Date: 2009-07-07 15:54 Subject: Word of the day: Zyzzyvas Security: Public

zyzzyvas [ziz-uh-vuh]
–noun any of various South American weevils of the genus Zyzzyva, often destructive to plants.

Date: 2009-07-03 10:42 Subject: Hue Test Security: Public

How well can you do?
I got 4
drag and drop the colour chips into the right order

Date: 2009-07-02 23:50 Subject: Shamelessly chocolaty plug Security: Public

If you're in auckland, check out the Sweetest Little Chocolate Shop in Midcity (little arcade next to Smith & Caughey) - they have a very good range of NZ made boutique chocolates. I particularly recommend Schoc Lime Chilli. Mmmmmmmmmmmmm

Date: 2009-06-05 15:17 Subject: (no subject) Security: Public

RIP David Eddings

I have fond memories of reading your books when I was at highschool, and they were instrumental in developing my love of fantasy literature :)

Date: 2009-06-04 21:45 Subject: butts. Security: Public

Happy birthday Danielle, wherever you are.

I miss you. Today I spent some time reading your old book reviews, and giggling at your description of Snakes on a Plane. And then I felt a little less sad.

xoxoxoxox

Date: 2009-06-02 13:10 Subject: So pretty! a horse a day Security: Public

Ann Woods horses - one a day for 100 days

I'd love to try something like this, maybe with fish since they're currently my favourite thing to paint/draw. I wonder if balsa wood or stiff card would work?

I reckon having a big school of fish or maybe even birds on my wall would be excellent :)

Date: 2009-05-23 20:13 Subject: (no subject) Security: Public

My terrarium is coming along really well. I've ordered a box of assorted mosses from the Southern rainforests and it should arrive on Monday. Mostly they sell to florists but they've assured me the mosses are alive and will be carefully packaged and should look great in a terrarium so that's cool. Tomorrow I'll go down to the garden centre and get a bag of peat compost and a couple of cute little ferns to complement my mosses. Oh and some charcoal to put between the gravel and the peat.

I'm excited to have something alive growing in my office. We don't have any natural light and plants don't do well, but the fishtank has a proper light on top so hopefully they'll do well :)

Once it's all established I'll bring it home and add a little water feature, and put whistling treefrogs or fire bellied Japanese newts in it.

squee :)

Date: 2009-05-19 23:04 Subject: I can't remember if I've already linked this before.. Security: Public

In case anyone is interested to see, these are the mask blanks that I'm going to be buying to decorate.

Gunther wants the volto joker, and I want the volto neutro. You can see examples of them decorated on this site also for fairly extreme prices, mind you they were decorated in Italy so I guess you're paying for the authenticity.

Date: 2009-05-19 10:42 Subject: (no subject) Security: Public

I just purchased the first two Oddworld games. They were some of the first console games I ever played and responsible for getting me interested in gaming at a time when all the games I had access to were either boring fighter tournaments or car games. Blech.

I have Munchs Oddessy and Strangers Wrath, so I decided to bite the bullet and buy the originals for my collection.

That brings the grand total of PS1 games I own to three including Vib Ribbon :)

Date: 2009-04-23 16:52 Subject: Beautiful Image: Noire et Blanche Security: Public

I saw this in a book recently :)


http://www.photoscala.de/grafik/2008/Man-Ray-Noire-et-Blanche.jpg

Date: 2009-04-13 09:04 Subject: (no subject) Security: Public

Stories like this are heartbreaking. We teach our children that if they're in danger they should find an adult and seek help.

This little girl knew something bad was going to happen, managed to find an adult and ask for help, and was essentially abandoned to her fate.

How does this happen? why didn't that woman take the girl into the petrol station and ask them to call the police, or give her a ride back to her mother, or ring her mum and ask her to come and get the girl? So many choices that could have saved her, and instead she told her to stay away from the man and drove away.

I hope that woman reads the story and recognises herself in it, and remembers her decision for the rest of her life - just as that little girl is going to have to.

I also hope that someone works out who the guy is, and cuts his nuts off.

Date: 2009-04-04 16:16 Subject: PS3: Flower Security: Public

Gunther just downloaded an amazing 'game' into our PS3. It's called 'Flower' and it's more a piece of art than a game. Essentially you're a stream of wind blowing through various barren landscapes collecting streams of petals, and causing different kinds of flowers to bloom and spreading life through the hills. It's amazing how the grass and bushes etc move and as you progress and the life spreads further, it's like one of those stop-motion films of spring bloom occuring.

It's hard to describe, but I defy anyone not to like it. If you have a PS3, you should totally check it out.

Date: 2009-03-26 12:09 Subject: (no subject) Security: Public

Incase anyone is interested in it, this is a link to the health and safety regulations for people in the sex industry in NZ

I'm proud to live in a country which tries to protect sex workers and improve their working conditions. We've still got a long way to go, but I think we're on the right track.

Hopefully in the years to come we'll be able to do something to help reduce the exploitation of immigrant sex workers, and the numbers of underage girls getting into the business. I think it's not as bad here as in some other countries, but it's bad enough.

Date: 2009-03-22 18:50 Subject: (no subject) Security: Public Tags: yum

Tonight's dinner was Avgolemono, a really tasty Greek soup made with chicken stock, eggs and lemon juice. The recipe calls for either orzo or rice, but I used tiny stellini soup pasta stars :)

It came out really well, but I think the stock we used was too salty so it wasn't as subtly flavoured as I would have liked. Next time we'll use a different brand - I wanted to get the stuff that's freshly made and sold at the supermarket in soup-pouches, but they didn't have any when we were there.

I've never added beaten eggs to hot liquid before and I was really nervous that it was going to be like lemony scrambled eggs but it blended really well and had a very light fluffy texture. The little pastas were deliciious and we'll definitely be using them in other soups, as they add a really nice dimension to the mouthful.

Apparently it's just as good with vegetable stock instead of chicken, so maybe we'll do a vegetarian one and see how it compares.

Now that I've tried this one though, I don't think it's the 'lemon soup' we had in Salzburg - that one was much less chickeny, didn't have any rice or pasta in it, and was creamier. I'm wondering if it was white asparagus soup with lemon added, which would make more sense than a Greek soup I guess. Unfortunately we can't get white asparagus here, so I'll have to either get some tinned or powdered soup sent over from Europe, or fudge it and see what I can do with substitutions.

So the search continues, but I'll definitely add this one to my list of good things to make on cold nights :)

Date: 2009-03-03 15:36 Subject: (no subject) Security: Public

Aaaaand the award for the most pointless waste of time spent researching goes to..

This guy:

After three years of research, an Austrian scientist has solved the mystery of belly button fluff. Georg Steinhauser has discovered a type of body hair that traps stray pieces of lint and draws them into the navel. Analysis revealed the pieces of fluff were not made up of only cotton from clothing, but wrapped up in the lint were also flecks of dead skin, fat, sweat and dust. Writing in the journal Medical Hypotheses, he said the scaly structure of the hair enhances the "abrasion of minuscule fibres from the shirt" and directs the lint towards the belly button. Dr Steinhauser established that shaving your belly will result in a fluff-free navel, as will wearing old clothes. (Source: The Telegraph.co.uk)

Date: 2009-03-02 16:18 Subject: A bit of feel-good viral marketing Security: Public

This commercial was shot at the Liverpool Street Subway Station in London just over 1 month ago (Jan 15, 09).
Only the dancers knew what was happening; the general public didn't have a clue what was about to unfold

Date: 2009-03-02 11:25 Subject: (no subject) Security: Public

Saturday was the last day of Summer. We had torrential rain and gale-force winds. Sunday was the first day of Autumn, and it was gloriously bright hot and sunny with lots of activity from the cicada, bird and lizard population out in the garden.

Today is more like an Autumn day, with crisp clear weather thismorning which was slightly chilly, and then it warmed up and got sunny(ish). It's really nice out there right now apparently. I wish we had exterior windows in our office so I could see it.

I hope it's hot and sunny this afternoon so I can go swimming. I think the salt water will help my poor throbbing earlobes. Also I want to squeeze as much swimming as I can before the ocean cools down too much to swim comfortably in - it happens quite rapidly from this point in the year.

I need to find a good rain jacket for cycling to work in the winter. I don't care too much about my legs since I have a hot shower as soon as I get there, but I hate having cold water against the skin of my neck or back.

I'm determined not to wuss out too much over this. Mind you, on days when it's really stormy I'll probably drive since I don't fancy being hit by waves when the wind is high.

Date: 2009-03-01 10:07 Subject: (no subject) Security: Public

Yesterday I got out my oil pastels and a stretched black canvas and had a go at it. I've ended up with a moonlit lotus flower, with some bendy stems going off the sides. I think it looks quite good - I'll see if it photographs ok.

Robbie came over last night, and I made a couple of pizzas (and I'd just like to boast that they were awesome) and some garlic bread, and we watched Metalocalypse (season 2) and played Dead Space. Gunther made panna cotta for dessert (mmmmmm) and we all got drunk. It was a good night :)

Thismorning I got up and made crumpets for breakfast and now the boys are geeking out in the other room, and I'm enjoying the sunshine and thinking about what to do for the day.

I was supposed to go for a drive with Petra to look at a horse but I tend to get car sick, particularly if I've been drinking so I ended up begging out of that one.

I think I'll have a nice long shower, a massive drink of water, and then pop some washing into the machine and maybe try out some more pastel art. I have another canvas there to play with :)

Date: 2009-02-18 11:47 Subject: I'm blacked out: Stand up against "Guilt Upon Accusation" for New Zealand Security: Public

...note that the website is a bit Chicken Little about the whole thing, and doing a bit of panic mongering to get their point across.

They're also conveniently not quoting the actual section but rather the likes of bloggers and comentators who are talking about it, and not linking to the Act itself which is a bit sneaky.

Personally I agree that in it's current form it has potential for abuse (whether or not it takes the form of summarily cutting people off as claimed by the protesters), I find it worrying that they were advised not to go ahead with it but pushed it through anyway, and I would prefer more public discussion around it and see it reworked before it is made official.