One for the ages

Return of the Seppo

Sadly, we've really dropped the ball on keeping this blog up to date over the past three months, but not without good reason.  Although not yet mentioned on this blog, Lydia and I are ending our tenure here in Melbourne to repatriate back to the US, specifically Atlanta.  The move is bittersweet and was not an easy decision; it involved a number of aspects and life choices (family and friends, financial, and temporal considerations), but ultimately we believe the time is right.

We will sincerely miss our friends here in Melbourne and it is with great regret that we'll have to miss some of their key life events- engagements, weddings, and babies.  Although we won't be able to celebrate with each of them in person, we're looking forward to staying in contact via Google Hangouts and email, and we certainly plan on returning in the not-too-distant future, if only to visit.  We're also looking forward to them visiting us in the States where we can hopefully share our lives with them.

Over the next few weeks, I hope to help fill the gaps we've left in the blog, particularly in regards to our moving preparations, our recent travels to Uluru, Perth, and Northern Queensland, and our farewells.

We officially fly out tomorrow back to Atlanta (coincidentally marking exactly two years in Australia), so today is officially our last day (for now) of our Australian adventure.  We can't thank our family back in the States and friends (both here in Australia and overseas) enough for all of their love and support.  We've made lifelong friends, accumulated unforgettable stories and adventures, and gained invaluable and unforgettable life experiences here in Australia.  We're looking forward to the next chapter of our lives continuing our adventure back in the US.  Although we won't be in Australia, we'll forever be Seppo Yanks.

An Island in the Sun

Alas, we find ourselves neglecting our beloved blog once again.  To our readers, please accept our earnest apologies, we promise it's for good cause.  While not publicised yet on this blog, we've had some considerable life and traveling developments over the past two months, which has been keeping us quite busy.  Stay tuned, as a windfall of posts shall follow.

To break the lapse in posts, here's a quick one of a timelapse I've put together from our long weekend in Fiji in May:



 And a couple of photos for good measure:

Wilson's Prom

A quick video recap of our camping trip down in Wilson's Prom last weekend.  Unfortunately I didn't get any shots of the hike or of Waterloo Bay where we stayed the second night, as I wanted to minimize weight for the 24km of hiking and I didn't want to risk dropping/soaking/destroying my camera on the hike.  In retrospect, I should've brought it, but oh well... as the song says, "No time for cameras, we'll use our eyes instead."

For those curious of how beautiful the scenery was, check out the below photos from the interwebs:

Photo courtesy of couriermail.com.au

Photo courtesy of kgrahamsjourneys.wordpress.com

5 Minutes or Less: It's a family affar (part deux)

A more substantial post to follow, but just wanted to share that Lydia and I had the pleasure of showing my sister and her boyfriend around greater Melbourne and Tasmania when they were in town a couple of weeks ago:

Thanks guys for coming to visit and for all of the fun!

Keeping up with the Jonses

Congratulations to Luke and Marnie Jones on their wedding this past weekend!

It was a beautiful ceremony right on the beach, and the reception was a party to be remembered.  We couldn't be happier for them!  I first met Luke over a year and a half ago at work.  After he warmed up to my Americaness (he was hesitant at first), we quickly became good friends, and he's become one of my best "mates" here in Australia; he, along with Nick (pictured below) have taken upon themselves to teach me the ways of their homeland, including the superiority of the metric system, the soft pronunciation of the letter "R," and what a B&S Ute is.  Not long after meeting Luke, Lydia and I had the honor of meeting his girlfriend Marnie, and we quickly all became close friends - we even spent Christmas together with their respective families.

I promised my other best mate that I'd post a picture on the blog.  You're welcome, Nicka

We wish them the best in their future lives together, and in their approaching travels.  Come April, we'll lose them both to an adventure over in Europe, which we're (selfishly) saddened by, although we suspect it won't be too long before we meet again, be it in Europe, Australia, or the States!

Good picture of Luke and Marnie, average picture of Lyds and myself

Tribeca Timelapse

As Lydia and I have both been holed up in our apartment this weekend (we've both come down with a nasty head cold), I figured I'd have a play with timelapse video.  I ordered a programmable shutter trigger for my camera about a week ago, but figured out yesterday that I can achieve the same result using my laptop and a bit of software.  Not wanting to leaving my camera and my laptop unattended in a public spot, and needing a powerpoint for my laptop, I figured the best place to try it out would be the porch of our apartment.  Unfortunately we don't have an awesome view of the night sky from our apartment (as evident in the video), so I had to frame the shot using a portrait orientation rather than the preferred landscape for video:

*Hot tip- change the video quality to HD720P to see the stars

Nonetheless, I'm pretty happy with the result, although I definitely have some ideas for improvement for next time around.  For the photography nerds out there, here's what settings I used:

13" exposure
F/3.5
ISO 800
One shot taken every 3 minutes, with the hope of capturing 80 shots (camera battery died after 62 shots)
Shots were taken starting at 8:27pm and continued until 12:31am

Hopefully more to come soon!

Melbourne in Pictures

I've been poking around town lately with my camera enjoying the warm and clear weather and grabbing some photos around town.  I've also been playing around with HDR photography and different exposures.  Here are a few shots that I've taken lately:

Melbourne Skyline from Abbotsford (standard exposure, no HDR, taken on Feb 13)

Melbourne skyline from St. Kilda pier (HDR shot taken today)

Sunset behind the city with the Abbotsford convent in the foreground (HDR shot taken on Feb 17)

St. Kilda Pavillion on St. Kilda Pier (standard exposure, no HDR taken today)

I'm still honing my skills, so I'll post some more photos soon.  Next up will be extra long exposure and timelapse videos after I purchase a timer remote.

Melbourne Sunset

This past Sunday, Lydia and I went to one of our favorite spots overlooking the city to watch the sunset and enjoy dinner and a bottle of wine.  I brought my camera along to get some sunset photos, and ended up shooting a quick clip of the flying foxes as they make their way towards the city for dinner:



The bats are pretty incredible, and surprisingly large, not to mention great in number.

From Wikipedia: Characteristically, all species of flying foxes only feed on nectar, blossom, pollen, and fruit, which explains their limited tropical distribution. They do not possess echolocation, a feature which helps the other suborder of bats, the microbats, locate and catch prey such as insects in mid-air. Instead, smell and eyesight are very well-developed in flying foxes.

It was a picturesque Melbourne summer evening!

5 Minutes or Less: I'll be home for...Software?

Courtesy of abc.net.au

News.com.au is reporting that it would be cheaper to pay for a round-trip ticket to fly from Australia to the States to buy Adobe software than it would be to purchase the software here in Australia.  From the article:

The Creative Suite Master 6 Collection in Australia costs $4,334. The same software carries a price of $2599 in the US, Gizmodo reported. That's a $1,735 price difference.... A return flight to Los Angeles costs $1147.58 on Virgin Australia.

Talk about lessons in arbitrage. Pretty incredible, although you have to ignore the social costs, including negative externalities of CO₂ emissions of the flight, the lost work product of time spent travelling to and from, and the additional costs borne on US and Australian immigration.

Is it really that surprising to software vendors that software piracy is so rampant? Why not save the cost of the ticket and the cost of the software and just use bittorrents?

Tunes, Flicks, Culture, and Stuff

Lydia and I have been out and about these past couple of weeks, enjoying the Australian summer and the Melbourne night-life. We’ve been trying to take full advantage of the warmer weather and the longer days, so we’ve been attending a number of outdoor concerts and movies. In the past two weeks, we’ve seen the following:

Movies:

• “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” at Hoyts in Melbourne Central. Hoyts has large theatres in the Melbourne Central mall/station, perfect for catching the big-ticket flix. I found the movie to be very similar to the Lord of The Rings trilogy – a bit boring. Lydia loved it.
• “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” at Kino cinema in the city. Kino has a number of smaller theatres and is closer to our apartment (15 minute walk across the park into the city). Wine is available for purchase for a more intimate atmosphere – it’s Lydia’s favourite cinema. I enjoyed the movie (even though it is a “coming of age” story), and Lydia gave it a favourable review, although I don’t think she enjoyed it as much as me.



Moonlight Cinema

• "This is 40” and “Django Unchained” at Moonlight Cinema. Nearly every night in the summer, Moonlight Cinema is held in the Royal Botanical gardens where they show a mix of new and old releases at sunset. It’s a really cool venue, although we’ve found that we have to arrive quite early for the new releases, or risk having to sit behind a tree or way in the back. You’re allowed to bring in your own food and beverages, which helps pass the time waiting for the sun to set. It’s a surreal experience to watch the sun set behind the Melbourne skyline and the giant grey-headed Flying Foxes fly overhead. Lydia loved “This is 40,” whereas I found it entertaining, but not as compelling as some other Apatow films. “Djang Unchained” was awesome (classic Tarantino), although we both agreed it was a bit long.

Concerts:

Flying =w= on the Sidney Myer Stage

Me rocking next to the Ghost of Weezer present

• Weezer (indisputably one of the best bands of all time) at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl in the Royal Botanical Gardens. It was our first show at Sidney Myer, my 8th time seeing Weezer perform and Lydia’s 3rd. It was actually the same “Memories” tour we had seen two years ago in Chicago, as they took a break touring before coming to Australia. The same as all of those before it, the show was incredible, and we had a blast. The premise of the show is the band plays one to two songs from each album, starting with their most recent and working backwards to their second album. The band then takes a break, returns to the stage, and plays their first (and debatably best) album from start to finish.
• Sleigh Bells at Billboard The Venue in the city. This was the first time either Lydia or I have seen them live, as well as the first time either of us had been to The Billboard. The venue is a non-descript doorway off of Russell Street in the city. Upon entry, you head down to the basement where you’re met with a small, creatively-lit bar, with a small stage up front. The venue is standing-only (perfect for a band like Sleigh Bells), with the stage at one end, roughly the same width of the building. Lydia and I managed to be in the third row from the stage, which was awesome. The show was (appropriately) loud and they band played pretty much every song off their two albums. We really enjoyed ourselves and wished that the show could’ve been longer.

Sleigh Bells at The Billboard

We still have a few concerts and movies queued up in the upcoming weeks:

Movies:

1. Lincoln (still awaiting release in Australia)
2. Zero Dark Thirty
3. Flight 

Concerts:

1. Blink-182 Feb 27th at Sidney Myer
2. Wilco March 27th at Hammer Hall

More on those later!

The World is Alight

As it is capturing headlines worldwide, you may be familiar with the fact that Australia is experiencing record-breaking heat waves, and rampant bush fires in nearly all six states.  As a result, Lydia and I have donned our fire-retardant attire and forged ahead in our lives as usual (kidding).  While we’ve definitely had some hot days, Melbourne’s weather is fickle as ever, including one recent swing of one day reaching a high of 41C (105F) one day, with the following day reaching no higher than 21C (68F).  For the most part, we’re pretty isolated from the bush fires in greater Melbourne, and it would seem that most of Victoria has been spared this year (thus far).  The same can’t be said for our island neighbour to the south of Tasmania, and rural parts of New South Wales to the north, both of which have experienced some devastating bush fires.

Bush fires aren’t uncommon in Australia during the summer months, as the vegetation dries out quickly in the dry heat and winds, and eucalypt oil in much of the fallen foliage serves as an abundant fuel source.  Even in the relatively temperate and moist Dandenong mountains just east of Melbourne, bush fire has had it’s both devastating and necessary effect, as recently as 2009.  In fact, much of the native Australian flora is dependent upon semi-regular bush fire, whether to clear out old growth to make room for new, or in the case of a few Australian plants, as a necessity for reproduction.  Take for example the Acorn Banksia, which requires fire for its seeds to disperse.

Prior to European settlement, many Aboriginals would intentionally light bush fires, both as a means of hunting as well as to protect from too much dried fuel from accumulating.

And while bush fires can have devastating impacts to many homes and croplands, many times these fires are left unaltered in the rural outback.  Take for instance this image taken by NASA, known colloquially as “Black Marble.”

Source: "WA bushfires light NASA's 'Black Marble' photo of Earth," Herald Sun

Without knowledge of Australian urbanisation and geographic landscape, one might think that Western Australia is full of bustling metropolises, on the magnitude of Tokyo or New York City.  Even NASA had to take a second look at their photographs, which were taken in April and October 2012.  As it turns out, those patches of light are in fact unchecked bush fires in the Australian uninhabited expanse.

It’s pretty incredible to imagine the exact scale of those fires (although as this article reports, they may appear larger than they actually were due to the photographic techniques NASA used to assemble its images), but even more incredible is the fact that these fires would be burning without anyone really knowing.  

Happy New Year!

Have a happy and healthy 2013!  Lydia and I rang in the New Year watching the fireworks in the city:

We hope 2013 holds as much good fortune and fun experiences as 2012 has!