If I told you that I paid someone 100$ to stab me in the arm with a needle and fill my body with fatal diseases, you'd think either I was having a deathwish or I was trying to impress a girl. But thats exactly what I did today.
I need to get my vaccines for my Thailand trip and I figured lets get them done early since I'm not innoculated against them yet. And vaccines are NOT cheap. The Vivaxim booster shot (the vaccine against Typhoid and Hepatitis A) came in at $105 and the cholera tablets are another 110$. Luckily the booster will last nearly 10 years, so come 2017, I'll have to get another shot. I still need to verify I have the Hep B vaccine active.
Of course this cost is a mere pittance compared to the costs of not taking them and catching any of those diseases.
So all of these drugs should leave me covered for the common illnesses from this region. I'm sure going to only the most touristy areas should also minimize exposure to the illnesses, along with avoiding certain...indiscretions... which is the other main way one gets a number of these illnesses.
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Saturday, October 20, 2007
The Lurrv Boat
I was about to begin singing the lyrics to The Love Boat, but alas my taste hasn't gone THAT downhill. The reason for my nostalgic singing is I went to a masquerade party on board a cruise boat which was being hosted by the Nepean University Medical Society (or something like that). So yes, a cruise filled with young doctors and yes gentlemen, they all look better than the cast of Grey's anatomy (except Katherine Heigl..sigh )
I can tell you now that it was fortunate that for a masquerade ball, masks weren't required all night. Whilst I'm quite capable of seeing people and large objects, its the subtle things like, I dunno, STAIRS or ledges of any kind which cause me grief. On the walk down to boat, I had to hold Cherryl's hand to prevent myself from making an ass of myself. Once onboard, I could just take it off.
Two things made the night fantastic. One was, I've come to the realization that I really don't give a toss anymore about trying to pick up, which meant I took a risk and actually talked to randoms. Secondly everyone on the boat had a one to two degree of separation from their friends so you could be 'pre-approved' to be onboard. This combination meant I met many new people, guys and girls and had an absolute ball. The girls I met were the type I would have been interested in. Smart, funny and pretty without being slutty. Normally I'm so lame that I fall for any new girl who is nice to me, but this effect was diluted because EVERY girl was really friendly. They'd talk with you, they'd dance with you and you never get the impression you're a retard.
At the end of the night, I was tempted to go onto the after party at Pontoon, but my friends had a separate party planned at a friends house. So several good-bye pecks on the cheek to my new acquaintances later (!!!), I went (via a circuitous route to Artarmon to pick up my car) to North Strathfield.
And so my friends and I stayed up together, discussing life, love, careers, personal insight, moral decisions and all sorts of other things into the weee hours of the morning. And this is what you come to realize. New people give you a rush of happiness, of excitement. However it is your old friends are the ones who'll really make you content and safe. When given the choice between finishing the night with hot randoms and finishing with old friends, you can't go wrong with friends.
I can tell you now that it was fortunate that for a masquerade ball, masks weren't required all night. Whilst I'm quite capable of seeing people and large objects, its the subtle things like, I dunno, STAIRS or ledges of any kind which cause me grief. On the walk down to boat, I had to hold Cherryl's hand to prevent myself from making an ass of myself. Once onboard, I could just take it off.
Two things made the night fantastic. One was, I've come to the realization that I really don't give a toss anymore about trying to pick up, which meant I took a risk and actually talked to randoms. Secondly everyone on the boat had a one to two degree of separation from their friends so you could be 'pre-approved' to be onboard. This combination meant I met many new people, guys and girls and had an absolute ball. The girls I met were the type I would have been interested in. Smart, funny and pretty without being slutty. Normally I'm so lame that I fall for any new girl who is nice to me, but this effect was diluted because EVERY girl was really friendly. They'd talk with you, they'd dance with you and you never get the impression you're a retard.
At the end of the night, I was tempted to go onto the after party at Pontoon, but my friends had a separate party planned at a friends house. So several good-bye pecks on the cheek to my new acquaintances later (!!!), I went (via a circuitous route to Artarmon to pick up my car) to North Strathfield.
And so my friends and I stayed up together, discussing life, love, careers, personal insight, moral decisions and all sorts of other things into the weee hours of the morning. And this is what you come to realize. New people give you a rush of happiness, of excitement. However it is your old friends are the ones who'll really make you content and safe. When given the choice between finishing the night with hot randoms and finishing with old friends, you can't go wrong with friends.
Sunday, October 14, 2007
Rolling, Rolling, Rolling
At the beginning of today I was so tired of driving. I racked up over 500km over a period of 26 hours. Friday night was taking people in and out of the city for to celebrate Doug's birthday. (100km). Saturday racked up 340km as I had to drive my folks back and forth to some church halfway to Canberra, and during the night I had a house warming in Erskinville (another 100km).
You'd think thats enough driving for one weekend. Except it turned out that Sunday was when my AAMI Skilled Drivers test took place. And that restored my love of driving.
The course took place in Nirimba TAFE up near quakers Hill. Half the day was theory and half the day was practical. The theory was so-so, stuff you already know, but things which you kind of know. One exercise really resonated with me however, which was when we drew a scale of all the things that annoy us on the roads, like tail-gaters, Taxis, speed cameras and so on. And then we compare it with the consequences of messing up just a little and crashing. I know on friday night my mate was telling how she deliberately goes at top speed past a speed camera since it only works in one direction, just 'to stick it to the cops'. Yeah sure, but all it takes is on little mishap and suddenly all that bravado means jackshit.
Anyway moving onto the fun stuff, after work we did a series of practical exercises. There were four exercises, being the Slalom, the hairpin, emergency lane change and emergency lane change stop. The Slalom(ducking between flags/cones) was by far the most fun and hair-raising since you have to keep your vehicle speed constant AND keep weaving through the cones. We did it at only 45km/h and it was incredibly difficult. Then we dropped 5-10km/h off that speed and it was an easy task. All four tasks involved doing it at 45 and then dropping to 35 and seeing how much difference it makes.
The hairpin turn is just going around a tight corner again at a constant 45km/s. In real life its not so hard because you flutter the brake, but without the brake, its so easy to lose control of the car. The emergency lane change and lane change stop involves going straight down 3 lanes and at the last second the instructor yells stop, stop left or stop right and you have to follow what he says. Its only cones that you might run into, but its a heart pounding exercise.
What I found great was the Camry really did hold its own against some of the other cars. Sure there were some bombs, but there some MX-6s, Integras and other nice cars. Out of the 'hot' cars, only the Integra held nicely to the road. The camry's size and weight work against it, but its 'hard, non-ABS' brakes and reasonably solid handling allowed me to have a very minimal witches hat-kill-rate. Having a few years experience on top of the other drivers helped, but still its sobering to realize how easy it is to crash a car.
But still, whilst its just witches hats, its a heck of alot of fun! The AAMI course is completely free for AAMI comprehensive insurance owners and their kids, or its 165$ if you're not with AAMI. Its probably not that great if you had to pay for it, but for holders of an AAMI policy, you'd be mad not to give it a go.
EDIT: Thanks to Julian for pointing out that the word is Slalom, not Shalom...
You'd think thats enough driving for one weekend. Except it turned out that Sunday was when my AAMI Skilled Drivers test took place. And that restored my love of driving.
The course took place in Nirimba TAFE up near quakers Hill. Half the day was theory and half the day was practical. The theory was so-so, stuff you already know, but things which you kind of know. One exercise really resonated with me however, which was when we drew a scale of all the things that annoy us on the roads, like tail-gaters, Taxis, speed cameras and so on. And then we compare it with the consequences of messing up just a little and crashing. I know on friday night my mate was telling how she deliberately goes at top speed past a speed camera since it only works in one direction, just 'to stick it to the cops'. Yeah sure, but all it takes is on little mishap and suddenly all that bravado means jackshit.
Anyway moving onto the fun stuff, after work we did a series of practical exercises. There were four exercises, being the Slalom, the hairpin, emergency lane change and emergency lane change stop. The Slalom(ducking between flags/cones) was by far the most fun and hair-raising since you have to keep your vehicle speed constant AND keep weaving through the cones. We did it at only 45km/h and it was incredibly difficult. Then we dropped 5-10km/h off that speed and it was an easy task. All four tasks involved doing it at 45 and then dropping to 35 and seeing how much difference it makes.
The hairpin turn is just going around a tight corner again at a constant 45km/s. In real life its not so hard because you flutter the brake, but without the brake, its so easy to lose control of the car. The emergency lane change and lane change stop involves going straight down 3 lanes and at the last second the instructor yells stop, stop left or stop right and you have to follow what he says. Its only cones that you might run into, but its a heart pounding exercise.
What I found great was the Camry really did hold its own against some of the other cars. Sure there were some bombs, but there some MX-6s, Integras and other nice cars. Out of the 'hot' cars, only the Integra held nicely to the road. The camry's size and weight work against it, but its 'hard, non-ABS' brakes and reasonably solid handling allowed me to have a very minimal witches hat-kill-rate. Having a few years experience on top of the other drivers helped, but still its sobering to realize how easy it is to crash a car.
But still, whilst its just witches hats, its a heck of alot of fun! The AAMI course is completely free for AAMI comprehensive insurance owners and their kids, or its 165$ if you're not with AAMI. Its probably not that great if you had to pay for it, but for holders of an AAMI policy, you'd be mad not to give it a go.
EDIT: Thanks to Julian for pointing out that the word is Slalom, not Shalom...
Tuesday, October 09, 2007
The most expensive music in the world.
This falls into two main categories; Things that don't make sense and Only in America.
In the first US trial to challenge the illegal downloading of music on the Internet, a single mother from Minnesota was ordered Thursday to pay 220,000 dollars for sharing 24 songs online.
This is absurd.
Don't get me wrong, she committed a crime by pirating this music and the reason she got busted whilst others won their cases is because she was clearly not naive since she swapped harddrives on the machine. The REAL issue here is the ridiculous $220,000 USD fine she was charged. She earns $40,000 is a single mother and has NO real chance of paying it. Let me put the size of this fine in perspective with other crimes and their penalties.
Drink driving - the third and subsequent time you're caught drink driving a 1 tonne killing machine, you will get charged upto 5050$.
Vehicular Manslaughter - A 15,000$ USD fine is the highest amount you can get charged for this typically.
3rd degree assault - $10,000
Kidnapping - Maximum penalty is $50,000.
Outright Piracy - Hell, a man who sold pirated physical cds and profited from it got 1 yrs jail and a 1000$ fine.
That said, those were criminal cases, while I believe this woman's case is a civil case which should really be relabelled 'capitalist bastard cases'. Considering this is about the same as stealing two CDs, this lady should have really got arrested for theft and she would have got some community service and a slap on the wrist fine. Everyone knows this was less about justice and more about making a point to the community at large that file-sharing is not going to be tolerated in a court of law. You'd think they'd fine someone who could afford it, but then again if she could afford it, she would have got better lawyers.
What a f&*$$d up society.
In the first US trial to challenge the illegal downloading of music on the Internet, a single mother from Minnesota was ordered Thursday to pay 220,000 dollars for sharing 24 songs online.
This is absurd.
Don't get me wrong, she committed a crime by pirating this music and the reason she got busted whilst others won their cases is because she was clearly not naive since she swapped harddrives on the machine. The REAL issue here is the ridiculous $220,000 USD fine she was charged. She earns $40,000 is a single mother and has NO real chance of paying it. Let me put the size of this fine in perspective with other crimes and their penalties.
Drink driving - the third and subsequent time you're caught drink driving a 1 tonne killing machine, you will get charged upto 5050$.
Vehicular Manslaughter - A 15,000$ USD fine is the highest amount you can get charged for this typically.
3rd degree assault - $10,000
Kidnapping - Maximum penalty is $50,000.
Outright Piracy - Hell, a man who sold pirated physical cds and profited from it got 1 yrs jail and a 1000$ fine.
That said, those were criminal cases, while I believe this woman's case is a civil case which should really be relabelled 'capitalist bastard cases'. Considering this is about the same as stealing two CDs, this lady should have really got arrested for theft and she would have got some community service and a slap on the wrist fine. Everyone knows this was less about justice and more about making a point to the community at large that file-sharing is not going to be tolerated in a court of law. You'd think they'd fine someone who could afford it, but then again if she could afford it, she would have got better lawyers.
What a f&*$$d up society.
Monday, October 08, 2007
To Melbourne with Love.
Ah Melbourne, the city of love and excitement. Of nature and concrete. Of art and goddamn pretty ladies.
I went down to Melbourne over a extended weekend with my friends from university for a typical boys weekend away.
The first day was all about the compulsory touristy things. We rode the trams, we went to Federation Square, saw the sights of which when it comes to it, aren't really that many. Whilst entertaining and a worthwhile experience, its nothing to write home about. Melbourne is like any other city in the world with a plaza full of buildings designed to attract tourists. It is a very tidy city however and the trams really are quite helpful in moving passengers. Lunch was at St Kilda beach and dinner was at the wonderful Man Mo restaurant at Docklands. As usual SOMEONE had to have their baggage lost by Qantas, so we spent a portion of the day playing console games at the apartment whilst they delivered the bag to us.
At night we decided it was time to go out and appreciate the Melbourne party scene. We were lucky that it was drizzling so that the crowds were down from a typical Friday night. Otherwise there is no chance 5 non-white guys without girls could get into as many clubs as we did. Our night started off at GPO, the Trader Bar, the Long Room and finished at the Gin Palace. Hersh's place was in the center of the city and bars are so close by that barhopping is an easy exercise. Out of all of them, the Long room was easily the most amazing. I'd compliment the easy to reach bar, the good music, the refined decor, but when it comes down to it, its because of the amazing number of stunning women. Even in Sydney bars, I've never seen that many gorgeous women (though the female of the night has to go to the foxy librarian stunner at the Trader Bar.). By the Gin Palace we were exhausted from the long day and the alcohol, so we politely declined a friends offer to visit the Spearmint Rhino and went back home at 4am. Considering the early morning flight, that was 24 hours straight of being awake.
Saturday was our 'random activity' day so we decided, lets make it a fishing day.
We went to a trout farm in the ridiculously flat Victorian countryside (so about only an hour out of central Melbourne). Admittedly fishing in a trout farm is like shooting a barn with a shotgun point blank. You can't really miss. They must be starving the poor fish, since they go to bite on the lure within minutes.
Catching the fish was only half of the fun. The second part is cooking them! The entire gang got together and cooked up a storm and had a meal fit for kings, or at the least Barons in a wealthy duchy. There was no way we could finish all of it, though Kieran gave it a good try to finish an entire trout by himself to score a bed for the night. Sadly the fish got the better of him.
Even though we finish dinner and cleaning up at around midnight, we were determined to visit Crown Casino at least once before we left. It was a easy 10min walk from the apartment. I'll tell you now, it is not much better than Starcity. There is a mild stench of corruption in the air as in all casinos and all my friends lost out in their betting, which is probably a good lesson. There were a few good lookers, but most were young and somewhat skanky. Realistically, a night back in the apartment playing Settlers of Catan would have been far more entertaining.
And to fill in the 'nature' component of a holiday, the gang decided to take a drive along the Great Ocean Road. Melbourne's sprawl is nothing compared to Sydney's. Just like the day before, it wasn't long before we were out in what was basically country. Even Geelong felt more like a large town than a city.
After you hit Tourquay, the drive is breathtaking and we only covered some 10% of the entire Great ocean road. Cliff faces tower over endless stretches of sandy beaches. Halfway to Lorne, there is a quaint lighthouse which has a panoramic view of the area around it. Unfortunately we had planes to catch so had to go home, but not before we cut across the picturesque rainforest/bush on the mountain side back up to the Prince's Highway.
So all in all, I had a ball. Melbourne isn't somewhere where I'd clamber for an opportunity to line in, but I certainly wouldn't complain about being dropping in now and then.
I went down to Melbourne over a extended weekend with my friends from university for a typical boys weekend away.
The first day was all about the compulsory touristy things. We rode the trams, we went to Federation Square, saw the sights of which when it comes to it, aren't really that many. Whilst entertaining and a worthwhile experience, its nothing to write home about. Melbourne is like any other city in the world with a plaza full of buildings designed to attract tourists. It is a very tidy city however and the trams really are quite helpful in moving passengers. Lunch was at St Kilda beach and dinner was at the wonderful Man Mo restaurant at Docklands. As usual SOMEONE had to have their baggage lost by Qantas, so we spent a portion of the day playing console games at the apartment whilst they delivered the bag to us.
At night we decided it was time to go out and appreciate the Melbourne party scene. We were lucky that it was drizzling so that the crowds were down from a typical Friday night. Otherwise there is no chance 5 non-white guys without girls could get into as many clubs as we did. Our night started off at GPO, the Trader Bar, the Long Room and finished at the Gin Palace. Hersh's place was in the center of the city and bars are so close by that barhopping is an easy exercise. Out of all of them, the Long room was easily the most amazing. I'd compliment the easy to reach bar, the good music, the refined decor, but when it comes down to it, its because of the amazing number of stunning women. Even in Sydney bars, I've never seen that many gorgeous women (though the female of the night has to go to the foxy librarian stunner at the Trader Bar.). By the Gin Palace we were exhausted from the long day and the alcohol, so we politely declined a friends offer to visit the Spearmint Rhino and went back home at 4am. Considering the early morning flight, that was 24 hours straight of being awake.
Saturday was our 'random activity' day so we decided, lets make it a fishing day.
We went to a trout farm in the ridiculously flat Victorian countryside (so about only an hour out of central Melbourne). Admittedly fishing in a trout farm is like shooting a barn with a shotgun point blank. You can't really miss. They must be starving the poor fish, since they go to bite on the lure within minutes.
Catching the fish was only half of the fun. The second part is cooking them! The entire gang got together and cooked up a storm and had a meal fit for kings, or at the least Barons in a wealthy duchy. There was no way we could finish all of it, though Kieran gave it a good try to finish an entire trout by himself to score a bed for the night. Sadly the fish got the better of him.Even though we finish dinner and cleaning up at around midnight, we were determined to visit Crown Casino at least once before we left. It was a easy 10min walk from the apartment. I'll tell you now, it is not much better than Starcity. There is a mild stench of corruption in the air as in all casinos and all my friends lost out in their betting, which is probably a good lesson. There were a few good lookers, but most were young and somewhat skanky. Realistically, a night back in the apartment playing Settlers of Catan would have been far more entertaining.
And to fill in the 'nature' component of a holiday, the gang decided to take a drive along the Great Ocean Road. Melbourne's sprawl is nothing compared to Sydney's. Just like the day before, it wasn't long before we were out in what was basically country. Even Geelong felt more like a large town than a city.
After you hit Tourquay, the drive is breathtaking and we only covered some 10% of the entire Great ocean road. Cliff faces tower over endless stretches of sandy beaches. Halfway to Lorne, there is a quaint lighthouse which has a panoramic view of the area around it. Unfortunately we had planes to catch so had to go home, but not before we cut across the picturesque rainforest/bush on the mountain side back up to the Prince's Highway.So all in all, I had a ball. Melbourne isn't somewhere where I'd clamber for an opportunity to line in, but I certainly wouldn't complain about being dropping in now and then.
Wednesday, October 03, 2007
Why software is like Love...
Our director today made an great call when he was defending why we had redone the process of secure service delivery over six times.
"Software is a lot like love".
Snide comment from our Division lead. "Oh this should be good..."
"The best software isn't about knowing what it is, but you know its right when you feel it."
Someone else made the call, "And sometimes you think you've found the right one and then have to break up with it and try again and again and again."
I scoured the interweb to see if there were other references to why software is like love and found none. So here are a few more examples.
- Finding off the shelf software is like the dating scene. There isn't a Mr Right, or even a Mr sort of good enough. Its mostly a Mr-This-will-do-for-now.
- Software is a lot like love. Simple in concept, but far far more complex under the hood.
- Relationships with women are like debugging. Sometimes when you think you have it worked out, suddenly you loose it and you have no fucken idea what is going on. - Thanks Dan.
- Fooling around with naughty software can give you itchy bugs.
- Software is like relationships. You think the majority of the cost is at the beginning when you have to do the courting. You'll find that's hardly the case.
- Software is like love because at the beginning there is a lot of excitement, hope and pampering, but by the end, its mostly decided to break down and divorce itself from you after years of neglect.
- If you think software is expensive to maintain, try being married for years on end.
- Software is like sex: it's better when it's free. - Thanks Linus
And finally software is like love because despite all the suffering it causes us, when it comes down to it, you're willing to live with the problems for all the joy it gives you in the end.
Additions are welcome in the comments section.
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