books...books

My first lot of books from the Book Depository arrived yesterday. There was much reading of "I shall wear midnight" last night. I let my brother know about it this morning and he immediately got online and found it was cheaper for him than Amazon. Now of course, I have to read a lit review...then go into the lab! Glee!

Footloose

I found a new web comic called Footloose I had to stay up last night to read aallll the way through the archive. Tired now.

Ah - lecture recess - a week off from students

..no..wait...I have a project proposal, chapter of a thesis and half a literature review to write (lots of) comments on, 5 sets of 30+ practicals to mark, next week's lectures to write, a grad student to teach PCR to and another to teach the use of a freeze dryer to & a new PhD students offer to babysit through the paper trail. At least I got a paper submitted last Friday. With any luck they'll wait at least a week before rejecting it.

Rain

I washed the car on Sunday...so it started raining Sunday night. We had 38mm by 7am. My wellingtons have once more only lasted one season. I bought a pair a couple of years ago, used them for one wet season, tried to use them the next and found they leaked. I bought a new pair from somewhere else, ditto and ditto. Wet feet checking on the birds this morning. My next pair will be from a workwear shop it the hopes they aren't cheap junk like the previous few. My Dads wellingtons have lasted him years.

almost tempted to buy...

Theres a Miles Vorkosigan roleplaying game out - my favourite character by my favourite author. Perhaps I could just get it to have it.

WorldCon!

Loads of fun...oldest attender looked like she was in her late 70's, youngest was under 6months - possibly under 3 months but I have no baby age skills. This is my favourite shot of the con. I'm wearing my "come to the dark side, we have cookies -V" shirt. Which was appropriate for the shot :)

For those of you who haven't heard yet, there was a tie for first place for the Hugo for best novel and the Foglio's sold out of their graphic novels in under 2 hours - I got one - Glee!

dinner - Jamaica Joe's

I went out to Jamaica Joe's using my table 52 card on Saturday night with my parents. The weather was a little cool for it. The place is not sealed in, being on the water, but the food was nice. Mum and I had the best dishes; Jerked chicken and Goat curry. The curry was mild and tasty, the meat was tender. Dad's Angus burger was ok but not special. Service was friendly and prompt. Some of the prices were up there with Michels, but there were cheaper options.

Dropping balls

Up to 4 since last Friday.

forgot to let students into a lab on Friday
forgot to put lecture notes online prior to end of weekend
forgot to find reagents for Tuesdays prac till I woke up at 11:30pm last night having just got to sleep
went to the wrong lecture theatre this morning

Its going to get worse too.

Phew!

I got my updated computer home yesterday and the second thing I did was install LOTRO from scratch. I've heard of problems and didn't want to add to them by installing an old version and trying to upgrade.
The download went on all night (12 hours) then it installed directX 9 and microsoft net1.1 and started up fine. The computer then asked if I'd like to install directX 10 and I decided not in case something happens.
Of course, I haven't checked it again since I turned the computer off. Maybe the Microsoft net thing will screw up my computer and it won't turn on again :)


Edit: Ok not quite so phew - playing LOTRO caused my computer to turn off in 5 minute intervals, till I upgraded my video card & now it seems ok for an hour or so & then turns off. The fans do get faster & stay fast shortly before it shuts down (no BSOD, just off like the power went out). It lasts longer when I pull off my lit up mouse & turn off backlighting on my keyboard. The error is power kernal. Methinks the power supply isn't quite handling it. Its not overheating - I've been monitoring the core temp. When I have a minute to spit, I'll check how much wattage my power supply has.

Free Tickets!

I got free tickets to one of the chamber music festival events from Uni and had a lovely night out this week. I learned that there are musical notations for plucking strings as well as whacking the wood of your instrument with your bow. A violin/piano duet (of hebrew lullaby I think) was amazing. The violinist was celebrating his 30th birthday and the music was glorious. There were also some very slow gentle pieces being played at around 10pm - my mother just started to nod off :).

The civic theatre is undergoing an expansion, it looks lovely, but they'd better be putting more loo's in. 3 ladies toilets on one side is not sufficient.

stitches

3.

Across the side of my left hand. Now I can't do anything weight bearing with my hand. Typing is done with just my middle finger...don't know how gaming will go.

I pulled a ring pull lid off a can of salmon at lunch and it unexpectedly released more on one side than the other so I swung the sharp edge across my hand. A 1.5cm long and 5mm deep laceration resulted. Kind of puts me off tinned salmon.

I waited in emergency for 2 hours, fortunately with a well bandaged hand. When the nurse took the bandage off to check if it needed stitching (as there was a long queue and I wasn't very high up it if it didn't need stitching) it started bleeding nicely again, but it had mainly stopped when the doctor called me 10 minutes later.

He started cleaning it before putting local in - which made the rather painful local seem relatively mild :) I think that might have been a clever psychological trick.

Now I can't get it wet for a week, need to change my bandage twice a day and get stitches out in a week. The pharmasist siad take pain killers as soon as it starts to throb or they won't work as well. One of my co-workers said to take some before bed so I don't wake up in pain.

These are the first stitches I've ever had not under a general (I had my wisdom teeth out under general).

Sydney dinners

I was in Sydney for a conference the other week. I spent my travel time dodging FIFA celebrations and the state of origin match. The trip back home had full planes due to it being the day after state of origin and the day before the V8's in Tville.

I did have some nice meals while I was there...
Pork belly at the restaurant at the Novotel where I stayed. - lovely but waaay too much for me to get through


Peri peri chicken (assuming I remember the name) also at my hotel - forgot to photograph it till I'd eaten some






entree at the conference dinner

hmm - the rest are on my phone and I'm too tired to figure out how to download them.

Yongala lodge for dinner

I have a acquired a deck of table 52 cards which has 52 "buy one main course get one free" cards for various restaurants, pubs, cafes etc round Townsville. It runs out next May, so I'll probably get through a few of them. Last Friday my cousin and I went out to Yongala Lodge. We parked directly out front, ate on the balcony and generally had a good time. Food was good (greek themed) We shared an antipasto platter and then I had chicken koti and Ros had lamb on rice with baby potatoes. They altered a dish to take into account the no wheat, dairy, nuts or yeast limits she has. I probably didn't enjoy the koti as much as I would have if I hadn't filled up on antipasto. It was lovely but I could feel the calories going down. I thought the veg were very tasty though. The service was just right, service staff seemed happy to be there & turned up at exactly the right time intervals. Ambiance was excellent, its quiet, not cramped and the view is nice. We had a little entertainment when the ghost tour turned up. Though we didn't hear the details.

I expect I'll be eating out more now. I'm taking my parents to Michel's next month.

I'll write them up. Must remember to take camera - I haven't figured out how to download the phone pics yet

I should have been reading a students chapter but...

I was reading a web page on ciguatera poisoning today and was struck by the chemical structure of the toxin. It looks for all the world like a hairy caterpillar drinking through a straw.

not sure I like this new fangled technology

I've been reading through the Hugo award entries on my computer, so I can vote intelligently - or at least not based on whose name sounds coolest. I'm finding I'd much prefer to be lying on a bed with a paperback in front of my nose. Its more comfy and less hard on my eyes. Perhaps if I tech'd up and got a ipad I would be able to at least lie down and read, but I still prefer the ability to stick my finger in a page and randomly flick through, knowing I can get back to my page at will & immediately.

Arrr me hearties

In a continuation of my frivolous spending of yesterday, I bought boots on sale from rivers. I put them on and they made me laugh out loud, possibly not the best reason to buy accessories.
They have a flap at the top that makes them look exactly like pirate boots! I shall take a photo when I have something to wear them with. I should have dragged myself round the shops when Jeggings were in - I probably can't get them now and these will need something tight and not thick to go over. Bare knees won't cut the mustard. If I do make an outfit, I'm so wearing them to work on international talk like a pirate day on September 19. I'll even go to the chemist and buy an eye-patch.
On other news, I have the GPS working, so tomorrow I'm going to try "turning right in 300 meters"

frivolous shopping

This morning I went to buy my mother a mouse for her computer and didn't like any of the ones under $70. So instead, I gave her my cordless mouse and keyboard and bought myself a gaming keyboard that was on sale - microsoft sidewinder X6. So far so nice - glowy keys. I'll have to spend some time working on the macro keys though. The big plus is I can put the number pad on the left side. I also bought myself a car sat nav....haven't pulled it out of the box yet - but I have a long weekend and a new Wii game - ditto. I'm torn between playing with all that and playing with my new keyboard on LOTRO (since its a free travel weekend).

Did I mention that there were a lot of sales on today?

where did the weekend go?

To Ayr apparently, where some female friends and I went bargain clothes hunting - good Australian brands, very good prices. I now have a LBD and two pairs of terribly impractical shoes. I also bought black truffles for work and some sheeps cheese. Then we had high tea at the Pantry door - good value for money.

Going south, Hemorrhaging money

I had been wincing slightly at the ~$2000 it will cost me to got to Melbourne in September for 5 days of WorldCon...roll on Science fiction :D
Then I added up what it will cost me to go to Sydney for a week in July to get to a conference that will be very useful for my research work (and teaching)...$3500. I'm not even leaving the country! It doesn't help that registration for this event is $1000 and I'll have to stay 7 nights in Darling Harbour area so I can network efficiently after conference hours. Its the general consensus that if you stay a long way away from the conference, you miss out on the most useful part - making contacts. Otherwise I'd be angling for that fold out couch of Andrea's. At least I don't have to pay for Sydney from my own pocket, just my own research pocket.

Ah - exceedingly long epic questline done

It took a fair chunk of my long weekend to do it too. I thought it just gave me the option to buy a white horse - but apparently, it gives it to you free :) There's 5G I've been saving up that is now able to be frivolously spent :D

Also as really cool gifties is a very nice cloak and a painting of Narmaleth for my cottage in the shire. Kin should stop round to have a look - its next to the keg that takes you to places in Moria where you can't get down except by plummeting to your death.