Michelle's Things

Long time no speak

2009-03-31T15:04:00.000-07:00

Hey there, it feels as though since I gave birth to my baby girl that time has raced by me in a flash and here I am finally checking up on the blogs.
In a nutshell have been raising a baby, attempting to return to high school to learn math. Ah and there is my baby as I speak just waking from her peaceful slumber.

Hot in the city of Perth, Australia

2007-12-19T15:29:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone, baby is still yet to arrive into this world.
On another note, it has been forecast that christmas day in Perth will be approximately 38 degrees celsius. Which is a typical summer christmas for Perth and a well overdue one. The last five years it has been an unusually cool summer for us Perthites, which has spoiled many pool and beach party christmas' that I have attended, this time I am going to a pool party christmas, and it will be nice and toasty to enjoy it. It is hard to imagine spending christmas in the snow like people in the northern hemisphere do at this time of year, all the same I would like to experience a snow christmas one day too.
Hope your all having a fun holiday season.
Michelle

2007-11-14T09:17:00.000-08:00

Hey long time no hear, hope everyone is keeping well. I am now 35 weeks pregnant and getting a little nervous about child birth.
I need to get myself really organised before the little one comes out, at the moment I am sleeping on the floor at a friends place still, while my house is being treated for bugs. This is really frustrating and stressful, however we will manage somehow.

15-08-2007 is it not nicer to write the date chronological aswell?

2007-08-15T09:42:00.000-07:00

I don't get you Northern Hemisphere folk, with your out of order date writing.
Anyway, another day at home attempting math homework, I have deciphered that algebraic fractions especially scarey looking ones AND the unit circle are my biggest weaknesses, so as soon as I am up to date with this latest book, or even if I am perched on the loo, I will try to read up on these two items and see if a bit of repeated study will make something click.
I had a strange dream last night, it started on my parents farm in the milking cow paddock, me and a group of people were there chatting, suddenly a woman who must be the leader of some organisation, decided that those of us who didn't have the right shoes on could be considered evil, I had no shoes on as my runners had got wet and I was trying to change my socks. So I ran down to the super shed to find some more before maniacal group leader discovered my quandry, but I couldn't find anything, I crept back to the group and noticed a girl holding my shoes and some dry socks and I went straight to her and took them as if it was my plan all along. Then I left the group as if I had some right to leave, as if I knew by showing such confidence the maniacal group leader would leave me alone. She did, so I wandered back to the miliking cow barn where there were all these lollies in big hessian bags and some of the girls were eating them, I asked if they were allowed to and they said no, and if maniac leader found out they'd be in trouble. Since these girls had made a mess I decided to help sort the lollies and put them back to their correct sack, we ate the odd ones which seemed to have no group. All was well and again I told these girls I was heading off again, they seemed scared that I would be leaving them alone, but I assured them that all they needed to do to be safe, was to spy on the maniac leader once a night to get her plans and get a step ahead of her so she couldn't go mad at them all the time. Then I woke up.

2007-08-14T09:35:00.000-07:00

It is still winter and its cold and bitey, and all I want to do is lie in bed where it is warm and snuggly. But I must get up and get stuck into my maths as I must catch up and not fall behind as I am already two books behind. eeek.

30/07/2007: Monday I took day off work

2007-07-30T11:09:00.000-07:00

I felt like posting yet another picture of myself and why not, its my blog I can do what I like. I went to a twenty first birthday a couple of weekends ago and my mum took this photo of me at 18 weeks pregnant. The party was good fun, a bit wet and cold though.

I am having some personal dilemmas, in the sense that me and my best friend have completely different tastes and it is really starting to show, we like different movies to relax to and different conversation topics. I feel I am starting to struggle now, with the fact she is a lesbian because I don't understand her need to push it in my face and make me feel bad for being straight and shoving her activist protest stuff in my face like I am some kind of fellon. I don't understand it. Plus all she does is bang on and on about sex and kissing and how many people she kissed at a kiss party in tasmania.

I am really starting to feel betrayed by her now, she used to be casual, easy going and funny, but now I am afraid she will start beating me with her cat of nine tails, just so she can talk about sex again. I think it is fantastic for her to come out of the closet and be proud of her sexuality, but why is she thrusting it at me like it was my fault she didn't come out sooner.

I don't know what to do, and I no longer want to drive round and hang out as I know she will only want to talk about sex and make me feel bad for being pregnant etc etc.

RAINING IN PERTH

2007-07-26T17:20:00.000-07:00

It has been raining most of this week and amazingly it begins each time I step off the bus to walk the fifteen minute walk home, so by the time I get home I am saturated.
I have begun a part time course in digital techniques, aimed at guiding me to some type of computer based employment by the time I am qualified, as I have decided to qualify at something to help my job stability rather than be in the difficult position of unskilled worker.
I am almost 19 weeks pregnant and tomorrow go for an ultrasound to check out the anatomy of my baby. I hope it turns out good.
Michelle

MY BLOG IS CHUCKING A SAD

2007-07-24T18:23:00.000-07:00

I am trying to post a post but nothing is coming up, what the bugger is going on????

PREGNANCY PHOTO AT 16 WEEKS

2007-07-24T17:55:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone, I thought it was about time I updated you all on my latest news. That being I am preganant, five months to be exact.

I am excited and surprised and a million other thoughts going through my mind. One thing that is annoying the crap out of me, is older women who have already had children, think they are experts on the topic and love to swamp you with baby horror stories. If I could, I would tell them all to shut the fuck up and piss off and not come back unless they have something supportive to say. I just don't understand the excessive need for everyone to be so fucking negative about stuff.

title

2007-07-19T17:55:00.000-07:00

I look a bit chubby here, but this was taken back in April, I actually lost alot of weight after this photo for other reasons. Bob, me and a friend called Mike took the ferry over to Rottnest island off the coast from Perth city, you can bike ride around the island for the day, its a lovely island with little furry animals called quokkas.

Hello everyone, has been a long time between drinks. I almost forgot my login for my blog. But all is well now.

A fair bit has happened in the last six months. In a humungous nutshell, my brother (whom boards at my house) was involved in a traumatic car accident, was pulled from the burning wreck and had breaks down the entire right side of his body. He is however on the long road to recovery, he is extremely lucky to survive the burning car and not get any brain damage or spinal damage, but will need to learn how to walk on his completely fudged up leg and his arm and hand are not completely functioning yet.

18:37 15-02-2007

2007-02-15T01:39:00.000-08:00

Working hard and paying off Africa trip still. Quite hungry after work today. Have enrolled in year nine maths and hoping I get accepted, as I am looking forward to finally learning the foundations of math that help you get through trig and calculus. Yay.
I havn't been taking many photos of late so I promise as soon as I get something recent I shall put it up.
I do not understand why northern hemisphere people are chronologically challenged, we always write day/month/year you guys alway write month/day/year, which is not chronolgical.
The other really bloody annoying thing is I change the time on my blog to match the actual Australian time I typed this at, however the settings will not allow it and keep indicating I typed it twelve hours ago!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! at 1.30 in the morning!!!! the blogger people are a bunch of Tool bags!!!

time-date

2006-12-12T22:24:00.000-08:00

Hey, I have just arrived home from watching the cricket. Good game, lovely weather.
Have been working intensly as I am learning new skills with the machines, this is stressing me out a bit. I hope I can get the hang of things.
Mum and dad were meant to go to the cricket with me, however they are very busy with harvest and are working hard to complete harvest before the weather turns bad and ruins the crops.
My parents are barley, cattle, sheep and canola farmers.
I havn't yet bought mum and dads christmas presents, must do that soon.
Beer is causing me to mispell alot of stuff and I think I have hit backspace as many times as I have typed forward.
Oh yeah, Linda is back in Australia, yipee, more drinking.
Michelle

16:00 26-11-2006

2006-11-26T00:08:00.000-08:00

Hey, its hot in Perth approximately 37 degrees C. A typical summers day for us.
I am a bit hung over after doing a winery tour yesterday with a british backpacker, whom I thought I would go winetasting with. I wound up having beers at her place in the evening too with her boyfriend and their dogs and am writing this today with a banging headache and a tired mind.
Must find energy to clean up my bedroom, as it is a big arse dump at the moment, but my bedroom is too fucking hot to even open the door, how I wish I had money to buy an airconditioner.

2006-11-19T09:28:00.000-08:00

Hello,
today the red bull air race commences in Perth (my current city of residence) http://redbullairrace.westernaustralia.com/
I think I might go and watch, as I am a bit of an aviation enthusiast and really enjoy watching fast tricky stuff like this.
Since our government recently took the world car rally off us, hopefully we can hold onto the air race.
I have been working hard and paying off bills in a mega way so I don't have much to tell on here, as I pretty much, work, eat and sleep.

This car was down at the shops on saturday morning, I asked the newsagent if he knew the gossip. He said that it is a locals car, someone found out who was smashing peoples car windows, found the persons car, stole it, drove it to the shops and set it on fire. It happened at about 1am. So there you go, more proof that the suburb I live in is definately living up to its "hood" reputation, I love it, because I don't want to live in some posh, hoitey toitey, head up your arse suburb, Belmont has character.

halloween

2006-11-04T16:31:00.000-08:00

wtf I just put a photo here and when I went to type up my entry it vanished, well, this is a photo of my at a halloween party. I bought a costume that was too small for me, so I had to cut it at the waist to be able to get it up over my shoulders, but then the pants kept falling down so I found some braces to keep them up. I've always wanted to wear a skeleton costume to a halloween party and finally I got my chance. Yay.
Hope you guys had a good halloween.

Halloween party

2006-10-29T18:13:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone,
last night, I went to a halloween party organised by a canadian backpacker I work with, for her birthday. It was alot of fun, we don't normally do this in Australia so it was refreshing to finally get to go to a halloween party. I've always wanted to wear a skeleton costume, but I bought a kids one and it was too small, so I snipped it here and there and wore some braces to keep my pants from falling off. It was good fun.
I took alot of pics, but blogger doesn't really accomadate for large groups of photos, so I have included this link to another website, where I upload photos that I have taken.
http://shellyb.multiply.com/
Phil that kid with the eyes popping out of his head, sounds like me when I first took calculus, first mistake: freaking out at calculus symbols.

14-10-06 09:00am

2006-10-14T09:03:00.000-07:00

I had another disagreement with Bob, he still is not bothered by living seperately and wishes to continue living that way. Ergh I can hear Oprahs slant "he's just not that into you" ergh times two.
Bugger, bugger, bugger.
I wrote a poem for him just now, and will drop it over to his house some time today.
I don't feel like expressing much more than this right now.

08-10-2006 09:30am

2006-10-08T09:41:00.000-07:00

good morning.
yesterday, I worked half a day, went to visit sick friend, but she was way off in another part of the city with her mum, helping her mum complete her art history analyses for her art degree.
So I hung out with her flatmates and got invited to a party for next saturday. Came home, Bob rang to say he would come round late at night, I messaged him later to say not to bother, as it would be so late, it would be pointless and since he has so much work on at his house, he is better off staying there to get it done in the morning.
Here I am the next day, so far I have been for a half hour walk, yes I am attempting to re-ignite my exercise routine, apparently its good for your blood and organs and I am all for that.
My sister just phoned to ask me to baby sit her daughter this evening, whilst she attends a John Williams country and western concert. I think at some stage I had better clean the house up, so Anita doesn't freak out, maybe I will teach Zoe some more math.
Mind you, it would be good to have children of my own, that I could teach math, but men are so scared of having kids that many of us girls get too old to have kids and the moment passes.
It makes me sad daily, that my own boyfriend is too scared to live with me, even after seven years of being boyfriend and girlfriend, another testament to my nerve for giving back his friendship ring.

07-10-2006 14:35

2006-10-07T14:36:00.000-07:00

Go the West Coast Eagles, you guys are gold.
I found myself a job, as a mail sorter, I pack envelopes, or feed machines pamplets etc and its a good job. It pays the bills and requires less stress than my low paying treasury job, working for the government.
I'm hurt by Bob, he is planning to go overseas to work, which is fantastic, but I know it will be inevitable that he will split up with me due to the distance thing etc. So this morning I gave back his "friendship ring" that he gave me in Africa and told him how I felt insulted that after 7 years that I am only a friend to him and nothing more and I hope he enjoys himself working overseas etc.
Realistically I have to face the facts, if your partner goes overseas to work, sooner or later he's going to look the other way and meet someone else. So he is only using me till he gets there.
He knows I'm totally in love with him and I don't have the guts to break up with him, which is true so I really feel angry and sad these days, just waiting till he goes.

21-09-06 11.30am

2006-09-21T11:33:00.000-07:00

Well. I'm quite sick at the moment, have somehow developed a really sore throat and am coughing up yellow flem from my lungs. Have been gargling salt water and it seems to have helped, but I am sure its a bout of flu, as my joints are aching and I feel bitterly cold.
Taking pain relief helps alot.
Have been trying to find a job, hopefully some offers will come my way soon.

16-09-06 09:00am

2006-09-16T09:02:00.000-07:00

Hi everybody, how are you all today.
I have just finished reading the biography of my passed on friend Saul Dost, he is one very smart cookie and a magnificent wordsmith. He absolutely blitzed education yet sought work in the mines, I worked alongside him for 3 and a bit years at Plutonic gold mine and couldn't get enough of his huge knowledge and enormous skill and love of math.
No, don't get me wrong, he was not a lover or intimate partner, we were good friends and I respected him greatly and still do, even beyond death.
I guess I am intrigued by people good at math, as once when I was young I was good at it and loved it too, unfortunately when I hit high school, bullying and loner status sent me into depression and I refused to learn, as I hated being at school and didn't feel they deserved my hard work.
The teachers or principal did not do anything about school bullying or physical abuse and this darkened me more. I remember once even being removed from technical drawing, due to a supposed reduced intake and I was over the limit and had to do home economics (cooking).
I guess I still hold this as a huge anger the size of a atom and wish dearly to regain my scholarly ability and regain what was rightfully mine - a decent education free of being bashed, #####, and other stuff.
I don't like revealing stuff like this, but I don't like people judging me as inept when they don't know the full story.
Reading about Dosty has given me a stone of strength and I hope now I can use it wisely and effectively to gain what I want out of life.

14-09-06 08.45am

2006-09-14T08:53:00.000-07:00

morning everyone, I just woke to hear a gunman tried shooting students in a College in Montreal. hope you guys are ok and I am sorry to hear the bad news.
I met four Canadians on my trip through Africa, one was a maths teacher, another a statistics graduate, but I can't remember what the other two did, I think one worked as an admin officer for the government, but I can't remember what Leah did.
The stats Guy, gave me a different perspective on filling in surveys, I was filling one in and didn't want to do it, Stats guy said he wasn't going to fill it in and he has never done a census either, because of the ease of manipulation of information. Ironically when Bob and I got back to Perth, we had missed census night by two days, I read the form anyway and it pissed me off. I rang up the census hotline and told them that they are full of shit. Why the hell do they need to know what religion I follow or what I earn and how I earn it. They tried telling me it was because they need to know where to spend money, eg put up shops, schools etc. I told her she was full of shit, because I have lost several friends on bad country roads over the last decade and the government still has not fixed the roads. She went quiet, I apologised but told her I still think its a bunch of crap to do a census, that they only need to peep in your house and do a head count and that be it. I also said I will make sure I am not in the country whenever a census comes around because I don't think its any of their business what I earn.
I apologise for venting my feelings on these issues.

11-09-2006 11am

2006-09-11T11:00:00.000-07:00

The weekend was busy, saturday we had Bob's hockey final, which they unfortunately lost by one goal in the dying minutes. I then got a migraine, but it was luckily a minor one and later on I visited Belinda in hospital, as she has got an infection which isn't unusual since she has no neutrophils from the chemo.
Sunday I helped weed Bob's garden at his house, I then visited Belinda after that again, but briefly as I felt extremely tired, probably because the migraine was having its way. Then this morning I went to the dentist and had stage one of two of a root canal, it cleaned out an infected tooth and despite feeling numb faced and my pulse always races from the anaesthetic, I feel alright. Really glad to have infected tooth fixed up, my teeth are really good shape except for this one tooth, but when stage two is concluded next monday morning it will be as good as the rest of the teeth in my gob.
Hope your all keeping well and being good friends to each other.

2006-09-08T10:24:00.000-07:00

This is the sand dunes of Namib Nakluft national park in Namibia, I dedicate this photo to Dosty he lived and worked and loved the desert. A shame dear friend that you wont get to see your baby when it is born. I believe that this baby will have more of your spirit than anything and you will be in our memories forever. I wish I could see you once more, to show you my trip and bag out Matchbox 20.
Love
Michelle

2006-08-26T07:11:00.000-07:00

When a friend dies, it is sad and you go through the motions and we all are affected differently.
For some of us, we need to find strength to just leave our house, face the world and continue. If you imagine your having conversations with them in your mind, thats fine too.
R.I.P. Saul Dost close friend and confidant.

25-08-2006: 10.05am

2006-08-25T10:07:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone, life is alright. Stuff going on, not much to say.

2006-08-15T15:49:00.000-07:00

This photo is in front of orange river, the river makes the border between South Africa and Namibia, hence why I'm pointing across the river at Namibia. I love using the timer setting on cameras you can always get everyone in the picture, including the photographer, who usually gets left out.
I am still buzzing after my journey overseas, am also getting post africa blues. What a stunning country, beautiful landscapes and incredible wildlife, it makes me very sad that I am not there still. Am already making plans to return there.
I'm not sure if everyone knows but I now have a new email, its michelle.bennett77@bigpond.com so please use that address from now on.
in a while crocodiles.
P.S. Phil your blog is cool, as is Rhys, what a spin out she knows I've been overseas, its alllll good.

16:42 13-08-06

2006-08-13T16:46:00.000-07:00

Hellooooooooooooo, am back from an amazing journey throughout southern africa. Heaps to say, heaps of photos taken, so much fun.
Hope your all keeping well and hope uni isn't driving you too crazy. It is apparently lucky to see lions mating or about to mate, so the above is good luck. These two were definately off for a naughty time. On the other hand it is unlucky to see hyena's mating, but we didn't see that. So its all good.

4-07-06 9.50am

2006-07-04T09:53:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow 05-07-06 at 11.50am Bob and I will be boarding a plane to Africa for a 5 week trip returning on the 9th of August.
My email address has changed to michelle.bennett77@bigpond.com unfortunately my internet carrier doesn't have the capacity to keep my old email if I change internet plans (idiots)
Phil that new photo is good, havn't been able to reply to your email yet, due to difficulties in finishing the setup of my outlook express.
Good luck with exams everybody
Mish

27-06-06 5.00pm

2006-06-27T17:03:00.000-07:00

the top picture is John, (Belinda's flatmate) cooking dinner, Belinda lives in a typical student rental. John is studying psychology at Curtin Uni, Belinda just graduated from Art at Curtin Uni and her other flatmate is Alan her brother an apprentice cabinet maker.
The next picture is me yet again taking a self portrait, but I thought this one was clever because you can't tell I'm holding the camera.
Then you have Belinda wearing a scarf knitted by her mum and a surf label tuke (beenie) on one of her good days.
Then you have Geoff, Bob's hockey team mate, who got smacked in the head by a hockey stick, I took him to hospital. They gave him stitches and he seems to be ok. Then the last photo is Ann-Marie, Bobs bestfriends girlfriend, she is super sexy and super pretty, as you can see.
I shall be away for the next five days, I am going down south to Belinda's parents house, which is not far from my parents farm. So while helping look after Belinda, I might have some spare time to pop over and see mum and dad, havn't seen them since christmas. Hope dad is in a good mood. Hope your all going insane.
Michelle

27-06-06 10.00am

2006-06-27T10:05:00.000-07:00

Alas we too have our share of old bad 70's style structures. Unfortunately because the uni, started out as a engineering school all the science buildings except for a few are their original design. The top one is mechanical and civil engineering, the middle pic is engineering general and the bottom pic is science gen lecture hall, but mostly used by chemistry, physics and the computer labs. On the plus side, Curtin is currently erecting a huge new building at the front of campus as they plan on doing medicine at Curtin soon. The engineering buildings really feel old and dodgy. So math, physics and the entire rest of campus have got it good with their new fancy buildings. News is though that these buildings on the left, are lined up for a refurbishment.

26-06-06 11.30am

2006-06-26T11:27:00.000-07:00

The picture at the top is the west wing of Building 314. The west wing is the math department. The picture left of this typing is the stairwell leading up to the entry of building 314 and there is 42 steps exactly. The east wing in the sunlight is the computing department, building 314 is the "Department of Computing Science, Mathematics and Statistics" During our meeting it came up how perculiar it was that this building was number 314, because if you put a decimel in it you almost have pi. I will get more pictures of the uni soon. This is a fairly newly built department, Curtin has grown heaps in the last decade so they had to make new buildings, but the architect must have thought it was cool to have geometric shapes and stuff, so the entire campus has these new buildings sprouting up everywhere. I guess its in keeping with the fact its Western Australia's University of Technology (it started out as a mining school, for engineers and stuff)
I would imagine that Curtin uni, may well be smaller than the ones you get in Canada, but Curtin also has many campuses worldwide.

23-06-06 5.00pm

2006-06-23T17:02:00.000-07:00

Had a s.c.u.m. (Students of Curtin University Mathematics, for anyone interested in math, esp catering for people struggling with math, such as myself) meeting this morning and took some photos of the exec members using the timer setting. Today is the last day of 1st semester exams . The president is a fourth year math student, the vice president (not present) is a fourth year math and computing science student. Treasurer is a Geology student doing math, secretary is a something student. The club is open minded and doesn't discriminate as to who can be in the club, you can be anyone, even school students join and people who aren't even going to uni, its rad.

Whilst at the meeting I took a self portrait, as you can tell my arms are holding the camera, I take a couple of self portraits from time to time.
My sister came by my house for a visit, good to see her. Will be heading off to see Belinda after I write this and wash the dishes, havn't yet finished cleaning my house AND havn't even started packing for Africa eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek.

22-06-06 10am

2006-06-22T10:02:00.000-07:00

I took this yesterday at sunset, its Belinda and her mum Kate at the jetty near Bel's house. I took a couple of other sort of abstract photos of the sunset and this japanese guy fishing, I might post them. We forced Bel to go for a walk, she spends most days in bed, but the more she moves, the more it assists with her recovery.
Yesterday after writing my entry, I went down to the op shop and bought two really scarey eighties aerobics videos and one Kylie Minogue video of her greatest hits of the eighties and nineties (total cost $5). Oh my god, these videos are disturbing. I don't like much about the eighties and really get disturbed by the scarey hair, clothes and totally disturbing music.
But alas, I must use at least one of these videos to get in shape and increase my heart and lung capacity and lose some kilos?
Yesterday arvo, went and visited Bel, we watched and laughed through some of the eighties videos and made her go for a walk, she is very exhausted and a bit down. She gets a bit that way after a chemo session, she has another chemo session today. Hope your all well.

21-06-06 11.35am

2006-06-21T23:21:00.000-07:00

I didn't want to upload this photo, but to let you know how much weight I have actually gained, eeeeeeek. I keep trying to hunt down free aerobics videos but with no joy. I don't want to run or do weights because it makes me get bigger and look like a man, see my arms that isn't fat and when their flexed its bad, way too muscly the downside of finding manual labour employment. Plus I know I will like aerobics because its heaps of different stuff, running and walking can get a bit monotonous and it is hard to want to do it for that reason. Look I even am getting a double chin eeeek. Mind you this photo is about 4 weeks old and I have lost a wee bit of weight like 200 grams. I actually have a fear of dinosaurs, so this was slightly therapuetic, but I still walked away a bit fucked up, I have this deep rooted belief that there is a dinosaur in the bushes waiting to chase me.

just tried applying for a personal loan but no joy.
its sunny and cloudy and cold.
I must stop mucking around on the computer and start cleaning my study. eeeeeeeeeek.
hope you like my self photographed collage.

20-06-06 12.05pm

2006-06-20T12:07:00.000-07:00

Hello. Pics of my little study area, must tidy it soon, its been this way for the last six months.
Today I phoned Bel, she is extremely tired the chemo really seems to exhaust her. So I am not visiting her today, havn't seen her for five days, but she needs a break from me aswell, because I have been in her face quite alot for the last bunch of weeks.
Am doing my best to get my house really clean, the windows are proving most difficult, because they are sliding windows they have gutters and ridges in the metal framework which are very difficult to wipe or vacuum clean. So I have wiped over them, but there is heaps of soggy dust still left (I think the rain and sprinklers has created this soggy build up of dust), I will just need to keep cleaning it more regularly untill its completely cleared out.
I really need to keep cleaning, a friend of mine recommends I do so as it will help me concentrate when I go back to studying.
I hope so much that one day I will be able to go back to studies.
I'm very nervous about our trip to Africa, I hope we don't run out of money or get harrassed by thiefs.

monday 19-06-06 12.45pm

2006-06-19T12:45:00.000-07:00

This is a promo still from the movie "Howl's Moving Castle" I loved this anime film, so sweeet.
this is me experimenting with the timer setting on the camera, by the way I finally found the timer that gives you ten seconds, in this photo I used the two second setting which is why its a little blurred, I ran back and went down on my knees to make it look like I'm standing, because the camera was only on a box, which meant it would've only captured my knees. Here I have stopped carrying boxes to the truck to take a snap of myself. hee hee.

I took this cloud formation above Barblet oval next to the hockey association stadium, whilst Bob was playing hockey behind the camera. I took more than this one, but am not going to post them all. Then this next one is Bob's family and friends helping clear out his sisters garage.

had a rather big weekend.
Mowed the lawn and weeded one third of my garden, it was hard work and left me feeling quite tired and my leg muscles were sore the next day, I gardenend for 8 eight hours.
Helped boyfriends sister move house.
Watched Bob's game of hockey and took photos of the spooky cloud formations during the game.
Watched a couple of dvd's one which I really enjoyed was "Howl's Moving Castle" its an awesome movie and I totally recommend it to everyone.
I shall now try to squeeze some photos of the above happenings on this entry.

Friday 16th June 2006 9.13am

2006-06-16T09:13:00.000-07:00

Friday, Bel is into her fifth day of chemo today for this cycle (Cycle number 1), this cycle will hopefully cease on monday. We are only at the very beginning, I miscalculated or was misinformed of how far Bel had left to go.
I found out last thursday that all the chemo and hospital stays over the past 5 weeks, was not a part of Bel's routine cycle and that it was an initial phase to save her life, since pulling through she is now able to enter the routine chemo therapy cycles. This news stunned me, but I told Bel's mum at the time that it was no problem and that we can deal with it. I went home feeling myffed and sliding down a hole of fear. But I mananged to pull myself back up and believe that we can still do this, since we have come this far.
This photo was taken over the weekend, Bel is getting heaps of tuku's ( I think thats what you guys call them) sorry I can't remember the spelling. We are in winter over here, but unfortunately it has brought no rain, just clear sunny but cold days, unfortunately 60% of our farming has been plunged into drought because of it.
Chat again soon.
Michelle

DINOSAUR AT THE MUSEUM

2006-06-15T10:00:00.000-07:00

I went to the city museum with my mum, sister and niece and had a look at all the stuffed animals and dinosaur models, I was quite stunned by the anatomy of this one as it has fantastic leg strength and agility for a heavy predator, scarey shit man.
Mum took this photo of me.

NEW CAMERA

2006-06-13T10:22:00.000-07:00

Hello,
I have been mucking around with our new camera, getting the hang of automatic shots, but I needed more time to run back from the camera, the 2 second setting the camera has is just too short.
I'm sitting in front of the t.v. in this photo, and the program is "antique roadshow", so I got some really cool shots of me appearing in old european buildings hee hee. Belinda my sick buddy took this photo and 30 more, she went crazy with the camera.
Things are going ok, my house is a dump, my brother has left heaps of shit lying around and I have books and paper everywhere (left over from studies).
I have had a couple of warts frozen of my hand and it hurts like hell, and its making it difficult to get any cleaning done, so I am kind of stuck. I am probably going to go to the town library and see if I can find a book on fitness and copy its routine, I can't afford a gym and don't like doing weights as it seems to make me heavier, so hopefully I can get my hands on an aerobics style routine.
Chat soon.
Michelle

THANKYOU

2006-06-08T16:25:00.000-07:00

I had been up till three am for three weeks, bedside, family side etc when this photo was taken by my mum, Bel is my best friend, my sister and I love her so.
I'm back, Phil thankyou heaps for putting up the last post, keeping people informed of my situation and your kind words of support.
Belinda is progressing ok, she has completed two cycles of chemo, she has 6 cycles left each lasting approximately a week and have 3 week rest intervals inbetween each cycle all going well.
A few major things have come out from Belinda's grim situation, peoples issues with Belinda's sexuality have been put aside to be bedside and begin recommunicating with her. It has and will continue to be a roller coaster of emotions and events. But I am certain that Belinda will continue her strong fight and come through positively.
I am well, just recovered from a tummy bug and getting vaccinations like a pin cushion. Me and my boyfriend are planning a trip to Africa, I wasn't going to go but Belinda has insisted I go and send her post cards wearing a pith helmet.
My passport was due to expire so I have had that renewed and it has a crazy microchip thing in it this time.
I hope your all keeping well and studying like insane things.
Michelle

A Friend in Need

2006-05-21T10:45:00.000-07:00

I'm posting this on Shelly's behalf:

For the past few weeks (and for the immediate future), Michelle has been tending to her best friend, who's health has quickly dropped from bad to worse. The aforementioned lump on the back of her friend's head grew in size and was the cause of frequent spasms. After taking her friend to the hospital, the news came that it was cancer. Chemo was the proposed answer, but because of the (then unknown) state of her kidneys, this only worsened her condition. In the end, the only viable option was to induce a coma. At the time I was contacted by Michelle, her friend had been placed on a respirator and a dialysis machine was set to clean her blood twenty four hours a day.

They say that cancer affects everybody and I fear this is only the beginning. Michelle was quickly joined by concerned families and friends, both far and near and at this point, she's entirely devoted to caring for her friend at the hospital and comforting the families and friends involved.

I hope the readers here will hope and pray for the safety of her friend, as well as all those affected by the malady.

2006-05-03T07:51:00.000-07:00

yesterday was a little stressful, my best friend has a lump on her head and she has had difficulty getting proper treatment. I went round to see her and found her in quite a state of pain, and she is barely coherent, shuddering from the pounding headaches from a tennis ball sized lump which has formed on the back of her head.
She went to hospital two weeks ago and I can't believe the hospital sent her home with pain pills.
I managed to convince her to call the doctor who squeezed her in before all his normal appointments, he also prescribed her pain relief that won't make her throw up. Which I hope works as she hasn't eaten for two days due to vomitting caused by the pain pills.
The doctor also got her into hospital for today rather than two weeks time when she was scheduled to go in for a biopsy.

I'm hoping today they will hold her at hospital to wait for the results and hopefully remove the lump or something. The lump is in such an awkward place, she can't sleep properly as she can only lie on one side.

TERM TWO

2006-05-02T09:52:00.000-07:00

Full steam into part two of semester one, I am still behind so must work really hard to catch up and keep up.
Am currently trying to figure out why I keep getting vector component questions stuffed up. But shall ask around to see which part of my poor algebra is letting me down this time.
My kettle is chucking the sads, it keeps boiling the kettle in four parts, but I think its because of the cold weather creating a build up of moisture around the thermostat and confusing it as to the actual boiling point because of the increase in steam content.

INTRO CALCULUS MICHELLE IS LIKE A LOADER FALLING INTO A HOLE WHEN SHE PANICS OVER MATHS

2006-04-28T15:27:00.000-07:00

Sat an intro calc test today, wasn't too bad, ran badly out of time. Maybe I should've drank some coffee before hand as I could've answered all questions, I was just feeling a bit tired and the answers were coming out a bit too slow.
I did answer every question, but some are really brief and lame.
Shall get to and keep studying trig as I have a test on that on the weekend.
Vector addition is crazy man. eeeeeeeeeeeeeeek.

ANZAC DAY

2006-04-25T10:09:00.000-07:00

today is Anzac Day, respect to all who have fought and those currently fighting.

I have some pics of our camping trip, gee I have gained so much weight. I have since those photos started up exercise again, I so far have been doing a half hour walk each day, but nothing else. Will hopefully be able to lose the jelly fat and gain some stamina too.

Its difficult to get the photos to upload where you want them too. The two pictures at the top are the same beach, its beautiful to swim in and you feel so good when you get out.

The rocky photo is of the coast line behind the camera at another point on the coast. I took this photo when I got out of the four wheel drive, due to fear of the cliffy terrain that the guys were driving over, I chose to walk all the way to the campsite with another lady rather than stay in the vehicle and I took some really good pics, so it was fortuitous really.

Then you have me trying to keep warm at the camp fire, when the sun sets it chills down real quick. Mind you we are camping 45o km from Perth on the southwest coast of western australia, so it is heaps colder down there, plus we are going through autumn at the moment.

THE WEEKEND

2006-04-25T10:01:00.000-07:00

Hello there,
have been attempting to get study done, but its been difficult with friends and their sisters and their sisters children, running and screaming around the place. Why can't people discipline their children these days, I'm not saying go round and smack their butts all the time, but you can at least point out that they are not using their brains to their full potential.
I ended up showing them some magic tricks, which they liked heaps and their brains even seemed better off for it.
Me and my study buddies attempted a practice exam on Saturday, we all went for 1 hour and 30 minutes, but spent the next three hours going over our answers. I got about 30%, would have been more, had I more confidence in my answers. Phil Calculus is zOMG.
But it felt productive and hopefully I can talk them into doing a couple more practice papers closer to exams.
Its handy that the university posts past exam papers from the last 4 years on the net for students to download and practice.

CAMPING TRIP

2006-04-19T10:19:00.000-07:00

Happy Easter everyone, I had fun. We went camping down south, in a sheltered spot on the beach, it was heaps fun. Did some fishing, had a swim in the nice clean water and ate lots of bbq food and chocolate, we didn't try smores, but will do next time. We just had plain roasted mallows, which became a competition between some of the guys to get the most flame on their marshmallows, which was a waste of marshmallow to me.
Hope you all had a nice easter.

2006-04-10T07:21:00.000-07:00

must do my homework, yesterday was a total waste, for some reason I got upset by my routine being changed. It was weird, I got a message on my phone from a study buddy, saying he found errors in our assignment, I sms him back saying I would have a look soon, but was currently doing homework on trig. He didn't write back, so later that day (3 hours later) I phoned and left a message on his msg bank, asking if he wanted to talk about the assignment or meet up to go over the questions. He never got back to me, so I am feeling confused and unsure whats going on and was unable to concentrate on my homework as I was worrying about all this stuff.
So the whole day went down the tube from 10.20am onward. Sheesh I wish I had more confidence to just tell myself not to worry and calm down and just start reading my notes or something, till I gradually get back into the rhythm of homework.
Shall do some reading now.

sad documentary

2006-04-09T13:34:00.000-07:00

last night I viewed a documentary on t.v. about a lioness that adopts an orix calf, its sweet, the two bond and wander around together for about two weeks. The lioness finally lets the calf wander on its own, when a male lion ambushes them and drags the whimpering calf away. I couldn't help but cry my brains out. It turns out the lioness adopted on seperate occassions up to 12 calfs over about twelve months, some escaped her and some perished due to lack of milk or other lions coming along. The lioness became withdrawn when she lost that first calf and didn't seem to integrate much with the other lions.
The local village folk, knew of this lioness and she has become folklore among them. The lady who conducted the filming and narration of the documentary said that they think the lioness lost her cubs to a lion when she was younger and began adopting calfs as an alternate for motherhood.
I still feel sad about it.

study session

2006-04-08T17:10:00.000-07:00

Have just arrived home, from a 5 hour session of doing math homework. Me and a couple of other guys got together to go over an assignment we have due next Thursday. There is so much I still have not come to grips with and but I did gain quite a bit of stuff. Mostly its usually my algebra that stinks up my answers and I am wishing so much that I could get a course that would run through year 10 math, because its all algebra.
I hadn't eaten since 11am, so I scoffed down a burger from a fast food shop and now feel gross.
I will sit down and copy some of the questions out, repeatedly and hope that some of it becomes solid in my memory.
We covered heaps of chapters, involving logarithmic functions, basic trig identities, trig equations, limits and continuity, derivatives. Like usual I bombed on all things trig, but am going to get tutoring from a math club member next tuesday.
I joined the math club and was asked to be the secretary, the clubs name is S.C.U.M which currently stands for students of curtin university mathematics. But will be getting heaps of alternatives, because the club wants to help anyone doing any math in any course.
Ergh the greasy burger.

Dog tried to eat my skate

2006-04-07T08:08:00.000-07:00

got bit by a dog on the skate today, and the owner barely attempted to control the dog during its grapple at my ankle.
They asked me if I was ok, I said yes and skated off in a huff. Why can't people own small dogs in the city, or at least muzzle their dog if its likely to go at people on the footpath.
Sheesh
Last night I watched Catalyst, which is a science program on the government owned channel. It had an interesting article on how dementure is caused and how by simply running regularly keeps the arteries in your brain from hardening and crushing nerve cells. They also found that new nerve cells are generated in older people who are debilitated and then take up exercise.
So, if your concerned about getting old, they recommend exercise and crosswords or puzzles, I would say things like Sudoku and stuff like that would also be really good.
I have omitted heaps of stuff said on the article, one of the key points were that if the heart isn't healthy then the brain will follow suit, so keep your heart fit and healthy and the brain thrives.

distractions

2006-04-06T09:47:00.000-07:00

My brother bought me kill bill one and two, so it is difficult resisting watching these dvd's and getting on with my homework.
differentiation of insanely wild looking functions is scaring the crap out of me at the moment. Will try to calm down and get into it.

some days are clumsy

2006-04-04T12:37:00.000-07:00

I'm feeling clumsy and tired today, am also doing my best to quit watching television, as I hear its the best thing to do, to help concentrate on your homework or studies.
Am also having some frustrating times with maths, I get all confused as to what to do when there is a square root sign or anything weird looking like that, because I have no idea how to simplify mega square root quotient functions to find its derivative.
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaah.

one more for the road

2006-04-02T13:54:00.000-07:00

one more photo of the firefly crew and thats all I have left. Am right now having a quick break from studying limits and will get straight back into it in a moment.

2006-04-01T17:43:00.000-08:00

Phil, these photos were taken in Adelaide - South Australia ( I know we didn't put much thought into naming our states - I think you guys have provinces which is a very similar type of thing)
a heat wave swept the eastern states this summer and the native animals had to adapt. You get alot of koalas in South Australia as they have little uncleared bushland.
Aww koala soo cuute.
But they are actually very dangerous, they have very long sharp claws, koalas are herbivores and like the platypus are one of the oldest mammal species on earth, the platypus is the oldest of all mammal species.

Toronto

2006-03-31T07:43:00.000-08:00

Hello.
I was going through my math chapters and down the columns it has the occassional vignette, in todays chapter I discovered that "The CN Tower in Toronto is currently the tallest freestanding building in the world" though it doesn't tell me how tall it actually is.
It looks pretty tall in the photograph.
So have any of you guys been to this tower, is it prone to being blown over in a strong wind storm. I give you guys the hot tip, it wouldn't be looking too pretty if it was over here during these cyclones we've been having.
Why do they build these huge structures.
Mind you it is amazing that it stays upright, it looks kind of skinny.

state I reside is on alert for cat 4 cyclone (clockwise)

2006-03-30T08:31:00.000-08:00

well that last post is old news, it now turns out, Western Australia is under threat from a cyclone off the north west coast cyclone 'Glenda', the system is due to hit sometime today around noon or later, it is currently a category four. We have evacuated Karratha and Exmouth and battened down the hatches. See this link:
http://www.bom.gov.au/products/IDW60279.shtml
The townships in this link are approximately 800 kilometres north of Perth, where I live. Usually when a cyclone crosses up north, we get alot of rain and thunderstorms. Only one cyclone has come close to Perth, cyclone Alby in 1977.
I hope that it wont be as devastating as Larry in Queensland.
Life is going ok at the moment. Math is mega hard and scarey as ever and am hoping my long distance teacher will consider my plea to re-learn year 10 algebra, as I really have no recollection of doing it and am seriously concerned that reading books on algebra isn't going to help me get by in the long run.
As it is I am struggling in my current upper school studies of math, I think this is due to my lack of algebra learning.

Cyclone Larry

2006-03-22T16:40:00.000-08:00

Australia, was hit by a devastating cyclone on March 20th. This one I couldn't believe what it had done. It flattened all our banana trees (these trees are huge and strong, it would take immense force to snap them like this) trees snapped at the base and pushed flat to the ground, our rainforest was obliterated, not a single house, apartment block was not ripped up, big rig trucks swept onto their sides. It was honestly the most incredible cyclone ever???

It also destroyed our cane sugar plantations, avacados, pineapples, corn crops, destroyed one town and much of a city. Weirder still it gained strength when it hit land, it went from category four to category five and shredded across the north queensland peninsula at 290 kilometres per hour. If you've ever seen the movie 'Signs' where the corn crops are flattened, imagine that but trees aswell, perfectly snapped and levelled vegetation, the force in those winds must have been incredibly strong.

The whole country is astonished at this event, and the fact no one was killed, a big applause to the emergency crews who mustered every single soul to emergency shelters before the cyclone crossed the coast. They saved many lives doing so.

2006-03-20T15:08:00.000-08:00

For any Firefly admirers, what a handsome crew.

2006-03-20T15:05:00.000-08:00

triiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiig

2006-03-13T10:40:00.000-08:00

I was trying to persuade my friends girlfriend to go skydiving and she told me that she would be mostly scared of the flight up (because its a dodgey little aeroplane). I couldn' t help but laugh, because as I said to her in reply, why would you be worried about the flight, if something goes wrong with the plane, you've got a parachute, you just bail out and leave the pilot to deal with it.
How slow am I though, I always wondered why the pilot stays with the plane and of course it would be to try and guide the plane away from dangering other lives, if everyone bailed from a plane then the plane could crash in the middle of a city and what if the plane corrected itself and heaps of people die from parachuting into the ocean or nearby countryland.

2006-03-12T18:30:00.000-08:00

look at that face!!!

2006-03-12T18:24:00.000-08:00

sky diving pictures yeeeeeee haaaaaaaaaaa.

2006-03-12T18:20:00.000-08:00

nice weather today. Went for a skate this morning, havn't been for about two weeks. But its something I happily return to. Have been plugging through my homework, its been lengthy, but at least now I don't freak out at the language used, as much as I used to.
Hope that last bit makes sense.
Coffee does help, I don't normally drink coffee, but have started as I heard that its a useful stimulant when studying and so far I have found this to be quite true.
Chat again soon.

2006-03-10T19:02:00.000-08:00

I know I am not a genius at math, I am probably on the average scale of ability.
Though what I do find with math is, despite the things people say about it, it is still an awesome feeling when you finally get something right.
COOOOOOOOOOL BANANAS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Unfortunately Phil, I am still stuck on the trig, but I am nailing pre-calculus no problem. So hopefully my good calculus will fire up the engines on trig.

2006-03-09T12:10:00.000-08:00

Hey, guess what. I got a video of my sky dive, in the mail. Its MONUMENTAL, some of it is really funny, where you can tell I am scared and glad and all the feelings whirling through your mind. If there is a way I could get the tape onto dvd or make it into still photographs, I would certainly post them on here.
Now back to the home work bench.
Here is the website of the company I parachuted with:

http://www.skydive.com.au/

2006-03-06T19:39:00.000-08:00

I catch myself in disbelief that I jumped out of an aeroplane on saturday. What a moment in my life.
Its incredible and a many different feelings twirling through your heart and head at the same time.
I almost couldn't breathe, found out later it was due to tight clothing and being whinded in the chest by the upforce of air pushing past me.
Being of smaller build than most, I had not told the sky dive company that I had an accident in the past which makes the sternum of my rib cage squish in considerably more than a normal person when under force. I didn't want to let the group down by not being able to honour my chance of parachuting, due to previous injury.
Being said, my lesson is learn't, will be more careful with future adventures, as the harness could have been loosened to help my breathing on the way down.
Ok shall chat again soon.
Hope you are all keeping well.
I am off to make my eyes bleed over trig which is not making sense to me. I hope its not my mind putting up mental brick walls in disbelief of overwhelming mathematical relationships.
There you go, I said 'overwhelming' which sums up my problem, so, I will work to reduce my attitude of allowing myself to feel overwhelmed.

2006-02-25T18:52:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone, apologies for the absence.
Am at the beginning of studies and am needing as much time to myself to study (I am not a quick learner and because of this need more time than most to learn something)
I have math 103 this semester and joined the math club, a speaker from the club came to our orientation lecture and encouraged people to sign up, because they hold daily clinics for people who find math to be their weakness (I am indeed one of those). They never used to have a math club, up untill last year, so the club is not huge and also because alot of the PhD students are quite busy and unable to go to all meetings.
Hopefully I will be able to gain some assistance from the clinics.
Ok I better get my bottom into gear.

2006-02-13T18:02:00.000-08:00

yumm nutella, I am eating it by the spoonfull.
I possibly may not be posting very much in the coming weeks. I have just began doing two high school math units (intro calculus and geom/trigonometry) and in three weeks I will be starting a university math-103 unit, WOWSERS.
Phil, how do you cope with math, without being completely overwhelmed. To me its as if I am learning another language.
Work is going along nicely, the weather is quite warm, especially without an airconditioner. Do you guys even get to use airconditioners in Canada?
Ok I must go and pry the nutella from my hands.
Mish

2006-02-07T19:00:00.000-08:00

(Boo)

Alright hopefully this works.

Sorry Shelly, no go.
- p

2006-02-05T17:49:00.000-08:00

today felt warmer, but only reached 31.5 degrees C.
I got up early 6am and went for a rollerblade, its been a long time, and its trickier than I recall it being.
It was still good fun, I love it, I like the rolling around and crouching down to go round corners fast.
I knew I could only skate down the streets early, because theres fewer cars and pedestrians, alot safer.
Practiced stopping, which I need to practice as I am not able to stop properly as it is - bit dangerous as I should really master this before going anywhere.
I only skate really slow, untill I go up hills or along flat patches, because I am so unpracticed and don't want to trip onto the road and get run over.

I better go and finish cleaning my desk so I can get into some homework.

2006-02-04T16:46:00.000-08:00

study starts again soon.
Summer has finally rolled in, but just, its up to 35 degrees C today.
I have been hooked on finding the answers to a film quiz that a friend emailed to me.
I might see if I can attach it to one of my blogs.

2006-01-29T13:49:00.000-08:00

I just had my sister Anita, her daughter Zoe and Anita's boyfriend Owen and my brother Ryan over for a cup of tea, coffee, green tea etc.
It was really nice to catch up with family, my niece wanted to play the ps2 eye toy, she loves it and goes crazy playing the kung foo game.
I haven't had much to eat, but will have something soon and walk down the road holding my skates to check out the rollerblading ramps. I figure the walk will do me good and I don't have to worry about skating across roads and being cleaned up by a passing car. (or for that matter, being busted by a cop for not wearing a helmet)
But, I must finish cleaning up my house, as I got a fair way through my bedroom yesterday, which is good as its an annoying dump and SOOOOOOO DISORGANISED (yes my weakness is organisation and I am working on changing that and its starting with my messy, disorganised bedroom, plus I am sure it will help me concentrate when I am studying)

2006-01-28T12:24:00.000-08:00

Yum m & m's.
Phil, I think something is not quite right about my blog. It seems to not be archiving (I think) the links and posting option are going further and further down the page, I fear they will disappear altogether.
I am amazingly doing some house work, making the most of boyfriend being away in another state, so I can get stuff done.
I badly need to get another set of drawers to put all my clothes in, or something. I managed to buy a heap of plastic crates to store any course work in, but its not helping solve the fact that I have piles of folded clothes around my bedroom and no where to put them.

I'm contemplating doing a geometry and trigonometry unit this semester, I havn't studied it before, not in high school.
I'm not sure if it will be important to have it when going into a science course at uni?
Chat again soon.

2006-01-24T19:00:00.000-08:00

working as usual.
Astonished by Phil's very interesting post on astronomy, its amazing that when a star implodes it sucks everything inwards so rapidly and it can't come out again, how does it fit it all in???????
I like the sound of these nebula's which harbour baby solar systems like our own, may there be organisms in these baby systems.
The night I went out, there was a system 4 and a half light years away, I can't remember its name, but it had two pairs of suns (4 suns all up) and they are much like our own, weird thing is, these suns are orbiting each other like kids holding hands and spinning in circles.
The other amazing thing is, there is galaxy systems popping up all over the place and stars imploding all over the place, it seems like its a hive of activity out there, its exciting and intriguing stuff.

Stars, Black Holes, and the Universe

2006-01-22T11:40:00.000-08:00

Michelle, I was rather delighted to read about your outing to the observatory. I know a bit about Astronomy, and I can give you some interesting facts. Unfortunately, I ended up writing so much, I figure I might as well make a proper post with pretty pictures.

Stars, Black Holes, and the Universe

The most astonishing idea really is how truly vast space is. If you shrink Earth down to the size of a marble, the nearest star other than the Sun (called Alpha Centauri) would be 200 km away! It lies about 4 light years away, meaning that at the speed light moves (300 million meters per second), it would take 4 years to reach us.

The Andromeda Galaxy (Disk shaped, very like our own)

Stars are formed from very dense dust clouds that are literally enormous (many, many times bigger than our solar system). You can think of it as the dust cloud collapsing on itself (from pressure), and forming this ball. The ball ages (or burns) and as it burns, it loses precious materials. At some point, it has burned up so much material that it starts to self destruct -- and goes supernova. But this only happens to big stars. Most little stars will just burn out and become a white dwarf and later, a black dwarfs (essentially a dead star). In fact, the Sun will one day become a white dwarf (it's too small to go supernova).

Formation of Stars

Now, if you take a massive star near the end of its life, you get something very interesting. Stars are alit because they are always burning something at their cores. What happens after they burn for a long time is that the core starts shrinking due to gravity. So the core shrinks and shrinks...until it doesn't shrink anymore (why this occurs, is a bit too long of an explanation).

Then suddenly this core, which is about the size of the Sun, collapses within a fraction of a second. Imagine the Sun, shrinking to the size of a city...in less than a second! This produces the supernova, and the remnants is what's known as a neutron star. The key word here is density. If you were to take a teaspoon of the stuff a neutron star was made of, it would weigh about as much as a mountain.

A Supernova and Neutron Star

Now, if your original star was big enough, what happens is that this neutron star continues to shrink...and shrink. Until, well, it shrinks to a point. So what happens now?

Well, you have a big problem. You have compressed the mass of (several) Suns into something smaller than a dust particle. So what happens it that gravity is so incredibly strong near this point that even light is sucked in. In fact, no light can escape from this point. This is what is known as a black hole. Black holes are very interesting objects, mainly because of the fact that anything that is remotely near it is sucked right in. In fact, black holes literally eat up stars for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The result when you munch a star is an output of energy.

Now, if you take a look at the center of our galaxy, you see a big energy output (lots of light, explosions, supernova, etc.). It's hypothesized that at the very centre of our Galaxy, lies a black hole, munching up all the stars around it.

A Black Hole's Breakfast

Okay, so we have the Earth. The Earth is near the Sun (a star), which is inside our Solar System (consisting of a bunch of planets). The Solar System is contained in the Milky Way, which is our galaxy. In each galaxy, there are about 100 million to one trillion stars. And how many galaxies are there in the Universe? Only about one hundred million.

Astronomers have actually managed to find ways of 'looking' at far away galaxies. In fact, the farthest galaxies they've managed to detect lie about 14 BILLION LIGHT YEARS away. This is actually the hypothesized age of the Universe! So in fact, when the astronomers see these galaxies, they are gazing 14 billion years into the past...

So who knows what the Universe is really like right now!

Side note: I took a lot of liberties to make this as short as possible. So there is a fair amount of inaccuracy. For example, there are many ways a star can die. Forming a supernova and neutron star is actually very, very rare -- albeit the most interesting path.

2006-01-22T10:31:00.000-08:00

I organised a surprise outing for Bob last night, I baked a vegetable stuffed italian loaf, a berry sundae and a bottle of red. I took him firstly for a picnic up at the lookout, in the hills of Perth, then at 10pm, I took him to the Perth Observatory, where I had booked us a star gazing session.
It was amazing, we got to see Saturn, the key hole nebula, tarantula nebula, the globular cluster, the seven sister (where there is 4 suns who have not long been germinated), and we also so the jewel box cluster.
They are so beautiful and the information that the guides tell you is amazing, there is a star in the key hole nebula, which is bulging and on the verge of becoming a supernova. But the visual effect of the explosion will take 7500 years to reach us.

2006-01-18T19:41:00.000-08:00

Phil everytime I look at the banner, I yearn to ride a horse again.
It is a very overwhelming feeling.

2006-01-18T19:34:00.000-08:00

work is same same.
Am looking forward to the weekend, hey we are approaching Australia Day over here, so beware lots of sentimental Aussies around the place.
Australia Day, it sounds so natural.
I bought a bbq chicken for tea and diced up some salad for it, I put the left overs in the fridge in an airtight container, so I hope that is a safe way of storing it, because I don't know what is the best storage for chicken.
I guess that it was better to be airtight, because fewer bacterias can grown anaerobically as opposed to the aerobic bacterias.
Oh well, if I get sick from lunch tomorrow, I will know its because of the chicken being stored wrong.
Alright, I better go and find some other task, to get myself organised before uni rolls around.

2006-01-16T21:16:00.000-08:00

Just cooked myself some dinner, for a change. Some pasta with a cheese sauce and bacon and a salad.
Hey Phil, thankyou greatly for explaining the percentages to me, I was sure I was getting close, but so many people had told me different things I started getting depressed about which one is the correct one to follow.
Work was a struggle, as I had all late nights over the weekend, mind you, all I did was stay up late - eating and watching a movie, but it has hit me hard.
I also resigned from my current finance job with the govt. to continue on with studying, I hope I can get the brain cells to work better this time around AND be less lazy AND more organized.
So I sign off, while I sit hear sweating my arse off in front of my pc typing this.

2006-01-15T11:19:00.000-08:00

On the 8th of January, myself Bob and a couple of his mates drove up to Lancelin to enjoy the fine summer weather. It was 30 degrees celsius and no wind, it was stunning weather. I was still a bit hung over from the cricket the night before, but the beach and weather certainly helped pull me out of illness. Above, the big blue thing, is a manta ray, it gets towed behind either a jet ski or boat and it gets wickedly air born, mind you, you can flip out of it alot.
I had a go and its so fast and scarey, but fun at the same time, I was worried about falling off because I started to get cramps in both my hips (from gripping on for dear life) and thought if I fell in, I wouldn't be able to skull due to the cramps. Then there is also the worry of the driver not noticing you being flipped out and leaving you there for the sharks eeeeeeeeeeeek.
That night, we walked from the beach house to the pub and were entertained by an awesome fireworks display, a live band and the boys could enjoy the bikini parade.
It was awesome at night, again no wind, nice warm temperature and a lightning storm further inland, displaying some awesome bolts.
On that note, we have had the STRANGEST summer ever, we have had torrential flooding inland and it runs right up the length of western australia. We have had the coolest summer, it hasn't got past 26 degrees C, for the last three months, normally its STINKING F##%ING hot, I'm talking 30 degrees plus by november, with no rain WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON!!!!!

2006-01-14T16:49:00.000-08:00

Hello everybody, I apologise about the absence. Summer is finally rolling in about one season too late, its been the weirdest summer we have ever had over here.
I have just been working and watching cricket and swimming when it gets warm enough.
I have re-enrolled at uni and am doing part time study this year.
Am feeling a bit tired at the moment, its been a busy week, with everyone returning from their summer break and so my work load has gained.
I hope this picture works, its me at the cricket, 20/20 game. I am scoffing down some chocolate star lollies and drinking beer as western australia did their best to beat victoria. It was good fun.

2006-01-05T18:50:00.000-08:00

It is hot here now, after having the coolest spring/summer in history, the temperatures just shot through the roof. Normally in Perth, it gets hot around mid October, this time, it was cold and really cold, then finally this week the temperatures finally got past 25 degrees C.
Its been very unusual.
I have a headache, I think I have something wrong with my left eye, as it gets really sore and headachey after I have been reading something more than arms length away. Today, I was watching one of my superiors draw up a contract, and during and after I now have the above mentioned sore eye and accompanying head ache. ergh.
Bloody hell, I went to the university website to draw up my timetable, and when you print it, it only gives you the table lines and leaves out the coloured blocks where your lecture, lab and tutorial times go. ergh, headache doesn't compute with that very well. Bugger.

Christmas

2005-12-27T17:02:00.000-08:00

Have been down at my parents farm for christmas over the last week, it was good fun and I loved catching up with everyone.
Unfortunately I ate alot of food and did no exercise and I feel like a blimp. ergh.
I also went to the boxing day races yesterday, which was good fun. I saw a few people that I knew from many years back, when I was younger and lived in Albany, I felt like I had travelled back in time.
It was an excellent day all round though.
Ok, I need to keep moving, I go back to work tomorrow and have to unpack, do washing and I need some sleep, I havn't had a decent sleep the whole time I was down in Plantagenet.
One sad thing, I caught up with my deceased friends widowed fiancee' and he didn't want to talk much, I hope he gets through these tough times and that some of his wounded heart will heal.
Hope your all having a good festive season.

LUSH

2005-12-19T02:50:00.000-08:00

I have managed to attend the cricket 3 days in a row, I finally got my chance to see the magnificent Adam Gilchrist bat. This guy is a legend, and when he strides out there everyone knows that he holds a certain essence of skill that is unpredictable and he can run off on you in no time. He rules the pitch. May you be forever in our hearts Adam.

2005-12-18T11:00:00.000-08:00

The dashing Brett Lee, our other fast spin bowler, we told him, he had a nice arse and he smiled for the camera. All the players pull a straight face and don't talk to you, because its not allowed, so this was cool how Brett gave us a grin.
I recommend cricket to anyone, its easy to follow and also fun to play yourself.

2005-12-18T10:56:00.000-08:00

a day at the cricket, this is one of our fast spin bowlers the legendary Glen McGrath. He is so tall and his hands massive, Australia is playing South Africa. My cousin Julie, her friends, my boyfriend Bob and myself had an excellent day at the cricket, alot of amber fluid was drunk and shouts of support to the Australian team was in ample doses.
Good day all round. Oooooh Aaaaah Glen McGrath I said oooh aaah Glen McGrath.

good morning

2005-12-16T05:45:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone, its 5.45am and I am about to go for my routine morning run. I just wish it would help me lose weight, I can't believe I have gained weight, but I have and must find a way to deal with it. The running isn't helping, its keeping my lung capacity up, but not doing sweet f.a. for my fat.
I make sure I run before I eat breakfast, because I hear it helps kick start your metabolism. I think for me, I need a high exercise day, as when I worked on the gold mine, I was constantly walking, shovelling, climbing up to huge platforms and heavy lifting and I was skinny as all buggery.
Now I can't fit into half my clothes, shit. I don't want to join a gym, but I think I might, so I can find a way to do the weights I was used to doing. Or I might scrape my money together and see if I can do dancing lessons??

2005-12-15T11:41:00.000-08:00

I couldn't help myself, how cuute is that kitten and how adorable is that dog.
Both, sooo cute and fluffy.

So Cuuuuute

2005-12-14T16:12:00.000-08:00

I couldn't resist, I'm sure everyone has seen these photos circulating. How precious is this babe.

LAZY ARSE

2005-12-14T15:40:00.000-08:00

Am currently on holidays, and gee its a struggle sometimes to get my arse into gear and clean my house up. I really have got to clean it up, my grandmother is coming over from Adelaide to stay a couple of nights and its looking very much like a single home owner place, clothes, food, playstation, alcohol & crap everywhere. eeeeeeeeeeek.
I have one week, surely I won't succumb to the good old last minute, I'm a sucker for the last minute.
Bought a couple of things from a stationery shop today to tidy up all the paperwork from uni and make my desk look like a desk, not a place where paper seems to magically breed into giant stacks.
Oh summer is lush.

M.I.A. link

2005-12-08T12:02:00.000-08:00

ok the link will be coming a bit later, I am just reading over the help menu. So please bare with me.
No, don't bare with me, as its not coming, I'm stuffed if I can figure out how to put it up here. I have also probably spelt bare incorrectly, as it should probably be bear as bare means get naked, so no, don't strip down whilst reading this at your pc.
Because I'm not.

2005-12-08T11:52:00.000-08:00

Read this first, I have today attached a video of a comedian doing an imitation of Chopper Read. Chopper is an Australian hero of a different kind, a black robin hood if you may. In this video, he talks about Canberra our national capital, the only place in Australia where it is legal to buy and smoke pot, buy and sell porn and buy, sell and use fireworks. (you can buy, sell and use fireworks in the rest of the country, but you have to cut through loads of red tape)
The top end of Oz, always is inflicted with cyclones between summer and autumn. Adelaide is a very quiet small capital city. Perth capital of Western Australia, which is where I am, is never bagged out much by the eastern states, because WA is the biggest industrial state we have, it makes more money each year than any where else in the country, so they have to be nice.
Ok, so with this little bit of general knowledge behind you, I hope you enjoy.

Lame Australian Joke, (but still makes me giggle)

2005-12-08T10:28:00.000-08:00

The Australian newspaper, over a period of weeks, sought entries for the Great Australian Yarn (story).
This was the winner:
Two drovers standing in a bar.
One asked, "What are you up to?"
"Ahh. I'm takin' a mob of 6000 from Goondiwindi to Gympie."
"Oh yeah . . . and what route are you takin'?"
"Ah, prob'ly the Missus; after all, she stuck by me durin' the drought."

Russel Crowe

2005-12-06T19:20:00.000-08:00

Work is busy. I have heaps of stuff to do before I go on holiday (eeeek). My seniors are going to shit it at me, or at least do that crappy covert bullying to make me leave when I return from my break. (Double eeek).

Oh Phil, I remember doing math at uni last year and of course you have all the young fresh out of school students and we were up to quadratics, and you guessed it, whenever the finding of roots came up, there were a heap of giggles. Ergh.

...Which you probably don't get in Canada, because you guys don't refer to having sex as rooting.
Some Australian guys, when they go out on the town, they sometimes say they need to find a root, etc, etc.

Australian Fact of the Day

Russel Crowe, is not Australian, he is from New Zealand, there is very friendly rivalry between us and the kiwi's. Russel has though, married an Australian lady. I like Russel's effort for the movie, 'Beautiful Mind' about John Nash. Except I have heard that the movie isn't very accurate, whats new.

Dentists and Dicks

2005-12-05T16:31:00.000-08:00

Went to the dentist this morning, had a minor filling done, and a scrape and polish. I have managed to bite my cheek and tongue numerous times, and 7 hours later, I can actually feel my face. The dentist gave me a toothbrush and small pack of floss, and had discussed how important it is to floss. Katie I must admit, I too, rarely floss and am paying out for it now.

I have felt pretty ordinary and my boss recommended I take leave for the rest of the day, I had to go to the shops to buy some food and get money out and when I spoke, people thought I had a disability. It was a bit strange to see peoples reactions, mostly everyone was more polite, than when I speak normally, which makes me wonder why so many of us continue to treat each other like shit.

Spent the rest of the day dozing and watching t.v. and playing Wipeout 2, I have many old games I like playing repeatedly, mainly because I still havn't beaten them yet, but I am getting closer.

Australian Fact of the Day

We don't all say gidday. We rarely say gidday, sometimes we say hello, or hi, or how you going.
Paul Hogan is a bit of a dick for doing that whole Australian thing ergh.

Blogs, Beastie Boys, and Other Things

2005-12-02T18:43:00.000-08:00

I have to say, I haven't been able to access your blog Katie, Dave or anyone's, because I used to go to Phil's blog and then click on the links down the side of his blog. So if you guys don't mind, if I get a hold of your blog addresses, I'll figure out how to put them into my blog. Then I can go round and have peek at what you guys have been up to.

...Been running...

Am listening to the Beastie Boys solid gold hits again. I love these guys. They are so expressive, rarely smile, but are somehow extremely funny and serious at the same time.

Australian Fact of the Day

Over here, when you root, you are carrying out the act of sexual intercourse.

In Canada, I think, when you root, you are barracking for a team or something.

Which is why, when you guys say that your rooting for a particular team, we think that you are really doing it for your country.

Work and Koala Bears

2005-12-01T02:37:00.000-08:00

Work was busy, but felt more productive. One of my co-workers is very unwell; he got admitted into hospital on Tuesday. Initially he had the flu, then developed pneumonia, then was diagnosed as fine despite the fact he had bad chest pains, was zipped into hospital, as the pains got to intense and was found to have excessive amounts of fluid on the lungs. I hope he pulls through ok and recovers fully.

Only ran this afternoon, wish I had gone this morning, as for 1. I'm sure it makes the afternoon run easier and 2. There is a bunch of kids starting their baseball practice on the pitch I run on.

On a different subject, I bought the single to Madonna's song, "Hung Up", its magic, only the remix versions have parts where it sounds like my washing machine on spin cycle.

Austrialian Fact of the Day:

In Australia we have Koala Bears and 'drop bears', koala's are herbivores, so is strange they make the bear category, its theoretical they may have been carnivores eons ago. They are gorgeous, eat gum leaves and very lazy.

In Canada, I have no idea what bears you have. I am tempted to hazard a guess and say you have the generic polar bears. Which are magnificent, yet obviously higher in the food chain than us, so best to adore from a distance.

2005-11-30T03:21:00.000-08:00

work is cool.
Am slowly getting back on track with running, I basically stopped for two weeks whilst Linda visited and to make it worse, we ate heaps of chocolate and lollies.
Also, I am acting in someone elses position at the moment, whilst they are on leave and compared to my last position, its a fair bit easier and you sit in front of a computer a whole lot more. Because of the sitting factor, I gained several kilos during the weeks I didn't exercise, in my normal job, if I didn't exercise for a couple of weeks, no change.
Hence, I have come out of the barriers, galloping, I now do my best to jog in the morning and the afternoon. Problem, I am too buggered to make myself dinner and eat frozen marshmallows, drink water and go to bed.
Phil, I shall endeavour to get some stuff up here, there won't be many pictures, as I need to get permission to borrow my boyfriends camera (my camera is a manual pentax, with the big chunky lense, but it takes awesome scenery photos, thats what I used on the gold mine I worked at, if only I had enough money to put those photos on disc, so I could load them onto my computer)

definitions:
Australia, we go to university and everyone refers to it as 'uni'
You guys go to college and refer to it as college.
Which is weird to us, because here, college is a specialised school for mature age students needing qualifications to get into uni. Also the other colleges we have are beauty colleges, mechanics colleges etc.