The Beginning of the Second Half

I feel that most important part of a timed game is the beginning of the second half. (What about hockey?) You've made your halftime adjustments. If you are ahead, you can go for the jugular. If you are behind, you can try to jump on your opponent. The New England Patriots are the masters of halftime adjustments. Apparently, Belichick can dictate what needs to be done and players execute.

Today, in my postdoc, I am starting the second half. I returned to Christchurch yesterday at 10 in the morning. I don't mind the flight from LA to NZ because the routine is handled well. You always fly overnight. They serve dinner, turn out the lights, turn on the lights, and feed you breakfast. We even had dinner when the Qantas flight left LAX at 10 pm.

My supervisor is out of town until August 6th. I plan to use this time to get every loose end from Washington and USC tied up to move to the next step in each of my projects.

This morning I had kayak polo practice and after practice I usually go to McDonald's at the Riccarton Mall. I ran into one of my teammates. He's a freshman, and I believe that he said that he works there. He was waiting impatiently for someone and eventually left my table. As I left, he was sitting at another table with a female employee. I wonder if she's his girlfriend. I found the episode cute. Coming from the Boston club where I am one of the youngest players to playing with people fresh out of high school is refreshing. It reminded me of summer jobs and being an undergraduate again.

A Vacation from a Vacation

I am a little slow posting as usual. I read an article recently while cruising the disreputable parts of the web about how persistently keeping a journal will turn you into a genius. Methinks they have inverted cause and effect or suffer from insufficient sample size.

I shouldn't call my year in Christchurch a vacation, but it doesn't feel like the grind of work that I experienced in Boston or Seattle. Presently, I am not in New Zealand and am visiting my parents in Massachusetts. I leave for LA next Monday, the 26th, and return to Christchurch on the 27th. The weather in MA has been superb compared to the rainy/haily/snowy weather my youngest sister, Margee, says that we have in Christchurch. I am affected by the amount of day light and getting away from the shortest day of the year helps my psyche. I feel good but a little stuffed up from allergies.

My trip has been low key. I played kayak polo with the Boston Club a few times. The biggest improvement in my game has been greater confidence. The fine skills will come with more. The club is hurting for members because a lot of people have left and no new players have joined. I believe it's questionable whether the men will field a team for nationals this year. If you want to play, meet them on Spy Pond in Arlington on Sundays at 3. They have all the gear and are extremely nice folks.

I went to dinner last night with Affinnova and ex-Affinnova colleagues. What a smart and interesting group of people. One has went on to making a living by blogging, another is interviewing with Google, and a third designs artificial intelligence systems for the military. I have never seen a place churn through talent like Affinnova does. It sounds as though Affinnova is limping along and rehashing old ideas that haven't worked before. I don't understand how the company keeps going but querying my acquaintances for when they thought it fold the most common answer was "Never." It's like the US trade deficit: How does money keep appearing? I don't malign the company though. It's premise is as they say "R/evolutionary." Affinnova came into my life at the right time and I left it at the right time.

I worry that the US doesn't feel foreign to me. Travel should change your perspective from what I have read. Maybe the Canterbury plains are too much like the Midwest. Maybe the global corporations are furthering their stranglehold on every aspect of every person's life. There are significant challenges facing the US and I don't like a lot of what we've become. I feel that I would have seen this even if I stayed home. I am glad that my taxes are going to New Zealand rather than the US. There will be time to try to change stuff once I return.

Betting on the Queen's Birthday

I wandered this morning looking for activities specific to the Queen's Birthday. Not much. I heard the cathedral bells ringing but arrived at the square too late. I stopped by the Holy Grail, the largest sports bar in Christchurch, to watch the second half of the Brazil-All Whites match. Brazil dominated but that was to be expected. I was inspired to head next door to the sports book and bet on the World Cup. I have action on the USA winning Group E, Ballack winning the Golden Boot, and the Netherlands winning it all. I figure that it will be almost like home games for the Netherlands so I will be rooting with thousands of people in the stands as I watch on TV. Go Orange!

Christchurch Elector

It's official. I received a letter from the New Zealand Registrar stating, "You are now enrolled as an elector for the General electorate of Christchurch Central." (Emphasis theirs) A month ago, I received letter from the registrar that was adamant that I enroll and that it was illegal not to. I have suffrage. I wonder if I have to be a citizen? Oh well, we'll see how long this farce can last. I actually like our member of parliament, Tim Barnett. A local high-end gossip magazine that I read, Avenues, had a nice article about him two months ago. He talked about principles from liberation theology which was refreshing. I like my Massachusetts representative, Edward Markey, a lot too.

Last Photo of the Opera House

This is the last photo of the opera house that I will post. This one turned out the best from my photos in Australia. I was on the ferry heading to the zoo.

Always Ask the Person with the Big Camera

The two photos in this post were taking by fellow tourists. I asked a man who was using a large, expensive camera to snap the top one here. I like the composition a lot. Plus the light was really good at this time of day.

The photo on the bottom is a different story. I don't know what the tourist here was looking at. Probably the sun. Granted, I shouldn't have taken this photo with the sun in the background.

Once I am more settled, I will look into getting another camera. I am pushing the limits of this one and skipping many shots that I don't think will work.

Lost to That Good Team 5-2

My kayak polo team lost its fifth game in a row to that That Good Team. I had an awful stint in goal where I let in two shots that I shouldn't have. My confidence in the boat is improving and we are improving as a team. I think that in one of the next few games we'll erupt and destroy one of our opponents. Our paddlers too good plus we have the youth advantage. I am by far the oldest player on our team. Paddling with 18-year-olds is whipping me into shape.

Since kayak polo is an obscure sport, I posted one of the few photos that I have of me playing. This was taken at a tournament in North Carolina in November when I was playing with the Boston club. I am the one in the blue boat, number 3 in black. I didn't take the photo and you can find more pictures here. I hope that I am not breaking any copyright laws.

Down Come a Jumbuck

In case you didn't guess, I was in Australia this weekend. I followed my friend Matt as he DJed in Melbourne on Friday and Sydney on Saturday. It was an outstanding trip and I would like to spend some more time in Sydney. I've seen blogs that have lists on the sides but I haven't discovered how to do that in Blogger. This was in the top 10 nuttiest trips that I have been on and Sydney is in my top three favorite cities that I have visited.

Melbourne didn't get a chance. I arrived at 5:30 pm on Thursday and it was already dark. I had a nice Italian dinner. The food hasn't been good in New Zealand, especially cuisines that are not traditional fare or Asian. I walked up and down Brunswick St and stopped in to catch the end of the Aussie-Greece soccer game. Greece looked terrible. Melbourne will live in my memory like Montreal because I don't have a good idea of what they look like during the day.

The photo is of the skate park in Bondi Beach in Sydney. I was impressed by how dangerous the obstacles were. That's an eleven kid in the pool. Bondi Beach was surprisingly small and my main reaction was a yearning to return to Southern California. I gotta run to catch the bus.

Digression on Design

I am becoming very interested in design; the design of animal appendages, buildings, chairs, fonts, etc. I suppose this was started by my work at Affinnova. There were outstanding designers and IDEA algorithm worked best on graphically intensive exercises. The designers said that one of the hardest areas of design is iconography, universal symbols to convey meaning such as dangerous or nuclear.

The photos here are from the Greenhouse backpackers in Melbourne, Australia. In New Zealand, they use common symbols that you see in the US for the men and women's bathrooms. Here they have tried something different and I think to mediocre success. I understand the symbol for the men's room but I don't get the one for the women. One is a shower and the other is a toilet because it was on the other men's bathroom. This was the only unusual example of bathroom iconography that I found in Australia.