Anzac Day

On Anzac Day I was proud to play in the Brisbane Municipal Concert Band (the community band which I'm a member of) at a morning service at Graceville Memorial Park and a later one at Bannerman Park. The band itself was formed in 1903 and has been playing at the Graveville Anzac Day Service since 1932, so it's a great tradition to continue.

Below are some pictures from the day:

Mid semester exams

The mid semester break is over and like most people I've spoken to, I didn't do nearly enough study. At least my mid semester exams are spread out: 1 tomorrow, 1 next week and 2 the following week. Plus a few assignments thrown in there. Looks like there are some fun times coming up...

In other news, my parents just got back from a trip to New York. They went to an exhibition over there about the '8 Great Projects Under New York' (dad hasn't stopped raving about it). Basically New York's population has been pretty steady for the last 50 years or so and recently it has started growing again (it's just passed 8 million). So they've realised they need to start building more infrastructure (these 8 seriously huge projects) - it's pretty interesting stuff. There's a 9.5km train tunnel, a water filtration plant being built underneath a golf course and driving range (pictured below), a 13.5km train tunnel and a 96km long water pipe, 250m underground, with a diameter between 3m and 7m (pictured below), just to name a few.

And it's raining again! Almost 60% in the dams! :D

Happy Easter!

I hope everyone is having a nice Easter and is eating lots of chocolate. My puppy Louie certainly has been. He stole a Lindt gold bunny (he has good taste) from my bedside table this morning while I was asleep and ate it - foil and all. He kindly left the bell though. I subsequently spent most of today at the animal hospital with him (chocolate is toxic to dogs), but he's ok. I don't think he'll be eating any more chocolate from now on!

Almost holidays!

Only one lecture left before I'm on holidays!! YAY!! I'll be studying for mid semester exams on my holidays, but it'll still be a good break.

In other news, there's a new mining show on the ABC starting on Sunday 19 April called 'Dirt Game'. With all of the TV shows on at the moment about various professions, like House, Bondi Vet, and many more, it's about time someone made one about the mining industry. From the preview, it looks a little dramatic but it'll be interesting to see what it's like.
Here's a link to the preview:
http://www.abc.net.au/tv/comingsoon.htm#?vid=video1.

Yesterday CESA held the pizza event which I helped organise, I've posted some photos below. The representative from the sponsor was a member of UQ CESA about 35 years ago so it was interesting talking to him about how the uni has changed.

Update on uni/April fools' day!

It's crazy to think we're up to week 5 of uni already! So far I love my subjects, they're all really interesting. One day last week I was SO keen to get to my structural mechanics lecture, that in my haste to get to a spare seat I managed to face-plant into the row of seats in front of me. Rather funny, as I'm sure fellow QRC scholarship kid, Peter (sitting in the row behind), can attest. Along with half the lecture theatre who also witnessed my graceful stumble. But no one was hurt and the seats made a full recovery, so I’m glad I could bring a bit of laughter to the 10am lecture timeslot.

Recently I've become the 2nd year representative of the UQ Civil Engineering Student Association (CESA). Next Wednesday I’m organising a pizza lunch sponsored by Osborn Lane and Red Bull, so any UQ engineering students reading this, come along for a networking opportunity and some free lunch.

To finish off this post and today being April fools' day, I thought I’d share a few media generated pranks:

Left-Handed Whopper

In the year 1998, Burger King published a full page advertisement in USA Today announcing that they had launched “Left-Handed Whopper” specially designed for the 32 million left-handed Americans. According to the advertisement, the new whopper included the same ingredients as the original Whopper (lettuce, tomato, hamburger patty, etc.), but all the condiments were rotated 180 degrees for the benefit of their left-handed customers. The following day, Burger King issued a follow-up release revealing that although the Left-Handed Whopper was a hoax, thousands of customers had gone into restaurants to request the new burger.

The Swiss Spaghetti Harvest

The BBC TV programme Panorama ran a famous hoax in 1957, where Swiss women were shown harvesting strands of spaghetti from trees and laying them in the sun to dry. The narrator explained that a mild winter and elimination of the dreaded spaghetti weevil had farmers hoping for a bumper crop. A large number of people contacted the BBC wanting to know how to cultivate their own spaghetti trees or how they can buy a spaghetti plant for themselves.

















Smellovision

In 1965, BBC TV aired an "interview" with a man who had invented a new technology called "Smellovision" that allowed viewers at home to experience aromas produced in the television studio. To demonstrate, the man chopped some onions and brewed a pot of coffee. Viewers called in to confirm that they had smelled the aromas that were "transmitted" through their television sets.