Today is...

... the third day of my last semester. And I've only had 2 hours of sleep the night before. I'm still having troubles adjusting my time.

... a beautiful day, in terms of Melbourne's weather. My three hour break, despite being really sleepy, was adequately spent with friends having lunch, coffee, resting, and basically just having a good time hanging out in the noon. It's been quite a while now.

... also a day of a little inefficiency on Melbourne's side. I waited for my apartment's lift for almost 5 minutes. The tram ride home also took me more than half an hour (which would usually only takes 15-20 mins) all to be made worse by me wanting to go to the loo so badly.

... I went too far with the little ego boosts I got. Taking compliments I turned myself into a fountain of indulgent self-boasting.

... gym-less. Does that mean I need to quit gymming to have more days like this to come? Nope, but probably some moderation.

Yesterday was...

... the day I got a decent haircut after alot of attempts by other hairdressers. I tell my friends it's got the 'designer feel'. And yes, choosing reading for leisure over computer gaming also has that 'designer feel'.

... the day I walked into Big W and got myself the first hairdryer. Yes, despite the really short hair now.

All in all...

... it sounds very gay. I know, but it's OK, so long as I know I'm straight.

Your 50-day 300 Workout Challenge

If, like me, bodybuilding is getting a bit pointless to you, I highly recommend you to take up the following challenge, the 300 Workout:
* 25 pull-ups
* 50 deadlifts at 135 pounds
* 50 push-ups
* 50 box jumps with a 24-inch box
* 50 "floor wipers" (a core and shoulders exercise at 135 pounds)
* 50 "clean and press" at 36 pounds (a weight-lifting exercise)
* 25 more pull-ups -- for a total of 300 reps

Condition yourself for 50 days. Then on the fiftieth day complete the above in as little time as possible. You should be aiming for about 20 minutes.

Notes:
1) For beginners, you may want to look for variants online (e.g. with assisted pull-ups, lighter floor wipers, etc). You could die (damage your kidney for too much muscle breakdown or even suffer from a heart attack) if you jump straight on.

2) It's full of bollocks to say this workout will build you muscles. It's really more of an endurance/high intensity sort of workout that may help harden and cut your physique.

3) Youtube any of the workouts if you need visual instructions.

4) I will have no liability for any injuries sustained whatsoever.

5) Lastly, feel free to update me on your journey. Good luck, and more importantly, have fun!

New and Last Semester

This semester, which is the last for me (hopefully), will be rather different to those in the past. There's only 3 subjects, with one of them carrying double credit. Also, one of these 3 have no tutes.

Contingencies, Actuarial Statistics, and Model for Insurance and Finance. They all sound very technical, yes, but that's about all I know - just can't be bothered to find out more when we're not given the choice of subjects.

And just wondering though. My family is coming in December. Should they stay for Christmas? I've never spent one here so I wouldn't know if it would be fun. Any help, advise or suggestions would be warmly appreciated.

Melbourne Got More Beautiful

I remember the last time I thought Melbourne got more beautiful was when I finally saw sunlight again, and that apparently wasn't because of the weather, it was because I finally woke up early again.

This time though, it's thanks to government policies. Few months back, when doing research for an Investment Banking challenge, I came across the fact that smoking will be banned in casinos in the Victoria region, effective July 2007.

So I witnessed that myself last Thursday when I was in Crown. Little did I know such a ban applies similarly to other indoor entertainment places as well, until I visited Legends (pool place) and Hush Bar.

No more stinking clothes/bodies after clubbing and second-hand smoking. But more segregation. Being a non-smoker myself, I think the benefits here outweigh the costs, but that of course is just my opinion.

More Touching Stuff

Today I woke up around 6:30pm in my friend's place and as I waited for him to wake up, I was streaming some videos on SpikedHumor as usual. When I messaged him one hour later had I only found out that I was at his place alone. He was gone playing golf. Man...

Anyway, I saw this really disturbing piece. I've listened to all kinds of gangsta rap, but this one by far hit me the hardest. A 6:48 video, it's not the best video you could find out there nor it has the best rhymes. But Immortal Technique is really one of the most lyrical rappers out there.

The video itself is not disturbing, just its words. Nonetheless, I can't resist to write a spoiler below for those of you who hasn't the patience to go through the entire video.



Spoiler follows:
Billy being a kid that lives a 'typical' hard life of a Black American, approached some gangsters on the streets and asked them if he could be part of them. The thugs showed him no love and told him he had to show what he's got - go rape someone.

The three of them met on a Friday night and followed this lady, quarter to three, who'd just finished work. They wrapped her head and managed to drag her to some rooftop. They choked her, broke her jaws and ribs to shut her up and obviously she cried so badly when they started raping her.

When they were done, Billy was asked to kill her for a guaranteed place in the gang. Billy thinking she had already gone through so much, pulled out a new gun and pointed at her head. But he thought he might as well lift off the cloth covering her face. He saw that she was her mom.

He turned his back and cried to the skies. "Only devil answered because God was apparently not there". He recalls how hard his mom worked to late at night to feed and bring them up. He decided death could bring him to a better place, he jumped off the building. The other finished everything off by killing the victim as well. And the rapper was the other guy there who also raped the woman.

Of Seven and a Bitch Brawl

Seven was good lastnight. The third time I've been there since they've open three weeks ago, i.e. I've been there every week now. It was good fun yesterday, with both the Malaysian and Singaporean gangs there. Seven is becoming a substitute of Maison for me here in Melbourne. Or maybe better actually.

In last week's post, I mentioned the corner of Elizabeth and Flinders Sts to be a very dodgy area. Last week, some caucasian and asian were fighting against something and had the caucasian saying "you don't tell me I'm gonna die tonight aight" and shit, the fight being mediated by a McDonald's security. Lastnight, I watched a random bitch brawl. About 3 girls vs 3 girls and 2 guys. If I remember correctly, only one or two were stopping it and the rest continued kicking and throwing punches. And what happened next? They just walked away. I thought the whole scene was seriously hilarious.

No Boost

Results aren't nice at all. I'm not supposed to go to Seven with these results tonight, but fuck it:

Actuarial Modelling II: 67
This was sort of expected. The lecturer mentioned earlier that there would be no "middle-range" scores around 70-80. It's either you are the average or the better ones. He said this was to make sure it's fair for getting students into Honours.

Financial Mathematics III: 72
I thought I answered everything, except giving wrong conclusions for risk aversions and missing another 5 marks for leaving out 5 (out of 10) CAPM assumptions. I had full marks for my assignments though. I've got nothing to say.

Corporate Finance: 74
I've got nothing to say for this either. I walked out early all confident and shit. And people from the summer semester get 90's.

Actuarial Modelling I: 76
The paper I mentioned earlier that I could've put in more effort. See, if I did, an H1 could've been possible. There you go.