From an Athiest

From one 'without religion'. I love houses of worship. Don't care which religion, they all just impress me so much.

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A Study in Summer

Summer's here! Yes! Yes! Yes!

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The Only Way to Travel

Yesterday as we were making the most of the Summer weather, we drove up north to a regional park. On the way up we were stuck behind the sheep bus. I kept wondering whether they were travelling for their hair, or their meat... I hope it was for their hair!

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Fruits of the Loom

A few months ago posted a photo of the blossoms on my apricot tree. Cergie meanly told me to cut it down. Well, Cergie, I didn't! And now, here is my reward :O)

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Don't Smoke Pot

Koreans like their pots. They use them to make all kinds of Kimchi, or in this case, Dwaenjang (beanpaste). I love Dwaenjang! Love love love! I love these pots too! I wouldn't smoke them though.

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So Near and Yet So Far

SN would desparately like to visit North Korea. Unfortunately for him, Mrs SN won't let him go! This is as close as I get. Across the border looking at guards looking at us. The infamous DMZ. So quiet you could hear a mine explode...

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Pohutukawa Time

You know it's nearing Christmas, and therefore Summer, here in Aotearoa when the Pohutukawa starts to bloom. And starting to bloom they are!

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The Lesson

The lesson here is that you can't have too many Buddhas. Although, maybe 438 is the magic number?

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Old Man

I can't claim this photo for my own, but I can claim the photo of the photo! The old man here is decrying the injustice of a divided Korea. I think the photo is quite powerful.

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Stones

Koreans, although mainly Christian, Buddhist or Athiest, still have some affinity with the ancient Shamanist religions. One of the ways this manifests is through the piling of stones, usually around temples or sites of great beauty. If you see these piles, the thing to do is to add your own stone. It's good luck!

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Happy Birthday Deepa!

Dear Deepa,

Happy Birthday for today. I hope you are getting a break from work on your special day!

Ah, to be as young as you.... *sigh*

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Dragon's Roar!

I love Dragonflies. We don't have many here though. Korea, on the other hand, has too many to count! Must be dragonfly heaven. Do they like Kimchi perhaps?

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Shadow's Over Peru

I tried to get a bit arty with this shot. The pagoda is part of the UNESCO World Heritage site of Bulguksa in Gyeongju, Korea. The sun is part of the sky, seen in a town near you.

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Great Injustice

There are so many injustices in the world. The theft of this symbol is one of them.



Can't see it clearly? Try this image.



In many parts of the world, but especially in Asia, the swastika (from Sanskrit) is a symbol of peace. It infuriates me that whenever I see it on a temple I can only think of a short German wanker with a small growth on his lip.

Wikipedia has a very good, although long, article on this ancient symbol. I recommend you having a look at it. The photo of the Korean temple there is the same temple I took the above photos at.

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Sans Photos (ha ha ha, get it?)

For a change, no photos in this post. I just thought I would sit down and have a chat with my favourite readers. Yes, you know who you are! I am looking at you right now. There I am winking in your direction. Yes, that's right, you! Now you have it!

So, where to start?

I was looking at my iPod and the list of songs on it. There are some freaky titles. Here are the top ten in no particular order (except for no.1)

10 - Ping Island, Lighning Strike Rescue Op.
9 - The Rise and Fall of Ooo Man
8 - Perhaps Vampires is a Bit Much, But
7 - Elanor Put Your Boots On
6 - Ceiling Fan in my Spoon
5 - 2+2=5 (Lukewarm)
4 - The Skin of my Yellow Country Teeth
3 - I Constantly Thank God for Esteban
2 - Lying is the Most Fun a Girl Can Have Without Taking Her Clothes Off

and... drum roll please.... My most favouritest...

1 - Disease of the Dancing Cats

Yay!

In my last post I wished all my Yank friends a happy Thanksgiving. Now, this blog is for the people. Not just the American people, but all my people. If you happen to have an important national day coming up. Please let me know and I will post especially for it. This offer does not apply to Australia. I also do Birthdays and Bah Mitzvahs בר מצוה (whatever they are).

OMG, I really wish I was eating turkey today! Unfortunately I can see mince in my stars... C'mon America, have an extra slice for me! And don't skimp on the cranberry sauce!

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Let us give thanks

Dear America,

Let me be the first to wish you a happy Thanksgiving. I hope you all have enormous amounts to eat and have an extra helping of sweet potato pie for your old pal SN. In celebration I give you some world famous American exports. (well not famous in New Zealand, we don't have them!)

Love SN

Krispy Kreme (yummy!)





Cold Stone Creamery (even more yummy!)





Dear Canada,

Yes I know you have Thanksgiving too, but I always forget when it is. Two weeks ago or something right? Well, the only reason I knew it was America's day today was that someone was towing the Statue of Liberty down our harbour (I kid you not!)

Warmest Regards,

SN

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Roof and Leaves

Haein Temple in Mt Gaya National Park is a great place for photos. I spent a night in the temple. It involved eating things that weren't meat (bad) and getting up at 3am... (surprisingly refreshing!). Must tell you about it one day...

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Cheomseongdae Revised

I spotted this arty remake in downtown Seoul. A new comment leaver, Jon, took a much better photo here. Made from car headlights apparently... Go figure!

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Cheomseongdae - Say that one three times fast!

One of my favourite buildings in all the world. So simple in it's construction and yet so magnificent... Cheomseongdae!

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Don't Ever Leave

Did I say before how much I love Autumn leaves? Well it's true! Again, Mt Gaya puts out for me on the leaf front. Go Mt Gaya!

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Patterns Alive

To patterns from my recent trip. The first is a temple roof high in the Bukhan mountains.



The other, a wall in the National Folk Museum....



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Sense Overload

From Mt Gaya in Gyeongsang North Province, Korea, a photo of the autumn colours. We don't get autumn leaves here, so I always appreciate the beauty.

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Korea - It's not all about...

Earless bunnies and colourful spiders. Nope, Korea also has alien space craft sneaking on to the planet disguised as green buildings...Cergie has suffered a similar fate!

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Everyone Loves a Squirrel

My trip to Korea put me in touch with squirrels. We don't have them here in Aotearoa, but I always manage to see them in Korea. This one was amazing as he didn't seem to be the least bit worried about my presence. He was sitting on a traditional thatched roof eating... well, I am not sure what he was eating, knowing nothing about squirrels as I don't. He was great to watch though!

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Geomi

This is one reason why one of my friends says she could never live in Korea. Never.

Say hi to a Daegu, Republic of Korea, resident. I think she's cool. Then again, I am a big fan of spiders! Anyone out there know what species she is?

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Hare and the Turtle

At Queen Min's birth place, I also found this turtle, burdened with carrying a rabbit for all eternity. Poor bloke. Turtles traditionally represent long life, didn't help in Queen Min's case though did it?

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Korean Roof

I was going to post a bunch of photos, but it is too late and I am tired! Here's a Korea roof. As I look at my photos I notice a lot of roof shots. Hmmmm... I didn't know I liked roofs that much! Anyway, they are quite impressive don't you think? This one belongs to a building which was the birthplace of Queen Min. Everyone knows that San Nakji loves a bit of monarchy action!

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Soju!

The smiling bottle in a previous post is a soju bottle. Soju is Korea's national drink and is about 21% alcohol. Not the most strong thing, but also not like your average beer. One of the most dangerous things about it though is the price. Less that one US dollar... Imagine getting a couple of six packs of those for a Saturday night!

Anyway, as I said in my last post I went to Icheon and visited a soju factory. It was pretty much like any other factory of it's type, nothing too exciting. The guie proudly told me however that this factory is the largest spirits factory in the world. In the last ten years they have sold 1 billion bottles... That's 100 million a year or over two bottles for every man woman and child in Korea... Quite a lot of alcohol I think you will agree!

The best part of the tour was the end when we were able to taste all the different soju. I have to admit in being a little tipsy, but this was merely preparing me for the rest of my trip!











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Happy Birthday Mistri!

It's Kira's Slave's birthday today! Happy birthday young man, enjoy your youth and don't waste it like I did...

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Yes

The continuing saga. After getting to Korea I met a great blogfriend. It was great to meet her and I hope I didn't scare her too much! After that I headed to Icheon, about an hour from Seoul where I had planned to visit a Seoju (Korean alcohol) factory. I had some time before the factory tour began and so wandered the town. It is a nice little place. I met a man who felt that his daughter could have been Miss Korea, but had run off to Australia to be a diplomat. He claimed to be an author, I have my doubts, being a literature major... There was a cool little shopping arcade and that's where I came across this shop sign. It is brilliant! All shops should include such prose on their advertising signs!

Can I also say it's hard to blog with a cat on your knee???

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The Journey Begins

So this is the first shot I took on my journey. It's from the plane window somewhere over the South Pacific Ocean. It just blew me away when I saw what was happening outside. I think the photo captured the moment well too. Have you ever looked at clouds and just refused to believe that you couldn't walk on them? Well, that's how I felt right at that moment!

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Smile Again

Yes, Smile Again! San Nakji returns! He returns with some 600 photos... Are you ready???

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Last Post

My dear friends. I am off to Korea tomorrow for two weeks and don't think I will be posting until I come back on November 6th. Please keep coming back and expressing your love. I shall miss you all. Well almost all of you ;o)

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Green Monster

Some kind of freaky monster I caught on film a couple of weeks ago. Scaarrrrry!

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Thoughts on a Cloudy Thursday

I just haven't been able to have much computer time these days (at home I mean!) so no new photos. I know this is why most of you come to San Nakji's world, but also you come for the wise words that I sometimes give you the honour of imparture (is this a word? If it isn't, well... it should be!) of knowledge. This is what I have for you today.

As I was coming to work this morning I saw a bunch of women walking the streets of the city with ski poles. It seemed to me to be some kind of fad excercise thing. Has anyone heard of this? I wonder if they realise how stupid they look when the snow is 5 hours drive away...

It's two days until I leave you all for two weeks. I don't know if I can stand the separation. How will I be able to get through?

Kira's Slave has a stalker. I am, frankly, jealous. Libby has offered to take up the position, but I am prepared to take other applications. Please forward to my email address for perusal. All application rewarded with legal action.

For all you Yanks out there. What's a good book about the Civil War? I am interested in that part of your history!

That's all for the moment. More will come to hand as the day progresses.

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Robots

I am going to see robots on Sunday! I am so excited. Robots rock and one day we will bow down to them as our overlords. This is predestined and you shouldn't try to fight your predestiny. Ok?

Here is a cool robot,



Here is a scary robot,



Here is... um.... uh....



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Rugger

Rugby's really not my game. I am a league fan for sure, but I do follow my local team, North Harbour. So two weekends ago, me and 10 000 of my closest friends went out to North Habour Stadium to see them play in the quarter finals of the national championship. We were playing the evil union from the south, Otago and were expected to win. Unfortunately we got the thrashing of our lives... it wasn't pretty to watch.

On the plus side I was playing with the action setting on my camera and came up with these nice shots. They look better if you click on them. Descriptions are underneath each photo.



This is called a scrum. Basically the two team crouch down and smash into each other trying to get the ball. That's about as much as you need to know about this more than disturbing part of rugby. North Harbour, for the record, are in the white jerseys.



This is a lineout. The two teams lineup and one of the team throws the ball between the lines for someone to catch. I liked photographing lineouts because I could catch the ball in mid air.



Lineout again. This is my favourite shot as you can see the ball quite clearly and the guys competing for it.



Here is my team making one of only three attempts at converting a try all match. He basically has to kick it through the posts (see below) and then the team gets 2 points.



Finally, here is Otago, the evil team, kicking points. Our guy is valiantly trying to stop the kick, but it is all just too late. So sad...

So now you still know nothing about Aotearoa New Zealand's national sport...

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The Surest Way

The surest way to lose your readership is to cease blogging since October 10th... I have pretty much blogged at least five days a week for 18 months now and then last week I go without blogging. I feel I have betrayed my faithful readership, which is just not on! I wish to thank all those who commented on my last little post. It is always good to feel loved!

So last week was basically a family week which meant no chance to get on the computer. I don't like to talk about my family here, but they are a big part of my life. Nope, no family here, this is all about me, my photos and observations on the way things are. I have to say that I have really changed a lot in the way I blog. I started out with quite a political edge, but now I see that my energy in that is best served elsewhere. This blog is more about entertainment so if I can entertain each and every one of you just a little bit with each post, then I think my job here in blog world is sorted!

So what has been happening in the past week? Lots of gory deaths and the usual misery around the world. If you want to know more, check out your local paper or one of the links on my links bar. For me, it's all about what I put in my journal which has been sadly neglected this past week also.

The first thing that I came across flipping back in my journal is my comment about big sunglasses. What is it with women and those enormous sunglasses? You know the ones, the ones that cover half the face with each lens as big as the moon. To me it just looks awful. Why cover your face like that? When I am finally president of the world I am outlawing those things on pain of death. It is the only way...

I am reading a book about King Alfred the Great at the moment. There is a part talking about Anglo Saxon kings in other parts of England at that time and one of the kings was named Wiglaf. That's billiant. However it can't compare with Wigmund, or my personal favourite Wigstan! Wigstan was actually worshipped as a saint after his death for a while, although it doesn't look like it stuck. Now, if there was still a Saint Wigstan, I would certainly convert to Catholicism right now!

Home school zealots! What's with these people who feel they should lock away their kids from the real world and then go out of their way to prove how 'normal' they are? News for you freaks. They ain't normal!

Clint Eastwood as a director. Has there ever been a more miserable man on this planet? He goes from the greatness of Dirty Harry, yes greatness, to the misery and utter despair of Mystic River, Million Dollar Baby and Unforgiven (if you haven't seem them, my advice is don't! If you have, I recommend therapy to block the memory!). Oh how I miss the old kickarse Clint. Please come back!

I was in a discount shopping mall in the weekend and stocked up on books with rock bottom prices. One of them is the biography of Neil Armstrong. A really interesting bloke. It got me thinking, who is the most famous person alive? Is it Neil? Is it Sir Edmund Hillary? Is it Bush :(? What do you think?

Must blog a lot this week as on Saturday I am off to Korea for two weeks. I hope you all don't miss me too badly!

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Notice

Hey Kids,

Just a quick note to say SN is currently on leave at home and not getting near a computer as much as he should. I have some photos to post, just need to find the time.

In the meantime, you all stay well y'hear?

San Nakji for President!

From the Archive

A photo from the archive. Hope you enjoy.

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Cat v Curtains

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My Own Nation

Light on the blogging at the moment, I hope I haven't turned away my good blog viewing friends! I have been reading about Micronations and I think I would like to start my own. I already have the land and I have good relations with the surrounding country (Aotearoa), so I think the time is right. These are the things I have to do...

1) Think of a name

Well, I am kind of leaning towards Snopolis. I think that kind of says it all. However I like the name Wigstan too. I could definitely be the president of a country called Wigstan!

2) Design a Flag

I need to start working on this. I think I like the simple flags, the European ones with the strips of colours. Black would be good in a flag. Black is cool.

3) National Anthem

I will probably steal someone else's music and write funky new lyrics.

4) Diplomatic Relations

My new nation will need to establish ties with other nations. I am thinking of contacting Tibet, Inner Mongolia, Taiwan, Aceh, Pitcairn, Western Sahara and other disaffected nations. I will also be looking for Consuls and Ambassadors in other countries... This means my readers! I am not sure what duties you will have to perform.

So that's it at the moment. More ideas to come as they form in my tiny brain.

Any suggestions will be welcomed.

Standby for action!

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Blind Robbery

So, I just keep taking family photos these days which will never make it to this blog. As a result, to keep my fans happy, I am stealing some more of C's photos. She took these in the South of New Zealand. The Milford Sound is a World Heritage site, listed with UNESCO. Must get back there one day.

Thanks once more C!






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Hoff Dream

The other night I had the weirdest dream and I feel I have to share it with someone. You'll have to do.

I was watching the local netball team beat up on our evil rivals from across the bridge. We pounded them good and I was happy. It was a double header, so I went outside to get some fresh air before the next game. Out on the front lawn I found David Hasselhoff, lying on the grass. Wow, the Hoff!, I thought and asked him for his autograph. The Hoff didn't have any paper, so I asked him for his email address instead. He didn't have an address, but offered to give me his cellphone number. I took his phone and began to dial my own cellphone to get his number. As I was 'dialing', his phone rang. It was a friend of his inviting him to go somewhere. I was a bit sad as I hadn't had time to get The Hoff's number, but he offered me a lift. We went back to my place first where I got my camera and then we headed to meet his friend. When we got to the house I found a number of stars there. First there was Sandra Bullock. Only she said her name was Sexy Murphy... Brittney Spears was there too, but her name was Sexy (something, can't remember). Why didn't they give me their real names? I knew who they were. There was also this well known character actor. I don't know his name, but I recognised him from a bunch of films.

Then I woke up.

What does this mean?

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Bless You!

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