Karaoke Lovin'

Having done a reinstall of my Mac, I was going through some old photos that I've imported. I miss my karaoke buddies! Special shout out to Simon "Skeet Skeet" Watt, whom I couldn't find a photo of.

Good Friends

It's always fun to see old friends, especially coming to visit us in New York. This week we had Reenie, Andrea, Cheyne and Mel all loitering around the Big Apple for a few days. We have the pleasure of Reenie and Andrea staying with us for the next few days. The pad is slightly squeezy, there have been some "are you finished with the toilet?" calls, but on the whole it's been fine. Definitely glad that we have a one-bedder, I just feel bad that they don't have much privacy!

People always ask us about the friends that we have made here in NY. I would say that it's a hard thing to do, because:
a) There are many good friends we already have trouble keeping in touch with.
b) Bec and I, being a couple, can hang out together and do things, and not feel as much the need to meet up with others.

Perhaps in time, one will find better friends in new cities. I do remember one my friends who moved overseas a few years ago telling me that there is always a greater comfort level with some people back home than anyone you meet in your new city. Maybe you just don't share that "growing up" stage, and the memories are not as emotionally strong.

Meanwhile, I take this opportunity to hang with some old friends and share some new memories!

Accents, Nicknames and Sayings

An Aussie work friend of mine was describing to a US colleague that there is a pattern in how Aussies make nicknames out of their friends. There are four categories:

1. The "a" ie Garry --> Gazza; Karen --> Kazza
   
2. The "ie / y" ie Stuart --> Stuey; Paul --> Paulie
3. The "o" ie Robert --> Robbo; Damien --> Daimo
4. The "completely random " ie Jo --> SaucyNugget
   

The funny thing was that this was quite a shock for our US friend, it must not be a prevalent here, the "completely random" category maybe, but the "a" version definitely not, most likely because their accents would not emphasise it.

On the other hand, I was a bit shocked hearing an Asian person I had just met cursing and talking as if he came straight out of a black movie! "Yo nigger....sup dog...that shit is wack!" (ok, that last one was my improv :)) I admit I say stuff like that once in a while for fun, but when it's part of someone's everyday speech, it seemed a bit out of hand.

Of course, that Asian-African thing is probably as weird to me as the Asian-Australian accent is to my new friends. As long as we both enjoy listening being entertained, it's all good.

Time To Refocus

There's always something happening in our lives here. Previously it was moving to our new place, then it was buying furniture for our new place, then it was travelling for work, this week it was buying coats in preparation for winter (40% off, by the way!).

What I have found is that I've been very bad at keeping that promise I made to myself a while ago. There seems to be no time for it, or rather I'm still not very motivated to do anything about it. I don't know how to make it more of my life, or maybe the issue is that I'm still not sure what problem I really want to tackle.

All I know is that the problem should be addressed at increasing the ability of people to be given an opportunity to succeed, whether that be education, or cultural change, or financial means. Perhaps I'm thinking too globally, where there are plenty of opportunities here in New York. Just have to find the right trigger for myself to kick into gear.

Halloween Fun

Halloween brings all sorts of strange characters out during the night. It's surprising how into it the people in New York are. We went to a night club, and practically 95% of the people there were dressed up, even though it was not mandatory. I saw Where's Wally, a banana, Sccoby Doo, Cleopatra (hot!), and a whole lot of short-skirted and busty women :)

As Bec and I walked to the night club, I was thinking this would be what frat or sorority dress up parties would be like. I thought that I would be too old for this, but it was actually a lot of fun, especially since everyone else was so enthusiastic.

And in case you were wondering....

Grandma

I visited my grandma again last weekend. It was her 86th birthday.

It's a strange thing to see someone who is still alive, but fails to respond to any outside stimulus. The Alzheimer's has definitely taken its toll, with Grandma asleep most of the time. She woke up for about 10min, and then went back to sleep again. And by "awake" I mean she opened her eyes, but did not say anything, did not move, do not live.

Realistically, I know that she does not hear me, doesn't feel me holding her hand. But then we have to be positive, and think that each visit registers somehow in her brain, and that she still feels the love. Perhaps if she still had the power of speech she might convey what we are trying to convey to her.

The one thing I did come away with was that she looked at peace. Maybe she's soaring through the skies, wandering the galaxy, and got annoyed that she had to come back to see her grandson :)

I hope that's the case.

The Shame

I wrote about being a gentleman a while back, and how I thought I would step up to the plate when there was a need to stand by my girlfriend.

I failed.

It's shameful to admit, but it happened. Whilst (thank goodness) there was no violence, the potential for it was enough. Looking back on it, I remember thinking should I say something, but it seemed to go very fast, and nothing came out.
I am a naturally non-confrontational guy, but this is too much.

So going forward, it's definitely moved up in the "areas to improve on". Bec's right, all the inbox clearing abilities matters not if I don't have the courage to stand up for the things that are important in life.

Strangely enough, when I have confronted people, I seem to be quite eloquent in my manner and my speech. It's just a matter of utilising this skill, and making myself apply it when I should! At least I passed a test yesterday :)

The first step is to acknowledge, and sometimes that's the hardest bit of all.

HDMI Anyone?

Ikea sometimes sucks, or maybe I'm just bad at reading instructions.

Sunday was a day of frantic activity to build all the furniture, all in time for Monday's big arrival. I had a budget for my LCD coming over here, but lucky for me I only had to use half of it to get myself a Sharp Aquos 42in bad boy. Having played my Xbox on a normal TV, I'll be the first to say that High Definition makes a massive difference to the visual splendour, especially on a game such as Gears of War.





We are now all set, pictures of the apartment to come real soon!
Plus I am hooking up XBox Live. Does anyone else play, and if so, what's your profile name?

Reducing Email Usage

*Bonus post*

I've had a bit more time to review my inbox processing since I'm just starting work. Saw a video about it the other day, with the majority of the information at a website http://www.inboxzero.com/.

A few points that I thought were worth remebering:

1. Processing email doesn't mean just reading and not doing anything. It means making a decision on the email (should I reply, should I bin, should I delegate? The actions are Delete, Delegate, Respond, Defer, Do)
2. Don't live in the inbox. Try not to define your job as what comes into the email inbox
3. Have a system, but if the system is too fun to use, you'll end up fiddling and not doing enough work
4. Knowledge workers have a finite amount of attention and time, so distractions are a killer for productivity.
5. There are just some emails that you won't reply to, even if you want to. Just be done with it and delete it, instead of leaving it in the inbox.

With these, I'm doing email less, ie check only once per hour. Will see how this goes !

A New Home

It took about 2 weeks of taxi rides from the serviced apartment to the new place, but we've finally checked out of 777 Sixth Ave, and moved to our new building, called the Biltmore (yes, the views are great. No, we don't have those views from our apartment). After the Bed Bath and Beyond adventure, we embarked on an Ikea one to get the furniture pieces such as the bookshelves and tables. Side note: Ikea has the cheapest food I've seen for a long time. $1.95 for a full plate of breakfast!

So the weekend was spent unpacking goodies and allocating areas to put it into. Ah the joys of moving around. I don't understand how some people can do this on a regular basis. It's just too annoying.

We've got a guest arriving next Friday, so there's still a few days to get everything sorted out. As part of the rent of staying here, people are going to have to help out with the construction of our furniture!

Photos to come soon. Of course, since I haven't even done my London pictures yet, it could be a while :)

EDIT: Just put up the London photos. Enjoy!