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.

Julie and I got married two years ago today. Yeah, two years may not sound like a lot, especially when you consider how long we dated. We'll be celebrating more anniversaries, though ... interestingly enough things went well everywhere for me today. The servers arrived, I was able to load Windows Server 2008 R2 without any trouble (even though it's not officially supported yet), dinner was delicious. Good stuff.

We've got a vacation coming. I'm off from August 31st to September 8th ... Julie goes back to work on the 7th, though. Not sure what we're doing, though; we were thinking of going to Door County but are looking at other options now. We just want to relax for a week, but we don't want to leave Daisy at home.

Soon after that I'm heading to the other side of the planet to the head office in Sydney. I've never been on a flight that long before and, based on how I reacted to the flight back from St. Lucia, I'm going to be a wreck. Never been to Australia, but I hear it's pretty cool. And no, I'm not going to skydive.

Let's see how Richard reacts when I walk into the office carrying a MacBook Pro