Delusions of Adequacy http://mjp.id.au/blog delusions of adequacy en Copyright 2005 mjp 60 Fri, 10 Aug 2007 04:40 GMT mjp at mjp dot id dot au PyBlosxom http://pyblosxom.sourceforge.net/ 1.3.2 2/13/2006 Yay, moved. misc/moved http://mjp.id.au/blog/misc/moved.html And for those of you who followed the link from the old place, I've finally moved as well. I moved to Toowong on Wednesday. Yay. Nobody come visit though, I'm still missing a lot of imporant stuff, like, um, furniture. There's no net access either and I think I'm probably too cheap to do anything about that.

]]> /misc Fri, 10 Aug 2007 04:40 GMT hooray travel/20060113 http://mjp.id.au/blog/travel/20060113.html There's nobody on street corners offering me motorbike rides, useless trinkets or hookers and the sun is in the right place in the sky. I must be home.

If anyone knows where I hid my wallet and laptop, um, let me know.

]]> /travel Fri, 13 Jan 2006 04:45 GMT Coming home travel/20060112 http://mjp.id.au/blog/travel/20060112.html Since the last post I've taken a boat ride up the Mekong river to Phnom Penh, visited Toul Sleng (S21 prison) and the killing fields, spent three days cycling, riding an electric bike, and wandering around the temples of Angkor, survived the "road" between Siem Reap and the Thailand border on my way back to Bangkok, happily left stinky and noisey Bangkok for relatively peaceful Chiang Mai, taken a motorbike around some of the most amazing roads I've ever ridden on in the mountains north-east of Chiang Mai, and finally flown back to Bangkok yesterday morning.

Nobody sent me any money, now I'm broke. I'm flying home tonight.

]]> /travel Thu, 12 Jan 2006 03:13 GMT Cambodia travel/20051231 http://mjp.id.au/blog/travel/20051231.html The first day of the Mekong tour was pretty crappy, I'll whine about that more later. The second day I jumped on a fast boat to Phnom Penh via the Mekong river, which was fortunately completely painless, just a little loud. I was the only one on the boat without a hotel, so when we arrived I was swarmed by about ten touts shoving shiney pictures of their hotels in my face and offering me rides. The tour company must have rung ahead to one of their hotels since one even had my name on a sign even though I had no plans to stay there. I went and hid in a nearby restaurant and ordered my first chicken in three weeks (none in Vietnam thanks to bird flu) but ended up with beef anyway.

Today I've been wandering around Phnom Penh on the back of a bike and tomorrow I'm off to Siem Reap for the temples of Angkor. There's hardly any tourists around here at the moment, most of the restaurants around where I'm staying were deserted last night. Hopefuly it'll be quiet for new year's eve tonight.

I think I've decided to skip the coast and go straight back to Bangkok via Battambang, then probably fly to Chiang Mai - it's only meant to cost about $33. If there's time I might do some beach or island stuff in Thailand.

]]> /travel Sat, 31 Dec 2005 07:03 GMT Off to Cambodia.. travel/20051228 http://mjp.id.au/blog/travel/20051228.html Saigon is hot and busy, ugh. Traffic doesn't really seem much worse than Hanoi, the roads are just wider there are more cars. There's more people flogging souvenirs, photocopied books and xe om (motorbike taxi things) rides, 'cept here the xe om riders keep on offering me weed as well. I doubt I'll be left in peace until I get home. I'm looking forward to getting back on roads where everything's going the same direction and the bikes are >110cc.

Tomorrow I'm off on a two day Mekong Delta tour that ends with a boat ride up the Mekong to Phnom Penh. From there I'll go to Siem Reap and the temples of Angkor, then maybe back down to the coast to Sihanoukville then across into Thailand. I was planning on going to Ko Chang but it's sounding expensive and crowded. The whole point of crossing the border down there was to get to Ko Chang, so maybe I'll skip the coast-bit altogether and get straight back to Bangkok then Chiang Mai..

Feel free to send money.

]]> /travel Wed, 28 Dec 2005 14:59 GMT Trip so far.. travel/20051225 http://mjp.id.au/blog/travel/20051225.html I spent just a couple of days in Bangkok before flying to Hanoi. From Hanoi I took a 3 day tour of Ha Long bay including one night on a boat and day of kayaking, and then a day trip to the Perfume Pagoda. Next was a day of riding a motorbike around Ninh Binh, probably the best day I've had so far. A quick (ha, 90km and something like two hours) bus ride back to Hanoi and a flight later and I was in Hue where I spent the next three nights feeling like crap and not sleeping.

After three days of doing not-much in Hue I caught a train to Da Nang and a taxi to Hoi An. It's meant to be the most scenic part of the Hanoi-Saigon line but rain and mist obscured most of it. In the last two weeks in Vietnam I've only seen the sun twice. I've spent the last 4 nights here in Hoi An, mostly just eating, getting clothes made and sending them and all the stuff I don't need back home. There are plenty pagodas and temples around here but they all start to look the same after the first few..

Tomorrow I fly to Saigon. Unfortunately there's not enough time to see anything in between here and there if I'm going to spend a week in Cambodia and another two in Thailand.

Anyway, here's some pictures:

Ha Long bay from Sung Sot (amazing) cave.
Kayaking through a floating village.
Riding around Ninh Binh (that's the bike in the bottom left corner).
Taken from the back of a bike on my way into Hanoi after arriving at the bus back from Ninh Binh.
(thanks to Jerub/irc for resizing them)

Oh, cool, a bat just flew in and did a few laps around the room..

]]> /travel Sun, 25 Dec 2005 14:27 GMT Escape travel/xmas-2005 http://mjp.id.au/blog/travel/xmas-2005.html Hm, looks like I'm off on a holiday.

Two Fridays ago (25 November) I wandered into STA travel in the city looking for somewhere to escape to over christmas and ended up booking a flight to Bangkok. On Monday I added a flight to Hanoi and sent my passport off to the Vietnamese embassy for a visa. It finally came back today, so hooray, I get to make my flight on Wednesday.

Only three flights and three nights booked so far but the plan goes something like this..

07 December: BNE->BKK, arriving at 21:30
Two nights in Bangkok
09 December: BKK->HAN, arriving 19:30
One night booked in Hanoi
Do something in Halong Bay
Do something in the north, like Bac Ha or Sapa
Wander southward, stopping off at a few places, maybe Hoi An, Nha Trang..
End up in Saigon, do something.. Mekong delta?
Wander into Cambodia, visit Sihanoukville, Angkor.
Make my way back into Thailand
19 January: BKK->BNE, at 23:40, arriving 11:45 the next day

Not much there yet and nothing terribly original, but I've got six weeks to fill in the blanks. If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know. (michael.pick at gmail dot com)

]]> /travel Mon, 05 Dec 2005 12:37 GMT One semester down.. uni/2005-sem1 http://mjp.id.au/blog/uni/2005-sem1.html Like I said two posts ago, (hmm, been a while between posts) I'm back at uni studying geology. Got most of my first semester results a few weeks ago. I ended up with a distinction for Mineralogy, a high distinction for Deformation and Structural Geology, but I'm still waiting for the field trip results. [explanation of grades]

The field trip was probably the best part of the semester. Twelve days in Rockhampton, mostly spent out in the field mapping and doing geophysics on an area about 1.5 square km centred here. We stayed in a scout camp somewhere in the middle of this map, where everything was scout sized, beds about 5ft long, showers at about shoulder height.. Hopefully I'll end up with a distinction for it, but a credit is more likely. bah.

Semester 2 looks less-fun with, probably in order of interest, Igneous & Metamorphic Petrology, Sedimentary Petrology & Stratigraphy and Palaeobiology. At least my timetable has worked out well, I get Tuesday and Thursday off. I might even have time to, gasp, get a job.

]]> /uni Tue, 02 Aug 2005 13:13 GMT Back at uni misc/backatuni http://mjp.id.au/blog/misc/backatuni.html I'm back at UQ enrolled in a B.Sc. again. Yes, I already have a B.Sc. from there but this time I'm taking Earth Science subjects courses. Hopefully I'll end up doing honours, assuming my enthusiasm isn't crushed first and I can afford to be there for that long.

Lectures started today. I'm taking three subjects with only twelve contact hours per week. Unfortunately they've managed to spread them out across all five days, so annoyingly I have two days with just a one hour lecture each and another with a two hour prac. Fortunately one subject doesn't start until May so I'll have Tuesdays off until then.

Hm, two months without an update. One thing I meant to mention but never got 'round to was seeing Radio Birdman at The Tivoli. Their first album, Radios Appear, is as old as I am so they're getting on a bit but they were still amazing. It was also pleasantly smoke-free, despite a few people trying to get away with it.

]]> /misc Mon, 28 Feb 2005 11:56 GMT movies movies movies movies/200412 http://mjp.id.au/blog/movies/200412.html Despite my hectic schedule I've managed to find the time to see some movies..

Team America: World Police: Crap.
Ocean's Twelve: Yawn.
Hero: Coma-inducing.
Garden State: Hooray, finally a movie that didn't make me feel like nodding off, which probably makes it the best movie I've seen all year. And as David said, the soundtrack was pretty good too. Anyone want to double the size of my DVD collection by buying it for me?

And OK, I wasn't in any danger of falling asleep during Ocean's Twelve, but it wasn't great either.

]]> /movies Mon, 27 Dec 2004 08:51 GMT Gold Wings test rc/goldwings http://mjp.id.au/blog/rc/goldwings.html (for anyone who doesn't know, I fly radio controlled planes..) I finally got around to taking my gold wings test today. It wasn't too hard, I completed all the manoeuvers on the first attempt and just managed to do it all in one flight, with the plane running out of fuel while taxiing back after landing. We only need bronze wings to fly unsupervised at LARCS but the MAAA requires a "minimum of M.A.A.A. Gold Wings standard" for pilots at public displays, which doesn't mean you have to have passed the test, but it's a good way to prove you're capable of it..

]]> /rc Wed, 10 Nov 2004 09:04 GMT You am I at The Zoo music/yai-20041028 http://mjp.id.au/blog/music/yai-20041028.html Saw youami at The Zoo last night. With my nose still easily irritated after surgery, I propped myself up against a pool table by a window to avoid as much smoke as possible. I'm terrible at remembering set lists but most of what I remember was from hi fi way, hourly daily and #4 record. She digs her, applecross, cathy's, purple sneakers, good mornin', jewels, if we can't get it together and my favourite from #4 - guys, girls, guitars.

Tim said something about a new album soon, hopefully they'll be back again soon after that comes out.

]]> /music Fri, 29 Oct 2004 01:04 GMT New nose misc/newnose http://mjp.id.au/blog/misc/newnose.html Anyone who's been paying attention on #humbug will know I recently went into hospital to get my deviated septum fixed. It's been a week since surgery and I've had much less pain than I expected. I woke up after the operation with only a dull ache, and other than a few brief sharp stabbing pains each day so far, there's been hardly any pain. The most painful thing was the morphine injection an hour before they removed the packing, that really burned.

I've been told to expect congestion for 3-4 weeks. It clears up occasionally and when it does I can definitely breathe better. Unfortunately it's still a bit tender up there, so after a few deep breaths through my nose it starts to sting a little. Oh, and my nose doesn't look any different, it's the bone further back in they that they straightened, not the cartilage out the front.

It'll be nice to be able to finally be able to breathe properly..

]]> /misc Thu, 21 Oct 2004 12:08 GMT Nose job misc/nosejob http://mjp.id.au/blog/misc/nosejob.html Well, sort of. I'm off to hospital tomorrow for septoplasty to fix my deviated septum (photo of my CT scan). Here are some more links about it and the procedure. Hopefully by this time tomorrow I'll be all straightened out and in minimal pain. I've been told I'll have to relax for a week or two after the surgery. That shouldn't be a problem..

]]> /misc Wed, 13 Oct 2004 12:00 GMT New bits and pieces misc/lcdandstuff http://mjp.id.au/blog/misc/lcdandstuff.html I've bought a few new toys recently. The first is a replacement for my dead 17" CRT, a shiny new 17" Samsung SyncMaster 173p LCD. It's got DVI and a normal old 15 pin VGA input but unfortunately doesn't have any controls other than a power button. Brightness, contrast, etc are controlled by software (I knew this before buying it) so if I want to mess with that kind of thing on a Linux box I need to use something like ddccontrol. It's sitting beside a 15" Samsung SyncMaster 15GLe bought back in 1995, hopefully the 173p will last as long.

Next up is an Antec Sonata case, the "Quietest Case Available". It's big(ger than the one it replaced), black, and that machine is definitely quieter in the new case. If I give in to temptation and buy a new machine it'll probably go in one of these.

Third.. I finally have a chair so now I can sit at my desk rather than just use it to keep piles of magazines and books 'n stuff off the ground.

Hm, and finally, yesterday, I bought the third book of Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle. Now I've got a reason to read the second book and two to finish the first.. I also picked up a copy of WarCraft III. I haven't bought/played a game in ages, when did they start coming in these tiny boxes? Anyway, plenty to do while I'm recovering. (see next post, probably)

]]> /misc Wed, 13 Oct 2004 11:37 GMT