currently 11:10pm Friday 5th September, 2008 (NYC, New York)
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April 2002 archives
The following are all the entries published for the month of April 2002. more on the weather
Friday 19 April, 2002 at 6:29PM (Nereus) :: permalink :: comments (0)
Out of nowhere this full-on storm has just blown in and there is heaps of lightning and warnings on the television to stay indoors. Winds are reaching 70mph (that's miles, not kilometers) and the news is warning of hail as well, with hailstones up to an inch in diameter! The thunder right now is really heavy and lightning is flashing every couple of seconds. I love these sort of storms. Nature cutting loose. Very kewl. I would go up to the roof to check it out, but we are in the tallest building in the neighborhood, so it's probably not such a good idea. The house behind us (which is virtually being entirely rebuilt) has a big blue canvas tarpaulin over the roof which is already half blown off. It's an even bet whether it survives or not. Fun. I'm going to the window to watch some more. the difference between kiwis and kiwifruit
Wednesday 17 April, 2002 at 11:38AM (Nereus) :: permalink :: comments (0) One thing I keep seeing here in USA which I may or may not have posted about before: Kiwis. I'll get graphic here.
Ok. Can you tell the difference? For some reason, Americans think that a kiwi is the name of a small fuzzy fruit. Let me correct you, and please take note any American shop owners reading this, because it makes you look kind of stupid. A "kiwi" is a nocturnal medium-sized flightless bird native to New Zealand, which also happens to be the national bird of New Zealand. This is why New Zealanders are usually referred to as 'kiwis'. A kiwi is not a small fuzzy fruit. The small fuzzy fruit is called a "kiwifruit". Is that clear enough for you? One other thing to take note of people - if you visit New Zealand and start loudly proclaiming that you eat kiwis, you will probably find yourself arrested and deported, so best you get this sorted out now. Try to imagine me walking into a shop in the US and asking for a pound of American Bald Eagle. That wiped the smirk off your face, didn't it. When I was about five years old, my mother used to refer to a kiwifruit as a 'chinese gooseberry'. I have no explanation for this, other than she had been living in the USA for too long prior to moving back to New Zealand. That's all. You may go about your business now. the weather has lost the plot
Tuesday 16 April, 2002 at 10:37AM (Nereus) :: permalink :: comments (0)
Ready for this? At the same time as this heat is hitting NYC, in good old Southern California which is always warm, they are expecting possible snow flurries. It isn't supposed to snow in Southern California at all, especially in spring! There was a map of the US continent on tv earlier this morning showing all this and stating the the eastern seaboard (that's where we are) is about 30°F above normal, while the west is 30°F below normal, all at the same time. Tell me there isn't something messed up in all this. It's a conspiracy I tell ya! In other news, there has been a sharp increase in the suicide rate among meteorological forecasters. Hardly surprising. We are both alive and well despite the bizarre weather. Last weekend was a weekend full of good intentions that we didn't achieve. Eventually we will make it to the movies, just as soon as we figure out where the nearest theater complex is. We ended up doing a bit of a spring clean around the apartment (ok, it is spring, but that's beside the point), went to Brighton Beach and weaseled around (as ya do) and basically were just a couple of totally unpressured weasels for the weekend. Nice. I was going to write about something else, but whatever it was has temporarily slipped my mind. Must be the heat. I'll get back to you. victim fights back
Wednesday 10 April, 2002 at 2:00PM (Nereus) :: permalink :: comments (0)
It was in New York somewhere in the last few days, and some creep grabbed a 12 year old girl and attempted to rape her. Presumably he forced her on her knees and was going to get her to perform oral sex on him ..bad move. This gutsy young girl kept her wits about her and instead of grabbing his dick, she grabbed his zipper and zipped it up as hard as she could, managing to catch his appendage in the zipper in the process in a rather severe way. Yup, apparently there was blood too. Way to go girl, whoever you are! 10 points! I can imagine what would have happened had he put his shriveled penis where he intended to put it. *CHOMP* Who says there's no such thing as karma? I applaud this girl's courage, she should be New Yorker of the Week. Here's something not so good I found while searching for the above story though, in an article from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram: It was broad daylight when Thelma Robinson looked outside and saw, in the middle of a busy east Fort Worth street, a naked man raping a woman at gunpoint. She called 911. Several others who apparently happened upon the sexual assault that day did not. The guy was apprehended and is facing over 15 years in prison for "raping a 47-year-old woman at the intersection of Etta and Katy streets for more than 30 minutes before Robinson and another woman came to her rescue" ..unbelievable! In broad daylight! What pisses me off even more is that people saw it and walked away - they should be prosecuted as well. One more part to this story: Later, responding to Carter's (defense attorney) questioning, the victim acknowledged being a recovering crack addict but denied being a prostitute. She acknowledged, however, that when she went to the hospital after the rape for an examination, doctors found semen from three men. ...charming. Yet another suicide bombing in Israel this morning as well. What is this world coming to? Sad. stolen car
Wednesday 3 April, 2002 at 6:24PM (Nereus) :: permalink :: comments (0) There was a story I was meaning to tell you a while ago, but I obviously forgot to, then I remembered, then I forgot again, and just now I remembered and happened to be in a position to tell it. Yay me. ..maybe I already did tell it. hmmm. Too bad, I'll tell it again. Early one morning at about 5am quite some time ago I awoke to the sound of screeching tyres outside. So what? ..yep, fair enough, you need a bit of background to help you realize what this means. Firstly, we are on the sixth floor of an apartment building and the windows are all double glazed, despite the fact that we face a street which is relatively quiet ...usually. The street is also a good hundred meters away, with our swimming pool and a two-storey private residence inbetween. Also any attempt to wake a weasel at five in the morning is in most cases totally futile. Now do you realize that waking at 5am to screeching tyres outside is an achievement in itself? Good. On with the story. The screeching went on for quite a while, so I took a look out the window to see what was up. It appeared that some winner was driving a car round and round the block, hanging it out and giving the car death, as ya do. You gotta understand that we live in a pretty good neighborhood, even if it is New York, so this kind of thing doesn't happen often around here. Until now. The driver must have done at least ten laps giving it heaps - hand-braking, slides, burn-outs, the whole nine yards. I was kind of amused for a short while, and then started to think that the car was probably stolen, my reasoning being that if it was just a drunk boy-racer he would've crashed it by now. Well, no sooner did I think it than the driver slammed into a parked van outside the building next to us. Nice one. 'Game over' I thought, wrongly. About thirty seconds later (which is quite a long time if you sit there and count it out) the driver pops the car into reverse, manages to disengage his car from the van he had smashed into, and shoots off down the road again with the sound of one of the car panels rubbing against the tyre. Another big handbrake at the end of the road and he's gone. Who was that masked man? Well, that was exciting wasn't it. A few minutes later I see some guy come staggering out of a nearby house in a robe and just stand there looking dumbly at what was presumably his van and blinking a few times in confusion like a stunned mullet. I don't think he was awake yet. I thought it worth mentioning, as it's not the kind of thing I'm used to seeing. Another day in New York I guess, I'm adjusting though - I don't smile and say hello to random strangers on the street anymore (if you do that here they think you're going to either ask them for money or else mug them and take the money anyway). My wardrobe has changed too - most of my clothes are black now, compared to the white t-shirts with bright logos on them I wore when I first arrived here, but I'm not turning goth or anything like that, maybe it's just a winter thing. |
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I know I go on a bit about the weather, but this place is just bizarre. Today has again been sunny, windless and hot at around 85°F. At least it was until about fifteen minutes ago.
Ok, it's official - the weather here has lost the plot entirely. I know I often comment about what the weather here is doing, and that's because it's so wildly fluctuating in comparison to New Zealand. Want proof? Here it is. A week ago we had an overnight low of 28°F (-2°C) which is a little colder than normal for the time of year, but not totally unexpected. Today and tomorrow the high is expected to be over 90°F (32°C) which is way above normal for mid-April. Yup, that's a fluctuation of about 35°C within a week. Sick.
Another week gone by ..time flies huh. IceQueen heard a story on the news the other night which I have been trying to find on the net but haven't located as yet. Here's what happened though..