Adulthood Take 3

Not a good news week for me.

I think I’ll spend it on the internet instead.

And cleaning … maybe cleaning.

Away and be gone

The big wide world of the future looms ever closer with every passing moment.

Every time some one reminds me that June, practicals, and then graduations are only “a few months away” I sense it.

Thankfully some stress can fade away this week, as I have finally gotten away my application to Education Queensland. Hopefully they will see it within in their graciousness to bequeath upon me some kind of position to tide me over until my sister’s wedding next year, and the money to reach Canada for it.

In the pre-service teacher careers seminar I attended the EQ representative did say that “early February” was a good time to submit applications to maximise the chance of mid-year appointment. Perhaps I am a little late. But, given this seminar occurred in late February, I am not sure quite what I was expected to do about that.

Moving in pictures

From this:

Sydney

To this:

Brisbane

Thanks for all the fish!

For those of you amongst the three possible regular readers I think I have who may have been wondering what the “thing” I’ve been alluding to in my Pharma is your Phriend series, with comments of “only a month to go”, you may have guessed it. I have resigned from my job in medical communications. My official last day is Thursday next week.

Video game experiment and the homeless

No. This is not a ethically dubious research project. WordPress blog of the day for a while has been Alice and Kev.

Robin Burkinshaw is a UK Games Design student who is chronicling the adventures of characters she has created in the world simulator The Sims. The hook is that Robin has made the characters homeless (their ‘home’ resembles a park, has a single ‘room’, and has no furniture or amenities).

Robin says she is avoiding controlling the characters as much as possible, and just letting them play out their actions. The stories are simply amazing, and its not that hard to see how games like this are quite addictive.

The characters are a somewhat twisted version of the duo from Curly Sue. Kev is a mean-spirited crank with absolutely no manners, while Alice is his stressed and naive girl with the traits of kindness and misfortune.

Read the introduction, and then start from the beginning. Mostly it’s photos, so it’s easy to go through. The avatars in The Sims are quite good at not being as soulless as other cartoon sprites.

If you don’t want to trawl through all the pages, my picks of the posts so far are:

• Girls should not go into an old man’s house for ice cream and hop in his bed
• Pro tip: When trying to pick up, wear pants
• Last panel: I shall play sparkly guitar on your sleeping corpse, foul brute (admittedly at least he wore pants this time)
• Maybe police double as plumbers in The Sims?
• Almost a real family (follows on from the previous)
• An example the zany Sims language

Although if you don’t want to read the entire series after previewing those, you have no soul.

Obviously, The Sims does not quite replicate a real world scenario – I do not think the homeless can quite so easily gain access random strangers ice cream, bathtubs and couches – but it’s definitely engaging and raising awareness for an important issue.

I wonder what other issues and scenarios the seems could be used to raise awarenes for?

Can you hear that colour?

Next week on Wednesday (June 3rd) the University of Sydney is hosting a free lecture on synesthesia – the peculiar concept of cross-sensory stimulation.

Imagine a world of magenta Tuesdays, tastes of blue, and wavy green symphonies. At least one in a hundred otherwise normal people experience the world this way in a condition called synesthesia. In synesthesia, stimulation of one sense triggers an experience in a different sense. For example, a voice or music are not only heard but may also be seen.

Synesthesia is a fusion of different sensory perceptions: the feel of sandpaper might evoke a sensation of forest green, a symphony might be experienced in blues and golds, or the concept of February might trigger the perception of orange.

Hearing Colours, Tasting Sounds: The Kaleidoscope of Synethesia with Dr David Eagleman (Baylor) starts at 6:00pm at the New Law School, Lecture Theatre 101.

A meme I can live with

Happy New Year.

Here is hoping that 2009 can get its shit sorted out straight this time.

Let’s see where we are now with this meme. Props to GrrlScientist.

1. Started my own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band – choirs count, right?
4. Visited Hawaii - so do airports?
   
5. *Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than I can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland/world
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sung a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched lightning at sea
14. Taught myself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown my own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train - I’ve done it on a bus
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitchhiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. *Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. *Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of my ancestors – My ancestors are from miscellaneous … I guess I haven’t been to Germany yet though
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught myself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied - satisfaction from money alone?
38. *Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing — indoor, outdoor, with and without ropes
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant – I’ve shared my food with strangers at bars
44. *Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had my portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. *Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. *Kissed in the rain – only once we got inside
53. Played in the mud – I’m a boy, I probably ate it too
54. *Gone to a drive-in theater
55. *Been in a movie
56. *Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. *Taken a martial arts class
59. *Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen – Meals on Wheels…
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. *Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy – my family hoards
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades – wasn’t an organised tour, actually, I think we were lost
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. *Broken a bone — I am invincible
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. *Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. *Published a book – *sigh* someday, maybe
81. Visited the Vatican
82. *Bought a brand new car
83. *Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had my picture in the newspaper – Oh, the shattered dreams of Idol 2007
85. Read the entire Bible – I’ve read Genesis and Revelations and large chunks of everything in between.
86. Visited the White House
87. *Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. *Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee
100. *Ridden an elephant – camels, yes

Same as hers, I’ve asterixed the wants.

Tangled bank #118

The post-election wrap up of life science goodness, the latest tangled bank, is over at Submitted to A Candid World.

It’s just an awesome video

Turns out my wireless key internet connection works brilliantly at home in Yeppoon, I hardly notice the speed difference (except maybe when watching youtube).

I’m back for a few weeks while I transition between jobs (yes, I have another new job, details forthcoming).

I’m about to kick back with my homies and follow this diagram for the next couple of days.

So I’m just going to leave you with this mind-blowing video (picked up months ago from Pharyngula) which succinctly explains a great abiogenetic explanation for life without referring to lightning or meteorites.

Be careful it bites

I didn’t realise venus flytraps had flowers. It’s quite pretty.

image Venus Flytrap close-Up, by malcolmhair, (CC-SSAAND)

Jacked in and ready to go

Wooo…

Sorry about that temporary slapdash transmission. Hopefully it still remained interesting. Thank you very much Greg Laden and Coturnix and pKay – its always nice to know someone is reading.

Things are now falling into place with a new home, new job and now since yesterday, a new personal internet connection. Thank you very much Shasam for ensuring my new optus wireless modem would be Mac compatible (Update: Optus is now supporting MacOSX.3 off the shelf now anyway).

After spending the last 24 hours catching up on facebook (no, I don’t want to be a vampire or werewolf, and I don’t care who my secret crush is) and mildly risque webcomics (goats needs to be made into TV), I can now buckle down and set to getting this blog-a-ma-whoozit back to scratch.

Priority will be finally getting some acknowledgements up for the great photos I’ve used in the title bar.

Keep watching and keep reading. It can only get better.