and sometimes why

i am really starting to love sydney. the light is beautiful. the coast goes on forever. ozzies are super friendly, laid back, with a dry, sarcastic, off-the-wall sense of humor.

the downsides: everywhere is crowded all the time. most everything is closed by 5pm every day except for thursday, so if you have any shopping or errands, you have to do it then. internet is slooooow and expensive. and the restaurant/retail service is horrible!

since i've been here i've had kangaroo (delicious) and chicken feet (horrible).
i woke up to the laugh of a kookaburra! super loud and startling.
i woke up to the news that michael jackson had died.
i was really impressed by the huge statue of a pelican i saw somewhere on the central coast. and then it moved!
i'm pretty sure my jaw dropped seeing the lit up opera house from the harbor bridge at night.
i petted a very soft wallaby.
i loved the breathtaking queenslanders (mansions) in brisbane.
the spiders are large in australia.
opals are big and dark and firey—better than any i've seen before.
"fanny pack" absolutely does not mean the same thing in australia as it does in the US.

i'm going to seattle from july 10-15, and then jake is coming back to australia with me!!!

A lot has been happening. I think I have probably flown more in the past month than I have in my whole life put together! After being in Sydney for a few weeks, I flew back to the US—crazy, I know! But it was great to see the people I have been missing so much!

First I flew to Ft. Lauderdale where my grandparents and great aunt and uncle picked me up. It's been a while since I'd seen them, so that was nice. The next day they dropped me off at the port for Heather and Alfie's cruise ship wedding! It was a four-day cruise and we went to Key West and Cozumel. The beach at Cozumel was pristine. I sat in a thatched-roof hut and a nice Mexican man brought me a drink in a pineapple. No internet and no phone reception... totally relaxing. I finished the 'His Dark Materials' series, which was amazing but I'm sad it's over.

After the cruise I spent a couple days in Ft. Lauderdale doing some shopping and maxing in the retirement condo. Then I flew to Newark where my sweet Jake surprised me by showing up early to Mary K and Erik's wedding. It was a magical weekend :)

I pasted some of my favorite Australianisms below. I haven’t heard all of these. Australians really like to abbreviate stuff, but it seems like a lot of the time it causes more confusion than it saves. For example, “tomato sauce” can mean pasta sauce, marinara, ketchup, pretty much anything liquid and tomatoey. They do have Heinz here!

She’ll be apples: it’ll be alright
It’s gone walkabout: it’s lost, can’t be found
Ridgy-didge: original, genuine
Shonky: dubious, underhanded.
Piece of piss: easy task
He’s got the wobbly boot on: drunk
He hasn’t got a brass razoo: he’s very poor
Let’s have a Captain Cook: let’s have a look
Take a squizz at this: take a look at this
Spit the dummy: get very upset at something

Arvo: afternoon
Bluey: pack, equipment, traffic ticket, redhead, blue cattle dog
Brown-eyed mullet: a turd in the sea
Cark it: to die, cease functioning
Bikkie: biscuit “it cost big bikkies” it was expensive
Dead horse: tomato sauce
Dunny: outside lavatory
Grundies: underwear
Hottie: hot water bottle
Tinny: can of beer, lucky, small aluminium boat
Zack: sixpence (5 cents)

Banana bender: a person from Queensland
Fruit loop: fool
Garbo, garbologist: municipal garbage collector
Journo: journalist
Mexican: a person from south of the (Queensland) border

Australia is pretty cool. I haven't really done too much touristy stuff in Sydney (other than shop!), but I did spend a long weekend in Brisbane where I got to see all kinds of Australian flora and fauna.

According to some webpage, Birmingham, AL is the "Pittsburgh of the South." Pittsburgh is the "Birmingham of America."

Birmingham (UK) was home to the Lunar Society, which was a bunch of atheists including John Baskerville, the typographer.

Baskerville has the prettiest lower-case g of any typeface. I have three different versions of Baskerville (different type foundries have their own versions):

Russell bit me. It was very traumatic, but we made up. Dan made me go to the doctor and I'm glad I did because it was pretty bad. It was really deep and bled a lot. I got a tetanus shot and antibiotics so that I wouldn't turn into Catwoman.

The tetanus shot was free and it lasts for 5-10 years. That's good because now I know I am protected if I get bitten by a wombat or a dingo because I am interning in Australia this summer!!! In Sydney at a fantastic company called 2nd Road!!! It is going to be great.

I have a new camera! You will probably never see me without it now. Oh and by new I mean used—but it is a Nikon DSLR and it is amazing! Check out some of my first pictures—of Russell, of course!



And now I am using iPhoto. I was vehemently opposed to previous versions, but this newest version that came with iLife '09 has FACE RECOGNITION and FLICKR SYNCING. I have also dropped gCal for iCal, Thunderbird for Mail, gChat for iChat, Motofone for iPhone. I am all almost all Apple. I didn't even realize it was happening. They just do everything better.

russell is staying with me again. right now i am using him as a heater for my feet. i love this guy. he is the quintessential kitty—he is so soft and he has the cutest kitty face and a huge fluffy tail. he alternates seamlessly between acting aloof and being completely loving and the fastest he moves is when i walk into the kitchen and he darts after me because he thinks i am going to feed him. if he could have it his way he would nap all the time, but i find it extremely fun to fling hair ties at him or push him off the couch to wake him up any time he starts to fall asleep.

it was so nice out and the gym was closed so jake and i took a walk in frick park yesterday and we saw 29 different dogs, maybe more!

a couple weeks ago i went to chicago! highlights of the trip include a ride in a porsche, a tour of northwestern, deep dish pizza, korean barbeque, big red roses, morgan the waitress, the hotel, and a hipster dance party with live worms. here are some pictures:



i have an iPhone!

i took it easy and my cold went away pretty quickly! i have really been trying to stay healthy because tomorrow i'm going to chicago! did you know that it will be the 80th anniversary of the st. valentines day massacre? wiki says that the massacre was planned by al capone and his friends while they were hanging out hunting and fishing in the woods of wisconsin. it reminded me of "soprano home movies"—the first episode of season 6 part 2 where they are at that cabin on a lake and it is very tense and theatrical and very who's afraid of virginia woolf-y.

oooh i just read the memorable quotes from that episode... "I mean, our line of work, it's always out there. You probably don't even hear it when it happens, right?" -Bobby

oh and here is a poem about chicago by one of my least favorite poets, but i still like it.

i keep confusing i and 1, which is weird because they are on opposite sides of the keyboard! i think my brain got a wire crossed.

i have a cold! i wonder if it will last all semester again?

i've been eating pretty well, avoiding alcohol almost altogether, and getting 8 hours (except for last night, cause of the 'bowl and my early class) and wearing my gloves and washing my hands a lot. why can't i stay healthy!?! maybe i should have some chicken noodle soup.

i had another weird thing to say but i forget now. my brain is infected.

i like this dog because it looks like a cat. it's a samoyed. from wiki:

"These nomadic reindeer herders bred the fluffy, white, smiling dogs to help with the herding, to pull sleds when they moved, and to keep their owners warm at night by sleeping on top of them."

American Eskimo Dogs are also pretty cool.



they are actually german.

i'm having some rough days lately. and by rough i mean i have to put on my pretty coat and walk through some pretty snow to receive my privileged education. but i've been feeling antsy and distracted and kinda down on myself. i think a steelers superbowl victory will help :)

amy evaluating what to have for lunch:
no leftovers in the fridge (that aren't spoiled, anyway).
back-to-school care package from parents: 3.5 pounds of swedish fish and microwave popcorn bags.
sounds good. proceed to put popcorn in microwave.
can't use popcorn setting because there are 30 seconds left on the timer (the "clear/reset" button doesnt work).
think "what takes 30 seconds to nuke?"
melt some shredded cheese on tortilla chips. lunch.

this was definitely a design process. visualization, facilitation, prototyping, creativity, ambiguity, emotion.

but there are maybe better design solutions...
1. go to the grocery store regularly and/or have deliveries
2. spinach that doesnt wilt before i get a chance to make a salad out of it
3. a microwave that is functional, beautiful, usable
4. restaurant leftover containers that keep food longer

why does carnegie mellon think they are too good to cancel? i was freezing and soaked and miserable by the time i got to school and sometimes we just deserve a day off!

i need an online resume and portfolio. i need them yesterday.

my face is still gross and my skin all over is dry and itchy. i don't know what to do with myself.

</complaints>

i'm flailing a little bit. my skin is really gross and my all my pants are tight and i have this writing assignment that i just can't complete. not can't—won't. i don't know why. oh actually i do—it's a written self portrait and i'm the most boring person in the world.

somehow in my life i watched jurassic park 1 and 3, but not jurassic park 2.

i miss russell waiting for me at the bottom of my stairs when i come home. he left lots of fur on my rug for me to remember him by, though. william s burroughs wrote a kind of a self-portrait called 'the cat inside' about all of the cats he knew in his life. it is actually really great. maybe i could do that but i dont have time now. it's midnight and class is at 9am. i have to go with what i have, which is some stupid thing about shopping for toilet paper. ugh. actually i can't use this. i guess i'll have to get up early and start from scratch because i am too sleepy to write now.

i am in bad shape. my nails are chewed up, my hair is flat and staticky, my skin is itchy, and i am totally broken out :(

I am not ready for this semester. All I want to do is sleep. I like this duvet cover:



The pattern is called Shanghai Night. I think it would look great with my black headboard and dusty-robin's-egg-blue (cant think of a better name for it) curtains. I've never ordered bedding online before, though. You've gotta touch it! When will they make touchable online shopping?!

I thought my schedule was all set, but now I am wavering on what my elective should be. Help!

Typography IV
Mapping & Diagramming (how to communicate complex information)
Making Things Interactive?!

Here is the description for Making Things Interactive:

"In this hands-on design-build class you will learn the skills to embed sensors and actuators (light, sound, touch, motion, etc.) into everyday things (and places etc.) and to program their interactive behavior using a microcontroller."

I want to take them all. I think Making Things Interactive would be hardest, but maybe the coolest. I have some programming experience from Computing in Design. But I also love typography. But people have told me that I should take Mapping & Diagramming. If I take M&D, then I would have to come to school on Fridays...

Acerbity Monk
Back Enormity
Ambient Rocky
Banker Comity
Bemoan Tricky
Catkin Embryo
Tacky Bromine
Minatory Beck

you can never have enough lip balm or too many hair ties.

new year's resolutions stuff to do:
lose 20 lbs... or just don't gain weight
continue being awesome
and generally get my shit together.

oh and i want to finish painting my table and chairs and also i decided to paint my kitchen cabinets with the same white since i have so much paint left and because they're gross. i really need to frame and hang art in my apartment, too!

tomorrow is giftmas with the gang. i hope they like what i got them.

on thursday, mary k and erik are coming to pittsburgh! it is gonna be awesome.