Oh, hell, I did it again. Something doesn’t like me writing my blog, and I think it’s me. Procrastination and distraction, ahoy!

So, in order to catch you up on Life as Jey Knows It, welcome to my post of fake Twitter updates AS IF THIS WAS HOW IT HAPPENED, BORING UPDATES AND ALL. Let’s party like it’s the 26th March 2009!

• Saw a preview of the movie Earth - in a cinema that’s also a restaurant (oh, America). All footage seems to be from the BBC Nature Team. Beautiful, but with way too much personification of the animals.
• Turns out grabbing a pan handle that’s just been in the oven is a bad idea. 2nd degree burn, had to go to emergency room without insurance. Prescribed: Bandage, Wait Time: 7 hours, Bill: $340
• Went to see Yoroi: The Samurai Zombie at AFI Dallas - comedy amounts of gore. Best moment: A severed policeman’s head and arm saluting as they fly in to the air.
• Started making a website on handcrafted products since we like them lots. Launched it fast, got real in to it… for a little while.
• Visited the Deep Ellum Arts Festival (Dallas has ARTS!) where we partook in some Funnel Cake - a flat doughnut like thing covered in icing sugar. Nom. There were also some crafts, I am just blinded by cake.
• Bought a PS3 - finally, I can feel like I have a next gen console. Even if all I use it as is a media center.
• Easter time! Had Easter dinner at Lau’s dad’s. Got basket full of sweet-filled eggs.
• Morality getting me down. Decided it was time to go vegan. Stopped buying all dairy, started buying soy milk, yoghurt, sour cream. Way, way easier than expected, but still think it will be a while before I am fully vegan. Miss cheese.
• Get bill in post from hospital. Did we say $340, OH SORRY COUGH, we meant $980. We shall fight.
• Experiment with opening a Zazzle Store. Feels like something I could really get in to if I made the effort. Photoshop many photos and products together, but you need hundreds to be noticed.
• Head to the Funky Finds Spring Fling in Fort Worth. Lots of Etsy sellers hoiking their wares. Accidentally stumble upon a kid’s beauty pageant. AGHH, tweens in makeup!
• Hack week at Moshi. Got way in to it, and worked with Mike on the new minigame scripting language and also hacked Jabber chat in to Moshi myself. (Oh, we won, but I am too far away for a prize I guess ;))
• Submitted all the forms to the US govt to allow me to Adjust My Status (and hence, get a green card), to work when my current visa expires and, oh, to allow me to leave the country.
• Went to a Turkish screening at the USA Film Fest to see “On the Count of Zero”. One of the first of its genre for Turkish film - blending in local mythology. Spoke to the Director and Screenwriter afterwards, who were kind enough to drop us off a DVD and give us their contact deets.
• Got incredibly in to investing. Only the theoretical side so far. I am a Buffett follower, and am trying to suck up all the info I can before actually entering the field. My v.short 1-month virtual stock exchange companies made 8% - reasonable - I know I can do better than that.
• Saw Flight of the Conchords LIVE! Wooop, they were very good. They made fun of the absurd number of condom shops in Dallas. Srsly, what is that about?
• Vegan life is going great! There are so many more products out there than I realised. Found out about Dr. Cow’s 3-month aged nut cheeses. They look epic, but are super-expensive for the size.
• Been frantically trying to get house in to order, and we’re making progress. Have a clean kitchen, an office/crafts area, rearranged bedroom and Much Less Clutter.
• Watched the entirety of Battlestar Galactica in a very, very brief period of time. Got an intense emotional attachment to it; it’s the best series I’ve seen in a long time.
• ROOOOAD TRIPPPP to Houston! Lau and I set off on a 250 mile each way weekend trip to Houston.
• Hit up Boggy Lake in the middle of nowhere. Small national park, with lots of local families in the lake. Less creepy than imagined.
• Got a bargain hotel for $50 on Priceline’s “name your price” service. Was lovely, and got a free warm cookie.
• Went to the Hobbit Cafe (decorated with LotR merch) because of its veggie recommendations. Was oookay.
• Next morning, drove through a huge storm to Galveston, post-hurricane-smashing. Awesome sun, fun swimming and only a tiny jellyfish sting for Lau.
• EPIC DRIVE BACK! 50 miles out of Dallas, the engine warning light comes on, then the ABS, then the airbags, then the car loses power in the middle of nowhere.
• Stuck outside Freedom Tattoos in darkness for 2 hours waiting for a tow truck.
• Investigation of more vegan cheeses include a new product called Daiya - not made of soy either, and apparently it melts, grates, just like normal. They’re marketing it to restaurants rather than consumers - I like that idea. Luckily, veganstore.com is packing it in to bags themselves - ordering soon!
• Living without a car sucks. Get new alternator and battery from a good mechanic. $600 as opposed to the $1400 the dealership wanted.
• Watched Caprica, the prequel pilot to BSG. Very different, but nonetheless very good. I look forward to seeing how it pans out.
• Working on a little minigame of my own, because you know, why not - it’s super simple, so this should increase the small likelihood I’ll finish it.
• Dallas has far more vegan restaurants than you’d imagine. A raw food cafe with rave reviews just around the corner, some great Asian buffets and the all-round Spiral Diner. I shall support you!
• Biometrics appointment for my work permit and adjustment of status = done. They had an awesomely high tech fingerprinting machine. Easy part so far…

So there’s probably a load more things I’ve forgotten. But… well, I’ve forgotten them. If I’ve not spoken to you, this makes you pretty much up to date!

If I was Guy, I would’ve made this in to a song, but I can’t Do music, so there.

See you in 3 months… or hopefully less.

At a particularly good party at SXSW, the rubbishly-named “Rackspace Cloud SXSW Lounge Party”, I managed to get some cool free henna* on my arm. Actually, first of all I got some rubbish henna on my inner left wrist and then queued up again to get some a much nicer pattern from the other henna artist.

It’s supposed to last up to 2 weeks, although already it’s coming off. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to come off very evenly and so is beginning to look a little lame. Still, I like the idea of a temporary tattoo this way, since I’m not sure I could ever bring myself to decide on a design I’d like in 10, or even 2, years.

Take a lookie:

The party itself was great. It was Mediterranean-themed and since we arrived early it wasn’t that busy. We took advantage of the open bar (not just cheap beer and wine), the lavish Turkish buffet and got to the front of the henna queue. They also had hookahs dotted around and a guy rolling free cigars (unsurprisingly, Guy took advantage). Probably the most fun party of the early evening!

* “A reddish dye made from the leaves of the Henna shrub, native to Egypt, the Middle East and India. Used to dye the skin and hair.”

I’m still in the post-SXSW comedown period (hence, the lack of blogging) but hopefully by getting anything written down I will spur myself in to activity again.

From 12-17th March, thousands of geeks descended upon Austin for inspirational panels, epic amounts of partying and much working through hangover pain. Although it didn’t seem to have the same level of panel quality as last year - maybe that’s just nostalgia at work - I still came away feeling inspired and full of project ideas.

I remember a similar feeling of the “sxsw high” last year, and it fades fast when back to normal life - life where you aren’t constantly surrounded by intelligent people all wired up to the teeth with tech. However, given my RADICAL LIFE CHANGING EXPERIENCE ™ recently, I’m hoping to keep the motivation and excitement going a lot longer this time and use it to Create Things.

For now, I am adjusting to being in Dallas, and trying to figure out my daily schedule - lots more free time to make the most of. The lovely weather plus large balcony is making it that bit easier to do.

Here we are, travelling again! We’ve set off on our ROOOOAD TRIIIIP to Austin.

What follows here will be as many photos as I can upload on my measly data connection. It’s likely I’ll just update this later from the hotel.

Estimated trip time: 3.5hrs
Start time: 2.35pm

Gooooo!

Update: Disaster strikes! It turns out the road from Austin to Dallas is long and samey.

On my first real day here, we decided to hunt down a Real D, 3 D, extra D with more D cinema to see Coraline 3D before it went out of cinemas.

Luckily this being the land of everything there is an IMAX just down the road with a 3D normal cinema screen too. $7 a ticket, bargain. And comes with a free pair of AWESOME SHADES, that you can keep (Terms and conditions apply. 3D Glasses do not work as sunglasses, you will go blind). Here’s me modeling them - they look awesome, me… not so much:

The film was great, and the 3D works really well. Much better than any I’ve seen before. Given the trailers before it, it seems like every new CG film will be coming out in 3D now.

I wondered how well Selick and Co. would pull off Coraline, since I’m a huge fan of the book. It’s imaginative, creepy and cool and the animation looks close to CG most of the time (this is a good thing). I wouldn’t say it quite reaches the scary heights of the book, but for a kid’s film it’s nice to see they’ve kept in most of it.

After the credits there is a tiny 20 second clip which shows how they do one of the animations at the start. It just makes it clear how tedious a process it must be to get even a few seconds of footage done. Must be a great feeling of accomplishment at the end though.

I think Evey has accepted me as part of the family. Lau is at work, and I have this little bundle of joy sleeping next to me as I blog:

YOU’RE A KITTY!

The most useful advantage of first class is getting off the plane first. This is especially true when you have to go through with a Special Envelope that can only be opened by Authorised Immigration Officials.

I scooted off and was first in to the visitor’s queue. There was only about 20 people ahead of me from the previous flight. When I was pointed to a queue, I managed to be in one with no one in front of me that was just finishing off - hurrah for lucky lines! I handed over my airport to the luckily not-scary-looking immigration lady. She was very friendly and asked me a few questions re: my relationship as she went over my paperwork (including big APPROVED stamp).

This is probably the first time at immigration that I have not been incredibly nervous. Given all the issues of getting in to the country while dating over the last few years, having a piece of paper in my hand saying I’m allowed in was incredibly relieving. After she’d done her thang, I was given all the papers and pointed over to a second room. There was an officer and one other guy in there (having some green card problem, the conclusion of which would seem to be, Don’t Be Adopted).

I waited 15 mins or so, smiling to myself all the time. Smiling in immigration - shocking I know. When it came to me, the officer, chugging on some soft drink and eating crisps, (stereotype: confirmed) got on with it, asked me a few questions, was all friendly and New Yoikian and then went off to get the magic stamp of Work Authorisation. The whole process was incredibly easy, and surprisingly fast.

I headed out, grabbed my bags, the only ones left and walked through the doors to see my One, my Only, Miss Laura E. Hall. After much pinching each other to see if this was real, we wandered off in a daze ecstatic that our year long trial was over.

New York was chilly and wet - very welcoming for a Brit! A quick bus ride to La Guardia and we switched flight super-fast (’nother employee benefit) on to a delayed one, rushed our bags in and headed to the gate where I ate my first soft pretzel DROOL, so salty.

The flight was uneventful. We were in standard class, but had two seats together and I slept awkwardly as Laura read. 3 hours later we touched down in DFW. We were greeted by Lau’s awesome mum, who gave me a true welcome which involved flashing “Statue of Liberty”s and an epilepsy-inducing USA badge. You can see Evey modelling these here:

She also gave us a bottle of champagne and set us on our way! Thanks LauMum and LauStepDad.

We got in Lau’s car and drove back. I need to actually start paying attention to where I am and the things around me, as soon enough I’ll have to navigate this way-too-big city myself.

Due to Lau and her handy dandy step-dad’s American Airlines connection, I was able to fly in the lap of luxury - First Class! I had to come in through JFK for ridiculous immigration reasons. JFK is the only port of entry left where it is possible (but not guaranteed) to get a work authorisation stamp on your visa. This allows you to work for the duration of the entry visa (90 days).

Due to rules about “employee” travel, you have to dress up all nice and aren’t allowed to ask for special meals. This meant I couldn’t order a veggie meal, so after saying a tearful farewell to my parents, I grabbed a load of food to take on board.

There were only 2 people booked in to first class (out of 15), so flying standby wasn’t a problem. When I made it onboard, I sat down in my little pod. This is the newest first class layout I think, and it’s in 1, 2, 1 formation but all offset so you don’t really see anyone else.

Across from me was a little ottoman-style seat. If you were flying as a couple, you could use this as a second seat to eat together. For me, it formed the foot-end of my bed. First Class is a confusing place. It took me a while to figure out how to use stuff and where everything actually was. Luckily I saw the man in front of me turn his seat, which explained why none of the controls on my seat were doing anything. You turn to the left after takeoff to face the ottoman, and then your seat does everything from adjustable lumbar support to turning in to a full bed. I had 3 windows to watch out of, and started to realise why first is so great.

As it turns out, I needn’t have worried about the food at all. From just after takeoff, the food started rollin’. I had (deep breath): Champagne ,Warm Nuts, Cheese Antipasto, a few glasses of Sauvignon Blanc, Freshly Baked Ciabatta, a Salad made how you want, More Bread, Penne with Cherry Tomatoes and Mozzarella and then an Ice Cream Sundae made for you with choice of toppings. I had to refuse the final after-dinner chocolates as I felt like I might actually explode at this point - even with just one wafer-thin mint.

Post-dinner, I got out the TV (similar to economy but with a better entertainment system). They came around and gave out these wonderful noise-reducing Bose headsets - worth wearing even if you weren’t listening to something. I watched Slumdog Millionaire (great!), fell asleep to Max Payne (I blame the comfiness of the near-bed position) and then watched The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas (not sure why I insist on watching horribly sad films during flights).

We were pretty much there now, but there was still time for another drink, and then a goat’s cheese and spinach pizza followed by a baked-on-board cookie and fresh fruit. If this flight is a sign of things to come, the next time you see me I will struggle to get through doors.

I felt totally cheeky being on this flight, but after all the luxury, I think I can live with the mild embarrassment and need to wear a shirt. 

Next post: Landing, Immigration and heading to DFW.

PS. This post lacks iphone pics due to me not wanting to look like a total first class noob. I totally should have though

So, here it is… the promised blog. My plan is to make it to more than 3 posts this time. I know, this could be tricky but I’ll try my best. At least now I have a reason to blog, and the time to actually do it. Not that this is guaranteed to stop my Wall of Procrastination.

Anyway, I’m here! 2 days in to my new life in Dallas. I’m sitting on Lau’s sofa (she’s at work) watching Evey (the cat) stalk a Daddy Long Legs. It’s not really sunk in yet that I’ve MOVED COUNTRY, as I’m still in holiday move. Give it a few more weeks and I’m sure the realisation will set in and likely the homesickness too.

I’m hoping that this blog will let me counteract that a bit, alongside the jar of Marmite my mum gave me when I left. The idea for doing this is greatly inspired by Fi and her Wonderful Blog of Japanese Adventures.

Right, one down. See you in a tick with another few posts.