It's official - my lecturer who I will be working with for my final year project just emailed me saying that I will get to attend the Disaster Reduction Symposium at Monash the next following week! It's a 4 day international conference with speakers from the United Nations, etc, and it costs like $480 per student and $700 if you're not a student to attend! He's going to pay for me in exchange for some of my help i.e.: picking up guest speakers from the airport, assistance with audio visual and other lecture arrangements and assorted errands. This will really help my project for next year and a great opportunity to get some important contacts.

I'm so excited!

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I sat my first exam this afternoon: International Finance. PHEW! Y'know, I didn't realise that it was also fourth year subject until I looked at the subject code. Fancy that. I didn't know you could do this subject as an honours student!

At the start it looked rather tough. The first question was about the valuation of commercial papers in Euro and dollar denominations. I didn't even recall doing that in the subject! I guess it was common sense. I guessed it. It looked right to me.

The rest of the paper was pretty good. I pulled through okay in the end despite having to really convey all my knowledge in the midst of a "i'm not sure whether this is right? Is it?" type of situation. International Finance is a very interesting topic but we aren't given anything interesting to read - i.e.: the lecture notes suck. I swear, half of the paper was on the international parity conditions (the hard stuff) and there was hardly anything on international portfolio investments (the easy stuff). Oh well.

But! I'm really glad I'm done with that. No more International Finance related things forever!! (until I go to work of course) Next exam is Options, Futures and Other Derivatives. This isn't considered a mainstream finance subject as according to the lecturer most students are afraid of it. Its funny because in the first week of lectures there were 200 students enrolled. In the second week there were 110 students left. Haha. It is hard but its not THAT hard! I am really enjoying the subject and I think my interests lie in derivatives in terms of finance. I really want to do well in that.

Once this subject is complete, I only have 1 more finance subject to do before I complete my finance degree and that's "Management of Financial Institutions" plus 1 side-track subject called "Stock exchange and Securities Law" - and that's it. I'm a finance person! How scary! So who wants to put their money with me? *dodgy salesman look*

But of course, engineering... will... still... take... forever. Atleast I'll have a cool final year project.
Ok i'll stop whining now. I have come to a point where i don't really have a point anymore and i shall stop wasting your time.

3 more exams to go!

Ta ta.

x

Today I was meant to be studying all day but instead I immersed myself in the art culture of Melbourne and frankly, just enjoying the Melbourne scene. You know, given the size of Melbourne we have an incredibly good art scene. And before I start trying to explore say the art scene in a place like NYC, I should just start right here at home.

Which kind of contradicts the fact that the dance performance that I saw today because it is actually a New York dance company *blush*. But hey, it's playing right here in Melbourne so why not?!

It is called "The Gotham Suite" and features music by Laurie Anderson and of course, Lou Reed. A three piece tribute to New York City they call it and I must say that it was indeed largely impressive if not breathtaking. I got to the city a bit early and so I had a skinny cappucino at Brunetti on Swanston. Sitting outside soaking up the sun and reading "Options, futures and other derivative securities" - yes, studying. Of course I couldn't resist checking out the people walking past. The punk scene was incredibly abundant today. I wondered what event they were going to. A few protesters. A few normal people.

Sidetrack: Do you know that I really like eggs florentine? Why don't I have it more often?

Then after when it was time to meet Mark (who accepted my invitation to accompany me, thank you so much!) at Flinders. We had brunch on Degraves - I had 2 poached eggs on toast and a chai and Mark had a big breakfast which was lovely. At around 1.30pm we headed over to the Arts Centre where we were to pick up our tickets for the show and made our way into the Playhouse.

The first dance "Broken Man" was performed by Petronio himself dressed in a business suit with the jacket hanging off one shoulder and held together by these belts. Mark and I decided that it was a portrayal of a business man in New York City caught in something he hated and couldn't get out of. The dance was mechanical at times but most of all restrictive. He moved about within a radius of only 2m. I liked it.

The second dance, "The City of Twist", involved a lot more dancers and the music was all composed especially by Laurie Anderson. Our perception of the dance was a portrayal of a selection of different characters from different walks of life in New York and then in some situations becoming intertwined and associated with one another purely by chance from going about their own lives. The dark and the light, the creatures of the night and the ordinary aparment dwelling folk, and the somewhat on-going fascination with sexual experimentation. Stunning.

The third was probably my favourite. It's called "The Island of Misfit Toys". All the dancers were dressed in pyjamas and in toy-like form. There were these two big babies (stage props) sitting on each side of the stage. Cool but freaky. Music here was mostly by Lou Reed such as The Raven, All Tomorrow's Parties, I'm Waiting for the Man and Perfect Day. Not all of the songs were the original recordings but also performed by other musicians. Such for example is Perfect Day. As soon as I heard the voice I was like "IS THAT ANTONY?!" and indeed it was! Yes, Antony as in Antony and the Johnsons Antony. I simple love his voice to bits. I'm so so pleased with the whole thing - the collaboration is amazing.

The dance here was colourful and due to the music I was already familiar with and the fact that everything was a generally in a happier mood, I stopped trying to decipher the meaning behind it all. It just seemed to me that they were just having a lot of fun with a few tensions between the characters. I particularly enjoyed the dance to I'm Waiting For The Man - I will never listen to the song again and not think of how beautiful a dance could be choreographed to it! The dancers brought so much life out of the song alleviating every bit of detail and what made the song such a masterpiece in the first place. I also enjoyed Perfect Day immensely. It was how I imagined the song to be if it were to be a dance - a blend of positive and negative emotions into one beautiful performance. The words "You keep me hanging on" were made so powerful... I can't explain how, you just have to see it for yourselves!

They were all fantastic dancers (some of them also Julliard graduates) and with such distinct individuality. I sat there in awe wishing I was a dancer myself. It is an art form that I find so inpsiring and beautiful at the moment. I can try to paint, sculpt, take photos and write poetry... but I don't think I can ever dance like that. If someone gave me the opportunity to learn, I would so do it! Did you know I always wished I was a ballet dancer? When I was young I'd wear ballet shoes and walk around in them thinking I was top shit. I guess its a bit late now :P But it doesn't stop me from enjoying the art of others :)

Truth + Love = Wisdom

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I am so so so so pleased about my Final Year Project. I will be writing a thesis on something that I feel has a real purpose.

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Yesterday I went to see the lecturer who is offering the topic and discussed it with him. Feeling the super urge last week that this is the project for me, I quickly had emailed him to put my name down for it. And thank god for that! There were four other students who wanted to do the same topic but can't because I got there first. As a consolation and a response to the popularity of the topic of tsunami damage mitigation the topic itself was extended to incorporate the study of the tsunami wave. Surprisingly there isn't much study conducted on this.

So my topic of The Role Buildings To Reduce Tsunami Heights will include building a huge model of a stylised beach with my strategically placed buildings and test it in a 1.6m water flume - basically a huge wave generator that is almost 30 meters long, 1.6m deep. Now let me tell you. There's this big mother f****r of a wind tunnel at Monash. Right next to it and in the ground is this massive 4x6m 30m water wave generator that does 60% of the world's experiments to test underwater piping systems, etc etc. I have never noticed it!! I blame the big wind tunnel for stealing the thunder. Anyways, the water flume that I will be working on is the baby version of this mother flume but it's still very big... for me anyway. Imagine little George operating some massive thing. Yeah. No more asking tutors to help - the final year project is a lot of independence. I'm rather intimidated by this.

Apart from the physical side of the project, I will have to do a few fluid dynamics calculations such as the coefficient of drag that the buildings cause on the wave. How the formation and shape will affect the energy drawn from the wave. Now, fluids was never my strong point but it will have to be! Well, I blitzed 2nd year Fluids but did rather dismally in 3rd year. All this wave stuff will be rather new for me. I have never concentrated on ocean waves. I hope they are similar to sound waves in a way.

Now for the more exciting part! If my project is any good, it will be actually used and put in to print. Unlike all the other projects on offer, this has such direct and immediate application. As I mentioned before, this is in conjunction with The Joint Working Commission for Disaster Reduction on the Coasts of the Indian Ocean. I feel as if I'm doing an industry based project and in a way I am. The lecturer who I will be working with runs an Coastal Engineering consulting firm and works closely with final year students to research and experiment on various ocean engineering related topics. He's also part of the committee for the upcoming symposium on natural disaster mitigation being held at Monash (of which I hope to attend as it is very expensive to get into). So not only is this just a final year project, it extends much farther. Maybe I'll get a job after I finish, who knows! He already offered me for this summer! But unfortunately, there aren't any places available at this time.

What I'm hoping to get out of this project most of all is my purpose (ah, Avenue Q). Doing something useful and good for the planet on a larger scale (as opposed to just recycling, donating to charities, volunteering, supporting campaigns) is something that I REALLY want to do and can see myself spending my life doing that. This will be a good way to test that passion as the project is indeed a very challenging, highly analytical and intuitive one. I really want to impress people with my work because that means it will be used - that is what I will be striving for.

Looks like I will be having a busy summer then. My professor has advised me to basically start on the project and do background research and readings as well as be a student representative for Monash for the Indian Ocean symposium. I'm just buzzing with excitement within just thinking about it. But first, I have to get through my exams.

Speaking of which, I tried to do finance today but it is so boring. Well, it's not boring in the sense that I don't want to learn it. It's just so repetitive now that I don't feel I am doing anything beneficial by repeating the questions and doing them all over again. I feel weird now that I have basically nothing to study. I should start on my other subjects but I really cannot be bothered. *Sigh* What to do what to do. You that feeling when you should be studying other subjects but because you have another subject before it, you think you should concentrate on the one coming up soonest? Yeah, like that.

Truth + Love = Wisdom
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So I'm sure you're all DYING to know what I have been up to. Well, I'll tell ya! NOTHING MUCH!

Well, not really. I have been having a few dramas lately and a few interesting points of interest (ha). Below are as such. Please read as the last interesting point of interest is indeed VERY INTERESTING (trust me).

1. I have put on 5kg this year... 5kg!! God damn. So in a freak out session I am now doing something about it. And in the last week I managed to take 1cm off my waist and dropped 1kg or so. Phew. I'm going to keep that up. I'm not going on any massive diet or anything because I don't think its any good for my body (I've yo-yoed one time and it only made things worse). Been cutting down intake and doing lots of exercise.

2. Major dramas with Paypal this morning. They had technical difficulties and took $300 off me!! So in a panic I called Paypal in Sydney, visited my bank, tried to contact Visa, called Paypal again, called my bank... and I hope things will be settled. They are being very helpful in trying to resolve my problem tho. Thank god.

3. Accidentally hit car in front of me and I owe the guy a new bumper.

4. In the event of Paypal shite-ness stated in point no. 2, I bought these totally hot Miss Sixty knee high white leather boots on eBay. Totally mod.

5. Been designing a whole lot of new clothes for my up and coming planned indie clothing line. I have already, in particular, a signature tee for both men and women. I believe it is a different and a fresh addition to the current fashion scene for street wear.

6. I am going to the Big Day Out next year as well as seeing Franz Ferdinand on the 31st January! Oh I couldn't have it any better ;) With the Big Day Out... FF are going to be there, Iggy Pop & the Stooges will be there, White Stripes! And a lot more TBA bands/musicians. I'm so pumped.

7. And in other matters not concerning myself so much (and therefore the more exciting point of interest)....

MY FINAL YEAR PROJECT NEXT YEAR for my Engineering requirement to write a thesis on a research and experimental topic: Role of Buildings in Reducing Tsunami Heights.

My task would be to find the most effective blockage ratio of a tsunami wave in the form of buildings on a coastline. It will be in conjunction with The Joint Working Commission for Disaster Reduction on the Coasts of the Indian ocean to address issues on early warning systems, evacuation and refuge, education in hazard reduction, integration with social order and religious and cultural values, habitat and infrastructure, etc.

I'm very very glad to be part of this project and my findings will aid the re-development and other future developments of towns/cities in tsunami prone areas. I will also have to build a physical model which will be tested in a water flume. Some 2 dimensional fluid flow calculations would also be required (hmmm... I don't know how I'm going to cope with that, it's friggin hard!!) so there's a good balance of technical analysis and all things environmental.

Finally I have found an avenue to make some kind of contribution to the world using my skills. I mean, I AM involved in Engineers Without Borders but this is so much more to me.

Oh and lastly...

8. Listen to Lyrics Born, y'all.

xo

As promised, here is the second installment of the tattoo top range!

This is a top that I bought for $19.95. A bit dearer but it looks good for doing something with. I'm not sure whether I've stuffed it up a bit but hey, I'm an amateur!

Okay, so here is the top. It's a plain white lyrca-ish material tee with a v-neck.


With a seam that I cut off from my previous top (see Tattoo Top #1, post below), I sewed it across the front neckline. It broke up the plain-ness of the top that I was annoyed with. It looked a bit dodge and so I thought adding a button would be cool. And I think it is!




Having done that, it was time to do that back of it. A few experimental errors lead me to sewing another button on which in the end turned out better than I had initially planned.


In fact, after doing this bit I was already quite satisfied with the top. Yeah, if I were to sell it at Armani Exchange! :P I decided that it wasn't quite "george" enough. And so I bring out the paint and this time doing something a little more extravagant. This is an original painting - on a t-shirt! I bet it's worth hundreds! ;)


And the final result of my "Aladdin" tee as an outfit...


Voila!
I wore it to Reclaim. It's the last time I will ever go to Reclaim. Not that I didn't have a good time, it's just not my scene. Here's me with Sarah and my top at Reclaim.


And whilst on the topic of Reclaim - Check out this funkalicious pink shiny boots that I recently acquired from a bout of 'shopping spree'! Aren't they haawwwwt! I have not loved shoes this much before in my life.


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