humanity

Oh my god .
That news report about the girl hit by a van and left at the side of the road in China.
And the convoluted laws that resulted in discouraging people to help her.

So I was thinking,

Apparently it's possible that within the next 50 years, human lifespans could be increased to 1000 years. So if within the next 1000 years, human lifespans can be increased indefinitely (1000 years = a long time for someone to accumulate knowledge: technology is only limited by the amount of time someone has to advance it before they die (within that 1000 years, lifespans can increase further, and within that extra time, even further, etc.)),
-some people will be young forever, some old forever
-world population: GG resources, GG earth
-death will not be able to be dealt with - others will live indefinitely??
-old people can't retire?

Those will still apply to a smaller extent with any increase in lifespan?

Anyway, I have to go and do a genetics essay based on stats, which I haven't done before, GG. And I'm applying to be a PASS leader (which is like, a tutorial group tutor) and hopefully be a PASS leader next sem.

Postapocalyptic!

Week of doom is past. I don't have midsem break until like 24th Sept, but that means my next half of the semester will be short. Pretty good!!

Might go and crash UNSW, maybe.
It won't be a real "break" though, I'll have a bit of catching up on lectures and I'll have to read the textbooks or something. I've barely touched them except to reference them in assignments. On a somewhat related note, the turkeys at UQ are freakin hilarious. There's two just chasing each other like 2 metres away from me right now.

Hm, I have to present this journal article to my prac group. The whole article's based on stats, and I haven't done stats before, so I guess I'll just wing it.

So tired.

Prac ran 20 minutes overtime :/. Woken by a crow outside my window at 5am, so got 3hrs of sleep >:\/\/. Missed bus like 3 times in a row due to inability to think straight. Carried textbooks and laptop around uni all day, trying to finish off an assignment so I can focus on the exam on Saturday :/ after which I will have around 1 day to do an assignment by Sunday (most of these I couldn't start before this week, because I need results from my experiments, or group contribution from other group members, etc. before I can start). Then, afterwards, going to let looseeeee! Study hard play hard live hard? Maybe. For the foreseeable future, anyway. /endrant.

Actually, that's all I really wanted to say I guess. Don't have much brain left to think about other stuff, been (and still is) a most hectic and epic week. Oh, and if you windsurf with garbage bags, you're pretty cool.

Return!

My current PhD hypothesis: You are an bactercocciamoebacrobialgus!

Proposed methods: I will dissect you! Using a diamond pickaxe, a TV remote and a stuffed James Ruse sheep!

Estimated results: I will take all the items you drop, and auction them off!

So in addition to that, I just wanted to express how good having internet back is. Though it's very inconsistent at the moment. Still, prettygoodprettygood! The downside is that I can't do any bludging or anime-watching online because I have a ton of research papers, 4 lectures, 3 assessments, and 3 exams to read, Lectopia, complete, and sit, respectively (or not), next week. One of the exams are on next Saturday, too. UQ has something against me I think. Ahwells, bring it on!

I've been doing a bunch of pracs on cane toads. Actually I've killed way too many cane toads (or not enough, as some QLDers argue). I had 6 hours of pracs today, with an 1-hour break between each 3-hour prac. Pretty fun and stressful at the same time. Throat is a bit dry from talking to groupmates in pracs. I never talk this much lol.

Some random stuff arrived from eBay, so that instead of keeping my housemates up at night with lousy guitar playing (they haven't complained about the noise yet because they've been up doing stuff until like 1am every night for a week), I can just plug some headphones in, and no one will hear me! /sad LOL. I actually realised that whether I like a guitar or not depends more on how good it looks than how well it plays/sounds. Shallow and pedantique! English!

Also tried making deep-fried apple. (Yeah, deep-fried apple, what the heck is that, I don't even what is this). Was a semi-success. coated apple in egg, bread-crumb-like flavouring/crusting mix, and starch, and put into hot oil. Kind of, I mean, extremely weird looking, but average-tasting. What I don't get is cooking chicken with coke for sauce. That will probably be the next retarded project I try to make haha.

EDIT
I forgot about this
There's the 11 deaths in the house fire in the headlines. That's actually very sad. And the father that lost 5 of his kids and his wife. In the photos, it looks like he's just given up. They're still investigating the cause and whether the house had a smoke detector (the inside being burnt out probably makes investigation that much harder). And this: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/surviving-father-leapt-from-burning-home-believing-family-was-already-safe/story-e6frg6nf-1226122662414. That father thought his family had escaped, because he couldn't hear their voices anymore, so he jumped out. Must be so bad for him.

Makes you realise that you don't have it that bad. Yeah, you DON'T have it that bad. Makes my whinging sound like, well, just whinging.

Journal

Man, some journal articles are so complicated. Almost to the point where every third sentence will have you wondering why you're even reading it in the first place. But then, reading some others and actually understanding them feels kind of good. I'm not sure whether I'll have to write them in the future, I can't imagine the writing process to be much fun (having been through it quite a few times), but if you've actually discovered something, writing it shouldn't be a tedium, it should be exciting, I'm guessing?

It seems that whenever I make a plan for a day, or a week, a period of time in general, I never actually carry it out fully. I always have my hopes too high. I guess I have an exaggerated perception of my attention span and/or patience. Typical. And my memory, too, it seems - I think I left out the meat for two days before I realised I took out the meat to defrost, and so I've nothing to cook because I'm actually out of food and emergency rations. And chocolate, even. LOL

Oh well, here's to all the stuff that I'm meant to do and to have done! Rest in peace!

EDIT

Gosh chemotaxis is so confusing, anyone doing chem/know a lot about GTPases and PIP3/anything want to help? LOL.

No internet.

So we're currently upgrading our internet, and TPG takes 10-20 days to make the upgrade, so I have no internet at home. I'm way over the allowance for my mobile broadband already. -.-

So I'm mostly at uni these days, leeching the internet. I haven't cooked for around a week! It's either been kebabs, Jap food, instant noodles or raisin toast and breads, and salads.

Also, the Fender has arrived! Strat is here! etc. I'll link a pic

Yep, never mind, I'll upload one.

Fender American Deluxe Stratocaster (made in USA!!1@!), with um a maple fingerboard, SSS configuration.

.

So this plays very (I mean very) nicely. (Though, now I feel really bad.) It's been named. It has a cool tremolo system and locking tuners to mess around with. It came with the moulded SKG case, with all the goodies inside, like a leather strap, locking tuners, lead, stickers, everything. (excited!)

I still like the sound of my black guitar better though. But it doesn't play nearly as well and isn't nearly as nice as the Strat. I also wrote two new songs in two days just off this Strat. /prettygood

EDIT
made yoghurt-flavoured fried rice, but forgot to add salt. GG

Gosh

http://www.globalphotos.org

I've spent hours looking at those already, I think.

What is this

, I don't even.

All this weird ECG readings and etc. And wobble hypotheses.

UQ had 500mL bottles of DARE iced coffee for 2 dollars, which was quite awesome, but that ended.


EDIT
omg genetics is confusing.

Strat or Tele?

So for some unknown reason, I really want a Strat or Tele now. Fender probably did some inception on me.
So, Strat or Tele? I already have a Les Paul, and I really like Les Paul's freaking buff sound, but it's pretty ordinary for playing with low gain or for a bright sound. But, I don't want to play like, Texan country music either.
I have no idea how to implement a poll on a blog, so for now, "lol" = Strat, "wtf" = Tele. Or just leave a comment :D. I want a white Strat or Tele, preferably with a black pick guard, if I can't find one with a black pick guard I'll probably just install one myself. Or a Cherry Red guitar, but those probably only come with the more expensive models. I'm looking at the lowest tier of Fender, the Mexican-made Standard guitars. Though at the moment I'm trying to resist the urge to rush out and grab one.
I'm going to go try out Strats and Teles on Thursday with David after uni.

Heavy+Medic

So TF2 is hilariously fun, but the peeps have stopped playing now :/
Anyway, I'm in Brisbane now, uni started today for me. So I'm currently lugging around 15kg's of textbooks from Co-op and other stuff around in some random blue shopping bag. It's quite ridiculous, but the line at the bookshop is even more ridiculous, so I bought everything today. It cost around 400 dollars ._.

Sydney for a month was very nice, I just went to the city when I had nothing else on (which was very rare lol). We never got to do the Macquarie thing, though, and I was planning on doing some laser tag or paintball which also never happened, but yeah. It was a very good break. My cousin came over from China, she's going to do masters of accounting at ANU, she left for Canberra before I left for Brisbane. I tagged along when she was looking for accommodation in Canberra. I still think the city/town's not extremely interesting or lively, but it's well structured and orderly. ANU is like inside Canberra's CBD, which is quite cool.

I went shopping in the city (Queen St Mall is actually pretty cool.) on Saturday, I had to buy all this food. I still have some things I need, I mean want, to buy, but I'm not sure how I'll carry them onto the buses and into the house. Oh well. UQ still is undergoing randomly massive constructions and renovations and whatnot, there are trucks and workers everywhere. I've no idea when they'll finish, but yeah.

I can't wait to play Deus Ex 3, though I don't know how good it would be, Square Enix stuff has been pretty dodgy lately. And I shouldn't have enough time to play it anyway. I'm doing three 2nd year courses this semester and a 1st year chem course, apparently the second year courses require much more input. I think I've said that before.

Anyway.

In the summer holidays, I want to go to China. Roam around HK, Guangzhou, Shanghai, probably go to the ice festival in Harbin. Anyone care to come with?/Can I tag along with anyone? I actually forgot quite a bit of reading and writing Chinese, so I actually have no idea what to do lol.

So like

Uni grades are out for me, UQ is kind of fast. BIOL1020 7, BIOL1040, PSYC1030 and CHEM1030 6. A Queensland 7 is approximately a UNSW/USYD HD, 6 D, etc., which are alright. I mean, they're pretty good >D (But I thought I did better in the exams, enough for a few more 7's. Ahwells.) (Which doesn't even make sense because I ended up with a 88.44% for psych, and 7 requires 85%+, so I have no idea -.-).

But more importantly, it's great to see people again. Bad luck the people who start on the 18th. Looking forward to more bumming/talking/gaming in general. Still haven't been ice skating yet this time around. A bunch of people are holidaying in Queensland .__.

My cousin, who is from China and is going to do Masters for accounting at ANU starting this coming sem, is over at my house, so my family got to show her around the city etc. Because Sydney > Canberra.


EDIT
NUU OMG. 7 for psych is 89%+, so I was 0.56% off a 7, What is this I don't even.

IS IN SYD.

So after my flight getting cancelled, I managed to transfer to the last flight to Syd for the day, because apparently that wasn't cancelled.

And so now, I'm in Sydney! Can't wait to get out and bum around.
Really.

Parents went into my room and ransacked it (i.e. tidied it up to an unbelievably tidy state). Which is cool.


Anyway, sorry for the one month without a blog update. End of semester exams and stuff.
Which incidentally I think I did quite well in! >D. Especially considering how slack I was throughout the semester. Hoping to get 6's and 7's for all my subjects.

Off to bum around. Will update later.

Also, I want to play Skyrim already! Also Deus Ex Human Revolution, and SWtOR.

blackboard!!

So, for the first bout of exams, I think I over-studied. So for the recent second bout, I got murdered. Ah well. I think a mini HSC is in order. I had two consecutive 3-hour pracs on Monday and another prac on Tuesday, with a 2-hour lecture straight after until 6pm. Kind of practically had enough of pracs. But I'm back on track (mostly) now, so it's all good. I have a 1:48 model of a F-15 Eagle to build for when I get bored of both Naruto and Mastering Biology. The model's kind of huge, around 35x45cmx10cm-ish.

When stir-frying meat:
Slice meat into thin (like, thin thin) strips or slices
Add some meat tenderiser. Add more of this stuff if you're cooking lamb or beef (especially beef). If out of meat tenderiser, use bicarb soda.
Add starch (a bit more than the tenderiser), soy sauce, salt/chicken MSG unhealthy crap to taste
Add a bit of raw oil
Mix it up
Dump onto heated frying pan with very heated layer of oil, stir. fry.

Or if you adding soysauce/salt/msg crap, stir-fry the meat and dump like the sauces you can buy in glass jars from Coles onto the meat in the pan when they're cooked through, and cook a bit more.

Or if you really cbb, buy the canned soup. Or pull a cadets, buy some freeze dried stuff.

The Goreng is the last resort, don't abuse it.

The CBB complex

The CBB complex is a condition where one just cbb doing anything. It's responsible for around 98% of wasted time across the world. The other 2% are when one does not exhibit the CBB complex, but has it anyway.

If that made any sense.

The last time I tried to draw something, I couldn't think of anything to draw! Usually I don't even think of what to draw, I just draw randomly and decide while I'm drawing on what I want the picture to turn into. So, from that mental blank that made no sense, I intend to draw a sense factory! A factory where sense is made. Because everywhere else does not make sense anyway. I was drawing a minecraft picture detailing the usual habits of the inhabitants of the Hao368 server, but for some reason I couldn't finish it, I'm not sure why. By the way, does anyone know how to photoshop? I need to learn photoshop!

So yes.

The second half of the first semester of uni. Biol subjects are still my favourite right now, for some reason. And chem is still my least favourite. Next semester, I have to take a stats subject, which is compulsory for a Bsc degree, which I didn't take this semester because I wanted a break from maths haha. I guess I should have taken it this semester like everybody else, so that I could choose what to take next semester. Ohwells.

I'm bringing my laptop pretty much every day to uni now. It's faster typing up notes on the laptop during a lecture, than writing stuff down. Though, a lot of the stuff I write down are actually diagrams etc., and you can't really do that effectively on a laptop. So I guess I'll print the notes when I need to study for the finals, and draw in the diagrams then. I have an awesome speaker system in my room, but I can't turn it up because, yeah, lol. I guess not being able to be as noisy as you want is a disadvantage of living away from parents. But in reality, it does not feel that different. I don't know, but I don't remember having to really adjust to independent living. Also, I've been levelling up my cooking quite a bit.

My printer's out of ink from printing the 50000 pages of articles for biol earlier and then psych. I'm going to the city after I'm done with uni for today, to get some ink, do shopping, maybe get a new model to build, get lunch. Sorry for this very uneventful blog post haha.

Wise words

A collection of wise sayings. HSC English Advanced, people.

Mikey says: (to Brian)
*u boobs so big
*they
*eat your mother
*who is also fat
*LOL
*im so funny



EDIT

Mikey Xie says (8:02 PM)
i know you are
but what are you
p li says (8:02 PM)
but
what
LOL
Mikey Xie says (8:02 PM)
LOL
owned.
p li says (8:02 PM)
by me
(you )
got
Mikey Xie says (8:02 PM)
i full stopped it
so that doesnt make sense
p li says (8:02 PM)
because
Mikey Xie says (8:02 PM)
by me you got owned
p li says (8:02 PM)
you make a lot of sense
Mikey Xie says (8:02 PM)
i do make a lot of sense
Mikey Xie says (8:03 PM)
in fact im a sense factory


EDIT

p li said (4:05 PM)
your fridge is your face
which is also your fridge
Mikey Xie says (4:05 PM)
but my fridge is ur fridge
because
p li says (4:05 PM)
exactly
Mikey Xie says (4:05 PM)
a fridge is a fridge
p li says (4:05 PM)
so you are my fridge.
Mikey Xie says (4:05 PM)
and fridges are fridges
p li says (4:05 PM)
yes
Mikey Xie says (4:05 PM)
but ur a fridge
p li says (4:05 PM)
i put magnets on you
no see
Mikey Xie says (4:05 PM)
no
p li says (4:05 PM)
fridges are fridges
Mikey Xie says (4:05 PM)
fridge magnets
arent fridges
p li says (4:05 PM)
fridges cant own fridges because they are fridges
Mikey Xie says (4:05 PM)
so you cant
p li says (4:06 PM)
so i cant own a fridge
Mikey Xie says (4:06 PM)
put a fridge magnet
on a fridge
p li says (4:06 PM)
so im not a fridge but the owner of a fridge
Mikey Xie says (4:06 PM)
because you are a fridge
you fridging fridge
p li says (4:06 PM)
nono
see i cant put a magnet on a fridge if im a magnet
but
if im not a manget
even if im a fridge
Mikey Xie says (4:06 PM)
that doesnt make sense!
p li says (4:06 PM)
which i am not
then i can put a magnet on a fridge
ie
Mikey Xie says (4:06 PM)
i can put a pli on a pli
p li says (4:06 PM)
i can put a magnet on you
Mikey Xie says (4:06 PM)
even if im a pli
because plis are fridges
p li says (4:06 PM)
no
youre a fridge
Mikey Xie says (4:06 PM)
yes
p li says (4:06 PM)
so
mikey = fridge
Mikey Xie says (4:06 PM)
but i fridged your mother
p li says (4:06 PM)
mikeys =/= fridges
p li says (4:07 PM)
because
Mikey Xie says (4:07 PM)
last night
with a fridge
p li says (4:07 PM)
theres only 1 fridge
in my house
which is mikey
Mikey Xie says (4:07 PM)
so im not a fridge
p li says (4:07 PM)
so i steal food from you
Mikey Xie says (4:07 PM)
lol
but its not stealing
from a fridge
becaues fridges
are fridging fridges
p li says (4:07 PM)
run on electricity
and do not metabolise
have no dna
Mikey Xie says (4:07 PM)
yeah
p li says (4:07 PM)
are not biological beings
are mikeys!
i mean
fridge is mikey!
Mikey Xie says (4:07 PM)
theyre like
iron mans
with fridges
p li says (4:07 PM)
so youre a fridge
and iron man too
Mikey Xie says (4:07 PM)
i have an iron man fridge
but im not a fridge
p li says (4:08 PM)
no
you are
the iron man fridge
Mikey Xie says (4:08 PM)
my iron man fridge
shoots u
p li says (4:08 PM)
you can save the world
Mikey Xie says (4:08 PM)
who is a fridge
p li says (4:08 PM)
but end of the day
youre a fridge
Mikey Xie says (4:08 PM)
no
i can get into
my iron man fridge
and save hte world
p li says (4:08 PM)
no
Mikey Xie says (4:08 PM)
and end of day
p li says (4:08 PM)
you are the iron man fridge!
Mikey Xie says (4:08 PM)
i get out of my fridge
p li says (4:08 PM)
you cant
Mikey Xie says (4:08 PM)
no YOURE an iron man fridge
p li says (4:08 PM)
fridges cant get into fridges
thats stupid because it defeats the point of the fridge
Mikey Xie says (4:08 PM)
fridges can get into fridges
i can put a mini fridge
inside a fridge
i was fridging bored
p li says (4:08 PM)
unless its a really realllyyyy noob fridge that doesnt work
probably a mikey fridge
p li says (4:09 PM)
nono
Mikey Xie says (4:09 PM)
no
p li says (4:09 PM)
then youre a mini fridge
Mikey Xie says (4:09 PM)
noo
p li says (4:09 PM)
you;re tiny!
Mikey Xie says (4:09 PM)
if i were a fridge
which im not
p li says (4:09 PM)
youre a tiny fridge
Mikey Xie says (4:09 PM)
i would be a ginormous fridge
a godzilla fridge
who attacks
a city
p li says (4:09 PM)
a ginormous godzilla tiny fridge!
Mikey Xie says (4:09 PM)
see thats
p li says (4:09 PM)
smaller than companion cube
Mikey Xie says (4:09 PM)
an oxymoron
you moron
p li says (4:09 PM)
no
Mikey Xie says (4:09 PM)
yes
p li says (4:09 PM)
yes im a moron
but
youre an oxymoron
like
Mikey Xie says (4:09 PM)
WINNER
i see
p li says (4:09 PM)
you got oxygenated because you were too reactive as a moron
p li says (4:10 PM)
you were like
Mikey Xie says (4:10 PM)
but
p li says (4:10 PM)
fricking free radical moron
fridge
Mikey Xie says (4:10 PM)
oxygenating something
is becoming
more
sexy
p li says (4:10 PM)
hippie fridge
Mikey Xie says (4:10 PM)
so sexy mikey
= oxymoron
because
p li says (4:10 PM)
so
Mikey Xie says (4:10 PM)
mikey is already sexy
p li says (4:10 PM)
sexy-=oxy
Mikey Xie says (4:10 PM)
and you dont need to say
p li says (4:10 PM)
and mikey=moron
Mikey Xie says (4:10 PM)
mikey = sexy
p li says (4:10 PM)
nono
if sexy mikey = oxymoron
Mikey Xie says (4:10 PM)
wait thats not even the right thing nemore
what is it
ahha
p li says (4:10 PM)
then mikey=moron
Mikey Xie says (4:10 PM)
small dwarf = something
stop
nooo
what is it
LOL
p li says (4:10 PM)
what
Mikey Xie says (4:11 PM)
big giant
p li says (4:11 PM)
small fridge = mikey = moron?
Mikey Xie says (4:11 PM)
whats that called
p li says (4:11 PM)
red giant
?
black hole?
Mikey Xie says (4:11 PM)
big giant =="
p li says (4:11 PM)
neutron star, quasar ??
big giant LOL
Mikey Xie says (4:11 PM)
its got a word
for it
haha
two similar terms
with no point
or osmething
p li says (4:11 PM)
large giant
giant giant
huge giant
big big
Mikey Xie says (4:11 PM)
is a ...
p li says (4:12 PM)
antimikey antimikey
Mikey Xie says (4:12 PM)
ahhhhhhh mind block
p li says (4:12 PM)
gg
momentum is lost
imma do my assignment for a bit LOL
Mikey Xie says (4:12 PM)
LOl
Mikey Xie says (4:16 PM)
LOL it was tautology
u faill
okay hf assigment haha
p li says (4:16 PM)
LOL
english extension 1
good useful subject
Mikey Xie says (4:16 PM)
hhahaha

ahhhmg

Frickinggg reading 20-something-page psych articles is so mindbogglingly intensely boring if you're sleepy! Also it's about the most ineffective study ever, because you have to read every sentence three times to realise that you're reading a new sentence, then three more times to get the meaning and move on to something new about analysis of variance (something along the lines of F(2, 45) = 16.23, p < .001, MSB = 56.88). Supermassivemegarant!

Anyway. I got myself a model Messerschmidt BF109G, and an Eurofighter Typhoon (with RAF livery) from an ownage toy shop I found in Bris city. Building models is extremely fun, however one mistake and, depending on how important that part was, you be somewhere between gg'd and GG'd, inclsuive. I didn't paint them because yeah, I figured that if I used paint, my room will smell like death for the next few days. Tattoing on the decals is very frustrating at times too, but its mostly fun and its all cool when you have the end product. So now, on my table (which is getting dangerously close to critical density and ready to explode), there's a Qantas Airbus A380, Luftwaffe BF109G, and a RAF Typhoon!! I think I'll get more next time I go to the city. I can't bring the tanks from Sydney here though. Because yeah, being plastic and all.

At the airport, I lost my parents' old Swiss Army Knife. It was from like ages ago when they worked with DuPont. I think they got it when they were on business in America. Feeling bad about it. They gave it to me to take to Bris, but I left it in my hand luggage, having forgotten to transfer it into the guitar case I was checking in. So the security screener people got freaked out, and then chucked it away. -.-.

Anyway, I've done 2hr30mins of work today! Which is quite productive by my standards, I'll have you know. My room's a mess at the moment, there's paper everywhere due to my printer running out of ink halfway through printing out an article. Ah wells. Means I don't have to read it today! (Also means I have to go out tomorrow and grab ink, because the assignment is due on Monday).

A bunch of high school kids got off their buses at UQ on Thursday, for some unknown reason. Probably a school excursion to see what uni's like? They were a girls' private school, and they all had to wear ridiculous hats as part of their uniform (rofl). Thing is, their uniform (aside from the hats) was exactly the same as the ruse uniform. Yeah.

Anyway, I think I'm done for now. Only a few more episodes of Naruto to go until Naruto Shippunden. Yeah, I'm slowing down on the Naruto lol. GLHF!

d00mchicken

In the bioscilib using the spare battery life of my laptop before my psych, because I finished my biol1020 test with 35 mins to spare. Actually now in my psych lecture, during a break because this is some super-long 2-hour lecture. Man, 2-hour lectures are kind of unbearable. Also, did you know that 1 in 5 people will experience/is experiencing a mental health illness sometime in their life???? Yes? No? Also, did you know that while Australia has the third highest HDI (or is it second now? or something), on subjective ratings eg stress at work, happiness, work satisfaction, it ranks quite a bit lower? (Mexico comes first, while Japan comes second, for those.)

Assassins' Creed 2 is a fun game. Except that it's not a good time to game, but hey there's never a good time to game. Basically you run around and assassinate people, and while you walk to your targets you pickpocket the hell out of the general population and be a general terror.

Would anyone like to read a bunch of psych articles for me? And somehow transfer their knowledge/notes/references by virtual neural osmosis or some whacko thing? I bought a humumgous architecture book at Parra Borders (12bux dude) when I was in Sydney, but it was too heavy to carry so hopefully my parents are mailing that to me soon. I'll somehow find the time to read that. More like I'll just pore over the pics, and try (and fail) to build some of the stuff in Minecraft. Or I'll get Simon to build them, he likes major projects.

Yeah, I think when I graduate and I'm like a resident or something (freaking long way to go!), I'll go to some megacity or some ridiculous metropolis like NY or Seoul or Shanghai or something. Hopefully I can do my specialisation in like, America. 

Louisa Zhang! linked me to the best parody I've seen for this year. Youtube form this way - Minecraft parody. I would embed it here, but the link I paste keeps directing to a Rihanna video -.-

SYDNEY.

I'm back in Brisbane, but right now, I seriously reckon Brisbane has got nothing on Sydney!

Sydney was fun. We bummed around on Tuesday at Macq centre (It was really good to see everyone again!), I bummed with some people at Parra on Wednesday, and on Friday it was Simon's 18th, which was all quite balderdash. But then, I've got to read a load of psych articles, actually study for a bio test in two days, discuss some eConference for my other bio, catch upon lectures (8 to go!), and study for my chem test in two weeks.

But then
Sydney again in 9 weeks.

Also, I have Shogun 2 Total War!! Imma go around medieval Japan smashing armies with my samurai guys.

Genes beat AIDS

So like
I had to do a blogpost for assessment.
I also have to present this.
Like, tomorrow.

AIDS is one of the most well-known terminal illnesses in our world. There is currently no cure for the pandemic disease, which is caused by the retrovirus, Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). Being a retrovirus, the HIV inserts its own genetic material into human host cells, usually human T cells in the blood, which causes the cells to manufacture more HIV viruses and die in the process. The loss of such cells weakens the host's immune system. The host usually dies in an opportunistic infection by another bacteria or virus, HIV is not directly lethal.



Image source UCLA Asia Institute, http://www.international.ucla.edu/media/images/hiv_virus.jpg

There is, however, hope for a cure. In June 2010, California-based City of Hope National Medical Center researchers showed that inserting genes that nullify HIV infection into immune stem cells and then re-planting the stem cells into the body allowed the stem cells to develop into HIV-resistant systems, in experiments with four male AIDS patients who also had cancer. This didn't benefit the patients significantly, but it did not have harmful side effects.

Previous studies involving altering stem cell genes have been conducted, however the stem cells did not survive long after re-insertion. "the team added three genes to the immune stem cells' DNA: one that cripples the CCR5 receptor that HIV exploits to enter the cell... and two others that disable viral genes and prevent HIV from copying itself", reports John Cohen from ScienceNOW. Molecular geneticist Rossi believes that inserting only modified instead of a mix of modified and unmodified stem cells will result in a more effective procedure.

The researchers hope to further explore this concept and improve it to at least a better treatment to improve the quality of life for AIDS patients, if not curing AIDS completely.

The article can be found at this link.
http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2010/06/can-gene-therapy-cure-aids.html?ref=hp

Peiyuan Li

Sick

I'm really freaking sick. =S
And I've got a midsem exam to do before Wednesday, and an important prac tomorrow.

And, I had a weird dream.

lac Operon

So this lac operon is this operon found in prokaryotic cells (e.g. E. coli bacteria) that utilise lactose as an energy source.

Aside from that, I took a bunch of photos of UQ, and did a few tests. They were okay, but I could have done better. I also bought MINECRAFT. mmmm... Minecraft. Beta 1.13 is a lot better than 1.12, mostly in that the map generator rocks.

I found out that the library is still the most conductive place for learning and studying. Nothing changes. So now I plan on spending more time in the Biological Sciences Library (which is this really cool building that used to house all these biology books, but the books got moved to the Engo library, and now this library is just a 24/7 study library with tables and computers). I hope I won't be needing to take advantage of it being open 24/7 anytime soon, or ever. It'll be like HSC again, with much less stress and more interesting subjects. And my laptop with my Minecraft when I've finished a segment of work.

And we're forming a band! (Enter excitement). It will be good to get back into jamming shape again. David's on rhythm and Ken is on keyboard (and hopefully the microphone singing). I'll play lead guitar if we find a bassist, if not I'll play bass. We'll hunt down a bassist and a drummer somehow (or get someone to ruthlessly send Alan flying over here with an incredibly powerful punch). We haven't got a name or a style or a first jam session yet. You will have to wait before beholding the epicness, I'm afraid.

Thinking

Tonight at life group, a girl went to the front during worship and said, "'Have I not already died for you?' said the Lord"

Qld

So it's been something like two and a half months since my last blog post. Due to some reason which I have yet to think up.



  I'm sitting in the University of Queensland Biological Sciences Library writing a blog post, after doing a bunch of stuff off MasteringBiology, which is apparently a very valuable resource to biology students, but lags for me. Oh well. The air conditioning is in the typical library style, so cold that it almost seems to be trying to drive you out into the sun after two hours.



  The first few weeks at Brisbane were... well, I survived. A million things got broken though. The internet (yes its TPG, because it's included in the rent) was down for the first week of uni. My guitar broke while I was restoring it after five years of misuse and one year of non-use, so I had to fish around shops for a machine head. Now my internet browsers won't connect, even if my MSN can connect, for some reason. Ah wells. Shopping is quite the thing. The first time, I bought way too much food, but now I'm averaging around $30 of groceries per week. But that's because most uni days, I have lunch at uni. The first week of uni was intense, but I think I overreacted, such that up until now it's been much more relaxed.



   UQ is actually very pretty (Google image UQ for fun and profit!). It's kind of peaceful if you know where to look for peace. The main shopping/eating/whatever place is always jam packed. I think Subway maintains a line of around 20 customers for most of the day. I joined this group called Campus Christian Movement. It's mainly Singaporean and Malaysian. The church is really loud, but that's really cool. It's quite weird, I've never actually known any Singaporeans/Malaysians in Sydney. Apparently, they all speak at least 500 different languages. I was considering joining the table tennis club, but you have to pay something like $170 for an annual membership, and each time you want coaching you have to pay as well, so yeah. I went to the introductory free session (and got smashed) though.



  I live in a house around 2.4km's from uni, which is a reasonable walking distance if the suburb wasn't so hilly. There are 30 degree inclined roads, I kid you not. And they are quite common. So I take the bus wherever I go. It's pretty convenient, 5 minutes to Uni, around 25 minutes to the city, around 15 minutes to a Westfield. The house is shared between five people. Theres a PhD guy, a Malaysian curry guy, a Korean Biotech/accounting guy (who doesn't play Starcraft!), and another first year Bsc/MBBS guy (who got me addicted to DotA - why did people have to quit now??!). My cooking skills have improved exponentially, such that I can enter the rs cooking guild without a chef's hat and steal the 400gp green apple. But they're still limited to like, stir-frying everything I buy. Which is okay because stir-fried stuff taste nice. I brought my black guitar Jet with me, and picked it up again. I have to re-learn all the songs.


  I haven't really gotten to know anyone over here yet. The CCM people are very nice, and the housemates are cool. I ran into Lisa and Jess Hou a few times. I've chatted with a few people in my prac and tute groups.



  Brisbane's a nice city. But it's got nothing on Sydney, really. Except for the Brisbane public transport and roads in general. That's quite ownage. The buses are all new and have aircon, and so do the trains. Instead of paying a fare each time, you can get this Go card which you scan each time you come onto a bus/train and scan when you get off. You put money into your Go card and yeah. It's much faster and saves heaps.



What's the false vine? Security? Pride? How does one cut it, if there's not much else left once it's been cut?

checkczech

checkczech, checkczech just checkczech it @ oomolomf.

So anyway!
Just got back from an interview for tutoring and from shopping at Parra. The interview was kind of iffy =S but I think I might still get the job!

So now I'll just go and buy
Sun Tzu's The Art of War
Niccolo Machiavelli's The Prince
Plato's Republic.

I also want Cities XL, so I can go around building cities. On the computer. Without me going around at all. I never got to complete a whole region in SimCity4, my attention span is too short. Then again I've rarely completed any games, especially RPGs.

Tuesday was kind of fun, but without Henry to play tips on ice, ice skating turned out to be a bit boring for me =S (ahem. Child/Louie too busy all the time for everyone else). Tangled was a really good movie, but it was super simplistic, even for a Disney family film. I thought we were going to watch Tron, but it turned out Tron starts right when ice skating finishes, so we watched Tangled instead.

EDIT
I've just received an offer from the University of Queensland for the MBBS program! I'm so relieved :D. Now just to see whether I can get the MBBS's in our state.

2011

So it has been ages since my last post (like, as ages as an Aegis of the Immortal). I could just attribute it to being busy or having gone overseas or something. However when it comes down to it, I was actually home most of the time, and was just way too lazy to post anything hahah. Being freed from schedules and deadlines has detrimental effects on my ability to just get up and do stuff.

I've been out of the house a bit, but I've stayed home more often than in December. My family went to beaches and parks for Christmas and New Year's Day with family friends, which I found to be rather boring. Well, the parks were boring, the beaches were okay - you could still enjoy beaches on your own.

My brother (the 10-year-old crazy thing) received a PS3 for Christmas. On it, we have MGS4, Ratchet and Clank: Tools of Destruction, Valkyria Chronicles, and Burnout Paradise, bought after an extensive session of bargain hunting (JB Hi-Fi is always cheaper for games. Except for SC2, which I think is going up in price lol). I haven't really played it much, apart from trying it out a bit.

So why does this 10-year-old kid get a whole PS3??! My parents were very happy that he got into OC at Matthew Pearce PS. I think they were desperate for him to escape Blacktown schools. He got some insane score like 281 out of 300 for the OC test, so I guess the PS3 comes as a reward?

I have just landed an interview at a tutoring place! Excited. This place called Dux College at Parramatta. I had asked them where they obtained my personal details from when they first emailed me, and addressed me by "Peter" despite myself being known as "Peiyuan" to UAC and BOS. Apparently they got my details from Gene, and if Gene endorses something then it probably is pretty ownage and ethical at the same time, so yeah. I hope I get a physics tutoring job!

Uni info day was hectic. I went to UNSW first and then USyd. There was quite a weird moment when Simon and I asked the bus coordinator at the UNSW bus place where they USyd buses were. I tagged along with Simon to USyd, I had no idea how to get there from UNSW in time for the arch lecture. I had a toss up between a few courses to put under med. Apparently, USyd is the best uni for architecture, better than UNSW. But then some of the USyd buildings are really... well, they aren't as good looking as UNSW buildings. There's the 1950's Soviet-modernist chem building, for example. The architecture building (Wilkinson building or something, this old red brick building feeling more ancient than the C-block) was kind of dangy, and the science lecture rooms were in worse wear than the dungeons (next to the catcombs) (i.e. chem labs) at Ruse. But the Usyd Law building was hectic, and the gothic revival quadrangle was, well, more... proper than UNSW. Went Galaxy World afterwards. I saw ROBOT at Market City (lolol!), and he bumped into me at Central when I was leaving. We also ran into a bunch of peeps going to Hakeem's house.

Lan/Ice-skating/Movies on the 11th; can't wait. Macquarie centre.

EDIT: I've just applied for working as a Pre-Uni tutor. Sent a proper cover letter and CV and all. I hope I get a call!