The Twilight Report

Я говорю по-русски

Fri, 04 Apr 2008 01:56:00 GMT

Привет! Меня зовут Грэм Давидович. Мне три-дцать один. Я австралиец и американец. Я работаю и живу в сиднее. Я програмист. Я говорю C++ и Perl свободно. Тоже я говорю по-английски свободно. Я говорю по-немецки неплохо, и по-русски очень медленно. Вы понимаете по-русски :P Моя мама учёная. Она работает в универсиитете в Сиднее. Мой папа учёный тоже а он работает и живёт в Канберре. моя сестра и мой брат студерты. Они живут в Канберре тоже. Мой брат жонглёр. Мои друзья э и д. У них есть собака. Его зовут джек. Моя девушка Лена. Сегодня вечером я дома. Как я? Хорошо, спасибо! До свидания.

Spinifex

Sat, 26 Jan 2008 02:47:00 GMT

Yesterday I

Signed up for Russian 1^[1].
Got tickets to go to Canberra next weekend, which is dead this time of year^[2].
Went to a really nice Spanish restaurant for dinner and ate many delicious things. They had pretty good margaritas. I took some pictures with my phone, but I think the memory card in my phone got erased or something. I need to start photographing for real again :/
Saw an interesting play about the Spinifex people. It was deeply personal but not at all bitter.

I’m sorry I left myself logged in to IM for like two days but had been so busy that I didn’t sit in front of my home computer for that whole time. Sorry if you sent me messages I wasn’t ignoring you! Promise! I will endeavour to log myself out next time, and actually be in front of my computer when it says that I am.

Kim at work told me that I could never do or say anything to surprise her. At first this made me angry, but now I don’t really care. It occurred to me that nothing she has done so far has been terribly surprising. meh.

I had an epiphany this morning about how to reorganise the provisioning code. I was glad that I had left work early yesterday rather than agonising over it, because apparently all I needed to was to get a good night’s sleep and a fresh perspective. I realise though, that I love my job, but in some ways it isn’t as challenging as when I was working at The Company, especially that period when I was working on parallel abstraction. It’s hard to compare with accomplishing the impossible.

Today we had lunch at the pub, which was fun, except they forgot our order and then pretended that they hadn’t. There is this girl who is always flirting with Andrew. I can’t remember her name.

I’m looking forward to special visitors in March.

This will actually be my second Russian course, for some reason they start with “beginners” and then go on to 1, 2, etc.
Or, any time of year for that matter

dogs and cats, living together, mass hysteria

Thu, 03 Jan 2008 06:41:00 GMT

Re-watched Fight Club. I honestly don’t understand what I saw in that movie. It’s clever, and somewhat anarchic, but like Che it has more traction as a T-shirt than it does for its ideas. Ironically appropriate given the proclivities of Tyler Durden. The film reminds me of just about every frat boy I met at uni.

Re-watching Ghostbusters. The effects are cheesy, but ahh... makes me all nostalgic for New York. Good times. This remains one of my favourite films.

New TV is a good excuse to revisit my DVD library.

Also watched my second demo (e) for the first time on my new TV, and also for the first time with my new amp. Looks and sounds really good :) I decided to skip watching my first demo Final Intensity on account of it being tainted by Kari’s contribution to the project.

Playing through Super Mario Galaxy. I am less than 15 stars short of the final showdown, assuming there isn’t an encore, which there probably is. Running both the Wii and the Mac Mini through the TV has got me to thinking that if the Wiimote worked as a pointing device for the Mac Mini it would be really cool. I still think about interface design issues, even though I am destined to work on server side stuff it seems. It’s a pity that nothing works with anything else. Yay for capitalism and free markets.

e

Sat, 14 Apr 2007 06:30:00 GMT

Cairns and Melbourne

Tue, 09 Jan 2007 03:16:00 GMT

Cairns, Day 1

Day 1 of Cairns actually started at 4:00am in Sydney. We took the red-eye to Cairns, which required getting the very first train into the city from Artarmon. e can attest that flying makes me grumpy. Flying on no sleep doubly so.

btw- I would like to thank e for still being my friend after having to fly with me :P

After checking in and checking out the resort, we took a taxi into town and had over priced sea food. The view was nice, but I vowed that I would not spend $30 on bad food again this trip. I can eat five or six times for that much usually... and it’s better.

Cairns, Day 2

Quicksilver cruise to the Great Barrier Reef where we went snorkeling. This was, for me, the highlight of the Cairns trip, as I had not been snorkeling since the last time I was in Cairns which was about 15 years ago! Still the whole experience left me feeling that I had been hermetically sealed from reality. I think it would have been better to have gotten a smaller boat that didn’t go out so far and spent more time snorkeling.

Cairns, Day 3

The third day we did smallish bus tour around areas south of Cairns. Our tour guide was obviously a local bloke who was highly entertaining. I often wish I could sound Australian like that. We got to see some of the devastation which Cyclone Larry had brought in March of last year. We also got to see this crazy water soluble castle in the tropics, which I think I mentioned in a previous post.

Cairns, Day 4

Our last day in Cairns involved a train ride up to Kuranda, which was lame, followed by some tourist shopping, a so-so meal and the “sky rail” back down the mountain. Sky rail is a fancy name for a gondola. The Gondola was pretty cool way to see the forest, especially since there were two stations to stop at and take a look around, but not worth the hefty price tag.

Then we went to Djabugay World (or whatever it was called), which was a little park dedicated to presenting local indigenous culture to tourists. There was nothing new here for me, except for actually being shown how to throw a boomerang by a true native. I was kind of nervous, but with all the other white people behind a net I made a pretty good throw and it did actually come back to my approximate vicinity.

For dinner we had really nice fish and chips. Actually I had prawn cutlets. There were of course too many chips. There seems to be a correlation between the quality of sea food and the amount of chips. The best fish and chip places seem to have way too many chips. They had fresh sea food in the window (which you can also buy to take home and cook), which also seems to be the mark of a good fish and chips place.

Melbourne, Day 1

After fish and chips we flew to Melbourne and arrived today at 12:30am. Slept in, then I went looking for film. I got to know Melbourne a little better. I haven’t been here since 1999. I have to say, for the whole Sydney/Melbourne rivalry, that Melbourne is a pretty cool city. This is definitely the sort of place that I could live if I knew anyone or if I landed an awesome job here.

All of this, despite the fact that I was born in Sydney and thusly should be biased in favour of Sydney. Sydney does, however, have much better beaches, the opera house and the bridge, so I think I will stick with Sydney for now.

Then the kids went down to see the penguin parade. I wasn’t much interested in seeing penguins so I stayed in the city to check out things here on my own.

I am a big fan of the city circle tram which is free and uses these really old looking trams. I don’t know why, but I really have a thing for old stuff. I have always been a big fan of the old Sydney ferries, even though newer ferries would probably be safer, despite not looking as cool.

So far...

So that is where we are so far. I still have three days in Melbourne, although the last day is only a half day. Then we are back in Sydney and my friends will be headed back for the states. It’s been really wonderful having them visit. I’ve done a bunch of things that I wouldn’t ordinarily do, and I’ve gotten to know Australia a little better.

I am ready for more visitors, so book your tickets today!

Talking

Mon, 30 Oct 2006 03:42:00 GMT

This morning I was talking to e on the phone, and she told me that after seven months down under I “have a slight accent.” This made me happy, although I doubt I would fool any Australians. This and the call directly proceeding it to Joe (to plan Project NYE2006, wherein my friends are coming to visit), was the first time I had talked to anyone in America since I got here. I finally bought myself a calling card, and it costs me like 4¢ a minute, which is less than it used to cost me to make a long distance call in the US. That is shocking.

Australians no longer sound that odd to me. I expect when I go back to the states that Americans will be the ones to sound odd. Not my friends though. e and Joe don’t count because they just sound like e and Joe, not like Americans, since I know them well. It’s only American strangers that I expect to sound funny.

Today I went to the coast and took a walk along the ocean. It was nice, and it sort of reminded me of February 2005, when I came to Australia for a visit and had this strong desire to just stay after spending a few days in Sydney and Collaroy by the beach. Although now I have a bit of a sunburn, which is no good.

Japanese Food and iPods

Fri, 27 Oct 2006 22:54:00 GMT

Went to a “Japanese” restaurant with some co-workers. If I were in the states and with my friends or family I would probably call it a “Sushi” place, but that didn’t seem to be the term used here^[1]. This place had a conveyor belt and you just picked up the stuff that you wanted as it went by. This concept has always seemed cool in theory, but also a little bit sketchy in terms of health, but the fish turned out to be quite fresh, and I would probably go back again.

The good news is that my co-workers are actually pretty cool. I keep telling people that there are no Jeffs where I work now (my adventures with jeff were chronicled here, here and here.

Jeff

There are many things that I miss about working at The Company, but Jeff is not one of them. I do miss my collaborations with Adil, Tiffany, Ed and Ed a lot.

I was excited yesterday because my iPod finally came back to me. I wasn’t sure they would actually do it, but they replaced it, so this is actually my third iPod (I checked and it has a different serial number), my second replacement by the same warranty, so that extended warranty was actually worth it for once. Would I get another iPod? I’m not sure, I mean I love having the thing and it is super simple to use, but as far as reliability it doesn’t score well. My friend e and her husband both have iPods and both are giving them trouble at the moment (one sounds like it has died, the other is having the same sort of problems that mine did before it finally died). Theresa’s died recently too. In my own experience their ability to fix things appear to operating at only about 66%, and you only get a good result if you call up and yell at them. I was actually super courteous both times because Theresa used to work in a call centre and people who work in places like that don’t deserve to have abuse hurled in their general direction, you do (however) have to be insistent when block your path with red tape. On the other hand when I actually have a working iPod it is hard to imagine life without it! I think I would actually get another iPod, but I’d get the AppleCare Extortion Plan up front this time, because although there was more hassles than there should have been, they did fix things in the end. That does count for a lot.

I think traditionally Sushi refers to the rice or something, but Americans at least usually use it to refer to the whole thing

like a heartbeat / on the downbeat

Fri, 22 Sep 2006 22:24:00 GMT

Feeling overly dramatic and totally energyless tonight. sendmail should die; remind me again why we can't just use postfix instead?

I have an urge to write another computer demo. Will need two things:

to review OpenGL
inspiration

I was in a bookstore this afternoon after work and I picked up an OpenGL book. The hard bit will be the inspiration. My last demo was inspired by the number e^[1].

Who wants to be in charge of sound effects and music?

The other thing I thought about buying in the bookstore was a Mandarin/English dictionary. I decided to wait for now. I've obviously become interested in 中文^[2], but I have a few 中文 resources that I should finish with before buying new stuff. It could be a passing interest after all.

I'm a dork.
Chinese language

Visitors!

Wed, 16 Aug 2006 10:38:00 GMT

Here is an old photo that reminds of the days when I would get up early to capture the morning light. Brrr. I think it was cold that morning!

Today, in contrast was quite nice! Weather wise I mean.

Today was the farewell lunch for Rory (not sure about the spelling), which I was sort of not looking forward to on account of having to be social and stuff, but it actually went pretty well. After ordering my lunch at the bar I got to the tables reserved for us, and all of the seats were taken at tables that had people so I had to colonize a new table. Sitting alone in a group like that is pretty disturbing, especially if you are mildly ~~socially phobic~~ antisocial. Some office folk with mildly recognizable faces came over to my table shortly after and introduce themselves. I think I talk too much in those situations. I can't think of anything to say so all sorts of irrelevant stuff starts to regurgitate without my thinking about it. I had this theory that it would be easier to deal with my shyness in a place other than New York, and I think I was right, or maybe I'm just getting older and more able to deal with this stuff.

Ah, but the really good news is that Cicely, Joe and (allegedly) Brian^[1] are coming out to visit for New Years Eve! NYE is, quite simply, the best time of year to be in Sydney, and Sydney is, quite simply, the best place to be for NYE. I was just thinking this morning that I really love Sydney and I am fairly certain that Sydney is the greatest city on earth (no offense to my friends in New York, which I also adore), but of course I miss my friends! I am super excited about having some friends out and being able to show them around and hang out with my friends.

Yesterday my new 23" Apple HD monitor arrived and I am using it right now. It looks really good. It's a new toy that is yet another reason for me to despise the inferiority of my work equipment. My friend e was ~~telling~~ reminding me that most places are like "that" ... and she's right to an extent (but at least she can IM from work!), but I think I will continue to complain about work anyway. It beats complaining about my personal life!

Not much else to report.

I say allegedly, because he said we was "for sure" going to come to Salt Lake for at least one of those ski trips that I organized, but he waited till the plane ticket prices were astronomical

P.O. Box 1663

Tue, 14 Feb 2006 01:51:00 GMT

e and d came out for a few days. I'm sad because now that they are gone again I realize it will be a long time before I see them again. Tell me again why I can't just bring my friends to Australia with me? e said she would try to come out within a couple of years. It's going to be hard getting used to not being able to meet up with her and Jack after herding practice to go for a hike in New Jersey.

On the bright side, It was great to see them, and I was pleased that e finally got to meet my mum. The first day they were here we went skiing at Brighton. d said that he actually liked skiing so he may be back for more at some point.

That night we had Posole (prepared by myself) and invited Clare and Val over as well so we had an interesting discussion about whether or not Biology could ever be a predictive science or not. We also discussed the stupidity of large organizations, such as IBM and LANL, and how open systems are safer to closed ones.

Everyone had seconds, and some even had thirds. Right before I left New York, e told me that she likes Mexican food... all these years I thought she was just being polite and eating the food that I make for Enchilada Night. Seriously.

The second day we took a drive to Park City to see two photography galleries. We drive through the mountains and took a number of pictures and had lunch at somebodyorother's Grill. That night e and d took us to the Red Iguana, where we had more good Mexican food.

2005

Sat, 31 Dec 2005 20:23:00 GMT

2005 was supposed to be the year that Decepticon's attack Autobot City on earth (as chronicled in The Movie. I took this as a sign that it was time to quit my job at The Company and go back to school and study computer graphics and distributed computing and maybe one day get a job at Pixar. I still think even being a "lowly" system administrator at Pixar would be a fun job. Being a software developer for the rendering farm would be awesome.

Appropriately enough, last Thursday, the last Thursday of the year, I went to the MoMA with e and they had a special exhibit on the art of Pixar. Most of what they showed was models and sketches that were made before anything gets done on the computer. Seeing the artists' names and countries of origin clearly labeled by each piece, one is reminded that computer animation is not just a form of entertainment, but also an art form. It's fascinating to me, because I have always been passionately interested in the interaction of expression and technology.

Highlight had to be seeing the early sketches of the Edna "E" Mode character from The Incredibles, who has been my favorite Pixar character since I saw the movie because of her energy and humor. I had one of her quotations engraved on the back of my iPod to remind me that "I never look back; it distracts from the now." In the gallery e told me she was her favorite character, to which I responded, "really? Me too."

Anyway, 2005 is coming to and end, and Unicron never attacked Cybertron and as a result, the Decepticons were not driven off as was for told in The Movie, and I'm not going back to school, just yet, but I am on my way back to Australia. (many more words and things...)

Edith Keeler must die!

Mon, 26 Dec 2005 05:57:00 GMT

Merry Christmas everyone who celebrates thus, and for those of you who do not, Happy New Year. Happy Hanukkah; I see that it starts sundown on Christmas day this year.

I fly back to New York tomorrow. Nothing really happened while I was on vacation. I didn't even go skiing. This is in part because Don was feeling quite ill, although if I had been up to it myself I would have gone on my own.

I have one more week this year that I have to show up at work. I'd tell my boss that I am quitting, but since he won't be in next week it will have to wait until next year. Many people will be predictably absent. I get to be the sole developer on call for EinsTimer next week. Isn't that dandy.

Incidentally, how does one tell one's boss that one is quitting?

I don't know what I am doing for New Years Eve.

I looked at Sydney city maps and Australian rental sites to gage how much it will cost to live in Australia: So far I estimate more than Beacon, but not horribly so.

I am looking forward to going to the MoMA on Thursday with e.

I guess what I am saying is that I don't have anything to say.

I Cannot Be Hurt by Anything this Wicked World Has Done

Fri, 31 Dec 2004 13:13:00 GMT

What was 2004? It was a year of stolen and disputed elections in Georgia and the Ukraine, the rise and fall of Howard Dean and John Kerry, the first private space flight and the end of the "X-Prize," disaster in Darfur, prisoner abuse in Iraq, expansion of the European Union, the death of Ronald Regan and a month of flags at half mast, the return of Greek Olympics and a very smug presidential victory. In less political but tragic terms, the worst natural disaster in my memory has occurred in Asia as Tsunami death tolls top 135,000 according to CNN.com.

For me, the year started out as a bleak one in the coldest New York winter I have ever experienced. My mother came to visit me for her birthday. We stayed in Manhattan and it was bitterly cold.

Lowel and Johanna

I took a lighting class at Dutchess which was a blast. Some of my friends from Black and White II were taking the class and I met some other cool people. It was so much fun working with those people, including the teacher, Lowel Handler.

(Read more...)

In Short, 2004 was A Great Year and I have high hopes that 2005 will be even better.

Cold December Day, Bright Blue Skies

Tue, 14 Dec 2004 17:08:00 GMT

Well, my little trip down to New Jersey on Sunday was great. I visited my friend, and fellow camera geek e. I showed her all the most important things about PhotoShop that I learned from the Color Digital class that I took this summer. We went pretty fast, but I think she picked up enough for it to be useful for her. At the very end, I watched her work on this photograph:

Photograph By e

She took it while she had been in Israel this year, and I think it's a very good photograph and it gives me a warm fuzzy because she did the color and contrast adjustments using the techniques that I had showed her.

I was going to make a print of this so that I could put it up somewhere, but I asked for her permission first, since I would want anyone to check with me before reproducing one of my photographs or putting them up on the web or anything like that, but she said I could do anything I wanted with it so here it is.

Ever have a whole bunch of things that you need to get done, but you get psychologically road blocked by one of them? The completion of the one does not really bar you from completing the others, but for some reason you can't wrap your mind around the others until you get it taken care of? Well, that is sort of how I felt this morning. No longer!

At lunch today I used the $8 coupon at the cafeteria that The Management gave everyone in our department as a "thanks." I got the most expensive item I could find to make sure that the total was at least $8. Total cost to me: $0.55. Feeling that I have milked The Company for as much as I possibly could: Priceless.

On the way out I snarked a slice of apple pie. They were giving them away to celebrate our strategic alliance with Apple Computers. A friend of mine worked on the resisters in the new G5 computers! This is among the many reasons that I would love to have a G5. Given my current economic realities, that is going to have to wait.

Photo Geek Graham

Wed, 08 Dec 2004 23:08:00 GMT

Today was Sock Khim's last day. She is headed back to Singapore which I have confirmed through Internet research is indeed both a city and a state. In broken but very understandable English she wrote us all a sweet farewell note that left me, and I think everyone else with a warm fuzzy feeling. She included a personal note for everyone. Mine was something like "Graham you always take great pictures." Such wonderful sentiment; I think all of us HVOCers are going to miss her. She also gave me some candy from back home which she said she could get more for me if I liked it.

Is That a Chicken?

I love things like this, I mean... I have no idea what it is, although I am pretty sure that is a chicken on the label. Can you imagine marketing a candy in America or Australia with the picture of a chicken? I wonder how the chicken is related to the edible substance contained within.

Sock Khim reminded me that I have this interest in photography which I have failed rather miserably to enjoy recently. So I IMed my friend e to see if we could get together and be camera geeks on Sunday. I'm going to drive down to Jersey and show her how to do color correction in Photoshop and she's going to going to show me her new scanner. I hope eventually to be able to afford a nice film scanner and I think the type she has would be a good candidate.

Meanwhile I have to start thinking about the future.

Philosophy

Sat, 27 Nov 2004 13:28:00 GMT

I never look back. It distracts from the now.

Edna "E" Mode

Inverse Psychology

Tue, 23 Nov 2004 17:28:00 GMT

I have discovered that if you want people to hang around then it helps to have an optimistic outlook on life. I learned this by observing people and by reading How To Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie. Just now, it occurs to me that the inverse corollary to that theorem is that if you want to avoid somebody you should be negative in all your statements when talking to that person. I don't mean be negative about them, mind you, that will just earn you an enemy.

For example, I can't stand Office Mate IV. This is a long tradition with me which goes back to Room Mate I. The only Room Mate I ever got along with was Eric (featured briefly in my story Arizona Fish Story : A Life Less Serious) and the only Office Mate I ever got along with was a girl I had a crush on named E.

Anyway, Office Mate IV walks in just now and says "Any good news?"

"Is there ever any good news?" I ask.

I was actually thinking specifically of The News as in what you read in the paper, or watch on TV (or read on the Internet). Lets face it. Good News doesn't sell so there is no Good News.

"We get Wednesday off." He pointed out.

This for some reason is a big deal to everyone. I am not quite sure why, because every Wednesday before Thanksgiving your manager comes by in the early morning and tells you that you can leave early. It's supposed to be a surprise, but of course it never is. I had decided to circumvent this stupidity this year by just not showing up at all on Wednesday. This year, they told everyone ahead of time, so they beat me to the chase, as it were.

"I was already going to take Wednesday off." I respond, not in a despondent sort of way, but very matter-o-factly.

"I give up then." OM4 says finally and leaves.

"Victory!" I think to myself.

It then occurred to me that this may be a more effective method of dealing with OM4 than putting my ear phones on and turning the volume way up on iTunes. I can remain chipper and optimistic about the future and at the same time exercise my sarcastic wit on OM4. This truly is The Best Of Both Worlds.

Edited For T.V. Version

Thu, 18 Nov 2004 03:15:00 GMT

First of all, I have been crazy busy lately, so if you have written me recently and haven't gotten a reply, please bare with me because things are going to settle down soon!

What happened today?

I have been working on Parallel Abstraction for most of 2004 now, with little to show for it. Well, that isn't entirely true. I have actually accomplished a lot, it just doesn't feel that way sometimes, you know? Anyway, I have been extremely stressed about this because the thing is supposed to be working by mid December, and I have my doubts about it.

I realized it really doesn't matter if I don't finish Parallel Abstraction, because it doesn't matter anymore if I get a bad performance appraisal for 2004. I was completely relieved and stress free for the first time in recent memory. I'm not going to stop working hard to make sure that Parallel Abstraction is working in time, but I realized in this case, failure really is an option. I didn't write the code originally, after all, so I don't feel I ought to be held accountable for it.

My partner came over to my office and we looked at a section of the offending code for about a half an hour, and we found the memory error that has been dogging me for the entire time that I have been working on Parallel Abstraction. I kid you not. It was like as soon as I decided to let go everything fell into place. Parallel Abstraction isn't done yet... but this is big. Melly told me that this would happen.

The major downer of the day was when Art came by to wish me luck. I told him that I was sorry to see him go, which is honest. I think he is a decent, hard working man and The Company needs more people like him, not less.

After work, I drove up to school to get one of my slides from Sarah. I really wanted to tell her about the things which are going on in my life, and ask about how things were going for her. She seemed real excited for me, and I think she's is also doing well.

On the way home, I stopped at Hanaford to pick up a Turkey for next week. I flirted with the pretty check out girl, enough so that I forgot to press "YES" on the touch pad which takes the credit card. It was a pleasant experience.

My mom and step father Don are flying in next week for Thanksgiving. They haven't been up since I moved, so this will afford them the opportunity to see my new place.

I called E as I drove home and told her what was going on. She was real happy for me too.

Yes, my friends. Life is good. It's like that Sheryl Crow song "It's not having what you want / It's wanting what you have." It's only going to get better.

It's a Beautiful World

Fri, 22 Oct 2004 13:09:00 GMT

I like Trees.

Breakneck Ridge

This is my favorite tree on the east cost. It is a hardy one. It lives along the razor sharp Breakneck ridge that I climb with and without my friends a lot. It exudes strength in the face of adversity, and is always there to say g'day to me when I come over the ridge right before it. My friend e took this of me and Steve the day that we met. I had longer hair then.

Gosford Backyard

This is my favorite tree anywhere. It a beautiful white ghost gum. It reminds me Albert Namatjira, the native Australian landscape artist, and the raw beauty of the Australian outback. Even though, ironically it is well within sprawl of Sydney (right in my back yard). I would love to one day go back to the Northern Territory and get lost for a few years. Care to join me?

I recommend listening to happy music in the morning. It changes your outlook in life for the better.

Bull Hill with e

Mon, 04 Oct 2004 01:14:00 GMT

Yellow Rust

My friend e, who lives in New Jersey and works in Manhattan, called me up this week to see if she and Jack could come up to go hiking with me today (Sunday). I always like to see e, so I told her that I'd love for her to come up for a visit. She didn't call, however, on Saturday, as I had thought she said she would, so I assumed that she wasn't coming after all, until after a lazy morning I got a call from e saying that she had just gotten off the thruway (about fifteen minutes away) and oh by the way how do I get to your place again?

Quick shower before she arrived and decided we would take Bull Hill trail which goes past some old ruins which I always find interesting to photograph. There was a large group (like 30 ) up ahead of us that we were eager to avoid, so we took evasive action onto a less trekked trail which took us to the top of Bull Hill and back around to her car. This actually worked out even better than the trail I had planed to take.

The whole time, of course, Jack was running up ahead and then running back to check on us. This helped tire him out, as by the end of the hike he was doing less of this. Jack, I should mention is e's German Shepard.

Then at four I was due to help a friend of mine unload her contents of her old home into her new home in Wappingers Falls, which not coincidentally is also her boyfriends home. We watched the SNL debate, which Joe had recorded from the night before. I thought it kind of sucked compared with what I remember of the SNL debates, and post election satire four years ago. Then again, they had more material to work with. We had a one sided political discussion. I have very strong opinions, but I prefer not to talk about politics, because I find it only affords me the opportunity to get me into trouble.

I'm tired, going to go to BED!