Mike Riversdale

My brother's best (and I think oldest continuous) friend died earlier this week in circumstances most sad and desperate. I'm not sure what I am gonna write ... I didn't know Dave that well despite great times at a stag do in the wilds of Scotland and hearing loads of cool things about him from Rob. I know he had thought about coming to NZ at some point (mind you, a lot of Brits say that :-) but life changed on him quite dramatically when he and his partner split up. I think the real reason it's hit me so hard is because it's my brother that is hurting. My younger brother has had something he treasured (and will, I hope, learn to treasure again) taken from him in a ... a ... can't think of the word that fits - sad + unfortunate + desperate manner. I also know (haven spoken to him) that guilt at "not being there" (sub-text, "I should've been") is hard to deal with. When someone does something seemingly, against you there is always recourse...

StumbleUpon led me to The Age Project . Basically, guess people's age. I've added a picture of myself to the list and it'll be interesting to see how old people think I am. This is the picture I've used ... go on, guess my age [3-Dec-2024: This service no longer exists] See my page at the Age Project

Pool A: England 36 Tonga 20 Oh well, I s'pose the better team on the day won and all that cock. Can't complain, I did predict it and the Tongan's were looking very good until that last second try to England just on half-time - I think that took away the confidence of the Tongans and passed it onto the English. Pah! So, Australia through to the semi-finals after taking down the World Champions - I can live with that. Reviews, photos and thoughts: Official + photos Blood and Mud Green and Gold Rugby Rugby World Cup 2007 ruggerblogger BBC Rugby World Cup blog Scrumbag Sportingo Podcasts from the week Dropkicks: Episode 34 - Rugby World Cup Week #3 Pool play progress at the 2007 Rugby World Cup, and the Dropkicks bring you the latest results, and their thoughts on the likely quarter-finalists. Also: some Air NZ Cup action (exclusive!), and Athletes and Dick (aka Mark Ellis) of the Week. The Rugby Roundtable: Episode 35: The Blackening Whilst I'm at it, here's a few ...

As I've mentioned before the Philip Pullman trilogy, His Dark Materials , is being made into films ( official site ) and I've just stumbled across a few more at Yahoo! Movies . In particular I'd point you to the Redefining Daemons . Enjoy ... and prepare yourself for the finest of fantasy that will challenge as well as stun

It's been a while since I simply HAD to show Liz an JonnyB posting - this is one ! It starts: “I guess that’s what love really is,” I ponder. Ice forms on the telephone wire. “So,” replies the LTLP in the calm voice that she uses to kill the ants, ... Go and read the rest >>

In my small quest to make the "greatest living Englishman"* ever so slightly more famous I ask you all to both say, "Stephen Fry" and thus prove his point and then visit his blog posting, Let Fame , to find out what just happened. Be warned, it is a blessay ("blog essay") of epic proportions and will use all the ink in your computer screen to display - I have yet to find the bottom if it all. Key quotes (for me at least) so far - expect updates as I continue reading: Fame has this unusual property. It exists only in the mind of others. It is not an intrinsic characteristic, feature or achievement. Fame is wholly an exterior construct and yet, for all that it is defined by other people’s knowledge of a given person, they cannot dismantle or deactivate the fame that their knowledge engenders. What an ugly sentence. I mean this. We cannot, however much we may want to, make someone unfamous. ... I can’t blame Jade Goody for the fact that I know her name. Man...

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We've had the new Welsh and English Rugby World Cup jerseys ... now here's the Irish from the very cool and very Irish, The Fear of God blog

Despite the constant and very irritating complaint that the month of pool games has been a total waste of time the final weekend of games does include some fine opportunities for Northern Hemisphere teams to be bowled out . Unfortunately that does include Wales. So far the Quarter Finals are adorned with the usual suspects of the All Blacks (NZ), Australia and South Africa, all comfortably through ... too comfortably for the All Blacks according to lot of people. However the following games are not to be missed - the rest you can watch if you're interested but I shan't bother and that might even include the All Black/Romania game ( 10pm, Saturday ) if I am in any way tired. Pool A: England v Tonga (6:30am, Saturday) This could be a fairly rough and tumble game with the chance that the current World Cup holders leave before the Quarters. Tonga, however, will have to be on their top game and play for 80 minutes as England have looked just that little bit better each game and d...

My family are back and is very VERY cool. It smells right, it sounds right and it's full with laughter, hugs and tantrums - I love it. Not that big in the grand scheme of things but it's great for me

Clichés you will hear over the next week - "business end", "sharp end" and "the real competition .. *sheesh*. And, I understand that the UK tv channel ITV1 has "all the World Cup action" and for it's sins has hired New Zealand's "finest" commentator in the form of Mr Murray Mexted - ha ha ha ha, sorry to those in the UK that have to put up with him, think of him as a 'care in the community' citizen and let him do his thing but don't get involved. With two more games to go tonight before this weekend's "action and reaction" (that'll be another cliché to watch out for) are complete - I will update tomorrow morning. BTW: I don't post links to any traditional media (newspapers, TV etc) as there's oodles of them and you can finds them with a quick Google News search Pool A: South Africa 30 Tonga 25 A cracking game and oh so close to the "major upset of the competition" (clichés keep on co...

Wicked discussion with Bill Gates about health issues in the world. His passion about making a difference to the those suffering from health issues is quite stunning and I love being in a world where people like him exist. Thanks to Tony Rule for the link [3-Dec-2024: Video no longer exists]

It's a weird thing being home in the house on myself. Of course I've been home alone before and I'm a big boy now (ooer) so I'm not as scared of the dark, strange noises and running out of food as I used to be. However the house has most definitely grown in size. With Liz, Jack and Meg here the home (not just a house) is shared by us all, open to us all and there's not many times to sit and listen to the space. When they left yesterday afternoon for Christchurch I had a great many plans. I was going to watch Spiderman 3 , drink beer, read the newspaper, watch rugby , have a curry and write so many blog postings that my three loyal readers will be overcome by the avalanche of thought provoking ideas. And then on Sunday I was going to do more. I found that I was rushing though. I wrote my first 'home alone' posting in such a hurry that I barely had time to enjoy the process. I moved between rooms at speed. I was snatching at the moments. This is how I must b...

This nugge t from the Scottish coach, Frank Hadden. Bear this in mind Scotland have never beaten the All Blacks ever and they have never lost any game at Murrayfield (the empty stadium they'll be playing in later tonight): "It's pretty simple beating the All Blacks, in my opinion," Hadden told reporters. "If we do what we have been practising better than they do what they have been practising, we will win the game." Ha ha ha ha - brilliant. It's easy because we know the secret is being better than them!?!? Actually, the secret is to score more points than them. Spentrails ... care to comment ;-) Just for the record (thanks Scrum.com ) ... The All Blacks' unbeaten streak against Scotland currently sits at 25 tests, comfortably longer than the next best. In tests dating back to 1905, the Scots can only point to draws at Edinburgh in 1964 (0-0) and 1983 (25-25) for some solace. In recent times it has been largely one-sided scorelines between the ...

It wasn't me that laid the bet ... Liz would a) kill me; b) ask me where I found NZ$5.83m ... in that order. With the tournament nearing the quarterfinal stages, New Zealand are the top picks at A$1.71 with Betfair . "We can't discuss his identity. Unfortunately I can't disclose his country of origin," Betfair spokesman Hugh Taggart said today. "This is an enormous bet. It's certainly one of the biggest individual bets we've seen on Betfair and one that would normally have bookies running for cover." With my trusty slide rule that gives a winning payout of about AU$8,550,000 (+ the original AU$5m stake - minus commission) For my international readers the stake, as at 22nd Sept, 9:26pm, of AU$6m turns out to be: New Zealand dollars : $5.83m British pounds sterling : £2.14m Euros : € 3.07m US dollars : $4.3m Indonesian rupiah ( for a laugh ): Rp 47.39 BILLION

Google is already offering a Rugby World Cup tab for iGoogle (your own Google homepage) but here's an even quicker way to get the latest about your team. Go to a Google search page and type in 'new zealand world cup' to get a quick summary about the All Blacks* that looks a lot like this: Here ya go, links to the Google search pages for: 'new zealand world cup' 'wales world cup' * I won't insult your intelligence by telling you to replace 'new zealand' with the country of your choice ... and that the country you choose actually has to be playing in the competition ;-)

I've been busy ! And so, here's some links and a photo (along the bottom) for each of the games this week. Pool B: Fiji 29 Canada 16 Reviews, photos and thoughts: Official + photos Rugby World Cup 2007 Pool A: Samoa 15 Tonga 19 Reviews, photos and thoughts: Official + photos Rugby World Cup blog Rugby World Cup 2007 Blood and Mud + here Dropkicks Pool D: France 87 Namibia 10 Reviews, photos and thoughts: Official + photos Rugby World Cup 2007 Pool C: Scotland 42 Romania 0 Reviews, photos and thoughts: Official + photos Rugby World Cup 2007 BBC World Cup blog Pool C: Italy 31 Portugal 5 Reviews, photos and thoughts: Official + photos         Pool B: Wales 72 Japan 18 This game I did see and have already blogged: It made me proud to be Welsh again Reviews, photos and thoughts: Official + photos MiramarMike BBC World Cup blog Pool D: France 25 Ireland 3 The game this morning. Weren't the Irish very pedestrian, made the average-to-OK French look positively ...

I have noticed the following All Black logo is spreading throughout the Kiwi users of Facebook ... and I wholeheartedly support it! Of course it doesn't have to be limited to Facebook, but it's a great place to start! Picture location: http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y211/miramarmike/RWC%202007/all_blacks.jpg [10-Nov-2024: IMAGE LOST TO THE MISTS OF TIME, SORRY]

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Not the rugby ( Wales 72 Japan 18 ) and certainly not in the first half which was very scrappy from the Welsh, loads of handling errors and coughed up opportunities. I was proud because I finally got up to hear the Welsh National Anthem ( Mae Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau / The Land Of My Fathers)sang with (a bit of) gusto. Of all the anthems that we could hear during this competition I have to rate the Welsh as the one that always makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up - watch a version and tell me it's not amazing! I also rate the following anthems : French with "La Marseillaise" stirring stuff, my favourite version is from Casablanca NZ with "God Defend New Zealand" my home and I love that everyone I know knows both languages watch Hayley belt it out Scotland with "Flower of Scotland" (not an official anthem but it should be) reminds me of Britain more than the other one - this version from the soccer win over France Your favourite? Back to the ...

Following on from the Welsh strip (be afraid, very afraid) here's the new English strip* as discovered over at the mighty Dropkicks * for those that don't see the humour think back to last Saturday's morning game , the score and then take a look at their 2004 RWC strip

Wellingtonista: Events hand fed to you As the interweb moves inexorably towards a "don't make me come over there" attitude we are glad to report that two of Wellingtons most complete "What's On ..." guides are now available in glorious RSS Feeling Great - subscribe Wotzon - subscribe read more >>

[Updated with second picture] When yee turn on your Talk Like A Pirate Day computer gizmo with a, "Yo ho ho!" don't forget to plug in this, ahaaar

After the horizon of "Hello World" I love the intimate detail and it totally works for me as my new PC wallpaper: Dragonfly by @tomix

Google Reader is no longer "beta/labs" Google Docs now comes with Presentations Official blog

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This article is now at Enterprise 2.0 New Zealand style: Faceforce shows the way with enterprise social networking

This has been in the blogosphere* for some weeks now but I've only just got around to watching it ... and it is very cool, especially how you can easily remove people from a photo. As David G says , " I look forward to the day when this sort of technology is built into Flickr" * blogosphere ... what a naff early 2000 word ... I predict it will become a classic retro word in a few years

International Talk Like A Pirate Day - Wednesday 19th What's it all about? Why , when and what now and more of your nosey questions answered . How to talk like a pirate The ancient art of Pirate speech was almost lost. Thankfully we now have the following helpful guides to keep the language alive and well: The basics - Ahoy!, Avast! and Arr! Advanced - Bilge rat, grog and lubber Top 10 pickup lines : Example - 5) Pardon me, but would ya mind if fired me cannon through your porthole? For the kids The full on "Talk Like A Pirate" kit You can throw a party with (all in pdf): invitations , posters , badges and eyepatches ... You might even want to get yourself a Pirate name For New Zealand Pirates in 2007 Wellington has: The Great Pirate Corporate Challenge Strap on your cutlesses and and stage a mutiny for a corporate challenge with piratitude. Celebrate International Talk Like a Pirate Day with the Great Pirate Corporate Challenge 2007! Participating Pirate Crews m...

The barCamp on the weekend generated a lot of enthusiasm, energy and ideas ... but now what? I've left a section at the top of the BarCampWellingtonNZegov Wiki for people to leave some ideas about "What next?" - go for your life ...

Following up from my When Google rules the Web what will you do? article from earlier this year Jim points me to the next theory of how Google is slowly trying to take over the world in the name of goodness, non-evil and making squillions: Google's plan for world domination. Also why the iPod Classic sucks. The article from I, Cringely ends with: Forget about net neutrality and forget about making nice-nice with broadband ISPs OR phone companies. Google would overnight become the largest U.S. ISP with direct and very high-performance access to its customers, including those using the new Google Phone or any other phone that supports WiFi connections, like the iPhone and many others. Google becomes the biggest and lowest-cost ISP and potentially the biggest and lowest-cost mobile phone company in the bargain.

Say it ain't so - the Chocolate Fish to close Using the wonders of modern technology and the interweb we here at Wellingonsita Towers have discovered that The Chocolate Fish over at Scorching Bay is set to close. Noooooooooooooooooooooo! read on >>>

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Rugby was the loser on the day. I arose from my slumber at about 6am and managed to get right into the England/South Africa game before grabbing a cab to get into the Fronde offices as I was at/organised the Wellington barCamp around e-Government today (more on that in another posting). By the time I'd had a few beers at the after match function (thanks Google), got home, bought a bottle of wine for Liz & I, settled in, caught up and finally got into the All Blacks game at 11pm I was knackered. I managed to see most of the first half and lost the will to watch just after the All Blacks stepped up into second gear for about 10 minutes scoring tries whenever they felt the need. I awoke at 1pm, decided there and then that I wasn't ever gonna see the Welsh game through and went to bed :-( I have to come up with a new strategy that involves some sleep during the evening. Pool A: England 0 South Africa 36 Wow. Zero. That must be hard to take back in England ... I'll try and...

If you have a website ("blog", "journal", "site" or a combination of the above) then you're probably letting people subscribe to the content ... but do you let them see all the content via RSS or a teaser and try and draw them in with the first 255 characters? ProBlogger has a great posting entitled, Full Or Partial RSS Feeds - The Great Feed Debate My view is - give them the lot! How someone reads the content shouldn't your concern as long as you know it's being read. Of course if you're trying (in vain) to make $$$'s off your site then you'll probably want to have a lot more 'value add' that people can click through to. Of course you can subscribe to my various full feeds

When Richie McCaw does a pushup, he isn't lifting himself up; he's pushing the Earth down. When Richie McCaw goes swimming he doesn't get wet, the water gets Richie McCawed. When the Bogeyman goes to sleep every night, he checks his closet for Richie McCaw. Richie McCaw counted to infinity - twice. Richie McCaw invented every colour. Except pink. Tom Cruise invented pink. Richie McCaw's hand is the only hand that can beat a Royal Flush. Richie McCaw gave Mona Lisa that smile. Richie McCaw can slam a revolving door. Some kids p*ss their name in the snow. Richie McCaw can p*ss his name into concrete. Richie McCaw's calendar goes straight from March 31st to April 2nd; No-one fools Richie McCaw. Richie McCaw can speak Braille. Richie McCaw's tears cure cancer. Too bad he has never cried. Ever. Superman owns a pair of Richie McCaw pyjamas. Richie McCaw owns the greatest Poker Face of all-time. It helped him win the 1993 World Series of Poker despite him holding just...

Following on from "The Men In Blacks" I give you God Defend The All Blacks , which has been doing the rounds and was the number one video in C4's, Top 10 Reasons Why We'll Bring Home The Cup . I actually thought I'd blogged it a while ago but bugger me if I can find it - there's a challenge with a prize, *ahem*. Thanks to Brenda for reminding me of it (and the other which I will find later)