Text: July 2005

National Tree Day

Today is "National Tree Day". It is to commemorate the devastating bush fires that tore through much of the Cotter region and the edges of the city.

We arrived at the planting site at about quarter past ten (the first photo was taken at 10:23 AM DCT (Digital Camera Time)). Parking is along the "fire trail" (a new term I learnt today), which is really a narrow unsealed road wide enough for two cars. These trails provide access into the forrest for emergency trucks in the event of bush fires. Hmm... were they built after the bush fires? Or were they of not much use for fires of that scale?

First thing we did was to walk up to a tent to register ourselves for more spam. "Yes. I want to receive more information from Greening Australia." Next was my first "Tree Planting" lesson.

(1) Dig a hole
(2) Put little tree in
(3) Fill up hole (without burying the tree of course)
(4) Put guard around tree (a juice carton!)
(5) Leave little pot on either one of the sticks supporting the guard (this indicates to the watering party that the tree hasn't yet had its drink)

So off we went, took some tools, got some trees, sticks, and guards. And on to planting 31 baby trees.

We started at the bottom of the hill, but soon discovered that it got crowded and moved further along. After barely planting 10 trees, the crowd had formed again. Gee... there's going to be a lot of new trees in many years to come. So we moved again. This time we went the hard way: UP.

The climb was definitely worthwhile as the view was fantastic! The pumping station by the bridge, the river, the pipeline, the fields, the... everything looked like props on some elaborate train set. Except there was no train. :) Here in the rarified air (kidding), there was space for our remaining "younglings". Here they will grow big and strong. Giving each new tree a home was such an emotional moment. "We dig dig dig dig dig dig dig..." like the lyrics of "Heigh-Ho" from Snow White. Soon enough, 31 younglings have been planted and we went for a mini-hike to the peak of Mt Macdonald.

Satellite Photo of the area.

Tools of the trade.

Planted tree.

Scenery.

River.

Water pipeline.

View of Canberra and Telstra tower from the peak of Mt Macdonald.

River and pipeline.

Mt Stromlo observatory.

Deep space tracking station.

Off-street parking!

We came, we saw, we planted!

The 8pm mind

Absolutely strange, is the description for why I have remained in the office. Description of why? What exactly does that mean? Most likely, it refers to the description of the reason I am in the office, when normally I would not. It is strage isn't it?

Two coffee mugs rest on the table infront of me. Actually, behind the keyboard infront of me. Which technically, yes, is infront of me. Very interesting. Behind, and yet infront. It's all relative. What if the definition of the keyboard's facing is inversed? Then the coffee mugs would be both infront of me and the keyboard. But the keyboard will still be infront of me. However, I would be behind the keyboard. Clever...

On the right of the monitor are two Mount Franklin bottles. One is a 1.5 litre and the other is 600ml. Both bottles sport the same style of bottle caps -- blue, with vertical cuts for twisting grip. I can swap them... ... clever!

Time to go home...

I bought my weekends back...

Two days ago, I bought my weekends back with a Westinghouse 3.5 KG dryer. Now laundry doesn't mean a drive to... how shall I put it... "familiar laundry facilities". Instead, it's just 30 minutes of washing machine time, and 5 minutes of dump into the dryer time. And much later, at any time, 5 minutes of dump into the basket time. 40 minutes a weekend! Much shorter than before where there is competition for shared laundry facilities. Wait a minute... what if I just left the clothes in the dryer... ha ha... I'll change out of the dryer each day. Will it be musky? Will it stink? (Note: winter is great... you wear a jumper everyday, so you don't need to iron your t-shirts! And jumpers never seem to be cumpled.)

Bicycle Trip Computer

Yet another purchase to add to my growing arsenal of bicycle accessories. The Echo-F7 bicycle computer has an internal membrane that wraps all electronic parts, making it truly waterproof.

The instructions says to first attach the sensor and magnet to the front wheel such that they pass each other no more than four millimeters apart. Done...

Next coil the wire up the brake wire to the handlebar and run it through the hole in the rubber sheet that wraps the handlebar. To get the wire through this hole, put the sensor through (note: the plate on which the computer rests is too big for the hole). What!!!??!? Didn't you just ask me to strap the sensor to the front fork! Argh!!!!!! Stupid instructions!

Statistics from the ride to work.


Riding Time: 16 mins 18 secs
   Distance: 6.56 KMs
  Max Speed: 33 KM/H
  Avg Speed: 24.1 KM/H

A fantastic week

What a great week.

On Tuesday, I finally received news that my PR application is successful. The agent's still crap though... but I can't tell him that yet. He's gotta get some documents back for me. :) Getting the VISA label into the passport was of utmost importance as the PhD scholarship committee was due to meet on Thursday; and I had applied for the "local student" scholarship. So I went to DIMIA during lunch and found a parking lot with 5 minutes left on the meter. Oh wow! Topped up 50 cents and took the lift up. The office looked like a scene from a ghost movie. On a sheet of A4 paper indicated that they've moved to Braddon on 2nd May 2005 (hmm... why does that date sound familar?). What to do... 50 cents!!!! Now the person will get about 25 minutes free. Drove to Braddon blindly; I didn't know which part of Braddon, but I thought "how big can Braddon be, just need to drive by the rows of shops." After two rounds, I had to call the office for directions. Thankfully my office mate was at his terminal... bless the internet. (For those of you who might need to know this, DIMIA is now across the street from Civic Video). So I parked the car outside civic video -- 40 cents. Crossed the road and found that the parking meter outside DIMIA had about 20 minutes left! Alamak!

Wednesday morning, I got dressed in my usual casual office attire. Cool ah... casual casual all the way. Then I flip-flopped and changed into pants and shirt. Then flip-flopped again. Argh.... giving myself a change parade! Finally decided on shirt and pants. In the afternoon, I received my Dean's Prize! Yeah yeah yeah! Just enough for my winter electricity and water bills. :)

Friday afternoon, the unofficial classified news is that my scholarship application was successful. Woohoo! Suddenly, after months of limbo -- not knowing when (or whether) the PR would be granted or whether I will get a scholarship, everything has settled down and there's a plan... a path to take.

Unusual Pet

Many people have pets. Here's an unusual one I spotted in my neighbourhood...

Pet Sheep (keeps the lawn trimmed!)

Ne-meat

On LiveScience, "Scientists have proposed two new techniques for growing meat in a lab by a process that could one day make beef cows obsolete.". What will this mean for people who abstain from meat for mercy purposes? Will Buddhist monks be allowed to eat meat soon? I mean, they already eat soy based fake-meat. So why not fake-real-meat? Or real-fake-meat?

Rain Wear Test!

This morning's weather: 9 degrees with a light drizzle. Started off with just the Tioga top, socks and sandals (shoes still damp from last week's hell night), as I do every morning. However, I soon realized that the light drizzle wasn't that light; so I pulled over at the nearest shelter (which wasn't very near!) and suited up in full battle order.

Plastic bags to cover my socks.

Netti showerproof pants over the plastic bags and sweater tucked in.

Tioga rain jacket over the top.

Deuter backpack with rain shield.

Headlights and taillights blinking.

Zoom.....

The verdict is:

Netti shower pants doesn't keep the water out and my pants still got soaked -- not just damp -- and this morning was only a drizzle! It's only purpose, thus, is to keep your legs warm. Good thing I left a spare pair of pants in the office.

Plastic bags over the socks with sandals is a great combo!

Tioga rain jacket works great. But could do with a hood (maybe a shower cap under the helmet would achieve the same result).

Eat your SPAM

According to this study, spam emails that promoted "good diet and physical activity" lowered the mean Body Mass Index (BMI) of the test subjects who received spam. The control group that did not receive spam saw an increase in mean BMI.

Maybe we can get the same effect by setting up something like Yahoo! Calendars to send ourselves spam. "Eat more fruits", "go jogging", etc.. Maybe it also needs to be "certified" by Dr Figteecious from John Hopkins. Ha ha.

The Upgrade

After experiencing the impact of what my commuting system was lacking, I purchased a bright yellow Tioga Rain Jacket and a pair of Netti showerproof pants. Not that I'm hoping for bad weather (though Australia does need more rain), but I want to test them.

As for the shoes, I'm thinking plastic bags would do fine to keep them dry; gotta cut cost after spending so much on the jacket and pants (enough to renew parking permit!!!).