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Topper's Travels

Topper Kain's blog. Topper Kain is a world-famous kazoo player and traditional norwegian food chef. He wants you to use the comments.

Friday, November 04, 2005

So after I've not posted for like 2.5 months, I'm just going to bitch.

Why I hate the TV show "Threshold":
It's terrible. It's about aliens trying to invade the Earth by changing our DNA with, get this, sound waves. SOUND WAVES. Currently these sound waves are also reprogramming smart cards in credit cards.... Why can't science fiction shows know just a little about science... ARGHHH


Anyways, maybe I'll post more about other stuff now...

Actually there not a whole lot. Work, sleep, work, sleep, work, sleep, work, start chilling for a few days, repeat. Foam was like a month ago and was AWESOME. LTG is soon. More later I guess, I'm going to Michelle's 21st.

.: posted by Topper 9:47 PM


Thursday, August 25, 2005

YEEEEEHAAAAAAA, I went to the fair and rodeo tonight! Screw BMXing, skateboarding, wakeboarding, whatever, unlike those "extreme" in rodeo the thing they ride is alive, 2500 lbs, and trying to kill you. Those cowboys are NUTS! I wonder how many bottles of whiskey the first rodeo riders went through before they tried to have the first rodeo? My guess: a lot.
"Hey Billy-Joe, I'm gonna go climb on back of that steer over there, and you go kick him in the balls." I mean seriously, who has thoughts like that? I kind of want to try my hand at steer wrestling though... (you jump off a moving horse onto a moving young bull and, well, wrestle it to the ground. Naturally, this would be preceded by whiskey).

Anyways, I'm totally pysched about watching rodeo now, I think I'm going to one in CA. Maybe I'll get Mudd to pay for it.

On another note, I'm going to starting my driving to CA tomorrow. See all the CA people on Sunday.

.: posted by Topper 12:08 AM


YEEEEEHAAAAAAA, I went to the fair and rodeo tonight! Screw BMXing, skateboarding, wakeboarding, whatever, unlike those "extreme" in rodeo the thing they ride is alive, 2500 lbs, and trying to kill you. Those cowboys are NUTS! I wonder how many bottles of whiskey the first rodeo riders went through before they tried to have the first rodeo? My guess: a lot.
"Hey Billy-Joe, I'm gonna go climb on back of that steer over there, and you go kick him in the balls." I mean seriously, who has thoughts like that? I kind of want to try my hand at steer wrestling though... (you jump off a moving horse onto a moving young bull and, well, wrestle it to the ground. Naturally, this would be preceded by whiskey).

Anyways, I'm totally pysched about watching rodeo now, I think I'm going to one in CA. Maybe I'll get Mudd to pay for it.

On another note, I'm going to starting my driving to CA tomorrow. See all the CA people on Sunday.

.: posted by Topper 12:08 AM


Monday, August 22, 2005

MOTHER FUCKER!!!! The class I want finally opened up and I spent all day calling the registar's office to try to add it, since apparently only one person there can put me in classes. I spent an hour calling back, finally talked to her, and she said she'd add me. I checked the website 30 minutes latter and the class was closed again, but it wasn't on my schedule. Praying it was just a slow database update I called the registar again. Alas, that fucking MORON in the office didn't add me when I asked her to, and the class had closed without me again.

I'm so pissed, the registar's office has screwed me over so hard in the last too years I can barely speak. I hate them, I really do.

.: posted by Topper 3:35 PM


Thursday, August 18, 2005

Mostly taken from an e-mail to an old boss updating my life:

I guess this update starts at the finish of two GRUELING years at Harvey Mudd. Despite quite a bit of hard work, schmoozing, and flat out begging I was unable to procure a job prior to start of summer vacation, so I went home to Bremerton. I was preparing to work at a restaurant or construction site or some other such college job but, no sooner did I return home than did I receive three separate interview offers, two of which resulted in job offers. Go figure, I finally give up on getting a job and I end up getting the two best employment packages amongst all of my friends.

I eventually accepted the offer made by Northrop Grumman- Electronic Systems, Azusa, California which seemed like a mouthful at first but quickly came to seem very succinct compared to the projects I ended up supporting. These anagramastrophes included management support for SBIRS (Space Based Infrared Systems, an air force satellite system that can detect and report the heat signature of a missile launch anywhere in the world in less than 10 seconds; it is rumored to be capable of even detecting planes taking off, and being able to determine which type of plane), working with the software engineering department implementing CMMI (Capability Model Maturation Integration, and I still don’t know what that means; it’s a software engineering system the government really likes), and my personal favorite, coding software for a satellite simulator, ATMS (short for ATMS NPOESS, short for Advanced Technology Microwave Sounder, National Polar Orbiting Environmental Satellite System, easily the winner for the project name least likely to fit on my resume).

Working at Northrop was extremely interesting and a lot of fun, as was making money. It was so much fun actually, that it finally prodded me to do something I’d been meaning to do since high school: take a gap year. I decided that I was going to take a year off from Harvey Mudd and work, travel, and be merry. Unfortunately this meant I had to immediately move out of the dorm room I’d been living in during the summer. After a desperate search for lodging before becoming homeless, one of my friends, a Marine Corps Reserve Iraq War vet, offered to let me move onto the couch in the living room of his apartment for the duration of my stay in California. We ended up having a great time, and as the apartment was about a 30 minute walk from campus I was able to live like a college student without homework, and with money.

As interesting work was starting at Northrop was starting to dry up (you think they would of changed to acronym after “Office Space”, but they were having me collect and analyze, “TPS reports”), I decided to fulfill my promise to some high school friends going to WSU to live with them before they went to Iraq with the Marines, an organization that my friends have been strangely attracted to. I went up there expecting to be able to experience a taste of life at a large university, and I was not disappointed. The football games were incredible, the university itself was far too big and impersonal, and the town was incredibly small. Regardless, I had a fantastic time, although my friends plans to get me a job working with him at Walmart fell through so I ended up with a lot of free time on my hands. Despite the release of Halo 2, I was able to put this to good work. Amongst other things, I learned how to cook (decently), learned about investing, wrote the start of what may become a business plan, and got really really good at beating my roommates on the x-box. I also started voraciously reading history and politics textbooks, which made me realize how much I love those subjects. I am now getting a second major in Politics and International Relations through Scripps College (the women’s college, which I find hilarious) to go along with my Computer Science degree at Mudd.

Being up in Pullman was great for another reason: I was able to be the best man at my best friends wedding. It was a lovely ceremony, despite the fact that he had only known the girl for four months (don’t ask, we don’t). My speech at the reception was extremely well received, and the draft I read from is apparently framed in their house. I even got a few people to shed a some tears, which I consider a very high mark of quality. And then a month later he left for Iraq. So it goes.

Because of said marriage and deployments to Iraq, I moved home for a about a month and a half before I continued on to my next adventure, studying abroad in Australia. Time at home was fairly uneventful, but my family loved me being there even if I occasionally felt a little out of place. It went by very quickly though, and I was soon off to Australia.

Australia was, and is, and probably ever will be AMAZING. The wild life is unique and beautiful, the people are down to Earth and friendly, the cities and neighborhoods have a real sense of community, and, most important to a college student, they have public transit. More than anything else though I defiantly fell in love with the people there. Both the Aussie blokes and Sheilas were friendly, interesting, and companionable. They go out of there way to be inclusive of strangers in almost any environment and love having a good time. The work ethic was a real adjustment though; I am not used to offices that supposed to be open till 5 closing at 4:15 with no notice, nor was I prepared for being able to finish my entire scholastic workload in under 30 hours a week, although I was happily surprised. I felt constantly guilty that I wasn’t working hard enough, but in the end I got great grades in my courses, which I guess vindicates me.

The feature of Australia that impressed me the most though was the pub scene. My parents accuse me of having become a horrific alcoholic when I say that, but it’s true. Australian pubs function as a sort of community center for Australians, and they work. At times some of the pubs reminded me of church picnics, with kids of all ages running around and everyone just talking, milling about and having a bit to eat. And many of these pubs were like this everyday. The sense of community they engender to the populations they served was a completely positive thing, much in contrast to what seems to be the stereotypical view of pubs and bars in the US.

Australia wasn’t all positive for me. Early on I had a tremendous sense of guilt for being there while my friends were in Iraq, but I one of them cured me of when he told me online that “Goddamnit Topper, if you don’t have some better stories next time I talk to you, when I come home I am going to kick your ass,” or something like that. And as I mentioned before the Aussie work ethic could be maddening. The Aussie guys were prone to a lot of fighting, and although I never got involved in any I had a few close calls. The Australians also have some pretty resilient strains of sexism and racism in their culture, although they are ultimately fading away.

All in all, I loved Australia and am hoping to go back.

Okay, there is also some stuff about my side trip to Malaysia, but it is mostly me blabbering on about how beautiful it is. I will say that Malaysia really opened my eyes about how the US has neither sole claim to multiculturalism, nor is the US’s solution to it the only way.

Overall the year off has I think reinvigorated my love of learning and readied me to perform well at Mudd in a way that I was lacking before. I understand both my place in the world and my own goals and aspirations much better, as well as the purpose of my education. And, most importantly, something is occurring that hasn’t happened since I left Bremeton in August three years ago: I’m excited to go back to school.

.: posted by Topper 10:15 PM


Thursday, August 04, 2005

Damnit, it's Nott night, and I'm not there. Oh well.

Bremerton is so friggin boring. I'm here for exactly the wrong amount of time too, not long enough for a job, not short enough for it to be just a visit.

I'd write more but now I'm tired and want to go to bed.

.: posted by Topper 1:52 AM


Saturday, July 30, 2005

So I am definatly in the depths of anti-homesickness (awaysickness maybe?) I'm bored out of my mind with most of my friends gone/working. I just kind of wish I was some place else.

My dad and I tried to put the boat in the water today, always a recipe for disaster. He treated me like i was still 10, and I got a little snippy. Honestly though, he spent the entire time under the assumption I had no clue what I was doing, even though I know about as much as he does about that boat. Grrr....

Anyways, other news in my life... I got a new iPod mini for free when my bro bought his new Powerbook, I got a new mobile phone because my old one broke, and since my time in Australia tought my to drive a stick, my Mom has been having me drive her around in her BMW convertible. After I got my new mobile phone my dad yelled at me because I wanted to spend 50c on a ringtone. He thought it was the stupidiest waste of money in the world. I bet next week he has a Stevie Ray Vaughn song for his ringtone...

So overall, I've gotten pretty lucky in the new stuff department, and hanging with my brothers has been really good. And overall, honestly, I have cool parents. Still, I'm feeling listless, bored, and feel the wanderlust still pulling at me. And I wish I could go back to Melbourne. Or visit Lauren and Kara, that would be cool too.

.: posted by Topper 9:57 PM


From an e-mail I wrote, I thought it was pretty good:

I just got done (finally) with cleaning the gutters and now smell like decomposing vegetable matter. I'm covered in dirt and grime; I will soon go to a place called Earl's Marine in a town called Belfair, which makes Geelong look like downtown London, to pick up our boat. On the way I'll be passing people setting up for the town festival tonight, at least 6 different brands of fast food and probably twice that in fast food resturants. I'll gaze over the evergreen hills and see a significant portion of the greatest Navy the world has ever seen being repaired and refurbished in the Bremerton Naval Yard, knowing that those ships are the entire reason for my, and everyone elses, presence in this little corner of the world/nowhere/paradise/my home. I'll pass a diner, BBQ house, scrap yard, car dealership and really disgusting strip club, pick up my boat, drive back past a planned housing community, the naval hospital, the people (stilll) setting up for the festival, at least a thousand pick-up trucks, and that new fangled round-about that they put in while I was gone, and that people still have lots of accidents at, but at much lower speeds then when it was just a three way stop. Finally I'll pull back up into my now paved driveway and think "well, that was quite the stereotypical scene from small town America."

.: posted by Topper 9:53 PM


Monday, July 25, 2005

Ever had that sinking feeling? That what I had as I left Melbourne a couple days ago, and it wasn't just because my side-trip to Malaysia had resulted in some digestive problems. I had just spent 6 months with some of the most amazing people ever, and I knew I was never going to see most of them again. And never is a big word. It's just with two weeks of vacation time a year and incentive to not even us that I don't think that I'll have much time to visit Australia after I graduate and enter the working world, and, well, frankly most of my Australian friends weren't too keen on visiting the US, despite the promise of having a sexy accent.

I couldn't sleep at all on the flight, a result of a combination of too much sleep the night before and far too much on my mind to want to. However, this did mean I got to watch a few good movies on the back of the person in front of mine's seat.

After I landed in good old Los Angeles I was greeted by the symbol most represented of that fine city: 40+ year old women wearing clothing meant for slutty 14 year olds. I mean I'm cool with the young at heart thing, but a t-shirt that says "Princess University" or "Slut" in glitter after the age of, well, actually no one should ever wear those shirts, but most DEFINATLY not at 42.

I also got to see American Lauren in LA. She was visiting her cousin in LA and kept me company within the dull beige walls of LAX. You know, considering that LAX is the primary port of entry into the USA on the west coast, you'd think that we'd make it not look like crap... oh well.
I got back to Seattle around 8 PM, waited for about 45 minutues for my luggage and then got back to Bremerton around 10 PM. A wonderful homecoming with hugs and kisses and stuff quickly turned into me falling asleep standing up as I had not had a full nights rest since I'd left Australia.

Washington in the Summer is absolutely amazing. Sunsets light up the whole sky, the mountains highlight the land, everything is green and sunny. It looks like an evergreen forest version of eden. The only thing that could make this more perfect is if my brother HADN'T hit a sandbar and ripped off the rear end of the family motor boat the day before I got back. Regardless it feels good to be back.

At the sametime however, I'm definatly missing Australia. I'm already planning a trip to the Aussie pie store in Seattle to get some of that meaty, gravy goodness, I'm finding everyone talking with American accents kind of weird, and I even tried to give the lady at mackers 25 cents for ketchup. Everyone in the land of Oz should know that I left part of my heart there and I think I'll always hope to come back. Until then keep in touch: my e-mail is topkai22@hotmail.com . And if you are ever in the United States look me up and you'll have a place to stay, food to eat, and a tour guide eager to show you that his country is cool too, even if we don't have kangaroos. Take care everyone.

.: posted by Topper 10:13 AM


Thursday, July 14, 2005

Well, there have been a few minor cosmetic changes to the blog, mainly the addition of Blogger supported comments, instead of the crappy old system I was using, and the addition of the title bar. What I really want to talk about though is some thoughts I've had while travelling through Malaysia

One of the greatest things about going to Malaysia is the massive amounts of diversity and multi-culturalism. Malaysia has three (count em, THREE) primary ethno-religous-linguistic groups: the Muslim Malays, the Buddhist/Christian Chinese and the Hindu Indians. All most all Malaysians speak at least three languages: there own (home) language, the state-dictated langauge of Bahasa Melayu, and at least some English (this being a former British colony and all.) Almost all the signs are printed in at least two langauges, and you never quite know what langauge the next TV or billboard ad is going to be in. Each ethnic group does tend to group up into its own community, but these groups get along. What it all comes down to though for me is this though: this country is practicing a version of multi-culturalism that is very different from the US's version, BUT IT STILL WORKS. Despite our proud beliefs, we in North America do not hold the only title to a pluralistic society. True, Malaysia has its problems with equality and race relations (the Chinese are by far the most affluent group, but the Malay's control the government and deny some rights to the rest of the groups), but no more, and possibly less than, the US. It's just a good reminder that it remains important for us in the USA to pay attention the rest of the world, it still has stuff to teach us.

Also, I've definatly learned that we need to encourage Malay and Indian migration to America, because the food here KICKS ASS!!!!

.: posted by Topper 10:15 PM


Monday, July 11, 2005

OK, this should be a really big update, but we'll see how long I actually want to write. As I speak I am sitting in an internet cafe in Penang, Malaysia. Yes, I Topper have finally become a real backpacker. I'm in a country that doesn't (actually, it's more like barely) speaks my langauge, with a giant backpack and an INCREDIBLY good exchange rate. You can stuff your face for like $2 here, with really good food. Internet is $0.50 an hour. It's great, I feel like I'm a colonial overlord... AHAHAHA

The way I ended up in Malaysia is a long involved story that basicly goes like this: I met a Malaysian girl at Monash, Malaysian girl invited me to Malaysia, I went to Malaysia. Vivian Chen is the best Chinese Malaysian who wants to be Australian ever. Vivian's brother is a hotshot in the hospitality business, so i just got a really good deal in a four star hotel on the island of Langkawi with Viv and family.

There I saw the tomb and museum of the legandary princess Mahsuri, who was falsely executed for adultery and cursed the island for seven generations, then Pedang Gallery (actually I think its called something else), which is where the former prime minister of Malaysia put all the cool stuff other country's gave to Malaysia, and gave to him. The gallery was AMAZING in so many ways. The stuff that states give in high-level exchanges is beautiful and EXPENSIVE, but it also gives an incredibly cool look into how a nation thinks of itself, and how it wants other people to think of it. BTW- the gallery only had two things from the USA as far as i can tell- A box of potpurri and wooden peaches, and a model of a helicopter. China had hundreds of items, including the most amazing jade carvings and gemstone flowers. The rest of the day was spent at a crocodile farm, a black sand beach, and in a very impressive cable car ride that allowed us to see the entire island. At both nights the Chen's treated me to incredible chinese seafood, and I treated them to the site of a white boy who could eat foods as spicy as they ate. Mr. Chen said I must of been a Mexican in my past life. Ole`.

Today I went diving in a marine park where the fish were so thick that they blocked your view. Amongst other things I saw stone fish, a school of squid, schools of huge groupers, and a massive school of yellow fish that kept on making designs that looked suspicously like slope fields. I hear a bio-math research project coming on. (Christ, wouldn't that be a great way to do research, diving in Malaysia).

Okay, I need to go check into a hotel and (hopefully) find a way to call my parents. Later everyone, I hope to see everyone soon.

.: posted by Topper 5:48 AM


Monday, June 20, 2005

Australia is the driest inhabited continent on earth. So why the heck did it rain the entire time I was travelling last week?

Jason Schoeder from Marquette, Wilhelm Van der Steen from the Netherlands, and myself just got back from a five-day camper van extravaganza. We took the good van "Robbie Williams" on the great ocean road, kangaroo island, Adelaide and then back to Melbourne. And it rained the entire time. And the van didn't have a heater. And for the first half of the trip, we didn't have a defroster, so we drove with the windows open. Be the end of the second day I think everything I brought was soaking wet. I don't think I've ever been so cold for so long.

It was actually a good trip though. Jason, Willhelm and I got along pretty well, and we saw a lot of cool stuff. I might even tell some of you about it someday. Actually, I'm going to post the pictures. Soon I hope.

The highlights of the trip were seeing a horde of pelicans being fed, which I have on video, seeing some massively cool rock formations, hanging out with Australian sea lions (also on video), and the ferry back from kangaroo island in storm conditions and everybody puking, which I unfortunatly do not have on video.

Okay, time to eat. Ciao.

.: posted by Topper 11:43 PM


Saturday, June 04, 2005

Cool, I'm 21 today. To bad I have two final exams tomorrow... Uncool, very uncool.

.: posted by Topper 5:24 PM


Tuesday, May 31, 2005

Newest distraction for me:
The Top 100 American Speeches of All-Time
http://www.americanrhetoric.com/top100speechesall.html

maybe this will help me not trip over my words as much

.: posted by Topper 11:27 AM


Wednesday, May 25, 2005

In my never ending quest to find things to distract me from doing my schoolwork, I just read an article about how video rental shops are losing market share to online retailers like Netflix. This caused me to think about something that has long bugged me about video stores: why don't video rental stores offer an "on-demand" section for normal renters? It seems like is should be easy for Hollywood Video or Blockbuster to maintain a large stock of relatively obscure movie titles in a central distribution center and then send them to a store when a customer requests one. They already have the MASSIVE inventories required, including movies still only found on VHS, and this would provide an excellent way of nullifying the online repositories main competitive advantage: selection. Of course an even better option from a consumer's point of view would be to digitize all those obscure movies and send them to an in store DVD-RW, allowing the rental stores to beat the online ones on speed of delivery too.

Alright, enough of my rants. Time to get back to work. Or sleep, whichever comes easier.

.: posted by Topper 10:15 AM


Sunday, May 22, 2005

Okay, I'm hoping to do a full post soon, but right now I'm going to bed. To tide you off and give a preview of my last couple of weeks I'll provide some statistics:
Times a friend has been taken to the hospital in the last 3 weeks: 8

Times I've personally taken friends to hospital in last 3 weeks: 2

Times I've sent someone to the hospital in the last 3 weeks: 1, but it was a clean hit.

Times I've had to go hospital myself: 0. Baby, I'm invincible

okay, g'night

.: posted by Topper 11:06 AM


Sunday, April 17, 2005

Wow, did that suck. I just spent the entire day (~8 hrs) writing a 12 page report that basicaly just forced me to reproduce results I already had into a different format. SOOOOO boring. I hope I get a good grade for my troubles...
I'm really tired now so I'm just going to do a quick summary of week
Football- it's as fun as ever, even if I keep on getting red marks on my forehead for a day after every practice. Australian bobsled team captian recruited one of our LB's for said sport. Much Cool Runnings jokes ensued- "Hey everyone can't you believe, Australia's got a bobsled team."

Contemporary Australia- Class still sucks, and I (like a third of my class) failed the first paper due to "not enough sources." The instructions didn't explicitly require them. I will do a rewrite.

Thursday- Exhausted from football, did not go to the notting hill hotel like normal. Stayed in cooked chili and watched Animal House with Kara and Luke. Kind of felt like a third wheel, but I was the first one invited.

Friday- Tried to go out to Brunswick street, but I had no takers. Watched Eurotrip and did some reading.

Saturday- Spy Lounge (three story dance club with decent if cheesy music) free drinks 9-11. I had a lot of fun.

Sunday- As I said, worked on that stupid report all day.

Ok everyone, g'night.

.: posted by Topper 8:54 AM


Tuesday, April 12, 2005

Hmm... I haven't posted since New Zealand have I... Well, not much has happened. Football (American) practice has started and I'm having a great time at that. I'm still one of the smaller guys on the line, but my skills are WAY better than most. I've pancaked a few people, which always gives me this warm fuzzy feeling inside.
Other than that... went to a few bars on the weekend, saw another AFL game (Melbourne Vs Geelong, Geelong lost, badly) and did some homework. Oh, the disc with my hanggliding pictures on it broke. How terrible is that? Okay all, till next time I bid you ado.

.: posted by Topper 4:24 AM


Wednesday, March 30, 2005

Hey Everybody! I'm currently living it up in New Zealand on spring break. I've seen some absolutely amazing landscapes here and done some amazing things. Our first stop on our tour was at a place called Fox glacier. We were supposed to hike up to the glacier field and then hike all over the field. Unfortunatly, about a daybefore a massive rock slide washed out the trail and we had to be satisfied just hiking up a little tiny part of the glacier. It was very cool looking though, with milky white water and blue pools all around, and amazing waterfalls coming off the insanely steep valley. Pictures will come soon. After a ridiculous (~7 hr) drive we made it to Queenstown, NZ and have been doing "Extreme" activities ever since. The first, and my favorite sofar was a downhill mountain biking on this absolutely insane trail. It was 45 degrees in places, with a mix of dirt, mud, shale, and rock all throughout, and on one side of us was sheer cliff shooting up to the sky,and the other a very steep rocky fall. We passed a few old mining buildings and stopped to think "how the heck did they live here," but the best part of the biking was my wipeout. NZ bikes have the brakes reversedso that the right brake is the front, unlike the US where it is the rear, so my instinct was to squeeze the right brake. This ended up being a very bad thing as on the first really (45 degree) steep part we were on Igrabbed the right handle to slow down, threw the bike up on its front tire, and launched myself over the handle bars. I rolled twice, popped up, threw my fists over my head and yelled "Extreme!" Needless to say, Iwas not hurt, and this action gained me lots of respect with my group. The next activity was jet boating, which was where a boat, going at least 45 MPH, drove withing centimeters of rockwalls, spun out in 360s and ingeneral got everyone wet. It was most fun. The last activity of the day yesterday was a white water rafting tour. Ifelt like I was floating on a river in Lord of the Rings the entire time, which, in fact, I was. The river was used in those great movies. The rapids themselves where pretty cool, if not as big or plentiful as I expected. The most thrilling part was travel threw a 100 Meter rock tunnel barely big enough to fit us inand being spit out into a hugerapid.

Our second day was also great fun, with most of the group jumping off the 2nd biggest bungy jump in the world. I elected not to after a harrowing ride out in a the tiny pod. I did do the sky swing, which was a gigantic rope swing that you get harnessed into, dropped at a 90 degree angle and swung out over a massive cliff. I think at the highest point of your swing you are over 200' in the air. We also had street luging down some special made trails, which was very high speed and fun. At night we went to a really cool bar: literally, it was made entirely out of ice. Someone just installed a bar in a giant meat locker and made all the cups, furniture, and decorations out of ice. I was so upset I forgot my camera for that one.

Yesterday I only had one activity: hang gliding. Pictures of that are coming, but let me just say that you will never find another activity that will make you feel more like a bird. I wasn't even technically doing the flying, but the glider is like an extension of your body. It was so amazingly beautiful too. I really am still at a lose of words to describe it. IM me some time for more. At night we had a 4 pub pubcrawl around Quennstown. I love how much cheaper pubs are around here then in Australia...

Okay, I'm running out of time on the computer, so I'm going to be brief: I went canyoning today, which is where you rapelle into a little tiny narrow canyon wearing weatsuits and then proceded to walk, climb, swim, slide, and jump down this river running through the canyon. The entire canyon was so small in some places I had to turn sideways to fit, and the entire thing was just amazingly beautiful.

Okay, gtg. I hope everyone had a happy easter.

.: posted by Topper 7:46 PM


Hey Everybody! I'm currently living it up in New Zealand on spring break. I've seen some absolutely amazing landscapes here and done some amazing things. Our first stop on our tour was at a place called Fox glacier. We were supposed to hike up to the glacier field and then hike all over the field. Unfortunatly, about a day
before a massive rock slide washed out the trail and we had to be satisfied just hiking up a little tiny part of the glacier. It was very cool looking though, with milky white water and blue pools all around, and amazing waterfalls coming off the insanely steep valley. Pictures will come soon. After a ridiculous (~7 hr) drive we made it to Queenstown, NZ and have been doing "Extreme" activities ever since. The first, and my favorite so
far was a downhill mountain biking on this absolutely insane trail. It was 45 degrees in places, with a mix of dirt, mud, shale, and rock all throughout, and on one side of us was sheer cliff shooting up to the sky,
and the other a very steep rocky fall. We passed a few old mining buildings and stopped to think "how the heck did they live here," but the best part of the biking was my wipeout. NZ bikes have the brakes reversed
so that the right brake is the front, unlike the US where it is the rear, so my instinct was to squeeze the right brake. This ended up being a very bad thing as on the first really (45 degree) steep part we were on I
grabbed the right handle to slow down, threw the bike up on its front tire, and launched myself over the handle bars. I rolled twice, popped up, threw my fists over my head and yelled "Extreme!" Needless to say, I
was not hurt, and this action gained me lots of respect with my group. The next activity was jet boating, which was where a boat, going at least 45 MPH, drove withing centimeters of rockwalls, spun out in 360s and in
general got everyone wet. It was most fun. The last activity of the day yesterday was a white water rafting tour. I
felt like I was floating on a river in Lord of the Rings the entire time, which, in fact, I was. The river was used in those great movies. The rapids themselves where pretty cool, if not as big or plentiful as I expected. The most thrilling part was travel threw a 100 Meter rock tunnel barely big enough to fit us inand being spit out into a huge
rapid.

Our second day was also great fun, with most of the group jumping off the 2nd biggest bungy jump in the world. I elected not to after a harrowing ride out in a the tiny pod. I did do the sky swing, which was a gigantic rope swing that you get harnessed into, dropped at a 90 degree angle and swung out over a massive cliff. I think at the highest point of your swing you are over 200' in the air. We also had street luging down some special made trails, which was very high speed and fun. At night we went to a really cool bar: literally, it was made entirely out of ice. Someone just installed a bar in a giant meat locker and made all the cups, furniture, and decorations out of ice. I was so upset I forgot my camera for that one.

Yesterday I only had one activity: hang gliding. Pictures of that are coming, but let me just say that you will never find another activity that will make you feel more like a bird. I wasn't even technically doing the flying, but the glider is like an extension of your body. It was so amazingly beautiful too. I really am still at a lose of words to describe it. IM me some time for more. At night we had a 4 pub pubcrawl around Quennstown. I love how much cheaper pubs are around here then in Australia...

Okay, I'm running out of time on the computer, so I'm going to be brief: I went canyoning today, which is where you rapelle into a little tiny narrow canyon wearing weatsuits and then proceded to walk, climb, swim, slide, and jump down this river running through the canyon. The entire canyon was so small in some places I had to turn sideways to fit, and the entire thing was just amazingly beautiful.

Okay, gtg. I hope everyone had a happy easter.

.: posted by Topper 7:30 PM


Tuesday, March 15, 2005

http://emmahinds.net/topper/ has some pictures up. More and text to hopefully follow. Sorry about not posting in a while, it's been a crazy last couple of weeks.

Topper

.: posted by Topper 10:41 PM


Sunday, March 06, 2005

Wow... I just read a celebratory view of western civilization. How often do you get that? The best part is that it is called "The Black Armband View of History," which it specificily and vocal tries to counter. It seems like academics in the humanities and social sciences have trouble naming their essays in a logical manner...

On a more personal note, I had a pretty good weekend. On Friday we sent away all the Med Students to their hedonistic drink fest called MedCamp, and then I went to the Footy with Andy, Craig, and the Bourge. Footy (Australian Rules Football) is great fun to watch. Essentially, a ball carrier can run with the ball for 15m, and then they have to bounce it off the ground, or they can kick or punch it to another player (but not throw it). If the ball is kicked and caught without bouncing, the player who caught it may not be hit provided he does not engaged in forward motion (this is called taking a mark). Points are scored by sending the ball through a set of 4 upright poles with no cross bar. If kicked through the middle set of uprights, it is worth 6 points, if it goes through the outer uprights it is worth 1, and if it is punched, touched, or ran in anywhere it is worth 1.

After footy was Marissa's 21st birthday, which was at an irish bar with a cover band. They weren't very good and the drinks were expensive, but the company was great. I then joined the Loyola students on their regular migration on the nightrider bus. And Frank (I think) accidently threw orange juice all over me. Nice of him, really.

Saturday was studying, dinner at Nando's and the Australian-American Cultural Exchange program (I showed Aussies how to play Beer Pong). I think it will be a sensation crossing the nation here. We certainly had a lot of fun.

Sunday was sleep, Formula 1 on the TV, and movies. Somethings never change...

.: posted by Topper 6:33 PM


Tuesday, March 01, 2005

Interesting observation: Australia has a degree of racism approximatly similiar to the United States. This is considered a relatively bad thing. However, the degree of the problem is on an entirely different scale because of the preponderence of caucasions, who are the traditional racists, and Asians, who are famous for their willingingness, ability, and success at "playing by the rules" in both Australia and the US. In the US ~50% of our population is a non-white minority, in Australia it less than half that (I think). The lack of daily contact and understanding creates a larger cultural divide than in the United States.

.: posted by Topper 5:21 AM


Sunday, February 27, 2005

Well, O-week is over, and it has conclusively proved that Australians drink way more than I do. All of them. Including the College Head's infant. I just can't go from hangover to hangover the way they do, nor can I bring myself to pay $2 per beer I drink.

O-week has been fun though. I discovered a bit of the city and a lot about Aussie Uni students, signed up for some clubs, and have been recruited to coach and play O/D line on the Gridiron (American Football) team here. I consider it a cultural exchange.

The food had been, overall, absolutely terrible. I'm am so sick of BBQ and South Asian food. I just want a nice meal from an american style diner. Like meatloaf. I used to hate meatloaf, now I want it, go figure.

The most important part of O-week has been meeting the people here. Here is quick run down of some of the personalities I've met:

Andy: Official ResHal drunkard with a heart of gold. Made me swear allegiance to the Geelong Cats before he'd explain Footy (Aussie Rules football) to me. I recipricated by making him swear allegiance to the Seahawks.

Lauren 1: American from Buffalo. Radical left-wing and rational, an odd and disturbing combination. Seems to like just about everything. 5'10" and wears heels. And she's hot.

Lauren 2: Aussie first year in my stairwell. Very aggressive and a bit of a rabble rouser. Expect her to convince someone else to get into trouble. Hopefully I won't be involved.

Bronya (Bron) (AKA Debbie Houser): The midget Med Student. Aussies don't need an undergrad degree to be Med students, so she's a second year med student and younger than me. Make you jealous dad? She's also 5'0", super nice, and cute. From Tazmania, so if she goes crazy she'll be the Tazmanian devil.

Justin: Crazy man. Came to one event wearing women's underwear on the outside of his clothes.

The Chosen Ones: Anyone from Loyola College in Maryland. They got all sorts of stuff paid for and taken care of by their school back home. Bus passes, internet, furnishings and amenities... It's enough to make a person REALLY jealous. If they weren't all so damn nice and friendly they'd be awfully easy to dislike.
The Chosen Ones include:
Kara and Kaitlin- twins, cute and really nice.
Dory- Lives in my stairwell, also really cute and really nice.
Slotty- A guy in a different ResHall who seems to be a bit of a ringleader
and many more.

I've got to go to class tomorrow, so I'll cutting this off. Cheers everyone, I'll get pictures up somewhere soon.

.: posted by Topper 4:06 AM


Monday, February 21, 2005

Alright, so I'm doing a bulk posting here. I've written a two entries but haven't been able to post them till now. Here is an an addendum to them:
I've been at monash for about a week now, give or take. All rooms here are singles, and decently sized, although the space utilization is not all the efficient (I love Mudd style bunking). My room is, naturally, a mess. It looks a like a typical 60 era institutional building with a nice courtyard. Cinder block walls, worn industrial strength carpetting, and a very nasty smell of the smoker who lived there before me. It's on the ground floor so I here everyone coming in and out. Overall, not bad digs, but not the ritz (or the hotel I was at before).
Orientation has been fun. I've skipped out on anything before noon, cause those events have sucked, and I wanted to sleep. The best part of orientation is definatly the free beer. I wish we could do that in the states...
Okay, gtg to another event. Hopefully I'll be posting more consistently now that i have internet.

.: posted by Topper 8:38 PM


Sunday, February 20, 2005

I've now been in Australia for two whole days and it has been nothing but amazing. I was so excited to get on the plane Monday that I almost lost my passport (not a good way to start a foreign adventure). You could immediately tell that there was a some sort of college thing going on by the number of students in the terminal. I met a couple of people from different programs, but most everyone there was on the Arcadia program going to University of Wollongong. I was the only Monash student I met there. This somehow made me special, as I managed to sweet talk my way into an exit row seat on the 747-400ER we flew to Australia on.

Qantas is an incredible airline. We were fed two meals of resturant (not fast food) quality, got free drinks, were given a toothbrush, warm socks and sleep blinders, the seats were comfortable, and best of all each seat had a personal entertainment system built into it. There were movies,TV and video games, the whole lot. I personally ended watching a couple documentaries and sleeping, two activities which may be related (although in this cause I think the ambien I took was more responsible).

We arrived in Australia around 9 am Wednesday mornings and took about two hours getting through customs and to our hotel, the savile park suites. It took two full buses to get us there, one for people and one to carry all our luggage. Our rooms weren't ready yet so we dropped off our bags into a conference room and went on a walking tour around the city. I managed to get lost (on film no less) from the group about halfway through and just decided to walk around on my own. I ate a lunch of a steak and onion pie (aussie pie, just meat, no veggies) at this little pastry place in an alleyway full of tiny resturants and crazy boutiques. Upon further exploration I found the alleyway led to a chic and upscale shopping center (arcade they say here). It is beautiful, a big arch covering the top, marble floors and columns, decorative designs on everything. Just amazing. After having my fill of window shopping I went chose to take a walk down the river to the harbor, which was a mistake. It turns out all of Melbourne by the river is currently being built, and the harbor is really ugly, so I spent two hours walking through construction sites and looking at run down ships and buildings.

I returned back to the hotel and the rooms were ready (well, for everyone but me, it took them another 15 minutes to get mine ready...) and took my stuff up to my room. It turns out this hotel is all luxury suites, and I am on the top floor, with a view overlooking a park and a bunch of victorian buildings. It is outstanding, we have the best room in the hotel I think. There is a full kitchen, full bathroom, living room, deck, and bed room. I think I just want to live here for the rest of my stay in Melbourne.

After settling in my new roommate (Dan, from Maryland) and I chose to wait till are next scheduled event, a trip to Melbourne's famous outdoor Wednesday markets. However, due to a watch malfuction (the malfuction was relying on me to set and monitor my watch...) we got down to the lobby an hour late. Through some sluethy detective work on my part (asking the reciptionist) I found out were the group had gone. The Melbourne outdoor market is like a county fair combinded with a farmer's market. There was music, food, wine (lots of wine actually) and great times had by all. I grabbed a curry and a bottle of chardonay and sat and talked with the Gettysburg college crowd. Oh yeah, most of the group I am with right now if from Gettysburg college or Sarah Lawerence, and they are all going to University of Wollongong near Sydney. I have no idea how I ended up with them, it makes no sense, I should be with the University of Melbourne who are at the same hotel but on a different schedule. It's alright though, I definitely going to be enjoying having places to stay at Universitys throughout Australia.

After market, and after my roommie booted off the 16th story, we all went to bed, excited to get up and see the penguins the next day. That's right, Australia has penguins, and I saw them today. But more about that later. The day starts off with Dan and I getting some money from the bank and breakfest. Good news, ANZ bank ATMs have no surcharge on them, I think, and they make your bank account look MUCH bigger than it is. Regardless of those boring details we scurried back to the hotel to get on the bus to Philip's Island, which is an amazing nature preserve about 2 hrs from Melbourne. Our first stop was a McDonalds for lunch. Lame I know, but not our choice. Aussie McD's are much better than US McDonalds though. They have healthy menu choices and McCafe, which is pastries and coffee and sandwhiches that you'd get at barnes and noble, not McDonalds. Plus the Aussie staff didn't seem to resent being there. Oh yeah, and they had Gamecubes in the corner to play with.

Our first REAL activity on Philip's Island was a beach walk up to some cliffs. The beach was this incredibly beautiful spot with giant waves crashing down on white sand, rolling green scrub hills behind it and bordered on eithier side with cliffs. We walked up on of these, and after crossing a little path less than two feet wide with a sheer cliff on eithier side and then clambering along a cliff face with a six inch hold I got an amazing panorramic view of the whole island, including I think were we went next, the coolest petting zoo ever.

The conservatorium/preserve we went to next I think will be one of the highlights of my life. As the group walked in we could see Emus, Wallybes, and Kangaroos (Kangaroos!) within it's confines. And then the staff gave us a bag of food and told us to go feed them. I was extatic. I held out my hand full of food to a wallybe and it's little clawed hands gripped on to mine gently but firmly and it at the food pellets out of my one hand while I petted it with the other. And then it let go and hopped (hopped!) away. Repeat for two hours with different types of animals and me making stupid comments like a retarted school boy giddy with excitement (which I was) and you get an image. I saw first hand how kangaroos jump with their tails, and Dan actually was actually attacked by this 5' tall Kangaroo with biceps the size of grapefruits. It just grabbed his arm and took his food. I thought he was going to die, cause he was the only human amongst 20 some odd kangaroos.

Next we went on a wetlands walk, which was beautiful and informative, but not terribly memorable, although we did see a sort of australian porcipine called, I think, an onieda (or is that a Native American tribe...)

We grabbed a some italian food in the town for dinner. Everyone chose to share some bottles of wine, but when people couldn't finish it I got volunteered to do so... It ended up only being 3.5 glasses though, so I was OK.

We were then off to the penguins. Like I said, Australia has penguins, and everynight up to 500 of them come in from the water to sleep in burrows on this on beach, so it is a big deal to watch this. We wandered around the gift shop for a bit and then went down to the beach, got a great front row seat, and started the wait. As we did we were joined by a large group of australian high schoolers, who we talked to for a good hour or so, and who proved to us that no matter where you go, 14 year old boys are interested in sports, cars, candy, TV, and female celebrities. Oh, and if they aren't in the US they hate Bush. Eventually though the main event started and a good 50 penguins came ashore and waddled right past us on there way home. Close enough I could of grabbed one, it was absolutely thrilling.

Anyways it is now 2 AM here and my writing skills are quickly deminishing. I'll put pictures from this journey up shortly I hope.

.: posted by Topper 8:44 PM


Saturday, February 19, 2005

I've been in Lake Tahoe, CA since Thursday evening. It has been absolutely fantastic. While I started off the trip coming off a flu that had me in bed for 3 full days, this trip has seemed to cure me. I guess it is just the clean air and activity.

The weather as been amazing. As bad as the ski season in Washington has been, it is been that good in California. We started out with a big dump of powder the first day we were here, and since then it has been nothing but sun. Combined with the terrain here this sums to some amazing views and landscapes. Speaking of terrian, it is also spectacular. It took me a while to start finding my way around, as the beginners slopes are the rule around here, and there are no named runs, but there is some truly great terrain. Bumps, straights, race courses, trick parks, groomed, powder (if it hasn't been chewed), everything.

The only downsides have been the village, which is pretty devoid of any sort of nightlife or truly excellent resturants (the pizza place seems to be the best resturant in town) and the expense of everything ($12 for a burger fries and coke, and it wasn't that good).

All in all though, I highly recommend it.

.: posted by Topper 8:45 PM


Tuesday, February 01, 2005

I've been in Lake Tahoe, CA since Thursday evening. It has been absolutely fantastic. While I started off the trip coming off a flu that had me in bed for 3 full days, this trip has seemed to cure me. I guess it is just the clean air and activity.
The weather as been amazing. As bad as the ski season in Washington has been, it is been that good in California. We started out with a big dump of powder the first day we were here, and since then it has been nothing but sun. Combined with the terrain here this sums to some amazing views and landscapes. Speaking of terrian, it is also spectacular. It took me a while to start finding my way around, as the beginners slopes are the rule around here, and there are no named runs, but there is some truly great terrain. Bumps, straights, race courses, trick parks, groomed, powder (if it hasn't been chewed), everything.
The only downsides have been the village, which is pretty devoid of any sort of nightlife or truly excellent resturants (the pizza place seems to be the best resturant in town) and the expense of everything ($12 for a burger fries and coke, and it wasn't that good).
All in all though, I highly recommend it.

.: posted by Topper 4:21 PM


Friday, January 14, 2005

What. An. Incredible. Book. "I Am Charlotte Simmons" is a masterpiece in our time. Tom Wolfe sees the themes and habits of modern collegiate life and calls them by their true name. A truthful, immersive look at collegiate athletics, social life, academics, and definitions of femininity and masculinity such as this has been needed for a while. This book gives our generation a excellent view from the outside looking in. It's characters are immediately recognizable on any college campus and should absolutely be read by high school seniors and college students everywhere.

.: posted by Topper 8:17 PM


Thursday, January 13, 2005

I've just started reading the scariest book I've read in a while: the 9/11 Commision Report. It is brillantly writen, and brings much of the trauma right back.

.: posted by Topper 3:00 PM


Once again, shout out to Carly for going with me to an AWESOME concert: Presidents of the USA, MXPX, and the suprise hit Smoosh. And it was all for a good cause too, the SE Asia tsunami victims.
After grabbing some grub at the near by Johnny Rockets, Carly and I trekked on down the half-block to the Showbox. As we entered we were both astounded at the diversity of age and appearence of the crowd. There were 3o something professionals with their 9 year old punk kids, 30 something punks with their 9 year old professionals, high school kids, college kids, old dudes, young dudes. It was cool. The only thing really lacking was hard-core punks (understandably...) Unsuprisingly enough, the crowd quickly stratified, with 21 and ups with out kids at the bars, adults with kids near the bars in back, and the young guns up front. And one or two crazy parents who dragged their kids up there for a better view. No kidding.

The band line up was also very diversified, at least in terms of age. The first band, Smoosh rocked hard. They are really really good, espicially considering the fact the drummer is 10 and the keyboardist/vocalist is 12. That's right this is Indie music's Hanson, except with girls and more talent than you can shake a fist at. Maybe I can get them to play a show at Mudd, all we'd have to do is get them Disneyland tickets... Seriously though Smoosh rocks. They offer better music than many current pop stars twice their age. Ashlee Simpson for example...

MXPX was the next band up. I must confess, I have an almost fanatical loyalty to anything that comes out of Bremerton. Espicailly anything that comes from Bremerton and writes a song about how they want girls to move there. That disclaimer out of the way, MXPX rocked the house. Even if you hate punk-lite, you have to admit they are MASTERS of it. "Chick Magnet" almost brought down the house, "Move to Bremerton" sent the Kitsap crowd nuts, and a closing with "Punk Rock Show" sent the mosh pit into a frenzy. Speaking of the mosh pit: I had the pleasure of serving as a human pinball flipper on the age of it all night, keeping people from crashing into the smallish girls I was protecting. And they say football doesn't teach life skills, pah!

P.U.S.A. is, what can I say, fantastamalabuling. They played all the crowd favorites, a bunch of covers including "Shout" which got everyone on the ground, caused a human... hmmm don't want to use the word "wave" in the context of tsunami benefit... caused a lot of people to crowd surf with "Lump" and "Peaches", and near the end played "Love Everybody" which is highly appropiate given the context. The crowd was so pumped, jumping up and down so much that ground shook the speakers back and forth and a bunch of security guards had to go hold them in place. The covers were all awesome. Hearing "Sweet Emotion" and "Let the Good Times Roll" was a lot of fun. In short, the concert was incredible.

On note of complaint: Why are fat chicks always checking me out/flirting with me? Do I look sadly approachable or something? I'm never getting checked out by hot chicks! Except that 16 year old, but that is wrong to even think about.

.: posted by Topper 2:41 AM


Friday, January 07, 2005

DAMNIT!!! Has the entire video game industry suddenly decided that it won't provide a decent ending to video games? First Halo 2, now Half-Life 2. I'm so disappointed... Grrr...

.: posted by Topper 1:48 AM


topkai22: anyways. That's how I was emotionally scared by cheese fries.

If you want to hear the rest of the story IM me sometime. AIM: Topkai22

.: posted by Topper 1:08 AM


Tuesday, January 04, 2005

Just sent one of my best friends in the world off to war. Another one is leaving in a week or so. For some reason, I didn't think it would hit me as hard as it is. Maybe I thought I'd convince myself that everything would be fine, or that it would be just like them going off to boot camp. I don't know. This shit was supposed to have ended with Nixon.
I promised to write, but I don't know what else to do. I'll probably be guilt-ridden for not being there with them, but so it goes. Maybe SBIRS (sattelite I worked on) will save one of their lives. Regardless I'm going to miss them and pray for their safe return.
Everyone who reads this, please say a prayer for my friends, Dan Smith and Jon Fairall, even if you don't believe.

.: posted by Topper 1:40 AM
Crappy links thingie
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