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Showing posts from October, 2021

Island View

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A sunlight Wellington City in the distance as seen from a 2018 Matiu / Somes Island in the centre of the harbour.

2018 And The Style Is Set

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It's a look that I've had for quite some time - boring Wellington man. You know what, I think it's time to change, what would you suggest?

The Universe Gently Places Her Hands Upon Your Shoulders

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I think midlife is when the universe gently places her hands upon your shoulders, pulls you close, and whispers in your ear:  I’m not screwing around. It’s time. All of this pretending and performing – these coping mechanisms that you’ve developed to protect yourself from feeling inadequate and getting hurt – has to go.   Your armor is preventing you from growing into your gifts. I understand that you needed these protections when you were small. I understand that you believed your armor could help you secure all of the things you needed to feel worthy of love and belonging, but you’re still searching and you’re more lost than ever.     Time is growing short. There are unexplored adventures ahead of you. You can’t live the rest of your life worried about what other people think. You were born worthy of love and belonging. Courage and daring are coursing through you. You were made to live and love with your whole heart. It’s time to show up and be seen. Author: Brené Brown, May 2018,  T

A Grey Ferry Ride

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  Wellington (AoNZ) harbour ferry ride on a grey day, filmed in slow motion.

Blue Seat

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This taxi had a blue light under the driver's seat, so naturally I took a photo all the blueness.

Nightime Yellow

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The streets of Mt Vic can be downright Victorian on the right night, when the wind is low and the light is yellow.

Christmas Arrives!

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So there I was, sitting outside The Malthouse having a beer and a smoke minding my own business, when Kim turned up. "Hmmmm", I thought carefully to myself, "I wonder if the Christmas party season has arrived."

Drawn By Danie

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Sitting in a pub with a mate we noticed a woman looking at us both and sketching. Danie, for that was her name, was travelling AoNZ from France and liked to sketch "the locals", and it was our turn.

'ere 'e is! You come up and see me? Come up and see me ain't ya? I noticed that!

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Nan is one of the all time classic British comedy characters. Seeing Catherine Tate bring her to life on stage was an absolute joy, and fucking funny as hell! I'm obliged to you, darling, really I am! ... .... ...  What a fucking liberty!"

Leaving Is Cool

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The finest of leaving stairs from the Te Papa marae down to the exit, it's so Hollywood-ish, a swish and a done.

Standing Alone

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No matter what you may think of the many "tech accelerators" out there one has to admire that person that puts them self forward to explain their team and their dream. To each and everyone that has ever been there, well done.

Kids Sports, Please Remember

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Please Remember: 1. These Are Kids 2. This Is A Game 3. The Coaches Are Volunteers 4. The Referees Are Human 5. This Is Not The World Cup

Upper Hutt CEO Parking

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Either the Upper Hutt Council CEO has a kick ass car* or someone else has a kick ass car and they just don't care for such signage. * "kick ass", is it? I'm sure this is the sort of car people usually tell me is "cool".

Diversity In Tech

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At Access Granted NZ we tried our hardest to ensure we were better than the industry state in regards to diversity. We initially focussed on the male / female disparity in tech, working our way towards 50:50 guests. We wanted to the up our non-white guest ratio as well but, tbh, we never really managed that during the 6 years we ran the show. Bugger. At the #WellyTech 2018 event the Awards section was hosted by #WomenInTech and a number of women won awards themselves - all based on listener and community voting. You are what you measure. We measured and published quarterly stats about our guest diversity. Why don't you do the same in your organisation?

Head Back And Laugh

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When I truly find something funny I let go a laugh to the universe by throwing back the head and unleashing the noise.

Trying Before The Masses Arrive

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One of the joys of being the organisers of an event such as #WellyTech was being able to walk around the venue giving all the fun things a go before all the punters arrived. I believe this is Raj getting his animated GIF using The Amazing Travelling Photo Booth . Maybe. That's definitely Raj doing something.

Pink Is For Girls

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Just in case you weren't sure who is meant to do the housework they've coloured it pink for everyone. Indoctrinate young, get them for ever.

Ollie Made A Difference

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Ollie  ( @thathumbleman ) camped outside Parliament for months quietly advocating the Aotearoa New Zealand Parliament declare a climate emergency. After 100 days, and setting a record as the longest running protest outside Parliament in New Zealand's history, he moved to Fridays only coz, family! CHLÖE SWARBRICK (Green) : I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. I seek leave to move a motion without notice and without debate to acknowledge 100 days of Ollie Langridge standing on Parliament's lawn, calling on this House to declare a climate emergency. source: Points of Order — Ollie Langridge—Climate Emergency Protest, 100 Days [Hansard (Debates)] On the 23rd of August School Strike NZ will join Ollie Langridge in his 100th day of sitting outside of New Zealand Parliament calling for the government to declare a climate emergency. source: Scoop - School Strike 4 Climate NZ stands with Ollie By: School Strike 4 Climate It was an honour to stand alongside him on the very few lunchtime

Inky Hunting

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Who knows what Inky was hunting but he was definitely hunting something.

Ārepa

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A slightly left field daily photo, Ārepa is a drink created in AoNZ that claims to clear the mind etc. It reminds me of an MCing gig I did at a tech conference and one of the co-founders was on the panel.  I wonder how Ārepa is going. They've got a website and it looks like it's available in stores so going well I'd say, nice. Anyone drink it? What do you think?

On Being An Official Reference In The Shelley Bay Shenanigans

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Back in August 2014 I popped up an article titles,  When Miramar Was A Lake , all based on a photo from the NZ National Library they had shared on Flickr . It was, when I lived on the 6022 Peninsula a fascinating read and I was chuffed to have found it. You'll notice that in 2017 an unknown user left a comment Hey Mike, just saw that this page is linked in the Shelly Bay Cultural Assessment document. :-) Ok, so I may not be the quickest off the mark with seeing that, but here we are. Um, linked in the what now? This is a job for Google ... and I found it https://wellington.govt.nz/-/media/property-rates-and-building/resource-consents/files/hashaa-applications/shelly-bay/shelly-bay-2019/appendix-13-shelly-bay-cultural-impact-statementa13-cultural-impact-statement.pdf And there I am, at the very end, page 25 ... a reference to my post . Funny old world eh ...

Suspended Fern Orb

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I love the silver ball, I always have. The installation, called Ferns suspended over the center of Wellingtons Te Ngākau Civic Square, is by Neil Dawson and was ' installated ' in 1998 Neil cut out 11 large fronds from aluminium plates and welded them into one form over a wooden mould. He then painted the form gold on the interior and silver on the exterior.  

Ember Effect

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Using the Ember suggestion in Google Photos I'm very happy with how this came out. Aren't they clever wee machines doing their thing to the blue Michael Fowler Centre as seen from the City To Sea Bridge one evening.

The Bugle podcast

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Good lordy lord, I have NOT told you all about the grandaddy podcast of them all, the one that has been going since 2007 ... 2000 and SEVEN, that's the year the iPhone appeared, so they were doing "podcasts" before the word "podcasts" had entered our ears. What can I say, if you ever seen / heard John Oliver and/or Andy Zaltzman then you know exactly what you're gonna get with The Bugle . Of course John Oliver has moved to the US and become mildly successful having to leave the podcast in 2016 ... just after I had ordered a t-shirt, I shall never forgive him. Andy now has a regular set of co-hosts  alongside Producer Chris , and it has regained its footing and been a stalwart of Mike listening since forever. If you're very lucky you'll get a pun run from Andy as well ... no-one can beat this man on a pun run. Nowadays The Bugle is not just a podcast but a "stable of podcasts" with The Gargle , The Last Post , Bush's Board Game Thing

What The F*** Is Going On? podcast

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Another new podcast to me (and the world tbf) but one I knew I would love as it's from the wicked English comedian Mark Steel who has done 10 series of Mark Steel's In Town , listen to a cracker episode close to my home heart. What The F*** Is Going On podcast is Mark having glorious rant about UK politics and then chatting about the madness of it all with a weekly guest before asking, "What do the yoof think about it?" to his son who is very fucking funny as well.

Monotype

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A Wellington tech company mid-week evening event. Count the people that aren't white and male. And I can tell you the photographer is me, fully fitting into the white male category.

Cloud Diving

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One of those photos that takes very little touching up, and no cropping. He went kasplooosh.

Cars On The Roof

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When you drive into the carpark you never think, "This is the roof". When you're inside the building you never think, "There are cars parked on the roof".

British Scandal podcast

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A recent addition to the podcast listening and I wasn't really thinking the British Scandal podcast would be my cup of tea coz, well, it had the whiff of "true life crime podcast" and there are too many of them but none on my subscription list. But Alice Levine is very engaging. Matt Forde I've listened to for a long time and have always have had a good time. Oh, go on then, just one story and then I'll be done ... I think I'll start with The Profumo Affair as I think I know what that was all about, but maybe not really. OMG. How cool is this podcast ... very! So the British Scandal podcast deal: choose a British scandal, one of our two hosts becomes the narrator of the story over 4 or 5 episodes, the other asks all the questions YOU would want to ask and gasps alongside you at the latest story twist. It's like a very engaging documentary for your ears with the final episode an interview with someone deeply connected to the whole shenanigans. My brothe

Film Arrival

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Raj and Jono arrive at Momentum to start the filming of the #WellyTech 2018 WTAF winners. Yup, it takes work to put on an event to remember. And sponsors such as the good people inside Momentum.

Friday Night Takeaways

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It can't be fancy restaurant food every damn night, sometimes you just wanna have a simple takeaway and slob in front of the TV.

Art Admiring, The Officially Santioned Way

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The officially sanctioned stance to take when admiring art. Note the cocked head, the distance from the actual art, and of course the hushed admiration combined with a slightly quizzical, "So, what the fuck is it?" (and yes, Nat knew exactly what she was doing, she posed on purpose for the photo)

My First Colour Image File

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I can't remember the year I saw my first colour image, but I totally remember where it was. IBM at a PC expo in London and they had a their new desktop machine showing off graphic capabilities. Line by line this thing would draw a full colour image on the larger than normal monitor. "Wow, that's like a photo!", I remember thinking as an image of a demure woman in summer sports gear was slowly revealed. Late 1980s was it, before that maybe. This however is not that image. This is the first colour image I ever 'owned' and, like the Peanuts cartoon , has travelled with me via many tech places over the years. Doing a Google Lens search resulted in this awesome,  [ Retro GIF of the Week ] Twin Chinese Dragons ,  with everything that's likely to be found about DRAGON6.GIF

Mike, In From The Heat

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Sitting on the deck in my undies, music or comedy going, a beer to hand, and soaking up the sun was one of my favourite things to do. Sometimes though, I had to come in to either get another beer or just to cool down.

The Curved Side

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Yesterday it was all sharp sides and cut corners , today it's curved sides.

The Cut Side

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As part of the land reclamation and sea barrier for Wellington Airport there are a shit tonne of concrete blocks, these are the regular, cut side with the square edges etc