dual identities

Well, I went to my Australian citizenship interview... I shouldn't have told him of my political beliefs specifically that I believe democracy in its current form has already peaked and is doomed to collapse. Joking... About me telling him that...

The "interview" consisted of a guy asking for my marriage certificate, Rebecca's birth certificate, my birth certificate, and him then asking me if my parents were still in Canada. Then he said that he approved it... And now I wait for 3 months for my city council (Campbelltown) to send me a letter inviting me to swear in...

What does this entail... I will now be forced to vote in politics, even if I am living overseas, if I forget, I get fined. But I do enjoy voting for politics as I do follow current events and some political ideologies, particularly those involving student loans. Damn you Canada!!!! Damn you for crippling me like this!!!! Ending up with a 30G loan when I am only qualified to make just over that per year!!! Where is the justice I ask you!! Where! Bloody self serving politicians using my student loan $$ to pay for their golf cart registration.. Ya, I'm overtired and rambling like a mad man...

SO on that note, back to work.

Not out of the woods yet...

Well, I know it's been a little while, and I'm sorry that it's going to continue this way for at least 2 more weeks. I am still running flat out, getting up at 5am all last week, including Saturday, to come in and get the job done. This week will be up all hours of the evening making that bloody presentation for Wednesday.... And on top of that, I tried taking some tiles off of our kitchen floor.

A damaged index finger knuckle, 1hour and a half or so later... and 4 tiles are almost completely removed. But, I heal fast, and there are only about a million or so more tiles to remove... so by my calculations, I should be done to celebrate Alex's graduation!!! Horray for me!!! Unfortunately though, the kitchen is coming in in about 2 and half weeks.... The father-in-law is coming up on the in a week and a half to help lay new tiles (day after big presentation thing).... SOOOO can we all say screwed?

I did call my father-in-law and ask him if he knew of any other tricks, to my dismay, "No" was his short answer. Longer answer involves him helping me remove the tiles etc with a kenga hammer (jack-hammer - like thingamabob, I'm very knowledgable in this sort of thing...)

Not happy Jan.

Not happy.

I gotta run, as each minute I type here, I spend that again doing real work... So I apologize for the skimpy and sporadic posts for now, but re-lax, I do respond well to phone calls....

And the Blues to victory

Well, I'd like to say that the Rugby game (State of Origin series) of New South Wales (the Blues) against the dirty Queenslanders (the Maroons) was viewed by me. But put simply, it wasn't. We won though, in a thrilling (so I'm told and have heard) 1 point goal within the last minute or so of the game. This guy to my right, is Andrew Johns, in his blue State of Origin jersey. He is probably the best player ever to play this game. Watching him is like watching Gretzky, except Johns gets hurt. Eg. 2 seasons ago he had to take a year off due to a neck injury, he came back, and the second game of the season landed him a broken jaw...

Tough luck Johnny boy, tough luck. His team then lost every game they played until he got back (2 months?). WHen he got back, he played 1 or two games, and then played in the state of origin game. NOw this is like 3-4 games in over a year, and he's asked to captain the team in the most gruelling series this sport has to offer. So he says yes, then probably plays the most perfect game a man could possibly play. He kicks the ball perfectly, he makes plays, and is nothing but a pleasure to watch. Also, when he came back to play for his team, they ended up on a like 9 game winning streak, too bad they had already lost too many games last year without him, and they finished almost last place...

So that's Andrew Johns. Now meet my wife, Rebecca. I always secretly thought that she liked the Newcastle Knights (the normal team he plays for) because he was on it and she had a crush on him, or thought he was cute and all. Then I began to think that maybe this was only me transferring (pyschology) my feelings onto her... I mean who am I to admit that I think he kicks ass.... But then last night, she admitted to it.... But that it was no longer the case, as he's too beaten up and it shows in his looks. He was apparently a much better looking guy before he played so many games of rugby, and got injured so many times...

Nothing exciting to say today... so you got this. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA to you alll!!!









HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA some more because I can.... You read that expecting something, yet I disapoint.... I did sit down and watch about 5 minutes of the game with my non-alcoholic beer though... But then I went to bed because 1) I am lame. and 2) no, #1 was good enough. 

A bit worried...

Something has come up that is beggining to worry me a little bit, and it concerns my international readership... Now while I love my public, not just because most of you are family, but because you are taking time to read my Wasted Effort(s), and THEN commenting on them... I do read the Blogs given under AussiesNan's site, but rarely leave comments, for that I am sorry... But it's unlikely to change.

Back to the issue at hand.

Yesterday I made a post. I then had some problems posting it up for some reason. I actually wrote that last post twice, the first time everything just died.. But the second time I wrote it, I let it go. About half an hour later (maybe an hour?) I tried to reload this blog... The post came up happily, but then I thought I had a typo on the page, but then the typo was under the heading "Comments". I already had 2 comments!!!! Thinking that this was still some sort of error, I read them. Nope, no error had been made... These were two REAL comments from people I love!!

What concerns me, is .... how do I say this ... internet addiction maybe? Naaa can't be that, you guys must be anxiously anticipating what bit of rarely insightful boredom might come out next from this nearing 30 year old mouth (or fingers?). To my loyal readership, cheers! And I love you all... and keep posting!!

A sad day though today... Today is State of Origin game 1. History: THis is like the All Star Game in hockey or baseball, but with the added incentive to win that it is teh best players from one state against another state. Bitter feud this becomes, and some of the best Rugby is played in this series (best of three). Since I have been in Australia, I have watched them with my father-in-law, and 2 of my brother-in-laws. Today though, my father-in-law lives much to far away (4hr drive), and my other brother-in-law is in Cyprus, and Rebecca's brother is ... well I don't know... but the point is, I'll be watching it alone tonight. With a non-alcoholic beer and a bag of chips ... and maybe with Alex....

Experimentally speaking, I won't be able to have all the experiments done in time, as with everything in science, you end up needing to optimize... I won't go into detail, but yesterdays partial success led me to a complete success today... But I only have enough materials to do one more... So I am stuck with a method which works BEAUTIFULLY (95% pure!!!!! which kicks), but I now need to do it in about 2-3 weeks, unless....

Gotta run, miss my train!!!!

..and happiness rolls in

Well, I have some good news. Over the past few posts, I've been complaining about an experiment that has yet to work, leaving me ... a little disapointed to say the least. Yesterday, however, things changed, and stuff worked!!! Yes my friends, you betcha, stuff worked the way it should. The world still turns and gravity still pulls us in! My B cells lit up like good little B cells should (these are the cells that show bacteria etc to T cells which start your immune reaction) and my T cells stayed dark like good little T cells should. But, you rightly ask, what does this mean good sir? What does this mean.. In a nutshell, I can now separate B's from T's from a mixture nicely. YAY FOR ME!!! yay for me.

Now I know that the world has been waiting for such a result as this, but it's been too scared to ask the obvious question, maybe a feeling of "do we ask," or "should I already know this answer, so..." Well, because happiness has finally sprung its glorious talons into my face, I will answer this question...

What this means is that eventually be able to produce a picture like this:

Because when it comes down to it, at the end of the day, all we will really end up with are hopefully some good stories, and a few nice pictures.

Again the question though, "Who cares?" and the obvious statement, "Not I" from the rest of the world... But let me ask you this, if you really didn't care, why are you still reading? Maybe you are hoping (against hope I might add), that I will actually write something of interest, instead of sharing the monotonous details of a simple little experiment that finally worked. Let me put that to rest right now:

Not going to happen.

Each spot on this picture represent one gene. This picture is magnified a bunch of times, but the one(s) I will be dealing with will have 22, 000 different genes on it, meaning that there are 22, 000 different genes on a microscope slide, so they're pretty bloody small. When I separate my T's from B's, I will then do some magical wizardry and then create my very own (3 actually) pictures like this. The colour is important here, as a red dot means that that particular gene is overproduced in drug treated cells (compared to untreated ones), a green dot means that gene is underproduced in drug treated cells (compared to untreated ones). But, a yellow dot means that the gene is equally produced in drug treated and untreated cells.

"So, I still don't care? Why are still bothering me?"

Because with this, I will be able to tell you what our immunosuppressive drug is doing within a cell. Is it killing it or not, or what other pathways are being activated as a result of this drug. It will simply tell me what the drug is doing at a specific level. It's important... really it is.

Practically speaking, I had to get up at 5am to be at work at around 7:15am, as I will have to do Wednesday and Thursday as well, come in on Saturday, then work by but off next week, so I can get some sort of result late next week, to show in my presentation the following Wednesday. So, in 2 Mondays from now, you will either get a happy post, or one drenched with the salt encrusted tears of a PostGrad student who has lost it and considering a career as a coffee shop owner... or employee at least.

Other news, one of my best friends from University is getting married (no date set)!!!!!! She's a beautiful girl, inside and out, and I hope he realizes how lucky he is. I hope that I can get to the wedding though! Good on ya Beth, you made my day!

I really should be going now, I have to write more stuff. 

Fun!!! That's crazy talk!!!

Hello again world, and Happy Monday..

Well another 2am night, and I get to give my supervisor my section of a chapter. Mark another one down!!! I must confess though, not much time for fun.. I did go to a birthday party with Alex this weekend though (Rebecca came as well). It was at this massive play centre whcih probably is about 4-5 of me high, so it has several levels... To give a better idea of the magnitude of this place, there is a slide within this thing that goes from about the 6th to 4 level or something. Massive, and the coolest thing about it, is that adults can go in as well!!! I didn't this time, but the last party that was there I did, and I played! The only problem I found with it was my own fault. It says to wear socks when you go in, and I didn't have any... I know, what a rebel I am. But when I went down the slide, I burned my heel on the plastic. Only did that once!

So that was probably my fun for the weekend.

Watched "The Life Aquatic" Saturday night. I would describe it, but it's kind of hard to. Bill Murray (Of Ghostbusters, Groundhog Day, Lost in Translation etc fame) was in it and this guy is getting better and better with each movie he does. I really like him. He has a tendancy to understate things, and be... surprisingly great. He runs around in speedos a bit in this movie, as he's kind of a Jacques Cousteau type guy filming his "last" oceanographic documentary. And being a man of very little fitness, it's kind of funny... But it works really well.. I would recommend watching it. Owen Wilson, Willam Dafoe, Cate Blanchette are also in this. It's not a fast paced movie, but it's time well spent...

The Da Vinci Code is released here as well now... I don't think I'll see it. I'm not a big Tom Hanks fan, and didn't really think the story was that good. I think it's so popular mainly because it challenges current perceptions of Christ held by many of His followers. Straight up I have to admit that I think religion (in general) is one of the most fascinating of all topics and one in which I am passionate about, and as such, I try to read whatever I can regarding any religion. I once had a bunch of Mormons come over, so I read some of thier official books. Really interesting reading, and I would recommend it to anyone, especially to Baha'is as the time period of the Mormons beginning and John Smith's declared purpose are fascinating.. I have also read a fair bit about the Bible (through several sources, Baha'i perspective and various Christian sources to remove potential bias). The Mormon's stopped coming to my house after a few months of visits as they started to read other religous literature that I gave them and we were having some really good conversations. I miss them actually. They were fascinating.

I've read some sources regarding the Da Vinci code as being entirely false, but these sources have an inherent bias, as does Dan Brown, of which I will not deny. But the precept of the book is interesting, but hinges on this Priory of Sion and that codes were in Da Vinci's artwork etc. What if Da Vinci was just playing around. THe lines of logic drawn through the book are pretty solid though, and a look at the very early development of the Bible as a liturgical piece is pretty awesome as well. It was written by Jews (as these were the first Christians), and initially as an addition to the Old Testament, as the early Christians worshipped in Synogogues alongside the "Orthodox" Jews and the "Christians" were merely Jews who also followed the teachings of Jesus Christ.... Anyway, that's beside the point... read up on it, it'll put some things in a new (not damaging!!!) perspective. You can actually download The Gospel of Mary Magdelane (Spelling?) and Judas off the net. These are interesting reading as well... All in all, I think the controversy stirred up by the book/movie highlights an important question as to what are we really worshipping, the message or the messenger?

A comment made by "Fireguy" in an earlier post nails it though, if it gets people talking, it's good. Jesus Christ is of God, and the Bible contains the Word of God. This is truth. In each book of the Gospel, the moral and ethical teachings are the same, even if actual events contradict, the message is always the same.


Ya, I tend to blabber on about that, but what has changed and defined societies more than religion?


I have to go now though, but I hope I haven't bored you, but maybe given something interesting to think about....

Productivity Report:

Well, since my last, I have sat and wrote stuff.... I have written my 3-4 page abstract. I wrote it once last week, gave it to my supervisor, and it came back with no red!! Unfortunately, that meant a total re-write. So I re-wrote it and it came back again, with no red. But several "v. good"'s on it... So this was sent away to the guy who I will be presenting my thesis to. Happy day for me!!!

Next project: Book chapter. Due ASAP. I wrote this yesterday to my suprise. I started the day slow, but then ideas came and flowed onto my screen!!! So the hardest part of the chapter is done. It's only the first draft, and there are generally a few, but the first it always the hardest because you need to formulate what you want to say and how you want to say it. Scientific writing is just experiment-based, stylized story-telling. And when it comes to just straight writing, I'm not that bad and can get my ideas across, sometimes (who am I kidding... most of the time) it's a bit wordy, but the point ends up being clear, and that's what the chapter thing is all about, summarizing a section of the work we've done and making it accessable. So this weekend I will re-write and edit this, and make it flow better. Nick (supervisor) will have to add red ink to it though as he and some other people in my dept are doing their own sections, and he will have to edit them all to make them seem like one piece of work, but I will hand it in to him early next week (Monday or Tuesday)

Got the first third of my first draft of my literature review... Very little red ink again and my heart sank as I put a lot of effort into it... Happily though, he had good things to say, like it was "Interesting reading" (that's a good comment), and that it read well. Of which I thought so too, I would post it, but it's like 10 pages, and who out there (besides me!!) really cares about the current concept of what a cell's plasma membrane actually looks like and how it interacts with itself and the proteins embedded within it? And the scientific processes and sequential discoveries which led us to where we are now....

I thought so... But without this type of knowledge, you would not have the antibiotics, the new treatments for chronic myeloid leukemia, HIV, etc etc etc, so it does have its worth I guess.

Just musing, so humor me.

Next project: Massive powerpoint presentation to show all of my thesis. Due: presentation is on June 7. Have started, but, PROBLEM: Need results for the problem I bitched about earlier this month. My final chapter is on a DNA microarray analysis of my T cells, of which I have just
recieved trial packs of the antibodies today. MEANING, I don't actually have ANY results for this chapter, all I have is a beautiful method to do this... So I should have something to show on the 7th.

Well, I have to go home now, got caught up in a coffeed conversation with a really nice sales rep who is trying to help with the problem of the previous paragraph.

Alright, I'm good enough, I'm smart enough, and gosh darn it, people like me.

Tools for all occasions

At home writing today, and this is my few minute break.. I'm not going to write much except to say that without the band Tool, I don't know if I would ever finish wrting this bloody thing! They just released a new album, which I bought pretty quick, and listened to it for about a week and a half straight. It's not there best as I think that Aenima is, but there are definitely some golden moments on it. 11 minute songs seem a bit long, and ya, they kind of are. but songs like Right in Two and Wings pt 2, and Vicarious are masterpieces. They are not really a happy go-lucky band but man they friggen rock...

I would also loke to extend a warm welcome to my other readers!!! My aunts Marsha and Cheryl, my uncle Jimmy... Whose links will be added to the link section sometime soon... Welcome to my Blog!!!

Well that's about all I have time for, I've got to get back to writing 1) Thesis 2) part of a chapter for a book, 3) paper for re-submission, 4) presentation for a potential thesis marker... And I think that I am missing something...

As a side note, I will warn everyone that this Blog may take a turn down in mood and content as each of those listed articles is due pretty bloody quick and take a long time to do... So I will be running at very high stress levels and like to use this site as a form of venting from time to time.

But you're family, and that was the purpose of me creating this site (you'll notice an improvement in content once I found out people were looking at it...).

Back to work now, lunch is done!!! 

Life Aquatica

Well, we went fishing on Saturday, me, my father-in-law (Ross), and my little man Alex. I set his line up, threw it in, set mine up threw mine in, and no sooner had my bait hit the water, he was telling me he caught something. And lo and behold!!! He caught a beautiful Flathead!! Of note however, he had a pretty crap fishing reel, which doesn't quite work that well and a little kids rod, as compared to my more expensive Ugly Stick Rod, and my 5 bearinged reel, or Ross' more expenisive set-up. Ross and I caught nothing. Anyway though, Alex was wrapped!! He loved it! He was able to stay out ishing for about an hour to an hour and a half... I was so impressed with him...

So we went back to the in-laws place, I cleaned the fish and put it in the fridge for breakfast the next morning....

Alex and I cooked up the fish by simply coating it with egg and flour, Alex helped of course, it being his fish and all, and also watched it cook in the frying pan.. Then we sat down to eat it. He didn't eat the whole fish though, he was generous enough to share it with the rest of the family, including his Mom and Nan... Happy Mother's Day!!

It was a great fish, thanks Alex!

Also, anyone reading this will have probably read Mom's Blog and know that we are expecting another little person to join our humble little family. Yup, Bec's pregnant. It's all planned and everything so it's only a joyous occasion!! He or she is due to arrive on Dec 7, ten days before Alex turns 4!! That'll be a busy time I can tell you now!! Obviously we'll be happy with whatever we get, but we are hoping for a little girl so we can have one of each. And I think that Rebecca would really love to be able to buy dolls and girly stuff like that. But also, I don't think our marriage could survive having to pick out another boy's name!!! We struggled and struggled with Alex, and even then, his middle name is Michael!! Original eh?

We're excited about this. Alex doesn't know yet because we haven't told our employers yet, expecially Rebecca, and if we tell Alex, then he'll tell everyone at his daycare that mommy has a baby in her tummy, which is where Rebecca works...

As I whould get back to writing thesis things, I bid you all a'Dieu and hope to see you all soon!!!!
 

Time to Relax down the coast!!

This weekend, I get to relax. Happy day for me!!! I am hoping I will get the chance to take Alex fishing for probably about half an hour or so.. I dont' think that Mr Incredible, or "Spider Man" as he likes to be called, will last much longer. But I am looking forward to the possibility of standing in the water, wet up to my knees, and casting my rod with the soon to be eaten off bait into the water. Maybe, just maybe, I'll catch something... Although probably since the last year and 5 months, I can count the number of fish I have caught.. Yup zero. Last time I almost but it broke my line... It was a good size, and I caught it on a lure... But since I couldn't bring it in, it doesn't count... Maybe this weekend though. Either way, I think that I will enjoy the break.

I don't know how many of you out there have lap tops, but I have to say that I am totally dependant upon mine. Last time I went down the coast, I thought that I would leave it home to make my lovely wife happy (she thinks I am on it too much). I felt naked the whole time. Weird. And it got weirder. When Bec realized I had left it home, she was surprised and asked reminded me where we actually live, and that it would have been smarter to bring it with us in case our house gets robbed! So as a result of this, my baby comes with me this time and every time. Too much to risk leaving it home. All of my work over the past several years is on it. Not to mention the music alone... I think I should probably save up and buy one of the new Creative ZEN Vision:M 30Gb MP3 players. I wouldn't even consider an IPod, too much money for too little product. Just looking at ebay, theyre about $450, so I guess that answer's no. ALthough I did get a digital 8 track recorder for about $500 on $20 / week saving... So there is a chance... It's just pretty small.

I missed the lottery draw tonight, so I could be talking to you as a 22 million-aire and not even know it... Although if I do win, I'll never tell how much. I figure that's the only way to keep your friends and family. If everyone knew, then they might expect us to give them more than we did, and then animosity and jealousy begins... so we won't tell anyone how much. Sorry guys!!

I was reading today about the letter that the Iranian President sent to Bush, and it made me think back to one of my earlier posts where I said democracy was destined to fall... I feel I must clarify this a little bit. By saying that, I did not mean that it should be replaced with any of the government models ... too politically correct.... I did not mean that the Muslim system is the way to go either. If either system worked perfectly, you would not have the troubles we have been plagued with over the past several years. Please correct me if this viewpoint is wrong. How many countries have nuclear capabilities... The US, Russia, UK, France, China, Pakistan, India, and maybe N Korea. These last three are outside the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (http://www.un.org/Depts/dda/WMD/treaty/), with N Korea only saying they do, with no proof. Isreal is believed to have some as well. Pakistan and India however, have weapons capability, and nobody seems to care anymore. While it was a concern a little while ago when they (Pakistan and India) were each testing bombs back and forth in a show of who's got bigger balls, now that they seem to be on good terms with eachother, all is well. For a bit on each's nuclear capabilities see: www.uic.com.au/nip45.htm.

So why is it that Iran can not make their own. Now I agree that they shouldn't. I mean anyone who openly states that Isreal should be wiped off the map, should not be allowed to have the capabilities to do so. But from a logical perspective, all they have to do is drop out of the non-proliferation treaty, like Pakistan and India (who were never in it to begin with). This would mean that they would not be able to trade in technology for nuclear power for civilian useage. But I don't think Iran really cares about that. India for eg, apparently guards its own self-developed technology quite well from other countries... Again, while I am really against the idea of Iran being able to produce nuclear weapons, who are we to dictate to them what they can and can't do. And if the UN enforces sanctions, Pakistan and India still have precedence don't they? So why dosn't the UN impose sanctions on them, as they were close to using them on eachother. And the US itself? How many nuclear weapons have they developed and tested? Wikipedia has a great list of countries with tested nuclear weapons, countries who could pretty bloody quick and other interesting info like that at: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_with_nuclear_weapons

Geez, I did all your research for you...All in all though, I am glad I am not a politician, or have a role in trying to convince Iran that it shouldn't pursue nuclear power.

You know what would solve the problem? A new energy source. Just Google "new energy source" and a bunch of hits come up... Get Iran to research these, and then they will not only have heaps of oil, but a new form of energy which could make them the richest country on Earth.

Why do I keep ending up political? 

And it just keeps piling on...

It's amazing how many posts I am now doing now that I know that at least one person is reading this... I don't expect this to last though as I think it's only because I'm not really pleased with things yet. I just ran another experiment, and found that my B cells are not actually expressing CD4, which is good, but I spoke to the company rep and he was literally shocked at the theory as to why I think that was happening... OK, it wasn't my theory, but the theory from the girl next door, and she was right... I just tested it, and she's completely right. Bloody sticky B cells... Not happy...

Now let's see the ramifications of this....

First, I spent months working out the method for this separation step. Which you can see below... On the left 2 different cell types in one solution, same with the middle, but the third, is the cells that I pulled out of the mixture using the aforementioned antibody... Beautifully separated cells, but the wrong ones...

I worked more months getting the gene array working properly. I spent thousands of dollars running the experiments. And then I spent countless hours trying to figure out how to analyze it (the guy who was paid to do the analysis by administration warned them months in advance that he was leaving last October, and here it is May and they still don't have anyone). All to find out that it doesn't look like I can use it....

Good points from this observation: I learned that mouse B-cells need to be blocked with a solution of 1% of each, normal rat, rabbit, serum (with 1% foetal calf serum thrown in for good luck), and 10uL per 5mL of 2.4g2 antibody to help block the B-cells Fc receptors. I also learned that the anti-CD4 antibody (L3T4 clone) that I was using sticks to B-cells in every way possible besides the classical way antibodies are supposed to bind, ie it will bind to B-cell on its side, and upside down, but not likely right side up. Another good point, I have to re-do it anyway to give some sort of story to this chapter in my thesis. The experiments I did last year showed that there was no change, which admittedly raised an eyebrow, but it actually ends up being a good result because it suggests that our T cell drug is not doing anything to the antigen presenting B cell. I just can't get that published anywhere because no one will publish something based on a purification of B-cells using a CD4 antibody... Sorry, that's another crap thing, wrong paragraph.Well, I may do another post tomorrow because I am writing from home. Oh ya though, I bought a lottery ticket today. The prize is 22million. I have won the last 4 out of 5 times I have played, (only between $20-$40 or $50) but today I am feeling pretty crappy, so tonight might be different. Pray for me oh world, pray for me!!!! 

crappy crap crap

Well, I just ran an experiment that was supposed to work, and have been repeating it with subtle changes for quite some time now.... And surprise surprise! It didn't work. This is the very last set of experiments I "need" to do for my thesis, and the first step is causing grief!!! Why are my B-cell staining for CD4 when that is a T-cell marker!!!!!!!!! Ya, I'm very pissed off at this, and would like to go home now and .... I obviously haven't thought that far ahead yet...but I'll do something.

I'd like to now welcome you all to the "new look" wasted effort site. I never really liked the earlier style, so I changed it, and then when I went to look at my mother's blog (linked above as "My Mom!") I noticed that she had the exact same template. Can't have that now, I love my Mom and all, but that's not on.. So now you have what you see here. Spacious, little colour, and confirming my subtitle's goal of proving to the world that I am as boring as this. I may try later to improve it a bit, but this will entirely depend on 2 things occuring simultaneously: 1) I find the time, and 2) I'm inspired to do it. Neither are likely, so don't hold your breathe.

I must admit, that right now, I am not happy with my work. It's slow, too much writing, crap results keep coming, and maybe I should quit and join clown school, just like Homer.

You know what's probably one of the best shows on tv is? Futurama. It's done by Matt Groening of "The Simpsons" acclaim, but a million times funnier. If you haven't seen it, then you suck. And to remove your new title, you should watch it. The OC blows, I'm tired of seeing this kind of teen drama. I didn't like Party of Five either. Although the OC does have some really good music on it... "Desperate Housewives" is alright though... Every now and then they do something that impresses me. Particularly the married couple whith the 3 kids where the wife is a lawyer and the husband stats home to take care of the kids. Their life just seems more ... realistic. Last Monday impressed me though, the husband was going in for the snip, and he couldn't. He came home, told his wife that he couldn't because it was the last thing that made him a man and he couldn't part with the little guys. When he said he wasn't happy, his wife's expression and reaction was perfect. A credit to the actress who I honestly don't know her name. But her response was pure gold and I may have nominated her for an award. Anyway though, good on you actress girl!

Another show I like(d) was Stargate: Atlantis. Channel 7 had it on the air last year, the season finale was a great cliffhanger and all, and now I don't know if they are going to air season 2!!! WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU CHANNEL 7!!! I keep checking the internet for some word on the issue, and nothing...Not a peep! I think you can BUY season 2 on DVD in north america, Instead we gets shows like "Air Crash investigation" or "Seconds From Disaster" or other garbage like that. I want escapism tv. I'm sick of reality tv, every second show on Channel 10 is reality, Big Brother 6 bloody nights a week, not including the Friday night Games show, or Big Brother Up Late, or Big Brother Uncut, Skating With Celebrities, The Biggest Loser, Australian Idol will likely be back soon... Let's not forget the "Law and Order" conglomerate either here. I just want to watch tv like I used to. Knowing that the people I'm watching are actors acting out realistic, or not, plot lines. If the media is the message, and the message is the media, by using reality tv as a media and message, does this mean that we can not be entertained by actors and actresses acting out cleverly thought out half hour shows? Or are we now obsessed with the guy or girl down the street? I have to say, that if you can't already tell, I am sick of reality tv. I want it to stop. I want it to go away. I want to be one of the millions who are here to lift those exceptionally talented people (with geniune talent!) above the fray of us commoners. If only I ran things.... If only....

Mr Incredible!!!!

Well, here it is Tuesday again... Feels good tobe back to old habits eh! I firstly would like to extend a warm welcome to a confirmed reader... Ya I broke down and told someone that this blog exists, and the name of it. So hello there Mom!!!
I have to say that the only thing that worries me, is that I was fully prepared to bag my parents! Alright not really...

You may have noticed I figured out how to post a pic of me in my profile. I was pretty excited about that too... And also, using Picassa which I think I got from some computer magazine I have become addicted to, posted a picture of Mr Incredible!!! I know! How could this be? He's only a cartoon character created by the genius of ... some bloody bugger who's richer than he needs to be. Spread the wealth big guy!! You draw pics, while people are trying to fight for 50G a year salaries. Lucky bugger....

Anyway, that's my little boy Alex on his 3rd birthday. I like this picture because it covers his eye and nose... The day before he fell on a pick axe cutting his nose a bit, no stiches though. What made it so odd, was that his Dad was holding the pick axe at the time. No, it's not abuse or anything like that, I was cutting a tree outside when he got excited or something, ran over to me, and literally fell on the end. Fortunately, I had it just hanging down and when I saw what was happening, started moving it backward a bit.. Anyway he hit it, he cried a bit, and no stitches!!! But a really puffy face for a little while. Happy Birthday Alex!!! Oh ya, when he went to day care 2 days later, he tells the staff that "Daddy hurt me". He will tell you that he fell, but I guess I should count my blessings (besides no real damage) but that he probably won't remember this when he's old enough to play guilt trips!!!

I was talking at work with a German girl who's working in our lab, and she was saying that one of her friends is a very high paid lawyer in Sydney here, where everything around him is like gold plated!! He gets paid $1000/hr. What could a person be doing to actually be worth $1000/hr. A 40hr week is a year's salary for many of us (or more then). Every 6 minutes they apparenty have to account for what they've been doing, which is about right. If I'm paying $1000/hr, I want to know that he's not drinking coffee during that time, speaking of which .... mmm tasty freshly plunged... If he wan'ts to leave work early, he shuts down his computer, which asks him if he's sure he wants to leave so soon because he's only made "x" amount of cash today?

What the hell have we come to!?! As much as the present form of democracy and party politics is doomed to crumble, capitalism, which so strongly depends upon it, will deteriorate as well. I have to say that I think Bono of U2 fame should be up for a Nobel Prize of some sort. If he is not knighted yet he should be... Or can he be, being Irish and all... He has done more for public awareness of 3rd world poverty than anyone. In know that looked like I jumped a bit, but it's all related trust me. Bono went to the rich nations of the world, who are dependant upon capitalism and its inherent exploitation of poverty (USA and its DEPENDENCE upon illegal immigrants) and asked that they forgive the debt to poverty stricken countries. If the technicalities of the issue has no effect on net profits etc of companies, people are now at least AWARE that there is this discrepancy between 1st and 3rd world countries, and are begninning to question why are the wealthy so wealthy and the poor so poor, and why are we doing nothing when we can? ... Enter sweat shops and the like.... See it's all related, hence Bono is a living legend.

I think that this post is long enough for today, I'll try and write more often, and do shorter posts that are easier to read....