February 2003 – Page 2 – sixthseal.com

Mysterious Mysteries

February 18, 2003 by HB

Look! A mysterious alley!

I spent most of the day in uni today. I went in the morning to meet
up with my group mates. We were supposed to get together and practice
for a presentation at 2:30 pm. At least, everyone in the group thought
it was 2:30 pm. After careful perusal of the IE website, it was
discovered that the time we were meant to do the presentation was 4 pm!
This of course led to much grumbling over lost sleep. 🙂 A good deal of
finger pointing was made, but we could not isolate the person who
started the “2:30 pm” meme.

Anyway, we ended up spending most of the time fixing some minor
issues with the code anyway. It was 3:30 pm before we all went to have
lunch at Pot Luck and I think I’m feeling slightly uncomfortable
because I can’t actually eat very fast without indigestion. The
presentation went okay, and I just got back from campus because we had
to install our code into the actual server after that.

Well, I didn’t feel like eating anything for dinner, so I picked up
a box of Coco Pops. Kellogg’s always has some kind of promotion going
on with their cereals. A couple of weeks ago they were attaching the
full version of Age of Empires (the first one) to one of their cereals.
I didn’t get it though because it was one of the unholy “healthy”
cereals. I think it was Chex or something. I only go for the good stuff
like Froot Loops and Coco Pops. 🙂

Anyway, the 3 inch CD inside the Coco Pops box had a game called
“Raging River Rapids” (gotta love alliteration) which features Coco the
monkey trying to navigate a river with three logs strung together. The
logs look strangely unappetizing and conjured up images of a non-food
nature. There was also a comic, wallpapers, cursors etc. The standard
Flash stuff.

Oh, and that alley is the one beside the Huntingdale train station.
I liked the play of light and shadows…nah, I’m being pretentious. I was
just attracted by the pretty colors of the masonry to the left of the
alley. Man, I’m talking so much shit today.

“Oi, Amoy!”

February 17, 2003 by HB

Amoy. It sounds like the generic term for young females that people
of my hometown use, particularly when summoning waitresses. 🙂 I don’t
know the origin of the term but I think it could be Hokkien. There’s
also a Foochow counterpart – ah mui yang. I’m Heng Hua, but I don’t
know what the Heng Hua equivalent is. I can understand the language but
the only phrase I know is “hiaw eh”. It’s a very versatile exclamation
that can be used for practically anything. Use it to substitute “si
lor” if you’re Hokkien and “eh siang noh” if you’re Foochow. I don’t
know many people who appreciate being called amoy though. Hiaw eh, I
have digressed far from what was meant to be a post about dinner.

Will write help files for marks

February 17, 2003 by HB

I’ve been writing the help files for the WIER project my group is doing for Industrial Experience. Here’s a snippet:

Adding Times

Adding times to the Task/Time Tracker is done by clicking on the subtask you want to add to.

The first button in the upper right hand corner is then clicked.
You’ll know you have the right button when you hover the mouse over the
button as “Log Time Under This Task” shows up.

When you click on the button, the Log A Work Session screen comes up.
Here is where you add the times and descriptions. The date can also be
changed by clicking on the Select Date link and selecting a date from
the pop up calendar.

After everything is filled in, clicking on Log Time will enter the times into the database.

Editing Tasks

The tasks should be updated periodically as the project goes on to
reflect the correct initial estimated hours and current estimated
hours. This is done by clicking on Edit This Task in the Task/Time
tracker upper right hand corner.

Clicking on the button will navigate you to the Edit a Task screen.

The Edit a Task screen is where you can update the Current and
Initial Estimated Hours. In this screen, the Current Estimated is being
updated to 50 hours instead of the original 150 hours after finding out
that the task is nearing completion and would not require as much hours
as previously estimated.

What do you think? I know I got confusing at times, but oh well…

I’ll be free-er (if there’s such a word) this Friday. The summer
subject I’m taking finishes for good on Friday 12 noon after I hand in
the last assignment. I don’t know why the assignment due date is after
the final exam but it just is. These couple of days are gonna be busy.
I’ve got to go to the Clayton labs tomorrow to work on the Neural
Networks assignment because the program we need to use is only
installed in the labs. Then we’re going to have our IE presentation on
Tuesday 2:30 pm and then we’re going to move all our code to the live
server on 5 pm on the same day and then we have a code review (also for
IE) on Wednesday 5 pm onwards till God knows when and then I’ll have
one last day to finish up my summer assignment and hand it in on Friday
12 noon. Phew, someone pass me the meth…no sleep for the wicked.

The Wild and Wacky Adventures of Chloe

February 16, 2003 by HB

I can’t open my pigeon hole without seeing some pussy. No,
seriously. Ever since I gave my name and mailing address for a free
video at SEXPO 2002
[sixthseal.com] I’ve been getting brochures, catalogues and vouchers
mailed to me. I get assaulted with words like College Cock 101, Horny
Fuck Mamas (stuffed to the brim with kinky dick, no less) and Shaved
She Males every time I open my mail. It’s a good thing they mail these
things in nondescript envelopes. They’re wasting their money though coz
I’m not interested. Now, if it was a pharmaceutical catalogue on the
other hand… 😉

“Hey mate do you have a spare dollar?”

February 15, 2003 by HB

I went to Coles to get some laundry detergent today and while I was
waiting for the bus, this girl came up to me and asked me if I had a
spare dollar. This is not uncommon over here, and I usually oblige if
they ask nicely and they look like they need it. The last time someone
asked me was this guy who surprised me late one night by saying “Sorry
to bother you, but could you please spare some change?” It was nice of
him to ask so politely, but I didn’t have any change, so I said so. He
went “Oh, that’s okay” and went to ask someone else. No one gave him
any change and I honestly felt sorry for the guy coz he looked like he
was in a bad shape, shivering and shaking. I was on my way to McDonalds
and he was still there when I came out so I approached him and gave him
the coins I got as change from my meal (about A$4). He needed it more
than me anyway, though I suspect it’s not for food. 🙂

However, I said no today even though I felt sorry for the girl. She
was drinking milk from a carton, and this always tugs at my
heartstrings ever since I saw this movie (forgot the title) about this
girl who had no money and had to survive by drinking milk from those
small packets they put beside the straws and napkins in McDonalds.
Er..yeah, it’s all jumbled up in my head. The point is, milk = cheap,
nutritious food. The reason I said no was because I haven’t eaten
anything since dinner last night (more than 24 hours ago) so I’m
feeling tired and irritable.

Now this got me thinking. Most people tend to be irritable and
become less than charitable when they’re hungry or tired. Okay, so this
isn’t the biggest revelation ever, but I’ve never noticed myself
predisposed that way before. Guess I was wrong.

A butterfly flaps its wings in China…

February 15, 2003 by HB

I didn’t think it would be possible, but it’s done. They improved on
the chunky Kit Kat bars. The bar has this 1 cm gap on the top where
there is this smooth flowing caramel. It has displaced Twix as my
favourite chocolate bar. It’s like stuffed crust pizzas for chocolate
bars! Perhaps the Pizza Hut management were having this focus group
with the Nestle management and they suddenly thought about this cool
idea – going where no man has gone before – putting good stuff into
normally banal stuff. Pizza Hut were putting sausages and cheese into
the crust of their pizzas and Nestle got around to putting caramel (!)
into the top layer of chocolate into their Kit Kat bars. Smooth flowing
caramel…Mmm…

St. Valentine

February 14, 2003 by HB

Happy Valentine’s Day, Louisa! I love you!

Pill report: White ? (Question Mark)

February 14, 2003 by HB

Disclaimer: veritas
[mailto: veritas@sixthseal.com] is a guest author and is not related to
the owner of the sixthseal.com domain. The following report deals with
substances which may be illegal in your country.

White Question Mark

Pill Logo: ?
Pill Color: White with dirty specks
Area: Melbourne
Date: February 2003
Other: The other side has a single score, the ? imprint is uneven and the pill has beveled edges.
Suspected contents: Ketamine

Scanned picture of the white Question Mark

This pill is going for A$20 instead of the usual A$35. That’s nearly
half the price of a normal pill. I didn’t expect it to be MDMA, but
since it was going for such a bargain price, I picked up two of these.
The pill has a ? logo on one side (not imprinted well) and a single
score on the other side. The pill also has beveled edges and has a hard
press. The pill is very thick too, thicker than usual pills.

Isometric view – pill is thick

I ate one and crushed the other one in an envelope. The pill isn’t
crumbly and I had to run a dog tag over the crushed pill several times
before it reached an acceptable consistency. I divided up the pill into
two lines and tried to rail it, but it was just too much powder for me
to snort comfortably in one go.

Size comparison with A$2 coin

It burns fairly badly while going up too. I’m not sure if that’s coz
of the cuts or because I didn’t crush the pill up well enough. I just
chucked it into an envelope and banged it about a bit and then ran a
dog tag over it to smoothen over the larger chunks. I did bumps over
the course of the night and it got me fairly high, but I didn’t K-hole.
The effects were felt in a couple of minutes.

The crushed pill

Anyway, I felt very significant nausea when insufflating the powder.
There was a strong psychological aversion to snorting more too, due to
the extreme nausea it causes. It made me retch several times, but after
a while it didn’t matter. Subjective effects seem to indicate ketamine.
I felt numb and dissociated and it didn’t last very long. At the peak,
I was feeling very drunk and it’s quite euphoric. It damn near put me
to sleep too, but I chugged a bottle of diet coke and was fine after
that. I was starting to return to baseline by the 2 hour mark.

It seems to be a nice ketamine pill, but I don’t have tolerance so I
can’t speak for the strength. I wished I insufflated the first pill
instead of eating it though. Personally, I think it’s a good ketamine
pill for A$20 but it’s definitely not MDMA so avoid if you’re shopping
for Ecstasy.

Tea fusion?

February 13, 2003 by HB

There is this strange strain of cannabis that’s going around lately.
I’ve gotten it twice from two different contacts. Visually, it looks
much hairier than the commercial strain, there are a lot of those light
tan colored hairs peeking out of the bud. It has an overpowering smell
of tea (!) but when you shred it, it smells like normal cannabis. This
strain is slightly more expensive than commercial but it’s worth it.
The strength is higher than average, higher than the commercial hydro
that’s widely available. The smoke is light and goes down very easily.
It seems to be a “fun” strain, light and happy high. 🙂 I felt rather
giggly and happy, and it’s not stoney like the commercial hydro I
usually get. Interesting and very recommended.

WIER

February 13, 2003 by HB

This is the Industrial Experience project my team is working on.
It’s nearing the end and the coding part is basically done, except for
some bits and pieces. The project is coded mainly using PHP (with a
tiny bit of Javascript) and it uses an Oracle database that is located
on a different campus, which requires us to be frugal in making
database calls. WIER stands for Web Industrial Experience Resources and
it’s a project management system that’s going to go live in 2 weeks.
Crunch time, baby!