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MoonFlakeLogsArchiveThree

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MoonFlakeLogs archive for October and November 2003

woohoo! only 3 sleeps until i'm back in ct.
i'm really tired of the food here. Red meat every single night so far. Tonight we had the most enormous T-Bone steaks i've ever seen. Great! you may think, but you would be wrong. They were so overdone as to be almost leather, and the heartburn i had afterwards would rival all but the worst of myocardial infarctions. i would kill for a pasta right now, or some chicken. yes, kill. if i saw someone walking past the hostel eating a Primi Piatti Primavera with linguine, i would kill them for it.
i figure that the likelihood of this happening is infinitesimal, hence i won't actually have to bloody my hands. but it's the thought that counts, as we learn from christianity.

updatiness

this area is called the moordenaar's karoo, btw.
also, i just spent the last two hours getting ONE (1) plot right. and the bathroom downstairs is full of dead flies. more every night. i'm worried.

29/11/03

same old same old. missed ThursdayNightMovies....damn. only second time tho.
last episode of buffy tomorrow....thank god for tapes.

27/11/03

well, back in the dome....
read Anne Mccaffrey's 'pegasus in flight' today. i really love that woman's scifi. as opposed to her scifi-fantasy ie pern. not that i dislike her fantasy-scifi (if you want a full dissertation on the definition, talk to caroline after January), i just like her scifi more. blah, ZenStar has reminded me that the silly season is upon us, and present-buying must soon happen. grrr.... so much shopping, so little time. oh, and money. oh well, at least the money stuff is looking up...i love my daddy.
i want to come home...i'm going to miss so many things...damn you ppl for having fun without me... I feel your pain sister - YetiBe

26/11/03

well, here i am, observing like a real scientist...
and i can be on irc at the same time...i love it. 87 mins between eclipses, which means a lot of downtime puntuated with some frantic activity...perfect for messing about on irc. oh, and getting a start on writing up a paper on one of my stars...but that's gonna take ages, i've got loads more work to do on that. i've also had a lot of time to catch up on reading...there's a small library here with plenty of good books. the only downside is being so disconnected from everything....no shops, no chocolate, no friends. i am separated from the most important things in my life...chocolate and the people i love ^_^
oh, and w00t! it looks like some ppl are actually thinking of coming to my sad excuse for a bday. check the noticeboard if you haven't counted yourself in yet.

What ? No chocolate - what kind of scientific facility is this ? ;) Damn you and your paper writing - I demand a copy !! - ArchAngel

25/11/03

hmmm... i see my notice has been superceded by far more important things...sigh.
well, here in Sutherland at the mo...nothing much happening, we don't observe the first night. there is a fscking HUGE spider in the corner of the computer room, a fact which does not please me much, i'm sure you can imagine. but the sunset was awesome, and i got to go look around inside SALT, including climbing up the impossibly tight maintainance stairway to stand in the cramped, and above all high CCAS tower. If you want to know what that is, i direct you to http://www.saao.ac.za, the observatory home page. why isn't anyone online, dammit? oh, and please update the notice board...i'm the third notice from the top sniffle.

24/11/03

well, here i sit at work once more...confused as ever. my brain feels like it's about to leak out my ears, so i will take a break and update...and maybe go read some bash.
ThursdayNightMovies was awesome! soooooooo many ppl pitched up...exams must be over. the prophecy was brilliant, with gabriel and lucifer delivering some brilliant lines. i am upset that i will be missing next week...sigh, but sutherland calls. oh, and please check the notice board so that i can get an idea of how many ppl may be coming on the 5th...

21/11/03

just missed being able to do the All Flesh Schpatcon playtest to go to the NASSP end-of-year function...blerg. Well, it was actually kinda fun, and the food was really great, and the wine was decent, but not as much fun as zombies!
i saw Matrix: Revolutions...it was fscking great! i have nothing else to say about it, and if you disagree with me i'm just going to ignore you. oh, and g.n - since i'm talking to you on irc right now, i have one thing to say to you:
Whiner!

^_^

updateyness

i just finalised the class marks and sent them in to the course co-ordinator. i wonder if it's ethical to finalise class marks at 12:30 at night, after 3 glasses of wine, while sitting in front of the pc in your underwear listening to Linkin Park?
which begs the question...are all lecturers like this??

19/11/03

holy timewarp, batman, has it really been a week since i last updated??
well, wednesday was the exam and i was pretty wiped out after that. playtested philip's cthulhu module for schpatcon that night...we all died. thursday i went as alex's +1 (read token oestrogen/gf substitute) to nic's bday - great food, insane dessert...yummy. friday was duncan's party, which was also great despite the by-now-familiar weirdo stoner friends ^_^ ah, it wouldn't be a firleigh party without them. saturday was WitchCraft, and that evening i watched movies at al's house...Jackass the Movie (hilarious if you ignore Steve-O and the vomiting) and Dreamcatcher (the trailer doesn't do it any credit...it's great, go get it out). sunday was family day as usual. yesterday was monday night tv at roo's. i need to stop being so busy. my life is impinging on my irc and wiki time, dammit!

at least you CAN get onto irc. be grateful! - GeekDotNeo

18/11/03

well, i've spent the last two days making myself 'available' for my students. i need to show you guys the kind of questions i get asked, and maybe you'll have some sympathy for what i deal with on a regular basis:

 and explodes as helium flash,to cut the story short which is true....so my
 question based on the notes which states that a helium flash can occur only
 if 0.5M@<M<3M@ the star is between this range,so if lets say the star was
 some arbitray solar mass, i.e  4M@ ,because no other additional information
 that explain's this "scenario"on the notes about stellar death of solar mass
  >3M@.

 helium flash hence also carbon does not burn at 6million K.

No, Amos, i do not understand the question. you don't make any sense.
They're writing tomorrow morning at 9. The exams are printed and in the safe. The external has reviewed them and approved. i also get paid for being chief invigilator. a princely sum of...wait for it...R20. yes. that isn't a typo. there isn't a zero missing. Kait's farewell was awesome. it was great to see people coming out of the woodworks...despite the people we didn't know and the hit-and-run dj tactics, it turned into a great CLAWparty?. got kicked out at around 1am by parents...but np, had to get up early for witchcraft anyway.
yes...good to be playing again, but the shit has hit the fan and is not being evenly spread. i'm gonna go update now, but it's gonna be sketchy...i'll flesh it out at a later date. sunday was good with family stuff and things...i made wicked sosaties and garlic bread, and my mom bought me some new clothes as an early bday present. Speaking of which:

Michelle's Birthday Thingy: i'm planning for us all to meet at sushi yama's on the 5th December. It's the friday before Schpatcon...R89 all you can eat sushi...and they have other stuff for those who don't eat the food of the gods (heathens). stay tuned for confirmation, and thanks to IllumiNati for the inspiration

11/11/03

yes, another day at the grindstone. i have started writing my first paper for publication...go me. Well, basically, it's that the work i'm doing right now will lead to a paper, and my supervisor figured i'd better write it as i go along. all i've done so far is one paragraph, one table, and an equation. but it's a start. soon, the glory will be mine!
blah, can't wait for tomorrow...thursday night movies! i am bored out of my mind. i've had my dinner, but i'm still hungry. Does this happen to you to?
and on the theme of food and disappointment, i had cup ramen for lunch today and had to add my own msg, as it is msg free. where's the fun in that?

05/11/03

well, here i am at work again. i haven't been sent the data i need to do more spanky workness. so nothing better to do than update the wiki.
okay, short rant: what is up with people's updates lately! has the imminent approach of silly season robbed you all of your command of the language? or has the wiki become the randomly generated output of an infinite number of monkeys and an infinite number of keyboards? now, i can usually let a few typos and spelling mistakes slide, and i'm not entirely immune to them myself, but the mass exodus of grammar lately has left me having to physically restrain myself from editing (eejit) and correcting people's pages in bold. Read your update before hitting the 'save' key! /me sits back and waits for the beating to start.

There is also the great, and un-used, preview button. It allows you to see the overall effect, without making an arse of yourself. -InfernalRabbi

04/11/03

good day (statement, not greeting).
we had the Dean of Science, Prof. B.D. Reddy, at the department for tea today. much cake and quiche was served, the fine china was brought out, and actual milk (as opposed to plastic milk) was bought for the occassion. His response was to spill coffee all over himself and the chair, and the floor, and Hon. Prof Mike Fiest who was sitting next to him...well, it wasn't a great display of coordination or grace. so much for the chain of authority. met jo in town today for tattoo browsing and lunch. gave her a 'hello kitty' fan bought for her by myself and BabyAcid. it is so cool.
in other news, i calculated my first ephemeris today. you may not know what that is, but i do, and that is a huge step for me and my thesis. yay! oh, and movies last night with ZenStar and ArchAngel...fun was had, asses were slapped, there was some decent semi-nudity and a lot of skin-on-skin action...my kind of sabbath.

03/11/03

my god, is it November already?
i see that missing ThursdayNightMovies due to the silly conference dinner was not, in fact, a dead loss. Thanks to ArchAngel, BabyAcid and ShadowsLight for taking one for the team. have seen the cursed movie before...is it bad? does the pope shit in the woods? are bears catholic? friday was the bomb! Got to see 28 days later again...what a masterpiece of a zombie movie, from the man who brought us trainspotting, danny boyle. sheer genius. Gandalf's was pretty good despite assholes on the dancefloor (what the hell is up with that guy in the red hat??), cd's skipping like mad, the dj playing certain songs twice in one night, and drunk 14-year-olds. Still, got many good hours of dancing in with my favourite dancing ppl...and i have the sore muscles to show for it ^_^
well, otherwise, did the family thing. more food than you can shake a stick at (you're still getting that backwards - GeekDotNeo). if you'd want to. and i'm not sure why. but to each his own. freak.

02/11/03

day one of the Science with SALT workshop...although if the meal vouchers are to be believed, it's 'Since' with SALT. Free lunch. Free coffee twice a day, with little cakey and biscuity thingums. Almost worth the mind-numbing boredom of scientists and engineers trying to explain to one another what it is that they're spending all their funding on.
sigh, why can't i win the lotto? oh, right, it's because i don't buy tickets.

29/10/03

well, that was a good w/e - productive and fun. Parentals arrived at some ungodly hour on saturday morning to cart me off the Kalk Bay for breakfast at the Brass Bell. Despite much raininess, it was most enjoyable...mmmm...bacon, sausages, eggs, mushrooms...what a way to start a day off. Greasy, yes, but so very gooooood...
well, the day wasn't over. after a drive through to simonstown and back, we decided we felt like something sweet, and someone remembered that there was a restaurant at Rhodes Memorial. So off we went, were summarily seated by an over-eager waiter, and handed the menu. They insisted on believing that we were there for lunch, and tried to point out the lunch specials even after we had already said we wanted dessert. and so expensive!!! man, R20,50 for a slice of cake...we had one coffee/soda each, and shared desserts, and the bill still came to R150 for 6 of us. are they mad? well, admittedly, the brownies were pretty good...
as you have read from AngelNotes, shelagh surprised me with an offer to go out on saturday evening. i had planned to do some work, but the day had already been a complete loss thanks to post-morning nap that ended up being an afternoon siesta. So off we trundled to Kanala Walk, and i must say that American Wedding was funny, but still not as funny as the second one. Oh, and all the people in the row behind us can die. i spent sunday setting an exam....fun. 7 hours of sitting in one spot, 5 cups of coffee later...brain fried. thanks to ZenStar and Arad for keeping me company during those long hours...the internet is a wonderful thing.
oh, and a final word to the wise...don't ravage people when they're not looking. their parents might just be staring at the screen at the time...

keeping you company?? thanks for the easy access online-help while i was studying! (scanners are good). btw: ravage away. i lock my pc when i'm away now (but i still keep logs) - ZenStar

28/10/03

well, went to my grans on monday to wrap candles. got fed yummy sandwiches and got spagbol for supper, not to mention R100 for sitting on my ass messing about with ribbons and cellophane. and plenty of coffee. life is good.
last night i went out to cool runnings with jo, jason and colleen to celebrate jo's new job. we ran into hendrick and candice there, and made a little party of it. Buy-one-get-one-free drinks treated us very well, especially the blue pineapply one, the name and contents of which no-one could quite remember. the cool waitress is getting very big (she's pregnant for you ppl who don't know), and not really working. they have some other guy there now who is sooooo slooooooow. and stooooopid. He's been there for a while. You prolly just didn't notice him, cos he was too slow :P He is horrible tho, we've had problems with him before -- SynKronos sigh. she'd better pop and come back to work soon. oh, and firedancers! yay! in work news, i am finally doing some thesis-related stuff that i understand. at this stage it's mostly reading (and i just photostatted a very fragile 55-page review that took forever because i had to be really gentle...ow, my frigging back) which i can handle. It's also stuff in a field where my supervisor is an expert...as it should be, damnit.
Full Metal Jacket tonight! finally! i see that my threatening to not arrive if they don't play it has worked :P

later, back at the ranch...

FMJ is without a doubt one of the greatest movies of all time. how can you not love a movie with quotes like the following:

If I'm gonna get my balls blown off for a word, my word is poontang.
Who said that? Who the fuck said that? Who's the slimy little communist shit, tinkle-toed cocksucker down here who just signed his own death warrant? Nobody, huh?! The fairy fucking godmother said it! Out-fucking-standing! I will PT you all until you fucking die! I'll PT you until your assholes are sucking buttermilk. Hey, you got girlfriend Vietnam? Me so horny. Me love you long time.

aaaah....

23/10/03

i feel good about how yesterday went...
the day started off with adam, his mom, roo, garrick and i going to a shooting range in town. A family friend of the Fishers had offered to give us his time and expertise (oh, and his Glock) for an hour from 11:30 to 12:30. We arrive and he's in a flat spin, apologising profusely that he can't be with us right now, as there is a 'situation'. Yes, well, the situation was that Jean Claude van Damme had arrived and taken over the range, no one else was allowed inside with him, his gf and his bodyguard, and Jonothan was playing nursemaid. Finally, at about 12:00, they come through to the shop/waiting area, where we all promptly ignore the hell out of him. As barbara (adam's mom) pointed out, this is a particularly Capetonian response to celebrities...pretend they're not there, then run and tell everyone you saw them. Anyway, we finally got onto the range and it was great. We took it in turns to fire the Glock 17 9mm Parabelum, and adam's mom was there to learn to use her .38 special. My god, is that thing powerful. While the glock is a beautiful piece of technology, the .38 is a fucking murder weapon. The thought of barbara with that thing scares the hell out of me (and it would scare you too if you knew her).
Well, it was home with adam after that, and he introduced me to the best cereal on the planet. It's an israeli cereal called 'pillows' (or the hebrew equivalent) and is the frigging bomb. Then we spent the day at Kanala Walk shopping for 'i was in cape town and thinking of you' gifts for adam to take home. Then supper at adam's, and on to Greenman to meet shelagh and roo for pool. i must admit, the tables there are decent, and the R2 charge is sweet. Pool was fun ^_^ Then, naturally, everyone came back to my place for coffee. Sound familiar to anyone? Hehe, by the time the four of us got to my place, garrick, dave sharpe and alex had decided to join us. It became a little 'farewell adam' party, as it should have. Finally evicted the bunch of them at around 3am.
off to my mom today to get fed cornish beef and brandy pudding. and get my washing done. and be spoiled. adam is leaving tomorrow. i'm very sad. i miss him tons already, and if he's reading this:

''adam, thank you for a fantastic few weeks. You're a true friend: kind, considerate, generous and always ready to pick others up when they are down. i will miss your humour and your hugs. come back soon, and bring the girl with you, so we can poke and prod.
love chelle''

/me blushes profusely. ''i miss you guys already! i'll be back as soon as possible - it was really nice to come down and meet up with friends like you. you gave me the warmest welcome, took me back immediately, with no questions asked, and i never once had to be anything but myself. thanks to you, moonflake, and to everyone else, for making me totally at home, providing endless entertainment, perhaps some slight enlightenment, and for not being embarrassed to walk on the same side of the road as me.
oh, and she was not impressed with my new narciss(i)m. but you guys really know how to make a guy feel good, without doing anything nasty or illegal (PLEASE note, the two ARE exclusive). When she's down, if i'm not around, i'll send you guys the coordinates and you can abduct her. all my love (minus bits that poke and prod)
Adam''

19/10/03

well, i gave my last lecture of the year this morning....sniffle. It's been a great experience and i really enjoyed watching the little meat puppets squirm in their seats...i mean, um...
seriously, tho, it was great, i'd totally do it again. Course Evaluations were generally happy and i got a round of applause - go me. Just the exam to set now. sigh. Movie last night was plenty of fun...good scenes, no idea why they cut them. A number of them made it into the novelisation (what? i'm geeky enough that i read the novelisation of T2? Yep yep). Marking tests sucks. I refer you once more to previous rants.
Well, free lunch this afternoon to celebrate end of year for NASSP. Then Dunc's 'It's all fucking over and i'm gonna get trashed or maybe just die' party tonight ... we're all there to support you, duncs, but if you pass out in the toilets, you're on your own. Other than that...life is good. China is a space-faring nation. My anger is safely hidden in its pinata.

17/10/03

all right, time for updateyness.
on the money front: yesterday i borrowed money from my dad (i hate having to ask parents for help) so i am no longer po. The budget is going to be tight, but i can at least afford food, petrol and airtime again ^_^ on the computer front: my f*cking hard drive crashed on saturday. ZenStar was a sweetheart (although he'll never admit it...i refer you to his logs) and brought over a spare hdd. we managed to get most of my data off the infernal enjin, and i'm now going through the fun, fun task of post-reinstall reorganisation and resetting of all preferences. sigh.
on the work front: had a good meeting with my supervisors. They are now both aware of the fact that i am doing a masters, not a doctorate, and we have rearranged my thesis accordingly. i may actually be able to get some work done now. yay! on the relaxing front: sushi on saturday was the bomb - kudos to Si and Ada for their leet skillz. Sunday was a blast: went to Gordon's Bay with Adam to visit Markus's folks, spent the avie on the beach, sunning and swimming, then had a killer braai. Ate till we were about to burst, and i was still sent home with tinfoil-wrapped leftovers. You gotta love family. Even when they're someone elses.
Adam is leaving soon. :(

if i didn't sort it out who would update the WitchCraft page? talking of updating the WitchCraft page, when are you going to do it ?????? - ZenStar

15/10/03

wow, what a great day! met adam on campus and spent most of the day with him. Drove to milnerton to get his mom, had goooooood bottomless coffee at some jewish coffee shop. adam bought me a roll of hot beef, which was very saucy and dribbled a lot. it did, however, fill a hole. (HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA -ToothpasteDealer) adam couldn't get all of his in his mouth at once, and almost induced his own gag reflex.
/me grins evilly. and then....it turns out adam's friend andrew was firedancing at cool runnings, so we popped by to see that. while waiting for it to start, we went to get supper, and i had an almost perfect cape town moment...walking down lower main road, a warm summer wind blowing, eating chinese from a styrofoam bowl with chopsticks, with the sounds of the evening all around me....wow. just...wow.
plus, firedancers! i refer you to my previous logs on this point...sexy doesn't even begin to describe it. this time there were bongos and didges too, so very obs and alternative. i still smell of smoke and paraffin and i'm soooo happy about that :)

updatey thing

just read SynKronos's log. omg. i can't believe he got mugged after walking me safely home :( that is so aweful....i change my mind...this city sucks.

08/10/03

no money for petrol. no money for food. no money for booty.
i need a cardboard sign. well, apart from financial and work stress, i'm still doing okay. Friday night was movie and supper at Jo's, joined by ZenStar and almost SynKronos. Watched Knockaround Guys with malkovichmalkovichmalkovich. Not too bad, a couple of good lines. Saturday was a dead loss, fell asleep at around 7:30pm, missed all smses about what was happening, and then woke up at 6:30 on sunday. sigh. this working hard during the week has to stop. relaxed sunday, as usual.
spent monday tracing code that i don't really understand. fun. Just got back from supper and movie at Jo's (again), this time with SynKronos. Mmmmm...roast chicken, chocolate ice cream (not at the same time, obviously). Had a very nice nap while everyone else was watching bladerunner. Love that movie, but too tired for my own good. besides, it was all snuggly in the bed with two warm people...sigh. i wish it was the weekend already.

07/10/03

just got back from thursday night movies - Hudson Hawk, despite Batman actually winning the vote. Basically, more people hadn't seen HH, and it's fecking funny, so we watched it anyway. Favourite quote: "The Pope told me never to trust the CIA."
to add to SynKronos's rant on Mugg&Spleen: sunday night before our movie, alex, stu and i decided that half an hour was the perfect amount of time to sit and enjoy a cup of coffee or something. JB Rivers were closed, so we took the only other available option....yes, you guessed it. 15 mins after sitting down, our orders were finally taken. 15 mins later, after the little salt/pepper/sugar thingum taking a serious beating or three, we snagged a waitress and asked where our orders were. The conversation went something like this: 'Um, hi, we've been here half an hour and we haven't got our orders yet.'
'What did you order?' 'Two lime milkshakes and an american iced coffee.'
'Oh dear.' 'Oh dear?'
'We don't have any icecream. We can offer you two lime smoothies and a frappe?' Understandably, we fucked off out of there. and, not to be outdone, stu stole a sugar sachet. That will teach them. Oh, yes, and alex booby-trapped the salt. Hah! now if only i can find an RPG launcher, our work will be done.
btw, my thesis sucks ass. my super has admitted that he doesn't know any more about what we're doing than i do.

02/10/03