My computer lives to see another day - but then what is life?

There was thunder and lightning on friday night - it was quite impressive to watch. I'd just finsihed watching a movie with some friends and we went and stood the little undercover patio/verandah thing at my house - slightly surrounded by washing - admiring the lightning while drinking our cups of tea. Of course, I didn't give another thought to things like... computers being switched on! Later, after Jack and Ruth went I tried to check something - and my desktop which has its moments of being clunky and slow but is actually an old friend wouldn't do anything. I spent hte last few days thinking it might be dead - or just need ANOTHER new power supply.. and even got one from my cousin (who tells mehe got 4 for $10 from ebay)! But just as I faced the daunting though not particularly hard task of unplugging it all and undoing the case etc, I just tried swapping it to a different powerpoint! And now it works... hurrah! Ok... possibly Jack suggested just checking... but I'm glad all the same. And I really should back up anything of importance just in case!!

The movie we watched was Ghost in the Shell - apparently a classic anime. It wasn't as cheerful and happy as some of the Studio Ghibli ones I've seen, but was enjoyable anyway. There were some philosophical elements - what is life-AI, human genes which are basically programs anyway, etc. It was interesting that they quoted some familiar Biblical snippets-'When I was a child, my speech, feelings, and thinking were all those of a child. Now that I am a man, I have no more use for childish ways.' And also something about seeing now only as a reflection, but later seeing in full. About life and people, the 'evil' 'Puppet Master' said:

'It can also be argued that DNA is nothing more than a program designed to preserve itself. Life has become more complex in the overwhelming sea of information. And life, when organized into species, relies upon genes to be its memory system. So, man is an individual only because of his intangible memory... and memory cannot be defined, but it defines mankind.'

I picked up the ticket for the southern roots festival the other day (it had come registered post). In the mean time, I've been invited to a wedding (Cathy and Tom) the same day... ARRRGGHHH!! I think I'll go to wedding at 11, reception in cygnet afterwards and try to be back to showgrounds for festival for late afternoon. Hopeuflly I won't miss any of the big stuff - it opens at 10, but I am hoping it will take a while to kick off. I always seem to have clashes - I do do a lot of things, but there are days with nothing, and days with 3 things... doh!

Uni tomorrow... the only good thing is its a sleep-in compared to boot camp the day after. Actually, not the only good thing - it will be fun to be back into it, seeing people and having routine and so-on. Bring it on!

Running out of holidays...

...but still making the most of them!

On friday, Tahnee and I zoomed off in comfort (borrowed Mum's VW golf - which we think looks kinda hippo shape but she was offended when I said that) on our adventure to Bicheno. It was almost a year ago that we'd done a similar trip, only we'd just squeezed in 2 nights, arriving late and leaving early on the last day to return to uni. beautiful sunny day which was spent in a similar way... eating, drinking (warm day perfect for a beer or two!), visiting both the surf shops - had to make sure we supported the local economy. We spent a fair bit of the afternoon at the beach - a couple of dips, some time in the sun reading books and magazines.. bliss! Three of our other friends were camping further up the East Coast since thursday. We'd skillfully arranged for them to visit us on their way back - and our meeting timed perfectly: we were just walking up from the beach as they drove into the carpark. (Which luckily meant they'd deciphered my map of how to A whole year ago, and it was my first day... but now I'm a big grown up second year student.. next week I am anyway. This trip, we arrived on the Friday afternoon, relaxed, ate cheese and bisuits, drank Coronas and made our selves pretty comfortable. Saturday was a get to the beach!). Our sleepover was a great success - our veggie friendly meal of pumpkin gnochi with invented tomato, onion, red wine etc sauce, plus coleslaw when down well. An evening stroll to the gulch followed by *ahem* butterscotch self saucing pudding... which we of course could have made from scratch but.. hey at a shack its easier to just add egg and 3 tbs water!

There was plenty of lazing around time - reading, i did some random drawings and even played with some paints, we went for brief walks to the beach to make us feel less lazy, and we made sure to eat and drink at regulr intervals - otherwise we wouldn't get through all the food we brought with us! After another relaxing morning on monday, we packed up after lunch (and a quick trip BACK to the surf shop because I decided the other jumper I liked when I first saw it was worth it after all!). There were only a few stupid log trucks and slow rentacars to contend with on the drive home - and with Tahnee as dj, it was a pleasant return trip after avery enjoyable weekend. At home I discovered they've begun knocking down walls - well a wall, the one between rooms upstairs where they plan to put a kitchen. Not that there isn't already a kitchen but its a long story! Ah and.. they began knocking down the wall, removed plaster etc, but the studs are still there... and thats because it turns out to be a weight bearing wall.. ie IT'S HOLDING UP THE ROOF. They forgot about that. I guess it's the first of a number of the hiccups that occur when renovating old places. That and.. there's dust everywhere.

Today marked the beginning of what will most likely be a stupidly painful exercise, which for some reason I volunteered for. No, not volunteered. PAID FOR! And exercise it is. I am doing a boot camp. One of those things where you get up early, run around in the cold and wet, do push ups in the mud etc. Tahnee's boyfriend Andrew already did a 4 week one, and now Tahnee and I thought we'd join in this one - a friend of their's is running it. This morning was supposed to be the beep test - which you do again at the end to see how much you improve. Sadly (or not) the CD was skipping so we have that in store for thursday. Instead we did other 2 minute tests - push-ups, sit-ups, tricep dips, and then in theory, squat jumps. Everyone else did the squat jumps, but while counting Tahnee's tricep dips my field of vision started to go dark, and blurry, and close in on me... I sat down, but then thought instead it would be wise to dash to the bathroom. I'm hoping that it won't be repeated - but there definately was nothing but water in my stomach!

FIVE whole days left before university starts.. and I'm counting. But now I should head to mum's place for lunch with her, Hamish, and Hamish's parents before they leave for home (UK) tomorrow after their stay here over Christmas.

puddling along

Holidays are still puddling along. They feel as though they are going quickly - suddenly its feburary. But then, I've done quite a bit in some ways. I had Aquatics last week - my annual sailing cap. That was great fun-I'd convinced a few camper aged friends to come along. In the week before camp we managed to recruit enough campers to bring it from 10 to 20 - which made the 14 leaders slightly less excessive. But we did have 4 babies under 3 to look after, plus we did all the cooking ourselves. We had it at a new sight as well, so that took some extra consideration - and then, it was excessivley windy most days so our usual days on the beach with sailing required reconsidering! We re-invented the timetable as we went - filling it with alternative activities such as Hastings pool, murder mysteries, softball on Australia day (grass was too long for planned 20-20 cricket!), sleep in followed by French toast and pancakes on the bbq, and plenty of general laid back chill time. Anyway, the usual crew of leaders were good fun to be with, as were teh mix of campers - some familiar to Anglican Camping, and other new faces. There were 4/5 player games of spit/speed (even more concentration required than the normal 2 player), mountain boards being towed behind a 4wd, surf kiyaking, sprint4mint sunday, and plenty more fun.

On the saturday, mid-camp, Mark and I drove back from Southport to Margate for the wedding of some friends of mine. It was lovely, although sort of odd to adjust from camp mind-frame to not and then back again later. The reception at Home Hill was very enjoyable - a good meal, and some amusing capers with our table.. but then you wouldn't want to have a boring set of photos from the disposable camera provided on the table.. and they'll know it was table 5! (Though they may not have needed to remember what the toilets looked like...)

Since then I've been back in the real word, catching up on sleep, organising tax stuff, reading Terry Pratchett books, watching movies, eating icecream and so on. As it happens, Mark and I broke up the day after camp, which may explain the extra girls afternoons, nights, movies, ice-cream etc... Mum and Katherine (aunt) took me out for lunch one day, I met up with Tahnee for the afternoon on friday, and she came around again on Sunday, stayed the night and came out for breakfast with mum and I today, and Ruth brought icecream on saturday. Although this (the breakup - or the icecream for that matter) wasn't my decision, Ruth has given me a tick of approval and says I'll be ok - and I agree. I was sad, and it is a shame because there seemed to be a lot of good things about us being together, however it seems it was not to be. We both want to keep being friends, although time will tell exactly what that looks like - but we'll manage. I'd want that, even if Hobart wasn't so small that with overlapping Christian and Med circles we are bound to see each other!

Meanwhile, life goes on. And I've read 'Light Fantastic', part of 'Mort', watched Anchorman, Napoleon Dynamite, My Super Ex-Girlfriend, and The Break Up, I went to my cousins for dinner wednesday, out for lunch thursday, lunch and dinner friday (as well as to a gig with Attic Grooves and Miso), was at the sailing club on saturday, and at someone's house for lunch on sunday before going to Savoy baths... so I've been keeping busy!

And looking ahead, Tahnee and I want to go to Bicheno, and THIS looks fun:

Happy New Year (its still holidays-I'm allowed to be slow)

Hello and welcome back for a new year on the blog. I haven't decided what the content will be for the year - seems boring to just have my little comings and goings. But for now I'm still on holidays and filling my time with all sorts of interesting and less interesting passtimes. Working backwards (maybe thats the way my mind works) I had my last day working at the chemist today. They even bought me a lemon tart to celebrate-very nice it was too. It was a little bit sad to be leaving, but by the time I come back from a week away (starting tomorrow) they'll be opening in a different building, with a different name and different owner! Times are changing.

I've also done some painting work for my Dad at a property he's doing up. Its not too painful - mostly I do the cutting in and Kate or Dad do the larger scale roller-ing. And we can only do first coats until the floors get sanded - apparently it makes so much dust which is hard to get completely off so its better to do the second paint coat afterwards. Some beams holding up the floor (it is an old house) were resting straight on the ground and were rotten through, so they all had to be replaced. The plumbers were there the other day putting in pipes in what will be the bathroom (no more outhouse hurrah - not that i've used it, partly as I don't like the seat which is more a bench with a hole!) Anyway its definitely improving. And Dad even admitted I was good at painting, even if I am too busy to do much!

Other than that, I've had some good time catching up with friends - some chilling with Tahnee. We went to see the movie Apocalypto on friday with some other people - I didn't really find out much about it beforehand, so it was a little more violent than I usually choose to see. It was quite graphic in some parts - although it was not the sight of blood and guts that is offputting, so much as the thought of humans being so brutal to each other. Especially between tribes of people who look nearly the same to me! But they did have good names - Jaguar Paw, Turtles Run, Flint Sky.
Amusingly, the IMDB website has this about the movie:
Goofs: Anachronisms: The buildings in the city co-mingle architectural styles from three separate Mayan civilizations: Tikal Classic Maya (800 CE), Puuc (c.1050 CE), and El Mirador, a Pre-Classic metropolis that existed around the year 0 CE.

Yesterday Tahnee and I went with her parents and some others to see the performance of Aladdin in the Botanical Gardens. All was going well, and we were enjoying the show along with quite a mob of adults and even some children. Then it began to rain. They asked if they should keep going and we said yes and all shuffled in under the trees some more (we were at the second location of three) but then it really bucketed down. We couldn't hear what they were saying because of the noise of the rain as well as everyone muttering and chatting. We all ran for cover under the restaraunt and after a while the actors (still in their lovely but not very waterproof costume complete with Arabic style hats) came to tell us we could keep the tickets and come back another day. Sadly they are only on for the rest of the week and I'll be away so I don't get to know the end - although I have my suspicions young Aladdin gets the girl and all is well. But it would have been nice to see it played out - they said it was a bit different to the movie version.

So with our afternoon plans... dampened, we ran to the car, getting completely drenched on the way. Amusingly, I realised I was wearing the same shirt (yes all i was wearing was a skirt and short sleeved shirt - not much good in a downpour) that I wore in Cambridge when Tahnee and I again got drenched to the skin while having a trip on the river Cam! After a quick change at home, then a cup of tea with Tahnee's parents at her place we ventured out with raincoats to the video shop - the giant video city in New Town which I'd never been to. After some deliberation we armed ourselves with 3 more anime ones we'd been making our way through last year - studio Ghibli/Miyazaki movies. We got The Castle of Cagliostro, The Grave of the Fireflies, and Laputa, The Castle in the Sky.

The Castle of Cagliostro was pretty early on I think, and it was amusing, but more like Tintin - big goofy really. The Grave of the Fireflies is set in WWII Japan and had some really sad moments. Not so cheerful, but I thought it was good - showed that even with the threat of air-raids, for the orphans in the story it was actually the unkindness of other people that was most unpleasant. Laputa seemed quite long, but had some good bits, and some good robots and flying machines too. And again it was 2 orphans who meet when one falls from the sky!! Pazu says 'A girl just fell from the sky, boss!' and next thing he's helping her run away from pirates, the army and find a hidden castle in the sky! There are a few more Studio Ghibli ones to see, but after that I don't know what anime is any good. Some just looks wierd....!

As well as all that, I went away about a week ago to Bicheno with Mum and Hamish, his parents, my aunt and uncle, cousin and some others. It was a stunning weekend with gorgeous weather. I squeezed in a most enjoyable mix of reading, swimming, fishing, drinking coffee, fishing, swimming, eating out at the French restaraunt (delicious food - I had duck), eating at cousins shack (delcious food-we had rabbit), playing a board game, doing jigsaw puzzles and just relaxing. I left early on the monday (oops before some of the cleaning was finished!) to head home to collect my aunt from Melbourne at the bus station, had lunch and catch up with her, and headed to see Mark after his 3 weeks in NSW. All in all, a top weekend!

There was also the whole adventure of Christmas and Falls. It already seems quite a while ago. And I do have photos to put up, but once again they are not here in the same house that I am in. For now, Christmas involved, dinner with Dad (and Kate, and grandmother), breakfast on Christmas Day with them, lunch with Mark, his family and some international students, driving to Bicheno, random meal with whoever was around, big dinner of boxing day night with Mum's family. Few days there then back home and I was off to Falls. I camped with Tahnee and her boyfriend and his friends who were good fun. I enjoyed heaps of different bands - John Butler Trio, Modest Mouse, Blue King Brown, Michael Franti, Benjafield Collective etc. Was nearly tempted to watch the sun rise on new years morning, but at quarter to five we decided it was actually a fair way off!! Instead we slept until about 8, woke and realised it wasn't necessarily a sunny day heading our way, so plan to linger and go to the beach may be foiled, so instead packed quickly and left the site by 9 and were home by 10. Certainly did better than some others caught in traffic as the day went on! Another top way to welcome the new year.

And thats a not very brief run-down of me lately... well the bits worth writing. Lots more happened in the gaps - no wonder I have barely touched a computer! Still plenty of time for that when term begins soon enough - then I will actually have something to procrastinate about!

Oh and tomorrow I'm off to Southport for my annual sailing/kiyaking Anglican camp. Seems we'll have about 18 kids, and 14 leaders (better than the 13 we were looking at earlier in the week - i recruited 4 more!). New venue - should be exciting. Hoping for good weather. Will write about that one in another few months!!!

Picture Hunting

I was wasting time this evening - playing with my laptop while watching some CSI equivalent on TV and found some cool pictures. So I thought I'd add a couple on here. Anyway its the end of another weekend. I ended up being quite busy - had breakfast with Tahnee, did some shopping, went to Salamanca, had coffee with Tahnee, her mum and another friend of theirs yesterday before going to sailing where I took 2 young girls out in optimists. They did well because it was quite breezy and it was only their 3rd time in a boat - twice in a mirror with me and then they were on their own! Today I went to church, had a quick lunch at Hilary and Coopers - admired his new bed and his new bike, then dashed off to babysit Finlay and Brendon. We went to the little park just down from their house, then to the sweet shop in Hampden Rd, and the boat park for a play. The soccer ball came too - so we ended up playing keepins off, which was usually keepings off me. Now I'm about to go to sleep and be ready for another week of work - but thankfully I'm not working as much this week - not everyday. But tomorrow will be a long day with work, submerge, babysitting again and then staying over with my cousins in Taroona.

Blind spot on the eyeBlood vessels in the retina shown emerging from the optic disc (black). The optic disc is the part of the retina where the optic nerve carries all the visual information away from the eye, and where the retinal blood vessels enter and leave the back of the eye. No light receptor cells are present here, making it a blind spot. We don't normally notice that the blind spot exists because the other eye compensates for that small area.Branching brain cells: These specialised cells named Purkinje cells (red) are found in a part of the brain called the cerebellum. They send out vast numbers of branches that make connections with other cells in the cerebellum. This part of the brain coordinates your voluntary movements and keeps you oriented in space. It also plays a part in learning physical skills – such as riding a bike or playing the piano.Teasel flower bud: Teasels are thistle-like wild flowers that have long been used in traditional herbal medicine. Teasel root tea was once used to stimulate the appetite, reduce fluid retention and help some liver complaints. Bruised roots were used in an ointment to treat warts, and teasels were even used to ward off witches. The complex pattern seen in this teasel bud is controlled by the same family of genes that controls the layout not only of all flowers, but also of all animal and human bodies as well.