Meantime to keep you amused here is a pic of me with Patrick Starfish!! Yeah Patrick!!
Sunday, April 15, 2007
Ani B'Eretz
Well finally, here I am in Israel!! I am kind of a little tired right now so will save my first "real" blog posting for tomorrow, I think.
Meantime to keep you amused here is a pic of me with Patrick Starfish!! Yeah Patrick!!
Meantime to keep you amused here is a pic of me with Patrick Starfish!! Yeah Patrick!!
Thursday, April 12, 2007
It just blows my aura right off, y'know?
This afternoon I'll fly out of Albequerque, my 5 and a bit days in New Mexico having come to an end. It has been great here but WAY cold - comparable to a Wellington southerly snap. My face has been dry and inflamed because of the wind, and even the gentlest fragrance-free moisturiser stings when I apply it to my poor skin.
Me smiling through the pain of coldness
While here, I hiked around Bandelier National Monument; we went up to Taos and stayed in the historic Mabel Dodge Luhan House.
Taos is an artsy little colony near the ski mountains, full of galleries and shops and alternative hippy types. At a Taos cafe, the barista (a young woman) commented this of the chilly wind: "I feel like it just like, blows my aura off, y'know?" (Yes, they're her words, not mine. But I get what she was saying!)
Outside Taos we stopped in to visit The Greater World Earthship Community, the world HQ of Earthships, a totally sustainable self-powered form of housing. The walls of these homes are made from tyres rammed with earth, cans and bottles help to fill in space and add decorative qualities to an adobe finish.
Yesterday I spent a whole day wandering around Santa Fe, looking at galleries and shops and amazingly, buying nothing! The most beautiful things i saw were some glass sculptures by Christopher Ries at the Wiford Gallery
I ate so much good New Mexican food while I was here, had two great hot pool experiences, and mucho quality time with Brenna. Next time I come to NM, though, I hope it is hot and sunny!!
Me smiling through the pain of coldness
While here, I hiked around Bandelier National Monument; we went up to Taos and stayed in the historic Mabel Dodge Luhan House.
Taos is an artsy little colony near the ski mountains, full of galleries and shops and alternative hippy types. At a Taos cafe, the barista (a young woman) commented this of the chilly wind: "I feel like it just like, blows my aura off, y'know?" (Yes, they're her words, not mine. But I get what she was saying!)
Outside Taos we stopped in to visit The Greater World Earthship Community, the world HQ of Earthships, a totally sustainable self-powered form of housing. The walls of these homes are made from tyres rammed with earth, cans and bottles help to fill in space and add decorative qualities to an adobe finish.
Yesterday I spent a whole day wandering around Santa Fe, looking at galleries and shops and amazingly, buying nothing! The most beautiful things i saw were some glass sculptures by Christopher Ries at the Wiford Gallery
I ate so much good New Mexican food while I was here, had two great hot pool experiences, and mucho quality time with Brenna. Next time I come to NM, though, I hope it is hot and sunny!!
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
Ed vs. the Military-Industrial Complex
Los Alamos is a strange place. This small sleepy town on the New Mexican plateau glows an eerie red at night, and odd rumbling sounds can be heard at unpredictable times of the day. Why? Los Alamos is home to LANL, the Los Alamos National Laboratory, where for the last 60 years, thousands of scientists and technologists have worked day and night to build and maintain the United States' nuclear defense arsenal.
Ed Grothus worked at LANL for 20 years, helping to increase the efficiency and destructive power of Nuclear Warheads. During the Vietnam war, Ed left LANL and began a campaign to change the hearts and minds of the leaders and decision-makers towards peace and nuclear disarmament. I met Ed, now perhaps in his 80s, when Brenna took me to visit the Black Hole. This old converted supermarket is now an incredible and macabre junk-shop, stacked floor to ceiling with salvaged equipment, materials, and other objects from LANL.
Ed's campaign for peace is earnest and heartfelt. When he heard I was from New Zealand, he pulled out all stops, giving me and Brenna a dedicated tour and shpiel for a good 45 minutes. First, he showed us a 10-minute video which was never meant to be screened outside LANL, in which the department's then head of nuclear development gave a presentation to new staff about the types and destructive capabilities of each of the nuclear bombs and warheads produced in Los Alamos. He (the guy on the video) lectured on the "principle of deterrance", and why it was important to have weapons that could completely and utterly destroy a country. To paraphrase his words: "Don't be stupid, don't mess with the United States, or your country will go away". Ed shook his head in sadness, gripping my arm as he told us the story of his past at the lab and his disillusionment with his governmment's "defence deterrance" mentality.
Ed's campaign for peace struck a suprising piece of good luck recently, when he bought a box of old books at an estate sale. Amongst the books was an original manuscript from the Manhattan Project, hand signed by almost every major scientist who worked on the project: Feynmann, Oppenheimer, and dozens more. Ed auctioned the book through Sotheby's and netted $USD28,000. The proceeds are helping to fund his newest project, a peace sculpture which commemorates,but does not celebrate or glorify, the incredibly desctructive potential of the nuclear bomb. He showed us a scale model; the sculpture will comprise two 30-ft white granite obelisks, each one set upon a "doomsday stone" which tells the story of Los Alamos in 15 different langauges. Sitting atop each obelisks will be a huge black granite sphere, etched to show the soccer-ball shape of a nuclear warhead. Ed showed us photos from his visit to the Chinese stonecutting factory where his sculpture was carved. Then, as the final stage of our personal tour, he took us out front to where two enormous cargo containers sat on the grass verge. Inside were the obelisks, smooth shiny granite forms lying quietly in wait until a site can be determined for their placement.
As you can see, each face of the Obelisk is engraved with Albert Einstein's name and dates of birth and death. Where will Ed's sculpture be placed? It is hard to imagine the city of Los Alamos wanting this in their face, but with Ed's determination, I have no doubt that it will find a home somewhere.
Ed Grothus worked at LANL for 20 years, helping to increase the efficiency and destructive power of Nuclear Warheads. During the Vietnam war, Ed left LANL and began a campaign to change the hearts and minds of the leaders and decision-makers towards peace and nuclear disarmament. I met Ed, now perhaps in his 80s, when Brenna took me to visit the Black Hole. This old converted supermarket is now an incredible and macabre junk-shop, stacked floor to ceiling with salvaged equipment, materials, and other objects from LANL.
Ed's campaign for peace is earnest and heartfelt. When he heard I was from New Zealand, he pulled out all stops, giving me and Brenna a dedicated tour and shpiel for a good 45 minutes. First, he showed us a 10-minute video which was never meant to be screened outside LANL, in which the department's then head of nuclear development gave a presentation to new staff about the types and destructive capabilities of each of the nuclear bombs and warheads produced in Los Alamos. He (the guy on the video) lectured on the "principle of deterrance", and why it was important to have weapons that could completely and utterly destroy a country. To paraphrase his words: "Don't be stupid, don't mess with the United States, or your country will go away". Ed shook his head in sadness, gripping my arm as he told us the story of his past at the lab and his disillusionment with his governmment's "defence deterrance" mentality.
Ed's campaign for peace struck a suprising piece of good luck recently, when he bought a box of old books at an estate sale. Amongst the books was an original manuscript from the Manhattan Project, hand signed by almost every major scientist who worked on the project: Feynmann, Oppenheimer, and dozens more. Ed auctioned the book through Sotheby's and netted $USD28,000. The proceeds are helping to fund his newest project, a peace sculpture which commemorates,but does not celebrate or glorify, the incredibly desctructive potential of the nuclear bomb. He showed us a scale model; the sculpture will comprise two 30-ft white granite obelisks, each one set upon a "doomsday stone" which tells the story of Los Alamos in 15 different langauges. Sitting atop each obelisks will be a huge black granite sphere, etched to show the soccer-ball shape of a nuclear warhead. Ed showed us photos from his visit to the Chinese stonecutting factory where his sculpture was carved. Then, as the final stage of our personal tour, he took us out front to where two enormous cargo containers sat on the grass verge. Inside were the obelisks, smooth shiny granite forms lying quietly in wait until a site can be determined for their placement.
As you can see, each face of the Obelisk is engraved with Albert Einstein's name and dates of birth and death. Where will Ed's sculpture be placed? It is hard to imagine the city of Los Alamos wanting this in their face, but with Ed's determination, I have no doubt that it will find a home somewhere.
Sunday, April 08, 2007
I fake lose stuff
What's your shtick? I mean, what is your trademark thing to do? Mine is to fake lose stuff. (And of course sometimes, to *actually* lose stuff).
What is fake losing stuff? It's when you discover you have lost something important, like, oh, I don't know, let's say: your wallet; your ipod; your camera; your boarding pass; your keys; your prescription glasses; one of your check-in bags. You know, *important* stuff. You search everywhere, try to remember when you last had whatever it is you don't seem to have anymore. You come up with a dozen plausible scenarios for where it could be, search each of those places, then search them again 2 or 3 times more (just because you maybe didn't search properly the first time?)
If you're me, at this point your thinking is going something like this "Well well. You've done gone and lost something again. Surprise surprise. You are once again, a loser, Well might as well accept it and move on, you'll never see that [ipod/camera/keys/other lost item] again. No point moping about it, loser."
It's some time after this chain of thought that the universe Sha-Zams you by enabling your "lost" item to magically resurface and reunite with you (often, in my case, with significant assistance from a kindly friend/relative/shop owner/bus driver/police officer/cafe barista etc.
So is there any way to spot a fake lose from a real lose? Not really, because almost any "real" lose has the potential to one day instantaneously become a fake lose, should the thought-to-be-lost item one day mysteriously re-appear. My personal trick for tipping the universe towards converting a real lose to a fake lose is the acceptance bit. When faced with a lost item, one must not panic. One must realise and accept that one is a loser, who is barely capable of running one's own life properly, who cannot master the basic principle of keeping one's possessions in one's possession, and who should just accept this fact with grace. Then, and only then, might the Universe reward you with a fake lose.
What is fake losing stuff? It's when you discover you have lost something important, like, oh, I don't know, let's say: your wallet; your ipod; your camera; your boarding pass; your keys; your prescription glasses; one of your check-in bags. You know, *important* stuff. You search everywhere, try to remember when you last had whatever it is you don't seem to have anymore. You come up with a dozen plausible scenarios for where it could be, search each of those places, then search them again 2 or 3 times more (just because you maybe didn't search properly the first time?)
If you're me, at this point your thinking is going something like this "Well well. You've done gone and lost something again. Surprise surprise. You are once again, a loser, Well might as well accept it and move on, you'll never see that [ipod/camera/keys/other lost item] again. No point moping about it, loser."
It's some time after this chain of thought that the universe Sha-Zams you by enabling your "lost" item to magically resurface and reunite with you (often, in my case, with significant assistance from a kindly friend/relative/shop owner/bus driver/police officer/cafe barista etc.
So is there any way to spot a fake lose from a real lose? Not really, because almost any "real" lose has the potential to one day instantaneously become a fake lose, should the thought-to-be-lost item one day mysteriously re-appear. My personal trick for tipping the universe towards converting a real lose to a fake lose is the acceptance bit. When faced with a lost item, one must not panic. One must realise and accept that one is a loser, who is barely capable of running one's own life properly, who cannot master the basic principle of keeping one's possessions in one's possession, and who should just accept this fact with grace. Then, and only then, might the Universe reward you with a fake lose.
WOOOoOOOOOOOHHHOOOOOOOOO!!!
On a hot July day in 1986, my family celebrated dad's birthday at Great America, an amusement park near Santa Clara in Northern California. For a couple of rollercoaster-starved NZ kids, Great America was like heaven! Ben, dad and I (mum watching sensibly from the sidelines) were primed up for the scary stuff. The two rollercoasters I remember riding were the Demon, and the infamous Grizzly, an nostalgic-style wooden rollercoaster built like those of yesteryear. I didn't actually like the Grizzly, mainly because it was so shuddery and jittery it gave me a headache. But our trip to Great America was remembered for years and years afterwards, especially when we drank out of our giant plastic Grizzly "souvenir" soda cups.
Yesterday, Ben, Judy and I relived a little of our youth by returning to Great America - almost 21 years since our first visit. This time, Ben and I took on the big coasters, while Judy watched sensibly from the sidelines. Great America has changed a lot since 1986, with the addition of such adrenaline-pumping rides as The Invertigo, The Vortex, The Survivor Ride, and the Top Gun. I spend a good part of the day screaming and laughing hysterically as my body was hurtled at frightening speeds and flung in a variety of stomach-lurching directions. (I'd post some photos but the whereabouts of my camera is currently unknown... don't ask....). Judy was no slouch either, proving her bravery by taking on the Survivor ride (4/5 on the Thrill Scale), and winning a yellow Care Bear after fooling the "guess your age" woman with her youthful looks.
By the end of it, my brain was completely wired for action. As I was flying to New Mexico that evening I had the odd expectation that each gentle ascent of the plane would be followed by a sudden heart-stopping plummet towards the Earth. Had my fellow passengers known what I was thinking, I'm sure they would have thanked the heavens that I have not yet developed telekinetic powers...
Yesterday, Ben, Judy and I relived a little of our youth by returning to Great America - almost 21 years since our first visit. This time, Ben and I took on the big coasters, while Judy watched sensibly from the sidelines. Great America has changed a lot since 1986, with the addition of such adrenaline-pumping rides as The Invertigo, The Vortex, The Survivor Ride, and the Top Gun. I spend a good part of the day screaming and laughing hysterically as my body was hurtled at frightening speeds and flung in a variety of stomach-lurching directions. (I'd post some photos but the whereabouts of my camera is currently unknown... don't ask....). Judy was no slouch either, proving her bravery by taking on the Survivor ride (4/5 on the Thrill Scale), and winning a yellow Care Bear after fooling the "guess your age" woman with her youthful looks.
By the end of it, my brain was completely wired for action. As I was flying to New Mexico that evening I had the odd expectation that each gentle ascent of the plane would be followed by a sudden heart-stopping plummet towards the Earth. Had my fellow passengers known what I was thinking, I'm sure they would have thanked the heavens that I have not yet developed telekinetic powers...
Friday, April 06, 2007
Big Trees
Yesterday I went to see some giant redwood trees with Bob and Sharon Lutman. Those trees are BIG!
Tuesday, April 03, 2007
Deep Vein Thrombosis
In a few hours I'll board a plane and fly approximately 12 hours from AKL to SFO. I've done a lot of 12-hour flights in my lifetime - obviously, living in NZ means you have to fly 12 hours to get to pretty much anywhere else worth going to!!. Apart from the general discomfort and inability to sleep, I've never found this to be too much of a worry - 12 hours of discomfort is a small price to pay for the rewards of travel, after all. And I am not a nervous flyer AT ALL. I actually love turbulence - I think it's like a rollercoaster ride. I'm not worried about being sucked down the aiplane toilets. I never worry about gremlins on the wing. The only slightly weird thing about me as a flyer is that I always think I'm going to get an uncontrollable urge to open the airplane door mid-flight. But I don't worry about that too much either, as a) I've been told it's not possible to do that; b) I haven't done it yet; and c) I have the same kinds of thoughts about throwing stuff off bridges when I walk across them, or jumping up and screaming in the middle of an exam, and I've never done any of those things either (yet).
So, flying long-haul has never too much of a worry - until my recent bout of DVT paranoia, that is. Don't ask why, but a few weeks ago I was convinced that I either had, or was about to have, a DVT in my left leg. It all started when I was walking home one day and felt a slight mucle pain in my calf muscle. It felt like a normal "tight" calf muscle, so I thought nothing of it, until a few days later when I turned on National Radio and they were halfway through a story about DVT in office workers, and the expert being interviewed said "The problem is, it can be hard to notice - it might be as subtle as a pain in the calf".
OMIGOD!! (I thought in my semi-asleep stupor). Convinced I might have DVT, I spent half a day googling it. The more I read, the more paranoid I became. For example, did you know that about half of all patients admitted to hospital with a Pulmonary Embolism had a "silent" (asymptomatic) DVT!! My anxiety lasted about a week and told everyone around me that if i was to suddenly have difficulty breathing, they were to take me to the emergency room ASAP. Meanwhile, the leg pain never returned, and I eventually came to the logical conclusion that I didn't have a DVT. Nevertheless, as a result of my paranoia I have decided for the first time ever I am going to wear those anti-DVT "flight socks". I expect they will be horribly uncomfortable, but (as my frantic internizzle search told me), there is at least one RCT study which proved that they reduce the incidence of DVT.
The peace of mind my flight socks give me will free up my mind to worry about more important things - like how much my travels will be increasing my individual carbon footprint, for example.....
So, flying long-haul has never too much of a worry - until my recent bout of DVT paranoia, that is. Don't ask why, but a few weeks ago I was convinced that I either had, or was about to have, a DVT in my left leg. It all started when I was walking home one day and felt a slight mucle pain in my calf muscle. It felt like a normal "tight" calf muscle, so I thought nothing of it, until a few days later when I turned on National Radio and they were halfway through a story about DVT in office workers, and the expert being interviewed said "The problem is, it can be hard to notice - it might be as subtle as a pain in the calf".
OMIGOD!! (I thought in my semi-asleep stupor). Convinced I might have DVT, I spent half a day googling it. The more I read, the more paranoid I became. For example, did you know that about half of all patients admitted to hospital with a Pulmonary Embolism had a "silent" (asymptomatic) DVT!! My anxiety lasted about a week and told everyone around me that if i was to suddenly have difficulty breathing, they were to take me to the emergency room ASAP. Meanwhile, the leg pain never returned, and I eventually came to the logical conclusion that I didn't have a DVT. Nevertheless, as a result of my paranoia I have decided for the first time ever I am going to wear those anti-DVT "flight socks". I expect they will be horribly uncomfortable, but (as my frantic internizzle search told me), there is at least one RCT study which proved that they reduce the incidence of DVT.
The peace of mind my flight socks give me will free up my mind to worry about more important things - like how much my travels will be increasing my individual carbon footprint, for example.....
Saturday, March 31, 2007
Packing Sux
Three more days till I fly out, and I have had about as much sorting, organising, and packing as I can stand :(
Maybe it wouldn't have been so bad if it wasn't such a multi-stage process. First, moving out of my flat, finding homes for all my furniture, shlepping carload after carload of stuff over to Jen and Rob's, unpacking the car, carrying armload after shoulder-straining armload of stuff up to their apartment..then living with all my crap stacked in boxes and bags all around me, then re-loading the car for the drive up to Hamiltron, then UNloading the car AGAIN, then doing the final sort and pack.
It's particularly hard for me because I am not, in general, an organised person, at least as far as filing and tidying goes. I can barely cope with the final stage of putting my clean laundry away - I'll happily sleep in a bed laden with clean clothes for a week. So naturally, all this packing is putting me in very bad mood :(
Maybe it wouldn't have been so bad if it wasn't such a multi-stage process. First, moving out of my flat, finding homes for all my furniture, shlepping carload after carload of stuff over to Jen and Rob's, unpacking the car, carrying armload after shoulder-straining armload of stuff up to their apartment..then living with all my crap stacked in boxes and bags all around me, then re-loading the car for the drive up to Hamiltron, then UNloading the car AGAIN, then doing the final sort and pack.
It's particularly hard for me because I am not, in general, an organised person, at least as far as filing and tidying goes. I can barely cope with the final stage of putting my clean laundry away - I'll happily sleep in a bed laden with clean clothes for a week. So naturally, all this packing is putting me in very bad mood :(
Friday, March 30, 2007
Gone Fishin'
Sometimes, you get reactions from people that show you that they really don't know you as well as they think they do. Case in point: As I write this, I'm happily settled in front of my parents' TV watching one of my favourite shows, "Gone Fishin". GF is a Saturday afternoon pleasure - one that I will happily admit to in social conversation. Yet, time after time, when I have expressed my enthusiasm for this show, I am met with reactions of surprise and disbelief from friends and colleagues. "Are you SERIOUS?" "You REALLY like to watch Gone Fishin?"
But I say, what's not to like? I like fishing, and GF takes all the best bits of the fishing process and condenses them into an action-packed half hour. The baiting, the catching, the cooking, with very little of the boring bits (the waiting, for example). Furthermore, the locations are fantastic, it showcases New Zealand like it's heaven on Earth, and it's almost always beautiful weather.
So why the disbelief from my friends? Perhaps they haven't really given it a chance?
I once heard that "Gone Fishin" was a big hit on US cable television. I'm not surprised. I bet my Uncle Butch in Texas would love it :)
But I say, what's not to like? I like fishing, and GF takes all the best bits of the fishing process and condenses them into an action-packed half hour. The baiting, the catching, the cooking, with very little of the boring bits (the waiting, for example). Furthermore, the locations are fantastic, it showcases New Zealand like it's heaven on Earth, and it's almost always beautiful weather.
So why the disbelief from my friends? Perhaps they haven't really given it a chance?
I once heard that "Gone Fishin" was a big hit on US cable television. I'm not surprised. I bet my Uncle Butch in Texas would love it :)
Thursday, March 01, 2007
To blog or not to blog..... that is the question....
So, I'm dithering about whether it's worth attempting to start a blog again in anticipation of my upcoming trip to Israel (and other places).
On one hand, several people have asked me if I will have a blog so they can keep track of me, but on the other hand, I have learned that most people - apart from the genuine geeks (amongst whom i count myself!!) - are actually pretty crap at checking in and reading their friends' blogs.
So people SAY I should blog, but are they gonna read it? Maybe I should stick to the mass email approach instead?
I guess I'll give it a try and see what happens. If no-one reads this, I shall be forced to send irritating emails telling people to go and look..... ;)
On one hand, several people have asked me if I will have a blog so they can keep track of me, but on the other hand, I have learned that most people - apart from the genuine geeks (amongst whom i count myself!!) - are actually pretty crap at checking in and reading their friends' blogs.
So people SAY I should blog, but are they gonna read it? Maybe I should stick to the mass email approach instead?
I guess I'll give it a try and see what happens. If no-one reads this, I shall be forced to send irritating emails telling people to go and look..... ;)
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