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Saturday, 26 May 2012 - Time lapse
This here is my first ever attempt at time-lapse photography, shot from our bedroom window in Kristina's house (the house across the street is having repairs done after it caught fire a while back, hence all the commotion over there). Time-lapse photography is a technique whereby multiple images shot several seconds (or even minutes, hours, or days) apart are compiled into a video which, when played at normal speed, makes time appear to be moving faster than normal. You've probably seen time-lapse videos before such as clouds moving fast across the sky, the sun setting, flowers opening, and so on. In this case, I captured 11 hours of footage from 5:30am (an hour before sunrise) to 4:30pm, and compressed it into just 75 seconds. For those who know about this stuff, the video is 30fps and each image was shot at 17-second intervals. The result is fairly crude but not bad for a first attempt. Since creating this, I have done some more research into the subject and discovered several tips and tricks that I wasn't aware of so I'll have another crack at this at some point.

Monday, 28 May 2012 - Happy Memorial Day

 
 
Today is Memorial Day in America, a public holiday observed on the last Monday of every May to remember those who have died while serving in the US Armed Forces. Being a public holiday, the kids were obviously still out and about until all hours last night having a good old time. This is the house across the intersection from Kristina's hehe - another target of the age-old teenage prank of toilet papering. They even took the time to hang the toilet rolls up. I'd never seen this before coming to America so I'm still impressed by such things. Be that as it may, Kristina's dad (whose first reaction to this was a sarcastic "Yeah, it's great having kids") described this effort as amateurish. According to him, a seasoned pro would have wet the paper first, making that shit damn near impossible to clean up hahaha! Wikipedia claims that here in Texas this is legal and cannot be fined (but it needs a citation to verify that claim ;)

Friday, 1 June 2012 - Turning 30

 
 
I've been dreading this day for 366 days now (leap year) but inevitably it arrived. Yes, today I turned 30 years old, officially at 6:02pm New Zealand-time and 1:02am here in Texas. Nice day for it.
 
Kristina told me some time ago she had something planned for the day, but I obviously wasn't allowed to know what. The only clues I had were I wouldn't be able to bring my DSLR camera (these shots were all taken with my little waterproof guy that I've had for yonks), and that she'd be joining me which suggested to me it wouldn't be anything too extreme hehe. Well it turns out it was a day at this - Six Flags Fiesta Texas, a 200-acre theme park on the fringes of San Antonio. Sweeeeet! This place can get insanely busy, and schools here finished earlier this week for the summer break so we were worried we might be fighting through the crowds. But, as per the car park on the right, no worries!

 
Six Flags is the world's largest amusement park corporation based on quantity of properties. The company was founded in Texas and now maintains 14 properties located throughout North America. Fiesta Texas is located in a former rock quarry and was opened exactly 20 years ago. We started off by having a good wander around to figure out where everything was and establish a game plan for the next seven hours. The park contains four distinct themed areas including the 1950s-themed area on the left known as Rockville, and the western-themed area on the right known as Crackaxle Canyon. Fiesta Texas also includes a separate water park adjacent to the main park, though it doesn't open for summer until tomorrow.

 
 
While the water park may be closed, the main park itself still contains a few water-based rides including this one which drenches this causeway every time a boat full of people go careening down the spillway. Most folk are aware of this and even wait around here to cool off. Some folk however aren't aware of this, such as the guy above - he was not happy hehe.

 
It was now early afternoon and the park was slowly starting to fill up, so we set about finding us some thrills!
 
Fiesta Texas offers something called Flash Pass, a ride reservation system that holds your place in line at the park's most popular rides while you're elsewhere enjoying other attractions. It's a bloody expensive add on to your entry ticket but in her wisdom Kristina decided it would be worth it and she was bloody right! We just walked straight past all the queues to the front hehe - nice! This would never fly in Britain - queuing is something of a religion there.
 
 
Through the (expensive) genius of Flash Pass, we were able to ride seven of the park's eight rollercoasters - something you would probably struggle to do if had to queue for all of them. The park has a strict rule forbidding the use of cameras on most rides so I wasn't able to capture any of the rollercoasters; except for this one (didn't get caught ;) This is the infamous Rattler, and the view from the top of it just before we plummeted. The Rattler is a pure wooden rollercoaster, and one of only two rollercoasters that have remained here since the park's opening. When it debuted in 1992, the Rattler was the tallest and fastest wooden coaster in the world - a title it held for several years. But now it is considered a rickety piece of shit that causes numerous neck injuries to riders hehe. It's scheduled to be completely refurbished next year with new track and trains (though the original wooden support structure will remain). I managed to capture two movies of the ride here and here - you'll see why it has a reputation for being a neck breaker.

 
 
Rollercoasters aside, we found time to get some essential theme park photos and punish our nerves on various other rides throughout the park, including Scream!. This 20-storey-high stomach-churner shoots riders up in the air at great speed, drops them half of the way, brings them back up, and throws them back to the floor. Good stuff!
 
Although we primarily stuck to the big-kid attractions, there is no shortage of kid-friendly entertainment, not least of all the chance to win oversized stuffed characters (they all look drunk) by shooting basketballs through hoops or throwing things at milk bottles and so on. Some people clearly took the piss.

 
There are several shows which play throughout the day in the various themed areas of the park. To escape the heat for an hour, we went to see this performance in Rockville (the 50s-themed area). It wasn't as cringe-worthy as it may look here - it was very good :)

 
 
After several more thrills and spills (including the newly-opened SkyScreamer seen in the distance on the right - a 30m-high swing ride which is not for the faint of heart or weak of bladder), we finished out the day on each of the main park's three water rides. Again, no cameras allowed, and again, I ignored them.

 
That pretty much sums it up.
 
Weeeee!

 
 
This is the Power Surge which soaks the causeway I mentioned above. Some of those kids up there knew what was coming, but there were also at least two adults who it appears did not hehe.
 
Wet.

 
 
Back at Kristina's house I was surprised with a birthday cheese cake, complete with 30 candles. I managed all of them in one breath and we all well and truly demolished the cake hahaha! And that was my first day of my fourth decade (that's not a typo - do the math).


Sunday, 3 June 2012 - Start spreading the news!
As I've been mentioning for a while now (since I left London in fact), there has been a possibility of me indefinitely relocating to New York City to take up a job offer from the company I worked for in London. Well, it is now confirmed, I've booked my flight, and will be heading up in two weeks with Kristina following suit later in the year - booya! This will be my fourth new home after having previously set up camp in Brisbane, Edinburgh, and London (4.5 if you count Paris). So I've got a couple more weeks of R&R here in Texas before another new chapter begins. Good way to start my 30s :)

Monday, 4 June 2012 - Splish splash

 
 
For the last few years during the summer months, Kristina has coached a local neighbourhood swim team as well as doing private lessons. It keeps her extremely busy, but has enabled her to travel almost as extensively as I have thanks to the money she earns doing it combined with not having job commitments during the rest of the year. Today was the first of a number of weekly competitions against other neighbourhood teams, so I came along for a bit to check out the action.
 
At first glance you might think this dork turned up in his pyjama bottoms to cheer on his mates, but you'd be wrong. This, in fact, is considered fashionable here hehe.

 
To add a bit of fun into the mix, the coaching staff of the two competing neighbourhoods go head-to-head in a medley later in the day. Kristina swam the first leg (backstroke) for her team. Note the goggles going on in the left shot, and missing in the right hehe - I can never get the damn things to stay on either. The final result: they got beaten. Good stuff.

Wednesday, 5 June 2012

 
 
I did another ride into downtown San Antonio today - quite a good little ride there and back (well, 50km+ little). I didn't bother taking photos because I've done a similar route before, but I did have to snap a couple things...
 
Half off is right; the lower half.
 
And here we have the Texan battler. Gettin' by, one day at a time. I took a slightly different route into the city centre which ended up being dodgy rundown streets with several groups of two to four people (most of them Hispanic) just sitting on the roadside, looking drug-fucked and/or very suspicious. The quantity of cop cars cruising the area kept my mind at ease though hehe.

 
Since my first attempt at time lapse photography a couple weeks back I've been doing quite a lot of research into the subject and am in the midst of trying to capture a decent time lapse of the sunset. Tonight was the perfect night until the clouds rolled in but regardless this here is what I ended up with.
 

Monday, 11 June 2012 - Beware, Asian female driving

 
 
My final week in Texas :( New York beckons. Just like last Monday, I attended Kristina's swim team's weekly meet against another neighbourhood team, but this time I set up my camera to capture a time lapse of the whole event. As I write this my laptop is furiously processing that in the background.
 
While I was setting up the camera I heard some commotion from the road behind me (as did everyone else - all heads were turned in the same direction hehe). I grabbed my other camera and went for a nosey. Long story short, an Asian lady who was the sole occupant of this car managed to wipe the side of this truck, having just taken off from a stop sign barely 15 yards back up the road. How you manage to go from a stand-still at a stop sign and then into a parked vehicle just a few metres along is anyone's guess. Apparently she was talking on a cell phone at the time, so that distraction combined with the added distraction of what was going on at her neighbourhood pool (combined with being an Asian and female - let's not deny it) is no doubt what led to this. The owner of the truck was a parent at the pool - he was not impressed hehe.

Tuesday, 12 June 2012 - Lapse
If anyone is interested, here is the processed time-lapse video I captured yesterday of the swim meet. A more worked version is up on YouTube here for folk who were at the meet itself.

Thursday, 14 June 2012 - Bulky, and big

 
 
Just like before I first came to Texas last year from London, the bike got dismantled and packed away, this time to be couriered up to New York! It occurred to me after I was done that there was a lot of empty space that I could fill with the myriad of shit that will eventually get sent up there as well. In this one skinny box I've managed to pack in: a mountain bike, a helmet, a bag full of tools and another full of bike-related bit and pieces, clothing, more clothing, shoes, more shoes, a towel, a sleeping bag, and more clothing hehe. The box now weighs 30kg and is at bursting point hehe, ready for FedEx to collect it tomorrow.

 
In other news, Kristina just came rushing in as I was writing the above, and very excitedly told me to grab my camera and come downstairs because I "just have to see this!" And this is what I apparently just had to see: a moth hahaha!. In fairness though, it is a bloody large moth. They say everything is bigger in Texas :)

Sunday, 17 June 2012 - Cause I'm leavin', on a jet plane...

 
Well it's been a bloody great and bloody relaxing several weeks of doing very little, but the real world is calling again. Tomorrow I jump on a plane at stupid o'clock in the morning bound for New York to start another chapter in the life (never a dull moment). Thanks to Kristina's family for all their hospitality - catch y'all later ;)
 

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Page Comments


Still buying dud lotto tickets :-(
- Elizabeth (IffBiff)

Hmm, that's a very good question. I guess whenever y'all plan on coming over to New York ;)
- Aaron

Happy 30th! Live it up! The kids want to know when you're going to visit them again and say hi. :-) Big hugs :-)
- Elizabeth (IffBiff)