So, having had a fantastic night out last night (well, fantastic AFTER I left the stupid work pub quiz) that was filled with many friends and many fantastic cocktails today is destined to be one of those days curled up in bed around my laptop investigating tools and technology that I’m not yet familiar with but perhaps would like to be.

Things like wordpress (which with I’m not yet familiar, shock horror) and CMS solutions like SilverStripe.

Anyway, it has come to my attention that the more involved you get with these free, open source tools, the more random the comments found within the code.

For example, this was stored at the bottom of the css file for the default wordpress theme, Kubrick:

/* “Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer do. I’m half crazy all for the love of you.
It won’t be a stylish marriage, I can’t afford a carriage.
But you’ll look sweet upon the seat of a bicycle built for two.” */

Wiki tells me it is from a song called Daisy Bell, which was released in 1892 by Harry Dacre.

[edit] It has come to my attention that I haven’t seen the movie 2001 Space Odyssey, and therefore missed the joke embedded in the lyrics. It also apparently explains this piece of code found in footer.php:

/* “Just what do you think you’re doing Dave?” */

Ah Pop Culture references, how very very amusing . . . [/edit]

Have you come across any cute nuggets of awesome in your travels?

As it would turn out I am stuck in the city, while my usual snow buddy is currently down at Mt Ruapehu. He’s currently staying in a some random place that doesn’t have a fax machine and so has taken to txting me every morning to get the snow report and to do a little bit of ribbing about how he is at the snow and how I am not.

It’s a very frustrating situation, as I do SO VERY MUCH WISH I WAS AT THE SNOW!

Instead, feel my pain:

This was taken at the top of the High Traverse, which drops into my favorite run of the moment Mackenzie’s Mistake.

Don’t you wish you were there too?

I have recently entered into a new circle of friends. Well, not new exactly; there are four of us, and each pair in the four are all quite GOOD friends, and have been for a while now. However, we’ve only recently discovered that *collectively* we all get on fabulously. We have bonded, and now refer to ourselves quite happily as ‘The Square’.

As each of the pairs within The Square have different histories it has become apparent that PARTS of these histories may, er, disrupt this fantastic new arrangement. We all agreed that as such, certain things should not be done in case the balance of The Square is disrupted. The idea was that The Square’s harmony is more important than the individual pairs relationships (the sum is greater than its parts and all that).

Well THAT train of thought lasted all of a week because ONE pair stepped over the line and flirted with disaster. We were lucky, though – it was shrugged off and no harm was done (The Square is apparently indestructible and oblivious to such carnage). But then three of the four committed other such dubious acts on a random night out, which resulted in facebook status messages such as ‘I’m watching parts of my square spoon – it’s hot!’. Luckily, purely through acceptance and contentment within The Square, The Square’s harmony held out strong and all was okay.

ANYWAY, as a joke the concept of ‘Free Passes’ was created: The first dubious act between any one pair is given a free pass. Almost like getting it out of your system (which in some formations of the pair is almost absurd and hilariously funny). We all had a bit of a giggle about it, and then, before you know it, all our Facebook Status’s changed throughout the day:

The Second Quarter is contemplating his remaining free passes.
The First Quarter is also contemplating The Second Quarter’s use of his remaining free passes.
The Fourth Quarter; there are no more free passes.
The Third Quarter suggests that the passes not be free.. they be EARNT.
The First Quarter says no no, they must be free. The Second Quarter and I already used ours . . . and if they aren’t free, then, well, I want to give my free pass back!
The Second Quarter says no no they’re free as in you get off scot-free
The Fourth Quarter; free passes can be cashed collectively.
The First Quarter would like to cash in her remaining free passes

Facebook Status Messages and in jokes: Providing The Squares entertainment all day long.

:)

So, Quinn turned one over the weekend – he’s gotten so big and changed so much!

Yay :)

Rachel Papo is an Israeli photographer, who after serving her own compulsory two years went back to photograph the lives of 18 year old Israel girls serving mandatory military duty.

Living in New Zealand where there is no such thing as mandatory military duty it was surreal to look through these images and see such young girls with guns slung casually across their shoulders. And it was odd to occasionally see these subjects do something I had done at that age.

You can view her collection, titled after her own experience Serial# 3817131, and be weirded out all by yourself at serialno3817131.com

After reading multiple articles (the latest titled ‘How I Stole Somone’s Identity’ where the author asked some of his acquaintances for permission to break into their online banking accounts via email hacking, found here) it appears that the internet is less than friendly place.

Even MORE so now that Mike Perry, a reverse engineer from San Francisco, announced his intention to release his Gmail Account Hacking Tool.

But the problem seems not that the internet is a less than friendly place, but that perhaps its a little TOO friendly! And after asking around it seems to be that people just aren’t AWARE of how easy it can be to break into your internet banking accounts. Read that article, you’ll see.

There are a couple basic things you can do to protect yourself, if you have a gmail account, change your settings to ‘Always use https’, which is a handy new feature Google have recently implemented. This will encrypt ALL of the data between you and Google’s mail server, instead of just the login handshake.

The second is be aware of how easy it is to guess your passwords – don’t create passwords that are can be easily guessed or discovered. Is your birthday on an internet networking site? Mentioned your pets name on your blog? Can I find out where you live from an old archived CV? The same goes for password retrieval questions.

When creating passwords or password retrieval questions, be smart. Use things only you would know, or things that can’t be found from your myspace page or the internet.

The last piece of advise is just be smart. Be wary of emails that appear to come from banks, credit card or other trusted companies, or that ask you to update your security information. Bin your spam; don’t believe promises of big profits, risk-free investments, easy credit, or valuable prizes. If an email offer sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

Be smart, and the internet won’t seem so bad. Promise!

These cards care of Shinebox Print are for all those times you couldn’t say what you wanted to.

More amusing cards right here.

. . . is trying on all the ridiculous (and the ridiculously expensive) dresses that you’d never actually wear anywhere.

Fantastic, right?

While in my last post I grizzled and grumbled about the horrible service and I’m still cringing about that awful pub quiz, I’m finally home and have had a chance to look through all the photos. It turns out that not ALL of Taupo is horrific.

The surrounding countryside and giant lake *is* beautiful. We went up to Huka falls, which was gorgeous and did some of the walks and drove many of the drives. Big rolling green hills, ‘fake’ forests (the area around Taupo is heavily forested. It was interesting to see all the different stages, from planting, growing, being cut, the logs being driven to the mills, the fields cleared and then replanted). And then there was all the geothermal activity! There were many geysers to see, and also the fantastic natural hot springs!

Those photos were actually taken at Huka Falls, not the Hot Springs, or near geysers.

In terms of food, it was mostly awful. However on our last night we went to Portofino which was *divine*. The service was impeccable and the food fantastic. Funnily enough Portofino’s is owned by a gentleman named Gino who opened his first restaurant in Parnell back in the day. He would order all their produce through the Family Barrow, which was at the time owned by my parents. Glad he still keeps the same standards as he did all those years ago.

We managed to go out to the Lava Glass Gallery where we watched the owner and resident artist Lynden Over blow glass (he actually DID blow the glass!) and create some fantastic glass pieces, which was pretty exciting. We also did the Volcanic Activity Centre which was pretty amusing. And even though they followed us around at the Scenic Wine Cellar, I DID get to hold a bottle of Champagne with a $1k price tag! The best part of the trip (besides the fantastic snow, which was UNBELIEVABLY fantastic)was the meandering drives we took that presented views like this one:

So while the trip wasn’t a complete success (again, that AWFUL AWFUL pub quiz at The Shed comes to mind) it wasn’t an utter failure, either.

Still, I’m happy to be home!

I’ve been in Taupo for the better part of a week now, and I’m downright unimpressed. Now let’s get this straight, I’m NOT hard person to impress, I’m really not. Give me warmth, edible food and a little nod in the interest of friendly-ness and I’m ready to move in and camp out for the rest of the year. Places like National Park and Turangi I’m ready to give up the convenience of 24 hour supermarkets and quaint Asian Dairies that sell the coveted hard-to-find Magno Tea for.

Taupo? After being here 5 days I’m ready to go home. Taupo is place for tourists who don’t know any better, and are still amazed at seeing giant bodies of water. Taupo is for people who don’t care about service, and just don’t want to help people out. Taupo is not friendly, and is not for me.

What I’m mostly sad about is the crap customer service I’ve experienced at EVERY place I’ve been to. Lakeside Villas is where we are staying thanks to the generosity of a friend back in Auckland who had an apartment for a week, but wasn’t using it. But if your not getting it free, don’t stay there. On the first day we were here I went to reception mid morning to find out if they had a snow report. I got ignored, to the point where they locked the door and shut the curtains. Okay, so not the friendliest bunch. On the second day the guy argued with me about whether I would want to be using the wireless connection from my room.

. . .

Yes, I want to. Do not tell me that I don’t, buddy. Me and the internet are *tight*, okay? By the third day we were having issues with the available washing machines, and the drama around getting washing powder was a nightmare.

But let’s not stop at Lakeside villas. The customer service at Poitoins Ski Shop was a disaster and we spent a good hour just trying to hire a set of skis, poles and boots for my Dad. We were turned away at the Prawn Park because they decided that the day was too slow so they sent home their staff, only to find that they weren’t able to deal with the afternoon traffic. We also went to Scenic Cellars where we were followed around, because apparently the video surveillance wasn’t good enough and oh wow, we might crack into the wine right then and there.

But it gets worse. We’ve eaten at a fair portion of the pubs here, and not one has served decent pub food. Even worse is the bad Pub Quizzes held at The Shed (avoid on a Wednesday night, if you can – you want to survive with your brain intact).

It appears that everything is run at half the pace in Off-Season Taupo. It is very slow, and very plodding. Not at all the upbeat fun of National Park, or any other small stop-over we’ve been in.

I sent a txt to a good friend of mine complaining. He laughed at me and said that I deserve this. I did, afterall, go to Taupo.

I did. And I’m more than ready to go home.