Laughing Sarah

Laughing Sarah
Originally uploaded by lynmore32.

I've loaded a few photos on to Flickr to test. If it works out, then I might load up some more. My little girl was a good start. She makes it all worth while.

Weekend Rant

I was just reading this article that I came across on the Japan Times. No, I don't go there often, it actually linked from Google News. The article is here and it goes on about Big Oil companies and President Bush and Iraq and Global Warming etc etc. This one is good as well. The usual mumbo jumbo. But I found it interesting due to the crazy amounts of money Oil companies make despite trying to justify that the cost of petrol going up and how this isn't their fault and it's all down to global supply and the cost of a barrel of crude.

In the words of the Tui campaign, "Yeah, right!" (Those of you not from NZ, or not currently living in NZ, might not get the Tui reference. If not, go here (refresh the screen for a new one)and here for some excellent videos)

In complaining about the price of oil, it is important to put it into perspective. I read a great article in the NZ edition of Top Gear magazine that did just that. The author talked about a mate of his, who, over a pint or two of the gold stuff, updated him on just how tricky and expensive it was to get the black stuff out of the ground and into a pump near you. Apparently Exxon Mobil have dedicated US$15 billion to exploration and investigation of new oil deposits. I will try and summarize what the article said: So they spend years looking around the world studying geological deposits and likely sites of interest to investigate further. They'll then head off to these sites in person and have a look at the land, get some soil deposits, take a few pics, get a satellite to take a pic, maybe some special fancy pics that x-ray the ground to see what's under, before deciding if it's worth spending a couple of $100 million drilling some holes in the ground to see what's under it all. They might find something, they might not. If they do, they'll then take the astronomical gamble of investing a several more $100 million dollars, maybe a billion, I'm not sure, in developing the site and gearing up for full scale drilling.

Invaribly these sites are not right next door to your local, so they have to pipe it somewhere. And this another horribly expensive task, not to mention risky and sometimes life threatening. Typically passing across inhospitable terrain and usually having to pass through some country or other who wants a bit of moolah in the back pocket to "protect" you from getting your head chopped off or pipeline blown up. Or both.

So you managed to navigate through the local warlords territory to a port somewhere and realise that you then need to get it shipped halfway round the world to a refinery. Either build or boat or hire someone to ship it. The choice is yours. One's expensive and risky, and the other is too.

Moving right along........you get it to your refinery, off load it, process it, throw in a bucket full of dangerous chemicals that could take the hair off a rat at 30 paces, pump it onto a truck to get carried off to the local petrol station.

And then some wanker has the audacity to ask how you can possibly charge $1.69 a litre for it!

This is probably the same tosser who just brought his 750ml bottle of water out of the stations fridge for about $3. Water that came out of a tap in the middle of the Waikato.

No wonder oil companies don't really fuss to much when they make a bucket load of cash.

On the subject of water being the new oil, read this.

Iran is a problem. See here. I will elaborate further next time. This post has taken me four days to get finished, so I thought I better just get it up there and be done with it.

More to come on Iran. And some crazy stuff on Auckland's traffic "solutions". Yes, I do see how pathetic I am with my worries, compared to the bigger picture stuff. But I truly believe it's all relative. For example, the person who live's in a small village in the back of China who probably is living on less than a dollar a day and has never been to a city or seen a car/tv/computer, has problems that are relative to their way of life, much like the traffic is a problem to my way of life. It's all relative to the situation and life you are in. And you don't know what you don't know, if you get my meaning.

Vindicated & Ricky Gervais

I have this theory, well to be honest it's an observation, which I have been telling anyone who would listen about. And now dear reader, you are going to get it as well!

If you talk to most Aucklanders about traffic, they will complain visciously about it but will generally agree that traffic is better during school holidays. Guess what? Tuesday it was school holidays and the traffic was noticeably lighter than any normal work day. This is a fairly predictable result of school holidays when mummy's in their overblown four wheel drives take the fat little podgers to school because they are to lazy to walk, ride a bike, or even catch a bus. School holidays also typically coincide with breaks in the University terms, so this traffic is lessened as well.

The result of this thinking is that I thought we, meaning Transit or the Auckland Regional Council, should be thinking about providing free, or heavily subsidised public transport to school children/teenagers and university students to encourage them to get off the road. Yes, I know it's not technically "free" as someone had to pay for it, and that given the current complaints by the council about being strapped for cash it is unlikely to get off the ground, but I thought it was at least worth an airing!

The other plus side is that it might just get that generational shift happenining which everyone is hoping for. Of course, the public transport system itself will need an injection of $$ to ensure that it meets customer expectations. I still don't understand how the powers that be can sit there and tell people they should be getting out of their cars and using public transport, but I really don't see much investment going on.

I emailed the Chair of the Auckland Regional Council's Transport Policy Group the other day. To his credit he actually replied to my ramblings, which is more than I can say for the people from Transit. Bunch of muppets. Anyway, he had some good things to say, and some not so good things. Basically they are short on $$ and long on promises. So I think I will be an old man before I see any changes happening worth noting.

It will be interesting to see how all the road works on the central motorway junction effect the traffic in future. I have this sickening feeling that no matter what we do now, we will never get ahead of the traffic. We will get one part finished, only for it to be to little to late and the next project in line will be knocking on the door waiting to be started.

Anyway, Wednesday's traffic was as good as Tuesday's so I still think my observations are holding true. So far. I'll let you know how the rest of the week pans out.

I'll need to dedicate a bit more time to writing these blogs. I feel i'm rushing them at the moment. Or maybe I should jsut work on them over the days when I can, rather than worrying about posting one as soon as a I can. Yes, that sounds like a plan.

Right, Ricky Gervais. I purchased his two stand up performances on DVD on the weekend. Well, to be honest, I got one, and then mother felt she needed to buy me something as a present, so she purchased the other one for me. Nice of her!

I've watched the first one: Animals. Bloody hilarious. It only goes for 60 mins, but its dam funny. He goes into some depth on creation etc and also on a book he found whilst researching for his routine on homosexuality in the animal kingdom. I can't really do it justice here, but if you get the chance to watch it please do.

I'll let you know whether it's worth watching the second one. Titled Politics. I hope it's as good as the first. And my brother is getting his new series "The Extras" on DVD, which will be good to see as well. Yes, you may have guessed, I'm a bit of a fan.

There was another progamme I found on the web which is currently being aired in Britain called The IT Crowd. Seems to be about a bunch of I.T. losers trying to muddle their way through work. Looked very funny as well, so it will be good when that arrives here.

Whilst we are talking about TV shows, the other big one everyone watches is Lost. We are about 6 episodes into series 2 at the moment, and so far it has lived up to my expectations which were set by series 1. Feeding us nice little bits when we need them. I was a bit pissed the other week though when TVNZ decided in thier wisdom to have a recap and waste a weeks worth of waiting for Wednesday to roll around. Thanks TVNZ.

We are off to see the specialist 2moro for Sarah's gum. She has a little bit of a gap in there which we are concerned about and would like to get some expert's opinion on it. We do think though that it has started to sort itself out, so there may not be anything to worry about. We just want to know if we need to get it sorted as there are enough things in this world to worry about without having to worry about something which could be fixed.

2 days in a row

Don't get excited, because I doubt that this will be a daily thing. However, it's a holiday weekend and I've got the time to write some more while I have a cup of tea and watch my daughter sleeping.

So I've had a few comments about my decision to do a blog. All but one have been positive. You know who you are Mt Eden Player. Guess this means I'll have to keep this up. I was thinking that it might also be interesting for Sarah to read when she gets older. Insights into her fathers thinking in his younger days. That will either be a good or a bad thing.

One of you said I need to write something more interesting next time. But you see, I don't think everything I write will be interesting all the time. The sad fact is, I don't think I'm that interesting to be able to keep it up all the time! So you might find that some blogs will be disappointingly boring, and others surprisingly exciting & informative. So bear with me MJ, hopefully I can keep you interested from time to time.

One of my biggest problems about living in Auckland is the traffic I have to deal with on a daily basis getting to and from work. I hadn't really intended to talk to much about this, but Maxi reckons it would be a good way for me to vent half the stuff we talk about. So you might also find that I talk about traffic and its associated problems and possible solutions from time to time. That might be boring for some of you......sorry about that.

We were down in Hamilton today at my brother in laws place as his son is 1 tomorrow (?) I think. Or is it Sunday? Anyway, as you might have guessed, birthday's are not a big thing for me. Half to do with how I was raised, and the other half simply because I can't really see the point. I mean, I know people say it's the one day of the year to make someone feel extra special and to celebrate a life etc etc. But my thinking is why do you need a particular day to do that? Why can't you make that person, who is so special in your life, feel wanted every day? Well, maybe not every day, but why do I need to confine it to a birthday? So I'm kind of a bah humbug type on birthdays. I'll do them though, as I know they mean something to others, and not everyone agrees with my way of thinking (funny that), and if someone wants to do one for me, then that's more for them than for me as I'm not fussed either way.

But we had a good time, and the little fella who had managed to survive his first year was in good form. And I think most of the adults enjoyed it all as well. Loads of food which stuffed everyone quite nicely, thank you very much.

That'll do. Til next time.

In the beginning...

A fairly slow Thursday afternoon before easter and i thought i might just have a bit of punt around creating a blog. Not that i really now of any specific definition about what a blog is, but I thought, "What the heck, I'll give it a go".

I'm assuming it's something like a place to note things about life and how it's effecting me and my family and my world. All sounds a bit selfish really.

It will be interesting to see how this progresses. I might get completley bored with it all after a while, but at least I can say I've done that.

So what shall we talk about today?

Well, i'll let you know of two blogs i've read which have inspired me to add something to the world of blogging. One was a journal by a freind of a workmate. He was as gay as a pink fairy, but pretty funny. The workmate that is. His freind Murray had this journal which was a great read. Unfortunately at the end of last year he changed the blog address on me, and now I can't find it. Anyway, short story: it was a humourous take on life and made me think a bit more about certain things.

The second blog I have read from time to time, and thankfully can play catch up when I do, and is probably one of the more famous blogs is Baghdad Burning. I do believe they are publishing the blog in book form. This blog is both a sad yet inspirational blog about life inside Iraq. It paints quite a different picture to one which we get feed by the mainstream media, and I only hope that evrything on it is true and not written by some nut job. Please forgive me river.

So yeah, those are the two that got this started. And we shall see were it all ends up.