Apple Orchard

Redraw

2012-01-08T16:08:00.000+11:00

After taking a hiatus to work on my thesis, I've gotten back into doing some art. I still have two more chapters to finish editing (plus performing analyses that won't actually be finished in time so it looks like I'm going to have to try plan B) but I need to do something before I explode.

I've decided to revamp an old picture of mine. The original was done in 2005, before I had a tablet and PS elements. I remember being quite proud of it at the time. I redrew it in November when I was dog-sitting. I know that I'm still a long way off from being really good but I can't help being really pleased by how far I've come.

I have just spent 3 hours working on the hair. It seems that whenever I have trouble, it is usually when I come to shading the hair. I'm not so bad with dolls, though I often have to retry the shading. I just can't get the hang of digital paintings, they're just too bloody big. Another thing that I've been discovering is that I'm better at shading darker hair. So after two failed attempts at shading, I decided to go brunette. And still failed.

Finally I got my act together and managed to get it to work. It doesn't look great at the size that I want so I will have to resize the final version.

The issue with going brunette is that the thickened outer lines are no longer noticeable. Should I thicken them some more? The thick lines was one of the key features of the original picture.

And of course now I'm not happy with the skin shading. It doesn't look as good with the darker hair. I'm glad I hadn't started shading in the nose yet.

Maybe I should have left this until after the thesis is finished...

House-sitting sketches

2012-01-01T16:24:00.000+11:00

New Year!

Just got back home. The weather has turned hot and I got bad hayfever from checking out my mum's new alpacas this morning so I am feeling very drowsy and lazy.

Here's the sketching I did over the past three days while house-sitting. I had Will Supervillains Be on the Final? on the table next to me so I flipped through it and drew a few characters. Legs are overrated.

I did take a photo of my legs but the knees looked so strange and intimidating that I told myself that I would try drawing Leah's legs later.

I would like to be able to draw more than legless females so I also tried making a windmill. But I failed. Apparently backgrounds require skill and patience. Who knew?

Christmas bounty

2011-12-28T11:03:00.000+11:00

Summer with Kira and Rory's christmas present. It did not last long.

I just saw a lot of people online bitching that they didn't get iPads and cars for Christmas. And I felt bad that mum got me a Kindle and Jamie's 30-minute meals. I have already made a chicken pie and it is awesome (though it took me longer than 30 minutes because I hate cleaning the food processor and so chose not to use it). I do not eat salad but I actually want to try some of the salad recipes. Crazy.
Kindle is awesome too, though I have only purchased one book - Bad Science. I am trying to be good and save money, given that I'm only working casual and have this stupid thesis to edit. I did download some free books but kept finding ones that aren't available in Australia.

Boo!

My sister got me the best beanie in the world. Although it is summer, the weather right now is cool enough to justify wearing my boo beanie constantly. She also got me the graphic novel Will Supervillians be on the Final? by Naomi Novik. I love her Temeraire series and it's so bizarre reading something so different. I don't think it is the best graphic novel out there but I still liked it. And now I have to wait for both the next Temeraire and the next graphic novel.

Now I am house-sitting for the rest of the week. I did plan to work on thesis but I just want to read, sketch, and pat the dogs. And write materialistic blog posts. I should at least look at my thesis today...

Grumpy Helyn is grumpy

2011-12-22T17:40:00.000+11:00

My life currently consists of thesis writing and feeling shitty during the day, followed by playing Wii and getting sore thumbs in the evenings. Urg.

I have had to pretty much reanalyse everything in my thesis. All so I can put add an extra decimal point to my P values. This requires increasing my permutations from 999 to 9999. I didn't hink this would be an issue but some of my runs are taking over three hours on my lappy. My poor old desktop has a heartattack. I have tried to do writing and updating tables on the desktop but I get so hot and cranky upstairs that I end up downstairs playing Zelda while waiting for my lappy to finish a run.
And I have to do new analyses too because one of my examiners hates my method. And rightly so - there are many criticisms to my statistical method and it is rather outdated. The problem is that the examiner hasn't specified what he wants. He just mentions "Bayesian approaches", which is no help because a lot of statistical methods use Bayesian analyses. I think he means using Bayesian coalescent-based statistics but I can't be too sure. The problem is the computational power required for such analyses. I did try a coalescent approach before but the power was cut two months into the run (I have no idea how many more months it would take - it probably wouldn't have been done in time). I am currently trying again on a cluster but will it be finished in a month? I can only hope...

I honestly feel more productive playing Zelda while running analyses than speding a morning reading papers only to write a single sentence. Really not looking forward to rewriting an entire chapter.
While I was somewhat lukewarm to Skyward Sword initially, the game has started to grow on me. I still don't like the sword and I still hate flying (I can't figure out why my stupid bird likes to do 180 turns while I try to fly up). I'm only past the third dungeon but so far I really like the items. Unlike the sword, I love how the items utilise the Wiimote. Bomb flowers were initially annoying - I had trouble rolling and kept blowing myself up. But that's not an issue once you get the bomb bag so it's all good. This is what I have been waiting for with the Wii. It's just a pity about the sword...
I love the design of Impa. She's so cool.

Results in

2011-12-10T16:30:00.001+11:00

Two Thursdays ago I received my PhD examination results. There are a range of levels from you are perfect, graduate now down to you are terrible beyond redemption. Do not pass Go, do not collect PhD.
I got the best level that a non-superhuman can get - pass subject to edits. This should be a happy thing. But after reading the feedback of my two examiners I ended up a teary mess, feeling like a total failure and seriously questioning my desire to become a scientist. Things like "I found the end result rather disapppointing" does do that to a person.
It seems like everytime I build up my self-confidence, someone comes along and rips it to shreds. I know that I'm not meant to take it personally but it's so damn hard not to. I spent months putting all I had on my thesis and it turns out that wasn't good enough. Why would anyone willingly put themselves through this? My respect for novelists has deepened considerably.

Some of the comments are so mean while others are too vague for me to understand. Not helpful at all.
One of the examiner's general comments gives me the impression that my writing skills suck (which is true, I'll admit that) but then only provided specific feedback on my writing for the first chapter and ignores the other chapters. That is so damn frustrating. Even if I had the ability to see where I needed to put in topic sentences or do whatever, I still wouldn't be able to because I'm only permitted to make changes based directly on the examiner feedback, not just guess what the examiner wanted.

Despite my ranting to anyone who'll listen to me, I'm doing ok. I've managed to make all the changes for one chapter in a week. There are two more chapters that I think will only take about a week each. But then there are two chapters that apparantly need to be completely rewritten (one of which I'm meant to be turning into a paper to publish. Bye bye confidence). And I have to do more analyses (although the guy doesn't like my analytical method, he doesn't quite tell what he wants me to do) which might take a few months to run.

Take a wild guess what I'll be doing over Christmas?

Skyward Sword impressions

2011-11-29T10:12:00.001+11:00

Picked up LoZ Skyward Sword on the weekend, with the golden Wiimote. If only there was a golden nunchuk to go with it.

So far I've past the first dungeon. Sadly for Zelda, I'm already addicted to Xenoblade Chronicles and would rather spend hours looking for lost children, collecting pink asparagus, and beating up a shitload of monsters so my characters like each other and I can have a heart-to-heart. I'm finding it really hard to motivate myself to do any art, despite having so many ideas.

The latest Zelda installment is certainly pretty. I quite like the new design for the heart container. And there is a little cute thing where you can get a pumpkin skewered on your sword. Those little details make me happy.
But on the whole, the game hasn't made a great first impression. I am neutral to the new stamina meter but my favourite past-time was getting from A to B by rolling. That joy was stolen from me in the DS games and now it's stolen from me for the Wii. I'll have to make do with backflipping all over the place.

I'm finding the controls really hard. Flying isn't so bad when trying to get somewhere but when you have to chase after some stupid bird, it's bloody hard. Beating up Deku Babas should not be that hard either. But some of it is simply I lack the skills and hopefully I will get the hang of it soon. I quite like using the bug net and the item you get in the first dungeon.

The game does look like a lot of fun but I feel a little disappointed. I think it's just a case of being such a big fan that I expect too much. Once I reconcile myself with the idea that no future LoZ game will ever be better than Ocarina of Time then I'll be fine.

Melbourne Zoo

2011-11-18T09:30:00.001+11:00

To celebrate the end of my sister's exams, on Tuesday we went to Melbourne Zoo. And then she gave me Xenoblade Chronicles (I never have packages sent to my address - my postie isn't that reliable) so since then I have been playing obsessively. Mainly running around in circles trying to find items or people. My god, it's such a huge world. I'm not very good at battles - the baddies keep kicking my butt. It's pretty cooA pitty the game isn't being released in the US, it's pretty awesome so far. And you can unequip clothes and make the playing characters run around in their underwear :)

It was a good day at the zoo. Unfortunately, the light wasn't so good and a lot of my photos didn't turn out. But I don't just go for the pretty pictures, otherwise I might as well look up photos online. There are a lot of special moments that you just can't capture (unless you're a professional).

Lots of babies about. The ducklings and moorhen chicks were so tiny and adorable. One highlight was a baby spider monkey going crazy in her nursery.

Mali, having a snooze with her family

Just after taking this photo, Ongard peed and pooped in the water. And continued hanging out in the water while his turds floated in a semi-circle behind him. At least Rory isn't that bad, he only pees in his pool

Dewi with her mum, Maimunah, under the blanket. Orang-utans are my favourite primate.

And now back to Xenoblade. I will defeat that stupid Mecha...

Best cookies ever

2011-11-14T16:31:00.001+11:00

I would try to take a better photo...but I ate the last cookie...

These cookies often make an appearance at the bead expo. They help make the weekend tolerable. They are so chewy and yummy. They don't take too long to make and makes about 15 cookies.

185g butter
1 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1/2 cup caster sugar
1 1/2 cups self-raising flour, sifted
1/2 plain flour, sifted
150g macadamias, coarsley chopped and toasted
1 egg and 1 egg yolk
2 tsp vanilla extract
200g dark chocolate, coarsley chopped

Preheat the oven to 180C and line trays with baking paper. Melt the butter and leave it to cool. Mix the sugars, flours and macadamias. Mix in the butter and then mix in the eggs and vanilla to make a soft dough. Mix in the chocolate. Roll up some balls (about 1 tbs I guess, I made mum do that this time) and place on the trays, spaced out. Bake for about 12 minutes and then cool on trays. Easy.

Relaxing

2011-11-08T14:24:00.001+11:00

Well that was a nice, relaxing week. Finished playing Okamiden, watched Hornblower, finally got a hold of IT to fix my account so I can get paid, sketched, tried out shading on my Macbook, and made an army of owls.

Eyes? Who needs eyes?

I used this week as an opportunity to try out digital art using my Macbook. If I do work overseas (which I won't find out until next year) then I will will be leaving behind my desktop. I soon discovered that I can't work on my lap so I will need a table/desk if I move.

Things were much easier once I migrated to the dining room table but it still took a while to get comfortable. I still feel uneasy about it and I don't trust how the colours look. I'll just have to wait and see how these look when I get back home.

Now my mum is back home and we're doing a stock-take and getting ready for the bead expo running on the weekend. November is really busy for markets and craft expos.

Dog-sitting

2011-11-03T10:18:00.003+11:00

"I do not like the Cone of Shame"

I am dog-sitting at my parent's house for about a week while my mum is running a stall at a craft fair in Tassie.

Kira currently has a cone on her head. She has hot spots on her face. The last time she had them was due to an ear infection and before that was due to an irritating collar. But this time there doesn't seem to be an obvious cause.
She can get by quite well with the cone but keeps bumping into things and knocked over my tea. Poor thing can't scratch her ears so I've been rubbing them for her.

I'm not used to cooking in a house full of dogs. By the way that they've been harrassing me, you'd think that they hadn't been fed. It sure did make me feel guilty. I'm pretty sure I gave them the same amount of food that my mum does.

Spoilt dog is spoilt

After I let them inside in the evening, Rory stood politely by my parent's room, staring at the door. I opened the door and he walked in and hopped up on the bed. He's been sleeping in there the past few months so my mum can have a good sleep. Otherwise he'll woof to be let out multiple times throughout the night.
I thought that after a few minutes he would realise that no-one would be joining him and would come out looking for me. But he was happy to sleep on the bed until 5am, when he came to ask me to let him out.

Daily Deviation

2011-10-18T16:15:00.000+11:00

Base by Zapatones. Umbrella prop by DHF

Last week I got a DD for my latest doll!

For those who aren't in the know, DeviantArt features a selection of quality works from among its galleries. The daily deviations (DD) are featured on the home page and are very popular so it's quite special to get a DD.
Perhaps not so special for a doller to get a DD though. Let's face it, the majority of the doll categories are filled with crap. Regardless, I feel special :)

The doll started when I was walking from the tram stop. I saw someone in this pretty black and white skirt. There were vertical panels of black and white and the white had a black pattern on top. I didn't think I could do the pattern without a photo but I was willing to give the stripes a go. I'm not sure where the umbrella idea came from or the hair colour but I chose short hair because I have a tendency towards long hair. I chose a coloured jacket to add a bit of colour but I'm not sure why I chose yellow (perhaps because it's not a colour I usually choose?).

Skirt fail. Also note the original base face

I put off the skirt for a long time because I was so worried I would fail. I boosted my confidence by working on the top part of the doll and then moved onto the skirt shading. And failed -->
For a fresh start I scrapped the shading and the black and just tried shading a white skirt and stuck with basic horizontal stripes. Much easier than vertical. Maybe one day I'll be good enough...

Shiny new toy

2011-10-10T16:42:00.003+11:00

Oooooo...pretty...

Entering retirement

My Graphire tablet has served me well for almost six years. But now it's time for retirement. The surface is scratched, the pen nib has worn down but they aren't big issues for me. But I can't get absolute positioning to work on my MacBook, which is a big issue if I move overseas and leave behind my desktop.

So for my birthday, mum got me a shiny new Bamboo Fun. OMG, it's awesome. I'm glad I didn't get the smaller size, it would have felt too small. And the touch features are cool. I did all the online research for mum so that she didn't have to pay the regular price. I'm sick of everything costing more in Australia.

Of course, Wacom had to release the new wireless Bamboo days after I did my research XD. That's ok, I don't need wireless...

There I was, all ready and motivated to do some shading, which would have been absolutely stunning, except I didn't have pressure sensitivity. Apparently you can't have any tablet connected to the computer while installing the driver or it gets confused. Which is a bugger for me because I gave away one mouse and always leave my other one at uni. I don't think I've ever been so eager for the weekend to end so that I could get to work XD

Back to work

2011-10-07T15:55:00.000+11:00

I can't believe it's October already. What happened to September? I remember submitting but the rest of the month is a blur.

After a relaxing two weeks of bumming around at home, I'm back working. Just casual work but it's great to be back in the lab. And great not working stupid hours. I'm back to working on cute mammals, rather than smelly fish (not that it makes a difference in the lab). And instead of trying to figuing out population structure, the project is trying to identify regions of the genome associated with specific traits.

I'm also job hunting, which hasn't been very successful. Anything remotely related to my area requires skills that I don't have. I did find a job in the US that sounded great, except the salary was little better than my scholarship. I don't need a big income but I do need to live comfortably. I really don't understand the states, you spend ~8 years slaving on a stupid PhD project so that you can be paid peanuts for you postdoc.
I am applying for a one year fellowship in the US. It would be a continuation of my PhD project, which I don't really want to do but I can't live as a full-time bum. That award wont be announced until January and I can't start until I have been officially awarded my PhD (whenever the hell that will be). A long wait but maybe I'll luck out and find a better job during that time.

Urg, future is hard. WIPs are much more fun.

Doll bases: Zapatones, Mariii, and SerinaTrunstall. Umbrella prop by DHF

Now I just have to get around to finishing something...

My balloon

2011-09-16T18:37:00.000+10:00

I submitted my thesis today! Which means that I get a balloon.
At the start of the PhD, the concept of receiving a balloon upon submission seems ridiculous. We laugh at the silliest. But when writing, it becomes so important and you can't stop thinking about it. Oh god, what if they don't have the colour I want?
As it turns out, they didn't have the colour I wanted. They did have orange but when blown up, it turned out to be a golden orange. I wanted orange orange :(
The woman put such effort into blowing up the balloon, I didn't have the heart to tell her that I changed my mind and wanted purple...

So of course I had to take photos of my balloon. And take it with me everywhere. And almost forget it at the Indian restaurant. And drip gelati on it.

At our regular cafe

At my messy, dusty desk

At my bench space

Thesis binding done

2011-09-14T16:54:00.001+10:00

Intelligent goggie thinks thesis is good enough to sleep on

Stupid goggie thinks thesis is invading his personal space

Dog therapy

2011-09-12T17:24:00.000+10:00

Yesterday and today were my thesis printing days. Urg.
It wasn't that bad...until I got up to the appendices. That was a nightmare filled with rage and swearing.

All over now. I shall calm down by patting my dogs.

Almost there

2011-09-09T16:05:00.000+10:00

One week until submission!
After a few months of working insane long hours, I'm all burned out. It was pretty obvious that I wasn't going to be very productive this week. Ideally I should let the thesis sit for a month and then come back to it with a fresh mind. But that's not an option. It's so frustrating! I'm pleased with most of what I've done but there are bits that I hate and can't do anything about because I'm burned out (and my writing ability isn't that good). I'm so exhausted that I can't even be bothered cooking or cleaning. I've been eating spaghetti bolognese and Thai green curry over and over again because they're quick and easy. And the house is filthy.

I have to keep telling myself that I'm a PhD student and no one expects it to be perfect. So instead of forcing myself and ending up on tears, I've been pretty cruisy this week. A few hours of work and a lot of hours of gaming, reading, and a bit of arting. I feel a little guilty that I'm not spending my entire time working, particularly since I can have a break soon.

I managed to beat Pokemon White. But now the end game acitivities are annoying me. Everyone is so strong and I can't be bothered going through all the effort of training up my Pokemon. I just want to complete my Pokedex. And that stupid White Forest makes me angry. Almost finished deBlob2. I wish LoZ Skyward Sword would come out now. That would be awesome.

I've been working on a Queen of Hearts picture that I initially sketched in the US. I was so worried that after so many long not doing anything my shading would be terrible. But I'm quite pleased with the results. The lips aren't great but that's nothing new. So far the only issues is the hair. This morning I tried three times and it just wasn't working. I've decided to leave it until the end. Hopefully I don't regret that decision.

Tomorrow I'm heading off to my mum's place. Yummy food, beautiful dogs...fancy printer. I'm not looking forward to the printing at all.

Public speaking woes

2011-08-24T19:24:00.001+10:00

Today I gave my final PhD talk. Oh what fun.

All of my insecurities came flooding back. Yesterday I was swearing abuse at my slides because I thought they were shit. This morning I practiced my talk for the final time and it ran for 40 minutes instead of the expected 1 hour. I worked so hard on making complex ideas appear simple and my talk is 20 minutes too short. Why am I always under the time limit? Oh god, people are going to think I haven't worked hard enough and my project was easy...

And people are going to ask me nasty questions. They are going to spot the flaws in my conclusions of population division (this fear is illogical. I am the only person in the department who works on fish. No one here understands this stuff). They are going to question my interpertations that go against mainstream opinions. And then I'm going to stumble and look a fool because until recently I believed in the mainstream and am still trying to get my head around things. And I am going to use nontechnical words like "stuff" and "thingy" because words are hard.

I cried. Right in front of my lab mates and supervisor. In a cafe. It's kinda awkward ordering a big muffin with a red teary face. My friends were wonderful and comforting but I couldn't stop crying until we chaned the subject to ordinary conversation like ear wax and crazy family members.
I did have time to clean up my face before the talk. And I gave my too-short talk with a confident air, a good pace, and plenty of eye contact. This is why I script my talks. Yay me for fooling people into believing that I am confident about my conclusions and not worried that I'm making stuff up. Fish are hard...

So now all that is left is the thesis. I have about 2 1/2 weeks before I start printing. There is still a lot of work to do but right now things are looking on track. I was initially worried the thesis would be too small (I blame the person ranting to me a few years ago about how certain people managed to get their PhD's with a small thesis. She's the reason I'm so paranoid about the length of my thesis and talk). Eventually I realised that the uni had changed it's guidelines from double-spaced to 1.5-spaced text and that was why my chapters looked smaller than those of past students. So I am feeling quite good about the thesis right now. Of course, I seem to have a different mood a day so who knows how I'll feel tomorrow.

Redoll

2011-08-13T12:15:00.005+10:00

In a bit of a writing slump today. Maybe it's because my sister looked over some of drafts yesterday and discovered some half-finished sentences and a whole paragraph of incoherance. I can't even spell mitochondria anymore.
But this slump gives me an opportunity to work on my final department talk. It's coming together but some parts are rather lame. I'll be glad to get it over an done with.

This year, before the shit hit the fan, I took part in Glam!'s redoll event. You submit 3-5 dolls and your assigned person has to pick one and redoll it with at least three changes, and you get assigned someone to redoll. I took part last time in 2009 and loved it.
Now the redolls have been posted so I am allowed to show off my work.

My person was Chewbroccoli and I chose the doll that was a little different from what I normally do. Except the original doll lacked hair. I couldn't quite bring myself to making a bald doll...
I am really pleased with how the redoll turned out. The assignments came out while I was in Oklahoma so I decided to sketch a baseless doll using this stock photo. I find plain poses hard enough, this was a real challenge. It's not perfect but I'm super-proud of myself.

I also wanted to challenge myself with subtle pixel shading. The problem with that is things look different on different computers and it's harder to make subtle look good on different monitors. Normally don't care how my dolls look on other computers but this was making a doll for someone else. I think the shading looks great on my desktop. But it doesn't look good on my mac or on the computers of the people who gave me feedback. I did start playing around with the palette but then I freaked out about my thesis and stopped all art :( I feel a little bad that I couldn't fix the colours up. But at least it looks awesome to me.

Details. See, my shading is awesome:

Some steps:

Now for some lunch and then back to work...*sigh*

Thesis woes

2011-08-07T10:20:00.000+10:00

My university is making it very easy to hate it right now.

For one thing, it has changed it's policy so that anything published (including a thesis) must have everything saved so that your work can be audited and they can discover if you have done something dogy or not. Fair enough.
The problem with this is that
a) It isn't a case of policy changes are in effect from this point on. All researchers have to back-track for the past five years. Do they know how hard it is to go back to stuff you did five years ago? At least I'm the only one who has ever worked on my project so I don't have to try and figure out what other people have done.
b) The people who made this policy don't actually know what they want and have asked for everything. Raw data, processed data, all the analytical files. Eveything. Will the auditors even know how to use the programs? Do they realise that some projects have terabytes worth of raw data? Would they like my brain in a jar?

I can't submit my thesis until I have all this data assembled and in an easy way to follow. It wouldn't be a bad thing if the policy was introduced when I started, then I could have managed the data as I went along. But as it is, I only have my data managed for me. There is no way that anyone else could ever find my genotyping repeats. And my data analysis for my thesis is all over the place and I keep adding more and more as I go. I don't know how I'm going to organise it in a way that other people can follow. More work for me when I'm already working evenings and weekends to get everything done in time.

The other thing is that the university has changed it's online library system. Most of my problems involve the log-in window telling me that I'm an unauthorised user, something which strangely can be resolved by hitting refresh. But twice I haven't been able to log in at all. I planned to spend the weekend looking up articles for my thesis but the log-in window won't load at all. I need those fucking articles.
I can only assume that the university gives me permission to make shit up.

Seriously, who thinks it's a good idea to introduce these things at this time of year? Why not the start of the academic year?

In other (somewhat obvious) news: I'm stressed out and freaking out. Every little thing annoys me to the point that I'm swearing abuse at my plants. No art for me. Cooking is a chore. Gaming is restricted to only a few hours on the weekend.

Doom

2011-07-16T16:32:00.078+10:00

I was experiencing a post-holiday high. All gone now.

...Ok, my blog post was a little to angry so I deleted it. It involved a lot of swearing at statisticians who do not provide adequate manuals to their programs or who design their programs for linux only. I already got myself a mac so that I could run mac-only programs. I'm not going to learn linux.

Bottom-line - I have two months until my thesis is due. I was technically meant to give a final 1hr seminar a month ago. I can't analyse some of my data because statisticians hate me. One of my analyses has been running for the past two months and I have no idea when it will finish running (and technically I'm meant to run that analysis three times). People won't reply to their emails.

I am a ball of rage and misery and will likely remain a ball of rage and misery for the next two months. there will be a lot of playing DeBlob2, drinking copious amounts of tea, and eating a lot of home-baked treats.
At the end of all this pain, the graduate's office had better give me an orange or red balloon. Any other colour is unacceptable.

Pierogi

2011-07-03T14:58:00.000+10:00

When I told my Canadian friend that I was going to the US, she told me that I had to try pierogi. But I didn't find any so I guess it's a Canadian thing? But then why did she tell me about them and get my hopes up for nothing?

So this weekend I decided to make my own. Which was good timing as my mum gave me a nifty set of dumpling makers. So awesome. I can get more filing in than I normally do with these sort of things.

I loosely followed the recipe from the inactive blog Polish food and recipes. I didn't even bother trying to find the right cheese, since my supermarket is useless. I used a mix of cottage cheese and ricotta instead. Panicked a bit when I saw how little flour I have. Thankfully I had just enough.
They actually took a long time to make. But I'm so slow at rolling out dough real thin. Still need lots of practice. In all I made 18 dumplings, half fried and half boiled. I don't think I like the boiled ones so I'll stick with the less healthy style from now on. I froze half the dumplings so I don't think I'll be making anymore for a while.

US sketch dump

2011-06-27T17:59:00.000+10:00

It's good to be back home.
Here are some of my sketches from when I was in the US. I think I'll turn some of the sketches into something but not all of them. That was the good thing about the trip - I drew without any intention of making a complete piece. And that freed me to explore things and try again when something didn't work. It's probably good for improving my drawing so I hope I can keep it up now that I'm home.

The left head is drawn from a stock photo from faestock (she has taken down her photos). I didn't have much inspiration so I used the stock to help get my juices flowing. Since the sketch inspired me to draw the right sketch, I guess it worked. I took a photo of myself to help draw the hands. And then ended up using my hair for reference...

A person in the style of the game, Okamiden. I got the game in New York. I love the art style and the game is great too. But it looks like you can't feed animals like you can in Okami. This makes me sad. And I can't bark either. OK, maybe being able to bark is a useless feature but it was fun.

And another sketch where I took a photo of myself for reference (left). But it didn't turn out how I wanted, which was less realistic. So I tried again (right) with no reference except for the original sketch. It still isn't where I want it but I like it enough to think that it is worth another try.

Last leg of the journey

2011-06-16T13:05:00.042+10:00

The holiday is over :( Now it's just writing my thesis and attending a conference.
Heat has been making me very cranky the past week. I've been getting annoyed at stupid things, from american humour (specifically, when people say "nah, I'm just kidding" a second after their joke. Really? Did you think you were being subtle?) to my own voice (I am starting to hear my accent. OMFG, aussie accents are awful). And those pedistrian crossings that keep saying "wait, wait" can go fuck themselves.
I don't want to attend another stupid conference. I want to go home, rug up in a doona, bitch about how cold it is, and get pawed in the face by my dog. And eat cereal and bread that isn't so fucking sweet. Even the damn wholemeal here is sweet! And drink loose leaf tea. Hot tea. None of that iced tea crap (with exception to Argo Tea. I wish they were in Australia).

Thankfully, my final accommodation (a college room) has great aircon so I am cooling down and losing my temper (until I walk out in the heat like a few minutes ago). Even better since tomorrow and Saturday are forecast to be 39C (102F). The room is quite nice (I say this because it's not hot) and the second bed isn't made so it looks like I have the room all to myself. Yay!

Now that I'm cool, I'm looking forward to the conference. Glancing at the program I think there will be a lot of great talks. But they aren't going to feed us. I'm a little worried about that. The website says there will be shuttle buses to get lunch. Seriously? The organisers choe a venue that wasn't convenient for food? Given that there are eight concurrent sessions everyday, that is a lot of people to shuttle around during a lunch break.Not sure what I'm going to do about breakfast, though I do have an emergency cookie stash. Cheap and nasty but they'll do.
My talk is on Monday afternoon, the second-last day. It's pretty much the same as the talk from the other conference so I haven't really been practicing. Although part of the reason I haven't been practicing is because of my accent...

Segway!

2011-06-07T20:59:00.009+10:00

It is hard to write a blog entry when you are getting distracted by Failbook...

I wanted to take a segway tour in Dallas next week but it was booked out. Not sure what I'm going to do in Dallas now...
So today I went out for a morning 2hr segway tour. I was the only one booked in and got bumped to the afternoon 3hr tour at no extra cost. Yay!

That left some time to do something else. I went to the SkyDeck (after buying some more books at Borders. Considering I can buy two novels in the US for less than the price of one in Aus, I'm going to make the most of any bookstores I come across). The SkyDeck is a 442m tall building and is amusing for all of 10 minutes. And then they try to sell you quality photos of yourself for $20+. Thanks but I'll settle for the free shot taken by a random. So many places insist on taking a photo of you, printing it out, and then asking you to fork out a small fortune. It's annoying. What do they do with all those unsold photos anyway?

If you ever visit a city that offers segway tours then take it. They're awesome!
It didn't take that long to get the feel of it, though I did have trouble remaining stationary and was always crawling forward. I love how responsive they are at turning.

It was a hot 33C and one of the people had to stop an hour in because she felt dizzy. The main thing I needed was breaks to rest my feet. My heels ached a bit afterwards. And I was a mass of sweat from all that heat. It was quite gross and demanded a shower.

I finished the day by making some pasta (with bottle sauce, veggie mince, carrots, mushrooms). It felt good being able to cook after so long but also strange because I was doing it in a communual area. I planned on making four serves but ended up with five and plenty of carrots left over (sucks that they were sold by the bag). Five meals for less than $9 is pretty awesome. And it was organic produce too. If organic food in the US costs so little then why does it cost so much in Australia?

Smitten with Chicago

2011-06-04T16:00:00.026+10:00

Jelly from the aquarium I visited today

Another thing I didn't take into account when travelling - heyfever. Dammit...

From the airport, I happened to get on a bus with a cranky driver who liked to beep the horn a lot. When I asked cranky driver about my stop, she gruffly told me to listen to the announcements. And then got cranky at me because I missed my stop and told me off for not listening to the announcements. I was listening. The only announcements were what the bus number was and what direction it was heading. No stop announcements (though I have since heard them on other buses so if must have been faulty). So I had to back-track two stops.
It's so stupid, not even the bus stop signs gave any indication what stop they are. I hate buses.

I reached my hostel and the lobby told me that I couldn't check-in for another few hours and that I couldn't leave my bags because the bag storage areas was full. The common areas were quite nice so I decided to hang out there. Except that all of us waiting to check-in got ejected because they wanted to take photos. So I crankily marched back to the main street with my bags and had lunch. Not what you would call a good first impression.

Aside from all that, I'm liking Chicago so far. I'm staying in a very pretty area with lots of greenery and is nice and quiet. The houses look charming. There also seems to be a food culture more aligned to my taste. Except for lack of take-away sushi shops that I'm used to seeing back home. I have seen plenty of nice looking Japanese restaurants in the US so I think it's a case that Australia has no class when it comes to Japanese food. Still, I like my sushi rolls...
This hostel is great too. Much nicer and cleaner than my San Diego box. The common areas are nice and the kitchen set-up is good. They even have group activities like BBQs and pub crawls, though I'll give the pub crawl a miss...

Bananas here cost 19c each. Given that they were over $12 per kilo when I left (since the crops were devasted by the floods), this is fantastic. They are free with breakfast but I couldn't stop myself from buying some anyway.

New York

2011-06-01T18:10:00.000+10:00

I've never before been interested in the window seat of a plane. But now that I have caught a red-eye, I can see the appeal. To see the lights of a city is stunning. And I got to see a thunder storm as well. But I think I prefer being able to sleep.
Thankfully, my hostel provided free airport transport. And the staff were nice enough to offer me breakfast. I couldn't check in until the afternoon so I went to the Field Museum. It was massive. I was too sleep deprived to appreciate it but it was still pretty cool. Then I got horribly lost trying to catch the subway. The museum stop was littered with great mosaics.

Today I went and saw The Lion King. Best. Broadway. Ever. The costumes, props, and performances were beautiful. I loved how they did the wildebeest stampeade. Wasn't so keen on the new songs but the original ones sounded great. Rafiki stole the show. I am so glad that I got to see it. I didn't even want to come to to New York originally. It was only because the guy booking my flights told me that it was cheaper to fly to Chicago via NY than to fy direct. How bizzarre.
Well, that ends my whirlwind tour of NY. I fly out early tomorrow.

Mosaic at the Museum subway stop

Airport procrastination

2011-05-30T14:53:00.000+10:00

I'm at the airport, working on my thesis. Well, not right now...but I wrote a sentence before and I totally plan on writing a few more sentences that I wont delete later...

Next stop is New York. It would have been nice to not catch a red-eye but San Diego only has one runway so that flight is my only option. I have some melatonin tablets handy so hopefully I get enough sleep to stop me from being a zombie.
I was originally set to stay in Manhatten. But a few days before I left I received an email informing me that the hostel had closed down. Now I'm staying closer to the airport. It's probably just as well, since my flight from NY departs at 9am. I'll just have to make use of the subway to reach

I'm currently suffering a form of homesickness. I'm not actually homesick - I only had a brief period of that last week. But I want my desktop and tablet. I want to doll. More urgently, I want to do digital art and practice backgrounds. I never want to practice backgrounds. But something about browsing DA and being stuck with only a trackpad has fuelled the desire. With luck, the desire will still be there when I finally return home.
I have done a little bit of sketching. The first few days I tried ended in disaster and left me feeling that I had lost any ability to draw. I'm still not happy with the faces and haven't attempted any full-bodied portraits but I'm gradually getting the momentum back.
I am also able to partially satisfy my dolling craving. Last night I started to trace over a drawing and it seemed to go well, if mch slower. The tackpad was hurting my wrist a bit and I don't think I can do anything beyond tracing. If only I had thought to save more of my drawings to my laptop...
Aside from my first three nights, no cross stich has been done. I just can't seem to do it without a TV.

I just have to say this - I hate US tax. In Australia, the tax is included in the marked price. While I understand why this may not be the cae in the US, it is really pissing me off. I like to know how much something will cost before I reach the register. That way, I can have the money ready instead of holding everyone up while searching for the right change. Otherwise, I just accumulate more and more coins. Including those stupid pennies. Can't you just abolish it and round to the nearest five cents please?
Really taking a shine to bagels. Australia needs more bagals.

Not even maps can save me

2011-05-26T16:00:00.000+10:00

Today I was meant to meet up with my collaborator and hopefully discuss a one-year job opportunity. Unfortunitely, I have the remarkable gift of getting easily lost.
My trip in total was meant to take 1 1/2 hours. All seemed to be going well when I noticed that the bus signs stopped showing the stop number. When I heard the bus driver announce the road I wanted, I quickly hoped off. While it was the right road, it was the wrong stop and I had to walk a long way. Then I reached a confusing intersection and got confused. I chose the right way (I think) and walked for a while until I noticed that all sign of civilistion had vanished and I was really late. I had no clue where I was so I turned around and txted an appology. So aside from an hour's walk in a pleasant looking area, I pretty much wasted the day.

Back in my room with the joys of the internet, I discovered that I had typed "road" instead of "court" into Google Maps and was not within walking distance of where I needed to be. In fact, I have to catch two buses, not one. Man that was stupid...
I'm actually surprised with myself. While I am feeling embarrassed and a little anxious about tomorrow's attempt, I'm not bursting into tears and feeling like it's the end of the world and that I'm a hopeless failure. I'm sure I would have felt that way a few years ago. Where did this new me come from?

Would it surprise you to learn that I got lost at the zoo yesterday? That place is massive and awesome.

Museums

2011-05-24T17:40:00.000+10:00

It is fortunate that San Diego's museums are in the one area. I got lost trying to find the Museum of Man so I went to the art museum. Today I tried to find the science center and ended up at the Museum of Man.
The museums are rather small. I could probably go to teo a day instead of one a day. In hindsight, I should have booked my flights so that I spent more time in NY and Dallas. But at the time of booking things I didn't know when the scientists I wanted to visit were available. And NY and Dallas were only meant to be stop-overs (since apparently it isn't cheaper to fly direct to anywhere). Ah well, it's still nice wondering around and relaxing for the rest of the day. And search for a bookstore. I could only find a small cafe-style one so it didn't have the scifi/fantasy books that I wanted (I got Persuasion and a book on dog minds). I shall have to ration my books until I reach Chicago.

The Museum of Man had a really cool exhibit comparing healthy bones to healed fractures and diseases. It was a definite highlight.

This is a skeleton of a guy in his 20s!

Despite being the Museum of Man, this fused skull is not human, it's a calf (calves?)

SeaWorld

2011-05-20T20:00:00.035+10:00

I managed to pick a nice spot for my San Diego accomodation. Nice and close to places. But the place itself is pretty crap. I don't mind that my room is box-sized. But it is looking out to a main street and the light and noise is terrible. I wonder if I will ever sleep well again.

Today was a beautiful day so I decided to go to SeaWorld. I can't believe that they search your bags for food and drink. But I did manage to sneak in my water bottle so take that dictators.
I did put on sunscreen but forgot to bring it with me to reapply during the day. My shoulders and the top of my head is all burnt now. I hope it fades without tanning because it looks a little odd. I was thinking of checking out the zoo next but it is probably better to give my skin a break and head to a museum instead.

I got splashed by the whales. Made the ride home uncomfortable

My favourite photo

Makes me think of my dogs

Brownie points for conference location

2011-05-17T17:02:00.001+10:00

I think I may be getting over the jet lag but I'm not sure. I don't feel extremely tire, despite spending hours in a dim room listening to talks, but I don't feel like I've actually been asleep. I think I may have been sleeping in hour long stretches throughout the night or something.

Conference accommodation. Makes me miss my family holidays

The conference that is near a hole-of-a-town is actually located on a beautiful mountain. And is cold. As cold as Melbourne is right now. I can't imagine how all the conference attendees from the northern hemisphere are feeling right now but I quite like it. It would be nicer if I had my scarf and gloves but the nights are feeling just like home. The nights before the conference felt too warm. While I did plan for warm weather, I didn't take warm nights into account when I packed.

I was pleasantly surprised by the tea on offer. The more I drink loose leaf, the less tolerant I am to tea bags (particularly green tea and the American Tea Party). But the tea bags on offer here are actually really nice. The food is pretty good too (though nothing for morning/afternoon tea). Three days into my American Adventures and I was already sick of fast food. But this conference has three course dinners! Pitty one course is salad...
I'm actually a little worried that it only took me three days to get sick of fast food. I tried Taco Bell for the first time and it did taste nice (and was super cheap!) but it left me feeling gross. At home my idea of fast food is sushi or an asian soup bowl. Maybe I should have had some KFC in the previous months to help prepare my stomach for all the heavy/greasy/salty/sugrary food. With any luck, my other accomodations will not be in holes and I will be able to find sushi and good restrurants that aren't expensive. If not then I may have to resort to the lesser of evils, Subway, and pile in the veggies.

I had very low expectations for this conference. I am one of two genetics presenters (and of course, we are the last two talks on the last day). I thought I'd be falling asleep at all of the talks out of boredom. But most of the talks have been really interesting, despite them not having any relevance to my work. Of course, this does tend to make me paranoid about my talk. I want to practice now but my roommate is in my room and I'm too shy to practice with her around. Last year I couldn't even practice when someone was in the room next to me (to be fair, the walls were thin enough that I could hear his phone conversation. So it wasn't exactly private).
My main problem with the conference has been the social side. I have a lot of trouble introducing myself to groups of people, particularly when they all know each other and have their own in things. I have managed to approach a few people on their own and strike conversations but I can't seem to enter groups. I hate it when you manage to sit on a table with two different groups of people and don't manage to get included in either one. So I have done a bit of social avoidance and hid the moment my meals were finished. I think I am getting a bit less socially awkward but it's still not good.

This town is a hole

2011-05-15T13:49:00.001+10:00

Fuck you jet lag.

I caught the train with no problem at all. In fact, I had a lot of people ask me if they were on the right station and if the train pulling in was the right train. I must exude an aura of public transport confidence or something.
I was amazed when the train pulled in. It was a double-decker! Melbourne could use a few of those, particularly since the company has decided to cut services in developing suburbs.

It turns out the place I'm spending two nights is a hole. In my defence, this was the first part of the trip that I planned and I was a little focused on how to get to tomorrow's conference. Why does the conference have to be near a hole?
I tried looking for somewhere that might sell melatonin but no luck. I did see someone get arrested...

I'm a litle disgusted by this accomodation. It is a nice little room with a big flatscreen and free wi-fi. But I have no hot water and there is no tea. If you can put coffee machines in a room then you can also provide a few tea bags. Bah.

One long day

2011-05-13T18:35:00.001+10:00

My Friday started at 6am. I took a 3 1/2 hour flight to Auckland, had a 3 hour wait, and then caught a 12 1/4 hour flight to LA. Thanks to the magic of time zones, I arrived at 12:30pm on Friday. Trying to sleep on planes is not fun.
I should have been excited when I departed the plane but it's hard to be excited when you turn a corner and discover a sea of people in queues. It took me 75 minutes to get through the first customs check point! It was so hot, no one could hear the announcements, and the security people kept changing the queues and confusing everyone. Somehow I was expecting more...
Afer all that, a lukewarm shower has never felt so good.

My hotel is nice and close to the station I need. And close to China Town (which actually turns out to be a bit trashy. Melbourne's China Town is much better aside from the cool dragons). But that's about it. But that's all right since I don't consider the holiday to begin until after the first conference.
I'm just going to hunt down some food and then veg out.

Doll Pageants

2011-05-08T09:09:00.000+10:00

One of my better pageant entries.
Miss National Pageant during January 2005.
Base by 2Pixel.

Way back in the Dark Ages, I had the time and inclination to enter a lot of doll contests. Emphasis on a lot.
I really enjoyed entering pageants, back when they hosted on a person's personal website and consisted of three dolls to be submitted at the same time. And there was only one judge.

A lot sure has changed since then.

Until this year, I had never really gotten into the current style of pageants. I was already moving away from entering contests and didn't seem to find any pageants that inspired me. But also I had less time to do art and couldn't really commit to something that was running over multiple months. The fact that everyone seems to use Moe-style bases was also a bit of a put-off. All the dolls looked the same.

This year is different. I'm competing in two pageants. Which is stupid because I'll miss some of the rounds. But I guess that is a good thing too because it has increased my productivity.

The Lazy Man's Pageant. Base by dilli-dalli.

The Lazy Man's Pageant really appealed to me because it was giving small dolls some love and no Moe were allowed (although, if people had saved mini-Moe bases saved to their computers...). The second round, steampunk, almost put me off entering as that does not inspire me at all (and I think it is my weakest doll of the set). And the third round was a secret so who knew if that would inspire me or not (cross-dressing so that wasn't too bad).
It was fun to make but I think this shows why pageants don't suit me. I didn't work on the dolls at the same time (I couldn't if I wanted to because of that secret theme) and there are little inconsistencies that are bugging me. I could not for the life of me draw the glasses for the right-facing pose. The degree of shadow is different from doll to doll and the I didn't limit the palette as much as I could have (60 colours, excluding transparency). I do like these dolls but on the whole, I feel a bit disappointed.

All this playing Pokemon primed me to be inspired by the Ladies of Pokemon Pageant. And this base set just seems to suit perfectly (although the feet on the second doll gave me a bit of grief).

Ladies of Pokemon Pageant. Base by Zipple.

I chose Lapras as my pokemon because he was my favourite when I played Yellow. My Lapras was called Pal and together we were unstoppable. The elites had no chance against us. Such a large pokemon dictacted my shading. It was either tool-shaded or a more simplistic cartoony style. I went with more cartoony since it fits the game better.

I'm really glad that I worked on these entries together. I had a lot of trouble making the palette consistent between the dolls and had to go back and change a few shades as I went. I managed to get the colour count down to 44 (excluding transparency), which I am really pleased with.
I know I don't have to work with a restricted palette but I like the challenge and feel very satisfied at the end of it.

T-minus one week

2011-05-06T18:05:00.000+10:00

In a week's time I will be flying over the Pacific. No doubt bored and craving sleep but the US isn't going to come to me. And perfect timing for the new Blogger option of being able to add your location to the post.

It doesn't feel real yet. And I'm more anxious than I am excited.
Can I just say that I don't like Oklahoma City. Their public transport system isn't available through Google Maps so I had to spend an hour trying to read the bus map and figure out what routes I need to take in order to reach my conference accomodation. Come to think of it I hope that the bus info Google Maps has given me for everywhere else is accurate...

I'm not as freaked outabout my data as I was a month ago. It took a few coffee breaks with my friend and having soft barriers to gene flow explained to me but I think I have things figured out. This is why morning/afternoon tea is a good thing. Well, I haven't got it entirely sorted but enough to get me get through the conference talks. Then when I get back I can search the literature to see if my gene flow patterns match other species and try to ~~make up a story~~ explain the data. It would help if I had some other data but it took my friend two months to run the program on her smaller data set so I've got a long time to wait. We need a super computer or something.

Cookie logs

2011-04-20T15:46:00.000+10:00

I initially picked this recipe to use up my rice flour and because it didn't require any eggs. They are actually quite nice and easy to make. The recipe is originally from Cupcakes, Cheesecakes, Cookies but I halve the amount (which makes plenty) and have been experimenting with variants like spirals and adding peanut butter.

My spiral skills need a bit of work XD

125g butter, softened
100g icing sugar
150g flour
37g rice flour
25g cornflour
1 tsp vanilla essence
M&M minis (or chocolate bits)

You are meant to sift the sugar and flours but it actually takes a lot of work (even wth a spoon) so I just sift the plain flour and ignore the rest.
Beat the butter, icing sugar, and vanilla essence until the butter is lighter in colour. Stir in the flours and M&Ms (as little or as many as you like), followed by the milk. Kneed until it all comes together and is nice and smooth and then roll it out into a long log. Wrap in cling wrap and stick it in the fridge for an hour (but 30mins is fine if you're impatient).

The original plain recipe. Cut a bit too thick

Preheat the oven to ~150C and line some trays with baking paper. Remove the cling wrap and cut the log into slices. The cookies wont expand much so you can pack them onto the tray instead of spacing them out. Cook for about 12 minutes (my batches are done in my oven at that temp and are burnt after 14 minutes). They will not be hard when they are done (in fact, you need to be careful that they don't crumble) - they should look uncooked on top and a little golden on the bottom. Transfer them to a rack and let them cool and harden.

I've made four batches and played around with the flavours. I replaced the milk with lemon butter (and ommitted the M&Ms) because I had jar of the stuff to use up. They were ok but I got a bit tired of them after a few days. I suspect that orange juice and poppy seeds would be better. I also tried replacing the milk with 2tbs peanut butter (I think I put in ~2tsp of milk), which was yummy.
I also had a go at making pinwheel cookies. Omit the M&Ms and divide the dough into two. Mix in enough cocoa powder to one until it's a nice dark colour. Roll out the doughs and place one on top of the other and then roll into a log. I think my problem was that I should have refrigerated the dough before attempting to roll it out. It was difficult to roll out and I ended up just pushing the dough with my fingers. I thought it was a disaster but they looked alright in the end. And the people I shared them with really liked them.

One month

2011-04-13T18:26:00.000+10:00

It is now one month until my Awesome Advernture of Awesomeness. I'm both excited and terrified.
Excited that I'll be overseas on my own, going to cool places, discovering yummy/cheap eats (my Canadian friend tells me that I must try pierogi), and comparing the public transport to Melbourne (I'm sure that the prices will be better but what about the service?). Google Maps is fantastic.
Also, the department gave me my travel scholarship so my trip is now a little bit cheaper. Won't know about the university travel scholarship until I'm actually overseas.

I'm terrified because I'm starting the analyse my data. It makes no sense! OK, I think I can figure the mitochondrial data if I separate the spawning and feeding grounds and take into account that I don't have samples from all the spawning grounds. The microsatellites are another story. In fact, I can't even make up a story for it. Never mind the fact that the different statistical methods (and the same statistics but different programs) show different patterns and I don't know which one to trust/use. The microsats don't show the same pattern as the mitochondria and even ignoring the mitochondria, I have no idea what it means.
And I'm meant to be presenting this data at two conferences. Two! What the hell am I going to say? "Here's all this data that I spent 3 years working on. No idea what it means so just eat the stupid fish and be done with it". Somehow I don't think that will go down well...

Still, I'm better off than a lot of people. I actually have data, even if I don't yet know what it means. There are quite a few people in the department with no results after 3-4 years and are being kicked out. I feel so awful for those people. But I also wonder why they didn't seek a job and walk away from their PhDs years ago.

Nerd

2011-04-08T16:56:00.000+10:00

Last weekend I decided that an idea travel game would be Pokemon. I haven't played a Pokemon game since the good old days of Yellow. Actually, I think I would get bored if I played all the generations. But I do remember playing it for over a hundred hours so even if I do play it as obsessively as Golden Sun, I wont be done with it before or during my trip. I decided on White since my sister has Black and I like the Pokemon on the cover.

I also decided that I would buy the game in the US, since everything in Aus is expensive. And having decided on this wonderful plan, I soon went to the shops and picked up the game. I am so lame! My friends always comment on my self-control at cafes but that is a lie. I have no self-control. The only thing stopping me from buying yummy drinks and food is the thought of buying books and games.

What made me change my mind was a very effective gimmick. I had seen Pokemon ads on the TV but at first, I didn't really pay much attention. It was only when I had stupidly finished Golden Sun and needed to find another travel game that I started to consider Pokemon. So I started topay attention to the ads. And what the ads were telling me was that I had until April 10th to collect a special Pokemon, Victini. I fell for the gimmick.

I took my shiney new toy home and turned on the internet. But no internets for the DS. My wireless security settings were wrong (the DS needs WEP) and I couldn't remember my password to my router. I tried a DS wireless dongle that my sister left behind when she had moved out but after much troubleshooting, the best that I could get was an IP conflict. The dongle worked well enough with my old modem. But my old modem also liked to bring new meaning to the question "have you tried turning it off and on?".
I went to a friend's house. Yes, I am that much of a nerd that I will go to a friend's house in order to acquire a digital animal. But my friend is a digital nerd to so she didn't mock me. It didn't work anyway...

This afternoon was my last attempt (it's alright, I took the day off to catch up with a visiting friend so today is a PhD-free day. It's not like any of us ever take all of our four weeks annual leave). It turns out that while I can't remember my router password, that password has nothing to do with accessing my router and in actual fact, I still have the default settings in place. Yay!
So I logged into the router, changed it to WEP and got a security encryption key. I entered the key into the DS and lo, I had a working connection! I went into the menu to get my mystery gift but -oh noes!- there was no gift available. WTF?! The promotion wasn't meant to end for another two days.

It was then that I discovered that while my DS was happy to connect to my internet, my desktop couldn't. Thankfully I've taken to bringing my work laptop home in the evenings (since someone has stolen my headphones) so I now have it plugged into my modem downstairs. A quick Google search informed me that "get via wireless" is only for in-store promotions and at home you need to pick the "get via Nintendo WFC" option. Well forgive me for being a little internet dense and not finding that intuitive...Anyway, I connected and received my Liberty Pass so later in the game I can get my Victini. And when I do, I'm going to give it the name "Jerk" out of spite.

Now I'm going to try and fix up my wireless. I hope I don't have to cart my desktop downstairs like I had to when I set up the wireless. *Sigh* The things I'll do for a game...

I want more :(

2011-03-30T18:49:00.000+11:00

I finished Golden Sun. That's it? Ow man, it should have been longer. I can't remember how long the other games went for but this one felt short. Ok, so 25 hours isn't that short...
And what was up with that ending? Dammit, how long do I have to wait for the next game?!

*Dramatic sigh* I guess I'll have to go back to playing Dragon Quest V.

*Grumble grumble*

Art Dump

2011-03-27T14:24:00.000+11:00

This is taking me forever. I thought I'd try something different and make a patterned top. But I'm not used to doing this and it's hard to get the feel of it. I'll do a little section and then get stuck on what to do next and let it sit for a week or two.

I think this is going well. Nothing more to say really.

I love the Golden Sun series and was so excited when the new game came out. It was meant to be my American adventures game but I couldn't wait that long and started playing it. I'll make Okamiden or Pokemon my travel game instead.
Anyway, the game is so pretty and inspiring me to make fanart. Except my drawing ability has degraded and I can't draw half of what I want to draw.

Yesterday was Earth Hour and I tried to be good. I tried to spend the whole evening with nothing but a lamp. I was going to draw a ton of fanart. But I discovered that I can't draw males for the life of me. This is the closest I got. It doesn't look anything like how I wanted it. It's horrible :(

I do like this. It was meant to be Chalis but I didn't really have a reference picture so I turned into something random. Maybe I'll make a doll of Chalis.

Way too addicted to webcomics

2011-03-17T20:47:00.001+11:00

Today marks the end of one of my favourites, The Phoenix Requiem and I'm a little sad. Every Tuesday and Thursday was filled with excitement discovering what would happen next. I feel like there is a void now. Which is ridiculous since I have about 25 webcomics bookmarked.

My current favourites can't fill this void.

Terra is currently on a two month hiatus. As if the stresses of moving house is more important than my needs...

Everblue is meant to update every Sunday but that doesn't happen, because apparently making beautiful pages takes time. I would recommend that the artist take a hiatus to create a reserve but that would mean months without a new page and I don't think I can handle that right now.

And then there is Wormworld Saga. It is Epic. Uber Epic. The webcomic that everyone is talking about.
But this isn't something that can be released a page at a time. And it took a year for the first chapter to be released. Thankfully there is a blog with an Epic header. Included has been a few posts showing the process of making a single panel. It's amazing to watch.

Yeah, I totally wasn't procrastinating right now...

My life is currently only interesting to myself

2011-03-08T20:37:00.000+11:00

My plans of doing a bit of art didn't last long. Maybe four days? Oh well...
On the plus side, I went snorkeling with my friend on Sunday and saw a seal.

I'm feeling pretty confident about getting my lab work done in time. Though I did have my annual committee meeting last Friday and my other supervisor and committee member kept suggesting extra things to do. And then proceeded to tell me that they thought that I was being ambitious and might not be able to submit by September. Or at least not without killing myself trying. Thanks, I really needed the extra work load and doubt...
It would be easy for me to just say no (or smile-and-nod and ignore) but I'm finding it hard. Most of the suggestions they made were relevant and would contribute to my work. One of which requires a shiny new technique that I wouldn't mind learning. Of course, learning new things always seems to take at least twice as long as you plan (even taking n00b status into account) and I don't really want to be still trying to finish when my scholarship has ran out.

Planning of my 6 week trip to the US is starting to fall nicely into place and I'm starting to get very excited. I've booked all the flights and added it up - 43 hours in total. To say nothing of the hours spent at the airports. I'm told I have to be really early in order to prevent losing my seat via double-booking.
Conference weeks aside, I will spend 11 nights at San Diego, 2 in New York, 11 in Chicago, and 2 in Dallas. I've booked all the accommodation except for Texas. I'm going for the hostel option, which is wonderfully cheap even when I book a shared private room. I've only stayed at a hostel once before so I'm hoping that all will be fine. It is a little annoying that I have to add tax to the total advertised price. I'm use to tax being included in costs so it feels a little bit sneaky to me. Is there any reason why the US doesn't include tax in their price? It's a bit worrying not being certain how much something will actually cost.

I haven't started figuring out my tourist adventures yet. I thought maybe seeing a Broadway matinee. I've never seen The Lion King or The Phantom of the Opera so if I can get discounted tickets then that would be a great experience.
Somehow I think I'm going to go over my budget. I really hope my travel scholarship applications are successful. I should probably work on them this week...

Maids of Honour Cakes

2011-02-16T19:04:00.002+11:00

Making yummy food seems to be a good stress-relief strategy for me. Which I guess is good since I'll never go hungry while freaking out about things.

I'm not so good at making pretty food. But I can do yummy :)

My mum made this a few times when I was younger and I loved them. Now I can make them for myself and the people I share them with love them.
The recipe isn't a quick and easy one. I think it takes about an hour to make. But worth it. It makes about 20 cupcakes but it depends on how thinly you roll the dough (I'm not so good at that yet).

1 cup plain flour
60g butter, softened
1/4 cup caster sugar
1 egg yolk
Some water
Some jam

For the cake mixture:
60g butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla essence
1/3 cup castor sugar
1 egg
3/4 cup self-raising flour
1/4 cup milk

Sift the plain flour into a bowl and rub in the butter. Stir in the sugar and egg yolk. Stir in enough water to make it all come together. Knead the dough until it's nice and smooth and then cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

While you wait, lightly grease shallow patty pans. Then make the cake mixture by creaming the butter, essence and sugar with an electric mixture. Once the mixture lightens and the sugar in incorporated, add the egg and beat until combined. Mix in the floor and milk in batches.

Set the oven 10 about 180C. Roll out the dough on a clean floured surface to about 2mm thickness. Cut out the circles and put in patty pans. Save some of the dough for the crosses. Place a small amount of jam onto the dough cases and then top with cake mixture. Roll and cut the pastry scraps into strips and place on top of the cakes, forming crosses. Bake for about 15 minutes, depending on your oven (if you aren't familiar with your oven then keep a close eye on the cakes).

Art Dump

2011-02-09T20:45:00.000+11:00

I've been such a stress monkey at uni.
I am one of two PhD students submitting this year and both of us are panicking and going insane in the lab. But she has an RA to help her. It is so hard for the three of us to coordinate use of the machines and I can't help but resent them slightly (it's the stress thinking. I really love these guys). Plus my friend accidentally stole my reagents (to be fair, I had not yet put them in my reagent box) and there is a current shortage. Thankfully, our supervisor has had a word with our sales rep and our monthly deliveries will be increased. Still, I'm constantly fluctuating between thinking I can get everything done in time (I've set my lab work deadline to end of April) and thinking that not even weekends will save me.
To say nothing of trying to organise a trip to the US when no one seems to be responding to their emails...

So in this stressful time I am trying hard to force myself to do art. It's hard to get started and maintain it but even the little that I'm doing is helping to calm me.

Was meant to be full-bodied but the way I rested my camera meant that I had to kneel. I couldn't be bothered trying to take reference pictures. This is one of the very few things that I don't like about living alone. Still, I wasn't even sure that I would be able to draw the hands so I'm quite excited that I succeeded. I plan to start working on the digital art this weekend.

I have a lot of great stock photos saved to my computer but haven't really gotten around to using them. So I decided to scroll through them and pick the first one that gave me an idea. This photo seemed ideal for Presea and her large axe. It looks like an older version of the character, which I quite like, but it's a little disturbing that she's wearing her original clothes...

I liked my sketch so much that I thought it would make a cool base. And I actually did a decent job of it. Now I'm working on a sci-fi-esque doll and I'm not sure about it. Maybe it's the bare arms? I guess it will look ok once I start to shade it (tool-shaded).

I've had this on my to-do list for several months and only got around to starting it this week. I'm not sure whether I originally planned to pixel- or tool-shade but in the end I went with pixel-shade without any regard to colour count. So far I've only shaded part of the face but I think it;s working well with the base style so far. Plus it's proving to be lots of fun ^_^
Base by Meririm

My neighbours must hate me

2011-02-06T18:31:00.003+11:00

There was a market on today so I spent the weekend with my parents. I really regret that now.

At about 6:30pm yesterday, I got a call from a security controllers telling me that my house alarm had been set off. I was pretty sure that I had locked everything on my out and gave the go for someone to pop around and check the place out. After half an hour, they hadn't called me back. So we called them up and they told us that the person didn't find any sign of entry but for some reason, the alarm was arming 4 times a second since 10pm the night before. Since I wasn't at home constantly turning it off and on, we figured it was fucked up due to storm damage (since the night before had been quite violent). Still, I was miffed that the original security guy didn't tell me about the arming. If I had known then I wouldn't have wasted $70 sending someone out there to investigate.

My parents drove me home to find that my security system was stuffed. My stepdad thought he had it fixed but then the alarm went off as we drove away (despite the system not being armed). It didn't sound right - more like a dying mechanical bird than the usual alarm. I couldn't get back into the house with my electronic key. I had to call up the guy who set up the system, who thankfully lived close by. He told me that my neighbours had been calling him to complain all day. Oh god, they had been enduring that horrible noise for the whole day (and night?). Fuck.

I just want to crawl into a corner and die

Turned out that the issue was that the battery was dead. Though apparently the security people didn't get that alert until 9am so I don't know what happened the night before. Anyway, the low battery report wouldn't go the guy until Monday. And due to the volume of low battery reports, he would ignore it until another low battery report a few days later. Fantastic...

EDIT: So in addition to the call-out bills, I have to pay an extra $53 to cover all the stupid phone calls my stupid security system made...

Bad Project

2011-01-27T18:11:00.001+11:00

Can't seem to get this song out of my head.

OK, so maybe my project isn't that bad after all. I mean, I've been lied to, have trouble getting the necessary sample sizes, have trouble getting money, had my papers rejected multiple times, had to deal with passive-aggressive people, and spent 2009 in tears. But it could be worse...

EDIT:
This is my kind of journal.

Water water everywhere

2011-01-19T18:13:00.000+11:00

If you have any money to spare then please donate to a Queensland flood relief fund. Or a Brazil relief fund. Or just give money to people in need...
-----------------------------------

I can't believe how much of the country has been flooded in the past few weeks. The footage of the Queensland floods were terrifying. And now parts of Victoria are being washed away.
I can see the effects on fruit and veg at the market. So many stalls are closed and many more have less produce than usual.

There isn't any flooding near my parent's place but I was telling my friends that my parents were safe from future floods, since they lived on a hill. It was fires that were the major concern in that area.
I was proved wrong the next day when I visited. A creek overflowed onto the main road. Thankfully the creek along the other route was fine so we weren't cut off from the dogs (though I insisted that we drive back and take a picture). So while my parents are directly safe from any future floods (and some scientists are claiming that this will be more likely. Damn you climate change!), there is a good chance that they will be isolated, perhaps without power.

I really like Australia but I think I'd like it a lot more without the mix of droughts, fires, and floods.

A new year: the beginning of the end

2011-01-13T19:56:00.000+11:00

If you have money to spare then please give to aid the victims of the Queensland floods - Premier’s Disaster relief appeal

----------------------------

2011.
Shit...

I'm on the home-stretch now. In September I will submit my thesis and leave my cocoon of safety. I'm both excited and terrified.
Certainly I will go crazy during the second half of the year as I do nothing but analyse and write. I imagine I shall spend my days at home in my pj's with a constant supply of tea (thanks for the teapot, mum) and breaking at noon for lunch while watching Dr. Phil.

Previously I have sulked that Journal Editors have been rejecting my papers. After two rejections each, I finally got them both accepted.
I submitted the not-really-interesting paper to a relatively new journal and it got accepted a few days later. What, no reviewers? Sweet! It's already available online, which is awesome. No idea when it will be officially published though.
The awesome-paper-of-awesomeness was accepted over my christmas break. What is the point of allowing the option to mark when you will be away if they ignore it? Still I shouldn't complain...it only cut into a little bit of my break. The reviewers seemed to really like the paper. Yay me! Even better was that none of the changes involved more lab work. Just analysis (which has been a bit of a bitch to do) and rewording a few things.

see more dog and puppy pictures

Looking back

2010-12-19T14:33:00.002+11:00

I'm now on holidays. Yay!
Christmas is so inconvenient. Why couldn't it be in November when I had no lab work?

I decided to start my break with a massive house cleanout. Not just the usual moping and dusting but also going through my crap and throwing it out. Because do I really need a draw full of stationary? It's not like I'm going to be writing letters on bird printed paper anytime soon. I'm never going to use incense or a CD from my broken camera. Why do I hoard all this crap?

I went through my stack of christmas and birthday cards. I thought they would be easy to throw out but it wasn't. I only threw out the ones from people I can't remember. It's very strange when the forgotten people write "love always". I also have two blank cards. Who sent me blank cards and why did I keep them?
The family cards were the most interesting. In the cards I can trace back divorces, marriages, new pets, when pets die, and when people die. Then I dropped my cards so they're out of order now >_>

I also came across a notebook with sketches. I started it it in my last year of high school.

This page marked my start at uni. I guess log10 equations were used

That crap off-white paper marks my year of Honours

I was meant to be taking notes during seminar but I often ended up drawing people in front of me

During my PhD, I don't even bother attending seminar. Why spend an hour not concentrating when I could be doing something productive? So I don't really doodle anymore. :( Maybe next year

Horrid weekend

2010-12-12T14:54:00.000+11:00

I hate cemeteries.

When I die, I want the doctors to take as much of my body as they can use.
Then I would like to be buried in an unmarked grave, no coffin, in the middle of no where and left alone. No sad loser with no life drowning the ground to get the grass to grow and removing all the windblown leaves. Definitely no fake flowers.

But I don't think it's allowed to bury people like that. So I'll make do with a cremation and my ashes sprinkled in some cool forest or something.

All I can say is thank fucking god I only have to visit my granddad and uncle (and my grandma's grave) once a year.
And my mum does not have a horse. So stop asking. In fact, stop talking. And clean the fucking house.

I can grow food

2010-12-06T20:21:00.000+11:00

I haz cherry tomatoes!
Given that this is my first time growing veggies from seed and I only had three tomatoes in August, I thought that ten tomatoes in my first crop would be a success. And now I have heaps with plenty more still growing. It's hard to count them all but I think I have over 120! Though some are pretty small.

When I first decided to grow tomatoes, I thought that I would figure out what to make once they had grown. Now the time has come and I'm not sure what to do with them. I don't really eat tomatoes - growing them was meant to encourage me to eat them more often. I guess I can make a sauce and freeze it for later...

I've planted the next crop of tomatoes and they haven't died yet, despite my being away over the hot weekend. But my basil isn't sprouting. I guess they went bad before their use-by date :(

I'm a little bit cranky

2010-12-01T18:39:00.000+11:00

First day of the month and I'm already over it.

Christmas parties are being organised. This year my lab is having a picnic followed by a trip to the aquarium. Yay!
As usual, the department will have alcohol and BBQ at lawn bowls. I can't say I'm a fan of lawn bowls or chunks of meat with a side of ~~rabbit food~~ salad, particularly given that my lab are the outcasts of the department. I was on the fence about going (can't really be bothered with socialising with these guys anymore) but now I've decided to give it a miss. Apparently, they were annoyed that I had booked the department car to pick up samples from the airport early the next day. Oh noes, they have to return the department car after the party!
Well excuse me for wanting the work car for work purposes. I know it's a radical concept.
This isn't an isolated christmas case. These people get cranky if you need the car when they want to do a beer run.
Well, I've been out the lab for over two months, working on my stupid thesis while waiting for samples and a certain company to actually process our primer order. I am dying to get back into the lab and try to get back on schedule. I have no sympathy for inconveniencing a christmas party.

...And apparently because I'm not a workaholic and try to have a work-life balance I'm either not normal or don't really care about my work. Because clearly if you aren't able to time-manage, no one can. So fuck you random stranger. Not the most intelligent of replies but I really don't care. I've got better things to do, like finish my PhD and live a happy life.

Apologies to people who like salad...

Art Dump

2010-11-27T11:53:00.000+11:00

Still not back in the lab. Because some stupid company is incompetent and wont process our primer orders. But I should be getting new tissue samples over the next few weeks so that's something.
I've been working on my thesis. It's really made me realise how stupid I was when I started. Unfortunately, writing "my supervisor told me to" and "it seemed like a good idea at the time" is not an option so I have to pretend that I planned it all along. And don't talk to me about stats...or hayfever...

On DA I signed up to drawing sketches for 10 people. But only 6 responded, which is just as well. It's been quite fun and I've liked I ones I've drawn so far (except for one). Proportions are still an issue but I fix that up in PSE.
This is the fifth one. Lilly wanted a surprise so I promised her a triangle XD With fairies, butterflies and flowers.

Legend of Zelda characters, drawn in the style of Paper Mario. And drawn on the back of my thesis draft, which I accidentally printed instead of saved. Boo wasting paper. I've been really getting into LoZ Spirit Tracks. The train is much better than the boat. And rolling is much easier (though Link gets dizzy after a while, so no rolling around town like I would do in the 64 games). One thing I really miss in the recent games is Malon. I wish the game-makers would bring her back.

Alena from Dragon Quest IV. It's the first DQ game I've ever played but I think I prefer it to Final Fantasy. Though I didn't manage to finish it, the boss had so many stages that I got pissed off and moved onto played Spirit Tracks.

I've had this doll on the works for months. But I put it to the side to meet contest deadlines and also because that skirt is annoying me. I can't be bothered trying to fix it up so I started on the shading.
It was originally going to be pixel-shaded but then I got sick of pixel-shading so I wanted to make it tool-shaded. Now I'm sick of tool-shading so it's back to pixels. Whatever.
Base by Pathetic-Krypton

Heads

2010-10-30T12:10:00.000+11:00

I haven't been in the lab for over a month. It's driving me crazy (but I'm hoping things will change next week). My computer desk is not in a good spot (no natural light, construction noises for the past three years etc.) so I've been working from home more often. It feels so good. I can take short breaks and jog in the park (my bike needs its tire fixed), make jewellery and, sadly, watch Dr. Phil.

I've been colouring in some of the heads I've been sketching, in order to play around with shading techniques and to try and speed up.

Ilia from LoZ: Twilight Princess

I really want to be able to do backgrounds. But I have no idea what I'm doing. I really think I need some sort of formal training to get the hang of it. Ah well, we'll see where bloody-mindedness gets me.

Chicken Wontons in Mushroom Soup

2010-10-25T13:29:00.004+11:00

My produce market has a new stall that sells herbs, spices and asian mushrooms. I was so excited about the mushrooms that I picked up a pack to make some soup.

This recipe is modified from Soup Bible. If you time it right then it should take about 35 minutes to make.
Serves about 3 by my standards. So...maybe 2 serves? I don't know how much normal people eat...
It isn't suitable for leftovers. So either eat it all in the one go or divide up the chicken mince and make the wontons fresh each time.

Chicken wontons
500g chicken mince
1 tps crushed ginger
3 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp toasted sesame seeds
~300g wonton wrappers

Mix the mince, ginger, soy sauce and sesame seeds in a bowl. Spoon it out onto the wonton wrappers (try not to over-stuff them). Dip your fingers in some water and brush the edges of the wrappers. Then pull the corners together and seal it.
Boil a pot of water and cook the wontons in batches until done. You can tell they are cooked because they start to float. Scoop them out and let them sit until the rest of the soup is ready.

Mushroom soup
1 tbs oil
2 tsp crushed garlic
~50g dried shiitake mushrooms, soaked for 20 minutes
~200g mushroom mix (oyster is best but if you can't find them/they cost too much/don't like them then you can go with plain old button mushrooms)
6 cups liquid chicken stock
1/4 cup dry sherry
2 tbs soy sauce
I added a carrot. Because I like carrots...

Heat the oil in a pot and cook the garlic and mushrooms for about five minutes. Add the stock and bring to the boil. Simmer for about 10 minutes and then let it cool. Process the soup until it's smooth and then put it back on the heat. Add the soy sauce, sherry, wontons and carrots (which you already boiled) and heat it though.

It doesn't look very appealing, does it?

The Temeraire series by Naomi Novik

2010-10-21T08:40:00.000+11:00

My sister got me onto the Temeraire series. I believe she first got onto it because of the pretty covers. While you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, I must say that I am more inclined to pick up a new book if the cover is attractive. And I will be looking out for the pretty covers when I go to buy the books.

Anyway, this series is about the Napolionic Wars. Except that there are dragons. Massive dragons that host entire crews of aviators (which sadly, I can’t quite visualise). Intelligent dragons who aren't treated as well as they should be.

There will eventually be nine books in the series. Currently, there are six - Temeraire (also known as His Majesty's Dragons), Throne of Jade, Black Powder War, Empire of Ivory, Victory of Eagles, and Tongues of Serpents. I haven't read the latest one yet but I'm very keen to, especially since it's based in Australia.

The story begins with a naval officer (Laurence), who captures a dragon egg from a French vessel and finds himself the aviator captian of said dragon (Temeraire). Bit of a life-style change.

Amongst the dragons and the fighting are the themes of gender roles and social classes, as well as the issue of slavery (both human and dragon). There’s also the bonus of Laurance and Temeraire travelling to foreign countries, and we get to see how dragons are treated in the different places.

Victory of Eagles is slightly different from the previous novels in that part of the story is told through Temeraire, the dragon. It really helps the reader to better understand the way that the dragons think, and how they try to conform to human society, which they don't even understand. The sweet innocence and personalities of the dragons provide a nice contrast to Laurence's story, which at this point isn't all too happy.

These books are just fantastic. I can’t believe Temeraire/His Majesty’s Dragon is Novik’s first novel.

Lucky Owls

2010-10-18T20:16:00.000+11:00

I've finished my first owls. I'm quite proud of myself. They're so cute :)

I cut out the eyes and then decided that I didn't actually like the big ones. So I swapped them around so that the slightly bigger owl had the smaller eyes. I think it looks better like that so I'll be making the others like that.
Actually, it makes me think like it's something from Studio Ghibli...

I've already sewn and stuffed (with lentils) four more, ready to glue next time I visit my mum. Now that I've figured out what to do, they really are easy and fun.

Stitched birds

2010-10-08T13:35:00.043+11:00

My Blue Wren was framed last month. I didn't want to carry it around on public transport so it has been hanging on my mum's wall until she drove to my place for my birthday.
It was really hard to choose matting that suited it. When I first saw it, I wasn't sure I had got it right. But it doesn't look bad hanging on my wall.
I've taken multiple photos of this using two different cameras and it still doesn't look right. I think amateur cameras just aren't capable of capturing the true colours of the cross stitch :(

I've been working on christmas presents for people in the lab. Earlier in the year I got an owl soft toy kit from a craft fair. I loved the black and white combo but they only had red and green, which aren't as nice but suitable for a christmas present I guess. I'm making the little ones so that I can make enough for everyone.
I do not sew. The last time I tried was a misaligned checkered bag that lasted for only a few months (though to be fair, I designed it myself and wasn't following a pattern). Before that, I had made one-and-a-half teddy bears. But this kit requires only minimal sewing and uses craft glue and some strange iron sticky thing I had never heard of. I am making them at my mum's place, under her supervision (she also has a sewing machine, which is helpful). So far I have sewn and stuffed (with dried lentils) two trial owls for me. I under-stuffed the first one and didn't leave room for the eyes so it will be interesting to see how it turns out. I'm leaving the iron sticky eyes, beak and base for my next visit (I also lack an iron).

Birthday bounty

2010-10-06T18:34:00.000+11:00

My birthday is next week. To celebrate, my mum and sister took me to yum cha and then to see the European Masters exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria (the exhibition closes on Sunday). There were paintings from a gallery in Germany, on loan while thye renovate. I must admit that I preferred the 19th century art to the 20th (though there werre some nice pieces). My favourite paining was Dog Lying in the Snow (Hund im Schnee liegend) by Franz Marc. The gift shop had no posters or mugs of the painting but I got myself a fridge magnet.

My sister decided to fuel my cookbook obsession, combining it with my current desire to grow my own food.She tells me that she imported it at a fantastic price (which isn't really hard, since books in Australia are ridiculously overpriced). I really enjoy a bargain so I like to hear that people get my presents at good prices.
And some indulgent chocolates to help ease the current rage and stress from uni.

I requested that my mum buy me Super Mario Galaxy 2 (provided that she get it discounted). I loved the first one and can't wait to play it. I'll have to show some self-control so that I do get some art time.
She also surprised me with I Shall Wear Midnight (also obtained at a good price). I'm also madly trying to reread the last three Tiffany Aching books so that I can read the latest. I think the Tiffany Aching series is my favourite of all the Discworld novels. There's another present on the way, which didn't arrive in time.
Mum is a bit of a chocolate addict so she always includes a box of chocolates.

The lure of a free pen

2010-09-28T20:03:00.000+10:00

One of the benefits of working in my field is that there are a lot of companies out there that want to sell you their products. They will host morning teas with brochures, free food and stationary. Not that I need a new pen.
The common practice is to pretend interest by picking up a brochure, avoid the sales rep talking to you, and run away with as many free goodies as possible. If you're lucky then they brought too much food and there will be leftovers for afternoon tea as well.
There are sometimes prizes for joining mailing lists. It does mean that I get junk emailed to me but I have managed to win wines and chocolates. I'm still waiting for a Borders voucher to be sent to me.

I must admit that I will judge a company based upon their free goodies. Not all free pens are created equal. Bonus points to companies that provide eco bags (extra points if they last a year before breaking). Points removed if the only food they provide is fruit. One time I even got a tape measure, which I use at home and is full of win. I also got some heat pads once, which scored points for novelty but were quickly forgotten (I think my sister got more enjoyment out of them than I did). And the one company that advertised a morning tea and never showed up...bad move guys...
Yes I am being bribed but at the end of the day, it doesn't matter. We aren't rolling in money and will buy things that are the cheap, yet good. I know what pipettes I like and fancy a pen isn't going to change the pain (or lack of) in my hand.

I just wish one company would provide a red pen...

Alpacas!

2010-09-21T11:03:00.000+10:00

For years my mum has wanted alpacas. Last we she finally got six boys delivered to our 20 acre block of land. I got to meet them on Saturday. They're so cute.

We got both fleece types - Suri and Huacaya (sounds like wahcya). Huacaya is the most common fleece type and more closely resembles sheep fleece. The suris are the more shaggy, dreadlocks, and are more valuable.

The alpacas were registered and so already came with names, most of which sounded pretty lame. So I renamed the pale one Whisky and my stepdad has name one of the suris Noodle (no idea which one though, can't tell them apart yet). One was already named Coco Pops, which we'll keep.

That big white one was named Opal. It is a blue-eyed white (BEW). The genes associated with BEW are linked to a gene that leads to deafness so most BEWs are deaf. While that's not a bad thing to the alpaca, they do have reduced fertility so they aren't so good for breeders. Opal is not only deaf but has fused ears. But he seems to be the leader of our little group.

I guess our guys were lonely - they were hanging out with the black alpacas next door.

Four-legged visitor

2010-09-17T14:33:00.000+10:00

On Wednesday, I came home to find a crazy dog in my house.
My sister, her boyfriend and her dog (Summer) spent the night at my place. But they went out to dinner so I had Summer all to myself.

I'm use to more elderly dogs, not crazy energetic puppies. But I took her to the park and ran around. She walks so beautifully, much better than my dogs. She even looked to me once we reached a fork in the path, to check which direction I wanted her to go.

She was a pooped puppy for the rest of the night. But a little bit emo, until my sister came back.

She was so excited when I got up in the morning. Really makes me miss living with dogs. *Sigh* One day I shall have a small house with a big backyard.

Rejection!

2010-09-09T11:43:00.002+10:00

You can't be a scientist without publishing in a peer-reviewed journal. It's even part of the requirement of a PhD. I have been going crazy sitting at my computer - writing, re-writing, formatting for a specific journal, making sure everything is just right. Twice in the past month I have submitted manuscripts to different journals and twice I have been rejected.

Rejection is something that happens to all scientists. This thought does not comfort me at all. Fucking hell. I signed up for lab work and finding answers. Not all this damn writing, making sure my tense is consistent (anyone reading this blog will know that I have issues with tense) and being diplomatic and shit.

Lets start with a paper that I have had sitting around for about a year, due to my supervisor taking that long to read it and add his contribution in the methods section (all of one fucking sentence). The one that I have to put my collaborators on the author list in order to get money from them, despite contributing nothing but pain.
I'll admit it - it's not a very good paper.
The journal I wrote the paper for was perfect for my paper...about two years ago. Now the journal wants to improve its quality and rejected my paper without even blinking. It's annoying but I get it. I was basing my submission on previous publications without realising that the journal was still going through a transition stage and papers of the same quality as mine that were published last November are no longer acceptable.
So now I have reformatted and submitted the manuscript elsewhere as a Short Communication and am nervously waiting for a response. I haven't head anything so I guess it got past the Editor. Here's hoping the reviewers feel sorry for me and accept it with only minor modifications.

The second paper, the one the I have put my blood sweat and tears in and am quite proud of, was rejected this morning. Apparently it is too "specialized" for the journal, which is a marine journal. The Editor was very polite and nice about it but I can't respond with anything nicer than "fuck you".
I really don't get it. I picked that journal because similar papers have been published. Those papers look at populations of my fish species using a single marker. My awesome paper of awesomeness not only examines fish populations but also assesses the suitability of that marker that the previous researchers have used and concludes that it's a stupid marker (though worded more diplomatically). Seriously, how is it my paper is specialized but the other papers are acceptable?
The way I see it, the conclusions of my research can be applied to other research on population genetics. Not the population structure of my fish species but the underlying methodology (ie. check to see if you are using the right marker before you use it).
What makes it so specialized? The species? Fishing management issues? The genetics? Someone needs to spell it out to me because I'm clearly not getting it.
So now I'm going to have to find a journal that won't think it's too bloody specialized and reformat it ASAP, since my collaborations can't publish their work until this is accepted and in press.

Art dump

2010-09-03T20:58:00.000+10:00

Rummaging through my crap, I came across my set of Derwent colour pencils that I was given as a kid. On a whim, I thought I'd take them out and have a play with them using some old drawings.

I don't know how real pencil artists do it. I guess using a sharpener would help but still...those pencils don't come with any undo option...that purple hair *shudder*...

I got sick of sketching using magazine photos so I've been drawing heads. Really I should be drawing hands and fully bodies, which is what I have the most trouble with. But I like drawing heads...

This base came with a forward facing head, which wasn't what I wanted. So I had a go at redrawing the head at an angle. It's taking forever to try and get it looking decent. Still haven't got there with the eyes.
Base exclusive to Glam

A kind of nature themed doll. The plan was to pixel shade this but I've done so many pixel-shaded dolls that I've grown a bit sick of it. Thus, she will be tool-shaded. As soon as I figure out how to draw the other side of the dress...I don't have any dresses with slits to wear for reference so I think I'm going to have to try and rig up a sheet or something...
Base by Pathetic-Krypton

I also thought I'd try making a base again. This time I'm going for a more chibi/simple deformed look. It's not looking how I wanted but if I keep trying to draw it then I might eventually get there.

Mexican Noodle Soup

2010-08-25T20:32:00.001+10:00

This is a recipe that I got out of one of mum's cookbooks. It has a nice rich flavour, with lime to give it an interesting tang.
The original recipe did have chicken in it but I think it's better without. It also had tortillas instead of noodles but they go soggy and are a stupid idea (EDIT: I have since visited the US and had this soup. Now I know how the tortillas are meant to work. But I still like my noodles). So I make my own noodles, the way that my family traditionally make them for chicken noodle soup. I've only started to make noodles this year so my noodles leave much to be desired. That and I am very slow. I guess if you can't be bothered then you can use packet dried pasta.
Serves about four with some good fresh bread.

1-3 green chillis
3/4 cup boiling water
vegetable oil
1 brown onion, chopped
3 cloves crushed garlic
~600g tomatoes, chopped roughly
2 litres chicken/vegetable stock
2 tbs lime juice
2 avocados, chopped
Noodles (see below) or store-bought pasta

Remove stems from the chillies and place in a bowl with the boiling water. Let it stand for at least 10 minutes (I leave it all day). Heat oil in pot and cook the onion and garlic until the onion is soft. Add tomatoes and chillies (plus the water it soaked in) and cook for about 10 minutes, stirring often. Let the mixture cool a bit and then process until pureed.
Return the puree to the heat and add the stock and juice. Simmer for about 15 minutes. Add the noodles and cook for 5 minutes (or the pasta for however long the packet tells you). Add the avocado and enjoy

Noodle
This took me over half an hour to make, because I'm a beginner and am slow. I do think making your own noodle is worth it but I grew up on these noodles so am biased to them. The measurements aren't precise.

1/2-2/3 cup flour
Bit of salt
1 egg
1/4 tsp

I wish I learned how to do this before I moved out of home

Stir the ingredients together with a knife. Add water if needed. Knead the dough and then roll it out as thin as you possibly can. As in 1mm. The dough springs back so you really need to force it. Or invest in a pasta maker (meh).
Divide the noodle into strips (maybe about 5cm in width) and sprinkle it with flour so that the strips are really dry. You don't want your noodle to stick together and form pasta chunks. So chop the noodle into thin strips. Hold the strip with your index and middle fingers and move them as you cut. The more practice, the faster it takes.

Little King's Story

2010-08-21T15:33:00.002+10:00

I've been sick for three days. Today I feel like I haven't slept in a week. But my body won't even let me nap it off. I can't concentrate (which sucks even more since today is a federal election). So I present to you this blog post.

Cute doll :)


Not so cute drawing :(

When I picked up a copy of Little King's Story, I thought it would be like Animal Crossing or The Sims. Lots of fun the first week and then I lose interest and never play it again. Instead, it took me a while to get into but then I ended up obsessed and couldn't put it down.

This game is cute. The characters are cute, the lands are cute, the baddies are cute...even the desire for world domination and the polygamous marriage is cute.

I think this is another one of those awesome games that is unappreciated. So put down all those crap games that end with a z and play this. Give money to the game makers who deserve it.

What I didn't like was collecting tunes for one of the princesses. A challenge which involves running around the town at night in search for a single peasant (and I mean the word as an insult) with musical notes floating above their head.
The town is huge.
There are 30 tunes to collect.
There is only one peasant each time.
They like to hide.
If you speak to them one second past midnight, they won't give you the tune.
Sometimes, peasants you have already collected tunes from like to wonder around just to fuck with you.

Tune collecting made me realise what was desperately lacking in the game - senseless violence.
What I wouldn't give to be able to execute anyone who pissed me off. Or at least give them a good beating.

Veggies and curries

2010-08-15T15:00:00.000+10:00

<-- Look at that! After months of trying to stop my plants from dying, I've finally been rewarded by three cherry tomatoes XD

I've been growing my plants indoors so I've been trying to fertilise the flowers with a paintbrush. I really suck at it - a lot of flowers just give up and drop off. But there are quite a few that are starting to fruit so I should have a larger harvest coming up soon ^_^

And only this morning, I noticed that my dwarf broccoli plants have started to grow cute little broccolis. I've actually never seen broccoli before it's been harvested so I had no idea how the plant grows and develops.
Even better - after about 9 months of trying, I think my spinach will not die a week after sprouting. I think they just needed more water and light than I had been giving them.
One day I shall be a competent gardener that knows what she's doing. But until that day, I shall just marvel that not everything is dying.

I love Indian curries and have been trying to make some at home. I even got myself a curry cookbook. I haven't had much success but I'm determined enough to keep trying. Jarred sauces just don't taste that great.

This morning I went to a market with my sister and discovered No Worries Curries. The spices are a bit pricey but you do always expect more for home-made things. I can't wait to try the powders out and see if they taste as wonderful as they smell. Even better is that apparently the people have a stall at the produce market I go to so if they are yummy then I can easily pick up more.

Banananananana Cake!

2010-08-01T16:32:00.000+10:00

The picture may not look good but trust me, it's yummy

I seem to have trouble with cupcakes, muffins and cakes. They seem to come out instantly stale. Until my friend gave me this banana cake recipe. It is the easiest thing to make and comes out nice moist and remains nice and moist throughout the week, making it ideal for my afternoon snacks.
The good thing about banana cake is that bananas don't go to waste. Instead of chucking out bananas as they get too brown to eat, chuck them in the freezer and save them for cake. Yay for not wasting food.

1 cup caster sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 ripe bananas
125g butter, melted
3 eggs
3/4 cup sour cream
1 3/4 cup self-raising flour

Preheat oven to 180C and rub flour in a 25cm ring tin.
Add everything except the flour into a food processor and process until smooth. I never thought to use a food processor to make a cake but it seems to work. Then add the flour and process until everything is combined.
Pour the mixture into the ring tin and bake for about 40 minutes.
See, dead simple.

I'm sure icing wouldn't go amiss but I'm quite happy without it.

Respect for teachers

2010-07-21T19:15:00.000+10:00

It's that time of year again.
High school biology students are flocking to my department while us poor grad students are trying to teach them how to use a pipette, do Mendelian genetics with flies, and answer pretty silly questions. This year I've signed up for more than usual to help pay for my conference trip. After today, I'm not sure I'm going to make it...

It's just as well that the most dangerous thing the students are exposed to is ethidium bromide (a carcinogen), which they don't even come into close contact with. With their gloves on the students will touch their hair, phones and cameras. Once their gloves are off, they continue to play with the pipettes. Dude, you just handled those with gloves - doesn't that give you some sort of hint?

I don't mind students struggling with genotypes and punnet squares. I've never had difficulty with them but I understand that some people find them difficult to grasp. A physics teacher would certainly have a hard time explaining physics stuff to me.And I seem capable - for most students, at least - of explaining it so that they do understand without me just giving them the answer.

Today I met my limits.
There is a lot to cover in 2 hours so I run my students at a fairly fast pace. I've got it timed quite well so that they can collect all the data and answer most of the questions (the fast students even make it to the extension questions). But I had a pair that took so long looking at their flies that I had to hold them back during the break to get the practical part done. I had to pretty much ignore the rest of the bench while I walked each one through the questions. Even with me giving them the answer, they still wrote the wrong things.

Then one of them added some numbers into a table but did cm instead of mm (which was asked for). I know I was being anal and should have just moved on but I know that I haven't received full marks for questions because I didn't read the it correctly and did not give what was asked for.
I told the student that she had put in the wrong units and she pulled out her calculator. A calculator. To convert cm to mm. That's like being unable to work out 8 x 10. It's not a difficult concept to grasp. Just move the decimal by one place.
I grabbed a ruler and tried to explain mm/cm but she wouldn't listen and told me that she used a different ruler. Yeah...my ruler is clearly a magical ruler with magical measurements...
I couldn't keep my frustration out of my voice. She said "why are you yelling? You should be trying to help me!" Because clearly I wasn't trying to help her with my ruler. I just really love rulers and wanted to share the love with her.

She ignored me the rest of the session and I left her friends to explain things that I had explained to them.
And that is why I'm not a teacher.

Veggie Muffins

2010-07-17T14:31:00.001+10:00

Last night I watched the first episode of Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution in the USA. I was horrified to see what American kids are eating and that people don't seem able to see what's wrong with it. Some of the people on the show - an overbearing radio host and an old crone who mistakenly calls herself a "cook" as opposed to "lunch lady" - actually seem a bit proud of their food. How can they honestly think that the system works?
I ate processed crap when I was working interstate for two months. And of course, last week my dinners consisted of noodle pots. It was disgusting. I can't imagine people who live like that constantly. From the look at the show, there are a lot of people out there who have always lived like that and don't even know what real food is like. How horrible...

I think muffins are a good thing to make. They are really simple and can be frozen so you can make a batch when you have time on the weekend and dish them out as snacks over next few months. Kids are fussy eaters (I know I was really bad) so if they don't like these then at least try some choc-chip ones. Not as healthy but it's real food and normally better than the packet crap. Plus, you can use making snacks as a way to spend time with your kids and teach them good skills for when they eventually move out.

These muffins are based on a recipe from my Sweet and Savoury Bites cookbook. My batch made about 18 muffins but that will depend on the size of your muffin trays and how much cheese and veggies you put in. I had leftover pumpkin from another meal so I put in a bit more.

2 cups self-raising flour
A few tsps curry powder (or garam masala if you aren't a curry person. But adding some sort of spice is important or it will probably be bland)
1 small carrot, grated
~ 120g sweet potato or butternut pumpkin/squash, grated
~1 cup cheddar cheese, grated
90g butter, melted
1 egg
3/4 cup milk

Preheat oven to about 180C (350F).
Sift flour and curry/spices into a big bowl and add the grated cheese and veggies. Mix it up.Make a well in the centre.
Combine the butter, egg and milk in a separate bowl. Although the butter should be melted, make sure it isn't hot or the egg will start to cook. Add the mixture to the flour mixture and stir with a wooden spoon. With muffins, you should mix so that the ingredients are just combined, not a smooth batter like cakes.
Spoon the mixture into lightly greased muffin pans. Bake for about 20 minutes (but this will depend on the size of the muffins). Let the muffins sit in the trays for a few minutes before popping them onto a wire rack.
Enjoy

The Rural City

2010-07-10T12:38:00.000+10:00

I'm back from my conference. All in all, it was pretty good. The people were nice and there were some interesting presentations. It was a little annoying because they held concurrent sessions and usually the interesting talks were on at the same time (forcing me to choose) and the boring ones were on at the same time (forcing me to be bored).

I had a free afternoon to head down to the National Portrait Gallery and browse some art. There were some truly beautiful paintings that put my blobs to shame. I was particularly drawn to the paintings of older people, with their blue tinged wrinkled skin. That and the beautiful painting of Deborah Mailman.

I think my favourite was "e-motion" in the current exhibition on digital art. It was basically just a dark room with six TV screens, each with a person's face. The faces would slowly revolve around and flow through different expressions. It was both fascinating and creepy at the same time. One in particular had a man change his expression to that of horror as he turned to face you. It made me want to look behind me to check that a monster wasn't creeping up on me.

I know people find Canberra to be a bit dull but I think I quite like it. I would like to live in a country region full of native birds and big backyards for dogs to roam in. But I also like cities with their vast array of foods and shops and want to be close to work. I think Canberra is as close as I am going to get to the blend of city and country that I want.
But who knows what the future will hold?

Presentation and useless freebies

2010-07-05T17:27:00.008+10:00

I seem to have a remarkable gift of picking accommodation that thoughtless, noisy people choose. I know it is me because when people choose accommodation for me then everything is nice and quiet. I guess that’s what I get for choosing the cheap options.
At about 10:30pm my neighbor decided to watch TV. It was so loud that I could hear everything clearly. I ended up banging on the door and telling the guy to turn it down. I felt so guilty.
Regardless, I couldn’t sleep. I was so nervous.

My presentation was in the afternoon. I got quite worried when the speaker before me was speaking. She used a genetic marker that I not only use but also propose that it is a stupid marker to use (at least, for my species). Thankfully, because I had to trim my talk to 12 minutes, I cut out my major criticisms so I don’t think I caused offense. Besides, she bagged out the statistical methods that I use.
I was put in the conservation group of talks, which was strange because I expected to go into the population genetics group. But it actually worked out well because I got an easy conservation question about whether we should consume my species (answer: no).

One of the good things about conferences (aside from the morning and afternoon teas) are companies trying to sell their products to you. That is normally annoying but they generally have free stuff for you to grab. I have so many pens and notepads/post-its. But sometimes they have quite bizarre freebies. Eppendorf (the brand Pandorans choose...) had a strange massage pad with a USB port. I quite like Eppendorf pipettes, much nicer on the thumb compared to pipetman. But a massage pad is odd.

Riding the skies with a bag full of noodles

2010-07-04T17:11:00.007+10:00

I find myself in Canberra again, this time to attend a conference. This isn’t my first conference (it’s my second) but it is the first that I’m presenting a talk, as well as traveling alone. I packed carefully so my carry-on luggage didn’t have anything that could be considered as a "dangerous good" and I planned my trip so that I arrived in good time. But one thing I didn’t consider was what I was wearing. It was while waiting in line to check in my luggage that I realized that in order to get through security; I would have to take off my belt. But I was wearing my pants that have broken buttons and need a belt in order to stop them falling down. Idiot.
I popped into the bathroom, took my belt off and managed to rig up something with my hair ties in order to keep my pants up long enough to get through security. Then it was rush into another bathroom to put the belt back on. I’ll say it again: Idiot.

I have to pay my own way for this conference so I made sure that I got the cheapest room possible at the university. The room is much the size of my college room, though older. I have to share a bathroom but as a part of a conference deal I get breakfast included for only an extra $4 per day.

I can’t believe how cheap the rooms are and yet, the meals are expensive. Luckily, I came prepared with a week’s worth of Fantastic noodles. Not the most ideal food but good for saving money. I also baked some cookies as a dessert to my noodle diet.

My flight arrived at lunch time and the only thing scheduled today was a 2hr welcome mixer in the evening so the plan was to settle in my room and spend the day practicing my talk. But I can hear the person next door talking on his phone. Now I’m too self-conscious to walk on the squeaky floor, let alone talk. I’m such an idiot...thankfully the talk is not much different to the department one I gave a month ago so I’m still quite familiar with what I want to say.
I’ve got the TV turned am and am talking as softly as possible. Lame.

My department talks normally go for 25 minutes plus question time. There are so many speakers at this conference that our time limit is 12 minutes. How times have changed – I use to have trouble talking for that long but now I’m struggling to cut back!

Shading practice

2010-07-03T11:49:00.004+10:00

I've already mentioned how I'm not satisfied with my current shading abilities. So I decided to have a play around at shading. Not only play around with different brushes, different styles and different palettes but also to try and work faster. I am such a slow poke that it's ridiculous.
I used the sketches that I drew from a wedding magazine. The point of this wasn't to create a finished piece so I couldn't be bothered trying to draw something from scratch or try to fix up the flaws of these sketches.

Urrg, Blogger fails at uploading images...why Blogger, why? Unruined image on DA.
I've discovered some brushes that I quite like. But I definitely don't like the brush that I used on the blonde - she looks terrible. I love how the green-hair one turned out - I'll definitely be shading like that more often. And I can't believe that I am actually capable of shading flowers. I thought they'd look like blobs but it's a decent effort.
I think what I need to focus on are lips and clothes. But I'm off to a conference this week so maybe I'll try to hunt down some good tutorials when I get back.

Wedding sketches

2010-06-12T11:16:00.000+10:00

I kind of gave up drawing for a little while. I didn’t really mean it to happen, I had plenty of inspiration but just lacked energy and motivation. As a result, my drawing ability has gone to shit and I am simply incapable of drawing out my ideas. So in addition to developing my shading skills, I’ve decided to also improve on drawing skill. I’ve set all my ideas aside and am just focusing on sketching.

At a craft show in 2006 I picked up some discounted magazines. I love wedding dresses and the photos in the magazines were beautiful. Plus there were a variety of different poses, which make the magazines ideal for drawing practice. They also force me to try and attempt more detail than I normally do, like flowers. So I have been using photos from those magazines to work on my drawing.

I’m trying out the technique that I previously mentioned of drawing images upside-down.
Can’t seem to get the hang of proportions. Ah, if only paper was like photoshop and I could move limbs and such around without having to erase and redraw things.
But one thing I’ve noticed is that I am much better at drawing hands upside-down. Hands have always been a struggle so this is great news.

I had a go at a picture the right way up and was not happy with the hands at all.

I’m thinking that from now on with my drawings I might draw hands upside down (I am so terrible at hands that I always need to take a photo of my own hand for reference).

The sad thing is that all of these pictures are of the same model. Can’t seem to accurately replicate people’s faces but I suppose it isn’t entirely a bad thing.

Getting the Sustainability Message Out There

2010-06-03T18:12:00.000+10:00

I am one of many that enjoy watching Master Chef Australia. As far as "reality" shows go, it's a very good show. And it's not like any of the stations ever put on shows that I enjoy watching. But there is one thing that is just bugging me. No, it's not the unsubtle product placement or the feeble attempts of creating suspense and drama that are just predicable and boring.

Master Chef have a lot of messages that I quite like. You can change career paths and you can choose a career that you enjoy, so long as you work for it. Home cooking is good, as well as fresh (preferably local) produce. Far better than the convenient yet gross processed crap. It you are going to eat meat then at least make the most out of the animal and use all of it (though I can't say that I would choose to eat lamb's brain or pig's head). Free ranged chickens are a good thing (though I suspect that this message is more to do with advertising as opposed to them actually caring. Yeah, I'm cynical).

What is bugging me is the seafood. There is a lot of it. That's understandable - people like seafood and there are so many yummy things that you can do with it. My problem is that there is a profound lack of "oh by the way, stocks are on the brink of collapsing so try to use this species responsibly. In fact, it's probably not a good idea to eat it at all".

Tuna consumption should be drastically reduced. I know this fact will pain a lot of people but the fact is that these big species of fish take a long time to mature (10 years for some) and we are fishing them so extensively that the fish don't have the opportunity to spawn and recover from fishing. Big-eye, Bluefin, Yellowfin...should give those a miss (particularly Bluefin). According to teh internets, Skipjack and Albacore are better choices. But so many canned tunas don't even bother specifying what species has been used.Why are companies allowed to get away with that?
To say nothing of the fact that these fishing methods result in high bycatch rates. Sharks and endangered marine turtles and sea birds are dying so you can eat your tuna and swordfish. Or what about the massive amount of fish that are needed to feed those raised in aquaculture. Or the high mercury levels in these top predators.

Definitely do not eat swordfish that has been caught in the Mediterranean sea. That area has been so overfished that over 50% of catches are now undersized. That is, they are composed of juvenile fish that have never had the opportunity to spawn (reproduce). That spells disaster. But then again, overfishing of swordfish is happening all over the world, including Australia.

Atlantic salmon belong in the Atlantic, not in Tasmania. Sure, by that argument you can also say that cattle don't belong in Australia. But at least cows can reproduce naturally here. Atlantic salmon can't. To me, that's a pretty damn big clue that they don't belong here. To say nothing of the massive amount of waste generated that pollutes the water (ditto for prawns and other aquaculture). Or the amount of fish needed to feed the salmon. Or the salmon that escape and upset the ecosystem.
Maybe Australian salmon aren't as yummy as the Atlantic species but at least they are natural, they have evolved here over thousands of years and fit into the ecosystem, as opposed to damaging it. But then again, if we shift focus on the natives, then we'll end up overfishing them, further devastating the ecosystem.
That's the thing. Shift fishing efforts away from the overfished species to the healthy ones and we'll end up overfishing those ones.

It's all rather depressing.

Master Chef Australia is a very popular show. It has such a wide audience and can affect them in ways that other outlets, like news reports, can't.
I know the show's focus is on the cooking but it has such potential in delivering a crucial message. The show is about food and so I feel it needs to try and tackle all of the issues behind food, if only in passing. Not just "remove pips so people don't break their teeth on it", "use all of the animal" or "use Handee Ultra paper towels" (OK, that one is a joke...), but also "be conscious of the environmental impact and try to be responsible with your choice in ingredients". I don't think we can afford to screw that one up.

Blue Wren Complete

2010-05-31T17:28:00.001+10:00

I can't believe that tomorrow is June! What has happened to this year?
It makes things even more scary when I think that I will be submitting my thesis next year. There is just so much left to do...

I've finished my Blue Wren cross stitch. The pixel art didn't quite translate well into cross stitch so I did have to do some minor redesigning as I went. The colours also aren't quite what I wanted but I am still very pleased with how it turned out. This photo is terrible though, the camera made the colours look ugly :(
I'm hoping the picture of it framed will turn out better. But that's a long way off, since I probably wont be passing through the framing shop until my cousin's birthday in August.
I've moved on to working on a small kit of cute little Galah chicks. It is a small one so I'm hoping I can get it done in time so I can get them framed at the same time and save the trip (and spend more money at once *sarcastic cheer*).

My friend got married on the weekend. It was a wonderful ceremony and she looked so beautiful.
I am so in love with my dress that I have to show it off. When browsing for dresses, I actually didn't think much of it. But mum got me to try it on and it was not only pretty but was also the most comfortable. I also stole the pendant from mum because it matched the dress so well. I think I might eventually try and doll the dress. But the pattern is so complex, I'm likely going to fail XD
You can also see on the wall my tiger cross stitch. My mum got me the kit for christmas one year and it is stunning.

And this blog entry is just a feeble attempt to avoid practicing my talk. I have my annual Department Talk this Wednesday!

Seeking Improvement

2010-05-23T15:56:00.000+10:00

I go through phases where I just can't stand the level that I'm at. Sometimes I see such amazing art that it bums me out that mine is so inferior.
Right now I'm dissatisfied with my shading. Shading of my dolls is fine, I'm quite happy with my current levels of both pixel and tool shading. In fact, I'm quite chuffed at how well these denim pants are turning out (Base). I've sure come a long way.

What I'm not happy with is my other art. It just isn't progressing as much as I like. A lot of it is my fault. I barely draw once a month, let alone once a day. So it's little wonder that I struggle at drawing the simplest of poses. My skin palettes leave a lot to be desired, backgrounds are best not mentioned and shading is just blah.

I can't bring myself to finish this picture. I really tried hard to draw a more interesting pose and try to put more emotion into the person. That hand took forever to draw.But I can't bring myself to finish shading it. It just isn't working. I'm getting no joy out of it at all. So I'm going to cut my loses and give up on it.

Starting fresh. That's the way to go.
I would still like to work on improving my drawings but for the time being I'm going to focus on my shading. I'm going to rely more on references, check out tutorials, explore different brush settings and try to bring up my shading skill over the year as much as I can. The ideal would be having someone sit down and teach me but that isn't going to happen.
My newest work-in-progress was drawn using a stock photo, which I'm also using to help guide with shading the back. I can't quite grasp the subtle lighting of the back but I think I've made a fair attempt.

The Brain That Changes Itself by Norman Doidge

2010-05-20T19:38:00.000+10:00

My friend raved about how awesome this book is so I picked up a copy for myself.

It is an awesome book. Go read it.

The general opinion was once that the brain was hardwired and that "you can't teach an old dog new tricks". If part of the brain malfunctions or is injured then too bad, that's what you're stuck with.
But that is a lie. Our brains are capable of remarkable changes. This book examines neuroplasticity, the ability of the brain to change. It isn't self-help book, though I am sure you can use it that way. What this book does is present to us the people beyond the research and the people who have been helped by it. In the first chapter is a story of a woman with a severely damaged vestibular system, who constantly felt like she was falling (even while lying down). Through retraining the brain (using the tongue) she was able to retrain her brain and get her life back. In chapter 5 is the story of a researcher who experimented on monkeys and as a result, had his life destroyed by PETA. But he picked up the pieces and developed therapy that helps stroke victims regain speech and movement in paralyzed limbs and for amputees to lose ongoing pain in phantom limbs. There is even a person born with only half a brain!

One interesting mention at the end was a technique to improve drawing skills. Apparently the "analytical" left hemisphere of the brain can inhibit the right hemisphere and one way to lesson this is to sketch upside-down reference pictures. The study group drew better looking at an image that way compared with the right way up. Sounds pretty nifty. I'm going to give a go when I next feel motivated to draw (which sadly, isn't that often so my drawing ability has plummeted).

Probably not the best written book out there but the important thing is that it is written at the right level and so is accessible to people without a background in the area. I read a book by Richard Dawkins and it was just oozing with eloquence and intelligence. But it was above my level and I really struggled to follow and retain the content, despite my biology background.

I recommend the people of the internets to read this book. You don't need a mental problem or know someone who has a problem to get something out of this book and be inspired by the awesome work of the researchers and by the amazing stories of recovery and triumph.
See, science is good.

My pitiful kitchen garden

2010-05-13T18:06:00.001+10:00

Potatoes!
My second attempt at growing potatoes was considerably better than the first. I don't think I have the patience for potatoes. My kit still has some potato seeds left so I've planted them. But they are probably a year and a half old and looking sorry for themselves so it may be a dismal failure. It's cheaper to but potatoes anyway.

My cherry tomatoes have grown huge. One thing I have learned is that when the seed package says it doesn't need staking - they are lying. Epically.
Flowing has only started in the last few weeks. It is late in the season but I can't help that the seedlings kept dying in the heatwaves. The exciting thing is that a few have started to develop into actual tomatoes. Woohoo!
My basil has grown enough that I can pick off leaves and make pesto again. The parsley has stopped dying but is growing very slowly. I would like to harvest them sometime this year. Spinach are still dying. My NZ spinach died shortly after I got them. It looked like it was eaten but my garden book said that it doesn't have many pests so I don't know what happened there. I replaced them with dwarf broccoli seedlings. They don't seem to be growing but at least they haven't died :P

In other news, I met my deadline! No more long hours and weekends!
I don't really understand what the data means but...meh...I'll figure it out when I'm writing my thesis or something...
Now I've just got my department talk next month to stress over. If they had scheduled it a month earlier then I would have had a meltdown.

Sucks to be a cockroach

2010-05-06T16:17:00.001+10:00

I have had a cockroach infestation. Every few days I'll see one happily wondering around the house.
I don't like going chemical crazy so normally I leave insects alone. But cockroaches are awful.
Ages ago I found one in my kettle. My kettle. The kettle that I use chronically. I had just had a cup of tea infused with cockroach. After that I had no issue with polluting my home and spraying the fuckers.

Today I went a step further and bombed my house. It looked liked the infestation was improving, maybe due to the changing season or something. Oh how naive I was.
A few nights ago I woke up during the night and felt a big cockroach running up my arm to my neck. I rushed downstairs for the spray and watched that fucker die in agony.
I picked up a can of stuff that continuously sprays for 2 hours. I had seen ads for them before and thought they were stupid because the stuff would get on your food and dishes. Of course, that was before I had a cockroach RUN UP MY FUCKING ARM. Every time I get a little twinge I think things like "oh crap, there's one on my back now. It's awful.
I had planned to work from home today so I spent the morning moving my plants, exposed food, turning things off at the powerpoint etc. and then set off the bomb and did work in my study. The fumes did reach the study so I feel really light-headed now.
While in the study I saw a big roach wondering around my power cords. Dammit, they're mocking me! Needless to say, I sprayed it...

I just went downstairs a moment ago to open up the windows. Already there are casualties. One huge one under the bed, three in the dinning room and four in the kitchen. Crap, I didn't realise it was that bad. I should have bombed them sooner and bugger the home pollution.
According to the instructions, more will die over the next few weeks and my home should be protected for three months. I hope they don't come back.

I think I need to go for a walk and clear my head or something. Maybe I should have done this after I have met my deadline...

Regina Spektor live

2010-05-02T12:01:00.000+10:00

I've been to musicals, operas, and friend's gigs at pub but until yesterday, I hadn't been to a concert. My friends all have different tastes so there hasn't been anyone to go with.
Last night I went with my friend to see Regina Spektor. I love her new album.

The opening act was Jupiter One from New York. I had never heard of them before.They were really quite good. It was amazing hearing the lead speaker speak with his Japanese accent - we couldn't really understand him so another band member had to translate - and then hear him sing and pronounce the words so well.
At the intermission, my friend and I headed to the merchandise desk. It had one of those lines that were really just a mash of people and if you don't push then you luck out. We both wanted Jupiter One CDs but I saw that the person in front of us took the second last one. The guys next to us (I think technically they were in front of us in the queue) were talking about getting a CD but we pushed and I got the CD. Taking the last one makes it sweeter :)

There were so many people who didn't watch Jupiter One - they just hung out in the foyer, drinking. Alcohol is nice and all but I can't say that I see the point of spending the money to go to a gig and get so smashed that you can't appreciate the music or even remember it. You might as well just go to a bar and spend your money there.

Regina was amazing with such a great range. Well worth the money. Jupiter One were also her supporting band and I thought that hearing the instruments live added a life to the songs that you don't quite get on a recording. But I'm not really a music buff and am more of an ignorant listener. Still, it sounded great.

The Fledging Of Az Gabrielson by Jay Amory

2010-04-25T12:32:00.000+10:00

I seem to have a habit of reading books aimed towards young adult.

It was purely chance that I picked up this book at the library. But I'm glad I did.
The world is divided into two - the airborn who live above the cloud cover and live a life of luxury and the groundlings who live on the land and are pretty much oppressed by the airborn that they worship. The events that lead to this separation are only hinted upon, which I quite like (though I know it annoys some people). It gives the reader the opportunity to create their own explanations, rather than being dissatisfied by the author's attempts (which I often am, particularly when it comes to evolution and genetics). Of course, this is only the first book of the series so perhaps later books in the series delve more into the history of the world.

The story is interesting, nothing like I've read before (though did put me a bit in mind of the game Baten Kaitos). To compare with Harry Potter (of course, I must compare with popular books) I would say that there is much more depth and thought in both the world and the lesser characters of Amory's story. But there still seems to be a richness in Rowling's writing that I think I prefer. Either way, if you like Harry Potter then you should probably like this book.

My main gripe is the length of the chapters. Some of those chapters were only two pages long. I can perhaps see a point, given the titles of the chapters (which I quite liked) but it was still irritating and disrupted the flow of reading.

Another thing that I thought about while reading this book was that it would make for an awesome Miyazaki movie. I hope someone at Studio Ghibli reads this and decide to adapt it. That would be awesome.

I'll definitely look out for the other books in the series when I'm next at the library.

My Easter Holidays

2010-04-12T16:28:00.009+10:00

Easter is normally a time for me to catch up with my family and eat moderate amounts of chocolate. But my parents were on a trip to the US (which they won and flew business class. Envy) so my family is celebrating Easter this weekend.

This gave me the opportunity to make an entry for the Dollchat Party Contest being hosted by Pyrochan. The due date was possibly set to April 10th (a bit annoying that the date wasn't finalised until after I had finished my entry) and I could not have finished a quality doll in a week were it not for my five-day long weekend. Thanks Jesus.
The theme was to make a doll based on a dollmaker doll that you had constructed yourself. I chose to use the Roliva dollmaker, since it's one of the only ones that I vaguely like.

Because of all the free time, I decided to go epic and baseless. I seem to be able to do a decent enough job on baseless portraits but full-bodied are an absolute struggle.
I took reference photos of myself. It's not easy because I live alone - I have to position the camera and then rush into pose before the timer goes off. I couldn't get my full body so I had to cut+paste multiple photos, which is quite dodgy.

It was at that point that I realised that my drawing ability had deteriorated to abysmal levels. Yeah, I really need to draw more...
So instead of drawing from reference and then trace scanned drawing, I opted for directly tracing from the photo. It is actually quite hard to do, given the small image and lack of distinct lines. And it turns out that my body isn't doll material.
Thankfully I got some feedback on Glam! and from my sister to help me out.
As I started shading, I decided to go with smooth, well blended shading instead of the usual way I pixel-shade. It gave me a lot more freedom but I was a little worried that it wouldn't be well received, since the trend in pixel art is towards restricted palettes.

I'm quite pleased with the results and I think I learned a bit from working on it. I still need to work on my limbs though. I was dreading the wings but they were quite fun to do and I always love pixelling transparent things.
I didn't like the lantern at all, so I scrapped it. A pity since it was meant to be the whole point of the light-sourcing. That's the thing about dollmakers - they don't light-source.
I can't believe I've written so much crap about one doll...

Choc-chip Peanut Butter Cookies

2010-03-26T20:47:00.001+11:00

There is nothing like cookies to relieve stress and help you feel better!
Well, dogs are quite good at that but mine are currently locked up in prison (aka kennel) while my parents are holidaying in the US. Poor doggies...

I've tried various different peanut butter cookie recipes with variations on crunchy/smooth etc. I've ended up settling for one from Cupcakes, Cheesecakes, Cookies but I've replaced the peanut brittle with choc-chips again. I can't make good peanut brittle, it always ends up as sugar cubes with peanuts. The recipe is really simple and quick to make.
Makes about 15 cookies

125g softened butter (ie. at room temperature)
1/4 cup (generous) peanut butter (smooth/crunchy is up to you)
1/2 cup (firmly packed) brown sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 cups sifted plain flour
1/2 tsp bicarb of soda
~200g choc chips

Line some trays with baking paper and preheat the oven to about 150C.
Mix butter, peanut butter, sugar and eggs in an electric mixer until smooth (or as smooth as you can get with crunchy peanut butter). Make sure you stop the mixer occasionally to scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl so that it mixes evenly.
Stir in the flour and bicarb.Stir in the choc chips. You aren't meant to knead the dough or roll it out. Grab a small chunk and roll in your hand. Flatten it and add to tray (or add to tray and flatten, but I like doing it the other way). Repeat until there's no dough left. Pop it in the oven for about 10 minutes and then allow to cool on a rack.

It helps if you are familiar with your oven. I kept making horrible cupcakes until my mum pointed out that my oven was too hot for me to follow the settings in cookbooks. So I normally bake everything at least 20C cooler than instructions and for a shorter time.
Another thing to be aware of is that cookies don't harden in the oven, they harden while cooling. If you wait for your cookies to harden then you will end up with black bases. Cookbooks seem to assume that this is common knowledge, which kind of sucks for beginners like me.

Awesome bridge is awesome

2010-03-21T12:59:00.000+11:00

It's the weekend and I'm working in the lab again. But things are progressing better now that I've abandoned the really crap samples. Still don't think I can meet all my deadlines but I'm getting there.

I decided to try to ride into uni today. I died half-way there and had to get off and walk until my chest stopped hurting. Then there was a slope so I died again. I think I need to work on my fitness a bit more before I attempt a ride into uni again. Still, the trip in total took an hour so when I am fit, it will be quicker than a tram trip. I'm thinking that I'm going to leave my bike at uni for a few days and just catch the tram home...

It looks like the opposite side of the most awesome bridge ever has been finished. I think the prefer the marine side but this side is pretty awesome too. It has a dragon :)

Frustration Abounds

2010-03-16T21:00:00.001+11:00

Progress on my dolls is going very slowly. Things in the lab are still failing and I've somehow found myself with extra work to complete by the end of April. Yeah...not going to happen...
Did spend the weekend at the beach relaxing and learning to snorkel. My friend is awesome - she was so nice and patient with me despite my need to either be able to touch the bottom or clutch onto the pier. I couldn't see much without my glasses but she brought some of her starfish species to me. They are so awesome. (Disclaimer: don't poke or pick up marine life. Unless you are a marine biologist). It was so good to get away but the stress is all back again.

Anyway, I've managed to finish three out eight:

Had another attempt at shading the blond hair and made some progress. But some bits were still awful so I scrapped it.

What's been stumping me is the kookaburra. I really should have designed the skirt from the beginning instead of relying on myself to come up with one as I went.
First I tried a pattern, a bit inspired by aboriginal art. That sucked so I let it sit before I came up with the idea of making it furry. Last night I had played around with fur twice and didn't like the way either was progressing. Then I got angry because I was so full of motivation but ran out of time.
Tonight I decided to just sit down and work on trying to design it instead of making it up. My mental sketch made during the day didn't translate well but I think it's closer to being acceptable.

I've run out of time again so I'll have another think about it tomorrow.
Gah, I'm so frustrated!

Maultaschen

2010-03-08T20:39:00.002+11:00

My Grandmother was german in origin and when I lived with her I would eat chicken schnitzel, rolladen, paprikash, maultaschen and pancake strips in soup (internet tells me that this is called "flädlessuppe"). I miss some of the foods that she use to make and now that I’ve gotten into cooking, I’ve been trying to recreate those recipes with the help of my mum. I’ve been trying really hard with rolladen but I think I’ve concluded that if I don’t want to eat raw meat then I need to invest in a slow-cooker.
I’ve now been working on maultaschen. It’s pasta dumplings in broth. The internet tells me that it usually contains spinach but we’ve never eaten it that way (eventually I’ll try it with spinach but not right now). It also seems to be more of a beef and pork dish but I’ve always eaten it as chicken and bacon. Mum did try beef once but it didn’t taste right...it lacked something.

So here is my family spin on the recipe. I hope real Germans aren’t disgusted by it.

1 small onion
2-4 bacon rashers
500g chicken mince
2tsp parsley
1 egg
2 slices of bread
2 litres liquid chicken stock
Pasta
2 cups flour
2 eggs
Salt

Fry up the onion and bacon. Let it cool.
Make the pasta by adding the flour, eggs and salt (plus water if necessary). Mix it up and knead it. I'm a dumbarse and forgot to buy more eggs. I have just learned that you can make this with only one egg and lots of water...though I wouldn't recommend it...
Start heating the stock on the stove.
Remove crust from bread, soak it in water and then squeeze the water out (the bread helps the filling bind together). Add it to the mince, parsley, egg and cooled onion and bacon. Mix it all up with your hands (I tried with a spoon and it's just not as effective as getting your hands messy).

Roll out the dough. It may be easier to cut it in half and do two batches. Roll it out really thin. It's a real pain to do but you don't want it to be thick. Spread the mince mixture all over, leaving the edges. Roll the dough over itself, pressing down each roll. Make into dumpling parcels by first pressing down with a wooden spoon handle and then cut.
Gently put the dumplings in the boiling stock and cook for about 20 minutes or until the mince is cooked through.

My Saturday Adventure

2010-03-06T18:17:00.009+11:00

This morning started out as such a beautiful day. I cycled down the bike track and relaxed at home. Even in the afternoon when I was walking to my tram stop, the sun was intense on my back and I was regretting not reapplying my sunscreen.

When I got off my tram half an hour later, things were starting to look grey. I walked to Southern Cross Station, purchased a ticket and waited for my train that would take me to my mum's place. Let me just say, I hate Southern Cross Station. First off, when the Commonwealth Games was in Melbourne some fools thought it would be a great idea to change the station name from Spencer Street to Southern Cross. Seriously, why? Spencer Street makes sense because it's on Spencer Street. But Southern Cross...you can see it everywhere under the Southern Hemisphere. Why do aussies love to lay claim to it?
Then there is the redesign. Sure the roof is contemporary and interesting...but it's ugly. And it traps all the train fumes so it is quite horrid to wait around on platforms.

As I was waiting for my train, we were suddenly hit by the deafening sound of hail. Hail is a rare occurrence in Victoria and is usually no greater than the size of a pea. But this hail was about three times the size. The hail lasted for quite a while before being replaced by heavy rain. Visibility outside was very poor.
Now, look at the photo. See those bright clear strips of roof that go down to meet the pillar. Yeah...design fail. You could see the hail collecting in those stupid dimples, along with massive waterfalls rushing down the pillar. The platforms were flooded with water and ice. I wish I had brought my camera with me.
It wasn't long after before the evacuation alarms started to sound. Where were we to go? It was still pouring outside so we all huddled together in an open area of the station. Of course, the PA system wasn't working so we had no clue what was going on. After part of the roof burst out onto some poor unsuspecting people, security rushed around telling us not to stand under the clear strips (the evacuation alarm was sounded again). About five minutes later they closed the station entirely, forcing us out into the storm.

I walked back to my tram stop with umbrella in hand. Of course, umbrellas are no help when the roads have turned to rivers. The storm was so intense that it had knocked the leaves out of the trees. The paths were covered in leaves and ice and I'm surprised that I only slipped once. At the tram stop the TV screen informed me that a tram would arrive in five minutes. Oh good, I was worried that they wouldn't be working...and then when the five minutes had passed it was replaced by a "-". I'm sorry but what is the point of installing those TV screens if they run on automatic and don't provide useful information like "tram has broken down" or "you're fucked"? It's not like they're lacking room on those stupid screens.

There were so many buildings screeching evacuation alarms. Including "Melbourne Assessment Prison". I didn't know what that building was but I certainly rushed to get as far away from it as possible. Pharmacy staff mopped water onto me as I walked past. Part of a path was so deep in water that I was detoured to the tram lanes. One 7-eleven was filled with blocks of ice that had clearly damaged the place.

By that stage I was really panicking. I'm sure I wasn't alone - there were plenty of people dashing about and leaf-covered cars all over the place beeping each other. I walked another two blocks to my uni tram line, thinking I could hide out there until my line was operating again. No such luck, no trams down there either. I walked back to my tram stop and waited there for a little longer. And can I just say: why do all these tram stops lack shelter?
The rain had eased up so I decided to try my luck at Southern Cross Station again. If the train station was closed then surely buses would have been organized and if I couldn't get home then I could at least get to my mum's place. Nope, station still closed and bus shelter was flooding. Wonderful.

Once I had realised I was stranded in the city (note, all taxis were occupied by other stranded people), it was an hour after I had arrived at the station and about the time that my train was originally scheduled to arrive at my destination. There was only one option left and that was call my only friend close by who had a car. Thankfully she was at home and able to come get me but even then, it took a while. The traffic was insane and I had to walk several blocks to meet her.
I finally got home at 5:15pm - two hours after Southern Cross Station was closed. I'm really regretting not catching the earlier train...

EDIT: Photos already online
The first one is the failure that is Southern Cross Station, though not nearly as scary as being there. The other photos make me feel grateful that I only had to wade through ankle-deep water. It appears there was golf-ball sized hail but I must have missed it. Lucky me.

But I like my weekends...

2010-02-27T11:18:00.001+11:00

Today I am at uni. On a Saturday.
My great "new" samples are over 9 years old and must not have been preserved very well because the DNA quality of three quarters of them are shit. I've had these samples since the satrt of the month and have little to show for it. If I want to meet my deadlines (some real, some self-imposed) then I'm going to have to work beyond the standard 9 to 5 hours. I've been so buggered in the evenings that I've been vegging on the couch and doing little more than cross stitch.
I've started working on black, since that's the one colour that I'm not going to unpick. I ended up unpicking it this week anyway, since I miscounted. I haven't made such a big mistake in years. The problem with making mistakes is that when you unpick it, it still leaves a mark. Not a problem if in the centre of the piece, since you just restitch over it, but this mistake led me to stitch on an area that was meant to be blank. I was so worried that I'd ruined the fabric and would have to cut a new piece but a damp cotton tip managed to remove traces of the mistake. I'm so relieved.

This morning I forced myself to ride my bike before I left. It was so worth it. The street artist has made a start on the other side of the bridge and it looks fantastic, full of fossils and UFOs. I saw an outline of a bird and got a bit excited - it looks like a Blue Wren (though the beak shape is wrong). I can't wait until it's finished and I will certainly take photos once it's done.

The best bridge ever

2010-02-15T05:49:00.003+11:00

This bridge is my favourite part of cycling. It's just so awesome that I just had to give it it's own blog post.

It started off with a whale containing the slogan "Not For Sale". I didn't think it was that special but I liked the anti-whaling message and the concept of turning the whale's teeth into a barcode.
Then the days got hot and I didn't ride for a week. When I came back over the weekend, I was stunned. The slogan was removed and more whales and sea critters were added to the scene. It looked beautiful.

As I rode closer, an octopus was unveiled. That's cool.

Then I rode under the bridge and was blown away. That entire side had been painted as an underwater scene. It's so huge and so so beautiful. And yet, such a pity that it is hidden under a bridge. It should be out in the streets for all to admire.
Thankfully, it was raining so there was no cyclists to crash into me as I walked the length taking photos.

Cycling along the creek

2010-02-14T12:47:00.001+11:00

Exercise doesn't really fit into my life. It doesn't interest me at all - I have better things to do.
When I started uni, I took up jogging around the nearby park. It was a nice park and a decent size, with a perimeter about 3.5km. But then I would move back to my parent's place over holidays and wouldn't take it up again.
I tried jogging at my new place but it's not the same. The park is much smaller and not as pretty. Plus, I badly hurt my foot last year and if I did anything faster than a walk, it felt like my little toe was dislocating from the rest of the foot. The doctor said it was fine but it's now slightly raised compared to the rest of the foot and not as mobile/responsive.
I can't go on like this. I want to live a long, happy life. I don't health problems and I don't want to deteriorate both physically and mentally. I've got to start healthy habits now or I never will.

This year I'm giving bike riding a go. I've got my mum's old bike; full of rust and noisy brakes. It's actually been easier to get into it than I thought. Perhaps because I use to ride a lot when I was a kid. But man, the first few rides really hit home just how weak I was. I had to actually get off and walk up mild slopes. But now I can ride up them (though still painful) and I can ride further for longer.

One problem is that I'm not meant to ride on footpaths. Unless it's a shared path, we have to ride on the road. That's ok for the quiet streets but I'm too scared to do it on the busier ones. While some roads have bike lanes painted on, others don't and I've heard enough stories to not trust drivers anyway. Plus, often I have to do right turns and the thought of trying to cross traffic terrifies me (note: we drive on the left side). So I'm being naughty and riding on the footpaths, pissing off the poor pedestrians.
Thankfully, there's a bike path a few blocks from my place. It's right along a creek and is pretty nifty. I feel safe there though I do have to watch out for dogs that like to meander and cyclists who are in the wrong lane.

But there is another added benefit to all this - street art.
I hate mindless scribble but I really love artistic graffiti. There are some creative and talented people out there. It was certainly a nice surprise to discover that the bike trail contained pretty art and it even motivated me to push myself further so that I could discover more of it.

Just grow you stupid plants

2010-02-11T11:15:00.004+11:00

It seems I can't spend the weekend away from home without at least one plant dying. It's terrible! I've been trying to grow my seeds since October. I lost my strawberry seedlings in a November heatwave (and they were a birthday present too). I've had to replant my basil and cherry tomatoes once and my parsley twice. This weekend I lost my spinach, which I had just planted (though I planted them a few weeks early than I should, since I'm impatient like that). Bad enough that I'm a beginner gardener without the stupid things dying and destroying my confidence. Damn you heat!

My tomatoes seem to be doing ok right now. Perhaps they are past the most vulnerable stage? The basil seems alright as well but it's growing so slowly. It was so much faster last time when I planted actual seedlings. I want to make pesto now :(

At the market on the weekend I was roped into trying some pesto made from a local plant. They had some seedlings on sale so I ended up buying a few. They are Warrigal Greens or NZ Spinach and I've never heard of them before (though that doesn't say much since I'm not a plant person). Apparently they're a good spinach substitute but you have to blanch them before eating because they are high in oxalates (which can damage the kidneys). It feels kind of cool growing my own native food plant. I hope they don't die...

EDIT: Of course there's a big storm while I try to go home. Umbrellas do nothing when the roads and paths are ankle-deep in water. Even the tram was leaking.

Designing my own cross stitch

2010-02-01T20:24:00.000+11:00

It began when I entered some of my cross stitch in two different shows. And it got me thinking - how do these shows judge cross stitch? Is it by the ability of the stitcher to count? The quality of the stitching? The choice in matting and framing to complement the cross stitch? It can't possibly be the design of the cross stitch itself because the designs were made by other people.

That lead me to think about cross stitch itself. I have some absolutely stunning ones on my walls and have devoted much time (and money for framing...but until recently, my mum paid for it) to them but they don't present much of a challenge. Just follow the chart and try to stick the needle in the right hole (which is only really an issue if using black aida cloth). You don't even need to think to do it. Provided there are no subtitles, it is perfect to do in front of the TV. There just doesn't seem much point in judging them in a contest.
I don't really know how I made the mental leap between pixel art and cross stitch but 2006 was when I designed and made my first cross stitch. It was both beautiful and terrible. But so very satisfying.

Now here I am, working on my fifth design (or seventh, if you count my butterfly series as individuals. I intended them to be a set but as yet, no one has purchased all three together). As I mentioned before, I find blue wrens to be such wonderful birds.
I expected that drawing a bird would be a challenge, even with reference pictures (and there were certainly many of them). But the only thing that present a problem were the legs and feet. I shouldn't have bothered stressing - the detail was lost when I resized my sketch...

I'm not the greatest pixel artist out there and I really doubted my ability to tackle something with feathers. But as I was working on it I was amazed at how well it turned out. I can't stop staring at.
In terms of pixel art, the tail lets it down. It looked terrible with the limited palette so I had to add so blending shades. It does crank up the colour count but for the cross stitch I think I can make it work by combining different coloured cottons to make new shades. The current cross stitch kit I'm doing uses that technique and it makes the shading look rather pretty.

I probably go about designing cross stitch the stupid way. I know there are programs that converts pictures into charts and pick out all the colours. I tried a few and must say that I wasn't happy with the results, though I am sure that it is my own failing. What I do is manually convert the pixels into a chart via the use of Mr. Excel. It works.
Picking out the right colours doesn't work so well. I have a little colour key that I use to pick out a range of potential shades. But the printed colour and the real colour are often quite different. Then again, a bundle of cottons looks a lot different to when they are stitched out. The different shades can look like they blend just how I want it only for me to discover that they don't work when stitched on the cloth. Thus, I do a lot of unpicking and restitching (and swearing) to get it right.
Despite the blue wren only needing 14 different colours, I've compiled a list closer to 50, based on the colour key. Hopefully from that list, I can find just the right combination.

Doll Dump

2010-01-24T12:00:00.002+11:00

I'm still having trouble getting motivated in the evenings but I think I'm getting better. Thankfully this is a long weekend so I should be able to make some decent progress making stuff.

Not really motivated to work on this one. Part of the reason is probably pants. There's something about pants that I dread. I plan on pixel-shading, which isn't helping my pants-dread.
Base by Jo.

Well, I was thinking shading each doll one at a time and then tweak them so that they're consistent. Then I got stuck on shading yellow hair. So bugger that idea...

It might not look like it but I'm trying something different with the hair. Normally when I tool-shade hair, I touch it up with a few layers set to multiply or dodge. I'd like to move away from that, since I don't do it for things like clothes or skin.
There are bits of the blue wren doll that I really like. And then there are bits that are really iffy. I spent hours working on that face and it just doesn't look the way I want it to be. I think the nose is a big problem. So I guess I'll leave it for now and see how the other dolls turn out. Man, doing a set of dolls and trying to make them work together is really hard. And from the looks of it, the gif monster is going to destroy this unless I save as png.
Base by Lithriel.

I've had this photo saved on my computer for months. I thought that summer holidays was enough incentive to finally make a start on a doll inspired by it.

Base by DHF. I think the larger bases are a bit over-done (part of the reason why I don't use them anymore) but the smaller ones are underused. Though is it me or are the boobs a little low? It doesn't seem quite right to me...

Some more holiday dolls. These aren't originals - the designs come from here and here. I liked this girl's designs and figured it would be neat to try and adapt them to my sort of thing while also exploring. I've got some more planned, with bases picked out but not much else happening.

First base is from Firefly's World, a long-dead site. I quite like the base (except the face) and have been meaning to use it again for years. Second base is by Anlina S.I have been meaning to do doll a larger person for a while now, since they're lacking in my gallery and this is a nice base. Sometimes people forget that overweight people can be pretty too. I'd like it if there was a balance of sizes among models. And that any model with a bit of flesh wasn't called "plus-sized". Then again, I also don't like how women declare that only women with curves are "real women". I'd like to think I'm a real woman too.

Harrassing the Natives

2010-01-18T13:14:00.003+11:00

Spent the weekend at mum's and was graced by the presence of the resident koala. These guys apparently spend 22 hours asleep each day and yet I never catch it sleeping.

Rory, the dumber of the labrador duo, was going mental around a bush on a slope. Kira was pacing at the bottom, even wimpering a bit. I was worried that he had found a snake so I went outside to check, when something big and scaley dashed out right towards me. Naturally I shrieked but a moment later I realised that it was just a blue tongue lizard. Kira saw where it went and started to harass it but Rory was too stupid to notice and kept investigating the wrong bush. I'm glad it wasn't a snake. And that my dogs aren't quite as adorably stupid as this one.

I also got to see an echidna. I love echidnas. It's so cute watching them plod along with their little reptitle-like legs.
This is the first one I've seen at my parent's new place. But it spent the whole time trying to hide behind a shrub. So cute.

Food Wastage (again)

2010-01-13T13:09:00.001+11:00

Last year I ranted about food wastage. Back then, I couldn't find much information on specifics but now I've found a report on food wastage in Australia, which was released last November. So I'm going to rant about it again, in the vain hope that someone will listen and try to not only give a damn but will try to make a difference in their own home.
So, this report is based upon a survey given to people, which is attached at the end of the document. I hate surveys, they only allow discrete answers and rarely allow for comments.Yeah for figures, I can shamelessly steal them :)

I felt pretty smug when the report broke the estimated cost of the food wasted between the states. Oh yeah, my state is below average. Still, wasting $238AU per person per year is pretty shit. It seems that all states, except mine, have the general trend that the more you earn, the more you waste. What, it's not enough that you guys can afford nice homes, you have to rub it in our faces by buying food you won't eat? Damn you rich people...

What food is the most wasted in household? I think it's no surprise that it's fruit and veggies. But if you really think of the actual cost ($1.1billion per year) and make the connection over how much fruit and veg actually costs...holy fucking god. Fruit and veg are comparatively cheap, we'd have to be wasting a shitload of the stuff to reach a billion dollars.
I would have liked to have seen restaurant and take-away separated. I know I do waste food at restaurants, purely because they have ridiculous ideas regarding serving sizes. But what about take-away? That's something that I don't waste (I have more of an idea how large serves are) and I would be interested to see if that also applied to the wider population.
Finally, I'd just like to rant - fish is a meat. It's stupid to say "meat and fish".

Sadly,I'm in the high-waste end of things when broken down into household size. But I'd like to think/hope that I'm better than average, otherwise I'd be a huge hypocrite.
I'm actually surprised that large families waste less. I use to be a huge waster when I was a kid so I just assumed that the more kids, the more wastage. Then again, I wasted the most at lunchtimes. Mum would prepare nice lunches for me and I would throw them away at school. So maybe the people filling in the surveys aren't fully aware of their household wastage? Or I was just a bad kid...
Share houses, where the people living together are unrelated, waste about the same per person as single people. That's understandable, particularly if you don't share meals.
A pity that the survey didn't take pets into account. But it was a massive survey to begin with.

Apparently, all this wastage equates to about 5.25 megatonnes of CO2 emissions, which is about the amount produced by the iron and steel industries.

And the solution to the problem? Although people are guilty about wasting food, they're too lazy and stuck in their ways to do anything about it. Best course of action is to get the Government to act and create some sort of policy (the only policy they suggest is banning of plastic bags). So in other words, nothing is going to happen. Great.

This pointless rant proudly brought to you by a student who is sick to death trying to figure out which statistics she should be using, which program runs said statistics, and which past research paper actually cites it correctly (if any).

Australian birds

2010-01-09T13:15:00.001+11:00

Now that I've finished drawing out my dolls inspired by aussie birds, I might as well show them off and talk about them. After all, it's going to take me forever to shade them all.
I tried to pick out species that have some sort of meaning to me.

Crimson Rosella. I love watching these birds at mum's place, they are so vibrant and have cute little chirps. Aside from the bodice and shawl, I didn't have much idea what I wanted to do with the doll so her design was made up as I went along. While I do like the dress design, the skirt doesn't give off a rosella vibe for me :(
Maybe I'll change it while shading.
I did not want to have to endure redrawing the face, like I originally planned, so I just mirrored the face I made for the galah doll.

Laughing Kookaburra. I grew up to this bird's call but didn't really see them much around the house. Normally I'll see these birds hanging out on fences or power lines in the country. But at my mum's new place, they like to feed on a strip of grass just beyond the window. It's great to watch them.
I don't know why but I wanted more of a tribal look for the doll. And although their calls do sound like laughter, I liked the idea that my doll wasn't all bubbly and happy - instead, looking a little peeved and not wanting to be there.
I really like the design of her.

Superb Blue Wren. This is probably the bird that I miss the most since moving out of home. They are so sweet, hoping all over the place, and have a beautiful call. I'm glad that one of my lecturers was also such a fan - I got to learn a bit on them. But I didn't really have a clear idea about what to doll. Of course I had to use the dominant male's colouring, since the females are so plain aside from a fleck of red. In the end I went for a fae look, since they are also called Fairy Wrens. I edited the base so that she was a bit of a shorty, as well as have a cute head tilt.
The hair is meant to be the red of the female birds but I'm not sure the doll looks good as a redhead.

Red-Tailed Black Cockatoo and Sulphur-Crested Cockatoo. Sulphur-Crested cockies had a strong presence when I was growing up in the country. They really are noisy buggers. I haven't really had much to do with Black cockies but I thought it would be nice to have a contrasting couple (which is the main reason why I chose this base in the first place). I chose the red-tailed instead of a different black cockie since it was a mascot for the Commonwealth games. My doll more follows the look of the females, rather than the males. The males lack the cool sunset tail.
The one issue that I have with this base is that the arms behind the backs seem to vanish. Alas, I am not a skilled enough base editor to tackle arms wrapping around waists. Let us pretend that these ladies are groping butts.

Galah. These birds weren't as prominent around my mum's area but they have more of a presence in suburbia. I don't know why but I quite like them and even got a cute little cross stitch to work on. The design of the doll is radically different to the original sketch. It was originally going to be some retro formal look (without reference so I'm not sure that there was any specific decade) but I just didn't feel motivated to drawn it out. In the end I went with a more modern look, more suburban. And pants to try and balance things out with the rest of the dolls. I think it was a good move, she looks so much better than the sketch.
I didn't want my dolls to all have the same head, particularly all foward facing. There were no alternate heads on offer so I ended up drawing this. It. Was. Hell. But probably worth it in the end.

Australian Magpie. These would have to be my favourite bird, which is just as well since they can be found all over the place. I love that the won't take fright and fly away if I walk near them. And they have a nice call (except the young ones, which are awful). I even based one of my practical subjects at uni on the call of magpies. They are such smart birds. At my mum's place they learned that we would throw out dog bits every morning so the whole family would wait for it and then hunt for bits with the dogs. So of course I had to go all cliche and give my doll glasses to denote intelligence. But I have glasses and I'm smart so it's ok :P
I did edit her so that she was taller. Maggies are a ground species - they'd rather walk around than fly - so it made sense to me that they would be tall. However, I don't think it's really noticeable next to the other dolls.
I was dreading drawing the shoes but was quite pleased in the end.

Rainbow Lorikeet. I didn't really have much to do with these birds until I moved to inner city. They really have thrived in the suburbs. There are so many in the trees down the hospital strip and are so deafening on my trip back home from uni in the evenings. They like to hang out and squabble in the park next to my place.
I think this doll has had the least amount of changes in design. I think of lorikeets as such crazy and bubbly birds and that's what I wanted to reflect in the doll. But the colours are so bright, I worry that this doll will stand out above the others.
The hair makes me think of a medusa doll that's been on my to-do list for over a year. Coincidentally, the base I picked out is from the same basemaker as these ones. I really should make that doll one day...

"Dinner When I Can't Think of Anything Else"

2010-01-03T11:43:00.000+11:00

This soup is my mum's invention. When I asked her what to call it, she said "dinner when I can't think of anything else". Bit of a mouthful but I've inherited her inability of giving things good titles so that will have to do.
This is a really simple and quick soup to make. It shouldn't take more than 30minutes. It serves about three people but you can stretch it to four if you have fresh bread with it or increase quantity of ingredients slightly.

The key to this soup is the spicey broth. So make sure you use liquid stock, not powered stuff. And try really hard to find chilli chevups (skinless sausages). If you can only find the original type then add 1tsp of chilli powder to the broth. It just doesn't taste nearly as good without the chilli.

2 litres liquid chicken stock
1 tbs soy sauce
500g chilli chevups (skinless sausages)
2 carrots, grated
100g button mushrooms, sliced
1 red capsicum (pepper), sliced
3 bok choy, sliced
50g ling thin noodles
Spring onions

Bring the chicken stock and soy sauce to the boil. You can chop up the veggies while waiting for that. Cut the sausages into small pieces and roll them into balls (if you can be bothered rolling them. It's not really necessary). Once the stock is boiling, reduce the heat and add the meat, veggies (except bok choy leaves and spring onions) and noodles. Cook for about 10-12 minutes. Then add the leaves and spring onions and cook for an additional 30 seconds. All done.