ABEL TASMAN!!

My brother and I are off tramping for 5 days… from this side of the Takaka hill all the way to our bach at Wainui.
We are walking the Abel Tasman track, sleeping in tents, carrying packs.
I shall be finding a cache and planting a cache.
When I get back it will be NEXT YEAR!
2008!!!

Nelson for XMAS!

A whole day of present opening and I am not even kidding!

So Long Wellington

...and thanks for all the fish!

KIWI!!

I went on two night tours of the Sanctuary this week (took my Mum and brother tonight) and we saw KIWI!!!
Amazing. They moved SO quickly and SO quietly So close to me. It was liek they vanished in front of my eyes! Kiwi are magic.
Even though I am going to work for The Brook sanctuary in Nelson next year, I will miss the Karori sanctuary because the Brook doesn’t even have  FENCE yet! No very special birds!

What Caught Shine's Eye Today

Early Human Ancestors May Have Had “Harem” Societies

‘I’m no drug dealer - I’m from Timaru’

Proof of life shown of hostages held for four years

Extreme Dinosaurs

8-Foot Giant Catfish Caught in Cambodia

Starving

for real hugs...

Black Tunnel Web Spiders

They should not have such scary hairy legs.
They should not be cowering menacingly in amongst my apples in pears (even if I do leave them in the shopping bag on my floor).
They should not scurry about rustling the plastic bag like they are big and scary.
They should not be in my room.
They should now be enjoying being back out in the wild ouside the house where they can dig tunnels and line them with silk and await their REAL prey; upturning their back end fangs in a scary manner!

Extra-Ordinary Thing I did This Weekend

Well, namely in about five hours on Saturday night.
I read a whole book.
Although I love to read and I have about a gazillion books on all manner of things - I have not read a whole book for a long long time and I certainly have not read a whole book in one sitting.

The Monitors

And, of course, I don’t feel so bad about how I organise my stuff now! (you might wanna click to get the bigger version…)

MLK

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.

MLK

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.

A1gp

I  was remiss not to mention the new season has started… Jonny already in the lead in the second round - where he totally kicked butt all over Brno!
We so rock!

Conglomeration Is Bad

So… it’s been a while - believe me, I know it has and it grates on me, but here I am.

I was talking this evening, with someone more definitely worthwhile talking to, about the latest Pixar release. The details of that part of the conversation is not pertinent at this juncture, but what popped up during that, is.

Pixar was a little fish. Pixar was eaten by The Big Fish; Disney.

Now there are some, quite seemingly, valid arguements to make this actually a good idea. Almost, actually quite possibly, a case where the small fish steers the big fish in a positive direction. But I don’t care, on principal.

What got me ranting today was when I found out that Pixar/Disney has now gobbled up another smaller fish; Zemeckis’ CGI house “Imagemovers”.

I don’t like conglomerates. Conglomerates are bad.

The argument was made to me that Lasseter wanted to aquire some talent because he needs more people and I am not at all denying that is the case but I don’t care. And I don’t care in a 'quite frankly' kinda way.

Conglomerates are bad. And here is why.

Because mediocrity sucks.

Conglomeration is how everything gets sucked into being the same. It is how one person/mindset gets to own everything and everything we get is a filtered down version of the same one mindset. What they like, what they believe in, what they think is ok for us to see. It is how great shows like Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip get canned after one season.

Conglomeration is how The Big Fish gets to eat all the little fish and the uniquely special parts of the little fish are disseminated and filtered through to become just parts of the big fish and the small fish is no longer around to be appreciated and compared to other fish and the big fish gets all the credit for those little tiny sparkly bits that were much bigger on the small fish and quite unexpectedly beautiful.

Do you know what the land does? What the wind and erosion and the rivers and the rain do? The ultimate goal of those processes is to smooth out the land. To remove the variations and this is what I am talking about here.

Conglomeration is what wrecked Route 66. It is the antithesis of “variety being the spice of life”. There is a reason that saying was invented you know! Because variety is good and great and just and supports our growth and development as people.
Conglomeration is the creation of mediocrity.
Conglomeration is mediocrity.

A mediocre man is always at his best.

And that is BAD.

Conglomerates suck
on principal
I don’t care that I love Pixar.
racism sucks too and I don’t think any individual racism is ok even if it serves a good purpose.

mass controlling and buying up and driving towards mediocrity is bad.
mediocrity is bad

Conglomeration is Bad

So… it’s been a while - believe me, I know it has and it grates on me, but here I am.
I was talking this evening, with someone more definitely worthwhile talking to, about the latest Pixar release. The details of that part of the conversation is not pertinent at this juncture, but what popped up during that is.
Pixar was a little fish. Pixar was eaten by The Big Fish; Disney.
Now there are some, quite seemingly, valid arguements to make this actually a good idea. Almost actually quite possibly a case where the small fish steers the big fish in a positive direction. But I don’t care, on principal.
What got me ranting today was when I found out that Pixar/Disney has now gobbled up another smaller fish; Zemeckis’ CGI house “Imagemovers”.
I don’t like conglomerates. Conglomerates are bad.
The argument was made to me that Lasseter wanted to aquire some talent because he needs more people and I am not at all denying that is the case but I don’t care. And I don’t care in a quite frankly kinda way.
Conglomerates are bad. And here is why.
Because mediocrity sucks.
Conglomeration is how everything gets sucked into being the same. It is how one person/mindset gets to own everything and everything we get is a filtered down version of the same one mindset. What they like, what they believe in, what they think is ok for us to see. It is how great shows liek Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip get canned after one season.
Conglomeration is how The Big Fish gets to eat all the little fish and the uniquely special parts of the little fish are disseminated and filtered through to become just parts of the big fish and the small fish is no longer around to be appreciated and compared to other fish and the big fish gets all the credit for those little tiny sparkly bits that were much bigger on the small fish and quite unexpectedly beautiful.
Do you know what the land does? What the wind and erosion and the rivers and the rain do? The ultimate goal of those processes is to smooth out the land. To remove the variations and this is what I am talking about here.
Conglomeration is what wrecked Route 66. It is the antithesis of “variety being the spice of life”. There is a reason that saying was invented you know! Because variety is good and great and just and supports our growth and development as people.
Conglomeration is the creation of mediocrity.
Conglomeration is mediocrity.
A mediocre man is always at his best.
And that is BAD.
Conglomerates suck
on principal
I don’t care that I love Pixar.
racism sucks too and I don’t think any individual racism is ok even if it serves a good purpose.
mass controlling and buying up and driving towards mediocrity is bad.
mediocrity is bad

Geocaching

Well, I am back from the US.
Did a BUNCH of geocaching while I was away - had a pleasant geocaching buddy. It is truely more fun geocaching with a friend than on ones own - which reminds me that I didn’t mention Kev (GenCuster) before I left.  I didn’t really have time to, so I forgive myself! *giggles*
I had previously found a cache up on Wright’s Hill which had a travel bug in it (which is an item that travels from cache to cache - which really isn’t gonna help you if you don’t know what geocaching is. LOL! go to www.geocaching.com)  and I trotted back up to here to get it before I left for the states (as I wanted to take it over there with me!).
Of course it WAS April Fool’s Day and I had not checked to see if said bug was still in said cache.
it wasn’t. And I was an April Fool.
However, this inadvertently led to me making a new friend! I logged a note to the cache saying I was an April Fool of my own making and ended up emailing with the cache owner who happened to be popping by the cache to replace the container. He dropped by and picked me up and we ended up goign on a night caching mission that rocked!
I added a number of finds to my geocaching total and discovered the joy of night caching and fully re-ignited my enthusiasm for caching settign me up perfectly for my trip to Knoxville where I went out most days caching and even got one planted over there.
So, official thanks to GC for helping me with a number of caches, showing me how to more effectively use my GPS *blushes* and re-enthusing me in one of my fav hobbies! Oh and being a very pleasant and friendly Wellingtonian and getting me outta the house!
I will post some photos of certain caches I visited of great interest maybe tomorrow and perhaps update A1GP which only has one more race BOOOOOO!

Here I am

Well here I am- two late planes and a missed flight later.
Wellington flight was late to leave on Thursday night making the dash to international quite a lot like an episode of The Amazing Race. I ended up being one of the last ten people aboard my long haul flight, which also left late and then arrived to find it’s parking spot taken so was twenty minutes before it was actually docked, making another dash to the other side of the LA airport after a maddingly slow customs processing session and then MISSING MY CONNECTER FLIGHT.
This was after 24 hours plus no sleep and the floodgates opened! I was not impressed, I actually got there in time but no one would help me - it was totally frustrating.
ok, it’s 4am Sat morning (local time (8pm Sat NZ time)). I have screwed up enough for one day.
Time for sleeps…

Google Earth Rocks

I am totally into google earth again at the moment. I never used it much because I was on dial up.
What sparked me off again was that I happened across a cool link in my Nat Geo newletter this morning and loaded it up… a .kmz file, which opens in Google Earth. There’s been an update or two since i last was using it too - there’s some cool new things I hadn’t seen like user photo links and stuff.
Also found Google Earth Blog which I am keeping for good look later.
Spent ages on Google Earth this evening with a mate in the states (who I am visiting in a few weeks!) scouring over the terrain and stuff around his house - it’s very cool, especially when you tilt the view so it is more like a fly over than a birds eye look down. And you can turn on 3d buildings, parks and recreation areas, geographical features and shops and stuff - FOR THE WHOLE WORLD!
Check it out if you haven’t or crack it open again if you have it already - and check out the GoogleEarth showcase
ROCK!

Gutbuster

On Sunday I ran my first ever race! (well, since I was 11 and at school…).
This was a HUGE deal for me and just to make it super exciting it was a mountain race called The Gutbuster. It basically follows the fence around the Karori Wildlife Sanctuary and is 11.8km long.
The first half; totally lives up to it’s name!
It was a full on effort and I loved it. Although I did have heat stroke for a few hours afterwards which made the work I had to do for work difficult.
I was number 406 and my goal was to get home before lunch time.
Of course that was when I thought my start time woudl be 8:30am… by 930am I am having to readjust my goal. However I was fully surprised at halfway (The Windturbine that looks out over Wellington city) to find that with mostly downhill left to go I had only used up almost an hour!

I ended up getting back in just under two hours and I am fully impressed with myself.
(official time 1:53.59) No t-shirt, but I did get a banana and a frisbee on the finish line LOL!

Impossible is Nothing

‘persistence is what makes the impossible possible, the possible likely, and the likely definite. IMPOSSIBLE IS NOTHING’

The Days of Broken Crockery

I am nto sure when it started, but the first I remember was the plate I had painted myself with the map of the oceans with Antarctica in the middle. It was broken - but that was kinda expected as it was in one of the boxes delivered from the movers…

Yesterday I thougth I was doing good when i washed the dishes in the flat. One of the coke glasses fell ontot he floor and broke into a gazillion pieces. I swore (mildly) and cleaned it up, feelign stink I broke someone elses special glass. I wrapped it in newspaper and popped it in the bin and got back to the dishes and low nad behold the OTHER coke glass leaps off the rack onto the floor and smashes in exactly the same way only MORE.

That time I swore, loudly and not at all mildly and with that tone of “I can’t believe that happened AGAIN!”

So this afternoon I went out to Pinehaven to pick up the remains of my gear after a full on day at work - in rush hour traffic (I did this for reasons I would rather not get into at this juncture) withthe bowl I had taken potato salad to work in (for shared lunch).

I mention this bowl because it is one of two. That I like. Special bowls. Which of course leapt out of the car and smashed into a thousand pieces which I then cut myself on crawling under the car to pick them up at the bottom of a steep driveway because I suddenly heard the sound of brakes failing on gravel on the steep driveway above me and attempted to hurriedly remove myself from under the car where I really did not want to be with what I was sure was an out of control car about to land on top of me.

What will be next?!

Aussie Sprint Session

and a recap of quals…

Really HOT there - air temps in the 30s and track temps like 50 or so! There has been a tad of resurfacing on turn five which could cause some grip issues on that turn.
Jonny did great times (a tenth of a second off the France fastest A1 time of last season) and then Nico (in the third qual session) pulled off an even better one and then went under the 1:18 lap in the fourth session to take pole for sprint with NZ almost taking it back with an time two tenths behind Germany but ending with second.
Interesting to note that Black Beauty is on a new engine but old tyres when mostly everyone else was on new tyres.
Unusually China got a few great times and are starting in 6th for sprint.
Aussie starting in 17th which is a tad disappointing for local fans!
Pakistan broke suspension (I think) and missed their third qual lap.
Czech repub had a disappointing qualifying also.

There was some talk about the very bad start at Taupo – when they came back around to the start line from the rolling start the red light was still ON but the front cars started the race anyway and the rest just followed on like lemmings. V bad!! They got a telling off at the driver briefing for that.

Nico starts the sprint with a tiny bit of “pick up” on his right front tyre which could effect his take off… (we hope!)
They start on a straight and Germany slow then very fast and makes a gap pulling everyone around the first few corners with no incidents.
GBR challenges NZ straight away on the first few corners giving Germany a chance to get away and me having flashbacks of Taupo as NZ slips back to third…(and GBR contacted!)

Germany gets out to a second and a half ahead and NZ is on GBRs tail every chance he gets.
India goes off track (first time driver) on second lap.

USA and Czech fighting it out for 9th and 10th.

Lebanon driver is out of the car, looks like they have damage to the front of their car (nose cone not flash!) and the right rear perhaps…and the yellow flags come out and the safety car is on track. They are picking up the leader which will make him mad coz he had up to four seconds of gap on the others. Of course no one has ever had a crash like the other Lebanon driver in the first race of the first season.

8 laps to go and safety is still out. Looks to be coming in on lap seven.
!! Way they go with 6 to go and NZ gets on it straight away, gets in perfect position to be inside on the first corner and takes back second place! WOOT WOOT!
France is right up on GBR now and Swiss rightbehind them – GBR might be having some grip problems in the back end, he is all over the place and France nearly rear ends him! (slow puncture?)
NZ has no boost left with five to go but GBR won’t give up in a hurry so will hold everyone off of attacking NZ for a while!
Four to go and France takes GBR’s place but it’s ok coz France have no boost left either!

Confirmed that GBR has a slow puncture on the right front.
Aussie manages to pass Italy for 15th with just over 2 mins to go and while that is happening GBR at the front end slams on the brakes rather unexpectedly and the commentators get very excited *giggles*

Pakistan spins off with forty seconds to go – hanging off the edge of the track – we may end under a safety…as GBR creeps into the pit.
Ok – no safety coz on final lap now. Germany takes fifth win of the season and NZ takes the second. France gets 3rd, switzerland 4th, Netherlands 5th, China 6th, Mal 7th , USA 8th, Cze 9th and Ireland gets 10th! (only top 6 get points in sprint though)

Leigh: “Nico, was that as easy as it looked?”
Nico: “No, that was not as easy as it looked!”

The Grace of Cheese

Things are starting to take shape now that I have finally restored order to the world by having four sorts of cheese in the fridge…

Here I am in wellington

- using computer at local library.
Telecom (national phone provider) is VERY slow at getting our phone connected and one of my flatmates WORKS for them!
Hopefully early next week!
We will get his work concession so will have a 10gig wireless broadband account or some such goodness! I will be download drunk!
Everything is going swimmingly well up here.The house that is next door to ours has CHICKENS! CHICKENS! can you believe it! ( it’s all hush hush. They don’t have a rooster so I only happened to notice them by total chance - apparently you are not allowed to keep chickens in the suburbs - i love them!)
We are quite high up so sometimes clouds engulf the house which is cool. We are near the Karori wildlife santuary (where Kiwi breed) so it is bushy and there are lots of interesting birds. We have punga trees in our jungle of a yard.
The house is kinda rough on the outside - unkept looking but inside is plesant enough.
The lads are ok. Looks liek I won’t see them much. On our first night we have indian curry for dinner (from the Yummy Curry shop) so that is great!
I found a little green shed out the back yard that i shall be able to store the stuff in that i have no idea where I will put it!
I have been in to work (spent a mornign there the day after I arrived). Had a tour ab out the place and met a few people. Lots of things different, some things same. My class room is full of individual desks - blech! will have to do somethign about that. Went out to find murray ( the caretaker guy, who has a harley and has just returned from a trip to puerto rico!) and asked him if there was a room somewhere with all the spare classroom furniture (which there really isn’t) but he said someone else wanted desks so I might be able to offload some. Then I went to the local sally army store and bought a sofa for the classroom for 10 bucks! now I shall have to find a flash bright purple cover or some such. They will deliver it on tuesday! everythign is so easy!
I live on the same street as the school. I live up the hill end though. Takes me a few mins to walk down and most excitingly the local Karori indoor pool is practically attached to my school! I knwo I said the teacher’s college was attached to the school but inbetween the teacher’s college and the school is the pool! (tucked in the back) - I have already been in a bought a concession card, the biggest one they had - 30 swims - and been swimming this morning. I figure I can go either on the way to work or on the way home. The pool is short (25m?) so you can do lots of laps and feel very successful!
I have been driving around a little and don’t seem to be having any problems with directions - the worst problem so far was when I was driving down the ramp to get off the ferry and the map book slipped off the roof of the car (where I had left it abotu a minute before while rearranging some gear so I coudl actually see out the left side of the car)! The man at the bottom of the ramp put up his hand to let some other cars go so I stopped nad leapt out of car and ran back up the ramp and stopped a car just as it was about to stop ON my map book, picked it up and ran back down to the car yellign SORRY! SORRY! I dropped my map book!!!!!!!!!!
It was hilarious!
anyway, i better go, I am off to find the big organic shop in the city…

Live A1GP TV coverage rocks!

Just watched the four qual sessions and it rocked!

NZ, France (new driver) and Germany (GO NICO!) battling it out for pole.

I am happy we got third and will sit behind Germany (who got pole) for the start of the sprint tomorrow!

it’s a great circuit and so far everyone seems to love it - a great effort by everyone involved with the 12 mill $ upgrade/redo!

The track has been designed so it can be used for multi sport - a drag strip etc.

it was a bit dirty from the support races this morning and there were a few spills and spins.

A big shout out to the marshalls who ran way outta their way to pull Pakistan out of a wee ditch and put him back on the road to avoid a nasty red flag at min 11 of the last session - which woudl have been a big pain in the butt for most of them!

India had done the best time in prac yesterday but didn’t manage to get up to the same skill today. Neither did Tomas who took out first in the prac yesterday.

I am hoping that the Swiss and Canada can come up and feature in main points tomorrow along with NZ which will prevent france and britain and Germany from consolidating their points and will give us a bit of a jump up!

So.. the starting order for the sprint tomorrow goes…
first germany
second france
third NZ
fourth Netherlands