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The news about Maori & Taiwan.

Maori & Taiwan

This morning I was told by Andrew that there was a radio (or text?) news reporting about the first Maori. According to the news, a recent science research based on DNA technology discovered that the first Maori in NZ might come from Taiwan centuries ago. In fact, Carol once told me that someone supposed the ancient Maori might come from one of the Asian countries as Maori cultures are similar to some Asian countries in some ways (although no one exactly knows which country they came from). Now this discovery might provide some clues over the myth. I can't find the complete news report on any media at the moment; maybe I'll find it tomorrow. ...Wait. Does it mean...Maori are one of we Taiwanese' ancestors ?!

Wise Up Week

All right. So the orientation week (aka Wise Up Week) is this week, but it's not everyday for everyone. To all international students, the seminars on Thursday is compulsory and it seems I also have to attend the orientation of the School of Science and Engineering on 18 July (i.e. next Monday!?). There're also some other tutorials in the library on Tuesday and Thursday. These could also be useful for me.

When is Wise Up Week then?

As I'm applying PhD registration, I'm waiting my conditional offer at the moment (another 3 weeks...). and thus I wouldn't have got any enrolment documents (except the formal offer for Post. Diploma received before, but I've given it up). On the other hand, there'll be an whole-week (and compulsory) orientation for each of new student next week. Although I haven't enrolled as an administered student, it must be a good idea to join the event and get familiar with the campus. The problem is...when is the orientation?? According to the offer (again, for Diploma but not for PhD), it looks like to be from the 11th of July; that is tomorrow. Whereas I just read on Waikato Uni.'s website right now and it says it's from 14th to 18th !? So when on earth is it then? It looks like I'll have to ask staff in International Centre earlier tomorrow morning.

Auckland zoo

Hilary has been asking her parents for going to the Auckland zoo for long time, and today her dream finally comes true. Ducks. Chicken on the road...? Look! Two chicks!! Oh oh, they're following us. Lovely and colorful birds. Snapshot of "rainbow" bird. Lovely fish. Baby penguin. Peacock and kangaroo walabee. Giant turtle! (frontview) Giant turtle! (sideview) Baby turtle...Hey! Are you all right? Baby turtle...finally it gets up.

Confirmation

All right. Since the assistant told me that she'd got my documents for PhD studying and had been under the process of registration, I'm sure I've finished my first step. Phew~~finally I can sleep earlier..(I really can't stand going to sleep after 2 or 3 o'clock everyday...)

Finally send documents out

I went to the International Centre right after getting off the bus this morning. Normally I would hand my documents to an assistant of the Centre as I'd talked with her for many times, but unfortunately, all the staff are joining conference today and thus she as well is not available until tomorrow. Hence I could just hand my application form, statement and the most important – research proposal – to receptionist. I'll come here tomorrow and make sure if the assistant get my stuff.

Last work on the initial PhD proposal

I've been working on my research proposal for weeks. To apply for studying PhD course, I have to submit research proposal with application form. However, I couldn't send them out these days as my supervisor told me that my topic was not big enough for a PhD thesis, and thus I had been working on searching some more journal articles and figuring out some ideas. Discussing with and also asking advice from professor (a very busy gentle man) these days, I finally finished my draft last night and approached the professor for correcting it this afternoon. Of course as usual, I asked some questions about research skill, and I was surprised that the old professor could use not only thumb drive but Endnote – reference managing software. Professor asked me if I knew this software, and actually I used to use that for sorting references of my Master thesis 3-4 years ago. As far as I know, nobody in my department (even staff) but me knew Endnote and used it on research that days. Although I didn't show on my face, I was quite amazed that even such an old professor in front of me knew this tool. In addition to the questions, some new ideas came to my mind and I might add them into my research project in future. Professor also showed me a manuka honey impregnated pad. It is a coffee-coloured pad without any smell (according my amazing nose). According to him, it will suck up large amount of exudate without losing its antibacterial function. Actually I had been imaging that there would be medicinal smell (such as providon iodine or hydrogen peroxide) on the pad as it would be used as a medicinal dressing. Anyway I got the revised proposal from professor tonight and also corrected mistakes. Finally I can send these documents out to the International Centre tomorrow!

Katherine's got a broken(?) leg

It was in resource centre this afternoon. When I was working on my research proposal, I looked toward the resource centre through the window. "Hey, isn't this Katherine? Long time no see!" I thought. I waved my hand, and niticeing I was there, she also waved hand to me. However, what caught my eyes was not here waving hand but her leg. According to her, the leg had been damaged during her dancing, and she needs some assistances such as sticks and helper these days. It seems that Menaka as well had had the same experience before. "Now I'm much closing Arizio". Katherine said. Well, at least you haven't got wooden legs with you, Katherine. Any way, hope you get better soon.

This naughty puss

Sometimes what you see is not exactly what it is... It looks like just a normal bun news paper... Eh...? What's this? Hey! What are you doing there Charlie!?

Finally NZ as well...

Following the fraud crisis in the US last week, it also happened in NZ yesterday (from NZ Herald). According to the news, it is announced that (only) MasterCard and VISA are attacked; however I wonder if other bank services (cashpoint, eftpos, blah blah blah) would also be affected since there's no so-called "international" on Internet...

It's really a big deal

All credit card holders should aware that up to 40m credit cards are hacked. Although the fraud happened in the US, breaking out in the number of victims in other nations must merely be a matter of time.

The UMF of Manuka honey

Searching for some information about Manuka honey on Internet, I found some articles: "Harnessing honey's healing power"(BBC News), "Doctors turning sweet on healing with honey"(CNN News), "Honey may take the sting out of the NHS superbugs"(The Daily Mail), and "Raising spirits"(The Guardian) accidently. According to them, the exact component of the UMF is still unknown. I really wonder what the factor exactly is. (But I also wonder how long it would take to unveil the mystery...)

Stupid...

"Microsoft censors Chinese blogs" on BBC News

Dragon Boat Festival

In Taiwan and China, today is Dragon Boat Festival. Actually I'd have forgotten the festival if uncle Yeh hadn't brought those glutinous rice dumplings. So, finally I can eat them today (it doesn't mean that I can't eat them the other days though). At first I expected that these should taste light light and mild (as uncle Yeh is a vegetarian), but alas actually they're quite spicy. T_T By the way, today is also Philipines Independence Day. To celebrate the independency, Charito and Hilary (and Yuuki !?) joined a party this afternoon. However, they came home quite early because of Hilary's cold. At night Hilary's cold looks getting serious; she shouldn't have gone out for the party as long as she'd got sick.

Finally Yuuki comes out to the city, but...

I never know that he doesn't know how to borrow book from a library! Actually I've told him to borrow some story books from city library right after he came to New Zealand, and now I know that what he said - he'd borrowed some books from the library – is a lie! He even doesn't know how much he should “pay” for borrowing a book. What? Does this mean what he said he knew how to borrow a book in a library is also a lie? Now I find I can't believe him at all. He's really driving me nuts! It's not all. He's also forgotten his library card's password, thus he couldn't see any information of him on the library's website. Oh, dear...what a nuisance!! By the way, we also went to the new Warehouse before having our dinner at Burger King. It is now a two-floor building, but basically the products are the same as before. As with the prices...they're not much cheaper than the old Warehouse (as far as I observed).

The new Warehouse

will be opened tomorrow. According to the Bonanza, there might be some big bargains from tomorrow to Sunday. Hm, I might be looking for a new watch then (as my old one seems to be dying). "The Warehouse! The Warehouse! Where Everyone gets a Bargain!" ...so, what should the K-mart do??

Finally find the old friend !

I tried to telephoned Robert, one of my old friends in Taiwan. Actually I wasn't too sure if I could contact with him before I telephoned to his house. Fortunately I did this time. As I've thought, he's finished his army duty for about 2 weeks. According to him, he's going to take Chinese medicine exam and currently is preparing for that. We talked about many topics, such as our graduate research, our teachers, some of our friends and so on. Unfortunately, the battery of my phone got flat and I had to cut it off. Make sure that he's using Email, we cheered each other,"Have a good sleep!"(It's 10:30 pm in NZ) "Have a good dinner!" (It's 6:30 pm in TW). Yahoooo !! Nice talk with you again, Robert!

Blender 2.37 released just now.

Blender hasn't been updated since 2.36 for over 5 months. According to the release news, it looks like some interesting functions such as softbody and transformation tools are added. Now I wonder when the new version of YafRay, POVRay and Terragen will be released...

Suzana's missing report

CAEL Lv 7 students have to accomplish their research report by next Tuesday; however, somehow Suzana's report files always disappear. At first she thought it's her diskette's problem and changed another new one. Unfortunately, it still kept happening. Actually, today would have been the 3th (or 4th?) time. Not to mension she's getting mad. She didn't know what to do and even thought that shd'd like to buy other diskettes in the campus (mind you, today's windy, rainy and freezing). To know what on earth happen to her report, I asked her to show me what she had done and what had showed up on the monitor before the report disappeared. Finally, we got the reason - the diskette had been full! No wonder... Gave her another new (and emply, of course) diskette and made sure her reports no longer disappeared, she finally calmed down. I had a feeling after that. IT class might sometimes be essential to IELTS or research class for someone. In Suzana's case, even a simple matter such as a filled diskette might drive those who are not computer-savvy nuts. Actually, I've ever seen a guy majoring in information management compressed BMP files (a common yet uncompressed graphics format) into ZIP format rather than into JPG, GIF or PNG format...I still remember how he wondered why he couldn't pack a simple PowerPoint file and 4-5 "compressed" graphic files into a diskette. Of course this "zip and jpg/gif/png" problem is a silly story to most of us, yet these cases point out that actually many people still don't know how to use computer properly. In Suzana's case, how could she hand out her report if her files keep disappearing? That is, no matter how well her report is written, it'd be in vain if everything's gone. I wonder if it's necessary for LI to add some basic computer courses in their class...