Last day for this trip today, flying out this afternoon. I'm more than ready to go home, after four weeks here (plus the week before away as well in San Francisco). A few hours of work this morning and then I'll be on my way.
Mostly work this last week, as usual. Had a couple of interesting things outside work, though. I also managed to watch one of the World Series games on Sunday. Had to wait out a rain delay, but it was a good game and I was happy to catch it.
We had a team outing to go bowling on Tuesday. What is it with bowling and corporate outings? 3 of my last 4 work outings have been bowling. Not that I mind too much, it's fairly fun. We actually ate dinner at the lanes, too, which seemed a little strange to an American, where bowling alley food is nothing special. It wasn't all that great here, either, but I've had worse at corporate events.
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Friday, October 24, 2008
Australia Trip - Week 3
Not much to report on the third week of this trip outside of work, work, work. Well over 70 hours for the last week, including Saturday. The most noteworthy thing that happened was an extension of the trip to a fourth week, due to said work. New departure date for home is now October 30. Which sucks for many reasons: I'm going to miss a friend's Halloween party, and can't watch the World Series, it's difficult to play CoX here so I'm missing the Halloween event, and so on.
Outside of that, the most exciting thing to happen was getting hailed upon. I was walking back to the hotel from work one day, clouds in the sky but no active rain, and right near the end of the trip it started to rain. I was thinking "Gee, those are big raindrops" when I saw one fly by and realized it was hail. Small stuff, fortunately. The guys here tell me they sometimes get hail in the golf-ball range, so I was lucky.
Outside of that, the most exciting thing to happen was getting hailed upon. I was walking back to the hotel from work one day, clouds in the sky but no active rain, and right near the end of the trip it started to rain. I was thinking "Gee, those are big raindrops" when I saw one fly by and realized it was hail. Small stuff, fortunately. The guys here tell me they sometimes get hail in the golf-ball range, so I was lucky.
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Photo Links from recent trips
I've been pretty lazy in updating my online photos lately, just sending them directly to Twitpic and letting them sit there. I finally went through and tagged them all so they have some level of organization. Links:
- OpenWorld 2008 (some of these are pretty low quality, sorry)
- Visit to my parents' place in Portland, OR in late Sept 2008
- Trip to Australia in October 2008
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Anime Review - Kanon (2002)
Finished watching the anime series Kanon (2002 version) last night. It's very short - only 13 episodes plus one 20-minute OVA - and there's a lot of story packed into that time. The Wikipedia link above has a good character and plot summary that doesn't give away too much.
I enjoyed Kanon. The story was very well-written and the voice acting/animation was well done. Yuichi has a cynical streak and a tendency to casual insults, which I can identify with immensely, having been (rightfully) accused of such things myself. It is a bit confusing how casually the characters take some of the supernatural occurences throughout the story, but to me there's an easy suspension of disbelief there.
I felt like the story really had two climaxes, one in the 12th episode and another in the last. Without giving too much away, I'll just say that I prefered the self-sacrificial "ending" in the 12th episode to the "happiness ending" in the 13th.
My biggest complaint about Kanon is that they packed so much into a short series that parts felt incomplete. It feels that there should be a lot more to the story behind Mai, for instance. That's about the best compliment you can give a series like this, though - asking for more.
Apparently there was a remake of this series in 2006, which is longer, so I intend to track it down and watch it to see how it compares to the 2002 version.
I enjoyed Kanon. The story was very well-written and the voice acting/animation was well done. Yuichi has a cynical streak and a tendency to casual insults, which I can identify with immensely, having been (rightfully) accused of such things myself. It is a bit confusing how casually the characters take some of the supernatural occurences throughout the story, but to me there's an easy suspension of disbelief there.
I felt like the story really had two climaxes, one in the 12th episode and another in the last. Without giving too much away, I'll just say that I prefered the self-sacrificial "ending" in the 12th episode to the "happiness ending" in the 13th.
My biggest complaint about Kanon is that they packed so much into a short series that parts felt incomplete. It feels that there should be a lot more to the story behind Mai, for instance. That's about the best compliment you can give a series like this, though - asking for more.
Apparently there was a remake of this series in 2006, which is longer, so I intend to track it down and watch it to see how it compares to the 2002 version.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Australia Trip - Week 2
My second week in Australia went much better than the first. No health issues, for one, my cold's gone and the allergies seem to be in remission. Work is still crazy busy but I was able to take some time off on the weekend. Didn't work at all on Saturday and only a few hours on Sunday.
On Saturday I went down to Darling Harbour here in Sydney. I took a cab, which wasn't the cheapest option but was reasonably fast, about 40 minutes from the hotel here. (The public transit option would have been close to 2 hours. I wasn't in a big hurry, but my patience has limits.) I wandered around the harbor area a bit before heading over to Wildlife World and the Aquarium.
The Wildlife World was pretty nice. I spent about 90 minutes walking through the various exhibits. Lots of koalas and kangaroos, and a ton of venomous snakes and spiders. No dingos, though. After finishing that I went over to the Aquarium, which is right next door. This was extremely crowded, which was too bad because there were a lot of exhibits that I'd have liked to spend more time at.
One tip I received from a local - if you're going to the Aquarium and the Wildlife World, go to Wildlife World first and buy the dual entry pass. It's cheaper than buying both individually, and the lines at Wildlife World are much shorter.
I considered going to the Motor Show, which was happening right across the harbor, but it looked very crowded as well. Besides, after going to the auto shows in Chicago and Detroit, I've learned that these sorts of things really don't do much for me. I know, that's practically sacrilege coming from a Michigan resident, but I have the excuse that I'm not a native.
So instead of that, I went down the street to Paddy's Market. It's a big warehouse with bunches of small vendor stalls, kind of a flea market. I wandered around a bit, saw some interesting stuff, but nothing caught my eye enough to actually spend money on.
On Sunday afternoon, I went over to a friend's place (excuse me, a "mate's" place). They're big racing fans, so we watched the Bathurst race, which is *the* big V8 racing event in Australia. I'm not a big racing fan but it was fun watching with them, since they'd actually been on the track and were able to comment on a lot of the drivers as well. Got a nice home-cooked meal afterward, too, which is great when you're on the road - there's only so much restaurant food you can eat.
One more week here before heading back to Michigan.
On Saturday I went down to Darling Harbour here in Sydney. I took a cab, which wasn't the cheapest option but was reasonably fast, about 40 minutes from the hotel here. (The public transit option would have been close to 2 hours. I wasn't in a big hurry, but my patience has limits.) I wandered around the harbor area a bit before heading over to Wildlife World and the Aquarium.
The Wildlife World was pretty nice. I spent about 90 minutes walking through the various exhibits. Lots of koalas and kangaroos, and a ton of venomous snakes and spiders. No dingos, though. After finishing that I went over to the Aquarium, which is right next door. This was extremely crowded, which was too bad because there were a lot of exhibits that I'd have liked to spend more time at.
One tip I received from a local - if you're going to the Aquarium and the Wildlife World, go to Wildlife World first and buy the dual entry pass. It's cheaper than buying both individually, and the lines at Wildlife World are much shorter.
I considered going to the Motor Show, which was happening right across the harbor, but it looked very crowded as well. Besides, after going to the auto shows in Chicago and Detroit, I've learned that these sorts of things really don't do much for me. I know, that's practically sacrilege coming from a Michigan resident, but I have the excuse that I'm not a native.
So instead of that, I went down the street to Paddy's Market. It's a big warehouse with bunches of small vendor stalls, kind of a flea market. I wandered around a bit, saw some interesting stuff, but nothing caught my eye enough to actually spend money on.
On Sunday afternoon, I went over to a friend's place (excuse me, a "mate's" place). They're big racing fans, so we watched the Bathurst race, which is *the* big V8 racing event in Australia. I'm not a big racing fan but it was fun watching with them, since they'd actually been on the track and were able to comment on a lot of the drivers as well. Got a nice home-cooked meal afterward, too, which is great when you're on the road - there's only so much restaurant food you can eat.
One more week here before heading back to Michigan.
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Australia Trip - Week 1
Just a quick post about my current trip to Sydney, Australia. I've been doing pretty much nothing but work for the week I've been here, but I have hope that I'll be able to do a little sightseeing this weekend. I had a cold but I'm pretty much over it, and so far I haven't caught the strep throat that my boss has (knock on wood). Maybe next week some more interesting stuff will happen.
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Oh well, what's another $700 billion in debt?
We had one halfway intelligent vote in the House, but I guess it was too much to hope that it would continue. The bailout is on. The passed version is certainly better than the original, with at least some semblance of controls, but it's still a ton of money shoring up a failing system. What's needed is major reform, but that will take time and cause short-term pain, something the politicians clearly can't stomach. Instead we get a ridiculous amount of government debt that hastens the day when the system will collapse under its own weight.
It's not just me that thinks this is silly. You can't browse the 'Net without stumbling across a story questioning the bailout. Try Googling "question bailout". Any decision this big always has those willing to second-guess it, but this goes well beyond the usual back-seat driving.
The original cause of all this is an inability to look ahead. I read an interesting article here in Sydney today about how George Soros' The Bubble of American Supremacy predicted much of our current problems 5 years ago, and I'm sure he wasn't the only one. But we tend to ignore news we don't like. Soros is back with more warnings, as you can read in that article, and it sure would make sense to pay attention this time.
It's not just me that thinks this is silly. You can't browse the 'Net without stumbling across a story questioning the bailout. Try Googling "question bailout". Any decision this big always has those willing to second-guess it, but this goes well beyond the usual back-seat driving.
The original cause of all this is an inability to look ahead. I read an interesting article here in Sydney today about how George Soros' The Bubble of American Supremacy predicted much of our current problems 5 years ago, and I'm sure he wasn't the only one. But we tend to ignore news we don't like. Soros is back with more warnings, as you can read in that article, and it sure would make sense to pay attention this time.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
