12/28/2004
Wel, this hasn't been updated in far too long...but when you've got a lot to say, you end up waiting for the time to do so. Of course, the key thing is that i'm now in australia, but details on that will come later.
To go back around a month ago when I was still in the states and all that stuff and catch up on some of the noteworthy things. First and foremost, I saw a UFO that I've yet to figure out what it could've been. I had just finished tutoring out in castaic when i was walking back to the chupathingie when i saw a blue light moving across the sky. it then broke into 3 lights, all same size, that then faded away. It wasn't terribly bright, and i so far have no idea what it was, but any suggestions are welcome.
Same day was also one of my proudest achievements. My physics professor took the class out to lunch, and i tried for the first time curry. Since I had beef curry with a hamburger patty, i ate the whole patty with chopsticks. Go me. Downside was that I was sick during the test.
On the 4th, UCLA played USC, and they were totally robbed in that game. The calls that came from the refs were absolutly horrible, and I've never seen so many bad calls in one game. Most telling is that USC won that game by a margin of only 5 points, when two of the bad calls were fumbles that were then ruled to have been dead balls, and after each one, USC then scored field goals. Thats 6 points they shouldn't have had when they won by 5. Horrible calling. The only consolation was that, after a powerful first quarter, the end zones, where the SC supporters were, were dead quiet for most of the game. This was supposed to be a blow out, after all.
My last week of work set new standards in how much i can make. Now, my average week, i make between 1 and 2 hundred, maybe slightly higher if its a good week. My last 7 days of work, however, from the 5th to the 12th, netted me approximately $700, excluding the $100 i got for tutoring my cousin for only like an hour, which was chalked up to being a late graduation gift.
I'm still surprised, and sorta scared, that i'm still having some of the parents of kids i tutor suggest that i should teach. i mean, this is an established fact that i should not be teaching, that is simply not my place. but such is how it goes. i suppose this says something about the current school system.
and along that note, with a long day of lay-out, the T.J. Times went to press at 4 pages. This is the previously mentioned paper for the GATE program at santa clarita. the layout itself went pretty quickly, and i think the hardest thing was just that i was having to devise all the standards of the lay-out, and also that i hadn't designed the layout as far as what would go on what page, and there were some serious issues in how that was done by my mom, since i don't think she took into consideration the lengths of stories. if and when i can, i think i'll put the pdf file up.
now then, on to the bigger things, like what the heck am i doing in australia now.
i got in on thursday the 16th, having left on the 14th. the flight was ok, and i think i might've slept for an hour or two, as there is some time i can't account for. I did also read Deception Point by Dan Brown, author of the da vinci code, and i recommend that to everyone. and when i say read, i mean that i read the whole book between take-off and landing.
other things to note....by sheer luck, i got an aisle seat, which i had only for about 4 hours of the flight, if that, as then seats got moved around so that someone could get out easier, as the woman that had the window seat had fainted and been put on oxygen at one point. also interesting...there was a sign saying how you were prohibited from taking any form of household cleaner on board, however you COULD have radioactive material, so long as it was in limited quantities.
having arrived here, the question of course is how is it that both times i've come, Sam is more jetlagged than I am. I don't know how that works that way, but somehow it does. I guess it helps that i'm not on any form of "normal" sleep cycle usually.
of the first few days, much of it was staying around the house, watched some stuff i'd not seen before and will mention more on later, read (again, to be mentioned later), but the first trip out was to the city, and then the barracks. The barracks was where prisoners were kept, back in the ol' penal colony days, and its located in downtown sydney. we then caught a ferry back home.
It was pretty neat to go through, and was, dare i say, educational.
also saw, sort of, hyde park (i think it was called) which is a sydney equivalent of central park, and had a rather...interesting....fountain. can you spot what doesn't seem to belong?
The other wierd thing is that, i'm so used ot seeing squirrels in parks, and well, everywhere...but they don't have them here. its all birds....and not just the crows and pigons and gulls, either.
another thing thats been interesting here is that the weather can so quickly go from being very hot to suddenly cloudy and a storm will break. its such a change from so cal's predictable weather. This pic is from sam's backyard, vertical shot i'm too lazy to fix atm
now, something that does have to be discussed, though, is christmas in australia. firstly, we so totally beat them out when it comes to the level of christmas lights. most houses don't have any, and the streets there that draw people in because of all the lights would be on par with a moderate street in santa clarita. the other thing that has been odd is to see christmas advertised with santa hats and all that, but then have it be for like, pool toys or something. its a neat sort of mix thing going there.
as for the christmas festivities, for christmas eve it was dinner with sam's mother's family, which was the side of the family i saw most last time i was here, and so it was fairly managable. italian place, all good food. i also tried calamari for the first, and last, time. sam also brought up trivia, and so an australians vs americans trivia competition has been discussed a few times involving her family. though, to make sure its not unfair, i've offered to spot them a few points.
christmas day itself was pretty well just laid back and around the house, and i have a whole bunch of stuff to get through as far as reading is concerned. finally, boxing day (the day after christmas and is a holiday here) was with sam's dad's family, which was a much more foreign environment for me. there was one shining point, though, which was when a couple of her cousins were asking me what i'm doing schoolwise....when i said i was majoring in astrophysics with minors in journalism and mathatmatics...they just were stunned for a few moments till they could figure out what to say...something along the lines of "yeah, i think i did that in year 7" (translation: 7th grade)
monday of the week, we went to the rocks, which is the oldest part of sydney. its right next to the harbour bridge, the unknown landmark of sydney, and is moderatly close to the operahouse, both of which i figure i should have pictures of, so here they are:
finally, yesterday was going to see this lord of the rings exhibition, which was absolutly awesome, and i'm sure you'll all be jealous about that. or at least bryan and tim, perchance others. here's what the outside of the exhibition itself looked like, though:
again, totally awesome. rest of the day was going to darling harbour for lunch (possibly my favourite part of sydney, actually) and following sam through a market and then some stores that had assorrted after christmas sales. scary, scary, scary crowds. one building we went down a few floors, walked a little, and when we went up a couple floors and exited, we'd crossed under a street. very disorienting.
anyway, the next segment should have some of my patented australian to american translations, as well as a bit of a recap of what i've read and watched while i've been here. i think this is by far long enough already.
ADDED NOTE: to reach me by email while i'm here, send it to lowbacca1977 at yahoo
To go back around a month ago when I was still in the states and all that stuff and catch up on some of the noteworthy things. First and foremost, I saw a UFO that I've yet to figure out what it could've been. I had just finished tutoring out in castaic when i was walking back to the chupathingie when i saw a blue light moving across the sky. it then broke into 3 lights, all same size, that then faded away. It wasn't terribly bright, and i so far have no idea what it was, but any suggestions are welcome.
Same day was also one of my proudest achievements. My physics professor took the class out to lunch, and i tried for the first time curry. Since I had beef curry with a hamburger patty, i ate the whole patty with chopsticks. Go me. Downside was that I was sick during the test.
On the 4th, UCLA played USC, and they were totally robbed in that game. The calls that came from the refs were absolutly horrible, and I've never seen so many bad calls in one game. Most telling is that USC won that game by a margin of only 5 points, when two of the bad calls were fumbles that were then ruled to have been dead balls, and after each one, USC then scored field goals. Thats 6 points they shouldn't have had when they won by 5. Horrible calling. The only consolation was that, after a powerful first quarter, the end zones, where the SC supporters were, were dead quiet for most of the game. This was supposed to be a blow out, after all.
My last week of work set new standards in how much i can make. Now, my average week, i make between 1 and 2 hundred, maybe slightly higher if its a good week. My last 7 days of work, however, from the 5th to the 12th, netted me approximately $700, excluding the $100 i got for tutoring my cousin for only like an hour, which was chalked up to being a late graduation gift.
I'm still surprised, and sorta scared, that i'm still having some of the parents of kids i tutor suggest that i should teach. i mean, this is an established fact that i should not be teaching, that is simply not my place. but such is how it goes. i suppose this says something about the current school system.
and along that note, with a long day of lay-out, the T.J. Times went to press at 4 pages. This is the previously mentioned paper for the GATE program at santa clarita. the layout itself went pretty quickly, and i think the hardest thing was just that i was having to devise all the standards of the lay-out, and also that i hadn't designed the layout as far as what would go on what page, and there were some serious issues in how that was done by my mom, since i don't think she took into consideration the lengths of stories. if and when i can, i think i'll put the pdf file up.
now then, on to the bigger things, like what the heck am i doing in australia now.
i got in on thursday the 16th, having left on the 14th. the flight was ok, and i think i might've slept for an hour or two, as there is some time i can't account for. I did also read Deception Point by Dan Brown, author of the da vinci code, and i recommend that to everyone. and when i say read, i mean that i read the whole book between take-off and landing.
other things to note....by sheer luck, i got an aisle seat, which i had only for about 4 hours of the flight, if that, as then seats got moved around so that someone could get out easier, as the woman that had the window seat had fainted and been put on oxygen at one point. also interesting...there was a sign saying how you were prohibited from taking any form of household cleaner on board, however you COULD have radioactive material, so long as it was in limited quantities.
having arrived here, the question of course is how is it that both times i've come, Sam is more jetlagged than I am. I don't know how that works that way, but somehow it does. I guess it helps that i'm not on any form of "normal" sleep cycle usually.
of the first few days, much of it was staying around the house, watched some stuff i'd not seen before and will mention more on later, read (again, to be mentioned later), but the first trip out was to the city, and then the barracks. The barracks was where prisoners were kept, back in the ol' penal colony days, and its located in downtown sydney. we then caught a ferry back home.
It was pretty neat to go through, and was, dare i say, educational.
also saw, sort of, hyde park (i think it was called) which is a sydney equivalent of central park, and had a rather...interesting....fountain. can you spot what doesn't seem to belong?
The other wierd thing is that, i'm so used ot seeing squirrels in parks, and well, everywhere...but they don't have them here. its all birds....and not just the crows and pigons and gulls, either.
another thing thats been interesting here is that the weather can so quickly go from being very hot to suddenly cloudy and a storm will break. its such a change from so cal's predictable weather. This pic is from sam's backyard, vertical shot i'm too lazy to fix atm
now, something that does have to be discussed, though, is christmas in australia. firstly, we so totally beat them out when it comes to the level of christmas lights. most houses don't have any, and the streets there that draw people in because of all the lights would be on par with a moderate street in santa clarita. the other thing that has been odd is to see christmas advertised with santa hats and all that, but then have it be for like, pool toys or something. its a neat sort of mix thing going there.
as for the christmas festivities, for christmas eve it was dinner with sam's mother's family, which was the side of the family i saw most last time i was here, and so it was fairly managable. italian place, all good food. i also tried calamari for the first, and last, time. sam also brought up trivia, and so an australians vs americans trivia competition has been discussed a few times involving her family. though, to make sure its not unfair, i've offered to spot them a few points.
christmas day itself was pretty well just laid back and around the house, and i have a whole bunch of stuff to get through as far as reading is concerned. finally, boxing day (the day after christmas and is a holiday here) was with sam's dad's family, which was a much more foreign environment for me. there was one shining point, though, which was when a couple of her cousins were asking me what i'm doing schoolwise....when i said i was majoring in astrophysics with minors in journalism and mathatmatics...they just were stunned for a few moments till they could figure out what to say...something along the lines of "yeah, i think i did that in year 7" (translation: 7th grade)
monday of the week, we went to the rocks, which is the oldest part of sydney. its right next to the harbour bridge, the unknown landmark of sydney, and is moderatly close to the operahouse, both of which i figure i should have pictures of, so here they are:
finally, yesterday was going to see this lord of the rings exhibition, which was absolutly awesome, and i'm sure you'll all be jealous about that. or at least bryan and tim, perchance others. here's what the outside of the exhibition itself looked like, though:
again, totally awesome. rest of the day was going to darling harbour for lunch (possibly my favourite part of sydney, actually) and following sam through a market and then some stores that had assorrted after christmas sales. scary, scary, scary crowds. one building we went down a few floors, walked a little, and when we went up a couple floors and exited, we'd crossed under a street. very disorienting.
anyway, the next segment should have some of my patented australian to american translations, as well as a bit of a recap of what i've read and watched while i've been here. i think this is by far long enough already.
ADDED NOTE: to reach me by email while i'm here, send it to lowbacca1977 at yahoo
