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Wow, it's the last day of 2007 already - and what a year it's been!! There's a lot of stuff to blog about, but let's keep things in order, shall we? First things first, let's talk about our Christmas...

With a little help, we were able to get to Idaho Falls to celebrate Christmas with Karen, Keener, Chuck, Kim and Kevin. It was Christine's first family Christmas for quite some time, as she'd either been in Australia or working in Portland for the previous few years, so she was very excited. Props here to Ben at the Mac Store who swapped a work day with her so we could fly out (very) early on the morning of Christmas Eve.

The flight was uneventful, with just a short stop in Boise (State capital of Idaho, for those who want to know) along the way. The ground throughout Idaho was covered in thick, white snow and looked stunningly beautiful from the skies. Our landing at Idaho Falls was delayed slightly as they had to plough (plow) the runway! We were met by Karen and we all piled into the truck for the short ride down the highway to the house. Conditions were treacherous on the road - we almost skidded into the back end of a truck and another driver behind us slid into the median of the divided highway (he was okay, though!) - and we were all very glad that we hadn't tried to drive all the way from Portland, as was our original plan!

We were made very welcome and had a lot of fun: running through the snow in the paddock behind the house and relaxing in the hot tub with a drink as snow flakes fell lightly from above. Dinner was a delicious feast before we retired to bed to await Santa's arrival! Here's a pic of us in the snow... sorry, it's still a huge novelty for this Aussie boy more used to blue skies and scorching summer temperatures on Christmas Day!

We awoke early on Christmas morning and spent the day as you should - in the company of family and friends. Present opening occupied most of the morning, and we went for a walk along the frozen banks of the Snake River in the early afternoon. More relaxation followed: the hot tub was utilised again, and some of us took the opportunity of a short nap. I was able to call home to Australia to talk to my parents, which was wonderful, although we were all very concerned about the health of my grandmother, who had recently been admitted to hospital. I was also able to call her later in the day to give her my best wishes.

Christmas dinner took the form of a Murder Mystery Party, which everyone got right into the spirit of. The "murder" had taken place in a California winery and we all had specific characters to play. I was Otto Von Schnapps, an unscrupulous wine merchant from Germany, while Christine was Marilyn Merlot (love the names!), a B-Grade Hollywood actress who was once crowned Miss Napa Valley Wine Festival. Great fun was had by all, and I eventually won the game by correctly guessing the killer's identity, although we all missed the Really Obvious Clue™ that was presented during the course of the game! It was Papa Vito, by the way: in the basement with the ring knife.

May I present Miss Marilyn Merlot... or should I call you by your real name: Daisy Drinkwater!!! **dramatic chords and lightning flashes**

Our flight back to Portland left fairly early the next day, but it took us until 8:00pm to get back through our front door as Salt Lake City airport (our connecting hub) was snowed in: every flight in and out was substantially delayed, leading to a distinct lack of Christmas cheer from many passengers. We also had a taxi driver who seemed to know nothing of the layout of Portland: I had to guide him every step of the way... and I don't even drive!

Posted in: chaosboy, idaho falls, party time, united states on December 31, 2007 at at 3:22:00 PM 0 comments    

Yes, it's true! USCIS finally granted me my I-485 Residency (Green Card) today. To say that Christine and I are relieved and happy is a huge understatement... all the uncertainty has disappeared and we can now get on with our new life together.

The actual interview was possibly one of the simplest parts of the entire process: I guess if you manage to jump through all the hoops to get this far, you've got a pretty good idea of how things should work and can plan accordingly. This is the way our interview happened:

We arrived at the Federal Building in Portland about 15 minutes before our scheduled appointment time on 9:30 and passed through the standard security before being directed to the waiting room. We had to put our appointment notice into a basket mounted on the wall along with everyone else's - this led us to wonder how they selected names, as all the forms were placed in a random fashion: some people put theirs at the front, others at the back. It seemed like a bit of pot luck to us as to whether you got called up straight away or waited around in the grim little lounge for ever. As it turned out, the case reviewers have their workload for the day already sorted out in their office, and call people according to their interview time. So it wasn't long before we were called up at all, probably 10 minutes at most.

We accompanied our case reviewer to her office, where she quickly made us swear that we would tell the truth during our interview (no bible required) before sitting us down. She went through our paperwork quickly and efficiently, but gave no hints as to how our application was going. She'd definitely make a great poker player, because you couldn't read anything into her body language at all. She first confirmed Christine's income to ensure that she could stand as my guarantor (she passed) and then told us that we no longer needed Christine's mother's co-sponsorship. We were then asked a few general questions about how we met, when we first started dating and so on: these questions were all easily answered.

Then just a few yes or no questions like, "Have you ever been convicted for a criminal offence?" or, "Have you ever committed a criminal offence that you haven't been convicted for?" I wonder if anyone ever answers "Yes" to that one... "Yes, guv, you've got me bang to rights on that one. It was me!"

After that, we showed her a few photos of us together in different places, culminating in showing her the wedding album. We warned her the wedding was a "little" unconventional before she started, but we needn't have worried - she absolutely loved the whole thing and asked us lots of questions about the wedding, the idea behind it, who made the dress, etc etc. She was definitely amused that part of the inspiration was the American Government's insistence on referring to me as an "alien". She told us that we had made her week and that she had to go and make some photocopies of the album, both as evidence supporting our application and – we suspect – to show off to other workers later that day: "Look at this crazy wedding these two people had!"

While she was gone, we speculated as to whether there were any hidden cameras in the room that were observing our body language while no one was in the room, which kept us amused until her return when she told us that my FBI check was clean and that she was going to approve my application today. The card itself will be mailed to me within the next 2 weeks; no temporary card or stamp in my passport was given. The interview itself probably only took 15-20 minutes, plus the 10 minutes of waiting – almost an anticlimax considering the struggles we've had to get to this point!

Here's us all smiles after the interview:
It definitely seems to me that if you go to these interviews fully prepared – have copies of all your required documents ready and and hand, lots of photos and other evidence of relationship – and are honest in your answers, it's a very simple procedure. However, if you try and hide anything from them, they'll be onto you in a second and could make things very difficult for you indeed.

So ends this part of the saga – next, it's on to finding a job! Stay tuned!

Posted in: chaosboy, immigration, united states on December 18, 2007 at at 4:21:00 PM 5 comments    

So, let's look at some numbers relating to my immigration, shall we?

• Total days resident in the USA: 215
• Number of days married: 148
• Days for I-485 to be processed: 142 (and still counting)
• Days from I-485 submission to biometrics scan: 82
• Days from I-485 submission to interview (18th Dec): 144
• Days for original I-765 (based on K-1 Visa) to be denied: 125
• Days for second I-765 (based on I-485) to be approved: 57!!

It's worth noting that – based on advice given to me by the local Portland USCIS office – I asked (well, begged might be a better word!) USCIS for expedited service on my second I-765. I was told that there were no guarantees that anything would be done quicker, but based on the numbers above, maybe something was. Either that, or the July peak period was over and the Nebraska office was just able to approve things more efficiently.

Posted in: chaosboy, immigration, united states on December 16, 2007 at at 12:56:00 PM 0 comments    

I have web stats enabled for this blog, and I know we get a lot (and I meant A LOT) of hits from people searching Google for advice on I-765 and I-485 applications. To all those people, based on my experience, it is definitely best to send in these two applications together.

If you've entered America on a K-1 Fiance(e) Visa, definitely do not attempt to gain an EAD based on that Visa. The wording on the I-765 application form is very vague:

A. K-1 Nonimmigrant Fiance(e) of U.S. Citizen or K-2 Dependent--(a)(6). File your EAD application if you are filing within 90 days from the date of entry. This EAD cannot be renewed. Any EAD application other than for a replacement must be based on your pending application for adjustment under (c)(9).

This may make you think that you can submit your EAD application at any stage during the 90 day period that your K-1 Visa is valid, but this is not true. In fact, any EAD issued under the K-1 Visa only lasts for the 90 day period, which is next to useless. If you need employment urgently, then the only thing to do is to get married almost immediately upon entering the US (Christine and I waited almost two months), and send off your I-485 and I-765 forms together as soon as humanly possible after the wedding. Then just sit back and wait for the slow wheels of bureacracy to grind on and spit your application out the other side. If possible, avoid submitting your applications in July, as this seems to be the peak period of demand for USCIS services.

Thanks for visiting, and I'll be sure to give you all a full account of our I-485 interview when it happens.

Posted in: chaosboy, immigration, united states on December 15, 2007 at at 3:39:00 PM 0 comments    

I've actually known this was coming for a couple of days now, as I checked my case status online with the USCIS on Thursday, but I wanted to wait until the EAD was actually in my hands before I announced it to the world. Too much has gone wrong with this stuff up to now to prematurely jinx things!

So basically, the USCIS has approved my I-765, which is simply a temporary authorisation to seek employment while my I-485 (Green Card) is being processed. Because of my misfortunes - originally applying for an I-765 under the auspices of my K-1 Fiance Visa and being denied because that Visa expired after 90 days - the whole process has taken much longer than it should have, but I have it safe in my hands now! Words can't even begin to describe how happy I am. And we also have our initial I-485 interview next Tuesday - together, these two events may make the best Christmas present I could have asked for.

So now on Monday, I can head out and finally get myself a Social Security number, that all-important set of digits that rule most Americans' lives... and then I can FINALLY start looking for a job!

Posted in: chaosboy, immigration, united states on at at 3:25:00 PM 0 comments    

I think it's fair to say that I've done a fair bit of travelling - all over Europe, New Zealand a couple of times, different parts of Australia and my new explorations of The Land Of The Free™. And it goes without saying that I like to take photos of my adventures. Now the perfect thing would be able to place my pictures on a map of the world, to show exactly where I've clicked my shutter and exposed film or sensor to light.

Flickr has a very basic "Map This Photo" function built in, but this has always been unsatisfactory for me. For starters, Flickr's map (built using Yahoo! Maps) has always been woeful, with a strange way of organising pictures that seems to have no rhyme or reason. Then there's also the fact that only the version on my photo that is resident on Flickr has the geotags (latitude and longitude data) saved, not the version that I have on my computer.

So I started looking around at alternatives that could help me. Ovolab's Geophoto seemed promising, with iPhoto integration and a nice clean interface, but the resolution of the maps was next to useless, especially for adding geotags. I'm not one of those people who just say my photos were taken in such and such a city, I like to position my photos on the exact spot I was standing when I took the shot.

App4Life's RapidoMap was similarly disappointing, with a terribly complicated way of adding location data to your photos. It also lost points for changing its name from the far more charming Magrathea, a beautiful Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy in-joke.

I was about to give up, when I remembered that I had a fantastically detailed mapping system already available on my computer, the truly gorgeous Google Earth. Surely there had to be some way to leverage all of Google's mapping know-how to do what I needed? And as it turned out, there was! The rather boringly named – but free – Geotagger simply allows you to find a location in Google Earth, then drag-n-drop JPGs onto the application to add all the geodata into the JPGs EXIF metadata. Neat!

The next step was to find a way to get these newly geo-savvy JPGs to show up in Google Earth itself. And once again Google itself came to the rescue, with its newly acquired Panoramio website. You simply upload all your location-aware images to Panoramio, and it submits them to Google Earth. Eventually, images that meet their guidelines can actually be viewed by anyone using Google Earth using the Panoramio layer, but you can always find your own images in your personal copy of Google Earth by using a personalised .kml file. Perfect! If I felt like it, I could even add locations in Google Earth so that it could "fly" me along the route of, say, my European backpacking trip. Images can also be viewed on a map directly on the Panoramio website. Be warned though, geotagging and uploading all your photos can take some time – it's a good thing I'm a patient person with a lot of spare time on my hands!

For those that would like to look at my handiwork, this is my Panoramio user page, where you can also download my Google Earth/Panoramio .kml file (works with Google Earth 4 and higher). Look at Sydney, Portland and Europe for the most photos. Enjoy!

Posted in: chaosboy, computers, geotagging, photography on December 12, 2007 at at 8:15:00 PM 0 comments    

The Decemberists: I'm really not sure how to describe these guys, they sound completely unlike just about anything else out there. Their most well known song is a nine minute sea shanty called "The Mariner's Revenge Song", which could almost come straight from the pages of Moby Dick. It even involves a giant whale who eats the protaganist and his mortal enemy (the object of revenge) alive! Unfortunately, there's no video for that song on YouTube, so we'll have to make do with something else.

This is called "16 Military Wives" and the film clip seems to be making some sort of political point. See if you can work out what is... :-)



Once again, we missed out on tickets to see these guys last time they were in Portland. They like to drop Portland references into their songs (The Multnomah County Library, the bus mall, the columns down at the Skidmore Fountain and so on) and the video for "O Valencia" features the Fremont Bridge's plentitude of off ramps and one of the seedy hotels on Interstate. Nothing like a local band that acknowledges its localness!

If you're going to listen to one album by these guys, I would recommend Picaresque. And if you only want to listen to one song, I would say "The Mariner's Revenge Song" or "We Both Go Down Together"

Posted in: chaosboy, music, portland on December 9, 2007 at at 1:34:00 PM 0 comments    

It's a fact. Portland has well and truly settled into its typical long, dark winter. Average high temperatures for this week are forecast to be between 38 and 44°F (3 to 7°C) and it'll probably stay like that until some time in February. It actually snowed a bit this morning, a light drifting of flakes slowly falling from the sky - but the flakes never actually reached the ground, so I'm not sure if that really counts.

Actually, the coldness itself doesn't really bother me anymore. After travelling through Europe in winter – where the temperatures were in the range of -15 to -10°C (5 to 14°F) in Prague, Berlin and Copenhagen – nothing has ever really felt truly cold since. What does bug me about the cold is the rigamarole of getting dressed to go anywhere. If Christine calls me from work and wants me to meet her at a pub, I have to throw on about five layers of clothing, a scarf, a hat, gloves and maybe (actually, most of the time!) rain pants and a rain jacket just to set foot outside. This process can take a long time and has to be reversed when I reach the heated pub at the other end, lest I melt. Then when it's time to leave, back on all the clothes have to go! It's all a bit of a drag.

All that said, I do miss my Australian summer, even though it seems to have been atypically wet in Sydney this year...

Posted in: chaosboy, portland, united states on at at 12:50:00 PM 1 comments    

Whew!

So we have come through Thanksgiving weekend and Black Friday and the following weekend unscathed!

Of course Cam was quite impressed with the intensity of seriousness we give these holidays. We noticed quite a few establishments offering themselves up for those who had nowhere to go or people to see on Turkey night. It's a night, almost as much as Christmas, where it is imperative that you be SOMEWHERE and with other people. It doesn't really matter where, just as long as you can report later that you were indeed doing something.

Cam and I were graciously invited to Kevin's sister's house along with about 18 other people to their beautiful house in Mt. Tabor. While the Marcotte brothers worked on getting the turkeys perfectly basted, the crowd mingled in order to distract ourselves from our hunger. We went on a short hike up the hill to an old volcano mound that a nice park had been built upon. The neighborhood was very cute and kitsch and on our way back we snagged a house-for-sale flyer with modest asking price of 1.3 mil.

When we returned, dinner was almost ready and we admired the pretty table that Julie and the kids had helped lay out.

Now Cam knows how to make a turkey out of tracing your hand on paper.

Our Thanksgiving meal, I could say was very traditional and at the same time not. We all ate our delicious food and then afterwards stayed at the table and played a charades game. From there, some people drifted away to tend to children or cleaning up. Most of us stayed and drank wine and gossiped about this and that. Most of the Thanksgiving meals I have attended have usually involved football or at least a TV blasting the Macy Day parade, but there was never a hint of either during the evening. Sitting at the table, one can only take for so long so I went and helped 6 year old Grace color a picture of the Little Mermaid, while Cam drew Optimus Prime for 7 year old Ben (who now worships Cam as well as OP).

Afterwards, I gave up trying to be formal and passed out in a chair. I was upset on our way home that I had done so, but I really had no other choice. Sometimes, you just want to be tranquil mood instead of making conversation after gorging yourself.

The next day was Black Friday. It's a bit of a ridiculous American tradition created on its own accord, where the masses immediately give up on one holiday and dive head first into the next. It's recorded every year as being the biggest shopping day and people start around 4am in order to get the best sales (Yes, the mall opens around then.) The Mac Store was madness but people there wanted the best deals mostly for themselves, perhaps wanting to save a buck on that iPod before they have to start spending money on everyone else. It's a day that is just as gluttonous as Turkey Day.

And so here comes Christmas! Cam and I have to put up our lights now!

Posted in: chaosgurl, party time, united states on November 27, 2007 at at 1:43:00 PM 0 comments    

Finally, common sense prevails in my country!

The era of John Winston Howard, the 25th Prime Minister of Australia, is finally, mercifully over. His 11 and a half years in power may have been marked by strong economic times, but there is more to quality of life, of pride in your country than money.

Put simply, we became less of a nation under his leadership. Mandatory detention for asylum-seekers (often off-shore in foreign countries!), the absolute refusal to acknowledge the very real threat of global warming, draconian workplace relations policies (the Patricks stevedores dispute, WorkChoices, etc.), the inability to say "sorry" to the stolen generation of indigenous Australians: these are the real marks of the Howard era that defined our country during his time in power, marks that made me ashamed of the face my country presented to the world.

We really should have known right from the start when he declared a whole raft of promises made before the 1996 election as "non-core" promises. Apparently it's okay to go back on your word to the people of your country if it's a "non-core" promise. But no, somehow he kept winning elections, mainly through fear-mongering and divisiveness: fear of the outside world and border security in 2001 when he turned the Tampa - a Norwegian freighter that had rescued hundreds of asylum-seekers from their sinking ship - into the most unlikely political weapon, one that turned the electoral tide his way; and fear of change in 2004, when he claimed that he, and only he, could stop interest rates from rising. It worked for him then, but became a noose around his neck leading into this election as interest rates rose rapidly.

After carving out a political career by being uncannily able to read the mood of the people and quickly work on a way to exploit that mood, this ability deserted Howard leading up to this election. He no longer had the full support of his own party, but he decided to stay on as leader for one more election anyway. Pride? Ego? Perhaps. John Howard has always been very concerned with his "legacy", the way history will view him from a distance. Maybe he really felt that he was the only person who could get things done right. Whatever, it became painfully obvious as the campaign wore on that he had stayed on too long.

History may now remember him as only the second Australian Prime Minister ever to lose his own seat at a Federal election after Stanley Bruce in 1929. The Labor candidate for his electorate of Bennelong in Sydney's north, Maxine McKew (an ex-TV political journalist who used to interview John Howard on TV every week), is just ahead in a very tight-run race. As she says, "Bennelong is on a knife edge." Even if she doesn't win, she has played her part in the Labor victory, as she forced John Howard to campaign locally every weekend leading up to the election, when he would rather have been out on the national hustings.

So onto a new government - that of Kevin Rudd and his Labor party. It's been a long time in opposition, and the time ahead will be difficult. The Senate (upper house) will still be ruled by the Liberal Party until July, so passing any new laws will be nigh-on impossible until then. After July, it seems as if minor parties will control the balance of power in the Senate, meaning careful negotiation with often conflicting interests will be required to get legislature passed.

I'll leave you with a short excerpt from a London Times article about Howard's end (surely a headline in some tabloid newspaper?), an interesting view of how he was observed by the rest of the world:

It is a remarkable comedown for the big-spending populist. He is the diminutive 69-year-old who, memorably, turned the country’s SAS forces on a bunch of impoverished, ragged asylum-seekers before winning the 2001 election. He is the former solicitor who used his renowned capacity for fear-mongering to win the last election in 2004, when he mounted a scare campaign against the Labor Party’s ability to hold down interest rates. He is the hard-of-hearing grandad who prides himself on being in touch with the aspirations of ordinary Australians.

There is no single answer for John Howard’s rapidly declining popularity. Undoubtedly he has suffered poor luck. He has, however, also been the victim of his own unfortunate timing and misread the true level of support he enjoys among his colleagues. And he has stayed too long.

Posted in: australia, chaosboy, politics on November 24, 2007 at at 9:45:00 AM 1 comments