Palegoldenrod

I’ve fallen so far behind with posting about my trip, I feel like it is starting to interfere with what was my usual blogging routine before I went away. I start to want to blog about something and then think “ah, but I really am so far behind… the task seems enormous”. Well, to hell with linearity – in the words of my friend Scott, “linearity is for losers”. I’ll continue to blog about whatever I want, and will interweave my posts and memories and stories and rants from my trips. If you don’t like it, stay in the past with your “continuity” and your “order”. Or whatever.

So! Strap yourselves in for a mega-update-a-thon.

Social-side

I’ve been back in Australia since around the end of March, catching up with friends and family around New South Wales and Victoria and have since moved to Melbourne, Victoria where I plan to stay for quite a while. I’ve never moved to a city where I know less than three people, so I’ve had a great opportunity to wave around my much loved “talk to random people” skills and have met people from many walks of life: buskers, bankers, teachers, students, defense personnel, backpackers, sex industry “technicians”*, farmers, bums, CEOs of multinational companies, Frenchmen – you name it, I’ve probably had a beer or at least a chat with them. Some I don’t really feel the need to stay in contact with. Some are all sorts of cool.

That’s not to say that I haven’t had my share of weirdness while I’ve been galavanting around Melbourne… it appears that unlike awesome backpacker circles, a girl by herself chatting to people is often interpreted as a pickup attempt. Because of course… I’m chatting to a guy I don’t know so I must only be talking to you because I want your body. Honestly, guys? Really? sigh

I do get frustrated with it sometimes – with people I thought I knew turning out to be something different (though admittedly there are a few occasions where that has been a pleasant surprise rather than a bad one). And I am tiring a litte of regular meet-random-ppl-at-pubs adventures. For now, I know some pretty awesome people and will, I’m sure, meet others through them. But never fear – Meet-random-ppl-at-pubs will certainly stay on the agenda, just paced. To give my liver a rest and stop my bosses thinking I am an alcoholic. (I’m not, guys. I’m just a lightweight having some fun )

Here is some info about stuff going on. You should get on board:

MTUB

MTUB (Melbourne Twitter Underground Brigade) has proven to be a really solid group of genuine and great people. They get together officially once a month and unofficially much more regularly, and essentially the only thing these guys have in common is Twitter. It makes for some fun sorta-nerdy socialising, and I was surprised and how well it all worked and everyone got along. They also welcome non-Melbournian Tweeps, so if you are passing through tweet in @mtub’s direction and give us a heads up. We’ll be glad to see you.

Melbourne Board Game Night

There is a group of us that is meeting regularly (roughly every fortnight) at MyCube Cafe in Lygon St to play table top games (Zombies, Munchkin, Settlers of Catan, etc) as well as traditional board games, cards etc. The cafe is a pioneer of the concept of a dedicated table top gaming cafe – they are aimed at gamers, and come equipped with a huge array of games, plenty of tables and goodies to keep you going. If you like salt and pepper shakers that are dice, this is your kind of place. Our particular group is still getting organised but the important things you need to know are: I’ll be there, and food, beers and beanbags are available. What more do you need? If you want to know more, contact me in some way. n00bs welcome, but you will have to undergo my initiation ceremony. Mwahaha. Mwahahahahahaha. Ha. Hmm…

Teh Muzak – Me

I’m living really close to a huge park in Melbourne at the moment, which means I can wander down there with my fiddle or mandolin and bust out some tunes for practice and my own amusement. Sometimes people come and talk to me or listen, or sit down and join in. I like that. Feel free to come and join me for a jam sometime.

Teh Muzak – Sessions

I’ve also been down to a few Irish pubs for some sessions – for those that don’t know, the celtic musical traditions are largely aural, passed down and shared via a session: a meeting of players who regularly sit and play together over a few pints, usually in a pub. Everyone is welcome to join in or listen or dance or whatever takes your fancy. It turns out that there is a session almost every night of the week in Melbourne, which is great. They’re each vaguely at different levels and skill sets, and there is quite a bit of variety. (I’ll post more about them later).

Roller Derby (or: “My new favourite thing in the world”)

I have started going to watch bouts in Melbourne organised by the Victorian Roller Derby League, which are roughly monthly. Last time I went I took a bunch of friends with me (roller derby virgins), and they loved it – since then there are more and more people who want to go… I think the next bout will have every person I know in Melbourne in the crowd

If you don’t know what Roller Derby is, check out the Roller Derby wikipedia page. It is cheap (usually under $20), the crowd is interesting, alternative and enthusiastic, there is beer/bundy and take away hot food served, the sport is unusual and entertaining (probably more so for the guys, being pretty much a girl-only sport, lol), and ultimately it is all still family friendly – there were a number of families with younger kids down there for the last bout, which was great. If you want to come down with our group next time, drop me a line!

Twitter

I’ve been on Twitter for a while, but I’ve not really done much with it until hitting Melbourne. And after getting down to MTUB and hanging out with people like Yonderboy and Bethanie I’ve essentially shifted from being a Facebook Ho to being a Twitter Ho. My acquisition of an iPhone completed this transition and now there is no turning back.

There is something beautiful about any system where I can broadcast a simple “anyone up for beers tonight” 15 minutes before leaving work, and being able to coordinate this impromptu even with others easily in a short time without having to deal with emails or website access or whatever. In my more fanciful moments I like to imagine that we have all decided to turn up at that pub at that time through some telepathic connection, rather than a technological one. But maybe thats just me…

Also being able to immediately tweet a photo of that weird guy doing that weird thing on the street so you don’t have to remember it and describe it to everyone later – high five for technology that encourages us to have even less of an attention span! That and it opens up an amazing subculture and world of injokes that is outside of the norm #andyouknowhowIlovethat

Work-Side

I have the great pleasure and good fortune to be working with Get Started in commercial .NET web development in Melbourne, for almost two months now. It has been quite an odd mix of enthusiastic energy and fatigue: getting back into full time work and full time development (I’ve been analyst / programmer /PM for a little while now) and I have to say I am really enjoying it. I was excited when I first had contact with GS during interviews (walking in to see one’s online life on the interview room projector makes one both exhilarated, interested and somewhat terrified all at once), and have since continued to be impressed by them daily. I think I’ve managed to find myself working for one of the most encouraging, professional, quality-focused, relaxed, productive, efficient and dynamic web dev shops in the city (which makes baby Jebus very happy), and that’s even before I start talking about the awesome people in the team. Lucky me!

I am really glad to be there, enjoying catching the challenges being thrown my way and looking forward to that time in the not-too-distant future when I am back to 100% capacity (I am still a little over-reliant on coffee… but it is oh-so-tasty). I will keep you all posted on some of the more awesome things going on at Get Started – possibly over on my tech blog Kleene Code, but if so I’ll blip it here anyway.

Tech – Google Wave

I’ll keep this brief, mainly because I don’t want to say too much before I’ve had time to go through it properly. Through another incredible fluke I’ve managed to get developer preview access to the Google Wave beta (and before you ask, no there is no invite system in place, and the entire sandbox is going to be nuked before launch). I’m pretty excited about what I have seen so far in the sandbox itself, and in the api… once I’ve had more of a chance to get in and go crazy I’ll probably post some thoughts on Kleene Code.

Health

Quick updates, because I know some of you have been asking me about it generally in emails which I haven’t replied to:

• No, I do not have, nor have ever (to my knowledge) had, Swine Flu.
• My appetite is still weird since coming back.
• I’m no longer a slave to cancer sticks (bad habit I picked up for a while during my travels)
• Funnily still no migraine auras since leaving Australia (was it something in Newcastle, I wonder?)
• Yes, I have been lazy with jogging. Keep reminding me (d’oh)

Wrap Up

So there you have it. Almost all news in one convenient post (well, most of the important stuff anyway). Aren’t I nice?

Footnote: * yes, she really did describe her profession that way, and I LOLd. She also did – awesome sense of humour.