sixthseal.com

"Waterfall bong bath" review

I bought this at Off Ya Tree for A$5. It's supposed to be a bath for bongs that will "neutralize all those nasty bong-water smells". That would be quite an impressive feat, so I got one to try it out.

Trial #1:

I emptied one cap full into my dirty bong water like the instructions said and sloshed it around. The dirty bong water + bong bath mixture did not froth much. There were very minimal air bubbles at the water line.My bong was filled with the bong water from last night's session, and lets see how well this bong bath attacks it. I was supposed to leave it there for 5 minutes and then clean it with a brush and water. I forgot about it though and didn't get around to it until 40 minutes later. The smell of the dirty bong water + bong bath was particularly nasty. It smelled like the worst of the bong bath (kinda musty and dull) and the worst of dirty bong water (all that charcoal-ly ashtray smell). If you try really hard you could smell the mild perfume of the bong bath, but it didn't mask the bong smell much. I washed it out with cold water and a brush, but the smell was still there. I had to wash the bong again using my A$3.29 blast dishwashing liquid and it came out smelling like lemons.

Trial #2:

I emptied one cap-full into the dirty bong water from the night before and shook the bong. I never get around to cleaning the bong after a night's session until the next night's session. :) Anyway, I timed myself and left the mixture in for EXACTLY five minutes. I figured the dismal results from Trial #1 was due to leaving the mixture in too long. After the 5 minutes were up, I cleaned it again with cold water and a brush. It did smell slightly better, but there was a musty tone to it, which doesn't make it smell very nice. blast, on the other hand, makes it smell lemony fresh.

Verdict:

blast or any other dishwashing liquid would be cheaper and produce better results. Waterfall Bong Bath is probably geared towards the novelty market and simply doesn't work as well as common dishwashing liquid. Save your money, unless you want one for the novelty of it.

Posted in by Huai Bin at 08:18 PM Permalink | Comments (9)

Hmm...

Someone ate too much watermelon. I noticed a whole bunch of seeds in the toilet today. At least I think it was seeds. I tried flushing it twice, but the seeds just bounced around in the water turbulence and the flushing only got about half of them each time.

Posted in by Huai Bin at 08:04 PM Permalink | Comments (2)

EH!

I freaked myself out when I caught my own reflection in the mirror of a door.

Posted in by Huai Bin at 04:23 AM Permalink | Comments (0)

Mmm.velvety

I saved a man's life today. Well, maybe not his life (it was his luggage), but he made it sound like it. I had felt like eating indomie at 5 am in the morning and walked to the kitchen. Halfway past, I heard a scuttling of feet and someone calling "hey". I stopped and looked at the dude, but I didn't recognize him so I looked back and saw this taxi waiting there. I assumed that the guy was talking to the taxi driver so I walked along, but I heard more urgent "hey"'s and frantic waving and running while carrying 3 pieces of luggage. I stopped and the guy caught up with me and said "Thank God I saw you, I thought no one would be coming along". I went like "Of course, mate it's 5 am in the morning" and he went on about how he was leaving Australia to go back to Japan for good and he had already dropped off his key at the operations office (there is a hole in the wall for after hours key drop-off) before he realized that he left a piece of luggage in his room. The thing with Roberts Hall is that every stairway has a locked door which can only be accessed by a Roberts resident's key. Since he already dropped his key off, he couldn't get back to his room. The operations office only opens at 8:30 am and no one will be out and about THIS early during the summer holidays. He said he was about to give up on his luggage when he saw me. Anyway, I opened his stairway's door for him and he kept thanking me. The taxi turned out to be for him and he has already asked the taxi driver to wait for nearly half an hour while he waited for someone to come along. He got his luggage anyway, I saw him with 4 pieces of luggage rushing towards the taxi while cooking my noodles. Interesting moment. Which reminds me of the room I lived in last semester. There was this girl who lived two doors down who always locks herself in accidentally. So, she got to sticking this big ass cardboard lettered with "DO YOU HAVE YOUR KEYS??? CHECK!!! DON'T LET THE DOOR CLOSE!" and pasted it at the top of our floor's stairs. Man, that was a hoot. It's good for me too, coz I always lock myself out as well. I'm scatter brained. So the sign served 2 people instead of one.

Anyway, look at this:

I had bought a pack of goat's milk a couple of days ago and the next day, I got a 2L bottle of chocolate milk. I had already drank about 3/4 of the goat's milk the day before and drank about half of the chocolate milk that day. Since I'm storing it for the night in the fridge, I decide to combine the two, so I only have to store one container instead of too. Thus, I added the goat's milk into the chocolate milk. The next day, this resulted. The chocolate milk + goat's milk has totally solidified into a jelly like sludge with the consistency of pudding. I know because I actually tried it. Ugh. Tasted velvety, that's the worse thing. I loved the texture, but the taste was way off. Sort of a dull cardboardy taste. I had expected it to be sour, but it wasn't. Strange. My theory is, the UHT goats milk has been pasteurized and maybe still has a couple of bacterium killing active stuff in there. This kind of thing is not my area of expertise, so I don't know how valid my theory is. Anyway, I postulate that the pasteurized thingy's attacked and killed the (harmless) bacterium in the (fresh) chocolate milk when they were combined and thus the battle resulted in the sludge, which is the pasteurized stuff absorbing the water from the bacterium and puffing everything up and making it jelly-ish solid. What do you think of this phenomenon?

Incidentally, I've been playing a lot of Natural Selection (for Half-Life) lately. UHT's pasteurized thingies = Kharaa and the natural (good) bacterium thingies in the chocolate milk = Frontiersmen. The Kharaa just killed the Frontiersmen's spawn is just what happened to my chocolate milk + goats milk combo. Hmm...I'm torn between liking the fast Zergling - uh, I mean Skulk and the bountiful mass of the Ultralisks, ah, Onos. I totally love being a Frontiersmen as well. "gimme hmg" "rtb" and so forth. hmg = heavy machine gun and rtb = return to base by the way. Jim Raynor, REPORTING!

Posted in by Huai Bin at 03:54 AM Permalink | Comments (0)

OJ! OJ! OJ!

I got a bottle of orange juice to wash down my dinner today. It's that freshly squeezed stuff that has pulp. I shook it and opened the bottle cap. I put the bottle cap down on the table and opened Windows Media Player 8. I took up the bottle and SHOOK THE DAMN THING AGAIN! I estimate a good 250 ml splashed out of the bottle and went EVERYWHERE. This is the pulpy stuff that's hard to wipe off. The worst thing was, I still wasn't aware of it and KEPT SHAKING THE BOTTLE until my mind when "uh-oh" and I went "fuck..." and THEN did my right hand stop shaking the bottle. All this took about 3 seconds, so yeah, you can imagine the damage it did. It was like a giant ejaculation.

Posted in by Huai Bin at 05:00 AM Permalink | Comments (3)

Meat is murder

Hah! I love this advertisement. So funny. I took this outside Chadstone shopping center.

Posted in Hmm... by Huai Bin at 03:36 AM Permalink | Comments (4)

SEXPO 2002 Melbourne

The best photo I took today. Thanks, Cherie, for being a good sport!

I just came back from SEXPO and it was great. I came in just as the first stage show was starting. It's a devil themed striptease by Brianna from Club X.

Gotta love the cape

She did a very good job, lots of eye contact with the audience and her set was full of energy too. From her set, she looks like one of those girls who looks real innocent but can be nasty too. Unfortunately, she didn't get much of a response from the crowd, it was still early at that time and alcohol induced rowdiness was still at a minimum then. :) I didn't get many photos though, coz the stage shows cannot be photographed unless you have a media pass (SEXPO policy). I only managed to take a couple of photos before a security guard waved at me and mouthed "no photos".

Brianna has a nice smile too

Anyway, the next stage show is a male striptease and hmm...I wish I could perform like that guy. Heh. The stripper is Donny from Crystal T's and he was doing a cowboy themed number. It was really good, even from a guy's point of view. I also got a G-string rose from the presenters. They were throwing bunches of them from the stage and I got one. It's a G-string hidden in a plastic rose.

The expo started getting crowded at around noon

There wasn't any more stage shows until 1 pm, so I browsed around the booths for a while. I got myself a T-shirt with "RELEASE SARAH TONIN" printed in front for A$25. That just works on so many levels, and I couldn't resist. It's a play on all the Release Kevin Mitnick/Dmitry Sklyarov/whoever T-shirts. Sarah Tonin, who is in jail for being too er..ecstatic, can be released by posting bail at your friendly neighbourhood drug dealer. Bail is set at A$35.

Saints and Sinners

There was a lot of exhibitors there, mostly adult shops, brothels and alternative culture booths. The biggest exhibitors were adultshop.com and Club X. I browsed around for a while before catching the next stage show - a Body Bitz presentation of their body moulding thingy. It's some sort of cement type stuff which solidifies in 45 seconds. Basically you pour the stuff into a bucket or some other receptacle and immerse any part of your anatomy in it. It then sets and you'll have a mold of the said piece of anatomy. Andy from Big Brother (Australia) was demonstrating how it works.

Andy topless, but you've already seen that before in Big Brother: Uncut

The mold was then auctioned off to the highest bidder. It is supposed to be one of only two casts of her breasts. The picture didn't turn out too well, coz I had to take it from far back. I arrived too late to get a good spot. However, I could take as many pictures as I wanted coz the security is only in front.

It's hard to get shots of the booths in crowded conditions

I walked around some more after that and got another freebie - a video of The Making of "The Private Gladiator" by Private Gold. Unfortunately, I don't have a VCR, in fact, I've never even owned one. Anyway, there was also a rally simulator there and it was pretty good too.

Not your grampa's motion simulator

A$5 for entry and it's a 3 minute ride in a motion simulator. It rocks, the motions are not your standard run of the mill movements, but really "hold on to your hats" ones. I was not expecting that and nearly fell headfirst into the screen. Apparently, the hand holds are not just for decoration but actually serve a function here. This thing here puts the word MOTION into MOTION SIMULATOR.

Kages on King

There was also a lot of booths offering nude pictures with their girls. A good place to cop a feel if you're into that sort of thing. The girls are pretty easy going too, within reason. Gallery Entertainment had one where you can pose with two fully nude girls. Club X has two, one is a topless one and the other is with a dominatrix. Kages on King's has the best variety of girls and most of them are pretty hot. Not that I went to any, of course.

Being disabled doesn't mean your sex life is over as this woman dressed only in sheer netting attests.

There was also a small part dedicated to health and the disabled.

I love this car, it's made for one driver and the passenger seat is occupied by tank of N20

Anyway, there was also non-sex industry stuff on display. There was a big car show at the back with vintage and souped up cars. There was also an F1 boat dealer (like the ones seen in Tomorrow Never Dies). Those cockpits are really small. I squeezed into it and felt claustrophobic once the hatch was closed. It could barely hold me.

A different kind of sexy

There was also a light plane dealer. It costs A$16,000, which isn't a lot considering it's a aeroplane.

The girls were painted using body paint

The next stage show I managed to catch was a body painting competition with the girls from Kages on King.

The painters then pressed against the girls to get the imprints on their white T-shirts

There was also a shadow theatre running where two couples simulate sex behind a piece of cloth. This was also done on a highway somewhere a couple of days back to promote SEXPO. The police have yet to release the road fatalities statistics from that day.

Shadow theatre. Wayang kulit never looked so good

Other interesting things of note are:

Off Ya Tree having a glass pipe making demonstration

The car show girls taking a break by going into the demostration spas

The walking dick

Crystal T's girls. I give them best of show. Quality.

Anyway, I did manage to catch Ron Jeremy [ronjeremy.com] after all. He came in with Jacklyn Lick [jacklynlick.com] to do autographs together. Unfortunately, the other US porn star who is slated to appear - Serenity [serenity.net] did not come with them. I got a signed photo taken with Ron and Jacklyn. The most commonly heard comments around their booth were "that dude is a porn star??", usually said in incredulous tones. Heh. Ron Jeremy is one of the most recognized male porn stars in the world, and he has 1600 (!!!) films under his belt, no pun intended. Jacklyn looks older in real life than in her films, but she's friendly and eager to talk. The photo came out pretty good. I was actually respecting her personal space and just put an arm around her, but she pulled down her top and put my hand on her breast. For the record, I moved it to the side, and not just because I didn't want to obscure her breasts from the photo, but also coz I'm in a relationship and I don't think my girlfriend will appreciate me posting a photo of me grabbing a porn star's boobs in my blog. :) So there you go, if you want to touch a porn star's boobs, go to SEXPO tomorrow, it's the last day. Between you and me, now there's one less thing on my list of things to do before I die. ;)

Autographed photo taken with Ron Jeremy and Jacklyn Lick

Posted in Best of sixthseal.com , XX chromosomes by Huai Bin at 10:59 PM Permalink | Comments (25)

SEXhibition

Q: What is the greatest expo in the world?
A: Why, SEXPO [sexpo.com.au] of course

The annual Health, Sexuality and Lifestyle expo is in Melbourne again. I missed it last year because I was already back in Malaysia by then and I missed it the year before because I didn't know about it until 5 pm on the final day and couldn't justify paying the entrance fee since it was already that late. This year, I have gotten the tickets in advance from the Club X in Clayton. I saw the advert while passing by today and thought I might go this year. The porn legend Ron Jeremy and Miss Nude World 2002, Morgan Summers will be gracing the expo this year, but I don't think I'll stay on that late. Morgan Summers is due to appear at 10:30 pm and I'll be going in the morning, so I don't think I'm going to catch her show. Nevertheless, check back tomorrow night for pictures of the event. I'll be bringing my digicam along to put the SEX back in sixthseal.com. "But sixthseal.com doesn't even have the word sex in it", you say. It does, ye of little faith, it's just not consecutive letters. You need to take the s, drop the i, get the x and put the e from seal in between. There. :)

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

kcuf

Fuck, I hate messing around with checkboxes in PHP. I just couldn't get it to work properly with dynamic data. The client meeting is in 5 hours and what I hate even more is having to ask the client for an extension. Fuck, I hate not being able to meet deadlines. It makes me look bad and even worse it makes me feel bad. Grrr...fuck! Fuck, I say! Fuck!

Posted in by Huai Bin at 04:42 AM Permalink | Comments (6)

Everything must go!

Mmm...half price for everything at the Roberts Hall shop. Too bad they're all out of Twix. That's my new favourite bar, but Mars bars are pretty good too. I saw a lot of V/Red Bull energy drinks, but I'm too loaded with caffeine now anyway. I have another IE client meeting tomorrow, so I'm staying up to finish my stuff.

Posted in by Huai Bin at 10:26 PM Permalink | Comments (0)

Pssst. Lemme tell you something.

I'm going to tell you something now
It's a great truth
It's something you will never unlearn or forget about once you learn it
I've known about it for 5 years and could never stopped noticing it
It ruined my life!!!!!
(well, my movie experience anyway)
The truth is...
Do you really want to know?
You can't go back
You will notice it everytime and can't get it out of your mind
It's something you cannot unlearn
The truth is:

The reason actors don't stare straight at the camera (and thus your TV screen) is because it was deemed too confrontational by most test audiences. Thus, they will always be looking slightly to the side, even in interviews.

So now you know
and you will never stop knowing
You will always notice it now.
I had not wanted to impose this blight upon you, but I just felt like it. :)

In other news, I got a call early this morning from the IT faculty politely informing me that I've not paid my September Internet bill. Hmm...they must be real hard up for money to charge for net access now. It used to be free. I reckon they should give people living on campus some allowance since we can't get net access any other way. The way this works is, each account is given a certain amount of data transfer, which differs for each faculty. I'm in CSSE (School of Computer Science and Software Engineering) but yet I only get 400 MB per month. They charge for everything that goes over that. I got a A$54.75 bill for September and a A$74.37 bill for October. Sucks.

Anyway, I've been watching this TV series called Dark Angel [darkangelfan.com]. It's not related to the Buffy spin-off, Angel. This one is set in a dystopic 2019 after an EMP bomb set off by terrorists basically changed life as we know it. The premise is good, but the series is very formulaic:

1. Genetically engineered super soldier protagonist complete with an Achilles heel (she gets seizures due to a neurological defect).

2. Crippled computer whiz who works wonders with everything electronic.

3. Sexual tension between the two.

4. They Fight Crime^TM and Bring Justice^TM in a post-apocalyptic world.

I still like it though. :) I’ve finished watching all three seasons of Roswell and I wanted another TV series to watch. I’ve downloaded both seasons of Dark Angel from the network, and it seems that the series will not have a third season from what the official site [darkangeltheseries.com] says. It's mildly reminiscent of the Blaxploitation films of the past, but there is a slightly more well-balanced ethnic cast in this one. Hey, there are even heaps of Asians to be seen. Apparently James Cameron (the creator and executive producer) and Ridley Scott (Blade Runner) agree that a dystopic future must include Asian over-breeding. It's kinda like Roswell, in that the Asians are not given main characters, but the camera conveniently focuses on them for a few seconds at a time to satiate the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People’s Asian equivalent. Well, actually this series is pretty respectful and doesn’t stereotype Asians, so it’s all good.

Posted in by Huai Bin at 09:37 PM Permalink | Comments (4)

Cool Codeine

Disclaimer: This is a post by Veritas, a guest author of sixthseal.com. The author's views and opinions does not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of sixthseal.com.


Nurofen Plus - Each tablet contains 200 mg Ibuprofen and 12.8 mg Codeine

I've always heard of people getting off Codeine cough syrup back home and there are many cases of nurses bumming Panadeine Forte tablets off the hospital pharmacy over here. Codeine is classified as an opiate agonist and is converted into morphine by the liver. I've never experimented with opiates before so I've decided to start with this relatively tame opiate. (skip the next part if you're just interested in the trip report)

The Nurofen Plus blister packs

Codeine cough syrup is Rx (prescription only) over here, but there are many OTC (over the counter) Codeine containing preparations that you can get without a prescription. These usually comes in tablet form and is required by law to contain one other active ingredient in addition to Codeine. This is usually paracetamol or aspirin.

Aside: I've heard of people trying to kill themselves with 12 tablets of Panadol (paracetamol/acetaminophen/APAP - they all refer to the same thing) but the LD50 for APAP is 338 mg/Kg. Assuming someone is 50 kg, they will need 16900 mg or 169 tablets to reach the LD50 (the dose which is has a 50% chance of being lethal). Assuming that the person has low tolerance and requires half of the LD50 to kick the bucket, that still comes to around 80+ tablets. Is there even enough space in the stomach for that many tablets? (considering they need to be washed down with water) This leads me to believe that all paracetamol attempted suicides are cries for attention rather than a serious attempt. It's just not that practical to kill yourself with paracetamol.

Front, back and side views of the tablets

After doing a bit of research, I found that the strongest OTC Codeine preparation here is the relatively new Nurofen Plus, containing 200 mg of Ibuprofen and 12.8 mg of Codeine in each tablet. There are newsgroup rumors that says the tablets can be split evenly in half, with one half containing Codeine + filler only and the other half containing Ibuprofen. Initial experimentation by myself indicated that there is anecdotal evidence that the pill is indeed made up of two halves glued together, coz it came off easily when broken. There is a small split line lengthwise, covered by a bit of binder. I ate both sides anyway anyway, I didn't want to make a mistake and end up getting all the Ibuprofen and no Codeine.

The tablets seems to split easily into two halves, one with the N+ (supposedly codeine + binder) and the other half is unmarked (supposedly Ibuprofen)

The (recreational) Codeine FAQ [erowid.org] states that a good starting dose is in the 30-60 mg range. I decided to go for 102.4 mg of Codeine (8 tablets) and see what effects I would get. I did not do a cold water extraction because it seems that 1600 mg (8 x 200 mg) of Ibuprofen is within the safe range. RxList reports that Ibuprofen is safe up to 3200 mg [rxlist.com] daily.

Trip Report

8 tablets @ 12.8 mg each = 102.4 mg of chill codeine

Substance: Codeine Phosphate (102.4 mg)
Set: In my room
Setting: Lying on the bed in my underwear. All lights turned off except a soft table lamp. No distractions (cell phone off, no Internet).
Music: Pink Floyd: The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, Pink Floyd: Obscured by Clouds, Velvet Underground, Velvet Underground - Chronicles, Pink Floyd: Dark Side of the Moon.
Reading: Good Omens by Neil Gaiman, Terry Pratchett, David Frampton (Illustrator).
Time: 11:58 pm

11:58 pm (T+ 0:00)
The 8 pills were crunched in my mouth coz they couldn't be broken using a saucepan and thick book.:) Nurofen Plus tablets are really sturdy. Ibuprofen tastes really funky, all thick and chewy and "deep" and tangy. Codeine tastes bitter, although not nearly as bitter as meth or Ecstasy. I had to wash the goop down with lots of water coz little bits keep on getting into my teeth cracks. Nurofen Plus does not powder well. It only gets chewed down into goop. The goop tastes spicy. It has been 5 hours after my last meal.

12:10 am (T+ 0:12)
The fan makes a small creak every time it turns
the sound is rather pleasant

12:13 am (T+ 0:15)
i am been re-reading a particularly witty paragraph in good omens
hehe

12:15 am (T+ 0:17)
hmm feeling slightly short of breath now

12:17 am (T+ 0:19)
oh no i just caught myself absently scratching my right shoulder
its itchy and so is my right thigh

12:20 am (T+ 0:22)
feeling a definite heaviness in my upper frontal lobe
hehe i can feel it so well i can localize the area

12:23 am (T+ 0:25)
ive been worrying my right shoulder all this while but i dun really mind at all. it feels good to scratch and read a good witty book at the same time

12:28 am (T+ 0:30)
i think im rather sedated now.im thinkin how awesome it is to enjoy the simple things in life. reading a good book slowly savoring each word and feeling contented coz there are still a lot to enjoy in this fine book.snuggling under my covers in my underwear with the cool wind of the fan softly caressing my skin.hmm i feel like a mills and boons writer. the soft refrains of pink floyd adds to the warm feeling.

12:33 am (T+ 0:35)
hmm i moved to get my camera just now and it felt like moving thru water.slow and steady.i feel sedated.
:)

12:38 am (T+ 0:40)
my face and hands feel slightly numb.esp my face.

12:39 am (T+ 0:41)
oh and my head is feeling real heavy now
its like its weighting my body down

1:02 am (T+ 1:04)
ive just been enjoying reading and scratching myself lazily for the past few minutes
usually itching pisses me off but now it just feels good to scratch.

1:10 am (T+ 1:12)
i noticed that codeine's effects are rather subtle. my whole body feels good, my head feels heavy and i have a nice sedated buzz. doing simple things like quietly reading a book is enjoyable. in fact it feels nice just to lay in the dark, doing nothing, happy with the knowledge that a good book is nearby

1:25 am (T+ 1:27)
ive just been lying in the dark listening to pink floyd. i would never have done that while sober. i would have felt that i was wasting my time and go do something. i dont like to listen to mellow music normally too. hmm i can just lie here and chill out without any worries.

1:35 am (T+ 1:37)
heh.im contended just to lie here in the dark, listening to the cranberries ode to my family. yup i dragged myself out of bed to change the playlist. i feel sedated. i would not have "wasted time" like this normally. now i see this not as wasting time but giving my mind a nice break.

1:45 am (T+ 1:47)
i feel so relaxed and sedated. just laying here in the dark without any thoughts going thru my brain. how amazing. usually when i lie down quietly my brain starts to worry or daydream, but now it can sit here thinking nothing. its like i don,t have a care in the world. everything is ok.

1:50 am (T+ 1:52)
i feel so chilled out its funny. hehe

2:03 am (T+ 2:05)
i can see why people can like opiates so much. it's a really pleasent mind and body high. mmm...so chilled out and relaxed.

2:07 am (T+ 2:09)
so chilled out. heh. i know ive said this a lot of times already but im in a chemically induced very good mood so ill say it again. so chilled out. a warm and nice body high with a relaxed and nicely mellow mind. comforting.

3:08 am (T+ 3:10)
i feel myself coming down now. getting clear headed and mildly restless. i still feel a nice afterglow though. feeling sleepy now. vertigo coupled with nausea experienced when not laying down. feeling that 1600mg of ibu cant be good for my stomach

3:38 am (T+ 3:40)
drowsiness and significant nausea at the end of the trip. vertigo when not lying down. very dizzy when not lying down. very close to throwing up at the end. had to made a conscious decision not to. appetite suppressed too. i forced myself to eat a bowl of instant noodles to stave of the imminent ibu induced gastric. i really had a HUGE and nearly unbearable urge to puke every time i swallow a small mouthfull and gave up after the second mouthfull. retching and had to fight not to throw up. instead i drank some milk of magnesia and brushed my teeth and went to sleep

Postmortem:
I slept a good 12 hours last night. The sleep quality was very good, with lots of REM sleep. I remembered a lot of weird dreams. I feel fine after I woke up, no nausea. I noticed that I didn't have the urge to go to the toilet after I woke up too, even though I drank 1 liter of water before I slept. I forced myself to go and ended up with only a small quantity of urine. Codeine is an anti-diuretic so I'm not worried. Urinary function has resumed normal function now (T+ 18:45). Codeine is good to mellow out and relax. The effects are subtle and creep up on you, leaving you in a good contented mood. I'm not inclined to repeat the experience though, the nausea towards the end is really strong and just thinking about the spicy tablets makes me queasy. :) Codeine (and probably other opiates) gives a really "empty" high, it's like admiring the beauty of nothingness.

Posted in Pharmaceuticals by Huai Bin at 06:38 PM Permalink | Comments (210)

w00t!

I just got off the phone with the travel agent. This is my tentative coming home date. It could be subject to change, depending on the date my IE walkthrough is scheduled in. I'll have to spend the night in Kuching too, but that can't be helped coz all December 1st, 2nd and 3rd departure times are in the afternoon, instead of the midnight one I usually take.

Melbourne -> Kuala Lumpur
MH148
1st December
3:40 pm - 8:30 pm

Kuala Lumpur -> Kuching
MH2534
1st December
10:20 pm - 12:05 am

Kuching -> Sibu
MH2252
2nd December
7:50 am - 8:25 am

Posted in by Huai Bin at 04:54 PM Permalink | Comments (5)

The need for speed!

I felt the need for speed today. Oh yeah, I did indeed. :) I went Go Karting with a couple of my buddies today at Go KartSport Racing [gokartsport.com] at Moorabbin.

Go KartSport Racing

This is an indoor stadium at Chesterville Road, and it's actually a pretty big venue. It takes up one city block by itself and there is ample parking at the back. The place looks good too, very cool decor. The front entrance is made of glass and the race track is visible from the front. The stairs are all metal and looks very industrial.

Go/Stop

Very nice place indeed. Anyway, there was a total of 10 people in our group, so we went for the Formula 1 style 2-race format, with a 10 lap qualifying session and a 15 lap main race. The 15 lap main race is from a standing start, with the fastest qualifier at pole position. Anyway, we suited up and put on the balaclavas and helmets.

That is me.

There was a short briefing about the kart's capabilities and the flags and then we're off for the qualifier. I was the 6th in line, and the first lap was done in order of starting position for the computerized timing system to log each kart. I quickly got the hang of things and started banking and drifting in the second lap to try and catch up with the first few. Lucky for me, two karts in front of me collided and I managed to nip past them.

Team Red (Left: Fu Liang Right: Huai Bin (me))

I passed the next guy by driving aggressively, basically staying on his tail and harassing him coz the track was too tight to pass at that point. I got my chance when he slowed down to make a turn. I stepped hard on the accelerator and skidded past him. Woo hoo. Two more to go. The next one was passed by an impressive (if I say so myself) but rather reckless squeeze at a hairpin curve. Unfortunately, I couldn't catch up with the race leader and got 2nd in the qualifier. My fastest lap time was 42.44 seconds vs Jun Kae's 39.23 seconds, according to the print outs.

Fraternizing with the enemy (Left: Huai Bin (me) Middle: Adrian Right: Fariz)

There was 20 minute break after that before the main race, and I was determined to shave several seconds off my lap time and get pole position next round. :) I grabbed a Gatorade Frost and sat there watching another group race. This wasn't a good idea though, because I hadn't had anything to eat the whole day. True enough, I was hit with really bad gastric pains before the main race started.

Cafe Go, with the dastardly Gatorade Frost

But I'm not going to blame that for my performance though. No, my dismal performance in the main race was due to a mistake at the start of the race. We suited up again and did a practice lap before being lined up according to the qualifier results. I was in second place and watched the 10 red lights start counting down, two by two. The green lights came on and I was off.

This is me inside the kart. Number 5 is an auspicious number. Don't ask why, it just is.

I chased down the first kart down and tried to pass him at the first curve. I was accelerating the hardest I could, true pedal to the metal and I didn't want to brake earlier than he did. He braked, and I waited 3 seconds before applying my own, intending to step hard on the brake, steer hard against the curve and drift straight out of the curve. I'm a big fan of drift racing after watching Initial D. Unfortunately, I lost control and spun 360 degrees and watched 6 (SIX!!!!!) karts pass me by before I righted myself.

Mint go karts on display, with prominent Do Not Touch signs.

Damn it, now I really have to race hard to even get into top 3. I immediately started going at it hardcore, and rammed into another kart in an effort to pass him (further slowing me down, grr...). I got a warning flag for that. I managed to pass one dude by taking the disadvantageous outer line while going into a curve and another by squeezing thru a crack, leaving only 1 mm between our karts. Okay, perhaps there is some embellishment, but it sure was close. :) Anyway, I was still in 6th place at that point and there was this guy trying to pass me by already.

The start track

I (rather unsportingly) drove erratically to avoid him passing me and tried to pass another guy myself. I nearly pulled it off, but it resulted in another mini collision. I managed to compensate faster and I was off again, in 5th place and 2 more laps to go. I really had to go fast to catch up with the front 4 karts so I didn't even use the brake, which made for some really uncomfortable moments where I didn't crash only by the grace of God. :) The grace of the almighty one is not endless though, for I crashed into the barrier later, dashing any hopes of ever catching up. I thought I was out of the race, coz I already had two warnings, but the track monitor let it pass. There wasn't enough time to catch up with the front 4 karts, although I did try and nearly passed one near the finish line. Didn't happen though.

The track, as viewed from above at the cafe

Oh well, I blame it all on that mistake at the first lap. Grr... :) I did improve my lap times though, I clocked in 38.13 on the fastest lap and reached a max speed of 43.95 km/h. It was hard to drive faster than that coz the lap is really loopy, not many straight runs. Anyway, it was a fun day and Fu Liang produced a cake for Adrian at the end of the session for his (belated) birthday.

Adrian with his birthday cake.

I just realized that we never did take a group photo. Anyway, the list of attendees are:

Huai Bin
Jun Kae
Sie Wong
Chuck Fong
Chuan Loon
Chuck Yong
Fu Liang
Erwin
Adrian
Faris

Those were the names from the results printouts. Apologies if I got anyone's name wrong.

Posted in Best of sixthseal.com by Huai Bin at 11:57 PM Permalink | Comments (5)

There is no spoon

I just had a really vivid sense of deja vu. I was looking at this picture here

and it suddenly washed over me that I've experienced this exact scene before. I think I dreamt about it many months ago. I remember looking at this picture and loading up a content management system, which was odd considering I ran an old skool HTML blog back then. Hmm...
Anyway, I was having real trouble parsing sentences out of words at my client meeting today. I couldn't think properly and ended up making a lot of grammatically unsound sentences. I wasn't able to even communicate with myself. I'm concerned, is it due to lack of sleep or something more sinister? Perhaps I should take it easy with the synapse degrading, neuron impairing and general cerebral culling substances. :)
Anyway, there was this group of people setting up the final arts exhibition at the ground floor of B block today. I happened to pass by while going to my client meeting and took a couple of pics, including the one that gave me the deja vu, even though I didn't knew it then. It only fell into place as I sat here looking at the picture and intending to open up Movable Type. Interesting. Here are the pictures:

Mmm...strange phallic structure.

Ah...this must be about the media's portrayal of women or something.

This one is my favourite.

I said a lot of "fucks" just now coz I had to rewrite this post. Note to self: Do not use Paste when you intend to Copy.

Posted in by Huai Bin at 07:59 PM Permalink | Comments (0)

I really never liked Fridays

I've got to be at a meeting tomorrow at 8:30 am. Unholy. That means I have to be up by 6:30 am. I'm going off to bed.

Posted in by Huai Bin at 10:19 PM Permalink | Comments (0)

Sum...hmm...mmm

I'm listening to Sum 41's Does This Look Infected? album now. They sound like a cross between NOFX and Offspring. Cutting off the edginess of NOFX with the mellower sounds of Offspring. The basslines are really good too, I can feel them rebeverate down my neck in two chords (which are my neck cords). It seems rather teen-oriented though, with the angst and insecurities and all that. I like NOFX's wittiness better. But can't deny them great chords going down my cords. I like Over My Head though. I'm totally chilling on the chords and I like the lyrics too. The voice sounds slightly whiny too, as should be. Slightly nostalgic. Sure brings me back to '94. I would have loved them when I heard them then, when I was 14. Mmm...So Good Chocolate Flavoured Soymilk.

Posted in by Huai Bin at 02:29 AM Permalink | Comments (0)

b0x3n

Damn, it sucks to watch other people packing up to go back. :) I'll only be going back for a month max in December. I guess it's just as well since I'll be graduating next year in July anyway. Anyway, I've been busy these few days with my IE programming modules that I want to get done before I go back. Oh well, at least I got some Cheetos today at Coles. Mmm...Cheetos.

WHEN IT COMES TO TEAM-KILLING, I’M A CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTOR. [gamespy.com] hahaha Look at this, it's really funny.

Posted in by Huai Bin at 11:00 PM Permalink | Comments (2)

Fireworks

Summer is here...the temperatures are heating up and the cicadas are coming out in force. Anyway, I saw some fireworks over at the cricket oval just now. Don't know what's going on there, but heard the fireworks and saw a couple of people watching from halls. I did get a couple of pictures, but there was a spotlight in the way so it's either underexposed or overexposed. Here they are:

Anyway, the halls are starting to empty out now that the examination period is nearly over. Summer at halls is really boring, there would be like only 5 people in each hall. I stayed here during the summer of 2000 and I was the only one on my stairway. It gets really deserted over the vacation period since everyone is going home. Oh well, I'm planning to go back in December instead of February anyway. It seems impossible to finish my IE project within the month and the client goes on a one month break after that. I'll be taking a summer subject in January, so I'll only be home for about 3-4 weeks in December.

Posted in by Huai Bin at 10:12 PM Permalink | Comments (0)

The silver hand print

Well, I've just finished watching the first season of Roswell [crashdown.com]. It can be a real pain to watch at times, some of the plot lines are just too cheesy. Especially the kissing causes flashbacks scenes. God, I cringe for whoever thought up that idea. I cringe for you mate.
Anyway, besides that, there are some good things about the show. I like the alien conspiracy line and how the characters developed, and I like William Sadler as the sheriff. Also, Sheri Appleby's good looks can carry the show pretty well by herself. :) She looks a lot like Natalie Portman actually, and not just because they're both Jewish.
Well, I've got the second and third season on my hard disk (they're all Tivo rips) and I've decided to watch them even though it can be grating at times. I've even made up a top 5 list of the cheesiest but oft repeated lines in Roswell.

1. This changes everything/Things will never be the same
2. We can't let anyone know
3. You won't understand
4. We're different
5. What have you been hiding from me(us)?/Why wasn't I told about this?

Anyway, Roswell is not even trying hard enough to be sci fi. There are some very distracting realism issues, like the one near the end of the first season where they snuck into a military complex. It's a high security military complex and yet they were cavorting inside like they owned the place. One would think that security cameras would pick up their frolicking, but no...Oh well, I guess it's not meant to be a sci fi show. Most people's responses about Roswell would be But it's so teen. Which is true. :)

Well, anyway I've fixed the problem where the sidebar disappears in 800 x 600 resolutions. It turned out to be because of the POTD being too big. I'll be working on my programming project for IE today so the other fixes would be done tomorrow. Things I've still go to do: get pictures and the about me stuff online, make a best of sixthseal.com thing where some of the better old posts are available, grouped by topic and create a new logo. The old "solar eyes" one is a half assed attempt anyway.

Posted in by Huai Bin at 10:49 PM Permalink | Comments (0)

Looking for the old site?

I've moved the old version of my site to here [monash.edu.au]. I'm still working on the template of this one, so read the old one in the mean time. First thing on the agenda - how to get rid of that damned horizontal scroll bar. I'll need to get my POTD thing back too. Estimated time of completion : Tomorrow. :) Taking a break now. Read the old site [monash.edu.au].

Posted in by Huai Bin at 11:40 PM Permalink | Comments (5)

First bitch!

I've finally installed and configured Movable Type [movabletype.org]. It took a while because I had to manually mput,mkdir and lcd to create all the directories. I use a command line FTP client, you see. After all that, I had an error while building MT and had to search around to find it. It turns out that I had placed one of the language Perl files in a wrong directory. That happens when you do things manually. I would use a GUI FTP client, but my Uni's proxy is set in such a way that I need to tunnel through one of their Unix boxes to get to an off campus FTP address.
Anyway, everything loaded properly after that and I was in with the default Melody/Nelson password. Due to a temporary lapse in good sense, I deleted the Melody login before creating a new one. It should be okay, I figured, coz I can create a new one before I log out. Well, apparently not. MT logged me out straight after I deleted the default login and there I was, locked out of my own blog.
I tried using one of ther resetauth.cgi scripts, but those don't work coz the database didn't even have any authors in it. Thus, I had to use phpMyAdmin to drop all the MT tables and start again. phpMyAdmin is under https (secure http) in my host, and my Uni's proxy does not access off campus https servers without tunneling.
I couldn't do it thru the Unix box, so I'm stuck with...HTTPort. Yes, the public server proxy tunneling program. God...using a public proxy on a Saturday night is an exercise in patience indeed. Just the login page took 30 minutes to load.

Posted in by Huai Bin at 11:13 PM Permalink | Comments (7)

I have moved!

I have installed Movable Type on my server. Click here [sixthseal.com] for my new blog.

Posted in by Huai Bin at 11:13 PM Permalink | Comments (0)

Veritas - Latin for Truth

"Mr. Foaf" is back, but with a new handle. He wishes to be referred to as "Veritas" now. I hear it's Latin for truth. The usual disclaimers apply - I am not him, he is not me, the views may not necessarily represent the views of sixthseal.com etc etc. This is his report:

Lab Report: The relationship of annual seasons with respect to horticulture

Name : "Veritas"

Hypothesis : "The THC concentrations in cultivated cannabis has an inverse relationship with increasing temperatures" aka Damn, my weed fucking sucks in summer.

Materials :

2 grams of hydroponically grown cannabis

1 x blue smoking implement (bong)

30 ml H20

1 x combustion device (lighter)

Methods :

1. A small amount of cannabis will be manually shredded to maximize combustible surface area.

2. The cannabis will the placed on the entry point known as the "cone" on the smoking implement.

3. Heat will be applied to the cannabis.

4. The subject will inhale, forcing the smoke from the cannabis to enter the chamber and exit the mouth piece.

5. The subject will hold the smoke in his lungs for 2 minutes.

Safety Issues :

Cannabis is known to induce laughter.

Solution: The subject will watch an unfunny video.

Cannabis is known to induce craving for food ("munchies")

Solution: The subject has access to several chocolate bars and has the option of ordering pizza.

Results :

The subject ("Veritas") has heard an anecdote that the quality of weed decreases during the summer months due to some unknown factor affecting the cultivation of the plant. The source of the anecdote did not elaborate further. The subject is rather dubious of this claim considering some of the best cannabis is produced from temperate countries like Afghanistan. Furthermore, the very claim that heat is detrimental to cultivation is somewhat mind boggling as hydroponics involves the use of very hot lamps to simulate the sun. Thus, the subject has managed to get hold of some of this purported summer cultivated cannabis to prove the hypothesis wrong. The subject has procured a new smoking implement from Off Ya Tree, which is a alternative culture shop in Swanston Street, Melbourne. The subject has also gotten hold of a nifty combustion device which the sales attendant at Off Ya Tree was very enthusiastic about. Apparently this device has a normal flame,

a green (!) flame

and a purplish blue flame.

The different colors are attained from twisting a ring located near the top of this device. The device also has a small compass embedded into the top of the lid, apparently to help guide confused stoners to the way home. The subject has partially filled the smoking implement (which will be referred to as a bong from now on) with H20 (that's water for those of you who failed Chemistry) and filled the cone with an appropriate amount of cannabis. The lighter was applied to the cone and held there while the cannabis material slowly combusted and displaced the remaining air in the chamber of the bong with THC smoke. The subject has found that the cannabis does differ in potency with other batches he has tried. However, the subject maintains that this is not because of any relation between seasons and plant cultivation times, but rather because the cannabis is comprised mostly of leafy material and has minimal hairs and THC crystals. In other words, this is piss poor weed. It is however, fairly damp, which supports the source of the anecdote's claims that this is a recent summer batch.

Conclusion :

The cultivation time of cannabis does not affect potency in hydroponically grown plants. The subject has pulled this conclusion straight out of his ass and would advise you not to quote him.

Posted in by Huai Bin at 09:59 PM Permalink | Comments (8)

Unholy-ness, not amounting to blasphemy

Today was unholy, weather wise. It was already in the high twenties when I stepped out at 9 am in the morning and it just grew warmer and warmer and the heat has not even fully dissipated from my room as of now. Good thing I was at the campus labs most of the day, trying to finish up my Industrial Experience project. "But you've just finished your exams!" you say. Yup, no rest for the wicked.

Anyway, I'm hoping that I'll be able to finish my IE project early and get it signed off before the client leaves for the holidays in December. It might be possible, I'm going to try anyway. I'll have to fully commit myself the whole of next week and see what happens then. If it's nearing completion, I'll try and push for a client review the week after and leave one week for modifications and hopefully a sign off after that. We'll see. *fingers crossed* This is my last real holiday, so I was rather hoping I could have a long 4 month one. That is out of the question, but perhaps a 2+ month one is still within reach. I wouldn't want to stay here in summer anyway. From the way things are going, it looks like it's going to be a scorcher. I stayed back 2 years ago and it reached 45 C at times.

Posted in by Huai Bin at 09:16 PM Permalink | Comments (0)

CSE3002 Distributed Computing Systems Postmortem

Well I'll be damned. The questions that came out today were EXACTLY the same as the Semester 2 2000 one and the Semester 2 2001 one. I had read the past year exam papers, which were actually removed from the past exams database and yet, available under a different course code. By inferring and extrapolating, I had expected this year's questions to be the same, and I wasn't disappointed. I would have done better though if I'd gotten some sleep though. It was hard trying to recall facts that I already know and I'm sure there were some "cross-contamination". Cross-contamination is the phenomenon that occurs where you mix up the answers of one question with another. The borders start getting fuzzy after a lack of sleep, you know. I might get a Distinction if I'm lucky, but I'm going to be conservative here and predict:

Expected Grade: Credit

It's off to bed for me. I haven't had any sleep last night.

Posted in by Huai Bin at 07:23 PM Permalink | Comments (0)

CSE3002 Distributed Computing Systems

My brain is absolutely saturated. I did not sleep last night to memorize the prodigious lecture notes of this subject. It's amazing how this subject has 80-120 (!) slide lecture notes. Times that amount by 13 weeks. Plus, every slide has stuff to remember. I can't even type properly now coz I've archived the "language" portion of my brain to make space for the "memorize and regurgitate" part. Quorum consensus method, Suzuki-Kasami's broadcast algorithm, Singhal's heuristic algorithm, push push push, go into my brain dammit!

Segmentation fault...

Core dumped!

Posted in by Huai Bin at 06:13 AM Permalink | Comments (0)

CSE2203 Information Technology Project Management Postmortem

Well...I didn't do too well in this exam. I was rather appalled when I first read the exam paper. I found out that I've been concentrating on the wrong stuff. However, I did manage to rally up a bit and wrote what I feel was right, so I should be able to pass. The past few year's exams all had Gantt charts, which is like a free 11 marks, but it didn't come out this year. Bummer. Oh well.

Expected Grade: Pass

Anyway, the Doom III Alpha 0.02 (the E3 demo) has been leaked. I downloaded it last night, but didn't manage to unzip it until today. It damn near took 8 minutes just to unzip the RAR file. It took another 2 minutes just to start and get to the new id animation with the hybrid metal/flesh heart fusion loop. I tried bringing down the console and typed map e3/e3_3 and waited for 25 minutes while my aging Athlon 750 w/ 128 mb RAM and a GeForce 2 MX tried to load the demo, but gave up after that. It was an exercise is patience, and patience is a commodity that has eluded me thus far.

This is an er...a screenshot of the Doom III alpha. =D

Posted in by Huai Bin at 08:16 PM Permalink | Comments (0)

CSE2203 Information Technology Project Management

Another exam in a couple of hours. Wish me luck.

Posted in by Huai Bin at 10:54 AM Permalink | Comments (0)

Jackass

I've been watching a lot of Jackass lately. I like Chris-O but Johnny Knoxville really turns me off. He only does the lesser stunts and yet always acts so dramatic about getting hurt. Uh yeah, I have nothing else to write coz I've only stayed in my room during my revision lately. My next exam is on Monday.

Posted in by Huai Bin at 06:35 AM Permalink | Comments (0)

CSE3153 Network Administration Postmortem

Hmm...I found the paper pretty easy today. I was expecting more technical stuff and read up on ASN.1 packet details and stuff like that. What came out was more general and abstract though, but that's just as well, it made things easy. I noticed that I haven't held a pen since the exam last semester. Heh. It seems that my course has a lot more to do with keyboard input rather than pen and paper. The downside to this was my hands were cramped and sore after only 10 minutes of (hard) writing. Lack of practice, eh.

Expected Grade: Credit

Anyway, I headed down to Chadstone after that with the intention to renew my health insurance premium. However, I was told that I needed my enrolment statement and my passport to do it, so I guess I'll have to go back again after my exams. However, I did get some doughnuts from Donut King for dinner. Mmm...sprinkles.

Posted in by Huai Bin at 07:40 PM Permalink | Comments (1)

CSE3153 Network Administration

My first paper is 9:30 am today. I've crammed the best I could. Wish me luck. =D

Posted in by Huai Bin at 05:01 AM Permalink | Comments (1)