Friday, June 30, 2006

Tagged to the point of tagging

Here is the latest tag from Ashley. Everyone who I link to, you know the drill!

Accent: The one where we eliminate all vowels. Yeah, the New Zealand one!

Booze: Rum baby, yeah!

Chore I Hate: Chore is such an American word. We prefer housework. I prefer nothing.

Dog or Cat: Cat! Yay cat!

Essential Electronics: iPod. See below!

Fav Perfume: Paris Hilton. Nah, kidding!

Gold or Silver: Silver, except for medals where it is all gold baby!

Home: Home on the range where the bears and the penguins do bray.

Insomnia: Is a silly book written by Stephen King

Job Title: Ruler of the World in Waiting

Living Arrangements: Satisfactory, but not nearly mansion enough

Most Admirable Traits: My incredible good looks and genius intelligence. My amazing modesty.

Number of Sexual Partners: Today? Too many to count.

Number of times in hospital: Just the once. When I was born...

Quote: It's like a koala bear is crapping a rainbow in my brain

Religion: Athiesm... yay!

Siblings: We don't talk about her....

Time I Wake Up: 5am. Sad. The end.

Unusual Talent or Skill: Prehensile tongue

Vegetable I Love: Stephen Hawking

X-Rays, Last time: Hair

Yummy Food I Make: Plain toast. Yummmmmmmy!

Zodiac Sign: Taurus

San Nakji for President!

Weekly Animal Pic - Possum



The Clampetts quite like a possum or two popped into a nice hot stew. Wow, I am a poet and I know it.

American possums are not to be confused with Australian possums which although a protected species in Australia are a major pest in New Zealand. Here when we see them on the road we swerve to hit them. Oh how we hate possums!


Saying that, I think American possums seem quite cool. Has anyone tasted one?

Homer Simpson calls the big one Bitey.

San Nakji for President!

You Wouldn't Like Me When I'm Angry



San Nakji for President!

Thursday, June 29, 2006

Mint Update

So I know you are all dying to know what became of the mint in the stairwell, right? Well I have the pleasure of telling you it is still there. No one has claimed it. The evidence tells us that not one of the multitude of cleaners we employ in this building even bothers to look into the stairwell and so I predict that the mint will remain part of this building for a very long time. After all you know the old addage, after a nuclear war only cockroaches and mints in stairwells will survive.

I think the mint has an important lesson to tell us,

I close my eyes, only for a moment, and the moment's gone
All my dreams, pass before my eyes, a curiosity
Mint on the stairs, all they are is mint on the stairs.
Same old song, just a drop of water in an endless sea
All we do, crumbles to the ground, though we refuse to see

Mint on the stairs, all we are is mint on the stairs

**update**

The mint has now moved from one side of the stairs to the other. I am not quite sure how to take this new information that mints are mobile...

San Nakji for President!

Wednesday, June 28, 2006

Walking in Auckland





I was walking around the Auckland waterfront on a lovely Winter's day today. I took these photos with my crappy cellphone camera. I like the way the photos almost look like they are paintings. The lighting is all wrong though, it was much brighter than it looks!

San Nakji for President!

I love my iPod



If Mrs SN wasn't around, I would so marry my little green friend! Love love love my iPod!

San Nakji for President!

Friday, June 23, 2006

Weekly Animal Pic - Coconut Crab



Coconut Crabs are enormous crabs found on Pacific Islands, not including my own... They are called Coconut Crabs because they eat coconuts, which they can smash open with their claws. They also taste like coconut I am told. I am not much into crab or lobster, so I wouldn't know. Mrs SN says so, and I have to believe her! They are endangered because they are so easy to catch.

When I was in Vanuatu for my honeymoon we were told about a trained coconut crab which was kept tied to a tree on a resort island. They had trained it to climb trees on demand. We thought that would be an interesting thing to see, so we made our way out to the island. When we got to the bar where it was supposed to be, we couldn't find it. We asked one of the staff where it was and were told that one of the guests was hungry, so they had boiled up their trained crab! I couldn't believe it... Some bloody tourist ate the star attraction of Iririki Island! What was that all about? I bet he was Australian....

San Nakji for President!

The Pressure is too much!


Korea is playing Switzerland tomorrow morning in the final match of pool play at the FIFA World Cup. It's simple. Korea win and they are through to play either Spain, Tunisia or Ukraine. Draw it and they will need to hope that France, who are playing Togo at the same time, win by only one goal, draw or lose. If Korea lose then they need France to draw or lose. Simple huh? There will be a lot of people crowded around our TV tomorrow cheering on Korea and Togo. It is all getting too much....

필승 코리아! Go Korea!

San Nakji for President!

Thursday, June 22, 2006

Out of Place



For some reason there is a mint in the stairwell of my work. I am pretty sure there are not normally mints there. Why is it there? It reminds me of a Sesame Street song.

"One of these stairwells is not like the others,
One of these stairwells just doesn't belong,
Can you tell which stairwell is not like the others
By the time I finish my song?"

It's the one with the mint!

(Must get back on the medicine...)

San Nakji for President!

Polite Test


Our morning news and our morning papers screamed that Auckland, the city I live in, is the seventh most polite city in the world! Living in a small country, you soon learn how quickly media jumps at the chance to show that our country is top in one thing or the other. Our media failed to mention what was involved in the politeness test, just that we were 7th! More importantly, we beat Australia! Those impolite so and sos! Three things were tested in the 'politeness' test. Number one was holding doors open for others. Number two was helping someone pick up dropped papers and number three was seeing if shop assistants say thankyou. That's it. Nothing else. Nothing about helping people who are lost. Nothing about crime levels. ( I don't know about you, but I find having my wallet stolen highly impolite!). Nothing about giving up your seat for the old or the infirm. Basically nothing really of worth. Rest assured Seoul, I know you are a very polite city, don't listen to the Reader's Digest! We Kiwis are pretty polite, but how can you measure anything on just three sets of criteria?

San Nakji for President!

Wednesday, June 21, 2006

Reincarnation


So I was thinking about reincarnation. What if it were true? What if we all came back as something else when we died? What would you want to come back as? I think being a bird would be pretty cool. I mean who wouldn't want to fly?

As far as the worst thing to come back as? I think it would be Ice Cream. It would be awful to be that cold right to the core. Brrrrr.... definitely would hate to come back as Ice Cream!

San Nakji for President!

Tuesday, June 20, 2006

Sydney Harbour Bridge View



The view from a hotel I stayed at in Sydney Australia once. For New Year's they launch fireworks from the bridge, it is quite spectacular.

San Nakji for President!

Monday, June 19, 2006

Video First - Mud Bubbling Mud



My first attempt at Youtube video. I took this little video of some boiling mud last year. It's just my first attempt ok? Don't judge!

San Nakji for President!

Waiting...



Taken while I was waiting...

San Nakji for President!

Absence without Blog

Again football is keeping me up at nights and my creative blog writing juices have ceased to flow.

Last night I watched Japan play to a nil all draw with Croatia. Japan played much better than they did against Australia, so that was something. They now have to beat Brazil to have any chance of advancing, not much hope I would think.

What really excited me about the overnight football was Korea pulling off a draw against France. They were completely outplayed for long stretches of the match but still managed enough possession to finish with a score draw. Not too exciting for most of my readership for sure, but I was excited! Korea play again on Friday night, Saturday morning Aotearoa time, and a bunch of Koreans and wannabe Koreans are coming around to yell hell out of the neighbourhood!

In unrelated Journal news I have to say I have had writer's block there too. I have written down a couple of wacky dreams I have been having. Lack of sleep will increase the wackiness of your dreaming. The first dream I had is way too hard to explain, but involves secret gardens, lakes and piles of excrement.... The second dream was kind of cool. I dreamt about Tiger Island. On Tiger Island you can find tigers. I met some, but I can't remember if they were friendly or not. On the way to Tiger Island I wanted to pop into Dunkin' Donuts but it was too far and would have made me late for the boat. I went to a Korean Donut place instead. Which was sufficient...

Well, back to the football!

San Nakji for President!

Friday, June 16, 2006

Big Flag



I took this photo at the World Cup 2002. I heard that at the time this was the largest flag in the world. I admit it's pretty big....

San Nakji for President!

Wednesday, June 14, 2006

World Cup Nights


Well one of my favourite events in the world is on right now. The FIFA World Cup is being beamed into living rooms around the world from Germany to us. The time zone is all wrong for us who live just to the left of the International Dateline. Matches are kicking off at 1am, 4am and 7am, New Zealand time. 7am isn't so bad, but so far the matches I have wanted to watch have been at 1am. Things are made worse for me as I need to be up for work at 5:30am. This means I have been going to bed at 9pm, getting up at 12:30am, watching the game until 3am and then getting another couple of hours sleep. You think it's tough for the players to be kicking a ball around in near 40 degrees celcius heat (that's 104 in Fahrenheit)? Try greeting the world having as little sleep as I have had! Not that I am complaining. As Cergie pointed out, one of the teams I support, Japan, played awfully and lost, but last night my favourite team, Korea, beat Togo to go top of their group! Please be excited for me!
Anyway, this is an excuse for not blogging as much as I have in the past. I know there are literally thousands of people out there who live for my posts and to you I apologise. I will try to write more and post more photos as soon as I am able. I assure you that my journal is getting a hard and steady workout.

Go Korea!

San Nakji for President!

Friday, June 09, 2006

Random Thoughts on a Friday

I think this is the longest I have gone without blogging. It has really been hard to stay away and totally unplanned. Part of the reason is due to a winning lottery ticket and there are other reasons too.

I have started writing my thoughts down in a journal. It is my little black book. It is pretty exhilirating to write things down as they come to me. Is exhilirating the right word? A more appropriate word would be waste-of-time. Anyway here are some random thoughts from my journal to help you with your day

1) Baseball bats are scary

I had a dream where my brother-in-law came at me with a baseball bat. I had to headbutt him in the stomach. The bat was scary, but I took him down

2) When I am walking the Pooch around our neighbourhood I always greet people out walking. Even though we don't know each other they always say hi. However if I do this in the city, people look at me strangly and hold their bags tightly... Why is that?

3) Reavers are creepy

They just are. They disturb me on many levels.

4) James Earl Jones' character in Conan the Barbarian, Thulsa Doom, is really creepy too. A cool kind of creepy though, not the Reaver kind.

5) Why do people always bend down when they enter or exit a helicopter?

I mean, those blades are up pretty high. There is no way they would cut your head off unless you were 3 metres tall or something (Thats 10 feet for you Yanks).

6) I like saving bugs.

I save them from drowning in the shower or being crushed on the footpath. I figure they will get together someday and help me out. I am just waiting at the moment...

7) Last night what we talked about, it made so much sense

Now the haze has ascended it don't make much sense anymore

*Have a good weekend guys and gals and those inbetween!*

San Nakji for President!

Friday, June 02, 2006

Weekly Animal Pic - Big Gull



Couldn't really find any photos of exotic animals, so I thought this photo of a Big Gull might do. He (or She) was big. He (or She) was also a Gull. So I jumped to conclusions....

San Nakji for President!

Rarotonga on a cloudy day



San Nakji for President!