[  Mood: Distorted ]
Sorry no updates for a couple days. Much has happened, actually. Today, for example, I presented my paper, chaired a panel, heard the most delightful academic presentation in my life, and attended an alternately terrifying and hopeful keynote address by author Kim Stanley Robinson.

I couldn’t post due to very unreliable WiFi in Room 13, here at the Pensione Hotel. So when I came in after a fun game of Trail of Cthulhu (I played Anatoly, using rridiculous Russian accent, da) with Tim and Rob and some new friends, I asked again if there was anything to be done, and they offered me a move down the hallway. Room 18’s WiFi seems much stronger.

So, here is yesterday’s post, that I saved when it looked like I wouldn’t be able to post it:

Meant to post yesterday, but the internet in my room is pretty unpredictable. Room 13 (no kidding) is off in the corner, and I guess it’s right at the edge of wifi reception. In fact, I’ve just gone to zero bars, so I’d better copypaste this to TextEdit and save it before I try to post it.

Anyway, 7am on the second day of the Utopias Conference. Day 1 went fine. After a pleasantly rootless day and evening of checking into my room, taking a nap, and wandering Melbourne (fish & chips and local beer in a pub with two old codgers for conversation), yesterday was cool and crisp. Breakfast on the way to the Monash Conference Centre. Met Zac and Evie, Prof. Milner and Prof. Rigby, and some other familiar faces and several new ones.

I came within touching distance of Kim Stanley Robinson several times, but he was always in conversation with someone. Hopefully I’ll have a chance to talk with him today.

Very interesting presentations. A bit terrifying, all the evidence for upcoming climatic catastrophe. But as I need to get back there soon–I’m chairing a panel during the first session, and making my own presentation during the second–I’ll save my notes for later. I did confirm, however, that all (or nearly all) of the presentations are being recorded and will be available for download afterward. Excellent–there are some presentations that I really want to attend but that I can’t because there’s another one at the same time that I want to attend just a bit more. So yes, you’ll get to hear me stumbling over my own words.

Uh, anything else quickly? Oh yes: When traveling to Australia, do not buy traveler’s checks. They are an enormous ripoff. As usual, you have to pay the bank the fee for currency conversion and for the checks themselves. Then you get to Australia, you find that no Australian shops accept traveler’s checks! To cash them, you have to take them to money exchange kiosks, which charge 4%! Grr…not sure what the answer is, other than bring a little Australian cash and a couple of credit cards. Everyone takes credit cards. Well, not that scruffy guy outside the train station asking "Hey mate, y’got some change?" But everyone else.

PS: Yep, wifi died. I’ll post this when I can.

[  Mood: Sleepy ]
Hurray! My Australian plug adapter works, and my Mac power cord is smart enough to regulate the current and not allow my computer to explode! Isn’t modern technology wonderful?

Melbourne is indeed pretty chilly. According to some weather widget, it’s 10C now, and should climb up to 17C later. Not bad, and actually wonderfully refreshing after spending most of August in Fukuoka. Still, falling asleep in the closed, unheated bar of the Pensione Hotel, waiting for my room to be readied for check-in, means waking up shivering. I’ll type this entry and then go out for another walk, find another cafe and have another hot coffee.

OK, so boarded my next flight last night. First time on an A380, so that was cool. Luckily I was sitting nowhere near the VERY grumpy man who threw a big temper tantrum over something while going through security. Eh, maybe he had a good reason, but I kinda doubt it. Instead my neighbor was Tuan, a nice, chatty Vietnamese guy who works for Ericsson and is on a business trip. We talked quite a bit, especially near the end of the trip.

I discovered that our entertainment center had Kick-Ass! Whoa, definitely been wanting to see that–and yes, very fun movie. Now I want to read the comics.

I couldn’t sleep during the overnight flight. Note to young woman sitting behind me: The back of the seat in front of you is not for kicking, propping your feet against and then suddenly shifting and causing the person in front of you to jerk backwards, or for grabbing onto when you stand up and then suddenly letting go so the guy in front of you is flung forward like some cartoon character.

I got a bit worried about those 100-yen wooden snakes in my luggage when it came time for Quarantine Inspection. Would they be declared possible harborers of insect eggs? Would they be summarily tossed into a fire? Poor little snakies! No problem–the Customs agent said "Oh yeah, those are fine." Or rather "foine." Ah yes, I’m in Australia!

I was going to take the bus into town, but ended up sharing a taxi with Tuan. He’s staying in the Central Business District, which kind of borders on the area I’m in (north of the Yarra River, near the Convention Centre). We said we’d try to meet up for dinner or something at some point.

The plane arrived at 6am, and check-in time is 1pm or so, so I have plenty of time to kill. The eggs benedict at the hotel cafe are pretty good, but it’s looking like this is a small-breakfast-big-dinner town. I’m a big-breakfast-small-dinner guy.

I managed to get a A$10/day price on hotel wifi for the week. Very overpriced, but then hotel wifi always is, isn’t it? By perching my Macbook Pro on my lap, I can stay warm!

[  Mood: Neutral ]
Morning flight out of Fukuoka on Singapore Airlines to their home hub. Singapore Airlines is my new favorite way to fly. The rows are a reasonable distance apart, even in Economy. On other (usually American…usually United) lines, my knees are digging into the back of the seat in front of me the whole way; today, even slouching with my seat all the way back (a LOT farther back than on the aforementioned less-than-satisfactory airlines), there are centimeters to spare.

The flight attendants are polite, friendly, and not on the verge of lashing out. Thus, much like Japanese flight attendants…much unlike American flight attendants. Their uniforms are particularly distinctive. Well, the men just wear simple dark suits. They kind of look like CIA agents or doo-wop singers or something. The women of course have the iconic Singapore Airlines uniforms, which are, let’s face it, awesome. They’re not even revealing or anything. Well, OK, they are a bit close-fitting. But they’re so cool compared to the usual drab, solid colors.

Hey, free English-language newspapers! I’ve been missing those on Japanese flights! The top story on the Straits Times is "Hail YOG Singapore Spirit." WTF? Here I am on my way to Melbourne to deliver a presentation on HP Lovecraft, Octavia Butler, and interspecies breeding, and all Singapore is hailing Yog-Sothoth?? Oh wait, it’s about the Youth Olympic Games, which just finished up.

I almost never read newspapers, but when I’m traveling, I love to read the local news. Reading on the internet really doesn’t give you as good an idea of what’s on the public mind (or at least, what the newspaper editors think is on the public’s mind). So Singapore appears to be celebrating a successful conclusion to the first Youth Olympic Games–good for them. Let’s see, "Disgraced Buddhist Monk…"–seems the guy embezzled some money…hmm, crimes in Singaporean news always list the possible punishments in terms of time behind bars AND the potential number of caning strokes. Yes, caning–not just for the spoiled sons of US diplomats. OK, so the international section focuses pretty strongly on the SE Asian region, as one might expect.

"Character amnesia": Young people are forgetting how to write their Chinese characters now that their PCs and mobile phones will call up the characters for them when they key them in phonetically using the Roman alphabet. Whoo! Western civilization wins! No, of course I don’t mean that. I mean, yeah, having to learn THOUSANDS of ideograms, the vast majority of which look NOTHING like what they represent, is kind of insane. BUt it’s an insanity I’m beginning to appreciate, now that I’ve learned a couple hundred of them. It really is something…precious. And I hope it doesn’t disappear, even if pinyin/romaji/etc. is way, way more efficient.

The entertainment section features ex-K(orean)Pop-boy-band members who’ve gone solo. OK…actually, I do like how the Singaporean news reports on cheesey pop idols from Japan, Korea, China, Malaysia, Singapore, and on and on. In Japan, it’s Japanese pop stars, some American ones, and once in awhile a Korean or Taiwanese pop star who’ll come to the public’s attention.

There are some incredibly shallow former models in their 40s who are trying to stay youthful-looking. One of them had an existential crisis when some guy on the bus asked her for the time…and he really wanted to know the time. He wasn’t making a pass at her! NOOOO!!! Needless to say, all these women look totally hot, so their worries seem particularly silly.

On the weather page, there’s a block in the corner that says exactly what time Muslims can break their Ramadan fast, and reminds them not to become dehydrated during the day.

Just scanning the bylines, I see names like Singh, Yee, Gosh, Ng, Matthews, Khan (KHAAAAAAANNNNN! Damn, you, WIlliam Shatner…I can’t read that name without hearing your cry of rage), Rahmat, Sargent, Choy, Skadian, Ibrahim, Kwang, Tan… Makes me wish I had more time in Singapore. Sounds like an interesting place.

The seat-back entertainment system is excellent: dozens of movies and TV shows to choose from, lots of radio stations, the ability to make a playlist of hundreds of songs, games, info on destination cities, plugs that allow you to hook up and recharge your iPhone while watching the videos on the phone up on the seat-back screen. I watched Predators and a Family Guy episode. I kept worrying that the Japanese woman next to me might see all the vomiting and lap-dancing on Family Guy and think I’m some kind of freak.

Smooth touchdown in Singapore–will Changi Airport live up to expectations. Yes! Quiet, uncrowded, cool, clean, beautiful, and very stress-free. I have flashbacks to Chicago and Orlando last spring…shudder! What kind of evil bastard comes up with the idea of placing a crucial reception desk under a huge skylight so that the connecting passengers whose flight has been canceled will have to broil there in line because the 10-seat reception desk is staffed by two people, one of whom is joking with the other one and ignoring the people in line?

No lines in Changi. But there is free WiFi–yes, that’s right, you don’t have to pay $15 for it–and free carts, and free movies, yes MOVIES, in a little theater! I watch the last half of Speed Racer, go off and have some dinner, then come back for the last half of Astro Boy. The next movie is the recent Sherlock Holmes, so I get the hell out of there. Hm, lots of nice restaurants and shopping. I wander around the Butterfly Garden, which is full of butterflies and carnivorous plants, which I assume eat the butterflies. The Singaporeans have an interesting sense of humor…

I could have a shower, work out in the gym, go swimming…I think all of these are free. Maybe on the way back; I am surprisingly not in need of a shower because we didn’t sit on the tarmac in a jet sauna on the way here; in fact it was kind of chilly on the plane, but the blanket was nice. Too bad I didn’t bring my swimsuit, though, but since it’s the middle of winter in Melbourne, I didn’t figure on needing it.

Oooh, it’s sunset! Equatorial sunset! Lovely. And my battery is getting low–I didn’t buy an adaptor for Singapore. Right, signing off.