Very quick crossword

For those of you with time to kill, but not much of it, I present The Observationz Very Quick Crossword







Down:
2: Furry animal with four legs.
Across:
2: Implement used to play cricket.

Have fun and don't think too hard!

We got rid of the twat!

I posted this response in the Herald in response to the glad news that Garth George is leaving Auckland:

Bye.

Don't come back. Maybe your bigoted and archaic views will be appreciated somewhere else, although I think all of New Zealand is becoming a more intelligent, tolerant, society.

Perhaps Queensland or Mississippi? Or Zimbabwe - Robert Mugabe hates gays too you know..

Doubt they'll print it!

Posh & Mental

I refer of course to the former royal couple, Kate & Wills.

This article talks about how Kate wasn't posh enough for the B.R.F.₁

She went to Marlborough FFS! That's posh enough for most people. The thing is the B.R.F. aren't just posh - they have taken it to whole new levels. Use of archaic English is a marker - apparently the use of words like "toilet" and "pardon" mark you down as common (I'm not sure how "shithouse" and "you what mate?" fit on this scale?). I personally would see this as indicative of a psychiatric disorder..

1. British Royal Family

No surprise

Apparently the Dubai backers of the "New Zealand" Americas Cup challenge are talking about holding the next series in Dubai, should they win the cup (and thus the hosting rights, which sensibly go to the winner).

I'm not surprised at all. The AC teams are not national rep teams like the ABs - they are the private enterprises of very wealthy people and will attach to whichever country is convenient.

Question is, if they do this will Dave Dobbyn have to start singing "Loyal" in Arabic - which, per Google, would make it موالي.

Having fun

Seen on a poster in Sydney (for a different party):
Jesus had a shit time at Easter. You don't have to!

So I escaped the Auckland holiday shutdown and had fun at a hidden location in the Australian bush - 10km from anywhere (and anywhere wasn't very much of a place) up a dirt track, which left my rental car a bit grubby..




That's the entrance gate thingy above. Neat eh! The organisers did a great job of decorating the place. They had a geodesic dome as a DJ booth (which apparently lives in Canberra and is available for hire).



Musicwise, it was psy-trance all the way. Excellent sets from all the DJs and a good reaction despite the intermittent drizzle. Naked Tourist played an excellent three hour set. I'm left inspired to adds a bit more psy- to my own collection..

Great party! Wish we had more of those sort of events in NZ - apparently they have an outside doof nearly every weekend right through the year, including midwinter day parties.

Glowing away

I've just about finished my first attempt at an EL wire project.



It's very simple - a t-shirt ($20 from Farmers) with a spiral of green EL wire. The spiral is a good shape to start with, as it doesn't involve any cutting and is low-stress on the wire. I didn't even have to terminate it - just used a standard length and made the belt loop thing with the surplus. I used hot melt glue to stick the wire to the shirt, passing it through the fabric every so often to try and give it some structural integrity. I was going to sew the wire in place, but actually duct tape on the inside of the shirt seems to have done the trick. Also, I've used tape to hide the bits of the wire I don't want to show.

Why? I'm going to this psy-trance doof in Aussie - flight's this arvo!

On Airstrip One

‘Smith!’ screamed the shrewish voice from the telescreen. ‘6079 Smith W.! Yes, you! Bend lower, please! You can do better than that. You're not trying. Lower, please! That's better, comrade. Now stand at ease, the whole squad, and watch me.’

A sudden hot sweat had broken out all over Winston's body. His face remained completely inscrutable. Never show dismay! Never show resentment! A single flicker of the eyes could give you away.

- 1984, George Orwell, 1948

The home secretary, John Reid, today denied that plans to expand the use of "talking" CCTV cameras across the country were akin to "Big Brother gone mad".
Loudspeakers are being fitted to cameras in 20 areas, allowing CCTV operators to bark commands at people committing antisocial behaviour.

- Guardian, 4th April 2007

And people ask if I'm going to move back to the UK?

New Burning Man theme..

In case you hadn't seen this - this is the modified theme for this years Burning Man.