There is a job vacancy for a research assistant in behavioural neuroscience at my university, to be working under my honours year supervisor! And he was nice, and I might have a shot worth trying for except - i don't know if i can face up to the whole experiments on rats thing anymore.
...
I'm mostly pretty sure I can't.
Hmmh.
Saturday, November 26, 2005
Thursday, November 17, 2005
Tuesday, November 15, 2005
Bear in the Airbus
The new A380 flew into Sydney for the first time last Sunday, and Bear got to visit it! Planespotters everywhere, envy envy! But then Bear did do much work on "the A380 project" as he calls it, so fair enough that he gets to see it all up close and personal, no?
Bear in the captain's seat!
(envy envy envy!!! why are there no perks for the beloved of the aircraft engineers?)
Here is his (briefish preview) account of the event, and he promises to write more about it after he's had some sleep. It's way past his bedtime, poor Bear. But do check back later to hear more about his excursion, there may be talk of "ballasts" and "test equipment" (it being a test flight) and far too many photos of staircases and reflective vests, but it is still a very cool thing, and Bear knows way lots about the airplane so maybe we'll all learn something esoteric to impress people with, okay Bear?
:)
Bear in the captain's seat!
(envy envy envy!!! why are there no perks for the beloved of the aircraft engineers?)
Here is his (briefish preview) account of the event, and he promises to write more about it after he's had some sleep. It's way past his bedtime, poor Bear. But do check back later to hear more about his excursion, there may be talk of "ballasts" and "test equipment" (it being a test flight) and far too many photos of staircases and reflective vests, but it is still a very cool thing, and Bear knows way lots about the airplane so maybe we'll all learn something esoteric to impress people with, okay Bear?
:)
Thursday, November 10, 2005
Rambling through the foods
I know i've been terribly negligent about updating this bloggything, and it really doesn't much tell you about any recent events or habits or interesting things in my life and so I thought perhaps I'll write something about my eating habits, and just ramble on about myself in a self-occupied way for a bit.
Bear and I eat very well. Thanks to our regular food excursions to various food halls, temples of chocolate and growers markets, now i can no longer stomach the taste of cadbury/nestle chocolate, cannot drink most sugary soft drinks with pleasure anymore, look with disdain upon factory-processed foods in the supermarket and get upset at having to pay for mediocre meals. Perhaps this is part of growing up? Bear says he used to guzzle coke and eat at maccas* up till he was 25 then he couldn't anymore. I didn't believe him initially and thought he was just being a silly old food snob but then I turned 25 and have since become fellow food snob.
Thank goodness Bear earns enough money to support all this!
Recently, the launch of a new commercial radio station, Vega 95.3fm made me think about my tastes and habits. I generally like this station, the music they play is usually agreeable enough, occasionally bland, occasionally exciting, but I particularly like their little segments when i'm driving home, usually about food, occasionally about current affairs and all that sort of thing, and you're thinking, well what is your point Ratgirl, and it's just that this station is specifically pitched at Baby Boomers!
I've got baby-boomer taste!!
Wahahahahahah
*amused*
Anyway, whatever.
I think as I've gotten older, I've become a LOT more comfortable in my own skin. I tend to prefer shopping alone - I know what I like and I don't need someone else to observe how big my bum looks in unsuitable things. I think finally, I have wardrobe of clothes I like to wear. This took about a decade to develop you know (thinks back to wacky fashion adventures in late teens)... and also perhaps a decade to accept what I look like, the shape i am, and my enormous cheeks. If i look like a chipmunk, so be it.
After all, I don't think I'm really able to follow some sort of prescribed diet. I've never even taken the notion seriously... which means I am possibly on occasion, inadvertently rude to friends who are trying to.
Not that I would advocate unhealthy eating habits, but aren't most individuals so different in tastes and habits that no strict diet is ever going to be less than pleasant to follow? Maybe food philosophies are the way to go instead. E.g. my latest food theory/philosophy - The Organic, Hard-to-find and Expensive but Very-Yummy Foodstuffs Plan!
Because the acronym for that is nonsense, I'll just call it my Good Food diet. See, now Good Food, and by which i mean grown with care (organic veggies, fruit, meat) or made with care from ingredients grown with care (artisan chocolate, breads, pasta, jams, butter, sausages etc...) are usually a) Extra Yummy, and b) Good For You - nutritionally sound and lacking in pesticides and additives (like those ingredients with numbers for names). Having said that however, such Good Foods are also usually Expensive and Hard To Find (specialty providores, occasional farmers markets, etc).
However, these various capitalised attributes actually work well together. For example, because I cannot eat cheap chocolate anymore, we buy small amounts at a time** of expensive chocolate (valrhona, michel cluziel, dolfin, lindt, max brenner), and, surprise surprise, it actually lasts longer. The chocolate kick you get from one little square of valhrona can last a few hours, unlike those cadbury blocks, which you eat nearly all of in one go and then are not even really satisfied, but slightly ill instead. So, I end up eating much less chocolate because I eat Good Chocolate.
Same goes for other foods. If it's expensive, you buy less of it and less often, but you also need less of it to satisfy yourself - think good olive oils, cheese, sea salt, fresh cultured butter (all the evil type foods that can be oh soooooo good if its Good. Am i making any sense?). Another admirable trait of Good Food is that you can make extremely tasty meals much more easily, simply because fresh and quality ingredients seldom need much effort to make yummy together.
In the end it actually saves us money too, since having easily-prepared Good Food in the fridge means we're much less likely to eat out, which in Sydney, is generally always more expensive than home-cooking, unlike in Singapore. Sigh.
Tonight, for example, we're having three mushrooms ravioli (porcini, field & roman browns in parsley & shallot pasta) from Pastabilities, probably dressed with Tetsuya's black truffle salsa and either Terrabianca truffle oil, Gwydir Grove mountain pepper infused olive oil, or maybe just some melted cultured unsalted butter from Gympie farm, served with shaved auricchio pecorino romano, and zucchini flowers stuffed with ricotta and pine nuts on the side.
This should not take more than half an hour of preparation and cooking - although i've never seen, much less used zucchini flowers before, so there is much potential for catastrophe and ensuing hilarity!
And then maybe a peach tart, made with the (rapidly overripening) peaches i bought from the Glenwood orchards stall at the Pyrmont growers markets last Saturday.
Have I convinced anyone yet? :P
*McDonalds in Australian.
**According to me, not to Bear, don't listen to what he says. :)
Bear and I eat very well. Thanks to our regular food excursions to various food halls, temples of chocolate and growers markets, now i can no longer stomach the taste of cadbury/nestle chocolate, cannot drink most sugary soft drinks with pleasure anymore, look with disdain upon factory-processed foods in the supermarket and get upset at having to pay for mediocre meals. Perhaps this is part of growing up? Bear says he used to guzzle coke and eat at maccas* up till he was 25 then he couldn't anymore. I didn't believe him initially and thought he was just being a silly old food snob but then I turned 25 and have since become fellow food snob.
Thank goodness Bear earns enough money to support all this!
Recently, the launch of a new commercial radio station, Vega 95.3fm made me think about my tastes and habits. I generally like this station, the music they play is usually agreeable enough, occasionally bland, occasionally exciting, but I particularly like their little segments when i'm driving home, usually about food, occasionally about current affairs and all that sort of thing, and you're thinking, well what is your point Ratgirl, and it's just that this station is specifically pitched at Baby Boomers!
I've got baby-boomer taste!!
Wahahahahahah
*amused*
Anyway, whatever.
I think as I've gotten older, I've become a LOT more comfortable in my own skin. I tend to prefer shopping alone - I know what I like and I don't need someone else to observe how big my bum looks in unsuitable things. I think finally, I have wardrobe of clothes I like to wear. This took about a decade to develop you know (thinks back to wacky fashion adventures in late teens)... and also perhaps a decade to accept what I look like, the shape i am, and my enormous cheeks. If i look like a chipmunk, so be it.
After all, I don't think I'm really able to follow some sort of prescribed diet. I've never even taken the notion seriously... which means I am possibly on occasion, inadvertently rude to friends who are trying to.
Not that I would advocate unhealthy eating habits, but aren't most individuals so different in tastes and habits that no strict diet is ever going to be less than pleasant to follow? Maybe food philosophies are the way to go instead. E.g. my latest food theory/philosophy - The Organic, Hard-to-find and Expensive but Very-Yummy Foodstuffs Plan!
Because the acronym for that is nonsense, I'll just call it my Good Food diet. See, now Good Food, and by which i mean grown with care (organic veggies, fruit, meat) or made with care from ingredients grown with care (artisan chocolate, breads, pasta, jams, butter, sausages etc...) are usually a) Extra Yummy, and b) Good For You - nutritionally sound and lacking in pesticides and additives (like those ingredients with numbers for names). Having said that however, such Good Foods are also usually Expensive and Hard To Find (specialty providores, occasional farmers markets, etc).
However, these various capitalised attributes actually work well together. For example, because I cannot eat cheap chocolate anymore, we buy small amounts at a time** of expensive chocolate (valrhona, michel cluziel, dolfin, lindt, max brenner), and, surprise surprise, it actually lasts longer. The chocolate kick you get from one little square of valhrona can last a few hours, unlike those cadbury blocks, which you eat nearly all of in one go and then are not even really satisfied, but slightly ill instead. So, I end up eating much less chocolate because I eat Good Chocolate.
Same goes for other foods. If it's expensive, you buy less of it and less often, but you also need less of it to satisfy yourself - think good olive oils, cheese, sea salt, fresh cultured butter (all the evil type foods that can be oh soooooo good if its Good. Am i making any sense?). Another admirable trait of Good Food is that you can make extremely tasty meals much more easily, simply because fresh and quality ingredients seldom need much effort to make yummy together.
In the end it actually saves us money too, since having easily-prepared Good Food in the fridge means we're much less likely to eat out, which in Sydney, is generally always more expensive than home-cooking, unlike in Singapore. Sigh.
Tonight, for example, we're having three mushrooms ravioli (porcini, field & roman browns in parsley & shallot pasta) from Pastabilities, probably dressed with Tetsuya's black truffle salsa and either Terrabianca truffle oil, Gwydir Grove mountain pepper infused olive oil, or maybe just some melted cultured unsalted butter from Gympie farm, served with shaved auricchio pecorino romano, and zucchini flowers stuffed with ricotta and pine nuts on the side.
This should not take more than half an hour of preparation and cooking - although i've never seen, much less used zucchini flowers before, so there is much potential for catastrophe and ensuing hilarity!
And then maybe a peach tart, made with the (rapidly overripening) peaches i bought from the Glenwood orchards stall at the Pyrmont growers markets last Saturday.
Have I convinced anyone yet? :P
*McDonalds in Australian.
**According to me, not to Bear, don't listen to what he says. :)
Tuesday, November 08, 2005
Introducing our new ratties
Everyone, say hello to Monty and Alfie!
(l-r) Suyin's hand, Alfie, Monty (aka Monsterrrrr!)
(l-r) Suyin's hand, Alfie, Monty (aka Monsterrrrr!)
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