Mike Riversdale

As we'll be in Akaoroa for the new year and we're leaving in a day or two here's my resolutions for those that read and record such items: Pilates at least once a day for 30minutes (to be increased if this turns out to be too easy) Focus on select areas of KM and become extremely adept (actual areas to come early January) Cut back on the booze (ie, have to be a major deal to drink alcohol and not just because it's Friday!) Put all PC held info on-line for total mobility (planning for true broadband and not have to think, "Bum, that's at home!") Have a chat (phone call or face-to-face) with at least one mate/family/whanau per week (starting with Paul who I owe so many calls!!) Get involved with the Rugby World Cup 2011 Enjoy my family and have regular kick-ass times with my awesome wife

We had a corker Christmas made all the better by Jack and his ever growing comprehension of Santa and what it might mean to him - presents. I'd been building it up for a week or so and by the time it was Christmas Eve we were all very excited. We put out the mince pie and juice (orange for those that keep a tag on these things) for the big fella and some Jack-picked grass for the reindeer. He was in bed normal time but it did take a few more stories than normal to get him asleep. In I snuck around 10pm to fill his Santa Sock (from Ballantynes ) and filled it up with the The Warehouse and $2 Shop (not everything costs $2, you have been warned). The big pressies were placed around the tree and away to bed we snuck. He was the last to wake up. We (Liz, Meg and myself with my Mum and Dad) had been up and started breakfast before the girls (Zoe, Char and Jacqui along with Sarah and Graeme) popped over to join Carol who'd made an early start of it and was here at 7:30am. The Christ...

Others don't

Enjoy Courtesy of Cliff

Saw the movie and here's my thoughts including, probably, some SPOILERS!!! Do not read on if you don't want to know about this film (mind you I'm stunned by how many people haven't seen the original and don't actually know the story ...) It was OK - overall 6.5/10. It has some incredible stand out moments during the whole film but generally it just didn't grab me quite as much as Lord Of The Rings. Of course they are different films as LOTR had a complete 'history' to lean on and therefore was steeped in 'a reality', Kong is fantasy and as such had some moments of, "Yeah! Right!" The special effects are good (again, not always perfectly seamless and amazing as LOTR but that's the standard they've raised for themselves) and Kong himself is brilliant ... just amazing. Much like Gollum he is a full character and it doesn't even enter into your mind that it's all made up - he's just one of the acting crew. There are icky...

It's on-line, free and in glorious DHTML (that means no downloads required and it plays directly in your browser!) Where? Here The original came played on a Gameboy (research has shown that I was wrong and it was for the Commodore Amiga ) which I bought during Jude and my round the world trip - in Indonesia I think. I wanted the game and still love it. I'm stuck at a higher level (have been for about 15 years I s'pose). if you don't know what Lemmings is about check this out: The game was unique and based around concepts previously untried. There are 120 levels, and on each level, the player had to guide a group of up to 100 lemmings home by giving individual lemmings various commands. I was never that much into computer games, much to the annoyance and sometimes surprise of those that know me as "the computer guy" - they bore me too quickly. In fact, my brother refused to show new games as he collected them because, "You won't give it a go and ge...

Have had a shocking few days (from about Friday evening) where the body wasn't interested in being all jolly and Yuletide-y and had far more important things to deal with - bugs, germs, viruses and nasties inside me. But I don't think it was the Avian Flu as I didn't have the urge to crap onto car windscreens. Had a shocking sore throat like none I can remember. It was almost too sore to actually swallow and last night it was closing up and I was loosing the power of speech. Together with a total lack of energy and a temperature (as the wee good guys within me fought out the baddies) I was buggered. The lozenges didn't really help but Panadol did supply some relief. But, today, after a cracking sleep I am over it and everything is calming down. The battle was won by my guys. Hope you don't get it and, if you do, it doesn't impede your Christmas festivities and/or get you down too much.

From craigslist (I was reading to find out what the heck it was/is) comes (!) this from their best postings as voted by the readers: Our eyes met during last night's orgy, but I didn't catch your name - m4w - 36 Hee hee ... made me giggle. Of course, it's made up ... isn't it?!? And all this from reading about Web 2.0 on Wired News : Google acquired Dodgeball , a mobile phone social networking application, and recruited one of the princes of mash-ups , Paul Rademacher of Housingmaps.com , from his job at DreamWorks Animation SKG. From there I went to Housingmaps.com and saw that the listings came from craigslist as do a lot of these Google/mashups. BTW: Dodgeball looks quite amazing, I can see why Google bought it.

That generous gentleman behind New Zealand's best music Website, Noizyland , is giving away 2 tickets to the Big Day Out ( Friday 20th Jan, Auckland Ericsson Stadium ) - here's the blurb: The 2006 Big Day Out is shaping up to be a goody, with top international acts The White Stripes, Iggy and the Stooges, Franz Ferdinand, Kings of Leon, The Mars Volta headed our way, and, of course, heaps of of our favourite local acts getting their chance to show their wares on the big stage. Noizyland has got a two tickets to give away to the big event. To be in to win a ticket, just email us with your best Big Day Out story from yesteryear (or if you don't have a BDO story, your best gig-going yarn). The time you spilt your beer on Jon Toogood inside the Boiler Room; record-setting crowd-surfing during Metallica; a moment of epiphany whilst watching The Flaming Lips; that sort of thing... Send your entry to james@noizyland.com by 30th December to be in to win. The two winners of the t...

It's old and been posted a million times on a million websites but but I love it - this version via an email back in 1997 1. No known species of reindeer can fly. BUT there are 300,000 species of living organisms yet to be classified, and while most of these are insects and germs, this does not COMPLETELY rule out flying reindeer which only Santa has ever seen. 2. There are 2 billion children (persons under 18) in the world. BUT since Santa doesn't (appear) to handle the Muslim, Hindu, Jewish, and Buddhist children, that reduces the workload to 15% of the total - 378 million according to the Population Reference Bureau. At an average (census) rate of 3.5 children per household, that's 91.8 million homes. One presumes there's at least one good child in each household. 3. Santa has 31 hours to Christmas to work with, thanks to the different time zones and the rotation of the earth, assuming he travels east to west (which seems logical). This works out to 822.6 visits per ...

The Ricky Gervais podcast is very funny IF you're into weird, mindless and quite pointless ramblings of some funny people. What's it all about, good question, what IS it all about - here's what they say on the Guardian Web : Week three hears Ricky Gervais and Steve Merchant elicit another half-hour of hollow discourse as they continue the vain search for intelligent thought within the brain cells that constitute the perplexing existence of Karl Pilkington. Listen whenever and wherever you want as these weekly half-hour shows are offered as handy iPod-friendly digital files for up to four weeks after they're first posted. Subscribe to their podcast: MP3 : http://www.guardian.co.uk/podcasts/rickygervais/mp3.xml MP4 : http://www.guardian.co.uk/podcasts/rickygervais/mp4.xml Episode 3 December 19 2005 In which Ricky, Steve and Karl discuss... depraved primates with a penchant for privates; celebrities and their jungle snacks; monkeys, mammaries and labour - relations; popu...

Meg is now into 3-6 month clothes and they're already starting to get into the fitted end of the range. She is a big person. It's only when Liz or I see her being held by someone else that we realise just how darned long she is. And she's only 2.5 weeks old! Carol (Kiwi grandma) and Aunty Jane: A very ill Jack crashed out next to his Mummy and sister: And Meg's first time out in a cafe - she loved it, probably:

This is so 1950's Scout Hut ... and yes, it was in a Scout Hut

Playcentre Santa visit (compare to last years ) A Playcentre trip in a bus and ferry to the Diamond Harbour Playcentre:

Jack discovers the Christmas tree and up it goes: Voila! Here's a few decorations, the good stuff that we're collecting: On the table we have the wobbly headed Santa ... but of course :-)

December 14th: 1st Day Dearest John: I went to the door today and the postman delivered a partridge in a pear tree. What a delightful gift. I couldn't have been more surprised. With dearest love and affection, Agnes -------------------------------------- December 15th: 2nd Day Dearest John: Today the postman brought your very sweet gift. Just imagine, two turtle doves.... I'm just delighted at your very thoughtful gift. They are just adorable. All my love, Agnes -------------------------------------- December 16th: 3rd Day Dear John: Oh, aren't you the extravagant one! Now I must protest. I don't deserve such generosity. Three french hens. They are just darling but I must insist.... you're just too kind. Love Agnes -------------------------------------- December 17th: 4th Day Today the postman delivered four calling birds. Now really! They are beautiful, but don't you think enough is enough? You're being too romantic. Affectionately, Agnes ------------------...

Nadolig Llawen a Blwyddyn Newydd Dda The BBC - Wales - Christmas site is pretty nice, especially: Mrs Beeton's Welsh Christmas recipes A Child's Christmas in Wales by Dylan Thomas (not on BBC anymore BUT here it is on YouTube ) SouthEast Wales sub-site Send a SE Welsh Christmas e-card Welsh Christmas traditions Christmas superstitions Welsh Christmas songs And if you want to add a Welsh Christmas phrase to your cards, try BBC - Catchphrase - Welsh Greetings ( these Welsh Christmas links aren't too shabby either) Can't say any of the traditions or superstitions stick out in my mind although I do have a particular need for certain 'Christmas' food and things-to-happen for it to be Christmas Day and not just another day off from work. Interesting how I'm perpetuating the northern hemisphere food tradition of "hot food" (particularly the roast with chicken and all the trimmings) in the height of summer. I s'pose we will combine the chicken thing...

In the spirit of "A review of the year" I thought I'd check out what I was blogging this time in 2004 over at MiramarMike . And it seems I was just entering the world of blogging all young, green and slightly fresh with excitement. The profile picture was uploaded using newly discovered Picasa . I had published my top jokes of all time and part one and two of the life story whilst telling you why I changed my surname from Boyle to Riversdale - I was obviously catching up with old Website pages. There's a stack of King Kong photo's as well as the first of Jack and some of the Riversdales together with a Happy Christmas from us all photo and the message . Aha, here's something related to Christmas in one of the lunch time meanderings as well as the 'Reindeer positions terminated' joke email . Christmas Day was quite awesome as the photo's attest to. And I'll have to link to/from Jacks Playcentre Santa Visit when I put up this years....

The ICT Christmas Do (or "IM&CT" as we're officially called - what do you think it stands for?) last Friday was fine and dandy. The 4 hours of yearly review and catch-up seemed to go well, wasn't as tedious as previous attempts and was well hosted by Ciarran, a man that's kissed the Blarney that's for sure. I even won a prize for the least number of buzz words ... cracker! As for the evening do: Drinks from the bar until 6:30pm Buffet meal with wine Cash bar after Disco man playing hits from the 60's, 70's and 80's Drunk and in a cab for home by 1:30am All jolly fine and dandy ... could've been any Christmas Do in anywhere English speaking country :-) Oh, and I'm still fascinated to know where I left comments in my drunken haze, There was a whole of Department ("Corporate Services") 2 hour catch-up which was tedious in the extreme until 4 heads of sections did their catch-up presos as Teletubbies . Full costumes, music, ope...

With a British bent, granted.

Love it Nice linking from James

She's all good. She sleeps well. She eats well. She loves watching her bro'. She is, however, having a great big cry (nay, scream sometimes) around 7-8pm for about 2 hours before nodding off. This is, as the mid-wife explained yesterday, "Something that some babies do and some don't. In fact, quite a few do. We don't know why. And what soothes them one night may not work the next. Some babies do it for 8 hours at a time". The ending to that should have been, "So, enjoy your baby. I'm outta here" - exit stage left. Ach. It's a small thing really and as long as she's not in any danger, getting hurt or spoilt by it then we'll live through it and survive. Oh. And I get to have an hour with just her around 6am each morning - we listen to BBC comedy via the Web together and I adore those moments.

One of the little Christmas wishes (amongst the big wishes ) I had was that Morphess of Trivial Pursuit would come back and make us all laff and wonder with her amazing postings. And she has - I am soooo happy. Just Sarah from one before (no longer available) to re-surface and my 'blog Christmas presents' will have been delivered :-)

I've just tried to call someone that doesn't have direct dialing, you ask for the extension number. When I asked to be put through it came back to the guy attempting to putting me through. I asked if I could just leave a voicemail message and he said ... prepare yourself: I'm sorry, the line seems to be busy so I can't put you through to voicemail. Off this goes to Dilbert !

(or Tasmania, the Shetlands, the mid-West and any other place "known" for that sort of thing) Dave says it all so in the spirit of copyright violation I will cut-and-paste: OK, THAT'S IT: WE NEED TO SHUT DOWN THE INTERNET RIGHT NOW Ewww (Thanks to Angie) UPDATE: Commenter Scoop points out that this story is from the Weekly World News, which means it may not be totally 100 percent accurate, although to judge from the headlines listed on this site , the WWN has broken some important stories, such as "Mars Observer Photographed Giant Fish in Space!''

I just can't get my head around the apparent torture and then murder of the woman here in central Christchurch . The reports of two laughing guys repeatedly (4 times) running over the woman as she begged for her life just beggars belief. It disgusts me. As it is thought by the police that the woman may have been a prostitute they had the Christchurch representative of the New Zealand Prostitutes Collective was on National Radio this morning and she made the comment that (I paraphrase) that there is a lot of street violence in central Christchurch, not all of it is aimed at prostitutes and a lot are random acts of violence. Christchurch, for me, is the one place in the world that I've been very wary of walking around at night. It definitely pays to be not too drunk (not always the case, I admit) and just quite aware of the immediate surrounds. Of course, reputation feeds reputation and one mustn't get paranoid about it. If you're in well lit areas, with a bunch of peop...

Despite my attempts to send cards to everyone in the universe I know I'm not gonna make it happen and will miss someone off. To those people I say, "Ach, whaddya gotta do eh?" I would also like to say Happy Thingy and Merry Doobery to everyone who comes to the blog on a regular basis (be it once a day or once a year). I love reading your comments and I most certainly love the links provided. From me, Liz, Jack and Meg we hope you have a corking Yuletide and a most fantabulous New Year doing all the things (and people) that you want and taking no care over your waistline in the process. A special shout out to Llew , Martha , Jessie , Caroline , Dave , Ross , Eroica , Alan , Emily (thanks for the picture ), Jonny , Amanda , James , Cliff , all at the Wellingtonista and Richard - for all the laffs, intrigues and info you've provided on an extremely regular and consistent level, awesome and cheers! And a final call to Caroline ( Trivial Pursuit ) and Sarah (one before)...

myegoism: a bit of crass for Christmas *giggle* [Updated] And someone at work (a female) sent me a link to Tampon Crafts that has a particularly 'nice' range of Christmas gifts for those that want to gross out the kids.

[Update 16-Dec] They found him, he is fine but no-one has explained it in anyway. Man in traction flees New Zealand hospital I love: It was not immediately clear how the man sustained the injuries that put him in hospital, nor why he fled before completing his treatment.

Tart it up and pimp it like it wants to ... your Blogger site that is: Blogger Templates - Free blog templates, original skins and new designs for Blogger

2 days to go! Vote for SunnyO! [Update Alert *whoop, whoop*] SunnyO is up for 2005 Webby Awards - Best Australian Or New Zealand Blog Go on, vote for llew , you know you want to. ------ I did. And I know it makes sense. Llew and his blog (SunnyO) are good for what ails ya. He's cleaner than white. He's the housewife's choice. He's new and improved. He wants you to vote for SunnyO in the 2006 New Zealand NetGuide awards . I fully and without reservation endorse Llew and SunnyO as my choice for the 2006 NZ NetGuide Web Awards. So, do us all a favour, follow your heart (and the upcoming link) and vote for SunnyO! How? It's as simple as 1, 2, 3 (and 4): 1: Go to http://www.netguide.co.nz/awards/2006/votenow/login.php 2: Log in (I know, I know - but do it once and make your vote count) 3: Enter SunnyO (URL is http://sunnyo.blogspot.com) 4: Click the Vote/Submit/Go (whatever it is) button

According to the KongIsKing site the Venture may have already been filmed. Here's a few photo's I took this morning as Liz, Jack and I had a wander around in the sun ... King Kong: Venture #1 King Kong: Venture #2 King Kong: Venture #3 King King: Venture #4 King Kong: Venture #5 King Kong: Venture #6 with a bit of the fake dock. King Kong: Final shot of the Venture.

A little community notice after I received one of the many hoax emails asking me to log on to the National Bank web site and type in my passwords ... yeah, right! The National Bank does have details about this attempt And, of course, as with all these emails the only advice is DO NOT CLICK ON ANY LINK . Report it as spam and/or delete it!!!

Sorry if I left a comment on your blog last night/early this morning ... I can recall doing it but no idea what I said or where I said it.

[updated 10-Dec] This is the most reflected back on me posting,"Have you not read about ..." I have published. Not the most commented on (in a blog/geek sort of way) but a real/talk-to-me sort of way. ---- Weird ... and possibly a bit icky to hear. I'm not talking suddenly or over night but during the course of my life it's turned itself over so that it's now 'looking' into my foot with the nail part almost horizontal. All a bit like the Flounder and its eyes. Wonder why. Of course that's not the only weird part about my body. Some would say my brain takes the top prize but I think that's a little unfair and tad unkind even if it is humorous ... we geniuses have feelings too you know! My hair has been on a steady and fairly swift retreat from the rigors of living at the front of the head and I've always had a pronounced Widows Peak (that's pronounced, Wid-ows P-eek :-). Moving on down the body I'm currently living in (philosophical p...

I've been a bit "down" on the whole deal as I'm sure it's gonna exhibit all the best bits from The Office without the humour. We (IT bods) have a 4 hour working meeting and I know the management team and Amy have been working extremely hard to make sure it doesn't become to Brent-like . We'll see ... I mean, the bar isn't exactly set high here is it - Works Christmas Do ... IT section ... for a City Council . We're not talking free champagne and taking everyone to a sandy beach with special showing of King Kong . And I've even gotta give a quick (we're talking less than 3 minutes) summary of the Intranet project Amy and I have been working on - battling the forces of evil against, more like. So, we're off to Riccarton Racecourse on the bus at 12:30pm, name tags will be supplied and preso's will occur (no lunch though so I'd better get something in a mo'). Then it's 4 hours of fun and games (yes, there will be games) be...

Source: Developing meebo Welcome to Meebo! 12/7/2005 We're just shy of our 3 month birthday but it feels like forever. Lots of you have asked us a little bit about how we develop meebo -- so I thought I'd give a little overview. Maybe it'll be helpful if you're trying to get something off the ground. Working on group projects at school and for fun taught us a lot about organization and how important it is to have systems in place that make you more efficient. We started out using CVS as source control (even with only 3 people, typing rm -rf * is too easy) but then switched over to Subversion . Atomic changes are great and working with branches is so much easier. Setting up a backup system is key too; you don't want to lose all of your work! We home-brewed a nightly backup script that keeps the code repository safe, as well as the blog and forum. Speaking of scripts, they make life so much easier :) With so many servers, it's a pain to have to do things by ...

Nearly everything is truly beer orientated in my culture and to that end there’s even a traditional manner that the father and his mates (normally only men but this is a whole new century) celebrate the arrival of a new kiddie winkle within the family – have a few beers down the pub. To ensure that this isn’t seen as just another excuse to ‘have a few beers down the pub’ the whole event is steeped in tradition, starting with the non-beer related name, “Wetting The Baby’s Head”. Um, and that’s about it really. It’s then back to ‘having a few beers down the pub’. Having been an the Diversity Training here at the Council I’m sure you’d all like to join me in celebrating the awesome event of Meg’s Birth using the traditional Welsh props (beer, mates, laffs). When: Saturday 17th, 3pm-6pm Where: The Twisted Hop (6 Poplar Street, Lichfield Lanes) Why: ‘see above” Can I get a show of hands for those that are up for it as I realise it’s getting fully into the Christmas period? Thanks.

Christmas will be awesome if this turns up under the tree. It's a U10 from iriver - it rocks! It not only looks sexy as it does everything I want (and probably more): Revolutionary 'direct click' concept directly on the display and without knobs or buttons High-resolution display with 320x240 (QVGA) Outstanding features: supports MP3, WMA, ASF, OGG Q10, MPEG4 SP videos, JPG photos, texts, flash games Built-in FM-tuner including recording and alarm function Available in 1 GB and 2 GB versions Cool docking station with infrared remote control available optionally Even the Flash website is ... flash! I. WANT. ONE! Hat tip to Martha for the heads-up