Seb and I have been on-and-off planning a trip to Melbourne for months, but we've now decided that late November/early December is as good a time as any for it. We haven't booked anything yet, but tentative dates are 24/11 to 2/12.

So. What is there to see and do in Melbourne? Restaurant suggestions? Theatre? Art Galleries? Places to go shopping?

Here is a dodgy photo of a scarf I'm making. It's Merino wool, so it should be nice and snuggly when it's done. I made it out of a different yarn before, but I didn't like it for a number of reasons so this is my second attempt. I like crocheting for about 30 minutes before bed every day, it's relaxing.

As part of the Anita Borg retreat we were given iPod Nanos to record some of the things we did, so that we could compile them into videos of our experiences at the end. This is the first video editing I've done, 5 hours ago was the first time I'd ever used iMovie, so it's probably pretty amateurish. I'm looking for as much feedback as I can get in the next 36 hours or so. I'm trying to find some music that I can use at the start and the end, which is why they're silent at the moment.

I don't yet have the patience to crochet a full sized garments, so I'm slowly working my way up to more advanced & larger things. Sydney is around a 5hr flight, so I wanted a bit of a project to work on. I found this cute, relatively easy and, most importantly, free pattern for a newborn sweater set. I just made it up using some spare yarn that I had. Even though I started off with the right gauge, I think it just looks too small! I'm not sure what to do with it, especially since I'm not sure it'll fit. How big are newborns, anyway?



( Finished photo below the cut )
EDIT: After looking at pictures of newborn babies I decided that it probably is ok size wise. I gave it to one of the receptionists in Computer Science who I've always gotten on well with, and is currently pregnant. She seemed thrilled with it =D

The last few days passed by like a whirlwind, my time in Sydney was waaay too short, but absolutely great!

Photos!

The new Google offices are totally amazing. I couldn't take photos in there, but every time I looked around I saw something new and interesting. And they really spared no expense on the trip, everything was totally top-notch.

Might do a longer post in a couple of days.

1. I have some invites to Google Wave, comment or PM with your google apps email to get one. Note that it'll probably be a while before you actually receive the invite message from Google, but you'll be on the list.

2. Leaving for Sydney in a few hours. Hooray!

3. Google Maps in Sydney doesn't have public transport as an option when planning a route, only car or walk! We've had it as an option in Perth for more than a year I think.

4. I wanted to get my German passport renewed while in Sydney, but no such luck. Sure, they have the biometrics scanner, but I'm from WA so I need to get it done in Melbourne. Probably to cut down on paperwork, but annoying none the less.

http://jovana.id.au/

On an impulse today I finally got around to registering it. When I posted a poll on what domain I should register 13 months ago the majority response was to get ilumiari.com - I might get that as well in the future, but for now I thought that I should start with this one.

It's not very interesting at the moment. I'll probably eventually just syndicate my lj to it, but mostly at the moment I think I'll use it for email and file hosting.

I've been working on organising the CSSC Quiz Night for months, but now I'm worried that the turnout isn't going to be great. CSSC always sends a table to the quiz night of other clubs, but when I ask people if they're going to ours they seem to think that that is "supporting the opposition". I guess it doesn't help that CSSC doesn't have alot of interaction with any other clubs. The Quiz Night is not for Computer Geeks, it's General Knowledge and the idea is just to have a good time, a couple of drinks and win some prizes.

So, Perth-based F-listers, if you're not doing anything tomorrow night come down to the UWA Tav at 7.15 to join a table. Entry is $10, but I'll let you guys in for $7.

I was out practising some low light/bokeh photography tonight when I took this photo. It's out of focus, horribly grainy and the composition leaves a lot to be desired, but I think it's really pretty. I like the swirly effect that the lighting has.

Bokeh is one of the categories in this year's Canon Photo 5, unfortunately I think it's a bit too subtle in this photo to enter it.

Hi Jovana,
I hope you are well. I tried calling you this afternoon to wish you Congratulations on being selected as a 2009 ANZ Anita Borg Finalist! I would like to personally thank you for all your efforts in achieving such a result as the caliber was so high this year.
I have some exciting news for you! As a 2009 Google Anita Borg Finalist, Google would like to support your travels to the 2009 Anita Borg Scholars Retreat to be held in Sydney. The retreat conference is taking place October 8th, 9th & 10th in Sydney, Australia. I hope you can make it.

Google will arrange and pay for your airfare, hotel room and meals for the retreat.

We will have more details to come but in the meantime, please save the date. We will follow-up with you next month to figure out the travel and other logistics.

I look forward to meeting you at the retreat!


Many thanks to theducks who wrote one of my references :D

I've never been to Sydney (other than the airport)! I'm so excited now \(^_^)/

So you might remember that Seb gave me a Chibithulhu about 6 months ago. Well, I decided that he needed a soft Cthulhu for his very own. I came across this pattern for a Cthulhu Amigurumi, and decided to give it a shot. I'd never made an amigurumi before, but I knew the basics of crochet so figured I might as well start somewhere.

( 3 Photos of Tiny Cthulhu under the cut ♥ )

I won 3rd place in Utopia's Customer Opinion Survey raffle - I got an 8Gb iPod Touch!
Sebastian was amused that now 100% of his girlfriends have won iPods.

tl;dr - I'm getting side effects from new medications, what should I do?

On Monday I went to see a specialist doctor, who diagnosed me with a condition (don't want to tell the world about it, if you really want to know PM me) and gave me a sample pack of medication. I'm seeing her again in two weeks. This medication is well known for often causing side effects, so I've started on a low dosage to see what happens. The first two days were wonderful and brilliant. Today, not so much. I'm getting pupil dilation and hot/cold flushes along with headaches and dizzyness. Also a decreased appetite, but that one doesn't worry me so much :P

Anyway, what should I do? Stop taking it? Take it for a few more days to see if symptoms persist? I can't get another appointment with the specialist on short notice, is it worth seeing my regular doctor?

I'm interested in trying machine knitting, but don't really have much of an idea of how to get my hands on a knitting machine. Do any of you know anyone that owns one and is looking to get rid of it/wouldn't mind loaning it out for a while? Or maybe you've seen one in an op shop or something? (I am looking for one in Perth, since the cost of couriering one from interstate would likely be more than the cost of the machine!)

Also my hair is now dark :D I totally love it, unfortunately Sebastian isn't sold on it yet.

I have two exams today, a two hour one in 40 minutes and a three hour one at 2. I'm starting to freak out... I do think that having one massive exam at the end of a unit is a terrible way of gauging aptitude. I didn't sleep well last night and I think all my study must have trickled out of my ear and onto my pillow during the night since today I'm just drawing massive blanks.

*twiddle thumbs*

guess I'd best be off.

For imuin :P
As I said in my last post, I have plans to scan some of my dresses, then scale the prints down to doll size for Cosette. First is BABY's Marie Antoinette print. I printed it on cotton broadcloth - the threadcount seems too low, I lost a bit of the detail because of this. These days it's hard enough finding white cotton, let alone good white cotton. I'll try at a quilting store or something. The colour is a bit off as well, I'll need to darken it a bit since when you rinse it out (to remove the loose dye so it doesn't run) it does lighten a little.

The mordant is formaldehyde based, it took a while to track down but it was worth it! I'm using a standard inkjet printer (Canon M620), and the results photo was taken after it was washed with detergent. Without the mordant it would just have been a pale blue mess. I also ironed the fabric onto plastic (freezer) paper to give it enough stiffness to get through the printer.

A photo of the outcome is under the cut - it's pretty big so that you can see the detail. On the top is the original dress, the little bit on the left is the design printed on paper, the bit on the right is the design on the cotton. You can still make out quite a bit detail, I hope that this improves on higher quality cotton.
( Largeish results photo below! )

It's been about a month since my last updates, but with so many assignments and various illnesses I didn't even get a chance to update in procrastination.
( Uni ) ( Photography ) ( RIP David Eddings ) ( Introducing Cosette )
( Poladroid (featuring photo of k_chan009) )

I just don't understand anything to do with Electrical Engineering. Nothing. At the moment I have tears running down my face because I feel so stupid that I don't understand the questions I have to get done, but I just don't. It's a second year unit, it should be simple but I'm just useless at it, I don't understand any of the maths, none of it.