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Showing posts from June, 2009

Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra - BRILLIANT

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Dressed up, ready to be entertained and by wholly fvck were we all entertained. It was BRILLIANT. Monkey suits, FOTC stars, whistlers from heaven, so many smiles on stage it was infectious, an audience/crowd willing them to be awesome (and they were), a merry band of mates that all dressed up to the nines, amazing voices, brilliant song choices ... everything was perfect, oh, the set was top. All in all, just fvcking brilliant!!!!! Thank you all 12 members of the Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra , your 6pm show ROCKED!!

Mike's Ukelele gig costume

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It's gonna be a pipper of a Saturday evening, what what!

Security Escalation Levels Around The World

This is pure gold from Adam's JokesList email ------------------- The British are feeling the pinch in relation to recent terrorist threats and have raised their security level from "Miffed" to "Peeved." Soon, though, security levels may be raised yet again to "Irritated" or even "A Bit Cross." Brits have not been "A Bit Cross" since the blitz in 1940 when tea supplies all but ran out. Terrorists have been re-categorized from "Tiresome" to a "Bloody Nuisance." The last time the British issued a "Bloody Nuisance" warning level was during the great fire of 1666. The French government announced yesterday that it has raised its terror alert level from "Run" to "Hide". The only two higher levels in France are "Collaborate" and "Surrender." The rise was precipitated by a recent fire that destroyed France 's white flag factory, effectively paralysing the country'

Vote Yes

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[Updated] Added YesVote.org details All the reasons and discussion for you to vote Yes to the fvcked up July referendum question ("Should a smack as part of good parental correction be a criminal offence in New Zealand?") during the month of July are over at Ben.geek.nz: Please Vote Yes If it helps, before you vote, ask yourself some of these questions: As a 30 year old, would you expect your father to hit you if he doesn’t like your opinions? Would you permit another child to hit your child if he didn’t like the game he was playing? Would you push your child over – repeatedly – if he refused to play rugby? I will be voting YES! And here's a great site: http://yesvote.org.nz/

Standing At The Doorway To An Amazing World

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Recently Jack (6 years of age) has discovered the wonders of longer "novel" type books and is enthralled in the nightly readings of Enid Blyton's Faraway Tree stories . We have ploughed through the various crazy lands of The Magic Faraway Tree and are working through the adventures held within The Folk Of The Faraway Tree ... and I've just noticed that the first in the series is actually The Enchanted Wood which I think we skipped over, ach whatever, Jack managed to watch Star Wars quite successfully in this order: I, II, III, IV, VI, V :-) Now that we have passed on from the plastic bath books, large cardboard page books, pop-up books (although do we ever truly loose the wonder of pop-up books?), large format picture books (of which Mo Willems and Julia Donaldson are the best) and onto smaller scale books I am delighted that the Jack stands in the doorway to other worlds. He's gonna love it. Back to Enid Blyton ... I have just discovered that: Her full name

A Bit of Fry & Laurie - Beauty and Ideas

"Would you hold that thought for me, would you, would you?" ... "I'm now holding a thought"

DaVinci From Microsoft Is Coooooool As [video]

This from Brett Robert's blog is very cool - let it play through and then think, "Hmm, didn't I see that in The Day The Earth Stood Still the other day on DVD" ... I did. DaVinci (Microsoft Surface Physics Illustrator) from Razorfish - Emerging Experiences on Vimeo .

Microsoft Will Pay You To Use Free Software

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Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 (it's a web browser ... may even be the one you're using but knowing my readership, unlikely). It's a browser, it works .... meh. Of course Microsoft want you to use there's before Google's Chrome , Apple's Safari and those upstarts from Opera or Flock . All of those, including Microsoft's IE, are free. You go to any of the links above and download, install and use for free. Nothing will be asked of you now or later. So why does Microsoft want to give you $10,000 to use their version of free software? I know, do you ... BUT the most galling bit is if you got to the competition page, http://www.microsoft.com/australia/ie8/competition/ and have the audacity to be using a non-IE browser you get told to naff off ... (this was for Opera Unity, obviously didn't know how to handle this new browser :-) The message in all it's glory for Chrome users (click for biggery) ...

Mojo, Old Bank Thanks Jack For His Flag As It Prepares For Your Treat

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With the 2nd All Black v France test here in Wellington on Saturday a few of the more 'on to it' shops have put up the bunting and Mojo (in the point end of Old Bank Arcade) are one of those. Unfortunately they seemed to have gained a lot of French colours but no All Blacks malarkey. The cry went out via Twitter and, after talking with Jack, I popped the flag into the shop yesterday. Having seen the French colours I did think that maybe the promised Mojo "Red Shoes Day" treat might be a red balloon each but they are thinking bigger and better ...

Dead Lawyer's Video Accusation Causes Chaos in Guatemala [Video]

This is quite incredible only because you and I can see it. I'm sure there have been many such occurrences in history with letters left, death bed confession etc but this is the first time I've been able to witness it. From Citizentube: Dead Lawyer's Video Accusation Causes Chaos in Guatemala : Tensions are heating up in Guatemala after President Alvaro Colom was accused of ordering the murder of Guatemalan lawyer Rodrigo Rosenberg. Rosenberg represented Khalil Musa, a man who had been at odds with the Colom administration and was also recently murdered. After Rosenberg's own death, police found a video testimonial recorded by Rosenberg just days before he was shot to death, in which he accuses the President and his followers of killing him, as well as Musa and his daughter. ... And now the video itself ...

Red Shoe Day (this Friday) Now Gets You "Treat"

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[Updated] Noticed it was "treat", singular, being offered :-) This Friday has been determined by many (*ahem*) as Red Shoe Day But wearing your red shoes will not only bring you huge smiles, lots of bounce and an outlook on the final day of the working week bordering on the carelessness but thanks to Mojo at Old Bank "treat". Yep, Red Shoe Day (this Friday) now comes with Mojo treats as Twittered earlier today: View Larger Map

Friday Has Been Determined As "Wellington Red Shoe Day"

I will be wearing (THE) red shoes, you? You can thank the friendly @mojooldbank staff :-)

Best Spam Of The Day

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Satan Has A ToolShed ... Shoe-Horning That In Aren't We?

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What am I blithering on about Right, from leaving my comment on Che's Bain post I had this response to read in my InBox which took me to Steven Price's blog which had a humourous(ish) Bain/tape backward post ( useful post here ) tape including the link to Jeff Milner's Backmasking site: http://jeffmilner.com/backmasking.htm And there I discovered the power of suggestion. Listen to the snippette of Stairway To Heaven by Led Zeppelin Listen to the same snippette played backwards taking note of the evilness therein (or just confusion because it's a song being played backwards) BUT, then show the supposed lyrics of backwards snippette - now, that's pretty weird eh I wonder how else we're being manipulated, suggested to and otherwise buggered around with! (and let me tell you the following "research" was extreme fun) Firstly we have the "the goverment (or even just "they") are reading/controlling my mind" gang: Inside The Mind Cont

I Love My Kids

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From the 2009 Miramar Central Kindy Wheelathon

I've Meme'd

The Queen of Petone meme'd crazy chicken lady of Lower Hutt who has passed on the pain to me :-) Wendy claims it to be her "first and last" but I am fully aware of how ego-glorious it is to have such a thing pop into ones RSS reader and look forward to seeing her next meme posting. Righty-ho, let's get the rules out of the way: The rules: Respond and rework; answer the questions on your blog, replace one question that you dislike with a question of your invention, add one more question of your own. Tag eight (or so) other people: Che Tibby , Sue Tyler , Hadyn Green , Shona Spence , Alan MacDougall ... perfect It was tough to find people who actually blog now-a-days, bloody Twitter :-) What is your current obsession? Hmm, not being on-line quite as much ... no, it's getting quality stuff via the screen when I am on-line and if that can't happen, like TV, TURN! IT! OFF! What is your weirdest obsession? Nothing I obsess about is weird, is it? Golly, I don

Sorry I'm Late

See, I told you so Sorry I'm Late site with "making of"

First Lips Then ... This

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Not at The Malthouse (lips) this time but I'm sure it won't be long before we gents have the joy of ...

The Best Of YouTube - Brilliant Videos DO Exist In YouTube

Ok, say YouTube to yourself, what's your first reaction ... after, "Why am I talking to myself?!". If like me it probably went something like this: Me: YouTube ... ? Me 2 (mini me?): Hmm, crap videos at appalling quality of knobends falling off skateboards Me: oookay ... Mini Me: Ooh, ooh ... AND, teenagers slapping each other ! Me: ... ! ... Mini Me (tm): And as much illegal uploads of music videos as your Internet connection can handle. Me: So, not worth the 20 hours of video a minute being uploaded then? Mini Me (tm): Nope! Yeah? And then I got an iPhone. With the iPhone came iTunes. And iTunes let me wander naked through the world of podcasts - I know, slow on the uptake for a computer guy. Within this strange world I stumbled across The Best Of YouTube podcast . I now think that YouTube is not only full of knobends and illegal music but also has amazing artists, truly funny incidents, amazing speeches, incredible animation and totally and utterly legal uploads fr

Weta Cave, 1 Year Old AND Signings Galore

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Weta Cave here in Miramar (Wellington, NZ) celebrates one year of being around - top work Weta: To celebrate, Anna and Stephen have put together a few fantastic birthday offers, all starting Friday 5 June and valid until 14 June. These offers are EXCLUSIVE to the Weta Cave and will not earn Weta Dollars: Buy ANY Dr Grordbort's product and get a FREE Saturn 17 poster Spend over NZ$75 and choose a FREE Mines of Moria Lord Of The Rings environment or a Jack and Denham's Ravine Struggle from our Kong range Buy one Hellgate:London statue - get one FREE! Buy any large Doctor Who statue and get a helmet FREE! And in the jaunty month of June they have a few events the fans out there (Adam, I'm looking at you) may care to take notice of: MEET GUILLERMO DEL TORO AT THE WETA CAVE Wednesday 17th June 6-8 PM Hollywood Director Guillermo del Toro will be launching his first novel, The Strain, with a book signing at the Weta Cave. The Strain is the first volume in a trilogy of books, c

The Wrong Toilet Lips

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I have to say these urinals at The Malthouse are VERY creepy and every guy I have spoken to agrees. There's something quite ... wrong, to be peeing into an upturned mouth ... unless golden showers are your thing, otherwise ... eek! Apart from that The Malthouse is in the top 3 or 4 pubs of Wellington where it is guaranteed you can meet a geek between the hours of 5-7pm :-) And they have the best beer selection going!

The Riverdales Need To Find A New Home

Yep, after a number of years in this particular house our landlord has decided he's had enough of the wild parties and is kicking us out ... oh, alright, it's nothing quite so dramatic as that. Des has a new job back in Wellington and we've got until February 2010, when our lease runs out, to find a new place for the Riverdales. Well, to be fair we'd be looking to move before our overseas trip in December which would work out best for all of us ... this only gives us SIX MONTHS TO FIND A PLACE! I think we'll be fine. So what are we looking for - the list so far (in no order) View Be in Worser Bay School zone Cat flap Sun Separate dining / living 2 living areas Indoor/outdoor flow 3 bedrooms Modern kitchen Modern bathroom Garage Near bus route Garden Deck TelstraClear cable internet Effective heating Potential long lease Good storage Great wardrobes From the sweeping to the finer details. If you know of anything, let us know - miramar.mike@gmail.com