| LOL |
[Sep. 9th, 2009|11:31 pm] |
I think I need to learn more about these people. :)
And they even have a song about Paleontologists!!!
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| Busy busy |
[Aug. 31st, 2009|12:02 am] |
What have I been up to this year.......so far, most waking moments on weekends have been dedicated to making my dream garden.
Before
So Far......
 |
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| light side |
[Apr. 28th, 2009|01:02 am] |
On the more lighter side of life I found this funny.....Yes.....Christianity makes sense to me again........Not!!!
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| Submitted |
[Apr. 28th, 2009|12:47 am] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  relieved | ] |
Today I sent off what will hopefully be the final version of my work on the Devonian corals of the Yarrol Province.
It has been a long journey. It took me 10 years worth of weekends, holidays and long service leave to finish off the work needed for my PhD.
Then I submitted it for formal publication. The work for the initial submission, waiting for the reviewers to do their work, receive it back and then do all the editing required has taken between 2 and 3 years inbetween fieldwork and other government projects. I have been through peer review numerous times for smaller papers, but obviously this has been a light-year jump in size and complexity compared to them. Nobody who has never been through peer review have any idea what it can actually be like (and then you have idiots like creationists and other loonies running around claiming that peer review is meaningless).
At this time it is 386 pages of text, 22 tables and 132 figures.
It will probably be a couple of months before I hear anything. I hope the editor is happy with the work I have done to try and address the reviewers comments. |
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| Morality |
[Feb. 28th, 2009|01:02 am] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | happy | ] |
I always thought I was a good person. However, Christians keep telling me how morality only comes from the Bible. I took the biblical morality test and got 0%. Clearly I am not a good person.
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| Happy monkey |
[Feb. 26th, 2009|06:16 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  okay | ] |
I found this to be good. :)
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| Mouth Bling |
[Jun. 4th, 2008|07:10 pm] |
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Today I finally got the permanent crown on my broken molar tooth!!
At last this saga comes to an end. It is amazing that it has taken so long.
It is a solid gold crown. Sparkle Sparkle!! :)
Other highlights of my life at this time are that the email address hotline for work has apparently been included in an educational aid in Queensland schools. I am getting a flood of emails at work like.
1) What is the difference between a rock and a mineral.
2) What do geologists do (I have been soooooooo tempted to send them the webpage here for this one, but so far I have resisted the temptation)
3) Have you ever been in an extinct volcano
4) Do you know any recipies for growing crystals
5) Do you know any recipies (sure I know they meant for crystals given the other emails I have had, but it didn't stop me giving them this wikipedia page - there are no rules saying I can't tease them a bit)
and my personal favourite
6) What is harder, a diamond or a mineral.
I had a good laugh at that one, but then geologists are strange people. Use these links here and here if you don't see why it is funny. |
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| His Dark Materials |
[May. 29th, 2008|12:14 am] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | ecstatic | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Queen - Don't stop me now | ] |
I finished reading the His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman the other day. This is the series of books that led to the making of the movie The Golden Compass.
These books don't seem to inspire the frothing-at-the-mouth book-burning fervor that Harry Potter has invoked in the religious kooks, but it doesn't seem to be too far behind. I wasn't even aware that there was such a controversy till I started reading them.
The first I learned about it was when I mentioned them to my niece (we often discuss different books that we are reading). She was horrified that I was reading them. Apparently her school had issued a warning about reading these books. She attends an Anglican College near Ipswich. Most Anglicans I know are usually well balanced and sensible people (this does not include the Sydney Anglicans who are as nutty as a fruit cake - which is why the media always seems to chose them to get the "religious" point of view on any "moral" story that they come up with). To find that the College had issued a "warning" was something I found very surprising.
Needless to say I kept reading these novels. I shrugged off the shackles of religion years ago. No order from "Religious Authorities" has any meaning to me any more. I found the novels very entertaining and would recommend them to anybody who is into fantasy novels.
It wasn't till I was about half way through the second book that I realised why Christian Authorites must hate this series so much. Pullman's novels are very entertaining and appear innovative, but the root of his story seem to be based in the theology of the Gnostics. The Christian Church has been shit-scared of the ideas proposed by the Gnostics from almost as soon as the differences became apparent. So for about the last 1900 years or so. The Gnostics still considered themselves Christians, but most had a very different interpretation of the Old Testament. The more mainstream Christian church (as we would understand it now) showed its Christian Love of different views by exterminate the Gnostics in the early days of the Christian church. They were successful in killing people (kill them all and let God sort them out), but written records survived the carnage.
However, most people would not know as much as I do about the early days of the Christian church so the theme of these novels would still seem to be revolutionary. Even recognising the theological origins of some of the ideas of these novels did not detract from the engrossing story line that Pullman created. I found it riveting and think it is one of the best Trilogies I have read in a long time.
Reading thes books made me go out and buy the Golden Compass on DVD. It is no where near as epic or as good as the book (when is a movie ever better than a book), but I am sorry now that I never saw it in the cinema.
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| Tooth specialist |
[Mar. 11th, 2008|12:28 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | okay | ] |
I went to the Specialist about my broken tooth. He too was quite impressed with the damage. Apparently it is going to need a solid-gold full crown!! He said a ceramic one could be used but they are not as durable as gold. It sounds like it is going to be expensive.
He couldn't do much for me yesterday. He just rounded off some of the rough edges. It is going to require another two big sessions to fix it, and it won't be completed till early June!!
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| Dentist visit |
[Feb. 26th, 2008|04:10 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | okay | ] |
It seems I stuffed my tooth up pretty well this time. My dentist still thinks it will be able to take a crown rather than pull it out, but I have to go see a specialist.
The appointment is in about 2 weeks time..........waiting waiting waiting....... :-/ |
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| Yard work |
[Jan. 22nd, 2008|07:49 am] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | happy | ] |
This weekend I was once again helping my sister with her yard. This time she is planning on extending the cemented area and building a bigger pergola. So this weekend we dismantled the old pergola, then lay the piping for the rain water run-off.
With a lot of reaching upwards to remove the old pergola, followed by ditch digging to lay the pipes, my shoulders were a bit sore. I also got a bit sunburnt. However, both sunburn and muscles have settled down now.
Everything is now set for the professionals to show up, pour the slab and build the new pergola. |
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| Now it is the computer |
[Jan. 18th, 2008|07:17 am] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | indifferent | ] |
It looks like I have the touch of death for electronics this week. When I went to turn my computer on at work this morning all it did was make a short, loud crackle sound and now will not turn on. I can guess what the problem is, but its not my computer to play with, and it is still under warrantee, so I have to sit around and wait for a technician to show up (monday morning supposedly). So there goes today's productivity.
I have a lot of important files on my hard drive so I hope it is OK. We are suppose to do our important work off network drives, but IT then bitches and complains about how full the hard drives are, and keeps asking if certain directories really need to be on the network. So I got sick of it and started working off my hard-drive. However, this means that a lot of my important stuff can not be accessed at this time.
Oh well. Looks like I can catch up on my reading. I have a stack of scientific papers sitting around that I have wanted to read for a while but been too busy.
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| Phone |
[Jan. 17th, 2008|08:10 am] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | content | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | Yesterday - The Beetles | ] |
Aaaaarrrrgggghhh!!!! My new mobile phone has a camera in it. What happened to cheap phones that do nothing but let you make and receive phone calls??? Don't they exist anymore?
Now I have a phone with a lense and flash!!
I feel so dirty after making fun of all my friends who had mobile phones with cameras in them over the years. :( |
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| Two weeks |
[Jan. 16th, 2008|07:25 am] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | happy | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | At the end of the Rainbow - Hammerfall | ] |
Here we are, a tad over two weeks into 2008. So far it has been a fairly quiet year.
I have been doing some measurements of my house yard so I can start to think about transforming it. Part of my plan involves a cactus garden so I decided to go to the Rocklea Markets on the weekend since I had been told that there was a seller there.
There have been losses to my cacti collection over the years since I was an active grower/breeder. Queensland humidity can be a real killer of cacti, and there is just nothing you can do about it. One day you have a nice healthy cactus and the next day it is an empty collapsed shell. Suprisingly, some of my rarer, more "touchy" cacti are still thriving. Frost also killed a few of the tall, thin cacti during the winter.
Anyway..... I bought a couple of cacti then had a bratwurst (I hope I got the spelling right) on a bun - nice and spicey with a 3 chilli rating.
One annoying thing is that on monday morning my mobile phone will not turn on. I had plugged it in to charge it up, and when I tried to turn it on nothing happened. Looks like it is time for a new one. And maybe, one day, I should learn that mysterious art known as "texting". |
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| End of the Year. |
[Dec. 31st, 2007|06:00 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | happy | ] |
After an extremely hectic start to December, most of the rest of the month was only moderately hectic. I managed to get all my data from my last lot of fieldwork entered into the Database before the last day of work. After work finished, I had some days of rest, and then spent some time describing fossil corals from the Mt Etna Limestone to the north of Rockhampton. Unfortunately I don't have many yet. There must be more around and hopefully John at UQ will be able to track them down.
The work-related xmas parties went OK. As usual I got to catch up with people that I don't often get a chance to see. Geologists are generally spread out quite a bit as you would imagine.
I learned a valuable lesson after this years mining industry xmas party. Never try cutting your toe nails while drunk. It is a bad idea!!
After last years mining industry party I learned that you shouldn't clean your teeth with Deep Heat. Or maybe I should just amend that to "Always check the tube before you put it on your brush".
I can't wait so see what I learn after next year's mining industry party.
Xmas with the family went fairly well this year with nobody pissing me off, so that is a step up from other years.
I am having a quiet New Years this year. At least that way I can drink what I like and not worry about idiots on the road.
I hope you all had a good Xmas and will have a great New Year. |
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| Busy busy busy |
[Dec. 7th, 2007|07:46 am] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | good | ] |
Things have been a bit hectic at work lately. Since getting back from Mount Isa I have been busy entering my data. The cartographers must have found some time to work on the Drummond Basin while I was away since I have been inundated with maps that need to be edge-matched with each other, as well as needing Legends created etc. I also have had to prepare a talk on my work in the Mt Isa area. I presented the talk last thursday in Brisbane and then on sunday I had to fly to Townsville to present it on Monday.
Sunday afternoon in Townsville was quite pleasant. I arrived there at about 4pm with my co-workers who were also giving talks. We went for a walk along the strand and then sat on the balcony of our hotel drinking beer and enjoying the scenery of the Strand, Pacific Ocean and Magnetic Island. :)
Both my talks went well, though in Townsville most people I spoke to after my talk were more interested in my work on the Drummond Basin than my work in Mount Isa.
Along with all this data entry, maps, talk preparation, work expects me to go to Xmas Parties too!!! I have a Geological Survey Xmas party on at lunch-time today, then tonight is the Mining Industry Xmas party!!! I think I will give the NRSc Xmas party a miss this year, but will hopefully still get to the Palaeontology Xmas Party. Oh yeah......and I better attend the family Xmas party too. ^_^
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| Family Xmas party |
[Nov. 19th, 2007|09:30 am] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | content | ] |
I attended the extended family christmas lunch at the Mihi Tavern yesterday. Only one of my fathers siblings was unable to attend, so there was lots of aunts and uncles milling around. Quite a few of my cousins attended as well as their children, and in some cases their children's children (what does that make them 2nd and 3rd cousins??).
The youngest one was less than a year old and I kept trying to give him advice such as, "Look kid, you have to lose the look of perpetual surprise you have otherwise everybody will think you are an idiot." I then tried to imitate the wide-eyed open-mouthed expression he had, which given the reaction, he thought was bloody hilarious.
So, overall, not a bad family gathering. |
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| stupid dream |
[Nov. 15th, 2007|07:30 am] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | happy | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | My Last Breath - Evanescence | ] |
Last night I had a very strange dream. For some reason I dreamed that somebody snuck into my house and stole my toilets!! That is it. Nothing else was missing. They would have walked past heaps of other valuable stuff but all they wanted was two toilets!!
What the hell was my brain thinking to come up with that dream!!! Surely there are better things to dream about, and I remember so few of my dreams why should I remember that one. If it was a movie I would be at the counter of the cinema asking for my money back. :) |
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| Garden work |
[Nov. 12th, 2007|10:14 am] |
I spent Saturday over at my sisters place helping to create a garden with a stairway running throught the middle of it. On previous occassions garden walls and other things had been done, and on the saturday we started to make the stairs. For this purpose they had purchased slabs of Helidon Sandstone. However, they didn't want nice cleanly cut stone slabs, they wanted rough edges with grouting between the pieces to give it a rough look.
I had the job of knocking the edges off the slabs. For some reason they thought I may have some experience in breaking rock ^_^. I would then carry the pieces over to them to set them in the step. Therefore, there was a lot of crouching down and getting up, and yesterday and today my legs have been very sore.
However, when we finished the steps looked really nice. :) |
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