How could i not say something about the late, great Steve Jobs!
He died of pancreatic cancer, & that alone makes me feel for him - various members of my family have died of cancer, & pancreatic cancer took one of my closest friends - Petrina Jane Glover (1946-2003) - in a particularly horrible way (she was so stoic throughout the whole ordeal) & her partner Amanda died of a stress-related illness in the same month (December); i was a basket case for weeks afterwards..
i sincerely hope he didn't suffer too much.
Cancer doesn't kill you - it just rips you apart & then you die!
Showing posts with label Life. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Life. Show all posts
Friday, October 7, 2011
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Some sciencey stuff..
Feeling a bit better today, dunno about tomorrow..
Here's a quake map at the actual event time, courtesy of GeoNet,
an engineering report, (The 'second' CHC earthquake) courtesy of Science Media Centre.
Watched Bill Goff on TV yesterday, talking about the sweeping Ministerial powers operative during this event period - he voted for them but stressed that he & others would be watching very carefully!
Yes, i took my cue from others writing on that subject, but that's because i agree with them! Are these powers really necessary? What scenarios did their authors have in mind?
Then there was the CTV site decision - & a reassessment . As i commented earlier, i think it was what that top cop said & how he said it, rather than the actual decision: it made a helluva lot more sense when the Grand Chancellor Hotel situation was explained! It hasn't gone down yet, but when it does.. look out!
Here's a quake map at the actual event time, courtesy of GeoNet,
an engineering report, (The 'second' CHC earthquake) courtesy of Science Media Centre.
Watched Bill Goff on TV yesterday, talking about the sweeping Ministerial powers operative during this event period - he voted for them but stressed that he & others would be watching very carefully!
Yes, i took my cue from others writing on that subject, but that's because i agree with them! Are these powers really necessary? What scenarios did their authors have in mind?
Then there was the CTV site decision - & a reassessment . As i commented earlier, i think it was what that top cop said & how he said it, rather than the actual decision: it made a helluva lot more sense when the Grand Chancellor Hotel situation was explained! It hasn't gone down yet, but when it does.. look out!
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Different this time..
..Worse!! Much worse than 4 September 2010. This time people are dead..
This time too i wasn't at all 'detached & interested' (as perhaps i may have been last time).
I was upset & depressed.
And when a senior Police officer made 'a hard call' that the CTV site was no longer 'survivable', i got really depressed, wondered if everything that could (have) be(en) done was done, like the Pike River mine disaster (about which i've said nothing but have horrible doubts)..
Admittedly, this IS different. This began as an ugly surprise that got worse the second time around - no-one, not even the seismologists, expected Christchurch to be subjected to such a major event: a Richter 7.1 earthquake; & when the aftershocks kept coming, & coming, & coming, & eventually lessening, they then thought the time-frame for a major aftershock event had passed.
And the Richter 6.3 quake was much worse - shallower, nearer, & worst of all, at a critical time of day: lunchtime, not sleepy-o'clock-in-the-morning, & weakened (perhaps subtly so) buildings fell & buried their occupants.
I crawled out of bed today @ 5.30pm, wondering why i felt so depressed at an event which did not touch me directly - yesterday, down here in Port Chalmers, just out of Dunedin, at the event time i thought 'hey, we're having an earthquake! Should i get under a doorway? Ummm.. no..' & turned on the TV instead, which was just starting to post 'Breaking News' messages. I listened, & watched, but it didn't really hit me until this morning when i found i just didn't want to get out of bed - it really was hitting me now & i felt very very depressed, even unwell, & i flagged my Polytech lecture & a dental appointment for the day (but i did go to my Wednesday evening 12-step meeting).
My post for the previous quake was all about Christchurch - this one's more about me..
Nonetheless, i found a technical site which collects stuff better than i do - it's on a blog i follow.
It's a clearinghouse for #eqnz reports by a guy named David Winter on The Atavism.
One of the more meaningful measures he mentions was something i heard discussed yesterday by the seismic people - peak ground acceleration, in this case 1.88g (when you round a bend hard in your car - sports or otherwise - you feel g-forces, & that's what Peak Ground Acceleration is measured in). That was the real killer - a combined indicator of Richter scale, depth & proximity, expressed as a real resultant.
.
This time too i wasn't at all 'detached & interested' (as perhaps i may have been last time).
I was upset & depressed.
And when a senior Police officer made 'a hard call' that the CTV site was no longer 'survivable', i got really depressed, wondered if everything that could (have) be(en) done was done, like the Pike River mine disaster (about which i've said nothing but have horrible doubts)..
Admittedly, this IS different. This began as an ugly surprise that got worse the second time around - no-one, not even the seismologists, expected Christchurch to be subjected to such a major event: a Richter 7.1 earthquake; & when the aftershocks kept coming, & coming, & coming, & eventually lessening, they then thought the time-frame for a major aftershock event had passed.
And the Richter 6.3 quake was much worse - shallower, nearer, & worst of all, at a critical time of day: lunchtime, not sleepy-o'clock-in-the-morning, & weakened (perhaps subtly so) buildings fell & buried their occupants.
I crawled out of bed today @ 5.30pm, wondering why i felt so depressed at an event which did not touch me directly - yesterday, down here in Port Chalmers, just out of Dunedin, at the event time i thought 'hey, we're having an earthquake! Should i get under a doorway? Ummm.. no..' & turned on the TV instead, which was just starting to post 'Breaking News' messages. I listened, & watched, but it didn't really hit me until this morning when i found i just didn't want to get out of bed - it really was hitting me now & i felt very very depressed, even unwell, & i flagged my Polytech lecture & a dental appointment for the day (but i did go to my Wednesday evening 12-step meeting).
My post for the previous quake was all about Christchurch - this one's more about me..
Nonetheless, i found a technical site which collects stuff better than i do - it's on a blog i follow.
It's a clearinghouse for #eqnz reports by a guy named David Winter on The Atavism.
One of the more meaningful measures he mentions was something i heard discussed yesterday by the seismic people - peak ground acceleration, in this case 1.88g (when you round a bend hard in your car - sports or otherwise - you feel g-forces, & that's what Peak Ground Acceleration is measured in). That was the real killer - a combined indicator of Richter scale, depth & proximity, expressed as a real resultant.
.
Sunday, January 9, 2011
OK OK so I'm no historian, but..
..i do wonder about S H Steinberg's dismissal of the term Thirty Years War as being a misnomer since this period was actually a succession of wars in a European rather than a purely German context, & lasted 50 years not 30, namely 1609-1659. Well, the historians can argue if they like, but even though the conflict between the two Great Powers of the day, the Hapsburg dynasty's empire & Bourbon France & her allies, didn't cease with a sudden jolt with the 1648 Peace of Westphalia, it seems that it was that treaty that sealed the fate of the so-called Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation (which Voltaire snidely remarked was neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire) by dismembering the dying 'body' into 230-something more or less sovereign states of varying sizes which were nonetheless German in language & culture
And i've found at least one reference to a Second Thirty Years War here, which seems a fairly broad outline of the period 1914-1945. I can't help wondering about the origin of the term referring to the European conflicts of 1618-1648, since the 1914-1945 hostilities (both 'official' & 'unofficial') were preceded by the Moroccan Crises (1905,1911) & the First & Second Balkan Wars.
Maybe it's just the period in which i grew up that sparked my enduring interest in Germany between the two World Wars. Even when i was a kid at primary school, we knew the dates not only of the 'recent' World War, 1939-1945, but also its predecessor, 1914-1918. And the battle that we were told about was not the drawn-out grimness of Gallipoli, but the slaughter of the First Battle of Passchendaele where New Zealand soldiers suffered their worst ever defeat. I wondered why New Zealand had gone to war against Germany twice within 30-odd years, & also if there might be another monstrous war 25-30 years after my father's war, & if so what would happen then. This almost did not bear thinking about, because we were now in the age of the Nuclear Bomb, which turned the whole strategy of war in the air upside down. From being vulnerable to repeated levels of unacceptable losses, typically 5% or more, bomber forces had now graduated to being able to sustain a 95% loss rate & still succeed in annihilating their targets. The books that considered possible nuclear war & its after-effects were the likes of Neville Shute's "On The Beach", Walter M Miller Jr's "A Canticle for Leibowitz" & Michael Swanwick's "In The Drift". Scary, too, was the phrase "Thinking the Unthinkable", referring to a cold-eyed view of a possibly 'winnable' nuclear war by Herman Kahn of the RAND Corporation. Nonetheless, it's a phrase i approve of!! Someone has to look the future, however bleak, squarely in the eye, but if you mention certain topics to some people, they spit the dummy & abuse you for even raising the subject. Science & science-fiction (the real kind) writer Arthur C Clarke accused such people of suffering from failure of nerve and/or failure of imagination..
It's late now, as in stupid-o'clock on Sunday morning, & my brain seems to have stopped fizzing - i might even be able to get some sleep! Failing that, i'll just keep reading British historian Dame C V Wedgwood's immensely readable "The Thirty Years War", the 'first' one that is.. And as she points out, the unfinished business of a fragmented Germany reverberated down to "the explosive forces of liberal nationalism in the nineteenth century and illiberal nationalism in the twentieth".
And i've found at least one reference to a Second Thirty Years War here, which seems a fairly broad outline of the period 1914-1945. I can't help wondering about the origin of the term referring to the European conflicts of 1618-1648, since the 1914-1945 hostilities (both 'official' & 'unofficial') were preceded by the Moroccan Crises (1905,1911) & the First & Second Balkan Wars.
Maybe it's just the period in which i grew up that sparked my enduring interest in Germany between the two World Wars. Even when i was a kid at primary school, we knew the dates not only of the 'recent' World War, 1939-1945, but also its predecessor, 1914-1918. And the battle that we were told about was not the drawn-out grimness of Gallipoli, but the slaughter of the First Battle of Passchendaele where New Zealand soldiers suffered their worst ever defeat. I wondered why New Zealand had gone to war against Germany twice within 30-odd years, & also if there might be another monstrous war 25-30 years after my father's war, & if so what would happen then. This almost did not bear thinking about, because we were now in the age of the Nuclear Bomb, which turned the whole strategy of war in the air upside down. From being vulnerable to repeated levels of unacceptable losses, typically 5% or more, bomber forces had now graduated to being able to sustain a 95% loss rate & still succeed in annihilating their targets. The books that considered possible nuclear war & its after-effects were the likes of Neville Shute's "On The Beach", Walter M Miller Jr's "A Canticle for Leibowitz" & Michael Swanwick's "In The Drift". Scary, too, was the phrase "Thinking the Unthinkable", referring to a cold-eyed view of a possibly 'winnable' nuclear war by Herman Kahn of the RAND Corporation. Nonetheless, it's a phrase i approve of!! Someone has to look the future, however bleak, squarely in the eye, but if you mention certain topics to some people, they spit the dummy & abuse you for even raising the subject. Science & science-fiction (the real kind) writer Arthur C Clarke accused such people of suffering from failure of nerve and/or failure of imagination..
It's late now, as in stupid-o'clock on Sunday morning, & my brain seems to have stopped fizzing - i might even be able to get some sleep! Failing that, i'll just keep reading British historian Dame C V Wedgwood's immensely readable "The Thirty Years War", the 'first' one that is.. And as she points out, the unfinished business of a fragmented Germany reverberated down to "the explosive forces of liberal nationalism in the nineteenth century and illiberal nationalism in the twentieth".
Saturday, January 8, 2011
I knew I should've gone straight home..
..but i really wanted a nice relaxing sit-down, read something interesting, & then go home. The trouble is, my brain is now bouncing around inside my skull coz it's full of caffeine & sugar!
'The Governors' Cona coffee is cheap & good, so i sat there drinking & reading until i started get talkative inside my head & had to go home before i started boring some hapless listener with whatever my current interest happened to be - in this case European history, & in particular the Thirty Years' War (ca.1618-1648).
Why have i labeled this 'Life'? 'History' makes sense, but 'Life'?
Well, yes, actually. What happened in Germany in that period of European history had repercussions right down to the 20th century, to 2 enormously destructive World Wars, the second of which was more or less the result of the unconscionable blunders made by the victors (?) in the first. I read of one historian who described those two wars as the Thirty-one Years War - as i recall (?) he was German & therefore directly affected by the aftermath of the Great War, as the first of them is often called. Whether he actually lived through the precarious existence of the ill-fated Weimar Republic i don't actually know (if i could recall his name i could look him up using what 'New Scientist' magazine calls the Famous Web Search Engine, or FWSE - we all know what that is but for some reason they aren't allowed to say the name in print, not sure why!). Nonetheless, the aftermath of WW1 was a disaster for Germany, & subsequently for the rest of the world. As W H Auden put it:
"I and the public know
What every schoolboy learns
That those to whom evil is done
Do evil in return"
And, sad to say, in Germany's case, this was true. She was made to shoulder the sole blame for a war that was the result of an unstable European concoction of alliances, treaties (some kept from the public eye), nationalistic aspirations, colonial land-grabbing, & an arms race that was epitomized by the British political slogan "We want eight, & we won't wait!" - a reference to the advent of the Dreadnought class of heavy fighting ships that rendered their predecessors militarily obsolete because of their major reliance on very large (15-inch, i think) heavy naval guns which could out-shoot any of their smaller adversaries' weaponry. Not only was the war guilt unfairly assigned, but the war reparations broke Germany financially - never mind the vehement criticism of the opinions of an economist who was involved in the post-war 'negotiations' at a very high level & predicted trouble ahead in his report entitled "The Economic Consequences Of The Peace" - John Maynard Keynes was not popular with certain jingoistic elements of the 'victorious' nations. A certain Adolf Hitler had no trouble convincing a defeated & demoralized Germany that her army had been 'stabbed in the back' by the Allies, & while this had little currency in 1923 when Herr Hitler & his fellow Nazis were jailed for attempting a coup d'etat that failed, the Great Depression & the misery that followed `the Crash of 1929 had the German public grasping at the straws of restoration of German national pride &, in particular, Hitler's own take on German unity.
The result was, almost inevitably, the Second World War, from which my own father returned with what is now called Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - even as a small child i recall seeing him with the 'shakes' but the culture of the day did not see him as an injured war veteran - he had trouble seeing himself that way! Only years later, with the help of his more assertive RSA comrades did he finally obtain the War Pension i feel should have been his from the day he was demobilized. That's life, huh??
.
'The Governors' Cona coffee is cheap & good, so i sat there drinking & reading until i started get talkative inside my head & had to go home before i started boring some hapless listener with whatever my current interest happened to be - in this case European history, & in particular the Thirty Years' War (ca.1618-1648).
Why have i labeled this 'Life'? 'History' makes sense, but 'Life'?
Well, yes, actually. What happened in Germany in that period of European history had repercussions right down to the 20th century, to 2 enormously destructive World Wars, the second of which was more or less the result of the unconscionable blunders made by the victors (?) in the first. I read of one historian who described those two wars as the Thirty-one Years War - as i recall (?) he was German & therefore directly affected by the aftermath of the Great War, as the first of them is often called. Whether he actually lived through the precarious existence of the ill-fated Weimar Republic i don't actually know (if i could recall his name i could look him up using what 'New Scientist' magazine calls the Famous Web Search Engine, or FWSE - we all know what that is but for some reason they aren't allowed to say the name in print, not sure why!). Nonetheless, the aftermath of WW1 was a disaster for Germany, & subsequently for the rest of the world. As W H Auden put it:
"I and the public know
What every schoolboy learns
That those to whom evil is done
Do evil in return"
And, sad to say, in Germany's case, this was true. She was made to shoulder the sole blame for a war that was the result of an unstable European concoction of alliances, treaties (some kept from the public eye), nationalistic aspirations, colonial land-grabbing, & an arms race that was epitomized by the British political slogan "We want eight, & we won't wait!" - a reference to the advent of the Dreadnought class of heavy fighting ships that rendered their predecessors militarily obsolete because of their major reliance on very large (15-inch, i think) heavy naval guns which could out-shoot any of their smaller adversaries' weaponry. Not only was the war guilt unfairly assigned, but the war reparations broke Germany financially - never mind the vehement criticism of the opinions of an economist who was involved in the post-war 'negotiations' at a very high level & predicted trouble ahead in his report entitled "The Economic Consequences Of The Peace" - John Maynard Keynes was not popular with certain jingoistic elements of the 'victorious' nations. A certain Adolf Hitler had no trouble convincing a defeated & demoralized Germany that her army had been 'stabbed in the back' by the Allies, & while this had little currency in 1923 when Herr Hitler & his fellow Nazis were jailed for attempting a coup d'etat that failed, the Great Depression & the misery that followed `the Crash of 1929 had the German public grasping at the straws of restoration of German national pride &, in particular, Hitler's own take on German unity.
The result was, almost inevitably, the Second World War, from which my own father returned with what is now called Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - even as a small child i recall seeing him with the 'shakes' but the culture of the day did not see him as an injured war veteran - he had trouble seeing himself that way! Only years later, with the help of his more assertive RSA comrades did he finally obtain the War Pension i feel should have been his from the day he was demobilized. That's life, huh??
.
New Year New Year!
No, i'm not making any New Year Resolutions - they don't work anyway..
(i s'pose i could try getting out of bed earlier).
What i would like to do is get my house tidied before summer's over;
get that leak in the hall roof fixed
(instead of a collection of buckets that need emptying now & then);
de-junk the place & organise the stuff i want to keep;
fix the leak in my old hot-water header tank & set it up as a rain butt
(instead of buckets out on the deck collecting rain from a spouting leak);
grow more (& better - as in "better cared for') pot-plants..
As for pot-plants, i'd really like ones that attract bumblebees - i love watching them!
If i'm walking down my front path & i see one on a flower i have to pass, i'll stop & watch so as not to disturb her in her work.
And that footpath would easier to negotiate if it weren't overgrown with grass & weeds. A few weeks back, i broke out the grubber i'd bought months previously & chipped all the weeds out of the middle of the path. I can now drag a wheely-suitcase full of damp washing up to the house without busting a gut.
Fixing my broken washing-machine would be better tho' - turned it off at the wall-socket coz i was in a hurry; nasty graunching noise as the spin-cycle brake clamped full on &, i suspect, broke or dislocated the drive.
Bought an old golf-trundler from the city landfill's recycling centre (for $4!!), which i hope to use for lugging stuff up from my car, which lives permanently on the street, about 50 metres & 2 flights of steps from my front door! Mind you, it's good exercise shouldering stuff up & down but it plays hell with my back! And when you have a walking-stick (aka cane) in one hand it's harder still; i've slipped & taken a header more than once on the way down to the street, so addressing the deck clutter would help, too.
Notice anything about the list above?
I haven't used the words must, should or ought to at all. I used to have a real problem with mental list-making - i'd see something that could do with being fixed/tidied/junked & without even verbalising it i'd be making mental notes: must do something about that, must do something about that, & it drove me bonkers!! I'd end up lying on my bed watching TV & refusing even to think about 'all the things that had to get done'!
Result? Nothing got done, things piled up, washing in the laundry basket, dishes in the sink, junk-mail on the floor, & stuff i brought home dumped inside the front door (except for food - that got put away), because i'm not physically fit enough to luggin shopping bags & the like up to my house without feeling knackered by the time i get to the front door - i just drop everything & lie down for a while, then forget about it..
I'm slowly working my way thru the chaos by saying to myself "Hmm, now if i wanted to tidy that up, i should probably start by doing.. .. .." & it works! I don't wind up going bonkers, & i do get whatever-it-was actually done! It's great!
.
(i s'pose i could try getting out of bed earlier).
What i would like to do is get my house tidied before summer's over;
get that leak in the hall roof fixed
(instead of a collection of buckets that need emptying now & then);
de-junk the place & organise the stuff i want to keep;
fix the leak in my old hot-water header tank & set it up as a rain butt
(instead of buckets out on the deck collecting rain from a spouting leak);
grow more (& better - as in "better cared for') pot-plants..
As for pot-plants, i'd really like ones that attract bumblebees - i love watching them!
If i'm walking down my front path & i see one on a flower i have to pass, i'll stop & watch so as not to disturb her in her work.
And that footpath would easier to negotiate if it weren't overgrown with grass & weeds. A few weeks back, i broke out the grubber i'd bought months previously & chipped all the weeds out of the middle of the path. I can now drag a wheely-suitcase full of damp washing up to the house without busting a gut.
Fixing my broken washing-machine would be better tho' - turned it off at the wall-socket coz i was in a hurry; nasty graunching noise as the spin-cycle brake clamped full on &, i suspect, broke or dislocated the drive.
Bought an old golf-trundler from the city landfill's recycling centre (for $4!!), which i hope to use for lugging stuff up from my car, which lives permanently on the street, about 50 metres & 2 flights of steps from my front door! Mind you, it's good exercise shouldering stuff up & down but it plays hell with my back! And when you have a walking-stick (aka cane) in one hand it's harder still; i've slipped & taken a header more than once on the way down to the street, so addressing the deck clutter would help, too.
Notice anything about the list above?
I haven't used the words must, should or ought to at all. I used to have a real problem with mental list-making - i'd see something that could do with being fixed/tidied/junked & without even verbalising it i'd be making mental notes: must do something about that, must do something about that, & it drove me bonkers!! I'd end up lying on my bed watching TV & refusing even to think about 'all the things that had to get done'!
Result? Nothing got done, things piled up, washing in the laundry basket, dishes in the sink, junk-mail on the floor, & stuff i brought home dumped inside the front door (except for food - that got put away), because i'm not physically fit enough to luggin shopping bags & the like up to my house without feeling knackered by the time i get to the front door - i just drop everything & lie down for a while, then forget about it..
I'm slowly working my way thru the chaos by saying to myself "Hmm, now if i wanted to tidy that up, i should probably start by doing.. .. .." & it works! I don't wind up going bonkers, & i do get whatever-it-was actually done! It's great!
.
Saturday, October 30, 2010
Cars - me this time (sort of..)
{sigh}
Well, this time it was me. But i can't believe that road-marking follow-up truck tried to run us off the road just because i went to overtake him - he was doing about 10kph & i was taking my friend J for an appointment! So of course i went to overtake - & he swerved at us! Nearly ran us into the ditch!
I don't think it was me that time..
..but it was when i hit the bus on the main street. Just a glancing blow & little damage - because i have a Sensible Car, With Sensible Rubber Bumpers, instead of those ridiculous painted metal things that bend when you breathe on them & cost a minimum of $300+ to fix & repaint!!
I was stuck on an inside lane behind some dorky woman who couldn't be bothered telling anyone behind her where she was going, until it suddenly occurred to her to switch her indicator on - duh!! I shouldn't've gotten angry! If i hadn't, i'd've looked properly in my rear-view mirror & seen the bus coming. As it was, i backed up slightly & went to switch to the outside lane & Bang! Bang! Bang! as my (rubber) bumper bounced us off the side of the bus & scared the crap out of my friend J (who was sitting in the front passenger seat - the "suicide seat" or "75-percenter" as i've heard it called). She was very frightened & in tears, & i was mortified because i really felt it wasn't entirely my fault, but when i wound down my window to ask (rudely, i admit) the other driver if she knew where her indicators were, she told me that where she was going was none of my business!!
Unbelievable!! It most certainly was my business - not her final destination - don't know, don't care- but definitely whether or not she's turning, going straight ahead or whatever! AND telling other road users about her intentions!
What part of "compulsory signaling of all turns" did she not understand??
.
Well, this time it was me. But i can't believe that road-marking follow-up truck tried to run us off the road just because i went to overtake him - he was doing about 10kph & i was taking my friend J for an appointment! So of course i went to overtake - & he swerved at us! Nearly ran us into the ditch!
I don't think it was me that time..
..but it was when i hit the bus on the main street. Just a glancing blow & little damage - because i have a Sensible Car, With Sensible Rubber Bumpers, instead of those ridiculous painted metal things that bend when you breathe on them & cost a minimum of $300+ to fix & repaint!!
I was stuck on an inside lane behind some dorky woman who couldn't be bothered telling anyone behind her where she was going, until it suddenly occurred to her to switch her indicator on - duh!! I shouldn't've gotten angry! If i hadn't, i'd've looked properly in my rear-view mirror & seen the bus coming. As it was, i backed up slightly & went to switch to the outside lane & Bang! Bang! Bang! as my (rubber) bumper bounced us off the side of the bus & scared the crap out of my friend J (who was sitting in the front passenger seat - the "suicide seat" or "75-percenter" as i've heard it called). She was very frightened & in tears, & i was mortified because i really felt it wasn't entirely my fault, but when i wound down my window to ask (rudely, i admit) the other driver if she knew where her indicators were, she told me that where she was going was none of my business!!
Unbelievable!! It most certainly was my business - not her final destination - don't know, don't care- but definitely whether or not she's turning, going straight ahead or whatever! AND telling other road users about her intentions!
What part of "compulsory signaling of all turns" did she not understand??
.
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Not about men!
Not about men - about a good friend of mine who's having a rough time at the moment..
She's an artist (& IMHO a bloody good one!), a home-maker & mother, & a great person.
Why she has to go thru the crap she's having to put up with at the moment is just beyond me.
Where do other people get off on making good people's lives miserable?
Because they can? I dunno..
If there's any justice in the world, she'll get past the present nastiness & get what I think she's entitled to - her home, her family, good friends, & success in her Polytech course.
It's not too much to ask..
.
She's an artist (& IMHO a bloody good one!), a home-maker & mother, & a great person.
Why she has to go thru the crap she's having to put up with at the moment is just beyond me.
Where do other people get off on making good people's lives miserable?
Because they can? I dunno..
If there's any justice in the world, she'll get past the present nastiness & get what I think she's entitled to - her home, her family, good friends, & success in her Polytech course.
It's not too much to ask..
.
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
{sigh} - Dunedin Motorists, again.. :-(
Not grey cars this time (tho the offender was grey)..
No.. i'm following another car into town along Ravensbourne Rd, & just by the shops we have to overtake a cyclist; so we both move toward the middle of the road to give him room.
I cross the centre-line a bit, so i indicate 'right' just to alert any on-coming Dumbo to that fact.
Out of a parking space in front of the shops, With No Bloody Indicators At All, comes this little darkish grey sports car, straight towards us! I nearly didn't see her..
..because I Was Watching A Fully-laden Truck-&-trailer approaching me & bloody nearly on top of her!!
Yes 'JENAFR', you know who you are even if you don't remember the incident! Do you know how close you came to greasing a f**king great truck sump with your head??!! You probably didn't even notice, you moron!
Darwin Awards aside, it would've upset quite a few people & wasted a helluva lot of other people's time!
.
No.. i'm following another car into town along Ravensbourne Rd, & just by the shops we have to overtake a cyclist; so we both move toward the middle of the road to give him room.
I cross the centre-line a bit, so i indicate 'right' just to alert any on-coming Dumbo to that fact.
Out of a parking space in front of the shops, With No Bloody Indicators At All, comes this little darkish grey sports car, straight towards us! I nearly didn't see her..
..because I Was Watching A Fully-laden Truck-&-trailer approaching me & bloody nearly on top of her!!
Yes 'JENAFR', you know who you are even if you don't remember the incident! Do you know how close you came to greasing a f**king great truck sump with your head??!! You probably didn't even notice, you moron!
Darwin Awards aside, it would've upset quite a few people & wasted a helluva lot of other people's time!
.
Monday, September 27, 2010
A little time out..
Been whiling away time thinking,
& doing a little surfing, & i found these:
Purgatory University - hilarious!
& i have a Nawful Feeling these guys are serious!
Dunno what to make of them..
Are they some kind of fruit-cake convention maybe?
"A little nonsense now & then
Is relished by the wisest men."
I've also seen the following:
"A little nonsense in the Spring
Is relished even by the King."
Two of my favourite Nonsenseers are
Lewis Carroll & Edward Lear
Failing that, there are always the Vogons..
& doing a little surfing, & i found these:
Purgatory University - hilarious!
& i have a Nawful Feeling these guys are serious!
Dunno what to make of them..
Are they some kind of fruit-cake convention maybe?
"A little nonsense now & then
Is relished by the wisest men."
I've also seen the following:
"A little nonsense in the Spring
Is relished even by the King."
Two of my favourite Nonsenseers are
Lewis Carroll & Edward Lear
Failing that, there are always the Vogons..
Thursday, September 23, 2010
I meant to get some Work Done {sigh}..
..but i got side-tracked!
'Frustrated' would be a better word:
*Online banking is usually fairly straightforward for me - i've been doing it for years, but accessing my Recharge Card is proving to be bloody annoyingly difficult! I can't work out if the bloody thing is accessible only via Internet Explorer (which i hate & try never to use), if it has some complicated registration/log-on procedure involving galactic-sized ID numbers, & whether my bank has done anything about it since i last complained..
* All i wanted to do was to get Windows Media Player to turn some .wma files into MP3 files so i could listen to them on my little MP3 player - nope!! WMP'll 'rip' them from a CD but can't/won't (dunno which!) transmogrify them into MP3 files {sigh}..
*By the time i got thru all that, a sizable chunk of my time had been wasted, not to mention an entire SecureMail to my bank because its website timed-out & my email disappeared into a cyber-hole somewhere.. My second attempt was shorter, & probably rather testy..
*I'm now feeling tired & crabby & not up to doing any work at all!
Maybe tomorrow {sigh}.. :-(
'Frustrated' would be a better word:
*Online banking is usually fairly straightforward for me - i've been doing it for years, but accessing my Recharge Card is proving to be bloody annoyingly difficult! I can't work out if the bloody thing is accessible only via Internet Explorer (which i hate & try never to use), if it has some complicated registration/log-on procedure involving galactic-sized ID numbers, & whether my bank has done anything about it since i last complained..
* All i wanted to do was to get Windows Media Player to turn some .wma files into MP3 files so i could listen to them on my little MP3 player - nope!! WMP'll 'rip' them from a CD but can't/won't (dunno which!) transmogrify them into MP3 files {sigh}..
*By the time i got thru all that, a sizable chunk of my time had been wasted, not to mention an entire SecureMail to my bank because its website timed-out & my email disappeared into a cyber-hole somewhere.. My second attempt was shorter, & probably rather testy..
*I'm now feeling tired & crabby & not up to doing any work at all!
Maybe tomorrow {sigh}.. :-(
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Day for Night - well, summer Was coming.. :-[
Just when i was getting back on track..
Yes, this Is a whinge!
Had to leave class last week because of my recurring problem with re-entering 'society' i.e. other people - i cop their infectoids: viruses, bacteria etc, in this case a miserable little cold! Now i'm behind again, been stuck @ home with a computer with:
* inadequate memory, which may require a 'credit card upgrade'
* a woefully slow broadband connection (ditto my neighbours, i've checked).
Makes getting around the web bloody tedious, & downloading even more so!
So, i've been flagging the 'puter & watching TV instead:
* late-night ARL (Aussie rugby league) certainly helps, but i'll watch Trackside even though i'm definitely not a punter at all;
* looking forward to the 'Log o' Wood' challenge (Ranfurly Shield!) - GO Southland!! Bang those Jafas!
* 'Top Gear' can generally be relied upon for the kind of hilarious idiocy that makes it entertaining for more than just petrol-heads - they've even been known to include diesels in their line-ups.. not to mention their daft racing challenges, usually along the lines of Car vs Public Transport, tho' they've also included bicycles & speed-boats (across London), & bizarre things like downhill racing (skis), parachutes (including one of those man-made squirrel-glider things!), bobsled, dog-sled (Richard 'Hamster' Hammond), light aircraft (James 'Captain Slow' May with Hammond) & rock-wall climbers.
And once or twice, of course, Jezza Clarkson's Nemesis, Sabine Schmitz - the Queen of the Nurburgring, who jeered at his barely-under-10-minute round of the 'Ring' by telling him she could do that time in a van!
All good fun, but not helping me get any work done.. {sigh}
It's now nearly 3a.m. & cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey!
.
Yes, this Is a whinge!
Had to leave class last week because of my recurring problem with re-entering 'society' i.e. other people - i cop their infectoids: viruses, bacteria etc, in this case a miserable little cold! Now i'm behind again, been stuck @ home with a computer with:
* inadequate memory, which may require a 'credit card upgrade'
* a woefully slow broadband connection (ditto my neighbours, i've checked).
Makes getting around the web bloody tedious, & downloading even more so!
So, i've been flagging the 'puter & watching TV instead:
* late-night ARL (Aussie rugby league) certainly helps, but i'll watch Trackside even though i'm definitely not a punter at all;
* looking forward to the 'Log o' Wood' challenge (Ranfurly Shield!) - GO Southland!! Bang those Jafas!
* 'Top Gear' can generally be relied upon for the kind of hilarious idiocy that makes it entertaining for more than just petrol-heads - they've even been known to include diesels in their line-ups.. not to mention their daft racing challenges, usually along the lines of Car vs Public Transport, tho' they've also included bicycles & speed-boats (across London), & bizarre things like downhill racing (skis), parachutes (including one of those man-made squirrel-glider things!), bobsled, dog-sled (Richard 'Hamster' Hammond), light aircraft (James 'Captain Slow' May with Hammond) & rock-wall climbers.
And once or twice, of course, Jezza Clarkson's Nemesis, Sabine Schmitz - the Queen of the Nurburgring, who jeered at his barely-under-10-minute round of the 'Ring' by telling him she could do that time in a van!
All good fun, but not helping me get any work done.. {sigh}
It's now nearly 3a.m. & cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey!
.
More on the Christchurch/Canterbury Earthquake
AFAIK the aftershock count is well in excess of 700
(it could even have topped 800 by now)..
It's taking its toll.
But i had to include this from Adrienne Rewi
because of its bizarre photos of the current state of
the Avon river!
As she says in her blog,
"Somehow you half expect buildings and other man-made structures to tumble in an earthquake but I for one, did not expect to see the ground spurting little volcanoes of sand and water. And I certainly did not ever think I would see a river disgorged of its water, its bed twisted and bulging like some giant muddy abcess."
A sobering thought - what i recall of the Avon didn't look at all like that!
.
(it could even have topped 800 by now)..
It's taking its toll.
But i had to include this from Adrienne Rewi
because of its bizarre photos of the current state of
the Avon river!
As she says in her blog,
"Somehow you half expect buildings and other man-made structures to tumble in an earthquake but I for one, did not expect to see the ground spurting little volcanoes of sand and water. And I certainly did not ever think I would see a river disgorged of its water, its bed twisted and bulging like some giant muddy abcess."
A sobering thought - what i recall of the Avon didn't look at all like that!
.
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Day for Night - MouVery, & Devo - summer's coming..
I'm a chronic night-owl.
I can understand people who get up very early in the morning, but if i did that i'd definitely be going back to bed later on (as later that morning probably).
I jokingly tell people i keep 'Spanish hours':
eat late;
stay up till idiot-o'clock in the morning;
get a few zzz;
get up early-ish (i flag this bit) for brekkie;
have a nice siesta around midday until 2-3 pm :-)
I'd have the driver's seat of my car right back, an unzipped sleeping-bag over me, my head on a cushion, & i'd be fine-thank-you!
People would knock on my car windows just to wake me up!
So, here i am, online @ 4am & not feeling particularly tired - but then, i spent much of yesterday in bed, keeping warm in a house that is cold & uninsulated, so cluttered that the insulators would find it a real challenge, & wondering (yet again) why we in NZ put up with ridiculous power price hikes.
But i'm not in the mood for a whinge, not right now..
I found a music review of 'Devo', whose music i heard a few weeks ago in a tiny bar in Dunedin's main street - called MouVery. More about Devo here, & discography.
MouVery advertised itself as 'probably the smallest bar in the universe' - they could be right!
Eons ago there was a small supermarket next door, & a friend of mine discovered this very narrow niche beside it that had been covered in - you couldn't see anything there from the outside. He ran a cobbler's shop (footwear repairs to you) over in Frederick Street, just a hop-skip-&-jump away from from this place on George Street (opposite the 'Robbie Burns', our regular watering-hole), & he wanted to open a heel-bar there doing 5-minute repairs to women's damaged high-heels, but the idea fell through.
The next occupant was a little jewellery shop where i got my second lot of ear-piercings.
And now there's MouVery - run by Olivier - & i really really like the place!
Links include their Face-book page - the little Giraffe was cemented into the brickwork, but some bastard's nicked him..I'd've had it on a steel pin stuck into the bricks with Loctite or something..
I'd spend a whole lot more time there if i wasn't so broke, even though all i drink is coffee & hot-chocolate (my elbow-bending days eventually saw me getting dried out & later going to AA meetings). Haven't been there for a while - i hope the bubble machine is still blowing bubbles out onto George Street, or maybe that's a summer thing.
And now that we're into September, summer's coming!
We can sit outside, or in the little alley-way seats..
..& enjoy watching some of the world go by :-)
I can understand people who get up very early in the morning, but if i did that i'd definitely be going back to bed later on (as later that morning probably).
I jokingly tell people i keep 'Spanish hours':
eat late;
stay up till idiot-o'clock in the morning;
get a few zzz;
get up early-ish (i flag this bit) for brekkie;
have a nice siesta around midday until 2-3 pm :-)
I'd have the driver's seat of my car right back, an unzipped sleeping-bag over me, my head on a cushion, & i'd be fine-thank-you!
People would knock on my car windows just to wake me up!
So, here i am, online @ 4am & not feeling particularly tired - but then, i spent much of yesterday in bed, keeping warm in a house that is cold & uninsulated, so cluttered that the insulators would find it a real challenge, & wondering (yet again) why we in NZ put up with ridiculous power price hikes.
But i'm not in the mood for a whinge, not right now..
I found a music review of 'Devo', whose music i heard a few weeks ago in a tiny bar in Dunedin's main street - called MouVery. More about Devo here, & discography.
MouVery advertised itself as 'probably the smallest bar in the universe' - they could be right!
Eons ago there was a small supermarket next door, & a friend of mine discovered this very narrow niche beside it that had been covered in - you couldn't see anything there from the outside. He ran a cobbler's shop (footwear repairs to you) over in Frederick Street, just a hop-skip-&-jump away from from this place on George Street (opposite the 'Robbie Burns', our regular watering-hole), & he wanted to open a heel-bar there doing 5-minute repairs to women's damaged high-heels, but the idea fell through.
The next occupant was a little jewellery shop where i got my second lot of ear-piercings.
And now there's MouVery - run by Olivier - & i really really like the place!
Links include their Face-book page - the little Giraffe was cemented into the brickwork, but some bastard's nicked him..I'd've had it on a steel pin stuck into the bricks with Loctite or something..
I'd spend a whole lot more time there if i wasn't so broke, even though all i drink is coffee & hot-chocolate (my elbow-bending days eventually saw me getting dried out & later going to AA meetings). Haven't been there for a while - i hope the bubble machine is still blowing bubbles out onto George Street, or maybe that's a summer thing.
And now that we're into September, summer's coming!
We can sit outside, or in the little alley-way seats..
..& enjoy watching some of the world go by :-)
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Christchurch/Canterbury Earthquake
I suppose i shouldn't've said 'interesting' in my last post..
but this map certainly is - i counted almost 100 events
from the time of the first big 7.1 quake until midnight that Saturday..
..and they continued - on & on - almost all week!
That's what really started to get to people living there.
Some technical stuff (including videos):
Last 6 months in NZ including a newly visible fault-line;
What lies beneath, a story with technical follow-up - as the article says:
"Saturday's magnitude 7.1 earthquake was centred near
Kirwee, approximately 44 km west of Christchurch,
at a depth of only 10 km.
So why didn't we know that this potentially
damaging fault existed beneath the Canterbury plains,
quietly building up enormous energy, so close to Christchurch?";
Where the aftershocks hit - with a larger map;
The 16,000-year-old fault;
Surprised scientists (with an 18,000 year estimate);
Solid ground turns to mush;
You can find a lot more at SciBlogs.
I was awake & felt it down in Port Chalmers (Dunedin) - 400+ km away!
My bed swayed for quite some time & i was thinking
'Should i get up & sit in a doorway?'
Later i learned that doorways should be avoided - under a solid table is better.
People are wary of Christchurch's CBD, here - more stories. And a twitter-blog.
There are stories here, here, & questions, & photos, more photos,
Canterbury University, aerial shots, peoples' photos,
including the only person really seriously injured
(there were two other fairly serious cases that i know of),
& a baby named Dianthe born during the big one.
GNS has a gallery of earthquake photos, as well as articles.
The Alpine Fault is a major geological feature.
And look at this one of the Awatere valley, in Marlborough!
GNS seismologist John Ristau said the large quake was a
"rude wake-up call" for the rest of the country,
especially Wellington, which lay on a major faultline.
Echoed by mayor Bob Parker.
Other parts of NZ weren't off the hook either.
(And there's worse)
but this map certainly is - i counted almost 100 events
from the time of the first big 7.1 quake until midnight that Saturday..
..and they continued - on & on - almost all week!
That's what really started to get to people living there.
Some technical stuff (including videos):
Last 6 months in NZ including a newly visible fault-line;
What lies beneath, a story with technical follow-up - as the article says:
"Saturday's magnitude 7.1 earthquake was centred near
Kirwee, approximately 44 km west of Christchurch,
at a depth of only 10 km.
So why didn't we know that this potentially
damaging fault existed beneath the Canterbury plains,
quietly building up enormous energy, so close to Christchurch?";
Where the aftershocks hit - with a larger map;
The 16,000-year-old fault;
Surprised scientists (with an 18,000 year estimate);
Solid ground turns to mush;
You can find a lot more at SciBlogs.
I was awake & felt it down in Port Chalmers (Dunedin) - 400+ km away!
My bed swayed for quite some time & i was thinking
'Should i get up & sit in a doorway?'
Later i learned that doorways should be avoided - under a solid table is better.
People are wary of Christchurch's CBD, here - more stories. And a twitter-blog.
There are stories here, here, & questions, & photos, more photos,
Canterbury University, aerial shots, peoples' photos,
including the only person really seriously injured
(there were two other fairly serious cases that i know of),
& a baby named Dianthe born during the big one.
GNS has a gallery of earthquake photos, as well as articles.
The Alpine Fault is a major geological feature.
And look at this one of the Awatere valley, in Marlborough!
GNS seismologist John Ristau said the large quake was a
"rude wake-up call" for the rest of the country,
especially Wellington, which lay on a major faultline.
Echoed by mayor Bob Parker.
Other parts of NZ weren't off the hook either.
(And there's worse)
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Motor-mouth..Dear Helium..
It's not that i'm a real motor-mouth, just that when i get started, i switch from topic to topic until i run out of steam, or i notice my audience getting a little restive.
I need to get out of the house at least every couple of days, or i go stir-crazy (or lie in bed feeding my face).
Even if all i do is have a coffee in some public place like a cafe (or the Vehicle Testing Station, where my car got its latest Warrant of Fitness without a hitch - surprise, surprise!),
read a zine, or earwig sometimes (but i completely forget the topic of conversation unless it's something on which i could've voiced an opinion, then i remember what i Would Have Said..), tho if it's personal to someone i quickly lose interest - can't be doing with gossip - boring boring..
Dear Helium!!
It looks like you're not too long for this world - well, this earth actually, according to an article in "New Scientist" magazine - projections have you gone by 2030.
I'm really surprised you're here at all, coz you're lighter than air, & should've been all gone millions of years ago, but there have been underground reserves, & the US has kept a national helium reserve since 1925, one billion cubic metres (1 000 000 000m3) at a recent count, until a 1996 US Congress ordered that it all be hocked off by 2015 - Duh!.
What part of 'irreplaceable resource' did they not understand?
Who was US President then? I can't remember, off the top of my head..
(Can't be bothered finding out, either, easy tho it is with the WFSE)
I need to get out of the house at least every couple of days, or i go stir-crazy (or lie in bed feeding my face).
Even if all i do is have a coffee in some public place like a cafe (or the Vehicle Testing Station, where my car got its latest Warrant of Fitness without a hitch - surprise, surprise!),
read a zine, or earwig sometimes (but i completely forget the topic of conversation unless it's something on which i could've voiced an opinion, then i remember what i Would Have Said..), tho if it's personal to someone i quickly lose interest - can't be doing with gossip - boring boring..
Dear Helium!!
It looks like you're not too long for this world - well, this earth actually, according to an article in "New Scientist" magazine - projections have you gone by 2030.
I'm really surprised you're here at all, coz you're lighter than air, & should've been all gone millions of years ago, but there have been underground reserves, & the US has kept a national helium reserve since 1925, one billion cubic metres (1 000 000 000m3) at a recent count, until a 1996 US Congress ordered that it all be hocked off by 2015 - Duh!.
What part of 'irreplaceable resource' did they not understand?
Who was US President then? I can't remember, off the top of my head..
(Can't be bothered finding out, either, easy tho it is with the WFSE)
Thursday, August 19, 2010
You're a long time dead..
With mildly childish glee, i watched the bright headlight on the horizon, at idiot-o'clock this morning, & slowed, & even stopped, to time my run under the Sawyers Bay railway over-bridge just when the locomotive thundered overhead, with its train of container wagons..
To the tune of a JS Bach cantata, or some such..
Looked out this morning, feeling tired & mildly head-achy, & the sun was shining!
"Get up you lazy cow! Got a headache? Take some paracetamol.. Hungry? Eat something go & see the debt collector people today & get it over with.."
So i did. They were quite nice. They actually meant what they said when they wrote 'cash, cheque, or credit card'. No EftPos. Never mind..
A lot better than the the private health insurer who said to my late best friend Amanda 'cash or credit?'
'Cash' says Amanda, & fronts up with $600 in folding stuff.
'Oh we can't handle cash. Besides, we haven't made up the invoice yet.'
Amanda was already beside herself with worry - her partner's tracheoscopy (oesophagoscopy? -to the stomach, not the lungs) had revealed no sign of the (hoped-for) stomach ulcer, & dreaded thoughts of something far worse distracted her so much she left her wallet on top of the car as we headed for home.
It took her too long to register our cries of 'Stop, stop!' as i briefly glimpsed something flick past the rear window.
By the time we did stop, a cyclist behind us had picked up the wallet, done a u-turn straight across the (rather wide) road, knowing we couldn't follow quickly, & disappeared down a side street.
A couple of weeks later, her partner was diagnosed with inoperable pancreatic cancer.
That was at the beginning of October 2003.
Her partner died three days before Christmas..
To the tune of a JS Bach cantata, or some such..
Looked out this morning, feeling tired & mildly head-achy, & the sun was shining!
"Get up you lazy cow! Got a headache? Take some paracetamol.. Hungry? Eat something go & see the debt collector people today & get it over with.."
So i did. They were quite nice. They actually meant what they said when they wrote 'cash, cheque, or credit card'. No EftPos. Never mind..
A lot better than the the private health insurer who said to my late best friend Amanda 'cash or credit?'
'Cash' says Amanda, & fronts up with $600 in folding stuff.
'Oh we can't handle cash. Besides, we haven't made up the invoice yet.'
Amanda was already beside herself with worry - her partner's tracheoscopy (oesophagoscopy? -to the stomach, not the lungs) had revealed no sign of the (hoped-for) stomach ulcer, & dreaded thoughts of something far worse distracted her so much she left her wallet on top of the car as we headed for home.
It took her too long to register our cries of 'Stop, stop!' as i briefly glimpsed something flick past the rear window.
By the time we did stop, a cyclist behind us had picked up the wallet, done a u-turn straight across the (rather wide) road, knowing we couldn't follow quickly, & disappeared down a side street.
A couple of weeks later, her partner was diagnosed with inoperable pancreatic cancer.
That was at the beginning of October 2003.
Her partner died three days before Christmas..
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