Hmm.

Just a little post to point out and highlight the fact that most if not all of my links go to pages that have not been updated since at the latest, Like December of last year.

Ah well, to you all, I bid you A'Dieu, and you may soon find yourself absent from my links page as I don't really want to have a bunch of dead links.

Maybe I will give myself an overhaul and put some interesting links to web-sites that I particularly enjoy on this...

By eby

What can I say, I'm slow.

(I should note that this was written last week and some things have changed, but the views and opinions herein expressed are nonetheless true at time of writting (if not at time of print), however, we here at AWE publishing company fully endorse and are willing to expand upon any and all views that are stated within this fully binding and staggeringly insightful document of documents. Enjoy. Or at least try to.)

Jeez, it’s been a while since I’ve blogged.. And I guess the only reason for this lag is that I’ve been kind of busy… but over a month, a short month, but still a month… no excuse is sufficient. Sorry to all my loving and loyal fan(s). I don’t know why I added the “s”, I know it’s not true.
So what’s happened to me.. I turned 31. So I’m not the 30 year old I used to be. I’m the 31 year old that I’m growing in to! Yay for me. But that is yet to be decided.

I’ve been pretty busy at work setting up a few methods to test some stuff at work. It went well, I got three assays up and running in about 2 weeks or so. Wrote the most kick-ass Excel file to analyze them. You must remember that I am a PhD. This translates into Geek. Not the MD type who you watch on Greys’ Anatomy, House, or ER, but the Geek that they don’t make shows about because we’re geeky. Albeit, the drugs that the those MDs prescribe etc, especially the new fangled ones, are the result of PhD geeks… So just so you know, it’s the Geeks that tell the ones you watch what medications to give etc. To some degree. Ah hell, the largest degree ever.

Anyway though, I’m sitting at work on the second day of the Fast. And I’m bored and tired. And getting a bit hungry. Honestly, it’s a lot easier fasting here than in Australia. There’s not nearly the same amount of heat to scorch your throat making you crave a drink.

Oh ya!!!

That reminds me!! It’s Roll Up The Rim To Win at Tim Horton’s!!!! How cool is that (sucks that I’m fasting because I don’t drink during the day thereby limiting my chances of winning). BUT, have no fear my friend, I have played this game for many years, excluding the ones when I was in Australia. So maybe not many years, but I have played before, and as soon as I saw a Roll Up The Rim To Win Cup, I was excited. So I bought my first one. I lost, and I lost again and again that morning. But the next morning was another story. I got my coffee from the lovely girl at the Tim’s at the bottom of the Tupper, then I went across the road (the Tupper Building is on my way to work, and has less of a line-up than both Tim’s in the IWK), went up to my “office” drank and wrote my Kick-ass Excel file. Then decided to roll up the rim my friends. (Yes, I know you are wondering how long can he keep this crap up, but be warned, I am full of crap. Absolutely full of it. And even this little soliloquy is taking up your time). So I rolled it up and low – and – behold, I won a $50 Tim Card. So i got the card that night at another Tim’s in Bedford, where the girl’s immediate response was that’s awesome, and then “I wish I had of watched that video”. I think she had to send something away, but she was like, well we have the cards here, so I’m going to give him one. So I got my card.

So I went to the Tim’s at the bottom of the Tupper the next morning, only to find that they were not set up to use the Tim card. So my heart was broken. I get $50 and can’t even use it where I buy my coffee. ..

Yes a sad tale of woe.

Woe is me…

And now I am fasting so I am not even drinking coffee much anymore. But as soon as the Fast is finished, I promise that I will make up for lost time.

Ever wish that you had something intelligent to say? I have that wish right now.

So we’re still looking for a house to buy. Having some problems with that though. Trying to find a decent house and a school that has less than 700 students in grade 1 is proving a bit tricky. I may have found something though, it’s a little ways out, but then we don’t really have the cash to buy in downtown Halifax. Not that we want to, but The Wife would like to buy in Bedford. She likes Basinview school, which is where My Boy is registered to go to school in Sept. Assuming that we don’t move. Which we will since we only have our house until the end of August!

Ya, life’s good. I still don’t have a second car. Which is probably a good thing since it gives us more $$, but it means that I am still taking public transportation. It’s slowly starting to wear thin on me. I am appalled at the level of child care in NS. You know, I am sure that there are decent people who take care of kids, but when it comes down to it, it should all be regulated. And the government should support the child care industry. If you want to improve your workforce, women should be able to come back to work after they’ve had a baby. I know that they are technically allowed, but if that woman works IN child care, she’s screwed. Not worth working in child care when you have a child that needs to be in child care because the pay you get working in child care does not provide enough money for you to send your kid to child care. Where’s the sense in that? I understand why there are so many people taking care of children in their homes. There is no regulation against it, and you actually make real money doing it. $25 / kid /day, times one week is $125 a week for one kid. If you have 4 kids that you are taking care of, that $500 a week. Or $2000 a month, or $24,000 a year, with the possibility of this being tax-free. And for your information, you are allowed to have at leasat one more than 4 kids, and the going rate at a child care centre (at least the one where The Wife went for an interview) is $18-20,000, taxable income. You tell me what choice we should make. I honestly don’t understand why anyone would work in a child care centre here.

This also means that you can get anyone operating a “babysitting” service from their home. Just advertise yourself, and you may get lucky. I believe that you should have some sort of formal training in child care. Some sort of First Aid kit, and some kind of insurance, Heaven Forbid, should anything happen to a child while in your care. I think that the Nova Scotia government really needs to step up and deal with this.

It’s a travesty.

A bloody travesty.

Happy Birthday

I'll never remember where I was on Feb 2, 1978 when I got a baby brother. (I was only 1). But I will never forget where I was when I lost him. Or the phone call that woke me up. Or the sound of Jason's voice on that morning. Or the sinking in. Or the days leading up to it even. Or the loss that will never go away.

But today is a happy day nonetheless. It is the day when Christopher R. Amon was born. And my childhood friend came into being. The beginning of my memories are perfused with Chris. The good fun we had playing baseball with oranges upstairs in the hallway. Chocolate pudding fights in the house when Mom and Dad were gone away. The vicious fights we had. Ahhh the memories. Thanks Chris. I'll see you again soon enough!

Until then,
Cheers!
Mike.

Just another day

So my friends, it’s been snowing a bit up here lately… Take yesterday for eg… 2 hours on the bus it took me to get to work. Now that’s at least twice the normal amount of time it takes me to get to work. By bus that is.. It’s normally only a 15-20 minute drive had I had a car to call my own. Not complaining though, I would rather have the wife have the car in case she would like to get out of the house with the kids, or if something should happen and she needs to go… But 2 hours was a long time to be on the bus. A long time indeed.

So, I’ve been doing a lot of reading about B-cells and CCR4. No, I’ll spare you the details, but there are a few interesting questions that I wouldn’t mind trying to answer, and again, I won’t bore you with the monotonous details…

Oh ya, the presentation that I mentioned last week, I think that it went well. I made it through the 45 min or maybe a little bit less… without any major coughing fits. I couldn’t talk to loud though or I would have been lost to the cough. I also felt like I answered the very good questions well. I guess the only people who could really answer that would be those who actually asked the question and whether or not they were happy with the answer. Anyway though, I think that overall it was a success as now the people of the DIG (ref to last post) know who I am and what I’ve done.

My parents came up to visit over the weekend too. They brought up a Rappie Pie as well.. The spelling is probably wrong, and for that, I’m sure you’ll learn to get over. With time. Some counseling. But don’t count on my help. Rebecca, although not from Canada, or having ever known what Rappie pie was, tried over the holidays at my parent’s house in Yarmouth, and didn’t not like it. Not the use of double negatives. It’s too stress the fact that she was not opposed to eating it… double negative again… I’ll try again. She ate it and liked it. I think that’ll do. I missed it greatly, and had like thirds of it I think. And when I take thirds, I don’t mean one or two mouthfuls, I mean that I had 3 plates full. And then I ate cake.

You see, part of the reason that Mom and Dad came up to visit, was because tomorrow, Wednesday the 30^th of January, 2008, I turn that blessed age of 31. No longer a spring chicken. But a chicken with a family and responsibilities. All of which I enjoy. I think that I mentioned this last year, and I’ve said it to many. I think that I would not like aging if I had done absolutely nothing. But, I have already sold my first house, got married (7 years ago), and I have two kids who are happy and healthy, I try my best to support my wife, and I have gotten my PhD. So I have done a few things making aging ok. And 31 is not really that old, and I don’t think that I am aging that bad yet. A little tiny bit of gray in the eyebrows that I have to point out, and anyways, it makes me look distinguished!!

Yes. I will keep telling myself this.

So Saturday night, we got Mom and Dad (well the offered) to babysit the kids while me and the wife went out for supper and a movie. We went to Baan Thai on Dresden Row, across from the Theatre at Park Lane. Now I love Thai food. And whenever I go to a new Thai restaurant, I order Cashew Chicken as this tends to be one of my favorite Thai dish. There was a REALLY good restaurant in Sydney (Newtown actually) that made the best Cashew Chicken that I have ever had. That’s all changed now. I think that Baan Thai made the best cashew chicken that I have ever eaten. It was a bit different to what I was used to, but it was really good. Even my wife agreed with me that it was really good, and she even thought that it was better than her meal (Pad Thai). I tried hers as well.. Well alright, I finished hers for her, and it was good, but not the best Pad Thai I had ever had. It was different to what we were both used to for Pad Thai. We are used to a kind of lemony (weakly) flavour, but this one seemed to have a kind of faint tomato tint to the flavour. Nothing overpowering or anything like that, but it was enough to alter the flavour. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t as good as what we have had elsewhere. We will go again though, and we will each order something different to work our way through the menu.

Yes, I am supposed to be working now. Reading more actually. I need the break now.

For the after-dinner movie, we thought that we would see the romantic comedy Cloverfield. We weren’t sure what we really wanted to see, but by the time we paid for supper and got to the theatre across the road, that was what we had to see. I didn’t mind as I kind of wanted to see it anyway.

Honestly, I liked it. I think they took an idea from a similar movie from a while ago, and added a new concept to it. And I think that it worked. I don’t want to give too much away from it, but I did like it. It’s not quite a good date movie, but the wife was scared. Well as scared as a movie can actually make you when you know that what’s going on on-screen is not real etc. The end was odd though. I expected it to end in the way it did. But I was left with the feeling of…. Well I think I chuckled a bit, as did many others. Not a funny “Ha Ha” chuckle, but a funny “that’s it!?” kind of chuckle. I had to walk away from the movie and let it sink in more before I came to the conclusion that I did like it. Anyway though, I thought that it was a good movie. Probably won’t watch it again, but I’m glad that I did see it.

Well I think that this has been a pretty long post. And I wish that I had something of real substance to say. But it’s interesting to note the severe and drastic drop in blogging by some. But I guess it comes down to why you started. To make contact with someone random and perpetually unknown; or not unknown; to vent; or to use this void as a means of expressing pain at whatever; or something altogether different. I think that I have used this site as a means for all of them on at least one occasion or another. Initially, it was meant to vent. But now I find myself just using it as a means to perform verbal diarrhea.

And on that note.

Lucky or not?

All I can say is that today is your lucky day: you get to read another great post by me. I have spent the day making a great little Excel template to analyze a proliferation assay, doing various aspects of said proliferation assay, going over and fine tuning my 45 minute or so presentation for the Dalhousie Inflammation Group presentation for this Thursday (Jan 24^th, Theatre C, Tupper Building, 3:30pm) and that’s about it. That did take most of the day, up until about 4 o’clock in the afternoon. Of which time it is now.

So I think that I want to join a band. Any volunteers? I was looking on Kijiji even, and it showed that there were some people looking for someones. I play bass, rhythm guitar, sing lead and/or back-up… ALL at the same time!! How’s that for skill! If only I could work drums in there. And if I could find the cash for an amp. Although I did see some cheap ones on the net though (Kijiji again my friends, Kijiji). BUT I think that I would like to have my second car to avoid the daily bus, and also a new lap-top, but not before we buy our house.

A few expenses to get through first eh. Yup, I’m becoming Canadianized again… Throwing that there “eh” around. See, you know you’ve mastered the art of “eh” when you can use it so that it is not a question, but the final punctuation to a statement. A matter of fact. That’s just the way it is eh. Enough of that.

It’s been so long since I’ve posted for 2 days in a row I’m not really sure what to write. Jeez, I’m not even a writer and I’m getting writer’s block. But I must hold the course since all of my adoring fans are awaiting the mundane. I am a little sick of reading things right now too. I spent all last week reading about CCR4 and its ligands CCL17 and CCL22… and I need to read more. Preferably by last week. I should take one of those speed reading courses to make me move that much quicker…

Other matters, I went to a Feast on Saturday (NOTE: A “Feast” is what we as Báhá'ís go to instead of Church on Sundays. We go every 19 days, which is, not coincidentally, one Báhá'í month. For more information on the Báhá'í Faith, and I urge you to do this, follow the link on the side of the page that says something about the Báhá'í faith). It was nice. I got to see a few people that I haven’t seen in just under a decade. And I learned some sad things about some people in that they used to be quite active but are not anymore.

Well just great. The boss came in and here I am typing away on a blog. So I got caught blogging. But I did maintain eye contact and positioned myself in between him and my screen.. I couldn’t close the screen because then it would be just too obvious that I was doing something that I don’t think that I shouldn’t be doing. Crap.

On a sad note, I have about 1 full week of being 30 left. Yes, 31 comes next week. At least I still have my rugged good looks. Alright, so I don’t. I don’t look anymore rugged than a newborn, I still can’t grow a full beard. I can go a week before I need to shave. I guess that’s good because I hate shaving.

I have to finish now though because I have to go catch a bus…

I guess today wasn’t your lucky day now was it?

first post for the year

I know that it’s been a little while since my last post, but to be honest, most of my posts have been done while taking a break at work. BUT, since I don’t have internet access on my laptop (seems I opted for Windows XP Home Edition as opposed to XP professional, the IT here won’t let me on to their network!!!! And I can’t be bothered to pay $200 or so to upgrade) I am relegated to the computers in the lab. Common computers. And the last thing that I want to be caught doing is blogging in front of everyone. It should be one of those private moments you share with your millions of on-line fans. Not with those who are paying you to actually do work.

Sheesh.

So here’s what I’ve done: I typed this between 4:15 and 4:30 pm just before I left work… and then pasted it in now. I know!!! How lucky are you that I am that clever.

Well onto other matters.

As you all know, but for new readers, I am now living in Bedford (just outside Halifax NS, Canada). Me and the wife found a nice duplex and managed to drive out the other people who live in the other side of the duplex in about 2 weeks. So we are now living by ourselves. In a duplex. Down by the river. We are just off the Bedford highway and I won’t give you anymore details because I don’t want you to stalk me. I know you want to. I’ve never had a stalker though, it might be fun. I guess you could e-mail me and ask and I might give you my address if you sound like you’d be a good stalker.

About work… I am now Dalhousie Faculty. At least that’s what my Dal ID card says! How cool is that. I am such a simpleton that can be impressed because his ID card says that he is faculty. Don’t you worry about me though, that’s why I got married. I’m someone elses’ problem!! Again, Yay for you! Well I am at the IWK doing some medical research investigating some chemokine ligands and receptors. It seems like a nice group and good place to work: There are TWO Tim Horton’s right in the hospital!! The only things that I don’t like, and I really don’t like them, are that I am in a bloody cubicle. And they won’t let me have internet access. That probably buggers me the most though.

Besides that, I’m learning things, and getting ready to do stuff of goodness.

I got asked to do a presentation this Thursday though. It’s supposed to be about 45 minutes long and to the Dalhousie Inflammation Group (DIG for short) of which I am now a part of. I’m a bit nervous though (no sympathy please) as it’s the first time that I will be presenting this work without the back-up support of the other people of my old lab in Sydney! They provided me with good moral support, and if I got stuck on anything, they might be able to help me on the spot. Not this time though deary. You’re all on your own.

One thing that I noticed since I’ve been back is how caffeinated we are, and how bloody reliant we are on Tim Horton’s. No I’m not blasphemy---ing I guess is the word. But I can’t seem to be able to get a decent coffee made without a bloody perk or a plunger for 4 or more people. I am the only one who drinks coffee in my house, and i want a little, single cup plunger to make me and me alone a coffee.

Bloody hell I gotta go I’m going to be late for my bus.

So it's been a while!

Well guys, I am truly sorry about the lag in time between posts. But I trust that you'll understand when you realize that me and my family moved from a summer in Australia, to the worst winter in 15 bloody years in Nova Scotia Canada!!!!

So I finished work on November 30. And honestly, it was a sad day for me. At 4:30pm I handed in my keys and my ID badge... I could no longer get into my office without someone else letting me in. After 6 and a half years. 6 and a half years. Long time. Small group. Good friends... A sad day indeed. But the going away dinner was really good. I got to dance with a very attractive belly dancer, photos on Facebook... Thanks Anne. You're a doll :)

Saying goodbye to the family was hard. That's all I'll say about that. It was hard and I didn't like it. Didin't like it at all.

So on Dec 7, we went to Sydney Airport, where we spent too long in line for them to tell us that we had to repack our luggage because our carry-on was too heavy. So we had to go and buy another checked luggage bag and empty all of our carry on. My problem was that we were only allowed something like 7 kg and my laptop etc was about 3.5. The really shitty thing was that we didn't get to say good bye to the family members that came to see us off because we were too busy re-packing. I am truly sorry and deeply saddened by that loss.

The plane trip from Sydney to LA was really long. Really long with a 5 year old and a 1 year old who is on the verge of walking. Neither me nor The Wife got any sleep on that leg of the flight. Not a wink. Nor did we really get to watch a whole movie. Alex enjoyed that flight though (except the food) since he could choose which movie he wanted to watch, he could play his Nintendo DS and the list goes on.

LA: Good and bad. The people were really nice and helpful. The airport was exceptionally well organized and were able to get our luggage, get through customs, and all that crap and then catch our flight with only portions of minutes to spare. We only had 2 hours from touchdown (which ended up being 15 minutes late) to the LA to Boston flight. The crappy part was the customs part. Do you know that you can bring in milk onto a flight, but not water, as long as the milk has no sugar added. but not waterm or liquid om greater than 100 mL aliquots. It was a pain in the ass. Especially when we were traveling with 2 little kids and could not remember in which carry-on luggage the drinks were in.

Boston: Same problems as with LA customs. Except there was a 1 hour delay which meant that we were in Boston airport for 4-5 hours. Not fun. Me and The Wife only got about 1 hour of sleep on the last flight. Only one hour. But the flight was only 1 hour or so.

Halifax: hat can you say, it was only good. Got to see my family again! Drove back to Yarmouth with my big bro Jason, The Wife, and my one year old daughter. Unfortunatley, there was a snow storm, and what usually takes 3 hours, took 5. But Jason did an exceptionally good job. Thanks Jay! And he had to get back to work at 7:30 that morning.... Thanks, and sorry!

The weather here in Yarmouth NS has been pretty crappy too! In the way that there has been way too much snow and I am not used to it. And neither is my wife. We played in the snow today though, and that was truly fun. Except when I realized that I lost my keys and they ended up in the snow on the front lawn. Mom came up with the idea of raking the snow covered lawn. Which eventually worked (after searching the entire house).

The important thing about the keys, besides the Swiss Army Knife which my Dad gave me when I left home in 1995, was my new home keys. My family will be living in Bedford for the next 8 months, and I had both of the keys on that knife. Not smart yes, but since 1995 I have never lost my keys, so why should that change now. Why should that change now??

Ah well, the family is great. We like the living arrangements. The kids like the grandparents (my parents). The grandparents like the kids. And all is well. But it will be nice to have our own place again. Since we moved out of our house in November, I have lived in 4 different houses with 4 different sets of people. But we've enjoyed each place.

So this is likely my last post of the year, so Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and I'll talk to you all next year.

PS: I will be working at the IWK in Halifax NS in January 2008, and I will be doing medical research again in the field of immunology, particularly autoimmunity etc like rheumatoid arthritis...

Keep smiling and make your new years resolutions count for something.

a short bit...

Look, I don't really don't have alot to say today, so I thought that I would just say a few words. It's getting a bit scary now though... I have 37 days until I am in Canada. It's scary.... Last time I moved continents, it was pretty easy. I left Victoria BC, where I had no family, friends yes, but no family there. They were all back in NS (Canada again). I pretty much packed up my suitcase, and left.

NOW though, a completely different story. Married, 2 kids, a house full of crap to get rid of. A bit of a bigger deal of a move. But my wife is a true champion of champions. She's sold most of our stuff, and is, even now as I write, filling the world of e-bay with the final remnants of our possessions. Good on ya babe. Sorry I'm useless. But I think you may have known that when you married me. You may be over it.

It'll be interesting when I get back to NS though. I think that what will happen is that before I know it, the rest of my family will realize that they actually liked me better when I was so far away, and not visiting them!!! Joking (hopefully). Naw, it'll be great to see everyone. My brothers, my sister, my nieces, nephews, cousins, uncles, aunts, grandparents and parents and the list goes on and on. Up to and including the snow. I have royally missed the snow my friends. The beaches here are awesome though and they will be greatly missed, but the job is too good to pass up!

For those of you that care (a list of 1 maybe?) I finish work on the 30th of November. Go down the coast to visit the in-laws the next day. Come back to Sydney on the 5th, do the formal graduation bit on Dec 6th, fly out of Sydney on the 7th at about 12 noon. Get into NS at about 9:45 pm on the 7th. drive south for 3-ish hours to Yarmouth NS, and then pass out from sheer exhaustion.

Well, I should run, I have to put some clothes on the line. And then go to bed. I've been pretty tired and bloodshot lately. It's starting to bother me a bit actually. For the past few days, my eyes have been too bloodshot... Not enough coffee maybe... I'll work on that tomorrow....

Cheers,

Countdown...

I just thought that I would try posting automatically from a program called "ScribeFire" which is a Firefox (web browser) add-on. if it works, you're reading this and you name's not Michael Amon.

Anyway though, it's Friday, I'm doing some work getting ready for a pretty big week next week. I'm going to start training a kind of replacement for me. She's an honour's student who'll be starting here next year, but she'll need to do some technique training because the stuff I have been learning this year is pretty tricky. I am also doing my last really big experiment which I want all my readers to begin praying for the success of.


Start now....



Alright that's probably enough, but remember to do it again soon. Like tonight and tomorrow and for the next week. I'll need it.

Just s short post though, I wanted to let you all know that I have only 6 weeks, to the day, of work. 7 weeks, to the day, until my family leaves the southern hemisphere for a little while.

Geez, it's coming up pretty quick isn't it. Almost scary.

Anyway though, I should run back to the lab to make up some medication to stop a transplant rejection in diabetic mice. (Remember the prayers I asked for...)

ya ya ya deal with it...

Powered by ScribeFire.

This cuts me deep...

This is a short post, but I wanted to post it because it sparked a strong emotional reaction from me. A very sad one though, but I want people to be aware so that if they are religious, they may include this poor child in their prayers.

Yesterday, a child between the ages of 5-10 was found in a travel bag in a duckpond in Rosemeadow (Rosemeadow is one of the small suburbs of Campbelltown, of which I live). Police etc "believe it is the body of boy" goes to tell you the state of the child.

The news story is here. And I don't want to go into any more detail, but I wanted this child to be remembered because nobody deserves this.

I pray that "he" is happy, free from pain, and is laughing at God's side. And may justice be served in the name of the as yet unknown child. I can't think of an appropriate punishment for this crime.

A little annoyed...

First of all, I'd like to wish you all a good day.... And give you a little update as to my absence, which I'm hoping ends today with this monumental post. Alright. So it won't be anything too special, but it'll hopefully mark the end of once or twice a month posts.

To start off with... Below is yes, a picture of my house. Particularly, my house last Saturday during the colossal moving sale we had. You can also see the "Sold" sign in front of our house. Pretty cool eh! We pretty much emptied the house so that our bed was on our front lawn as well. That didn't sell, so I'm happy that I still have my own bed to sleep on. BUT, both of our tvs are gone, as is our DVD payer, our VHS player, which makes my Wii a little hard to play on now (big sad face). Our couch and chairs also went, so in our living room is a very old but working tv (sitting on the floor in the corner), and an old computer desk with Bec's laptop sitting on it so we can at least check our e-mail etc. That's it. No chairs. Nadda. BUT, this does mean that we have very little to get rid of the end of next month.

Notice in the picture is Rebecca and Madison holding the fort!



Other matters..

I really don't like mobile phones (aka cell phones for my ever expanding north american audience). Sitting on the train, a crowded train where there are alot of people standing up in the ailes because there are no more seats left, is not the place to talk about how some relative is now in rehab by court order and if she walks out will be doing the rest of her rehab in Silverwater (prison in Sydney). or about many other issues I don't really want to share. But she was talking behind me so loud it's like she was talking straight into my ear.

And I had headphones on.

Loud..

And I still couldn't shut her out of my head. Maybe that's simply a sign of a weak mind on my part. Maybe I should drop this then and stop pointing out my weaknesses and faults. I may have just given all of my enemies the tool they need to finally defeat me and overthrow my vast empire of wealth. Which coincidentally is tied up in student loans. I guess the take home message is, please don't yell on your phones if your riding public transportation. I don't want to know the problems of your life, unless it's urgent. But otherwise, for people with weak minds, it's very disconcerting.

Another very sad thing happened to me. Starting last week or so. I had noticed that my ergonomically designed keyboard with nice soft-touch keys etc was in it's final throes. The letters, "z", "x," "c," and "v" stopped working. So I am now relegated to using a crap cheap keyboard that you have to slam the keys to get it to type. And it is bloody loud. I type pretty fast, like 500-1000 words a minute (yes the zeroes are correct), so it gets a bit loud. Ya, I am complaining about such a little thing, but I type alot. you may not realize but A LOT of science is done on a computer and there is a lot of writing involved. On that note, I have to go and finish writing up a grant for a project that I will not be working on....

PS: My last day of work is November 30!!!!! Yay for me!!!!!

Sorry So Long!

Firstly, I must apologize for my complete lack of blogging for like a month or so. Too long between posts, and for my adoring and obsessive fan, I am truly sorry. Truly sorry indeed.

But I have had a pretty big month if I do say so myself. First of all, I am tired of working here. I can't seem to get motivation. This has probably stemmed from that fact that I thought that the project would be a bit more set up before I started (as I was told it would be)... Or that it took over 6 months to get ethics approval to do the work... Or that I still don't have all the required tools to do the work... Or that I just spent a long time (months) getting my cell line to work properly and the company stopped making the most essential part of my experiment rendering my cells almost useless (or at least the experiment has no become a lot more expensive!!)

BUT, besides all that crap, my house sold in 5 days, the cooling-off period is over, and we bought out plane tickets back to Canada. We are leaving Australia on December 7 (12noon ish) and will be arriving in Halifax around 9:45pm that night. We're flying from Sydney to LA, to Bost and then to Halifax. It's a pretty big trip. Man I hope my kids can handle it. It's a big change... I feel bad for Alex though because we have to sell alot of his toys and stuff before we go. We are going to keep some for him until we leave, but still. No kid likes to get rid of their toys, especially when you are only 4 years old. He's doing well though.

We have already started selling off our possesions last week. We managed to sell a bunch of stuff to several Baha'i's in our community. Stuff like microwaves, dishes, plates, sewing machine etc... We're going to have a big yard sale soon to try to do a lot more damage though.

I'm really sorry about cutting this all-too-exciting post short though, but I really have to go and get some work done...

(end this letter with a defeated sigh)

Hullo fans..

I would like to first take this opportunity to wish my beloved and beautiful wife a happy birthday!!! She turned another year more beautiful on Saturday, Sept 8. I didn't post this most joyous news earlier because, well, I wished her it in person! Anyway though... Busy weekend, I must tell you.

Our house went up for sale last Tuesday (see previous post), and we had some people through on Saturday. One of them was soo inspired to buy our much loved house, that he gave us an offer we couldn't refuse, so we accepted. We signed contracts etc on Sunday, so the buyer has 10 working days cooling off where he can change his mind. But we don't think he will. The only obstacle would really be the building and pest inspection report. And since we have recently been sprayed for preventative measures against termites, and we have had our house regularly fumigated the pest inspection will be fine... And our house is structurally sound, with the exception of the back fence, but they want to put up a new one anyway!! But we're still holding our breath for the next 8 working days!

I would also like to welcome into the world my 2 new nieces! One was born to my Canadian family, and she's been named Ava born on Friday, Sept 7 i believe (Congrat's Denise and Jeremy!!! I can't wait to see you in December!!!!) and the as-yet-to-b-named baby to my brother and sister in law here (Harry and Amanda) born on Monday, Sept 10! Congrat's to you both!!! I won't be putting up pics of them, so I apologize to all, but I'm sure that you're used to dissapointment by now if you're a regular reader.... It's like watching and waiting for the kettle to boil, only the kettle isn't even plugged in, and you really can't wait to drink up that nice hot chocolate that's just waiting for the boiling water... It's that level of disapointment that you can all expect here. You keep reading, hoping for some glimmer of greatness, something that'll make this minute worth-while.

Too bad for you my friend, too bad for you!!!!


I did just have a great day in the lab. I've been having some pretty serious technical problems doing a certain procedure which I made a tool to help, and it works great... So I am now an ultimate champion of the world at it now... So I will cure some diabetic mice tomorrow morning. I probably won't let you know how it turns out as I am now only killing time to catch the train...But you love it!

Have you ever noticed how liberating it can be to write when you think that noone else is reading? It's not like I have anything mean to say or anything like that, but there is no pretense to impress people, or to provide a readership with something to take home or to remember you by. It's kind of nice, kind of like the lonliest place is a city full of people. No one notices you. You're just someome in someone else's way. I don't mind that sometimes, but I don't like feeling like one of a heard of cattle. Like when I get off the train at the station for work. THere are about a million other people getting off at that station too, and we are all jostling for our own little space on the steps to get out of the station. We're like a herd of cattle moving collectively up and out. Honestly, it sickens me and I am growing more and more weary of it every day. That's probably one of the biggest reasons that I need to move. At least out of Sydney. I need somewhere quieter. I find that I am less tolerant, more agitated, and less happy... But I am excited to be leaving. That is a truth.....

Must run to the train.

For sale!!

Well the for sale sign finally went up on my house yesterday, and the pics are on the internet!!! (see: here). Below is what you get when you "Print Brochure". So, if any of you fancy buying a house in Oz that has been treated with lots of love and care... Make me an offer. ... Preferably more than the asking price... But that may be asking a bit much.

I have to run though, catch a train....

Reign of Terror

Hello everyone. I am not going to say very much today, but I wanted to let you all know that Bec has posted some new pictures up onto her website.... Some of them are from Father's Day which was on Sunday, which was great! I got a nice breakfast in bed with Alex, a nice new wallet that Alex helped pick out. A key chain with Madie's face on it, a page from Alex that he made at day care saying that he likes his Dad because he brings money home... little does he know that science does not pay well...

On Saturday, Alex and I say The Simplsons movie. We liked it alot. We both fell in love with "Spider-Pig" and have been singing it quite alot... Unfortunately, Bec is quite tired of hearing the song, but she'll soon grow to love it. Or else....

The other big thing that happened, is Maddie has learned the ancient art of crawling. She's a bit slow at the moment, but she's getting better daily. And when she gets where she wants to go, she has a little fit of joy. (Said with a big grin from a proud Dad). So, her reign of terror begins now. I don't think Alex truly appreciates what is about to happen though. She loves him. She watches him all the time. ANd up until now, he has been able to simply walk away. Not any more little bub. Not any more.

Anyway though, below are two pics I lifted from Bec's website showing Madison crawling.

Ice skating!

For the second time ever, Alex has ice-skated! On the weekend, one of his friends had an ice-skating birthday party, and I thought that that was a great idea!!! I got to go skating again for free!! YAAAYY for me!!

Alex wasn't sure he was going to need me to help him because he didn't know if he could skate or not since he'd been before (previous post from a long time ago for my long time readers). But once he got on the ice, he realized that he did need my help! We has a bit nervous at first:
but he got better and eventually really started to enjoy himself!
So much that he started to tell me that it's ok, and that I can go around the rink by myself if I wanted to... So I did! He was eventually even able to pick himself up off the ground a stand up properly... I know that this doesn't sound like much, but remember, he is only 4, has only been on ice twice in his life, and lives in Australia never having seen snow.

He never really picked up the idea of skating though, he rather kind of walked around on skates. I thought this was ok since with each step his confidence seemed to build. So I was proud of my boy.... Very proud indeed my friends. And one day, he may even get to play in the NHL with the best team to ever grace the ice.... The Calgary Flames... Ah well, a man can dream...

A few more pics of Alex skating.

Lunar Eclipse

I'm not sure how much of my readership is aware that last night there was a lunar eclipse, where the moon turned a beautiful blood red colour... Or at least it did if you were not enshrouded by streetlights etc.. and then it was an orange colour as I was informed by work-mates living in more populated areas of Sydney!

We got Alex excited to go out and see a "Blood Moon" as he started calling it and he liked it. I explained to him what was happening using the flashlight on my mobile phone as the sun, one fist as the Earth, and the fist as the moon... Moving the moon such that the Earth blocked out the sun (ie phone) such that the moon (fist) was now dark. I think he understood it..

The two.. less well taken pictures were taken by me by Bec's camera while taking full use out of its zoom features... But you can see the beautiful red colour of it... The second is after the red was done and the moon was returning to its nice white colour, but still half covered by the Earth.. Thus the black bit at the top left...

The other two, much more well-defined pictures were simply taken off of Google Images....

Gotta run back to work now though...

Not much here...

There, you've been warned.

There will not be much in this blog mainly because I don't really have anything to say today. I know. I cried too.

Well, the past few weeks I have been pretty busy... Painted the edging around my house green (it looks great, but I might have already said that previously), a bit of painting on the inside of the house too. Then, while Bec, Alex and Mads were down the coast Mon-Wed, I removed the grout from between the tiles in the hallway, and put new grout in all on Monday night... on top of re-painting the laundry skirting boards. A long and busy night that was. But the laundry room and the hallway look great now. Makes me proud. And that's why you're reading about it!!!

Sucks to you eh? I figure I have to start saying eh again since I am moving back to Canada in December.

Work is moving forward slowly. Too slowly for my liking so I started a slightly different project which meant that yesterday, and Wednesday were pretty full on. And I won't know how well it worked for a few weeks to a month and half hopefully.

Real-estate guy is coming to take pics of our house early next week, and then it'll be officially listed! Yay!

I watched the new Harry Potter movie Tuesday night. I liked it. It was much darker and more adult than the other films, and I like the way the series is going. I do think that Harry, Ron, and Hermione are looking older than they are supposed to be in the movie though. But it still worked for me. I did feel that it was not as fluid as the other movies though, like there was stuff going on behind the scenes within the story that we were not privy to. But the movie worked, and I think I liked it more than all of its predecessors, and I am looking forward to the next one! I have recently started reading all the Harry Potter books. I figure that since everyone and their dog seems to have read them, I should hop on board so I get the pop culture references which use it as its base. Great books though! I am now up to the Order of the Phoenix (the new movie) and it is a good book so far (the 1st 100 pages or so, out of 700+).

I did something naughty this morning. And it's all because of Mom. Alright, it wasn't that naughty! A few weeks ago, Mom asked me about my lap top and will it work in Canada. I am pretty sure that it will, I should just need to get a new power cable thing since the power here is 240V and in Canada it is 110V or something like that. But it got me thinking that I wouldn't mind a new one since mine runs pretty hot, and has the biggest power brick I have ever seen (a power brick is the brick looking black box part of the power cable). So I went into a shop today to see what was on offer. There were some really pretty looking machines. Unfortunately, the only ones that I liked were just under $3000. Why do I have such expensive taste!!!!!

Well they were really nice, Centrino Duo processors at 2.2 - 2.4 GHz, 2Gb RAM, 512Mb Nvidea graphics chips, massive hard drives... What more could I want, besides a massive price drop!!! Well, I think that I will wait for the price to drop considerably before I look again, I can't justify anyone paying $300o for a computer. Nice lap tops yes, but I don't really need a new one just yet.... Maybe next year.

One final note though... People, don't forget about your blogs just because Facebook is new and blah blah blah. you don't get nice ramblings about nothing on Facebook... you get short little quips that give you nothing. A blog at least allows a story to be told, a ramble to be writ, and a stronger insight into the writer...

Done

Final product, signed and sent. Graduation in early Dec. Nuff said.

Work Choices...

Sorry about the delay on my posting... Been a little bit busy what with getting the house ready for the market... Not a lot needs to be done as the house is alright, just a few superficial things. The problem lies in the fact that I don't have a lot of "free" time to do the work.. BUT I have re-grouted and sealed the shower, painted the entire edging on my house which took a long time (3 days) and forced me to go up an extension ladder as high as it would go... I didn't like it Jan, not at all! Did some ceiling fixing, and some tiling... mowed the lawn, fixed up a wall a bit, and there may be more.. but that's kept me busy.

Anyway though, that's not why I decided to post today (or I found a few minutes during the first lunch break I've had in about 2 weeks)... And it's about the Work Choices legislation that the Howard government has put in place. I must let you know, that what I am about to say comes from a COMPLETELY lay persons perspective, meaning that my source(s) are the media, largely from people for and against the new legislation. But I think that the points are valid because I assume that the majority of voters are in my shoes, ie not about to read the actual document etc. I am also not taking sides because I don't know what the opposition has proposed.

From my limited understanding, Work Choices gives the employee the right to bargain for better working conditions with their employer on an individual basis, and also the removal of unfair dismissal laws. This gets around the Union movements. BUT, the opposition has asked what is there in place to stop the employer from screwing over the employee by first firing them (removal of unfair dismissal laws) and then offering them their same jobs at a lower wage with reduced benefits etc? I think that this is a fair question. The opposition has made several TV adds with this effect, where there is a woman who is being forced to work overtime despite not having to previously because she is taking care of the kids. You know the type of ad, a sob story. But the question is put forth.

To combat this, the Howard administration has done a big media campaign in favor of the Work Choices legislation saying that people under 18 won't be ripped off by employers because they will need the parent or guardian's signature on the contract as well... And that adult workers will still have holidays, overtime pay etc etc... Pretty much saying that "It's the law" for employers to abide by the working contract. But (me and Rebecca) don't really see how this answers the questions put forth by the opposition: Can you be fired and then asked to sign a contract for lower wages etc?

By saying that a kid can't get ripped off because a parent needs to approve the contract prior blindsides the issue. If the employer is offering a really low wage, and the parent doesn't like it, the kid doesn't work, and the employer will eventually find someone who will fill the role. So some kid, somewhere gets to work at this crap wage because it was a job. In a capitalist society, doesn't the employer hire the worker who'll accept the lower wage. But then this leaves the kid who didn't take the job, out of a job, and making no money as opposed to a little bit.

I guess simply what I'm trying to say is that of course an employer has honour a contract, "it's the law" but with the contents of the contract under no legislation, who's to stop an employer from offering sub-standard working conditions within the contract.

I think that this model works well where there is a large surplus of jobs, but as soon as you get more than one person vying for the same job, the wages and working conditions are pushed down because it is in the employers best (profit-wise) interests to hire the person who'll accept the lowest wage.

I anyone knows more about this system, please feel free to comment on it, as I may be wrong, but this question is in the heads of a lot of people and could mean a loss for the Howard government in the upcoming election.

In all fairness though, the official web-site for Work Choices is HERE, and the offical web-site against Work Choices is HERE.