Friday, June 25, 2010
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Bucket List
It doesn't matter whether you are living or dying, now is as good a time as any to write your own bucket list. Inspired by the 2007 movie of the same name starring Morgan Freeman http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bucket_List and by the myriad of ideas I have competing for space in my mind, I have finally committed them to paper.
The movie had 20 entries (check the movie website for ideas) so I thought that would be a good number to start with. I got to 16 without having to think too hard. They can be as easy or as absurd as you like. It's your list.
It is lots of fun and gives you a good reason to step off the treadmill and weigh up what is important to you in this world.
Don't leave it too late.....
The movie had 20 entries (check the movie website for ideas) so I thought that would be a good number to start with. I got to 16 without having to think too hard. They can be as easy or as absurd as you like. It's your list.
It is lots of fun and gives you a good reason to step off the treadmill and weigh up what is important to you in this world.
Don't leave it too late.....
Monday, June 14, 2010
Budding something....
I have be so busy going to a Starting to Write course at the local uni that I have forgotten to continue to write on my blog.
Anyway, as I currently undergoing what we writers call a mental block, I have copied my homework from the course for this week. It is about settings and we were asked to write 150 words set on somewhere in your childhood.....
It was 1974, the NZ dollar was strong and the tropics were a great place to temporarily spend your childhood. I was nine years old. My father was in the army and our family of four were ‘posted’ as in stationed and not in mailed, in Singapore.
My hair was long, brown and fringed. It’s style complemented my purple flared slacks. Our interim home was airy and tiled. It was large enough and empty enough to roller skate around in my tiny satin shorts. The windows bars kept out the visible intruders and a little contorting on my behalf made for a fun game of breaking and entering.
The garden outside held all the right colours of greens and oranges and the lushness belied the seething movement underfoot of tropical insects. The adjacent monsoon drains were deep and treacherous and warned of danger and disease......
Wow, deep eh? Should knock the sox off my fellow classmates.
The course is nine weeks long, and two hours a pop. It's attendees vary from week to week with the odd no show from some and a never come back from others. The tutor is an older, vibrant English rose, slightly zany with a wicked smile and sense of humour called Barbara Arnold. I want to take her home to be my friend and relish in her intellectual diatribe. My 'take home message' from this course is an interest in all that has been written and how but not what I can see a future in for me. I will try more courses to get the literary juices running but more in the write for magazines/papers area than as a budding novelist.
Enjoying the hedonistic lifestyle though....
Anyway, as I currently undergoing what we writers call a mental block, I have copied my homework from the course for this week. It is about settings and we were asked to write 150 words set on somewhere in your childhood.....
It was 1974, the NZ dollar was strong and the tropics were a great place to temporarily spend your childhood. I was nine years old. My father was in the army and our family of four were ‘posted’ as in stationed and not in mailed, in Singapore.
My hair was long, brown and fringed. It’s style complemented my purple flared slacks. Our interim home was airy and tiled. It was large enough and empty enough to roller skate around in my tiny satin shorts. The windows bars kept out the visible intruders and a little contorting on my behalf made for a fun game of breaking and entering.
The garden outside held all the right colours of greens and oranges and the lushness belied the seething movement underfoot of tropical insects. The adjacent monsoon drains were deep and treacherous and warned of danger and disease......
Wow, deep eh? Should knock the sox off my fellow classmates.
The course is nine weeks long, and two hours a pop. It's attendees vary from week to week with the odd no show from some and a never come back from others. The tutor is an older, vibrant English rose, slightly zany with a wicked smile and sense of humour called Barbara Arnold. I want to take her home to be my friend and relish in her intellectual diatribe. My 'take home message' from this course is an interest in all that has been written and how but not what I can see a future in for me. I will try more courses to get the literary juices running but more in the write for magazines/papers area than as a budding novelist.
Enjoying the hedonistic lifestyle though....
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Blast from the past..
The aging rockers gathered en masse at Al's Bar on Saturday to pay homage to their aging rocker leaders, The Jordan Luck Band.
A quarter of a century later we slipped straight back to the swaying mass of adoration, older, wiser and drunker. From the outset we were easily pleased. Well oiled by time and liquor before their 10.30pm start we moved straight to rock mode. No warm up necessary and continued to the end of their set. Left arms held erect, finger punching the air and hips girating we used each other as support as the entire crowd moved as one reveling in the new and old songs alike.
After they and we were spent from over exertion they finished and then mingled peacably about in the crowd. I felt it vital to engage him (as I had one new years eve circa 1988)so in my uninhibited state called him over, spoke drivvel then released him.
After the pumpkin hour we decided to return home to our ailing daughter, dehydrating from food poisoning. As always we had to amuse ourselves with the obligatory drive down Manchester St to congratulate ourselves on how our lives were so much better than the poor hookers hooking their trade there.
All in all a great night...
A quarter of a century later we slipped straight back to the swaying mass of adoration, older, wiser and drunker. From the outset we were easily pleased. Well oiled by time and liquor before their 10.30pm start we moved straight to rock mode. No warm up necessary and continued to the end of their set. Left arms held erect, finger punching the air and hips girating we used each other as support as the entire crowd moved as one reveling in the new and old songs alike.
After they and we were spent from over exertion they finished and then mingled peacably about in the crowd. I felt it vital to engage him (as I had one new years eve circa 1988)so in my uninhibited state called him over, spoke drivvel then released him.
After the pumpkin hour we decided to return home to our ailing daughter, dehydrating from food poisoning. As always we had to amuse ourselves with the obligatory drive down Manchester St to congratulate ourselves on how our lives were so much better than the poor hookers hooking their trade there.
All in all a great night...
Monday madness...
In my new part time role as Marketing Manager for Bellamy and East Springmakers I magnanimously decided to actually spend some time on location at Falsgrave Street to immerse myself in the position.
Until further notice, I will be holed up at reception, receiving custom whilst drumming up new custom at the main office of Bellamy and East Springmakers of which I am a major stakeholder.
As the real office lady decided she hated Mondays this has worked out well with her having a three day weekend every week and me catching up on office work on Mondays. Win,win!
Until further notice, I will be holed up at reception, receiving custom whilst drumming up new custom at the main office of Bellamy and East Springmakers of which I am a major stakeholder.
As the real office lady decided she hated Mondays this has worked out well with her having a three day weekend every week and me catching up on office work on Mondays. Win,win!
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Beware the “users”
Wondering why your broadband is slower than a hillbilly’s brain activity? I have finally tripped across the answer, thanks to my I.T. literate gfriend...who sent me the life saving link; http://www.telecom.co.nz/broadband/usage
Beware the Users lurking behind closed doors using up megabytes faster than all the milk and bread in the house. They lay in the comfort of their beds dining out on your allocated 3 gigs (at $39.95/month) downloading sitcoms, amusing Youtube clips, music and anything else that takes their fancy. If that’s not enough to exhaust your bytes, there is the multitude of photos (mostly self takes), urgently uploaded from the weekend that thanks to the digital era is ‘’free’’ to them.
Once all the bytes have been consumed, generally halfway through the month...enter all other fee paying users. AKA you! While you painstakingly try to download your crucial joke email, upload your latest blog or google international accommodation, you are thwarted in your attempts at the dial-up speed you have been relegated to by Telecom, due to overuse.
Once in the know... go straight to http://www.telecom.co.nz/broadband/usage . Call your friendly 0800 22 55 98 and someone in India is going to save you lots of money and assist you in allocating blame. Armed with a new username and password you are set to lay down some serious ground rules from the plethora of information gleaned off the website. You will be able to pinpoint actual times and date of the aforementioned infractions.
At varying intevals over the month you and your magical username can check on current usage and thanks to our Indian friend, I am even being emailed warning notes of impending doom.
Forewarned is forearmed...
Beware the Users lurking behind closed doors using up megabytes faster than all the milk and bread in the house. They lay in the comfort of their beds dining out on your allocated 3 gigs (at $39.95/month) downloading sitcoms, amusing Youtube clips, music and anything else that takes their fancy. If that’s not enough to exhaust your bytes, there is the multitude of photos (mostly self takes), urgently uploaded from the weekend that thanks to the digital era is ‘’free’’ to them.
Once all the bytes have been consumed, generally halfway through the month...enter all other fee paying users. AKA you! While you painstakingly try to download your crucial joke email, upload your latest blog or google international accommodation, you are thwarted in your attempts at the dial-up speed you have been relegated to by Telecom, due to overuse.
Once in the know... go straight to http://www.telecom.co.nz/broadband/usage . Call your friendly 0800 22 55 98 and someone in India is going to save you lots of money and assist you in allocating blame. Armed with a new username and password you are set to lay down some serious ground rules from the plethora of information gleaned off the website. You will be able to pinpoint actual times and date of the aforementioned infractions.
At varying intevals over the month you and your magical username can check on current usage and thanks to our Indian friend, I am even being emailed warning notes of impending doom.
Forewarned is forearmed...
Printer yarn in 200 words or less....
The HP photosmart C309g printer is just the catalyst I need ......
Imagine being caught in a mid life crises without a printer? It’s not pretty.
I chucked in my job (in a recession with a mortgage) of seventeen years to re-evaluate my career path. It had grown weeds and the pavers were cracking. Six months later, fitter but none the wiser, I am about to embark on a community education course at the university....’Starting to Write.’ Let’s hope they don’t want me to print anything. Perhaps I could just email them.
My last printer was as big as a small fridge and ate toners like candy. With my extra time I decided to try my hand as printer engineer and managed to replace the toner cartridge so expertly, it burst itself, hydrogen bomb-like all over the inside of my printer. Let’s just say that the replacement cost is preferable to repairs.
With knowledge gleaned from a full nine weeks of university instruction, time, the inclination and a HP photosmart C309g printer, I will soon be writing books buried deep within me, desperate to escape the confined space between my ears guaranteeing me a place on the best sellers list!
Imagine being caught in a mid life crises without a printer? It’s not pretty.
I chucked in my job (in a recession with a mortgage) of seventeen years to re-evaluate my career path. It had grown weeds and the pavers were cracking. Six months later, fitter but none the wiser, I am about to embark on a community education course at the university....’Starting to Write.’ Let’s hope they don’t want me to print anything. Perhaps I could just email them.
My last printer was as big as a small fridge and ate toners like candy. With my extra time I decided to try my hand as printer engineer and managed to replace the toner cartridge so expertly, it burst itself, hydrogen bomb-like all over the inside of my printer. Let’s just say that the replacement cost is preferable to repairs.
With knowledge gleaned from a full nine weeks of university instruction, time, the inclination and a HP photosmart C309g printer, I will soon be writing books buried deep within me, desperate to escape the confined space between my ears guaranteeing me a place on the best sellers list!
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