Another project! My first attempt at felting was a success. I have named my pink felt bunny after my brother’s teacher, whose name is a curiosly good one for bunny, I think.

Max is worried that I will start knitting next…

The New Zealand dialect of English has a curious feature: group nouns are grammatically plural! In American English, at least, I would say “the family is doing well.” Kiwis, on the other hand, would say “the family are doing well,” as if family were plural, like the word monkeys. I asked my mom’s friend Ann Maree which she would prefer, and it was indeed the plural version. “It’s probably not proper,” she admitted, but the cool thing is what is actually being used in everyday speech.

While on the subject of linguistics, NPR has recently had two great segments on the social and emotive functions of language. One is about autism and speech used primarily to socialize, featuring my favorite neuroscientist, Ramachandran. The other is about a robot who talks about his tabletop world and has a rudimentary theory of mind. It’s nice to see some headway on the neuroscience of discourse, especially after seeing the huge number of conflicting theories on the subject! I fear being brought up on Nova has skewed my credibility toward the harder sciences.

Then again, science fiction may be the best science of all. I have been enjoying the new Doctor Who which just started here in New Zealand. Of course I’m partial to Tom Baker; the only Doctor Who I’d seen before now was season sixteen (Douglas Adams contributed to that one, by the way), but the new Doctor has his charm. Can you believe the original series ran for 26 seasons? More Doctor Who fun can be had at WhoMix, a site with dozens and dozens of theme remixes. My favorite is Good as Gold, the closest I could find to the original. I want to be Time Lord when I grow up!

Maybe not. A more practical goal is to become a designer, a job where I can doodle for living. Designing what, I’m not quite sure, though I’m still hoping for a job at Weta Workshop. One of my inspirations has been Pixelgirl Shop, which sells handmade goods from a variety of artists — I especially love their crazy creature plushes, themselves inspiration for my Pally. Not everything is to my taste, but it’s great to see so many people making a living by being creative.

I’m just getting over a cold, but the weather has been warm. Words of wisdom for sick: less dairy means less phlegm, and cute flash games are the chicken-soup of entertainment. Now back to Beowulf — with the original Anglo-Saxon right next to the English translation!

It took me a long time to get to sleep Saturday, for a little teddy bear had popped into my brain and demanded to be made. The next day I couldn’t stop thinking about him, how I would make him, what material I would need, etc., all during our hiking and walking around the Waitakeries and Muriwai beach. But now, after two days of construction and only a few hiccups, my second sewing project is complete. Meet Pally!

I named him Pally because just as Pallas Athena was born fully-formed from her father’s head, Pally was born from mine — and he turned out exactly how I first imagined him. Plus, you know, there’s the obvious punnery.

I’m finally starting to feel like myself again! Perhaps it’s just having some space after two weeks of cramming in with my mom, dad, brother, and aunt. The road-trip was great fun, though. I especially loved the South Island — I need to go back there for more hiking — and Wellington. I loved the cafe’s and bakeries along the way, and also our Lord of the Rings sight-seeing. We visited Hobbiton, the sites for Rivendell and the River Anduin, and the Lord of the Rings Motion Picture Trilogy: The Exhibition at Te Papa.

Oo! And we stopped by Weta Workshop. And guess who we saw? Richard Taylor! He was just leaving with his entourage, and my mom and I recognized him immediately. We were flailing and pointing behind his back, with huge fangirl grins on our faces. The other people in the lobby must have thought we were nuts! Oh I so want to work for Weta!

Too bad all movies can’t be like Lord of the Rings. While in Wellington, I saw Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest at the Embassy Theatre. As with too many of these highly anticipated films, it just fell flat. If the first one felt like an inside joke amongst good friends, this one felt like bad fan fiction. It was gimmicky, the timing was all off, and most of all it lacked focus. However, despite the movie, I enjoyed the experience. I got to sit in a big cushy leather seat and happily eat a big cone of hokey-pokey ice cream with chocolate on top. Life really needs more ice cream in it.

The trip encompassed so many little experiences. Museums, beautiful architecture, glorious hikes, pastoral countryside, quaint towns, flooding in the fields and in the hotel room above us, smelly bubbling hot springs, hundreds of sheep, Maori culture and delicious Maori food. We traveled via foot, ferry, train, automobile, gondola, cable-car, and even street luge. Best New Zealand street sign: “Passing Lane Deleted!”

There is finally progress being made on Typo. What a relief, I was about to embark on another doomed software project! I seriously need to look into design schools, because I would love to sketch, doodle, and draw for a living. After Reed, that is: I still need my linguistics and my friends. I miss my friends so much I’ve actually been having dreams about going back. Maybe I am nuts! I’m not home yet, but for now I feel as whole as whole wheat bread. Now I just need my peanut butter and jelly.