Saturday 19 August, 2006 at 3:49PM (Nereus)  ::  permalink  ::  comments (0)

Yay! I ordered a couple of DVDs the other day and they just arrived - 'Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels', and the follow up 'Snatch' - both from filmmaker Guy Ritchie. Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels actually won Guy Ritchie a well-deserved first in the 'Best New Filmmaker' category at the 1999 MTV Movie Awards. I've never actually watched Snatch, so it will be interesting to see if it comes even close to the level of Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels - if it's anything like it, then it's gonna be a goodie for sure. Back in Hamilton (New Zealand) when I was flatting with Rob & co. we had a copy of Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels which we watched regularly - so much so that we'd often spit out lines from the movie and mimic the various heavy cockney accents if the situation warranted it. There's some classic one-liners:

"If the milk turns out to be sour, I ain't the kinda pussy to drink it."

Some of the more memorable lines are actually from one of the supporting characters, Rory Breaker, mainly because his accent and his attitude are so extreme.

If you hold back anything, I'll kill ya. If you bend the truth or I think you're bending the truth, I'll kill ya. If you forget anything I'll kill ya. In fact, you're gonna have to work very hard to stay alive, Nick. Now do you understand everything I've said? Because if you don't, I'll kill ya.

In one part the cockney slang is so full-on that there are sub-titles to translate a few of the more extreme terms (intended as tongue-in-cheek humor, but helpful all the same if you're not a native speaker) - for example, when a barman at a 'Samoan pub' is talking about, you guessed it, Rory Breaker:

Rory? Yeah I know Rory. He's not to be underestimated, you've got to look past the hair and the cute, cuddly thing - it's all a deceptive facade. A few nights ago Rory's Roger iron's rusted, so he's gone to the local battle-cruiser to catch the end of his footer. Nobody is watching the custard so he turns the channel over.
A fat man's north opens and he wanders over and turns the Liza over. "Now fuck off and watch it somewhere else."
Rory knows claret is imminent, but he doesn't want to miss the end of the game, so, calm as a coma, he stands and picks up a fire extinguisher and he walks straight past the jam rolls who are ready for action, and he plonks it outside the entrance. He then orders an Aristotle of the most ping pong tiddly in the nuclear sub and switches back to his footer.
"That's fucking it!"' says the guy.
"That's fucking what?" says Rory. Rory gobs out a mouthful of booze covering fatty, he then flicks a flaming match into his bird's nest and the man's lit up like a leaky gas pipe. Rory, unfazed, turned back to his game. His team won too. Four-nil.

If you're familiar with the movie you'll already be smiling and nodding - there are so many great lines in that movie I could go on quoting here for pages. There's a heap of strong supporting characters in this movie all the way through it, which just make it that much better. It is seriously one of the best movies I've seen, full of brilliantly unexpected twists and turns and some absolutely hilarious scenes, all based in London's gangland East End. I can't wait to watch it again.

reincarnated hb sunglasses

      Thursday 17 August, 2006 at 9:48PM (Nereus)  ::  permalink  ::  comments (2)

Just over three years ago I was given a pair of HB sunglasses courtesy of the friendly people at Hot Buttered Surfboards & Surfwear in Australia as thanks for some help with their website. More recently you may recall the tragedy when those very same sunglasses disappeared, and the additional emotional turmoil when HB Australia advised me they no longer stocked those particular lenses - not with that style of frame nor any other!

I purchased some Oakley sunnies but they just didn't cut it, so I returned the Oakleys and contacted HB Australia again to see if they would give me a contact for the manufacturer. They couldn't do that as all queries regarding stock have to go through HB's distributors / licensees, so instead they contacted their new US licensee to see if he could help.

Not long later I received an email from Lee, the new HB USA Licensee, whom advised they were no longer importing the Species frames, but said he had a few pairs left in inventory and would check there. Unfortunately he didn't have the matte black Species frames, nor any frames with the blue mirror lenses (they aren't doing the blue lens at all now), but offered to try and hook me up with a custom pair. Stoke!

This morning, nearly two months later, I received the custom sunnies. They were made in Brazil and then took a while coming through customs, but were well worth the wait. I actually got two pairs so if they get stolen again I'll have a backup pair. The photo above I just took about an hour ago with our camera - looks good huh, although the frames are in fact black, not silvery-grey.

What an amazing level of service that was - it's not often you'll find someone willing to go that extra mile to help, let alone a whole company that are willing to go for it, so thanks Lee and Hot Buttered, you guys rock!

..update 18th August..

Just had an email from Lee - he mentioned they do have the multi blue flash lenses available in the Spark frame as replacement lenses, and may bring in some of the blue flash lenses in other frame styles at a later date, so if you're interested, go for it - they're excellent sunnies, liteweight, durable and comfortable.

new zealand maori queen passes on

      Wednesday 16 August, 2006 at 6:59PM (Nereus)  ::  permalink  ::  comments (0)

The New Zealand Maori Queen, Te Arikinui Dame Te Atairangikaahu, passed away yesterday, August 15th, 2006, at home at the Turangawaewae Marae in Ngaruawahia, just north of Hamilton. Dame Te Ata was aged 75 years and had recently celebrated 40 years as the Maori Queen.

Dame Te Ata was the seventh Maori sovereign, a direct descendant of a royal line that began in 1858 when the Maori responded to Britain's colonization of New Zealand by choosing a monarch of their own. The role carries only ceremonial powers but is hugely respected by most Maori. Dame Te Ata raised the profile of Maori overseas, acting as cultural ambassador for Maori and indigenous people and hostess to most royal and diplomatic visitors to New Zealand, including including Japan's Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko, South African President Nelson Mandela and U.S. President Bill Clinton.

Funeral plans were not immediately announced, but in Maori tradition Maori sovereigns are buried on Taupiri Mountain, near Ngaruawahia. In line with Maori tradition, a successor normally is named before the death of a monarch, but apart from indicating she would prefer a male to succeed her, Dame Te Ata had not named her successor when she died. Her successor will be chosen with the help of a 'kingmaker', after seeking the consent of the chiefs of all the leading tribes. If tradition is followed, one of her children will follow her as monarch. The post does not automatically fall to the first-born (Te Atairangikaahu's own ascension is an example of this tradition as she herself was second-born), so any one of her children may be named the next King or Queen before her burial. Alternatively, a leading figure from another Iwi may be appointed to the position.

Rest in Peace Te Arikinui Dame Te Atairangikaahu.

migrated to movabletype 3.31

      Tuesday 15 August, 2006 at 9:58PM (Nereus)  ::  permalink  ::  comments (6)

It took a while, but I've finally moved everything over to MT3.31 after running it on a test site for the last few weeks - or months if you include all the beta testing period. How do you like the new layout? It's based on one of the StyleCatcher layouts but bastardized extensively - I did the CSS layout from scratch as well. I have a bunch of different header images so I may make it randomize on page refresh, as well as tweak the menu to indicate where you are, but that kind of thing is a 'nice to have' not 'need to have'.. and frankly I just can't be bothered. I'm not all that crazy about the layout, but it's a change at least. I was waiting for the new MT Blogroll release, but a couple of weeks ago the author had things crop up irl which required his immediate attention, so the original layout I was planning on eventually got ditched, not that it was much different than this one. Hope it's nothing too serious keeping Arvind away.

Anyway, I've wiped that funky MT3.2 install completely off the server. That was cathartic. And yes, I do know what cathartic means. The problem is, what am I going to play with now? ..perhaps I should rephrase that..

al ciqaeda

      Saturday 5 August, 2006 at 11:11PM (Nereus)  ::  permalink  ::  comments (0)

I happened across this cicada cartoon pic in an unrelated search on Google, but after reading an item on CNN about Al Qaeda and the long-quiet Egyptian militant group Al-Jamaa Islamiya joining forces, my mind got thinking ..and this was the result. Quick, get the bug spray!

Some background info on that CNN news item: Al Qaeda has joined forces with the long-quiet Egyptian militant group Al-Jamaa Islamiya, according to a videotaped message that aired on Saturday from Osama bin Laden's top lieutenant Ayman al-Zawahiri.

In September 2003 Egypt freed more than 1,000 members of the Al-Jamaa Islamiya group because of the group's stated "commitment to rejecting violence" the Interior Minister (at the time) Habib el-Adli told Al-Jazeera. Egypt released another 900 members of the group, including founder Najeh Ibrahim, in April 2006. That's just three months ago. Suddenly they're joining forces with Al Qaeda - a group not exactly known for its "commitment to rejecting violence" ..there's a moral there somewhere I'm sure..

new coins for kiwis

      Tuesday 1 August, 2006 at 3:00AM (Nereus)  ::  permalink  ::  comments (2)

A bit of a change in New Zealand currency - from 31st July 2006 the NZ 5¢ coin is being phased out, and will no longer be legal tender beyond 1st November 2006. Goodbye little tuatara. The 5¢ coin is silver, 19.43mm in diameter, and weighs 2.83g, and has been New Zealand's lowest currency denomination since the bronze 1¢ and 2¢ coins were phased out in May 1990.

This change means that the NZ 10¢ coin will become the lowest denomination in NZ currency. In addition to the 5¢ phase out, the 10¢, 20¢ and 50¢ coins are being changed in size and weight (reduced) and, in the case of the 10¢ coin, changed from silver to copper. The existing $1 and $2 coins, which were introduced in February 1991 to replace the $1 and $2 notes, remain unchanged.

	old 10¢ coin silver 23.62mm diameter 5.66g		new 10¢ coin copper 20.50mm diameter 3.3g
	old 20¢ coin silver 28.58mm diameter 11.31g		new 20¢ coin silver 21.75mm diameter 4.0g
	old 50¢ coin silver 31.75mm diameter 13.61g		new 50¢ coin silver 24.75mm diameter 5.0g
	existing $1 coin bronze 23.0mm diameter 8.0g		existing $2 coin bronze 26.5mm diameter 10.0g
	old 1¢ coin bronze 17.53mm diameter 2.07g		old 2¢ coin bronze 21.08mm diameter 4.14g

I was around when the 1¢ and 2¢ pieces were taken out of circulation, as well as when the $1 and $2 coins were introduced. People adjusted pretty quickly, although you did have to pay attention that you didn't give out a $1 coin instead of a 10¢ coin when in low or yellowish lighting, since they were roughly the same size. One person on a NZ forum I frequent commented that they personally gave out a new 50¢ coin today thinking it was an old 10¢ coin, but reactions generally seem mixed. I'm sure they'll manage ..not like they've got a choice. Personally I think it's not a bad thing at all - I never liked piles of shrapnel weighing me down. The US in comparison is really bad for shrapnel - they still have pennies here (1¢ coins) so the coinage mounts up in your wallet / pocket / backpack really quickly. Feel free to share your thoughts.

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