Work work work work work

Work is a funny word. Its one of those words that if you say it over and over and over again a lot of times in a row it just starts to sound funny and meaningless. Try it:

work, work work, work work work work
, work work, work, work, work work


Totall ridiculous right?

I've been doing a lot of work lately. I like my work however and often it is quite a bit of fun. Sometimes I talk with people who also enjoy their work, and its nice. Often you can end up in a situation where you both try to outdue eachother and it can get ridiculous.

: Well I love my job so much I would do it for half my salary.
:: Oh yeah, well I love my job so much I would travel 8000 miles and pay $3000 a year so that I could do it!

I call it work, but really I'm still a student. When I graduate I will be able to get paid for the same work -- even though I've already graduated and have been paid to do similar work elsewhere.

Working in marine science will not make me wealthy, but hopefully I'll get to travel to a lot of cool places. Working on dolphins and whales won't make me famous, but it might make it easier to pick up hippie chicks at a bar.

It might go down something like this:

[Wavy lines and fade to bar scene]

So, you're a freelance acupuncturist? [trying really hard to keep a straight face] Thats fascinating. I work with dolphins and whales. Well actually I work with sperm whales.
No, they aren't the ones that sing. They just make clicking noises.
No, I'm not trying to figure out what they are saying.
Well, actually no thats the walrus, but they are called sperm whales because the old whalers used to think that their large heads were filled with sperm, when actually they are filled with a fatty tissue that is used --
What do you mean you have to leave you just got here?
But I'm pretty sure you didn't come in to the bar with those people.
Right, well I'm glad I didn't offer to buy you a drink then.

Yikes, I need to work on my technique! Maybe if I spent less time at work and more time actually interacting with real people I would have more luck.

Work work work work work work work work kwerk kwerk kwerk

*** UPDATE 30 July 2006 ***

Maybe it just feels like I work all the time becaue I can't ever remember my weekends... didn't need those braincells anyway.

Next Stop: Guantanamo Bay

Thats it. I'm officially done for. The men in dark suits and mirrored sunglasses are going to lock me up for good. What chance do I really have? It all started when I decided to renew my New Zealand student visa. I didn't think much of it at the time, but New Zealand requires me to submit a copy of my criminal record (or lack thereof) as a part of my visa application. In order to do this, I had to submit a copy of my fingerprints to the FBI to keep my good name clear. I'm certain that they've already flagged me as a potential terrorist -- I mean I've checked out library books in the USA such as The Monkeywrench Gang by Edward Abbey, Dude Where's my Country, by Michael Moore and Ishmael by Daniel Quin, though I'm pretty sure that the last one makes me a crackpot rather than a terrorist. Anyway, with the PATRIOT act providing my subversive reading habits, my prints on file, and my clear intentions to spend time in [gasp] liberal leaning New Zealand, I probably shouldn't even bother going back to the USA. Doesn't it bother anyone else that Fuhrer Bush has blocked the nsa phone tap inquiry? How can that action be anything other than a cover up? Who stands to lose by disclosing that information? Its not like its all that difficult to get a warrant for a wiretap anyway -- especially if the persone who you want to listen to is actually suspicious.

I don't think I have much time to write now. I thought I saw this black suburban with ultra tinted windows following me earlier, and now there is an unmarked white van outside the building. I don't think that the FBI would do anything to me while I am in New Zealand, but perhaps I aav favfgklj;fdsa
.
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Introducing Max Power!

Queenstown is one of the most visited tourist towns in New Zealand. A short three hour drive from Dunedin means easy access for a day or a weekend. Queenstown is a melting pot for extreme sports.
Bungi jumping, skydiving, paragliding, whitewater rafting, are all routine activities in Queenstown, in addition to regular run of the mill sports like snowboarding, skiing, and pub crawling, and championship ping pong. Today we bring you exciting photos from one of the hottest up and coming super extreme sports in existence -- the moderate-speed, upright, downhill, luge.

I'm sure you are all thinking, 'Sure moderate-speed luging is dangerous and has some of the best looking groupies of any extreme sport, but after I become a MUD luge champion, which breakfast cereal will carry my mugshot as an endorsement of its extremeness?' so I won't hold you in suspense. There are no endorsements for road luge. Top MUD luger TimTam Milo explains, "A lot of lesser sports need sponsorship, but the exquisite physique and poor hygeine of a moderate-speed luger renders this an impossibility."

Check out these death defying photos of moderate-speed luging.

Greatest accomplishment (a haiku)

...three, two, one. we have
liftoff. velcro, foam pillows
knowledge perspective

Now ad-free! With 33% more incoherent rambling!

Writing from home as I stare out the large glass doors at the harbor. Its twighlight out and the rain and fog is slowly rolling in. With the street lights on before dusk and the broad view over Dunedin it somehow manages to avoid looking gloomy. It doesn't look cozy though either. Its easy to describe how the city doesn't look. Withdrawn is a word that springs to mind. Perhaps a bit homesick.

Feeling a bit stressed at the moment, as I have been applying for scholarships again. Otherwise life is pretty good.

I found myself missing Home Depot today. Home Depot is pretty much the last thing I would expect to miss about the states, just slightly behind Wal-Mart. Here in Dunedin the Mega Mitre 10 is meant to fill the DIY home and building niche, but unfortunately it doesn't quite live up to home depot.

Mega Mitre 10 is stocked with dozens of things that are close but not quite what you want. For example, I wanted to add a towel rack or towel hook to my bathroom, and could find various racks and hooks, all of which totally suck. The have only one size of PVC pipe, and no threaded end caps. They sell really nice circular power saws, but stock only the crappiest hacksaws. However, they have a lovely cafe inside the store near the garden section. I ate at the Mitre 10 cafe with my flatmates this morning and had quite a lovely breakfast. Scrambled eggs on ciabbata toast with a perfectly done hollandaise sauce. Funny that the best thing at the hardware store is the food.

I miss Boston a lot too, especially because summer in Massachussetts is lovely. I think what I really miss is the easy access to shore diving -- even if there is hardly anything to see. Last year at this time I was spending most of my free time up in Gloucester, MA scuba diving in lovely Folly Cove (don't mind the garbage on the shore, its nice underwater).

Went for a walk with my flatties after breakfast to climb Mt. Cargill (690m), but the weather quickly turned gray and rainy. Its nice getting out, and I've always maintained that exercise is the best hangover cure (Drank a bit too much last night). I love the cloud forests here. And the bellbirds are definitely my favorite birds to listen to.

My PhD is now in full swing and its becoming tricky to stay afloat. I have never worked this hard on anything in my life, but I'm thoroughly enjoying it too. When I was in school I only did the minimal amount of work that I had to do to get by. I could do less here and still get by, but I wouldn't be satisfied -- its my project and its success, failure, and quality ultimately depend on me. I know many people get burnt out when doing their PhD and I can totally see how that happens. I'm not close to burning out yet, but there is no shortage of work ahead for me and I can't see how I'll ever actually finish it all.

To Lazentaters and BS King (names not changed to protect the innocent), I enjoy reading your blogs very much. Its easy to read and pretend I'm in the same room. Makes me laugh a lot too. Good stuff. Wish I could be funny too, but sadly I'm only funny when I try to be serious.

Tried to take a picture of a rainbow as viewed from my porch, but it came out crappy. Photography is tricky for me, and I have much respect for those who are good at it.

I am happy to report that thanks to donations from viewers like you, future postings will be ad-free. I'm sure you are all relieved.

Back to the lab

Sadly my winter field season has come to an end. It was a lovely 4 weeks up in Kaikoura, but now I've returned to cold and cloudy Dunedin. Some of the highlights of the trip include the 3 humpbacks that we saw passing through on their migration, as well as a sperm whale spyhopping and lunging out of the water. Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of the sperm whale when it was leaping up out of the water, but I did manage to take a few pictures of the humpbacks. I've posted the pictures into my photo-album on flickr, so feel free to have a look.

Winter fieldwork pictures

I would have liked to spend another month in the field, but its important that I actually analyze the results and use that information to improve our methods and instruments. So I'll spend the next few months working in the lab trying to make sense of the 35 gigabytes of recordings that we made. All in all I believe it was a great success, and it would not have been possible without the extensive help of my supervisors Steve Dawson and Liz Slooten.

Also in Kaikoura I got to see my friend Rio Rossellini. Rio is an artist who draws lovely pictures of marine life. You can check out her artwork on her website listed below.

Rio Rossellini's Artwork

I'll keep this short because I'm tired and have unpack and get some food before the hills here get too frosty to drive on. Gotta spend time in the sun while its shining here in gray cloudy Dunedin.