Jenny’s Journies

Thursday, 31 July 2008 @ 9:59pm.

Last Saturday, I went to Geelong. Rode on a helicopter over the bay, which was really cool! Also rode on an old carousel near the waterfront. Fun fact: “The Armitage-Herschell Company of New York manufactured the Carousel in 1892.” I’ll try to post pictures soon.

Went to the International Society for Krishna Consciousness temple in St. Kilda on Sunday and had a wonderful time. The deity statues were marvelous by the way. Had lunch and dessert on Acland Street, too. Gotta love a slice of cheesecake that uses a 100-year-old Polish recipe.

Recently won free movie tickets and went to a Monday showing of the film “Wanted,” starring Morgan Freeman, Angelina Jolie, and James McAvoy. It’s a pretty good action film; not a complicated plot, just fun to watch the visual effects.

I had a great conversation with a professor at Monash University today. He was friendly and encouraging.

Gearing up for my return to the States. Less than two weeks to go!

Saw the license plate “ooooom” the other day, which brought a smile to my face. Saw a big beautiful rainbow in downtown Melbourne while I was riding the train today, which also made me smile.

Am hoping my dog Pluto will find nice playmates in Michigan.

Thursday, 24 July 2008 @ 4:54pm.

Lately it feels like there is too much to do and not enough hours in the day, but it’s okay…I’m managing.

On the news as of late is the fact that Australians have now surpassed Americans regarding the unfortunate title of being the “fattest” country in the world. This doesn’t surprise me much given the amount of beer, fries, sausages, and meat pies that I have seen people consume here plus the popularity of fast food chains like McDonald’s and KFC, but interestingly I feel as though I don’t see as many overweight people as I usually do in the U.S. Perhaps it’s just the area that I live in and there are plenty of folks in the cities and out in the country that I have yet to see. Then there’s also the internal factor where people might not be obese to the visual eye, but they have all kinds of health problems like high blood pressure or diabetes. I’ve had my own battle with weight (and while most days are good, there are times when I still slip up), so I know of at least some of the challenges involved in getting people onto a healthier track. Sometimes I think that half the battle is awareness. By awareness, I don’t just mean information, though. I mean getting information to really sink in and sooner rather than later…

The high price of oil is also on people’s minds since it affects our cost of living in general. It seems like prices on everything have gone up. I’m not sure how much people are changing their behavior regarding these costs, but I know that I’ve been budgeting more and in some ways not having a car has saved us money since we don’t pay for gas/petrol, insurance, maintenance, etc. and we don’t make as many unnecessary trips and thus make unnecessary purchases.

This morning I was happy to hear that L.A. will follow in the footsteps of San Francisco and ban plastic bags in the near future. A news report said that billions - yup that’s right billions - of plastic bags are used each year in L.A. alone. What a difference it is going to make for the environment once people start using eco-friendly bags. You should have heard the shock in the reporters’ voices when they mentioned that Americans stiiiilllll like to double-bag their groceries!

I was reading an old Readers Digest (May 2007) the other day and Mary Roach had a funny segment on some random forms of cheap fun:

* Photo booths: While you wait for your strip to be developed, reach up and feel around the top of the booth. People often toss their embarrassing outtakes up there.

* Helium balloons. (I remember trying this with my grandmother and she was h-i-l-a-r-i-o-u-s!)

* Wave at people while you drive.

* Lie down in a cow pasture. If the herd is far off, yell to get their attention, then immediately drop down and lie flat. The entire herd will come galloping over and form a tight circle around you, staring down at you with intense bovine curiosity. I have tried this three times on two different continents. It’s marvelously surreal. (Is this really safe?)

I was quite wary of three of her suggestions, though!

* Your cat: Blow into his face. Stick your finger in his mouth as he yawns. Put him on a leash and try to take him for a walk.

* Late night infomercials.

* Root for the Red Sox at a Yankee Stadium. (Now come on, that just sounds dangerous, doesn’t it?)

Thursday, 17 July 2008 @ 6:12pm.

The ideal scenario would have proceeded as follows:

Me: I no longer have use of the one-way domestic NWA ticket I recently booked on Priceline because of the unexpected cancellation of my international ticket. What is the cheapest way to exchange the NWA ticket?

NWA Agent or Priceline Consultant: The fastest, easiest, and most affordable way would be to go directly to nwa.com and visit the account management page where you can find links about changing your itinerary and making exchanges. The site will automatically determine cancellation fees, fare differences, and the like as well as provide you different options about new flights. If you need assistance, you can contact our IT department to walk you through the online steps.

The reality was much, much different:

I probably made around 8 or more phone calls to Priceline and NWA only to get confused and frustrated before finally figuring out how to “speak” in their airline/online language and in a style that could get through. I was particularly disappointed with some of the consultants on the phone who were impatient, talked over me, did not clearly explain my options, were misinformed, and/or avoided giving me information about the most affordable choices. While one person did have a sense of humor and seemed sympathetic, even he did not know how best to help me. I did not appreciate being transferred between different departments within each business either. I had to repeat my story each time even though I requested that special notes be made on my account to avoid such a burden. I was also told a couple of times to call back to speak with staff who would know more, but because I was only given the general customer service numbers, I never did speak with these supposed experts. Besides, didn’t they know that there’s a thing called “time difference” between Australia and the U.S. which makes it difficult to keep calling back during their office hours? All I can say is thank goodness for Skype, which allowed me to make all of these silly calls for *free.*

Lesson #1: Where possible, use a human travel agent in person. If you must, then use sites like Priceline, Orbitz, Zuji, etc. to comparison shop and get an idea of schedules, prices, and rules and conditions for tickets, but then contact the airlines directly on the phone to confirm information. Then go to their specific websites to making the actual booking. This avoids extra agent fees for example.

Lesson #2: The businesses are not sympathetic to extenuating circumstances (in my case, who knew that Thai Airways would randomly cancel all their flights to NYC?), so the way to get money back in the form of refunds or credit is to know your rights and the different methods to cancel, exchange, and change tickets. Read the fine print, yeah?

Lesson #3: Assume from the beginning that you will do most of the leg work. Expecting the businesses to have your back in any form is only going to set you up for disappointment.

Here’s to fellow globetrotters who face all kinds of challenges from small to big!

Thursday, 10 July 2008 @ 2:11pm.

Check out one of Richard Bradshaw’s puppet shows on YouTube: http://youtube.com/watch?v=vzDov1dBrLk

There are lots of other fun videos from different shadow artists on YouTube, too.

Here are some useful tips from an old Reader’s Digest issue:

“Plastic curtains in hotel showers have a habit of billowing inwards and wrapping you in a clammy embrace. They’re pushed inwards because the falling water creates slightly lower air pressure inside the shower area than outside it. To avoid their touch, spray the side of the bath with water and push the bottom of the curtain against it, where it will stick - thanks to surface tension - out of harm’s way.”

“For people in colder climes, frosty mornings can mean having to scrape at windscreens to remove the ice, or blast away with a fancy spray. But there’s a faster and simpler solution: melt the ice using warm water. (Not too hot, or you risk cracking the windscreen.) Problem is, the water will freeze too. The trick is to switch on your windscreen wipers as soon as you pour the water. The wipers will clear the meltwater from the windscreen, and where there’s no water, there’s nothing to turn to ice. A rubber squeegee does the same trick for the side windows.”

How to Find Lost Children: “If you’re looking for your kids in a shop or amusement park, the more searchers you send out, the greater the chance of finding them. The risk is that some searchers will continue looking for the children even after they’ve been found. Fortunately, mathematicians have deduced that the most effective strategy is to get searchers to check back at gradually decreasing intervals. So first tell everyone to report back at the same spot after, say, 15 minutes. If the missing offspring aren’t found in this first sweep, send the search party out again, this time reporting back after 12 minutes. Repeat as necessary, reducing the search time.”

“An unstable table can ruin an otherwise perfect meal. Before you complain or try stuffing bits of paper under the legs, try this simple trick: lift the table and turn it a little. A mathematical theorem proved in the 1960s shows that by doing this repeatedly, it’s usually possible to find a position where all four legs make firm contact with an uneven floor.”

How to Avoid Making Bad Choices: “Whether you’re looking for a new job, a gift for someone or even a soulmate, it’s hard to know whether to take what you’ve just see or continue looking. For decisions where you must accept or reject each option as it comes up, science actually provides a rule of thumb: weigh up the merits of the first offer, but don’t accept it. Now continue looking and accept the first offer that beats the initial one. This has been proved to maximise your chances of making the best choice - and minimise the risk of making the worst.”

How to Beat Travel Sickness: “Ditch all the car accessories claimed to cure it: the main cause is a mismatch between what the eyes see and what the body experiences. So sit where you can see the road ahead, instead of looking at something inside the car.”

Monday, 07 July 2008 @ 9:06am.

Sigh… It’s Monday and the first thing I dealt with this morning was dog vomit. Thankfully it wasn’t much, mainly little green bits of plastic plant fence which is used to protect the small flower plants in the backyard. I’m not sure what Pluto’s fascination is with the plastic pieces. And… I just came back from the living room after hearing him chewing on something and sure enough it was a little green piece of plastic. I took it from his mouth and substituted his plastic bone. Let’s hope that’s more fun for him.

I finally checked my online account through Monash University and I’m quite impressed with the organizational setup for their “my.monash” system. On the home page there are lists of important upcoming dates, university memos, and links to various aspects of university life. Across the top of the page is a series of tabs for main pages such as email, teaching, research, staff resources, library, campus and community, and news and events. There’s even a little note for the weather, a search function, and a box for you to personalize links that you frequently use. At Michigan, we have a separate email page and then you have to go to individual web pages for whatever you need as opposed to having it centralized on one main page and account.

I went to Frankston yesterday to visit a friend and her family. We worked on their front yard: gardening, pruning, raking, tidying up, and the like. I got sore after a few hours, but it was great to be outside in the sun and being all healthy and productive.

Word of the Day: “peripatetic”

Article of the Day: “Australia’s Stolen Generation finds its voice” (CNN, 30 June 2008)

Being the military brat that I am, I couldn’t help but smile at the creativity (and silliness) of some of our troops overseas, though of course being the graduate student that I am, I also saw some things through a sociopolitical lens:

Navy Carrier Squadrons “Move Along”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMMceEx72sE&feature=related

What is Love: http://youtube.com/watch?v=u6K1_rdzndE&feature=related

Navy Carrier Squadron “Pump It”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqaWdkdFb3Y&feature=related

Navy Numa Numa: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBYUWPg32r4&feature=related

This is Why I’m Hot (Deployed Style): http://youtube.com/watch?v=1q_WDX2Ilhc

Women of CVN 76 USS Ronald Reagan: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKI_-OGpuvY&NR=1 (Read the linked article, too, regarding the free speech controversy. Note the comment concerning gender as well.)

Peanut Butter Jelly Time in Iraq: http://youtube.com/watch?v=uezJfTG9ELI&feature=related

Room Cleaning Procedures: http://youtube.com/watch?v=R89vhiua35A&feature=related

Sun King Hey Ya: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEkYqL9n7vo

Black Eagle “Send Me On My Way”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=deYOGf1gnqk&NR=1

Friday, 04 July 2008 @ 8:38pm.

Happy 4th of July in the States!

I’ve been really busy this past week because of the ASAA Conference. I had a wonderful time. Everyone I encountered were professional, kind, and interesting. It was great to see so many scholars working on intellectually stimulating and socially relevant projects. I highly recommend this conference to all of my non-Australian colleagues.

In other news…

…I bought some books at the ASAA conference and am eager to read them. Not sure how I’m going to take my little, but very heavy library back to Michigan. Last year, I used regular post to mail everything to Melbourne and let’s just say that was not a cheap process.

…Thai Airways is frustrating me. They canceled the flight I was scheduled to travel on and I now have to make alternative arrangements to get stateside next month.

…My dog is still growing and now requires the larger (read: more expensive) travel crate. I asked him to temporarily halt his growth, but I don’t think that’s gonna happen. I can’t be upset, though, since he’s too cute.

…I like the following websites:

The World at Night

Buddhist Stories

101 Zen Stories

Buddhanet

…I want to take a vacation, but unless I win the lottery or something, that’s not likely to happen in the near future.

…Connex Melbourne (and the government) has to figure out how to effectively and efficiently improve its public transportation system a.s.a.p. While I’m grateful there is a system in place, which is better than a lot of what I’ve seen in the U.S., there is room for improvement with regards to delays, cancellations, space, and the like. It is not much fun to be cramped in like a can of sardines and then eventually late to catch a tram.

…The housing crisis in Melbourne and its outer suburbs continues to be ridiculous on a number of levels. I have one word: “apartments.” Build apartments to meet the demand and needs of a variety of families and class backgrounds and all will be much, much better.

…I am not sure where I’ve had more tea - Indonesia or Australia; I just know I drink a lot of it. And oh all the little snacks like kue-kue and shortbread biscuits!