sixthseal.com

Shu Yiing

My friend Shu Yiing came down from Adelaide with her boyfriend Andy today. I was graced by their presence just now, along with Derrick, who is Shu Yiing's cousin, also from Sibu and lives in Richardson Hall. The weird thing is Richardson Hall is very close to Roberts Hall and yet we've never seen each other before. Also here was Selina, Andy's sister who is doing law in Monash University. Note that all of us are from Sibu. Represent!

From left: Selina, Derrick, Andy, Shu Yiing, Huai Bin

Posted in People by Huai Bin at 04:17 PM Permalink | Comments (2)

DXM

A friend of mine wrote a trip report on DXM and wanted me to post it here. It's pretty entertaining and I don't have anything to post today, so here goes. It should be said that DXM is a dissociative anaesthetic like ketamine and PCP and can cause false positives in tests for PCP. If you're interested in trying this, read the DXM FAQ [erowid.org] and this article about NMDA Antagonist Neurotoxicity [erowid.org]. The following trip report has been posted in its entirety and without any editing. The author does not want to be named.

Dextromethorphan Hydrobromide 30 mg per 10 ml.

I have finished a normal sized dinner at 7 pm. At 9:30 pm I took a 200 ml bottle of Robitussin DX (3mg per 10 ml), which gives me 600 mg. With my body weight of 70 kg, that amount of DXM will push me into the 3^rd plateau. This is my first time taking DXM and I did not have a trip sitter with me. As per custom in such cases, I wrote the drug name, amount taken and body weight on my left hand. DXM is not illegal in Australia and most other countries. I have had previous experience with hallucinogens, so I know what to expect. I took copious amounts of LSD when I was 16 and I’ve also taken speed, ecstasy, marijuana recreationally. Contrary to the reports I’ve read, Robitussin DX is not hard to swallow or disgusting in taste. I found it quite sweet and pleasantly acceptable when I chugged the whole bottle down. The texture is surprisingly not cloying and st, but rather smooth and went down without much trouble. The opening of the Robitussin DX bottle was small and not conducive to chugging but I managed to get it down within 5 seconds. I did not have nausea and only had to chase the mixture with a swig of water to clear my mouth of the taste. To provide a safe and comfortable setting, I’ve locked the door to my room and switched off all the lights.

10:30 pm

Felt a slight intoxication with periphery numbness consistent with alcohol. Interestingly, my lips feel slightly numb as well. I feel somewhat sleepy as well, so I’m going to get a diet coke. Caffeine and disassociates do not go well together. It’s a bit hard to go to the toilet when you can’t move now innit? :)  I’m having slight trouble recalling events too, I wonder if that’s because I’m sleepy? Slight tingling around the scalp area too, not entirely unpleasant, but it feels a bit weird. Slight nausea and dizziness when I walk.

10:52 pm

Feeling rather intoxicated now. Slight tunnel vision and a general ‘feeling’ of intoxication. Shit, my whole scalp itches and it didn’t go away when I scratched it. Trip coming on now. I keep on scratching my whole scalp but it’s STILL so damn itchy. Is this is dreaded Robo Itch? Nevermind. Nevermind. Don’t let that spoil your trip. It’s damn itchy though. Needs two hands to scratch to fulfill the itch. Best to leave it alone? My head is damn itchy and painful. Calm down. I’ve been scratching my head for several minutes now and it’s still itchy and painful. I promise to leave it alone now. I’m listening to Cradle of Filth now and it sounds good. Mellow and peaceful, but my head itches so much. Damn. The itchy scalp itch has now spread to my forehead. Fuck.

11:02 pm

I’m STILL scratching my scalp and forehead and some parts are starting to hurt. And now the itch has spread to my eyelids. Damn. I’ve found its nicer and not so tough on the skin to put my hands under my shirt and use my shirt to rub my forehead. I’m starting to sweat a lot too. Naughty. I’m getting a lot of the side effects of the trip. Urm…my neck itches now.

11:18 pm

The itch has spread to my chest. Calling it an itch is too subtle as it hurts now. Going to the mirror to see if I’ve scratched myself raw. It doesn’t look red at all but it hurts. After washing my face, even the underside of my eyes itch. It didn’t before. :( Feeling slightly intoxicated now, but still coherent and able to communicate. I hate the itch.

11:31 pm

Still can’t stop scratching myself. Scratch scratch scratch. It’s a compulsion. My whole body itches…neck…shoulders…back. 

11:41 pm

Scratch scratch scratch

11.45 pm

The itch has spread to my lower belly and upper thighs. Good thing it bypassed my crotch. I wouldn’t want to scratch that raw. Heh. I’m feeling a heaviness in my brain, as if all my blood has concentrated there.

11:58 pm

Still itchy but it’s subsiding. Feels good to scratch anyway. If it’s not on the head that is. Scratching the head hurts. Whoa…swinging my head from left to right a couple of times made me dizzy. :) I remember once when I had a slightly bad trip on LSD. I went to a rave with a couple of friends and got home at around 6 am after getting some McDonald’s. I haven’t eaten it yet, it was still with me, and I looked in the mirror and my eyes scared me. Heh. But then I ate my stuff while still tripping took a shower and tried to go to sleep. While looking at my ribcage, I realized that one side is much higher than the other side. I totally freaked out for no good reason and tried pressing one side down. I was frantic when it wouldn’t go down and kept punching it to make it go down and make both sides symmetrical. I was almost starting a panic attack when I calmed myself down and told myself it was probably just the acid that made one side look higher than the other. After telling myself that a couple of times, I calmed down somewhat, but it still looked disturbing to me. I don’t know why I was so freaked out by that, it’s actually no big deal but while on acid, it seemed a pretty big deal for some reason. Ah…the wonders of psychedelics.

12:07 am

I looked in the mirror just now and saw the stuff I wrote on my hand and laughed. I don’t like the way I laugh. Fucking annoying. I don’t think I laugh like this normally. The way my mouth contorts when I laugh just now is really very annoying and makes me want to punch myself. I think it’s because I don’t like someone with the same smile and it irks me that I’m smiling that same smile now. Shit. That sucks. I have an ugly smile. I don’t like the way I look in the mirror when I smile. But that could be because I’m forcing myself to smile in a shitty way.

12:27 am

I realize that I’ve been inadvertently gritting my teeth like I usually do when I’m on speed. Oh well, at least I’m not grinding it. Hey, I can correct my own grammar. J

12:40 am

It’s 12:40 now and still no hallucinations. L There is a pretty heavy stoning effect but that wasn’t what I was after. I prefer intellectual highs. The itch still hasn’t gone away but it’s pleasant now. Nice to scratch the itch.

1:03 am

I’ve been to the mirror in the toilet and checked out my body. A lot of marks from scratching but nothing permanent. Slight visual artifacts but nothing much more than that. Feeling a bit drunk though, as if I’ve consumed alcohol. Is this all to DXM? I’m very disappointed if it is. Perhaps I should have taken it on an empty stomach.

1:15 am

Was amusing myself by taking photos of myself. I found out that I can take numerous photos of myself with the same facial expression and pose. Heh.

1:18 am

Feeling rather euphoric now. All is good, but I wanted to have a psychedelic experience as opposed to a euphoric one. Does DXM and caffeiene bind to non-competitive receptors in the brain? Or, *gasp* are they competitive receptor binders and so that’s why I’m not feeling the typical 3^rd plateau experience?

1:28 am

Okay, my trip is ending. I knew I should not have eaten just now.

3:02 am

I’m pretty much sober now. The trip wasn’t very exciting and I had expected much more. There was very mild closed eye visuals and hallucinations but not full blown ones typical with acid trips. DXM definitely is psychoactive and I felt rather stoned in the early and middle parts of the trip but there wasn't much psychedelic activity.  I also felt mentally euphoric but without the 'energy' of speed towards the end of the trip. Was that from the caffeine or DXM? Also, I’m feeling slightly queasy from the Robitussin and rather hungry as well. Perhaps I’ve expected too much from this trip or I just ate too much, because my experience wasn’t really interesting at all. I got the dreaded Robo Itch really bad though. By my body weight, the dosage I gave myself should put me into the 3^rd plateau but it did not. I was rather out of it during the trip but could still move about. My experience did not fit into any of the plateaus documented in the FAQ. I might try DXM again but I’ll double the dosage and do it on an empty stomach to see if I can get into the 4^th plateau or I’m one of those people who just doesn’t get much from DXM. I’m rather bummed though…I killed all those brain cells and risked Olney’s Lesions for nothing. I could have gotten the same buzz from alcohol. Tsk tsk…and I was looking forward to an intellectual psychedelic experience.

Posted in Pharmaceuticals by Huai Bin at 04:37 AM Permalink | Comments (75)

Best places on campus to sleep and take a dump

I'm feeling pretty bushed now. I was in uni the whole day from 8 am in the morning till 6 pm and I only got a couple of hours of sleep last night. I did manage to catch up on my sleep today though. I had no classes from 10 am - 12 pm and went to the library to take a nap. =D It's pretty convenient to sleep in one of those tables with privacy screens in the silent area of the library. I fell into such a deep sleep, I actually dreamt! It was a pretty weird dream, all jumbled up. The characters seem to be people I saw on the way into the library but I've forgotten about the dream by now. It was quite interesting though. Oh, and I drooled all over my arm while I slept and woke up with a wet patch on my long sleeved shirt.

The best place to sleep on campus

Anyway, I also found one of the best places to take a dump on campus. I've always favored the S block toilets because they are some of the newest on campus. However, I've found an even better one. The N block second floor toilets are really something. Even though it's rather old, it has a nice ambience to it, courtesy of the clouded glass windows on one side of the toilet. Furthermore, the furthest toilet even has a ledge on the side to put your bag on. Nice indeed. Every time I need to take a dump while on campus, I'll be heading to the N block toilets.

Well, by the time I got back to Clayton, I was pretty much dead from lack of sleep. However, I managed to spy the elusive security bus and got onto it. Heh. It's a bus that loops around the campus every half hour and it stops right at the halls of residence. It actually takes longer to use the bus than walk, so I've never bothered to get onto it, but I was so tired today I appreciated not having to walk back even if it meant it takes longer.

Anyway, it turns out that the book sale isn't today after all. It's on Thursday. My bad.

Posted in by Huai Bin at 02:00 AM Permalink | Comments (0)

"Fill a bag for only A$5.00"

I missed the shuttle again today and thus was forced to take the Huntingdale bus to connect with the Flinder's Street Station train. The thing is, the 12:40 pm bus gives you exactly 5 minutes to walk from the Huntingdale bus stop to the train station. Normally this is more than enough, but today the bus was delayed by this long ass truck who was trying to back into a plaster factory right off the highway. The trailer was so long, the truck actually had to go over the road divider to back into the driveway of the factory. Thus, all four lanes of the northbound traffic was down to a standstill to accommodate the truck. The truck took a good 5 minutes to completely back into the driveway and thus, by the time the bus got to the train station, the train was already pulling in. I had to sprint to get to the train platform and the doors started closing just as I ran noisily into the train, startling a poor old lady who was about to doze off. Heh. I think only 3 of the 15 people on the bus managed to get on that train. The next train is a good 20 minutes away and that would make me late for my tutorial so that's why I wanted to get on this one.

A router in action

Anyway, I had my Network Administration lab today and there was this movie being shown to explain the concept of the Internet. I've seen this one countless times before, the movie is Warriors of the Net [warriorsofthe.net] and it's made by Ericsson for internal purposes but seems to have spread far and wide because, truth to be told, it actually is a very good movie that explains networking concepts in easy to understand terms.

A$5.00 per bag

Well, as I was heading back I saw that the bookshop is having a sale tomorrow. It's not your normal, run of the mill sale, but one where you can fill a bag with as many books as you can for only A$5! Basically, they provide you with a bag and you go around stuffing books into the bag until you can't fit anymore in and you pay A$5 at the counter. I'm not sure what books will be available and what the size of the bag actually is, but it's a pretty good deal nevertheless. If you're interested, that's the bookshop of the Caulfield campus of Monash University.

Posted in by Huai Bin at 01:56 AM Permalink | Comments (1)

Monday

I've just had a discussion with my Industrial Experience supervisor regarding the Christmas vacation period and it seems that going back will be out of the question for most people because the workload will be pretty hefty right around then. I'm aware that Industrial Experience does not follow uni holidays since it's supposed to provide a one year working experience in software development and project management. Oh well, we'll see how it goes. I've just noticed that half the semester is gone and there will be a lot of assignments due soon. Bummer.

Anyway, I was taking the train back at around 9 pm today after working on the IE project in the labs. Interestingly, I saw three policemen (one of them was female but for the sake of being politically correct) board the train at Caulfield and get off at Clayton. I've never seen police use public transport before. They were still in their uniform and obviously is still on the job since they were questioning a druggie at Clayton station. I wonder why they don't use cruisers and have to take public transport.

Well, as I was reading the Herald Sun today, I saw this advert regarding Southgate's [southgate-melbourne.com.au] 10th birthday. There will be a fireworks show and other entertainment as well. I might head down if I've nothing better to do on Saturday night.

Posted in by Huai Bin at 02:06 AM Permalink | Comments (0)

Grampians

Well, as you all know, I went with MONSU trips to the Grampians yesterday. I managed to wake up about 30 minutes before the bus was scheduled to depart and made haste to the pick-up point, which is a convenient two minutes walk from my place. There were a whole bunch of people already there and one of the MONSU volunteers handed out the itinerary for the day. The bus arrived from Monash University in Peninsula with a couple of people already in the bus and we headed to Caulfield to pick up the rest of the people in the trip. The first stop after that was in Ararat, not Beaufort as scheduled. We were supposed to stop at Beaufort for a toilet break but that didn't happen because Ararat was just a while away. After using the toilets, we passed by Halls Gap and arrived at Grampians National Park about 3 1/2 hours after we departed.

The Grampians National Park trail marker

We did the Grand Canyon walk, which is a 900 meters walk up rocky terrain. It was quite strenuous because there was an ascension of 280 meters, which doesn't sound like much, but it involves large steps over rocks. I'm having trouble being descriptive today. =D

Grand Canyon (The Aussie version)

Steps are mounted to allow navigation through the steeper portions

The walls of the Grand Canyon behind me

There was a strange outcropping of rock at the furthest point of the loop. It was a two rock formation which looks scalable so I tried going on the first one and pulling myself to the other rock. Pretty fun, as I needed to support my body weight with my hands at one point.

A little bit of climbing required to get to that vantage point

Me and Jimmy at the Grand Canyon v.Australia.Melbourne

It is interesting to see so many large boulders, I've never seen them in this size before. The loop was supposed to take 30 minutes and we went back to the picnic area for lunch.

Lunch at the Wonderland picnic area

There were several crows in the picnic area and I tried to see how close the crows would come if I fed them bits of ham. The crows were pretty bold and would snatch up bits of food from in front of you. There was even some cawing and staring down involved. Heh.

Stand down soldier

Anyway, we were scheduled to depart at 1 pm but there was a group who wasn't back yet. After a one hour wait, they finally emerged all sweaty and tired from the path. It seems that one of the volunteers had taken a group to the Pinnacle Lookout, which is a 4.2 km walk from the picnic area. Naturally, the rest of the people who were waiting for them wasn't too pleased at their waywardness and the volunteer in question got a rather deserved admonishment from the bus driver. Due to the fact that we're running late, we had to miss one of the scheduled stops - Jaws of Death. Too bad, I had wanted to see that one.

Anyway, we headed down to MacKenzie Falls after that. I've noticed that we went on the Grand Canyon Walk instead of going to Boroka Lookout, but that's just as well coz the Grand Canyon Walk is pretty nice too. As we arrived at MacKenzie Falls, there was a wallaby wondering wild. A wallaby is a native animal of Australia which is related to the kangaroos and for all non-scientific purposes, is a kangaroo, albeit a smaller one. It got spooked pretty easily though and won't let me get close to it, even though I tried approaching slowly and crouched down a bit. I had wanted to put myself into it's pouch to try and see if I fit or put my arms around it at least.

Don't hop away...I'm also a wallaby, only slightly bigger and uglier and without fur.

At the MacKenzie Falls trail there was two options - one which went to MacKenzie Falls Lookout with is a view of the falls from above and one which went to MacKenzie Falls Base which is the view of the falls from below. Me and Jimmy decided to do both, and started off to the lookout in a very brisk walk. There was only a couple of people with us as most of them decided to go to the base. The lookout was pretty high up and since I have a fear of heights, I thought it would be fun to stand right at the edge.

View of MacKenzie Falls from the top

I scaled the fence and started down the side of the lookout outpost and got myself right to the edge of the cliff. Dear God in heaven that was scary indeed. I didn't actually think about it before I went and done it (I have an impulsive personality) so the fact that there wasn't anything that is separating me from a long, long drop to the base of the falls didn't hit me until I was right at the edge. Now that I think about it, it would be a waste if I slipped and fell down. I don't think people are meant to survive 100 meter falls into rock. There wasn't anything to stop you from falling. That was meant to be the fence, which I climbed over to get to the edge. I got some pretty good photos from up there though.

I won't be typing this today if I leaned backwards in this picture

Heh. Perhaps next time I would do a cliffhanger from the edge while someone took a photo of me from below. It's best not to tempt fate though. :)

For reference, here was where I stood in the previous picture. This view is from the bottom.

Well, after all that, we walked back to the staging point and started to the base of the falls. There was even more photo opportunities there as you can see MacKenzie Falls up close. It's interesting that there is no bridge to go across the river but large stepping stones instead. I have to say that MacKenzie Falls isn't much to write home about though. I've seen larger waterfalls in Sarawak. But MacKenzie Falls does have an appealing flow.

MacKenzie Falls close up

Another view of MacKenzie Falls

It's very relaxing to look at it. I imagine people would enjoy taking some psychedelics while sitting in front of the falls. Which reminds me, I saw what I think is Gymnopilus spectabilis growing on a couple of dead tree stumps. I cannot be certain though, for my knowledge of psychedelic fungi is limited to pictures I saw in a book about magic mushrooms species in Australia. I did not trust my visual memory enough to pick it, because it would be unfortunate to accidentally ingest a poisonous strain. Heh.

Me and Jimmy at MacKenzie Falls

If you happen to be visiting MacKenzie Falls, there is some damn good homemade ice cream in the small booth selling snacks outside. It goes for A$1.80 per cup and has to be heated up in the microwave for a while to soften it. The owner of the stall was kind enough to give us two spoons because he said the ice cream is hard enough to break the plastic spoons. Sure enough, I broke my spoon about halfway through. Heh. It's very good ice cream though, loved it.

Anyway, after visiting the falls, we headed to our next destination - Zumstein. There was nothing much to see in Zumstein though. There is supposed to be a lot of kangaroos in that area, but I didn't see any. This place is so dismal, I took it upon myself to jump into MacKenzie River.

Seriously though, I nearly fell down coz the bridge is a suspension bridge and did not like me swinging over the rail.

That's about the only interesting thing in Zumstein. MacKenzie River starts here and ends at MacKenzie Falls. 20 minutes later, we departed again for Ararat, where we had dinner. Ararat is a pretty nice place, and there was a Target Country there that looks pretty spiffy. Then it was back to Melbourne and I arrived in Clayton at around 9 pm. The highlight of the day was the Grand Canyon Walk and MacKenzie Falls. Too bad we couldn't go to Boroka Lookout because it's closed from June-November 2002 for renovations. That can't be avoided, but the Pinnacle Lookout fiasco which made all of us miss out on Jaws of Death could. That was poor judgment from one of the volunteers. He did apologize at the end of the day though, so all is well.

Posted in Travel by Huai Bin at 01:13 AM Permalink | Comments (3)

Grampians, I have known thee

I can't keep my eyes open. I was supposed to write up the Grampians trip right after I got home but I was caught up with something else and now I'm too sleepy to write the trip up. =D I shall leave you with this teaser photo and I'll write up the trip right after I wake up tomorrow afternoon.

Grampians Rocks

Posted in by Huai Bin at 02:26 AM Permalink | Comments (0)

XO Sauce?

I've noticed that the lineup of prepared meals at the Frank and Lily Lee's Asian Grocery in the campus center has improved somewhat. This is Fairy Calamari with XO Sauce on rice. Interesting.

Anyway, I'll be going to the Grampians [grampiansrocks.com] early tomorrow morning. It should be fun, but it also means I'll be missing out on one "day" of my weekend. I like to stay up late in the weekends but I have to sleep early tonight coz the trip leaves early tomorrow morning. That makes me lose one "day" of my weekend - Friday night. There is a rave of some sort going on at the dining hall of the campus center from 10 pm - 6 am and I would have gone to that if I didn't have to wake up early tomorrow. Too bad. Oh well, the Grampians would be fun too and I'll take heaps of photos and post them up tomorrow. Stay tuned.

Posted in by Huai Bin at 11:24 PM Permalink | Comments (1)

The best Haiku ever

I said he he he

It came out as hr hr hr

I have cotton mouth

Poh Huai Bin (22/08/2002 11:17 PM + 1000)

Posted in by Huai Bin at 11:18 PM Permalink | Comments (2)

Crown Casino robbery

I was supposed to have a half day off today but ended up spending the whole day on campus due to my ITPM and IE projects. Brass Monkey Consultants first deliverable is due tomorrow. Don't look at me, I didn't choose that name. Anyway, I was at the MONSU lounge around noon, so I did get to eat a couple of doughnuts courtesy of MONSU's Sex It Up Week. I was reading the paper there and saw this funny article which is also available here [theage.com.au]. Apparently someone decided to rob Crown Casino [crowncasino.com] yesterday and managed to get away even though it was a half-assed attempt at best. He was operating alone, took out a handgun and robbed Crown of "a substantial, six-figure sum". However, he didn't have a getaway car and left fingerprints and all sorts of personal info at the casino because he's a Mahogany Room member. Guess how he got away? A cab. You can't make this stuff up folks. Heh. He didn't even have a bag to put the cash in (?) and just stuffed it into his pockets. Here is a choice quote from the article: Police were quickly on the scene, but were unable to find a suspect with bulging pockets. Man, that totally cracked me up. If you're still wondering, he got away. Somebody up there must like him. =D

Posted in by Huai Bin at 12:21 AM Permalink | Comments (3)

Sex It Up Week

Guess what week this week is? If you said "It's SEX IT UP WEEK" you are absolutely correct. It happens every semester and it's organized by the student union of Monash University in Caulfield. Unfortunately, it's not as interesting as it sounds. Heh. It is mostly a safe sex and sexual awareness week. Today there was a massdebate (har har) in the student lounge. The most promising event is on Thursday night, where there will be a blow job competition (it says so on the flyer). Don't know what that's about, but I'm not going to go anyway. I'm absolutely swamped with assignments and there are two due this week.

Posted in by Huai Bin at 01:50 AM Permalink | Comments (0)

Queue is not just another letter in the alphabet

I was late going to queue up for the shuttle bus to Caulfield today. I had to go to the operations office beforehand to ask about one of my bills and there was this line already formed when I got to the bus loop.

Good thing there were still seats left after this line crowded into the shuttle. I had to be on this shuttle because there was an Industrial Experience supervisor meeting I had to attend. Anyway, I have another meeting tomorrow - an ITPM one at the unholy hour of 9 am so that's it for today.

Posted in by Huai Bin at 01:00 AM Permalink | Comments (0)

Life, the Universe and Everything

In contrast to yesterday, I had a rather easy day today. I slept in until 4 pm and woke up to get some dinner. A solid 12 hours of sleep. Jimmy was saying that it's equal to wasting away 1/2 of my life and I agree. Perhaps I should tone down on the shuteye a bit. Anyway, since I'm doing my final year of university, I've decided to go visiting around this year. Thus, I'll be going to the Grampians [visitgrampians.com.au] next Saturday.

It's a day trip organized by MONSU (Monash University Student Union) so it should be pretty fun. It will go through the big five of Grampians - Halls Gap, Boroka Lookout, MacKenzie Falls, Zumstein and the ominously named Jaws of Death. I wanted to go to the Great Ocean Road day trip as well, but it was already sold out. No worries, I'll take one of the travel deals offered by YHA [yha.com.au]. I feel an urge to go around Victoria since it will probably be my last year here. After I graduate, I'll be going to the United States to do my Masters, so it's pretty unlikely that I'll be coming back to Australia. To work I mean, of course I'll be coming back for holidays and such. I've always found it depressing that time seems to pass by so quickly. Why, I can still remember the good times I've had in primary school. That is life I guess.

Posted in by Huai Bin at 02:52 AM Permalink | Comments (1)

South Yarra

I've had a pretty busy day today. Woke up early to meet with my Industrial Experience group mates in South Yarra and worked on the assignment for a couple of hours. I went to Soda Rock after that to have a late lunch. Soda Rock is a diner near Jam Factory in South Yarra. I've never been there before though. The food is okay but the service is really good for a diner. It has an authentic 40's feel, and it looks like Pop's Diner in the Archie comics to me. Anyway, I had to go to the library after that so I went back to Clayton. I'm really sleepy now, so I think I'm not making much sense anyway. I am going to go and die my small death.

View from the counter at Soda Rock. The ketchup says he's happy.

Posted in by Huai Bin at 03:28 AM Permalink | Comments (2)

Spa is APS spelled backwards

Well, now that the "catastrophic hard disk failure" (that's the third time I used that phrase today) issues has been resolved, I can write a bit about my day. I found this interesting drink named Coffee Cola.

The lettering on the can suggests it's made in Malaysia, but I've never seen this before in my life. Perhaps it's one of those "for export only" deals. The taste is...rather dismal, I'm sad to report. It tastes like a cross between a cola sweet and a coffee sweet. In fact, the whole drink tastes like barely carbonated melted sweets. Not very nice at all.

Anyway, I went to Doug Ellis Aquatic Center [monash.edu.au] with Jimmy this evening. I just wanted to use their spa, sauna and steam rooms but did a couple of laps in the heated pool since I have to pay for pool entry anyway. It was chilly today and I was looking forward to some sauna action by the end of the day. The pools are rather hard to swim in though because there are floating barriers (don't know what it's really called) dividing each lane. This is because there are designated lanes for slow, medium and fast swimmers. However, there are often more than 3 people in each lane, which makes swimming very difficult. It didn't bother me though, coz I wanted to use the sauna/spa/steam rooms only anyway. =D There is nothing like walking into a steaming hot sauna after a cold winter's day. That sure felt good.

Posted in by Huai Bin at 01:43 AM Permalink | Comments (2)

The church of mput

One good thing came out of this "catastrophic hard disk failure". I have found God and He goes by the name mput. I would be lost without Him. If you've been following my blog for a while, you'll have heard me mention that I update this blog by manually uploading the files via telnet to my uni's Unix server and then from there to my hosting company. I have always used put to transfer my files and that requires you to type the each and every file name after put. Due to the large amounts of files I have to transfer today, I decided to dust off some Unix books (actually I just did a Google search) and find out how to transfer files using wildcards and I have been shown the light! Oh, Hallelujah, mput is almighty indeed.

Posted in by Huai Bin at 01:25 AM Permalink | Comments (2)

Time warp back to July

If anyone saw the main page revert back to July, fear not...you have not gone back in time. Apparently, the server my blog is hosted on had a "catastrophic hard disk failure". My hosting company only does monthly backups because they want to minimize server downtime, which is fair enough, but now I'll have to re-upload one month's worth of stuff. How fun. It's going to take a while so expect some pictures to be broken and not all links fully working. My apologies. Fun fun fun.

Posted in by Huai Bin at 12:16 AM Permalink | Comments (0)

Nostalgia

I went to get some fish and chips just now and man, did that bring back some memories. It seems that Australia/New Zealand fish and chips shops looks about the same. Greasy interior, a bench with old magazines for people waiting in line and a slightly depressing ambience. I remember I used look forward to eat one serving of fish and chips as a Sunday meal back when I was in New Zealand. Just a pack of fish (NZ$1.10) a piece of fish (NZ$1.10) and a whole bottle of tomato sauce (NZ$2.40). I will then absolutely saturate the chips with tomato sauce (about a 400 ml bottle) and eat the whole thing with relish. Another "fish and chips memory" would be staying out in town late most weekdays while still wearing my school uniform with a couple of my buddies. I was in high school then - Riccarton High School in Church Corner, Christchurch. We would go to the city square straight after class and hang around town until around 12 midnight. There was a fish and chip shop near the city and we would always get something to eat there and play the old arcade games in the shop for a while before taking the bus back to Church Corner.

This picture is from the Riccarton High School [school.nz] website. Hmm...looking at the web page sure brings back a lot of memories. The circle shows my first home stay when I was there. I was always late for school and to avoid the gate keeper, I would jump over the fence which connects the school grounds and the backyard of my home stay. Pretty nifty eh? =D It works both ways, but climbing into the school grounds is easier than climbing into my home stay backyard. This is because there are lumbar supports on the backyard side of the fence to use as footholds. If I wanted to climb back into my home stay backyard, I would need to pull myself up and vault over. It was hard to do that in the beginning, but after a bit of practice, I got really good at it. This is useful for an entirely different reason. I didn't have a lunch pass then so I couldn't go out of school grounds. The backyard trick allows me to go out without having to pass though the gate. Heh. Those were the days indeed.

Posted in by Huai Bin at 02:03 AM Permalink | Comments (0)

Sleep is good

I saw this Cultural Carnival going on at the campus grounds this morning as I was on my way to class. I didn't get to really check it out coz I was in a hurry, but there were some food being prepared and a group playing bagpipes on stage.

The Korean booth at Cultural Carnival.

Anyway, I got my gym membership card today and a reciprocal card so I can use any of the gyms in the campuses (there are six in Melbourne alone) of Monash University. Which reminds me (I won't know why it reminds me, it just did) I have to wake up tomorrow at 7 am to prepare for a client meeting for my Industrial Experience project. That leaves...lemme see...about 4 hours of shuteye if I prepare to go to sleep now. Sounds like a good idea.

Posted in by Huai Bin at 02:40 AM Permalink | Comments (0)

Captain's Log

I've been watching the DVR rips of Star Trek: Enterprise [startrek.com] Season 1 and it's pretty good. I've always been a bit of a Star Trek fan but I like to watch episodes back to back. The opening is really good, quite a departure from previous Star Trek openings. Another thing worth of note is that it's showed in 16:9 aspect ratio. The Enterprise seems to have an agreeable cast as well, with Scott Bakula (of Quantum Leap - love that show too) as the captain and the delicious Jolene Blalock and Linda Park as the female bridge crew members. The facial repertoire of Jolene Blalock (who plays a Vulcan Science Officer) greatly reminds me of one of my friends back in Kuching. It seems rather interesting that Linda Park (a Korean) is playing a Japanese Ensign officer in the series though. Incidentally, I have been playing a bit of the Star Trek: Dominion War [campaigncreations.com] mod for Starcraft recently. It's okay, but the Defiant ships are way overpowered.

Anyway, I'm feeling rather queasy now and have been visiting the toilet numerous times today courtesy of "Hot Lemon Chicken". Damn, that hot lemon chicken is helluva hot. Even writing this is getting me started up again. Gotta go.

Posted in by Huai Bin at 01:21 AM Permalink | Comments (1)

Feel the burn

I had a physical exam for my gym membership and an appointment with a trainer to manage my workout today. I seem to have a "risk factor" in that I have hypertension. It's 143/95, which is slightly high, but I already know I have borderline high blood pressure. It seems that the diastolic blood pressure is an important hypertension number for younger people. I have clocked in higher blood pressure figures though. I didn't have my usual nitro powered coffee and sodium saturated meals today to have a more presentable reading. Heh. I actually haven't eaten anything for 16 hours prior to the reading, but that's because I usually only eat one meal a day. I seem to have put on some weight too. I'm 73 kgs now, a gain of 3 kgs since my last weighing. However, I seem to have grown 1 cm. Heh. I had 171 cm down as my height and after measuring, it turned out to be 172 cm. Anyway, I was put on a rather rigorous cardio + weight training program. It was punishing to finish the sets that were recommended by the trainer. There were exercises that worked on small muscle groups I didn't even know I had. I am supposed to do 20 minutes of cardio and 40 minutes of weight training three times a week. There is another program for a one hour weight training which should be done on alternate days. Hell yeah, I felt the burn today. =D

4 prints on a Polaroid minus one that was cut out for the membership card

I'm going to get my gym membership card tomorrow. I went to the MONSU service desk to get my photo taken for the membership card. I always lose my passport sized photos for some reason. It was A$5 for 4 prints on a Polaroid film. Apparently Polaroid film needs to dry out for around 2 minutes before it can be cut, but I was strapped for time so I just cut it up anyway and it didn't smudge or anything. I look fat in this picture, so I'm going to stick to my workout and attempt to go from fat ass to beef cake in one month. Watch me folks. =D

Posted in by Huai Bin at 10:40 PM Permalink | Comments (0)

WWE Global Warning Tour Melbourne 2002

I must be running up a hefty sleep debt because the creditors (headed by Mr. Sandman) was after me all day long. =D As promised, here is my writeup of last night's WWE Global Warning Tour Melbourne 2002. I arrived at Spencer Street station at slightly past 7 pm and joined the influx of people heading towards Colonial Stadium. We are a teeming mass. We hunger for The Rock's famed cuisine, the flirtatious whiffs of Ass Kickin' Quiche and Poontang Pie beckoning us. Heh. Anyway, I stopped by the official merchandise hut to get the official Global Warning 2002 Melbourne t shirt (A$45) and the program booklet (A$25). I was futilely searching for a place that sells coffee but couldn't find one in the short time before the event is slated to begin, so I made do with a diet coke and heaps of positive energy. I managed to find my seat in the Gold Box just a couple of minutes before the event started. It's pretty close to the ring, and we have access to the ramp where the wrestlers come out of too. A note about the pictures: The lighting was pretty weird, which made the pictures came out badly. I heard that people with disposable camera's only got pictures of pitch darkness. The ultra bright spotlights on top of the ring made my pictures underexposed and I didn't get any good pictures. If I use flash, the pictures will come out all dark, and if I didn't use flash, the pictures will come out blurry because the jostling will shake the camera before the picture has been fully exposed. Damned if I do, damned if I don't. I didn't want to use zoom too, because any shake will make the pictures go out of focus.

Match #1 - Rikishi vs Rico

Stephanie McMahon, the General Manager of WWE

The event started with Stephanie McMahon (yeah baby) walking out to the ring to give a speech and she announced the arrival of Brock Lesnar and Paul Heyman. Brock was basically going on about how he is going to win the title match tonight. He was also trash talking about how he put Hollywood Hulk Hogan out of action in their last meet up. Stephanie then introduced Rikishi and Brock and Paul left via the ramp. The first match is going to be a "Kiss My Ass" match where the loser has to kiss the winner's ass. Rikishi (one of my favorites) came out of the ramp entrance with loud pyrotechnics and his entrance music video. He was pumping up his hands the whole way and that got a lot of cheers from the audience. Damn, I love that guy. His opponent is the colorful Elvis look alike Rico, who I'm not familiar with. I'm not really good at commentating WWE matches because I'm really just a casual fan and don't really know all of the move names. But Rikishi won this match and as promised, Rico had to submit himself to Rikishi's famed Stink Face. Heh. Rico didn't want to though, and tried to sucker punch Rikishi but the man avoided it and dropped Rico near the corner where he lied semi-dazed in a perfect position for...

Rikishi about to give Rico a Stink Face

Rikishi then slapped his ass with both of his hands driving the crowd absolutely wild. Man, did I mention I love this guy? While Rico was recovering, Rikishi spread his ample ass cheeks and squatted down on Rico's face. He even rubbed it in a couple of times! That was worth the price of admission by itself. =D

Match #2 Reverend D-Von & Deacon Batista vs Mark Henry & Randy Orton

Mark Henry vs Batista. This is one of the better pictures.

This is a tag team match with Reverend D'Von and Batista in a team and Mark Henry and Randy Orton in another team. Again, I don't really know these people even though they're from the SmackDown! roster. I thought D-Von was pretty funny though. Mark Henry is supposed to be the strongest man on the earth. Oh, I saw someone flash this funny sign during this match. It went "Don't Make Me Come Up There!". Heh. This match was won by Mark Henry pinning D-Von.

Match #3 Jamie Noble (with Nidia) vs The Hurricane

The Eye of the Hurricane

The two Hurricane fans in several rows in front of me went crazy when The Hurricane came out. Jamie Noble and Nidia in comparison came out to rather subdued cheers. It was clear that The Hurricane is the crowd favorite by the rousing cheers that happened when The Hurricane did the Eye of the Hurricane move. Jamie had the upper hand in the beginning but The Hurricane quickly started to dominate the ring a bit and Nidia jumped in by grabbing The Hurricane from ring side and gave him a wet sloppy kiss. Heh. She did that twice too, to distract him and let Jamie Noble get the upper hand. Jamie Noble walked away with the Cruiserweight Championship by pinning The Hurricane. He didn't get much cheers though and the crowd even started a "slut" chant for Nidia. Nidia and Jamie can be seen arguing when they left the arena. I felt sorry for Jamie though, coz he looked rather dejected and sad when he left the arena. =D Meanwhile, The Hurricane was strutting around the ring to the cheers of the crowd.

Match #4 Hardcore Holly & Chavo Guerrero vs Billy & Chuck

I reckon Billy is enjoying himself

Billy and Chuck came out to "You are a wanker" chants from the crowd. They were threatening to walk out when the crowd didn't stop the chant and got counted by the referee up to 9 before they jumped into the ring and started pushing Hardcore Holly and Chavo Guerrero around. It was a pretty funny match, with Billy grabbing Holly from behind at one point. He seemed to consider something and then started humping Holly, much to Holly's dismay. Heh. Funny, that. Another time, it was Guerrero getting Chuck in a choke hold from behind. Chuck seemed to like it and even protruded his ass way backwards in invitation, but got a kick in the ass from Guerrero instead. The match was taken by the Hardcore Holly and Chavo Guerrero team.

Match #5 Test vs Kurt Angle

Kurt Angle lying on the mat after a clothesline from Test

There was a short break after the last match, and then the lights darkened and Test came out from the entrance ramp. He is pitted against Kurt Angle in this RAW vs SmackDown! match. Test was going on about how Australia was very much like America because they both suck. That got a lot of boo's from the crowd. Kurt Angle, who is sporting a new bald look from being scalped in a match sometime ago, came out after that and said that by insulting Australia, he is insulting America and him by proxy and then sucker punched Test. It was a pretty exciting match that could have gone both ways but was finally taken by Kurt Angle with an Angle Slam. There was a 20 minute break after this and the second part started with...

Match #6 Lance Storm & Christian vs Billy Kidman & Rey Mysterio

Lance Storm dominating Billy Kidman while Rey watches from the sidelines, hoping to get a tag

This tag team match is another RAW vs SmackDown! Lance Storm and Christian are from the RAW roster while Billy Kidman and Rey Mysterio is from the SmackDown! talent. I can't remember much from this match, but there was a lot of high flying action and one of the wrestlers hit the referee by mistake. Heh.

Match #7 Chris Jericho vs Edge

Edge edging (heh) out of a Jericho hold

Jericho came out to initially good crowd reaction but at some point the crowd turned against him and began the "You are a wanker" chant. This was on of the best scenes of the night, because Jericho took hold of the mike and shouted that he doesn't even know what a wanker is. That got a lot of laughs from the audience. For the record, a wanker is someone who masturbates. I don't know the origin of that word, but it seems to be used exclusively in Australia/New Zealand. After that, Edge came out holding a video camera and started filming the crowd. That made him an instant crowd favorite and I could see everyone rooting for him in this match. J2K tried to pull a Walls of Jericho on Edge but Edge managed to reverse it and and pinned Jericho for the win. After that, Jericho had a tantrum and started hitting the ring posts with a metal chair. He stormed towards the exit and pushed the metal steps leading to the ring over and threw a plastic chair into the ring. Edge, who was in the ring, righted the plastic chair, sat on it and crossed his legs with a smug look on his face, to which the crowd erupted in approval. Edge then did a victory lap and even scaled one of the scaffolds around the ring and waved to the crowd. Very nice.

Match #8 Stacy Kiebler vs Torrie Wilson

Stacy holding down Torrie while the audience looks on

The Big Valbowski came out to present this Bra and Panties match. He introduced Stacy Kiebler as the woman "who has legs that can wrap around any man three times". Stacy came out to loud cheers and wolf whistles. She did her trademark move of sliding one leg into the ring and slowly sliding the other leg in, giving the appreciative audience an eyeful of her ass. =D She was wearing a cut off white top and a very short pair of black shorts. Torrie Wilson came out after that, wearing a pink outfit. The match started with Torrie ripping off Stacy's top (revealing a black bra and nice cleavage) and throwing it into the rowdy audience. At this time, Nidia came running up to the ring and joined in the fracas. Stacy and Torrie teamed up and stripped her to her panties and made her run offstage. At one point, the referee pretended to break apart the two women and rolled with them a couple of times before standing up with a big grin and adjusting his pants around the crotch area. Heh. Stacy was arguing with the referee about this understandable act of unprofessionalism and Torrie took this chance to grab Stacy and forcibly removed her pants, winning the match. I think there might have been some unintentional exposure, because Stacy hurriedly adjusted her black thong. =D Stacy then walked down the ring to the exit, followed by Torrie. The Big Valbowski walked up the ring, took hold of the mike and told Torrie that he has one thing in common in Australia...he's also very good "down under". Torrie then beckoned him with a finger and a come hither look and they walked off arm in arm.

Match #9 The Rock vs Triple H vs Brock Lesnar

Can you smell what The Rock is cooking?

This is the no disqualifications, triple threat title match of the evening. Brock Lesnar was the first out of the entrance ramp to mild audience cheering. Triple H came out after that, and the crowd went wild! He did the water entrance too, where he drinks from a bottle, throws it into the audience and sprays it out when he got into the ring. There was surge to the ring and I managed to squeeze myself near the ring and snapped a couple of (very blurry) close ups. It's hard to take pictures with everyone jostling for position and with stray arms blocking the flash. When Triple H got to the ring, a loud "If you smell..." refrain broke up and The Rock made his presence felt at the top of the ramp. The guy looks good in real life too. The crowd began a loud chant of "Rocky! Rocky!" and The People's Champion nodded in approval and raised one eyebrow as he entered the ring. The match started with The Game and The People's Champion teaming up against Brock. Brock was put out of action for a while and Triple H turned against The Rock. Brock then grabbed Triple H from behind and hit his head against the corner of the ring and threw him out of the ring. Brock started to dominate The Rock and nearly succeeded in pinning him before Triple H came into the ring again with blood streaming down a gash in his forehead and pulled Brock off The Rock. The unstoppable Brock threw Triple H out of the ring again but The Rock had recovered by this time knocked Brock around the ring. The Rock did that "three chops, spit on hand and a final chop" move and dropped Brock. Then came THE PEOPLE'S ELBOW. Damn, I love that move. =D Brock managed to stand up but got pinned by a Rock Bottom for the win. Triple H was up again at this point and together with The Rock, they started teaming up against Brock again and got him out of the ring. Paul Heyman (I think he's Brock's manager or something) took a metal chair and hit The Rock from behind. The Rock was unfazed though and turned around to confront Paul with Triple H. There was a funny scene here where Paul Heyman was on his knees begging and apologizing to Triple H and The Rock. The Rock pretended to consider it but finally shook his head and Triple H did the Pedigree on Paul Heyman and The Rock finished him with a People's Elbow. The Rock then asked Triple H to do the People's Elbow on Paul Heyman too, and the crowd was cheering them on. Triple H seemed to consider it and tentatively did the three catapults off the ring straps and an elbow drop. The crowd was absolutely wild at that point. I never thought I'll get to see Triple H's version of The People's Elbow. Heh. Triple H left to loud cheering and The Rock took the mike after and said the famous words: "Finally, The Rock has come back to Melbourne". He pronounced it "mel born" though. =D He then gave a short speech with involved eating Australian pie. Heh.

The Rock layeth the smacketh down on Brock Lesnar

This is the best picture I took that night. I was right at ringside when I took this one. Click here for a bigger version of this.

The DVD of WWE Global Warning Tour Melbourne 2002 is coming out on the 14th of November.

Posted in Best of sixthseal.com by Huai Bin at 02:49 AM Permalink | Comments (7)

Global Warning

I smelled what The Rock was cooking tonight. It smelt pretty damn good. =D The highlight of the event is the three way match with The Rock, Triple H and Brock Lesnar. The Stacy Keibler and Torrie Wilson one is fun to watch too. Torrie won the Bra and Panties match by stripping Stacy down to her bra and panties. It can be argued that the real winners of that match are the guys in the audience though. Heh. I'm really sleepy now so I'll write up the event tomorrow after I wake up. Until then, I leave you with this teaser.

Hurricane fans holding up signs.

Posted in by Huai Bin at 03:08 AM Permalink | Comments (0)

Box Hill + The Glen

I only got a couple of hours of sleep last night before leaving for Box Hill this morning with Christopher and Adrian. We ate at this place called the 1228 Tea House.

The tea house has an interesting system. They have a stack of order papers on each table with the table number. There is a pencil there too, and you're supposed to fill in the order sheet yourself and pass it to the waitress. They have very generous portions as can be seen here.

Let me tell you, finishing that drink was quite a feat after the plate of Taiwanese Chicken Fillet Rice.

Anyway, we went to the arcade after that and played the Ferrari F355 Challenge driving sim before heading to The Glen. It's a shopping mall near Glen Waverley which is about 15 minutes from my place. It was okay but Chadstone is much bigger and covers a wider variety of interests too. I did see this interesting machine where it draws a sketch of you based on your picture. It's like the photo sticker machines, but this one produces a portrait instead of a sticker. I choose the "tough" caricature instead of a normal portrait. Heh.

ph34r my artificially rendered double chin!

Well, it's time for me to leave for WWE's Global Warning Tour event. Woo! I'm pretty tired because I didn't get enough sleep last night, but I'll have 5 lattes or something to make up for it. =D

Posted in by Huai Bin at 05:17 PM Permalink | Comments (0)

The most electrifying event in sports entertainment

I decided on a whim to check if there are any tickets left for WWE's Global Warning Tour at Ticketmaster [ticketmaster.com.au] under the A$109.99 price point this afternoon. I saw some going for A$199.99 yesterday night, after Adrian saw on the news that they're making some more seats available, but that's a bit too much. Anyway, I saw that there were only two seats left in the Gold Box (A$109.99) area, so I rushed down to the Ticketmaster outlet at Chadstone and snagged myself a ticket to tomorrow's event. =D This was the event that sold out in 48 hours after the tickets were available. Apparently, they managed to squeeze some more seats in by creatively arranging the seating area. Goodie...I've wanted to go but have failed trying to get tickets to this sold out event before.

The updated card for this shows that:

WWE GLOBAL WARNING TOUR MELBOURNE : COLONIAL STADIUM, SATURDAY AUGUST 10 @ 7.30pm

WWE Undisputed Championship
The Rock vs. Brock Lesnar vs. Triple H

Edge vs. Chris Jericho

Tag Team Championship
Christian & Lance Storm vs. Big Valbowski & Hardcore Holly

Cruiserweight Championship
Jamie Noble (with Nidia) vs. Rey Mysterio

Rikishi vs. Kurt Angle

Randy Orton vs. Test

Billy Kidman & Hurricane vs. Chavo Guerrero & Rico

Bra & Panties Match
Torrie Wilson vs. Stacy Keibler

Three-team Elimination Match
Mark Henry & Maven vs. Billy & Chuck vs. Batista & D-Von

Plus a special appearance by SmackDown! General Manager Stephanie McMahon

Too bad Hollywood Hulk Hogan had to pull out because of a back injury but at least Stephanie McMahon will make an appearance. Heh. I'm in the Gold Box area, which will be hydraulically moved out to the front to be closer to the ring. Not as good as the Fightdeck, Platinum and Diamond seats, but those go for twice the price. Woo hoo, I'm pretty st0ked to watch one this one live. I've always been interested in professional wrestling (okay, sports entertainment) and the storyline is pretty good too. It will be on tomorrow at 7:30 pm at the Colonial Stadium [colonialstadium.com.au]. They allow still cameras so I'll be posting pictures up late tomorrow night after the event. I can't wait to smell what The Rock is cooking.

Posted in by Huai Bin at 10:07 PM Permalink | Comments (2)

I hunger. I eat.

The worst thing about taking the shuttle is being the 26th person in the queue for a 25 person capacity bus. If only I had walked a little faster, I would have been the 24th person instead. I got into the line just slightly behind two girls. Oh well. I took the Oakleigh bus instead since it was already docked and ready to leave. Oakleigh is one station in front of the Huntingdale bus that I usually take. Unfortunately my 10 trip Zone 1 ticket got wet during the snow-in-pocket fiasco during my trip to Mt Buller and it didn't quite work on the validation machine. Good thing the kind bus driver let me on anyway. I've only been to Oakleigh station once before, because the nearer stations are Huntingdale and Clayton. There is a lot of community artwork on the station wall, which looks slightly depressing and dodgy.

Well, I had my first supervisor meeting for my Industrial Experience project today. It was with Ashley Cambrell, a very likable guy who also happens to be the person who wrote the program we're supposed to be updating now. Mmm...inside information. =D Oh, something rather embarrassing happened to my during the IE lecture. I haven't had anything to eat since last night and I was chewing gum during the lecture. People who have done this before can attest to the fact that this is a big no no. Apparently, the chewing action produces a reflex where the stomach produces digestion acids (can't be bothered to check for the correct terminology) in anticipation of the meal. However, with a piece of chewing gum, there is no tangible "meal". The stomach does not like being tricked like this and will tend to protest with a loud rumbling. I swear it was so loud, my friend looked at me and asked "Are you hungry?". Sheesh...what loud rumblings my stomach make. It wasn't just a one off thing too, it was so loud the row behind me could hear it. Heh. I finally excused myself and got a chocolate milk and some spring rolls from Merlins to satiate the beast.

Posted in by Huai Bin at 02:00 AM Permalink | Comments (0)

Indo Calling Card

I've just discovered this calling card recently after reading a poster advertising rates of 6.9 cents a minute to Malaysia. This is the cheapest rates I've ever seen here. When I first arrived in Melbourne in 2000, the cheapest I could get is the Apple calling card at 20c per minute. But soon after that, the market was flooded with a deluge of calling cards and the lowest price dropped to 18c and then 15c and then 12c and then 9.9c just a couple of months ago. Regarding this card, it's called Indo Calling Card and offers 6.9 cents a minute to Malaysian land lines and 9.9c to mobile numbers.

There is a green apple logo at the bottom of this calling card, which is the logo of the Apple calling card. Sure enough, the familiar and very annoying female voice thanked me for selecting Apple communications. Damn, that voice is loud and grating. This card also has the Apple calling card "feature" where you can't key in the PIN number until the jingle is over. It's not a short jingle too...so after a while you do get a bit tired of having to listen to a loud, grating voice reminding you to enter the number of the destination you want to dial "fashioned in double oh double one followed by the country code...". I can't complain about the prices though. 6.9 cents is about as low as you can get.

Posted in by Huai Bin at 09:46 PM Permalink | Comments (0)

Mt Buller Postmortem Part II

It has come to my attention that Vivien, my classmate from high school, has set up a blog. You can visit her here [blogspot.com] and someone should tell her that she doesn't need to do 100 push ups after just eating 4 cookies. Heh. =D

Anyway, I had a one hour break today and decided to pop into the campus bookshop with my film developing slip to see if it has been processed. I was told to check in on Thursday and the price lists states that APS film takes 6 working days to develop. Well, guess what? They were erring on the side of caution, because it was already done today! Woo hoo.

The pictures didn't turn all out well. There were only a couple of good ones in the bunch. I was pretty impressed with the girth of the photos though. I took most of them in the panoramic setting so they turned out really long. It seems that APS film can be developed either in C (normal size), H (sized like a 16:9 television) or P (panoramic). APS seems to be a pretty interesting film format. I've heard about it before, but didn't really know the specifics. If you're interested, have a read through the summary of the format here [kodak.com].

Well, developing APS film wasn't as expensive as I thought, but it's not cheap either. The processing costs for the 25 exposure roll cost me A$21.50. That comes with 2 index prints and a Kodak Picture CD though. Added to the cost of the disposable camera (A$25), that comes to nearly A$50. Tsk tsk...sounds slightly disturbing, because I'm used to taking pictures with a digicam. Anyway, here are the pictures from Mt Buller on the day my digicam had a near death experience.

A panoramic shot of me at the bottom of Blue Bullet 1 quad chairlift. This picture was scanned from the prints.

Carving up the slopes. This picture is taken from the Kodak Picture CD. The quality of the images in the CD is really bad, you can get much higher resolutions by scanning in the pictures manually instead of getting a Picture CD.

This is the friendly manager of YHA in Mt Buller.

Ripping the blue Summit run.

A really grainy shot of the village from the chairlift. A lot of the pictures turned out badly because there was condensation on the lens of the camera, and I didn't realize it. Furthermore, a third of the pictures have been slightly obstructed by my gloves. The viewfinder of disposables are not exactly the most accurate things, because I could have sworn that I see the glove in the viewfinder.

Posted in Travel by Huai Bin at 01:42 AM Permalink | Comments (4)

Four days?

I tried to get my photos developed today, but apparently Advantix (APS) film needs a couple of days to develop. I bought a Kodak Advantix Switchable disposable camera [kodak.com] at Mt Buller when my digicam was recovering from death by snow. I dropped it off at my campus bookshop this morning, and was told to check back again on Thursday. I saw that panoramic APS film costs A$2 each to develop. I'm being reminded again why I got a digicam. Film developing prices are ridiculous. Oh well. I also checked the option for a Kodak Picture CD to save myself from having to scan in those prints manually. Four days seems like a long wait though, and on campus developing prices are not that different from private places too.

Anyway, I also signed up for a one month membership at the campus gym today. There was a promotion where you can get a membership at a renewal price. The physical exams are all booked until next week though, and I can't use the gym until I pass the physical. They want to make sure members don't drop dead from a heart attack the moment they start using the facilities or something.

This limited edition orange Crunchie is pretty good. Not only is the milk chocolate covering orange flavored, but so is the honeycomb! Nice.

Posted in by Huai Bin at 11:40 PM Permalink | Comments (2)

Mt Buller Postmortem Part I

I just arrived back in Melbourne an hour ago, hurting all over. Heh. It was a very good weekend, I got a lot of runs in and it was snowing every day too.

It's snowing!

I actually only skied 2 out of the 3 days I was there, because I only arrived at 1:30 pm on the first day and couldn't justify paying for a full day lift ticket. I just walked around the village and slopes during the first day because I could only check into YHA at 5 pm.

This is where I stayed.

I skied the second day and boarded on the third.

Skiing down Bourke Street.

It was pretty punishing because I was really out of shape. Loved it though. =D I did a couple of runs down Bourke Street (a green run) on the first day and then went down the blue Shakey Knees run. I didn't know it was a blue run until I was halfway down, and thought...hey, this is pretty steep. I was enjoying myself so much, I went into an aggressive alpine crouch to pick up speed (woo hoo adrenaline rush) and wiped out towards the end in an effort to avoid a stopped skier. Very nice run, but a bit embarrassing on the lift up. It was a T-bar lift and I unconsciously sat down on the T-bar and tipped it (I was riding alone) while it was going up an incline. Bourke Street seems rather anti-climatic after that.

View from Blue Bullet 1 quad chair lift.

I did catch the Quiksilver GP at night but couldn't take any photos because it seems that my digicam does not like snow. I put it into my pants while skiing and forgot to do up the zip, and as a result, snow got into the pocket and got the digicam wet. It won't even start up after that, but after a day of drying out, it can be started up and the view pictures function is still working and I can still copy out the pictures, but some buttons seem to be disabled. Doh! I should have done up my pants zipper but I must have forgotten after taking it out to snap some photos. (Update - I just tried starting up my digicam and everything works now. Damn, the Nikon 885 is one tough motherfucker.)

Blue Bullet 1 chair lift area.

Anyway, I got a disposable film camera on the second day before I went boarding. Oh, one funny thing happened today. I went up to the blue Summit run even though I'm not that good at boarding. I went for a regular aligned board even though I'm a goofy on a skateboard. I was carving up the slopes of the summit when the fog rolled in and I accidentally went down a wrong run. I saw a black diamond flash past and stopped near the Howqua black run. I had the choice of taking the Kofler's T-bar which goes up a steep incline (I do not like heights), taking a long trek back up the blue Chute run or try to carve black Hawqua. If you're not familiar with the color codes, greens are easy runs, blues are for intermediates and blacks are for experts only. I'll rather go down black diamond Hawqua than take the T-bar up the steep Chute incline coz it will only take one look down for me to piss my pants. Heh. The end of Hawqua wasn't really hard actually, but there are several hazards, including one steep turn that only has netting between you and a drop down the slopes. I didn't do too good though, coz the powdery snow was pretty hard to navigate with my board. I accidentally did a hard toe edge brake and started losing my balance. I had the presence of mind to do an ollie to compensate for the drift but ended up carving my toe edge straight into the power and I must have flipped 5 meters and ended up face first in the snow. Oh boy...I couldn't stand up for a full minute. Heh. I had the wind knocked out of me and I felt like I cracked a rib. That's a nasty way to fall, I reckon...falling ass first is okay, that's not painful, but going face first is pretty horrible. Anyway, that's it for today. I have to wake up at 7 am tomorrow for my ITPM group meeting. Stay tuned for Part II tomorrow. I still have a bunch of pictures that's not up from the disposable film camera. I'm going to get it developed tomorrow.

Enjoying the fire in the main village.

Posted in Travel by Huai Bin at 12:31 AM Permalink | Comments (0)

My mountain

I'm going to sleep now so I can wake up early tomorrow to catch the 8:30 am coach from Spencer Street Station to Mt Buller [mtbuller.com.au]. I'll be arriving there at approximately 1:30 pm so there is still time to hit the slopes. =D If you're so inclined, you can try and catch me on one of these Snow Cams [ski.mtbuller.com.au]:

Bourke St.

Village Square

Summit

Little Buller Spur

Chamois (FIS World Aerials Jump Site)

Shakey Knees

WARNING - Looking at people on holidays having a good time could make you envious.

Anyway, I've done some laundry yesterday, so I'll actually have stuff to wear on my ski trip. Laundry day is always annoying for me. There are only 8 clothes dryers in the laundry room and 3 of them are out of service at the moment and two of them doesn't really dry clothes so everyone is in contention for the remaining two dryers.

Roberts Hall Laundry Room.

I decided to head over to the Richardson Hall laundry room to dry my clothes. They have rows and rows of dryers, all spanking new. It's only about 100 meters from the Roberts Hall laundry room too, so it's pretty convenient. Heh.

Richardson Hall Laundry Room.

Well, it was warm today when I woke up so I decided to wear a shirt instead. Put my cell phone into the shirt pocket and then decided to change because I wanted to wear that shirt tomorrow. But unfortunately, I forgot to take my cell phone out of the shirt pocket so I didn't have my cell with me today. When I got back, my cell phone wasn't in the shirt pocket as I thought, and my room is really messy, so I had to get a friend to call me so I could triangulate the source and find my cell phone. Note to self: Remember to bring along the cell phone charger and the adapter + digicam battery charger. Anyway, I won't be blogging until Sunday night (GMT +10) when I get back, so in the meantime, enjoy the Snow Cams.

Posted in by Huai Bin at 08:08 PM Permalink | Comments (0)