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Red_Apocalypse_Horse
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Name: Crosby
Country: Australia
Birthday: 10/27/1985
Gender: Male
Interests: Reading blogs, blogging, cycling, computer gaming, ice skating, listening to music, playing my instruments, eating, sleeping
Expertise: Chemistry, physics, maths, nanotechnology
Occupation: Student
Industry: Education/Research
Message: message meEmail: email me
Website: visit my website
MSN: darkmutant@hotmail.com
Member Since:
8/7/2004
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| Yesterday, I cleaned the strings of my bass with "fast fret" oil and wiped them with the supplied cloth. I then proceeded to play it for music practice, and...
I was totally surprised by the brightness of the sound!
("bright" = more higher harmonics on top of the fundamental note)
I have read on forums that dirt causes strings to get dull ("dull" = lose higher harmonics). But I had no idea that it causes that much difference. I've always thought that the major cause of string dullness is prolonged string tension; which causes the strings to lose their elasticity.
Now I know that a little bit of dirt accumulated between the windings, even if they're not visible to the naked eye, can really make a difference in the sound. Of course, the untrained person can't tell the difference between a bright bass sound and a dull bass sound; it's all just "that low dum dum dum". Conversely, I'm unable to tell the difference in sound quality of high pitched instruments, like the violin.
Anyway, now the bass is "slap-able" again! The slap-and-pop technique sounds really bad on dull strings, and hence I haven't been practicing that for ages. Now that the brightness is back, it gives me the extra motivation to practice it. | | |
| *to the tune of "Summer of 69"*
This was back in the days when Counterstrike was a male-bonding activity (and it was my last year living permanently in my birth town Kuching). These are some of the cool nicknames which the guys in my year group used in CS:
[S]phin[X]
Slayer
Unholy
Gimmicks
Plague'
[M]oney
F3rrari
[L]uckystrike
Raju_Chacca
Liquidblade
Fatboy
The_Hunter
Pillowman
Lamagra
Well, at least those are the ones which I remember. The guy nicknamed "Sphinx" is a top CS player in our school at that time. He's a very good all-rounder with all weapons; so good that to make it more of a challenge, he sometimes plays with reverse mouse axis as a means of handicapping himself! Guess which one of those used to be my nickname.
(Sorry for this short post... it's just to "fill-in" while I work on something more substantial.) | | |
| Only until recently, I didn't realise just how blessed I am financially wise. Never really thought about it much until Nat pointed it out to me 2 weeks ago. Compared to most uni students, I'm (almost) debt free.
The prestigious undergraduate scholarship gave me the opportunity to do my degree tuition-fee-free. As for my car, I've roughly calculated (I don't have the documents with me as I type this) that it'll take probably another half a year only to completely settle the bank loan. Apart from this, the only other major debt is the $8k FEE-HELP government loan for time in Vose Seminary in 2008. I don't need to pay this one back until my income exceeds a threshold.
My parents have allowed me to continue living with them (as opposed to moving out and renting), so that I can save up the money I get from the APA stipends, and may be able to get a house mortgage within 2 years. My monthly expenses breaks down as follows:
- Fuel: ~ $75 (I refuel a full tank every 3 weeks, with 98 octane premium fuel)
- Phone: $24.19 (the lowest plan for Optus - I don't use my phone often... a bonus of not having a gf)
- Car loan payment: ~$350
- RAC insurance: ~$45
- WorldVision kid sponsorship: $44
- Eating out: ~$100 (only happens about twice a week on average only)
That sums out to be about $650 expenses per month. Obviously not including household bills and food expenses which my parents still support. All of these, I'm now paying by myself now that I have my APA stipend allowance, and able to save up about $500 per month.
If I were to move out and rent, then I wouldn't have much, if any to save at all; having to pay for rent, bills and food. Maybe that's why it's a blessing to be born into an Asian family where it is socially normal for kids to live with their parents beyond 18 years until they are able to support themselves.
Of course, lately I haven't been able to save due to special-case heavy spending; new laptop and guitar.
I truly have a lot to thank God for. This (less debts than average) is definitely one of them.
Give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, 'Who is the LORD ?' Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God.
- Proverbs 30:8b-9 - | | |
| Cute dog!
Cute doggie I saw "parked" outside Koorong.
Polarity
The aim is to suspend as many magnets of your colour as possible, roughly speaking. Rules are a lot more complicated.
Graham Farmer Fwy jam
Big Bowl
The (relatively) new restaurant at Vict Park.
Cheese baked combination noodles! East meets West.
Fun with liquid nitrogen
Probably can't see it, but there's a mug in the sink containing water, filled up to about 1/4 full. Upon pouring liquid nitrogen into it, it froze rapidly. The liquid nitrogen boiled off, and water vapour from the atmosphere condensed, forming a mist in the sink.
Btw, I didn't do this just for the sake of fun and wasting university resources. A group of kids are coming over from Jurong school in singapore to get a taste of uwa physics. We have to organise activities for them, and I need to test to make sure that they work. In this case, they'll be freezing water with liquid nitrogen, to demonstrate the concept of latent heat of fusion; they'll be measuring the temperature of the water as it freezes.
New workstation
All set up to go. | | |
| The Cuban missile crisis in 1962 was one (of two) moments when the world almost went into all-out nuclear warfare. But I'm not here to talk about this more well-known event. I'm here to talk about a lesser known moment when the USA went into DEFCON-2 mode (the only other moment was in the Cuban missile crisis):
The K219 incident.
During the Cold War, American, Soviet and Chinese submarines often play the deadly game of "cat and mouse" with each other in open international waters. Submarines equipped with ballistic nuclear warhead missiles are called "boomers". The aim of these boomers is to get as close as possible to the enemy's sea border undetected, while "hunter" submarines are tasked to track down and chase these boomers away.
In one such "game", a Soviet boomer, the K219, managed to slip pass America's extensive sonar "shield" in the Atlantic. They did so by trailing a merchant freighter ship. But not for long. The American submarine, Augusta, soon tracked down this boomer and tailed it.
The captain of the K219 soon suspected that he was being trailed, and ordered his crew to perform the "crazy ivan" manuevre. Basically, this meant turning the submarine 360 degrees to produce turbulence which would disrupt the tracking submarine's sonar. However, the K219 didn't know that the Augusta was trailing closely behind it, and in the course of the manuevre, the two submarines collided with each other!
The Augusta did not sustained much damage, but the K219 sustained heavy damage. Fire broke out in the missile silos and nuclear reactor and water was streaming through cracks in the hull. By then, the K219 was already in the mid-Atlantic; within striking range of America's east coast.
The captain was inside American waters, but had no choice but to surface the submarine in order to contain the fire, leak and repair damage. The fire had caused the missile silo hatch doors to remain open, and when the Augusta saw this, they were horrified because they thought that the K219 was about to launch nukes against the American east coast cities!
To add to the gravity of the situation, the K219's nuclear reactor was on the verge of meltdown. The fire had destroyed the electrical controls and the only way to prevent meltdown was by entering the chamber and manually pulling out the fuel rods. If meltdown occurred, it may trigger the 16 missiles to launch... so 3 heroic men decided to sacrificethemselves to stop a nuclear apocalypse by manually pulling out the fuel rods.
The exact accounts differ slightly, due to political reasons, but one thing is clear; the world was saved from a nuclear holocaust... for now. | | |
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