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May 30, 2005
Sydney's public transport woes
The Herald is running a series about the sorry state of Sydney. What particulary disturbing for me is the fact that only 10.6 per cent of weekday trips to work are made on public transport (50 years ago half of all trips are made on public transport), the train lost 6 million passanger last year (not surprising considering the state of City Rail), and last year 315,645 new vehicles were registered in NSW (a 14.5 per cent increase on 1997), two-thirds of them in Sydney.
This is nuts, the public transport system is in a shamble. I'm lucky to live only 15/20 minutes bus ride to work (and back home), but the bus is so unfrequent and if I miss the last bus at 6:27pm that's it, I might as well stay back and do more work until 7:30 and get a cab home (work pays for it). For the entire year last year I had to drive to work because there's no public transport to my workplace, and from all the news with City Rail that I've been hearing I think I'm quite lucky not to use it. To make things worst, the state government loooooves building roads, tunnel and motorway. The new cross city tunnel will open 12th June, four months ahead of schedule. Geezus, if we dig a tunnel across the CBD and finish it 4 months ahead of schedule, why can't we fix our public transport system?
For a city as big as Sydney, the public transport system is just retarded.
Posted by vhadiant at 10:38 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Sofia Mulanovich claims 2005 Cornwall Roxy Pro, Chelsea in close second.
On the inaugural WCT even in the UK, current world champ Sofia Mulanovich claims yet another title, with Aussie Chelsea Georgeson as runner up. This extends her leads to over 800 points from Chelsea after 5 events, in which she gas won 3 of them. There's still another 4 events in the women WCT series this year so there's still a chance for Chelsea, but by looking at Sofia's performance this year (9, 1, 1, 3, 1 finish) it's looking like she's going to win this tour back to back.
Posted by vhadiant at 06:55 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
May 29, 2005
Lightsabre duel puts two in hospital
I don't even know how this is suppose to work. Lightsabre from fluorescent tube filled with petrol?
Lightsabre duel puts two in hospitalTWO Star Wars fans are in a critical condition in hospital after duelling with lightsabres made by filling fluorescent light tubes with petrol.
The pair - a man aged 20 and a girl of 17 - are believed to have been filming a mock fight when one of the devices exploded in woodland on Sunday.
They were rushed to West Herts Hospital before being transferred to the specialist burns unit at Broomfield Hospital, Chelmsford, in Essex.
Police say a third person present at the incident was questioned.
Posted by vhadiant at 11:07 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
May 28, 2005
Corby case, opinion from the expert
I'm a bit sick with the media circus surrounding Corby for the past 2 days. Have they all forgotten far more important and interesting issues like the change in the unfair dismissal law? Or even not a big rugby fan myself, the Waratahs' game tonight is a more intersting read.
The media, sensing a golden opportunity of milking as much money as they can from Corby's case, clobered us with tons of articles, stories, photoes etc. It's hard to pick a number of good, sensible article here.
This one from Tim Lindsey is a really good, well informed and well thought article about Corby:
Sunk by defence team that didn't rise to the challenge...
The prosecution established a prima facie case against her relatively easily. There was no dispute that the cannabis was in her bag when it was opened at Bali's Ngurah Rai Airport. Their witness said Corby had admitted it was hers. She denied this - as might be expected, regardless of whether she was guilty or innocent.The Indonesian system has enshrined the presumption of innocence in legislation as a human right, but once a prima facie case is established - that is, the minimum required to establish the elements of the charge - the burden effectively shifts to the defence to counter the prosecution case. This is true of almost all legal systems, including, in most cases, our own. Corby's main problem was that her defence team did not rise well to the challenge of countering the prima facie prosecution case by proving her baggage-handler hypothesis.
...
And this editorial by The Herald is also very good:
Corby verdict the inevitable...
Yet long before the sentence was handed down many concerned Australians had elevated Corby to martyr status. But a martyr to what cause? There are 155 Australians in foreign jails on drugs charges, two facing the death penalty. However, their stories of personal tragedy, stupidity and brazen greed fail to move us, while Corby touches strangers: "If eyes are the windows to the soul, I see a soft kindness shining through," wrote one supporter. Others responded less benignly, turning instead on Indonesia.
...
Enough of this, I'm off surfing.
Posted by vhadiant at 01:06 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
May 23, 2005
Surf photography 101
Sunday 15th May 2005, it was the beginning of the week long swell that pounded Sydney, at its height it was producing 2.5m waves around Sydney’s beaches. I knew about the surf condition beforehand, however I had a bit of hope that on that Sunday the condition will calm down and the swell will fade. It didn’t. On Sunday morning I checked out the surf report and all reported 3-5 ft waves along the beaches. Checking out the photos I quickly concluded that it was out of my league. Being optimistic dude, I still went out, took my board with me just in case. This time though I brought my digicam along, I thought it’s going to be a good photo opportunity!
Arriving at the beach I surveyed the condition and yep it’s definitely out of my league. If I went out there I will either a) got my self killed or b) killed someone (my board flying out of control). I decided that discretion is the better part of the valour, kept my board on my trusty red Mitsubishi Mirage and took my Canon A70 instead.
There was a contest at Nth. Steyne and there was a professional photographer (well at least I thought he was professional with a professional looking camera and equipment) on the beach. I took about 50 or so pictures along Nth. Steyne - Queenscliff stretch. I wasn’t very happy with the result. Surf photography turned out quite difficult there’s a couple of interesting thing that I discovered:
1) Giving the impression of size is hard. Yep it’s really hard to show how big a wave is without anyone surfing in it. Taking a picture of a surfer is even hard because of:
2) Surf is always moving. It’s different than taking a photo of a landscape. The surf constantly moving and this is even harder on beach breaks where peak is always shifting.
3) Now you see it now you don’t! It’s fast fast fast fast. You have to concentrate watching the spot that you’d think will produce the best photo and keep watching it. Focus the camera early and wait. This can be frustating, no wonder all the pro are using tripod (or some sort) to help them when taking photo from the land.
4) Action photo is hard. You’d think you found a good peak, and a bunch of competent surfer on it now it’s time to take some action shot. It’s bloody hard. They may or may not turn where you point your camera and you have to follow it with your finger itchy to press that button on your camera.
5) LCD screen is totally useless. Use the viewfinder it’s much easier on this circumstances.
So that’s only a couple of things I found out from my last photo outings. Like I said I wasn’t happy so I drove up to Dee Why hoping to be able to get better photo there since it’s a point break so at least I know where the wave is going to break and it’s closer to action than Manly stretch. So up to Dee Why and with a couple of lessons learned from Manly I took a couple more shots there. The result was a bit better, too bad the best location to shoot a photo is obstructed by a telegraph pole :) On my way home I did a quick stop at Curl Curl and Freshie took a couple more shots.
OK time to stop yapping and show the result, it’s on my photo album!
Posted by vhadiant at 09:03 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
May 20, 2005
Kelly Slater won 2005 Billabong Pro Tahiti, perfect 10 - 10 score
WOW 2 perfect 10 point rides at the final in Teahupoo. The man is back :) This is the first title for Kelly in 2005 after a dissapointing start of the year.
Posted by vhadiant at 07:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
Last week I accused a couple of my friends being "corporate pricks" because they got free tickets for Episode III from their workplace hahaha. Hmmm I sense someone being jealous - I know ... the force is strong within me :)
Anyway it turned out one of my friend who works for one of the Big 4 offered me a free ticket to last night special screening for her firm, being a total hypocrite, I took the offer with no hesitation :P Her firm booked one of the Hoyts George St. cinema (cinema #8) entirely for their own, it's one of the big one, 600 people all up. After a quick door prize draw (5 prizes in total) the movie started straight away, no ads and no preview, don't you love special screenings :) She hasn't seen Episode I & II and fell asleep during Episode IV, on the queue I did a quick wrap up on the story for her.
And what about the movie? It blew me away :) Even my friend thought it's a good movie. It was soo much better compared to the total crap of Episode I and II. Much better than I expected, or maybe I don't really have that much of expectation. The movie is action packed, full with fight scenes, a tad too much maybe. I remember being bored a bit watching yet another light saber fight. No corny lines from Anakin to Padme, no weird hairdo on Natalie Portman trying distract the movie goers from realising that the movie was crap (Episode I & II) and thank bloody God that there's no (well almost) Jar Jar Binks this time around.
The music is top as usual, John Williams at his best here, and I love the Darth Vader theme slowly coming up when Anakin finally is seduced by the dark side. Very faint in the background, but you can hear it :)
Making a movie where everyone knows how it's going to end is always hard, and in addition to that for Star Wars movie there's a certain expectation to be met. This time George Lucas has done a good job. I would rate this movie probably as good as Episode VI: Return of the Jedi, while The Empire Strikes Back still the best out of all of them. Oh and the ending scene was totally sweet, I think it is the best scene in the movie. If there's a scene that couldn't have possibly been done better, it was the ending scene, fans of the series would know what I'm talking about. I am always wondering how Geroge Lucas would end this movie and avoid reading any spoiler on the Internet, thank god for that or I would be spoiled badly.
This movie paid a lot of homage to the original series. You can start seeing how the space ships starting look like the original series. You can see the base model of the TIE Fighter, the Lambda Class shuttle, the Star Destroyers and other vehicles like the AT-AT for example. Toward the end of the movie there's a scene inside a battle ship who looks like Star Destroyers but inside the bridge it looks exactly like the old Star Destroyer's bridge from the 70s, with the old looking panel, monitor and observation deck. That shot is similar to the first scene in The Empire Strikes Back where the camera sweep the bottom of the bridge looking up toward Darth Vader. Perfect ...
There's a couple of things that bug me though:
* George Lucas still can't shoot a decent space fight scene. The first space fight scene was a bit boring and dragging out a bit
* Hayden Christensen stone face acting.
* Anakin doesn't know about Padme carrying a twin. With all the technology they don't have ultrasound?
* How easy it was to turn the Republic into an Empire, just like that!
* The demolition of the Jedi Order turned out to be a piece of cake, hell they don't need Darth Vader to do that just send the troops and they'll do the job.
And there's a couple of other minor things, but that's nothing compared to the movie in overall. Well done George Lucas, you've returned my faith back to the force ...
Posted by vhadiant at 07:16 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
May 19, 2005
It's a good time to be a gamer
Nintendo Revolution (that's about 3 DVD cases stack up together):
Posted by vhadiant at 07:39 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
How To Kick The Sugar Habit
This is interesting, I saw this at this month Fitness First's newsletter (newsletter ... yes I know it sounds so 90s but hey not everyone uses RSS yet):
How To Kick The Sugar Habit
By Victor Brick (not related to me :)
www.brickbodies.com
If you have a constant craving for sugar. Here's what you can do to kick the habit.
The best way to kick the sugar habit is to switch sweets:
- Instead of drinking soft drinks, drink water with a slice of lemon
- Eat a whole orange first thing every morning to help curb your sugar appetite.
- Eat whole fruit. While fruit contains fructose, it is better than processed sugar.
- Chew sugarless gum. Just like with cigarettes, sometimes it is enough to just have something in your mouth.
- Pour fruit juice in a pitcher and dilute it with water.
- Be careful of dried fruit. Dried fruit has concentrated fructose. However, raisins are a good, healthy dried fruit alternative to sugar.
- Take a good multi-vitamin. There is some research to indicate that a sugar craving, especially a chocolate craving, is due to a niacin or magnesium deficiency.
- Eat a balanced diet of fats, proteins and carbohydrates with every meal. That is the key with every meal.
Posted by vhadiant at 07:30 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
May 15, 2005
On the new job
Well I've been in the new job for a week now, the hardest thing turned out to be waking up at 7 in the morning to be able to get there by 8:30 ugghhh, and it's not the travel time, it takes me about 20 minutes door to door. I take one hour to get ready in the morning, I seriously need to cut down my morning routine.
Posted by vhadiant at 08:24 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Lovedale Long Lunch 2005
Last Saturday I went to Lovedale Long Lunch 2005, that was my second time up there. The concept is pretty simple, seven wineries on Lovedale, Hunter Valley get together, each invites one respected restaurant to setup shop, have some tables and chairs setup, give complimentary glass of wine for main course and provide entertainment for the crowd. Put all this in the picturesque Hunter Valley and you'll get a successful event. The Long Lunch goes over two days, I think most people just come for the day unless you want to be a total hardcore and visit all seven wineries. We managed to visit five so that's not a bad effort.
There were a lot more people compared to the last time I went there (I think that was the 2001 event), and boy there were surely a lot younger people this time around. Back in 2001 almost all party goers were 50+, the twenty or thirty something were a minority, and they pick the music that suit this crowd (read: boring music). This year it was totally different, I think there's an even 50-50 split between the twenty/thirty something and the 50+ party goers. This make it a lot more interesting since people turned up with costume (one guy dressed as The Phantom … ewww), uniform, red/blue/yellow hair and there was a lot more drunk people hahaha. The dance floor went off in a couple of places, especially where the bands played more modern tunes.
A lot of people hired busses or minivans, that's actually a good idea so everyone can drink and have a good time (in fact this is how we went the first time) and I also saw a couple of limousines – now that's lunching with style! I'm thinking of doing that myself :D We rented a Tarago and Chewy brought his car (Thanks Chewy!), since John doesn't drink he gets to drive the Tarago :) Anyway it was a fun day out, and if you’ve never been to one I definitely recommend it :)
Oh and photos are up.
Posted by vhadiant at 08:14 PM | Comments (0)
May 12, 2005
Singleton's day out
[via Richard BF]
Last Friday was my last day at Synop, so we ventured out to Ribs & Rump Gordon to have lunch and Singleton tagged along. As usual, he stole the show :)
Posted by vhadiant at 07:06 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Chelsea Georgeson clinched third title
Chelsea Georgeson secured both her third ASP Tour and Layne's sucessor title in an all Aussie final against West Australian Mel Redman-Carr, beating the current world champ (and still rating leader) Peruvian Sofia Mulanovich on the semi-final. Her latest win also move her up to 2nd spot on the WCT ratings.
A world title in store for Chelsea? Yep definitely, maybe not this year but certainly sometime soon. There's still 650 points gap with Sofia, thanks to her stellar performance this year. 2 titles, 1 runner-up and one 9th place finish. There are 5 more WCT contest remaining so anything can happen. Go Chelsea :)
Posted by vhadiant at 06:50 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
May 09, 2005
The falling standards of Australian University
The Herald is running a series of very interesting article about international students and Australian universities. Interesting to read, especially for me since I was an international student myself:
English tests faked to cheat on residency
With all the funding cuts from the government, international students are becoming more and more important for monetary purposes. The article reports that more universities are lowering their IELTS requirement for international students which some only ask for 6. Even the 6.5 standard that they have now is still too low. I had 7 on my IELTS and I still struggle during the first few months, heck I still struggle with English even today. 6.5 is bare minimum I think, 7 should really be the standard we need to use. If it were to me I will impose English school requirement for IELTS 7 and only let IETLS 8 to go straight to uni. Unfortunately the universities can’t afford it without their international student cash cow …
Interpretation of IELTS results: http://www.ielts.org/candidates/results/default.aspx
Posted by vhadiant at 07:41 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
May 08, 2005
Real XBOX 360 shot
Finally it's here:
http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000490042605/
Posted by vhadiant at 11:31 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
I went to see The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and I have to say I'm a bit disappointed about it. I think the movie is very shallow, boring and badly done. And what were they thinking about Deep Thought? Making it looks so stupid like that. I guess it's hard to make a movie out of an excellent book like the Hitchhiker. Interestingly, all of my friends who haven’t read the book think it's quite OK (read: just OK not good).
Posted by vhadiant at 11:26 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
May 03, 2005
That was close ... too close.
Raimana Van Bastoloer had a close one when a jet ski who was abandoned by the driver almost decapitated him. This was at Teahupoo, one of (if not) the scariest wave in the planet.
Ducking death and monsters...
World champion Andy Irons was among the onlookers when Van Bastoloer was towed onto a five-metre set by Hawaii's aptly named Reef MacIntosh, who mistimed his exit and became caught in the lip.In one horrifying moment, MacIntosh let go of his ski on top of the wave, with Van Bastoloer at the bottom. The ski was pitched straight at Van Bastoloer, who ducked at the last second, the ski missing him by about 15cm, according to Irons. The ski speared into the reef and smashed to pieces while Van Bastoloer pulled into a massive barrel.
...
Posted by vhadiant at 09:35 PM | TrackBack
May 02, 2005
Hottest April on record
It's official, April 2005 is the hottest on record. Our April is even warmer than March, the flowers are getting confused :)
It's a blooming mess as April marches us back to springtimeClimatologist Blair Trewin said the average for April, including maximums and minimums from about 100 sites nationwide, stood at 2.79C above the norm for the month.
"The average temperature will be a record by a very substantial margin," Dr Trewin said. He said the previous April record was 1.73C above average in 2002, and the previous biggest difference from normal in any month was 2.32C in June 1996.
...
In March, Sydney's maximum temperatures averaged 24.3C, whereas the April highs averaged 25.1C – 2.7C above the monthly norm. It is the first time since 1906 that an April has been warmer than March in Sydney.
...
Understandably, Frances Bodkin's Sydney black wattle is very confused. Normally flowering in late winter, it has already bloomed three times this year and now thinks it's spring again.
Whatever causing it, it's good. I prefer warmer weather and I think it's true for people in general. Let's hope the weather doesn't try to correct itself and pound us with the coldest winter in history.
Posted by vhadiant at 08:20 PM | TrackBack
Scrubs will end season 4 in a low point?
Just like I mentioned in my previous post about Scrubs, it has been going downhill since the beginning of this season (4) and now the last episode is an utter crap (My Drive By). It's a worry since this is the last episode before the season finale. The only redeeming scene in this episode is the Jesus H. Cox scene.
So what's up now with Scrubs? Well next season will see a main cast leaving the show and hopefully revitalise this once funny show. I can see that's its getting harder now, it was easier back then when all the doctors are still interns and goofy, now they've grown up and they can't do that many JD fantasy sequence anymore. Darn that's the bit that I love the most about Scrubs. Waiting for the season finale now
Posted by vhadiant at 08:01 PM
