This is a photo of me at Bondi Beach. We discovered that my definition or stereotyping of Australia is actually the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney. So when I say, "Australia is like ..." or "Australians do this ..." it is me stereotyping or generalizing from my experiences of when I lived in the Eastern Suburbs.
We hung out in Sydney's West for a couple of days as well as the CBD before nicking off to Hamilton Island to bask in the Whitsunday humidity. When we were in these places my American wife was saying that Australia was nothing like I had described it.
The Eastern Suburbs are a pretty good match for much of the Australian national myth of the bronzed Aussie. It is a flattering myth of tanned and toned Australians soaking in the sun, lazing on the beach and braving the waves in the dangerous Pacific Ocean amongst the sharks, jelly fish and blue bottles.
When that is tied in with the self-sacrifice and public service of the Surf Lifesavers it is a very powerful and flattering mythos. My definition is probably self-selecting. Before I came to the US I had a deep tan and was pretty well toned.
When we are at Bondi Beach and around the Eastern Suburbs my wife said to me, "This is like you described Australia!" It was interesting that an outside pair of eyes was able to spot what I was describing as "Australia" was a small part of Sydney.
Australia has changed a lot since I moved to the United States in 1997. By the middle of the trip I was saying constantly, "I don't know, I am not sure, Australia is different now, I have no idea." The biggest mistake to make is that cultures are static. They do not stand still and are constantly evolving and changing.
Phoenix Eats Out is the restaurant review site for
Phoenix,
Scottsdale and
Old Town Scottsdale which lists the modernist and contemporary restaurants, taverns and bars in the greater Phoenix area.
This is the list of the most popular restaurants pages from phoenixeatsout.com that have been viewed the most;
My personal favourite restaurants in Phoenix are
AZ88,
Postinos,
Bomberos with
Grazie,
Humble Pie,
Orange Table,
The Vig,
Fez and others coming close behind. View the complete list with the photo-journalistic style images on
phoenixeatsout.com
Arizona is an outdoor state and has lots of hiking in the city and around the state. Phoenix is unusual for most cities in having several large mountains in the center of the city with great hiking. Anyone who comes to Phoenix has to do the
Echo Canyon trail on Camelback and the
Summit Hike on Squaw Peak or Piesta Peak. The views of the city, suburbs and surrounding mountains are wonderful from Camelback and Piesta Peak.
For more experienced hikers there is the McDowell Mountains in North Scottsdale that has several difficult and strenuous hikes in
Tom's Thumb and
Bell Pass. Alternatively, you can hike the highest mountain in Arizona. At 12,600 feet
Humphrey's Peak is a long and difficult hike.
Between 2004 and 2009 this site,
southsearepublic.org, was a constitutional blog based on scoop which focused on Australian and global constitutional issues.
One of the strongest aspects of it was the development of constitutions by those involved in the blog. These constitutions are the outcome:
The constitutions were built using principles from Montesquieu's separation of powers, the enlightnment's universal political rights and the ancient Athenian technology of sortition and choice by lot.
South Sea Republic started in 2004 as an Australian constitutional blog in 2004 based on scoop software. It was an immigrative outgrowth of Kuro5hin. The archives for each year since then;
The articles are ordered by views.
I am an Australian living in the United States as a permanent resident.
I am a software developer by trade and mostly work in Java and jump between middleware and front end.
I originally worked in the New York area of the United States in telecommunications before moving to Washington DC and
working in a mix of telecommunications, energy and ITS. I started my own software company before heading out to
Arizona and working with Shutterfly. Since then I have joined a startup in the Phoenix area and am thoroughly enjoying myself.
I do a lot of photography which I post on this website, but also on flickr. I have a photo-journalistic website which lists
the modernist and contemporary restaurants in phoenix. I have a site on the
Australian Flying Corps [AFC] which has been around since the 1990s and which I unfortunately
lost the .org URL to during a life event; however, it is under the
www.australianflyingcorps.com URL now.
The AFC website has gone through several iterations since the 90s and the two most recent are
Australian Flying Corps Archives(2004-2002) and
Australian Flying Corps Archives(2002-1999) which are good places to start.
