3rd time lucky...

yes folks this is the third time I've tried to catch up my blog and more stuff has happened in the meantime so this is going to be a long post. (Trish this might be a good one for the lunch break, hell ya never know it might spawn a real headache ;) )

Please read on faithful..reader

Where to start, where to start? I suppose I should start with honours as thats where I was last time I posted...

At a final count of 81 pages it is officially the biggest assignment I have ever done on my own being beaten only by the business and biotech assignment I did with 3 straight 7's people which was 94 pages. For about a week there I compiled my little heart out, in the process I read somewhere in the vicinity of 130 patents, now for those of you who have never read a patent I'll include a small section from the description of one of the patents from my honours project:

Under such situation, the present inventors have made intensive studies to be from the shortcomings of the conventional surface display methods, and as a result, we have developed novel display system eliminating the need of motif for surface display.

Surprisingly, it has been found that the developed system is capable of displaying any protein on surface with maintaining inherent structure thereof and when displaying in excess, a genetic carrier maintains its viability and resistance to surrounding environment.

Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide a method for preparing a protein of interest surface-displayed on genetic carrier.

It is another object of this invention to provide a method for improving a protein of interest by using the method for surface display on genetic carrier.

Now I've used a fairly extreme example here, it was written by a korean whose grasp of english wasn't so crash hot but even so this produced only slightly more confusion than normal. Basically what they're trying to say is we have an invention and this is what it can be used for. Thrilling stuff. Being a patent attorney is an art, they're deadly specific about the smallest detail while at the same time being as broad and vague as possible to cover as much as possible.

Anyways back to the project...where was I?

Oh yes... approximately 130 patents, 48 companies (later reduced to 46), approximately 50 technologies reviewed and around 300 products reviewed. Additionally I drank 14 cans of V, ate 2.5 kilos of chocolate and had about 35 hours of sleep over the week leading up to the due date. Of those 81 pages only about 10 were actually written by me, the rest was raw data about all of the above things (aside from the V and Chocolate).

I was supposed to be analysing these technologies and companies, comparing them to a technology I was given and then making a recommendation about what should be done in terms of a licensing deal or perhaps a spin-off company. I was a bit apprehensive towards the end there cause I'd started to realise that there wasn't anything too special about the invention and I was beginning to think that my conclusion would be to not invest in the technology. I went and talked to Samantha, my supervisor, and told her what I thought and she said "Oh thats good, thats what the VC's have been telling us..." w00t! I came to the same conclusion as the professionals! This made me very happy :) Need less to say once I knew I was on the right track everything flowed pretty smoothly from there and I managed to have everything finished for hand in by 10:30 friday Morning...that, incidentally, is the earliest I've ever had an assignment done in my life. Glad I got the hang of it.

In other news it was my birthday on the 16th which was a Thursday. Guess what was due the next day? Guess who forgot their own birthday? Guess what I did all day? Yeah not the most amount of fun but still not the worst birthday I've ever had...that would be my 21st.

By the way thanks Kez! The dinner and movie was just what I needed and your timing was impeccable and the balloon was cool even when it escaped :) I really appreciated the effort, not sure if I conveyed that at the time...

In other news my science based honours will now be delayed until July because I found out on the Wednesday before the honours I've just completed was due that I was supposed to be enrolled in science honours in January and all the WH&S talks and induction stuff was happening in the week when my other honours was due so that kind of screwed it. Meh its ok it means I get a break, I get time to earn some money and I'll miss the kafuffle with the move from Gardens Point to IHBI. Although I am a bit worried that Dr Jon, my supervisor didn't say a word to me about grant proposals, enrollment or induction or anything...

That weekend went and did a day with Trish finishing up some stuff for Monday. Good Times.

The following week took it easy. Sat. Ate. Good Times.

Oh wait went out "for a drink after work" at 3pm with Trish and Jon Robson, got wasted, fell down. Good times.
The next day we met up again and headed over to southbank. Saw Hostel, fairly average movie that had been hyped because of it's extreme violence. Turns out there are like 4 scenes totalling 5 maybe 10 mins of the movie. After that the violence just becomes ridiculous and stupid and not because its not high impact just because it was pointless and stoopid. The Queensland art gallery was much better and I even got a cool photo that Trish took out of it.

Good times.

that weekend it was Alice's 21st so Hartelijk gefeliciteerd! (God I hope thats the right one, there were like 8 to choose from)
The Monday after that I emailed the people I was buying my laptop off of to find out what was happening with it and they replied saying it would ship that day but that there was a world-wide shortage of the burner I had asked for so I would get a $60 refund. Bummer but meh its so close I care not.

Oh joy of joys! Its Tuesday and its here! I can go pick it up from my local post office this afternoon.

Bastard arsehat fucktarded Australia Post! They stole it leaving me with nothing but my genuine leather hard edged case :(
gonna have to wait for tomorrow :(

Managed to get the box home but the unveiling will have to wait until after the movie when I can have a camera present.

Walk the Line was excellent but not as excellent as my lappie. It is a sexy, sexy bitch :)

In the meantime I have 4 days work a week, permanent part time. That will last me until June so hooray! One downside tho is that my Centrelink has been cancelled. It's kinda wierd, I've been on welfare all of my life and now I don't have it I'm feeling a little insecure, once the $1000 paychecks from QUT start rolling in I should get over it pretty quick tho :)

I think thats everything...did I mention my Laptop was sexy? Feel free to contact me for a viewing and photos will follow shortly.

p.s. I'll be fixing the link in the previous post after I post this

Edit: At least I would if NBC hadn't slapped that site with a cease and desist... Found it somewhere else hope it stays up.