Monday, November 16, 2009

Helicopter ride in South Africa

video

What happens when you don't bring a decent camera/videocam to South Africa?

Lots of crappy pictures and videos taken by phonecam...

In this video, you should be able to see gazelle, hippo, and rhino... but considering the crappy quality of my cybershot 2 megapixel camera, you would be lucky to spot the 200 meter Boma. Which brings me to my next point:

Towards the middle of the video you should be able to see a V or funnel shaped structure. This is affectionately called a "boma". It serves as a funnel to channel wild game like buffalo into a bottleneck to they can be captured.

2 days of hard work building the 200 meter structure + 2/24 buffalo caught in total = weirdly satisfying.

Anyways, enough procrastinating, i need to study...

Friday, November 13, 2009

Lions rawr

Murdoch Numbat News October 2009


Veterinary students from Murdoch University spent a hair-raising night capturing lions in Kruger National Park recently, as part of an annual South Africa field trip. The 10 students, with trip co-ordinators Dr Kris Warren and Dr Leisel Wion from the School of Veterinary and Biomedical Science’s Conservation Medicine Program, were helping vaccinate the lions against rabies, after the pride killed a rabies-positive dog.

The operation, a joint mission with the State Veterinary Service and Wildlifevets.com, involved radio-tracking the pride of 17 adults and cubs, attracting them using a dead wildebeest and the recorded sounds of lions eating and then darting and anaesthetizing several of the adults. Teams of students helped vaccinate and health-check the anaesthetized animals, while keeping watch for other lions, as well as for signs that their own lion was waking up. “We really appreciated the opportunity to observe a pride of lions up close in a natural setting” said Dr Wion. “It was truly a once in a lifetime experience”.


Picture
Assisting with lion anaesthesia and transport at Moholoholo Rehab Centre (the daytime lion shots)

The students also visited nearby villages to help local vets from Mpumalanga State Veterinary Services vaccinate dogs and cats and talk to local people about rabies - one of the most serious infectious diseases in southern Africa. The disease is endemic in many wildlife and domestic species, and interactions between infected animals and other animals and humans can lead to human fatalities and the loss of village livestock and endangered wildlife. “It is critical that this disease is controlled at the interface between domestic and wild populations” said Dr Wion “So a key management focus is vaccination campaigns of domestic animals and education of local people.”

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Picture
Community work at the schools (vaccinating the dogs and cats against rabies, as well as other basic health checks - the dogs are being dewormed in these photos)

Children from Masoyi and Manzini Schools were only too happy to bring along their pets for vaccinations and health checks. “One of the challenges for the vet students was adjusting their animal-handling skills to dogs with very little handling and occasional aggressive tendencies” said Dr Wion. “But the students commented that it was incredibly rewarding to be involved in a positive project in such a poverty stricken area, and to see the enthusiasm and warmth with which the local children greeted us”

Other highlights of the trip included the opportunity to help hand-raise two orphaned baby rhinos. Round-the-clock care included bottle feeding the babies and sleeping with them overnight. Students also helped capture and relocate two adult giraffe, and constructed huge “bomas” or barriers for funnelling and capturing game such as buffalos for disease testing. “Making the bomas demonstrated to the students the immense technical and logistical challenges encountered by wildlife veterinarians” said Dr Wion.


Picture
Giraffe darting and capture (students assisting)

Fighting the rabies battle on multiple fronts helped illustrate the “one-health” concept of conservation medicine: that endangered wildlife health is often interconnected with public health, the health of domestic and other wild animals, and issues such as community development. “The students developed an appreciation of the links between poverty, socio-economic issues and biodiversity conservation” said Dr Warren, Program Chair of Postgraduate Studies in Conservation Medicine. “Key aims of these field trips are to give students an immersion experience, and explore issues related to conservation at the grassroots level”. Dr Warren also hopes that their experiences in Africa will inspire students to continue to engage in local and global biodiversity conservation initiatives.







good times =)

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Silk Milk

You all should know this joke:

You get someone to say the word "silk" about 20 times so it gets into their head right. Then you ask them a question which they should answer as quick as they can. A question like:

"So what do cows drink?"

A lot of people at this point would think "hmm... trick question, he wants me to say silk but i am too smart for that.... IT'S MILK!!!"


The correct answer is obviously not milk but "water".

Here is the joke when tried on Joy. =)

Tim: "Joy say silk 20 times and answer my question as fast as you can after that."

Joy: "Ok... silksilksilk x20"

Tim: "What do cows drink?"

Joy: "Silk"



Joy =)

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

C Restaurant

Okay, so dad made the most of the study break and arranged a lunch for the family at C Restaurant. For those of you who don't know what C Restaurant is... neh... it's the revolving one.

Was nice having a meal with just the 6 of us for once. So here are a few pictures from it:

Jeremy so happy


sky sky sky sky


Look mom, it's swan river

Dad doesn't like taking pictures. Note: Enthusiasm on the right, apathy on the left

At this point, it is worth mentioning that we were so hungry that when the entree's arrived we ate everything before I had the chance to take any pictures...

So... NO ENTREE PICTURES... seriously... all gone before the camera was even out.

On to

Main courses:

Pork sirloin, field mushroom and spinach duxelle with hand cut mustard chips


Cracked pepper buffalo and red wine sausages, smashed potatoes, confit cherry tomato, basil pesto and roast garlic aioli


Crispy skinned saltwater Barramundi fillet, caponata vegetables, lemon basil aioli


Garlic and rosemary smoked lamb shoulder with a pumpkin, English spinach, pine but and feta salad



Dessert!
Vanilla bean creme brulee, blackberry compote and almond tuile


Trio of ice cream filled profiteroles with chocolate sauce


Double chocolate tart, Chantilly ice cream and creme anglaise


Okay, now i'm not a food critic nor do I frequent these high flying restaurants so I shall leave just the pictures with you. C restaurant is still having their lunch special if any of you want to check it out.

I shall only say two things

1. Desert was awesome

2. I prefer a bowl of 3 ringgit kolo mee any day =(

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Tim's philosophy on university life #1

Talking to ollie in the car on friday reminded me that i have a phillosophy to succesful (pass) uni life... Curious? Listen up:
There are 3 types of students:
1. Smart

2. Normal

3. Dumb


There are also 3 types of study techniques:

1. Consistent throughout the year.
2. Last minute study.

3. No study.


SO... mathematically, by combining these study techniques and types of students, there are several outcomes (3 x3)

1. Smart + Consistent throughout the year - These people are the nerds in the truest sense of the word. These people are naturally gifted with some degree of natural intelligence. They go home to date "Pathologic basis of disease" and sleep thinking about "Osteochondrosis dissecans". Inevitably. these people are HD students, will become the next nobel prize winners and probably be extremely rich. They deserve it too.

They can have their HDs

2. Smart + Last minute study- A lot of people i know fall into this category. These people like to enjoy life to some degree. You might even be able to say they actually have a life. They attend lectures if they can wake up on time but they always lectopia any lectures they miss. They like to enjoy life outside uni and have varying degrees of balance between life outside and inside of uni. When exam pressures build up, they lock themselves up in their room/library/toilet and become a study hermit for the week leading up to the exam. The tradeoff between slacking for 10/13 weeks of uni is absolute study hell for the remaining 3 weeks (Crazy cramming, caffeine and sleep deprivation). Their horribly unbalanced lives of 100% fun during teaching weeks and 100% study during study breaks works and might even balance out and be classified as "balanced lives"... weird...

Too cool during school, hardcore during exams. Hardcore grades to come with... HD-D students.

3. Smart + No study - These people probably deserve to fail but just won't. They are too smart for that. They have photographic memory and good lecturememory. These people are the "bastards". You never see them study, they are the life of the party and play competitive sports (dota is a sport). These people get owned by lecturers/tutors for skipping lectures and tutes but own them back by aceing the exam. HD-D students with minimal effort - "bastards". Some even drop out of uni and invent a worldwide multi-billion dollar internet search engine. Future bill gates, google brothers, obama.

Face it, there are "bastards" in this world. They say to normal and dumb people "life is unfair b*, suck it"




Coming up:

The NORMAL combinations... when i have time and interest to continue this...


Disclaimer: These are just jokes and stereotypes like how asians cant drive and are smart. I love all sorts of people. This blogpost can correctly be defined as "typal diarrhoea"

Sunday, August 30, 2009

Might not be safe for non-soccer fans (educational links provided)

Manchester united just beat Arsenal 2-1 last night in the EPL. Going 1-0 down before halftime and getting 2 goals back in 20 minutes. The combination of goalkeeper reflex saves and desperate defending in the final FIVE minutes of injury time predisposes to myocardial infarction... MU were lucky to be honest but a valued 3 points nonetheless. After talking to David Chieng, I have come up with the perfect solution to whenever Manchester united are losing.

5 Apr 2009 ... Manchester United v Aston Villa 3-2

United went 2-1 down at halftime. David, being a manchester united fan feels very dissapointed and turns off the game and heads off to sleep. During his slumber, Ronaldo equalised and Kiko Macheda heralded his debut in the premier league by scoring the winning goal. David wakes up, checks the scores and curses his luck for missing the awe-inspiring 3-2 comeback win.

Macheda's delight compounded with Villa's distress

30 Aug 2009... Manchester united vs Arsenal 2-1

1-0 down at halftime and seemingly firing blanks at a well organised Arsenal side, David feelgs very dissapointed and turns off the game in favour of sleep. While he dances with the tooth fairy surrounded by flying hippos, a combination of luck and sheer determination yielded 2 goals and a memorable 2-1 win. David wakes up, checks the scores and wonders why he always misses these comeback wins.


Rooney scores the equaliser and sparks the comeback to make it 1-1.


Now, if you haven't made your own conclusions from this, here is mine:

Manchester United comeback wins are inspired by David's apparent lack of faith. Everytime manchester united go behind, he goes to sleep... and by going to sleep, he either fervently prays before that or changes the balance of the universe WHATEVER - Fact is, when he sleeps, manchester united win.

If this gets published, the next time manchester united go 1 or 2 goals down at halftime, David can expect a few phonecalls from manchester united fans to the tune of:

"GO TO SLEEP DAVID!!!!!"


*******************************


On another note, the commentator on soccernet.com was in an usually creative mood yesterday during the game. When berbatov scuffed an absolute sitter, the commentator went

"Dimitar Berbatov gets on the end of a fantstic ball from Nani and repays his team-mate with a woeful attempt at the art of finishing which he appears to execute with his shin. Rubbish."

lol worthy

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

randoms randoms

It's been so long since i blogged (sorry mo)...

and...

I still don't have much to blog about.

Weather has been too bad for me to do any form of outdoor sports apart from walking mishka

Mishka:"I am so effing over this rain type weather"

Lectures are actually not too bad (the ones i actually attend). It is reasonably interesting but I never learn well from listening to lectures. Our orthopaedics lecturer summarised my feelings well today:

Dr. Mark Glyde: "This is really boring isn't it... I know... it's hard... lectures at 8.30 in the morning... feel free to take an early coffee break if you want to. I don't mind if you sleep in class, just don't snore."

I could never pay much attention in lectures let alone REMEMBER anything from them. I think it is a left brain right brain thing. I learn better by doing rather than listening. (The word "better" is relative to my ability to achieve nothing more than "mediocre").

Basically my hands are better at remembering things than my ears. I find it hard to remember much from lectures alone. Then again, it could be that sleeping in lectures is still acceptable (we shall not mention snoring), hence I sleep and learn nothing from lectures, while sleeping in a surgery is not, hence I get alot more out of doing a surgery.

But here are two examples of remembering by doing... and forgetting by not =(

  • I failed the driving THEORY test twice (Once in malaysia and once in Australia) while I passed the actual PRACTICAL driving component on the first try.

  • I only ever got to Grade 6 THEORY in music and have forgotten all of it by now, and I miraculously completed grade 8 PRACTICAL for piano.

Still so much THEORY to cover this semester. I do not know how I am going to pass.

But there is hope for me...

To quote the excellent Dr. Leonard Hofstadter and Dr. Sheldon Cooper from "Big Bang Theory"

Leonard: "The key to proficiency is repetition"

Sheldon: "Well, there are certain exceptions... Suicide, for example"


I guess I just need to say "FHV and FCV are the most common causes of FURTD" more times than the average person to remember it long enough till exams. ^^

Hoohah. This has turned into a very random rant. Just as well I titled this post just that.

Time for bed.

Till next time. I have more south africa pictures but I need to wait till my internet gets uncapped. Long live Bigpond...