniversary of Laika's last day on Earth :sad face:

Becstarr : Endings and newthings

Last day of projects. Brain MIA. J off to sign papers with Cath at lunchtime. Yen Li brought a friend to the D&S. Went to see the lovely Clare Bowditch and the Feeding Set at the Seymour in the evening. Big day.

David - Halloween Shenanigans R Us

Took some time out of the political bunfight that I am in the midst of right now and wandered around NY on Halloween night. There is a massive parade through the Village with a bunch of people dressed up to the nines. Kinda like a straight version of the Mardi Gras. Seeing thousands upon thousands of New Yorkers wearing their freak on the outside is a hell of an experience. Some highlights;
- chap in a flasher costume - what is a flasher costume you say? A man wearing a full body stocking with an enormous fake nob! (titter)
- a six foot two black man with a beard wearing a Wonder Woman outfit (double take and then some)
- more Darth Vader and Stormtoopers than you can poke a lightsaber at
- and a personal highlight - enough sailors to swab the deck of an aircraft carrier