holy bat-update, not-batman!

first, thank you for all the kind comments regarding my photo... wasn't exactly expecting to get picked, but surprisingly they threw me a frickin' bone. now i have to see if i can take a photo to win next year's competition... which brings us to more adventuring, etc...

farming life is good fun, if a little quiet. so far most of the work has been tree planting, but there's been some cow, pig, and chicken feeding a-happenin' too. some farmland photos are below...

this past weekend was spent with anton, ezra, and their friend candice skiing at the turoa area on mt. ruapehu. saturday was a white out with gale force winds at the top, so the slopes were closed. sunday was a good day, but the slopes hadn't been groomed due to the bad weather, so the snow was a bit uneven--powdery in some places and icy in others. that in combination with skiing on courses a little too challenging for my rusty skills (the last time i skied may have been eight years ago) led to a number of tumbles. an early accidental somersault led to a lost contact lens. a later double (or possibly triple?) somersault was a complete wipeout--lost both my skis and my poles (held on to the other contact lense though). one of my skis was stuck so far into the snow that ezra almost couldn't pull it out... some old guy gave me a 10 out of 10 for the fall, but didn't offer any help. needless to say, i have some sore spots (legs, torso, neck... pretty much everything). anton gave me a couple quick lessons and by the end of the day i was more-or-less back to where i was the last time i skied, just a little more cautious. today i got a couple of hours in and managed to fall on my ass only twice.

tomorrow it's back to the farm, where we'll probably stay until the end of the week, i think.

the latest batch of photos (click on them for larger versions):

anton (left) and ezra

brendan and the otamatea river

brendan and the moo cows

brendan and ruffy to action!

trees and farmland and sky


the view of the otamatea river from the house at the farm

two more trees

mt. ruapehu

worst. pizza. ever.

this may be my last post for a little while. brendan and i are headed up to the farm in otematea this evening. most of today is last minute prep--laundry, packing, etc. yesterday we headed out to one tree hill and wandered around the lovely cornwall park, where we met some of roudy hotsteppers.



yesterday also marked what was the first in a probably long and fruitless journey searching for the perfect pizza in new zealand. yesterday's jaunt to epolito's (a place run by ex-pat new yorkers) took about twice as long as expected only to find the establishment closed for the afternoon. what followed was probably the worst pizza ever.



then last night for dinner was a bit of a trip down memory lane with the harveys... well, warwick and shirley, at least. they managed to dig up an old home video of craig's 9th birthday party, which i had attended. there was a weird game involving shaving cream and the limbo. there was also a few minutes of footage of a game from the northcote soccer club i used to play on.

aaaaand... guess who got an honorable mention in the 2006 washington post travel photo contest.

i'll try and post while at the farm, but i make no guarantees.

Waiheke

will someone get this baby out of my soup?

got some new zealand culture last night with a night at the cinema. brendan and i saw sione's wedding, a domestically made film shot in the auckland area about a band of troublemaker friends who are banned from another friend's wedding due to their past history of bad behavior. the only way they'll be allowed in is if they're able to find actual girlfriends (instead of their usual one-night stands) to bring to the wedding with them. i suppose it would fall into the "urban comedy" category and shares a number of tropes. the cast was mainly minorities (in this case polynesian), the soundtrack featured almost exclusively polynesian hip hop and r&b groups, and much of the humor was based on race (prejudiced police officer, the white guy acting like he's a minority, playing up the differences between white and polynesian women, etc.). it's kind of weird how american culture has been force fed to/adopted by other nations. the movie itself was fairly enjoyable. it was pretty amusing and had some fun oddball characters.

today we headed over to the auckland botanic gardens, which we found out was a hell of a long way away, especially if you take the bus just after school has let out. it took about an hour and a half to get out there from downtown auckland and about an hour to get back. it turned into a fun photo-taking expedition.












































for more photos check out my flickr page.

if any of the formatting on this blog looks weird on your browser, let me know. i've had some weird spacing problems with firefox when posting photos.

day 4, rainbow 8

yup... saw 2 rainbows again today... i also got to check off two items on my list of things to do: visit the war memorial museum and see the maori culture show, and visit my old neighborhood in northcote. the latter was an experience that was a little difficult to describe. the last time I'd been there was at least 12 years ago. it all seemed pretty familiar (here's a map of the general auckland area), but there were some definite changes: fisherman's wharf, down at the end of my old street, was abandoned; the dairy my brother and i used to frequent for candy (i specifically recall buying gummy coke bottles) is now a wine shop, and the lotto store is a chips shop; northcote primary and a ton of new buildings, one of which pretty well blocks the entrance to the school; the onepoto domain is really a pretty nice place, and the soccer fields, in hindsight, are probably the best ground i've ever played on; and the northcote shopping center has basically turned into one giant asian mart, which i can't say isn't an improvement, but it was a little striking to see pretty much every store sign there have asian lettering. the old house is still there, though...

flowers in the auckland domain's winter garden

maori wood carvings in a traditional meeting house

the northcote tavern, located across the street from...

my old house and its ski slope of a driveway (yes, that is the ocean behind it)

day 2, rainbow 4

wandered around auckland today. bought a cell phone, looked for a pair of jeans... apparently i failed to pack a pair (...because, really, who needs pants?), ate at some tastey asian place for lunch, hit up the auckland domain, dropped by the museum, but didn't purchase entry as we'd missed the last maori cultural performance for the day. promised ourselves we'd come back. walked the 8k from auckland to the bruell's in st. helier's. got soaked through by sideways rain.













... made with real malaysians--spicy!













graphitti bores brendan, pictured sleeping whilst standing



















an old railyard near the auckland domain













auckland, city of rails.













rainbow #2... #3 was actually just to the left and #4 appeared later

two americans not killed by dormant volcano

so, after a 3 hour delay at jfk, a 12 hour flight, a short stop in tahiti, a six hour flight, and multiple interrogations by new zealand customs officials (including a thorough check of the contents of all of my bags, a gander at my backup computer files, and a cleaning of the hiking boots i brought along), we finally made it to the home of the bruell's in st. heliers in the suburbs of auckland. most of the day was spent wandering around the waterfront, checking out the local shops, and chatting with jules, a friend of the bruells. this may seem pretty uneventful, but after spending nearly 20 hours sitting on airplanes, the sight of anything not beige was really a point of interest.

first second impressions: there's more grass and sky than i remember their being. the air smells of ocean salt, which is something i quite like. the auckland area has seen a huge amount of development in the past 12 years, and seems incredibly commercial compared to when i left in 1994. maybe i was just oblivious at the time, though.

Rangitoto is a party animal

here is where the avians like to party

rainbow count so far: 1

august 5 shim sham part deux

august 5 shim sham

see here:

australia vs. new zealand

for the record australia and new zealand are different countries. see them on the map here. they have many differences. for instance, australia was colonized by europeans who oppressed and murdered the native aboriginies. they also dumped their prisoners there. new zealand was colonized by europeans who oppressed and murdered the native maori. they did not use the island as a jail. australia is mainly desert and grasslands, with some lovely tropical areas along the coast. new zealand is sub-tropical. it has some desert, but is mostly a nice shade of green. australia has snakes and poisonous spiders. new zealand does not have snakes or poisonous spiders. australia has the tasmanian devil (specifically in the island of tasmania, which lies to the south of mainland australia), koala, kangaroo, and wombat, among other native wildlife. new zealand has the tuatara, kiwi, kea bird, tui bird, and hector's dolphins (hector does not want them back), among others. new zealand also has some really cool trees, like the pohutukawa, rimu, and kauri. australia does not have these trees. new zealand, outside of zoos, does not have kangaroos, koalas, devils, or wombats.

australia.
new zealand.
australia.
new zealand.
australia.
new zealand.

there are many, many other differences. suffice it to say that when i say i am going to new zealand, i do not mean that i am going to australia.

do you remember the time?

do you remember when i used to post on this thing all the time... and by all the time i mean maybe once a week? yeah. that was the best. for anyone who actually still reads this thing, i'm headed to new zealand on the 9th. hip hop hooray.

i got a couple of my first palgrave jackets back from the printer and, i'm not gonna lie, they look pretty sexy. thumbnails here and here.

this bullshit in the middle east is out of control. as my cousin pointed out yesterday, we've successfully created a crescent of shiite controlled countries surrounding israel, so there's really nothing to stop arms trafficking between iran and hezbollah stationed in lebanon. well done u.s., for taking out saddam and completing that nice little trade route. and well done israel, bombing both a u.n. station and 50+ refugees. i read in the post today that over 500 lebonese have been killed, most of them civilians. this isn't justice. it's revenge.

Man moves things with brain.

A paralyzed man with a small sensor implanted in his brain was able to control a computer, a television set and a robot using only his thoughts, scientists reported yesterday.
-NYtimes.com (courtesy of Claire)

The hell? If this doesn't result in a cyborg army snuffing out the human race, I don't know what will.

Cyborgs are cool.

achenblahg

Joel Achenbach's Sunday piece about blogging and journalism is pretty good. Here are the first paragraphs:

"In the news media there is much talk of "interactivity," of breaking down the wall between journalistic producers and consumers. No longer will the news be proprietary to a professional elite that attempts, in an Olympian voice, to speak down to the unwashed masses. Instead, everyone will be an equal, fully respected partner in the news process, including nitwits, fanatics, the extremely daft and the recently straitjacketed.

"I'm all in favor of this, as I have a blog, with many excellent commenters, some of whom comment on the comments of other commenters and manage to develop, over time, a kind of cult following of their own, such that the readers of the blog tend to forget all about the writer to whom the blog technically, in an old-fashioned sense, "belongs." Which is fine! Into the future we go! My feelings aren't hurt. We all know who's actually getting paid around here. Paid. Paid. Not to rub it in. Paid."

Most of it is old hat, but it's entertaining and the last paragraph is an unexpected, but welcome, tack off course, revealing the larger implications of the blogosphere on public discourse.

War on Terrorism

Listening to Open Source on NPR right now. William E. Odom made a point about this that I think everyone realizes, but not many have articulated particularly well. A war on terrorism is a ridiculous because it's a war on a tactic, which is ridiculous. Militarily it doesn't make sense, it doesn't allow for a real enemy. He likened it to waging war against people who use knives--it's impractical. The rhetoric is distracting us from the real problem. Our war isn't really against terrorism, it's against al Qaeda, the Taliban, Wahhabis, and against, essentially, those who are violently anti-American. This is a culture war. Democrats should grab ahold of this.

USA 1- Ghana 2

That was never a penalty. While I can't blame the ref for our poor finishing, I can blame the ref for giving Ghana a freebee. I can also blame the ref for not carding the two or three flagrant dives from the Ghana side. That said, with the exception of a clever backheel from McBride that ended up fizzling into nothing, the US lacked any kind of creativity. Our counterattacks, until the last fifteen minutes, were far too slow. We didn't press enough in the first 20 minutes of either half. Our bright moments were few and far between, but they were there. Lewis did a good job with his crosses; Dempsey was all over the field for the first sixty minutes and hammered a fantastic shot into the back of the net; Beasley finally put in a good effort, grabbing an assist, winning a lot of balls in the midfield (even if they didn't amount to much), and helping out the back line; and McBride broke my heart with his header off the post. And I was happy to see Ben Olsen get a CAP, even if he didn't contribute much. Donovan looked sluggish. I think putting Convey in was a mistake. I would've dropped O'Brien in. We needed someone with a little more of a creative mind.

All in all, I would say it was a pretty mediocre game. It's a shame that the ref had such a heavy hand in its outcome. At least there's some hope with our next generation of players... Adu, Convey, Quaranta, Johnson, and Donovan and Beasley still have another cup left in them. South Africa in 2010!

the netherlands vs argentina

remember what happened the last time the oranje played the blue stripe-y team?



(thanks for the reminder nytimes.com)

more of the magnificence that is dennis bergkamp (a man who, like john madden, refuses to take an airplane):


(or in a slightly more legible google video version)

OMG!

US-Italia

About US forward Brian McBride, who took a vicious elbow to the face in the first half of the match:

No broken bones were reported as a result of the elbowing. In fact, McBride said he did not even feel much pain. After repeated operations — including plastic surgery — to repair shattered cheekbones, McBride said: "I don't have a lot of feeling in my face. My nerves are all dead from the surgeries. You get hit and you get back up."

The team out on the field on Saturday looked like a completely different squad of players. We made some good cuts up the front, with some nice runs down the wings. We also won a number of 50-50 balls and held possession quite well in the first half. Dempsey even showed a little flair with some stepovers and a couple decent crosses.

WC Trivia: Apparently Ukraine has seven Andriys in their squad...

And Argentina's amazing goals.

Oy...

Highlights of the US - Czech Republic game:



You'll notice that most of the hightlights involve the Czech Republic attacking. This is because we played like ass. The only reason I post this is to remind us that (1) the first goal was scored by the 6' 7-1/2" Jan Koller, or Frankenstein as he's better known, and (2) Reyna did actually hit a post.

Other cup news: I listened to Spain destroy Ukraine, a team which may have looked worse that the US. Granted the Ukraine may have only had 10 men on the field for half the game, but still, at least we don't look like the only chumps in this tournament any more. Spain were dominant even before the red card though, and it sounds like they may have actually fielded a contender this time instead of a lot of hot air.

___________

Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaazzzzzzzzzzz!

Arjen Robben

Arjen Robben was incredible. The Serbia-Montenegro defense looked like turtles compared to this guy. He was all over the field. It seemed that nearly every time he touched the ball he created a chance on goal. The only piece he was lacking was a decent touch in a dead ball situation... but then, neither side had a free kick or corner kick on mark the whole game.

I cannot wait until the next game the Netherlands play. Netherlands-Ivory Coast. Don't miss it. It may be one of the fastest paced games in this round.

holy god. this is why the world cup fucking rocks.

Lahm's goal for Germany...


Fring's goal for Germany...