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October 17, 2004
Tim Tam Slam
Only one more week of class to go in Australia, ack! Is it just me, or has time seemed like it's been accelerating lately? Like seriously, how did it get to be mid-October?
Thursday was another long day for me. Class until 2, and then Rob & I went out gospel roaming again. After watching and listening to him do the full presentation last week to someone, this week it was my turn to do it for the first time. We wound up talking to a guy who was a pretty strong humanist for about 20 minutes or so, and I was a bit nervous while answering the guy's questions, but I think I did okay, especially for my first time. Even if we don't change people's minds on the spot, we're just glad when we find people who are willing to talk about their beliefs and ask questions. Each time we do it it's a learning experience for all of us.
After that it was time to mail a couple of packages and other things. When I was at the post office, I got to talking to the girl at the counter, and when I mentioned that I hadn't ever done a TimTam Slam before, she was aghast, hehe. So she told me how to do a TimTam Slam, which is evidently the proper way to eat a TimTam. After I test it out, I'll try to give demonstrations to some of you first-hand when I get back (or if you're really nice and ask me I might tell you how to do it before I get back). I'm trying to decide how many packages of TimTams to bring home with me, hehe. Also, on a very related note, when she found out that I'd never had Milo before, she made me a cup of it. Milo is a chocolate powder kinda like Nestle Quik, but a bit different. A proper 'Milo' is made by pouring some milk, adding the Milo powder and stirring it up until it's all nice and frothy, and then adding some really hot water. It was quite good really, better than most powdered hot chocolate mixes I've had back in the States. Either that, or it could just be that it tasted better because I'm in Australia. ;-)
Finally around 9pm I decided to start doing research for my 6-pg essay on frontal dynamics for my Weather & Climate class (I'd been reading tons of online articles about the third presidential debate, which happened Thursday midday Australia time). I just really didn't feel like writing that essay at that point. It's not that the topic wasn't interesting or anything, but I was quite bored and tired while I was writing it. Not a good combo, hehe. I took a break for the night at 2:30am to get some sleep.
My lone class on Friday (Fluid Dynamics) was the last lecture I'll have down here with new info (all my classes next week are review sessions). After that I came back and finished off my paper, turned it in and then wrote a couple more postcards too (how much have I spent at Australia Post since I got here? quite a bit...). In the evening BradWa & I went out to Monash Pizza for some supper, rented some movies from Blockbuster, and watched "The Italian Job" and "Torque." I loved "The Italian Job," it was awesome seeing those three Cooper Minis do their thing! Kieran came down after we got done with that, and really really wanted to see "Torque" (we'd also rented "Revenge of the Pink Panther"), but couldn't keep his eyes open and went to bed halfway through. "Torque" was, shall we say, a B-movie. And a subpar B-movie at that. About really fast motorcycles, mean biker gangs and the FBI. Mercifully it was only an hour-twenty long. It was really late once that was done though, so "Pink Panther" will have to wait for another night.
Today (Saturday) I didn't get too much accomplished. I slept in till 11 (I sooo needed those 10+ hours of sleep though), read some stuff online, figured out one of the problems on my Fluid Dynamics assignment due Wednesday (same day as a test in that class), got horribly stuck on the next one (I'm even clueless as to what Prof Cally's "hint" is actually saying, much less what its relevance is). This evening I went to Pinewood with Stefan to get some groceries at Cole's and some supper at Subway, and after that I did a wee bit of work on a Climate Change assignment due Monday. Sigh, my efficiency index is not good these days. But come crunch time I still get everything done, which is what counts.
In some of my reading over the past few days, I've come across a pretty fair round-by-round scorecard for the third presidential debate that was held the other day. In all the stuff I've read (and I've read both conservative- and liberal-slanting viewpoints), it seems pretty clear to me that Bush won the third debate, and fairly decisively (to heck with the flash polls right after the debate). Kerry seemed pretty much the same through all three debates, maybe slightly on the decline by the third, but Bush steadily improved in each debate. I'd say Kerry won the first debate, the second was a tie, and Bush won the third. As for some humorous news, what happens when your physics professor flips out? Some college students in the Bayou State found out first-hand. And Minnesota police found themselves on a mission from Elvis, only to wind up chasing a Jake Blues look-alike. And it's a good thing Australia doesn't have any giraffes, there are too many killer animals on this continent as it is. I can totally see FOX doing a one-hour special on this.
Posted by Jared at October 17, 2004 01:49 AM