Crazy Firefox..

After slogging away at my Animal Structure and Function assignment for a few hours, I went out to have dinner and buy some groceries. And when I come back, surprise! All my bookmarks are gone! This is so weird.. My history is still here, which is how I managed to retrieve most of the links, my cookies are still here. But my bookmarks have all gone kapoof. *scratches head*

Bionicle: Mask of Light

Worth watching for the stunning 3D effects alone. However, it is pretty much an elaborate advertisment for the LEGO Bionicle figures set, so don't expect any particularly mature or logical storyline. It is somewhat spiritual though, with the Matoran people living by the three virtues: Unity, Duty and Destiny.

The Toas are spirt guardians who protect the Matoran, and they are way cool. There are 6 of them orginally, Fire, Water, Stone, Air, Earth and Ice, and this movie is about a quest to finding the 7th, the Toa of Light. My favourite Toa is the Toa of Water, maybe 'coz she's the only "she"? :P

Busy busy busy!

Lots of deadlines for the next two weeks.. And then a field trip before the term break! Hope I can survive through this.. Should be pretty smooth sailing after. Won't have any more practicals for 2 of my units in the later half. Have long term projects though.

I didn't get to present the talk I was stressing over yesterday, 'coz we ran out of time. Now I have to stress over it again next week.. Bah! I was wishing that I wouldn't have to present yesterday but now I regret not presenting lol.. I think it's better to just get it over and done with.

The questions for the Biostats assignment that's due next week was just given out yesterday.. I know I wouldn't have started on it early even if they had given it out at the beginning of the semester, but still! It just feels very rushed, even for me.

The Ecology numerical exercise was given out at the beginning of the semester and yes, I haven't started it yet. Hypocritical eh? :P It's due on Monday.. I told my Animal Behavior partner that I would be free to meet up to work on our poster on Saturday, but I think I'm gonna have to tell her I'd prefer not.

And I haven't even mentioned the Animal Structure & Function writing assignment yet.. Due this Friday. I've read the papers but haven't started on it yet.

On top of everything, I still have to catch up on a couple of lectures I had to miss 'coz of timetable clashes. Oh dear..

Please don't scold me Papa Tangy! :P

Virtual Identity Theft

Linky!

I like the last line..

"The metaverse still hasn’t arrived, though. When criminals no longer feel the need to convert their stolen WoW gold into currencies backed by governments then we’ll know it has arrived."

Procrastination

Yup, I did it again. Was surfing the net instead of trying to finish the power point presentation for my Ecology seminar tomorrow. Not to mention that I waited until yesterday to start on it. I think my problem is that when I'm close to a deadline, I get really anxious until it gets to a point where I snap. That's when my brain ceases to function, and all I want to do is just stare into space. Hopefully I can break out of this stupor after posting this..

Anyways, the one good thing that came out of this hour was a linky to SunniGal's blog. She was my bestest friend in primary school! And she's the nicest, smartest, most caring person I have ever known. No, I'm not just saying this to suck up. It's true.

And then I wasted some more time doing a pessimistic sort of quiz..


Your word is: Confused. You have reached a stage in
life where you have lost yourself completely.
Identity-crisis is only the first name, and
this is really depressing you. All you want is
to be yourself, but how can you, when you know
nothing? Others can not help in this situation,
only you can find yourself again and become
whole once more.

What Dark Word Represents You? [anime pics]
brought to you by Quizilla

XXX Roleplaying

Read post "Roleplay Realms Rule".. Linky

The one question that strikes me is.. Does it matter at all to these roleplayers that the person behind that sexy night elf female might be a fat, hairy, bespectacled, old man?

Icky snails

Had to disect snails in Animal Structure and Function practical class today. I made a mess out of mine and ended up looking at my boyfriend's snail instead. For some reason mine really stunk and had lots of bubbles. Gross stuff. Ugh.

I think I have a bit of a phobia of snails.. Must be 'coz back at my place in Singapore, whenever it rained, lots of snails would come out and crawl all over the pavement. And I would invariably accidentally crush one. Eeeeeugh!

Monkeying around

One of my pet peeves is how most people think "ape" and "monkey" are synonymous. They both belong to the order of primates, suborder anthropoids. But an ape is not a monkey. And a monkey is not an ape.

Monkeys = tamarins, baboons, mandrills, macaques (above) etc
Apes = gorillas, chimapanzees (below right), gibbons, orangutans etc

The simplest way to distiguish one from the other is the presence of a tail. Most monkeys have tails, but no apes have tails. In addition, the skeletal structure of the shoulder in apes enable them to swing from branch to branch, which most monkeys cannot do. Instead, monkeys run along the tops of branches.

And yet these people who have so much difficultly in telling the difference between a monkey and an ape have no problems differentiating a human from a monkey. But the human genome is 98% the same as our closest cousins, the chimpanzees. We are more closely related to a chimp than a chimp is to a gorilla. A chimpanzee is no more a monkey than we are.

The arrogance of man.

Zoo

Had to go to the zoo today for my Animal Behavior project. I got there early and while I was waiting, some police came, apparently to investigate a missing persons report. The one who supposedly called them in was this butch-looking girl and she was saying something about her boyfriend was inside the zoo. Didn't really catch what was going on but she looked rather scruffy and talked really loud.. She looked like she was high too. The police asked to see her wallet and they discovered there was a few hundred dollars in there! She kept insisting that it was her's but she couldn't tell them where she got it from. After that my project partner arrived so don't know what happened. :P

We have to study the behavior of a group of animals for our project.. What they do, when they do it, what they do next.. That sort of thing. And also the social interactions with the other individuals of the group. Even before we went to the zoo my partner was half in love with chimpanzees. After we spent 3 hours wandering around making my feet hurt, she was fully in love with them. Chimpazees it is. I think they're ugly tho. :P

The design of the zoo is terrible.. So many off-shoots and deadends.. And the map is horrigible. I think we walked past the giraffes like 5 times. And no, it's not my lousy topography skills. The place is really a maze.

Well, the highlight of the day was this lioness that came all the way up to the glass to pose. The absolutely cute otters were a bonus.

Unleashed

I'd never have agreed to watch this movie if Jet Li wasn't in it. The storyline was terrible. But at least there were some sexy Jet Li fighting scenes to string it together.

It was about some mobster guy that trained Danny (Jet Li) to be his pet dog. When Danny's collar is on, he's a docile little lamb.. When the collar comes off, he's a ferocious fighting machine. The mobster guy goes around collecting money. If they don't pay, the collar comes off, and you can guess what happens.

Then one day he meets a blind piano tuner, and his step-daughter.. And rediscovers love and compassion. And it turns out the collar is psychological. And he finds out the truth about his mother. Near the end it gets a little muddled with lots of holes.. Like some bald kung fu guy just appears out of nowhere and fights him.

Strangely, I reckon that if they just cut the crap story and put in more fighting scenes it would have been better. That's how bad the story was. :P

And yup, it joins the ranks of movies that only start showing months or even years after the release date. "In theatres April 8th". Right.

The flash site isn't bad though.. Linky!

More Art Pad..

Astral's abstract contribution! lol.. Linky

As you can see, I have the artistic ability of a 6 year old. :D Linky! Linky2!

And finally, the "You're GROUNDED" of the year. Linky

Ok.. Time to start studying for my Animal Behavior test later this afternoon. :P

Art Pad

Oooo check this out! A friend from WoW drew this for me hehehe.. Really good drawing, so cool! :D Linky!

Blue Monday

Yea, I'm one of those who hates going back to school on Mondays. :P It wasn't all that bad a day.. Just a few little small things that went wrong and just added up. :P

Ordered a Cheesy Chicken Roll for lunch, and somehow there were tomatoes in it. Ick! I don't know why I don't like tomatoes.. I don't mind tomato ketchup, pasta and pizza.. *shrug*

Had a 2 hour break, so I thought I could finish up my Biostats tutorial in school. Then I discovered that I forgot to mail it to myself.. > <;

So after the break I went for Ecology practical.. And we had to waste like 2 hours just preparing a couple of tranparencies and sitting around 'coz 1 group needed to finish up with their experiment. Oh well.. Then when presenting I got tongue-tied and tripped over what I was supposed to say. Blah!

So I finally get home and log in to WoW.. And then in the middle of a WSG game world server crashes. m(_ _)m

As Astral often aptly puts it, I loses in really life.

WoW rants

We attempted Blackwing Lair today.. As usual, suspiciously low turnout. I reckon that some of these people are just looking for a free ride and don't want to contribute to the learning process. *shrug* We're taking note of those who conveniently miss the BWL runs and will probably put them further down on the priority list for future raids.

There was a little discussion on whether to bring outsiders on our raids. In my opinion, I'd rather see an epic in the hands of some random than see it disenchanted to a shard. But I guess that's just me 'coz there are people who prefer it the other way round. :( This problem arose 'coz recently we've had a shortage on druids, and we've disenchanted a few Cenarion pieces already. I reckon we should allow the randoms to get the set stuff we'd d/e anyway, but not the good stuff like the Aurastone Hammer. 1 of those got given away to an outside druid yesterday 'coz we didn't clarify the looting beforehand. Such a waste.. But was probably our own fault. I'm quite sure most of the randoms would be satisfied with some epic set pieces, 'coz even up to this point in time there are still some 60s who have never seen the inside of MC. Sad but true.

Been typing out this post in between Warsong Gulch games.. The 1st game some of them afk-ed out and we got free honour. :P 2nd round we got the most of the same people again but they stayed to fight.. Unfortunately for them they lost again anyway. ;D

And yup, you might have guessed that that cute little gnome in the pic is me. :D I'm wearing the Arcanist set even though it quite honestly sucks. :P Another mage in my guild is wearing lots of blue items and has more damage, more hp AND more mp. But I'm just a set sort of person, I like everything to be neat and orderly.. Plus, the Arcanist crown looks super cute on me. Hehehe..

In the Realm of the Senses

Been busting my brain trying to finish my Biostatistics tutorial.. Can't remember how to use the t values and conclude hehe.. How in the world am I going to get through this unit?! Well, I guess I'll take a break and mention the DVD I watched last night. :P

In the Realm of the Senses is a Japanese film by Nagisa Oshima. It is the story of woman and her obsessive sexual relationship with her dana (husband), that climaxes in fatal passion. The film is rather sexually explicit but the artistry is undeniable. Linky to an editorial on the film.

I like the film for a number of reasons.. Firstly it's in Japanese, and I find the language very melodic and compelling. I'm also very interested in the Japanese culture, especially the sexual side. It's really rather complicated if you've never delved into it before. I would say Japan has the most flowery sexual history in the whole world. A couple of books I recommend are Pink Samurai by Nicholas Bornoff and Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden for the more casual reader. Last but not least, the film itself is extremely stylish and powerful. Not for the easily offended though. (That's you, Astral. :P)

The Sounds of Silence

Did the whole of MC in 1 sitting.. Must have been almost 8 hours straight? Sheesh.. Next thing you know I'll be on the front page of some newspaper, "GIRL DIES AT COMPUTER". :P

Anyway, here's the lyrics to my favourite Simon and Garfunkel song. I love it because it's so haunting and dreamlike. It's really rather eerie.

Hello darkness, my old friend,
I've come to talk with you again,
Because a vision softly creeping,
Left its seeds while I was sleeping,
And the vision that was planted in my brain
Still remains
Within the sound of silence.

In restless dreams I walked alone
Narrow streets of cobblestone,
'Neath the halo of a street lamp,
I turned my collar to the cold and damp
When my eyes were stabbed by the flash of a neon light
That split the night
And touched the sound of silence.

And in the naked light I saw
Ten thousand people, maybe more.
People talking without speaking,
People hearing without listening,
People writing songs that voices never share
And no one dare
Disturb the sound of silence.

"Fools" said I, "You do not know
Silence like a cancer grows.
Hear my words that I might teach you,
Take my arms that I might reach you."
But my words like silent raindrops fell,
And echoed
In the wells of silence

And the people bowed and prayed
To the neon god they made.
And the sign flashed out its warning,
In the words that it was forming.
And the sign said, "The words of the prophets
are written on the subway walls
And tenement halls."
And whisper'd in the sounds of silence.

- Paul Simon -
"Wednesday Morning 3A.M.", 1964

Chobits

Once you pop you just can't stop.. Since I started up this blog this morning I've been tinkering with it even though I should have been listening to my Ecology lecture.. Oh well. :P Raid in a little while so I decided to just give in and spam some more. :D

The Ezy Video near where I stay has a Japanese anime section, and so recently I've been watching the Chobits series.. I'm up to the 5th disc, but the 6th (last) disc is still rented out! Everyone tells me the ending is rather silly but I still want to watch it. :) It's about this "persocom" called Chi who has a mysterious secret that even she doesn't seem to know. :D I really like it 'coz she's so cute.. And she has beautiful long blonde hair, which I happen to absolutely love. :P Plus there's a completely adorable "mobile persocom" called Sumomo who does hilariously cute stuff. Linky to the book series..

I have a little niece who's just about 1 year and 4 months old about now.. And my sister is pregnant again! Another girl.. They're tossing around a couple of names but they haven't decided yet. My sis wants Desire (with the inflection, if you know what I mean) and my bro-in-law wants Estelle. I think both are really nice.. My boyfriend says it should be Desire coz the 1st girl's name start's with C.. So should follow with a D, then maybe if another girl then E for Estelle.

About time to log on for the raid now.. My character is a cute lil' gnome mage. There was abit of a squabble over the raid schedule.. 'Coz of an unforseen manintance last night, we had to cancel the raid.. The rostering officer was trying to replan the raids but another officer posted something else without discussing with the RO, so abit of miscom there. Signing off then.. :)

Here we go...

Blogging is something I've wanted to do for a long time but simply never made the time to start up.. So now that I've finally overcome the inertia.. Here goes.. :) I guess I'll start with a little intro about me.

My first name means "beautiful butterfly". Well, I might still be in the catepillar form. :D But I guess I can relate to the delicacy of the butterfly, a fragile work of art. My chinese name contains the word for "fragrance". My mom says that I had a very distinct sweet smell about me when I was born, hence the name. I was born in the year of the Rat. Putting modesty aside for the moment, I do believe myself to be on the smart side. :) But cunning? Nah.. I used to lie alot when I was younger, but I grew out of that as I got hurt by other people's lies. I hate liars now, and I try not to lie as much as I can. Random fact though, on average a person is lied to a few hundred times a day, be it verbally, visually, intentionally or unintentionally, or whatever. *shrug* My horoscope sign is Capricorn, and yea, I have most of those characteristics. Stubborn, absolutely! Logical.. yea, but I tend to act on impulse sometimes. I don't find "pessimistic" very exact though.. It's more like I imagine the worst so that if anything happens it's always better than what MIGHT have been. A reverse sort of optimism I suppose. :)

I'm a Singaporean but in Sydney, Australia right now, doing a degree in Biodiversity and Conservation. I share a flat with my boyfriend of 3 years, just 10 minutes walk away from uni. I love animals! Too bad we're not allowed to keep pets here. :( I like to read, mainly fantasy books but I'd read just about anything. Yea, I'd rather be in a fantasy world than here, but nothing I can do about that for now. :P Closest I can get is playing mmorpgs! I've played DAoC, FFXI, and I'm currently playing on the Spinebreaker server of WoW. If you don't know, don't ask lol. :D

I think I'll stop rambling here, need to get some school work done before the raid this afternoon kekeke..