Kinda interesting – Page 4

Live! Tonight! Sold Out!!

April 24, 2003 by HB

This is the condom vending machine in the male toilet of the Roberts
Hall main building. I thought that the “Sold Out!” sign pasted on it
was funny, but then I’ve been told I’m easily amused. Oh, I took a
photo of a really old bus parked at the Monash University car park (the
one beside the bus loop) on Monday.

There I was, walking around it and taking photos, amazed to see such
an antique in prime condition. I thought it was some kind of display,
and I was about to poke my head into the ajar door…until I saw a girl
peering quizzically at me from inside. The interior was furnished like
a motor home and it even had a small gas tank on the side. “Oh, sorry
to intrude, I didn’t realize you were in there”. “No worries, take as
many photos as you want”.

I can’t believe I forgot all about this, they turned out to be
really good pictures. I only remembered when I saw the thumbnails while
I was uploading the digicam photos to the hard disk. I haven’t done a
transfer since last Sunday. The bus is painted green and yellow and
white like a tram and there’s even a sign saying “FLINDERS ST STN 4” on
the top. Very authentic.

Spiky tree

April 20, 2003 by HB

I’ve started to take photos of the halls and the surrounding area
today. Here’s one of the spiky tree (I don’t know what it’s called) at
“The Mound”. The Mound is a very small hill (a bump rather) in the
common lawn area of Roberts Hall. The tree is interesting because the
leaves are long, thin and cylindrical. It’s fun to grab one of the
leaves and start smacking people around with it. 😉

[Added @ 11:27 PM]

Link: Warning over wild mushrooms [theage.com.au]

Autumn rains = mushroom season! How magical. 😉

Link: Two held after heroin seizure [theage.com.au]

Malaysia Boleh! =D

Spot the difference!

April 12, 2003 by HB

I woke up today feeling depressed for no particular reason. Just
didn’t feel like doing much, and was feeling drained from the last
couple of days. I needed a haircut really badly, so I went down to
Clayton but there was a lot of people and I didn’t feel like waiting so
I just grabbed some lunch and came back. I saw this advertisement at
the bus loop that really cheered me up though. Heh. Funny, this one.

It’s against sunlight, so it’s not a very good picture. It shows the
dad interestedly reading an “Options Trading” book as a bedtime story
while his kid looks bored

Well, went back to Clayton again later in the afternoon to get some
groceries with a friend. This was what I was talking about before.

Deli meat and cheese aisle – what can you spot that shouldn’t be there? There are 8 out of place items in the picture.

Heaps of stuff are being left at the wrong aisles and it just seems
a bit disorganized. Anyway, I got some bananas so all would be good
tomorrow. Heh. Placebo or not, it tastes good anyway. Actually, I’m
feeling okay now, just had an introspective moment last night and it
gave me a lot to ponder about life, the universe and everything. Don’t
ask. 😉

T-Shirt (Powered by: C10H15N)

April 6, 2003 by HB

Front of the T-Shirt

Back of the T-Shirt

Okay, I’ve been getting into fooling around with Photoshop during my
breaks. I’m currently working on one of my 4000 word assignments now
and fleshed this out during a 15 minute break. I’m was thinking about
this during the character design requests for The Kollective [sixthseal.com] manga (which will be drawn in late June by Daniel
[geocities.com], the aspiring manga creator ;)) a couple of posts back
and I’m planning to get this printed into a real t-shirt. I like how it
came out, it reflects my interests and it’s subtle enough to not mean
anything to people not into the scene (and thus not attracting unwanted
attention) and yet gets the point across with an obscure reference
(which rewards people in the scene by ‘getting’ the reference and other
people for having the intellectual threshold to grasp the reference in
principal). What does everyone think? Should the back design be on the
front? I’m thinking this is better to get more ‘views’. Putting the
back design on the front is counter-productive because most people tend
of avoid eye contact and looking at my chest is too obvious and so
people will not have the chance to read everything. Having “I’m faster
than you…” on the front is meant as a ‘hook’ to get attention. The
phrase is fast and easy to read and ideally will generate interest. If
the ‘hook’ is effective, people will turn back to see the ‘punch line’
at the back of the t-shirt, so to speak. They can then read the more
verbose back design (which also p1mps my site ;)) while my back is to
them without appearing too hostile/confrontational or obvious due to
the “eye contact factor”. Thus, more ‘views’. This is from someone
who’s a computing major and is really clueless about design and hasn’t
done any sociology and minimal psychology subjects, so I may be
speaking out of my ass here with my quasi pop-psychology, but that’s
what I’ve noticed from human behavior extrapolated to effective t-shirt
designs. 😉 The “Powered by:” idea is from the AMD/Intel slogans and
the methamphetamine molecular structure picture and chemical formula is
from Rhodium
[rhodium.ws]. Any chemistry majors out there, feel free to correct any
errors in the molecular structure or chemical formula. Also, the fonts
are going to be sharper than they appear right now. Otherwise, I’ll
like to hear about what everyone thinks. Comments please, good design
or bad design and why?

Edit: I’ve been informed by a respected chemistry degree
holder that the chemical formula does not match the molecular
structure. Now, I’m no chemistry expert and I failed even SPM level
chemistry, but I think the ASCII representation is correct, they just
don’t show the hydrogen atoms. How do I know which ones are hydrogen
atoms and what are carbon atoms? I compared it to this 3D representation
[erowid.org] and counted the white thingies manually. 😉 I’m such a
hack, I have no skillz. I found that there were 15 white thingies and
the chemical formula has a H15 so I figured those are hydrogen
molecules. Haha! Anyway, also found out that the ASCII representation
drew the carbon atoms correctly, with the nitrogen atom connection
intact. I’m using atom and molecule interchangeably here, which again
highlights my lack of chemistry knowledge. 🙂 What is strange to me is
the fact that they drew the hydrogen atom at the nitrogen bond but not
anyplace else. Hmm…why is that? To save time or is it understandable
enough already? Chemistry people out there, is the ASCII design (the
one on the t-shirt) accurate enough or do I have to add H at
every joint and ending? Anyway, I still think the ASCII one looks
better (more subtle) than the 3D representation (link above). What do
you all think?

“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.

Walk for your lives!

February 3, 2003 by HB

I remember that I used to stuff things down the overflow protection
hole in sinks when I was younger. You know, the holes that appear on
most sinks to prevent flooding when someone puts the plug in and leaves
the tap running. Anyway, when I was younger I was simply amazed by this
concept and with my vivid imagination, I thought of the hole as the
mouth of the sink, and I used to bestow offerings to it, lest it turns
into an angry sink and rampage or something. I was 13 at that time. 🙂

Well, I’ve stuffed all sorts of stuff into the hole during my youth.
Small plastic toys, the bony wing part of chicken wings, my sister’s
hairclips. Oh, and those black flat seedless prunes were a perfect fit
too. It’s a wonder my sink’s pipes never got blocked. The worst thing
was, I used to do this to other sinks too, not just my own. I remember
my grandma’s sinks received plenty of offerings in it’s time. 🙂 I got
tired of it after a while though. Rampage on, hungry sink.

(Tasteless) Joke of the Day:

Q. What does NASA stand for?
A. Need Another Seven Astronauts [cnn.com].

The Ketchup Song

January 6, 2003 by HB

I caught this meme (if you can call it that) late. I didn’t even
know what the ketchup song was until roughly 2 weeks ago. The person
who told me was flabbergasted at my lack of erudition and acted like I
had committed a serious social faux pas. 🙂 Anyway, I’ve heard bits and
pieces of it while in shopping malls but didn’t know it was the ketchup
song then. Look at this, it’s pretty good and there is a bit of
interactive stuff (erm…a mouse click) which explains the lyrics in
the middle part too.

Link: The Ketchup Song [cutestuf.com]

Scattered as fuck

December 22, 2002 by HB

Oh man I haven’t laughed this hard about something for ages. 🙂 I
was driving my car and got a cigarette out and opened my window. I
searched around my pockets for my lighter, lit the cigarette and threw the lighter out of the window
(!). It was sooooooooooo funny I had a laughing fit for 2 full minutes,
complete with tears and real belly laughs. hahaha! My friend, who
didn’t see the incident, was puzzled by my apparently unprovoked mirth.
It might not be funny to everyone, but it cracked me up to no end coz
it reminded me of the last time a similar thing happened. That was a
couple of years back, I had bought a new pack of Marlboros, got one out
and offered the pack to my companion. She took one, and threw the nearly full pack out of the window!
hahaha! That was so funny, and we had laughed so hard I nearly crashed
into a lamp post. She didn’t know what possessed her to do that, but
thought it was because her mind suddenly thought that the pack was
already empty. I didn’t know what I thought when I threw the lighter
out today, but I’m glad it happened coz I haven’t laughed so hard while
not on cannabis for a long time. It sure feels good to REALLY laugh. 🙂

BTW, I’ve noticed myself making silly mistakes like typing “I’m”
instead of “I’ve” and “anyway” instead of “anyone”. Possible brain
damage or just scattered as fuck? I wasn’t like that before.

Pssst. Lemme tell you something.

November 20, 2002 by HB

I’m going to tell you something now
It’s a great truth
It’s something you will never unlearn or forget about once you learn it
I’ve known about it for 5 years and could never stopped noticing it
It ruined my life!!!!!
(well, my movie experience anyway)
The truth is…
Do you really want to know?
You can’t go back
You will notice it everytime and can’t get it out of your mind
It’s something you cannot unlearn
The truth is:

The reason actors don’t stare straight at the camera (and thus your
TV screen) is because it was deemed too confrontational by most test
audiences. Thus, they will always be looking slightly to the side, even
in interviews.

So now you know
and you will never stop knowing
You will always notice it now.
I had not wanted to impose this blight upon you, but I just felt like it. 🙂

In other news, I got a call early this morning from the IT faculty
politely informing me that I’ve not paid my September Internet bill.
Hmm…they must be real hard up for money to charge for net access now.
It used to be free. I reckon they should give people living on campus
some allowance since we can’t get net access any other way. The way
this works is, each account is given a certain amount of data transfer,
which differs for each faculty. I’m in CSSE (School of Computer Science
and Software Engineering) but yet I only get 400 MB per month. They
charge for everything that goes over that. I got a A$54.75 bill for
September and a A$74.37 bill for October. Sucks.

Anyway, I’ve been watching this TV series called Dark Angel
[darkangelfan.com]. It’s not related to the Buffy spin-off, Angel. This
one is set in a dystopic 2019 after an EMP bomb set off by terrorists
basically changed life as we know it. The premise is good, but the
series is very formulaic:

1. Genetically engineered super soldier protagonist complete with an
Achilles heel (she gets seizures due to a neurological defect).

2. Crippled computer whiz who works wonders with everything electronic.

3. Sexual tension between the two.

4. They Fight Crime^TM and Bring Justice^TM in a post-apocalyptic world.

I still like it though. 🙂 I’ve finished watching all three seasons
of Roswell and I wanted another TV series to watch. I’ve downloaded
both seasons of Dark Angel from the network, and it seems that the
series will not have a third season from what the official site
[darkangeltheseries.com] says. It’s mildly reminiscent of the
Blaxploitation films of the past, but there is a slightly more
well-balanced ethnic cast in this one. Hey, there are even heaps of
Asians to be seen. Apparently James Cameron (the creator and executive
producer) and Ridley Scott (Blade Runner) agree that a dystopic future
must include Asian over-breeding. It’s kinda like Roswell, in that the
Asians are not given main characters, but the camera conveniently
focuses on them for a few seconds at a time to satiate the National
Association for the Advancement of Colored People’s Asian equivalent.
Well, actually this series is pretty respectful and doesn’t stereotype
Asians, so it’s all good.

gasp I can’t remember what happened between 2 am and 3 am…

October 27, 2002 by HB

Daylight savings has just started in Victoria, New South Wales, Australian Capital Territory and
Tasmania. Queensland, Northern Territory and Western Australia do not participate in daylight
savings. I thought it will start on the 28th this year, but it turned out to be the 27th. Bummer, I
just lost an hour. I suspected it when my computer clock showed 5:40 am but it was still dark
outside. Dawn usually comes at 5 am in spring. Oh well, the start of daylight savings mean we turn
our clocks forward 1 hour at 2 am to make it read 3 am. I always forget daylight savings time
though. I remember going to class one hour early when I was in Christchurch, NZ. I woke up and got
ready for school and wondered why my sister and my other housemates were still in bed. Only
realized what had happened when I went to my high school and found it all deserted and shit. It
happened to me the first time I came to Melbourne too…ended up going to class one hour late.
Heh.

Anyway, I saw this interesting thing happen in the Ampol gas station at the corner of Blackburn
Road and Ferntree Gully Road today. I was going to get some Chinese food from Yun Yun when I saw
three fire trucks pulled up at the gas station opposite with their lights flashing. At first I
thought it was a strike or something coz the trucks all had “Melbourne Fire Brigade Cost Cutting
Will Cost Lives” stickers all over the trucks. I went there to get some Diet Coke and saw four
firemen crowded around this big ass gas tank. The gas station attendant was very agitated and was
walking here and there, making phone calls and pulling up the chain to stop cars from driving in.
Turns out the the gas tank was leaking. I wish I had brought my camera along. It would be quite a
sight to see a gas station with the gas prices removed and the entrance and exits all chain up,
three fire trucks with the lights flashing and firemen crowded around the gas tank. I even thought
up a caption for it – “I don’t know what’s going on here…but I don’t want to be a part of it”.
Heh.

Link of the day: Boy band, but great music
[quantumlynx.com]

You’ve got to check this out. I don’t usually listen to music like this, but this one is pretty
good. Insightful lyrics too, especially the middle part.