sixthseal.com

New Age Cafe @ Box Hill

Putting the hill in Box Hill

I’ve been keeping really weird hours lately. I woke up at 12 am today and I still haven’t gone to sleep yet. I was finishing up my IE stuff yesterday so I didn’t get any sleep and I went to Box Hill with my friends to eat lunch.

Exterior of New Age Café

This is New Age Café at Box Hill. It’s along Whitehorse Road I think. They have really good Baked Pork Chop Rice.

Baked Pork Chop Rice

The portions are pretty large too. Come to think of it, I haven’t eaten anything since then and that was around noon yesterday! Strange, I don’t feel all that hungry. And no, I’m not tweaking. :p

Interior of New Age Café

I’m sleepy.

Posted in People by Huai Bin at 06:13 PM Permalink | Comments (5)

Project Deep Sedation

is complete! =D

I'm still writing it up, so expect a lengthy report tomorrow night!

Posted in by Huai Bin at 05:56 PM Permalink | Comments (8)

7 Deadly Sins

Give in to it

Ah...now this gives me a fair bit of nostalgia. The Magnum 7 Deadly Sins ice cream came out about a year ago and I wrote about it in one of my first few posts [monash.edu.au]. You have to scroll to the middle of the page coz my blog was plain HTML then. It was a limited edition of seven ice creams representing each of the 7 sins with a different theme for each ice cream and a phrase imprinted on the stick.

Which sin are you?

Well, it's out again, but with only three of the sins now. No sign of the other 4 that was out last year. That's too bad coz the best tasting and best looking sin from last year was Vanity. It was champagne ice cream with pearl balls in the shell.

Wrapper of Sloth

It's also smaller than the ones that came out a year back. The size now is similar to the Magnum Minis instead of the normal sized Magnums. They are only available in a boxed set of 6 mini Magnums (2 x 3 sins).

Wrapper of Gluttony

Well, I ate all six of them over the course of the night while I was coding. I haven't eaten anything besides the six ice creams for a full 32 hours but that's still pretty bad. Heh. Eating so many ice creams can't be good for me.

Wrapper of Greed

I haven't eaten anything else because I'm lazy to cook and I'm busy coding for IE. I can actually go without eating for a long time, you just don't get hungry after you pass a certain point. I'm not planning to eat anything until noon today. I find it easier to concentrate this way.

Gluttony - Craving something rich enough for your appetite? Gorge down this! Chocolate mudcake on a stick.

Well anyway, the 3 sins in this pack are Gluttony, Greed and Sloth. I like Sloth because it's "my" sin. :) Gluttony tastes the best though. It's chocolate mud cake ice cream with a white chocolate shell. For some reason the stick didn't have any writing on it. I forgot what it had last year too, but it's all the same as last year's only smaller and repackaged.

Greed - Let the golden richness of the honeycomb entice your ravenous desires. The deep indulgent outside layer of chocolate will excite your sensual hunger.

Greed is okay, but I didn't really like it all that much. It's honeycomb ice cream with a shell made of milk chocolate and that hokey pokey thingies that's like the thing inside Crunchie. Come to think of it, Greed tastes like Crunchie. It had "Greed is good" written on the stick.

Greed is good

Sloth - Slack off on a peanut butter indulgence. A creamy excessive luxury for the loose relaxed sloth you are.

The last one is Sloth and it's peanut butter ice cream with white chocolate and peanuts for the shell. It didn't taste all that good, but I like it anyway coz it's Sloth. :) It has "It is better to have loafed & lost then never to have loafed at all". Haha! I like this one so much.

It is better to have loafed & lost then never to have loafed at all

I feel like I've time travelled back a year.

Link of the Day: NOFX - Summer Sonic Festival 2002 Tokyo, Japan [fuckinbollocks.com]
111 MB

(Right Click, Save As)

What's Bob gonna do, now that he can't drink?

Murder The Government/Dinosaurs Will Die/I'm Telling Tim/Bottles To The Ground/Bob/Linoleum

Classic! NOFX in playing some of their greatest songs in Japan. The audio and video are really good quality. It's on a fast server too, it's around 230 KB/sec sustained and I'm in Australia. A must download if you like NOFX. Too bad my two other favourite songs are not in. :) I'm partial to Pharmacist's Daughter (Pump Up The Valuum) and Go to Work Wasted (Surfer EP). It's interesting that the Surfer EP is where they kinda go back to their roots production, sound and lyrics wise. If I didn't know better I would have thought it was a Liberal Animation era album. Go download the video. :)

Posted in by Huai Bin at 07:02 AM Permalink | Comments (16)

McAttack!

McDonalds

Have you ever gotten totally BLAZED and then go out and act normal? hehehe! That's what I did today. I haven't eaten anything for the whole day and after I came back, I ate 25 (5 x 5mg) mg diazepam (Valium) tablets and chased it down with two beers. After that, I smoked several bowls of weed and went out for supper with a couple of my friends. It was so funny.

Chicken Delight

While on the way there, I was already trying hard not to crack up. I didn't tell them I was less than sober. :) Everything was just too funny for words. Anyway, we got to McDonalds. I was feeling so tickled that I nearly had a laughing fit while walking to the cashier. I don't know why I got so amused, I usually laugh a lot while stoned but never like this. I didn't have any problems ordering but I was still trying hard not to have a laughing fit. :)

A half eaten Chicken Delight and an uneaten Big Mac, fries and McFlurry

Well, I had the munchies really bad by then and I ordered a Chicken Delight meal (with large fries and large coke) and a Big Mac. Chicken Delight is one of the new menus that they change every once in a while. It's okay but then I was having the munchies really bad so I can't really say for sure. :) I held my own in conversation but was prone to zoning out. I just felt so sedated I could slide off the chair with a grin.

I accidentally dropped some lettuce and tomatoes on the floor and slid around a bit on my shoe before realizing it

Well, after eating all that and an Oreo McFlurry I still had the munchies really bad. AND I ORDERED ANOTHER BURGER! Disgusting and totally unacceptable right? *hangs head in shame* :) I ordered a McChicken and I ate that and still felt hungry. This was the munchies from hell. I usually can't eat more than two burgers without being so full as to nearly puke, but I was still fine by then and I had a slice of Blackforest cake from the McCafe that was conveniently beside it. I am ashamed of myself. :)

The aftermath

My friend was cracking jokes about CONQUERING McDonalds. He meant eating all 7 of the larger burgers. Even that feat is too much for even someone with a bad case of the munchies. In fact, I'm feeling very close to throwing up now. I feel so bloated. I'm feeling sedated now though. 25 mg Valium isn't much, but add a couple of beers and some cannabis and it's nice. :)

I shredded the cardboard ring and arranged it on the plate. Fun.

I didn't even remember taking half the photos I took...

Posted in by Huai Bin at 01:30 AM Permalink | Comments (5)

Do you feed your cat yogurt for breakfast?

Apparently, there is a specially formulated yogurt meant for pets. I took this photo at the local Coles pet food department. It's yogurt. For cats and dogs.

I went to the Asian grocery with Adrian today to get some instant noodles, fishballs, beef balls, prawns, and crab sticks (love that stuff). It's an easy meal if you chuck a bit of everything into a rice cooker and cook it. That way, you only have one thing to wash (the rice cooker bowl) although it won't taste as good.

Proton Satria sighted in Melbourne.

Posted in by Huai Bin at 06:45 PM Permalink | Comments (13)

Temazepam

10 mg Temazepam tablets (Normison)

Temazepam is a short acting benzodiazepine that's usually prescribed for short term treatment of insomnia. I recently aquired 3 x 10mg tablets for some quality relaxation. No, I didn't get it from the streets (there is black market here coz heroin users inject temazepam to potentiate the effects of heroin) but from a doctor! I got it for free too, I'll tell you all the story one day. It's part of this project from a GP for my 'sleep disorder'. [Edit: After reading it again, I have no idea about what I was going on about here. I think I wanted to tell you about the project but suddenly switched trains of thoughts to "I got it from my GP for a 'sleeping disorder'". heh! I feel my short term memory going already. Very, very nice. Euphoria...)hehehe! I'll tell you the story behind that one day. It's part of a project (codename: PROJECT DEEP SEDATION) that I'm currently working on. I'll write that up in the near future after the project is finished.

Front view of the blister pack

Anyway, about temazepam. The ones I got are manufactured by Sigma Pharmeceuticals (I passed by their Melbourne factory a couple of days ago...too bad I didn't take a photo then) and are called Normison. They contain 10 mg of temazepam in each tablet. The tablets are white, with no score. It has a 'double twin peak' imprint on one side. The tablets are very, very slim and small. I have yet to see tablets slimmer than these ones. The size is even smaller than the gas release button on cigarette lighters.

Well, I took all 3 tablets for a total of 30 mg and drank quite a few shots of this 95% stuff + cannabis [sixthseal.com] on an empty stomach. I haven't had any benzodiazepines for about a month. The last time was a couple of Valiums with heroin [sixthseal.com]. I didn't think 30 mgs would do it for me, since I have quite a high tolerance to benzodiazepines. My 'normal dose' would be 2.5 mg of Xanax (alprazolam) with a six pack of beer to feel buzzed. Thus, I combined it with alcohol and smoked a couple of bowls of cannabis for further sedation. :)

Back view of the blister pack

Anyway, it feels very nice. I can't remember half the things that happened just a minute ago. It's euphoric, very much so. My apologies for being slightly incoherant and confusing. Forgive me if I'm over-enthusiastic. This just feels so good. So sedating...All this happened just an hour and half ago and I'm feeling like happy jelly now, sitting on my chair and nearly slouching off the chair. :) Jelly. It's very sedating with the euphoria that's comparable to Xanax + alcohol. Perhaps slightly better, but I still like Xanax (my first love) + alcohol.

Well, instead of talking slightly incoherantly, I'm going to fix up the photos now and post this up. Temazepam...Mmm...

Temazepam + alcohol + cannabis = Jelly. Wobbly, happy jelly.

What's short term memory?

Caution: Combining benzodiazepines with another CNS depressant like alcohol in large amounts can be dangerous.

Posted in Pharmaceuticals by Huai Bin at 01:23 AM Permalink | Comments (38)

It's just like Magic!

There I was...taking a dump in the toilet this morning. I was still in my PJs (I just woke up) and I brought my cell phone into the toilet to play some Tetris. As I was about to wipe myself, I put the cell phone down on top of the two rolls of spare toilet paper that has been stashed in one corner of the toilet and pulled on the roll. I actually can use one hand to wipe myself but that requires this trick where you take a hold of the end of the roll and pull hard towards you to unravel it. Once a desirable length has been acheived, you flick the length of toilet paper downwards (while still holding to it) in a hard and fast motion. I was in no mood for bathroom acrobatics this morning, so I just put the cell phone down and used both hands.

Anyway, after doing my business, I washed my hands and went back to my room. A bit of background information: my toilet is shared with 3 other people, each stairway floor has one toilet and each stairway floor houses 4 single-occupancy rooms and thus 4 people. The cleaners come every morning to clean the bathrooms, restock on toilet paper and empty the floor waste bin. Well, I was in my room and working a bit on my IE when I realized that I forgot to bring my cell phone back from the toilet. I went back to get it and found out that:

My cell phone has been transformed into an unused roll of toilet paper.

Anyway, the cleaners had been there since there was a new roll of toilet paper on top of the previous 2, so I called my own cell and one of the cleaners picked it up. I arranged to have it returned to the operations office so everything was fine. Just thought it was funny that my first though was "Oh, my cell phone turned into toilet paper".

Posted in by Huai Bin at 09:33 PM Permalink | Comments (8)

Death in the family

My Athlon 750 killed itself yesterday afternoon, may it rest in peace. The fan somehow fell off the CPU, which resulted in it overheating. It happened in a couple of seconds, which raises questions about how hot the CPU was running. My theory about what happened was that the thermal glue was transfering heat to the surface of the chip, but with no fan to dissipate the heat, and thus it burnt. I couldn't get the computer to restart after that, not that I expected it to, considering that there was the smell of burnt electronics eminating from the case.

Christopher's Indomie Pien Nuk

Well, I woke early this morning to get the motherboard and CPU replaced. Adrian came by and we went to Christopher's place, where he was eating breakfast - pien nuk (basically wonton) with Indomie flavor packets. He swears it tastes good...I gotta try that someday. We went to three places - IT Computer Supermarket, I.T. Warehouse and e.Computers. Very convenient, since all of them are in Clayton. After comparing the price lists, I found IT Computer Supermarket to have the cheapest prices. I have to say that e.Computers has the nicest cat though. Look at it! :) It was lounging around the shop when we went there. I think it belongs to the owner. Very cute cat and it touched my hand with it's nose when I went up close. Furry, furry cat.

:)

Anyway, we went back to IT Computer Supermarket and I got:

AMD Athlon XP 2200+ A$210
Gigabyte GA-7VA VIA KT400 A$158
Kingston 256MB DDR PC2700 A$134
80GB Maxtor 7,200 ATA133 A$195
Sparkle 64MB GeForce4 MX440 SE DDR TV Out A$98
Omni Black USB+Audio P4 See Through Case A$105
GA 008 PS/2 Keyboard A$5

Total: A$905

IT Computer Supermarket

I can't say that they have good service, but they have some of the cheapest prices in Melbourne. I got a discount on top of the total price, so I only paid A$850. I didn't actually need the hard disk, but Windows XP can be really anal at times and refuses to start if the system configuration changes drastically so I got one to be safe. I'll enjoy the capacity anyway. I didn't really need the case as well, but it has a clear side panel. With lights. And a fan. And front USB ports and headphone jacks.

I'll have the 2 piece chicken meal please

Anyway, after getting all that (except the GeForce4, more on that later) we went to Coles to get some grocery shopping done and then to KFC. I have to say that KFC really sucks over here. The chicken is so fatty and soggy that I can barely choke it down. Does Australia use a different recipe for KFC? It's a franchise so that's unlikely, but it sure tastes like it.

Push down and outwards

Well, after all that, I went back to assemble everything. Getting the heatsink and fan mounted (haha) on the CPU really took a lot of effort...until I read the manual. It turns out that I'm just supposed to align one side and press down and out with a screwdriver tip to connect the other side. I tried doing that as well but I still couldn't get it to connect. I poured over the diagrams. It said "push down and outwards where it's circled". WHAT CIRCLE??? Damn manual should have never passed Quality Assuarance. After a lot of attempts I finally realized that I should push at the top groove, not the bottom one...

Don't look at me! I'm naked! :(

Well, after that the RAM went into the motherboard, the case got disassembled, the motherboard went into the case, the cables went into slots and the screws got screwed. I looked at the power button. PUSH. Nothing happened. Puzzled, I looked around the case. Ah, one of the power supply cables were not connected. That's it! I connected and pushed the power button. Still nothing. My monitor says it's not receiving a signal.

Note to self: Edges are sharper than they look

I removed the graphics card (GeForce2 MX - my previous card) and put it into my old motherboard with the dead CPU. It detected the graphics card but of course couldn't boot up due to the burnt out CPU. I put the card back into the new system. Still nothing. I called the shop - they were closing at 4:30 pm and it was nearly 4 pm so me and Adrian went over again to get the motherboard replaced. I thought it was a motherboard problem, until I read "This motherboard does not support 2X AGP cards. Only 4X-8X AGP supported".

Stuff that matters

My old GeForce2 MX is 2X AGP, so that was where things went wrong. It's a good thing I read that before I went back home because if I didn't, I would have been without a computer the whole weekend coz the shops all close on Sunday. That would be BAD because I have IE stuff due next week. Well, long story short, I got back and put everything together and everything worked! :) Thanks to Adrian for helping out today. I'm pretty tired now coz I didn't enough sleep and was running around Clayton most of the day. So that's it for today. Yay, everything runs so much faster now. It's like my PC had several points of meth and it's now raging, eager and helluva tweaked out. Naughty boy.

All riced up and ready to go!

Oh, and if my spelling degrades noticably today, it's because I haven't installed spell check yet. :)

Posted in by Huai Bin at 10:01 PM Permalink | Comments (5)

Weed Society of Victoria

I remember this episode of The Simpsons that had Otto (the stoner bus driver) coming out of a shop which had a large sign saying pot something or other (I think) and he said “That’s just false advertising”. Heh. The shop in that episode was really selling pottery but the name of the shop was somewhat misleading and the color scheme was very much like a head shop too.

Anyway, I’m still not done with my assignment that’s due at 12 noon tomorrow! I’m feeling very unproductive now so I’ll get some sleep and wake up at around 3 am to work on it again. I’ll have to go to the 24 hour computer labs in campus to do it though, the program we’re using is not available for download. It’s a good thing I live on campus…

Well, I updated the Picture of the Day, which should be called Picture of the Month. I also fixed the CSS to make it display properly on 800x600 now. My apologies, I didn’t realize the sidebar wasn’t showing up in that resolution. By the way, the Weed Society of Victoria [vicnet.net.au] is not what first pops into the mind, but a legitimate organization “to promote wider awareness and interest in weeds and their management” and also “to encourage the study of weeds and the dissemination of its findings”. I’ll like to say that sounds interesting, but that would make me a liar.

THERE IS A BOMB ATTACHED TO THIS TOILET, GET OFF AND YOU DIE! Check out the Picture of the Day. Classic toilet graffiti.

Posted in by Huai Bin at 07:57 PM Permalink | Comments (5)

The Third Peak

*puuuushuuuuuuuuu* (sound of a balloon deflating) I just got back from the code review. I’ve got a list of 23 odd things to fix with my code before Monday. It’s mostly minor stuff though, so it’s still okay. Our supervisor has selflessly sacrificed a good chunk of his after work time to go through our code and my group mates and I spent several hours in his office while he went through the code with a fine tooth comb.

Anyway, I’m pretty tired now so I’m going to sleep early tonight. I’ve gotta wake up early tomorrow coz it’s the last day I’ll be able to work on my Neural Networks assignment. It’s due by Friday 12 noon. The above picture was taken tonight on the Pakenham train I take to get home. It’s not very clear, take a train in Melbourne and you’ll know why. It’s not exactly smooth sailing.

I took two photos actually, and the second one was when the train was stationary so it should be clearer. Unfortunately, the second one mysteriously disappeared from the memory card. I’m going to file that under mysterious mysteries. I think I may very well be the only one that finds myself funny. =D Anyway, I’ve noticed that there are three peak hours for trains. The first two are logical – the hour before office hours and the hour after office hours.

However the carriages are always full from 8:30 pm – 9:30 pm too. I’ve thought about this and the best reason I could come out with is that the passengers are people who went out for a drink and to catch up with friends after office hours instead of going straight home. The fact that night trains are truncated might have something to do with it as well. The trains after 7:30 pm are not full length ie some carriages are removed because it’s supposed to be off peak hours. Truncated trains. :) I alliterate.

Posted in by Huai Bin at 10:26 PM Permalink | Comments (2)

Mysterious Mysteries

Look! A mysterious alley!

I spent most of the day in uni today. I went in the morning to meet up with my group mates. We were supposed to get together and practice for a presentation at 2:30 pm. At least, everyone in the group thought it was 2:30 pm. After careful perusal of the IE website, it was discovered that the time we were meant to do the presentation was 4 pm! This of course led to much grumbling over lost sleep. :) A good deal of finger pointing was made, but we could not isolate the person who started the “2:30 pm” meme.

Anyway, we ended up spending most of the time fixing some minor issues with the code anyway. It was 3:30 pm before we all went to have lunch at Pot Luck and I think I’m feeling slightly uncomfortable because I can’t actually eat very fast without indigestion. The presentation went okay, and I just got back from campus because we had to install our code into the actual server after that.

Well, I didn’t feel like eating anything for dinner, so I picked up a box of Coco Pops. Kellogg’s always has some kind of promotion going on with their cereals. A couple of weeks ago they were attaching the full version of Age of Empires (the first one) to one of their cereals. I didn’t get it though because it was one of the unholy “healthy” cereals. I think it was Chex or something. I only go for the good stuff like Froot Loops and Coco Pops. :)

Anyway, the 3 inch CD inside the Coco Pops box had a game called “Raging River Rapids” (gotta love alliteration) which features Coco the monkey trying to navigate a river with three logs strung together. The logs look strangely unappetizing and conjured up images of a non-food nature. There was also a comic, wallpapers, cursors etc. The standard Flash stuff.

Oh, and that alley is the one beside the Huntingdale train station. I liked the play of light and shadows…nah, I'm being pretentious. I was just attracted by the pretty colors of the masonry to the left of the alley. Man, I’m talking so much shit today.

Posted in by Huai Bin at 10:01 PM Permalink | Comments (3)

"Oi, Amoy!"

Amoy. It sounds like the generic term for young females that people of my hometown use, particularly when summoning waitresses. :) I don’t know the origin of the term but I think it could be Hokkien. There’s also a Foochow counterpart – ah mui yang. I’m Heng Hua, but I don’t know what the Heng Hua equivalent is. I can understand the language but the only phrase I know is “hiaw eh”. It’s a very versatile exclamation that can be used for practically anything. Use it to substitute “si lor” if you’re Hokkien and “eh siang noh” if you’re Foochow. I don’t know many people who appreciate being called amoy though. Hiaw eh, I have digressed far from what was meant to be a post about dinner.

Posted in by Huai Bin at 10:36 PM Permalink | Comments (12)

Will write help files for marks

I've been writing the help files for the WIER project my group is doing for Industrial Experience. Here's a snippet:

Adding Times

Adding times to the Task/Time Tracker is done by clicking on the subtask you want to add to.

The first button in the upper right hand corner is then clicked. You’ll know you have the right button when you hover the mouse over the button as “Log Time Under This Task” shows up.

When you click on the button, the Log A Work Session screen comes up. Here is where you add the times and descriptions. The date can also be changed by clicking on the Select Date link and selecting a date from the pop up calendar.

After everything is filled in, clicking on Log Time will enter the times into the database.

Editing Tasks

The tasks should be updated periodically as the project goes on to reflect the correct initial estimated hours and current estimated hours. This is done by clicking on Edit This Task in the Task/Time tracker upper right hand corner.

Clicking on the button will navigate you to the Edit a Task screen.

The Edit a Task screen is where you can update the Current and Initial Estimated Hours. In this screen, the Current Estimated is being updated to 50 hours instead of the original 150 hours after finding out that the task is nearing completion and would not require as much hours as previously estimated.

What do you think? I know I got confusing at times, but oh well...

I'll be free-er (if there's such a word) this Friday. The summer subject I'm taking finishes for good on Friday 12 noon after I hand in the last assignment. I don't know why the assignment due date is after the final exam but it just is. These couple of days are gonna be busy. I've got to go to the Clayton labs tomorrow to work on the Neural Networks assignment because the program we need to use is only installed in the labs. Then we're going to have our IE presentation on Tuesday 2:30 pm and then we're going to move all our code to the live server on 5 pm on the same day and then we have a code review (also for IE) on Wednesday 5 pm onwards till God knows when and then I'll have one last day to finish up my summer assignment and hand it in on Friday 12 noon. Phew, someone pass me the meth...no sleep for the wicked.

Posted in by Huai Bin at 12:03 AM Permalink | Comments (2)

The Wild and Wacky Adventures of Chloe

I can’t open my pigeon hole without seeing some pussy. No, seriously. Ever since I gave my name and mailing address for a free video at SEXPO 2002 [sixthseal.com] I’ve been getting brochures, catalogues and vouchers mailed to me. I get assaulted with words like College Cock 101, Horny Fuck Mamas (stuffed to the brim with kinky dick, no less) and Shaved She Males every time I open my mail. It’s a good thing they mail these things in nondescript envelopes. They're wasting their money though coz I'm not interested. Now, if it was a pharmaceutical catalogue on the other hand... ;)

Posted in by Huai Bin at 12:03 AM Permalink | Comments (2)

"Hey mate do you have a spare dollar?"

I went to Coles to get some laundry detergent today and while I was waiting for the bus, this girl came up to me and asked me if I had a spare dollar. This is not uncommon over here, and I usually oblige if they ask nicely and they look like they need it. The last time someone asked me was this guy who surprised me late one night by saying “Sorry to bother you, but could you please spare some change?” It was nice of him to ask so politely, but I didn’t have any change, so I said so. He went “Oh, that’s okay” and went to ask someone else. No one gave him any change and I honestly felt sorry for the guy coz he looked like he was in a bad shape, shivering and shaking. I was on my way to McDonalds and he was still there when I came out so I approached him and gave him the coins I got as change from my meal (about A$4). He needed it more than me anyway, though I suspect it’s not for food. :)

However, I said no today even though I felt sorry for the girl. She was drinking milk from a carton, and this always tugs at my heartstrings ever since I saw this movie (forgot the title) about this girl who had no money and had to survive by drinking milk from those small packets they put beside the straws and napkins in McDonalds. Er..yeah, it’s all jumbled up in my head. The point is, milk = cheap, nutritious food. The reason I said no was because I haven’t eaten anything since dinner last night (more than 24 hours ago) so I’m feeling tired and irritable.

Now this got me thinking. Most people tend to be irritable and become less than charitable when they’re hungry or tired. Okay, so this isn’t the biggest revelation ever, but I’ve never noticed myself predisposed that way before. Guess I was wrong.

Posted in by Huai Bin at 11:09 PM Permalink | Comments (5)

A butterfly flaps its wings in China...

I didn't think it would be possible, but it’s done. They improved on the chunky Kit Kat bars. The bar has this 1 cm gap on the top where there is this smooth flowing caramel. It has displaced Twix as my favourite chocolate bar. It’s like stuffed crust pizzas for chocolate bars! Perhaps the Pizza Hut management were having this focus group with the Nestle management and they suddenly thought about this cool idea – going where no man has gone before – putting good stuff into normally banal stuff. Pizza Hut were putting sausages and cheese into the crust of their pizzas and Nestle got around to putting caramel (!) into the top layer of chocolate into their Kit Kat bars. Smooth flowing caramel...Mmm...

Posted in by Huai Bin at 12:30 AM Permalink | Comments (4)

St. Valentine

Happy Valentine's Day, Louisa! I love you!

Posted in by Huai Bin at 02:37 AM Permalink | Comments (4)

Pill report: White ? (Question Mark)

Disclaimer: veritas [mailto: veritas@sixthseal.com] is a guest author and is not related to the owner of the sixthseal.com domain. The following report deals with substances which may be illegal in your country.


White Question Mark

Pill Logo: ?
Pill Color: White with dirty specks
Area: Melbourne
Date: February 2003
Other: The other side has a single score, the ? imprint is uneven and the pill has beveled edges.
Suspected contents: Ketamine

Scanned picture of the white Question Mark

This pill is going for A$20 instead of the usual A$35. That’s nearly half the price of a normal pill. I didn’t expect it to be MDMA, but since it was going for such a bargain price, I picked up two of these. The pill has a ? logo on one side (not imprinted well) and a single score on the other side. The pill also has beveled edges and has a hard press. The pill is very thick too, thicker than usual pills.

Isometric view – pill is thick

I ate one and crushed the other one in an envelope. The pill isn’t crumbly and I had to run a dog tag over the crushed pill several times before it reached an acceptable consistency. I divided up the pill into two lines and tried to rail it, but it was just too much powder for me to snort comfortably in one go.

Size comparison with A$2 coin

It burns fairly badly while going up too. I’m not sure if that’s coz of the cuts or because I didn’t crush the pill up well enough. I just chucked it into an envelope and banged it about a bit and then ran a dog tag over it to smoothen over the larger chunks. I did bumps over the course of the night and it got me fairly high, but I didn’t K-hole. The effects were felt in a couple of minutes.

The crushed pill

Anyway, I felt very significant nausea when insufflating the powder. There was a strong psychological aversion to snorting more too, due to the extreme nausea it causes. It made me retch several times, but after a while it didn’t matter. Subjective effects seem to indicate ketamine. I felt numb and dissociated and it didn’t last very long. At the peak, I was feeling very drunk and it's quite euphoric. It damn near put me to sleep too, but I chugged a bottle of diet coke and was fine after that. I was starting to return to baseline by the 2 hour mark.

It seems to be a nice ketamine pill, but I don’t have tolerance so I can’t speak for the strength. I wished I insufflated the first pill instead of eating it though. Personally, I think it’s a good ketamine pill for A$20 but it’s definitely not MDMA so avoid if you’re shopping for Ecstasy.

Posted in by Huai Bin at 01:34 AM Permalink | Comments (130)

Tea fusion?

There is this strange strain of cannabis that’s going around lately. I’ve gotten it twice from two different contacts. Visually, it looks much hairier than the commercial strain, there are a lot of those light tan colored hairs peeking out of the bud. It has an overpowering smell of tea (!) but when you shred it, it smells like normal cannabis. This strain is slightly more expensive than commercial but it’s worth it. The strength is higher than average, higher than the commercial hydro that’s widely available. The smoke is light and goes down very easily. It seems to be a "fun" strain, light and happy high. :) I felt rather giggly and happy, and it’s not stoney like the commercial hydro I usually get. Interesting and very recommended.

Posted in by Huai Bin at 12:29 PM Permalink | Comments (4)

WIER

This is the Industrial Experience project my team is working on. It's nearing the end and the coding part is basically done, except for some bits and pieces. The project is coded mainly using PHP (with a tiny bit of Javascript) and it uses an Oracle database that is located on a different campus, which requires us to be frugal in making database calls. WIER stands for Web Industrial Experience Resources and it's a project management system that's going to go live in 2 weeks. Crunch time, baby!

Posted in by Huai Bin at 02:08 AM Permalink | Comments (0)

No Optus

Has anyone ever heard of cell relay stations going down? A couple of minutes ago my monitor was flickering like an SMS or call is about to come through. I put my cell phone next to the monitor because I have my headphones on when I'm using the computer and I need to know when I have calls coming in. The monitor flickering (electromagnetic disturbance?) is the best ring tone ever. :)

Anyway, I'm digressing. My phone was causing the monitor to flicker because it's actively searching for a station. The station I use when I'm home is the Clayton North one. I know because cell phone companies here have this feature that displays the station you're using (and thus the area you're in) on the cell phone display instead of the operator logo.

Well, it was searching for a signal just now and ended up displaying SOS Calls Only. I turned it on and off and it still couldn't get a signal, but after 5 minutes, it showed the Oakleigh South station with a very low signal strength (because its further away than the Clayton North one). It's back to Clayton North now, but I just thought it was interesting that happened. Hmm...yes, I'm bored. Okay, back to work.

Posted in by Huai Bin at 12:24 AM Permalink | Comments (3)

Mmm...chicken

What I like about these chicken packs are the vegies inside them. They look like leaves and taste like them too. :) There's quite a bit of variety inside too, there are broad green leaves, reddish branches and stuff like that. Anyway, I'm feeling uninspired and amotivated today. Still have to work on my stuff for tomorrow's supervisor meeting though. I'll go pop some bubble wrap...

Link of the Day: Perpetual Bubble Wrap [urban75.com]

I could do this all day. There's just something very appealing about popping bubble wrap. I can't stop myself from pressing the round thingys on drinks from McDonalds too. It's those round raised things with labels like 'Diet', 'Other' etc. Those things are so compulsive...

Posted in by Huai Bin at 12:00 AM Permalink | Comments (15)

Someone please wipe the drool off my chin

I’ve just watched this NTU (Nanyang Technological University, Singapore) Halls of Residence cheerleading video from last year that Daniel kindly FTPed to me. The pictures are pretty blur because I had to photograph the monitor. I can't seem to grab screenshots of MPEGs in Windows XP. It’s some kind of interhalls competition and I was surprised that some of the routines are really good. There was one that particularly stood out, I can’t remember which stairway it was but they had the Moulin Rouge Can Can snippet which lead into Offspring’s Original Prankster. I liked the intro where they lifted this girl high up and she waves and did the arms-folded-trust-drop that cheerleaders do. It’s a really good video, if you’re inside the Monash network I’ve got it shared under killuminati in Direct Connect (Hub: davo). Otherwise, bug Daniel [mailto:] to send a copy to you. :)

Anyway, as I was walking to the dining hall today, I passed by a possum rummaging around in a rubbish bin. I didn’t see the little guy until I was right beside him and in a caffeine induced jitter, I jumped a little. Well, I think I scared the possum more than he did me, because he jumped even higher and scrambled over several rubbish bins and flinged himself into a wall! Ouch.

Link of the Day: A Frightened Boy [rathergood.com]

I’ll have two of whatever he’s having. Oh, and if anyone knows the title of the song used in the flash animation, give me a holler. Thanks!

Posted in by Huai Bin at 09:24 PM Permalink | Comments (10)

l33t Romeo + Juliet

Click here [albinoblacksheep.com] if you have 15 minutes to spare. This is the funniest thing I’ve seen in ages! I couldn't stop laughing out loud. :)

Posted in by Huai Bin at 12:41 AM Permalink | Comments (1)

Cones

Cones is a brand of joint paper cones made by Mountain High [mountainhigh.nl]. It retails for A$3.95 at Off Ya Tree, a local headshop. I’ll be honest with ya, my butter fingers can’t roll good joints. The joints that I make inevitably draws very poorly, due to the cannabis not being packed tightly. Cigarette smokers, you know what I mean. When you don’t ‘pack’ a pack of cigarettes by tapping it upside down against your hand before opening, the draw (referring to the air flow here) becomes very poor. I don’t know how to explain it, but packing cigarettes optimizes the air flow and makes it draw better.

Anyway, enough about (the lack of) my joint rolling skillz. I usually smoke marijuana using a bong because smoking it with joints seems like such a waste of good cannabis. However, there are times when toking on a joint seems appropriate, like during celebrations or in situations where it’s not feasible to carry around a bong with you. The Cones by Mountain High comes in a pack of three and is made using king sized joint paper.

The instructions at the back shows two methods of filling the cone – by pushing the cannabis into the cone using the supplied straw, or by tipping the cannabis directly into the cone. Personally, I find the first way to be easier. The cone can be laid flat against any surface and filled by pushing the pre-shredded cannabis into the cone. This makes it less prone to structural damage to the cone. I’ll explain more in the paragraph below.

The second method is done by tipping the cannabis into the cone instead of pushing it. The packaging of Cones has this removable hole on the upper right hand corner with the word Remove. By removing the hole and putting the package back side up, there is a place for you to place the cone while you fill it using the second method. The packaging of the front is such that it produces an elevated platform for the cone to be placed in the hole when it’s overturned. Very nifty indeed. However, this method makes it easy to accidentally touch the cone with the card you’re using to drop the cannabis into the cone. Doing this of course makes it bend at the weakest point (the thinnest point closes to the filter) and has the potential to tear the cone if you do it hard enough.

Now to the taste test. The paper used to make the cone is thin, and it tends to burn too fast for my liking even if you’re not toking on it, which is wasteful. The taste of the cone leaves much to be desired as well. It has this rice paper taste which is unnatural and somewhat distasteful. The taste of the paper tends to overshadow the sweet tasting marijuana smoke. The structure of the cone is pretty flimsy as well, but that shouldn’t pose a problem if you’re reasonably careful.

Personally, I don’t like it enough to want to buy it again. But it certainly has its merits. The cardboard filter works well in keeping the shredded cannabis in the joint instead of drawing it into your lungs which is an ‘Ack!’ moment that I always have when rolling my own joints. If you look hard enough, you can see small groove patterns in the paper, like the ones most cigarettes have. This is to make the joint burn evenly, and it does that well. A nice touch, this. Also, the straw included in each cone is perfect for packing the marijuana into the cone, leading to a very good draw.

It’s A$3.95, which isn’t really expensive, but you can get rolling papers for much less than that. I’ll prefer the Royal Blunts EZ Roll Tube [sixthseal.com] though, if I want a change from smoking from a bong.

Caution: Possession of cannabis is against the law in most countries.

Posted in by Huai Bin at 12:43 AM Permalink | Comments (12)

Knock Knock

Who's there?
Boo.
Boo who?
Don't cry, it's just a knock knock joke.

Man, I love this one. Always cracks me up. I'm easily amused though, so your milage may vary.

Posted in by Huai Bin at 11:29 PM Permalink | Comments (1)

Explosive Diarrhea

I woke up today having to run to sit on my porcelain throne. I barely made it. In fact, I think maybe I didn't after all. *cough* I haven't expelled such a large volume of watery feces with such force for a long time and I'm looking back to dinner last night to see what went wrong. I had:

King Island Dairy Roaring Blue Cheese

This one is not very likely because I've eaten from the same wedge without problems yesterday.

Superior Gold Tasmanian Smoked Salmon

Vacuum packed and sealed package, so it doesn't seem to be the offending party as well.

Coles Croissants

It's bread. No mold, so not very likely.

Frozen cooked prawns from the Coles deli

I'm putting my money on this one. Are you supposed to eat prawns labeled as "frozen, cooked" from the deli straight off the package? It came in a ring of about 40 prawns and it even had a small indent in the package for dip! It sure looked like it can be eaten without any further cooking. Well, the prawns still looked a bit raw and tasted raw, but there was a dip bowl built into the ring! Why would someone do that if it’s meant for cooking?

Posted in Best of sixthseal.com , Hmm... by Huai Bin at 09:41 PM Permalink | Comments (83)

Strawberry Mentos

Limited edition? I've always seen strawberry Mentos around. Hmm...

Posted in by Huai Bin at 08:51 PM Permalink | Comments (1)

Sibu, CNY, Class of '98

These are the photos of the Chinese New Year mega gathering of Methodist High School Class of '98 which I missed due to coming back early. :( Daniel sent me the pics today for everyone to download. He also sends his apologies because the pictures are not taken very well. I'm going to put this up for a week and then I'll take it down, so if you're in the picture, get it now. :)

Right click, Save as

Download here. (2.12 MB)

Download here. (2.00 MB)

[Edit: Large pictures have been removed.]

Posted in Chinese New Year by Huai Bin at 08:22 PM Permalink | Comments (2)

Curious George

I didn't do too well in the exam today, but I should be able to pass. *fingers crossed* I only got 1 hour of sleep last night. Wanted to sleep at 2:30 am but couldn't so I laid in bed doing jack shit until 5:30 am before I finally decided against sleeping and got up and studied some more. I thought about crunching up a couple of Valiums (legally prescribed) and getting some sleep, but that would not be such a good idea considering there's no way I would be getting 8 hours of sleep. Diazepam makes me feel really scattered if I don't sleep for a decent amount of time after taking it.

Anyway, I did finally sleep for slightly more than an hour at 8 am. Woke up feeling strangely refreshed and got some serious studying done. I always tend to cram a few hours before the exam. George picked up the shovel and started digging into the ground. The tree has been there for more than 7 decades, but good things must come to an end. He digs, one shovel at a time, one rock at a time, one pebble at a time. The children crowded around him, peering curiously at George. Curious George.

Sleep beckons me.

Posted in by Huai Bin at 07:00 PM Permalink | Comments (0)

Sexually Explicit Entertainment May Offend

I’ve got an exam tomorrow – the final paper of BUS 3650 Business Applications of Neural Networks. That’s my summer semester subject if you’re wondering. Well, the subject is not as easy as I thought due to several formulas that requires knowledge of DIFFENTIATION.

/me makes a gesture to ward off evil.

I never would have thought I’ll come across that word again after Additional Math in high school. My thinly disguised attempt to solicit specific hints didn’t go so well either:

I suggest you make sure you understand the tutes and examples given in the lectures. If you don't understand something, come and see me during my consultation hours this week (see web site for times) with very specific questions.
regards,
kate

Dr. Kate A. Smith
Deputy Head & Director of Research    
School of Business Systems  telephone: +61 3 9905 5800
Monash University    mobile: 0438 112912
Clayton, Victoria 3800    fax: +61 3 9905 9422
Australia   email:
kate.smith@infotech.monash.edu.au
 
WWW:
http://www.bsys.monash.edu.au/staff/kate/kate.htm

Posted in by Huai Bin at 07:39 PM Permalink | Comments (2)

Walk for your lives!

I remember that I used to stuff things down the overflow protection hole in sinks when I was younger. You know, the holes that appear on most sinks to prevent flooding when someone puts the plug in and leaves the tap running. Anyway, when I was younger I was simply amazed by this concept and with my vivid imagination, I thought of the hole as the mouth of the sink, and I used to bestow offerings to it, lest it turns into an angry sink and rampage or something. I was 13 at that time. :)

Well, I’ve stuffed all sorts of stuff into the hole during my youth. Small plastic toys, the bony wing part of chicken wings, my sister’s hairclips. Oh, and those black flat seedless prunes were a perfect fit too. It’s a wonder my sink’s pipes never got blocked. The worst thing was, I used to do this to other sinks too, not just my own. I remember my grandma’s sinks received plenty of offerings in it’s time. :) I got tired of it after a while though. Rampage on, hungry sink.

(Tasteless) Joke of the Day:

Q. What does NASA stand for?
A. Need Another Seven Astronauts [cnn.com].

Posted in by Huai Bin at 11:09 PM Permalink | Comments (2)

Chu Er

Day 2 of Chinese New Year

Who?

Me.

What?

Nothing much basically, I’m just trying to finish reading my lecture notes today for my final exam. Oh man, I am sooooooooo not prepared.

When?

Wednesday.

How?

I don’t know.

Why?

Fish sandwich and chips from slops.

My head feels like someone had a go at it with a sledgehammer. My brain feels like porridge. Someone eat it before it gets cold. Note to self: Everything in moderation.

Posted in by Huai Bin at 10:31 PM Permalink | Comments (0)

Year of the Goat

Happy New Year everyone! I hope that everyone is having a great time. Myself, I still have to study because the final exam for my summer subject is on the 5th of February, which is like four days away. Not feeling the CNY mood at all. I did get an ang pow from Uncle Tatt though. It was a A$25 dollar ang pow, not bad eh? :)

Chai Shen dau!

I actually picked this up on Chinese New Year Eve after dinner but didn’t remember it until today. I can’t remember the last time I got a scratch card – I think it was in 1996 in New Zealand and I won NZ $10 that time. Well, it seems that I’m pretty lucky with these things, coz I got A$25 this time. Heh. The scratch card costs A$10 though, so that’s like a A$15 profit. It’s still good though, my only ang pow this year. Not bad for New Year’s luck eh? :) Gong Xi Fa Chai everyone! Meeeeeeeeeeekkkkkkkkkk!!!

That's a goat bleating if you're wondering.

Posted in Chinese New Year by Huai Bin at 09:14 PM Permalink | Comments (3)

Royal Blunts Cognac Flavored EZ Roll Tube

The front of the packaging with a see thru window.

The back of the packaging.

I purchased this blunt wrapper from Off Ya Tree a couple of days ago. It’s made by Royal Blunts [royalblunts.com] and I decided that today was a good day as any to smoke a blunt, being Chinese New Year and everything. :) A blunt is a cigar with cannabis inside instead of tobacco. It retails for A$3.95 and Off Ya Tree has several other flavors besides cognac. Cannabis sold separately, of course.

Inside the packaging is a single leaf of tobacco and a plastic tube.

Anyway, the package is air sealed and has a single blunt wrapper inside and a plastic tube, which serves the dual function of preventing the leaf of tobacco from getting squashed in the package and to pack weed into the blunt you’re rolling. The blunt wrapper was surprisingly fresh, it didn’t reek like stale cigars do.

Rolling the blunt.

The blunt wrapper was easy to roll too, and it sealed by itself. I did give the side of the wrap a lick to make it seal better though. I used the plastic tube to pack the cannabis tightly, as I prefer the draw of a tightly packed cigarette as opposed to an unpacked one. In lieu of a roach (a cardboard piece you put at the end of joints as a filter), I folded the end of the blunt and it works just as well. I didn’t inhale any small bits of plant material even when I toked hard on the blunt.

The blunt.

And the taste of the blunt…oh my God, it was simply divine! Very, very tasty indeed. It will be hard to go back to smoking bowls after this. The cognac flavored wrapper achieves this synergy with the choof, providing this rich, satisfying smoke that tastes pleasant and smells wonderful. It tasted like a good cigar with the sweet, sweet smoke of cannabis instead of tobacco. The burn rate was very controlled too, the tip burns slowly when you’re not toking on it and even when you draw on it, it doesn’t burn that fast either, just a slowly moving red rim that produces a nice lungful of that rich, satisfying smoke. It gives a slightly different high too, there was the added stimulant high from the tobacco leaf wrapper. Highly recommended!

Posted in by Huai Bin at 08:47 PM Permalink | Comments (93)