Well week one of the 8 week 10,000 step challenge is done and my total was 108,416 which, given our 12 person team totalled 970,000, I think is pretty damn good.
But anyway, I thought I would give the genius feature on iTunes a whirl to fill my little iPod Shuffle (yes it was totally necessary to buy one... and some cool Nike headphones) and I have to say its pretty cool. To test it I used Tender by Blur and it pulled together a list including the Doves, Ocean Colour Scene, Ash, Flaming Lips, Wilco, Badly Drawn Boy, The Smiths, Bowie, Oasis, Sonic Youth and a few things I hadnt listened to for ages - like the Stone Roses - so all in all its pretty cool and made for a half decent gym soundtrack.
So since my favourite Stone Roses track is stuck in my head and also the cause of a bit of a gym faux pas (as I started singing along (albeit quietly) while doing Lat Pulldowns), here is This is the One.
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Thursday, February 19, 2009
What has Bill been reading??
It turns out that the 20 or so readers a day that I get on here might be of a higher calibre... or at least ranking than I had thought.
Earlier this week the Mayor's office tried to correct my outrageous disapproval of the location of the council's Indoor Sports Centre. (turns out that hell hath no fury like a... property developer scorned!?!). I'm totally getting blacklisted after that outburst huh?
But tonight NZPA have reported that Minister of 1950s Haircuts and Finance, Bull Unglush, has confirmed that the Government is looking at allowing struggling businesses to move to a four day week, with workers doing government funded training on the fifth... sound familiar??
So Kerry, Bill, uh Anand, Helen, Tana, Barack and Kevin, welcome. (btw my consultancy invoice is in the mail)
Earlier this week the Mayor's office tried to correct my outrageous disapproval of the location of the council's Indoor Sports Centre. (turns out that hell hath no fury like a... property developer scorned!?!). I'm totally getting blacklisted after that outburst huh?
But tonight NZPA have reported that Minister of 1950s Haircuts and Finance, Bull Unglush, has confirmed that the Government is looking at allowing struggling businesses to move to a four day week, with workers doing government funded training on the fifth... sound familiar??
So Kerry, Bill, uh Anand, Helen, Tana, Barack and Kevin, welcome. (btw my consultancy invoice is in the mail)
So he's like, there?
Clip below from the Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC the other night.
She interviews Thomas Gillespie, a geography professor from UCLA, who has used a geography model used for finding endangered species to work out where Bin Laden is... So if you've been thinking about trying to get in amongst the US25 million bounty, he finds a pretty good place to start.
She interviews Thomas Gillespie, a geography professor from UCLA, who has used a geography model used for finding endangered species to work out where Bin Laden is... So if you've been thinking about trying to get in amongst the US25 million bounty, he finds a pretty good place to start.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Top Gear Live
I went up to Auckland on the weekend to check out Top Gear Live at the Auckland Showgrounds. It was a really good show but did lack that final punch I thought. The best bits had to be the four motorbikes in the collander of death and the Suzuki Swift stunts. There was also an exhibition of kick ass cars attached to the show including Mustangs, Corvettes, Porsches, Bentley's, Lamborghini Galardo's (which had a black suede dash) and of course Ferrari's.
I had read a review earlier in the day which mentioned some of the jokes, so some of the script seemed a bit set piece and Greg Murphy should stick to the track!
It was a great weekend in Auckland though, sipping Laphroaig Whiskey after dinner and golf after brunch the next day.
The photos I took were a bit shit, but you get the idea below.
I had read a review earlier in the day which mentioned some of the jokes, so some of the script seemed a bit set piece and Greg Murphy should stick to the track!
It was a great weekend in Auckland though, sipping Laphroaig Whiskey after dinner and golf after brunch the next day.
The photos I took were a bit shit, but you get the idea below.
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Ten thousand reasons to get off my arse
Our team at work have just started doing the 10,000 steps a day challenge - I was warned in advance that "ohhh it's so much harder than you think." But uh I'm kind of making light work of it at the moment oddly enough.
In the first 24 hours (12pm Monday-11.59am Tuesday) I did 17,054 steps and since midday today I've done 11,833. Mind you I am making an effort, so I'm not that surprised - but still... this challenge is getting pwned!
On top of this of course we have our regular humiliation all scheduled to go tomorrow... I'm reliably informed our Mayor won't be showing up again... ah nevermind.
In the first 24 hours (12pm Monday-11.59am Tuesday) I did 17,054 steps and since midday today I've done 11,833. Mind you I am making an effort, so I'm not that surprised - but still... this challenge is getting pwned!
On top of this of course we have our regular humiliation all scheduled to go tomorrow... I'm reliably informed our Mayor won't be showing up again... ah nevermind.
Friday, February 13, 2009
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Wellington thinking
Why?
We had our second session of humiliation yesterday, the positive this time though was that since it had been raining there were less people to stare at us while they pie-munched and we contorted ourselves. The negative involved the instruments of satanic worship that are dynabands combined with the obligatory 'pulse' action. Ugh pain. The Mayor and the Phoenix players who had been participating didn't show this week - but as Mish said, "we don't need them anyway - they never win!"
Sevens
Despite going along last year for the first time, the whole sevens thing did seem a little tired this year and I think Tom over at the Wellingtonista summed it up nicely with his article "Thank God that's over". Mind you, I do wonder if the Cuba Street Carnival is really that much different? Isn't it just another case of a certain group of Wellingtonians letting their proverbial hair down - and shouldn't we just embrace all these events? Meh, maybe? But they do all get a tad boring after 10 years.
Courting controversy
Was it just me that let out an audible sigh of relief at the announcement that the Council's proposed 12 basketball court sized indoor sports stadium has been held up for another 18 months? I don't get why we need to rush to build this mammoth thing other than to give the dopey Mayor her swansong? For those who don't know, Wellington City Council is trying to build a huge indoor sports centre to attract national tournaments etc etc, which is all very good. But after originally looking at building it on top of the stadium concourse, and then on the waterfront, the Council decided building it over Cobham Park out in Kilbirnie (on the way to the airport) is better (images over at EOTF). In theory thats fine, but as anyone who has tried getting over/through Mt Vic when something is on out the other side, Kilbirnie is a nightmare to get to in peak traffic - so how would this location work if we had say 30 teams in town for a tournament?? So anyway, I'm happy its stalled again, even if it was a little dodgy how it happened, and I hope the 18 months now available will see sense prevail and other options considered. Btw, what about that pun for a headline eh? eh?
We had our second session of humiliation yesterday, the positive this time though was that since it had been raining there were less people to stare at us while they pie-munched and we contorted ourselves. The negative involved the instruments of satanic worship that are dynabands combined with the obligatory 'pulse' action. Ugh pain. The Mayor and the Phoenix players who had been participating didn't show this week - but as Mish said, "we don't need them anyway - they never win!"
Sevens
Despite going along last year for the first time, the whole sevens thing did seem a little tired this year and I think Tom over at the Wellingtonista summed it up nicely with his article "Thank God that's over". Mind you, I do wonder if the Cuba Street Carnival is really that much different? Isn't it just another case of a certain group of Wellingtonians letting their proverbial hair down - and shouldn't we just embrace all these events? Meh, maybe? But they do all get a tad boring after 10 years.
Courting controversy
Was it just me that let out an audible sigh of relief at the announcement that the Council's proposed 12 basketball court sized indoor sports stadium has been held up for another 18 months? I don't get why we need to rush to build this mammoth thing other than to give the dopey Mayor her swansong? For those who don't know, Wellington City Council is trying to build a huge indoor sports centre to attract national tournaments etc etc, which is all very good. But after originally looking at building it on top of the stadium concourse, and then on the waterfront, the Council decided building it over Cobham Park out in Kilbirnie (on the way to the airport) is better (images over at EOTF). In theory thats fine, but as anyone who has tried getting over/through Mt Vic when something is on out the other side, Kilbirnie is a nightmare to get to in peak traffic - so how would this location work if we had say 30 teams in town for a tournament?? So anyway, I'm happy its stalled again, even if it was a little dodgy how it happened, and I hope the 18 months now available will see sense prevail and other options considered. Btw, what about that pun for a headline eh? eh?
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Victoria Fires
Time for a special mention of the bush fires that have destroyed large chunks of the state of Victoria including areas around Melbourne and the farm of the parents of one of my former colleagues.
There are some amazing and horrific images online here. They capture the scale and terror of these fires. You get an idea of the heat generated by the fires through the images of the cars with melted alloy wheels.
When I was in Canberra I had a look around some of the areas there that had been effected in the past by bushfires. Whole suburbs of Canberra were wiped out about 4 years ago, and the flames were moving so fast that they were actually travelling faster than the fire trucks could move.
You can help by donating (as I have just done) to the Victorian RSPCA here.
There are some amazing and horrific images online here. They capture the scale and terror of these fires. You get an idea of the heat generated by the fires through the images of the cars with melted alloy wheels.
When I was in Canberra I had a look around some of the areas there that had been effected in the past by bushfires. Whole suburbs of Canberra were wiped out about 4 years ago, and the flames were moving so fast that they were actually travelling faster than the fire trucks could move.
You can help by donating (as I have just done) to the Victorian RSPCA here.
Sunday, February 08, 2009
Stimulating thoughts
As governments of the world are walking around in circles to get some sort of economic stimulus package passed and as we anticipate what John Key will come up with in the next two weeks, I thought I would share some little tid-bits from the Rachel Maddow show the other night and a few thoughts of my own.
Key is reportedly going to announce a $500 million infrastructure package that will target a couple of specific roading projects, school property upgrades and insulating state houses - all good things. But beyond this the largest part of his stimulus package will be tax cuts... and yes they will be the tax cuts he already announced in the campaign that overwhelmingly favoured those on higher incomes. We need to change that balance.
The reason for these stimulus packages seems to have been lost along the way. Basically what has happened is that people aren't buying stuff, which has the flow on of meaning other people will lose their jobs, so the government needs to step in and spend to effectively save those jobs.
Rachel Maddow had a really good piece the other night comparing different types of spending which was based on work by Moody's.
Every $1 spent on tax cuts creates $1.02 of economic activity
Every $1 spent on infrastructure creates $1.59 of economic activity
Every $1 spent on food stamps creates $1.73 of economic activity.
(Source: Moody's Economy.com)
In short people dont necessarily spend the tax cuts they get so it is ineffective as a stimulus measure.
We don't have a lot of cash in New Zealand so frankly we need to be targeting what we have on the most effective measures and that does not include tax cuts.
Why not expand that insulation programme back to what it was and roll out to as many homes as possible? Hell why not look at investing in solar water heating for state houses? These are both worthy investment ideas that would actually have valuable flow on effects by creating healthier households and lower power bills.
Did you know most of our buses are built and designed in Christchurch? Why don't we take this opportunity to invest in public transport by upgrading our fleet nationwide? In doing this we could also do wonders for our green ambitions.
Families tend to spend more as they have higher costs, so instead of tax cuts - why not expand Working for Families again? As Moody's said, food stamps are the best kind of stimulus and expanding WFF is probably the most politically palatable idea along these lines in the New Zealand context.
Our skills and training gap remains and we still have so many people with poor literacy and numeracy skills - so if businesses with low skill workers are about to crumble or lay off staff, then how about considering a 4 day week for workers at some workplaces and on the fifth day have the worker undertake skills training being paid for by the government. Under this the worker would keep their job and undertake training in an area of need. This could offset the need to lay off staff as wage bills would be decreased and it would provide a much needed investment in skills.
There are tons of other ideas floating around as well, but my point is that the old argument of tax cuts is not suited to this particular situation and right now we need to be making smart investments in our people and economy.
Key is reportedly going to announce a $500 million infrastructure package that will target a couple of specific roading projects, school property upgrades and insulating state houses - all good things. But beyond this the largest part of his stimulus package will be tax cuts... and yes they will be the tax cuts he already announced in the campaign that overwhelmingly favoured those on higher incomes. We need to change that balance.
The reason for these stimulus packages seems to have been lost along the way. Basically what has happened is that people aren't buying stuff, which has the flow on of meaning other people will lose their jobs, so the government needs to step in and spend to effectively save those jobs.
Rachel Maddow had a really good piece the other night comparing different types of spending which was based on work by Moody's.
Every $1 spent on tax cuts creates $1.02 of economic activity
Every $1 spent on infrastructure creates $1.59 of economic activity
Every $1 spent on food stamps creates $1.73 of economic activity.
(Source: Moody's Economy.com)
In short people dont necessarily spend the tax cuts they get so it is ineffective as a stimulus measure.
We don't have a lot of cash in New Zealand so frankly we need to be targeting what we have on the most effective measures and that does not include tax cuts.
Why not expand that insulation programme back to what it was and roll out to as many homes as possible? Hell why not look at investing in solar water heating for state houses? These are both worthy investment ideas that would actually have valuable flow on effects by creating healthier households and lower power bills.
Did you know most of our buses are built and designed in Christchurch? Why don't we take this opportunity to invest in public transport by upgrading our fleet nationwide? In doing this we could also do wonders for our green ambitions.
Families tend to spend more as they have higher costs, so instead of tax cuts - why not expand Working for Families again? As Moody's said, food stamps are the best kind of stimulus and expanding WFF is probably the most politically palatable idea along these lines in the New Zealand context.
Our skills and training gap remains and we still have so many people with poor literacy and numeracy skills - so if businesses with low skill workers are about to crumble or lay off staff, then how about considering a 4 day week for workers at some workplaces and on the fifth day have the worker undertake skills training being paid for by the government. Under this the worker would keep their job and undertake training in an area of need. This could offset the need to lay off staff as wage bills would be decreased and it would provide a much needed investment in skills.
There are tons of other ideas floating around as well, but my point is that the old argument of tax cuts is not suited to this particular situation and right now we need to be making smart investments in our people and economy.
Get flicked
I took the opportunity this long weekend to watch an odd mix of old and new filims
First up was the Arctic Monkey's live DVD which I thought on some level might make up for me being too lazy/tight to go to their recent gig at the Town Hall. It didnt, and don't bother watching it - it's filmed in such a way that it comes across more as a recording of a studio gig like you would find on Letterman, rather than a concert in front of thousands of people. The tracks were good, but the lack of personality meant you may as well chuck on the album.
I then watched Salute, a doco on Peter Norman, who was the white Australian in the Silver Medal position on the dais when Tommie Smith and John Carlos made their protest at the 1968 Mexico Olympics (pictured) and what became one of the iconic images of the last 50 years. Norman supported what they did, gave them the idea for sharing the gloves and wore a human rights badge up there. "He didn't raise his fist, but he lent a hand". The movie backgrounds the protest and reaction afterwards, including how Norman was the only Australian medal winner not to be invited to the Sydney Games, but it also tells the story of the race which naturally got lost in the aftermath. The 200m was supposed to be an American 1,2,3 but Peter Norman upset everything and actually his time for the Silver would have won Gold in the 200m at the Sydney Olympics. Fascinating story and I guess the worrying question is, would the public reaction be any different today? I think what they did was really courageous, but really doubt it would be greeted any differently.
I then watched a couple of higher profile films, the festival favourite, Son of Rambow and Oscar favourite Slumdog Millionaire. Rambow is the story of a young Plymouth Bretheren boy and his mate who remake First Blood - its all very heart warming and well... nice and is worth checking out. Most of you will see Slumdog regardless of what I say, but I really enjoyed it and it definitely is Danny Boyle's best work since Trainspotting. Like Trainspotting, Boyle pulls no punches and fully explores the grimy underworld and its actually quite an uncomfortable watch at times with its confronting nature. The only down side is the constant bewilderment of Jamal, who is played by Dev Patel from Skins, which gets a bit annoying after a while, but other than that its great and like all Boyle films - it has a great soundtrack.
To follow all this up I watched Morgan (Super Size Me) Spurlock's Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden, it was kind of a US foreign relations 101 which is clearly aimed at a US audience, and while that made it a little basic in its analysis, it was still quite a good watch. As with Super Size Me, I do wonder if he is just preaching to the converted at times - his films act as more of a reinforcement of your existing beliefs rather than win people over.
I finished everything off with a couple of solid b-graders - Romero's Land of the Dead and the early 1980s Kurt Russell flick, Escape from New York. Land of the Dead was Romero's 2005 follow up to Day of the Dead and is kind of typical of his Zombie flicks after Dawn with his over the top efforts at commentary on society and class structures. That aside there are some awesome blood and guts scenes and if you look closely at the cover you can find Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright (of Shaun of the Dead fame) who both have cameos. Escape from New York? Well its rubbish isnt it? lol
Friday, February 06, 2009
All kinds of awesome in one
Hat tip to Gizmodo/via Pat for this - there is a new Japanese show called, Engine Oh G12, that basically combines Voltron with Power Rangers - watch the video below. Guaranteed to blow your freakin socks off.
From the Gizmodo write up -
"What's so wonderful about Engine Oh G12 is that it's literally ballooned the genre beyond parody. The show has upped the ante of the giant vehicle-assembled robot television so immensely that it's beyond the scope of humorous exaggeration, its components refined to such a point where every individual element is, in itself, too pure to be tainted by sophomoric prop humor. To fully appreciate this the clip, look beyond the obvious and examine the subtleties of presentation. For instance, two vehicles are there only to serve as covers for the robot's shoes."
From the Gizmodo write up -
"What's so wonderful about Engine Oh G12 is that it's literally ballooned the genre beyond parody. The show has upped the ante of the giant vehicle-assembled robot television so immensely that it's beyond the scope of humorous exaggeration, its components refined to such a point where every individual element is, in itself, too pure to be tainted by sophomoric prop humor. To fully appreciate this the clip, look beyond the obvious and examine the subtleties of presentation. For instance, two vehicles are there only to serve as covers for the robot's shoes."
Public humiliation
As part of the Council's Summer in the City series, our psychotic work personal trainer, Mish, is organising "Putting the Well in Wellington" fitness sessions at Frank Kitts Park - and through immense peer pressure we are basically forced into participating.
It started this week and its fair to say after spending 40 or so minutes doing all sorts of daft sit ups, leg lifts, press ups etc etc with 150 other mugs (and infront 200 others) I feel suitably humiliated and well... fucked.
The best bit had to be while doing the leg lifts when after counting down to 2 to go, she then paused and said "3 and 2 and.... pulse". Who comes up with this stuff?? Mind you, Mish is NZ personal trainer of the year so she must know what she's doing... although as I said to her, if she was really that good - I wouldn't look like this. lol
Oh and in other stupid exercise news, the other morning while buying a coffee down at Legato I entered a competition to win a 6 month membership for Exodus Health Club and cutting a long story short - I won!
It started this week and its fair to say after spending 40 or so minutes doing all sorts of daft sit ups, leg lifts, press ups etc etc with 150 other mugs (and infront 200 others) I feel suitably humiliated and well... fucked.
The best bit had to be while doing the leg lifts when after counting down to 2 to go, she then paused and said "3 and 2 and.... pulse". Who comes up with this stuff?? Mind you, Mish is NZ personal trainer of the year so she must know what she's doing... although as I said to her, if she was really that good - I wouldn't look like this. lol
Oh and in other stupid exercise news, the other morning while buying a coffee down at Legato I entered a competition to win a 6 month membership for Exodus Health Club and cutting a long story short - I won!
Wednesday, February 04, 2009
Ryan Adams and the Cardinals at the Opera House
Well Ryan Adams and the Cardinals hit Wellington this week and rocked out at the Opera House last night.
Over at the Cardinal Cave Blog you can see pics of the band hanging out in "Chillington" and there is video below of Ryan at the Waitangi Park skate bowl. By his own (somewhat melodramatic) account this is Adams' last tour due to his hearing and subsequent balance issues, so I was totally amped for the gig. (Although the infamous blog post has disappeared so maybe this isnt the end?)
They opened with an awesome version of Let it Ride and played some great tracks including Cold Roses, Fix It, Mockingbird Sing and Born into a Light. Adams was also in fine form with some crazy ass banter like having a discussion with gutarist Neal Casal on why he doesnt agree with Come Pick Me Up anymore, but plays it because everyone loves it, and talking about how awesome Laser Tag at the place down Courtenay Place - "That's your funhouse dot net!" A friend of mine was also lucky enough to meet him after the show, and by all accounts he's a really easy going cool guy - "clearly kicking the speedball-a-day habit is treating him well."
On the downside, he didn't play any of the tracks I was dying to hear - there was no La Cienega, Magnolia Mountain, Sweet Illusion, The End, If I'm a Stranger, Cherry Lane, 29 or Blue Sky Blues. I could have also done without Magick, but hey he did play Wonderwall - which I'm sure on some level was a nod to me and their version of Easy Plateau was much better than the album version. As you can probably imagine from the set list below, for me the highlights were definitely Let it Ride and Cold Roses.
Full set list:
Let it Ride, Two, I See Monsters, When the Stars Go Blue, Crossed Out Name, Cold Roses, Grand Island, Fix It, Everybody Knows, Come Pick Me Up, Wonderwall, Oh My Sweet Carolina, Freeway to the Canyon, Oh My God Whatever Etc, Rescue Blues, Mockingbird Sing, Born Into A Light, Easy Plateau, Encore: Goodnight Rose, Magick.
Also I should make mention of the really really odd opening act - it was two young Maori dudes singing what was basically a kiwiana mega mix - Pokarekareana. Tutira mai nga iwi, and so on. It kind of felt like the Cardinals had found them busking down Courtenay Place and invited them to play... very weird.
"...so fast" RA-SK8 Wellington from Wilson Wolf on Vimeo.
Monday, February 02, 2009
Walk the Line... the Johnsonville Line
Ahhh infrastructure investment...mmmmmm. You will remember that two years ago Labour invested a carriage load of cash into rail which included upgrading the crappy Johnsonville Line in Wellington.
Well now its almost done and OnTrack are having an open day (well open afternoon) this Wednesday (4 Feb) from 3pm to 7pm allowing Wellingtonians to literally walk-the-line between the Crofton Downs Station and the Wadestown crossing loop.
Should be a good opportunity to walk through rail tunnels like a madman and avoid the hefty fines and being mashed into tracks all at the same time!
Check out all the details on the OnTrack site.
Well now its almost done and OnTrack are having an open day (well open afternoon) this Wednesday (4 Feb) from 3pm to 7pm allowing Wellingtonians to literally walk-the-line between the Crofton Downs Station and the Wadestown crossing loop.
Should be a good opportunity to walk through rail tunnels like a madman and avoid the hefty fines and being mashed into tracks all at the same time!
Check out all the details on the OnTrack site.
Twit tweets
Agriculture Minister David Carter has a twitter and it's really, really... uh insightful?!
It's filled with gems including my favourite:
Hon David Carter is in the Christchurch electorate office today having important meetings.
I'm sure you were David... I'm sure you were.
It's filled with gems including my favourite:
Hon David Carter is in the Christchurch electorate office today having important meetings.
I'm sure you were David... I'm sure you were.
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