Blog Archives: Personal
2010 Year in Review
It’s time for a look back at 2010 and a look forward to 2011. Last year I wrote a review of 2009 in which I asked “Will 2010 be as crazy?”, and, if travel is any measure of craziness, the answer is a solid yes. While my blogging in 2010 was not as prolific as it should have been, it’s been a busy year nonetheless.
Before we get to the month-by-month breakdown, here are a few numbers summarizing the year:
- 906 kilometres run
- 48 flights taken
- 10 countries visited
- 2 years in a row I was in Windsor for my mom’s birthday even though I lived on another continent
- 1:39:59 new personal best half marathon time
- 1 new job
January: New Zealand January: My parents visited me in Brisbane for Christmas 2009; on Boxing Day we flew to New Zealand and spent about a week and a half driving around the South island of New Zealand.
February: Olympics February: Early in February I did a scuba diving course and got my PADI Open Water Certification. I started volunteering with Rosies Street Outreach in Brisbane. The Olympics started in mid-February, and as I was sitting on the couch that first weekend, it looked like Vancouver was having a lot of fun, and I thought “well, I could just go to the Olympics”: a few hours later, I was booked for a week in Whistler and Vancouver with tickets for 4 sports (ski jumping, biathlon, aerials, and short track speed skating), as well as the closing ceremony.
February: Quieter March: March was a quiet month. I flew back from the Olympics and got some work done. The only notable picture I could find from March was this picture of me about to fly back from Vancouver where I saw Dutch gold medallist Sven Kramer in the airport. I started my running program for the year.
April: Easter on the beach April: I flew up to the Whitsunday Coast in northeast Queensland for Easter, where I went kayaking and scuba diving. More work got done and I prepared for my next trip back to North America. I flew out at the end of the month for Los Angeles.
May: Los Angeles and Canada May: My friends Lana and Bill got married in Los Angeles at the beginning of May and asked me to be part of their wedding party. After the wedding I flew back to Canada to spend a couple of weeks doing research in Waterloo an visiting Windsor. I started looking at the next phase of my career. Back in Brisbane, I kept up my research and running programs (R&R?).
June: Australia's Red Centre June: I took advantage of a long weekend in June for a camping trip to Australia’s Red Centre, visiting Ayers Rock and Kings Canyon. A little more scuba diving and running made the rest of June pretty quiet.
July: Sydney July: At the beginning of July I ran the Gold Coast Half Marathon and achieved a personal best of 1:39:59. I went to a conference in Sydney, attended a Christmas-in-July party, and organized a Pi Approximation Day (22/7) celebration (which made my work colleagues think I was a bit crazy).
August: Brisbane Ekka August: August was spent in Brisbane. I ran a 10K race, visited the agricultural exhibition (the “Ekka“), and ran some more.
September: Fireworks September: I visited the Riverfire fireworks show in Brisbane featuring the last dump-and-burn; the fireworks kicked off the annual Brisbane Festival, and I enjoyed a good talk by Canadian photographer Douglas Kirkland at the modern art gallery. I flew back to Canada for a few weeks of research in Waterloo.
October: Mediterranean cruise October: I continued working on research in Waterloo and went home to Windsor for Thanksgiving. My running program got put on hold due to some ITB problems that developed while I was in Waterloo. At the end of October, my friend Laura and I were supposed to go to Belize for 10 days, but the day before we were to fly out a hurricane was bearing down on Belize, so we cancelled that and took a last minute cruise from Venice to Greece, Turkey, and Croatia.
November: India November: I arrived back in Brisbane to start my new faculty position at the Queensland University of Technology; the first few weeks were filled with grant applications. I also gave a talk at a human-computer interaction conference in Brisbane, presenting my first paper in what I hope will be a new line of research for me. I flew to India at the end of November for a research visit to the Indian Institute of Technology in Chennai (Madras), and did a little bit of sightseeing on the weekend while I was there.
December: Christmas in Windsor December: On my way back from India, I stopped in Singapore to attend a conference, where I won an award for the best rump session presentation for my (humourous) talk on food in cryptography. I was briefly back in Brisbane before taking off again, this time for Christmas in Windsor. My time in Windsor was very relaxing and a much needed break after several months of travelling. I managed to start running again without pain, with just a few weeks to go before January’s Goofy challenge at Walt Disney World.
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2009 Year in Review
Around this time of the year, it’s customary to publish “best of…” articles. Inspired by my friend Cecilia, here’s a look back at big events in my life in 2009. Writing this post, it’s amazing how much happened in 2009. Will 2010 be as crazy? Only time will tell…
January: Caribbean cruise January: My parents and I spent New Year’s Eve in Florida and then took a Caribbean cruise on the Queen Mary 2. Returning to Waterloo, I celebrated my 30th birthday and submitted my thesis a few days later.
February: Waterloo in winter February: Relaxing from the stress of a cruise, I spent February wrapping things up in Waterloo and made a short visit to Calgary.
March: Brisbane March: I successfully defended my PhD thesis, completed my PhD, and celebrated my time in Waterloo with a great party at the Grad House. I spent a week in Windsor and then flew to Brisbane to start my new postdoc position at the Queensland University of Technology.
April: New apartment April: Getting settled in Brisbane, I moved into my new apartment. I started off the running season with my first 10km race in years.
May: Gold Coast May: Deciding to do run a half-marathon in August, I started my running training, and did some cycling around Brisbane with friends. I went to the beach on the Gold Coast as well.
June: Running along the Brisbane River June: My running training continued with a well-developed routine with lots of runs along the river. I started exploring the city more, visiting a number of art galleries and welcoming Devin to Brisbane.
July: Whale watching July: More running. I presented a paper at a conference in Brisbane and went whale watching off the Pacific coast.
August: Brisbane half marathon August: I ran in the Brisbane half marathon, taking more than 13 minutes off my previous time. It was a yummy month too: I discovered a great recipe for chocolate chip cookies.
September: Dust storm September: I stepped up the running training to prepare for the Toronto marathon in October. Brisbane was hit by a spectacular dust storm, and I saw a great fireworks show featuring jets lighting fuel on fire.
October: PhD graduation October: I flew back to Canada for a visit, having a graduation party in Windsor, running a marathon in Toronto, spending a week in Waterloo, and graduating from my PhD. Skipped another ocean to present at a conference in Italy and see the ruins in Pompeii.
November: Singapore November: On my way back to Australia, I stopped in steamy Singapore to give a talk and visit Lana and Bill. Enjoyed being home after a month of travelling.
December: Christmas in Australia December: I redesigned my website and published my first Internet standard. My parents flew down for Christmas and we spent some time around Brisbane, visiting a koala sanctuary and the beach. Decorated our palm tree for Christmas. We flew over to the south island of New Zealand on Boxing Day, where I bungy jumped, kayaked a fjord, and hiked a glacier.
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Merry Christmas
Merry Christmas from the Stebila family in Australia!
The Stebila Family wishing you a Merry Christmas from Australia
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Twelve Days of Christmas
Our Australian Christmas tree Merry Christmas Eve from Brisbane! My parents and I are enjoying the holiday season here in Brisbane. Today we decorated our Christmas tree: a palm tree in my patio garden. Hopefully Santa will be able to find us all the way on the other side of the world!
Wandering around town on Christmas Eve, we came across these sculptures in the square in front of Brisbane City Hall, celebrating the twelve days of Christmas. For the past twelve days, a different artist has been decorating each day. Here are Brisbane’s Twelve Days of Christmas.
1: A partridge in a pear tree 
2: Two turtle doves 
3: Three French hens 
4: Four calling birds 
5: Five golden rings 
6: Six geese a-laying 
7: Seven swans a-swimming 
8: Eight maids a-milking 
9: Nine ladies dancing 
10: Ten lords a-leaping 
11: Eleven pipers piping 
12: Twelve drummers drumming
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PhD Graduation
Cake for my graduation party Besides the marathon, another purpose of my trip to Canada was for my PhD graduation, the last graduation I will attend as a student.
During the week that I was in Windsor, my mom threw me a wonderful graduation party to celebrate. Lots of family friends attended, and it was great to see them all. The real surprise of the evening was that she also invited some of my closest teachers from high school. 
Janet and I I didn’t know my mom had invited them, but when I heard the distinctive voice of my high school principal, I spun around and knew something was up. This may seem like a strange thing to do for most people, but not for me. Some of my high school teachers were very important to me and were true mentors. What I learned from them — music, running, culture, leadership — are the most important lessons I took away from high school.
At Convocation with mom and dad Graduation in Waterloo was on October 24. My parents came up to Waterloo for the ceremony, as did my aunt Joe, who, as you can see in the picture at right, looks lovely in my graduation cap. The PhD graduation gowns at Waterloo are very… colourful. 
Auntie Joe and I dressed for Convocation They were not as hideous as I feared they would be; some of them were bright red and bright green, but others were a darker red and a darker green, which I think looked a bit better. Also attending Convocation were Lana and Bill (and their parents), who flew in from Singapore for the occasion. Like most graduations, this one was a little bit too long for comfort, and there were a lot of people to graduate, but that’s the nature of the thing. At least we got to sit right up front so we could see what was going on. After the ceremony we had a nice reception up at the Institute for Quantum Computation, and then I had to run to catch my flight to Italy leaving at 11pm that night!
Lana, Bill, and I at Convocation More pictures from my graduation party in Windsor and the ceremony in Waterloo (with loads more pictures of me in my fancy red and green gown) are available in my photo gallery.
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Brisbane Riverfire
Fireworks
Earlier this month I attended Brisbane Riverfire, the fireworks that are part of the Brisbane Festival going on here in Brisbane.
The fireworks take place along the stretch of the Brisbane River that winds around downtown Brisbane (which is basically where I live). We went down to the riverfront in the afternoon to grab a spot along the river, and to see the air show. The Royal Australian Air Force “Roulettes” put on a precision flying show while it was still light, with some very impressive flying. (These and all the pictures in this blog entry either come from my friend Sui-Guan at QUT or from Creative Commons-licensed material on Flickr.)
RAAF Roulettes in formation 
RAAF Roulettes 
Crowds on South Bank waiting for the fireworks
Being from Windsor, the home of the International Freedom Festival Fireworks, I have very high standards for fireworks shows. It’s not a real fireworks show unless it goes on for a good half an hour, has multiple launch sites, and — most importantly — you can really feel the boom.
You must understand, then, how significant it is when I say that these were the best fireworks I have ever seen.
The show started with a countdown to a pair of F-111 fighter jets flying overhead signalling the launch of the first fireworks. The trail of the jets can be seen in the image below.
First, there were the fireworks on and above the river. They had 6 barges along the winding stretch of the river; from the area in which we were standing, 4 barges were visible (the most possible due to the curve of the river).
Since that wasn’t enough, the decided to launch fireworks from the tops of buildings in downtown Brisbane.
Fireworks across the river 
Fireworks over the river and above the CBD
Again, that wasn’t still enough, so they decided to launch fireworks from three of the bridges across the Brisbane river. The curtains of fireworks falling from the bridges were especially beautiful.
Fireworks over Story Bridge 
Curtain of fireworks on the Story Bridge
But still, setting the river, buildings, and bridges on fire was apparently not enough. The F-111 jets that started the show came back and did what’s called a “dump and burn“, in which fuel is released behind the jet and set alight using the plane’s afterburner. The F-111 jet is the only aircraft the routinely performs this procedure. The RAAF is the last air force in the world operating F-111 jets, and they are set to retire this year. This was the last dump and burn ever to be seen in Brisbane and it was incredible! If you look closely in the bottom left of the last picture, you can see the outline of the jet.
F-111 dump and burn over Brisbane 
F-111 dump and burn over Story Bridge 
F-111 dump and burn
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Dust storm in Brisbane
George St in the dust storm Yesterday Brisbane was hit with a dust storm. Strong westerly winds (that is, winds blowing from the west) from the outback kicked up lots of sand and dust since the last few months have been very dry. They hit Brisbane in mid-afternoon, turning the sky reddish-brown as if in a medium fog. Here’s a news story about the dust, and some (Creative Commons-licensed) pictures that I found on Flickr. The pictures have not had their colours altered in any way, this is how it really looked.
When I got home in the evening the air had mostly cleared, but my throat still tickled a little. By this morning, when I went for a 10km run, the skies were clear and there was no sign of dust anywhere, except of course all over every flat surface in my apartment since I had left the glass patio doors open all day.
City Hall in the dust storm 
Captain Cook Bridge in the dust storm 
Ann St in the dust storm 
Downtown Brisbane in the dust storm 
Dust storm over the Brisbane River
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The Tax Poem
For my father, on the “end” of tax season (for tax season never really ends in the Stebila household):
The Tax Poem
(Author unknown, this version from poeticexpressions.co.uk)
Tax his land, tax his wage,
Tax his bed in which he lays.
Tax his tractor, tax his mule,
Teach him taxes is the rule.
Tax his cow, tax his goat,
Tax his pants, tax his coat.
Tax his ties, tax his shirts,
Tax his work, tax his dirt.
Tax his chew, tax his smoke,
Teach him taxes are no joke.
Tax his car, tax his grass,
Tax the roads he must pass.
Tax his food, tax his drink,
Tax him if he tries to think.
Tax his sodas, tax his beers,
If he cries, tax his tears.
Tax his bills, tax his gas,
Tax his notes, tax his cash.
Tax him good and let him know
That after taxes, he has no dough.
If he hollers, tax him more,
Tax him until he’s good and sore.
Tax his coffin, tax his grave,
Tax the sod in which he lays.
Put these words upon his tomb,
“Taxes drove me to my doom!”
And when he’s gone, we won’t relax,
We’ll still be after the inheritance tax.
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