so we are just about packed — hana has spent the last hour helping me. assistance to date: chewing on the cases of two psp games, chewing on the underwear i was planning to wear, & coming within a frantic “no! don’t eat my passport!” of, well, eating my passport…

narita later this afternoon — cairns tomorrow morning, townsville sometime later tomorrow… two helpdesk-free weeks… ee desu ne!

wooooooooooooooaaahhhhh-thud-ow — so, three total panic attacks later & i’ve been skiing… two freakouts on the chair lift (which i rode, uh, twice) & one during what you could really only describe as a completely out of control hurtle down about two-thirds of the beginners’ run… oh, & i baled out a couple of times (towards the top of the beginners’ run — this was pre-hurtle) to avoid crashing into trees & small children & sprained my right thumb on either the snow or one of the ski poles… but yeah, kinda fun in the end…

focusing on the metacognitive skills of the incompetent since 1999 — seven years ago today i was ending my first week of living in sydney…

two more sleeps — to townsville (assuming we don’t sleep on the plane…)

we are going skiing — comedy contusions ensue…

ape abducts woman — who falls for ape via pratfalls on monster island… a sea voyage. ape is surprised by biplanes. roll credits. along the way, some important dinosaur fighting tips:

• don’t be afraid of getting a little bitten
• stick your hands in their mouths & rip their jaws apart

note: dinosaur fighting techniques may not be applicable for people who are not twenty-five foot tall monkeys…

happy new year!