While it’s not official yet (I still need to pass all of my classes here and have the credit transfer back to CC and be approved, then get my diploma, which should hopefully all happen by the end of January), I’m done with everything I can do for my undergraduate degree. Forever. No more exams, no more essays, no more buying books, no more classes… done! (Unless of course I decide to do grad school, or get another degree, both of which may happen some day, but definitely not now).

Needless to say, I am pretty damn excited. But it also means I have to enter the “real world” now, get a job and all that. And given the luck my friends and family have had in that department over the last couple of years, I’m not all that stoked for my prospects. Then again, I have a degree in something that is very much so in high demand (computer science), and I happen to be very good at a lot of other things too.

We’ll see where life takes me, though the prospect of working a 9 to 5 job sitting in a cubicle somewhere just doesn’t seem that appealing to me, regardless of how good the pay is. I could do some work in the Production industry, putting my film minor and work experience in events to good use… In that vein, I have been helping some Los Angeles film students, Wil Gieseler and Nico Monetti, working as their Director of Photography here in Sydney for a feature film (Sincerely Forever) they’ve been working on. It’s an ambitious project, and has had a few setbacks (including the loss of one of the lead roles after filming had commenced). I can’t wait to see the finished film!

I could also start up a(nother) business, and see if my entrepreneurial chops still have what it takes to succeed. I’d love to create a startup that works on innovative and interesting projects (but then again, who wouldn’t?!).

I’ve already secured some additional consulting gigs once I return to the United States, which should keep me plenty occupied while I get my resumé out there. Hopefully in the end I’ll have my pick of where I want to work and get a reasonably stable job that can help get me on my feet, pay off some of my debt, and save up some capital to start one of the many ventures I have in mind. We’ll see! Feel free to leave any suggestions or comments; I’d love to hear from you all!

I mentioned in my previous post I might be buying a car here in Australia. Well, I did it! I am the proud owner of a white 1995 Ford Mondeo with a manual transmission, and just under 190,000 km on the odometer. It’s got new tires (tyres?) A/C, manual windows, manual seats, power locks, grey cloth seats, and a tape player! Aside from a few issues with an intermittently high idle and being a bit cranky to start when its cold it actually runs pretty darn well.

Since picking up the car late thursday night and getting my first taste of driving on the left side of the road from the right side of the car, I’ve been doing quite well. Most of my journeys so far have been to various beaches, with a 40 minute trip down the motorway to get the car back to the city, and a trip to the airport to pick up Luke interspersed in there too.

More on the (awesome) waves and beaches later, I promise! In terms of getting used to driving on the other side of the road, I’m pretty comfortable now after only a couple of days. The first few times out were a bit nervewracking, but after getting used to it its really not much different than driving at home. Shifting with my left took some getting used to, as did staying in my lane (Being on the right side of the car gave me a tendency to drift a bit further left than I should be… I’ve gotten much better at this though!). Some things to remember if you ever find yourself driving here: No left turns at red lights unless its explicitly stated, and no u-turns at traffic lights (though I’ve still seen people doing it!). Also, in the city the leftmost lane tends to get filled up with parked cars, so be wary if traveling there that you might have to quickly move over!

I’ve been using my iPhone loaded up with TomTom Australia as a navigation tool. It seems to do pretty well at getting me where I want to go, and has a handy warning indicator for speed cams, red light cams, and whenever I’m exceeding the speed limit by a good amount. It also lets me choose routes without tolls, which is nice too.

I went down to the RTA on Friday and got the registration formally transferred to my name (as required by law, within 14 days of purchase). As far as I know, this makes the Mondeo the first car ever legally owned free and clear by me! While I was at the RTA I also picked up a Toll transponder, which I figured might come in handy.

Working on planning out road trips now, I’m excited! Having a car gives me lot of flexibility as to where I go and what I see… Since getting it I’ve already seen a ton of things I wouldn’t have seen otherwise. Lets hope the trend continues, and let the adventures continue!

Sorry for all the technical posts from a few days ago; I tend to get carried away whenever I get a new toy! A few quick bullet point updates for now; more to come soon I promise!

• Luke is coming to visit next week! He’s driving out to Colorado and then flying Qantas to Sydney from Denver with a stopover in LAX.
• I’m buying a car here in Australia… Should have it by Thursday. Australia is a very big country, and I love to drive. I can’t wait to go on some very fun adventures! I have very grand plans, but my first trip is going to be a trip up north with Luke to Byron Bay to visit a friend that lives there. Now I just need to get driving on the left sorted
• I switched into a web production class and now have one class on Tuesday (It’s a lecture though, and lectures aren’t compulsory.. especially this one, which seems mostly useless.. I’ll still probably go though). I had my first one today, and it was.. interesting to say the least. It was a very politically charged discussion about web content, specifically web text. It is certainly useful if you were trying to write a search engine or otherwise group all of the content on the web into discrete bundles, though without implementation specifics it was mostly a lecture for show (I couldn’t help but feel like my professor was stroking his own feathers a bit, talking about his paper on the subject). Regardless, fascinating stuff!
• I went on a very nice bike tour of Sydney with my study abroad group on Sunday. We did quite an ambitious ride, and ended up going to some very neat spots, including over the harbour bridge into North Sydney. Our guide was full of knowledge and it was definitely worth doing!
• I took a long (free!) train ride out to the blue mountains yesterday. The train union was trying to negotiate better terms, and as such we all got a day of free train rides. I meant to get up early, but I didn’t end up leaving until 2PM or so. That got me there about 4:30PM, just in time for sunset. It was beautiful, but I really hope I make it back to spend a whole day there! I stopped at a small Chinese food place called “Three Sisters BBQ Chinese Restaurant”. It was’t much to look at, but the garlic chicken was on point!
• I’ve been meeting ts of fun people and having great time! I’ve officially got three “gym buddies” now, so I have absolutely no excuse to not work out almost every day.
• Pardon the lack of good pictures; I have a few that I’ll try and get up, but I’ve been taking what hopefully turn out to be pretty cool pictures for photography class (35mm B&W). My dad’s old SLR, an Olympus OM-2n has been doing very well so far; we’ll see how my first roll of film turns out tomorrow! I definitely need to get my hands on a tripod; propping the camera up for longer exposures doesn’t always lend to the best composition.
• My pottery skills have been improving. Not by much, but I’ve been getting better slowly but surely. I had an incredibly informative Skype video tutorial with Luke from halfway around the world this afternoon. My teacher was pretty amazed. Technology these days

That’s it for now; I’ll try and get more frequent updates up for you guys, but this blogging thing is hard!

Class was in a big old lecture hall on the other side of campus. I took a seat at the front of the class because I forgot my glasses and got out my notebook to jot down a few choice notes. It actually an incredibly interesting lecture. We tore through the history of “happiness,”  looking at people throughout history have tried to define what happiness is, exactly, and determine what it is that makes us happy. We actually have to keep a journal for the class on things that make us happy everyday. I’m really looking forward to it, especially since it provides a much needed opportunity for self reflection. More on happiness later, but it was an incredibly engaging and thought provoking two hours.

I left lecture a few minutes early to try and be on time for my Photography class, which I ended up being about 5 minutes late for anyways. When I got there I made sure to sign in, since the class was full and there were about 20 kids there waiting and hoping some people wouldn’t show up (everyone did). We talked about the class and expectations and requirements for the first half of class, and then went into the dark room and learned the basics. (Enlargers, the different chemical baths for developing film/prints, etc). We then got a bunch of objects and made some photograms (Prints without using negatives/cameras) to practice our developing chops. It was a ton of fun, and I’m going to have a blast.

After photography I went over to the ceramics studio for my ceramics class. Unlike photography, which I have a feeling I’m going to be pretty good at ‘naturally’, ceramics is going to take some serious practice. I’m absolutely envious of Luke’s skills; throwing stuff on a wheel is HARD. I managed to eek out a couple of cup-ish shaped objects that weren’t too bad by the end of class, but I went through a ton of clay trying and failing miserably. I’m just starting to get the hang of it I think, so hopefully next week wont be too bad.

Unfortunately, for both photography and ceramics we can only be in the darkroom/studio at specific times (in class for photography, and at a couple of times I’m otherwise pretty busy for ceramics), so I’ll need to spend my time in both classes very efficiently to do well. I’m very excited about my first three classes; hopefully Digital Arts tomorrow morning proves just as fun!

Yesterday marked the first day I actually got out and got to see a bit of the city. I left my room at about noon to join everyone at a “Unimates” BBQ. (The Unimates is a student run campus club of sorts for everyone to get together and do stuff.. like BBQs and coffee and cakes). A few of us had decided to head down to the Roads and Traffic Authority (The RTA) and get Australia ID cards so we didn’t have to carry our passports around to get into bars and so we’d have a souvenir to bring home. The photo cards cost $45 and require proof of residency. I forgot my passport, so I went back to get it.

After a 25 minute or so walk to the RTA, we got numbers and waited to be called.

Unfortunately, they informed us that they couldn’t accept our residential agreements as proof of residency because they were photocopied (a fact that the staff here at SUV seemed unaware of), and we were turned away. Ah well.  I may or may not go back and try again with the original; I don’t really get ID’d to buy alcohol at stores, and at clubs and bars they have been pretty accepting of my US driver’s license so far.

RTA office in Downtown Sydney

On the return trip, we headed into a busy marketplace down my Central Station. Vendors lined the building selling just about everything you could imagine. Cheap flashlights and lighters, samurai swords and knives, boomerangs, clothing, underwear, wigs, electronics, fish, produce, massages… it was a sight to behold for sure! I bought a couple of small items, haggling on price because it seemed fitting for the venue and got some pretty good deals. After we left the market, I decided to do a bit of exploring. Nobody else really wanted to do any extra walking, so I set off solo to check out the city. I got an email from my Digital Arts professor indicating that we should all go check out the Biennial of Sydney (A biannual art exhibit with venues all around the city) before it shuts down next week, and that our first assignment would be an Art Review. It was already 3PM or so and the venues closed at 5, so I didn’t think I’d have too much hope of seeing much, but I figured I would at least go and see where the venues were and do a waling tour of the city.

I started past the Sydney Expo Center towards Darling Harbor, and made my way up the waterfront. On the way I passed by the largest IMAX Theater in the world (which I plan on seeing Inception at at some point, the little screen I saw it on near school didn’t do it justice).

Largest IMAX screen in the world!

I continued on past the Aquarium and up to a shipping yard along the coast, into an area called “Barangaroo.” Apparently the city of Sydney is reclaiming this old industrial land along the waterfront and plans to do a bit of Urban renewal, adding valuable waterfront real estate to the the mix. As it stands now, the land consists of a bunch of empty parking lots and concrete docks. They’ve at least put up some signage and painted bike and pedestrian paths, as well as added a few benches and shaded pavilions. Not a bad start!

Barangaroo Sign

I walked along the coast into the area called Walsh Bay. Walking through Walsh Bay, I came across a couple of rather nice public art pieces, including a nice subtle blue steel sculpture, and a more interesting modern piece with a car crushed by a rock in the center of a roundabout, complete with “Artwork Ahead” and “End Artwork” signs. Cute.

A few blocks brought me to a pier with what looked like an old warehouse on it. As I passed by, I noticed a dock for a ferry, complete with the familiar Biennial of Sydney artwork. Walking around, i saw signs for an entrance and realized I had stumbled across one of the many venues for the biennial exhibits. It was 4:50, and the venue closed at 5, so I figured I’d check it out. Indeed, the signs that led me to the entrance led me into what looked like an old warehouse or factory that had been gutted and outfitted with some artwork. The Walsh Bay venue was a bit thin, but did include some interesting pieces, including  Neon piece titled “Reverse Missionary” by Newell Harry, some quilts, a video exhibit, and a large boat by US Artist Paul McCarthy titled “Ships of Fools, Ship Adrift 2″ made out of what looked like recycled construction materials (pipe, wood, steel, spray foam, caulk, carpet, etc). In case you’re wondering, the Neon reads “Nerveless Rats Hesitate/As Venereal Theists Rest”. Newell also did the quilts, but the Neon was quite a bit more interesting to me.

Reverse Missionary by Newell Harry

Ship of Fools, Ship Adrift 2 by Paul McCarthy

I chatted with the woman working there and asked about the bus system and how to get around. She pulled out her iPhone and loaded up a nifty app that pulled up public transportation times, routes, and maps. On my way, now at least a bit more informed on the Sydney public transportation system, I kept walking toward Circular Quay. As the street rounded the corner, the infamous Sydney Opera House filled my view, across a very busy boat channel.

Sydney Opera House

I continued on, until I found the Sydney Museum of Contemporary Art in Circular Quay, another venue for the Biennial, and the other ferry location. I wandered around the quay, enjoying the sights and entertainment from street performers, and then headed off to figure out the bus system.

Since it was before 8PM you couldn’t pay cash fare on the bus and needed to have a pre-paid “mybus” pass to ride the bus. I found the closest vendor and bought a few passes (at $3.30 each) for the bus, and asked for the best route home. He pointed me in the right direction and I was off back to campus.

After a shower, I joined everyone to celebrate Ben’s birthday. We grabbed some food at small pizza place near by and hopped on the bus back toward circular quay, to the area known as “The Rocks”. We went to a club called Argyle and had a great time. After we all went to get pancakes at a restaurant fittingly called “Pancakes on the Rocks”. Its open 24 hours, and seems to do pretty good business. The smaller group I ended up with caught a cab home (Which cost… $30), as they couldn’t be bothered to figure out the bus system. Not a bad Friday! I’m not sure where I’m going tonight, but I have a feeling Karaoke is going to be involved… and Kings Cross. Should be fun!

Somebody must love me. As you can see, none of my classes meet on monday, so that leaves monday effectively blocked out. Blocking out the time when photography meets on friday blocks out all of friday, and blocking out the time ceramics meets on tuesday blocks out all of tuesday. Viola! 5 day weekend! This is the resulting (official) timetable for my classes:

So Wednesday, my schedule looks like this:

Philosophy of Happiness (Lecture) 12:00PM – 2:00PM
Photography (Studio) 2:00PM – 5:00PM
Ceramics (Studio) 5:30PM – 8:30PM

And on Thusrday, like this:

Digital Arts (Lecture) 10:00AM – 12:00PM
Digital Arts (Tutorial) 12:00PM – 1:00PM
Philosophy of Happiness (Tutorial) 3:00PM -4:00PM

And I get the rest of the week off! I could possibly be the luckiest guy in the world. I’m in Australia taking four great classes (Photography, Ceramics, Digital Art, and The Philosophy of Happiness) for my last semester of school possibly ever, and I get a 5 day weekend! The possibilities for travel are now wide open; here’s to hoping I can get a flexible job that gets me some travel/spending money and lets me take off time to travel

Anyways, I just got around to unpacking, and figured everyone would want to see where I’m living. Pardon the mess; I still need to sort through some clothes and do a bit of organizing. Not a bad room though!