I am now in Sydney, finally. I had a fun weekend in LA with Tyler. We did all the usual kind of stuff, except when we were playing video games I was getting a professional tour.

I had originally wanted to go to San Francisco and see Joanna and Padraic as well, but I needed a lot more time in Salt Lake to finish things up in America than I thought. Hopefully I will be able to see them on my next visit to America. It doesn't seem strange to talk about "my next visit to America," at least, not yet.

There is a wonderful view of the opera house and the bridge from our apartment. When I get a faster Internet connection I will post some pictures. Right now we are using some kind of neighborhood wireless connection which is real slow and tends to cut out from time to time.

The company my friend Mike works for just got bought by google^[1], so now I know someone who works at google. They were already working closely with google, but I think this will be even better.

More later.

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[1] http://www.sketchup.com/index.php?id=1439

I've been an ex-IBMer for a couple of days now. I may therefore reveal that "The Company" = IBM. I am pretty sure that comes as a surprise to nobody.

Today is the first day that I would have gone to work if I hadn't signed those papers on Friday. My last day I felt oddly detached. I was immune to things and people that ordinarily bother me, like my manager and Jeff. On the other hand I went around and said good-bye to people. It's harder to go wrong with that.

My going away party was on Saturday at Brian's house. I will be seeing people this week, but it is probably the last time that I will see "everyone" together. (Not that it could really be everyone without Sherry, Megan, Joanna and Padraic). I got to say goodbye to Sherry over lunch a week or so ago, and I hopefully I will get to visit Joanna and Padraic in California before I leave.

Everyone should come out and visit me in Salt Lake City for a ski holiday (I'll be there about 6 February to 8 March, with a short trip to New Mexico sometime the week of 22 February), or in Australia (anytime starting May 2006).

The shoe is on the other foot

People usually ask, when they see pictures of my parties, "Yes Graham, but where are you in these pictures." Usually the answer is "behind the camera." Anyway, I asked someone to take this picture so as to provide some evidence that I actually attended my own party. I am looking off in the other direction so as to pretend that it is a candid shot, when in fact it is not. I am such a good actor.

Anyway, the party went off really well. Unfortunately, e couldn't make it because her dog got injured while frolicking in the snow, but before she left (and well before anyone else arrived) she got me started on the apple martinis. Kathy and Steve showed up bringing treats from the southern hemisphere. They were in New Zealand over Christmas, and apparently Kathy did what I do when in Australia, which is to buy up the sweets section of the grocery store.

Some people actually wore green and gold. I had a green "jumper" which my mum knitted with real Australian wool and a yellow T-shirt underneath which I got today for the occasion. Kathy had some beads and Mike had a tie-died T-shirt which included some green and gold and a basketball. When are Kathy and Mike going to go head to head on the basket ball court anyway? But I digress.

Joanna called to wish everyone a happy Australia Day, which was sweet.

The meat pies got devoured. I had like three and a half pies, and there is about half a pie left over. I should actually be able to finish it off before I leave on Thursday. I owe this to the indestructibility of the recipe, which I will be posting here at some point, because I am sure there is stuff that I got wrong.

Oh speaking of candid shots, here is one

Cicely, Joe and Mike

of Joe which is totally candid. He had no idea I was taking this photograph while he was pointing his finger at my camera. Anyway, here are some more shots:

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.