Derek's Experimental Web Journal
     
  This isn't really an academic blog at all. It just basically records the life and times of Derek J Corbett as he undertakes his PhD.
     
  Mon, 19 Nov 2007
 
 
14:22 - Thesis Completed!
After receiving notification back in July that my thesis had been accepted, I spent the last few months rewriting it. Primarily addressing the recommended emendations and fixing grammar, spelling and reference formatting throughout. I finally got it printed on Tuesday 13/11 and had it bound at Allbook Bindery in West Ryde. I highly recommend them, they did a great job, and it was ready for me to pick up and submit to the Faculty of Science Friday 16/11. So my thesis is finally completed and submitted in its final form. Hooray!

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  Sat, 31 Mar 2007
 
 
12:05 - Thesis Submitted
3 years and 361 days after I commenced my Ph.D. I have submitted it for assessment. The title of my thesis is "Using Location Awareness in Mobile Ad Hoc Networks". I hope to hear the results in 3 to 6 months. Thanks to everyone who helped with my thesis. Especially those who took the time to proofread it.

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  Sat, 17 Mar 2007
 
 
22:18 - New Job!
On Monday I start a new job as an IT Developer at Optiver. Really looking forward to it.



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  Wed, 14 Mar 2007
 
 
22:49 - Nearly There.
Only a few more sections to straighten out. Looking ok to make Sunday's target deadline.

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  Mon, 12 Mar 2007
 
 
18:49 - The Final Countdown
The Final Draft of my thesis will be completed by 18/03/2007. If you would like to volunteer to proof read it please let me know.

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  Tue, 23 Jan 2007
 
 
10:52 - Ad Loc on Wikipedia
I just submitted an extended paper on Ad Loc to the IPSJ and I thought it was about time to give Ad Loc its own Wikipedia Page. Here Ad Loc.

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  Thu, 04 Jan 2007
 
 
15:26 - Sensory Networks.
I have started working at Sensory Networks as a software engineer working on hardware based network security acceleration.




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  Sun, 29 Oct 2006
 
 
16:33 - Ad Loc
Presented my paper Ad Loc: Location-based Infrastructure-free Annotation at ICMU 2006 in London, UK.

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  Fri, 20 Oct 2006
 
 
23:19 - Announcing My Engagement
I would like to announce that as of 22/09 I am officially engaged to my wonderful fiancee Margaret. To celebrate we went out to dinner at the Flying Fish and the next day threw a rather large party. Thanks to everyone for wishing us well! We plan to be getting married August-September next year.


Derek and Margaret literally minutes after becoming engaged.


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  Tue, 11 Jul 2006
 
 
16:30 - Standard Deviation Multiplication


When you want to multiply or divide average values reported with their standard deviations, you don't simply add the standard deviations to produce the final standarddeviation. Instead, you square the fractional standard deviations, add them, then take the square root of the sum to get the fractional total deviation. If you have values A +- dA, B +- dB, ... and want to compute X = A*B*..., the total error dX is then

dX/X = sqrt( (dA/A)2 + (dB/B)2 +...)
Note that you will add the squares of the errors even if you are dividing the actual values.

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16:27 - Standard Deviation Addition

When you want to add or subtract average values reported with their standard deviations, you don't simply add the standard deviations to produce the final standarddeviation. Instead, you square the standard deviations, add them, then take the square root of the sum.

Stot = sqrt(S12 + S22 + ...)
Note that you will add the squares of the errors even if you are subtracting the actual values.

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  Thu, 02 Feb 2006
 
 
12:49 - Hola Mexico!!
My brother and I are heading off to Mexico in just over a week's time. Here is a map of our trip.



I am really looking forward to it. At this stage the trip plan is basically.
Sydney->Tokyo->Vancouver->Mexico City->Merida->Playa del Carmen->Cancun->Mexico City->Sydney.

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  Thu, 05 Jan 2006
 
 
11:17 - Australia Vs. South Africa Cricket
I went to the cricket yesterday at the SCG with my brother and some friends to watch Australia play South Africa. It was a really good day. A friend took a photo of me while I was there. See if you can pick me out in the crowd.



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  Thu, 03 Nov 2005
 
 
16:54 - New Shoes.
So I got some new shoes last weekend at Paul's Warehouse.


Pony City Wings Lo. They are pretty nice for $50.


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  Tue, 18 Oct 2005
 
 
15:27 - operator overload
I am just putting this hint up here, because I did a google search for a solution and couldn't find an answer. Hopefully anyone who makes this mistake in future and googles for an answer will find this page.

If you get an overloaded operator is ambiguous / ambiguity error when trying to compile some C++ code. Make sure you are including the .h files and not the source .cc or .cpp files because this will cause this error. It is a pretty silly mistake to make, but one that is hard to diagnose.

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  Fri, 14 Oct 2005
 
 
20:10 - European Trip August 2005



So I am Back in Sydney after my big European trip. I will put up some more updates soon! But for the time being here are some photos. You can click on the red circles on the above map to see the photos of the places I visited.

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  Fri, 29 Jul 2005
 
 
21:41 - DeLuxembourg
I went to Luxembourg on a coach trip with some of my friends from Aachen on 21/07/05. If you would like to check out some of the photos from my trip you can find them here.



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19:34 - Derek Rennt, Derek Spielt.
A bit earlier this month I got quite sporting. The first sporting event I took part in was the Lousberg Lauf which is a famous race in Aachen. It is a 5,555m race up and down a local hill and each year about 2000 people, mainly university students, take part in it.



With not too much training I was able to finish the race in 26mins and 6seconds. Anyway it was alot of fun and in typical German style at the completion of the race most of the runners went directly for a cool beer and a bratwurst.
The other sporting event I was involved in was the RWTH Electro Faculty Soccer Tournament. I played for the LTI^2 side. We didn't do too badly, but we didn't win. I was the only person on our team to score any goals, but then again I was the striker. I think I might take up indoor soccer when I get back to Australia.

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  Tue, 05 Jul 2005
 
 
23:30 - Long Time No Update.
Sorry the updates on this page have been few and far between. I guess this is testament to how busy I have been.
The weekend of the 25/06 I went to Eins Live Koenigstreffen. Which is the big annual local rock concert. It is held in a sports Stadium in Herzogenrath, which is about 10 minutes up the train line from Aachen. It just so happened that I ended up going with Jon, my friend from Oxford, as being finished with university for the semester he decided to come to Germany for the weekend.

The Bands.

Tocotronic


More Photos

Tocotronic, weren't bad. they were a mixture of Brit pop and Shoegazing. Which might not sound too surprising, except they are German. Hearing Britpop done in German is a bit strange.

Bloc Party


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Bloc Party have been one of my favourite bands this year. And the CD Silent Alarm is probably my favourite CD of 2005. So getting an oppurtunity to see them play live was one of the key reasons I wanted to go to Koenigstreffen. Anyway they certainly lived up to my expectations, and got a very positive response from the crowd. In my opinion the music on their CD sometimes sounds a little over produced, but seeing them live, when their sound is stripped back a bit is certainly worth hearing. Bloc Party was the highlight of the day for me.

Max Herre


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Max Herre is a German rapper. Rap in German works surprisingly well. The highlight was "Esperanto". Esperanto is a song by Max Herre's old group Freundeskreis, which is sung half in Esperanto and half in Germaing idea. Pity Esperanto never took off as a language.

Mando Diao


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Hailing from Borlaenge in Sweden, Mando Diao do the crazy garage rock band thing, very well. If you have heard any of their CDs you may think that they are a bit subdued. However live, they are anything but! Worth checking out if you get the chance.

Fettes Brot


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Fettes Brot to me are the German Beastie Boys. 3 guys, lots of humourous songs. Sometimes their music is a bit incoherent. They will be doing a song, stop the music, tell a joke, and then start the song back up again. I guess they are pretty much the typical German Party Band at the moment.

Gentleman


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Gentleman is a German Reggae singer. However, I think only one of his songs was actually in German. He preferred to sing in English with a heavy Jamaican accent. His music was quite good. Although he had an annoying habit of singing the lyrics to his songs solo without his band, before doing the song with the band. So in essence you got to hear everyone of his songs twice. He was very well liked by the crowd.

Franz Ferdinand


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With the worldwide success of the debut self-titled album Franz Ferdinand are certainly one of the most popular rock bands in the world at the moment. Sometimes when a band or anything for that matter has such a large reputation, it is hard for them to live up to it in reality. This was not the case for Franz Ferdinand. They were excellent live. The best part though was their last song, "This Fire" which closed out a great day of rock 'n' roll, hip hop and reggae.

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  Tue, 07 Jun 2005
 
 
23:45 - The End is Nigh!
So I only have about 2months left in Aachen, and in that time ALOT of work to do.
BUT
I will be taking a month holiday in August around Europe.


This is my proposed route.
Aachen->Zurich->Rome->Venice->Vienna->Prague->Berlin->Copenhagen->Stockholm->Helsinki

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02:33 - Photo Journal
I have been pretty busy lately... Hence not many posts written here. Hopefully quite soon I will have finished off my photo journal. It is currently being developed at http://www.cs.usyd.edu.au/~dcorbett/photos/
Enjoy

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  Fri, 29 Apr 2005
 
 
21:18 - Lipovitan-D
It is Official Lipovitan-D is my new favourite drink



How could anyone not love a drink with the following ingredients:
Sugar...................18 g
Taurine.............. 1g
Caffeine..............0.05 g
Citric Acid............0.5 g
Glucuronoiactone..0.4g.
Inositol................ 50 mg
Niacinamide....... 20 mg
Pantothenol........ 5 mg
Vitamin B6..........5 mg
Vitamin B12..........5 mg
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  Tue, 05 Apr 2005
 
 
02:16 - Oecher Bend is NOT Luna Park!

This is Luna Park in Melbourne. However Oecher Bend, the "Easter Show" like fair being held across the street from my apartment is not Luna Park. It is Oecher Bend. Here is the proof!


The Mysterious "Revue Der Illusionen" where one can see the miraculous Frau Ohne Kopf (Women with out a head) and conversely the Frau Ohne Korper (Women without a body) I am a bit suspicious it might just be the one lady though.


Spinning Racer allows you to experience what it feels like to be in a car crash, without any of the insurance hassles!


The Jupiter Ferris Wheel is the most iconic thing about Oecher Bend, pity no one was riding it.


Or for that matter the Beach Party ride. But a good time was had by all!

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  Sat, 02 Apr 2005
 
 
00:20 - The Neighborhoodies Experiment
A while ago I stumbled across the website www.neighborhoodies.com. The idea being that you can design your own sweatshirt. Which to me seemed like a good idea as you can design something you would never be able to find in a shop. So anyways I eventually decided to get one for myself. I wanted to get a shirt that said "Heiwa" which is romaji for the Japanese word for peace, which Kahne and I had got into the habit of exchanging as a greeting. In Japan there is a chain of malls called Heiwado and their logo is a white dove on a green background, so I kind of appropriated this concept in designing my jumper. I filled out the form on the Neighborhoodies website and sent them a picture of what I wanted my shirt to turn out like.



And this is what it turned out like.



Which was pretty much exactly what I was after. So I can highly recommend neighborhoodies, although they are a little expensive, especially with overseas shipping, you get a one of unique clothing item only limited by your imagination.

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  Tue, 29 Mar 2005
 
 
22:03 - A Weekend in Paris



I spent the Easter weekend in Paris, with Sally a friend from Sydney. On Easter Sunday we took a sightseeing walk through Paris. On the map above the red line shows the approximate route, and the blue dots can be clicked on to show pictures I took from those points.

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  Mon, 21 Feb 2005
 
 
19:19 - A Snowy Weekend
The weekend began on Friday morning. As I sat looking out the window of my apartment, it looked liked it was going to be a fine sunny day. This inspired me to wear shorts (Kurzehosen). On my way to the Auslandersamt (foreigner's office) at the town hall to register as a resident of Aachen, I cycled past a thermometer/clock which told me it was minus 4 degrees. I began to question the wisdom of wearing shorts. But I was inspired by Dave from my office, who no matter the temperature or situation back in Sydney would wear shorts. After an unsatisfactory time at the Auslandersamt, where I was told I would have to wait till Monday to get my residence permit, I rode the 5 or 6 kilometers back to my office. Everyone in my office thought I was crazy, but if the truth is known, I wasn't all that cold. That was until I rode home. It started snowing at 5pm about an hour before I left my office. It continued snowing as I rode the 2 kilometers home.
After a dinner of Pizza Ramen, I headed out into the snow in search of a Jazz club "The Malteserkeller" which I'd heard had some good Jazz on Friday nights. Despite the Jazz club being only down the street I got a bit lost and spent a good hour just walking around in the snow. Walking in the snow was a bit of a novelty and the only complaint I really have about it is getting snowflakes stuck in my eyelashes. It was fortunate, in a way, that I got lost in fact because the nightlife in Aachen doesn't start until after 10pm, and I had set out from my house at about 8:30pm. When I finally got to the club I was the only person there for about an hour. So I just sat and listened to the music that was playing. The Malteserkeller was a pretty nice place, but the music they played wasn't exactly Jazz. Also the crowd was a bit old, I was probably about 10 years younger than the next youngest person.
After the club I headed home. On my way I saw four guys engaged in heated snowfight. I have never been in a proper snowfight in my life, and the snow was now an inch or so thick. So I asked if I could join in. So I ended up in a snowfight with 2 guys from Kazakhstan and 2 guys from Kyrgyzstan. After everyone got tired of being hit with snowballs, we parted ways and I headed home.
I spent Saturday shopping for some further essentials for my flat: a proper fry pan, a big spoon for stirring things, a tea towel, some novels (Vernon God Little and Eleanor Rigby), a DVD (Adaptation).
When I got home I watched Adaptation, which I had never seen before. It is pretty weird in a good way. I have to wonder if it is true or made up though. It's pretty weird to write yourself into an adaptation of a story that has nothing to do with you. And it gets quite farcical towards the end as the author indulges the story in everything he has said he wants to avoid, drugs, violence, car chases, people having big revelations. I give it 4.5 out of 6.
After a smoked salmon (Raucherlachs) dinner I spent the rest of the night reading Eleanor Rigby by Douglas Coupland. I read it straight through in one hit, it's fairly short only 248 pages. It was a very Douglas Coupland book, although it reminded me more of his more recent books such as Hey, Nostradamus! It's about book essentially about loneliness and damaged but interesting victims of fate. It has one of the more interesting Deus Ex Machina I have ever heard, which reflects Coupland's obsessions with the cold war and radiation in books like Life After God. It was a good read.
On Sunday, I had decided the night before I was going to go to the Ludwig Forum for International Art in Aachen. The Ludwig Forum is a pretty good contemporary art gallery, although not in the same ballpark as the MCA in Sydney or The Pompidou Centre in Paris. I had a Weiner Schnitzel lunch at the bar of the restaurant in the Ludwig Forum as the entire place was booked out. I ordered in English, despite the fact could have easily done it in German, in my defense it was Sunday and I was feeling lazy.
The current major exhibit at the Ludwig Forum is an exhibition of Photographic work by Sophie Calle. Some of her works included a series of photos taken on two separate occasions that she hired (indirectly) a private investigator to follow her for a day. I found it quite humorous. Accompanying the photos is a flowery description of the day written by Sophie Calle, in which she says that she is trying to show the detective different aspects of her life. In stark comparison is the clinical description of what actually occurred as written by the detective. It's quite amusing that the detectives both times missed all of the subtleties Calle was trying to "show" them. In fact the second time, the dectective loses her at the critical moment which Calle has been describing.
The other piece of work was called "An Exquisite Pain". In this work Calle documents 96 days before breaking up and 96 days after breaking up. Apparently back in 1985 Calle won a scholarship to go to Japan for 3 months. Her boyfriend said it would be too long and he would forget her, but she went anyways. The boyfriend arranged to meet her in New Dehli after her trip was over. Called her 3 hours before she was to arrive in New Dehli to say he would meet her at the hotel room. But when she arrived she found got a note from the desk saying her boyfriend had had an accident back in Paris. She tried calling him for 10 hours only to get through at the end and find out that he hadn't had an accident and that he had met another woman.
The exhibit contains 96 photographs and artifacts all stamped with the number of days between them and unhappiness. On the day of unhappiness there is a recreation of her hotel room in New Dehli with the phone off the hook. And then afterwards there are about 96 photos. Every second photo is a picture of the red phone off the hook in the New Dehli hotel room, and underneath in sewed text is a different recollection of the events that preceded her "Exquisite Pain". In between these photos are other photos of different objects, places and people. And beneath each of them are further stories of woe, somehow related to the photos above. It was an interesting exhibit, but somehow quite self indulgent.
The other highlights of the Ludwig Forum were a few nice Lictensteins and a couple of Warhols. It was a pretty good gallery, and well worth the 1.50 Euro entry fee and the bike ride across town.
Tonight I cooked up some Chicken Yaki Soba, and plan to get stuck into Vernon God Little.
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  Thu, 06 Jan 2005
 
 
23:29 - Walk, Idiot, Walk
Thursday
-Went and saw After the Fall play. They were much better than the last time I saw them.
-Sharn, Lindy and Anthony went as well.

Friday
-Nada

Saturday
-Did some work during the day.
-SUV Halloween Party. With jumping castle? Why doesn't SUV just buy a permanent jumping castle already!
-Met up with Kahne, Tarou and Yuriko, and headed over to Dave's halloween party.
-I was dressed as a scout, which apparently isn't a very Halloween costume.
-Didn't stay at Dave's past 10pm.

Sunday
-Nike's "You're the Run I Want!" innaugural 10Km run.



-I had signed up for this race, when I could actually run, i.e. before I injured my ankle.
-So I resolved to make the best of a bad situation and see how fast I could do the race, without breaking my stride into a run. So with my hiking boots on I walked the race as fast as I could. Completing it in a time of 1hr 18mins 22secs which is just over 7 and a half minutes per Kilometre, which I don't think is bad at all considering the circumstances.



-As if I hadn't had enough walking for the day I walked from Olympic Park over to Concord West station and caught the bus up to Top Ryde to go bowling with Mark, Heather, Sam, Adam, Clare, Evelyn, and co.
-Despite all the walking I had a pretty good game. All my scores were over 150.
-But most importantly I came within 1pin... 1pin of breaking the 200 barrier.



-Anyways on the way home we dropped Adam off, and went with Mark to Chatswood for dinner. This is a tricky ask at 11pm on a Sunday night. But there is this great place called "Big Fish, Little Fish" that Adam recommended. It's open til 1am every night. -I ordered Beef Nachos. Apparently it is unusual to ask for Tomato Sauce with Nachos, but I tend to disagree.

Monday
-Went and saw Metallica: Some Kind of Monster.
-This movie was pretty interesting and very funny in parts. The idea of getting a psychotherapist in to help a heavy metal band "work through it's issues" is quite amusing.
-I probably would have enjoyed this movie more if I had seen it when I was 15 and still listened to Metallica.
-Actually I might go listen to "Ride the Lightning" now.
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  Sat, 01 Jan 2005
 
 
12:01 - Back To Work!
Today is my first day back in the office, hurrah!

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  Thu, 09 Dec 2004
 
 
14:51 - The Adventures of Derek in the Orient: Thailand
25/11
-After getting the 4am bus from Ma On Shan, I arrived at the airport 3 hours before my flight was scheduled to leave.
-There is always a strange group of people hanging around any airport after hours. A combination of airport workers napping before their shift starts, and travellers who have missed flights or are waiting for stand by.
-When I arrived in Bangkok I decided to get the train into the city. Unfortunately at that time of the day, the train didn't go for another 3 hours.
-So I got a cab to my youth hostel.
-Checked in, and fell asleep.
-When I woke up, I went for a walk. I went to Khaosan Rd. had a look around. And then got lost. And then I found myself. I was at Thammasat University.
-I looked around, went back to the YHA and fell asleep, deciding to check out the Grand Palace tomorrow.


26/11
-Bowling

27/11
-Grand Palace

28/11
-Lecture

29/11
-Hiking

30/11
-Fly to Phuket

01/12
-Phi Phi Islands

02/12
-Beaches, Hiking

03/12
-Wat Chalong

04/12
-Going Home



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  Tue, 07 Dec 2004
 
 
00:31 - Geek Test
Ever wanted to find out how geeky you were? Take the Geek Test
I scored 60.94675% which apparently means that I'm an "Extreme Geek" but I dont see it.

And Another One...
You are 63% geek
You are a geek. Good for you! Considering the endless complexity of the universe, as well as whatever discipline you happen to be most interested in, you'll never be bored as long as you have a good book store, a net connection, and thousands of dollars worth of expensive equipment. Assuming you're a technical geek, you'll be able to afford it, too. If you're not a technical geek, you're geek enough to mate with a technical geek and thereby get the needed dough. Dating tip: Don't date a geek of the same persuasion as you. You'll constantly try to out-geek the other.

Take the Polygeek Quiz at Thudfactor.com
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  Mon, 06 Dec 2004
 
 
17:14 - The Adventures of Derek in the Orient: Hong Kong
The last time I was in Hong Kong was at the beginning of 2000. So it was good to finally make it back to visit my friend Jono as he is now working over there.

19/11
-Arrived in Hong Kong, after a pretty uneventful flight. Caught the expensive but efficient Airport express into Central. Got a Mc Cafe Capuccino and waited for Jono to get off work.

20/11
-Jono's girlfriend Lilian arrived from Sydney in the morning and we went out for a breakfast of Congee and Flat noodles.
-Then we took the car and relocated over to Ma On Shan.
-Then we headed back to Causeway Bay for a Japanese dinner,before heading out to the infamous Lang Kwai Fong, for cocktails.
-For some reason the swiss tourist office had decided that tonight was the night to advertise itself so there were swiss flags, people with cowbells, a guy dressed up as a dairy cow. It was all quite surreal. not exactly what you'd expect in the main entertainment district of Hong Kong on a Saturday night.
-After we decided we were done for the evening we headed over to central and got a ferry across to Kowloon (Tsim Sha Tsui), before getting the KCR back home.

21/11
-Got up late and headed over to Ma On Shan town centre to get a Taiwanese Style brunch.
-jono decided we should head over to Sai Kung on the bus to check it out. Sai Kung is apparently a pretty famous for fresh seafood. The fishermen take their boats up to the pier and people clamour around to see who has the best catch. Once you decide on what you want the fishermen will pass you up their catch which you can take to you favourite restaurant and have them cook.
-We didn't get seafood. Just a coffee.
-Then we headed into Causeway Bay again on the bus to meet Jono's parents for a cantonese dinner.

22/11
-Jono had his last day of work before his break today so Lilian and I set out top explore Hong Kong and do some shopping.
-First stop was the markets in Mongkok. It always seems like the temperature is about 10 degrees hotter inside a street market than just in a normal street.
-We got the MTR across to Admiralty, and ended up getting lunch at a "Cafe de coral" althought to me it seemed more like a "Cafe de Corral". It is basically a very smoothly run chinese fast food outlet.
-There are heaps of shops around Admiralty, and in particular Pacific Place.
-We went up to the Observation Deck of the Bank of China for a somewhat hazy view down to IFC central and across to Kowloon.
-Went and did a bit of shopping, and then waited to meet up with Jono.
-Jono had planned to take us out to Stanley Markets at night to go to a restaurant.

23/11 Macau

-Today we decided to head to Macau. I had never been to Macau before, and pretty much all I knew about it was that it was supposed to be a "Gambler's Haven"
-Jono, Lilian and I caught the Hydrofoil from Sheung Wan to Macau, it is only about 40mins away from Hong Kong by Hydrofoil.
-As soon as we arrived we were immediately solicited (in cantonese) to go on all sorts of tours.
-However I convinced Lilian and Jono that it would probably be easier if we took the bus.
-So we got the bus from the Pier all the way to Taipa, which is one of the three islands (Macau, Taipa and Coloane) that make up the territory of Macau.
-When we got there we looked around and found a good restaurant for lunch, Pinnochio's. Which served a mixture of Portuguese and Cantonese food, the Squid and the Pigeon were particularly good.
-After that we strolled around and looked a for a bakery with Portuguese Egg Tarts, which are apparently a local delicacy, and they certainly were good. Although the coffee at the bakery was awful.
-We then decided to go sightseeing on Macau's main island. But I managed to get us a little lost on the bus system. The other poblem was that it was getting a little late and almost everything (apart from the casinos was closed.
-However the most recognizable monument in Macau is open all the time, The Ruins of St. Paul's Cathedral. so we went there for a look.
-After being touristy, we decided to go to a casino.
-The most famous casino in Macau is probably the Hotel Lisboa. But it was getting late, so we decided to go to the Sands, which is "Asia's First Las-Vegas Style Casino" and also conveniently close to the ferry port.
-Seeing as we were at a casino, I decided to have a bit of a gamble, but the smallest denomination you could play with was 200HKD. So I decided I'd give it a shot. And proving that I have no luck at all when it comes to gambling I lost my 200HKDs on one hand of Black Jack.
-I got two face cards (20) and the dealer had one face card up and then beat me on a Blackjack.
-Assuming 5 decks in play the odds of a dealer getting a blackjack from that situation are 1 in 13.
-I had a Macau beer with Jono to drown my sorrows. Macau beer tastes odd, but not bad at all.
-We eschewed the 160HKD a head Vegas style Sands Buffet and instead got more food than we could eat for under 160HKD in the Sands Chinese Restaurant.
-Then we headed back home to Hong Kong.

24/11 Cheung Chau and Tsim Sha Tsui

-As we were feeling pretty tired from the Macau adventure we didn't leave the house til about 1pm and we headed over to Ma On Shan to get Yum Cha.
-It was apparently time for me to try some of the cantonese food that is famous purely because it makes westerners squeamish. So I had some Beef Lungs, Chicken Claws and Pigs Intestines. Which all actually taste ok.
-After a rest Jono decided to take us to one of Hong Kongs outlying Islands, a fishing village, that is famous for its seafood called Cheng Chau.
-We had a great meal of all kinds of seafood, and wandered around the tiny island, which apparenlt has no cars, apart from emergency vehicles.
-After that we caught the Ferry back to central and then a star ferry across to Tsim Sha Tsui, in order to hang out with Jono's friend Debbie in Hong Kong's Kowloon side nightlife spot.
-We ended up having a few drinks in a Turkish themed bar which was actually really nice.
-Somehow we managed to miss the last train. So we got a cab.
-By this stage it was 2am and I realised iof I went to bed I would not get up in time for my flight.
-So I stayed up talking to jono before catching a bus at 4am to get my 8am flight to Bangkok.


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  Thu, 18 Nov 2004
 
 
23:38 - Holidays!!!
So I leave for Hong Kong on Holidays tomorrow. This last week and a bit has been rather hectic hence no updates. But it seems to be the season for going away. On Saturday night last week I went to a farewell party for a friend Anthony at Disco Bowling.
Last Friday for the first time all year I finally beat my flat mmate Heather at scrabble, twice in a row! After that she won again. But seeing as Heather always wins it was good to finally beat her.

Well I'm off to Hong Kong.

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  Wed, 10 Nov 2004
 
 
18:40 - Hero/Halo
On Monday night I went and saw Hero with Mick and Mark at Reading Cinemas Market City.
Hero is a pretty good movie, and it is visually beautiful. However it is a film you have to see at the cinemas to really enjoy. It's grand cinematography would be lost on the small screen. I guess the movie you could most compare it to is Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. And in comparisson, it wasn't as good. There are definitely some good parts, but Hero is fairly slow in places.
3 out of 6.



On Tuesday night there was a bit of a pizza and beer night to celebrate the release of Halo 2. As far as I can tell it is pretty much the same as Halo one. I still don't get the point of FPS on the Xbox (possibly because I don't own an Xbox) but it seems to me that the Xbox's control system is just to fiddly to make it a viable gaming system for FPSs.

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  Mon, 08 Nov 2004
 
 
01:27 - Cityslackers
There comes a point in time, when one is doing a PhD that you think to yuorself, am I being productive enough? I'm not sure if I am. I plan to step up efforts in the productivity department this week. As for last week...

Thursday
-Went and saw The Bell Shakespeare Company's production of Shakespeare's The Twelfth Night at the the Sydney Opera House with Felicity, Luke, other Derek, and Yang.
-It was a really good production, although pretty Oz. For instance Feste (The Jester) wears a blue singlet and Ugg Boots.
-Ran into quite few people I haven't seen in a while, Fiona, Sophie and Paul, Vicky and David.

Friday
-Went with Sharn and Sebar to Spectrum Nightclub in the city to see The Casanovas
-If you ever go and see this band beware of falling mirror balls!



-That aside the Casanovas put on a great Rock and Roll show. Their music is alot of fun, and the crowd really seemed to enjoy it.
-Ended up going to Glitch at 77, but only to play Guns and Roses Pinball.

Saturday
-Went with my father to see Opera at Rivendell.



-The event was a fund raiser for Concord Repatriation General Hospital and specifically for the Stroke unit.
-It was a really good evening, The highlights were Kamahl's rendition of the show boat tune "Old Man River" and the opera pieces, especially the ones taken from Bizet's Carmen.

Sunday
-Went with Kahne and Dan to Belmore for Korean BBQ dinner.
-I'd actually never had much Korean food before, but it is really good if you like spicey food.
-Kimchi is great.

Tonight we feast, for tomorrow we work!

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  Mon, 25 Oct 2004
 
 
12:25 - Weekend Wrap Up.
Friday
-I went and saw Royal Crown Revue with Sharny. I had been really looking forward to this gig, as I had somehow managed to miss RCR everytime that they've been out to Australia. It was worth the anticipation.
-The Louisville Sluggers opened for RCR.
-RCR played for about 2 hours and it was quite an amazing show, the drummer in RCR ispossibly one of the best drummers I have ever seen. Especially his drum solo in the middle of Hey Pachuco.
-It was a really good night!



Saturday
-Did pretty much nothing except went shopping in Chinatown so now I have stacks of food to cook.

Sunday.
-Went out and visited my family.
-Went bowling. Scored a pretty dismal 145 and 118.

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  Thu, 21 Oct 2004
 
 
23:01 - I can walk!!!
So i'm back to good health again, my ankle has repaired itself, though I'm not really up for doing much running just yet. Last night we did the whole Manning Trivia thing, before heading out to getting a Japanese meal. We went to the Japanese Restaurant (Asuka) under the BT Tower on Market St and Kent in the city. It's a really good (small) restaurant, that's not too expensive, but still has good food. I got a sushi and Udon set.

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  Sat, 16 Oct 2004
 
 
12:20 - Injured
After an unprecedented victory at both Sydney University trivia competitions, Wentworth Wednesday 1pm, and Manning 5:30pm. We decided to go to the F-Lodge to celebrate with steak. Unfortunately on the footbridge, I turned my ankle. So now as happens with my ankles periodically, I'm stuck on crutches with my foot up until my ankle heals itself. Its about now I realise why living on the ground floor is better than the third floor. hopefully my ankle will be better by Monday, but you can never tell with these things.

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  Tue, 12 Oct 2004
 
 
17:04 - My Desk
My desk needs a clean here is a list of the items on my desk...

Random Stuff
An American Flag
A Globe
An Unplugged Motorola Cable Modem
An Ethernet Cable
A Glass of Ice Tea
A Yellow Towel
A Set of Headphones
Random Pieces of Paper
A Shrek Bobble Head
A Nova Usagi in a Plastic Bag
Baikinman
A Paper Delorean
A Small Bottle of Kikkoman Soy Sauce
Some Nurofen Plus
A Microphone
Pens
Scissors
Whiteboard Markers
Blistex Ultra
A Whiteboard Eraser
Clip Refills and Applicator
Gluesticks
A Taiwanese Phonecard
Laptop
Monitor
Wireless Keyboard and Mouse
SITCRC Mouse Pad
A Teapot
Serviettes
Sunglasses
A Coax Cable

Books
Perl in a Nutshell
Teach Yourself C++
Software Engineering Textbook
Mobile Communications Text Book
The Chicago Guide to Communicating Science
Unix Network Programming
Lonely Planet Guide to Japan
The Rough Guide to France

CDs
Descendents - Somery
No Use for a Name - Live in a Dive
DJ Shadow - The Private Press

Photos to Come.

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  Mon, 11 Oct 2004
 
 
12:32 - Run, Runner!
Friday
-Was planning to have a quiet evening, but...
-Got taken by Felicity to the beach at Bronte.
-Had dinner in Bondi.
-Interesting evening as I hadn't been to Bondi in like 8 years!

Saturday
-Yum Cha with Flick and her family
-Went home and did some work and went for a run.
-I have entered into the Nike 10Km Run. Which is going to be held on 31/10.
-Went to Ryan's Housewarming party. The theme of which was coming dressed like David Bowie.


I looked almost entirely not like this.

-Met up with Kahne.
-Got home pretty late.

Sunday
-BBQ with my folks
-Watched some DVDs with Heather and Mark.
-This is Spinal Tap and Logan's Run.
-I'm going to give Spinal Tap 3.5 out of 6 and Logan's Run 3 out of 6.
-Word is that Bryan Singer is doing a remake of Logan's Run


Run, Runner!


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