Friday, June 17, 2011

Mythbusters: Attractive People

Myth: Australians are HOT.

A picture's worth a thousand words, but I'd still like to draw your attention to a few key points here.

  • Long (sun-bleached) hair
  • Extra points for being tied in a ponytail/bun
  • Extra extra points for being long enough to tie in a ponytail
  • Skinny jeans
  • Hipster glasses
  • I'm sure they've got flannel in their closet somewhere. It was a warm day, so that's excused.

Nice to meet you, I'm a creeper

Conclusion: True.

Thursday, June 16, 2011

Never Grow Up

I had a really great Sunday last weekend. It was like the carefree summer from when you were twelve, plus the independence and self-sufficiency of being twenty. The best of both worlds? I think so.

D and I started with a classy visit to the International Jazz Fest that had been going on all week. We went to a (free) performance at Federation Square, which was mellow and had a great atmosphere. It was a great day, and heaps of people were just hanging out, enjoying the weather and music.

The band was named Kid Life Crisis. I want to be the bassist.

Then we made it down the street to the Arts Centre Street Fair, where we proceeded to buy a few souvs and some deliciously adorable cupcakes. Each cupcake flavor had a short personality description, sort of like a horoscope. My Peppermint Twist cupcake said I was stubborn. Fair enough.

My Lemon Squeeze cupcake was heavenly, but not quite as delicious as my Peppermint Twist one.

The cupcakes reminded us that we were famished. There was construction going on the tram tracks, which was a huge blessing in disguise. We were forced to get off the tram before we were even halfway to our destination and switch to a bus, but we decided to grab a bite to eat first. We found the best, hole-in-the-wall, everyone-dreams-about-it-because-they-see-stuff-like-it-in-the-movies-and-wish-it-was-there-hangout-spot cafe, called Monkey. Can you guess why?

How many monkeys can you spot in this picture?

We sat in this hidden patio in the back, with about 300 different monkey-related decorations and a group of regulars (so jealous). We played a never-ending game of checkers while we ate our mmm-that-hit-the-spot sandwiches.

Are there even real monkeys in Australia?

With full bellies, we headed to our main attraction for the day - Luna Park, an amusement park in St. Kilda. We got unlimited passes and boy, did we make the most of those. With only two hours left until closing, we rode at least twelve of the fifteen or so rides in the entire park.

 
Bumper cars were hilarious. The ride guide actually had to give us directions over the loudspeaker because we were struggling so hard.

I had forgotten how fun theme parks are! We screamed louder than all the kids in the park combined, and I'm pretty sure I haven't laughed that hard since middle school. My abs were sore.

 
In the cage before one of the crazy upside-downers! They're surprisingly not huge on the security thing, we felt like we were falling out our seats the whole time!

Our stomachs were a little queasy after this one, but it was so worth it.

6 o'clock rolled around, and we were forced to leave after squeezing in a private ride on the flying Dumbo elephants. But what night is complete without some more sweets?

Overwhelming, right? Don't even get me started.

We compared at least five different bakeries on the Esplanade, and finally settled on one that had a dark chocolate slice for me and a pavlova for D. The perfect ending to a perfect day.

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Mythbusters: Killer Animals

Myth: Australia is home to the greatest number of poisonous animals/insects/reptiles/other creatures.

I have yet to see a single poisonous anything. The only spider I've seen in the past four months was at the Rainforestation Centre (to be fair, its body was the size of my palm). I saw some jelly fish in Sydney, but they weren't about to kill me. And no matter how hard I look, I can't seem to find any poisonous snakes - I guess they're just not popular in the city.

Again, Rainforestation, and I'm pretty sure it wasn't poisonous. Apparently, all the good, dangerous animals are hidden here.

Instead, I've seen heaps of kangaroos, koalas, wallabies, and wombats, the last of which is, by far, my favorite animal here. How life-threatening does this little guy look?


Conclusion: False. I'll believe it when I see it (aka get bitten/stung/die). Until then, Australia has no poisonous animals.

Mythbusters: the Toilet

Myth: The water goes down the other way.

Conclusion: Unfortunately, I've forgotten which way the water goes down in the US, so you'll just have to see for yourself:



[Is this not the prettiest toilet you've ever seen? Courtesy of the Sin City Ladies Lounge at Surfers Paradise, in the Gold Coast. The bathroom also had a thousand mirrors and a computer with Facebook access.]

Monday, June 13, 2011

Thanks a lot, Chile

Who knew that a volcano 10,495 kilometres (6522 miles) away could be such a pain?

The Puyehue-Cordon Caulle volcano in Chile

All Qantas and Virgin Australia flights between Melbourne and New Zealand have been cancelled since early Sunday. I'm booked to fly to Wellington, New Zealand this Friday with Air New Zealand who, for some reason, hasn't cancelled a single one of their flights. Instead, they've chosen to fly their planes lower in the sky to avoid the ash clouds. Lucky me!

(See the WSJ article)

Sunday, June 12, 2011

Song of the Day

Australian summers = music festivals, all day err day. I just might have to come back this December..

Friday, June 10, 2011

RHOK on!

  10 smart computer geeks 
           1 clueless American 
+                            18 hours 
1 awesome mobile web application that uses crowd-sourcing to collect post-earthquake data


One of the members of my group took this cool time-lapse video during Day 1 (I'm chilling in the middle table, facing the camera. I don't move much..):



RHOK (pronounced 'rock') stands for Random Hacks of Kindness, and it was a global volunteer event last weekend where a bunch of computer-type people gather at specific locations and spend the weekend designing and creating a computer program/web app/mobile app to save lives and the like. You can find out more at their website: rhok.org.

My group made a mobile webpage where, post-earthquake, users could send their experiences. Because it was designed for mobile use, users' exact locations could be determined, and therefore the information they gave could be pinpointed on a map. The goal of the program was to collect data on the intensity of the earthquake to: 
(1) send to government data centers for research 
(2) alert emergency services about the places that needed the most urgent care 
(3) help people connect with each other to share their awesome earthquake experience (not many earthquakes happen in Australia, so people get pretty excited when they feel the ground shake). 


 

These are our screenshot images from a mostly functioning prototype. I spent most of my time on generating a working form (see the second image in the right column).

Other groups at RHOK Melbourne were focused on fire alert systems, flood warnings, and general emergency evacuation planning.