Sunday, July 1, 2007

Let the bell toll for thee!
Hey all, sorry I haven't posted in a while again. Post my birthday everything became awfully insane with uni exams. Suffice it to say that the exams went well and I believe I'm vell and truly prepared for my last semester in 3 weeks.

It's kind of scary to discover that I'm graduating with a Bachelor of Biomedical Science at the end of this year. Insanity. I feel all responsible and stuff. [even more so considering a childhood friend is apparently getting married in two weeks, pressure much?]

So basically first semester was really good, exams went well and my results will [hopefully] confirm that.

I've had a week off from uni and work and loved it, I was able to catch up on 2 weeks of small sleep. While I am recovered and refreshed, afternoon nap times are still awesome.

Anyhow, 27-30hrs of work next week [which is excellent as you'll soon find out] means that I am able to make the money for uni, but also means that I'll be able to invest some time into my writing again. All writing halted about 2 months ago when I had exam/practical/tutorial prep. No idea what my writing is going to be like when I hit medicine. Suffice it to say, I have many, many ideas ^_~

Anyhow, driving home on friday [up to Toowoomba], I pretty much drove through massive headwinds that meant I had to constantly fight the wind to steer. One appreciates the subtle nuances of newer, larger cars, when driving an older vehicle. Nuances like power steering and low centres of gravity.

Anyhow, I noticed a little loss of power at certain stages and attributed it to the driving wind, which was quite powerful as mentioned before. Anyhow, I took the back way up the range and was cruising along quite happily at 100k's...then the accelerator didn't respond and I had a few seconds to pull off the road as it completely shut down. The second I pulled to a halt [no brakes used, weirdly enough], engine turned off and refused to restart.

4.5 hours later I managed to get home after RACQ roadside assistance determined that my vehicle needed to be towed to be repaired. Apparently something possibly to do with the mystical device to be known as the coil and the ominous solenoid. Turning the key in the ignition yielded something known as compression, which is good.

One hopes with baited breath that the issue is cheap and electrical and not expensive and mechanical.

[Which is why the impressive 27 hours of work is a good thing]

Anyhow: hooray for holidays, boo for my little car breaking down for the first time in the three years I've owned it.


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Sunday, May 27, 2007

Who's that rappin' at my chamber door?


Begin communication:



It's my birfdai! Yayz!

Goin' to see some pirates!

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Thursday, April 19, 2007

?Viral Infection ??Chicken Pox
Good news, TFY was awesome, an incredible experience. Bad news, I have chicken pox. Hooray for horribly disfiguring sores all over my body, and especially my face. Great.

Excuse me while I go back to the couch and pass out...


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Wednesday, April 4, 2007

' The old man bent forward, gnarled hands sifting through the red sand. '


Exam went well. Doing case studies for Bacterial Pathogenesis and Disease diagnosis is fun. I determined that my 79yr old male patient was indeed suffering from a GITBD [Gastrointestinal bacterial disease], which I found to be Vibrio cholerae.

[I suggested doxycyclin as an appropriate anti-bacterial to treat the Vibrio as, while it was only a mild acute case of non-inflammatory diarrhea, that would run through a normal system and recover with rest and rehydration, he is technically an immunocompromised individual due to his age ~_^.]

Fun times!

Other subjects going well, am feeling a little snowed under by the workload though, in combined with TFY. Also, I came home the other day to a gigantic box of chocolates [read: larger surface area than my monitor] in front of my door. No one in my house was home during the day, so apparently I have a sneaky someone that knows which is my room and how to get into my house without a key.

Hmm...chocolate is good though...[no note though, interesting..]

It's 10pm again. Definitely bed time.

Luff!

~~~

Comments!

Mimmi: Aha...that explains the mysterious appearance of chocolate in front of my door...

Quenches thirst fast: My default state with Apaches is trying to shoot them down ^_~. Haha, yeah, that quote is from the original SYF from 2000/2001 or so. Ah, the good old days...
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Thursday, March 29, 2007

' The video footage of a youth trying to shoot down one of these Apaches with a pistol became instantly famous when leaked videos were sent to the leading news publishers of Australia.'
Augh. Very, very busy. I'm still alive, but third [and final!] year uni has a crushing workload. I really haven't taken time to feed my creative side since my last post here. Really the only personal time I've taken has involved letting my brain drain in front of the tv for a couple hours. Just clearing my head.

Exam tomorrow, exam next week, two days holiday [study...], three days TFY [so so stoked!], then back at uni for two exams.

It's 10pm, bed time.

Love!


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Saturday, March 10, 2007

‘Fate has a wicked sense of humour…promising hope in the form of six, and delivering two that could be our undoing...’ [Ray of Hope]
Hello all, Liam loves you. It's been an intense couple of weeks. I'm already heading into my third week back at uni, which means I'm only two lectures/weeks away from midsemester exams for all four of my subjects.

Crazy crazy fast semester.

Currently I am studying:

Medical Biotechnology
Clinical Biochemistry 1
Bacterial Pathogenesis and Disease Diagnosis
Molecular Biology

Currently the stand out favourite is Bacterial Pathogenesis and Disease Diagnosis, shame that it is completely ruining my enjoyment of House. Basically it is a subject dedicated to the determination of bacterial agents that may/may not be afflicting a patient. The main goal is to determine the etiological agent that is causing a disease state in a patient and, through empirical methods [see: "educated guessing"], suggest a series of tests that may narrow down the etiological agent to specific genus of bacteria.

Wonderfully fascinating stuff, lots of detective work.

My other subjects have an absolutely massive work load, but it's still fun. Basically I have Mondays off [..to work...], Tuesday from 8am to 4pm, Wednesday 8am to 8pm [I'm serious. 12 hours], Thursday 10am to 4pm [used to be till 8pm, but the tute moved] and finally Friday 12pm till 6:15pm.

Fun eh? ^_^

It's been a trying week, not only from uni but from various experiences. I was working the late shift last week, Friday night and around 9pm or so. A friend of mine from school, Alex, came up and told me that he had news that may ruin my week. He told me then that another friend from school died of heartfailure in hospital, due to septicemia from complications arising from his Crohn's disease. A disease I didn't even know he had.

The rest of the shift I was unnaturally and uncharacteristically irritable and frustrated. No doubt due to the news I received, but at the time I could not draw a link between the two. Several times I had to pull myself in check as my fuse frequently almost reached the powder. Not a good night.

This friend was one that reinforced the pirate dream in me. To quote Noone from his eulogy at the funeral last Wednesday;

"Daniel had five goals in life:
1. Finish school.
2. Get Money.
3. Get a Boat.
4. Become a Pirate.
5. Travel around the world wooing exotic women

"Dan graduated, that's one. He met lovely Scottish girl who wanted to be a doctor, there's money and exotic women. Her father owned a boat, there's number 3. Not many men can say they achieved four out of five life goals by the age of 19..."

I apologise as that probably isn't a direct quote, but as far as I remember, it's all there. The funeral was the same as most Australian funerals everywhere, terribly sad but delightfully irreverent. It was a true celebration of his character and his life, a bright spark has gone from this world, but it is shining all the more brightly in the next.

I am deeply religious, and I generally keep it away from open discussion and public scrutiny simply because I don't appreciate random people insulting me. And don't say that wouldn't happen here, because my sexuality has been called into question multiple times on here by complete randoms, and I'd hate to stomach the insults that would arise from something real. I withdrew and abstained from commenting on the inevitable Otaku religion threads simply because it breaks my heart every time I read such things.

I mean, people "aren't trying to be insulting, I'm only expressing my opinion," but it doesn't justify saying opinions like "what you believe is wrong and you're crazy and it's all a lie and made up and stuff. No offense to anyone who actually believes that rubbish"

That's definitely not a direct quote, but you'll find a similar thread of thought in almost every single thread. It doesn't usually coincide with my faith [The Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints], but I draw some black humour from the fact that my faith is condemned as "unChristian," while the Wicca are mentioned and supported for "having such strength against such adversity"

*laughs*

I'm sorry, but if people actually read the entire name of my Church, it'd save everyone a lot of trouble. But I digress.

Anyhow. I was in this funeral and I had various dark clouds hovering over me while my funny bone laughed along on autopilot, when Dan's mother mentioned that he was probably "called for something greater" by God.

Being a Catholic funeral, I found it exceptionally interesting to find such a belief of work on the other side [I am not familiar intimately with the Catholic religion, despite 5 years of study in a Catholic school], considering that my faith believes and supports the importance of work, not only in this life, but in the next. All this rushed through my head in that moment, and I could feel tears in my eyes for the first time in a very long, long time. I could just feel the Spirit warm my heart and confirm all that I had thought.

I can testify to you that I know that he was called to something greater, and is working industriously on the other side. I know with all my heart that we should mourn his passing, that we should celebrate his life, but we should not sink into depression because, he is where he needs to be.

While driving a few of my friends back to Brisbane after the funeral and subsequent gathering(s), I had the rare pleasure of having a stirring political, social and religious discussion. During this I realised how much the internet truly takes away from the pleasure of real conversation. I have never had such an actively engaged debate where all parties gained and gave without a whisper of dissent or flame. I felt truly honoured to be a part of such a rare event.

It's funny how sometimes life can be so tragic and so beautiful in the same day. So many extremes at once, no wonder that I'm so tired.

Bismarck discovered a position for me that may finally see me using my degree and making the final step away from Supanews. I'm grateful for the newsagency job, but I'm itching to actually use what I've been studying for the past two years. I'll have the interview sometime next week after I get the call Monday [interview was supposed to be yesterday, but something came up on their end]. Anyhow, the position is for Clinical Research Assistant and basically I'll be co-ordinating and sorting out clinical trials for various new procedures or medications. Along with another guy, if I get the job, I'll be calling doctors, patients, hospitals, and confirming the suitability of patients to undertake these trials.

Very exciting.

At the same time, every Saturday for the month of March, I shall be undergoing Time For Youth [TFY] training, as I shall be a counselor there. For those of you who came in late, TFY is a Church organised and run event wherein 14-17 year-olds can go and meet other youth of the same faith and same age. It's a three day event run with them in mind, encouraging spiritual development and life changing experiences.

I was fortunate enough to attend TFY twice as a youth in my life [most only get to go once], and now I have the honour of being accepted as a counselor. Basically, come the 12th of April, approximately 1300 LDS kids will swarm to Karrawatha stake centre and be organised into 25 troops. Each troop will be made up of five to six groups [A-F], with each group consisting of 8-10 youth.

Each group will have its own counselor for them to rely on and to be guided by for those three days. Each troop, as I said, is made up of 5-6 groups, meaning that they'll be approximately 60 strong.

My name is Liam Cameron, I am a counselor for TFY troop 21, and I will be personally responsible for 10 teenagers.

I couldn't be more excited.

First training session was today [8am-5pm] and it was pretty awesome. We were given a taste of what was in store for these guys, and it looks exceptionally well thought out and organised. We will be running these activities [ie: Dancing 101, "So you want to be Debonair?," "Spiritual Survivor" and various team building exercises], so it will be all hands on. There's over a hundred counselors, and we're enthusiastic and ready to make this work.

I really couldn't be more excited [and terrified] at the same time.

I'll update here as more training carries on. I already have plans to construct a seven foot battle standard with our troop number emblazoned on it. I'll put sketches up later.

In the mean time, here's some OPM I've been working on. [And Love! to Mimminx for nominating OPM in the Nifty Fifty, despite its update schedule being plagued].

[PS: I think Blayze's nomination regarding quickly dying RPG's relates to almost every one of mine. I should make a list...]

SYF will be up here inside the next week. Liam has been stamping out a massive ruckus inside my head for quite some time now that I haven't put my SYF notes into action...

~~~~~~~~~

Slade and one Constable Peel were halfway down the stairs when his radio burst into static.

“Detective! This is Constable Lock, the child is gone! Did he run down to you?”

Slade stopped and looked at Constable Peel. They were halfway down to the second floor, and there was definitely no sign of the child.

“No, Constable.” Slade replied, squeezing the radio as he climbed back up the stairs, “this is the only way down and neither I or the good Constable Peel here have seen any children.”

Slade reached the top of the stairs and glared at Constable Lock, who responded by putting his hands on his head and looking thoroughly perplexed.

“Constable Lock, is it?” Slade started, “How can you have lost the child? He ran into you, didn’t he?”

Lock stiffened up as Slade walked closer towards him.

“Yes sir. I got a hold of him, good and proper.” Lock seemed bemused, as he spoke he inspected his hand critically. “He was a rowdy little tike, but I held his hand tight and he wasn’t going anywhere. His mother tried to make a run for it and when I was distracted…”

Slade looked at the man. Constable Lock seemed to be an officer that spent his time making sure that he would well and truly fill out his uniform and armour. The man was a rock, and Slade assumed the Constable was used to being called to house invasions or to break up fights at the pub.

“Okay Constable, I’ll talk to you later. Right now I need you to stand at those stairs there,” Slade pointed. “And I need you to make sure no one passes unless they have a badge and a good reason, understood?”

“Even the civilians, sir? What if they need to get to work?” Lock looked worried.

“Everyone is called under suspicion, Constable. That child, Jack, was able to worm his way out of your hands and supposedly vanish into thin air. Whoever in this apartment building from this floor up obviously is either knows the boy and thinks he’s due for a hot cocoa, or is naïve enough to think that we’ll not find him.”

Slade nodded to Peel, “Son, I’ll need you to help Constable Delaney here carry this woman downstairs for some medical treatment. She appears to have fainted, or would like us to think so.”

Slade’s phone rang.

“Yes, Chase?”

“What’s this I hear about a child getting away?” Chase asked, sounding slightly amused. “It’s not like you to drop the ball like that. I take it your hunch was correct?”

“She was hiding in the wall with her little son, she took a swing at one of the Constables with a knife, business as usual.”

Chase rolled her eyes at Slade’s nonchalant attitude. “Ambulance will be here shortly then. I’ve just sent up that Constable up now, straight forward interview, nothing untoward that either of us didn’t expect. Though I must admit I’m quite surprised about the wall living. Very Anne Frank.”

Slade coughed. “If you are suggesting that our efforts here are akin to the actions taken by Nazi Germany, Chase, then I feel we may need to have a chat about your emotional relationship with your job.”

“Har Har. Where’s the kid?” Chase sounded concerned as she immediately switched to the task hanging over their heads. “I’m down the bottom with the cars here, I haven’t seen anyone apart from a couple curious faces popping out their front doors. There’s only one set of stairs up and I’m yet to see a soul on them apart from our officers.”

“Fire escape?”

“Sent the officer over that was staying with the cars. Haven’t heard a peep from him.”

“Right. I’ll be down shortly after I’ve organised a search detail here.”

“Seeya Randy.”

Slade hung up and put his phone back inside his jacket. The extra officers that had been called up were looking at him expectantly. He’d forgotten they were inside, and no doubt they were wondering what their orders were going to be. Either that or they had hung back, expecting to receive a tongue lashing for losing the child.

Slade noted the rank on the older of the officers. “Sergeant, I take it you didn’t see what happened to the child?”

“No sir. We were a bit busy inside with that wailing woman.” The Sergeant thumbed over his should at the flat. “Constable Lock was outside with the kid and we had our hands full. We didn’t know about it until Lock mentioned it over radio.”

Slade gave him a slow, hard, look. The Sergeant remained blank faced and unashamed.

“Fine then, Sergeant. I want you and your Constable here to search the house from top to bottom, see if the child has squirreled himself away to a new hiding hole.”

“But he couldn’t have got in, we were right in the living room. We’d have seen him!”

Slade gave him the same look, scoring a few points as the Sergeant looked a little uneasy under the weight of the glare.

“Sergeant, did you not just tell me just seconds ago that, despite Constable Lock and child being just steps away, you did not see what happened to the child?”

The Sergeant coloured.

“You will search this flat top to bottom. I want every cupboard and every crevice checked, even under the bed and behind the couch if necessary. If ‘Jack’ doesn’t turn up, I want every flat on this level up to be questioned. Start with the mention of the reported domestic disturbance and then mention that the child is missing. Someone may know something. Don’t mention the murder, and take note of anyone that asks if there was one. Contact either DI Llewellyn or myself immediately upon finding anything of particular interest.

“Otherwise, hand over the child to child services and file a report. Understood?”

The Sergeant nodded slowly, no doubt agonising over the amount of work he had just been assigned.

“Constables Delaney and Peel will be escorting our suspect to hospital for a plaster cast.” Slade noted the flicker in the eyes of the Constable hiding behind his Sergeant. “Another squad of officers will be here shortly to assist. The possibility of this being a Greenwich meant we were able to pull all the stops on this one, so you should wrap this up in about an hour. I’ll expect a report very shortly after that, good day gentlemen.”

~~~~~~

Any thoughts or comments are greatly appreciated, I've been away for so long and I misses hearing from my peeps ;___;

C on C

Mimmi: Double doses of love are always appreciated, especially since you can't OD on it ^_~ [There's a theoretical limit, but no-one has yet reached it :3]

JJ: And kicking! *demonstrates*
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Monday, March 5, 2007

Check please.
Hey, I'm still alive. I've been busy. Just putting up this placeholder until I have proper time to give you guys a post you deserve. I have some great news and some not so great news.

Love.

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Saturday, November 25, 2006

'Acknowledged zero two. There were reports of intermingled screams from the residence. Proceed with caution' [OPM]
Woo, I'm on holidays and I am alive. I have fruits to of my labours to show you, my lovely people. I have been working hard at a newsagent as per usual, but I and Sere have been working on some deliciousness to satisfy your literary cravings.

One Per Minute
Abusus non tullit usum

Lost? See The Underground
Ready? See The Arena


We hopefully have something that will actually get to be done. I've developed a rock solid skeleton to flesh out and it is just Sere and I working on it.

I strongly suggest you check out the The Underground first up before you jump right in to the RPG itself.

I'd do a proper update on my life but I'm being taken to a party to unwind [a welcome change] so I'll be brief and give you a random important thing that occurred recently, I was awarded a 6 for my Human Cell Biology subject [1 being the lowest, 4 being a pass and 7 being the highest]. I'm pretty impressed with it and I'm hoping the high marks don't stop there. Yay!

As always, appreciating your love and support [*love for Mimmi*]. I'll encourage anyone to comment or suggest stuff about OPM, either here there or by PM or email or whatever. You should know how to contact me now, haha.

PS: My internet connection hates the entire Otaku network, for some unknown reason it randomly prevents access to the entire Otaku ring and claims that it doesn't exist. Posts here will be intermittent

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Tuesday, November 7, 2006

Sean Baker, a US military guard, volunteered to wear an orange jumpsuit and pretend to be an uncooperative detainee in Guantánamo during a training exercise in January 2003. The guards, who did not know who he was, beat and choked him to the point where he suffered pernament brain injury -Amnesty International Report on Torture in the "War on Terror"

It's been a long week. I've been through plenty of extremes. Joy, to despair. I'm not the only one, and there are many more out there in much greater need of support and love than I. I'm sorry I haven't updated in a while. It was partially in lazyness, but recent events have made it hard to find a reason to post.

Suffice it to say, I love you all.

To a fellow that I admired and respected, a tribute. This song played on the long drive back to Brisbane from Toowoomba. It means a lot to me, and I'll not explain it. Just appreciate the emotion behind it that many of us experience each and every day.

Flogging Molly - The Spoken Wheel Lyrics

Your passin' broke the silence

On that dark October day

The sun was headin' for the west

As it did I heard you say

I set my sail for a gentle breeze

Now I leave this world as it was meant to be

And you, did you listen to anything I said?

Did you ever listen to me?



Though now it seems you'll never know

But every lad to a man must grow

Till winter comes to celebrate

Then proudly chills the bone

When at last they bury me

Into this ground you'll someday see

And you, did you listen to anything I said?

Did you ever listen to me?



Though the face we wear

Sometimes seldom speaks

From the babe that cries

To this grown man's feet

May the hand still write

And its' heart shape keep

Till our fathers, sons and daughters agree



So I will pave this road till glory

Sets our broken spirit free

From every cross-soaked nail pours endless rain

With tears no eye should see

But they could fill our highest ocean

And the rivers in between

With every blade that flowers must grow

then drown

With love our cruelest sea

~~
Good day and Good night. I have three exams left and a few people to help with relationship issues.

And I've got to try to stop being so emotionally barren. Apparently.

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Wednesday, October 18, 2006

'Ah, but few men have metal lobsters for hands' [Sir Guy of Bastien]
Ah! Insane in the membrane!

So so so very busy. Five items of assessment due this week [three down, two to go!]. I'm pleased with the item that I presented today, not so much the two exams I had on tuesday.

And to think, it's not even exam block yet!

Anyhow, light on post today. I'm just posting up the item of assessment I presented in my Human Rights and Ethics class. Absolutely awesome,I was worried that no-one would be able to pick up the political humour/social commentry, but certain people saw right into exactly what I was doing. I was literally blown away and my mind had to catch up as I answered questions.

"So why did you draw in the briefcase? Is it there for a reason or is it just a prop?"

[*10 seconds too long of "Whoa! Someone actually picked up on that?"*] "Well the briefcase focuses on the fact that the UN didn't set out a pernament military or judicial foothold in the Lebanese region. He is wearing a helmet and writing a citation, but his briefcase is at his feet, indicating that he's just about to leave and let the conflict resolve itself"

Half the class picked up perfectly on what I was going for, and my usually single-minded lecturer and tutorial lecturer almost immediately differed in interpretation and actually argued about it.

For those of you not in my class [ie: All], that's not a big deal. It is. Ahem.

I'm totally blown away, I mean, incredible. Totally makes all that frustration and effort worth it!

At the end of it, Ross [my lecturer, ex-chairperson of Amnesty International], said he was incredibly impressed at the high brow and intellectual informed humour and went on to say, "while this comic isn't likely to appear in Woman's Day...I would say it would go quite well in the New Yorker. Now there's a career option for you.."

*flattered*

So here it is: [click thumbnail for larger image]





For those of you not knowing where the title of this post came from, you are very much missing out on the beauty of orginal Australian television that is Thank God You're Here. Best improv/comedy show around. [Yes, I do prefer it over Who's Line is it Anyway?.

Good [or more likely Bad] news is that many countries, including the US, have bought the rights to develop it themselves. You may be seeing it on a TV near you..but only with your nation's comedians. lol.

Go here to check out the main website for it as well as a video clip taken from the most recent show. Funny stuff, very funny.

[Though I wouldn't normally suggest it...*cought0rrent*cough*]

Comments!

Sorry it took so very long

Mimmi: Aye, she is a beautiful lass, but we be havin a fallin out, and that's all I'm going to say about that..

[Easter Egg: Check out the title of the last post. Find that in SYF]

John: Arr, tis a feelin' that warms the ole barnacles off the cockles of me heart to know I brung a smile to yore face and made ye day Johnny-me-lad!
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