a familiar stranger in Oz.

Follow the yellow brick road down the Hay St. Mall, Murray St. etc and marvel at how almost nothing has changed in 3 and a half years. Little hole-in-the-wall restaurants are still in the same holes in the same walls, goth/darkwave/rivet-head affictionados are still leaning up against the Perth Post Office, and all that. People seem really damn tall, though.

Yep, i arrived in Oz safely, abeit being delayed in Hong Kong. Got a free voucher at the Hong Kong airport for HK$90 because of the delay. Pity it only bought me two Carlsberg draft beers. I've caught up with most of my immediate family except one brother and his wife, but i'm sure that'll be rectified in the next few days. I'm sitting in an internet cafe (if you can call it that, compared to the hardcore affairs they have in Korea) in the centre of the city, typing this out after wandering about the place and buying a few things. First purchase was an AC adapter for my camera as i'd left my original in Chungju. Brilliant move, as it cost me AU$169 for a new one... Next move was to Dymocks bookstore where i picked up 'Dead Air', by Iain Banks. Seems like a really good read.

Anyway, i'm about to wander off to the river and see if I can get some interesting photos to post later on. Hopefully everyone is doing well wherever they are, and see all you good peeps back in S. Korea in February '05. :)

'Malazan Book Of The Fallen' review (finally)

deluge, douse, drench, engulf, flood, immerse, inundate, knock over, obliterate, overcome, overflow, overpower, overwhelm, plunge, prostrate, sink, soak, sop, souse, submerge, suffocate, swamp, wipe out.

Basically, you can drown in these books. In the world, the characters, the writing. Most heartily recommended for fantasy lovers. And that wraps up my thesaurus-ish review for today.

Margin changes to template

As you might have noticed, i changed the margins a little to use up some of that empty space. This means epic posts like Reuben's last one should be more readable now. :) I haven't checked to see if it looks ok on lower resolutions (i'm running my monitor at 1280x1024), so comment here if the site looks messed up to you. Cheers!

U.S. military to reduce 'gorfing'?

Interesting snippet. I'll just post a quote and you can check it out...


If it's good enough for ravers, it's good enough for U.S. troops. That's the thinking, apparently, behind the Army's decision to test the animal tranquilizer ketamine as a way to soothe injured soldiers. The drug -- known in clubs as Special K -- has been reducing partygoers to gurgling blobs for more than a decade. This year, the Army has been running final, phase III Food and Drug Administration trials on a quarter-dose nasal inhaler of ketamine to see if it can substitute for morphine. "With morphine, the soldier's just gorfed, he can't do anything," said Col. Bob Vandre, of the Army's Medical Research and Materiel Command. "With this, he can drive his truck, or shoot his gun." Vandre said he knew full well that ketamine "had been snorted by people at rave parties" and that "it makes you kind of weird, sort of like acid." However, he promised, the military's dose of ketamine would not have the same effects.

What if the soldier snorts too much, as in multiple doses? Might be fail-safes involved, but it makes for an amusing picture in my head. Guys with guns and humvees on acid... Full story here.

ah, more posting...

Hey, back again.

The 26th of November was my last day of work, as my academy closed down for financial reasons. Kinda sucks as I liked the place (had been there since I arrived in S. Korea back in 2001), but it's allowing me to move onward and upward. Been busy with applications, and so far two job interviews in Daegu and Kangneung. Anyway, I'll be trying to get back into regular posting here from now on.

Erikson thoughts to follow shortly, after an interesting military story.