7-5! 7-5! 7-5!
WTF am I talking about? Well the Pakis released another 2 bombs, and that takes the nuclear scoreline between the two countries to 7 – 5 (Pakistan’s way). Go the Pakis :).
WTF am I talking about? Well the Pakis released another 2 bombs, and that takes the nuclear scoreline between the two countries to 7 – 5 (Pakistan’s way). Go the Pakis :).
Woohoo, it’s my Birthday! Now I’ve got to go and write a 1500 word English essay. <grumble>.
E3 started, and for the latest news, visit Gamespot’s site at http://www.e3news.com/. Ascension is looking really good. OGR coverage at : http://www.ogr.com/specials/e398/28e3pix.html.
Yeah! A 82cm screen! Finally… all the other TVs in the house are over 10 years old – now I can enjoy a big screen :)
Russian Interest Rates hit 150% the other day. You read that right, 150%. What were you saying about the stability of the Russian economy, Kisliakov? :)
It’s tomorrow. Note to myself to update my ICQ info :). The red packets are starting to come in (Chinese “gifts” – red envelopes filled with money – instead of presents).
I bagged myself some MP3s from a site today. I got the entire SC soundtrack in MP3s (the next best thing to having CD Music). Anyway it turns out that the duration of each race’s music score is roughly:
Terrans – 13m 26s
Protoss – 14m 30s
Zerg – 14m 49s
Looks like the Terrans were gipped of one minute of music :) Well that’s the stupid irrelevant piece of info for the day. Now I listen to the Starcraft music while I do my school work :) I gotta find a CD burner to burn all my MP3s onto CDs…
Another school shooting in the States. Some guy who got expelled for bringing a gun to school returned for vengeance. The troubling thing is he knew he was going to come back and “do something stupid” (told to his friends). One person is dead, and he also shot his parents (I’m not sure if this is confirmed). I can say that there will be a few more of these reports before the year’s end, and each time, it’ll move from the front pages of newspapers to small columns, to single paragraphs… How depressing.
Out now including multiple file format support. Click here: http://www.winamp.com/.
Visit here if you use ICQ – a must – http://www.torget.se/users/r/REXE/servers.html. In other news, Mirabilis sold ICQ to AOL (WTF???) for $300 million. Let’s hope the service doesn’t go kaput when AOL takes over… how shitty is that? Well at least we know how Mirabilis is making their money.
Buy StarCraft!!! Anyway, Blizzard’s releasing new Ladder maps (Scums) every Friday. See their site for details. There’s also something going on about Station 17… click here to find out.
The mirror universe again! Another good mirror universe one (the last one was Through the Looking Glass). Nice computer generated battle scenes as well. Half hearted attempt at some sort of development in Sisko and Jake’s character, but I think I was too interested in the characterisation of the mirror universe characters and the nice fights :).
I’m still thinking about this episode (sort of) [See May 17 entry]. And something I should have picked up on Sunday actually occurred to me in, funnily enough, maths tuition tonight! We somehow got on to talking about religion, and then philosophy, and then the philosophical notion that we don’t exist, and that we are all figures that are part of a dream. We aren’t real, basically. Along with this came the butterfly thing… One night you dream you are a butterfly, but are you dreaming you’re a butterfly, or is it a butterfly dreaming it’s a human (seems ridiculous, but try to ignore cynicism for the moment). My tutor pointed out that some psychopaths in society use the argument that since nothing is real (ie: just dreamt), that they can justify their actions as they don’t have any real repercussions. Then it struck me of the significance of the DS9 episode – that it doesn’t matter whether it was not real – the act was still there. BUT, the difference is, unlike a dream, in which you can’t really control yourself (ignoring lucid dreaming, too), this was an “interactive mental program” where O’Brien could choose his actions (as the final scene in the cargo bay depicted). Come to think of it, it’s very much like the previous episode. The harmful action was there, but in the real world, no harm was done (the murder of the imaginary friend, and the destruction of a holographic ship). This week’s episode is screening in a couple minutes… I hope it’s as good, and I wonder if O’Brien makes an appearance (he just won’t be the same man he was… or will he?).
I only watched the first bit (before the title sequence comes on) of the episode each week, tape the rest, and watch the rest on the weekend (gotta go to bed early :). According to my episode guide, the episode is called “Shattered Mirror”. Anyway, Jake sees his mother (who of course, is supposed to have died years ago). I think it’s developing Jake’s character – there’s a bit about missing Nog, and of course seeing his mother. Very interesting. Dammit I want to see it now but Dad won’t let me! From the title, I guess it’s about the mirror universe (the same universe in “Through the Looking Glass”). I guess I’ll have to wait and see… <grumble>.
In the papers yesterday, it was reported that scientists discovered a diamond the size of the earth only a matter of 17 light years away. I think they said it was formed after a star collapsed to become a white dwarf, and the carbon the star contained was compressed to the crystalline structure of diamond (giant covalent network solid :). Well, Arthur C. Clarke was sort of a visionary – his 2001 series mentioned Jupiter having a core of diamond. This is the next best thing I guess :). BTW, the gravity on a white star is heaps strong (another understatement), so it’s near impossible to land on it… that’s assuming you can actually reach a place 17 light years distant, of course.
They still are in trouble. They’ve “won” one case, but still they can’t release Win98 on the scheduled June date… that’s because it looks like an anti-trust suit is going to be filed against them, and if one is (extremely likely), they will not be able to release Win98 on time. Even though the same laws won’t apply in Australia (that is, they can still release Win98 in Australia, if not in the US), they will not be shipping to Australia. Me? I don’t care what’s going on… as long as they get it out in time by the end of the year when I get my new computer :). I don’t want to have to upgrade from 95 to 98 if it comes out after I get a new computer, nor apply numerous service patches if it comes out too close to the end of the year. Of course, if it comes out too early, that’s not good as well – it may have some features that’ll make me drool :) but I don’t think that’ll be the case. An August release would be good.
I really enjoyed this episode. The situation intrigued me, and from the beginning the effects of the “virtual imprisonment” would be interesting to watch. I thought the episode in general was carried out well, and I only had one gripe. I don’t think they developed O’Brien’s behavioural degradation well enough… it was too sudden in some parts, and not consistent. For example (warning: semi-spoiler here), there is no indication when he blows up at Bashir numerous times, that he is troubled at how he’s changed; but when when he blows up at Molly, the next thing we see is him commiting suicide. He seems to take blowing up at his daughter much more seriously than blowing up at his friend – I mean, he doesn’t even show concern about his broken relationship with Bashir. Then again, it might just be “stored stress” that only came out at the end. The ending was interesting, but I initially felt it wasn’t satisfying (in hindsight, though, I don’t see how they could have ended it any way else, so they actually did do a good job). I guess since they couldn’t rid the extra twenty years in O’Brien’s memory, there will be long-term effects that may have repercussions in later episodes. I guess I’ll just have to wait and see.
This episode left me thinking about it well after I finished watching it. How would you feel if you experienced 20 years in 3 hours? Of course, it’s bordering on the ridiculous (you could put someone through a living hell for 50 years in 7 hours … and then do it again after the first 7 hour session – the ultimate torture device. Just think about it.) Now I thought at first, it’s only in your mind, and nothing has changed – you haven’t aged 20 years. But on second thoughts, you actually endured 20 years of incarceration, so it may actually be worse. Good episode – not overly complex and convoluted, but leaves you thinking.
I just saw an ad on tv for Deep Impact which should be coming any time now (which reminds me that I have to check out the release date at http://www.imdb.com/). There’s a shot of a massive tidal wave knocking over buildings. It looked really good, but sorta fake… but then again the shot only lasted for a split second, so I won’t know until I actually see the film (which I will :). I’m also looking forward to Godzilla and Armageddon. Yeah, all the big special effects ones. And, of course, the new Star Trek movie coming out, although that’ll be way at the end of the year.
There’s a lot of stuff going on at school. On Wednesday I got back home at 6.30pm, Thursday at 6.30pm, Friday at 11pm and today at 5pm! “Normally” (when I’ve no activities on after school, which is only two days of the week) I get back at 4.30-5.00pm on weekdays, and before noon on Saturdays. Today was the CAS (a group of schools) Athletics Meet. Rained all day, but we came 3rd from 6th, really good considering some of the positions we’ve obtained in the past few years. Right now, my voice is almost gone (still), and my feet hurt :).
These lollies from Allen’s really, truly work in getting rid of a sore throat. Honestly, they’re better than those medicated purpose-made lozenges like Strepsils… I sucked on 6 Strepsils through one day, and my throat never got better. Two Anticols, and my throat was 95% better. I don’t have a sore throat, but my friend does, which reminded me about this. He say it took him half a pack for his throat to get better, but even so, it’s way better than Strepsils. Oh yeah, suck ’em, don’t chew ’em… they don’t work if you chew them.
Not a bad episode… not a great one either… they sorta fudged the ending, but I guess the ending wasn’t important, but it was the exploration of the Klingon psyche (spelling?) that was. Trouble was that it wasn’t a very good exploration. Now I gotta watch the taping of this week’s episode. Great line from this episode (I thought it was catchy :), forgive the misquotation, though.
Sisko: “How you describe the current relationship between the Federation and the Klingon Empire?”
Klingon Advocate: “There is none.”
Okay, so it wasn’t that special, but I liked the way he said it :).
Relos from S’pore are here… that means less time still for this journal :)
I dunno if you’ve looked at the countries you can select under your ICQ user profile, but I’m sure I’ve never heard of them:
Diego Garcia (huh?)
Djibouti (isn’t that a city?)
Eritrea (I’ve heard of this one, a new country in Africa I think… broke away from Burkina Faso???)
F.Y.R.O.M. (ICQ cut off the full name
Faeroe Islands (where??)
INMARSAT (this is a satellite system isn’t it? So why’s it under countries?)
International Freephone … (cut off)
Kyrgyz Republic (where??? What??? No vowels? Sounds like the Chenjesu from Star Control 2 are back. I’ve actually changed my ICQ info to have this country displayed in my info box :), and am getting all my friends to change their country info to Kyrgyz Republic, so some poor sod’s going to be wondering why everyone’s got Kyrgyz under the country field muahahahaha ;)
Nevis (I’m sure it’s just me with this one… but I’ve never heard of Nevis)
Niue (??)
Tinian Island (ditto)
Tokelau (ditto)
Freaky :)
Did you know … “a roach can if fact survive without a head, living up to a week until they eventually die of thirst.”? Hehe
Can you believe the crap the MUA is spewing on the Net??? Link is here.
I don’t believe how I got everyone hooked onto Tetrinet (download here). It started yesterday when my cousin was taking a break during uni, and I was at home. We got desperate (he didn’t bring TA along :), and so I suggested Tetrinet. As expected, his reaction was “Huh? TETRIS??!?”. We were too desperate, though, and we ended up playing it anyway. By the end, he was quite enjoying it. Over the last two days I’ve been passing the URL to everyone and must’ve got about 7-8 people hooked on it :), maybe not hooked, but at least playing it. I’ve also had to explain how to play 8 times, which is quite a bugger, but I type fast so it doesn’t matter all that much.
Yup. Not complete, but suitable for viewing.
Wow. CNN’s news network is just so much larger than any Aussie network… Anyway scientists found an explosion that occurred 12 billion light years away (hence 12 billion years ago)…
Astronomers are mystified by the most powerful explosion ever witnessed, an enormous burst of gamma ray energy 12 billion light years from Earth that in one second released almost as much energy as all the stars of the universe.
and…
Woosley said the energy released was equal to about 5 billion supernovae, the explosion of dying stars that, until this explosion, had provided the most powerful documented sudden releases of energy.
In visible light alone, Woosley said, the gamma ray burst energy was equal to about 1,000 supernovae. By some calculations, the gamma ray burst release equaled as much energy in one second as all of the 10 billion trillion stars in the universe combined.
Woosley said it is difficult to relate the power in common terms.
For instance, he said, if all of the nuclear weapons ever made were exploded at once, the energy released would equal about 1/100,000 of a second of the energy from Earth’s sun. Yet over its 10 billion-year history, Woosley said, the sun will produce only about 1 percent of the energy of the explosion.
[Source: CNN.com]
Link here. That is an awesome amount of energy… and “awesome” is an awesome understatement… it’s bloody well ludricrously unimaginable.
Finally! Exams are over. Sorta stuffed up the last one (maths) and physics, so I’m not too happy about that… anyway I’m gonna do a write up on StarCraft later now that I’ve got one whole week freeeeee!
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