Brighter days. Job search prospects are improving. I had a good interview the other day, and a different interview tomorrow that sounds promising.

As a diarist, and because I like to look back on things that make me feel smart, the techie question I nailed in the interview last week was:

If I define a Java class with an "equals()" method, what other method should I define?

For yesterday's interview, I nailed these:

What is a Java VM?

What is inheritance?

What is data hiding?

What is polymorphism?

What are some issues involved with multi-threading?

"I bought myself a liarbird..." As planned, we took the train out to the Blue Dandenong hills today with a mind to go hiking.

It was about an hour ride out to the Belgrave station in the hills. Portents were good as we saw a number of species directly from the train station -- three galahs (which are known for riding on children's merry-go-rounds and sliding down slides), a few cockatoos, and, sitting right on a station lamp post, a kookaburra.

After a thigh-burning tramp up a hill on surface roads, we met up with the trail (Avard Track?) and hiked in. The forest itself was quite stunning; lush ferns down low and eucalypts towering very high. They are rather like thinner sequoias.

First spotted were a dozen more kookaburras. As we got deeper in, we were passed over by a flock of at least a hundred squawking cockatoos. Then, there were scores of crimson rosellas, like we first spotted one of yesterday.

We hiked up and down a bit, and finally met up with a trail closed to bikes because it was a "Sensitive Lyerbird Habitat". We had seen lyerbirds on Life Of Birds -- they are quite amazing. They are probably the best mimics in the bird kingdom; as part of their mating display, they have been known to imitate chain saws, car alarms, dogs, and camera shutters. It would be bird geek heaven to spot one, so we charged in.

We didn't have high hopes, but after a half kilometer or so, we started to hear strange, loud calls from the low brush. We wandered carefully off the trail but the noise moved away. So we moved on, and minute later Marjorie stopped and said, "There's one!" And it was. He crossed the path right in front of us, then disappeared into the ferns as Marjorie gave chase. Very cool!

"Funny thing about weekends when you're unemployed; they don't mean quite so much." But still, we went today out to Maranoa Gardens. Definitely worthwhile on the birdwatching front; we saw two new species -- the Crimson rosella and the Eastern Spinebill. We also saw two cuckoos fighting so intensely that they fell to the ground in a tangled mess from twenty meters up.

Tomorrow we're going to head out to the Dandenongs for more of the same. Parks and gardens and mountains, oh my! That's the way to explore your new home when you're on a budget.

Interview number two was today. It was good and bad. I punted on a few questions, but nailed some others, including one that they said that no interviewee ever gets. I'll find out next week, but my inclination is that I didn't get it. We'll see. I have other nibbles I'm pursuing. Deep breaths. Must'nt panic.

The local pub. Last night we played trivia at the pub across the street from our new abode. We thought we were doing well but we ended up in last place. Phooey. It was a close game though.

I learned an interesting thing about the pub after the game while chatting with some locals. Earlier this year, a sports legend was killed by a bouncer there. Yikes. There's still a lot of controversy raging about the incident, and the proper response to it.

Fish. After lunch today we visited the Melbourne Aquarium. It was really quite well done, with just about all my favorite sea creatures featured.

Afterwards we took a walk through the casino. We played a $1 slot, and immediately lost our money. A lady came up and offered us a free casino money card worth with a free $5 credit on it. We declined. We're just not gamblers at heart, I guess.

Music in Melbourne: Okay Sherrianne,  many days belated, but here's the info you requested:
Mark and I were very excited about a series of gigs happening this week starting with MC5 last night, Belle and Sebastian tonight,  Marshall Crenshaw Sunday, Franz Ferdinand on Tuesday, and Keane and Snow Patrol on Wednesday. Turns out we'll probably only make it to the Keane/Snow Patrol show as the other shows are either too expensive (Belle and Sebastion tickets are $78 a piece) or sold out. Oh well, one show a month would still be better than our average in Singapore, and I'm guessing other exciting shows will come around soon.

Tooting own horn. The turnabout seemed to come after I was informed by one recruiter that while the American way is to limit your resume/CV to one or two pages, the way to get a job here is to expound. So now I'm sending out a four and a half pager that details everything. Fifteen seconds after I was off the phone with one recruiter this morning, another called. It's a little early to start predicting rampant success, though.

I have to relearn how to spell my name out loud again. I had gotten used to saying "zed" instead of "zee" in Singapore, but now I've discovered that "aitch" is actually pronounced "haitch" in Australia.

We had an epic first night of bar trivia the other night. Not because we did so well (we did all right until falling apart at the end) but because we met a bunch of people afterwards. There was another team there (two people from Scotland and one Brit/Australian) that we hooked up with after the game and ended up closing the place down. Towards the end we joined up with another guy and girl who were flight attendants for Emirates Airlines on a layover (they were Brits living in Dubai). We ended up partying with them at another bar (Frostbite?) up the street until 3 a.m.

Feast or Famine. After a relatively quiet first two weeks here, Mark is all of a sudden shit-hot. His phone has rung repeatedly today with requests and questions from recruiters. There's one interview set up for next week, with hopefully several others to follow.  I smell job offer.

"Everynight about six o'clock the birds come back to the palm to talk".  St. Kilda is definitely the place to watch the birds congragate at sunset. Tonight while waiting for a tram I saw what must have been at least a hundred loorikeets, several mynahs and a few cockatoos, none of which are exactly quiet birds.
In other news: We're moving again next Monday. We've been living in relative luxury in a two bedroom serviced apartment, but we can't afford it. So we're moving into a tiny furnished studio for a much more reasonable price. Hopefully we won't kill each other after a month of living on top of each other. 
 

Things that I forgot about cold weather:

The feeling of a cold toilet seat.

How hard it is to get out of bed in the morning.

The smell of a long inhale of cold morning air through your nostrils.

The feeling of standing in the shower with warm water flowing on your back, while the rest of your body is shivering.

How good I look in winter clothes.

New look.  A new blog title deserves a new look and feel.   Waddaya think?
 
We've decided we HAVE to make it work here.  We're really enjoying just about everything about the city (except for the isolation).  I've redoubled my efforts at finding a job, and if that doesn't work, I'll re-redouble them.  That's still the big thing hanging over our heads.

Birthday.  My birthday was Friday -- the big three-eight, which means I can no longer claim "middle thirties" -- I'm now solidly in my "late thirties".
 
Marjorie got me some CDs to start with -- the new PJ Harvey, and two by Australian bands: Hunters and Collectors, and Something For Kate.  Then it was on to the St. Kilda Baths for some west and welaxation.  First a soak in a salt water bath, in front of a big window looking out over the white-capped bay, with seagulls flying by.  Then a much-needed massage.
 
Afterwards we had an awesome lunch at the Sheherezade Cafe -- I had goulash with potato balls, rice, carrots, spinach, and cole slaw.  Best I've had since Europe.  Then we scored scored some chocolate eclairs and other yummies from a nearby bakery, and some bagels from Glick's.  Home for a nap, then a quiet evening at home watching Donnie Brasco.
 
Saturday was part two.  I wanted to see a footy (Australian Rules Football) game, so we went off to the Telstra Dome to see the St. Kilda Saints wallop the Richmond Tigers.  It was quite a spectacle.  I used to think the game was pretty much just anarchy, but as I start to understand the game more, I'm beginning to appreciate it, even if some of the rules are still a mystery.  There's some serious athleticism involved.  The fan base was amazing -- the two teams are just based in suburbs (or urbs, I guess) of Melbourne, but there were 40-50,000 people there, evenly divided.  (It was as if Virginia Highlands was playing Buckhead back in Atlanta.)  Everyone, even the old ladies, were into it, yelling, waving banners, wearing team scarves, etc.  Other interesting things:

There were machines where you could place bets on the game beforehand.  Actually, you could bet on anything, or play the pokies (poker machines).

 We got food beforehand in the restaurant there, and it was served on real plates with real silverware.  And it was reasonably priced.

 You could also bring your own food, or hot drinks in Thermoses.
What a crazy idea!  Don't gouge your fans -- let them come to the games at a reasonable price.  No wonder they draw crowds.

Trivia. Well, we tried to play trivia last night, but the tables were all booked up. So we stood in the back, had a pint, and listened to one round. We knew 16 of the 20 answers. Any Aussies reading this need some ringers for their team?

Still in limbo. Job search continues. Some leads, but I think there is a lot of competition right now.

Last night we rented a movie but we couldn't get the VCR in our short-term apartment to work. Maybe it's just because we're used to western VCRs. Do you have to plug in the tapes upside down or something?

I'm still having to use internet cafes. I bought a wireless card so I can access the internet from the various hotspots around here but I'm having trouble finding the right pre-paid cards to buy to use.

We're going to play trivia tonight, which should be fun.

We've moved to a short-term stay apartment. Hopefully this will be the last time we're required to move our things before finding a job and a house to live in on a more permanent basis.
I have to say that, so far, my impression of Melbourne is very favourable. People are very nice, incredibly so. There are at least three concerts we'd like to see here this month, which is great after maybe three concerts a year in Singapore. Groceries are more reasonably priced and beer and wine are half as much as they were in S'pore. Even in restaurants wine is priced very reasonably. There are lots of dogs here, and they seem to be incredibly mellow. We've passed several dogs sitting behind their fences in their yards and they just look at us and mildly wag their tails rather than bark. I wonder what they put in the puppychow?
My friend Karen asked me recently why Melbourne? There are lots of reasons: The weather is mild. The people are friendly. There is good public transportation, and bike lanes on the roads everywhere. There are good restaurants and cafes, and outdoor dining takes place all year. It's near the ocean and the mountains so one could easily go skiing in the winter and snorkeling in the summer. There is interesting wildlife nearby. There's a great music scene here. Basically, Melbourne still seems like a place we could be very happy. Hopefully we'll find work soon.

Spend spend spend, spend, spend, spend. Being Americans at heart, and with a free license to start accumulating goods, we've been dropping scads of jing-wah since arriving. Marjorie's up in Target right now, while I'm next door in a Japanese-style internet cafe. We found a extended stay apartment off Toorak St. which we're moving into on Monday. My interview on Friday went -- okay, I guess. They'll call me back for a technical interview and a test later on, if all went well, which it may or may not have. I have other leads to follow up on, and now that I have a local phone, I think I'll get more action.

Yesterday we took the train down to Williamstown ("Willie") which was a nice, quiet suburb, on the water. Spotted several new birds, including the superb fairy wren, which is what they prefer to be called, as I understand it.

A quick list of some little differences about this place:

The first floor is the ground floor, and the second floor is the first floor. I keep getting into elevators and hitting "1" by mistake.

"Entrees" in a restaurant are actually what they call appetizers.

A big sign in the park reads "Dogs allowed off leash". That's really amazing to me. Not that they allow dogs off the leash, but that the big sign tells you so. Advertising a freedom, not a restriction.

Similarly, you're allowed to eat and drink on the trams. It's kind of courageous, I think, to allow these simple freedoms that may cost a little as far as maintainance and clean-up but have a positive effect on the quality of life.

We've arrived! We got in, very bleary eyed, at 9am this morning Melbourne time. So far things are going our way: Our hotel let us check in early so we could take a quick nap before setting out on errands. We found a suit for Mark's interview tomorrow (he looks hot!). Mark got a haircut. I bought a new coat, scarf, and gloves (it's winter here). We both got new sim cards for our phones, the phone numbers will be e-mailed to relatives tomorrow (probably). So, all the goals for the day have been completed.
It still doesn't feel like we're here long term though, maybe after a few days it will sink in.

Such sweet sorrow. Everything is packed, thrown away, given away, or mailed. We just had the final inspection of apartment and got the full deposit back (yay!). At the airport now, waiting for our flight out. Hooray for free internet. I'm feeling an odd combination of melancholy and excitement.

Bye, Singapore, it's been interesting and fun.

Another list of the top 100 wonders of the modern world. I've only seen 11 from this list. Only three from the top 50. Life is short.

While Nirvana is usually my music of choice when cleaning house, a day of cleaning AND packing required something a little different. I credit Marjorie for cuing up the right thing. For future reference, The Modern Lovers is the proper choice for such an occasion.

Four more days. We spent today doing an array of moving errands, such as returning movies and library books, packing things up, and throwing things out. Then we went for a swim this evening. We'll miss the pool at our condominium. We don't use it often, just the occasional swim, but it's always enjoyable. We'll also really miss the animals we see and hear frequently in our neighbourhood. Yesterday evening we heard a choir of frogs who had moved to the pipes along the canals to increase the sonic impact of their croaking, it was amazingly loud and made us both start laughing. This morning at the bus stop I saw a beautiful blue kingfisher and two sulfur crested cockatoos, along with the usual mynahs and orioles. We'll still have cockatoos in Melbourne, but probably not the others. I'll also miss the frilled lizards I see frequently sunning themselves along the fences on my way to work, and will even miss the little geckos we find in the house (though I won't miss the poo).
We've been really fortunate to see such a variety of wild life in their natural habitats here. The highlights for me are the following:
Mudskippers, their amazing, and not uncommon here.
Flying lizards. We've seen two here. They're very cool.
Hornbills. We saw two little ones on our way to Tioman island in Malaysia, and one here near the zoo that may or may not have been wild.
Bee eaters: They're really beautiful birds, and uncommon enough that it's a real treat to see them.
macaques: I'm not the biggest fan of monkeys, but seeing them in the wild is special.
Monitor lizards: They're so prehistoric looking. Very similar thrill as seeing an alligator.
The white-vented mynahs: They are probably the most common species of bird in Singapore, but I love them. They're funny, charming, and almost always bring a smile to my face.

Does this make sense to you? Mark and I are trying to save money by mailing our things by surface mail through the Singapore post, rather than through a shipper/mover. Today I wanted to insure a few packages, which ultimately left me with a lot less faith that our packages are ever going to arrive. The post handlers wrote on the insured boxes "insured for X dollars"; who does that help? Is it just to alert potential robbers that there might be something valuable in the box? Because let's face it, if the box goes missing writing on the box isn't going to be helpful. Nice of them to write out just how valuable the stuff might be in dollar amount too, isn't it, just in case you're only willing to risk it for really valuable stuff. They also gave me a hard time about my boxes (standard moving boxes, well packed) and said I didn't use enough tape (I did), and made a big fuss of re-taping the edges of the insured boxes (only the insured boxes, the others aren't their problem) with little insurance stickers (I'm sure that will make a big difference).
So we've sent about 12 boxes so far, with about 8 more to send. I'm thinking we'll be lucky if we see 10 on the other side. On the plus side, it is MUCH cheaper to send our things this way.
Moving sucks.

The great Singapore black-out. Last night, right in the middle of Six Feet Under, the power goes out. This is a first during our time here. The blackout seemed to stretch a long way -- I climbed to the top of our building, and there were lights in the distance, but mostly dark for several miles in every direction. For 45 minutes or so, we got to experience what it was like here before electricity. Damn hot. How did people sleep?

Tonight was my last soccer game. They let me play striker for the last twenty minutes, which was fun. I had no goals, but got an assist after committing a flagrant foul that was not called. Afterwards, beers at Turf City. Then goodbyes, which I've really come to hate.

I'll find a team in Melbourne, but will it be as fun? Doubtful.

Turns out the Chinese opera we heard the other night from our window might have had another interesting twist to it. On opening nights, apparently, Chinese opera troupes play their first performance to an empty theater. It's for the ghosts, you see. We couldn't tell if there was a crowd there or not but this might have been what was going on.

My coworkers Hong I and Meng Wah told me this today during lunch, which was interesting in itself. We went to a dim sum restaurant on the seventh floor of a public housing project. It was rather like a banquet hall. But the food was really tasty. We had three kinds of dumplings, pork ribs with yams, glutinous rice, porridge, spongy meat-filled rolls, tea, and chestnut(?) cakes for dessert.

Got another ping on the job front today. A recruiter called me from Australia about a CV I posted on a job site. He asked me if I had any experience with HAV. Sorry, I said, as I had never even heard of it. Later he mentioned it again, and I asked (so I could look it up later), "Are you saying H-A-V or H-A-B?"

"No," he said. "E-J-B. Echo, Juliet, Bravo".

I thought language issues weren't going to be a problem. But "E-J-B" in an Australian accent sounds an awful lot like "H-A-V" to my ears.

Violent streak? Me? Frustrating game today. The team we played against had a player who was the biggest cheater I had ever seen. You breathe on him, and he falls down and cries out like he's in agony. The problem was, the ref fell for it almost every time.

I was covering him. I'm usually a pacifist, but I can't stand that sort of crap. So I tried to rile him up by calling him every name in the book whenever he was near me. At one point he ran through my space, so a grabbed his shirt, and of course he fell down and cried for the ref. The ref missed this one, so I said, "Awww, what's the matter? You fall down there?" It was all I could do not to at least step on him. He was just ignoring my taunts, so I figure, as long as he's falling anyway, and the ref's letting it happen, I might as well get my licks in. He was subbed out before I could do much. But he came back later, and then worst thing happened, which was that he scored the go-ahead goal. While I was covering someone else, but still.

Even now, the big dumb jock in me wishes I had left him with some scars. Sports are primal sometimes.

Anyway, the coach announced that this would be my last Sunday game (though there's a Wednesday night one that I'm still playing) and everyone applauded me. At least I hope they were applauding me, and not the fact that I'm leaving. It was nice.

Asian moment. Sometimes we forget we're living in Asia. We've gotten used to things, and often take the comfortable route as far as food, transportation, and shopping. But last night, we came home after dinner, and there was a Chinese opera going on at the little temple that we can see out our window, just down the street. This was about 10pm. They have a new open stage back behind it, and a tent set up for onlookers. We can see just a tiny bit of stage through binoculars. When the wind was from the right direction, we could hear the music, which is really strange to Western ears. Minimalist, with plinking noises and occasional cymbal crashes; the singing is kind of shrill. The closest Western equivalent from pop culture I can think of is that "We are Siamese if you please" song from the Disney movie.

"HELLO!" How many ways can you say hello? I figured out recently that I can say hello in 10 different languages: Hindi, French, Spanish, Italian, German, Hebrew, Hawaiian, Mandarin, Japanese, and Fijian. Which seemed impressive until I acknowledged that I don't remember (or never learned) how to say hello in Thai, Vietnamese, Indonesian, or Malay. I do know some Malay/Indonesian words, most of which are food words such as Nasi for rice, mee goreng for fried noodles, ayam for chicken, etc.. My knowledge of Thai and Vietnamese is pretty much limited to food too.

Steal a poll: I stole this off Marjorie's blog ;-)
Where Were You When...
The Questions:
1. Where were you when you heard that Ronald Reagan died?

It was only a week ago, but oddly, I don't remember where. I think it was at work, and I saw it on the Yahoo home page.

2. Where were you on September 11, 2001?

Atlanta. Marjorie called and woke me up and told me to go turn on the TV.

3. Where were you when you heard that Princess Diana died?

Lulu's Bait Shack in Buckhead, in Atlanta.

4. Do you remember where you were when you heard Kurt Cobain had died?

At work. That very night, I went and saw Frank Black with the Ramones. Frank Black, when he was with the Pixies, was a huge influence on Kurt Cobain, and their album Surfer Rosa is usually quoted as the inspiration behind Nevermind. So I thought he would say something about it, but he didn't. All Joey Ramone said was something like, "Too bad about Kurt Cobain. Still, he did go out in the true punk style."

5. Take one for The Gipper: What'?s your favorite flavor of jelly bean?

Once you go black, you never go back.

6. Where were you when Magic Johnson announced he was retiring from the NBA due to AIDS?

I remember first hearing about it after coming back from a work trip to Italy.

7. Where were you when Reagan was shot?

Don't remember.

8. Where were you when the Challenger exploded?

I was witness! I was going to school in Orlando, and had worked at the space center the summer before. I actually came out to watch the launch, despite the fact that it was 9 a.m. and freezing. I was maybe 50 miles away. I watched the smoke trail rise, and when it started to bend the wrong way, someone else who was standing nearby said, "Is it supposed to do that?" And I said, "No, it's not supposed to do that..." I ran back to my dorm room to catch what was happening on TV.

9. Where were you when the 0J verdict was announced?

In Vicenza, Italy, working on the NATO base. I watched the verdict with pretty much a whole platoon of soldiers, of mixed race. There wasn't much a reaction from anyone, beyond a collective sort of "Huh".

Steal a poll: I stole this off Kristen's blog
Where Were You When...
The Questions:
1. Where were you when you heard that Ronald Reagan died?
2. Where were you on September 11, 2001?
3. Where were you when you heard that Princess Diana died?
4. Do you remember where you were when you heard Kurt Cobain had died?
5. Take one for The Gipper: What'?s your favorite flavor of jelly bean?
6. Where were you when Magic Johnson announced he was retiring from the NBA due to AIDS?
7. Where were you when Reagan was shot?
8. Where were you when the Challenger exploded?
9. Where were you when the 0J verdict was announced?

My answers:
1. Where were you when you heard that Ronald Reagan died?
In our apartment here in Singapore. Hardly a shock, the man had been suffering from Alzheimer's since his second term in office.
2. Where were you on September 11, 2001?
At the "Babies Can't Wait" office in Decatur, GA. I was given an assessment to a little guy who ended up graduating from our program when the first plane hit the World Trade Center, I remember thinking it must have been a small two seater before seeing the footage on television. I watched the towers go down minutes later with my horrified co-workers on the office tv used for conferences. I had to stay at work the rest of day and maintain some type of surface normality. To add to the amazing stress of the day, Mark and I heard from his best friend that evening that another one of our friends had gone into a coma and wasn't expected to survive. Luckily, our friend lived and is okay today.
3.Where were you when you heard that Princess Diana died?
I remember this perfectly. I was in New York, in Times Square with Kristina. We read the news along the ticker tape. It was something like 1am or later, in the middle of the summer. I remember going down to wait for the subway after reading the news.
4. Do you remember where you were when you heard Kurt Cobain had died?
I'm shocked I don't remember the exact moment I heard about this. I was/am a big Nirvana fan. The memory seems vaguely confused with Jerry Garcia's death, they died the same year a few months apart. That seems sad to associate the death of these two, but.... What's funny is that I can remember the exact moment I first heard "smells like teen spirit". I was in Hasting's Music in Fayettevile, Arkansas, and I remember thinking the song was amazing. I may have purchased Nevermind then, if not it was only days later.
5. Take one for The Gipper: What'?s your favorite flavor of jelly bean?
I like the pina colada jelly bellys, and the watermelon flavour.
6. Where were you when Magic Johnson announced he was retiring from the NBA due to AIDS?
Don't know.Somewhere in Atlanta.
7. Where were you when Reagan was shot?In Augsburg, Germany where my family was stationed at the time. This is another confused memory where I'm not sure if I'm remembering remembering the Reagan shotting or John Lennon being shot, again they happened within a few months of each other. I remember feeling sad and confused about them both, butJohn Lennon being shot was more tragic to me, even at 10 years old.
8. Where were you when the Challenger exploded?
Home in Shirley, Massachusetts. I was home taking a sick day or skipping school (I think it was a legitimate sick day) and remember watching it over and over again on the news crying. My mother had been away on a business trip and I can remember picking her up at Logan airport with my dad and telling her the news. Did it really happen that way mom?
9. Where were you when the 0J verdict was announced?
I don't remember where I was when the verdict was announced, probably at home because if I'd been panicked about riots (I lived in Atlanta), I'd remember it. I do remember where I was when the Bronco chase took place: I was at work at Rocky's. It was a relatively busy night, I remember the restaurant being mostly full, and everyone's attention riveted to the television.

Feel free to copy the poll and post your own responses in the comment box. Or e-mail your poll to me or Mark and we'll post them.

Mr. Nutty. The last time I had a night off from Marjorie, I ended up going to the library. Last night, though, I didn't even make it that far. I stayed at work until 11:15, writing. I'm a wild man!

I did manage to knock out 1350 words of a story idea I've been bouncing around. That's still short of the daily average that's required (1667) for completing a 50,000-word novel in a month, but I still felt pretty good about myself afterwards. I'd say the story is about two thirds done.

I'm still going to workshop it before any of you all will ever see it. I found a pretty good on-line SF workshop that I've joined. They require you to critique other's works if you want yours critiqued, and so I've written up a few. Let me just say that I won't be the worst writer there. I won't be the best either, but I think I'll improve a lot.

Quitters Inc, part II. Moving is a good time for new beginnings. It's also a good time for endings. The following are things that I've resolved to give up once we get to Australia:

Packaged ramen-style noodle soups. I love them; I never outgrew them after college. But they're just too artery-clogging.

Polo shirts. I've always been indifferent about them but Marjorie hates them so away they go.

On line "Boggle"-type games. I've played Playsite's TangleWord and Yahoo's Word Racer for about eight years. Playsite tells you how many games you've played, total, and based on that I computed that I've spent scores of days playing. I don't regret it; as leisure-time activities go, you could do worse than one that increases your vocabulary. But it's time to move on.

Ellipses (...), emoticons (;-), and leaving the subject off sentences, as if I'm writing a postcard (e.g. "Woke up late today. Went to the store."). None of these are particularly bad, I don't think. But by damming up some of my usual forms of expression I hope to rechannel some of it down other paths.

Soda.

Crap TV. I'm not opposed to TV; one can learn a lot from it. Or, just be entertained by it. But I could stand to be a little more selective.

Blogging during working hours. ;-)

Two more weeks before we leave Singapore. Today is a particularly nasty air quality day here as the entire island is covered with a smoke haze blown over from fires in Sumatra, Indonesia. The fires are apparently started by farmers (slash and burn agriculture anyone?)and are technically illegal, but clearly the government is unwilling or unable to do anything about it.
I've been thinking a lot about our time in Singapore,trying to compartmentalize the experience into things I've learned, things I still have no clue about (and I'll never know what I missed, will I?), and things that have become "normalized". There are so many things that seemed bizarre when we first got here that don't even phase us now, for instance:
Many people here use umbrellas to shield themselves from the sun, this is partly for shade, and also partly to avoid tanning. Skin whitening creams sell big here.
There aren't many dogs in Singapore. It's very rare to see stray dogs here (although they're common in other places we've been in Asia). Lots of people are afraid of dogs here and will literally cross the street to avoid them. Cats on the other hand are very common. A lot of food centres have cats that hang out. The cats here look different than north American cats too, the cats here have smaller heads. I call them the "microcephalic cats".
Most of the time Singaporeans don't know where we're from based on our accents. I've had many people ask me if I'm British or Australian. This seemed odd to me at first, but then I realized I was being stupid and that I would have no idea where in Asia a person might be from based on the way they spoke English (although I'm getting better at this).

There are a lot of things like this, most of which we've probably already written about. I'm so ready to leave here at the moment. I wonder what we'll end up missing.

Poker face. Ben Affleck has apparently just won $356,000 in a poker tournament.

This makes sense to me. To be good at poker, you must not let your face betray your emotions. KIND OF LIKE AFFLECK DOES IN HIS FILMS.

Historic. Today mankind entered space for the first time the right way -- privately. This is how space will be won. A huge milestone in mankind's history. "Mike Melvill" is the name of your lucky first astronaut.

A banner game. Who is the man? I ask again, WHO IS THE MAN?

Ventz PM beat Kuay's Team 2-0. Mark S scored both our goals
[...]
PM also played well in taking the lead with Mark scoring with a Maradona-ish (v England in Mexico WC) run from midfield. He doubled our lead with a header from a corner. We did well to contain them in the 2nd half as our oppoents raised their game and in the end no more goals were scored.

Everyone was pulling for me to get a hat-trick. I didn't have a chance until the very last play of the game, when a corner kick came straight to my foot. Caught it on the full volley and shanked it wide, and the ref blew the whistle.

An injured teammate was taking pictures too, and said he got both my goals. Soon, I will bore you not just with words, but with pictures!

Boxing day. We're starting to pack boxes in preparation for mailing them down. Well, okay, Marjorie's started the packing, but I'm offering helpful critiques. Somehow we managed to accumulate quite a load of stuff, without ever buying much here. It's going to be at least 15 good-sized boxes to mail, in addition to our big suitcases and carry-ons.

Happily, while packing, Marjorie came across the pair of glasses I bought in Barcelona that disappeared during our last move and that we thought were gone forever. Hooray!

Yesterday we visited Jurong Bird Park for the last time. They have a new Lorikeet exhibit that's very cool. It's a huge aviary with hanging walkways connect five towers a hundred feet off the ground. Although, these birds won't be as exciting to us soon; they seem to be everywhere down in Melbourne.

Look at this sorry lot. A photo of my soccer team. This is obviously a pre-game photo, as there is no sweat, blood, or wheezing. We put all the young 'uns in the front row because it would take ten minutes for us geezers to straighten out our legs again after squatting like that.

Schmegeggie. I don't know if I have a Yiddish gene or what, but I've always loved Yiddish/Jewish jokes. I wonder if this runs in my family. Marjorie apparently has the gene too; this whole subject came up from a book she's reading, "Portnoy's Complaint", which also reminded her of similar jokes in "The Autograph Man".

These jokes, are each from Arthur Naiman's "Every Goy's Guide to Yiddish", except the last, which is from Leo Rosten's "The Joys of Yiddish". These pop up occasionally when you log into a Unix machine; they're part of the Unix "fortune" program.

A man goes to a tailor to try on a new custom-made suit. The first thing he notices is that the arms are too long.
"No problem," says the tailor. "Just bend them at the elbow and hold them out in front of you. See, now it's fine."
"But the collar is up around my ears!"
"It's nothing. Just hunch your back up a little ... no, a little more ... that's it."
"But I'm stepping on my cuffs!" the man cries in desperation.
"Nu, bend you knees a little to take up the slack. There you go. Look in the mirror -- the suit fits perfectly."
So, twisted like a pretzel, the man lurches out onto the street. Reba and Florence see him go by.
"Oh, look," says Reba, "that poor man!"
"Yes," says Florence, "but what a beautiful suit."

Murray and Esther, a middle-aged Jewish couple, are touring Chile. Murray just got a new camera and is constantly snapping pictures. One day, without knowing it, he photographs a top-secret military installation. In an instant, armed troops surround Murray and Esther and hustle them off to prison.
They can't prove who they are because they've left their passports in their hotel room. For three weeks they're tortured day and night to get them to name their contacts in the liberation movement. Finally they're hauled in front of a military court, charged with espionage, and sentenced to death.
The next morning they're lined up in front of the wall where they'll be shot. The sergeant in charge of the firing squad asks them if they have any lasts requests. Esther wants to know if she can call her daughter in Chicago. The sergeant says he's sorry, that's not possible, and turns to Murray.
"This is crazy!" Murray shouts. "We're not spies!" And he spits in the sergeants face.
"Murray!" Esther cries. "Please! Don't make trouble."

One of the oldest problems puzzled over in the Talmud is: "Why did God create goyim?" The generally accepted answer is "somebody has to buy retail."

Shamus, n. [Yiddish]:
A shamus is a guy who takes care of handyman tasks around the temple, and makes sure everything is in working order.
A shamus is at the bottom of the pecking order of synagog functionaries, and there's a joke about that:
A rabbi, to show his humility before God, cries out in the middle of a service, "Oh, Lord, I am nobody!" The cantor, not to be bested, also cries out, "Oh, Lord, I am nobody!"
The shamus, deeply moved, follows suit and cries, "Oh, Lord, I am nobody!" The rabbi turns to the cantor and says, "Look who thinks he's nobody!"

The first riddle I ever heard, one familiar to almost every Jewish child, was propounded to me by my father:
"What is it that hangs on the wall, is green, wet -- and whistles?"
I knit my brow and thought and thought, and in final perplexity gave up.
"A herring," said my father.
"A herring," I echoed. "A herring doesn't hang on the wall!"
"So hang it there."
"But a herring isn't green!" I protested.
"Paint it."
"But a herring isn't wet."
"If it's just painted it's still wet."
"But -- " I sputtered, summoning all my outrage, "-- a herring doesn't whistle!!"
"Right, " smiled my father. "I just put that in to make it hard."

Tuesday is my day of pain. For some reason, I always feel my Sunday soccer game on Tuesday, especially around lunch. I got compliments on how well I played, but we lost. The heat index beforehand, I heard, was 105. I felt my years, especially in the second half.

If Blogger is supposedly owned by Google now, why is there no way for me to search our archive of past blogs? The Google site itself doesn't even index them. Strange, but they DO seem to be archived on MSN.

We had our final Singapore games night last night. For diarist reasons, in attendance were Ken, Nora, Matt, Kim, Flip, Karen, and Loretta. We'll miss the old crowd. It was a lot of fun.

I spent the Tiger Lilies show sitting there trying to characterize them. It's pretty much a Tom Waits meets Tim Burton meets Charles Dickens meets Monty Python meets Shane MacGowan sort of vaudeville show. Really bizarre and wonderful. Apart from the theatrics, it was quite amazing musically too.

We went and saw the Tiger lillies last night. The were very entertaining and rather deviant, especially for Singapore. We knew about the event from our friend Ken, who had seen them in Chicago. That will probably be the last cultural event we attend here as we have 25 days and counting now...

Immigrants always seem to know more about the politics of their adopted countries than the locals do. Well, we didn't learn too much about Singapore's, probably due to the lack of a debating opposition. But Marjorie has charged ahead in learning about Australia's, to the point of impressing an Australian we met recently. Me, I can name only the president, and not tell you much else.

That is, before today. I'm actually familiar with a guy who will soon be running for parliament -- Peter Garrett, the former front man for Midnight Oil. By all accounts his election will be uncontested.

I saw them, phoo, must've been back in 1989 or so, at Visage in Orlando. I have only three recollections from the show:

1. I sold an extra ticket, that I bought for $12, outside before the show for $22.
2. Peter Garrett stopped the show for a minute or so to explain a bit about the Aboriginal rights issue, his pet project.
3. It was hot as blazes, and he kept flinging cups of water into the grateful crowd.

Based on #2 and #3, I think he may be an okay guy.

Greetings, greetings fellow stargazers! Yesterday Venus passed between the Earth and the Sun. As the last time this happened was 1882, no living person had ever seen it before.

Ostensibly, all it looks like is a tiny black dot on a big orange one. This is probably why I don't own a telescope -- unless you own a Hubble, all you'll get to see is tiny dots, or if you're lucky, slightly larger fuzzy dots, all while you're out in the cold getting bitten by mosquitos. One can easily find much better eye candy on-line.

I'll still probably get a telescope someday. There's something appealing about self-directing your search, and witnessing things first-hand.

But astronomy is a feast for the mind, not the eyes. What was amazing about the Venus transit was not that we could witness it, but that we could predict it with such accuracy, and know that it is not a harbinger of doom, but just a coincidental syzygy. Knowing that Venus is only a little smaller than Earth, we can, for a moment, try to grasp the immensity of the Sun.

Part of me regrets that we're not moving to Australia's capital, Canberra. While by most accounts it is a whirling pit of despair, they do do a lot of astronomy that I would love to be a part of.

Not much has been happening as you can tell by the lack of blog entries. I had to work Saturday (our first real demo), and we spent Sunday just bumming around the pool. I feel like I should write about something, but what?

I know! I'll tell you of my secret life... as a woman.

The Virtual Tourist web site is a respository for people's travel photos, stories, and tips. You can include a picture of yourself if you like, and many people do. On any given day you can browse the pictures of everyone whose birthday is that day, or you can just browse by country or whoever's logged on.

There were some complaints about losers using the site as a place to try to chat up women. So a few years back I created a female persona there, just to see what sort of responses I would get. I Googled on "blond" and "model" and came up with this picture (I've lost track of who she really is, but my apologies if you're reading this and it's you).

As a control in my experiment, I created a guy persona as well, using a picture of a guy slightly better looking than me.

I set their "birthdays" as the next day and waited. There were no surprises. The hot chick got about 20 birthday greetings to the hot dude's 10. One guy wrote about two pages worth, that was really rather creepy. To this day she still gets regular mail, while he gets almost none.

They both just had their "birthday"; this year, she got 8 greetings to his NONE.

It's all harmless enough, I guess; nobody's been persistent or harassing. It's been a little eye-opener, I guess, because I could see how this sort of thing could really get to you, if it happened all the time, or in person. I never respond. I thought I could but I really don't know how to "write women".

Here's a few samples of the mail she gets. Names have be omitted.

Hi

I am N----- from Bangalore, India.
i love to travel in India. Especially to places like Goa, Ooty, Kodaikanal,
Coorg and Kerala.
I am very familiar with these HOT destinations in India.
If you would want to travel to India, think of me.
Especially if you love trekking and deep forests
write to me on n-----@yahoo.com so that accessiblity will be easier.
I am 30 and i would love to be your friend.
love
N-----

HOT destinations! Woo!

Hi there..Hopin not offendin u. Actually, we have not had a chance to get to
know each other so far!. But while browsin virtualtourist web site, I have just
noticed that ur birthday is today. Hence, I said to my self, hey man..do
something useful..why don't u congratulate that woman on her spectacular day?.
I really do wish u a wonderfully great birthday filled with happiness & joy.
By the way, I'm M---- who likes to make friendship with nice ppl around the
Globe. I do have a broad spectrum of hobbies including traveling.
Above all, I neither fight nor bite..hehehe.
Pls. if u r willing to get to know each other, drop me a
line..Many thanks..
take care..
Best Wishes, M----

What every woman wants; someone who doesn't bite...

IT IS YOUR BIRTHDAY

Today is your special day,
so celebrate in your favourite way.
As time goes bye,
The years begin to fly.
But, you're only as old as you feel,
even when grey hair begins to yield.
Life is full of ups and downs
But, always wear a smile, instead of a frown.
Many wishes for days to come
and may your birthday be a very
extra special one.

I think this was supposed to be poetry.

Hi fellow(what's is the female gender for that term?) Floridian. I'm over here
in Venice a hop ,skip and ok a two hour ride from you. Saw your pic and wanted
to say hi and (now this is my male chauvinistic side ) WOW......beautiful
(refering to you of course)
Have a great day.....B---
p.s. I moved here last year from NJ....lol

This guy is a biker with a beard.

I saw your lovely picture and wanted to send you a greeting.

My name is [woman's name]. I have lived in Paris for the past 3 years surviving
as an artist/photograher and now I am back in the US in Virginia, taking care of
my dear cousins home and two beautiful dogs while he is in flying in Iraq.

I would love to visit Florida. Hope to hear from you:) You would make a
beautiful model to sketch and paint:)

Zoiks!

How did you spend your Vesak Day? We went to Mailboxes Etc and bought some boxes. I took a nice nap, then we went and had pizza at Casa Roma. On to the ex-pat board's Wednesday Night Drinking Club for a quick pint. All day we both had the Kinks' "Afternoon Tea" stuck in our heads.

We must have done something right, as today was full of good portents. I got my first nibble on a job, and have an interview set up for the day after we land. We got our application to set up a mailbox down there to send stuff to, and it looks like it will be no problem. And at the local grocery store, Marjorie found the beer that was our staple back in Atlanta, Bass, that we'd actually resorted to smuggling in on a few occasions

We booked our one-way tickets for Melbourne today. In a little over a month we'll be southward bound. Can't wait.

Ewwww. We discovered tonight that at some point in the last month or so we squished a gecko in the door jamb of our bedroom door. He ended up rather, uh, Picasso-esque. We named this one "Abstract Art".

And in case you're wondering, the person responsible for gecko cleanup in this house is ME.

The search is on. This weekend I'm going to start applying for jobs in Melbourne. The part I hate is dealing with headhunters (recruiters, I mean). With rare exceptions, they are slime. It is in their interest for you to get a job, yes, but all of their profit comes out of the difference between what the company's willing to pay and what you're willing to accept. So, while they work hard to find you a job, they are always trying to rip you off. But, sometimes it's the only way to get a job. If you go to any of the various job sites, 95% of the postings are from recruiters. And the jobs they list there never really exist, either; they are just to entice you to call them. Each recruiter has just a small changing pool of jobs he knows about that he will try to sell you on. (I say "he" because I've yet to see a female recruiter. I'm sure they exist, but are rare. Is it because women have a more evolved sense of ethics that they don't survive in the recruiting field?)

This one time in Atlanta I was contacted by a really strange recruiter who would call me at all hours of the day and night, and who finally convinced me to come visit him at his office way up in Alpharetta. I told him I definitely didn't want to work in that area, but that didn't stop him from springing an interview on me during my visit, with an Alpharetta company he was in contact with. So I gave an impromptu interview -- a good one, I might add; it wasn't really the company's fault -- and then emailed the recruiter that night telling him I didn't want the job and to stop sending my resume out; I didn't want to do business with anyone who so completely ignored my wishes. He ended up leaving a pissy little message on my answering machine about it, that I wish I had digitized; it was hilarious, in a creepy sort of way.

But what's really worrying me this time is the process of interviewing. Melbournians are notoriously outgoing but unpretentious, while I am notoriously quiet but cocky. My attitude seems to work well with American companies, but I'm going to have to vary my approach a bit down there, I think.

I'm also at a delicate stage in my career advancement, where people are going to want to put me in charge of stuff. Well, stuff I can handle; I just don't want to be in charge of people. I don't like managing at all, and have steadfastly avoided ever learning any presentation software like PowerPoint. I can handle heading up a team of a few people, but only if I can keep my hands in the technical stuff. My plan for making more money is by being worth the price of several other techies, but many companies think that throwing enough cheap young coders at a problem is a workable solution. Fortunately there are more and more who have wised up. We shall see.

Jane, get me off this crazy thing. I'm training my replacement, so he's using my computer. I've been given a Mac portable as a replacement. My boss thinks that I would love Macs if I had to use one for long enough.

Instead I think, how can people stand these things? Why are they considered so easy to use? I can't figure it out. I mean, I know that once you've learned one operating system, you're pretty much indoctrinated, and all you're going to see if you switch OSes are the things that are lacking. But I've been able to get practically NOTHING to run on this p.o.s. None of my Java applications will pop up windows. FOP just hangs. I can find no decent text editor -- BBEdit, which is supposed to be great, won't even let you page down. Moronic! I hate the dumbed-down one-button mouse. I hate the lack of keystroke equivalents for most things. I hate the limited keyboard (you have to hold down a function key to hit page up or down, home, or end). I hate the lack of a consistent way to switch between separate windows of an applications. I
can't even find a way to create a text file in a directory except from within an application. I hate how icons in the system tray jump up and down to get your attention.

The fonts are nice, though.

We celebrated our second anniversary tonight; a very low-key affair, just a nice dinner at home. We tend to make a bigger deal of the day we started going out instead.

Watched the season three debut of Six Feet Under; what gives? All the tension they built up at the end of last season just went "poof".

Oh, and woo hoo! Passed my Java certification exam. It was hard. Multiple choice, but often more than one of the choices was correct, and you had to get all of them correct for it to count. I swear I thought I was blowing it, halfway through, and that I'd wasted the money. Ended up getting 47 out of 61 questions right, or 77% (52% is considered a passing grade). Quite a relief.

I'm scheduled to take a Java Certification Exam tomorrow, so I'm up late studying such thrilling topics as RandomAccessFile invocation parameters and how to instantiate Threads.

While on the subject of 'boring', here's the report from Sunday's game. I continue my offensive onslaught from fullback:

We had the better of the 1st half and scored after a knockdown from Gimson was chested into the goal by Mark S. A fairly even 2nd half in possession but we had many chances to bury them with at least 4-5 clear cut chances. They equalised when a free kick was chipped into the path of their nippy stirker to slot it pass me. After a series of disgracful finishing from us , we won it with the last kick of the game when Kelvin chipped the out-rushing keeper from outside the box.

Next week I'm going to try to score with my hips or butt.

Speaking of vows, Tuesday is our second wedding anniversary. Since we're not buying presents this year I'll use the occasion to document all our travels together chronologically, something I've been meaning to do for a while. The following is probably not of much interest to anyone but us, but the blog has turned into more than a way to keep up with family and friends, it's also a way for us to remember our experiences.

This list only documents trips we've made together.

1. Boston, Massachusetts, September, 1998. We went up to see Elvis Costello play a free radio-station sponsored concert. We started way in the back, but due to a sudden storm that scared away all the non-devoted fans, we ended up right under the stage. Other highlights: Showing Mark where I used to live and where I went to high school, visiting the Boston Aquarium and eating Pizza Regina, yum, my favorite pizza since high school and still one of the best.

2. Chattanooga, Tennessee, 1st trip October, 1998. The first trip we made together to Chattanooga was to attend my friend Chris' wedding. This was also the first wedding Mark and I attended together. We went up subsequent times to go white water rafting, and another trip to visit the aquarium, but I'm sketchy on the dates.

3. Athens, Georgia, Halloween, 1998. The first of many trips to Athens that we've made together (and the only one that will be documented here). We went with a big group of friends to participate in the Halloween bar crawl. We had a blast, this was possibly the best Halloween I've ever experienced.

4. Madrid/Barcelona, Spain, Dec/Jan 1998/1999. Our first trip together outside of the United States. Highlights: Spending New Year's eve in Plaza Mayor with lots of festive Spaniards. Walking around Barcelona and taking in the Gaudi Architecture. Visiting several fantastic art museums.

5. San Francisco, California, June 1999. Another Elvis Costello show, this time at the Fleadh Festival. Shane MacGowan pulled a no-show, the drunk. Other highlights: Watching the seals bark at one another on the waterfront.

6. Austin, Texas, Summer 1999. I tagged along with Mark on a business trip. Highlights: The turtles, bats and nutria along Town Lake.

7. London/Manchester, England, November 1999. Mostly a pub tour as I was exhausted after my first few months as a first year special ed. teacher with city of Atlanta schools (the worst job I've ever had). In one of the pubs the term "heavy gravity spot" was coined for falling over for no apparent reason (other than strong lager). An injured ankle kept us away from the tourist spots, for the most part, the rest of trip, with the exception of a jog through the British museum where we saw the Rosetta stone and ignored mostly everything else. Other: We spotted Henry Rollins drinking coffee in a Starbucks (in the window seat, the attention whore), followed by a discussion about whether or not to give him the two finger salute, we chickened out (he's a big guy) and regret it to this day.

8. Orlando/Cocoa Beach, Florida, Christmas, 1999. My first Christmas with Mark's family. They were, and continue to be, very fun to be around. Other highlights: Going to see multitudes of manatees at Crystal Springs, and gator spotting near the Kennedy Space Center.

9. New York City, New York, Winter 2000. Highlights: Walking around Park Slope Brooklyn, huddled together, freezing our asses off. Also, a rooftop in Brooklyn one in the morning.... well around that time anyway, the view was like nothing else I have ever seen anywhere else, with city and humanity stretched out forever. Our first time staying as a couple with Kristina and Michael who have proved time and time again to be amazing hosts, and have put up with my sorry excuse for a house guest many, many times. Some day soon we hope to reciprocate.

10. W.Palm Beach, Florida, April, 2000. We went to visit my best friend Karen and her husband Tom at their house in W. Palm (they've since moved to Connecticut). What I remember most about this trip is visiting in their house, and swimming in the pool. It's always very nice to visit with good friends and we don't see Karen and Tom near enough.

11. Cancun, Mexico, June, 2000. The water in Cancun was amazing. This trip was the first time I'd gone snorkeling and is still the best visibility I've come across, including a particularly memorable "Mark, Shark!" moment. The other major highlights were swimming with dolphins at Dolphin Discovery, and visiting Xcaret.

12. Boone, North Carolina, New Year's 2000-2001. Our first (and so far only) ski trip together. We discovered that I ski about as well as Mark snowboards, and almost died driving down the frozen roads in my brand new (to me) Honda Civic. New Year's was somewhat anti-climatic as all the bars had closed. We did light a few fireworks purchased at one of the many scary Fire Works! shacks along the Georgia/North Carolina border.

13. New York City, New York, Spring, 2001. We spent the first night of this trip with people we no longer consider friends as we did something unbeknownst to us to piss them off (that's my story, I'm sticking to it). We spent the rest of the trip with Karen and Tom (see W.Palm Beach) and had a blast together. The most memorable event was a sketchy interaction in the lower East Side with some of the scariest looking guys I've ever seen in my life, and a morning trip to the planetarium. Another too-short visit with two of my favorite people.

14. Tokyo,Japan/Singapore/Tioman Island,Malaysia, June, 2001. Our first trip to Asia together. This was the trip that inspired the move to Singapore, and began our first real consideration of life as expatriates. We've been back to all three places if that's any indicator of how much we enjoyed ourselves the first time.

15. Chicago, Illinois, July, 2001. Highlights included visiting the Chicago Aquarium and Art Institute, and later that day stumbling upon a Patti Smith show while walking around downtown. Chicago's a lovely city, where else in America can you find a Picasso and a Chagall outside for everyone to enjoy?

16. Las Vegas, Nevada, October, 2001. We went to Vegas for my very good friends Kristina and Michael's wedding. Most memorable: the rehearsal dinner at "The Pink Taco" restaurant in the Hard Rock Cafe (nice one Kristina). The wedding was lovely and it was so much fun being on vacation with friends! Their vacation wedding inspired us when planning our own event less than a year later.

17. Paris, France, Christmas, 2001. Mark proposed to me on this trip. It was tres romantique as he waited until Christmas eve when we were on a bridge over the river Seine with Notre Dome in the background. As Jonathan Richman says "if you don't think Paris was made for love/Give Paris one more chance..."

18. Key West, Florida, January, 2002. We went to Key West on an exploratory trip to see if it would be a suitable location for our wedding. Which leads to trip 19....

19. Key West, Florida, May, 2002. We got married on the beach at Ft. Zachary Taylor State Park with two other couples elbowing for room on the same beach, in spite of that it was a very lovely sunset ceremony, made all the more special because our most cherished friends and family flew down there to be with us. I highly recommend a destination wedding; you get a vacation with your best friends and an excuse to have a very small wedding (which I also recommend).

20. Charleston, South Carolina, July, 2002. We went to Charleston for 4th of July weekend. It was a nice break away from Atlanta. There are some lovely beaches nearby too.

The rest of our trips together have been documented on the blog so I'll just list them without commentary:

21. New York, October, 2002
22. Orlando/Cocoa Beach Florida, November, 2002
23. Moved to Singapore, November, 2002
24. Vietnam, December 2002
25. Koh Samui, Thailand, March, 2003
26. Bali, Indonesia, April, 2003
27. Sydney, Australia, July, 2003
28. Tokyo, Japan, September, 2003
29. Los Angeles, California/Cocoa Beach, Florida/Atlanta,Georgia, December-January 2003/2004
30. Bangkok, Thailand, January, 2004
31. Tioman Island, Malaysia, March, 2004
32. Melbourne, Australia, April, 2004

Another thing we're looking forward to doing after we move is taking some classes. Like many of the things on our other this, this isn't necessarily something we're prevented from doing here; it's just that with a new beginning and (hopefully) more money, it seems more possible. And it's also a good way to meet people.

I plan on continuing Japanese, and maybe doing some writing workshops. Marjorie wants more Spanish and photography. Together we may do cooking and scuba diving. Oh, and dog obedience, of course.

We took a vow the other night to never again go six months without taking some sort of class that interests us. Unlike my nail biting/neck cracking vow, let's hope we can stick by this one.

On another note, go see Shrek 2. Side-splittingly funny.

Three cheers. Another forum I'm on has a thread going about remarkable experiences. Here's what I posted:

This is the first thing that came to mind as a "remarkable experience". It was just something I was lucky enough to witness.

I was working at Kennedy Space Center -- must've been about 1992 -- and had seen my share of shuttle (and rocket) launches. Landings, however, had always been done out in California at Edwards Air Force Base. They had built a landing strip at KSC, but had yet to use it, except for landing the special airliner that carries the shuttle back from California.

On a day when the shuttle was scheduled to land in Edwards, I was at work as usual. Word started spreading around the building that, due to a weather pattern approaching California, they were going to land the shuttle, that day, right outside our building!

Everyone filed out at the appropriate time, and waiting in the parking lot that was pretty much right across the street from the landing strip. The funny thing was, no one knew which way to look. We knew it would be coming from the west, but also that it would have to circle a few times to lose speed. So eyes were pointed in every direction.

Finally, someone spotted it, directly overhead, so high up that you could barely see it. Everyone cheered, for the first time of three. We watched it begin to bank into its turn.

Two minutes or so later, the double sonic boom hit us -- BOOM! BOOM! Car alarms went off, and everyone cheered again. It pulled a descending curve over our parking lot, and we could begin to see details on the shuttle itself, as its jet fighter escorts pulled up alongside.

But to everyone's dismay, just before it was to do its final, unimaginably steep descent towards the landing strip, it disappeared behind a cloud bank. We were going to miss the landing! It was hard to tell just how thick the clouds were, and where they stopped. Finally, just as the shuttle was leveling off from its descent, it burst MAJESTICALLY out of its cloud bank, almost directly towards us, and everyone went nuts cheering, one more time! Not that the astronauts could possibly hear us; it was just an unbridled outburst of joy amongst a bunch of space geeks. Finally it dipped below the trees across the road and made its landing. We all went back to work with big stupid grins on our faces.

Speaking of voting, we've both decided that if Fantasia gets voted off American Idol, we're never watching the show again.

Singapore Idol starts soon. I'm all aquiver. No, really, I think it will be a hoot, in a train-wreck sort of way.

Stolen Elections? Alrighty, in case you've been keeping up with the comments, the person I referred to who wrote the Vanity Fair Article about hacking the vote was Michael Shnayerson. But, the person doing the research on this frightening phenomena is Bev Harris. If you want more information go to http://www.blackboxvoting.com/
pretty frightening stuff. BE VERY SKEPTICAL IF YOUR ARE VOTING ON A DIRECT RECORDING ELECTRONIC (D.R.E.) VOTING SYSTEM THIS ELECTION!!!! These are what were used in Georgia during the past election by the way. Really makes you wonder.

We're not as shallow as we may appear to be based on our blogs.
I read the last post and thought, "Wow, you look at the state of the world, and what a sad time it is to be an American (and perhaps particularly an American living abroad), and we're posting what we want to buy when we move". That seems wrong, but honestly, do you guys really need our opinions about the pathetic state of the world? I doubt it. Still, it's a sad time to be an American, or even a human.

Things we can't wait to buy, own, or otherwise acquire once we move:

Washer and DRYER.

Big refrigerator.

Car.

Dog.

NEW CLOTHES.

Comfy computer chair.

Comfy matress.

High quality sheets and comforter.

MORE CLOTHES.

Coffee maker.

Cookbooks.

Kitchen appliances.

Art.

Magazine subscriptions.

TIVO or its equivalent.

All our stuff from Atlanta.

Their food is to die for. Our favorite Thai restaurant, Diandin Leluk, is unfortunately situated in the Golden Mile complex.

Two weeks ago, the highway behind it collapsed, forcing evacuation of the building.

Today, it was evacuated again -- for supposedly unrelated reasons -- after the building started shaking due to an earthquake across the water in Sumatra. No one else in town seemed to feel a thing, myself included.

One might never want to go near the place again. But only if one hadn't ever tried their green curry soup.

Serves us right. I only knew fifteen minutes beforehand. Marjorie knew all along, but figured if it was a Kevin Smith movie, it couldn't be all bad. The point is, we both knew going in to see Jersey Girl that it starred Ben Affleck, and we went anyway. We got what we deserved.

Itig. Back in high school there were two girls -- Tia and Mary -- who had invented their own language. It was much like piglatin in that it was just a bastardization of English, one that could be both spoken and understood, once you knew the trick. It sounded really strange, but they were able to hold conversations out loud without anyone understanding.

One day I got them to tell me the trick to it. Unlike piglatin, which only operates on a single word, they mangled every syllable. The trick was to essentially put two unstressed syllables -- "itig" -- in front of every vowel sound. So the word "word" would become "witigord". "Sound" would become "sitigound". It chains together for multiple syllables -- "teacher" would become "titigeach-itiger".

It sounds hard, but it's pretty straightforward. I quickly got to the point where I could speak it as fast as they could. I find I still can, pretty much. What's weird is that, even though I could encode it fast in my head, I could never really decode it that fast. And my sister, who was also privvy to the trick, could understand it easily when others spoke it but couldn't speak it very good (if I remember correctly).

I just remembered this recently. I don't know why I'm blogging about it, except that it strikes me as interesting.

Senescence. Not that I can possibly make it, but it's been pointed out to me that my twenty year high-school reunion is next month. Twenty years! Next month!

Life seems damnably short sometimes.

I don't feel much different than I remember myself at high school graduation. I did have a sense of immortality at that age that I miss now, though. That I was always going to be that age, with no overhanging sense of urgency about anything other than enjoying life.

At one point I considered going to work for one of the few companies that are working on life extension (such as these guys). But I looked into it, and don't see much to hope for beyond some modest gains in our lifetime. It would still be interesting to work on, but there are things I enjoy more. I'll still be first in line if they manage to bottle it, though.

Found out last night that my new favorite writer, Greg Egan, is Australian. He's a left-coaster, though, so I don't think I'll be hounding him for book signings after we move. Check out his web site, the very fine story of his that I read last night, and a worthy cause he campaigns for.

I don't need to read any more of his stuff while I'm working on my own, though. It's kind of disheartening, how good he is. He writes as if he lives inside the worlds that he creates, and his characters are real people, not the cardboard understudies so common to SF.

More ways to save money:

8. Plan grocery visits around recipes that use ingredients already in the house. Status: implemented by Marjorie.

9. Begrudgingly turn down invitation to fancy Brunch and other activities because of expense. Status: implemented unfortunately.

10. Make coffee at home everyday, even on weekends, rather than buy $4 coffee at Starbucks. Status: implemented by Marjorie.

We're both being so good lately, and it's hard, but truthfully we don't need to acquire any new stuff before moving. I can't wait until we can really get started checking things off the "to do" list, it's still a bit early to do most of the important tasks (like find work).

Ways to save money in anticipation of a move:

1. Place moratorium on buying new clothes, CDs, housewares. Status: Grudgingly implemented.

2. Get a library card instead of blowing wads of cash down at Borders. Status: Implemented (Mark).

3. Sell back old books to used book store. Status: Marjorie doing first load today.

4. Fill suitcases with housewares during exploratory trip to new destination; trek said goods deep into woods, and cover with plastic tarp. Recover after doing actual move. This saves greatly on shipping and storage expenses. A GPS is recommended. Status: Vetoed by Marjorie.

5. Lunch: hawker center $3 noodles instead of $15 restaurant entree. Status: Implemented (Mark).

6. Switch to Tiger beer, the local brew whose flavor can best be described as "formaldehydy". Status: Grudgingly implemented (Mark).

7. When flying down for actual move, wear three pairs of trousers, five shirts, three pair of socks, to save suitcase space. Status: Can't speak for Marjorie, but I plan to do this.

Oh, my nose! I had been getting so many scoring chances from the back line that the coach today moved me up to center half, late in the game. I lasted only ten minutes before going nose-to-head with an opposing player. I thought I was okay until I looked down and my hands were covered in blood. I thought it was just a bloody nose, but when I got home it looked like my nose was crooked, so we trundled off to the ER. They didn't say much, except that they usually give these things a chance to heal on their own; they don't reset until a week has gone by. I'm supposed to get it x-rayed tomorrow, but now that the swelling is down, it looks straight again. Still, very sore.

We moved around a fair amount when I was a kid, and I was always the first one that ended up having to go to the hospital, for whatever reason. We've been here a year and a half, and I've been three times now.

Perfectionism. I read an essay today that struck a chord with me and my current efforts to write. It was about silencing your inner critic, and had particularly harsh things to say about being a perfectionist. I had always taken a sort of pride in my perfectionism, when perhaps I should have seen it for what it is: a voice that always says that the things I do aren't good enough. Not a desire for excellence, but rather an impediment to progress.

You know, now that I read that, it sounds like a load of self-help shinola. It's possible that that perfectionism can become debilitating, I suppose, but there's nothing wrong in general with wanting to create something good. I've still become fairly accomplished at a lot of things. Never mind.

Things not available in Singapore:

Smoke detectors

Nyquil

Dayquil

Bonine (motion sickness medication)
Which is why it's so nice when a care package arrives from your parents containing all the above. Thanks, Mom and Dad...

Bedways is rightways. Yesterday, we woke up and were sitting in bed reading. Marjorie said, "Let's just do this all day." So we did, or at least we tried. I switched over to working on my story after a point, starting (again, from scratch) the actual composing of the prose.

I couldn't make it a whole day in bed; eventually I had to run off to the library, where I finally got a library card, after my third try (long story). It's kind of cool, book checkout is all DIY these days. I checked out, among other things Orson Scott Card's How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy, which I'm not finding a lot of good advice in. He recommends cheats that I don't really approve of. Not surprising, as he's a writer I don't much care for (though I did like Ender's Game when I first read it; who didn't?).

Anyway, in the evening, we moved the TV into the bedroom so we could watch DVDs from bed -- Curb Your Enthusiasm, Mr. Show, and Larry Sanders.

There should be a National Stay In Bed Day. Give it a go yourself. You might actually get some stuff done. You can afford one day a year.

Last night we caught our first film of the Singapore Film Festival with friends Carolyn and Mike -- the disturbing but engaging Capturing the Friedmans. Seemingly uncensored, too. Wow. We all talked about it for a half hour afterwards, which is a good sign. Next Tuesday (I think) we're seeing Osama.

Oh, and I've given up on Gmail for the present, until they include an address book that works. Bummer.

The way we were: I just spent about 20 minutes reading the archives of our blog back to our first international move. Reading back, it seems like our life in Atlanta was much more exciting then our life here (ironically). And I was clearly naive about how long it would take us to migrate to Oz. There's a post from Aug 2002 were I suggested we start the process then because I thought it would probably take 4-5 months, HA! Just in case anyone's curious the process actually took much closer to a year: about 4 months time for the correct agencies to evaluate our job skills, and about 8 months actual processing time beyond that. That's all water under the bridge now though, because we've got our passports back today complete with with new permanent residency Australia visa stamps.

New email. From being a member of Blogger, I've been offered an early chance to set up a Google Gmail account. I'm excited. The free gig of storage is what sold me -- I hate having to delete old emails. So so long, hotmail, I hardly knew ye. I'll be sending out my new address soon. Any predictions on how long until I get my first spam?

There is a Feng Shui convention in town next month.

Can you imagine the squabbles that go on while they're setting up their booths?

In other news...

From the Gooooooooaaaaaal Dept. comes this report on Sunday's game:

PM played a lacklusture 1st half as the heat forced many to play below par. As with the AM game , it took a goal in the middle of the 2nd half to wake us up. Mark S scored a rare goal off a corner before Kelvin rounded off the comback with a scrambled goal after good work on the left.

I've been averaging about a goal every other game this year. Not too shabby!

From the Too Damn Funny Dept. comes a report on the worst records ever. What's funny is that I've been hearing the "winning" song all over town in the past month, for some reason.

Writing. Six months after vowing to write a science fiction short story, I have the outline half done.

That's not as dire as it sounds. I had stopped work on it for several months. Just in the past two weeks has my interest in finishing it been rekindled, and I have the plot almost completely worked out, thanks to some heavy thinking sessions while riding mass transit. I came up with a narrative device that will let me tell the story much easier. All the pieces of the plot fit together nicely; it has a beginning, a middle, and an end, and it even has a [gasp] theme. Ninety percent of the time I'm working on it, I think it's going to turn out original and wonderful and hailed by one and all; only the other ten percent of the time do I think it's going to be crap. Which, considering my usual self-doubt on creative efforts, is amazing.

I'm starting to worry about the size of it. Maybe it'll turn out to be a novel after all, although I shudder at the thought. There's a dangerous middle ground, I've learned, where stories are too big for magazines and too small for novels. A rather large gap, in fact: between 20,000 and 40,000 words, a story is useless. I'd rather shoot for under 20,000 than over 40,000, but it seems like I have an awful lot of plot and required expository.

I've heard that fiction can be five times harder than non-fiction to write, and now I believe it. I'm still reluctant to sit down and work on it much of the time. But once I get started I get into it. Still, if I end up with 20,000 words, and get published in one of the top magazines, that would earn me a measley $1000. How do people make a living at this?

Okay, this makes perfect sense to me. Why are there not more things like this in the world?

I'm feeling much better today about our move. Excited really, in a good way. This is the way it was before we moved to Singapore too, one day completely depressed and anxious, the next day very happy at the prospects for the future. This time I predict less depression about leaving though. Singapore has been very educational, and it's a fine city, but I'm ready to move on (to quote someone very close to me "it's not just the heat that's oppressive"). Plus, when we left Atlanta we were leaving behind many people (and two dogs) that we really love. We've made friends here that we'll be sad to leave, but many of them are not going to be in Singapore much longer either.

"He had yellow eyes! So, help me, God! Yellow eyes!" Yesterday's post about the chimpanzees got me thinking back to my junior high school days.

That's when bullying was at its worst for me. My compelling need to be considered the class brain certainly didn't help matters, but that was my primary source of happiness so I wasn't about to quit. Another factor was working against me; I cried very, very easily. I would've given anything to be able to control that but I couldn't. Once other kids figure that out about you, it's all over. Still, because I never fought back, I never really got beat up.

The day that stands out in particular was in the first week of class in seventh grade, which would put it at September of 1978. During the first day of REAL gym class, all the boys had to shower together, nekkid, for the very first time. We were all kind of nervous about it but got through it just fine. Standing around in the lobby outside the locker room afterwards, we were feeling pretty good ourselves.

That was when Randy and his little band of thugs came out, and started working down the line of boys, accusing them of being too chicken to get their hair wet. The wetting of the hair was, of course, not the real issue; he was just establishing his dominance. Still, I cowered in the corner of the lobby, dying for the bell to ring, and wishing to God that I had gotten my hair wet (as if would have made any difference). He worked his way past and through a couple of my friends and down to me. I can still picture him screaming up at me in his nasally voice. (Yes, up. He was a full head shorter than me, and scrawny too. It's not about size, it's about how mean you are.) I don't remember what words I used to placate him but eventually he and his entourage moved on.

You can bet that the next day, all of us who were out in the lobby made sure we got our hair nice and wet.

Somebody in the class actually stood up to him about halfway through the year. Randy jumped on him, knocked him down, and they wrestled around a bit, right there in the locker room. He escaped mostly unharmed, and was left alone for the rest of the year. I could easily recognize in this a ticket out of tormenting, but of course was too much of a chicken to try it.

Junior high is a time of great fear but also of great fun. And it's amazing how fast the needle can swing from one side to the other. The only movie I've ever seen that captures this is Welcome To The Dollhouse. I've known many people who can't even watch it, but I thought it was amazing.

Emotion, I've heard, is the trigger your brain uses to know when to store something in long-term memory. So it's no surprise that I can remember so many little details about that fearful day outside the locker room. And my mind can still drift away while pondering all the things I could have said or done.

Best lines from games night at the American Club tonight:

1. During a game involving a timekeeper --
Nora: I'm going to the bathroom. Here, Flip, you take the timer.
Flip: What was your previous record?

2. During a discussion of using phrases like "My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzapies" to remember all the planets --
Marjorie: These memory tricks, what's that word for them again?

"These are the days it never rains but it pours." Mark's article (that he didn't usurp) has really resonated with me. It's so true, more choices don't make people happier. I see that very frequently in my job at USEIC where I advise future college students. They are never happy to have to choose from the hundreds/thousands of American colleges and universities, and even when they are excepted and the choice comes down to two or three, they often come into our office hoping we will decide for them. Frankly, I wish someone would do that for us now with regards to Australia. Of course I'd resent it if someone actually did butt in. Chances are where we end up will depend on where we get offered a job.
We've got some hard weeks ahead of us. We need to: Inform our landlord we'll be leaving (and pray she'll return our hefty deposit), find jobs or at least a job for Mark, figure out how to get the stuff that won't fit into our suitcases to Oz, plus the several other big/small tasks that go with any move such as utilities, banking, packing, wanting to die from stress. Then once we get there we'll have to find a place to live, arrange for our things in the USA to be shipped (which will most likely involve me going back to the States to arrange the move), and all the other big/small tasks in the reverse.
International moves are not easy, particularly when you're strapped for cash. But, this is what we want (we hope) for now. Hopefully, we'll be happier for the choice in the long run.
I'm guessing we'll be moving the first full week in July so anyone still hoping to visit us in Singapore has until the first week of June to come (we probably won't be able to handle any visitors after that).

Two fascinating articles containing much insight into the human condition and the keys to happiness:

The Tyranny of Choice cites recent studies to suggest that having an abundance of options may actually be a recipe for unhappiness, and suggests some guidelines on how to best cope in a society where often there is no lack of choices. This is something we can really relate to. Unfortunately you'll have to buy the magazine to read the whole article.

No Time For Bullies: Baboons Retool Their Culture describes the changes that occur in a baboon society when all the agressive males died off due to tuberculosis they caught while fighting other tribes. Fascinating stuff.

Quitters Inc. report. A few weeks back I reported on my plans to quit cracking my neck and knuckles, as well as biting my nails.

Quitting "cold turkey" is not possible for these compulsions, I think, since I do them involuntarily, and the means to do them is close at hand. With something like smoking, you have to conciously go out and buy the cigarettes, which gives you a lot of time to think about it beforehand.

So I've been just tapering off these habits, stopping and mentally scolding myself when I find myself doing them. No snapping of rubber bands on the wrist or anything.

It's kind of working. My nails look better, at least, but I still catch myself biting fairly regularly. My neck feels all the time stiff like it wants to crack, and it's giving me headaches, so I'm still occasionally partaking of a good twist. Knuckle cracking seems to be my biggest success; although I haven't quit 100%, it's getting more difficult to actually do it, as the joints stiffen back to their normal range of flexibility.

Next thing to work on is my habit of smashing plates on my desk while singing "Lee dee dee dee dee".

I'm not much of a photographer, but I really like this photo I took at the wildlife park. And what can you say about this one (Marjorie with a baby wombat) but "Uh boojie-boojie-boo..."

Melbourne was lovely, really. It has almost all of the features of our imagined "perfect town": public transport is reliable, there is lots of green space, people are friendly, there's a lively local music scene, it's near the beach and the mountains so one could go snorkeling and skiing, they have trivia nights at bars, shopping is good...... Almost perfect really.
I was more than a bit sad to be returning to Singapore, but when we got here we had a very unexpected surprise in the mail; our Oz permanent residency visas have been approved, and we can move whenever we're ready. Wow.

Melbournians are an interesting bunch. They are brash, outgoing, friendly; tall, big-boned, and barrel-chested. They say things like "How are you going?" and "Ta" for thank you; if they like something, it's always "quite nice", "brilliant", "lovely", or even "gorgeous". They really do say "no worries" a lot, but we haven't heard that many "g'day"s.

We had a brilliant excursion the other day. It was a tour we booked through Autopia, and it started at a wildlife attraction where we got to hold a baby wombat, and hand-feed kangaroos. Next we visited a coal mine in Wonthaggi, which was quite interesting. This place marked the southernmost either of us has ever been, and I think we were 60 meters underground at the time! Then it was on to Phillip Island, where we took a brief stop at a lookout point before moving on to the "penguin parade", where huge crowds of people gather every night as the penguins come up the beach after a day of fishing. It was cold, so we only watched a few dozen little waddlers before heading back to the van. It all ended with a pizza dinner, and was all in all a quite lovely brilliant gorgeous tour. Met lots of folks from all over too.

Last night we wandered into a pub that was having a lively trivia night and serving Harp (well, they were out of it). Just as we were joking that we'd found our place, they played a Pogues song. Brilliant!

Melbourne is cool. We've mainly just been exploring neighborhoods, riding around on the trams, checking out supermarkets -- all the things we need to do to evaluate this as a possible place to live. And it's passing in every regard, so far. We're staying in St. Kilda, and have also checked out the Toorak, Prahran, Carlton, and Fitzroy areas of town. Lots of really inviting little areas, and the people are outgoing and friendly. Weather's a little warmer than we'd like right now; we're jonesing for cold!

Sunday night we checked out one of the coolest clubs we've ever been to; the Esplanade Hotel here in St. Kilda. It's a gigantic place, converted from an old hotel, and had three separate rooms with different live bands.

Our motel is right next to rave club. It's a friendly place, graciously sharing their (earplug-defying) bass notes with us until the wee hours. On Saturday night it kept us up until 5am. We figured, hey, we can deal with it for one night; it's Saturday after all. And true, it was better on Sunday night; it only went on until 4am. We've switched to the other side of the hotel; hopefully it'll be better tonight.

Wildlife spotting: penguins, sulphur-crested cockatoos, magpies, magpie-larks, black swans, a flock of rainbow lorikeets, and a lot of different birds in the botanical gardens, where we went in search of flying foxes, which have been (shall we say) convinced to move to another area of town. Tomorrow we're taking an organized tour to Phillip Island to see the penguin parade, among other things.