Years ago, after picking up Mary Chesnut's Civil War diary on a whim, I resolved to read a lot more historic diaries. It has to be THE best way to learn history; even though it's from a single point of view, you still get all the little details that make it real.

I went on to pick up I Will Bear Witness, the first half (1933-1941) of a diary by a Jewish professor of literature living in World War II Nazi Germany. It's amazing, but I never picked up the second half (To The Bitter End, 1942-1945) because the book company was only selling it in hard cover at the time (dirty trick!).

Just recently I managed to procure a copy of the complete diaries ("The Klemperer Diaries") through our library system. It is just an astounding read. The author was Jewish by heritage only; he was actually a Protestant, and had an Aryan wife (which undoubtedly saved his life). Still, as the war presses on, he is increasingly deprived of everything; his academic title, his home, his typewriter, his savings... I'm up to 1942, and was nearly in tears on the tram today as I read about them putting down their much-loved cat before it could be rounded up according to a new decree. This was followed immediately by the Gestapo's first raid of their house. By Klemperer's account, they got off "easy" -- he was visiting a friend; his wife got slapped and called "a Jew's whore". They of course ransacked the place and stole a number of provisions, there being severe shortages at the time. They also ground up some garlic they found and hid it around the house, just so their home would stink.

He's 60 years old and had angina, but still was ordered to work with a road crew shoveling snow -- and was the youngest on the crew. Hard to believe there are still another three years of this to read about; he is continually so close to death; not just from his physical condition, but from the whims of the Gestapo.

Hunt this one down, and give it a read. Utterly captivating.

Read any good historic diaries?

Marjorie's birthday wrapped up with the chocolate indulgence high tea at the Windsor. With me, it's class all the way, see?

This being Marjorie's birthday weekend, we rented a car and drove up to Daylesford/Hepburn Springs for some west and welaxation. I've recently resolved to try all the various different types of spa and massage treatments that exist, so this time I got coated in mud and cocooned in a blanket, while getting a head massage. Very nice! Marjorie opted to get her feet done.

Along the way we saw our first two wild kangaroos -- alas, roadkill. But while waiting for our spa treatments, we walked a little ways up a nature trail. After spotting some Jacky Winters, a superb fairy-wren, and several crimson rosellas, Marjorie spotted a small kangaroo peering at us from the top of a rise fifty metres away. Our first!

Super Bowl Grand Final Sunday Saturday. Last Saturday was the big game day in Melbourne, our second footy Grand Final. And for the second time, no Melbourne team was involved, despite the fact that Melbourne teams make up more than half the league. This time it was the Sydney Swans versus the West Coast Eagles. Support in our neighborhood was overwhelmingly in favor of the Swans, for reasons we couldn't fathom. Was it an east coast versus west coast thing? Turns out, the Swans used to be the South Melbourne Swans, before moving north to Sydney.

Twice while we were eating out during the weekend did the patrons spontaneously break into the Swans team song. Obviously, they won.

Geek warning. A thread on a board I read regularly spurred me to go out and try to do some basic astronomy. We only have one crappy little set of binoculars, but I thought I would at least see if I could orient myself. Living in the city means you only get a handful of stars (though Melbourne has far clearer nights than any comparably-size city I know). But with a little help from Your Sky and a field guide I bought a long time ago, I was able to pick out the tail of Scorpius yesterday. Slightly hazy tonight, but I spotted it again, and followed a trail from it to a particularly bright star just above the horizon. My field guide identified it as Rigil Kentaurus, which didn't sound familiar. So I looked it up online, and it turns out that that's just the proper name for Alpha Centauri, our nearest neighbor! A lucky find, considering there were only twenty or so stars even visible through the haze. Like the Southern Cross (supposedly right next to it, but obscured by a cloud), it's not visible from most of the Northern hemisphere. Pretty cool, I think.

I'm the penultimate! Our soccer team tallies best player votes at the end of each game. The other night we had our annual Vote Count night, where we see the tally from the year, presented as a game-by-game slide show with running totals.

I took second (for the thirds team), which is cool. Especially considering I have no ball skills to speak of, and don't have a particularly cool head when I have the ball. Early on I was aiming at not being the worst player on the team, so I'm happy with this.

Fairly eventful weekend, last. Saturday evening we went and saw a perennial favorite of ours, Glenn Tilbrook, at the Espy. Always a hoot. Nice thinly populated show, which is a good way to catch him. I called for him to play "By The Light of the Cash Machine", and he complied straight away. Marjorie walked up to the stage between songs to request the song he wrote with Aimee Mann, which he said he didn't remember -- "but I think it had a G chord in it." He did his amazing rendition of Jimi Hendrix's "Voodoo Chile", on acoustic guitar -- it has to be seen to be believed. He put the guitar behind his head and played an intricate repeating part while talking calmly into the mike -- he's quite an amazing guitarist. Climbing up on the bar, he did "Goodbye Girl" and "Black Coffee in Bed" singalong. There were a couple of blues covers with a guest guitarist whose name I didn't catch, that were quite tasty. And he closed with a cover of the Cornell Hurd Band's "Genitalia of a Fool" that had the crowd in stitches.

We stayed out too late, so I had to play our last soccer game of the season slightly crapulent and with not enough sleep. We lost a game we should have won. But it was fun. Home for a nap, then the first of a scheduled year's worth of once-a-month wine tastings, organized by a friend. Our turn to host will come. It should be a lot of fun, and edumacational too.

In the evening I went out and met with all my soccer teammates who were out "getting pissed". Out too late again, and I forgot to eat dinner too.

Not exciting news. YET. I've been asked to be a contributor to a forthcoming book. Without getting too specific, I will mention that it's an O'Reilly book, which is about as cool as it gets in the techie arena. I'm not going to get my hopes up too high, since my contribution would be small, and may not survive the editing process. It's very much the equivalent to a walk-on part in a big movie, that may well end up on the editing room floor. Still, it will be VERY COOL if it pans out, and might lead to follow-on stuff. Further details as events warrant.

On a lighter note-- here are the photos from our trip to Hamilton Island.

New Orleans. Not sure what to say. Still trying to fathom the extent of this tragedy. I went there, once. A little seedy but a unique and fascinating place.

There was a chart in a recent National Geographic, showing the number of hurricanes in the last ten years as almost double the number in the previous ten. They say this is due to the ocean temperatures being warmer. Is this a global warming issue? Hard to say; could just be a fluctuation. But it's worth investigating.

Podcast, schmodcast. Mixmaster Marjorie and I sat around the kitchen last night with some beers and played songs for at each other. We had just finished listening to the new White Stripes album, which ends with a gospel-y number, so "gospel" was the original theme. But we ran out of that, fast, and so switched to "original and cover songs", where we'd play a bit of the original and then play the cover. The playlist:

I'm Lonely (But I'm Not That Lonely Yet) -- White Stripes

Paul McCartney -- That Day Is Done (I like Elvis's version better)

Love Is Stranger Than Death -- The The

Jesus Gonna Be Here -- Tom Waits

Smells Like Teen Spirit -- Nirvana/Tori Amos

Which Will -- Nick Drake/Lucinda Williams

Hounds of Love -- Kate Bush/Futureheads

David Watts -- The Kinks/The Jam

Hallelujah -- Leonard Cohen/Jeff Buckley

Redemption Song -- Bob Marley/Joe Strummer (Somehow we don't own the original. Who could cover this song, but Joe?)

La Vie En Rose -- Edith Piaf/Louis Armstrong

New Amsterdam -- Elvis Costello/Tasmin Archer

Sabbath Bloody Sabbath -- Black Sabbath/The Cardigans

Cactus -- The Pixies/David Bowie

Hang On To Your Ego -- Beach Boys/Frank Black

Ruby's Arms -- Tom Waits/Frente

Gimme Some Truth -- John Lennon/Sam Phillips

Winterlong -- Neil Young/The Pixies

IGY -- Steely Dan (Who snuck that in there?)

The Other End Of The Telescope -- 'Til Tuesday/Elvis Costello

Speeding Motorcycle -- Daniel Johnston with Yo La Tengo

Police On My Back -- The Clash

Things started to break up towards the end, but it was fun.

Weird things my brain does.

1. Lately I've had the annoying tendency to confuse words that start with the same letter. So, I tell people I work on LaTrobe Street instead of Lonsdale Street (the next one down). Or I order a Cappriociosa pizza instead of a Calabrese (and end up with a pizza with anchovies. Ick. We peeled some off and gave them to the dog, and she promptly threw up). I confuse characters in books whose names start with the same letter, too. My brain must just index things that way.

2. While at work, particularly when I'm programming, I have random flashbacks, once or twice a day. Just for no reason, suddenly I start thinking about being in the parking lot of particular mini-malls back in Orlando, or ordering particular meals in restaurants in Atlanta.

3. The other day I got up in the middle of the night to get a glass of water. As I was getting back into to bed, out of nowhere the name Gustave Flaubert pops into my head. Now, I've heard his name before, but I have no idea who he is (or I didn't until I just looked him up) and I hadn't heard his name lately, that I can think of.

Maybe I've been heading the ball too much in soccer.

At any rate, I've found a great new trick for training my brain. I'm starting a new project at work. It's a project that's been ongoing for a couple of years, and it's large and complex. I'm pretty much "drinking from the firehose" as they say, in the process of trying to assimilate it all. So, in the process of having things explained to me, I've decided to apply a method that Feynman espoused in one of his books. It's a simple principle, and it sounds obvious, but I don't think it's very widely applied, by anybody. Basically, what you do is to not let the person who's explaining things proceed until you are absolutely sure you understand the previous bit. Ask stupid questions, even if it's about something you probably should have known already and it makes you look bad. If you don't get it, make the person repeat things, even if they've just spent a half hour explaining it. Don't just let things proceed and hope that you'll get it through osmosis or something later on.

It works, and very well. My initial impression of this project is that it's pretty much the equivalent of a car that runs great but is maintained using silly putty, duct tape, and some very knowledgeable mechanics. It's my job to pretty much rein it in, or at least come up with some explanations as to why it requires such constant maintenance, so I have to pretty much get it all down cold. And to document everything, of course. Joy.

My favorite new Aussie term: "knob". Meaning, "dick", as in "He's such a knob."

Brrr. Coldest day of the year so far, I think. There were threats of snow in Melbourne today. It hasn't snowed here in ten years, from what I've heard. And we didn't get any, though I heard rumours of flurries.

Ever heard of Sudoku puzzles? I stumbled across them on the net yesterday, and played a few today at lunch. They're apparently big in Japan, huge in Europe, and sweeping America, but I had never heard of them. Then, coincidentally, a woman on the tram home today pulled out a book of them to pass the time. They're fun, but I like tsunami puzzles better.

There are now only eight planets. Or ten, depending on how you count them, but I think eight is more proper. A new object has been found orbiting the sun that's bigger than Pluto, and even comes closer to the sun than Pluto's farthest point. There are many who feel that Pluto already shouldn't be considered a planet.

No matter how you slice it, it just ain't right to say that there's nine planets anymore.

Just finished Heinlein's The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress. I agree with the author, that this is his best work. I had given up on him after reading Stranger In A Strange Land, which I disliked rather much.

Looks like this book may join the long line of obscure books that get made into movies shortly after I read them. Previous examples include A Beautiful Mind, Master and Commander, and one other that escapes me. Hopefully this one won't star Russell Crowe.

There's another thing we learned last weekend.

We rented a car, and ended up driving our nutty dog Laika up through the central business district (CBD) of Melbourne, quite possibly for her first time ever.

It was Saturday afternoon, and the city was a whirl of sights and sounds. So it was surprising that any single stimuli might catch her attention. But, from a long way off, she spotted some horses pulling a carriage. And just freaked out.

I guess we can't ever send her to live on a farm. Apparently our girl hates horses. And, it seems, she's not alone.

Chicken Parmesan or "parma" is a Melbourne pub staple that we've enjoyed on many occasions. It's a rare pub that doesn't serve it.

A few weeks ago we caught a special on TV about a group of guys who go around and rate the best chicken parmas in Melbourne (no doubt in defiance of their doctor's orders). Turns out the best is just up the road from us. So we went and gave it a shot the other day.

I don't know what we were expecting. How good can a chicken parma actually be? It's not like they make it with ambrosia. It was good enough, I guess, but paroxysms of culinary ecstasy eluded us.

Club song. My soccer team sings a club song when we win. Every footy team down here also has a song. I don't know where these songs come from, but I'm sure there's some recycling going on. I know some of the footy songs date back to the '20s at least.

Since we've won our last four games, I've actually gotten to learn the club song. The words are interesting to me, because they seem to be carefully worded to avoid asserting the greatness of the team or anything like that. I'm not sure why; perhaps they are designed to be singable even when we lose? Here they are:

Weeeeeeell it's a grand ole team to play for,
And it's a grand ole team to see,
And if you know your history,
It's enough to make your heart's go whoa-o-o-o,
We don't care what the other teams say,
What the hell do we care?
Coz you always know,
That there's gonna be a show,
And the Middle Parkers will be there.

We are back from Hamilton Island (but we're not sure why).

Hamilton Island is the largest populated island in the Whitsunday island chain, just off the Great Barrier Reef.

Day one: Got up far too early to catch the flight, but it had us there by 10:30am or so, so we had the whole day to explore. While sitting on the balcony of our room, we were swooped by some Sulphur-Crested Cockatoos, which liked to perch on the rails of our villa. Later we were to find out that these cockatoos have a sort of Crips vs. Bloods thing going on with the crows all over the island, competing for scraps left (accidentally or not) by tourists. Also getting in on the action were Rainbow Lorikeets, Pied Curawongs (new bird sighting!), Silver Gulls, and a Pacific Black Duck. (We also spotted Yellow-bellied Sunbirds, Purple Swamp Hens, some sort of Friarbird, and some sort of eagle, or perhaps a Brahminy Kite).

No cars to speak of on the island -- just golf carts. So we rented one to tool around in. Even at golf cart pace, you can probably drive on every inch of road on the island in about 45 minutes. So we scoped it all out, then I pulled us into Wire Flyer, where they strap you into a hang glider and send you off, albeit dangling from a fixed wire. I was going to chicken out, but peer pressure won the day. Very fun! Maybe we'll buy in. I want to try the real thing now. (Marjorie would have gone, but we only had enough cash for one, and it was my birthday.)

Later we went down to the one bottle shop on the island for a bottle of wine, and headed up to One Tree Hill to enjoy the view. Reminded us both of the Pacific northwest, actually.

Had some nice steaks for birthday dinner.

Hamilton Island was interesting to me in that they practically have their own currency (most people opt to charge everything to their room, which every business in town [save for Wire Flyer] accepts). And, there's exactly one of every institution required to make life livable to a Westerner -- one general store/grocery, one post office, one video rental place, one hairdresser, one church, one bottle shop, one health club, one pharmacy. Of course, there are several restaurants and souvenir shops.

Day two: Slept in. Had lunch and headed out towards the unpopulated section of the island, which accounts for about two-thirds, up some well marked hiking paths. We ended up going farther than we expected (to within 750m of the peak) and enjoyed some magnificent views. Came back and waded out in the water off the beach for a bit. But as I stupidly forgot to pack my contact lenses, my snorkel gear wasn't much good.

Day three: We had scheduled a snorkel trip out to the reef. Fortunately we found out that they offered snorkel masks for different prescriptions, so forgetting the contact lenses wasn't a problem. The operation was Fantasea, and it was quite an operation. They took us out (in two meter seas, which was a chunder-fest for many passengers) to their exclusive platform on the Great Barrier Reef, known as (ulp) ReefWorld. Not the most organic of first experiences on the reef, but we came to appreciate the amenities. Water much calmer there with the protection of the reef. I got my prescription maskie, and we suited up in our wetsuits (water was quite chilly). We basically only made one long pass of the snorkeling area. Spotted a green sea turtle and a good number of other interesting fish, though. Swam up onto one sandy patch when Marjorie started plucking at my leg. At least I thought she was; turns out I was being attacked by a very territorial (and dauntless) little fish. We headed back soon after; even in our suits, the water was too cold for our blood.

Back on the platform we got some lunch, then headed out on their half-sub, which is like a glass-bottom boat, only you are much more down in the water, and can look out the sides. Very nice. Got to see a few more turtles. It was the start of manta ray season, and they even occasionally spot a whale, but no such luck today. Back at the platform we could see a massive grouper ("George", they've named him) that hangs out under the platform. He's at least six feet in length. The platform also has a fixed viewing chamber which we checked out, where a wrasse that was a good four feet long (big enough to have two remoras) swam by for our benefit.

All in all, a very nice operation, but I would recommend going during the middle of the week, and not at the height of winter!

Day four: Wake up, breakfast, and fly home. Lots of screaming kids.

We got our barky back! She was staying with another family courtesy of TopDog Minders. A great operation, and quite affordable. We're worried, though, that she may have had too good of an experience; she got to play with another dog the whole time, whereas she's alone much of the time with us. Though initially happy to see us, her reaction at being home I would qualify as "reserved". She does seem a bit tired, so maybe it's that. Next time, we'll put her in one of those cement-and-chain-link kennels -- that'll teach her to appreciate us! I kid.