Arrived home in Melbourne this morning at around 1am. Malaysia was indescribable. In between class, we explored parts of Johor, Melaka, and Kuala Lumpur. We held an iguana, got chased by monkeys, discovered giant monitor lizards living in the drainage system, got massages and crazy therapeutic fish treatments, ventured through markets, chomped down spicy food, guzzled giant tropical drinks and took in as much of Malaysia as we could in the time we had.

It's a strange feeling, having come back from the school, knowing that life will never be the same. Part of me still aches, wishing that I'd woken up in Kuala Lumpur or Muar, but home will always be home. Amazing things are going to take place here.

Welp, back to settling in. Photos to come later. Toodles!

So on Saturday night after our Red Faces fundraising event, we went to go and see the Salvador Dali exhibit at the NGV.

The gallery was open 24 hours that night because Dali was closing that weekend. I figured, "Hey, since I haven't had any time to see it, might as well go now. Besides, there's major appeal to being in the gallery at night!" - Stupid idea. Very, very stupid. In fact, so stupid that literally several hundred other people had the same idea that night. Go figure.

( The rest of the Dali spiel... )

Aside from Dali, we managed to cross the Chocolate Rush festival off the to-do list, as well as the Royal Melbourne Show (which isn't on the to-do list, but is simply a must-do for every year).

My to-do list for October:

visit ACMI (Australian Centre for the Moving Image)

see the Day In Pompeii exhibit (from the August list)

and go to the Holocaust Museum (from August again)

Also travelling to Malaysia in just over a week. Still hasn't hit me yet. And hey, I just turned 23.

Toodles!

Tags: birthday, dali, malaysia, ngv, to-do

I think I've just fallen in love with this place. I can't stop thinking about cupcakes!

Now I thought this was quite interesting...


Question:   Do You Burn More Calories when you Think Hard?

Answer: According to Popular Science, your brain requires a tenth of a calorie per minute, just to stay alive. Compare this to the energy used by your muscles. Walking burns about four calories a minute. Kickboxing can burn through a whopping ten calories a minute. Reading and pondering my blog post? That melts a respectable 1.5 calories a minute. Feel the burn (but try the kickboxing).

The brain is comprised of neurons, cells which communicate with other neurons and transmit messages to and from body tissues. Neurons produce chemicals called neurotransmitters to relay their signals. To produce neurotransmitters, neurons extract 75% of the sugar glucose (available calories) and 20% of the oxygen from the blood. The frontal lobe of your brain is where your thinking takes place, so if you are pondering life's big questions, like what to have for lunch to replace the calories you are burning, that part of your brain will need more glucose.

Source: http://chemistry.about.com/od/chemistryfaqs/f/caloriethinkfaq.htm


Interesting fact. I had no idea that thinking actually burns calories. Speaking of which, I should get back to working on my assignment. I keep letting myself be distracted.
Toodles!

Isn't anyone else curious as to what would happen if you wrote "penis", or anything similarly vulgar in Scribblenauts?

Found a bird nest in one of the trees in our backyard. Actually, the dog found it first. Then my brother intervened by distracting the dog so the birds wouldn't get eaten. Since the birdie parental wasn't home, we got as close as we could to the nest without disturbing it and took a few snaps of the newborns. Will be interesting to follow their progress over the spring.

Anyway, going to catch up on lost sleep. Stayed up late finishing an overdue library book. Toodles!

Had a busy few weeks. Been updating Twitter like crazy since I never really get time to write anything lengthy anymore.

Major happenings include:

booked tix to Malaysia in October

birthday season has hit, so there'll be a party/dinner once every two weeks from now till December

lczhang and shifraj are back from Japan (yay!)

two major grad program interviews are over

I have work coming out of my ears (data collection, first aid, temping at Simonds, plus regular PCA work)

volunteered for Daffodil Day

also trying to juggle social life in between, which is working out ok

Movies seen since the last list:

District 9

Harvie Krumpet (short film)

Diary of the Dead

I think that's about all for now. Will most likely be frequenting Twitter whenever I get spare gaps of time (or the major spammage I leave when I finally get home at night). Toodles!

Tags: charity, happenings, movies, twitter

This week's movies (yep, got suckered into borrowing more):

Step Brothers

The Bourne Supremacy

Pineapple Express

The Bourne Ultimatum

Pathology

Meet Dave

Really gotta stop getting sucked into those fantastic rental deals. Anyway, back to preparing for tomorrow's interview. Freaking out.

Tags: dvd, list, movies

Heard about this on the radio during the course of the morning; a cafe in Horsham sells 4kg burgers. I've dubbed it the "Burger Grail". Apparently if you defeat the burger (or rather, painstakingly devour it), you get back the $39 you paid for it. See article under the cut.

( Australia's Biggest Burger )
I'm intrigued. I'm going to journey out to get one of these burgers, even if just to see it for myself. I'm not going to attempt to devour it alone, ergo, am going to share the load with a bunch of hungry adults.

Happy camping!

Movies we've seen this week (just so I don't forget):

Watchmen

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

My Neighbors the Yamadas

G.I. Joe: The Rise of the Cobra (at the cinema)

The Bourne Identity

Joyeux Noël

Really enjoyed Joyeux Noël. I normally hate war movies, but this one restored the hope in me that humanity may not be as dark and cruel as has been painted.

Side note: The reason for the massive increase in DVD rentals for us is because our local library now allows free rentals. Love our library.

Anyway, off to smash myself at the gym. Been sick. Time to get back into routine. Toodles!

Tags: dvd, humanity, joyeux noel, movie, movies

Kind of skipped craft venture #3 to try my hand at making jewellery. I don't really own much jewellery, so I figured making my own would be a lot more cost effective than buying things from accessory stores.

Chandelier style earrings. I got the metal frames premade.


Pearl drop earrings.


Simple disc earrings.


Vine-like earrings. Was experimenting with twisting the metals.

More stuff in the works. Just scouting for more materials at the moment.

On another note, tweaked layout again. Wasn't happy with it.

After having finished my mass manufacture of ninjas and pirates (craft venture #1), and of moon blue skirts (craft venture #2), here's what I'll be attempting next. I've been meaning to do this for a while. Just haven't had the time. Need to start another craft project to wind down from the ridiculous amount of stress caused by my graduate nurse applications. Probably buying knitting needles tomorrow.


HARRY POTTER PRISONER OF AZKABAN SCARVES
Pattern Source: knit.atypically.net, reblogged here for convenience's sake
Materials:

800 yards/400 grams worsted-weight burgundy (Gryffindor), dark green (Slytherin), navy (film or book Ravenclaw), or yellow (Hufflepuff) yarn (MC, main color)

200 yards/100 grams worsted-weight gold (Gryffindor), silver (Slytherin or film Ravenclaw), bronze (book Ravenclaw), or black (Hufflepuff) yarn (CC, contrast color)

1 yard scrap worsted-weight yarn (for provisional cast-on only)

12-16" circular needle - US7 for Nature Spun, US8 for Encore, or US9 for Utopia

if you plan to knit the ends closed: extra needle (circular, straight, or double-pointed), one size larger than your working circular

circular marker (to mark the beginning/end of each round)

small crochet hook (about size G, to weave ends in and hook fringe)

Gauge:
5 st/1" and 6 rows/1" (or thereabouts)

Knitting:
Cast on 90 stitches in MC. Place marker. Knit into your first cast-on stitch to join the scarf, being sure not to twist the cast-on row around your needle. Knit around to the marker; this is one round.
Work a total of 27 rounds in MC.
*Switch to CC and work 3 rounds.
Switch to MC and work 5 rounds.
Switch to CC and work 3 rounds.
Switch to MC and work 27 rounds.
Repeat from * 13 times more, ending with 27 rounds of MC. Bind off.

Finishing:
Turn your scarf inside out and, with your crochet hook, weave all ends back into the fabric.
Wash the scarf according to your yarn's instructions; dry it flat on the floor/table on top of towels. Be sure to align all the color changes along one crease (they're less noticable that way). Block the scarf by stretching it widthwise until the entire thing is the same width.
For fringe, cut approximately 120 8" pieces of MC yarn. Fold 3 pieces of yarn in half and, using the crochet hook, pull the looped ends of the yarn through both layers of knitting. Slip the yarn ends through the loop and pull tight. Place one such tassel every two stitches across the both ends of the scarf. Then, lay the scarf flat and trim the fringe so it's even all the way across.

Tags: craft, gryffindor, harry potter, knitting, scarf, scarves

Since Australia unfortunately didn't get a taste of Jelly Belly's version of Bertie Botts Every Flavour Beans, this is the closest thing I could find.



Of all the "surprise" flavours, black pepper and toothpaste were the most tolerable. The flavour to avoid at all costs: rotten egg. Happy camping!

Places I want to visit in the next month:

Melbourne Museum's Day In Pompeii exhibit

the Jewish Holocaust Museum

the NGV's Dali exhibit

and as already mentioned, the Chocolate Rush festival

Tags: melbourne, museum, places, things to do

"Envy is a symptom of lack of appreciation of our own uniqueness and self worth. Each of us has something to give that no one else has." ~ Elizabeth O'Connor
Quote found from Lisa Bevere's Twitter. Also found this one here.

"Envy is the art of counting the other fellow's blessings instead of your own." ~ Harold Coffin

Before I forget, planning to attend Chocolate Rush 2009. Posting link here for easy access, hehe.