alexyip's posterous

The Porterhouse Microbrewery

After spending the first half of my Saturday memorizing some anatomy, Victoria, Jason and me headed downtown to get our lab coats and some other stuff in preparation for our first dissection and patient sessions, this coming Monday. I'm pretty excited and nervous at the same time.

Well, we met up with another grad student, and headed down to The Porterhouse. Its a microbrewery set in an old townhouse, right smack in the center of Temple Bar (an area surrounding the Temple Bar, which is jam-packed full of other bars). We had some amazing burgers and stouts/beers. I personally had a stout called "Oyster", which believe it or not, is brewed with fresh oysters! It turned out to be way better than Guinness and Beamish, hands down. The taste was not overpowering at all, just a slight hint of the sea with every sip.

If you stare hard enough into the 1st picture, you will see that i took a picture of the ceiling fans in the bar. Pay attention to the pair of black cables that run parallel, from one fan to another. Each floor in the bar has one motor that drives a pulley system of ceiling fans, which really is a nice touch and adds to the character of the establishment.

On our way out after dinner, we stumbled across this street performer who was offering 25 euros to anyone who could ride his bicycle across the red carpet. The catch? A 4 euro buy-in with three attempts, and  a bicycle with handle bars that turned opposite to the direction the wheels would turn (left turned right, vice versa). Sounds easy yeah? Well so did every guy in the crowd, because within 15 minutes of standing around, at least 20 people attempted without success. That's 80 euro in 15mins!! 320 euro in 1 hr.


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Color printing hack

Earlier I said that printing in UCD costs an astronomical €0.15 per page side, but I was wrong. Printing in black and white costs €0.05, and full color €0.30. During my undergrad years, there was no need to print handouts in color. However, after experiencing day 2 of 1361, it is evident that I will need color in my handouts.

Printing in UCD is managed by Ricoh, and the print network they run is a thing of marvel compared to my previous college experiences. One has the freedom to print from anywhere in campus, be it from the computer lab, or from your laptop anywhere in campus. Simply click print, choose a printer that matches your paper size and print type (i.e A4b&w, A4color, etc), and go find a printer! Printers are located everywhere on campus with a student card reader, swipe your card and select the file you wish to print and viola!

edit: After typing out how it works, I decided against publishing the details openly. However, the little hint I can give is that you must convert your word, powerpoint or excel files into pdf format, and remove the restrictions whether there is any restrictions to begin with. After that, whether or not you chose colored or b&w printing, the print preview will show color, and the resultant print job will be colored.

I have been walking around campus feeling exultant and all-powerful.

Flip-Cup Tournament

Flip Cup is a game of Champions

A little history for you:
Originating from England in the early 1600’s under the rule of King Charles the First, Knights and Noblemen would compete against each other by flipping Goblets onto different coloured plates in a winner take all showdown in an attempt to win over the hand of Mary, Princess Royal, Princess of Orange and Countess of Nassau.
That is a FACT!
The game has since evolved to this:
Two sides line up across from each other, drinks quarter filled, officially known as filled to the ‘happy line’ on the table.

After a ritualistic barrage of chanting and taunting, two players begin.
- You finish your drink, and attempt to ‘flip’ your cup base side to rim side up.
- Once successfully done, the person to your right does the same thing and so forth until your entire team has finished ‘flipping their cups’.


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