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more traveling

i got back from australia a week and a couple of days ago. the last three days in sydney were the most amazing of my trip. it was a bit depressing to get back actually. it's always hard to come home after traveling. chris larson used to say that the best time to move is after you take a trip. that's when your ready for something new.

the day after i arrived in reno was my father's birthday. krista flew down to visit in time for that and my brother's engagement party the next day. we both ended up sick the next day delaying our departure from reno. feeling a little bit better we headed for tahoe to visit emma. sadly, she was heading out of town the next day so we headed on to san francisco to visit dan.

the idea was to arrive in time for critical mass but traffic was a bitch so we arrived about a half hour late. it ended up being good evening hanging out with dan, megan, and peter in an alley and a bar.

saturday, krista went off with her friends and dan, megan, and i went down to the ocean to swim in the ocean, build a sand castle and then climb a radio tower, quickly followed by cheep chineese food. that evening dan fell asleep early and megan and i rode down to the mission for burittos. we stopped at a bar on the way and found out about about a party in a tiny apartment. it consisted of standing around and watching people cram into the hall and speculating on how many more people could be crammed in.

sunday, dan, megan, peter, peter's friend and i, went to the 70 foot slide. then up to the sutro tower. that evening i went to dinner with krista and her friends, patrick, melanie and gus at this really good mexican place and chased it down with some ice cream from mitchell's. it was pretty damn good.

yesterday, i'd planned to go down and ride around with dan while he worked but ended up sleeping in. i blame jet lag. i ended up screwing around during the day while krista took the train back up from patrick's. we spent the late afternoon wandering around downtown. we even made it down to pier 39.

today, we head north. we should be home either late tonight or early tomorrow.

more photos

got a second batch of lomo photos developed and uploaded. i'm really annoyed at the scan job though. i took them to a different (read cheaper) place and they didn't do nearly as nice a job.

spent way too long on the internet today. i started up the aim client and got way into chatting with various people. it turns out that nick had the same problem with his sony dsc-p150 camera that i did. black spots showing up on the photos and then the lens ended up jamed. i did a little searching and it looks like it's happened to at least a few other people. hopefully sony won't be a bunch of bitches.

after tearing myself away from the internet i went and had a huge-ass indian food lunch then got on a train and, after a bit of screwing around riding between wrong stations, rode across the harbor bridge. i checked out the freaky theme park underneath it and got some photos then walked back across the bridge. i'm not too hopeful about the photos. the sun disappeared for a good chunk of it and it's clear to me now that 200 iso film needs full sunlight.

back in downtown i found my way to the sydney tower. it was 20-something bucks but probably worth it. i was hoping to catch the sunset but it took forever to get up there. between people wanting to argue about the price and then the line at the metal detector it wasn't a fast process. seriously, it's been how many years since 9/11? i'm sure you've been through a metal detector before. i mean fuck, you sat there watching the person in front of you try to walk through with their belt on three times and it didn't occur to you to take yours off until after it beeps? worst of all it was that security theater bullshit where they make a big deal of putting you through a metal detector but then just sort of glanse in your backpack, wave the loaded stroller through and pat at the piled coat on the table. i hope they at least get a break on their insurance for all the trouble.

up top the view was nice. i'm not sure how the photos will turn out. but i gurantee that they'll turn out better than 80% of the people there. forgive another rant but, fuck. do you really think that photo is going to turn out when you're using the flash to take a photo of a window? sure, fine, i'd give you the benefit of the doubt if you were using film but no, you've got a digital camera. you flipped back to it, squinted at it, and then did exactly the same thing. several times. i guess the idiot proof camera is still a ways off.

photos

i've gotten the first roll of photos developed and posted to flickr. the photos are going to be out of order but i figure most people that care can figure it out. i've already taken two more rolls. this film thing is going to be an expensive hobby. i'm glad i've done enough with the digital to have a base line expectation for how it'll operate with a given amount of light.

i think the death of film is premature. don't get me wrong, there are plenty of problems with film. i sure as fuck wouldn't have gotten into it without doing digital first. it's way too expensive and the feedback loop is too long. i rushed through the first roll just to i could figure out what the camera was doing.

in spite of all that, i think film will still be a maintainable niche. the main reason being that most camera shops are really just sitting between you and a high-end, high-quality, digital photo printer. they develop the film, scan it, and then print it out like it was a digital photo pulled off a flash card. then, they kick out a cd with a copy of the photos on it. the developing and scanning becomes just another input. personally, i've never really liked the quality of the home prints. i've yet to see one that could do the lighter colors well. if i want prints i'll pay for them. the prints i got back look great, and the scans are good.

the short of it is, i think digital is going to get more people into photography. once they're comfortable doing it they branch out looking for different effects. and really, that's all analog film is, a filter on an image that ends up as pixels.

which leads into the latest in the series of it's-so-good-i'm-gonna-write-it-down, so-people-belive-me-when-i-say-i-came-up-with-it-a-long-time-ago ideas: the open source camera. seriously. sell the hardware for a steap markup and then make the source code for the interface public. go look at the crazy prices that lomography is charging for what are essentially high-end disposable cameras with an feature (fish-eye lens, colored flash and shutter that will stay open, multiple time lapsed images on a single print). with the exception of the fish-eye lens every one of those things could be done in software. i guarantee that there are enough hackers out there who'd be into writing filters and software for such a camera. it wouldn't have to be pretty, it could quite literally be a tank. in fact i think that would be a selling point. maybe when "real life" starts i'll start a company and do it. until then i'm going to enjoy my trip.

I'm on my own

I haven't been good at keeping up at this at all. I've said nothing about our amazing visit to Tasmania with Ian and Evalina (?), or our wonderful stay in Sydney with Hasam and Abel(?) and their families. And, no mention of my dad heading home yesterday.

Even worse are the photos. Until yesterday, I still hadn't gotten the Melbourne photos up. Those are done but the great ocean road and Tasmania are still to go. My digital camera broke the day before last. The lens won't retract. I'll mail it off when I get home. My dad loaned me his but it's just not the same.

Wandering around today I popped into a camera shop to see if they had any cheap toy cameras. No luck. I walked down toward the harbor and came up on a museum of contemporary art. The stuff they had up was horrible. I'm not just saying this, literally, I could have done better. Everything was at best mediocre and at worst pretentious boring shit. The only good thing was that on the way out I stopped into their gift shop. They had a big collection of over-priced, toy cameras made by Lomography. I couldn't help myself. I'm now shooting film.

I walked down along Circular Quay and took a bunch of photos of the opera house and harbor. It was one of the most amazing evening/sunsets I've seen. Frustratingly, I ran out of film. The places here will develop, print and burn a CD for a reasonable price so I'll get some uploaded before too long. As it is I'm trying to work through the current photo back log.

Victoria

The next stop was Victoria. We flew into Melbourne, got another rental car and spent a night in town. There was a huge Aussie rules football game (think a mashup of rugby, football, and soccer) so we couldn't a room for the weekend. The solution was to head south to the coast and drive down the Great Ocean Road. It reminded me quite a bit of the California coast. In fact this whole continent seems like a giagantic version of California. Mountains, beach, desert, big cities. I took lots of pictures which I'll get posted at some point.

Day 4 Down Under Brisbane

Since I'm getting behind on a day by day journaling--a fact which should come as no surprise for any "longtime readers"--I'll switch to a less granular approach.

From the Gold Coast we headed north to Brisbane. Getting into town was a bit of an adventure. When we first flew in we had avoided the city center completely heading north straight from the airport so it was a bit of a shock. Brisbane is a pretty big town and the traffic was crazy. We finally found a parking garage and set out on foot.

I really liked the city but don't have much to report. Considering it's winter time here the weather was perfect, I'm assuming the summer is miserable. I went a bit crazy taking pictures of the office buildings, some of which you can see up on Flickr. I could have spent a couple of days just doing that.

That evening we stayed in a motel called the Formulae 1. The entire setup was best described by the words cheap and automated. At every other place we've stayed tea and instant coffee (they fucking love that shit over here) have been complementary. This place had a vending machine to make them for you. I'd say it was the noisiest hotel I've ever stayed in but that would be lying, this was.

ooops

forgot to renew my domain registration. they sent emails but i kept putting it off thinking i'd do it after the trip. i didn't realize that it expired yesterday. oh well. i just paid for 5 years so it should be fine for a while.

Day 3 Down Under (I'm trying to catch up)

In the morning we packed up and headed southeast through Ipswich (so my dad could mail postcards to English relatives) and then down to the Gold Coast. Sweet baby Jesus, that place is crazy. It was exactly like driving around in Vice City (only on the wrong side of the road). I took a bunch of photos of the high-rises, found some internet (posting day 1 and the first batch of photos). It was a pretty unremarkable other than finding my first Aussie Starbucks and seeing a bunch of tourists and Australians with way too much money.

I didn't actually go inside the Starbucks so I don't know if they have the same not-English,-not-Italian-but-some-of-both-and-some-words-we-made-up vocabulary for ordering. Down here they use a totally different system, it actually makes a lot of sense when you get used to it. Straight espresso is a short black. Water it down for an Americano, and you've got a tall black. Add milk for a latte and you've got a white. I imagine I'll end up in the green giant to check on it before we leave.

Day 2 Down Under

The two of us were up early. The jet lag had put us to sleep before ten so we were both up by seven in the morning. We checked out and headed down into scenic Gympie to see what it was all about. I hit up a thrift store (which they call an op shop), a used book shop and a barbershop. My dad finally found a bank where he could get some money changed. I was amused by how much trouble it'd been for him to find a place that would do it. On the way to the airport I'd asked my mom stop at the bank so I could deposit a paycheck. At some point in the process my dad asked if I had any cash. As I never carry cash, plastic being so convenient and all, I felt suitably shamed and cashed the check instead. Well we got over here and found that you either pay a huge commission to convert money or… get it from an ATM. I'm not sure what the actual exchange rate is (I'll check my account when I get on the internet and post all this) but the ATM sure is more convenient than hauling a bunch of cash and then looking for a place to convert it.

We spent a good chunk of the day driving through small towns. At every other one, we'd stop and get out to take a look around and snap some photos. As I learned on my cross country bike trip, rural is rural. It doesn't matter what state or, apparently, what country you're in a hayseed town is a hayseed town. Strangely, it was like someone had pulled small towns out of Nebraska and dropped them into the Sierra foothills of California. And then switched around the sides of the road.

As the sun set we started looking for a hotel. We found one in a town called Crow's Nest. It was cool little place, the town small enough to be very picturesque but the sort of place I'd hate to grow up in. We ate an excellent dinner in the pub then had a few pints. As is his way, my father began taking photos of every single person in the bar with the exception of the few who said they were in trouble with the police and weren't supposed to be at the bar. We ended up having a rather entertaining conversation with Richard, who worked on the oil wells, and his good friend Frasier, an old Scotsman who was very drunk. They made quite a sport out of giving each other shit though I think they called it taking a piss on or out of, something like that. Best of all was when Frasier asked which boat full of convicts Richard's parents had emigrated on. My father retired to our room above the pub and I hung around with them another half hour until it closed at the wee hour of 9:30 pm.

Day 1 Down Under

We landed in Brisbane on Sunday the 31st and quickly obtained a rental car. From Brisbane we headed north to the Sunshine Coast.

Along the way we stopped at Australia Zoo, subtitle, the home of Steve Irwin, the Crocodile Hunter. It was pretty cool as zoos go. All the animals seemed well cared, it didn't stink and they went way out of their way to emphasize conservation and how their visitors could help. We got to see Koalas (in the process being informed that there is no such thing as a Koala Bear, only Koalas), Giant Galapagos Tortoises, Tasmanian Devils, Camels, Kangaroos, Elephants, strange birds, and Saltwater Crocodiles. All in all a very interesting experience.

From there we headed up the coast. The Sunshine Coast is considered underdeveloped there were plenty of hi-rise apartments for my taste but then I'm not a beach front property owner, a city councilman, or a developer. I'm sure they'll have it all filled in by the time I make it back down here.

As evening fell--much earlier than we were used to, it is winter down here after all--we headed inland and began looking for a motel. We set our sights on Gimpy (mostly because I thought the name was funny) and found a hotel. Being Sunday night absolutely nothing was open. We had supper at a Pizza Hut. It was actually more entertaining than you'd expect.

William Gibson refers to England as the mirror world because unlike a "foreign" country, all the big, obvious things are just like home, leaving all the small, trivial things to surprise you. I think Australia is the real mirror world. It has all the open space and accompanying sprawl of the states, the chain restaurants, and the wide roads. But everything is on the wrong side. In the car, everything is mirrored. It's been entertaining watching my dad hit the windshield wipers instead of the turn signal every time he goes to change lanes.

The little word differences are also amusing:

• supper == dinner
• docket == receipt
• mate == dude, man, or buddy
• no worries mate == no problem dude
• dodgy == sketchy (one of my favorites)
• bottle store == liquor store