Yeah that's me in my current situation... Moved to a new house in Fitzroy North like a week ago, while my housemate's yet to move in and he has all those appliances that we need, means I don't have a thing for the week... No fridge, no washing machine, no internet etc... Well my caveman life begins here then...
Day one. Thinking of cooking something home, went to the nearest supermarket, which is an IGA, very expensive although it does have many stuff that we don't see in Woolworths or Coles... There were two lightbulbs in my room, one obviously already broken, and the other was burnt while I try to switch it on... Got a friend over so I got some food and realizes I need cutlery... the ones sold in the supermarket was horrible so I bought some disposable ones instead... but still can't escape buying a bowl there, just simple and pure white, quite a large one. And it was after getting home that I realize I only have one saucepan and not enough for even cooking pasta, I managed to do that at last though, by tipping the boiled pasta into a microwave box and keeping it warm. Well the food was OK jus that we don't even have chairs to sit on for dinner... Well, I did not bad in changing the lightbulbs standing on my wheely chair and very weak drawers from Ikea...
Day two. Waking up finding that the room was actually pretty cold, although with all the windows closed I could feel breeze through my face. The window's facing east and the shade is not low enough that sunshine leaks right on my face early in the morning. Well, no more sleep in then... Went to uni to do a few stuff, changing my address of the bank account and university contacts, then went to the Italian wholesale near my old place in Brunswick for some grocery and cookware and stuff. Did found that the cutlery is better than wherever else to be found, all $2 each and most importantly, they are all one-of-a-kind, you could rarely find any two that is the same. Bought a chopping board but decided to leave the saucepan for the next time...
Day three was Saturday, worked from early in the day and did not have much things done, business was not too bad as far as I remember. Partied in Ben's place after work and got quite drunk and was actually surprised that I made my way home without a fuss.
Day four. Up at 4:30AM and can't get back to sleep, then just waited in bed for the alarm to come off at 6:30AM and prepared myself to work. I actually did ride a bike to work with a bit of a hangover and when I have to train a new guy, I thought I did OK though. Went to the laundry for a hell lot of dirty clothes to be washed and found that the stupid machines only accept $1 and 20c coins and there are no changing machines and stuff around. Well well well, went to the burger shop nearby instead and asked that nice looking waiter for some change while getting myself some dinner. Went back to the laundry and got it started then go back to the burger to pick it up and then had my small dinner there. After dinner the laundry was almost done, I waited for a while with a magazine in hand then took them all back and hung them at the backyard.
Day five. Went to Ikea and spend most of my day there. looking for a desk for myself. I scrabbled and scrabbled on the shopping list to try to make sure that a 2m long desk would fit in my room. While I still can't be sure I had to leave it alone so I went back with a chair and some other small stuff. After getting home I measured the room again and it definitely fits so I decided to get it somehow. Had to get someone to deliver it for me though I don't have a car.
Day six. Tuesday, stayed all day in bed. Did not even wanna get off the bed. Had to though, so I looked at the laundry at the backyard, and found some of them nicely blown down by the wind on the soil, never mind then. Just pick it up and hang it for bit more. Should be all good to have an undie that had kissed the soil once.
Day seven. Not much for the day but very much in the night. Stayed out all night and had quite a lot of fun out there. Best sex I've had for quite a while. Indeed. I don't know if I would have more of connections with that person, I do hope so and I got the answer as 'probably', I still can't be sure to date. I guess I wasn't really good at handling this anyway.
Day eight. My friend finally moved in along with his parents. And it was pretty nice to sort of have my urban cavemen life terminated. Although it was not until today that the internet of the house is finally connected, other appliances did come in earlier and well, it wasn't all that bad. Without the internet is the only occasion that I had to watch that three and a half hour long black and white movie 'Seven Samurai' back in the 1950s and enjoying such classic without a worry of anyone buzzing me on MSN. The lack of internet also gave me the inconvenience of not being able to download and print out the notes for the first week of the sem but it's only the first so things seems fine so far... Well I am back online now anyway so things are back to normal.
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Monday, July 6, 2009
Progressive Democracy?
Hmm the term 'progressive democracy' that I am discussing here is different from the one described by Herbert Croly in 1915, although I haven't been studying that one. The one that I am discussing is what Chinese Author Wang Lixiong described in his book 'Progressive Democracy', which is said to be a system that would lead China into a smooth and safe transformation into a democratic society, although it would remain a theory until there are any sort of practise of this method somewhere in the society.The principle of this progressive democracy is to consider all the 'cells' of the society, for example, families, and weave them together and erect them upwards to the top of the society, in this case, the country. Every family would have the right to elect one family representative, who interacts with other families' representatives within a small area such as a natural village in the countryside or one/several floor(s) in an apartment in the city. The principle of deciding the size of the area is that everyone has to know (or it would be easy to get to know) each other personally. After every one of the families in one such area has a representative, they form a representatives committee and a representative of the committee would be elected, whom would enter one step higher into the representative committee of say a governable village in the countryside or the whole building of the apartment in the city. A term 'layer' is adopted to describe the entirety of committees in a same grade, such as 'family' and 'natural village' in which 'natural village' is a layer one step higher than 'family'. These representatives create 'links' between the lower and higher layers, which are restricted themselves by the member of his/her lower level committee that they have the right to re-elect their representative at any time if they are not satisfied with their representative. Any single person is only allowed to be in two adjacent layers at most. The art of negotiation is what plays an important role here, that is, to have the aim for benefits that could represent the entirety of his/her lower committee, instead of his/her own benefits in order keep him/herself in the current place and not to be overthrown by the committee. This structure goes on and on, the governable villages in the same township would elect their representative for the town, and then the townships in the same county would elect the representative in the county... Until the layer of province representatives elect a representative of the country.
Every single person is involved in this system, and it is said that everyone's voice is heard because they make sure their representatives represent their benefits when it comes to any decision, or the representative will be overthrown. This is different from current democracy societies practiced in many countries in which peoples thoughts are abstracted to 'yes' or 'no' or 'A' or 'B', which eliminates many of the possibilities between 'yes' and 'no' or 'A' and 'B'. For example most Chinese would say 'no' when voting whether Taiwan should be separated from China, but many might change the idea if it cost their own benefits such as heavier tax in order to establish a competitive army and the requirements of themselves to attend the army and risk their own lives for this good.
Wang preferred to describe the the thought of a person to be a vector instead of a number, which has not only an amount but also a direction, the direction could be multi-dimensional and would have unlimited possibilities, unlike just 1 for 'yes' and -1 for 'no' in counting votes, of cause the absolute value of each vector is the same (let's say 1) in order to represent the equality among people. The sum of vectors follows the rule of parallelogram in maths, which would represent a dimension compromising all the thoughts and the amount of all the sums of the components of individual vectors on that direction. The representative of a committee is elected to represent this sum of vector among its members and deliver it up to the upper layer to perform another summing.
There are obvious benefits that Wang described in his theory of progressive democracy, such as that there is no need to restructure the current society, the only difference is that rights are delivered upwards from the mass instead of downwards from the leader. On the other hand, difficulties are obvious too. The practise of progressive democracy requires the knowledge of its principl of it in the entirety concerned, while this book is still banned from publishing in China, initiation of this practise is extremely difficult. Once the first layer is formed, people would disrespect the government-appointed leader of this layer and obey only the representative elected for the committee, which dysfuntionalizes the local government, and unless the higher grade of government accepts the new committee, they will be dysfunctionalized as well. The restructure of the governance system in China under progressive democracy will start from the bottom end and the new system will gradually grow upwards, which is more gentle than a sudden transformation to Western style democracy which breaks the whole system down before establishing a new one.
Well I do appreciate such a method that sees a better future of China. Thing is, no matter how carefully thought through this theory had been before it is published, it is until practiced that the flaws will show, Wang said the system will perfect itself, but we will have to see this in practice as well. Until then, it's only a theory, which no one would know for sure whether it works for modern China. We definitely hope so.
Sunday, June 28, 2009
The Outback
OK where to start,we hopped on the Overland in Southern Cross station at 8:30-ish and the trip just rolled over. The train started sort of slowly (well, it'd never been real fast during the whole trip) in the suburbs but I soon started to struggle to recognize the names of the suburban train stations.
As soon as we got bored of taking photos of each other we are in Geelong, this city did not look nice from the train station but I loved it when I watched it from the top of hills down the coastline the first time I saw it years ago. This is actually only just the second time. The Overland then turned northwest towards the border of VIC and SA. We are in Bordertown not long after midday, which is already a few km's into South Australia. I realized that I forgot my cell phone charger back in Melbourne, which is far too late... I switched off the phone immediately though, tried to save the battery, I managed to get it working when I want during my whole trip.
Nothing much that exciting onboard but there is a German guy taking out his lunch which amazed us... He brought on toasts not spread with jams, peanut butter and Nuttella, but whole jars instead! Well, we stalked him for the whole time he spent on his lunch, although sometimes we would be distracted to the herds of sheep and horse and cows and stuff.
The most exciting thing in the afternoon would be that we saw the Murray for the first time. On the Murray Bridge. Really beautiful river, although whenever I press the shutter there would be an iron bar appearing at the centre of the picture which is quite disappointing, we did get a couple of reasonable shots of the river. I would consider the Murray definitely worth a visit, in depth. We arrived Adelaide at dusk and just in time for my friend Will to pick me up in the station. I haven't seen him for two years now...
Adelaide is a big town instead of a city, as many people had told me. A pretty nice and quiet one though not to my surprise. Will drove us around after dinner and I could feel that it'd not been long after I realize we are going pass the same places over and over again. The next day was basically Glenelg, the beach. As our onwards travel of the Ghan set out at midday, we didn't see much of Adelaide in the daylight at all.
The Ghan is not quite a pleasant to travel on with a seat, but that's all we could afford.
Beautiful scene along the way though. with the introduction to the towns we passed, and impressive country style scenes until sunset when we reach Port Augusta, the 'crossroad of Australia' and once almost chosen the capital of Australia. Just off the station we stopped aside a sort of tree-lined road, still, for more than an hour for some reason, and when we set out again, it was all dark. I was amazed we still made it on time to Alice Springs.
We had our dinner in the diner that evening, not as bad as I'd imagined luckily. What actually annoyed us was that there are kids onboard kept faking their cries, without a proper reason even after the light's dimmed for sleep, the seat is not anywhere close to comfy for sleeping, I struggled quite a bit to fall asleep and I didn't get much of sleep at all that night.
I slept pretty poorly and started realizing the very first light out the window, the view has definitely changed, with some sort of grass and rock-like stuff (which later proved to be yet another kind of weird vegetation with more light) moving quickly past the window in the twilight.
We are in the outback.
I pictured the whole process of the sunrise although it was not quite impressive with my digital compact camera with so little light available. When the day brighten itself up, the sort of savannah view amazed us. We were imagining nothing but desert on this land, but well, the arid vegetation still exist and they did adapted themselves up to this sort of impossible environment. The SA-NT border was not far after dawn, which is no more than a weird sign.
I picked up a Latte in the diner which is tasteless while Shandi's still asleep. We crossed Finke river just before approaching Alice Springs, the so-called river is just a sand bed, no water at all, the riverbed is actually sandier than anywhere else in sight. When arriving in Alice springs at around 1pm, we are all shattered with hurtful bones...
Adelaide would have been a metropolis if it were comparing to Alice Springs, but anyway I was here for the outback instead of the skyline. It is obviously a quiet small town brought up almost solely by tourism. We were too tired to wander around it yet after the night on the train that we head straight to the inn we were staying, picking up some junk food from McDonald's on the way.
We decided to find something fancy for dinner that night in Alice Springs, and we picked a restaurant randomly from the local tourists' handbook we got from the information centre. Well the dinner was not cheap, but we waited for 45 minutes before we got any food after ordering, and I decided not to tip.
On the way back there was a few aboriginal people wandering around the street but we just kept going until we are back in the room.
The following day was supposed to be a relaxing one. And it is, probably more relaxing than I've planned before. I woke up around 10AM and went around the main streets of the town scouting, confirming our tour the next morning in the shop where I got the first non-mobile internet access in a few days.
Going back to the inn Shandi's still sleeping. We finally set off on the streets and I finally lost my virginity on Red Rooster, although I've went past it quite a few times and wondered if I should go in. Well I actually appreciate the fillets there, way better than the ones sold in KFC I have to say.
After brunch we went out wandering around the streets in town again, visiting all those gallery/art store of the aboriginals we could. I wasn't quite interested in the Royal Flying Doctor thing and the Reptile Museum, but rather the old telegraph station, but when Shandi heard that it was a 40 mins walk away she just refused to go... We went to Woolworth's for some snack and water that we were supposed to bring with us the next day on the tour. In the evening, junk food in KFC, not impressive hey, we've had all the junk food we could in town, except Hungry Jack's which is too far away in the highway.
The next morning we had to wake up at 5AM, we've been waiting at the gate of the inn for like 40mins before the bus arrived and picked us up. Well this is probably the only dissatisfying thing happened during the next 3 days of our tour.
The tour guide/driver Hayley had always been an energetic girl and whenever she speaks she start with 'Wee~' or some sort of opera, cute. Well anyway with her guide our 3-day tour'd been a really exciting and fun one.
Well I'm obviously not suppose to remember everyone elses' names, even if I do I wasn't keen to list. Just see them pop out later.
Day 1 was to visit the King's Canyon, which is 5 hr drive away from Alice Springs. Had a pretty light lunch on the tour bus and we are ready to climb that thing! The first part of the tour was called 'heart-attack hill', which is quite physically demanding with intense and steep uphills. It wasn't very hard for me at all so I was among the first 5 to reach the top of the hill in our group. Shandi barely made it and headed back later for the easy walk, shame.
The canyon was in sort of a surreal atmosphere, with sedimental domes and wicked vegetations along the way. It'd been really hard to capture the depth of the canyon with a camera standing atop, that you will have to experience it. Very dangerous to get close to the edge though as Hayley says, the canyon itself was formed by all those sediments chipping and falling. I got to know a pretty nice guy called Andy from Germany in our group during the climb and found ourselves going on pretty well.
After the climb up such a wonder we headed off to the campsite close to Curtin Springs, Along which we went into a bush to get firewoods for the night. We got quite a few of them that Hayley started to call us 'greedy'. The fire that night was nice and warm and we actually saved our time collecting firewoods the next day as the woods we collected lasted that long.
Day 2 was Kata Tjuta, this is the mot magical day of our tour, although we paid for it. We didn't suppose we would catch a rain shower here, not even a shower, I would rather call it drizzle. Kata Tjuta is so much different from whatever postcards it had appeared on. It is the rain that made this tour so much different. Streams of water started to run out of the holes on the domes and the whole scenery started to look like Lijiang in Guangxi back in China where the mountains and water was considered the best in such drizzles. The price for the rain is, well, my postcards and stamps got all soaked although there wasn't much of them at all... My only jacket brought out for the tour was also soaked, as well as my tee changed in the morning. I was surprised that my MiniDisc player was not affected although it was also wet and I didn't realize that until I am on the flight back Melbourne days after.
Luckily the sun's out after lunch, when we were supposed to visit the cultural centre of the aboriginals where we were introduced to their world...
***
Well sort of my own opinion towards the aboriginals in central Australia, they are mostly polite and nice as far as I see, although they smell funny. They don't actually do harm unless threatened. But there is something about there religions which practice strict gender segregation such as men and women must use different tools and there are sacred areas which if owned by men, women must not see. Heavy penalties would be applied if such rules are broken, including blinding the offender's eye etc. They say they never climb Uluru but there're actually paintings left all over the rock since the ancient times and they actually admit that it was their ancestors who did the paintings. There are places on Uluru where photographing is prohibited and penalized while although they were not happy they still allow climbing of the rock when the condition allows, which might seem a more severe insult to the rock than photographing, suggested Andy. This might sound ridiculous towards the general public, but still, we are to appreciate and applause for the difference as we could.
***
I sort of rushed my visit in the cultural centre actually as the sun's out, and headed outside to get my jacket sundried, it did not long after. And I am pretty happy with that.
The sun was hidden again when we arrive the sunset deck for Uluru for a bit of fun, the rain started to fall again but just when we were bit disappointed the most amazing thing appears - rainbows beyond Uluru, not one, but TWO! We were all amazed by this and we just can't help taking heaps of photos of this wonderful trio. My lens was not wide enough to get the whole of them though it was already a 28mm.
We spent the evening in the camp area in the national park, where we shared some alcohol and stuff, and when it gets late we started asking each other those wicked questions which no one's gonna solve. Well I've only got some easy ones though.
The dew soaked the outside of our swags the next morning when we were heading to the sunrise, and Andy told me I was snoring loudly the night before...
So the last day was all about Uluru, the sunrise and then the base walk. The weather was pretty pleasing that they actually allow climbing of Uluru, most of us chose not to though in the respectation of the customs of the aboriginals.
The base walk was generally calm and even uneventful. with many places marked as sacred sites which were not to be photographed. I was still regretting that I couldn't take a photo of a wicked face like cave on the rock, as it was a sacred site. Uluru showed us the other side of it, far from the impression we've all got from those postcards, and far from just a rock, you'll totally have to see it to know what I meant here.
The trip was getting to an end after the walk and we drove back to Alice Springs. I attended the dinner with some of the mates I met in the tour and Hayley, the food and beer was both amazing, we went to Ryan's house after that for his birthday the next day. What a night!
The day after we wandered around Alice Springs again and were really depressed to have found out that the beanie festival was too far for us to attend as our flight would leave pretty soon... And there was a shop in Todd Mall selling all those wicked beanies and displaying the winners of the years before, it was really sad that they are not for sale but we took a few pictures in them anyway so that we would regret less.
Tiger Airlines was pretty stingy and greedy that they are probably the only airline that actually weight your hand luggage, but it does its job anyway, so we arrived Melbourne quite a bit earlier than expected. The kid sitting next to me showed me some wicked scenes from the Incredibles with his portable DVD player, although I don't actually have the sound they seem pretty funny. We made the right decision in the airport to have used a cab instead of bus as it was proved cheaper and way faster, which doesn't actually need to be proved.
As soon as we got bored of taking photos of each other we are in Geelong, this city did not look nice from the train station but I loved it when I watched it from the top of hills down the coastline the first time I saw it years ago. This is actually only just the second time. The Overland then turned northwest towards the border of VIC and SA. We are in Bordertown not long after midday, which is already a few km's into South Australia. I realized that I forgot my cell phone charger back in Melbourne, which is far too late... I switched off the phone immediately though, tried to save the battery, I managed to get it working when I want during my whole trip.
Nothing much that exciting onboard but there is a German guy taking out his lunch which amazed us... He brought on toasts not spread with jams, peanut butter and Nuttella, but whole jars instead! Well, we stalked him for the whole time he spent on his lunch, although sometimes we would be distracted to the herds of sheep and horse and cows and stuff.
The most exciting thing in the afternoon would be that we saw the Murray for the first time. On the Murray Bridge. Really beautiful river, although whenever I press the shutter there would be an iron bar appearing at the centre of the picture which is quite disappointing, we did get a couple of reasonable shots of the river. I would consider the Murray definitely worth a visit, in depth. We arrived Adelaide at dusk and just in time for my friend Will to pick me up in the station. I haven't seen him for two years now...
Adelaide is a big town instead of a city, as many people had told me. A pretty nice and quiet one though not to my surprise. Will drove us around after dinner and I could feel that it'd not been long after I realize we are going pass the same places over and over again. The next day was basically Glenelg, the beach. As our onwards travel of the Ghan set out at midday, we didn't see much of Adelaide in the daylight at all.
The Ghan is not quite a pleasant to travel on with a seat, but that's all we could afford.
Beautiful scene along the way though. with the introduction to the towns we passed, and impressive country style scenes until sunset when we reach Port Augusta, the 'crossroad of Australia' and once almost chosen the capital of Australia. Just off the station we stopped aside a sort of tree-lined road, still, for more than an hour for some reason, and when we set out again, it was all dark. I was amazed we still made it on time to Alice Springs.
We had our dinner in the diner that evening, not as bad as I'd imagined luckily. What actually annoyed us was that there are kids onboard kept faking their cries, without a proper reason even after the light's dimmed for sleep, the seat is not anywhere close to comfy for sleeping, I struggled quite a bit to fall asleep and I didn't get much of sleep at all that night.
I slept pretty poorly and started realizing the very first light out the window, the view has definitely changed, with some sort of grass and rock-like stuff (which later proved to be yet another kind of weird vegetation with more light) moving quickly past the window in the twilight.
We are in the outback.
I pictured the whole process of the sunrise although it was not quite impressive with my digital compact camera with so little light available. When the day brighten itself up, the sort of savannah view amazed us. We were imagining nothing but desert on this land, but well, the arid vegetation still exist and they did adapted themselves up to this sort of impossible environment. The SA-NT border was not far after dawn, which is no more than a weird sign.
I picked up a Latte in the diner which is tasteless while Shandi's still asleep. We crossed Finke river just before approaching Alice Springs, the so-called river is just a sand bed, no water at all, the riverbed is actually sandier than anywhere else in sight. When arriving in Alice springs at around 1pm, we are all shattered with hurtful bones...
Adelaide would have been a metropolis if it were comparing to Alice Springs, but anyway I was here for the outback instead of the skyline. It is obviously a quiet small town brought up almost solely by tourism. We were too tired to wander around it yet after the night on the train that we head straight to the inn we were staying, picking up some junk food from McDonald's on the way.
We decided to find something fancy for dinner that night in Alice Springs, and we picked a restaurant randomly from the local tourists' handbook we got from the information centre. Well the dinner was not cheap, but we waited for 45 minutes before we got any food after ordering, and I decided not to tip.
On the way back there was a few aboriginal people wandering around the street but we just kept going until we are back in the room.
The following day was supposed to be a relaxing one. And it is, probably more relaxing than I've planned before. I woke up around 10AM and went around the main streets of the town scouting, confirming our tour the next morning in the shop where I got the first non-mobile internet access in a few days.
Going back to the inn Shandi's still sleeping. We finally set off on the streets and I finally lost my virginity on Red Rooster, although I've went past it quite a few times and wondered if I should go in. Well I actually appreciate the fillets there, way better than the ones sold in KFC I have to say.
After brunch we went out wandering around the streets in town again, visiting all those gallery/art store of the aboriginals we could. I wasn't quite interested in the Royal Flying Doctor thing and the Reptile Museum, but rather the old telegraph station, but when Shandi heard that it was a 40 mins walk away she just refused to go... We went to Woolworth's for some snack and water that we were supposed to bring with us the next day on the tour. In the evening, junk food in KFC, not impressive hey, we've had all the junk food we could in town, except Hungry Jack's which is too far away in the highway.
The next morning we had to wake up at 5AM, we've been waiting at the gate of the inn for like 40mins before the bus arrived and picked us up. Well this is probably the only dissatisfying thing happened during the next 3 days of our tour.
The tour guide/driver Hayley had always been an energetic girl and whenever she speaks she start with 'Wee~' or some sort of opera, cute. Well anyway with her guide our 3-day tour'd been a really exciting and fun one.
Well I'm obviously not suppose to remember everyone elses' names, even if I do I wasn't keen to list. Just see them pop out later.
Day 1 was to visit the King's Canyon, which is 5 hr drive away from Alice Springs. Had a pretty light lunch on the tour bus and we are ready to climb that thing! The first part of the tour was called 'heart-attack hill', which is quite physically demanding with intense and steep uphills. It wasn't very hard for me at all so I was among the first 5 to reach the top of the hill in our group. Shandi barely made it and headed back later for the easy walk, shame.
The canyon was in sort of a surreal atmosphere, with sedimental domes and wicked vegetations along the way. It'd been really hard to capture the depth of the canyon with a camera standing atop, that you will have to experience it. Very dangerous to get close to the edge though as Hayley says, the canyon itself was formed by all those sediments chipping and falling. I got to know a pretty nice guy called Andy from Germany in our group during the climb and found ourselves going on pretty well.
After the climb up such a wonder we headed off to the campsite close to Curtin Springs, Along which we went into a bush to get firewoods for the night. We got quite a few of them that Hayley started to call us 'greedy'. The fire that night was nice and warm and we actually saved our time collecting firewoods the next day as the woods we collected lasted that long.
Day 2 was Kata Tjuta, this is the mot magical day of our tour, although we paid for it. We didn't suppose we would catch a rain shower here, not even a shower, I would rather call it drizzle. Kata Tjuta is so much different from whatever postcards it had appeared on. It is the rain that made this tour so much different. Streams of water started to run out of the holes on the domes and the whole scenery started to look like Lijiang in Guangxi back in China where the mountains and water was considered the best in such drizzles. The price for the rain is, well, my postcards and stamps got all soaked although there wasn't much of them at all... My only jacket brought out for the tour was also soaked, as well as my tee changed in the morning. I was surprised that my MiniDisc player was not affected although it was also wet and I didn't realize that until I am on the flight back Melbourne days after.
Luckily the sun's out after lunch, when we were supposed to visit the cultural centre of the aboriginals where we were introduced to their world...
***
Well sort of my own opinion towards the aboriginals in central Australia, they are mostly polite and nice as far as I see, although they smell funny. They don't actually do harm unless threatened. But there is something about there religions which practice strict gender segregation such as men and women must use different tools and there are sacred areas which if owned by men, women must not see. Heavy penalties would be applied if such rules are broken, including blinding the offender's eye etc. They say they never climb Uluru but there're actually paintings left all over the rock since the ancient times and they actually admit that it was their ancestors who did the paintings. There are places on Uluru where photographing is prohibited and penalized while although they were not happy they still allow climbing of the rock when the condition allows, which might seem a more severe insult to the rock than photographing, suggested Andy. This might sound ridiculous towards the general public, but still, we are to appreciate and applause for the difference as we could.
***
I sort of rushed my visit in the cultural centre actually as the sun's out, and headed outside to get my jacket sundried, it did not long after. And I am pretty happy with that.
The sun was hidden again when we arrive the sunset deck for Uluru for a bit of fun, the rain started to fall again but just when we were bit disappointed the most amazing thing appears - rainbows beyond Uluru, not one, but TWO! We were all amazed by this and we just can't help taking heaps of photos of this wonderful trio. My lens was not wide enough to get the whole of them though it was already a 28mm.
We spent the evening in the camp area in the national park, where we shared some alcohol and stuff, and when it gets late we started asking each other those wicked questions which no one's gonna solve. Well I've only got some easy ones though.
The dew soaked the outside of our swags the next morning when we were heading to the sunrise, and Andy told me I was snoring loudly the night before...
So the last day was all about Uluru, the sunrise and then the base walk. The weather was pretty pleasing that they actually allow climbing of Uluru, most of us chose not to though in the respectation of the customs of the aboriginals.
The base walk was generally calm and even uneventful. with many places marked as sacred sites which were not to be photographed. I was still regretting that I couldn't take a photo of a wicked face like cave on the rock, as it was a sacred site. Uluru showed us the other side of it, far from the impression we've all got from those postcards, and far from just a rock, you'll totally have to see it to know what I meant here.
The trip was getting to an end after the walk and we drove back to Alice Springs. I attended the dinner with some of the mates I met in the tour and Hayley, the food and beer was both amazing, we went to Ryan's house after that for his birthday the next day. What a night!
The day after we wandered around Alice Springs again and were really depressed to have found out that the beanie festival was too far for us to attend as our flight would leave pretty soon... And there was a shop in Todd Mall selling all those wicked beanies and displaying the winners of the years before, it was really sad that they are not for sale but we took a few pictures in them anyway so that we would regret less.
Tiger Airlines was pretty stingy and greedy that they are probably the only airline that actually weight your hand luggage, but it does its job anyway, so we arrived Melbourne quite a bit earlier than expected. The kid sitting next to me showed me some wicked scenes from the Incredibles with his portable DVD player, although I don't actually have the sound they seem pretty funny. We made the right decision in the airport to have used a cab instead of bus as it was proved cheaper and way faster, which doesn't actually need to be proved.
Friday, June 12, 2009
Another Blog?
I am actually considering opening another blog, which will be in Chinese. BUT, this new blog is probably pure political and anti-China. I don't actually think that I have such a brave heart or anything like that to be attacking my shamefully 'own' country while I am still practically its citizen. What I have in hand is my own conscience to fight against those brain-washing state-run media and education within the country and the brain-washed pitiful youths turning a blind eye to all the facts, believing only in the lies that they were told by the government. I wasn't actually willing to do this, their minds have virtually nothing to do with myself except that I might recognize and get annoyed on the internet their ignorant and shameless comments about almost anything.
College students in China are educated as if never, both academic and lifestyle wise. Plagiarism is the basic form of assignments all the way up to master degrees, and probably even some of the doctorial degrees. Not cheating in the exams is rare. For those arts degrees involving history, politics or philosophy, the government's voice is the only one. Don't get surprised if you ever read Marxism as a compulsory subject for mechanical engineering students in any of the universities in China. While the intakes of universities are increasing every year, the already underpaid graduates are placed in even harder situation in terms of finding a job. Reverse-elimination is the rule of the society that hypocrites get promoted while the real hardworking people never would have a chance until they learn the art of hypocrisy and bribing. Scums take the leadership of the country.
If I did open such a blog I might have to reduce the frequency of update in this blog, which I currently set to myself as at least once per ten days on average by the month. Or actually, I should just write all I wish to in English although mine's not the perfect so that I am letting English speaking people know more about what China is like in the fact. Yes I do have access to more facts than most Chinese people as I am out of the government census of the internet in China.
College students in China are educated as if never, both academic and lifestyle wise. Plagiarism is the basic form of assignments all the way up to master degrees, and probably even some of the doctorial degrees. Not cheating in the exams is rare. For those arts degrees involving history, politics or philosophy, the government's voice is the only one. Don't get surprised if you ever read Marxism as a compulsory subject for mechanical engineering students in any of the universities in China. While the intakes of universities are increasing every year, the already underpaid graduates are placed in even harder situation in terms of finding a job. Reverse-elimination is the rule of the society that hypocrites get promoted while the real hardworking people never would have a chance until they learn the art of hypocrisy and bribing. Scums take the leadership of the country.
If I did open such a blog I might have to reduce the frequency of update in this blog, which I currently set to myself as at least once per ten days on average by the month. Or actually, I should just write all I wish to in English although mine's not the perfect so that I am letting English speaking people know more about what China is like in the fact. Yes I do have access to more facts than most Chinese people as I am out of the government census of the internet in China.
Monday, June 8, 2009
What Am I?
I often wondered. What am I to have been such a devil, hypocrite and slut? I love to do things that insult myself and then going back of them to insult myself again, such as writing about them right here right now. I always do something inappropriate in the wrong time and wrong place that force people to have fake impression of myself, and when I realizes that and wished to correct it always get worse until the exact point of the collapse of friendship, relationship or whatever. I fall into any random person's embrace, without thinking of what impression would I get from my loved ones. Yes they don't love me, but I am making every effort to image myself worse to them and then hoping like an idiot that one day they will turn to me. How ridiculous!
I am actually camming someone at this time, you were pretty drunk at 4AM and horny before going to bed. Saying that you 'lied' when requesting me to show face only and is now asking me to take everything off. doesn't have a cam yourself though and I've already shown you this time last week while he was drunk just like today. Well I did it again anyway... Hoping that I won't be that stupid next week to have answered you in facebook. Yes I do feel shame for myself doing that to someone I've never met in person, let alone having any feelings. That person's still only a few pictures and some flirty words, not much more than that if there's any at all to me.
About telling the truth, I wasn't aware so far what should I actually tell and use white lies or other truths to cover truths that I don't wanna tell, making the impression that I've never lied. This is probably a classic hypocrite trick but as far as I know most people does that, whether they do aware or not. Well what was real amazing was that I am able to tell a truth which sounds like I'm telling a lie without awaring what would that statement affect the person I was talking to, especially the ones that should be covered by other truths.
I don't know if people talk to themselves like me when no one's noticing. I would talk to myself while I was walking alone on the streets or something like that, I talk to myself about everything, the things I see on the streets, where am I going, even gossips and speculations about people. I would be extremely embarrassed while caught doing that, I myself, on the other hand, never caught anyone doing that so I supposed this might have been the problem with my own self.
Love, what a word! I don't know if I am still believing in it. I'll have to have a reason to do that, and I've already got a few reasons like that and believed, and when the reason's gone my belief's gone. And I started to doubt what should I actually do when facing another reason, if believing is always finally turning out doomed, why should I still believe? Yes there are examples around us, but who knows if it was the bubbles just last long enough for a lifetime, given more, it will still break into those powdery droplets? Well, wishing for a bubble like that sounds like a choice, but it is none the less a bubble, not the so-called eternal love.
My heart? Astrology would suggest that Cancers would always put someone they used to love deep in their heart, which is why they will shed a tear passing by the long bench they dated 30 years ago. This is partially true to me. The ones I used to have loved, I mean with my life, seems to always occupy a corner of my heart, while thinking of them I could easily get moved. But none of these people had actually have a relationship with me. Those who have, I actually know from the start that they are not what I want, I go ahead for various reasons, whatever it is, after the relationship goes to an end, they would always be replaced by new ones. I just haven't met anyone whom I had a relationship with that I loved with my life, or if I were to show my positivity towards life, not yet.
I am actually camming someone at this time, you were pretty drunk at 4AM and horny before going to bed. Saying that you 'lied' when requesting me to show face only and is now asking me to take everything off. doesn't have a cam yourself though and I've already shown you this time last week while he was drunk just like today. Well I did it again anyway... Hoping that I won't be that stupid next week to have answered you in facebook. Yes I do feel shame for myself doing that to someone I've never met in person, let alone having any feelings. That person's still only a few pictures and some flirty words, not much more than that if there's any at all to me.
About telling the truth, I wasn't aware so far what should I actually tell and use white lies or other truths to cover truths that I don't wanna tell, making the impression that I've never lied. This is probably a classic hypocrite trick but as far as I know most people does that, whether they do aware or not. Well what was real amazing was that I am able to tell a truth which sounds like I'm telling a lie without awaring what would that statement affect the person I was talking to, especially the ones that should be covered by other truths.
I don't know if people talk to themselves like me when no one's noticing. I would talk to myself while I was walking alone on the streets or something like that, I talk to myself about everything, the things I see on the streets, where am I going, even gossips and speculations about people. I would be extremely embarrassed while caught doing that, I myself, on the other hand, never caught anyone doing that so I supposed this might have been the problem with my own self.
Love, what a word! I don't know if I am still believing in it. I'll have to have a reason to do that, and I've already got a few reasons like that and believed, and when the reason's gone my belief's gone. And I started to doubt what should I actually do when facing another reason, if believing is always finally turning out doomed, why should I still believe? Yes there are examples around us, but who knows if it was the bubbles just last long enough for a lifetime, given more, it will still break into those powdery droplets? Well, wishing for a bubble like that sounds like a choice, but it is none the less a bubble, not the so-called eternal love.
My heart? Astrology would suggest that Cancers would always put someone they used to love deep in their heart, which is why they will shed a tear passing by the long bench they dated 30 years ago. This is partially true to me. The ones I used to have loved, I mean with my life, seems to always occupy a corner of my heart, while thinking of them I could easily get moved. But none of these people had actually have a relationship with me. Those who have, I actually know from the start that they are not what I want, I go ahead for various reasons, whatever it is, after the relationship goes to an end, they would always be replaced by new ones. I just haven't met anyone whom I had a relationship with that I loved with my life, or if I were to show my positivity towards life, not yet.
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Ups and Downs
Haven't been feeling this way for quite a long time now, and there's too much happening these days... Don't even know where to start...
Sad things first then. I thought I did not bad, really, although I wasn't looking at the highest grades, I mean, at least I don't deserve a fail for that exam. I did study, I did those sample questions, I did attend the revision session, I did think I know how to answer those questions and I did have enough time for them as I was actually the first to have handed in the paper. The results of that exam have been delaying and I haven't been panicking because I thought I did OK. And now at the end of the semester I got my result as failed and was told that there's a hurdle on that (so I practically failed the subject but only if I did well in the finals I stand a chance for a supplementary or probably a straight pass (which is implicated by the lecturer but obviously not the sense of hurdle))? I can't imagine that.
And the second one is barely my own stupidity. I was attending a ferry party and was required to dress formal, so that I went shopping for a jacket or something after work on Saturday. Well I was planning to get something warmer before that as well. What did I finally get? A pretty slim fit long Brooklyn, not warm and not quite formal... It was nice to be worn in that party, but it wasn't of much more uses, I can't even cycle in it. And I've thrown $299 on this thing which is definitely not worth itafter I realized I was paying retail for a beautiful crap. Yes it does look nice, just not worth it. And the sales terms in Politix was fucked up that they don't accept my return addressing that I've worn it... Well I was thinking of selling it on eBay for say $200 or just keep it to myself... I still do want a warmer jacket and a more formal stuff though, as my graduation's approaching that I might have to start hunting for jobs.
Yeah mentioning jobs, I was surprised to have seen that the Australian economy has escaped recession by increasing 0.4% of GDP in the first quarter of 2009, that was not necessarily a good thing for me honestly. A delayed recession? that means I'll be in a worse situation when I graduate by the end of the year. Otherwise if Australia is actually in a healthy growing and barely dipped into recession it'll probably be better for me. So I would say we'll have to wait for the report of the second quarter to decide.
OK some good news, probably not news anymore. I've already booked everything for our trip to Uluru so it is now all confirmed. Will be departing 20th of June, early in the morning on the Overland, and arrive in Adelaide in late afternoon. There will be an overnight stay in Adelaide but I don't think we could see much at all. The next day we'll be on the Ghan by midday and head for Alice Springs. If we were lucky we'll definitely go for the whistle tours on the way. Arriving in Alice Springs the next afternoon, and we will go around the small desert town for a relaxing day the day after I think. And on 24th we'll be up early again for the camping trip to Uluru for three days, which I'm sure they will arrange well for us. Back to Alice Springs on 26th and stay overnight again then flight back to Melbourne the next afternoon, hopefully in time for the course dinner in Docklands with classmates?
The place I've just moved into was a pretty large house, with two homestays (a boy and a girl) and me as a tenant, plus the landlady and her parents, such a big family... The house was pretty nice I have to say, and rent is acceptible. The only thing would be that a friend of mine is asking me to take a house with him, which means I'll have to move soon if that was the case :S It waas until this moving time that I realized how much stuff I've actually got with me all these two years living in that shabby flat! I still haven't unpacked my Wii after moving to this house for 5 days, maybe I'm getting over it? Who knows.
I should be studying for today but I spent much of the time typing all these stupid stuff... I have sinned!
Sad things first then. I thought I did not bad, really, although I wasn't looking at the highest grades, I mean, at least I don't deserve a fail for that exam. I did study, I did those sample questions, I did attend the revision session, I did think I know how to answer those questions and I did have enough time for them as I was actually the first to have handed in the paper. The results of that exam have been delaying and I haven't been panicking because I thought I did OK. And now at the end of the semester I got my result as failed and was told that there's a hurdle on that (so I practically failed the subject but only if I did well in the finals I stand a chance for a supplementary or probably a straight pass (which is implicated by the lecturer but obviously not the sense of hurdle))? I can't imagine that.
And the second one is barely my own stupidity. I was attending a ferry party and was required to dress formal, so that I went shopping for a jacket or something after work on Saturday. Well I was planning to get something warmer before that as well. What did I finally get? A pretty slim fit long Brooklyn, not warm and not quite formal... It was nice to be worn in that party, but it wasn't of much more uses, I can't even cycle in it. And I've thrown $299 on this thing which is definitely not worth itafter I realized I was paying retail for a beautiful crap. Yes it does look nice, just not worth it. And the sales terms in Politix was fucked up that they don't accept my return addressing that I've worn it... Well I was thinking of selling it on eBay for say $200 or just keep it to myself... I still do want a warmer jacket and a more formal stuff though, as my graduation's approaching that I might have to start hunting for jobs.
Yeah mentioning jobs, I was surprised to have seen that the Australian economy has escaped recession by increasing 0.4% of GDP in the first quarter of 2009, that was not necessarily a good thing for me honestly. A delayed recession? that means I'll be in a worse situation when I graduate by the end of the year. Otherwise if Australia is actually in a healthy growing and barely dipped into recession it'll probably be better for me. So I would say we'll have to wait for the report of the second quarter to decide.
OK some good news, probably not news anymore. I've already booked everything for our trip to Uluru so it is now all confirmed. Will be departing 20th of June, early in the morning on the Overland, and arrive in Adelaide in late afternoon. There will be an overnight stay in Adelaide but I don't think we could see much at all. The next day we'll be on the Ghan by midday and head for Alice Springs. If we were lucky we'll definitely go for the whistle tours on the way. Arriving in Alice Springs the next afternoon, and we will go around the small desert town for a relaxing day the day after I think. And on 24th we'll be up early again for the camping trip to Uluru for three days, which I'm sure they will arrange well for us. Back to Alice Springs on 26th and stay overnight again then flight back to Melbourne the next afternoon, hopefully in time for the course dinner in Docklands with classmates?
The place I've just moved into was a pretty large house, with two homestays (a boy and a girl) and me as a tenant, plus the landlady and her parents, such a big family... The house was pretty nice I have to say, and rent is acceptible. The only thing would be that a friend of mine is asking me to take a house with him, which means I'll have to move soon if that was the case :S It waas until this moving time that I realized how much stuff I've actually got with me all these two years living in that shabby flat! I still haven't unpacked my Wii after moving to this house for 5 days, maybe I'm getting over it? Who knows.
I should be studying for today but I spent much of the time typing all these stupid stuff... I have sinned!
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Settling...
It's been such a busy, furious and frustrating period for me, and it seems this period is coming to an end. The period of looking for houses everywhere, rushing through assignments, not having enough sleep every single day and working not-there is coming to an end. I've finally got a new home in Coburg, which is a bit far from the uni than my current place, but still seems a pretty nice one to live in. I've handed in all the assignments and hopefully did not too bad. I'll have a presentation later today and a concert tonight, then move tmr. I've already started packing my stuff for moving and I will move on Friday. Work on weekends as usual and then a big birthday party of a friend on Sunday night. I will still have to find something 'formal' to dress for that party which I don't know what to...
Well it's still pretty busy a week for me but I hope it will get better soon... And the exam's coming as well... But I'll at least have several days of relaxing first I guess, to insist on my laid-back or slack if you like type of lifestyle.
Well it's still pretty busy a week for me but I hope it will get better soon... And the exam's coming as well... But I'll at least have several days of relaxing first I guess, to insist on my laid-back or slack if you like type of lifestyle.
Thursday, May 14, 2009
House Hunting
In one word, PAINFUL.
I'm not taking a whole house or signing a contract for a whole year obviously, so I'm not going to agents. What's left? Internet. Tried many of the sites so far... Really struggling to find a good place... Almost got some of them and then suddenly they are gone (sometimes it's my fault though)...
And I got heaps of scams as well... many people 'happened to have' a very nice house in a great place leasing at an incredibly low price, and they 'happened not to' be in Melbourne 'on a project' or stuff like that and asks you to send your bond overseas then they promise they will send you the key. They 'know' that this is hard and they understand 'trust' is very important between the 'two of us'. I noticed that most of the scams are written in a same manner, and are even using the same words and similar sentences, all that was different was their name and address. It was this kind of similarity that alerted me...
Well anyway, just wish me luck...
I'm not taking a whole house or signing a contract for a whole year obviously, so I'm not going to agents. What's left? Internet. Tried many of the sites so far... Really struggling to find a good place... Almost got some of them and then suddenly they are gone (sometimes it's my fault though)...
And I got heaps of scams as well... many people 'happened to have' a very nice house in a great place leasing at an incredibly low price, and they 'happened not to' be in Melbourne 'on a project' or stuff like that and asks you to send your bond overseas then they promise they will send you the key. They 'know' that this is hard and they understand 'trust' is very important between the 'two of us'. I noticed that most of the scams are written in a same manner, and are even using the same words and similar sentences, all that was different was their name and address. It was this kind of similarity that alerted me...
Well anyway, just wish me luck...
Saturday, May 2, 2009
ACN?
Well went to an introduction to that thing on Tuesday, where one of my high school mates that I met coincidentally in Melbourne a year before took me. Well that introduction is obviously made tempting and welcoming to newbies like me, but I was calm through it. I don't understand the need of standing up applause for someone who made big money out of yourself, what's the point? And yes I do believe some people did made big money from this business, simply by keep encouraging people to join the team, and tell them how to ask people to join their team, making it terribly big and make a lot of money from it. It seems easy as many of such people showed themselves up in the introduction, thing is, the ones who failed in this didn't show up, and the 'successful' people's huge earnings are based more or less on them.
Pyramid scam? Probably. $500 to have you started, plus you are encouraged to becoming a customer of ACN's mobile and probably internet or land line yourself as a start, which costs money too. I've read here that US representatives have to pay annual installments on top of the fees of joining, They did not mention a single word of this to me either in the introduction or after that in the 'persuasion' event. I don't know if this fee exists in Australia but obviously they wouldn't want you to know prior even if it does.
As the 'persuasion' goes late they started to become aggressive and started pushing me. A girl who joined the team for a month told me that she quit 2 of her part time jobs earning her like $1000 per week for this thing. I immediately got cautious at this: OK you are a year 2 commerce student in our uni, I know that commerce is an easy course but our uni would not get too easy on you as any other courses. As I am soon graduating what I was looking at was around $40k per year which is about average salary for a new graduate and I know how much time do I have while I was in year 2 even if my study is obviously busier than commerce. You are still studying and the part time jobs you quit got you more money than a full time one I was looking for? There are possibilities of course (which I'm not willing to mention). Maybe I should not doubt if ACN had got you more than that in a month, I would not believe the the part time jobs you described earn you that much even if you are telling the truth. I simply don't believe.
I don't actually mind being ACN's customer just to try it though, as my contract with 3 is over. I signed a month-to-month plan with them and they are using Optus network which I was to switch to, well it doesn't hurt right? I could cancel it if I am not satisfied. And when I started to sign those stuff my high school mate told me I am her first customer besides herself, and she's been in for two weeks. OK, back to that one-month girl, how much could you actually earn? She's got a pin saying ETT, which is the first achievement you could get in system, the requirements? 5 customer points and two down-lines. I doubt this would even get her $50 per month. She would wear the ETL (next level) pin if she did achieve that right?
I would see though. I will have to know whether they are selling genuine good products like Amway did, and I'll then consider making money out of it, with my own belief on the product. I did not tell anyone about this company yet, time will tell.
Pyramid scam? Probably. $500 to have you started, plus you are encouraged to becoming a customer of ACN's mobile and probably internet or land line yourself as a start, which costs money too. I've read here that US representatives have to pay annual installments on top of the fees of joining, They did not mention a single word of this to me either in the introduction or after that in the 'persuasion' event. I don't know if this fee exists in Australia but obviously they wouldn't want you to know prior even if it does.
As the 'persuasion' goes late they started to become aggressive and started pushing me. A girl who joined the team for a month told me that she quit 2 of her part time jobs earning her like $1000 per week for this thing. I immediately got cautious at this: OK you are a year 2 commerce student in our uni, I know that commerce is an easy course but our uni would not get too easy on you as any other courses. As I am soon graduating what I was looking at was around $40k per year which is about average salary for a new graduate and I know how much time do I have while I was in year 2 even if my study is obviously busier than commerce. You are still studying and the part time jobs you quit got you more money than a full time one I was looking for? There are possibilities of course (which I'm not willing to mention). Maybe I should not doubt if ACN had got you more than that in a month, I would not believe the the part time jobs you described earn you that much even if you are telling the truth. I simply don't believe.
I don't actually mind being ACN's customer just to try it though, as my contract with 3 is over. I signed a month-to-month plan with them and they are using Optus network which I was to switch to, well it doesn't hurt right? I could cancel it if I am not satisfied. And when I started to sign those stuff my high school mate told me I am her first customer besides herself, and she's been in for two weeks. OK, back to that one-month girl, how much could you actually earn? She's got a pin saying ETT, which is the first achievement you could get in system, the requirements? 5 customer points and two down-lines. I doubt this would even get her $50 per month. She would wear the ETL (next level) pin if she did achieve that right?
I would see though. I will have to know whether they are selling genuine good products like Amway did, and I'll then consider making money out of it, with my own belief on the product. I did not tell anyone about this company yet, time will tell.
Saturday, April 25, 2009
New One
I've actually been bit of regret purchasing this monster, but I did and there's no turning back anyway. It was in a two day sale with $150 off plus free speakers (I will sell the speakers as I've already got way better ones and hopefully get another $100 out of that)
Looking back I do think I did the right thing in terms of the price I got it for. The Studio XPS 435 which is just out is from over $2000 and with worse components, just better expandability and less noisy, with way larger chassis as well.
I've seen that many comment on this one that it's bit noisy, so I expected that and it's true. It is noisy but not that bad that you would throw it away. The expandability of it actually surprised me. The sales from Dell told me in the online chat that there would be only one PCI slot free so I was like 'well, I will not get a PCI WiFi card then, get a USB one instead and leave it for say a better sound card' and I did. But when I opened the chassis when it arrives, It actually come with 3 free PCI-Express x1 slots, well I only need one for a sound card anyway, probably a Creative X-Fi Extreme Music. Lucky I didn't get a PCI WiFi card prior cos that one doesn't actually fit in PCI-Express x1 slots...
There had been some frustration with the software side of this thing. The dardisk wasn't partitioned properly out of the factory, so I obviously have to divide it again and I actually had to hide the recovery partition myself! And after that I had to reinstall Windows, there are problems with the bluetooth thing comes with it, which I can't manage to install a so-called 'bluetooth peripheral', however it does not affect the bluetooth communication among my phone, my desktop and laptop so I just leave that alone. The Windows Vista 64-bit is bit weird, especially when it comes to media playing. I'll have to try to work this out some time. Or I'm actually considering Linux, I was to switch to Linux for my laptop but now I started to consider maybe this one is the thing that I should switch. The only thing worried me was the compatibility of the hardwares and stuff, I won't start until I got them relatively clear.
The power system is another concern of this desktop to me. It is probably more of a living room computer than a workplace one, I can't imagine my computer has lights on when it's not turned on but it has. The light itself is not a big issue, I could just turn the power supply off, but as most of my appliance is on the same surge protector I still want my phone charger on!
Hmm for the customized build part, I basically only chose the basic parts for it, although it's already more than appealing. The core components are Intel Core i7 920, X58+ICH10, 3G DDR3 1066MHz, 500G HDD, ATI Radeon 4850HD 512M. It is obviously not worth it to spend almost $1000 to upgrade to i7 940 as there's nothing much more than a 133MHz higher clock speed which I think I actually could overclock my CPU to if I want it cos the basics such as number of cores and amount of caches are absolutely the same, while the RAM and HDD could be added by myself easily later. It was said that a RAID series would match better with the performance of the system than a single hardisk, I guess so when it becomes the bottle neck of the system, with all those hi-end CPUs and graphic cards. I would actually prefer a graphic card by nVidia but it didn't provide me with a choice...
Well that's about it, my new computer. I've yet to try it on one of those hard core games but I'm definitely eager to get my hands on Diable III whenever it comes out, and I'm ready with this thing hopefully.
Sunday, April 12, 2009
A Worse than Nothing Holiday?
5 reports, 1 assignment and then 2 exams after the Easter break, WTF? It's supposed to be EASTER!! Wait is Easter about the break or the suffering? I am no Christian so it is all about the break for me obviously, I should be able to demand it and the piled-up homework is all that I get.
Now, the 3rd day in 10 is almost gone, what have I done towards those? None. I've been enjoying MY days off uni so far. Which would turn into greater suffer close to the due days of the homework and exams...
Anyway, I'm going to bed and call this a day, the 3rd of 10 days' break.
Now, the 3rd day in 10 is almost gone, what have I done towards those? None. I've been enjoying MY days off uni so far. Which would turn into greater suffer close to the due days of the homework and exams...
Anyway, I'm going to bed and call this a day, the 3rd of 10 days' break.
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Simply Moved
This is a very old piece of story. A shepherd was shepherding sheep on the hills and watching out for wolves. One day he was bored and tried to cry out 'The Wolf is coming!' and the whole village ran up the hill to help just to find out it was a lie. The shepherd found it funny and did it several times later, and people knew that he's lying and didn't bother running up the hill again. And there's one day that a wolf had really appeared, no matter how the shepherd cries no one runs up for help.
It's bit different in the McDull book, while nobody believes the shepherd again, there's still McDull running up the hills every time the shepherd cries. It wasn't that McDull does believe the shepherd, he once told the shepherd, 'If there's once that the wolf is really coming, just once, you will die. I lose nothing but weight running up every time you cry, I just don't want to risk your life.'
It's bit different in the McDull book, while nobody believes the shepherd again, there's still McDull running up the hills every time the shepherd cries. It wasn't that McDull does believe the shepherd, he once told the shepherd, 'If there's once that the wolf is really coming, just once, you will die. I lose nothing but weight running up every time you cry, I just don't want to risk your life.'
Thursday, April 2, 2009
The Yellow Peril
Problems? Definitely.
Solutions? Definitely.
Consequences? Who cares!
I do. Although this is only a political prophetic fiction written some twenty years ago, it points out the way China (and consequently the world) is heading towards. Actually some of the scenarios described in the fiction had already happened, such as self-burning on the Tiananmen Square and the reign of Democratic Progressive Party in Taiwan.
I don't know whether the once-in-800-years yellow peril would actually occur in this 21st century, which is exactly 800 years after Genghis Khan's famous western expedition into Europe.
The Yellow Peril described in the book was about the collapse of Chinese Communist Party government after the assassination of the Chinese president and a series of natural and nuclear disasters, which leads to the insane invasion of 1 billion refugees towards Russia, Western Europe, North America and Australia. The refugees are not armed, using its number and the sympathy of the Western World as weapons instead, while the crippling temporary government tried to negotiate with any nations on their way - Pakistan, Afghanistan, Japan, Philippines, Malaysia, Iran, Turkey etc., even Russia itself who wants toead the refugees out of the nation towards the United States, to force them to open up a corridor and give help of food and transportation on the way. Well they can't afford to deny hel lping, cos if they do, hundreds of millions of refugees will be forced to staying in the country that denies passage, which will definitely cripple that country promptly.
Well, such description of invasion is alarming, given that Chinese people (including myself) as well as other people from developing countries are already fleeing out of the country to the Western World in hope of a better life and escape from the corrupt government, a phenomenon known as Neo-Colonization.
What's ahead of us?
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Hope
After all those pains, there is hope.This is somewhere close to Kilmore on Hume Highway, where the Black Saturday bushfire had burnt over. I'd been passed this area like ten days after the fire, and it was all black, with nothing but desperate death all around, and the smoky odor sneaking into the car.
More than one month now, the pain and horror was obviously not gone far, we drove by this area again and I snapped this picture. There is green new leaves thriving up the burnt black trees although it is autumn. There is grass starting to grow, almost transparent but definitely green. There is hope.
I was very glad to see there is sense of life reviving this fire-ravaged ground, after all those savageness and extinction. Yes there is hope.
Saturday, March 14, 2009
7 months, 7 days
Well in a word, we were together for 7 days in our 7 month relationship. That's it.
I don't quite remember most of the other days that we'd not been together, but I do remember in every detail all the days I'd been with you. No matter how much it hurts thinking of you during those 'intervals', it's pure pleasure being with you. Those were the sweetest memories that were to last.
You are always as you are, no negotiations, even when it comes to our relationship, which is not your own matter. And I've learnt that, although I doubt you could eliminate me completely after you said that. I was to ask you if you ever think of me after breaking up, but I'll hold it up til later.
Distant relationships are not easy to maintain, I knew it from way before you. But it was our choice so I made myself believe in it, and I did til days before we broke up. I prayed for our relationship to last while I was back in China in a temple, and there's obviously not a need to redeem it as it doesn't work out just after two months. That's probably because I started doubting it first, you've only made the actual move.
I tried to make myself cry, I couldn't. I was stronger than I thought I was, I actually wished I could just cry and all is gone instead of having to occasionally panicking about things.
The Easter plan of me going up to meet you was obviously ruined. My friends from Gold Coast was so kind to have invited me up on hearing that but I was obviously booking too late while flight tickets had become so expensive I could not afford it (this was a reason and an excuse). And I feel pretty sorry not to have shown much interest at the invitation, don't get me wrong I was eager to go up and see you guys again, it's just not the right time at the moment...
I haven't quite got used to life without you, I don't know whom to think of in my sleepless nights. To be honest.
I don't quite remember most of the other days that we'd not been together, but I do remember in every detail all the days I'd been with you. No matter how much it hurts thinking of you during those 'intervals', it's pure pleasure being with you. Those were the sweetest memories that were to last.
You are always as you are, no negotiations, even when it comes to our relationship, which is not your own matter. And I've learnt that, although I doubt you could eliminate me completely after you said that. I was to ask you if you ever think of me after breaking up, but I'll hold it up til later.
Distant relationships are not easy to maintain, I knew it from way before you. But it was our choice so I made myself believe in it, and I did til days before we broke up. I prayed for our relationship to last while I was back in China in a temple, and there's obviously not a need to redeem it as it doesn't work out just after two months. That's probably because I started doubting it first, you've only made the actual move.
I tried to make myself cry, I couldn't. I was stronger than I thought I was, I actually wished I could just cry and all is gone instead of having to occasionally panicking about things.
The Easter plan of me going up to meet you was obviously ruined. My friends from Gold Coast was so kind to have invited me up on hearing that but I was obviously booking too late while flight tickets had become so expensive I could not afford it (this was a reason and an excuse). And I feel pretty sorry not to have shown much interest at the invitation, don't get me wrong I was eager to go up and see you guys again, it's just not the right time at the moment...
I haven't quite got used to life without you, I don't know whom to think of in my sleepless nights. To be honest.
Monday, March 9, 2009
Mr. Lonely
I first heard the song in a flash anime several years ago, in which the sound was very distorted due to excessive compression, it still impressed me. All I remember about that flash was that it was about a cat or two, but I remember the song very well.
I saw this movie not very long ago, like a year after its release. Not so impressive to be frank, probably worse than that flash. The story itself being bit complicated involving heaps of people who want to be somebody else. The blog from which I read about this movie says the blogger was moved by it and he cried, I didn't.
Yesterday was Sunday, and I worked as usual. It's been almost two weeks I haven't heard from you. Suffering from a still very bad sore throat I didn't bother talking much to customers. When the shop is empty I started to panic and changed my facebook status to the first verse of Mr. Lonely. I started singing that song very quietly in the shop and tears started welling up my eyes. And there's customers coming in. I didn't bother serving them yet, can't let them see me cry at least. I tried to open my eyes wide and accelerate the evaporation and it worked. But I can't help myself singing that song to myself, and when I sing it I will cry. I feel like I am Mr. Lonely.
Lonely, I'm Mr. Lonely. I have nobody, for my own. (Actually I'd rather sing the last one as 'I'm on my own')
I saw this movie not very long ago, like a year after its release. Not so impressive to be frank, probably worse than that flash. The story itself being bit complicated involving heaps of people who want to be somebody else. The blog from which I read about this movie says the blogger was moved by it and he cried, I didn't.
Yesterday was Sunday, and I worked as usual. It's been almost two weeks I haven't heard from you. Suffering from a still very bad sore throat I didn't bother talking much to customers. When the shop is empty I started to panic and changed my facebook status to the first verse of Mr. Lonely. I started singing that song very quietly in the shop and tears started welling up my eyes. And there's customers coming in. I didn't bother serving them yet, can't let them see me cry at least. I tried to open my eyes wide and accelerate the evaporation and it worked. But I can't help myself singing that song to myself, and when I sing it I will cry. I feel like I am Mr. Lonely.
Lonely, I'm Mr. Lonely. I have nobody, for my own. (Actually I'd rather sing the last one as 'I'm on my own')
Saturday, February 21, 2009
My First Day Back, from Fungi Fight to Ikea, Yesterday
It was during those record hot waves that had hit Melbourne while I was escaping it in the extreme cold in China, that one of our tubs broke and flooded the house... When my housemate's back a few days before me she told me online that there was mushrooms growing in her room and I started to worry. Luckily though she told me that one of our neighbours might have seen water coming out of the house and turned off our water supply so it's not that wet while she was back.
While I enter the house I could smell the mould obviously but I didn't know it was that bad until I had a shower and started checking my stuff, which seem absolutely normal at first sight. A pair of my shoes which I do love for years was moulded seriously and the suede was dyed by the moulds and became hard that I had to thow away. All five of my bags that I've left on my floor was moulded and I throwed two of them away, one other suede one costs a fortune so although I should throw it away I tried to rescue it, but it's main problem was not with moulds but with extended soaking that distorted the shape of it... I don't know what will I do about it yet. One of my bedside tables was so moulded that the drawers stuck in. My undies and socks inside were safe though, but I had to throw this drawer away obviously. The boxes which I've put past lecture notes and bills and stuff was also soaked through I had to dump the bottom part of it. Luckily the important documents were stored in a different place. Mystically my printer, subwoofer and Wii were all safe although they were all placed on the floor...
I tried to clean the carpet a bit, using those powders and vacuuming them spray disinfectants on, I could still smell the mould though...
I had a 2 hour nap on the flight so I should be tired but I decided to go to Ikea, at least I have to replace my drawers and those boxes. So there I went, taking a bus to Northcote then train to North Richmond then tram to Ikea. I saw what I want for the drawers right at the entrance of Ikea but I went around the showing rooms like three times trying to find it, asked the staff and they were as helpless and I had to get out to the entrance again to look at it, mark down the funny Swedish name and go back, I finally found that it was only showing in the marketplace though... It was a good choice though, cheap and most importantly relatively easy to carry cos I had to use public transport to go back home. There was some funny looks at me at the bus station though, I didn't bother to care.
That thing didn't require screws or something like that to assemble, instead it uses only a hammer which is the only thing that I don't have in my house... I used a spanner that did the same thing though. looks pretty nice at last. Huh~
And yesterday I spent another day in Ikea with a friend, bought heaps of stuff again and sort of got caught in the extremely packed tram :S Was home safely at last though with a tabletop for my drawer which I wasn't able to carry last time, a cute panda cushion which my friend didn't want to hand back to me obviously and a swivel chair. That's about it. I helped building her shoe shelf in her place and then got my chair and tabletop onand went to sleep almost straightly.
While I enter the house I could smell the mould obviously but I didn't know it was that bad until I had a shower and started checking my stuff, which seem absolutely normal at first sight. A pair of my shoes which I do love for years was moulded seriously and the suede was dyed by the moulds and became hard that I had to thow away. All five of my bags that I've left on my floor was moulded and I throwed two of them away, one other suede one costs a fortune so although I should throw it away I tried to rescue it, but it's main problem was not with moulds but with extended soaking that distorted the shape of it... I don't know what will I do about it yet. One of my bedside tables was so moulded that the drawers stuck in. My undies and socks inside were safe though, but I had to throw this drawer away obviously. The boxes which I've put past lecture notes and bills and stuff was also soaked through I had to dump the bottom part of it. Luckily the important documents were stored in a different place. Mystically my printer, subwoofer and Wii were all safe although they were all placed on the floor...
I tried to clean the carpet a bit, using those powders and vacuuming them spray disinfectants on, I could still smell the mould though...
I had a 2 hour nap on the flight so I should be tired but I decided to go to Ikea, at least I have to replace my drawers and those boxes. So there I went, taking a bus to Northcote then train to North Richmond then tram to Ikea. I saw what I want for the drawers right at the entrance of Ikea but I went around the showing rooms like three times trying to find it, asked the staff and they were as helpless and I had to get out to the entrance again to look at it, mark down the funny Swedish name and go back, I finally found that it was only showing in the marketplace though... It was a good choice though, cheap and most importantly relatively easy to carry cos I had to use public transport to go back home. There was some funny looks at me at the bus station though, I didn't bother to care.
That thing didn't require screws or something like that to assemble, instead it uses only a hammer which is the only thing that I don't have in my house... I used a spanner that did the same thing though. looks pretty nice at last. Huh~
And yesterday I spent another day in Ikea with a friend, bought heaps of stuff again and sort of got caught in the extremely packed tram :S Was home safely at last though with a tabletop for my drawer which I wasn't able to carry last time, a cute panda cushion which my friend didn't want to hand back to me obviously and a swivel chair. That's about it. I helped building her shoe shelf in her place and then got my chair and tabletop onand went to sleep almost straightly.
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Quite a While Huh?
I tried several times to post something here but all gave up at last...
The first ten days of February, very busy back there in China... I haven't had much time staying in China actually, and I do have heaps and heaps of friends to catch up with, so it was like non-stop. Plus the fact that I had to prepare for my coming back to Australia. Was pretty glad to have seen some people again though, I am still an innocent boy in people's eyes, just because I tell the truth. Some other people had changed, in the way I don't want them to be but they are no longer part of my life anyway so I just don't bother worrying.
After that was obviously my coming back to Australia. It was a night flight but I didn't managed to sleep much at all. Watched a handful of movies though.
Finally got to see Coming Down the Mountain, it's still dead on my eMule but i still want to download it. The story was quite nice, and although David did something horrible, he's still the most miserable kid in the family and parents don't usually think of his feelings apparently just because of his intellectually defected brother Ben.
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas almost made me crying loudly out. It was just bland and beautiful at the beginning while Bruno's exploring their backyards and accidentally found Schmuel in the concentration camp and made friends with him, bringing him food and stuff. They were aware of people missing and those chimneys exhausing inbearable gases but they never knew what that was. While Schmuel was treated pretty badly in the camp Bruno was cheated by the video that life in the camp was even better than outside and he does think that it was because he was not Jew that he doesn't have the right to get in the camp (not the other way), until the days comes when Schmuel's father was lost. Bruno dug into the camp in the 'striped pajamas' that Schmuel brought and they set out to look for his father. They were mistakenly taken to the toxic gas 'shower'... And just before that Bruno was suggesting 'why not try the cafe in the camp' while they were bit tired. And there was those desparate cries from Bruno's parents and sister when they finally know where their missing Bruno is.
After landing in Melbourne I had to deal with all those moulds growing in my room for the whole first day, I think I should write this in another post :P And I got a cold somehow after that... It had just become better that I was up here in Dookie campus for a Viticulture subject.
So, here we wrapped it all up again.
The first ten days of February, very busy back there in China... I haven't had much time staying in China actually, and I do have heaps and heaps of friends to catch up with, so it was like non-stop. Plus the fact that I had to prepare for my coming back to Australia. Was pretty glad to have seen some people again though, I am still an innocent boy in people's eyes, just because I tell the truth. Some other people had changed, in the way I don't want them to be but they are no longer part of my life anyway so I just don't bother worrying.
After that was obviously my coming back to Australia. It was a night flight but I didn't managed to sleep much at all. Watched a handful of movies though.
Finally got to see Coming Down the Mountain, it's still dead on my eMule but i still want to download it. The story was quite nice, and although David did something horrible, he's still the most miserable kid in the family and parents don't usually think of his feelings apparently just because of his intellectually defected brother Ben.
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas almost made me crying loudly out. It was just bland and beautiful at the beginning while Bruno's exploring their backyards and accidentally found Schmuel in the concentration camp and made friends with him, bringing him food and stuff. They were aware of people missing and those chimneys exhausing inbearable gases but they never knew what that was. While Schmuel was treated pretty badly in the camp Bruno was cheated by the video that life in the camp was even better than outside and he does think that it was because he was not Jew that he doesn't have the right to get in the camp (not the other way), until the days comes when Schmuel's father was lost. Bruno dug into the camp in the 'striped pajamas' that Schmuel brought and they set out to look for his father. They were mistakenly taken to the toxic gas 'shower'... And just before that Bruno was suggesting 'why not try the cafe in the camp' while they were bit tired. And there was those desparate cries from Bruno's parents and sister when they finally know where their missing Bruno is.
After landing in Melbourne I had to deal with all those moulds growing in my room for the whole first day, I think I should write this in another post :P And I got a cold somehow after that... It had just become better that I was up here in Dookie campus for a Viticulture subject.
So, here we wrapped it all up again.
Saturday, January 31, 2009
skins Season 3 the New Crew
Freddie. A less overwhelming and less controlling Tony, actually sort of like Maxxie in terms of character sometimes. The actor (Luke Pasqualino) was hot btw :P
Cook. Supposed to be Chris, well combined with Anwar's homophobia and lechery. Messing up with gangsters are like Sid messing up with that PHD thing? Not so sure... So far the craziest role in this season.
JJ. Sid obviously. Same geeks.
Effy is still Effy and Pandora is still Pandora, nothing much to say here...
Katie. Abby? Almost same slutty.
Emily. Michelle? Almost same miserable.
Can't really find much of the connections other than these so far with characters in the previous skins.
We've yet to meet Thomas but I have a gut feeling that he represents Jal...
So, who's Naomi? I don't see such an isolated person in the previous skins... Wait Sketch? She should not be that hated cos she's done nothing wrong...
And where's Maxxie? Cassie? Anwar anyone?
Cook. Supposed to be Chris, well combined with Anwar's homophobia and lechery. Messing up with gangsters are like Sid messing up with that PHD thing? Not so sure... So far the craziest role in this season.
JJ. Sid obviously. Same geeks.
Effy is still Effy and Pandora is still Pandora, nothing much to say here...
Katie. Abby? Almost same slutty.
Emily. Michelle? Almost same miserable.
Can't really find much of the connections other than these so far with characters in the previous skins.
We've yet to meet Thomas but I have a gut feeling that he represents Jal...
So, who's Naomi? I don't see such an isolated person in the previous skins... Wait Sketch? She should not be that hated cos she's done nothing wrong...
And where's Maxxie? Cassie? Anwar anyone?
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Choir
Been back to my middle school choir the other day for an event of the departure of the graduating members. it was 8 years since my departure and I know no one in the current choir obviously cos they change members completely every 6 years along with the school. Luckily some of the old members which I know had attended that as well so that I could have someone to talk to.
I am pretty glad to see that I was not the oldest one there. One of the leading voices in my time had gone back to the school as a teacher and to assist the director with the choir. I've seen that the style of the choir have some what changed after seeing the DVD they gave me, from more general and international works into more remote and aboriginal style, especially the addition of Tibetan elements. And I don't see a single Mandarin work through the DVD.
I saw one thing from their performance. The director kept telling the choir to sing with their deepest emotion, well they did seem like they did. Yet I don't think that it was their true emotions cos I don't think I understand all those songs all that good by the time I was like 14. I don't even understand them quite well now when I'm 23. The conclusion is easily drawn here: they act. There is nothing wrong with acting, thing is, you better call an acting an acting instead of 'the truest emotion' as the director do. Of course this does no harm to the choir, on the contrary it adds to the reputation of it, what it does is the harm to the soul of the students. In a simple word, the school teach students to pretend and to lie, for the good of the reputation of the school itself. What will the students do when they grow up? Pretend and lie for the good of the company or country or whatever? They have a decent excuse for wrongdoing.
It was a shame though that some of the old members which I were longing to see didn't come along, but I think we'll make it another time, better before I go back to Australia this time.
I am pretty glad to see that I was not the oldest one there. One of the leading voices in my time had gone back to the school as a teacher and to assist the director with the choir. I've seen that the style of the choir have some what changed after seeing the DVD they gave me, from more general and international works into more remote and aboriginal style, especially the addition of Tibetan elements. And I don't see a single Mandarin work through the DVD.
I saw one thing from their performance. The director kept telling the choir to sing with their deepest emotion, well they did seem like they did. Yet I don't think that it was their true emotions cos I don't think I understand all those songs all that good by the time I was like 14. I don't even understand them quite well now when I'm 23. The conclusion is easily drawn here: they act. There is nothing wrong with acting, thing is, you better call an acting an acting instead of 'the truest emotion' as the director do. Of course this does no harm to the choir, on the contrary it adds to the reputation of it, what it does is the harm to the soul of the students. In a simple word, the school teach students to pretend and to lie, for the good of the reputation of the school itself. What will the students do when they grow up? Pretend and lie for the good of the company or country or whatever? They have a decent excuse for wrongdoing.
It was a shame though that some of the old members which I were longing to see didn't come along, but I think we'll make it another time, better before I go back to Australia this time.
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