cultural twist

folks often ask me about cultural differences i encounter living here and i always say how it seems to be the little things you wouldnt’ give a quarter of a second thought to that surprise you.

so here’s a simple harmless example from this morning:

i went to get a coffee during our 15 min class break. decided i wanted something to eat. oh, a muffin would be fine. and there’s this yellow one sitting there. your average everyday corn muffin. i order my coffee and i say ‘ill have one of the corn muffins too’. the chick looks at me. huh? what do i want? i repeat myself and she gives me the same look.

turns out it’s not a corn muffin. it’s a LEMON LIME muffin.

i got the banana one instead.

word of the day

steak style soy strips

try saying that over and over. it’s on the pkg of this ‘just add veggies’ peppercorn stir fry meal thing i bought tonite.

thesis blogs

i’ve been trying to figure out how to organise my research for my thesis. i’ve been using procite but that just seems to be good for keeping track of the readings. i’ve been testing citation and i’m liking it. it works as a biblio like procite but it also lets u keep notes, quotes, etc. i don’t like its U$80 price though so i think i’ll stop using it soon.

the other day i was thinking about blogs. i’m pretty sure i’m going to start a new blog to keep ideas, notes, links, etc in. i’ll continue with procite for the biblio though.

so tonite i searched to see if i could find any thesis blogs and not much came up. maybe they’re all private (i’m thinking of making mine private).

i did find this one which said it was a thesis blog but is much different that what i was imagining doing. the other one doesnt seem to have any thesis content either. but it’s a cool site. check out this great writing…

Tofu Girl

The woman behind the counter was tanned the sort of deep brown that would have been admirable in a cake, but is worrying in skin. Blue eye-shadow, blonde hair. She was on the phone, ignoring me, which suited me just fine.
“Oh, it’s all over, weeks ago now.” she said to the person at the other end of the phone, “He’s now going out with someone who eats tofu.” There was a pause. “Well, exactly. Did I tell you how he offered to pay me five hundred dollars to quit smoking? I told him there was no way. We stopped seeing each other shortly after that.”

how great.

13 days

i have 13 days til i have to turn in my thesis proposal. luckily, as i found out last nite at thesis class, i’m not the only person who thinks they’re lost and deep in the shit.

i’ve decided on the topic, narrowed from my 7 ideas. i’m going to look at virtual teams and geographically dispersed teams effectiveness. falling under that heading is leadership, motivation, trust, technology and a few other things i’m sure. but those are the ones i want to concentrate on.

now i need to find a company to work with. and not just work with but i want to find one that will pay me… either as an employee or as a consultant to do this research. after all, working on this… being in an office observing (which granted it’s virtual teams but if an office is here, there’s a good chance i’d be in an office) is going to cut into my current work schedule and i need to make up for that. so this is the challenge in the next 2 weeks.

oh and writing the proposal.

was getting sick last week. didnt sleep then slept for a long time, couldnt concentrate, but now i seem to be much better.

nothing much else happening. work. school. work. school.

how fun!

finland is the place to be

there’s a great article on cnn right now about coffee and lowering the risk of diabetes. seems women in finland (where the study was done) who drank three to four cups of coffee daily had a 29 percent reduced risk for the disease.

yaah! a new reason to drink coffee!!!

i like this comment…

>Finns average about nine cups of coffee daily and the country tops world per >capita consumption at more than 24 pounds per person annually, the study >said.

9 cups a day! wow!!!!

first class back

this morning i had my first class. goodbye summer break.

this one is ‘innovative leadership’ and i’m looking forward to it. should be interesting. the book we’re using is something i’ve already read (extra reading for a project 2 semesters ago) so i can slack on that a tiny bit. but the extra readings, which are handed out in this syllabus book at the first class, are huge. the book is about 2 inches thick. nice.

we’ve even divided up into small groups already for one of the assignments. i’m in a multi-cultural group (an aussie, me, 2 indians and someone from cambodia). i’ve worked with one of the guys before and know he’s a smart, hard worker. the others i’m not so sure about. at least i didn’t end up in a group with one person in the class. this person is a freaking nightmare who happens to like me so it was all i could do to set myself into a group and not get tangled up with them.

in 2 hours i have my first thesis class (or integrated project as they call it here). this is where i’m massively stressing. i have about 6 topics to decide on. not sure what i want to do when i grow up so not sure what direction to go in. but i know i want to commit to writing a 18k word document. (yes, possibly insane) when i was doing my MA @ the new school, i started my thesis and then gave up on it because i was working full time and not getting much accomplished. plus i realised i had completed all my course work and could file for graduation immediately and not have to do the thesis so that’s what i did. i’ve always regretted not doing it so here’s my second chance.

F1, holiday, sleep

this weekend is labour day wknd which means a long wknd. it also means the moomba festival which is something along the water. some festival that does those tub races down the river but otherwise i’m not sure what it is. think ill wander down there today.

it’s also grand prix f1 wknd. i’m watching it on tv while i’m writing this. it’s quite the event in town. something i didn’t realise last year is where it’s actually held – and no, it’s not a raceway like indy or daytona. imagine if central park was blocked off and the race way was actually the streets w/in the park. that’s how it’s done here. there’s an area of town called albert park which is residential and has shops and this large park with a lake in the middle of it (it’s not as big as central park btw). unlike central park, the roads w/in the park are major streets which people drive all the time.

so yes, the city shuts down these major streets and a park which is used for biking and relaxing and whatever else for about 3 weeks (setup, the race & tear down). there’s also the noise of the cars. last year i could hear the noise in the area i was staying which isnt that far from albert park but not that close. i live closer this year. it just amazes me the city (and residents which seem always ready to protest) allows this.

i’m not caffeinated at the moment so if this post isnt making sense, that’s my excuse. last nite i got about 7 hrs sleep but prior to that i was on 8 hrs over 2 days. worked from like 8am thru midnite for 2 days. gee, was that fun. and by work i don’t mean those nice jobs at desks, but on your feet for that long, serving people type work. so i think i’m taking it easy this wknd and getting a lot of sleep. doing some last wk before class starts reading.

seasons

yesterday, march 1st, was the first day of autumn. yes, i know. doesn’t make much sense to us northern hemisphere folk. seems here they randomly decided to have the seasons change when they wanted to, not the equinox dates. so now it’s autumn and it was 29 today. tomorrow it’s supposed to be 36/high 90s!!

to NZ

air new zealand has some good deals. flying from march-june and then july-november. u$748 from honolulu, u$848 from LA, u$960 from san fran. check airnz.com for details.