a room with a moose

You know you've been working on a site for a while when...

2008-10-13T23:46:57Z

You know you've been working on a site for a while when the staff begin thinking of you as one of their own. I had three such experiences like this in the last 24 hours. the first was when i got off the plane and one of the company drivers was standing there with a sign waiting to pick someone else up. As I collected my bags he came over and we chatted for a while and followed me out of the building. He figured whoever he was there to pick up wasn't coming and wanted to catch up some more so he drove me to the hotel chatting the whole time about the things happening in Nashville and such. it should also be noted that when ness was in nashville he had picked us up from a night out and then proceeded to drive us around, pointing out the sights and giving us the history of nashville before giving us a couple of his daughters CDs. He's a pretty cool guy.

Then this morning when I was walking out of the hotel I stopped to pick up my usual coffee and muffin. The girls at the cafe refused to take my money and instead chatted to me about what I was doing for the company. They told me mock sternly that my money wasn't good here anymore and that if I insisted on paying anymore they would get cross.

Usually in the afternoons I call for a company driver to take me back to the hotel (which they own so it's cheaper for them to do this). However, today as I walked out of the office there was the hotels nightclub 72 seat bus outside. The door opened and two of the drivers were sitting inside waving 'We've come to get you!' I hadn't called but they now have my leaving time worked out and as they were out of cars the two remaining drivers had jumped in the bus to come and wait for me. I think they also wanted to drive the bus around and have a laugh but it was still pretty awesome. I tried not to think about the petrol efficiency and concentrate on the jokes which they seem to have no end of. I think I really like the people in this town!

In other news Mum, Dad and Emily came to Chicago after a grueling week long stint at Disneyland and spent an extended weekend in Chicago with us which was awesome. Mum lost her camera with all of her photos on the last day which really sucked but we had a great time being tourists around town and had a great time together. I will have a lot more to say about this in another post but right now I have to run out to a conference dinner that my company and IBM are putting on in town. YAY free food!

fun with snow

2008-08-20T17:51:42Z

I totally wish I could parachute. This looks rad!

sometimes it feels like this

2008-08-13T19:08:25Z

some days I sit through meeting after meeting in which we discuss what needs to be done a spazillion different ways, going around and around but not actually doing anything.

I just had a day like this and by the end of it I just wanted to walk out, make the changes they wanted and put an end to the circular management-bot discussion. And then penny arcade post this... too perfect!

ohare airport and other natural disasters

2008-08-05T01:35:24Z

It seems that the universe doesn't want me to go to Nashville. My flights last night and then again this morning were cancelled which was cool because I got to stay at home with ness and go to a friends BBQ. So I turn up to the airport today undeterred to try again tonight. This time the gods of transport - angered no doubt by my repeated and stubborn attempts to leave Chicago - have peppered my plane with bird strikes on its descent into chicago in an attempt to disable it, successfully damaging it to the point that repairs will be necessary to make it airworthy once again.

The captain announced all this after we had boarded and we all piled off back into the concourse where we were told that they were going to find us a new plane. Well that's when the shit really hit the fan. Hard. The gods, now completely ropable at our persistance opened the floodgates and let it rip. I've just been watching some of the most amazing lightning strikes rain down accompanied by thunderclaps so hard the plate glass windows of the terminal shook.

We are now being evacuated to the lower levels as a number of tornado spouts are in the area tearing up the joint. I get the message. I'm not supposed to go to Nashville!

Update: my flight got cancelled until tomorrow evening. Universe 3. Me 0.

moving (hopefully)

2008-08-01T19:46:24Z

Today we went apartment hunting. Our lease runs out in September and we needs new digs as it has become readily apparent that our current place has just too many things fundamentally wrong with it. I mean it's great value for the money we're paying but we're both totally over the 7am rubbish bin removal (which is like every day grr!) and the crazy bathroom and the general pokiness of it all. Also we wanted to move into Andersonville which is much more Glebeish and fun. Cafes and nice pubs and cool stores abound on your doorstep and while it's in walking distance of our current place, all that is on our doorstep right now is a main arterial and crime. I know, you're thinking, what would make you want to leave? Well it was a tough decision.

So after arming ourselves with a wish list and a budget we set about finding the perfect place. The first couple of places we visited were nice but all had something that bugged us or missed one too many of the things we wanted. And then we found this place. It's perfect. I mean seriously perfect. I couldn't help my jaw dropping open the moment we walked in, and I'm pretty sure my slack jawed performance continued for the duration of the tour. This unusual descent into open gawkery only registered distantly however from the part of my mind usually reserved for the distribution of endorphins where my mind had retreated for a private party, population one. It has everything we want in a place. We even have a spare room/library/guest bedroom!

So lets go through our wishlist and see how it lines up:
- awesome open plan dining/living room with bay windows: check
- bright southerly facing onto a quiet, tree-lined street: check
- roomy bathroom with good water pressure: check and check
- sunny study: check
- good sized outside balcony for bbq and entertaining: check
- silent central A/C and heating: check
- large kitchen with movable island bench: check
- gas cooktop: check
- internal fire escape with lockable door: check
- hardwood floors: check
- walking distance to everything: check
- not in a crowded apartment block: check!!

It was everything we had dreamed up and more. We went straight back to the apartment finders office and wrote up all the paperwork. Man I hope we get this place!

in other news Rock Band arrived. It is totally awesome. You should buy it. Buy it NOW. and then play with us online. I am completely retarded on the drums and loving it! Also I have to resist the urge to scream "ANIMAL!" in the solos.

_toastedcheese_ @ 2008-07-23T19:35:00

2008-07-24T00:46:36Z

I'm cabbing it into downtown Nashville to check out the town and catch some of the live music I've heard so much about. The people I'm working for down here are all super friendly and sure do have a lot of stories to share with you.

The company I'm doing the work for own a chain of resorts throughout the US and the digs they've put me up at in nothing short of spectacular. Fountains, waterfalls and indoor forests abound. I'll try to post up photos when I get home.

In other news rock band arrived today and I can't wait to get home. ROKK!!!!

Time to get out. Later peeps!

UPDATE: here's the photos from Nashville

and the prize for applied technology in the field of drinking goes to...

2008-06-12T14:24:07Z

somewhere in Mantown, USA:

inventor guy 1: hey i think the world is ready for a new way of getting really, really drunk.

slightly dumber inventor guy 2: yeah! but we already have beer bongs, what could possibly be better than that?

ig1: well beer bongs are great but well they just use gravity to get the beer into your stomach. Gravity is weak. we need to use harness a manly force to get the beer into ourselves.

sdig2: YEAH! what the hell are you talking about?

ig1: think about it, how do doctors get liquids into you? they dont cut a hole and pour the liquid into the hole, do they? NO! they dont have time for that, they load the stuff into a syringe, jam it into your arm and then inject it.

sdig2: YEAH! we'll hire doctors to administer the beer bongs!

ig1: no, i mean to create a syringe big enough to inject beer into people!

sdig2: YEAH!!! And have the doctors... wait what are the doctors doing?

ig1: damn the doctors man! get us nurses! in french maid outfits! this is the beginning of a NEW AGE OF MAN!!

Euro2008 madness!!

2008-06-07T15:29:49Z

Euro2008 kicks off in a couple of hours and I still cant decide who to go for. Probably portugal, but I also like to watch france and i really wish the netherlands would get up... but they never really seem to quite get it together for the big matches. Well I'm going to be watching the Portugal - Turkey game later today and I cant wait.

When I was in Istanbul last year 2 Turkish sides were competing to stay in the Champions League and the atmosphere was crazy. Each night at game time the streets suddenly became deserted as people crowded bars and restaurants to cheer and cry out at the televisions which materialised everywhere. I hope that there will be some Turks at the pub today as they are great value to watch supporting football.

Also I found where you can buy Ca phao (I have no idea what it is but I cant get enough of saying it) and mandellebrotte and I found a travel bag depicting australia as the home of the taj mahal, awesome! Oh and a special mention has to go to this hooka and smoking emporium in new york - check out the gas mask bong!

coffee table joy

2008-06-04T18:37:33Z

coffee table: brilliant!

fat: disturbing

the coffee table arrived yesterday which mandellebrotte mentioned but I thought you may like to see it. This place is really beginning to feel more like a home now! (Robert Leonard totally thinks the table is awesome too.)

I also wish to mention that America seems to have a disturbing love of fat. Look how much fat there was on the bacon I cooked up the other morning. LOOK!

upside-down fog

The other thing is that the fog is often confused here and sticks to the sky instead of the ground.

i feel sorry for anyone trying to make sense of these disjointed ramblings

2008-06-03T14:10:26Z

unsurprisingly, catching planes all the time means that you end up with a fair amount of time to kill. bookstores never being in short supply at airports i have taken to reading at a rate of about 1000 pages a week. The end result: a short book(s) review

Battle Royale (Koushun Takami) : this is a seriously messed up dystopian splatter ~~flick~~ video in which the phrase "that's right" is over used to the point of being in every other sentence. This can get seriously on your nerves and by the end I was hoping everyone would die and I could finally put the book down. The basic story is: kids get collected by fascist government, dropped on island. armed to the teeth and instructed to kill each other. which they do. hilarity ensues.

Cryptonomicon (Neal Stephenson) : This was totally awesome. It's a lot about computing (of course, this this Stephenson) and encryption and war but it was a page turner and I really enjoyed every minute. Admittedly this wont be for everyone - mandellebrotte dumped it at about page 10 possibly at the first point UNIX was mentioned - but I know a lot of you have a little bit of nerd in you and could probably get into this anyway. Besides, even if the techno-babble worries you, the story is totally worth it anyway.

Musashi (Eiji Yoshikawa) : Okay so there was this guy who became totally famous by roaming around and fighting people in japan. This shows his dedication to the Way of the Sword and everybody is completely impressed by him from the shogun down. the end (do you feel I totally got bored with writing reviews?) this is actually a great book and I loved reading it. you learn a lot about the early stages of feudal japan and samurai life as well as gaining an insight into life in general in the 16th-17th century japan. all of this comes wrapped around the life of musashi, one of japan's most legendary swordsmen as he travels and learns not only what it is to be a leader but protector of people and society. He also kills a shittonne of people so something for everyone.

in unrelated news: in response to the increasingly dire state of paper piling going on at our place we have bought a filing cabinet. now all of my documents have a home and once again there are flat surfaces to put stuff down. in black book style, I have named my draws 'misc' and 'boobaleeboo'.

I am working from home this week to be here for mandellebrotte's birthday (which is today) and hopefully make life a little bit easier for her as this week is also phd exam madness week. Also, mandellebrotte dyed her hair a brilliant burgundy this week and it looks smashing*. You should tell her so as she is not entirely convinced. Also, she has an exam today (great timing!) and so I am off to make her breakfast.

* it also made the bathroom look like a scene from Battle Royale! :D

who you gonna call?

2008-05-02T18:19:33Z

what it would have been like if the ghostbusters had been there for Jesus' ascension

_toastedcheese_ @ 2008-04-30T15:41:00

2008-04-30T20:03:00Z

This funny old guy from IBM is also contracting to the job I'm on in New Jersey and he decided to hire a car and drive into New York last night and meet up with some of his friends and his brother who are in town at the moment. I tagged along and we all went to an awesome cuban restaurant and then searched out some live music and got pretty drunk faced. New York is an awesome town and I've decided I could totally live there.

Also, crazy congo witch-doctory has men in a panic.

austin to chicago to new jersey and new toys

2008-04-11T20:09:30Z

Austin is an awesome place and I highly recommend it if you should be passing through that way. I was there for a week long training course on Tivoli Identity Manager (a.k.a. TIM) which was pretty interesting but mostly geared for admin types so a little dry. Things weren't helped by Super Nerd Guy who was always trying to answer questions directed at the instructor. I sooo wanted to throw stuff at the back of his head and then pretend to be working away at the student exercises. I was totally blown away by the price tag of TIM: a staggering US$250,000 per processor. I mean, it's good, but at this price it should give you blow jobs.

Myself and another guy Dan who was also on the course decided to hit the town and see what Austin was about. Basically every night. This was fueled by the fact that Dan had assured me that he was one of the founding 4 people of his company and as such had an unlimited expense account on the company plastic. 'Unlimited?' I hear you ask incredulously. I was dubious too and with raised eyebrow put it to Dan that we should try and see just how unlimited his card actually was. The end result is that we had a fantastic time and looked like 7 kinds of hell each morning as we dragged ourselves into class. The bars and live music scene on 6th street are brilliant. One night we stumbled upon a these guys and ended up drinking with them in their break and after the show which was pretty fun. Our daylife and nightlife couldn't have been more different! Oh and I also learned how to say "y'all".

I was going to say that I'm still not actually assigned to a job (but they are still paying me yay!) but this is not entirely true anymore. I just got off a call with some of my peeps and some of their peeps and it looks like I will be in new jersey on monday to start a new job. Which is good. The job goes for a month. Which is potentially bad in terms of not seeing mandellebrotte. I guess this comes with the territory though and there is a chance that I may not need to be there for the whole time. We shall see.

In super good news, my accountant got back to me and it seems I don't owe the taxman nearly as much as I had thought which it totally SWEE-HEE-HEEEET! I danced a jig when I saw his assessment. I should have enough to set up the apartment and make it a cool place to live, and a horrible distraction for those times when we are working here :D

Hope y'all doing alright!

things that make you go hmmm

2008-04-10T03:48:43Z

helpfully my laptop spazzed out at me today. here was the result:

also, I have spent over half of my day walking all over the place printing stuff out and fax other things to people which finally gave me the shits. So today when i got home I bought this. yeahbad.

also also, optus have tried to sick some debt collectors on me to get me to pay for the mobile phone account which they failed to cancel back in january - but they have the record of me requesting the service to be cancelled in january. I spent an hour on the phone talking to them which cost me a bomb cause they use a 1300 number and eventually I think they are going to cancel the $135 debt they have racked up on my account since I left the country. PUNKS!

Things are, in fact, looking up. I realise that this post makes it sound like things are sucky but that's really just this afternoons descent into madness. I promise I will bore you all senseless with the good things sometime tomorrow. I know, I know, I build it up so.

science nerds love tesla so very, very much

2008-03-18T17:26:04Z

the chick who writes this is preeety funny

publications and the sushi that came from heaven pt2

2008-03-16T02:03:33Z

so the weather has picked up and is now consistently above freezing which has had an amazing effect on peoples moods. People on the street seem happier and life is good. Also getting in and out of the house doesn't require huge jackets, boots, gloves, hats, scarves and a dozen other accessories designed to protect you from mother nature (who is clearly trying to tell you to clear out).

just before i get onto other things: dont buy ponds odourless bodywash. i can distinctly smell it and it smells of ordinariness.

so the girl comes home on friday with the news that she has been published! bringing her total publications for the week to 2 hooray! So we head off into chicago in search of celebratory drinks and eats. the bar we went to first had been recommended to us and it was pretty great. they have a beer there called a "dirty bastard" but sadly were all sold out. we drank some great beers anyway (mostly imports) and i had a beer called a "raison d'etre" and it really was. it was chocolate and coffee and beer mixed together by angels.

later we ducked into a sushi place to see if there were any free tables and were entranced by the specials menu: black spider it read - soft shell crab sushi! with saucer-sized eyes glazed with expectant culinary rapture and nipples exploding with delight we followed our waitress to our table where we waited - small pools of drool collecting underneath our slack, grinning jaws - for her return with our order.

the outside of it was honey and soy cooked rice and inside it had softshell crab, avacado, cream cheese and jalapenos. the entire roll was 40cms long and a pincer claw protruded from each of the end pieces. it was undoubtedly the most amazingly delicious sushi i have ever eaten. we also got sashimi which was amazingly generous and the fish simply melted in our mouthes. I think when i get my first pay cheque we have to go back.

publications and the sushi that came from heaven

2008-03-15T18:33:00Z

last week i finally started work with the new company which has been interesting. the beginning of the week started with a million pieces of paper to fill out and send away for everything from medical plans to visa documentation and everything in between. Why in the era of the web we still fill out forms on pulped tree matter and then employ people to drive it across vast expanses only to give it to someone whose job it is to type the information into a computer is beyond imagination. Admittedly some of the documents required my signature, but these things can be digitised also.

at the moment they haven't got a project for me and so I am as they say temporarily "benched", waiting for something to come up. in the meantime they fill my hours helping hapless IBM consultants work out what is wrong with their clients set ups and helping our own consultants put together proposals. it is really good to be doing something again, but i seriously need to be writing something soon or I may become a liiitle frustrated.

the other weird thing is that the company is virtual. i still haven't actually met anyone although i am completely connected to them all - and frequently communicate with large numbers of them - via a number of electronic means in addition to my land line and mobile phone. and yes by 'my land line' i mean that i am working from home, which is in itself taking some getting used to. the commute time is ridiculously short but i dont get out much during the day.

the company is much larger than i had first thought it was spanning europe as well as the US. and now my mind when it wanders imagines it to be a large whale cruising through strange digital seas, its massive mouth open to swallow up work. arrmp. arrrmp. arrrmp.

so i was going to talk about other stuff here as the deceptively titled post led you to believe, but this has turned into a big blarg about the new job. I've hereby decided to officially make the other (much more exciting and with 20% less fat) news into a completely different post. peace groovers.

Rock on people!

2008-02-20T17:51:35Z

Guitar hero has carved itself a place in my heart under a large banner with the word "ROKK" written in 10 foot burning letters, the flames of which will never burn out. It has stepped forward and brought music genre games into the mainstream of console gaming.

Ever since first playing this game I have wanted to share it with as many people as possible and as a result have seen a variety of first impressions of it. For many the initial misgiving when presented with the guitar-like controller is that they aren't musical or have never played guitar before. For guitarists, the question which invariably arises while the machine loads up is "is it actually like playing a guitar?" and in both cases I find myself explaining that it's an arcade version of playing a guitar. In the same way that you don't need training with ADFA to play an aircraft simulator on george street, you don't need to be able to play guitar to become a rock god at GH.

In fact it seems that the better you are at playing the guitar the harder it is initially to progress with the game as you have to retrain yourself to not try and play the controller like the real thing. Admittedly it seems that some people have taken different approaches to making the controller more like a real guitar but I think these measures are fairly unnecessary. This game is deliberately not trying to be a guitar simulator. It's trying to be accessible and most importantly fun. Which it is.

But now there is a new title slated for release at the end of this year by GameTank called Guitar Rising and this bad boy is all about playing a real electric guitar. Or more precisely playing your real electric guitar. Check it out:

Guess who's going to be saving up for an electric guitar this christmas?

photos from europe and chicago

2008-02-19T19:40:41Z

Europe. Is nice.

I've finally got my act together and started putting up my europe photos and just realised that a bunch of really good ones are on my phone where I can't presently get to them. grrr! but as soon as I can get them I will update my sets.

also, i have photos of chicago up now so you can see what it looks like buried in snow!

And now I'm running out to a pub I found that is football mad to watch Liverpool vs Inter Milan in the Champions League. poor Liverpool is going to get thumped, again, but hopefully Harry Kewell will get a run!

sydney bound... maybe?

2008-02-12T17:47:48Z

there's still no word from the US consulate regarding whether I can actually get a visa in the UK so I have taken the precaution of making an appointment in Sydney for the 25th of February. I'm still hoping that the london consulate people will get back to me but I'm really not holding my breath. On the up side I may be able to stop over in Vietnam and pick up a couple of suits which would otherwise be well out of my budget right now!

there are cute little snowflakes falling outside the window as I'm writing this which at some point tonight are supposed to turn into a blizzardy dump. 7 inches of snowfall is expected overnight and just thinking about this makes me happy. well happy for the prospect of clear skies tomorrow which will allow me to go out and photograph it.

I've been spending a lot of time online over the past few weeks - watching streaming television and playing games and I have begun to really get used to the immense amount of bandwidth that americans enjoy. mandellebrotte is one of the cheapest plans and yet the bandwidth available is akin to a business package in australia. Also the package includes unlimited data. It's stories like this which remind me of how rubbish telecommunications in australia have been handled and what a desperate state we are in because of it. one of the points this article raises is that Electronic Arts have pulled the online multiplayer component from the australian release of 2 of their recent big name titles (FIFA 2008 & MoH:H2). this may seem like an obtuse point but bear with me people because the reason EA cites is because in australia there is unacceptable "server lag". Which reads to me like: well the crappy broadband you have makes our product look bad so we put in some extra work to rip the functionality out of the game so that the backward state of your telecommunications doesn't reflect on our product.

visa blues

2008-02-05T16:48:07Z

so the weather is warming - it's 1°C outside which ironically is worse than if it was slightly colder because snow is much more fun than rain. Strangely enough I'm kind of liking the cold weather and the snow it brings. Every surface which can support it is coated with a thick layer of snow at the moment and it looks great. Admittedly my appreciation for such things has grown dramatically since buying clothing which can keep me comfortable and warm!

things have been really stressful of late with the getting of the visa. Getting a job it turns out is the easy part. the immigration attorney my new employer uses to handle these matters doesn't seem to be handling things well. she forgets what I have said to her and sent her in emails, gives me poorly worded instructions which lead me to say, make appointments with consulate officials when there is no way that she can have my documentation ready and to me on time. and finally she has asked that I no longer contact her directly but rather go through my employers HR person in some twisted corporate version of chinese whispers. she wasn't listening properly to me so I can only hope that she listens to the HR lady.

Also the london consulates next available appointment is on the 7th of April which completely screws up my plans (mind you, before having to cancel due to the attorneys miscommunication I had an appointment planned for the 5th of Feb which would have been perfect, grrr!). I am now looking to fly in to belfast to process this thing which could make it tricky to see pingupenguin and monkeyfruit but I guess I will just have to see how things pan out.

And to top it all I had my olds express post me some documents I will need for my visa application but they sent it to me rather than addressing it to mandellebrotte and it was returned to them. So it was probably a good thing that I had to cancel the initial appointment.

it occurred to me that I really should be taking a lot more photos to show you guys. it was the superbowl last weekend and I went out with mandellebrotte and the gang from Northwestern to watch it at a bar which was totally awesome. I had a great time and it was good to just forget about everything and enjoy the crowd.

today it super tuesday or "super choose-day" when the primaries decide who will be the presidential nominee from each of the major parties. we're going out to a friends place to watch it - read: excuse to have drinks and hang out.

also we saw a pair of husky crosses the other day playing around in the snow with their owner and they were super cute. So stupidly happy to be out in the snow! one of them was chomping on snow like it was the best thing in the whole universe and it made me want a dog so bad.

brrrrr!!!

2008-01-20T17:56:32Z

lake freaking michigan has frozen over! it's totally -18°C (not including wind chill) at the moment and there's a wind chill warning effective until sometime this afternoon which warns that you can get frostbite in less than 30mins. I hope I'm not the only one who finds this disturbing. mandellebrotte and I are staying in bed today as we did yesterday, and will continue to do until the weather stops trying to kill everyone.

my stuff is working

2008-01-18T20:20:38Z

man, it seems like every time I read technology blogs that involve Lotus Notes there are a bunch of hopelessly un- or misinformed alleged experts that spring up to troll the post to give their boring opinions on the product. This latest example is a blog on Notes coming to the iPhone. I am very tired of these alleged IT experts. Also, I liked the vodaphone advertisement spammed into the middle of the replies!

well the australian to US 3 hole power socket adapters arrived this morning which is cool so I am writing this on my own laptop YAY! This also means that I can get back into Hellgate and generally do my own thing without having to worry is mandellebrotte is going to need her machine back. I was just getting used to the mac however and while the differences took a little adjusting I was really starting to enjoy using Leopard towards the end. I think I may have to continue to tinker with it as things go along.

I am really looking forwards to London and Edinburgh and there's a chance I may even be able to catch up with dibkins again over there which would be totally awesome should his time and/or money permit.

apparently 'flavo[u]rful' is a word. who knew?

2008-01-14T21:00:56Z

it snowed yesterday which is cool because my massive jacket got here on Saturday... yay!! Still after walking around for about half an hour I lost feeling in my arse and thighs so I think i needs to buy some thermals. mandellebrotte and I took shelter in a bar and watched some of the NFL final game between the dallas cowboys and the new york giants. It took me a little while to remember the rules and it sort of struck me that this is a game very much like cricket where you sit around and drink beers and chat with your mates and occasionally something happens and you watch the replay. The other thing I realised is that if all else fails I could always get a job as a professional football commentator, man can they talk a pile of rubbish. Asked 'what to expect from this dallas side today' one commentator crapped on for about 5 MINUTES - the contents of which can be simply summed up with 'i think they want to come out and win today'. mandellebrotte and I were stunned. Also, after dropping all of these amazing pearls of wisdom on us we found out later that they had all picked dallas to win, but new york won ~~soundly trounced the cowboys 35~~* 21-17.

* updated! let that be a lesson for me not to listen to my girl regarding football scores when she clearly doesn't care about american football, and not checking my sources!

a slight misunderstanding has resulted in me packing a bunch of my clothes into the linen closet. now that they are there i cant be bothered moving them so there they shall stay.

on the home front we have finally made the unholy drain blockage in the shower succumb to a shittonne of draino. the next project has to be replacing the shower head which delivers 5 thin, feeble jets of water in such a fashion that to have any two hitting you at once requires the flexibility of a russian gymnast. At least you dont have to stand around in a slowly rising tepid pool of water while you wash anymore though so things are looking up.

and in other news zara will be pleased to know that I didn't manage to lose my tickets - mostly due to the fact that the tickets were electronic - it seems that the airlines have wised up to people like me who can forget almost anything.

a huge big thank you to Ames for the awesome mix CD which so far has been the audio track of chicago for me so far.

Hello from Chicago

2008-01-11T02:52:57Z

Well the jet lag has settled down and I've been getting used to life in the windy city. It has been pretty nice here gettting up to low 10s during the day however it should be getting back into the minuses later in the week. I am praying that my down jacket I ordered gets here tomorrow to prevent me from freezing to death! In other clothes purchases I have a set of boots that look and feel exactly like snowboarding boots for getting around town in and a jumper which is made of pure warmth. Also I was a massive stupidhead and forgot to buy 3 hole aussie power adapters at the airport which means I cant run my laptop over here so I am sharing the internets with Ness. I thought I should mention that in case I take some time to get back to you guys.

Ness and I have been out looking at couches and furniture as the apartment is pretty much a box with a bed and a couple of tables at the moment. I have also met with some of Ness' friends from uni and they are totally great. Apparently I have been appointed a drinking coach for one of them as Australians have a reputation for being a pack of pissheads and she is a two pot screamer!

I had a job interview today which went really well and I think they will take me on if I decide to go with them. The company itself feels like N**force-like company in terms of the size of the company and the size and range of clients on their books. I have to reschedule the other appointments as both of the other companies who are interested in me had last minute clashes, but I am hoping to have the interviews and negotiations done by mid next week so that I can get on to the next stage of my cunning plan for world domination.

The whole tipping for everything and tax not being included is something i think i am going to have to get used to quickly before i insult people by automatically paying the listed price. Also there are times when you are expected to tip and times when you are not. I was really tired today when our chinese delivery came and when the delivery girl gave me the price I was like 'so is $X okay?'. She blinked. I blinked. She blinked and repeated the price to me. and i asked again if it would be terribly alright if she just took an arbitrary amount above that price and simply left me alone. she looked at me in a way which clearly said "you're not for around here are you?" and then warily made the exchange.

As a side note, if you want to make americans laugh you just have to say something is 'dodgy' which apparently in an australian accent is hilarious :D