Sixteen Days in Indonesia, Part 2

(Click here if you missed Part 1)

1. “The pictures were so … blue� says a mate of mine of the photos I took of Bunaken, an island about 15 minutes boat ride west of Manado, the capital of North Sulawesi. Bunaken was where we stayed for 5 of the 8 days we were in Sulawesi, and wow, were they a nice 5 days. Sulawesi is a rather large island situated between Kalimantan and Irian Jaya, and looks a bit like a four fingered hand. The thin northern tip is North Sulawesi, where we were. We touched down at Manado Airport at around midnight, and after getting our bags and so forth (ours were last off the damn plane, go figure), we headed out into the chaos. Out of the blue, we were approached by a couple of locals asking for my friend, telling us they were to drive us to our hotel. Which was strange, as no one had told us that, but they seemed to know where we were going so we followed along.

2. Cue, strangeness. The younger of the two guys that came to pick us up seemed quite interested in Jen, which is not unexpected, being young, pretty and the only white girl there. But I was practically invisible. Like, totally so. I’ve often found myself in situations where I’ve insulted someone and found myself ignored, but this was a whole new level of being ignored, so much so that even Jen noticed straight away. And weirdness continued in the car, I was now ignored by both locals, whilst the younger guy tried to get Jen to go to another hotel. Are you getting suspicious yet? I was, and was desperately outpaced — we were in a car with strangers in a place we’d never been to with no map, no guide (apart from the Lonely Planet) and no weapons. We were obviously foreigners, we had big bags that must have something valuable in them, and it’s a pretty sure bet we had money as well. To quote Jon Stweart, “Un-comf-ta-ble….â€?

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Privacy, Photography, and Topless Girls.

1. Everyone has seen the images, and have heard the stories; “This week’s starlet stalked by papparazzi!”, “Stalking photographers jailed!” etc etc. And yet the money that flows in that lurid industry is like the gold rush of the late 19th Century — right place, right time, and you hit it big.

2. There wouldn’t be any money if there wasn’t a demand for those photos. Ordinary people who want to see their stars look, well, ordinary. To somehow prove to themselves that they aren’t famous only because they weren’t there at the time, or that they didn’t get the lucky break. Oh, look at her, she’s so fat now! And her! Oh my, she should get a meal in once a month!

3. It is strange, then, to read about ordinary people worrying themselves into a fit over their privacy. (more…)

Phone and Internet back on

1. Finally.

Check out what just landed on my balcony!

1. It’s so purty! Click on the link to see!

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Hey rock! I’m on Google Talk!

1. So yeah, Google Talk is live, and I’ve signed on. So…what now?

Moving (again)

1. Urgh. It’s only been 10 months since we’ve moved to Glebe, and we’ve moved again, practically next door.

2. Our landlord decided to put our apartment on the market, so we had to find a new place to live. Fortunately, we found another apartment in the same building, so we didn’t have to move far. But we still had to pack and hoist everything out, and we have to get the phone, electricity and internet all sorted out again. I really didn’t want to move, but there’s not much to do when you get the rug pulled out from under you.

3. So we’ve moved in to our new place. Well, mostly. There’s only a few items left to move, nothing too heavy. We still have access to the old ADSL, thank you wireless router, even though it’s about 20m away and a few good thick walls in between. The phone here doesn’t work at all, which is not a good sign, so much for a quick painless move. I’m hoping for the best.

4. In the meantime, here’s a photo of our new view (click the link below):

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It’s a long way to the top

1. From SMH today:

Some young Japanese graduates will have a mountain to climb to get their first job. One of the country’s top internet apparel retailers wants to make sure new employees have what it takes to scale the heights of business by interviewing them at the summit of the 3778 metre Mount Fuji, Reuters reports.

About 50 hopefuls will climb the mountain with company executives on Wednesday, aiming to reach the summit for an interview at dawn the next day. “A lot of people have said we are strange,” said a spokesman for the parent company, ImageNet Co.

2. Indeed.

Shock: Knowledge could aid Terrorists!

1. I suppose it had to happen sometime, but it seems a couple of dutch Politicians are worried that Google Earth(a.k.a. “The Greatest Program Evar”) may be used by terrorists to plan an attack.

2. Ahh, well fuck! So could a map! Let’s ban the atlas!

3. But they’re not the only ones.

iBook Riot

1. Yes sir, filing this under “Only in America”….

2. From CNN:

RICHMOND, Virginia (AP) — A rush to purchase $50 used laptops turned into a violent stampede Tuesday, with people getting thrown to the pavement, beaten with a folding chair and nearly driven over. One woman went so far to wet herself rather than surrender her place in line.

3. Hahahaha! Someone wet themselves for a used iBook! But my favourite part:

Jesse Sandler said he was one of the people pushing forward, using a folding chair he had brought with him to beat back people who tried to cut in front of him.

“I took my chair here and I threw it over my shoulder and I went, ‘Bam,”‘ the 20-year-old said nonchalantly, his eyes glued to the screen of his new iBook, as he tapped away on the keyboard at a testing station.

“They were getting in front of me and I was there a lot earlier than them, so I thought that it was just,” he said.

4. Just as well he didn’t bring a gun.

UPDATE Well it didn’t take very long, but here’s the t-shirt!

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RADAR: Shock as boofy blokes beat weedy intellectual in popularity contest

So Tim didn’t win Big Brother (why would I care? Well I did work with the guy for a year), which I guess didn’t surprise me that much, but I was surprised how long he lasted. RADAR offered (although I suspect it was written by one of his mates) a few funny reasons why.