Geoverse

Bleh, I haven’t posted anything in a long while. Funny how even dedicating 10 minutes to write a blog post can be so unappealing.

Right. To get you back on track here is a little summary again of what I’ve been doing.

9 Feb – Iron Maiden. Photos here. It was the most amazing gig i’ve ever been to and probably ever will. The ACER arena is huge! It was also filled with more people than you’d find at a casual football game. I was at the top row because I waited like 12 hours before buying a ticket (that was back in october 07). Didnt matter. There were two huge plasma screens on either side of the stage where i could see the performers up close. The show was more than metal music, it was a musical. Great sound and great visuals. Also a point worth of note was the giant demon robot on stage later on.

Rest of Feb – I’m not sure if I did anything special during this time except work on my Masters manuscript (Yes still!) and my PhD project. I’ve had a couple of meetings with my supervisors and things are going quite well. I’ve been processing the last batch of results but now i’ll need to get cracking on getting some new samples prepared for new experiments. Summer’s been hot and cold. Some rain. Actually mostly cooler than normal down to just 20C. I got my new Dutch passport after a few trials of getting the photo right. First too big, then too small. Then when i got it right, they transformed it black and white! O_o. Madness i tell you! No digital fingerprint required just yet. Saved me some more hassles i bet. I also had bought a new desktop computer during this time. More in the next section.

March til today – Right so I bought my computer in parts from an online webstore in Batemans bay (1.5 hours drive). I got the bits soon enough, however my enthusiasm dampened when i found out the motherboard didn’t work. So after a lot of troubleshooting it was declared faulty. I contacted the store and asked if they could arrange a replacement for me. But they insisted I send it to a repairshop first with the address they gave me. So I did that but did get a refund for the postage. About 1.5 weeks later i did get a replacement because, behold! It was broken. So last week i build my uber rig and the new games I can play on it are amazing! Some titles: Crysis and Bioshock. Here are photos of my new computer.

Specs:

Intel Q6600 quad core 2.4GHz OC 3.2GHz
Geforce 8800 GTS 512MB OC 760/972
4GB DDR2 RAM
OC 848MHz
nforce 870i SLI Mainboard
Onboard 24bit sound
500GB hdd SATA II

Now – Well not doing much at the moment. Had a BBQ in the weekend with roo steak, marinated, from a Kangaroo my housemate shot. (PS Kangaroos are a pest, so they are not protected). Roo meat is delicious and very lean. Weather is horribly hot this start of Autumn over 30C everyday. Not going to change too as far as the Bureau of Meteology is concerned. I just hope there’ll be some rawkus thunderstorms later. A heatwave going out with a dud is just for the lose.

That’s it for now. Do keep checking for I haven’t abandoned posting. Not something I plan to do 🙂

…and a happy new year to everyone! 😀

I’ll be heading to Sydney on the 31st to celebrate new year with one of my housemates. Maybe you’ll see me on the telly packed between millions of people ha ha. The fireworks and the beer should be good. 😛 We’re going to crash through the night because all accomodation has been booked full months in ahead. I’ll have my mobile with me, but I don’t know if I will be able to send any messages. We’ll be back on the bus to Canberra the next morning.

In the meantime my supervisors gave me some presents as well… a deadline for a paper for a conference, a deadline for a poster of my research, a deadline for the midterm examination, a deadline for processing results of recent experiments. Hurrah! >_< So yeah I’ll take this weekend off but I think I can really use the upcoming week to start getting things done.

Today the weather is just awful too. Rain, wind, more rain, thunder… I took some pics and videos with my camera. It’s been rainy lately (see prev post) on and off which kinda sucks… Just go to my picasa web album on the sidebar on the right to see the photos >>>>

Also you’ll find some photos there of a xmas football match of staff vs students. It was great fun. I decided to be goalie in the second half when my Chinese officemate Qing came around with his camera. These are his photos. I blocked every ball in the second round which allowed us to forgo shame and we tied with the staff 4-4. After the match we had a delicious BBQ with plenty of drinks. It was also raining that day a bit but the tarp saved the BBQ 🙂

Again the best of holidays to everyone! Expect another post here before new year. Cheers all!

Typical isn’t it. Dutch bloke comes to Oz and what happens? La Nina establises itself over the Pacific and it starts raining with rainfall above average. At least it’s good for the plants and farmers I guess, but it does dampen my excitement for endless days of sunshine. There is nothing more I dislike than getting wet on my bike whilst cycling from home to the uni and back. Anyways some storms are interesting with heaps of lightning and hail although here no hail has fallen yet. Probably too soon in the summer. If you feel like reading about Australian weather predictions go here.

G’day.

My blog is been dormant for quite a while now. So maybe a new approach is in order: short and quick posts. From comments in the last post I got an idea for a new banner for the blog. It’s pretty decent now I reckon, as far as my GIMP skills go.

I’ve done a few things in the mean time:

-Black Crusade Concert in Melbourne (Arch Enemy, Trivium, Machinehead)
-Seen the Melbourne Aquarium and Royal Botanic Gardens
-Geocaching daytrip to Namagi National Park
-Camping trip to Deua National Park
-Housewarming party for my new housemates (30-11-07)

Work is going well but getting busier:

-Annual report + essay due 15 Dec
-Draft version of first research paper due before Christmas
-Wagga Wagga conference 31 January
-1st seismic wave attenuation experiment started which requires going to the uni at odd nightly times.

Facebook really seemed to have kicked off now. If you don’t have an account yet and you’re my friend, look me up. You will pick up updates, photos and events from me quicker plus it’s a good medium to break the silence. I simply don’t have enough time to email every one of you although I do try to keep you as updated as much as possible.* Also it’s a nice toy. If you feel the internet is taking over your life, forget it. It’s already too late heh heh 😀

* Just a little clarification here. I’m not saying I won’t email you. If you email me, the chances are good that you’ll have a response. What I am saying is that I cannot email everyone out of the blue with my life story. Sorry! 🙂