The Fern at dusk against the skyline of Wellington.

'Ferns' an aluminium sculpture suspended by wires, the brainchild of Neil Dawson. More information can be found at the Wellington Sculpture Trust.

A local piece of art with the Fern overlooking it.

Wedding dresses

A post from my significant other! =) Hello dearest..... as the rest of you may or may not know, we are engaged to be married and i couldn't help laughing at the howlers in a series of posts (1, 2, 3) featuring wedding garments by Spirit Fingers, though my laughter may be cut short by having to wear one of those outfits...

her: are you wearing anything under that kilt dearest?
him: (in a fake scottish accent) why donch ye find out?
her: ewwww... its gruesome!!
him: aye, keep it up and it'll grew sommore!

On a related note, i finalised our plans for our upcoming holiday, which looks to be very interesting as we're visiting the upper South Island this time round, after which we are all returning to Singapore together.

Another quiz, a nerdy one this time

Thanks to Anna Neo for this. Egads, my results:

Overall, you scored as follows:

23% scored higher (more nerdy), and
77% scored lower (less nerdy).

What does this mean? Your nerdiness is:

Mid-Level Nerd. Wow, it takes a lot of hard nerdy practice to reach this level.

Dicepool... again

You are the large, round, friendly d20! (You probably didn't know this, but the shape of the twenty-sided die is called an Icosahedron.) You are the friendly, outgoing, outspoken, leader of friends. You are often looked up to, even though you don't normally deserve it. Most other types secretly wish they were you, and you'd give them tips on how, if only you had a clue yourself. Your charisma is often all you need, but you have your occasional moments of brilliance as well--just never when it's actually needed. You are the all-around good guy, a dependable chum, a respectable foe, and an inspiration to those who need one. Who says you can't get by on a smile and good looks alone?

Take the quiz at dicepool.com

dice quiz

Take the quiz at dicepool.com

You are a good old-fashioned six-sided cube, otherwise known as a d6. Others know you to be plain, predictable, conservative, average, ordinary, and downright boring. You prefer to describe yourself as dependable, honest, practical and trustworthy. People usually know what to expect from you, since you rarely hold any surprises. You hate to make decisions, and if forced to decide, you'll always fall back on how it was done in the past. You always order the same thing at your favorite restaurant, and your jokes, while funny, are never too offensive. It seems that you are well liked, but maybe that's simply because there's nothing to hate.

How boring, thanks to Agagooga for this.

Test Cricket NZ vs Aussie

It is the third day of test cricket out in Jade Stadium in Christchurch and the television has been providing free to air coverage of this test match. Most people predicted that Australia would pick up where they left off in the one-dayers when they whitewashed the Black Caps 5-0, but i must say NZ ain't doing too badly so far.
People at work have been leaving the telly on over the last two days, so that anyone walking through the tea room would be instantly updated on the score. I really don't understand how people can play a game over so many days, it's so boring! Yet, i cannot help but leave the cricket on tv while i surf, if anything to provide background noise. LOL
If you wanna talk about hardcore cricketers, check out these guys who are heading to the North Pole to play the most northerly game of cricket in the history of sport. I wonder about the byline:

minus 50 degrees Celsius is an ideal temperature to hear the familiar smack of leather on willow

when the bat that they are bringing is an inflatable one.
Always wanted to learn how to play cricket, but never made it because most people here pick it up in school. Not really something that i miss dearly about NZ but still something that will remind me next time of my time here..... a really boring sport on tv that i cannot help watch.

Update: NZ posted a second innings score of 131 and Australia finished it off with nine wickets to spare. Story on stuff.

My plant

A little thing i might miss about the Hutt: the plant on my desk, which has sprouted a new leaf (the tallest one) since i got it. Strange how it gives me something to do each day and makes me fill up my water bottle more often and makes me drink more water. (the rubber band ball is my attempt to make a cricket ball)

long straight road

The second in the series of "things i'm gonna miss about the Hutt". I actually live on a place that' faces this road, so i get to hear various vehicles like ambulances, fire engines, police cars and boy racers scream past in the dead of night, as this road as no traffic lights, circles (really irritating) or pedastrian crossings of any sort for about 10 kms. Scary stuff. Luckily jeanie has been trained not to cross roads by herself (she sits and waits for me to give the ok).

Autumn's here!

The leaves are changing colour, from green to yellow, and then it'll turn brown and soon they will fall...

Running in the setting sun. 

Jeanie likes hanging around the rose garden. 

SNE

mb has the latest offering of SNE out. Great stuff!! Laughed so hard, and on a sidenote, there was a radio interview here talking about trademarks in New Zealand. Recently the IP office of NZ approved several trademarks in addition to the FCUK one, including CNUT and WNAK. Makes NTUC look tame doesn't it? LOL

Came across this great website that teaches you how to build cool stuff like a spectroscope and a laser communicator, wish i had the time to make them! I have an abundance of boxes now, but i need them for my move back to Singapore.

Leaving the Hutt

The usual sight i see when i head to the carpark to drive home after work each day. I'm gonna miss the Hutt in a way (don't think i can find a carpark big enough to do doughnuts in back home LOL)

sound bites

Came across online Street Fighter for free! Woohoo! Thanks to Cowboy Caleb for the link.

Read today about the latest honda civic, man i can't wait.

A girl in a Bionic suit is just as crazy about dogs and also tries to blog about current affairs. =)

Was watching Clickonline from BBC last night and these two sites were mentioned (dun ask me how i remember urls for something shown at 4 in the morning, i just do ok?)

Temporary boredom relief can be found here, and if you get even more bored, have a go at the canvas found on art.com (if you can't find it, the specific link is here)

interesting day II

My resignation was made known to the entire office today via an email announcement. What i found amusing was the train of emails leading up to the announcement. Basically, i had asked my manager whether he wanted me to do it, but he told my team leader to do it.
Later during the day, this reply from my team leader:

Sure, just waiting for Daniel to say the word.

And i couldn't help laughing when i read that for it made me want to stand up and shout across the room "l@n ch*#$!!" (hokkien expletive)

The origin of this joke was from my undergrad days in Canterbury. An advert on tv for a certain brand of potato chips was all the rage and it featured penguins dancing and eating chips to the tune of the Bee Gee's Jive Talking a la line dancing, and an exceptionally large penguin amongst them. This turns out to be a polar bear and a penguin shouts "Oi you! What's the word?" and for some (like slow-witted me), i had failed to figure out the word.
That was until two asians did the scene with one guy from the back of the lecture theatre yelling out "Oi you! What's the word?" and the reply? "l@n ch*#$!!" which aside for the crude version, literally translates to blue bird in hokkien. =)

Incidentally, this funny ad has been castigated by the green party for "exploitative marketing of unhealthy food and drink to children".... by "using animated dancing penguins attractive to young children". Oh well. trust the greens to take the humour out of it.

And on a related sidenote, this company has actually been accused of being racist.

All clogged up

I've been suffering from clogging for the past few days, because i was kinda proud/attached of/to the picture of the bus and my prowess of observation. LOL

I came across this site about a German Patent Attorney who has a keen interest in software patents. The arguments that he puts forth are very persuasive and well worth the time and effort to read, should you find interest in Intellectual Property.

Btw, if there is a sudden flurry of posts, its because of the sudden influx of blog-worthy (according to me) material.

Public Transport

Had a conference in town today and I had to take public transport in Wellington (a rare event) in the form of a bus and it was quite insightful. I came across this sign and was quite amused by it, why is there a need for such a request? LOL True, there's no penalty involved, but still the need to actually put up such a sign indicates the lack of social maturity. The capitalised and underlined words seem to yell out "nanny state!" to me and the funny thing is, i reckon school children will still occupy the seats anyway.

Buses here are quite interesting, some of them run on wires that are strung all over the place. Sitting in it, one cannot help but marvel how quiet and quick it can go. In fact, i was so impressed by the speed that i was mentally urging the bus driver to overtake the one in front, until i realised what a dumb thought that was since it wasn't possible thanks to the overhead cables.

At the same time, i was marvelling at how the ipod has infiltrated society with a lady sitting opposite listening to one, just like the guy this morning on my bus trip into town. The funny thing was the lady was sitting next to a girl who had a newly purchased ipod mini in a plastic bag, and she looked eager to get home to play it.