The Twilight Report

I was reading in The Year of Living Biblically about the author’s visit to the Creation Museum, and I suddenly have a bizarre desire to go. It’s only a stone’s throw CVG airport, where you can get a direct flight from almost anywhere. Checking the website though, I can’t help be disappointed by the fact they are open seven days... I mean if you believe that the bible is literally true, shouldn’t you not be working on Sabbath?

I bought my tickets to Salt Lake and to Jersey. I feel like I am finally returning to America permanently. It’s pretty scary. Sydney has been my home for four years and as a place to live it has been pretty good to me. When I landed in Sydney I had no specific job prospects lined up (aside from a temp job babysitting Linux servers at Sydney University). I am a little more concerned about the state of the economy and job prospects in the states right now.

I loved the photography and the use of colours in A Single Man. I didn’t think Colin Firth was as amazing as everyone has reviewed, but I thought he was good. I couldn’t entirely take the scene shot at Vasquez Rocks seriously, I always half expect a man in a bug-eyed Gorn suit to come stumbling into frame. Oh, and we’re gonna see Goats on Friday.

Summer feels over. I’m telling Lena to talk to the weather about making winter end before I arrive later in the month to the northern hemisphere.

Mum is warning me not to make her feel guilty if she ever has to sell the house in Wyoming, pointing to the example when I made her feel guilty about seeling the Tercel... when I was 12 (now I feel guilty for making her feel guilty... when I was 12). Neither of us wants to sell the house, but neither of us knows what to do with it either.

Tsunami warnings all along the east coast today meant the beaches were closed :(

Went to see Crazy Heart at Dendy Opera Quays today. Jeff Bridges was mesmerizing as the alcoholic country singer. New Mexico was beautiful as herself. Mum and I were both nostalgic about our home for so many years. My only question is: why would Bad choose to live in Houston when he could live in Santa Fe? Houston is a shithole. No offence.

• 4 February 2010 04:08pm: I am going to cross process C-41 into digital and E-6 into daguerreotype.
• 5 February 2010 07:24pm: Lamington O'Clock.
• 6 February 2010 04:08pm: It's raining again. I guess we are getting all those showers they had promised for the last two weeks in two days.
• 8 February 2010 10:18am: best the little castle
• 8 February 2010 10:28am: I love it when I type into the wrong window. Especially when the wrong window is the Twitter window :P
• 8 February 2010 10:23pm: Listening to the Prime Minister answer questions from high school students.
• 9 February 2010 12:08pm: If video games levels can have bosses shouldn't video game levels also have middle management and human resources?
• 16 February 2010 09:08pm: Allison has redistributed her unfinished schnitzel on to everyone else's plates.
• 20 February 2010 09:43pm: Thai for lunch and Korean bbq for din dins.
• 21 February 2010 02:19pm: After the Bridge Climb, we decided to take the ferry to Watson's Bay.
• 21 February 2010 08:44pm: The tigers are roaring in the parade tonight. Can't wait till 2012 for the dragons.
• 23 February 2010 04:19pm: Feeling lazy post Terrigal day at the beach

twitter.com/plicease

Tyler’s visit included three animal themed locations:

• Sydney Aquarium
• Featherdale Wildlife Park
• Australian Reptile Park

I suggested the Aquarium because Tyler likes sharks. There were lots of sharks. This worked out pretty well, but the place is damned expensive! Even more shockingly expensive than when I took Joe and Cicely and Brian there.

Featherdale was suggested by a friend of his back in the states who had been there when she visited Australia. I had never been there, so I was game. They had open bits where you could interact with the kangaroos, emus and koalas and feed them. I sort of fall asleep seeing these animals because I’ve seen them a lot! I’m not really into feeding animals either. I get really annoyed when I see people feeding sky rats (pigeons), and I’d just as soon leave feeding zoo animals to the experts. I tend to want to take people to Taronga Zoo for its superior location and view of Sydney Harbour or even better the Western Plains Zoo for its wide open animal spaces. If you want to see Australian animals though, Featherdale might be better that either of those two, as it focuses on them. When Lena and I went to the Western Plains Zoo, we skipped the Australian animals altogether. If I am going to see Australian animals I guess I’d rather see them in the wild, like when I was returning from Canberra one day at dusk by train and kangaroos were jumping away from the train. I’ve also seen Koalas and Wombats in nature. I guess I’d make exceptions for hard to find animals such as the platypus.

The Reptile Park was ripe for a return visit since it had been years since I’d been there. The biggest single enclosure is dedicated to a number of American alligators. I joked that Tyler came all the way to Australia to see American alligators. They had really good presentations of reptiles and of the endangered Tasmanian devil. During the reptile talk the presenter asked if anyone remembered when the Reptile Park was down in Wyoming. I did! The big yellow dinosaur and the rest of the park used to be parked right next to the Wyoming shops down the road. I even remember going once when it was there. There was also a rapping spider and fly in the spider hut. It was a little disturbing. Not in an “ew! Spider” sort of way but in a “what were they thinking” sort of way. The Reptile Park (or “snake pit” as we always call it) is sort of misnamed since they also have lots of birds, mammals and spiders! Things scaly and cold blooded are definitely their speciality though.

There was quite a bit of overlap. Each of the three had a salt water crocodile. The Aquarium and the Reptile Park both had a platypus, and Featherdale and the Reptile Park had Brolga. We decided that Brolga was the perfect name for a miniboss and should not be referred to with the article “a” as with Birdo (who, while she appears in many locations in SMB2 is an individual character, unlike the shy guys who are clearly many individuals). I suspect strongly, in fact that there is a complicated tunnel network connecting zoos all over Australia so that Brolga can pop up and be seen by visitors when necessary, without actually being more than one individual. This is the weird shit that Tyler and I come up with when we hang out, like pizza with donuts. Each park had its own animals that weren’t repeated as well, like the sharks at the aquarium and the alligators at the snake pit.

I am always looking and photographing the wrong things. One of my favourite zoo pictures is of a duck who wasn’t even a zoo animal, just happened to be bumming around the Brooklyn Zoo when we were there. He was sticking his head out of a hedge and looked like he was ready to yell AFLAC at us.

BridgeClimb is unique to Sydney. It is a far more intimate and adventurous way to see the city skyline than the Centrepoint tower, with the added bonus that you get to see the Harbour Bridge up close. It is pricy, but given the attention and care paid to safety and entertainment I think it is worth the price of admission. I recommend it to people when they visit. There is only one short portion of the climb that might be a little scary if one is afraid of heights. I’ve never seen anyone on any of the climbs that I went on that had any trouble in my groups or any adjacent groups. I’ve been up three times myself. The first was a birthday present from my grandma. When Joe and Cicely and Brian came out to visit, they went without me—it is expensive and they had each other to keep them company. The second time I went was on one of Lena’s trips down under. I hadn’t done the climb of the lower arch (called the “Explorer Climb”), so we did that. I find the lower arch to be more interesting because you get to see the innards of the bridge super structure up close. The third time was just this week with Tyler—I figured it wouldn’t be fun for him to do by himself. We opted for the climb of the lower arch.

Usually someone asks how many people were killed in the construction of the bridge. Morbid curiosity I guess? For some reason this last time nobody asked to my surprise. It says here that the number is sixteen. It is a remarkably low total given the technology and safety standards of the time. The guide usually tells the story of how they installed the rivets in the spanning connections without harnesses and it makes me a bit dizzy to think about! The other favourite story is about how the pylons on either end of the bridge are entirely decorative. This time the guide told us about the people out of work at the bottom of the bridge hoping somebody would fall to their death so they could take their job. The bridge was built in the depression, and I think it puts the GFC into perspective a little.

The guide takes four personalized pictures of your subgroup (the people you are going with), and one picture of the whole group. You get the group photo for free, but you have to pay for the personal pictures. Depending on the sun you can get some dark/light contrast issues with the photograph. It wouldn’t hurt for the guides to learn how to use fill flash. The prints are reasonably priced, being a little more than what you’d expect to pay at the drug store photo lab. They also sell digital copies of the photographs for exorbitant prices. I understand as the photographer, they hold the copyright to the photos, but given that they are not taken by professional photographers and are often documents that you were there rather than pieces of art, I think the prices for the digital copies are outrageous. You aren’t allowed to bring a camera on the climb so that is the only way you are going to get any pictures of the event. This is disappointing because I’d like to take photos of the bridge itself. The architecture of the bridge is wonderful and I love rusty old things.

One of the groups doing the upper arch climb while we were doing the lower arch climb this last time had a guy proposing to his girlfriend. I can think of tackier places to propose than that I suppose. She said yes, and everyone from three climbing groups who were there at the time clapped. Our guide said that locals don’t go for that sort of thing that it is mostly tourists proposing. Of course most of the groups are probably mostly tourists, but there are definitely locals as well. He also told the story of one guy who paid for his folks, her folks, himself and his girl (at $198 a head). He proposed at the top, which is standard procedure (at least 3000 proposals on the bridge so far). She didn’t say anything for a while. Then finally she said “we’ll talk about it later.” Guide suggested that maybe that wasn’t a yes. It was apparently a very quiet climb back down the bridge!

They also have wedding packages. You can’t wear a white dress or black tux; you have to wear the standard BridgeClimb jumpsuit. Apparently you can get your own photographers. This got me to thinking it would be great to go along as a photographer so I could take my own pictures of the bridge. The bride and groom might be a little disappointed (“where are the pictures of us and the guests?!”).

This last time Tyler and I were in the tail of the group. It was not by choice really, but on reflection, I think this is the best spot to be in, unless you want to ask questions. If you want to ask questions, you should be right behind the guide in the front. I’m not really a questions sort of guy though. Being in the tail means that you can take your time a little bit more, and enjoy. Climbing down the lower arch this time I realized it would probably be my last climb of the bridge. It got a bit nostalgic. I’m werid.

You can walk across the bridge for free. There are pedestrian crossings on either side. I want to do this at least once before I leave. I’ve already crossed the Manhattan and Brooklyn bridges in New York. The Brooklyn Bridge is more iconic, but the Manhattan Bridge has the advantage that you can see the Brooklyn Bridge from it. I also crossed the Anzac Bridge here in Sydney when I went to take pictures of the former HMAS Adelaide.

My grandma was one of the first people to cross the bridge, having been pushed by her parents in a pram when the bridge opened. For the 75th anniversary, I got to walk across the bridge myself when they closed the bridge for traffic for only the fourth time in its entire history to celebrate its birthday. The bridge is a great Australian icon, a cultural and engineering marvel along with the Opera House.

Tyler is off to Melbourne and I am back to works. It’s always a blast showing friends around Sydney.

Tyler flew in yesterday, picked him up at the airport and took the ferry to Manly for a swim. We did the wavy beach and the calm beach. It was probably the best beach day that I've had in a long time. I think that Tyler maybe brought it with him :)

Anyway, today we are going to the aquarium and Darling Harbour. Good times.

Just because you make a statement critical of something does not therefore make you a proponent of some “opposite” view.

Well. At least not for some people.

When I saw Guy Pearce in the first few minutes of The Hurt Locker, I figured the movie would be about him. Then his character was summarily killed off. It got 97% on rotten tomatoes. That was almost all I knew about the film aside that it was an Iraqi War flick. I liked it as a film, although I didn’t entirely like watching it. I’m glad I saw it.

The rain is coming down in buckets.

My best friend from my uni years is coming out To Australia for a visit on Wednesday. I have some activities planned:

• Manly Ferry and a swim at Manly Beach
• Sydney Aquarium and Darling Harbour
• Blue Mountains, maybe the Zig Zag Railway, but definitely a stop at the Paragon
• Day at Terrigal to see the skillion and a swim.
• The Snake Pit
• Bridge Climb

...but the actual schedule will depend on the weather and how cooperative it decides to be.

National Graham Gets To Be Anti Social Day 2005 I pledged to intentionally say something silly anytime that I got stuck thinking about something stupid that I had said in the past. I actually posted an entry about it here:

• 7 April 2005: Say Something Stupid

I haven’t really thought about it for a long while until it came up in conversation with Lena this morning. I don’t think about it I think because it worked in a sense, I don’t worry so much about the stupid things that I may have once said years ago. Go me.

Also, an addendum on my entry a few weeks back on films that I wish hadn’t been discontinued, including Fuji Press 400. Apparently CH Fuji Superia 400 has very similar curves and is only $1.99 from B&H. Press 400 was also insanely inexpensive for how good it was. Of course my main interest is in cross-processing it in E-6 to get a spooky blue cast and muted red colours, and I can’t be for certain that I’ll get the same results without trying it and seeing. Unfortunately it isn’t available in medium format, but I guess you can’t have everything.

On the 2:15pm out of Central train between Gosford and Narara a man holding a branch not long for this world was asking another passenger if he thought he could make a bonsai out of it. The branch grazed my arm at least three times, giving me a slight itch on my elbow. This is just the sort of colour you don’t see on the commuter trains in the morning! I thought to myself. I don’t miss commuting. Getting up early is a killer. Everyone’s dressed in soul crushing suits and ties (myself excluded of course) and the trains are packed by the time you get to Hornsby. There is a certain degree of predictability to it though. People are silently respectful, and while they won’t give up their seat for you, they go out of their way for the most part not to block seats they are not taking. If I just miss the commuter train in the morning out of Narara, or if I get on a train at around 3:00pm in the afternoon then it will be full of noisy school children who have piled their bags and their bodies in every doorway possible. I am pretty sure there is a scientific law or formulae which would describe it perfectly in mathematical precision. Commuters also know not to block both sides of the escalator. Backpackers from various European countries do not. That is a generalization of course. If there were backpackers who knew the escalator protocol then I’d probably not notice because they’d not be getting in my way! That is how generalizations start. I am not sure where they end.

Right as I am headed off to the beach for a swim, my Aunty Rae informs me that there had been a shark attack on one of the nearby beaches today. That didn’t faze me though. When I got to the beach it was covered in hundreds of blue bottles and there was a sign on the beach saying “beware of blue bottles” with a helpful illustration for those that are illiterate. That concerned me. I slapped on some sunscreen and waded out into the water a little ways, but few others swimmers were game, and usually when there are blue bottles about I make sure there are people around me who are going to get stung before me and who can raise the alarm. There was also lots of sea weed in the water which was uncool so I came back out, dried off and went back to try and help Aunty Rae out with her computer.

According to the mX, the shark was 1.2 meters long^{⋘note 1⋙} and was reported by some to have been a great white^{⋘note 2⋙}. They closed the beach and the guy who was attacked had at least one shark tooth stuck in his leg and had to go to hospital, but was expected to be released today. But seriously, those blue bottles hurt when you get stung!

Tonight on Jon Daily or the Colbert Show—I can’t remember which as they tend to blur when watched in sequence—they had a story about a male prostitute in Nevada who compared himself to Rosa Parks. I can no longer hear the name Rosa Parks without thinking of Sarah Vowell’s chapter on Parks in The Partly Cloudy Patriot, (the chapter was featured in this episode of This American Life, and vaguely the same as this article I found on the Time website). The funny thing is, even though I was initially resistant to the idea, anytime I hear someone comparing him or herself to Rosa Parks, it simply reaffirms in my mind that Vowell was right.

I'm always wanting my cake and eating it too. Spock said that having is not so pleasing a thing as wanting.

There was a violent thunderstorm in the middle of the day. So strong it made it onto the evening news. The rain cooled things considerable. I feel listless.

Among the things that I don’t get: people lining in strait lines in the super market when there clearly isn’t room. I realize that you don’t have to think about anyone but yourself, but if you curve the line into an area which does not block the aisle it works out for people trying to get through. It’s your call though.

I finally got back to works.

It feels good.

I was looking for my negs and I ran through my photo class portfolios. I remember them being random and incoherent, but they are actually better than my critical side had remembered. For B&W I, I don't really have a portfolio, just a photo album of all the prints that I made that didn't get given away. They are printed on RC paper, but some of them look pretty okay.

For B&W II I have a box and each of the photographs are mounted nicely, and there are only a couple of photographs that I would remove for not being my best work. The main problem with the B&W II portfolio is that it is incoherent. Some of the prints are on matte paper, which my B&W I teacher said that she hated, while the rest are on glossy paper, which I hate (I find the reflections on glossy paper distracting, and I hate when they get all fingerprinty). They are all printed on fiber paper which looks much better than the RC prints from B&W I or what you'd get for cheap from a lab (usually Fuji Crystal Archive now a days which isn't even black and white paper). Some are 35mm, while others are medium format 6x6. Most are mounted pretty nicely, but some aren't, and some are mounted on black mounting board and some are white. And at least one is black with a white core. I would be a lot happier if the mounting and the paper I used had been more consistent, if only because the inconsistency serves as a distraction from the photographs themselves.

I didn't produce a portfolio for the lighting class, although I wish I had. I have lots of slides, so I could theoretically construct something.

The colour portfolio from my colour class is the best though. All of the photographs are thematically related (with the exception of two nature shots that I threw in there because I had room), they were nearly all shot as 35mm E-6 (slide) and then scanned, they were all printed on the same ink jet printer, and the mounting board and work is a lot better done. One of the prints has faded, and it is unfortunately from a slide that I am pretty sure has been lost, although I am pretty sure I have the PSD file from which I printed it so it would be an easy thing to re-print it.

The idea of putting together a new portfolio now seems daunting. The fact that I work with a lot of different photographic gear is also working against me. I think it would be better to stick with one of 35mm, Hasselblad 6x6cm, Holga, digital, colour, black and white, or what have you, so that the resulting work doesn't seem so schizophrenic and incoherent. I like to play with new toys though. It's a bad habit.

It would also help a lot if I could find my negs.