Well, my trip to Sydney is almost at an end. While it was indeed mainly for work, there was plenty of sightseeing and tourist stuff going on. I'd say I was over the jet lag almost immediately, but running around the way we did was indeed quite tiring ... I guess I'll have Sunday to rest, and then it's back to work on Monday. Good times.

I'll be leaving here at 1:20PM on October 3rd and will be getting to Chicago at 6:40PM on ... October 3rd. That's one of the cool things about flying back, but it'll probably result in confusion -- it will be the longest October 3rd ever.

Pre-flight jitters started a couple days ago already. Not too thrilled about that, but I guess there's really not much I can do about that. I mean, I can climb a bridge over Sydney Harbor, I can take an elevator almost 1000 feet above Sydney, but stepping on a plane freaks me out. Thankfully the flight back to the US is about an hour shorter than the flight to Australia ... but that last leg from LA to Chicago is going to feel incredibly long.

Anyway ... building on my last submission, HSDPA is much cooler than 3G. I guess I'm not impressed because I'm used to EDGE (which is apparently what AT&T calls 3G) on the BlackBerry, but if I sit just right in the apartment I get a damn quick connection using that USB card. It's not fast enough for a Skype video call, but it does voice calls quite well without killing my other browsing sessions.

A few of us went to Bondi Beach tonight. Unfortunately it was quite dark, but it seems like a pretty fun place. It would probably be even more fun when it's light out ... though we'll have to wait 'til the weekend to experience that first-hand. Beer flows like water there.

Furthermore, I'm not entirely sure why mobile phone companies are so pumped about 3G. It's really not that exciting ... nor is it that fast. I mean, I'm on a 3G card now and for most of what I'm doing it's okay, as long as I'm running Firefox with AdBlock. I think Julie is at work right now but I'm pretty sure that, if I were to log onto this 3G connection and do a Skype call, it would suck. There is no reason to have such an epic crush on 3G.

In other news, after we got back from Bondi I turned on the TV and had a quick look at a Cricket match. I can't figure out the damn scoring. I can tell what the guys do, but where I come from, 177-6 is either 171, or a really bad day for a basketball team.

Okay, well it's not really the future ... but right now, it's 2:33AM in Chicago and it's 5:33 PM in Sydney. So, if you really want to play that way, yes I am in the future. It's a nice future, but nothing's really that different.

The flight over here wasn't that bad, though I didn't have much room to do anything on the plane. The lady in front of me put her seat all the way back, which pretty much put the seatback TV right in my face. I couldn't open my laptop more than 30 degrees, so even though I found the electrical outlet in the back of the seat in front of me, I couldn't play Left 4 Dead on the plane like I had planned. I also couldn't mess with the DS because, quite frankly, I didn't have the patience (yes, I didn't have the patience to even play Super Mario Bros.).

What was awesome, though, was that the seatback TV had a whole bunch of on-demand programming. There were movies from this year, too -- I managed to watch X-Men Origins: Wolverine a few hours before we landed in Sydney yesterday. The Qantas A380 has a small video camera embedded in the tail, so I could actually see what was going on outside even though I didn't have a window seat -- that was freaking brilliant.

Saw the Sydney office in person for the first time today. It really is one big area with desks all jammed together. I haven't taken any pictures of it yet.

As you can see I have obtained Internet access via an Optus 3G USB stick. I understand it has a 2GB limit, though, so I need to use it somewhat sparingly ... Walt and Jeff have a wireless modem and it turns out their apartment is right next to mine, so we'll see if we can rig up a wireless network I can join. That way, I can get on Skype with people and not worry about maxing out the Optus card, effectively taking it out of commission for the rest of the month.

So ... long update today, but all in all we're having a pretty good time

I fly out in two days ... needless to say, that feeling in the pit of my stomach is still there and it's not really going away. I'll be taking my Nintendo DS along with me as well as the laptop so I can keep myself occupied on the plane when I'm not busy flipping out.

Daisy is in the Intermediate class now. Her classes are Wednesday evenings, which means I'm taking her to one tonight. They're a bit more intense than the puppy/beginner classes and require a larger amount of additional work. This is a little tougher than those classes as well because shibas, by their nature, are a bit more independent than a lot of other breeds ... meaning they'd much rather do whatever they want than what you tell them.

I hear it's easier to adjust to the time difference on the way there than on the way back. Based on the trip to Hawaii a few years back I'd agree with that, even though it still took a couple days. What I'll end up doing is forcing myself into the routine. That's probably the best approach in this case. I'd like to see if it works on the way back too, but I'll need to wait until October 3rd to test that.

It's great that we have air travel and all, but it makes me friggin' nervous. I'm heading to Sydney next week, and have been flipping out about it for the past two weeks. People are telling me to drink a lot, take some drugs, etc. as if I hadn't tried that yet ... nothing works. I'll just be nervous.

I'll be taking lots of pictures, of course. Two weeks' worth ... because that's how long I'll be there.

Good times.