Coming home tomorrow!

I have had a simply wonderful time here in Austria. I hung out with friends, took lots of pictures with my new camera, and went shopping, ate good food, lazed about in the backyard.... essentially everything that I have to work to make time for at home.

Here are my favorite pictures from my trip: Schloss Belvedere, Ruine Aggstein, Stift Melk, St. Stephen's Cathedral interior, and part of the fountain at the Parlament.

Austria

I am currently enjoying a short (9 days) vacation in Austria, which you can see documented in great detail with my new camera on my flickr page. :D

It was a spur of the moment decision in January, and now I'm so thankful I decided to go. It was a great break from my schedule - constant working, essentially - and my schedule when I get back - constant working.

For now, I'm going to fully enjoy the remainder of my vacation, and I hope you all are doing well! Here is my favorite picture I've taken on this trip thus far:

goings on....

It's been a busy last few weeks, and mainly because I'm working. A lot. But in the times I have not been working, I have been doing fun and amazing things! ha.... or not. I did go see Cabaret at the 5th Avenue Theatre yesterday though, and it was fantastic. I really, really loved it. And now I keep singing "Cabaret" and "Maybe This Time" in my head. I also went to the Spaghetti Factory afterwards with this guy:


and had some actually pretty tasty house wine (Chianti). All in all, an excellent "weekend" (one day off, as usual), and now I feel much more ready to face my upcoming six day week. :)

New camera in use!

This Christmas, I bought my brother a starter camera kit, a Canon EOS 30D, with a good flash and lens (of his choosing). Here's one of the first pictures he took with it that he decided to share (he's the one on the left). Pretty fun stuff!

Of mountains and paperwork

My job is so easy. I sat at my desk attempting to amuse myself most of the day. Unfortunately for my compulsion to work all the time (while I'm getting paid for it), the lawyer who I was hired to support was out today with her ill son. So I had nothing to do. Until I get trained on the IRS paperwork I'm supposed to be working on, I'm getting paid excellent money for twirling my finger through my hair, reading the news, and staring off into space.

Saturday I went to the Mountain with my mom and her friend. It was raining, as usual at this time of year, nice and overcast, and we went in from the north, over to Ohanapecosh River. It was absolutely lovely! I hope some of my pictures of the trees turn out. It's so difficult to capture the majesty and beauty of a giant tree with a standard lens - or a lens of any variety, really. It's the inability to fit the entire tree into your field of view that makes it so impressive. The trees in this part of the Mountain were about one thousand years old. It makes me sad that there were such trees all over Western Washington before they were summarily destroyed, but I'm glad some have survived. Something like those trees - which started growing in the ashes of a giant fire before the Normans invaded England - deserves to be cherished and protected. Paradise was also lovely, covered in the first snow of the season. I have a feeling I'm going to get quite a lot of use out of those hiking books I bought. It's a good thing I like rain - I do believe I'll be hiking in quite a lot of it.

Side note: This picture, which I posted on flickr three days ago, got 30 hits in two days. Clearly, men in kilts and fleeces is the most interesting subject in my photostream.

Costco processing

I have a Costco card for one reason and one reason only - I have a film camera, and I LOVE their processing (I also like getting Odwalla Superfood at $3 cheaper per jug). The Costco in Silverdale now does everything in house, so things are even better than they use to be now. It's also the cheapest place around to get some pretty decent prints of photos. Since I have elected to remain with my film camera, low costs for development are absolutely essential. It does make me feel somewhat better to know that the cost of prints for digital photos is the same as for film (I just have to pay extra for the processing). I have also begun to get the CD of my photos, which is vastly preferable to scanning if one has the money, and the quality is so much better than I expected! I'm very pleased with the investment I made. I have probably, since I take so many photos, balanced out the price difference between the film and digital versions of my camera at this point. But it's still fun to hear the film advancing and the shutter opening and closing and all that. Here's my favorite picture I've ever taken:

Hoping this is that window

In the Sound of Music, Maria says that when God closes a door, he opens a window. I always liked this better than the other phrase, when God closes one door, he opens another, because if there had been two doors, you would have seen them, but missing a window is an acceptable mistake to make. Anyway, I was passed on for the first job I interviewed for (seriously - four interviews... no job) because the attorneys couldn't agree between me and another person, so they scrapped us both. Well, yesterday my recruiter told me about a new job opportunity with a really fantastic firm that offers better benefits and pay and they're interested in setting up an interview Monday. So, I guess this is the window. It's always good to have options... and I hope that this time is the charm. :)

Today I'll be dropping off my film (way too many rolls, I don't even want to think about how much this is going to cost me) in Silverdale and also dropping off the t-shirt Mom and I bought for my Uncle P, the one who roped me into helping with lieutenant assessments, in Virginia City, MT. It says:

Feed the Bears.
Squat with your spurs On.
Let your kids ride the Elk.
Picnic on poison Ivy.
Drive fast and pass on Curves.

We thank you for your support.
Montana Paramedics

Pictures!!

I have uploaded pictures that my brother very graciously scanned for me while I was in Singapore, and I will finish uploading the rest later this evening after I finish scanning the rest in. You can say what you want about film, but I love it. :) Anyway, if you're interested, take a look - I've also updated my Favorite photos section. Here are my three very best pictures from Istria, for your viewing pleasure.

Night Safari and MacRitchie Reservoir

The Night Safari section of the zoo was an absolute blast. Because there are a lot of nocturnal animals that can't be seen during the day in the zoo, unless they're kept in unpleasant cages, the zoo has an entire section just for visiting at night, lit up with special lights and with a tram and guide.

My favorite piece of commentary, by far, was on a civet that looked like a half bear/half cat. "Like all civets, the bear-cat (forgot the name of it) excretes a sweet smell from its anal scent glands, somewhat similar to popcorn or bamboo."

Today was a 11km walk through the MacRitchie Reserve and Reservoir. Very beautiful, lovely in every way, quite hot, and a really long walk. About four hours, I think, but we took some breaks. I got some great photos today, although I didn't have any film last night at the Night Safari, and my digital is unfortunately not in any way capable of standing in for my Canon in the dark - or in the daylight, for that matter.

Tomorrow is my final full day in Singapore, and I am probably going to go out with J., from Birmingham, and my German friends. I'm packing tonight, and I am beyond excited to be finally leaving. Today, there were moments when I actually enjoyed being in Singapore. I think my adjustment to living in this climate and in these living conditions took a lot longer than I expected it to. But, I have clearly adapted to the rigors of the climate if I can walk 12.5km in one day (my road was closed this morning, had to walk for 1.5km in the morning to catch the bus to church). Regardless of my body's ability to acclimate, I'll be happy to come home, to the blessed, beautiful rain, and the constant gray skies. :)

Singapore Zoo

Today, all I did was go to the zoo and go swimming. And watch TV and make food, but that happens every day, so it's not really worth mentioning.

The zoo was quite fun! I was soaked in sweat, hot, hungry, and absolutely in heaven. When there are so many photogenic creatures around, you could spend hours just getting awesome shots of beautiful creatures. The only problem is, I got my shots with my lovely film camera - so, no prints for now. Must wait to get those developed. All of the shots I've uploaded onto my flickr page are from my cheap-o Nikon that I bought for the specific purpose of snapshots. I don't like the expense of film for taking dorky pictures of boys running around the apartment, so it seemed a good compromise, being that I cannot, as yet, afford the digital version of my camera. The ones I got with it are alright, but my real hopes are with my Canon.

Tonight's dinner ended up being a mish-mash, because the boys are the most homebodied homebodys ever. We were left money for going out to eat, and they begged to stay inside. So, we had pork chops in honey-teriyaki-orange sauce, steamed broccoli and carrots, with spinach spaghetti noodles. And hot chocolate for dessert. All in all, an excellent day.

The first picture is the photo we bought from the Zoo people. They did the same thing the cruise people do, and snap shots of you doing stuff so they can make piles of money printing cheap digital prints with zoo animals for borders. Anyway, I thought the boys' mother would appreciate a souvenir of our little jaunt, and zoos always need money, so we bought it. The second is my favorite picture of the giraffes. They're such lovely creatures! The giraffes, orangutans, and white tigers were the most irresistible today.

'Anticipation'

I'm listening to Carly Simon as I sit in my humid little room, in anticipation of tomorrow's fun adventures. 'Anticipation' is really a rather good song, it's too bad it's forever associated with the ultimate tease - a Heinz ketchup bottle. 'You're So Vain' is still my favorite, though, just for the 'you had one eye in the mirror' line.

Tomorrow, we're going to the zoo! I'm very much looking forward to that because I haven't been to the zoo in years, since I went to the zoo at Schoenbrunn in Austria in 2003. I am going to take my nice camera, make sure I have plenty of film, and snap lots of animals. Definitely bringing the telephoto to this place - I am really hoping for a Bengal tiger picture. If it comes even close to my brother's awesome picture when they went to the zoo a while back, I'll be quite satisfied.

Cinemax is currently running the old Star Trek movies, tonight was Star Trek IV: the Voyage Home. The storyline is really quite terrible, as with most Trek movies, but the one-liners are fantastic! As is having a Russian (Chekov) ask about where the nuclear 'wessels' are in 1980's US, and watching the great tard William Shatner for an entire movie. I'd never watched the whole movie through before, having only seen parts of it on TV (sorry, but I'm not going to bend over backwards to see Star Trek IV), and I kinda felt sorry for Leonard Nimoy, who reprised the role of Spock - something he had said he never wanted to do again - and that he will also be reprising his role in the new movie. Does anyone know Leonard Nimoy for ANYthing else, other than Star Trek? Maybe the Bilbo Baggins song.... :)

By the way, in case you were ever in any doubt as to the technical quality of the Star Trek series, The Voyage Home was nominated for four Academy Awards, for cinematography, sound editing, music, and sound (just nominated, though). It, of course, was nominated for piles of awards by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films, but only won for best costumes. Best costumes?? Well, whatever.

Quotes!
McCoy: My God, man. Drilling holes in his head isn't the answer!

[on 20th Century America]
Kirk: This is an extremely primitive and paranoid culture.

Job hunting

I have decided that I loathe job hunting. I was on the USAJobs site again today, applying for government jobs. Seems the best bet, in view of the fact that I have a degree and largely useless work experience. Useless in that it's not enough to get me a decent job in the private sector. Nice thing about the government is that they assume if you have a degree, you must be smart enough to handle certain jobs. I like this attitude. :)

But I am still fuming a bit that the four applications I filled out today took me more than four hours total. I wish we all lived in a world where people were falling over themselves to hand US a job.

For your enjoyment - a convex/concave dragon and an optical illusion drawing.

Arty and stuff

My brother has taken some pretty neat pictures since he discovered how much fun using a good camera can be. He was messing around tonight and got this. He also got my fun fish gutting experience, which I have also graciously included in today's post.

Pictures update!!

New pictures on flickr! Will have the rest of them uploaded over the course of the next two weeks (hey, a dozen and a half rolls of film to scan...that will take a while). Here's my favorite from the roll I scanned today.