Justin. It's short for - The Incredible Justin

Wow Canada!

2010-04-20T17:24:00.012+12:00

Wow it was almost 8 months ago when I stepped off that plane into a puddle of maple syrup; it was the rainy season. I dabbed my face with a pancake and wiped it all off. I remember my first moose ride, which I took from the airport to the DOWNtown. We hadn't been in the great glass elevator for long before a giant raven scooped us up and took us soaring over The Rockies. To Texas. It felt really good there, less glass, bigger moose, burgers, coffee, burgers, coffee, burgers, coffee, donuts, donuts, donuts. It was a bit cold though so my new best friend G.B. helped out. He took me out to some of his favourite lakes beside some pines and caught me a few beavers. Naturally, I saved the tails to have as a sugary cinnamon snack at a later time, then promptly turned the rest of the pelts into velvet hats, fur coats and mittens (you would be impressed with my new fashions, I think they would be very popular in Europe). G.B. was good like that, except he was a bear, so he didn't know how to get into the trash cans. I helped him out in return though, I got him some salmon the Safeway. I went to a Superstore which is a good place to Save-on-Foods, especially if you don't live in the burbs near the city Wall with a cheap Mart.

After surviving the indoor season my sister Eeemer (who spends all day sitting at a disk), myself, my friend Brit (as in not Britney), my other friend Justin and my other friend Justin and a friend of his called Justin are looking forward to evenings sitting outside on the dick drinking some bears before going to beard. In our dreams we will be winning hockey and we will be rolling up coffee cups to win cars, all our friends will be winning hockey but will win nothing at roll-up-the-rim, no other teams will be winning hockey, especially not the Flames. Sometimes there will be nightmares of minus 40 and the Americans winning Hockey. In any case, the squirrels will come out of hibernation, the humans will come back from Mexico, together we will scamper about chasing after acorns (yes, that was deep) and before long it will be the rainy season again. Mmmm the rainy season.

Dear Dunedin

2009-07-22T01:20:00.003+12:00

Thanks for all the times! All the phases: from hall living to friend flatting to random flatting. From lectures to labs to essays to a thesis and a "real" job! From who I was to who I am. It all happened here. You have brought out a strength and confidence. You have brought me friendships for life - and for that I will always hold you dearly close and think of you fondly.

I've shopped your shops, drunk your coffee, walked, cycled and driven your streets, heard your professors, swam through your pools, hurled your snow at crazy mates, ripped up your dance floors, filled your land fill, touched down at your airport, lay upon your grass under your sun, smelt your burnt coffee and chocolate air and felt your cold winter chill. I've seen you and I've been you.

Somehow it's time to say I love you but I have to leave. I need to see other places, peoples and learn and grow. I may be back, but I may not. Oh and before I forget - look at your back yard! Central Otgao, Fiordland, Southland and Stewart Island. Gotta love it! and I do.

Justin

P.S. treat the future generations well, and be ready to welcome me back one day!

Pet hates: Pak n' Save

2009-05-25T15:57:00.007+12:00

Reasons why Pak n’ Save sucks

1) Trolleys trolleys trolleys only trolleys no baskets only one size of ginormous trolleys!
2) Not having what you actually want, not having what you don’t realize you want – but that you would if they had it, but they don’t because variety seems not to be a priority! Grrrrrr no Fettucini NO FETTUCINI! Fettucini is not even exotic!
3) Run for your life we’re all gonna die in this car park where, whether your in our out of the car, you never feel safe.
4) Would you like to pack your own bags with that! Would you like to spend five minutes standing at your car boot in the cold doing what the checkout expert could do in 1 min! No I don't happen to have one of those dirty moist yellow sponge things that enable your fingers to open the impossible to open bags!
5) A variation of the above but at the self-checkouts where you have to set up your own new bag on the scales. Even when the helper is standing around doing nothing, nothing but watching. Umm at New World the helper rushes to set up a new plastic bag as soon as you leave! Real service.
6) No chilled wine.
7) Hiding at the checkouts which are piled high with stalls of gum etc so that you actually have to go right up to the checkout before you can tell if it is inhabited by another customer or not! Honestly.

Sometimes I feel myself turning Red Ross on Pak n' Save.

But, reason why it doesn’t matter how much Pak n’ Save sucks:

1) location location location. I will still go there because it is right there on the way home.

And I suppose if I’m going to be fair and balanced I will give them credit for almost always being stocked with what they have (unlike countdown who tend to run out of things on special!). And yes they are cheapest.

Movies movies movies

2009-02-26T15:57:00.000+13:00

So I saw slumdog millionaire last night. I loved the surprisingly hilarious part where he gets an autograph from his favourite movie star, it was just classic. I was shocked at the part where the Hindu’s went on a riot against the Muslims. Intolerance like that angers me. I was confused about the bath of money. I couldn’t answer any of the questions. The dance was a nice touch.

Might be going to see ‘He’s just not that into you’ at the weekend. Also want to see ‘Milk’ if they will ever bring it out already. Am looking forward to new Star Trek movie. I wanted to see Revolutionary road, but it’s finished.

I finished the first half of season 4 Battle Star Galactica! It’s so good.

Have decided to slowly work my way through the Harry Potter movies.

In South Dunedin (the new North Dunedin) DVD rentals are $1 all the time for weeklies and $4 for new releases: loving it!

To me, fair friend, you never can be old. For as you were when first your eye I eyed, Such seems your beauty still. Shakespare

2009-02-16T22:48:00.006+13:00

Blogger (I almost said Facebook) has changed. Now when I write there is this little thing that keeps saying 'saving...' then again later 'saving...' and again later 'saving...' and so on it goes. Helpful, but only in the way that know-it-all people are.

So hello life in 2009. Hello February. Say hello to 3 weekends in a row of out of Dunedin adventures!

Know-it-all blogger is really getting to me.

Here is the condensed milk version:
Tramping to Muller Hut near Mt Cook a couple of weeks ago. Camping at Moeraki, last weekend. The Great Divide winery concert just north of Christchurch this weekend. Hmmm that was condensed, but lacking a bit of that good old milky-sweetness. I shared a tent with my ex-flatmate and we talked till 2.50am... awww how sweet. We saw a penguin... awww so adorable and sweet. I carried someone else’s sleeping bag in my pack... awww what a sweet guy. Went swimming in lake Pukaki and at Karitane... chur sweet as!

Hello tomorrow - taking the day off work to catch up on all the other bits of life that are supposed to get done at the weekend. They have been crying their eyes out because of all the neglect. It's OK... I'm coming precious ones... everything is going to be alright again.

P.S. Project Runway is back like an old friend.

Live from the couch looking at a TV screening the opening ceremony of the Olympics - baby!

2008-08-09T02:04:00.002+12:00

Good evening.

Iraq is walking, waving, walking, waving and so on. Iran is walking, waving, walking, waving and so on. Wow Hungry has flowers!

I am way too awake for 2.12am.

Oh, actually now I feel tired. Wo how unsuper human I am! Sucumbing to the need for sleep is so ordinary.

So what about the weather ay? Or what about that national election eh? Or what about you know America.

Shoes are white and so are hats and then me move on to the team in red. This would be so much cooler if the judges off project runway were commentating.

I miss project runway.

P.S. a big thanks to my biggest fan - Bibian's laptop.

A facebook status post

2008-05-13T16:19:00.005+12:00

Justin is . . .

in 2008, and now his blog is too! First post of the year woot woot.

drinking coffee

on a Mac

listening to Duffy

Begging you for Mercy!

about to plan a killer experiment that will distill all his acquired knowledge and pave the way for great things.

going to the gym tonight.

the worst in the flat at Halo2

the best in the flat at most other things.

except learning languages

except having a girlfriend

Justin is . . .

incredible

yes.

Such madness; oh the mad madness

2007-12-11T16:03:00.000+13:00

Today is a mad mad day of avoiding writing up my mad bad western blot results, which I have actually been avoiding for like the past two or three weeks. Even now I am writing this just to avoid them. I am also writing this for Louise, my bizarre and kooky office mate who just discovered my dormant blog and is only now starting to learn who the real Justin is. Until now, Louise has only known the strong and helpful Justin who can carry a heavy box containing hundreds of white smooth sheets of 90 gsm paper covered in black letters: a box holding a thesis; 5 copies of a thesis. He can carry it far, he can carry it fast, he can carry it to Albany St or if you admit he is right, to the end of Leith St. He is right, he is wise he is all of these combined. He is the incredible you know who.

Saving Immunofluorescent images: Justin’s file naming protocol

2007-06-28T16:56:00.000+12:00

Today I wrote a protocol for how I will name all the file names for the photos I take for experiments. It seems a bit of an over kill to write a whole protocol for it, and I know if I ever show it to someone they will probably laugh at me. But since I started working for someone else I have decided to be ultra organized so that when I leave other people will be able to understand my data. I like being organized, it doesn't come naturally to me, it takes time but it always feels good when things are organized. You could say its empowering! OK im going to stop because I'm starting to sound like way more of a neat freak than I actually am.

Consider yourself commanded

2007-06-20T00:11:00.000+12:00

Get rice.
Be the ball.
Eat some pies.
Drink a pale ale.
Have some cheese.
Catch me if you can!
Go forth and multiply.
Awaken the giant within!
Look at a clock. Tick tock.
Run from where the rain falls.
Don’t just read the text book, live it!
Under my umbrella ella ella ella ella ella.

Someone thinks Justin is useful!

2007-05-29T11:57:00.000+12:00

I have a job! But before you get too excited, its just a short term job for two months. But before you get too unexcited, there is a possibility that it could go longer, it all depends on whether they get more money to do their research. Even if it is just for two months, at least it is something to fill in the gap until I find something more long term. Its in the Department of Pathology at the University of Otago, and the lab is on the third floor of the Hercus building, which is the white building on the corner of Fredrick and Great King st, sort of diagonally opposite Centre City New World.

Apart from the fact that its only for two months, its astonishingly amazing how perfect this job is for me. The night before my interview I was doing some background reading on Autosomal Dominant Polycystic Kidney Disease (which is what this lab studies) and I was amazed to find that, at a cellular level, there are some similarities to the topic which my masters was about, namely cell-to-cell adhesion. I seriously could hardly believe it. You see, I had always thought that the only things from my masters that would be useful to future employment would be the experimental methods that I had learnt how to do. This was because the experimental methods can be applied to a multitude of different research interests. However, I had not counted on the information and knowledge relating to the disease I studied in my masters would be that useful again. In fact sometimes I felt that I had acquired such an in-depth knowledge about this topic, but for what? All it seemed good for was to write a good thesis. But now that knowledge might actually be useful again, and that is a satisfying feeling! On top of this, and the reason I probably got the job, is that all the experimental techniques they needed someone to do, are methods that I learnt doing my masters. To be honest they hardly could have found someone better suited to this job. It feels good that I’m going to be contributing almost straight away, I wont have to go through a steep learning curve, they wont have to train me a lot. I’m going to be useful! Yus! Which, as it is only for two months, makes sense, as they wouldn’t want to be training someone for half of that time.

The other thing that is great is that I asked to have a couple more weeks off before I start, because I only recently finished my maters. So now I can have a proper relaxing break without financial worries and the pressure of job hunting and I start next Tuesday 5th June. Its soooo good! I’m extremely thankful for this time of rest!

I’m just grateful and thankful that this job has come along at the right time and so perfectly suited to me. Its humbling actually: all the doubts I had during my masters and the bad attitude I’ve had with god for a while, and yet something good has still come about. Go figure.

Its the end of an era!

2007-05-14T11:55:00.000+12:00

This is just a small post to let you know that I have submitted my thesis! Actually this is sort of old news, today is the 1 week anniversary of my submission. I have just been pretty slack about blogging. Sometimes I feel like crying with relief, sometimes I feel like hugging everyone I know, but mostly I have been pretty occupied with other stuff that I havent thought about it much. I want to relax now, my mind needs a break from thinking deeply about things. I think I could enjoy this time off more if there was more certainty about a future source of income.

I am looking for jobs and I would like to find something in Dunedin but am looking at other places in New Zealand too. Basically I want a research job for 1-2 years so that I can save some money to go overseas to work. But there is not a lot advertised in Dunedin so I’m going to try send my CV to lots of people and see what happens.

Also I’m watching DVD’s and reading and sleeping and swimming and going to lifegroups and church and preparing speeches (because I’m doing a toast masters course), and I helped a friend do some experiments with sheep, and I had a couple of graduation celebrations to go to on Saturday.

At a job interview

2007-05-03T11:18:00.000+12:00

Me: so how many people do you have in your lab?
Interviewer: We have one part time technician and four students
Me: and what level are they at?
Interviewer: ah one is a genetics honours, two masters and Euen is doing his PhD
Me: is that Ewan McGregor?
Interviewer: *pause*, ah, Rogers, Ewan Rogers – did you have him as a demonstrator?
Me: (think to myself: where did McGregor come from?)
Me: No I know him from church

Suddenly 1.5 hours later, whilst casualy riding an elevator:

Me: Ewan McGregor! Ewan McGregor! Nooooooooooo!

Oh man how stupid I feel.

Incase you dont know Ewan McGregor is like a super famous actor who plays Obi Wan Kenobi in the Star Wars prequels.

I said come down here and see what happens if you try and hit me

2007-04-17T15:54:00.000+12:00

Right now I feel so cheeky. Like I want to play fight you and pin you to the floor until you confess that Justin rules the world and is the greatest! Like I want to send you a random txt that will shock and confuse you all the way home. I want to eat chocolate pudding, and then I want to scoop it out and through it at your face – and then spray you with whipped cream! Muhahahah! I want to rolly polly down the hill and I want to win. I want to be a kid again! I want to laugh like I did at design weekend when we had a mad pillow fight, when at first I was too cool to join in but then did anyway, and we laughed for no reason except that we all knew how silly it was. And like in 2003 when I smeared custard across a flatmates face! :) And how a guy in my lifegroup did the biggest poo that would never flush away, and how he thinks its the greatest claim to fame and the funniest thing in the world – whenever we talk about it he rolls up laughing so hard his face goes red.

Visual DNA

2007-04-13T11:49:00.000+12:00

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

I can see it!

2007-04-04T21:23:00.000+12:00

Today I got the first draft of my discussion section back from my supervisor. Its a moment I've been looking to as when I will know that its all down hill from here. The discussion being the last major section I have to finish. I still have a bit more to do on it but no more than I was expecting. After the discussion I have to do the abstract, a few flow diagrams for my introduction, touch up a few figures in my results, find a few odd references, make a list of abreviations, final proof read, format it all and print. So just lots of small odd jobs. I'm not finished but I can finaly see the light at the end of the tunnel baby!

Oh by the way I just noticed that my last post was my 100^th post on this blog!

The proteasome pathway is a well characterised mechanism of beta-catenin regulation

2007-03-30T16:38:00.000+12:00

Well I could do some work.

Or I could do what I’m doing.

Or I could do what your doing. But I’ve done that.

I’ve had a coffee.

I haven’t talked to anyone in real life though.

I’ve done MSN.

I’ve done enough web surfing.

I’ve done enough enoughing.

I’ll do something like read words and write other words beside and around those words. I’ll call it work. I’ll call it my reason for being here.

And if it is my reason, then this is not. Because black is not white and I don’t do grey.

I can be your hero baby

I have lost my Fox & Friends

2007-03-25T13:15:00.000+12:00

Fox News on Prime used to be at 11.30pm then it moved to 12.30am and now its at 2.30am! I feel sad, like a friend has moved away. I know its on Sky but I don’t have Sky. boo hoo. I guess I'll do more productive things like sleep. Anyway all they talked about these days is some election that is still a year and a half away. One day when I go to America I will go to New York and stand at the window behind Steve, Gretchen and Brian and I will wave and I will call Scott on my mobile phone so he can see and hear me! Yes I will be one of those people! Although I would rather do this, but I can’t.

There is a ladybug crawling across my window. Her legs move so fast. If my legs were as fast I would break some running records. If your legs were as fast would you go to the Olympics just to win - even if you really didn’t care about athletics? Is it possible to be blessed with great skills that you don’t care about?

Why does being sick always happen when you don’t want it to?
Answer: Because you always don’t want it to.
I am so deep.

Under a late afternoon sun

2007-03-23T20:01:00.001+12:00

I am here upon the grass under the dying afternoon sun. I am here lying, eyes shut and resting. Head heavy, and body tired from a slight sickness; mind lost and fed up with its thesis. With a hat over face I doze and recharge. The sun – so warm but so gentle as it wanes – bathes, folds and sooths me. It penetrates my skin and revives all that is weak. I am happy because of its presence. With bare feet, bare legs, and bare arms I invite it upon me.

I eat some tart of chocolate and think it is one of my favourite things.

I think to my self: right now I know I am where I need to be; right now I know the next half hour will be perfect; I dont want to be anywhere else, I dont want to do anything else; could it be any better? If there were less cars maybe, if there were less people maybe, if the grass was slightly dryer maybe. But now I am being picky, for only one car went past, the grass is dry enough, and the people – thought they don’t bring silence – bring an energy, and besides they are few and they are well behaved. To share this with another perhaps? To have them lying beside me, to roll over and meet them, and, with my arms, be connected and accepted. But actually, I am most happy to be just with myself right now, right here – with the grass, the sun and with a book. Especially this book that had lost my interest but which has rapidly improved, it is called A passage to India.

Lying upon the grass, feeling it with my fingers, I do not desire to sink into the dirt – as I do sometimes. I do not desire to dissolve and be one with the ground – I am satisfied to exist.

As time goes on and the sun further down, the shade of the trees encroaches upon my foot. . . and then my ankle and so I retract them into the warm light. But the sun continues to fall and the shadows to stretch and I creep backwards. When what is considered long enough has come, I am found sitting up and feeling better. I re-shoe, I pack and I walk paths and driveways back to where I was before, to try and do what I was trying to do before.

procrastination

2007-03-10T23:34:00.000+13:00

This is me to the bone. Some people think I work really hard, but news flash - just because I’m at uni, doesn’t mean I’m actually working. I could have finished my thesis by now if I didn’t stuff around so much. I hate it but I cant seem to pick my self out of this state of mindless drifting.

Isn't it funny how his hair colour changes when you view the comic enlarged?

someone to haunt me

2007-03-08T12:38:00.000+13:00

A girl in the tea room looked familiar.

I thought she must have been in one of my classes back in my BSc days and has now come back to do some postgrad study.

Fright of my life when I realsied the truth...

I demonstrated her as a first year health science student in Biochemistry 111 labs.

I cant believe I have been doing my Masters long enough for a first year student to become a forth year student and start thier own Masters! I dont like it, I dont like it.

Thats it have to stop being a student ASAP.

almond is the new sugar

2007-03-07T11:34:00.000+13:00

Its raining today and it feels right.

Its Wednesday to day and it feels like Wednesday.

I just had a great time catching up with Benn with two n’s.

I had a flat white with almond syrup from Jerry's garage because Kevin always gets almond in his latte so I thought I have to see what its like. So I saw, and I drank, and I tasted; and I didnt like it that much, it was drinkable but I think I prefer hazelnut or caramel. Interestingly, adding syrup adds sweetness such that there is no need to add sugar.

I must be about ready to take over the world. Or at least to finish my discussion then go for a swim and then go to the cutting edge cafe then go home and play with my rubik's cube.

I have discovered that the rubik's cube is a good form of stress relief, when you cant get some stupid thought out of your head, you should try a rubik's cube and it will leave no room for any other thoughts. And then you can sleep well.

I have also found that swimming is a good form of stress relief.

With all this relief in my life its amazing I can still find ways to be stressed. Although stressed is not really the right word, but the right words are far too deep so stressed will suffice.

A post one day followed by a post the next day: unprecedented!

What ever shall I do?

2007-03-06T21:20:00.000+13:00

What will I do when I reach the end of this cup of coffee?

Where will my happiness come from?

I only have one gulp left . . . though I think I could stretch it to two.

half a gulp

half a gulp

gone.

Its really all gone, all the coffee is gone.

I feel good because thats how good coffee makes me feel

I guess Im OK that its finished, its not so big a deal as I thought it would be.

I've had my daily piece of happiness

I guess I'll move on to the rest of life now.

Etiquette

2007-03-04T00:13:00.000+13:00

If only I had of shown people this two years ago.

I stay up to write a post and you expect me to think of a title as well! Think of your own freakin title!

2007-02-22T00:41:00.000+13:00

Perhaps I should write a blog I tell myself tonight. Perhaps I should go to bed I reply to myself. My fingers are typing, I am writing; where this will go nobody knows... except if this is not your first time reading this. Bed wins. Goodnight

Nice light buns

2007-02-04T15:27:00.000+13:00

Hot cross buns are back! But if you knew what I knew, and soon you shall, you would know how to be happy always...

In some special places hot X buns are made all! year! round! I am not lying, its true.

I am sorry I didnt tell you sooner.

I think we all just need to take a minute for this to sink in. If your not getting the significance of this, you may be experiencing shock.

The hot cross bun is not to be confused with its nearest relative the fruit bun. The fruit bun is a common bun produced year round in a range of sizes; it is easily found on supermarket shelves the nation over, day in and day out. Fruit buns are always there, even at Easter they are there. In contrast the hot cross bun experiences a shorter though much more glamorous life cycle. The Hot cross bun season peaks once a year on the first weekend of Aprial, however, thankfully due to greedy businesses Easter is promoted at least two months before this date, which adequately allows the masses to maximise there demand for the special buns. During this period lots of Hot cross buns are consumed. The hot cross bun is fondly recognized by its distinctive white cross pattern which is absent from fruit buns. However the differences do not stop there, hot cross buns are generally less sticky than fruit buns, which means that even Ladies can eat them without getting messy. Fruit buns also tend to have a harder shell-like surface compared to the soft and malleable hot cross bun. Looking beyond cosmetics hot cross buns are widely regarded to taste better. They are best cut in half, grilled, buttered and eaten. However, because they are... so-good! they are actually quite delicious raw. Like fruit buns, hot cross buns do vary from place to place, some are actually not that great; but still, the physiological pull of the label “hot cross bun” will make even the lowliest of hot cross bun enjoyable.

Isn’t it a joy to know that each year, someone eats a hot cross bun for the first time?

Anyway, there I was, naive and oblivious to the profound truth I was soon to discover. The place was Gardens New World, Dunedin, it was they year 2006; I saw hot CROSS buns and it wasn’t Easter, and it wasn’t two months before Easter. Can we just pause again here.

Imagine if that was you?
Maybe it has been you? Am I alone in this discovery? Could it be that everybody knows and I am actually just the last person to know? If you were a real friend you would have told me!

Ok, so later I saw them there again, but then later they were gone! I was confused about that. But then even later I saw them again a few shelves to the left (2-da-left, 2-da-left...). So I can only conclude that a very rare species of hot cross bun can be found all year round. There is no point denying it, I have seen them for myself.

This is what Wikipedia says about hot cross buns:

Hot cross buns,
Hot cross buns,
one a penny,
two a penny,
hot cross buns.

If you have no daughters,
give them to your sons,
one a penny,
two a penny,
Hot Cross Buns

And if you do have daughters, do the sons miss out?! Gosh daughters, get your own freakin buns! Here are some alternate lyrics:

Hot cross buns,
One a penny buns,
One a penny,
Two a penny,
Hot cross buns.

Fresh, sweet buns,
Come and buy my buns,
One a penny,
Two a penny,

Fresh, sweet buns.
Nice, light buns,
Buy my currant buns,
Come and try them,
Then you'll buy them,
Nice, light buns

I dont know if its just me, but those lyrics make me crack up every time!

Fair and balanced, as always

Keep it here

The Incredible Justin & Friends

Poetry vs Science

2007-01-28T17:58:00.000+13:00

I played a computer game yesterday – shockingly. I slept-in and read a book. I didnt have my morning shower till 2pm. I didnt plan to but I had a lazy dazy day, in a good way. Less than a minute after commencing the computer game I was reaching for the dictionary! Computer games are educational too.

Guile = deceit or cunning

I didnt choose the guile character, I chose someone more respectable. Now it is up to me to save the galaxy from the evil sith! I will fight when others fall, I will rescue those who are helpless, I will triumph, and the powers of the dark lord will crumble as I stride valiantly till justice and peace are restored! Hurrah!

I sewed up the rip in my sheet. How rangy is that. I mean resourceful. Couldn’t be bothered to by a new one.

Im kind of still reeling from just watching the dead poets society, man thats one great movie that got quite intense at the end. Makes you think about life – seize the day and what not. I think my movie tastes are changing. I used to mainly like adventure sci-fi blockbusters like star wars, the matrix, and Indiana Jones. Then I went through a war phase – the thin red line, band of brothers, empire of the sun. But I have recently realised how much i like musicals! High school musical, Fame, Fiddler on the roof, the sound of music, moulian rouge – whats happening to me! Although its weird to begin with, breaking out in song and dance can be quite an effective way to communicate the story and emotions in the movie. Actually I hate Grease (except the “you better shape up song”) and didn’t like the phantom of the opera movie so I guess im not a hardcore musical fan.

After watching the dead poets society I realised that there are more films and books with stories about how inspiring the arts are compared to how inspiring science is (im talking about real science, not science fiction), off the top of my head there is: the dead poets society, fame, high school musical, school of rock, almost famous, finding forester, Billy Elliot, finding neverland etc and i can only think of one for science and thats October sky. There are also quite a few sports ones but they are more about over coming odds rather than how inspiring the actual games are. I think this is probably because the people who make movies relate more to being inspired by the arts rather than the sciences and so can make stories about those experiences. I also think that in general a larger population, not just professional artists, can relate to and be inspired by art, whereas science can get quite technical and boring. Also the arts are quite entertainment orientated to begin with so make for entertaining films a little more easily. Anyway I wonder how good the dead poets society would have been if it was made about a chemistry class rather than English class. There are plenty of inspiring theories in chemistry, all you need is the right teacher and some passionate students.

Justin & Friends News Extra

2007-01-19T16:49:00.000+13:00

Thanks for tuning in. Our top story today is that 83% of people do not rate spider solitaire as their number 1 procrastination game of all time. In fact a scientist was surprised to find the medieval version of solitaire, involving no spiders, was almost twice as popular as the critically acclaimed SPIDER SOLITAIRE. Also only 4% of respondents have friends, the rest prefer to procrastinate alone. The scientist said this was because of the deep sense of shame associated with procrastination that causes its practitioners to shun all humans. This has sparked controversy in some places such as universities where many students have marched to show support for their time honoured tradition. A spokesman for earths students asked "have we lost the art of group procrastination???" If your struggling with procrastination - don’t go through it alone - there are many who will gladly do it with you.

If you haven’t tried Spider solitaire you haven’t lived.
Thanks for tuning into The incredible Justin & Friends. Dont forget to vote.

I report it - you decide!

Fair and Balanced as always.

catching up

2006-12-26T11:48:00.000+13:00

Hey people, just a quick quick update from the City internet cafe in Hamilton. Im in Hamilton. I left Dunedin on the 17th December and drove up with Dan and Mike reeves, whom we piked up in Christchurch - where we stayed at the Brown's house. Then stayed a couple of nights in Wellington at Jacqui's house, where we played Tennis and Wii. Had dinner at Paul rodley's the first night which was great, went for a walk up Mt Vic. It was great weather, we had a great ferry crossing. On the ferry we bumped into Jain Tay and his family, and guess what Im on the same flight back to Dunedin as he is! I had a good sleep on the ferry! I should also mention I havent finished my thesis yet, so thats what I'll be doing for the start of 2007, since im back in Dunners on the 4th Jan. The second night in Wellington had dinner with lots of ex-dunedin people at a pizza place and then we looked at christmas lights on houses. We then stayed a night at Dans mates place in Palmy and watched 'The Departed' cause the movies only cost $8 there! i rate it 7.5 out of 10 and found it very entertaining though prob doesnt have much replay value. In Hamilton have just been doing Christmas/Birthday stuff, eatting and family and presents. Havent caught up with any Hamilton mates yet but will do that before i leave. Oh though i did see Roslyn and church on christmas eve. Hope everyone is having a good christmas and will have a good new years!

Wonderful small dots or dashes

2006-12-13T14:40:00.000+13:00

I am thankful that keyboards have dots (Mac) or dashes (PC) on the F and the J. Often I take them for granted but how lost and how blind I would feel without them. They are my anchor, my lighthouse, they guide me through storms of words, and they make my sentences straight. I am grateful.

The never ending hardness

2006-12-01T00:21:00.000+13:00

I know my last post was totally cold, and i did it on purpose, cause i didnt want to write about whats really going on inside of me and life. I didnt want to because im not that positive these days, and well i made a decision that i wasnt going to truly write about my self on my blog anymore. I thought i would just write about curious happenings that spark in my mind. But im violating that and now im just saying it like it is.

I have been finding things hard. And i want to be finished my masters thesis. I want to be free. I feel stalled and restricted, and i have for the whole year. Things have just taken soooo much longer than i anticipated, and i have so much still to do, and im going home in two weeks – by which time i want to be finished – but why do i think i can be finished then when every other deadline i have set has just turned out to be a joke. I have had great moments when i have really enjoyed the writing, though perhaps it is the idea of the writing i enjoy more, the theoretical – wow i get to do lots of reading and write a case for all my wonderful results and prove that they will change the world – wow what a great opportunity! and i would totally have enjoyed it more if i had of know it would take me 5 months to write. But who knows, perhaps i would have taken things to easy if i had set my self that long. In the beginning (of the writting) it was just hard to even look at my results because i felt that all they said was – your a failure! But my supervisor pulled me through that one and i like my results now :) Recently the challenge has been trying to understand the overwhelming quantity of literature relating to my topic, for example there are 8500 publications referring to E-cadherin, which is one protein i am studying, there are 17416 publications for Human papillomavirus, which is the virus im studying. Of course that can sound a bit misleading, im not gonna read even a fraction of those – i just read the new ones and the review articles, so that makes it easier (even so there has been 96 reviews on E-cadherin just this year!). Realistically i’ll prob have 100-200 citations in my reference section (at a guess). Things are progressing, but just super slow, i feel bad cause i keep telling my supervisor i’ll have various chapters finished by certain dates but i never do. Well, im not gonna be too hard on myself because its a learning process, this being the first thesis if have written, and i am happy with the work i have done – just not the time line or the process. And i dont want to be too negative cause well its just not helpful, and sometimes not true. Anyway just thought i’d be real with your face.

Days

2006-11-28T00:04:00.000+13:00

Later following after tomorrow – is so close! I wish it was further away

Later following after tomorrow i may leave to go with them like i said that i would when i thought that i would, but i may stay like i know that i should because finish i should

Following after Tomorrow I will still be writing my introduction

After Tomorrow I plan to have my introduction finished

Tomorrow I will have to work out the details of my revelation

Today i had a revelation

Yesterday I felt fat for a few minutes

Pre yesterday I was mislead regarding who’s brother was who’s and to whether it was meant in the way black people say it, the way Jesus said it or whether it was bona fide biology.

Before pre yesterday i worked from home and was not overly unhappy

In advance of before pre yesterday i ate fish in a booth with carpet under the shoes on my feet

Earlier in advance of before pre yesterday was so long ago

Prior to earlier in advance of before pre yesterday i prayed with a friend to a god

Formerly prior to earlier in advance of before pre yesterday I talked over a sea and i watched the Bennetts be wed.

See you in the future

2006-11-03T00:11:00.000+13:00

If you were a pencil you would get a sore head, because it would be constantly bashed into bits of paper and dragged along in arcs and lines. Unless you were a pencil with your head up high, then you would get sore feat, but dont be so fast to complain about that, its the sharpening I think you should be concerned bout.

If you were a diary you would know the times of and happenings of all that your user partakes in, or at least all that your user hopes to accomplish. If you were a diary would you use electric shock therapy to make your user do what they said they wanted to do? You would need a battery. You would need eyes to observe all your users movements and align them with breakfast at 8am, “work” 9am-12pm, lunch 12-1pm and so on. You would need to interpret “work” strictly. In the future people will drop all responsibility for organisation and such diaries will be the only things that will allow humanity’s exponential production of information – required for the development of intergalactic travel – to occur. Such an age will also be characterised by electronic post-it notes – that will through an amalgamation of artificial mind-reading technology and google – display just what you need to know when you look at them. If two people look at one such post-it note, he who is in greatest need shall be supplied before he who can handle to wait. Such differentiation will be determined by artificial emotion recognition technology. Emotional people will thus have faster access to information which will eventually lead to the loss of reasoned thought and the long foretold decline of civilisation into the age of confusion. Through this period a post-it note king will rule and the masses will be enslaved to the convenience and foolish instant wisdom he sprouts. But one day there will be a power failure, so great that all post-it notes will cease to function, this will be rememberd as "the day the great enchantment was broken", and the people will begin to realise a world without an amalgamation of mind-reading technology and google. They will then return to the farms of their forefathers and be at peace.

A recent survey by a scientist has revealed deep insights into what we think will happen in the future:

Probly more people get born, more people die, more stuff gets invented and more stuff gets eaten something like that

We'll b grown up. Fashion will turn bad, im imagining ppl walking around with cellphones permanently attached to their ears and wearing tight coloured silver suits

The world will run out of resources – hopefully I will be dead and my childrn cn wori bwt that

Cars running on air. cure for cancer? me getting married to a blonde?

I assume that at some point the world will end, before then I will ride a bike

I will have a sleep. Joe will say “faaarr” and “I cant believe it!” India will become a super power. Jesus will return. Batman begins 2 will be released

I hope to get a paper published in my name. actually i just wish to finish my thesis this year.

I think people will become more and more mechanical and invisibility controlled but there will also be people who... aren’t... and magic mushrooms may sprout all over the earth while mice start to talk.

I think that america will suffer another terrorist attack. Southland will win the ranfurly shield. The all blacks will win the world cup. And I will become an economist. The world will end and we will all go to heaven. But things will get interesting before then.

Such diversity of opinion led the researcher to conclude that many things will unfold in the future.

Today I wrote a blog

2006-10-23T22:44:00.000+13:00

Today I walked along the beach and kicked a ball. I dont recall the last ball that I kicked; it certainly was along ago.

I kicked it with Dan and I kicked it with Jane; I kicked it with Andrea and I triped her up on the gravel and she bleed a little. I kicked it on the sand, I kicked it on the field, I kicked it over the edge into the water and we ran to save it from the surging sea. The sea was kind, to our surprise, and waves like arms outstretched returned it.

Today, well now that I think about it, I didnt do much today.

Today was Labour day.

I ate lamb mince. I ate it with pasta. It was spaghetti bolognaise. I cooked it fast, I ate it normal. It tasted different to beef, a little.

I watched NZ Idol, I dont like NZ Idol, but she sang Michael Jackson and he sung Stevie wonder, so it was ok.

Today I critiqued my introduction section, I used the comment system in word. I added comments, I said to myself – “find a reference,” “put that there,” “say more here,” and “that is just odd”.

Today its Monday but it feels like Sunday.

A marvelous form of being

2006-10-03T13:20:00.000+13:00

Your eating chocolate coated peanuts and raisins, you come across a really small one, too small to have a raisin inside. Anyway it has a smooth coating of chocolate so it can’t be a raisin– whose coating is typically gnarled and glumpy. It’s definitely too small for a peanut! You consume it whole, biting it your front teeth cut part way through. Seems like plain chocolate, you excite in such a discovery – a blip of chocolate that when was still liquid, budded free and formed “a self” in spite of all the other chocolate that swirled and clung to nuts and to raisins. So independent, so inspirational – marvelous blip! You think it highly likely that given different circumstances bonds of friendship would be formed.

Further your teeth slice, and curiously perhaps nut they find! Absolutely illogical! – it is too small for a peanut you recall. What then do you believe of this encounter? What then of size and all you hold as possible in such regard to peanuts? Is there no truth!? How adorable to think it is a baby peanut :) No, probably it is just a chip of an adult peanut. Still you disbelieve its existence, it was too small, there were bonds forming, it was marvelous and now, its just a smaller version of the others. How rude it would be, in requirement of accuracy, to hence forth say “I am eating chocolate coated nuts, nut fragments and raisins and possibly fragmented raisins”? Contrast how joyful to declare you had discovered a new form of being! But it is crushed! Oh you lament for lost clarity, why did you not excise more carefully? Why with your hand did you not hold, and with your mouth then do the bite? Half would then be out; its cross section would be seen and its marvels would be known. Now there is but possibilities, imagination, and a wish that is lost.

Appealing to the senses

2006-09-29T15:28:00.000+12:00

Im struggling with lust. My new laptop is so hot that its distracting.
I said to my laptop, “are you wearing space pants?”.... no reply, I said “Because your ass is out of this world!”
I mean um no I didn’t say that. Goodness.

How can a machine be so attractive?

iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii love technology!
Always and forever
*Tear*
Always and forever!

My old laptop died last Friday, an electrical problem, I got a new one on Sunday. Don’t think it was worth while to get it fixed, it was just getting too old like about 5 or 6 years, though I only had it for about 3.5 of those cause I got it second hand for $900. I think I got enough life out of it.

This one is a major upgrade, my old one didn’t even have a CD burner, this one has a dual layer DVD burner. And USB 2.0 I know its been around for a while but man its so!much!faster! ahhhhhh you really appreciate stuff like that when your used to things just being slow. So good, now when I need to back up work I can just burn it, instead of copying it to a flash drive and then taking it to another computer to make a CD.

Unfortunately it came loaded with a tone of demos for puzzle games. Luckily im not the biggest fan of puzzle games, yet they can be addictive sometimes (I do have a weakness for spider solitaire!), though I suspect their appeal is only strong when Im supposed to be working on something else. Must resist.

Your Keeeeeeys are like a flock of doves…... Flyiiiiiiiiiing up to heaven above
Always and forever….

Poll results for your favourite Lost character:

Interesting that Sawyer is so popular, I wouldnt have guessed it. Also new poll alert!

How about some minted green peas?

2006-09-21T10:59:00.000+12:00

The soap in our bathroom smells like $2 shop plastic toys, it is Signature range Vanilla crème hand soap refill with vitamin E. stay way from it or be prepared for a day of cheap smelling hands.

I haven’t been in the blogosphere much recently, which is an attempt to avoid procrastination, and should only last until im finished writing up. My bloglines has about 200 posts for me to catch up on so far. Im not saying when I’ll be finished because I have proven to be completely useless at predicting such a date.

My supervisor is away on annual leave, which is actually no big problem because I have been working from home mostly and haven’t needed her help during this stage. When your at home you don’t have to make your lunch, which is so much better, cause I mean who actually likes making lunch in the morning? Any one? I don’t, but I do it cause it saves money. Anyway when your at home you can just make it at lunch time. Or when you live 5 min from Uni you can walk home at lunch time, those were the days! And Dan used to cook me eggs some times in those days. I felt loved. And Becs gave me neck massages. I felt loved. Anyway back to lunches, yeah I have been having grilled cheese toasties with spaghetti and baked beans and avocado and oregano and sweet basil and tomato paste and lemon pepper seasoning and colby cheese and chicken nuggets with BBQ sauce, but not all mixed together. By the way, what happened to Oprah, whats day time TV with out her? Must be in-between seasons or something cause all that is on at lunch time is Dr Phil or even worse… Tyra! Hahahaha so SCARY! She just makes me cringe, though in fairness I didn’t stick around too long to make a full evaluation.

Oh, Me and Joe’s lifegroup are hot, and wildly handsome, I mean hot because we won the Oscars (short film competition), and wildly handsome because all the ladies say so. We didn’t get banned from it this year, a bit disappointing considering all the violence we threw in there. But oh well you cant be an underground cult favorite all the time. But man some of the others were pretty funny, If you havnt seen them yet look out for the Bollywood one and Captain Commandment, both absolutely hilarious, and the rest all stepped it up this year, it was a great night with a pretty big attendance. Thanks Jared and the team who organized it!!!

And so I see how much I need God

2006-09-14T10:26:00.000+12:00

I am more and more convinced that it is god who does a good work in me. I just know and have seen my life crumble as I battled on my own. If only I had realized sooner how much I was ignoring god. Where would I be if I had of spent the battle in his arms? Now I will run, as fast as I can into those arms. Now I know my folly was any battle I went into on my own. My only hope is in him, and it is good for it to be there.

Two weeks

2006-08-25T13:54:00.000+12:00

Being under sun, being permeated and restored is so good. Being whisked away by words is so good. Trouble melting is so good. Coffee is better when you are relaxed rather than tense. Computer problems are frustrating, computers working are so good. I hope I will be finished writing before my supervisor goes on holiday, in two weeks.

A bit of graphic design with some word processing on the side

2006-08-18T17:05:00.000+12:00

Hello world. Today I am in a weird mood. Its hard to explain. Its not weird in a good way. Which leaves a bad way by default. A default I’m not totally sure really matches as a label for this mood, but which I suppose is correct in its bluntness. I think I’m frustrated at progress in my thesis. I have spent a long time composing figures from all my results. I am very happy with how things are shaping up, my figures look hot! In a scientific way. But, these great degrees of hot have taken greatly from my bank of time, that now I am poor and I try to be thrifty. Which is hard, cause I like to tinker with my figures getting them to be just right. But I am moving on baby. On to Microsoft Word, I see that Corel Draw in my rear mirror and I say, farewell O great tool of creativity, aid in the pursuit of all things good to the eye and the mind. Where in such equality of purpose, synergy is. Though away from me, drain of time. In Microsoft Word will I create now. Not of visuals like that of a graph, a photo or scanned dark bands upon white backgrounds. No, now I create with words, visual I guess, considering no brail will be used. I will be back to Corel Draw, and I shant be gone long. More figures are yet to be composed, yet more toil and tinkering, to end justly in satisfaction.

I think my thesis is actually going to be good now. I found out that another student in my lab has been able to reproduce some of the results I got. Which I can tell you was the greatest thing I have heard at least in the past few months! im just vaguely pulling that time scale out in the hope it will suggest to you that It was a really big deal to me. I think I can move on a bit now and not doubt my work so much. Perhaps I have actually figured something out during all this, perhaps I actually got something right! Astonishing, exciting, motivating me on.

The Queen drinks Earl Grey

2006-08-05T13:10:00.000+12:00

Personally I prefer English Breakfast.

My new Saturday morning routine involves going swimming at 9am for about an hour at Moana pool. I have done this for the past three weeks and it has been pretty good. I feel so relaxed afterwards. Then I have a late breakfast and coffee :) There is this one girl who is also there every Saturday at the same time as me. Just an observation, don’t read into it.

The latest update on my masters is... its taking so long and going so slow. Oh wait that’s nothing new. A more informative update is that I will be finished by the 8^th September. That’s when my supervisor goes on holiday for two and a half weeks, and there is no way I am submitting anything she hasn’t checked. I think she is just doing it to make me hurry up. Because we all know the world revolves around me.This is my desk in the write up room on the 8th floor of the microbiology building, this is where i am most of the time these days.

Is that sun? Yes friend it is a beautifully sunny day in Dunedin.

3 post-it notes or 4?

Is that a 2 megapixle photo? I dont think I had my camera set to the best quality.

Would that be work on my laptop screen? No freind that is blogger.

Just for some perspective, this is the view from the window on my left.

Hey is that Dave Lim re-enacting last weeks All blacks victory against the Wallabies?

Is that a snotty tissue?

Hey I can see my house from here.

Did anyone see 3 news a few days ago. They showed some NZ first MP pulling the fingers in parliament 3 times. I thought the whole think was hilarious. 3 news were obviously very proud of their footage cause they kept repeating it.

I may have eaten too much chocolate recently. I brought 3 king sized blocks from Countdown on Wednesday and am already into the second one three days later. Oh well. Plus I brought two snickers bars, I’m pretty sure its about my time to win a free one. Just have to remember not to throw away the wrapper before checking it. That was so gutting when I did that. I mean you cant help thinking that there was a 1 in 6 chance (or even more considering I had already brought a few) that it was a winner!

Our lifegroup has started planning our Oscar video, its quite complicated at the moment but will be awesome and very memorable if we can pull it off. That’s all I’m saying baby. Oh and there will be some Michael Jackson. If you hadn’t noticed, and you probably hadn’t, all the Oscar videos I have been involved with have had a Michael Jackson song or a cover of a Michael Jackson song.

Lost

2006-07-26T12:12:00.000+12:00

[This post does not contain spoilers]
It’s certainly time for a new poll. Its been a week since the conclusion of Season 2 of Lost. Although the season had a bit of a lull in the middle where nothing happened, it ended well enough with some interesting developments. There are trillions of characters in Lost but this poll is restricted to the main survivors of Oceanic Flight 815, even then there are quite a few to choose from. So it will be interesting to see who people actually like. Even if your not a regular watcher of Lost but you have seen some of it and have a favorite character then just vote based on that. But if you really don’t know then don’t feel left out cause there is an option for that too! As for me I joined the party late so haven’t even seen season 1, though I might get round to watching it on DVD sometime in the future. I find it interesting how the characters seem to change quite a lot, especially when you get to know them better form their back stories. Usually these back stories make me like a character less becasue they are often doing something stupid or just being annoying. Where as on the island they seem to be way cooler. Perhaps its not so much that they are changing but that we just get to see different sides of them that we didnt expect.

Results for which super power would you most want are:

How surprising that only one person voted for fire breathing. Considering that if you were lost in the woods it would be very helpful at keeping warm and cooking food. Perhaps we need an appreciation for the simpler things in life.

Wont somebody please think of the children?

2006-07-23T21:45:00.000+12:00

Hey guess what, I have a new flat mate and guess what his name is... its Jared, and I already have a flatmate called Jared. And guess what else, I lost a flatmate (who still retains friend status), her name was Kirsten and guess what she moved into a flat that already had a Kirsten. How absurd, you would think the world could learn to share its Jared’s and it’s Kirstens around a little more fairly. I mean here in the west we have only 20% of the worlds population and yet we hog 80% of the Jared’s and 79% of the Kirstens. And lets not forget those in need within our own communities, the people that go without every single day. Some people don’t even know a Jared or a Kirsten, let alone live with one. Perhaps we need to ask once again, What would Jesus do?

I know your thinking... so crazy in Justin’s life right now!

Tell me about it.

Today I had lunch with Abby, and six other cool chicks. We talked about, sorry I mean they talked about romance, marriage proposals and kidnappings, I just took it all in. It seems to me that it doesnt matter how crappie you propose to your bonny lass, as long as it makes for a funny story in the future.

Dictionary trivia: Bonny means “healthy and good looking”.

I hope you have a bonny day, and that you will go to Bonny Dune, and see the Bonny rolling hills/high voltage power lines... ahhhhh the serenity.

So bonny right now.

I see your drinking 1%... is that cause you think your not bonny?

I caught you a bonny bass.

The superiority of Axes to Shares in regards to ownership transfer

2006-07-15T12:14:00.000+12:00

I have little aim too this post, except that I want to. Which is why on this Saturday morning that I type click click click, and share my thoughts to those scattered and aggregated, each enjoying their own Saturday mornings, or not.

Do you know what a good Birthday present is? How about shares? Well if you think that you would be wrong. Because if you buy shares for someone else, you still own them dont you! So how do you really give them to someone else? Shares are not designed to be easy Birthday presents. Now on the other hand an Axe is wonderfully designed for ease of ownership transfer. You just give it and its gone from you to them. An axe is a great present if you really want the receiver to remember for the rest of their life what you got them. For one thing people don’t buy that many axe’s do they? Compared to CD’s which there are infinity of. And Books which there are infinity x 10 of. Be careful to wrap your axe appropriately so the receiver doesn’t get hurt. I suspect cardboard would make for good wrapping material. However an axe is only a cool present once per circle of friends. After that the originality factor = 0 and the axe becomes just a piece of sharp metal, might as well get a knife. Unless it becomes an "in thing" where everyone has to have an axe. Then if you don't get someone an axe for their birthday, they will feel left out and un-cool, you might as well get nothing.

Tables, so hot right now, tables

2006-07-12T14:06:00.000+12:00

This post is unlikely to be the most great of all posts ever wirtten. But it shall be a filler a piece to fill the space of time which has past since post titled ‘Fruit Sticks’. All fruit sticks have been consumed and in an interesting act of self will no more have been purchased. I say interesting because it really didnt require much will, it just happened and life went on, candyless yet satisfied. Which reminds me of that Toblerone that Jared brought me, I really could do with eating that right now, alas it is at home where I am not. Not to be for probably eight more hours, by which time I will not eat it, due to proximity of time to be in bed and sleep to be done.

Since finishing my Materials and Methods sections a week ago I have struggled through trying to get my results into figures. This part is alot harder than the previous, due to the mess that is my results. I dont even like to look at them. Its just a painful process that makes me feel like I could have done everything so much better. Mahh I just have to get over it and do do do it.

I have learnt how to make a table look so much hotter than imaginable. The secrete is to remove all vertical lines and only use horizontal lines sparingly, also using a double line in certian places can really add to the beauty. Im telling you this will make your tables look 20 years younger in minutes! Observe for your self:

Ugly:

Hot:

A revolution in table formatting is upon us!

Fruit sticks

2006-07-04T13:28:00.000+12:00

Things are rather quiet around the place. All but one of my flatmates are absent and many other humans I know are away. But I have been busy writing my thesis. Which has been going OK. I have a desk in the “write up room” which is where people go to write their thesis’s after completing their experiments. Which I have completed (bar one quick thing). To keep me going I have been eating lots of fruit sticks, which are basically flavored sugar sticks, ah they are so good. I used to buy them for 5cents from the dairy in my younger days, but now I get them for 79c/100g from New World. Yesterday I went back for my third lot, each time I get even more than before. My mum says I should eat nuts, but fruit sticks are cheaper. Last week I wrote my Materials and Methods section, I didn’t think it would take all week but making sure I got all the small details right took a bit of time, plus I had a job interview which I had to prepare for.

Yes that’s right I had a job interview last Thursday. I haven’t really been hunting for jobs yet, because I want to focus on finishing my thesis. But I got an email sent to me about this one form Seek.co.nz and thought it looked cool enough to at least apply. The interview went ok. But thats all, just ok. I didnt pick up many positive vibes from them so I didn’t feel they were that excited about me. Anyway I guess that’s for them to decided not me. From my perspective it would be an awesome job, the company seems pretty interesting. Should know in about a week after they have interviewed everyone else. I’m not too worried about it because there are other options I have in terms of post thesis employment. Plus I gave the whole process my best effort (in terms of preparing my CV and preparing for the interview). So I place my best effort in gods hands and will be happy however it turns out.

I Saw Superman returns on Thursday which was ok but not great, just a bit too shallow really. Though there were a few good parts, the opening credits for one were awesome! Pirates of the Caribbean is coming out this week it looks ok but im not too sure, it could go both ways really. But then I never expected the first one to be any good and it actually was. Plus I think I need to see the first one again because dont remember a whole lot of the storyline.

Someone wrote me a letter last week which really touched me, seriously it was a really good letter! One thing I have noticed about experiencing love is it makes you want to love others. Part of it is that you want others to also know how good it feels, but it is also more than that... its like a substance which you have acquired. Almost like currency, so that before you were poor and had no love to give but afterwards you become rich and have something to give. Or its like a learned skill, so that after someone has shown you love, you then know how to love others. It seems though that things come down to our perception of love, since god loves us always unconditionally yet we can be so blind to it. I think I need a greater understanding of gods love.

In other news regarding love, my mum gave me some $ to get some new pants. She is always worried about me being too cold. So now I think my pants shortage is almost over. Yesssssssss!

CMOS, pronounced – see moss

2006-06-22T13:36:00.000+12:00

I fixed up my laptop real good and I can do other stuff real good to. You see there was this major annoyance problemO where I would hit the power button on my laptoppy O and leave it to turn on O just to have it say heck NO. It would complain that I had not set the date and time correctly, even though I totally had set it proper and good. But all I had to do was hit F1 and the computer started up... but then Windows would jump on board and stop the start up again and be all like Hey you didn’t set the date and time correctly, then it would have the little OK button. Yes OK, freakin OK! I would just hit enter and it would carry on normally. The clock in the bottom right corner (such a good place for a clock to be) would be totally in another year and just all wrong, as much as I tried to help it, it never remember what the time actually was.

After extensive investigation the problem was diagnosed as a flat CMOS battery. Yeah like what the heck is that. Well I’ll tell you it is very important for remembering the time whilst your computer is powered off. Thus began the quest of battery replacement. Many dragons were slain along the way – metaphorically. John Eldridge would have be proud of such an adventure to live and such a beauty to rescue (that’s my laptop baby!). Especially when I found the true heart of the computer, which was the wounded and neglected CMOS battery. The journey into the heart was more difficult than initially expected. All screws were removed and yet they beauty held its self together, afraid to let me inside. Not knowing what to do I turned to the world (wide web) for answers. I came across photos and descriptions of how to dismantle a laptop, I came a across numerous warnings of the dangers, all of this helped but still it was not enough. Still I had no specifics on my exact model. My beauty – Compaq Presario 1400 (14XL343 to be precise). Who would fight for its heart if not I? Who would mend its wound? The world (wide web) didn’t have the answers. I turned to the maker, I hooked up with an online technician through the Compaq web site his name was Shawn and he showed me the written word, the pdf manual for my exact model, full of diagrams and instructions on how to get not just to the heart but to everything. I was so grateful. My search for answers had be satisfied. Now it was time to do it. I unscrewed the screws and pulled the correct bits off, I found the battery, silver and shiny. I wrote its name down and brought a new one from Dick Smiths for $10. I took out the old and put in the new. All the while being careful to ground my self by touching a large metal object, very important in avoiding electrostatic discharge which is basically the devil at work. My beauty now has new life, no longer does it stop and stall during start up, it sails plain through. Now it knows the truth, that its 12.07 am on the 22nd June 2006, that truth and that new heart have set it free.

The journey did not stop there friend, oh no not at all! So many greater things were in store! It was really just the beginning to the life this Compaq Presario 1400 was always made for. There are 5 purposes... just kidding, I wont go there. I will finish with a to be continued. So tune in next time folks... will Justin’s beauty really be able to live out of its new heart? What about its old and slow ways of thinking? What more perils await our intrepid computer fixer as he shapes his machine into the greatest thesis witting beast of all time?!

Super... Mario!

2006-06-12T15:50:00.000+12:00

We all want to be Super. Like Super Mario. But what do you have that is so Super? Can you jump and bash blocks and leap over chasms real good? And do other stuff real good too? Like eating mushrooms and becoming invincible and extra large and white and shoot fire balls? ha? ha? Can you put on a hat with wings and fly? Its all about finding the right hat that will give the right super power. Its a me!

We all know that chicks like guys with skills. And super skills I’m sure are all the more appealing, alternatively you could just bake cakes or something (no I’m not growing out of that movie anytime soon). So vote in the new poll for which super power you would most want. Some guidelines are provided bellow.

Invisibility, means that nobody can see you... unless using a high tech thermal imaging device. Would be helpful at avoiding people, being sneaky, and would make for a good stunt to pull on your one hundred and eleventh birthday.

Flying, means that you can propel yourself through thin air, without the aid of any device. You can fly up to 500km per hour. Like other forms of physical exertion it requires energy, the faster you fly the tiereder you get, and the bigger the mess, and if you drink and fly then you will crash and die and be a certain type of idiot. Would make travel more cheap and fast, would be lots of fun and you could give friends a ride on your back. Perhaps you will find Neverland, take the second to the right and straight on 'till morning, hopefully you wont end up in California.

Telepathy, means you can read peoples minds. It is something you can turn on and off so you don’t always have to be listening which would be quite draining. You can only read one person at a time, and its really hard to do if they or someone else are talking to you at the same time, but you will get used to it after a while. It also means that you will have no friends... unless nobody knows or don’t care. Would be useful at understanding what women want, or what anybody wants, could help reduce communications problems and you could become know as the human lie detector.

Teleportation, means you can zap form one place to another in a few seconds. But you have to know how to get to where you are going so you have to have been to that place before. It is not possible to simply look at a photograph or video footage. Attempting to teleport based on such flimsy evidence may lead to becoming stuck in teleportation space which pretty much means being lost forever. You can teleport anywhere on earth but not to the moon or mars or anywhere else. Unless you first fly out to the moon, then you can teleport around the moon, but not back to earth... its just too far. Attempting to teleport such large distances may result in death. If you drink and teleport you may end up in the wrong place and be late for work, but why are you drinking before work anyway, gosh! Would be as useful as a washing machine, it will save you time on boring things like travel so you can spend it on the things you love, because being there is everything.

Time stoppage, means you can stop time for the whole world except yourself. So basically everybody freezes in the middle of whatever they are doing and you can just walk around and do normal stuff. If used too often will result in aging faster than your peers. Would be useful in finishing an assignment, meeting people on time, being the only kid in school with a mustache, and basically cheating in all kinds of ways.

Alter appearance, means you can change into anything you have the imagination for but must take up the same volume as your current self, in one piece. Would be good for espionage, hide and seek and getting what you want.

Breath fire, means you can exhale fire from your mouth, just like a dragon. You can alter the distance of the flame depending how hard you exhale but limit of up to two meters. Would be hand in many situations. Many.

Super human strength, means you can have the strength of 20 men or 40 woman... whichever you prefer. The strength is physical and applies to all muscles in the body. Would be useful for leaping over buildings in a single bound, opening jars, lifting cars, self defense and becoming governor.

Results form the previous poll are:
The best part of a fruit crumble is:

14 % The fruit
71% The crumble
10% No preference
5% I dont like fruit crumble's

No real surprise here, the crumble wins and I still cant figure out why but crumble is sooooo good. Its tempting to just make only crumble (it has been done) but admittedly the apple or whatever else does add something. I like to think of it as a synergistic relationship. 1+1 = 3. or perhaps 1 +2 = 4. where apple is 1 crumble is 2 but together they are 4.

Well cool yeah

2006-06-04T17:44:00.000+12:00

It was the best of times... I mean it was well cool yeah! Which is the English way of saying really really cool. You see My Mum is from a city called Colchester in England and all her side of the family still live in England so I have like infinity cousins over there only two of which I have ever meet – Emily who visited with her mum about 5 years ago when I was still living in Hamilton, and her older sister Amanda who stayed a couple of nights with us when I flatted on Castle st. This time Emily came to NZ as part of her Masters to do a placement at the New Zealand film archive in Wellington. Then she came to Dunedin just to see me :) awww... and to have a good time. Which I think we had. We did some of the standard Dunedin stuff like Baldwin street (which incase you don’t know is like the steepest in the world), Otago and Settlers museums, Signal hill, Mt Cargill, St Kilda/St Clair beach, shopping and the peninsular, amongst some other things.

Man I love the peninsular, it just gets better every time. The group for our big peninsular adventure was Me and Emily, my flatmate Kirsten and Kirsten’s little red car. We went right to the end where the Albatross place is. We didnt go on the tour but when we were mucking around near the car park a Albatross flew right over our heads (for free!) and then swooped back round for a second pass, it was awesome! I have never seen them that close before. Its wing span was huge. There were a couple of seagulls nearby that were pretending to be Albatros’s. Our theory was that the seagulls like to hang out there because they get more attention when people mistake them for Albatross’s. We were not fooled. We then had hot chocolate at the cafe and discovered that Emily (who is a vegetarian) cant eat marshmallows because they have gelatin in them – which is made form animals. So lucky me I got her marshmallows – whilst this was not the highlight of the trip it was a very joyous occasion – and it was to be repeated a couple of days later at another cafe. It’s strange to think that when eating marshmallows you are eating part of an animal, I mean its just not as obvious as chicken or mince beef. But I guess even then you dont think about the animals cause its not shaped like an animal, you dont sit there and think I wonder if this chicken had large talons??? But umm thats of topic. Oh and now that I think about it you can buy chicken that still resembles a chicken.

We then went to the infamous Sandfly bay which none of us had been to before. This is the place to go to see Penguins... supposedly, I mean I was really a bit skeptical. Its just that penguins are not the sort of thing you see that often, or ever. So I was just getting my self emotionally prepared for the possibility that the penguins might rather swim that day than come onto the beach. Its about a 30 min walk to a little hut at the end of the beach where you are supposed to hid and spy on incoming penguins. Now even if we saw nothing it was a beautiful walk along the beach, it was overcast and moody and the waves were so wild... I actually feelt like jumping in for a swim but I had no togs or towel. Before we got to the hut we encountered 3 sealions just chilling out on the sand. Sealions are bold and boisterous, rare and beautiful. One of them roared at us. From the Hut we actually saw two penguins... that were climbing/jumping up the side of a hill! It was crazy I dont know where they were going. I would have liked to have gone up to see them a bit closer but its about respect and we didnt want to annoy them. On the way back we saw two more penguins one of which did a run and dive back into the sea which was awesome cause they run so cutely! Kind of like a waddle :) Im totally going back to Sandfly bay in the future and I hear there is another great bay near buy. Still so much to discover.

Other highlights of Emilies vist including getting to show her what a modern church service is like (that’s Elim baby!). Dinner at Filadelfio's and a roast we had a home with some other pep's (on seperate nights). Oh and we watched Napoleon Dynamite together and The Brady Bunch movie... and the third Brady Bunch Movie! Which was actually a bit bellow average cause they didnt have the same cast as the original two. But it was cool to watch it with her cause both her and my family were crazy about it when we were kids and I mean I still rate them pretty highly. OH my nose! Now I’ll never be a teen model what’s the point in living I might as well die!!! Marsha Marsha Marsha! Hey there groovy chick... your happening in a far-out kinda way ;) and oh so many many more great scenes/quotes its just classic! Dont even try to deny it.

Yeah had an awesome few days with Emily and the people that joined us for various things. Its funny to think it was only the second time i’d ever met her and we get on so well. Im sure we will have more great times in the future as we both do some travel!

Ok so random fact about Emily... her boyfriend has painted 3 larger than life size paintings of her that were recently on display in a London Gallery. How cool is that.

Well cool I'd say!

24 hours of a second hand book sale

2006-05-27T10:32:00.000+12:00

Sorry about the hiatus. Busyness mostly. So what O great things do I have to divulge and share amongst the crowds that gather?

Last Friday (I know its a week ago but I really have some catching up to do) I brought 16 second hand books from the Regent 24 hour book sale, hehehehe I got a bit carried away, lucky my flatmate Dan showed up so I dumped them in his car, which saved me carrying them home on my bike. Which actually I wouldn’t have even been able to do because I locked my back-pack into the Wellcome Institute. This happened because I lostified my student ID card, which has the swipeable power needed to access the building, gosh. I lost it at the sale. Arg I stood at the door completely devoid of swiping power and thought... should I go back and look for it? – at the sale where lots of people are, or should I just get a new one and come back for my bag on Monday? The last option seemed easier cause I didnt feel like biking back to the Octagon but I got over it and went back for a hunt. I did nay find it. Two days latter this guy called Sam Benton (who no lives in a different City/Island to me not to mention universe) txt’s me to say that Thida has my ID card. Ha so cool I was quite happy about that. Turns out Thida’s flat0 mate found it in the Octagon and totally recognized my good looks. So Im stoked that someone who knew me found it I mean what are the possibilities! Plus I dont even know the guy that well but meet him last year, so lucky Thida is cool enough that he wanted to still be her flatmate this year! And Lucky Sam is cool enough that Thida has his phone number and I am cool enough that Sam has mine and your cool I guess for reading all about this. *Lucky*. It all just worked out in a web of coolness that I know and you know and together we know. Thanks god.

So 16 books I hear you marvel. Yes I respond intelligently... I mean modestly.

Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen), read it in 7th form its great.
Sense and Sensibility (Jane Austen), Its almost time to give Jane Austen another shot
Doctor Zhivago (Boris Pasternak), the movie is awesome but sad at times, im scared cause it will be an emotional read.
Songs from Robert Burns, ummm he lives in the Octagon
Twelfth Night (Shakespeare), it is such a cute edition
Merchant of Venice (Shakespeare), read this in 6th form its very clever
The War Of The Worlds (H.G. Wells), classic SciFi plus it looks short, yesssssss.
Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte), give me a break it was only $1.50
The Romantic Poets (An Anthology), not really me but Ill give it a go
A Passage to India (E.M. Forster), sounds like an adventure - which were the staple of my childhood reading.
Vanity Fair (W.M. Thackeray), umm could be O.K.
The Voyage of the Beagle (Charles Darwin), could be interesting as a scientist, though it could also be really boring.
Ivanhoe (Sir Walter Scott), herd this is a real classic, looks hard to read though
To the Lighthouse (Virginia Woolf), ah so good have wanted to own it since I read it last year.
The Way of All Flesh (Samuel Butler), never herd of it but sounds like there might be a morale to the story... hopefully
A Tale of Two Cities (Charles Dickens), a cool first paragraph is enough to interest me.

Heck I dont know if Im going to read them all but they were soooo cheap I just decided to buy anything that looked interesting. Most of them cost $1.50, because I went upstairs to the expensive section, these ones were all from a series of great writers and were in hard back, at a normal 2nd hand store they would cost between $6 and $12. There was a volunteer guy upstairs who was really helpful I told him I was looking for literature and he just kept searching up and down the isle and bringing me books! I think the girl beside me was jealous of my Pride and Prejudice and Jane Eyre. A few of the others I got were 50c which is what most of the books at the sale cost. Such a bargain. Even if I dont read all of them at least our flat book shelf looks super impressive now.

In my Hot new pants

2006-05-14T22:51:00.000+12:00

I crashed into a girl whilst on my bike, I was turning into a driveway and she was walking along the foot path then she stopped, just stopped and had a good old google at I don’t know what. Maybe I was expecting too much but I thought she was going to keep walking. It seems her expectations were different to mine and she stopped. Luckily I didn’t really crash full on into her, I just hit her back pack and shoved her over a couple of steps, nothing serious she didn’t get hurt or fall over. She did give out a squeal and her friend (who had actually kept walking and was about two meters away – where she should be!) gave me the evils. I apologised and said that I hadn’t expected her to stop. Maybe I was just blame shifting but I didn’t want here to think I did it on purpose! We both weren’t very happy with each other but went on our ways without a fuss. When I told one of the lab technicians about the incident I got right told off. I was told that if that girl wanted to stop on the foot path then she had the right to do that. I thought that was a good call so decided to accept the blame for not giving her enough room. Heck I still don’t know what she stopped to gawk at. Hope it was worth it. Am I a danger to the community? Dogs and daydreamers beware!

Today I brought some new jeans. I have been meaning to for a while because all but 1 of my jeans are ripped at the knees. A couple of weeks ago I was wearing some pants and realised that they made me feel UGLY. They were just way too big for me, I really suck when it comes to getting the right fitting size. Last year I got some socks and undines without looking at the size! They were too small I just gave them away. Also on the topic of UGLY, there was a situation a couple of weeks ago where I needed old clothes, so I took a couple of old T-shirts to this situation. When I put the first one on and looked in the mirror I actually exclaimed out loud “God this must be the UGLIEST shirt in the WHOLE WORLD!!” It was horrifying to think that I actually ever worn it. Uhhh it was sooooo baggy, and the sleeves, oh the sleeves! They went to my elbows! Ahhhhh it was so horrible. It wasn’t even worthy of being used in an old clothes situation. Oh and it was V neck, which is not so bad but really didn’t work with the whole baggyness. Its OK though because I don’t have to wear it and haven’t for along time. Plus now I have some Hot new pants, so I don’t have to wear my ripped jeans (as much) and UGLY green pants can just be for old clothes situations. Its funny how putting on a different pair of pants can switch me from feeling UGLY to feeling HOT. Sorry but they do, well for the moment… until they to become the UGLIEST things ive ever seen. Why do we play this fickle game? I mean I actually don’t try to play the keeping up with fashion game, but somehow it still manages to afflict me with its judgments of cool and uncoolness. Infiltrating its way into my confidence in how I look.

Thanks Sam and Mel for the encouraging comments! I have to say im not out of the place that I wrote about in my previous post, but this is not a new place for me. It’s a place of facing a sense of current and past failure as well as impending failure every day. Its inspite of this still hoping that the future will be different. Its realising that when im discouraged I tend to procrastinate and so have to constantly structure my time to avoid wasting it. Its re-assessing my expectations that were too high and seeing success in reality. Its remembering the big picture, why I’m doing this research. Its hearing from god that he is taking me through this hard time so that I can be prepared for the future. There is a purpose. He has not thrown me away. The battle is remembering and believing these things.

Disappointment and Hope

2006-05-07T17:38:00.000+12:00

Ya know I really do struggle to come up with blogs these days. Its Sunday and it seems that Sunday is when I leave blog writing till because Its my day off real work. This morning Pastor Mike0 preached on sowing and reaping it was funny and true and also timely because I have been thinking a little about this subject recently. Mostly in that my relationship with god is not where I want it to be because I don’t really give it the time and focus it needs to develop. Im looking forward to Dan’s sermon tonight which is about desiring god.

I feel like I need some rest, some stillness.

Im glad that I can see my research is going to wrap up soon, so that I can start writing my thesis. I do fear though that I might not make it in time for August graduation. Which would be terrible because my parents already have flights down! I really hope that the writing process will go smoothly and that the marking will be done in time for August. I think I will need gods help to make this happen. There are so many experiments I wanted to do but never got done. But I have been doing this for long enough now and I have to stop somewhere. I should have enough to write about anyway. Still its hard to not feel like a failure. Oh science you illustrious wonder that sucked me in with all your glory and beat me down by confusing the truth and drained my passion with your countless obstacles. Sometimes you have to accept the disappointment and not let it become discouragement which is a terrible scourge of productivity. If I could do this all again I would do so much differently! I guess that is a good thing, at least I have learnt a lot. I have had a taste of what doing a PhD might be like. Not easy that’s what! And at least being a Christian I can find hope in god, if only I would find it more often! Hope is very helpful.

And then...

2006-05-03T17:37:00.000+12:00

Poll results for: Which tastes better…

36% Marmite
14% Vegemite
9% They are equally good
41% Both are disgusting

Clearly Marmite is the better in the majority of opinion. Though im sure if you like Vegemite that wont phase you too much, you have probably felt like the underdog all your life oh well don’t take it too hard its just a spread. What’s up with all the people who think they both are disgusting! That’s certainly more haters than I predicted. And really I don’t know what to say to those two people who like both! Before I meet my flatmate Jared I didn’t believe anyone was in this category. Though I guess its not a bad position to be in, you can be easily satisfied with either, and you wont have to offend any Vegemite lovers when caught in a vegemite or nothing situation. Still it just feels wrong.

The newest poll is inspired by a post on Nam’s blog and also because I had apple crumble last night that was really really good (made by the Kevin Tay).

Today I have been playing with the confocal microscope which I just learnt to use yesterday it has been fun. I have gotten some good photos of my cells, and hopefully Ill be able to get even better ones when I go back on Friday.

Now I am off to lifegroup (Dan’s one) which is $2 burger and chips at the cook (seems to cheap to be true) and then Combined prayer meeting at Apo. and then I shall go to Scotts and watch Lost and on the way I will pick up my N64 (which is actually my brothers) which I lent to Stevo’s flat. and then I will come home and do some reading and then I will go to bed and then I will fall asleep and then I shall awake and then it will be Thursday. woop woop.

Autumn is well underway

2006-04-30T17:55:00.000+12:00

Lots of stuff has been going on this week. Tuesday was ANZAC day, I went to my first ever dawn service. I really enjoyed it at the time, but later in the week thought maybe it glorifies war too much. I think there is a fine line between remembering the sacrifice and glorifying the sacrifice. In the midst of remembering the heroism and the self sacrifice for our freedom we really have to remember the waste and the suffering. This above all should be what makes us both angry and grateful. I watched part of a TV programme that showed a TV presenter (sorry cant remember her name) who was travelling through Europe recounting the journey her great uncle made during WWI. I was amazed at the memorials they had that were specifically for N.Z. soldiers. One town had a picture of N.Z. on its foot path. Another held a nightly memorial service for N.Z. soldiers (and maybe others but I didn’t quite pick it up), they have had this service every night since the end of WWI (except a few times in WWII). Isn’t that incredible!

Yesterday was Man Camp, which is the yearly camp for the guys in Cutting Edge from church. We were originally going to go to Enhakkore in Ranfurly but plans were changed so that we could help the flood victims. It rained a lot on Tuesday and Wedensday, the Leith was as full as I have ever seen it and some farms and houses were flooded in the Taiere area. Pastor Mike decided to go and see what help was needed and how our church could help. Some people went out on Thursday and Friday and a bigger group (about 50) of us went on Saturday. The first house I was at didn’t need much, we helped them chuck their carpet and white ware into a skip. Then we went down the road to a farm and cleared all their fences. There were a lot of fences that had collected lots of grass, branches, sheep crap and fire wood we spent the morning pulling it away from the fences into piles and then latter in the day we pilled it into trailers and moved it all into one huge pile. My body is very achy today! The owner of the land said we saved him 3 months work! His wife said when she woke up that morning she had burst into tears becasue there was so much to do and she didnt know where to sart. Wow, shows the difference you can make with a big group. It was really just great to do something practical for people and show them love, especially at a time when they were in need. They feed us pretty good with heaps of baking (Jared Clowe reckons he ate the best slice he has ever had in his whole entire life! Yeah I didn’t get any of that slice it went fast) and sandwiches and soup and pies and other stuff. It was heaps of fun working with cool people and getting to know some of the new Cutting Edger’s. I feel so old when I have to tell them Im in my 6th year at Uni. I meet one dude who is studying Economics and we had a conversation which reminded me of 7th form Economics – I was reminiscing of what seems like so long ago, but for him it was just last year. Crikey!

Today as I was at this computer in the library I became dissociated from my water bottle. There was a water bottle to my right but it was just a bit too far to my right that I thought it must belong to the person on my right. But then they went and another person came and I noticed that there was a similar looking water bottle also placed just a little too far to my right, all water bottles look the same these days. But then that person also left and the bottle remained. I was suspicious because there was a lid of a water bottle on my left side and there was no water bottle in my bag so where was my water bottle?! Maybe that one just a bit too far on the right was mine? But what if it wasn’t! What if I started drinking from someone else’s bottle right in front of their face! How rude would that be! So I waited for that person to leave, just waiting for my opportunity to get my water bottle back. But they didn’t leave and I got thirsty. In a flash of bravery I reached out and took the water bottle, for a moment I paused I waited for their reproach. None came then I sipped and drank of the water and still none came, and so I placed it in front of me, safe in front of me.

In our sky flashings

2006-04-23T15:46:00.000+12:00

At the hub there is a light cast above and scattered down upon my head all over my face and into my eyes and I see! I see the hub a wheel of six people facing inwards, towards screens of a mystical world. The hub casts its crown over us, it holds us warm under its wings and we sit happy held and centred. My screen is so flat it exudes its sheen. A black nameless tower gives me all the power I need. My optical mouse glows red, brother to this key board, long white and buttony. Oh no! Our hub turns out to be an alien spacecraft that has been sitting here waiting still since the dawn of time, waiting for this very now, ABDUCTION! Run! Save yourselves its too late for me now…. I am taken.

Our hub is spinning around and around. Others too, all of the other hubs have been activated. It spins but I feel no torque, it spins but I see everything clear without a blur, how do I even know that it spins? It hums at least I know that. Upwards and through cement, books, glass, people, some good some bad we pass through them all. To dust to bits of what once was it all passes and crashes as we blast through, churning the world from within our hub. Pages of paper fly around in tornados of duplicated information safe not here but somewhere else. Abduction! What will meet us there? Like an earthquake, like a very shaky afternoon, like some kind of volcanic activity which bursts us sky high with a force that slams us to the floor. It’s a glass floor its like Charlie’s great glass elevator. I think I’ve been here before, no wait that was something else. The view is of what’s below. Of receding homes, lives and miscellaneous structures. In my view are other spinning hubs. We are a flock travelling together. Away we ascend we are flashings in a sky of brewing storms. Shadows and cold are cast below but heat fills our hub, sparks and fire explode around us and there are some fireworks too. It’s a terribly dark time for celebration.

Things are getting a bit out of hand I feel, I would like to know what’s the meaning of all this. Now I can stand up, the we that were six is now the me that is one. Alone I feel, alone in my hub, this sky flashing. Why am all by myself? I don’t want to be all by myself. The sheen of my screen has not diminished. The glow of my mouse is still red and my seat is comfortable. There is a message of choice on my screen. One - safe escape from this situation of lofty extravagance. Two – continuance, discovery of the splendour that lies beyond, breaking the final frontier, making for myself a new life amongst the cosmos, encountering the makers of this hub. Clearly the five choose escape. Clearly I will too. I push the big red button and fall down. As I fall I look back, watching my hub flash away with the flock beyond angry clouds. The downpour of water is such that my escape capsule seems submerged. I swim I fall. In delirious confusion I give all my weight to gravity, I embrace its tug and I thud to ground.

Warbirds over Wanaka

2006-04-18T17:05:00.000+12:00

So there was a weekend and it was two days ago. but lets make it 3, not because I want to mess with the official calendar but because I want to blog about the weekend that started on Friday and ended on Saturday. Officially the weekend is Saturday and Sunday, but hey lets break the rules. im bad you know it… etc

I went to this thing called Warbirds over Wanaka and it was sooooooooo cool. I mentioned way back on my blog that I wanted to go. But as time went by I got more and more poor and had less and less spare time to spend on such things so I had written it off. But then last week this guy called Pierre was telling me how keen he was to go and I said that I used to want to go but not so sure anymore. But then my parents said if I wanted to go that they would pay for me! That just left the problem of can I take this time off, which I decided I could. Thus I went. Also Dave Lim joined us. We left on Friday, Dave’s Mum made us sandwiches for lunch! Sweet! So we picnicked by the Clyde Dam. The day was beautifully clear and warm. On the way we listened to the Parachute 06 album, Mums Dollar, the Chilli Peppers, Brooke Fraser, and Dave Dobbin. I don’t think Pierre appreciated Dave Dobbyn as much as he should have. On arrival at Wanaka we found a nearby DOC campsite and soon discovered our tent was pollless (wow three l’s in a row) that is it had no polls! Whatever were we to do! oh nooooooooooooooo! But we took it like men, gruff, and decided to sleep in the open it wasn’t going to rain and wasn’t too cold. sorted. although Dave slept in the car.

We then ascended Mt iron which is not actually a mountain just a hill maybe 40m high. This produced some excellent views of Lake Wanaka and Hawea and the surrounding mountains and plains etc.

Wanaka from Mt Iron

It was 5.30 just enough time to dash over the road to PUZZLING WORLD, this place is cool. I most liked the wall of faces that follows you but its hard to describe you just have to see it. Well when I say most liked I mean after the maze, that’s because the maze was the most cool of all! The directions said you must get to each of the 4 towers in order and back to the start – average time 1hr to 1.5 hr. The incredible Justin did it in 40min - thank you - thank you. Probably worth mentioning is that Pierre did it in 25min. clap clap. and moving right along. It was dark and we were so hungry. To subway we drove and ate our fill, except they had no cookies and I wanted one. so then it was off to New World where we brought the source of all life along with other things for our breakfast. Then we went to the Irish Pub and watched some Ruby and I read the paper whilst Pierre and Dave got beaten at Pool 1 game to 2.

Saturday saw us eating lots of hot cross buns and waiting in the queue of cars to get into the air show. Initially we joined the queue 7km from the airport! gosh! but after a while the queue speed up and it probably took about 30 min before we were at the gates. The air show consisted mostly of WWI and II planes but there were also some later planes with jet engine technology. They also had professional aerobatics pilots one of which was the world champ. They also had pyrotechnics as they carried out a mock airfield bombing and they had guys on the ground in old school army uniforms running around and fighting the Germans, as you do. Really there is not much to say other than it was really impressive to watch. I especially liked the team stuff where they flew together in formation totally synchronised totally cool. Unfortunately my camera had battery issues so I didn’t get many good photos plus it has no zoom. So Pierre and Dave I will be scavenging some photos from you guys.

Some Planes (I think these are called Yak 52's)

On the way back to Dunedin on Saturday night we listened to Day of fire, Mums Dollar, Michael Jackson, Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones and the Rugby. We had Chinese in Alexandra.

The Source of all Life

Happy Easter

2006-04-13T17:00:00.000+12:00

My favorite things to eat over Easter are:

1) Hot cross buns
2) Hollow chocolate rabbits
3) Marshmallow eggs

Txting

2006-04-10T09:57:00.000+12:00

It seems I have little to say today. Though this cartoon amuses me greatly.

I guess I could mention something about how last month I made a new record for the number of text messages I sent. 400 exactly. That’s a lot for me, I have never broken the 400 mark before, usually I only just get over 300. Since I signed up to 027 last February I have slowly been sending more and more messages. I think you just get used to sending them when ever you want. Even though when I was on 021 I usually sent messages whenever I wanted It would only be in the region of 50-100 per month. I can think of various reasons for this increase.

1) 027 providing a cheaper means of texting (500 for $10)
2) leading a lifegroup i.e. having to text people to organise lifegroup things
3) I am probably spend more time with people other than my flatmates, this requires more organising and so more texting
4) More people texting me
- I know more people now
- more people also switching to 027
- basically im just soooo popular now days, cant you tell

Admittedly many of these extra text I send are just stuff like being polite and saying ‘thanks’ or ‘sweet’ etc or saying ‘im going to be 10 minutes late’, where in the past I could have just showed up late without texting or just not replied to as many unimportant messages. There are also times where you have more of a txt conversation which involves multiple sending and receiving of messages, this is much easier to do when your not worrying about how many messages you send. Basically $10 texting rocks my world. I hardly understand why people stick with 021... admittedly they have cooler phones, and that may be quite important to some people. Plus they use sim cards which is the only thing that annoys me about telecom phones.

Also I remember when I was on 021 I thought 027 was evil. 027 said to me “Justin I am your real cell phone provider” I cried “noooooooooo!!!” 027 stretched out its hand and said “together with $10 txting we can rule the galaxy!” I said “Ill never join you!”. But the force is strong with 027 and someday I will be the most powerful texter ever!

Text messaging has become so much a part of life now. A couple of years ago there were plenty of times when I wouldn’t send or receive a message for a couple of days. But now I don’t think I ever go a day with out sending or receiving a message. 400 messages in 31 days that’s an average of about 13 per day! Though to many people that is nothing, with Boost you can send 1000 texts to 027 phones, plus there are people who own both 027 and 021 so they can have $10 texting and text free on the weekend with 021. Dont you just wonder how anybody ever got on without cell phones? Being separated from your cell phone can be quite stress full at times, there are the thoughts of what if someone is trying to contact me or I really need to txt someone right now etc... but on the flip side It can be nice to have a peaceful day without any cellular interruptions.

As always when I have the least to say it turns out I have a lot to say.

Poll change

2006-04-07T09:59:00.000+12:00

I’m sorry to do this but I altered the current poll to contain a 4th valid option after it was brought to my attention. This means that all previous votes were reset so if you have already voted can I ask you to vote again. Thanks.

Swindled

2006-04-06T15:10:00.000+12:00

The following is a rant about the TV show Lost but it does not contain any spoilers.

Its NOT OVER!!!! Lost will never be OVER!!!! Lost is a TV programme with a philosophy of never being OVER!!!!

How LAME was that episode last night. The answer pretty dearest is - Super Lame x 10 x Infinity! It was so cheap it was all re-used footage and was just a summary, its been like half a season we don’t need a summary for that! We can remember what happened last episode and the one before and the one before, we know we know we know. This summary episode will only help those who missed an episode here or there, which is fine but they could have told us! I mean really when you call it a revelations episode you really expect some new freakin revelations!! They didnt tell us because they knew we wouldnt watch it! I feel cheated, lied to manipulated, used and abused. I think since season one was so popular they are now dragging it out to try make their original ideas stretch for ever….. and ever…. and never ever end. This is the show that doesn’t end yes it goes on and on my friend some people started watching it not know what it was and they’ll continue watching it forever just because it is the show that doesn’t end… for me it will end soon if it doesn’t shape up. I get the feeling this show would be better watched on DVD so you wouldnt have to wait weeks for them to tell you ... nothing, I saw season 1 for higher at Video ezy for $10. The night was not a complete failure because I got to hang out with Scott, we suffered together! Plus there was a good episode of south park afterwards, which only had one rude joke.

Poll results for – “the best thing about this blog is…”

18% The humour
12% The stories
6% The serious stuff
0% The photos
12% The polls
53% That its all about Justin

Well that was an interesting result I really didn’t think the last option would be so popular, really I didn’t, but im flattered. It was also good to see a spread of people liking the other things, except photos which I don’t put up very often anyway. The newest poll is close to my heart.

Burger King on Sunday - my only Fun day and Rugby on Friday - lamented Sundry

2006-04-02T17:28:00.000+12:00

The smell on my hands is that of bbq and bacon, these aromas of burger king fill my senses whenever I lift my had to my chin in contemplation. Mmmmmmm bbq bacon double cheese burger has long been my favourite BK offering.

It is Sunday and its my “day off” which is a new policy in my life. Which means I work really hard for six days and rest on the seventh (yeah I know, just like god, but hey don’t blame me if im made in his image). Now this idea of a days rest is nothing new, but it is something I have never really stuck to. I usually only take time off when I feel over worked and tiered. Plus I usually feel that I waste so much time during the week that I really don’t deserve or cant afford a day off. Some people reckon is biblical, but I haven’t read much about it so I don’t know. It is more of an attempt to be focused during the week by postponing a lot of things till my “day off”. This includes some TV shows, blogging and net surfing. Alas im not sure I can fit everything into just one day off! Oh well Ill see how it goes.

Rugby. How is it that I found my self caring about weather the Chiefs beat the Highlanders (and I had complete faith in them), how is it that I came to not so secretly desire that the Huricanse would lose lose LOSE to the Crusaders. Maybe its just there are too many Wellington supporters in my life and maybe I just wanted to see them eat some failure. Ohh that’s harsh, but it was just a maybe. Seriously I had to give myself a wake up call its just rugby and I cant even play it. I did not grow up in a rugby family (according to my sources this is becoming more common now days), my parents have Sky but they don’t have any sports channels. That simple fact would horrify so many people I know – who only want Sky for the sports. When I go home I watch E! True Hollywood Stories and the History channel. I didn’t even know all the teams in the Super 12/14 till this year. This year I have entered the Microbiology competition for predicting the Super 14 results, I thought to my self, heck if Im going to be a real man surely I must develop a need for rugby. All real men need rugby to aid their social interaction and self-esteem. Well no, actually I thought im going to be hearing about the super 14, on the news and in conversations other guys have with each other, so maybe I should be in the know, and maybe this competition will be the thing to compel me to find more interest in this sport, maybe then I too can have a genuine conversation about rugby. So there I found my self on Friday night angry that the Blues had beaten the Bulls, when I had predicted they would loose. I had mingled my will, desires and subsequent emotions with the out come of a game which I had no control over. I didn’t care about the Blues loosing for any other reason than it would prove me right and would propel my name up that score board… to the top! THE TOP! I wanted to be the winner… not the loser. Really it is only this guessing game that keeps me interested in the Super 14. Though there is a small amount of patriotism involved. I guess I shouldn’t be so surprised that I find my self caring about these games, since it was the intended out come of enlisting in this competition. Keeping things in perspective Im actually not as hardcore as real rugby people, heck ive only watched one game this year.

Time why do you leave me so?

2006-03-30T17:58:00.000+12:00

How is it that I can plan to do a whole days work and actually do nothing. Oh except make more plans to do lots of work at other times. I have been doing lots of planning lately but little carrying out those plans. I am trying to finish my masters ASAP because I want to graduate in August. My parents have booked their flights so I better be finished in time! Its good to have a deadline to motivate me.

Allowing 2 months for the thesis to be marked, I will have to submit by the end of May. It will take me at least 5 weeks to write it, so I have to start writing in 2 weeks! I don’t see how that’s going to be possible, because there is still heaps of experiments I want to do! But now that I have scared my self by realising that time is short I will work extra hard (note: see first sentence). It feels like the week before exams and its time to cram, but it will be two months of cramming and little else.

Small things like eating, talking, emailing, texting, blogging, net surfing, news reading, and other ings make for mountains of seemingly lost time, add to this meetings of various kinds and the day fills whilst work lies still. How is it that 3.5 hrs of time to do some work became 2.5, which became 1 which became 45min at which point I gave up and wrote this blog.

I must say that only in the Richardson building can you step into an elevator to hear one man comment to another “I have always had a weakness for puns”. In the Microbiology elevators conversations hardly get past “which floor” or “nice day” etc. A reliable source has told me that they also find the best conversations for eavesdropping are in the Richardson elevators.

Escape

2006-03-27T13:54:00.000+12:00

Somewhere, right now in fact, over the rainbow up high, in the land that I herd of once in a lullaby, or saw in Super Mario 64. Somewhere over the rainbow skys are blue, things are clear, open, free, and limitless, and the dreams that you dear to dream, really do come true. Someday, this day, as chaos sprawls and the world clashes, as energy falls and stress rises, ill wish upon a star, or lay my head upon my desk and close my eyes. Ill wake up to sore where the clouds are fare behind me, whistling behind me. Where troubles melt like lemon drops, away above the chimney tops, that’s where light is bright, energy is full, space immense, where glory shines, and solitude is comfort. I’ll loop, and glide, fly, and ride, spin with speed, and burst with joy. That’s where you’ll find me. If happy little blue birds fly above the rainbow, why? oh why cant I?

Listening to Eva Cassidy sing Over the Rainbow this is how I feel.

Chaos

2006-03-23T14:28:00.000+12:00

Welcome to post number 50. A special welcome to those who have read all 50, you must know everything about me by now. Ha not even. I was talking the other day with my flatmate Dan about depth, how we like to think we have depth, which actually we do have. You know how annoying it is when someone thinks they have you figured out. I like to surprise people with my depth; it feels silly that I should feel like this. Such as the reaction I get when someone finds for the first time that I have my tongue pierced. Yes anyway that’s what deep thoughts you get out of late night talks. I love those late talks that go past 12am, though they are rare.

Right now it is 1:10 am according to my computer. That’s the problem with computers they don’t know its actually 10.41pm, for that matter they don’t even know its 22^nd of March 2006. They think its 1^st Jan 2000. I keep trying to tell my computer the correct time but every time I restart it the time resets! And! And! It then has the nerve to get all angry with me saying the time is set wrong! Uhhh! Gosh! That’s the problem with computers they don’t take responsibility for there own problems. If anyone has had this problem and knows what to do please help me. I am afraid my computer is heading down a bad road, and one day its not even going to remember its own name – dementia – and then I fear it will forget everything I have ever told it! Everything! I fear most losing photos and the music

Don’t you wish that you were psychologically linked to everything so that at anytime you wanted you could locate what you were looking for, I know Bono does. Or you could change the radio station just by thinking – this song is crap. But my head is already so cluttered that to include all physical objects would be overwhelming. Though I imagine being so linked would not have to always be at the forefront of your thoughts. Instead, when needed you could call them up kind of like a memory and you would then know the location of what you were looking for. I still haven’t found what I’m looking for, my beanie among other things.

Things feel chaotic, the mess on my desk at my lab is ridiculous. There are experiments I have done and still haven’t had a chance to properly analyse the data. Even worse there are experiments I have half done and haven’t had the chance to just quite finish. There is a back log. Yet I keep doing more experiments. More more more in the hope that some where something good will happen. More more more. Is too too much to handle. Must take a break and get a grip. Psalm 62 is awesome. He alone is my rock and my salvation. My fortress where I will not be shaken. Gotta find rest in this rock, cause its chaos right now.

Hehe there is this new guy in our lab and he is cool :) He makes us all laugh cause he dose funny stuff. Like when he was getting introduced to people he was writing everyone’s names down so he would remember (smart man). Plus he wanted to take photos so he could remember even better! hahaha. Next week he is going to make us a banana cake for morning tea. We were joking with him by saying who were the most important people in the lab and who he needed to suck up to by cutting a bigger piece of cake... then he actually started to write their names down! Hahaha. He is also really excited about everything in the lab, its quite inspiring to see his fresh zeal.

Oh man my predictive text skills are shocking, I will never impress chicks with such low skills. Today I texted someone the word violini instead of thinking and violini doesnt even use the same letters as thinking! Obviously they were confused so I had to text back saying that I menu to say thinking not violini. Gosh another predictive disaster, right when I was trying to redeem my self, ahhhh, I was actually trying to say ment, not menu. I wasn’t even spelling ment correctly to begin with, meant! Gosh! Where are my skills. Do I need to proof read my texts before sending. Another one that always gets me is of instead of me. Or select instead of reject, extra terrible because its completely the opposite meaning! Oooooooh people people the shame! The shame!

ORLANDO – Life! Love! Literature!

2006-03-19T19:05:00.000+12:00

Orlando heaved a sigh of relief, lit a cigarette, and puffed for a minute or two in silence. Then she called hesitatingly, as if the person she wanted might not be there, “Orlando?” For if there are (at a venture) seventy six different times all ticking in the mind a once, how many different people are there not – Heaven help us – all having lodgement at one time or another in the human spirit? Some say two thousand and fifty-two. So that it is the most unusual thing in the world for a person to call, directly they are alone, Orlando? (if that is one’s name) meaning by that, Come, come! I’m sick to death of this particular self. I want another. Hence, the astonishing changes we see in our friends. But it is not altogether plain sailing, either, for though one may say, as Orlando said (being out in the country and needing another self presumably) Orlando? still the Orlando she needs may not come; these selves of which we are built up, one on top of another, as plates are piled on a waiter’s hand, have attachments elsewhere, sympathies, little constitutions and rights of their own, call them what you will (and for many of these things there is no name) so that one will only come if it is raining, another in a room with green curtains, another when Mrs. Jones is not there, another if you can promise it a glass of wine – and so on; for everybody can multiply from his own experience their different terms which his different selves have made with him – and some are too wildly ridiculous to be mentioned in print at all. (from Orlando by Virginia Woolf)

This struck me. how many selves do we have? Can we think of our different selves as just different moods? When Im in a bad mood I think and behave different to when I am in a good mood. My mood can be determined simply by the presence or absence of “Mrs. Jones”, or by more complicated issues like what the heck Mrs. Jones just freakin said about me. Though a mood is something I can choose, I choose how I respond to freakin Mrs. Jones, maybe I choose to understand where she is coming from and so I don’t get angry, or maybe it is irrelevant what she says so again I am not angry. I can choose my emotions, my moods, my selves.

As a Christian it is easy to see two selves that war within me. As Paul puts it: I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. Romans 8:15. We war with our sinful self, even though Jesus says we no longer need to war because he died to end our enslavement to sin, we war all the same! frustration! I feel like Orlando, Im sick to death of this particular [sinful] self. I want another. But to merely call out come, come! I doubt will work. Or will it? Is it just faith, faith that yes Jesus did it all, that yes I no longer need live with this sinful self, faith to live like the hot holy self I am? Like the absence of Mrs. Jones, the colour of the wall or the glass of wine, faith is a term that draws out the hot holy self. Come, come! How can it be more practical than this when after all this holy self is not my doing, but gods? Or do I with this attitude to easily shrug responsibility for they way I live? I would say that it is in gods hands how holy I am (being saved etc), but in my hands how much I choose to live up to this, how much I let the new creation he has done in me come forth. Like my moods this faith is a choice. I choose to believe, it is written, on terms of faith come!

Lunch with Justin, so hot right now

2006-03-16T14:53:00.000+13:00

Yes my blogg readers finally pulled through and we managed to get 18 votes on the last poll, the results:

The worst thing you could say whilst evangelising is:

28% you don’t have what it takes to be a Christian
6% God is like an onion...
6% You are so hot!
28% Behold I am an angel of the Lord, hear me roar!
33% Yes god made you fat

In all honesty I thought this was the funniest poll I have ever invented. It cracks me up to imagine saying something like that to someone! :) The idea for the poll was spawned from a conversation with a guy form another church in Dunedin where they were trying to make evangelism less scary to people in church by making it a little light hearted. They came up with evangelism points where if you said some thing like "god is like and Onion" then you got points, and if you then went on to actually explain how god is like an onion you get even more points! But the idea was not actually to get people to say these random things, just to help them see it didn’t have to be so big and serious. Anyway the first two options were from that guy and the other 3 I came up with. Ha, anyway I thought it was funny, and because all the options are terrible things to say there was really no overwhelming winner the vote was split fairly evenly between the top 3 anyway, with the fat one topping the list. Interesting.

Today I was supposed to have lunch with two people at two separate times. I have never been so popular to have to do this, so I organised one lunch at 12, and another lunch at 2pm. The plan was to eat half my food at the first lunch and save some till later, thus both people would think I had eaten my lunch with them and be satisfied with our lunching. On top of this, and to add to the illusion of my obvious popularity, both of these people actually wanted to have lunch with me yesterday. But… you see I all ready had plans to have lunch with a completely different person! Can you believe all this, but wait there is more... I usually just have lunch with my lab mates because its easy and they are cool, so today they also asked me to come have lunch with them as well! So. Hot. Right. Now. Cant touch this.

But oh it turns out I’m not so popular after all, my second lunch got canned. But oh turns out that someone else was also invited to the first lunch so I actually I did have lunch with two people and am still oh so popular. But all my scheming has left me with half a lunch still to eat, and no body to eat it with, I guess that’s what happens to cheaters, and those too popular for their own good.

The mess on my desk is like a snake on the lake

2006-03-14T14:53:00.000+13:00

What a mess is on my desk. I wonder if you could psycho analyse my desk and discover everything about me, including the elusive internal workings of my mind, the ups and downs and many shades of the emotions of my heart, including all I love and all I hate, including everything I already know about me, and all that is still a mystery. I wonder but I doubt, because all I see is: drink bottle, keys, lamp, a pot of pens, hair gel, another drink bottle, another hair gel (so weird cause I hardly ever use the stuff these days!), a white china plate - littered with crumbs of toast (toast which was ploughman’s rye, one with peanut butter one with marmalade, both inside me now), I see two pens oh wait one is a pencil in disguise, a photocopy card – upside down and proclaiming ownership by ‘Justin’, deodorant, cheque book, cello tape, scissors, SpongeBob SquarePants, sunglasses, a rewritable CD, notes from Benna’s Sermon on Sunday night (all about Psalm 62: 5-8), ipod mini, ipod min USB cable, a letter from WINZ that has since been used as scrap paper – covered in scrawlings, a half finished cup of coffee – cold, more bits of paper, a mug rest (I actually cant remember the offical name for these things!), and this laptop. Who am I?

Well I sure don’t have to pay $3000 to figure that question out, I hope. That’s the price of Outward Bound, a course that helps you discover yourself. Initially I thought it was all about doing extreme adventure stuff, but it seems like its all about giving lost people some motivation/inspiration. Maybe they should just go to the big GOD, its free, sort of. There is tithes and there is the whole give up your life and follow me (Jesus) thing, actually it costs more to be a Christian than to do outward bound. Imagine if the price of Outward Bound was – no sex before marriage! Ha try that for cost, I scoff at your $3000 dollars!

If you could buy your way into heaven, would you? $3000 dollars and you were guaranteed a place in the illustrious heaven? What a bargain! I so would if it was true, which people used to think it was (see the movie Luther, or if you have already seen the movie simply recall it from memory so as to complement the previous sentence, or if you have not seen the move but have studied or in some way acquired a detailed knowledge of church history then you may do the same as those who simply watched the move, though you may sit back chuffed and secure in the superiority and greater depth of your knowledge. thank you). It makes me mad that people got told stuff like that! Argh, and it wasn’t even their fault that they believed, cause they weren’t even allowed to read the bible for themselves. Gosh!

I have to share with you about the speck in my eye. Wait I know what you are thinking... your thinking... 0h! My! Go0dness! look at the speck in his eye! SINNER! But you would be wrong, well ok I am a sinner, as are you, but that is beside the point. You see there was a speck in my eye and it was of the colour white (though some would say - color, and still others would say - white is not even a colour simply a reflection of all the colours. People like this are just too cool!). When I looked in the mirror I saw white in my eye, white on the brown/hazel part of my eye – as in not the typical place for the white parts to be. It wouldn’t move with blinking. It was kind of freaky to look at, especially cause I couldn’t feel it, I could have happily gone on with the rest of the day and just left it there. But then all the caring people I know would have keept telling me that I had “something in my eye”. So I had to touch my eyeball to move it, which is actually harder than I thought it would be. Every time my finger got close to touching I would blink, so I had to hold my eye lid open with one hand and touch with the other. Eventually everything was resolved and I went on with life, speckless, and wondering. After all if I had a speck in my eye then theologically there must be someone out there, in front of a mirror, shocked by the sight of a log in their own eye.

Yesterday I crashed into a DOG

2006-03-09T11:40:00.000+13:00

It was really my fault... but that didn’t stop me being angry with the DOG. There I was just biking along the foot path which doubles as a cycle path, when I happened to approach a lady with her back to me, walking her DOG with its butt to me. I thought to my self ‘there’s not much room to get past that lady and her dog, maybe I should go off the foot path, onto the grass, around the power pole just to make sure I have lots of room’. Ridicul0se! I cried (in my head). I am JUSTIN! I can do it! VICTORY! I also thought ‘but what if the dog moves to the right and into my passing space?’ Ridicul0se! I cried (in my head). I mean what are the chance’s that at the very moment I want to pass, that the dog would walk into my path? He looked perfectly happy walking in a straight line. I am JUSTIN! I can do it! VICTORY! None the less, sensing that it was a dangerous situation I slowed down, it was lucky I did because...

Noooooooo this DOG was not happy walking in a straight line, this dog, at the very moment that I wanted to pass it, decided it wanted to investigate the extra space to its right. But no! it was denied! Denied because actually that space was reserved for ME to pass it, and so that space was not empty, it was filled by my bicycle. Access DENIED! Actually if events are to be portrayed chronologically... the dog filled the "space" first then me and my bike arrived into the "space" a short while later, by which time the dog had still not vacated the "space" so together we shared it and together we experienced the "crash".

I think we miss touch so much, that we crash into each other, just so we can feel something – Graham from the movie Crash

In the moment of the crash, the moment of the sharing of the space, the DOG cried out “Yelp”! and I toppled from my lofty seat, my left knee striking the pavement, my jeans ripping.

All my jeans are ripped! I’m sick of ripping my jeans in the knees! And not just my jeans because I have some different pants that were ripped in the knee region during a crash last year. *Sigh*. I have one pair of un-ripped jeans left, maybe there is another dog out there waiting to help me rip those ones too? I bet there is.

Instantly I felt dumb for crashing into the dog. I thought ‘I should have gone aroooound the power poll!’ The situation had been in my hands, after all the dog and the lady didn’t know such a reckless yet surprisingly attractive young man was dangerously approaching from behind. I bet if she was 30 years younger this could have been one of those movie/TV moments. Opps! Sorry I didnt see you there, let me help you. Then we look up into each others eyes, love at first sight blah blah blah. “Oh I didnt hear you” the lady said “you should have said something”, “I let him [the dog] go at the wrong time”. The wrong time… so true.

After the topple I still had my left foot stuck in the foot hold on the pedal. I tired to get free but just looked like a fool. I gave out a little chuckle to make it seem like It was no big deal and that even I found my foot predicament amusing. Also I tired diverting attention from my struggle by talking, I asked “Is your dog OK?”, she replied “He’s fine... its your foot that I’m worried about”. Great, were back to focusing on my stuck foot. In the end my foot slid out of the shoe and I was able to sort it all out form there. We both appologised to each other, they went on there way, I put my shoe back on. Then I had to bike past them again, this time the DOG cowered away. I am JUSTIN! VICTORY!
But my knee hurt.

Because of Flow Cytometry

2006-03-06T10:20:00.000+13:00

Things are busy when I let them be, when I make them be. Setting my alarm early is less sleep, is more productive, is being busy enough to have to get up early, is a feeling of excitement because there is something planned, there is direction. Being busy is tired, is less time for the less important. Too much busy all in one day is exhausting, it is recovery the next day, extra sleep is required, making up for that lost. I had a tired busy day the other day, I was absolutely knocked out all day, felt like I had worked hard enough for two days. I stayed home the next morning watching some thing about Elton John. Rain rain outside. But I escaped it I biked in and out of uni when there was no rain falling. Stoked. Cold though. Layers layers.

I thought as I was busy, that although its tiring its way better than procrastination. I even had a power nap sometime last week. Cant remember the last time I did that. I used to do them relatively often. Sometimes I find this Masters thing I’m doing hard, A friend told me what his parents told him 'University is supposed to be hard otherwise everyone would do it', interesting and encouraging.

Friends, why and when

2006-02-28T14:28:00.000+13:00

Don’t interrupt my genius! said Zim to Ger. Invader Zim, the hottest thing to watch from 7pm till 30 minutes later. Invader Zim is an ambitious (to say the least) alien on a mission on earth, im not sure what his actually mission is but he trys to do lots of crazy things, with the help of his side kick - Ger. Tonight he somehow mixed up an explosion with a time slowing device, and so the explosion kept growing like an explosion but really slowly, and so Zim was able to move it away before it exploded too big. Not that it helped because he didn’t move it far away enough. It aptly caters to those with short attention spans, with two episodes in 30 minutes, like SpongeBob Squarepants.

Kevin (my flatmate in 2003) is back in Dunedin now, which is so weird. He left like 2 years ago and I've long since gotten used to living without him, I never expected to see him in Dunedin again. But he is here, and its a great thing because he is a great friend. I feel like its too good to be true actually. I feel like I don’t deserve to have such a good friend.

In fact I feel like I have far too many amazing friends in my life right now, like Im hording them from the world. Dont get me wrong I do just want to spend forever in the presence of such great people, but I feel like I’m not allowed too. Its against the laws of happiness. Who am I to deserve them. Yes I want them but it cant be true they actually want to be my friend. Argh where is all this coming from. I dont think I am this insecure. I mean hey I can admit that there are reasons why someone would want to be my friend (its OK Im not gonna list them). But I am still surprised when I find that this nice theory is actually a reality. Like when someone says ‘I miss such and such times with you’, or ‘I like this about you’, or when someone wants to do something with you, or when they go out of their way to do something for you. Like type out a 3 page summary of an episode of Lost you missed! Who am I to deserve this love. Whoooooooo am I? Who? Who?

Then there is the other side of me that clicks in and says ALERT ALERT cool person ALERT! Must do everything to get to know this person. This person is interesting, they will have a positive affect on me, I could learn from them, they inspire me, they make me laugh, they like what I like, and what I like is cool, we could have some good times. ALERT must accept all social opportunities including this person. Man I am so weird. Isn’t it weird that I sometimes feel undeserving of such friendships but seek them out nonetheless. Does anyone relate?

With friends that I no longer see often, I am in danger of relegating them to memory status. Thankfully this status has partially been diminished by blogging. I think It is probably why having Kevin back is so weird. I remembered the good times in the past and thought - yeah ill see him again... when I visit Singapore, but Dunedin with Kevin is over. But its not, new memories are still to come and what a blessing it is. Now on the other hand I can actually think of times where seeing people again from the “past” was not so weird, e.g. catching up with friends back in Hamilton, or seeing Sam and Brendan this summer. These times just seemed normal, like we just picked up where we had left off, maybe that was becasue It hadnt been as long since I last saw them, maybe it was becasue I had been reading blogs, or maybe its just different with different people. Oh who knows, anyway that’s enough to think about for now.

The injustice of a day in wet jeans

2006-02-23T12:02:00.000+13:00

I am angry that I got wet when everything was getting wet from the rain that drenched us. I was swearing as I arrived at the end of my 5 minute bike ride. With more water on me, than I expected would be when I started. I was happy when I was in the building no longer getting wet from the rain that soaked the outside. Then it stopped. It didn’t stop when I asked that it would, thinking that it should, for my own good, when I was at home observing the sky and asking. I am angry that I thought It would never cease and that to wait 10 minutes would to be to waste 10 minutes. Im angry that I thought I wouldn’t get too wet and so in such hope rode off down the road without a change of clothes. I thought I was clever in my endeavour as I spent 5 minutes in the toilet with a towel that I found, that I slung around my waste and with my pants being dried by the hand dryer. I didn’t have the patience to wait for them to get fully dry. I am here now not fully dry, with cold legs just waiting for all the water to leave my jeans. I am cold and I know why from science, that the water is sapping heat from me as it makes its transition from liquid to gas, a process requiring energy, and energy I will give, but cold I will feel. With my hands I make friction, heat to evaporate this worry. I expect it will take hours, maybe I should have put them in the hand dryer longer. I am angry because I emerged from the toilet to look out the window to see the sun and to find no rain. I am angry that I am angry and I hope I will get over it so I can do something else with my self. But my legs that are cold from my pants that are wet, they remind me that I am angry. I’m not so angry now I have told the world on my blog that I write whenever I like. I am considering going to dry them some more in the toilet on the second floor. But I’m still deciding.

Summer has come and past. The sunny times can never last. Wake me up when my Masters ends

2006-02-21T10:55:00.000+13:00

Its been a summer of good and bad. I could leave it there but I wont I will say more, lots and lots more. More about the good than the bad, because its harder to write about the bad, not knowing how to say it how much to say or even why I would be saying anything. Its been a summer of two half’s. The BC, Before Christmas and the AD, After December, and well to be fair there was the middle the HT, the HamilTron. Im now to try summaries these three distinct eras of time. The thought of it seems too much effort and almost scares me from attempting to, but the time has come and the review must proceed.

The BC already seems millions of miles away. Back then there was Carmi and Jo living between two flats, back then I was still living in Ravensbourne, there was student lunches with a handful of people, but a handfuls all you need at any one time really. There was helping my friend Kylie move flats, which became a very memorable day meeting lots of her friends. Oh yeah there was the one-off summer life group at Nicolas where we tried to follow the Elim study but went on a tangent and got controversial on sex before marriage. Tangents and controversial both make for interesting conversations, as does sex before marriage. Then there was also the Apo summer lifegroup I went to once in BC. And then there was lab work that wasn’t going well but actually ended on a positive note before I headed to the HT. My supervisor pointed out that some of my results which I thought were crap were actually not so crap, she always gives me hope.

The HT, I never got around to bloging about it, it was a good time. Its awesome hanging with my family Ive got some cool siblings that are really wack and crazy and unique and its so awesome how our sense of humors gel and we have all these shared childhood experiences and jokes and favorite things and I dont know if the rest of the world gets us but I know the rest of the world is glad to have us. Haha! My High school friends who there was only ever a handful of but we still catch up once a year. This HT middle era also saw me in Tauranga at Jesses 21st, good times swimming at the Mt, and seeing people I knew and hadn’t seen since the desertion of Dunedin in November, or even longer than that.

AD was back here in sweet Dunedin. It was moving flats, it was the beach, the few extra people doing summer school, the tramping, Chinese New Years eve playing settlers of Catan, and the Apo lifegroup for a second time. I have come to love Dunedin over the summer, this being my 3rd experience. I love the quiteness the easy goingness the more time to myslefness the less responsibilityness, the less hecticness. In many ways I can see a trend as in previous years. Its like your circle of friends shrinks and so you spend more time just with yourself, and with people you knew but just not too well. Last summer we had an Elim summer lifegroup and I remember it was cool hanging out with those people more. This time I have also gotten to know some Elim people better but also met some completely knew people.

There are various signals that appear as January moves into February and I start to realize all the quietness is about to die. Dan (flatmate and leader of church student group Cutting Edge) coming back is one, its like now he’s back and CE is getting back into action, so now I have to get back into action. In truth I need some action, especially with god, summer can be so easy going it provides too much opportunity to let things slip. Now its back to building a relationship with god, feeling like oh why did I waste 3 months hardly spent with him. If only ... how much closer I would be to him now. But its awesome because right when I have been feeling so lowly before him god has been drawing me in. I just hope that I will be able to grasp and understand all he is saying. So there I did manage to share one of the hard things. Another would be my masters research which has been a huge struggle of overcoming procrastination which has been feed by disappointment and perfectionist ideals. So socially this summer has truly been great, but in other areas it has been a struggle.

But wait the summer is actually still going, right now its in the OW, O Week. There is no easing back into student life around hear, its full on 100% IM A STUDENT HEAR ME ROAR!!! Action. Rewind a week and this was the future, this OW was the foretold great coming of the many, this was the great return of life and sentient beings to the lonely wind sweep paths and buildings of the UO, University of Otago. This of coarse was no surprise, but you cant help thinking its so busy, there are so many students around, man those freshers look so young and well... fresh. And in other thoughts – all these new people seem to be much better looking than usual, is it only the ugly people that stay in Dunedin over summer?

Its all about me

2006-02-17T15:47:00.000+13:00

So I got “tagged” again and will oblige by answering the following questions.

THINGS I WANT TO DO/SEE BEFORE I DIE
1. See the world
2. Climb a glacier
3. Finish my masters
4. Read everything decent in English literature, and everything decent that’s been translated
5. Uncover the greatest secret of the universe
6. Change the world
7. Be Americas next top model

THINGS I CANNOT DO
1. Lie very well
2. Sing like I sound in my head
3. Drive legally
4. Cry when I want to
5. Use my rare talent as an artist
6. Express my self very well with spoken words
7. Be ridiculously good looking

THINGS THAT ATTRACT ME TO THE OPPOSITE SEX
1. Can sing
2. Passionate and excited about what they do
3. Laughs lots
4. loves god
5. Confident and not worried about being them selves
6. A medium level of intelligence
7. Facial hair

BOOKS AND MOVIES I LOVE
1. The matrix
2. Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (the movie)
3. Napoleon Dynamite
4. To the lighthouse
5. The Bible
6. Pride and Prejudice (the book)
7. Mortal combat (the movie)

THINGS I SAY MOST OFTEN
1. Gosh!
2. Arggg why isn’t it working?
3. Hello my name is Justin what is your name?
4. Now Ill never be a teen model! What’s the point in living! I might as well die!
5. So hot right now
6. I doughnut say the same things often ok I just say what ever I feel like!
7. Im sexy Im cool Im popular to the boot I mean right on!

THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT ME
1. I think your cool
2. I like science fiction
3. There are probably lots of things that I’m just not going to say on the internet
4. If you want to know stuff about me you can try asking
5. I’m about words so make my day and tell me how much you love me
6. Hugs are welcomed too
7. I’m a real alien sent to analyse earthlings and so I know about the end of the world and many other things great and mysterious

Incase you didn’t get it I couldn’t think of enough things about me so all the number 7 answers are not fully true.

World Focus

2006-02-14T11:10:00.000+13:00

The best thing about the Otago Daily Times is the World Focus magazine on Mondays, its awesome, I love it. Its full of articles on world current affairs that have originally been published in famous papers like The Washington Post or The Guardian (actually I don’t know where that’s from, Britain maybe?). Plus it has great photos to go with all the stories, for example in today’s one there was a photo of these guys in Nepal carrying furniture on their heads. I have liked this magazine since it started in umm 2004 I think, but I have only read it sporadically when I get my hands on it for free, and then I realised hey they actually sell this thing and surely it doesn’t cost that much, especially considering the joy it brings me. And so today I brought it myself for 90c. I don’t really need the rest of the paper because I usually read it at Uni where my department has a subscription. BUT! And I mean this really annoys me, someone always nics the World Focus feature on Mondays and I never get to read it!!!!!!! Which makes me mad! I dont know who it is or who they think they are! I mean its supposed to stay in the tea room for the whole department to share! What do they think? that nooooooobody else is interested in world news and events! Like they are the only ones! I wouldn’t mind if they waited till the end of the day after people have had a chance to read it, but this person must get up super early on a Monday so they can get in before anybody else. Well a couple of weeks ago can you believe that it stayed in the tea room all-day-long, really I was astonished. Maybe the thief was sick, on holiday, gone forever???? So I got my chance to take it home (at the end of the day) and rediscover its coolness, which is how I came to think about paying for it myself, and the thief was back today, so here I am now much more happy with my own copy but still thinking its all so rude.

Poll results for what we should name our flat Hedgehog:

19% Llyod
5% Sonic
43% Enklebert Humperdink
29% Herman
0% Jock
5% Ruben

I feel like democracy failed me on this one. I guess If I really wanted it my way I should have just named him myself or had better advertising/propaganda to convince you to agree with me. I mean if you had seen this hedgehog I think we all would have agreed he definitely looked like a Ruben. Now for the rest of the year I and have to say Enklebert Humperdink whenever talking about the hedgehog. Incase you were wondering that name was suggested by my flatmate Kirsten. Its all part of that failed democracy thing where in fairness I let my flatmates come up with possible names.

Of coarse there is now a new poll now.

Bring it aroooooound, bring it aroo000oound too00oown.

The Copland track

2006-02-10T09:47:00.000+13:00

You may travel NZ from one end to the other, but nowhere else will you find, at the end of a long ride through virgin forests, a comfortable little hut in a green valley encircled by rock walls with jagged peaks mounting thousands of feet into the sky, where, under the shadow of eternal snows, you may take an open-air bath in a delicious warm pool behind a screen of native trees. NZ Herald 1913.

Welcome Flat hutOne of the hot pools and surrounding mountians

This Waitangi weekend I escaped away to the great outdoors, the beauty of our country. Location: West Coast, the Copland track leading to Welcome Flat hut. The draw card: natural hot pools at the end, plus all the standard tramping goodness such as the bush, rivers, mountains, road trips, good times with friends, and making new ones. Me, Jane Macky, Jane’s flatmate Hailey, and Nicola Lowe left Dunedin on Friday at about 6pm. We set up camp at a DOC campsite 30 minutes past Wanaka, the ground was super hard. The night was restless, there was a strange animal making noises outside. The next morning we couldn’t agree on what the noises were, I thought it was a clucking sound and sometimes growls (like what animal makes both of those noises?! a scary one surely!), whilst Jane0 thought it was heavy breathing... obviously a giant sand fly then. 6am we rose to the cell phone alarm that was much more perky than I. Hailey is a morning person and was up so fast that I was actually confused by it. We drove about 2.5hrs to the start of the track where we meet up with Vanessa and Hamish (a couple from Christchurch, who I didnt know).

From back to front: Hailey, Jane, Hamish, Vanessa, Nicola

6-7hr to Welcome Flat hut, so the sign declared. Hamish was pumped to do it in 5. It took us 6.5 including lunch. The track went through bush, as you’d expect, and pretty much followed a river up the valley, the water was a milky blue. It looked very refreshing, especially considering the great sunshine beating down on us. We had such good weather especially considering it rains lots on the West Coast. There were lots of little streams to cross which was fun, jumping from bolder to bolder to stone to bolder to stone and to land. There were about 8 cars at the car park and we were worried off not getting a mattress at the hut, I desperately wanted a mattress because I wanted at least one good sleep out of 3, I knew on the floor that wouldn’t happen. The hut was very full but we all got a mattress. Sweet! The hot pools were great, especially after dark when the stars were out and the sand flies in bed. The walk in was pretty tiring so it was great to relax. Jane carried in a bottle of wine! Ha silliness but it was good. Nicola was horrified at her absolute forgetfulness when she arrived at the hut and discovered she had no sleeping bag. But actually Jane0 had taken pity on the sore sate of Nic’s back and so stole the sleeping bag and carried it in for her (0 what sacrifice), a great joke and we gleefully played along for 20 minutes till we were caught.

Just as you'd expect, its a phone in the bush.
The hottest hot pool

The walk out on Sunday was a lot easier, more down hill. We then went to Fox Glacier township for dinner (30 minutes away), which was a bit of a down moment cause we couldn’t find a cheap place, plus we had milkshake cravings near the end of the tramp and the only place that sold them was closed. We settled for expensive fish n chips form an actually restaurant and flavored milk. It was raining lightly as well. But Oh the Oasis saved me from the gloom. I mean the camping ground saved us, hot shower, bright lights, warmth, boiling water on Zip... wonderful. Though another restless night, the tent was too short for me but I forced it to comply.

Monday we parted from Hamish and Vanessa who went back to Christchurch, whilst we ventured to Franz Joseph Glacier and walked up to it. So. many. tourists. the girls tried to get “free information” by tagging along with a tour group, but they chickened out, and I was too cool to play those games. I’d been there before, so I thought, but it looked different, the track up to the glacier was defiantly different. Im still confused to whether It was Fox of Franz that I had previously been to. The West Coast is so rugged, they have power polls that look like they have never been updated. Its cool, even the animals on the farms look more rugged. The houses and the vehicles (not that there were many) definitely looked a bit worn. On the way back we had lunch at the same place we camped on Friday night. Eat, swim, stress stress, and finally sorted see previous post for more details.

In summary, I would say the actual tramp wasn’t as good as the Routeburn we did last year just because it didn’t have any of the amazing views, but we did it for the hot pools which made it worth it. On the other side it was good to have an extra day after the tramp to do other stuff. And we had plenty of laughs and good conversation twas great. Also I was inspired to do a couple of other things 1) Climb a glacier one day, the photos looked amazing, could do that in NZ or overseas. 2) Really want to go to War Birds over Wanaka this Easter (we saw it advertised in Fox)... so who wants to go? It’ll be awesome!

Me facing Franz Joseph Glacier

Later than initially necessary

2006-02-08T12:58:00.000+13:00

Yesterday
JUSTIN! She yells.
What! He replies
I’m so tired because of you! Because you locked the keys in the car!
Im tired too, if it makes you feel better he replies.

Bum bum ba ba ba bum bum ba ba ba

The day before yesterday
We got back to Dunedin at 11.30ish pm, about an hour and a half later than initially necessary. Initially I hadn’t locked the keys in the car. Initially we were on our way back from tramping on the west coast, stopping to enjoying ourselves on the shores of lake Wanaka, swimming in the beautiful water out out, out towards the view of mountains, and back back, back towards shore, hills and warmth. I love to swim, the water was cold but refreshing and not as cold as I thought it would be, we were use to it in a couple of minutes, it was awesome. But then back at the car I realised I had left the keys in my pockets and my pockets were in my pants which I had left inside the car which I locked. Almost everything was in the car, wallets, cell phones, clothes, and gosh... keys!

We waved down a car, asked them to call AA for us, they offered to take one of us to Wanaka township 30 minutes drive away where the AA would be. I offered to go because It was my fault and because I was the only man. Not that I had anything to prove, well actually I had a lot to make up for. Anyway Nicola (the driver, the owner of the car the AA member, and the all round lovely person) should have gone because I didnt know enough about Nicola to convince the AA 0800 call center people to send someone to help us. They gave me the number of a contractor and said we might be able to apply for reimbursement later. The contractor said we were too far out of his area, what he meant was he just wanted a holiday (it being Waitangi day - a public holiday). He gave me another contractors phone number, which was a cell phone number, up till now I had been using the phone at Caltex petrol station in Wanaka, they didnt like the idea of me making a cellphone call. There I was looking all ridiculous, bare footed, wearing a Tshirt and still in my swimming toggs whilst holding my towl...

But thats gonna cost US they said
The mangagers are going to make US pay they said
How do we know how long you will talk for
How do we know you will pay us back
How did you do it
That was pretty stupid wasnt it
What are you going to do?
Cant you jimmy it?
What sort of car is it?
I dont know how, Im not a car person I said
What kind of a New Zealander doesn’t know how to jimmy a car they said!
you will have to hitch a ride back
Can I use one of your cellphones I asked
But thats gonna cost US too! They said
You can go over the road to the pay phone
I have no money, its in the car
You cant come to Wanaka without any money mate, they said!

Ok Ill just ask someone else (what the heck is wrong with you people!)
Caltex in Wanaka you make me so mad even though I was being nice to you. mmmmarrrrrrrrrggggg!

Some British tourists let me use their cell phone, and then I got told off by the Caltex staff
WHAT ARE YOU DOING! YOU CANT USE A CELL PHONE HERE, YOU’LL BLOW US ALL UP!

Anyway this contractor was the greatest, he came picked me up no hassles and I told him I didnt have all of Nicolas membership details but he sorted it all out. Ya know that’s what its all about isnt it! Thats what the AA are there for, we were a customer in trouble they were supposed to try help us, which is what this guy did and the help line people didnt. Arggg. He was a crack up I was laughing the whole way back to the car he just said crazy things. Like he was hassling me saying I must be popular because I was with three girls! Ha : ) and then he was saying that I did it all on purpose, locking the keys in just so I could come to the rescue! Then he said I would have to tell Nicola that I would make it all up to her in a “special way” and that she could choose that “special way” and that I was to tell her this when she was alone! I did tell her just for fun, but not when we were alone. I brought the girls real fruit ice cream in Cromwell, cost me $12 which I calculated to be about $1 per 8 minutes of waiting I put them through. Not a lot, just a way to say sorry. They took it quite well, they decided to make a joke of it all and pretended (I think) to be really annoyed and kept hassling me, which was supposed to be a better way of making me feel better than providing sympathy.

Back to Dunedin, a bit latter than anyone wanted, but a great time, I really laughed so much on that trip back, maybe I was just trying to feel better. The whole Wanaka Caltex thing has stuck with me a bit since, just thinking why did those people act so uncaring, and feeling a bit sorry for them and their negative view of the world and others. Though maybe we are just lucky to have people like the family that I hitched a ride with. Its a hard world out there, people are out for themselves and whats in it for them watching what it’s gonna cost them. Also it could have been worse, what if the second AA guy did want to help either, what would I have done? Thank god (and I did) it worked out, and I have learnt a lot, especially only lock the door with the actual key.

P.S It took him about 10 seconds to break in. All that waiting and all that hassle and only 10 seconds.

Lament for what’s wasted

2006-02-03T13:54:00.000+13:00

Will I be dictated to by my feelings. Will I let them pull me here and push me there. Will I let there greed never cease. Or shall I choose, shall I choose action as I know is right. Shall I commit my efforts into life’s priorities or will I instead be thrashed by impulse, abusing myself because what is good is sidelined rather than held with high regard. Lord help me to hold in high regard things that are good, things with long term importance. Help me lord not to lead a lifestyle of instant gratification. Lord I thank you for your word which shows me what is to be held in high regard, what is good and beneficial, and what is to be rejected that which would destroy me now and in eternity. Lord you have not left such choice ambiguous but you have given me structure, that of love and all it produces. Please Lord let it produce it’s self in me.

Strange but true

2006-02-01T11:14:00.000+13:00

I am in the strangest mo0d. Its realLy an unhapPy mo0d where Im fed up with myself and say stufF it and do something weird. I felt like something like chocolate, the jafFas didnt satisfy and neither did the marshmalLows and mammamamamamm and I put on some sunglasSes whilst being inside at 9.30pm and I decided to have NutelLa on a piece of too0000aASt. And after it popPed I margarined it and thought im going to put sooooooo much NuttelLa on it so that it would just be ridiculous. And I sco0ped out heaps but i put some back. The Marmite was just beside me and I though that I could put some Marmite on with the NutelLa, and I knew it wouldnt go together but WHO CARES! and I sco0ped out heaps of Marmite but then I put some back. The marmite turned the NutelLa to like a dark chocolate colour. I tell you it was weird as to eat, entirely disagreEing with my taste whilst fulLy complementing my state of mind. Someone nearby suggested putTing some tomato and letTuce on, ha! silLyness I thought, but then I imagined my NutMite toast with tomato and lettuce and mayonnaise on top, then i realised the ridiculousnesS of what was being contemplated so I snapPled myself out of it, thinking what a weird mo()d im in.

This morning at approximately um 9am I poured milk on my cereal, I expected the milk to come gushing out in a beautiful stream but it came out heavy and sort of sagged out of the bottle onto my cereal, I expected it to create an arc as it came out but it just went down. Odd. Maybe I was expecting too much. No! I thought defiantly, it is my favorite lite blue milk and I will expect no less! To expect no less would normally not lead to the disappointment of that moment. But to have normally you have to have a fridge that is working like it normally should, and we don’t have one of those. The milk smelt bad even though it's “best before 04 FEB 06”, and I thought you blameless milk and you bad bad fridge. For a moment I almost put it back in the fridge, but being the bigger man and taking the initiative I washed it down the sink, about a liter. The fix-it guy, who was very happy, says our fridge isn’t worth fixing soooooooooo new fridge hopefully. But but but that all is beside the fascinating point of this story. I was really proud of myself after this next bit. You’ll be thinking it was too late for the cereal, with all that blameless bad milk on it, ya know I thought like that once..... but now.... Im a winner! I mean cereal is one thing that is just painful to buy in the supermarket because you want it so bad but it just seems overpriced, especially when you compare it to the cheap but nutritionally lacking cocoa puff things, or the cheap but not as tasty Weet-bix. So not wanting to waste it I thought: ‘I could wash all the bad milk off the cereal then it would be just like new!’ BRAIN WAVE! So I tipped it into a sieve and ran water through it. Then I added yogurt and peaches (in a bowl, not the sieve). Feel free to use this technique whenever your caught in such a situation, especially if you want to impress.

suuuurrrrPRISE!

2006-01-30T11:06:00.000+13:00

What a week Dunedin has put on for us! It has been such good weather I went to the beach at St Kilda 3 times and now I have lots more freckles and am a bit browner, not that I tried to be, and not that you would probably notice. Seriously the beach in the past week has been a revelation to me. I have often thought that Dunedin would be so much cooler if it had a more swimable beach, and by that I meant if it wasnt so cold. On my past three beach missions it has been very swimable, we were in the water for about 30min each time! Did lots of body surfing on first and last trip but on the second one the waves were too massive and too many people to bump into. The water was still colder than North Island beaches like the Mount but not by much. From my memory I can recall only a handful other Dunedin sea swims and they mostly lasted less than 5 minutes. Its like before this week I saw these beautiful beaches and thought what a waste all you can do is walk/sit on the sand and play beach games, me being very much a water person, I just want to swim. So now Dunedin is that much better in my books for having some beautiful beaches that at times like this can actually live up to their potential. Alas I know it is not to last forever and winter shall be here soon enough and that this will be but a memory and a hope for the summer. And I do fear that this revelation will lead me back to the ocean in colder seasons and when that happens I shall not last long, but I will likely try my best to enjoy those waves for the 5 minutes I can bare. Its funny that Im starting my 5th year here and Dunedin continues to surprise. I would rank this up there with a couple of other revelations about Dunedin that really added value for me, such as the one or two snow falls a year, which make the cold so worth it, and discovering the incredible beauty of the Peninsular, especially on a good day and especially on the other side and its so close at hand! Here are some photos of my value adding revelations:

The Beach

The Penisular

The snow

Also another surprise Dunedin threw at me last week was discovering a hidden “mall” on George st called Golden Harvest Mall. It's just down from Mc Donald’s and only has a few shops but the crazy thing is that I have always just walked past it without much of a thought. Plus there is an entrance from the back near the back McDonalds entrance. I went there for Dim Sum, the best Dim sum ive had, this being my third time. After the first two experiences I was ready to write it off, but it has survived my wrath and I will give it another chance, oh look surprise surprise another surprise! This all a bit incongruent wouldn’t you say.

Hedgehog X

2006-01-27T10:52:00.000+13:00

There is a Hedgehog who lives in our back yard. He or she, we will call it X, X has no name well none I know of. Last night at 1am as I filled my drink bottle I saw X slowly meandering around our back courtyard. awwww how cute. It wasn’t so cute last week when X woke Kirsten at 3am whilst rummaging through our rubbish. I don’t know how long X has lived here, maybe longer than us, or maybe X is just passing through and is having a bit of a holiday at our place. Before I thought of taking a photo X was gone.

Poll Results for:
The one thing I have always wanted to say to you Justin is…

0% You are so beautiful
17% Will you marry me?
25% You look like a marshmallow
17% Your so vain I bet you think this blog is about you
42% But most of all I like the way you move

Hmmm a bit of the unexpected in this one, I mean has anyone actually seen how good I look these days? and the whole will you marry me thing, well its times like this I wish I could track who voted. It is a bit of a tough one, ya know with two people wanting to marry me, and really there is only room for one, what can ya do. I thought more would have called me vain, and less would say I looked like a Marshmallow and well I knew you would like the way I move.

Help us name our Hedgehog in the new poll. Now I know some of the names are a bit out there but dont blame it all on me. I let Kirsten and Jared each choose two names, and I chose two aswell, for some reason we all decided on boy names. Now its up to you! Take your time and make the right decision…

And if you have any of your own hedgehog dilemmas, don’t hesitate to call the hedgehog helpline or though its in England so you could be forgiven for hesitation.

The goings on

2006-01-24T10:26:00.000+13:00

This morning I awoke and thought. So this is Dunedin, so this is my life. yep its the place to be for me.

This is Dunedin from where I sit. This is the view from our deck this year.

My flatmate Kirsten is eating. I said those are wired muffins ay, and she said yeah their plain, and I said there just sponge cake turned into muffins and she said Ha only just realised it is sponge.

So she said... and then they said... so what did you say?

What if we lived in a society where we were to0 scared to go out to the edge of the sea. Lo0king at the Horizon I think what is out there what is beyond? But I know because of scho0l and maps and the amazing race and Intrepid Journeys and the News. Some people don’t know though, like they don’t even know where America is. Ha. But we don’t know where everything is like the Garden of Eden and other places, and that island on Lost, who knows where that is? I don’t and they don’t.

Jared has forgone his flatmate privilege and will wait till I publish my blog, I said he could know what’s in it right now, instead of your now which is actually later than my now and Jared’s now. Jared says I have good indoor outdoor flow skills and that chicks would be impressed. This is because I am blogging out side and opened the window to plug in my laptop Kirsten also forgoes now now flatmate privileges.

Oh what a rude cell phone that intrudes this serenity.

It is beautiful to sit out side in the shade and read and wot not. Sometimes though I feel like I’m in a war against the sun. I’m determined to never get sun burnt ever again in my whole life. And I will apply sun block and it will be SPF 30+, and after swimming I will re-apply it.

I think imagine if instead of this sun it was pouring with rain that would be so emotional, I sometimes find stormy weather exhilarating, when your in it and when your out but seeing and hearing it. And sometimes when It pours down I feel like even if I feel bad about something well the weather feels pretty bad about something too and its like where in it together. And If its sunny and Im in a good mood I think the same applies. My brother likes the rain too, he would like to get married in the rain actually. He says ‘how cool would that be!’ And it would be actually if you were all hoping for it to rain and expecting it and prepared for it, it only sucks when you don’t want it. It would suck if it was sunny though, because you would have paid extra for water proof clothes.

Happy Birthday to0 you etc so the song goes. And the singing it loudly at the neighbors house, and I can smell their BBQ, they sound like fun people because they sing happy birthday in a fun way, they go up and down in pitch and are laughing. Which is a sound that fun people make.

Funny I think the neighbor got a new car, because he is just sitting in it and playing music and just before the car was making cell phone noises, really wired, and sometimes he revs it and he is making the windscreen wippers wipe, and he was even getting under it to look at its belly.

Clip Clip Clipity Clip. So is the sound of nail clipping. Hands or feet I don’t know, but Jared does because it is him who does this Clip Clip Clipping. I have been wanting to do some clipping of my own, but I couldn’t locate my nail clippers, until recently. Jared dont think I dont know what you did! I saw you throw your clippings on the deck, and ha now everybody knows! Even your girrrrrrllllfriend, Im really helping you by sharing this, you know its not good to have secrets in a relationship. I could go over and have a look and find out if they were fingers or toes, gross no, who do you think I am! Im not here just to satisfy the world’s curiosity.

A post like this could last forever. But I will stop.

Attack of the sterilised lipstick smudge

2006-01-19T10:00:00.000+13:00

Its early in the morning. It was early in the morning. It is now just the morning. Getting in to the lab before 9am always feels early. Today involved coffee, an unfinished cup at breakfast time. Now at the lab, now having Irish crème coffee whilst reading blogs. Im using one of the departmental cups, after I made the coffee I noticed a red smudge in the shape of a lip near the top of the mug. Litpstick! Gro0ss! Well it is a communal mug, but it has been sterilised, I decided to just drink from the other side. Oh no I find myself drinking form the lipstick side! yuk! its just so natural to pick up a mug and drink form that side without thinking. I determine not to do that again. Oh no! Im almost finished and I notice that the red smudge has almost gone! where? where? no please no it cant be that I have again been drinking from the forsaken side. Do my lips look a little redder? yuk yuk yuk!

No one likes you when your 23, or so the song goes (whats my age again? Blink 182). Me and my flatmate Jared are going to start a club. and at this club we will attack people who don’t like us. and that’s everyone, because no one (meaning everyone) likes you when your 23. Jared is going to be the big fat leader, and he is going to sit in a chair and pat an ugly cat. I am going to be like the last samurai. Though I am now a few weeks into this 23 thing and I have yet to evidence that no one likes me. Maybe they dont know that I am... twenty th***. And It makes you think, If no one (meaning everyone) likes you then what about the other 23ers, they don’t like you either? Thats silly. This club is do0med.

To iPod, an outside view

2006-01-17T10:14:00.000+13:00

In writing this post I set out with an odd mix of motivations, initially the simple desire to blog, secondly the desire to say something about iPods and wanting to say something about their chic-ness, and oddly after stumbling across the word aloof in the dictionary I really wanted to incorporate that into the post too. Here goes.

To iPod is to be chic, is to be aloof in a world of your own. Ha easier than I expected. Ha easier than you expected actually. Ha easier than yo Momma expected. And mi Momma probably.

Funny how to iPod is to be chic and aloof at the same time when the definitions of these words would suggest a paradox. Chic is to be elegant and stylish, and aloof is to be apart from people. Ok, not much contradiction at first glance but lets look closer, and lets even get a bit too close. To be chic you need exposure, to the world, to the group of people that believe what you have is chic. To be hot or not requires the endorsement of those with authority in such matters. You might be thinking, no not even! I don’t need anyone else to tell me what’s cool, Ill do whatever I wanna do gosh! and I say you go girlfriend. But I will also ask: where does our opinion of what we like come from in the first place? I think most of us give such authority to others; we expose our garments and gadgets of choice and by doing so we invite judgment and criticism on our style. To minimise such loss of face we do our best to predict what will work. Here we so subtly place authority in the Media and Marketers. These global pied pipers gladly show us how to be cool. Isn’t that why iPod is so popular? Apple got there marketing right, they convinced us it was cool before Sony or someone else did. Yes they got the product design right, and that helps, I mean it is very useful in and of its self. But it wasn’t chic till it was endorsed by their own advertising and then by consumers. Consumers who perpetuated their personal endorsement to all their friends, and to all passers by – look at me, look at me, look at me, see my bright white headphones yes I have an iPod, don’t you? everybody does, see those 5 people behind me also have the same headphones, it is obviously so cool because look everybody has one! Its the style, its the rage its the chic elite. So we see from this that to be cool, hot, or chic requires the opinions, judgments and endorsements of others. To do this involves opening up to others and allowing them into your world, which is not being very aloof. There is also the fact that if you are cool then you are popular and have lots of friends popular people are not the aloofy types.

Thus to iPod which is to be chic is to be open and involved with others. Yet to iPod is also to live life in a world of music, aloof and separate from others. We see it as people walk the streets, take the bus, eat lunch, or even as they go about life in their work places and homes. Doesn’t this stifle conversation; doesn’t it create a barrier between people? Even if it is just with strangers, it creates some separation.

This apparent contradiction that I have some how made up could be explained by the fact that we are connected with others and our environment by more than one sense. So that whilst we may make ourselves aloof in the arena of sound, we can still connect and make ourselves chic in the arena of sight.

Alright that actually became a lot harder than I and all the Mommas expected.

The moth lives

2006-01-13T11:27:00.000+13:00

My desk is, my roof is, and my lamp is, and my hand does, and my eyes do, and the moth lives

I felt something, I bent my neck downwards and there was a wee moth sitting just below the mouse pad on my laptop. I thought oh! And I tried to pick it up with my fingers. I saw a smudge of silver brown where my right hand had been resting. I had squashed the wee moth and rubbed its coat onto my laptop. As I grappled with it, it lurched free, going straight towards my desk lamp. Feel the allure of its halogen glow, go moth go! My eyes followed its flight, my eyes were blinded by brightness. My hand was used to switch off the lamp, the room plunged into ambient levels of lighting. Incandescent low, a bulb hung centrally from my roof top. My roof that looks like a floor, that you could walk on, that if you did you would be up the wrong way, that would drop you on your head. Your head that is big fat and red. It is made of parallel planks of wood, as typically seen in polished wooden floors. But this roof, my roof is painted white, white like if you had a white wooden desk. White like anything white. My desk is not white, my desk is covered in fake wood. It has colours and patterns trying to look like real wood. But this desk, my desk it is a solid mash of wood chips. The moth flew by my face, landing somewhere...

I feel something, I bend my neck downwards. I think oh oh oh! Grapple let go! Bright light. Low light. Ceiling that sends me reeling. White and parallel. Like a floor, unlike my fake desk of mash. Moth flies by landing somewhere...

Look down... Oh! Grapple. Blinded. Ambient. Roof top. Upside down. Parallel. White. Desk. Fake. Mash. Moth. Land. Bend... and snap!

Relocation

2006-01-09T13:54:00.000+13:00

Still not about my Christmas holiday in the Northern Island. But instead about the past weekend in Dunedin. On last Thursday I commenced relocation of all my possessions, they were to move form one flat to another about 6km away. They were first to be assorted into boxes and bags according to size, weight, shape and according to their kind. Thursday evening was the start of this boxifying, Friday evening was almost finishing it and Saturday morning was lat minute boxifying, then sealing with tape. Friday was also spent weeding the garden, a job which I ultra disliked as a child (all of us kids did) but now has some novelty, thought its mostly a case of it has to be done so do it. I was tired from weeding, my flatmate’s (Kirsten) Mum (Joy) came down to help us, she is a garden expert. I came across a green leafy thing I wasnt sure if it was a weed or a plant, it wasn’t that good looking but it could still be important, I pulled one out to show Joy… no it’s a plant. Opps. I continued wedding, then It dawned on me... I recall taking a leak in this very same spot! gross what was I thinking giving all that Nitrogen to the weeds, hehehe. Even more gross was the old glass milk bottle half full of green water with white slimy slugs about 5cm long inside, I picked it up to see what it was, ahhh, I left it there.

Flip of a coin, heads I win, in some ways I feel bad for winning but gosh someone had to. I get to choose a room, I am very happy with my new room, except for that dim light, is it the lampshade or just a low Watt bulb? I have yet to sort that out. I have yet to sort out many things that do require sorting of some kind.

On Friday night we find the new flat is a mess, the toilet wasn’t even flushed, there had been no vacuuming, 5c coins were randomly distributed through out the house, candles, cobwebs cobwebs cobwebs, a crusty old couch, kitchen stuff, food, a rubbish bag of clothes, abandoned abandoned all abandoned, and yes this is after the property manager had inspected it! Unacceptable! It all had to be cleaned Saturday morning before moving stuff in, we will be compensated for our troubles. Doh and the power had to be reconnected, cost extra on a weekend! Somehow I escaped the cleaning, I was moving furniture I tell you! Kirsten’s Dad (Tom) helped with moving furniture. Jared (also a flatmate) made multiple trips with all our beloved possessions using his work van. We also have a visitor for a week (actually a flatmate from back it the day) she also helped clean and unpack stuff. What a day, after the lows of Friday night Saturday night is an exhausted contentness.

On TV is a movie about a gathering storm, its about Winston Churchill pre WWII. I arrive at the end wishing I had seen the beginning. Earlier in the evening, during dinner there was a programme about 4 kids deciding who their single Dad will go on a date with, one lady they picked later arrived with pink hair.

9am church in the holidays? What sort of holiday is that! They are trying to get us used to showing up at 9am so that when it goes back to two services of 9am and 10.45am more people will keep going to the 9am. Not me. Well anyway you get tea (it was early grey though) and biscuits - in the middle of the service. We had our own property inspection at 3pm so twas back to the old flat and more cleaning. We have a sucky vacuum cleaner that doesn’t suck as strongly as I would like. Help was at hand thought with the arrival of cheap Asian labour (free, except for the returned favour of moving some more furniture), It is soooo much better doing things with more people, it really makes a difference, we were done well before 3pm I think. And passed, we scored a very well done x 3.

Sunday evening was dinner at the Gables, it’s the stables for gay horses!!!! Ha ha ha : ) or it could be know as Jian and Mel’s flat. Mel invited us for dinner, we had interesting conversation on topics such as how to kill a conversation and people eating live monkey brains!

Thank you to everyone that helped, Kirsten, Jared, Me, Christy, Joy, Tom, Mel, Jian, Soo sian you all made it so much easier and funner. Oh and Contact Energy who have a really good team of phone help people, I called them 3 times and seriously never had to wait more than 1 second to talk to someone.

P.S. In breaking news, we get TWO weeks free rent as compensation for the mess our new flat was in! thats $600 between the 4 of us! Kirsten must really have some good negotiating skills.

The temperature of chocolate

2006-01-06T10:36:00.000+13:00

It is 10.05 and I feel a bit sick from munch munch munching on a chocolate Santa for the past couple of hours, chocolate Santa is all hollow and munchable, when I first started eating it was a cold morning and the chocolate was not meltable in the mouthable. Don’t worry everything is ok now (well not for Santa). Chocolate Santa is just like an Easter rabbit but has smaller ears and a few other different features. Chocolate Santa, survived the plane trip quite well, compared to those rice crackers, now in a thousand pieces, more crackers to go around I guess. Of all the Easter chocolates I think I like the hollow rabbits the best, and the marshmallow eggs and why why am I writing about this. Gosh. Its been 2 weeks you say, 2 weeks and all we get is that last post about humpty dumpty and this post which combine to make nonsensical blobs of wordiness devoid of delicious news of summer extravaganzas, Christmas indulgence, New Year revelry and Birthday celebrations. Gosh, Justin what is this about your life or about some other crap? Where life means Napoleon Dynamite, baking biblical biscuits, and home invasions, and crap means the temperature of chocolate and putting on shoes at the top of a hill.

milky dilky silky

2006-01-04T15:14:00.000+13:00

dump de do
what do u do
when you get to the top
u put on your shoe
and then the other one too
and your hat
and your friend he has a shoe
not as good as yours
he wears it on his paws
he is an animal

fiddle de de
puddle de da
humpty dumpty played his guitar
and drove very far
in a futuristic car

zipiddy do dar
zippiddy day
cows are fat and milky
milky dilky silky

Pole results for 'If I could change the grass I would make it...'

7% Blue grass
47% Glow in the dark
0% With the ability to speak
7% With the ability to grow in deserts
40% Coffee flavoured

Check out the new poll

Living with Kirsten day 305

2005-12-21T09:34:00.000+13:00

Whilst flicking channels and catching Christmas in the Park with Petra Bagus as MC

Kirsten (my flatmate): Ben Hur, that’s one celebrity I would like to meet one day
Justin: Who?
Kirsten: Petra Bagus
Justin: Oh I thought you said Ben Hur
Kirsten: I hardly even know who that is!
Justin: (silent pause...)
He’s a famous musician.
Kirsten: yeah... so what songs does he sing?
Justin: (thinking... she’s being sarcastic)
He sings ‘the wheels on the bus go round and round’.
Kirsten: what, nobody sings that, its a kids song
Justin: (thinking... is this really working, hehehe oh what fun)
So, it had to come from somewhere. He was really big in the 50’s
Kirsten: Really
Justin: Lots of kids songs are classics... like ‘we all live in a yellow submarine’
Kirsten: Really who sung that?
Justin: The Beatles
Kirsten: See! why do people like the Beatles when they sing songs like that!
Justin: They have other songs like, all you need is love... do do dododo

20 minutes later

Justin: Hey Kirsten you know all that about Ben Hur... it wasn’t true.
Kirsten: aw what, ha ha ha! so who is he then?
Justin: He’s a fictional character from a movie
Kirsten: ha ha ha...
Justin: I think he drives chariots
Kirsten: Chariots? your just making that up.
Justin: what its true! Its like a Roman epic
Kirsten: A Roman epic! Ha, Whatever! now I really don’t believe you!
Justin: No its the truth
Kirsten: No your just making it up, I cant trust you anymore.
Justin: Well what else am I supposed to say when its true!?
I cant believe this is happening, Im so going to blog about this.
Kirsten: Im going to look it up on the internet tomorrow
Justin: Just ask Jared (other flatmate, in his room)
Kirsten: No he wont know
Justin: Yes he will, ask anyone, even a five year old would know...
because they know his songs ha ha ha!

20 min later

Jared: So I hear Ben Hur writes good songs
Justin and Jared: Tehehehehehe

P.S Im goin to Hamilton today, just pretend its Fiji baby

FridaySaturdaySunday

2005-12-19T11:48:00.000+13:00

I got “tagged”
which means according to unavoidable laws of the universe I must confess 5 weird habits. But I don’t have any weird habits, all my habits are just normal to me. So I asked some flatmates and lab mates and came up with some.

1) I say weird things – supposedly that’s a habit
2) I shake my leg when im sitting down – other people do this but supposedly not as much or as vigorously as me.
3) I flush my dental floss down the toilet
4) I text my brother all my random thoughts and about random things I happen to come across in daily life
5) I recognise a Michael Jackson song in 1 second, and I am happy again

oh man I just feel like there is so much I have not blogged about. I have had such a great weekend. It has been the first weekend in as long as I can remember that I have done no lab work. So catch up mode.

Friday
I had a great meeting with my supervisor; I love having one on one meetings with her because I always feel leaving so much better about my research! Then we had Microbiology Christmas BBQ in which I won a Man’s Holdall i.e. a toiletries bag, yay! Then I played Risk with 3 other lab mates, on the floor in the lab. None of them knew how to play, I thrashed. Watched ‘Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind’ such a cool movie, and ‘Charlotte Grey’ an OK movie.

Saturday
Was very interesting. I finished the stunning ‘To the Lighthouse’ by Virginia Woolf, which I borrowed from the gumtree lady, this book is thrilling and not because of the plot. It was so beautiful, a joy to read. The first half of the day was pretty standard and pretty good. Then at 3pm everything changed. I was helping a friend move flats and there was like 15 of us helping move stuff. so I was going to leave cause I mean they could handle it. But was awesome cause I didn’t leave and I ended up hanging out with a whole bunch of people I hardly knew and having a great time. box + bed relocating, BBQ, beach, dessert, great conversation. It was funny cause we all thought that everyone else knew each other, but turned out that nobody really knew more than 3 people, except the link which was Kylie who invited us all. I learnt a lot from this day.

Sunday
Well Sunday. the children in our church are sooo cool. yeah they did a massive dance for us and they got some adults on stage to dance too, including pastors, which was highly entertaining. Picnic on the grass behind Royal tce, in the Sun. bumped into one of the guys I just meet on Saturday so invited him along. ah summer time. helped Joface finish off cleaning the Royal tce flats. The highlight of which was the guys freezer. There was Ice and lots of it, mostly stuck to the roof. Instead of just waiting for it to melt I set about devising strategies to speed the process along. These included, boiling water in a pan which produced steam, but really wasn’t that successful. dipping my scrapper in boiling water, using an iron to melt it away and placing a 5 fin oil heater inside the freezer. I had even grader ideas but apparently these were not feasible. just giving it some time proved the best solution.

And ya know I was thinking later that evening, deep thoughts. What that freezer and that ice represents, to me to you, to cutting edge and more. I mean That Ice its like the rings that show the age of a tree. That ice is a relic of years gone by, of memories of friends of peoples lives, of the privilege I have had of sharing in those lives, those lives so intimately connected to that Ice that freezer, 3 years of ice. That Ice is gone, changed, it has moved on, its not ice anymore its liquid now, its different, free, spread out, maybe it will find its self again, but it will never again be that same unique accumulation of water as ice in that freezer. And so I was, there, at its end at its transition. That freezer will go on and more ice will come and more lives will be shared, and it will probably be cleaned more often.

Lawn of Shame Field of Freedom

2005-12-13T15:47:00.000+13:00

Tired, torn, and worn
Fat but thin and bruised by whim
This sin this sin, that livith in
That tears and tempts
This wicked wretch
Torches, scorches what’s already charred
What’s already weeping
What’s weak and lame
It’s all the same this sin this scorn
This lawn of shame

This heart that is broken,
From lies it beholds
This body is hurting,
From stress taking toll
Stop hiding, stop lying, stop bearing this pain
Let light in thy darkness
Start hoping, start opening, start calling his name
Be loved by a saviour
Believe in forgiveness
Field of his freedom
Be changed, unfold

When Adam's Flesh and Adam's bone sits in Cair Paravel in throne, the evil time will be over and done.

2005-12-12T13:29:00.000+13:00

That doesnt even rhyme properly!

There is a 7am screening of The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe at Hoyts in Dunedin. why? why would they do that? who would go to that? am I missing something, is there some group in Dunedin society that would actually go to that screening, are they targeting a different audience. The people that want to see a movie before they start work at 10am? or 9am but dont care about being an hour late? The earliest I have been to see a movie is 10am, on a Saturday, by myself. Enlighten me.

I thought this movie was good, but could have been better. Not up to LOTR standard it was looking a bit cheap at times. I do love the names C.S. Lewis uses like Narnia, Aslan, Caspian, Tumnus and Cair Paravel.

Ugly but not for long

2005-12-08T19:10:00.000+13:00

I would like to start of by saying. Thanks to Gus who saved my blog from humiliation. I messed up the HTML a bit and everything turned ugly. I tried to figure it out myself but didn’t really know what to do so I called Gus who sorted it out wonderfully, thanks Gus you rock!

also I want to share that the new Mizone sports water bottle design is just perfect. it is so slim and functional, yet still holds a massive 800ml. Whoever designed this baby deserves a promotion and respect. Im really happy cause it fits snugly in my carrier on my bike un like other bottles that try to be hot with big curves and all. Real bottles shouldn’t curve bigger than the bike carrier! Mizone’s innovative bottle ensures you not only get the benefit of water with crisp flavour and 5 essential vitamins, but its unique grip also ensures faster hydration to get you into your zone.

Final poll results for ‘your face is…’

0% simply the best, better than all the rest
8% so hot right now
17% your feet
33% my face
42% a tall poppy

I dont have much to add except... where are all the vain people?

Notice the new poll, and oh it’s a tough choice with so many great options. Only one vote though, you better think about it, vote wisely, god could take our collective opinion into consideration… its about time for a scenic change.

oh how I would perfection them to exist

2005-12-07T16:00:00.000+13:00

I have the hiccups and also had them earlier this morning at which time I tried to rid them by my special technique. Which did not works especially well this time. I thought it was a special technique but now Im think its um I don’t know what. Still special but just not 100% successful.

Today was early. 4.45am earliest this year it is likely. People still call talkback radio at 4.45am, and people still listen. One lady pushed the burglar out of her house, he was doped up, so matter of factly she said it, I thought she was brave. Tried to do what I was supposed to do on Friday but had some more issues, different but more. Today is not like Friday though because I just moved on without feeling too bad. Oh well things don’t work, its research. 2 years later and Im only just realising that its normal for things to screw up and not work how I would perfection them to exist. Results come but some don’t and some come but don’t look like the ones I would perfection to exist.

Sometimes I am pretty hard on myself so I feel. Like a perfectionist who cant be bothered to do the work to exist things into how I would perfection them is how I feel. That’s the worst kind to be. Say if I did the work and met the standards then that might be logical. Or if I dropped standards to match my work ethic. But to maintain the high standards and the slack she’ll be rightness its do0m of frustration. Things don’t always go right its to learn form these that is right. Not to fret from failed perfection that does not exist.

Artists dress like rugs and wallpaper with bits and pieces and prints and colours and slashes and funkiness, and nail polish Their flare is expressed in their garmets of choice, they read their books and chat about morphed abstractial ideals how plain and Hallensteins I look as I walk about, though I am not wearing any Hallensteins. Physics lecturers wear knitted woollen vests and have grey beards and are balding. How vastly different are the thoughts these two minds dwell upon, tho sometimes not. I visited the polytech art school exhibition because Jo had a display. My favourite part was going into the portal that took you from the light into the darkness. It was like the Stargate or the Narnia wardrobe, and just as real! Oh and there was a display inspired by Microbiology, but then again what isn’t?

basking in all its gloom

2005-12-05T17:39:00.000+13:00

Right now it is raining out side. And Im looking forward to biking home in the rain. Ill be biking in the rain… what a glorious feeling Ill be wet but happy again. I just had a 3 hour meeting which I excused myself from early (early gosh, can you believe leaving after 3hrs is actually early!) because by that stage I wasn’t of much assistance to what was being discussed. Anyway it was a good meeting for the first two hours. Oh I hope it doesn’t stop raining, Im peeking out the window and the rain is not as heavy as it could be, If im going to get wetted lets just make it worth it. I might have to go through a few extra puddles or something. Strange this feeling is, why do I want to get wet? Maybe so I can feel good about getting dry again at the end? And have a shower. I don’t know. My unhappiness from Friday has drifted over and through all I have done this weekend and I think I might be hiding from god. Ughhhnesss, I will have to confront thisss. Maybe that’s why Im in the mood for a good rainstorm. As if nature is truly expressing how I feel, and these feelings draw me to droplets felled from grey skies, to be united with the storm, basking in all its gloom, bring on lightning thunder wind, power, emotion, wet.

You should go back to 1982 when you were set to be a big star!

2005-12-02T19:23:00.000+13:00

this wont be long because I have had a stress full day and I want to go home. Since I know you are so interested in what made it stress filled, well I know but at the same time I dont. I got up at 6.15am so I could be at the lab by 7.30 because I was about to embark on a 14hr day doing a mammoth experiment, but I mixed up some samples, and at about 11am I decided It wasnt worth continuing. so I gave up on that experiment. It was frustrating at the time, I thought I would have been able to move on, but I feelt stressed for most of the day. To take my mind of things I had lunch with Scott and sent lots of txts to people. Anyway its home time now. Im considering watching Finding Nemo, something comforting. I was initially considering something science fiction, but dont feel like anything too long. anyway I might not watch anything.

Vote for Pedro! your face is pedro! well thats not an option, but your face is something, so vote in the ultra cool poll in the right hand column. I will come up with a new one at least once a week. Its a chance to have your say, see where you fit, and let the majority rule!

Ginger binger

2005-11-29T09:42:00.000+13:00

Gingerbread, home baking, being 10 years old, uncooked dough, then cooked and cooled, soft sweet spicy, taste, aroma. Shaped as stars, circles, squares, and person like. Run run run as fast as you can, you cant catch me I’m the ginger bread man. The gingerbread man he is fast, faster than I can run run. Starbucks Gingerbread Frappuccino, you are so hot right now, hotter than the sun sun. But actually cool, refresh me. How are you possible?! Astonishment, fades to anticipation, melts to taste. Liquid refreshment, ray of heaven. Gotta ask myself the question ‘where am I now’? Starbucks ginger of the bread, running through my head. Running running as fast as you can, will I ever catch you again, ginger frappu bread man? I love you, you gave me joy. A few days ago I never new of you and now I see you all the places I go. I think of you with my brain, I think of that day that moment. A flash, five minutes start till finish, or was it ten? time blurs it goes fast, run run run. Well somebody told me that you had a boyfriend who looked like a girlfriend. All I see is you and ginger and bread. $4.95, four days in Africa five minutes in Dunedin, on a couch, but I stayed longer with a friend with the long black $3.30. Ginger linger, stay, the memory lasts. I know you I think of you. Talking with friends and I think of you. Cheap Asian dinner and I think of you. At church and I think of you. On my bike and I think of youuuuuuuuuuu. Dearest cream coated, plastic cup contained, straw consumed Ginger binger frappuccino. What was you is me now.

At my signal, unleash hell

2005-11-26T18:51:00.000+13:00

JUSTIN:[after swiftly dispatching another gladiator]
Are you not entertained! Are you not entertained! Is this not why you are here?!
CROWD: Justin! Justin! Justin!...

You scored as Maximus. After his family was murdered by the evil emperor Commodus, the great Roman general Maximus went into hiding to avoid Commodus's assassins. He became a gladiator, hoping to dominate the colosseum in order to one day get the chance of killing Commodus. Maximus is valiant, courageous, and dedicated. He wants nothing more than the chance to avenge his family, but his temper often gets the better of him.

Maximus

54%

Lara Croft

54%

Neo, the "One"

54%

Batman, the Dark Knight

50%

Indiana Jones

50%

Captain Jack Sparrow

42%

The Amazing Spider-Man

42%

James Bond, Agent 007

38%

William Wallace

33%

The Terminator

29%

El Zorro

25%

Which Action Hero Would You Be?

Yeah right, I dont know how that happened. But one thing I do know is that...
what we do in this life echoes in eternity.

The Great Bloggera

2005-11-24T14:27:00.000+13:00

Its been a month and 5 days since I entered The Great Bloggera.

Prologue
Ah that first post on the 19th October 2005 (year of the rooster). I think I started because Joe Morris had been reading peoples blogs and he said it was cool, so I read some. It wasn’t the first time I had herd of blogs, I knew Sam had one. I though I’ll just read and comment, but Jared’s blog wouldn’t let me comment without joining up, so I had to! UnnnnBelievable! By then the darkness had taken me in so I though well at least I should write one blog cause I dont want to look barren, but then it was another and another. It would have been nice if I had someone trying to get me to start one, but oh well I got lots of encouragement after I started.

Scene 1: Phantom of the Bloggera
I was reading a few retro blog posts a week or so ago, It was funny seeing the different mindsets people started off with when they first blogged. There were many similarities to how I felt and some differences. For example It seems almost everyone starts off their first blog saying something along the lines of ‘I never though it would come to this! I don’t know why I am doing this, but someone else reckons I should, but no commitment, no commitment! I might want to stop blogging and if I do I have said it now, so no commitment!’. I was never the type who had made some solemn vow to remain pure of all things blogging, but there was a part of me that wanted to resist. On my first post not wanting to commit I said “I dont know how much I will ever update this”, turns out I have about every 2-3 days, not as prolific as some (cough Abby cough) but not too bad, well that’s what an alien told me so I am happy with that. One funny thing when I started was I had this idea that I could keep my blog secrete, like have this commentary on my life and the whole world etc and have the sneaky satisfaction that I’m the only one who knows about it. Then I could also be like a phantom and just comment on other peoples blogs, and they would all be like oooooh who is the phantom with all the wisdom, and I would be like The phantom of the bloggera. And then I would find one young lass, take her under my wing and train her in the art of the bloggera, until she blossomed into the most beautiful bogger the bloggera has ever seen, then I would fall tragically in love with her. But The phantom of the bloggera is dead because I deiced there was more to gain from exposures. And you shall see my scar. At the time it wasn’t quite as dramatic as that but it was pretty much the same story. Interestingly whilst retro blogging I found my crazy idea of secrete was not so uncommon, with Carmi also expressing that she wanted to keep the publicity low in the begining, and Sam who actually never told anyone about his for like a week or so (scroll to the bottom of this, it is funny). How may phantoms are there right now? Revel thy self and thy scar!

Interlude: To be and To comment
Since the beginning the bloggera has been an experience! I have thought about my blog and spent way too much time writing these things and reading others. Grateful I am for the positive feed back through comments and just bumping into people who are like ‘I read your blog, it was funny’. The best complement was when some told me it helped them laugh when they were stressed from studying for exams all day, and they really need to laugh at that time. Yay making a difference with humor (which I sometimes forget about, see scene 2). So thanks for the support people, I’d like to think I would keep going if I never got any comments, but it definitely is one of the cool parts of blogging.

Behind the Scenes: Directors Commentary
Man it is so weird the strategies I think of when blogging, actually its kind of funny. Like how I remember thinking I have to start of with a bang! So I can get everyone’s attention, because they all have millions of other blogs and things to do. The Napoleon Dynamite story was the one for the job. By the way I went back to New World and saw him again – with witnesses Joseph Morris, Scott Cappie, and Matt Poynton. It is interesting I wonder how other people write their blogs. For me it is a longer process than I was expecting, It pretty much turns into writing an essay, and I end up proof reading it and changing things to make it sound better. I wish I could say it all came out just right but oh well you know the truth now. But sometimes I don’t proof read and its bad, sorry BibianA :). Another thing is my posts almost always take on some life of their own and are nothing like what I was planning to write about. Gosh I never knew I could be such a drama queen!

Scene 2: Tales of Trauma
Two of the worries I have had about blogging is one running out of creativity and interesting things to say, and two that how I come across on my blog is not what I am in real person. Interestingly both of these worries were identified by others, which actually annoyed me. Gosh don’t be so freakin insightful! Your face is a tall poppy! Another worry is people only thinking of me as funny, can’t you see I’m so much more? Though really it’s not so big a deal (see interlude). Oh and another worry was that I started neglecting to do lab work and procrastinating more, though I cant blame that all on the bloggera, and I have been working on it. One disappointment is a few people that I am close to not being interested enough to read my blog. But I understand cause it was never my habit to read anyone’s blog till now, still I wish they would.

Final Scene: To Blog before Heaven
Something about blogging that has surprised me is how effective it is at making me feel closer to people. It is amazing how much more a part of your lives (people with blogs) I feel because I am reading about what you are doing, thinking, feeling, fighting and hoping for! Its been really awesome and encouraging and inspiring in that respect. I also like the fact that it is keeping in contact with people who are not in Dunedin anymore. Like saying farewell to Dave P yesterday, he said ‘Im not sure when Ill see you again’ and I was like ‘oh true’ and he said ‘if not soon, it will be in heaven’, which is quite frankly a bit far off, then I realised hey I will be reading your blog, not as good as David in person but oh yes still staying connected.

Encore: A Whole New World
The bloggera is like A magic carpet ride, a whole new world, a new fantastic point of view. I am looking forward to doing a one year review 19th October 2006 (year of the dog). What wonderful lives you all are sharing with me and I with you.

Blip in the day via gel complications

2005-11-19T16:24:00.000+13:00

This day started off so well. I sleept in, well it felt like I was because it was 10.15am before I got up, but I was reading for about half an hour before that and I went to bed late so 8ish hours of sleep and a sleep-in all at the same time… sometimes I impress even myself with my efficiency. Had breakfast, my flaties were up plus BibianA had walked over which was cool cause breakfast is usually a lonely affair. I watched (I mean danced with) the black eyed peas on the NZ top 40 countdown, no no no baby no no no don’t lieeeeeeeeeeeee. I spent some time focused on God. I biked into uni already to get into part of an experiment I had planned for today, I felt so relaxed.

This day just went retarded, why? So I got right into my experiment (resisting the temptation to blog first). But then I messed it up, I was making an SDS poly acrylamide gel, which is made in two layers, I did the first layer yesterday and the second today, but I put it in the fridge before the gel had set and it ended up not setting properly!!! So strange, well I thought it would have helped but I wont do that again. I had to pull it all apart and re-do it all over again, including what I did yesterday. Oh well its not really that hard, just takes another 2hrs and puts me a day behind but I can catch up tomorrow cause I have some free time then. But then the ‘not really that hard’ turned into a super lam0 mess. I didn’t set up the equipment properly and I had liquid gel running out all over my bench and me frantically trying to fix the problem before it all started to solidify. Oh it was a gel nightmare of medium proportions, the picture shows the remains of what was to be 4 beautiful SDS PAGE gels but alas they never shall have the chance to shine in the full glory of there potential. Anyway lets not get all down about it, Im not.

In other news this is the one month anniversary of this blog. I don’t have time right now, but I will bring you a post in the near future that shall be an in-depth and reflective analysis of my blogging experience. Be afraid.

This day shall revert to how it started. Now it is off to coffee with Scott and maybe Batman tonight, depending on the whim of one Daniel Joe.

Being structured

2005-11-17T11:30:00.000+13:00

Here is my plan for yesterday: How on to it organised and spiritual am I!!! Before you get all wowed by my incredible skills (which may be hard for some, cause we all know chicks like guys with skills). This is not the normal Justin Alexander Timothy Andrew Shields. Imagine 3 middle names, sounds rather intimidating, but two of those middle names just do not belong there, ohh game - who can guess the real one? hang on way of topic now. Yeah so Im trying to be organised. I had a bit of a revelation earlier in the week, I am someone who works better under structure. This whole year doing my masters research, without assignments or lectures has left me blowing with the times... Im a leaf in the wind, watch how I soar... but not so gracefully. So funny how its November and I realise now that I need to make my own structure. I think it really dawned on me cause I had an extra rough patch of procrastination and aimless meandering. Actually ever since starting this blog procrastination has soared to new levels. Maybe I had to go that low to really learn my lesson. Because previously i was somewhere loosely in between organised and not, I would plan stuff a bit but never realised how important it was to how efficiently I work. Any way I am putting more structure into my days and it has been goooood. Plus committing my plans to god, and including him in it all throughout the day has also been gooood - thus reason for Prov 16:3 as seen in the picture. Respect to anyone who can actually understand my plan, probably you wont cause its mostly lab stuff and a bit messy. And I realise how having a detailed plan like the one I have shown probably just stresses some people out but for me it is relaxing and helps me at least know what I need to do, even if I don’t stick to it rigidly… which I don’t.