Far from the Great Southern Land

Warning, fake email

2009-06-26T10:01:00.004+10:00

Lately I have been busy which is why I have not updated too much. I have just moved into a new house and that is slowly coming to look like a home now. This is in a nice place outside of the CBD yet it is still inner city in feel yet also has the appeal of being in the suburbs. Transport to the city is quite limiting which is a pain.

I am not sure if other people have received an increase in the number of emails trying to get you to give your bank details, yet i seem to average about 2-3 per month. I like the ones from banks which I have never had accounts with. The most recent one I received was from the ATO (Australian tax office). They went to such convincing efforts that I nearly bought it, yet something about the message gave it away that it was fake.

In case the you cant read the text I have copied it here:

You have get a Tax Refund on your Visa or MasterCard.
Complete the formular, and get your Tax Refund.

(Your Refund Amount Is 250.50 AUD)

Complete Formular

C.R.E.A.M

2009-04-03T23:13:00.004+11:00

Cash Rules Everything Around Me

Every now and then by luck alone I find that I will stumble on to something that hits on many levels. Today I was searching for Tang (the orange drink) to see if I could get it in Australia. Well, on the google results I saw an entry for Wu Tang Finance. Well lately, I have to say that CREAM has a lot more meaning.

In the news everyday there is something about how the economy is going down, way down and we are all destined to lose our jobs and our way of life. Ok, so the news is not that bad and the reality is much better than what is written in the newspapers, despite how the NGOs are trying to outdo each other with a more growth pessimistic forecast.

Who else saw this justice?

Well, I thought I might check out the Wu Tang Finance to see what it was and it drew right into the memory of the first time I heard the song CREAM. Throughout the Wu Tang Finance there were references to other songs which just seemed to send deeper into that memory. If the songs and term CREAM really means nothing to you, I am not sure how funny you will find this video, yet I am sure there are somethings you would laugh at. If you do know about the Wu then I am sure you will crack up like I did.

Enjoy

Chappelle's Show

Wu-Tang Financial

comedycentral.com

Charlie Murphy Videos

Buy Chappelle's Show DVDs

Black Comedy

Wunderland

2009-03-27T18:35:00.006+11:00

My thesis is about building an economic model of the world to understand energy and agriculture linkages or something like that. Well searching for something the other day I came across this link in the London Telegraph for Wunderland (Viewed original stuff here).

I was pretty blown away from looking at the pictures and was taken back to my childhood where I had legos and built little cities and other environments. I was amazed at the detail and was hungry for more. So I looked around a little more and came upon this video and thought I should share this from there website with you.

Firestorm

2009-02-16T18:03:00.000+11:00

As you may have noticed on the news there has been a large amount of fires around Melbourne over the last few weeks. The lead up to the worst day was indeed a sign of what was to come. For over a week the temperature in Victoria (the state of which Melbourne is the capital) was over 35 C and for the last 3 days it was over 40 C.

These days basically killed and dried everything out. I have some pictures here on the way home from work over the week in which it cooled down. It is easy to be confused and think it was Autumn. Some pics below of this.

Near my house on the way home from work

The grass outside my home

On the day the fires broke out and in some case deliberately lit it was the hottest day ever recorded in Victoria, with the temperature being 46.6 C. I didn't feel hot yet dry. It really was just a dry heat where I felt the sun burning me black when outside. In the afternoon the sky and city had a sepia look as seen below. I was completely oblivious to the fires raging about 100 km North-East of Melbourne.

The sky in Melbourne the day of the fires.

I did catch on later as I read the newspaper. I was a little concerned about where the fires were. I was relieved to find out none where near my Dad's. He was a little oblivious too, and only when the smoke came over at about 6 pm he became very concerned. Although the fires were far from his house and he was safe, it was unsettling. Here are some photos of the smoke clouds coming to Rosedale.

Photos from my Dad in Rosedale

On Friday the 13th I noticed that once again Melbourne still had that smokey feeling, a taste of smoke in the air, and the sepia look as seen above. Yet when I was running, I found myself drawn to looking at the sun, like a sun worshiper. I was in awe of its power to destroy and create energy. The sun was sitting bright in the red sky reminding us all about its power. Too bad the solar industry has been crippled by the coal industry in Australia.

The sun in the sky in Melbourne 6 days after the fires. Reminding us of its power.

I recall once debating with Eric (from LX) about what was worse a cyclone (hurricane/ typhoon) or a tornado and conceded that tornadoes dump all over cyclones in power. After reading some of the stories of survivors from the fires, for example statements like napalm running through the jungles, or an animal trying to trap its prey at breakneck speed, I think the firestorm is more powerful then the tornado. Thankfully, there frequency is less.

Many people I know have been affected by this tragedy. There is some good news. People have been very charitable and have raised around 100 million dollars for the affected people. I hope this will help the people affected to rebuild there lives.

Photos from the newspaper

Near the the town where I attended the wine and salsa night

The station at the town

The fires from the North East of Melbourne at about 8pm of the worst day

The firestorm approaching the Marysville

Marysville after the fire passed.

Booze News

2009-01-19T11:26:00.001+11:00

Peru’s top court has ruled that workers cannot be fired for being drunk, a decision the Government says sets a dangerous precedent. The Constitutional Tribunal said the firing of a janitor was excessive because even though he was drunk, he did not offend or hurt anybody.

http://www.theage.com.au/oddspot

One night in Paris

2009-01-17T09:10:00.009+11:00

It has been a long time coming yet I have finally got a post up. I intended to do this a while back yet I got distracted with other things and was not sure if I should use flash or video. After thinking and playing for a while it seemed best to go back to video. Then video had some problems which I was able to resolve.

Well definitely enjoyed my trip to France and wish to go back. I felt absorbed in the 17 and 18th centuries as I moved around the streets. Most of things I saw were older than Australia and larger than most things in Australia. Not even sure why at the very end when I looked at the the Arc de Triompe that i still said "Damn! that is so big" still.

The highlight for me in Paris were the Arenes de Lutece (Roman ruins), seeing the Eiffel Tower, and entering the Luxemburg Gardens. Although the temperature moved from minuses to positives here I still imagined being a gladiator and fighting off lions and stuff. From there it was not long to see the Eiffel Tower standing tall in the distance. When I entered the Luxemburg Gardens it felt as if I entered a whole new place, as the sun started to shine and the grey was painted over with greenery energising me. Even though it was still cold it did not feel that way there.

I did the Davinci Tour on my own, noting spots that I could remember in the book and making sure I put them into my voyage. I saw the Louvre Pyramid, (no grail though that I could see), the Garden of Tuileries, and the Church of Saint Suplice. I forgot to check out the Rose Line yet I plan to go back one day.

I wanted to climb the Eiffel Tower except when I arrived there it looked like all of Europe had the same idea and it started to rain so I thought I would do it next time. My path around Paris is as follows Charles De Gaulle Airport, Chatelet Station & Formum de Halles, Place de Victories (sunrise here at 8am local time), Hotel, Breakfast at the cafe near the Louvre, Hotel de Ville, Notre Dame, St Stevens du Mont, Panethon, Arenes de Lutece Roman ruins, Jardin du Luxemburg, Palais du Luxemberg, St Suplice, Jardin of Babylone, Dome des Invalides (camera battery started to redlight), Eiffel Tower, Palais de Chailot, Palais de Tokyo, Avenue des Champs Elysees, Arc de Triomphe, Palais de l'Elysee, Place de Concorde, Jardin des Tuileries, Jardin du Carrousel, The Louvre Pyramid, and finally after 8 hours back to the cafe and on to the hotel for a planned shower and 5 minute power nap, before the next part. That is my speed tourism of Paris and when I come back I will be here longer and hope to spend time appreciating more. In the meantime I am inspired to enroll in French classes so that I can do more than order food and ask directions**.

Photo movie of my wanderings around Paris, to an unusual French song.
(Couldn't really find a song that fit so i just picked on I liked.)

** Can that happen to me? I remember in two and half years in Vietnam that was the limit of my language skills.

Smiley in the Sky

2008-12-03T21:34:00.003+11:00

My last dance class was on Monday (1st Dec) and as I was making my way home I looked up in the western sky and saw the smiley in the sky. I wished I had of had a camera, yet then I remember my camera is not good enough to shoot in the sky. It was pretty magical to see it. I remember reading earlier in the day that the next time this event will happen is in 5 years. I am glad I did see it, as I did forget.

Melbourne was a little warm and clear which added to the magic. I felt impressed by the way the pattern of the two planets, Jupiter and Venus formed the eyes and the cresent moon made a smile. I had always wondered if I had seen planets and what they looked like and now I discovered that I had seen many planets before. The photo is ok, yet seeing it with my naked eye was breathtaking and a memory I will cherish (until I see it again in 5 years).

Photo from here

You might have missed ...

2008-11-29T11:53:00.003+11:00

With all the tragic news coming out of Asia in most particularly India and Thailand at the moment it might have been easy to overlook this piece of news from Singapore -

Singapore jails 3 for kangaroo T-shirts.

Reuters - Thursday, November 27
SINGAPORE, Nov 27 - Three Singaporeans were jailed on Thursday after being charged with contempt of court for showing up at Singapore's Supreme Court wearing T-shirts depicting kangaroos in judges robes.
Isrizal Bin Mohamed Isa and Muhammad Shafi'ie Syahmi Bin Sariman were sentenced to seven days' jail, while Tan Liang Joo John received 15 days imprisonment. They were each ordered to pay S$5,000 in costs.
Tan is the Assistant Secretary-General of the opposition Singapore Democratic Party, led by Chee Soon Juan.
The three had worn the T-shirts at a court hearing in May to determine the damages that Chee Soon Juan and his sister Chee Siok Chin were to pay after being found guilty of defaming Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and former leader Lee Kuan Yew.
Singapore's attorney-general said in bringing the case to court the trio had "scandalised the Singapore judiciary".
Singapore bans gatherings and protests in all public areas without a permit except Speakers' Corner, the country's equivalent of the historic free-speech haven in London's Hyde Park.

http://sg.news.yahoo.com/rtrs/20081127/tap-singapore-kangaroo-c3bb44c.html

Dance Free

2008-11-28T19:20:00.004+11:00

A couple of weeks ago I had to leave the dance class early and gave my entry ticket to a friend. The next time I saw him I had a funny feeling, and he said to me that he has good news. I had won the free class, call it intuition or esp or excitement, I am not sure yet I got to dance for free, which I thought was cool.

Okra

2008-11-16T10:49:00.005+11:00

Something I have never seen in the supermarket before - Okra. In an attempt to overdose I cooked these three meals over a week. All were delicious.

Chicken with okra served on spinach rice

Corn rice with grilled okra and grilled spiced chicken

Grilled Cajun chicken served with okra fried rice and eggplant in tomatoes

Pasta Disasta

2008-11-15T16:52:00.005+11:00

Well not quite, I am practicing to be a journalist. I made pasta often as a child and remember how much fun it was. So when I saw a pasta machine (roller and cutter) at a fairly cheap price I thought why not.

So I prepared the dough with eggs and flour and proceeded to knead it into a nice ball. I always feel that there is something enjoyable about preparing food, I am not sure if it is the dough between the fingers or the reward from working hard. I let it rest, wondering what is the right time to wait. After about 1.5 hours I rolled the pasta out. I was a little frustrated at first as the machine did not want to stick to the bench. Yet, after a while I worked out how to get it all done and from there was able to make some fettuccine.

I waited until dinner time (which was about 4 hours away) and went back to cook the pasta. It had all stuck together again and needed rolling. It went much smoother this time and went straight into the boiling water. Taking a little longer to cook than packet pasta I was able to clean up and prepare a sauce. I was feeling hungry and a little lazy so I went with a simple garlic and parsley sauce with cheese added on. I found the pasta tasted a lot like egg noodles (not surprising since they are the same). The sauce gave the pasta a much needed boost. Next time when I make pasta will definitely move away from strands towards shapes. Now, got to go and find out how to make pasta bow ties.

Pasta in 8 steps

Yahoo vs. Google

2008-11-02T19:15:00.002+11:00

I have mentioned how Google modifies their logos for celebrating special events, yet I just noticed that Yahoo does it sometimes as well. Here it is a Halloween standoff.

Was I in a movie?

2008-10-28T22:47:00.005+11:00

It is a good time to be a Liverpool fan. Not only did they beat MU for the first time in a while, they also comprehensively sent a message to Chelsea on the Weekend. Unfortunately news that good was hard to keep secret, and when I got home to watch the replay of the game knowing the result detracted a bit from the game. Overall, i found the game exciting to watch, and I feel confident that next year a large hangover might be required.

Lately I have been getting back into salsa, and tonight I went to the school which confused me so much previously. This time I am not so confused, or maybe I am and don't know it yet. Anyway, on the way back I walked home and came across a situation.

As I approached with shopping in hand, I saw 8 men. Big men, mean looking, all in bomber jackets laughing and talking, no I think it was acting,,leaning against silver cars. All the cars were the same make, and looked like two men per car. There was something odd about them, I noticed at any one time one of them was eying me as walked. As I walked I felt a constant glare the kind that said don't look here, unless...

There was definitely something in the air, a vibe or was it more like a stench. The stench was one in which the prevailing mood was we don't give a .... A new car pulled up, exactly the same as the others, two guys in "the uniform" got out and started talking, non threatening yelling, and catching up. Both these guys glanced in my direction with a serious get out of my way look. Then I saw a bulge in the pant leg, and another quick look revealed a holster or something on the belt. I just felt like I had walked onto the movie set of Training Day or another cop drama as the cops were waiting to GTA some one's butt tonight.

All I know someone is going to get it tonight.

Its in the Game

2008-10-16T21:29:00.004+11:00

I am not one usually for politics, yet I would like to see Obama become the President of the USA. It would be good to see the first black president in the US and CTU come into the action. I bring this up as this year their seems to be large amount of American politics in the news, more than I can remember anytime previous [I might just be more aware now :)]. One story I read this morning said that political advertising has proved itself to be in the game.

How the Obama ad appears in the Xbox 360 racing game Burnout Paradise.

In other US news, one of my favorite DJs (DJ Z-Trip) had some parties to change. He released his mixes to the public along with some pics. Listen here http://downloads.djztrip.com/Z-Trip_ObamaMix.zip (84mbs). A mix of hip hop and other pop songs with a political bent. Some nice Bush outakes.

From the website:

Recently, Shepard Fairey and I threw some fundraisers for the Obama campaign. We called them "The Party for Change". (If you don't know who Shepard is--among many other things--he is the one responsible for the image on the right).

I've been wanting to put the mix I've been doing at these shows online, in hopes of spreading the word to people who need to hear it most. So, here it is:

http://djztrip.com/obama/

I encourage you to download it and pass it along to anyone you think should hear it. Feel free to burn copies, share it with friends, family, co-workers, strangers, and especially anyone you know is on the fence about this election. I'm also putting out a radio friendly version, in case anyone wants to broadcast it.

Please share the message. Educate those who may not know what is really going on. There is still time.

If you, or anyone you know, isn't registered to vote, I encourage you to make it a priority and fix that before it's too late. This election is WAY too important for anyone to not get involved. If you need more information on how and where to register, vote, or participate, please check the links below.

I honestly feel if we make our voices heard, this time WILL be different.

Peace,

Z-TRIP

For more Information, check out these links:

The Official Obama Campaign Site - http://barackobama.com/

MoveOn.org Political Action Group - http://moveon.org/

Rock the Vote - http://rockthevote.com/

OBEY - http://obeygiant.com/

Z-Trip News, Downloads, More - http://djztrip.com

http://downloads.djztrip.com/Z-Trip_ObamaMix.zip

Google UK

2008-10-16T21:24:00.001+11:00

He's heating up!

2008-09-20T10:48:00.002+10:00

Yesterday I had the privilige of watching my boss in action. He was on fire, I had never seen him like he was today. Usually we, me, him, and whoever else is in the meeting, yet today he had a mission. I am not sure if it is due to the size of the project and its complexity, with the deadline coming closer fast, yet I left the (long) meeting with a sense of awe with the powerful organising vision. The bar has been set high now on how to run the show and inspire your workers. It was magical, watching an artist create a masterpiece or watching a sunset over the ocean.

I was really impressed and am inspired that one day I will be able to do something like this on a project that I work on.

You never walk alone

2008-09-19T22:48:00.004+10:00

It has taken 7 years to win at Anfield, 5 years in the Premier League, and me 3 attempts over 5 days to see Liverpool finally beat Manchester United. It was worth the wait to saviour the taste. I feel that this year is going to be different.

Concrete canvas

2008-09-17T00:15:00.005+10:00

I got to watch what I think is a pretty cool documentary yesterday. It was called concrete canvas and it was about a street artist who specialised in 3d Chalk art. I have seen some of this in Melbourne before, yet nothing quite like in this show.

The show basically takes you through what the artist is thinking. It talks about the infamous Banksy and his art all over London, as well as some of the graffiti art that is under threat due to the Olympics. I was amazed at the creativity of the whole piece. I must admit when he showed me (or us the viewer) the wall and started talking about extending this here and that there I was like what? Yet after he started to put some of the sketches down between bouts of rain showers, I started to anticipate that something pretty cool was about to happen.

The art was pieced together slowly, and as time went on it was revealed what was going on, why certain things were being done. It also cut away to give the effect of time lapse. I searched on You Tube for the video and only came across this one (see below). Here are some photos off flickr and a web search that I was able to find to see the finished product.

You can view other works by Julian Beever here.

Angels and Demons

2008-09-10T21:22:00.004+10:00

Today, the artwork for Google is based on the large Hadron Collider. Now I have no idea what this thing does yet it sounds impressive. I read in paper today that we should not be messing around with this thing anyway. After I read Angels and Demons, I found the name CERN everywhere and prior to that book, I had never even heard of CERN. Now I like my cocoon yet what these guys do is pretty out there stuff. What I can gather is that they are trying to create a universe under the Alps. I think this is probably not the best place for such a thing, yet I really am clueless about creating universes and such. I am reassured by Steven Hawking's comment that it is vital for the survival of humanity. I know we are in danger with global warming and the day after tomorrow world, yet that is quite far fetched from what I understood. I may have been a bit too quick there, I am already feeling a sense of doom falling on me, I just read that they are making Angels and Demons into a movie now.

GTArt

2008-09-07T23:31:00.005+10:00

I am amazed still by the impact of the GTA series, it is everywhere. I was reloading my music to my computer and found in one of the folders this image. Clearly from GTA San Andreas, in one of the splash screens loading the game infact. Also, was reading about it in the newspaper. I feel it might be the star wars of the video game generation.

More GTA art this time from GTA San Andreas

The journey to the north

2008-09-03T19:03:00.000+10:00

A while back I went to my home town. A road trip with a full car to help my friend settle into a new town. Being there really brought back memories, and unlike being in Melbourne, which is beautiful, cosmopolitan, and bustling, I really felt peaceful, a calmness that I hadn't felt since being in Long Xuyen.

Along the way I managed to shoot some photos and videos. On Sunday, I decided it was time to get cracking on one of my projects I had thought about for a while - Showing the world how different Australia is. And a journey from the bottom to the central eastern coast has a lot of variation. Unfortunately when we got to the mountains it was dark and raining so I didn't get any pictures of this variation in landscape. Just imagine mountains with rain forest and lots of steep winding roads.

This is my first decent project with the Premier Video editing software. I am pretty impressed with the way it turned out, yet couldn't find the Star Wars transitions, although some karaoke regulars might notice some of the karaoke transitions present. I wanted to do the Indiana Jones type maps where the map scrolls in the background over the foreground, yet I didn't have the patience to find out how to do it. I did a quick variation which I think does the job.

I opened the soundbooth program for the first time and found it a bit ordinary. I quickly reverted back to soundforge yet found that I forgot what i was looking to do and went back to the open soundbooth program. After a short look I found an icon which looked like what I wanted to do and by trial and error I got the basic results I was after. I have to say with all the functions in soundforge it was overwhelming, and soundforge still looks more versatile than soundbooth.

Also with this project I have worked out how to encode the final vidoes better and keep the quality a little higher than the first attempt at making a video. Well here it is a video diary of the journey north.

Enjoy!

Today's Google logo

2008-09-02T23:39:00.003+10:00

Read all about agricultural technology in Australia here.

Google

2008-08-27T11:53:00.001+10:00

Whenever I go to google for the first time during the day, I am always eager to see the logo. I have always noted that the logo changes, and in most cases I learn something about that day (like a day in history or youth day or something). I have been collecting a few of the logos lately so that I can see them for inspiration in design ideas (for the website and other artistic projects under planning) and share them here (dissappointned that I lost a heap when transferring data to the new computer, I dream of a simple world).

Google in Lego

To try to collect some old ones I used with "google logos (and doodles are what they are called)" and came across quite a few places to get them. There are plenty of other sites which collect the logos as well. Well I collected a bunch for the Olympics logos only to find that they are now all on that website and all together in one image below (not in order).

Beijing Olympics

And here is a video of how he does it.

Well duh!

2008-08-20T21:38:00.006+10:00

I can not believe that this made the news.

Absent-minded drivers to

blame for crashes

More revelations can be found here.

Tis the season

2008-08-17T17:53:00.003+10:00

Tis the season for EPL. This season I will be able to watch games in English, in high quality when I want (during the week). The last time I got to watch a long series of EPL games in English was in 2003, the year before it was taken to cable tv, and never to be seen again. My internet connection enables me 9 games per week. (4 live and 5 on demand). I feel this is a cool deal, and the price? FREE, well the marginal price is. I will get to watch them for no additional cost, free with my internet.

When I learnt this I was excited for the first day of the season, this weekend. The first games did not feature Liverpool, yet I was able to watch Arsenal play West Brom. Exiting game in the first half, yet after a while it started to lose its way as the Gunners couldn't finish.

That leaves me with only one problem, a good problem to have given recent years, when can I watch all this football.

Adobe Master Collection

2008-08-16T11:38:00.013+10:00

I have been lucky enough to get a hold of the Adobe CS3 Master collection. This suite is the bomb. It has Illustrator, Photoshop, Premier, Flash, and Acrobat. I have been playing around with these for a couple of hours or so and have found them to be highly addictive.

The first photo I edited in Photoshop is the box the stuff came in. Nothing really new has happened in Photoshop, or it is with the features that I don't use, which appears to be most of them.

I have created some artwork for my thesis highlighting the hypothesis that I am testing - fuel/ feed/ food. The basis of the thesis is that biofuel production is pushing up food prices, along with the current drought in Australia and the Mekong rice basin (An Giang and provincial friends). I used some of the microsoft clipart photos and modified them in Illustrator, as trying to create my own images seemed to difficult at present.

For some reason all the colours changed and labels disappeared

I have also messed around with the flash tutorial yet haven't included that here as I don't know how to put it into the webpage. Lastly, I mucked around with premier and put this together in about 20 minutes. There are tonnes of features yet to be explored yet I feel like I will be making Star Wars transitions in my videos really soon. The quality of the uploaded video is not so hot as I had to reduce the file size from 220 mbs to less than 100 (I got to excited and dropped it to 7mb). Things to improve include video matching soundtrack smoothing between videos. I think it has a lot of potential and definately was fun to play around with and eager to do a few more, once I shoot some more videos.

Driving around Melb to Deep Purple ;)

I really got to get some books as the suite came with only the online help, yet until then it is experiment, experiment, experiment. Oh yeah, I need CAN BAND VIDEO.

Looking the wrong way.

2008-08-06T09:51:00.005+10:00

Now i see the problem.

I thought it was that the system was way to complex and that no-one really knew anything. I now feel that I have been enlightened to the problem and realise that, as the song says, nothing can save us.

The three main protagonists are representative of the somewhat different foci of paleo-climatologists, climate modellers and economists. Very broadly speaking, paleo-climate science is built around the analysis of single location time series (often from holes that are drilled). Climate modellers spend a lot of time trying to see what is coming up in all it's complexity, while economists tend to eschew complexity and look for insight in highly idealised situations. But in order to increase the credibility of models, they have to do well at simulating past climates and what might happen in the future is certainly informed by what has happened in the past. And in order to better understand the impacts of climate change and various proposed policies, economists will need to embrace the complexity of human-climate interactions while modellers need to better understand what aspects of climate really do make a difference. None of these things will happen if we continue to all look in different directions, and more problematically, fail to support and reward those scientists who want to bridge the divides. Sea monsters notwithstanding.

I do think the picture is really clever.

Source

Cartoons Part 2

2008-08-01T18:31:00.003+10:00

I was introduced to the rut today. I was quite amused by the cartoons I read there (more are available with content not suited for here). Here are some of the more tame cartoons. The topics I chose to share are varied from pirate fashion, Pacman, James Bond, and Star Trek to reflect different themes discussed in the blog.

Pirate fashion

Video Games

James Bond

Star Trek

Cartoons

2008-08-01T17:57:00.003+10:00

A while back I came across some cartoons from the climate change cartoon competition. I think the second place should have been first, and the runner up shown second. I don't quite understand the significance of the first place, then again I don't really understand political and artistic expression anyway. As they say, light does not penetrate dense wood.

Winner

Second

Third

Runner Up

More Cartoons

Climate Change Science

2008-07-15T18:11:00.003+10:00

New climate change research from Argentina.

Melbourne Southbank at Dusk

2008-07-15T18:01:00.002+10:00

The view from my office last night.

Game On

2008-07-14T09:38:00.010+10:00

A while back in June I was lucky enough to go see an exhibition on video games. Now as most people who know me I do have a thing for them. I did my honours thesis on the economics of video games, and although I pretty much bombed it I definitely enjoyed learning all about the video game industry. Since that time I have seen quite an evolution in the industry and in particular the understanding the effects of platform choice and technology really shape the video game industry and provide a testing ground for graphics and sound technology for compters.

During my thesis I encountered some systems that I had never heard of and it was good to see what they actually looked like. These early systems were the first consoles that I encountered once I descended into the dungeon of video games. They had the classic Pong - the first actual arcade game machine - on display. It looked so ancient! The early games on display were classics for each system and brought back memories from my childhood as I begged my parents to buy an Atari and later a NES games system. I was pretty surprised that I never saw Super Mario Brothers at a game station, only the original Mario Bros..

Part of the fun of the exhibition was that you were allowed to play the games. I watched my friend play Tetris and was amazed at how good she was. It was like appreciating art. I also played Pro Evolution Soccer 5 000 000 or whatever the latest version is now. The graphics were pretty amazing on this (comparing it to my version of PES 9) and I felt the difficulty was from trying to adjust to the way the camera now operates. Lastly I played puzzle game against my friend and got whipped, and learnt that I am probably a little competitive .

Besides classics, they had lots of background information on video games. They had a music section (just like Borders), an art section (sonic and mario/ pokemon art), and a game design area. In the game design area they had a layout of two games - Max Payne and GTA III. Looking at the layouts I got a feel for how complicated it is to design the virtual worlds seen in the games. You can see my wonderment of the next GTA game San Andreas here (it looks like some of the pics have been deleted from the web). The amount of detail that the artists use start from photographs and then transcribed into digital art and mathematics, pretty amazing stuff, in a nerdy way :).

The last part of the museum had the most modern games. They had the dancing craze games as well as the new HALO. That HALO looked pretty amazing and fun to play, providing you didn't play against the teenagers there who were just kicking everyone's butt.

They had the Nintendo WII on display and a range of sports games. They had tennis on display and it looked pretty cool. You take the controller and swing it round like an actual tennis racket. It looked like it would take a while to get used to, yet once the skill was acquired lots of good games would follow. The experience difference between books and games was interaction, in the game you get sucked into action, unlike a book which tends to be more passive. I guess the next step in game technology is be in the game itself.

It wouldn't be a Nintendo themepark without a Mario on display, and here you see me in the next genration of games as I try to escape from the clutches of Mario and video game exhibition.

PS: Cameras weren't allowed inside the exhibition so I wasn't able to take any photos. Something about copyright blah blah blah. Doesn't this just get old!

The tickets and free game to keep me occupied for hours

Seriously

2008-07-09T18:12:00.001+10:00

Are they for real?

In the news

2008-07-09T18:11:00.008+10:00

Well not really. Yet kind of. It's like the role of an employee of a bar was vital in giving a singer a drink before a live performance, who rocked a sold out concert was important to the overall picture. And that is me and my contribution to the Garnaut Review (sounds like the Stern Review). The review is a draft report on climate change and has just been released and is making the news. I spent numerous days before christmas collecting the data and passed it on to be adjusted as needs be. If you look closely you can see absolutely none of my contribution in chapter 4 , and actually I am not sure where my work went, however chapter 4 was the most likely place (having read a bit of it [it is over 500 pages]).

You can download the report here.

Well anyway, lets get back to rock music as I saw this clever sign recently.

Triple M - Australia's Classic Rock Radio Station

It's time

2008-07-04T11:22:00.001+10:00

We need new food and energy systems.

Global warming: the real cause

2008-07-03T17:13:00.001+10:00

Well having study some literature on this topic I have now discovered the real reason for global warming and it was so obvious that it is hard to see.

Quoted from the enlightening site:

You may be interested to know that global warming, earthquakes, hurricanes, and other natural disasters are a direct effect of the shrinking numbers of Pirates since the 1800s. For your interest, I have included a graph of the approximate number of pirates versus the average global temperature over the last 200 years. As you can see, there is a statistically significant inverse relationship between pirates and global temperature.

For more enlightened results please see this journal- JIR (careful it is scientific).

Fight night round 1

2008-06-24T17:00:00.000+10:00

Friday night is amateur night, and I head up to Coburg to support 5 guys from our club. It was mixed affair with karate and Thai boxing along with (traditional western) boxing. First fight was a Thai boxing fight of 3 rounds. It was fast and hard. I distinctly heard at one point in the second round shin pad against shin pad. They sounded very thin as the bone crunching sound echoed around the hall.

The boxing matches were a little more civilised. The first two fights involved our club and they were victories. Next was a first timer. He really didn’t look fit yet he seemed eager enough to go. The match started and it quickly became apparent that he was outclassed. His opponent was able to tag him from everywhere. He lost in a unanimous points decision. The last fight was best described by someone we met on the way home.

@$#*! Look at that guy. If I was to fight him I would be scared. He is huge, and rippling with his muscles shining with oil, he looks like Iron Mike Tyson, a vicious bulldog. His bicep is as big as a watermelon. The fight starts and the crowd hushes as the bell rings. The fight has been going for a minute yet no one has thrown a punch. It is a Mexican standoff, both waiting for the others. Oh no, counter punchers. Finally it is like someone pushes them together and a flurry of punches by our guy sees two connections, a body and head hook. Then some more standoffs then the end of the round.

Now the last two rounds were just as good. The big guy thought it was gridiron, and went on tackling our guy. After two rounds the judges had no idea how to score this match so they just called it a draw.

Anyway, yesterday I went to the club to do my usual training, and I had a reality check. I knew I wasn’t really ready to go the distance in any competitive way. The guy who lost I had a spar with and felt it. If it was real I think I would have been taken to hospital pretty quickly. There is a big difference between the guys I had been sparring previously. Also I feel so unfit; the injury really has taken a toll. Well I am just happy I found out that I still need more time in the gym.

The rematch of the 1991 classic is on tonight (24 June 2008)

Fat bomb!

2008-06-20T10:05:00.002+10:00

Americans can't have all the supersized fun. Read about how we stole the crown from the Americans here.

AUSTRALIA has become the fattest nation in the world, with more than 9 million adults now rated as obese or overweight, according to an alarming new report.

Energy and food

2008-06-13T12:21:00.003+10:00

There seems to be a lot about the relationship between energy and food being talked about in certain parts of the world. I wish I could get invited to sit around and do nothing for a few days in Rome, since this is the topic I am pursuing for my PhD. I didn’t mean nothing as I would be posing to act like I am doing something*.

Well since I wasn’t invited to that party, I decided to make my own. To ensure that I have food security, well bread security, I got myself a breadmaker. Just a few blocks from my house there is a factory shop for Breville electronics and a range of discount clothes outlets. Searching for the NIKE shop I found the electronics shop and wandered inside. I saw that the breadmakers were quite cheap compared to those at full retail price and impulse grabbed me as I remembered how good fresh bread tastes.

The new toy

That night I cranked it up and all went well. The first loaf I baked I put too much water, however that did not affect the taste. I think I will start to put on a tonne of weight over the coming months as I enjoy the fresh bread.

The first loaf

On the lighter side, my friend showed me this clip today which seems to cement the relationship between food and energy and solve the issue of high oil prices.

The new bread machine does have a jam/jelly setting so I am set to become the (John D) Rockefeller of the 21^st century.

* note my cynicism of such things arises on meeting a few experts from these types of organisations whom really are just interested in self promotion and travel, using the excuse of trying to help people without a specific cultural/ social understanding of the situation.

Tự Nhiên

2008-06-10T18:38:00.003+10:00

I have heard of this place called Footscray, a place where Vietnamese congregate in great numbers to eat shop and do other normal things. I had been to Richmond, near my house, Springvale for food yet not here. Richmond is small, while Springvale is a mixture of Mekong peoples. Footscray is big!

I arrived in Footscray via an intricate maze of streets lined with factories which suddenly just opened up into suburbia. Yet one block in the familiar sound of Vietnamese rang through the air, the smell of fruit and vegetable markets lingered, all the while seeing signs printed in two or three languages.

The first stop was for fo. Sorry been living in Oz too long, I meant Phở. Just like in Vietnam the choice I like was number 1. I also settled for the coffee. This was the first time I had gone out to eat Vietnamese food since I arrived back. I always had planned to eat, however I just never got around to it. Something always got in the way.

After that I walked around just soaking up the atmosphere. It is different from that of Richmond or Springvale as it partially closed off to traffic so people tend to walk. It really is just like a big market. After walking around I saw “the sign” and had no idea that was where I was headed.

The sign

Once inside, it was chaos, like any market I had been to previously. The difference between the markets in LX and here was the yelling. For some reason they just yelled. At one point I went to talk to my friend and the next I was picking my eardrum up off the floor and shoving it back in the ear it was blasted out of. There was one thing which still I am yet to do, buy a whole fish and fillet it. Something just doesn’t sit right in this day and age with me for this process. Remembering doing this as a kid, I am willing to pay more for my fish (fillets) so as I don’t have to involve myself in this messy process.

After leaving I recalled the market adventures I had in Vn and think about how much easier shopping has become.

Footscray from outside the phở shop

Wine and Salsa

2008-06-10T18:35:00.004+10:00

Wine and salsa.

A good mix? 11 days ago I didn’t think so. That’s why I stuck to vodka and salsa. However by about 9pm many of the other people forgot about everything but the wine. It was chaos as the night went on. Think drunken mess in the Yarra Valley wine district. Lots of amusement to watch everywhere I looked.

Annoying red devil

2008-05-30T17:55:00.001+10:00

Another example of having too much time to find things on you tube that I found funny on tv.

Sydney Rd Food

2008-05-29T18:39:00.000+10:00

A couple of weeks ago, I was told of a restaurant which served some of the best Middle Eastern food in Melbourne. Being located on Sydney Rd, Brunswick, that meant it had a lot to live up to, as this is a centre of Middle Eastern restaurants. Actually, the area really does feel like you are in another country, as the signs are mostly written in a mixture of Arabic and English.

This week some friends and I went to sample it. We went into the restaurant, and instantly I felt at home. It was like I was visiting the No Name in Long Xuyen with the furniture looking strikingly similar. However, there were a few give aways that made me realise this was not the case. No beer, no Vietnamese language, and the food was different, noticeably the lack of vegetables.

The service was interesting until Said spoke in Arabic. It wasn’t impolite though, just sort of indifferent. Well anyway after a bit of talk we ordered the recommendation. Little did I know, it was a lamb!

The lamb in question with a bit more salad then I remembered!

There were many different delicacies on the plate. Sausages, spicy chicken, and some lamb (just making things up now so look at the picture). There was some salad, and potato salad, yet why waste time on that. It was so good as you see below the contented faces of stuffed men. I felt like I was going to give birth to the lamb after the meal, like a phoenix meal deal.

Contented men.

On the way home after savouring the meal, I realised that I missing have choices of mains like in Vn and in this restaurant and I think variety is the spice of life.

Men are from Mars, etc.

2008-05-28T17:47:00.000+10:00

Oh behave!

2008-05-26T09:25:00.005+10:00

I think Austin Powers is a great movie series. I have to admit I was not so enthused about watching them originally yet after seeing the spy who shagged me I was captivated. In Goldmember some of you might remember the scene of the Japanese twins. Well that scene came flashing back to my mind recently as my friend introduced me to the best noodles in the world.

And a close up of the name. Pronounce however you wish.

And the classic memory from Goldmember that came to mind after looking at the noodle package.

Food prices

2008-05-21T12:35:00.003+10:00

My phd thesis is studying about the effects of climate change mitigation strategies on food prices., even lthough, I haven't done much on it so far this month. So to alleviate that guilt, every now and then I decide to search for things on these issues.

I have found two reasons, beyond the fact that there is drought everywhere that matters, which are different.The first is the eco-religious view that our current way of life is just wrong and a sad excuse which is so implausible that it is laughable.

Are they for real?

Ay! Mi vida muy complicada

2008-05-21T12:16:00.005+10:00

Last night I went salsa dancing and I felt like I was on the titanic. Slowly slipping below, and feeling numb with every beat in the song. I have started going to a new school in a hope to improve the amount of moves I know. This new school has a class just around the corner from work so it easy to get too. And, unlike the other class the male-female ratio is pretty even, so far.

The first class I go to is really basic, just can practice on adapting to a new style (it is a little different from the class I usually go to) and reinforcing the basics so that it becomes second nature. However the first time I went to the class next level up it was just a simple continuation of the first class.

Last night though it was about 4 really complicated semi-related sequences (they all started with the first same move and that’s were it ends). And worse it was fast. Then after class I felt demoralised as I couldn’t lead my partner into any of the moves. The last girl said she felt like she was playing the lottery with my random lead. I laughed it off knowing it felt that way for me too.

Beginner 2 Class (simple)

Beginner 3 Class (complicated)

I was wondering why this happened as prior to the last class, I was doing well. I also remembered the same thing happened on Sunday night. I don’t know what it is yet I think it is related to not feeling any tension in their arms, which makes it hard to feel the lead. From my perspective I tend to be a bit jerky and sometimes late on the lead adding to her confusion.

On the way home I was thinking I might give it up. I realised I have plateaued for about month, and it is becoming frustrating. Yet, I think the greatest contribution to that feeling was the busy day (actually month or two), the shoulder injury, lack of physical exercise (2 weeks now have been invalid), and friendship drama.

I do miss the simple life. Wake up, go for breakfast, go back to sleep, get up for lunch, watch AD, look at what to teach, realise that class starts in 5 mins and nothing is prepared, and for the millionth time this year play hang man. At 4pm realise that the class is bored of hangman so send them home early as you got the call to go to the NN or any other fine establishments in town and go on all night until 3am. Then recycle.

Yet as simple as that life is, it is not the secret to hapiness (I have read). It is the challenges that we face everyday that makes life enjoyable. Looks like I got some good times ahead :).

Inspiron 1720

2008-05-17T12:22:00.002+10:00

It has been a busy week. Got a ton of energy stats dumped on me to decipher, and that job just keeps getting bigger the more I understand. Also, I injured myself playing sport and back to handicap status again, and I might have been dumped on the phone. As emotionally taxing all this is, something good happened this week. I got my work laptop.

Now this was ordered through Dell, an interesting setup. Order online in Oz, send payment, then they build it in Asia, and send it back to Oz. Cheap business model except they lost payment. So we had to organise a search party to find the missing payment yet once resolved things proceeded smoothly.

Now this baby has got everything. Webcam, super fast processor (2.4 GHz for you techies), more RAM than my first computer and a NES (4GB), a huge half terabyte of hard drive space (I never thought I would need more than 30GB 3 years ago) bluray DVD watching capability, wireless, Bluetooth stuff, and it goes on. Windows Vista is interesting, not as impressed with it as some people I know, however it does have some cool features, particularly the search. Yet what I like most is the screen, yeah baby 17 inches. Check it out below.

Life in Pictures - Degraves Lane

2008-05-16T18:28:00.003+10:00

I usually go to get a coffee in the afternoon at a place called the quarter. It is located in a place called Degraves which is just off Flinders St and Flinders Lane opposite the best know icon in Melbourne - Flinders St Station. This place has great coffee/ chocolate and the staff are really friendly which makes it a nice highlight for the day. This poster amused me on the way one day, as I recall some late night discussions in the ER.

Road to nowhere

2008-05-12T18:53:00.003+10:00

I had always thought that after graduating from my undergrad that engineering probably wasn't really that hard although I know that I would not have done as well as I did in business, I would have just gotten the degree. If I had passed and got to work on projects, and based on my lego experiences I would have built roads like these below.

Beyond the barrier

2008-05-10T13:22:00.005+10:00

I like youtube. Although they do some silly things, there is a large variety of entertainment available. Hardly working early one evening I thought about the boxer Micky Ward and did a you tube search. There are quite a lot of his fights. I gotta say I love the intensity of this fight. Every round is just like a first round and it goes the distance (10 rds). The classic Ward-Gatti rumble is also there.

Photoshop Disasters

2008-05-10T13:04:00.003+10:00

Somewhere, somehow, someplace, I came across the website Photoshop distasters. Having dabbled in the crop photo and red eye reduction features in photoshop I have found myself an expert in photo touchups with photoshop. I have been proven wrong. There is a whole bunch of things out there that I can do. Here are 3 of photos from this week I found interesting.

No matter how photogenic I am I will never look as good as the red, yellow, and purple clothed girls.

I am confused, two bodies, how many legs?

Great! A book that can teach me to make freakish photos with photoshop.

Aagggghhh

2008-05-02T09:14:00.001+10:00

History was made Wednesday night. Against most of the statistics, Chelsea beat Liverpool. I am disappointed about that yet I am happy about the fact that Liverpool has broken their recent goalless curse at Stamford Bridge. To get over the loss, I have some funny pics to keep my spirits up as I wait for next year's tournament. Or maybe even the Euro tournament.

A great buy

2008-04-29T17:26:00.005+10:00

I am very satisfied at the moment. I have just got a subscription to the ultra right wing free market ideological propaganda called the economist. The authors of the paper tend to have studied only that free markets and democracy are the only way to live, and forget about the fact that markets fail.

I am not satisfied because I am becoming a free marketaholic, but because of the three issues I have received, two of them have special reports are smack bang on topics I like. The first being directly related to my thesis on food prices and energy markets (one such market failure) and the other about a place I am fond of

Vietnam

Oh man! It's Oman

2008-04-24T17:17:00.007+10:00

My friend, Said, told me that this headline has already been used by a travel writer who reported what it was like travelling to

Oman

. Oman is a small country on the Arabian Peninsular bordered by Saudi Arabia, Yemen and the Indian Ocean and is not far from Iran and

India

. When Said told me that they had monsoons there I laughed and thought he was joking. Ha ha, egg on my face, I was surprised that in the south the monsoons cross Oman on their way to

India

and the far east.

With this information I was curious to find out more about Oman and Said showed me pictures of his homeland. I was amazed at how beautiful the land is. The seas are azure with white sand and palm trees, with fish and turtles in plenty supply. Travelling a few clicks inland I saw pictures of sunsets on the dunes and reflections of the moon on the sand that just took my breath away. Also, forests, oases, and mountains that are full of life. Cities that are modern with skyscrapers and villages that have houses made of clay bricks and look as thought they have seen sands of time.

An Omani student group held a day to promote Oman to Australia and share their culture. The senses were on overload as I found the music peaceful, smoothing my soul in deep rhythmic waves. The air was full of incense and the fragrance of roses was abundant as well. I met another friend and we went to explore the tents. I felt like a crusader or Alexandra the Great the first time they set eyes upon the exotic goods of the Middle East. In one tent they had the fabric which was brightly dyed with what appeared to be gold fabric. Outside, children were laughing and joking while getting their arms done. Two tents were designated as tourist tents where the main focus seemed to be to promote tourism. I saw many more photos of exotic locations just wanting me to go and visit them.

I tried Omani coffee and a snack at the next tent. Both had rose flavours in them and the snack had an unusual texture which might have been ground almonds. The last tent contained traditional artefacts used in everyday life? I really liked the swords. I actually forget what they were made of, yet I do remember that it wasn’t steel. There were many different varieties, all of them ornamental.

Some goods in the tents

I finished the day off by watching a video showing how the money from oil was helping Oman’s citizens, and the vision the Sultan has for his people. I was impressed with the effort the organisers and left delighted for having seen a glimpse of a culture which was mysterious to me.

Money well spent?

2008-04-22T17:26:00.006+10:00

Aid agencies good or bad? I often wonder. My own experiences have shown me that they do a lot of good, yet I also hear that the opposite is true. I am also puzzled with how aid is distributed, however when you see it in action, like I did often in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta I did feel like it does make a difference to peoples’ lives.

When big sums of money are involved there is the possibility of corruption. I was impressed about the moral stand of an employee of an international organisation who came out to criticise that organisation on its role in corruption. By the end of the article I was saddened to learn that her brave moral stance resulted badly for her.

Then there is the question that having large sums of money, requires spending large amounts of money to ensure that you get large sums of money next year in your budget. So, there is some waste as agencies try to assist the less fortunate to better their lives. Being the year of the potato lots of money is being used in helping farmers with better techniques of potato farming or something like that. However, thinking about the cost to develop, I didn’t understand the point of the potato world.

I went back to the books reading about price formation and value then light finally penetrated dense wood.

The assurance that consumers want and will pay for many be over something as trifling as the crispness of a French fry. You might say, “Fries are fries.” This would merely show that you do not have it in you to be a burger mogul. In the 1950s, Ray Kroc, the founder of McDonald’s, was obsessed with them. “The French fry would almost become sacrosanct for me,” he said later, “its preparation a ritual to be followed religiously”. He sent employees with hydrometers into farmers’ fields, rejecting potatoes lacking the optimal water content. He devised a way of curing the potatoes to convert natural sugars into starch. He developed the “potato computer” to calibrate the cooking time for a batch of fries. Kroc found his firm’s competitive edge in the uniformity of his fries – the reliably precise combination of starch and grease. In Minneapolis or Minsk (not HCMC though), the brand name McDonald’s promises you exactly what you will get (Page 54).

And that leaves me to another thought that is hanging around in my mind; does McDonald’s (or any other fast food franchise) really taste the same in Australia as anywhere else? I hope I get to test that soon.

Over consumption

2008-04-18T09:48:00.007+10:00

I have been very disturbed lately. About a month ago I watched a music video show and noticed that for the whole time the music was the same. I don’t mean the same song playing over and over, just the same sounds, baseline and rhythms, and melodies. And it was not to my taste. Most of the videos featured sexy bodies dancing to the music obviously appealing to the animal instinct of the human psyche.

I have also noticed that a lot of the TV shows on the box at the moment are identical too. The CSI’s are all the same, as too are all these reality shows, etc. It got so bad that I haven’t watched much TV this week for fear of becoming boring as the shows. Yet, when I am out I hear people talk about how great the shows/ new songs are.

I thought first that I am getting too old, yet still can’t find any grey hairs. Then I thought by living overseas, my tastes had refined. No, that’s not true either. I also noticed that I was not affected by the evolution of what is mainstream while overseas, which means coming back and listening/ watching entertainment I have a new perspective, one that is possible to attach value by making accurate snap decisions.

And this brings up another point. When the entertainment firms do their market research why do they choose things that are the same and many good things go amiss. When I was in Uni in Brisbane I had a friend who was setting up a band, think a softer version of Limp Bizkit or 28 days (I think they were groups most similar to the fusion sounds of my friends group). They were never able to book a gig as they were to alternative and the venue owners were afraid no patrons would come. That was a shame as I had the pleasure of listening to them play at a house party and they rocked. I bet this story is repeated all over the world.

According to economic theory, the reason for this is not to take chances. The trade off the promoter (or venue owner/ publishing company etc) faces is either mass appeal or fringe. This I think leads to a lack of new quality entertainment. And to generate the mass appeal we, the people, need to have our tastes modified by ceaseless advertising and hype so we know what to like. With the release of Grand Theft Auto 4 approaching, I can not help notice that the games shop that I pass everyday has the walls plastered up with advertising, and today they had a big poster telling everyone that exactly midnight of the day it is released the shop will open to sell the game.

I think since I have returned to Australia, this constant consumerism driven by advertising has finally worn me down, and I actually feel that in general this is bad for people’s well being as it creates unnecessary stress. I feel it takes people out of enjoying the little moments that make a life. I must confess that I do long for a simple advertising free world.

Random advertising outside the mainstream thinking

Post Thought Clarification

I am not against advertising (in its true form) as its purpose is to make people aware of things that can help them enjoy more from life. What I am against is the way it is used to influence people to buy or consume things that are not needed, and its constant overuse.

English editors needed

2008-04-14T17:25:00.003+10:00

Well, I have been busy lately which is why I haven't updated. Most of the busyness stems from having to organise my idea for my doctorate. This is seriously becoming a pain. It sucks up more time everyday and progress is so slow that I see snails pass me by. After the discussion last week, I have to go back to the drawing board, as the saying goes.

The other thing that I have noticed, coming out of my studies, is that of food prices. Now this also affects the An Giang fish industry and I compeletly omitted it in my final report.

Well, since studying is not going as good as hoped at the moment maybe I should just become an editor as I am sure that I can help some people out somewhere .

Blocked

2008-03-28T17:58:00.005+11:00

I was surprised to find that Vietnam, Australia, and America all have the same level of Internet censorship. From discussions that I had with people, it seemed a lot different when I was there. I didn't have any problems though. These thoughts were all from something I read in the Economist (although belated - I am so behind) about censorship.

WHAT you see—or rather, what you don't see—on the internet may be determined by your government. The attitude of officialdom varies when it comes to filtering content of a social nature. In many places agreements are set with service providers to block nasty stuff such as child pornography. In a few countries intervention is stronger, up to the level of pervasive censorship. This week Pakistan's block on YouTube accidentally caused an international outage for that website. Iran and Saudi Arabia have also prevented their citizens from accessing the video-sharing site.

The day

2008-03-27T18:19:00.004+11:00

If there was ever a case for why we shouldn't mess around with DNA and genetic modifications it is well put in the classic science fiction novel the Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham. On a recommendation from a well read person, I went to the library to get the book to read. Luckily there were numerous copies and the wait was short. I started to read it and found that it was hard to put down. I found myself engrossed in the story and I quickly realised why it is a classic. It has inspired me to find some other books, in a similar style and era, that I liked when I was child to refresh those memories. I do recommend this book just for the sake of having said that you have read it, yet you will be surprised to find that it is a good story too.

Tough times ahead

2008-03-18T10:06:00.002+11:00

Liverpool plays Man United next week, then Everton followed by Arsenal 3 times in row with two of them away. The games will be all hard fought as all these teams have something to win. Man U and Arsenal are fighting for the title, while Everton and Liverpool are fighting for the last Champions League spot next year. Also Arsenal and Liverpool are fighting for the right to go through to the next round of the Champions League. I am going to be a nervous wreck for the next month as this all unfolds.

Dealing with the hot weather.

2008-03-17T18:45:00.006+11:00

The weather is unusually hot yet perfect for the weekend. 30 degrees is the perfect temperature. As I set out for the Southbank Boulevard region of Melbourne, I could feel the excitement grow. I arrived about 5 minutes early yet by the time I had signed in a group of others had arrived on a bachelor party. Within minutes it was ready to start and the first sample came out. It was a Hoegaarden, a wheat beer. I was told to look at the cloudiness of the colour, and find the citrus in the taste. I was also told that this is a good starting beer as there is no bitterness.

The guy who was telling me all this was Charles Coll, a guy with the most enviable job. He is an expert beer guru. He works as a writer for beer industry magazines. He stated a typical day would be waking up at 9.30 in the morning to collect a sample slab, and then test it all day. What a job. After giving us the description of a hard days work, we moved into an area set aside for the purpose of the day – drinking. Sorry I meant beer appreciation.

I felt like I was back in school with the way the tables were set up, except that instead of books, there were glasses. Different types of glasses. The teacher went on describing the merits of different glasses, the mixing of food and beer, the reasons why some women are beer averse, how Budwieser made Asian beer, and why monks became expert brewers, as I went about appreciating the slow trickle of beer coming my way.

The beer that surprised me most was pinky/red. It was a desert beer. I had not even thought about a red beer, let alone making beer taste like cherry. It was matched with chocolate mousse. It was heavenly, think a beery cherry ripe. Maybe, not so good for an all nighter yet definitely a refined way to end a meal.

Afterwards we were put to the test, and I hooked up with these guys on another bachelor party. After trying a few other brands of beer, they went to kick on at the casino and asked me to come along. I went with them to the casino and we went to eat. The mood pretty much died from their as over consumption started to creep in and I split. I was thinking it was a fantastic day and went home to sleep it off in a beery dream world.

And the best way to enjoy beer, in its pure form.

3 out of 4

2008-03-12T10:15:00.004+11:00

The wait was worth it. Last night a semi revenge game against an Italian team from Milan. This one was Inter Milan not AC Milan and with their defeat that leaves only Roma for Italy. On the other side of the channel 4 out of 8 teams are from England, good news for them. Yet the best news is that Liverpool, who beat Inter 1 - 0 last night in Milan, has the chance to make it 3 finals out of 4 years.

Sawasdeekrab

2008-03-05T18:39:00.004+11:00

Well on the weekend I was invited to attend a festival for the New Year. It was a Thai New Year festival, which usually occurs in April however in Melbourne due to the weather the organisers prefer March as it is warmer and generally sunnier. Sunday was no exception with the thermometer reaching the high 20’s and the sun scorching the land black.

My friend told me to arrive early, however I thought against that and arrived about an hour after he suggested. When I arrived he offered some more advice and I listened to what he said and started off on my journey of discovery. The first stop was the stage where there was a cleansing ceremony being performed by the monks. It all felt very solemn so I decided to follow the crowd down the steps towards the river bank.

At the river bank it was crazy. It reminded me of being in a market in Vietnam, with the crowds, pushing and shoving, sounds of laughter and talking filling my ears, temporary shops, and the smell of food. I looked around and found the stall I was looking for yet no-one I knew was there so I returned to the main stage.

At the main stage the monks had moved off and the official opening ceremonies had begun. There were a large number of speeches, and statistics where I discovered that one in thirty Australians have visited Thailand. After the speeches, traditional dancing was the entertainment.

The opening ceremony

The dances all had special meanings and are performed at the New Year ceremonies as a custom. I was impressed with the intricacy of the design of some of the costumes. The way some of the ornaments twisted and formed patterns was spectacular and the colours of the silks took my breath away.

Oops, forgot to take the glasses off

After the contest the sun had started to turn nasty and I felt like I was only seconds from going up in flames and took a time out. When I arrived back it was a lot cooler as the sun had set behind some of the buildings leaving the park in shadows. Most of the crowd had left and the stage shows had nearly finished. I watched the end of the stage shows which consisted of the awarding of the crown for the beauty show and some sword and stick fighting.

After this my friend said we should go down to the beer garden and enjoy some Thai beer. While enjoying the beer we were entertained by some kickboxing, a band playing Thai songs, and a ladyboy show. The band really got the crowd excited as the beer mixed with the music creating a festival type atmosphere. The ladyboy show was quite interesting to watch as it was like a cabaret show where the audience judged the winner based on a variety of criteria. Afterwards my friend and I went to have coffee nearby and then went home exhausted. All in all a very enjoyable day.

Hidden treasure

2008-03-04T19:42:00.003+11:00

One of my favorite t shirts while in LX was one proclaiming that 2004 was the International year of rice. 2005 was the microcredit year, 2006 the rather lame year of deserts and desertification or was that meant to be desserts? 2007 was the polar year and 2008 is the year of the potato. I think potatos are quite a versatile and when deep fried really tasty. Now, thinking of that I am downstairs to get some chips, freedom fries, french fries, papas, ktc, or what ever else you want to call them.

Bursting my bubble

2008-03-03T17:25:00.000+11:00

Today I went with my friend Said, to get this Malaysian food. It is like a beef mince curry wrapped in breadcrumbs and deep fried. I find it is soft and delicate tasting that feels like something new is being created in my mouth with each bite. I think it is divine, and tasting so good it has got to be healthy.

On the way back we were discussing the weekend that had passed when suddenly I saw this tall guy dressed in long black clothing walking next to this short girl also dressed in long black clothing. Nothing unusual in that really, even if it is about 30 degrees. Yet on closer inspection I noticed something and just thought it was the heat messing with my head. Then Said asked me what was that. Then I realised that I had seen a collar around the guy’s neck and the leash. A Big black stud encrusted dog collar, with a dog leash. My jaw dropped to ground in amazement as the frontiers of my reality enlarged. After cracking jokes about what we saw on the way back to the office, I thought nothing else could enlarge them and amaze me today until I read this. Ignorance is bliss, yet extreme behaviours are funny.

GM Foods

2008-02-22T10:07:00.006+11:00

No I am not talking about general motors foods, I am talking about genetically modified foods. This appears to be quite an issue at the moment due to food safety concerns about GM foods. Japan has even asked Australia to not use GM foods. Even the TV was bombarded with anti GM food advertising. This is short sighted I feel. Genetically modifying foods is something we have been doing for a long time. When we splice genes together of different wheats to get a new variety of wheat it is the same as getting two different genes from plants to boost drought resistance. In principal it is the same, and GM foods do need to go through a rigorous safety screening.

Now I admit nothing is fool proof and mistakes may happen yet I feel the risks associated with GM foods are outweighed by the benefits. Some of the existing benefits include increasing vitamin/ mineral content of foods and higher yielding crops. Presently, I am working on Agricultural greenhouse gas emissions and methane and nitrous oxides are big problems less focussed on in the context of climate change. I feel that GM technology really can help with cutting back these gas emissions. Perhaps scientists can make crops less nitrogen dependent, rice that emits less methane when growing, and my personal favourite cows that fart less.

The economist this week presented the map below showing the top 10 producers (by million hectares [1 hectare = 1000 m2]) of GM foods worldwide and countries that have adopted them. As the accompanying story suggests, Europe may no longer be able to keep out GM foods as trade regulations are forcing changes.

You tube

2008-02-21T18:45:00.002+11:00

You tube sucks. I am annoyed that I can no longer watch UEFA CL videos there.

Better late than never.

2008-02-20T10:00:00.003+11:00

It has been a tough season and possible the drama off the pitch is contributing to a lack lustre year. As a fan it has led me to many ups and downs. Liverpool has watched themselves lose any chances at winning the Premier League, and on Saturday after an embarrassing loss to Barnsley, the FA Cup. Liverpool has struggled in the FA Cup and this latest loss, just allows them to focus on the only trophy they can win this year, The Champions League.

I think it is the only club trophy worthwhile as well. Club champions of Europe really does have a nice sound to it. Last night the Champions League resumed, and Liverpool was playing the other Milan at home.

They showed some spirit in the game last night and eventually broke through the 10 man defence of Serie A leaders Inter Milan to score a 2 goal win at Anfield, both goals scored in the last 5 minutes. I now feel the tension building as Liverpool march on to the finals once again.

Censorship is pointless

2008-02-13T17:25:00.002+11:00

I have been overwhelmed by a particular TV channel continuously advertising a new underworld drama – something like an Australian version of The Sopranos, based on the criminal underworld in Melbourne. As appealing as it sounds to watch, it did one day come a little to close to home. While I was living in Melbourne in 2004, about four blocks from my house a gangster was shot. I remember walking past that restaurant all the time. The restaurant looked like a little family affair with the oversized wine glasses on tables dressed in white cloths, and the aroma of pizza filling the air. A Chinese restaurant resides in the building now which seems out of place in the Italian quarter.

It looks like the show won’t be shown in Melbourne due to outstanding court cases. Yet, I have no concern as I can download it from the web within 1 hour of it screening in Sydney.

Tet 08

2008-02-11T10:17:00.000+11:00

The lunar new year is celebrated in many countries. In some you get holidays like China, Vietnam, and Indonesia, while others is just noted on the calendar like

Australia

. However, there is a large Chinese community in Australia consisting of students and migrants so there tend to be many celebrations. I don’t recall ever going to one before I went to Vietnam, yet now I know that this is a special time for me, as I had spent lots of quality time with my friends. So this Tet I was concerned that I might not see anything when my friend from work suggested that we go to the Crown Casino to take a look at the celebrations.

I went by his place just after midday and it was unusually warm and sunny in Melbourne. This I thought was a good sign. We had to walk through Chinatown to get to the casino and it looked like it was buzzing. The first sounds of Chinese music graced my ears as we approached the corner where Chinatown meets Greek town and a crowd of people just appeared. I was surprised that so many people could fit into such a small area. On stage there were some graceful dancers swaying in time to the music which I found to be enchanting to watch. Suddenly I was startled as a burst of noise crackled behind me and smoke rose from the leftover shells of firecrackers. We decided that the show behind us was more entertaining so we moved towards it. Alas, so did all of Melbourne it seemed as I was pushed in every direction and motionless all at once. I was a statue in the street next to the dragons guarding the entrance to Chinatown. Eventually we got through the crowd and decided that we should go to the casino.

I found the air was quite festive as people where moving around chattering and laughing. Little children were building conical hats out of cardboard, painting faces, and building lanterns. As we got deeper into the festive zone, the smell of food reminded me that I was hungry. As we walked along I was looking for Vietnamese food, yet I could see Thai, Korean, Singaporean, Chinese, yet no Vietnamese. I decided that the Thai food looked the best, with my friend assuring me that this choice would not go wrong. We ate a papaya salad, similar to the green mango salad served in Vietnam. I felt it was close enough to the feeling I was searching for and dug in. I thought that I was celebrating Tet, at a Chinese festival, eating Thai food. We went back for the main course spicy basil chicken and green curry. Delicious, and was washed down with a Thai milk tea, think tea with milk and you would have got the taste .

To digest the food we went down the promenade and came across a little stage. I enjoyed watching the juggler, as he juggled balls and bottles. However, he blew me away when he was balancing and flipping a bottle and wooden spoon. I wonder how he did that. Next on show was an orchestra of Chinese instruments. I was moved by the music which had titles like peace and sounded very traditional to me.

The girl was singing was not Chinese yet her Chinese must have been good as at intervals in the song the Chinese parts of the audience would break into applause to show their admiration of her Chinese skills.

Next we watched a Chinese chef make 4096 noodles. I really enjoyed this presentation as both the mc and chef were cracking jokes everywhere.

Finally, I heard that there were going to be Vietnamese dance performance thought back to all the performances I had seen in Long Xuyen, wondering if they would be the same. I thought they were and I really was impressed with their costumes. I hadn’t seen an ao dai for so long and forgot how beautiful they are. The dancers performed a variety of songs, both traditional and modern. After the show, which I felt was too short, we went inside the casino to escape the heat and down a cold beer. Afterwards, we went browsing through the shopping corner and decided to go home. A different experience from the last few yet really enjoyable all the same.

The worm

2008-02-05T10:04:00.000+11:00

There once was a man who had decided that alcohol was evil, pure evil, and he wanted to make a point and tell the world. So he organised a meeting and invited all the townsfolk. In this big hall, the sounds of chairs grinding on the floor and low level chatter echoed throughout. The man cleared his throat and the noise faded and he began. “Ladies and gentlemen, I have come before you here today to tell you of a great evil that is killing our society”.

Everybody’s attention was hanging on the words that were filling the hall. He continued “Alcohol is a terrible evil, responsible for the degradation of society, and our moral values”. He produced in his left hand a glass full of clear liquid and placed it on the table for all to see. Then he produced another and placed it on the table next to the first glass.

Everybody was silent waiting to see what would happen when he started again. “To show you how evil alcohol is I have two glasses one filled with wholesome water and the other pure evil – 100% alcohol. He took a worm out of a box from his pocket and placed it in the first glass. The worm coughed and spluttered as it swam to the side of the glass then with all its effort it climbed out of the glass and rested on the table. The man, smiling with joy from the way this first part went, said “water is great”. He then picked up the worm and placed it in the second glass, and everybody watched as the worm melted in the alcohol.

Beaming with pride from how well the experiment went, the slowly looked up at the audience and said “As you saw the moral of the story is quite clear. Someone can you tell me what the moral of the story is” The audience broke into a little noise as they talked to the people around them about what they saw. Then a man in the middle of the hall stood up, and after the hall hushed the man on stage said “Kind sir, what is the moral of the story” in which the audience member replied “If you drink alcohol you never have to worry about worms”.

The humble plastic bag is headed for extinction!

2008-02-04T18:33:00.000+11:00

Anyone who has spent some time in Vn will have seen something similar to the picture here, an old woman collecting plastic bags and I assume selling them on in some kind of recycling process.

I have become quite disturbed lately as there seems to be a trend, well two countries at least (China and Australia), which want to do away with plastic bags. I ask why?

The plastic bag is a very useful device. It can be used to do so many things and it was the backbone to many fun times in Long Xuyen. I recall a discussion about 50 cent rice wine coming in a plastic bag rather than a can or bottle. What better way is there to serve it? And definitely a conversation starter. Yet the plastic bag has such an important place in the world I think banning it is short sighted and unacceptable. I think we should start a trend by joining as many Facebook groups as possible with the word plastic in them.

TGiF

2008-02-01T09:49:00.000+11:00

This has been an interesting week. It started with a holiday which was fantastic. The remainder of the week has been high pressure. I have been trying to clean some really messy data so that it can be useable. This task is quite draining. The procedure is something like a sudoku puzzle in the sense that you have a set of numbers which add up to some theoretical number, which I must find the particular combinations. It is a backward and forward procedure which is exhausting.

So yesterday afternoon, I finished off my work and sent it off to the bosses and was eagerly anticipating getting my salsa fix. I find that as you move higher and acquire more skills, like the 200 million turn repertoires, that they spend less time on the timing of moves to the music. Also, the other thing I have found is that the more you move up there are less partners to dance with. Last night I found myself learning the new moves without a partner then being pushed to use them to music. I felt rushed and like nothing sank in.

Well after class, I saw my friend outside and went to meet him. I must have been daydreaming because I walked right into a glass wall. I would like to say that this was a quiet matter however there was this huge thud filling the silent night. I must have hit it pretty hard because I kind remember being a tad disoriented and spinning about 270 degrees. When I came to, so to speak, I realised everyone was trying not to laugh. I was hoping then that a big hole would open up in front of me so I could just dive in and forget about the previous minute. I went out talked to my friend, copped a bit of a ribbing about my glasses, finished my beer and ran off home.

Today is Friday and I can't wait to finish tonight. Becuase I am singing, Come Mr tally mon, tally me banana, daylight come and me wan go home. I just can’t wait to see what next week has in store.

Short words

2008-01-24T18:36:00.000+11:00

Use them.

They are often Anglo-Saxon rather than Latin in origin. They are easy to spell and easy to understand. Thus prefer about to approximately, after to following, let to permit, but to however, use to utilise, make to manufacture, plant to facility, take part to participate, set up to establish, enough to sufficient, show to demonstrate and so on. Underdeveloped countries are often better described as poor. Substantive often means real or big.

“Short words are best and the old words when short are best of all.” (Winston Churchill)

More random thoughs on perceptions

2008-01-21T18:25:00.000+11:00

Why am I not surprised

Today I was searching for a paper reviewing an important, if not the most influential, Economic-climate model (DICE) and a search of the author took me to Wikipedia. Thinking this is a good place to start I consequently read the piece to find that this person, Duane Chapman, is a bounty hunter operating out of Hawaii, and not an influential energy economist (influential according to Cornell University). I was a bit miffed to find someone’s claim to pop culture was a TV show about bounty hunting.

Then again I should not be surprised. Having study a subject or two about economics I have come to realise demand is based on what people perceive to be valuable. Now energy economics is only interesting, hence demanded, by a small section of the population while bounty hunter insights would appeal to a rather large section of the population (presumptuous assumption relegated to the fine print). Hence the bounty hunter should be more famous than the economist.

Also, let us consider the role of advertising. I feel that its purpose is to create demand. How does it do this? I find it manipulates your perceptions. And how does it do this? Creates needs where there were none. I found I now have the desire to have a whole lot of things which I didn’t need or want a year ago. It has distorted my reality. I found an interesting case of distorted reality in this video. I will leave you with my current thoughts – what is beauty anyway?

One year on

2008-01-11T19:22:00.000+11:00

It has been one year since I have started to document parts of my life here. In this year I have gone through many changes, in locations, emotionally, and physically. The only thing that hasn’t changed are the finances. It seems like I have hit a plateau here.

The location is first as it is easy from Long Xuyen to Rosedale to Melbourne. Definite changes in the way the world operates around me. Long Xuyen was great I found warm and friendly people everywhere. Rosedale was the same, except smaller – think 100 people at most. The big city seems stagnated, lots of motion yet I find no direction. I feel comfortable here because nothing seems to move or change.

Physically I have changed. I have been fortunate enough to watch my weight move around like a scrap paper caught in the wind. It appears to have moved up recently, and I will blame all the delicious foods I ate at X’mas. I don’t think I have eaten so much in such a short while. Exercise wise, I have definitely lost any bulk (real or perceived) that I had acquired. All the shirts I got made to measure in VN now seem to slip on the shoulders quite a bit. Need to address this issue with some gym work or something J. Maybe even beer, if I can afford new pants.

Emotionally I have been through the ups and downs. Moving back to Melbourne was a tough adjustment trying to get used to a new lifestyle and climate. Along with that I feel the death of my grandmother (who I was close to) and a back injury added to the toughness of the adjustment process. It has been a few months now and the optimism has grown with a variety of small victories. This coming year I expect will be better than the last 6 months.

Work life has been successful. My fish industry project was a success, as with SEEK employment projects (yet this seems to never end J), and the climate change projects have definitely been done well.

My goals over the next year include starting my phd, getting out more to travel, and holiday in VN.

Corporate world

2008-01-10T18:16:00.000+11:00

Today I found was going through an art site to looking for pics and I was surprised by these more serious art pieces. I couldn't help feel that their really is such a focus on material possesions and super achievement, that people have forgotten what it means to live your life. One day we will all wake up like Lester and wonder what the hell happened. Maybe it is because I recently watched American Beauty and feel reflective. I don't know :)

Anyway here is some thought provoking art.

The Sweet Escape

2008-01-07T14:50:00.000+11:00

Over the holiday break I made an escape up north to my hometown of Brisbane. I had felt that I had suffered the cold enough, well my thinking of cold at least, in the last 6 months that I was entitled to some days were moving was energy sapping and a shower required every other minute. To my amazement the opposite happened, I packed the miserable weather into my luggage and brought it with me while someone packed the furnace like weather and took it with them to Melbourne (30 plus temperatures). Such is life. Anyway, even though the weather was miserable, 20 degrees in my hometown was still a lot warmer than 20, maybe even 25, in Melbourne, when you include the humidity. I was happy that I brought the rain with me as most of the people I met enjoyed the fact that it was raining and windy as it was something that had been missing in the last couple of years.

Before Christmas I caught up with one of my closest friends and traded war stories from SEA as he had just returned from a trip to Malaysia. The way he described it made me want to visit there next time I go to SEA. Later we met some other friends and I realised that over the years I had drifted apart as the guys were just talking about their investments. I am happy for them, yet I was really bored listening to them.

For Christmas I met my (just about) in-laws for the first time, brother and his girlfriend, my parents, and their new kittens. I was taken aback by how small they were, thinking back to a picture of Buong sitting peacefully in Eric’s hand (before terrorist training), who is now a couple of kilos. The kittens were a real show stealer and I felt like it was not Christmas but the welcoming of a new family member. For lunch I tried a type of lobster called a Moreton Bay Bug. It kind of reminded me of crab with out the claws. Definitely would be good in a tamarind sauce.

Between Christmas and the New Year I tried to catch up with as many friends I could contact. As I was hinting at before, time apart does change things notably phone numbers. I had all sorts of trouble trying to “find” people and only resulted in catching up with a few. I was impressed that my friends and I got on just like we never separated, even though there were definite changes in their situations like kids and mortgages.

For New Year’s Eve, I went and did the traditional thing of going to South Bank to watch the fireworks. I was surprised to meet an old friend there and halfway through our catch up the countdown started. The fireworks went off with what I though was an amazing dazzling of colour and precision. The fireworks were tuned into music and even with all the speakers around you couldn’t really hear anything except the ooohhhs and aaaahhhhs as people, including myself, were mesmerised by the fireworks. Next time I will make sure that I remember my camera.

The tropical low off the coast decided that wind and rain should also be used in the celebration as a couple of minutes after the fireworks were over it started to rain. The next few days were rather lazy just helping out around the house by keeping the TV on as the people I had managed to contact were back at the grind. I returned to Melbourne without incident and prepared myself get back into the swing of things.

I am realising getting back into the swing of things is harder than I thought.

My home

2007-12-14T18:40:00.000+11:00

I have been working at the CSES for about 3 months now and I haven't got a name on the door, so I decided I would use my time wisely and make one. Now this required me to think very carefully about what I do at work. Essentially I push a mouse around all day. In a more global sense I create or sometimes if luck is on my side I recreate data. I give it a little extra flair - a touch of evil. Hence the title of my cage, oops, I mean room. After posting the sign on the door noone noticed.

It took three weeks for anyone to notice. I guess the boredom of statistics transends my room. Then someone must have noticed as people started to ask me if I would like to be paid in bananas, which amuses me. Now anyone who really knows me, knows that scotch or vodka would be the appropriate currency.

Its not what you think

2007-12-11T18:26:00.000+11:00

My first post for December is all about perspective.

I found this link through weird news asia website where they had a thing on weird commercials. I don't mind watching a commercial if it is funny or interesting. However when I started to watch this one i started to get nervous. I had to close the door to my office just in case. I started wondering about how this passed through the youtube censors.

Well at the end I just started to laugh as it is quite amusing, how wicked my thoughts are.

Addicted to Salsa

2007-11-29T18:27:00.000+11:00

In an effort to keep from getting too round, I have taken up salsa dancing. I am pretty geared up with this as I have always wanted to be able to dance like a professional salsa dancer. At the club I go to, there are some really good dancers who just amaze with their spins and turns and their steps. Really ballroom professional looking. After practice on Sunday night I went and asked this girl for a dance, forgot to intro myself etc., and received a weird look with a quick yeah! why not. So after the class I was on a high and this just lifted me to the stratosphere. Getting out on the dance floor was shattering. She was a much much better dancer than me and my male ego took a battering. She is flying around like a ballerina and I am like an elephant on ice skates. I just remember really starting to look for the end of the song so that we could finish. It was like the spotlight was shining on me and I was doing a comedy routine. Luckily the song wasn't long to finish and I quickly found another class member to dance with and I was relieved that my male pride was restored.

To find some music to infuse myself with I have been going to Itunes podcast section and downloading some salsa podcasts. I was at the addicted to salsa website and found the following lists amusing in the forum sections.

TOP 10 REASONS TO DATE A DANCER

10. We know all the positions

9. We have perfect technique, good rhythm, and great hip rotation

8. We are used to having bruises on our knees

7. We are used to performing in minimal amounts of clothing

6. We are perfectionists: Well keep going until we hit it

5. We can shake it like no other!

4. After a quick intermission, were ready to go at it again

3. We dont mind getting hot and sweaty

2. We are not as delicate and fragile as we look

1. One word: FLEXIBILITY!!!

Some reasons NOT to date a dancer:

1. They insist on a hardwood floor.

2. Good rhythm, but do you really want to make love to the clave?

3. They pay professionals for private sessions.

4. They want to change partners every 5 minutes.

5. Always looking at themselves in the mirror.

6. Unexpectedly, they push you away to 'shine' solo.

7. Their feelings get hurt if you're not smiling all the time.

8. They post all their experiences in online forums.

9. The men expect the women to do exactly what they want, when they want.

10. The women expect the men to constantly come up with new moves.

Oh in other news, Liverpool is starting to hit some form (geez I hope I haven't cursed them now).

Whoa!

2007-11-26T19:05:00.000+11:00

Last Thursday night I was invited to share my experiences in the Mekong Delta. I had a good time however I was curious as to why every story I told started with after drinking x amount of y, then main point of the story. I am sure I did more than just drink in my time in Vietnam. Well anyway Friday was hell, because the night before I drank too much wine. The head was throbbing all day and my concentration easily departed from the task at hand.

Trying to find some photos of the crocs that escpaed in Hue and filling the flooded town with fear, I want to offer Tyler some advice if he meets one. I want to let him know about how we handle crocs down here below the equator. Now you have all seen The Crocodile Hunter, and I just want you all to know that it is a little Hollywoodised. You don't need to go to the bush to find them, they are in all the cities here. Anyway, also when we catch them we cut them up and eat them or make boots out of them a la Crocodile Dundee.

Sometimes we are not so lucky and the croc gets to eat the steaks.

Anyway I came across this picture which took my breath away with how amazing it is. I found it like one of those pictures on perspectives where you look and see an old woman for about 10 minutes then bam! you find the young woman and the old woman left the building.

I really am not sure if this is a true rock formation or just some photoshop trickery, yet I like it. Just in case you are having trouble with seeing it below is the bam! factor.

Karma Seatra

2007-11-13T17:38:00.000+11:00

I somehow got subscribed to Borders' (bookstore) email advertising for new books each month, must have been one of those afterwork zombie moments. As I was going through it I was pretty surprised and impressed with the cleverness of the title when I checked and found this in it.

Kama SEAtra is a comical exposé of the raunchy sex lives of marine creatures. From desire and deception, lust and fetish, pleasure and pain - it's all happening beneath the waves, according to this new book about the marine world. The author Sherre Marris takes a different approach, by humanising the marine life, she is engaging and writes about marine creatures in a way we can relate. It's wacky, wonderful and occasionally weird; KamaSEAtra gives you a whole perspective on what goes on under the sea.

Anyway it had nice pictures attached so I thought I might share them with you.

Big head time!

2007-11-09T09:42:00.000+11:00

While working in Vietnam I had the luck to be able to work on a few research projects. Most were directly related for the university's performance identifying weakness and strengths within the economics faculty. However the last project that I did was a study on the Pangasias (Tra & Basa [Vietnamese] catfish) value chain. This project looked at the uncertanties facing the industry at the industry level to identify where improvements could be made to ensure that the livlihoods of those working in it could be secured for the future.

While working on this project I met another Australian who had done similar work in Laos, and had proposed to do a project for the whole Mekong region, Vietnam, Cambodia, & Laos. He was in the process of writing the application when we met and was fishing around for ideas and collaborations. I really liked his enthusiasm when I met him and it gave me a push to complete the project, as my comitment was starting to fade.

Well yesterday, I was in contact with my old boss and he informed me that the funding for the project was secured and the individaul project proposals are taking shape and my work on the catfish value chain is the basis for his project. I was pretty much blown away when I heard that and my head swelled to an all time size, bigger than the Eureka tower shown from my work in the in right side of the picture. I am now on a work high, as this I think is the biggest accomplishment from any work I have done previously. However, I am going to try to top it with the current work on climate change, and try to make my work make a difference for the better.

Looking southeast from my work with the Eureka Tower at the right

The focus of the photos is beyond the buildings that is why the Eureka Tower is not well shown.

Another shot from work with the Eureka Tower at the left.

History making

2007-11-07T11:38:00.001+11:00

A history making event, yet still a long way to go.

iPod Nano

2007-10-31T18:17:00.000+11:00

Well, last week I finally broke down and bought an iPod. I bought the Nano style due to the cost and projected use (oops work vocabulary slipping in). I have been exercising lately and as anyone knows if you are not really playing sport it is quite monotonous. I have been riding an exercise bike and it seems like every second drags for a minute, so by adding music I am hoping to remove this effect. It does work and my workout productivity seems to have improved.

One thing I can’t get over is how small the iPod is. I was expecting it to be a bit bigger than my phone yet was surprised it is smaller than the phone. It can store 1000 songs and playback is for 22 hours. It has a little video screen for when I download the UEFA Champions League Vodcast (Don’t think about the Liverpool Besiktas game). I am not a big fan of iTunes and unfortunately you need the latest version too I am limited to uploading songs from work yet I find it is a great thing to have. I am just going to make sure that I don't use it while walking in NYC.

Kung fu and fashion

2007-10-31T17:50:00.000+11:00

This is the reason why kung fu and fashion should not mix.

Radio Wisdom

2007-10-24T18:05:00.001+10:00

I heard on the radio today a surefire way to lose weight.

When you drink coffee use low fat milk, and to give it taste add cream and chocolate.

Strange Days

2007-10-24T09:36:00.000+10:00

No this post will not be about the Doors song or the movie. More about an interesting 12 hours. Last night I was suffering from insomnia, once again, and I couldn't sleep. I thought that the bed was too hard and it was keeping me awake. I am currently using an air mattress, waiting for the credit card to go down a bit before making the plunge to real furniture. Eventually I fell asleep and when I woke up in the morning I found that the bed had deflated. I recall that some of my last thoughts were taking some air out of the mattress to make it a bit softer, and I wonder did I do this while I was sleeping.

Well I prepared to go to work and arrive in the lift and the last person in is someone I am currently working with. With a formal work related greeting asking me if I had seen a report, I then listened for 10 minutes as I was told how to proceed with my tasks, his way (he was offering advice while later that day my boss liked what I had done). Now this is not a bad thing per se, just that I realised that I wasn't aloud to talk through this lecture.

Then I went to boil water for my coffee and then had a similar conversation with my boss, on a different topic. I was starting to become irritated as I wanted to sit down and drink my coffee. I had been at work for about 20 minutes and yet to taste the much wanted coffee. I WAS LONGING FOR MY COFFEE. I was starting to think about going postal.

All's well, that ends well. Finally, I got to sit down and enjoy my coffee. And today, much inspired by a quote I read recently I am going to look for the book A Portrait of the Artist As a Young Man. I had heard about James Joyce while drinking at Sheridan's in HCMC and had been curious about what his writing would be like and I am eagerly anticpating reading some of this tonight. Also I will see if I can find a book called Blink.

Someone notices

2007-10-11T17:38:00.000+10:00

I have been working at CSES now for about two months on a project for the SEEK employment index. Essentially my role was to write programs to analyse the number of applications and number of advertised jobs and pass them onto my supervisor. It was a frustrating experience writing the code and organising the data so that it runs right. I was satisfied when on Monday this week I had finally finished that project.

That night though I actually wondered if anybody besides my boss ever read the report that is produced each month. I started to think that in general, the more you get paid the less impact your work has. As a teacher at AGU I wasn’t paid much yet it was bang for buck for those I worked with – students, staff, and community people.

Here in Australia, we have a lot of people paid good salaries and it appears that not much is really done. Although people produce work it is not as obvious as it was at AGU or work in a restaurant or on a construction site. So I was surprised today when I opened the newspaper and saw a reference to the SEEK EI report. I was proud that some of the work I did possibly benefited some people and made it into the press.

The project that I am currently working on is one on climate change. I hope that this will also have some impact. The impact is getting a lot of money for our centre and to run lots models – and running the models is my thing.

Kenny

2007-10-09T18:29:00.000+10:00

When one of the first lines in a movie is “Is there any Indonesian or curries being served?” and it is about corporate toilet blocks, it gets my attention. Recently I had the pleasure to watch such a movie, Kenny. I was amazed at how close this film got to being a documentary yet still maintaining the fictional story. I found that there were enough laughs and little chuckles to go throughout the whole movie. I have attached the trailer for your enjoyment and if you get the chance I would recommend that you watch it.

Retired

2007-10-08T18:41:00.000+10:00

After watching some videos on You Tube using Adobe Illustrator, I have been playing around with my copy. The videos made it look so easy, and at times manipulating the artwork was quite frustrating. Other times I was inspired.

Since I was no longer far from the Great Southern Land, I thought it might be good to update the logo. I had a discussion with Tyler for some names and the best we came up with was Standing on the Great Southern Land. I didn’t think that was that good so I let the unconscious run wild and came up with Under the Southern Cross. I know you can be under the Southern Cross (Crux if you’re an astrologist) on many continents, yet is has quite a symbolic meaning in Australia, check the flag.

I had this picture of Melbourne looking westwards from the Rialto Tower at night and thought that would make a good backdrop for my new logo. I sat at home and designed a little sketch of what I wanted on paper and then tried to illustrate it. As I was working through on the computer I could see what I wanted was not going to work out so I changed it midway through and came upon the design that you now see.

I had a bit of luck though. With the font I used a brush tool write the characters and then accidentally clicked another button and saw that the font turned out better that way. I was impressed so I left it that way and added it the backdrop. After lots of messing around I finished and it is time to hang up the old logo and add the new.

Officially out of service for a while

Welcome to the team

Bonded!

2007-10-05T18:13:00.000+10:00

A while ago while Tyler, Hendrik, and I where still in Long Xuyen we challenged Tyler's Photoshop skills. We asked him to make some photos of people. I got James Bonded. I came across that photo today and thought I might share it with the world. It brings back a lot of good memories, about partying in the ER in LX.

As I stand now, while it was possible to be that popular with the girls in Vietnam, it ain't happening to me here yet!

Football Capital = Melbourne

2007-10-02T18:00:00.000+10:00

It has been a good year for Victorian football teams this year. In the rugby league this year the Melbourne Storm won, beating the Manly Sea Eagles. I was on my way to watch it, yet the heavens opened and I didn’t feel like going to walk through the rain. I took the rain as a good omen, and thought the storm would win, not only because they were the best NRL team throughout the year. The Melbourne Victory (soccer) also won this week after 6 games, yet they are undefeated.

Yet more importantly for Victorians was the AFL grand final. In Melbourne, I have found if you know nothing about this game then there is nothing to talk about. I think it is crazy. I have been keeping tabs on the results so I don’t look like a complete fool when the topic comes up, except when asked to rattle off 5 players from a team. Well the grand final was between Geelong (Victorian) and Port Adelaide (South Australian). There is rivalry between these states like that between Queensland and New South Wales. All week there was nothing else happening in the world, and in Melbourne it was important that Geelong wins, since a Victorian team has not won for over 5 years.

How crazy people get for the AFL

I noticed how everyone thought Geelong would win, yet I was thinking that this might not be the case. Port looked good all season and beat them a few weeks before the finals. I wanted Geelong to be victorious only because it was the lesser of the two evils, since Geelong is not really Melbourne.

I went to watch the game at my Dad’s house in Rosedale, and it was easy to watch as that was all that was on TV. As the game started Geelong looked good, and stayed good throughout the game. By half time you wondered if Port even showed up. I was relishing in their defeat, as Port has to be the team I hate most, or equal with Adelaide.

According to trivia, the final score was quite symbolic – 24 goals (6 points each) and 19 points for a total of 163 versus 6 goals, 8 points totalling 44. 163 is linked to the year Geelong last won the premiership in 1963, Port’s score of 44 years is the length of the wait for the premiership, and 24 and 19 are jumper numbers of the players on the roster who missed out on a flag this year.

Lastly, I found it interesting that now that the football season is over people will have to fill the void somehow, so some physiologists think that office chat will turn nasty. Great! Let the gossip begin.

What is love?

2007-09-26T17:50:00.000+10:00

Not that this post will tell you, however here is an interesting audio clip I came across today giving the finer points of how to keep a marriage together, especially for women. It is not something you should play loudly at work. Listen to it here or save it to your computer for personal laughter time (size is about 4mbs).

Random thoughts about work

2007-09-25T17:59:00.001+10:00

Sometimes at work when I think about what I need to do to get a promotion ( a little premature, I know). I also think about how the field of economics is just too constrained within its little structure. For example, I was reading a blog about environmental economics and saw that the author was rejected from the journal he submitted the paper to. The problem was that the author didn't use an optimising model of behaviour - such as to maximise happiness (utility) or profits, etc. I am against this sort of thinking personally, as most of us in the real world know that when you go to the shop or restaurant you don't have perfect information to make an optimal choice so we do the best we can (I know it can seem like optimisation). Other choices are made much in the same way.

Some times to get ideas about an optimisation paper I might search the Internet newspapers so that I can something off the wall. One such site is weird news asia, with a tonne of interesting reads. Check out the picture below from China, what was this guy optimising when he was constructing his house? I like music a lot, yet not that much. Perhaps if I was playing an instrument it might suit me more. Anyway, I am confident that once he plants a garden it would be a gem of a house. Definitely a talking point.

Scrolling down the page I came to a picture that pretty much sums up academic economics as I think it stands.

The last kingdom

2007-09-23T13:48:00.000+10:00

Lately I have been without a TV which is a blessing and a curse. The curse bit being that I just can’t lie around and watch TV or play video games. However, not having a TV allows me to read. At the present rate it seems to be about 2 books in 7 days. For me I have doubled the amount of books I have read in about a month.

One author my father recommended is Bernard Cornwell. He is a historical writer who fabricates stories around historical events. The first book I read was in the Saxon Stories – The Lords of the North. I was hooked, engrossed in the story and before I knew it, it was over. I felt an affiliation with Utred, as he tried to regain what was lost in the first book.

After reading that book, I quickly secured the two previous books in the series from my father’s library and devoured them. Now I am waiting to find the latest book which apparently has just been released in the UK.

In the meantime I have moved onto the books about the hundred year war between England and France. These books are older, yet just as good. I am determined to find out whether Thomas, will recover the Holy Grail and complete other tasks set of him.

What the?

2007-09-16T13:08:00.000+10:00

I was going to a job interview sometime in July and I came across this picture in the toilet at Victoria University. I was quite amused by this photo and thought I might share it with the world. You will find this helpful if you ever come to Australia as you know we are different down here, so this will help you feel like like a local. You will be surpised to find that there are not some made for late night etiquette, especially for kebab shops and taxi ranks. With those then you too could say you come from the land down under.

Chewing gum

2007-09-14T17:15:00.000+10:00

As some of you know, I am not for chewing gum. I think it is sticky and messy. Many times it has jumped on my shoe when I have been unaware and once or twice it has jumped onto my pants, because people are sometimes careless. I have been blessed for a while of not having such occurrences.

So today in the Yahoo oddly enough I found that chewing gum does not have to bother me anymore. A stickless chewing gum is a blessing. No more chewy on the boot, yeah!