Correspondance… 11?
June 8, 2007
HOLY MOLY. How long has it been? How long has it been since I wrote on here?
Here are some things that have changed:
- I’m now using Visa
- I almost had my legs perminantly split while getting rolled under 7 foot waves at Bondi
- I was within inches of man eating sharks (there was glass between but still)
- I’m within weeks of getting my Graduate Diploma in Manufacturing and Management Engineering - One more semester till the Masters
- I’ve tried on a pair of child’s size 6 Shreck underwear
- I’ve pranced around as a spartan with other spartans to go watch a movie about spartans
- It is cold in Sydney.
- I’ve gone on an Australian Wine tour
- I’ve hung out with Kangaroos that eventually didn’t like me because contrary to popular belief - I mean despite the fact that I’m really fat -, I don’t always carry food on me
The list goes on and on… and the incriminating details I’ll leave till when I get back. Most importantly, this experience is definitely changing me and opening my eyes to new things. I’m done classes now and have 3 exams at the end of the month. The content of the courses is still awesome.. I’m just waiting to hear about a placement for second semester. I’m also getting used to the group of guys that I do all our projects with. Most assignments are group oriented and we have a set team of two Indians, an Isreali, an Irish Chinese guy, and myself.. the Canadian. It’s kindof a hilarious time of year… campus is has been very windy lately.. I think 50 umbrellas lose their lives a day out here. When will they learn???? Umbrellas aren’t meant to stop wind! Or Windy Rain! Only rain. Rain.
So I went on a wine tour with 8 other peeps and we hit up 6 different wineries. Man, it’s different to Ontario.. well I haven’t toured in Ontario but these people just party their asses off when wine tasting. And they go and dance with live music; it’s basically a big ho-down but with wine instead of screach or cider. Pretty good wines too. Then on the way back we stopped off at an insane asylum. It’s actually a community for mentally ill people. So that means, you know, good times. But the reason we went there is because there are tons of really tame kangaroos that bounce around the place. See, the community’s located about 5k out from a small town and people often go there to feed the roos. I wish I could show you the video I took. We got out of the car right in the middle of a road and kangaroos just started bouncing up from everywhere. I felt like Willard with his rats.. but these are much bigger. They bounce right up to you and sniff you for food. And eventually they learned that we forgot to buy a load of bread at the convenience store.. and they bounced away.
Finances are running tight so I’m applying for lots of jobs around campus. Might be a tutor, might be an english language transcriber (whatever that is), might be a test subject for neural stimulation, might be a lab researcher. Who knows. I don’t. But all you can do is try.
Well, the library’s about to close so I have to “vacate the computer station” according to the PA system overhead. Makes me feel like I’m on the Enterprise. wow.. nevermind.
Holy German Machinery Batman
April 13, 2007
If you already thought the illustrious Audi brand had outdone itself by creating the elegant yet monstrous R8, think again. There has been official announcement of something even more redonkulous. Behold the ABT Tuned R8.
Can you afford one? Likely not. Will you drive one? Likely not. Will you want one? YES.
If you are an Audi fan like myself or Darren Mark (see correspondence) this could potentially be one of your dream cars. From a DNA pedigree tracing to the original Quattro, but more closely matched to the Le Mans champions as of late, this vehicle possesses the contours and the performance of a race-bred machine. The only thing is, now ABT has tweaked this engineering brilliance to an even faster machine capable of turning heads twice over. A supercharger delivers over 100 more horsepower than the stock engine while the 20-inch wheels help keep all that power grounded on the pavement (or impressing gangta-asses like Ludacris).
Check out this beast and maybe even place an order for one….if you can afford it.
Correspondance VI
March 24, 2007
Alllllright.
Where did I leave off? Well a few days after the last post, I competed in a duathalon (swim run). It was pretty hilarious because it was so last minute.. I was told that morning that I was going to go race in it. Far be it from me to turn something like that down. Besides it was for free, was with a pretty chilled out triathlon team and near Manly Beach so we got to visit North Head and get that wicked panorama shot.
Thing is.. when I got there, I found out that the race started at 6 in the evening, and that 6 in the evening means it’s fish feeding time.. and that fish feeding time means it’s shark feeding time… and that only a few days earlier a 7 foot shark was spotted right near when we were supposed to swim.. I got a bit upset. But what the hell right? I mean if it gets you it gets you. It’s like a 15 minute swim so I decided to kick it really hard and put my mind on the pain of swimming hard and not a potential shark attack.
That day I also learned that Dave and his brother Daniel can really swim really really fast. I knew they had both been in state and national competitions but this was a bit ridiculous. They started their swim 2 minutes after me, and got out of the water 4 minutes before me. I thought I had a mean breast stroke but I guess I was wrong. I managed to catch a couple minutes on them in the run though, so that made up a bit for it. Read more
Correspondance Part V
March 15, 2007
What’s up y’all. Okay lots has happened in the last week.
Probably in reverse chronological order.. or order or importance.. or something.
Last night we got notice that we have an apartment! No more running around and contending with dozens of young couples for a pad near campus. 
We have a place right across the street from mid-campus and it’s on the top floor (I think the 6th floor) of an apartment building. We have to wait until April 4th to move in but it’s a huge load of
f our minds… this cuts out 3 hours of commuting a day. Although I haven’t seent it yet, Dave did and said it’s super nice: hardwood floors, balcony, fully furnished (so we may swap some of the stuff with what we got from our neighbours), big bedrooms, and nice bathroom and kitchen.
Next to mention is that I went surfing!!! for the first time out here on Wednesday. We went at Bondi Beach and the surf was pretty huge. I stuck to the breakers on the main shore.. while the real surfers were hitting some steep breakers further south. The water’s pretty different from when I went in Tofino, BC but I managed to get up about a dozen times.
That whole day was pretty fun day actually.. the Rifkins are getting one of their bathrooms renovated so we were up early talking to Dave’s uncle who’s going to do the job. Then I took off to meet up with my Israeli friend to surf, then met up with his housemate and we all went back to his apt, then went to school for class. After that I got picked up by Dave and went and partied at The Bondi Beach Hotel for some chick who’s by now flown back to her homeland of Switzerland. This kind of thing happens fairly regularly.. going to fun events for people I don’t know. But it’s exciting and ends up being a great way to meet people.
I also had my first group presentation the other day in class for Manufacturing Strategy. Boaz (the Isreali) and I have this thing going where we get our work out of the way asap so that we can make time to surf, so we wanted to be the first group to present. Crazy amounts of multiculteralism here. In our group were two Pakistanis and a Korean dude with an Irish accent.
I’m going to have to find something productive to do during the day.. school’s pretty relaxed.. okay fine I’m going to say it: relative to my undergrad, this is easy. I guess really challenging workload doesn’t necessarily = high ranking university.
I think I’ll ask my agent in Toronto to send my portfolio to the big agencies in Sydney and start up some modeling here. Might be able to make some extra cash.. if not, I’ll get a waiter job. These are the next steps. Can’t wait to be in some sort of income.. and routine.. my life’s been so sporadic for so long!
Correspondance Part IV
March 9, 2007
Holy heck. Well we were on the opposite side of the street as our friends so we decided that we had to cross. It’s basic insanity.. there was no way across unless.. unless.. yah you guessed it. Dave and I took our shirts off, hopped the fence and started dancing with a bunch of gay guys in the Mardi Gras/Gay Pride Parade. 
We even got our picture taken by some local news photographer. Anyways, after a night of glitter, vodka, crazy costumes and street parties we did manage to find the rest of the crew.
Now back to the academics. Man this week was slow material… or was it left over cobwebs from the weekend? Gotta get more sleep this week. I read a ton of Concurrent Product and Process Design today.. that stuff is awesome. Now I can use terms like “Vertically Integrated” and know what I’m talking about. Miami Vice, here I come.
aizen Design
