Springing forward

For daylight savings, we will be springing forward by one hour while North America (and other parts of the northern hemisphere) will be falling back, widening the time difference between Melbourne and the U.S. to 16-19 hours, depending on the time zone. That's up to more than 3/4 of a day!

On another note, a few weeks ago, I went on a weekend trip to Anglesea beach, about a 2 hour drive west of Melbourne. I was actually on a Catholic (Ignatian) retreat. No, I'm not Catholic. So why was I there? Well, let's just say it had something to do with another fun "translation" by my friend Monica (the one from Mexico), whereby "Catholic retreat" became "beach trip" by the time it got to me. But the beach and scenery were still beautiful. To see more pics, click here.

'Tis the season?

I went to Big W (Walmart) today, and I experienced a moment of cognitive dissonance when I suddenly heard a Christmas jingle. I turned my head to see where it was coming from and my eyes landed on a shelf of jittery reindeer, Santas, and chickens (doing the chicken dance). In the aisle behind the shelf, there were boxes of Christmas lights and Christmas decorations, and I was so confused. I thought, why are there Christmas lights out now? It's way too early for that--it's summer! I was starting to get disgusted by the commercialization of Christmas, and then it occurred to me--it's mid-October. While mid-October is still early for Christmas merchandise, it's not as early as I thought it was. (By the way, Kendra, my housemate, just enlightened me as to the earliness of the Christmas frenzy--they don't celebrate Halloween in October or Thanksgiving in November, so all the frenzy is focused on Christmas). It's not summer here yet, but it's definitely getting hotter, and I'm losing my sense of the seasons and the calendar of the northern hemisphere. It was weird to think in early September that the academic year was just beginning in the U.S. when I was already well into my semsester, and now I'm heading into the last two weeks of the teaching period of my semester, and then into exam period in November. So in two weeks, I won't have to go to lectures or tutorials anymore (yay!), and I'll be studying for my four exams (boo). I'll be done November 22 and then it's summer vacation! Crazy.

What you've all been waiting for...

A couple of weeks ago, I went travelling with my brother and sister-in-law for a week around Australia for my spring break, so, finally, I can show you pictures of AUSTRALIA as you imagine it, in all its splendor. But what you see on this post is just a preview, since I can't put them all on this blog. In all, my brother and I took nearly 750 pictures, and that's not counting the one's he took in Sydney. Don't worry though--I've put a condensed version on Shutterfly for you. But first let me give you an overview...
[If you want to skip straight to the pics, click the "Spring Break" links to the right.]

As I mentioned in a previous post, my brother and sister-in-law started off in Sydney and then I joined them a few days later (thanks to my papers). Our itinerary was as follows: First, we went into the heart of Australia to the Northern Territory to see Ayers Rock, or Uluru (its Aboriginal name), the largest monolith in the world. Four days later, we flew to Queensland in Australia's northeast to Cairns (pronounced pretty much like "cans") to see Australia's tropical rainforests and the Great Barrier Reef. Over the course of the week, we saw the outback (desert), ocean, mountains, rivers, waterfalls, all sorts of flora and fauna (both on land and underwater), coral, the beach, and the heavens. It was amazing.

As I said, Uluru is in the middle of Australia, which is all desert. We flew over the Simpson Desert, but from the plane it looked like we were flying over Mars because the sand is red.



[Interesting note: I learned that the redness of the earth is symbolized in the aboriginal flag, which looks like this. The black represents the Aboriginal people, and the yellow circle is the sun.]


Were it not for tourism, there would be nothing out there except the desert, the rocks, and the Anungu aborignal people who live there. But someone came along and created Ayers Rock Resort, which has five accomodation options, from luxury hotel to campground, plus a little "town" to serve the guests, including a post office, grocery store, cafe, and souvenir shops.

Uluru is an impressive rock and beautiful to look at both from afar and up close. As the sun sets, the red rock changes colors with the sky around it. It looks different nearly every second. (We took a lot of pictures of Uluru at sunset, so be prepared).


Uluru is actually owned by the Anugu people. They regained ownership in the late '70s from the Australian government, but only on the condition that they would lease it back to the government for 99 years as a national park. Alot of people visit to climb Uluru, but the Anugu people request that they don't because it is sacred to them. People do anyway. Instead of climbing, we walked around part of the base.

Near Uluru is Kata Tjuta, another rock formation, and we did a 4 hour hike through it--the Valley of the Winds Walk.


One of the coolest things we did in the outback though was have dinner in the desert (the "Sounds of Silence" dinner). First of all, the desert sunset is breathtaking (many pictures of this, too).


Even more breathtaking, though, is the night sky without light pollution from the city. I have wanted to be able to see the stars this way for so long. That night was perfect not only because it was clear out, but there was no moon that night (it was the spring equinox), so the stars were really visible. We could even see the Milky Way, and saw Jupiter and its 4 moons by telescope. The dinner featured a lesson on the constellations of the southern hemisphere as well, some of which we never see up north. My brother's camera was amazingly able to capture Scorpio and the Milky Way.

Can you see it?
Look again...

On to Queensland...
We flew into Cairns, but stayed a bit north of Cairns at Trinity Beach. Our first day, we took a tour of the Daintree Rainforest by boat on the Daintree River, where we saw a very large croc (fondly named Fat Albert by the river guides) and other wildlife.

We also went to Hartley's Crocodile Adventures to see a croc attack show, which was fun, but seeing a wild one in the river made it a little less impressive. Hartley's had some other Australian wildlife, including koalas, wallabies (they look like little kangaroos), and cassowaries, the largest land animal in Australia. Surprisingly, it's a bird.


It's endangered and there are few wild cassowaries, mainly because there is not enough space for them. They are very territorial and occupy something like 10 square km each.

One thing Hartley's did not have was...kangaroos. Still haven't seen one! But I had some for dinner again.

The next day, we went to the Great Barrier Reef, where we snorkeled, and I tried scuba diving. I swam side by side with some really big fish (but no sharks or sting rays) and touched a giant clam! The color and clarity of the water was amazing.


It was my first time snorkeling and scuba diving, and they both took some time getting used to, mainly the breathing. Scuba diving was a bit harder than I thought--the flippers move a lot of water, so it's hard work on the quads. And the scuba equpiment is SO heavy! I thought I was going to fall over backwards. Once you get in the water though, you can't feel it.


The scuba mask also has the unfortunate effect of making you look like a koala...

My last day, we went to the town of Kuranda, which is in the mountains. We went up via a skyrail, riding a "gondola" moving on a cable, overlooking the rainforest, and came down on a train.


So, that's an overview of my trip. You can see the rest of my pictures on my Shutterfly account (you don't have to join). There are two different albums (just click on the links): Uluru and Queensland.

Enjoy!

The joys of the internet

When I first set up this blog, I said that cyberspace was my least favorite arena for activity and communication. Well, the Internet's ability to make a 9,000-mile gap seem infinitely smaller has given it a different status in my life over the past three months (yes, it's been 3 months!). Now it has become one of my sources of sanity. Studying philosophy full-time could drive a person mad (literally--that is sadly how Nietzsche's life ended) so I find myself in desperate need for high-quality, relatively brainless activity throughout my week, and the Internet has provided marvellously. (Australian TV is full of brainless garbage, but I find watching such shows stressful because I get annoyed at how bad they are).

Here are some of the things I'm enjoying:
- Keeping up with the Yankees, until recently (I'm so sad; yeah, yeah--I can hear all the boos and hisses coming at me); I need another sports team to follow now. The footy season was over a couple of weekends ago, so I can't even get into that. Maybe Duke basketball (my bro's alma mater; yeah, more boos and hisses).

- Watching video clips of The Daily Show: I can't tell you how happy I was to discover this! We only get the Global Edition on TV once a week, but I don't think it's as good.

- www.Pandora.com: cool music website my friend just told me about; allows you to create stations around your favorite artist or song; good for finding similar artists and songs.

- Skype: by far, my favorite. It's AMAZING how easily, clearly, and cheaply I can talk to my family and friends with this, all through my wireless connection and a headset plugged into my laptop. Sounds like a line from a commercial, but it's true!

Don't worry--I'm not spending all day in front of my laptop (well, when I was writing papers, I was). It's just good for those times when I need to take a break or wind down. If you have any other fun suggestions, please post!

A good bloke is hard to find

Maybe it's not just because I'm in Philosophy...

Australian blokes face up to change
By Nick Bryant BBC News, Sydney
In Australia right now, it is tough to be a bloke.

"I turned on my television expecting to see the Haka," said a crestfallen middle-aged rugby fan, describing a recent night in Melbourne when the All Blacks faced off against the Wallabies.

"Instead, I got I am Sixteen Going on Seventeen," he said.
The man in question, a sports-loving Ozzie, was bemoaning the decision from one of the country's leading television networks.

Instead of showing the Bledisloe Cup - the South Pacific's most eagerly anticipated international rugby fixture of the year - it broadcast a re-run of The Sound of Music.
That decision came as Australians tried to come to terms with the loss of two great male icons.

Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin - that great larrikin of larrikins - and the more quietly-spoken Peter Brock, a peerless racing driver known as the King of the Mountain, who was to Australian motor sport what Lance Armstrong was to international cycling.

Though less well known than the Croc Hunter outside of Australia, "Peter Perfect" - as he was also known - was arguably held in higher esteem within it.

Like Irwin, he was killed doing what he was famous for, in his case driving his race car.

'Nervous wrecks'
Mateship, bravery, a towering self-confidence and a fearsome determination to succeed - both men personified the spirit of Australian masculinity.

But Brock and Irwin were part of an endangered species, according to Mark Latham, the former leader of the Labor Party, whose latest musings on the "crisis in male identity" have sparked a rare moment of blokeish introspection.
"One of the saddest things I have seen in my lifetime has been the decline in Australian male culture," Latham writes in a new book.

"Australian mates and good blokes have been replaced by nervous wrecks, metrosexual knobs and toss-bags."
Latham cited a number of factors: The rise of feminism (remember it was Germaine Greer, the Australian-born author of the Female Eunuch who launched a vicious assault on Steve Irwin in the immediate aftermath of his death); changes to the family and in the workplace; and what he considers the namby pamby neo-conservatism of the John Howard government.

The government's treasurer Peter Costello shot back immediately.

Only days after proving his own macho credentials by taking a supersonic ride in a Royal Australian Air Force fighter jet, Costello assailed those of Latham.

Since stepping down from frontline politics, he asked pointedly, had not the former Labour leader been a stay-at-home dad?

'Real change'
Of course, Costello could have levelled similar accusations against macho heroes Steve Irwin and Peter Brock.
Brock was a vegan, who had an intense interest in New Age-style spirituality.

And away from the cameras, Steve Irwin was a sensitive and profoundly emotional family man, who regularly told his father, Bob, that he loved him and how he cherished their time together.

Prime Minister John Howard would appear to be a staunch defender of a less complicated version of Australia masculinity.

When video tapes from Iraq surfaced recently, showing an Australian soldier pointing a pistol at the head of a man wearing Arab clothing [thought to be another Australian soldier], the prime minister played down the incident.
"Through the ages soldiers have let off a bit of steam, haven't they," he said. "The difference is that we now have videos and internets, we didn't 50 or 100 years ago."

Taking the temperature this morning at Bondi beach, that great bastion of Australian masculinity, there was a surprising degree of support for the transformation of Australian man.

"The death of the larrikin and bad manners is bloody wonderful," said retired stockbroker John Ray, as he stepped from the surf.

"It's good to see the demise of those attitudes which said women are expendable, and that you're no good unless you go down the pub every night and get smashed. Over the past 20 years or so, there's been a real change in blokes' attitudes."

But the female perspective was a little different.

"There's no demise of the macho male in my household," said Sue Shaw, the mother of a 19-year-old boy. "My boy loves rugby and cars. That said, he waxes his body, so he does display metrosexual tendencies."
Metrosexuality vying with retrosexuality. No wonder men are so confused, as they strive to achieve the thinking man's manhood.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/5403004.stm