canberra - The Twilight Report

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My new years resolution is to take more photographs this year. Here are a few from the last days of the old year...

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More of grandpa's old slides. I am not exactly sure where they are for most of these, except it is probably near Canberra, as I do recognize this first shot. What is missing from this first photo is New Parliament House, which sits today just behind the white building in the distance, which is now known as Old Parliament House, but then simply as Parliament House.

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Yesterday I

1. Signed up for Russian 1^{⋘note 1⋙}.
2. Got tickets to go to Canberra next weekend, which is dead this time of year^{⋘note 2⋙}.
3. 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 :/
4. 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.

Wednesday I decided to come down to Canberra. I went to Dick Smith’s to get iPods for Tristan and Lara. I pointed at the merchandise and said “I will have a blue one and a green one” and the salesman responded “is that for different moods or different people?”

Thursday I did the rest of my Christmas shopping, including getting a gift for Secret Santa ritual at work. Usually stuff in Australia closes at 5 or 5:30pm, but Thursday before Christmas everything is open till midnight practically, if not in actuality. It was a mad rush! Friday we had Christmas lunch at work. The food was really nice and we had Christmas crackers and everything. Then everyone drew numbers and picked gifts and/or stole gifts from others. I never want to steal other people’s gifts because it seems rude somehow (I realize it is just a game meant for fun of course), but it is always entertaining to watch other people steal gifts. My gift was the last one to get unwrapped. Can I just mention here how awesome my new coworkers are and my new work environment is?

Friday I flew down to Canberra. The airport was surprisingly uncrowded for this time of year. The aeroplane was mostly empty. When I got to Canberra, Tristan had his earphones on listening to music, and I thoughts to myself, I definitely got him the right gift. Lara was excited about her iPod too, although I think she was more excited about the games and the possibility of putting music on it. Dad already has the DVD I got him, which was unfortunate.

I am so ready for APEC to be over. Those world leaders can go jump in a lake as far as I am concerned and frankly the lake can take our rotten “leaders” too.

Dateline Canberra. Nothing happens here. Ever.

Sibs are good. I am educating Tristan on important things like Doctor Who and asking annoying questions like “what did you do in school today.” I know this is annoying because I did a whole speech for the speech contest on the subject in primary school. That must have been before I was mortally terrified of getting in front of people to talk. Or it might even be the reason for it, who knows.

My dad is a neo-luddite. I told him he was a technophobe and he admitted to being “conservative” about such things. What is so hard about programming a number into a phone or sending an SMS?

brothers and sisters

Today I realized that I decided to take the week of ANZAC day off. That means that I am taking a day off that I was already getting off! Oops! Part of the time I will be spending in... Canberra. So exciting (not). I want to spend more time with my siblings though. This makes up for it.

I was having this conversation with Tristan the last time I was there, and he used my own dogma and bias against me. It was pretty awesome. I was so proud of him for thinking critically and not just regurgitating what other people say. I would like to have more moments like that. I can’t believe he is going to be 14 this year. I can still distinctly remember when he was a newborn. I was a lot younger then too.

the write [sic] and wrong of it

Nobody is ever on AIM anymore. I mean, they are sort of on, in that their computers are connected to the network, but they aren’t on in that they are actually asleep. It must have something to be on the wrong side of the planet. Just like most of them also drive on the wrong side of the road. And yes, by “them” I mean the giant ants. Why is it that they seem to come up so often?

Today I climbed a tree in order to rescue Tristan's frisbee. It was a lot of fun, and felt like quite an accomplishment. It reminded me of two people I know who like to climb trees: Amber and Brad. It's fun to act young.

(more random thoughts that have collected over the easter weekend)

more pictures here

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Rust, Mt. Beacon, NY

I was inspired by Jackson Pollock to shoot some rust on the Wednesday hike up Mt. Beacon this week. When I get a critical mass of (good) photographs I will probably put together an on-line exhibit, or better yet a portfolio. I would like to thank Australia's former Labour government for purchasing Blue Poles, which I was able to see for myself in Canberra Australia, where I was able to come to appreciate his work.