So long and thanks for all the fish

I just don't have the energy to do this any more.

UPDATE:
My grateful thanks for all the good wishes.

I need a break from this-  I have too much drama going on right now.

I will be back in the future- but first, I have a long overdue book to finish writing.

I'm still watching, reading the good blogs and sending shit-eating leftard rimjaws to the trash bin!

UPDATE:

After a bit of a break, I'm over a busy patch (mostly) and are back, although It will just be a couple of posts a week for now.

Crippled by dial-up speed restrictions

Kids with ipods and youtube...

It's easy with OPM*

Staying true to the traditions of never learning from another's mistake, the usual offenders are wailing about the threatened demolition of an old and slightly shabby earthquake risk in Martinborough.

This is an unreinforced masonry building. The sort that killed more than a few down in the Village of the Damned.

Apparently it MUST be saved WHATEVER the cost. Easy to say when you ain't the one footing the bill,  and I note that one of the more vocal 'Save the brickpile' brigade is not short of a few dollars.

But then you get to have a few bucks by being reluctant to dip into one's own pockets.

In reality land, we have a proposed  2.3 million dollar white elephant and just a few thousand ratepayers in the district.

And two halls already...


* Other People's Money

Politically Incorrect Gardening

The first tobacco leaf I have harvested appears to have come out looking the part. There is plenty more leaf still growing, despite our crappy weather here.

Now I need to make some bourbon to spray on the cut leaf to add a little moisture. I already have enough to keep my pipe going for a couple of years.

The next trick will be to try and roll a cigar!

Politically Incorrect Reality TV

Snap

The Impending Doom

With the road rules about to change on Sunday (who gives way to who at intersections)- I'm glad that I will be driving a large company vehicle. I would, however, prefer something designed to survive mines and small-arms fire.

Going by the two senile old trouts that cut in front of me today- nearly freeing up two openings in local rest homes- my confidence in the great unwashed to comprehend these two simple give way rules is not high.

I would like find the parties responsible for changing the damned rule used by the rest of the friggin' world, back in 1977. This was obviously a failure, as we are now reverting to the old pre-1977 rules.

I want them strapped to my bull bars and running boards for a few weeks...

Tempting

So very tempting...

"This weekend's $22 million Lotto Powerball prize is enough to quit work for, but the Lotteries Commission is urging potential winners to think long and hard about what they would do with the money. The combined prize from Powerball, Lotto and Strike stands at $23.5m, and if won by a single person, will be the third largest prize ever awarded in New Zealand. New Zealand Lotteries Commission spokeswoman Karen Jones said past winners tended to need to win at least $10-15m before thinking about quitting work..." 

Bugger off.

The interest on about 1.5 million would let me live the same lifestyle I have now- which ain't so bad.
5 mill and I would be living the life of Riley!
10 mill and I'm Jubal Harshaw (look it up, you are on the frickin' internet!)

Any bets on the murderer's background?

"A gunman on a motorbike opened fire at a Jewish school in Toulouse, France, killing a rabbi and his two young sons as they waited for a bus, then chased down a 7-year-old girl, shooting her dead at point-blank range..."

So, France- how is importing the 'religion of peace' working out for you?

 I'm betting that is how this will play out...

Fixed it! Normal service has now resumed

"...Cameras at petrol stations will automatically stop uninsured or untaxed vehicles from being filled with fuel, under new government plans. Downing Street officials hope the hi-tech system will crack down on the 1.4million motorists who drive without insurance. Automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras are already fitted in thousands of petrol station forecourts. Drivers can only fill their cars with fuel once the camera has captured and logged the vehicle’s number plate. Currently the system is designed to deter motorists from driving off without paying for petrol. But under the new plans, the cameras will automatically cross-refererence with the DVLA’s huge database. When a car is flagged as being uninsured or untaxed, the system will prevent the fuel pump being used on that vehicle..."

Hat Tip: Knuckledraggin my life away

And as the title on the linked site says-  Coming here soon- just watch.

Still not working

I can copy text ok, but when I right-click, I don't get the 'paste' field  coming up. I also have trouble turning text into a link and have to post the link as it appears.

FUBAR

I can't cut & paste or post links, for some reason. Could be this flash bullshit, which is no longer supporting pre-intel Macs.

Microsoft and their minions Do blow goats!

The great pretender

"A former Returned Services' Association president has been ordered not to visit his local club after appearing in court this morning.

Former Otaki RSA president Don Moselen appeared in Levin District Court charged with wearing medals he is not entitled to after donning three medals at Anzac Day services.

The medals were the New Zealand Operational Service Medal, The Vietnam Medal and the New Zealand General Service Medal..."

Link:

http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/kapiti/6571564/Former-RSA-president-can-t-go-to-club

Good.

Name and shame is the right punishment for wannabes!

Even if you were a REMF like me*, your lack of trigger-time is nothing to be ashamed of. Your service shows you stood up to be counted and if you did your job well- that is ALL that matters.

Don't try to be something you were not.

*Someone who was so far in the rear that if they tripped over a beer crate they would have to be evacuated FORWARD to a base hospital.

Current Affairs

Last week, when Joe Biden heard that the lead Monkee had died, he ran down the hall of the White House yelling "I'm the fucking President!"
We can only imagine his disappointment.....



Hat Tip:
http://ogdaa.blogspot.co.nz/

History

"When the makers of Top Gun were filming on board the USS Enterprise, they donated a set of black fuzzy dice to liven up the ship's otherwise drab interior.

A quarter-century later, the dice were still dangling inside the tower of "the Big E" as the world's first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier set sail on its final voyage at around 5am today (NZ time).

The trinket is a reminder of the ship's storied 50-year history that includes action in several wars, a prominent role in the Cuban missile crisis and serving as a spotter ship for John Glenn's historic orbit of the earth.

"To serve on this ship, certainly in this capacity, you certainly have to be a student of the ship's history," said Rear Admiral Walter Carter, commander of the Enterprise strike group. "Fifty years of service, in our nation's history, we've never had a warship in service that long..."

Link:

http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/americas/6560189/Storied-carrier-the-Big-E-makes-final-voyage

The eighth ship to carry the name. May we one day have a real ship like the fictional one that shares a proud name.

So- nothing new then?

"Landlords are renting unfit, filthy homes as Christchurch's rental problems worsen.

Christchurch's post-earthquake shortage of rental homes has pushed up rents and led to long queues to view homes.

Helen Gatonyi, manager of Tenants Protection, said tenants were desperate and would take almost anything. Some unscrupulous landlords were taking advantage of the situation.

She had seen homes rented with external walls full of holes, carpet wet from leaks, and mouldy curtains, and properties left dirty and unrepaired between tenancies.

"It's really, really distressing for people. They are accepting rubbish, and staying in rubbish. They know if they don't take it, somebody else will.

"There's a whole market of dumpy, awful, substandard housing now emerging..."

Link:

http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/business/your-property/6553221/Top-dollar-asked-for-slum-flats

Yep, that sounds much like the Christchurch rental market I remember! 

Once more unto the breach

A FUBAR week continues, with another seven days of this shift left.

One thing that stands out is the outrageous sense of 'entitilitis' out there. With a major and highly technical repair on a big leak underway, the unwashed are squealing like stuck pigs, because the backup water supply doesn't produce water of the usual standard. Of course none of them have the store of water that one is recommended to have in case of an emergency. That goes a long way when you just drink it.

Yes, the water tastes just like the water you used to drink out of the garden hose as a kid and not like the stuff in little bottles at a couple of bucks each- which is just like the usual supply produces.

Although 90% of this world would love water as good as they are currently getting. I wonder how many of these hick shit-kickers have ever been out of town, let alone to a country where the water really does have a taste (Melbourne water comes to mind- I never could understand bottled water until I visited there)

There is a public perception held by far too many that 'Water is a RIGHT and must be FREE'. It is if you catch the rain yourself, or walk down to the nearest watercourse.

When it is treated and delivered to your door, the cost is $1.84 a cubic meter. Try getting a ton of ANYTHING delivered for under two bucks.

Meanwhile, harden the fuck up. You ain't having to fend off crocodiles or choose between the green or more expensive brown water, as they do in other places.

WTF!

MIT downloads at Smashwords. I have no idea what has happened...

Close Encounters

It appears a piece of rock is headed our way- but scientists say it won't hit us and they always get things right...

Link:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46647666/ns/technology_and_science-space/#.T1b2Jt2KjYE

OK, so if it does hit- where would you like a 60 meter chuck of rock to impact?

Who is in the most need of a bit of kinetic therapy?

Some fun simulations:

http://simulator.down2earth.eu/

http://impact.ese.ic.ac.uk/ImpactEffects/