Back to school. I've enrolled in a math(s) class down here at the University of Melbourne - actually, I missed the first week of it while in Japan. The course is graph theory, and work is paying for it. I'm taking it through the Community Access Program, which means I'm not officially a student at the university, but the course could count for credit if I later become one.

It'll be a big time commitment, however I look at it; three hours of courses during the week (during work hours), with two optional practice sessions, plus an extra half hour commute to and from it each time, plus homework and study. I'm a little apprehensive about that, but I've committed, and also managed to convince two coworkers to do it with me (which should actually help).

Why? I'm not doing it to advance my career, actually - I've just had a growing interest in mathematics lately. I've actually decided that the real appeal of my chosen profession in computers is only the extent to which it relates to mathematics, and so I've been reading a fair bit about recent mathematical discoveries and fundamentals. They say it used to be possible to know "all" of mathematics, but that this is now no longer achievable - so much has been done now that a human brain could not contain it all. This is a relief, really, as it takes the pressure off. But I'm setting my sights not on learning what has been done so far, but on actually contributing something new and original. Honestly I don't know if I have the ability - certainly I am not one of those naturally gifted geniuses that have contributed so much to mathematics - but I think if I apply myself, I may be able to make a small contribution to a tiny corner of an obscure mathematical subfield, and that by itself would satisfy me.

We are back from our trip to Japan, which I would describe as "fabulous". A recap:

Arrival: Our flight on JetStar was largely uneventful. We would recommend the $30 upgrade for meals and entertainment; they bring you a portable device that plays movies, TV shows, and music, which makes the time fly by. After landing, we took the shuttle to our hotel, which is more expensive, but much easier. Got to our hotel late in the evening, and crashed.

Day one: Marjorie decided that our Japan trip would start with a jog, so she woke my lazy self and made me go out with her in the near-freezing rain. My hairy, exposed legs cause some schoolgirls to point and laugh, covering their mouths. We grab an easy breakfast at Starbucks (sad, I know) and head out to the district known for sumo wrestling. When we arrive, it is snowing, which is very pretty, but also fairly miserable, as it is a wet snow. The plan was something of a bust as it is the off season for sumo wrestling, but there are some nice temples. We head back to Shibuya for lunch and shopping, and have lunch at a place where everything was fried. Tooled around, and almost had dinner at a beer hall that had safe, boring Western choices, but decide to bail and so, remembering that our best food experiences on previous trips were always the result of bravery, we charge into a back-street yakitori restaurant with nary an English word out front. It is predictably awesome.

Day two: We board the Shinkansen for Kyoto. This is our first time seeing any part of Japan other than Tokyo. It was amazingly smooth and fast. Unfortunately it was too hazy to see Mount Fuji, but we did see other big things, as well as some of the countryside. Kyoto is not as big as Tokyo, but is still pretty big in its own right. It is somewhat more laid back, lacking skyscrapers and high fashion, and has many more shrines, temples, and castles, and people walking around in traditional dress. With only a partial day to work with, we decided to just do some more shopping. We did wander out to the Gion district, famous for geishas. Dinner was at Don Guri, where the table was a heated grill, and everything was delicious. We didn't realize it at the time, but Don Guri is a chain restaurant.

Day three: We buy bus/subway passes and head out to Ryōan-ji, a temple famous for their rock garden. It was underwhelming to our Western eyes, and we do not pause to contemplate it. We lunch at a small restaurant where we sit at very low tables. A man at a nearby table is amused by my struggles to fit my legs underneath - I am just not built to sit cross-legged. But he assures me, in excellent English, that "it is a problem for us as well". This was in the Arashiyama district, which we proceeded to explore. We climb the hill at Iwatayama and take lots of pictures of the macaques, and of the view out over Kyoto. Back at our hotel we meet up with our friends Corrinne and Matt who are also visiting (they're the ones who tipped us off to the great airfare). We consider trying a Chanko restaurant - serving traditional sumo wrestler food - but decide instead to try a steamboat-style restaurant down an interesting alley near Gion. This was the only place where we were not made to feel particularly welcome, but the food was decent (despite our waiter's advice that we must dip our food into raw egg). Drinks afterward at a much friendlier bar, where the waiter brought us homemade chocolates to try.

Day four: We visit Nijo castle, and take a tour run by a young girl who didn't speak the best English and provided not much insight, but it was fun to hear her try. This is the castle that is surrounded by hardwood walkways that were deliberately designed to squeak, to prevent attacks by ninjas! Afterward we bused out to the lovely Kinkaku-ji. For dinner we went out near Gion again to find a place recommended in Lonely Planet for their gyoza, which are delicious. We topped it off with a trip to a British-style pub, recommended by our concierge when we asked for a place to have edamame. I also order some buffalo wings, just because they don't have them in Australia!

Day five: We take the train down to the ancient city of Nara. It is snowing again by the time we arrive. Tame deer - formerly considered sacred - wander through the town, looking for food handouts from tourists. They have also learned to bow their heads when asking for food! While Marjorie is fumbling with her camera, one tried to eat the map out of my back pocket. Later we buy some deer biscuits from a vendor, at which point the mostly docile deer become a bloodthirsty mob. The main temple at Nara, Tōdai-ji, is stunning; the best we have seen so far. After a pizza lunch, the snow has turned to a miserable rain, and so we head back to Kyoto. We dine again at Don Guri.

Day six: Shopped a bit more in Kyoto then took the Shinkansen back to Tokyo. This time we stay in the Shinjuku area, and our room has an awesome view of lots of neon signs, huge government buildings, and a busy crosswalk. We dine at another awesome yakatori place, and then come back to the room and just sit on the bed and look out the window like it's a TV for about an hour.

Day seven: Only a few hours to kill before we head for the airport, so we go raid another department store basement food court, which we have learned are AMAZING on the trip. So much interesting and delicious food, and always beautifully arranged. On our trip out to the airport we get on the express train by mistake and end up having to pay an additional $32, but we get to the airport in plenty of time, and have a largely uneventful flight home.

All in all, an amazing trip, and our love for Japan only increased. It's fascinating to see a country that has modernized without Westernizing. The Japanese want everything to be beautiful and perfect, especially in how they dress and prepare food, and are almost always friendly and polite. We failed to have a bad meal the whole trip.

Despite finding a great deal on the flight there, the exchange rate was, shall we say, not favorable. For all the shopping we did, we didn't buy much, just because of the prices. At one point I bought a black-and-tan to drink, and paid something like $18 for it. We never dropped $100 per person on a meal, but came awfully close a couple of times.

Lastly: I was both a little scared and a little excited about the prospect of being in an earthquake while we were there, but none was forthcoming. However, the very night we got home, we rented Lost In Translation (what else) from the video store, and were halfway through it when our house started rumbling. We ran outside, and I half expected to see smoke from a nearby explosion or something, but it turns out it was an earthquake - my first!

Everyone here knows somebody who knows somebody who was affected by the brush fires. Horror stories abound. One guy I worked with at my last job spent the day with his parents trying to save their house - but couldn't; it was burnt to the ground (and he was lucky not to get killed). Even worse, a guy I work with now sent out this: A friend of ours lost her two daughters – 20 & 23 – they were running in to what they thought has a “safe-house” - it blew up as they ran in. Their mother (our friend) was right behind them as she saw it happen. I can't even get my head around that.

That was all on the day from hell (last Saturday). The fires are still going, but fortunately the wind has died somewhat. I could see the smoke on the horizon on my way home today. I think they're getting on top of it, but we have friends that live near the area where it seems to be encroaching on; we're hoping for the best.

The newspapers were calling it our "worst day in history". Highs in the 40's (Celsius) and strong winds made it feel like a convection oven outside. A firefighter's nightmare, of course; the skies were pinkish gray from the fires. We had a massage scheduled for today which Marjorie almost wanted to cancel, as our little backyard digital thermometer put the temperature at 109.8. But we went anyway, taking a nice air-conditioned cab, the massages were good. Afterwards we went into a grocery store, and when we came out, the cool change that Melbourne is famous for had come. When we got home the temperature was only 82.7. Our thermometer recorded the daily high temperature, though: 110.5.

In keeping with my usual paranoia about assorted criminals figuring out that I'm away by reading my blog, I've waited until now to post about my recent trip(s). Foiled you again, bad guys!

Last week I went to Hobart for the Linux conference, which is kind of funny considering that I'm now working for Microsoft. But it was interesting and at least somewhat useful. In the conference program they had a list of participants, and I noticed the name Linus Torvalds among them. He's basically the inventor of this Linux operating system that many people believe can kill Windows, although he's largely relinquished control. I didn't think he would actually show, but during the Q&A after one session by a guy from Google (talking about svn), the speaker handed the microphone over to a guy sitting off to the sides -- and I didn't realize until I was told afterwards that it was Linus. They held a banquet dinner the first night I was there, which finished with an auction to benefit an association fighting Tasmanian devil facial cancer. I left before the end, but one of the things offered up was that Linus would shave another Linux bigwig if the bid got over a certain amount, and it did. Nutty!

Immediately after I got back Marjorie and I headed out to meet some friends camping, pretty much right here. The campsite for some reason is the center for cockatoo activity, with scores of them gadding about during all daylight hours, and they are LOUD. But it was really good fun. Marjorie and I rented a surfboard and I gave her (or tried to give her) her first surfing lesson. After pushing her into too big of a wave, she did a face plant into the sand, and announced she was done. But instead she came back out ten minutes later, sans encumbering wetsuit, and gave it another go, managing to catch a few more reasonably sized waves and making it to her knees at least.

On the way back we took a detour to the Otway Fly tree canopy walk, which was pretty impressive, I thought. Good to be home now though.

Christmas roundup. Had a typical low-key Christmas. On Christmas eve, the tradition in my family is to gorge yourself on pierogies at my grandmother's house. Couldn't make it back home this year, so we stuffed ourselves instead at Borscht, Vodka, and Tears, ordering three mains worth of pierogies for the two of us (and I could've eaten another).

Christmas, we just exchanged presents and did the turkey dinner thing.

Boxing Day, we skyped our families, which was really great, and didn't do a whole lot else.

Saturday, biked down to Johnson Street to exchange a present. In the evening we went and saw Slumdog Millionaire, which is highly recommended. Not exactly an advertisement for visiting India though.

Today, we went canoeing down on the Yarra, and are just hanging out again, back yard, perfect weather, rosé, internet music. Salut!

I promise that this blog won't become a repository for funny animal videos, but this one had Marjorie and I in tears. We have these birds locally in the wild - we saw some just last night. The interesting thing is, this video has been the subject of scientific study - before, it was thought that only humans had a sense of rhythm.

At work we now have Guitar Hero World Tour, which adds drums and singing to the previous dueling guitar simulation. It's just about the funnest thing ever. At times it's hard to keep going because my cow orkers and I are laughing so hard. Hugely recommended if you're still looking for an Xmas gift, and it hasn't sold out in your area...

Last night, though, was a night for the real thing. I was a fan of the rock band Jet before we ever thought of moving to Melbourne, but they've only played a few festivals since we've been here, and I was despairing that I'd never see them in any kind of intimate setting, as they're now pretty huge. But I was browsing around on Facebook the other day and came across a link that said, "Are you Jet fan in Melbourne? Click here!" Behind the link was an invitation to a private show. Score! They have a new album out and wanted to debut their new songs to a crowd of true fans. I hadn't been to the venue before, but it turns out there were only around 250 people there. They gave us all posters, and had us fill out cards with our addresses so they could mail us their new CD when it's finished. Very cool!

Here's a clip I shot with my cell phone camera. Sorry about the sound quality - trust me, they sounded a lot better live!

Update: Here's an article about the show from the local paper.

You've been waiting in dread, I know, for Mark's musical year in review. But people, it's just like pulling off a band aid; read quickly and it'll be done before you know.

Personally, it was actually a great year for me, musically. Not because I discovered so many new bands, or so many of my current favorite bands put out killer albums. Rather, the internet has brought me a whole host of ways to discover new music, and to play music I already own. It has really made a qualitative difference in my music enjoyment, and promises to get even better. The internet innovations that have transformed my music listening experience, in no particular order:

• last.fm - their streaming radio in particular. Love the ability to create a radio station based on a particular artist.



• Songbird music player - a great player for all the music on your hard disk, plus links to hundreds of internet radio stations. Includes band information and ratings, and with option add-ons, will show song lyrics, similar artist recommendations, and will even tell you when your favorite bands are coming to town in concert.



• Playlist - a great site for queuing up a list of almost any song and streaming it back instantly. We amazed some house guests by being able to play a song by any artist they could name within seconds.



• uTorrent - a program for downloading BitTorrents, which I've been a little behind the curve on, but finally got into this recently. Great way to download almost any CD, and TV shows as well (haven't had the patience to attempt a movie). Combined with a CD/DVD burner, and it's a piece of cake to inflict share your music with friends, which we've done a lot of this year.



• StreamZap PC Remote - actually, this just arrived from ThinkGeek, and I haven't hooked it up yet. But I'm looking forward to it enhancing our champagne Sundays in conjunction with all the aforementioned technologies.

And now, onto the music itself. Nothing really jumped out as a top album this year, but I came across a lot that I've enjoyed, including:

• Fleet Foxes - A great soundtrack for driving through desolate Queensland woodlands.


• Cibelle - The Shine of Dried Electric Leaves - modern Brazilian for getting your chill on


• Elbow - The Seldom-Seen Kid - dark and beautiful


• Eddy Current Suppression Ring - Primary Colours - local garage band does good


• Vampire Weekend - good fun


• M. Ward - Post-War - lovely stuff

I have new albums by Paul Weller, Lucinda Williams, Beck, and Weezer that I haven't really digested yet as well.

Concerts this year include:

• Paul Weller - brilliant


• Billy Bragg - good


• From The Jam - great fun


• Polyphonic Spree - good


• Rufus Wainwright - really good


• Jet - actually, this is next week; I scored tickets to see them in a private show, which I'm very excited about.

We have tickets to see Lucinda Williams as well, but that's not until April! So it'll have to go on next year's list.

On a final note: despite all the new sources of music, the album I listened to probably more than any other this year is "Dry" by PJ Harvey, which dates back sixteen years...

Five minutes away by bike is the Fairfield boathouse. So today I rode up and rented a kayak. Though the Yarra River there is wide and calm and unchallenging, the experience was really quite excellent, and much different than walking or riding alongside the river. Serene, scenic, and lots of wildlife. Towards the end I rounded a bend and came across the flying fox bat colony, which I didn't realize was so close. As I watched I noticed that many of the bats were carrying their babies on their chest - must be breeding season! Here's a bad shot of me in action by the bats. (Hey, cell phone photos are grainy enough even when you're not worried about dropping the phone in the water.) I'll definitely be going back.

Our cable TV has been shut off due to a comedy of errors, so we're without it for the weekend. We've become a two-laptop family anyway, so that's how we're spending our Friday night -- next to each other on the couch, with our faces lit by an eery glow. Sad, I know. We just finished some pretty awesome take away Indian food from a new restaurant in our neighborhood, which is more than a welcome addition.

Today was kind of stressful at work -- I've been working on a major code revision for a few weeks and I finally sprung it on everyone late yesterday. It basically breaks everything for everyone and makes them have to rewrite large chunks of their code. It's for the best in the end and actually seems to be really well received, so far. The drama will continue next week.

Before then, on Sunday, is our office Christmas party. Luckily it's about a ten minute bike ride away, at the Studley Park Boathouse. Nice place.

We miss Thanksgiving back in States; it's always been my favorite holiday. Even at this distance it's a good occasion to sit back and take stock of your life. And by any standard, things are pretty great right now.

I've gone on before about how much America needs instant runoff elections. Here in Australia, where they have it, voting is more like choosing from a restaurant menu, instead of like an in-flight menu where you get the choice of chicken or fish (or something slightly different as David Sedaris awesomely points out).

We'll have a new item on the menu next go-round: the Australian Sex Party. Though lacking in specifics, I actually agree with their policies, at least the ones that they've decided on so far.

Two new Aussie-isms:

Good value - the literal meaning is accurate, but it's used frequently here to apply to people, not sarcastically, but kind of ironically; e.g. "He's good value."

Sook - a person who becomes overly sensitive or whiney when ill.

Deliberately, I've tried to keep politics off this blog. Can I let out a small woohoo though?

From the perspective of an expat and a traveler, too often I am asked, how did the US ever elect this Bush character? And I never know what to tell them, because I never got it either. The difference I've felt already since Obama surged ahead is palpable. There is a new respectability for the US in Australia and, from everything I can discern, the world. It's not an illusion, because I've surrounded myself with like-thinking people or anything; look at any opinion poll from outside the US.

I can only hope this is the end of Atwatery politics. It was a joy to see it fail, this time. Was it because of the internet? I think so, maybe. It was a joy to see it fail, and a shame to see McCain to give into those influences. In the end, if his concession speech was any indicator, he was a better man than many of his supporters.

It's not hard to predict what happens next. Obama will glide into office with a huge wave of optimism. After a few months it will be tempered by reality as he begins to take on the difficult problems he's up against. He will make some mistakes, and galvanize the right, who will find plenty of reasons to villify him. And then, the character issue comes in. We'll see what happens then, but I'm hopeful.

If you're worried, he's not going to steal your money and give it to the poor -- that was a lie told and repeated in an effort to win an election. The truth is, though, that the US has joined the rest of the Western world, by electing a man who is, by all accounts, a reasonable, intelligent consensus builder. And for tonight, it feels mighty good.

There's a trend going on here known as guerrilla gardening, where people plant vegetable gardens in public parkland and green spaces, usually illegally. Marjorie had a tip on where to find some so today on walkies I took some pictures:

Guerilla gardening

This rocks. Here's an article about the trend in Melbourne.

I've noticed recently that my happiness seems to be mainly tied to my circumstances improving, as opposed to a comfortable steadiness. I know that's not really sustainable in the long run, and will probably have to figure out how to just be happy being at some point.

But it does explain my recent happiness. And my lifestyle improvements are mostly due to technology:

I've been bringing home my wireless laptop from work, and it's letting us surf the net from anywhere in the house. Marjorie's getting one of her own for her birthday, too.

We bought some speakers for the laptop, and are streaming internet radio through it, mainly from last.fm and Yahoo Launchcast. This is great for Champagne Sunday.

I finally got BitTorrents going, which means I've been able to download and burn tons of old music and TV shows. Everyone at work downloads and trades TV shows, but I don't know how much my taste overlaps -- my first grab was all all four seasons of Home Movies.

Facebook is putting me in touch with more and more old friends.

Skype is old news, but it's still great to be able to talk to people overseas.

There's rumors at work that we'll all be getting iPhones for Christmas!

We finally found some decent (albeit expensive) Thai food in town, a really nice place in a dire neighborhood a few train stops up from us. We had dinner there last night with our friends Viv and Maurice. Interestingly, we found out that he was bit by a snake two weeks back, while weed-whacking his lawn. It seems that his thick socks prevented a deep penetration, and so he was not given antivenin (which often causes more problems than the original snakebite), although he had to tolerate several days worth of intense pain. He never saw the snake, but figures it was probably a tiger snake like we saw the other weekend. Laika will not be getting a lot of off-leash time this summer!

While the occasional error creeps in here, I think my brain came out wired in such a way that spelling, grammar, and punctuation come pretty naturally to me. Don't know if it's genetic or learned, but I don't consider this as having anything in particular to do with intelligence. Still, I have my peeves, because often it's just that people were never taught the rules.

Commas -- there are lots of situations where they're used, but my peeve is when people to use commas to separate two clauses (consisting of a subject and a verb). For example, "Don't separate clauses with a comma, it's not good practice." If you were to replace the comma with a period, you'd have two perfectly good sentences; therefore, the comma is the wrong choice. Use a semicolon or a dash instead. I fixed about a dozen of these in a document today.

It's versus its. I'll give you a rule, so that you'll never get it wrong again. I've used this since childhood. Picture the apostrophe in "it's" as the dot on a letter "i". This makes "it's" into "itis", or "it is". Now ask, does the sentence still make sense? If it does, leave the apostrophe. If it doesn't, get rid of it. Now, don't let me catch you doing it again.

Atlanta and Singapore, as airline hubs, were among the two greatest places to live in the world if you're into travel. I don't think we appreciated them while we were living there - because Melbourne, for all its charms, is not. Trips back to the United States, Europe, or South America, will cost you over $2000 at a minimum, and probably more like $2500. The only real options for under $1000 are within Australia or New Zealand, or maybe some of the Pacific islands. Which are nice enough, but we've been craving some strange.

Qantas has had a monopoly down here, which means they've had no real incentive to lower their fares. That has been changing of late though. Now we have JetStar, Virgin Blue, and Tiger as cut-rate carriers, who are starting to make things more interesting. Still, good deals to cool international destinations just are not found that often.

So when Marjorie found a deal for return trip tickets for $750 (Australian), well, we just had to jump on them. And so we say, hello Tokyo! In February.

We've been there before, but love it, and have really only scratched the surface. We're determined to get out of the city, too, to either Kyoto (cultural center of Japan) or to Nagano (skiing and snow monkeys).

In our recent trip up to northern Queensland, we liked having a specific quest that, by design I guess, was relatively trivial (to see the riflebird dance). This time, I think the quest will be to try "real" wasabi. Supposedly, the wasabi you get in Japanese restaurants is horshradish, mustard, and food coloring; the "real" wasabi does not ship well, and is only served locally.

Picnicked yesterday down where the Yarra River and Merri Creek meet. Here's some pictures:

2008-10-11 Picnic

It was fine and lovely until a woman nearby started freaking out -- I looked over and her two little bite-sized pomeranians were chasing a large black snake off of a rock (probably a tiger snake). There are a number of signs up warning about the snakes; now we know to take them seriously!