I’ve been in beautiful Seattle nearly three months—in just a few short weeks, it will be time to head back home again! It’s been good to be away; it’ll be good to be home.

In the [spirit](http://uwmike.com/articles/2007/11/03/sydney-adventures/) of [tradition](http://uwmike.com/articles/2007/02/27/nyc-cheatsheet/), here are a few notes on life and times in the Northwest. Read on…

I took a [Richard Powers](http://dance.stanford.edu/faculty/rpowers.html) waltz workshop in Toronto a few months ago. I’m not very good at it and haven’t had enough chances to practice, but I *can* now hold down the basics of cross step and rotary. Since learning it, I’ve begun to notice much more distinctly songs that are in 3/4 or 6/8 rather than common time. All swing and related dances are strictly in four, so the lilting rhythm of waltz time can be a lovely change for the ears and feet.

The traditional music of waltz is, I think, largely Strauss and a number of other pre-20th century composers. And there’s merit in doing a dance to its traditional music. However, waltzing seems to work well to plenty of modern tunes too; here’s a selection of my favourite popular songs in 3/4 and 6/8 time. I’ve linked each to somewhere you can hear at least a sample of it—Amazon MP3, YouTube, or an artist’s page. Read on…

I tried to resist. Really, I did. The API launched, and the first Facebook Apps appeared, and they were terrible. *Awful*. Hideously ugly beasts that clogged up profiles, spread themselves like viruses, and served no useful purpose.

And that still describes a lot of the Facebook Apps, especially those from companies like [Slide](http://www.slide.com/) and [RockYou](http://www.rockyou.com/).

But out of the gloom have appeared a small number of apps that do genuinely useful and interesting things. And now I’ve added several of them to my profile. Read on…

This last year was one of travel. I was in New York from January to April; back in Waterloo from May to August; then Sydney from September to Christmas. Each time with its own music: unrelated songs but that I’d been listening to them at that time. That’s how I am with music… obsessive. A short list of songs over and over, with high turnover. The result is music that becomes burned into my consciousness, tied to the people and places of a particular time period. Read on…

Here are a few more brief remarks about various things I’ve been up to here in Sydney. I’ve been frustrated looking online for honest feedback from the customers of businesses and services I am considering patronizing, so I’ve structured this post as a series of reviews. Read on…

Sydney is a beautiful city; I’m having a lot of fun exploring and wandering about here. In the [spirit of tradition](http://uwmike.com/articles/2007/02/27/nyc-cheatsheet/), here are a few early observations and random fun tips, from my first week of living it up down under. Read on…

*The Phantom Edit* a re-cutting of *The Phantom Menace* that seamlessly eliminates the worst twenty minutes of the film.

This is old news to hardcore Star Wars fans, but it only just came across my radar the other night, and I thought I’d share. I’ve had some limited experience in cutting together family videos; just enough to have a great deal of respect for the art of editing. Editing is difficult enough when you’re sorting through all the takes, mixing in soundtrack and voice overs from scratch… but to attempt to re-cut a movie from its final theatrical form is almost inconceivable. Read on…

The [#1 Matt](http://photomatt.net) was in town on Wednesday night, so some folks organized a meetup at the Heartland Brewery. I only took a handful of pictures, none of which turned out very well, but fortunately John Keegan has shared some [nice snaps](http://www.flickr.com/photos/49037741@N00/sets/72157600071154401/).

It was neat to chat with Matt and find out more about [Automattic](http://automattic.com/) as a company and what some of their plans are for Wordpress. He’s a really fun, personable guy. It’s awesome to use a product with such a great spokesperson.

About a month and a half ago, I lost my new camera somewhere in New York. I spent a day and a half looking for it, but I pretty quickly accepted that it was gone. I’d only bought it at Christmas, so there was no homework to do—I was getting the exact same model again, the excellent [Canon SD600](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000EMWBT2/).

Having to replace a lost or stolen item is a frustrating process. But as I dropped $200 on another camera, I stopped for a moment to be thankful for what I *didn’t* lose: In just a month and a half of service, that first camera covered Christmas with the family, as well as my first few weeks in New York, a total of 681 pictures. In the weeks since I bought its replacement, I’ve been to Vermont, Boston, Philadelphia, and D.C., where I’ve racked up over a thousand *more* snaps. Read on…

Brandon pointed out to me the new website for the [Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering Department](http://www.mme.uwaterloo.ca) has launched, featuring my logo in the document footer, similar to how [ECE](http://ece.uwaterloo.ca/)’s is.

My understanding is that there will be an official unveiling in the summer term, at which I’ll be asked to give a brief explanation of process and inspiration. So you can all come out to that with your clappers and big foam fingers… or just know that the inspiration was doodling on a tablecloth at [Montana's](http://www.montanas.ca/), and the software used was the excellent [Inkscape](http://www.inkscape.org/).