As usual theres more images at the flickr page.
Friday, August 29, 2008
Nice Weather = Photos
We've amazingly had a week of decent weather up here so got a chance to head out with Camera + new lens and take a few photos.
As usual theres more images at the flickr page.
As usual theres more images at the flickr page.
Saturday, August 23, 2008
Update + photos
Finally got my primary laptop repaired and so have had a chance to edit some photos taken over the last couple of weekends.
It's surprising to realize I've been up here about one week off three months. Church wise I've been wandering along to the nearby baptist, seeing it's only a 5min walk, unfortunately it doesn't have alot of people in there 20's going there, though the few who are are friendly enough. Work wise it's far to easy and fairly boring, still it pays and after I've gathered some experience I can start looking for more interesting positions. Have been biking too and from work, seeing it's about 5km a little too far to walk especially in Hamilton where it seems to be nearly constantly raining. I don't think I've yet to manage to get to and from work for a week with out getting wet, it's blasted depressing!
I am hoping to get back down to Chch for a while over Christmas/New Years, will have to see though, as the department I'm in doesn't always shut down for long, if theres plenty of work, or may join the family in heading over to Aus for a week around Christmas.
The company is currently running a Health and Wellfare program where those interested were provided with pedometers and formed teams which then record how many steps every one makes in a week and the resulting value is used in a virtual race around the country. Currently the team I'm in is coming about 5th though hopefully that will improve. My weekly step counts have climbed from ~62,000 through 70,000 and should hopefully hit around 80,000 this week, and will hopefully increase to about 90,000 a week as I start heading along to the local Akidio dojo.
Noting that my step is approximately 1 meter it appears I'm doing an equivalent of about 60km+ a week (actually cover a greater distance but cycling gets converted to 1000 per 10mins, which is a lot lower than it would be if I walked to work ~10,000 a day).
Any way hope people are having fun down in Chch and were ever else you currently might be in the world, and that you can make some sense of this rather chaotic post. Hopefully I'll see some of you later this year, how ever in the mean time here are some photos that hopefully aren't too bad. The first three are from a trip to the Hamilton Gardens, while the second two are from playing around in my backyard with a new lens just after dusk. Feel free to leave comments about stuff! :-)
It's surprising to realize I've been up here about one week off three months. Church wise I've been wandering along to the nearby baptist, seeing it's only a 5min walk, unfortunately it doesn't have alot of people in there 20's going there, though the few who are are friendly enough. Work wise it's far to easy and fairly boring, still it pays and after I've gathered some experience I can start looking for more interesting positions. Have been biking too and from work, seeing it's about 5km a little too far to walk especially in Hamilton where it seems to be nearly constantly raining. I don't think I've yet to manage to get to and from work for a week with out getting wet, it's blasted depressing!
I am hoping to get back down to Chch for a while over Christmas/New Years, will have to see though, as the department I'm in doesn't always shut down for long, if theres plenty of work, or may join the family in heading over to Aus for a week around Christmas.
The company is currently running a Health and Wellfare program where those interested were provided with pedometers and formed teams which then record how many steps every one makes in a week and the resulting value is used in a virtual race around the country. Currently the team I'm in is coming about 5th though hopefully that will improve. My weekly step counts have climbed from ~62,000 through 70,000 and should hopefully hit around 80,000 this week, and will hopefully increase to about 90,000 a week as I start heading along to the local Akidio dojo.
Noting that my step is approximately 1 meter it appears I'm doing an equivalent of about 60km+ a week (actually cover a greater distance but cycling gets converted to 1000 per 10mins, which is a lot lower than it would be if I walked to work ~10,000 a day).
Any way hope people are having fun down in Chch and were ever else you currently might be in the world, and that you can make some sense of this rather chaotic post. Hopefully I'll see some of you later this year, how ever in the mean time here are some photos that hopefully aren't too bad. The first three are from a trip to the Hamilton Gardens, while the second two are from playing around in my backyard with a new lens just after dusk. Feel free to leave comments about stuff! :-)
Japanese Garden
Arches in the Italian Garden.
Italian Garden
Saturday, August 16, 2008
Cards and Books
I seem to be acquiring cards that I need to stick in my wallet at a rather fast rate:
Dymocks, Real Groovy, Christchurch Library (Quiet don't mention I don't, live there any more), Hamilton Library, ACC, DCI, BusIT!, One card, LIC Security(Though this one needs to be on my belt not wallet) as well as the usual Drivers, Eftpos, Credit etc
All in all it's far to many bits of somewhat useful plastic and Cardboard.
Other bad news :-P is that regular pay + bookstores is a bad mix if one wants to save as much money as possible, Gaming stores don't help either but at least there It's things I want that aren't out yet rather than a couple of hundred books I want that are either instore or can be delivered in a week.
Still some good books, "Toll the Hounds" (Steven Erikson) and "Red Seas Under Red Skies" (Scott Lynch) soon to be joined by "The Lies of Locke Lamora" (Scott Lynch), "Inda", "Fox" and "King's Shield" (Sherwood Smith).
Dymocks, Real Groovy, Christchurch Library (Quiet don't mention I don't, live there any more), Hamilton Library, ACC, DCI, BusIT!, One card, LIC Security(Though this one needs to be on my belt not wallet) as well as the usual Drivers, Eftpos, Credit etc
All in all it's far to many bits of somewhat useful plastic and Cardboard.
Other bad news :-P is that regular pay + bookstores is a bad mix if one wants to save as much money as possible, Gaming stores don't help either but at least there It's things I want that aren't out yet rather than a couple of hundred books I want that are either instore or can be delivered in a week.
Still some good books, "Toll the Hounds" (Steven Erikson) and "Red Seas Under Red Skies" (Scott Lynch) soon to be joined by "The Lies of Locke Lamora" (Scott Lynch), "Inda", "Fox" and "King's Shield" (Sherwood Smith).
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Cooking == Intelligence?
For those of you interested in the Raw Food movement you may find these articles of interest.
Cooking and Cognition: How Humans Got So Smart
Metabolic changes in schizophrenia and human brain evolution
The Raw Food Diet: A Raw Deal
The first two (the Second is a paper I'll read properly late and likely comment on a bit more then) suggest that there may have been a link between the discovery of Cooking and the development of Human intelligence as it made more energy available for use by the brain.
The Second has a quick look at the Raw food diet and points out a couple of problems with it. When considered together it makes for an interesting look at human cognition and the possible effects that changes in diet can have.
Cooking and Cognition: How Humans Got So Smart
Metabolic changes in schizophrenia and human brain evolution
The Raw Food Diet: A Raw Deal
The first two (the Second is a paper I'll read properly late and likely comment on a bit more then) suggest that there may have been a link between the discovery of Cooking and the development of Human intelligence as it made more energy available for use by the brain.
The Second has a quick look at the Raw food diet and points out a couple of problems with it. When considered together it makes for an interesting look at human cognition and the possible effects that changes in diet can have.
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Saturday, August 09, 2008
Some Awesome Olympics Photos
A few awesome photos taken during the Olympics open ceremony! They're awesome! Overall I thought the ceremony was decent and had some bits of brilliance but didn't quite have the same overall impact as the Athens opening.
Olympics 2008 Opening Ceremony
Olympics 2008 Opening Ceremony
Thursday, August 07, 2008
'Virophage' suggests viruses are alive
Most of you who have ever studied Biology at any level are probably somewhat aware of the debate on with regards to whether viruses are living or not. In a tangentially related bit of news that provides some slight support for the "they are alive" argument scientists have recently discovered a virus which effectively infects another virus :-). For more details have a look at the link.
Virophage
Virophage
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