Sunday 30 November, 2003 at 1:31PM (Nereus)  ::  permalink  ::  comments (3)

Sorry I've had no time at all to post here since returning from Miami. I've finally started a new full time job but it's over in New Jersey, which means I have to leave home by 5.30am each morning and don't get back until about 8pm each night. It makes for a pretty long day, that's for sure. With the other weasel needing the computer for university, I rarely have a chance to post anymore (unless it's like midnight, and by then I'm too tired to post anything even approaching coherant).

Ok where to start.. the job I guess briefly. It's in telecommunications (voice and data) and is a relatively new company dealing only with businesses. About 80% of the people I work with are registered stockbrokers, which certainly speaks volumes about the current market. The pay is potentially very good, although I have some.. umm.. reservations about the job so far, but I'm not going to say much more about it because there are many instances of people being fired or even sued by their employers in the US just for saying something bad about the company they work for. It's kind of funny how the US claims freedom of speech as one of its great cornerstones, yet from what I've seen there is far more freedom of speech in New Zealand than there is here. I guess there's two things that can be blamed for that: 911 and American Lawyers.

Miami was a few weeks ago and we have a heap of photos from the trip, but having not posted for so long it's pretty much like posting old news now. It's hot down there, the temperature never dropped below 85°F (30°C) the whole time we were there, and wow, it is really humid.. and that's their (early) winter?! IceQueen loved it, but it was a bit too hot for me. It was a shock coming back (with a layover in Boston) where the temperature when we returned was hitting 27°F (-2°C) overnight. This coming week the temperatures are predicted to be hitting highs of about 37°F and lows of 22°F (that's 2°C max and -5°C minimum). Snow can't be far away.

Ok looks like I'm not going to get any more time to post today - I need to do washing, shopping, iron shirts, clean shoes etc etc, and now that Ice has finished with the computer (for the time being) she wants us to go out. I have scanned a bunch of photos from our trip to Miami but I guess they will remain unpublished for now. Oh I forgot to mention, because I work in NJ but live in NY, I get taxed by both states (double taxed) which really sucks. I'll know next Friday just how bad that is, but I'm guessing it will mean maybe 60%+ of my gross I will lose in tax. That's just wrong. Add onto that 18% of gross back to NZ IRD support, and what I'm left with probably just covers the expense of traveling to and from New Jersey, work clothes and lunches and not much more.. wtf?

Happy Thanksgiving for last Thursday too. We went to IceQueen's parents apartment and ate copious amounts of yummy food. Thanksgiving is not really known in New Zealand, so it doesn't really mean the same to me as it obviously does to many here in the US. Maybe it'll grow on me.

lunar eclipse and more coming soon

      Wednesday 5 November, 2003 at 5:22PM (Nereus)  ::  permalink  ::  comments (7)

We're off to Miami tomorrow so thought I'd add a post now before we go. Some things to watch out for over the next few days: across North and South America, Europe and Africa you'll be able to watch (weather permitting) the full moon dim into a dark orb over the weekend (Saturday EST) as the moon drifts through Earth's shadow. Yup, it's a total lunar eclipse. At its peak, the moon will hang eerily in the night sky like a dark, reddish-orange coal. I watched a full lunar eclipse years ago in New Zealand. I was about 15 at the time and just happened to look up into the sky as it started. I ran inside and grabbed an instant camera and took a photo ..of course the photo was just completely black ..duh. It was pretty freaky watching the Earth's shadow creep across the face of the moon ..I remember it clearly.

Weather cooperating, people in the eastern United States, South America, Europe and Africa will witness the entire eclipse. It will already be under way when the moon rises around sunset in the western United States, and it will not be visible at all in Asia and Australia. The eclipse reaches totality at around 8:06 p.m. EST Monday. The stage when the moon, Earth and sun are lined up precisely and the moon passes through the darkest part of Earth's shadow lasts just 24 minutes.

But wait! There's more! Saturday's lunar eclipse will be followed by the Leonid meteor shower, a total solar eclipse over the southern hemisphere, and a chance for more auroras if the sun stays active (apparently there's been red and green aurora displays as far south as Florida thanks to big explosions on the sun recently, but I haven't seen any of these yet). Another eruption Tuesday on the sun may rank among the most intense solar events ever recorded. But the explosion was aimed away from Earth, meaning it would have little impact here.

The Leonid meteor shower display will peak first for viewers in western Asia, Indonesia and Australia before dawn on Nov. 14th. For western Africa, western Europe, North America and western portions of South America, the display peaks a few days later, on Nov. 19. Viewers should be able to see 100 or so meteors per hour, some of them fireballs.

Nov. 28 also will bring a total solar eclipse, although seeing it will require a bit of travel. It will be visible only in Antarctica. heh.

Another quick note worth mentioning is that Microsoft Corp. is creating a $5 million reward program to help law enforcement identify and convict those who illegally release worms, viruses and other types of malicious programs on the Internet. The first two rewards ($250,000 each) will be for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for the spread of the MSBlast.A worm and the SoBig virus unleashed earlier this year. Good to see action like this happening. Ok cya in a few days.

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      Tuesday 4 November, 2003 at 11:35PM (Nereus)  ::  permalink  ::  comments (0)

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      Monday 3 November, 2003 at 10:00AM (Nereus)  ::  permalink  ::  comments (0)

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      Sunday 2 November, 2003 at 11:52AM (Nereus)  ::  permalink  ::  comments (0)

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