Planet Olin

I demand music suggestions.
Specific albums if at all possible.
Uh, please. And thanks.

Hmmm.... I've used every four, five, six, and possibly seven letter word out there to describe how cold it's been lately. When I walk north at any time of day the sun is in my eyes, light swtiches are upside down, and my dwindling supply of the amazingness that is Jif peanut butter is cause for great alarm.

You guessed it, I'm back in New Zealand.

I actually got here about three weeks ago, but since then I seem to have fallen off the face of the planet communications-wise. So...here's to summing up the past three-ish weeks.

Getting here was reasonably uneventful, with no unexpected landings in Figi this time. I flew from Seattle to LA, then LA to Auckland. For the first time in I don't know how long, I didn't have any little kids behind me kicking my seat every time I fell asleep. That was probably a very, very good thing, because when I flew from Olin back to Hoquiam I threatened to eat the kid sitting behind me for dinner if he didn't stop kicking my seat. It worked surprisingly well. I had a row of two seats to myself on the flight to Auckland, so I curled up and slept most of the way.

Unfortunately, I filled out my arrival card when I was still mostly asleep, so I kinda sorta checked the box that said something along the lines of I was either a terrorist or a drug dealer on my passenger arrival card, resulting in a half hour of questioning by a customs officer. New Zealand Immigration now knows, amongst other things, that I'm dating Paul, Paul's birthday, where I was born, when I was born, what I use ibuprofen for, my address in both the US and NZ, my phone numbers in the US and NZ, the name of my college, my middle name, and for all I know, after having my bag searched, my bra size. It was probably karma biting me in the tail for having too much fun poking fun at the drunk guy standing next to me on the line to get my work permit. He kept saying how he couldn't believe how, like, dude, he was like in New Zealand and it totally hadn't hit him yet. I assured him that he'd probably start believing it as soon as the hangover hit. I'm trying to remember if I was horrible enough to tell him that he should spend most of his time in Queenstown (by far the best place to go in New Zealand if you love overprice tourist traps chock full of tourists. By far the worst place to go in New Zealand if you want to be amongst Kiwis.)

Now that I'm here, in Auckland, I've been keeping busy by trying to find a job, exploring a few bits of the city, cooking, grousing about how cold it is, hiding under wool sweaters and down comforters trying to escape the cold, and of course, trying to be with Paul as much as humanly possible. Speaking of jobs, I registered with a temp agency, and it looks like I might possibly have a job starting on Monday. My strong dislike for doing office gruntwork is getting tempered by the fact that the pay is much better than if I were to be asking people if they wanted whipped cream with their latte.

Oh, and then there's Auckland. I've decided that there's New Zealand, and then there's Auckland. The two are quite different. One is full of miles of beautiful mountains and sheep and pretty places straight out of Lord of the Rings. In the other one, there are miles of cars, even more miles of suburbs, and a slight lack of green and open spaces. While Aucklanders might seem like a bunch of Mother Theresas compared to Massholes, I can definitely see why other New Zealanders refer to them as JAFAs--"just another effing Aucklander." On the bright side, Auckland keeps the most annoying 25% of New Zealand's population in one spot.

Anyways, I think its time to find another half dozen or so items of clothing to wear, and then I'm going to make a cup of tea and see if I can see my breath inside again. I might write a few postcards this weekend. Shoot me an email or leave a comment if you want one.

Free air conditioner.
Yes.

http://www.peets.com/stores/freddo.asp?cm_re=hp-_-ad-_-spot

I want one.

In other news, layer blending options in Photoshop bring joy to my life. On another completely unrelated note, I'll be done with work at 4 pm today and I can go home after 4. I don't have to be at the theater until midnight again! I'm so happy.

mm. flying in about 12 hours. my calendar just told me i'm flying. how cute.

for those that are unaware.. I'll be off to Taiwan for my internship. Bunches of mixed feelings really.. but generally positive. I think. At least, I am hoping that I will get a lot out of this internship.

Next time I 'publish'.. I'll be on the other side of the world. Whenever that will be.

byebye USA.

Working 10 - 12 hours a day isn't as bad as I thought it would be. I don't feel too terribly exhausted at the end of the day--it's just that I don't have any energy or willpower to do anything but crawl in bed and talk to friends on AIM until I fall asleep. Right now I'm rooming with Alyshia, which is cool but our work schedules are literally out of phase: I leave the house around 8:40 to go to the Olin Admission office and usually get back around 11:00 PM. Alyshia leaves the house at 7:00 AM and is usually in bed by the time I get back home, so we really haven't seen each other very much lately. Hopefully that will change soon, and by soon I mean after June 30th. I like working at the Admission office because I work with great people and I give tours, but the theater job is not as fun because I'm either cleaning or sitting in a dark room with nothing to do but push the GO button on the light board.

The other consequence of not having any time on the weekends is that I get overly excited about social/fun things that I can do, since I don't really have a life otherwise. I was also excited to cook myself a big breakfast this morning because I don't have to do anything until 11:00. I'm really looking forward to Greg's pool party because I've had to miss out on a bunch of things that Olin kids are getting together and doing. I'll be glad when I start working normal people hours again.

Oh, and I got an email from my mom today that made me really happy:

"The moist humid afternoon delivered sharp crackling thunder this
afternoon. Rusty followed me room to room keeping his ears flattened
and his tail pointed downward. His worry lines on his head prominently
furled as if to say, I'm so afraid - don't leave me. The storm blew
over in an hour and Rusty forgot his fear and returned to his spot on
the couch to sleep off the stresses of the day. All for being a fraidy
dog. I LOVE YOU, MOM"

:)

I've been getting little annoying bubbles in the bottom right corner of my screen saying that I need to install updates. Figuring that it wasn't anything too harmful, I relented this morning and decided to install whatever Microsoft had been bugging me about.

The updates had something to do with verifying that I had a legitimate copy of Windows XP (Olin IT doesn't use sketchy warez, right?). After the updates installed, the installation thing opened a page in Firefox that read the following:


Your current browser cannot run the ActiveX control required by the genuine Windows validation process.

Let's try validating a different way:

1. Click Validate Now to run the genuine Windows validation application.
2. When prompted, click Open or Run this program from its current location.

Validate Now


ActiveX? So, if I install the portal to all kinds of spyware and malware on my computer I can validate that it's a genuine copy of XP? I dunno, I just find it sad and somewhat amusing at the same time.

In two months I will have been in Austin for a year, and so far I’ve had a blast. From Austin City Limits Festival and SxSW Interactive to tons of local events in-between, I have more than satisfied my hunger for local flavor.

Speaking of flavor, I highly recommend several local food products.

My favorite would have to be Maine Root sarsaparilla soda, which despite its name and its roots in Maine (pun intended), has an Austin branch after one of its founders moved here. Their pungent and powerful ginger brew is also great.

I also suggest El Milagro tortilla chips, made just east of I-35 on Sixth Street. To date they are the only chips that could possibly compare to the fresh chips at Oklahoma City’s Ted’s Café Escondido, which despite a year in Austin is still my favorite Tex-Mex restaurant. I will need to conduct further research here in town.

Whenever I’m downtown breakdancing at a club I often satiate myself with the best street food in Austin, the Best Wurst. I like it with everything: onions, sauerkraut, mustard, and their very own special curry ketchup.

For more reviews check out my Yelp profile