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Cause

necromage keeps asking, here are the details about the episode three DVD release

From EzyDVD -

Star Wars - Episode 3: Revenge Of The Sith (2 Disc Set) (780285)
Coming Soon! Pre-Order Now - Available Wednesday, 02 November 2005
$AU29.83 (inc GST)

Special Features:
A brand-new, full-length documentary produced by Lucasfilm Ltd.
Two new featurettes – one exploring the prophecy of Anakin Skywalker as the Chosen One, the other providing an in-depth look at the movie’s eye-popping stunts
A 15-part collection of Lucasfilm’s groundbreaking “web documentaries.”
The REVENGE OF THE SITH DVD will also offer access to a special Xbox-playable demo of two entire levels from LucasArts’ Star Wars Battlefront II.
MORE DETAILS COMING SOON!

As far as I know, there are plans to bring out prequel and entire saga boxsets before christmas, but I haven't heard the details as of yet. Have to go have a poke around. Anyway, got to go to a tute now.

Current Mood: calm
Current Music: Billy Joel

Relax, guys. I haven't quite turned into a rifle-toting redneck - yet. But then again, I am going home next week...

You guys know how I bought that Sandtrooper figurine when I was in Sydney about a month back? And how they forgot to give me his rifle? And how I rang them (a MONTH ago) and they said they would post it out straight away? Well, it finally arrived yesterday. In an express pack. LOL. I'd been meaning to ring them and bug them about it for weeks, but never quite got around to it. But, hey, it's here now, so it's all good.

And it came wrapped in A LOT of bubble wrap. I love that stuff.

He looks so good, standing there with his little blast rifle... Yes, I am a geek. A happy (but still stressed) geek, at the moment.

Another geek note, but in a different fandom - I heard a rumour (which I haven't actually checked out yet) that Vala is coming back to SG-1 for a couple of episodes. Yay! I am really suprised how much I liked her. It would also be good to see her interact a bit with Sam. And on the subject of rumoured returns, apparently Janet is back in some form or another at some point in this season. I also heard that Orlin (but with a different actor) may show up again, too. One does wonder if they will have any time for the actually story with all these guest appearences, but at least they are by people I like. But where oh where is Bratac? Have I misssed something?

And for all those who care, I have a new thesis plan - print it out myself over the weekend, and get it bound by Officeworks on monday. Probably wire bound - not the spiral, the little rings. So much less stress than trying to have it done by 4pm friday. This way I may actually have time to study for the exam tomorrow. Should probably go do this now.

Am a little frustrated by the thesis at the moment. I tried so hard to explain the project from the basics up, so people didn't need to know optical fibres, but I keep getting it back from people saying - looks good, but I didn't understand any of it. Obviously my explaining skills need a lot of work. *sigh* Maybe when I actually get the glossary finished it will be better.

Random Observation of the Day - My ugh boots have a hole in them. My toes are getting cold.

Thesis Update - 54 pages. Still so many things to fix.

Current Mood: geeky
Current Music: Tool

Draft finished!! And when I say draft, I mean pretty damn near final copy (I hope). Just need to be able to get hold of my supervisor (who has an uncanny habit of dropping off the face of the earth when I need to see him) and get him to read over it. Think I may need to fix up the abstract, but hopefully there are just minor changes to be made.

Still have to fix up my notebook (which looks like being a mammoth task all by itself) and write the glossary, but at least the main thing is done.

So very happy. Whats that Nickelback song - Feeling way too Damn Good? Oh yeah.

Oh, and in other news, looks like I'll be heading home on wednesday next week, driving back for the seminars on either the monday or the tuesday depending when mine is (*sigh* - still have to write the seminar) driving home again for the weekend, and then heading back here with Bob/ette. From the looks of it, gonna be spending most of these holidays travelling back and forth. Oh well.

And

__happy__, if you read this, I checked and the seminar schedule should be done in a few days. But I'll believe that when I see it.

Random Observation of the Day - It takes longer to write the final 3 pages of a thesis than it did to write the first three chapters.

Thesis Update - 51 pages!!! Hell Yeah!!

Current Mood: excited
Current Music: Killers

Looking back on it, I am sure I know the reason for the killer headache yesterday - I had no caffeine for the ENTIRE DAY. 24 hours caffeine free. No wonder my brain was on the fritz. But, my parents have temporarily bailed me out of poverty, so the first thing I did when I got up (about an hour ago) was to buy some. Now I feel SOOO much better. And kinda bouncy.

I've been checking my mail and had to laugh at this particular piece of spam that I got. It was one of those "you have won 500,000 Euros, please send us you bank account details, but don't tell anyone about this" type of things. It was addressed to one of the lists I am on, not me. But anyway, the amusing part (apart from thinking that someone would actually fall for one of these scams) was that, although the spam filter on gmail let the original go through, it did pick up all the replies (from actual people on the list) as spam. Not even the mighty Google is infallible.

So, just for

necromage, I have updated my user info. Are you happy now, mage? Filled out a whole bunch of interests, and everything. But I was thinking, that there needs to be a "dislikes" section as well as a "interests". Cause really, hating the same thing as other people is just as important as liking the same things as other people. In fact, it seems to be that the unifying principle for most political parties (and some religions) is what they don 't like, rather than what they do.

So, if there was a dislikes section, mine would be something like this:

Tomatoes, reality TV, people who have finished their thesises (what is the plural of thesis? Thesi? Good thing we only have to write one), tomatoes, Big Brother, people who push in front of me in lines, shoelaces which keep breaking when I am already late for class...

On the shoelaces thing again, you know how when you buy them they are all folded up, with paper or something wrapped around the middle? Well, the ones that I bought where all wrapped around many times with sticky-tape. I think the people at the factory where a little bored that day. It took me about 10 minutes to open the damn things. If they wrapped the shoelaces themselves in sticky-tape, it may be even stronger than kevlar. And also cheaper.

The wonderful livejournal spellchecker doesn't recognise Google as a word. For some reason, this strikes me as very amusing, and also possibly deeply ironic.

Random Observation of the Day - There is too much blood in my Caffeine system

Thesis Update - 46 pages. Give me a break, I only just got up.

Current Mood: chipper
Current Music: Semi-Charmed Life

My head is killing me...arrrggghh. Not, happy, Jan. I think my head is going to explode and splatter brains all over the screen. Uck. (Which is a combination of 'yuck' and 'ick', cause it's shorter than typing both. Except when you then have to type this explanation...)

I had the strangest dreams - nightmares- last night, which is unusual, cause I generally either don't dream or just have very random dreams (yeah, you're all very surprised by that). Involved creepy ghost kids, people being drowned (in Sullies, horror of horror), and flying into trees. Very odd, very creepy.

Was watching SVU earlier this evening (repeats again), and I saw the Honda Cog ad. Definitely the coolest ad of all time. "When things just work" - yeah right, it only took them 600 takes. I just think about all those poor buggers who had to set everything up each time - I hope they were well paid. Every time I watch that ad I think it looks computer generated, which is ironic, after they put so much work into doing it for real. But so very, very cool.

Did my grandaughterly duty today and wrote my letter. My hand cramped up after about 5 lines. Makes you realise how little time I spend writing. It wasn't so bad when I actually took notes in lectures - at least then I wrote SOMETHING by hand. So not looking forward to exams. Which brings me to my new moto:

"Planning your study schedule on the premise that you might die before the exams is a perfectly legitimate approach"

'cept in my case its the thesis due date, but close enough.

Update on Volleyball - was just talking to a friend from another college, and she says that from what shes been told, we missed out on the finals. Not impressed. To be fair, all three of the top teams were very close - guess that's why we ended up in a three way tie.

So very, very tired... need a little mood icon thingy for 'droopy'. Then again, perhaps not.

Well, this update is going nowhere fast, so I think I'm going to bed. Anyone who made it this far, congratulations.

Random observation of the Day - This update proudly brought to you by the symbol '-'

Thesis Update - 46 pages. 5 more to go. I would be excited, but that would use up far to much energy.

Current Mood: drained
Current Music: Silence

I got this email from amazon.com today... wanting me to buy season three of MacGyver from them (30% Off!) The fact that I haven't bought season one or two from them doesn't seem to have registered. Anyway, this was their description of the series:

"Angus MacGyver is a secret agent who refuses to carry a gun with him, but fortunately never needs one. Drawing on a vast practical knowledge of science, MacGyver is able to make use of anything around him to create solutions to any problem he faces. Underestimating MacGyver is a major mistake made by his enemies and always results in the destruction of their plans."

ANGUS! MacGyver's first name is Angus? Who can take a spy seriously when their name is Angus? THAT'S why people keep underestimating him.

I think when you go to join spy-school, and they give you lots of papers to fill out (you know, like blood type, next of kin, and whether you want to be buried or cremated) they should also slip in a deed poll and change their name to something suitably secret-agentish. This policy may also explain the names of some of the Bond girls - Pussy Galore, anyone?

*Sigh* Even with the Mullet (yes, it needs a capital), I had vague childhood memories of MacGyver being cool. I think they have just been shattered.

And on another note, how come after 5 years of science and engineering, I still don't know how to disable a bomb with a toothpick? (I can never remember if you need to cut the red or the blue wire). Obviously, my knowledge isn't "vast and practical". I should get a refund.

Random Observation of the Day - Get Smart should be on TV again. Prime Time.

Thesis Update - Don't ask. I'm going to go work on it now, I swear.

Current Mood: amused
Current Music: Elton John

My livejournal now takes up more than one page. Granted that's because I changed the settings to only show 10 entries per page, but that's beside the point.

All hail the wonder that is the procrastination available on the internet! Long live Livejournal!!

Broke another shoelace today. *sigh* Definitely some kind of evil conspiracy going on. This meant I had to catch a bus to the shops to buy more, or spend the rest of the week walking around with my shoes falling off. Now, if you were the people who designed the layout for a supermarket (Woolworths, by the way), where would you put the shoelaces? With the shoes, and socks, and stuff like that? No, apparently you put them in the LAUNDRY aisle. I'm amazed that no one has gone postal in a supermarket yet. Product placement is all very well, but come on.

Watched the latest episode of Atlantis with

necromage last night. Looks like they are trying to aviod the "super-sam" problem, but it would have been nice if they had managed to to it a) without making Rodney look like a complete egomaniac, b) in a situation where there would actually be some consequences apart from "lack of trust" and c) with some regard to what any normal self-respecting scientist would do. We aren't all in a huge hurry to destroy the earth (or the galaxy, or the ancient outpost, or whatever). Not to mention the completely ridiculous pseudo-science they were sprouting. This is why I prefer it when sci-fi shows don't try too hard to justify what is happening. We are watching because we are willing to suspend disbelief, but if you keep trying (and failing) to tie in real science, then it brings me back to reality with a thump. It's probably just me, I guess.

On the other hand, liked the latest episode of SG-1. This was the night of the Return of Sam, the Disappearance of Vala, and the Shaving of the Beard!! I do hope that Vala comes back at some point. "Fargate" not withstanding, I thought she was pretty cool, and way less annoying than I expected. Wasn't a huge fan of the way they wrote her in this episode - the writers seemed to make her far to ready to risk herself, which , even with all the character development they'd been trying for, seemed a bit forced. Still enjoying the start of season 9 far more than the start of season 8. Daniel is so much cuter when he is snarky. And now that he's lost the beard.

On to real life news - my gran is having a hip replacement op today. Mum wants me to write a letter. I haven't written a letter in years. Not sure what I can say that is interesting, but I'll have a go, I guess.

Volleyball tonight. If we win, we go through to the grand final undefeated. If we lose, then there is a three-way tie, and I'm not sure what happens. So I guess we had better win.

Random Observation of the Day - I want a website!

Thesis Update - 39 pages. Really need to get a move on.

Current Mood: bored
Current Music: Green Day

Shoe laces should be made out of Kevlar. No, really, I'm serious. I've just broken my second one in a week, and it's starting to annoy me. And if they were kevlar, then they would also offer protection against accidentally shooting yourself in the foot. I think kevlar shoe laces could be the next big thing.

Finally finished my Quantum Mechanics essay. Anyone care about the way that the different interpretations of QM influences our view of the universe? Yeah, that's what I thought. At least with Engineering courses (boring as they are), they may someday be useful. This course is quite interesting, but actually rather useless in the context of the "real world". Personally, I think that the engineering department should run a McGuyver course. That would be cool, and we could all learn things like how to assemble a working radio from a matchbox and a piece of string. Bet all the guys on LOST wish they had taken that course.

Watching the TV, and there was an ad for Home and Away. Apparently we are finally up to the part where Hayley dies (or leaves, or whatever). How they think they will get any suspense, since everyone in Australia knows she left... But anyway, they said something on the ad about this being "the biggest moment in Australian drama". Does H&A really count as drama? Melodrama, maybe.

Speaking of random H&A moments, does everyone remember all the fuss when Angel (and Shane?) got married? Everyone at school was talking about it for weeks... Guess nothing has changed in the Australian Entertainment business. Except now we can obsess about Big Brother and Australian/American Idol as well.

Saw The Island last night (and ran into

auril and

__happy__ while I was there). Not bad at all. My sister didn't like it as much, but then she isn't an action fan at all. Would have preferred it if they addressed the moral issue more. Still, in a Michael Bay movie, I'm suprised that even that much "subtext" - more text than sub, in my opinion.

Really liked the flying bike thingy, though. Coolest thing since Darth Maul's sith speeder. And it sounded a bit like a pod racer. And Jones was cute, in an over-eager-pathetic-kid kinda way.

It had the usual Stupid Action Movie Moments, though. I mean, really, did they honestly think that anyone could possible survive falling off that tower (with the "R")? Clones must have kevlar skin, not just shoe laces : ) And the fan bit on the end. What kind of engineer designs something that gets faster! when they interrupt the circuit. Hello, people, ever heard of the concept of failsafe? And while there were lots of very cool stuff in the car/truck/helicopter/sith speeder chases, by the 4th/5th it was starting to get a little old. Also, the characters kept yelling out "Run!" at random times - like you really need telling when there a bunch of guys with very large guns chasing you?

But my favourite SAMM was the way all the clones ran towards the light at the end. What, they "saw the light" and realised that this was "good" sunlight, not the contaminated kind? They've been looking at this nice pretty contaminated hologram, how did they know that this wasn't THAT sun?

But yeah, still a fun movie. And hey, Ewan McGregor.

Random Observation of the Day: "Shut up and Calculate!"

Thesis Update: Still the same. 38 pages. *sigh*

Current Mood: geeky
Current Music: Alien Ant Farm

Yeah, so ... am trying to put off doing work, could you guess?

I was surfing round the net, and I found a thing for celtic horoscopes, and decided to check it out. Put in my birthday, and clicked go. First line that comes up - "there's no-one quite like you..." Anyone else amused that something which arbitrarily groups people togther based only on their date of birth should start out by asserting our individuality? Me and 1/365th of the population are all unique together, I suppose. (If anyone cares, I turn out to be a maple tree. At least I like maple syrup, which is a start.)

First anonymous comment today - Hello, random person! Do I know you?

On the other hand, everyone else has been slack about updating their jourrnals - you are all far less dedicated to the ancient art of procrastinating than me. Shame on you all. (Or, you all actually have a life...)

Watched all of Doctor Who (procrastinating, remember?) and gotta say - Daleks, not that impressive. Kinda like an oversized version of R2, really. With a squeaky kinda voice, and delusions of grandeur. And ray gun thingies. And shields. And weird glowy ear-things. Well, they still remind me of R2, OK? Still, since they have now all been exterminated (for the second time, from what I can tell) hopefully new villains will be better. And the new Doctor looks like one of my lecturers. Weird.

Still loving season 9 of Stargate. Yay for lots of Daniel. Oh yeah.

Random Observation of the Day - You are one in a million. There are hundreds just like you in China

Thesis Update - 38 pages. Progress! Apparently, my procrastination techniques need some work...

Current Mood: amused
Current Music: Tripod - "Science Facts Are Useful"

Thanks to certain friends, who shall remain nameless, I have now got the entire new season of Dr Who on my computer. So far, I'm really liking it. Little bit cheesy, but in a good way. Like the attitude of the Doctor - world weariness and enthusiasm all mixed together. Still, when you destroy the earth in the second episode, one wonders where they go from there... kinda hard to top, really.

Edit - Apparently, you go on to Daleks having existential crises. Interesting. And, on a stargate note, Anna Louise Plowman was in that episode. I kept expecting her eyes to glow, or for someone to call her Dr Gardener.

Another sci-fi note - found this interesting site last night (when I was supposed to be researching my quatum mechanics essay - actually I was, and it turned up in the google search, so there) which is basically dedicated to showing how the Empire would wipe the floor with the Federation. Quite detailed alaysis, actually. Not that I had any doubts - I never underestimate the Power of the Dark Side.

Random Observation of the Day - Gotta love the incestuous world of sci-fi. John and Aeryn on Stargate, Stargate actors on Andromeda (and vice versa), Micheal Weatherley showing up in the first season of Charmed, Buffy/Angel/Firefly actors on all of the above , and now Osiris on Doctor Who. Yes, I realise I watch too much sci-fi. A girl has to do something with her time. But at least its not Star Trek.

Thesis Update - Still depressingly the same. 33 pages

Current Mood: amused
Current Music: Revenge of the Sith OMPS

It's snowing!! How cool is that! (No pun intended) I have now officially been snowed upon. OK, so people keep trying to tell me it is sleet, but as far as I am concerned, its frozen, it falls out of the sky, and it isn't hail, so it's snow. So there.

We kicked arse in volleyball last night. Oh yeah. Go us. On the other hand, the job interveiw was a complete and utter waste of my time. Not gonna be holding my breath for a job offer from them.

Did I mention that it snowed on me today? This has just made my day/week/month.

Random Observation of the Day: Snow is actually quite cold...

Thesis Update - 33 pages (23 of which actually count)

Current Mood: ecstatic
Current Music: Missy Higgins

Now this is working, this one I had to share

Star Wars Horoscope for Libra

You are on a lifelong pursuit of justice and determined to succeed.
You convey the art of persuasion through force.
You always display your supreme intelligence.
You have a great talent in obtaining balance between yourself and your surroundings.

Star wars character you are most like: Obi Wan Kenobie

What is Your Star Wars Horoscope?

Could have been worse. Although, I would like to point out that Kenobi does not have an 'e' on the end.

Current Mood: amused
Current Music: Incubus

I want to see if this works... just curiosity (and procrastination - a powerful combination)

Your Dominant Intelligence is Linguistic Intelligence

You are excellent with words and language. You explain yourself well.
An elegant speaker, you can converse well with anyone on the fly.
You are also good at remembering information and convicing someone of your point of view.
A master of creative phrasing and unique words, you enjoy expanding your vocabulary.

You would make a fantastic poet, journalist, writer, teacher, lawyer, politician, or translator.

What Kind of Intelligence Do You Have?

Well, apparently it does. Huh.

This is why I am an engineer - my amazing liguistic intellegence.

Random Observation of the Day - Job interviews are expensive. Arrgghh

Thesis Update - Still 25, dammit

Current Mood: curious
Current Music: Monty Python - Meaning of Life

So... this is basically an update because Wolfwarrior made some snide comment about me having 2 posts in 2 days... well, now there are 3!

And speaking of significant numbers - my thesis is now sitting at 25 pages. Which would be great, but only about 11 of them actually count. So not fair. I have a lot left to write, but I think I'll be lucky to make 40 pages, let alone 50. Oh well. Everyone else I talk to seems to be in the same boat - we can all slowly sink together, I guess.

Hmmm, what else? Wolfwarrior and Psuedoskribe came to TKD tonight. I think they all survived, in pretty much one piece (apart from the skin on their knuckles). Mage was conspicuous in her absence, which, unless she really felt like doing 150+ crunches, was probably a good thing. And btw, where's my Stargate, guys? In withdrawal here...

Arrghh.. so tired, but I know I won't be able sleep yet. Gotta find something moderately interesting to do, but something which requires absolutely no effort. Which may be why I decided that it would be a good time to update this...

Random Observation of the Day - Why does the livejournal spell check recognise star-gate as a word, but not Stargate?

Current Mood: sleepy
Current Music: Living End

Well, I just got a phone call from a company asking if I would still be interested in attending a assessment centre thingy on Monday - very cool. I'm more than slightly suspicous that the email I sent them yesterday may have spurred them into action, but maybe it was just good timing. Kinda excited about getting this far, but it means I may have to make actual decisions about what I want to do next year. It was easier when I had no options. Still, if they don't decide to offer me a job, then I won't need to worry so either way, it's all good.

Oh, and in case anyone cares, we got our asses handed to us in volleyball.

Current Mood: giddy

On a totally random note, does anyone else have problems finding their way around the live journal site, or is it just me? For things like updating and changing preferences and the like? Or is it just another of those things that are totally reasonable to everyone else and absolutely counterintuitive to me, like nokia phones?

So, random complaint of the day over with, to the point of this update. There is one somewhere, I think. Bobette demanded that I update, anyway. Of course, she was the one who insisted she would never actually read this... I think she was just hoping for a lot of gushing about tripod :) Which she may get later, but right now I have to get ready to go play the first of todays three (!) games of volleyball. But for those of you who don't know, I went to sydney with the sisters to see tripod (who were good) but the highlight of the weekend was absolutely the coolest stormtrooper figurine that I bought. I'm not normally into the whole collecting thing, but this guy I couldn't resist. I would try and post a picture, but a) I don't have a camera, digital or otherwise, b) I don't know how (or if you can) add pictures here and c) most of the people reading this have seen it already.

Time for volleyball... gotta go get energetic now

Current Mood: energetic
Current Music: Linkin Park

So after messing around with the layout for a while, I have something I'm kinda satisfied with. It'll do, anyway. I could have picked a better time to do this - at home the slow internet connection can be rather painful when you are waiting for everything to load. I think I found all the right people to be friends with too. If any of you are random axe murders, then hi. If not, hi to you too.

Actual news? All good, at the moment. The pool table rocks, tomorrow is a no kill day, so I don't have to go to work, and if it keeps raining we may have more days off. Good from the point of view of not having to work, bad from the point of not getting paid. Which, given my state of extreme brokeness, could be a problem. Oh well, not like I can do anything about it.

Dragging the parents (and sister) to go see Batman Begins tonight. Looking forward to it. Other sister in coming home tomorrow. Haven't seen her for a while - or talked to her, either. Umm... thats bout it.

So, now I'm up and running, I expect many comments from you lot.

Current Mood: chipper
Current Music: Pirates of the Caribbean OST

Hey guys

Finally got around to setting one of these things up - are you all proud of my technological brilliance? I'll get to the real news later, but first I just wanted a post so that I could mess around with the layout and see what happens to it.

Current Mood: satisfied
Current Music: Eva Cassidy