Archive for February, 2008

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out of the office reply

February 21, 2008

it’s been 3 days since we got off the ice. shane got here last night, and we’re finally getting our shit together and getting the hell out of dodge (christchurch). our plan for the next 6 days involves hitching, hiking, camping, beaching, and whatever else comes our way. we’ll be working our way down the eastern coast of the south island from christchurch to dunedin, with our final destination back up in wanaka (26 march - 3 march).

after that we’ll drop shane off at the airport, and then meredith and i will check out the north end of south island for another 2 weeks before heading to australia for 1 week. after sydney and the surrounding area, we’ll fly back to seattle for 2 days (23 march - 25 march) before leaving again for a month in thailand (26 march - 25 april). after that, i’ll be back in seattle for another week before heading to denver to record with the legendary beep beeps for a month. from there i’ll hitch home to indiana for about 2 weeks and then hitch back to seattle by the 1st of july.

needless to say, i’ll be pretty damn busy for the next 3 months, and i won’t be blogging or flickring very much (or at all). so, the best way to know what i’m doing RIGHT NOW is with twitter. check it out!

twitter.com/elisfanclub

or, you can give me a call on my new cell phone. incoming txt and calls are completely free for me, so txt me or ring me up anytime and i’d be happy to chat.

64 21 134 3039

66 86 013 4188

the first 2 numbers are the NZ or Thai country code, the next 2 are my area code, and the following 7 are my local number. i’m not an expert on making international calls, so your guess is as good as mine as far what you need to do on your end.

I’M BACK IN THE STATES!! so now i have a new “local” US number (bookis’ old number from utah), so feel free to call or text all you like. i’m still getting the hang of the “slide”, so if i hang up on you just call back.

801 953 7114

Posted in travel | 5 Comments »

i’ll say goodnight to you now

February 17, 2008

i hate goodbyes. i’m horrible at them. all my emotions come flooding out all at once. it’s uncontrolable. i start crying and i can’t stop, and then i see another face that i’ll miss and i start crying even more. i try to speak and i can’t. i try to tell the people i’ve shared my life with that it was amazing to meet them and that i’ll miss them, but i can’t.

just tears.

and then i distance myself even further because i know that if i get any closer i’ll completely break down and start sobbing, uncontrollably. then i won’t even be able to see their faces one last time because my vision will be clouded with tears. so, i say what i can, hold back the rest, and hope that it’s good enough for them.

* * *

last night, just before bed, i saw the sun set again for the first time in 117 days. it was only for a few seconds, but it was exactly what i needed. i watched it glide past Mt. Discovery, swinging low on the horizon, as meredith and i climbed Ob Hill once last time. it hugged the edge of Black Island, as it swept south of the station. then, all of a sudden, it disappeared behind the tallest peak right in the middle of Black Island. for a moment it was gone, for only a moment. i tried so hard to remember all i could at that point, to remember everything about this place and why i love it so much. and then, before i even had a chance to think, it poked it’s head around the other side. i won’t see another one of those for a long time.

* * *

we’re all packed, our room is in order and we have a shuttle to the airfield in about an hour. we just ate brunch for the last time, and right now i’m sitting down in the computer kiosk on Highway 1 for the last time. all day yesterday we kept talking about our last “this” and our last “that”. our last dish and our last crap… in Antarctica.

i really hope to come back here again next season, hopefully in the Carp Shop, but maybe somewhere else if that doesn’t work out. i hope that my friends make it back as well.

Posted in travel, work | 1 Comment »

twitter listens to reason

February 15, 2008

i really enjoy twitter. it has been especially helpful during my time here in Antarctica because of how quick and simple it is to use. sometimes i don’t have the time or energy to post to this blog and sometimes the bandwidth here at McMurdo won’t allow it. twitter is the perfect replacement. it’s quick, it’s simple, and it’s to the point. if you haven’t been following me on twitter, you should start now.

anyhoo, when i was back in the states i used twitter almost exclusively with my cellphone, sending updates via text message. since i’ve been down here in Antarctica i’ve been interacting with twitter through a web browser a lot more. as a result i’ve become much more familiar with how their web interface works, but also how it doesn’t work. one area in particular that i was getting frustrated with was the @replies.

[for those of you that don't know, here is an example: if i wanted to reply to a tweet (an individual post on twitter) that my brother posted i would begin my tweet with @n8duke.]

the annoying part about @replies is that you have to type in “@username” each time you want to reply. sometimes the username is long and annoying, sometimes you might misspell it, and then the reply won’t go where it’s supposed to.

i had an idea, so i sent twitter an email:

From: eli
Date: Sun, Jan 27, 2008 at 12:11 AM
Subject: i hope this is alright…
To: Twitter

Twitter,

i emailed you a while ago about an api question. remember me?

well, i have a suggestion to make about twitter, and i didn’t know who else to turn to and i figured that you’d be as good a person as anyone. i imagine that y’all get all kinds of “really good suggestions”, but i truely believe that this is a good one.

so, here goes…

i enjoy @replies just as much as the next guy, but i hate (i know that’s a strong word) having to type the “@username” into the field every time i want to reply. that would be like having to type in someone’s email address every time i wanted to reply to an email. ridiculous, right? we just click “reply”.

why not implement a feature that would allow you to click a tweet-specific indicator (a “reply” link, maybe?) which would automagically insert “@username” in the text box above? you could easily slip that in right after the {star} icon…

or, is this idea like so last week and you already have it in the works?

eli

i got a response back from twitter a few days later saying that they had not heard that idea before and that it would be submitted to the team. then, lo and behold, a few days later i noticed this:

twitter listens to reason

do you see that little arrow after the star icon? that’s me, baby! that’s all me!

Posted in nerdery | 5 Comments »

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