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Here’s another 3D animation from Futurikon (Hélène Giraud and Thomas Szabo).

I’m sure the creators found some inspiration from Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace for this clip.

The distinctive turbine engine rumble and the cheeky attitude towards the flies, is very reminiscent of Anarkin’s podracing exploits on the Tatooine.

Podracing - bug style!

Had a relaxing couple of days this weekend. The weather has been hovering around the high-30s C, so I headed down the Mornington Peninsula. Spent two days lazing on beaches around Portsea and Sorrento.

Only an hour’s drive from the city, it’s the best place to go and relax. I guess that’s why half of Melbourne heads that way. (The other half heads in the opposite direction, up the Great Ocean Road.)

During winter, Melbourne weather can get a little gloomy, so when summer comes, everyone wants their piece of sunshine. There is one thing about the Australian sun. It can get very intense.

Normally, tourists from countries with less sunshine, having arrived in town for a holiday and not accustomed to our sun, tend to over idulge on the solar rays. They are the ones walking around with glowing red complexions. Not unlike a red lobster.

Well, after the weekend I could be mistaken for hapless tourist. Too much sun and not enough sunscreen is not a good mix. Sunburn is fun. Not!

I’ll know better for next week.

Chúc mừng năm mới Đinh Hợi!

And for those a little confused as to whether this year is a Fire or Golden Pig year - it’s both! Here’s why…

The Year of the Golden Pig

Each lunar year is assigned an animal symbol, with the pig being the final symbol in the cycle. Running concurrent to the 12-animal cycle is a cycle composed of the “Five Elements,” i.e., metal, wood, fire, water and earth. This cycle repeats over a 10-year period. The elements act as modifiers on the 12 animal symbols.

Fire is red or yellow, and this is associated with gold; in China, for example, red is considered a lucky color, and money is traditionally given in red envelopes. Accordingly, the Year of the Fire Pig becomes the Year of the Golden Pig. This occurs only one every 60 years, and is considered a particularly auspicious time to have children. It is believed children born during a pig year will be particularly successful in acquiring material wealth. Those born during a “golden pig” year, doubly so.

And to top it off, 2007 is no ordinary Year of the Golden Pig. When further calculations are made using the principles of Ying and Yang, the year is a special kind of Golden Pig year that occurs only once every 600 years! For adherents of the science of divination, this makes it an extremely fortuitous time to pop out a little one.

Yang Jongsung, a senior curator at the National Folk Museum of Korea, explained, “The Year of the Pig follows in 2007. If you have a child during that time, he or she will be very healthy and very wealthy. The pig means health, fertility and money. And a golden pig? It shines very brightly, so this is very good luck!”

Articles:

• The Year of the Golden Pig
• Chinese astrology

A friend decided that this year for his birthday, we should all do a spot of camping in Wilson’s Promontory, as opposed to camping in the mountains like we normally do.

About twenty of us went on the trip. Most left after work on Friday night, while a few like me decided to leave early Saturday morning for the three hour drive.

As it turned out, I made the better choice. I learnt later that many other people drove down on Friday night. Normally this would be ok if it was anywhere else, but since ‘the Prom’ is a National Park, there were camping restrictions. So, to get into the reserve, everyone had to check in. Thus, the long queue. Finding a camp site and setting up camp is not fun in the dark.

Heading off at 6am on Saturday, I took the scenic route and made it there by 9am, just in time for breakfast before hitting the beach.

Saturday was spent at Whisky Beach, while Sunday was at Squeaky Beach.

The surf was pretty good on the second day, so we did a spot of swimming/surfing/body surfing/body boarding/jumping up and down to the wave motion/swallowing of sea water.

The Prom is strewn with granite boulders. If we weren’t in the surf we were bouldering.

When night came, the beers came out, while we sat around in the darkness star gazing. It would have been nice to have had a fire going, but due to the extremely hot weather, there was a blanket fire ban over the whole of Victoria. The mossies were a bit of a nuisance, but I think the alcohol dulled the itching - till I got home.

A great weekend indeed.

Note: If you plan to head to the Prom for some camping, make sure you bring insect repellant. There are plenty of biting bugs down that way. The march flies are the most annoying. Some of them look like humming birds. I kid you not.

Being able to make a paper crane was the best I could do when it came to origami, the Japanese art of paper folding.

Kamiya Satoshi takes origami to the highest level. Just have a look at the amazing creatures he creates out of a single piece of paper…