home again

yeah, so, um, back from spain. we were told at one of the briefings in the morning after mass to think of a 'soundbite' of what happened there in spain. you know, because we can't just go around saying 'it was awesome' like we did after sydney. we said awesome so much, it began to lose all meaning. it kinda makes me think of an episode of scrubs i saw, where dr cox makes up the word megaloathe, because everyone said 'hate' so much, the word wasn't strong enough anymore.
anyway, so we had to think of a sort of  short linguistic paragraph (you know, a paragraph you say, not write) to explain how, (awesome) this world youth day was, and the experiences we had.
and every time i try to, i sort of try to say a bunch of things at once, and just stand there, sort of gulping like a fish trying to breathe air. so much happened, and in such a short space of time, i can't find the words to express the experiences i had. well i could, but it would be in so many words it would probably be fiendishly boring to listen to. and i still don't know where to begin. well, i guess i should start at the beginning. i'll put upn at least one photo a day, and tell you what the photo was about, the story behind the photo.

this photo is far from the first photo i took, and even farther from the last. this is of some of the surrounding area of pedro abad, which is where we stayed for days in the diocese. i think it was on the drive to my host familys home, on a big hill just outside town. those trees are olive trees, and, yes, they pretty much go as far as the eye can see, and probably farther. it was a beautiful place. espana es preciosa!

i start with this photo, because, to tell a good story, you have to begin with the background.

same same, but different... muchos different

i can´t get into my facebook, it keeps saying the device is not recognised. the computer is entirely in espanol.


anyway, hola! from espana! i don´t really know what to say, theres a lot of stuff that happened, and we´re going to the piscina (pool) later (luego), so i don´t have much time. so i´ll start at the beginning.


so, we were on a plane for, roughly 21 hours (horas). when we got oput of the areopuerto, the first thing i noticed was that the trees, the flora was totally different. no eucalyptus, or she-oaks. mostly olive trees. in pedro abad, where we are staying, the view from the top of  the hill is just olive trees, as far as you can see.
the view is beautiful, though, the entire country es preciosa (beatiful)
i´ve heard from other people, you don´t feel like you´re in a different country, different part of the world, but i think they´re  wrong. you can tell, it feels different, it looks different, everyone speaks espanol, so it sounds different. i´m starting to think, in my mind, with a spanish accent, with occasional spanish words. occasionally, i´ll say something to my fellow australians, and i´ll be saying the key words in spanish.  its a bit concerning.

we went to corduba today. i took about 300-400 photos, of eberything. i would be tired, but its so exciting well, i am prety tired, cansado, but, who has time to sleep?. this computer doesn´t have the capabilities to put up any oif my photos, so, lo siento, i cannot show you the cathedral, which was once the largest in the world.

sorry i haven´t said much, we are going to the piscina now. i am having a lot of fun, its very interesting, and beautiful.  i am fine, i have had so much food, i may explode. everyone is very friendly. we have done a lot in the past few days, i could never hope to tell you all of it in a simple blog post. i hope one day you can come to espana and see its beauty. i sound like i´m advertising it, but it has no need of advertisement.

oh, and world youth day is much bigger here in europe than in australia. the french are televising the mass tomorrow (el domingo) in, france, i suppose.
ok,  i must vamos. adios! hasta luego! maybe tomorrow (manana) hopefully. maybe i can put some order into this tangled mess of words.

oh, the sun doesn´t go down till about 10pm. it rises around 7am. its amazing.

organic supermarkets: what the hell?

organic supermarkets are weird. i mean, the stuff they sell is pretty good, it tastes nice and everything, lots of choice , even though having 18 different kinds of flour (normal, gluten free, oat, rice, 6 types of wheat, all with different levels of refinedness) seems a bit over the top.
most of it is local, so, you're contributing to the local economy. the weird thing i don't understand is, if its local, that means there aren't as many expenses in getting it from the farm, or whatever, to the supemarket, which means it should be cheaper. and then theres the fact that they seem so fond of saying: "its organic. nothing artificial has been added." which means even less expenses in production by lack of additives, making it cheaper yet again.
so why the hell is everything at least twice as expensive as in a regular supermarket, which gets its produce from at least 2-3 days truckdrive away, and its apparently filled with additives, and covered in insecticides and herbicides?
according to howstuffworks, the whole thing is basically because its in low supply, with a high demand, and that the marketing chains are innefficient. i think the last bit is a polite way of saying the organic supermarkets jack up the prices.

i would just like to add, their sweet potato chips are delicious.

here is a picture of a monkey on a really tall ye-olde style bike. enjoy.

i like the expression on the monkeys face.

a little late yes, but...

so, my last post said i would post some pictures i took on my new camera. this didn't work out very well, i didn't have much time. they are not very good, but, i said i would, so i am going to.
i mean, what would be the point of saying i was going to do it, if i wasn't going to do it, or even decided against it later? thats like breaking a promise! not that anyone has even read my last post yet...

so, this is just near buderim, up on the hill. the view from there is pretty spectacular, especially when you consider how easy it is to get there:

there were more, but, um, i think the files are too big. i'll need to find a program to make them smaller. i'm going to spain soon, and i'll try to use this blog to post my pictures each day/few days.. obviously, that depends on my ability to find and use a computer while there.

wa hey! long time no post!

mhhrrm. or something like that. i'm trying to convert a cough noise into a word, its not exactly brain surgery, but its not easy as  pie, either. the scale of ease seems to exist in two dimensions, not one.

so, its been a good while since i made a post. well, for this blog at least. i follow a few other blogs that do like, two a month, and saya in underworld hasn't updated since the japanese tsunami. i can only pray to god that shes alright.

i don't really know what  to write. hmmm, you know what? i just got a new camera; 14 megapixels, 18x optical zoom. i have to go to uni in the afternoon tomorrow, but in the morning, i'm going to wake up early, and take some pictures. i've wanted to do that for a long time.
oh, of course, i'm going to post them on here.
heres a pic, a gif (i hope it works). i would like to point out the kids mouth looks freaky.

the evolution of cetaceans (or whales and dolphins)

i hope i spelt cetaceans right. that would not be a good start.

you know something? the world we live in is ridiculous. sure, look around you, it doesn't look ridiculous at the moment, does it? (if something ridiculous is happening around you, please don't read the previous sentence. thank you.)
well, you wanna know something? whales and dolphins evolved from a deer the size of a housecat, that lived in northwestern india. it likely ran and dove into the water as an escape mechanism from predators, and i guess it met one hell of a predator.
scientists used to think it evolved from a kind of wolf with hooves (yes, a wolf, that had hooves. what about it?) that lived in asia and north america. they thought this because they both had similar looking teeth shapes, but it was realised that they had different leg shapes, and molecular analysis proved it wrong.

the herbivorous indian cat-deer thing evolved into a carnivorous hyena thing that acted like a crocodile. it lived in arid, desert type places, mostly swam in water, but could move around on land if necessary.

the hyenacrocodile adapted a more crocodile appearance. this animal was more or less the same as before, only it was much more reliant on water. it was most likely very slow both on land and water.

that evolved into a thing that looked like an otter mixed with a crocodile. it was likely a very effective swimmer, and was totally dependent on saltwater. the nostrils are beginning to move towards where it will become the blowhole, currently towards the top of the snout.

this evolved into a dolphin thing, with an extra set of fins where the legs would be. in modern dolphins, a birth defect can cause these fins to reappear. in whales, however, it causes a very small set of legs to grow.

and i think we know what happened next. these dolphin thingys eventually splintered off into various shapes and forms, some big, some small, some gigantic.

also, here is a picture of vestigial leg and pelvic bones in a baleen whale skeleton. whales and dolphins have a number of vestigial organs, such as ear pinnae, which serve no function, and slow the creature down significantly. they are important, in land based animal ear function.

so, yeah, the world is ridiculous. and you know what? thank god for that, otherwise it'd be boring.







note: i looked at the wikipedia page for this, its where i got the picture. the dates for the animals are a bit strange, the first animal apparently lived after the second and third. in another website, an article on squidoo,  dates that make more sense are seen. the first was 49MYA (million years ago), the third is 48MYA ( in 1MY, the species turned carnivorous, and lost most of its hair, spending much more time in the water. its not such a big change) the 4th was about 43MYA, and a little bit before, and the 5th was about 35MYA, again, a little before.

in tonights post: cgi brand placement and a weird essay thing i found at work

here is what was written on a piece of paper i found at work the other day. it was in a pile of stuff in our lunch room. i asked around, nobody has any idea where it came from. i don't really know why i'm so interested in it, to be honest.

in the 21st century, it seems mcdonaldization comes into the world via the fast food system.
it could be said that this system can affect a variety of fields including technologies and education.
as a result of this, these domains could be explained in terms of two of the elements of mcdonaldization: efficiency and calculabilty.
these factors will be able to offer positive and negative impacts in technoloy and education.
this essay will explain will explain advantages and disadvantages of efficiency and calculability using the examples of technology and education.

firstly the positive influence of efficiency of mcdonaldization is related to the internet technology in lives of people.
therefore, mcdonaldizaion and the internet technology can provide people with accessibility of information.

secondly, the negative impact of the calculability of mcdonaldization is associated with higher education.
based on this information, it is said that higher education affected by calculability of mcdonldization can provide people with low quality education.

in conclusion, mcdonaldization has affected the fields of technology and higher educaion.
it seems that technology and higher education affected by two aspects of mcdonaldization, which are efficiency and calculability, are explained in terms of positive and negaive impacts.
therefore although mcdonaldization can lead a positive impact like accesibility of information, it can offer negative influence like low quality education.

there is no doubt that this system of mcdonaldization can happen to negative impacts like low quality education rather than positive impacts.
besides, it can be seen that the current negative impact of mcdonaldization is only the beginning stage.
it could be said that more various fields can be governed under the negative impacts of mcdonaldization in the near future.
eventually, it seems that the lives of people will receive negative influence of mcdonaldization.
as a result of this, the quality of lives of people will get lower.

and thats it. i think ther must be more to it, maybe this is only a part of the essay. also, it seems the writer may not have english as their first language. i asked the korean workers (they're over here to perfect their grasp of english); they don't know anything about it.
still, i think its an interesting read.

also, here is a clip from how i met your mother. i am showing it to you because it shows a new advertising thing, where a brand is dgitally placed in a scene. they've done it to many reruns of how i met your mother, as well as other shows.
also, listen to what barney says. that stuff is gold.