You know there’s been a virgance in the force, when it takes a person half your age to teach you how to do a ‘Windsor Knot’…. o.O
Archive for September, 2008
So….
Monday, September 29th, 2008365 Days later…
Sunday, September 28th, 2008Yep it is now officially 1 year since I moved to New Zealand!! In that time whilst I remain in a bedsit due to the less than favourable housing market in the UK, I have made so many new friends 
, I have joined a brass band which are at the top of their game, I’ve started having brass lessons again (because they are at the top of their game o.O), I’ve settled into work; got to play with some cool smexiful and rather expensive bits of kit, been to parties, goofed around, walked, lost weight, explored a little in my car. Written more poetry. Dated. oh and Speed-Dated.
I know I’ve probably missed stuff off too, but there’s a whole lot MORE for me to do too…so here’s to the next event packed year.
So, I guess you could say this was a good move for me. I am at the stage where I am looking at applying for my EOI to become a resident now.
So I had my cake, and ate it!
Sunday, September 28th, 2008I’ve just got back from the Fowler Centre, this evening where I was delighted to watch Christian Lindberg playing with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, and hopefully the Principle Trombone player (Dave Bremner) was pleasantly surprised to see me there too! Since he conducts our Brass Band!! An emotional evening and a musically rich one too!
The first half consisted of Rachmaninov’s The Rock (Opus 7) and certainly set the scene for an awesome program; this was followed by Lindberg playing and conducting the Wagenseil Trombone Conerto a very barocian flavoured interlude indeed! This is topped off with Linbergs own composition “Helikon Wasp” which is classical and contemporary and modern at the same time, and certainly an extremly fun piece to listen too, with a certain poetry in a league of it’s own! Not as good as his Motorcycle Odessy some might say; but I liked it – so that’s all that matters
Then there was the interval, where ‘Rachael’ saunters down the aisle (she’s a fellow brass bandy) and I’m like ‘arn’t you supposed to be at work??’ some people want their cake AND eat it I guess; so as not to be the hippocrit I make nothing of it ;p and enjoy the rest of the program in her company
The second half is Tchaikovsky beginning with Le Voyevoda Symphonic Ballad (Opus 78) which has all the Tchaikovsky hallmarks, and stirred my emotional centre nicely. Then the program finished with the Romeo & Juliet Fantasy Overture which some may find corny; but for me it is a very personal and emotion piece – and it almost brought me to tears. Whether or not it was the accoustic in the hall; which is fantastic by the way, or the memory attached to the music which is buried deep down inside, I cannot decide. Or maybe I can and I just can’t share it here; since it is so personal to me?
Anyway, when Christian Lindberg wasn’t conducting, Hannu Lintu WAS!! and boy can he conduct! Or should I say dance with the way he wielded the baton; I was mesmerised by his style, it was almost like he was Harry Potter and the baton his wand! simply magical!
I’m off now to chill and remember a few old memories over a glass of wine. I can’t promise I won’t cry tonight – but then it’s a healthy thing so I won’t supress this emotion I am feeling right now. Tonight I remember my first kiss, as if it were yesterday. Nuff said.
Hacker….’To be or not to be’ (Kiwicon II)
Saturday, September 27th, 2008I’ll be brief, though I could ramble on for hours and bore the t%ts off you. Basically in this largely connected world, and arena of ‘collaboration’ at an enterprise and a corporate level. The perception and the role of the “Mainstream” hacker has changed a huge amount.
This is topical for me at the moment as I am currently attending Kiwicon II, New Zealand’s own hacker/security convention; not as a hacker – or someone who is interested in becoming a hacker, but as an IT professional who is cognicent enough to recognise that not ALL hacking is bad, and in fact can be a good way of moving the IT development community forwards. Especially in this increasingly ‘Open Source’ world.
I’m not going to whistle on about any of the specifics covered this year, but the bent is predominantly on security or the lack there-of in enterprises potentially high up the food-chain, and the rather short sighted reliance on cheap, off-the-shelf, open source solutions to their security requirements. Making it insanely easy for the people they are most likley trying to avoid to get in.
Unfortunatly either ‘budget’ or ‘it has to work’ mentality creates an environment where many corners appear to be cut. So we don’t even get a chance to be complaicent since the models being rolled out and deployed are broken to start with – simply trawl the forums on RFID if you need a hint!
I’m at least in a unique enough position to be able to learn from peers and educate in order to evolve not just the infrastructure but also the perceptions of the people surrounding it as well. To use an analogy, a carpenter can build a school in a third world country, but unless it is populated with the teachers who know how to use it, that school may amount to nothing more than a shed!
Although I haven’t seen all the talks at this year’s Kiwicon (which saddens me) since I am trying to do too many things at once this weekend, I want my cake AND I want to eat it ok!! I’m going to make an effort to get up early in the morning, since this is a weekender.
If you mozy on over the the Kiwicon website feel free to check it out, but as with any website that thinks outside the box; I’d advise you to use your best judgement when clicking links you are not sure about, and certainly think twice if you are at work!
In other news, at approximatley this time last year, I was on a plane heading for New Zealand!!
Speed-Dating ROKS!!
Friday, September 26th, 2008So last night I went ‘Speed-Dating’ and since I have done this before I had an unfair advantage on pretty much everyone welse, I reckon I’ve made a few great friends out of it too…there were 5 other guys there including my mate Derek who I talked into signing up in the first place….tee hee I’m evil sometimes! Anyways, I quickly scoped all the body language around me, and established that 2 guys were like fish out of water, one guy looked like he’d read a few books and was trying the ‘classic’ forced body language approach….and then there was laid back me, the ladies were all easy on the eye too, which made for more FUN!! There were eight ladies in all, and of them all there were only three definite “no’s” as far as I was concerned; two were completely defensive and closed with their body language; another just wasn’t the communicative type…still out of the “yes’s” there was one absolute belter of a gal! She had the same sense of humour and we had a blast of a chat!
All in all a great night – since I was pushing Derek out of his comfort zone, it was only fair he got some pay-back so he forced me to drive to the top of Mount Victoria afterwards….at night….and it definitley sparked my virtigo, not that it was incredibly high?! I’ll take some snaps at the weekend if I pluck the courage to return!!
In other news, I have started learning “Paganini Variations” which may be the test piece for the A Grade next year; even if it isn’t it’s a cracking piece; and in places incredibly hard even for the back row cornets!!!
I’m also looking at moving to a new flat in an area called Wadestown – which is literally minutes from the city; and closer to band too. EGGSELLENT!
If my Visa wasn’t so restrictive I’d go so far as to run my own Speed-Dating gig, so doable!!!
Forbidden Kingdom
Wednesday, September 24th, 2008What can I say, where do i start??? First of all, to have both Jet Li *AND* Jackie Chan in the same movie, is dynamite! Though there were plenty of other stars in this movie too 
The whole thing was very well done, and as soon as it hits DVD I’ll be adding it to my collection?!
So, what’s so cool about this movie?? Well ‘OK’ so the fight sequences are a bit predictable, and it’s all kind of Daniel La’Rousso in approach – BUT!! It’s possibly the finest homage to MONKEY MAGIC you are ever likley to see….and I do hope they do more films like this, coz Monkey Magic rok’d!!!
The basic plot goes like this – wimp of an American teenager who’s hooked on all things Martial Arts (including the awesome Monkey Magic!) anyhoo I digress, he wanders into China-town to a pawn shop (yes I DID spell that right ok?!); and he stumbles across a magical staff, that once belonged to the mighty Monkey King of ancient Chinese past (just think Monkey Magic and you’ll be fine =p) anyhoo….this kid get’s into a bit of a scrape and the staff magically transports him back to the time of the Monkey King, hence we start the adventure, whereby crummy kid turns into Kung-Fu Master in the space of little over an hour which you could almost believe when his teachers are Jet Li and Jackie Chan!!! Lol…he has to return the staff to it’s rightful owner though and therein lies the core of this film, plenty of fight scenes, and plenty of what you come to expect in Martial Arts flicks – I loved it anyway I won’t tell you how the movie pans out to the end, you’ll just have to watch it for yourself.
For the uninitiated I guess you would best compare this film to A mix of “Bulletproof Monk”, “Karate Kid”, “House of the Flying Daggers” and “Monkey Magic” ….all kinda chucked into a blender for like 2 hours…Not a bad cocktail in movie terms if you ask me!
Heaven’s Above!
Tuesday, September 23rd, 2008So, last night I took a drive down the coast road, as the skies were quite clear, and depsite the near gale force wind – I saw the Milky-Way clearer with my own eyes, (thanks to the ZERO light pollution), than I have ever done in my life! It was awe inspiring stuff. I’ll have to do it again when the windy season has past
In other news, I got my car back today after my prang the other day, all fixed and not a penny out of pocket! Which is a phenomenal turn around indeed?! I mean 4 days!! and 2 of those were the weekend!
This would most certainly NOT happen in the UK. I am beginning to believe that the UK needs to have a MASSIVE attitude change – right across the board, and would do well to learn from other countries who in my opinion are becoming far more mature! I think the wake of the ‘once-upon-a-time’ British Empire has left many in the UK complaicent to their responsibility to change and evolved with the times. A stiff upper lip approach to life no longer is the way. Meh!?! It’s all rhetoric at the end of the day.
The Evil Geek in me!!
Monday, September 22nd, 2008So…as a kind of Bloggy target to aim for, I am trying to reach a certain goal, and that is to be able to post my “666th” post on October 31st 2008 (Halloween). Why? Well….why not? It’s funny, geeky and topical I guess! let me know your thoughts as to what this post should contain =p
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