sad, no black hole. haha....hole.....

as you may or may not have heard the large hadron collider (lhd) was officially activated to its highest level ever today. you may also have noticed that a black hole wasn't created and that we are all still alive. few, that was keeping me up at night. BUT in all seriousness the creation of the most complex machine man has ever built that cost 9 billion USD (the most expensive scientific experiment in human history) is very very cool.

the machine, that lies beneath the franco-swiss border near geneva, was constructed to help physicists understand the most basic questions of physics and the basic laws and forcers that govern elementary particles. created to simulate the universe seconds after the big bang, this machine scientists hope will resolve many conflicting theories of quantum mechanics, primarily the existence of the higgs boson particle. showing (or not) if there are other dimensions that some string theory physicists believe exist. and other stuff, i'm pretty sure it could make toast, you know if it wanted to.

it is all very complicated but, from what i can gather, if the lhc can tell us anything about the most basic elements of our universe then its existence is most definitely worth the cost. its practical applications in the future are mind boggling. this could in fact be mans greatest invention since the wheel. or at the very least the macbook.

for more info about the lhd go here.

unemployment leads to fun, that's what your mum doesn't tell you.

now don't flip, i've not been fired. but as i'm working on a rather large blog post, coming to a computer screen near you sometime next week, and i have been neglecting my blog. but what to blog? today at work, when on my break, i received perhaps the oddest and radtastic email. the young miss emma has far too much time on her hands and an intricate knowledge of iphone applications. thus, this picture was born. i really love it! ultimate complement, it is now my facebook profile pic.

this got me thinking. em put this picture together so well cause she is one of my best friends. that is also pretty amazing. anyone that knows her, knows that she is the embodiment of niceness. a trait that people never fail to undervalue, in my opinion. the fact of the matter is, for such a nice, genuine, cool, pun-loving, smart chick to be friends with a grump like me is a complete complement. our personal self-worth (though not entirely) is reflected in our friends. with friends like emma, you don't need to worry about being stuck at waterfall station at 2am....

stay tuned gentle readers for my mock up eulogy (meaning, 'good word') for jp AND my cadburys easter egg fair trade expose.

in loving memory of sasha.

so as many of you know my poor baby car was killed last year in a vicious encounter with a 1992 nissan proton. i am still going through my grieving process, as she was my very first car and i had lusted after her for months before we were officially 'going steady'. today i miss her even more because my new car, henry, has decided to be a real shit-head and die on me.

as i wait, not 200 metres from the site of sashas untimely demise, for the good people of the nrma to come and fix henry (he is racist btw) i can't help remember the good times sasha and i had together.

my most favourite of which would have to be the time we went, with caitlin, to victoria. oh the fun the 3 of us had together! speeding past the picturesque countryside, driving over 1000 kilometres on 2 hours of sleep, hanging out then sleeping in the back of her for 2 days after a tent/rain malfunction and finally pumping out some massive hives tunes in the longest car queue EVER!

i will always miss my first car love. she symbolises a time of my life when i made a rather large move and then met some of my very best friends. friends that i know i will have for life. cheers sasha, you were a good kid.

beaker rick rolled me....bastard!

EVEN the muppets are doing their own version of this song. lol damn brian and family guy, this is getting out of hand. i found this after looking for swedish chef cooking tips.

always look on the bright logical side of life

i thought i might tackle religion today cause iv'e not much on my hands and figured me blog needed some substance. but where to start? i probably should preface what i'm going to say with, if you get offended please feel free to slam me, tell me what you really think, insult, berate and/or simply yell. all are for some reasons reactions to my own brand of spirituality.

now i don't pretend to know the answers to any of the 'big questions'. life/the universe/everything etc. but what i will say is this: in the great debate between science and god is doesn't really seem much of a competition. on one hand we have very smart people with bunsin burners, atoms, petrie dishes, nobel prizes, microscopes and answers. and on the other side we have some people with a book.... hmmm yes.

to add to this, the big question of god creating the universe in 6 days did seem a little silly to me, even as a child. i mean the guy is 'god', the big kahoona, surely if he wanted to he could have created the universe in 1 day and spent the other 5 doing something else. maybe creating aliens or something. OR if we were to assume, as the world is full of logical rational human beings, that man was not a result of divine hand but rather a process of slow evolution. charles darwin did write a book about it, you may have heard this, it is i believe called, 'monkey monkey monkey monkey YOU'.

and my last gripe of many (i have not included all, i mean the prada wearing pope is another wingepost methinks) comes direct from the genius that is eddie izzard, "so i've learnt that the world is 4500 million years old. if you're religious, then it's not 4500 million years, its 6000 years old. one of these is not correct.". this is why we need comedians and not pope ben.

cue applause!

cool as kim deal

it seems that my awful trip home from sydney last sunday night has had more press than the actual reason i was up there in the first place. pixies were playing their doolittle tour. now for the people out there who don't know how massive it is that they are touring again please let me explain. pixies are an alternative band from the 80s and 90s who have influenced the post punk and indie rock movements that followed the bands messy break up. they are also credited by the great man that was kurt cobain himself as a major effect on him starting the band nirvana.

still, most of us figured after the famous 'hiatus' of the band following the notorious bust up between bassist kim deal and lead singer black francis. so this show was AMAZING in the fact that it even existed. but those oldies still know how to frakin' rock!

caitlin did put it best though, it is best if you just close your eyes. they were looking a bit old, but come on they are old. not that i think it matters because that night has rekindled my bazzar love for kim deal. she is easily the coolest chick (in a rock band) EVER! she was sporting an rather dykish haircut and a kd laing inspired outfit but even so, im back in love. forgot how good a singer she was as well, for shame.

i mean really, how many people can claim to have a dandy warhols AND flaming lips song written solely about them?

mnk on different continents once again.

i might not dream of jeannie but my sister nicole still does and has been bugging me for a post centred around the fab tv show. it has taken me a few weeks but here we go. now this might be cheating just a little bit, but i'm actually gona talk about my sister and not the actual tv show.

now my sister is moving to america next month for a whole year. very exciting stuff! but im gona miss the little tyke. who else is going to talk to me about bones, jane austen or the moronic things kimberley has been doing during week?

what can i say, ill miss the kid with her o'neillish humour and beatrix potter charm. in some ways she is just like jeannie. kind, pretty and lives in a magic lamp. ok so maybe just kind and pretty.

'inspiring final lines of a speech that douchebags will quote in their facebook profiles!'

this vid deserves its own blogpost for the title alone but there is more to it than that. every year in the months of january and february the big studio companies that make the movies we love and hate will turn out their carefully made academy award winning films. the big problem is that a lot of them are CRAP! in just the past two years films that almost went straight to dvd won best picture. indie films, that were successful at the canne film festival are starting to win big at the industries most lucrative awards.

why? in the last ten years, larger studios that passed on films like, 'the hurt locker' and 'slumdog millionaire' insist on releasing inspirational trash that is easily palatable for a moronic american audience. a good example comes to us this year in the form of, 'the blind side'. now sandra bullock won the oscar for best actress for this film that critics are slamming and audiences are loving. i think this is because audiences can't seem to permeate the thick crunchy outer layer of the true underdog story and reach the gooey racially prejudice centre. this is a movie that as far as plot goes, is the movie 'beethoven'! except that the cute and fuzzy st. bernard dog that stuggles to understand our ways is a big black dude! why aren't audiences angry? is sandra's charisma really THAT powerful? it seems so.

anyway back to the vid below. first this is not a trailer for an actual movie. this was made to make a point. movies that we watch are becoming so one dimensional and formulaic that studios don't feel the need to challenge their audiences. this is not a good thing. and until they realise this, the best picture prize will continue to go to smaller complex films. the below video outlines the step-by-step recipe that studios are choosing to follow when they make movies this time of year. enjoy!

ok it could be my warped mind but, julia gillard is everywhere!

it's probably a bit mad to share this but i had the weirdest dream last night. the part that i can remember, just before i woke up, i was being strangled by a giant badger as a knife weilding clown watched. and who came to my rescue? julia gillard! now it might be my apparently odd love for question time or that she is on our screens more because of the impending election but it was what happened after i woke up that freaked me out.

first, i turn on the tv and who is on there debating with tony abbott the merits of stimulus packages? julia! now that was just a coincidence. but i get into the car and she is on the radio. BUT then, i get to work and the guys are debating her level of hottness compared to other female politicians!

i was then that i had no other choice but to conclude, she is stalking me! u would think she has better things to do. lol

unattainable

agreed! gah!

of course you're still single take a look at yourself you dumb slut

needs to be an actual book. the latest episode of how i met your mother, has some serious golden moments. spoiler alert! the latest instalment took me back to the good old days of the show. robin and guns, marshal and food, ted being a girl, lily being insightful and barney being an ass. but then the cool lil twist...barney isn't really that bad.

couple that with j-lo as the 'anti-barney' guess star, another musical number, stormtrooper helmet vomit and a catchy nonsensical marshal song best episode EVE....well this season.

'a bang bang bangitty bang'

my little corner of its world is doing just fine.

now i don't usually blog about physie because well, my strong opinions tend to get me into trouble. it's a comparatively small community, i guess. now i understand my angry rant-like post tend to be more popular but in this one ive decided to be positive and mature. because kissing ass tends to be a more successful way of getting what you want off a judge....but that's going in the getting yelled at, agent86 'physie.comesq' territory.

so physie class is tonight and this year i did honestly consider not going back. now before some people start wigging out, there were very specific reason for this. it is my firm belief that some aspects of this sport are broken. methods of judging has been a much loved gripe of mine and i think as a result, i have come off as bitter and well slightly nuts in the past. but all this is second to the fact that last year i worked my ass off (two teams was super fun but my body hated me by december) and competed in the individual competitions hoping as usual for a place in the national final. now i've missed out on this final many many MANY times but last year was especially difficult. now i think there were a few personal factors for this but you can ask mel, i lost it. quite embarrassing now really and i'm not sure that i can do that again.

BUT having said all this i have gone back. i'm a glutton for mental and physical torture it seems. still, the only reason that i did choose to go back this year was my physie classmates. i have listened to physie elders/associates for years spouting the sports mantraish tag-line, 'physie is about fun and friendship' and always thought it was a cover for fierce competition and general girly bitchiness. it was not until this year that i actually bought what the boss' were selling.

physie might have its serious problems but my little corner of its world is doing just fine.

just a quick fashion tip ->

my lovely friend josh, who is responsible for turning me into a knock off version of elly jackson about a month back, has a new plaything. he is a very talented lad and now the creator of peaches and luigi has a new shop. buy some very cool original things from his new store here.

he really is a fashion forward fella.

my wardrobe is a black hole where dreams go to die!

damn my generation, but i NEED more stuff. i disgust myself. while i was getting ready to go out tonight and planning what to wear i quickly discovered that i have nothing to wear. nothing! now i need to spend my next few paycheques on clothes and accessories. its just were the cash needs to go.

this has forced me into understanding why i have this urge. simply calling it a girly whim and part of my female makeup seems simplistic and well, sexist. my thinking is that it's to do with status. what our clothes say about us. you can't go around telling people your like a certain type of music, but wear a band shirt or make yourself look indie cool and well your personality is on the surface.

this to me parallels with the idea that women in male dominated work places, are forced to work twice as the men they are competing with for pay rises etc. i think this is because women are judged on what they look like first and how they think and behave second. maybe, this is why i, as a woman, have this near on obsession with shoes and not just do they make me look pretty but also do they make me look trashy? or like im trying too hard? or like im not trying enough?

damn my gender! oh crap, i think i can hear myself pissing off germaine. all i want is something to wear, is that so bloody wrong?

i love you, douglas adams.

now i always suspected my love for old english men would seep into this blog. alan rickman, stephen fry, jason isaacs and now douglas adams. i remember reading his best selling book 'the hitchhikers guide to the galaxy' when i was 15 and being completely confused by his style of writing yet, the characters were mesmerising in their eccentric complexity. '42' as the answer to life, the universe and everything spoke to me even in my teenage years. the idea that the answer isn't always important but rather, knowing how to ask the right question is sometimes more relevant and revealing in the quest to understand the world i lived in resonated strongly.

all this though was very quickly forgotten in a haze of teenage angst, physie and my near on obsession with the x-files. i didn't actually read any other books in the series by adams until last year. this brings me to the point of this post. the master of words, douglas adams died in 2001 at the age of 49 from a sudden heart attack. in his absence his wife, agent and friends decided to put together a collection of his essays, letters and a his last partially finished novel into a single book.

'the salmon of doubt', is a collection of works from a writer who, although he hadn't been a novelist in the past few years of his life, never gave up writing. i began reading this book last week, after it sat on my bedside table for 3 months, at caitlin's insistence. semi-autobiographical, social observations and the psychological are mixed with childhood stories and a guide to making the perfect cup of tea. you learn not just about the man that was douglas adams and the experiences that made up such a great author, but you also learn through his witty writing that you aren't alone in the universe.

this is a great gift that he gives his readers, a gift that the world now is forced to live without. but this book gives us one more chance to learn something new about the world through the words of adams. that is no small thing. he will be missed.

wow, so you worked out that if u flip a 'u' it becomes an 'n'?

genius! so, the good people at uow have discovered this fact and are exploiting it to great effect. 'uow' can become 'now'....gosh aren't we progressive. now that's fine, i don't really have a problem with it but do we really need tv screens all over campus to prove to the wider academic world that we are 'hip and with it'? i believe that is what the kids are saying these days.

i also love that a few of them don't work and microsoft are getting a great free plug. i just don't think they are at all necessary. i actually find them really distracting and as if my studies needed that. i'm like dory most of the time, 'ooh look a shiny thing! exam? what exam?'.

it really is just another way for the uni to suck some more cash out of our pockets. i imagine the screens and their content were paid for by students. and this is my biggest problem. we actually don't know who has paid for them. there is no information about their place in our uni lives, not on their website. i have even resorted to googling them. nothing. next step is emailing university officials. when we eventually do find out who has forked over the cash for these white elephants what does that mean? outside companies getting a foothold in university campus', it all seems just a bit to sneaky and underhanded to me.

i am very concerned with this because uow does have a habit of lowering standards and upping enrolments for a bit of extra cash. and if the uni did pay for this great new initiative itself, why the hell not spend the money it has in a productive and useful manner. actual financial support for students or upgrading computers in the library (that have been known to just turn off mid-way through typing a 5000 word essay) might have served us better. but hey, now i know what is on at the uni bar this week. yea they have our priorities straight.

and the content, don't get me started on the one dimensional ideology that equates to, 'we love all students from all countries, hooray us!'. i keep feeling like an ad for mcdonalds latest burger deal to pop up, with some kind of student discount. as though the youth of the world aren't targeted as consumers enough. all this is giving me an eary feeling for the future. i keep getting flashes of targeted advertising in 'minority report' (or 'tron' for our older readers). where does it stop? even our schools aren't safe.

and rant over. sorry uow is a cranky topic for me at the moment, and this new development hasn't exactly helped.