Hello folks. Just wanted to let you all know that I’m in the process
of moving to another hosting company, so expect some strange stuff in
the next couple of hours as the name server changes are made, the DNS
is propagated etc. I haven’t installed MT on my new host and I have to
do that manually now using FTP via Telnet because my uni’s proxy does
not allow straight FTP access to off-campus addresses. I have to start
a Telnet session to a Unix box to FTP out. Thus, I’ll have to do a lot
of mkdir, lcd, cd, ASCII, binary, mput and other fun things like
recreating the convulated directory structure of MT tonight. Wish me
luck, installing Movable Type manually using a Telnet account is not
fun at all. 🙂
Revelation 6:12-17
The old layout
I’ve did some modifications to the Cascading Style Sheet tonight for
a slightly new layout. Once you get the hang of CSS it’s not that hard
to fiddle around with, it’s just another scripting language. Anyway,
I’ve tested it against 800×600 resolutions and it works. That’s the
lowest it’ll go though, so my apologies to people who are using lower
resolutions like 640×480. Supporting that resolution would limit me to
only 300×225 pictures and sometimes I want 450×338 pictures to
highlight certain events.
Anyway, I also did some color scheme changes for a more coherent design as advised by my helpful image consultant
[blogspot.com]. 🙂 The most visible change is the new banner above.
I’ve always wanted to have a banner or logo of some sort, and this one
goes back to the roots of the domain. When I bought this domain, it was
meant to reflect this passage in the scripture:
And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there
was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair,
and the moon became as blood;
And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind.
And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.
And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and
the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every
free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains;
And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the
face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb:
For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?
Revelation 6:12-17
I had some stock photos of reddish moons during sunsets on polluted
days, but what I finally settled for is something more common. The
banner is actually a picture I took yesterday night. It was taken
without flash and it’s a view of the road leading into the Operations
Office. You can see some trees and cars on the left, that’s the Farrer
Hall carpark. I used a Nikon 885 and the digicam is naturally very
enthusiastic about red colors so that’s why it came out with such a
reddish tint when taken without flash.
The original, unmodified picture taken @ 3 am 21/03/2003
I simply resized it without constraining the proportions, thus
squashing and stretching it and I liked the effect, so that’s my banner
from now on. I did not do any post production of any kind to the
original picture. I find that it fits the original sixthseal.com
significance, in that it nicely goes with the passage in the scripture
describing the sixth seal of the scroll judgments in Revelation. Going
back design wise to the essence of the domain is fitting, since
sixthseal.com’s first birthday is coming up. 🙂
Anyway, I’ll appreciate it if everyone could tell me their opinions
regarding this layout. Are there any errors or glitches when you view
the page? What do you think of the design? Love it? Hate it?
Indifferent? Comments and criticism regarding the layout will be very
much appreciated in the comments box. 🙂
Can’t say it’s not eye-catching
P/S – The new POTD is submitted by veritas
[mailto:]. He feels that the previous one with the mummified possum is
slightly repulsive and he has given me a photo he took which he feels
will be much more appealing than the previous POTD. 🙂
Olive me
I just received those mini-sticker prints from my girlfriend though the mail! 🙂
Here’s a glimpse into my personal life:
Left -> Right
Richard (my gf’s bro), Alice (Richard’s gf), Louisa (my gf), Shu Yee (Alice’s friend)
You can guess the cast from the list above.
The pics are small because I could only make the pics quadruple the
original size before the scan quality degrades. The source was a small
photo sticker.
You took the best so why not take the rest?
Why not take all of me?
– NOFX’s Olive Me
I love you Louisa! 🙂
On another note, war in Iraq has started and Iraq retaliated by
firing missiles at Kuwait. Kuwait??? Why Kuwait? I wonder how Saddam
Hussein’s mind works. I thought with his anti-Zionist tendencies, we
would have fired at Israel. Don’t get me wrong, I have absolutely
nothing against Israel or Jews, just speculating why he fired at Kuwait
instead of Israel. Scuds can reach Israel as seen in the first Gulf
War. Perhaps he’s scared of fierce retaliation? I’m still scratching my
head…someone help me out here. Or does Saddam have something personal
against Kuwait?
For the record, I think US is a dangerous bully and Bush is a loose
cannon. Why isn’t anybody doing anything other then vocally
“condemning” the strikes? AFAIK actively seeking to assassinate the
leader of another country violates international law. They didn’t even
get UN backing. Oh well, might makes right.
Sidekick Cranberry Flavor Schnapps
Disclaimer: This post and all other drug related posts is made by veritas, who is a guest author on this blog. The owner of this domain is not responsible for the posts made by any guest authors.
The weekend has landed! Ouch! My left nostril is burning like hell.
I’m going to seriously reconsider snorting the 5 mg dexamphetamine
tablets. Those fillers and binders must be doing some damage to my
nose. Anyway, I’ve just been chilling out today, taking a couple of
clonazepam (Klonopin) and diazepam (Valium) tablets and having a couple
of beers and some of this sweet and nicely packaged schnapps.
It’s called Sidekick Cranberry Flavor Schnapps and it comes in a 4
pack which costs A$3.29. Pretty good price, and the design looks so
nifty I just had to get a pack of those. They have other flavors as
well, but the cranberry one sounds the best to me. Anyway, each of the
Sidekick schnapps looks like a shot glass with an extra long bottom.
It’s 30 ml and 20% Alc/Vol which makes it 0.5 standard drinks each. It
tastes really good.
I finished all of them in a couple of minutes. They just tasted too
good…had a couple of beers with my buddies and smoked a couple of bowls
of weed and popped a couple of benzos, which leads to the dex. Doing
all the downers made me a bit sleepy, so I wanted to perk myself up. My
poor left nostril, it’s still burning. Seriously, I’ll think very hard
before I insufflate so much binder and filler into my nose again. Ouch…
Oh, and drugs are bad mmmkay…even prescription drugs. 😉
I think I’m pissed but I just don’t know it yet coz I’m on CNS stimulants and CNS depressants at the same time. I feel…weird. =D
Ooh…I’m eligable to get 100 0.5 mg dexamphetamine tablets again in
7 days. For my ‘narcolepsy’ you see. That terrible, terrible
affliction…my ‘excessive daytime sleepiness’ is affecting my studies.
😉
P/S – No offence intended to genuine sufferers of narcolepsy. I apologize if I tend to come across as proudly drawing attention to my exploits
[sixthseal.com]. I don’t agree with Dave’s idealistic views on
prescription medications (there will always be doctor shoppers and
scripters and medical professionals are trained to pick them out, and
that’s still not going into what constitutes someone who’s truly in
need) but I agree with what he said about me. 🙂 I do get
overenthusiastic at times and writing gives me pleasure. I applaud his
moral stance regarding prescription drugs but unfortunately, I don’t
share the same view. What do you think? Do I subconsciously glorify
drug culture and use?
Magnum “The Sixties Nine” #9 – Choc Work Orange
This is the last one in “The Sixties Nine” series. Choc Work Orange is based on the movie A Clockwork Orange
[imdb.com]. Boy, do I remember that movie. I watched the DVD for the
first time last year during one of my worst depressive episodes. I was
in the midst of a terrible depression with panic attacks and didn’t
even feel like doing anything. Slept most of the day away and didn’t
even want to do anything but forced myself to watch Band of Brothers
and Clockwork Orange while I tried to swallow the food I shovel food
into my mouth every night. The smell of lavender was somehow associated
to that period of depression too. That’s why I can’t stand all three of
those things anymore. I’m not talking about the “Damn…am I bummed today
or what” kind of depression but the crying-with-no-provocation,
suicidal thoughts, feeling of total helplessness and terrible
isolation, sleeping 18 hours a day and lying in bed for the remaining 6
hours kind. The serotonin imbalance kind of depression.
I wouldn’t wish that on my worst enemy. 🙂 Dark, dark days indeed. I
feared I would feel that way for the rest of my life! Good thing that I
didn’t get serotonin syndrome and my serotonin and dopamine
neurotransmitters were not permanently damaged and I was right as rain
again in 3 weeks. That was the crash from hell indeed. Worst ever. My,
how I’ve digressed. Anyway, if you haven’t watched this movie I would
seriously urge you to watch it. I was surprised they could get away
with those things 1970s films. Yes, the film was made in 1971 so I’m
scratching my head over how it got into “The Sixties Nine”. Lots of
graphic violence and rape and I still can’t get the image of Alex’s
eyes being forced open by metal clips while he’s made to watch
“corrective films”. That sucks…what a nasty flashback that brought me.
I’m pretty much desensitized to violence, and I don’t know whether it
was the way I was already feeling when I watched it or otherwise, but
this film seriously disturbed me. Anyway, I didn’t find the ice cream
that good coz I don’t like orange flavored stuff, except in orange
juice. It’s chocolate ice cream with an orange shell, but I swear the
ice cream must have had an orange flavor as well coz it was pretty
strong. Too…orangy for me, but if you like orange flavors this will be
good for you.
This is the cover:
Orange theme with Choc Work Orange on it.
This is the back:
It has the R for Restricted film classification logo and then this:
Should the orange chocolate be seen? Should the chocolate ice cream be
made public? While the controversy rages on, this remains a cult
classic. Don’t blink or you’ll miss it.
This is the Magnum:
As you can see, it’s pretty mutilated. 🙂 I bought it at a Star Mart
and forgot about it for an hour and half. Thus, it was partially melted
and kinda broken. The shell was supposed to look orange and the ice
cream brown.
This is the stick:
One Blink And It Was Gone.
That’s the last one. 🙂 To be honest, it’s too cold to be eating ice
creams today. I’ve eaten all 9 of them, I didn’t keep the wrappers but
I kept the sticks to mail off for their T-shirt offer. You get a
T-shirt for A$6.10 if you mail in all 9 sticks. It will take 28 days to
arrive but I’ll post it up when I get it. 9 ice creams in 5 days…that’s
more than I’ll usually eat in half a year! I hope I don’t turn into a
tub of lard like teddybwear [blogspot.com] said I would. =D
The world is as crazy as a clockwork orange.
Law toilet graffiti
Just finished my tutorial. Posting this from the labs. I had an
early lecture today at Clayton. It was in one of the Law Faculty
lecture theatres and I was amazed to see that they have “waiting rooms”
in front of the lecture theatres. We do have something like that in the
Block B lecture theatres, but nothing on this scale. They had heaps of
seats and some of them are comfy ones like sofas. The lecture theatres
were in a semi-circle around the lecturer podium, quite a different
arrangement compared to other lecture theatres which are more like
movie theatres. Anyway, I found a bit of nice graffiti in the first
floor law building toilet:
The speech bubble goes: “Hello, I’m dead. I was killed by boredom during a Torts lecture.”
The small thought bubble coming up of the guy popping up on top goes: “THE HORROR!”
The sides has TOO KOOL FOR SKOOL
The main feature is a light bulb (?) ending with a screw and sporting shades. There is a crossbones design at the back.
Well, the US has already dropped several bombs on the southern
no-fly zone, in the northwest, command and control sites and a missile
launcher. However, this is not considered the real attack. So what is
this then? A pre-emptive strike?
Magnum “The Sixties Nine” #8 – John Lemon
Imagine all the people…this is John Lemon, a play on John Lennon
[lennonworld.com]. This Magnum isn’t ice cream, but sherbet! It’s
really good, if you like sherbet. Very…thirst quenching. 🙂 It’s
finally going to cool down to 8 degrees Celsius – 14 degrees Celsius
tomorrow. It was still pushing the low 30s today, but the strong winds
made things better. It sure kicked up a whole lot of sand though, it
was dusty all around Clayton. It reminded me of a scene from Dune or
Iraq. 🙂 Not sure if that’s sand, smog or smoke though.
This is the cover:
A yellow wrapper with two lemons slices made to look like his trademark glasses. Simple but effective design.
This is the back:
We lay in bed until we created this ice cream. Imagine all the zesty
lemon sherbet living life in peaceful white chocolate. Just try letting
that be.
This is the Magnum:
Lemon sherbet encased in a white chocolate shell. Nice.
This is the stick:
Imagine If You’d Eaten It In Bed
One last one to go. 🙂 Well, that’s it from me today. I’m turning in early coz I gotta wake up early tomorrow.
Link of the Day: Actiq Oral Transmucosal Fentanyl Citrate [actiq.com]
Mmm…fentanyl lollipops…;)
Listerine Cool Mint PocketPaks
The front of the package
I’ve seen these things around for a couple of months now but it
never was stocked in large groceries until recently. This is Listerine
Cool Mint PocketPaks, sold as “oral care strips” but works like breath
freshener. Consuming something with a Listerine brand might seem
unpalatable, but these things are actually really good. You’re supposed
to dissolve one strip in your mouth and add another one “for an added
burst of flavor” if you want.
The back of the package
The strips looks fairly thick, but they dissolve quickly and easily.
The cashier at Coles asked me whether I’ve had them before and what
they taste like. Well, it doesn’t taste unpleasant, au contraire, it
tastes absolutely fabulous. I told her it tastes like really strong
mints, which is true, but it also has that Listerine effect where you
get a rush of tingly fresh air when you inhale.
Listerine PocketPak still in wrap
I like to take 3 of them in quick succession, I feel that is the
best way to do it. It actually makes you tongue tingle slightly and the
best thing about these things is it’s really small. The PocketPak is
about the size of a SD/MMC card. Or a postage stamp if you’re not
familiar with the size of those things. Great stuff. Mmm…tingly…
Listerine PocketPak with one of the strips showing
Magnum “The Sixties Nine” #7 – Cinnaman on the Moon
I nearly ate a rotten egg today! Well, I was going to boil two eggs
(I prefer them fried but that produces too much stuff to wash) to go
with the Indomie I’m having for dinner. I was holding them under the
tap for quite a while since one of them had bits of excrement on it.
Anyway, good thing I did that, coz I caught cracks in one of the eggs.
If I had just boiled them anyway, I would not have caught them until I
ate it. I’m just that blur. Ugh…just thinking about it…haha! It really
was rotten coz I opened it to check. Cracked it over the sink to check
the status. It left a stain in the sink too. It was that rotten.
Anyway, this one is for Vivien [blogspot.com] – Cinnaman on the Moon. Man landed on the moon
[nasm.si.edu] in 1969. As for the Magnum, it was just toooo plain. Even
vanilla ice cream tastes sweeter than this white chocolate ice cream.
It’s even worse than the normal Magnums coz the normal ones has a
chocolate shell at least. Cinnaman on the Moon just has a cinnamon
flavored shell. There wasn’t much cinnamon too, so the taste wasn’t
strong at all. It would have been much better if it had cinnamon ice
cream or there was more cinnamon in the shell. As it currently is, it’s
the worst one in the batch so far. Simply mediocre. 🙂
This is the cover:
Moon craters in a dark blue foreground and Cinnaman on the Moon written. The “man” in “cinnaman” is underlined.
This is the back:
Houston – we have an ice cream. A cinnamon chocolate with white
chocolate ice cream has been launched. That’s one small step for
Magnum, one giant lick for ice cream.
This is the Magnum:
The shell is cinnamon spiced chocolate. You can see the cinnamon
spice flecks embedded in the shell if you squint a bit. The ice cream
is white chocolate ice cream. It’s not sweet at all for some reason.
This is the stick:
Feelin’ Spacey?
It’s just too plain to compare with the others. It would have been better if it was sweet at least.
Well, it’s probably less than 48 hours till the US invasion of Iraq.
Who thinks they’ll attack as soon as the deadline is over? I’m thinking
either Thursday or Saturday, not Friday.
Magnum “The Sixties Nine” #6 – Guava Lamp
I had my first GSC2714 Alcohol and Drug Use lecture today.
Interesting stuff, going into epidemiology today. What’s that got to do
with Guava Lamp? Er…nothing, except the fact that lava lamps
[lavaworld.com] are usually bought by stoners. This Magnum is shaped
like a lava lamp blob, a strange asymmetrical ice cream. There are
sections of guava ice cream mixed into vanilla ice cream, and the guava
ice cream chunks were great!
This is the cover:
Green lava lamp blobs and the words “Guava lamp”.
This is the back:
Switch on the ultimate mood enhancer – chillin’ guava blobbing in
vanilla ice cream and embraced in groovy white chocolate. Yeah baby,
now we’re in the mood!
This is the Magnum:
The shell is white chocolate colored green. There are large bits of
guava ice cream together with vanilla ice cream inside. It’s not all
it’s cracked up to be. Haha! Nah, I just wanted to say that coz I
dropped the Magnum so it’s a bit cracked. It’s good, it’s good.
This is the stick:
Bet You’d Lava-nother One.
Nice, on a hot autumn’s day. Yeah, it’s supposed to be autumn now but there are still hot days.
