DC - The first day (Part 1)

Sunday 27/11 (local)

My cousin Jason was good enough to offer to take me on a tour of Washington D.C. today. Fantastic - makes things much easier for me, very much appreicated. Anyhow, we left in the morning at approximately 9am. Young Matty didnät want his father to leave and was calling for him to come back - "Daddy, daddy". He was also holding his shoes and a little hat. Aww... so cute.

Anyhow, onto the journey down. I'm not exactly sure how many kilometers it is down to Washington D.C. but the journey took somewhere between two and two and a half hours. There are several things that I noticed on the waz down, something that I noticed on the way down, something that i've always known - but only really hit me on the road.

Highways are amazing here in the US. Now, i'm not going into any debates about cars plus pollution or the need to promote public transport here. There are highways everzwhere and the interstates are fat. How fat? real fat, in fact some are 8 lane behemoths. Yea. You know that the proverbial has hit the gan if all of the lanes are choc-a-bloc. Furthermore, these interstates are true highways - not the supremely weak midgets that we have in Australia.

The second point I would like to make is that there's a whole lot of people living in the North East of America. I mean New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington D.C. aren't all that far away from the eachother - plus between the towns there seems to be a fair bit of so called 'civilisation'. I mean I drive from Sydney to Canberra and see... not much. Best I can think of is Goulburn.

What's to do in Washington D.C.? Well, sightseeing of course. My guess is that all that happens here is politics and not much else. Monuments - yes, museums - yes times two, politics - yes again, anything else - can't tell. Well, driving around a little... one of the first bulidings of note (up close, that is) was the Australian embassy building. What a piece of ... err.. excrement. Here I thought that America and Australia were allies - canät reallz tell that from the building. You have got to see it to believe it. Oh man, we _so_ deserve better. The location may be ok, the interior could be ok (I didn't go inside), but boy - the exterior sucks.

So the first task in D.C. was to find a spot to park. We all chose (Jason, Carmen, I) to visit the White House frst. Parking was a bit of a pain but we eventually found a spot several blocks away from Pennsylvania Ave (as 1600 Pennsylvania Ave is the address of the White House). The reason as to why there was hardly any parking was clear when we get to the White House - many others came to visit the White House as well.

So the White House. We first saw the back of the White House. Nice - but not terribly impressive. Incidentally, the back looks quite similar to the front, just that the back is missing the second floor balcony and the greenery in the foreground is not as impressive or vast as it is in front. The front was obviously much more of a delight, yet it was a little disappointing that I wasn´t able to get a little closer. After a few happy snaps it was time to move on.

Next stop was the Lincoln Memorial. The memorial features in several films, the most notable of which is Forrest Gump (well the view is from the steps of the Memorial looking towards the Monument). We had to venture back to the car and drive closer to the memorial, as it and the White House aren´t exactly close. So up to the trail and up the steps and there he was - Abe Lincoln... surrounded by scaffolding. Great. I travel thousands and thousands of kilometers and all I see is arms and legs. Damn. At least I can read his "Four Score and Twenty Years Ago" speech, so I thought. More scaffolding. Bah! Not my day thus far. Unlucky to the max.

Interstate 92

The White House

The Trek to Philadelphia

Saturday 26/11 (Local)

Today - another day of transit. Although there wasn't nearly as much time wasted this day. Before heading out of New York I ventured into Times Square. Now that was quite a sight.

Catching the subway to Times Square was no proble. I've figured the system out. One thing that I noticed (almost straight away) is that it isn't the cleanest service around. However, to the credit of the New York subway system services are quite frequent around Manhattan.

Times Square was impressive - very impressive. It looked much beter than the photos that i've seen on the internet. Times Square is intense. I should think that you really need to be there to feel the atmosphere - the size of the buildings, the flashing of neon signs, the chaos that make up people and cars. It's great. There are people everywhere, true hustle and bustle. I ended up taking lots of photos as it's something that is worth remembering. (Apologies for the sporadic explanation - it's really hard to describe).

I only had a brief look around as the hotel checkout as at 12pm (midday). I managed to venture into a couple of stores - the most notable of which is the Toys 'R' Us superstore - "The Centre of the Toy Universe". Yea, no exaggeration there... and i'm serious. The store is so big that there is a 50 foot ferris wheel inside the store. Crazy. Here, I bought a few toys for my nephews Matty and Danny also.

Before heading back to the hotel, I popped by the Visitor Information Centre. I grabbed a couple of brochures and took off. Don't worry it's all free, the NYPD (just across the road) won't be arresting me today.

There are quite alot of things to do in NYC. Especially when compared to Sydney and Los Angeles. There are bus tours, helicopter tours, stacks of landmarks and theatre. Looks like its going to be full on and choc-a-bloc when I return to NYC. I'm definitely considering a helicopter - tres expensive... but i'm sure it'll be worth it (problem is... do I have time?). Hmm.. that also reminds me - need to brush up on my French and German.

Moving right along: I checked out late and was not charged for it. Bonus! Then I ran into a bit of a problem - how can I get to Penn Station from Grand Street? See map. Hmmm... first option looking at Manhattan would be to change lines twice. Not so good - especially when hauling around luggage. So what did I end up doing? Have a look at the subway map and see what you would have done. I was impressed with what I came up with - i'm a genius! Have a think before reading on.

Considering the fact that I was lugging around luggage (assonance, anyone?) the number of transfers should be zero or one. Furthermore stations with disability support would be highly desirable, as they have elevators. So, I ended up taking the subway out to Athletic in Brooklyn (east across the river). Mark, you're a genius - yep. Haha. Anyways, the plan worked out nicely and that placed me at Penn Station.

Amtrack, the American national railway has electronic ticket booths. I went to a booth and picked up a pre-ordered ticket arranged by my cousin. Easy. America is great - lol. One thin that I noticed at the booth was that the carry-on baggage restrictions for all Amtrack services. Two bags maximum, smaler than 26' x 24' x 11' (something like that) or 50lbs. Oh dear. I was carring 2 bags of luggage and a backpack. So what I did was to shove my backpack into my larger suitcase and hoped that they wouldn't check. They didn't. Woohoo!

The train was the 3:52 pm service to Harrisburg, PA (Pennsylvania). It was on-time, full, and clean. Three out of three. Well, what can I say - it was a nice train and a pleasant journey. Although the train fell slightly behind schedule by the time I got to my destination.

Upon arrival I was somewhat shocked because my cousin Jaon and his son Matty was already waiting for me. I wasn't shocked because they were there on time, but I was shocked because they were waiting at the door out of which I disembarked. Strange co-incidence.

Today was a special day for my cousin as a surprise party was planned for him. This party took up most of the evening. Unfortunately he wasn't 100 percent surprised. He knew a party was coming, but luckily he didn't know that it was today. So a partial success.

One fact that I didn't know (and perhaps many of you don't know) is that there are a fair number of Aussies and Kiwis in Philly. So much so that there is an Australian Club there. There you go - you learn something new every day.

Times Square

Times Square at Night

Touchdown in New York City

Friday November 25 (Local)

A fairly uneventful day today. Today was primarily a travel day.

Woke up at 5:30 am to ensure that there would be enough time to get to Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). The flight was scheduled for 8:30am. I managed to get to the airport well on time - checked the baggage in and proceeded to wait. Unfortunately, I had to wait a while.

The weather in and around Los Angeles was not great. The weather wasn't so good for Mid-Western USA either. As a result of this the plane that I needed to embark upon was late. Unfortunately, I had to wait for an extra hour.

The flight to New York City wasn't anything special. It wasn't poor, yet it wasn't anything special. The in-flight entertainment consisted of the same material as the Sydney-to-Los Angeles flight. I took this opportunity to watch the movie Redeye. It was quite an interesting movie. The storyline was a little far-fetched, but oh well. Not a blockbuster, but not a shocker. Furthermore, the main actress. Rachel McAdams is quite the actress - or maybe i'm just biased because she's attractive. Hmmm... maybe I should talk about plot more than the actresses when it comes to movies. Oh well.

The meeting new people on the plane theory held true for the LAX-NYC(JFK) flight. Strangely, I met another American exchange student headed home. This student was male, studies psychology and went to the University of New South Wales. Wow, these Americans must love studying abroad.

Touchdown in NYC-JFK was fine (at about 6:00pm), although the taxing and docking stage took ages. The reason for this was that JFK airport is huge - absolutely enormous. (Or it seemed that way from the plane windows). We seemed to drive around for ages before docking and disembarking. To get a gague of the size of the airport - a train links each of the 7 terminals at JFK airport. Massive.

Accomodation. The place that we had to stay for the night was the Windsor Hotel in Chinatown. This was really the only place available in the Midtown or Lower Manhattan areas - due to the fact that it was the Thanksgiving week. First of all, getting to the hotel was a bit of a challenge as hauling around luggage via the NYC subway is not for the faint-hearted.

I'd like to take this opportunity to speak a little on the NYC subway system. It's a mess. The Metro Rail System in Los Angeles is fairly straightforward. The New York City subway system looks like a bowl full of spaghetti. You will not be able to get around the Subway without a map. If you want to see what i'm talking about then check the NYC subway map.

There was effectively no sightseeing today, unless exploring Chinatown counts. Furthermore, it was damn cold - approximately 0 degrees Celcius and windy. Ack! I wasn't quite prepared for this. I've learnt my lesson now.

Watching Seinfeld and That 70s show was what was done at night time. Oh, and I ate Vietnamese Pho for dinner. I told you... not much happened today.

The Rocky Mountains

Los Angeles - Day 3

Thursday, Nov 24 (Local)

Today started off in a similar way to yesterday, minus the morning walk. Woke up multiple times before my breakfast at Maccas. I must say that today was most interesting. Read on for some strange circumstances.

First stop on the sightseeing on day 3 was Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills. Something that i'm sure that the girls will love. The drive was choc-a-bloc with the powerhouses of fashion. You name it - it's there. Tiffany's, Versace, Gucci, Ralph Lauren, Dior and mnore. The drive is only several blocks long but i'm sure that there are millions and millions and millions worth of stock in that little strip. Impo0rtant point - there was hardly anyone around when I arrived. There were a half-dozen people max. I guess that would be expected considering that it was Thanksgivings Day.

After my brush with fame it was off to Santa Monica. Why? Because a bus driver told me to.

After inspecting the area and taking a whole stack of photos something bizzare happened. A couple of busses arrived packed with girls. I didn't really think much of it until the busses started unloading. From a distance I could tell something strange was afoot. The girls that were being unloaded were wearing tiaras and sashes. That's right!

Upon closer inspection the sashes bore the names of states - the states from which each particular girl had come from. I believe that the first girl that passed me was Miss Connecticut, but I can't be sure. Anyhow, minutes later I was able to speak to one. That's right - I get to find out what is going on.

Miss Texas walked across the road and said hi. Now, i'm not too sure as to why she walked over - she either came over to chat or was looking for a particular store. Who knows. You guys can figure that one out. Anyhow, onto the chat. Miss Texas was lovely to chat to, she filled me in on what was happening. Los Angeles (Anaheim to be exact) is the scheduled finals week for Miss 2005. There are several age categories and each state (50 states) has one per category. There you go. Unfortunately I missed out on a photo op. Damn, i'm hopeless sometimes. It totally slipped my mind! Anyhow I wished her luck before moving on to explore more of Los Angeles.

After my brush with fame it was off to Santa Monica. Why? Because a bus driver told me to. Eh? What was that? Read for more deatils. On my way to Rodeo Drive the bus was literally empty (Route 20) and so the driver struck up a conversation. He told us a little about the area and suggested places to go. One of them was Santa Monica. He did mention, however, that Rodeo Drive was overrated. Obviously he wasn't lucky enough to be there when the beauty pageant came to town. Bwhaaha.

Santa Monica was somewhat livelier as the 3rd St promenade (shopping area #2 for the day) had some stores open. The stores here were much more accessible than the Rodeo Drive ones, in a financial sense. I ate lunch in an Italian restaurant, looked into several shops, bought a tie for my dad, and ventured down to the beach. In total, I probably spent approximately 2 hours in Santa Monica. Oh yea, the Miss 2005 girls were also out and about in Santa Monica. I saw, but did not speak to: Miss Maryland, Miss Pennsylvania, and Miss West Virginia. All Eastern States. A strange day indeed.

I didn't do terribly much afterwards. Ventured back to Hollywood to do some souvenier shopping via Union Station. Did I take the wrong train? Nope - I needed to go to the bathroom. Here is the scenario. Caught a "rapid" bus from Santa Monica to Westlake/Macarthur (or as a local told me "ghetto town"). As Union Station was closer than Hollywood/Highland I went to Union Station to use the bathroom. Note to the MTA Los Angeles people - you need toilets at train stations.

The only thing left till the end of the day was to watch television. Ghostbusters was on followed by the Apprentice. Admittedly, it was the first time that I watched the Apprentice. Reasonably interesting. Some of the business tasks that they had to do were quite intriguing. All I can say is that Adam sucked and deserved the boot!

Rodeo Drive

Miss 2005 girls disembarking

Apologies for the delays

Hmm.. haven't had too much free time to post things. I've got stacks to blog so pleased bear with me. I promise to get some more stories out to you all as soon as possible. Thanks for all of the "hurry up" emails. I've read them all - soon, soon.

Anyhow. What i'll do with the photos is add them to the bottom of the relevant stories when i'm at a computer that can read my usb flash drive (i.e. not these internet kiosks).

Los Angeles - Day 2

Wednesday, Nov 23 (Local)

I woke up several times today before properly getting out of bed at 7:00am. I woke up at 2am, 4am, 5:30am and 6:30am. Obviously not the most comfortable of places but it wasn't too bad. I probably would have slept better if I brought a pillow along. I prefer thick pillows, but unfortunately the ones that we are all given at the hostel are paper thin.

I'm actually quite proud of getting up so early. I didn't even got to bed that late either. Looks like i'm getting into a work regime... but whilst on holiday. Hmmm... strange. Anyway, nobody else was up at around 7 so I went for a walk outside. It's quite nice in the early morning. Cool, not too bright and it's great to breathe the morning air.

Now's a good time to write about a couple of things that I didn't bring. First of all I didn't bring soap or a towel. Hmm.. fantastic. Showering is a little tough without these things. I've now since bought these items and have had a proper shower (including washing my hair, lol). Good to get back on track. I also didn't brig toothpaste, but that was due to the fact that I couldn't find any at home prior to leaving. So my advice for travellers is to not only remember your toothbrush, but to also remember to bring soap and a towel (or two).

So what happened today? Well oday was a day for sightseeing - duh! Today took me to a variety of places and I used both the Metro rail and the Metro bus systems. Public transport is quite decent in this city, Sydney should take note.

Today's journey started off at Hollywood Blvd. Maccas for a healthy breakfast. The menus are different here, quite different. Please note: I only saw the breakfast menu. I ordered an Egg McMuffin Value meal. It looked like a Bacon and Egg McMuffin from the picture on the sales board - but in actual fact it was somewhat different. It was an Egg McMuffin with a slice of ham. Bah! Next time (if there is a next time) i'll go for the Bacon and Egg Biscuit - sure doesn't look like a bikkie but oh well, try something new-ish.

First stop post Maccas was 7th Street/Metro Centre. It looked as though there would be several interesting (well... somewhat) things to see in Downtown LA. Hopped onto the Metro Red Line staight there. No hassles whatsoever. Leading on from the Metro system, maps. What is good about this city is that there are maps everywhere. Surrounding-area maps at each Metro train station and also area maps scattered about the Downtown LA area. Very convenient for the tourists.

Throughout the morning I went and saw the Pasco de Los Pobladores, Court of Flags, Los Angeles City Hall, U.S Courthouse, Little Tokyo and Chinatown. The Pasco de Los Pobladores is a small park/reserve athough there isn't a great deal of greenery around. However, there is a lovely fountain there - much more impressive than the one in Hyde Park. I'm sure they get better elsewhere.

The Court of Flags sucks. Haha. Well maybe i'm a bit too harsh. There was hardly any wind, so none of the flags were fully visible (nor partially visible for that matter). The flags are supposed to be historic American flags over the years. Perhaps it'll be better another day.

Little Tokyo was interesting. Quite smallish, yet interesting. What I found interesting about the place was that 65% of the shops were food shops (i.e. Sushi shops or Japanese restaurants). I'm not sure why the majority of shops are food shops, whatever floats their boat, really. One feature of Little Tokyo is a Challenger monument (the space shuttle that exploded mid-flight). A monument rests there because one of the Astronaughts was Japanese-American, Col. Ellison Onizuka.

Chinatown. A whole district of Downtown LA is Chinatown. No joke. This is one true Chinatown. There are market stalls everywhere, the streets need more cleaning work, and the toilets need some unclogging. Yep. Unlike Little Tokyo, Chinatown was full of shops and it was actually quite difficult to find a Chinese restaurant - although there seemed to be a fair amount of Viet and Thai food around. Eventually found a Chinese restaurant and ate there for lunch - US$4.15/dish. Not bad. Quite a nice place actually. The restaurant's name is Hop Woo's BBQ and Seafood Restaurant.

Life seems to throw up a whole bunch of unique scenarios. Whilst eating lunch a camera crew walzed into the store. Hop Woo (or whoever the owner is) was doing a tv-interview for the Thanskgiving season. Or that's what it appered to be. My guess came about as there were three entire tables laden with Tanksgiving turkeys. Nuts! It's a possiblity that my back will be on American TV.

After wandering around predominantly in foot it was time to head back and rest the feet. My feet were quite sore from all the walking so I think it's time to either bus it around more or buy some decent shoes.

Back into the town after a short rest. The Metro Rail system has three stations with the first part containing the word "Hollywood": Hollywood/Highland, Hollywood/Vine, and Hollywood/Western. I though that perhaps there would be something interesting at these other locations - not quite.

Hollywood/Vine was rubbish. Nothing to see and nothing to do. The area seemed completely dead. No people and not many cars. Had a quick look and took photos of Capitol Records and the Apollo 11 star on the Walk of Fame. Maybe if I saw a show at the nearby hall it would have been different - but I passed. Seeing shows in New York and London would probably be better. Next stop Hollywood/Western.

Hollywood/Western would have been just as bad if it wasn't for Little Thai. Not so many shops were open - yet the ones that were served food. Good stuff, considering it was dinner time. Went to this Thai restaurant called Real Asian Cuisine. Mad name, eh? Clean, moderately decorated... it seemed like a nice place to eat. I ordered a Pad Kee Mao, and it was spicy-as!

Once again dinner cost me approximately US$10, and once again I wasn't able to finish all of the food. American food serving sizes are massive. No wonder they have obesity problems over here.

Not much else to mention here. A big day. Tomorrow is Thanksgiving - so hopefully something will be open. Hopefully. (Note: It's acutally thanksgiving now, i'm just behind on the posts... stay tuned for Day 3 - more shenanigans in LA when the beauty pagent hits the town!).

Los Angeles Metro Train

Haiku, Little Tokyo, Downtown LA

Los Angeles - Day 1

Tuesday, Nov 22 (Local)

Touchdown was at 7:01 am (local Los Angeles time). The total length of the flight totalled 13 hours. That's a terribly long time in a plane - in Economy. My suggestion to anyone is that you pay for Business class for long trips. Why this recommendation? More space (leg room, body room... you name it), more reclining action (which could enable sleep), and more channels on the in flight entertainment. I missed out on watching Sin City. Damn!

I mentioned the interesting announcement made by the captain at the start of the journey. Well it seems as though procedures have changed with respect to taxiing (is that a word?). This may be news to some people but it was news to me. For aeroplanes to land and "dock" several steps need to occur. First of all tyhe plane needs to head down a particular stretch of track (the Alleyway in this case. Next, the plane has to stop completely and turn off its engines. Yep, that's right. The plane has to be dead (effectively). After that a vehicle comes over, latches onto the plane and tows it into the skydock. Fairly strage protocol - but understandable given the present security environment.

More security followed post-docking. After leaving the plane we had to walk down to Immigration. The first checkpoint was storage of personal information - by that I mean digital fingerprinting and a mug shot. Impressive stuff, but that's probably because we are technologically backwards in Australia.

Next - baggage collection. OMG - I had to wait an eternity. QF107 luggage (which was the luggage from my flight) passed through completely on Carousel A (Economy pickup). QF92 luggage also passed through carousel A. Nothing. After all of this plus a couple of more minutes my suitcase ended up in the Priority/First-Class section, which was Carousel B. Interesting. I guess the Americans have got the right idea - i'm a first-class passenger. Yeah! That, or i'm a suspected terrorist. I should think that the Americans double checked my luggage.

Post-baggage collection I had to hand in a declaration form and that was it. Out into Los Angeles proper. Outside of the security area I gave the hostel a call. The hostel is called Hollywood International. The person answering the call told me that I could catch the Metro (train) for $3 or a private bus for $16. Going for the train option I was told that the journey was going to take approximately 2 hours. I thought the operator was joking... turns out he wasn't.

Before catching the train I obviously had to bet to the train station. Helpful airport staff directed me to a LAX shuttle service. LAX shuttles are provided for free to the parking lots and also the the nearest metro station, Aviation/LAX. The LAX G-bus took me to Aviation/LAX station.

Catching the train in LA is quite different than that in Sydney. First of all - every train is an all-stop ttrain. Second of all there are no ticket gates, you just hop on and off at your leisure (obviously, fines are applied if caught with no ticket). There are no indicator boards telling you where the trains are going. Finally, trains go both ways on particular stretches of track!

The second last sentence may raise a few eyebrows... or not. Why do you need indicator boards when the trains are all-stop? It's a question that was answered after extensive detours on the Metro system. The answer: the destination of the train can be seen via a small electronic board on the side of each car of the train.

My metro destination was Hollywood/Highland. For those of you with a map of the metro system (metro.net) - you can follow my first ever journey on the LA metro. I hopped on at the LAX airport station and proceeded to the Green/Blue Interchange, Imperial/Wilmington Station. After moving onto the Blue line I proceeded to the 7th Street/Metro Centre Interchange Station. Now here is where things get interesting. Not noticing that there are two different Red lines I hopped onto any west bound red line train. It was the wrong one. As a result of this I disembarked at Wilshire/Normandie Station, and back I went to Wilshire/Vermont - to ensure that i caught the right train. Off I got at Wilshire/Vermont and caught a train off the platform with trains headed to North Hollywood - just what I wanted... so I thought.

I hopped onto the next train that arrived, and thought I was home free. Not the case. I found out that I took the wrong train when the driver announced "last stop - Wilshire/Western". OMG. Did it again. It gets worse.

The train stopped at Wilshire/Western and I got off. There was a set of track on each side of the station - so naturally I got off and started waiting on the other side of the station. It was here that I noticed that each train had destination indicators on each car of the train. Fantastic. I felt really stupid at this point in time. As I noticed this the indicator changed from WIL/WESTERN to UNION STATION. The direction I needed to get back on track. I didn't get on - as I assumed that the train would come around. Not a great idea. The doors closed and the train went backwards - back into the tunnel from which it came. OMG. Bloody trains. After the revelation of trains indicating their destinations, it was a relatively painful trip henceforth. I finally made it to Hollywood/Highland in one piece, after two hours. The Hollywood International Hostel dude was right afterall, and he even accounted for traveller stupidity.

I'll probably make some more comments about the hostel a little later on - but at the moment all i'll say is that there is no elevator and that there are lots and lots of stairs. Hauling 20+ kilograms of lugguage up a long flight of stairs is by no means fun.

I've crapped on about alot today so i'll be brief about the rest of the day. American food and drink portions are enrmous. Small servings definitely aren't small - unless of course you are obsese. Didn't really do much else other than see Harry Potter IV at the Grumman's Chinese Theatre. Reasonably good movie, and a nice location. Oh yea - also saw some street breakdancing as well. Should get some more over the coming days. That's enough today :D.

Los Angeles from the air

Touchdown in LA

Woke up at 8:00 am for the 12:40pm flight to Los Angeles. I was still packing some things in the morning - but everything was ready to go in a short amount of time. I can tell that i've forgotten some things, but i'm sure i'll figure that out the hard way.

I checked in on the Qantas E1-12 bank of check-in desks and was greeted by a friendly lady at the desk. I checked in one large suitcase (one packed inside another to be exact) and it weiged 27kg. Didn't realise the luggage bag was so heavy - I must be a tank... yea, that's it. Moving right along - I was given a boarding pass and was told to head directly for Gate 8.

The walk through to Gate 8 was daunting. I've managed one happy snap on the approach to customs, but that's it. I promptly packed waay my camera the moment I saw an Australian Federal Police sign warning me not to use camerasin the Customs area. The find would have been $1000 if caught. Oops.

Fast forward to the flight. After 3 security checkpoints (ignoring the one at the check-in) I finally made it to the plane, a Boeing 747-400. Quite a nice plane really - TVs for each seat, remote controls for each seat and I was near a window. Note: near, not next to.

Funnily enough one particular announcement from the captain interested me. It went: " I am required to read out a statement from the United States Department of Justice, it goes something like this; At all times during the flight, please do not congregate in any area of the plane - especially near the lavatories". Interesting indeed.

So off we went - departing from runway 2 (i think). The northern runway, anyway. The usual health and safety messages were given first, followed by a short video on preventing deep vein thrombosis (DVT). I must admit that I yawned during this... and it was a killer yawn. Unfortunately it was a little too intense. I pulled a muscle. LOL. The muscle above my Adam's Apple. Oh well, such is life.

So where did I actually sit. Well I was assigned a seat near the window - and that is all I mentioned previously. To be specific I was assigned the seat 67B. Placing me at the back end of the plane, several rows behind where the wing joins the body of the plane. Not the worst of locations to be sure.

Travelling extended hours on a plane is not solitude by any stretch of the imagination. An extended plane trip wouldn't be an extended plane trip without meeting new people. Now obviously I am travelling with a friend - Carmen, but the person on the other side was someone that I haven't met before. On the aisle seat sat a UCLA undergraduate. Female, psychology student, 2nd year, and just completed an exchage at the University of Western Australia.

Now it may seem as though I talked alot on this trip, but that's not the case. I spent more time watching the in-flight entertainment. The shows/movies that I watched were: The Island, The Skit Show, Mythbusters, The Real Da Vinci Code, and Dukes of Hazzard. All Ican say is that Scarlett Johansson is hot, a dodge viper moves quicker than toy cars based on gravity alone, yawning is somewhat contagious, Dan Brown isn't telling a true story (although the bookbeing classed as Fiction should have been a hint), and no comment on Dukes.

I did try to sleep on the plane - but I didn't quite succeed. Qantas provided a blanket and a pillow - but this was no consolation. Sitting upright and trying to sleep doesn't quite work for me. Also, leaning to either side wasn't really an option. Well rested? Not quite. Sore neck, you be! Oh well - at least breakfast was good.

The journey begins...

I haven't been posting much recently because it's crunch time. So many things to do in such a short space of time. I've forgotten heaps and i'll probably find out that i've forgotten more when i'm no longer in the country. I leave tomorrow at Midday. As I write this entry there are still several things that have not yet been completed - some of which include packing, arranging accomodation in some places and figuring out what to do when I touch down. As you can see, this is a well planned holiday :).

Well - what do you expect anyway, i'm a guy. Haha. You should be worried if everything was immaculately planned, right? So anyway - what am I doing and where am I going? That's a good question. I'll be headed to America, England, and Western Europe - so there should be lots to write about whilst i'm away. Obviously, i'll endeavour to post on this blog as soon as i'm near an internet cafe/kiosk.

For those of you in the know how i'll post up where i'll be and when (Jeff and James, you can read this as opposed to senging me msn messages all of the time asking me where and when i'll be on location). However, some of the locations may change.

22/11 - Los Angeles (USA)
25/11 - New York City (USA)
26/11 - Philadelphia (USA)
27/11 - Washington DC (USA)
29/11 - New York City (USA)
03/12 - London (UK)
04/12 - Salisbury (UK)
05/12 - Liverpool (UK)
06/12 - Oxford (UK)
07/12 - London (UK)
08/12 - Amsterdam (Holland)
10/12 - Rhine Valley (Germany)
11/12 - Mt.Pilatus/Lucerne (Switzerland)
13/12 - Innsbruck (Austria)
14/12 - Venice (Italy)
15/12 - Rome (Italy)
17/12 - Florence (Italy)
18/12 - Nice (France)
20/12 - Lyon (France)
21 /12 - Paris (France)
23/12 - London (UK)
24/12 - St.Anton (Austria)
31/12 - Vienna (Austria)
02/01 - Salzburg (Austria)
03/01 - Munich (Germany)
04/01 - Stuttgart (Germany)
05/01 - Munich (Germany)
06/01 - Hong Kong (China)
09/01 - Sydney (Australia)

So if any of you have any suggestions on what I should go and see at these places, feel free to post them up.

Now obviously this pseudo-world tour isn't very cheap. You'd be right. I'm expecting this trip to be in the vicinity of $9k (AUD). So i'll be working that off for some time to come. Damn, that's alot of money that i'm borrowing - lol!

Now, next item on the agenda. Postcards. If anyone wants a postcard from any of these places (excluding Sydney, of course) then drop me an email: marky.on.tour@gmail.com . I'll obviously be checking my standard email addresses, but i'm sure they'll be clogged up with a whole bunch of stuff - so I may miss a couple of emails. Feel free to just send over an email asking me how things are, etc.

Now - as i'm going to be away for a while i'll just make a few comments on some issues that i've read about in the papers recently. So if u read further down - there's no more travel stuff :).

First of all - Internet governance. Currently ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) maintains and holds the "internet telephone book". These are the dudes that make sure that internet addresses like markyhomez.blogspot.com are linked to the correct numerical address (as the 203.123.123.123 kinds of addresses are somewhat harder to remember). ICANN is based in America - somewhere in California from memory.

Anyways, the United Nations and the European Union are somewhat jealous that an American company has control and have been pushing for more "international co-operation". Some critics proclaim that "no single nation should maintain control over the top level domain or country names". Sounds good in principle, but who else would be in charge of the "internet directory". The UN? the EU?. I certainly hope not.

Lets see. The UN takes total control of internet governance. Countries like China, Iran, and Zimbabwe would be able to influence how the Internet works and is managed. Zimbabwe will be able to tell everyone in the world how to manage their e-businesses - fantastic! considering their economy is in the toilet and that they've chased away all the white farmers in the country. China will be able to ensure freedom of information on the internet - excellent! All of my news needs will be provided by the Xinhua news service. Hopefully, ICANN will keep control for the time being.

Issue Number 2 - WorkChoices. I'll be the first person to admit that I haven't read the entire bill - but I doubt that many people have... it's 700 pages long. What I may say could be disregarded as someone who is not "in the know", but so would many others - including high profile unionists. Obviously this is a big issue and there are probably several things that can be fixed and or amended in the bill, but IR reform is necessary.

Why this is a good thing? Well, in my opinion the best thing one can do for his or her future is to get a job. Enabling more people to move into work does two things - makes people more self-sufficient and lowers the welfare burden on government so that front-line services can be better funded. These two things in combination will ensure future prosperity for Australians.

How will the WorkChoices legislation enable more people to gain employment - well one national Industrial Relations system will be introduced across Australia (rather than 6+ as it is now). Meaning less confusion and probably less compliance costs as there would only be the one system - as opposed to the various state systems and the commonwealth system on top of that. Unfair Dismissal laws would be removed for businesses less than 100 employees. Shit workers should be sacked, it's as simple as that. Forcing small businesses to keep bludgers is a travesty. By allowing bludgers to be sacked rather than retained will undoubtedly help small businesses take on more employees.

Obviously there will be questions raised, and questions have indeed been raised. Won't the big bad company sack me for no reason? There is another set of laws that is still in place - illegal dismissal laws. It will still be unlawful to sack you based on age, race, religion, and all of that. Plus, if you work hard - why would your boss sack you? Plus, it seems as though companies are big bad meanies all the time (if you watched the union ads). Companies depend on their people to succeed - so it is in their best interest to keep their staff happy and content. Obviously, not all the companies are the same - but the most successful companies are the ones that keep thier workforce happy.

Anyways, that's enough from me. This is a mega blog, and I should stop here and start packing. Haha. The next post will come from overseas, w00t. In closing i'd like to say a big thank you to my Cousins Jason and Kara for helping me plan my holiday.

Socceroos - about bloody time

Well, well, well. What an intense match. I'm sure the SBS would be happy with the ratings they get for tonight's match. Summary: 1 - 0 victory at home for the Aussies and a 4 - 2 penalty shootout to the Aussies to decide who goes into the world cup. Uruguay had their turn last time, now it's ours - w00t!

That was a real top effort by the Aussies. Getting that crucial first goal and holding off Uruguay for the rest of the match - truly a dream run. Makybe Diva, Coalition Senate Control, and World Cup qualification truly makes for a spectacular year. The penalty shootout was the tensest part of the match for me (and probably many others) - Mark Schwarzer and 2 saves, omg! What a hero - he almost saved 3. When he saved that second goal, I was out of my seat in a flash. Stacks of congratulations are in order for coach Guus and the Aussie team. Well done and good luck in Deutschland '06.

I would also like to make a pointer about the telecast. I might have been living under a rock or something like that, but since when has the "virtual spectator" been around? It looks like something out of Fifa 2006, LOL. The virtual spectator is fantastic, i'd even rate it more than any other analysis tool from any other sport. It should definately feature in more games in the future. (PS: Something that shouldn't feature in future telecasts is Ned Zelic, didn't look very professional slumped over the chair).

Anyways... congrats to Australia, bad luck Uruguay, and hello Germany 2006! (Both for me and the Socceroos, lol).

Examinations are over, University is over

Hmm.. I forgot to notify everyone that I had exams, and thus would be silent for a while. Oh well, too late. Not that I was studying hard or anything, lol. I was too busy being counter-productive.

So i'll quickly mention the one and only exam that I had (jealous? haha). It wasn't terribly difficult and I finished in 45 mins. The duration of the exam was 2 hours. That's typical for me. It's not as though i'm a genius or anything, I just do what I can quickly and then get out of there. I'm not sure how many hours i've "saved", but since i've done over 50 subjects and have left in pretty much each examination I can remember - i'll have to be setting a world record somewhere.

So what can I talk about today. Hmm. The answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything? Wow, that's quite deep and meaningful - no. However, I saw the movie "The Hitchhikers Guide To the Galaxy" and I thoroughly enjoyed it. What's classy is that they still make use of the radio version as they did in the TV series - maximum points for that.

Well that's enough for now. I'm just overwhelmed by my subconscious urges to bludge and fill up my time with totally un-constructive tasks. I'm supposed to be assisting in planning a holiday, but I fear my subconscious will take over. Will try to post something decent before leaving (22 Nov).

The Presentation to end all Presentations

The countdown continues to my last assessment ever (well, unless of course I decide to pursue a Masters somewhere in the future). Three days left until the presentation of my Thesis to a panel of academics. The panel includes the Head of School and the Thesis Co-ordinator - so I better not eff it up. Without blabbering on incessantly, i'll wrap up the week that has passed.

I've managed to get back into the normal routine of bludging, gaming, and sleeping. Quite a good feeling all round. I've actually put in some work for my presentation, however, and I am thus quite proud. Oh! Almost forgot, happy birthday to Carmen Chen and Dave Tran (gogo, amazing race).

On the gaming scene i've tried my hand at a litlle Lineage 2. Not such a bad game really, but it does feel as though there are grinding aspects to levelling (but an MMORPG wouldn't be much of an MMORPG if it wasn't for the grind... it's a part of the process, I guess). I've heard that the PvP castle sieges are quite interesting and quite intense, so hopefully I won't stay n00b for long. If anyone wants to look me up my char name is Erundil and I play predominantly on the Staris server (at the time of writing 22 Human Cleric).

The old Gunbound has been fired up a couple of times and all I can say is... pwnage. On the weekend I was on this mad winning streak with a bunch of people, i think it was 8 wins. That's not where the pwnage ends, I managed to get 2 double kills in consecutive games. Now if that isn't pwnage.... then I don't know what is (one was almost a triple kill, as the last remaining mobile had approx 50 health). Metal axe here I come!!!

You may have noticed the words "amazing race" up there with the birthday mentions. Yes! That's right. On rainy Sunday, it was the third annual Snippy Amazing Race. Quite fun all round and congratulations must go to Team Black. I, however, was on Team Blue and came third. One particularly interesting scenario to mention is the Milperra leg of the Amazing Race....

Milperra, out in the middle of nowhere... somewhere near Bankstown Airport (apologies to people that live out there, I meant the big forest like park... close to Hungry Jacks). One of the amazing race helpers, Sam (who lives in Hornsby... lol! what a drive), was waiting at some benches with some plastic cups, straws, and a big bucket of water. The task? Each of us had to fill up a cup with water from the big bucket of water using just the straws. Ewww.. gross? You bet. It gets worse. One team member has to drink all of the cups of water. Mmmmm.... tasty.

So without delay, we commenced sucking up the water with the straws and depositing that water into our respective cups. Ryan, a team Blue member, decided to hurry things along. Not only did he fill up the straw with water, he filled up his mouth with water. When he got to his cup, out it came. Saliva and all. I tell you, the rest of us couldn't stop laughing. The gurgling white foam that constituted the contents of his cup hardly looked appetising - LOL. Thankfully Ryan offered to drink all the cups. Luckily for him, the rest of us didn't add saliva to the water in our cups. Funny stuff, and good work Team Blue!

That just about wraps things up.

Submitting The Behemoth

Yes! It's all over. The behemoth that is my Thesis has been completed. Is it quality? Who bloody knows - i'm just happy that it is all done. Let me tell you, I haven't slept much over the past few days... so i'm going to get some well earned rest tonight. Hell yea!

So anyway. Since i'm on the topic, i'll elaborate. My thesis is big, contains lots of pictures, and contains lots of tables. It has a monster of an appendix. And is 213 pages long. WTF? 213 pages? Yes. You read that correctly. I don't call something 'the behemoth' for nothing.

Statictics are as follows:
Pages - 213
Words - 34,628
Characters - 269,234

Yea. That's right. Solid stuff. I'm just hoping that my supervisor doesn't read the damn thing. I'm going for the 'wow' effect. I guess time will tell. (For those of you who say i've cheated, then you're probably right - i've included the appendices in the statistics.... and my appendices make up more than 50% of my Thesis submission).

Anyways, i'm off to bed. I'll probably sleep more tonight than I have over the past 3 days...

Here's a photo of 2 copies of the behemoth:

Silence

Not much posting over the past week... and i'm sure you can guess why. Yep, thesis. Well, there's only 2 more weeks to go and I really need to get something working. Sigh.

So unless I have heaps of time or am making some amazing progress in the thesis, it'll be quiet on the blog front. Please tune in at the beginning of November for more goodness :).

PS: Gunbound is mad, and isn't helping me get my thesis done :)

Wallace and Gromit - Recommended

I managed to go out for once. Hooray for me. Can't spend all my time cooped up at home... so what did I do today? I used some free Greater Union tickets that I received in the mail and saw the movie Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit.

I must admit that i'm a bit of a Wallace and Gromit fan. The clay-based animation done by Aardvark (the company that does all the modelling and what not) is pure class. In typical Wallace and Gromit style the movie was quite entertaining and there were quite a few cute (yea, no other way to describe it) animations.

The funny bits in the movie can be seen in the trailer. One part where a giant female bunny is attached to Wallace and Gromit's car and Gromit, whilst in control of the giant bunny, conducts a bit of a cabaret dance. Another is in the church when the crowd asks Wallace how he is going to trap the were-rabbit, Wallace replies by saying "...with a big trap", then this old man proclaims "by Joe... I think he's got it!". Classic stuff. There were also some cute moments in the movie as well. The little bunny rabbits waving to eachother, now that's quality. You'll know what I mean when you see the movie. It's so cool.

Anyway, i'll fast forward to the evening - gym time. Decided to try out the "Body Attack" class that they were having there. I thought i'd give it a try... from the outside it didn't look so bad - a bunch of people running around and jumping all over the place. Oh dear... was I wrong. After the class I felt as though i've been the victim of an attack - someone's grabbed my legs and placed a portable vice on each of my calves. I was struggling and i'm not afraid to admit it. You may laugh at me, that's fine - but don't bag it until you've tried it. I've learnt my lesson. It was a good workout though, quite intense.

After the gym I ventured down to a cafe in the local area. Food was fairly decent, as was the service... but something really strange happened. After ordering and receiving the drinks we wanted to order. This dude in red was nearby so I looked over at him - usually that's enough, once a waiter sees that you're looking around then it's fairly obvious that it's ordering time. Nope. This derro just stared back. Fine. I put up my hand and give a half wave. Nope, still staring. At this point i'm thinking "what a dumbass". I tried again - charades style, I mimicked writing on a pad with my two hands. Nope, still staring. Once more with the charades, same thing. A reaction! The dude walks forward two steps and proceeds to outline a window with his arms.... WTF? At this point I saw a waitress walk past behind him and write something down at the counter - I pointed to the girl behind him, obviously indicating that I want the girl's attention. What does this n00b do? He draws the bloody window with his hands again. At this point I gave up called out "Excuse me" loudly, drawing the attention of the lady... this time all it took was one look.

Alas, the shenanigans don't end there. The intelligence of the staff really perplexed me. We ordered a couple of pizzas and the waitress wrote down the order, finishing off each entry with the letter P and surrounded by a circle - fair enough... represents pizza. So at the end of the meal I went to pay. "That'll be $8.50 thanks" (the price of the two drinks). I stood there a little confused, obviously I didn't maximise on my good luck. This dude (not the retard mentioned above) repeated again "$8.50". Something was obviously wrong so I asked him "are you sure?". He looked hard at the docket and then called over the girl that wrote down the order in the first place. This is the little conversation that they had:

Dude: "Hey, how much does this all cost"
Girl: "Add it all up"
Dude: "Including these?" (pointing to the pizza entries)
Girl: "Er... yes"
Dude: "Oh, ok. What does this P mean? I thought it meant 'paid'. "
Girl: "It means pizza, duh!"

LOL. Dumbass number two right there. I should stop being honest, could have saved myself some money.

Oh! Also, on the way home... a bit of luck - petrol @ 117.9 c/L. What a bargain!

Images from Home 2

The second installment are available for viewing, *cheer*.
These photos are from the balcony outside my bedroom.
Enjoy.

Bratty Kids, Victory and Dancing

Bratty Kids - there were lots of those on Friday. Victory and Dance - that's what sort of happened over the weekend. This week saw North Parramatta win Round 1 Outright! What an achievement. Furthermore, the YL ball was on Saturday night - and what a big night it was.

Friday. It was cold, windy, and the sky was grey - conditions favourable for staying home, and that's just about it. Unfortuately for me I volunteered to help out with the Careers Day for Boys 2005 programme, so into University I went at 8:30. I should have thought this out earlier - a bunch of school kids coming to University to hear about what the University has to offer - bad idea.

Careers Day for Boys is a program run by the Sydney University Union that allows local boys schools (there is an equivalent Careers Day for Girls, but guys can't volunteer for this... surprise, surprise) to send their Year 10 students to University to find out about Sydney University and what it has to offer. The program requires many volunteers, and luckily there were plenty.

To cut a long story short. I was a group leader and had to take the boys around to the various workshops... as well as keep them under control. I believe that I did a reasonably good job, but that's probably because I was armed with a bunch of chocolates to pacify the rabble. The group sizes were quite large (50 per group, 3 volunteer leaders per group) and as a result the boys were noisy, obnoxious and quite crude - but thankfully not to me.

The highlight of the day would have to be towards the beginning of the day. At registration a couple of 'derros' approached the desk to register. I asked them how they were doing and they told me that they were fine. After a bit of small talk one of the boys asked me: "Bro, where's the nearest Galaxy World". Being the honest and informative person that I am.. I told him that there was one further down the road on George Street. No point in converting them, really. After being given their name tags another derro asked me "Do we have to wear these things?". Again, being the honest and informative person that I am.. I told him "You can take it off at Galaxy World". Not too long afterwards their teacher approached them, took them outside and gave them a stern talk. The derros were sent away - and they probably went to Galaxy World.

Saturday Victory! Given that Friday wasn't great in a weather sense I wasn't too sure as to whether or not Cricket would be on. Friday night saw rain and the forecasts predicted rain on the Saturday. I was a little unhappy at the revelation as campaigning in the rain and being robbed of a victory sucks.

I woke up on Saturday morning and the sky was somewhat clear. It wasn't going to rain - good. Got dressed at 7am and headed out the door and it was very, very cold - bad. Why 7am? Well I headed out to Macquarie Fields to help hand out How-to-vote cards at Glenfield Public school. Campaigning was great - I met some great people (both Liberal and Labor supporters) and spoke to some at length. I stayed there for a couple of hours and then headed off to Harold Park West (cricket).

Cricket - it didn't really begin so well. No wickets had fallen after 10 overs and the batsmen looked quite comfortable, scoring runs at a steady rate. Then the tables turned. One of the batsmen lost sight of a ball bowled by Ajay and ducked - the ball was far from short and, as a result, crashed into the bastman's face. No helmet. Play stopped and we all came in to see if the batsman was ok. He clearly wasn't. The ball had hit him just under the right eye, his face was puffed up and there was blood everywhere. Shortly afterwards he was taken off the field by a couple of his mates and taken to hospital. Nasty stuff - i'm going to have to buy a helmet soon... don't want that happening to me.

After the incident the wickets started to fall. Ajay started ripping into the batting line up and as a result finished up with 7 wickets (almost all of them clean bowled). Quite a marvel to watch actually, as I was fielding at point. He would either rip out middle stump of clip the bails off. Very exciting indeed. The second innings started at approximately 3:15pm and the pattern was similar to how the 2nd day started - a great start followed by a collapse (The run out was mine). Victorious in Round 1, quite an omen for the rest of the season. Hopefully i'll score more than just the 1 run. The scorecard can be looked at here.

Finally, the YL Ball. Damn this is along bastard of a post. The Ball was held at the American club on Macquarie Street and kicked off at 7:30. There were stacks of people and it was an excellent opportunity to catch up with people. I haven't seen some YLs in quite a while, so it was good to see everyone again.

The Hon. Brendan Nelson MP made an excellent speech and i'll just relay a little bit of what he said. He was speaking about a bunch of primary school kids that he visited and the kids presented him with stories on "What makes mum mad". Brendan told us that one of the stories was "My mum gets mad when my sister leaves a big poo in the toilet". ROFL! The speech did get more serious and was quite comprehensive, but I must say... that was an excellent start.

Now, instead of crapping on about what happened that night i'll just attach a few photos. Enjoy.

Hypocracy and Student Politics

Observing student politics in action can be quite interesting. You have your usual crazy zealots and a whole bunch of students that don't give a rat's arse. Very interseting indeed. Where did student politics take me today? The University of Technology Sydney's Haymarket campus.

First of all a little brief on what's going there. The elections are for Union Board, Academic Board and Faculty Board. I have no idea why there are so many boards, but there it is. Polling takes place over 4 days and each day votes can be cast between 8:30am and 9:00pm (I think). Now that is a hell of a long time. If somebody were to ask me: "Where is student money going?" then my answer would have to be "To pay the people manning the election booths".

Hardly anyone voted while I was there as 90% of the people walking past the Union Centre (the minority of people that actually bother to walk past the Union Centre) either didn't care or said that they've voted (a blatant lie for many students).

So anyway, here's an interesting little segment from one of the people working for the Student Power ticket:

Student Power bloke: "We're Student Power - we're exactly about what we are called... giving back power to the Students."
Random Student: "What about these other people"
Student Power bloke: "Well these guys in red are Left Action and they're generally good people, George is an independant and is also pretty nice. Look all of us are progressive and are there for the students... those people over there are Students United and they're not progressive they have an agenda"

What a ripper. George, Left Action, Student Power have done a super-deal and are claiming that their opposition (Students United) have an agenda. Hahah. Classic.

Another classic example is the utter hypocrasy of some people. Gererally if a student is unknown to all of the campaigners then they get hit by everyone. The whole "We are blah and stand for blah, blah, blah - Vote for us". Now, once again i'll take a swipe at Student Power - because they deserve it. When everyone was doing their speil onto the not-so-interested student the same Student Power bloke from the scenario above would call out "You should look at all of the policies clearly and make an informed choice. An informed choice is the best choice" (or something to that effect). However, if he was the first to talk to a prospective voter he would actively promote his policies and then exclaim "don't take that sheet of paper, it's pure propaganda" when somebody from Students United would approach the same student. An informed choice? Yea, right!

I'll finish off with one more rant. Political discrimination. The left claim to be the "defenders against discrimination" or something to that effect. They typically use emotively charged language to further this illusion - stuff like "harmony","unity", "diversity" and "compassion". What bullshit. The left are the masters of political discrimination. Everybody assisting in the Students United campaign, including me, were asked (by multiple people) "Are you a member of the Liberal party? What branch of the Liberal party are you?". It gets worse... people that voted for Students United were also asked if they were members of the Liberal party. Disgraceful behaviour.

Finally, I would like to point out that some of the people that I met from both Left Action and Student Power were quite nice and did not partake in blatantly hypocritical acts. The crazies are the problem.

Lacking Motivation

I've mentioned the thesis time and time again. I've also mentioned that it's not really getting anywhere time and time again. Well, not much has changed... still. I'm starting to get quite annoyed, more so than worried - but oh well.

I'm going to talk about some psychology. Something a bit different than what i'm used to posting. Anyway, i'm finding it quite hard to remain focused on work - I find myself procrastinating to the extreme. I'm posting on my blog, i'm reading lots of news, playing lots of sports, and bumming around the house.

I'm guessing that this is the case as i'm not really getting anywhere. The lack of progress leads onto the further lack of progress. Maybe this happens to others as well. I guess the only exception to the rule could be a looming deadline. A deadline usually is all it takes for progress to surge forward. Comments?

I need a holiday :(

On a final note - the fun that can be seen in student politics.
This little segment is from today outside Eastern Avenue Lawns.

Leftie: "Daddy's paying for your election campaign again is he?"
Rightie: "At least I know who my dad is"

ROFL! Slammed. Now that is a comeback worthy of votes.

Outrage at the Oval and Koizumi Wins

This weekend has been quite intense - i'm still not really getting anywhere with my thesis (i've tried, trust me), the Aussies have been rorted, and Japan's Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has won comfortably in Japan's general election.

Skipping the thesis, i'm going to first talk about what happened last night. Australia screwed up bigtime - giving the game back to England by sheer incompetence. Incompetence in playing swing bowling. Going from 2/270 odd to faling short of England's total is really quite poor. It was time for England to have a bat... and what happens - the umpires decide it's too dark for the Aussie pacemen to bowl. Ok, fine.

So what happens? The master, Shane Warne, is brought into the attack - and dismisses Andrew Strauss, 1/2! Not too long afterwards the umpires have another chat and decide to stop play altogether. What the hell? Australia were going to bowl two spinners (only one of which is a real full-time spinner) ... the light wasn't so bad that you couldnt' see a ball being bowled slowly. The English batsmen seemed to be hitting the ball just fine.

I really don't see how Australia had an unfair advantage given the supposedly-low level of light. Rudi, the South African umpire, said that it was highly possible that the batsmen could lose sight of the ball when the ball was being bowled slowly. Really? I'm sure that if that was the case then it would be a loss of concentration rather than due to the light. Even if it was potentially hard to see the ball when batting... then it would be hard for the fieldsmen to see the ball as well? (Potential for drop catches and boundaries due to poor visibility). PLUS Australia was going to bowl a part time spinner - hardly advantageous to the Aussies. I find the whole situation ridiculous - we want a result here... win or lose. Keeping the fight going between Australia and England would have been the best thing for cricket - unfortunately the umpires didn't agree.

So there's my rant on The Ashes. Another thing i'd like to mention is the amazing victory of Japan's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). The LDP, along with its coalition party New Komeito Party, has won 327 seats out of the 480-member House of Representatives. That's an amazing victory, approximately a two-thirds majority. This election saw the highest voter turnout in over a decade - 67.52%. A great turnout and a great result.

The early election was called due to the failure of the Japanese Diet (parliament) to pass Koizumi's bills on postal reform - that being the privatisation of Japan Post. Koizumi dissolved the Diet and called for an election (I think it's over a year before the end of term).

Why was/is postal reform such an issue in Japan? Well first of all Japan Post is a big mofo. It's one of the largest financial institutions in the world. Japan Post is not only a post office but it effectively acts as a bank as well. Having this behemoth being owned by the government is asking for trouble. A big cash cow for the government leads to lots of spending on useless projects (sounds alot like student Unions having a cash cow, the students, to waste money on things that people hardly use). Japan Post, as far as I could tell, was somewhat corrupted as it provided funding for politically-aimed projects... effectively "vote buying" in disguise.

Well done Koizumi.

Season 2005-06 Begins

Yesterday marked the first day of the first match of the 2005-06 Cricket season, and boy was it an interesting day. In summary North Parramatta was bowled out for 230 and Kings Langley stood at 3/12 at stumps.

The day was sunny and hot, bloody sunny and bloody hot. In fact it was so damn bright that I regretted not getting a pair of prescription sunnies. I'll need to get some soon if I want to have some eyesight by the end of the season. The field was elliptical with extremely short boundaries on the sides and there was graffiti on the synthetic pitch. The location? Our home ground - Harold Park West Reserve.

The day started off with Tony, the captain, losing the toss (that's coin toss, for you non-cricket people). Interestingly enough the opposition captain chose to field. Personally, I thought his decision was terrible but since the opposition made the terrible decision... there's no need to complain. (Decision was bad because it was very hot and only half of his team were preset at the time of the toss).

North Parra (my team) got off to a sluggish start. The run rate was excruciatingly slow and we lost a couple of quick wickets (Dinesh out for 3). Then came a massive change. In comes Ajay, a big bloke that loves to swing the bat. The first ball delivered to Ajay was unexpectedly left. From then on, the game got very interesting. Ball after ball sailed over the witches hats (the boundary) ensuring that the run rate ticked along nicely. One spinner in particular felt the wrath of Ajay - with no wicket and conceeding 44 runs in just three overs. Slaughterhouse. Unfortunately Ajay's golden run came to an end at 79, a truly amazing effort - facing something in the order of 30 to 35 balls). After Ajay left the run rate really slowed down.

At approximately 3:20 pm I made my debut at number 7. Four minutes later I was back in the pavilion. Fantastic. I made a grand contribution of 1 run. Caught and bowled is how I was dismissed. I played at the ball early and the ball hit the bat, bobbed up and it was a simple catch for the bowler. Obviously my defensive game needs some serious work. Oh well, better luck next time.

One final thing to note however is that the final wicket partnership between Atul and Edmond was pure class. Atul and Edmond put on a 60-odd run partnership to ensure that we had enough runs to work with to secure a win. The team total: 230 runs.

It was then Kings Langley's turn to bat, and it didn't look as though they were enjoying it. Their first wicket fell in the second over when Ajay trapped one of Kings' opening batsmen LBW (leg before wicket). The batsman played a defensive stroke late, allowing the ball to continue on and hit his pads. Gone! 1/0.

The second wicket to fall did not take much longer. Over number three, another Kings Langley batsman heading back to the pavilion. Bowled Atul, Caught Mark Homeming (me). An attempted drive went horribly wrong for the remaining opening batsman. There was a thick outside edge (ball hitting the bat), the ball flew into the air... ready to be caught. I ran to my right, hopped into the air, reached out with my right hand - full stretch, and caught the ball. Go me! Specialist fieldsman all the way.

A couple of overs later the luck of Kings Langley had not changed. Ajay bowled a fantastic ball. The batsman played a shot - I think it was an attempted drive - and missed clearly. The ball clipped the bail above middle and off stump - three wickets down. Not too long after this Kings Langley called for the halt of play due to bad light. As a result of this the days play ended with Kings Langley at 12 runs for the loss of 3 wickets.

An interesting day, hopefully the Aussies will be in a commanding position as well.

News Watch 2005-09-06

I've finally managed to get something going with my thesis. Cheer! Plus I didn't have to use any dodgy hacks - i'm quite proud of myself. As I haven't really been following the news headlines too much recently i'll make a few comments on what i've seen around the world - and some of it is reasonably interesting.

Chicks. I saw this little blurb on the news.com.au website saying that gentlemen no longer prefer blondes over brunettes as a result of gentlemen looking for brains and sophistication. Very interesting indeed - the blurb can be available here. I'd like to hear some comments on this one.

Weight loss. Those Americans, damn they get fat. What's happening in the US is that some people are turning to hypnosis to lose wait. Really... now i've heard everything.

RIP Kazaa. It looks like Kazaa, the peer-to-peer file sharing software application has been slammed. The Australian federal court ordered Kazaa to filter out copyrighted material from its network. The Guardian reports on it here. The claim by Kazaa and some others that this is a death blow to file-sharing is a bit of a joke. Everyone loves free stuff, I sure do. But sharing of illegal stuff isn't something that should be promoted. People work hard for their material, they shouldn't be rorted out of gaining the benefits. However, I'm not saying that i'm an angel that has done no wrong, just making a comment on this Kazaa issue.

Socceroos Victory. Well i'd hardly call it a victory. Australia beat the Solomon Islands in an away match 2 - 1. Hardly convincing. I expected more from the Aussies, consdering I was present at the 7 - 0 slaughter at Moore Park on Saturday.

The proverbial has hit the fan in America. It's a real tragedy what's happened in America and i'm talking about Hurricane Katrina. Tens of thousands suspected to be dead in and around the city of New Orleans - that's absolutely horrific. It looks like water is slowly being pumped out of the city but it'll take months for a full drainage. Very sad indeed. Read the article here. Hopefully the citizens that are still around the area get out and get out fast, because the situation really does not sound so good.

Petrol technology. The price of petrol sucks. Anyone with a car knows this. I mean just the other day I paid $50 bucks at $1.40/litre. WOMG. So anyway, felt like looking around for anything that would save me some money. I didn't find anything that could help me now but there seems to be several things around the corner which would reduce our dependance on oil, save us money and be better for the environment. What a deal. Read, read.

Tax. It turns out that many of the 'richest' in Australia avoid paying a substantial amount of tax - something in the order of 25%. Confused? Read this - quite interesting indeed. My opinion on tax is that the top rate should be reduced, as a percentage, and that the cut-in rate should also be higher. Why? 47c in tax, wtf? - half of everything you earn over the threshold goes to the government... what a bloody rort.

Telstra. It looks like Queensland Senator Barnaby Joyce is happy with the new Telstra bills as mentioned here, about bloody time. I agree with the full sale of Telstra as it sounds very dodgy to me how the government is both the industry regulator and the majority owner of the biggest player in the industry.

Ok that should be enough news for you to read. I guess i'll finish off with a bit of a brag - and it's hardly news. Played a set of tennis against my sister on Saturday. It was a close one! I won 6 - 5 after a tiebreaker (7 - 5). Close indeed. Plus, 2 aces for me, w00t.

The Lotto Question

Ok. I spent all of today working on my thesis - therefore the day sucked, bigtime. One piece of software doesn't work because another piece of software is too new... too new? what the hell happened to backwards compatability - down the toilet if you ask me. So anyway, enough of my rant and onto my question of the day.

The scenario conatins four people: Jill, Stella, Bill, and Morris Iemma (ok, i couldn't get anything to rhyme with Stella... so relax :P). Please note that the scenario and all names are fictional and anything that matches in the real world is purely co-incidental. (Don't want to be sued :D).

Jill, Stella, Bill, and Iemma decide that they are going to buy a Lotto ticket. It's a big draw and the jackpot is some $25 million dollars - not that the value of the jackpot is important.

Stella goes out and buys the ticket on behalf of the group, a week before the draw. Before the draw Jill and Bill both pay their share. So three out of the four have paid their fair share of the ticket. By the time of the draw Iemma has not paid (yes, Morris has the capacity to pay but did not pay immediately).

The draw concludes and surprise surprise the group has the winning ticket - $25 million dollars! The big question is: does Morris Iemma deserve a share of the winnings minus what he owes to the rest of the group or does he deserve nothing because he did not pay?

This is a very interesting question, and i'd love to hear comments on this one. My perspective: Morris Iemma doesn't deserve a cent. Being capable of paying he was unfairly hoping for win. Morris was most likely hoping for this scenario: "If the ticket wins I won't have to pay at all.. i'll be making money".

So what I say is that.... if you're not in - you don't get a cut, simple.

Hairdressing Impressions

Yesterday I went to the hairdresser (aka barber). For those of you who have seen me over the last week you'd have to admit... I really needed one. So since I moved place I decided to try out a new place. Thoroughly impressed, was I.

My first impression was - this place looks pretty clean and refined, i'll give this one a shot. I entered, obviously without a booking, and was told that it'd be 20 minutes before i could be serviced (couldn't really expect to get in straight away without a booking... but I was hoping). I also found out in advance how much the haircut would cost - $35. Pretty expensive for a guy, I thought. But, what the hell... I decided i'd give it a try. (Jess gets haircuts for something around $50, so it's not all that bad in retrosepct).

Ok, so 15 minutes later I came back. I was told to sit by the hair washing area - w00t, a hair wash. Some chick was waiting by the hair washing area and told me sit down and lie back. No complaints from me. First came the shampoo, then came the conditioner - all of this being explained to me by the chick washing my hair. The next part thoroughly impressed me. While rubbing some hair product (I don't know wtf it is) into her hands, the chick started off by saying "just so you know, this will make your scalp cold and tingly - it's to promote blood flow and hair growth". After the application of this wierdo material my head was indeed cool and tingly. It's seriously one of the coolest sensations around. You girls have been living the high life and us guys have been missing out. So next I had to wait for the hairdresser to finish with his current customer. The wait was no problem as I was marvelling at the coolness of this mysterious hair product.

Not really being a veteran of the hair wash thing I must admit I had a bit of a sore neck afterwards. There's probably some neck support at the hair wash basin but for some reason I was using my neck muscles to hold my head up.... mmm... learn something new everyday.

The adventure doesn't end there. I did have to wait a bit for the hairdresser to come to me, but that's ok. This hairdresser was fairly nice, I don't really know the hairdresser lingo and i'm sure that fact was fairly obvious when I spoke. Nothing like "i'll have a Number 2, thanks" came me, it was more like "ummm.. a trim thanks - off the ears and make it shorter all round". Seriously, I didn't know wtf to say and I still don't. He probably really didn't understand what the hell I was saying so he took the initiative (well he understood the "off the ears" part). He asked me a series of questions and then the cutting started. (If you're curious, he asked how much to cut off the fringe and if I wanted the hair at the back to hang down).

The haircut took approximately 20 minutes, maybe more. Definitely a record for me. Usually what happens is that the hairdresser uses the razor, goes crazy, and then i'm out the door in 5 minutes. Not this hairdresser, and it's not a criticism. This dude took his time and used the scissors most of the time - the razor came out for the hair around the ears, and that was only briefly. Quite an interesting thing watching your own hair get cut - part the hair, measure, cut, repeat. In the end my hair looked pretty good and it wasn't excruciatingly short either (a problem that i've had with hairdressers in the past). Summing up, this hairdresser gets a 9/10 from me. Not a bad deal for $35 - time, effort, and cool hair products.

Marky the Sportsman

I'm tired. Sports takes it out of you, it really does. Or this could be a sign of my age - I mean I have to stretch before I play sports, otherwise my muscles will clamp up like a sponge under a waterfall. So anyway, what have I done this weekend? Sports, sports, sports.

Saturday, cricket training. Sunday, tennis and soccer. Thesis work = 0. Lets have a breakdown on my performance across the three sports. Time to put my critical assessment hat on.

Cricket - Fielding looks good. No simple catches dropped and i 've managed to snare a couple of the diving catches. Bowling: patchy start, it takes some time for me to get the line and length right and I occasionaly spray the ball all over the shop - needs work, but i'm not a bowler... so it doesn't really matter. Batting: i'm playing alot straighter in the practice sessions and this is an encouraging sign - i should be able to last at least a couple of overs this season. (Note: Season starts in 2 weeks, so watch the stats and analysis come streaming through shortly)

Tennis - oh boy, my skills have regressed a fair bit. I've got no backhand and my forehand is far from flat. High bouncing loopy balls are all that I seem capable of. One consolation, when I go for the slog it occasionally lands in the right spot.

Soccer - fitness is ok. Played for over an hour and I was still making the sprints through the defensive line. Dribbling is ok, defending is solid, and shot accuracy is adequate. I guess soccer is the flagship sport for Mark at present.

Images from Home

Got some screenshots of the view:

Sister Perspective: Rita the Bitch

What is this? My life may be amazing but this little story was too hard to pass up. So today marks the inaugural episode of "Sister Perspective". The first episode is Rita the Bitch. I like the name of this episode, and you'll see that it is highly appropriate.

Prelude. Early in the Semester. Jessica meets a girl called Rita in Accounting, they become acquainted and become friendly.

Recently. University. More Accounting. Group Assignment is set. Jessica once again meets up with Rita, and Rita asks Jessica to be in her group. The group size is three - so another one of Jessica's friends joins this group. (Male - identity is irrelevant).

A couple of days later. Jessica and Rita are talking in the lecture, just as everyone does in University lectures. They discuss their tutorial groups and Rita mentions that she is worried about hers. Jessica assures her that it's a great class because it contains some of her brother Mark's intelligent friends. Jess: "It's a good tute. My brothers friends are in there, they're geniuses, like HD students". (Yes, Mark is me)

Today. Jessica gets a message on her mobile, Rita has already joined a group. After reading the message all is fine. Later when Jessica gets home she still needs to complete or join a group so she asks her brother Mark to ask his intelligent friends.


Mark: Hey Dinesh
Dinesh: Hey Mark
Mark: Got a question for you, on behalf of my sister. Do you have an accounting group?
Dinesh: Yes. We've got 3.
Mark: Ok, no worries.
Dinesh: We've got some girl from our tute.
Mark: Is her name Rita?
Dinesh: Yea. How did you know?
Mark: Sister had a hunch.


So Rita has dogged the group that she originally joined and ran off to the genius group, the group which Jessica mentioned in the lecture (and the group that Jessica wanted to be in). What a bitch that Rita is.

That's the end of todays story. Hope you enjoyed it.

Blargh...

Well I am finally back. After 2 weeks. Terrible. Terrible indeed. What's worse is that I still don't have broadband - Optus has given me dial-up until DSL can be arranged. Doh!

So what's new? I'm sick, terribly sick - can't stop coughing. Plus due to the fact that I have had no internet access for 2 weeks and have been bedridden for ages.... my thesis is starting to fall behind. All out of my control. Damn it all.

I've been dealt a bad set of cards of late and hopefully things will be on the up. Finally i'll sign off with my (appalling) City to Surf time (sick... remember... sick) and some random quotes over the past couple of weeks.

City to Surf time: 101:37.

Jess: "Harvard is in England, duh, everyone knows that" - yes, Jess, indeed :).

Dad: Maybe we should get the car repaired ourselves
Jess: Why? The other guy hit you, he should pay
Dad: So that we don't get penalised. You know, we will lose our no-claim bonus
Jess: You've got no insurance, so there is no no-claim bonus to lose
Dad: Oh.

X: I don't believe that police should be calling women ma'am or madam
Y: That's ridiculous, what should the police call women?
Z: How about 'bitches'?. You know, walk up to a woman and say 'sup bitch?'

More later... when i'm well - maybe some photos as well!

The Drought Begins

Drought. Drought has several possible connotations... and none of them good. I will be experiencing drought over the coming days. Drought? What? Allow me to explain.

I'm in the process of moving house and it does not automatically come with Internet capabilities - so I will have to wait for my ISP to get everything set up. They tell me that it'll be a week. Argh! Looks like i'm going to have to survive without access to the Internet.

So an Internet drought it is. Wish me luck - you never know.... I may never be the same again!

The Passport

My passport came in today - hence the name of the title. That's all that happened today, really. Well, besides Chinese class at midday and going for a run in the arvo. I'll attempt to provide a bit of a summary via quotes.

"A visa is a permit to travel to another country. It goes in your passport. You may be charged for it". (Visa = jail. Interesting.)

"If you cannot afford travel insurance, you cannot afford to travel". (Sounds logical)

"No matter what country you're visiting, accommodation is an important part of your trip". (You don't say...)

"You can take as much cash as you like out of Australia". (w00t)

"If you receive a Centrelink payment, be sure to contact Centrelink before you leave Australia". (hmm... Centrelink subsidises travel?)

"Touching, pointing, staring, sitting and standing in ways that are regarded as disrespectful or threatening by the local culture can cause offence". (I wonder where in the world touching a random person would not cause offence)

"In some places accepting even a polite invitation to go out can give the wrong signal and lead to sexual asssault." (Damn. Someone asks me out and I get charged for sexual assault - argh!)

Moving onto the passport. Seems standard. 30 odd pages - easy to carry. Flipping through to the details page.... whoa! Trippy. There are holographic lines all over the place - very classy indeed. Can't forge one of these easily.

Anyhoo, I think i've wasted enough of my time and your time - so i'll end it there. Hopefully i'll have something more interesting to report next time.

Thesis Pains

Woo. A close one. My neck is fine. You know what they say... no pain, no gain. How is this relevant? You will see shortly. For those of you who are not quite interested in programming/work I suggest you stop reading now and come back another day :). Maybe you can read on and try to see how much you CAN understand - a game, as it were.

Ok. I've been trying to get the bastard dotLRN to work (a learning management system). Everything would install fine right up until the final step. I looked everywhere - dotLRN forums, google, system documentation. Nada. Zilch. So I started to read code to try and see what exactly happens during install... even worse. I mean... read this for an error.log.

So what I do is post into my learning journal (a requirement for my thesis) saying something like "i've tried really hard but I can't install it... will try harder this week". Then I have one last crack at it - this time by downloading everything via CVS. Guess what? Everything works. So I haven't been able to use dotLRN for one and a half weeks because the tarball on the downloads page is worthless. Great. Maybe I should tell the .LRN community.

So there you go, there's my weekend... stuck doing thesis work, but finally getting somewhere. Pain = huting my neck, Gain = progress on the thesis, relevance to the idiom = care factor = 0.

A tip when showering

If you were looking for something vaguely pornographic then i'm afraid you'll be disappointed - very disappointed. However, I will concede that the title has some not-so-clean connotations. Today's blog entry revloves around a particular incident today, as nothing much else happened. What a boring life I lead.

Anyways, I took a shower today. Hooray. Now after the water stopped running I proceeded to dry myself with a towel - nothing strange there. Personally, I start with the hair... so I face the ground and start scrubbing my head with the towel. I do this so that the water droplets from my head fall to the ground as opposed to falling onto my shoulders. So... scrub scrub scrub and crack.

WTF? Crack? Yep. That was my neck. Note: It wasn't the loudest crack ever, but it was a crack nevertheless. I've been in pain all day and I have trouble looking around, woe is me :(. I'm hoping that this pain will go away tomorow.

So here is my tip - when drying wet hair keep your head straight.

Marky The Cancer Champion

That's it, it's official - i'm a Champion. Yes, yes, hold your applause for later. Ok - here's the story.

I'm running the City to Surf, and i'm doing so for two reasons. One, the Engo boys have put up a challenge and I intend to to come out on top. Secondly, it's a good way to fundraise for charity - well in my opinion anyway.

Just so that the boys get their 5 seconds of fame i'll list the Engos competing in this little competition: Jeff,Kieran,Thus,Dinesh, James,Harshu.

As i'm now running to assist in fundraising for the Cancer Council i'd like to ask for sponsors.
You can donate for several reasons, some of which may include:
- Paying to see me attempt to run the 14km
- You're a nice and generous person that wishes to donate to a reputable charity
- I've hassled you too much so you've paid me to get me off your back
One added bonus is that donations to charity are tax-deductible, so for any tight-arses out there, you can actually benefit by donating! Now, whatever the reason, any donations would be greatly appreciated. I promise not to steal any money - you're name goes down on a form so there's no way for me to steal anyway.

The Cancer Council is the leading cancer charity in New South Wales and I believe that they do a very good job - they're the people that organise Daffodil Day, Pink Ribbon Day, and Australia's Biggest Morning Tea. If you want to find more information about the Council with respect to what it does and what it stands for check out the website.

If you wish to donate, please contact me as soon as possible - via email or through the comments. One alternative method of donating is via a secure website: www.cancercouncil.com.au/sponsor - credit card only and use the full name - Mark Homeming. I've already raised $25. $20 dollars from me and $5 courtesy of my lovely sister, Jessica - good on you Jess.

Finally, just as an appreciative gesture i'll post all of the names who have donated in a bog post after the City to Surf. So there's some more incentive for you!

The first of many

Well well well. I've finally bit the bullet and created a damn blog site. The good thing about this is that i can just type in what I want to say and then voila - it's there. It's unbelievable that I actually tried to write a blogging program back in the day. Stupid me, very stupid me.

Questions such as:
So what's doing?
What's going to appear here?
Shouldn't you be doing something more constructive?
may be asked of me. Well I can answer those three questions relatively quickly - i'm bored, who knows, no.

Now that i've given these impecabbly concice answers i'll stop.