wickeeeeeeeeee's Xanga

NEW BLOG

Thu, 05 Jun 2008 17:30:39 GMT

After procrastinating heaps, I've finally decided to merge the xanga blog to my own platform using wordpress. Very common blog platform but a bit more customisation allowed. Also allows you to comment without registration.

So from now on...

NO MORE XANGA

VISIT:

HTTP://WWW.RICKYTANG.COM.AU

Busy Week in Brisbane

Tue, 20 May 2008 15:47:25 GMT

This week and a bit has been quite hectic for me, trying to fit in an assignment, some study, organisation, house cleaning, birthday events, and lots of driving.

Desk full of paper

Nice sunny day outside but have to study and finish up assignments inside -__-'

A good friend returned to Brisbane from Sydney for a weekend trip and so I ended up bumming around with him for most of the weekend. Driving, eating etc.

Also celebrated my mother's 50th birthday. 50 already means Im growing old. Went to dinner with the family at a restaurant we used to visit all the time when we lived in Cannon Hill 16 years ago. Traditional style chinese dishes such as Peking Duck, Lettuce wrap, some really awesome breads, fish, shredded fillet beef and the super tasty spicy and sour soup.

Whipped up a dish the other night: Tomato + Pork baked fried rice.

My Work Place

Tue, 20 May 2008 15:33:55 GMT

As I was closing up at work late one night, I took the opportunity to take a few snaps of where I work, and the immense size of the pharmacy I run on a day to day basis. These pharmacy warehouses are now quite popular in Australia, with Chemist Warehouse being the biggest of the type. However, I don't work for Chemist Warehouse, but a smaller group that also operate a similar model.

This shop is ridiculously large and it houses just about everything.

Above: Standing in the dispensary looking out to the exit.

The OTC (Over the counter) products, which include your aspirins, cough syrups, analgesics etc.

Dispensary shelves

The dispensary

Prescription hand in counter

Aisles of stock viewing from entrance.

Plasma TV that doesn't display anything because I am too lazy to design a powerpoint slide to go on it.

Decision Making

Mon, 19 May 2008 11:36:44 GMT

So some of you may know that I am currently making some of the biggest and toughest decisions in my life. I thought I have done all my decision making already but there just seems to be more and more. So much to do in so little time. I now have to decide whether or not I want to upgrade my phone plan/mobile. I took a quick trip to the Optus shop and found that no phone fancied me better than my trusty 903sh. The photos it takes are just amazing in comparison to all the other rubbish phones out there. There is not one phone I tried that can outperform and look better in my opinion.

But I feel it is time to move on, but just seems that it is not possible to find one I like except maybe the LG KU990. The camera is a bit disappointing and the interface is a bit cumbersome, but it seems to be the best of the bunch. So reviews I read lately and found that it is pretty widely accepted as a decent phone. But as I read more about phones, I find this upcoming release by HTC, the HTC Diamond, to be possibly the best phone on the market yet, a clear competitor to the Apple iPhone.

The LG KU990: Touch screen and touch pad. 5MP camera blah blah blah...

The HTC Diamond Touch: This phone has the biggest hype at the moment.

While I was browsing these tech sites, I came across this random post about bras now being able to charge mobile phones, iPods and the like. What do they think of next? Water packs in panties so you can drink if thirsty? -_-'

Driving Hell in Brisbane

Fri, 16 May 2008 14:20:01 GMT

At this point in time, there is road works on every road you can possibly imagine. It is absolutely ridiculous and utter bullocks. I can understand the notion of wanting to improve roads for a growing Brisbane. But to try to repair every road around me lacks of a bit of planning and consideration.

I drive down south to Logan and there are roadworks on the Rochedale side of Logan Rd, I drive out to Market Square, Sunnybank and there is a resurface going on at McCullough Rd, which nearly the only big straight road that connects me to Sunnybank directly. Then when I go to work, there are road works around all of Kuraby. There are roads to Inala side of town and the Ipswich Hwy is also getting resurfaced. To top it all off, both freeways, the Gateway and the M1 are getting repaired. Then in the city, there is ongoing road works in the city and around New Farm area. So pretty much everywhere I go, I have to wait forever.

Not only are there road works everywhere, the traffic has been appalling lately and I experienced the full wrath of it today when driving around the entire Brisbane. I went to UQ in the morning from southside, then headed home, headed out to the airpot, then through Eagle farm and New Farm through the city to Indooroopilly shopping centre. Then back again to the southside etc etc...

Basically look at the map:

On a side note, I found these awesome USB hubs when surfing. Speaking of which, I need some USB hubs.

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Tue, 13 May 2008 02:14:28 GMT

Done nothing on the weekend except some quick tidy up and a drive up to Nebo on Saturday.

It was the 20 year anniversary for Expo 88 as well and so there was fireworks on the way back.

Nig's barbie adventure:

Then we drove up to Nebo

Poor barbie

Fireworks for celebration.

My Attempts at Cooking

Sat, 10 May 2008 00:42:28 GMT

The cooking bug has bit me and lately I have been *trying* to learn how to cook. Starting off nice and simple, I tried pasta and curry. Not together of course.

Don't have pictures of the pasta, but it tasted ok, except the sauce wasn't saucy enough and turned out a bit watery.

Above: Curry I made. Apparently it tasted just right. Made about 2-3L of this stuff and all eaten up by everyone in 1 night. Even Miriam had 2 plates and she doesn't like Curry.

Spotted this Hummer outside my pharmacy the other day and then a Porsche rocked up next to it while I was snapping the Hummer. A lady got out of the porsche and then got into the hummer and drove off. Lady was blonde but quite old. Too much money hey?

My cat, Hermes has grown pretty quickly. It has a small head for a big body.

WTF is this:

Only in Japan will this happen. This is worse than the Madi Gras.

Happenings of Late

Sat, 03 May 2008 14:12:33 GMT

Haven't updated lately since I've not been in the mood. Work is crap, and I'm probably about the make the biggest decision of my life. Have been trying to hermit at home to save a bit of money but this week turns outs to be a big spender.

Here are some happenings of late...

Above: For some reason, some of my friends dragged me to window shop Lamborghini -__-' in New Farm (seems to be where all the awesome places now in Brisbane). There were 5, 3 Murcielago and 2 Gallardo. All enclosed in a glass building. How the f*ck did they get the 2 upstairs.

Visited IKEA with Rod for our usual dose of $1 hotdogs but figured we didn't really feel like them. Saw this weird new light and the best quilt covers ever.

Rod's fresh out of factory Mazda 2. Look at the sheen on the paint!

Recently the Apple iMacs have been updated with specs. Even more reason to buy now.

Last week, I met up with the pharmacy crew and had a belated post-registration dinner. It was at Brett's Wharf. Expensive as it is and the hype it has, the food was actually pretty disappointing. The Oysters Kilpatrick was not as good as Portside Wilson's Boathouse, and the $46 premium darling downs rump was absolutely rubbish. It was definitely "well done" rather than "medium rare".

I don't really understand Australian fine dining. Lighting is absolutely terrible. Half the time your trying to see whether the place is clean. I mean, spotlights also add atmosphere so why not use them. Gives a classier look anyway.

Have now visited some of the performing cafe/restaurants of Brisbane and to tell you the truth, they over charge you and leave you with a bitter taste for cafe food as half the time you are not satisfied or the food doesn't live up to the coin you fork out.

IMO, if you want to get rich, open a cafe...

Oil Hogs and Peak Oil

Sat, 03 May 2008 13:43:17 GMT

I recently saw on ABC Four Corners a documentary about the peak of oil production and how it's running out. Everyone knows that it is running out now, especially with all the media hyping it up and probably one of the main reasons why oil prices are forever on the rise. Unlike the oil price peaks in 1973, and 1980, the increases now doesn't seem to be from OPEC reducing supply, but to an difficulty in finding new oil reserves and the realisation oil is running out.

Not surprisingly, the USA seems to be the biggest oil hog in the world. On a daily basis, USA uses approximately 1/4 of the worlds daily oil consumption. This is a ridiculous amount and it's not slowing down. What's more interesting is that all other countries seem to have noticed the oil crisis and have started investing interests into other forms of energy or oil saving/rationing technologies or program. Not to bore you, but you will easily see the bigger picture if you have a glimpse at these charts...

Below: Representation of Oil consumption by the US

These 2 charts show the prices of oil over the last century or so.

These are the country pumping out all our oil.

So, you may think I am a bit of a greenie, if I'm talking about oil running out and how it is important and interesting. To me, it just seems that oil will run out half way through my life, and so with that conclusion, I am more inclined to buy more powerful cars and use even more fuel before my fair share runs out >,<. Because we possibly will be the last generation to rely on the mighty internal combustion engine.

Car Detail

Sat, 19 Apr 2008 17:39:27 GMT

On Friday, I sat my mid semester exam and surprisingly it was a lot easier than I thought. On the weekend, I had a chance to catch up with some sleep and also organise myself a little. Ended up detaling a friend's GTR he bought not long I promised to do when he got it.

While I was trolling the net, I found out that the youtube girl that got famous actually looks quite ugly in real life.

She actually got famous enough that she was invited to Japan for an interview on some show.