sixthseal.com

Chinese New Year Eve dinner

This is what I got for the New Year reunion dinner without the reunion today.

Honey chicken, kai lan in oyster sauce, sliced fish with scallops and ginger.

Steamed rice, garlic prawn and char kueh tiaw.

Magnum almond ice cream, Sara Lee Bites – frozen cheese cake and fudge brownies.

Mmm…I’m going to attempt to eat everything in a gross, disgusting and totally unacceptable manner. :)

Posted in Chinese New Year by Huai Bin at 09:41 PM Permalink | Comments (6)

;)

Taken @ Block K toilets of Monash University, Caulfield.

Posted in Hmm... by Huai Bin at 02:29 AM Permalink | Comments (3)

=D

Saying it with flowers. :)

Look at the size of that bud! I’m shocked at the size of the stem too…

Posted in Hmm... by Huai Bin at 02:21 AM Permalink | Comments (6)

I am not a millionare

yet. :)

The winning combination was 23 30 3 31 40 / 18. I got the Powerball in one of my picks but unfortunately not the other numbers. Oh well, there's always next year. :)

Posted in by Huai Bin at 09:42 PM Permalink | Comments (2)

A$20 million Powerball

I was having lunch at McDonald’s today when I noticed this large poster at a newsagent advertising the Powerball draw for tomorrow (well, technically today) which is for A$20 million. Powerball is a national lottery which runs into the high millions about once a year. I think. I’ve only bought it once, and that was about two years ago. A couple of us went past the Tattslotto agent at the campus center after finishing the final exam for the semester and saw the draw for A$30 million. We each bought one and we were discussing the things we could do with that kind of money over dinner. Heh.

Well, I also got a ticket today, and in the unlikely event that I win the A$20 million, well…hmm…well, I don’t know what I’ll do with the money, but I’ll do something with it. Probably fly to Amsterdam and have coffee in one of those coffee shops I keep on hearing about. I think that’s what they do in coffee shops over there anyway. Drink coffee, that is. I hear they have some really good coffee with unusual names like White Widow, Purple Haze and Durban Poison. Nothing beats having a good coffee and snacking on something healthy like mushrooms.

Anyway, today was a really warm day as well. There was a lot of smoke too, from the bushfires still burning in country Victoria. This photo was taken at Richmond station. The heat only dissipated an hour ago, according to this [theage.com.au]. Good thing I wasn’t planning on sleeping tonight to finish up my Industrial Experience stuff for tomorrow. I wouldn’t have been able to sleep anyway.

Posted in by Huai Bin at 03:51 AM Permalink | Comments (1)

Oh God, Yes!!!

function get_max_or_weight_from_itemsubjid_and_criteria_id($conn,$itemsubjid,$criteria_id)
{
$sql = "SELECT max_or_weight FROM assessment_items_criteria WHERE itemsubjid=$itemsubjid AND criteria_id=$criteria_id";
$stmt = ociparse($conn,$sql);
ociexecute($stmt,OCI_DEFAULT);
ocifetchinto($stmt, &$result_array);
if ( sizeof($result_array) > 0 )
return $result_array[0];
else
return 0;
}

Such exquisite beauty in such a simple function.
/me rubs tears of joy from eyes
Hmm...solving a coding problem that's been bugging you for a long time is very much like having a big fat line of coke. Not that I would know of course.

Posted in by Huai Bin at 06:51 AM Permalink | Comments (2)

Behold, I draw again

This is what I always drew in high school when our art teacher said “bebas” during art class. Bebas = free, which indicates the topic of the day was to draw anything you want. As you can see, I’m not very gifted in the arts, so inevitably, I’ll hand up this picture. It was always drawn this way too, a house, a sun in the top right hand corner, a pond with a duck inside (complete with lines depicting the movement of the duck), a tree on the left side of the house and several clumps of grass at the bottom left hand corner to fill up the blank space. It feels good to render my favorite piece of art once more. :)

Posted in by Huai Bin at 02:36 AM Permalink | Comments (0)

-1 Flamebait

Don't mean to feed the flames, just wanted to clear things up [sixthseal.com].

Posted in by Huai Bin at 06:51 AM Permalink | Comments (0)

Kinder Surprise

What exactly is the surprise that lurks within a Kinder Surprise? Like me, most, if not all of you have asked yourselves the very same question at some point in your lives. Unable to let this pressing question go unanswered, I picked up one of these when I went grocery shopping a couple of days ago.

I tore the packaging off the chocolate egg and bit the top part off. Inside laid this small capsule that looks deliciously compact, and inside the capsule were various bits and pieces and an instruction sheet. Assembling the toy was a fairly easy process, and the end result is this:

A dog with only two legs and an unfortunately long neck.

Posted in by Huai Bin at 04:18 AM Permalink | Comments (0)

Out with the old, in with the new

I changed the Cascading Style Sheet because I was caught in a wave of dysphoria while looking at the old one. The spice extends life. The spice expands consciousness. This new one looks cleaner, nicer. I am afraid of Track #6. The “All hail The Creator” one. The Creator cometh! Whose pupils are dilated? Is it yours? It’s gotta be yours, coz it’s not mine! The little fan sits on the little bed and spins its little blades. Flange flange flange. Nevermind, lah. Ting ting ting, bells a ringin’. Hlp, I’m drownd. That was from Bag of Bones. One two, buckle my shoe, three four, shut the door, five six, pick up sticks, seven eight, lay them straight. London bridge is falling down falling down falling down. London bridge is falling down. My fair lady. Please define. You better do it soon, because the stick is very angry. hahaha Erm…yes.

A haiku:
Rice is long and grain
The small grains are sun and soft
Bring me to a boil

Mindfuck! Newspower! Your store with more! Oh, so much more, baby. Needful things, you see. Flange flange flange. Paleolithic 35,000, Neolithic 25,000, Mesolithic 15,000, Besi & Gangsa 2,500. Will I live to see tomorrow? One two, buckle my shoe, three four, touch the floor, five six, eat up sticks, seven eight, mash them straight. London bridge is falling down falling down falling down and London bridge is falling down my fair laydee. And this is me going Goooooooooood Mooooooooooorrrrrrrrrnnnnnnnnnnnnnniiiiiiiiiiiinnnnggggggggggggg Melbourne!

The lid of a rice cooker is his hat. Please don’t take it away. It needs the hat to shade himself against the sun. Why is a passport a passport? Hmm…something to think about eh? Or not. I don’t give a fuck either way. If you want, think about it. If you don’t want, fuck off, no one is pointing a gun to your head and forcing you to do anything. Just remember Bi-Lo, where there is extra value for YOU! Yes, you heard me right! Extra value, just for YOU!

I’m going to throw up. Delirium, schizophrenia with a unique 3D shape. Urg. Knock knock knock says ICQ. Three times lucky, says OCD, my friend Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Whoever he is. Quick review, I feel a need to write. The smallest things are significant. And the fnords are everywhere, don’t you think otherwise. London bridge is falling down, falling down, falling down.

Everytime I go to the toilet I feel an urge to puke. 755-25-25 Pizza Hut Delivery! PLUR. Peace Love Unity Respect. An overturned saucepan with boiling hot margarine on the floor. Floosh floosh floosh. Intense. Saucers. Not the flying kind. It's so powerful. Oh my God, It's really so powerful. What a powerful mindfuck! It's a Teacher! Man, it's so crazy over here. So crazy...

I see! No really, I see!!!

If I’m not making sense, it’s because I’m not making sense.

Posted in Interesting by Huai Bin at 02:23 AM Permalink | Comments (26)

Movie marathon

I spent most of the day watching VCDs my neighbour's boyfriend brought back from KL.

Posted in by Huai Bin at 11:35 PM Permalink | Comments (0)

HEROIN

Disclaimer: This is a post by veritas [mailto:].

A off-white solid chunk of heroin in foil.

Heroin. The name alone invokes fear in the hearts of man. Okay, maybe that’s an exaggeration, but you’ve gotta admit, this drug sure has a bad name. :) There is a particular ‘S’ suburb here that’s known for having dealers of heroin on the streets. I went to check the place out at the beginning of the week. There are several dodgy looking people around the main street, and after standing in front of the central part, I noticed several guys who seem to be a permanent fixture of the place. One of the guys were obviously nodding out, stumbling around with a vacant stare and all that. I went up to one of them and stuck up this conversation:

Me: Hello, are you from around here?
Dealer: Yeah, what’s up?
Me: I hear you can get stuff here.
Dealer: (cautiously) What kind of stuff?
Me: Drugs.
Dealer: What do you want?
Me: What do you have?
Dealer: I only have heroin, you know, smack.
Me: Okay, how much are they?
Dealer: How much do you want?
Me: I only want a small amount.
Dealer: I have A$50 caps.
Me: Sure, I’ll have one of those. I hear there’s a lot of cops around here too, should we go somewhere else?
Dealer: Yeah, you gotta be careful around here, there’s heaps of cops in this area. I’m scared man, you don’t look like the type that buys smack.
Me: Well, I’m just experimenting. I’m a student, actually.
Dealer: Okay, walk with me.
(We walk into a shopping center)
(He seems to chew on something for a bit and inconspicuously slips something out of his mouth and hands it to me)
Dealer: Here you go.
(I hand him a A$50 bill)
Dealer: Is this your first time doing smack?
Me: Yeah. I was planning to just snort it.
Dealer: It works better if you smoke it. Just burn it on a foil and smoke it with a straw or something.
Me: Yeah. I know that method too.
Dealer: Okay, take it easy man.

The bag of heroin, look at the detail in the knot. Very nicely wrapped.

After that exchange, I left with a small package wrapped in balloon that just came out of someone’s mouth. I heard that dealers of heroin do that here, so that if they’re arrested by the police, they just need to swallow the balloon packages and they can just throw up or wait for it to come out on the other end. Thinking about that disturbed me somewhat, and I proceeded to walk into a restaurant to wash my hands.

Size comparison – pictured with an A$2 coin.

Upon reaching home, I inspected the package I had just got. It’s a nicely wrapped bag that’s slightly smaller than the diameter of a pencil. It’s very, very small indeed. The outer layer of the bag is a balloon that’s been wrapped and knotted very tightly. I couldn’t undo the knot so I just snipped it off with a pair of scissors. Inside the bag was a small piece of heroin wrapped in aluminum foil. Professional gift wrappers would be proud of the finesse going into the packaging of heroin. :)

The heroin is wrapped in a small piece of aluminum foil and put into the balloon.

Anyway, the heroin came in an off-white solid chuck, which was quite hard to break up. I used a spoon to split it in half and made it into powder by running the back of the spoon repeatedly over that chunk. Sources say that the cap contains approximately 50 mg of heroin. I was surprised at the small amount contained in the cap, until I learnt that heroin is active at very small amounts. Usually first time users do about ¼ of the bag if they’re injecting, but since I won’t be using that method of administration, I decided to insufflate (snort) ½ of the bag and leave the other ½ for smoking in two days time.

The solid chunk of heroin in the aluminum foil.

The off-white solid piece of heroin next to A$2 coin.

Heroin – Insufflated – 25 mg (approximately)

The line of heroin after I powdered it with a spoon.

10:10 pm
burned a fair bit going up the nose.decided to snort half of that amount to be safe. yeah its definately burning a fair bit when i snorted it.

10:13 pm
just tasted the drip. bitter.

10.14 pm
yeah...i feel warm. then again its summer. hahaha :)

10:16 pm
shit...that just like snuck up on me. i didn't even notice it until now. hehehe yeah, its euphoric :) i'm feeling sedated, very nice. gonna snort the other half in 3 minutes unless something happens.

10:17 pm
this is going to sound cliche, but it feels good just to sit here.i even forgot to turn on my fan and summer here is hot.now that i think about forgetting to turn on the fan, i'm not even bothering to turn it on. you know wat i mean?

10:20 pm
very noticable effects already, but i'm going to snort the other half anyway.

10:20 pm
okay, maybe that was a bad idea coz i'm still peaking right now...but whats done is done.

10:23 pm
yeah its very noticable now. i feel like the world is muffled...everything seems so far away.

10:27 pm
very prone to zoning out. just sat there looking at my hand and that just feels nice.

10:32 pm
everything feels so surreal. so surreal.

10:34 pm
i get that numb feeling. my face is numb and so are my fingers. everything has a slow quality to it. slow. tingly.

10:40 pm
its very different to a stimulant high. i'm just feeling so safe and contented, its a cliche but its true. it feels the way it does when you're young and you've just woke up from a good night's sleep and the warm sun is shining in and today's a holiday and you don't have to do anything, you just lay in bed and read and its comfortable. that made me smile. :)

10:44 pm
this just feels so good. it's not like other drugs, its not the ecstatic happiness of MDMA (feels like you're about to go on a really good vacation you're really looking forward to), it's not like stimulants where you go "fuck i can take on the world!!!", this is like a comfortable, very comfortable feeling that you lose as soon as you go into puberty. its an innocent sort of comfortable where the best thing is that you're feeling comfortable and safe and warm in your house. and that's all that matters, nothing can hurt you. its the feeling of picnics and reading books and eating cheese cake and nice weather and mom taking care of you when you're sick and i've got it! its the feeling of being a kid, where there are no real problems, only little ones, and you don't need to do anything, you just hang around and feel comfortable and they're parents there to take care of you. damn, thats what it feels like. return to childhood.
its the feeling of waking up on a saturday morning to the smell of french toast and you just lie around in bed waiting for your mom to call you down to eat breakfast and you've had a great nites sleep and the only thing you want to do is read a good book, a safe book where there are no great problems and everything turns out to be okay in the end. jesus, you just don't get this feeling anymore after you grow up. no wonder people get addicted to this shit. it's really comfortable.

10:56 pm
my lips feel numb and my tongue feels swollen and it's a little hard to breath but it's all good. damn, it's all good. this is not the Oh my fucking god, this is great when you take stimulants but the yeah...this is real good of downers.

11:05 pm
feeling drowsy now.my eyelids keep going to half mast. heh.

11:12 pm
ugh...nausea. gonna lie down and read a book until i sleep. bye.

Afterthoughts: There was no withdrawals or crash to speak of, but I did have this godawful nausea, dizziness and major stomach churning at the end. It didn't make me itch though. It felt very nice and comfortable, but it’s not something I would do often. I’ve probably said this before, I prefer hallucinogens and stimulants. It was a very nice experience though. The feeling heroin gives is hard to describe, but the best adjective would be comfortable. Very, very comfortable.

Heroin – Smoked “Chasing the Dragon” – 25 mg (approximately)

Paraphernalia – a hollow tube from a Bic pen, aluminum foil with powdered heroin, lighter.

9:02 pm
that warm feeling pretty much came instantenously :) when i burned the stuff, it smoked a whole lot and i couldn't get everything thru the tube (wat a waste) so i started to breath with my nose as well and held the smoke in for about 2 minutes. i felt The Blanket right about then. :) i did get a whole lotta foil smoke though. interestingly, the heroin turned into a liquid when flame was applied under the foil and started to turn into a mini liquid river which ran down the line of the foil. part of it turned into a black gunk and part of it turned into a yellowish stain after all of it has been burnt. yeah i feel numb now. :)

9:12 pm
yeah the feeling is the same as insufflating, but i think i got higher when i snorted it though. perhaps i didn't get all the smoke when it started to smoke violently. it does feel nice, but not as intense as insufflating.

9:21 pm
ah, i'm feeling it now. comformtable. :) made me smile again. heh. what a late rally, i thought it's supposed to be near instantanous for smoking.

9:37 pm
had fun zoning out. don't feel like staring at the screen though, gonna lie down and read a book. :)

9:44 pm
i just had this bright idea to mix a couple of shots of my cannabis infused grain alcohol into a beer and take a valium. i am aware of the potential risks but this is such a small amount it doesn't matter anyway. cheers! :)

10:00 pm
mmm...i'm feeling very chill now. :) yeah this is good. in fact i can't be bothered writig, i'm gonna watch a movie.

10:06 pm
don't mean to sound retarded, but this feels really good actually.

What the foil looks like after smoking – yellow stain where it evaporated from a liquid and a black stain to the side.

Afterthoughts: Heroin is rather overrated in my opinion. It certainly feels nice, but it’s not the best drug in the world, not by a long shot. The media makes it seem like such a hardcore drug that you can’t help but feel let down by the experience. It is however a very illegal drug due to the problems surrounding its use and the potential for addiction. Perhaps I just don’t have the type of personality that appreciates heroin’s effects. I still prefer hallucinogens and stimulants. :) It is a very nice feeling though, just not something I’ll do very often. Interestingly, I got higher when I insufflated than when I smoked heroin.

Caution:
Heroin is very illegal in most (all?) countries.
Heroin is physically and psychologically addictive.
While it may not be the demon drug the media and government makes it out to be, it is easy to get into trouble in a very short time if you do it often. Be careful and respect heroin.

Posted in Best of sixthseal.com by Huai Bin at 10:17 PM Permalink | Comments (81)

43.9 Celsius

*sizzle* Help, I’m burning up. Melbourne hit a record high temperature [theage.com.au] in 64 years – it was 43.9 degrees Celsius today. And man, did I feel it. I went to the city today and I lost more water than I could drink to replenish. People were going around shirtless and in bikini tops, and the heat in the train carriages was simply oppressive. I felt like I was either going to melt or spontaneously combust.

Anyway, I managed to get a pair of shoes today. I don’t usually go for Nike, but I was seduced by the air-conditioned comfort of their store in Bourke Street. I ended up buying a pair that caught my eye – Air Zoom Courtposite. It’s a pair of tennis shoes, I don’t play tennis, but who cares, my previous pair was supposed to be for squash anyway. :)

Look at this, I saw it while walking down Swanston Street. This was pasted on the door of China Express, a takeaway Chinese food place. Heh.

Well, while seeking refuge in the air-conditioned comfort of a book store, I also saw this new (?) calling card called Planet Telecom Australia that is only 3.9 cents per minute to Malaysia. That’s a whole lot cheaper than the closest one – Indo Card at 6.9 cents. There was a large “No Connection” at the front, which one would assume to mean no connection fees, this however is not true. They simply call the connection fee a “service charge”, which they conveniently wrote in fine print at the back.

No connection apparently means you could hardly hear shit while calling. I had to say “hah?” more times than I cared to count when I tried out the card just now. There were periods of silence where I couldn’t hear anything at all and those happened more than a few times throughout the phone call. Very, very distracting. The only redeeming factor is that you can talk for 255 minutes if you call a land line in Malaysia. This goes way down to 66 minutes if you call cell phones though. I think using Indo Card will turn out to be more economical because all the time spent going “eh?” and the subsequent repeating of the previous sentence took up most of the phone conversation.

Posted in by Huai Bin at 08:39 PM Permalink | Comments (0)

Where there is smoke

Melbourne is covered with smoke again from the bushfires. The visibility today is worse than the smog from a couple of days back though. To top it of, it was pushing 40 degrees today and I was down with heat exhaustion again. Come to think of it, it seems that I’ve been very prone to heat exhaustion ever since I was young. It always goes away after a packet of those ‘Chi Kit’ Teck Aun pills (or as I like to call it, Poh Chi Kit pills :)) though, so all is good. Wonderful stuff, those. Miraculous, even.

Anyway, about my mid-term exam, I didn’t do really well. I was expecting a different question for the second part and yeah…It’s too hot to write today.

That's the view of the pond behind my hall if you're wondering.

Posted in by Huai Bin at 07:50 PM Permalink | Comments (0)

Perceptrons, my dear Watson

I’ll be having my mid semester exam for BUS3650 – Business Applications of Neural Networks (my summer subject) tomorrow. I was chagrined to find out that the subject requires a rather extensive knowledge of equations and other math type stuff. I overcompensated by raiding the library and checking out a stack of books related to neural networks. I only need one though; the book that was written by my lecturer, but having all those books does give one a certain sense of security during the preparation phase. :)

Hmm…why do all library books have this st and greasy feel to their covers?

Posted in by Huai Bin at 08:28 PM Permalink | Comments (1)

PICTURE.COM

I just received a letter from The International Library of Photography [picture.com] today. I had submitted a photo a couple of months ago after being told about this contest by Daniel (I owe you dinner buddy). Well, what do you know, they told me they’re going to publish my photo in their upcoming anthology “Forever in a Moment” and they’ve automatically entered me into the semi-finalists of the People category in the International Open Amateur Photography Contest.

Unfortunately, I still have to buy the book (well I don’t have to, my photo will be included into the book regardless of whether I buy it or not, but I’ll want to), albeit at the “contributor’s special pre-publication price” which is still US $69.95. Apparently the regular price is US $89.95. It’s one of those coffee table books, thus the price. It’s still very pricey though, I’ve personally never paid A$140 or RM 265.81 for a non-academic book before. I guess there is a first time for everything.

Oh well, at least they said “your photograph was selected for publication because of its unique perspective and your artistic vision”.

Yes, I am easy to please. =D

Posted in Interesting by Huai Bin at 07:13 PM Permalink | Comments (48)

It is now my duty to completely drain you

I missed my supervisor meeting today. It was all good though, because the supervisor wasn’t there too, due to some miscommunication regarding the meeting. The only guy that turned up was one of my group mates, the other one was sick. Heh.

Anyway, the reason I missed the meeting was due to the strange phenomenon where a USB cell phone charger will drain the battery instead of charging it when the computer is off. How interesting, I’ve only see this once, I haven’t replicated it, so I don’t know if it works all the time or under certain circumstances only.

Well, I did set my alarm clock (I use my cell phone as my alarm) before I went to sleep last night, but neglected to pull out the USB charger (which connects to the USB port). When I woke up, the cell phone battery was completely drained and I couldn’t even turn it on until I recharged it. Strange huh?

Anyway, no harm done, we’ve rescheduled the meeting to Thursday instead.

Oh, I overheard two people conversing in Heng Hua while I was walking from the Clayton train station today. I’m Heng Hua and I’ve never heard that language used much over here.

Posted in by Huai Bin at 07:50 PM Permalink | Comments (0)

Spin!

My small but trusty SunAir dual speed personal fan is losing the battle against the 35 degree heat today. I was woken up in the morning by the MRS staff who wanted to change the fire evacuation procedures map at the back of every resident’s door. They blacked out some stuff with a felt tip pen and stuck some new stickers and then were off. I could not go back to sleep though, courtesy of the extreme heat that was apparent even in the morning.

Anyway, I watched Amelie [amelie-lefilm.com] today. I’ve seen it around the network but I didn’t bother to watch it because I didn’t think I would enjoy it. I’m glad I gave it a chance because it’s a very sweet and endearing movie. Very nice indeed.

I’m very scattered today.

Posted in by Huai Bin at 11:16 PM Permalink | Comments (0)

Pokies

What is the significance of this? Read on…

I just came back from dinner at Malaysia Garden [eateries.com.au] with Jimmy. He’s going back to Singapore for good on Wednesday. We had the “Menu C” banquet and whoa, there really was a lot of food, much more than we could finish. The first dish was a soup, and then there was a platter with satay, curry puffs, spring rolls and drum sticks and then came a large fried rice with a dish of chili prawn and another of sweet and sour chicken. After that, there was another large plate of fried rice and a plate of veggies and another of beef with cashew nuts. We couldn’t finish the second wave of food and we barely touched it. There was still dessert to go, it was ice cream with rambutans. It was good, but the portions were too generous. It was A$23.50 per person though.

Anyway, we were feeling rather lucky after that so we stopped by Lunico Hotel, which is just beside Malaysia Garden and played the poker machines for a while. Both of us have never stepped into a pokies joint here, so we were basically just playing for fun. I changed an A$20 note into coins and just slipped them into a pokies machined called Cleopatra or some other Egyptian themed machine.

There I was, pushing the buttons periodically when suddenly the pictures aligned up just right and this happy sounding music started playing and the “Credits Won” counter kept on incrementing. It went on and on, I expected it to stop soon, but it was just out of control! =D It went past 500 credits, went past 1000 credits, went past 2000 credits and it was showing no signs of stopping. Too bad this is a 5 c per game machine (A$1 gives you 20 credits) so the number doesn’t actually reflect the amount in dollars. Heh. Anyway, I won about A$164 from that spin alone. There really is something to "beginners luck" eh? This is my first time on the pokies and I was racking in more than the regulars who's practically stuck on the chairs.

Anyway, I took out A$120 and used the rest to play some more. Why A$120? Well, my bankroll was A$20 and I wanted to win a nice whole number, thus A$100. I used up the rest pretty quickly though, it’s hard to win on pokies, I just had a lucky spin. Anyway, A$100 is a good, round number so I’m pretty happy. :)

P/S - It just hit me that I'm gambling on a Sunday. Oh, how I’ve sunken into the pits of depravity. Forgive me Lord, for I have sinned, but thank you for the bounty anyway. ;)

Posted in by Huai Bin at 10:20 PM Permalink | Comments (0)

sushi sushi

I was craving for some sushi last night so I went down to Chadstone today to get some at sushi sushi. I wanted to feel the texture of salmon roe sushi, can’t beat that millions-of-eggs-breaking-on-your-tongue feeling.

Posted in Food by Huai Bin at 11:41 PM Permalink | Comments (6)

Green Dragon

Green Dragon

Substance: Cannabis dissolved in 95% alcohol
Also known as: “Green Dragon”

The main ingredient

allowed to steep in the 95% spirit

Preparation: I shredded some cannabis buds into small bits and put them in this 95% (190 proof) pure grain alcohol called Spirytus. Yes, that’s 95% Vol/Alc. I think this is the highest amount of stable alcohol you can have without it pulling moisture from the atmosphere and re-diluting it self. This is similar to the spirit marketed as Everclear in the United States. I got this bottle at a Greek bottle shop near my place. It’s A$ 50 for the 500 ml bottle. The cashier asked me what I wanted it for, and I said “to dissolve plant material in” and he went “oh okay”. :) Heh.

The front of the bottle - Spirytus

Anyway, I did drink quite a bit of the stuff, it really packs a punch if you drink it neat. I usually pour some of the stuff into a plastic bottle of diet coke and drink it. I learnt that this could be a bad idea though, the grain alcohol is also solvent grade so it could dissolve plastic. I’m not saying that it can, I really don’t know, but it could. It easily rubbed off the blue use by dates on those bottles anyway. It also tends to turn a chilled drink into a warm drink. Yuck.

The back of the bottle – Spirytus Pure Spirit 95% Vol/Alc

I’m digressing. Anyway, before I came back for a holiday, I shredded some cannabis buds and put it into what remained of the bottle. When I returned a couple of days ago, I noticed that the alcohol had been colored a nice green by the cannabis. The cannabis has been left in the bottle for a total of 5 weeks (and 3 days) so that should be sufficient to allow the THC to leach out from the plant into the alcohol. I kept it in a dark cupboard all this while and it turned a deeper green when I shook the bottle. Anyway, I felt that this was a good time as any to have a taste so I took a couple of shots in some diet coke on an empty stomach.

The result after 5 weeks (and 3 days)

Time: 1:16 am

Poured 3 1/2 shots into 300 ml of diet coke. It tastes EXACTLY like what marijuana smoke tastes like when inhaled. nice. yum. I think the alcohol dissolved some nasty stuff from the plastic bottles too...yuck. it tastes chemical. Chugged it anyway

Time: 1:40 am

Felt slightly drunk with classic finger numbness. heh.

Time: 2:07 am

Feeling slightly stoned too, but the alcohol is masking most of the good aspects of mj. can feel enchaced auditory appreciation but no munchies yet.

Time: 2:18 am

ah feeling slightly stoned now. :) good. but it's a more relaxed laid back kind of stoned though, not like the seriously stoned you can get when you smoke bowl after bowl after bowl

Time: 2:27 am

it feels strange, but good. :) i've had alcohol + mj before, in that order. drank a six pack and smoked a couple of bowls and felt great too, but this is somehow slightly different to that feeling. for one thing i don't feel so sedated i'm about to sleep. perhaps that coz of the caffeine? had a couple of coffees before this too. it is a very nice feeling though, very laid back and chilly. much more mellow that smoking bowls but it's fun too. not as intense, and you have to consume a whole lot of pesticide while at it too.

Time 3:15 am

Feeling wasn't satisfactory so i pored another shot of the stuff into a 500 ml can of beer and skulled it. i can smell the mj. mmm

Time: 3:34 am

feeling pretty good now. 1/2 drunkish 1/2 stoned but not a lot of head fuck unlike when i'm stoned. it's pretty mellow and nice though. would go well with a couple of valiums but i'm saving my stash for a rainy day.

Time: 3:50 am

yeah feeling nice. stoned and a little pissed at the same time. nice nice nice. I’m watching My Wife is 18 – the one by Ekin Cheng and I’m laughing myself to tears
haha
not so funny is the fact that i watched disc 2 before watching disc 1 though coz the files were mislabeled on the network.

Anyway, the stuff was good, but not as intense as I would have liked. Perhaps I should have dissolved more cannabis buds into the alcohol, I’ll do that next time. Note that you need a high proof alcohol to dissolve the stuff in, coz THC is alcohol (and fat) soluble but not water soluble, thus you’ll want a high proof alcohol like Bacardi 151 or even better, this 95% stuff.

Coming soon: Cooking with Cannabis ;)

Posted in Ethanol and tobacco by Huai Bin at 10:20 PM Permalink | Comments (40)

The fury of the sun

I had to wait 20 minutes to get my progress summary report bound today. The staff munged up the pages and some of them wouldn’t fit into the ring binger. Thus, I had to wait while they photocopied the whole thing and re-bound it. I didn’t have to pay for it though. The staff said that since they messed it up and made me have to wait, it’s free. Now, that’s service…;)

Anyway, I also got some cream for my poor sun burnt and peeling face and arms. The cashier told me that there are a disproportionate amount of skin cancer occurrences in Australia and said it’ll be a good idea not to get sun burnt too many times and to stay out of the sun from 11 am – 3 pm.

Oh, I just re-watched Requiem for a Dream and I can say without hyperbolizing that it’s the greatest movie ever. I loved the “drug time” (like The Matrix has “bullet time”) that speeds up or slows down or changes depending on what substances were previously consumed the first time I watched it. I love this movie, it’s my favorite one. I didn’t get the benzos the first time I watched it though, I only knew the morning and afternoon ones were stimulants. I love the crisp editing of the film too, very nice cuts. Especially the montages when they take drugs - the cooking of the H, the filtering thru a cotton (love the way the cotton shrinks up), the injecting into a vein (I like the way the blood floods into the syringe - very realistic, people use this to make sure they have hit a vein instead of a muscle - by pulling back the syringe to see if the blood spurts in or not). The movie is quite realistic actually, the attention to detail is great, like the mysterious "0.5" pills to take at night - reckon those are Klonopin or Xanax. Also, the fact that she starts to need more and more as her tolerance to benzos build up. Legendary stuff, this.

Posted in by Huai Bin at 10:58 PM Permalink | Comments (2)

Australian Open 2003

Daniela Hantuchova...mmm

Daniela Hantuchova is delicious! I watched her play today because Anna Kournikova’s match was held in Rod Laver Arena and the tickets to those has sold out ages ago. Thus, I went to Margaret Court Arena instead and watched two matches: Denisa Chladkova (CZE) vs. Alexandra Stevenson (USA) and Daniela Hantuchova (SVK) vs. Adriana Serra Zanetti (ITA). I was there at 9 am so I managed to get a good seat.

Denisa Chladkova (CZE) vs. Alexandra Stevenson (USA)

When I arrived at Margaret Court Arena, Denisa Chladkova was already practicing with a couple of other people at that time. The match was supposed to start at 10 am and she changed and came back in again at 10 am. She wore a blue outfit and has a seemingly endless amount of new rackets. I saw her change her racket mid-game. Alexandra Stevenson on the other hand was wearing a bright pink ensemble. She was wearing that under a tracksuit while practicing and she got a few catcalls when she took off her tracksuit. I admit, she does look pretty good in pink. ;)

Alexandra Stevenson fixing her racket

Denisa Chladkova stretching

Alexandra Stevenson is the 15th seed but I was rooting for Denisa Chladkova coz I like her on-court personality. I don’t know how high Denisa Chladkova is ranked but usually it’s a higher ranked player (Alexandra Stevenson) against a lower ranked one.

Denisa Chladkova in action

Alexandra Stevenson in action

Anyway, the match didn’t start out well for Alexandra Stevenson, Denisa Chladkova defeated her 6-2 in the first set and 6-2 again in the second. It caused Alexandra Stevenson so much frustration that she uttered some choice quotes during the match:

Arrrggggggghhhhhh!!!
(heard after missing a ball)

No!!! This is so ridiculous!!!
(heard after hitting an out ball)

It wasn’t even ON THE LINE! It was OUT!
(heard after the umpire’s decision that Denisa Chladkova’s ball was in)

A very high strung individual if I ever saw one. :) Anyway, Alexandra Stevenson walked off immediately after losing the match, and Denisa Chladkova stayed a while to sign autographs.

Alexandra Stevenson going off after the losing the match

Interesting notes about this match:
Denisa Chladkova has a stash pocket in her skirt that allows her to store an unlimited amount of tennis balls, or so it seems.

Winner: Denisa Chladkova in two sets (6-2) (6-2)

Daniela Hantuchova (SVK) vs. Adriana Serra Zanetti (ITA)

The next match was the one I wanted to see, Daniela Hantuchova vs. Adriana Serra Zanetti. Daniela Hantuchova is the ranked number 7th and you probably know her anyway since she has a large fan base as well.

Daniela Hantuchova walking into the court

Look at those legs

Famed for her long legs, she was wearing a pink skirt/short combo and a sleeveless white top. Adriana Serra Zanetti was wearing a white skirt and top. It’s worthy to note that the court was full for this match and there were people watching from the top of Rod Laver Arena as well. Daniela Hantuchova is popular with the crowd so that’s not a surprise.

Adriana Serra Zanetti in action

Anyway, it must be hard for Adriana Serra Zanetti because she didn’t get much cheers from the crowd while everyone cheers loudly whenever Daniela Hantuchova got a point. There were constant chants of “Go Daniela” as well. A further demoralizing point is that all the cameras were pointed at Daniela Hantuchova almost all the time.

Daniela Hantuchova resting during a break

The match was very exiting though. It wasn’t an easy win for Daniela Hantuchova, she was worked VERY hard by Adriana Serra Zanetti. The first set was close…it went to 7-6 (6). The next set was even closer. Daniela Hantuchova came back from a 4 game deficit to pull the game into a tiebreaker. Man, was that tiebreaker exciting.

Daniela Hantuchova ready for action

It went well for Daniela Hantuchova at first, but Adriana Serra Zanetti gave her a serious run for her money and it went back and forth many times at game point. I don’t watch much tennis, but that had me on the edge of my seat, biting my nails or whatever cliché you like.

Daniela Hantuchova making a serve

It wasn’t much fun for Daniela Hantuchova, she threw her racket on the court in frustration two times after missing two crucial chances to take the set. Unfortunately, I missed her doing it both times coz my digicam’s battery was low at that point and I couldn’t turn it on fast enough to take a photo of her doing that. However, after this back and forth excitement, she finally took the match. Before that, there was already a queue to get her autograph and I was near the front so I was crushed a bit in my attempt to take a close up photo of her. Good game, I really enjoyed this match.

Daniela Hantuchova in action

Interesting notes about this match:
Daniela Hantuchova has a pretty big bruise on her left thigh.

Winner: Daniela Hantuchova in two sets 7/6(6) 7/6(3).

Anyway, I walked around and watched a couple of matches at the other courts before heading home. I saw on the big screen TV that Anna Kournikova lost 6-0 6-1.

The central court

There were several other stuff happening around the central court too, a lot of tennis related games and other interactive stuff.

Interactive Zone

Oh, and I got really badly sun burnt today. My face and arms are red, itchy and peeling and it hurts when I touch it. I thought I didn’t need any sun screen coz today’s forecast was going to be 23 degrees max. Unfortunately, I’ve learnt that it doesn’t need to be hot to get sun burnt and also that it is very easy to get badly sun burnt in Australia. And there I was, thinking “haha pussies” at all those people putting sun screen while watching the match. :)

P/S – Don’t forget to click on the Picture of the Day (PoTD) at the right hand side menu for one of the better photos I took of Daniela Hantuchova today.

Posted in Best of sixthseal.com by Huai Bin at 09:27 PM Permalink | Comments (8)

Kind bud

I've had some problems getting a decent amount of cannabis ever since I came back to Melbourne. Yes, I arrived here a couple of days ago. The person I usually go through usually have no problems in getting really QUALITY dank ass weed, but he is going through a different supplier now. He related the story to me today while he brought over some of his personal stash. Apparently, there were some problems with the usual supplier in that he's decided that he's going to quit supplying because it gives him too much temptation to do it himself. So, my contact has to go through another guy, who has to go through another guy, so there are some supply issues. The stuff is not as good as the dank ass nuggets from the previous supplier but I still consider it kind bud as it's stronger, hairy-er and has more THC crystals than the commercial quality weed I get from another guy. I like this guy coz there's not many people out there who delivers (remember, mosts busts are made just after you've purchased) and is not a dodgy guy to boot. There are just too many dodgy people in the business.

Disclaimer: veritas is not the owner of sixthseal.com. He's a guest author who occasionally posts here.

Disclaimer #2: veritas is not currently in possession of any illicit substances. All the abovementioned cannabis has been disposed of.

Posted in by Huai Bin at 02:36 PM Permalink | Comments (109)

One Love

Guess where I’m going tomorrow? Okay, you don’t have to guess, just click here [ausopen.org]. I got the tickets on a whim today after seeing that Anna Kournikova will be playing tomorrow. She’ll be up against Justine Henin-Hardenne and honestly, I don’t expect her to win, but it’ll be fun to watch anyway. The tournament schedule hasn’t been posted as of now, so I don’t know when she’ll be playing. I hope it’s not late as I don’t want to camp there the whole day. I have recharged my digicam’s batteries and I hope I’ll be able to get some good pics posted by tomorrow. ;)

Anyway, my walkthrough went pretty well. I didn’t sleep yesterday to finish my stuff for the walkthrough, so I’m feeling pretty tired right about now. Which is okay I guess, I’m planning to go to sleep at 6 pm and wake up at 6 am (gotta compensate for last night) and that will give me enough time to be at the gates when they open at 9 am. I don’t have my usual summer semester class today because the subject I’m taking runs for 3 weeks, which gives a total of 15 days, and a usual semester only runs for 13 lectures and tutes. Thus, I have today, next Tuesday and next Thursday free. Hooray for that, because even though I’m not sleepy yet (had enough caffeine to kill a small horse) I don’t think I’ll be raring to go to class anyway.

Posted in by Huai Bin at 05:12 PM Permalink | Comments (0)

The Gauntlet

I had to run the gauntlet today while getting my clothes from the laundry room. The sprinklers were on, and they rotate 360 degrees while spraying an arc of water all around the base. It is possible to get through without getting wet though, because they don’t all rotate at the same time. However, it does require a certain amount of dexterity and timing on my part so that my dry clothes do not get wet again. ;)

Anyway, I have a walkthrough for my Industrial Experience tomorrow. Wish me luck.

Posted in by Huai Bin at 11:50 PM Permalink | Comments (0)

Sunday

Today was very warm…it was 33 degrees for the better part of the day. It’s not the 40.2 degree scorcher from a couple of days back, but it was enough to be uncomfortable without air conditioning. Anyway, I walked to Yun Yun to get something for dinner. I brought my digicam along so you can see what I see when I walk that 20 minute distance to the nearest place I can get food during summer break.

A dead crow through a fence.

Rows and rows of some kind of flower.

A whole lotta new garbage bins.

I also noticed that Yun Yun has replaced their tables and chairs with newer ones. I was particularly impressed by this guy who ate 3 large plates of kueh tiaw by himself. He was practically wolfing it down and he drank from his large Gatorade bottle from time to time too. What is amazing about that is the fact that the guy is skinny and not very tall…I caught myself wondering how long he has been without food. Also, the portions we get in Chinese restaurants in Australia is very, very big compared to back home. Watching him made me feel hungry myself. Heh.

Today is a Sunday, so if you didn’t go to church, you’ll do well to listen to some MP3 sermons [arpc.net], heathen!

Posted in by Huai Bin at 11:33 PM Permalink | Comments (0)

In Soviet Russia...

I went to get some fish and chips for dinner with Jimmy today. Jimmy is my old buddy from college and it seems that he has decided to go back to Singapore for good next week for personal reasons. Hmm…now there’s one less person in halls over summer. It’s gonna be a long summer…

Now that reminds me of the first time I came over to Melbourne in 2000. I was missing my girlfriend very much and suddenly broke into a refrain of Sealed With A Kiss (the oldie) while walking home from playing basketball with a couple of friends. Heh. Oh yes its gonna be a looooong, looooonely summerrrrrr…but darling I prooomise you thissss - I’ll send you all my looove…EVERY day in a letter... Seeeealed with a kisssss. lalala Not sure how the actual lyrics go, but I’m famed for intentionally singing the wrong lyrics and adding in bits and parts of my own to songs anyway.

Anyway, I was heating up a rice box for dinner last night and I happen to notice that someone did a bit of graffiti on a food safety poster. It’s hardly noticeable since it was done using a pin by slowly poking small holes to make words, but I just happened to notice it yesterday. It goes:

Hi KARMEN WAS HERE

And someone else put this below it:

SHE MUST HAVE BEEN BORED

Heh. I loved it so much I’m gonna make it Picture of the Day. Click here [sixthseal.com] for a large version of the graffiti or click on the picture to the right of the screen. This is the original poster:

It’s all good though, did you know that:

In Soviet Russia, the posters pin-graffiti YOU!

Ouch.

Edit (15-01-2003): Fixed link since the POTD has changed.

Posted in by Huai Bin at 10:00 PM Permalink | Comments (0)

Bills, bills, bills

Bill #1
A$1,937.50 for BUS3650 Business Applications in Neural Networks, my summer semester subject. I’m gonna have to call my bank on Monday to use BPAY to pay this one.

Bill #2
A$502.50 as the Halls of Residence rent for the month of January. This is the new 2003 rates (or so I heard) which charges A$16.75 per day. But then I vaguely remember staying in halls over summer is more expensive than in normal semester. I remember my bills being over A$500 when I stayed over summer during the 2000/2001 period. I’m not sure what the logic behind raising rent during a low vacancy period is, but oh well…

Bill #3
The third bill, for my unpaid November rent, the January rent added in and a A$28.45 bill which is probably the net access bill, but from what month? Also, they seem to be billing me at the summer (or 2003) rates for the November month. I’ll need to follow this up.

After I pay all of this, I’ll be A$2970.95 poorer (the first bill is already integrated into the third bill). That’s around RM6000. A bit off-putting, all this bills.

Anyway, I noticed that Sibu [sibu.com.my] has a new official homepage. It’s pretty nifty and if you find yourself wondering “WTF is this Sibu thing this guy keeps going on about?” you’ll do well to browse around the site. :) They actually have cams [sibu.com.my] running at Wisma Sanyan (I presume) which shows a view of the town square, one showing the Rejang River, Central Market and Pagoda and the last one showing the mist garden, Brooke Drive and a sizable chunk of the town. I was impressed.

Posted in by Huai Bin at 10:20 PM Permalink | Comments (0)

Toiletspotting

I had a supervisor meeting again this morning and since the shuttle bus does not run outside the normal semester, I've been taking the train to get here. Anyway, I just noticed today that the male toilets on Platform 4 in Caulfield station are pretty ancient. They must hail from the 1940s or something, it's comparable to the one at the Caulfield Racecourse. I usually take the train on Platform 2 coz I tend to take late afternoon/evening classes so I've never really noticed until today. Hmm...

Anyway, it seems that ticket prices goes up every time I come back...or maybe it's only for Zone 2? Noticed a 10c increase.

Oh, how I wish I was back in Malaysia for the Chinese New Year holidays. I had been looking forward to my final (don't get much holidays when you work) 4 month summer holiday before I graduate, but it has been cut very short into a meagre 1 month holiday. Hmph...

Can the time go faster, please? I think I'll feel much better once Chinese New Year is over...although I suspect I won't feel 100% until semester properly starts again in March. It'll only be 3 months until I go back again then. Whee.

Posted in by Huai Bin at 10:34 PM Permalink | Comments (0)

One from the collection

Above is the Christmas tree at Wisma Sanyan that I took several weeks before, but never posted up. It should have been taken down by now though...at least I think it has. I'm feeling rather uninspired today and went browsing thru my sadly sparse (due to an accidental culling [sixthseal.com]) collection of Sibu photos for one which I haven't posted yet, since I haven't taken much photos since I came over. Hmm...I'm rambling. Anyway, I have a supervisor meeting at 8:15 am again tomorrow, which means I'll need to be up by 6 am for my daily upon-waking-up bowel movement, so I'm heading to bed. Meanwhile, amuse yourself with Trinity Methodist Church's collection of MP3 sermons [tmc.org.my]. Our family used to go to this church before we moved to Sibu. Several of the (guest?) sermons are done by pastors which used to be attached to Wesley Methodist Church in Sibu, like Rev. Lenita Tiong, Khoo Ho Pin and Tie King Tai. For some reason, there has been no recently added stuff though.

Posted in by Huai Bin at 10:44 PM Permalink | Comments (0)

Ahhh.....

I went to the ATM straight after my 8:15 am supervisor meeting and was very relieved to see that my bank draft has finally cleared on the 6th day (I banked it in on Thursday). Gone are the days when I have to survive solely on instant noodles! Anyway, I withdrew some money and went to Coles to get some much needed groceries. Much of it is junk food, as you can see. :) However, I did get some food items too, like the steak pies and the 1kg bag of rice. I also got some laundry detergent so I can finally get some laundry done. Anyway, I had wanted to go to McDonalds to get some nice, solid food inside me, but it was still early then and the breakfast menu was still on, so I just had an egg and bacon McMuffin.

Today’s weather was very naughty. It hit 38 degrees in the afternoon. :( I was half baked (and it wasn’t the good kind of half baked too) and the heat still hasn’t dissipated from my room. Thankfully, the mercury has dropped somewhat since then, but it’s still pretty warm. Summer over here sucks, it can get much hotter than in Malaysia and the dry weather makes you feel the heat just that much more.

Edit: Oh, it wasn't a 38 degree summer after all...turns out to be 40.2 degrees! No wonder it felt so hot today. Read this [theage.com.au].

Link: Got the back to work blues? [theage.com.au]

Yes, yes I do indeed. This is part of the article:

"It's a very real thing ... the back to work blues is really about people thinking they didn't quite have enough of a holiday," said Dr Wilks, a professor of tourism, who is also a psychologist.

You pulled the words straight outta my mouth, buddy. I know everyone is probably sick of hearing me say this already, but damn, it sucks being in Melbourne when most students are still in Malaysia, about to celebrate Chinese New Year with all the traffic jams and the reunions and the visiting and the CNY songs and the firecrackers and everything. I don’t even want to think about what I’m missing.

It would be great if I had a 4 month holiday though, I can usually stretch my summer holidays to 4 months if my exam timetables are aligned right. It’ll be nice to come back for a 3 month semester and then graduate, coz then I’ll be thinking I don’t have enough time here in Melbourne to visit all the attractions I still haven’t visited instead of thinking about what I’m missing back in Sibu. :) I have missed celebrating Chinese New Year in Sibu too many times…just too many times.

Link of the day: Cannabis: The good oil on Jesus [theage.com.au]

Heal me.

Posted in by Huai Bin at 08:59 PM Permalink | Comments (0)

The Ketchup Song

I caught this meme (if you can call it that) late. I didn't even know what the ketchup song was until roughly 2 weeks ago. The person who told me was flabbergasted at my lack of erudition and acted like I had committed a serious social faux pas. :) Anyway, I’ve heard bits and pieces of it while in shopping malls but didn't know it was the ketchup song then. Look at this, it’s pretty good and there is a bit of interactive stuff (erm...a mouse click) which explains the lyrics in the middle part too.

Link: The Ketchup Song [cutestuf.com]

Posted in by Huai Bin at 11:30 PM Permalink | Comments (0)

Poring Hot Springs

Man, this picture sure brings back memories. This was taken by Daniel [mailto:] during his Kota Kinabalu trip. He sent me some beautiful pics of Sabah yesterday. I went there at the end of last year too and also went to Poring Hot Springs (the one in the picture). It's this place that has hot tubs with sulfur water and also some (icy) cold natural pools. I had fun on the water slide in the cold pool when I went there last year too. Hmm...come to think of it, my own KK trip was exactly one year ago and yet it seems like that happened ages ago. I guess my time perspective is a bit skewed by the fact that I resent being in Melbourne when everyone else is going to celebrate Chinese New Year back home soon. How I wish the final 5 months of my stay in Melbourne will pass quickly so I can be back home again. It's strange how I prefer it back home now when I used to prefer it overseas last time. The home is where the heart is, I've been told. Hmm...something to think about.

Posted in by Huai Bin at 09:42 PM Permalink | Comments (0)

No recess

I’ve just attended my first day of summer school. I’m taking a summer semester subject – the intensive kind that finishes the coursework in 3 weeks so I’ll be in class from 2 pm – 5 pm everyday. It’s BUS3650 Business Applications of Neural Networks, which I am taking as an elective. From what I see, it seems to be a fairly easy class, so no worries about this one. The exam for this paper is on the 5th of February, so there is no chance I’ll be coming home for Chinese New Year even if I didn’t have Industrial Experience to contend with. Speaking of which, I have a supervisor meeting tomorrow at 8:15 am. I’ll better get the stuff sorted for tomorrow’s meeting. It sucks to miss Chinese New Year. I hear the CNY mood is pretty good in Sibu, what with all the out of town people coming back and clogging up our traffic. :)

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

To default or not to default, that is the question...

I just received my cell phone bill which comes to a staggering A$462.26. It seems that I have two unpaid bills from the past few months which added to a total of A$366.11 and a bill for A$89.74 for the November - December period. I don't remember having that much in unpaid bills. I thought I only had a A$195 (my highest bill yet) unpaid bill so I don't know where the other A$171 comes from, coz I distinctly remember paying a bill before I came back. I'm thinking about er...'defaulting' on this bill since I'm going to graduate in July anyway and I have another unused pre-paid SIM card from a different operator (Telstra) that I can use should push comes to shove.
Anyway, to anyone who has done this before (on an Australian service provider), what are the legal ramifications? They don't have my account number or anything like that, so I figured the most they'll be able to do is send letters threatening legal action, which they won't actually enforce, due to the number of defaulters each month. What do you think?
Nevertheless, a change in phone habits needs to be cultivated. I used to call my girlfriend using a calling card and a public phone, coz public phones have flat rates for local calls. I don't have a house phone coz the halls phone charges per minute as well, so every night I end up using my cell phone to call because I didn't want to take another bath after using the germ infested public phones.
Those local calls to the calling card access number using a cell phone can quickly add up, thus the large bills I've been getting recently. Hmm...to default or not to default?

Posted in by Huai Bin at 08:11 PM Permalink | Comments (0)

Junaco Park in Sibu (a last hurrah)

I went to Junaco Park (Sibu) a couple of days before I came back to Melbourne - I think it was the evening of the 29th, but those last few days have been rather hectic and I didn’t have time to write things up since I was out so often. Oh well, I better do it now in case I get any more ideas about deleting my precious memories (photos). Anyway, Junaco Park is this place 30 kilometers away from Sibu which is like a mini zoo. The entrance fee is only RM 1 per person. There are the usual suspects like monkeys, horses, birds etc. We went to see the horses (ponies?) first.

I had wanted to take a picture of the famed horse phallus, but unfortunately none of them felt that it was necessary to erect their organs to their full potential, so all I got was this:

Oh well, next we went to see the monkeys:

He’s pretty tame though, contrary to the “Beware – Monkey Bites” sign on the cage. We handed it grass from outside the cage and he’ll reach out and take it from us. He has soft hands, which was pretty interesting. One of my friends thought it was a good idea to try and trip him with an umbrella (hope no one from RSPCA is reading this) but the nimble fellow managed to dodge the umbrella every time. Fascinating. He also loved this bunch of fruits that grows from a tree to the side of the cage and it was fun to watch him try and eat it through the cage (coz he couldn’t pull the whole bunch thru the wire netting).

Next on the itinerary was the sheep (or are those lambs?). Lemme tell you, those creatures are hella fierce. I wanted to climb over the fence to hug one of them and pose for a photo, but one of them, which I assume is the alpha male started making loud baying noises and stamped his feet to voice his displeasure at my attempts to violate his mate.

I reckon he would have bit me had I went into the fence. It probably wouldn’t have hurt but his head is about the same height as my genitals so I decided not to risk it, seeing as I was the only son in our family and protecting the family jewels should be a priority.

Anyway, we also saw some wild boar:

an eagle or a hawk:

big ass fishes (you have to squint a bit for this one):

a peacock (I think):

and a porcupine who wanted a staring match with me, despite my obviously superior physical size:

Anyway, we had wanted to go fishing or go for a ride on one of the boats, but it was getting dark so we just had a drink at the canteen and headed home. All in all it was a fun and memorable day. Junaco Park is pretty big and there is a lot of hilly terrain, so be prepared for a bit of physical exertion should you go there. Man, writing all this made me miss Sibu. I can’t wait to go back again in July.

Posted in Travel by Huai Bin at 12:37 AM Permalink | Comments (2)

The Pain!!!

I'm so fucking stupid, so fucking stupid, so fucking stupid! I copied my photos from the main directory over into a new directory, but then changed my mind coz I wanted everything in a single directory so I cancelled and shift-deleted the new directory. Well, guess what? It seems I have fucking CUT instead of COPIED and now I've lost all my pictures from the 7th of December to the 25th of December. That's more than 2 weeks worth of daily pictures, and most of them are very memorable ones. To my poor memory, the photos ARE my memory and I just lost more than 2 weeks worth of it. Well, thank you very much! Perfect timing buddy, right after I stopped feeling sorry for myself for coming back to Melbourne so early. If I wasn't given a Y chromosome, I would be bawling my eyes out right now. I really must check before deleting next time. It really is a must, especially with photos. I'm so bummed. It's like that two weeks never happened. When will the hurting stop?

Posted in by Huai Bin at 06:32 PM Permalink | Comments (0)

Fixed (fingers crossed)

Okay, I reposted a couple of previous posts that went missing and let's hope that this is the last of the strange-ness resulting from my host's data center migration. *fingers crossed*

P/S - I know some of my posts, comments and email went into a black hole recently, if there is anything important (or un-important for that matter), please resend coz I didn't get it. Thanks!

Posted in by Huai Bin at 05:00 PM Permalink | Comments (2)

Green AK47s on NYE

Pill Review: Green AK47 circa late December 2002

Availability: Malaysia
Pill color: Light green with dark green blotches
Pill appearance: AK47 imprinted on one side/doesn't have a dome from what I remember
Beveled?: Not sure
Other: Solid pill, didn't crumble well
Price: A gift from a friend
Substance: Not tested (I don't have reagents here)
Probable substance: Methcathinone or ketamine/amphetamine combo

I apologize for the extremely poor quality of the picture. You can’t really see shit, coz I didn’t actually plan properly to have a pill tonight. I was planning to go to a party sober on New Year’s Eve. Imagine that! :) A friend of mine told me about this new batch of AK47s which are green instead of orange. I’m not too enthusiastic about the AK47s because of the poor quality of the orange ones, but another friend who also hangs around pill-heads assured me that the green AK47s are good stuff and totally unlike the orange ones, which are barely noticeable.
Anyway, I didn’t pay for the pill (it cost the usual RM 45 though), it was a gift from a dear friend. Thanks! You know who you are. :) Anyway, there were 4 of us, and we stopped by a street light to take a photo of the pill before we went to a disco. The light conditions were not favorable to macro shots so I just took a photo with flash and crunched up the pill at 11:00 pm.
It tasted mild compared to the salty orange AK47s and I started feeling an “alert” about 30 minutes after crunching up the pill. Three of us were dropping, I took a whole pill and the other two girls shared a pill and the last one was sober. It seemed to be very ketamine like at first and I felt disorientated and slightly disassociated coming up about 45 minutes later. I on a scale of Blur As Fuck™ from 1-10, 10 being the most blur, I felt like a 7.This was confirmed by the other two, one of whom was driving and said she was feeling a bit too blur to drive.
Anyway, we went to a disco and started to dance. I didn’t feel much like dancing at first, didn’t have any energy and saw that my pupils were slightly constricted (?) even though the disco was dark. The three of us who dropped shared a beer and continued dancing. After an hour had passed, I felt VERY energetic and speeded up. Heaps of energy and you couldn’t pull me off the dance floor.
Unfortunately, 15 minutes after that, the sound was cut off and the lights started coming on. Uh oh thought everyone and looked towards the entrance. Sure enough, about 6 policemen with flashlights were coming in. The four of us sat down together and stopped all movement. I did felt my fingers unconsciously start tapping along to the music, but I managed to control it. However one of our group starting rocking her head again…geram-nya…:) Thanks goodness, the police weren’t there to sapu (haul everyone in for mandatory urine drug tests) the place but to “check for minors”. That’s what the manager of the disco told me and said it was safe to continue with our amphetamine fuelled shenanigans. I’m pretty sure some money changed hands at some point, but thank God, the place wasn’t sapu-ed. Anyway, funny thing was, there was this other girl who wasn’t part of our group and yet stood with us (facing us), with her back to a pillar to avoid the police from spotting her. I’m not sure that would have helped if there was a real sapu operation, so I’m not sure what she was thinking?
Anyway, soon after the police left, we started to dance again, and I didn’t stop moving until 4 hours later. I had a really, really good night, lots of lip chewing (chewed it almost to bits), repetitive movements and other Good Stuff associated with amphetamines. I didn’t stop moving and chain smoked the whole night. The atmosphere was good too, the place mostly plays Cantopop songs infused with a steady and strong bass beat. Some people dis these places but I have to say, this kind of places are the best places for amphetamine fun here compared to the pretentious trance clubs.
Well, regarding sleep, I could sleep about 7 hours after I dropped but it was a very, very fitful sleep and I kept on waking up and I wasn’t really sure whether I even had any sleep at all. I didn’t have any appetite the next day too, and I developed a persistent but hopefully not permanent case of tinnitus from the extreme bass of the venue. I swear, the volume was so loud you can hear the bass beats rush past like a wind past your ears. Great fun for amphetamines, but not so good for your aural health. I wasn’t tired the next day though, still had some energy but I just took 2.5 mg of Xanax sublingually to help me get some restful sleep tonight. I’m fairly certain this is a ketamine/amphetamine combo pill and I must say I have to give it a thumbs up. Green AK47s are great pills. Green = go!

Postnote: The crash was very bad, I’ll say more so than that (meth)amphetamines. It seems sorta like an MDMA crash in that there was severe depression (with anxiety) and a feeling of helplessness. I’m still wondering whether the crash was associated with the pill or because I stopped taking benzos after daily recreational use. Nevertheless, cannabis didn’t do the trick, but some good ol’ caffeine in me and I was feeling fine again. I’m starting to suspect that this could be Methcathinone due to it’s effects. I’ll sure love to hear it if anyone tested this with a reagent.

Posted in by Huai Bin at 05:50 PM Permalink | Comments (5)

Today as told by The Grouch

A rundown of things:

There was no countdown during New Year's eve on the plane. No special food. No nothing. I didn't even know when we crossed into 2003. Spending New Years Eve on a Malaysian Airlines plane = a bad idea.

I arrived here to find that the operations office is closed during New Years day. Thus, I can't get into my room coz the keys are issued by the operations office. Luckily, the college head opened my door for me so I could get into my room and didn't have to spend the night at a hotel.

There are a total of 3 lights I can see in Roberts Hall. It's empty and it's lonely.

Optus barred my cell phone because I didn't pay the previous month's bill. How could I pay when I was in Malaysia? Should have set up a direct debit.

I gave myself hernia and my testicles withdrawed in protest when I moved my 12 luggages and my monitor single handedly from the common room to my room.

I don't have a pillow. The cleaners neglected to leave one so I had to use a pillow case stuffed with laundry.

Travelex Worldwide Rechargable Phonecard is fucking useless. I was told it was 10c to call back to Malaysia. There was only two choices of calling cards at the airport - a Say G'Day and this one. I could only talk for 5 minutes to a cell phone on an A$10 card. I still had A$1.30 in the card but apparently "I'm sorry. That is not enough to make a call to the number you're dailing. Would you like to recharge via credit card?" Well, fuck you. Should have gone with the Say G'Day.

The dining room is closed until the 16th of January so the only things I'm gonna eat today are:
An Anzac biscuit from the vending machine
A small pack of Mexicano Doritos from the vending machine
A tube of Fruit-tella that makes me feel sad to eat

Good things:

At least someone cleaned my room while I was away.

I am online. Thank God for small miracles.

My apologies for the depressing post folks. It sucks to be back when everyone is still in Sibu.

Posted in by Huai Bin at 05:34 PM Permalink | Comments (2)

Melbourne

I have arrived in Melbourne, safely if not soundly. More about that later. Gonna take a nap now. Dead tired. What happened to the three previous posts? I think something happened to my host and the backup was a day old. Gonna repost anyway when I wake. Later.

Posted in by Huai Bin at 09:14 AM Permalink | Comments (0)