I’m taking the 11:50 pm flight back to Sibu later. Damn, cleaning up
my room sure takes a lot of time. I had stuff lying around from the
beginning of the semester! Heaps of trash to throw out, prompting a
neighbor to question whether everyone takes out the trash on Sunday
after seeing all the bins full. I have already taken out 8 bags of
trash and I’m still not done. I’m suffocating from all the dust I
kicked up while packing. 3 months worth of dust… Oh well, at least
I’m going back for a month for my winter holidays. Goodie.
Mum’s the word
Headed down to Chadstone today to get some stuff to bring home. Since I
was there I also caught the 3pm screening of Spider-Man. Very nice indeed.
Tobey Maguire is perfect as Peter Parker and Kirsten Dunst looks as
delicious as ever. I like Willem Dafoe too, he was great in The Boondock
Saints. Anyway, I saw that Mum’s the Word is showing at Alexander Theatre
on my way back from the bus loop, and since that’s just a 5 minute walk
away from halls, I decided to go without
knowing what the production is about. A quick call to the box office
revealed that they still have front row seats. The fact that I’m going
alone does make getting good seats easier. I felt that I didn’t fit in the
target demographic though, as the crowd mostly comprised of 40-something
women. Hmm.. The show started at 8 pm and I was bored to tears in the
first part. The show was about a group of 6 moms talking about their
experiences. I had a good mind to walk out during the 20 minute interval
but decided to keep an open mind and stay for the whole show. There was
the new mom which opened the show with a very graphic depiction of
childbirth. There was also a new age mom, a feminist mom, a 20-something
mom, a jaded mom and a mom with a sick child. The lights went out about
halfway thru the production and the cast did a very impressive ad hoc
adaptation of the script. The cast of this season is not the same as the
brochure though, today’s cast seem to be younger, and one looks to be in
the early twenties. Photography is “strictly forbidden” but I did get a
photo of the set before one of the ushers informed me. Anyway, the second
half was more interesting, there was even a full nudity scene, but it’s
funny instead of explicit. The scene was about how the 20-something mom’s
baby boy ran away while she’s in the changing room and she charged out
buck naked and ran across the stage, giving the audience an eyefull. Heh.
All in all, it’s a solid performance by the cast, but I wasn’t interested
in the subject matter so I’ll be lying if I said I enjoyed it.
Nevertheless, it was an interesting two hours. I like live theatre
productions, and there are some good parts in this one like the Fabio in
the park scene, the banana scene and the hubby not getting any scene.
The photo of the stage before the performance started.
The brochure front (Click for a bigger picture)
The brochure back (Click for a bigger picture)
Edit: Large pictures have been removed.
Let my angels sing
Went to the Melbourne
Indoor Pistol Club [mipc.com.au] today. It’s near the Newmarket train
station in Flemington. The building is actually an indoor rock climbing
place and a shooting range combined into one. They’re also an authorized
dealer for H&K handguns. After a quick registration and handing my
passport over to the counter (security reasons) I was off to the briefing.
I got to use the
Heckler and Koch USP 45 [hecklerkoch-usa.com], the
Beretta 92D 9mm [beretta.com] and a silvery .357 caliber revolver. I was surprised
at the weight of the handguns. I wasn’t expecting it to be that heavy. The
bullets are live bullets so the recoil was pretty strong. The first time I
fired the 9mm, I was puzzled by the strong recoil and the loud report.
There I was, thinking that the 9mm is a kiddy gun, but it’s pretty
powerful too. I know that guns can kill people, but it never really
registered until I fired a real gun with live ammo. You do feel respect
for the weapon after that. I do have some OCD tendencies sometimes, and I
had this disturbing URGE to put my hand in front of the muzzle. Good thing
I kept it under check or I would have blown my hand off. Heh. Looking at
the target, I wasn’t really accurate with the Beretta. Of course, it’s not
an accurate gun in the first place, but I must have overcompensated for
the recoil coz the shots were off center. The bullet ejection system is
pretty impressive. It comes out from the side chamber, and when the
bullets run out, the handgun does ‘reset’ and the muzzle is slightly
detached from the main chamber. Interesting. The .357 has an even harder
recoil. It’s one of those revolvers that rich old men use in movies. This
one was accurate, most of my shots hit the center of the target. The fact
that I started tapping the trigger instead of squeezing it (which skews
the bullet trajectory) might have helped too. My favorite gun is the H&K
USP though. It’s also one of the guns in Counter-Strike if I’m not
mistaken. Plus it’s a .45, and I’ve always wanted to fire one of those. It
looks pretty impressive, aggressive profile and nice weight. The front
sighting stump is easier to align with the back groove in this model too.
I also liked the hefty recoil. You get the feeling that this gun means
business when you use it. Very nice. It seems easy to get a handgun
license here, but unfortunately I’m not a permanent resident so I can’t
apply for one. Bummer. I would love to have that H&K.
All pictures are clickable to bring up a larger picture.
Taken thru the blurring window from the viewing area. Cheers Jimmy.
Another pic thru the window. The target is 7 meters away. Don’t laugh.
It’s supposed to simulate a “real life situation”.
Now follow as we ride…
The Beretta 92D 9mm
Making you an offer that you can’t refuse…
The .357 revolver
Keepin’ it real, thug style
The H&K USP .45. It would have worked better if I didn’t have a slight
smile from the previous photo.
I realize I will look pretty damn stupid if someone rips those photos and
starts forwarding them with “Fwd: Look at this wannabe gangsta HAHAHA” but
then, everything looks stupid when taken out of context. Oh well, by
posting it on the net I have lost my right to complain anyway. =D It was pretty fun
to think up captions though. Most of them are snippets of Tupac’s lyrics.
The scoreboard:
The big tears are made by the 9mm bullets, the star shaped holes are done
with the .45 and the compact round holes are .357s.
Pepsi Twist and Diet Coke with Lemon Flavor
I went to the city today to sort out the Flemington shooting range
booking. I’m going tomorrow afternoon at 2 pm straight after my last
exam. Will be keepin’ it real G style and post some photos tomorrow to
boot. 😉 Anyway, you know how Pepsi came out with Pepsi Twist? It’s
normal Pepsi with a slight lemon taste. It’s only available in KFC for
the time being. Well, I was grocery shopping at Coles the other day and
saw that Coke has something similar. I don’t know which one came out
first, but here’s the Coke version:
Diet Coke with Lemon flavor
I prefer the Coke version. Pepsi tastes too sweet to be thirst quenching
unless its watered down with ice cubes. Diet coke is my drink of choice.
Anyway, I’ve noticed that the KFC chicken here are absolutely miniscule.
The drumsticks are half the size of the Malaysian counterpart, if that.
It’s only slightly bigger than the Ayamas frozen mini drumsticks. While
having 3 pieces of chicken will make me feel bloated in KFC Malaysia, here
it just made me feel slightly full. And that’s the ultimate 3 piece meal
with the Picnic bar, bun, fries and mashed potatoes.
KFC’s The Ultimate 3-piece Meal
Well, I took a lot of pictures while I was in the city today. I’ve been
getting the dreaded “System Error” that plagues most Nikon digicams. I
figured out that it only happens when the zoom lens have not been
retracted properly for some reason. The remedy is to manually push (not
too hard) on the zoom lens, so that it is ‘docked’ again. You shouldn’t
touch the actual lens with your fingers, just apply pressure on the side
if you have this problem. Anyway, I’ve been doing a bit of gadget shopping
too. I went the the really cheap computer hardware place opposite
Melbourne Central. Picked up a
Canon CanoScan N670U for A$170 and a
Surecom self powered 4-Port USB Hub EP-1004P for A$45. I saw this
Wacom tablet going for slightly over A$100. I don’t draw, but I felt a
nearly uncontrollable compulsion to buy it. Just because. Good thing I
walked out of the store before I did. Heh. I did notice that the first
thing that the Quick Start booklet of the scanner says is “Scanning of
certain documents, such as bank notes (snip) may be prohibited by law and
may result in criminal and/or civil liability”. Oh? I had already scanned
a crinkly 50 dollar bill and was about to post it with some quip about
printing it but on second thought, that might not be a good idea.
Anyway, here’s a complement to yesterday’s POTD. I found this today while walking
to the bus loop.
Rumble of the Peters: A 3-Way, all out, no holds barred, “no need
to keep the dinner warm honey, coz I ain’t coming back” cage match.
Peter the Possum
Generally regarded as the crowd favorite, this little critter can run fast
and has pretty sharp claws to boot.
Peter the Possum Man
Not much is known about this bloke, but I hear he catches possums for a
living.
Peter the Speed Racer
Because of the speed his vehicle is capable of, there are no known
photographs of this menace to the roads. Question mark picture taken from
CRpuzzles [crpuzzles.com].
The result:
Peter the Speed Racer Wins! (with a total knock out)
Power bars that cost more than a meal
Today’s exam was pretty easy, which is good. I woke up at 11 am and didn’t
have time to eat lunch so I just grabbed a couple of power bars and a coke
from the Nature Pantry in the campus center. It’s on the way to the bus
loop. The creatine one tasted pretty good. I feel like I’m growing
already. Heh. The protein bar one is called Nitro-120 and supposedly
contains 40 grams of protein, 3.8 grams of glutamine and 10 grams of
glycerol. After eating it, I saw the label said Warning: Due to high
potency consume with plenty of fluid over a period of two days. Half a bar
before or after training. Not suitable for children under 15 years or
pregnant women. Now you tell me. Oh well, I’ve got another exam tomorrow.
Wish me luck.
Slippage
Not a good day, today. Took the 8:30 am shuttle to Caulfield and got
a pastry and a coffee and a large chocolate milk to eat while walking
to the racecourse. I was balancing the latte on the plastic plate that
comes with the pastry. Unfortunately my skillz were not up to par and I
ended up spilling half the latte all over my shirt. Grr…had to go to
the toilet to clean up and I could smell coffee all day long. Oh well,
at least it woke me up. The first exam was went okay. Systems Design,
I’m repeating it (keep your comments to yourself) and it’s a core
subject so that’s good. Didn’t have enough time to do the business
class diagram well, but that’s okay coz I think I did pretty good on
the other parts. My “pretty good” might not be Martin’s “pretty good”
though. Heh. Martin is my lecturer for this subject. Anyway, I had a 2
hour break in the middle, so I got a burger from the plaza and went to
the labs to read up on Unix. I read all the past exam papers and the
lecture notes. I didn’t have time to read the Week 12 tutorial
exercises though, which, as I would learn later, was a Grave ErrorTM.
About this time, I felt a disturbing trickle of warm liquid down the
back of my pants. I already knew what was up without having to look
into my bag. The chocolate milk that I got this morning and drank only
a bit from lay spilt at the bottom of my bag. A little quick math
reveals the amount of liquid that has been displaced from the bottle
into my bag. 600 ml (bottle capacity) – 100 ml (amount drank in the
morning) = 500 ml of chocolaty goodness. My books were soaked and so
were my pants. I went into the Winner’s Circle feeling very decidedly
un-winner like. The Unix Programming assignment can be summed up in one
word. Hard. Upon coming out, I was told that all the questions were
based on the Week 12 tutorial solutions, which I didn’t read. There was
even a 20 mark question that can be done in one line of code. One
measly line of code that was in the Week 12 tutorial exercises which I
neglected to read. One miserable line of code to grant me a “Get out of
Fail free” card. One wretched (I’m using the inbuilt thesaurus here)
line of code that is worth 20 marks. I’m going to print out the Week 12
tutorial solutions and eat it for revenge. To top it off, I tried the
balancing act again with two seafood baskets and a hot cocoa from
slops. When I opened the door to my room, the plates tilted and the cup
of cocoa started to slide. One of my hand was on the door knob and the
other was holding the plates with the sliding cup which dropped and
spilled all over my floor. It was either that or drop my two seafood
platters. Guess which one I chose?
Finals
Exams exams exams. I have two papers on Monday so I’ll have to miss
out on some sleep tonight so I can sleep early tomorrow. Need to get in
bed by 11 pm so I can wake up at 7 am and take a shower and pay my rent
and then catch the 8:30 shuttle to Caulfield Racecourse. Last exam I
got a really good seat. Right in front where you can see out into the
race course. It gives me just that little bit of inspiration. Heh. I’ve
got a paper from 9:30 – 12:30 and another one from 2:30 – 5:30. Not
exactly the best arrangement considering both of the papers are really
important. Oh well. Wish me luck people.
Yun Yun
I didn’t sleep last night to do a bit of revision and finish up my
assignment. Wanted to pass it to my lecturer early morning and then come
back to get some sleep before Spit Day. Things didn’t go exactly as
planned though, I got home at around 10:30 am and only went to bed
sometime before 12 pm. When I awoke again it was dark and looking at my
clock I saw it was already 8 pm. By the time I got to the mound, there
were only scraps of meat left and all the beer and Strongbow was gone.
Bummer. Anyway, I walked to the middle way place between Pinewood and
halls (don’t know what that place is called) to try that Chinese take away
place that I’ve never been to. At the lights before I crossed the road, I
saw this funny fender bender happen. The first car wanted to run the red
lights but changed his mind at the last minute and screeched to stop
slightly past the line. There was another car behind it (about 25 meters
or more) that stepped on the brakes too. She must be going pretty fast coz
that 25 meters wasn’t enough to stop her car. She slammed into the back of
the first car. 25 meters! I wonder how fast she was traveling. I think
they knew each other coz they didn’t even bother to get out of the car and
just drove away together.
Anyway, back to the take away place. It’s called Yun Yun and it has a very
old skool feel too it. It’s like it dropped straight out of the 1970s. I
like it though, it reminds me of this restaurant back home that has the
same decor. I felt like I was in 1970s China. Heh. It closes pretty early,
at 9 pm and thus there were no other customers inside when I went there at
around 8:57. I looked at my watch, that’s why I had the time down. There
were a couple of tables and benches inside so it’s not strictly a take
away place. It even had a dentist style waiting bench, complete with old
issues of magazines that nobody reads. Anyway, I had the sweet and sour
pork in batter (A$8) and a special fried rice (A$6). I like sweet and sour
pork, I had this a lot when I was younger so that must be why I always get
this inexplicable craving for it. The sweet and sour sauce was very nice,
not too sweet and not too sour as well. Pretty generous portions, it comes
in the standard takeaway rectangle boxes most Chinese food places here
use. The special fried rice comes with a lot of BBQ pork slices (char siew)
and chicken pieces. It also contains bean sprouts (!) my most hated
vegetable, so you should get the cook to hold the sprouts if you go there.
The brochure I got said that it has new management now, it’s now run by a
Colin and Anne Lew. The cook and cashier are both around 60 years old,
which adds to the 70s feel of the place. I like the fried rice, it has a
very
umami [glutamate.org] taste so I’ll be going back for more when I’m
craving for Chinese food.
Dentist bench for your waiting pleasure.
The tables. Complete with a slippery vinyl table cloth.
Old skool air conditioner in the upper right consolidates the 70s feel.
The cashier desk.
A peek into the kitchen.
Spyder
Today is the last day of the semester. I’m going to catch the 8 am
shuttle to Caulfield and then hand in my assignment. After that, I’ll
have to see some of my lecturers and tutors and then get back and get
some sleep before Spit Day starts. Note to self: Remember to return the
overdue library book. Anyway, Spit Day is a Roberts Hall event that
marks the last day of the semester. Otherwise known as the Festival of
the Mound, there will be BBQs and some drinking on the mound, which is
a small hill in the central courtyard of Roberts Hall. On another note,
I saw someone trying to kill a spider with a keychain today. I was
walking up the stairs when I saw this girl trying to hit something on
the ceiling. Responding to my quizzical looks, she told me that there’s
a spider, pointing to the area above my head. Now this disturbed me
greatly, because I don’t like spiders. I have arachnophobia due to an
unfortunate incident when I was 7 years old, which involved a bathroom,
a large spider and running out of the bathroom naked. Anyway, back to
the spider incident, I was trying hard to remain nonchalant but my
steps instinctively become rather hurried while I hunched my shoulders
stiffly and prayed that the spider won’t suddenly decide to drop down
my neck. After reaching my floor safely I looked down and saw a spider
about the size of my palm crouching on the ceiling. Phew. I think I
would have produced a very unmanly noise if the spider really did jump
on me.
Chihuahua
I was feeling thirsty on my way to the campus so I got a bottle of
mineral water from the dodgy vending machine at Huntingdale Station.
Anyway, I wanted to drink plain water so I got disgruntled when nothing
came out after I pressed the spring water choice. I pressed it again
and lo and behold, two bottles came out instead of one. Sometimes this
happens, especially when the bottles are small. Good then, I was really
thirsty. Saw a little girl on the train today with her pet chihuahua.
She was letting the dog run loose all over the carriage and was talking
to it and everything. Very cute. The girl was about 10 years old so I’m
wondering why she’s using the train alone at night. Today is my last 8
pm – 10 pm lecture. I’m not a big fan of that time slot coz by the time
I get back it’ll be 11 pm and thus half the night is gone. OK, enough
rambling, I’m going to go to sleep now and wake up earlier tomorrow to
study. Waking up at 12 pm is considered early for me since I’ve taken
the trouble to schedule most of my tutes in the afternoon. Oh, and
drinking OJ and coffee together is really something. I think my bowels
are crying now.
