The sweeter the apple...

"The sweeter the apple, the blacker the core"
Dorothy Parker (American short-story Writer and Poet, 1893-1967)

What is it about villains and bad boys eating apples? Green apples at that?

Can't think of a title

After Friday and Saturday's concert fest I really had had my fill so today I went shopping instead. I have been desperate for new jeans for work. The holes in my current pair have become too raunchy for the workplace. I hate shopping for jeans, hence why I have continued to wear the old ones until they fell apart. After trying on twelve different pairs I found two that I liked. I also scored two pairs of shoes, a skirt, two pairs of shorts and a new handbag. Not bad really. Mostly all from BT's favourite shop with designer names for bargain prices. I think I was in desperate need of clothes shopping. The last time I did some serious clothes shopping was when JD was here.

It was such a nice day. Today was the first day in a long time where it hasn't rained at all. I forgot what the sun looked like. I quickly remembered what it felt like, hot. Then again while it was bright and sweaty outside, it wasn't that bad. I know it can and will get a lot worse.

Ms Jimmy hear the news about Toni? Glad you guys had fun on Saturday. I was impressed with how smooth the streaming of the concerts went seeing how popular it all was (SMH).

I was searching for images of Captain Barbossa and I came across this site. It isn't in english but the pics are too cute! Not sure how they relate to Captain Barbossa. I was going to post some here, but I couldn't choose which one.

Just for you G no random pic today.

Music

7/7/07. Today was my Eldest cousin's Birthday.

Today was a productive day which is surprising seeing how little sleep I had last night. I hadn't originally planed on watching the entire Earth Live Sydney concert, but I did and therefore was up until almost 6am. Little did I realise that the online streaming of the concerts is on continuous cycle, so I could have gone to bed at a reasonable hour and then watched the rest in the morning. Oh well. As it was I napped in the boring bits and then when the Sydney concert finished I went to bed for 2.5 hrs as I wanted to watch the London concert starting at 8am Houston time. Yes I am mad. The London concert had the best line up by far. Not surprisingly I feel asleep on the couch and missed a slab of the London concert, but I have had it running in the background all day while I cleaned the house (that was the major productive aspect of the day), cooked dinner (masaman curry) for N and P who came over and stayed around to watch the concert. I now only have it running in the background to catch the slab I slept through. It is not too different to having music going but I can't help but think it goes against everything the concerts were promoting. Instead of conserving energy, I have been running my laptop and tv (laptop hooked up to tv) all day and night. But I have been very conservative with my air-conditioning for someone who lives in Houston! I also catch the bus to work everyday and hardly ever drive my car so maybe it balances out.

Seeing the previous post had a pic from my trip to Dallas, here are pics of one of the very few interesting things to do/see in Dallas.

The site of the JFK assassination.




This one is the old Texas School Book Depository (It’s now the Dallas County Administration Building). The sixth floor is a museum of the JFK assassination and conspiracies. The actual window is set up as it would have been at the time and is permanently half open (the six floor square end window).



People really do mill around and discuss the theories. You can see people pointing to the window and the cross in the middle of the road. They dodge the traffic to run out and take their photos. The markings on the road and curb are remainders of the many investigations that have taken place.

Ah, technology

I don't know about this every day posting thing... Is it too much for people to read?!

There was me thinking posting everyday would mean I would have shorter entries but it just goes to show that I can write about anything. Also, that I am simply incapable of writing a short thing...

People often say to me after I do certain things "how unusual...". I catch myself saying it too. I am a little tired of it. I know I am predictable. I hate that too. Things I am predictable for that I am sick of:
- Inability to say things in a few words
- Always having a story for everything (and people have heard most of them so I am often repeating myself)
- Running late

After getting a bit caught up in the iphone hype. I have quickly overcome my excitement. I mean it is a $600US gadget that then requires a $60US monthly plan to use. I like my $40 prepaid mobile where $100US lasts me 8-12 months, I already have an ipod (old and outdated now, it was pre-colour menus and video, but it works fine and I love it's simplicity) and I have high speed internet at work and home -do I really need it in between as well?! My boss has tried to convince me how great BlackBerry's are. She can't live without hers. She takes it with her on holidays so she can keep reading her emails. I think it is rather sad. On holidays you should be avoiding work! That's the point of going away, to give yourself a break. There are times I like being out of contact. Everyone went crazy over iphones. It is a little amusing to see what the crazy people do. Reading SMH the other day I saw this article which includes a video of someone smashing an iphone. YouTube has a few videos of people carefully dismantling their iphones with the skills of a surgeon to see how they work, but the method used in the video in the above link is special.

Talking with G the other day, we ended the conversation with him agreeing to email me with news that we were waiting on. I get up in the morning excited to read the results only to find an empty inbox. It made me think. I realise that I am also slack with emailing people. I use gtalk or messenger daily but that's it. It is a sad day when email is too hard to do.. and we don't communicate if the other person isn't online. We really are a society of instant gratification/response. Digital cameras, instant messaging. So much for the old telephone, and even worse, hand written letters. Very rare. It is amazing to think back to the time when that's how people communicated and the letters could take weeks to get to their destination. They still do in America because US Postal Service is so bad (even internally let alone a letter from here to Australia). In the end, G didn't send me the email because he wanted to wait until he could tell me in person. I was hurt that he didn't write the email but now that I think about it, I was being unreasonably impatient (sorry G), wanting some of that instantaneousness we have become accustom to. It really was nothing to wait 24hrs until I could talk to him again, but I not a patient person and like to know things as soon as possible. My life is full of uncertainty and waiting and I hate it. Yes I am a control freak. Now, I want everything now!

I am doing a lot of literature searches at the moment for work, trawling journal articles. I often reflect how incredibly easy it is with the internet and electronic journal articles - now you can get a copy of papers before they are even published without leaving your desk. No more hours in the library flipping through dusty volumes. I try to think back to how it use to be done without internet.. Literature searching would have been harder and far more time consuming. Ah the days where you looked up books in the library using the card catalogue.

While writing this entry I was watching the Sydney component of the Live Earth concert. Ah magic of the internet. There were even photos up on the SMH website within an hour of the concert starting. It looked like a lovely day in Sydney. The sunset was amazing. Hope you guys at the concert had a blast (did you sway like a boat to Eskimo Joe? Feel the love).

Random pic time:
Here's a pic of the Sam Houston statue north of Houston. It is the world’s tallest statue of an American Hero. I am standing at the base to give it perspective. N and I stopped by the statue on the way to Dallas last year.

Random observations

So with this daily posting challenge I was worried I wouldn't have anything to write about. I warned BT that it may be rather boring but she wants to hear about my day to day stuff. Things I see on the bus to and from work and such. So the following are some of my wandering thoughts while at the supermarket today.

Germs
The people who inhabit this country are incredibly germaphobic or whatever term you would like to use:
Mysophobia - An abnormal fear of dirt or contamination
Microbiophobia -An abnormal fear of microbes
Bacillophobia - An abnormal fear of bacilli
Bacteriophobia - An abnormal fear of bacteria and other microorganisms
This obsession is made obvious by the number of antibacterial products you can get. Even G thought the antibacterial wipes that are available free from a dispenser to wipe down the handle of your trolley at the supermarket was rather over the top. N was telling me today how a woman she works with is quite germaphobic and after returning home from travelling on a plane she wont hug her son until she has had a shower because of the germs.

Milk inflation
Frustrations. I have been avoiding dairy food for the last two weeks due to an upset tum and so I have decided to try milk again and see if I still have a bad reaction. In the two weeks in which I haven't bought any milk, the price has risen $0.70US. Fortunately today milk was on special but it was still more than I use to pay.

Wrapped shopping bags
I miss the green grocery shopping bags we have at home. I noticed today my supermarket has started to sell the same thing in black for just over a dollar. It comes wrapped in a plastic bag... But don't get me started on the issue of over-packaging that happens here.

Segway not segue
Yes that very bizzare form of transport, that of course is popular here because why would I want to use the legs I was born with when there is an easier way, the Segway. I saw a guy on one this afternoon travelling on the footpath up my street. In the past I have seen people who are information contacts using them because they stand out in a crowd. G and I saw a group of people in Austin mucking around on these. It was a tour group. Definitely a unique way to see the sites of the city -beats the Wally bus as my family call it (because you look like a Wally sitting up there). It would be kinda fun to hire one to play with for a bit however I would still prefer using my legs for the walking. Here's a pic of the group we saw in Austin:



Crazy backward, stubborn, wanna be different country
Spelling - it's the Queen's English I tell you. Making it simple, poor widdle 'mericans can't cope with a few extra vowels.
Measurements - Metric just makes more sense!!! Why are Americans so stubborn?! "Oh it's too hard to change now..." -crappy excuse if you ask me. I am thankful everyday that I work in a scientific field that uses the metric system.
Paper size - why is Letter the US standard? A4 and the other series are all lovely ratios. Maths is wonderful. I remember first looking at Letter sized paper and thought it was weird, all short and fat. I am sad to say that I have become used to it so that when I see A4 it looks so strange and skinny!
Driving - on the WRONG side of the road (it's fun actually because I know it's wrong!) just to assert their independence from England.

Challenge

Okay, so BT challenged me to write a blog entry every day for a week. It may look like I missed a day, but technically although it was after midnight when I wrote the last entry, I hadn't gone to bed yet -the previous post still counts as the 3rd of July. This one is a second post to make up for it.

I would just like to point out:
Good one BT, challenging me to posting daily the week you are going away!!! Fine leave and have fun in NZ then. At least there will be stuff here to read when you get back.

Not much happened today (that's what you get with daily postings...). Today was a public holiday and it rained most of the day. Fortunately it stopped so the fireworks still happened. They were breath taking! I have seen so many that after a while they seem same old-same old. But this was a huge display (apparently the largest land based display). It went for ages and had some cool elements I hadn't seen before. Lots of great bangs. Today felt like a Saturday. Unfortunately it isn't and the boss is back from holidays tomorrow. There goes the peace and quite. Everyone is so more relaxed when the boss is away.

More pics from out trip to Zion NP:
I love how the snow brings out the cracks int the cliff faces. I love snow.





This Zion pic is my desktop pic. What's your wallpaper?

Drunken ramblings

The party tonight was at P's boss' new house. Very nice. Quite modern and geometric. Great colour schemes too. Red, grey and black with a black spiral staircase leading to his study being the main feature in the living area -very cool. Pina Colada's were also very yummy and someone finally made me a margarita that I liked. Quality of your Tequila makes all the difference. P was the DJ for the party as it was good practice for him. He has new software that allows him to mix MP3s but he still has two spin tables for scratching (ok so I know nothing about DJ terminology...). It looked impressive. P's Boss had his Real Estate agent (realtor they are called here) there too, which was a little odd but they are good friends. We were all given take home lolly baggies supplied by the realtor -a plug for his business but the tootsie rolls (chocolate caramel chewy lollies) went down very well.

One highlight of the night was playing with an iphone. Yes I have now touched one. I was very excited. As much as I like technology I am usually hesitant and take a while to come around to wanting what everyone is raving about. Usually on principle. However, before I even touched one, I couldn't help but want one!!! Iphones are very funky!! They are so easy to use. It was fun to play with. I read in the SMH about two Aussies over here for holidays who bought iphones and are hoping to hack them so they work back in Australia. They may have just bought $600US souvenir paperweights if they don't succeed.

Tonight on the way to the party I had to stop and get petrol. While this may not seem newsworthy, it seems to shock people that it is the first time I have had to fill up since G left Houston end of March. I filled up after I dropped him at the airport and then tonight the petrol light came on. One tank (~38L) lasted over 3 months. I do drive my car a couple of times a week but I guess I just don't go very far! Benefits of not having to drive to work. One thing that bugs me here is everyone complaining about the cost of fuel. Wah wah. Petrol ranges $2.74-$2.93US/gallon. That's still ~$0.70-$0.80US/L. They should try living in Australia or Europe... Someone at work actually told me they were cancelling their holiday because the cost of fuel had gone up so much. I know it is all relative but please! Also if they didn't insist in driving gas-guzzler cars, I mean trucks, maybe it wouldn't cost so much. But that's Texas for you. Everything has to be big here. I am unfortunately use to it now but when I first arrived, I felt dwarfed in a normal car. I still hate it with a passion when I park in a carpark and after shopping find that my car is between two enormous truck-like cars. It makes backing out of your car space very scary because you just can't see what is coming until you are nearly all the way out of your spot.

Here's a picture of an Armadillo outside of a restaurant I pass often:



Here's a real one I saw (Jan 2006) in Brazos Bend State Park just south of Houston. We saw so many of these little guys. They are so cute.



G really wanted to see an armadillo when I took him to Brazos Bend (March 2007) but the alligators were out inforce. Alligators are what people usually come to see at the park. They are all wild and just laze about. We saw so many! They are so huge and scarily close just sitting on the path.

I miss the sound of silence

After 8 peaceful quiet months, I finally have neighbours in the apartments either side of mine. Before I moved one apartment over, the guy who used to be in the apartment I am in now was very noisy. He often played loud music and had loud parties. His girlfriend was even louder and would turn up late at night and bash on his door yelling his name at the top of her lungs. I wouldn't have let her in either. This use to go on and on. When they moved, so the apartment could be renovated, I was very relieved. At least the renovators worked 9-6pm. I then moved into this renovated apartment last October so my old one could be renovated. It has been vacant since then as has the apartment on the other side. This weekend both apartments were filled. I swear the walls are made of paper as I can hear the tv clearly next door. When my new neighbour in my old apartment has people knock on her door it sounds like they are knocking on mine. She was up late last night hammering her pictures up. I guess I became use to not many people around because right now I am very aware of people constantly walking up and down the balcony outside my window or hanging around and talking out there -I hear it all. Tonight neighbour on the right made friends with neighbour on the left and they have been going to and fro from each other's apartments. I like living in houses!!! I miss houses!!! I am thankful everyday that I live on the top floor. I am sure people below hear people thumping around above. When I first arrived at this complex I will never forget the couple below my apartment and the huge fights they use to have. Full on scary rows of slamming doors, screaming and shouting. I was always worried about them injuring each other. One night I distinctly remember after one of their rows, hearing the woman crying in the bedroom directly below mine. At times I had almost considered calling the police. For now if I need to block it all out I just turn up my tv or music.

Ok so I need to get out more. Lucky for me there is a party tomorrow... Wednesday is 4th of July and so we have a public holiday. I have been invited to a party which was going to be on Wednesday night until everyone invited convinced the host to make it Tuesday night so we don't have to worry about going to work the next day. Fortunately he was convinced. Makes sense to me.

Here are more pics of the Art Car Parade:
This one reminded me of contact that you use to cover school books with:


Starlight Starbright...


I love the feet sticking out of the inverted car, and the person upside down is real:


Gargoyle car: