Canada
I am pleasantly suprised to see my
We're Going to be Friends video, which I posted on
YouTube back in April, has had 2,222 hits and been 'favorited' 22 times. Okay, so Spike Jonze may not be knocking on my door anytime soon but it is a lot of 2s. There must be a lot of White Stripes fans out there.
From time to time, people ask me in emails when I am returning to Australia. Well after my phone call with some cow at
British Airways, my flight has been scheduled to arrive in Adelaide at noon on June 5th 2007 - just in time for lunch. That is the very latest I could book it for (its an 18 month ticket) but, of course, dates could always be brought forward depending on circumstances. I like to think it will remain as is.
I have started to make plans for Canada. Based on the advise I was given by Kate Mackenzie, I think I will definetely head for Banff (or Banfford as I like to call it). Banff is a resort town in the Rocky Mountains in south-west Alberta, on the British Columbian border. It has a population of around 8,000 people and is the highest town elevation in Canada. I am thinking I may take the 38 hour train ride from LA which will have me arrive in Vancouver about a half hour into Christmas day.
After a day or two I would take the 14 hours bus drive to Banff. Such a lengthy travel time is a bit daunting but it would be great to see all that beautiful scenery. I may, however, opt for the plane ride to Calgary. My decision to go to Canada will be dependent on what I hear about job oppurtunities in January.
Hello
Thought I would put up a post even though I dont have much to write.
I was at a friends house the other night and saw a talking dog on Letterman. My friend missed it because he was out-back, taking a refill from his birthday keg. When he re-enterd the room I was telling him how he had just missed the talking dog and what a shame it was that he had. Now, I dont even have a tv at my house so you can imagine my suprise when he picked up the remote and rewound the television. He can pause, rewind, fast forward any channel he likes. Its kind of weird. But that's what makes America great: rewindable television, and talking dogs. Did anyone else see that talking dog?
Talking of late night tv, Jay Leno is coming to Butler during homecoming, but I think they are making it part of some black tie event for alumni, which is expensive and by invitation only. I know my department is not allowed to record him but maybe we will do the video for the big screens in-house. Of course, homecoming includes the big homecoming football game where the King and Queen are crowned. Hooray!
I have 10.5 weeks left at school. In that time we have Fall break and Thanksgiving. I have heard of a rafting trip in Virginia so I hope to get along to that.
I was asking some locals what they considered to be the number one things that a visitor to Indiana should see. The most common answer seems to be a trip to Bloomington to see an Indiana Hoosiers basketball game. So I will plan a trip when their schedule comes out
The Pacers season is starting soon. We are going to a game and I believe we get an oppurtunity to shoot a free throw at half time. Ive been in training for it - I may only ever get to take one shot on an NBA court in front of a huge crowd, so I want to make it.
Arrrgh!
Ahoy Me Hearty! and happy
International Talk Like a Pirate Day. I fullfilled my goal of riding the
Top Thrill Dragster at
Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio. The ride accelerates from 0 to 193 mph in just 3.8 seconds before rising to over 400 feet and then returning at a drop of 90 degrees. All that fun takes 25 seconds. It was quite the rush. Here I am at the park with the European contingent (all from Germany with the exception of the middle man, who is Dutch). And that's not "Frank" Habets waving, although he oftens remindeds me of him.
The roofs of many houses in Indianapolis have been undergoing maintenance since the hail storm caused much damage back at the start of the summer. I woke up at 4 the other morning to the sound of
pit-a-pat, pit-a-pat. Opening my wardrobe door I was presented with a nice waterfall from the roof. Nah, it's goood!
I read that stingrays have been turning up dead and am wondering if we're now going to suffer from deforestation as a result of Brock's death. It seems there really is no limit to the depth of human stupidity.
9/11
Are we any safer? is the question many columnists were asking today. I would think the bombing of Iraq will spawn breeds of retaliators in the years to come. I guess that's the problem of fighting fire with fire!
Here's a pic of me on the circle in the US city labelled by the local Fox station as the most likely to be a victim of international terrorism (the truth is Indianapolis applied for more funding to secure against terrorism than any other US city). You gotta get you headlines somehow I guess. Behind me is the glass facade of the place I am interning. Ive just had a slice of pizza for breakfast and am about to go into the building.
Cornfield Football
This past weekend I took a trip out of town using the blue highways. Blue highways are the back-roads (often two-lane) which were once the main routes before the Interstate Highway System began being built post-World War 2. (Route 66 was a blue highway - I write 'was' as it is now decommisssioned).
While the Interstate Highway System affords quicker travel times and more conveniences (like pretty much uninterrupted mobile phone coverage), travelling on blue highways gives you the pleasure of seeing America of yesteryear; farmhouses set upon acres of corn fields and an assortment of 'mom-and-pop' businesses. Our destination was Delta High School where we took part in the production of another high school football game.
Friday Night Lights
Smoov Goes to College has a new feature (thanks for the idea El) - an interactive map where you can see who's visiting. Click on the world map to the right and look at the dots. I wanna get more of those red dots so please, if you go anywhere for any reason; holidays, business trips, kidnappings, please make sure you visit me on the information superhighway.
So, the Indy Indians went down on the road last night - ending their season and squashing our hopes of drinking from the Governer's Cup. My attention will now shift from AAA baseball to
Friday Night Lights, where I will continue to work some games for Comcast.
This weekend marks Butler's first home game for the year. They haven't won a game since 2004 and on the evening of that win half of the team was charged with underage-drinking.
Man, what a bugger about Steve Irwin! Often when Americans (or any other nationality for that matter) learn that you are Australian, their faces light up and they tell you how much they love Australia and how they have always wanted to visit there - I'm sure he had a lot to do with that.
"For those who appreciate those with skills..."
I thought of my friends in SA when I bumped into this chap at the local music store in Broad Ripple. Infact, I didnt really bump into him because I went there knowing that J5 were doing a DJ set. It was funny, when Fritz, Parker and I got out of the car, Akil approached us to ask for directions so we took him there. And oh man it was so cool standing in the store and turning around to see Charli approaching us with this big grin. Those guys are very nice!
Later that night we saw them at the Vogue which was a great venue as it was easy to walk between the bar and the front of the stage. But what's the deal with this? You could use your 10 fingers to tally the number of African Americans that were at the DJ set and then the gig. I find that really strange. Haha - it was like a Theby crowd!
I am pleasantly suprised to see my We're Going to be Friends video, which I posted on YouTube back in April, has had 2,222 hits and been 'favorited' 22 times. Okay, so Spike Jonze may not be knocking on my door anytime soon but it is a lot of 2s. There must be a lot of White Stripes fans out there.
