I'm Going Home (Probably)


Wherein our narrator whinges a bit about having his hand forced.

On monday I phoned United Airlines, to change my departure date from 28 December to 6 January. Only there's a problem: 4 - 6 January are biggest travel dates in the entire year in Australia. So no go. She checked all the way out to the 13th - the last date I can legally remain in the country - and no go. I'll have another go today, hoping to delay the inevitable by a few days. But I'm not all that optimistic.

Now, truth be told, I probably can use the extra time in Los Angeles, to pack and whatnot, since I will be moving out of my house forever. But I wanted to get a tan, wanted to get thinner, wanted to laze about a bit on the beach. And as it is it looks as though next week will be a chute: I'll enter with my last few days at AFTRS and end back in Los Angeles sometime on next Sunday afternoon. Hmm. I don't even know if I'm ready to go back to America. As they say when the bars close, "You don't have to go home, but you can't stay here!"

By all rights, I should be staying here: I've made a useful contribution to the culture, to the nation, have earned my own way, am paying taxes, etc. But it's their country and they get to control their immigration policy any way they see fit. And it's best if I obey *all* the rules, if I can.

And I will get to see my friends in Los Angeles, whom I miss very much. I need some hugs from people I love. Haven't been getting nearly enough hugs here, because, well, we haven't gotten there yet. And this ain't California, after all.

Last night I gave an hour-plus talk about VRML to the Sydney SIGGRAPH chapter. It's been a long time - how long, I couldn't even say - since I gave a lecture on VRML. I think it was sort of rambling and incoherent, but it was a trip down memory lane for me. People threw questions at me, and I could answer them. It's weird, because I often think I don't know much about anything, but, as it turns out, I know a lot about a lot of things, knowledge that's just sitting there, pooled up in reserve, waiting for the moment when it could be used. It felt good, and reminded me how interesting VRML is a as a format to work within. I've offered to teach some courses on VRML at AFTRS, so perhaps that will also help out.

And today I start working on the resource report, so that I can have a bit of a draft written up by tomorrow's final Interactive Working Group meeting. That should detail some of the resources - both capital and pedagogical - required to integrate new media into the AFTRS curriculum, per the Curriculum Assessment. Plus Peter and I have scheduled ourselves into the first 6 months of the year (for which there is budget), with teaching and whatnot. It's coming together.

Epping approaches.

Posted: Wed - December 17, 2003 at 08:27 AM        

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