heaven avid mountaineer

Surely I'm not the first person to notice the writings on the rust-like metal panels decorating the northern edge of the brand new boardwalk, connecting the Shepherd Street entry into Sydney University to Maze Green. Let me just say that it does look amazing. If anyone has had the opportunity/courage to walk to Redfern Station at night, they would notice the gentle glow emitted from the wooden floor panels below. It gives off a very light, floating feeling, not unlike being abducted by aliens...minus the "unpleasant" anal probe. Together with the metal panels, which has weird writings on some of them, it has an overall zen-y feel.

Speaking of which, CK and I were looking at some of the panels, and with the use of my trusty mobile phone, I was able to read from the first panel with text, from the university end of the walkway, (not from the Redfern end) that it says "HEAVENAVIDMOUNTAINEER". I asked CK what was meant by Heaven Avid Mountaineer and he has no idea either. If anyone has any clue what it is supposed to mean...and if anyone has actually bothered finding out what all the other panels say, let me know :)

Hopefully I'll be posting some images of these panels, and more, soon.

musings of...my sister?

I was talking to my sister...and realised she had a page on the web. Just one of those friend pages. Even though she doesn't want me to see it, a quick search online revealed it in no time. Quite interesting...why do all the youngsters of today's society feel like shortcutting their words? Apparently "pllz" means people..."fds" means friends. I don't know, but I feel that spelling and grammar should generally be used...even on the web. It's just so much easier to read than a bunch of abbreviations.

back from the hunter valley

I'm back from the SCANZ Crystal 25 Conference in the Hunter Valley. My first ever conference and I must say, it was fantastic. It could not have been in a nicer place. The scenery, the wine, the cheese, the food, everything was just great. Even though I was moved from staying at the conference venue to another site for accommodation, it was still pretty good. If CK and I ever decide to go away to the Hunter Valley, I would seriously consider staying at these places.

The conference itself was good. Great talks and not so great talks. No offence, but I have an issue with protein people being at a crystallography conference. It's just wrong! But some of the other talks are great. They tend to be involved with solid state chemistry, which is my field, or molecular frameworks. Other talks which was good were about some of the new facilities opening up here in Australia, such as the new OPAL reactor at ANSTO and the Australian Synchrotron in Melbourne. And of course, the best talks were saved for last...Materials Science and Nanotechnology.

The social side of things were great...met a lot of new people, like MC, who is CL's new postdoc out at ANSTO. Nice guy. We were all fed well constantly and the dinners...really extravagant. I felt guilty throughout the whole conference. Here I am, just coming here to present a poster and listen to talks and some new research that's happening, and I'm being fed feasts after feasts. Of course, it was all sponsored by some very generous analytical companies. In the spirit of "you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours" I thought I'd mention one in particular...Panalytical. Why? Free periodic table mouse pad! You can tell I'm a geek, can't you?

cheap music...it's insanity

So here I was, enjoying my Good Friday holiday. Going out every single day of the week for months on end really makes you appreciate any time you get to spend at home doing nothing but sipping cold lemon iced tea. I guess I can do that in the office too, but it's more fun without having to put gel in your hair or having to go to the mirrored wall in the lift to check your hair every so often, while hoping no one opens the lift doors while you're privately in there making sure you don't look like Sideshow Bob. Not that I do that of course...Although I did catch someone who shall remain nameless, popping a zit in there. Let's just say it wasn't pleasant for either of us. Organic chemists...pfffttt

Anyway, being lazy and all, I decided to check out Sanity Digital. I didn't realise how great it was until now. You can buy tracks for only $1.69 which seems to be a bit of a bargain. Finally, I can get music online without having to worry about being sued for copyright infringement...which I never do of course *insert angelic smile here*. I love being able to mix and match and just buy the tracks I want. I'm particular addicted to the Gia Farrell song Hit Me Up from the Happy Feet soundtrack. For someone who hasn't even watched the movie, I can't believe I'm so addicted to the song. Unfortunately I can't say the same thing for the music video. It started off ok with the silhouettes, but after that, it was all a bit downhill. It looks too much like a Jennifer Love Hewitt production.

Other songs that I also downloaded includes Silverchair's new one, Straight Lines, Gwen Stefani's The Sweet Escape and KT Tunstall's Suddenly I See from the Ugly Betty theme, so I was told. I also got Elevator Love by Guy Sebastian and Addicted To You by the recently outted/came out Anthony Callea. I swear I don't like Australian Idol, but those two songs aren't too bad. I can see myself visiting and shopping a lot more on sanitydigital.com.au now.

brought to you by...westfield

For those of you in the know, I travel 5 days a week from Burwood station to go to uni. It's not particularly fun or noteworthy...until now. It seems recently they've decided to whore the station out to Westfield. You don't really notice the giant advertisements when you're departing from the station. However, it is very obvious when you arrive. For instance, they have this enormous billboard-like poster covering over a whole wall in the tunnel leading to platforms 4 to 6, which you don't generally see, since it doesn't face the commuters going up the stairs. But when you arrive, you just can't help but see it. Also the large posters hung up over the stairs, perfect for when you walk down the stairs so you can see them.

It won't be long before they pay Gretel Killeen another 50 bucks to say the words "brought to you by Westfield" so CityRail can tag it along on their PA systems.

"The next train to arrive on platform 18 goes to Hornsby, first stop Redfern, then Burwood, brought to you by Westfield, then Strathfield, then all stations to Epping, then all stations to Hornsby."

oh look, he's human after all

Well here we are again, another 4 years of Labor government in NSW. I happen to catch a little of Peter Debnam's concession speech. Although there was no audio, the fact that his stage was darkly lit with a tint of blue and also the fact that he never smiled gave the impression that he lost the State Election. However when I got home and re-watched the speech online, I noticed a little something. Peter Debnam may actually be human. That's right boys and girls! An actual human being. Throughout the whole campaign, it has been well known that he was unpopular, not unlike some of his policies. The way he portray himself borders on robotic, which probably explains why the voters haven't really warmed up or accepted him.

But while he was giving his concession speech, one of the lines he said was "the people of New South Wales has given Labor one last chance to fix the problems in this state." The first time he said that, it looked like he started saying "more" instead of "last", which I found quite interesting. By saying "last", he made it sound like the Coalition will win in 2011. By saying "more", it would seem like Labor would have the possibility of winning next time around...again. I think his little stumble actually make him seem human. It almost gives him a "one of the people" kind of quality, a good quality. But if he was to accidentally say "more", it probably wouldn't make him a good politician, at least, not to the political analysts. Then again, who said good people make good politicians?

are you in the right class?

As soon as you start honours, you are given the privilege of teaching a first year laboratory class, commonly referred to as a demonstrating class. Depending on which time slot you choose/happen to have, you may have a class of about 18 to 20 first year chemistry students, ranging from zero chemistry experience, to those who topped chemistry in their school and to those doing chemistry only as a requirement to biology or pharmacy or even veterinary science. Once again, this semester, I have a class with students with zero or limited experience in chemistry. Having taught both these students and students in the advanced class, the differences between the two groups are very distinctive.

As a comparison, the students in the advanced class tends to ask questions related to the theoretical and practical side of the experiment, whereas students in the fundamental class ask questions more akin to *stuffs a micro-test tube in your face* "Does this look like 0.5 grams to you?" Unfortunately for me, not being blessed to measure the weight of a sample just by looking at it, I often refer the students to the top-loading balances to help them.

I absolutely do not mind them asking me questions like that. Sure, I cannot specifically answer them with either a "yes" or a "no", but at least I can help and show them how to find out. After all, assuming no chemistry experiences whatsoever for the whole class, how can I criticise them for not knowing how to do something, since they've never done it before. That is the reason why I am there, is it not? What annoys me the most, is having students who just sit there and mentally wonder off. They don't pay attention and they don't do the experiments. When you ask them if everything is fine, they reply with the affirmative, but with an angry tone as if I had just disturbed them from their Winter Wonderland daydream. To confirm my suspicions that they are in fact daydreaming rather than doing their work, I would ask a follow up question, relating to the experiment, to which the most common reply so far would be "I don't know".

Other ways to know first year students are not paying attention is when they insist you do the experiment with them. Before the actual practical experiments start, we are required to give them a quick run down on what the experiment is about and what it is they have to do. Even before the lab session, they are required to read the whole experiment and to also submit answers to an online quiz. Having done all that, and telling them specifically what they have to do, some students would refuse to do it unless you are there, right by their side, doing the experiment separately with them. In case they haven't realised yet, university is very focused on individual learning. We demonstrators, unlike high school teachers, will not spoon-feed you and perform the experiment with you to get "perfect" answers. We help and support the students by telling them what to do and showing them how to do it, as opposed to doing the experiment with them, which is basically doing it for them.

So if you are one of those kind of students who can only pass by sucking up to your teachers and getting them to do your work for you, then I must ask...are you in the right class?

bridge walk

This Sunday, my boyfriend CK and I will be going on the Sydney Harbour Bridge Walk to celebrate its 75th anniversary. Our time slot is from 7pm, although I'm not quite sure how long it will take. The last time I walked the whole way across the bridge was after the midnight fireworks on New Years Day in 2003/2004. I watched the fireworks at Milsons Point, and afterwards, the trains were packed, so it ended up being quicker to just walk across the bridge. The last time that I partially walked across the bridge was with CK when we went to the top of one of the pylons. There was kind of like a Sydney Harbour Bridge Museum there. Very funkie. Just unfortunate we didn't bring our camera with us, because the view from above the pylon was amazing. Hopefully next time, we'll get to go on BridgeClimb. We always see people in those grey suits, walking on the arch of the bridge. It seems like so much fun...CK, if you're reading this...*hint hint*

Hopefully the bridge walk on Sunday will be somewhat like the opening ceremony back on 1932, except without the sepia...

south park image

While I'm here, I'll just post a new image of me.This is the South Park version of me.

powerhouse discovery centre

My boyfriend and I went to the opening of the Powerhouse Discovery Centre at Castle Hill today. It's basically a warehouse where they store all the exhibits that aren't shown at the museum itself. Apparently the warehouses have been there for a while, but today, it was finally opened to the public. I love museums. I can spend the whole day there looking at all the different exhibits.

The reason why we were there was because my boyfriend was on St John Ambulance duty. So while he was busy handing out band-aids, I was having a great time looking at all the exhibits. I came across a display of really old slide rules which I found very interesting. I never had the opportunity to learn how to use a slide rule. I remember playing around with one in high school, but I've always trusted my Sharp calculator. Something about moving lines and moving bits and pieces so they line up doesn't strike me as being very accurate. But I could be wrong. There were also circular ones and even a spiral one called "Moore's Lightning Calculator" I'm guessing the manual for that is slightly more intense than your average bedtime reading books.

Another display that I came across was the prototype designs for the Sydney Olympic Games Torch. So glad they chose the one that they did. No offence, but the others were quite dull. One of the foam prototype looked more like a dinosaur bone than an Olympic Torch. Overall, it was quite impressive. Glad they finally opened it to the public.

it's not cheating, but it feels like it

As they say, if it's too good to be true, it usually is. Which is why when I stumbled upon this article on the Sydney Morning Herald, I was sceptical at first. It reports that Microsoft was selling their latest Office 2007 for only $75. That's right, $75! Surely this has to be a scam concocted by some dodgy businessmen trying to make a quick buck, like Billy Gates, or Stevie Jobs.

But looking further into the website, it looked more and more convincing, despite the American wannabe version of Borat from the 50s on its main page and beyond. It turns out that this was indeed a Microsoft promotion. Every Australian university student with an university email address can buy Microsoft Office Ultimate 2007 for $75 (unlimited licence) or for $25 (for a 1 year licence). You download a trial version from the website and when you purchase the real thing, they send you a legitimate Product Key via email. The trail version is then converted to the real version.

Without seeing the harm in installing the trial version on my office computer, that is exactly what I did. Limited to 25 "launches" I was hooked by the new spunkie user interface after the first launch of Word 2007. Without further ado, I went on and gave them my credit card details and within minutes, I was sent my Product Key. For those mathematicians out there, I just got a discount of 93.5%.

Seeing as this would most likely be the version of Office I'll be using to write that PhD thesis, I really do believe I got a bargain. Now if only they would do the same for Windows Vista...

working conditions

Working in a lab, we are often reminded to make sure we put safety as our first priority. And of course, that makes sense with plenty of broken glassware to cut yourself on and cabinets of acid awaits your every slip on the wet and dirty floor. However, do you think WorkCover would worry about this?


First day back and the first thing I found on my desk was the excrement of a non-specific rodent, littered across my desk. Upon closer inspection, I found what appears to be nibbled-on edges of my papers with a dash of rodent pee. Fortunately, the papers were not important and were quickly thrown away. Latex gloves were worn, in the removal of the rodent excrement...one of the perks of working in a laboratory. Gloves that is, not the excrement removal.

Throughout the past summer, my desk was leased to summer students using this time to work on projects within the department. I'm not angry that they used up all my post-its, but I wish they would continue with the general up-keeping of my desk...

lightning and thunder

Luckily we didn't get home too late tonight. I guess someone upstairs isn't happy about something. That...or there's a severe thunderstorm brewing.


With the lights dimming and at least one of the computers automatically restarting, I thought it was best to switch over to my notebook. It's a little concerning when you're watching a DVD and the monitor decides to flicker a little...

vertically and gravitationally challenged melbournian at the mardi gras

Ok, what is with vertically and gravitationally challenged Melbournians at the mardi gras tonight (3rd March)? My boyfriend and I were waiting for 2 hours for the parade to start...and when it does, this vertically and gravitationally challenged (read as short and fat) woman decides to stand on a milk carton directly in front of me! I couldn't see a thing!

When the barriers were at the kerb, there was a family in between me and the parade, with said vertically and gravitationally challenged woman and her son next to me. After the barriers were shifted to the road, the woman pushed her way in front of me. I could still see the parade path, so I didn't complain. Then when the parade starts, she stood on a milk carton that belonged to the aforementioned family, right in front of me. I mentioned politely to her son that I can't see anything. Her son passed the message onto her, to which she replied "I don't care. I'm short, I can't see."

What is that?!? You're blocking the view of the parade from, not just me, but half a dozen people behind you! You can see fine, even when standing on the red painted asphalt of the bus lane, despite your vertically challenged status. After my boyfriend had a word with her son, the son offered to move over a little in order for me to see, which was nice of him. In the end, we did managed to get a much better view of the parade.

One of the things the mardi gras was preaching, I believe, was the idea of tolerance. And here we have this vertically and gravitationally challenged woman from Melbourne (I overheard from her loud conversations) behaving like she owned the place. Ironic isn't it?


If I was any more gay and bitchy, the following would probably be the conversation that we might have had:
MC: Excuse me, I can't see anything.
VGCW: I don't care. I'm short, I can't see.
MC: Well lady, you better get your fat lard of an arse off that milk carton before it collapses, so the people behind you can see!
VGCW: What did you call me?!?
MC: Hey! It's not my fault your epic arse is big enough to block out the sun!

By the way, her son has an uncanny resemblance to GH. Creepy.

holding the man

A little while ago, a friend NS told my boyfriend about this play that was showing at the opera house. I looked it up and it was very interesting...So today, we got tickets for the three of us on the 19th of May. It was originally shown at the SBW Stables Theatre at Kings Cross, but for some reason, it's just much more fun going to the opera house. The reviews I've read so far have been good, so I can't wait!

honours quotes

Yes! I've finally added a little quotes section. It's just a bunch of quotes we amassed throughout my honours year among the honours students. Seriously, we had so much fun, it's amazing that all of us submitted our thesis in on time.

If any of you guys are reading this, you'll know who the quotes are referring to. Thanks to KA for keeping track of the quotes.

my first post

This is my first official post on this new blog. I thought I would use this place as a way of documenting my life as a postgraduate student. Actually, it starts in about 3 days. I can't wait to write about all my experiments failing, the endless fire drills and the daily race to see who gets to book time on the instruments, two weeks in advance.

A PhD in chemistry is going to be great. It'll be like Honours x3.5!