New Zealand and the Drinking Culture

After the reply Amy left me on her blog, I thought I'll address this as well as make an update on the proceedings in my life. 

Yes, Amy, I am drinking a lot. There isn't anything else to do in New Zealand though. Seriously. When you go out to town, you drink. When you are free in University, you go to Shadows, the student pub (in Auckland anyway). When you go camping, you drink. I can't explain it too well, but New Zealand has a long established culture of drinking. This is exacerbated when you're: A) a university student; B) an Engineering student (although I'm sure this will provoke comments/blog posts from others telling me that it's not the case). In any case, I will limit these claims to only New Zealand. 

But all that drinking aside, yes I did go out drinking last night. As well as clubbing, but I was drinking first. I went to Deschlers, the rock bar which has become my usual hangout of late. I just like sitting there and having a few quiet (as in I don't speak, because it's actually really loud with all the rock music) drinks. Plus, they make awesome drinks, in particular the gin martini I so favour. 

I then met up with Willow and her crew, that being Daniel, her boyfriend (obviously), some of her friends, Paul, Ashein, Keri and Kim (they hang out in a group called the Tea Party, don't ask me why), and some of her other friends whose names I cannot remember. Yes, I'm bad with names. Yes, I'm worse after a few drinks. Irrelevant, though. 

So anyway, we all make it into the Flight Lounge, despite the huge faux pas on Ashein's part (by wearing running sneakers). Yes, we all got in because of the huge buffer of girls, and also because there were not many people there yet. Then I accidentally spilt some guy's drink. That didn't really matter, since I bought him another. But then it turns out he had the same PIN as I did, so he bought me a drink. Cool huh? I like these little random things.

I'll probably mention this now, but I personally don't know how to dance (as in I can't shuffle, etc). You know, I can move and whatever, so it depends on what people perceive as dance. But yes, I can't/don't dance. Anyway. Despite this, or perhaps because of this, when I do "dance", I'm not discriminatory of any particular way of dancing. Often I enjoy reciprocating my dance partner's moves back on themselves. And I get very dirty when dancing.

So. Yes, I dirty danced with some of Willow's friends, because she didn't want to dirty dance (neither did Tea Party group). I think I got summarily judged by the Tea Party group of friends after that, but meh. Screw them. I was already on my alcoholic high besides. 

Another thing about me is when I dance, I dance with anyone. Anyone. So long as they aren't creepy. So this random dude (I don't know what is it with random dudes dancing with me, eg: Luke at Arnold's party) comes up and starts dancing with me. So I dance with him for a bit too. It might have gotten a little dirty. I think. It's kinda hazy anyway. But I got judged again by "Tea Party" group.  Bugger. Oh no, my world's going to implode *rolls eyes*.

Sorry, I don't think I ever really explained my irritation with that group. Simply put, they're rather judgemental, and as gossipy as the rumour mills from high school. As well as conservative. You can draw your own conclusions.

Night kinda ended sometime at 3am I think. I get this feeling that the Lady Gaga song, "Just Dance" is starting to embody me quite well. Particularly the bits about dancing, having a bit too much, and forgetting the name of the club. Hehe. Quite an early night too, and I have no hangover! Yay! The damage wasn't too bad either... Spent about $100 in drinks just on myself, which I reckon was alright. But I'm quite tired... And I haven't finished studying for those tests yet. 

My holidays aside from that were horrible. Boring, dreary and dull. I had 4 assignments to complete, and 2 tests to study for (both of which I haven't actually finished studying for). I still have one more assignment to complete too (by Thursday). Should be good though. So what's everyone's plans for the weekend? I'm just going to study =\

And back to hitting the books. Ciao.

When Holidays are not quite... Holidays

So yeah, this was long overdue for an update. Sadly, there's not much going in this life of mine. I'd normally have been busy to the days going out with mates, chillin', drinking, you know the drill, if it weren't for the huge overload of assignments and neccessary test preparations that got dropped onto my lap. 4 assignments (1 of which is a lab report, I guess), and 2 tests to prepare for, all of which collide on the first week back!!! My holidays as we know it, over!

Sigh.

Not to say that I haven't got anything planned per se. I'm going out for dinner a few more times throughout the hols, but I don't think I've got any big night outs planned. Not quite sure what to do with the Easter holidays either. I suppose it depends on whether I finish enough work such that I feel entitled to a little break, I suppose.

Alright, off to gym, then back to work. This isn't any fun at all.

Just hanging on...

It's been a busy week. Especially the weekend, with it being Tessa's birthday, and her party the subsequent night. But hey, I survived, even if I was rather hungover on Sunday. Timmy and I polished off roughly about 750ml of scotch as well as the remaining two-thirds of the cask wine (from Tessa's birthday dinner) we bought. Let's just say, in my case, cask wine and whisky don't mix well. 

I met his bartender at Deschler's who's like, in a band and stuff. I think it's called Suicide Boulevard. He played me a song from them, and I thought it was pretty cool. Didn't manage to google anything up about it though, since I found another band by the same name in the States. I reckon they probably formed recently at any rate. But if I do find 'em, I'll try put up one of their songs. Kinda like 80's rock anthems and stuff.

And oh yeah, David (that's the band bartender guy) made me a drink that he called an Axl Rose. I know, very rockish. But of all things, it was a pretty fruity drink. Quite delicious in all honesty but I think I prefer my martini, made with Tanqueray No. 10. 

My camera's been acting up suddenly. It refuses to turn on properly. I might have to get it sent back in, kinda a shame as well considering how recently I got it. Guts...

I should get some more sleep. Soooo sleepy, slept in like 2 lectures already.

P/S: I really really like Breakeven by The Script. Lovely song.

Safe Trip Home

I've been listening to Dido's latest album recently. Yes, it's call Safe Trip Home... and I like it. The songs seem to have gotten more mature this time, and it's still as mellow as ever. A bit more of a sad touch though.

Timmy's party today/tonight! Yay! I've gotta go now, but I'll be taking pics (I think).

Round the Bays Pt. 2

Alright, I uploaded them all to Facebook. Goddamn Blogger doesn't have a multiple upload tool like Facebook. Gah. Just check 'em out on my page if you want. Links below:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=95748&id=741713295&ref=nf

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=95750&id=741713295&ref=nf

Round the Bays (Pt 1)

This is Part 1 because I left my camera (as well as my other shirt) with Iain, so I wouldn't be uploading 'em photos till tomorrow or something.

Round the Bays was pretty awesome. We congregated in front of Showgirls (yes, that strip club) and distributed the T-shirts and stuff. I might even take a picture of it, I thought it was pretty awesome. Then we got out the mobile Tui couch. It's a pretty poor contraption really, but it steers and brakes, so all good.

Unfortunately, we got delayed from starting because of some random thing, and this was bad, since I started to feel the call of nature. Of course, I held that in, and kept drinking the beers which are omnipresent at all Engineering-related events. 

Eventually, the whole thing started, and yes, John Key (our new Prime Minister, that's who he is) blew the starting horn. And when we went past him, did we do anything? Of course! We sang him one of those drinking songs. Specially for him. We even sang the Engineering drinking song as well. Two songs for him! He should feel proud. The guy just smiled and waved though. I wonder what he thought about the whole thing.

A short amount of time and a short distance later, I decided I couldn't ignore the call of nature and so I ran to a petrol station with Antony's brother. He looks just like Antony, by the way. Unfortunately it was closed, so I was forced to relieve myself in the bushes. But then again, I wasn't the only one. There was a whole line of us too. Those port-a-loos had way too much of a huge queue.

I think a few people (parents) might have been a little scandalised, but they probably should be somewhat used to it now. We did keep our language to a rough minimum, of course, the occasional "motherfucker" and "masturbate" which are present in the drinking songs couldn't be suppressed, but hey, all good. They were probably more scandalised at our running, drinking, pushing the beer trolley, and yelling "Get out of the way! Trolley coming through!" Hehe.

The commentator even made a point to mention us as we crossed the finish line eventually, probably an hour and a half or so. He said something along the lines of us being the noisiest and probably most inebriated. Technically, there was this other group of people, rather old, pushing a trolley with beer too. Pretty cool. We even shared a drinking stop with 'em.

As usual, at the end we had a barbeque, and the traditional rugby league game with Med. As usual, they crushed us, but then again, they have the token Pacific Islanders on their team anyway. Did I mention that some of them are rather vicious? The Med players I mean.

Well, that's it for now. Pics next time, I promise.

I'm awake, I'm awake. And you know what? It's time for Round the Bays!!! I think I'm more or less alright to go now. Stupid cold has finally seen the light of day. Or is starting to see it anyway.

ARGH! SICK!!!

I'm like feeling the beginnings of a cold. It's annoying. I don't want to be sick. Goddamn Richie. I blame him for passing on his cold to me. Just like I blame him for the cold last year. And the year before that. I always seem to catch it from him every year. Damn.

Oh well. And it's also the day before the Stein. A bad time to be sick indeed. I s'ppose I'll just dose myself with some nasal decongestants and go, then use the weekend to recuperate. Should be fine, hopefully. Oh wait. Round the Bays this Sunday... Oh god... 

I'll figure something out I guess.

Talked to Sam earlier today, and Arnold's party came up. Seems that Luke wasn't Becky's boyfriend. You know, Luke, the guy who asked me if I ever slow danced with another guy. Dude I ended up slow dancing with. Which completely throws some of my assumptions out of the window. Now I wanna know. Damnit. God damn my need to know everything sometimes. And now it's killing me. 

Oh, you don't know what I want to know? I want to know why he asked me that. If I ever slow danced with another guy. ARGH!!!! I'm frustrated.

Arnold's 20th... and subsequent hangover

Well, that was only to be expected I guess. I mean, year after year, in the beginning of March, there's always been this, and so it happens again. As usual, much alcohol was to be had. I didn't take pictures, well because pictures of drunk people aren't fun, and I don't trust me with the cam.

There's not much at all to the night if you neglect the drinking parts. I couldn't hold my alcohol once I got passed a funnel sometime in the night, probably 1am I think. That was a bad idea, especially considering how much I had prior, and especially when beer has always been the thing that always pushes me over. Spirits, no problem, but beer drives me over the edge quickly.

Oh, but hey, there was one random bit. Met this dude Luke, obviously a friend of Arnold's. Anyway, we were sorta talking for awhile, then sometime later (after some drifting here and there for me), we were dancing in the lounge with tons of other people, and his girlfriend was somewhere there too. So like, he suddenly turns to me and asks: "Have you ever slow danced with another guy before?" To cut the long story short, yes, I did slow dance with Luke with him leading, and his girlfriend was watching. I don't think it was a bad thing though, she didn't seem to mind too much =P

But yeah, just thought I'd share. Now I have a hangover to get rid of. And recovery to begin with, if I'm to get in shape for Stein 1 this Thursday.

An Epiphany

Perhaps I drink because I enjoy it. Perhaps I enjoy it because I like it. Perhaps, too, in a very odd sense, I enjoy it as well because it makes me numb. Impervious to hurt. Impervious to sorrow. For that moment, you're invincible. Everything in itself is laughable, everything is not tangible. Being numb is good isn't it?

The night before

This is a bit of a twofold post, and the title should indicate as much. I went to Iain's house party last night, and tonight is well, the night before I begin classes again. Bummer =(

Iain's house party was pleasant. I got to meet a good amount of our friends before classes began again, which is kinda good too. It also doubled as a great way to end the holidays I guess. We had a barbecue and played Buzz for quite a bit. You know, that sorta stuff you'd do when you don't really want to have a night of mayhem drinking. 

Gotta sleep early tonight and get ready for the early morning gym session, as well as the horrendous lectures that proceed. Oh joy...

Oh yeah, I got myself a new tie today! It was on sale at Farry's ($99) down from $159, so I reckon that's a pretty good deal. I'm also considering these really cool pair of cufflinks from Paul Smith going for $109, but I think I'll hold off spending for a bit. Also, I should be getting my camera tomorrow sometime! Only problem is that I probably wouldn't be around to sign for it, so it might be a while before I collect and use it, especially since I don't really use it during the semester.

Started listening to The Postal Service again. I love Such Great Heights and Nothing Better. Can't explain it, but those two songs are just awesome to my ears. Go give 'em a try if you want, you never know with these things aye? Well, I'm gonna hit the sack. Over and out.

Paid! And now the countdown begins..

I recently decided to check my bank balance, and just realised I've been the paid the remainder of the sum I was promised for when I did the studentship. This technically ends the work agreement I have. 

And what am I going to do with it? Well, firstly, I need to pay off my credit card bills. Then to get more supplements for gym, then to renew my gym membership. All that's a grand already, almost. Then I'm thinking I could get a new camera, since I kinda hate the one I have. Then a new pair of glasses, although I'm not quite sure how much that'll cost.

Anyone know how much a pair of Oliver Peoples frames would cost? Anyway, I estimate another grand for that (with lens and consultations), just in case. That means all in all, I've already spent two and a half grand. God... $2500. Well, mabe it's not going to cost me $1000, but if it does cost more...

And after all that, if I have any cash leftover... I could: a) buy textbooks; or b) buy an iPod touch.

Hmm... We'll see after I get the above items sorted, aye?

Starlight Symphony

Originally, I was going to go with Mihailo and Tim and meet them at the Domain, where the Symphony was held. Of course, they were going to be very late (as usual), so I wandered around for a bit (it didn't start just yet), and ran into Laura, Allen, and Rebecca. Of course, I hung out with them instead. Why not?

The Starlight Symphony was enjoyable, to say the least. Classical music and a choir aren't bad things after all. I'll say that the better part was the second half though, with Pomp and Circumstance (which I like very much); and the orchestra (after the choir's introduction) playing Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture complete with cannon and fireworks, and a laser light show. Brilliant. Fireworks were bloody awesome. Only one minor gripe was that I thought (along with some others) that the cannons didn't fire in sync with the piece the first time round. The other times were good though, and the awesomeness of the fireworks made me forget about it. Yay for fireworks!

And once again, I forgot to take pictures. I got so enraptured I forgot. Clever me huh? =|

Bow Ties?

Well Lionel, glad to hear you can tie a bow tie. Join the ranks of people who can tie one (I honestly don't know who else can actually do one apart from us so far though). But if you can't do it (and it was a bit of trouble to learn)... don't despair!  Here's a little picture guide for all you people who still can't tie one:

Hehe. That's my random bit for the day. Ciao!

Colour My World

I was browsing through a while ago when I came across this. I thought it was a rather touching piece. But anyway, go play it. It's not so much a game, more like just one of those "journeys". Rather artistic I must say.

Plus, it moved me. And that's not the easiest thing to do. Here.

A midsummer's night

It's been getting unbearably hot these days. And yes, I know Australia is being hit by a heat wave with temperatures soaring to 40's even... but it's just so hot here too! 

The main problem I reckon is with the humidity. I'm sitting here at home, and I'm already sweating tons. Like buckets and buckets. Yuck!

Managed to do strain-field characterisation of my device today, which was good. Now all I have to do is process the data, and with enough luck, it'll be all sweet. Otherwise, I might have to re-design some aspects of it. Rather, someone else would have to, since I'm no longer working in 1.5 weeks...

In other news, I'm soooo broke!!! Can't wait till I get paid. Hehe.

Oh God no...

I've got presentations this week!!! Not to mention my work report is due next week as well!

Plus, I'm like completely unprepared for either. Oh well. Guts for me I guess.

The PHD students' conference papers were due in today, so I helped (and like everyone other person they could recruit) to proof-read it as well. Didn't get much work done though.

Andreas (uhm, the German dude at work) came in today too, back from his trip to Rarotonga. He was kind enough to bring a bottle of bourbon whiskey to work, which we promptly cracked open and dispensed with. Yeah, we're quite slack about these things. Plus, he was leaving the country anyway!

The lights in my home are fucked up. Half of the existing lights have now blown, including the one in my room, so now I'm sitting here in the dark (with a bedside lamp) typing away. Woohoo, fun =\

The weekend was great, I had fun, but now it's back to work... Everyone else had a good weekend?

The 2nd Long Weekend

Yes, it's only been about 2 weeks, and the second long weekend is here! I finish work in 2 weeks as well, so I'm feeling sorta nervous about all this.

Anyway, I'm at a bit of a loss for what to do tomorrow. It's kinda weird...

But, BALANCE on Saturday!!! Should be fun =)

Wine for all! Rejoice!

I found a great site that sells wine by the dozen. And it's pretty cheap by the dozen too... You get wine for about $10-14 a bottle, and for pretty good wines too, considering they'd normally retail for about $15-25, and award winning ones at that. 

I'm so stoked. =D

The Long Weekend

Went away to Oakura for the long weekend (it was Auckland Anniversary). It appears that I have been there before, the last time with Chris Holdaway and others, but this time I went up to Mark's bach with him, his parents, Mihailo, Nick and Anthony (one of Nick's and Mark's friends). Pretty fun time there. I spent most of the time sunbathing, and not swimming, since none of them fancied a dip in the sea, and I can't stay in there for a long period of time by myself without anything to do (I get really really cold that way).

We did go kayaking though, which was quite fun, although I went in a double kayak with Nick, and he kept rocking the boat, which kinda sucked for me since I was in the front.

I evidently discovered that Nick does drink quite a fair bit, which was pretty fun, since there was a somewhat decent amount of beer there, so I played a game of Over the Bridge with Nick, substituting mouthfuls of beer for shots (didn't have any alcohol for shots, and I would have died with shots). Let's just say I got to 19 mouthfuls and decided that if it went any further, I would clean out the whole fridge. Which we did anyway, since I've been going at the beers, and we didn't buy any more. So we ran out, inconveniently. Oh well.

Don't feel like working =( But I've got to...

Manhattan

Not that I've been there, but I've just recently tried it again, and I absolutely love it. Went to the Mexican Cafe for dinner with the rest of the summer studentship groupie, and had a couple of Margarita's, a Tequila Sunrise, and some Brazilian drink. Then went to Deschler's, and met Lucas again, and had a Martini (which I can never resist), and tried what he said was one of his favourite drinks, a Manhattan.

Truth be told, I quite like it. Not as much as a martini, but it's pretty nice in it's own right. It's a rather mellow and sweet drink. Suprisingly easy to drink for 2 standard drinks. 

Might catch up with Lucas over coffee next time. Who knows. It'll be nice if he wants to, I'll get a bartending friend out of it. =)

Sleep...

Well, apart from the fact that I need sleep, I just discovered today that I'm to be scheduled sometime when the project ends to do a presentation (a part of the studentship) for the principal researchers of the Bioengineering Institute. So here's the problem: I don't actually feel like I've done enough for a presentation. God, I'm screwed.

Pretty tired today. It sorta carries over from my fatigued state yesterday, since I only caught about 5 or so hours of sleep. I went out on Saturday night drinking, then popped by Space for their launch event till 4 in the morning, dancing to dubstep. I also met up with Jack and his friends, but I suppose that is hardly suprising, considering that it was that sort of event.

I spent the early part of Saturday night at Deschlers having a quiet drink or two. Got talking to one of the bartenders there, Lucas, and he made me a daiquiri of his concoction and some strange, but interesting take on a martini. Well, that started when I asked him to make me a drink based on his first impression of me, since I was bored, and as much as I love martinis, you really don't want to be drinking too many of those. 

Let's just say that he made the martini and added lemon juice, jasmine syrup and vanilla liqeuer to the mix. It would have been alright if he added slightly less lemon juice, since the lemon overwhelmed the rest of the drink. Oh well. It was amusing nontheless, and I had fun.

Work's slow, and there're high school kids (in their 7th form this year) being given a talk about what Engineering Science and Biomedical Engineering is all about. Well, there's more to that too, since they're on campus for about two weeks on a Science-related programme. It apparently shows you all the degrees and work-related things you can do. Pretty interesting, except that it costs at least a grand for those two weeks. $1000!!! Well, in all honesty, it costs $2000 but they are somewhat sponsored by the Science Rotary thingy (or at least most of them are). That's still a lot to pay though... I can think of better things to do with $1000 in the summer time...

Anyway, I think I'm going to have an early night, pretty sleepy anyway. Til then.

When time slows down...

In the bad sense too. You know, that feeling you get when you've been away from some typical activity for so long that when you finally get back to it, everything seems so weird, and time passes so slowly because you need to readjust? Yeah, that's how I'm feeling at the moment.

I've been most unproductive at work over the past two days that I've been there. It's rather irksome, but at least I got some stuff done. I get the feeling that I have to redesign my prototype, which is annoying, since I'm getting to the stage where I kinda forgot what I designed over the past few days, so making minor adjustments to the device will require yet another learning curve for me. Gah.

Don't exactly know why, but I'm feeling rather bored these days. Looks like it's time to find something to occupy me once more. Oh well.

Extending a Holiday

I'm going up to Whangaporoa with Allan, Laura, Arnold, and Danny tomorrow. Yep, I start work on the 5th, but I'm just going to push starting work back for a few more days and take a break. I feel like it's something I really need anyway: A few days away at the beach and just nothing but people and the calm calm ocean and glorious, hot sun. So yeah, I think I'll start work on the 7th or 8th. It should be just great.

Rather sleepy today actually, so I might just catnap for a bit and then get an early night. Gym session tomorrow and then I'm off! Well, until then.

Uhm. So, what now?

Heh, I know I said I wouldn't make any resolutions, but I kind of got forced into making one, so here's my one and only resolution for this year:

Carry on drinking.

Yeah, I know it was cheating, but I don't do resolutions. I make enough during the course of the year that I don't feel like I should be bound to only making serious resolutions during the turn of the year.

Sleepy, but I need to be out, so 'ere I leave you with an excerpt from "The New Year" by Death Cab For Cutie:

So this is the new year.

And i don't feel any different.

The clanking of crystal

Explosions off in the distance.

So this is the new year

And I have no resolutions

For self assigned penance

For problems with easy solutions

Ciao for now.

Wrapping Up

And once again, the end of the year has come around, and the new year is staring me in the face, rushing along to collide into me. I think I bring this up often, but I feel it ever more increasingly: Do you ever get that feeling that time just seems to speed up?

I'm serious. The days, months and years are just blurring by so quickly for me it's like I'm 16 one day and 19 the next. Scary, too.

And I still have all these things that I haven't done yet either. But hey, anyway.

2008 was hmm, not a bad year I guess. Probably better than the previous years of my life. It's always great when you can say that, you know, when every year gets better and better. It's almost as if your life is like a bottle of fine wine or something. I definitely had fun, that I can say. And hey, a whole year coming to terms with an insanely hard-to-quash crush can be kinda refreshing on your viewpoints of life ah? I feel rather liberated actually.

I think I kept my drinking under wraps, mostly... Some people I know would beg to differ though, but seriously, with all honesty, I definitely think I kept it under control. I mean, I only had one real slip-up when I drank far too much, started chucking my guts all over the place and had the mother of all hangovers the next day. And it was just that one time too.

So, what am I looking for in 2009? I don't really know to be honest. I think my journey of self-discovery is far from over though. I feel sometimes like I never understand myself in the way I do things, so maybe I should figure it out. Hm, might shop a little less next year too, since I'm finally starting to be happy with my wardrobe. Well, a few more additions can't hurt, but shopping heaps is definitely going to go away, and be replaced by just shopping.

And no, I'm never going to make a resolution to drink less, that never works. But I will think I will be trying to stick to my gym routine this time round, maybe working harder to overcoming that ever-so-dreaded plateau I keep getting to around 5 weeks into training. It's annoying.

But yeah, I think I won't expect much from the new year, and maybe that way it'll suprise me. Besides, it's more fun this way too.

So anyway, I'm off to town. I'll be going to dinner later, and then who knows? The beach? Town? The night is young, and so am I.

Broken Strings

I was listening to James Morrison's recent album Songs For You, Truths For Me. I really do like James Morrison as a singer. His songs are rather soothing. Anyway, give this song, "Broken Strings" a try if you feel inclined.

You can't play on broken strings

You can't feel anything

That your heart don't want to feel

I can't tell you something that ain't real

The truth hurts

A lie is worse

I can't like it anymore

And I love you a little less than before

Beautiful lyrics. I don't know why, but I like it.

I'm Dreaming of...

A white Christmas. Yep. But it's summer over here, so I guess I don't really mind either. My god, I spent quite a fair bit yesterday on food items. Sigh.

Wow, and boy did I have a helluva busy session cooking the Christmas Eve dinner last night. I ended up finishing late, so I pushed dinner back by a good hour to 8, haha. Oh well. And I probably consumed half the bottle of wine, as well a decent amount of gin and tonics too. Paying for it with my slight hangover this morning, but hey, it's all good. Not like I drank tons anyway, just forgot the water.

Christmas day for me tends to be a little dreary, mainly because stores are closed and I have nothing to do. My guess it this is why they have Christmas dinners, but I've personally always favoured Christmas Eve dinners anyway, since it's a lot easier to do. In the very least, I have a bottle of wine should I feel like having some tonight.

In some odd, bizarre way, as soon as I have a public holiday, I normally feel like going back to work, or university, or something. I reckon the main reason is just because I don't like public holidays all that much. I like to just be able to take a break and observe people (in a sense), when I'm pretty much the only one on a break doing a shopping thing, or being at a cafe, and so on. Whereas on a public holiday, it's sorta different. I can't, for example, go shopping. Neither can I really go for a coffee with friends at the cafe. I suppose I chafe at the implied restrictions that arise from these sort of things.

Anyway, my rant for the day is done, I guess. I'm gonna do some post-dinner cleaning, as well as maybe some TV watching and calling of friends, you know, the proprietary Christmas things. Ciao.

Bugger... Got Tagged

Got tagged by Chris on his blog, so here goes...

1. What’s your ambition?
To succeed and be prominent in what I enjoy and have an interest in. To somehow be in more control of things, but maybe from the shadows rather than directly.

2. Who is more important to you? Friends or boy/girlfriend?
Friends. Although there would be situations when I'd go with the latter.

3. How often do you think of committing suicide?
Its been a long long time since I've done that, although I've had disturbing dreams lately of being overwhelmed by some enemies, or rather being hunted, and then dispatched.

4. Do you think you have enough confidence?

Yeah. Mostly.

5. How many babies you want?
If I can have twins, twin boys and 1 daughter. Otherwise, just 1 of each.

6. Favorite perfume/fragrance?
Currently, lots. Hmm, Infusion d'Homme by Prada and Fahrenheit by Christian Dior are my two most favoured at the moment.

7. What do you think will be your greatest downfall?
My lack of ethics for some things.

8. Do you believe in eternal love?
Eternal... Its too long lasting for me to believe in. Long-lived love? Yeah, definitely. Eternal? Hm, I'm not so sure.

9. What's a perfect girlfriend/boyfriend like to you?
Perfect in that they have little imperfections that I don't care about; that they have some mannerisms that make me love them more; that they make me feel secure and cherished.

10. What are your bad habits?
I have a weakness to spending money on food and clothes.

11. Is there anything you wanna tell the people who hate you?
"I don't really understand why you'd hate me, but really, the only person its affecting is you, not me. So why not get along with me? I'll even buy you a drink."

12. Do you cherish every single friendship of yours?
Yeah, sure.

13. What do you hate most in others?
Lack of initiative and courage/confidence to do things.

14. What do you crave for the most currently?
Money to go on a shopping spree.

15. What features/quirks do you find totally sexy on a guy/girl?
Uhm, hot bod? Eyes, hands, hair. Pretty much, if I find you sexy, I find you sexy. Why ask?

16. Describe the person who tagged you in 7 words.
Asian, amusing, fun, teetotaller, lighter than me!

17.What have you done to yourself to make yourself happy?

Improved my sense of fashion, went to the gym, and get myself noticed.

18. What will you become in another 10 years to come?
Hm, I don't know. With enough luck, rich, successful, and happy? Like a fairy tale?

19. Whats your guilty pleasure? (something you usually wouldn't admit out loud)
I admit to most of my guilty pleasures anyway, so I wouldn't know off the top of my head what guilty pleasures I do not admit out loud.

20. I tag:
No one. Because, unlike Chris here, I have no wish to impose the joys of answering 20 questions on anyone. But... that being said, I tag you if you wish to be tagged.

Beer, beach, and pranks

Well, today was the Bioengineering Institute Christmas function, and boy was it fun! First off we had the Biomimetics Lab Secret Santa (which was efficiently organised courtesy of me). God I chafe under the imposed limitation of a $5 budget for the gifts, but I think I managed to pull through. My recipient was Alex, and I got him two pottles of rather nice jam. He was pretty happy about it too, so I think I did a good job there. Yeah, so if you're ever stuck with a Secret Santa that's on a low budget, and your recipient is a flatting guy or whatever, get him jam. It does well.

Alex's gift was probably one of the more amusing ones. He bought biscuits, and wrapped them up in the morning using not wrapping paper, but rather, rubber nitryl gloves. Yes. It was all too amusing especially when I saw him doing so. 

All in all, I'll say I had tons of fun. Forgot to bring my cam, so no pics sadly (really bad habit of mine with this actually). Played touch for a good hour or so, then helped myself to a good amount of beers, sat in the sun for ages, you know... That kinda stuff. It's summer, and summer's good. I'm now sitting in my chair feeling slightly warm. Not sunburnt though, just very very warm. 

Oh yeah, naturally, it being a Christmas function and all, my Head of Department dressed up as Santa with a slight twist, this one being a gorilla suited Santa. And he gave presents to the little kids! I wanna be a kid too! 

Forgot to mention this, but Tom got one of those trick pens for his Secret Santa gift. You know, the one that shocks you if you hold down the top? Yeah, it was kinda fun. I took it and shocked Alex (him being a most unwilling participant) in the crook of his elbow. Then I took some paper, and went to the HoD and asked him for his email address, proffering him the trick pen. Naturally, he got a nice shock from it, and I kinda kept my distance after that. I tried it on Mike O'Sulivan Jr. (another of the lecturers) as well. Oddly enough, he never seemed to figure out that it was shocking him for the first two tries. He did eventually figure it out though, and that was awesome too. Haha great times.

Oh, Todd got this awesome kids' bow and arrow set! We had a blast shooting people with that too! And I probably drank too much then as well, but then again, I wasn't the only one, so hey, all good =)

Of Names That Don't Matter

You could say I'm really bored. Alright, I am actually really bored. So bored that I was thinking of a pseudo alter-ego for myself. Well, since I feel like Damian as my alter ego is kinda odd. Almost as if I've outgrown it ever since I have no idea what Alastair calls me now.

That aside, I decided that I might as well keep my original name in this alter ego, well, at least in its initials, just changing everything around. Hmm, here goes...

G. W. C. L.

Right. Unfortunately, Gabriel is the only name I could settle for with a G. I'm sorry, but I feel weird taking others. Hmm... 

W's tricky. Walker. Warren. Whitlaw (kinda weird, I know, but I like it). Wyatt. 

C's just as bad. Chase. Christian. Corey. Cyril. Cyrus. Gah. 

Maybe this wasn't so good an idea...

L... hmm... meh. Since it's a last name... Logan! Why ever not? It brings to mind Gabe Logan. Hahaha. I actually could live with that. 

Actually, come to think of it... I've already been called Gabe Logan quite a few times anyway. So maybe not so random after all. Apparently Loh sounds somewhat like Logan (owing to it being pronounced as low with a bit of an 'h')

Paid!

I have been paid! YUSSS!!! Uhm, that aside.... Casey's back in town (finally), so we got off to a productive day at work today, which was a great change.

I got complimented once again for my clothes. Maybe I should drop engineering and just offer my services as a personal shopper (fashion-wise). And I got chucked on the "fashion committee" for the Biomimetics Lab. Apparently they're making some T-shirts for this convention they would be attending, and they seem to think I have good taste in clothes, so.... yeah.

I'm also in charge of the Secret Santa we'd be having. Oddly enough, the rest of the Bioengineering Institute aren't included, but I'm sorta glad for it, since it gets kinda large to organise after. So yeah, next week looks fun. Secret Santa, LaserStrike, Christmas dinner (Biomimetics) and Christmas lunch (Bioengineering). Awesome!

Mm, also, I got Marc Jacobs (the lecturer) to get me a bottle of scotch duty-free when he gets back from his trip to San Francisco. YAY! It's cheaper than getting a 700ml bottle of Laphroaig for $57 I guess. Hm, time to head off for now. Cya later!

P/S: I'm getting alot better at using the espresso machine now. Still making flat whites though, mostly.

An Encounter with Bell Gully Initiates

I was picking up my suit today at Working Style when I saw trouble. Yup, trouble. You can always spot trouble in High St when you see a group of 5 guys, and a chick with a videocam, and especially when the guys are in suit pants and wifebeaters. Definitely not standard High St dress code. And suprisingly, they were right behind me when I walked into the store.

Turns out these fine young gentlemen were from Bell Gully, one of the biggest law firms in NZ, probably the top I believe, and freshly recruited too, from the sounds of it. They were making a video skit as part of their initiation rites for the Christmas presentation or something, and it involved them replacing some Backstreet Boys melody with their own lyrics and video. 

So this one guy took off his wifebeater and got one of the girls at the shop to take measurements. All the while they had the other guys crowding around him, and doing borderline homoerotic stuff, like one guy touching his belly or something. Let's just say the people manning the store were amused, the other customer with me was profoundly disturbed, and I was veering between both. Naturally, I felt the urge to stir up the pot a little, so I threw a suggestion their way to make the video more homoerotic by having more hands and sensous movements on the poor dude in question. Which of course brought more laughter his way. Ah well. Glad to see that I don't really have to do that in Engineering, since we get all that sort of stuff out of the way during our study years. Not to mention there's alcohol involved, making all of it more forgettable and fun, of course. Haha.

So yeah, that was my brief experience with the boys from Bell Gully, future solicitors and defenders of justice. I shudder a little to think of it.

Strange Dreams

I've been having odd dreams lately. They always involve me being a survivor of some sort by freak chance of some apocalyptic event, like an ice age, nuclear fallout, rapture, etc. And the world is always in ruins of some sort, and really dystopian (as one would thus expect). Society has broken down to basic banditry, and violence is rather common. Somehow people manage to cling on to certain oddities of society, such as currency. 

Last night was no different. Every night I have different companions in this dreamworld, and this time it was Richie. I suppose I "entered" the dream at the same time I awoke in it in a groggy state from having been near a patch of some weird gas being emitted from some cracks in the ground. I think it registered in my head at the time that it was carbon dioxide and some other miscellaneous gases, and that they somehow caused nausea and/or extreme drowsiness.

Iain was fashioning some sort of device to let the gas build up around the area, since it's a rather dense gas, into a sort of pseudo-fence about some wider area. I think it was the area we lived in, or maybe it was some sort of place we wanted to protect. It seemed to make sense at the time, but I wouldn't know for the life of me now what would have been in it. Obviously it was important.

So anyway, me and Richie were going down to the nearest settlement to buy food. I don't remember how long we were walking along, or where we were. I do remember that looking at the bush and shrubs about the place, it could have been any temperate country, no jungle stuff. Although it was a little warmer than one would expect for a temperate country. And the earth looked a little baked. I remember things being rather yellowed somehow.

So anyway, along the way are all these decrepit buildings, some of which are in obvious states of disrepair. Somehow there was a carpark which was rather intact, but I'll get back to that later. We get to the settlement which looks a little like some old town center. Here's the one oddity I remember from the dream. Somehow, Burger King and MacDonald's were operating. No idea what they were serving, but I remember regarding it with disdain, although I regard it with some disgust in real life anyway, so maybe that wasn't relevant aye?

We get to some place which behaved like a supermarket I guess. Not that it was anything close to it, kinda weird and stuff. Hm, I guess it was about now I realised that the sun was a little hotter than normal. Me and Richie buy some food, and somehow (I have absolutely no idea why) decided that a good form of protection would be to get some sort of syringes with very strong tranquilisers in them. Sorta like darts I guess. I think it had something to do with us not being to afford guns, or maybe guns were rare. I don't remember why, but I knew it wasn't possible for us to get any. Although now that I wonder about it, why not knives? I guess we must have had knives.

We begin the long trek home, and back through the carpark. Along the way, we realise that we're being followed. Its kind of obvious really, I guess, since he wasn't making any effort about it. Big hulking fellow. Scary in the way that he's just tall and huge. And he had this grin on his face, as if he knew he was going to catch up to us somehow. And he walked fast too. Us hurrying along didn't help much either, since he somehow closed the gap by the time we reached the second flight of stairs.

Here comes the second part which didn't make sense. Richie suddenly said something like... "Hey Gabe,...." followed by a string of numbers. Well, this string of numbers was something in the logic of the kind of numbers that you input into a calculator and turn upside down, and it forms a word? Like how 01134 makes hello? Anyway, no idea what the numbers were, but the gist of it was something along the lines of "We're in trouble". And that we were too.

He had definitely caught up to us, and there was no knowing what he wanted. I guess he wanted our money and food and whatnot, but like we'd want to get robbed, knowing we'd probably die as well. Thing was though, he was kind of big, and there would be no way we could take him down. Unless those tranquilisers would work. And they're pretty obvious, you know. 

We got them out anyway, since you know, might as well try. And he charged. 

I then woke up, feeling utterly confused.

Yeah, no idea where these dreams are coming from, but they're pretty weird. Not weird enough to spook me, but just somewhat disquieting. The strangest thing I found is not that I wake up just as something is about to happen to me, but its more of the fact that I kind of wake up as if I told myself to wake up. I don't really know how to explain it, but it just felt like I had to wake up, and I did. Not that it was a vivid dream, since it didn't feel completely real, and I hear in vivid dreams you can control things around you, but it certainly somehow seemed real, and yet surreal somehow.

Yeah, so that was my weird dream today. Thought I'd share, since well, I got rather bothered this morning over it.

Breakfast Bars Galore

Haha, that went well.. I now have 16 breakfast bars! Yay! I'm quite pleased with the way they all held up, so yeah. Looks great. Hm, work early tomorrow, better sleep now. Cya later!

Baking

Making myself breakfast bars at the moment. If my oven works the way I intend it to, and if I didn't fuck up the thing, I should end up with 16 breakfast bars. I could have flattened the mixture a little more, but I was feeling a little lazy, plus those bits kept sticking to my spatula!

I'll update on my breakfast bars in a while.

Okay... Work... Definitely.

Perhaps I spoke too soon. I had barely walked in to see my supervisor for 10 minutes today, when I got plonked down with Tom to "re-design" the experimental rig for the project. Turns out Tom already has a solution he thought up, and so did my supervisor, so I was supposed to create working prototypes of them (first with a drawing, then SolidWorks, then print it onto perspex using the laser cutter). 

Problem was, the ideas were far from completed, hence the "design" aspect. And I had no clue on how to approach this problem either initially, considering that it was a problem from the aspect of mechanical engineering. Let's just say, I get the feeling Tom already knew what he was expecting, or rather, was thinking of the solution as I continuously bugged him with daft questions. More like, I was learning to think of mechanical solutions and then seeing if my ideas were sound. I'll just say that most of it wasn't sound, and I came up with a lot of solutions that didn't make sense. On the other hand, I learnt a tiny smidgen more about the materials we're using for the linear force actuators. They're made from DEAs (Dielectric Elastomeric Actuators), a material that's apparently been around for some time now. Problem was, these actuators generally transmit compressive strains if you hook them up the way we planned for it, so some very ingenious solution was required to make them into tensile forces. Naturally, I floundered for the longest time before Tom rescued me, yet again by suggesting that I use a piece of Perspex as a sort of level to transmit tension. I feel retarded.

So yeah, I'm getting used to having a espresso machine at work now, although my coffee making skills are lacking somewhat. Still can't froth the milk to the state I want it to be. Pointers anyone? All I can remember is that you froth until it's just too hot to touch, but I can't remember how much to froth/which depth to froth at, and so on. Oh well.

Work... or maybe not

I'm pretty beat ah. And it's all from gym really, probably because I went early this morning. Yes I know, not the smartest thing I could've done but hey, it fits into my schedule. I just have to get used to it.

Work today was kind of... placid? For one, Casey was out of town, and Iain (my supervisor) was out in meetings for the day, so I was pretty much left to my own devices. I spent the better part of 4 hours getting well acquainted with Casey's reading materials ie. the journals he was looking at, as well as his logbook, which he seemed to have left lying around on his desk for some reason (I'm not sure if it was deliberate or him being careless). I also spent 10 minutes trying to work the coffee machine, since it looked kind of different, and also since I'm a bit of an idiot sometimes. Hehe.

Did I ever mention that we have a laser cutter at work as well? I had to learn to use it too, although that only took about 10 or so minutes, especially if you already know how to use some sort of CAD software (like SolidWorks, which was used here). I'm pretty bored too, since there was nothing else I had to do, so I took an extended 1 hour lunch break, and left work early at 3. Not to mention the fact that I only started work at about 9.30... so... I only spent 4.5 hours working really. Real productive day, I can tell.

I shouldn't gripe so much, personally. I guess its good that I'm quite free, although I sorta wish I had some contribution to make to the project, which I find rather fascinating. Problematically, I have no idea what I have to do still. There's so much to do, that I sort of need some direction in this. Maybe I have no initiative of my own to begin work, but I reckon I just need to be pointed in a direction to begin with first before I start finding my way.

Oh well, I'm pretty sleepy already anyway, so I reckon I'll just head off to bed for the moment. By the way, did you hear "Spaceman" by The Killers yet? I think its a great song. Anyway, good night.

The Joys of Welding

Oh yes, it's joyous indeed. You can barely see anything, so your first weld will probably miss the edge and hit the side of the table before you realise you completely missed the mark and start again. But then you can't find the edge again, so you try and start in the middle of the piece instead, so you backtrack-weld and eventually cause the steel plate to melt because you spent too long trying to weld it. Oh yes, its just so much fun. I could just about kill someone from the sheer enjoyment I derive from it...

Anyway. It's the last day of workshop practice tomorrow, so I'd be rid of this cursed course and can hopefully have more free time (to work) and go to gym. Hm, Smith & Caughey's having a 25% discount sale tomorrow. I must admit I'm quite intrigued by the prospect. Although it'll be undoubtedly pricey, which breaks my heart so. And I want are preppy clothes, which I've never seen anyone but Ralph Lauren, Junya Watanabe, GAP, Gant, et al (there's a few more, but I notice these more) makes. Which basically means no New Zealand label does the look. Sad... since I do like it so... Ah well. =(

Hm, on another note, it'll be Apple's Black Friday event as well tomorrow. So I might take a look tomorrow and see what I want more. At the moment, it'll probably be a toss between this really nice sports jacket by Hugo Boss that I saw at Smith & Caughey's (which will also inadvertently make me broke) or maybe some really nifty Apple thing, like the iPod touch or maybe even, the MacBook Pro (sigh, I wish). Hm. Or maybe I'll get nothing at all. It all depends on the prices of things really, and I'm none too keen to spend what looks like $500 (even after a discount) on the sports jacket since... well... I have my doubts sometimes about things like these. I love it, and will wear it heaps, but can I justify spending at least $500 on it? It'll probably be cheaper if I was in the States or the UK too =(. How sad that prices get inflated to ridiculous amounts when they get here.

Anyways, I'm off. Ciao!

Edit: I was just reading Casey's notes (the Masters student whose project I'm doing some work on for the summer) and I found a sentence that finally describes the kind of work I expect to be doing over the summer with some clarity (stolen from his thesis notes): 

This study hopes to gain understanding of how mechanical forces affect gene expression, cytoskeleton arrangement, and cell to cell signalling in physiology.

A movie marathon - maybe a jog

I watched 4 movies over 2 nights, and most of them would be considered festival type films: Juno; The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford; Atonement; and La Vie en Rose. It only occurred to me after watching all four that I like movies that are somewhat sad. The ones that I liked best of the two? The Assassination of Jesse James, and Atonement. Only because they were so... sad... touching in a way. And so cinematographically beautiful.

I know its a bit late to be watching either of the 4 movies, but I've been rather busy this year, so I haven't had as much time to watch movies as I'd like. I'm entirely happy I saw those movies, and I absolutely love it. As much as I liked 3:10 to Yuma in fact. It was somehow sad as well, which brings me back to the theory that I like sad stories. 

I made a drill gauge in workshop practice today. Yay! It's utterly useless except for looking somewhat pretty in all its polished steelness (I filed at it and sandpapered it to give it a finished look, I'm so proud of myself). I think it'll make a wonderful paperweight.

Off to bed, I have gym and workshop practice again, for pretty much the rest of the week. Then after that it'll be work and gym. Ciao!

My brief holiday... is ending!

Its sad, but my summer holidays are over. Tomorrow I begin workshop practice, the prelude into my summer job. Then summer work begins, and my holidays at the beach will rapidly drop to nil. My tan might fade because I don't have enough time to wander around and lie in the sun.

It's sad, I know. But oh well, c'est la vie.

Going out for dinner tonight with some mates at the Canton Cafe. Sounds pretty good actually.

I bought Nigella Express (yes, I love Nigella Lawson, though she is no professional chef), but I was honest-to-God debating buying the French Cafe Cookbook instead. The French Cafe is one of the top restaurants in Auckland. And the food looks exquisite, plus you have to book it weeks, if not months in advance. And the hefty price tag associated with it makes it impossible for me to sample its culinary brilliance anytime soon. I did skim through the pages of the cookbook though, and it looks gorgeous. I was literally drooling over the recipes in the book.

I'm still very satisfied with Nigella Express though. It has a lot of great quick dishes to cook on the go, although I've noticed that Nigella is a woman who doesn't seem to mind deriving some of her cooking ingredients from specialist stores and markets, as compared to said professional chefs who prefer making their lovely sauces from scratch. Oh well, differences I suppose. And speed is always sometimes useful. Maybe I'll look through some more books on fast cooking and absorb their little spiel on fast cooking before I form any prejudices on how quick cooking should be done. Although, like I said before, Nigella Express is a treasure trove of a book. I almost wish there were more recipes to be included on it, but I'm being greedy here.

Ooh, I had best get ready to go. I wouldn't want to be late would I?

Tent on a Van

Here lies Iain's tent, on the 19th November around 3:00 PM, shortly after Tony yanked out the pegs and tied it down to the Jesus van, which belongs to the church Iain's mum works for. It was soooo hilarious at the time. Iain was none too impressed however. I wish I could find a picture that showed his reaction to it.

Hmm...

I noticed this on Scotty's album, so I thought I'd upload it here too. The background to this picture is rather simple. I think it started off with Adrian giving Ange a head massage, then Kane (not pictured) wanted one, but Adrian said it would be weird or something. 

Then Adrian proceeded to give Tony one, making Kane annoyed/jealous. Yeah, whatever. Then I got one from Ange with Tony lying next to me on Ange's lap who was lying in Adrian's lap. So here it is...

Back

I was going to write earlier, but I got very sleepy and fell asleep for the last 7 hours. I think I'm coming down with a cold, which kinda sucks.

Camping was fun, although I wish it was warmer than it would be and that the sun would be out more. I also found out that I was very very good at 500, at least when I was playing with Charlie, Darien, Ethan, and so on. And, shockingly I didn't finish my bottle of Bacardi I brought, but I blame my developing cold for that.

All in all, it was an awesome trip, I had heaps of fun at the beach, except for two instances yesterday, one when I decided (rather stupidly) to take a morning shower. The water was FREEZING!!! In fact, I didn't feel so good after that one. The stupidity then continued at midday when I went for a swim in the ocean. The sun was mostly hiden, problematically, which only made the water colder. I probably got hypothermic shock from that as a result. No idea... although I was feeling rather feverish today.

We lit bonfires at the beach every night, and drank to celebrate... well, I don't know what we were celebrating really. The end of exams, life, youth? Whatever it was, it was a damn good celebration. And the sand was really nice and clean. I have a little bit of a tan from the trip too, so that's good. Could do with more I guess, but there wasn't enough sun anyway, and we didn't stay long enough. Another day would probably have covered me, tan-wise, although I would have been down with the cold then, so I'm not sure how that'd work.

My god, Cathy was up at 5:30 yesterday morning cleaning up the general campsite, and woke me up. And me being a light sleeper didn't make it any easier either, considering that I barely caught a wink of sleep the night before. I have no idea how much sleep I got over the two nights, but I'll bet you it's less than 10 hours in total.

My nature of hangovers appear to be shifting. This morning I was rather suprised to discover that I didn't have my normal hangovers (the seasick vertigo types). I instead had the mother of all headaches for my hangover instead. Its definitely a slightly more welcome change, since I don't feel like puking my guts out with this type of hangover, although slightly worrying in that I appear to be changing. I mean, I discovered that I had a huge gap in my memory from the night before as well, which was extremely disconcerting. 

I woke up early in the morning suddenly to find myself in bed with my sleeping bag draped over me, when my last conscious memory was standing up at the beach and talking to uhm... Timmy and Iain and whoever else? Apparently I was actually still alright, very drunk, but still conscious and moving and talking. Whatever it was, I actually don't remember any of it. Which was very very worrying too. 

Nothing much happened from what I could gather anyway, in my regards. I apparently traded my usual jibes with Drake, ran around trying to find my bottle of Barcardi and the bottle of red wine I had. More interestingly, I learnt that I missed out of the bit where Iain was running around and Timmy, thinking that Tom was Iain, tackled him. Then they started wrestling, and apparently Tom was humping Tim, or something like that. And later Tony came up to Drake completely nude and uhh, made disturbing passes at him. Haha, that would have been gold. According to Mihailo, I actually was there and apparently made some comment, but I really do not remember any of that anyway.

Oh, we actually got Iain to streak anyway! That was kinda funny, me, Kane (Timmy's brother), Tony, and Charlie sorta peer-pressured Iain to do it with us, and we went streaking all across the bonfire site at the beach. Oh yeah, it's a nudist beach anyway, so nothing illegal, although most of us were apprehensive about going in the nude, so it made streaking all the more fun. Hehe. It was quite a while since I did that last anyway, and when I commented on it to Iain, he was like: "It actually sounds like something you'd do anyway". WHATTT? I give off streaker, fratboy vibes? I doubt I embody those stereotypes. Do I? Hmm.

Pretty tired, and that was a massive rant on my part. More sleep..... Night

Open Survey (of sorts)

Alright, out of general curiosity, I'll just leave this one open indefinitely, so reply whenever. I've noticed that engineering students in New Zealand tend to dress badly, or at least poorly when compared to Science majors, Medicine, Pharmacy, Law, etc. How true is this over wherever you are? Bear in mind that I mean most, not all =)

I have a feeling Singapore's exempt from the rule, since it's a little too hot. And how do I define poorly dressed? Hm, that's a hard one. I dunno, I guess they just look sloppy in a way? Or a general refusal to wear anything but t-shirts? I can't define it because it's based on what I see. Plus I'm bad at explaining stuff (as I've already established in my interactions with fellow students during lessons). Anyway, gotta get back to last minute packing. Ciao!

God the weather sucks now. I wish it were all sunny again, but it was pouring, then drizzling all day today. I honestly hope that it doesn't stay like this over the next 2 days on the camping trip.

Today was a relatively uneventful day... I went gymming as usual, then bought myself a nice pair of black lace-ups. Hm, what else...?

Oh right, I met up with Richie later as well, but instead of watching a movie, he kinda dragged me - well, he didn't really need to, since I didn't mind - to a netcafe where we played some Warcraft 3. Yeah, sad, I know. Okay, fine, not very sad at all. I got thrashed, since Richie plays more than I do. Suprising, huh? He's actually quite geeky. It amuses me somewhat. 

I even got to use the "You dress like an engineer" insult on him, since he didn't bother bringing a change of shorts (and was hence wearing his gym shorts), although he at least changed his shirt, or I would have dragged him to the department store and blitzed him with fragrance.

Oh, dinner time. See y'all later, maybe when I get back from camping... Ciao!

FREEDOM!!

...to the shores of freedom ... where no one lives

Alright, I guess quoting "Honey and the Moon" wasn't particularly relevant to me finishing my exams, but I still really like the song, so what can I say?

Yeah, it's all over, the exams are all finished for this year, and I can rest. And boy was it ever a terrible exam. I didn't want to have to do a "Regurgitate a summary of your 20-page report". Which I didn't manage to finish anyway, but ah well. Did most of the rest of the exam, so I hope I'd be fine.

Gym and Danny's tomorrow, movie with Richie on Sunday, and gym on Monday, then camping on Tuesday!!! Wow, my schedule's packed. Workshop practice in two weeks though =( I don't wanna do workshop practice. Gotta suck it up I guess.

Golly, I do seriously have cravings for a martini... Too bad I'm out of olives and vermouth. And I'm not going to just drink gin. I'm not that much of an alcoholic yet, heh. 

Me and Rhys have developed an interesting relationship, it seems. We'd good-naturedly bicker and I'll continuously diss him and put him down. And sometimes he does the same, but I probably have dished out more insults at him than he has at me. One of my worse ones being: "You dress like an engineer". Oooh, ouch, if anyone understands the stereotype. I suppose it was fitting though, since he IS an engineer after all, but then again, I apparently don't dress like one, or whatever. Too much thinking into this topic confuses me. And as Tim likes to say "Gabby's always confused". Thanks, Tim. You sure are helping my cause here.

And so I end with a particular set of lines from Joseph Arthur's song still stuck in my head... Ciao!

but right now... everything is turning blue...

and right now... the sun is trying to kill the moon...

and right now... I wish I could follow you...

to the shores of freedom... where no one lives...

Inspiration

Sometimes, it can be really difficult to keep pressing on. I'm not just referring to my exam studies right now of course, which is - pressingly urgent - yes, but there's always more things this could be applied to as well. In times like these, I find that it's great to find your source of inspiration to forge ahead. Some of my mates are my inspiration to get me through these particularly tough times.

Everyone has their own source from which they derive this inspiration. What's yours?

P/S: Paid off the deposit for the suit today. $1200 for now, $1150 when it's done. Ouch! =(

Reform

The election results are out: National has won over Labour. Capitalists over Socialists. Whatever you want to call it, the government is changing once more for the first time in quite a few years. About time too. Although I still personally don't agree with some National's policies. But hey, change is good.

Last exam on Friday, I just can't wait. I went down to Working Style to make myself a suit, which would cost me about $2300 I think. I suppose it's not too bad a price to pay for a made to measure though, and it's in a lovely shade of charcoal gray. Yay!

I happened to see this on the headlines of CNN. An 8-year-old has been charged with premeditated murder. Insane huh? I never thought that would ever be possible.

EXAM EXAM EXAM

ARGHHHH!!!!! MEDSCI TOMORROW!!! So panicked, so panicked, so panicked. I just want the holidays and the pleasant summer to begin already....

Peace out

End of Daze

It certainly has been a very long time since I posted last. Truthfully though, I've been rather busy with the projects, assignments and tests that have suddenly cropped up of late. It's all over now though, and I've got to study for my first exam this Thursday. Darn.

Yesterday was a pretty fun day, apart from the test of course. After that was such a great time. We went to Shadz, then left since it got packed. Then hung around and watched the indoor soccer. (Me and the EngSci crew, that is). Then off to the EngSci/BME BBQ, which was great as well. 

The barbeque ended at about 7, when we decided to go to a nearby pub where Stein 2 was held. Coincidentally, we met up with the mechanical engineering crew, so that was pretty fun too.

I think I spent about at least 2 hours dancing nonstop. My calf muscles hurt. Like, actually hurt.

Some pretty hot chick was dancing with me for quite some time. Pretty fun too, since she seemed interested, and came up to me asking for my name and whatnot. Problematically, I was very much in the happy drunk zone at the time, and it never occured to me to ask for her number =( until about an hour after she left. Hehe, ah well. There's always more fish in the sea. Hm, she was older too. I'm thinking mid 20's. Sigh, gotta study now. Exam is far too soon, and I'm feeling far too underprepared.

Gaps in my memories

It appears that I may not remember Thursday night as fully as I thought I had. I was pretty sure that my memory was, on the whole, intact until Tim had to get me to a cab. I was talking to James today, and it turns out I left the bar briefly with him to go to Burger King to get food. Of course it would have been closed at the time, but I really don't remember that. Freaky... What else did I forget? 

It looks as though this is the advent of my forgetfulness. I used to be able to pride myself on not forgetting much even when I got wasted, the exception being when I was unconscious. Now it looks like I can no longer claim that. I'm slightly perturbed as to what else I may have done that I wasn't aware about on Thursday night now...

Ughhh.....

Wow, today was... a long day. I suppose I should start from yesterday though. Last night was Stein 4. Awesome, but I may have had too much to drink. I ended up chucking my guts badly at the end, but  with the exception of that last unpleasantness, the night was awesome. I must thank Tim for saving me at the end and making sure I got to the cab. Thanks Tim. You are a great guy.

I didn't chuck anymore that night though, thank goodness for that. But morning came, and with it the inevitable hangover. Let's just say it didn't end till 1pm. I had to flag all my lectures.

But anyway, went for dinner and Malcolm and Gayle tonight. That was pretty fun. We decided that we'd do ice-cream next time as well. And oh, I saw someone on the way to the bus stop who was wearing EXACTLY the same jacket I was wearing. It was sooo amusing too, since we noticed at the same time. Random, I know.

Gotta get some sleep. Need some rest

Update

I figured I hadn't made a post in quite some time, so I might as well touch base.

I've finally done away with the Instrumentation and Mechanics assignment, although I finished the Mechanics one with only 15 minutes to go before it was due. Whew! Dodged the bullet there. Now all I have to worry about is the programming assignment, which is more like an assignment in theory than anything else. And additionally, which makes it more boring and annoying.

I got myself a summer internship with the university just this morning. I'm extremely stoked about that, and it was extremely fortuituous as well considering that I was just talking to one of my lecturers when he mentioned one of the projects his Masters student was doing. Well, anyway, I've signed myself on that project after he offered it to me, so it's all sweet.

I'm not exactly sure how much scope is being covered, but from what I understand, the project is to develop a working device to deliver controlled physical strains to a thin sheet of a living bone cell culture, thus allowing people with interests in that field to understand how bone remodels itself to varying strains. I personally think it's great. I would have offered to help the Masters student, Casey, with it in my spare time, but unfortunately I still have all this crap loaded on me, and I wouldn't want to commit to helping so early especially with exams coming up. Wouldn't want to leave him all high and dry, you know.

That said, I should probably get to finishing off my programming assignment so I can go to the Stein with a free mind. Peace out.

P/S: Having withdrawal symptoms for martinis. Help!

Oooh, the drama...

...that is Gossip Girl. What else did you expect? Yeah, I finally found the time to watch it today. Makes me wanna see the next episode. Random, huh? Whoever thought I'd be one to watch Gossip Girl?

The rest of my test results are out... 79% for Programming, 85% for Mechanics. I guess it's not too bad now, is it?

Stein #4 is not this Thursday, but next Thursday! Yeah! Now I know I have something to look forward to next week when I'm drowning in my MedSci labs and my other miscellaneous labs.

Oh my god, this seriously takes the cake. Or maybe I find insensitivity amusing.

The Cycle Begins Anew

Yes it does. Monday bloody Monday. A few new breaks to the cycle though...

I skipped MEDSCI lectures today and went to gym instead. Hurrah! That was fun, although I am one lecture short in knowledge of the lungs. Or something. Meh.

I hear there will be a Stein this Thursday. KEEN! So keen to go. Omg omg omg omg I need a break already.

I had to waste money calling this guy's cellphone because he's the Sales Manager for this online company I'm buying a new phone off, and they didn't send me ANY updates whatsoever. That really pisses me off. I mean, seriously, I'm pretty used to buying stuff online now, and I get a response pretty much instantly when they ship my orders over, or if they're out of stock like those fools were. Jeez. I mean, gosh, its not hard to check and tell me if my order is going to be backordered is it? And go ahead and waste a week of my time being slow about it, and only inform me when I check with you, especially when you require my feedback. Gah.

Going for steak this Friday! YAY! And I got 85.7% for MEDSCI! YAY! I'm quite happy.

P/S: I just noticed a slightly excessive use of capitalisation. Oh well. I guess I can live with it.

DIE MOUSEY DIE

Really, I do hate my research project. I have to (me and 4 others actually) research the feasibility of creating an ECG device to be implanted in a mouse and write a report. Sounds simple, fun, and easy, I know. Then you get into it, with little background in electronics, and you realise that some things cannot be done that easily. You hit a giant brick wall which requires you to spend hours and hours of fruitless research because the easiest solution is not viable: Steal another company's working ECG device and backengineer it. Damn.

it's been hectic

I've just finished my last test for quite a while. I've had two, in case you were wondering. MEDSCI 142 (Organ Systems), worth 28% and COMPSYS 202 (Object Oriented Programming), worth 15%. 

I haven't had much time to rest or do anything since the end of the holidays till now. So I mark my moment of freedom with a blog post. 

Summer studentship applications have just begun to open up over here for BME/EngSci. I intend to submit my application once I talk to a few staff members about the viability of a project in tissue engineering. I reckon it'd be great to do a project in that anyway, seeing as that's the field I'm most interested in at the moment. There might be other fields, but I'm not too aware of them. Considering that our lecturers here focus on modelling, instrumentation, and to some extent, neo-metallic materials (or other materials for use in prostheses), I don't really know what else is done in BME.

Pretty tired to be honest. It's been a very long day.

Food and drink?

The holidays are ending... I've still got tons of work, and my study devoted to MEDSCI 142 (test next Wednesday) amounts to just 2 hours. I'm fucked... On the other hand, I guess I've been de-stressing a little. It does help quite a bit, I must say. I've been pretty tired recently.

Although, recently, I've been having sufficiently strong cravings for a nice steak and maybe a bottle of Sam Adams to have with. And additionally, I'm also wanting to have a nice glass of single malt scotch, like Macallan's Fine Oak range or Talisker, or even  Aberlour. Whatever, you know. I just want a good scotch I can appreciate. I'll have to add getting one to my list, after all the other things first though. Like a new cellphone. Hmm, what to get, what to get...

I just read Sandra's post, and even though I had dinner two hours back, I'm getting hungry again looking at the Big Breakfast picture she posted there. ARGH! I'm craving foods.

I think I might probably take Malcolm out for dinner one of these days since he's been so nice recently, and well, I feel like taking him out for a treat. Hmm, the steakhouse down at the Harbour sounds like a good place, ah?

P/S: Off-topic, but recently one of the ladies at the department store downtown gave me a tester for a relatively recent Guerlain fragrance, Guerlain Homme. I must say I quite like it, its got green tea, lime, rum, bergamot, and a few other things. Pretty bland, but still not bad. I still like Mitsuoko and Vetiver by Guerlain more though. Or even Fahrenheit by Christian Dior.

I hate retards

Really, I do. Why does the Engineering Faculty see fit to let idiots in? WHY? 

I was marking the first year projects for programming, and its HORRIBLE. I can forgive bad commenting, but nonsensical code? Attempts at humour? NO! OH GOD, for the last time, references to the Matrix are not even funny any more.

And don't any of them ever learn that continuously plugging numbers back at the user would only frustrate them? No one really wants to know what they typed into the keyboard when it's still plain visible. And no one wants to see what variables the program is working with either, unless they asked for it! IDIOTS!

The worst one by far was this random chick's one who somehow managed to screw up her output file, and it kept spitting out 2MB files at me, which seemed to grow at a double rate every time I ran it. Seriously. It was at 16MB before I decided I couldn't make head or tail of what she did. At least it's over. I don't even want to think about it anymore.

I've been thinking... *Whoa!* I really have? *World implodes on a massive scale due to paradox*

No, actually, I have been thinking, well, since I was having a conversation with someone I knew about Shadz and stuff last Friday. Turns out they didn't like to hang around some of the first year guys from Engineering because they're "arrogant jocks". Which I got a little offended by. No idea why though.

I'm quite far away to be classified a jock, although I suppose the reason why I fit in so well with them as well as others is because to some extent, I do think like them. I have yet to test this theory of mine, but it does make sense. More sense than me fitting in well with everyone, since I've already picked that theory full of holes, especially after I noted myself omitting certain persons, as well as being almost racist at times. So I'll now go with the "I have the jock mentality" theory. 

Wow, I'm a sad soul. I can't believe I'm thinking about stuff like this.

I better go to gym. Then maybe get down to doing more work. Have fun yeah?

YEAH!

FIELD TRIP 2 IS GONNA HAPPEN!!! 

Haha, for the masses who wouldn't know what I'm talking about, Field Trip 2 is the (un)official continuation of Field Trip 1 for ENGSCI/BME (Engineering Science & Biomedical Engineering). Like the first field trip, it will involve all of ENGSCI/BME from Year 2, and probably (in itself being an absolute certainty) involve copious amounts of alcohol. Unlike the previous field trip, it will NOT involve visits to job sites, thus freeing up more time to play on the beach, and get drunk. 

The only sad thing this time round is the fact that we're not funded by the Department, since its unofficial and all. But hey, Field Trip 1 was awesome, and Field Trip 2 will be too. And it'll be a fitting end to the exams too. I'm stoked. =)

Strange Things...

It appears that in Japan, anything is possible. Including paid seducers and relationship counselors who help to either break a couple up or reconcile them... Yeah, odd huh? I found this article when I was trawling through the web, over here. I guess its a bit of an interesting read.

Found this on Wondermark.com... Its called #291: In which Notability in determined:

I intentionally wrote it out to be an illegible mess.
You wanted me to write you letters, but I'd rather lose your address
and forget that we'd ever met and what did or did not occur.
Sitting in the station, its all a blur
of dance hall hips, pretentious quips,
a boxer's bob and weave.

I never thought...

... that I'd be called a party animal. By my friends that is. The ones I knew from school, the high school in Auckland where I was already pretty social. Yeah, I found it remarkably odd. I thought all of us, as a group were pretty social and party-going. I guess I was wrong. I don't really know my group after all, huh?

I spent pretty much the night at Shadz (Shadows, the student bar) tonight. Met up with like all the first year engineering students whom I kinda knew prior, but hey, now I know all of em! I think. I've kinda forgotten their names. Also met some random chicks from uhhh.... crap. I forgot who they were and where they were from. Only that one of them was kinda nice.

I got ditched by my group pretty early in the night, so I, yeah, pretty much just socialised with the first year engineering guys, and the others from Biomedical Sciences (pre-meds and all). Including Gayle, whom I met through Malcolm. Never knew she'd be such a social party-goer too. She really suprised me there. I danced with everyone tonight it seems. That was fun.

Fun, fun, fun. And EngSci's dinner is later tonight too! YEAH!!! And we be going to town again! That's twice in a row! I love it when there's a break. Thank god for the midsemester break.

Alright, gym tomorrow before pre-pre-drinks at Tessa's, so I better sleep now and get enough rest for gym and the long night ahead. Ciao peeps.

P/S: I just decided to re-read it (on a whim, like 2 minutes after) and I realise I sound pretty drunk and rant-y. Well, too bad, I am still tipsy, you know, the one where you were drunk, but are sobering up pretty rapidly? Yeah, that one.

Eddie's at the Mexican Cafe

Yeah, hardly an original post title, but I haven't the time to inspire myself creatively and think of a more original awe-inspiring post title for myself. Blame it on assignments and stress.

Eddie's birthday was this Friday, but for some magically odd reason he decided to have it tonight. So I had to ditch the Wine & Cheese Careers Evening (WINE AND CHEESE!!! NOOOOO!!!) to go to the Mexican Cafe. Which was alright, since I'm now as bloated as a mother in her third trimester of pregnancy. You get the idea. And the Margaritas were awesome too.

For starters, most of the people there were Eddie and Faith's (Eddie's longtime girlfriend of uhm, maybe a year or two? I lost track) work mates from Village Skycity (the movies). I was definitely suprised to find that I knew like... at least 3 people there. First off, Chris Holdaway, my mate from school who I kept bumping into this semester. He kept scaring the shit outta me 'cos I never expected to see him. Turns out he works there too. Then there's Emily (Biomedical Engineer in second year with me). Turns out her boyfriend works there too. Then there's Alban, whom I know through Lucy, who was Alastair's girlfriend. Turns out he used to work there. Small world huh?

I even met a fellow Malaysian, who was from Kuching even. If anyone knows/knew a girl who went to both St. Theresa's and St. Mary's and who hangs out with Lodgians from time to time from the class of '89 (she left before she finished though, Form 2 maybe?) and knows Andrew Bong (oops, who doesn't?) called Serena Pang, also cousins with a Noel Pang? That's her. And she knows some of my second year mates from Lynfield College to boot. Wow. Very small world.

Dinner was awesome. I was kinda full before the mains even came, which was uhm... weird, considering me. Maybe it was just tonight or something. But boy, when those mains came, I was like soooo full once I was halfway done. Managed to stuff it down, but wow. Full full full. I stood up at some point and my belly hurt. Hurt from fullness. And all for $30 too. Not bad huh, considering the cake, appetisers and mains.

I forgot what I had, well I can't remember its name. All I know is its Mexican styled meat (like beef or chicken) wrapped in like a tortilla skin, and then deep fried, served with a side of Mexican rice, salad and beans. Pretty good, but I don't remember what it's called anymore. So so bloated though, I'll have to work doubly hard at gym tomorrow to make up for that. And now for sleep...

Time and time again

Well, this is sort of a double entendre for me, even though in truth it isn't. Yeah, my thinking logic is a little wild, but hey, what gives? I kinda get this feeling that I'm running out of time, but I don't know what I'm meant to be doing. Okay, not exactly that way either, but its just an odd feeling. If someone has an alternate explanation for what I'm going through, I'd thoroughly welcome it.

Also, I'm always feeling bored these days. Call it a sense of repetition or deja vu or whatever it is, but I feel like I'm doing the same things all the time, even if I've never done it before, or if its something relatively new.

Hm, maybe I'm just sick of winter, and the rain in snow-proof Auckland. When will summer come and let me spend my days in idyllic bliss and warmth?

Time to start working hard again

Yup, it looks like my cruise-y days are ending once more with the handing out of Project 1 for Object Oriented Programming and a project-like "lab" for BioInstrumentation. Which really has nothing to do with BioInstrumentation. Well, I guess the theory behind it is, but practically, if you could come up with a link between being able to sort blue and white marbles using an inductor, a LDR and an LED into separately coloured piles, be my guess. And oh yes, the inductor has a pin that allows you to push the marbles around.

Does sound kinda fun though, since Instrumentation has been boring as hell these few days. Although I don't like the sound of LabView as much, but oh well, I'll live.

Still a little sick, but hey, should be fine by the end of this week I hope. Nose still runny as hell, which has got to the most annoying thing, apart from the coughing. Well, I'm off.

Sick... again

Yeah, I had a relapse. Going to the Stein yesterday may not have been the best idea since I'm now sick as a dog. On the other hand, that stein was totally fun. I met up with a whole group of first years, as well as second years. Somehow, unsurprisingly, Jack and his mates were there too (I kinda expected it though, seeing as they were at the commerce stein too).

I went as a drug tester to the Olympic-themed stein. Well, I was feeling lazy and unoriginal, so I just chucked on my lab coat (I had finished my lab just a few hours ago, so I kept it on pretty much), and changed into track pants. Amazingly, some people managed to guess what I was, although most couldn't. I got random things too, like Drug Doper from this first year dude, who referred to me as that when I bumped into him today. I think he's called Matt. Meh, never good with names.

And there were random chicks who kept giving me hugs and kisses. Claiming that I knew them forever. I was like "Yeah, sure" at that point, since I had no idea who the fuck they were. Besides, who's going turn down attention? Hehe. I can't remember their names anyway. I swear every time I turned around there would be some other chick I never met before (although I made that mistake to Ange and Sara, whoops). At some point I stole this chick's wig which was some sort of bright ginger coloured DragonBall-Z like thing (she was meant to be the flame, torch, whatever). Uhm, like the Super Saiyan. I put it on and did some cheap poses. It was pretty amusing.

Not to mention the cheap beer does wonders, $1 Tui's sure make a light dent on your wallet. At some point in the night I stopped buying drinks 'cause I kept getting some from mates who would buy stashes of 5 or so beers and give them away. (Who's gonna hold on to 5 beers anyway? 2 at most I reckon). There were lots of chicks dressed at tennis players too. Not that I'm complaining, some of them were pretty hot in white, and those short skirts... Wow.

On other news, the last few days have been real dull anyway. I studied the human brain and got to play with an actual one too (although plasticized). It was kinda icky and weird. I stopped thinking of it as a real brain at some point. Plus, I was feeling sick on the day, so I got impatient with the TA's and was contemplating throwing the brain at them to get them to hurry up. Hehe, you know me.

I sometimes feel like I'm becoming more distanced from my peerage (former) from high school. You know, the ones in my year, before I left school a year early. I saw them only for like 10 minutes every single time, before I would bugger off and socialise with my other mates. Then again, I suppose I've always been a bit of a drifter in that sense, but ahh, you know, just that feeling that I'm not as close to them as I used to be. Then there's the fact that few of them drink, or that most are unwilling to go to Steins and student-related functions. (Not that I'm saying that you have to drink copious amounts, its a social thing anyway).

I've also noticed that Biomedical Engineering & Engineering Science (since we're pretty small, 25 in BME and 50 in ES; and we share quite a few classes in common sometimes) are starting to separate into two distinct cliques: The drinkers (primarily composed of whites, maybe with the exception of two Asians, me and I think JP, maybe one or two other Asians), and the non-drinkers (primarily composed of Asians, with the exception of a few whites). Then again, you could kind of tell that the clique was settling nicely into place anyway, from the onset of the EngSci/BME fieldtrip; when the drinkers partied and went to town and the non-drinkers just played cards.

Haha, I better get to bed. This cold/flu/whatever is really doing a number on me. I'm like really tired, my voice sounds funny, and I'm coughing heaps. Yay for sickness. Anyway, cya for now.

P/S: Jack pointed out this amusing video that Paris Hilton uploaded in retaliation to being mocked by McCain in his ad against Obama. Its pure gold. You just HAVE to watch it.

http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/64ad536a6d

Rule No. 108

Rule number 108: The road to hell is not paved with good intentions. The road to hell is paved with smooth-jazz CDs, herbal teas, John Tesh specials, and low-fat cheese.

I found this off a book from Esquire Magazines, The Rules.