In 2007 I went with some friends to Melbourne (among other places). The camera that I brought, a Nikon FE broke on me and so i went to the camera store to get a replacement. They don't make 'em like the FE anymore, but I was able to get an over priced Nikon FM that worked with all of the lenses that I had brought. I had a few hours on my own while my friends went to see the penguins so I bought three really cheap rolls of film and had at it. Melbourne is quite photogenic, although it's no Sydney.

Just spent two weeks with my girlfriend лена in New Jersey and New York. It was wonderful. I met her family and friends, and she met my friends, most of whom still live in New York state. We are still trying to workout the whole future thing, although I'm confident that we can work things out. The shitty economy stateside is decidedly not helpful.

This is what a jerk I am. When I was in the Hudson Valley we went on a hike where the fall colour was in full force and my friend Brad said something like “This beautiful colour is our reward for having to live through the cold hard winter”, to which I responded reflexively “Speak for yourself, I'm going to the beach!”. Yay for Australia being awesome. Only, wait for it, then I started repeating this story over and over for people who were actually going to have to live through the winter in New York this year (which in my defense I had to do six times). The awesome thing about my friends is they still like me anyway.

It's weird now though because just a week ago the trees were all red and yellow and some of them were on the ground and walking to work today they were green again and fastened tightly to the trees. And to be honest, it isn't warm enough yet to go to the beach (karma). How can two places so far apart seem like home.

Today right before I left work I asked Kim how her vacation was. Not good, she answered. Not enough excitement, she said. Only one amazingly beautiful sunset, she said. My instinct was to point out that some people live their whole lives and only get to see one amazingly beautiful sunset if they are lucky.

I was leaving (mentioned) and I was just trying to be friendly. The America in me wants people just to answer in short positive statements regardless of actual mood. The rest of me doesn’t like that, but it is hard to deny that it is there.

SOAP::Lite is like a mule. You can often coax it into doing what you want it to do, but not without a lot of headache. SOAP::Lite reminds me that designing good APIs is not easy. The Perl community, despite a lot of good work, has unfortunately produced some turkeys; there are warts everywhere. Boxing Day this old lady declared that if everyone just did as she said then the world would be a better place. I think anyone writing an API is something like that: either arrogant or deluded. Usually both.

Needless to say I spent the whole day coaxing SOAP::Lite

I’m back in America. It is as good as I remember.

Pluto

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO that, as Pluto passes overhead through New Mexico's excellent night skies, it be declared a planet and that March 13, 2007 be declared "Pluto Planet Day" at the legislature.

—New Mexico State Legislature

In August I am going to be in the only state in the Union where Pluto is (as it should be) recognized as full fledged planet.

I don’t usually get misty-eyed when reading legislation, but I did when I read “New Mexico’s excellent night skies.” The night sky in New Mexico is pretty, and NM is definitely the Land of Enchantment.

2007 US Tour

Some of you already know this, but for those that don’t, I will be in the USA for most of August to visit good friends, go hiking, and to eat some mighty fine New Mexican cuisine. Here are the approximate dates:

If you think you might coincide, let me know. You too can be part of the action. And knowing is half the battle.

1. somewhat flexible
2. just kidding
3. somewhat flexible
4. that place where Kirk kicked the Gorn’s butt with his home made cannon

Melbourne, Day 2

On the second day we toured around the city. Oh, and my camera broke, the day before we were doing the Great Ocean Road! I couldn’t believe the horrible luck. I managed to pick up a used Nikon FM body in perfect condition to replace my FE. The FM is the mechanical version of the FE from the same time period. I could have probably gotten an auto focus camera new for less, but I had been enjoying the feel of my manual Nikon which hasn’t been getting much of a work out since I moved to Australia.

I shot three rolls of 24 in my new camera around the centre of Melbourne, and I felt like for the first time in ages I had gotten my camera legs back. Whatever that means.

Melbourne, Day 3

The next day we did the Great Ocean Road. It’s pretty. There are lots of flies. If you go you should arm yourself with some bug spray.

Melbourne, Day 4

Our last day in Melbourne was only a half day, so we didn’t do much. First we went to the Melbourne museum, where they had a blue whale skeleton. Actually it was a pigmy blue whale, named on account of it being small for the species. This is kind of funny because it was still enormous. They also had a vast collection of bugs. Some of them still alive even. Cicely came into the bug section to tell us that she wasn’t going to look at the bugs because they creeped her out, but by the time she was in she started looking around and didn’t seem so bugged out.

The computer geek in me enjoyed the CSIRAC, Australia’s first digital computer, and the worlds fifth stored program computer, and the oldest intact computer of either type in the world. Joe commented that “your” calculator probably has more computing power, to which I responded, “your” phone definitely has more computing power.

They also had an IBM PC... the original which was simply called a PC, because that wasn’t a generic term when it was produced. I think the oldest PC I ever used was an XT, which came out about two years later in 1983. The XT’s major innovation was that it had a hard disk, whereas the PC had two low density 5¼” floppy disk drives. In Sydney’s Powerhouse Museum, they have a TRS-80. There used to be a whole room full of them at my elementary school. Stuff I used to use is now showing up in museums. What are the museum curators trying to tell me?

For lunch we had Mongolian Barbecue. It was pretty good and all you can eat, so I wasn’t hungry again that day. After that we took a taxi to the airport and flew back to Sydney. When I looked out the window as we were landing, I saw a Tangara, which exists (I believe) only in Sydney and I started feeling oddly nostalgic being back in Sydney. It was really nice being back in Sydney after being away fro a week. It feels like home here.

Sydney, Today

I guess that brings me to today. Brian is off to Fiji. Joe and Cicely are climbing the bridge today and we are meeting later tonight for dinner, along with the girl that I met at Thanksgiving. Joe and Cicely fly back to the states tomorrow, and I’m back to work on Monday.

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!

The best part, though, was coming back from being away for four days and not having to go back to work the next day!

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.

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

I arrived in Concord at about 8:30pm. Only half an hour late, and had I not been delayed at departure, I would have probably been on time. I circled around a couple of times while Sherry tried to describe where her apartment was over my cell phone, but eventually I found the place and parked in a slot marked "Visitor." I was on my way up to Maine and had asked Sherry if I could crash at her place on the way up so as to break up the long drive. That was what I had said anyway; my main reason was to see Sherry a friend of mine who had recently quit The Company to go to back to school to study patent law.

She showed me around her new apartment, which is entirely too cute, if a little noisy from the nearby street. She showed me her schedule for each week which was blocked out every weekday from 8:00am to 10:00pm, and then told me, without a hint of irony that she hadn't really gotten serious about school yet. I showed her my portfolio from my Color1 class, and we talked about numerous things, including what would happen to "The Group" now that Joanna had left the Hudson Valley for Berkeley. She told me how much her apartment was costing me, which was low compared with the Hudson Valley, but high for a student, which is pertinent, since she is a student now. I told her how excited I was for her in her new endeavor. I would have liked to have told her how proud all of us were of her, but the thought didn't come into my head until later. I slept on the floor that night and the traffic outside didn't bother me too much.

The next day I drove the rest of the way up to Bangor and found a note on Megan's parent's house directing me to the lake. Part of the directions included a notation which said "Big Crazy Intersection. Just keep going east toward Bar Harbor." When I got to the actual intersection I wasn't exactly sure which way was east, or which way was Bar Harbor, but I guessed left, and I was right. After a while I thought maybe I was wrong, so I turned around. Then I realized I was right the first time and turned around again. I managed to make it to the lake where Megan's mom came over and said hello. Megan, Justine and Matt were out kayaking in lake. I was about to jump into the lake for a swim when Megan's father found me and said hello. I asked him which one of the distant kayaks Megan was in.

I had been worried all the way up that I would not be able to differentiate between Megan and Justine, because the last time I had seen them together was about three years ago, and at the time I had only just met them, and being identical twins, they looked exactly alike to me. We walked around to find where they had landed the kayaks, but I missed seeing them actually get out of the craft, so I couldn't use the intelligence Megan's father had given me to identify Megan.

"Hi Megan." I said in a stilted kind of way, as if to emphasize that I might not be sure it was really her or not. The amazing thing was I could. Megan looked like Megan, and this other person therefore had to be Justine by process of elimination. "Hi Justine." I said with the same stilted speech pattern. Then as an afterthought, I said "Hi Matt." It hadn't seemed necessary at first because of course matt looked like Matt and there was no chance of confusing him with anyone else.

We hung out at the beach for a while. I caught up with Megan about various things, including, not surprisingly, what would happen to "The Group" now that Joanna had left the Hudson Valley to go Berkeley. I then discovered that Justine was a graduate student at Berkeley also and had met Joanna. I think there is an implicit: "That Janna sure is a trip." tone to any conversation you have with a mutual acquaintance of Joanna. Apparently she had been going around Berkeley saying "Wow, everyone here already knows that Wal-Mart is evil!" Maybe this would put an end to her un-ending tirades on the subject.

We also talked about Sherry. I told Megan about her excessive schedule and her assertion that she hadn't gotten serious about school yet. Megan pointed out that she was experiencing a lot of negative pressure from her parents who don't seem to express pride (or enough pride) in Sherry, who is, by all accounts, a successful Engineer and a hard working student. "Somebody ought to tell her how proud they are of her" Megan said, "I mean, aside from us."

We went back to Megan's house. I showed everyone my portfolio, which is still in a paper grocery bag, to be replaced soon with a portfolio box. We had fresh lobster for dinner. I was having difficulty getting into my crustacean.

"I just realized; this is the great equalizer. Usually you eat super fast." Megan pointed out.

I was really sweet of Megan's parents to put me up, and to feed me lobster. Megan and Justine were of course family, and Matt is Megan's boyfriend and family by association, so I am just a friend, but lucky to have Megan's friendship.

The next day, we went to Acadia and did a short hike. The views were mostly obscured by fog. I brought my camera, but there wasn't much to photograph. We found a construction vehicle (which was not a constructicon), which was open and had the key in the ignition. Luckily, half of the instructions were torn off so we could not start the thing, and worse yet, the seat instructions were in Japanese.

After that, we went into Bar Harbor and had lunch. I attempted to eat my food as slowly as possible, but still tied for first place. It's just really hard for me to eat slowly.

"I tried to eat mine slowly." I said at some point in the conversation.

"Is that because Megan called you out on it last night?" Matt asked.

"Yes." I admitted, smiling.

Next we had ice cream, Megan's treat. I thanked her, to which she responded "Thanks for coming!" This is a really nice way to respond to saying thanks. Megan and I repeated this pattern a few more times during my time in Maine.

While we were consuming our ice cream, Megan and Justine recognized somebody from high school and they chatted briefly. Although I was not much a part of the conversation, Megan introduced me. This is a polite and proper thing to do, although many people, for some reason, do not do it. Again, this pattern was repeated many times as Megan and Justine ran into people they knew from high school during my time in Maine. If Megan wasn't around to introduce me, then Justine would.

The National Folk Festival started that evening and we walked down to the festivities from Megan's house. This was the purpose of our trip up to Bangor. Megan quit The Company almost a year ago and is living in Boston with Matt, and Justine is a graduate student at Berkeley, so even though Bangor is their home town, this was a distant vacation for everyone. Two years ago, Megan had invited me, and several other employees at The Company up to Bangor for the first National Folk Festival to be held there. The Festival is great, but my primary reason for being up there was to be with my friends.

The highlight for that evening was dancing to zydeco at the dancing stage. There were lots of people handing out things little bits of paper. Some of them were legitimate - handing out schedules for festival performances, and the like - some of them were not. At one point somebody handed some religious dogma. It occurred to me at the moment we had identified it as such, that I didn't know if Megan and her family were religious or not. I hadn't ever seen any indication that they were, but sometimes the religious types are not overt. Megan looked visibly annoyed, walked back and returned the pamphlet to the offender. I never take anything from strangers, but if I did, I would probably just throw it away ASAP. Here, I saw Megan was showing Principal, which I can respect, especially since she did it with extreme grace. Although I could tell the episode had made her angry, she never lost her cool. I don't think I have ever seen her loose her cool.

We walked home with one of Megan and Justine's high school friends. Ben is a musician working as a pianist on a cruise line for the last year or so. He had all kinds of interesting stories about the underworld of cruise service. He had been doing a country themed show every day several times a day, which Matt later described as the "Third Level of Hell." Apparently the piece concludes with "God Save Texas" with a rainbow of lights shining on a large Texas flag (are there any other sizes for Texas flags). The rainbow was apparently a inside signature joke by the gay stage manager.

When I went to sleep that night in the back room of Megan's house, I thought wrongly for a moment it was Saturday and that I would have to drive home tomorrow. When I realized it was actually just Friday, I thought to myself "I have an entire other day in Maine!" with glee.

The next day, Megan and Matt went on a bike ride and Justine and I went on the "Bog Walk." I think Megan had gone to some thought to make sure that I had something to do while she and Matt went bike riding, which I think was awfully sweet. This was nice because it gave me some time to talk to Justine alone and get to know her a little better.

We got back at about noon and it was time to go back to the festival. There were two highlights on this day: Jerry Douglas, who was just amazing with his Steel Guitar thingie, and dancing to the African/Cuban band at the dance stage. The latter had an incredible interaction with the crowd. I am going to have to find CDs of both these artists for the car.

The next morning it really was Sunday and I really did have to drive home. The festival was to start up again at noon, but I had a seven hour drive ahead of me, so waiting till then was not an option. I said goodbye to everyone, getting hugs or handshakes from everyone. They all waved to me as I drove off in my little white civic hybrid.

The Point of all of this, aside from documenting my wonderful little vacation in Maine, is to illustrate what a wonderful person Megan is, and what a lovely family she has. Although Megan is my friend, she is also my hero, because of the qualities she has evidenced in this story: grace, principal, generosity and kindness.

Also, just to say, Maine Rocks!

it rained last night, dispatching the bulk of the fire
up here.  i understand from the news there are some
south of here still.  the skies really cleared up today,
making today the best beach day i've had out here.  we
hiked up the skillion, basically this big chunk of earth
thrust up in complete contempt for gravity at the edge
of the ocean.  i wished i had brought my camera up
there, as the contrasting colors, dark blue ocean,
golden yellow beaches, blue-green australian overgrowth
and light blue sky were worth beholding.  maybe it was
just as well, because film, be it virtual or no, doesn't
seem to do the real thing justice, you know?
 
i hope you had a good vacation (or is it not over yet?).
how is life in america?  i will shortly have to
readjust to it.  i will give you a call from chicago, in
case my flight is delayed.  happy after now and good
future years.

I wrote that on January 8, 2002 from Gosford, Australia. Fires seem to happen in places which I call home, and there were some bad ones near Gosford at the time. When the rain cleared some of the smoke and I could see the blue skies for the first time in days, I had this perfect moment (maybe it was a moment of total clarity, whatever that is) at the top of the Skillion, and I had to share it with someone. My heart told me that I should tell this girl I liked back in the states. Thus the e-mail. Later I would find out that she had a boyfriend. It feels like it has been so long since I had a moment like that. I'm not even sure who I would tell if I did have another such experience.

Anyway, that's not a very happy thought. I'm headed off to Maine tomorrow, for the National Folk Festival and probably to do some hiking. I'm going to stop in New Hampshire to visit a friend who has left The Company to study patent law and get a degree. I will be sure to take lots of pictures and hopefully post some of them here. I will need all my low light skills to capture some interesting moments at the festival.

From my Utah vacation: