me

On the way to work.

(more) me

Why am I so serious? On the way back.

flat stanley

Taken for Don's neice.

(more)

Happy Birthday Mum!

It was 41 degrees today.

Saw Slumdog Millionaire.

All of that was hard work and I am tired now. Goodnight.

(more)

I realised that explaining to Don what steampunk is^[1] was going to be difficult when he indicated he didn't even know what cyberpunk is.

---

1. after watching the steampunk-esq Doctor Who chrissy speical

Apparently when my mum traded in the Tercel for the Corolla I made her feel like a heel for selling an unofficial member of the family into slavery. She reminds me of this from time to time, but I can hardly be held accountable for my actions (I think) because I was only like 12 or something at the time, and it was years ago and I am pretty sure that the statute of limitations on that sort of thing has long since expired.

When grandma passed away this year, mum inherited her house in Gosford. It is a tiny fibro hut with poor insulation and is very cold in the winter. I wonder how grandma, grandpa, mum and my namesake uncle Graham all fit in there. Somehow it is still home to me, even though I only barely remember living there before I moved to America^[1]. One day I will inherit that property, I am certain.

Mum told me today that she and Don had decided to knock the house down (I know they don’t do this lightly) and put up a bungalow. Although I will be perversely sad to see the old house go, I am also quietly breathing a sigh of relief, because, as I told my mother, I don’t think I could bring myself to knock it down or sell it or anything when I inherit it.

Sentimental, I know.

---

1. I usually mark my first memories with coming to America, but I do have faint glimmering memories of that house from back then

Today for mum’s day we brought grandma home for a family barbecue. In this case “home” is Gosford, where nobody actually lives anymore. Anyway, mum was running late as always and so while Don and aunty Rae were picking grandma up from the nursing home, mum and I went looking for a mum’s day card for grandma. Pretty much all of mum’s day cards had been taken, and the only one with “grandma” on it was too frilly for me to take seriously (there were “nana” and “gran” cards but I have never called grandma anything but grandma, so they seemed particularly unnatural). It suddenly struck me as slightly absurd that I was standing there in the newsagency looking for a mum’s day card with my mum standing right next to me.

“Happy mum’s day, by the way.” I said.

The other lady in the store also looking for a last minute mum’s day card thought this was pretty funny. Anyway, I think that mum and grandma know how much I love them and how important they are to my life. That the Hallmark Greeting Card Cartel sponsors the day is rather beside the point. It was nice bringing grandma home for the day.

Aunty Rae and mum were looking through some of my great grandfather’s old WWI records and stuff. His given names were “Fredrick Graham”. Seeing his name on one of the papers, it reminded me that I am really named after him. I always think of myself as being named after my uncle Graham (and I am), but my mum actually called me Fred for the first few days of my life. Thankfully mum and dad agreed on Graham instead.

I am now the proud owner of a Nintendo Wii. It was a hit. Not just with me, but also with the family. Mum and Don both tried it out and all along the way nanna was coaching.

“Don’t move your hips!”

“Follow through on your swing!”

und so weite.

Then when Don got up to play nanna yelled at him to get out the way and not block her view. This, from my grandma, who hates computers, any form of technology and anything new.

Tennis is my favourite. Golf and bowling are okay, but baseball is terribly dull lacking any out fielding. Tomorrow I am going to see if I can snag Twilight Princess and an extra controler and the real gamming will begin :)

The rare book library

The Chrissy^[1] decorations are out already. In America don’t they usually wait until after Thanksgiving for that? Anyway, it’s not the timing that is unnerving for me, but the time of year. I know I will have to get over this, but this isn’t the time of year that you expect to see snowmen and fat guys in cold weather gear.

(weekend and food stuffs...)

On Saturday I had a tele-conference with Joe, Cicely and Brian about our summer vacation (summer vacation = this December/January). I was making fun of Joe for making a spreadsheet to plan our vacation, but I admitted that the tele-conference was my idea :) Anyway, it was really nice talking to them again. I know I am like el broken record, but I really miss those guys! Inexpensive calling cards are awesome.

It was all rainy and cruddy this weekend. We went down to Wollongong to meet Don at the finish line of his bike ride^[2] and to have a picnic. The picnic was cancelled on account of rain and wind and windy rain. Instead we went to this fabulous little mom-and-pop restaurant, where we ate well and had a wonderful passion fruit ice cream dessert. I totally want to go back there to try out the waffle cones.

The other day I had one of the best mangos that I have ever had. I can’t understand how it is that American’s can live without mangos or passion fruit^[3]. I mean, I do understand why they aren’t into Vegemite; I love that but I know it is an acquired taste. But mangos and passion fruit... they are just goodness.

In the elevator after a wet and windy day, mum and I were talking about what a miserable day it was, when the old lady who was also in the elevator told us that it was actually a wonderful day for all the people who were born today. She was a “philosopher” as my mum later described. Personally at that exact moment, I could do with a little less philosophising. It’s terrific that someone was born today, and it is super that you are thinking on the bright side of things, but think also of all the people who died today, but most importantly the fact that my shoes are soaking wet and it’s miserable outside god damn it.

Actually, I’m kidding. My shoes were actually pretty dry. My point is that whenever you start getting philosophical in your elevator small talk then lets face it: you’ve gone too far.

---

1. Australian for Christmas
2. the “Gong Ride” or Sydney to Wollongong bike ride
3. Or for that matter, how I managed to get along without it when I was over there

Don is back from America, and he brought Posole!!!

Don flew in this weekend and on Monday we went to Snowbasin. I only went skiing once last year, and my technique has degraded as a result, but I'm starting to get my second wind. The mountain was mostly blue and black. With the exception of two gondolas and a high speed quad, the lifts are old school triples which zoom around and catch you at breakneck speed -- it reminded me a bit of Pajrito. Snowbasin opened in 1939, and is apparently one of the oldest ski resorts in the United States.

The first time we went up in the gondola there were two young girls (omg) discussing wedding rings and weddings (and nothing but). The second gondola was with three young military men discussing where they had served (all locations were stateside as far as I could tell) and how they had spent their 60 days of leave after they had finished at "the academy." I found the contrast between these two rides both refreshing as well as being disturbingly narrow. I imagined riding up in a gondola with a bunch of IBMers/ex-IBMers and one or two non-IBMers. Actually, minus the gondola, that pretty much describes every party that I attended during my years at New York.

There is a Australian "joke" which goes like this:

Q: What's the difference between a buffalo and a bison?
A: Can't wash your hands in a buffalo.

The "humor" is derived from the fact that the way that Australian's pronounce the word basin can be indistinguishable from the word bison to non-Australians.

We went to Antelope Island last weekend which surprisingly does not have any antelope, but does have a large number of bison. Don (my step father), who likes to repeat silly jokes, has been using every opportunity to tell this "joke" ever since.

Therefore: from now on I am going to refer to Snowbasin as Snowbuffalo.

I asked my mum tonight how what she does is different from what my dad used to do. My mum uses a technique called small angle neutron scattering to determine the nature of the universe. My dad used to be a crystallographer and determined the structure of crystals^[1], before he got bored with it and started playing with DNA.

I am not sure if I am describing it wrong, but when ever I attempt to describe what my mum does people say "oh so it's like crystallography." Which confuses me because mum has always talked about what she does such that it makes me think that it is completely different.

Walking home tonight I talked to mum about it and I think I am now equipped to explain how what she does is different. I still don't understand it completely.

Then mother had Don explain to me how the guy who manages their money makes a living without charging them for his service. I understand money about as much as I understand crystallography or small angle neutron scattering.

---

[1] When I showed Dad Final Intensity, his comment was not "wow what a neat demo", it was "crystals don't have five fold symmetry" ... uh thanks

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...)

SR-71 Blackbird

We were talking a about going down to Moab, but Don has gotten sicker, so we went to the air museum instead. (more...)

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.

Yesterday we went up to visit my mother's friend and mentor, Clare, at her rustic cabin home which looks over Bear Lake. Last July I took a photograph which now is on the welcome page of my web site up there. For "Christmas" dinner, we had fish. Although I am not a fan of fish and I did not have seconds, it did taste pretty good. We also drank lots of Australian wine; that probably helped.

(The Sublime)

In short, our range of topics was both wide and deep, and intellectually stimulating.

Then we drove back to Salt Lake City where we attended the annual Christmas Eve party for Don's (my step father) family. Gosh... where to begin. (The Ridiculous)