First Day
Wherein our narrator spreads good cheer and cold
germs around the offices of AFTRS.
Eighteen hours sleep was maybe still not quite
enough. Hello again from the Central to Epping train. On days when I don't
have other writing assignments (and I do have other writing assignments) I will
be making blog entries. Last night was a fitful sleep from a combination of
congestion and jet lag; I woke up several times during the evening, and once I
had a somewhat nasty nightmare involving gunmen perhaps trying to invade my home
- only it was some suburban pre-fab job, rather like my sister's house in
Carlsbad - though perhaps more crowded. Woke up at 6:10 AM and though, what the
hell, let's just get up and do things. Which I
did.
I awoke with a brilliant (IMO)
idea this morning, a new word:
animati.
This is the word that I will attempt to promote as the definition of the middle
state between animate and inanimate objects. I had a dream, just before rising,
in which I saw some toys, fashioned of terrycloth, that had personalities and
behaviors. In fact, they were quite cute & endearing, and if I could figure
out how to fabricate them, I'd probably grow immensely wealthy. I believe they
were probably constructed of nanomaterials, and the fabric was actually a
computing fabric, giving the creatures a high degree of interactivity and
artificial intelligence. They were very, very cute, big cloth eyes, floppy
mouths, etc. Not much bigger than an oven mitt, for the largest of them, and
able to gambol across the ground by doing a scrunch-release movement, much like
an inch worm - only they could do it very
quickly.
Anyway, enough of my
dreams.
Yesterday I got to meet a lot
of people at AFTRS. I actually arrived quite early - the entire trek took less
than an hour, which, as I understand it is more efficient than it would be if I
tried to drive from Surry Hill to North Ryde. I got there about 30 minutes
before Peter Giles, so he instructed me to go down to the cafe, where I had a
flat white and played with my computer a little bit. Such a nice toy this is!
Then it was meetings, meetings, meetings. First and foremost with HR, the folks
who were responsible for my predicament - and Shannon, who runs HR, was very
apologetic, and very helpful. I have actually become an AFTRS employee, this
being the best way to get me paid while I'm here. Then I went to accounting,
where I found I would be taxed at an exorbinant rate - I don't have the figure
here but I think it's in the neighborhood of 35%, which isn't so bad, but my
figures could be wrong there. I was also told that I'd need a Tax
identification number - the Australian equivalent of an SSN, which I applied for
online last evening. And that I'd need a bank account, so direct deposits could
be made to that account. As there is a Commonwealth Bank directly across the
street from my flat, that's where I'll sign up for an account. Soon. But Peter
has scheduled early meetings for me today and tomorrow, so there's little
likelyhood that will happen before Monday, unless, on some chance the banks are
open here on Saturday mornings. This I doubt, being that Australia is
relatively "old world" in this sense - things are closed on the weekend that
used to be closed on the weekend in America. I guess in the USA we've moved
forward into a 24-hour, 7-day culture, and things are open all sorts of time in
the US that they aren't in other, more sedate
climes.
Then I had lunch with Pat, a
lovely older woman who is just now resigning from her position running the
Producing program. She's amazing, and she produced two of Peter Weir's greatest
movies,
Galipolli
and Picnic at Hanging
Rock. I can't bear to admit to anyone that
I've never seen Galipoli, but then since Weird did direct
The Last
Wave - immediately after
Picnic at Hanging
Rock, I believe, I feel as though I've been
brushed by greatness. Anyway, Pat is a real firecracker, in the way that older
woman - who have clearly made it on their own, against all odds - have to be.
That strong strain of Britishness (in its Australian form) which is lemon and
sunlight, all mixed together.
In the
afternoon we set to getting my iBook working on the AFTRS network. This was no
easy feat. I had to hand it over to the IT folks, so thehy could ensure there
was no malware/spyware/viruses on this machine (there aren't), or any
hacking/cracking tools (none of those either). Once it was returned I was given
a list of passwords and whatnot to log onto the AFTRS network. Just about the
only open port out of the AFTRS network is 80 (web browsing) so I can use a web
browser to get to the outside world, but iChat, ssh, FTP and all that jazz,
homey ain't gonna play. Which really sucks because I do use all of those tools,
all day long, for all sorts of things. So basically my computer is reduced to
an intranet client and web terminal while I'm at AFTRS. Color me a bit purple.
Of course this does mean I'll be able to use HTTP to grab the MP3s that I
haven't gotten off of Webearth at the office (I hope the traffic doesn't set off
any alarms), but still, it seems way too restrictive. But then, they' re
worried about folks breaking into the network and stealing assets - or folks
inside sending assets where they don't belong, so I can understand some of their
concern. In any case, I'm up on that
network.
Oh, and worst of all,
Entourage can't tunnel through. Which means no email from my regular account
except at home, until I get Squirrel Mail or something similar set up on
WebEarth. Hopefully that won't be to hard to do, and that's on the to-do list
for this weekend, when I can have some unfettered access to my machines.
Then I met with Dennis, the "Security
Officer" for AFTRS, who instructed me in various safety procedures, first aid,
what to do in case of emergencies, etc. He seemed a very dour chap, as though I
was distracting him from some very important covert work. Then I got my photo -
with a big red nose because of the cold I'm still dealing with - and had a badge
made. Then I met the director of the Sound department, Jenny, who has only been
here 5 weeks or so, and is dealing with some very broken equipment during the
heaviest production season of her year. But we had a good
talk.
Around that point, I started to
get psyched; probably a second wind, and a second flat white, but nonetheless I
understood that people are excited to make this transition into interactive, and
they're looking to me to help them through it. It's a big
responsibility.
OK, Epping coming
up.
Posted: Thu - October 16, 2003 at 08:48 AM