Soccer, Rugby, Surfing, Carnival

Been keeping pretty active and busy lately. Started playing soccer with some co-workers at lunchtime on Mondays and Wednesdays to keep active and get in some exercise. My legs are starting to feel stronger (and sorer) from running around at ultimate frisbee and now soccer. Also I went to my first Rugby game ever... it was the local new zealand team "The Hurricanes" versus Australian "Brumbies" (wild horses). It was quite the experience, a bit short, but cool. We got some good seats and watched as the Hurricanes won at the last possible buzzer second by one point (11 to 10). It was quite exciting as the whole stadium pretty much exploded. A weird thing we learned was that the goals they score are called tries. So this little girl was holding up a big yellow sign that said "TRY!!!"... We totally thought the sign was being pretty lame and disheartening, until we found out a try is the best thing you can get in the game. Anyways, here's some pics from the night and then the belgian pub we went to afterwards, where they rocked the 80's hits on the keytar, guitar and keyboard!

The next morning, I got up bright and early, cooked myself an egg mcmuffin sandwich (minus the Mc and the sausage patty), and got myself psyched up on learning how to surf in Lyall Bay (over in Tom's hood). Mark was kind enough to let us borrow his boards and Kev and I headed over to the bay at around 10:30. The waves were kind of flat when we got there but at around 11:30 some decent sized waves came through - they weren't too big, but perfect for learning. Kevin had surfed a year ago before, but he was pretty new at it, and he actually stood up 5 or 6 times. Tom was a good instructor but Kevin the snowboarding master is a natural. I managed to finally understand body surfing by the end of our run in the water. Couldn't actually stand up but that's what next time is for! Also my ribs were sore as hell the next day from lying on the board and paddling. Well let's just say my "abs" were sore. Because I have so many of them. And they are so defined. Ha. Ha ahaha.

Later that night, the Cuba Street Carnival was well under way and we cruised over to Jose's apartment via bus because we knew the parking would be horrendous in town from the carnival (closed streets for the parades and concert). The sad thing was the first bus driver, we'll call him Grumpy McGrumperson, rejected us because we had brought coca-cola cans onto the bus when we walked on. He said "No drinks on the bus" and just as we walked off to put our drinks away, he drove off. Just like that. Coke! But no matter, we caught the next one and the bus driver was nicer. It was great because the carnival rates for the bus was one dollar. When we finally got there, we were stunned by Jose's dead center view of the concert stage from his flat. It was a good night, finished it off with an awesome kiwi breakfast at Floriditas. Poached eggs on toast with sausages and "rocket fuel sauce"...strange, not like tabasco, like I thought it'd be...but sweeter. Here were pics from that night.

Weta Workshop

Saw Richard Taylor again on Tuesday. The first time was at Comic-Con 2005. That man is such a great person, so down-to-earth, and a master of his craft. He is the head of Weta Workshop. Just to clarify, I work at the division called "Weta Digital." The difference is that we make the computer effects for movies, and Weta Workshop makes the practical effects (miniatures, costumes, physical models, props, etc.).

The first time I met Richard Taylor was in San Diego, for the 2005 Comic-Con International Convention. I was just walking along the exhibits floor and saw him randomly and walked up to him and said "hello." He was extremely nice and even though he was pressed for time (had to go to a meeting in Los Angeles two hours later by car - that's a 3 hour drive!), he took the time to talk to me. I spoke to him about the craziness that I was experiencing at the time with Narnia overtime at Rhythm & Hues. He totally understood and wished me good luck. As we were walking, a few die-hard Lord of the Rings fans recognized Richard and ran up to us holding their posters up. I let him borrow my sister's sharpie and he signed their posters. Finally he said he really had to leave, so as he started walking away, I walked with him and asked him if I could trouble him for his autograph. He said "of course!" and wrote in my autograph book, which is back home in LA.

Almost two years later, I got to visit Weta Workshop since I work as an employee of Weta now, and Richard Taylor was there ! I don't think he recognized me, but maybe if I ask him if he ever got to Los Angeles in time from Comic-Con that one July in 2005, he might remember. Regardless, he was still the nicest man on Earth when he greeted us and welcomed us to the company (we are relatively new to Weta), and shared some of his tales of working on various features including Rings, Kong, and Zorro. I'm not allowed to say what we saw, but it was pretty crazy seeing and touching icons from movies we've grown to love and idolize. I wonder what it'd be like to work in a sculpting/model-making environment. But for now I'll stick to what I know - digital.

SCUBA certified!

Last week, I took part in an intensive training course to get PADI SCUBA certified. I forgot what PADI stands for, but it means I can scuba dive anywhere to a maximum depth of 18 meters (~54 feet). I would never have thought of doing this, but it's been quite the adventure. Kevin, a co-worker, organized this whole thing and four of us (me, Jalil, Kevin, and Lori) signed on. Initially, we were all thinking it'd be fun and "neat" (yes, that was the word that was going through my head before the course) to get certified. Little did we know, we were in for a huge session of diligence, discipline, and ultimate accomplishment.

The first day was spent in the classroom - our classes were for 4 hours after work each day (Mon-Thurs) from 6 - 10:30 p.m. (half hour break). The next three days were spent in the YMCA pool, which was quite wretched, as the pool had been used for the entire day, leaving us with all the silt and muck that accumulated. In spite of all this, the act of breathing under water with a regulator and aluminum tank of air for the first time was a little weird but thrilling. But it wasn't all fun and games the first night in the pool. We had to swim 200 meters non-stop and tread water for 10 minutes after all that to pass the swimming test (we found out why later on when we were in the ocean swimming with our full gear out to the dive buoy). By Friday, we were all beat, and thankful that we had a chance to rest for a night before our first real dives in the ocean.

Saturday and Sunday, we went to Whiteria Park (FIH-TER-EE-A) in Porirua (about half an hour drive north) to do our dives, and they turned out to be beautiful sunny days. It really felt like summer and the sun was nice and warm. The water, on the other hand, was cold and murky! The visibility was better on Saturday, as we saw a bunch of kelp, some fish and loads of sea slugs just relaxing on the sea floor. We went through all of our tasks and the only bad part was waiting under water for all the other students to finish their tasks - it got pretty cold down there when we weren't doing anything but sitting and waiting. My leg cramped up once when we were doing a surface skill (taking off our buoyancy control device (BCD) vest and putting it back on). It was a bit crazy because the dive instructor told us all to perform this task at the same time (probably to save on time), so my dive buddy (Kevin) couldn't swim over to perform the "buddy cramp removal" technique on my leg (which we had ironically just learned) - as his BCD was off as well! But the instructor came to save the day and slowly talked me through putting the vest on while my cramp slowly subsided. Anyways it worked out in the end, and after four dives, we all successfully completed our tasks, got used to swimming around with our gear on, and got our PADI certificates (our cards will arrive in the mail in 3-4 weeks)! *PAT ON THE BACK*

Here are some pics from our training and our ocean dives on Lori's photo gallery. Good times.

Vodafone X-Air Games

Went to the Vodafone X-Air extreme sports games over the weekend. Saw some pretty cool stuff... mini motorcycles jumping ramps, breakdancing peeps (and kids), bmx trick competitions with ramps, and the reggae group The Black Seeds. With the sun shining and not too hot of weather, it was an all in all good time!

The BMX tricks competition was the most interesting. Got to see some crazy, insane athletes doing amazing flips on their bikes. It seemed like they had no fear of death as they performed these acrobatic moves. Anyways, I got some videos of it and here they are:

BMX tricks, part 1
BMX tricks, part 2
The Brazilian Champ
The Brazilian's Amazing Trick

new pics

Internet is finally up at my new flat! I've uploaded a bunch of pics from the past few weeks. Go and have a look-see.